The Inner Circle (38 page)

“He did.”
 

“Besides, I’m not even officially here this weekend. As far as my constituency is concerned, I’m visiting a friend and her family at their home in Florida.”
 

“I know.” I glanced at the closed partition between us and the driver. “We’ve been keeping tabs.”
 

She gave me a curious look for the first time, this woman in her late fifties with pale skin and dark short hair. She wore a blue pantsuit and a white blouse. Her wedding and engagement rings still sparkled on her finger despite the fact her husband had died of a heart attack three years earlier. The soft and silky scent of her perfume was a nice alternative to the stale city stink we’d been breathing in outside.
 

“Can I ask you something, Ben?”
 

“Absolutely.”
 

“Do you have a death wish?”
 

I smiled. “Is that all you’re worried about?”
 

“I don’t think you understand the great magnitude of this situation.”
 

“Oh, I think I do. So does he”—I tilted my head toward Ronny—“as well as the rest of my team. Keep in mind, we all survived Simon’s game.”
 

“Simon’s game?” She snorted. “Simon’s game is
nothing
compared to this. Tonight every member of the Inner Circle will be present. These are not just wealthy investors bored with their time, either. These are leaders and dignitaries of very well-known countries, including our own. Some of the richest and most powerful people in the world will be there. And they won’t be alone. There will be more security tonight than what they normally have at the White House.”
 

“So then why the Fillmore?”
 

“Excuse me?”
 

“If all these important members are meeting for the first time in one place, why put them together in a building located in the middle of the Theater District? Why not somewhere more remote?”
 

“Well, for starters, because they can. That right there should give you a sense of their arrogance. Also, New York is the greatest city in the world. It’s the mecca for culture and entertainment. And it doesn’t hurt that this week the United Nations is in session. This is why I stress there will be a massive amount of security.”
 

“Congresswoman,” I said, leaning forward in my seat, “are you trying to scare me?”
 

“No. I’m simply trying to open your eyes to the reality of your situation. What you’re planning tonight—it’s suicide.”
 

“And what, again, do you think is a terrible idea?”
 

“
All
of it,” she said, exasperated. “Us meeting together like this. The
purpose
for our meeting. Everything.”
 

“You could have said no.”
 

Again her stare on me turned curious. Before this week, I hadn’t even been aware of her existence. Since then I’d read countless articles, watched clips of her on political websites, and she came across as one of those Washington, D.C. anomalies: an honest politician.
 

“You’re right”—she nodded thoughtfully—“I could have said no. I probably
should
have said no.”
 

“But you didn’t.”
 

“No, I didn’t.”
 

“Why not?”
 

She was quiet for a moment. Her hands were in her lap, her ankles crossed. The posture was one that tried to convey she wasn’t a threat. I had seen enough interviews with her where she did the same thing. She sat in a way that made it appear as if she was open to any question, to any line of thinking. She made herself appear almost timid, innocuous, while at the same time she was assessing the situation and trying to determine all the different outcomes.
 

“As I believe you already know,” she said, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and—it is my duty to add—women to do nothing. Does that sound familiar?”
 

I nodded. “Edmund Burke.”
 

“Actually, it’s not. I mean, it’s
attributed
to Edmund Burke, yes, but there is no written proof that he is in fact the very first person who said it. Imagine that—your legacy being associated with words you never actually spoke or had written. And really, when it comes right down to it, does it even matter?”
 

“I think we’re getting off track.”
 

“Are we? Because, quite honestly, I think we’re right on track. The fact is, it’s my duty not only as an elected congresswoman but as a woman—as an American
citizen
—to do whatever it takes to protect this country. So that’s why I agreed to meet with you, Ben. I may not like it, I may think this is a terrible idea and that it will get us all killed, but I can’t rightly sit back and do nothing. I’ve already done nothing for long enough. Now, ask your questions.”
 

“Okay,” I said. “Who’s Caesar?”
 

“I don’t know.”
 

“But you’ve been in the Inner Circle for years.”
 

“Nearly twenty.”
 

“Nearly
twenty
,” I said. “And in all that time, you’ve never once talked to him.”
 

“Nobody talks to Caesar.”
 

“Then how do you know he even exists?” Before she could respond, I said, “You know what, forget I asked. Let’s focus on something else.”
 

“Such as?”
 

“Your rape and subsequent abortion.”
 

The silence that hung in the limo then was as thick and heavy as the granite that built the Fillmore.
 

Stark murmured, “Jesus Christ.”
 

How many seconds passed, I wasn’t sure, because I kept my full attention on the congresswoman. And she on me.
 

“Ben,” Stark said, shifting in his seat, “what the hell are you doing?”
 

“Currently having a staring contest with Congresswoman Houser. You want dibs on the winner?”
 

“He’s trying to rile me up,” the congresswoman said, not breaking my stare. “He doesn’t trust me, just as I’m sure he doesn’t trust you, Edward. Isn’t that right, Ben?”
 

“One day I woke up in a motel without my family and learned I couldn’t trust anybody.”
 

“What about your friend Carver? Do you trust him?”
 

“He has his moments.”
 

Silence again ... and then the congresswoman blinked with a sigh.
 

“Very well,” she said. “What do you want me to tell you? It happened in college. I was nineteen. The man who raped me raped several other girls. He didn’t use protection, and I became pregnant, and so I had an abortion. The whole traumatic episode was made public years ago when I decided to run for office, which I’m guessing you already know.”
 

