On the way back to the hotel I thought about the idea of killing the Frenchman and dumping his body in one of the back canals.
Of course, that was the sort of unsanctioned act that quite often brought down a well-planned operation and it would not be the first time for me if that happened now.
I tried not to think about that moment in history and to this day still couldn’t say why I did it beyond the fact the person annoyed me. Those were young and brash days, long since gone from the repertoire.
Still, if he got in the way, or was going to compromise my plan he would have to go, and those back canals were begging for new prey.
When I finally returned to the hotel, it seemed almost stuffy in the small reception area, and the woman behind the counter nodded cursorily in my direction as I passed her heading for the stairs.
She was the sort of person who would miss nothing that happened in that hotel in or out of sight.
The elevator was old and tired, and I didn’t like to advertise arriving back on the floor where my room was located. Again, another memory of a bad experience involving an elevator has made me more wary since.
The stairs, in this instance, were well maintained, without the usual squeaks and groans susceptible to any other hotel. The fact it was only a few floors and not twenty was also a selling point.
If Juliet was waiting she’d have to be in my doorway for me to fall over her, and as I took those last few steps before the landing, I wondered if Cecilia was back in my room’ waiting for me.
If she was, and Juliet arrived that might throw that proverbial car among the pigeons.
Neither were either waiting or in my room which oddly enough seemed disappointing. Nor was anyone else who also brought up a memory or two that I’d rather forget.
Experience was a cruel master.
I looked out the windows over the canal, still able to be surprised by the amount of activity on the water even for that hour of the night.
In a few hours, a whole new group of people would be about those behind the scenes, delivering all manner of goods and services in those early hours before a new day began.
Behind me, there was a very light knock on the door and I swiftly crossed the room and looked in the peep-hole.
Cecilia.
I opened the door and she slipped in before I’d even got it partially open. She was in what I would call stealth mode.
“You’re up and about late? Nothing on for tomorrow?”
She shrugged. “Just the usual, so it’s unlikely they’ll miss me if I’m not there’ or late. Besides, there’s a producer I keep running into that’s beginning to be annoying.”
“I can deal with him if you want me to?”
“I can deal with him myself. No. It’s your girlfriend whose supposedly not your girlfriend.”
“Juliet? She’s not…”
“Of course not, just ragging you. She’s suddenly all apologetic, telling me how sorry she was about being catty. Then giving me a hug that was quite unsettling. Until I realised what she was doing.”
“Not making a pass I hope.”
“It wouldn’t be the first in the last day or so. I must have that look, whatever that look is. No. She gave me this.”
Cecilia held up a small folded piece of paper.
“Did you read it?”
“Do I look like the sort who would read other people’s love letters?”
I took the piece of paper and unfolded it.
It said, and reading it aloud, “I believe you know why I’m here and I can tell you it’s not what I want. I can’t discuss this with you otherwise he’ll know, so we need another way, perhaps through Cecilia. I’m supposed to deliver you in Sorrento, so we will need a plan to keep us both safe. Sorry for dragging your friend into this.”
“Not a love letter then.” She sounded disappointed. “How could she possibly know that?”
“In trying to get Larry to do something in haste which he has, it was not without its risks. She’s smart enough, given what she knew of me then, and that Larry has me in his sights, to realise it was not coincidental when I brought his name into the conversation.”
“Forcing an issue sometimes can have unintended consequences.”
“I didn’t want to drag it out for any of us.”
“Have you considered the possibility that this might be part of Larry’s plan, after all, he did tell her to get closer by any means possible. How much closer could she get pretending to work with you?”
A plan I considered more plausible given the hold he had over her. Alfie would have told me if such a conversation had taken place between them, but he hadn’t which meant it may have been before she embarked for Venice.
It made sense, from his perspective and the hold he had over her. Doing something as reckless on her part without his knowledge defied that threat, making it very difficult for me to believe it was a legitimate offer to help.
“What would you have thought if we didn’t know what we know?”
“It’s difficult to say since I’ve never been in that situation but first thought would be to considered it’s with the customary suspicion we have to view everything with.”
“Good answer. You’ll be coming with me and lucky for you, you will not have to play nice.”
She smiled. “At last a role I can get my teeth into.”
