by Gini Koch
“Yes. Per what we found out then and you said Madeline Cartwright confirmed before she died, Cooper was in charge of that.”
“Yeah, but she also said Cantu and Armstrong were involved.” I watched Armstrong. He looked stressed and annoyed, but not overly worried. Had no idea what that meant. Found myself wishing Jeff and Chuckie were both here. “I wish you and Jeff were here, right now.”
“We can’t leave.”
“I guessed. The President’s about to kick the thing off, right?”
“Right. And we have no idea if there’s going to be trouble or not.”
“Trouble is a given.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You have Alpha and Airborne involved. Before anything’s happened. Meaning that everyone expects something to happen.” Just like for the President’s Ball. “So, someone got the head’s up that something was going down at this thing, and you’re all there trying to stop it.”
“Right. And I can’t really do my job while I’m on the phone with you.”
“Oh, I have faith in you. I know you’re not only the Conspiracy King, you’re also the Emperor of the Multitaskers.”
“Thanks. So, why are you asking me if we can trust Armstrong?”
“Because . . .” My voice trailed off because my brain was nudging me. “Who did you get the trouble tip from for this? Can you tell me?”
He sighed. “Not really. I’m sure you can figure it out, though, if you think about it.”
“I can?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Oliver. He shook his head. So he wasn’t the one who’d tipped them about issues with the One World Festival. “I know it wasn’t Mister Joel Oliver.”
“Correct. Think, Kitty. Think about the name of the event.”
“It’s the International One World Festival.” I looked at Olga.
She tossed me a bone. “Not everyone gets along with their neighbors as well as we do.”
“Everyone’s on high alert because of the break-in at the Bahraini Embassy and the resulting I Know You Are But What Am I between them and the Israeli Embassy, right?”
“Took you long enough. Yes.
We have no idea if something’s going to happen, but if we have some Middle Eastern countries who aren’t happy campers, and we do, then this is a great opportunity to have a worldwide stage to present their displeasure.”
“Gotcha. I’ll lcha. Iet you get back to it.”
“Great. Be careful, Kitty.”
“You too, Secret Agent Man.”
“And, Kitty?”
“Yeah?”
“Make sure Jamie’s safe. Don’t bring her into anything even remotely dangerous, and don’t leave her with anyone we can’t trust a hundred percent, and by we I mean me.”
“Gotcha, Surrogate Daddy Chuckie.”
He laughed. “Thank God your husband’s not around to hear that.”
Yi
CHAPTER 40
WE HUNG UP, and I calculated the odds that Armstrong was infiltrating us versus really in need of our help. They were fifty-fifty. Looked for some kind of sign from the cosmos about what to do. Because I needed to run the yap and ask some serious questions that would potentially give away a lot of information I didn’t want a real enemy to know.
Bruno woke up and looked at me. I looked back at him. He looked around the room, stared at Armstrong, looked right at me again, then pointedly tucked his head back under his wing.
I decided my request of the cosmos had been answered. Prayed White was right about my new “talent.” Looked at Armstrong. “What’s your assessment of the actual threat level at the event the dirty pictures pulled you away from?”
“I’m not sure. I think there’s reason to be alert and prepared.”
“Yeah. Only, see, when Operation Assassination was going down, we were supposed to be alerted. So that the people who did the protection could fail that much more dramatically.”
“Where are you going with this, Kitty?” Christopher asked quietly. “I’m not following you.” But I could tell he was feeling the same unease I was, because he was neither snarking, snarling, nor glaring.
“Let’s get back to MJO’s question from earlier. I think it’s probably the key point in all of this.”
“You mean when I asked if either the senator or your husband reacted in the way expected?”
“Yes. Senator, why did you come to see me instead of, say, calling the Washington Post? Oh, and please give us the truthful answer, not the political spin. I think we need to have everyone’s cards truly on the table for this one.”
Armstrong seemed to be considering the question and his answer. “I didn’t . . .” He shook his head. “As I said earlier, it was all too easy to believe you and Reynolds were having an affair. But I gain nothing from exposing that.”
“So you were coming to blackmail me.”
“Hardly. I involved Guy and Vance so you’d realize I wasn’t trying to extort anything from you.”
“Seriously? Why in the world would you think bringing them along would help?”
Armstrong stared at me. “You’re friends with them.”
“Excuse me?”
Armstrong shrugged. “They talk about you all the time. I mean, Guy’s clearly smitten with you. Vance says he misses you in the Washington Wife class.”
“And from that you deduced friendship?”
“They actually like you, so yes.”
I decided to table my shock and horror, as well as ensure the Inner Hyena remained silent, so I moved back to the real matter at hand. “Okay, so you believed the pictures.”
“Absolutely. They looked very real and it wasn’t a relationship I would question.”
“No one who knows you and Chuck would question it,” Amy said, looking up from her scribbling.
I nodded. “Honestly, I agree.” I looked at Christopher. “So, why didn’t Jeff freak the hell out?”
“Because Reynolds was the one who brought the pictures to him,” Christopher replied. “And he was freaked out.”
