Die Again To Save Tomorrow (Die Again to Save the World Book 2)

by Ramy Vance

  Aki was a few feet behind him now. “Hey.”

  Rueben turned to Aki. “Hey. Sorry for walking out on you guys. I needed to clear my head.”

  “Mike?”

  Rueben nodded. “Yeah, I don’t like the guy.”

  Aki considered Rueben’s words and sighed. “You must think I’m an awful person then. Suggesting he come…but I thought he could help.”

  Rueben understood. He wasn’t normally like this, jealous or whatever, but Mike got under his skin. He reached out and touched Aki’s arm. “It’s all good. You’re probably right. Mike might be able to contribute some good information about Pete and how he thinks and acts.”

  Aki smiled. “So, we good?”

  Hm. Were they? Maybe he should ask. “Aki, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you think we might have something? You and me?”

  She grabbed his hand in hers and met his eyes. “I think we do.”

  “But what you said about dating other agents…”

  Aki winked. “A girl can make exceptions, right?”

  “Yeah, but…“

  “I get the feeling this conversation might be about something else.” Aki settled her hands on her hips.

  He had to hand it to her. She did know him pretty well. “I know this isn’t the case, but I feel like Pete is my responsibility. Even though he’s not me from the future or whatever, he’s still a version of me.”

  “Rueben, you are nothing like that nutjob. I’m sure there’s a reason why he is as he is, and that’s not on you. Don’t let him or his actions get under your skin. It’s probably part of his plan to get you off-center.”

  She had a way of making things seem so easy, but were they really? Rueben opened his mouth to counter, but she pressed a finger to his lips. Her finger was warm and soothing, and it tingled his lips. “Rueben Peet, I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I know what kind of person you are. You help people. You take care of your dad every day. You watch out for your friends. You even care about strangers: you listened to Jim when most people might think he’s crazy, and you stayed behind at the cake shop to console Laura after Pete destroyed it.”

  She placed a warm palm against his cheek. “You’re nothing like Pete. Maybe he used to be like you at one time in his universe, but he’s not you and never will be.”

  Rueben gazed into Aki’s eyes, a smile forming on his face. Then they kissed, quick and hard and he gripped her tight.

  “Thanks. I needed that,” he said into her hair before pulling away from her.

  “Don’t mention it.” She raised her eyebrows. “We have enough to worry about trying to keep straight Buzz’s ‘Rules for Repeaters.’ I mean, seriously, how many more rules do you think are out there?”

  Rueben laughed. “I don’t know, but we should probably head back to our friends.”

  Glad that he knew where the two of them stood now, he took Aki’s hand in his, and she walked with him back toward the mansion.

  Buzz’s garden was in full May bloom, with carnations and lilies dotting the bushes and birds flitting overhead. They walked in silence. They reached the Japanese section of the garden, a half-finished area that started and ended with Buzz’s ninja phase. There was an imported Japanese cherry blossom tree that shaded a koi pond with a fountain.

  Underneath the cherry blossom tree, he stopped. She turned to face him, and a pink petal fell from the tree, floated down past her dark hair, and stopped at her black boots. He held her chocolate eyes in his, then smiled ruefully and rubbed her hand in his.

  Soft and feminine, with pink-tipped acrylic nails and a charm bracelet that jangled with each movement.

  He whispered, “You’re perfect. You know that, right?” He cupped her face with one hand and leaned in to kiss her, slowly this time. Her lips seemed meant for his, and they stayed locked together for some time as his hands found her lower back and hers searched up his shoulders. Eh, their friends could wait a little longer, couldn’t they? Then her phone rang.

  “Shit.” Aki pulled back and dug her phone from her pocket. The conversation lasted only a few seconds, then Aki turned to Rueben. “It’s Mike. They need us in there.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Monday, May 22, 11:54 a.m.

  When they got back to the mansion, the scene was completely different. There were three people gathered in the living room, laughing and talking.

  Three people, as in Buzz, Mike Fury, and…

  He did a double-take. “Dad?”