“We’ll go tomorrow, so be ready to leave. I’m sure you’ll devise a good excuse for leaving early. And watch your back tonight they might have a little surprise in store for you.”
“Not if I stay here. I came prepared,” showing me her pyjamas under the gym wear.
It could be said that of all the women one could meet, whether contrived or by sheer luck, what are the odds it would turn out to be the woman who was being paid a very large sum to kill you?
John Pennington is a man who may be lucky in business, but not so lucky in love. He has just broken up with Phillipa Sternhaven, the woman he thought was the one, but relatives and circumstances, and perhaps because she was a ‘princess’, may also have contributed to the end result.
So, what do you do when you are heartbroken?
That is a story that slowly unfolds, from the first meeting with his nemesis on Lake Geneva, all the way to a hotel room in Sorrento, where he learns the shattering truth.
What should have been solace after disappointment turns out to be something else entirely, and from that point, everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
He suddenly realises his so-called friend Sebastian has not exactly told him the truth about a small job he asked him to do, the woman he is falling in love with is not quite who she says she is, and he is caught in the middle of a war between two men who consider people becoming collateral damage as part of their business.
The story paints the characters, cleverly displaying all their flaws and weaknesses. The locations add to the story at times, taking me back down memory lane, especially to Venice, where, in those back streets, I confess it’s not all that hard to get lost.
All in all, a thoroughly entertaining story with, for once, a satisfying end.
There was a man in a red suit, a man in a blue suit, a woman in a green suit and another woman in a grey suit.
Grey suit spoke first, “Are all you people from the earth as tiresome as you are Captain?”
She was either the lowest rank or the highest.
“We are an interesting bunch when you get to know us, which, despite this turn of events, I hope we do. We have a predilection for interfering in matters where we see injustices.”
“Be that as it may, I would like to remind you, that what might pass as acceptable behaviour on your planet, might not be on ours. You should be aware that in your travels, everyone you may or may not meet has their own specific rules, customs, and regulations which can and will be a lot different to yours.”
“I accept that, and in fact, in the briefing we had before leaving earth, it was impressed upon us that very premise. And I understand that we may be seen to be interfering in matters that are not our concern. But, and there’s always a but, that’s how we humans think and rationalise the many situations we often find ourselves in, we don’t like injustices.”
“Does what might appear an injustice to one, not be one to another? There is ample evidence in your history that points to those overlooking so-called injustices for the greater good?”
“That may be true in the past, but we like to think we have evolved into a better civilization. But we are not perfect, as you point out. However, this instance does not qualify as an instance for the greater good, it is simply the selfish whim of a single person. We have people who are supposed to set an example too and don’t, because they don’t believe the rules apply to them, and I would like to believe that you, too, would not tolerate this sort of behaviour in your leaders. Your people have been living on our planet for some time, I gather, so you should know that.”
Blue suit had been looking rather severely at me. “It was a mistake to let you people develop space travel capability. Our efforts to delay it haven’t been as successful as we had anticipated. You are not ready.”
That someone or something had been manipulating our progress would probably not come as a surprise to some back home. My knowledge of the steps we took to get where I was now pointed to several disasters that set the whole program back nearly twenty years, if not more.
I wonder how the Admiral would react when I told him. If I told him.
“It was inevitable, like everything we do. Unfortunately for you, we thrive on adversity.”
“You are not the only warlike race in the galaxy you know. You may want to hold off meeting them for as long as you can, but they know where you are, so there’s more than one inevitability.”
“By uttering those words, does that make you look more like the aggressors than us? The thing is, we’re out her for better or for worse, and I think you know what has transpired here is an injustice, but the ramifications are unpalatable. We have an expression; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Blue suit looked as though he was going to explode. “It is no use talking to these primitives.”
Grey suit glared at him. “It is your house that is not in order, and we have tolerated it for long enough.” She looked at her fellow members and received nods. Blue suit disappeared, most likely transported back to the planet.
Grey suit: “You are, using another of your sayings on earth, “treading on very thin ice.”
Green suit took up the narrative. “We believe you would not adhere to a request to turn around and go back home, so, before you alert the galaxy that you are now participants in intergalactic exploration, take heed of this warning. Not all species are friendly. Most are bound by customs and rules which are nothing like yours, and it is possible you will commit the most heinous of crimes by just acting normally.
