by W. J. May
“Well, good evening.”
Both she and Devon froze in their tracks as they pushed open the door to find Carter, not Mallins, sitting behind the mahogany desk.
“I wasn’t expecting you two until tomorrow morning.” He stood up to greet each of them before gesturing them to sit. “To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you two to be sent out on a mission together at all, but I’m sure Victor had his reasons…”
Despite his gesture to sit, she and Devon were still frozen in place. Their eyes widened as both wondered the inevitable question: For this particular mission, might it have been better to have Mallins? After everything they’d been through, Carter knew them both a little too well.
“Sit,” he repeated, eyeing their reluctant posture curiously. “You’ve both done this before. It looks like we have a lot to go over. Let’s start at the beginning.”
Rae and Devon flashed each other a quick look, taking a seat and angling as far away from each other as possible. They were silent for a moment, both waiting for the other to begin, until Carter finally threw up his hands.
“Someone speak!”
Devon cleared his throat nervously. “We arrived at the Savoy, got ready for the event, and proceeded straight to the ballroom. Once we identified Jackman White, we maneuvered ourselves close enough that I was able to put on the tracer. Then we headed up to his office and proceeded to go through the papers we found there.”
At this point, Rae silently handed the photos across the desk to Carter.
“As you can see,” Devon continued, “Mr. White has been funding the Xavier Knights for quite some time. I suspect that he inherited it from his father, and his father before him, and so on.”
“Excellent.” Carter nodded brusquely, flipping through the pictures. “Any problems?”
Devon faltered. “I’m sorry, sir?”
With the expression of someone who didn’t miss much, Carter glanced up and fixed both teenagers firmly in his gaze. “I said…did you two have any problems? With the mission?”
Their eyes flicked to each other once again before both looked decidedly away.
“No sir,” Devon said softly, “no problems.”
Carter stared at them for a moment, before slipping the pictures in his desk. “Good. Well, if there’s nothing further, then you’re dismissed. I’ll see you later this week for training.”
Devon pushed to his feet, but Rae lingered there, staring at Carter imploringly. “Actually, sir, I was wondering if maybe I could talk to you for a minute?”
Carter frowned curiously as Devon froze by the door.
“Yes, of course, Miss Kerrigan. Mr. Wardell, I’ll see you in a few days.”
Devon’s hands tightened on the knob, but he didn’t move. “Uh, Rae—I’m your ride. Do you want me to wait, or…?”
Shit! Of course he is! I didn’t think of that…
Rae froze in dismay, the whirlwind of emotions in her head prohibiting her from landing on a single coherent thought.
Fortunately, in an act of sheer mercy Carter stepped in and saved the day. “That won’t be necessary, Devon,” he answered, fixing Rae gently in his eyes. “I can give her a ride back to London. In fact,” he stood up and got his coat, “we can talk in the car.”
The three of them walked out of the Oratory in awkward silence, each one not quite understanding what exactly was going on. The second they were in view of the parking lot, Devon gave them a quick nod goodbye and vanished through the trees. Cater stared after him with a slightly worried expression before turning back to Rae.
“Do you want me to ask again…were there any problems tonight?”
* * *
Rae had to hand it to him: Carter didn’t press. In fact, when she again denied that anything had gone overtly wrong on their mission, he let it go without another word. And this was coming from a man who could simply touch her skin and know the truth.
She slid gratefully inside his car and buckled her seatbelt, sniffing around at the smell of softened leather. It was one of those luxury vehicles that was just as expensive as Devon and Julian’s prized sports cars, but was suited to a slightly older man. He climbed in beside her and revved the engine. A minute later, they were flying down the country roads to London.
“So,” he finally asked as they veered off onto the interstate, “are you going to tell me what’s on your mind? Or were you just looking for an excuse to escape Mr. Wardell’s reckless driving?”
Rae tilted her head down with a smile of embarrassment. She hadn’t realized how long she’d just been sitting there in silence.
Carter turned to her with infinite patience. “What’s going on, Rae?”
She nervously chewed her lip. Where did she even begin? And how much of what she told Carter would end up getting back to her mom? “Does this stay between us?” she asked quietly. He turned to her in surprise. “I mean, do we have, like, agent-supervisor confidentiality or something?”
The car slowed down slightly and he twisted round with a look of concern. “Rae, what is it?”
She sighed. “I don’t like Mallins being president.” It was an innocuous enough way to begin, but the layers of complication wound up in that statement were too numerous to count.
Carter stared at her for a second more, before his lips tilted up in a hard smile. “Nor do I.”
“He took me out to lunch the other week. Basically told me that for the good of everyone around me, I should shuffle off to the far corners of the earth. He flat out said he didn’t know why in the world I would be a considering taking back my job with the Privy Council.”
Carter gave her a sharp look. “He said that? He said that, and then he assigned you to work again with Devon?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He thinks I’m dangerous. He doesn’t want me corrupting his precious agency.”
They were quiet for a while, both thinking hard.
Finally, Carter turned back to the road with a sigh. “Well, fortunately it’s not entirely up to him.” He cast her a sideways glance. “But, Rae…I’m fairly sure that’s not what you wanted to talk to me about.”
