He took both of my hands in his and squeezed them softly. “Danni, let me say it again. The Guardian is like a wise tutor whose purpose is to prepare a child for adulthood. But once we reach adulthood, he must step back. It would go counter to the tutor’s core purpose if he solved every problem, turned aside every danger, answered every question, softened every blow that life sends our way.”
I was nodding. At last I understood what he had been trying to say all this time. “So, basically, we’re on our own.”
“Au contraire,” he said quickly. “Le Gardien is still there, but he no longer treats you as he did when you were a child.”
“Okay. I get that, but can’t you come back long enough to help me get the pouch back?”
He shook his head. “I have given my word. Also, it goes against the proper order of things.”
I turned away in despair. That was not what I wanted to hear.
He grabbed my shoulder and turned me back around again. “Listen to me, Carruthers. Le Gardien is but a tangible object designed to help you find your way. The power is not in the pouch, it is in you, as long as you strive to live your life in harmony with the Four Remembers. The pouch is not enchanted. It is not magic. Not in the way people use those terms. But it can be a tremendous aid to us as it helps us draw on our own powers, our own strengths.”
I was staring at him in wonder. He had never put it so clearly before. “But what about all those miraculous things it does? Like a toy pistol that fires real bullets. Like making gold bars out of nothing. Like making Niklas violently sick when he tried to kiss me.”
“Maybe it was just kissing you that made him sick,” he said, absolutely straight-faced.
I slugged him. “You know what I’m saying.”
He leaned in, very earnest now. “Danni, you must go back in there. I will stay close by, but I cannot interfere. So there are a couple of things you must know. First, Clay is not over at the real Schloss von Dietz as Gisela believes. He was, but when you called him and got me, that allowed him to trace my phone. They now have the whole villa surrounded.”
I gaped at him. “Really? Then tell him to get in here. Gisela and Niklas plan to leave tonight.”
Grandpère just looked at me. And then I understood why he wasn’t going to. “He won’t, will he? Not as long as our family is here.”
“That’s right. We’re not sure how many armed men they have, but enough to make things really ugly. So he can’t risk having an open gun battle. We have reason to believe there may also be explosives in the villa. So you and Rick have to convince Gisela and Niklas to leave tonight. Convince them that leaving is the best thing for them. And without the family. Can you do that?”
“I ... I don’t know. Why let them go? Maybe Rick and I can free the family and—” I stopped, knowing how unlikely that would be.
“If they disappear, they will leave a lot of unanswered questions. Clay and Interpol want to nail them not just for what they have done to our family, but for all the others. So they need to believe they have gotten away clean.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? Do you understand what it is we’re asking of you and Rick?”
“Of course. It’s not going to be easy to convince them to leave all of us behind.”
He reached out and touched my hand. “Especially you and Rick.”
For a moment, it didn’t register, then my jaw dropped. “Do you mea... . ?”
“Yes. They will take hostages to make sure they are not stopped. If they take all of you, it greatly complicates things for them and for us.” He took a quick breath. “This has been heavily debated, Danni. Clay took it to Joel Jamison, who took it to the Director of the FBI. Under any other circumstances, it would never have been considered. But you’re not just any two hostages. What you did with El Cobra’s gang is still the talk of the FBI.” His shoulders lifted and fell. “Actually, I’m the one who suggested it.”
By now I was reeling, and yet one part of my mind knew that it was the right thing to do. It made sense, even though the thought sickened me.
He went on quietly. “The whole thing with Niklas gave me a chance to slip into the room where they’re keeping your parents.” He reached in his jacket pocket and extracted a key card. “Someone left it lying around,” he grinned. “I explained all of this, and I told your mother and father that without their consent, it wasn’t going to happen.”
“And Mom agreed to it?”
“She knows what you are, Danni. After I explained it all, she closed her eyes for a few seconds, then she looked at me and said, ‘Danni and Rick can do it.’”
“She called me ‘Danni’? Not Carruthers?”
He laughed. “Yes.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“You and Rick are together for a reason right now, and it’s not just because you’re friends. It is going to take both of you to do this.”
“I understand.”
“I know you two are communicating with each other silently. As soon as you get back in there, tell him what we’ve said. If he has any hesitation, then—”
“He won’t. You know he won’t.”
“I know.” He put his arms around me and drew me in close. “I have searched my heart on this, ma chérie. If I felt you were in mortal danger, I wouldn’t ask this of you. Not ever.”
“I know,” I murmured. “And knowing you feel it is all right, makes it all right.” I took a quick breath. “Okay, we’ll do it. Just tell me how we convince Niklas and Gisela.”
“I have no idea. It’s not for me to work out. But I think we can safely assume that Niklas and Gisela will dump the two of you as quickly as possible.”
“Dump us? Oh, that’s cheerful.”
“You know what I mean. They are not going to harm you. We are absolutely certain of that, or none of us would be consenting to this.”
“So what if they get away scot-free after all they’ve done?” I grumbled. That thought was bumming me out. I still felt this deep anger and the desire to put an end to the both of them.
