Chapter 19 Cloaks and Daggers
Chief Doohickey was a tall woman, very thin, and in Reason’s eyes as alarmingly young as Patience. Pony-tailed and garbed in dirty work coveralls, she led the group across the Embassy’s large underground garage and stopped in front of two City limousines, black and gleaming.
“They’re loaded up, Patience,” she said in a high-pitched, kooky voice. “The hand weapons from Heavenite Labs are over here.” She pointed to a tool chest on rollers that stood nearby with several pistols arranged on its surface. “Most of you will be carrying them. Mrs. Orchard, you’ll be an exception, because I have a special weapon for you. Why don’t we go aside and I’ll show you how to use it?”
As she spoke Doohickey lifted what appeared to be a spray container from among the pistols. She led Faith away to well beyond the limos.
Patience reached inside his jacket and extracted a pistol. “This is a Moore pistol,” he said to the others, “and these on the table are just like it. Easy to use and has a silencer. No need to explain much: we may be in some dangerous situations tonight and might need to defend ourselves. Here, Prevarica, put this in your purse. Wisdom? Is there an inner pocket to that jacket? Good.”
Reason began to be alarmed that Patience was arming mere children, including her own son. She intended to take them away again at the first opportunity.
“What caliber is this?” Wisdom said, looking at it curiously.
“No caliber exactly,” said Patience. “It’s not a regular pistol. Works on a different principle. Chief Doohicky could explain better, but believe me, this will do the job. Keep the safety on until you need it, because the bullets it shoots are nothing to laugh about.”
Reason was ready when he turned to her with a pistol. “No thank you, I don’t want it,” she said firmly. “I don’t want the Wiz to have one either.”
Patience silently stuffed the pistol into the purse that hung on her arm, patted her shoulder, and turned to Dignity. “Uncle Dig, Mammonette doesn’t need one since she won’t be in one of the groups going out on tonight’s mission, and I thought none for you.”
“You mean I won’t be in one of the groups either?” Dignity asked.
“Uh, no, you will be. You’ll be fine as you are.”
“Oh, OK,” Dignity said humbly.
Reason knew that Dignity was all thumbs even with a nail file or a pair of tweezers and that Patience was merely trying to prevent the older man from shooting himself or other members of the team. In contrast, she reluctantly admitted to herself, her thirteen year old could have been trusted with a nuclear missile.
“What about communicators?” Wisdom asked eagerly. “Like maybe something surgically inserted in our ears?”
“Chief Doohickey and I agreed that your cell phones will do well enough,” said Patience with a smile. “The City isn’t technologically advanced enough to intercept the calls.”
“But I don’t have a cell phone.”
“Really? Just stick by Prevarica and borrow hers. OK, mom and Doohickey are back with us, I see. Mom, you’ll explain to Wisdom and Prevarica what you need them to do as your group members? Great. Let’s go meet around a table.”
He led them up a stairway to a meeting room on the first floor. When they were all seated, he stood near a map of the City and began to explain the mission.
“We’re going to persuade Mayor Therion and Mr. Power to move Leasing House so far back down the demolition list that it will be years before it’s knocked down,” he said, pointing to the condemned house’s location on the map.
“There’s a complication, Paish,” Reason pointed out. “I’ve seen Guiles’ City Seal contract, and it gives Leasing House only one more year at the most before it’s lost to the Hellites. I know the Seal has been pulled off their house, but surely that doesn’t get Guiles out of the contract?”
“Good point, Aunt Reas’. You’re right, the City still considers the contract’s deadline as binding. I guess that’s one of the things that makes this an improbable mission. But hey, even if we just buy the Leasings a year, that’s a lot more than a day, isn’t it?” He looked at his watch. “Actually, as things stand we’ve got considerably less than a day.”
Dignity asked what the Heavenite government thought of the contract’s deadline.
