“I agree with Queen Katherine,” Raheem said, “in no small part because I called the restaurant in the Burj Khalifa where the dinner is planned. We always had the entire restaurant reserved, but now we have every seat accounted for and more besides. Per the restaurant manager, they expect over two hundred and fifty people. And at least half are there already, possibly more. And more are arriving. And the restaurant believes that my staff requested this.”
“Every head of state plus the religious leaders fits that headcount, yeah. And, again, this was Cliff. It’s not hard to fake a restaurant hostess out, no offence intended to anyone who might have done that kind of job in the past. It’s just, why would anyone at the restaurant question this? You’d reserved the entire place and we just all sang “We Are The World” together—that every freaking leader in the world other than North Korea’s is hanging out having a Coke and a smile together makes total sense. Sure the restaurant may be having to scramble, but this is the highest-profile reason to scramble there is. I expect the food to be amazing. If any of us get to live to eat it.”
“How would you kill that many people?” Rhee asked, potentially to get me back on topic. “A bomb?”
“A bomb puts the entire building at risk,” Reader said. “I doubt his benefactor is going to appreciate that.”
“He may not care,” Rahmi pointed out. “Besides, a self-contained bomb would work.”
“If he owns property there, he will care,” Mona said dryly.
“I agree with Mona, and besides, bombs are messy and still have a chance of not getting an A-C. And there’s always a chance that the A-Cs will get to the bomb or bombs before they can explode. We’ve done it before.” Jeff had certainly done that before.
“It’s a meal,” Jareen said. “Poison would seem obvious.”
“But it’s uncertain, and you can’t count on it getting everyone.” Definitely had experience with that one, and I knew Cliff remembered that particular failure. “Poisoned gas would be more effective, especially if you have everyone locked in. How high up is the restaurant?”
“The one hundred and twenty-second floor,” Raheem replied.
“So jumping to safety is out of the question. I know what floors G-Company controls and which ones they only control part of. Interestingly enough, Floor one hundred and twenty-one is one of theirs.”
“So, what do we do?” Raheem asked. “Evacuate? They’re bringing the leaders in via your gates. Can’t we just take them out the same way, immediately?”
“Why are they bringing everyone in that way?” Antoinette asked. “I thought it was policy not to use them all the time for non-Centaurion personnel.”
“But this is a world event where the world has changed,” I said slowly. My brain was really nudging. “The agents are using gates because it’s the safest way to transfer personnel and they’re all Field agents and this is what they use to get places all the time. It’s less difficult and dangerous than dragging humans everywhere at hyperspeed and, besides, they’re coming from all over. But that does mean we can get them out just as quickly . . .” My brain shared what was bothering it.
“What?” Reader asked. “I know that look.”
“He’ll have something that’s going to prevent our using gates. They already figured out how to create floater gates. Not as good as ours but good enough. If he’s letting them congregate he’s going to get them all in and then he’ll close the trap.”
“Sounds like time for evacuation,” Siler said briskly. Buchanan nodded.
“Wait.” Tim waved his hand. “Jeff’s already there, along with Chuck and the aliens and anyone else you’d think would be there other than Christopher and Serene. I’d asked Chuck to keep me advised of their schedule. I was hoping to have time to tell them not to go, but he’d told me they were there after they’d already arrived.”
Looked at White. “Call your son. We’re going to need the Flash. Tell him to take a gate.” Looked at Colette. “Call Serene, tell her to stay where she is and send over whatever we’re going to need in order to infiltrate the tallest building in the world, which undoubtedly has some of the best security in the world.” Looked at Siler and Buchanan. “If we try to evacuate now, they’ll lock it down. Cliff has the two main people he wants to kill.”
“Aside from you,” Tim pointed out.
“Aside from me.”
“Our mother is still there,” Rahmi said in a small voice.
“So is your Secret Service detail,” Lorraine shared.
“And your Field team, too,” Claudia added.
White looked around. “I presume it’s a safe bet that if the person is not in this room with us right now, they are in the Burj Khalifa’s restaurant.”
“Raheem, what legitimate reason can you give for why the two of us and Mona and anyone expected from our entourages are late? Needs to be a damned good reason or Cliff will see through it.”
Tim groaned. “It’s worse. Per Chuck, the only world leaders missing are King Raheem, you, Kitty, and the Australian Prime Minister.” He looked up from his phone. “That makes no sense.”
“It might.” Serene hadn’t told me how to work the Bluetooth, but she’d sure felt I could reach her on it, so I tapped it. “Serene?”
“Here, just got off with Colette.” She sounded tense and ready for action. Good. “I told Christopher what to get from Dulce that you’ll need, I think, for what Colette says you’re going to be doing. I have these kinds of supplies stored in various places.”
“Great thinking. I need you to put me through to Tony Costello, the Australian Prime Minister.”
“Okay. Huh. Uh, why, just out of curiosity, do you need me to call him for you?”
“What do you mean? I need to warn him to stay home.”
“Too late for that. He’s in Bahrain. In the same place you are, as a matter of fact.”
CHAPTER 69
SHARED THIS NEWS with the others. “Why is he here?” Reader asked, echoing Serene.
Gower jerked. “He’s here to help Kitty. He considers himself her friend, and he knows how often she gets into, ah, difficult diplomatic situations.”
“You mean how often I blow it with the bigwigs, Paul, we all know.”
“I do not,” Raheem said. “You are the most competent and commanding woman I have ever met.”
“Raheem is my favorite. However, Tony doesn’t see me in quite the same light.” Because during our first meeting I’d accidentally flipped him off in Australian, caused hot coffee to be spilled on him and his wife, and fallen and knocked myself into another universe. Tony didn’t know all about the last one, but he sure knew about the first two.
Other Me had saved the day, and she’d thankfully left me a note filled with information so I’d know what I’d supposedly done. And one of those things she’d done was to forge a very strong bond between our family and the Costellos.
“Tony’s coming to help me because he knows I’ve done what I’m good at already. The rest? This is supposed to be a Washington Wife Extravaganza, and I am not the girl for that job.”
Saw the light go on for both Vance and Buchanan. “He’s not wrong,” Vance said. “So how did he get into the palace?”
“He’s with Field agents, right Serene?”