by Blake Banner
He looked at me for a long while, as though challenging me to say that what he had done was wrong. “How can that happen?” he said.
“Omega is finished, Colonel. It has been all but destroyed. You know my father is dead, but you probably don’t know that Ben is also, and all his colleagues.” Emily raised her head and stared at me. I went on. “The reason all your computers died was not that they had been switched off or disconnected by Omega. It was because the central Omega computer was infected with a virus known as a neutron bomb, that spread to all the computers that were connected with it. The whole Omega system was wiped out in a matter of a few days. That’s what triggered the European stock exchange crash, and brought down your network. This was an Omega research facility.”
It was as though she hadn’t heard a word I’d said. She asked, “You know about Omega?”
The Colonel said, “His father was a big shot in Omega, honey.”
“Omega owned this plant. They were funding my research.”
I said, “I know. You’re their kind of scientist, Emily. But they’re gone now. It’s over. It’s finished.”
She smiled. “No.” She shook her head. “Gregor is dead. The NPP is safe. We can start again. You can help us.”
“No, Emily. I can’t.”
Across the long room with all the cubicles, a figure emerged from the stairwell, followed by a man in a suit. They saw us and began to walk toward us. They disappeared from view and then Rand and a tall, well-dressed man I had never met before, appeared in the doorway. There was reproach and pleading in the Colonel’s face as he watched me watch them. Emily was looking up at them too, uncomprehending.
Rand spoke: “Good evening, people. This is Special Agent Jeremy Foster, of the FBI. I think it’s time we all had a talk, don’t you?”
I gestured to the empty chairs and they came in and sat down. Foster crossed one long leg over another and said, “That was quite a stunt, Mr. Walker. Was it necessary?”
“Yes. There was no way I was going to give him the NPP, and if I didn’t give it to him, my life, and these people’s, weren’t worth a damn. I have already been Ustinov’s guest once, I have no intention of going there again. I told him to come alone and I warned him not to take the box. He made his choices. You want to prosecute me, go ahead, but I wouldn’t advise it.”
“Take it easy, Walker. I have no intention of prosecuting you, but Gregor would have been a useful prisoner.”
I shrugged. “I gave Rand the heads up, I’m assuming you recorded everything that went down.”
“We did.” He turned and regarded the Colonel and Emily for a moment. “I am still trying to work out, Colonel, whether you and your daughter are actually guilty of a crime. Since the company you stole the NPP from was not a legitimate legal person according to the law, and was probably an enemy of the state, it’s possible it didn’t constitute theft at all. Trying to auction it to a foreign power…” He shrugged. “It’s a gray area, as is the ownership of the NPP. Where is it, by the way?”
I showed him a face that was mildly surprised. Rand was watching me like a hawk. I pointed across the long room where the black windows still showed wavering orange firelight. “In pieces, in Gregor’s van.”
Emily frowned at me. Rand scowled. Foster almost smiled, as did the Colonel.
I shrugged at Rand. “He paid me twenty-five million bucks for it, Rand. It would have been immoral not to give it to him. You wouldn’t want me to do anything immoral, would you?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “You son of a bitch, Walker. Have you any idea how much that research was worth? Do you know what it could have done for this country’s position in the world?”
I observed him a moment without expression. “What do you think, Rand? Do you think I had any idea about that? But, you know what? If it’s all the same to you, for now, I’d like to keep the lid on Pandora’s box, get my meat from the field and my vegetables from the ground. You can have your dystopian nightmare when I’m dead and buried.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Let’s hope that’s many years hence, Lacklan.”
I took a long second to gaze at the Smith & Wesson cannon sitting on the desk. Then I shifted my eyes to look into Rand’s. “Are you threatening me, Rand? Do we have a problem?”
His face went pale, but I knew he wasn’t going to back down. “You can shoot me dead, Lacklan, but you can’t destroy the whole of the CIA. There are powerful interests involved here. Don’t cross the Company, Walker, or we will come after you and we will eliminate you.”
