CHAPTER 70
TROTTED INTO MY ROOM. Considered things and opened the closet. Sure enough, there were clothes hanging up, and they weren’t for any woman in this country. Apparently Algar had chosen to “hang up” the important clothes out of the Rolling Arsenal. Had no complaints.
Pulled on the black jeans, black on black, lightweight long-sleeved Aerosmith t-shirt, black socks, and black shoes waiting for me. The shoes weren’t my usual Converse, but appeared to be both flexible and non-sliding. Chose not to complain. The black on black shirt was reminiscent—Algar had equipped all of us with our favorite band shirts in black on black for the raid on Gaultier’s underground cloning lab.
My throat felt tight. “I hope you just think this is cool, as opposed to you warning me that we’re going to lose someone we love while doing this.” There was no reply, but I hadn’t really expected one.
Did a fast count in my head of who was in my suite while I dressed. Realized that we were missing people. Checked the rolling bag—it no longer had any changes of clothing in it, but instead was loaded with Raid The Tall Tower things. Decided it had better come along with us.
Put my purse over my head, dragged the bag out of the room, and looked around again. “Um, where the heck are Len and Kyle?”
Those out and ready all looked around. “I thought they were here,” Tim said. “Weren’t they with us when we went to the meeting room for your multimedia presentation?”
“They were, but I can’t remember seeing them since we left my suite.” Ran through what I could remember of the room and the chaos and what I’d noted while I was essentially on stage. Couldn’t recall if I’d seen the boys or not.
“I don’t remember them coming into the room,” Gower said slowly. “Not that I was paying a lot of attention.”
“No one was,” Reader said, sounding worried and pissed. “So, what’s happened to them?”
Thought about it. “Adriana.” Got the room’s attention, including those of the gals who were coming out after having changed. Every one of them was in black jeans and a black on black long-sleeved t-shirt. Algar liked to stick to a theme. “Adriana is used to working with the boys. If she needed backup of some kind, she would know I’d be too busy.”
“Why didn’t she contact me or Malcolm?” Camilla asked, sounding pissed.
“You want my honest assessment?”
“Yes,” Buchanan said. “We do.”
“She doesn’t trust Camilla.”
This earned me a lot of shocked looks. But Tim nodded. “Camilla’s been a double, triple, and quadruple agent when she’s had to be. I can see why that might be something Adriana wouldn’t trust.”
“Um, yes, but that’s not exactly what I mean. Adriana knows Camilla’s on our side.” Did not know how to say this without hurting Camilla’s feelings.
But Camilla beat me to it. “No, it’s not that. And I know why Kitty’s not saying what it is aloud. My team and I were captured and we weren’t able to escape. If Kitty and her team, which included Adriana, hadn’t come looking for us, we’d still be captured. That’s why she doesn’t trust me—the plan of mine she knows the best was an utter failure.”
“You did your best,” Rhee said loyally. Camille shot her a fond smile.
“Not to sound negative at a time like this,” Mahin said, “but Kitty’s plans fail all the time.”
“And Adriana saves Kitty half the time,” Abigail added.
“But her grandmother is training Kitty, just like she’s training Adriana,” Camilla said patiently.
Mouths opened. Put up the paw. Mouths closed. The FLOTUS Power had its uses.
Camilla snorted a laugh, then continued. “Olga is training Kitty—never think she isn’t. She’s doing it because Olga likes Kitty and wants her to survive and continue to save the world once Olga dies. Kitty’s expected to fail because she’s not fully trained, that’s why Adriana backs her up, and vice versa. I’m already trained. I’m not expected to fail.”
“Makes sense,” I said, since these were my thoughts as well. “And she wouldn’t contact Malcolm because, as far as her mission went, he’d confer with Camilla.”
“So, why call in Len and Kyle?” Reader asked. “They don’t have a better track record of not getting captured.”
“Olga’s training them, too. And perhaps she’s training them a little more openly than she’s training me.”
“What do you mean?” Lorraine asked. “The boys are with you all the time.”
“No, they aren’t, and normally when they’re not with me, they’re visiting Adriana at her embassy. So, perhaps it’s not just hanging out eating cookies and drinking lemonade and shooting the breeze. Perhaps what they’re all doing is training as a team.”
