by Gini Koch
“What are everyone’s initial thoughts—are we going to be able to help Malcolm?” Prayed the answer would be yes.
“Yes,” Stryker said. “I believe we have enough in here to be able to figure out what he was hit with and, therefore, what to do to bring him out. We’re sending relevant information to Dulce and Doctor Hernandez.”
Allowed myself to feel cautiously optimistic again. Everything going on was making it easy to focus on something other than worrying about Buchanan, but now that we were talking about him, all the worry showed up to kick cautious optimism to the curb while sharing that there was no proof Stryker was right or that we’d find a cure. Or that Buchanan would ever wake up again.
Jeff came over and put his arm around me. Clearly I was broadcasting the worry. Did my best to pull myself together—I wasn’t going to help Buchanan with worry.
“What else did you find?” Reader asked.
“There are three hidden floors in the building,” Amy said. “I’ve been there before and didn’t know about them, but Henry found them on the schematics.”
“Did you explore them?” Chuckie asked.
She shook her head. “We couldn’t get in, at least not on this trip.”
“We have the building blueprints,” Henry said. “All of them.”
“All of them?” Jeff asked.
“There are five different sets,” Henry replied. “They’re doing a lot of shady stuff over there. Anyway, I think we’ll be able to identify what’s going on with Gaultier.”
“I’m also sure that Henry found the information on the emotional blockers and overlays,” Ravi said. “However, the encryption on those files is some of the toughest we’ve ever seen. It’s going to take a while to break.”
“Be sure to include my dad in whatever you’re doing with that.”
Stryker opened his mouth. “Do it,” Chuckie snapped.
“I was going to say that we already hooked him in. Geez, Chuck, you’re as quick on the trigger as Kitty.”
“We have a lot of dead people, Eddy, and not a lot of answers about what’s going on. And who the hell are you calling quick on the trigger anyway?”
“Not you, Missus Martini,” White said with a smile. “However, what our young men here haven’t mentioned is, under the circumstances, disappointing. Other than within the late Mister Montgomery’s personal temporary office space, we’ve found no indication of anything to do with any representative, other than the usual military contracts and the like.”
“So Gaultier is likely a dead end there. Which sucks.”
“Gaultier is a dead end, but Eugene wasn’t.” Christopher handed me a bunch of papers. “We took everything of his from the facility, other than his laptop. No one seemed to care, other than the accounting manager who was in charge of his work, and he was more upset about having hired a lunatic murderer to help cover the load while he has three of his staff out on maternity leave than anything else.”
“Pregnancy leaves confirmed and legitimate,” Amy added. “And Eugene wasn’t working on anything that seems too interesting, but we’re going to run all his information through everything, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that my father and his ilk are willing to be really intricately crazy.”
“So true, Ames, so true. So, is it safe to assume that no one at Gaultier either knew about Eugene’s belief about hidden robots or was giving him the orders?”
“Unless they read through his stuff, and it didn’t seem like anyone cared. For whatever reason, no one at Gaultier knew Eugene had killed anyone or was dead until we told them.” Christopher shook his head. “I’m happy the story’s been suppressed, but we weren’t the ones who did it, I’ve already checked with Serene.”
“So the police didn’t release any information,” Chuckie said thoughtfully. “That was probably because Kitty brought in the K-9 squad. Have you heard back from them yet?”
“Nope. What does Eugene’s mystery package say?”
Reader sighed and took it from my hands. “Give me a minute.”
“Your unwillingness to read anything other than comics is still with you, I see, Kitty,” Stryker said. “I don’t know how you got through college.”
Chuckie and I exchanged a glance. He raised his eyebrow. I shrugged. While I appreciated his willingness to defend my intelligence honor with Hacker International, there was no point at this time. I’d make Stryker pay for that comment later.
“Dude, ability and desire are not the same things. So, James, what do we have? I ask because Christopher, who’s read the file and could have shared already, seems reluctant to hog the information spotlight.”