I smiled. I made the smile as patronizing as I could manage. “You want to tell me about those interests, Rand?” He opened his mouth to answer, but I didn’t let him. I kept talking. “I have a few powerful interests of my own. Senator McFarlane is one that has the president’s ear. There are others. You going to go after them, too?”
“You think we can’t? You think it’s never been done?”
I laughed. “I think you’re full of shit, Rand. I think you’re a superannuated has been who fondly remembers the days of the Bay of Pigs and the Cold War, when the CIA was a law onto itself. Times have changed, Rand. Next time you threaten me, I’ll have your job.”
He sat forward, a nasty curl on his lip. “You think times have changed, Lacklan? You’re living in a dream. I can have you, McFarlane and the damned President any day I want. Don’t fucking cross me!”
I shifted my smile to the man from the Bureau. “Special Agent Jeremy Foster, you were present during Rand Peabody’s statement just then.”
“I was, but I am inclined to think it was just bluster.”
“Your opinion of his motives is not relevant, Agent Foster, your recollection of his words is.”
Rand snarled, “What the hell is this?”
I picked up my phone, scrolled through to the appropriate app and pressed the stop button on the screen. I smiled at Rand.
“I just turned off the bugs, Rand. The ones I put under the chairs to record everything that went down this evening. I’m sure the president will be very interested to hear the recordings, I know Cyndi will—that’s Senator McFarlane to you. The bugs, I am sure you’re familiar with them, they use cell phone technology. The recording was made on my laptop, about a thousand miles away from here.”
He had gone very pale.
“Anything happens to me, to Emily, to the Colonel, to Cyndi or the president for that matter, you and your interests will be about as dangerous as Gregor is right now.”
“You can’t do this.”
“I can and I did. Get out, Rand.”
He stood, stared at me for a long moment, and then walked out. I didn’t watch him leave, I kept my eyes on Foster. “Have we got a problem, Special Agent?”
“I hope not. My instructions from the Bureau were to do whatever I could to avoid Miss Burgess being employed by Central Intelligence. I am authorized to offer her a job with the Bureau.”
I looked at her. She had her head in her father’s lap again. “I wish you luck with that.” To the Colonel, I said, “She’s going to need care and looking after. If anybody comes after her, the Company, Military Intelligence, you call me. Don’t let this happen again.”
He shook his head, then turned to Foster. “Give me your card. We’ll be in touch, but I don’t think she’ll be going to work for anybody for a long time. She’s not well.”
He nodded and stood, handed me one of his cards and held out his hand, too. I stood and shook it. “You ever need a witness, you know where to find me.”
He left and I sat on the edge of the desk, looking down at Emily and her father. He spoke while stroking her hair. “She told me once her mother had been forced into prostitution. She told me all sorts of stories. I was never sure what to believe, how much was fantasy, how much was lies to get me to do something… All I knew was that I loved her. She was my little girl and she’d come home to me, and I had to protect her as best I could.” He looked up. “But I also knew she was damaged. So s
omething in those stories was true, wasn’t it? You don’t get like this without something bad happening to you, do you?”
I shook my head. “I guess not, Colonel.”
She looked up at his face. “I don’t feel well, Daddy, can we go home now?”
I gathered up my stuff, switched out the light and we made our way across the long room to the stairs and the elevators. Emily paused a moment to look at the elevator doors. She smiled. “The labs are still intact. We could start there, start to piece it all together again. I can remember some of it.” We began to move down the stairs. “It’s a shame Jerry isn’t here. Between us, I’m pretty sure…”
Down in reception, I switched off the lights and we stepped into the parking lot. The Colonel and Emily climbed into their car. I watched the headlamps come on and after a moment reverse and turn, and then they were just a fading glow in front of two red lights that vanished around the side of the building.
