by Gini Koch
“Why are you defending him?” Chuckie asked. Angrily.
“Because . . . he’s your friend. You trust him . . .”
“What?” Reader asked softly.
“Um, I need to be able to talk out loud. And I don’t want our prisoners hearing me. How soon are the Israelis getting here?”
No sooner asked than Pierre came running down. “We have a very suspicious-looking van arriving. Should I get everyone into the safe room?”
“Yes, just in case,” Chuckie said. “I think they’re friendlies, by the way.”
Pierre nodded then looked at Bernie. “Oh, there’s blood. Wonderful. I hope I can get it out of the flooring.” With that he raced off.
“You two stay with the prisoners,” Chuckie said to me and Buchanan. “The agents coming know me and James, and they’re a suspicious bunch with great aim and itchy trigger fingers.”
“You know, just like Buchanan,” Reader added as they headed upstairs.
“Hilarious,” Buchanan said.
Went over to him. “Think Mossad will keep their word?”
Buchanan nodded. “They tend to be less . . . forgiving than we are.”
Bernie looked freaked out. “Please, don’t let them take us.” She was pleading.
Knelt down in front of her. “If we’d begged to be spared, if we’d asked you not to try to murder three innocent little children, would you still have killed us?”
“No.” But she wasn’t looking at me.
“Look at me,” I growled. She did. “Don’t look away. Now, answer my question again.”
“No.” But her voice trembled and the lie was in her eyes, and besides, I knew her in my world. And in this one, she was still the same.
I leaned closer. “I know you, what you and Raul are. In your souls. And so I know that you’re lying. Julio here, maybe he wouldn’t have killed the children. Only, he would have tried because he’s more scared of what you all think of him and will do to him than he is of losing his soul.”
“So what are we?” she asked defiantly.
“You’re murderers. Gleeful murderers. You get off on it, both of you.” I stood up. “You’re not redeemable. You’re just evil.”
“More evil than the one who hired us?”
“Oh, hardly. But I’ll wager if we did a headcount, you’ve killed a lot more innocent people than we have. So, you go to the people who understand why sometimes mercy isn’t a wise choice.”
“They’ll torture and kill us,” Bernie said, a bit desperately.
“Yeah? Here’s some wisdom you and Raul, in particular, can appreciate. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Enjoy getting some Old Testament justice. And just remember this—whatever Mossad does to you will be a hundred times nicer than what I’d do to you if we were alone and there were no witnesses.”
“Good attitude,” a familiar voice said.
Looked up to see Reader, Chuckie, and three people I knew. Managed not to shout out their names, but only just.
“Kitty, this is Oren, Jakob, and Leah,” Reader said. Indeed, my three pals from Mossad were here. Bizarro World wasn’t completely turned around, at least. The three of them looked a little more grim and battle worn than I remembered, however.
It was Oren who’d spoken, and he gave me a friendly smile that had no recognition in it. “Charles says that you’ve discovered the truth. Welcome to the Family. Officially.”
“Thanks. Did you know my mother?”
They all nodded. “Very well,” Jakob said. “She was an amazing woman. James says you’re just like her.”
There was something in the way Jakob was standing near Reader—got a suspicion, but decided voicing it could wait. However, Reader had someone at Mossad on speed dial, and that someone had dropped whatever to come right over.
Leah walked over to our prisoners. “I recognize you,” she said to Bernie. “You befriended my best friend. And then you killed her.”
“Yeah, that’s their MO. What are you guys going to do to them?”
“Nothing good,” Leah said, and both Lopez and Sanchez shuddered at the tone of her voice. It was an impressive tone. Hoped I’d heard enough of it so that I could practice and add it to my repertoire of Terrifying Vocal Inflections to Use on Evildoers. “And they will never be going anywhere else. We’ll give you what we get out of them, of course, as long as it doesn’t betray our own state secrets.”
“You guys rock, thanks.”
“What about their car?” Buchanan asked.
“Oh, I’d like to hang on to that. I think we can use it.”
