Queen's Gambit

by M. Lorrox

  Mary leans forward, pulls a napkin out from under her teacup, and dries her face. “Ending the nightmare... You know, I might have an idea.”

  Sadie sits back in her chair and studies her old friend. She remembers a time centuries ago, when Mary helped end a different problem. When Mary helped her hatch a plan that ended with buckets of blood—blood on her own hands, and flesh in her own pigs’ troughs. A plan that also prevented leagues of innocent blood from filling the streets of Florence.

  Sadie swallows. “I just was thinking back to when I first met you—way back in Italy during the trade wars. Remember that?”

  Mary flashes her eyes wide. “How could I forget?”

  “I trusted you then, and your plan worked. It was messy...but it worked.”

  Mary nods.

  “Tell me your new idea, my dear Mary, but know that I pray it won’t be a tenth as bloody as that first one.”

  Mary can’t help but chuckle and shake her head. “No promises.” She rubs her temple with one hand and takes a deep breath. “We make it Charlie’s idea.”

  Charlie drops June off at the mall next door to the hotel, so that she has plausible deniability about where she’s been. Rusty jumps out with her, and Charlie tosses her a leash and collar. “Put that on him, they’ve got leash laws up here.”

  “Oh, okay. Thanks.”

  As Charlie drives away, he sighs. “Be ready for a rough night.”

  Eddy glances up. “Because of Skip?”

  Charlie nods.

  Eddy looks out the window. “She asked me what to do, and I told her to stay on the bus. Why do you think she got off?”

  “I don’t know, bravado maybe.”

  Charlie parks in the garage under the hotel. “Eddy, let’s stop in and check the progress of the operation, I’ve been off-radio for a while now.”

  “Yeah, I’m curious if they tailed him to the bomb.”

  I’m curious if we have to evacuate.

  They arrive at the room set up as the operation HQ, and they’re greeted with applause as they enter. Schermer is there and is clapping alongside the FBI agents. Eddy is beaming.

  Charlie smiles. “I’ll take this as good news?”

  Agent Harding nods. “We picked up a tail on him, thanks to some excellent anonymous tips, and followed him back to a residence in Arlington belonging to Terrance Schuster.” He glances at his watch and turns back around to the room. “What’s the status on the helo? Are the spike strips in place?”

  An agent with a headset looks up from behind a laptop. “Helo is thirty seconds out sir.”

  Another agent lifts his head up. “SWAT ready, sir. All cars ready to set mobile blockades. All comm lines are open. Holding on your command.”

  Agent Harding looks toward Charlie and Eddy and smiles. “Just in time for the action.”

  Charlie pats Eddy on the shoulder and whispers in his ear, “Come up to the suite when this is over.”

  Eddy turns. You’re leaving?

  Charlie is walking out the door. Agent Harding picks up a radio and looks at his watch. “Get ready to move in, four, three, two, one, GO!”

  In Terry’s neighborhood, a police helicopter equipped with vision-disrupting green-pulse lasers and loudspeakers mounted between the landing rails hones in on the house. Police cars pull onto the street from different directions and block it off. The SWAT team pours out of the beat-up taco truck and splits up; one team charges toward the house, while another bee-lines for a garage nearby that Andrew entered. Police roll out spike strips in front of the garage doors and along the road in front of the house. Ambulances wait at the end of the block.

  Schermer walks over to Eddy, and they both listen as Agent Harding receives updates and calls out more orders. “...Alright, go thermal and breach.”

  The door to the garage is thrown open, and a one-hundred-and-seventy-decibel flashbang is tossed inside.

  -PEWGH!-

  The SWAT team activates smoke grenades and rushes inside with them as the helicopter starts blaring a message: “THIS IS THE POLICE, YOU ARE SURROUNDED, PLACE YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD AND GET ON THE GROUND.”

  Back at the hotel, an update comes through the radio.

  “Two suspects in the— -BANG! BANG! BANG!- —Shots fired! Shots fired in the garage!”

  Agent Harding paces. “Carter, alert the ambulances.”

