“Sonya!” Sylvain’s happy voice greeted her as she entered the kitchen. “I go to school today!” he exclaimed, as he tucked into his cereal. It was obvious; he was dressed in a school uniform and his school bag was sitting by the back door.
“Your school isn’t close to here, is it?” Sonya asked.
“Non, now I go to new school not old one! It is premier, best in all of Paris!” He was genuinely excited, and Sonya wondered if he even knew about his father and the trouble that he was in. Somehow, she doubted it. The closeness that she had witnessed between them told her that he was blissfully unaware of the latest happenings regarding his father.
Madame Lalonde smiled softly at her grandson. “Cinq minutes, Chéri, cinq, (Five minutes, sweetie, five minutes.)” she warned, as she stood, “I meet you in front of garage.” She raised her hand in a goodbye gesture and left the kitchen.
So, Sylvain was enrolled in another school, obviously private by the look of his uniform. Was this to protect him? Perhaps this was a question that could be asked at their meeting later this morning.
Inhaling her breakfast, Sonya rushed upstairs to grab her purse. BB would be her driver this morning, escorting her to the hospital and both she and Bryan back to his home. And, she reasoned, act as their protector should something go amiss.
The fact that no one in the mission, Crusades, Sonya believed was their code name, had spoken to Bryan was a little worrisome. Sonya had noticed that occasionally, like Steve, BB wore a gun under his jacket. The thought occurred to her to wonder if today would be one of those days.
BB’s arrival in the foyer precluded any more pondering. They were on their way and Sonya’s heart soared with joy. Today, Bryan came home and they would finally be together. Today, she and her husband would finally return to their long planned honeymoon.
BB was somewhat quiet on their drive to the hospital.
“I thought that Mike would come with us,” Sonya remarked, trying to draw him into a conversation. “I have to say that, personally, I’m very pleased that you turned out to be Mike’s father. His dad was dead by the time that I was born, but I have heard a lot about him through the years.”
“My cousin, John, is an absolutely wonderful man and everyone says that he’s just like his dad. But everyone in the family also says that Mike isn’t. Although he and John look like brothers, Mike’s personality is totally different – great, but different.” Sonya was beginning to feel like she was putting her foot into her mouth big time.
“I guess what I’m trying to say,” Sonya attempted to clarify, “is that you and Mike are a perfect fit and I think it’s just wonderful that you are in his life.”
“Shut up now,” Sonya silently reprimanded herself. “Just shut up!”
“How very gracious of you, Sonya,” BB replied. “I have so many different emotions about the revelation that Mike is my son. The prevalent one is joy, the second is pride. He is a very fine man. I intend to get to know him much better, as much as the time I have left will allow.”
“Are you sick?” Sonya asked in a panic.
BB smiled benevolently. “No, my Dear, I am in very good health for my age. But given my age, I have fewer years left than I would wish.”
CHAPTER 26
They walked side by side into the hospital, up the stairs and along the hallway to Bryan’s room. The man that had stood guard at the doorway was no longer there. BB stopped immediately, throwing his arm out to stop Sonya.
“We have a problem,” he whispered. “The guard is no longer in evidence. This is wrong. We are walking into a trap of some sort.” With that, his hand clamped upon Sonya’s arm and he turned abruptly into the room before Bryan’s. The folks in the room looked up in surprise.
“Quel joli petit enfant!(what a beautiful baby)” BB enthused about the red-faced infant squalling in its mother’s arms. “Excusez-nous, ça ce n’est pas la chambre propre,” he declared. “Je les ai appellez pour le numéro propre pour nos famille. Est-ce que ça c’est acceptable avec vous? (Excuse us, this is the wrong room. I will call for the correct room for our family. Is that acceptable with you?)
“Absolument!” the young father smiled, beaming at BB’s complement about his child. The people in the room, obviously proud grandparents, smiled back as if on cue.
BB never let go of Sonya’s arm. He flipped his cell phone open and hit a number with his thumb. “Worst case scenario,” he declared. “Instant response!” He closed his phone with a snap.
