Майкл Ридпат - Launch Code

‘What about you, Toby? Did you hear Sam Bowen say anything about my father’s death?’

‘No, Justin. Only what Lars just told you.’

Justin seemed on the brink of accusing Toby of being part of whatever cover-up he imagined was going on, but he thought better of it.

‘Why does nobody ever tell me the truth?’ he said, his voice quiet again. ‘It took me thirteen years to discover that Craig was my real father. And now you are hiding from me how he died.’ He glared at Lars as he said this, but also at Megan and Brooke as representatives of the Guth family. Toby suspected his real anger was directed at Bill.

‘I’m out of here.’ Shaking his head, he got up and left the room. A moment later the front door banged and they saw him head out to the cottage next door. With a look of contempt at Lars, Brooke hurried after him.

‘Well this is a fun Thanksgiving, huh?’ said Megan, now left alone with Toby in the kitchen.

Toby grinned. ‘The turkey was good.’

‘That’s true. My sister is a good cook.’

‘Your sister is a very good cook.’

Toby sat with Megan in companionable silence, staring at his coffee. His phone chirped and he checked it. He looked up and saw her watching him, a long dark curl hanging over her glasses. She looked very little like her sisters. She was shorter than them, darker, less leggy. Her eyes were almost black, compared to Alice’s grey, or Maya and Brooke’s clear blue. But she had the Guth sisters’ chin, of course.

‘Do you know what happened on that submarine?’ he asked.

‘Not really,’ said Megan. ‘No more than you do. Mom told us all before she died, which was, like, seven years ago now. She spoke with us one by one. She had cancer, the treatment hadn’t worked and we knew it was terminal. She said Dad would never tell us himself, but she wanted us to know that he had stopped his captain blowing up the world. She just said that the submarine had received orders to launch their missiles, that the captain of the ship was about to obey them and Dad stopped him.’

‘She didn’t say how?’ Toby asked. ‘Because I was wondering whether your father...’ he hesitated. ‘Whether your father might have stopped him permanently.’

‘What, you mean killed him?’ said Megan.

Toby nodded. ‘It’s just a guess. But if the captain was dead, presumably he couldn’t order the missile launch. And Sam did imply that the captain was no longer around.’

Megan raised her eyebrows. ‘You realize that’s my dad you’re accusing of killing someone? Your father-in-law?’ She seemed surprised rather than offended.

‘Yeah, I’m sorry. I have no proof. It’s just a guess. Did your mother say anything about it?’

‘A wild guess,’ said Megan. ‘And one I wouldn’t share with Alice if I were you. No. Mom gave me no details. But she did say we weren’t to tell anyone, and we weren’t to let on to Dad that we knew. She told us we could tell our own children eventually. Obviously we talked about it among ourselves. We were amazed and really proud, which is of course why Mom told us.’

‘But now Bill knows you know?’

‘Yeah. That was my fault. Naturally. He and I were having a fight. I think it was about me dropping out of college to be with my boyfriend — what a bad idea that was — and I said something dumb like: “Just because you stopped us all from getting blown up, doesn’t mean you get to decide what we do with our lives.” Oops.’

‘He wasn’t pleased?’

‘No. You’ve seen how seriously he takes that Classified crap — as if it still mattered. But to Dad it does. He signed up to serve his country when he was eighteen and, as far as he’s concerned, he’s never going to stop doing it, however dumb it may be.’

She winced at the memory. ‘The worst bit was he thought Mom had betrayed him. But after a while I think he realized it was a good thing. It was like a bond between us: our own family secret. And we did a pretty good job of keeping it. I haven’t told anyone. Neither has Maya, I don’t think. And Alice didn’t tell you, did she?’

‘No. But she seemed pleased when Bill asked me to join him with Sam.’

Megan smiled. ‘That was his way of cutting you in, without him or Alice having to tell you directly. That’s so typical. Of both of them.’

‘Brooke told Justin, though, didn’t she?’

‘Yes. Brooke tells Justin everything.’

‘That has something to be said for it,’ said Toby.

‘Maybe. It pissed the rest of us off. But we figured Brooke felt bad about Craig being Justin’s father and no one telling him. You heard Justin just now, didn’t you?’

‘Yes. What was that all about?’

‘Justin’s mom Maria was married to Craig. Then, soon after Craig died, she married a guy called Tony Opizzi. Justin was born, and everyone assumed he was Tony’s son. Justin’s older than us, but we used to see him a lot when we were kids. He used to come to stay with us when we were living in Europe; he even went on vacation with us a couple of times. We all thought he was great: the big brother we never had.

‘Anyway, as Justin got a little older he started looking a lot like Craig. I mean, a lot like him. Mom and Dad noticed. Justin’s mom noticed and Tony noticed; but they probably knew right from the beginning. Obviously they didn’t tell us kids. Or Justin. Then Alice and Justin were looking at that photo of Dad and Uncle Lars and Craig in the living room. We were living in England at the time, in Cobham; Justin was about sixteen and Alice must have been ten. And Alice was like: “Hey, Justin, this guy Craig looks just like you.” And Justin figured it out.’

Toby winced.

‘Yeah. Justin lost it. And you know what? He was right: they should have told him. After that, he stopped coming to visit us. We didn’t see him until a few years ago when Brooke went to grad school in Chicago and hooked up with him there. I think she always had a thing for him. She’s seven years younger, but that matters a lot less when you’re twenty-four than when you’re nine. We all worshipped him, even Maya who was only little. He played with her all the time and she loved it.’

‘All of you? Even Alice?’

Megan’s dark eyes flashed and she smiled. ‘Especially Alice.’

Toby opened the bedroom door with some trepidation. Alice was sitting on the bed, her arms wrapped around her bunched-up knees. Her face was flushed but there were no tears. ‘Oh, Toby,’ she said.

Toby closed the door and hopped on to the bed next to her.

‘Toby, you’re not going to ask me any questions, are you?’

‘No, Alice. No I’m not.’

Alice gave everyone, even her family — especially her family — the impression of extreme competence, of absolute self-confidence, of an ability to deal with any crisis. But Toby knew that underneath she was just as vulnerable and insecure as anyone else. More so. She had spent her girlhood, her adolescence, her adulthood working to hide this from everyone. But Toby knew. It was their secret.

‘Come here.’ Toby pulled her towards him. After a minute or so, she looked up and kissed him, softly at first and then with more urgency. Toby’s groin knew what was coming next before his brain did, and within a minute they were naked and entwined on the bed, moving against each other with just enough restraint not to be heard downstairs. But then the bed creaked and Alice let out a little cry.

Afterwards, he lay on top of her, spent, resting his weight on his elbows, protecting her.

She smiled up at him.

‘What’s that?’ she said.

Toby raised his head. A gentle murmuring seeped into the bedroom from the marshes outside.

‘I don’t know.’

‘I think it’s the geese.’