“Mr. McConnell,” the man in the back seat said with a smile, “...and Mr. McConnell, Jr., perhaps I can just call you Luke? And greetings to you as well, Mr. Rhinehart.”
“You have me at a disadvantage,” Edwin said stiffly as he settled into the seat of the car and fastened his seatbelt with an uneasy glance to the driver.
William’s expression was somewhat sullen, someone having stolen his thunder. “Edwin, this is Thomas Howard. American controller, British Intelligence.”
“Controller?”
Thomas waved that off. “I’m afraid it’s an awfully grotesque title signifying only that I’m the point of blame for whatever goes wrong. But only in this country.”
“That doesn’t narrow the possibilities by much,” Luke muttered, glancing around the car and wondering what the odds were for escape.
“No, it does not. More goes belly up in this country than any other posting.” Not that Thomas seemed bothered by that. Job security, Luke supposed.
“Larger landmass,” William said as the car sped off down the surface streets.
“Quite,” Thomas said dryly. “May I?” He tugged the flyer from William’s hand and looked at it and nodded. “I should have realized. To the convention center, Driver.”
“Odd,” William said. “I was under the impression that you were based in New York, and yet here you are in Houston. You couldn’t have arrived in less than... what... eight hours?”
“Six, actually, but the plane will need some extra maintenance.”
“Maria is one of yours, isn’t she?”
Edwin looked up from the window. “What?”
Thomas said nothing at all for the longest time. When he glanced back at the passengers in back, he smiled a little. “She is. She used to be one of yours, but Americans seem to be such consumers. Use something a short time and throw it out for something newer. Shame, really; I do think she’s a better operative now than she was twenty years ago.”
“Sixteen,” Edwin said, his expression hard.
“My mistake. At any rate, she was still collecting. That’s quite remarkable really. The fact that she’d woven a network of informants so vast and complete and did the entire thing after she was considered a liability and sacrificed, her daughter, too... You really must admire the iron in someone like that.”
“How did you know about Houston?” William pressed, leaning forward, angry now.
“My man inside, of course.”
“Marcus,” Luke said as the puzzle pieces came together in his mind. “It could only have been Marcus.” Damn, this game is complex.
“The same. Very loyal; unfortunately, not to me. On the other hand, he still reported in regularly and, despite his refusal to abandon his charge, he continued to provide good intel. We don’t dispose of our people as readily as you do.”
“Knock off the holier than thou act, Thomas.” William rolled his eyes. “I had nothing to do with that decision, and you know it.”
“Marcus was that loyal?” Edwin said, a hint of wonder in his voice. “To me?”
Luke shot him a glance. Seriously, the guy teared up over a loyal henchman and ignored the fact that his own daughter needed him. And I thought my family was dysfunctional.
Thomas laughed, and seemed to surprise himself by it. He stopped mid-chuckle and held up his hand dismissively. “No. I am sorry if I was unclear, Mr. Rhinehart; I meant that Marcus’ loyalty to Danielle was complete. Not to you.”
“Dani?” Edwin raised his eyebrows until they threatened to roll over the top of his head. “But he’s my age! And... aren’t you marrying her?” He rounded on Luke, shades of Mafia coming out in the glare, and the sudden way he drew himself up.
He chooses NOW to remember who he is?
“Get your head out of the gutter!” Luke snapped. “He means that Marcus felt protective of her—he was the father she never had.”
“I resent that,” Edwin snapped, the very hair on the top of his head seeming to bristle, the way a dog’s hackles would rise when it spotted a threat.
“Tough,” Luke snapped right back, tired of holding back for the sake of politics or discretion or whatever the hell reason you were supposed to have to not deck a guy. “I saw it, that day at the party. I saw how you doted on that psychopath son of yours, Dani’s half-brother. And I heard you slap her down. You told her she wasn’t even considered for Markland. How the hell do you think that made her feel? It’s no wonder she despises you.”
“Like your relationship with your father is so stellar,” Edwin sneered.
“Gentlemen! Enough!”
Both men snapped their heads around to stare at Thomas. Luke was about ready to stuff that gun in his hand down his throat if he started waving it around one more time. His temple throbbed with built-up frustration and rage.
He hated them in that moment. Every last man in that fucking car. Thomas’ scheming only added to the fire started by William’s blatant use of Dani as bait, and Edwin’s complete and utter lack of caring in regard to his daughter. Maybe Edwin had had a point—he hadn’t exactly been a devoted son, but then William sure as hell was never going to earn a Father of the Year award. They were all screwed up in their priorities, caring only for whatever got them ahead in this idiotic, crazy game of international politics and intrigue.
