Chapter 121. Family Makes the Best Leverage
We quietly closed the bedroom door, leaving Stephanie drooling on her pillow after a thoroughly eventful evening.
“So, what’s the plan, Mr. Ross?” Maggie unzipped her track jacket with a barely audible click. “Maybe we should pretend today was an incredibly tough day and skip the run? After a performance like that, we can afford to be normal people for a little while and just have some tea.”
“Am I hearing complaints about emotional burnout?” I narrowed my eyes slightly as I scanned her face. There was not the slightest sign of fatigue. “By all accounts, the biochemistry of your upgraded brain should burn through that kind of stress response before it even reaches the hypothalamus.”
“Oh, stop analyzing me like I’m a lab rat.” Maggie shook her head emphatically and raised her chin. “You’re seriously overdoing it with the stress thing. The last time I was genuinely shaking with anxiety was when they took you into that Corps of yours. But now... Now I feel like I could go land on the moon. No apathy, no urge to crawl under a blanket and curse the whole world. I feel incredibly focused.”
“So laziness and irrational fears have been successfully purged as obsolete baggage.” I gave a curt nod, pleased with the result. “Then why suggest skipping the workout? After twenty-four hours of complete hibernation, you should be starving for physical activity. Testing your body’s limits is a perfectly natural impulse. I know it firsthand.”
“The impulse is definitely there, Tom.” She stopped beside the kitchen table and cast a quick glance toward the hallway, where her friend was sleeping. “But let’s be honest: that... colonel of yours seriously creeps me out. Did you see the way he looked at her? Like a butcher sizing up a fat little pig. He’d slit her throat without batting an eye.”
I kept my facial muscles rigid, refusing to let even the slightest emotion betray the disgust Stuart’s behavior had inspired in me.
Meanwhile, Maggie started making her favorite tea.
“True enough,” I said evenly. “But Leon is gone.”
“And what’s stopping him from coming back? The lock on the door?” Maggie folded her arms across her chest and fixed me with a stern, motherly stare. “You saw perfectly well that the guy doesn’t give a damn about the laws of physics and can walk straight through walls. What’s stopping him from materializing right here in half an hour and doing something illegal and disgusting to a helpless girl?”
“He’s not coming back. Not tonight, and not a month from now, when Stephanie’s alone in her apartment again.” I stepped closer, holding her gaze. My voice remained measured and deliberate. “Leon won’t do it. For one simple reason: he knows it would completely ruin his plans for me.”
“Tom, no offense, but you’re only a second lieutenant, right?” Maggie tilted her head slightly, catching the flaw in my reasoning. “Since when do colonels care so much about the opinion of someone below them in rank?”
“You’re not quite looking at the situation from the right perspective.” I leaned my shoulder against the kitchen doorway. “Stuart isn’t my direct superior. But he very much wants to become one. This whole stunt with the girl and the cigarettes is just a little psychological pressure tactic. He’s trying to show me he can get to me anywhere, hoping to force me to accept his offer and transfer to Intelligence.”
“Do you even hear yourself? The guy’s a straight-up psychopath!” Maggie threw up her hands, then poured the boiling water into the cups. The smell of tea spread through the kitchen. “You need to report this to your superiors immediately! Your commanding general... What’s his name again?”
“Arthur Crowley,” I supplied.
“Right! Tell Crowley everything. That general personally pinned the Bronze Star on you! He’s supposed to keep order in his own department!”
“Maggie. Would you send the cow that gives the most milk in the herd to the slaughterhouse?”
She froze and blinked a couple of times. “What’s that analogy supposed to mean? We’re talking about something serious, Tom.”
“The analogy is pretty straightforward. You just don’t have enough information to see the whole picture.” I shifted my stance slightly, keeping her gaze. “Leon has three of those stars. And Crowley personally pinned every one of them to his chest. Intelligence sits at the very top of the Corps’ food chain. Without his people, we wouldn’t have alien technology or clean portal-clearing operations. As much as I personally dislike the man, Leon is the best there is at what he does.”
“Hmm. That... really does change the context.” Maggie spoke thoughtfully as she slowly set a cup of tea in front of me.
No hysterics, no pointless arguments. I’d always liked that quality in her: the ability to process facts quickly, no matter how unpleasant they were. A damn fine family trait.
“If this guy is really that indispensable to national security, nobody’s going to put him on trial,” Maggie said with a frown, thoughtfully stirring sugar into her tea. “But you should still report what he did. Those general’s insignia aren’t just for show, are they? Let him give that colonel a private ass-chewing behind closed doors. Better yet, send him for an unscheduled psychiatric evaluation. He has the authority.”
“Actually, that’s an excellent idea.” A faint but genuine smile flickered across my face.
There was something familiar and incredibly warm about this conversation. Just sitting in the kitchen in the middle of the night, drinking tea and sorting through yet another problem. It seemed like only six months ago, this had been our routine. Now it felt like a scene from another life.
“Still, how the hell did that bastard even find Stephanie?” Maggie took a big sip of tea, clearing her throat as she gathered her thoughts. “I’m sure that crook used his position for personal, immoral purposes.”
“I thought about that too.” I took a sip of tea. It tasted exactly the way it had twenty years ago. Wonderful. “But, to be fair, he doesn’t need CIA channels to get Stephanie into bed. Five minutes on her public Facebook profile would be enough. Especially given her almost fanatical interest in the Awakened.”