“What if I told you that the FBI has asked Louis and me to help bring them to justice?”
“Really? Does that mean you’re agents too?”
“Oh, no. We’re what they officially call paid FBI consultants.” He smiled. “Louis and his security team bring a lot to the table here. Clay’s delighted to have them. And incidentally, you and Rick are consultants too, starting tonight.”
“Shut up!” I cried. “Really? Me? An FBI consultant?” Then I grinned. “That’ll look good on my application for college. Right?”
He laughed. “Probably. But right now we have to focus on tonight. I can’t tell you how to make this all work because I don’t know. But here is what Clay said you need to do.”
I went quiet and focused my full attention on him now.
“Your job,” he said, “is to make sure that Gisela and Niklas do not get away with all they have done. But at the same time, you have to make them think that they have.”
My stomach did a quick flip-flop. “Oh,” I said, forcing a laugh. “Is that all?”
He straightened. “It’s time, Danni. I can’t be in there, but I’ll be right out here waiting.”
He bent down, kissed me on the forehead, and then opened the door and gave me a little push back into the library.
PART TEN
Fool’s Gold
CHAPTER 38
To my surprise, the only ones in the room were Doc and Rick. Rick was still in his chair and still holding a rifle on Doc. A few yards to his left, Doc sulked in a chair he had rescued from the shattered table. As I entered, Rick looked up. “Lady Gisela went to the infirmary to check on Niklas. She will be another few minutes.”
I bobbed my head to acknowledge that I had heard him, then went over and sat down beside Rick. “No talking,” Doc growle
d.
“Who left you in charge?” I snapped. “From this point on, you are here as an observer only.”
He didn’t like that and scowled at me with his hard, glittering eyes. I ignored him. Unarmed, he was not much more than background noise. Turning to the TV monitor behind Gisela’s desk, I saw that Mom was on the couch with Dad. His arm was around her, and they were talking quietly. Cody was at a table playing some kind of board game with himself. It was a huge relief to see them looking pretty normal.
“Cody?” I called out to him in my mind, but there was no reaction from him on screen. Perhaps where they now were in the castle was too far away to make a connection.
Glancing up at the screen, Rick spoke to me in our mind-talk. “I’ve been trying to raise him too. No luck.”
“He’s all right. They’re all okay.”
“Yeah, I know. I heard everything you and Grandpère were saying.”
“You did? Cool? That saves me a lot of explaining.”
“I’m in,” he said quietly.
I wanted to reach over and hug him, but I restrained myself. “I know. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t be either.”
“So what do we do, Danni?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe just close our eyes and hang on.”
He chuckled. “We seem to do that a lot anymore.”
“Amen to that.” I took the pouch off my shoulder and started to unbutton the flap. Doc was instantly leaning forward. “What are you doing?”
“Relax, Dude!” I snapped back at him, as Rick steadied the rifle. “This is not the real pouch, all right?” I held it open so he could see inside it. “Lady Gisela wrote me a letter. Since it involves Rick, he needs to read it. So just relax until your mistress comes back and tells her lap dog what to do.” Without waiting for his response, I handed the letter across to Rick.
“Read it,” I said. And with that, I got to my feet, turned my back on Doc, and strode over to the fireplace. “Hey,” he said. “You can’t do that.”
“Oh, yeah.” Without hesitation, I pulled the pouch off my shoulder as I approached the fire and tossed it into the flames when I reached it. “There,” I said. “Now you have nothing to worry about. Nothing except me.”
We sat quietly as Rick read the letter. He gave me a long, searching look when he finished, then read it again. Finally, he handed it back to me. I folded it together and tossed it on the desk. “Well, now we know what we’re up against,” he said, speaking in my head.
I drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Rick, I have something I want to say before Gisela returns.”
“I hate it when you say that.”
“Say what?”
“That you have something that you want to say.”
“I never say that.”
“Except when you have something you want to say.”
Laughing softly, I nodded at him. How did he sense that I needed even the tiniest bit of light in this otherwise dark and grim day? “Okay. I want to talk about New York.”
“Nuh-uh,” he shot right back. “That’s ancient history now.”
“I take that back. I want to talk about what I learned in New York.”
“Okay, that is relevant.”
“I have decided that the underlying problem—the root problem, as it were—is that I get so caught up in myself that I start unconsciously thinking of you as kind of a supportive spectator, like you were my own personal cheering section. I love having you around. And I trust your judgment so much. But then I keep taking center stage, leaving you in the audience to applaud when I do something right.”
He finally looked directly at me and smiled. “Or to boo when you don’t.”
I didn’t laugh. I didn’t smile. “I wish you would boo, but you’re too nice, Rick. You’re too kind and gentle and ... cool. You are seriously cool.” I could feel a lump welling up in my throat, so I hurried on. “That has to change.”
“You mean you have to change, or me being seriously cool has to change?” When I looked at him, he held up a hand. “Sorry. I’m listening.”
“I don’t want to be Danni Oakley any more with you, Rick. Or Catnips Overdone.”