In this instance, you may have uncovered a problem that we were not aware of, and lucky for you, is a minor transgression in accordance with our customs. We are no longer those people and will rectify the issue. The prisoner in question will be allowed to remain on your vessel to do with as you wish. If you are to continue your travels, I suggest you do so with caution.”
Grey suit again, “We acknowledge you are not going to go away. So, as the first gesture of friendship between our worlds, we would like you to return the Princess to her home world, and before you do, we will provide you with an advisor to help you navigate the protocols of her world. We will also grant two members of your crew an audience with our scribes who will give you knowledge of our worlds and people, and that of others in this galaxy. The other ship does not get this privilege and must leave immediately. If they do not, they will be destroyed. There will be no negotiation on this matter. Do you agree?”
It was probably the best we could hope for under the circumstances.
“Yes.”
Grey suit to their captain. “I’ll leave you to work on the details.”
Well, when they too have the rug pulled out from under them, how much can they do?
Her best friend and fellow founding member of the charity, recently but no longer CEO, due to the new Chairman who had taken over during our main character’s incapacity, had been visiting her friend in hospital and relating the day-to-day events that had turned the running of their organisation into what she calls a circus
I’m going to give her a daughter who is a tenacious reporter and set her on the trail of a conspiracy, that of the so-called benevolent charities and the shady characters that manage to attach themselves to what she will call the charitable gravy train.
She also is the product of that echelon of people who are upper-class nobility, having resented from a young age being called Lady So and So, going to the privileged schools and being treated differently.
She is the rebel against her birthright, her parents, and everything they stand for.
And yet, as she gets older and sees the worth of those connections, those she had so willingly trashed for the sake of getting an editor to take her seriously, it’s going to be a tricky line she will have to walk if she is going to help her mother.
Perhaps her parents were not the monsters she believed they were.
Williams’ Restaurant, East 65th Street, New York, Saturday, 8:00 p.m.
We met the Blaines at Williams’, a rather upmarket restaurant that the Blaines frequently visited and had recommended.
Of course, during the taxi ride there, Alison reminded me that with my new job, we would be able to go to many more places like Williams’. It was, at worst, more emotional blackmail, because as far as Alison was concerned, we were well on our way to posh restaurants, the Trump Tower Apartments, and the trappings of the ‘executive set’.
It would be a miracle if I didn’t strangle Elaine before the night was over. It was she who had filled Alison’s head with all this stuff and nonsense.
Aside from the half-frown, half-smile, Alison was looking stunning. It had been months since she had last dressed up, and she was especially wearing the dress I’d bought her for our 5th anniversary that cost a month’s salary. On her, it was worth it, and I would have paid more if I had to. She had adored it and me, for a week or so after.
For tonight, I think I was close to getting back on that pedestal.
She had the looks and figure to draw attention, the sort movie stars get on the red carpet, and when we walked into the restaurant, I swear there were at least five seconds of silence, and many more gasps.
I even had a sudden loss of breath earlier in the evening when she came out of the dressing room. Once more, I was reminded of how lucky I was that she had agreed to marry me. Amid all those self-doubts, I couldn’t believe she had loved me when there were so many others out there who were more appealing.
Elaine was out of her seat and came over just as the Head Waiter hovered into sight. She personally escorted Alison to the table, allowing me to follow like the Queen’s consort, while she and Alison basked in the admiring glances of the other patrons.
More than once, I heard the muted question, “Who is she?”
Jimmy stood, we shook hands, and then we sat together. It was not the usual boy, girl, boy, girl seating arrangement. Jimmy and I on one side and Elaine and Alison on the other.
The battle lines were drawn.
Jimmy was looking fashionable, with a permanent blade one beard, unkempt hair, and a designer dinner suit that looked like he’d slept in it. Alison insisted I wear a tuxedo, and I looked like the proverbial penguin or just a thinner version of Alfred Hitchcock.
The bow tie had been slightly crooked, but just before we stepped out, she had straightened it. And took the moment to look deeply into my soul. It was one of those moments when words were not necessary.
Then it was gone.
I relived it briefly as I sat and she looked at me. A penetrating look that told me to ‘behave’.
When we were settled, Elaine said, in that breathless, enthusiastic manner of hers when she was excited, “So, Harry, you are finally moving up.” It was not a question, but a statement.