But Luke cared nothing for any of it. Let empires topple. What did it matter to him if another politician exploded like a fireworks display—all flash and bang and then the inevitable fade into darkness. The world was full of people who’d brought ruin upon themselves. There was always another politician to take their place. Would the world truly end if it became public knowledge who had a mistress or who played what faction against the other? Was he unpatriotic to not want to protect the imagined integrity of his country against the slings and arrows of public opinion?
The only thing Luke knew in this moment was that his world would end if anything happened to Dani. It was impossible to understand how in such a short time she’d become the most important thing in his world. He pictured her face, the range of expressions from laughter to tears. They’d seen each other at their worst, they’d fought alongside each other, and still somehow came out on top. They would again, because they had to. The alternative was just too terrible for words.
He kept picturing her, lying in a pool of her own blood, a victim of his father’s schemes. The car was moving too slowly; they’d never get there in time. And the whole thing would be his fault. No, not his father’s, though he wanted to blame him for it, but his own for pulling her into this whole mess in the first place. It would have been better for the thumb drive to have been destroyed after all. But he’d been so intent on the mission that he’d given little thought to the woman he should have been thinking about all along. Hadn’t he realized then that he loved her?
He had... but he’d loved duty more.
Now, as he looked from William to Thomas, he had an unpleasant view of where that kind of commitment would lead you. Maybe both men had believed in something noble and more worth fighting for at one point in time for another. But to him, they looked too much like squabbling children to take seriously.
Though, as he was finding out, he had plenty of room for the absolute loathing that had led them to this place.
He’d seen a movie once where terrorists had collected a group of hostages. One of the agents had remarked to a member of the S.W.A.T. team that they could go in and stage a rescue with only a 25% projected loss rate. The second man had laughed and said, “I can live with those odds.” At the time Luke had been enraged that the death of any individual at all could be ‘acceptable.’
Now he was seeing it in action.
He stared at his hands balled in his lap. If I ever get out of this, I need to take an anger management class. How many times have I wanted to punch someone today?
Luke shot a look at William. “Tell me what’s so all-fired important on that thumb drive that you’d risk the life of not only my fiancée and mother, but the lives of how many innocent people in that expo just to get your hands on that thumb drive?”
For once William didn’t come right back with a glib comment. He stared out the windshield, jaw set.
“And Maria? You don’t even have an ounce of loyalty to someone who was one of your own? All her hard work? You make that the only thing that matters, and hang her life in the balance the same as everyone else’s.”
“He has a point,” Thomas said into the silence.
William turned his head slightly. “What point?”
“It occurs to me that you have let go the woman whose data this is, ostracized her as a ‘liability’, and abandoned her. Then, a decade and a half later, finding out that she’d borne fruit, you swept in and demanded the lot, even after having refused to support the woman. This is not very polite, William.”
“Again, that was my predecessor’s call, not mine.” William’s words were sharp. Clipped.
“No? You did send them to the...” Thomas waved the flyer, “Convention Center, did you not? To use them as ‘bait’, as your son so helpfully pointed out?”
“He shouldn’t have said that!” William shot Luke a look.
“Are you kidding me? Like I give a rat’s ass about protocols and secrets. You have endangered the WOMAN I LOVE—”
“WHO CAN TAKE CARE OF HERSELF JUST FINE!”
Luke could feel the vein pounding in his temple. “I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” He slumped against the seat, feeling only the aching loneliness that clawed at him whenever she wasn’t there. “But that doesn’t mean I like when she’s in harm’s way. And I should think if you have any heart left in that withered old chest of yours, you’d understand that.”
They stared at each other, clearly at an impasse.
“I don’t know if this will help or not, but I need to inform you that the bait was nibbled,” Thomas said with a heavy sigh, “if you will please excuse the analogy. Person or persons unknown fired on the passengers of a car rented to you, Mr. Rhinehart. Marcus, Danielle, Maria, and...” he turned to William, “your ex-wife, were in the car at the time.”
“Attempted?” William said coldly. His face was white as a sheet.
Luke stopped breathing.
“Attempted, William. According to my sources... well, perhaps it’s best if I show you.” He pulled a tablet from the seat beside him and pressed PLAY. The angle was from high above. “We had a man in a helicopter in surveillance. He would have provided assistance but, as you will see, it was unnecessary.”
The three of them watched in horror and awe as the scene on the highway played out. At the end, Edwin said, “Wait, why did the car flip over?”
“According to our man, when the passenger door popped open, the former Mrs. McConnell leaned out of the door and fired a single shot into the oncoming car’s tire. Apparently, they are finding bits of her hair on the freeway.”
“She was hurt?” Luke demanded.
“Not that we can tell. She just... lost some hair. We’re on our way to them now.”
“Thomas,” William said, “how did you know? You and Maria and these...” He gestured to the blackened tablet. “How did you all know to be in Houston?”
