Gus suppressed amusement while listening to Nick and John’s exchange. The next one in line, a woman with school teacher sternness spread across her features, marched toward them with numerous sticky notes extending from the pages of an ‘Assassin’s Folly’ novel. She was holding the book open to a place at the beginning, pointing in their direction. It was marked in red in numerous places with notes scribbled on the borders.
“Jinx,” Gus said.
“Oh God… look at all those markers,” Nick whispered out the side of his mouth.
*
Nick gave Clyde a little salute on the way by. “I’ll gather Phil and see you at 7 am day after tomorrow. Paul’s convinced he will have the initial meetings done by then.”
“Do you really think our classified papers ploy will work again on the Algerian ambassador?”
“Unless they’re tipped off, we’ll be fine. Our problem will be their paranoia over the missing minions. They may have security heightened to the point anything we do or say will be under heavy scrutiny. Paul has a superb ploy involving giving them the useless information we’ve retrieved on the missing men’s identities. It includes the nefarious activities of the two men who were enemies of the Algerian state prior to becoming the ambassador’s personal guard. We’ll be careful, Clyde. We won’t meet with him at the embassy. No matter where we meet him, if anything looks suspicious, we walk out without a backward glance.”
“Sounds good. I sure don’t envy you the Senator Cameron confrontation. I’m glad you and Paul understand how powerful she is. When people talk about her in DC, they whisper.”
“They won’t have to whisper for much longer. She has to be dealt with. I have no idea what her mind’s inner workings are that makes what she’s doing right by any stretch of the imagination.”
“I think it’s a rite of passage when you become a political figure to leave your conscience buried in the closet for evermore.”
“Agreed. See you later, Clyde.”
*
Writing on his deck in sheer bliss, Nick glanced at the foggy surroundings outside his window in thankful joy to be there at least one night. His character Diego openly considered Fatima now as a possible partner and dealt with his friend Jed’s hostile reservations, including the numerous times Fatima tried to kill Diego. Nick sipped his whiskey, smiling at how much he enjoyed Diego’s conversations with Jed, and how close they resembled the more pointed ones Nick had with Gus. Deke stirred at his feet as Rachel, Sonny, and Jean joined him with pizza snack trays. Sonny had made an appearance at home, listened to a lecture on how he was lucky to still be alive, and asked to be allowed to visit Jean. Nick luckily had not left, having been in grim conversation with Phil, making sure he understood they would be flying early the day after tomorrow. Sonny dropped off his belongings and drove to Nick’s house again.
“You’ve been writing uninterrupted for hours,” Rachel noted. “Quinn’s down for a nap so we decided to disturb you.”
“Okay by me. Those snacks look good. What time do you need to go home, Sonny? I’m going to walk Deke to your house if you don’t mind the walk.”
“That would be great. I’m supposed to be home at ten, Sir.”
“No problem. I’m in a stopping point to rejoin my story without missing a beat tomorrow morning.”
“Can’t we just adopt, Sonny,” Jean asked. “His folks don’t want him anyway.”
Sonny laughed appreciatively which eased a chuckle out of Rachel and Nick. “You’re funny, Viper. Thanks for the thought, but my folks like me well enough. They’d rather I was a robot though with voice command.”
“Your Mom will need you around while I take your Dad to straighten things out in Washington. I’m not sure how long we’ll be. I’d rather you were with Clarice. If she starts making suspicious calls to people you’re unfamiliar with, would you give me a call?”
“Sure. What do you think she might do, Nick? The truth please,” Sonny stated.
“This operation with getting that traitor out of office will be tricky. It’s not what I do normally. Any leak to anyone within Senator Cameron’s sphere of influence could be very dangerous to everyone involved, especially your Dad and I. Clarice probably doesn’t understand how deadly these political rats are when they get trapped in a corner.”
“I’ll watch and listen for anything like that. I understand what you mean. It’s something Mom would do without thinking. I’ll talk to both of them when I get home about it.”
“I would appreciate it. We won’t be coming home right after the business with the Senator. I have one other matter to handle before we return.”
“Is it more in line with what you normally do, Sir?”
Nick hesitated, but thought, I’m going to hell for having two ten year olds in my flock anyway. “Yes. Clyde will be with me during that phase of our DC road trip.”
“I have an idea, Sir. I’m certain I could clone Mom’s phone as I’ve heard you speak of with Gus and John.”
“Thanks, Sonny. Let me think about that. Maybe your talk will be enough to dissuade her from anything rash. I’m sure your Dad will caution her too.”
“Okay. I think it best you let me clone her phone anyway.”
“You don’t sound very optimistic about the results of your talk, Sonny.”
“Good, because I’m not.”
Chapter Twelve