3 Thank God it's Monday (4 page)

The senator did not relent. Agent Welker looked down at his
coat. He could not look the senator in the eye.

“Yes sir. We will set up a perimeter,” he glanced over at
Jake. “No one will be able to get in or out without going through us first,” he
said, his words a threat and a promise.

The senator rolled his eyes.

“Well, I will rest easier knowing you are protecting me,
Brad,” Swane said, his voice full of sarcasm and mock gratitude.

Agent Welker brushed past him and grabbed Sands by the arm. They
exited, the older agent following behind and shutting the door quietly.

The Senator ran a hand through his thick shock of white
hair, old muscle rippling beneath his golf shirt. He looked deflated.

“I cannot stand that jackass. He is so puffed up. I know he
is a fine soldier, but I do not trust his team. These were his best men in here
with him; it is the others I worry about.”

“We know Agent Sands, but who was the older gentleman?”
Hallie asked, rubbing the pool stick between her palms, its rubber base
skidding on the wood floor.

“Ex-military of some sort named Paul Salvatore. I think he
served in Desert Storm. Hard fellow, but kind and gentle to Nancy. He is the
sort of agent they need more of, not these self-important fellows that are more
bark than bite,” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I am too tired to be critical.” He
sighed. “I need to speak to you in complete privacy. I had Paul remove their
devices in here after I called you.”

“You trust him?” Jake asked.

“I don’t trust anyone right now.”

“Welcome to the club,” Hallie said.

“We have jackets,” Jake quipped.

Swane’s smirk was a complement.

“You two are some kind of team,” Swane remarked. “I would
love to stay and chat...”

“What’s wrong with Nancy, Robert?” Jake asked quietly, his
hand on the senator’s arm. Jake could feel his arm trembling.

The senator made a choking sound and his face contorted in
grief for a moment. He composed himself and swallowed.

“Nancy has lung cancer. She’s been in remission for three
years. It is back and it is spreading too fast to do anything but wait it out,”
he said, his voice thick with emotion.

Hallie slipped off the table and set the pool stick aside. She
put her arm around Robert’s shoulders as he bowed his head, his silent sobs
racking his body.

Jake waited it out, thankful for Hallie’s comfort. Nancy’s
health, as devastating as it was, was not why the senator had called them and
asked them to come in person.

“We’ll go see her,” Hallie offered.

“She would like that.”

“That’s not why you called us, though, is it?” Jake said.

Senator Swane looked up, his eyes rimmed red, and shook his
head.

“No. What I need to tell you is much graver than this,
this...tragedy. We knew she was sick. On the other hand, I had no idea that I had
been working for a madman all these years.” The senator had gone from grief to
anger and resentment in seconds.

Jake furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean?”

“I am ashamed to say. It is why I sent them away. What I am
telling you now, I should by all rights be telling my priest,” he said.

“Now you are starting to worry me,” Hallie said.

“I’m worried, too,” Senator Swane said. “My legacy is
tarnished. My family’s name is damaged irreparably. We have been such fools.”

“What are talking about?”

He swallowed. Guilt and fury were mixed in the look in his
eyes.

“I am going to pull out of the race.”

“If you are worried about assassination attempts, we will
keep you safe, the Service is diligent and we have more tools today and better
communication with departments like the NSA...”

Robert was already shaking his head.

“I am pulling out of the race because of Nancy. I want to be
with her in these last days. But, even more, I do not want to be a part of what
is happening. I do not want my name, my legacy going down in history tied to
the storm that is coming.”

“Stop being so vague, senator,” Jake urged.

Hallie scolded him with her eyes.

“What Jake means is if you want us to help, we need you to
be more specific,” Hallie corrected.

Jake put his hands on hips.  He had to agree.

Robert sighed.

“I wanted to warn you. I talked to Matt Rodman two days
ago,” he started.

“The Speaker of the House, right?” Hallie said.

“Yes. We were friends growing up. His family and Nancy’s
were close and spent summers in the Keys and winters skiing in Colorado. Anyway,
we have been cooperating with a clandestine group of investors and businessmen
for decades. Ever since college, really. They supported me in my law firm, got
me a partnership, pulled strings and then bankrolled my first campaign for
North Carolina State representative in my district. They were always in the background,
there was very little correspondence. Mostly, it was invitations to events
where words were whispered, handshakes exchanged, maybe a cigar or a bit of
whiskey.” His eyes searched the room.