“As for our foes, I can only assume that there is a leak somewhere in the communications cycle. You have no idea the extent to which Maria’s network spreads. I have never seen anything like it. Apparently, having found no statue at the church matching the vague description provided by your son, our man traced the donation to Mrs. Pinal and did some... exploration of his own. As the statue was not in her possession, but a receipt from Federal Express was...”
“Wait,” Luke said, “while we all slept in our underwear, Marcus slipped out, broke into the church and Mrs. Pinal’s house? Without any of us noticing?”
“Impossible.” William shook his head. “I would have known. I was right there...”
“Oh, I do have a message for you from our Marcus, William. I’m to tell you that he actually loathes the smell of kimchi. I hope that makes sense.”
Luke felt worlds better. Sometimes a good belly laugh at someone else’s expense was just the tension- breaker you need. And for once, he didn’t mind in the least when Edwin butted in, and joined him in his laughter.
William fumed, arms crossed, staring so hard out the window it was a wonder the glass didn’t break. “I can’t wait for the bachelor party,” he muttered half under his breath.
***
“WE NEED TO DITCH THIS car!” Dani said as they limped past an exit. The next one should be the convention center if they held together in one piece long enough. She slid down in the seat, noticing the looks they were getting from people in the cars around them. “It stands out too much.” Something clattered on the pavement behind them.
“Nothing important,” Elaina sang out. “Just another hubcap.”
“I don’t think that’s an issue,” Marcus said over his shoulder. “The police are working for your future father-in-law. Everyone else seems to know where we are anyway. I suggest that since the convention center is within reach, changing cars now would be a delay.”
Dani looked at her mother and, hopefully, future mother-in-law. She suddenly realized they were waiting for her decision. Somehow she had been elected to be in charge. She sighed. She’d never liked the responsibility that went along with command. Hated it in fact. She’d been more comfortable either working alone, or in just being one of the men.
You have no choice. Get it together. They’re counting on you.
“All right, you’re right. But when we get there, try to find a place to bury the thing so it doesn’t stand out too much!”
The look he gave her spoke volumes.
“I don’t know, park next to a dumpster! Set it on fire! How the hell should I know?”
“You’re thinking like a merc, my angel,” Maria said, leaning in to talk quietly. “You need to think more like an infiltrator. The time for stealth is over. Coming in on the president’s plane removed that option for all time.”
“William is not known for subtlety,” Elaina scoffed. “He has the get-a-bigger-hammer approach to everything. Problem is, sometimes it works.”
“Like now,” Maria agreed. “Right now, we have a foot race to capture the flag.”
“Balls to the wall!” Elaina cried.
Maria looked at the woman and whispered, “Yes. Quite.”
Dani stared at them. Maybe she had been letting her experience in the backwater cities and jungles take over. It was what she’d learned. Luke was the one who’d had to deal with civilization and protocols and interfacing. For a moment she wished she could have him there, to ask his advice. For a moment she wanted him to tell her what to do. It passed quickly.
“You’re right,” Dani said, pulling her shirt down and straightening it.
“Good heavens, your shirt is torn!” Maria pulled the cloth, noticing for the first time the rip along the stomach “Was that from me?”
“Yeah. One of your heels. I still have welt where it grazed me, but the shirt took the worst of the damage.”
“That’s a different shirt?” Elaina asked, looking closer.
Dani opened her mouth to answer, unsure how they’d gotten sidetracked yet again, when Marcus chose that moment to swerve across three lanes of traffic. He rode two wheels on the raised shoulder before cutting back in front of the slow traffic in front of him and bouncing the car so hard the bottom scraped. Sparks showered in an arc that reached over the roof, and he fishtailed into the fast lane. Dani fell against her mother and struggled to right herself.
“I thought it was the same shirt,” Elaina said, clucking over the tear. “You ripped this one, too?”
Dani shrugged, and pulled the hole toward her for a closer inspection. “I usually am better with my clothing than this, but it’s been a tough couple of days.”
Marcus accelerated, passing between two cars, and cut off the one on the right. He hit the exit ramp starting from the left lane and cut across the freeway. A panel van with Nick’s Plumbing and Works locked up its brakes and skidded sideways to make room for the battered car.
“You tore another shirt?” Maria asked. “Where?”
“Same place, for the most part,” Dani said, looking at the hole again.
“No, I mean where is it now?”
“Ah... Air Force One, I think.”
“You left your dirty laundry on the president’s plane?” Elaina covered her mouth, her eyes wide in shock.
“Not the first time dirty laundry was found in the president’s bedroom,” Maria said dryly.
Elaina looked up at her and laughed. “Oh, my dear!” She crowed to Dani, “You’ll save the day by getting the stick, but you’ll topple the presidency with a torn shirt and a pair of old shorts.”
“William bought us all new clothes,” Dani said, feeling a little defensive as Marcus ran a red light and pushed through a busy intersection. He didn’t hit a thing, but the cars around him buckled and fenders crumpled as he passed. Horns blared. The sound of sirens blossomed in the distance. “I left my panties and a bra in there, too.”
