Second That Emotion

Second Thoughts and Last Chances

Latikia

Edited by

The Old Fart

Chapter 32

Ivan, Svetlana and…their son…went back to Providence two days later, having decided, with my helpful input, that neither of them really wanted anything to do with K-Street lobbyists.

Did I turn my brother, you ask?

What would you have done in my position?

There are people you instinctively feel you can trust, but there are different levels and degrees of trust. The whole concept is highly subjective. There’s the kind of trust where you’ll let someone borrow your car, or the kind where you’ll confess to something particularly embarrassing. Then there’s the kind of trust where you’d feel safe telling someone your deepest, darkest secret, or allowing them to stand behind you with a loaded gun.

My bother and his wife didn’t fall into any of those categories. Not with me.

I trust damn few people, and with good reason. The few times I’ve trusted anyone…anyone at all…they’ve invariably let me down.

I’m not a great judge of character, not by any means. I’ve screwed up more than a few times in that respect, but there’s one positive thing you can say about me…I don’t forget. Good or bad, I remember it all.

Hell yeah I turned my brother. I didn’t trust him any farther than I could throw an elephant. What I didn’t do was tie him, or his blood thirsty bitch, to me. I tied them to each other. I figured they deserved it, and it was the least damaging punishment I could think of, considering what they’d done…or tried to do.

So the girls came back to our bed, my brother’s family went home, and Dad hung around for a week and played with the kids, which gave me and the girls more free time to ourselves…when I wasn’t busy getting Lucy and her gang of misfits settled into their new lives and jobs. Fortunately for all of us, they took to the NSA like ducks to water. Within days they’d completely taken over and Lucy was in hog heaven.

By the twenty first of February her crew had gotten me all the information I’d asked for, with one major gaping Hole of Calcutta type exception.

They couldn’t tell me where Alex Chorney was.

To be honest, I hadn’t really expected they’d be able to -- but it would have been nice. I’d just have to make do with the names and addresses of his extended family. And he had a lot of family.

Most were outside the country, but that didn’t faze me in the least. That’s what I had Ty Donner for.

Ty Donner, CIA Deputy Director of Operations; head honcho of all the spies, field operatives and black bag operations and one of my very first double agents.

I gave him the list of names and address, told him what I wanted and how fast and then sat back and waited for the fireworks.

I was sitting in my office, going over Eric’s list of our new employees, and trying to figure out what the hell to do with all of them, when the phone rang. I looked up from the list and gazed at the phone console. Eric’s intercom light was blinking in time with the rings.

“Yes Eric?”

“Doctor, there’s a call for you…it’s him.”

I smiled coldly; set the list down and with my free hand activated the program Lucy’s people had installed on my computer. The monitor was quickly filled with a grid of what looked like tiny color TV screens. Each small screen was occupied by one or more people, going about their normal everyday (or in some cases everynight) lives.

“By all means, put him thru.” I told my assistant and then began inhaling emotions as though they were air.

Clicks, whirrs, buzzes and beeps followed…then a prolonged high pitched squealing followed by absolute silence.

And then…

“Hello Doctor. You’ve been a busy boy, haven’t you?”

“What can I tell you? My life’s a never-ending carnival ride. Just one fun filled moment after another.”

“Some day you must tell me how you managed to destroy an entire warehouse without using explosives, or leaving anything more than blood traces in the way of evidence.” He sounded as though he were genuinely impressed.

“It wasn’t all that difficult really. Pity you weren’t there, I’d have been delighted to let you watch how it was done from inside.”

“How droll. Still, well done. Very well done.”

“Gee, thanks. Can I assume you’re convinced Lucifer has been eliminated, as we agreed?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I was initially skeptical. Primarily owing to the rather flamboyant method employed. However, after extensive review of the local police and FBI lab results, and the total absence of Lucifer’s handy work since then, we are now convinced.”

“I’m thrilled. Now, how about keeping your part of our arrangement?”

“Ah…yes, the pictures and video. Well, I’m afraid that there’s been a slight change of plans. Regrettably, I find myself in further need of your services, so I think I’ll just hang on to those items for the time being.”

I waited for a long count of ten before replying.

“I suppose I should be shocked or offended or surprised, but I’m not.”

“I’d have been disappointed if you were. Still, what can you do? How does that expression go; ‘once you’ve got ‘em by the balls their hearts and minds will follow’?”

I chuckled harshly. “I had a drill sergeant who was fond of saying that. Still, it’s interesting that you appear to have forgotten to protect your own. Tell me Alex, how’s your uncle Julio in Havana doing these days?”