  “Man down! -BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!-”

  “Carter!”

  “Trauma team ready sir!”

  “House clear.”

  Eddy glances up at Schermer, who frowns. They wait.

  “Shooter down... Other suspect surrendered. Clearing area… Garage clear. We have them in custody.”

  Agent Harding nods. “Verify bomb.”

  “…Verified. WOW... It’s a big one, sir. Doesn’t look like it’s armed yet.”

  He nods. “Clear both areas again and prep bomb squad.”

  “...Garage clear.”

  “...House clear.”

  “Move in the bomb squad.” Harding looks over his shoulder to the agent with the headset. “Tell the helo to hold position.” He looks at Agent Carter. “How’s our man?”

  Carter holds up a finger, listening to a single earphone pressed to his ear. “Two wounds, torso and thigh...missed the vest at the right shoulder... They’ve controlled the bleeding.” Carter looks up. “He’ll make it.”

  Agent Harding nods. “Good work.” He turns around. “Bomb squad, what have we got?”

  Eddy sits down and just stares while his heart races. THIS. IS. NUTS.

  When June comes up to the suite, she finds Skip waiting for her in the living room. She can hear Charlie talking to Minnie in the other room. She comes in and sets down her bag. “Hi, Dad.”

  He doesn’t say anything; he just stares at her.

  She walks to the fridge and pours a glass of blood. Her hands shake.

  He lets out a loud sigh. “I’m very disappointed in you.”

  She turns to him. “Dad, I had to follow him, okay? He was going to get away, and he wants to kill us. Me, the Costanzas, and all the vampires. You would have been killed too.”

  “No, they would have evacuated the hotel and caught him later.”

  “What if they didn’t catch him? What if he had another bomb, or another buddy who could slip in and kill people? Look, I’m sorry I left you at the bus stop. It all just happened so fast.”

  Skip sniffs. “You know, Charlie told me that they followed Blackjack, or whoever, to another man’s house. He told me that they would have lost him if it wasn’t for you, and he got a text that said they found the bomb. So, you saved the day, June. Congratulations.” He turns and walks into the bedroom, leaving the door open.

  June drinks some of the blood, takes a deep breath, then follows him into the bedroom and shuts the door behind her.

  Twenty minutes later, Eddy comes back to the suite. He can hear June and Skip talking in their bedroom… Well, he can hear June saying, “I know—I’m sorry,” and Skip being upset at her. Eddy can also hear Minnie and Charlie in the other bedroom. He pours a glass of water and walks into the bedroom that he shares with his family. “Hey, sis. Hey, Dad.”

  Minnie jumps up and runs to Eddy. “Look what I made in pottery.” She grabs his hand and pulls him toward the window. On top of Sadie’s old trunk sits a lumpy bowl-shaped device with a hole in one side and a flat spot directly across from it.

  Eddy steals a glance to Charlie.

  He smiles. “What do you think, son?”

  Eddy looks at the situation in front of him. “Wow. That’s really cool… How does it work?”

  Minnie looks at him and scrunches her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, what is it?”

  She looks back at it and smiles. “What do you think it is?”

  Ed
dy tilt his head. Ashtray? I can’t imagine they’d ask kids to make those... A messed-up bowl? An alien’s eating utensil? Ah! “I know, it’s a hat!” He reaches down and tickles Minnie.

  She squirms and twists and laughs. “No! Stop it!” She escapes, then straightens her shirt and scowls at Eddy. “You know it’s not a hat, don’t be dumb. Look…” She walks over to the device. She picks it up and holds it in the palm of her hand with her thumb poking through the hole. “It’s a place to set your paint brushes, see? The bowl by the thumb-hole is for the water, and the flat part is where you set your brushes.”

  Eddy smiles and imagines it in use. “Oh, yeah, that looks like it would work really well. So are they doing a painting class tomorrow or something?”

  “How should I know?” Minnie sets her creation on the windowsill. “They told us to make bowls, but this is much more useful.”

  “Who showed you how to make that?”