“And Jeff can read Chuckie’s emotions without difficulty.” Lord knew, Jeff confirmed this all the time. I looked at Oliver. “During Operation Assassination the bad guys intended for you to alert us. How did you find out about these pictures?”
“I didn’t use great deductive reasoning or any contacts. I insinuated I’d heard a tip so that Mister Reynolds wouldn’t waste time or effort accusing me of setting it all up. But the pictures were sent directly to my editor. Because I’ve created a fruitful relationship with you, he showed them to me first. That’s why they weren’t published.”
“That sounds like the sender expected you to alert Chuckie, though.”
Oliver looked thoughtful. “Maybe. Or they don’t understand how special some of your people are, your husband in particular.”
“Or they don’t realize that you have a positive working relationship,” Armstrong said. “Frankly, until this meeting, I would never have actually believed you wanted him around. And no amount of money would have made me believe you would have stopped the rag you work for from printing those pictures,” he said to Oliver, who shrugged and looked, all things considered, rather pleased and a little smug. I let him have his moment.
“Best investigative reporter in the country, perhaps the world. So, MJO, how badly did your editor want to print those pictures?”
“Badly. But he’s smart enough to understand that we’re getting access no one else is and how quickly said access would disappear if we printed something like this about you.”
“Timeline is that the senator got the pictures the day I left. Then, MJO, your editor got them, what, two weeks later?”
“Roughly, yes.”
“So whoever sent the pictures to the senat to the or thought he’d do something with them,” White said.
“And, clearly, what
they expected wasn’t that the senator would come down to Florida and try to show the pictures to me.”
<
br /> “I’d bet they expected the senator to go straight to Ambassador Martini,” Oliver said.
“Why expect him to bring them to Jeff or Kitty?” Christopher asked. “The senator works more closely with Reynolds than he does with us. And we’d run anything to do with him through Reynolds first anyway.”
It was there again. I could feel the answer throwing itself against the walls of my mind, trying to break in.
“I’m still amazed, and incredibly relieved, that Jeff acted like an actual adult,” Amy said, not even bothering to look up from her writing. “His jealousy thing is so over-the-top sometimes, I’m amazed he didn’t kill Chuck and then ask questions later, regardless of who brought the pictures to him.”
And there it was.
Yi
CHAPTER 41
“AMES, I LOVE YOU. Keep on writing down the questions, but revel in the fact that you’re totally on fire today.” I dialed and he answered on the first ring. “I know what’s going on.”
“Baby, now’s a really bad time.”
“Don’t let Chuckie out of your sight.”
“I can feel your panic, and, as so often happens, it’s centered around him. Why?”
“Because whatever’s going on with the dirty pictures isn’t being done to hurt American Centaurion. It’s being done to destroy Chuckie and everything he stands for.” I looked at Jamie. “And stands in front of.”
“Mind explaining that?”
“Sure. They’re after our baby, and all the other hybrid babies.” Jeff growled. “Look, belay that for now. Chuckie has a lot of enemies, in no small part because he spends much of his time protecting Centaurion Division, our hybrids in particular. Senator Armstrong said it himself—brilliant, driven men cause problems, and many times they take over. We have a lot of enemies and the person who protects us from them is Chuckie. Take him out, what the hell happens to us?”
“You get Esteban Cantu running the Extra-Terrestrial Division of the C.I.A.,” Armstrong answered. “It’s considered a straight line to the top position. Antiterrorism used to be, but not since Reynolds took over as the head of the ETD.”
“I heard him,” Jeff said, voice tight. “I don’t have eyes on Reynolds, but I’ll get to him.” He cursed quietly. “This event is a perfect place for an assassination.”
“That’s what you’re all doing there, right? Ensuring that the International One World Festival isn’t the President’s Ball, Part Two.”
“Yes. I need to get off the phone. There are too many people here—I need to focus to find Reynolds. So, on the plus side, he’s not emotionally upset.”
I refrained from mentioning that this could be because he was already dead.
Jeff sighed. “I’d feel it, if he died.”
Good to know he was reading my mind. I reminded myself that I’d told him how much I liked that only a short while ago. “Why?”
“Because he’s so tightly tied to you emotionally. It’s an empathic thing, but if Reynolds dies, I’ll know. And he’s not dead.”
“Good. Jeff, you be careful, too. Just because Chuckie’s the goal, it doesn’t mean they won’t go for a double and try to get rid of you, too.”
“Always nice to know you care, baby. I love you. I’ll let you know as soon as I find him.”
“I love you, too. Be safe.”
I hung up and tried not to worry. Failed. I took Jamie from Olga and cuddled her. Made me feel a little bit better.
“So, the expectation was that Jeffrey would go into a jealous rage and kill Mister Reynolds,” White said.
“Makes sense,” Christopher said. “I was kind of impressed with how well he handled it.”
“He was cut off from me and Jamie emotionally. I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. So he could tell how upset Chuckie was and read him correctly, without a lot of jealousy filtering required.” I looked at Armstrong. “If you’d brought him those photos, though, I think it would have gone differently.”
