by Gini Koch
“There are less of us, but not all constituents in all states feel comfortable with the new world order. There’s quite a lot of clamor for restrictions, if you will.”
“Those aren’t restrictions, though. Those are laws that will force the A-Cs into slavery to the government.”
“I agree. It’s why I oppose them, as does Senator Armstrong.”
“If they pass, the President could veto. What happens if he does?”
“If they pass in the first place, they’ll probably pass again to overturn the veto. It would be very bad for the President, either way, honestly. If he doesn’t veto, he’s lost the trust and support of all of the A-Cs. If he does veto, he’s going against the wishes of the majority of the country. At least that’s how it’ll be spun in the media.”
“If they pass, the A-Cs will have to leave the U.S., if not the planet.” Because I wouldn’t let them stay, and neither would the rest of the leadership.
“Well, that’s better than it could be, honestly.”
“Really? What’s a worse option than exile?”
McMillan was quiet for a moment. “War.”
CHAPTER 90
“SENATOR, I need to ask you three questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“First off, the other representatives that are dead, are they all pro-alien in some way?”
“Honestly, no. At least as many virulently anti-alien representatives have passed away, and there were many undecided or neutral also who we’ve lost in this year.”
“Interesting. Secondly, is there any one person who could influence enough of the House and Senate to ensure that these bills die without issue?”
“Lillian Culver. Her clients are incredibly influential, so her views hold great sway.”
Awesome. My best option to save the day was Joker Jaws. Did it get any better than this? Sources said that it probably did. “Don’t tell me, let me guess—Guy Gadoire would be number two on the sway list, wouldn’t he?”
“Why do you think Senator Armstrong spends time with them?”
“You don’t.”
“I do when I need to make certain things happen.” Well, at least I could comfort myself that precedent had been set in the arena of Making Pacts with the Devil.
“I’m just going to spitball it here and bet that Culver and Gadoire are being coy about using any influence on this issue, right?”
He sighed. “Right.”
Of course right. They weren’t idiots; they were really damned good at their jobs. And that meant that what they wanted was for one of us—me, Jeff, Reader, Gower—to ask them for help.
“Okay, here’s my third official question. Where is the nearby holding facility that no normal person knows about that’s both underground, very secure, and where the P.T.C.U. and the C.I.A. and lord knows who else store their very special prisoners?”
“Why?”
“I need to find someone who’s there, and it has no cell phone reception.” Took the guess because Caroline had been calling Michael and he hadn’t answered. “And I think I need to find them urgently.”
“Well, your clearance could be high enough. I’d check but it’s Christmas Eve so I’m going to assume it is and if I’m wrong, oh, dear.”
“Works for me.”
“The facility is in the Pentagon.”
So much for the idea that I’d get a hold of Mom, Jeff, or anyone else on that team. I was willing to storm the castle if we had to, but the six of us breaking into the Pentagon’s underground prisoner vault seemed wildly unwise. “Thank you. One more bonus round question, please.”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you know who’s influenced the anti-alien wording in all these bills? Is it one person or a group or does everyone just really fear us this much?”
“There’s no one specific group that’s leading the charge, though of course there are always those who are more vocal. The Secretary of Transportation is very anti and he’s barely hiding it. Because of his relationship with her Chief Aide, the Secretary of State is on the fence, but leaning toward getting the A-Cs under a firmer level of control.”
“Wonderful. Anyone else?”
“Well, Senator Kramer isn’t doing any of you any favors, and neither is Senator Montgomery. They aren’t anti, per se, but whenever they’re discussing the A-Cs, somehow you all come off sounding like loose cannons with absolutely no regard for the safety of those around you.”
“I’m confused. All these people are friends with each other, and friends with the Armstrongs, and were friends with the Brewers. How is it that they can hang when they’re diametrically opposed on a big issue? And don’t give me the old ‘politics makes strange bedfellows’ answer. I got that enough from Armstrong.”
