Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
LANCE
This time it’s me picking up Vienne in an alleyway behind the Japanese restaurant where President Baker’s birthday party was held. Apparently, her hankering for sushi was believable enough and she was able to forgo her security for a quick, private dinner.
I roll down the passenger window of my blackout sedan just a few inches so she can see my face. Then, I roll the window back up.
Within seconds, the passenger door opens, and Vienne slides into the car. We drive down the alley, just a few buildings in case anyone in the restaurant noticed Vienne lurking around.
“It’s odd to see you in jeans,” I say, assessing her attire. Her light, floral perfume fills the car with a pleasantly crisp scent. It humanizes the moment more than I want it to. What I’m about to do doesn’t feel very human at all. I’d prefer to detach.
“I love blue jeans,” she says. “It’s one of my least favorite things about being the First Lady. Every time I leave home, it’s a fashion show.” She pats the cushioned car seat on either side of her. “I can’t remember the last time I was in the front seat. I miss driving.”
“You can’t drive?”
She shakes her head. “No. It’s a steadfast rule for my own protection.”
“I’ve always said your home is a prison.”
“In a lot of ways,” she muses. “Anyway, I don’t have a lot of time. Shall we get to it? What did Gabriel say about the bomb? Is it functional? Can it be destroyed?”
I sigh heavily. I had intended for there to be more small talk. Gabriel isn’t supposed to text me for another hour. “Can you open the glove box for me?”
“Sure,” she says with a confused expression. When she opens the compartment, she finds one of my pistols. By the time she looks back at me, my other pistol is pointed at her face.
“I’m really sorry,” I say sincerely. “Please understand no part of me wants to do this. But Gabriel has Cricket.”
It’s strange how Vienne doesn’t scream, panic, or plead. She’s perfectly composed, looking right past the gun and into my eyes. “So that’s how he got to you,” she says. “Cricket.”
“Do you have any idea where he’s keeping her? If so, maybe we can avoid all this.”
Vienne runs two fingers over her cherry-red lips. “I have a few guesses. Nothing concrete.”
“I’m supposed to bring you to him…alive.”
She folds her hands together in her lap. “Then lower your gun, Lance. I won’t run. It’s time to get to the bottom of this anyway.”
“You’re not frightened?”
“Not remotely.”
“You don’t think he’d hurt you?”
“I didn’t say that,” she answers, pairing it with a heavy sigh. “I just said I wasn’t afraid.”
I have a black hood and duct tape in the center console. I thought I would be wrestling Vienne into submission. Her cool and collected demeanor is throwing me off and making me that much more apprehensive about my decision. I don’t know what to believe anymore.
“Cricket told me something before she disappeared…”
Vienne lifts her brows. “Okay. Being?”
“You’re the head of Aeon. Gabriel works for you. If that’s true, you’ve been lying to Vesper and PALADIN the entire time.”
A small hum escapes her lips. She teeters her head side to side. “It’s both true and untrue. From Gabriel’s perspective, I’m sure that’s how he sees it. And for all intents and purposes, yes—I run Aeon. I told you all that Gabriel was the head of the organization so you would take this seriously.”
“Vesper told me what Aeon is and what it does—so I guess, in that case, you deserve what’s coming.” I glance out of the tinted windshield, watching the sun fully disappear behind the buildings surrounding us. The atmosphere darkens.
“What are you feeling right now?” Vienne asks.
I hang my head. “Betrayed.”
“By me?”
“Since I was a boy, I’ve watched so many people who were sworn to protect citizens, betray them instead. All wolves in sheep’s clothing. My dad was a detective who solved murder cases, then came home and beat his wife and sons within an inch of their lives. Half a year ago, PALADIN was merged with the FBI, only to find out one of their directors was grooming criminals for department financing. Now, we finally have a president with an approval rating that isn’t abysmal, only to find out his wife is quite literally trying to end the world. Where does it stop, Vienne? Is there anybody good and true in this world? Is there anything left worth defending?”
Silence falls between us as I stare out the windshield once again. One by one, the building windows start lighting up as natural light evades us.
“No,” Vienne finally says. “I don’t think there’s good in this world. Just the pursuit of good.”
“More riddles?” I ask, annoyed.
“Lance, there is no actual Aeon. Not in the interpretation you know it as anyway.”
I glance at her through the corner of my eyes. “Are you suggesting Vesper lied?”
“Vesper believes what we need her to believe. Listen to me, all criminal masterminds have conviction. But a lot of them still need a cause. Aeon is a fabricated concept by the U.S. government to attract some of the most dreadful and unforgivable organized crime leaders in the world. Most of them have more money than they’ll ever know what to do with. They have so much power that they’re bored. See, there’s one thing evil men need more than anything else…validation. Even mafia dons need to serve a purpose. Aeon gave them one.”