“What name would you give these people?” Jake asked. He was
riveted to the story.

“Name? Several times they called themselves a “collective”
or a “consortium,” but in the beginning, they called themselves something
else,” He bowed his head in thought, his hand to his chin. “Viv-something. It
has been years, but I think it was Latin. ViVeri maybe. Yeah, that’s it. They
had these tie tacks in the seventies with interlocking Vs.”

“Five Vs?” Hallie asked.

“Yeah. How did you know? Have you heard of them?”

She shook her head.

“No. It’s from a movie,
V is for Vendetta
. It is from
a Latin phrase,
vi veri veniversum vivus vici,”
she explained.

Robert looked at Jake with a sense of awe and incredulity.

“What kind of wife do you have here, pard?” he said
appreciatively.

“One that hopefully can tell us what that means. The
suspense is killing me.”

She shook her head.

“It means, ‘By the power of truth, I, while living,
conquered the universe.’ It is a reference that can be interpreted in a number
of ways, really. It is all in how one defines truth, I suppose.”

“So, I gather these Viveri guys didn’t just give you some
money, clap you on the back and give you tickets to the opera. Am I right?”
Jake said to the senator.

“No. They would from time to time send ideas for new bills,
introduce me to powerful lobbyists. Once in a while they would tell me which
way the wind was blowing, so to speak. Investments, vote counts for bills, and
so forth. All under the table and hush-hush. I am ashamed to say I never bucked
the system until recently. I was too dependent on it.”

“So what has changed?” Hallie said. It was almost
imperceptible, but Jake could tell that Hallie was disappointed in their new
friend. She was fishing for a way for the senator to redeem himself in her eyes.

He bowed his head.

“People are going to die. Mostly guys like me. I wasn’t the
only one, but lately, several of my friends in Congress and in some of the
state posts—governors and state senators throughout the south—have been voting
against measures that this consortium have been trying to get us to put into
play. It is a bunch of pork belly spending and most of it is wrapped up in
other bills so tightly it almost pinches some bills right off the floor before
they are even put to committee. Anyway, I guess collectively, we have been bad
boys.” He shrugged.

Jake shook his head.

“Politics give me a headache. No offense, senator, but help
me out here. What are you saying? The only thing I heard that I can understand
is people are going to die.”

“I don’t blame you, son. I guess we have worn out our usefulness.
It started last year when some of the ‘old guard,’ so to speak, began losing
their posts to challengers. These were veteran incumbent posts. Then, there was
the moral ineptitude of powerful men and women coming to the surface. You put a
man in a position of power for too long, there is bound to be some sort of
skeletons coming out of the closet.” He paused, smirking with irony. “I guess I
am susceptible too. Don’t look at me like that. I know. Anyway, we are falling
one by one. If we don’t play ball with them, then we lose our power.”

“How is this related to people dying? I still don’t
understand.” Jake said. He tried to keep the frustration from his voice.

“Let the man tell his story, Jake. We’re not up north,”
Hallie chastised him. “We take our time down here in the south to properly tell
a good yarn. Go on, Senator.”

“I have let my country down. I have let Nancy down. She is
so tired. She has propped me up during those times when I thought I would break
down and bring my political career toppling around my feet because of my guilt.
One of their people contacted me six months ago. He met me for a brunch of red
velvet pancakes at the Terrace Café in Charlotte. Big guy. I won’t go into
detail right now. Let me just say that the ideas this guy was outlining were
scandalous. He expects the core of us that have been bankrolled by the
consortium, this collection of the most powerful people in the world, to ‘cut
the head off the snake,’ as he put it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, to hear it from him, it all sounded so logical but
the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I knew I had to do
something, but I didn’t. The attempt on the President’s life was real. It was
planned for next year, so I did not understand why you were in Atlanta at first.”

“You knew about it?”

“Technically, no, I did not know Gabriel was going to be
targeted so soon. I thought I had time. I thought they were going to do it
while I was campaigning against him for the Democratic seat.”

“So, they were going to assassinate the President to put you
in?”

“Nothing was guaranteed. It was all just speculation. I was
asked if I was ready to go to bat. It was my turn, he said. I was just so
greedy. I knew Nancy was sick again. I just thought...I just wanted her to have
that moment, you know. She has worked so hard, been through so much...”

