Sparkles (19 page)

Adel heard the police sirens blaring somewhere behind him. As he turned to look back, a woman in a fur coat rushed past him, knocking him off balance. Men were shouting; the sirens wailed. Adel’s pulse pounded in his head as if it was trying somehow to get out. He pulled out a Glock pistol. His first shot went wild, striking a marble step, sending shards of stone into the air. The second round punched a hole in the woman’s back.

Kat fell forward and then rolled onto her side. A ribbon of blood trickled across the step, staining the snow that had not yet been swept away a light pink. Adel stood and looked at the fallen woman. His hand shook.
It’s not supposed to be this way!
He heard a voice demand, “Drop your weapon!” A police officer stood near a squad car. Adel turned and pointed his gun at the cop. Adel’s bright world went suddenly black.

Jan, along with Charlotte and Daniel, had just come out of the main doors. Together, they ran down the steps to where Kat lay moaning. Daniel gently lifted her up off the rough marble steps. The smell of gunpowder mixed with the odor of burnt flesh made him wince.

“Kat! Why?”

“I… I wanted to tell you… I love you. From the moment we met….” Kat made a jerking movement and cried, “It hurts, Daniel… it hurts.”

“The paramedics are coming, Kat. Hold on… hold on.”

“Will you kiss me, Daniel…? Please…. Just once?”

Daniel looked up at Charlotte, who nodded a yes. He bent down and kissed Kat just as he would Charlotte.

As the light faded from her eyes, Kat whispered, “I knew you’d be a good kisser.”

The Adelphia Tavern

JAN CLOSED
the pocket door to the large banquette he and Joachim Nussbaum shared at Philadelphia’s renowned Adelphia Tavern. Joachim drank heavily from freshly tapped beer. Jan’s sidecar sat untouched.

“You sure look happy. What’s up?” Joachim said at last.

“It’s personal,” Jan said. “Speaking of looking happy, you’re all smiles too.”

Joachim shifted his big bulk around the banquette. “Now don’t get mad, but something happened before I could contact you. When you hear my explanation, you’ll understand.”

“Am I going to like this?”

Joachim spread a hopeful smile across his lips. “I think so.”

“Well,” Jan said impatiently. “I’m listening.”

“The text message I sent you about Armande Bonnet being dead was not true. You wanted an answer. I gave you the one that made sense, but I wanted to make sure.”

Jan’s face sagged into what Joachim took to be the beginnings of fury.

“Before you blow up, Jan, hear me out.”

After he’d finished his story, Joachim took his beer and sat back. “The SVR kept me so long that by the time I got to Paris, Armande was already there. He’d been debriefed at the
Sécurité
, without mentioning me, or Mundus, I might add. As soon as he was finished with his handlers, who by the way were astounded at his resurrection, I took him to meet with his father. Armande should be landing here at the airport in about an hour’s time.”

Jan continued to frown. “I told Bonnet his son was dead. Damn it, Nussbaum! How could you put me into a situation like that? Do you have any idea how angry I am?”

“I can guess,” Joachim said. “If I hadn’t been picked up so soon when I got back to my hotel room, I could have sent you a counter message. As it was, the SVR watched me every minute until I left. I—”

“Never mind that now,” Jan said, the irritation still coloring his voice. “What did Armande tell
Sécurité
about his rescue?”

“He told them only what he knew. A French-speaking stranger showed up and gave him detailed instructions. He and the Iranian woman followed them, and voila! He got home. His spy masters are probably going crazy trying to figure how he did it.”

“Okay. What about the woman you say saved Armande’s life?”

Joachim chuckled, more to himself than to Jan. “As far as I know, she’s on a Miami beach sunning herself.”

“How the hell did you manage that?” Jan said.

“A friend of mine at the State Department owed me a favor. I thought it would be better to have her here where you can keep an eye on her.”

Jan reached across the table and took Joachim’s hand. “I don’t know what to say, except, would you be willing to join our Mundus family? We can use a man who knows field work as well as strategies.”

Putting his hands up in mock horror, Joachim said, “Oh no, not me, Jan. You people are crazy! I prefer to go my own way.” Then, smiling in genuine friendship, he added, “But I’m always around if you need me.”

“Suit yourself. I’ve wired a million dollars in gold certificates to the usual account.”

Minutes later the two men parted on the sidewalk outside the Adelphia. Joachim headed home, and Jan to the airport to fetch Armande Bonnet, a man who beat the odds, and lived—never to speak of it.

Lazarus

JAN PARKED
his car in the driveway. As he got out, he pulled an attaché case off the backseat.

“Stay here. Give me five minutes and then come to the door,” Jan said. He closed the car door without waiting for an answer.

Jan let himself in with the key Stephen had given him. He heard Stephen in the kitchen.

“Something smells good. Did you cook that yourself?” Jan said, pulling Stephen into his arms for a long kiss.

