“You invited us,” said Theresa, who was crying now. “We got your letter a few days ago.”
“You said to meet you here,” said Roland. “I didn’t know you even knew about this place. It’s kinda new, after all.”
“He don’t look dead,” said Mary. “Can we eat?”
“What you been doin’, son?” asked Roland, a concerned look in his eyes. “Last we heard, you was overseas. You still in the military?”
“Are you married, Cricket?” asked Theresa.
“No, not married,” said Luther. “I’m working for several military suppliers.”
“You could visit more,” said Theresa. “I might be dead, for all you knew.”
“Can we eat?” asked Mary again.
Luther was dumbfounded. He had to get away from them, or something bad would happen. Was Alex threatening his family, or did he just want to slow Luther down? Against Luther’s will the pleasing aromas of the restaurant’s food invaded his body.
“Where’s everybody else?” he asked warily. He was thinking about how many of his family were not yet within the rule. Micah, Ruth, and Thomas were not involved so far.
“Well, the rest knew about this but chose not to come,” said his mother.
“It’s okay,” said Luther. “Uh, let’s eat.” Alex was gone, so now Luther had to make sure his family wasn’t further compromised. If he ran out, they might try looking for him, and that would be bad. And something else. He missed them. He had to admit it; he missed seeing the familiar faces of his people.
“One more coming,” said Mary.
“I thought you said the others were—”
Just then Vanessa Brown, Luther’s high-school sweetheart, walked into the restaurant, looking almost exactly the way she had ten years before. She was tall and gorgeous. The glasses were gone, and she wore a pair of black pants that showed off every curve of her body, which was exquisite. She’d topped the pants with a crisp white shirt unbuttoned to the swell of her cleavage. He felt that tug in his gut, that pinching warmth that a boy feels the first time he realizes what girls were put here for.
She approached their table and smiled. Luther smiled back sheepishly. He didn’t feel like a government assassin, a lethal weapon, and the key figure in a major investigation. He felt like a kid embarrassed when a teacher finds the love note he’s tried to pass. Suddenly he was embarrassed at his hesitation. He didn’t know what kind of look was on his face, but his mother was smiling so broadly that he could see every tooth in her mouth.
“Hey, Luther,” said Vanessa.
“Hi, Vanessa.” He moved closer to her but didn’t feel himself do it, and from behind him he could feel his mother’s urging smile and hopes for a quick wedding and grandbabies.
“She’s ‘Dr. Brown’ now,” said Theresa excitedly.
“Congratulations,” said Luther. “I didn’t know.”
“No big deal,” said Vanessa. “I’m a general practitioner. I guess I never was really decisive.” She laughed. “So what do you do now?”
Instead of answering, he hugged her. She felt good, and now Luther was fighting more than memories. Vanessa was awakening desires that were best left undisturbed.
“We were just about to eat,” said Luther.
“That’s why I’m here,” said Vanessa.
“Girl, how did you get into them pants?” asked Mary.
“Don’t embarrass me,” said Vanessa.
“You do look nice,” said Luther.
“Yes, she does,” said Theresa too quickly. “She’s not married, you know, Cricket.”
“Cricket,” said Vanessa, smiling. “I remember that name.”
Luther didn’t want to remember it. He wanted to ask his mother to stop calling him that, but he knew she wouldn’t. She needed it.
They ate, enjoying Sweet Georgia Brown’s fabulously soulful cuisine. Luther dodged questions all night. His mother made him promise to come by her house.
Vanessa made small talk, but Luther could see she wanted to speak with him alone. He took her phone number but did not offer his own.
The meal was filled with dangerous questions about what Luther had been doing with his life. He handled them expertly, drawing from his memories of Theories of Manipulation class, a fancy name for the art of lying. His family now believed that he’d been traveling the globe for a military supplier.
