The Last Minute

88

The Nursery

‘Leonie.’ My glance kept flickering between the gun and the baby. ‘What are you doing?’

She wept, tears bright on her cheeks. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t let you take him.’

‘That is Daniel. Where is your child?’

She glanced at Daniel. He cooed and moved against her, gently. As though he knew the smell of her skin, the swell of her breast.

I shook my head. ‘No. No.’

‘He’s mine. I’m all he’s ever had, all he’s ever known,’ she said. ‘He’s not yours any more. His name is Daniel Taylor Jones. I sometimes call him Dat. Like in a peek-a-boo game, I go who, then I go dat, and he laughs.’ Fresh tears, but her mouth curled into a twist of resolve.

‘He is my son,’ I said and she steadied the gun. ‘Okay, okay,’ I said. I raised my hands. ‘Leonie. We can talk about this.’

‘No. No talk. I am leaving. With my son.’

‘The child in the picture you showed me… ’

‘That was my first child. My daughter. I had to leave… Ray Brewster when I got pregnant. I didn’t want him to be the father. He wouldn’t have let me be tied down with a child; in case I ever had to run with him. Children complicate everything. So I went.’ She steadied her voice. ‘I would have liked… someone like you, Sam, I so don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to. I will keep him safe in a way you can’t, not with the life you lead, the enemies you have. So move to the wall, and keep your hands up, and let me leave.’

‘What happened to your daughter?’ As long as she was talking, she wasn’t shooting me or leaving.

‘She died. She died.’ And I thought the grief would make her body fold. ‘Meningitis. It takes them so fast. She… I had done work for Anna. On the babies’ new identities. She gave me Daniel. She said… he could be mine. A replacement, but he’s not. I loved Taylor just as she was, she was the greatest, Sam… oh, God… ’

‘I bet she was.’ My own face felt hot and heavy. ‘Leonie, please.’

‘… but… but she gave me Daniel and I love him just as much… ’ her voice broke to a whisper. ‘And you are not going to take him away from me.’

I could see how Zviman and Anna had planned this ending. I, the ex-CIA, killed Jack Ming, the one man CIA Special Projects wanted more than anyone else. Then I died, at Leonie’s hand, when my defenses were down, when victory was in my grasp. Leonie as a partner would ensure that I would not betray or move against Nine Suns, and, if I did, she had every reason to kill me.

Leonie would have a bigger motive for wanting me dead than anyone in Nine Suns. I could take away the thing most precious in the world to her.

‘Give me my son,’ I said. I opened my hands toward her.

‘He isn’t yours. I’m his mother. I’m the only mother he’s ever known. That… that… traitor you married, she gave him up, she gave him up… ’

‘I never did,’ I said. ‘You know how hard I have fought to find him-’ And then I heard it.

‘You!’ she screamed, and the sympathy she seemed to feel for me turned instantly to venom. ‘I have fought a thousand times harder… ’

I raised a finger to my lips. ‘I heard something. Downstairs. Someone’s here.’

She shook her head. ‘You’re trying to scare me or trick me… you want to go down there and get a weapon because I’ve got the gun… ’

‘Leonie!’ I hissed. ‘ Someone is downstairs.’

She shut up, my tone slicing through her fury. Listening.

I held out my hand for the gun. After a moment she stepped forward, hand shaking, and gave it to me.

‘Hide,’ I whispered. And she nodded, my son gurgling against her shirt. I looked at him for one second. His eyes met mine, his little mouth parted and a spit bubble formed and burst like a flower given a five-second life. I have never wanted to hold another human being so badly in my life.

Instead I checked the gun for the remaining clip and I eased onto the mezzanine.