“So, why were you such a good friend to Kitty all of a sudden?” Amy asked.
“The truth,” I added. “Not the political spin.”
“They’re the same answer—why upset your husband? That wouldn’t do me any good politically. But if I could help you keep these out of the press, or at least help you prep for how to handle it when they hit the streets, well, I’d be your friend, wouldn’t I?”
“And friends do favors for each other. Yeah. Same with Guy and Vance. And they told no one?”
“No. If we told someone, then we wouldn’t be your friends, would we?”
“Since when did you want to become Kitty’s friend?” Christopher asked.
Armstrong shrugged.
“No, it’s a really good question, and you need to answer it. Because you haven’t done anything the person who’s sending the pictures expected you to. Meaning he or she knows you, and you’ve changed your game plan somewhere along the way. And they don’t know that.”
“They know,” White said quietly. “That’s why Senator Armstrong has new photos today. Because they know he’s not doing what they expected and is, for whatever reason, choosing to align himself with us.”
Armstrong sighed. “Yes, you’re right. Look, Madeline Cartwright and Antony Marling are dead. I tied my horse to t/fontheir cart, and it’s only because I legitimately had no idea what they were doing that I’m still in office, let alone not in jail.”
“How many supersoldier projects are active right now?”
He stared at me. I stared right back. He wasn’t Mom or Chuckie—I had no worries that I’d win.
It took a while, but sure enough, he dropped his eyes. “Two.”
“Based out of Paris and Paraguay?”
“Yes. You want to know the exact moment I decided it was time to change teams? When I found out that Cooper and Gaultier had been trying to use children as test subjects for the superdrug.”
“So you did know about it.”
“After the fact. Cooper didn’t tell me because he was clear on where my line was. I had to read Reynolds’ report to know the truth of what had happened.”
“But you were still friendly with Cartwright and Marling.”
“You don’t discard people like that because someone they know did something insane and illegal. And if you want to know the moment I realized I wanted nothing more to do with any of the rest of the supersoldier programs, it was the President’s Ball. Once it was all over, several of us who have the security clearances to know everything about Centaurion Division insisted on seeing what was going on down in that basement. I saw the ‘perfect weapons’ Marling had created. I saw things I’d thought of as people shown to be robots. I saw madness.”
“You’d bought in before then.”
“Yes. It sounds wonderful on paper—create an army out of the things from space that can destroy us without even trying hard. In reality, it was horrifying.” He shook his head. “I’ve thanked God every day that my wife was too ill to attend. And now I realize they wanted both of us too ill to attend. I’d almost say they were my friends for that . . . only I know they didn’t try to keep me away to keep me safe, but so that I wouldn’t see what they were really doing. Until it was too late.”
“Well, better late than never to the side of right.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “My career will be over if these pictures of you and what everyone in the world will believe is me hit the newsstands. They’re no longer after just Reynolds. I’m in their sights now. Whoever the hell ‘they’ are. The people I’d suspect are all dead.”
“Other than Cantu.”
“There is no way he’s doing this alone. And I have no idea who he could go to who would have this kind of pull that I wouldn’t know about already.”
“And they picked a hell of a day for this, too,” Amy said, still industriously writing, just as Len and Kyle were. White appeared done, so I assumed he’d once again used hyperspeed. He was the wise man. But Amy was my go-to girl right now.
“Ame
s, seriously, you’re totally golden today. Why? James wanted me asking that. Why did the senator get the first set of pictures the day we left town?”
“My guess is that they truly expected him to take them straight to Jeffrures they, which would have been simple because you were nowhere around to either intercept the pictures or protect Mister Reynolds from Jeffrey’s wrath.”
“Mister White wins the first round. So, the next question is, why did the senator get the next set of pictures today of all days? When the One World Festival is launching?”
“That,” Olga said, looking straight at me, “is the proper question.”
I knew my answer to this was going to mean I either flunked or got to join Oliver and Buchanan at the head of the class. I ran it all through my mind and it all added up. For once.
“Because it’s not about the pictures. Everything that’s going on—from the dirty pictures, to the mysterious-nothing-taken break-in at the Bahraini Embassy, to Sandra the Android, to Club Fifty-One’s little show—is a diversion.”
Yi
CHAPTER 42
OLGA BEAMED. “EXACTLY.”
I didn’t congratulate myself—we were too far away from any kind of positive outcome to get cocky.
“They may be diversions,” Christopher said, “but people can still die from them.”
“Oh, I’m positive they want people dying.” Chuckie in particular. “But they’re doing all this to distract us from what they really want—Chuckie out of the way and clear access to Jamie and all the other hybrid children.”
As I said this, Amy finished up and handed her stuff to Christopher. He already had White’s completed test recap. Len finished as Christopher glared at Amy’s pages, with Kyle following shortly thereafter.
While Christopher perused their work and got more and more pissed off, based on the fact that he was running through Patented Glares #1-5 as if he were practicing for the Glaring Olympics and wanted to ensure the Gold in at least four out of five events, I went back to one of the diversions at hand.