“Another good question. You might say Heaven signaled agreement with the deadline by shelling the bejeebers out of Leasing House and Sandhill Street three years ago when the Seal was being put on. On the other hand, Heaven isn’t bound by its own threats like Hell is. We can point out the justice that’s due with complete seriousness and then, if we like, fudge on carrying it out. Lots of flexibility. But let’s move on to the plan for tonight.”
Patience clicked something on a laptop, and a picture of Mr. Power appeared on a projection screen beside the map. “It’s maybe not that much of a secret that Mr. Power is an alcoholic these days and getting reclusive. But he’s still the one who will have to reverse the Relocation order and I mean now, tonight. The problem is that it’s very difficult to reach him with a message. He just won’t be available before the demolition, not even to his closest aides. I know! I’ve learned that even his secretary has no permission to come see Power about anything once he’s gone home for the day but can only leave him phone messages. So the trick is how to get someone to him before it’s too late.”
Patience pointed on the map to a large building near the courthouse. “Power left his office here early today and went home, which is over here in the eastern suburbs. But after dinner this evening he’ll go to a special service at Mammon Mart Community Church,” he pointed to the church’s location, “and then on to a night of carousing at the very private club, Numb’s Place,” he pointed to the nightclub, “with a lady friend of his, the owner, Mrs. Numb. HIMF agents will go to all three locations if necessary. As for opposition, we can expect it. Power’s bodyguards will be with him as usual, except that he sends them away when he’s reveling at Numb’s Place. I guess there’s some thinggs he does that he doesn’t want even them to witness. Something tells me we’ll encounter City Intelligence agents too. Word is that recently they’ve dug up a special agent to use against us.”
“But even if we do get to talk to Mr. Power, how will we persuade him to change his mind?” Prayer asked.
“Not that hard maybe. Therion and Power can see that Guiles is no longer a good example of a City man to his neighborhood; that’s why they’re getting rid of him. But the key to the plan is to convince Power to protect Guiles because he’s good for something else. We have to show him that Guiles might still be a potent weapon against Dignity, therefore against us Heavenites.” Patience looked to Dignity. “They’ve got to believe he’s your Achilles Heel.”
“He is,” said Dignity with conviction.
“Right, and that’s important, because this can only work if it’s true, that is, if you really do maintain a weakness in that direction, if you really care about Guiles and his family.”
“But—but I don’t,” Dignity said. “I mean, there it is, I don’t.”
“Well, maybe not, so we’ve got to get you up to speed on that. Mr. Power will believe you care if Captain Mercy and Love get involved, called in by you. Specifically, if you ask Captain Mercy to make up a petition to the City asking for Leasing House to be spared, then Power will have to take Guiles’ influence seriously. From Power’s point of view, getting you to take Guiles’ part, getting you tied up with him again, would be so sweet. Another chance to tie you in knots, get you betrayed, and all that. You’d be walking off the cliff of compassion.”
Dignity stood up. “I tell you I’ve had all I can take of Guiles and then some! Don’t talk about getting me tied up with him again or walking off any cliff. Look, of course, I could plead for time for him, but…well…”
“What is it?” Patience asked.
“Oh, what’s the use of putting on a compassionate
front? The fact is, the world will be a better place when Leasing House goes down tomorrow morning. I’ll be happier, and so will everyone.”
While Patience was silent for a few moments and Dignity sat down, Reason ventured a glance toward Prevarica, who both Patience and Dignity seemed to have forgotten. The girl’s gloved hands were in a knot and her face tense.
“I was hoping we could count on you, Uncle Dig,” Patience said. “Does this mean you’re dropping out?”
“Uh, no,” Dignity said. “Grace wants this. I don’t like it, I don’t understand it, but I’ll give it a try.”
“That’s the way, Dig!” said Faith.
Reason said something under her breath that was less encouraging. More loudly, she asked, “Why would Mr. Power even care about giving Guiles more chances to torment Dig?”