Bernie glared at me. “A car won’t tell you anything.”
“You may be right, Bernie. Then again, you don’t know what I’m looking for.”
Buchanan duct taped everyone’s mouths and black bagged them. Then the men carried them upstairs. Leah stayed with me. “How has discovering what Charles and James do affected you?”
“I’m rolling with it.”
She nodded and handed me a card. “In case you find that you’re not rolling with it as well as you think, you can call me any time. If Angela was here, I know she’d handle any issues for you. But with her gone, while I’m in no way her equal, I’d do anything for her, and that means anything for you.”
Couldn’t help myself, I hugged her. Leah and I were friends in my world, and it was weird to pretend that we’d just met.
She hugged me back. “I won’t let them escape or be traded,” she whispered to me. “I’ll put bullets in their brains before I allow them to ever get the chance to kill any more people, all of you especially.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that, truly. Because I know their first targets would be my children.”
We unclenched and she nodded. “They would be. They’ve murdered several families in these past two years. They’re on some kind of ethnic cleansing campaign.”
Thought about Papa Patrón, and who Chuckie thought it really was. “The one giving the orders is trying to remove anyone who can stop him. You kill someone’s parent, they grow up, search for the truth, find it, and then they’ll hunt you down until the day they die.” It was what he was essentially doing to my mother and her team, after all. “You wipe them out young, then there’s no way for the genes to pass on and no one to enact vengeance.”
Leah gave me a small smile. “They forget that we Jews understand that mindset, far too well. And we avenge our own, regardless of bloodline.”
“Bad guys of the world beware. And all that.”
She grinned. “Exactly.” She gave me another hug then trotted upstairs, leaving me alone with my thoughts. However, I still enjoyed thinking aloud, and doing so alone just made a girl sound crazy. So, decided to wait until the others returned.
Which they did shortly, with Pierre and a ton of cleaning stuff in tow. “You carry on,” he said. “I need to get these stains out before they set.”
Chuckie jerked his head and we went into the wine cellar. “Okay, you thought of something, Kitty. What was it?”
“Well, first off, James, are you and Jakob an item?”
Reader grinned. “We were. We’re still close. But our jobs made a long-term relationship too difficult. Well spotted. I didn’t think we gave off any signals.”
“You don’t, really, but I’m getting better at looking at the little things. And that brings me to what I was thinking. Because I think I’ve ignored all the little signs about Cliff in my world, because in that world you, Charles, like and trust him, and if you think it, ninety-nine percent of the time, therefore so do I.”
“How?” Chuckie asked, shooting me a grateful look, presumably for calling him Charles in the group. “I can’t stand him. He started the rivalry with me early—even before I knew who he was.”
“How so?”
“I was in a long-distance chess championship. We never s
aw our opponents or knew their names. All moves were mailed in. Yes, that’s how long ago it was. I won. Turned out I was the youngest participant and so the group that had put the contest on really made a big deal about it, and they released my name and picture, with my parents’ permission, of course.”
“I’ve never heard this story. Maybe it only happened in this world.”
“I doubt it. It happened when I was in grade school, Kitty. I’d told my teacher and she told the class. I was never given a moment’s peace from that point on. I learned then not to talk about how smart I was.”
“Ah. Okay, that makes sense.” Tried not to be bitter that, in this world as well as mine, Chuckie was an outcast because he was brilliant, instead of being touted as the greatest guy around. “And Cliff was one of the participants?”
“Yeah. He was a freshman in high school and he came in second. He’d expected to win, protested that I was too young to have been in the contest, accused my parents of cheating, and basically made a gigantic scene. He’s been in competition with me ever since. When Angela first brought me into the C.I.A., he was already there. He mentioned the contest, which is how I realized who he was. No one else was going to remember that I’d beaten them, not fifteen years later.”
“So . . . if that happened in my world, then the likelihood would be that the Cliff there probably had the same jealousy reaction. And that fits, because we’ve clearly determined that the Mastermind has a serious hard-on for hurting you. Everything is being done to hurt, discredit, destroy, and kill you.”