Maria looked at Elaina and snickered. Elaina by this time was gasping for breath she was laughing so hard.
Marcus crashed through the signs that said EVENT PARKING $5 and the car flew over the entrance curb, gathering air, and crashed down in front of the convention center.
“Ladies!” he called. “We have arrived.”
They abandoned the car in the front of the center. The suspension groaned once before the passenger axel broke and the wheel quietly rolled away, back to the workers replacing the parking signs with orange cones and hand-lettered signs on cardboard.
Dani led the charge to the front door, but a phalanx of men stopped them.
“Tickets are available over there.” This was Stanley, according to his shirt. The other pocket read “Houston Security Services”, and the huge badge that hung from the front of that pocket pulled his shirt down on one side, making him look less impressive and more like a boy playing dress-up.
Dani caught Marcus’ hand. “No,” she said under breath, “let’s try to do this without weapons, shall we? It’s only a bridal show.” She pelted down the steps and came to realization that she was out of money. “Um... Can someone lend me $20?”
Elaina reached into her pocket and wadded a bill to throw at her. Dani ran back to the ticket booth. “Four, please,” she said, and handed the crumpled bill to the perplexed woman in the ticket kiosk.
“Eighty dollars is your change,” she said, fingering the bill uncertainly and then holding it up to the light. “I hope you don’t mind if you get it in fives.” She pulled out a wad of bills from the cash box. “One.” She turned the next bill to align it with the previous. “Two.”
Dani reached in and grabbed the four tickets, and ran back. The security guard took them and looked back at the woman still counting five-dollar bills. “Don’t you want your change?”
“MOVE, BOY!” Marcus growled, and the startled security guard took an involuntary step backward. His men looked at each other and started forward, only to be quelled almost instantly by a look that struck terror into their very hearts.
It was all the hole they needed to push through into a hallway that culminated in a series of heavy metal doors. One stood propped open down on the end, creating a bottleneck where eager women waited patiently to have their hands stamped so they could go out and come in again later.
“How does she do that?” Dani asked, half under her breath.
Elaina blushed modestly. “Practice. What is the quote? Something about telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip?”
“Winston Churchill,” Maria murmured as the three of them pushed through the heavy metal doors. “I wasn’t sure that applied to facial expressions, but you certainly got the point across.”
“I’d hurry up, ladies. We’re not out for a Sunday stroll,” Marcus muttered as shouts erupted behind them. Dani looked back just in time to see another car careening into the parking lot, followed by a panel van from Nick’s Plumbing and Works. The driver of the van seemed to be holding something resembling a pipe.
Down the street, the squeal of brakes and the smoke of tires being forced beyond their endurance signaled the rest of the party.
“What are the odds that those are people really eager to plan a wedding?” Dani asked of no one in particular.
The group exchanged glances and, bypassing the girl with the hand stamp entirely, they reached for the doors and flung them open. A single glittery balloon escaped over their heads. The air filled with the high-pitched chatter of thousands of feminine voices and the sickly-sweet smell of roses. Lots and lots of roses.
“My heavens,” Maria said, speaking for them all. “We’re in bridal hell.”
Chapter Fourteen
As the car careened into the parking lot, Luke decided that he had gone insane. The police were coming, he could hear the sirens. Presumably, the FBI was on its way, too. And likely the car that was spinning in the middle of the freeway had friends nearby.
Cars were abandoned with open doors in the middle of the parking lot. More vehicles arrived, swerving to avoid the pedestrians and tearing off those doors and bending the vehicles they collided with into strange pretzel shapes. The noise was incredible. The convention center was now playing host to an impromptu demolition derby.
He spotted the remains of Edwin’s rental car. It had lost most of the driver’s side paint, door handles, and front fender. The grill was missing, the bumper was firmly tucked up under the front wheels, and the tire on the passenger side was most notable by its absence. The fact that a man dressed in overalls was banging away at the windshield with a lead pipe was a little confusing.
There had to be dozens of people in the parking lot who had come to the bridal show. Women, dressed in shimmering pastels, walking with older versions of themselves, talking in loud, shrill voices with phones whipped out to record the moment. It was eerily familiar, giving a strange sense of déjà vu until Luke remembered the crowd in front of the house they’d left only an hour or so before.
Since when has every moment of the day become something to post on Facebook? he wondered as the car came to a stop as close to the main building as they could get. Which wasn’t really close at this point.
The problem was, near-hysterical brides-to-be and their entourages weren’t the only ones in the parking lot. A dozen or so men were piling out of cars, looking nothing like anything you’d expect at a wedding outside of a security detail, even if half of them wore suits. Of course, there was a huge difference between a tuxedo and what screamed, ‘I am a government agent’ but then Men in Black really hadn’t been all that far off. Metal flashed in the sun. These men were armed and dangerous.
