by Siegel, Alex
"No." Mrs. Walters shook her head. "Sorry. What about my social security checks?"
"Don't worry." Marina smiled. "Your checks are safe. We will ignore the change of address request."
"Thank you!"
"My pleasure." Marina walked away and heard Mrs. Walters' door close.
Marina stopped at the door for apartment six, just a few yards away. She knocked but got no response.
She had a set of lock picks hidden under her shirt. She expected opening the door would take less than a minute even though it had a deadbolt. However, she wanted to know what was behind the door before she opened it. In her experience the enemy never just walked away from an important place. They always left surprises behind for uninvited visitors.
There was a much safer way to enter, but it was also much louder. She grinned as she considered the idea. Being loud was a lot more fun than being quiet.
She opened her phone and called Edward back at headquarters.
"Hello?" he said.
"It's Marina. I'm at the address now."
"How does it look, ma'am?"
"It's a dump," she said. "I'm going to blast the door open. I don't want the police or the fire department crashing the party."
"How soon?"
"Ten minutes."
"Can you give me fifteen?" he begged. "I have to hack the phone system and reroute calls."
"Sure. Fifteen, exactly." She hung up.
She went back to the car. Along the way she propped open the door of the apartment building with a stick. She had taken the gray sedan since it had all the supplies in it, while Aaron and Smythe had taken the manager's car from the motel. Marina unlocked the trunk and frowned at the suitcases packed tightly inside. She started digging for the one containing the explosives. Maybe it's a good thing I gave Edward fifteen minutes, she thought.
She eventually found the right suitcase. Ethel had sent along a disappointing amount of C-4, barely enough to blow up a small house. Fortunately, Marina needed even less. She took some small charges, wiring, a timer fuse, and a smoke grenade. She wrapped everything in a towel to hide it.
She went back into the apartment building and climbed to the second floor. The hallway was clear. She placed the explosives on the door of apartment six in a pattern that would blow it out cleanly. She wired everything together and set the timer for one minute. Finally, she set off the smoke grenade and tossed it to the end of the hall.
She ran back down the stairs but didn't go outside. A few seconds later the charges detonated with enough force to shake dust from the ceiling.
"Fire!" she screamed. "Get out! Fire! Fire! Fire!"
The sound of hurried footsteps made her smile. People rushed out of the building into the cool evening air, some wearing mismatched clothes or even just a bathrobe. When Mrs. Walters came out of the elevator, Marina stepped aside so she wouldn't be seen.
After the residents had cleared out, Marina went back up to apartment six. The smoke made her eyes water but she ignored it. She found the door was blown out along with chunks of the surrounding wall. Perhaps she had used a tad too much explosive. She carefully stepped through the hole.
On the other side she found a broken shotgun attached to a wire. She guessed it had been set to kill anybody who walked through the door. There was also some white powder on the floor that looked suspicious. She made sure not to touch anything as she walked past.
The apartment seemed completely empty, lacking even a chair to sit on. She wandered from room to room, puzzled. The presence of the shotgun proved the Eternals kept something of value here. Where was the answering machine that Aaron had called?
There had to be a hidden compartment. She went back and forth, examining how the walls fit together. She tried to visualize the floor plan in her mind. After a few minutes she figured it out. One of the two bedrooms had no closet, but when she stood in the kitchen, she could see the space for it.
She went back to the bedroom and began tapping on the wall until she found the spot where it sounded hollow. It wasn't obvious how to open the secret door, and she wasn't in a patient mood, so she kicked it. A sheet of painted wood cracked. She drew a knife and pried open the crack until she could get her hands in. Then she yanked until the wood broke. Now she could peek through the hole.
There was computer equipment inside the closet, a lot of it. An entire rack was full of components. A nest of wires connected everything together and ran into conduits in the ceiling.
She called Edward.
"Hello?" he said.
"I'm inside the apartment."
"I know that, ma'am. I blocked several emergency calls."
"Good work," she said. "I think I found what I came for. There is a bunch of computer stuff here but I have no idea what it does."
"Take a picture with your phone and send it to me. Also, try to read off some of the model numbers so I can look them up."
She spent a few minutes sending photos and information to him while he searched the internet.
"I figured it out," he said. "What you have there is an incredibly expensive answering machine."
"Oh?"
"It sends and receives secure calls. Those are encryption modules and tamper-proof storage devices. That thing is military grade. Maybe we should have the same setup here."
"What do I do now?" she said. "We need to listen to the recorded messages."
"That may be impossible. You'd have to haul all the equipment back here. Then I'd have to spend months trying to crack the codes, while avoiding the security measures. If I touch the wrong wire, the hard disks will erase themselves. The whole rig was designed to prevent what you want to do, ma'am."
She frowned. "We can't just give up."
"Hmm." He paused. "We might not be able to listen to the messages, but we can figure out who made the calls. We just need the phone numbers."
"Great. What do I do?"
"It looks like that hardware is connected to a lot of phone lines. Can you trace the lines back to a junction box?"