“Because he sees the big picture,” Patience replied. “Power thinks that a Dignity-Leasing family alliance would lead to the canceling of the Heavenite invasion, since our main base of operations in the City, Grace House, would be compromised and subverted. Furthermore, Power and Sordid have more than a suspicion that it’s our King, and not the Hellites, who’s sending the City sliding toward the Burning Lake. So it looks to them like a Heavenite loss of interest in the City might save it from the Fire too. Why would our King dump it in the Lake if He no longer cares at all? And everything depends on whether Dignity loves his neighbor. If he does, and is pulled back into a pattern of bitterness and complicity, then Grace and Mercy will shortly withdraw from the City in disgust. But you understand this isn’t just a delusion of Power’s. Their guesses are mostly accurate assessments; and that’s what someone has to tell Power tonight.”
“Tell him that I’m going to cave in to bitterness and be so revolting that the King withdraws from the City?” said Dignity. “And you say it’s true, that it will all play out that way?”
“Well, of course, Power doesn’t understand tough love,” Patience said. “So no, I mean it’s true as far as it goes, but you can still fool ’em, Uncle Dig. The way to go is for you to love the Leasings without bitterness.”
“Right. Of course I know that, but I’ll tell you plainly I can’t do it.”
Patience dismissed this with a wave of his hand. “You’ve got hours to get to be able to. Read the Bible or something. We’ll pull it together. Hey, Aunt Reas’, we’re about done here, but let me talk to you alone for just a minute. A few last minute instructions, right?”
When the meeting broke up, Wisdom followed Prevarica out to a hallway where she stood with her smart phone in her hand. No one else had come out this door, so this was yet another moment alone with her, something to be remembered.
“I’m really glad you came,” he said.
“Oh, are you?” She looked preoccupied. “Of course, I want to do what’s right, and all that talk about dad tormenting Mr. Dignity, well, that’s not going to happen anymore. I’ll talk dad over, you’ll see. Actually, I was just about to call him and tell him I’ll be out late tonight. I’ll say I’m visiting with Alexandra or someone.”
“Right,” he said, though dismayed that she intended to lie to her father and wondering whether even Guiles would allow his daughter to be absent on this night before the family’s rescheduled Relocation.
There followed an awkward moment.
“Um, can I have some privacy here?” she prompted.
“Oh, sure.”
He moved away in some confusion, wondering why the call should be private.
Chief Sordid answered his phone in his office, looking with approval at the caller ID.
“Yes, Prevarica?”
“I was there for the whole meeting,” she said quietly but intensely. “I’m ready to tell you everything, just like we said, if you’ll promise clemency for Leasing House. Have we got a deal?”
“We already made the deal,” he said pleasantly, “as soon as you called to tell me you would be on the Heavenite spy team. Leasing House is no longer condemned, that’s done. Now, what have you got for me?”
Briefly she told him everything she had learned at the meeting, including that both his lost memo and a petitionary letter from Capt. Mercy were to be somehow hand delivered to Mr. Power that evening and that attempts to deliver them would be made by HIMF members going to Power’s House, the Mammon Church, and Numb’s Place. The memo, she said, was to be used to ruin Sordid and so delay Mammonette’s arrest for murder.
When she had called him earlier in the day, he had not been surprised to learn from her that the incendiary memo still existed, never mind Guiles’ shredder. She had hastened to explain that Patience had asked for it after inviting her to be on the HIMF team and that she had given it to him in order not to immediately lose his trust. She had added that the Heavenites already knew the memo existed, so what did it matter? He would have liked to strangle her, but had instead controlled his anger and had made temporary alliance with a fourteen-year old. With her help he expected, at any rate, to have the memo back before the evening was over. And in the morning he would sell her to Hell.
Prevarica was still prattling. “Chief, you would have laughed if you could have heard how enthusiastic Patience was about their petition to Mr. Power. He just went on and on about how he wants to save my house.”
