Allegro 19

Rated R for language and violence.

Characters belong to Lloyd, Moore, and DC, among others.

The black car was parked beside a jet on the tarmac, the stairway still against the open door. Our jet. He heard the engines whining as they warmed up. The pilots are going through their checklist for departure. Dominic's little car slid sideways as he spun the wheel and applied the brakes. He was up the stairs and into the small space, his .38 in his hand. The door to the cockpit was sealed shut, there did not appear to be a flight attendant. He turned down the aisle.

Six faces sitting in seats, belted for take-off, turned to him, surprised. He recognized most of them in an instant, Evey, Massey, and Massey's man in one row. A frightened Perry, Piccoult, the InterPol agent in charge of the placenta, and a strange man in a lab coat sat in a row across from them. Massey immediately stood up in the aisle. Dominic pointed his pistol at Massey's head.

"Throw down your weapon," he said, "hands behind your head."

Massey laughed at him. "Fuck you, Stone. I have everything, you have nothing. I have the girl, the baby and the iced stem cells." He nodded to the man beside him. Dominic let his eyes dart for a split second. Long enough to see the man beside him had Edmond in his arms; his detective eyes noted that he had both hands on the baby. No gun in sight. In a holster then, somewhere. Dominic flashed his eyes on Evey, handcuffed to a seat between Massey and his henchman; her face told him everything he needed to know. Perry looked terrified, the InterPol agent shocked, the lab man was as white as his coat. "You put your weapon down, and take a seat. I have more cuffs."

When Dominic did not immediately obey, Massey signaled to his man who put his big hand under Edmond's blanket. The baby squalled louder than the engines and Evey screamed, "Dominic!"

Dominic lowered the pistol, clicked the safety deliberately and tossed it to the floor of the aisle. Then he raised his hands slowly behind his head, his eyes on Evey's. Her face was devastated. She has given up. He blinked once at her, then looked down at his left leg, then back up to meet her eyes as Massey came toward him in the narrow aisle, gun in one hand and cuffs in the other. Be ready, Eve. Dominic waited to see comprehension in her eyes. There. Her eyes widened once, then as Massey clicked open the cuffs and reach up for his wrist Dominic saw her duck her head behind the seat in front of her and lean towards Edmond and Massey's man. Good girl.

Dominic waited until he felt the edge of the metal cuff around his wrist, then swung both arms down on Massey's neck. The big man did not fall, but brought his pistol up and jammed it into Dominic's chest. Dom grabbed Massey's wrist with one hand while the other swept down his leg and seized the pommel of V's knife from its place on his calf. The huge knife flipped up and entered Massey's body just below his sternum. Dominic used his left arm to bring Massey close to him and get the barrel of the pistol out of his ribs. He felt his fist follow the long blade up and inside into Massey's lungs and straight to his heart. He twisted the knife, staring straight into Massey's eyes as the warm blood surged over his wrist and down his arm, soaking his trousers and seeping into his shoes. Massey's eyes rolled up in their sockets seconds before Dominic felt the man's weight sink over his arm. He pulled the blade out, letting Massey slide down his body to the floor of the narrow aisle. I have one second before his man realizes what happened. As Massey sunk down, Dominic brought his arm back over his head. He stared hard at Evey...she is ready to catch the baby...his arm flew forward, the bloody knife spun once, droplets of Massey's blood flew off the blade like fireworks before the sharp blade sunk to the hilt between the eyes of Edmond's tormentor. Evey ducked and came up, the baby caught securely in her free arm as Massey's driver slumped against the window of the jet.

Dominic felt his ribs, looking for a hole. Have I been shot? He inhaled deeply, lungs ok. He grabbed at the seat backs in front of him, to steady himself as he one by one he looked at the faces in the seats. Evey was weeping into Edmond's hair, Perry's eyes were closed, but his lips were moving silently, Piccoult was grinning, and the lab man was checking the machines that held the placenta. Dominic let himself relax.

"Excellentissime!" Piccoult shouted over the roar of the engines. "Now get the keys to these cuffs, Detective, and free us."

Evey lay on her side in V's bed in the Shadow Gallery. Edmond lay beside her, busily pulling on her breast with his mouth while she held the fourth letter in her hand. "Read this one after the baby comes." She read the sentence over and over, while keeping one ear trained on the Gallery outside the bedroom. Dominic was there with the men from the Nose, she heard his soft voice through the open door directing them, giving them orders. He was letting them catalogue the art, but nothing would get past him out the door. She knew. He would protect V's art. Just like he protected V's child. Just like he protected V's...widow. Two big tears rolled down her nose. I have to read it. I have to. Edmond's tiny mouth released her and he rolled back, asleep, his little tummy full. Evey looked down at his sleeping face, seeing V. With a little uneven sigh, she opened the envelope.

"My Darling. There is a new soul in the world. This world, that has seen billions of souls come and go, will embrace another one today. He or she is undoubtedly very small right now, but inside that tiny body rests one more hope, one more chance. Every free breath that is taken in this world is a breath of opportunity. In that small body rests an infinite palette of possibility.

I had no idea, Eve. Believe me when I tell you I was as surprised as you to learn that I would not be leaving you alone on the Fifth. Now, as I write this letter in the picture room, looking at portraits of those who came before me, I feel strangely comforted, knowing someone will come after me. I will leave you, I must leave you, but before I knew about the baby I grieved that my hope was in the possibilities of strangers. Now I see a glimmer where before was only darkness.

Keep my child free, Eve. No one who is free is without hope. Perhaps he will become a writer, a musician...perhaps she will become an artist, a teacher, a healer. The world needs more free minds, no matter how many people are born or perish each day. This world creates us and nurtures us, and in the end receives us again, Eve.

I shall make a request of you, my love. Please. I beg you. You must give my child a family. Give the baby a grandmother, a grandfather, aunts and uncles, cousins and, Evey, give the baby a father. Live your life in love. Give the baby a family. For my sake, do not entomb yourself in a coffin of art and literature, for no matter how beautiful, it is still a coffin. I am always with you. I am not made of porcelain or paint or leather or wisps of hair. What I am is beneath the mask, Eve.

I love you so much.

V"