The Blood Eagle in the Big Easy (30 page)

About thirty minutes later Kira walked through the door to my office and quickly closed it behind her. “How are you today?” She was fidgeting as her cheeks glowed crimson.

She used to act this way when she was a child and got caught doing something wrong. Leaning my chair back I waited for her to confess to whatever it was she thought she had done wrong. “Doing well, and you?”

Shrinking back in her chair she glanced nervously around the room. “Do you want to talk about anything?”

Walking around the desk to take a seat next to her I put my hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Wringing her hands she hung her head as her voice dropped. “You’re going to make me start this conversation, aren’t you?”

She flashed me those big sad eyes and poured on the daddy’s little girl routine. Just for the record no father has a defense against such things, so I started the conversation for her. “Would you like to talk about Justine?”

She shrugged her shoulders in a non committal fashion as she looked at me. “I thought you might want to is all.”

Leaning back in my chair I smiled at her as I thought about the whole situation. “All things considered you did the right thing.” She looked hopeful but waited for the other shoe to drop. “You found a solution to a problem I didn’t even know existed, which is highly commendable.”

Her face lit up like a Christmas Tree. “I did, didn’t I!”

“Don’t get too full of yourself there, but yes you did. Thank you for that.”

“I honestly don’t know how you got by without me all those years.” She leaned back in her chair, clearly more than a little proud of herself.

“It was tough but I made due with what little talent I possessed at the time.”

She screwed up her face in annoyance. “Oh now you’re just making fun of me!”

“No, I’m not.” Maybe a little, but she had done well. “I’m not sure what I would do without you.”

She shrank once more in her chair as her face fell flat and her voice dropped to that of a whisper. “Were you ever going to tell us who you really are?”

It was my turn to shift uncomfortably in my seat as the question burned deep. “Eventually...” My voice was hoarse as my throat seemed much too dry. “I wasn’t sure how to start that conversation.”

Kira shifted in her seat as she tried to contain her emotions. “You could have just told us, we would’ve understood.”

Pushing myself to my feet I started pacing the floor. “So when should I have brought this up?” The dryness in my throat caused me to cough as my emotions tried to free themselves. “I didn’t want to burden you with such a secret.” My legs started to shake, making me unsteady on my feet and forcing me to sit. “It’s more than you should have to bear, either of you.”

Kira took my hand in hers and held it tightly. “It must have been extremely lonely for you. All those years with no one to share them with.”

“It wasn’t as if I didn’t know anyone before you and your mother came along.” Finding strength in the need to comfort her my voice returned to some semblance of normalcy. “But yes at times it was extremely hard and lonely.”

Tears slowly ran down her face, unable to stop herself. “Does it ever get easier to lose those you love?”

My heart ached for her as I didn’t have an easy answer for her, but lying wouldn’t help the situation. “No, no it doesn’t”

She wiped her eyes as she sniffled. “But you loved mom and you had me, so how can you stand it?”

“Stand what?”

“Knowing that one day you will lose us?” Kira sobbed as she hid her face in her hands.

This was the real reason I had never brought it up before. Seeing her in tears was more than I could handle. “I wouldn’t trade the love I have for either of you for anything in the world.”

“Why do you continue to do it?” She sniffled again.

“Do what exactly?”

“Continue to involve yourself in the world around you?” She swept her arms around as she made her way to the bar for a fresh napkin. “How can you stand the pain?”

“Love!” It was the only answer I had. “Without love what’s the point of life?” Walking over to her I put my arm around her shoulder. “Life, no matter how long or short, is full of both wonder and suffering.” Pulling her close she cried into my shoulder. “Life is as hard and unyielding as it is beautiful and tender. Hang onto the joy and let go of the pain. If you can do that you will be able to thrive instead of merely surviving life.” Holding her tightly I whispered in her ear. “So love deeply and often, cry when it hurts and rejoice in the little things.”

She hugged me for all she was worth. “You’re so much stronger than I ever dreamt.” She sat down as she wiped more tears from her eyes. “You’re still my hero in so many ways, I don’t know if I could do it if I were in your shoes.”

That made me uncomfortable as I took a seat next to her wringing my hands nervously. “We should talk about that possibility.”

Closing her eyes she turned to me with a sad and confused look on her face. I broke my heart to see her like that. “Oh, so there’s more?”

Shifting uncomfortably in my seat I wasn’t sure how to answer her. “I don’t know if there is or not, but you are my daughter and there is a chance you could be like me.”

Her face contorted between fear and joy. “I don’t know if I want to be like you in that way. I think I do, but I’m scared.”

“You’re a wise woman indeed.”

She leaned back in her chair as she considered the possibilities. There were tests that could be performed to verify my suspicions but that would come in time. For now we talked about life, love and the inevitability of death. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t die but left to my own devices and foregoing anything hazardous I wasn’t sure just how many years I had in front of me, and I already had 2800 behind me. Mir told me that while the aging process was nearly nonexistent at a cellular level, I still aged however slowly it might be. Kira was frightened of the world changing around her and the people she loved dying while she watched helplessly. They were valid fears and ones that still haunt me to this day. The world is always changing and morphing into something altogether more beautiful and horrible at the same time. All we could do was hope for the best and do what we could to keep those around us safe. We spent the next few hours talking before she left to have the tests done. That left me with nothing else to do but worry about the results, and perhaps catch up on some paperwork.

It was around eight when I got the message from Gregory asking to meet at his office at nine thirty for a joint task force situation report (SITREP). He also requested that I bring any additional files I might need to ensure the task force was brought up to speed. After pushing everything I needed to cloud storage I grabbed my things before calling for Mir.

