“Which means,” Cole put in, “this dude would’ve had to kill Dave, plant some sort of control device, and bring him back right in front of his men, without any of them ever realizing it had happened.”
“Are we sure there is a device?” asked Vayl.
“According to the Enkyklios, the Wizard either has to see his zombies to control them, or he has to implant something inside them that allows him to control them from a distance,” I reminded him.
That implant would give off some sort of psychic signal, which was why Bergman had sent me to Asha in the first place. Flash of guilt as I realized I still hadn’t clued Vayl in as to his existence. Well, hey, we weren’t married. I didn’t have to tell him every little detail of my day.
Except
, I reminded myself,
when it has some bearing on the job
. But I found it harder than I expected to admit to Vayl that I’d met somebody while stalking him. That the guy was so powerful he knew Raoul. And that he’d shared some of his go-juice with me. I let it be, hoping I’d find a better time and place. Or at least more courage if the timing turned out crappy.
“Maybe we should ask the guys in Dave’s unit,” Cole finally suggested. “One of them would probably know what we were talking about right away. It would’ve had to have been a time when he was at least injured, right? I mean, you can’t kill a guy and bring him back without leaving some trace.”
“That’s it!” I cried. “Cam was just telling us the story! How they captured two of the Wizard’s cohorts. How one of them went for Dave’s throat, left massive amounts of blood all over the place, and Dave without the ability to talk for a couple of days.”
“That’s right!” Cole said. “And come to think of it, doesn’t he scratch his neck quite a bit?” The signs Bergman had told us to look for. They were right under our noses all the time. I hadn’t sensed David’s uniqueness because I’d accepted it to start with. I’d thought he was one of Raoul’s fighters, like me. And I hadn’t noticed his tells because, by bringing up his suspicions about a mole, he’d turned those doubts completely away from himself.
“All right,” said Vayl, nodding slowly. “I am convinced. And yet, I still wonder. Why? What is to be gained by arranging for two CIA assassins to come and kill you?”
We offered him our theories, which he refused to swallow. “I do not believe he wants to die. Especially not at our hands. That would be the height of dishonor for him. So let us assume he wants to live.”
“Maybe he wants to go straight?” Cole hazarded. “Make it look like he’s been killed, when in reality he starts a new life somewhere completely different?”
“And so he has set us up to kill — who — his double?” Vayl asked.
We nodded. It happened all the time. Bad guys sent their patsies in one direction while they went the opposite in the hope that whoever was chasing them would follow the patsy and drop the J-DAM on his head.
I fished the Wizard’s picture out of my pocket and stared at it, feeling a whole new level of bummed for the ladies it portrayed. No way would the gentleman who held them willingly give up his life with them. Which meant he was being coerced. Shit. Not only couldn’t we kill him, now we had to rescue his family before the Wizard’s people found out the game was up, got pissed, and lopped off their heads. At the same time we still needed to locate the Wizard.
Time for Bergman and Cassandra to chime in.
It wasn’t easy to separate Cassandra from David. They’d become kind of indivisible. Like prime numbers. Which broke my heart. And here I’d thought it was already totaled.
In the end Cole told Cassandra I had girl problems and nobody in the kitchen was interested in hearing any more about it. He lured Bergman out of the room by informing him Pete was on my special specs, something about a glitch in his translator hardware that had caused an agent’s hair to catch fire.
When we were all gathered in the boys’ room with Cole guarding the door against snoops, I gave our newbies the lowdown. Bergman took it well. Cassandra swayed a little, but she refused help as she walked to the bench, where she sat still and staring. I sat beside her, talking fast.
“I’m going to see Raoul as soon as I can,” I told her. “I will work this out.”
“If it’s possible,” she said, her voice distant, strangely calm. She’d had to dig deep for this strength. Almost to the other side of the world.
“Cassandra, you should have more faith in me,” I said. I sounded composed, but my insides were quaking. The consequences of my failure were so extreme I could hardly bear the thought of them. So, of course, I didn’t. “Did I not save your life on our last mission, despite the fact that you’d had a vision of your own death?”
Momentary pause. “Yes.”
“Shouldn’t that count for something now, especially considering the fact that you haven’t had a single vision since you touched my brother thirty-two hours ago?”
It took a while for her eyes to focus on me. When they did, they managed a smile. “Yes,” she said.
“Well then.” I left it there. Moved on. “We think the Wizard’s link to David is in his neck.” And that’s where I stopped. I looked at Vayl, suddenly helpless. If I had to say another word I’d burst into tears and ruin every bit of credibility I’d gained over the past five minutes. Because I could only pretend my twin being a zombie was no big deal for so long. And then the horror of it would overcome me, leave me speechless.
During these times I almost wished Vayl hadn’t rescued me from the mahghul poison. What a relief to have cared less. Kept a distance from the pain. But I couldn’t have functioned then. I’d have been left, like Asha, standing on the sidewalk, scribbling names on a notepad as if I thought that might make some difference in my worthless, blasted world.
Vayl nodded slightly, raising an eyebrow to ask if I’d be okay. I shrugged. He said, “We need a way to track the connection between the device in David’s neck and the Wizard. We thought perhaps, between the two of you” — his glance took in Cassandra and Bergman both — “perhaps you could find a scientific and/or magical means to do that
without
alerting the Wizard that his plans have been compromised.”
“That might be difficult on my end,” said Cassandra. “David and I have been spending such a lot of time together. He might become suspicious when I begin to stay away.”
A definite point. I said, “Then I think we bring in Cam. He can decide if the rest of the team can keep this kind of secret without letting Dave in on it. And they can divert him when you’re busy.”
We agreed to let Cole recruit Cam while I tried to contact Raoul. Bergman took my place on the bench. He and Cassandra immediately began discussing strategies while I went to stand by Vayl at the window.
“How do you want to do this?” he asked in a low voice.
“I’m not going out-of-body yet,” I told him, trying not to shiver at how easily the Magistrate had trapped me last time. “But if I have to —” I bit my lip to keep myself from saying goodbye. You have to believe you’re coming back. “It might get rough,” I said. I twisted Cirilai on my finger. Gave it a tap. “You may need to send help.” I paused. “If you can.”
He nodded, the relief in his eyes making me wish I could hug him. “Yes. The ring and I are on speaking terms again.”
Whew! In dire circumstances, Vayl could share his power with me through the ring. It wasn’t easy on either one of us, but if Cirilai told him I was in trouble, he might be able to assist me. Having been through one battle without that fallback, I was doubly glad to have it now.
“All right, then,” he said, “go ahead and talk.”
I looked out the window.