I got into the Zombie, slammed the door and took a moment to light up a Camel. I took a deep drag, opened the windows and reversed out of the parking lot. As I came around the side of the building I saw the smoldering wreck of Gregor’s SUV. I pulled up beside it, climbed out and peered in. It was hard to identify the bodies. One and a half pounds of C4 in a small, confined space does a lot of damage, but I was pretty sure that the big, bald mess in the back seat was him.
I went and sat against the trunk of the Zombie and pulled my cell from my pocket. I went to speed dial and pressed number two. There were two muffled reports and some of the windows on the ground floor of the building shattered. Emily, if she ever recovered, would not be using the labs at QPS.
I stood smoking a while, then dropped the butt on the road, crushed it and climbed back in the car. I didn’t go home. I drove to Pier 32, found a spot in the parking lot and pushed through the door. It was full and noisy, with voices and laughter raised above the country music. I found a space at the bar and got a beer from JD.
“And send me a burger out to the terrace, will you?”
He nodded. “How’s things?”
“Good.” I nodded back. “I’m taking a boat out tomorrow to do a bit of fishing. You want to come along?”
He smiled at the glass he was filling with beer from the pump. “You mean you want to use my boat.”
“Well, as you’re offering. Ten A.M.?”
“You supply the beer and the sandwiches.”
“You got yourself a deal.”
I carried my beer out to the terrace, found a table and sat, looking up at half of the moon hanging like a broken Christmas bauble over a flat, silver ocean. It was done. Gregor was finished, Emily and the Colonel were safe—which was frankly more than they deserved—and the world had at least another ten years to breathe before some other lunatic scientist decided to invent hell.
I took a long pull on my beer and wondered why I still felt unsatisfied, why the business still felt unresolved. Why?
Twenty
It was two in the morning by the time I got home. I left the car among the stilts and climbed the wooden steps, feeling the cool sea breeze on my skin and listening to the gentle sigh and crash of the surf. As I climbed, I wondered to myself if it wasn’t time for me to think about going home. My period of rest and recuperation had not gone exactly to plan. Perhaps what I needed after all was to be at home, with Rosalia and Kenny, and learn to find peace there.
I reached the deck, unlocked and opened the door, and thought about having a nightcap on the terrace. I would sleep late in the morning and then phone Kenny to tell him I was coming home. He and Rosalia would be pleased. She would bake a steak and kidney pie, and a plum pie for after. I smiled.
I flipped the light switch and my four lamps came on. By their amber glow, I could see that my bedroom door was open. I knew I had left it closed. I pulled my Sig from my waistband, cleared my throat and stepped over to the drinks tray, where I noisily poured myself a whiskey. I then took two long, silent steps toward the bedroom.
In the dim light, through the half-open door, I saw movement on my bed. Then, very slowly, I saw Emily sit up. She remained motionless, looking at the floor. I moved closer and gently opened the door a little further. She looked up at me.
“Emily, what are you doing here? You should be at home, with your father.”
“You took a long time to come home. I had to lie down. Everything is a bit of a mess.”
“You can’t be here, Emily. You have to go home.”
She smiled, then gave a small laugh. “You think I’ve gone crazy. I haven’t. I’m just tired, sleepy, and maybe a little drunk. Can we just hang out for a bit and talk, and you help me understand what the hell just happened to my life?”
I sighed. “OK. And then you go home.”
“Boring.” She held out her hand. “Put your gun away Mr. SAS, and help me to my feet, will ya?”
I helped her up and she walked unsteadily into the living room. I pulled open the drawer in my bedside table and dropped in my weapon. Then I closed the door and followed her to the living room. She stood a moment, then dropped onto the sofa.
“Offer me a drink, Mr. Tough Guy.”
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
She mimicked me, making me sound like an old man. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough, young lady?”
I sighed and rubbed my face. I was suddenly very tired and longing to be in my bed. Alone.
She said, “No. I don’t. Offer me a drink and I’ll leave you in peace and go home, Mr. Mean Man.”
“What would you like to drink, Emily?”
“Gin and tonic. You have one, too, and sit here beside me and talk to me.”