“I thought I’d try my hand at lasagna. I didn’t realize the recipe made so much,” Stephen said, laughing.

Jan held out the case with a smirk on his lips. “Surprise!”

Stephen’s eyes grew wide. “Wha…. What is it? Will I like it?”

“That depends on your viewpoint.”

Stephen opened the attaché case and stared at the gleaming jewel. “I don’t understand. What is it?”

“Stephen! It’s your diamond.”

“
My
diamond? But how did you get it?”

“That, my dear friend, is a long and sad story.”

Stephen turned with a start. “What’s that noise?”

“
Au Secours! Au Secours!
”

Stephen and Jan ran outside. Glacier sat proudly on a man struggling facedown in what remained of a snowbank.

“This wasn’t supposed to go like this,” Jan said, although the scene made him laugh.

Stephen looked at the man whose face was turned away from him, and then to Jan. “Do you know this guy?”

“Of course I do,” Jan said. “Brother, meet thy brother.”

The reunion was tearful. The lasagna was delicious. Jan took a backseat to Armande and his tale of resurrection and deliverance at the hands of the mysterious man from Mossad. Stephen asked Armande many questions about his rescue; questions for which Armande had no answer. That night, after Armande had gone to his room at the Alexander Inn, Jan and Stephen engaged in strenuous gymnastics involving intense orgasms.

“Jan?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”

“What, again? I need to recharge.”

“No! Not that… I’m serious.”

Jan rolled over and looked into Stephen’s eyes. “Okay, I’m listening. What’s on your mind?”

“I want you to tell me the truth—”

“Stephen, I’m a lawyer, remember.”

“You’re the one, aren’t you? I mean you got Armande out of Iran, didn’t you?”

“Stephen, look at me. Do I look like a big mysterious Mossad man?”

“What I know, or at least believe, is you can pull a string and make anything happen.”

“Oh, my sweet Stephen. Believe me, if I could do that, the world would be a very different place than it is now….”

Jan could tell that his skirting the issue wasn’t going to wash, nor was it fair.
You can’t keep him in the dark forever. At some point, you’re going to have to make a leap of faith.

“All right, Stephen, you win. I’ll tell you all about it. It all began when your father asked my close friend, the abbot of Saint Sebastian in Arles, to help find Armande. The abbot asked me to see what I could do. I sent the mysterious Mossad man to find Armande. At great personal risk, my man found Armande hiding in a stone hut. Some Mundus assets were used, but my doing that is not the norm. So now you have just a small example of what we can do. But, as I said, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail miserably.”

Jan paused, and Stephen’s eyes welled with tears. He said, “Jan, I don’t know what to say, except I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

Michael’s familiar voice whispered far off in Jan’s memory. He smiled as he remembered the phrase:
A debt of gratitude is the most humiliating debt of all.

Bionic man

“WELL, MR.
O’Farrell, you’re good to go. If you have any problems, please let us know. We’re here if you need us.”

“Thanks,” Bobby said. Taking the hospitality packet from the social worker, he put it in a canvas tote bag. Miss Linthwait had been supportive, he had to admit, although she continued to say that no one knew who had paid for his electronic prosthetic hand. Yes, the dollar cost was in the thousands. That was known. Known too, was that Bobby couldn’t have come up with one tenth of the cost of what he called his bionic hand. This was on top of the surgery that saved his life, and the weeks of therapy. With no insurance, no resources other than his wife, Nancy’s, income as a beautician at a local salon, the mystery of his benefactor continued to baffle him.
There’s gotta be a catch. There always is. One day, maybe, I’ll find out.

Eighteen-year-old Jan Phillips is down and out, hustling johns in Philadelphia’s Tenderloin District, when he catches the eye of Tim Morris, a powerful lawyer with ties to a secret organization. Against his better judgment, Jan is soon caught up in a web of intrigue that will change his life forever—or end it prematurely.

It’s 4:00 a.m., and the phone is ringing. Waking from an uneasy sleep, Jan answers and in so doing allows two strangers into his life. One is a victim of a heinous crime, a man to whom Jan feels an instant connection. The other is a deadly enemy. Their appearance will lead to murder—and the first plight Jan faces as Master of the Mundus Society.

Sequel to
What Ever Happened to Jan Phillips?

What do three sons—one murdered by Iraqi terrorists, one who lost his mother in a fire, and one involved with an underworld sex ring—have to do with Jan Phillips?

Two sons bring fear and death, forcing Jan to wield the awesome power of his office as the North American head of Mundus, a sub rosa organization with roots in the ancient order of the Knights Templar. The other son threatens Jan’s life and the world he shares with Michael Lin, his partner of twelve years.

As Jan struggles to survive another man’s quest for revenge, the love of fathers for their sons is the only constant among shattered lives, despoiled love, and an unknown yearning for family.