Patience, My Dear

by Bower Lewis

  There was a bang outside her window and her godfather was gone. John nodded to the door of the pub, and then started back as Ed resumed his rigid stoicism and the agents pushed through the excited crowd.

  The phone chimed in response at last.

  U DO WHT U DONT WNT 2 DO

  U GO WHER U DONT WNT 2 BE

  U LUV WHO U DONT WNT 2 KNOW

  U DO NOT GIVE UP WEN ITS HARD

  She caught her breath and her eyes filled with tears. “There’s too much at stake here, and I have no idea what I’m doing. You need someone better for this. You need someone real. I don’t understand what You’re doing with me.”

  I M TIRED

  She stared down at the words, uncomprehending, and the phone chimed again.

  I M TIRED OF THE BLOOD

  Her uncle pulled the Hummer’s door open. The truck swayed as he dropped his weight into the seat and reached his keys toward the ignition. He paused midway and turned a critical eye to her.

  “You okay, kid?”

  She was quiet for a moment. “Uncle John, tell me about the last man you killed.”

  His keys hung suspended below the steering wheel as her request hung suspended between them.

  “This is a real change of gears, Pax. I’m not sure I’m any more comfortable talking about violence with you than you are hearing about it.” He lowered his arm and turned to her. “I go into every job prepared to do whatever’s needed to get it done, nothing more and nothing less. What’s brought this on?”

  “I just really need to know.” She stared down at the phone, straining for some glimpse or sign of her alleged faith and still coming away empty. She straightened and met his eyes. “Please answer me, Uncle John. When was your last kill?”

  He sat back as the streetlamp above cast a translucent ring of light onto his hair. Then he nodded with a reserved expression. “Things happen, kid. Rifles jam. Renegades wind up ensnared in crocodile traps. Your boot slips on a discarded condom at the same moment the National Guard storms in and takes down the evil-eyed granny running the explosives factory from her nursing home’s basement. It’s not about numbers. What’s important is that I’m willing to do whatever the Lord needs, and I’m always on my mark. You seem rattled after that exchange with Frank. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  She was quiet then. He waited. “I’m fine,” she said. “Let’s do this.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Ed smashed the window of the house next door to Rockwell’s and flipped the back door’s locks. “God help me, Miss Kelleher, if it takes me a year or more, I am going to find out how you knew the code to this security system.”

  She shrugged as he slid the glass aside and pushed the door open. She was already bored with the topic.

  “Punk rock kid’s got better Intel than I have after more years in the field than she’s been alive,” he grumbled as his men filed into the foyer. “Something’s not right here.”

  Patience couldn’t help but laugh at that remark. “Hell, Dick, I still haven’t figured out how to upload pictures from my phone. I’m working exclusively off the knowledge and skills of others tonight. I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about it.”

  John snorted and the phone chirped. Patience quashed the call without a look. Communications with The Biz had become a bit awkward since their exchange outside the pub. He seemed hell-bent on building her confidence back up now, and more than a few of the motivational missives He’d sent during their drive along the back roads to Wellesley would unquestionably be classified as cheesy. It wasn’t the ideal time for an emoticon-laden pep talk.

  She looked up again and Ed and her uncle were both staring. She flipped a hand at them and turned toward the staircase. Ed stepped past with a shake of his head and she followed. John came up next, and then Rutherford stepped up with a couple of agents on his heels.

  Rutherford’s presence had been a sticking point during their discussions at the Pub. Ed wanted him as far from the action as possible, for strategic considerations as well as for his safety, and John agreed. But Rutherford was intractable. His chief of security had failed to come up with a secure place to send him that wasn’t nixed by Patience and John, and Ed had become wary of sending him anywhere, anyway. Rutherford was now threatening to fire or shoot anyone who tried to prevent him from driving back to Wellesley on his own, and the discussion had gone on longer than they’d had time for. It concluded, finally, when Ed dropped his face to his hand and cursed the X5 for its lack of a proper trunk.

