Tedd and Todd's secret (39 page)

"That's good, Tedd," Todd said, "because we've come to see her."

"Are you talking about me?" Carol asked, standing up and walking over to their table.

"Remember that we're in a hurry, Todd," Tedd said. "Tell our dear reporter here that we're not satisfied with her intention to publish details of our activities."

"First, we have to thank her for her collaboration, Tedd," Todd replied. "Tell her how pleased we are that she found a use for the information we sent her. She passed it on to Aidan exactly as it was given to her."

The conversation surprised Carol. Aidan hadn't mentioned anything about their strange way of talking. The worst thing she'd found out so far was that it had been them who'd sent the envelopes. That meant that Tedd and Todd had wanted their legal activities to be discovered, and for the information to be passed to Aidan.

She suddenly felt a stab of fear in the pit of her stomach.

"You don't want anything published about you? Is that correct?" she asked, sure that this was the reason for their presence in the cafeteria.

"At least she's understood part of the message, Tedd," Todd said.

"But that's not enough, is it, Todd?" Tedd frowned. "Not publishing anything is only the beginning. Now everything has to go back to where it was before."

"Which means we have to take measures, dissuasive measures, Tedd."

"Exactly, Todd."

"Is there a parade of models somewhere around here?" a fireman asked, unwinding the hose.

"Worry about the fire and leave your fantasies for later," his companion said.

Another fire engine arrived and the firemen spread out along the street. The captain studied the burning facade of the art gallery carefully, evaluating the best way of controlling the fire. A crowd of onlookers observed the flames surging into the upper floors of the building.

"They're not fantasies, idiot. Look!"

The firemen stopped what they were doing and stared in amazement at the striking image that had surged out of the crowd. A beautiful woman around seven foot tall, dressed in an elegant white dress, was striding towards the gallery. Everyone rubbed their eyes in disbelief when she walked into the flames as a section of metal grating collapsed. A fireman tried to stop her but he was driven back by the heat of the flames.

Helen White crossed the inferno and found a tall man propped against the back wall, holding a piece of material over his face, coughing uncontrollably. Helen helped him to his feet, leading him along the wall to a large metal door that was closed. She kicked it down effortlessly and helped the man into another room. She was dragging him more than helping him walk now. They stopped at another door, which she kicked down just as easily, and then they were back in the street.

Outside, she had a better look at the man whose life she had just saved and gasped in surprise. It was the same policeman who had been in her house that morning. It was obvious that he knew who she was too, judging by the expression on his face.

"What are you doing here?" Aidan asked, as he greedily gulped the cleaner air.

"It looks like I came to rescue you," she said unconvincingly.

Aidan didn't understand anything. She was the white queen; she shouldn't be here unless someone had changed squares.

"How did you know I was about to be fried in there?"

"I don't know. My new house is in that building on the fourth floor. I felt like I had to enter and…"

Helen stopped in the middle of the sentence, frowned, and spun around just in time to avoid the thrust of an enormous sword. The giant blade cut through the space where she had been an instant before. It was an impressive weapon, at least five foot long, and the man holding it, a thin man with sparse brown hair, didn't look capable of lifting a sword as big as that.

The attacker made another thrust which Helen barely dodged. The steel blade cut a car in two with amazing ease.

Aidan Zack could do little more than look on. He was still dizzy from the smoke and in the back of his mind he remembered the warning about not getting involved. A few seconds later, he was stunned to see the sword go right through the centre of Helen's breast. She died a few yards from him and now he couldn't hold his fury back. His mind tried to convince him that Helen had only been a white queen but his emotions told him something else. A woman he knew had been killed in front of his eyes, and he hadn't lifted a finger to help. He stared into her killer's eyes and for an instant panic invaded him.

The man wasn't a Black. He was brown haired and didn't seem like any of the rest. What was happening? If this man wasn't a piece then his chess theory had to be flawed. But Tedd and Todd had confirmed its existence. Then he knew who the man was.

"You're Otis, aren't you? The black king."

"Do you know how the match is going?" Otis asked, hardly believing what he was hearing. "Who are you?"

"My name is Aidan. Aidan Zack."

"Ashley's husband… But what are you doing in the middle of all this? Nobody can interfere with the match. Unless…"

"Why do you want to kill Ashley?" Aidan grumbled, rising to his feet. "Because that’s what will happen if you win, isn't it?"

"Excuse me? Don't you know what losing the match means?"

Aidan suddenly realized he hadn't the slightest idea about the meaning of this strange chess match. It was obvious that it was very profitable for someone. He himself was still alive thanks to the fact that Ashley had agreed to play. But the consequences of losing the match were unknown to him.

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me?"

