Deadly Weakness (Gray Spear Society) (26 page)

"You're giving up?"

"It's for the best," Hanley said sadly.

Rosecrans sat on the bed with him. "How did they get to you? Did they threaten your family?"

"They just explained what's really going on."

"You're being very coy."

"I'm sorry," Hanley said. "You deserve better. I have one more thing to tell you. The Gray Spear Society wants you to retire. You need to go away and pretend none of this happened."

"Not a chance." Rosecrans said.

"They'll pay you."

Rosecrans' face turned red. "I won't be bought off. I'm offended you would even suggest the idea."

Hanley stood and began to pace back and forth. He wasn't sure how to resolve this situation.

"You're walking a lot better," Rosecrans said. "No limp at all."

"They had a doctor treat my knee."

"Is that why your pants are cut off?"

"Yeah," Hanley said. "He did a great job."

"Didn't you have a lot of scars before?"

Hanley looked down at his perfect knee. "Must be the lighting in here."

Rosecrans narrowed his eyes.

"Listen," Hanley said, "the Society thinks you know too much. As a favor to me, they're willing to let you walk away, if you can keep your mouth shut. I can't make it any simpler than that."

"Otherwise, they'll kill me?"

"They know where you live. They know everything."

"I have a lot of powerful friends in Washington," Rosecrans said. "They can protect me."

Hanley remembered Ethel's eyes. "Not a chance. You know I'm a straight shooter. If I'm telling you this is the right choice, you can trust me. How much money do you want? You're being offered a comfortable retirement."

"I already told you I won't be bought off. I'll fight to the end."

"I'm trying very hard to save your life."

"Maybe I don't want to be saved by a defector like you," Rosecrans said.

"I'm not a defector!" Hanley said. "I just know the truth."

"What truth?"

Hanley remembered the sign he had seen near Camp Zonta. He hadn't really understood it before, but now it made perfect sense. "There are places ordinary men should never go," he said softly. "Things they shouldn't see. Roads they shouldn't travel."

"What are you saying? I'm an ordinary man, and you're not?"

Hanley rubbed his tired eyes and nodded.

"To Hell with you. The mission wasn't the only thing compromised tonight. We'll deal with this properly when we get back to Washington."

Rosecrans walked out of the room and slammed the door.

Hanley lowered his head. "Fuck."

Chapter Fourteen

Xavier opened his eyes. He wasn't dead yet, which came as a pleasant surprise. It always did.

Sampson was snoring in the next bed. He was like a big puppy dog sometimes. He was so friendly and energetic it was hard not to like him. Of course, his credulity was the attribute Xavier valued most these days. Sampson wasn't a stupid man. He just never asked smart questions.

Xavier silently slipped out of bed and used the bathroom.

By the time he was done, Sampson was stirring, "Sir, what time is it? Did I miss breakfast?"

"Always hungry." Xavier smiled. "No, it's right now. Let's get there while it's still hot."

Sampson jumped out of bed.

Xavier put on his formal robes. Proper attire was required in the dining room, even at breakfast. He strapped on his weapons and zipped up his heavy outer coat.

He had to wait a minute while Sampson also got dressed. Finally, they were ready and went outside.

For some reason, the morning air wasn't quite as frigid today as yesterday. Maybe Xavier was just getting used to it. They quickly trotted over to the main building and went straight to the dining room.

He inhaled the aroma of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. He had to give credit to Aaron for one thing. The man knew how to feed his guests.

Xavier noticed a piece of paper by the door with the title "Legate Meeting Schedule." Every attendee at the convention had a time beside his or her name. Xavier was scheduled for 5:00 in the afternoon, almost the last meeting on the list. He didn't have any other obligations, which meant he could spend the day pursuing his own agenda.

His top priority was determining his real location. There had to be clues somewhere in the camp. He just needed to be very observant and methodical.

Breakfast was served buffet style. He and Sampson grabbed plates and filled them with food. After not eating dinner last night, Xavier was particularly hungry. They sat together at a table in the corner.

"What do you think of the convention so far, sir?" Sampson said around a mouthful of eggs.

"Very relaxing," Xavier said. "It's been much more of a social gathering than a business trip."
For some.

"Maybe the legate just wanted everybody to get to know each other."

"If that's true, she certainly accomplished it. We've had little else to do."

Two other commanders came to the table. Xavier recognized one as Yule from his giant cat eyes. Xavier wondered what he would look like with normal eyes. The other man was the commander from Manhattan, but Xavier didn't remember his name.

"Mind if we join you?" Yule said.

"Please," Xavier said.

They sat down, taking the other two seats at the table. Their very full plates indicated they planned to stay a while.

"I'm sorry," Xavier said, "but I can't quite recall your name."

"Hector," the commander from Manhattan said. "You're Xavier and Sampson, right?"

"Yes, sir," Sampson said eagerly.

Hector looked old, even older than Ethel. Xavier had to respect a man who could survive that long in the Gray Spear Society.
Legionnaires
had an average life expectancy similar to a goldfish. Replenishing the ranks was a continuous process and a pain in the ass for every commander. Each cell was supposed to have ten people in total, but most were short at least one.

"Do you have plans for the day?" Hector said. "Aside from your meeting with the legate, of course."

"I heard Aaron will be running paintball battles in the woods," Sampson said. "I'll probably do that. We'll have to be careful about the booby traps though."

