Patience, My Dear

by Bower Lewis

  Mason glanced back to Ed for confirmation and then nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

  Ed said “Go” into his sleeve and the ten agents remaining at the back of the roof dropped their lines and jumped out into the night. Then Ed counted back from three and John and Mason fired. Eight men on the ground panicked, crashing into one another as the gas canisters exploded and they reached for their guns and their radios. Ed said “Go” again and Collins and Polaski fired. The eight men collapsed into the clouds before a shot was fired or a button pushed.

  Patience crawled up to her uncle as the ground team pulled down their masks and closed in on Rockwell’s unconscious guards. She was nearly speechless from relief, but managed to locate the one word available to her as he knelt down to repack his bag.

  “See?”

  He shook his head. “What I see, Pax, is eight men who can wake up and cause God only knows what kind of trouble for us, as opposed to eight men who can’t. That said, I think you understand what’s at stake here at least as well as I do. I just hope you know what you’re doing, that’s all.”

  “Me, too.”

  He foisted his bag over his shoulder and a strange expression passed over his face. Patience tightened her stance as he gazed silently at her for a few moments. Then he stepped closer and reached out a heavy hand. He laid it on her head.

  “I think I finally understand what’s going on here, kid, what’s maybe been going on from the start. No matter what happens, just know that I’ve got your back. This is the way He wants it now, so you’re calling the shots. It’s going to take some settling into, but that’s to be expected. Now, let’s go get your friend back and shut this Apocalypse down once and for all, because, Lord knows, it’s been a long few days for everyone.”

  He released her and left her standing there alone, too stunned to move. She felt as though he’d thrown her into a pool of icy water and withdrawn the ladder. She heard him whistling as he trod down the roof with his weighty bag over his shoulder.

  “What do you mean I’m calling the shots, Uncle John?” she cried. “Settling into what?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Rockwell’s unconscious guards were disarmed and immobilized in the carriage house, and Ed’s men on the ground were moving in on the mansion. Patience was mesmerized by their stealth and precision as they surrounded the perimeter with their parabolic microphones and portable through-wall radar systems. Those men down there were the real thing. Ed and Mason were the real thing. Her Uncle John was the real thing. The Biz’s words tripped around inside a mind under renovation, with her uncle’s strange avowals interjecting wherever they saw fit. Nothing in the world made sense.

  Ed and John knelt together a few feet away, listening as the ground team swept the house with the mic. Every so often, they’d pause and raise a hand in unison, causing Patience’s mouth to run dry and her brain to freeze up. She struggled to keep herself focused and to refrain from ripping the headphones from their ears whenever they’d glance up with their expressions of grim concentration. Interrupting their work with her need to know wasn’t going to help Zane. She had to stay on task.

  Rutherford startled her with a tap on her shoulder. The sharpshooting, steel-jawed mogul appeared to be trying his best to ignore the pair of agents now tracking his every move at Ed’s command. He seemed reticent about speaking with her as well.

  “Do you need something, Mr. Ellison?”

  “We’ve been up here fifteen minutes,” he said. “That’s my son down there, Miss Kelle—” His face set as he caught himself. His fear was not well covered by the rigidity of his expression as he stared down at the side of Rockwell’s house. “What I need is for someone to tell me what the hell is taking so long.”

  Patience glanced at her watch. “We’ve been up here twelve minutes, and I’ve changed my mind about how you should address me. I’d prefer it if you’d call me Miss Kelleher after all. You diminish your own dominance when you trip over yourself like that, trying to avoid pissing me off. It’s as if you’ve stripped yourself of a superpower or something, and it’s unsettling. We all need to be at our best tonight, Sir, and at the moment, you’re not.”

  He was quiet for a moment, but then he looked back at her and something in his expression inspired just the faintest impulse to smack him. Patience was satisfied.

  “You are a very strange young woman, Miss Kelleher.”

  “Yes, I know that.”

  “Well, now it’s been fourteen minutes.”

  She sighed and looked away from him. “I’m aware of every second that passes, Mr. Ellison. If you’d like to help move things along, perhaps you could take it up with your men. Dick still insists on getting confirmation of everything my uncle or I tell him, or he’s convinced he’ll have to shoot us or some such nonsense. Beyond that, I’m afraid there’s nothing more I can tell you.”

