The Kaleidoscope (31 page)

“Oh, God, you didn’t get one of those smelly turtles, did you?”

“I got two. And I got a dog, too.” He winked at Pepper who breezed in smelling of fresh mown grass and the outdoors. “My…girlfriend’s.”

“Your wha…?” Georgia guffawed. “You don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Say hello to Georgia.” He held out the phone, but Pepper shook her head. “She’s a bit shy, but believe me, I’m in love with someone who gets me, Georgia. You should meet her. You’d like her.” He wrapped an arm around Pepper, who gave him a disapproving, but cheeky grin.

“Well, if she’s willing to put up with you, then you two must be a perfect match.” Georgia sounded resigned.

“Not sure what that says about you, but this is your final notice that you can’t make me feel bad for who I am any longer.” Harold was enjoying this. “Wait, though.” He considered what he was about to say, then went for it. “Pepper’s actually interested in something I think you two might have in common.”

Pepper mouthed, “What?”

“Georgia, are you still interested in trying to save St. Mark’s?”

“You know I am, that’s a beautiful building. It would be terrible if they tore it down to make a parking structure. The lot two blocks down is better for that—”

“I was just checking. Pepper’s got some skills your crusaders could use. I’ll have her call you. I think you two would be a good team.”

“What are you so busy doing, saving the world from cyber-viruses?” Georgia never had understood the very real threat of what hackers could do, given free rein.

“You could say that.” He told her he had to go, and hung up the phone. He grabbed Pepper into his arms. “See what I just did?”

“You put me in bed with your ex?” She nibbled his good ear and whispered into it. “We’d better hurry so we’re not late.” She thumped his chest. “We can talk about that bright idea later.”

“It’s perfect. She’s got connections with the neighborhood movers and shakers, and you’re excellent at making things happen. You two have a lot in common. For people who are completely opposite in so many ways.”

He mixed together the noodles and marinara sauce he’d spent the afternoon making from scratch. It would be a nice touch. Or their final meal if things didn’t go well.

“Get that technique from your management book? Throw two people together on a common cause and see who kills the other first?” she teased. “Poor choice of words. But you have a point.” She opened the door for him, his hands full of casserole. “Something needs to be done to save St. Mark’s.”

They arrived at the apartment complex’s party room where several guests already mingled around a sheet cake and a couple of trays of deli meats. They’d decided alcohol wouldn’t be appropriate for the day, but liters of soft drinks, plastic cups, and ice from the machine lined up along a table.

Keith and Frank arrived and set down a tossed Greek salad with the other potluck dishes.

“Everyone ready?” Stan came in after them, carrying a bag of ice.

Harold smoothed sweaty palms down his slacks, and Pepper grabbed his hand. “It’s going to be all right. Do you have your speech ready?”

Keith’s mom, Sybil, also arrived and while they were listening to her describe her mom’s recovery from knee surgery, Morrie came in. At the sight of him. Harold’s core temp skyrocketed, his hand began to shake.

“It’s time, Harry.” Pepper nudged him toward a small podium.

Harold guzzled a long draught of his lemonade and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, everyone. Thank you for joining us here. We’re celebrating a couple of things.” Though he was behind another podium, this time more than his job was on the line. “My friend, Rhashan, is celebrating his birthday.” He’d been out of work for several days with a bout of food poisoning, but now Rhashan appeared fully recovered.

Red plastic cup lifted and shaking so much he was glad it was almost empty, Harold watched Morrie from the corner of his eye. “And as many of you already know, my dad and I were recently reunited after being separated by unfortunate circumstances for a number of years.”

Clean-shaven, Walter looked ten years younger in new crisp shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. His hair had grown out, the dyed ends trimmed, and his natural color had turned out to be mostly the same deep red as Harold’s, except for the gray patches over his temples. He acknowledged the polite applause with a quick wave.

“Please enjoy yourselves to cake while Rhashan opens his gifts.” Harold stepped stiffly away from the podium.

Pepper giggled, “ ‘Enjoy yourselves to cake.’ We didn’t sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ ”

“I’m off my game.” Harold scrubbed his palms together. Speaking in front of groups was never one of his favorite things, but he couldn’t even walk straight considering what was about to happen, and what he wanted was an empty chair, preferably miles away.