"I'm sure he has a safe area marked off."

Xavier couldn't stop himself from glancing at Yule's eyes. The pupils were vertical slits as large as camera lenses. When he blinked, his eyelids slapped together and made a tiny popping noise.

"What about you?" Hector asked Xavier. "Any plans?"

"Not really," Xavier said. "I'll probably get bored at some point and try my hand at paintball, too. Until then, I'll just enjoy a relaxing morning. It's strange being away from headquarters with nothing to do. This is what a vacation must feel like."

"It's a shame we can't have conventions more often, but the risks are too high."

"Risks?"

"God's enemies don't take a break just because we're all away from the office," Hector said. "And having so many Society members in one place creates a very big target. It's a situation that invites mischief. What do you think of the security here? Is it adequate in your opinion?"

Xavier shrugged. "Hard to say. The security measures are unobtrusive to say the least. At a minimum I would've expected patrols in the woods, but I don't think there are any. Aaron seems to be relying exclusively on surveillance, but where are the cameras? To be honest, his attitude strikes me as excessively casual. I'm surprised the legate hasn't tightened things up."

"I think the people are the security. Working together, we could repel almost any kind of attack."

"That's true." Xavier nodded. "And it's only for a weekend. I can't complain about a lack of weapons."

They ate in silence for a while. When Sampson went for seconds, Xavier took his chance to depart. He spoke a few polite words to Hector and Yule, and left the dining room.

Xavier walked down a hallway in the large main building. He was looking for clues, but he didn't have a particular destination in mind. He saw offices, classrooms, and meeting rooms on either side. His footsteps were silent on the tile floor. He had never been to a summer camp, but this one was probably a very good one.

He noticed a small library and went inside. Old, worn books were packed into shelves low enough for a child. Frost covered the large windows. There were two tables with enough seating for ten kids.

He grabbed a book at random and opened the cover. A stamp on the inside read "Property of Camp Zonta." The ink looked suspiciously new though. Somebody hadn't done a careful enough job, which gave him an idea.

He started looking behind and underneath the furniture. Eventually, he found a children's picture book tightly wedged behind a shelf. It had obviously slipped back there and had been forgotten. When he opened this book, he discovered "Property of Camp Diniyoli" written inside the cover. He smiled.
Bingo.

The library had a dusty old computer on a desk. He turned it on and waited impatiently for the long boot process to complete. Finally, he was able to get to the internet.

He typed "Camp Diniyoli" into the search bar, and no hits came back. He sighed in frustration.
Aaron's hackers are good,
Xavier thought.

He went back into the hallway and looked around. He spotted an office. The door was locked, but some quick work with his lock picks fixed that.

Inside, there were two desks with old phones on them. He rifled through the drawers until he discovered a phone book. It was three years old but that didn't matter. He flipped through the pages and found the listing for Camp Diniyoli. It included an address.

Feeling excited, he took the address back to the computer. He tried several map sites, but all of them refused to take the address. Still, he had enough information to call Hanley.

Xavier checked the hallway before taking out his secret black phone. Hanley answered after three rings.

"Hanley here."

"What is my color?" Xavier said.

"Gray."

"What is my weapon?"

"A spear," Hanley replied in a tired voice.

"Who am I?"

"The commander of Houston. What's going on? Do you have new information for me?"

"Indeed," Xavier said proudly. "I found out where I am. Camp Diniyoli." He read the address.

"Hmm."

"What?"

"I don't think I can use this information," Hanley said. "I'm already in the process of sending the entire Unit home."

"Why? You can still attack tonight. We're here until Monday."

"Last night was very expensive in a lot of ways. Both of us lost credibility. It's going to take some hard work for me to rebuild my reputation. I can't risk another embarrassing failure right now. And we lost nine good soldiers."

"How?" Xavier said. "Didn't you leave when I told you to?"

"No, we had to check out the bomb damage. We were worried about civilian casualties."

"You idiot! That place was probably littered with traps."

Hanley sighed. "Yes, it was."

"You're damn lucky you only lost nine guys."

"That was about half the guys I went in with. I don't feel so lucky."

"I'm surprised anybody survived," Xavier said.

"And the budget for this operation is spiraling out of control. I just got off the phone with the bean counters in Washington. They wanted explanations in writing, signed by me."

"Where are you now?"

"Milwaukee," Hanley said. "We're in the middle of checking out of our hotel."

"I understand your concerns, and they're very reasonable. But I have a good feeling about tonight. The Society thinks they got us yesterday, which means they won't expect another attack. This could be a huge career win for you."

"Last night was a huge career loss. I put my neck on the line for you, and my neck got chopped off. When you told me about this convention, you warned me it smelled fishy. I should've listened. We have to go back to the original plan. We'll take down the cells one at a time."

Xavier frowned.

"Atlanta is still the next target, right?" Hanley said. "I just have to push back the schedule a few weeks. I need time to reload. I don't even want to think about how much paperwork is waiting on my desk. And the damn meetings. My schedule is already packed full for the next week."

Xavier shifted his weight back and forth with frustration. "OK. I suppose we took our shot yesterday and missed. At least we're both still alive. That's a good outcome, all things considered. Keeping my head down for the rest of the convention is probably the smartest choice anyway. Once I'm home, I'll have more freedom to operate."

"Call me again in two days. By then I should have a better idea of the schedule going forward, and I'll be in a better mood."