David Kent - The Triangle Conspiracy

“And you?” Daryn said. “Why don’t you tell the truth?”

Sean shrugged. “My name is Sean Kelly. I’m an agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security. At least I was.”

Daryn said nothing, staring at him.

“But none of this was official,” Sean added quickly. “This is a freelance job.”

“My father hired you.” A statement, not a question.

“He sent someone to hire me, yes.”

“To bring me back before I embarrassed him?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“Bastard,” Daryn said.

“Who are you?” Faith asked.

Daryn looked up at her slowly. For a moment it seemed as if she wasn’t focusing. Then her eyes cleared, and Faith noticed the same hard darkness she’d seen there before. “My name is Daryn McDermott. My father is Senator Edward McDermott of Arizona.”

Faith waited, thinking. “Now I know why I recognized you. You’re the one who was arrested for public nudity at the demonstration in front of the Capitol.”

“Isn’t it funny,” Daryn said, “how society works? It doesn’t matter what else I’ve done or said. But once I took off my clothes, people paid attention. The very fact that we have laws against public nudity in this country are proof of the change we need.”

Faith glanced over at Sean. Sean shrugged. Faith looked back to Daryn. “So you were involved in what happened downtown today?”

Daryn squared her shoulders and looked Faith in the eye. “Yes. And now let me ask you a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Who are you? The two of you are related, right?”

Before Faith could speak, Sean said, “I guess that’s pretty obvious when you see us together. Daryn, this is my sister, Faith Kelly.”

“And what exactly is it you do, sister Faith Kelly?”

Faith took note of the way Daryn McDermott had swung from quiet bemusement to anger to insolence in her tone, all in the space of a few minutes. “I work for a special unit of the Justice Department.”

“Witness protection.”

“Not exactly. Not witness protection, but criminal protection.” As she always did, she paused for a moment to let that sink in.

Faith and Daryn locked gazes for a long moment. Daryn looked away first.

“If you were involved in what just happened downtown, you’ve been involved in an act of terrorism. In this country, here and now, that’s taken pretty damn seriously. Now, Sean seems to think you need protection, and he also seems to think you have something to tell, something that might warrant that protection by the U.S. Government. Do you?”

Daryn looked at Sean.

“There’s no other way,” Sean said. “You heard what Sanborn said at the end.”

“Sean,” Faith said, “I’m going to advise you to keep your big Irish mouth shut, okay? This is what I do, and you stay out of it. Also, the fact that I still don’t know the extent of your involvement in this makes me wonder how deep you are in it. I’ll deal with you later.”

Sean sat back. He’d never heard the cold, official Department Thirty side of Faith before. He raised his hands in a mock surrender.

“Who’s older?” Daryn said suddenly.

“What?” Faith said.

“You’re brother and sister. Which one of you is older?”

“He is, by eighteen months,” Faith said.

Daryn nodded. “Interesting dynamic, isn’t it?”

“It would be if we were talking about my family dynamics,” Faith said. “But we’re not. There are two questions you have to answer. Do you believe you need protection, either from prosecution or from the threat of bodily harm? And do you believe you have information vital to the national interests of the United States? Yes or no, right now.”

“Yes, on both counts,” Daryn said, her head high.

Faith spoke to Sean but kept looking at Daryn. “Sean, you have to leave now.”

“What?” Sean said. “But I brought her in. I’m the one who-”

Faith whirled to face him. “Listen to me, dammit! The less you say the better, for her, for me, for yourself. Just for your information, most of my department’s cases don’t come in this way. We find them, they don’t find us. There’s only been one exception in the department’s history. So we all have to be very, very careful here. Do you understand me? I’m not bullshitting you, Sean. This is the way it has to be done.”

“But-”

“No buts. If she qualifies for the program, which we still don’t know at this point, every aspect of her life will change. She will have no connection with her past life. Do you know what that means? It means you won’t ever see her again. I don’t know what’s going on here, between the two of you, but you brought this to me, and now you have to understand the implications of what you’ve done. You get that, big brother?”

“Jesus, Faith, you’re-”

“A coldhearted bitch, I know. I’ve been called everything in this job. Don’t get me wrong. You’re still my brother and you’ll always be my brother, but by calling me in on this, you’re in a whole different universe now.”

“I know. At least I guess I…” Sean’s voice died away. He looked past his sister to Daryn.

“I guess you didn’t finish the job my father hired you to do,” Daryn said. Her look now was triumphant.

Sean pressed his fingertips to his head. “No. I’m not even thinking about that anymore. I…Kat, I mean, Daryn…it’s different. I didn’t have to call Faith. I could have let them arrest you, or I could have let you take your chances with Sanborn. You’re so committed to your agenda, and Sanborn twisted it so much, that-”

“You should listen to your younger sister,” Daryn said. “Just stay out of it from here on out. I’ll deal with whatever happens next.” She sat back in the lumpy armchair. “No last fucks for the road, Sean. Or I could call you Michael, for old times’ sake. You got a lot more sex than you paid Kat Hall for, so you shouldn’t complain.”

Faith looked at both of them, but kept silent. Pain was scribbled on Sean’s face, as if in bloody red capital letters. When she looked back at Daryn McDermott, the girl’s own expression had changed again, with a softness she hadn’t expected. Furrows slashed into her forehead.

“I’m sorry,” Daryn said, and her voice was very gentle, almost faint. “Could I just lie down for a while?”

Faith observed the way Daryn’s manner could shift so abruptly, so completely. This was, she thought, a very dangerous young woman.

“Yes,” Faith said. “Down the hall, first bedroom to the right. There’s a sleeping bag you can use. Be sure to shake it out. It hasn’t been used in a while.”

“Thank you, Faith.”

Without looking back at Sean, Daryn heaved herself up from the chair, as if it were a great effort, and walked out of the room.

Faith looked at Sean. “You should stay out of sight for now,” she finally said. “I still don’t know what’s going on here. The tip about Bank of America…they caught the group there.”

“We didn’t know about the Chase bomb,” Sean said wearily. “Turns out Sanborn anticipated that we’d call someone, and he used the B of A group as a diversion, while he took the other set of explosives to Chase. Jesus Christ, Faith. How bad is it? The bombing. Could this city stand another thing like that? Could any city?”

“If any city could, this one could,” Faith said. “But I don’t know anything else about the extent of the damage. Scott’s there, and I’ll find out more from him later. For now, you go back to the house. Don’t stop anywhere, don’t do anything.”

“You mean, don’t drink,” Sean said, standing up.

“Yeah, I do mean that. Take my car.” She dug in her purse for keys and tossed them to him. “Yours is gone, I guess?”