Jake looked at Hallie. Her eyes were sad. He knew what she
was thinking.

“Senator, is that all?”

He sniffled and wiped his nose with a white handkerchief
from the front pocket of his chinos.

“No. Of course not. Like I said, I talked to the Speaker of
the House. He is in even deeper than I am. I am just another pawn after all. They
knew about Nancy. They were going to expose the news of her condition after the
assassination. It would destroy voter confidence in me. The Republicans would
win. They have money on both sides of the aisle. Whoever plays the nicest is
the one that gets the treat, I suppose. That is why there is bipartisanship to
begin with, we both serve the same entity. We both owe the same debt. The whole
system is corrupt. Not just here. All over the globe.” He sniffed and gathered
himself. Jake and Hallie knew not to interrupt.

He started again. Slower now.

“I called someone I know in the security community in France.
Someone like you but freelance. He knew these guys. He had mentioned it to me
one time when Nancy and I went to Switzerland with him and his wife. He told
me, with fear and whispers, that they had their hands in every European market,
every major employer. Not just that. Military Jake. Armies. Material. Missiles.
Ships. Tanks. They have it all.”

“You are talking about a global coup? How can they possibly
expect to pull something like that off?” Hallie said, incredulous.

“They are few in number, but they have power, Hallie.”

“What does this have to do with us, Senator?” Jake asked.

Senator Swane could not look him in the eye. He stared down
at his shoes, his shoulders slumped in defeat and grief, in guilt and
exhaustion.

“You have to do what I cannot. You have to stop them.”

“Why me?”

“If you don’t they will use you.”

“Use me for what?”

“Jake, they want you to assassinate your father.”

T
hey drove in silence for almost a half hour before he said
what was on his mind.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

Hallie did not move. She stared straight ahead.

“I thought you knew,” she said. Her voice sounded hollow.

Jake shook his head. He was not angry with her, he just did
not understand how something as important as
Oh, by the way, you almost
killed your dad, the President
, could get left out of the conversation.

“I knew nothing. I had my memory wiped, remember?”

“President Vine is your biological father. He was at our
wedding. When your memory returned, I assumed you had made the connection. I
figured it was why it was so hard for you to adjust. I gave you extra time and
extra space because I felt you might be upset because, you know, he is your
dad,” Hallie explained. She sounded defeated.

“I was upset because I didn’t know who I was,” he said. He
did his best to keep the anger from his voice. He just drove the Suburban
through the humid North Carolina afternoon, the sun setting to his left. He was
grateful for the window tint. His arm and the left side of his face was hot
enough.

“I know you don’t share a last name, I understand that it
could throw you off. I just can’t understand how you haven’t recalled your
father? He’s the reason we were able to both work for the Service. He’s the
real reason you joined Galbraith in the first place.”

“I just didn’t remember. I still don’t. I don’t remember Mom,
either. I have tried, believe me. I don’t know if they are buried deeper in my memory
or if they have been removed completely. When the senator first mentioned that
this consortium wants me to be the one to assassinate him, it didn’t connect. I
didn’t believe it until he showed me that picture from his campaign for
governor when I was fourteen.”

“We have pictures of your mother and father all over the
house.”

Jake gritted his teeth. Sometimes the truth was awful.

“The house is foreign to me. It is like it belongs to
someone else. I feel like I am living someone else’s life. If most of my
memories hadn’t returned, I would tell all of you that you were nuts. I didn’t
live this life. I didn’t live in this house. My father isn’t the President of
the United States.”

She turned and looked at him then. Her eyes were rimmed with
tears. He knew he had hurt her. He couldn’t retract it now. The damage had been
dealt.

“That’s just the thing, Jake. All those things are true. You
did live this life. With me. In that house. You were always distant from your
parents, but it seemed natural considering your job and their divorce. You
never bonded with his second wife and never forgave him for your mother’s death.
They transferred you out of Washington the day your father began his campaign
for President. Surely you remember all of that.”

He shook his head. The pressure behind his eyes made him
want to cry.

“How could they make me kill my own father? Who are these
people that can control me this way?”

Hallie touched his cheek with hands that were cool. Her
caress made him close his eyes for just a second and blink away tears. His
frustration and turmoil raged in his chest. He needed her touch to ground him. He
glanced at her, his vision blurred by the tears.

