Secrets (11 page)

Madame
Lalonde said not a word all the way to BB’s home. She sat, somewhat
stoically in the car, neither looking left nor right, occasionally
taking a deep breath and then exhaling, as if she were practicing
yoga to control her breathing.

As they turned
into the driveway, the garage door automatically rose and
immediately closed behind them. The instant that they began to walk
into the hallway, Sylvain ran to meet his grandmother, and with his
arm around her waist, he walked step by step with her down the
hallway into the living room.

He assisted her
to sit onto the couch and sat beside her. He left momentarily and
brought her some water, for which he earned a weak smile and a
merci
. Mike and Sonya took side by side armchairs and almost
the moment that they sat down, a matronly looking woman appeared
with what looked like a tea trolley. She handed everyone, including
Sylvain a glass of amber liquid and with a smile, left the
room.

Mimi raised her
glass. “With thanks for the help this night. We have achieve our
mission.” She took a sip of her brandy and swallowed, as did almost
everyone in the room. Save
Madame
Lalonde.

“After our
brandy, we have been request to retire. The Wizard and his Sorcerer
have much left to do, and will meet us here at 10:00 in the morning
after breakfast.” With a smile, she downed the rest of her brandy
and left the room.

The remainder
of the group climbed the stairs to their rooms. After everyone had
enough time to get to their rooms and close their doors, Sonya
quietly knocked on
Madame
Lalonde’s door.

To her complete
surprise, the door was opened by Mimi.
Madame
Lalonde waved
her in from her seat on the edge of the bed.

“Are you all
right?” Sonya asked, walking over to stand beside her landlady. For
the first time, she viewed
Madame
Lalonde in full light, not
in shadows. She appeared to have aged twenty years over the past
few hours. Her swollen face was dead white against the violence of
her bruises, and her eyes were rimmed red and puffy from tears.

Sonya’s glance
slid to Mimi, almost in accusation. “Is there anything that I can
do to help you?” she asked quietly.

Madame
Lalonde just shook her head. “
Rien, Chérie. Merci
. There is
nothing that anyone can do!”

“Lucien?” Sonya
stated, suddenly realizing that no one had mentioned him, and
feeling guilty for her immense relief about Bryan and her
selfishness in not having asked about Lucien.

“Lucien is
dead,
mort!
” Tears began to slide down her face again, and
Sonya held her as she sobbed.

Finally, Mimi
patted Sonya on the shoulder. “I can assist Lise,” she said,
obviously picking her words carefully. “Go to bed, Sonya, you need
to sleep. You will see Bryan in the morning.
Bonne nuit
.
(Good night)”
It was almost as if Mimi was kicking her
out.

As Sonya exited
the room, she glanced over her shoulder to see
Madame
Lalonde lean against Mimi and put her head upon her shoulder.
Relieved that theirs was not an adversarial relationship, she
closed the door. The lock clicked seconds later.

Tempted to fall
into bed, Sonya took the time to take off her clothes, fold them
and put them on the chair beside the bathroom. Despite her fatigue,
the events of the last few hours kept rewinding in her mind. She
kept trying to remember when anyone had mentioned that Lucien was
dead, but she was certain that no one had. Perhaps
Madame
Lalonde had been signalled separately.

Exhaustion won,
and Sonya was able to fall into a fitful sleep. She woke at 8:00,
hurriedly hit the shower and dressed. If she was to see Bryan this
morning, she would be looking her best. Taking special care with
her makeup, blowing her hair dry and leaving it loose the way he
liked it, she walked hopefully down the stairs and into the
kitchen.

Mike was
already there, sipping on his coffee and being fussed over by the
matronly housekeeper, who immediately poured coffee for Sonya.
Taking the coffee with thanks, Sonya sat beside her cousin.

“Some
interesting night, wasn’t it?” Mike stated without preamble.

“Yeah, it was
pretty surreal!” Sonya admitted. “I thought stuff like that only
happened in movies.”

“Me too,” Mike
admitted. “Now I sort of understand what John and Sara went through
when her dad was killed, and that guy held Sara and Ivan captive in
their own house. Boy, this makes that seem kind of tame!”