They soon stopped questioning him about his life and moved on to the troubled lives of his siblings. It seemed the family was in chaos. His brother Micah was on drugs, and Ruth had two babies by two different men. Thomas had drifted from unemployment to worthlessness and was now flirting with crime.
Luther didn’t know what the hell was going on. His family had never been a model of behavior, but before now they had always steered clear of most of the bad shit in the ’hood.
His parents had an answer for this. It was their theory that the family had fallen apart largely because of Luther’s absence. They felt that the entire family had to get together and have a sort of inner intervention to solve the problem. Theresa even wanted to invite a minister, but Roland axed that idea.
Vanessa just stared into her plate, understanding that she was suddenly in the middle of an embarrassing family situation.
Luther was speechless. He could not allow this to happen. Having them all in one place made it a perfect strike opportunity for Alex. He demurred on attending, but his parents vowed to have the meeting anyway. And now he remembered how determined they were when they set their minds to something. They were a formidable pair. They had built a life from nothing, but in the end the vagaries of inner-city life had stolen their power and reduced their children to statistics.
Luther sat frustrated by his secrets. He had no good choice here. Alex had plunged him into Rule 35, and it was just as awful as he had imagined. Family was the ultimate inconvenience to a government agent.
Dinner over, Luther said hasty good-byes to his family and Vanessa and then walked outside into the coolness of the night. He hated to leave them without protection, but he had no choice.
He had taken only a few steps when he realized that someone was following him. He quickened his pace and stepped behind a big SUV as if to cross the street, then waited at the rear of the vehicle. He could hear his pursuer approaching. Luther would have to disarm and neutralize him quickly, then go back to his family and make sure they were okay.
A shadow moved by the side of the SUV and stopped. To the pursuer, Luther had disappeared. Luther listened as the person hesitated, then took another step toward him. The shadow crept closer to the edge of the SUV, and Luther could wait no longer. He sprang from his hiding place and grabbed the man. His hand shot out to the pursuer’s throat and squeezed tight. He was about to yank hard when he saw the lovely face of Vanessa.
“Vanessa?” said Luther.
“Luth—” she tried to say, but her wind was cut off. Luther let her go, and she coughed.
“Sorry,” said Luther, feeling embarrassed.
Vanessa held up a hand to tell him either that it was okay or that she needed a moment to get her breath.
“Arch your back and breathe,” said Luther.
Vanessa did, and soon she was better. Luther stood there on the dark street, letting go of all the instincts he’d almost used to kill his high-school sweetheart.
“I wanted to talk to you alone,” said Vanessa.
“About what?” asked Luther in a voice that didn’t sound like his own.
“It’s gonna sound silly to you.”
“Then just say it.”
“Why did you disappear like that, leaving everyone you know behind?” The words tumbled out of her as if she’d been wanting to say them for a long time. You made us all feel like we weren’t important, Luther.”
Luther knew that he’d left behind a lot of damage when he joined E-1. He’d have to choose his answer carefully.
“I’m a government assassin,” said Luther. “I travel the world and kill our enemies to protect truth, jus
tice, and the American way.”
“So you really aren’t taking me seriously, are you?” said Vanessa, and for a second she looked like a pouting teenager.
“Vanessa, we can’t go back,” said Luther. “I made a choice a long time ago for whatever reason, and I’ve assumed a life that has taken me worlds away from the one I was headed for—the one we were destined for. Things are too different now for me to forget all that.”
“I—” Vanessa started, then stopped herself and nodded. “I understand,” she said. “I don’t really know what I want from you, Luther. I guess I’m just very curious, and I need some kind of personal closure.”
“Closure is for people who have problems, Vanessa,” said Luther. “We never had a problem. I was here in one life, and then I left for another. It’s done.”
“And me?” she asked.
“Part of the life I left,” said Luther. And then, hearing the harshness in what he’d said, he added, “Regrettably.”
Realizing that he’d brought the threat of harm and death to Vanessa and his family, Luther kissed her gently on the cheek. It was as much as he dared to do. He let the moment slip away and then turned his mind back to finding the wolf.
