Mercy Mild—Chapter Thirteen
When Grandpa V. H.'s phone rang, he sighed and picked it up. He sat on the opposite end of the sofa from Victoria in Daddy's office. When Grandpa V. H. looked at the phone's screen, he looked really, really worried, which really worried her. Grandpa V. H. didn't often look worried. He had that in common with Daddy.
"I expected to hear from my daughter," he said, so Victoria thought he might be talking to her father. That made her relax a moment.
Then Grandpa V. H. sat up, and looked more alarmed as he listened to whatever was being said. Victoria got a really bad feeling, but if he was talking to Daddy, then at least he and her mum were probably okay. That left Jack and Aunt Ellie to worry about.
Her grandfather looked at her then and said, "Go get your grandmother."
She was still worried about Jack, so she had a moment of confusion that made her ask, "Which one?"
"Ariel."
As she ran out of the office, she felt kind of embarrassed since she should have known that was probably who he meant, so maybe, she thought, for just a moment, he meant Grandma Jane—but only because she hadn't really had much sleep. Victoria hated making mistakes.
She was out of breath when she burst into her grandmother's room, but Grandma Ariel wasn't sleeping. She stood from her chair and closed her book. "Tell me on the way," she said as she crossed rapidly to Victoria, took her by the hand and steered her back into the hallway.
"Someone called. I think it's Daddy," she told her grandmother as they strode down the hall. "Grandpa V. H. said to get you."
Her grandmother looked grim, and that made Victoria think it really might be bad news.
When they got back to the office, her grandmother didn't try to keep her out, which made Victoria think Grandma Ariel had forgotten she was there even though she was holding her hand. "That building your father used to own," her grandfather said. "Casey wants to know if there's anything about it that wasn't on the floorplans."
"I wouldn't know," her grandmother said, but there was a worried note rather than a cranky one. "I was never in it. We sold it after he died, but none of us went and looked at it."
"No," Grandpa V. H. said into the phone. "You go with Casey. Tell my son-in-law he'd better remember what he promised me when he married her, and he'd damned well better call me."
Victoria froze. He hadn't been talking to Daddy, then. He hung up and looked across at her and her grandmother. "They rescued Jack and Ellie Woodcomb, and they're both fine. I'll go up and let Ellie's husband know in a few minutes." He breathed deeply, rubbed his good hand over his jaw and sighed. "Mariah's missing."
Her grandmother dropped into a chair. Victoria stood stock-still, numb.
Daddy had promised Mummy wouldn't get stolen. He'd promised, she thought, and for a second, she was mad at Daddy for letting her mum get taken by the bad guys after saying he wouldn't. Victoria felt a little dizzy, a little like she couldn't breathe, and then she realized her grandfather had said Mummy was missing. That wasn't the same as stolen, so maybe Mummy was chasing someone, like the man who hurt Jack.
She really hoped Mummy hurt him right back—or maybe Daddy would when he found her mum. Victoria was certain he'd find Mummy and bring her home.
Her grandfather's phone rang again, and when she heard the name Diane, she knew he was talking to that mean, redheaded general Daddy worked for. Victoria listened shamelessly. After all, it was the only way she ever learned anything important, and this time she didn't have to be sneaky to do it since no one had told her to go back to bed.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to learn from her grandfather's side of the conversation. Grandpa V. H. just said some angry things about Mummy getting kidnapped, and he told General Beckman he had put ISI in charge of recovering her.
While he listened to Daddy's boss, Grandpa V. H. looked at Victoria. She had a feeling he was about to suggest she leave. Then he sat forward, his eyes sharpening as he listened.
"His beacon went off?" her grandpa demanded in a voice that said that was really not good.
Victoria frowned, but then she remembered overhearing her mum talk about something called an operative locator beacon. She remembered Mummy explaining the last time Daddy had been gone that it was something that let his boss find him if something went wrong. She was pretty sure Grandpa V. H. meant Daddy's beacon had gone off, and she began to wonder if she was going to end up an orphan after all.