  They reached the top of the stairs and Ed turned back to point a swollen index finger at Patience. “I want to be absolutely certain that we’re clear about something. When we tell you that we won’t jeopardize our objective here tonight by protecting you, that’s not idle chatter. Furthermore, we will obliterate any obstacle in our path, regardless of how Zane might feel about the obstacle. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes at the agent. “You know, your shell’s not too bad, Dick, but your speech chip seems a bit outdated. You might want to look into an upgrade or something.”

  He remained where he was until she crossed her arms and turned back to face him.

  “I’ve known Zane since he was a small child, Miss Kelleher. I’m exceptionally fond of him. It would disappoint me to have to shoot his girlfriend over a misunderstanding that could have been avoided.”

  She laughed. “That would disappoint me as well. You know, I think you’re actually starting to grow on me, in your tight-assed, I’m-on-duty sort of a way. I appreciate your diligence in explaining this to me for the fifth time, but I feel we’re clear about the situation between us and I’d appreciate it if we could move on.”

  John raised an eyebrow, but she just pointed to the panel in the ceiling above them. He reached up and slid it aside and pulled a rope ladder down from the attic floor. Ed’s eyes narrowed at the phone as the SCUD climbed up into the ceiling. She stashed it in her pocket and he grabbed onto a rung.

  Patience climbed up behind him and watched as Ed dropped his bag next to John’s and got to work breaking the sealed dormer window furthest from Rockwell’s house. John joined him as the rest of the men appeared, one-by-one, through the hole in the attic floor. She spied Mason through the crowd, standing alone off to one side, and looked back to ensure that Ed was still occupied before sliding over to him.

  “You screwed up,” she said. “Back at the campaign office, when you pulled me from the floor. You eliminated any chance that Rockwell could take someone other than Zane when you did that. I believe there are pretty strict rules against that sort of thing.”

  He barely glanced at her before returning his attention forward. “I thought I instructed you to rest for a couple of days.” He let the silence hang for a moment before shrugging. “Zane had already eliminated any chance of that, Miss Kelleher. Anyway, I was in the doghouse with Ed long before we arrived at the campaign office. Aiding a protectee and his girlfriend in a harebrained scheme to dose a state senator with syrup of ipecac is the sort of thing he frowns upon as a general rule. When that scheme ends with the abductions of not one, but two of his protectees by a heavily armed psychotic, it tends to piss him off to no end.”

  Patience turned to look him full in the face. “Who told Ed that you helped us?’

  “I did.”

  She groaned and he held a hand up. The gesture bore a remarkable resemblance to his superior’s common habit. “I’m the one Zane comes to when he’s looking to cause trouble, Miss Kelleher, because he knows I’m always good for it.”

  “Damn it, Mason! You’re hardly six years older than me. Would you please stop calling me ‘Miss Kelleher’? It creeps me out.”

  “Yes, ma’am. You two were able to lie to me about how damned idiotic and dangerous a thing it was you were involved in because Zane also knows I’ll never dig too deep once I’ve heard what I need to. He’s got my number. A large part of the reason he’s in the situation he’s in now is because he u
nderstands me as well as he does. If I’m in hot water with the boss, it’s because I damn well ought to be.”

  “That’s crap, Mason. We were going to do what we did whether you helped us out or not. We just wouldn’t have done it as safely or effectively. If Ed’s too pigheaded to understand that, then—”

  “Ed’s not pigheaded.”

  “Ed’s not clear why you’re standing around here talking to Miss Kelleher, Mason.”

  The agent nodded over Patience’s head. She spun back and crossed her arms at the chief of security standing a few feet behind her with a grappling hook in hand.

