Jezebel's Ladder (11 page)

Benny was chanting, “Not the
hospital.”

Hollis started with a loud, “The
day this boy was born was the proudest moment of my life. I got there after my
shoot, and they couldn’t do the circumcision. He was too big to fit in the
apparatus!”

They ended up missing the tour.
Everyone but Benny had a good time anyway.

Jezebel met with her new experts every spare moment. Tom
volunteered for the Ethical Geometry page first, but Benny vetoed it for the
time being so that he could better represent the viewpoint of a dishonest
politician.

The physician, Henry Weiss, agreed.
“The first draft of our proposal should be natural, with Ms. Johnson as
mediator.”

Swami Rama, the yoga instructor and
spiritual leader, would have no code name until his clearance came through. He
was the only one that they hadn’t told about the pages. After chatting about philosophy
with Jezebel, he hadn’t needed much inducement to join their theoretical
discussion. The event appeared on his schedule and paycheck as an advanced
relaxation seminar for older executives. Entering the room and conversation
late, with some of Benny’s tea, the swami asked, “First draft of what?”

Jez trotted out her cover story, “A
uniform moral code of conduct for human beings in space colonies.”

“We must begin with a Bill of
Rights,” Tom said.

Dr. Weiss said, “Shouldn’t we be
more concerned with the stricter codes for leaders, teachers, and guardians who
have… more responsibility and power?”

The swami knew something else was
afoot, but played along. They spent the first several days winnowing the UN
declaration of human rights to get a baseline. Benny left after the first hour,
but the others only warmed to the debate. Jez had more comfortable furniture
brought in for the sessions, including beanbag chairs for the swami.

By the end of the third day, they
had a list of rights similar to those she had discussed with the envoy over
chess. The group had added definitions and conditions. They agreed that certain
rights were not granted to a human until they reached maturity, but left the
exact list to the colonies. Some rights, particularly those with regard to free
movement or weapons, could be revoked by a higher authority using due process.

Jez spent a great deal of time
combining and simplifying the work of others. When they seemed to solve
something too easily, she asked more difficult questions. “When you need every
person in a space colony, how do you punish people? The Inuit have work-release
where the offender just sleeps in the jail.”

Tom and Vader liked the notion of a
tiered society where citizens had the most rights and even walled-off living areas.
“Citizenship has to be earned; you can’t be born into it. Any infraction can
get you kicked out for a fixed amount of time, or permanently.”

“So criminals train your children?”
Jez asked.

“All children get the same education
from safe providers, but once they graduate, we would throw them into the real
world,” Vader clarified.

“What about killers and kidnappers,
or the permanently disenfranchised? What’s to stop them from taking revenge on
the young adults?”

Tom said, “We add another layer,
the untouchables and outcasts, walled off from the masses.”

“Given their violent nature, what’s
to stop outcasts from assembling weapons and punching a hole in everyone else’s
air supply? If we have to guard against threats like that, it makes the whole
colony too expensive.”

When the others were silent, Jez
turned to the swami and asked, “You haven’t said anything in a while. What do
you think?”

The Indian mused for a moment, then
said, “I think it highly interesting that you are unable to conceive of an
ideal Heaven that does not also require a corresponding Hell.”

On that note, they broke for lunch.

Over heavily-spiced noodles, fixed
by the swami’s wife, Jez raised another issue. “The real problem I see for us
is the concept of the corporation or government, what I call the meta-human.
They have no accountability or morals, yet can wreck a world. We need to fix
this before we will be allowed to leave our world.”

“Allowed?” asked the swami.

“Worthy of,” said Vader, covering
for Jez.

“Why is that ours to judge?” asked
the swami.

Tom explained, “Because this
company will be the gateway to the stars. It is our job to make certain the
humans who enter space behave morally. Given our race’s history, we can see
that companies and governments are notorious offenders. However, we have no way
to punish them short of military invasion or disbanding. This doesn’t work. It’s
always the other guy, someone else ordered me to. The accountant didn’t tell me
all the facts.”

The doctor snorted. “It wasn’t my
job. All metas care about are self-growth and preservation.”

