Cursed Blessing

by J. M. LeDuc

  “Tow service, please.” He gave the dispatcher the address of The Loft and the address of the garage where he wanted the car towed. Then he called a cab to take them back to Ferric’s place. He didn’t look forward to telling Mr. Ferric that they’d lost Brent and Chloe. The cab company told him it would be an hour before they could pick them up. Thomas looked at his watch. It was 6:00 a.m.

  CHAPTER 24

  Maddie had hardly slept. The image of Lucille, beaten and drugged, played in her mind. The more she thought about it, the angrier and sadder she became. She had called Ferric the night before to ensure him that Lucille knew nothing about ‘the formula’. When Ferric found out that Lucille was still alive, he was shocked. His men had told him that they pumped enough drugs into her system to kill a horse. Whether from a lack of sleep or pure emotion, Maddie broke down. It was 5:30 a.m. She cried so hard and loud she was afraid her neighbors would hear. She buried her head in her pillow to muffle the sounds. She cried until she had no more tears.

  When she could finally think, she realized it was the first time she’d cried since Joseph had been killed. He didn’t die of natural causes, Maddie knew, she just didn’t know of a way to tell Lucille. She figured the poor woman had suffered enough.

  Through her sobs, Maddie thought about Joseph. I’m so sorry, Joseph. I hope you can forgive me. I hope that one day Lucille can find it in her heart to forgive me, too. I’ve been so stupid, but I promise I’m going to make it right. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make it right. You had your reasons for trusting this librarian and you trusted me when nobody else would. Now, I’m going to trust you. She lay quietly for a moment longer. “I miss you,” she said out loud. Then she started crying again.

  By the time Maddie regained her composure, it was nearly 6:00 a.m. She knew what she had to do—confront Donavan and get information out of him about the formula. Though she didn’t want to, she was prepared to use force.

  As she readied herself for the day, she decided to dress and live the rest of her life in a manner Joseph would have been proud of. She grabbed her purse and headed for the door. It was 6:45 a.m. She knew Donavan Ferric liked to get up early.

  Ferric’s home was thirty minutes from her place. He lived on the northern most point of Palm Cove. When Maddie arrived at the gate of the compound, it was just about seven fifteen. She announced herself through the intercom and was buzzed in. She drove through the gate and up a long, winding, palm tree-lined drive. Maddie pulled down her sun visor and checked her makeup in the mirror, an old habit, before she got out of her car. She walked up the stairs to the front door, but before she could ring the bell, the door opened.

  Jacques, Ferric’s butler, held the door open. “Please come in, Miss Smith,” he said. “The master is waiting for you in the office. I must ask you to hold your arms straight out by your sides while I check for weapons.” After he frisked her, he turned wordlessly and, with Maddie in tow, walked down the hallway to Ferric’s office and through the metal detector. Maddie had rightly assumed she would be searched before being allowed to see Donavan. She purposely didn’t pack a gun or anything else that might be misconstrued as a weapon, except for the wooden hair stick she used to hold her up-do.

  The butler knocked on the door and announced Maddie. “Miss Smith is here to see you, sir.”

  “Splendid,” came a raspy voice from behind the door. “You may let her in.”

  The butler opened the door and let Maddie walk through first. She scanned the room for cameras. Then she saw Donavan Ferric, sitting in a wheelchair facing the window. What she couldn’t see was that he was watching Thomas and James get out of a cab and walk toward the house. Ferric spun around, looked straight at Maddie and told her to have a seat.

  “I don’t plan to be here long, but thank you for the invitation.”

  “Suit yourself,” he said. “What can I do for you, Miss Smith?”

  Maddie got straight to the point. “First, you can leave Lucille Conklin alone. She knows nothing about any formula, so you can call off your dogs. Second, if I knew what I was looking for, I would have a much easier time retrieving it for you.”