  “Look, Dick, Zane didn’t come to you the other night because he couldn’t. Having an army of agents come screaming down on the situation was precisely what we didn’t need then. If that offends your ego, then I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Getting him back is the only thing that matters now, and you’ve benched your best agent. If you want to freeze Mason out or fire him tomorrow, then you can be an ass tomorrow. But for tonight, would you please just get over it and focus on Zane?”

  Ed lowered the hook and stared past her. “Miss Kelleher, please don’t make me shoot you.”

  She shook her head and turned back toward Mason. “Did you even bother to tell him that we lied to you?”

  He looked away with no discernible change in expression. “Miss Kelleher, please don’t make me shoot you.”

  She threw her hands up in frustration. “When Zane told me that you people were die-hard, he forgot to mention that you were also out of your goddamn minds. At this point, I just hope I won’t have to shoot either one of you.”

  Ed turned back without another word and cleared the last teeth of glass from the window. He leaned out and swung the hook for a few revolutions with his non-injured hand, and then it thumped overhead as he released it onto the roof. There was a scratching, scraping sound as it caught hold, and he tugged at the line a few times before pulling himself back in with a nod to John and his men.

  John nodded back. “Is that even your dominant hand?”

  Ed didn’t respond. He just returned to the bags and John nodded again. Patience hadn’t seen her uncle impressed by much since he’d been home, but it was clear that he’d been impressed by that toss. It was equally clear that he was unimpressed, however, when Ed pulled a harness from his bag and turned back to the window. He stepped forward and grabbed the agent by the arm.

  “Don’t be an ass, G-man.”

  He grabbed Ed’s arm and held the swollen hand between them and his men moved in like sharks to blood in the water. They pulled John back and pushed him aside, but he just shrugged at Ed with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “That hand of yours looks like a round of ham crammed through a tin can. You’ve got about twelve broken bones right there, and even I’m not crazy enough to make an unsecured climb in that condition. Now, I’m sure any of these men can handle the job just fine, but unless you’ve got an expert climber on your force who’s also tracked renegades through the Himalayas and up Mount McKinley, I say we nominate me for this task.”

  Mason stepped between them as Ed turned back to the window. No one spoke and no looks were passed, but a sense of disquiet had spread throughout the attic. The second-in-command took his boss by the arm and drew him a few steps away from the rest.

  “You know better than this, Ed.” He kept his voice low and refrained from looking at the hand in question. “There’s good and fearless, and then there’s reckless and tunnel-visioned. I’ve never known you not to recognize the difference. Mr. Flaherty is right. Anyone here can make the climb, and you damn well know it because you’re the one who trained them. Pick a man, Ed. Anyone but you.”

  The chief looked up finally, and Mason stepped back. Ed pulled the harness from his shoulder and held it out. John grabbed it and bounded to the window with a glint in his eye. There was a brief pause in the action as he squeezed his body through the smallish frame, and then he swung out onto the rope. He hung suspended over the ground for a moment, and then Patience watched in awe as he began to climb, amazed by the raw artistry of his work when he was allowed to do what he loved without restraint. She hoped she’d get to see him in action on his own terms someday, without worrying about knocking him unconscious or tying him to anything.

  The roof creaked overhead as his boots trudged up to the ridge. He released the hook and secured the rope to the chimney’s base, and then he tied off the harness and lowered it down. He secured himself to the chimney as well and signaled for Ed, followed by Patience. He pulled them up as they scaled the wall, and then he called for Rutherford. Once the mogul and his agents were secure, Ed and John lay down on the shingles and peered at Rockwell’s house. Men in dark clothing popped up all around them and John grinned back at the chief.

  “It’s starting to look like a fucking Mary Poppins chimney sweep routine up here.”

  Ed ignored the remark and pointed forward. They crawled, military style, to the ridge, and lay their bags down. Ed pulled out a pair of infrared goggles and studied Rockwell’s lot.

  “What have we got?”

  He didn’t respond at first. He stared down at the men assembled at the front and rear of the house and passed John another pair.

