Say Uncle

by Benjamin Laskin

  “Then it must be in the journals. May I see them, please?”

  “All right, but I’m telling you there was nothing in them about how to contact him.”

  “Ellery is a very clever fellow. It would take a trained eye to spot it.”

  “Whatever you say…” I got up and retrieved the knapsack with the journals from my bedroom and set them on the chair beside him.

  “Most likely,” Hennes said, “the last journal would have the key. May I take a look?”

  I knew it by its aged and cracked brown leather cover, dug it out and handed it to him. Hennes put on a pair of bifocals and started scouring the book with deep concentration. He traced the binding and closely inspected the covers as if checking for some implant. Next, he read the front and back pages, but finding nothing of importance he turned to the beginning, his index finger racing down each page.

  “Cool,” I said. “You speed read.”

  He looked up and nodded. “English and his horrible handwriting slow me down a little.”

  While Hennes read I refilled our glasses and fixed us a plate of sliced fruit. I set the dish on the table and noticed he was halfway through the journal already. He wore an amused grin, obviously finding his friend’s recollections of great interest. The phone rang. Hennes looked up, an expression of deep concern on his face. “No matter who it is, don’t mention I’m here, okay?”

  “What if—”

  “I’m not here. I’ll explain after.”

  “Okay…” I picked up the phone on the fourth ring. It was Doreen.

  She said, “Now don’t jump to conclusions, Guy.”

  “Too late.”

  “I won’t be home for dinner. Jim and I are going out.”

  “Surprise, surprise.”

  “No, Guy, it’s just dinner.”

  “It was just coffee too. Are you going to call back in three hours and say it was just the missionary position?”

  “Guy, Jim’s the one who insisted I call. He didn’t want you to worry. You see, he has changed.”

  “Whatever. You’re a big girl. Do what you want.”

  “Guy…”

  “See you tomorrow.” I shook my head and hung up.

  Hennes smiled. “Girlfriend problems?”

  “Sister problems.”

  “Doreen?”

  “Yeah, she started seeing this loser of a guy and, well, never mind. Find anything important yet?” I plopped back into my chair across from him.

  He looked at me over the rim of his glasses. “This loser, tell me about him.”

  “There’s nothing to tell. Just some guy we went to high school with, back for the summer vacation and looking for a bonk.”

  “Bonk?”

  “Sex.”

  “I see. And what’s his name?”

  “Huh? Why?”

  Hennes reached into his tweed coat and pulled out a long billfold. He opened it and set it down in front of me. Inside were eight passport size photos: six men and two women. I didn’t recognize any of them. None, but one—Jim Fielding. Noting my slack-jawed stupefaction, Hennes said, “Which one?”

  I pointed.

  “James Curtis Fielding,” he said. “Alias: Mongoose. Father: Howard. Mother: Janet. Twenty-three years old. Full scholarship to Yale, combined athletic and academic. Major: Cyber Computer Forensics and Counterterrorism. Current GPA 4.0—”

  “Whoa! Hennes, slow down! What are you telling me?”

  “Your sister’s new boyfriend works for Piranha.”

  “Get out of here! Fielding? But he’s—”

  “Exceptionally intelligent, highly athletic, competitive, extremely handsome—”

  “An asshole!” I interjected.

  Hennes shrugged. “Most spies are.”

  “So he doesn’t just want to get into my sister’s pants?”

  “If he needs to, but that’s not his top priority.”

  “What is his top priority?”

  Hennes put his thumbs to his temples in deep reflection. After a few seconds he looked up. “Of course,” he said, angry with himself.

  “Hennes, what’s going on?”

  He closed the journal and tossed it back into my bag. “I won’t be needing these anymore.” He rubbed his chin contemplatively. “Clever son-of-a-gun…”

  “Fielding?”

  “Piranha. He knows Ellery better than I do. He knew Doreen was the key the whole time, not you.”

  What the hell was going on? “Is Doreen in danger?”