  Donavan Ferric took a deep breath of oxygen from the mask hanging around his neck and said, “How dare you come into my home and demand anything of me. If you had done your job with any degree of competency, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and Mrs. Conklin would not be involved. As it is, whether she knows anything useful to me or not, she is now a liability and must be dealt with accordingly. If my men had done their job correctly the first time, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Now, get out of my sight before you end up like that pathetic, weak boss of yours.”

  His last words triggered Maddie’s anger. She walked up to Donavan and, as she did, she removed the hair stick, causing her red hair to cascade around her shoulders. Maddie stood directly in front of the old man. With one hand, she swept his hand off the control lever and held it in place while she pushed the hair stick into the top of his carotid artery, not hard enough to puncture the flesh, but certainly hard enough to get his attention.

  “You couldn’t hold a candle to that man. If you ever insult him again, I’ll pith you like a frog in biology class. Do you understand me?” She pushed the stick a bit firmer against his flesh. He nodded in acknowledgment. “Good. Now, about that formula.”

  At that moment, the doors flew open. Thomas and James with guns drawn. “Back away and put your hands in the air or you’re as good as dead,” Thomas yelled.

  Maddie heard the trigger cock. Although she knew she could have easily killed Donavan before they killed her, she also knew that she could not help Lucille if she were dead. She backed away from the chair and put her arms in the air.

  “Turn around.”

  Maddie turned and faced the two men. James walked over to her and grabbed her arms, pulling them down and then behind her back. She stared straight ahead. Seeing Thomas’ acned scarred reddened face gave her the chills. It was unadulterated evil. Thomas holstered his gun and walked up to Maddie. Using the back of his hand, he lightly stroked her cheek.

  “Since you want to play a man’s game, I guess I’ll treat you like a man.”

  With that, he backhanded her across the face. Her head snapped to the side. He hit her again before punching her hard in the stomach with his fist. Maddie doubled over in pain, spitting blood from the force of the blow. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her up. She was bleeding and her eye had started to swell shut. Thomas bent down and picked up the hair stick from the hardwood floor. He grabbed her by her hair and, jerking her head back, put the point of the stick up against her carotid with enough force to pierce the flesh. A drop of blood formed on the surface of her skin. He breathed in the aroma of her perfume.

  “You might play a man’s game, but you’re definitely a woman. Unbutton your blouse and let’s see what you’ve got under there.”

  James let go of Maddie’s arms. With quivering hands, she unbuttoned the top button. Thomas hit her again in the stomach.

  “Not fast enough,” he yelled.

  Maddie wanted to cry, but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Again, he grabbed her by the hair so that her face was in front of his. She felt the spittle from his yell.

  “If you can’t do it faster than that,” he growled, “then I’ll break your freaking fingers.”

  “Enough,” came a weak, gurgling but commanding voice from behind Maddie.

  “Turn her to face me.” James swung Maddie toward Ferric. “You’ve been given a job, Miss Smith. Find the formula and bring it to me. I will give you one more day to complete your assignment. If you do not return with it, I will happily let Thomas have his sadistic way with you before he kills you. Do you understand?”

  She nodded.

  “Good.” Ferric looked up at Thomas and James and said to them, “Now, get this piece of trash out of my hous
e.”

  Thomas grabbed her by her hair and practically dragged her out of the office and down the hall. “James, get the door.”

  As James opened the door, Thomas looked her straight in the eyes. “I, for one, hope you fail,” he said. He licked a drop of blood off her cut lip, and then pushed her out of the house and down the stairs. Maddie hit the pavement hard enough to knock the wind out of her. As she crawled to her car, she coughed, trying to catch her breath. With difficulty, she got into her car and drove away.

  As she left the compound, the shock started to wear off. Then the pain intensified. Maddie looked at herself in the rearview mirror and couldn’t believe how swollen her eye had become. That jerk must have been wearing a ring, she thought. She put her sunglasses on to avoid drawing unwanted attention.

