Page 6 of The Valiant (Spy Girl 4)
"So, who is Black X?" I wonder. "And why are they using Ares Von Allister's kids to do their dirty work?"
"I think it's a covert military group," Terrance says. "Think about it; you go to your uncle Sam's, and he's the one who sends you to Blackwood. But what I don't understand is how, after six years, they haven't figured out the truth?"
"Maybe it's because they still don't know what your mom did."
"That means Uncle Sam had to know my mother really well--as Kelley Bond and Charlotte Cassleberry. And he had to know about her relationship with Ares."
"Could he have been related to Kelley?" Ari wonders.
"No," Terrance says, "she was an only child."
"Did you spend much time with your uncle Sam?" Ari asks me. "Do you know his full name?"
"I didn't meet him until I was about ten. He and my mother seemed fond of each other. She always hugged him tightly. He was nice to me. Bought me a stuffed dog that year for Christmas. I lost it, um ... when the car blew up. My dad was acting strange after my mom died. Not just in mourning, like scared, which I guess he had good reason to be."
I'm saved from trying to remember anything else when Ellis brings us lunch. A ramekin next to my plate has two over-the-counter pain medications in it. I know they are supposed to be for my shoulder, but I'm hoping they will stop the pounding in my head.
After Ellis goes back up the elevator, Ari studies me. "How are you feeling--really?"
"I'm fine," I snap.
"Good, because I got a call from Dr. Kate. I'm supposed to let her know when you are ready for our next mission."
"I'm ready now," I say, texting Kate and telling her myself.
"Now that that's settled," Ari says, "Terrance has the photos from the locket printed up. We have double-checked your passports and want to go over that with you to see what you remember." I nod, indicating he should continue. "You and your mom went through immigration control in Montrovia as Charlotte and Calliope Cassleberry on May thirteenth and arrived back in DC on May twenty-eighth. So, we have a fifteen-day window."
"Wait. You said before that those passports didn't show any travel during that time frame."
"In our earlier passport search, it didn't come up," Terrance explains, "but we found note of it in a very scant but deeply classified CIA file we hacked into. We assume they hid where she had been because they were investigating the time before her murder. Based on the rest of the file, they never discovered the reason for the hit."
"But they didn't have the locket. We do," Ari states. "Do you feel up to looking at them?"
Although I want to figure this all out, I don't want to remember. I know it will hurt way worse than my physical injuries. "Before we do that, Ari," I say, stalling, "have you heard anything about a board of director's meeting for Von Allister Industries?"
"Uh, yeah. It's in a couple of weeks in London, and it happens to be the day before the British Grand Prix. Even though I plan to be in town for the race, I wasn't going to go to the meeting. We received a proxy to sign, giving the chairman of the board the ability to vote our shares."
"I think maybe we should go. Apparently, Mike Burnes, who tried to recruit me himself, talked to Daniel. Told him that certain military contracts are expiring, and the government wants an extension. I'm under the impression that Burnes is worried the board won't approve the request."
"How could we help with that?" Ari asks, looking confused.
"We own the company because we own the majority of the stock. No one can outvote us, just like they couldn't outvote our father."
"I was told Ares had sold the company before he passed. I'm sure that's what the attorney said."
Terrance swivels around to face his computer and types. "Nope, he simply liquidated a lot of shares. He used to own eighty percent, but he didn't give up majority. He--well, you two still control the majority at fifty-one-point-nine percent."
We're interrupted by the sounds of all three of our phones buzzing simultaneously with the same message.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
Discover what Kelley Bond learned before she was assassinated, infiltrate Marquis Dupree's organization, and continue to protect the Montrovian crown.
I raise my hand in the air with a grin. "I volunteer to continue to protect the Montrovian crown."
Ari and Terrance both roll their eyes at me, but I know it's my ticket out of here.
I stuff the last bite of my sandwich into my mouth and stand up. "And I should probably get to the castle immediately."