If that happened, she would have to think about how to take care of Jack. She wasn't going to let anyone separate them, so she worried about who they would have to live with. Grandma Ariel didn't stay in one place much, but Victoria, who had heard stories from her mum and aunt Emma, didn't think she'd like living like that. Grandma Jane was kind of old, and while she loved Daddy's mum, she didn't think Grandma Jane would want to try and keep up with Jack all the time. Aunt Dena and Aunt Julie would make good parents, but Victoria thought she'd rather have Aunt Emma, who was a lot like Mummy. Of course, Aunt Emma lived and worked in Chicago, and Victoria really didn't want to live there all the time. Grandpa V. H. would make them live in Canada, which might not be so bad, but it was colder and snowier than Chicago even, so she didn't think she'd like that.
The best thing all around would be for her mum and dad to come back and for them to all go home—their real home in Maryland.
Grandma Ariel put an arm around her and pulled her close. "Your father is like a cockroach, Victoria. He can survive everything. He'll find your mother, and they'll be home before you know it."
Cockroaches were gross, so she was really mad at Grandma Ariel for saying Daddy was one, mainly because she knew that was normally an insult even though her grandma seemed to mean it as a compliment. "Don't be mean about Daddy," she said, and Victoria tried to sound scary-mean like Daddy did sometimes. "It's not fair."
Her grandmother turned her so she could see her face. "You're right," she said. "I just meant your father has an uncanny knack for survival."
"It's training," Victoria cut in with a hard stare.
Grandma Ariel smiled at her. "He's definitely very well trained."
That sounded kind of like what Mummy once complained was patronizing. Victoria wasn't sure what that meant, but she thought it meant she was being patted on the head like some people did to Jack when they didn't know what else to do with him. She understood why Mummy had been mad at the man who had been patronizing her. Victoria, though, was mad at Grandma Ariel, really mad, because she'd said Daddy was well-trained in the same way people complimented dogs who did what they were supposed to do. After all, she had once heard her grandmother refer to Daddy as General Beckman's pitbull, which was a kind of dog, so she figured that was how her grandma meant it.
"Mummy's right," Victoria told Grandma Ariel, whose face was suddenly puzzled. "You need to stop being nasty about my daddy. He loves us, and he takes care of us."
Her grandmother now looked a little mad. "Your mother has surely taught you not to speak to grownups like that."
"Your mum should have taught you that if you can't say anything nice about Daddy, you shouldn't say anything at all," Victoria shot right back. She was tired of saying nothing, and it felt really good to be able to do something, even if it only made her grandma mad at her. Victoria might not be able to go rescue her parents, but maybe she could make Grandma Ariel be nicer when they got home.
The expression on her grandmother's face was a mix of outrage and shock. Victoria didn't care.
"That's enough," Grandpa V. H. said quietly but very firmly. "Both of you," he added when Grandma Ariel turned toward him to say something in return. "Victoria's right, Ariel. Casey's been very good to our daughter and our grandchildren, so cut the man some slack."
"I assume you meant Casey when you said someone's beacon had been tripped," Grandma Ariel said. Her voice didn't sound angry, but she still looked it.
Grandpa V. H. studied Victoria a minute. She was afraid he was about to finally send her back to her room. He sighed. "Yes." She could see he was trying to figure out what to say. Finally, he just said, "Diane will call when she knows more."
His phone rang again, and he answered it. He listened, and then he said, "Use your discretion, and keep me informed," before he hung up.
"Well?" Grandma Ariel had no patience, Victoria knew, and her question proved it.
"There was a small army waiting when they got to where Casey was told Mariah had been taken. They let all of them but Casey go. ISI and the FBI are working on a recovery plan." He looked at Victoria again. "The Bartowskis are on their way with your brother and Ellie." He hesitated, then added, "I suppose I better go tell Woodcomb."
Victoria went with him. She thought Uncle Devon might cry; Clara did cry. Uncle Devon was so obviously relieved to know Aunt Ellie was coming home, and while she was glad Jack was coming home, too, Victoria would rather her parents were with him.