“Greed doesn’t think ahead,” Tom
noted. “We can’t legislate everything, but without a proper foundation, the
building will collapse.”

“Then one must redefine the
fundamental structure of a corporation, and build a conscience from the
beginning,” the swami said.

“Excellent,” Jez said, waving her
fork like a baton. “Details.”

While they debated, she quenched
the curry fire with a drink. Benny was standing outside, watching her work.
Seeing his gaze, she wiped a spot of sauce off her chin and checked her lab
coat for stains. He motioned her outside.

When she closed the door behind
herself, he said, “Nice lab coat. Is this part of the rocket-scientist chic?”

She smiled. “It gives me a place to
hang my badge, put extra pens, and makes me look managerial. I wore my plain,
black pumps with no hose to complete the outfit. Why the long face?”

“We have a last-minute change of
plans. Whirlwind won’t meet with men. They threaten him. I’m going to cancel.”

“Whoa. No problem; we just trade
missions. You know I can wrap just about any guy around my little finger. Plus,
I’ve been working out with black belts every day. I can handle myself for one
meeting.”

Benny looked down. “The bastards
said you’d volunteer. I can stop by tonight to talk you through it. Oobie will
be your backup.”

Gears turned as she processed
implications. “Oh… if we’re taking the bus all the way to Arkansas, we’ll have
to leave soon. I’ll need data links to talk to my think tank. No, they have to
be with me for the group mind.”

“The swami isn’t cleared.”

“Blast, this puts a kink in a lot
of plans. Can the doctor go along? I only have him for a couple more days. He
could be handy dealing with Seth, and we could train him to monitor Oobie. He
might have suggestions there. I have a lot to do before leaving this evening. I’ll
need to pack, get body armor, and leave my butterfly in the safe. We can’t risk
that in the field. You could brief me over dinner.”

“Don’t forget the extra
communications gear.” Benny squinted at her. “You’re too cheerful. Are you
planning something sneaky?”

“Yes, but not against you. Can you
order in and then call me before you pick it up at the desk? It’ll help my
schedule.”

“Sure.”

He conspicuously did not press for
more information, which she appreciated. Jez gave him a quick peck on the
cheek. “I’ve gotta run.”

She broke the news to her extended
team and then took Dr. Weiss aside privately. “How’d you like a chance to share
some of those famous, Texas food places with us this weekend?”

“I’ll bite,” he said with a smile. “What
are you really asking?”

“I hate being this transparent. I
need you to do something dangerous for me. Have you ever killed anyone?”

****

When Benny called her, Jez ducked
into his office and opened his safe. She placed the butterfly on top, as
promised. However, she used the time alone to seize the bottom of the Ethical
Geometry page. As before, there was the feeling of electrical current coursing
through the material. But this time, the sensation was not as overpowering.
Concentrating, she tore off the bottom paragraph. The weave parted like a
micro-zipper. She tucked the remainder back onto the shelf.

Now, where could she hide the
two-inch strip? She wouldn’t be wearing the lab coat for the mission and might
not get another moment alone before then. She peeled back the tape on top of
her arm gauze. Folding the strip, she tucked it into the tiny pocket, and
replaced the tape. The page tingled against her skin like a static generator,
odd but not unpleasant.

“Jez?” called Benny from behind
her.

She jumped. “Just keeping the
butterfly safe,” she said. The page gave her a sharp twinge at the half-truth. “And
trying to find a way to trap our mole,” she admitted.

He raised an eyebrow and closed the
door in case she wanted to share more. When she said nothing, he held up bags
of Chinese food. “Kung Pao shrimp and Cashew Chicken.”

She smiled. “Good. I’m going to be
eating barbeque, chili, and fried, Angus-beef products for days.”

He set the bags on the long, oval
table and they both had a seat on the leather sofa. “Comfortable,” she
remarked. “I like firm.”

“It’s my second home, so I like it
to be comfortable. Um… you changed shoes,” he noted. The black pumps had been
replaced by thin, red heels.