I was not sure what she meant by ‘finally’, but I accepted it with good grace. Sometimes, Elaine was prone to using figures of speech I didn’t understand. I guessed she was talking about the new job. “It was supposed to be a secret.”
She smiled widely. “There are no secrets between Al and me, are there, Al?”
I looked at ‘Al’ and saw a brief look of consternation.
I was not sure Alison liked the idea of being called Al. I tried it once and was admonished. But it was interesting that her ‘best friend forever’ was allowed that distinction when I was not. It was, perhaps, another indicator of how far I’d slipped in her estimation.
Perhaps, I thought, it was a necessary evil. As I understood it, the Blaines were our mentors at the Trump Tower, because they didn’t just let ‘anyone’ in. I didn’t ask if the Blaines thought we were just ‘anyone’ before I got the job offer.
And then there was that look between Alison and Elaine, quickly stolen before Alison realised I was looking at both of them. I was out of my depth, in a place I didn’t belong, with people I didn’t understand. And yet, apparently, Alison did. I must have missed the memo.
“No,” Alison said softly, stealing a glance in my direction, “No secrets between friends.”
No secrets. Her look conveyed something else entirely.
The waiter brought champagne, Krug, and poured glasses for each of us. It was not the cheap stuff, and I was glad I brought a couple of thousand dollars with me. We were going to need it.
Then, a toast.
To a new job and a new life.
“When did you decide?” Elaine was effusive at the best of times, but with the champagne, it was worse.
Alison had a strange expression on her face. It was obvious she had told Elaine it was a done deal, even before I’d made up my mind. Perhaps she’d assumed I might be ‘refreshingly honest’ in front of Elaine, but it could also mean she didn’t really care what I might say or do.
Instead of consternation, she looked happy, and I realised it would be churlish, even silly, if I made a scene. I knew what I wanted to say. I also knew that it would serve little purpose provoking Elaine or upsetting Alison. This was not the time or the place. Alison had been looking forward to coming here, and I was not going to spoil it.
Instead, I said, smiling, “When I woke up this morning and found Alison missing. If she had been there, I would not have noticed the water stain on the roof above our bed, and decided there and then how much I hated the place.” I used my reassuring smile, the one I used with the customers when all hell was breaking loose, and the forest fire was out of control. “It’s the little things. They all add up until one day …” I shrugged. “I guess that one day was today.”
I saw an incredulous look pass between Elaine and Alison, a non-verbal question; perhaps, is he for real? Or, I told you he’d come around.
I had no idea the two were so close.
“How quaint,” Elaine said, which just about summed up her feelings towards me. I think, at that moment, I lost some brownie points. It was all I could come up with at short notice.
“Yes,” I added, with a little more emphasis than I wanted. “Alison was off to get some studying in with one of her friends.”
“Weren’t the two of you off to the Hamptons, a weekend with some friends?” Jimmy piped up and immediately got the ‘shut up, you fool’ look that cut that line of conversation dead. Someone forgot to feed Jimmy his lines.
It was followed by the condescending smile from Elaine, and “I need to powder my nose. Care to join me, Al?”
A frown, then a forced smile for her new best friend. “Yes.”
I watched them leave the table and head in the direction of the restroom, looking like they were in earnest conversation. I thought ‘Al’ looked annoyed, but I could be wrong.
I had to say Jimmy looked more surprised than I did.
There was that odd moment of silence between us, Jimmy still smarting from his death stare, and for me, the Alison and Elaine show. I was quite literally gob-smacked.
I drained my champagne glass, gathering some courage and turned to him. “By the way, we were going to have a weekend away, but this legal tutorial thing came up. You know Alison is doing her law degree.”
He looked startled when he realised I had spoken. He was looking intently at a woman several tables over from us, one who’d obviously forgotten some basic garments when getting dressed. Or perhaps it was deliberate. She’d definitely had some enhancements done.
He dragged his eyes back to me. “Yes. Elaine said something or other about it. But I thought she said the tutor was out of town and it had been postponed until next week. Perhaps I got it wrong. I usually do.”
“Perhaps I’ve got it wrong.” I shrugged as the dark thoughts started swirling in my head again. “This week or next, what does it matter?”
