“So, how are you planning to sell this to the world, Dad?”
“By doing what I’m doing, do you see that, now? I have to do something unbelievable or no one will believe a word I say. It would appear that we have a long time, seventy years. But the task is beyond belief, we’ve never been outside of our solar system. We’ve put people on the moon, a quarter of a million miles away. These planets are one point six trillion miles away; it will take about four months at almost the speed of light to reach them.”
“This is too much, Dad. I’m lost. Who else have you told?”
“You’re it,” I said.
“Me! You haven’t told anybody else?”
I shook my head.
“Why not?”
“Come-on Maggie, you can figure that out.”
“They wouldn’t believe you.” I smiled.
“I’m meeting with the President tomorrow.”
“The US President?”
“Who else?”
“And you’re going to tell him.”
“That’s my plan.”
I could see in her face that she was beginning to understand what I was trying to do.
“I guess you’d never have gotten close to the President without all the stuff you’re doing? I can see that. They’d have locked you up in a funny-farm. Wow! It’s insane.” Then she paused and stared at me for a long time. “Why you?” She looked at Sally, “Why’d you pick him? Nice guy, but world savior, that’s a stretch. And why just one person? Don’t you have a few more of those belt computer things?”
Sally smiled warmly at Maggie. “He a reasonable man, he will do the right thing. We only had one belt. It was part of the original mission package, sent two hundred and fifty million years ago. The Cirion people had several contingency plans when they decided to send out monitoring stations to far away planets, one of them was that maybe one day someone from Cirion would come here so they wanted a belt that was compatible with the computer software at the time. But they’ve never been able to figure out how to travel at faster than the speed of light and until they do, no one from Cirion could travel here. But it doesn’t matter now, does it, because in seventy-three of your years this planet won’t exist.”
“Well you’re a happy fucker, aren’t you?” retorted Maggie.
Chapter 46
SEAN
Sally ignored Maggie, her expression deepened.
“Joel, problem.”
“What?”
“Two guys just chopped off the left hand of both Cathy Vogel and Stewart Nolan.”
“Jesus Christ! Show me what’s happening.”
A live video of the scene at the CNN studio in New York came on the disc-monitor. Cathy Vogel was in Nolan’s office, slumped in a chair, grabbing at her severed wrist, blood spurted from the wound, she was screaming. Nolan was behind his desk sitting on the floor, screaming as he stared helplessly at the stump that moments ago was attached to his left hand. Blood poured down his arm. A man ran into the office and screamed.
“Where’s the perps?” my voice was raised. The scene jumped to two guys leaping two steps at a time down a grey stairwell. “Knock them out, Sally, but don’t kill them.” Seconds later both men collapsed as if they’d fainted. “Who are they?”
“I assume you meant who sent them? Probably Verminov, they’ve done work for him before. They had passes to enter the studio, but the passes were fake. But whoever gave the initial instructions didn’t do it verbally or by text or email that I can find. Which means they must have been outside the network, probably underground.”
“Are they carrying?”
“No, or I might have seen them.”
“Verminov is sending a message.” I said.
“Probably because of those ten guys you terminated.”
“That was bloody quick.”
“Who knows what I did to Espinosa and Yerchenkov?
“Anybody with a Twitter account.”
“What about the ten guys?”
“That hit the airways fifteen minutes ago, but was probably all around the underworld within minutes. Those men died almost half an hour ago.”
“Still that is damn quick, thirty minutes to initiate retaliation.”
“I’m reviewing the two guy’s movements. They live near 120th street. Ah! One of them said to the other on the subway, ‘fifty k for a hand job, easiest money I’ve ever made’. I’ve got the phone call, twenty-two minutes ago, from a guy called Manning, he’s in New York. He told them they get fifty thousand dollars each if they chop off the left hands of Vogel and Nolan in the next thirty minutes. He told them where they were and said a guy would meet them with security passes at the entrance. They took the subway.”
“Unbelievable. Who else is at risk, Sally?”
“My guess is anybody you’ve had contact with that is open knowledge.”
“Adrianna?”
“She’s asleep, early hours tomorrow there.”
“No one gets close to her, Sally, okay?”
Maggie had watched the video and listened to us talking, there was a look of astonishment written firmly in her eyes. “What the hell is going on, Dad? What did you do?” I explained about the ten crime bosses and the ones that were out of reach. I told her about severing the hands of Espinosa and Yerchenkov. “You did what?” she said.
“It’s war Maggie, and I’m playing their game, I just didn’t realize how deep their reach can be. I have to be more careful.”
“People are dying. Innocent people are being mutilated.”
“Maggie, I can’t argue with you now, I need to go see someone.” I turned to Sally, “what’s Pippa up to? I need to talk to her.”
“She’s at home, there’s a swat team stationed near her apartment, she’s safe.”
“I need to find out who else knows my real identity, she has to tell me. Is she in her apartment alone?”
“Yes, just Billy.”
“Where are you going?” Maggie asked.
“I have to see this CIA lady, you can stay here or leave, you’ll only be at risk if Verminov and his friends find out my real identity. I’m seeing Sean for lunch if you want to come with me, in about an hour.”
“Maybe,” she said.
Women. I changed into Jo-el.
“Sally bounce me into Pippa’s apartment.”
Pippa was in her small family-room reading while Billy played with an ipad on the sofa. She was startled but not surprised.
“I thought I’d see you today,” she said, when her breath allowed.
I smiled and put my hands in the air indicating surrender. “I need your help, Pippa.”
“Wow! I thought you Superhero’s were pretty self-sufficient.”
“You know what happened here last night?”
“You killed those three guys who were planning to either kill me or kidnap me, right?”
“Did you see what happened at CNN this morning?” Pippa shook her head. I recounted the events, she turned white. “I need the names of all the people who know my identity. It’s the only way I can protect them.”
“Or, you could give yourself up to those bastards,” she said.
“Is that what you want, Pippa?”
“I’ve got protection for now, we all do. You’ve caused a nightmare for anyone who’s met you. My guess is that if you were to die there’d be a collective sigh of relief.”
I was bewildered, I turned away from her to think. As soon as I’ve spoken with the President, then I can announce the real reason I was here. That should change her perspective.
“You’ll change your view, soon Pippa, trust me. But first I need the names.”
“After what’s happened do you think any of them will admit to having anything to do with you?”