“It’s kind of like Mr. Rogers
changing into a sweater when he gets home. It makes me feel more feminine. I
won’t get that for another few days, so I want to enjoy it while I can.”

As she dished out the food, he saw
the gap between her slacks and camisole. “You're wearing underwear this time,”
he said, clearing his throat. “Miss Johnson, are you making a move on me?”

She licked sauce off her
fingertips, before replying, “Mr. Hollis, when I make a move on you, you’ll
know. The only question will be whether you want to undo your own pants or will
it be quicker for me to do it for you.”

A jolt went through him. She couldn’t
lie. Losing coordination, he spilled the box with the fortune cookies. She
grabbed one and peeled it open. “Goody, I love having dessert first.”

She cracked the cookie open and
read, “
Listening will bring you great success.
Hmm. I guess that’s a
hint. Tell me everything I need to know about Seth Wannamaker and Whirlwind.”
Jez crossed her legs and faced him as she ate.

“Stay as far away from him as
possible; he is tremendously strong and obscenely heavy. Your martial arts
training will be almost useless against him. He’s unusually charismatic, which
may have a page, genetic, or chemical aspect. Be careful.”

She looked at the photo he passed
over and winced. The random folds of flesh made Seth hideous.

Benny continued, “Don’t stare or
react; he might take offense. Take the picture and practice. Each side gets to
bring four bodyguards. Take Frank, he’s most comfortable with your style.”

She nodded, taking a helping of lo
mein. “I’ll let Frank choose the others. How many are you taking on the Dallas raid?”

“Six, plus hired specialists.”

“Assuming everyone works that
shift, it leaves four regulars for Oobie, and six for HQ. We’re spread pretty
thin.”

“Big risk for a big gain,” he
countered. “They chose a neutral meeting ground, the indoor swimming pool at a
country club. No one should be around at ten at night, not even a security
guard.”

She looked at the address on the
page. “Isn't that the exclusive place all the Geneagra executives hang out?
Nice. I bet Seth pees in the pool and puts shells in the egg salad. I think I
could respect this guy.”

After a few more trivial details,
he grabbed her hand and gazed into her face with sincerity. “Most importantly,
if anything seems off in the slightest, trust your instincts. Cut and run. We
can always schedule another meeting; we can’t find someone else like you.”

She gave him a crooked smile at his
use of the royal we. “I appreciate the thought.
You
need to be careful
going up against Maverick and an oversexed starlet.”

“Why on a bus?” Nena demanded.

“It gets a little ripe, but it’s
the safest overall. There are too many ways to die on a plane,” Jez explained.

“Not enough firepower,” said Frank.
“In addition to bullet-resistant windows, we have a van-load of heavily armed
guards on each side, and two in here. Nobody is scoring Butterfly without
calling in a cruise missile.”

Daniel held up a new, video-game
box. “Plus, on the plane, we couldn’t have pizza and a multiplayer, three-dimensional
Die, Zombie, Die
tournament. I don’t have any dives scheduled till
tomorrow.”

Nena forced a smile. “Oh, you only
have four controllers…”

“I’m going to bed early,” Dr. Weiss
announced.

Jez suppressed a grin as Daniel
equipped Frank and Nena with the goggles and plastic gun controllers. “I’ve
already played the two-dimensional version, so I’ll walk you to the bunks. That
way I can show you the monitors for tomorrow.”

When the doctor was settled into
bed, she attached the portable monitors and asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“I volunteered.”

She pulled the paragraph out and
held it up for him to read. “
Murder is the sign of the Destroyer,”
it
began. The white-haired doctor arched his neck and back, spiking on the
electrical encephalogram. Then his body relaxed.

“See you in eight hours,” she
promised.

Jez was the first person eliminated
in the tournament. Daniel was a quick second. Frank was just that good with a
firearm. He kept saying things like, “A real gun would have more stopping
power.”

Jez told him, “They have better
ammunition if you click over there, but you only get about half as many shots
per clip.”

“Undead or not, if I hit someone
there, the bone would snap.”