There was a complete absence of sound blaring from the phone against my ear.

“Or your mother in Madrid? Heard from her lately? Nice looking woman. I’d have never figured her for a red-head. She looks good though, for a woman her age. What is she, sixty four, sixty five? Your sister Carmen now, she’s the one with the husband and children in Mexico City right? Not what I’d call a classically good looking woman; must take after your father’s side of the family. Kinda looks a bit like Julio.”

More silence.

“You still there Alex?” I asked quietly.

“You didn’t kill Lucifer.” he said tiredly.

“You didn’t say kill, you said eliminate. So I eliminated. As far as the NSA or FBI is concerned, Lucifer is dead; and no one, but no one, will ever hear a peep from him ever again. Sounds like elimination to me.”

“He’s working for the CIA now?”

“No, Lucifer works for me now. I can understand why your principals wanted him out of the way; he really is very good. How do you think I located your family so quickly?”

There was a slightly too long pause.

“It won’t do any good.” I said.

“What won’t?” he replied harshly.

“Dialing phone numbers like a madman, trying to get in touch and telling them to head for the hills. It won’t solve your problem. In fact, why don’t you get Uncle Julio on the line? He’s at home right now, sitting in his living room with a couple of what look to me like seriously under age girls. He’s smoking a cigar and sipping…cognac I think it is…and the girls; well you can probably guess what they’re doing. Yeah, by all means, give him a call. I’ll wait.”

I watched the images on the monitor, isolated the one I wanted and enlarged it so that it filled the screen completely. There was no audio, but then I didn’t need sound. I watched the man on the screen and concentrated. Then I linked.

Yeah, he was having a grand old time, but at his age it took quite a while to get his rocks off. The girls were doing their best, and for as young as they looked to be, they were both quite accomplished.

The phone on the table next to his arm chair must have rung, because the old man set aside his brandy snifter, picked up the receiver and held it to his ear.

“Don’t forget to verify that things are as I described Alex…I don’t want there to be any doubt in your mind.”

“La morte e l’unica cura per il vero antipatico.” Alex’s voice rasped half heartedly. He was obviously distracted by something more pressing at that moment. What I found interesting was that his curse (I assumed it was a curse because of the tone) sounded like Italian. I figured, based on our one previous meeting, that he’d have cursed me in Russian or possibly Spanish.

There was a lull in our conversation as, I assumed, Alex and his Uncle exchanged pleasantries. On screen, the old man sat up abruptly, dislodging one of the two girls and dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor, and began looking around the room in a panic.

“Alex? Can you hear me Alex?” I asked, a cold smile forming on my lips.

“I hear you. So you bugged my uncle’s house. I’ll get him moved. This doesn’t get you off the hook. If anything, pissing me off in this fashion puts you in a much more precarious position.”

“Alex, Alex, Alex…” I sighed theatrically, “You’re completely missing the point of this little demonstration. I know where Julio is. I know where your mother and your sister are. I know where each and every one of your family members is right at this very moment. This is the CIA, dumb-fuck. Remember? This is what we do. Now I want you to pay close attention to this next bit…it’s very important. Are you still on the line with Julio?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Listen close.”

I concentrated on one specific part of Julio’s anatomy, amplified all the emotions I was holding about a thousand times and then shot them down the link I had established with the man on screen in front of me.

I watched, fascinated, while the skin around Julio’s neck swelled like a bullfrog’s and then exploded in all directions, spraying the room with blood, fragments of bone and gobbets of shredded tissue. His head, eyes wide with pain and terror, dropped the four missing inches of support, landed unevenly on the bloody wound between his shoulders and rolled forward, dropped down and came to rest face up in his own lap.

On screen the two girls began screaming silently, hands over their formerly occupied mouths, blood and gore splattered across their faces and upper bodies, scrambling to distance themselves from the old man’s headless corpse. I broke my link, having felt Julio’s life fade into the abyss.

“What the hell just happened?” Alex’s voice roared out of the phone.

I pulled the receiver from my ear and smiled with amusement before replacing it.

“Alex, your Uncle’s dead. I’m sure you have methods of confirming the when and how, and I suggest you do just that. What I want you to think long and hard about right now is that your Uncle’s dead because you decided to double-cross me. And if you insist on not keeping your part of our agreement, I’m going to destroy your family; brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, mother and father, the one surviving grandfather…every last one. If you try to move them, I’ll know and they’ll die. From now until the day you die, they’ll be watched. You assaulted my sister, you stupid fuck, you threatened to ruin her life and then you had the unmitigated gall to try and blackmail me. Did you really think I’d just sit back take it? By the way, if you so much as try to come after another member of my family, I’ll kill every person on the planet who’s even distantly related to you, in the slowest, most hideously painful ways you can possibly imagine. Do you understand me?”