“We loathe each other. We’re absolutely enemies in this world.”
All the pieces fell into place. “Oh, wow. It all fits. All of it.” Bellie saying “good man”—it was indeed Cliff’s name she was saying. Colonel Hamlin feeling that he knew who the Mastermind was—again, he knew and worked closely with Cliff, he’d have the best insights into how Cliff worked. “But Jamie lets him hold her . . .” But the first time I’d ever tried to hand her to Cliff, when she was still a baby, she hadn’t wanted to go.
“So?” Reader asked. “She’s a little girl.”
“My Jamie is special with a heaping side of extra in those departments. But in my world, the bad guys have created emotional overlays and enhancements, to avoid the A-Cs with empathic talent, Jeff in particular. And maybe they want to ensure they can fool Jamie, too. Maybe Cliff has been wearing one for far longer than we’ve known they existed.”
“Makes sense,” Chuckie said. “Plus, he’s good at faking people out. Just not me. He hasn’t been able to fake me out.”
“But in this world, there were no distractions to keep you guys apart. And no Ronald Yates to teach Reid, and therefore, Cliff, how the idea of pretending to love your enemy is a good way to get close to them. And, more to the point, there were no empathic aliens around who could read your emotions. I’ll bet cash money that the Cliff in my world has spent years learning how to control his emotions, to focus love and friendship toward the people he hates the most. He’s brilliant, and clearly he’s focused.”
“That fits,” Buchanan said. “But we need to be sure, because if we’re going after the wrong guy in either the C.I.A. or the Corporation, then we’re screwed in more ways than I can count.”
“Well, as our Mastermind seems to like to say, everyone has their part to play. We’ll figure out how to do what we have to without hanging ourselves.”
Both Reader and Chuckie jerked. “Goodman says that all the time, a part to play or a variation,” Chuckie said. “All the time. I can’t think of a conversation where he hasn’t found a way to use it.”
Looked at Buchanan. “Someone who knew who the Mastermind was and was working closely with him used that phrase, and I realized he’d picked it up from someone. Then his daughter said it as well. The Mastermind made sense as the source, based on everything that was going on, both times.” Meaning Stephanie knew the Mastermind personally. Closed my eyes and really concentrated. “Cliff said it to me. During Operation Defection Election. We were in the middle of something big and it didn’t register to me then. Why it’s come back to me now, I can’t say.”
“Your subconscious mind is working on this problem along with your conscious mind,” Chuckie said without missing a beat. “It makes sense. Go on, what else?”
“Richard—an alien—insists that whoever the Mastermind is, we met him after we got to D.C. But he meant me and Jeff—he wasn’t thinking of Chuckie.” Who winced. “Dude, I’m doing my best. Sorry about the sexytime slipup. But . . . Cliff’s car blew up during Operation Sherlock. So maybe I’m wrong?”
“Was he in it?” Reader asked dryly.
“No. He’d just bought it. He was supposed to take me, Jeff, and Charles home and it was cold and wet and he was showing off the car’s automatic start feature . . . Oh my God! He sacrificed an entire new car just to ensure none of us could possibly think he was the Mastermind, didn’t he?”
“Sounds about right,” Chuckie said. “And that would be worth it if he’s running a huge crime cartel. He’s got more money than anyone realizes.”
“Yeah and this particular cartel would make the Corporation green with envy.” And he’d had Clarence put Pia Ryan’s body in his car. Talk about planning. “But . . . we were going to take Cliff back with us and brainstorm what to do, but he said he didn’t want to know so he wouldn’t have to tell us we couldn’t do something. He’s the Head of Special Immigration Services reporting directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security in my world, so he can indeed tell us no and make us obey him. So, why not take the opportunities to know exactly what we’re doing?”
Chuckie snorted. “I can tell you why, easily. Where’s the fun in that?”
CHAPTER 36
I STARED AT MALCOLM for a moment. “Huh? What do parrots have to do with anything?”