Leesa began handing gifts to her husband, and they bantered and teased with the gift givers while he unwrapped as if it was a normal party. Some of the gifts were silly, others were thoughtful. Finally, Harold handed over the long slender box, wrapped and ribboned. He didn’t dare look around.

“This one began you on your new journey, and I want you to have it.” Harold forced himself to remain calm. “Rhashan saw himself completing his degree, and he’s on track now. I want him to have the object that directed him back to his dream.”

Rhashan beamed, and tore the paper off the box, then lifted the lid. “No kidding, mon, you want me to have the magic Kaleidoscope?” he asked rather loudly, and held it up for everyone to see. “This means the world to me, I will treasure it.” He brought it to his lips and kissed it reverently. “Such an unexpected surprise, thank you.”

“All right, everyone, we have another treat, if you’ll step outside.” Pepper gestured toward a bank of French doors that opened onto the patio. Beyond the swimming pool covered with floating candles, a small stage had been set up, and a Caribbean band, complete with steel drums, were poised to play. Chlorine mixed with the waxy smell of the burning candles, and Harold sneezed.

“Please enjoy an evening of dancing to the beat of Rhashan’s favorite band!” he said after everyone blessed him.

Harold’s hand in Pepper’s had gone clammy, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Dance with me, Harry!”

Over her gyrating shoulder on the small dance floor, Harold spied Stan, silently gesturing to a couple of men dressed in gaudy Hawaiian shirts who had hung back, and now gathered near the opposite end of the pool. All of a sudden, the three of them sprinted back into the party room, and Harold couldn’t stand it any longer. “I’ll be right back.”

Before he made it to the French doors, he heard, “Freeze!”

Harold stopped, heart pounding, then realized the command was coming from inside the building, so he crept up to the open door. Just inside, Stan aimed his piece directly at Morrie.

Morrie was dangling the Kaleidoscope out an open window. “Shoot and I’ll drop it,” he warned. In his other hand, he held up a remote device, waving it around. “I’ve placed a little present of my own somewhere in this building, and if I don’t get out of here safely—”

“He means it,” Stan ordered. “Hold your fire.”

Hawaiian-shirt guys lowered the pistols they were aiming at Morrie.

Before anyone could move, Morrie dropped the Kaleidoscope out the window, there was a commotion outside, tires screeched, then it was quiet again. “Oops. Sorry. Now back off, or I blow us all up!” Morrie gestured wildly with the remote control device and the officers had no choice but to let him pass.

“Everyone, back up!” Stan shouted at several of the partygoers who had crowded into the doorway, curious about the shouting. “Let him through!”

Someone screamed, and the seas parted while Morrie, arm raised, backed out, then was gone.

The officers bolted after him and Pepper ran in.

Stan shouted, “Harold, get everyone out of the building!” He stepped over to a fire alarm, shattered the glass with the butt of his pistol and pulled to activate the sirens.

“Glenda! I have to get Glenda!” Pepper pointed in the direction of her apartment.

Harold turned her toward the exit. “You get outside, and make sure everyone gets out of harm’s way!”

The alarm’s persistent, loud and annoying wail soon had doors opening and people watching, confused as Harold ran past them. “Get out! Everyone get out, there’s a bomb!”

A few people stopped in the hall, skeptical. But he shouted, “Remember Boston!” and they began running toward the exit. In a moment, Harold was fighting the exodus as word spread up and down the units. At Pepper’s door, he dug for his keys, but her key was still in his apartment.

He burst open the door, his good ear pounding from the screeching alarm that pierced inside his head the longer it went on. The room was dark, the power had mysteriously gone off and Harold had to feel his way to the kitchen and grope in the cabinet where he kept her key hanging inside the door.

Headed out, Harold froze when he detected movement out of the corner of his eye.

“So, Harold. I assumed you would be outside, cowering with all your friends, waiting for the big explosion.” Morrie stood in front of the window, his silhouette visible only when flashes from emergency lights strobed through the glass. The alarm wailed, punctuating his whiny voice.

“What are you doing in here?” Harold demanded, covering his good ear against the wail. “You got what you wanted. Leave us alone.”