As one, they all looked to the car as it came rolling to a stop. Thomas and William stepped out first, both doors opening in unison, as though they’d choreographed the moment. Not a show of solidarity so much as a jockeying for who was top dog, ending in a tie.
In the moment of clarity, Luke held out hope that this could be resolved peacefully. Until Edwin screamed “Elaina!” and bolted for the front doors.
It was like they had been standing and waiting for a battle cry, and for some reason Luke’s mother’s name was all they needed. The men in suits charged the doors, and the pale, frightened faces of the men standing in pressed uniforms of the hired cops ran from the onslaught.
It was the Visigoths attacking the gates of Rome, the Orcs breaking into whatever the hell the name of that place was. It was a siege the likes of which had never been seen before. A handful of women coming out dropped bags stuffed with samples and fled, leaving a trail of chocolates and flowers in their wake. The hardier souls stopped to record the moment for all posterity. A few rounded on the men, screaming defiance, punctuated with handbags to the head. Several such men stumbled and fell, regained their feet, only to look around in confusion, as though unsure who was the enemy.
Luke found himself praying that everyone would keep their arms under control. This didn’t need to turn into a bloodbath. He launched himself from the car, unsure of what exactly he was going to do, but knowing that if this horde was heading inside then so was he, for Dani was in there somewhere.
The security guards hadn’t fled the scene entirely, they’d merely retreated. The defenders slammed the doors shut, and Luke could see frantic activity behind the small windows of the doors. He imagined they were struggling to lock down the crash bars to prevent further entry. The invaders took no notice and rammed the doors, pounding with fists and open palms and kicks.
William simply strolled to the box office and motioned for Luke to follow him.
“Sixty,” the woman behind the counter said by way of greeting, laying five-dollar bills into a neat pile, “sixty-five, seventy...” The next bill was upside down and she took time to straighten it properly. “Seventy-five, eighty...” She looked up, perplexed. “Where did she go?”
“Five, please,” William said as the sound of trash cans being slammed against the locked doors reached his ears. He turned to Luke. “There have to be a dozen entrances and exits,” he said, rolling his eyes.
As the machine rolled out five tickets, a hand reached past him and grabbed the coupons. Whoever was making off with the tickets had a good grip and ran, the roll of tickets spinning behind him.
Luke’s fist shot out and caught the man behind the head. He tripped, fell over a trash can, and bolted.
William looked at the stream of tickets and dug into his wallet. He dropped two hundred-dollar bills and grabbed the bulk of the tickets.
He then walked stiffly into the back of the crowd. The screaming, armed throng grew quiet and actually parted for him. Luke was astounded, and kept as close behind his father as possible. William walked in total silence. Even the man hitting Edwin’s rental car paused to watch.
William strode to the window. Luke could see the frightened face of a security guard who was on a cell phone. Behind him, Luke heard an officer saying into his phone, “Sir, we ARE the police, please open the doors!” Apparently the cavalry had caught up.
William looked the young man behind the window in the eye and held up one fist. As he opened it, the length of tickets spilled out. The door opened.
“So that’s how you get that job,” someone said. Luke couldn’t tell who.
The guards looked at each other and opened the doors. The men shuffled past, a few having the grace to look sheepish. William strode through with Luke in his shadow as the horde broke through the gates and faced a room awash in pink.
Tapestries and bunting, tablecloths, and all that glittery paraphernalia that showed up at receptions that no one knew what to do with, napkins, towels, cloths, all in muted pinks and powder blues and sunny yellows, spilled across tables laid out in long rows that seemed to stretch on forever. It was an affront to the eye. Especially given the size of the convention center.
A sign with WELCOME TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST BRIDAL EXPO hung limply from stretched- out strings tied to a second story railing that ran the length of the immense building.
It was a stadium, an aircraft hangar, a big building. The second story was a thin line of offices and meeting rooms that took a little room on the edge of the open area, tenuously holding to the walls, trying to stay out of the way.
At the far end of the mall, a television, 80-inches at least, hung from the railing, playing the same things over and over. Maps of the setting, ads, images of happy brides with happy grooms standing under happy white roses strung on happy arches.
And below that, table after table of vendors.
It seemed like thousands of booths. Millions. Hundreds of millions that reached to infinity. The barbarian horde, so sure of it prowess, paused at one and tried to digest the current mission. There was one booth in all that mess that mattered. It was a race, but no one knew where to start. There was awkward shuffling, muted whispers as the groups regrouped into smaller gatherings to figure things out while women in their bridal best advanced on the men uncertainly, carrying large baskets slung over their arms, and offering handfuls of samples.
