Empire (Empire 1)
“As if brilliant equals good.”
“Exactly,” said Cecily. “But we still don’t know if he had anything to do with it. And we don’t know who the people who approached
Reuben and Phillips even were. Phillips doesn’t know, anyway, and Reuben never said and never wrote down anything.”
“So Torrent may or may not be involved with Verus.”
“No, that’s not the point,” said Cecily. “I’m almost sure he’s not part of Verus’s operation. Verus was in control of everything about his operation. People reported to him, and he reported to God. Or history. Whatever he believed in. Not to Torrent. And can you imagine Torrent reporting to him?”
“Maybe. It’s possible.”
“I don’t think so,” said Cecily. “You met Verus.” “I didn’t see him at his best.”
“But can you imagine that if Torrent worked for him, Verus would sit still for Torrent being nominated by both parties? Essentially handed the presidency?”
“Of course he would,” said Cole. “If it means he wins after all.”
“Okay, maybe,” said Cecily. “But I don’t think so. Because of this.”
She handed another sheet of paper to Cole. It had only one name on it. DeeNee Breen. Took a class with Torrent as an undergrad at Princeton. Got an A.
Cole felt sick. “But it was just a class.”
“From Torrent. At Princeton. Coincidence. Lots of students took classes from him. Not all of them murdered a major in the U.S. Army, but I know I’m reasoning backward. It’s no proof of anything. It’s just . . . I had to tell somebody. I had to show somebody or I’d go crazy, watching Torrent do this—this rocket ride to supreme power.”
“Who would keep a secret like this?” said Cole. “This conspiracy would be too—”
“Cole,” said Cecily, “who would believe Verus could bring off his conspiracy? Anyway, I don’t know if it was a conspiracy. It might have been more like some kind of evil Johnny Appleseed. Torrent might just have gone around planting seeds. Who knows what he said to Verus that maybe provoked him. Like, ‘You talk about how committed you are, Mr. Verus, but you don’t do anything. You took the name of a Roman Emperor, but you act like a lobbyist.’ That’s the way he talked. Challenging. Goading. He goaded Reuben. Called him ‘soldier boy’ all the time. It made Reuben all the more eager to prove himself to Torrent.”
Cole remembered that day when Torrent led them through the reasoning process that pointed to Chinnereth and Genesseret. “You’re saying that he already knew where Verus’s operations were?”
“No, no, that’s the beauty of it. He goads Verus. Makes him read history books that will point him to certain courses of action. But he isn’t actually in on it. I think he really did figure out where Verus was exactly the way he showed us. Maybe he had some scrap of inside information—after all, he was NSA, he had access to intelligence reports that he wouldn’t necessarily share with us. But he wasn’t in on it, any more than he was directly in on what Reuben and Phillips were doing.”
“And DeeNee?” asked Cole.
“That’s different. The men who were waiting to ambush you they’re dead. We can’t question them. Did they know she was planning to kill Reuben? Were they planning to kill him, or just subdue him and get the PDA? Did they work for Verus or Torrent or some third party we don’t know about? It’s all so murky and I don’t know. But she was a student of Torrent’s.”
“Were the guys who were with her?”
“No. Nobody else.”
“I don’t know, Cecily. I just don’t know.”
“I don’t know either. I’m not accusing him. I’m really not. But this stuff just won’t go away.”
Cole nodded. “I guess it’s like having a song on your mind. You can’t get rid of it. You hate the song. So you sing it to somebody else, and now we’ve both got the song on our minds.”
“I’m so sorry!” she said. “You’ll notice that I didn’t call you, you just came over.”
“Absolutely,” said Cole. “And I’m glad you told me. Really. No lie. I’m glad you told me and nobody else.”
“Because they’d think I’m crazy?”
“Because word might get around and somebody might kill you,” said Cole.
She was rocked by that. “Come on.”
“If it’s true,” said Cole, “If it’s true. Then you’re just begging to be murdered. To shut you up.”