  Marshall sat on Buzz’s couch wearing a plaid button-down tucked into a pair of jeans. Unsurprisingly, he was holding a beer. Mike sat beside him with a matching bottle, grinning with delight at whatever Marshall had said. Marshall looked relaxed and chilled there with his friends, and Buzz stood awkwardly in the entryway.

  “Hey, son. Glad you could join us.”

  Rueben stared at him in confusion. The cumulative total of two minutes Marshall had spent making small talk with Buzz at the Exit Bar on Friday night was the most he had talked to him since Rueben had met Buzz. Now he was invited to Buzz’s mansion?

  Marshall attempted to explain. “It looks like you guys got yourself in a pickle here.”

  Rueben sighed. Of course, Marshall would take the opportunity to throw their debacle at him. They hadn’t gotten a chance to discuss what had happened. Of course, that was assuming any of them really knew what had happened. That was why he and Aki had come to Buzz’s in the first place, to figure it out.

  Rueben smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I’m sorry about how the scene at the cake shop went. Then the guy got away.”

  “Crazy, that’s an understatement. A shit-show is more like it.”

  Everyone laughed, and Rueben affected a thin-lipped smile. No one else knew that the comment was Marshall’s biting sarcasm. Rueben kept relatively quiet, though. He wasn’t about to lay into his dad right in the middle of the investigation. “You’re joining our little band of justice warriors?”

  They all laughed at the name, and it got repeated a couple of times.

  Marshall shrugged. “Well, you kids already dragged me into this kicking and screaming. So, I’m involved. I might as well throw in my lot.”

  Aki apologetically grimaced as she searched Rueben’s face. “Yeah, Buzz called him. We think he might be able to add something.”

  Add something? Sarcasm, bigoted political rants, and insults?

  Marshall frowned and started to stand from the couch. “Look, if you don’t want me intruding on your space and your friends, I get it. I can take a hint.”

  Shit.

  “No, no, Dad. We can use your expertise. You know more about criminals and psychopaths than any of us do.”

  He sat back down. “You’re damn right I do. You kids got yourself into an awful mess. You’re going to need all the help you can get.”

  Mike Fury, still sitting next to Marshall, reached upward to offer Rueben a “bro handshake” that stretched across the better part of the couch area.

  In his late twenties, Mike was tall and well-built, and right now, his biceps practically popped out of his tight black t-shirt. He had spiky dark hair and wore wraparound shades backward on top of his head. “‘Sup, Robert.”

  God, Rueben hated this guy.

  He shook Mike's hand and corrected him. “Rueben.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said, Robert.” Mike sat back down and grabbed his beer off the end table. Then he flashed a dazzling smile at Marshall. “So, Marshall man, finish that story you were telling with those Canadian milk bastards. Did you bust them?”

  Rueben considered grabbing one of Buzz’s statues and bashing it against Mike's skull. Isaac Newton stared at him in bronze, and he thought about it. What goes up must come down, after all. But instead, he grabbed the last beer off the abandoned silver tray and popped it. The Canadian milk bust story was Marshall’s Moby Dick, and he’d heard it over and over again all his life.

/>   It was an unsolved case from his days on the police force involving raw milk smugglers across the border and some farmers’ co-ops that got cozy with a bunch of local small-town grocers. Long story short, many people died from milk poisoning, and when the cops came to investigate, nobody knew anything. Eventually, the feds outranked the local police, and not even they could find anything. As it turned out, it wasn't the milk that had poisoned the people, but a case of SARS, and the agency was involved in it. Talk about messy.

  “One of the deaths was this little girl, and the mother begged me to bring her justice. That’s my greatest regret on the force. That I couldn’t find out who was responsible and couldn’t get ‘em prosecuted anyway. Once the case was closed, I told her I would find out who was responsible if it was the last thing I did on this Earth.”

  Mike appeared to wipe a tear. “Dude, you’re a white whale, man. I’m telling you. Good people are hard to find these days. People that care about their fellow man.”