"I cannot tell you that. It's better for you not to know. Don't get mixed up in it if you can avoid it."

"I'm already mixed up," Aidan replied. "I want to bring my wife back, that's all. You know where she is now. A chess player knows the exact positions of all the pieces at any moment. Tell me!"

"For God's sake, now I understand it all. Did Ashley know where you were at that moment?"

Aidan shrugged his shoulders.

"That's the only explanation for her moving the white queen: to rescue you from the fire."

"How do you know that?"

"I've been living on the fourth floor, I'm a chess piece, remember? And I've been in this square before. I know the place and, judging by your appearance, I am sure you have just escaped from the fire in the art gallery. I can see no other reason for Ashley to make such an absurd move. She brought the white queen here to rescue you."

"That's why you captured her." Aidan saw the trap clearly. The hand that had manipulated the extinguishers had not aimed to kill him, but to put his life in danger and force his wife to make a concrete move for an unknown reason. That was why Tedd and Todd took him out of prison. To use him for their own purpose and influence the chess match. "Had it not been for me, you wouldn't have captured the white queen. Why?"

"I am not sure yet, but somebody saved me," Otis said with a thoughtful expression. "Ashley could have put me in checkmate with one more move. I didn't understand why she hadn't done it yet, until now."

"Where is Ashley? You know. Please tell me where my wife is."

"I am sorry, I cannot," Otis said with a painful grimace. A black wheelchair, made of metal and wood and with a very high back, approached him, moving on its own. "The match is over."

He sat in the chair and disappeared, leaving Aidan alone with Helen's body.

CHAPTER 28

The nurse stepped back from the bed, frightened. In the last few months that she had been working for Wilfred, since he'd been diagnosed with cancer, she'd never seen him as bad as he was now.

"I told you, today there's no treatment!" Wilfred Gord shouted, pulling the drip off his arm.

"I… I'm only following the doctor's orders," the nurse stammered.

"I don't give a damn about the doctor. Everyone out of my room now, except you," he said to one of the men there. Wilfred's anger continued even with only one man in the room. "I pay you an indecent amount of money to be my personal private detective. Explain, if you can, what went wrong."

"He was on a bench seat in a park talking to a kid and an old man. But he just got up and charged off without any warning. I wasn't expecting that to happen."

"You know Aidan's impulsive at the moment. You should have been prepared for any contingency."

"I shot back to my car and I was on his tail for a few blocks. I'm a good driver, but I can tell you no one could have kept up with him. You would've had to have been a cross between a Formula 1 driver and a kamikaze pilot to keep up. He didn't respect a single sign, he went through traffic lights and stop signs, and on top of that he drove on the pavement for half a block. Check the hospitals – he must have caused a pile-up somewhere along the way."

Wilfred was impatient. "This is not helping me. I pay you to get results. You were supposed to be protecting him. And where is he now? Alone and out of control."

The sound of the door opening interrupted Wilfred's tirade. He had a perfect threat prepared for the detective who'd failed to fulfil his duty, but he didn't get to say a word as he stared at the strange boy entering the room. The child had violet eyes and was studying everything there was to see in the room. He'd left the door ajar as if somebody else was about to enter.

The muffled sound of feet being dragged along the corridor outside and the tapping sound of a walking stick suggested an old man. And when the figure appeared at the door Wilfred was surprised to see the same violet eyes in a much older face.

"Do you mind telling me who you are?" Wilfred demanded.

"It's them," the detective said. "The kid and the old man who were talking to Aidan when he took off."

"Thanks for waiting for me, Todd," the old man said, holding on to the child's arm.

"You know I'm here to help you, Tedd."

Their names! Wilfred heard them well. This strange pair was Tedd and Todd. He'd been looking for them for so long and now they'd just walked in of their own accord. Wilfred studied them carefully. But they were different to what he'd imagined.

"Leave us," he told the detective. "I want to be alone with them."

The detective was about to object, but noted the seriousness in the order and left.

"He's anticipated our wishes, Tedd," Todd said. "It's better to talk about certain things in private."

"He's done that because he's obviously intelligent, Todd," Tedd replied. "And someone we can do a lot for, given his condition."

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about," Wilfred said excitedly. "I'm suffering from–"

"He seems a little impatient, Todd," Tedd observed. "He has to calm down first."

"I'll ask him to do that, Tedd," Todd said. "But first he has to understand how our service works. We don't want someone to make a commitment without understanding the implications."

"Naturally, Todd," Tedd nodded. "You're always right. I suggest you start by asking him what chess means to him."

Aidan Zack made his way through the mass of journalists that filled the room, winding through their tables with no one paying any attention to his presence, until he came to Carol's desk. She was typing something very quickly and apparently hadn't seen him cross the room.