Her face flushed guiltily and she dropped her eyes to her lap. Was she that easy to read? This was getting ridiculous. “I may have …I made a little detour in Scotland.”
His eyebrows raised, but he kept his eyes on the road. “Okay…?”
“Because I found a letter my father left for me back at the old farmhouse.”
He flashed her a look, but said nothing.
“A letter that led me to this inn, that led me to this tree, that led me to this…” She shook her head, unable to handle Simon Kerrigan’s eccentricities right now. “Well, long story short—here.”
She tossed him the final piece of the brainwashing device. The piece no one probably knew existed. Except her father. Could he have hidden it from Cromfield as well? She shook her head. That didn’t make sense. Her father worked for the man. He left the Privy Council to follow him. Or be like him, or something.
She’d been carrying it around in her coat pocket ever since she got back, wondering what in the world she was going to do with it now that Mallins was in charge of the Privy Council. Now that she maybe, kind of, possibly suspected the Privy Council. But right there, sitting in the car with Carter, the answer was suddenly clear as could be.
Whether the Council was corrupt or not, Carter certainly wasn’t. She realized that she would trust him with just about anything. She would trust him with this.
He caught it in surprise, and turned it over to see what it was. “Is this…?” His voice trailed off in shock. “Is this the—”
“It’s the final piece,” Rae finished. “I didn’t want to give it to Mallins, so I’ve been hanging onto it for a while.”
Carter was stunned. “You found this in Scotland?” She nodded silently, and he shook his head in wonder. “Rae, we hid four pieces. But this…this is different. No one in the world had any idea this existed or where it was buried. We’ve never been able to
gather any credible intel as to its location.”
She sighed again. “Well, now you’ve got it. I would just…be careful who you tell.” Her voice dropped an octave and she stared out the window. “Never can quite tell who to trust these days.”
There was a crunch of tires, and all of a sudden the car pulled to the side of the road.
Rae turned to Carter in alarm, but he was staring at her with that same calm attentiveness that over the years, she had come to expect.
“Rae Kerrigan,” his voice was neither stern nor casual, but somewhere in the middle, “tell me what was in the letter.”
She stared at him silently as cars whizzed past.
She’d already given him the piece; she might as well go the rest of the way. Of course, that didn’t mean that he was going to like anything she had to say.
“He told me not to trust the Privy Council. He said that their record wasn’t exactly spotless and that the whole organization wasn’t as it seemed.”
Carter nodded encouragingly as she hesitated to go forward.
“He told me to…” she faltered, “…to look into my grandparents. Which I did, and…I know this sounds crazy, but I don’t think my dad killed them.” She peered up tentatively, but Carter’s face was unreadable. She couldn’t tell if he was taking any of this seriously, or if he was preparing to haul her off for being as demented as dear old dad. “Anyway, I flew to New York to ask my uncle some questions and look them up, but I couldn’t find much of any information. So…” This time she couldn’t go forward. How was she supposed to sit in the President of the Privy Council’s car and confess that she was about to perpetrate a crime?
Carter inclined his head and caught her eye. “So…?”
Her shoulders stiffened, and she decided just to go for it. “So I decided to become an agent again, so that I’d have access to the PC mainframe and I could try to find out what really happened to them.” She said it all in one breath, and found her hand half-reaching for the door—preparing for an escape should one become necessary. The locks snapped down.
Her eyes flashed up in fear, but Carter was smiling gently. “Well, it’s not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I can’t say that I’m surprised. After all, it’s been a few weeks now since you’ve gotten into some sort of mischief—I guess you’re due.”
“You guess I’m…?” Rae couldn’t believe her ears. Was Carter actually okay with this?
“Who’s helping you?” he asked suddenly. She froze guiltily, and he rolled his eyes. “I don’t believe for a second that this is something you’re doing alone. So tell me now. Is it the whole crew? The fearsome-foursome back in action? Your mother?”
She bit her lip, but as he hadn’t yet called in the armed guards, she didn’t see the harm in telling him. “Just Julian.”
He looked vaguely surprised. “Just Julian? No one else?”
Devon’s face floated across her mind, and she shook her head firmly. “No one else. I didn’t even want to involve Jules, but he saw it happening.”
Carter nodded. “Of course he did.” There was a spray of gravel, and the car eased slowly back onto the road. “Well, Rae, I’m not going to encourage you in this, but I’m not going to discourage you either. I would only caution you not to get your hopes up.”
Have I entered some sort of parallel universe?!
“Sir,” she began cautiously, “of course I need to thank you for that, but…”
“But?”
She swiveled her body around to stare at him full on. “But why on earth aren’t you having me arrested—again? I just told you that I’m going to break into the PC to steal confidential files.”
Carter looked at her for a moment, then sighed. “Rae, I’m not trying to stop you because I know what you’re going to find.” His voice grew unexpectedly soft. “Simon killed them. I’m sorry to say it so bluntly, but it’s true. Then again, if that’s something that you need to find out for yourself, I completely understand. And I won’t try to get in your way.”