“A garter for your...partner?” offered the foremost of them, holding out a bright satin circlet with a ribbon tied around it, bearing a coupon for wedding night finery. She passed through the crowd, bestowing her tokens with a certain sort of dogged determination that spoke of someone hired to do a job, and by God she was going to do it. Luke stared at the bit of blue lace and ribbon in his hand and felt the blood rush to his cheeks, though he pocketed it all the same.
After all, it was a coupon of the “Buy one get one free” variety.
First, though, he needed to find his bride.
More relaxed now that they were there, and the world was apparently not ending just yet, Luke found that he wasn’t worried anymore so much as he was pissed off. And frustrated. And very, very tired. This all was way too much like the whole wedding planning fiasco of two weeks ago. Except that had far fewer vendors. And much better quality stuff.
Luke nudged the guy next to him, who was staring in fascination at the table in front of them. “If you think that’s a place setting, you should see what they can do if they put a gold charger under the plate and then combine it with something like those black tablecloths over there. You might think the black is a little out there, but for an evening reception...”
Luke stammered to a halt, aware that the eyes of a dozen men were on him, and no small number of women, too. He kind of shrugged. The group looked at each other. There was a great deal of ethnic diversity. The suits seemed not so out of place when surrounded by mannequins wearing wedding dresses.
It was a man with a decidedly Asian cast who broke first. With a wild look at his compatriots, he raised a fist still holding a garter and yelled “Elaina!” before running full-tilt into the display area.
“Thanks,” Luke said sarcastically to Edwin as the older man took off in a different direction.
William stood still at the entrance, a calm rock around which the rest of the men flowed. They split and took off in every direction, leaving William alone in the tumult.
Thomas walked up to him as the last of the tsunami rushed past. “You must show me how you do that,” Thomas said.
Luke silently agreed.
“Do what?” William blinked.
“Okay,” Luke said, having had enough of this whole mess already, and they’d only just arrived. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to grab his fiancée and find another exit. Preferably one somewhere on the opposite side of the building. Let them find the damn bird. “I’m going to find my bride.”
“NO!” William said, grabbing Luke’s arm. “You’re the only one who knows what the thing looks like.”
“I, uh...” Luke swallowed and looked at the large television showing a different happy bride with a different happy groom. The happy white roses looked the same, though. “I can’t remember what it looked like.”
“Seriously?” William asked, staring at Luke as though he’d just grown another head.
“He’s your boy?” Thomas raised an eyebrow.
“Nice,” Luke said and pulled free, shaking his head. The question was which way to go. He couldn’t exactly go running through the throng, yelling ‘Dani!’
On the other hand, there was a great deal of shouting going on from all directions. Mostly a single word: “Elaina” coming from voices who were not used to speaking English. It was like a strange game of Marco Polo, only without the water.
The lunatics had escaped.
And his father bought them each a ticket.
“This would be a hell of a lot easier if either of us had a cell phone. Like normal people,” Luke muttered, and with a resigned shake of his head he took off, heading into the thickest part of the expo with no clear idea at all how he was going to find the woman he loved.
He only knew he wouldn’t stop looking until he had her safe in his arms again.
Which was all well and good, provided no one got shot first.
Behind him the doors slammed open. A new set of shouts erupted. The authorities had arrived in all their uniformed glory.
Their luck had finally run out.
Luke began to run.
***
DANI GRABBED MARCUS by the arm, towing him down the first aisle. “Maria, you and Elaina see what you can find that way!” she shouted over her shoulder. In moments the two mothers were lost to view, and she and Marcus were alone—as alone any two people could be in such a press of people.
It was more crowded than she’d expected, even having re-formed her opinion of wedding planning in recent weeks. If it hadn’t been for Uncle Benny’s ploy, she would have had no idea what half this stuff was for. Suggestions for bridesmaid’s gifts, trousseaus, table decorations, and flower arrangements met her at every turn. Because every table had a giveaway, it seemed, there was a constant press of little knots of women filling out tiny cards, giving out more personal information than they should have been comfortable with. On the other hand, some of the prizes were quite outstanding.
‘Honeymoon for two to Costa Rica’ looked particularly interesting, and if they weren’t in the midst of a crisis she might have been tempted to fill that one out for herself.
Provided she was truly engaged.
No time to think of that now. Focus.
“Where are the cakes? You’d think you’d see more,” she asked Marcus, who was taller and had a better view than she did. He stopped, peering over the crowds, and finally shrugged. “I see lots of cake books and posters, but not a lot of dessert,” he admitted after a minute. “There’s no actual organization to this place.”
They jogged down the first aisle; the sound of banging from the front door was swallowed up by the chatter of thousands of overly-excited women, and the patter of salesmen. “Marcus,” she said after several frustrating minutes of looking. She pulled him around to face her. “This place is huge! We’re never going to find anything by running around like this!” She looked around, her brow creased in concentration. “These people had to rent these booths, right?”