As Crusader had noted during
training, Nena was a fast learner and inherently sneaky. Daniel became her
chief cheerleader, offering game tips whenever she needed them. In return, she
sat on his lap so he could point things out more easily. Whenever she cleared
out one of the big, boss monsters, she’d bounce with excitement.

“It doesn’t get any better than
this,” Daniel said.

Eventually, she lost the
competition because she kept double-tapping the corpses with the expensive
ammunition to make sure they stayed down. By contrast, Frank always saved one
round for himself.

Daniel immediately demanded a
rematch, but Nena wanted to watch a chick flick. Jez signaled him to give in,
and then excused herself to go to bed. Frank went to check in with the other
teams.

****

The next morning, Jez found the
kids asleep next to each other in front of the TV. “It does get better,” she
whispered, covering him with a blanket and turning off the blue screen. Then,
she checked on the doctor. He wasn’t awake yet, even though his pulse was
strong and all other monitors were in the normal range. While the other agents
ate at a roadside diner, Jez stayed at his side. Weiss didn’t open his eyes
until after ten that morning.

When he read the indicators
himself, the doctor said, “Age must play a role in the refractory period.”

“You mean recovery?” she said with
a smirk.

“That too,” he admitted. “I had
Lasik surgery when it first came out. I hated those thick, Coke-bottle glasses
because if you got a new pair or jostled the old ones, everything looked like
it was underwater. My thinking feels like that now, awkward and unstable.”

She handed him a coffee with his
usual cream and multiple sugars. “The neurons are still reformatting. The rate
will decrease over time. How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Three.”

“Try to lie about it.”

He struggled, but no sound came
out.

“Excellent,” she said. “It took.
Are you working for any other individual or business interest?”

“No.”

“Good. You’re the only one I know
isn’t a mole. Try to sit back and keep off the radar till we arrive. I’m
writing you a note, telling everyone you’re my deputy. If anything happens to
Daniel while I’m gone tonight, you’re in charge.”

“What do I do? I haven't been
trained.”

“That’s precisely why I picked you.
Maverick trained half our people and wrote our security manuals. Your job is to
be unpredictable. Surprise anyone who has a trap laid out for us.”

He nodded. “What about Mr. Hollis?”

“I've taken care of Benny. I sent
Steve, one of my people, to shadow him and reserved a Life Flight for him
tonight through the Frisco Hospital.”

“Emergency evacuation, smart. Won’t
that leave you a little undermanned?”

“In the short term,” she said
grinning.

****

Oobie, Vader, Cornflake Girl, and
their guards waited in a double motel room with the adjoining doors opened for
access. Oobie dove in to scout the country-club pool. “Clear,” he announced
over the channels.

Jez was watching the meeting site
through night binoculars. She was also listening to her people, the police
bands, and Benny’s team simultaneously. Benny had skipped out of the cotillion
early when he didn’t see Claudette. He took the whole team to her mansion north
of Dallas. There was a burst of action at the front door as they overcame a Rex.

“The new, martial-arts training
paid off,” Jez’s shadow reported via cell phone. A former army volunteer, Steve
had always wanted to be in Recon, but was an inch too short. She found he was
long in attitude and willing to bend the rules on the side of the angels. “Nobody
on our side got hurt. They’re going inside the mansion now.”

At five minutes till ten, her team
walked up to the rear of the brick pool building.

Over the phone, she heard Steve
say, “Busted.”

Then, Benny came over her shadow’s
headset, “Butterfly, did you really put a helicopter on standby for me?”

“Yes, sir. One of the new
Sikorskys; it fits four crew, two patients, and travels 175 miles an hour.”

“I appreciate the thought, but I
can handle myself,” he insisted. “I did all my own boxing in that last movie.”

“And Maverick does his own killing
in real life,” she countered. “It never hurts to have an ace up the sleeve.
Later, I would have kicked myself for not doing it. How is Starlet?”

“Sore. He got unconventional toward
the end of their relationship, crossing the line from pleasure to pain. Then a
few days ago, he emptied her bank accounts, got her passwords for the corporate
computers, maxed out her credit cards, and left.”