  “Not immediate danger, no. She probably doesn’t know she holds the key, and that’s good. Mongoose’s job is to fox it out of her.”

  “Weasel.”

  “Pardon me.”

  “Weasel it out of her.”

  “Oh, yes, sorry.” He blushed. “Idioms, I never quite—”

  I waved it away, pressing him to continue. “If she doesn’t know she has it, how will he get it?”

  “He knows what to ask, where to look. If she has it, he’ll get it.”

  “Jim Fielding?” I said, still mystified. “Son of a bitch. Never in a million years would I—”

  “Think hard, Guy. Was there anything that Doreen got in Thailand that might be significant?”

  “Nothing comes to mind, no.”

  “You have to find out before Mongoose does. When will she be back?”

  “She and ‘Mongoose’ are having dinner together. If she doesn’t spend the night with him, I guess she’ll be home later this evening.”

  “I hope that won’t be too late. Do you know where they went?”

  “No.”

  “We’ll just have to wait then.”

  “What is the key you keep talking about? And what does Piranha want with Ellery, anyway? I thought they worked for the same organization.”

  “Did. Three years after Ellery was made Director, he suddenly disappeared. Piranha took his place and has been hunting him ever since. He’s gotten very close a few times, but Ellery has always managed to slip away.”

  “Why won’t Piranha just let him be? He’s old, what threat could he pose?”

  “A very large threat, actually. For one, Ellery set up his own organization that is often in direct opposition to the one he left behind. The girls, they’re a big part of it. He has his own agenda, one that many groups and governments find very…annoying. The only thing worse than an idealistic youth is an idealistic old man with the means and know-how to actualize his ideals.

  “But there’s more. Before he vanished he found a way into the Organization’s data banks and downloaded all of its most sensitive files, dating back to the Organization’s inception. Those files contain a lot of incriminating information detailing numerous unsavory doings of men in the highest positions of government, military, and business around the world.”

  “Wow. Way to go Ellery!”

  Hennes chuckled ironically. “Yes, way to go, as you say. But Piranha is closer than he’s ever been, and if Ellery isn’t extremely careful he and his merry band of outlaws are going to be dead. Ellery’s clever, but he’s no match for the Organization and its many alliances.”

  “What’s to have stopped him from making a thousand copies of the files and leaking them to the world’s presses?”

  “The files aren’t easy to copy. They were programmed to self-erase if any attempt to copy them were made. Also, to view them requires a special application which doesn’t exist outside the Organization.”

  “So how did Ellery manage it?”

  “He figured out that only during transfer could the files and application be copied, and then only at a specific moment and with a specific password. It’s nearly impossible, but he managed to do it with the help of one of the Organization’s best hackers, now dead, at a time when the Organization was upgrading its computer system.”

  “And the password, where did he get that?”

  “Sharc.”

  “Sharc!” I exclaimed.

  “Yes, before he was killed—”

  �
�Killed? I thought it was suicide.”

  “No.”

  “Piranha?”

  Hennes nodded. “There was no proof, of course, but Ellery always suspected so. Piranha didn’t like being passed over for Sharc’s replacement for the Directorship. He thought Sharc blundered badly with the handling of something called the Greenhouse Project. Do you know of it?”

  “Just what I read in the journals.”

  “The project was Piranha’s idea. He always felt it should have been him and not Ellery raising those girls.”

  “But he can’t blame Ellery for having been put in charge of the project. Ellery never wanted the job.”

  “He didn’t blame Ellery. In fact, Piranha never held anything against him personally. He respected Ellery as a soldier and as a spy. He knew that next to himself, he was the best.”

  “If Ellery was Director, why did he leave? As Director, it seems to me, he was in a position to do the most good.”

  “Even the Director must answer to a higher authority. He knew he was being monitored. Piranha in particular never bought the plane crash story and was just waiting for Ellery to make contact with Anya and the girls. All he needed was one word, one tiny message and he’d have been able to find them.”