“Yes, it appears that both sides want Leasing House safe,” he said, “but don’t trust them, Prevvy. They want you under their control.”
“I know that,” she said. “No way will I be indebted to them.”
“They’re wrong about one thing,” he said. “I’ve got access to Power’s and the Mayor’s calendars, and it’s the Mayor who’s going to the church event tonight, not Power. But Patience can waste his efforts sending a team there if he wants. We’ll concentrate our agents in the other two places and stop them cold. It’ll be entertaining. I’ll decide while it’s playing out just who gets captured or eliminated. I guess it depends on how much of a nuisance they make of themselves.”
“You’re not going to kill them all?” the girl asked.
He remembered that he must feign false intentions. “No, not all, certainly. You see, just keeping Power ignorant for one night is not enough. We have to stop all future attempts to inform him about the memo, and for that we’ll need to take hostages during the course of the evening. Grace won’t try to reach Power again when he knows I’ll snuff imprisoned HIMF agents if he does.”
This was malarkey. Actually, he had no permission to imprison Heavenites, and if he were to do so, it would invite investigation by the mayor and Power into why he was holding them. He might just as well cut his own throat as throw a Heavenite in a cell this evening. But the girl now showed herself eager to believe that taking hostages was the answer, expressing warm enthusiasm.
The real answer was, yes, to suppress the memo tonight, but also to make sure it would never surface, not by taking hostages but by smashing Leasing House to splinters in the morning. Since Guiles had failed to burn his house down on himself as promised, Sordid felt demolition was surely the only long range method to save his job, for he calculated that once the Leasings were Relocated, the Heavenites would no longer much care to ruin him. With their prospective converts lost, they would withdraw from the game. Even their support of Mammonette would be dropped, for that too was intended only to further their maniacal goal of bringing another City house under their rule.
“Yes,” he repeated smoothly, “We certainly will have plenty of hostages, Prevvy. Just leave everything to me.”
“Yes, Chief!” she said with real or feigned enthusiasm. He could never tell with her.
“Good girl. Now I’m going to send pictures to your phone of our other City Intelligence agents so you’ll recognize who’s on our side tonight. Try to memorize their faces. Don’t speak to any of them, of course, if you see them. After you view each picture and its accompanying notes, the file will disappear off your phone. Goodbye, Prevarica.?
??
The first picture to appear was of Sordid himself. Prevarica might have clicked past it immediately but paused long enough to read the caption: Chief of the Counter Revolutionary Intelligence Special Police, or CRISP. Next was the image of ‘her’ City Councilman, Mr. Fear, who she already knew to be a City agent. A note told her that he specialized in explosives, including suicide bombs, something she never would have guessed.
She clicked forward. Agent Anger she thought she recognized as someone who had been with Chief Sordid at the picnic grounds the day of the Land Opportunity Picnic. He was frankly identified as an assassin. A young man named Grudge she did not recognize, but she had heard of him. Gentleness Orchard had told the whole Sandhill neighborhood about the night three years previously when this Grudge, assistant to Dr. Provocation, had given him a lethal injection. Accordingly, the note to Grudge’s picture said he was an expert in death dosages for Heavenites.
The next agent too she had heard of but never met, a man with a long, ugly scar across one eye but otherwise handsome. The older Orchards had many a story about Bits Bitterly. The note said he was a victim of the disease called squamatitis, or lizard’s disease. If the Grace House folk could be believed, this meant he was something like a werewolf, changing back and forth from a human to a reptilian fiend. He was said to have hungered for the flesh of the Orchard children when they were young and of baby Wisdom. Prevarica made a mental note to try to make Bits’ acquaintance, since she too was a specialist in discarding human appearance. Maybe they could exchange tips.
Next came a photo of a beautiful young woman, dark haired and blue eyed, identified as Indifference. She was, the notes said, a foreigner of Eastern European birth and a highly capable agent. She had been sent to the City because she was closely familiar with agent Patience of the HIA and would know how to render him harmless.