Of course, it mattered to me, and I digested what he said with a sinking heart. It showed there was another problem between Alison and me; she might have been telling me lies. If what he said was true and I had no reason to doubt him, where was she going tomorrow morning, and had she really been with a friend studying today?
We poured some more champagne, had a drink, then he asked, “This promotion thing, what’s it worth?”
“Trouble, I suspect. Definitely more money, but less time at home.”
“Oh,” raised eyebrows. Obviously, the women had not talked about the job in front of him, or, at least, not all the details. “You sure you want to do that?”
At last, the voice of reason. “Me? No.”
“Yet you accepted the job.”
I sucked in a breath or two while I considered whether I could trust him. Even if I couldn’t, I could see my ship was sinking, so it wouldn’t matter what I told him, or what Elaine might find out from him. “Jimmy, between you and me, I haven’t as yet decided one way or another. To be honest, I won’t know until I go up to Barclay’s office and he asks me the question.”
“Barclay?”
“My boss.”
“Elaine’s doing a job for a Barclay who recently moved into the tower a block down from us. I thought I recognised the name.”
“How did Elaine get the job?”
“Oh, Alison put him onto her.”
“When?”
“A couple of months ago. Why?”
I shrugged and tried to keep a straight face, while my insides were churning up like the wake of a supertanker. I felt sick, faint, and wanted to die all at the same moment. “Perhaps she said something about it, but it didn’t connect at the time. Too busy with work, I expect. I think I seriously need to get away for a while.”
I could hardly breathe, my throat was constricted, and I knew I had to keep it together. I could see Elaine and Alison coming back, so I had to calm down. I sucked in some deep breaths and put my ‘manage a complete and utter disaster’ look on my face.
And I had to change the subject, quickly, so I said, “Jimmy, Elaine told Alison, who told me, you were something of a guru of the cause and effects of the global economic meltdown. Now, I have a couple of friends who have been expounding this theory …”
Like flicking a switch, I launched into the well-worn practice of ‘running a distraction’, like at work when we needed to keep the customer from discovering the truth. It was one of the things I was good at, taking over a conversation and pushing it in a different direction. It was salvaging a good result from an utter disaster, and if ever there was a time that it was required, it was right here, right now.
When Alison sat down and looked at me, she knew something had happened between Jimmy and me. I might have looked pale or red-faced, or angry or disappointed, but it didn’t matter. If that didn’t seal the deal for her, the fact that I took over the dining engagement did. She knew well enough that the only time I did that was when everything was about to go to hell in a handbasket. She’d seen me in action before and had been suitably astonished.
But I got into gear, kept the champagne flowing and steered the conversation, as much as one could from a seasoned professional like Elaine, and, I think, in Jimmy’s eyes, he saw the battle lines and knew who took the crown on points. Neither Elaine nor Jimmy suspected anything, and if the truth be told, I had improved my stocks with Elaine. She was at times both surprised and interested, even willing to take a back seat.
Alison, on the other hand, tried poking around the edges, and, once when Elaine and Jimmy had got up to have a cigarette outside, questioned me directly. I chose to ignore her and pretend nothing had happened, rather than tell her how much I was enjoying the evening.
She had her ‘secrets’. I had mine.
At the end of the evening, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I was physically sick from the pent-up tension and the implications of what Jimmy had told me. It took a while for me to pull myself together; so long, in fact, that Jimmy came looking for me. I told him I’d drunk too much champagne, and he seemed satisfied with that excuse. When I returned, both Alison and Elaine noticed how pale I was, but neither made any comment.
It was a sad way to end what was supposed to be a delightful evening, which, to a large degree, it was for the other three. But I had achieved what I set out to do: to play them at their own game, watching the deception once I knew there was one, as warily as a cat watches its prey.
I had also discovered Jimmy’s real calling; a professor of economics at the same University Alison was doing her law degree. It was no surprise in the end, on a night where surprises abounded, that the world could really be that small.
We parted in the early hours of the morning, a taxi whisking us back to the Lower East Side, another taking the Blaines back to the Upper West Side. But, in our case, as Alison reminded me, it would not be for much longer. She showed concern for my health and asked me what was wrong. It took all the courage I could muster to tell her it was most likely something I ate and the champagne, and that I would be fine in the morning.