  “And Ellery knew as much, right?”

  “Yes. As badly as he missed them, he never tried to contact them.”

  “So you still haven’t said why he left.”

  Hennes reached for a sliver of apple and contemplated me with his keen blue eyes. “In a word—Anya.”

  “But you said he never tried to contact her.”

  “That’s right.”

  “She contacted him? But she had to know the risk.”

  “Not Ellery,” he said. “Piranha.”

  “Piranha! She betrayed Ellery?”

  “Not exactly, but the consequences of her decision were nonetheless fatal.”

  “What happened?”

  He shook his head. “My boy, this is where I must end the story.”

  “Hennes, no. Please!”

  “I’m sorry. It’s for your own good.”

  “Let me be the judge of that, will you?”

  “Guy…”

  “No, Hennes. Whatever it is I can handle it. I’m in this as deeply as anyone. It’s my sister who’s in trouble. I can’t help her if I don’t know what I’m up against.”

  Hennes sucked in his bottom lip and looked aside in deliberation.

  “Hennes?”

  “Doreen is not your sister.”

  I chuckled nervously. “Doreen is not my sister…?”

  Hennes shook his head, sorry. His expression was absent of any jest.

  I closed my eyes and felt the room spin around me. I opened them and took a deep breath. “Go on, please.”

  Little Lollipop

  “…As you wish. Anya contacted Piranha because she wanted to strike a deal with him. She’d give him what he wanted most and he, in turn, would cease all investigations into Ellery and the girls’ whereabouts.”

  “But she couldn’t have been so naive as to believe he’d keep such a deal.”

  “She wasn’t naive. What he wanted was her.”

  “Because she was a top agent?”

  “No, no, no. Because he was in love with her. He always had been. When Ellery was chosen over him to be Anya’s partner in the Greenhouse Project, the jealousy was nearly unbearable.”

  “Did Ellery know how he felt?”

  “No. The two of them hadn’t met in years, and Anya had only spoken of Piranha in passing.”

  “How did Anya and Piranha know each other if the agents were kept apart?”

  “Ah, well, it was Piranha who arranged her defection from the KGB. It was he who debriefed her. He who persuaded the Organization to take her in. And he who trained her.”

  “And in doing so, he fell in love with her.”

  “Apparently, yes.”

  “Did she love him?”

  Hennes picked up another apple slice and contemplated it as if the answer was hidden within its porous, juice-laden surface. “I don’t know. My guess is she did once.”

  “But what could all this possibly have to do with Doreen not being my sister?”

  “When Anya and the girls disappeared, Anya was pregnant.”

  My heart began pounding as my mind raced ahead filling in the gaps. Everything around me became suddenly, absurdly, unreal. It couldn’t be, just couldn’t be…

  I was pacing before I realized I was on my feet. But, of course, it had to be. It suddenly all made sense: the secrets, the half-truths, everyone knowing but me, even my parents. I stopped pacing and looked down into Hennes’ sympathetic eyes.

  “I knew it,” I said. “I mean, I didn’t really know, but I’ve always known something wasn’t right. From the first journal I suspected that the story I was reading was as much about me as it was him—”

  “Guy…”

  “No, Hennes, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. And don’t feel bad about having told me. You did the right thing. Sure, it freaks me out, but you know, at the same time, I feel kind of relieved—”

  “Guy…”

  “Right. So what do we do now? As far as I’m concerned, Doreen is still my sister, and Ellery, well, he never was much of an uncle to me anyway. I doubt I’ll ever be able to call him dad, but—”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “I’m sure he can understand that.”

  “You won’t, because Ellery is not your father.”

  “What?”

  “He’s not your father, Guy.”

  “He’s Doreen’s father? Holy sh—”

  “He’s nobody’s father.”

  “Hennes, what the hell are you telling me, then? Who was it Anya was carrying when she jumped from that plane?”

  “You, my boy. You’re right about that. But your father—”

  “No way.”

