Empire (Empire 1)

“Not to them directly,” said Cessy. “But to the person who gave it to the person who gave it to the person.”

“You don’t know DeeNee,” said Reuben.

“Like you don’t know LaMonte?” asked Cessy, still smiling.

“Exactly like that,” said Reuben. He was not smiling. “We have to trust somebody or we might as well get out of the country and try to hide somewhere.”

Then he remembered the boys sitting there listening. “I was making a point by exaggeration,” he said to them. “We’re not leaving the country.”

“If we do,” said Mark, “I want to go to Disney World.”

“I want to go to Xanth,” said Nick.

“Xanth is imaginary,” said Cessy. “And Disney World is in the United States.”

“I didn’t know that either,” Cole said to Mark.

“Shut up, boys,” said Reuben. “I mean that in the nicest possible way.” He turned back to the table. Cole had his hand over his mouth. What a time for him to be sucking up to the boys. But then, maybe that was precisely what was needed. Some reassuring humor. An adult ally. Maybe Cole was helping.

“May I interject a comment from the cook and landlady?” asked Aunt Margaret as she set out dishes of raspberry ice cream. There were two extras. She snapped her fingers at the boys and they took seats at the table.

“You may,” said Cessy, “since everybody else’s mouth is going to be full.”

“Mine already is,” mumbled Cole, barely intelligible with his spoon held between his teeth.

Mark started to hold his spoon between his teeth. Nick pulled it out and put it into Mark’s ice cream. Again Mark peacefully accepted an action that would normally have caused a fight.

“My observation is,” said Aunt Margaret, “that you can’t figure out a single thing from this point on until you hear from Sandy and DeeNee, whoever they are, and they can’t find anything out until the start of the business day tomorrow. Reuben has had only a short nap since the night before the assassination, and Cole has just given a speech to twenty million people.”

“In O’Reilly’s dreams,” said Cessy.

“Go to bed,” said Aunt Margaret. “Go to sleep. I’ll tuck you in. Things will be just as bleak and hopeless in the morning. Isn’t this good ice cream? My secret is lots of hydrogenated fat. I buy it in large lots from doctors who do liposuction.”

“Delicious,” said Nick.

“Gross!” said Mark.

Five in the morning, still dark, Reuben woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Quietly, so he wouldn’t waken Cessy, he got up and looked for whatever Cessy had thrown into a suitcase for him to wear. There wasn’t a lot of choice. Fatigues or civvies. It was Sunday. He should wear a suit and go to Mass with Cessy and the kids. But that would entail a lot more noise. He could change clothes later. For now, he put on fatigues.

Downstairs in the kitchen, he found that Cole had made the same choice. “I see you decided you wanted to be in uniform today.”

“A choice I made years ago,” said Cole. “You caught me. I was prowling for leftover ice cream.”

“There’s never leftover ice cream in Aunt Margaret’s house,” said Reuben. “Can’t sleep?”

“I woke up thinking I heard something. I had visions of a team of ninjas surrounding the house and climbing up the walls onto the roof like in Crouching Tiger.”

“Were there any?”

“I did a circuit of the house. No alarm system—I checked before I opened the door.”

“Any ninja footprints on the walls?”

“Nothing. But there was a newspaper wrapped in plastic sitting in your driveway. And there I was in my jockeys, holding the paper, wondering if the door had locked automatically behind me.”

“Had it?”

“Yes, but it was incredibly easy to pick,” said Cole.