"But they go up into the attic," she said.
"Then I hope the attic isn't too dusty, ma'am."
Marina sighed. She started searching for an access panel in the ceiling. After looking through the entire apartment and finding none, she went out into the hall and finally spotted one. She leapt to knock the panel out. Then she jumped again, grabbed the edge of the hole, and pulled herself up. She dropped the panel back into place.
Distant sirens were getting louder. Apparently, Edward had not stopped all the calls to the police.
Muttering curses, she crept through the cramped, dark attic. A few inches of loose insulation covered the floor. The only light came from ventilation slots in the gables. She eventually located the conduit, which was a thick white pipe made of PVC. She followed it to the point where it exited the building through a side wall. She memorized the location.
Voices below indicated the police had arrived. They were probably in the hall, which meant she needed another way out.
She noticed the floorboards were loose. She swept away the insulation with her hands and used a knife to pry up a board. Underneath she found the drywall ceiling of the apartment below. She cut a small hole with her knife and peeked through to confirm the apartment was empty. Then she kicked out a larger hole and dropped down, landing softly. She immediately ran to a window, slid it open, and jumped out.
The fall was only a single story, but she didn't exit the window cleanly and tweaked her ankle when she landed. Fortunately, she fell onto soft grass. She grimaced but she could still walk.
She brushed herself off and straightened her clothes. She had just finished tidying up when a fireman came around the corner. She smiled and nodded to him.
"Ma'am?" he said. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, thanks."
He looked up at the open window. "Did you jump?"
"No." She shook her head. "Why would I do that?"
He furrowed his brow. She walked away, making su
re not to limp.
She circled the building in search of the conduit. She did her best to avoid interacting with the emergency personnel, but some of them insisted on trying to be helpful. She attracted the most attention from the younger male police officers, of course. She didn't want to make a scene, so she allowed them to fawn over her.
She spotted the conduit. It was painted brown like the brick, but the color was different enough to prove that it wasn't original construction. The conduit went down to a metal box attached to the wall. The junction box, she thought. It had an oversized padlock. With all the people wandering around, there was no way to pick the lock without attracting attention.
The conservative solution was to come back much later, when it would be dark and quiet. However, that plan required patience and she hated to wait. The attentive police officers gave her an idea.
She went over to a fireman who was giving orders to the rest. He was a tall, handsome man with a bushy, brown mustache.
"Hi!" She gave him her friendliest smile.
His eyes lit up and he returned the smile. "Hi. What can I do for you?"
"I'm Deborah Page, from Sure Safe Security. We received an emergency alarm signal from this location."
"There was some kind of small explosion."
"I hope nobody was hurt," Marina said.
"No serious injuries so far, but we're still searching the building."
"Thank God." She smiled again, making sure he got a nice look at her perfect teeth. Aligning and whitening those teeth had required a lot of painful dental work. "I wonder if you could help me with something. I need to reset the security system."
"Go ahead."
"The control panel is inside that box." She pointed at the phone junction box. "And I forgot the key. I was hoping one of your fine, young men could snip off the lock."
"Oh." He glanced at the box. "Should we check with the manager first?"
"I tried calling but he's not answering. I'm sure it won't be a problem. Sure Safe Security is preauthorized for situations like this." She tilted her head and smiled a third time. She projected innocence and sweetness.
He gave orders to his men.
Another fireman grabbed a hydraulic cutter from the back of a truck. Marina led him over to the box, and he chopped off the lock easily. The cutter simply sliced through the thick, steel hasp.
She opened the box and found a confusing nest of wires inside.
"Is that all you need, miss?" the fireman said.
"Yes, thank you. I'm all set. Good bye."
He hesitated, then left her alone.
Marina called Edward. "I'm looking inside the junction box."
"OK," he said. "There must be a form or a printout which will tell you which numbers are in use."
"It's on the cover. I'll take a picture with my phone." She snapped a photo of the printout.
"Got it. I'll get right to work on these numbers. What's your plan?"
"There's nothing else for me to do here, so I might as well go home. Tell Aaron to meet me at the apartment for a late dinner."
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "Good night."
* * *
A door buzzer woke Aaron. The clock showed 7:30 AM. Somebody was ringing his apartment from the front door of the building, but there was no good reason for anybody to visit, certainly not at this hour. Nobody outside the Society even knew he or Marina lived here.
Marina got out of bed at once. "It could be a solicitor. Go check it out while I get dressed. We should head over to headquarters anyway. We've slept enough."
Still naked, he went to a speaker by the front door and pressed the reply button. "Hello? Who is it?"
"Aaron? Is that you?" a woman said.
The voice was very familiar, but hearing it was such a shock that his mouth just hung open.
"Say something. I know you're there."
"Yes, Mom," Aaron said at last. "It's me."
Chapter Thirteen
Marina hurried over, still in her underwear. "Is that really your mother?"
Aaron nodded. "What do I do?"
"How did she find you? This is very bad. Wait! Who was that guy we met on the street a few days ago?"