"Oh no, you don't," Ari says. "We've been working hard. Lorenzo pretty much threatened us with treason if we didn't wait until you were recovered to catch you up on everything."
"There's more than just the pictures?"
"Yes," Terrance says. "We worked with The, um ... Henri and The Bartender guy in an attempt to track the deposit they had been paid for the three hits. It was a dead end, but we're hoping to track the next wire transfer live."
"You already told me that after the car bomb in London," I sass.
"Fine. I'm trying to distract you." Ari takes my hand, helps me out of my seat, and leads me over to the wall with the photos. "We need you to look at this. I'll be right here with you."
I take a deep breath as Ari pulls a picture off the wall and hands it to me.
"This is you with the dog in Ares Von Allister's lab."
"Caliper."
"Try to remember the rest," he says softly.
I close my eyes, and somehow, with my brother tightly holding my hand, I manage to relax. "There were a lot of people working in the office, the labs full of men in white coats, huddled around stainless steel tables. There was classical music playing--Beethoven, I think. I was sitting on the floor by the dog. My dad was wearing a navy suit and complained about the dog's shedding, but he was petting her anyway. My mom was dressed in a striped blazer, collared shirt, and jeans. Also, I think this is the day we left for Montrovia. She's wearing what she always wore on flights. Her hair was up and recently dyed a dark chestnut color. The dog licked her face, and she laughed. She left me and Dad in the lobby with the dog while she had a meeting. Her meeting didn't last that long, and when she came out, she was carrying a file and seemed irritated."
Ari squeezes my hand, causing me to open my eyes.
"I wonder what was in the file," Terrance says.
"I would assume the stuff on the disk," I reply. "I'm not sure why, but I think we went directly to the airport from the Von Allister lab."
"Where did you go when you got to Montrovia?" Ari fires the question at me.
"I don't know."
"Do you remember anything?"
"When we got on the plane, she told me we were going on an adventure, that it was probably a wild goose chase, but that it would be fun. Like a treasure hunt."
"Okay," Terrance says with a sigh, handing me another photo. In this one, I'm standing in front of a sign that says, No Photographs. "Do you know where this is?"
"It's the jewelry display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London," I say. "I remember taking the sign as a bit of a challenge. I took a photo just to see if I could get away with it."
"What was the picture of?"
"I don't recall. It was more about the thrill of doing it."
"The morning the bomb went off, Terrance and I managed to hack into the museum's security tape recordings," Ari says. "We had hoped to see what your mom looked at there, but the tapes didn't go back far enough."
"So, that's another dead end," Terrance huffs. "Let's try this one. You are in front of what appears to be an old building, but because it's a close-up of you, we haven't been able to identify it."
"It's the Galleria Borghese in Rome," I state. "My favorite museum in the world. Of course, that might be because they made me study every work in it for my art history class."
"You studied just that museum? Why?" Ari wonders.
"I suppose because it's famous. Some of the greatest sculptures ever created are housed
there. And the stories of what went on back when they were created would now be called reality TV. Affairs, jealousy, corruption, and lots of conspicuous consumption and flaunting of wealth and privilege."
"What I think your brother is getting at is, you're like Wikipedia when it comes to some of this stuff," Terrance states. "The things you studied at Blackwood all seem to have been purposeful. Like, did you study American history? Or geology?"
"No, we didn't have the time for a full curriculum like what I suppose you had. We learned art, history, and classic literature. Chemistry and other sciences were taught only for practical reasons, like building different weapons using household products. Math was taught in order to do calculations relating to time, like how to count distance if you were kidnapped or how to figure the last moment you could pop a parachute and survive."
"I just find it interesting. Why that museum?" Ari studies the photos on the wall. "What if they were trying to get you to remember through your lessons?"
"Because they didn't know where my mom had been. I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
"Okay, whatever." Ari starts pacing again. "Huntley, based only on your vast knowledge of this particular museum, can you think of any reason you were there that relates to this case?"
