White Jade (The PROJECT) (21 page)

The afternoon had turned into a black hole.
He
began stripping the weapons to clean them. Ronnie walked in.

"
What
'
s with Selena?
"

"
What do you mean?
"

"
She just went by without a word, looking pissed. You have an argument or something?
"

"
I wouldn
'
t call it that.
"

"
How did she do with the
we
a
pons
?
"

"
She did well. If we get into something, I think she
'
d hit what she was shooting at. She didn
'
t like grenades much.
"

"
You think she should come along? It could get pretty hairy out there.
"

"
You don
'
t think she should go?
"

"
She's a woman and she's a civilian.
She's not combat trained. She could get herself or us killed if we run into opposition."

"
We need her. Without her we might not be able to figure out how to get into that complex.
She's been under fire twice and she didn't lose it. Selena
can take care of herself.
"

"
Yeah, but she
'
s never done anything like this.
If we have any trouble she could be a real liability.
"

"
I guess we
'
ll have to make sure that doesn
'
t happen.
"

"
You going to be able to keep your feelings for her out of this?
"

"
Don
'
t go there. You know me better than that.
"

Ronnie
rolled his eyes
at the ceiling, took a breath.
They
began cleaning the guns in silence.

After a while,
Carter
said,
"
How you coming on the logistics?
"

"
All set. I
'
ve got us a vehicle and everything we need. We
'
ll transport to Dyess from
Andrews
,
transfer over
and be on our way as soon as
Harker
gives the word.
"

"
Going to be an interesting trip.
"

"
Roger that, buddy. I always wanted to see
Tibet
.
"

Carter
found Selena upstairs.
They
walked out to the parking lot and got into her rented car. The ride back to
the
apartment
was silent. One look at her told
him he'd
better not push it.

Chapter T
hirty

Back in the
apartment
she disappeared into the bathroom
.
Carter
heard her running a bath.
He
poured
himself
a double
Jameson's
and sat down.
His
land line rang.

"
It
'
s Shelley, Nick.
"

His
sister only call
ed
when there
was
a problem or she want
ed
something.

"
We need to talk about Mom.
"

"
How
'
s she doing?
"

"
She almost set the place on fire yesterday. I went over there and she
'
d left the soup on the stove and forgotten about it. The pan was burned through, the kitchen was full of smoke and she was sitting in the living room watching TV. She hadn
'
t a clue.
"

"
I thought those new drugs were helping.
"

"
Those drugs are a rip off, that
'
s what I think. Two hundred and fifty bucks a month and you get burned soup. George says it
'
s a crime, you can
'
t even deduct it.
"

"
The soup or the drugs?
"

"
Oh, that
'
s real funny, Nick. You
'
re not the one who has to clean up after her.
"

She started in about
his
general anti-social tendencies and lack of family responsibility. Never mind the money
he sent
to help out. Never mind the times
he'd
flown out
to be with
his mother
and see if there was something
he
could do.
Never mind that he cared about his mother more than Shelley did, in spite of her self-righteous indignation.
He
'
d heard it
all
before.

He
cut her off.
"
What do you want, Shel?
"

"
Want?
"
She was getting angry, like most of the times
they
talk
ed
.
"
I want you to get her into a home, someplace where people will look out for her. I can
'
t do this anymore. George says it
'
s time you took a bigger role.
"

Her husband, the accountant.
Carter
thought he was
a pompous ass.

"
And what does George think that is?
"

"
You should take some time off from that stupid job of yours and come out here and find a place for her.
"

Shelley th
ought Nick was
a paper pusher
,
working for some obscure government department doing meaningless, bureaucratic things she d
idn't
want to understand.
He let her believe what she wanted.

"
What does Mom want?
"

"
It doesn
'
t matter what she wants. She
'
s not
competent
to decide what she wants. What she needs is for you to step up to the plate.
"

Now she was into sports clichés.

"
I can
'
t come to
California
right now. How about you and George look for a place?
"

That set her off.
Carter
held the phone away from
his
bandaged ear while she shouted.
He
walked to the
counter
and poured another drink
.
He
thought about telling her where George could put his ideas.

While
his sister
was busy yelling
he
thought about
his
mother. She was in the early stages of the disease, not far enough gone to forget she had a house or where she lived. Most of the time, she still knew who she was. She also knew she was losing it
. I
t upset her, a lot. Living in her house was important to her, even if Shelley didn
'
t think so. It wasn
'
t time to move her out, yet.