He chuckled. “Good one, Danni. You should have used that on Cierra.”
“I’m always great at the perfect comeback, as long as I have about two weeks to find one.” Quick breath. “But anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I want us to be full partners with equal standing in this relationship. Like a lock and key—they’re totally different, but when they work together you get something you cannot get with them separately. You bring so much to our friendship, and I’ve been an idiot not to recognize that and accept it.”
“Danni, I have never thought of you as an idiot.”
“That is very kind of you to say that, Rick. Even if it is a bald-faced lie.” I raised my hand quickly as he started to respond. “But that’s not what I want to say. What I want to say is ... I mean, I guess what I’m saying is ...” I stopped again. He was watching me, patient as ever. Unlike me, not finishing my sentences for me.
“At the press conference, Mom said that you were our rock in the middle of the river. Always there. Always letting things just kind of flow around you.”
“I remember.”
“You know that you’re her favorite child,” I grumped.
He smiled. “Hardly.”
“Rick, will you promise me something?”
“Of course. Name it.”
“Don’t ever leave me. Even when I’m acting stupid and selfish and insensitive and ...”
“I won’t,” he cut in firmly. “Not ever.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Ever is a long time, Rick.”
“I know,” he murmured. “That’s what I like about it.”
Oh my goodness. How I wanted to explore that further. Just what was he saying? Was this the usual talk about forever you heard kids use? But as I watched his eyes, I think I saw what I was hoping to see. He meant it exactly as I hoped he meant it. And suddenly I was tingling with this little current of electricity zinging around in my head.
Finally, he straightened, and the moment was gone. “So, did you and Grandpère come up with a plan on how to deal with Gisela that I didn’t hear?” he asked.
I shook my head. “He said he couldn’t help me. It was against the natural order of things, whatever that means. So I think it’s up to you and me.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
I pulled a face. “How about beating the heck out of Gisela—heck being the Utah version of the operative word—then throw her at my feet and let me take it from there.”
He laughed aloud, startling Doc. I turned to look at this sour-faced enemy of mine. “He’s like that when he’s under stress,” I explained. “He tells himself jokes to relieve the pressure.”
“Who cares,” Doc growled, raising the back of his hand as if he was going to cuff me.
“Danni?”
“Yes?”
“I want to say something too, something I’ve been thinking about a lot. But I don’t want to make you mad.”
“Moi?” I said. “Me get mad? I can’t believe you said that.”
He chuckled. “Right. Anyway—” I saw his shoulders lift and fall.
“Just spit it out. I’m a big girl now.”
“All right, I will. I understand why you feel so much anger toward Gisela, but—”
“I know, I know. I’ve got to keep my cool or she wins, right?”
“No,” he said. “That goes without saying.”
“Sorry. That’s another bad habit I have to break, finishing people’s sentences for them.”
He didn’t comment either way on that. “Earlier I was thinking about what Louis told us. About Gisela and her mother losing everything, being torn from a life of pampered luxury and thrown out
into the streets in the middle of a war zone. Losing her brother. What was she again? Four years old?”
I nodded, starting to feel my temper rise.
“And then to be forced to leave your homeland, to live in poverty, to see your mother, once the toast of society, become a household servant. I can’t begin to conceive what kind of scars that must have left on these two women.”
I was incredulous. “Hold it. Are you going soft on her? After all she’s done to my family?”
“Of course not. When you have a rabid dog coming at you, you do whatever it takes to protect yourself. But you don’t hate the dog because it’s sick.”
I was trying not to kick back at this. What was he trying to say to me? But I wasn’t named Carruthers for nothing. With my voice crackling with indignation, I said, “You’re talking about the woman who convinced me that she had killed every single member of my family, right? This is the woman who made me discover my own dead body? A mad dog doesn’t know what it’s doing, Rick, but Gisela did. She is cold, calculating, and utterly without mercy. And if we show the tiniest spark of weakness, she will eat us alive, and sleep well when she’s done.”
I had to stop and catch my breath, even though this conversation was only going on in our minds. “We have to stop her. We have to destroy her before she destroys us. We can’t let her destroy the lives of any other people. And to do that, I’m going to have to hold on to my anger and my hatred for her for just a bit longer. If you find that distasteful, then so be it. Maybe it’s better if you stand back and watch for the next while.”
“Okay,” he said very softly. “I’ll just take my seat over here in the spectator section. Call me if you need me.”
I dropped my head in my hands as his words struck me like a blow. I had done it again. Within minutes of telling him I had changed, I was right back at it again. Scalding tears spilled out and trickled down my cheeks. Shame was like a hot wind, parching my soul. “Oh, Rick,” I cried. “I am lost. I am lost.”
He got to his feet, causing Doc to jump up. With a warning look and a wave of the pistol, he motioned for Doc to sit down again. Then he came over to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. But I couldn’t bear to look up at him. I couldn’t. So he bent down and said five simple words. “Ever is a long time.” His hand brushed at the tears for a moment, then he spoke five more. “I meant what I said.” Then he went and sat down again.
To Run With the Swift Page 50