  He turned away, but then stopped again a few yards off and spun back on his heels. “You can tell me why my son left Hyannis. That’s something more you can tell me.”

  Patience straightened, as taken aback by the humanity of his demand as by his condescension to demand it of her. He remained where he was and continued to stare down at the house.

  “I’m painfully aware that Zane was never very happy at home, Miss Kelleher. What I’d like to know is what, precisely, it was about his upbringing he found so unbearable that he now prefers a life of rat-infested squalor to the relative comforts of his family home.”

  Patience sighed. “He’s not living in rat-infested squalor, Mr. Ellison. Allston is a solid, working-class neighborhood. I’m sure you employ lots of people who live in the area.”

  He didn’t respond to that. She found his inappropriate, off-base bid for information touching, in a Rutherford Ellison sort of a way, so she pushed her hair back from her face and considered his question seriously.

  “If you want my honest opinion, I’d say that Zane left Hyannis because he’s a lot like you.” Rutherford straightened and turned back at last. “You didn’t want to do what your father did for a living any more than Zane wants to do what you do. You wanted to shoot guns and race cars, and to figure out what else might interest you before you settled into anything permanent, but you weren’t given any choice about that, were you?”

  He was silent again, so Patience turned her attention to her uncle and the agents’ progress. Mason stood up next to Ed and pointed to a window at the first floor and she dug her toes into the soles of her boots.

  “Did my son tell you this, or is it more wisdom from your mysterious source?”

  “Zane told me this.”

  “Well, regardless of what I may or may not have wanted, I behaved like the adult that I was when I was Zane’s age and faced up to my responsibilities. I’m sorry, Miss Kelleher, but the comparisons you’re attempting to draw between his behavior and mine are lost on me.”

  She pressed her lips together and turned away again. Her exasperation made it difficult even to look at him. He cleared his throat at the dismissal and she turned back and punched him on the arm.

  He appeared stunned by the action, staring down at the spot where she’d struck him as though he’d been stabbed. He raised a hand to fend off his advancing agents.

  “Young lady, have you lost your mind? That’s a quick and certain way of getting yourself shot.”

  She was too frustrated even to hear him. “You named the heirs to your imperial empire Steve McQueen and Zane Grey, Sir. If that wasn’t a message to your father, I don’t know what was. It certainly was one hell of a message to your sons.”

  “Good God, I’d say that’s a reach.”

  “And when Zane started to rebel, did you send him off to one of those expensive schools where naughty children of the wealthy elite learn how to become nastier and more socially acceptable? No. You kept him home and let Dick teach him how to shoot clean and drive dirty. You may not like some of the choices he’s made, and maybe deep down you’ve even resented him a little for having had the guts
to make them, but you’ve always made damn sure he’s had what he needed to do so. You’ve all but forced him to test his freedom. You may not be able to see it, and Zane may not be able to see it, but to someone looking in from the outside, it’s pretty much Psych 101.”

  Rutherford was the first to break their stare this time. “Miss Kelleher, I believe you may be even more ridiculous a person than I’d imagined.”

  “Then I’m sure you’ll be more cautious about asking for my opinion in the future.”

  Ed stepped past them to speak with Rutherford’s detail and Patience grabbed his arm without thinking. “What did you hear down there? Can they see Zane on the radar? Please tell me what’s happening in that house.”

  He wrenched his arm free and John pulled her back from the agent’s withering stare. He drew her down the roof a few feet as Mason raised a grappling hook gun and fired over the treetops.

  “The radar doesn’t work that way, Pax. It can pinpoint the location of human presence, but it can’t paint us a picture. Come on now, you can’t get mired up in this stuff when you’ve got work to do. The best thing you can do for him right now is to stay focused on the job at hand and try to have a little faith.”

  It was more the way he said it than the echo of the words she’d heard from another source not a half hour before that sent the buzzing up her spine. She understood that something had changed since she’d last grabbed the muzzle of his rifle, but she was still in the dark as to what it was. His communications with The Biz seemed restored now, but his manner had changed—both toward Him, and toward her. She shook her head and he winked.

