Deadly Weakness (Gray Spear Society) (4 page)

"I have very important news," Aaron said. "The North American division of the Gray Spear Society is going to have a convention in two weeks. The commander and second of every cell will attend. We will be hosting the convention. All of you will participate to some extent."

Except for Marina, everybody appeared shocked. None of them had even been alive during the last convention.

"Sir," Jack said, "is there a specific reason for this convention?"

"A very good reason," Aaron said. "Unfortunately, I can't tell it to you."

His face showed dismay.

Aaron paced back and forth in the kitchen as he spoke. "Please, don't feel insulted. I would put my life in the hands of anybody in this room. I couldn't ask for a better team. If it were up to me, I'd share every secret. You know that. However, we have a situation on our hands, and I have to explicitly control who knows what. I can't allow certain information to accidently slip out in an unguarded moment."

"This is starting to sound like a mission, sir," Smythe said.

"You're correct." Aaron nodded. "From now until the end of the convention, I will be giving you many different orders. Some of them will be strange and confusing. You won't always understand what I'm doing. You may think I'm insane at times. I'm asking for your patience and trust. Just do what you're told. When it's all over, you'll understand why. OK?"

"Yes, sir," everybody responded.

Aaron smiled. He was very proud of his team. "Smythe, Nancy, Jack, and Kamal, you will attend the convention. Pack your bags. We're leaving tomorrow. We need to prepare the convention site, and it will take two weeks of hard labor. You'll also serve as the staff for the convention itself."

"What about me, sir?" Norbert asked. "I want to go."

"You and the twins will remain in Chicago. I have a different assignment for you."

Norbert appeared disappointed.

"Where will the convention be?" Smythe said.

"I don't know, yet," Aaron said. "I'll figure that out today. We'll be shutting down this headquarters for the next two weeks. Nobody will be here. Therefore, if you have personal items of special value, I suggest you remove them. Take them home or store them someplace safe. I don't want any regrets if this place is destroyed while we're out."

"Sir," Nancy said, "is that a real possibility?"

He looked at her. "It is."

She grimaced.

"Another thing," he said. "When we're at the convention, you'll be spending a lot of time with our guests. You'll serve food and perform other duties, but you'll also have opportunities to socialize. It is absolutely
critical
that you keep your eyes open and your mouths shut. Don't talk about your teammates. Don't tell anybody what you do or where you live. Don't reveal personal information. Be polite and respectful but evasive. Do you understand?"

Smythe frowned. "I'm not sure I do, sir. These are our colleagues. We all work for the same legate and God. It sounds like you don't trust them."

Aaron faced him. "Were my orders clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did you comprehend every word?"

"Yes, sir." Smythe glanced at Ethel.

"Good." Aaron nodded. "Then I don't have to repeat myself." He took a deep breath. "Ladies and gentlemen, this mission will be a magic show performed for our guests, a grand illusion. All of you will have a part in the show. Are you ready to perform?"

"Yes, sir."

"Louder."

"Yes, sir!" everybody yelled.

Aaron grinned. "Start packing for a long trip. Dismissed. Bethany, Leanna, and Norbert, stay here, please."

After the team dispersed, Aaron walked over to the twins.

When they had joined the society, Bethany and Leanna had looked like malnourished scarecrows. Norbert had transformed them.

He was their divinely appointed guardian, caretaker, and lover. He took these responsibilities very seriously. He made sure the girls ate three good meals a day, even if it meant dragging them away from their computers. Daily exercise was non-negotiable no matter how much they whined about getting sweaty. He managed every detail of their lives according to a rigid schedule.

Seven months of this regimen had produced spectacular results. The twins had blossomed into stunning young women. They were still thin, but now they looked elegant and healthy. They even had a little bit of muscle here and there. They had become the beautiful Arabian princesses they were born to be.

It was a relationship that would've made Aaron crazy, but the twins were in heaven. They were mildly autistic and craved predictability. The man they loved was giving them exactly what they wanted and needed in life. For his part, Norbert had to suffer the burden of sleeping with two gorgeous young women. He was a very contented man these days.

Ethel came over to join them. She had met the twins before but only briefly.

Ethel touched Bethany's cheek. "You're just as lovely as I remember."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Bethany appeared uncomfortable. The twins didn't like physical contact, but Bethany was more tolerant than her sister. Leanna only allowed Norbert to touch her and only when she invited him.

"The first time I met you," Ethel said, "I knew right away you were special. You stand in God's light."

"We sometimes chat with God using the computer," Leanna said. "We exchange text messages."

Ethel raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"We're friends."

"What do you talk to Him about?"

"Mathematics," Bethany said. "He's teaching us a very interesting and important set of equations."

"You talk about math?" Ethel said.

"Yes, ma'am. Very hard math."

Ethel looked at Aaron, but he could only shrug.

Norbert still appeared sad.

Aaron patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry you can't go, but I need you here for a couple of reasons. First off, you have to stay with the twins. I can't leave them unguarded and unsupervised for two whole weeks."

"The twins can't come, sir?"

"No way. They don't have the social skills. Besides, I need them to stay with their computers. We're not going to haul all of that equipment to the convention. We may not even have an internet connection there. I expect the location will be very remote."

"I understand, sir." Norbert nodded. "It just seems like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'm missing it. What's the second reason I can't come?"