“Merci,” he declared to the young people with the baby. “Bonjour!” he stated as he was guiding Sonya out of the room.
A cell phone sounded and was answered by one of the grandfathers. He said something that she didn’t understand, and to Sonya’s absolute surprise, almost all of the people in the room seemed to mobilize, changing from gentle grandparents into soldiers, in what seemed to be the blink of an eye.
One of the grandmothers pulled out a cell phone and after punching a few keys, brought up a picture and shared it with BB. Another grandparent closed the door to the room. The apparent father of the infant pulled out a laptop from a case on the floor and within minutes, he had acquired a video of the room next door, Bryan’s room.
Sonya’s joy about this day turned into a nightmare. Weren’t the bad guys in jail? Why would Bryan be in jeopardy - again?
BB seemed to understand her questions despite the fact that she had not voiced them. “They want me, not Bryan. We did not realize just how much,” he stated very calmly. “Obviously, I have some knowledge that they want.”
Who were ‘they’? More bad guys, Sonya presumed.
BB studied the video of the room in which Bryan was hospitalized. There was a man in the bed, similar in coloring and height but it was not Bryan! Sonya’s eyes almost bulged, but a slight pressure from BB, whose hand was still around her arm kept her from saying a word. Her eyes questioned him, but his steady stare was enough to silence her.
“Call them,” he ordered. Sonya hadn’t noticed that others had joined those in the room, Maurice, Steve and Doctor Dupont as well. The mother and child had disappeared.
It was Doctor Dupont that took her hand and handed her a note. It read, “All is well. He is safe.”
Sonya handed the note to BB. He quickly scanned it and returned it to her with a quick nod. "Okay," she told herself. "Take a deep breath." He was the one that she trusted now. She felt that Bryan’s life depended upon it.
Then an image appeared that surprised them all. Madame Lalonde, dressed in the black outfit that was worn during the night operation, stepped into the video of the room in which Bryan had been treated. She held a gun. And it was pointed directly at Mike’s head.
She said something to the man in the bed pretending to be Bryan, and he slowly stood up, backed up to the door and left the room. Immediately upon the door closing behind him, there was a knock at their door. He entered, shaking his head, his gun still holstered.
BB appeared to be absolutely in shock. His normally unreadable face was painful to watch. Maurice stepped up and touched him on the shoulder. “C’est pour moi, maintenant,” he stated with empathy. “C’est pour nous autres.” (This is mine This is ours.)
“I must be the one to answer her threat,” BB replied. “This is about what she believes is my betrayal.” BB took a deep breath. “She has always believed that Lucien was my son. He is not. DNA has proven that. She is grieving about what he has done and is looking for payback. She has chosen to extract it from me. I can give that to her. Mike should not be the one to pay for what happened so long ago.”
He stepped back from the video as if to acknowledge Maurice’s command. “She is not thinking clearly. This has been very difficult for her. Let me talk to her, please.”
“Mon ami,” Maurice began with a very soft voice. “You have very good heart, which have make you so good with your task. You think of what is best for everyone. Lise is in terrible pain, this I know. But, we cannot allow her to hurt a civilian. This is not a
cceptable!
“Agreed!” BB replied instantly. “But, let me negotiate with her, we have a lot of background.”
“No!” Sonya stepped up. “Let me! We have been simpatico since this all began. She has no reason to hurt me. She is guilty that Lucien hurt Bryan. Maybe I can reason with her,” she pleaded both for Mike and for BB.
CHAPTER 27
“I have another thought,” Doctor Dumont interjected quietly. “We use her grandson. No other in la monde (the world) she love more.”
“I think you are correct Mama, it is good thinking. BB?” Maurice raised his eyebrows.
BB took a deep breath, trying not to look at the video of Mike with a gun to his head. He had only just met his son, and there was that much he needed and wanted to say to him before one of them died. And until now, BB believed that he would be the first one that passed away.