“You think I care what happens to me now?” Morrie raised his pitch to be heard. “All my life it’s been my mission to complete what my father started. As soon as I get the word that the chip is in the Kaleidoscope”—he lifted his hand—“ka-blooey!”

“Why here, why my apartment?” Harold’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and Morrie’s features became more visible.

“It’s a perfect irony, don’t you think? I’ve been hoping to find the key to unlocking the inner workings of the US military system, and you, Harold, a nobody bean counter, were holding it.” His coffee-stained teeth appeared behind his smirk. “You should be honored.” The alarm began a different sequence of sounds, now emitting short bursts, further apart, but still loud.

His pocket burred, and Harold automatically checked the I.D. It was Pepper.

“Do not answer that,” Morrie ordered, his grin fading.

“Try and stop me.” Harold switched it on, shouting over the alarm, struggling to hear what she was telling him.

“The bomb unit is here, and they’re making us stay across the street!” Pepper sounded frantic. “Please, get out of there, Harry! Forget about Glenda, I just want you out, they’re going to shut off all the cell…”

It went dead, and Harold closed his phone and eyed Morrie. “How did you get in here anyway?”

“I have friends in many places.”

Harold kicked himself for calling a locksmith Morrie suggested after his place was broken into. “That Joseph guy isn’t really your cousin, is he?”

“I thought you were smarter than that.” Morrie snickered. “Poor Harold. You bought my story hook, line, and sinker.”

“Everyone except you and I are out of the building. Why don’t you just go ahead and get it over with? End this right now.” No sirens sounded outside yet, but Harold hoped emergency vehicles would soon arrive and block traffic from getting too close in case Morrie was stupid enough to blow them up. “I don’t believe that’s real anyway. You’re my friend, you don’t want to hurt me.” He’d try one more technique from his management book.
Appeal to a personal connection when a coworker seems threatened by you
. He started toward Morrie, but stopped when he opened his palm to reveal what appeared to be a hacked garage door opener.

“Believe me now?”

“Come on. Remember that time we watched all the
Dr. Who
episodes from season—”

A siren blared past, and Morrie jumped. Harold started over. “We sure had a nice time in Yosemite, and then in Fresno. Didn’t you enjoy those underground gardens?”

“If you like hiding from bears and sleeping on the ground. Oh, and getting shot at.”

“We were trying to help you find…” Harold stopped. That appeal was dead in the water. Buying time—he didn’t know for what—he began listing everything they’d ever done, from a few chess games, to the time they’d waited at a new Apple store for freebies together. Finally, he gave up. “You’re going to kill me anyway, so you might as well tell me what got you involved in all this. Just to satisfy a dying man’s curiosity.”

Morrie, or whatever his name was, studied Harold up and down. “My people have been following you for years. We knew eventually you’d lead us to your dad, and you finally did.”

“Why? What did he have that you wanted?”

“Don’t play the fool, Harold, it doesn’t become you.”

“So say he’s this genius who can revolutionize the world with his technology. But surely there are other people easier to find…” Harold suddenly knew. “You’re working for the people who killed my mother, and as long as he’s alive, and we can prove his innocence, then…” The irony, the implications made Harold’s head swim.”You’ve known the truth all these years. What’s in it for you? Is it money? You’re a terrible friend, as it turns out.”

“Yes, but soon I’ll be rich, and you’ll be dead.”

“It’s too late for you. You can hear the police surrounding the building just as well as I can.” Harold held out his trembling hand, but changed to the other one. It wasn’t much better. “Give me that and I’ll tell the DA you gave up willingly. What do you say?”

“Not so fast.” Something flashed behind Morrie’s expression, his complexion lighting and dimming as the beacons from emergency vehicles outside swept past. “As long as I hold this, I hold the marbles. Not until I get word that the chip has what we need.” He pulled out his own cell, and checked the face. Frowning, he lifted it in the air, the universal sign for “I’ve got no bars.”

“Who are you working for? What do they want with the AI technology?” Harold knew he wasn’t going to receive any call, and he might as well find out what he could while he had the chance. “It’s the Russians, right? You got tangled up with them and they offered you a pretty mail order bride—”

“Not the Russians. It’s bigger than that.” Morrie’s upper lip trembled as he punched buttons on his phone. “Don’t you know the porn industry has been aching for this technology for years?”