They left Uncle Devon and Clara to get dressed. On their way back downstairs, Grandpa V. H. stopped her on the landing of the second floor. "Your parents are very resourceful, Victoria, and there are a number of very good people there to help them."
She stared up at him, wondered if he was going to tell her Mummy and Daddy would be fine or if he'd tell her the truth: that they might not be. She could tell he was worried, but Victoria decided she'd rather be told the truth than something that might be a lie.
"There's a good chance they'll be home soon," he said, "but there's also a chance they won't."
He watched her closely, like she might break or something, but Victoria wasn't going to break unless her parents didn't come home. Even then, she would have to be strong for Jack because he would be too young to understand what happened. She just nodded at her grandpa. He cocked his head, gave her a funny look, and muttered something about being her parents' daughter, then led her to wait in the living room they almost never used.
Because hardly anyone had used the front door since Jack was stolen, Victoria was surprised when Aunt Walker and Uncle Chuck brought Jack and Aunt Ellie through the front door. There were a lot of people shouting out there and a lot of flashing lights. Victoria figured the neighbors were going to be mad because it was still dark out and most people would be trying to sleep.
Aunt Ellie set Jack on his feet so she could hug Uncle Devon and Clara, whom Uncle Devon had brought downstairs.
Jack ran toward Victoria and asked, "Mummy?"
There was a lump in her throat. "Not here," she said quietly. Jack looked puzzled, but then he often looked that way. Victoria always thought it was because he was kind of dumb, but maybe it was just because he had expected their mum to be at home because she almost always was.
"Saw Daddy," Jack said and gave a firm nod. "Bit the man."
She frowned, thought at first that Daddy might have bit someone, but then she realized Jack meant he had bit the man who hit him. "Does it hurt?"
Jack looked a lot like pictures she'd seen of Daddy when he was really little, but the look on his face as he cocked his head to the side and thought really reminded her of their mum. "Some."
Taking her little brother by the hand, she walked him to the kitchen. The grownups were all talking to Ellie, asking her questions, so no one noticed when she took Jack to the kitchen. The first time their cousins let her play baseball with them, she'd taken what Daddy called a line drive to the face. He told her she was lucky nothing was broken, but it had hurt really badly. Daddy had given her a plastic bag full of ice wrapped in a towel and told her to hold it against her swollen cheek. She made Jack sit at the table and moved a chair so she could reach the plastic sandwich bags in the cabinet above the stove. Then she filled it with ice, sealed it closed, found a dish towel to wrap around it, and took it to Jack. She told him what Daddy had told her.
"Food?"
She didn't know how to cook, but she did know how to make a sandwich. Jack liked almond butter with strawberry jam best, so she found all the stuff, toasted a couple of slices of the whole wheat bread Mummy had made the day before, and then set the plate with the sandwich in front of him. Then she remembered Mummy always gave him milk to drink, so she got a juice glass from the cabinet and the milk from the fridge and gave him some.
Victoria almost reminded him to chew, but then she wondered if they had fed him at all given how fast he ate. She wondered, too, if he choked if she could make it stop. Jack was little enough she ought to be able to do that thing that made people spit up stuff they were choking on.
When he finished eating and finished the glass of milk, she got a paper towel, wet it, and wiped his face and hands before reminding him to use the bag of ice she'd given him. She rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.
"Woobie," Jack said, and he sounded kind of sleepy.
Victoria knew Mummy would make him take a bath before he went to bed, but Daddy would ask him questions first. Jack got really cranky when he was tired, so she debated a minute. She decided to ask questions and then skip the bath.
"He's in your room waiting," she told him. "Can you tell me about getting stolen?"
Jack shrugged. "Men took us."
"I knew that," she reminded him.
Her little brother shrugged again. "Big empty building."
She gave a hard sigh. "Knew that, too."
"The man was mad Daddy stole Clara back."