Rae sat there for a minute as the heavy implications of that statement sank in. She was grateful, for sure, but something about the resigned way he said it made her suddenly afraid.
“Sir, if I do happen to find out something different…would you like me to let you know?”
He chuckled softly. “Miss Kerrigan, by now I’d expect nothing different. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you if it doesn’t go how you’d like.”
She nodded slowly. “I won’t.”
The road flashed by as he veered off towards her apartment. They were just rounding the corner of the park, when he turned back to her suddenly. “And Rae?”
“Yes, sir?” She could have sworn he flashed her a wink.
“Don’t get caught this time…”
Chapter 10
“I can’t believe you!”
Julian paced back and forth in front of the sofa, waving his hands as he cursed under his breath.
Rae, meanwhile, sat calmly on the center cushion, trying to project an air of serenity. “Jules,” she tried to be pragmatic, “I only told one person.”
He whirled around on her, looking fierce. “The President of the Privy Council! You told the President of the Privy Council!”
“Yeah…he was the one…”
“I don’t understand.” He sank onto the sofa beside her, dropping his face into his hands. “Do you want us to get caught?!”
“No,” she said emphatically. “Actually, I’ve been told specifically not to do that this time.”
He shot her an equally impressive look of malice. “I’m in serious danger of trying to actually kill you, Kerrigan.”
“Hey, buddy,” Rae patted him tentatively on the back, “what happened to, ‘you’re like a sister to me, Rae. We’re family.’ What happened to that?”
“I got past it.”
She dropped her hand. “Julian—”
“I can’t see what’s going to happen; you know that, right?” He looked up seriously. “There are too many variables at play.”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” Rae stressed for the millionth time. “Look, it’s simple. We break into the Oratory, head down one of the tunnels, steal a classified file, and take it back to—”
“Whoa—wait,” he held up a hand to stop her, “what are you talking about?”
She leaned back suspiciously. “What are you talking about?”
“If neither one of you know what you’re talking about, could I recommend the both of you simply shut up?!” Angel shouted from the next room. “I’m trying to watch TV in here.”
Rae looked up with a frown, and Julian rolled his eyes.
“She never had television as a child. Big surprise, Cromfield didn’t keep one in the bat-cave. I can’t get her off Netflix.”
Rae grinned. “Aw—poor baby.” Finally, a normal problem. Well, minus the backstory about the cave…
He shot her a withering look. “It’s not funny. Between that and your early morning wake-up calls, my sex life is taking a serious hit.”
Rae dropped her eyes guiltily and chewed on her lip. She had scaled the wall and climbed up to his balcony this morning so as to avoid waking Devon by accident in the house. Needless to say, it had been an unfortunate repeat of the previous morning’s interruption.
“If it helps, you two look really good together—”
“Please. Don’t. Don’t try to make it better.” He closed his eyes with a painful expression.
She nodded swiftly. “Got it. Why don’t we just stick to the plan?”
“I think that would be for the best.”
She gave him a playful nudge and he opened his eyes with an exasperated grin.
“So, when I said we’re going to break into the Privy Council to steal a confidential file,” she repeated, “you weren’t expecting to break into the Privy Council and steal a confidential file?”
He leaned back and shook out his hair. “No. Partially because I swore I’d never do that again, and partiall
y because the files you’re talking about won’t be confidential. They’re open to every agent with code-word clearance to read.”
Rae’s mouth fell open. Was there a handbook somewhere that no one had ever bothered to tell her about? “Really?”
“Yeah. The only rule is that you can’t make any copies. Because of that, people generally just read them right there in the reference center, and then put them back.”
“We have a reference center?”
“Devon was right.” He paused. “You kind of just sit there and color until it’s time to go, don’t you?”
Rae ignored the comment. “So we just ask for the files on my grandparents and read them in the reference center? That’s it?”
Julian grinned. “Yeah, genius. Not everything is scaling walls and smoke grenades. A lot of what we do is actually done on paper.”
A wretched exercise she had apparently been able to avoid thus far. Rae shot him a devilish wink. “Where’s the fun in that?”
He got to his feet. “I’m going to pretend like you didn’t say that so I can get back to trying to reclaim my girlfriend from “Grey’s Anatomy”, or “Lost”, or whatever it is she’s stuck on now.”
A voice from the other room piped up, “It’s “Scandal”!”
“Ooh,” Rae’s eyes lit up, “that’s a good one!”
Julian rubbed his face. “You two are going to be the end of me.”
Rae giggled and got to her feet. “So we’ll go this afternoon?”
“Cool. Fine. Whatever.”
She shot him a disparaging look and he threw up his hands.
“SEX, Rae! I’d like to have SEX with my long-lost girlfriend. Vámonos!”
“Got it. Right. No problem.” She gathered up her purse and headed to the door. But halfway out, she stopped suddenly and leaned against the frame. Devon wasn’t home, so the wall-scaling thing had kind of been in vain. “Just one more thing.”
“Rae…”
“Last night at the Savoy, there was this moment where Devon and I kind of—”