“Before you were exposed as being here, you were a force to be manipulated, and everyone wanted in on that.”
“Right. Everyone wants to control the X-Men or the Hulk.”
“Correct. Now that you’re outed, you’re able to openly tip the balance of power, and that means that you yourselves have great power. Some, like Senator Armstrong and the late Representative Brewer, were excited by the possibilities of what could be achieved. Some, like the Secretary of Transportation, were worried about the power they could lose.”
Two people appeared out of the shadows. “Okay, thank you, Senator. I have to go now, but I really appreciate you clearing things up for me. And thank you for fighting for us.”
“I don’t mind the fighting, but I do mind losing. I truly pray we don’t lose this particular battle.”
“Will do my best to ensure that we don’t.”
We hung up and I waved to the Dingo and Surly Vic. “Nice to see you. Need your help.”
The Dingo looked around. “You have come with more than I expected.” He didn’t sound happy.
“It’s a compliment because I know you two are just that good. Everyone, raise your hands so the Dingo can see you’re not armed.”
“They’re holding staffs,” Surly Vic pointed at Rahmi and Rhee.
“They are. You’re both wearing high-powered semiautomatics. You just let me know the day staffs are faster than bullets and then I’ll apologize for all of two of us having weapons. We’re under attack, guys, and we can’t really afford to be pussyfooting around with people we can supposedly trust not to harm us.”
The Dingo nodded. “Fine. Let’s ensure this meeting is swift.”
“Absodamnlutely. Look, I have a ton of questions and you probably won’t want to answer all of them, but we’re running out of time and I honestly don’t know what to do.”
“Yes, you want me to be Sherlock Holmes.”
“I do, I really do. Okay, gang, gather round, because I’m going to update our friends here on what I just learned and I want to avoid having to say it twice.” My team came closer, though Rahmi and Rhee stood a little apart, keeping watch. “Someone’s killing off people in the House of Representatives at the same time as there are a lot of anti-alien clauses that have been shoved into every bill going up for vote, in both the House and the Senate.”
“The Senate, too?” Gower asked, sounding as worried as I felt.
“Yes, and Senator McMillan isn’t feeling confident that the pro-alien faction is going to win the day on his side of Congress. He wasn’t as worried about the House, because we used to have a lot of really strong supporters with a lot of influence there. As of today, they’re all dead, other than my husband, and he’s alive only by chance. He was shot in the middle of the street.”
“We did not try to kill him,” Surly Vic said.
“Neither did Raul,” the Dingo added. “Word is that the shooter was a woman.”
“Maybe that’s why Pia was killed,” Raj said to me. “She failed to kill two targets.”
“I’ve got a better bet, and she’s going by the name of Dier. Maybe she wasn’t really serving the water at our dinner party to help or hinder Brewer’s attempted murder and Santiago’s real one. Maybe she was there
so she’d know exactly what Jeff and I looked like.”
“It’s a common enough technique,” the Dingo allowed. “And Bernice was very fond of getting close to her victims before killing them.”
“Yeah, believe me, I remember. So Raul’s found another chick with the same can-do, people person attitude.”
“It is very likely,” the Dingo said. “But I cannot believe this is why you wanted to meet with me.”
“Nope, still just catching you up on the latest that is My So-Called Normal Life. Okay, so here’s the thing—there are a lot more people dead in the House than just the six really pro-alien ones. We have almost two dozen dead and gone, including some very anti-alien representatives. Oh, and my team, based on my most recent phone call, I think Santiago was always on the kill list.”
“You’re sure?” Gower asked.
“We’ll get the details for why later, Paul,” White said. “For now, we’ll assume Missus Martini is right. Please go on.”
“Thanks. And, with this new information, I don’t know that Jeff or I are really part of what’s going on. I sincerely think Raul is combining business with pleasure.”