“These people cannot beat you, Jake. Only you can.”

He kissed her fingers and tried to keep the SUV between the
ditches.

“Don’t give me false hope,” he said.

She leaned back, her hand patting his leg.

“Not false hope, honey. A promise. I won’t allow them to
control you anymore.”

“I am not the only one, though, am I?”

Hallie was silent.

“The senator said that they had operatives just like me all
over the globe. The strike will be in a great unstoppable wave. Sons and
daughters, trusted servants and friends. How did they do this? Who are these
people?”

“We stop them. That is the only thing we can do. It starts
with us. We can control what happens to you,” Hallie said. Her voice was
distant.

Jake looked at her there in the seat beside him, so
vulnerable and yet so strong. Her jaw was working. Jake felt he knew that look:
she was thinking of what she wanted to say next.

He looked away as she glanced over at him. He felt a little
guilty, like he had caught her inner thoughts.

“Jake. Look at me.”

He did. Dread and curiosity mingled in a knot at the base of
his throat. Her mouth was forced into something between a grin and a grimace. Tears
were streaming down her face, falling onto the lapel of her jacket.

“Hold out your hand,” she commanded.

He glanced back at the road ahead.

“Shouldn’t I pull over?”

“Just give me your hand,” she said, her voice choked. Her
breathing coming from deep.

“Alright.”

Before he felt the small bundle she placed in the palm of
his hand, he knew. He could see the neatly clipped lawn, the shoes and pant
legs of the people around him. He could see the eyes full of fear. He could
see, vividly, the woman on the grass, curled in a fetal position, a smile
playing at her lips.

He felt the thin chain slip through his fingertips. He
looked down and saw the silver locket sitting in his hand and more memories
threatened to push into his consciousness. He pushed back long enough to look
at Hallie.

“Why?”

“Because I forgive you, Jake. I have already forgiven you.”

“Forgive me. For what? Being a horrible husband? For being a
terrible person?”

“I don’t need to forgive you for those things because they
aren’t real.”

He shook his head and glanced back ahead, searching mentally
for life line his wife was throwing to him. A life line that was costing her.

“Then what is it? What do you forgive me for?”

Her mouth screwed up into a frown and he could see her hand
shaking.

“For forgetting your family.  For forgetting me.  When I
kissed you in the elevator, it was like...I just almost could not bear it,” she
said between sobs.  Her eyes were moist and she seemed on the verge of a good
cry.

“Well, I am glad you didn’t shoot me then,” he said, trying
to add some levity. He was encouraged when she laughed. A courtesy laugh, but
it sounded good.

“You are lucky you survived. But, going forward, I need to
know that we are a family. We are a team.”

He felt his shoulders bunch. His line was set in thin line.
He could feel his teeth clenched. He was ashamed that she had to question that.
It was his fault. His failure.

“Of course we are, Hallie. I seem to be hard on those I care
about. Even people I barely know. Like Camilla,” Jake said, barely containing
the volatile mixture of anger, shame, and frustration.

“I forgive you for that. I know that you did not actually
kill Camilla, Jake. Someone else pulled the trigger. You just set the trap. I
suspect it was Lars or perhaps Violet.”

“If I didn’t kill her, why would you need to forgive me?”

“She was my friend, Jake. I miss her. I asked her to protect
you. She pulled some strings and got on your security detail.”

“Wait.  I was being followed?”

“Of course you were. Whenever we could. Sometimes you just
disappeared. Camilla was sent to protect you and re-establish a connection with
your programming. I did not know that at the time.  I also did not know that it
was Camilla that needed protected. It was all a trap for her. If you had just
responded on New Year’s, none of that would have happened.”

“She gave me this locket.”

“Yes.”

“Is it special?”

“Yes.”

“It was my mother’s, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Jake.”

“It was supposed to help me remember.”

“It did. But, your programming was deep. It was probably
like a computer being asked to look for a deleted file. You were only kicking
back error messages. It cost Camilla her life.”

“I am sorry, Hallie,” he said. Jake brushed her hair back
from her ear and traced a tear down her cheek.

She put her hand to her mouth and closed her eyes.

“I want you to remember it all Jake. I am surprised Kyle
didn’t tell you. How does that not come up in conversation? Am I selfish?”

