by R E Swirsky
CHAPTER 57
Thursday 16:45 Paris, France
By late afternoon, there was still no word from either Jack or Lucas. It was morning in Victoria, so there was no point in waiting to call Jack or Lucas any longer. Nathaniel excused himself from Diane and the girls as they prepared themselves for another night on the town and was soon seated in front of the lobby fireplace once again.
The conversation with Richard Crowder weighed heavy on his mind. Good parts and bad parts hovered in the air. The Crowders wanted out, and that was good. But the Crowders also suspected this thing was much bigger than just Lucy Carter, and that was very bad. If he couldn’t find a way to wrap this all up and appease the Crowders at the same time, then he was no better off now than when he started.
Adding Kaito’s messages into the mix, his thoughts were ablaze with multiple questions—too many to ignore.
The first call he made was to Jack, but the response was not what he expected.
“The subscriber you are dialling cannot be located at this time.”
“What?” Jack was now disconnected. He looked at the number to see if he accidentally called Randal by mistake. But there was no mistake. Jack was out.
He tried Lucas and the result was the same. He squirmed in his seat. Why hadn’t either one of them called him back before disconnecting themselves? Many crazy thoughts went through his mind and he recalled everything Jack said last night about Kaito. Is this the way Jack always ended jobs, by simply unplugging?
If they had disconnected without calling him, there was no point in trying to track them down by their personal or home phones. There was strict policy against such actions, and they probably wouldn’t accept his call. He had only one option left and that was to call Geordie directly. He dreaded it, but what choice did he have?
Geordie picked up on the first ring. It was nearing noon in Ottawa.
“No, no, Nate. I’m glad you called. There’s no harm in a bit of follow up to chew on. What did you want to discuss?”
“Just your view on how this was handled,” Nathaniel replied. He wanted to say more but was afraid of poking the bear.
“Of course, Nate. I heard this one was wrapped up and you all did a bang-up job. Clean as a whistle now.”
“So you spoke with Jack?”
“Oh, I spoke with both Jack and Lucas. This one has been put to bed.”
“And Kaito?” he asked. He wasn’t about to mention Johnny just yet.
“Listen, Nate. I’m trying to get out the door here. I have a golf game booked. Yeah, at my age, I can still swing, but let me just say.…” He laughed. “My swing is not as hard as it used to be these days…”
“But, about Kaito.…”
“…but I do get in twice as many swings, if you get my drift.” He paused. “Some would say I’m getting my money’s worth this way.” He gave a forced chuckle. “Yes, Nate, it’s a matter of keeping your eye on the ball. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes, keep your eye on the ball. But I wanted....”
Geordie interrupted, his voice turning suddenly stern instead of jovial. “Nate, I said this one’s been put to bed. I don’t want to hear any more discussion.”
“I have a question about Kaito.…”
“Nate!” Geordie’s icy boldness cut through the phone. He could feel Geordie’s finger pushing on his chest again. “I’m asking you to leave this one alone now. It’s over. I’m not about to go scrounging about in the rough just because you took your eye off the ball on this one.” He paused before he continued. “You did though, didn’t you? You took your eye off the ball.”
Nathaniel was beginning to hate this man. He felt beat down like a scrawny child on the playground. “Yeah,” he said. “Okay. I’ll leave it.”
“No one on my team gets to go play in the sandbox until they’ve finished the round. And I mean all eighteen holes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really have to get out the door. Goodbye.”
And just like that, Geordie terminated the call.
The fire crackled and the flames licked up high in front of Nate. Geordie seemed determined to ensure this one ended like every routine job: ask no questions, and tell no secrets; close the door, lock it tight, swallow the key, and move on to the next one. He didn’t even get a tongue-lashing for sending Johnny back home.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he whispered to himself.
But this one couldn’t end like every other routine job. Kaito and Johnny were almost family. He remembered something Kaito had said in his message. It lingered more strongly after speaking with Geordie. It wasn’t just what Kaito said in his message; it was Kaito’s choice of words: The offer to take Metcalf’s daughter seemed right at the time.
Offer? What offer?
What else did Kaito say? He scrolled through his voicemail and replayed Kaito’s last message a number of times. It suddenly became clear that something was amiss.
“Shit,” he said as he listened again to Kaito’s words. Metcalf’s daughter as revenge for Shaw taking mine was a twist I hadn’t thought of before.
This operation wasn’t his idea at all.
He replayed all the events as they unfolded over the past few days in his mind. It all centred around that very first call to Senator Leboeuf and the meeting at La Sapiniere with Geordie and the others. “No,” he whispered, but he knew the answer was yes.
Nathaniel had been played. From that very first call to Leboeuf and the meetings that followed, he had been played by none other than the devil himself: Geordie. This one was over and Geordie had made sure there was no one left to fall back on. He really was on vacation now. Geordie had made sure of that.