  Hennes nodded.

  The word dribbled from my mouth. “Piranha?”

  “Yes.”

  “But how?”

  “A few months before her disappearance, Anya was called into headquarters under the guise of a routine report and update on the status of the Greenhouse Project. The truth, however, was that Sharc had grown suspicious over certain inconsistencies in Ellery’s movements over the past months, and he wanted reassurances that nothing was up. Anya, of course, denied that anything was the matter. Piranha, who was also there, was not so satisfied by her testimony. Anya, realizing that, resorted to reassuring Piranha in the only language she knew he would understand.”

  “She seduced him.”

  “I don’t know if that’s the word he’d have used, but yes, she demonstrated her good will and loyalty by making Piranha believe she still loved him.”

  “Which meant sleeping with him.”

  “Yes.”

  “Sucker!” I exclaimed.

  “Indeed. And you, my boy, are the resulting lollipop.”

  “So Anya came out of hiding to present Piranha with a bouncing baby boy—me. Piranha gets Anya and a son, and in exchange he turns a blind eye to Ellery and the girls. What went wrong?”

  “Mind you, I don’t know all the details, but Ellery got wind that Anya had left her safe haven. He tracked her to a chalet in Greece where she was to meet Piranha. Ellery got there first by ensuring that Piranha was tied up in matters half a world away, in Hong Kong. I don’t know what passed between Ellery and Anya, but I think they decided to give you up, for the time being anyway, to Ellery’s sister, Candice, who was flown out to meet them.”

  “She must have been damn surprised to hear from him.”

  “I’m sure she was.”

  “So with me in safe hands and Ellery and Anya reconciled, all they had to do was get Anya back to Israel and the girls. But that didn’t happen, did it?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “No, it didn’t,” I said. “Because Ellery’s sister never made it. I remember my aunt saying her car went over a cliff
in Greece. But that was no accident, was it? That was Piranha.”

  “No. Piranha would never have hurt Anya. He loved her. He was, however, very suspicious and knew that he was being purposely stalled. He contacted the captain of the local Greek police, someone he knew well under one of his many aliases, and asked the captain to keep an eye on the chalet. Anya went to the airport to pick up Ellery’s sister and on the way back realized that they were being tailed and tried to lose the officer who was following her. The officer had disobeyed the captain’s orders to maintain a safe distance and not to make contact under any circumstance. He pursued. Anya’s cheap rental wasn’t made for a high-speed chase on a narrow, winding, mountain road at night in heavy rain. She lost control and flew over a cliff into the sea. Both women were killed instantly.”

  “…Jesus.”

  “Ellery and the baby cleared out of the chalet an hour before Piranha arrived.”

  “What did Ellery do with me then?”

  “He contacted a distant relative, your mother, and asked her to raise you as her own, promising her that he’d never interfere. He offered her a half million dollars in the form of a trust fund, but she turned it down.”

  “Turned it down? But why?”

  “Remember, she fully believed the propaganda that Sharc had circulated about him. She didn’t want you to have any connection to him whatsoever.”

  “Why didn’t he set her straight?”

  “He couldn’t, for obvious reasons. The whole family was better off not knowing the truth. As far as they were concerned, you were his illegitimate son.”

  “So Piranha has known where I’ve been all along?”

  “No. He thought you died in the accident. Ellery had had the Greek accident report doctored saying so. The sea was rough. That the tiny body was never found was not irregular.”

  “Jeezus, I…”

  “It’s quite a lot to absorb in one sitting, I know. I’m very sorry…”

  “But, Hennes, you’re taking a terrible risk coming out like this. It’s amazing you’re not dead yet. You know almost as much about Piranha and the Organization as Ellery does.”

  “I’m Ellery’s best kept secret, and the only one who can help him. Piranha doesn’t know about me. That’s why you mustn’t mention me to Doreen. If Mongoose should learn that a stranger showed up asking questions, well, I’ll be dead within two hours of his phone call.”