“Never been to bridal show, but similar conventions, yes. You have to rent the booths.”
“Then someone, somewhere, has list of who’s renting where.”
Marcus looked back where they came from. “I didn’t see an information booth by the entrance. Somewhere else, like near a stage perhaps?”
The largest television, the one hung on the back railing, went white and static blasted through the speakers for a moment before it went black. Dani looked up and the screen said INPUT 1 and then switched to INPUT 2.
“Come on!” she cried, and darted toward the back wall, only just swerving in time to miss a stroller of twins. She called over her shoulder. “Find the person with the remote! They would have something!”
“Here!” Marcus called as he disappeared down a side aisle she hadn’t seen. Dani nearly fell trying to turn the corner and keep up with the older man.
A portly, balding man in a white shirt and tie, clipboard firmly clasped under his arm, was alternately squinting at the monitor and squinting to see the controls in his fist, and then looking back again, oblivious to the ebb and flow of humanity moving around him.
“EXCUSE ME!” Dani said. She held her hands up, palms open when she saw the fear in his eyes from Marcus running full speed directly at him. It was Marcus who scared him. Not me. right? “Excuse me.” She smiled as prettily as she could. It didn’t do much to offset Marcus’s scowl, but it was something. “We’re looking for Great Cakes; are they here?”
“Ah...” the man looked from one to the other twice, and blinked. “Congratulations?” He started shuffling papers on the clipboard and dropped the remote.
Marcus reached for it and handed it back to the man, who thanked him profusely and dropped the clipboard.
A sound from the front door, like the day Dani’s senior year of high school ended, caught the man’s ear. It was a muffled roar, indistinct and strange, that drew the man’s attention. He frowned, and grabbed for his walkie talkie on his belt, while Marcus, trying hard not to be noticed, glanced at the pages.
“Pardon me!” The man snatched the clipboard back, and turned to run toward the entrance, as much as anyone could run in that crowd.
“Tell me you got it!” Dani said, eyes scanning the area around them, not liking that it sounded like trouble when the place was so full of people. If someone brought out a weapon, people could die. Lots of people could die. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.
“We get it, get out, and no one needs to get hurt. They’ll come after us; they won’t risk losing us in a stampede. And there WILL be a stampede if they upset the balance here,” Marcus said softly as he turned, but with a different purpose in mind. He was looking for something, she realized. Landmarks. For the first time since this whole mess had started, Dani felt a glimmer of hope. Something was going right.
“Where?” she asked, wishing she knew what he was looking for.
“Down here, back row!” Marcus turned, immediately colliding with a man who spun, reeling. He nearly drew his gun, and instead started stammering apologies until he saw the wildness in the stranger’s eyes. Dani grabbed Marcus’ arm as the man drew himself up, thrusting his chest out and shoving himself into Marcus’ space, aggressive and mean.
“Marcus...”
It was a warning, not that it was needed. Marcus didn’t so much as move as the man, still nearly a foot shorter than him, stuck a finger in Marcus’ face and shouted the word, “Elaina!” then nodded, apparently satisfied, and ran off in the opposite direction.
“What the hell?” It was Marcus who spoke first.
Dani looked at Marcus and shrugged. “You were saying?” She had a bad feeling about this. That man was not there for any weddings. The enemy had breached the walls.
Marcus came to the same conclusion. “This way!” He pelted to the back row.
Thankfully there were fewer people back here. Correction, there were no people back here, save the ones tending the booths. Most of the vendors were sitting with heads propped on whatever comfortable surface they could find. This was the cheap seats at the convention, the smallest booths, rented by businesses more likely to be out of someone’s home than an actual storefront. Here the displays carried a hint of desperation, playing to a crowd already tired and bored. The giveaways were nothing so grand as vacations, but instead were more along the lines of free pens or refrigerator magnets.
GREAT CAKES was distinguished only by a cloth sign that hung to one side, slightly crooked as if it, too, was resting until someone showed. Dani scanned the booth, and came up blank. No birds, no cakes of any kind. Instead, three scrapbooks stood open to different pages, showing desultory confectionary across a purple velvet swatch of fabric. A plate of cupcakes stood off to one side, bearing a sign warning people not to eat or even touch. The other side of the table offered purple and white lanyards with a pink plastic cupcake dangling from the end. What purpose they served was anybody’s guess.
“Ms. Pinal?” Dani said breathlessly.
The woman behind the table could not have looked less like the woman in Orlando. She was thin to emaciated, which possibly was a comment on the taste of her cakes. Whereas her mother was triple-chinned, this woman barely had enough flesh to cover the jaw.
“Yes?” she asked, blinking like an owl just waking up. “Can I help you? Oh, wait...you’re together? I mean...congratulations!” She drew one of the books over until it was planted squarely in front of Dani. “I have some pictures here, beautiful examples...”
