She didn’t answer.
Gave her a little shake. “Your name or your country of origin. Pick one, or better both, and share the information we want. Now.”
She remained silent, with a look of pride. Clearly she’d been told that her holding out on us was of paramount importance for The Cause.
Buchanan selected a gun from our recently dissed but still darned well good enough for government work arsenal, cocked it, and casually aimed for her head. “She’s the nice one. I’m the hired, trained, amoral killer, and I’m hired by someone who will be just fine if I say I chose to kill you because you represented a threat. Keep that in mind for the rest of your time with us, however brief a time that might be.”
“Mahin Sherazi,” she replied quickly, as I noted Adriana giving Buchanan a look of impressed admiration. Olga would undoubtedly be getting a fun earful when we all got home.
“That’s a beautiful name,” Dad said, falling naturally into the Good Cop role. “It means related to the moon, right?” She nodded. “And your last name means your family comes from city of Sheraz, located in southwest Iran, correct?” She nodded again. “So, are you Iranian?”
“Yes.” She said this like she was admitting something as opposed to confirming what Dad and Chuckie had already figured out.
“Great, we get it, death to America and all that jazz. Here’s the thing . . . despite the burka you don’t look Middle Eastern. You sound it, but you don’t look it. At all. And yes, sure, I’ve seen the picture of the beautiful Afghan girl on the cover of National Geographic and all that. You’re not her. So I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that your mother wasn’t actually Iranian.”
“I don’t care about death to America. I care about death to my father’s killers.”
It so figured. “Your father, the one who impregnated your mother, was Ronald Yates?” She nodded. We’d all assumed as much, but it was nice to be sure.
“Kitty’s right, her mother was an American reporter for one of the many divisions of YatesCorp.” Chuckie was looking at his phone. “She covered some stories in the Middle East, met an Iranian man, fell in love, got married, had a child. Only one. At least, only one that was acknowledged. There could be more, of course.”
“How’d you find all that?”
“They may have taken us down, but they didn’t affect the cellular network and Google lives on.”
“Ah, good to know. So, Mahin, when did your mother tell you who your father really was? Or did you discover it when your half brother showed up to recruit you into the great cause or whatever?” She’d identified using the name of the man who’d undoubtedly raised her, so that could mean she was new to the whole Al Dejahl Cause.
“I have always known.”
“Your mother told you that the man whose name you have wasn’t your real father?” Chuckie didn’t sound like he bought this one. I didn’t, either.
Buchanan smiled. It was quite a nasty smile. I wasn’t used to seeing him pull this one out, but good to know he had it handy. “Missus Chief, you and the other Reappointed Commander step away. Don’t want to get you two all blood-splattered.”
“Fine,” Mahin snapped. “I’ve always known I was different. Other children played in the dirt. I made the dirt play with me.”
Missed ACE a lot right now. ACE had never mentioned other hybrid children, but that probably only meant that the information fell under the “too much interference” heading. Wished it had occurred to me to ask about them before right now.
“Did you ever hear a voice in your head, telling you how to control your power?”
“Yes. My father watched over me.”
“That wasn’t your father.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. There was nothing wrong with this particular sentence, other than the fact that Gower couldn’t pull ACE up to share the truth.
Mahin gave me yet another dirty look. She had a variety of them. The Yates Gene certainly had its privileges. Glaring was Christopher’s Olympic Event; dirty looks were clearly what Mahin had focused on in her training. “As if you would know.”
Chose to let discretion be the better part of keeping my mouth shut and hoped no one else would decide we needed to bring Mahin up on the ACE situation. “Whatever. Are your mother and father good with your being with the Al Dejahl terrorist organization? I mean the man who raised you, not your sperm donor.”
“My parents are dead,” Mahin said, voice tight. “However, they always encouraged me to do what I felt was right.”
“And you took that to mean buddying up to terrorists was the way to go? Interesting choice. So, when did you join up with Ronaldo Al Dejahl? Before or after your parents died?”
She didn’t reply.
Chuckie sighed. “We can force you to tell us, you know. Why make it difficult on yourself?”
“I will not betray my family.”
“Your parents are dead, so you can’t actually betray them, other than to be someone they wouldn’t be proud of. Don’t know what their views were, so I have no idea if you’re winning Daughter of the Year or not. And, as Chuckie said, we don’t see a record of any siblings.”
“I am an only child,” she admitted. “My parents didn’t have other children and not acknowledge them.”
“Good to know. But here’s the thing.” Pointed to White. “He’s your family, too. As close to you as Ronaldo is. So are they.” Pointed to Christopher, Jeff, and Gower. “They’re all related to each other and to Yates. More of your relatives are in the Science Center.”
Mahin’s eyes flicked away from me, then back. It was over in a flash, but I’d spent the last three-plus years with people who really couldn’t lie well. Everyone had tells, and I was fairly sure I’d just seen one of hers.
“Chuckie, Malcolm, Adriana, are you all thinking what I’m thinking?” Figured it was a safe bet they’d seen the same as I had. They were all trained or being trained to look for tells from those in their custody or similar, after all.
“Absolutely,” Adriana said.
“Yep,” Buchanan concurred.
“Yes,” Chuckie said, making it a full hand. “I’d like a good way to make the determination, though. Because it could be a fake.”
“Something’s fake, I’ll give you that.”
“Determine what?” Gower asked. “What’s fake?”
“This situation is fake, Paul. And what we need to do is determine where everybody we’re trying to rescue actually is.”
CHAPTER 27
I TENDED TO THINK BEST when I was running my mouth. Continued to so run while watching Mahin carefully. “Here’s what I think has happened. Our people were indeed taken and herded into the Science Center. But I don’t think they’re there any more.”
“Why not?” Tito asked. “Why try to keep us away if they’re not there?”
“The usual bad guy reasons, distraction most likely.”
“Or they were anticipating our response,” White pointed out. “They were able to do so before.”
“The Science Center didn’t fire on us,” Christopher said.
“And there was only the one tank,” Adriana added.
“Good points.” The first time the Al Dejahl terrorist group had taken over the Science Center they’d absolutely shot at me and Christopher. One tank, while a good start, wasn’t likely to take out A-Cs, simply because they were so fast. And the baddies had certainly anticipated most of our reactions during most of Operation Confusion, after all, and that was when Ronaldo Al Dejahl first came onto our collective radars.
“I agree with the logic, but I’m not convinced,” Chuckie said.
“Fine. Home Base is deserted. I’m not sure what Ronaldo’s mind control range is, but he didn’t execute this plan all on his lonesome. He has his newly recruited terrorist grunts with him, I’m sure. Why not leave a couple of them at Home Base to shoot or capture us?”