White Jade

Chapter Thirty

Back in the apartment she disappeared into the bathroom. Carter heard her running a bath. He poured himself a double Jameson's and sat down. His land line rang.

"It's Shelley, Nick."

His sister only called when there was a problem or she wanted something.

"We need to talk about Mom."

"How's she doing?"

"She almost set the place on fire yesterday. I went over there and she'd left the soup on the stove and forgotten about it. The pan was burned through, the kitchen was full of smoke and she was sitting in the living room watching TV. She hadn't a clue."

"I thought those new drugs were helping."

"Those drugs are a rip off, that's what I think. Two hundred and fifty bucks a month and you get burned soup. George says it's a crime, you can't even deduct it."

"The soup or the drugs?"

"Oh, that's real funny, Nick. You're not the one who has to clean up after her."

She started in about his general anti-social tendencies and lack of family responsibility. Never mind the money he sent to help out. Never mind the times he'd flown out to be with his mother and see if there was something he could do. Never mind that he cared about his mother more than Shelley did, in spite of her self-righteous indignation. He'd heard it all before.

He cut her off. "What do you want, Shel?"

"Want?" She was getting angry, like most of the times they talked. "I want you to get her into a home, someplace where people will look out for her. I can't do this anymore. George says it's time you took a bigger role."

Her husband, the accountant. Carter thought he was a pompous ass.

"And what does George think that is?"

"You should take some time off from that stupid job of yours and come out here and find a place for her."

Shelley thought Nick was a paper pusher, working for some obscure government department doing meaningless, bureaucratic things she didn't want to understand. He let her believe what she wanted.

"What does Mom want?"

"It doesn't matter what she wants. She's not competent to decide what she wants. What she needs is for you to step up to the plate."

Now she was into sports clichés.

"I can't come to California right now. How about you and George look for a place?"

That set her off. Carter held the phone away from his bandaged ear while she shouted. He walked to the counter and poured another drink. He thought about telling her where George could put his ideas.

While his sister was busy yelling he thought about his mother. She was in the early stages of the disease, not far enough gone to forget she had a house or where she lived. Most of the time, she still knew who she was. She also knew she was losing it. It upset her, a lot. Living in her house was important to her, even if Shelley didn't think so. It wasn't time to move her out, yet.

"Shut up for a minute, will you?"

She stopped mid-yell. He heard a deep silence at the other end.

"She doesn't need to be moved out. Get someone to move in with her, a live in helper."

"We thought of that. George says it's just putting off the inevitable, why not get it over with? Her house will bring a nice price on the market. It would pay for her care."

Now he understood the urgency. Good old George, a solution for everything, with a nice, tidy sum to go in his bank account. The whiskey won out over family harmony.

"You tell George to go fuck himself, Shelley. You get someone to look after her, someone competent, and I'll help out with the cost. But don't even think about putting that place on the market and pushing her out of there. You and that asshole you call your husband try it and I'll make a lot of trouble."

"You can't talk to me that way!"

"I just did."

He slammed the phone down on the counter. He poured another drink. He sat down, thinking about his sister.

His father had never gone after Shelley when he was drunk. She still defended him. It was one of the reasons they didn't get along.

He'd calmed down by the time Selena came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a soft, white robe and toweling her hair.

"Who were you talking to?"

"My sister. She called about our mother."

"What did she say? You were shouting."

"Nothing. I don't want to talk about it right now."

"See?"

"See what?"

"How easy it is to not want to talk about nothing?"

She tossed the towel, sat down on the couch and began combing out tangles in her hair.

After a moment she said, "The grenade thing got to me. Nothing's normal anymore. Last week I was giving a guest lecture at UCLA. Now Uncle William is dead, my car is wrecked, someone tried to kill us at least twice and I was drugged and betrayed by one of my best friends. Then you show me how to throw grenades. What the hell's going on, Nick?"

"You've landed feet first in a big pile of shit. Now you have to deal with it."

She stopped combing and looked at him. "You have a way with words."

"Would it make any difference if I sugar coated it? It's different for me. I was trained to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. You haven't had that training. The fact is you're a key player. You've got to go along for the ride and hang on."

He took a drink. "It helps to know you have options, skills if you need them."

"Like what?"

"Like knowing your weapons and knowing you can use them."

Selena put the comb down in her lap.

"I didn't mean to jump on you back there at the range. I didn't like the idea I might have to blow someone up."

"Nobody in their right mind likes the idea."

He wanted to put his arm around her. He didn't do it. He didn't want to start something she wouldn't let him finish.

"Yang hasn't had time to get people in there. We'll get in and get out. We're not going unless we know where the formula or the emperor or whatever is hidden. We'll be gone before he knows we're there."

"You really believe that?"

"It's the only way to think about it."

"At the house when those men were shooting at us, I wasn't thinking about it, I was just running for the river." She picked up her comb. "It wasn't until later I realized I could have been shot."

She ran the comb through her hair. "I heard what you said in Harker's office. I'm afraid I'll screw something up and get someone killed."

She was going, whether he liked it or not. Now wasn't the time to voice his doubts.

"You already proved you can act without screwing up."

"What do you mean?"

"The car, when the Chinese were chasing us. California. If you'd had a gun then you could have shot back. It helps to know you can shoot back. If you couldn't handle this, you wouldn't be going, language skills or not. Harker knows it. So do I."

"I asked to go, didn't I?"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Not everybody gets to jump into the Himalayas."

"You sound like a tour guide."

He was keeping it light, but he knew it wasn't going to be a mountain vacation, whatever else happened.

She said, "Doesn't it bother you? The people you've killed?" As soon as she said it she wished she could take it back.

"What the hell kind of a question is that? I've learned to put it out of my mind. It doesn't do any good to second guess myself." A headache started behind his left eye. "The people I killed were trying to kill me. Shit happens. So I don't feel particularly bad about it."

Except for that kid. He got up and went into his bedroom and shut the door.

Selena sat on the couch and watched the door close behind him.

What had she gotten herself into? Harker had asked if she'd be able to shoot someone. She'd said yes, but could she? Would she have to?

If the Emperor was really in Tibet, if somehow the Minoans had anything to do with that, she wanted to be there. It was the adventure of a lifetime. No adventure worth a damn was without risk. Risk didn't bother her. Killing people might.

Stupid of her, to say what she did to Nick.

Nick was a different kind of risk. What was she afraid of?

Carter was still awake when his door opened. Selena came in, slipped out of her robe and crawled into bed with him. She was naked.

"I'm sorry, Nick."

He turned to face her. "I thought you said it was too much right now. Sex. All that."

"I changed my mind."

She reached down and grasped him in both hands and felt him swell between her fingers. He stroked her face and moved his hand to her breast and kissed her.

Suddenly they were clinging to each other, their hands moving over each other, trying to meld into each other. When he entered she clenched her hands on his buttocks and drew him in as far as she could and wrapped her legs around him.

"Jesus, Selena."

"Nick."

Sleep came later.