He gave a short laugh. “Long story, tell you later. I’m in very tenuous and complicated communication with the person who told us a Mastermind existed in the first place, and I’ve confirmed my suspicions with him, and he agrees with my conclusion. I haven’t told anyone else because I have absolutely no proof. To bring the Mastermind down, we have to be able to prove that he is the Mastermind.”
“So, why would my reactions matter? I just got here, remember?”
“Oh, I do. But, based on your reactions, I’m pretty sure he’s the Mastermind on your world, too. And right now, your reactions are the only thing I have to go on. So, why don’t you like Clifford Goodman?”
“He’s a bastard in my world. He’s in constant competition with Charles. Charles doesn’t hate a lot of people, but Goodman’s absolutely at the top of his Enemies List.” Considered the implications. “We don’t have the same kind of conspiracies going on in my world. I don’t think we have an evil genius in charge of everything bad.”
“Maybe not. You don’t have aliens on your world. They’re the reason the majority of our conspiracies and control the world plans are in action—to try to control the most powerful beings on this planet. And make no mistake, they’re worth controlling, if you’re of that mindset. Stronger, faster, smarter, and far more resilient than humans, and yet they’re here to protect and serve.”
“You think they’re naïve.”
“They are. I don’t say it’s a bad thing. But they are. You can’t afford to be. I can guarantee that Goodman’s going to do his best to go along with the rest of us to Australia.”
“You said ‘us.’ Are you going for sure?”
“Wither Missus Chief goes, so goest I. Both of your husbands approve of this by now and it’s just assumed that I’ll be along, whether they see me or not.”
“Okay, I’m great with that. But you think Goodman’s going to try to sabotage the fix with Australia, don’t you?”
“Yes. Missus Chief and I both firmly believe that the Mastermind wants to destroy Reynolds, and you’ve just confirmed that it’s the s
ame on your world.”
“But why are he and Charles friends here?”
“Chuckie. You call him Chuckie. It’s important that you not slip up in front of Goodman. But why are they friends? You want my honest opinion?”
“Of course.”
“Reynolds has had one friend in his entire life—Missus Chief. He wanted to marry her, but she married Martini instead. I think Goodman took advantage of Reynolds feeling like he might lose his only friend by sneaking in and pretending to like him for himself. Reynolds fell for it, hard. Can’t blame him, really. An assassin tried something similar with Missus Chief when she first got to D.C., when she was feeling lost and overwhelmed. Said assassin would have succeeded in killing her and kidnapping Jamie, but I was there and I saved her.”
“You mean you killed the assassin, right?”
“Right. It’s my job.”
“Did I sound horrified? The term ‘assassin’ isn’t normally assigned to people I want to hang with.”
He laughed. “In this universe, Missus Chief’s been ‘adopted’ by the two top assassins in the world, and a third one joined Team Kitty recently. But they have a strict code and treat killing as business. These others? It was pleasure for them.”
“Wow, I hope there’s not a quiz later. So, you think Goodman found Charles, sorry, Chuckie at a vulnerable time, and because of that Chuckie fully believes in this friendship?”
“Yes. And if Reynolds believes it, so does Missus Chief. He’s pretty much never wrong.”
“He was wrong about where Hoffa’s buried.”
“And he’s wrong about Goodman. But he has an impeccable track record otherwise. Making the Hoffa thing seem like the only exception to the rule.”
“So, no one suspects Goodman because Chuckie trusts him?”
“No. Missus Chief doesn’t suspect Goodman because Reynolds trusts him. The others are taking their cues from her. Meaning you. Until your alien husband finally caught the clue that Reynolds was no longer a romantic threat he was as likely to kill Reynolds as the Mastermind, by the way. They’re friends now, which is good. Reynolds is going to need to lean on Martini when the truth about Goodman comes out. He’s lost his wife—to discover the person he thought was his true friend is the reason his wife is dead?” Buchanan shook his head. “People have gone on a rampage or killed themselves for less. And Reynolds has been dealing with depression for over a year and a half now.”