  “Nobody.” She skips back over to where she and Charlie were doing something on a laptop.

  Charlie looks up. “Apparently, she invented it. If we finish the planning for the next blog post in the Adventures of Valentine saga, we’re going to try it out later.”

  Eddy laughs. Her homeschooling is pretty cool—I guess mine was too. “Awesome! Well, nice job, sis.”

  “Thanks.”

  Charlie stands up and walks over to Eddy. “How’d it go? I got a text but no details.”

  Eddy turns and closes his eyes, shaking his head. “It was so cool. They got the guys and found the bomb, but there was shooting, and one officer and one suspect were taken to the hospital.”

  “Well, at least it seems the threat’s been neutralized. Did they say anything else?”

  “Not really, the bomb squad said that the detonation system wasn’t installed yet. They found it in the one guy’s backpack. They said that the suspects must have been about ready to wire it up when the SWAT team busted in.”

  “Close one.” Charlie looks toward the door and tries to listen across the suite to the other bedroom. He motions with a head gesture. “They’re still talking, huh?”

  Eddy frowns. “Sounds like Skip’s doing most of the talking.”

  “Could have been yelling—”

  “Daddy!”

  Charlie turns back to his daughter. “What is it, darling?”

  She uses Valentine’s hand to tap on the laptop on the bed in front of them. “We have work to do if we’re going to paint later, so look sharp!”

  He chuckles and joins her. “Eddy, can you grab me a drink?”

  Eddy walks toward the door. “Health tonic?”

  “No, that’s for later. Just an IV juice.”

  “’Kay.”

  Eddy brings Charlie a bottle of then plays on his phone. He again considers sending a couple of texts to his friends back home. His stomach turns. He closes his eyes. Help the FBI thwart a bombing? Sure, no problem. But send a text to some old friends and I want to hurl. He opens his eyes and takes another sip of water. Only one thing to do... He opens his messenger app, then changes his mind and opens his email. He writes them a note.

  From: EddyCostanza@gmail.com

  To: (Tomo) (Jess)

  Subject: Hey

  I hope you two are doing alright. I’m really sad about Joe, I’m so sorry Jess. We had to leave home... Dad says it’s been burned to the ground. Oh well, it was just a building, after all.

  I’m thinking of you two, and I’m wishing you well.

  Eddy

  He sends it, hits his phone’s power button to kill the screen, then walks into the bathroom to wash his face.

  That night, Kimmy the babysitter is once again called to duty. “Hello, Mr. Costanza, I know I’m early. Would it be alright if I came in?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “Thank you. I like your tie.”

  Charlie smiles at the girl. “Thank you. Help yourself to anything in the—”

  She holds up her backpack.

  “Oh, right.” Charlie looks around for the list that Sadie made earlier, when she stopped in between her meetings. He finds it under a glass of water; it’s still mostly legible. “Well, here’s a list of some things to do with Minnie if you feel like it.”

  Kimmy takes the edges of the list with her fingertips—afraid it’ll disintegrate into wet, mushy pieces in her hand. “Ooookaaay. Should I put her to bed by eight-thirty?”

  “We should be back a little after eight, so don’t worry about it.”

  She sets the list down on the counter and plants one hand on her hip. “Just so you’re aware, sir, my fee will still be the nightly rate. It’s policy.”

  Charlie looks surprised and appalled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

  She laughs.

  “I’ll go and get the little lady.” Charlie finds Minnie talking to Eddy. Apparently, she was helping Eddy pick out which of Charlie’s ties to wear. They chose a shimmering blue one. “C’mon, Minnie, Kimmy is here. Let Eddy finish up.”

  She hops off the bed and skips into the living room as Eddy starts to tie it.

  Charlie watches and smiles.

  Eddy realizes he messed up, and he grumbles while untying his work.

  Charlie walks over to him. He reaches out to help his son. “Here—”

  “Hey! Back off!” Eddy pushes him away. “I’ll ask if I want help, DAD. Besides, I’m trying a do a trinity knot.”