  On the way back, she decided to drive to S.I.A. headquarters, a warehouse in an abandoned, rundown part of town. Townspeople had wondered why these warehouses hadn’t been torn down, why city redevelopment hadn’t at least given them a facelift so they could be leased to prospective businesses. In truth, the property was owned by the government, the S.I.A. and the city could do nothing about it.

  Maddie parked her car in the back of the building and pressed the remote button on her mirror. What appeared to be part of the back wall of the building slid open to make a hole that Maddie quickly drove through. As soon as her car was completely inside the building, the door automatically shut. The inside was a far cry from the outside. It contained the best and most advanced high-tech computer equipment the world had to offer. If Steve Jobs or Bill Gates walked into S.I.A headquarters, they would salivate.

  Maddie walked over to the control panel, turning on the power with a voice command. The Strategic Intelligence Alliance had been shut down since Joseph’s demise. The government wasn’t sure if she had ‘the right stuff’ to run such a highly-placed, highly-covert agency. Both the president and the head of Homeland Security knew of her past. Joseph was too honest to keep that information from them. When Maddie said she’d been a different person then, Joseph smiled and took her by the hand.

  “Maddie, I trust you with my life, every day. I have no doubt that they will, too.”

  But the fact was, they weren’t as sure. The men at the top had a difficult time with her past profession and never quite understood Joseph Conklin’s insistence that she should be second in command and his successor if anything happened to him. When Joseph died, they ran scared and ordered that the entire operation be shut down.

  Maddie went to the infirmary and cleaned her cuts as best she could. Luckily, nothing had been touched since the agency officially closed, so the pharmacy was still stocked. Maddie found the tetanus vaccine and gave herself an injection.

  “Oh, that hurts,” she said aloud as she pushed the hypo plunger into her shoulder.

  She went to the freezer and removed an ice-cold spoon. Knowing that what she was about to do would burn a great deal, Maddie first took a couple of deep breaths. Looking into the mirror, she took the spoon and pressed it against her eye as hard as she could.

  “Err, that burns,” Maddie grunted. Her hand started to shake from the pain, but she held her composure and didn’t pull it away from her skin prematurely.

  If she removed it too soon, the only thing she would accomplish would be to tear the first few layers of skin off her face, scarring it for life. After five minutes, the spoon had warmed up enough that she could remove it without any negative effect. She looked into the mirror a second time. The swelling had gone down drastically. Maddie took another spoon out of the freezer, this time applying it to her lip. When she’d finished giving herself first aid, she walked to the command center and turned on the mainframe.

  Okay, Joseph, she thought, let’s see if you left me any information or clues to what formula Donavan Ferric is willing to kill for. For one solid hour, she tried every conceivable word and phrase she could think of, but got nowhere. I need to try another angle, she thought. “Okay, Maddie, think.”

  She knew she and Joseph had no secrets between them except for this one, so she used his log-on password to get back onto the computer. She keyed in the word trust and the S.I.A. welcome screen came on. The background was a picture of Joseph, Lucille and herself sitting around the dining room table last Christmas. It was captioned, “Family.” Tears ran down Maddie’s face as she stared at the picture. She touched the monitor as if to caress Joseph’s face.

  “I can’t do this alone, Joseph. I’m lost without you,” she cried.

  The salt from her tears stung her cut. She gently dabbed her eyes while a thought occurred to her just as she was about to turn the computer off.

  Hmm, I wonder what would come up if I entered Brent’s name. Let’s just see. “BrentVenturi.” She hit Enter. No such entry. Okay, how about this? Brent Venturi. Enter. No such entry. “No Data Found on Item Search,” was the message. That’s odd. Every civilian with a social security number comes up on that search engine. Maddie stared at the blank screen.