  Marshall nodded ruefully. Mike rambled on, “I’ve seen things, and let me tell you, this world is a fucked-up place. No one gives a shit about anyone but themselves. You can’t count on anyone.”

  Marshall shook his head vigorously. “Don’t I know it. Government bureaucrat bastards. Not a damn one of them cares about the American people. They only care about lining their pockets at the expense of the hard-working taxpayer.”

  Marshall sat up straighter and turned to Mike fully. “You know, I remember a time when people respected the government and the president. There was a time in this country when the government commanded respect.”

  Mike grinned and listened to the tale of an era he’d never inhabited. “Man, I can't imagine that.”

  Marshall shook his head vehemently. “Yeah, I know you can’t. It was before you, you know. You’re about Rueben’s age. It was long before any of you were born.”

  Marshall leaned even closer and wagged his finger at Buzz and Mike, a captive audience. “But it was a different time in America, let me tell you. When the president, he would get on television….” Marshall banged the side of the couch for emphasis. “You listened. Let me tell you, let me tell you…people would stop in the street to watch the storefront televisions to see what the president of the United States of America might have to say. That was the way it was. It was a time when the American flag meant freedom and hope and prosperity to everyone worldwide. It was a time when people would see that flag, and regardless of creed or nationality, they would know it meant freedom. Freedom, and Michael Jackson.”

  Everyone laughed, and Marshall smiled. It was such a rare sight for Rueben that he almost felt like he was watching a stranger.

  Marshall leaned back into the couch. “Now they poisoned Michael Jackson, and if the president has something to say, well, it’s just another day in the news, and half the Internet has something to say right back.”

  Everyone laughed in agreement except Rueben. Marshall’s political rants were legendary, and Rueben had heard them all—about five hundred times more than he ever wanted to. “Um, are we going to save the world or relive the good ol’ days?”

  Marshall narrowed his eyes at Rueben. “Please excuse my cynic of a son. His liberal education and a government job have indoctrinated him.”

  Rueben could have taken the bait, but Aki’s words had straightened him out. It was time to get things rolling. He glanced out at his friends. “Has anyone heard from Martha yet?”

  They all looked at each other. Aki frowned. “I still haven't been able to get hold of her.”

  Buzz straightened his shirt collar. “I tried to ping her cell phone, but it’s not showing up anywhere. It’s going to take me time to track her recent GPS. Maybe she’s got it turned off?”

  Marshall appeared concerned. “I hope she’s all right. Let me call her.”

  He pulled out his phone, and Buzz stood and motioned for everyone to gather in the foyer. It was a massive room, all in pristine white marble with a winding double staircase.

  “Everyone has been briefed on the situation, right?” Buzz said. It was his mansion, and he was taking the lead on this operation.

  Mike cleared his throat and adjusted the waist of his pants. “Yeah. We’ve got an underground lead on a possible terrorist attack at the summit. We believe it’s an unidentified white male who goes by the name of ‘Pete.’ You folks foiled his attempted kidnapping of my man Marshall, and now he’s at large.”

  Rueben, Aki, and Buzz all looked at each other. Marshall was still on the phone leaving Martha a voicemail. Buzz nodded. “Bare bones, yes, you’re up to speed. I have surveillance footage of the attack at the bakery. We’re going up to the theater for a viewing.”

  Mike grinned. “A theater? This guy should be on like, Science Channel Cribs.”

  Buzz’s face lit up, and he must have stared at Mike for a good thirty seconds just smiling. Rueben groaned. It was everything Buzz didn’t need to hear.

  Marshall finished on the phone. “I can’t get her. It’s going straight to voicemail. That’s unusual for her. I left her a voicemail, sent her a text. Son, did you say something to piss her off, maybe?”

  Rueben bit his tongue and stepped out of the foyer to take some deep breaths. Between Mike and Marshall, this was becoming a nightmare. He spotted a gilded bust of Isaac Newton on the console table. How many of these did Buzz have in here? He picked it up; it must have weighed ten pounds. It was perfect. He tossed it across the room, and it hit a window.

  “Shit.”