  “Huh? Why?”

  He scoffs. “Because, I have style. You wouldn’t understand.”

  Charlie frowns. “Well hurry up. We need to head down there in about fifteen minutes.” He hears the door open to June and Skip’s bedroom, and Charlie walks into the living room to see them; they’ve been holed-up and talking since June got back.

  Wow. Charlie follows June’s long, purple dress from the floor all the way up to her smiling face. “June, you look great. I don’t think I’ve seen you dolled up since that recital…over a year ago.”

  She points a finger at him. “I’m not dolled up, I’m dressed up. Get it right or pay the price.”

  Skip chuckles. She takes after her mother.

  Charlie tilts his head and smiles at Skip. He seems to be in a good mood; that’s got to be a good sign. “Things are…okay?”

  Skip puts his hand on June’s shoulder. “Well, it’s hard for me to see her growing up and making her own decisions, but I know I can’t fight it forever.”

  “I’m really surprised. I thought you were going to lock her in the closet until she turned twenty.”

  Skip nods. “The judge is still deliberating on the sentence.”

  June crosses her arms in front of her. “Hey, I’m right here.”

  Charlie nods. “Yeah, and not in the closet, I see that. And you know what else, you don’t look exhausted. Did you take a nap?”

  She shakes her head. “I guess it’s the adrenaline or something. Maybe I’ll finally crash later.”

  Charlie shrugs. “Good luck?”

  “Speaking of luck…” Skip motions to his own clothes. “When I was packing things up, I didn’t think I’d have a use for my three-piece Brioni, but I just couldn’t leave it behind. Now, I’m glad I brought it.”

  Charlie sniffs as he glances at Skip’s silvery-gray suit. “I’ll assume the words you just used are describing your clothes. Which, look good.”

  Skip blinks. “Thanks, buddy. You look good too.”

  Charlie responds with a slow and confident nod. “Got this puppy half-off.”

  Eddy walks out and sees June. She smiles and pulls the material of her skirt out to the side a little, then releases it so he can see it move. “What do you think?”

  “Whoa.”

  She smiles at her dad. “Looks like he likes my clothes too.”

  Downstairs at the ballroom, they make their way throug
h security again, and they are escorted to seats. Instead of the room being filled with round tables like it had been before, now it is wall-to-wall chairs with access rows every ten seats. Eddy and June sit next to each other in the middle, with Charlie and Skip on either side. Skip bends back behind the row to talk to Charlie. “Sadie is seated up front again, I assume? When did she get changed?”

  Charlie leans back and nods. “Yeah. Between meetings. Oh, and Mr. Fancy-pants, wait till you see what she’s wearing.”

  Skip beams. “Really?”

  Charlie smiles. “I mean, I dunno… I was just messing with you.” He sits back forward.

  When the time comes, Mirabelle Darien steps onto the stage in a vintage-looking outfit. Skip pokes June. “Can you believe that’s what people were wearing when I was a kid?”

  June looks at her, and while she does, she’s filled with a sense of calm and warmth. “That must have been so nice.”

  Skip squints at his daughter. Uh, okay.

  The microphone turns on. “Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming.”

  One last group of people are being escorted to their seats. She waits for them with a patient smile. When the new group is situated, she continues. “Tonight, we have a special guest, Prime Minister Hamid ibn al Zaman! Please welcome the Prime Minister up onto the stage.”

  She takes a step back and starts clapping. People in the audience clap as well.

  Someone stands up toward the front, and Charlie groans. He bends his head down and speaks under his breath to Eddy, “I hate it when people do standing ovations for no reason.” Charlie stands up, still clapping, and then notices that nobody else in the audience is standing with him. What?

  Eddy tugs on his arm and whispers, “Dad, Zaman stood up. Sit down.”

  Oh. Charlie sits back down and flushes red.

  Mirabelle takes a step back as Hamid approaches the microphone. He’s at least a head taller than she is, and the first thing he does is adjust the microphone stand up to his level. “Thank you, thank you for the warm welcome.”