She could see quite plainly it was anything other than what I told her, but she didn’t pursue it. Perhaps she just didn’t care what I was playing at.
And yet, after everything that had happened, once inside our ‘palace’, the events of the evening were discarded, like her clothing, and she again reminded me of what we had together in the early years before the problems had set in.
It left me confused and lost.
I couldn’t sleep because my mind had now gone down that irreversible path that told me I was losing her, that she had found someone else, and that our marriage was in its last death throes.
And now I knew it had something to do with Barclay.
I watched Juliet head back towards the hotel, joining the throng of tourists out walking in the refreshing night air before going back to their hotels.
The walk along the grand canal was particularly good and I’d taken it more than once over the years. Perhaps I would again, tonight, before retiring to contemplate the next move in what was becoming a chess game.
Why had Larry decided after all this time to come after me? And why the softly softly approach? In bringing up Kerry’s mother in the conversation, it gave me the idea that perhaps I could ask her.
Of course given the fractious nature of the relationship between her and her son she might not know, but it was worth calling her if only to touch base after so long. I was sure she would know about what happened to Violetta and understand.
Just before she disappeared from sight I could see her answering a call on her cell phone. No doubt Larry was looking for more information after the revelations she had relayed to him.
Doing what I had was the equivalent of a double-edged sword, as the saying goes. On the one hand, he might consider her had the advantage of knowing when and where I was going, but on the other, I knew he would be waiting, and therefore be prepared, though often preparation counted for nothing with unpredictable people like him.
Still, it was done now. It also threw up another interesting sidebar, that Juliet didn’t like Cecilia if only for the reason she was with me. Was it jealousy? Surely she could not still have any feelings for me after all this time, and what she had gone through?
But, in normal circumstances, had she not been involved in this charade, and I had accidentally run into her in the street, what might my feelings be? They had been all over the place that last time, following a near-death experience, and when my service was in its infancy. It was a time when a lot of young agents got caught up in the euphoria of action, and some made fatal mistakes.
I had used one of my nine lives then, and several more since, before retiring. I had never intended to return, but circumstances change, and whatever I may have wanted might have to take a back seat until this matter was sorted. Then Rodby would make his play, as he always had, citing the losing battle we faced without people like me steering the ship in the right direction.
He was great with analogies, and praise, and putting you in a position where saying no was almost a crime against the state. A bridge I would have to cross eventually.
The restaurant was closing for the night and a waiter came to gently tell us to leave. It wasn’t late, but it was time to go.
I didn’t get far before a message appeared on my phone, a rendezvous outside the Doges Palace. Alfie no doubt had the gist of the incoming call Juliet received not a half-hour before.
He was loitering inconspicuously when I found him, pretending to have an animated conversation with someone on the other end of his cell phone, speaking and gesturing as all Italians seemed to do.
He waved when he saw me, then wound up the fictitious call.
“Perhaps you should also be in the movies. That was a very eloquent performance.”
He smiled. “It wouldn’t fool too many people.”
“Is this about Juliet’s call?”
He looked surprised.
“I saw her get a call after she left me to go back to the hotel.”
“Of course. And, yes. He seems very upset you called him a moron.”
“If the shoe fits… Don’t tell me he rang her just to vent over me calling him names.”
“No. Just to tell her where and when she had to take you to your impending doom. Seems the wait is over, and since you announced you’re going to visit his mother, he thought it was a perfect opportunity.”
I thought later, after I mentioned it, that it might present him with the means, and to use Juliet of who I would not suspect of luring me into a trap. It was, in a way, on his part, very clever.
“What was her response?”
“A few choices words, and the fact she was not that close she could make such a request.”
“And let me guess, if she wants to see her brother again, come up with a plan?”
“More or less. Do you really want to do this, this way?”
“Forewarned is forearmed. It’s better than going in blind. Is Cecilia a trained sniper?”
Many years ago Rodby insisted all his agents be trained to the highest proficiency in using a wide variety of guns. I was in the first intake to benefit, and I had to say, sniper work was the best.
“She is.”
“Then I’ll talk to her. And get her there ahead of time, you too if possible, unless your operating Rodby’s chessboard in Italy.”
“No, I can take time out. But I insist we have a solid plan before doing this. No ad hoc, spur-of-the-moment stuff that Rodby tells me you’re famous for.”
