Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (28 page)

“
Remember how you
left it so it looked like that guy on the PVC lounge had written the
whole thing, with that list of alternate ideas he'd put in his
notebook?”

“
Ah, right,
right. Starting on your memoirs WAS one of 'em.”

“
Well, there's
another red flag in front of angry bulls. And they'll believe what
they want to believe just from that. Don't forget, I've been on the
inside and I have a pretty good idea of how their heads work, and
most of 'em are totally paranoid and arrogant.”

“
A bad combo.”

“
Got that right.”

“
Okay. Lemme
think.”

“
Sure.”

A moment later, Jake
said, “Okay, maybe this'll work. How about if we tweak it all
so it's not the actual stories, but disguise 'em beyond recognition?”

“
Maybe that'll
work, but only after the
second
book comes out. For now, all
they've got to go on is that final epilogue, and believe me, they're
gonna really be thinking that at least some classified info will come
out, and they'll want to stop that. Especially one guy who's now
pretty high up in the Company.”

“
But if we –
wait, what?”

“
I think he's the
guy that got my husband killed, set him up as the mole.”

“
Why would he do
that?

“
To cover
himself.”

“
You mean HE was
the real mole?”

“
I never managed
to get real solid proof of that, but he sure didn't like it when Zach
took over from him as my case officer. Even more when we got
married. And he had tried to get me into bed, but I rejected him. So
it coulda been just his ego. Or maybe he WAS the mole. But he even
had me believing it was Zach. It was a very good setup.”

“
And now he's
high up?”

“
Yup. Seventh
floor up.”

“
Oh, crap.
Really?”

“
Really.”

“
Who is it?”

Pam gave him the name.

“
Shit! He was in
my class at the Farm. And I've been – so if he WAS the”
--

“
Right.”

“
Geez. So the
Russians still have” --

“
May
have;
again, no solid proof.”

“
So now Putin”
--

“
Yup, almost a
direct line into the very top of the Agen- – I mean the
Company.”

“
Oh,
fuck.”

- 70 -

December
31, 2012
1:08
p.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

“
So how
d'you like it, Gordy?”

“
Looks
good on you, Rona.”

“
And me?”

“
Great,
Sharon.”

“
How
'bout mine?”

“
Janet,
never seen one look better.”

“
And here
come Jill and Carie.”

“
Now,
they look delightful … and delicious.”

“
Hi,
Gordy,” Jill and Carie chorused.

“
Hi,
kids. So why are you all wearing the T-shirts?”

“
Last day
of the year, and Rosemary asked us all to wear 'em
today,
wherever we were going to be. And we're all gonna wear 'em to the
party tonight. You're coming, right?”

“
Of
course, Sharon.”

“
What
party?” a high, squeaky voice intruded as Ron strode down to
the group gathered around Gordy on his PVC lounge.

“
Our New
Year's Eve party,” Rona said.

“
And me
and Jenny ain't invited?”

“
'Fraid
not, Ron,” Sharon said.

Jill added,
“It's also to celebrate Gordy's book.”

“
Oh,
that,” Ron sneered. “Well, Jenny and I have invites to
five parties, and we'd sure pick any of those before yours,”
and he turned on his heel, as best he could in bare feet on beach
sand, and went back and sat down next to his wife. Everybody in the
group tried to contain their sniggering, some more successfully than
others.

“
You
didn't give him a T-shirt, did you, Gordy?” Sharon asked.

“
Nope;
just 'cause I used his name in the book, if he hasn't read it, he
doesn't get one. And he'd probably just burn it if I did.”

“
Are we
late?”

“
Not at
all, Wayne, hi, Linda. Everybody, this is Wayne and Linda.
Remember, they were the bodyguards for Jennifer.”

“
Where is
Jennifer, by the way?” Sharon asked.

“
I think
she's off in the Caribbean somewhere with her daughter. The kid's a
sailing champion and they've got some kind of a race down there.”

