“Hi.” Annette brushed past into the living room, where she considered the mess as typical and whirled around to face Zelda. “Look, I know you’re not happy to see me.”
“That’s a deep understatement.”
“I tried your office but they said you were sick.”
“No chocolate to perk me up?’
“Looks like you’re not depriving yourself.” Annette sneered at Zelda’s drooping belly. “I’ll make this brief.”
Zelda wrapped her bathrobe tighter. “I hope so.”
“I know you hate me for the way I treated Puppy.”
“As well as your general warm qualities.”
“I’m sorry I’m not your type.”
Zelda glowered. “What the hell do you want, Annette? I’m under the weather.”
“I need your help.”
“From someone who hates you?”
“It’s for Puppy. I’m sure if I collapsed and started bleeding, you’d wait an hour to contact the medemerline.”
Zelda shrugged.
“His fiancé is screwing my fiancé. Even someone with your morals understands that violates the law. If Puppy knows his fiancé is screwing my fiancé, he is as guilty as his fiancé.”
“Dara.”
“Yes. Dara the great singer Dinton. She’s screwing my fiancé.”
“Elias the great Commissioner Kenuda.”
Annette gave her the finger. “You don’t care about me, fine. I don’t care about you, fine. But you care about your little Puppy who you always had a crush on and I’m telling you to tell him to tell Dara Dinton to back off or else.”
Zelda stiffened. “Or else what?”
“Well.” Annette laughed coldly. “Or else I will tell The Couples what Dara is doing. And then good-bye to America’s Sweethearts…”
Growling like a wounded animal, Clary leaped over the couch and rushed at Annette with a kitchen knife. Zelda yanked her away, but one of the girl’s kicks found Annette’s shin. She groaned and kicked back to cover her retreat.
“What is that thing?”
Clary let loose a torrent of Spanish rage.
“Get out,” Zelda screamed.
Annette wagged her finger. “Do it. Or else.”
Clary bit Zelda’s hand, breaking free for another charge; Zelda caught Clary as she chased the screaming Annette down the hallway.
• • • •
ALBERT CAREFULLY STUDIED the mess of paper clips and pencils on his desk as if they could reveal where Grandma had gone.
“Any ideas?”
Tomas shook his head. Grandma was the only person in America without a Lifecard to track.
“What about near Nantucket where she went last time?”
Tomas explained the beach house had already been searched.
“Perhaps she was kidnapped.”
“No one gets through my security,” Stilton said; Cheng raised an eyebrow. “Grandma did this on her own.”
“Yes, she did,” Albert said sadly. “Without telling you, her most trusted aide. Or me, who has been with her since the beginning.”
Of the Original Eight, only he and Lenora remained. Dell and M’akio died of cancer young; Ellie and Atter, on 10/12; Viktor and Ramon at their homes, the bioregens only able to sustain their wills for so long.
You and I, Lenora. We started this and we’ll finish it. One way or the other.
Tomas finally answered, “She has her reasons.”
“Everyone always does, Major. The worst creature on the face of this planet has the best logical basis for what they do, from political and religious extremists to schizophrenics hearing voices. The Mufti had tracts of Quran reasoning to justify the murder of innocents and the enslavement of most of the world.”
The Major’s dark face turned inky with anger. “Are you comparing Grandma to that pig?”
“No.” He almost added, not yet. “But then why is she sneaking off to meet his son?”
Tomas had no answer.
“This is not about our loyalty,” Albert softened his voice. “That’s not in doubt.”
The Major nodded wearily and pointed to the Mid-Atlantic coastline on the map.
“She’d have to meet Abdullah nearby. Otherwise it’d be too complicated, even for her.”
“Could she have help from someone else?”
Stilton shook his head. “She wouldn’t trust anyone but us.”
They exchanged ironic nods.
“Any tracking of enemy ships within our waters?” Tomas asked.
Cheng hesitated how much to say. “Our radar’s spotty, when we can risk that because it violates the Surrender. Usually the Allahs look away. But Abdullah is as rogue as Grandma.”
“So he could’ve sailed right into an American port without us knowing?”
“Your Collector did, Major.” Albert smiled faintly.
“A European, not an Allah. Two Allahs.” Tomas said as Cheng frowned. “He’s probably traveling with this Captain I met. That’d be too much to hide, no. I think she’s gone beyond our waters. No matter what she’s thinking, Grandma wouldn’t chance letting the Camels inside America.”
Albert nodded grimly while Tomas remained focused on the map. Three miles of The Family and then the crescent moon and star. “She’d take a ‘copter.”
Cheng’s eyes narrowed, recalling Lenora leading a wing attack in ’60 in the Sinai. “Can she really still fly?” He had trouble walking up the steps some days.
The Major nodded. “Enough.” He paused. “The spare one is missing.”
“What spare ‘copter, Major?”
Tomas hesitated. “In Westchester.” He hesitated again. “There’s also backups in Albany and Pittsfield, Massachusetts.”
“And?” Albert asked impatiently.
“The underground train to Nebraska. The old NORAD headquarters.”
Cheng considered the tip of another pencil. “Is there more?” He noted how quickly Tomas shook his head. “Are we in this together, Major?”
“Yes sir.”
“No more secrets?”
Stilton nodded glumly. “None. If you make sure I’m involved in every aspect of the search.”
Cheng’s white teeth flashed. “Of course. We’re partners now.”
• • • •
ZELDA LOCKED THE windows and the door, but she knew that Clary would find a way out of a vault under Grandma’s butt. For distractions she’d left food in every cupboard and every shelf in the fridge; the girl was systematic, like a dog hunting down a bone.
Clary disdainfully waved off Zelda’s offer to load more vidgames, demonstrating she’d already figured it out. Good. Just stay put.
Puppy was already at Santo’s, talking baseball with two tables pushed together to accommodate his admirers. After a tight hug, he introduced Zelda as a former star second baseman who let artistic dreams ruin a promising baseball career. She spent a couple minutes making up some shit about owning him at bat until the tables settled back, satisfied.
“You look nice,” he said, waving Pablo over with a breadstick, followed by another round of