Sonya reached
for a piece of toast and began to butter it with strawberry jam.
“It does seem like some sort of a movie – not quite real, but
definitely in 3D. I wonder how Bryan is doing? It seems to be
taking a long time to be cleared by a doctor. By the way, did you
hear anything last night about Lucien?” she asked as casually as
she could.

“Now that you
mention it, no I didn’t. Have you heard anything about him?” Mike
asked through a mouthful of his own toast.

Sonya nodded.
“
Madame
Lalonde said last night after we went upstairs that
he was dead! I don’t know who told her that, but she was so upset.
Mimi was there too.”

“Oh, I didn’t
know! I’m so sorry for her, especially after my happiness that
Bryan was found all right,” Mike replied sincerely. “No wonder she
was so upset last night. Does Sylvain know?”

“Oh my God, I
am so selfish!” Sonya exclaimed. “All I could think about was how
happy and grateful that I was about Bryan, I never gave anyone else
a second thought. That poor kid!”

They both
looked up as Steve walked into the kitchen. “You two look somewhat
dejected,” he stated as he took his coffee and thanked the
housekeeper.

“Sonya just
told me that Lucien was dead.
Madame
Lalonde told her,” Mike
enlightened him. “I feel so bad for her and Sylvain, given that
this has a happy ending for us.”

Steve raised
his eyebrows. “Dead, she told you?”

Sonya nodded,
her eyes tearing. “She was so very upset. I don’t know what I can
do for her.”

“Why don’t we
wait until we meet with BB? I know he’s home, and it’s only another
half an hour,” Steve suggested. “He’ll give you as much background
as possible that isn’t classified. Can you wait?” he asked
pointedly.

Both nodded
affirmatively.

Mimi,
Madame
Lalonde and Sylvain walked into the kitchen.
Madame
Lalonde seemed to be in better control of her
emotions than the previous evening, and she sipped her coffee,
smiling at Sylvain’s silly banter.

Breakfast was
over and the group headed to the living room, looking forward to
what BB had to say. It surprised them to find the living room had
been turned into a meeting room. Chairs had been added, and a
screen had been pulled down from the ceiling somewhere.

Mike and Sonya
were directed to seats to the right in the first row, followed by
Madame
Lalonde, Mimi and Steve. Maurice sat at the far left.
Sylvain had been sent to do schoolwork in the library under the
watchful eye of the housekeeper.

People began to
file in, ordinary looking people, some young and some old, others
everywhere in between. There was no one in black clothing with
balaclavas. It could have been an ordinary business meeting. But
Sonya knew better. Now.

BB strode in,
very much in charge. “Thank you all for attending. I know how
difficult it is sometimes to get away. First, allow me to say
mission accomplished, thanks to the brave, hard working men and
women in this room! We are all grateful! MI6, MI5 and Interpol have
proven that we can work together to achieve a common goal.”

“For the
benefit of our guests, I shall give a brief overview and then ask
them to leave while I debrief our team with the classified
information. Is that satisfactory?” He raised his eyebrows at Mike
and Sonya and received their affirmative nods.

“Very well
then, I shall begin. We had two goals last night. One was to rescue
kidnapped citizens and the second, to flush out a traitor in our
midst that has eluded us until now. We were successful in both
respects. When you leave this meeting, Sonya and Mike, a driver
will be at your disposal to take you to the hospital where Bryan is
being cared for. Do not panic, my dear, he will be fine. Our
operation was successful in rescuing him from his captors."

"Secondly, we
succeeded in flushing out a traitor who has eluded us in the past.
He and his second in command, as well as several of their soldiers,
also associated with us until now, are incarcerated as we speak. We
spent some time last night debriefing them and will continue same
after this meeting.”

BB took a deep
breath and his laser like eyes locked upon
Madame
Lalonde.
She met his stare and locked onto it with the same intensity.
“C’est nécessaire
, (
It is necessary)
” was all she
said.