“
I don't
think we've met her,” Rona said.

“
She
doesn't get to the beach too often,” Gordy replied. “Cute
as
a button.”

“
I'm
sorry. Wayne, Linda, nice to meet you; I'm Rona. Joel and I
were
the ex-Mossad trainers.”

“
Hi. I'm
Sharon; he made me a sniper and ex-porn star.”

“
Oh,
right; up on the tenth floor over there,” Linda said, pointing
across the street to the condos.

“
And
Carie and I were the Mimosa twins,” Jill added.

“
But you
don't look like twins,” Wayne said.

“
No, but
we are sisters,” Carie said.

“
Hey,
Gordy,” Louise said as she joined the group and was greeted by
most of the people there.

“
Hey,
Louise. How ya doing?”

“
Great.
And you?”

“
Super.
By the way, thank you for the intro to those profs. I got the book
edited the way they wanted, and they'll both be using it next
semester. And I added a national lottery to the mix; a guy named
Keith suggested that a couple weeks ago.”

“
Great.
They told me you gave 'em a nice bulk discount, too.

“
Yup, and
I owe you a big thank you for putting that whole deal together. I'm
gonna have to do something special for you for that.”

“
A
finder's fee wouldn't be refused,” she said, laughing. “Just
kidding; I was happy to do it.”

“
Actually,
I was thinking of something like that. But we'll work it
out,
okay?”

“
Sure,
whatever you want. No big deal.”

(Author's
Note: This edited booklet was actually published, with the title
“257 Ways to Fix the USA,” and is available in reality.)

“
Oh, here
comes Rosemary,” Rona said.

“
And
who's that with her?” Linda asked.

“
That's
Dallas; she's gonna help me with some stuff in the sequel. We've
gotta spend some time on that, so maybe we can continue with the
introductions later?”

“
Sure,
Gordy,” the group said as they dispersed back to their spots on
the beach, greeting Rosemary and smiling at Dallas as they passed.

“
Hi, Ro,”
Gordy said as she air-kissed him. “Hi, Dallas.”

“
Hey,
Gordy. What's with all the T-shirts?”

“
Oh,
Gordy gave 'em to everybody who let him use their name in
the
book.”

“
'I heart
Being In The Book'?” Cool.”

“
Just a
little gift … and some shameless self-promotion.”

“
Good
idea. I'll have to tell my publisher about that.”

“
No
problem. And there's a lot of other folks who got 'em who aren't
here today.”

“
But they
may be at the party tonight. Oh, Gordy, I invited Dallas to come,
too. Okay?”

“
Great
idea. You know where Slinky Joe's is, right?”

“
Sure.
Been there a lot, even gotten some good ideas there.”

“
I can
imagine. Me, too.”

“
So are
you ready to look over my next draft?”

“
Yup.
Just let me get my overshorts on.”

- 71 -

December
31, 2012
11:38
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

In the Gulf of Aden

“
We're
gonna have to put Tutu-Man and the rest of your memoirs on the back
burner.”

“
Why?”

“
We've
got a new target.”

“
Another
hit?”

“
Not if
we can help it. But if it comes to that, then yes.”

“
Who's
the client?”

“
I am.”

“
And
who's the target?”

“
The
seventh-floor guy, the guy you suspected.”

“
Are you
crazy, Jake? We'll never get close to him.”

“
We don't
have to. We're just gonna get that solid proof that he
was
and still is a mole – or that he wasn't and isn't. And then
we'll
decide what to do.”

“
How are
we gonna do that?”

“
I've got
a few ideas, and we'll see what comes from those and
where
we go from there. First step, I've got to make some calls and get
the balls rolling … under the radar for now.”

“
What can
I do?”

“
Well,
first, can you gather any information you have on the guy, anything
you've ever known or suspected about him?”

“
That's
easy; I've got it all in a journal and on a flash drive, and copies
hidden in lots of places.”