“I just thought you’d like to read the file,” Christopher snapped, gracing me with Patented Glare #1. “The rest of us already have.”
“I haven’t,” Chuckie said.
“Me, either,” Tim added. “Some of us don’t get to read at hyperspeed no matter how many times we ask.”
“It’s pretty much what Kitty said Eugene told her,” Reader said. “Lots of buttering up of the operative, though. ‘Your intelligence and dedication to country’ and all that jazz. I can understand how someone could believe the robot theory, though. There’s full schematics in here.”
“Are we lucky enough that they match what we know of the androids?” I asked, fully expecting that we wouldn’t be lucky.
“No,” Ravi said. I was currently batting a thousand on my expectations, go me. “We’ve already run this information against what we have on the androids, and the supersoldiers. If these things are real, and with the way things go, I’d never suggest we assume they aren’t, they’re a different breed.”
“Better, worse, or just different?”
“Can’t tell without a full structural analysis, which we haven’t had time to do yet,” Omega Red said. “Not sure that they’re real, though, Kitty.”
“But you’ll keep at it, right, Yuri?”
“Right, because I know that tone of voice of yours, and I don’t like being kicked.”
“Yuri, you are so much smarter than Eddy.”
“I’ve been telling you that for years.”
“Better looking, too.” Take that, Stryker.
“Anyway,” Reader said, “I can see how someone with no real background in espionage, science, or the military could believe this. What’s still hard to swallow is the way he got this information.”
“I think it’s time to visit Pia Ryan. Chuckie, your thoughts?”
“I want to investigate her and her department again, first. I investigated them when you were in Florida. But we were treading on Internal Affairs’ territory, so I had to be careful.”
“Don’t you still?” Jeff asked.
Chuckie looked around the room. “Not nearly as much, no.”
“Hacker International now work for us, Jeff. Therefore, they’re hacking into the C.I.A. illegally, but it’s not authorized by the military or by Chuckie. It’s going to be authorized by me.”
“Why you?” Stryker asked.
“Because I’m the ambassador now, no co-anything. So, make it so or make your reservations at the nearest Best Western.”
“She’s even meaner than she used to be,” Henry muttered under his breath.
“And my hearing’s better, too. But don’t worry; you did well, so you get to stay. For the moment.”
“You know she’s not going to kick us out,” Ravi said quietly. “We’re too useful.”
“I’d kick you out in a heartbeat,” Jeff said. “And I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. The ambassador’s the only reason you’re all still here. So, do what she wants or I have another location in mind for you, and it’s called the Oak Hill Cemetery.”
I looked up at Jeff. “Funny you should mention that place. That’s the cemetery where I lost Clarence but found the Dingo.”
“Really?” Chuckie asked. “That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because there are a couple of infamous Confederate Ci
vil War spies who are buried there.” He turned to Big George. “Pull a map of the cemetery up.”
“Does he actually know everything?” Jeff asked me quietly.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
Big George indicated the map was live. “Kitty, can you tell me where you were when Clarence disappeared?” Chuckie asked.
“I think so.” Ran everything back through my mind. “About here. Keeping in mind that this map is a drawing, and I was running after Clarence at hyperspeed.”
“That’s near one of the spy’s graves,” Big George said.
“That needs checking,” Chuckie said. “It could be a long shot, but if someone’s got a sense of humor, I could believe they have a hideout around there.”
“Clarence doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Jeff said.
“At all,” Christopher added.
“Does this solve our problem?” Amy asked. Everyone looked at her. She shrugged. “Look, I get it, Clarence is somehow alive and well and running around trying to blow us up. We think. But how does that relate to everything else? And if we rush off to the cemetery, does whatever we find there fix our problems?”
“We don’t know,” I said before anyone else could. “Last night, we were thinking we had the usual three, maybe even five plans, going. Now, I don’t know.”
“They sure don’t feel cohesive,” Tim said. “At all.”
“Am I right in believing you’ve told everyone all the details, Ambassador?” Raj asked. Realized he’d been silent this entire time.