“Understood,”
BB replied in a quiet voice, his eyes still holding hers. “But, it
is my profound sorrow to cut you this deeply. You have been loyal,
brave and a wonderful example to those of us in this room for
decades. You make me proud to be your associate.”

Madame
Lalonde’s eyes filled with tears and she nodded gracefully, not
saying a word.

BB turned his
glance towards the room. “The rogue in our ranks, the traitor that
has endangered all of us and the Crusade mission, made his move
last night. There is no question, there is absolutely no doubt.
That traitor is Lucien Lalonde. And his lieutenant is Grégoire
Benoit.”

Utter silence
pervaded the room. Not a sound was heard save the shocked intake of
breath. And then the buzz of whispers began.

“Please,” BB
requested, raising his hand for a second. “We have much information
to cover and if there are questions before we leave to continue our
interrogation of the traitors, either Maurice or I will answer
them. Acceptable?”

As there were
no objections, BB continued and activating a laptop, he brought up
a file. A large, contemporary painting sprang to life on the large
screen in the front of the meeting.

“This is one of
a series of paintings associated with the Crusade. It was part of
the shipment that was intercepted. We knew that someone in our
midst had leaked information to the cartel, and the mission was
declared a failure.”

Sonya took in a
deep breath. She knew that painting! It was one of the series that
had been on the memory card from their computer. Another example of
the same series of paintings showed up on the screen. Slowly, her
hand went to her mouth.

BB’s laser gaze
noted her reaction. “Sonya,” he began. “Do these paintings mean
anything to you?” he asked.

“May I speak to
you privately for a second?” she whispered.

“Maurice, would
you please continue the debriefing?” he requested, walked over to
Sonya and holding her elbow, escorted her out of the room and down
the hall into what seemed to be an office. He sat her down in a
chair and pulled another to sit directly opposite her.

“What do you
know about these paintings?” he asked, hoping not to appear too
threatening.

“Nothing! Other
than this,” Sonya replied, pulling out her cell phone from her
pocket and popping the memory card. “This was our extra memory
card! Bryan put it into my computer in case we ran out of memory on
the camera. The painting you showed is on this card. Others too!
And people as well. Grégoire was the only one that I recognized.”
She said all of this without taking a breath, stopping only because
she had no choice but to breathe.

BB’s eyes
literally gleamed like two ice diamonds. “May I?” he asked
politely, holding his hand out for the card. Sonya gave it to him
without hesitation. While he was loading it into his notebook, he
casually spoke again. “What prompted you to put this card into your
cell phone?”

“Well,” Sonya
replied honestly, “I had no idea that it existed, but when Bryan
was kidnapped, I was looking for any clue where he might be, and
opened the card in the computer. The paintings weren’t his usual
type, but they were his style. Then I got the text that said to
bring the camera. The people at
Madame
Lalonde's were
looking for a memory card. So I thought it was probably what they
were after and it could be a bargaining chip.”

“Ah,” remarked
BB impassively. “Did it ever occur to you to come to Steven or to
me?”

Sonya shook her
head. “I didn’t know who I could trust by then, so I trusted
me.”

BB actually
threw back his head and laughed. “I find no fault with your logic,”
he admitted. “Very interesting,” he remarked, viewing the now
opened card. “This will help a great deal with our interviews,” he
finished. “Is this the only copy?”

“No, it’s not,”
Sonya admitted. “I made a backup copy on my computer. In case.”

“In case what?”
BB was still smiling.

“I don’t really
know. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, in case the card
got lost or damaged,” Sonya was honest.

“Very valid
thinking,” BB replied. “Are you certain that you don’t want to
become a spy and save the world?”

Sonya’s shocked
look spoke volumes and BB burst out laughing again. “May we erase
the copy on your computer?” he requested. “I shall ask Steven to do
it.”

“Sure,” Sonya
replied, “I don’t need or want it. But can we ask Bryan first? It
is his work and photos.”

“
Monsieur
,” someone interrupted from the doorway. “The car
is here.”

“Thank you.
Sonya, I shall send Mike out to join you. Thank you, and give our
regards to Bryan.” BB ejected the memory card, slipped it into a
plastic sleeve and left to return to his meeting.