  Rueben rushed toward the window and crouched to check the damage. Good, he hadn’t broken it. But, the commotion echoed in a side room, and out came the most beautiful woman Rueben had ever seen. Well, he’d seen her before.

  “Hello, Binnie.”

  Binnie was a tall, leggy brunette, and her voluminous dark hair fell in soft waves against a perfectly fit and curvaceous body. Today she was dressed in a tight red dress that accentuated every curve. His pulse raced, and he gulped back his attraction. Her black heels had to have been about four inches, and she moved effortlessly across the marble floor.

  Her red lips curved into a blissfully seductive smile. “Hello.”

  She leaned against the windowpane in front of him and drummed her red fingernails against the sill. She flexed her toned and silky legs as she crossed them. “Looking for something?”

  “Not you.”

  She pouted, and her brown eyes registered hurt. “Have I done something to offend you?”

  He scoffed. “Other than the day you killed me, no.”

  She pursed her lips. “I don’t remember that.”

  “Of course you don’t. Because I warped back in time and also because you’re a—”

  Her voice dropped to a low whisper. “Are you angry with me, Rueben? Have I been a bad, bad girl? Would you like to…punish me?”

  “Look, Binnie, I appreciate what you’re doing here. Really. I get it. But that’s not my thing.”

  She held his eyes, and he rose from the floor. She fingered his shirt, and he started to wonder if everything he knew about her was wrong. It would sure be nice to believe. After all, this was clearly the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in real life.

  And she wanted to have sex with him? Aside from the fact that Rueben would never betray Aki like that, there was also the problem with Binnie.

  He pushed her away. “Binnie, you’re a robot.”

  “What?”

  “You’re not real. I know that—”

  She slapped him hard across the left cheek. Rueben had never had a woman slap him before, and it hurt.

  Rueben rubbed his cheek. Binnie flipped her hair, and her silver earrings jingled. “How dare you talk to me like that!”

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to offend, but it’s true.”

  Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Oh my God. Talk about toxic masculinity and the objectification of women. I can’t even right now. I just…I can’t even with you.”

  Her reaction
and the way she moved were so human that he had an inkling of doubt. She was a robot, right? She had electrocuted him to death once in the middle of a lap dance. Buzz had said she was a robot right before he died, right?

  She got up from the windowsill and sashayed out of the room, her heels echoing through the house. He felt bad for being rude to her, and he didn’t mean to. But it wasn’t like she had feelings or anything. Right? He replaced Isaac Newton on his pedestal and looked the physicist in his blank gold eyes. “He didn’t create an emotive robot, did he?”

  Newton had no response, and Rueben patted him on the head before turning back toward the foyer where the others had long since gone into the theater.

  Rueben found the theater room upstairs; he had been there a few times before to watch movies with Buzz. Although, movie night with Buzz typically consisted of Buzz salivating over some kind of mind-bending science lecture or AI documentary. Both lost Rueben before Rosa even arrived with the popcorn. He was usually asleep after the first twenty minutes. The fully reclining chairs were great for that.

  The room was done in gold and red, consistent with the taste of the person who’d designed the place. Two rows of plush red velvet chairs, four each, stood in the center of the room in front of a screen that Buzz had once bragged was a hundred inches high and a hundred eighty inches wide. No one should ever have to watch stem cells magnified to a hundred inches tall. There was just something fundamentally wrong with that. Now, Jessica Alba, that was another story.

  Red velvet curtains with gold fringe flanked the screen, and it had a tiny wooden platform in front. Rueben wondered if Buzz ever gave lectures from this room. He started to wonder if Buzz ever did any work. As much money as he had, he mainly saw Buzz wander around in his pajamas and get drunk. Then again, Rueben's boss at the CIA only had the vaguest idea where he was at the moment, so it was all about the same.

  Along the walls were three faux archways in gold, with bas-relief carvings of African wildlife and cherubs. The ceiling was framed with a circular gold rim, with dome bulbs about every foot, giving it a more modern feel. A projector hung in the middle of the circle, pointed at the screen.