"Everybody else will be tied up at the convention. You're the person I'll call when I need work done behind the scenes. You're my secret piece in this game."

"Game, sir?"

Aaron nodded.

"I'm confused about one thing," Norbert said. "You told us this headquarters is being shut down, but the twins and I aren't going to the convention. Where will we be?"

"That is a very pertinent question. I want you in a safe place, which isn't here. The twins have to be protected. And don't tell the rest of the team where you're hiding."

"Sir?"

"A necessary precaution," Aaron said. "You could move to the new headquarters for the duration."

Norbert drew back. "But it's just an empty shell. There aren't even walls inside. Does it have a toilet?"

"It's a secret place where nobody will disturb you. I'll tell the construction workers to take a paid vacation for two weeks. Before they go, they'll make sure you have at least one working bathroom. Marina will help you get set up. But nobody is going anywhere until the twins answer some questions. Follow me."

Aaron led the group. Bethany and Leanna followed and Norbert stayed one step behind them. Aaron found it cute the way he hovered over the girls like a mother hen. Ethel and Guthrum brought up the rear a few paces back. They seemed happy to just watch Aaron work.

He didn't have a specific role in his plan for Ethel. He would never presume to tell the
legatus legionis
what to do. He expected she would just be the master of ceremonies at the convention. That was useful anyway because she would naturally draw attention away from the real action. If there was a crisis, she would instinctively make the right decisions. She wasn't great at strategic planning, but her intuition in the moment was extraordinary, maybe even supernatural.

They arrived in the computer room. The twins went immediately to their reclining chairs and settled into the soft webbing. They put on headsets made of rubber mesh that wrapped around their heads. The headsets looked strange, but they fit securely and were extremely comfortable. The twins would often wear them when just walking around headquarters. They served double duty as cell phones and had all the functions of regular Spears phones.

Aaron looked up at the nearest surveillance camera and said, "Jack, are you there?"

"Yes, sir." Jack's voice came down from overhead speakers.

"Turn off the surveillance system for this entire section of the building. Make sure you can't hear or see us."

"Yes, sir."

Aaron waited a moment. "Jack? Jack?"

There was no response.

Ethel turned to Guthrum and whispered, "Verify."

Her bodyguard nodded and walked off.

Aaron frowned at the lack of trust. Jack had served Ethel loyally for several years when she had commanded the cell.

Once Bethany and Leanna were settled, Aaron said to them, "When you first joined the Society, you showed me that you could hack our phone system."

"Yes, sir," Bethany said. "You got mad at us."

He smiled. "I promise I won't get mad this time. Specifically, I need you to manipulate the tracking system. It has to report the location we want it to report instead of the real location. The goal is to have our guests think they're someplace they aren't."

"That system uses two private keys. The first controls access to the link from the main..."

"I don't need the details," he said quickly. "Can you do it?"

"Yes, sir."

Ethel appeared uneasy.

"Whose phone should we hack?" Bethany asked.

"All of them," Aaron said.

"Oh. That might be difficult. We'll have to push out a software update across the entire phone system. We know the guys in Dallas who manage the central server, but I don't think they'll just let us..."

"Excuse me," Ethel said. "These guys in Dallas, are they part of the Society?"

"Yes, ma'am. They make our phones."

"I'll call them. They'll cooperate fully and won't ask questions."

"Thank you, ma'am," Bethany said. "It should be easy then."

Aaron nodded. "Let's move on. We're going to choose the site for the convention now. It has to be someplace far from any population center. I don't want civilians getting caught up in this mess. But we still need comfortable housing for all the guests. We can't have them sleeping in tents in the middle of winter. Maybe we could use a summer camp or a spa that's closed for the season."

Bethany and Leanna were already typing. Their fingers danced at lightning speed on their exotic keyboards. Maps and satellite photos started to pop up on the many large displays.

"Wait, stop, I'm not done," Aaron said.

They kept typing. Once the twins were engaged, it was hard to get their attention again.

"Hey!" Aaron yelled.

The fingers finally stopped flying. Bethany looked up at him. "Sir?"

"We actually need two sites. They should be geographically similar to each other and not too far apart. Ten or twenty miles of separation would be ideal."

Bethany and Leanna appeared confused.

"Two sites," Aaron explained patiently. "The first will be where the guests think they are. The second will be where the guests actually are. We're going to fool everybody. That's why we need to hack the tracking system. Do you understand?"

"People will think they're in the wrong place?" Bethany asked timidly.

"No, they'll think they're in the right place, but be wrong."

Ethel began to grin. On her face it was a terrifying expression. It reminded Aaron too much of a death skull, and it was usually followed by fountains of arterial spray.

"I'm glad I picked you for this job," she said.

He swallowed. "Thank you, ma'am."

Chapter Three

Norbert stopped the van in the parking lot of the Rosemont Tower Hotel and looked out through the front windshield.

The hotel was still under construction, but it wasn't too far from completion. All the structural work was finished for the full height of twenty-two stories. Copper tinted windows covered the exterior except in a few spots where temporary plastic was used instead. The heating system had been turned on a week ago. Some of the water pipes even had water in them.

The Rosemont Tower Hotel project had an unusual history. It had started as a normal luxury hotel development, financed by banks and private investors. The location was close to O'Hare Airport and just minutes from two major highways. The hotel was meant to serve high-end business travelers who wanted both convenient and lavish accommodations.