It was true—I knew all about it, or at least as much as was documented. She had tried keeping it quiet at first, but when she ran for Congress her opposition dug deep into her past, as the political opposition is wont to do, and unburied the remains of her unborn and unwanted child. To the congresswoman’s credit, she didn’t back down. In fact, she had used it to strengthen her campaign, running on the issue of a woman’s right to choose. The fact she had been raped only led to more public sympathy.
 

But that wasn’t the reason I asked. The reason I asked was I wanted to see her eyes when she spoke. It would help me with my next question.
 

“How did you become a member of the Inner Circle?”
 

She smiled. “Finally, after much trotting, we get to the point.”
 

“I try not to disappoint the ladies.”
 

“We could have done this over the phone.”
 

“You’re right, we could have,” I said, and waited.
 

She sighed again. “It was my husband who became a member. He took many trips to Manhattan on business. One of the men he drank with—a close business associate, I guess you could say—eventually keyed him into it.”
 

“Was there an application process?”
 

She gave me a bored look. “I haven’t the slightest idea. But he did keep it a secret from me. At least at first he did. I don’t think then he understood exactly what it was he had gotten himself into. In fact, I
know
he didn’t understand what he had gotten himself into. The reason I found out about it was because of the money he was donating.”
 

“Donating?”
 

“Well, that was what he told me, and what he told our accountant so that he could write it off as a tax deduction. Apparently that’s what everyone else in the Inner Circle does.”
 

“Did he watch the games?”
 

“At first, yes. But then he quickly stopped. They disturbed him greatly. My husband was always an easygoing man. I sensed almost immediately a shift in his mood.”
 

“How did you find out about it?”
 

“He confessed it to me one night. He told me everything. He said at first he was intrigued, because this was a group that wanted to change the world for the better. Everything was falling apart, but they wanted to make things right. So why wouldn’t he want to join them? But then ... then he was introduced to the games. He didn’t think they were real at first, but very soon he realized that wasn’t the case. They were very real. And he was scared. Not so much by the games, he told me, but by the people who were in charge of the games. But he knew he couldn’t stop being a member. He had heard rumors from his friend that there had been others who had been disturbed and who wanted to leave but who’d had ... accidents.”
 

I thought of Claire Abele who’d had one such accident after she had given me her blessing to marry her daughter. I only found out later that it had been her husband who had made sure she died for her sins against him.
 

“So then what happened?”
 

“We kept it a secret. We knew by that point there was nothing that could be done. And the Inner Circle ... despite the money we gave them, they were generous to us. When I started getting into politics and ran for city council, I received a large anonymous donation. It practically helped cover all my costs. The same thing happened when I ran for Congress. In many ways, the Inner Circle helped put me where I am today.”
 

“Despite the fact they were also killing innocent people.”
 

“What would you have had me do? At that point we were helpless. We merely did what we could to survive. Besides, they never asked anything from us. It wasn’t like they were lobbyists.”
 

“That’s a nice way to rationalize it.”
 

“I seriously thought I could make a difference. Like many politicians just starting out, I was naïve. I thought, despite everything my husband had gotten into with the Inner Circle, I could make things better for our country. But the truth is, our country is broken.”
 

“What happened to your husband?”
 

“He had a heart attack.”
 

“I know that. But why?”
 

“What do you mean,
why
?”
 

I just stared back at her.
 

Understanding crossed her face, and she slowly shook her head. “If you’re thinking they killed him, they didn’t.”
 

“Are you sure?”
 

“Positive. At least, I’m as positive as I can be. But I did suspect it at first. I was—and am still—very paranoid.”
 

“So how does our FBI friend enter the story?”
 

“Edward didn’t tell you?”
 

“I was waiting to ask until we were all together.”
 

“I see.” She allowed a small smile. “Maybe you are more paranoid than me after all.”
 

I said nothing.
 

“Well, I never really watched the games, but I would let them play every so often. I knew my continuing participation was required, even though my husband was gone. Because the Inner Circle had already given me so much money for my campaigns, I was notified that I was now a member and expected to make regular donations. As you can imagine, I knew better than to protest.”
 

“I think we’re getting off track again.”
 

Her lips tightened, and she sighed. “It was your game.”
 

“My game?”
 

“Yes. That’s what eventually led me to contact Edward.”
 

For the first time since entering the limo I frowned. First at Ronny, then at Stark, then back at the congresswoman. “Would you care to elaborate?”
 

“As you already know, your game made a lot of waves. Until then, I hadn’t been aware of Carver Ellison. Again, I never watched many of the games, and those that I did watch I had on in the background until they were done and I could turn them off. So it ... shocked me at first, to know that there were people like Carver not only aware of the games, but doing what they could to stop them. It made me feel ... almost hopeful for the first time in a long while.”
 

She tilted her head down, smoothed her pants with her hands.
 

“From everything that happened in that game, I wondered how they were going to be able to keep it all quiet. There wasn’t anyone I could tell, or talk to about it, so I had this idea. I created Google Alerts for you, and for Carver, and your game names, and even the name of that retirement home that was bombed. I knew it was a risk, that they monitor everything, but I also knew it was a risk worth taking. Then, weeks later, I received an email that directed me to your story.”