CHAPTER 67
POLITICAL DRAMA over for the moment, had Butler use his military uniform and android strength to get us safely to Raheem and White—who thankfully still had hold of the rolling purse—and then to get the four of us out of this room and back to my suite.
Under the circumstances, we didn’t use hyperspeed. Still had no idea where I was in the palace, in no small part because the rest of the team that were here, Gower included, came along with us, so I was busy having everyone verifying that our other team members were all okay and where we expected them to be.
Unfortunately, we’d forgotten to have anyone remove the dead bodies in the hall. Shocking me to my core, they were still there. I was far too used to dead bodies disappearing and new dead bodies being put in their place. “Oh. Right.”
“It slipped my mind,” Raheem said, sounding regretful. “I am a terrible king.”
“It’s the end of the world as we know it and a lot was going on. You can be forgiven for forgetting. I forgot, too. We all did. But no one forgot intentionally.”
Other guards were called, as well as maids to clean up the blood. Thankfully we hadn’t been gone too long, so the smell wasn’t too bad, and there weren’t a lot of flies, either, but the maids got to deal with all that as well. Buchanan and Siler guarded the bodies and the maids, and also confirmed that the bodies were the same ones as before. Yeah, they weren’t used to this level of normal, either.
The rest of us went into my rooms to find that Francine and Wruck were not back. Neither was Adriana. And no one had any texts or calls from them, either.
No one had cleaned up my room, either. Chose not to make a joke about bad service because I wasn’t sure that Raheem would take it as such and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
Shared that I wanted to freshen up and went into my incredibly spacious bathroom. Checked it all, just in case Kellogg, Kozlow, or one of the other Crazy Eights had left a present. Thankfully there was nothing.
Didn’t really want to freshen up. Wanted to relax. Of course, I’d chosen the bathroom instead of just closing the door to the bedroom. Closed the toilet lid, sat on that, and heaved a sigh.
“You did an amazing job,” Serene said in my ear. I’d forgotten about the Bluetooth, which I was still wearing and that we hadn’t disconnected.
“Thanks. I feel exhausted and revved up at the same time.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“Where are you and where’s Jeff?”
“I’m in Los Angeles. Jeff’s at the Science Center with the Lyssara.”
“I thought you were with Jeff when he was addressing Congress.”
“I was. Then we discussed it and decided that someone needed to investigate just what Amos Tobin was doing in Los Angeles. Christopher didn’t have time to do a full search. I did.”
“What did you find?”
“The usual. Nothing that relates to what’s going on right now, so it can wait for a quieter time. But it was convenient to be here when the aliens’ ships started coming in for their landings, and also to ensure that what we wanted broadcast went out.”
“It could have gone really badly.”
“I knew you’d make them see reason.” Serene laughed. “You were able to get through to me when Club Fifty-One had me drugged out of my mind. I knew you could reach a room full of frightened men.”
“Love your confidence and super glad it was rewarded. Oh, by the way, more than just I now know about your other organization.” Caught her up quickly on who knew what, and what had gone on that she’d missed. Also told her about Francine and Wruck being gone, and our Best Hope Scenario, as well as the far less positive possibilities.
“Francine’s been trained to think like you,” Serene said when I was done. “So that in case she has to impersonate you as you’d planned for her to do on this trip, she’d be able to fake it longer. She isn’t you, no one is, but she’s close. So I’m not too worried. I mean, I’m worried, but she’s a very competent agent. We’ve had her in the field for several years. And we both know that John is more than competent.”
“Yeah. Doesn’t mean I’m not worried about them. And Adriana. When are the rest of the ships landing?”
“The Treeship takes a while to lower into the atmosphere. They expect to land near to dawn. Dawn for the region you’re in, not for the U.S.”
“That many hours?” Dawn here was probably about ten hours away, give or take.
“They’re doing a water landing and apparently there’s something in the Persian Gulf they need to connect with, just like you figured. They’d prefer to do the final portion of the landing in daylight.”
“So, we have until dawn, which will come early, to find and stop Cliff and the Crazy Eights.”
“I’d tell you to rest and deal with them another day, but I saw all the different aliens coming, too. And I’ve been in communication with every ship, the Treeship in particular.”
“Why wasn’t NASA Base involved?”
“They were. We’re linked via our internal systems. I’m not at Tobin’s several media outlets here now, Kitty. I’m at Los Angeles Base.”
“L.A. has a Base? Wow, nice to know that I got my ‘learned something new daily’ requirement in before midnight. No one has ever mentioned it or taken me there. And before you say it, I did finally read the gigantic Books of Boredom and I don’t recall anything as interesting as a base in Los Angeles.”
“Well, you’re not an imageer, nor are you married to one. This is the smallest of all our Bases. It’s here because we need it, though Christopher always preferred to use East Base as his main headquarters after Dulce. He came here occasionally, when it made sense to be on the West Coast, but he doesn’t care for Southern California, so he avoids L.A. Base for the most part.”
“Oh my God! That’s where you’re running the special division from! No one thinks about it, and who fits into the Home of Hollywood better than troubadours?”
She laughed again. “Right you are. At any rate, I have other agents I can send, if you need them.”
“I’d love to do a gigantic raid, but we’ll lose every bit of goodwill and acquiescence if any of us are caught sneaking around this area.”
“And somehow your logic says that it’s okay for you to do that? Wow, and they call me the crazy one.”