I made her a weak gin and tonic and poured myself a tonic. I handed her her drink and sat at the other end of the sofa.
She pouted. “You’re not being very nice to me.”
“You’ll thank me later.”
“I suppose, Mr. Sensible.”
“Does your father know you’re here?”
“Yup. He tried to stop me, but I said I needed to talk to you.” She smiled at me. “Only known you a few days but we’ve been through a lot together, huh? Kidnap, gunfights, escaping from Mexico in a seaplane…” The smile faded. “My life’s dream, my life’s work, up in smoke. You’re kind of like a tornado, aren’t you?”
“I just do what needs to be done. I am not a good person to get involved with.”
“Don’t you ever get lonely?”
I shrugged.
She went on, “Tell me the truth. Did you really destroy it? Was it really in the box, with the C4?” She shook her head, then wagged a finger. “I don’t think it would have fit. What did you really do with it?”
“I destroyed it. That’s all you need to know.”
She put her drink beside the sofa on the floor and slid up to me. She took the scruff of my neck in her fist, in mock threat, and leaned really close, so her lips were an inch from mine.
“Don’t patronize me, mister. I am not crazy and I am not a helpless female. I am probably the smartest woman you’ve ever met, and I have a right to know what happened to my life’s work.”
I was bruised, inside and out, I was tired and lonely, and suddenly the thought of sharing my bed with Emily that night didn’t seem like such a crazy idea. She rested her forehead against mine and ran her hand over my chest. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke.
“Come on, Lacklan, my life just got handed to me in a fucking urn. Give me some latitude.”
She straddled my legs and sat on my lap. My body wanted her badly and she was left in no doubt about that. She smiled and leaned close to me, stroking my face with her fingers. “Do you know what I did? Have you any idea what I achieved? I made the key that opened the door to Olympus. Little old me. Little Emily. I made it possible for humans to become gods. And today, all of that, all that work, everything…” Her smile faded again and the tears ran freely down her cheeks. “It was all destroyed, with no hope of ever getting it
back. All I’m asking, all I want to know is, where is she buried? What have you done with her?”
I shook my head. “Emily, you have to stop. We can’t do this. You can’t play me and I am not going to exploit your vulnerability. It’s not going to happen.”
She closed her eyes, groaned and rolled away from me to sprawl on her back on the sofa. She lay motionless a moment with her hands over her eyes and then shouted, “God!”
I stood. “Come on, you’re going home.”
She removed her hands and glared at me. “Why are you so… stupid!”
“Get up.”
“A man like you, with your skills, your strength, your intelligence—Jesus! You could do whatever you like with me, and in the morning go on to become, not a millionaire, but a billionaire! And what do you do?” She mocked me again. “I will not exploit your vulnerability…!” She spread her arms and her legs wide. “Exploit it, you asshole! Take me! And in the morning, let’s sell the damned NPP and be rich!”
“Get up.”
She sat up. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were rich with contempt. Her voice was loud and flat.
“He’ll never tell me. It’s useless.”
I frowned at her. Behind me, the door to the guest room opened and Rand and the Colonel came out. They were both holding guns. Rand grinned.
“Not the first mistake you made tonight, old buddy. You could’a got laid and become a very rich man. Instead, you’re gonna get tortured and you’ll be lucky to come out of this one alive.”
I frowned at the Colonel. “Harry?”
He scowled. “Don’t look at me, you dumb schmuck! You could’a had everything. But you’re just like your father said, a self-righteous asshole. Now we have to do this the hard way.”
I stared at Rand. “You’re all in this together?”
“Last minute allies. It could have been you. But you blew it.”
Emily stood and came close to me. “How can a man like you be so naïve?”
The Colonel shook his head. “You got rid of Gregor for us, in the end, and I really thought for a moment there tonight, you might just give us the NPP. But no, you’re flawed, Lacklan. Your father always said so. You’re a flawed man. At heart, you’re weak.”
