Page 54 of Tattletale

“Enough,” Vesper barks. “I’ll deal with you two later. Vienne…” Vesper rises to her feet, her chair rolling backward. She makes her way to the picture on the wall. “He’s early thirties?”

“Yes.” Vienne nods.

Vesper shakes her head. “It doesn’t make sense. We’ve been hunting the leader of Aeon for as long as I can remember. Not even the disciples of the organization know who they answer to. It has to be someone far more mature.”

“Aeon elects leadership based on ability, not age.”

“And how would you know?” Vesper asks, giving Vienne a dangerous stare.

“I’ve been a trophy wife in politics for a long time, Vesper. I overhear a lot of conversations that no one thinks I’m listening to. I get left alone and ignored in a lot of secret rooms… Also, admittedly, I’m a snoop.” She smiles.

Vesper doesn’t smile at her joke. “Even if you’re telling the truth, your accusation is baseless. PALADIN doesn’t kill without cause.”

“Aren’t you commissioned by my husband’s office?”

Vesper narrows her eyes. “We’re commissioned by cause. Prove that Gabriel is who you say he is, then we’ll handle him…swiftly.” Vesper glances at Linc. Of course, he’s her go-to choice if she needs a job handled quickly, professionally, and with the utmost subtlety. Linc is about as close as PALADIN gets to a robot.

“And if I were to command you?” Vienne asks Vesper, lifting one brow.

“I’d tell you you’re well out of jurisdiction. Especially seeing as this request is coming behind your husband’s back.” Vesper’stone is cool and icy. Vienne turns to look at the rest of the room and opens her mouth as if she’s about to ask us to weigh in, but Vesper taps her fingers loudly against the table. “Don’t look at them; look at me,” she insists. “My team,my family.And I speak for all of us.”

“There’s no need to get heated,” Vienne replies, showing Vesper her palms. “And anyway, we can’t just kill Gabriel. We were once very close to each other, but now we’ve drifted. I think he knows I’m suspicious of him. I don’t know what his plans are, and now he’d never confide in me. Aeon is self-sacrificial. He’d die for the cause. It doesn’t matter if he’s dead if his plans still play out.”

“And what exactly do you think his plans entail?” Callen asks.

“For starters, a massacre of the White House and everyone it contains. As I mentioned, Aeon means to send a message to the world. Down with the king, and the rest of the pawns will topple.”

“And if you’re wrong, we kill an innocent man off of a harebrained suspicion that it’s very possible you conjured up in your mind,” Vesper says, looking once again at Gabriel’s picture. “It doesn’t make sense to me how this could be the leader of Aeon. He’s so young.”

“And if I’m right, and we don’t act,” Vienne says, “America will fall, and we’ll get to witness the whole world burn…very soonby my estimation.”

Vesper looks tortured. She collapses back in her seat, and her eyes go stony as she thinks.

“Either way, we don’t have long to make a decision. They’ll notice I’m missing soon. I don’t know anyone else who can handle a mission like this outside of PALADIN, Vesper,” Vienne explains. The look she gives Vesper is unmistakably pleading. “I came to you over anyone else because I trust you. I’m asking you to trust me.”

The room falls silent for so long that Vienne takes a seat. She has no choice but to wait through Vesper’s deliberation.

After an uncomfortable long pause of silence, Vesper finally speaks. “I’m undecided. Eden is my number two. This is her decision.”

We’re all shocked, but none more so than Eden. Her eyes pop into big, brown saucers as she gawks at Vesper, then me. I shrug my shoulders, the only answer I have for her.

“I’m yourwhat?” Eden squalls.

“I don’t trust my judgment right now, but I trust Eden’s,” she explains. “She has an innate skill of reading a situation and coming up with solutions. Her conscience, unlike the rest of ours, is clear. She’s no killer.” Vesper rests her eyes on Eden and gives her an encouraging nod. “We take the mission, or we don’t. Your decision.”

Eden looks around the room for help, but we’re all useless. Vesper spoke in that matter-of-fact tone that tells us her decision is made, there’s no talking her out of it. Eden has no choice but to drop her head and think through the scenario.

Vienne is patient for as long as she can be, but after checking the watch on her wrist, she says, “Ms. Eden, I need an answer. I can’t be gone for too much longer without my husband noticing. Our window is limited.”

Eden licks her lips. “Well… I don’t…” She trails off.

“Eden,” Vesper says in a soothing voice. “You saved the world once by telling the truth. Just speak your truth. What do you think?”

“Truth…”Eden whispers. “We need the truth. Okay, Vienne…or Mrs. Baker…or First Lady Baker? I’m sorry, I don’t know what to call you.” Eden shrugs and then shrinks in her seat.

“Vienne is fine,” the First Lady responds.

“What’s Gabriel’s romantic life like?” Eden sits back upright.

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