“Oh, not where you can hear it.” We both laughed. “It has to be us, the ones already planned for, because we’re the ones with the papers. Technically we’re all set. I just don’t feel ready. I thought we had at least another day. We don’t.”
“James was saying the same thing earlier. I don’t know why you two are so thrown by this. The timelines are always moving on us and you always adapt. Are you not feeling well?”
“It’s not that. I can’t even say why this particular situation is throwing me.”
“I can. It’s because you’re hoping to finally put an end to the Mastermind. And once you do, we’ll be able to close that chapter of our lives.”
“I miss the Dingo and Surly Vic.” Hadn’t had that thought in my head before I blurted it out, but realized it was true—I missed the two top assassins in the world who’d become my uncles by choice. I missed them because one of Cliff’s top lieutenants, Annette Dier, had killed them. Or, rather, they’d sacrificed themselves to save me from her attack.
“We all do,” Serene said softly. “They were . . . much more than their profession. They did bad things, but never . . .”
“Crazy things. They didn’t kill people for the fun of it or to prove they were better than someone else. They killed for money, but they had honor while doing it. And I just . . . I don’t have anyone left like that to talk to. And I miss it. And them.”
“Talk to Benjamin. Or John.”
“Siler’s great, but he’s not the same. We have a different relationship.”
“What about John?”
“He’s with Francine, we hope. So no luck there right now.”
“I’m doing my best.”
“Yeah, and it helps a lot to talk to you like this, when it’s just us. But you don’t have the same life experience or worldview. Maybe you will in a few years. But you don’t right now.”
“I know who does. Hang on, I’m going to transfer you. Keep the Bluetooth with you. It’s got a tracker in it so I can find you if necessary, and I can turn it on remotely and silently, too. It’s already paired to your phone.”
“Wow, nice tech.”
“Thank Gustav, it’s his design. Hang in there, Kitty. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I will do. Serene, who are you transferring me to?”
“Hello?” A woman’s voice. One I knew well. Probably the voice I knew best in the world, really.
“Mom.” Felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. And also felt a little dumb. But then, that was why you had a team—because when you were dumb, one of your teammates remembered that your mother had written the book on counterterrorism for you.
“Kitty? Are you alright? That was some performance you put on today. Your father and I are incredibly proud of you.”
“Thanks, Mom. How are things there?”
“Oh, you know, same politicians, terrorists, and crackpots, different day.”
Snorted a laugh. “Yeah, I feel you on that one.” Couldn’t figure out what to actually say or ask. It wasn’t as if my mother didn’t know what I did. She encouraged it half the time. More than half, really.
“Kitten,” Mom asked gently, “what is it? What’s wrong?”
“I’m afraid.” As with what I’d said about the uncles, I hadn’t had this thought in my head before it came out of my mouth. But it was the truth.
“Is that all?”
“All? Wow, you’re not up on the latest pick-me-up sayings, are you?”
Mom chuckled. “Everyone’s afraid, kitten. What is it, exactly, you’re afraid of?”
“Right now? Kind of everything.”
“Since when?”
“Since we have the end of the world staring at us.”
Mom snorted. “We have that all the time. Since the day you met Jeff you’ve been averting the end of the world.”
“You’ve done that, too.”
“Longer than you. Still doing it, too.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just . . . I’m just not sure if anything we’re planning is even close to right. And before you say that none of our ideas go according to plan, you didn’t want Naomi to go with me when we raided Gaultier’s underground cloning lab. And you were right. If she hadn’t gone, she’d still be alive today.”
“But, based on what you’ve told me, the rest of you might not be. And, if you recall, I wanted you to go, and the others. Just not her. And while I might indeed have been right, every plan has to be able to change on the fly due to changing circumstances.”
“Yeah. Mom, I need to tell you what I’m planning to do or, rather, what we were planning to do, which I now don’t know will work, and I also need to hear if you think it’s a good idea or not.”
“Well, you only need to tell me if you aren’t planning to find Cliff Goodman’s hideout and kill that bastard and all of his cronies once and for all.”
Let that sit on the air for a moment. “Um, am I that transparent?”
“To me, yes. To Serene, too, as far as I can tell. To everyone else? Somewhat. I have an edge over the others, though, in that I’m your mother and I know how you think. I’m also the Head of the P.T.C.U. and we’ve been looking for Goodman since he disappeared. Middle East was all we’ve found, though. I assume you’ve got better intel?”
“I do.” Time to flip on my Recap Girl cape and fill Mom in on what had gone down. “But we still don’t know where he is,” I said as I finished up. “And I don’t know how to get out of whatever Heads of State stuff Francine was supposed to be handling.”
“Well, if he’s funded by G-Company . . .”
“What?”
“Hang on for a moment.” I so hung on for more than a moment. “Huh. Talk about hiding in plain sight. You were ready to search the countryside for him, I imagine?”
“Yeah, I mean, Raheem has no clear idea of where Cliff is, he just knows that Ali Baba Gadhavi—and Raheem swears it’s his real name and not assumed for business, so to speak—is funding him, and that Cliff’s definitely in this area. Presumed close to where we are right now, but nothing is confirmed.”
“Oh, it’s his real name and he’s close alright.” Mom sounded pissed. “And, if Adriana did her job right, I’d assume that she, Francine, and Wruck are close by, too.”
“What, are you saying they’re in this palace? Raheem isn’t setting me up, is he?”
“Oh, no, he’s not. And no, they’re not. Based on Cliff’s new benefactor being Gadhavi, though, I’m about ninety-nine percent certain they’re in the Burj Khalifa.”