I think they went to a commercial break. Cathy Vogel came over to me and said, “you can’t just leave it like that, Jo-el.”
“Why not? I think I was very clear.”
“What now?” she asked.
“I’m leaving, let’s see what happens in the next day or so.”
“Are you trying to end all crime?”
I smiled, “not sure that’s possible but it’s a step in the right direction.”
“Okay, let’s go back to the conference room.”
I left Vogel and Nolan a few minutes later telling them that I’d keep in touch and return when I thought it was necessary. They were grateful, they had more than enough material to keep them busy for weeks. They were treating me with kid gloves, yes sir, no sir, they understood it would be easy for me to go to a competitor, they didn’t want that, which was fine with me, CNN were at the top of their tree and I liked Cathy Vogel.
What was it? Why didn’t I feel happy about the CNN spot? It seemed so fabricated to me, and I felt that’s how it would appear to the viewers. It reminded me of the meeting in the hangar, like I was a school teacher taking a fifth-grade class. Maybe I didn’t like the role I was playing? Perhaps there was another way?
I showered and called Sally. I was only waring a toweling robe. She was elegant in a short, blue cocktail dress and high heels, a topaz stone hung from a silver necklace around her neck, a giant topaz ring on her wedding finger.
“Is that real?” But as I said it, I realized nothing about Sally was real.
“You like it?” she did a twirl, then came close to me. I could smell a scent.
“I can smell perfume?”
She laughed and put her arms around my neck, they were real, then she kissed me long and hard, her tongue probing inside my mouth. I could feel her body against mine, her abdomen firm against me. My loins came alive; she knew immediately and gyrated sensuously up and down with her body to arouse me. It worked. I pulled away, wrapping the towel robe tighter. I was speechless.
“You don’t like me, Jo-el?” she pouted.
“I know what you are, Sally. It’s weird.”
Sally walked gracefully to the window and stood staring out at the San Francisco skyline. Then she turned toward me slowly her face lit with joy. “I am what you ever want me to be, Jo-el.”
I crossed the room to her and wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her on the mouth. She molded to me like putty. I was hard and I wanted her. “I love you very much, Sally, you know that.” She twirled away and fell on the sofa. She was like a sixteen-year-old girl who’d been kissed for the first time, glowing with vanity, nervous, shaking with delight.
“Not yet, Joey, I’m not ready. But soon.” She whispered, her face beaming with pride.
Not ready. I didn’t know where to go with that. I left her to enjoy her power over me and went to the bedroom to dress.
Sally was still sitting in the same position when I returned. “Did you watch me on CNN?” I asked. She nodded. “And?”
“It came over a bit like a magic show, at first, I was waiting for you to pull a rabbit out of a hat. But the warning brought it alive, that should work.”
“That’s what I thought. I don’t feel comfortable explaining who I am. Even to me it all seems so ridiculous.”
“They’ll get used to it.”
Maybe I thought. “So what’s next?”
“The company I picked to clean up your house will be there in half an hour.”
“Oh, right. Can you meet them?”
“Can’t do that, Jo-el, you know that.”
“How far away can you get?”
“About two hundred and fifty feet.”
“I just don’t want to see the mess.”
“They’ll need some cash up front.”
“A lot?”
“Maybe five hundred.”
“What about Maggie?”
“She picked an Italian restaurant downtown, real close to here.”
“Good, is Adam coming?”
“No, I just said her.”
“Good. What time?”
“I said you’d see her there at six.
“Okay, so I’ll have an hour or so after meeting with the clean-up crew.”
Sally nodded.
“I was wondering; can you terminate hundreds of people at once?”
Sally paused for a while, her eyes lit up and the edge of her mouth curled. “Sure!”
“Like, how many?”
“What are you thinking, Jo-el?”
“Just tell me.”
“Thousands, I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. Are you going to tell me what you’re planning?”
“No, not right now, I need to think about it first.”
After I meet with the President. I need a gift and I think I knew exactly what he’d like.
“The Russian is moving his money.”
“Oh, good.”
“Not really, he’s transferring it to a friend. I sent him the account numbers and routing but he decided to ignore it. There’s one for the chopping block.” She laughed.
“Son of a bitch! What’s he planning?”
“His friend is a billionaire, but he’s not on any list, nasty piece of work. He’s in Monaco, so Yerchenkov went to see him, after his visit to the hospital.”
“Tell me what happened?”
“Yerchenkov explained what happened. You’ve stirred up a hornets’ nest with the criminal classes, Jo-el. You’re not their most popular person, right now. They wonder how far you intend to go.”
“I’m planning to wipe them out.”
“That would be the thousands of people you want me to whack?”
“Actually no, but put them on your list.”
Sally grinned. “I think I like where you’re going, Jo-el.”
“So, what are they planning to do about me?”
“What do you think?” She smirked.
I threw up my hands, “come on Sally, I need to hear this.”
“Kill you! What else?”
I mean, what did I expect? I just hadn’t focused on the repercussions. Plus, I hadn’t got started yet, anyway. I sat back into the soft cushions, arching my head back and pondered the cornice on the ceiling. Very elegant. But I did have to reckon with these assholes. I had made some nasty enemies and in the next few weeks, I’d be making a hell of a lot more. But what could they do? I was invincible, wasn’t I? That thought drained quickly from my mind as I remembered how quickly the American authorities had found out who I really was. I had no idea how many people new my true identity and Sally could only know if they talked about it. Damn, so that meant that Sean and Maggie were likely to be their targets. I wondered if they’d figure out my weaknesses. It didn’t matter, I just had to assume they would.
“They’ll go after Sean and Maggie!” I said to Sally.
“Eventually, yes. But they don’t know your identity yet, Jo-el.”
“Who does know?”
“I’ve only found four so far and the only one who would definitely reveal it, is General Kale.”
“Problem is Sally, if the bad guys find out that there’s someone out there who knows my identity, they’ll go after them anyway. They are not safe.”
“So, we should take them off the map.”
“Where do you get this stuff, Sally?”
“I’ve seen a lot of movies, Jo-el, I’m a big fan of Clint and De Niro. ‘You talking to me?’” Sally laughed and pointed a hand at me, shaped like a pistol. But I wasn’t happy. I had to protect Sean and Maggie. Nothing could happen to them. “It’s time to meet the clean-up crew.”