However, he was and always had been, a very practical and resourceful man. Had he been in charge, this would have been his choice. He had to stop thinking that the man in the other room was his son. If this situation were to be resolved without bloodshed, he had to start thinking with his head and not his heart. It had never before been a choice that he had been forced to make, and it was the most difficult one that he had ever faced.
“Your choice?” he demanded of Maurice.
“The boy,” was the immediate reply. “I have send for him.”
Letting out a deep breath, BB placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Were I in charge, I would decide the same thing,” he agreed. “We wish for no one to be hurt, including Lise.”
Nodding, Maurice picked up the telephone. It rang for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, they watched as Madame Lalonde picked up the receiver.
“Oui?” was all she said.
Maurice spoke quietly. “Lise, we wish to speak to you quietly and with our hearts.”
“What heart?” she asked bitterly. “You throw one of your own in jail? You have no heart! I speak to Merl, no one else.” And she hung up the receiver with a slam.
“Set up video,” Maurice ordered as he answered his cell. He handed it to BB and a call was placed to the room next door, the room in which Madame Lalonde held his son hostage. The price for his freedom was still unknown.
Taking a deep breath, BB faced the screen and spoke. “Lise, I understand that you wish to speak to me.”
A terrible look of anguish crossed her beautiful face. “You betrayed me, not once but twice. You do not deserve to be happy.” She poked Mike with the gun. He stood absolutely still, looking straight ahead.
“Lise,” BB continued. “Please look at the monitor in your room.” She looked quickly around, instantly focussing upon the monitor.
“It is blank,” she sneered, but the sneer turned to a look of horror, for on the monitor before her stood Sylvain and Mimi, standing in front of the hospital.
“Why is he here?” she demanded with hostility. “He is not a part of this. You promise when you sign papers that you look after him!”
“And I shall,” BB stated. “But, Lise, if you continue with this and if any harm comes to Mike, Sylvain will be told the entire story, both of his father’s traitorous deeds and of his grandmother’s. This I promise you. And you know very well, lise, that I always keep my promises.”
Lise’s face seemed to crumple a little. “You would not hurt a child.”
“But you will if this continues.”
“He is a child, an innocent child!” she almost shouted, appearing to become hysterical.
BB was choosing his words carefully. “And for him to remain innocent about what Lucien has become is your choice! He can believe that Lucien died a hero in the Middle East or he can learn the truth. You have only these choices. Will you choose to indulge your wish to hurt me, or hurt your own grandson? It is that simple.”
“Ce n’est pas simple! (It is not simple!)” Lise virtually shouted. Sonya could hear her shout through the walls from their vantage point in the room next door. Lise was becoming somewhat hysterical. She paced to and fro, never allowing her eyes or gun off of Mike.
“Lise,” BB’s voice could be heard. “Please put down the gun. We can talk this out between us.”
For some reason, this angered her and she aimed the gun at the monitor. In a lightening fast move, Mike body checked her into the wall, her injured shoulder connecting first. Her scream of pain and the gunshot pierced the air at the same time. The gunshot went errant and buried into the wall, sending shards of plaster bursting like points of starlight over the floor.
Within seconds, the room was filled with people with guns. Lise was slumped against the wall holding her shoulder and Doctor Dupont was crouching down beside her. Someone was rolling up the sleeve on Lise’s shirt and Doctor Dupont quickly cleaned a spot and inserted a hypodermic needle, dispensing some medicine. It took a few minutes, but eventually Madame Lalonde became placid, smiling at the room as if nothing had taken place.
“Are you all right?” BB asked Mike. “That was a very interesting disarming move.”
“The body check? I have never body checked a woman in my life, but then again, I have never had a woman hold a gun to my head before either. She’s very fragile, BB. I think that she’s just snapped. All that she talked about all the way over was how her son was gone and that she had nothing left. How all of her friends had deserted her, and that she had no reason to live.”
