INVITING FIRE (A Sydney Rye Novel, #6) (22 page)

"I got you a new identity."

"That was Mulberry."

"With my help. You think he could have done that alone?" Robert laughed. The sound blended with the other noises of the jungle night, sounding like it belonged there.

"I think he is capable of quite a lot."

"I'm sure you do," he said. "But
I
gave you the name Sydney Rye. And that brings us to the third body. Joy Humbolt. I had to find someone to take her place, didn't I? Hard to fake a death without a body."

"It must just drive you crazy that I turned out the way I did then," I said.

Robert laughed again. "I made you Sydney Rye," he said, "because I wanted you this way. I knew what you were the first night I saw you. It was in the set of your shoulders above that loose gown, the way you were not ashamed or afraid. You were indignant. And that's still what you are. Indignant the world isn't what you want it to be."

"Angry," I said. "I'm angry the world is so tilted toward people like you."

"And you," Robert said. "You're always trying to pretend we’re not the same, you and me."

"We're on opposite sides."

"Only because you won't let us work together."

"That's what you want? For us to work together? And how exactly is that going to happen?"

"You know my company is going public."

I didn't answer.

"Well, if you don't know then you all need me more than I thought."

"Need you?"

"Yes, Sydney. I'm going to take Fortress Global public. I'm going to make a ton of money. And then I'm going to join Joyful Justice." He smiled.

Laughter bubbled out of my belly and erupted. Blue looked over at me, his eyebrows raised. I held my stomach and laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. Bobby smiled over at me, his features softened by the dying light of the coals.

"You're going to screw over a lot of people," I said, playing along with his insanity.

"The men you plan on attacking?"

"The people who buy your stock."

"They will be fine."

"You're lying to everyone."

"And you have a problem with that, Sydney Rye? Do any of your happy band of misfits know who you really are? How many know you didn't really kill Kurt Jessup?"

I shook my head. "How can you say I want to do good but I'm just going to do this one last evil thing before I start doing good?"

"You stole Kurt Jessup's treasure, I don't understand how this is different."

"The money you're stealing is not from just one psycho. It's pension plans, it's people, it's savings, it's college educations. Once Joyful Justice starts decimating Fortress Global’s clients, the company is going to collapse."

Bobby shook his head. "It will mostly be hedge funds, all very wealthy people. I'm not going to destroy pensions, Sydney. Jesus.

"But how can you be—"

"How will you continue to fund what you have?" he said, cutting me off. "What's the plan? Do you understand that I can destroy you all? It's not like you have a choice," he said, his voice suddenly rough and dangerous. The Robert Maxim I knew.

I laughed. "Sorry," I said. "By all means, take over Joyful Justice, or did you just want to work with us? Take your orders from Mulberry?" I asked, laughter bubbling over my words.

"It is your choice."

"How's that? I thought I didn't have one."

"Marry me."

I laughed again, harder. "Is that your solution to everything?" I wheezed out. "What number would I be? Mrs. Maxim #4." I laughed harder, holding my stomach. Robert just watched me, his smile set in place, full of confidence and amusement. "Stockholm syndrome doesn't usually start this fast," I said.

"It will make you invincible. Together we are invincible."

"I'm already invincible without you," I said, all traces of mirth fading from my voice.

"Even if you manage to hold onto your ideals," Robert said, leaning forward, "and lead this merry band of revolutionaries, what happens after you die? And Mulberry dies? And Merl, and Dan? What happens when you're all dead?"

I didn't answer, but I didn't laugh either.

"Do you know about the FARC?"

"The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia," I said.

"They call themselves The People's Army," he went on. I nodded. "You know they started out with ideals like you. And they turned into the biggest drug dealers in the world to fund that plan. What will become of your little enterprise? You can't run forever on good intentions, it never lasts. There is human nature, the beast in all of us."

"And you think you can do better?"

"I know I can."

"So we're not out here to negotiate a truce, you just want to keep Joyful Justice under control until you can take FGI public, make money, and then destroy everyone you've worked with in the last thirty years."

"You're only looking at the very surface of the plan," Bobby said.

I shook my head. "You're insane."