“Again, we know he’s here to kill you,” the Dingo said. “He may have an assignment, but you are not that assignment.”
“Gotcha, we are taking me and Jeff out of the equation for the moment then and just focusing on everyone who’s actually dead. So, I get why our enemies would kill off the people who are pro-alien. They want some or all of these bills to pass, so legislation is put in place that forces us to become virtual slaves, leave, or declare war. What I don’t understand is why you’d kill off the people who want to pass those bills.”
The Dingo looked thoughtful. “Is that all?”
“No. I need to know why someone wanted Edmund Brewer killed so publicly. If, as said, we’re removing me and Jeff from the picture, all the others were done so well they looked like natural deaths or legitimate accidents. And today, they set up Brewer’s death to look like a suicide, complete with a note.”
“Does he have family?” the Dingo asked.
“Yes, but we took his wife with us, so the murder-suicide option was removed from the Bad Guy Playbook. And that would have flown because, two days ago, they both publicly admitted that he knew she’d had an affair. So a very believable fight, a dead ‘cheating’ wife, a suicide of remorse.”
Surly Vic looked kind of impressed. “That would be a good option to remove witnesses and ensure a message is sent.”
“I think the message is ‘I want a lot of people dead.’ But the first attempt at murdering Edmund Brewer wasn’t like any of these. Eugene Montgomery was trying to poison Brewer, and it seems like happenstance that Santiago Reyes died instead. Only, Raul and his female partner were on the scene. We’ve got a good guess now for why she was there. But why was Raul there? Was it just to get me? I don’t think so, because Raul killed Eugene and we’re pretty sure the shot was meant to take out both of us. He shot about a minute too late, though, after Eugene had given me some information I’m sure our enemies didn’t want me to have.”
“The delay was because of us,” the Dingo said. “He was able to shoot because of your sister and your friend.”
“So, he knows you’re here?” Raj asked.
Surly Vic nodded. “Again, because of the two women.”
“They’re really sorry and won’t do it again. So, do you have any guess, any guess at all, as to why Eugene was set up to kill Brewer at my dinner party, in front of tons of people, so that Eugene would be caught and convicted of the crime? Everything else that’s going on makes some kind of logical sense, but that doesn’t, any more than killing off your own supporters seems like a sane move.”
“How varied were the causes of death?” the Dingo asked.
“We think there was probably more than one person doing the assassinations,” Raj said quickly. Took that to mean he didn’t want me to share the Master and Apprentice theory with our friends the assassins. Pity.
“We’ve been told there’s one Mastermind out there who’s cooked up almost every conspiracy and related theory since the nineteen sixties. We believe that this person has passed on their evil wisdom to an Apprentice, who becomes the Mastermind when the other dies.”
“Like the Sith?” Surly Vic asked.
“Yes!” Star Wars was truly omnipresent worldwide.
“I could believe it,” he said. “The C.I.A. is very involved in many bad things.”
“Speaking of which, Esteban Cantu, Master or Apprentice?”
“If he was the Master then his Apprentice has taken over, because he is not accessible,” the Dingo said calmly. “And believe me, we would like access to him, because the price on his head is quite high. He is an open assignment—whoever has Proof of Death will receive payment.”
Tried not to worry about Mom and Jeff and the others going to visit the guy who had the Assassins’ Open Season sign on his forehead. Failed.
“As for the others,” the Dingo said, “if you are correct and there is competition for a slot, while at the same time there is the desire to ensure no one is aware you are killing specific people, then random selection would enter.”
“Random selection?” Rhee asked. Apparently Amazons had great hearing.
The Dingo nodded. “You choose a set of victims for each contender. You put one or two of your truly desired candidates into each group.”
“Ensuring, of course, that each candidate does not know your true identity,” Surly Vic added. “Otherwise, you risk too much exposure.”
