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“Myrna, there’s a call for you.”
“Who.” Myrna didn’t look away from her laptop as she typed.
“The sexy Haitian who called you a while back.”
Myrna’s fingers stilled over the keyboard and she rolled her eyes at her assistant’s reply. “Take your head from your crotch, will you?”
“Sorry boss, it’s hard for a head to stay anywhere else with a voice like that in your ear.”
Myrna snorted. “Put the call through, slut. Baz,” she greeted a half second later. “I didn’t expect to be hearing from you again this soon. Ever, actually. Folks are gonna start to talk if I run another story about the GAN.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not calling for that.” Bazile Lubin’s clear, melodic voice rolled over the line.
“Then I’m afraid I’m at a loss as to what more we have to discuss.”
“I want to see her, Myrna. I want to see Swan.”
Myrna was silent for a long time. “Fuck off,” she said finally.
“Myr-”
“Do you need to hear me say it again, Baz? I promise you, it’s a phrase I rarely tire of. You get used to it when you deal with fools on a daily basis.”
“I only want to know how she is.”
“She’s thriving.” Myrna set the laptop aside and flounced back against her white leather desk chair. “Thriving and living her life without you in it. What kind of friend would I be to pave the way for you to upset that?”
“Can’t you ask her?”
“I don’t have to. I’ve got more facts in my head about you and your friends and me and mine, than I need.”
“Myrna, this is only about her and I.”
“You do remember that Mahalia looks like a beauty queen, don’t you Baz?” Wicked intent threaded through Myrna’s words as she stressed her friend’s actual name and not the endearment Bazile Lubin had used since the night he met her. “What makes you think another man isn’t in the picture and she’s still yours for the wanting?”
Bazile had no answer.
“Why are you suddenly so set on seeing her?” Myrna pressed. “Did calling me to run that story on Boothe Marshall throw your thoughts all the way back to the good old days with the GAN?”
“There were no good old days with the GAN.”
“Well that would depend on who you ask, wouldn’t it?”
“Where is she, Myrna?”
“Fuck off, Baz,” she sang the phrase that time. “You must have a ton of contacts-ones who owe you more than they could ever repay. You’ll need to use them because I’m not telling you a damn thing.”
“I need to see her. See for myself that she’s okay.”
“Why, Baz? Because Mercuri and his boys are happily married men and you’re craving some of that?”
“There are worse things,” he said.
“Don’t I know it.”
“Myrna-”
“I can’t, Baz. Isn’t it enough to know she’s happy?”
“Is it too much to want to see that for myself?”
“After what you did? Yes.”
“There’s more going on than you know, Myrna.”
“You’re talking about Magnus and his band of fools? Yes, I’m aware.”
“How-”
“Come now, Baz. You're not the only one with connections. Don’t worry about Mahalia. She’s fine-we’re all fine-able to look after ourselves. If your...interest in seeing her is about more than confirming her safety, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Will you tell her something for me, then?”
“Baz-”
“You’re right, Myrna, okay? I do find myself craving what Merc has with his wife-what they all have. Even Slayte and he was a frightful mess-almost as bad as Aug-”
“I’m hanging up now-”
“Please tell her, Myrna, tell her that the time I knew her was the best in my life and what happened before-”
“Baz-”
“Tell her what happened wasn’t what we signed up for. Tell her that for me, Myrna.” With that said, Baz ended the call.
***
“Neighbors haven’t seen him in over a week. They didn’t think anything of it, guessed he was off on a bender somewhere,” Gustus Harper looked to the man whose eyes were fixed on the flatscreen and the game playing there. “When’s the last time you saw him?” he asked.
David Jaggins barely shrugged. “Last time we were together,” he said.
Gustus grimaced. “Best friends, huh?”
“Not in the mood for your shit, Gus,” David threw back.
“My shit or your best friend’s either, I guess.”
“Fuck you, Gus.”
“Alright enough goddammit!” Magnus Barnaby snarled before a sigh escaped him. “It’s obvious where he is, isn’t it?”
Dread settled to the faces of the other three men in the room.
“Fuck,” Reese Tovin groaned, twisting fretfully in the recliner he occupied. “Merc and the rest of those pricks will break him in half as soon as look at him.”
“Give the guy some credit, Ree,” Magnus said. “Ben may be paranoid, but he’s not that much of an idiot. He knows how to lay low-to strike when the time is right.”
“What do you think he’s planning to do?”
“He’s planning to strike, Ree.” Magnus grimaced. “Chances are, he’ll try to woo Nica back into his bed.”
“Damn fool,” Gustus muttered, “setting himself up to be caught and us right along with him.”
“They’ll have to find us first-which is why we’re staying put.” Magnus reminded his friends.
David Jaggins had lost interest in the game. Tossing aside the controller, he stewed for a moment. “If she’s alive, does that mean the others-”
“Can’t afford to be preoccupied with that nonsense,” Magnus cut in.
“But what if they are?” Gustus was bold enough to persist.
“If they’re alive then they clearly didn’t give enough of a damn about us to inform us of the fact, To hell with them,” Magnus scoffed.
Reese, Gustus and David shared looks. No one dared to point out the way Magnus’ voice broke when he spoke.
“Anyway,” David sighed in an attempt to dispel the lethal tension in the vast den. They had been camped out in the beach house for over four months. “If Ben’s actions turn into a shitshow,” he said, “we could be on the run indefinitely.”
“Hell D, what else is new?” Gustus snapped. “We’ve been living in a constant state of being on the run in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Come on Gus,” Reeves groaned. “We went into this thinking it was our ticket back inside. So much for that happening if Ben gets himself some undo attention out in V.A.”
“Getting back inside? Are you serious Ree?” Dark laughter underscored David’s words. “Somewhere in the back of all our minds, we had to know that was bullshit. The GAN as we know it, is over. We didn’t side with Merc in his rebellion, remember? Doubtful Pope would welcome us with open arms since he’s the head guy in charge now.”
Gustus snorted. “Fat chance of that happening anyway after what we did for Zoo.”
A shatter punctuated the discussion. Magnus had hurled a glass bowl filled with chips against a far wall. “Fucking traitors,” he seethed, “We couldn’t have joined up with them even if Merc had sent the offer on a gold plate.”
“Yeah well, Merc wasn’t the only side we turned our backs on,” Reese put in. “Mighta helped if we’d sided with the Network instead of hiding out ‘til it was all over.”
“Yeah well, no sense cryin’ over it now,” Gustus said. “Instead of a welcome back from Pope, we need to be concerned over why we haven’t heard from more of our so-called allies in the GAN,” he added. “When Marshall tagged us for this, he said it’d be our way back to powerful friends.”
“Too bad the fat bastard didn’t say who those friends were,” Magnus grumbled, while kicking at the glass and chips crushing beneath his shoes as he paced. “Now he’s in custody and we’re...”
David frowned when his old friend trailed into silence. “Mag?”
“Son of a bitch,” Magnus began to grin.
“Wanna let us in on the joke, man?” Reese encouraged.
“That son of a bitch Ben,” Magnus shook his head. “Took his unpredictable ass to make me see it.”
“Hell Mag, see what?”
“That we’ve laid low long enough, Dave,” Magnus’ grin spread. “Maybe Ben’s on the right track.”
“What are you thinkin’, man?” David asked.
“I’m thinkin’, maybe Ben isn’t the only one who should be trying to connect with old friends.”