Jez was wary. “It sounds like he
knew you were coming. There might still be a surprise waiting for you. Do me a
favor and stay on the line with me till you get to the airport.”

“Only if I get to listen to your
meeting,” Benny insisted.

“Deal,” she agreed. Stuffing the
phone into her breast pocket, she switched to the throat microphone. “Anyone in
the storage area?”

Oobie replied, “Just a bunch of
chemical drums for the chlorination system. Whirlwind is playing it straight.
Jumbo and four of his lieutenants have taken the west end of the pool.”

The building was designed in a
giant U shape. In the center, they had the main entrance, coat room, bar, and
offices. The west wing was the pool, and the east wing housed several large
activity rooms used for weddings and dances. “Can you get me anything on the
reception rooms?”

“Not unless I have DNA on someone
in there, or follow you. But Doc says, other than our friends, the satellite
feed has been quiet for the last three hours, since the place closed. I’ll dive
back and watch for trouble.”

She repeated the recon report for
her extended team. “We break the tree line and jog across the lawn at T minus
two. Fan out and stay alert. I’ll scan for actives. Frank, watch my six. On my
mark. Go!”

The four dashed across the exposed
area and crouched against the wall. The alarm box was already rigged. Someone
whipped out a bump key and opened the door for the rest of the team. They
waltzed in the servant’s entrance to the bar and set up motion sensors to cover
their blind spot. No one would sneak into the east end of the pool to ambush
them without setting off an alarm that could wake the dead.

Frank went into the room first,
then Jez. The room was lit by a state-mandated, red emergency light at each
end. Oobie floated unseen above the water’s surface, watching for any sign of
treachery. Her last two guards closed the door and took separate sides of the
pool. Frank shielded her every step until she was within ten feet of Seth
Wannamaker. They met in the center, by the green, metal door labeled “Danger!
Chemical Storage.”

Poker-faced, she scanned the rabid
environmentalist. He was hideous beyond imagination. His flesh was like a
frozen waterfall. Even his earlobes had triple chins.

His voice sounded like a frog
gargling. “Enemy of my enemy, I greet you.”

When Seth held out his huge but
oddly normal hand, she replied in kind, “Well met. I applaud your choice of
venue. It reminds me of Hogan’s Heroes, right under the Germans’ noses.”

His expression was unreadable, but
his words were clear. “This was your demand, not ours.”

Jez turned so fast, she collided
with Frank. “Abort! Abort!”

The storage closet started beeping.

She grabbed Frank by the arm and
pulled him into the pool with her. Before they hit the water, the wall
detonated, sending shards of cement and clouds of chlorine billowing through
the room. Oobie vanished when the first person died in the explosion. Anyone
not knocked unconscious by the concussion was blinded and choked by gas. One emergency
light was shattered and the other was flickering and sparking. It was like an
electrical storm in Hell.

Jezebel’s headset shorted out,
cutting the official connections. Only the cell phone in her pocket was still
transmitting as she swam underwater toward the safety of the shallow end. The
cell lasted only long enough to send the warbling of their back-door alarm and
the muffled sound of automatic weapons.

Men in gas masks stormed the room.
Jez crouched on the bottom of the pool, praying visibility was poor enough for
her to hide. Even blind, Frank shot out the ankles of the first row of noisy
invaders from his vantage point. Red swirls bloomed around him as they took
easy revenge. Twenty gunmen swept in and terminated each member of her team
with precision.

She tried to raise her own gun, but
the page on her arm burned like liquid nitrogen. Her finger wouldn’t squeeze
the trigger against a human being. She couldn’t kill anymore, at least not like
this, as suicidal revenge. She wanted to scream, to cry. Instead, dripping wet,
she crept quietly out the back. Her vision was blurred from chemicals and her
ears were ringing. Running into the bar area, she could see the promise of
moonlight out the back window when she came face to face with the architect—Maverick.

He matched his photos down to the
black crew cut. However, the pictures couldn’t convey his utter confidence, or
the air of evil that surrounded him. Jez dove through the large picture window
in desperation, but the Taser darts hit her in the left calf.

Unconsciousness wasn’t far behind.