For just a second, Victoria stared in surprise. That was the most words she'd heard Jack string together in one go, and it was actually a sentence. Jack normally just talked in phrases. "I know that, too."
"Didn't see Mummy," Jack said. "Where she?"
Victoria chewed her lower lip. "With Daddy," she said, and she really hoped that was true.
Jack, though, shook his head and said, "No." He shook his head again. "Mummy not there."
That sounded pretty insistent. Victoria sighed. "Daddy's looking for her."
This time, Jack stared at her, and Victoria thought he was going to cry. She didn't want him to cry because she was pretty sure she would, too. "Want Mummy."
"Me, too," she admitted.
"Want Woobie."
Before she could respond, Grandpa V. H. came in. He stopped just inside the door and stared. "I see you're taking good care of your brother."
He made it sound like Victoria wouldn't usually, which kind of made her mad.
"Jack tell you anything?"
She shook her head. Grandpa V. H. tried asking Jack some stuff, but all her brother did was say again and again, "Want Mummy," in an increasingly angry voice.
"I'll take him upstairs," she finally cut in before Grandpa V. H. could ask another question. She'd seen Jack have a lot of temper tantrums, and he was right on the edge. Victoria figured none of them needed that at the moment. "He's tired."
Their grandfather nodded, but she thought he wanted to keep asking Jack stuff.
In Jack's room, he made a beeline for the bed and for Woobie. Victoria watched him clutch the stuffed dog, and decided he might as well get some sleep. She'd stay with him, make sure no one else did anything to him. She found clean pajamas in a drawer, made him take his clothes off and change, and then she turned back his covers and told him to get in bed.
"Want Mummy," he told her when she bent to pick up the bag of ice he'd dropped.
"Mummy's not here," she reminded him.
"Want Mummy. Want Daddy," he insisted.
"So do I," she admitted. "Maybe they'll be here when you wake up—kind of like Santa."
Jack's face said he wasn't going to bed. She sighed. "Come on, then."
He brought Woobie. Victoria led him down the stairs. They sat on the top one of the last flight where they could see both the front door and down the hallway to the kitchen. They could also listen to the grownups talk. Jack leaned into her, and Victoria wondered if he would go to sleep sitting there. She thought it might be a good thing if he did. They'd just wait there until their mum and dad came home, and then Daddy could carry him up to bed.
Victoria might have fallen asleep because there were suddenly a lot of loud voices downstairs, and she was relieved to hear that one of them was Daddy's. Victoria sagged when she then heard Mummy's. If Jack hadn't been asleep against her, she would have run down to see them. Instead, she sat where she was and waited. The rest of the family was down there, so it took a while to make the explanations. It sounded like Ilsa and the man in the Paddington Bear coat had helped Daddy escape.
What surprised her was that no one asked why Mummy had been stolen—and no one said, either.
After a while, Daddy led Aunt Ellie into the entryway and stood below where Victoria sat with Jack.
"How much have you done with your dad's research?" Daddy asked Aunt Ellie.
She crossed her arms. "I should pretend I don't know what you're talking about, John."
"Your father took a look at what's in Riah's head once—or at least the designs for it. He told me that removing it was more dangerous than leaving it. Tonight made crystal clear that leaving it is actually far more dangerous to her. I'm going to ask again, Ellie: how much have you done with his research?"
Victoria held her breath, wondered what Daddy meant.
"I've studied all his files, all his research trying to understand Chuck," she said. "Between that and my work in neurology, I've got a better handle on the physical and biological parts of Dad's work than he had, though I'm not good with tech part. Chuck's better at that. Why?"
"Your father got the Intersect out of your brother's head once. Then the moron put it right back in. Think if I got you the information on what was done to Riah the two of you could manage the same for her?"
Victoria held her breath. She didn't want to let them know she was there, and she wanted to hear this because she wanted to know about the Intersect. Daddy had just admitted that Uncle Chuck really had one. It sounded kind of like Mummy did, too.
"I have no idea," Aunt Ellie said. "If Dad thought it was too dangerous, it probably is."