  “Your part’s coming up soon, kid, and you’re the only one who can do it. Keep your head in the game, now, and don’t waste any time trading shots with the suit patrol, okay?”

  She exhaled and nodded. When she looked up again, Ed was staring back with a strange expression on his face. It appeared, for a moment, as though he had something he wanted to say, but then he looked away.

  “Christ, Dick, either spit it out or take it someplace else. I’ve had my fill of people weirding out on me for one night.”

  He didn’t respond to that, but her phone chimed in his place.

  HE KEEPS FINDNG THNGS WHER U SAY THEY WILL B

  HIS GADGTS R EXPNSIVE & HARD 2 COME BY

  GO EASY ON THE GUY—HES ADJUSTING

  “Well, he’s going to have to step it up. But since You bring up people adjusting to things, would You care to shed any light on Uncle John’s one hundred percent kill failure rate, or his bizarre and sudden pledge to cover my back from now on?”

  The Biz, it seemed, had no comment.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Traversing a rope between two rooftops fell somewhere between dangerous and disastrously stupid, in Patience’s opinion—particularly with one end secured solely by a grappling hook—but John assured them all that he’d survived far stupider feats in the past and no one felt in a position to doubt his word, particularly as time was short and their options were few.

  Patience tried not to dwell on it, just as she tried not to dwell on what was happening in the house below or the sky above, or on the sweat that broke out at her hairline and palms whenever she moved too close to the ridge. She’d decided that John’s advice was good. She needed to stay clear and focused, and that would be best accomplished if she avoided two things: thinking and looking down. A racing heart and slipping palms would do no one any good at go time.

  The only unguarded entrance to Rockwell’s mansion was a set of French doors opening out onto a terrace from the third-story master bedroom. The terrace, like the rest of the house, was made of stucco and impenetrable to the hook. Someone needed to get in from above and secure the line by hand. There was only one point of entry this could be accomplished from, and only one member of their party small enough to fit through any of Rockwell’s tiny attic windows.

  Ed checked the line a final time as Mason shot a second hook across for a backup. John stepped over to Patience as he refastened his harness.

  “I’ll get you over there safe, Pax. My hand to God, I will. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

  “Damn it, Uncle John! Would you threaten to blow up the garden shed or something, just so I know you’re still in there? You’re really starting to freak me out.”

  He rubbed her head and turned to the ridge. She’d never wanted to kick a man so badly in her life. She grabbed a fistful of his jacket and pulled him back to face her.

  “I don’t know what you and The Biz have cooking at the moment, but if it involves the exchange of one person I love for another, there’s going to be hell to pay. You two will spend the rest of eternity dodging my calls, and I’ve got unlimited minutes.”

  He laughed as Ed and Mason stepped up beside him. He sat down and Mason rechecked his emergency line before he lowered himself into the air.

  “I’m not wired to be a martyr, kid,” He called back. “I may be going through a slight period of modification at the moment, but let’s not blow it out of proportion. You stay cool over here, and I’ll see you on the other side.”

  He began traversing and she grew dizzy at the sight. Then her phone chimed and she glanced up. No one’s attention moved from her uncle’s endeavor, so she slipped down to a dormer window to check the message.

  IT WAS NOT BECAUSE OF THE TIME-OUT

  She paused, wondering if she’d misread Him.

  “What are You talking about?”

  IT WAS NOT BECAUSE OF THE TIME-OUT

  Her mind locked up and her hands began to shake as she knelt there alone, squinting at the glowing screen. Did He not understand where she was? How could He do this to her now?

  “Christ, Biz, I’m doing everything I can just to keep it together right now. Can’t You maybe take a pill or something until Zane is safe? This would be a really bad time for us to get into another blowout.”

  FORSYTH WAS SECRETIVE ABOUT HIS SURVEILLANCE

  ROCKWELL DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THOSE CAMERAS ON THE BUS

  She gripped the phone tighter, uncertain where this was going and unnerved by the understanding that she was about to find out.