Sometimes it was the only way, because the more people who knew, the less chance of success, particularly if there was a foreign mole in your midst.
“You’ll know everything as soon as I do. Trust me.”
His look told me she did everything but trust me. “You think you might get a visit in the night?”
“Should I sleep with Cecilia just to make it more interesting?”
“She’s not your personal toy to play with.”
“Wasn’t going to. It’s just to make Juliet edgier, which, if she saw Cecilia in her pajamas, might push a button and catches her off guard.”
“It’s your call. Let me know when the plan is set.”
Another thought came to mind, something I’d been thinking about. “We don’t know where Larry has the bother holed up? As I understand it, his on a video link so it’s not out in the wide-open spaces.”
“Not at the moment, but we’re working on it. If it’s relevant I’ll let you know. It would give us an advantage if we had him, but at the moment, it’s not on the table. If and when you meet up with Larry, he will be asking you a lot of questions.
And, as if he hadn’t been there at all, he was gone. What was worrying was the reappearance of the Frenchman, nearby, and it was clear he had been following either me or Juliet. There was no doubt he’d seen me with Alfie, but since the whole conversation had been conducted in Italian, it was hard to tell what he would have made of it.
Time would tell. I would take a walk, consider the options and then go back to the hotel.
How many of us have skeletons in the closet that we know nothing about? The skeletons we know about generally stay there, but those we do not, well, they have a habit of coming out of left field when we least expect them.
In this case, when you see your photo on a TV screen with the accompanying text that says you are wanted by every law enforcement agency in Europe, you’re in a state of shock, only to be compounded by those same police, armed and menacing, kicking the door down.
I’d been thinking about this premise for a while after I discovered my mother had a boyfriend before she married my father, a boyfriend who was, by all accounts, the man who was the love of her life.
Then, in terms of coming up with an idea for a story, what if she had a child by him that we didn’t know about, which might mean I had a half-brother or sister I knew nothing about. It’s not an uncommon occurrence from what I’ve been researching.
There are many ways of putting a spin on this story.
Then, in the back of my mind, I remembered a story an acquaintance at work was once telling us over morning tea, that a friend of a friend had a mother who had a twin sister and that each of the sisters had a son by the same father, without each knowing of the father’s actions, both growing up without the other having any knowledge of their half brother, only to meet by accident on the other side of the world.
It was an encounter that in the scheme of things might never have happened, and each would have remained oblivious of the other.
For one sister, the relationship was over before she discovered she was pregnant, and therefore had not told the man he was a father. It was no surprise the relationship foundered when she discovered he was also having a relationship with her sister, a discovery that caused her to cut all ties with both of them and never speak to either from that day.
It’s a story with more twists and turns than a country lane!
I personally believed that we wouldn’t be sitting on this alien vessel unless we had some value, or there was something about the group of so-called criminals that the alien captain didn’t have the authority to take decisive action.
“Hold that thought,” I said to him. Then, “Number one?”
“Sir?”
“Are you still with the alien group?”
“Yes sir, awaiting orders?”
“Is the spokesman for the prisoners nearby?”
“A moment, sir.” Silence for a minute, then, “He’s here, sir.”
“You wish to speak to me?”
An odd thought, they all sounded the same.
“Yes. I find it odd that the alien captain of this vessel hasn’t just destroyed our vessels and moved on, after all, if they have determined you are all criminals, what would be the difference between being left in a prison, or being executed?
“I’m not sure what you are getting at. For all intents and purposes, we are dead, to them and our homeworlds.”
It wasn’t the way he said it, but the way it was spoken. And what was left unsaid. It was a moment when you didn’t get the answer you wanted because you didn’t ask the right question.
“Now is not the time to be keeping secrets, because when our host comes back, the situation is going to end badly for you, and just as badly for us. We’re all still here because you have something they want. What is it?”
There was silence, but it was not generated by a refusal to speak, but more than the answer might have worse consequences than no answer.
Then, very quietly, he said, “Jai Ti.”
There are only three reasons that drive people to do the unthinkable. Money, power, and a woman.
“She is not a so-called criminal, is she?”
“No. She was indiscreet and found herself banished to the same detention center like us. We are high-level detainees, rather than prisoners, who live in far better conditions than the more common criminal classes.”