"Why? For not fighting for good at every turn? I never let evil steer me. Just money and power. Are those so wrong to want? I know you want things you are not proud of." And he looked at me like he knew about the dreams. But that was impossible I reminded myself. "Mulberry thinks there is a kitten inside of you, that deep down you’re soft. I know that at the core of you is hardness. A hardness few people have. I saw it the first night I met you. I watched you and Doyle. I saw the way you were with him." I felt my cheeks flush, Robert had watched me have sex. Great news. "Indignation is steering your ship. Why not greed for me? I've done a lot of good with all that greed.”

"Supporting a few charities does not make up for all you've done."

"It's not like I'm a Nazi. What did I take?"

"Are you crazy? You've taken lives."

"As have you."

"I am paying penance." I couldn't believe the words had left my mouth.

Robert laughed. Royally laughed. "Why in god's name would you do that?"

"It came out wrong."

"You don't know why you do it."

"Because it feels right."

"Well, my path has always felt right. It feels right right now."

"We're wasting our time," I said. "The idea of you joining Joyful Justice is insane—"

"Give me two more days. And think about it. Really think about what it could mean if I joined."

"Yeah," I said. "I'll think about it." I snorted out a laugh.

I
fell asleep with Blue against me, our spines pressing into each other. Each breath a reminder of the other's presence. I awoke with the howler monkeys, their roars penetrating through a fog of sleep. Blue stood over me, and when he saw my eyes blink pushed his wet nose at my ear. I batted him away and he took a stretch, waving his bushy tail around in the air as he yawned wide.

Looking up through the trees I could see the first hints of light in the sky, but it was still dark on the forest floor where we lay. Blue headed toward the pond and I lay on the ground, staring up at the slowly brightening sky. As the light began to penetrate through the trees, filling the jungle with a gray half-light, I looked over at Bobby across the dead fire pit. He was facing away from me, lying on his side.

His neck was exposed and I thought about my hatchet. I could sever his brain from his body quickly enough that he wouldn't ever wake up. Permanent sleep. But what would happen? I didn't know what contingencies he had in place. I didn't know what contingencies Joyful Justice had if I didn’t show up. It would be the beginning of a bloody war though, I knew that. But wasn't that coming, no matter what? The idea that the two of us could find some kind of agreement, that he would work with us to bring about justice was ludicrous. However, I felt that it was too big a chance to ignore. All those women and men who signed up for Joyful Justice, willing to put their lives on the line for a purpose much larger than themselves, they deserved better than the indignant, selfish girl who lay in the jungle now, staring at Robert Maxim's exposed neck, fantasizing about making it bleed.

He stirred then, rolling onto his back. I could see his eyes were open. Robert cleared his throat, but didn't say anything. Blue came padding back into the clearing then, his muzzle wet from the pond. He came right up to me and pushed his dripping face at mine, smiling, excited about another day hiking in the jungle. I turned away, pushing his sopping muzzle away from my face. He yowled and flopped onto the ground next to me, rolling so that he placed a large leg and paw across my chest and then licked my cheek. "Get off me," I said, laughing. Blue jumped up and barked.

I sat up then and ran my fingers through my hair, feeling how knotted it was. I even pulled out a stick. Bobby sat up too and pulled his pack over. He started a fire, the orange glow soon mixing with the cool blue of dawn.

T
endrils of smoke, whiffs of grease, bacon sizzling on the pan, the smell luxurious and attractive in the crazy jungle space. Bobby cracked two eggs into the pan. How he'd kept them in his pack without them breaking was beyond me. I'd been down at the water washing up when he'd pulled out the ingredients and laid them on a stone next to the fire. There were even orange juice boxes with sippy straws. He didn't look up at me when I came back into camp, keeping his attention on the eggs sputtering in the pan, their yolks still miraculously intact.

What a revelation this was. That he was trying to woo me in this weird old-fashioned way. Take a girl out into the jungle and make her a hell of a breakfast. "There's coffee," he said before picking up the hot pan, a towel wrapped around its handle. He shook it and the eggs sloshed from side to side on a slick bed of bacon grease. With a quick jerk they flew up into the air, flipped and landed back into the pan. I watched closely as he placed the pan back on to the grill, but no tell-tale yellow leaked out.