When a skull appeared next on the tiny screen, Prevarica started. This was Death, aka Edgar, a Hellite of good family who had disappeared for some fifteen years and had recently been rediscovered and put to work for the City. He was brother to one of the Grace House residents, the little woman named Honesty who had been born with the name Doubt. Edgar was, the notes continued, an old friend of the Mayor; and it was Therion who had requested that he be hunted up and put on the City payroll.
She clicked on the last image icon and was pleasantly surprised to see a recent picture of herself. Prevarica Leasing, the note said, was the newest agent of CRISP and was functioning as a triple agent. Pretending to betray the City, she was actually set to betray the Heavenites.
Almost all the CRISP agents, she reflected, were spy veterans, capable with all manner of weapons and subterfuges. The Heavenites were nearly all amateurs. She had chosen her side well.
Experiment showed her that, just as the Chief had said, the image files were empty when reopened. She was putting away her phone, smiling about all this, when Wisdom returned to her.
“That was a long conversation,” he said. “I guess he probably didn’t believe you.”
She paused to remember what this meant. “Oh, no, dad believed me. I’m free for the night.”
Reason and Dignity went straight from the meeting to Ambassador Grace’s office in the Embassy and were relieved to find him there. When they were seated comfortably, the old man told him that he had been expecting them.
“You have?” Dignity said. “Oh, of course. You must know that Patience, much as we love him, just isn’t up to this.”
With her mouth a grim line, Reason began. “We’re glad you didn’t leave the Embassy during the meeting, because we want to waste no time reporting to you about it. We can’t allow this farce to go on. Patience is planless, or at any rate, the only plan he has involves making secret agents out of people like Dig and me, and even Wisdom! He also said he has at least considered assassination. Oh, and he puts pistols into the hands of children! And then he has recruited from the enemy! How can he possibly trust Mammonette and Prevarica? And he wants us to attempt some wild deceits, ridiculous impostures, including me doing something that I won’t even mention because it’s too degrading and absurd and there’s no way I’ll cooperate with it anyway.”
“And he wants me to sort of fake compassion for the Leasings,” Dignity said. “Or if not fake it, then manufacture it somehow, which amounts to the same thing. Look, Paish is a good boy, and I’m sure the spy school trained him well, but he’s still just a kid and in way over his head here. Please, call off the mission before it crashes to the ground and people get hurt.”
“He is grossly overconfident, full of incomplete plans, and nonchalant to the point of carelessness,” Reason went on. “He seems to like to improvise on the spot, and he’s a kidder and a prankster.”
They went on in this fashion for several minutes while all the time Grace sat and listened attentively, only occasionally allowing himself a wan smile.
When they seemed almost done, he said, “My friends, you must admit that your opinion of Patience differs markedly from that of Love. She’s heard from her mother about his arrival and is overjoyed that he’s here in time to take leadership.”
“Yes, she’s very loyal to her brother and that’s commendable,” Reason said, “but I don’t think she realizes what he would have to deal with if this goes on. Why, you told us yourself that the invasion is in danger because of opposition from two great enemies.”
“Yes,” said Dignity. “At first I thought that you meant Therion and Power, but I think I see now that you were thinking of spies. The enemies must be Mammonette and Prevarica, sent here to infiltrate us and sell us out.”
“And during the meeting Patience didn’t even refer to two enemies,” Reason said. “How uninformed must he be? But there they were, sitting right in front of him.”
Grace raised a wrinkled hand. “It appears I’ll have to be more forthright. You see, I had hoped that the answer to the riddle would occur to you without my having to provide it. Yes, the situation is quite desperate because of two enemies, but those two are neither City leaders nor cunning spies. All that our King wants for the City, every hope is about to expire, and the only two people who can save the situation are about to drop out of the fight. The two great enemies are you.”