‘Jargo and Dezz weren’t at our house. It was the CIA. Anything else you’ve been told is a lie. Believe your eyes. That CIA agent in London tried to kill you. There’s no plainer evidence. I want you to do what Jargo says. Please.’
‘I don’t think I can do that, Dad. He killed Mom. Do you understand that? He killed her!’ He gave his father an abbreviated account of his arrival at home.
‘But you never saw their faces.’
‘No… I never saw their faces.’ He let three seconds tick by, thought, Make Jargo think you want to believe Dad, you want to believe worse than anything, so this horror will all be over. ‘I saw Mom, and then I freaked, and they put a bag over my head.’
Mitchell’s voice was patient. ‘I can tell you it was not Dezz and Jargo, it wasn’t.’
‘How can you be sure, Dad?’
‘I am. I am absolutely sure they didn’t kill your mom.’
Start acting dumb. ‘I just heard voices.’
‘In the most horrifying moment of your life, you might make a mistake, Evan. Jargo might threaten you to get cooperation, but it’s easier than explaining to you. But he really wouldn’t hurt you. They shot at Carrie at the zoo. Not you.’
Not true, but Jargo had fed his father a matched set of lies. He didn’t argue the point. Now for confusion. ‘But Carrie said-’
‘Carrie betrayed your trust. She played you, son. I’m sorry.’
He let the silence build before he spoke. ‘You’re right.’ Forgive me, Carrie, he thought. ‘She wasn’t honest with me, Dad. Not from day one.’
Mitchell cleared his throat. ‘Never mind her. All that matters is getting you here with me. Are you safe from the CIA right now?’
‘To them, I’m dead.’
‘Then bring Jargo the files. We’ll be together. Jargo will let you and me talk, work out what happens next.’
Evan lowered his voice. ‘Say nothing. I have the laptop, but I can’t get past its password. I’ve never seen these files Jargo wants. I’m not a threat to him.’ He knew Jargo was drinking in every word.
‘It’ll all be fine as soon as we’re together.’
‘Dad… is it all true? What I found out about you and Mom, about the Deeps? Because I don’t understand…’
‘You have been very sheltered, Evan, and you are about to do more harm, ever, than good if you expose us. Do what Jargo says. We’ll have lots of time, and I can make you understand.’
‘Why aren’t you Arthur Smithson anymore?’
A pause. ‘You don’t know what your mother and I did for you. You have no conception of the sacrifices we made. You’ve never made a difficult choice. You have no idea.’ Then Mitchell’s words came in a rush, as though his time ran short: ‘You remember when I gave you all the Graham Greene novels, and I told you the most important line in all of them was “if one loved, one feared”? It’s true, one hundred percent true. I was afraid you wouldn’t have a good life, and I wanted a good life for you. The best life. You are everything to me. I love you, Evan.’
‘I remember. Dad, I love you, too.’ No matter what he had done. Evan remembered his father giving him a bunch of Greene novels his senior year in high school for Christmas, but he didn’t understand the quote. It didn’t matter. What mattered was Dad was alive and he was getting him back.
‘Listen closely.’ His father’s voice was gone, replaced by Dezz’s. ‘I’m in charge of you, now. Where are you?’
‘Just tell me where I’m supposed to be to exchange Khan’s computer for my father.’
‘Miami. Tomorrow morning.’
‘I can’t get to Miami that fast. Tomorrow night.’
‘We’ll arrange tickets for you,’ Dezz said. ‘We don’t want the CIA scooping you back up.’
‘I’ll handle my own travel. I’ll call you from Miami. I’m picking the time and place for our exchange.’
‘All right.’ Dezz gave a giggle. ‘Don’t run away from me this time. Now that we’ll all be like family.’ And he hung up.
Like family. Evan didn’t like the dig in Dezz’s tone, and he thought of the faded pictures of the two boys in Goinsville, their similar smiles and squints. Seeing now what he didn’t want to see then, the possibility that the connection between his father – a man he loved and admired – and Jargo, a brutal and vicious killer, could be a thread of blood.
Evan had decided to play dumb, to let Jargo think he would blindly rush to save his father, but now he felt dense. Graham Greene quotes that had burned up the precious time talking with his father. Digs from Dezz. It didn’t make sense.
Evan erased the downloaded movie from the PC and walked back to his room. He sprawled on his bed and stared at Khan’s laptop, still hiding its secrets like a willful child.
If he walked this laptop back to Jargo for his father, he’d get his dad back, he hoped, but Jargo would not be stopped. No. Unacceptable. So he had to do both. Get his father back and bring Jargo down, with no room for error.
He sat and considered the tools at his disposal, the ways tomorrow might play out.
It was a matter, he decided, of simply being the best storyteller. He needed to outdo a veritable king of lies. His first prop was this uncooperative laptop. It was time for sleight of hand.
36
S he picked up the phone on the third ring. ‘Hello?’
‘Hello, Kathleen.’
A moment of stunned silence. ‘Evan?’
‘Yeah, it’s me.’
‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes. I saw you talking about me on CNN last weekend. I appreciate the kind words.’
‘Evan, where are you, what happened? My God, I’ve been worried sick about you.’
He wanted to believe it was true, his former girlfriend fretting over him, and he knew his request would put her to the test.
‘I can’t tell you what’s happened or where I am. I need your help. I may be putting you in danger by asking. If you hang up now, I won’t blame you.’
Silence. Then she said, ‘What kind of danger?’
‘Not so much to you, but to whomever you can get to help me.’
‘Spit it out, Evan.’ She always had a brutal directness.
‘A dangerous group of people want me dead. They killed my mom, kidnapped my dad, they’re looking for me. I have one of their computers and I need access to it. But it’s encrypted.’
‘This is a joke, right?’
‘My mom’s dead, do you think I’m joking?’
Four beats of silence. Her voice lowered. ‘No, I don’t think you are.’
‘Help me, Kath.’
‘My God, Evan, listen, go to the police.’
‘They’ll kill my dad if I do. Please, Kathleen.’
‘How could I help you?’
‘Because you produced Hackerama with Bill.’ Bill was the guy she’d left Evan for, a film-maker from New York Evan actually thought was a cool guy. He’d beaten Evan out for the Oscar with his film about the culture of computer hackers.
‘Yes,’ she said after a moment’s hesitation.