BB sighed. “She has so much more! She simply cannot see that right now. She will have no choice but to explore these feelings with professionals now. Perhaps this has happened for the best. You are certain that you are all right? Possibly, sometime, you can describe to me what a body check is?”
With a smile, Mike put his arm over BB’s shoulder. “I’m fine, really I am. You do look a little pale, though” he commented. BB’s laugh was somewhat hollow.
CHAPTER 28
Once Madame Lalonde was placed upon a stretcher and taken away by people in white lab coats, Sonya approached Doctor Dumont. “What will happen to her?” she asked.
“We take Lise for psychiatric testing. After that, it depend on what the psychiatrists recommend. Perhaps she can be treat, perhaps not. That is not my spécialité.” With a smile and a nod, she turned and began to walk away.
“Wait!” Sonya demanded. “Where is Bryan?”
Doctor Dumont stopped in mid-step. “I was not told,” she admitted honestly, as she turned. “Need to know! Secret! Mes enfants (my children) are both the same, they like little secret!” Obviously, she was somewhat annoyed with them, and with the entire incident that had disrupted her hospital.
“Ask Maurice!” she declared somewhat angrily over her shoulder, as she stomped down a corridor and through some swinging doors.
Sonya was beginning to get a little pissed off. She’d had enough of being shoved into the background while grown men and women played games with their lives. She marched into the room in which Bryan had been treated, the room where Madame Lalonde had held Mike at gunpoint. The first person that she spied was indeed Maurice.
“Where is Bryan?” she demanded without ceremony. “And don’t simply tell me that he is safe!”
Maurice raised his eyebrows a little. “He is safe,” he replied with a Gallic shrug.
“I have been patient until now,” Sonya stiffened, her eyes beginning to flash with the anger that had begun to build within her. “But, I have become very angry. I am not a chess piece in one of your hide and seek games! Neither is Bryan! As you French say, c’est fini!” With that, she sliced her arms across each other in the air with a karate type motion.
Sonya heard Mike snicker. It was a peculiar sound that he alone made, and had done so for as long as she could remember. She turned to give him a piece of her mind as well, when BB came forward to touch her arm.
“He is at the house. The sooner we leave here, the sooner we shall see him.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” she demanded, turned on her heel and walked out of the room.
“Do I take a taxi or are you driving?”
Maurice motioned his chin towards Mike. “She always have temper like this?” he asked.
“Only when she’s really pissed off, and I’d say that she has very good reason, wouldn’t you?” Mike answered, beginning to follow his cousin out of the room.
“I wish to speak to you,” Maurice stepped up to stop him.
“Of course, as long it’s either at BB’s or in my hotel room. Sonya’s right, this has gone on long enough!” Mike was already on his way down the hallway behind Sonya before Maurice was able to bring his jaw back into place.
“Your relative, they have no patience,” Maurice sulked. “We were almost finish.”
BB’s smile was broad and proud. “I do so enjoy a good bout of anger letting at times. It is so invigorating! I shall hold off on the round table until after lunch. No later. Mike is right. This has dragged on for too long already.” And he was out of the door striding down the hall before Maurice could reply.
True to his word, BB marched directly to his car and they proceed to his home, stepping out of the Mercedes as the garage door closed behind them. Sonya was first through the door into the hallway and quickly stepped down the hall into the living room. It was empty.
Turning to leave, she stopped in her tracks. Walking out of the kitchen was Bryan. He was walking slowly but walking on his own. His face was an explosion of greens, purples, yellows and blues, but it was smiling at her and for her alone.
All of the anger dissipated instantly, as her arms surrounded her husband. He winced a bit and she loosened her grip slightly, but never again would she let go of him, certainly not in France! His arms surrounded her and he exhaled a long sigh.
“Hey Babe!” he whispered.
“Hey yourself!” Sonya replied. “Are you okay?”
“I am now! And I’m starved! You should smell what’s cooking in the kitchen!” he smiled his crooked little grin. That sounded much more like the Bryan that she knew and loved. He was okay.
Secrets Page 10
