Shadow Puppets (The Shadow 3)

"That was good advice, Dad, thanks," said Peter.

"And," said Mother, "you showed courage."

"By running away from Ribeirao Preto before anyone so much as glared at me?"

"By getting out of bed," she answered.

Peter shook his head. "Then my courage is nothing but borrowed courage."

"Not borrowed," said Mother. "Stored up. In us. Like a bank. We've seen your courage and we saved some for you when you temporarily ran out and needed some of it back."

"Cash flow problem, that's all it was," said Father.

"How many times are you two going to have to save me from myself before this whole drama runs its course?" asked Peter.

"I think...six times," said Father.

"No, eight," said Mother.

"You two think you're so cute," said Peter.

"Mm-hm."

"Yep."

A knock at the door. "Room service!" called a voice from outside.

Father was at the door in two quick strides. "Three tomato juices?" he asked.

"No, no, nothing like that. Lunch. Sandwiches. Bowl of ice cream."

Even with that reassurance, Father stepped to the side of the door and pulled it open as far as the lock bar allowed. Nobody fired a weapon, and the guy with the food laughed. "Oh, everybody forgets to undo that thing, happens all the time."

Father opened the door and stepped outside long enough to make sure nobody else was in the hall waiting to follow room service inside.

When the waiter was coming through the door Peter turned around to get out of his way, just in time to see Mother slipping a pistol back into her purse.

"Since when did you start packing?" he asked her.

"Since your chief of computer security turned out to be Achilles's good friend," she said.

"Ferreira?" asked Peter.

"He's been telling the press that he installed snoopware to find out who was embezzling funds, and was shocked to discover it was you."

"Oh," said Peter. "Of course they ran a press conference opposite mine."

"But almost everybody carried yours live and his was just excerpted. And they all followed the Ferreira clip with a repeat of you announcing that you were posting the Hegemony financial records on the nets."

"Bet we crash the server."

"No, all the news organizations cloned it first thing."

Father had finished signing off on the meal and the waiter was gone, the door relocked.

"Let's eat," said Father. "If I recall, this place always has great lunches."

"It's good to be home," said Mother. "Well, not home, but in town, anyway."