I sat cross-legged, my plate on my lap. It was metal and warm against my thigh where the hot egg sat. But that didn't last long as I ate it quickly, mixing it with bites of crispy bacon, salty and tasty. There was more hiking to do and so we set off soon after breakfast. First, I washed the dishes in the pond, suds floating away from me in small flotillas. Blue lay behind me, his posture relaxed and happy. He'd love to live outdoors. The two of us just hiking and eating and sleeping. The daily exhaustion, the quiet it gave to your mind. I understood him in this way. When your goal was simply to walk, it seemed as if all your worries could melt away.

That was one of the reasons Bobby had brought me here, I decided, as we continued our journey, seeming to climb ever higher. Soon after breakfast we'd turned west and begun another grueling ascent. The bugs seemed bigger, better fed, yet hungrier for blood. As though getting what they wanted just made them want it that much more. Blue snapped at the air. Bobby and I wore our sleeves down, hats pulled low, bandanas rhythmically swinging. It was not a form of torture so much as one of meditation. The challenges of the trail similar to swimming through the constant yet varied waves in the ocean. It kept your mind active and your feet and hands busy. There was not much more a body could want.

We didn't stop for lunch, and as we reached another plateau and the trees began to shrink in size, the biting bugs grew smaller, the underbrush not nearly as thick, Robert stopped at a boulder that rose up to the height of a four-story townhouse. He motioned to me for some food and I begrudgingly offered him a nut bar. Merl's own recipe. He chewed on it, you really had to, and nodded. "Disgusting," he said, once he'd forced it down.

I laughed. "But it's so damn good for you," I said before ripping off another hunk.

Blue had his own protein packed bar, another one of Merl's inventions. Gave him the energy he needed to keep going in this heat. I figured there was a stream coming up, and Blue was getting excited about it. The boy needed a swim. I wouldn't mind dunking my bandana, I thought, as I used it to wipe away the sweat trickling down my neck. I unbuttoned the top of my shirt, letting some cool air in. Bobby was working me, I felt pliant and happy.

"Ready?" Bobby asked, standing and offering me his hand. I stood on my own and he frowned. "You don't have to always be so independent, Sydney."

Time to start some shit, I thought. "Who are you to tell me how to behave?" I asked.

His eyes narrowed. "I think I've made it abundantly clear what I want to be to you."

"My partner."

"In every way."

"Soul mate?"

He smiled. "You'd have to believe in a soul, which you don't. And even if you did, I doubt you'd believe I had one."

"And you're okay with your partner thinking that?"

"I don't think you care about soul mates. You can see we’re much more than that."

"Because you made me breakfast? I'm a little harder to woo than that, Robert Maxim."

"It's working."

"Dragging women out into the jungle and making them breakfast, that's your courtship?”

"I didn't drag you, I invited you."

"To talk about a truce. Not to go traipsing around in the jungle sharing silent meals."

"Comfortably silent, I'll point out."

He was right. There had been lots of totally comfortable silence. It was all so comfortable. Even this fight, even me pushing him, him smirking at me. We'd been doing this for so long, known each other and been vital in each other’s lives for so long that it was comfortable.

"Well, that shut you up," Robert said. "Some more companionable hiking should help."

And with that he turned and started off on the trail again.

I was right about the landscape—it did change, grasses grew in place of jungle, the air was cooler, the hills sunnier. About an hour before sunset we were crossing a grassy meadow, seeming to work our way around a hill. The landscape stretched out before us, taller peaks rising up in the distance. They were thick with trees. Beyond those peaks were larger mountains, opaque with distance. They disappeared into clouds like teeth into cotton candy.

It was strange to have such a broad vista after days in the jungle where layers upon layers of vegetation jumbled up onto themselves. A stream glittered in the distance like a vein of silver running through the landscape. We approached it for about a half-hour. When we were still fifty yards away I told Blue "Okay" and he shot off across the field, his body low and long, legs fluid underneath him. He splashed into the water and when he reached to his knees turned around, wagging his tail at me.