  What if I search the Pentagon’s top secret files? It took a few minutes for Maddie to change search engines and enter the encoded passwords to do a Pentagon/Secret Service search. I know this is a dead end, she thought, but here goes. Brent Venturi. Enter. The computer gave her nothing, and Maddie assumed it was finished. I knew it was a dead end. Then a picture of Brent popped onto the screen and beneath it, the caption: “Captain Brent Venturi.” Well, I’ll be, Maddie thought. As she read the twelve-page entry, she was mesmerized and amazed.

  Captain Brent Venturi served in Delta Force’s Phantom Squad, the most covert entity in the military. Their missions are unknown, but what is known is that Captain Venturi has never failed an assignment. He is proficient with every handheld weapon the army has and is lethal with his bare hands.

  Last known whereabouts: Grand Teton Mountain Range, advanced training site where he single-handedly saved the other two Phantom Squad members and their commanding officer from certain death. Current whereabouts: Unknown. Family History: Born Brent…

  Son of a gun, Maddie thought, no wonder he looks familiar to me. She was in a mixed state of shock and excitement as she shut down the computer and locked up HQ. I thought I needed to talk to him before, now I really need him to contact me. As she climbed into her car, Maddie had a flashback.

  “Good god!” she said out loud, “I squeezed his crotch and threatened him. Not too smart. He could have killed me before I had a chance to defend myself. I’m glad he’s not a psycho.”

  She turned the ignition key, thinking, Joseph, you trusted Brent with something of great importance and now I see why. I’ll do everything I can to help Captain Venturi. The thought felt like a rebirth of heart and soul. Maddie felt a glimmer of hope and joy for the first time since Joseph’s death.

  CHAPTER 25

  Chloe drove down the coastal road for about a mile before she pulled onto a shell rock, mangrove-lined path. The sign at the entrance read: “Authorized Personnel Only. Trespassers Will Be Fined.” As they drove, both Brent and Chloe felt a sense of comfort. This is where they used to go to watch the sunset and talk or just spend time alone. It was also the place she’d first told him she loved him.

  Chloe stopped at the far end of the dirt road where it dead-ended into the mangrove forest. She turned off the ignition and looked over at Brent. She saw apprehension in his eyes.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “Come on, let’s take a walk,” he answered.

  They got out of the car and Brent took Chloe’s hand as they walked onto the sand. They removed their shoes and walked to the water’s edge where the waves rolled onto shore and broke over their bare feet. That feeling helped Brent regain a sense of calm. When he’d first returned to Palm Cove after leaving Phantom Squad, he’d spend hours standing at the water’s edge. Brent put his arm around Chloe and pulled her close. After a few minutes, he turned to Chloe a
nd clasped his hands around her waist.

  “I need to tell you the truth about why I couldn’t tell you how I really felt that night we broke up.”

  Chloe told him it wasn’t necessary, although she really did want to know.

  “Please, Chloe, don’t say anything. At least, not until I’m finished. This is going to be hard enough as it is.” Brent knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loved Chloe completely, but he also knew that he wasn’t good dealing with emotions. A huge part of his Phantom Squad training was in how to close yourself off to emotion. Squad motto was “Emotion will get you killed.”

  Brent took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “When we first started seeing each other, you were working on the Palm Cove project. I had information I knew would help you not just be successful, but blow it out of the water. When you asked me what I knew about the city’s architectural history, I said I didn’t know anything. Well, that wasn’t exactly the truth.”

  Brent stopped talking and looked down at the sand. “This isn’t coming out the way I’d meant to say it. Let me go back, way back, to the beginning. During the time we were together, I know I talked a lot about my grandfather. Maybe too much, I don’t know.”

  He hesitated once more before he started talking again. “My family has inhabited this area for at least five generations. My great-great-grandfather was the architect of most of Palm Cove, including the building that is now the library. When he built it, he built hidden rooms behind a false wall that is part of my office. When I was a child, my grandfather used to let me play in those rooms. He’d say they were our secret, and he made me promise I’d never tell anyone they existed. When I asked him why, he’d never give me a direct answer, only that I needed to trust him and do as he instructed.”