“Let me guess, she was a so-called friend of one of the high council or someone of consequence in the political power structure.”
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
“And they’re worried if she gets free, she might denounce the injustice?”
“She feels she did nothing wrong. She claims she did not tell anyone, as per her agreement with the individual in question. The situation is exacerbated by the fact they people have a very strict moral code, and relationships, shall we say, that is extra, and severely frowned upon, and for a leader who is expected to set an example.”
“And this leader…”
“The rules don’t necessarily apply depending on who you are. Unfortunately, it is a problem across the many homeworlds here. An enlightened society doesn’t necessarily mean what we and others are led to believe.”
“We have the same problems. Thank you for your honesty, it may help, it might not.” I had all I needed. “Number One.”
“Sir.”
“No need to stay, I have no intention of getting between the passengers or the alien captain, so get back to the ship as quickly as you can and be ready on the bridge. General?”
“Sir?”
“You are ordered to defend the ship by whatever means at your disposal, without regard to that personnel not aboard. Do you understand?”
I expected a but because I was basically telling him that if he had to fire upon the Russian ship or the Alien ship, both senior officers and some crew would be in danger.
As far as I was concerned, the ship and 2000 others were more important.
“Under protest, but I understand. Sir.”
“Number one?”
I also expected to get the standard lecture, which was well within his purview, but instead, “Understood, sir but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Second?”
“Sir?”
“You have the bridge until either Number One or I return, otherwise you know what the standing orders are.”
“Understood.”
It was the precise moment the alien captain returned.
“I’ve spoken to the high council. We are also monitoring a high level of activity on your ship.”
“If it’s a war you want, it’s a war you’ll get. I think it’s time for the truth, something you have been playing, as we say, fast and loose with. I told you exactly why we’re here, you haven’t. I don’t approve of my compatriots’ actions, but he has, as anyone from our world would grant preliminary asylum to anyone who asks for it, pending a thorough investigation. That investigation starts and ends with two words, Jai Ti.”
For a man with an expressionless face, it wasn’t hard to tell I’d hit the nerve.
“Alas, as you may or may not appreciate, we are in a difficult situation.”
“Dare I say it, but for an enlightened civilization, you seem to have all the same problems we do. We could have resolved this much earlier had you just stated the facts.”
“Then you are prepared to return the prisoners.”
“Prisoners, yes, but with a suggestion. The princess, no. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to censure the leader that broke the rules.”
“And if that’s not possible?”
“Then I will take her home, and whatever happens after that is on his head, and to a lesser extent, yours.”
“Even if it means your ship is destroyed, and all those crew members die needlessly.”
“More have died for less, but noble cause. Do as you wish, but I strongly advise you not to test our resolve.”
The alien captain turned to the Russian captain. “If you hand over the prisoners, all of the prisoners, you will free to leave.”
“Sorry. It’s a tempting offer, but it doesn’t solve the problem for future explorers. Eliminating us will just bring more, in the not-too-distant future, only they will be hostile. You might be able to live with the short-term consequences, but given what we are learning about your relations with other worlds, who are they going to blame for the problems you caused in the name of short-term expediency?”
A few seconds later four new aliens appeared, each in a particular style of dress.
Children are meant to be the joy in your life, not the bane of your existence.
Of course, keeping the secret from their father might have seemed like a good idea if not out of spite in the beginning.
But the truth was he left, and that was on him. It was not as if he was going to hang around, not after telling her that it was not the time to be having children, not with her wild partying or the fact he was trying to move on after his stint in the Army and that overseas deployment that had severely scarred many of his friends.
Yes, they were perfectly matched, and both agreed they both soul mates and kindred spirits, but it was not enough to keep them together. Marrying him to spite her father had the reverse effect, and she still suspected her father had bought him off.
But, whatever the reason, she was left with the parenting, delegated to nannies, then boarding school and servants. It was no wonder they hated their forever disinterested and absent mother, and because of the bored, mischievous miscreants who were constantly in the news and police stations.
Their latest antics were mild compared to previous escapades, but the school could always see a fundraising opportunity. And being sent home yet again to consider their situation was all she needed.
Fresh out of her latest and longest stay in hospital, the full extent of her situation was becoming clear.