“How may I be of help sire?” He made a quick bow as he made one of those disapproving looks you get from your girlfriends mom when she really doesn’t like you.

Looking around the room to see what could have caused such a reaction I plopped back in my seat. “What is it?”

He scrunched up his nose as he considered the room. “It’s nothing really.”

Wow he was a worse liar than I was. “I’d like to call bullshit!”

Mir shook his head as he leaned back. “Fine have it your way.” He gave the office one more hard look before turning his attention back to me. “Isn’t this place a bit archaic and more than a little moldy? It’s such a change from your residence, which isn’t exactly modern but... Hell there are still soot stains from old gas lamps that used to hang on the walls. For god’s sake, you really need to step into the industrial age and we can work our way up from there.”

That would have hurt my feelings if I hadn’t heard the same argument from my daughter. I had to admit it still kind of sucked to hear it from someone else. Moldy was a bit of a stretch... sort of. Everything in New Orleans was at least a little moldy. Damn! I really was going to have to talk to Kira about her plans for a more modern building in the near future.

I wasn’t about to give up without at least trying to defend myself. “Such is the way of things here in the Crescent City. We seem to cling to tradition.”

“Tradition?” He said incredulously. “So black mold and toxins are the reason nothing ever gets done in this city! That’s one hell of a tradition.”

Oh for Christ’s sake! “Let’s just table this discussion for now and move on to the reason why I called you.”

He straightened himself in his chair as he continued to look around the room disapprovingly. “By all means let’s get a move on! I’m an illusion in your minds eye and even I feel a chest infection coming on.”

I never thought of Mir to be a hypochondriac before, and if I had to guess he was just trying to prove a point. “Someone is feeding information to Gullveig pertaining to our investigation.”

He smiled as he understood his task. “So you would like me to find them?”

“Immediately if not sooner.”

“Consider it already taken care of, I’ll be in touch.” As quickly as he appeared he vanished into the aether to chase down our mole and perhaps to escape the toxic fumes.

Gathering a few personal items I left my office soon after heading for the Hale Boggs Federal Building, named so after the Senate Majority Leader who died in a plane crash in 1972. Considering how close our two buildings were it only took me ten minutes even with heavy morning traffic to arrive at the underground parking garage. Flashing my ID to the Court Security Officer, or CSO, on duty he waved me through unimpeded. As I made my way to the elevators another CSO stopped me to check my ID before escorting me to the sixth floor, leaving me at the security checkpoint just outside the Marshal’s office before returning to his duties.

At this point I was greeted by two young deputy Marshals who looked as if they just stepped out of a photoshoot for GQ magazine. They escorted me to the conference room which surprisingly was filled to capacity. I looked around the room to find that the members of the SOG were forced to stand against the back wall while a veritable of who’s who in Louisiana’s Judicial system took center stage. At the far end of the table sat the Clerk of Court and her assistant stood behind her. As head of the Marshal’s service Gregory sat next to her. The Chief Judge and her staff took up the remainder of the far side of the table. Gregory gestured for me to take the only open seat, which was conspicuously at the head of the table. Taking my seat I looked to my right and saw the rank and file of the FBI.

Gregory stood as he shook my hand. “As you can see we have a few guests today.” Making myself comfortable I nodded at the head magistrate. “It would appear that many of my esteemed colleagues wanted to meet you.”

The Head Magistrate stood and smiled in my direction. “What Mr. Aaron meant to say was most of the people in this room are left to clean up your messes.” With a smile she waved me back in my seat as I started to stand. “It’s not as if we mind usually, we just wanted a chance to meet and thank you for your service to our community.” She sat back in her chair relaxing slightly. “I for one am very happy to take credit for all your hard work, especially if all I have to do is push a little paperwork around to hide certain things from the public, its a small price to pay.”

Smith couldn’t help himself as he feigned a cough trying to hid the fuck you he muttered under his breath. The agent next to Smith glared at him as his voice took a hard edge. “My name is Special Agent in Charge Michael Anderson, it's a pleasure to meet you.” He gave Smith one of the deadliest looks I’d ever been witness too before he gave me his full attention. “It would appear that Agent Smith has yet to learn his place. I’ll make sure I rectify that personally.”

“Fuck you!” Smith screamed as he jumped to his feet. “I can’t believe you would allow this menace to roam the streets to do whatever he pleases!”

Anderson got to his feet slowly as he turned to Smith, grabbed him by the elbow and escorted him forcefully from the room. Normally I don’t care to bare witness to someone getting their ass chewed out but in Smith’s case I was more than willing to make an exception. Anderson quickly relieved Smith of his badge and service weapon before dismissing him from the premises.

Anderson tried to compose himself as he stepped back in the room. “Mr. Smith will be unable to continue his duties during the course of this investigation.” He placed the weapon and badge inside his briefcase and snapped it closed. “I would like to offer my support in this matter from here on out. Whatever resources you need are at the SOG’s disposal.”

Smith’s outburst and subsequent removal dampened the overall mood as Mr. Letten stood to speak. “It would seem that the SOG with the assistance of the FBI have much to discuss with you Mr. Warden, but I too would like to take a moment to thank you for all you have done to keep our city safe.”

“It’s been a pleasure to serve the community.” Standing I shook the hands of all the visiting VIPS as they filed out to return to their daily routine. Anderson issued orders to his fellow agents and quickly followed the VIP’s out of the room to run down what few leads we had. Soon all that remained was me, the SOG, Anderson, and Gregory, allowing room for the SOG to sit in comfort for the remainder of our little gathering.