“I don’t understand. So, who actually runs Aeon?”
Vienne exhales. “Aeon is a scribbled piece of notebook paper tucked in a lockbox somewhere in a safe. It’s merely a concept. The members who think they are part of some overreaching prophetic doomsday organization, are secretly policed by me, and several of my associates around the globe.”
“Why?”
“Because if they are in our backyards, and we’re the ones giving the commands, we can control the fire.”
I shake my head, trying to remember the conversation I had with Vesper all those weeks ago. “But Vesper said you put evil men in office—”
“In lieu of even more evil men.”
“And you start wars—”
“No, we simply fail at preventing them. Or sometimes, we let the lesser of two evils run its natural course. It’s impossible to control the world. But we do our best to contain its own implosion. The goal was never to save the world, just to buy humanity more time. Eventually, human nature will catch up with us. We will bleed this earth, and each other dry, and civilization will start over. Whether that’s physically, or metaphorically, I don’t know. If I do my job well enough, I won’t be alive to see how that pans out.”
“So essentially, you’re duping the bad guys and keeping a finger on the pulse? Aeon is a double agent?”
Vienne squints one eye, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I feel like I explained that far more poetically, but sure… We’re duping the bad guys, and Aeon is technically a double agent.”
“So, that means Gabriel was one of your recruits, then?” I cut the car engine.
“Gabriel was… is …a weakness of mine.” Vienne hangs her head. Long locks of her dark, brunette hair shield her face.
“What do you mean?”
“Gabriel is unhinged, and it’s because I drove him to be.”
Opening the center console, I pull out the phone Gabriel is supposed to text me on. Still no word yet. Vienne glances into the compartment where the black hood and duct tape are visible. “I see you were fully prepared,” she says.
“So, the part about you and Gabriel having an affair is true, then?”
Vienne frowns as she rubs her hands against her jean-clad thighs. “Yes.”
“Gabriel can have any woman he wants. Why is he so obsessed with you?”
“Love,” she answers simply. “It makes you do things you shouldn’t. It makes you hold on when you should let go. Gabriel is a lot of things today—a liar, a sadist, a murderer, and a terrorist. But I look at him, and I still see what could be…not what is. I’ve excused his antics for so long.”
I understand the sentiment. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t forgive, excuse, or do for Cricket. “Which one of you is having trouble letting go?”
“When I fell in love with Gabriel, it was swift. After a couple of weeks, I was ready to spend my whole life with him. He was so beyond his years. Even at nineteen, he was more eloquent, cultured, and intelligent than men three times his age. But I married Sal because it was my job to. He was to become the president one day because he had something very unique in politics—a moral compass. The best way to ensure he made it into the Oval Office, was to stay close and become his wife. It became too much to balance my real life, and my other life. So, I broke Gabriel’s heart.”
“Do you love Sal?”
“He’s a good man,” Vienne answers cryptically. “He deserves a good woman.”
“So, everything Gabriel is doing today is just a giant revenge mission against you?”
Vienne shakes her head, freeing a tear from her eye. “I told him my allegiance was to Aeon, and I had to do whatever necessary to fulfill my duties. I explained Aeon to him exactly as Vesper understands it—an elite, powerful criminal organization against humanity. I thought it would scare him off, but instead, Gabriel became obsessed. He made it his life goal to challenge me for authority. He has this idea that if he takes Aeon away from me…we can be together. Without Aeon, I would’ve chosen him, not Sal.”
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”
Vienne nods. “I shouldn’t have told him anything. Not about Aeon, not about me. I should’ve told him he was a stupid little boy for thinking a woman eight years his senior would ever take a relationship like that seriously. If I would’ve walked away, he wouldn’t be the monster he is today. Now, he’s angry, power hungry, and with a weapon like that, he really would be the most dangerous man in the world. All the lies I told him came back to haunt me. He is exactly what I made him because I couldn’t let go.” Vienne buries her face in her hands and takes a few deep inhales.
A sharp ding sounds between us as Gabriel’s phone lights up. The message is simple.
Unknown
Time to trade.
I reach over the console to pat Vienne’s knee. “I’m going to do everything I can to protect you, Vienne. But I have to get Cricket back first. Nonnegotiable.”
She wipes under her eyes. “Let’s end this.”
“Will he be violent toward you?”
“I don’t know. Once I know the whereabouts of the bomb, I have to cut him loose. For good. He’s done far too much, most of it unforgivable.”
“Do you still love him?” I ask.
Vienne’s bottom lip quivers before she presses them together tightly. Instead of answering me, she reaches into the center console and pulls out the black hood. “Am I to put this on?”
“Couldn’t hurt if we’re going to sell this.”
She slips the hood over her head, buckles her seat belt, then leans back in her seat. “I’m ready.”
Me
Drop the location. I have her. Let’s make this quick.