Silence.

“Fine, mama’s next.” I said, my tone as cold as permafrost.

“I understand.” he snarled quickly.

“Good boy. If the items in question aren’t in my hands within twenty four hours, or if at any point in the future so much as a hint of them surfaces…well, I’m sure we understand one another. Now, there’s bound to be one other question bouncing around in that sick, sadistic brain of yours; what do you say we just get it out of the way so we can get on with our lives?”

“You’re so damn clever, you tell me.”

I smiled to myself. “Alex, I’ll spare your family if, and only if, you turn yourself over to me here at Langley no later than five p.m. tomorrow.”

“I’ll kill you, you sonofabitch!” he snarled like a rabid dog.

“Is that a ‘no’?”

“I’ll cut your dick off and shove it down your throat!”

“You’re welcome to try. But you’d better get it right the first time, unless you want to be an orphan.

“I figured you had no sense of honor. Not even willing to sacrifice yourself to save your family. Sad really, but not unexpected. Still, I found Lucifer, and one of these days I’ll find you too. One final word of warning, if I were you I’d keep as far away from your relatives as humanly possible.”

I hung up before he had a chance to say anything else and sat watching the bloody remains of Uncle Julio bleed out on screen, feeling nothing but satisfaction at a job well done.

I didn’t bother to tell him why he should avoid his relatives. Why spoil all the fun?

Yeah, I’d turned them. And I used love to do it. There wasn’t a one that wouldn’t rat him out to me in a heartbeat, or one that I wouldn’t sacrifice in less than that for the opportunity to lay eyes on the rat bastard.

A small box arrived the next day with the morning mail, addressed to me with no return address and a Baltimore date stamp. I took it straight back to the ranch, after having the thing fluoroscoped, and put the plain wrapped package into Izzy’s hands.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“I believe it’s from Alex Chorney.”

The blood drained from her face, leaving her only three shades darker than I am. Her heart was pounding like a trip-hammer.

“I had it checked for explosives and booby traps, but apart from that I have no idea what’s inside. I’ll leave that to you. Do what you think best with the contents. All I ask is that you give me twenty minutes to get clear of the house before you open it. Alright?”

“You don’t…”

“No. I don’t. I’ll know from your reaction whether or not it’s the real thing. And I don’t want to be anywhere nearby when you do.”

I put the contents of my pockets into my jacket, dropped the jacket over the back of the couch and left the house with quick, long strides. Once I stepped off the front porch I broke into a fast run, heading off around the side of the house, around the back, across the two hundred yards of open grass and into the woods behind our home. I continued running thru the trees, putting as much distance as I possibly could between me and my sister.

I didn’t get as far away as I would have liked. But then, there was no way I could have run far enough.

Izzy’s anguish, shame, humiliation, anger, rage and fury erupted like a kettle boiling over and the pain attached to each emotion drilled into my bones, past my nerves and into every cell of my body.

I skidded to an awkward and unbalanced stop. My eyes were on fire, my brain was a solid mass of ice, and the rest of me shifted between the two extremes so quickly that my clothing never had a chance to fully freeze and shatter or catch fire and burn away.

We lost an acre of trees that morning, either frozen solid and splintered into dagger-like fragments, burnt to glowing piles of grey/white ash, or exploded into mulch and sawdust.

By the time I staggered back home an hour later, most of the cuts and slashes that covered me from head to toe, from front to back, had stopped bleeding. I stumbled up the stairs and found the three of them in bed crying their eyes out. Peggy was holding Izzy’s head against her chest, stroking my sister’s long dark hair and trying to both comfort her and compose herself. Lilly looked up when I entered the room and gasped loudly. She scrambled off the bed, rushed over to me, took my right hand in hers and pulled me into the bathroom. She never stopped crying, but didn’t let that interfere with cleaning the blood off of me and then carefully removing the shards of wood, congealed sap and stone shards that were embedded in my flesh.

Alex Chorney was, when I finally caught him, going to suffer like no creature on earth ever had or ever would.

Two days after that I walked into the Georgetown clinic and had a very brief heart to heart with Janis Karpinski. She got a ring of her own and I got the name of every person she’d spoken to about me since I’d confided in her earlier in the month. I left the woman weeping at her desk, went to Evan’s office and put a ring in him as well, informed him that I was quitting the partnership and then walked out, got in my car and went back to Langley.

Just one more bridge crossed and left in flames behind me.