Luther walked off, leaving Vanessa behind and thinking about Alex somewhere in Detroit, laughing at him and planning his next move. He thought about Sharpie, who would probably be backwashed by Alex soon. But mostly he thought about the people whose lives were now potentially forfeit to his mission.
Turnabout
The Rough Riders tune pumped loudly in Luther’s room the next morning. He was still in mission mode. He got up and called Hampton. Hampton came over, and they pulled themselves back into the mix.
“I searched the newspaper database for any story that might lead to the wolf,” said Hampton.
“Anything?” asked Luther.
“The usual stuff about the growing anti-Arab sentiment and the terrorist alerts—and one other thing you might be interested in. The police database turned up a Eugene Sharpe, who died when he lost his footing on an overpass and fell into oncoming traffic on 1-75 last night.”
“Alex had Sharpie backwashed,” said Luther.
“More than likely he had someone else do it,” said Hampton. “Chucking a body onto a freeway is not E-1 style.
Luther wondered absently how many men Alex had working for him, how much money he’d given them, and whether any of them knew that when he was done, he’d kill them.
“I have a theory,” said Hampton. “Would you like to hear it?”
“Do I have a choice?” asked Luther.
“No. I think the wolf is behind the heightened terror alert.”
“Why?” asked Luther.
“Unknown at this time, but the growing number of attacks on the Arab community has the stink of black ops.”
“Yes,” said Luther. “They seem planned, measured. The question is…”
“Why?” Hampton finished. “I don’t know, as I said, but I have another theory that I’m sure you’ll agree with. Whatever the reason is, you’re integral to it.”
“Alex knows about my family,” said Luther. “And in Detroit there are many ways for him or a man like Nappy to reach out and cause harm to them in order to draw me out. Rule 35 isn’t mandatory; it’s designed to give an operative an advantage as a last resort.”
Luther had sent his family and Vanessa back to their lives, oblivious to any danger they might be facing. He was sure that Alex wasn’t threatening them directly. It was just a warning—for now.
Luther’s Ion sounded. He answered it on the first ring.
“Wolf here,” said the strained voice of his old mentor.
For an instant Luther was thrown into a state of shock. Alex was clever indeed.
“How did you get this number?” he asked as he mouthed Alex’s name to Hampton.
“No way,” said Hampton. He connected Luther’s Ion to his computer and then patched it in to E-1.
“I didn’t teach you all my tricks,” said Deavers. “It took time, but I finally got the right codes.”
“They’ll just change them tomorrow,” said Luther.
“It won’t matter,” said Deavers. “I’ll only need the number this one time. So did you kill your TWA yet?”
“No. Is that why you called?”
“He’ll turn on you in the end, Luther. And tell him that by the time he finds out how I got into the system, this call will be over.”
“You know I won’t do that,” said Luther.
“You could shoot him now while he’s on the computer.”
“Your sense of humor has grown very dark, my friend,” said Luther.
“If you can’t laugh at yourself, you should die,” said Alex.
“You’re not well,” said Luther. “You were almost killed. Can you be sure of what you’re doing?”
“Maybe not,” said Alex with a trace of a sigh. “Will you blindly follow orders, or will you question the home office?”
“I have my mission, and I will complete it,” said Luther defiantly.
“Even at the expense of your loved ones?” Alex sounded superior, and at this moment he was.
“Just tell me what you’re up to.” Luther was stalling, trying to think of a way to get more information out of him.
“You needed to be trained as an agent—or in this case retrained—by me. I wanted to open your mind to the possibility that your agency isn’t what it seems. Did Kilmer let you work on that heating unit, or did he order you to leave, find me, and allow people to die?”
“You coordinated the whole thing?” Now Luther wasn’t stalling. He was impressed. “You’re sick, Alex, and you’re having paranoid delusions.”