"Ellie," Daddy said, and there was a kind of urgency in his voice Victoria had never heard before, "what she has is far less benign than what Chuck has. It has to come out, or she's going to wind up dead."
"That's a little melodramatic, John," Ellie said, and Victoria thought she didn't sound like she believed Daddy.
"It's true," he told her. "Someone will order her death, Ellie, and that's assuming they don't simply drop her in a bunker to protect themselves. What happened tonight is the only other option, because as long as people know about this, they're going to try and get her. She needs that out of her head." Daddy reached out and took Aunt Ellie by her upper arms. "You're the only person I trust to look, to honestly tell me if it can be done."
Aunt Ellie sighed, pushed back her hair when Daddy let her go. "Okay. I'll take a look, but I make no promises, John. Chuck will have to look, too, because he might have to engineer something to make it possible to remove it."
Daddy actually hugged Aunt Ellie then and rumbled a "thanks" before they went back into the living room with the others.
Victoria sat and puzzled over what they said. It sounded like Mummy had something in her brain that might kill her, kind of like a tumor. That was bad, she knew, because she'd heard about people with brain tumors. Why someone would want to kill her for getting one, though, Victoria didn't understand. Maybe she was getting it all wrong because she was tired. That was probably it, especially since she was pretty sure the Intersect wasn't a tumor or Uncle Chuck wouldn't have put it back in his own head.
She wondered if she and Jack might get Intersects, if they were contagious or something, and she looked down at her little brother and wondered if that was why he'd been stolen.
As she considered whether or not to ask Daddy or Uncle Chuck that, her parents started up the stairs. Daddy had an arm over her mum's shoulders, and Mummy had an arm around his waist. They looked up, stopped a second when they saw her and Jack sitting there. Then Mummy rushed up the stairs and knelt on a step just below them. Daddy was right behind her.
Mummy stroked a hand over Victoria's head and cheek then hugged her close. She kissed Victoria, and then she looked at Jack's face. Mummy didn't look very happy about the bruise, Victoria saw. Mummy looked like that bruise might make her cry.
"Bed," Daddy said, and he reached down and scooped Jack off the floor. Mummy helped Victoria up.
"I fed Jack a sandwich," she told Mummy as they followed Daddy, "and I gave him some ice for his face."
Mummy smiled and hugged her close to her side. "Thank you."
"How come they stole you?"
Her mum looked down at her. Victoria watched her expression, wondered if she would tell her. Her mum's face was very serious when she said, "That's not something you should worry about, Victoria."
"It could happen again," she said.
"It could," Mummy admitted, "but a lot of things that could happen often don't. Let's not worry about it, alright?"
Victoria knew she would, though. She knew Daddy would and so would Grandpa V. H. She hoped Aunt Ellie could get whatever was in her mum's head out so she would be safe.
"Now," Mummy said as she steered Victoria inside Mummy and Daddy's room and closed the door while Daddy put Jack down on their bed. "About that Beretta your father bought you."
That, Victoria knew, was deflection. Daddy had told her it was a good strategy when she wanted people to get off a subject she needed to not discuss. She had a feeling Daddy had only meant her to use it when the spy stuff came up.
Daddy was the one who answered. "She's only allowed to touch it when I'm with her."
Mummy folded her arms over her chest and gave him her go on expression.
This time Daddy tried a bit of deflection. "How did you know?"
"You aren't likely to have a gun case with our daughter's initials on it." She dropped her arms and added. "I moved that case a couple of times in the gun safe before I noticed, so I opened it. You're not a fan of Beretta's, and you're certainly not in need of a 'child's first gun.'"
Since he was busted, Daddy apparently decided he might as well fully own up. He told Mummy why he bought it, explained the rules he'd given Victoria for it, and then praised her skill with it.
Mummy listened without interrupting, which was why, Victoria thought, he explained a lot more than he normally would. That was kind of Mummy's secret weapon. When she just looked at you and listened intently, you felt compelled to tell her more and more to get her to react, good or bad. When he finished, Mummy sighed. "She has her eye on a Ruger."