"
Shut up for a minute, will you?
"

She stopped mid-yell.
He
heard a deep
silence
at the other end.

"
She doesn
'
t need to be moved out. Get someone to move in with her, a live in helper.
"

"
We thought of that. George says it
'
s just putting off the inevitable, why not get it over with? Her house will bring a nice price on the market. It would pay for her care.
"

Now
he
understood the urgency. Good old George, a solution for everything, with a nice, tidy sum to go in his bank account. The whiskey won out over family harmony.

"
You tell George to go fuck himself, Shelley. You get someone to look after her, someone competent, and I
'
ll help out with the cost. But don
'
t even think about putting that place on the market and pushing her out of there. You and that asshole you call your husband try it and I
'
ll make a lot of trouble.
"

"
You can
'
t talk to me that way!
"

"
I just did.
"

He
slammed the
phone
down
on the counter.
He
poured another drink
. He
sat down, thinking about
his
sister.

His
father
had never gone
after Shelley when he was drunk
. S
he
still defended hi
m
. It was one of the reasons
they
didn
'
t get along.

He
'
d calmed down by the time Selena came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a soft, white robe and toweling her hair.

"
Who were you talking to?
"

"
My sister. She called about our mother.
"

"
What did she say? You were shouting.
"

"
Nothing. I don
'
t want to talk about it right now.
"

"
See?
"

"
See what?
"

"
How easy it is to not want to talk about nothing?
"

She tossed the towel, sat down on the couch and began com
bing out tangles in her hair.

After a moment she said,
"
The grenade thing got to me. Nothing
'
s normal anymore.
Last week I was
giving a guest lecture at UCLA. Now Uncle William is dead, my car is wrecked, someone tried to kill us at least twice and I was drugged and betrayed by one of my best friends.
Then you show me how to throw grenades.
What the hell
'
s going on, Nick?
"

"
You've landed
feet first in a big pile of shit. Now you have to deal with it.
"

She stopped combing and looked at him.
"
You have a way with words.
"

"
Would it make any difference if I sugar coated it? It
'
s different for me. I was trained to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. You haven
'
t had that training. The fact is you
'
re a key player. You
'
ve got to go along for the ride and hang on.
"

He took a drink. "
It helps to know you have options, skills if you need them.
"

"
Like what?
"

"
Like knowing your weapons and knowing you can use them.
"

Selena put the comb down in her lap.

"
I
didn't mean to jump
on you back there at the range. I didn
'
t like the idea I might have to blow someone up.
"

"
Nobody in their right mind likes the idea.
"

He
wanted to put
his
arm around her
. H
e
didn
'
t do it.
H
e
didn
'
t want to start something
s
he
wouldn't let him
finish
.

"
Yang hasn
'
t had time to get people in there. We
'
ll get in and get out. We
'
re not going unless we know where the formula or the emperor or whatever is hidden.
W
e
'
ll
be gone
before
he
knows we
'
re there.
"

"
You really believe that?
"

"
It
'
s the only way to think about it.
"

"
A
t the house
when
those men were shooting at us, I wasn
'
t thinking about it, I was just running for the river.
"
She picked up her
comb.
"
It wasn
'
t until later I realized I could have been shot.
"

She ran the comb through her hair. "I heard what you said in Harker's office.
I
'
m afraid I
'
ll screw something up and get someone killed.
"

She was going, whether he liked it or not. Now wasn't the time to voice his doubts.

"
You already proved you can
act
without
screwing up
.
"

"
What do you mean?
"

"Th
e car, when the Chinese were chasing us.
California.
If you
'
d had a gun
then
you
could
have shot back.
I
t helps to know you can shoot back. If you couldn
'
t handle this, you wouldn
'
t be going, language skills or not.
Harker knows it. So do I.
"

"
I asked to go, didn
'
t I?
"

"
Don
'
t worry, you
'
ll be fine. Not everybody gets to jump into the
Himalayas
.
"

"
You sound like a tour guide.
"

He
was keeping it light, but
he
knew it wasn
'
t going to be a mountain vacation, whatever else happened.

She said, "Doesn't it bother you?
T
he people you've killed?"
As soon as she said it she wished she could take it back.

"What the hell kind of a question is that? I've learned to put it out of my mind.
I
t doesn't do any good to second guess myself." A headache started behind his left eye. "The people I killed were trying to kill me.
Shit happens.
So I don't feel particularly bad about it."