“If that’s true, then we’re both dead, my friend. I’ll be in touch.”
The line went dead. Hampton disconnected the Ion and saved the digital file, for what it was worth.
“He doesn’t sound crazy,” said Luther.
“Then he’ll kill your family,” said Hampton.
“If Alex employs Rule 35 against me, so be it.”
“You’re willing to sacrifice your family that easily?”
“It’s my job. I knew the risks when he led me here.”
“If it were my family, I’d do anything I could to save them,” said Hampton.
“You are the most by-the-damned-book agent I know,” said Luther. “All of a sudden you have a heart?”
“We can stop the wolf,” said Hampton, not responding directly to Luther’s challenge. “He’s been smart, but his weakness is that he has employed civilian subagents. We’ve been unable to get to him, but maybe we can use his man Nappy against him.”
Suddenly Luther smiled broadly. “Yes, we can. And since he’s a part of Alex’s team, perhaps Rule 35 can help us now.”
Jewel was walking quickly away from school. She’d cut her last two classes, hidden in the girls’ room, and sneaked out through the cafeteria, which was safe passage because the old men and women who worked there never told on you. She figured that they were bitter about their jobs and could care less if some kid wasn’t getting the supreme knowledge afforded by the Detroit public schools.
She rounded a corner and saw a car coming her way. It was a tricked-out Lincoln Navigator, and she ran behind some bushes to hide from it. It could be one of her uncle’s soldiers, and she couldn’t let them see her. If Uncle Chokwe found out that she was cutting class, he’d be pissed, and the first thing he would do is stop giving her money. The second thing…well, she didn’t want to think about it.
Jewel loved her uncle Chokwe, but he was too old-fashioned. All he talked about was boys and having sex and how it would ruin her life. At first she thought he was right. The boys were silly and hormonal. Many of them screwed her friends and then told everybody about it, something that terrified her. She was sure that she’d be a virgin for the rest of her life.
And then she met Veshawn. He had been a senior at her school before she ever got there. He was a po
pular guy and a star on the basketball team. Veshawn was tall and muscular and had an easy smile like that other basketball player, Chris Webber.
Veshawn was a dealer, but he sold only weed. She knew that her uncle Chokwe was into the drug trade, or at least that was what Rita always said. Jewel wondered at first whether Veshawn worked for her uncle, but he didn’t. Veshawn was a rarity in the city: an independent.
The Navigator passed, and Jewel moved on, hooking a turn at a corner and then moving swiftly up the street. She saw Veshawn’s car, a Mercedes, parked in the driveway of a modest little house, and she went to the side door and knocked hard.
Veshawn came to the door wearing nothing but a smile. His penis was erect, and Jewel smiled at the sight of it.
“What you want?” he asked casually.
“I’m lookin’ at it,” said Jewel. “Now, let me in before somebody sees me.”
Jewel had been having sex with Veshawn for more than a year. He had slowly seduced her with smooth talk, soft kisses, and lots of presents.
Jewel told Veshawn about her uncle, and for a while Veshawn was afraid to see her. He knew about the man called Nappy, and he understood that screwing Nappy’s only niece would mean his death if Nappy found out.
But Jewel persisted with him. She liked his deep, silky voice, his big hands, and the way he kissed her, sucking at her tongue and giggling like a schoolboy. He was amazed by her body and looked at her like a hungry animal. This made her feel powerful and beautiful, something that was a treasure in the hardness of her life.
“I love you,” said Jewel as they made love. Veshawn grunted something like “Me, too,” and descended on her breasts. Jewel exploded with feeling and sensation. Slowly the world around her melted away, and she let her passion consume her. As she was lifted by her desire and then her fulfillment, she kept telling herself that this could not possibly be wrong.
Two hours later Jewel emerged from the house and got into a car with Veshawn. He drove her to a spot several blocks from her house, then let her out. She again told him that she loved him, then kissed him good-bye.
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