"How did you know?" Victoria demanded. Maybe the thing in Mummy's head let her read minds because she often seemed to.
"Learn to clear your search history when you use my iPad or my laptop," Mummy said.
"I want a SIG like yours," she told Daddy since her mum wasn't objecting to her owning the Beretta or lecturing Daddy for having bought it after she'd told him not to, "but they're kind of heavy. I'll have a wait a while."
Daddy shot a look at Mummy. "A long while."
"Can Santa bring me the Ruger—or maybe the Browning I've been looking at?" She gave him the big eyes, though it might not work this time. She'd mostly stuck to looking at handguns Daddy's Guns & Ammo said were good choices for kids, but she'd really like to have something with more firepower.
He looked at Mummy for several seconds before saying, "We'll see."
In other words, this time Mummy would get to make the decision. Victoria considered how best to convince her mother she was responsible enough for a new gun.
When her mum went to get a shower, Victoria looked at Daddy. "I heard you talking to Aunt Ellie."
Daddy watched her closely, and she got the impression he was trying to decide what to say.
"Is Mummy going to be safe? Will someone else take her away?"
As she watched him walk around the bed to where she sat, she reminded herself that Mummy said he wouldn't lie to her. Of course, Mummy also said he just wouldn't answer if it meant he'd have to. He sat down next to her. "Not if I can help it."
"What if you aren't here when they come for her?"
He looked really tired then. "That's possible," he admitted, and that scared Victoria a little, made her wish he'd lied or not said anything. "If Ellie can fix your mom, then no one will try. That's why I asked her what I did." He picked up her hand and held it. "Your mom's special, Victoria, and not just because of something in her head." She watched him as he tried to pick words.
When he said nothing else, she asked, "What Aunt Ellie's going to do to her won't change that, will it?"
"No," Daddy said, and she noticed he didn't even have to think about it. "It might change her, but it won't change how we feel about her, right?"
She nodded, mainly because she knew he expected her to. "You're not supposed to tell me anything, are you?"
He kind of laughed. "Anyone ever tell you you're too smart for your own good?"
"All the time," she admitted.
Daddy pulled her over and hugged her close, kissed the top of her head. "That's not a bad thing, Victoria," he told her, "but you're too young to get involved in things the way you did the last two days."
"But I helped," she reminded him.
His eyes met hers, and she could see the kind of worry he normally only gave Mummy there. "You did, and if you hadn't, it would have taken longer to get Jack back. However," and he stressed that word, "you could have endangered yourself and your friends by doing what you did, and those are not acceptable risks."
"No endangering civilians," she grumbled.
Daddy snorted. "Your mother's right," he told her. "You really do need to hear a lot less of what goes on around you." He let her go, stood up and moved to find clothes to sleep in. "On the other hand, one of these days you'll make a damned fine spy—if that's what you choose to do." He started toward the bathroom. "Watch Jack."
Her brother was in the middle of the bed, sound asleep. She watched him breathe and figured that would always be her job. Jack could apparently get into the kinds of trouble she never had.
As she watched, his eyes opened, and he blinked up at her. "Mummy?"
Victoria could heard the water running in the bathroom. "In the shower," she said, and she made a decision. "Tomorrow, I'm going to start teaching you stuff, like how to get away from grownups trying to steal you."
Jack blinked again, and after a moment, he nodded, turned on his side, and went back to sleep.
Brothers, Victoria thought. She'd have to hope he could control his body long enough to be able to do what she needed to teach him. Jack had held himself together pretty well, and sometimes he was pretty smart. She suspected he'd be easy to teach—if she could just get him to focus.
Victoria lay down on Mummy's side of the bed and listened to his snuffling breathing. Her own eyes got kind of heavy. She drifted off thinking that maybe the two of them could figure out how to help Daddy keep Mummy safe.
First, though, she had to find out exactly what an Intersect did.