“Yes, everyone in the room with us is presumed to be totally trustworthy.”
“Good. Then I’d like to ask an important question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Where is Colonel Hamlin and what are we doing to find him?”
CHAPTER 63
“GOOD QUESTION.” It was. “We left Malcolm alone with the good colonel and now Malcolm isn’t waking up.”
Raj shook his head. “We don’t know that Colonel Hamlin is the one who injured Mister Buchanan. Based on the information we have, it was Mister Buchanan who moved the colonel out of the Embassy.”
“Right, so, what?” Jeff asked. “You think Buchanan is a traitor?”
“No. I think we haven’t asked a very important question—why did Mister Buchanan feel it was safer to have Colonel Hamlin in the tunnels than in the Embassy? Or, to put it another way, who was Mister Buchanan trying to protect? The colonel, himself, or you, Ambassador?”
“Why me?”
“Because your safety is his sole and entire job,” Chuckie answered. “Your mother put her best and most highly trained operative onto you, Kitty. She gave me the full details once he was exposed to us as P.T.C.U. He’s worked all over the world. He’s more skilled than I am. So, while anyone can lose concentration and anyone can slip up, Buchanan’s about the last one out of all of us to do either.”
“You make him sound like he walks on water,” Jeff said.
Chuckie shot Jeff a look I could only think of as a combination of long-suffering and fed up. “Feel free to check your jealousy at the door on this one. We’re talking about someone who is expected to be the last man standing, and he’s expected to be standing in front of your wife and child. He’s down, without a mark on him, and Raj is right. We’ve been so distracted by everything else, we’re not asking what the hell happened to the person he was last with.”
“We’ve reviewed all the feeds from the tunnels,” Omega Red said. “No signs of anyone in them, at any time. And before anyone makes a comment, I have ways of seeing things, I just see them differently than any of you.”
“No one’s trying to pick on the blind guy, Yuri, cool your jets. So, we have no visuals of Malcolm or Colonel Hamlin in the tunnels at all?”
“None,” Big George said. “We didn’t expect to catch any of Christopher, because he was moving at hyperspeed. However, we should have seen Mister Buchanan, even though he was hidden from the camera feeds where Christopher found him. But to get him there, someone would have had to pass one of the cameras.”
“Someone disabled all the camera feeds?”
“No. They’re all working.”
“Have you checked for tampering?” Chuckie asked. “Because that seems impossible. Even if we say that Clarence showed up and overpowered Buchanan and Hamlin, which we know he could, they should have been on the feeds when they left the Embassy’s basement elevator.”
“Unless . . . I told Hamlin to tell Malcolm everything. Let’s say he did. Immediately after that, Malcolm now wants to get Hamlin out of the Embassy. Why? Either Hamlin’s a threat to us, or there’s a threat to Hamlin here, and Malcolm believes Hamlin needs to be protected.”
“Okay, all that makes sense,” Chuckie said. “He told Walter they were going into the tunnels.”
“Right. Why? Why tell Walter that? He didn’t ask Walter to let me know they were going into the tunnels. In fact, he made Walter think that I already knew.”
“To have Walter undo the shielding?” Raj suggested.
“Maybe. If it was on at the time.”
“It was.”
“Okay, but we have nothing that shows that anyone left the elevator. The cameras aren’t focused on the elevator; they’re focused on the tunnels. Because we know who’s coming out of the elevator and that’s someone with access to our Embassy.”
“Where are you going with this?” Jeff asked.
“I’m trying to think like Malcolm.” Stryker snorted. “Eddy, I’m just saying, I’m going to kick you so hard, when you least expect it. Anyway, Malcolm has Doctor Strange powers. If he doesn’t want you to see him, you don’t see him. He comes and goes like the wind. And yet, he told Walter where he was going.”
“Why are you so shocked by that?” Reader asked.
