Empire (Empire 1)

“Good plan so far,” said Reuben. “But I have one more man to bring to the party.” From the floor of the van he called Cole and spoke only a single sentence, in Farsi: “Borders on Route 7 in the Corners now.” Couldn’t say “Tyson’s Corner” because “Tyson” didn’t translate.

Not that the people tailing him wouldn’t already have gotten a Farsi translator after Load’s words to him in the airport. So if Cole had been careless, or somebody had opened DeeNee’s lunch in the break-room fridge, this would bring his tails right back on him, and implicate everybody else in whatever conspiracy they supposed him to be part of. But you had to take some risks, or you might as well pull a Saddam and hide in a hole somewhere till you were arrested and put through a show trial.

They got to the Borders and soon had taken over two tables and eight chairs in the coffee shop.

Speaking quietly in Farsi, Reuben quickly explained how his own plan had been used to kill the President. Cole arrived—in civvies, mercifully—and Reuben introduced him around.

But Cole had to know more than just names. “Were you a team once? I mean, in-country?”

“We’ve all been in the same team with Rube, one time or another,” said Arty Wu. “But that was long ago and far away.”

“We’re his jeesh now,” said Mingo.

Cole knew his Arabic, even when the word was dropped into the midst of Farsi. “His army?”

“His little tiny army,” said Load. “Because he’s our hero.”

“We’re guys who trust each other,” said Reuben.

“And were really good at killing bad guys,” said Drew.

“So we gave our club a scary Arabic name,” said Babe.

“Cole, tell them about the meeting we had outside the White House,” said Reuben.

If Cole wondered why Reuben, who knew more, was having him make the report, he didn’t show it. Cole’s Farsi was okay—good enough, and now and then when he struggled somebody would supply a word. The idea wasn’t to impress them with his language ability. They needed to hear Cole’s voice and see that Reuben trusted him, despite having met each other only today.

“My family is with Aunt Margaret Diklich in West Windsor, N.J.,” said Reuben in Farsi. “Unless I can think of a better plan, I’m driving up there tomorrow, because by now the FBI or whoever’s tailing me knows I have a ticket to La Guardia. I have no plans beyond that, except that I’d like to not be arrested while I’m trying to find out who gave those plans to the terrorists and what their goal really is.”

“You mean you don’t think it stops with killing the President and Vice President?” asked Arty Wu. “That’s kind of like Al Qaeda’s idea of nirvana right there.”

“I don’t think the terrorists planned anything more than what they did today, no,” said Reuben. “But the people using them have to have something more in mind. Surely we didn’t have Steven Phillips inside the White House and whoever ‘shared’ my plans from inside the Pentagon acting out of a desire to see the President and Vice President dead. I’m assuming that these Americans did this with some goal in mind that has nothing to do with Al Qaeda.”

“Destabilization,” said Cole, in English. He continued in Farsi. “But that’s obvious.”

“Yes,” said Reuben, “but we believe in saying the obvious. We’re not here to impress each other with our guessing ability. Except for Benny and Mingo.”

Benny raised an eyebrow, and Mingo handed him a buck.

“What we’re looking for,” said Drew Linnie, who was now a professor at American University, “is what they plan to do next, so we can be there first and catch them with their pants down.”

“An image both colorful and vaguely gay,” said Babe Austin.

“Cui bono?” asked Cat Black, who was a lawyer. “If America is in chaos, who benefits?”

“Showing off by speaking Latin,” muttered Load.

“We can rule out LaMonte Nielson,” said Reuben. “Cessy knows him and he’s a decent guy. Besides, I have

a feeling nobody in their right mind would consider being President right now a ‘benefit.’ ”

“Nielson’s going to have this big sympathy thing for a few minutes,” said Cat, “but it’s not likely to translate into a lot of support. He could never have been elected President, and he’s too conservative not to be a lightning rod.”

“Assassinations aren’t enough to really destabilize the country,” said Load Arnsbrach. “We’ve had them before and the country goes on.”

“We’ve had unelected Presidents before, too,” said Benny.

“One, anyway,” said Load.