"Pete Sanborn. Shit! He saw us come out of this building. He knew my parents were looking for me." He shook his head. "We made a huge mistake. We should've never come back here."
"We were distracted by the mission, but that's no excuse. Damn it." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Ethel will be so pissed."
"I have to talk to my mother."
"No!" Marina said. "We should sneak off before more damage is done."
"But I never said goodbye to her. I owe her one, final conversation."
"Terrible idea." She shook her head.
"I have to."
"You'll be the one who explains it to Ethel."
"I understand." Aaron pressed the reply button on the intercom. "Come on up." He buzzed her in.
He hurried back to his room to put on some clothes, but he had no idea what to wear. What was appropriate for a surprise reunion with an abandoned parent? He settled for simple slacks and a shirt.
Marina put on a black dress that was surprisingly formal and elegant. She also wore diamond earrings.
"Are you trying to impress her?" he said.
"This is my introduction to the mother of the man I love," she said. "I'm going to do it right. I just wish I had time to fix my hair."
"Let's not make a big deal out of this."
"Way too late for that."
His neck tight with anxiety, he opened the front door of the apartment. His mother was a moderately pudgy woman with brown hair. Glasses made her large brown eyes seem even larger. She wore the blue winter coat he had purchased for her as a birthday present years ago.
When she saw him, she threw herself forward and hugged him. Her cheeks glistened with tears.
"Mom, calm down," he said softly. "I'm fine, really."
She stepped back. With a fierce expression she slapped him hard across the face.
"What was that for?" He touched his stinging cheek.
"You asshole! Everybody thought you were dead! We even held a service for you. I cried for days."
"I... I..." He couldn't tell her the truth.
"Is that all you have to say?"
Marina stepped forward. "Hello." She put out her hand. "Aaron told me so much about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you!"
Mom was clearly too upset to shake hands. With a contemptuous glare she said, "You are...?"
"Carol," Marina said.
Mom studied her at length. Marina stood silently until the examination was completed.
"You're beautiful," Mom said in a tone of surprise.
"Thank you."
Mom turned her attention back to Aaron. She looked him up and down. "You're in good shape for a corpse. Your muscles are huge."
"I've been working out a lot," he said.
"Where have you been? What have you been doing all this time? Last I knew, you were a private detective. Then you disappeared."
Aaron looked down, unable to conceive of a reply. He had rehearsed many cover stories for situations like this. He could pretend he was a spy, a drug dealer, or a fugitive from justice. Marina would back him up no matter which direction he went.
The most important thing was convincing his mother to go away. If she were part of his life again, she would be in great danger. There was a saying in the Gray Spear Society that went "a Spear only has two kinds of friends: teammates and Death."
But he loved his mother. It was ridiculous to pretend those feelings didn't exist. Surely God didn't expect him to sever the sacred bond between mother and son.
He made a decision, one that would probably get him into trouble. "Mom," he said, "I'll make a deal with you."
"What?"
"Don't ask any questions. Stop trying to find me. Don't tell anybody I'm alive. You never saw me. Do you understand?"
"Why?" she said.
"Because
if you follow those instructions, I'll visit you. I don't know when or how often, but at least you'll see me. I can be a tiny part of your life again."
"Aaron!" Marina gave him a warning look.
He ignored her. "But if you break the rules, I'll disappear forever. I guarantee you'll never see me again. That's the deal."
"But..." Mom said.
"This isn't a negotiation. I want to hear a yes or a no."
"You won't tell me anything."
"I can't." He shook his head. "Sorry."
She stared at him for a long moment. "On one condition. You have to visit your dad, too. He deserves that."
"I told you this isn't a negotiation."
"But I don't like the deal. I want to tell everybody you're alive."
Marina was glaring at him, and he couldn't argue with her unspoken criticism. His mother had just turned a delicate situation into a dangerous one. Aaron might not be willing to kill her, but Marina would.
"Mom," he said, "don't play hardball. I will think about visiting dad. Now, I need you to say 'yes.'"
Mom looked at him, then looked at Marina. You were always a good judge of situations, Aaron thought. Can you see how close to death you are?
"OK," Mom said. "Yes."
"Great!" He kissed her on the cheek. "Now go. Good bye."
"When will I see you again?"
"I have no idea." He gently ushered her out the door and closed it.
He and Marina stared at each other. The disapproval on her face expressed her feelings better than words could have.
"I had no choice," he said.
"Really?" She raised her eyebrows.
"She's my mother!"
"It will be interesting to see Ethel's reaction when you make that argument."
He hung his head. Interesting wasn't quite the right word. Suicidal was more accurate.
"But I love you," Marina said, "so I'll grant you a stay of execution. You can tell her when you're ready. Let's finish the mission first."
"Thank you. I love you, too."
* * *
The conference room in headquarters was as crowded as Aaron had ever seen it. He, Marina, Ethel, Smythe, Kamal, Ramirez, and Edward occupied most of the chairs. Ethel sat at the head of the table in her formal gray robes which marked her as a commander.