“Tom, what are you talking about?” Maggie pressed a hand to her chest, looking deeply disappointed, as if I had just stomped on her favorite geranium. “Are you seriously blaming Stef again?”
“Actually, yes.” I said it bluntly, without the slightest hint of embarrassment or political correctness. “If that flighty girl didn’t throw herself at every guy with superpowers, tonight’s mess in my apartment wouldn’t have happened.”
“Are you going to hold this over her forever, Tom?” she sighed, her voice carrying a quiet, almost maternal sadness. “So the girl follows all these celebrities from the news and looks for a little excitement. What’s so terrible about that? It’s not like you didn’t read articles about the first portals and argue on forums about which Awakened was the strongest when you were her age.”
“The last time I argued about Awakened abilities on a forum, I was sixteen. Stephanie is already twenty-six. Don’t you think getting wasted with some random guy at twenty-six just because he showed you a couple of tricks is a sign of catastrophic immaturity?”
“You may have a point,” she said thoughtfully, twirling a bright pink lock of hair around her finger. “Still, Tom, cut her a little slack. Not everyone was lucky enough to have your rock-solid logic and decide on a college while they were still in middle school. But... your choice turned out to be wrong too, didn’t it? Instead of working with a calculator, you’re running around the jungle with an assault rifle.”
An ironic smile appeared on her face at the last remark.
I did not pursue the argument. I merely gave a curt nod and took another sip of tea. But this new habit of hers, taking that blue-haired idiot under her wing and defending her, honestly baffled me. It was a classic old-person habit, taking young and clueless people under your wing. I just hoped that protectiveness would not turn into something more.
“Either way,” I shifted to a more serious tone, “you already understand this perfectly well, but I’m going to say it anyway: stay as far away from Leon as you can.”
“You didn’t have to tell me twice, Mr. Ross.” Maggie waved a hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t let that asshole within shooting distance even without your instructions. If he so much as shows up at my door again, I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”
“Leon is a professional operative. He can be extremely persistent, and if pushing directly doesn’t work, he’ll have no problem changing tactics.” I spoke evenly. “And he knows exactly who you really are to me.”
“How?” Maggie blinked in surprise. “Stef couldn’t have told him! I never told her anything like that!”
“He didn’t need to hear it from her.” I gave a slight shrug. “It’s obvious. If that Awakened fanatic so much as caught wind that I’d performed a deep biological modification on you, she’d already be standing outside my door with a picket sign, begging me to do the same thing to her. And she’d sure as hell be sitting on my lap instead of the colonel’s.”
“Tom, are you seriously starting this again?” She frowned slightly and gave me a stern look. “You sound like some grumpy old man yelling at kids from his garage.”
“I’m just stating the facts.” I spread my hands, acknowledging that I might have been a little harsh. “Until Stephanie demonstrates even a shred of common sense, I’m going to regard her as an immature, materialistic young woman.”
“Fine, you’ve convinced me. Tomorrow morning, I’ll have a serious talk with her about how a respectable young lady is supposed to behave if she ever plans to get married.” Maggie delivered her verdict with iron determination.
“Now you sound exactly like a nagging grandmother.” The corner of my mouth twitched upward. “Just a reminder: biologically speaking, you’re six years younger than Stephanie right now.”
“Damn, that’s right... completely slipped my mind.” She pressed her palms to her cheeks in disappointment. “So taking away her smartphone and grounding her from sweets for a week isn’t exactly an effective parenting technique anymore?”
We both burst out laughing.
There was so much familiar warmth in that brief laugh, the kind of warmth I had been missing terribly lately. Leon, with his poisonous sarcasm and cutting remarks, and Selina, with her endless needling, drained my mental reserves faster than long forced marches. Even talking to Sam, a guy who was completely upbeat and harmless, still left me feeling drained. Only with Maggie could I sit in the kitchen like this in the middle of the night, talk about stupid things, and feel the weight of the past few days finally begin to lift.
“Still, Tom,” Maggie flicked a quick glance toward the hallway to make sure the bedroom was quiet, “how exactly did that bastard find me?”
“I doubt that was much of a challenge for the head of the Corps’ Intelligence division.” I looked toward the dark window, where an empty parking lot lay beneath the streetlights. “All he had to do was pull the request logs. He would’ve seen that I’d filed a request for my mother’s death certificate and, at the same time, requested a fresh set of documents for a cousin who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Putting two and two together would’ve been child’s play for an analyst at his level.”
“And what now? Is he going to keep coming after me until you sign his paperwork?”
“You don’t have to worry about him physically going after you.” My voice was firm. “He’s too good at calculating consequences. But trying to use you as leverage, putting pressure on you, playing the family-concern card... Those are tactics you should absolutely expect from him.”
“What a bastard!” Maggie hissed, clinking her spoon sharply against the cup. “Okay, Tom, I changed my mind. Let’s go outside. If I don’t work out a couple of rounds on the heavy bag right now, I’m going to explode with rage!”
I could not help noticing the irony. Leon’s crude, obnoxious visit had given Maggie exactly the burst of energy and motivation she had been missing. At least the Intelligence colonel had been good for something.