“We’re friends of your mother!” Dani hated interrupting, but they didn’t have much time. Any minute now the rest of the world was going to descend.
“Really?” Ms. Pinal tried to sound enthusiastic, but to Dani it sounded like a half-hearted attempt at best. She scowled and shoved the book back where it had been, careful to center it perfectly in the middle of the table.
“She sent you a statue...” Marcus said, holding his hands apart to indicate a small size.
“The bird?” Ms. Pina blinked again, and it occurred to Dani that the girl was a bird. Not an owl, perhaps, but she had the hooked nose, the furtive way of moving, and the disconcerting eyes.
“Dani!” Maria and Elaina appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Elaina doubled over, breathing hard, bracing one hand on the table to hold herself up. “Someone screamed my name. I thought it was someone from the agency. Or FBI. I didn’t know. We had to run—”
Dani held up a restraining hand. “Please, the bird?”
“I needed it. I plan on winning this year!” Ms. Pinal puffed up and straightened her back.
“Win?” Dani asked.
“The contest.” She blinked again and looked pointedly at each of them. “The cake contest...” she said, as though explaining the obvious.
“Cake contest?” Maria echoed.
“Yes,” the woman said. “This year, I am entering my greatest creation.” She swept one hand across the air, as though leaving space for a grand title. “Wings of Love.” She wrapped her arms around herself and sighed. “So romantic. Like something out of a book—”
“THERE!” someone screamed, and a horde of people ran at the little group, not stopping for the table. Hands came in to upend it, scattering lanyards in all directions. Marcus thrust Dani back out of harm’s way as Ms. Pinal shrieked and ran out of the back of the booth. Two people vaulted the remains of the table and ran after her while chaos erupted at the other tables, people scrambling to protect their possessions or, in some cases, themselves as the world exploded around them. Three policemen followed, and Dani ducked as a sheaf of brochures cascaded around her. From behind Marcus’ back she heard screams and the sounds of a fight. Occasionally someone would scream “ELAINA!”
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?” Elaina yelled back.
Not about to be deterred by a little paper Dani came up in a fighting stance, only she had no idea who the enemy was, and Ms. Pinal was long gone. Realizing that the crowd had already swarmed past in pursuit of the missing baker, Dani dropped her arms and straightened, feeling kind of silly now—somewhat peeved that after all this, Marcus was still trying to protect her as if she were a child.
“I never was in any danger,” she informed him haughtily. With a sigh, she started after the crowd as the vendors around her came out from under their tables and looked around at the destruction that moments ago had been a reasonably calm venue.
“DANI!” She spun. That voice she knew.
“LUKE!” She flung herself into his arms, and where he would have held her she grabbed his shirt with both fists. She pulled him down to her level and hissed, “It’s on a cake. There’s a contest, it’s on a cake!”
“I am telling you,” the round little man was waving his clipboard in front of William and someone who was walking with him, “this is NOT acceptable! This is a family-friendly exposition! I cannot have people running through here screaming ‘Elaina’, or any other profanity!”
Elaina sighed and hung her head.
Dani grabbed the clipboard from him and handed it to Marcus.
“HEY!” The organizer made a lunge to get it back, but he was restrained by the very policeman who had been attempting to reassure him.
Marcus scanned the page that gave a layout diagram, and pointed to the huge cloth that stretched the width of the far wall directly below the television.
“Behind the curtain!”
His cry electrified the newcomers. While actual patrons screamed and fought to get out of the way, a good part of the crowd tore through the curtain, shredding it and found hundreds upon hundreds of cakes. Apparently, Wings of Love was a very popular motif this year. Each last one had some sort of bird on it, in every variety and shape and size.
“What kind of bird was it?” Marcus asked Luke, never looking away from the collection in front of them. There was a hint of awe in his voice.
Police and men in suits gathered. Thankfully the police were already shepherding out anyone who didn’t belong. Or at least removed anyone who actually had any connection to weddings whatsoever.
Dani breathed a sigh of relief as the civilians disappeared out the exits. Thank God. Fewer potential casualties.
These guys on the other hand... Dani’s eyes narrowed. She found she was clutching Luke’s hand hard. He squeezed back, a silent signal of solidarity. Either that, or he didn’t want to lose her in the melee.
“I can’t remember,” Luke said so quietly it was barely audible.
As one, every eye moved to study him.
“I’m sorry.” He shrugged. The collective representatives from several intelligence agencies rolled their eyes.
Luke looked at Dani. She put her fingers upon his lips, stilling whatever excuses he might have had. “It’s okay. We’ll find it.”
A shout rose up from the crowd that remained. The numbers had swelled to easily a hundred agents, the greatest collection of intelligence agencies the world had ever seen come together in one place. A handful of policemen fell back, holding a perimeter that they didn’t understand.
As one they threw themselves forward, hands outstretched.
“ELAINA!”