“Dude, think. We’ve been all over the Embassy and the Zoo. Have we checked in with Walter? Has even one of us told Walter where we were? No. We assume that Walter is monitoring and will alert us if necessary and unless we need him, we leave him alone to do his job.”
“You think Walter’s the traitor?” Jeff asked, sounding like he was hoping I was going to say no.
“No. I think that Walter is very dedicated and that he was focused pretty much a hundred percent on the party. And I’m sure Malcolm knew he would be. However, Walter could stop worrying about the basement if Malcolm’s told him that he’s leaving it and going out the tunnels. Walter can turn all his attention to the Zoo, which is where everyone other than Malcolm and Hamlin are.”
Raj looked at me. “You don’t think they ever went into the tunnels, do you?”
“No, I don’t. I think Malcolm told Walter they were going into the tunnels so that Walter’s attention would go back onto everyone else. Then I think they walked out of the basement. The question is, did they walk out the front door, or did they go over to the Zoo?”
“Why would they do either?” Jeff asked.
“Front door would be to get Hamlin away from us or to a safe house. Zoo would be to have Hamlin identify someone Malcolm felt was at the party. Richard, does the shielding keep us in or just others out?”
“Others out. Our shields are set up to allow anyone inside to exit, so the shields can’t be used to trap. And they’ve always been that way, but Gladys had a very focused team improve them after Operation Confusion.”
“I love you, Richard, I just have to say.”
“Again,” Jeff said. “Why does it make you so happy that he uses those names?”
“Because I’m the only one,” White replied. He winked at me. “I like to support my partner.”
“Why would Buchanan risk it?” Tim asked, presumably to get us back on track. “Especially with Clarence and the assassins around?”
It had to be said. I didn’t want to, but I had to. “I never told Malcolm about the Dingo, and he didn’t believe that Clarence was back from the dead. As far as Malcolm knew, our only issue of the day was the appearance of Colonel Hamlin.”
“So
the question is, where did Mister Buchanan actually go?” Raj asked. “I agree with the ambassador—it seems unlikely he went into the tunnels.”
“Well, Christopher found him in the tunnels under the Gaultier Research facility,” Amy said. “I’d say it’s a good bet he went there.”
“How?” Christopher asked. “It’s miles away.”
“We have these newfangled things called cars, and Malcolm has one. He got into his car and drove. So, the question is—did he drive Hamlin somewhere first, or did he take Hamlin with him?”
“Why does that matter?” Christopher asked.
“It matters because if he took Hamlin somewhere first, then we have a chance of finding Hamlin alive and well. And if he took Hamlin with him, we have a good chance of never finding Colonel Marvin Hamlin alive again.”
CHAPTER 64
“ALL THAT’S GREAT,” Jeff said. “But we’ve used up most of our free time, and I still have no idea what was going on with Eugene, and I read the materials. And who but a moron would believe that someone who works for the C.I.A. would ‘accidentally’ receive a package addressed to someone who has no connection to the C.I.A. other than knowing a couple people who work there?”
“Chuckie, I’ve never met Pia Ryan. Is she pretty?”
He shrugged. “She’s attractive enough.” He jerked. “Oh. Yeah, I could see it.”
“See what?” Jeff asked.
“Eugene lost his mistress when Nathalie confessed to Edmund, remember? So, maybe he was looking for another one.”
“I can’t believe that guy was a player,” Gower said. “My brother, I get it. But I’ve met Eugene. He’s not exactly what I think you, or anyone else, would consider hot, Kitty.”
“He wasn’t,” Amy confirmed. “He wasn’t hideous, but he wasn’t going to have to worry about making People’s Sexiest Man Alive spread. Ever.”
“No, but Nathalie told me he was more man than Edmund. I’m betting that means Eugene was either hung or he’d learned some moves to make up for his lack of external appeal. At any rate, women talk, and I’m just betting that Nathalie slipped up and told someone, Marcia Kramer, probably, who she’d been doing the deed with. Once it was over, I mean. And that means Pia probably knows, because I doubt Marcia could keep something that juicy to herself.”