“This method allows you to test your recruits’ ability to follow orders while proving their loyalty to you. You are able to see if they are skilled enough to ensure the authorities consider the deaths accidental or natural, and if they are not successful here, they are the ones who the authorities arrest. And you remove your enemies at the same time.” The Dingo said all of this like he was outlining how to best prep for the after-Christmas sales.
“They’ve killed almost two dozen people.”
Surly Vic shrugged. “We have more than two dozen enemies. So do you. If the Mastermind is any good, so does he. So he used this test to remove many enemies at once, both for this plan and for others. If he is the Mastermind, then this plan makes much sense and becomes even more efficient.”
“Your bigger issue is the public death, yes?” the Dingo asked.
“Yes. Because it seems out of character for the rest of what’s going on.”
“I agree. It was very . . . showy, yes?”
“Yes,” Raj said. “In a very horrible way.”
“The question is why? Why kill Edmund Brewer in such a public way, when every other murder has been done so quietly?”
The Dingo shook his head. “That is not the right question. The correct question is this: Who had the most to gain from the situation?”
“The Mastermind,” Gower said promptly.
The Dingo shook his head again. “No. The Mastermind wants the quiet deaths. His plan is insidious, yes, but it is a quiet plan. I would presume the Mastermind would have preferred no one notice that these deaths, any of them, were murders.”
“One of those trying to become Apprentices,” White suggested.
“Logical,” the Dingo agreed. “However, which one had the most to gain?”
“We don’t know who any of them are,” White said.
“Find out who had the most to gain and you find your aspiring Apprentice.”
“I would have said Pia had the most to gain,” Raj said. “Only she was killed, and we think it was because this murder attracted too much of Kitty’s attention.”
“How was she killed?” Surly Vic asked.
“She blew up in a car bomb intended for the Head of Special Immigration Services for Homeland Security.” Figured it was better to use Cliff’s title—it could trigger something for my Assassin Agatha Christies. “We don’t know, but presume, that she was dead before the bomb went off.”
“W
as the politician killed as well?” the Dingo asked.
“No, because he used his new remote starter function. The blast was unreal. My husband and I and one of our friends would have been in the car with him, too.”
“Was that known?”
“No, it was pretty impromptu, so I don’t think the three of us were the targets, just Cliff.”
“So Raul was cleaning things up,” Surly Vic said.
“You think that’s his signature, too?” Because I sure did.
“Yes,” the Dingo said. “As I told you, he has done much work for the C.I.A., and other government agencies. Another showy death, but presumably sending a different message than the other.”
“You think it’s not connected to all of this?”
He shrugged. “I have no way of knowing. However, it sounds separate, other than that your presumed aspiring Apprentice was in the car.” He shook his head. “Determine who had the most to gain from the one man’s death, or from the other man’s capture.”
The Dingo was going to say something else, when Rahmi shouted, “Down!”
So I wasn’t too surprised when I heard gunfire.
CHAPTER 91
FORTUNATELY, A-Cs had really great reflexes. Despite Christopher’s lack of faith in their abilities in a Field Situation, White tackled me and Gower, Raj tackled the two assassins, while Rahmi and Rhee moved so fast they were two blurs. So the bullets missed all of us. Barely, to be sure, but barely was darned well good enough.
The princesses were blurry, but I could still make them out. They were spinning their battle staffs while they ran in a sort of circle, creating a perimeter around us. As near as I could tell, the staffs were moving fast enough that they were deflecting bullets.
“Two attackers,” Rhee called. “Both with projectiles.”
“Girls, take out the projectiles if you can safely,” I shouted. This earned another flurry of bullets. I couldn’t see anyone, and that meant the probability of one of the attackers being Clarence was much higher. The princesses were still managing to deflect and avoid bullets.
The six of us were still on the ground, though now all of us were on our stomachs. The two assassins had gotten their guns into position before they’d hit the ground. We scooted and scrambled and got behind a couple of large headstones nearby. They weren’t offering a lot of shelter, but something was better than nothing.