“No. You aren’t. We both want the same thing. Maybe
somewhere in those memories I am gaining lies an answer to how to protect my
father, too.”

She shook her head.

“We can’t go near him now. It is too dangerous. We need to
think about us. About our family, Jake.”

Jake considered this as he drove. The airport was visible on
the horizon, its lights blinking vaguely in the moist night air. The hum of the
tires on the road was soothing. His nerves needed soothing. He wanted to do
something. He wanted to right the wrongs, he wanted to correct his mistakes. He
wanted to pay back what had been stolen from him.

“You’re right. Hallie, go back and get Sarah safe. I will
head to the house and get some things, talk to Kyle, and tell him we are
stepping down.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“You want to leave the Agency? They are protecting us. They
are the only way we can bankroll this escape.”

He shook his head.

“I have money, Hallie. Don’t worry.”

“You are going back to Galbraith, aren’t you?”

“They are going to get me, anyway. I want you safe. And I
want to smoke out some rats in the process.”

“You don’t trust Kyle?”

He looked at her.

“I don’t trust anyone but you, Hallie.”

She reached across the console, her body colliding with his.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and wept. He drove like that for several
minutes, the lights of the airport getting closer, Hallie sobbing into his
jacket, her strong arms squeezing him.

Jake had made up his mind before he had left the Senator’s. The
senator was more than willing to accommodate Jake after all he had been through.
Besides, Robert and Nancy had a soft spot in their hearts for Hallie. Agreeing
to see her safe had been an easy proposition.

Jake and Hallie entered the airport and parked on the runway
near a private jet. A man with a captain’s insignia descended the stairs from
the Gulf Stream. He did not smile, but opened the door and took Hallie by the
hand.

“I am Captain John Haverland, ma’am. I have been instructed
to fly you to Denver. We are fueled and ready to go now.”

“No waiting?”

“No, ma’am. I have clearance to enter the queue as soon as
you are aboard,” he said. Jake could see that under his military hat, the man was
bald. He sported a pointed goatee and a thick mustache.

Jake came around the Suburban to give Hallie a hug. She
embraced him desperately. He could feel the pressure on his ribs.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” she said to him.

“I can’t make that promise,” Jake replied.

She leaned back and took his face in her hands.

“I know. That is why I worry about you.”

His eyes darted back and forth between her brilliant green
irises. He loved her. He feared for her. He would sacrifice himself for her.

He could not turn back. He could not let her see how
determined he was to keep her from returning to New York. What he had to do
there, he would need to do alone. Still, he was having second thoughts.

“You will be three girls in the mountains. What if someone
comes for you there? Someone who knows that we have spoken to the Senator?”

She shook her head.

“No one knows,” she scoffed.

“I would not be too sure about that,” he returned. “I think
our boys back at the mansion are eyes and ears.”

Hallie smiled crookedly.

“You are such a conspiracy theorist,” she said. “You dream
up stuff I would never consider.”

“It is what keeps me alive, Hallie. Without my natural fears
and prejudices, I would not last more than a minute in the real world.”

Hallie took a deep breath and glanced at the Captain who had
already begun to return to the jet. Jake noted the lines of worry on her face.

“The Senator is generous, Hallie. Just go and I will meet
you and Macy back at the house in two days. I will even take out the dry
cleaning and organize the garage.”

She smirked.

“You won’t remember where everything goes.”

He grabbed her hands in his.

“I will just start it all anew. The same thing for us,
Hallie. I don’t always remember everything, but I am committed to the present
moment. I am committed to you. It tears me up to let you go even for just two
days. We have no real choices. Our family is our priority now,” Jake explained.

She looked worried.

“The Senator wants you to save the world and you are worried
about us? What kind of hero are you, Monday?”

Jake felt a stab of pride and wonderment at this woman with
so much confidence in him.

“I’m no hero, Hallie,” he said, his voice choked with
emotion. “I just want to make up for what I have done. I know it will never be
enough, but I still have to try.”

She shook her head.

“You don’t have to atone for anything, Jake. Just get your
butt back to us in one piece.”

He hugged her, pressing her hair into his face. He needed
her strength. He watched her scale the steps, glancing back and waving. He
would miss her. He knew in the hours ahead he would probably regret letting her
go. He swore then that he would never do this to her again. If another time
presented itself.