  “I count eight,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

  John ran a quick inventory of their situation and shook his head. “Those boys are pros by the looks of it. This Rockwell fellow is one paranoid corpse, and SolarTech appears to be accommodating his mania nicely.” He glanced furtively back at his niece and lowered his voice. “It’s your call, G-man. Plan B?”

  Ed nodded and John reached for his rifle. He screwed a silencer to its barrel as the agent called for six of his best shots to come up from the rear. They lined the ridge beside them as Patience scurried up from behind. She grabbed her uncle’s rifle and pulled it from his hands.

  “What the hell are you doing? This isn’t what we discussed.”

  Ed pulled her back down, but she held tight to the weapon. Her uncle removed the agent’s hand from her collar and his niece’s from the rifle. He pointed a warning finger at Ed and turned his attention to Patience.

  “I’m sorry, kid, but we’ve had to rewrite the script a little, now that we’ve had a better look. Everyone here is committed to getting your friend back safe tonight, but it’s time to accept that there’s probably going to be a price we’ll have to pay for him. I didn’t mean to shock you. It seemed like you’d been catching up to the seriousness of what’s happening here these past few hours.”

  “I have been.” She turned back to Ed and her face became very still. “If you shoot any of those men down there, Dick, it’ll be all over for Zane. I know you’re not about to let that happen. Now, you can bet against my Intel, if you’re comfortable doing that after everything you’ve seen tonight, but you’d better be ready to make good on that promise to shoot me first.”

  Her uncle’s face froze into a hundred unspoken words. “Pax, your Intel has told me nothing of the kind.”

  “Is it telling you anything to the contrary?” She pulled the phone from her pocket and set it on the shingles between them. “Do you really believe I could lie about a thing like this and get away with it? If you don’t think you can pull off what we discussed at the pub, then come up with something else. Just make sure it doesn’t involve killing anyone. And hurry up.”

  John and Ed both stared at her, and then John backed down from the ridge with a glance at the sky. He waved the agents back as well and reached for his bag.

  “Plan A it is, then.”

  “What the hell is going on here, Mr. Flaherty?”

  “I honestly couldn’t tell you, G-man, but our best bet is to keep moving and not waste any more time arguing. We’re back to plan A.”

  Ed wiped his brow with his injured hand and set his rifle beside him. He was silent for a moment, then turned back and grimaced at the phone. “You’d better be sure about this, Miss Kelleher. I don’t care for this plan
of yours. Particularly with Zane’s life on the line.”

  She hoped the sickness in her gut didn’t show in her face. “Let’s say we did do it your way, Dick, and even one of your men missed his shot. Whose life would it be on the line then?”

  “These men don’t miss their shots.”

  The exiled second-in-command disregarded his chief’s warning glance and crawled up from below. “Ed, if you’re not sure about this, then why are we—”

  “Because these two are the spookiest pair I’ve come across in over two decades on the job, Mason, and I was around for Steve’s Scientology phase. The only thing that matters right now is Zane. Let’s just do this and get the hell off this ridge.”

  John winked at Ed and they repositioned themselves at their stations. Collins and Polaski slid in to either side of them as the agents behind them removed the weapons from their cases. They loaded them up as the four adjusted and refocused their night vision goggles.

  “You and Mr. Flaherty take the rear,” Ed said to Collins as he reached for his weapon. “Polaski and I will handle the four in front.”

  Collins nodded and Ed curled his injured arm over the ridge. He jammed his rifle against his splint, steadying it with his shoulder as he slid his finger over the trigger. Then he turned very still as the others waited for their cue. He cursed his hand and pulled back again, removing his goggles.

  “Mason.”

  His second-in-command took them without question and slid into Ed’s vacated spot beside John. The SCUD just winked and turned back to the house.

  “We need to do this fast and hard, champ, so be ready on the count. These two beside us will follow with the second round. One should suffice, but I’m not crazy about the distance or the open air.”