  UNTIL I NEEDED HIM TO

  The world screeched to a halt around her. Ed disappeared. Rutherford disappeared. Even Uncle John, dangling one broken shingle from a nasty death, disappeared. All she could see was the traitor in her hand as it sprang to life again.

  ONCE FORSYTH WAS DEAD, ROCKWELL FELT UNTOUCHABLE

  BUT HIS BRAVADO WAS TENUOUS, UNSTABLE

  HE WAS PARANOID, AND HE WAS OFF HIS LEASH

  I COULD SEE NO WAY LEFT FOR YOU TO STOP HIM FROM AFAR

  Patience’s dizziness was growing and her nausea had developed an edge. It wasn’t that what He was saying sounded wrong, exactly, but she couldn’t understand what it meant. She certainly didn’t understand what it meant for Zane, or for SolarTech, or the polar ice caps.

  “Why didn’t You just tell us that? Why did You have to trap Zane the way You did?”

  I OFFERED YOU AN EASIER PATH BUT YOU LACKED FAITH IN MY JUDGMENT

  YOU LACKED FAITH IN YOURSELF, EVEN AFTER I’D ASSURED YOU OF MINE

  The phone slipped from her fingers as her gun tapped against the slate like an armored woodpecker hammering at an unyielding oak. She scraped her knuckles across the tar to save it from smashing against the shingles with the blocks of text burning her eyes.

  “Anything that happens to Zane tonight is my fault.”

  He chimed back furiously.

  SHOW ME WHERE I SAID THAT!

  THOU SHALT NOT PUT WORDS INTO MY MOUTH!

  YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE HARD CHOICES TO MAKE

  SO YOU MAKE THEM, AND WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

  YOU LEARN WHAT YOU CAN AND GET BACK TO WORK!

  She shook her head as her breath stung her throat. She’d made all the wrong choices. She’d been so self-righteous, and she hadn’t learned a damn thing. And it was Zane who was paying now for her hubris.

  WOULD YOU STOP LOOKING FOR TH
E SUBTEXT IN EVERYTHING I SAY?

  She dragged a sleeve across her eyes and blinked down into the message.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  STOP PICKING MY WORDS APART!

  WE DON’T HAVE TIME AND IT’S ANNOYING!

  They were quiet for a moment, and then the phone chimed again.

  LOL! HOW MANY EONS HAVE I BEEN WANTNG TO SAY THAT TO YOU PEOPLE?

  FELT GOOD TO GET THAT OFF MY CHEST! :)

  She was trying to keep up, but He was texting her in circles now.

  “So, wait a minute… Is this or is this not about the grenade launcher?”

  THAT WAS ALMOST A WEEK AGO!

  “Oh.”

  I TOLD YOU YOUR WAY WOULD NOT BE EASY

  CAN’T WE AGREE THAT I WAS RIGHT AND MOVE ON?

  She shook her head and looked up to the light of a plane overhead. “You know something, Biz? I haven’t a clue as to what the hell we’re even talking about here.”

  THAT’S BECAUSE YOU KEEP INTERRUPTING

  I’M TRYNG TO EXPLAIN THAT YOU ARE HERE TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING

  YOU ARE NOT HERE TO ATONE FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU’VE BROKEN

  She let her head fall back against the dormer and tried to quiet her mind.

  “Oh.” She nodded, pressing her eyes closed. “That’s actually…” Her throat tightened and she looked down. She knew she’d say it badly and she decided not to try. “Thank You, Biz.” She turned back toward the agents and paused again. There was still one thing she had to ask, and His answer was what she feared most in the world.

  “Why did Zane look as though he’d just won the game when Rockwell turned that gun on him tonight? Is this what You offered him the other night beside the highway? Is Zane down there right now earning Your forgiveness for taking that shot at Rockwell?”

  The phone was silent for a moment. Then it chimed.

  I TOLD HIM HE WAS ALREADY FORGIVEN

  Her eyes fell low a moment. Of course He had. No pound of flesh had been required of Zane, no bullying or bribing. He’d made a dangerous decision at a complicated moment, and it had been met with understanding and absolution. It was everything he’d never had.