“Sounds right to me,” White said, as he came out, also wearing black jeans and a black on black long-sleeved t-shirt. My jaw dropped. He smiled. “As you pointed out so long ago now, I understand why changing what we wear can be a wise and useful thing.” He looked at Tim, Reader, and Christopher. “You boys should see about changing, too.”
“Our luggage is in our rooms,” Reader pointed out.
“I contacted the Operations Team and asked them to supply us here, due to what’s going on.” Well, it wasn’t a lie—I’d told Algar what we were doing and asked for his help. “So, treat the closet in my room like you treat the closets at home.”
“You’re the only one who talks to the closets, Kitty,” Christopher said. “The rest of us just figure that it’s not requiring brilliance to know that we’re going to wear what we always wear.”
“Humor me. And get changed. Doctor Strange and Nightcrawler, too.” Grumbling, the five men went into my room. “John, you should change, too,” I said to Butler. He nodded and joined the other men in my room. Without argument. Androids on my side rocked. “Camilla, you too.”
She looked thoughtful. “No.”
“Pardon me?”
“I’m going to work under two assumptions—one, that Adriana is right to keep me out of this, and two, that something’s going to go wrong, because it always does. That means you need people here who can either rescue you or assist you.”
Considered this. “Makes sense on the second one. I don’t think Adriana thinks you’re incompetent, by the way.”
“But she doesn’t think my skill set is useful for whatever she’s doing, or she’d have called Malcolm, told him her concerns about my abilities, and then let him handle me. But she didn’t. And before you argue this, understand that the moment you became friendly with the Romanian Diplomatic Mission I was investigating them in ways that you don’t know about.”
“I thought you were working for Chuckie on stuff then.”
“I was. I can and do multitask all the time. And while I answer to Charles and Jeff, and you, just as Malcolm takes his real direction from your mother, I take my real direction from the person who truly employs me.”
“Alfred.”
She nodded. “Royals aren’t nearly as trusting as the ones you know here, Alfred least of all, considering what our people went through before being exiled here. Despite how it seems, Alfred trusts no one until they’ve been thoroughly vetted.”
“By you and the other Liars in existence?”
“Yes. His only blind spot is his family, and that weakness has been over-exploited by now. He’s accepted that we’re going to find traitors in his family line, and not just among those who married in. Blood will out, and all that.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of Ronald Yates and King Adolphus out there, isn’t there? And not just in Stephanie.” Though she had the blood of both, and I needed to remember that because she’d clearly inherited all the ruthlessness both of those men had.
“There is, but they aren’t our problem right now. So, I’m staying here, guarding those also staying. So, who’s staying with me, King Raheem, and Prime Minister Costello?”
“Any and all members of the Planetary Council are staying—no arguing, gang, we can’t have you guys risked at a time like this. Paul is staying, same thing, dude, before you argue with me. You’re the only religious leader who’s safe, you’re in the exact same boat as Raheem and Tony. Vance, Colette, Jennifer, and Mona, for sure I also want staying here. Jeremy’s coming with because it’s useful to have an empath along. Go change, by the way.”
Jeremy trotted off. Gower looked resigned, Animal Planet looked disappointed and pissed, Vance and Colette looked relieved, and Mona nodded. “But I feel that you will need help from my security team.” She looked at Khalid, Oren, Jakob, and Leah, all of whom were sort of hanging back, presumably lest Raheem realize that three of them were Israelis versus Bahrainis.
Shook my head. “Right now, truly, we have only two world leaders who are what we can laughingly call safe. I want your security team with you.”
Mona didn’t look convinced, and she also looked a little worried. Raheem noticed. “I will appreciate both our loyal guard,” he nodded at Khalid, “and also Mossad staying with us.” He gave them a nod, too. “And yes, I know you’re Mossad. And I also know that if you’re with the Ambassadress, then you’re not my enemies.”
All five of my Middle Eastern Contingent looked shocked by this reveal. Costello chuckled. “It’s going to be an interesting night, isn’t it?”
“Oh, Tony, you have no idea.”