Garret's Gambit by Dale Mayer (book club books .TXT) 📗

“Was Gregg laughing, joking, angry?”

“No, it was more like an ‘Okay, so Bullard’s in it,’ or whatever.”

“Is that what he said?”

“No,” she said. “He didn’t say that, but it was something like that, and that was the tone of the conversation.”

“Right, so nothing to give you any kind of feeling about it?”

She shrugged and said, “No, I didn’t spend any time on it. I knew his work was dangerous, and it was his stuff, so I didn’t get involved.”

Her tone was suddenly morose, realizing that she should have, over the last three years, gotten a little more involved. But Garret could hardly blame her. As it was, he knew perfectly well that his brother was really good at keeping people out of his life. That’s how they worked and lived. It was part of the job. He glanced back at Astra and murmured, “We need to know everything.”

She nodded and settled back with her sister.

He turned and looked out the front windshield, one ear listening to the conversation in the back. But they’d already turned to discussions about the baby.

“Did you pick out a name?”

“No,” Amy said. “That’s something I was hoping to do with Gregg.”

Her sister’s voice broke, and he heard the authenticity of emotion threading through Amy’s tone. If nothing else, she may actually love Gregg. And, for that, he was grateful. Because it would really be terrible to think she was screwing Gregg over too. Garret had already asked Amy if the baby was actually Gregg’s, and, despite her claim it was, Garret still doubted her word. It was hard for him to not consider it, considering what she’d done to him. But this wasn’t the time or place. He found it interesting that Astra had as much patience with her sister as she did.

Chapter 7

Astra wasn’t part of the same shadowy underworld as these guys. At least not in the real world. Thankfully she was at least one step removed from the dirty details of her job. All her work involved cyberstuff, but, even then, she didn’t do the hacking. She was part of the front company that worked on investors and alliances with other countries. They certainly needed cooperation between countries in order to catch some of these assholes. Now here she was, seeing firsthand what this cyberworld looked like in the real physical world as they went around the block twice.

She leaned forward and asked, “Why are—?”

Garret held up a hand, and then, on the third pass, a garage door opened. The garage door was there so suddenly, and they made such a sharp turn, that it caused her and her sister to slide against each other. She frowned as they abruptly disappeared downward, off the main street, into an underground parking lot.

She looked at him. “What? Is this spy stuff?”

“Absolutely it’s spy stuff,” he said, turning to shoot her a smile. The area was dark, with fluorescent lights flicking on overhead as they pulled into one of what looked like easily a dozen parking spots.

As soon as they were parked, her sister hopped out and looked around. “Is Gregg here?”

“Why would Gregg be here?” Astra asked in surprise.

Her sister’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. I just figured he was into this superspy stuff, and maybe he was here too.”

“As far as I know,” Garret said. “Gregg is not here.” He thought about it and wondered just what Charles might know. Garret led the way to an elevator. He punched the elevator button. In front of them on the nearby wall was a security keypad, and its cover opened up. Astra watched in surprise as Garret punched in a code that had the double doors to the elevator opening, which led into the elevator itself. With all four of them inside, he shut the doors and took them up.

The elevator buttons noted three floors, and Astra didn’t get that, since one floor should have been street level, so where were they going? As soon as the doors opened, they walked out into what looked like a living room.

He smiled and said, “Now we take the stairs.” They went down a set of stairs, and, at a door that looked like it might go to a bedroom, he opened it up and knocked on what looked to be a wall on the other side. Immediately a hidden door opened, and everybody was ushered through.

As she watched, Garret carefully pulled the first door closed, locked it, and then they closed the second door. She was in a completely different townhome, from the looks of it. She stared around in surprise, her gaze landing on their host. Charles was a silver-haired man and still had a heavy dash of verve in his gaze, for a sixtysomething male. She reached out a hand to shake his and said calmly, “Hi, I’m Astra, and this is my sister, Amy.”

“And I am Charles, at your service,” he said, with a courtly bow. She was charmed.

He led the way into a living room, and he said, “Please be seated. We’ll have tea.” Then Charles left the room.

Astra sat down, always amused at the British answer to every situation. But, as she checked the time, she found it was actually tea time for them.

Her sister sat down uncomfortably on the seat beside her. She looked around at the heavy brocade furnishings from an era gone by. “What is this place?” Amy asked suspiciously.

Astra patted her gently on the knee. “This is Charles’s home,” she said quietly, “so please treat it and him with respect.”

Her sister glared at her and slumped backward on the couch.

Garret looked at Astra and nodded in approval. “It is, indeed, Charles’s home. His granddaughter lives here sometimes, when she comes to visit, but, other than that, he’s here alone.”

“Interesting,” Astra said. “Is he likely to have any information for us?”

At that, Charles’s voice chimed in, as he came down the hallway. “Depends on what information you’re looking for,” he said. “I do