Page 78 of Spy With Me
Lou waved her hand. “I already solved it. I’ll send you somespecs.”
Smart Lou. Tricky Lou. “I am eternally grateful for yourgenius.”
“And I’m happy that at least one of you listened to me,” Louadmitted. “Everyone else was super freaked that Huisman would turn off Kara’stracker. I had explained it to them, but did they listen? Nope.”
“I did, babe,” TJ said encouragingly. “And the nanites aregoing to be even cooler. Lou’s programmed some tiny machines to organizethemselves as clothes. And if you get mustard on your shirt, they clean it upfor you.”
“Yes, and sometimes they decide for themselves what theoperative should be wearing,” Kala added with a long-suffering sigh. “I’llstick to cotton, thank you. It doesn’t decide it’s too hot and shift to astring bikini in the middle of a restaurant patio.”
“I told you it was because of the big fountain. They thoughtyou were going swimming,” Lou argued.
“I like my clothes to not think, Lou,” Kala replied.
“Oh, I’m excited to play with those.” Devi practicallyclapped her hands together like a young girl who got to visit the castle withall the princesses.
Lou gave her a grin. “I can’t wait to see some designs.”
“We’re getting off track.” Henry seemed determined to dealwith the actual problems at hand. “What do we know about Ray White?”
“I can send you the dossier I’ve put together on him,” Timoffered. “He was a small-time drug dealer in Southern California when he metShannon Reed.”
“My mother.” Zach wanted to control some of this. After all,it was his history. “She was a chemistry student at Stanford, and she decidedthe best way to start her career was by designing new drugs. They were morepotent and cheaper, and my dad connected himself to a cartel, basically pimpingout my mother’s skills.”
“Shannon Reed, by all accounts, was brilliant,” Parker saidsoftly, more of that sympathy easing out.
“She is brilliant,” Tim corrected. “I’ve studied what wehave on her bombs, and the construction is revolutionary.”
“They kill people,” Zach pointed out. “In easy to coverways.”
“But there are other uses for the things she’s creating.”Lou looked his way. “Almost everything humans create can be used for both goodand evil. Your mother has created a structure that can be used in bombs, butalso potentially in engines.”
“Have we thought about the applications when it comes topotential cold fusion?” Tim asked.
Lou nodded. “I dream about it at night. I would love to getmy hands on one that didn’t explode. So far I’ve only gotten to inspect theremains. I would love schematics.”
“I can help you with that. I might have some of her earlydesigns,” Zach admitted. He would feel comfortable giving them to Lou. Hewasn’t sure about anyone else.
“That would help enormously,” Lou agreed. “But I meant whatI said. All technological advances have a dark side. This one might somedaygive us the key to limitless clean energy.”
He couldn’t imagine a world where the corporations allowedthat. He worried his mother’s genius would always be about crime, but thiswasn’t some philosophical exercise. Devi’s hand came over and rubbed againsthis forearm, and suddenly it didn’t seem so terrible to be here. “I’m glad tohear that, Lou. As for my parents, they were kind of the match made in hell. Mymom did her first stint in prison after I was born. My aunt quit the militaryso I would have a stable place to live since my father was also in prison. Shegot out and everything was fine until his time was up and he came looking forher.”
“And he was involved with a Mexican cartel, right?” Timasked, looking at his notes.
“Mexican and then Honduran. My father tried to play the twooff each other, and it’s what led to my mom deciding the heat was too much.After her last prison stint she came home for a couple of years, but he showedup again, and that was when she hit the road.” He’d been young at the time andhadn’t known that his brother had been born during one of those prisonsentences. Born and then adopted by Alex and Eve McKay, who had no idea how thebaby they were going to raise was related to Alex’s best friend Ian Taggart.Zach’s aunt Joyce had worked with him in the military and thought someone inIan’s orbit would be the best guardian for the nephew she would never be ableto claim. “Honestly, I know very little about what he’s been doing since thelast time he tried to intimidate my aunt into telling him where Mom went. I wassixteen, and he set me on my ass for trying to protect her. He should see how Iplan to protect the women in my life now.”
“Your father moved into arms dealing, and we think we knowwhy,” Parker explained.
He could guess. “He got my mother involved. He had notalent. Everything he had he owed to what she could do, and then he inevitablyscrewed things up. From what I understand my mother got involved in someunderground groups, specifically ones rooted in environmental activism.”
“Yes, that’s where I found her,” Lucy acknowledged. “Thoughyou should know she’s kept quiet. I believe she was forced to build those firstbombs. Or maybe she made them for her groups. Some of the groups she’s involvedin blow shit up to stop deforestation. Your mom’s bombs are easy to use andtargeted. She could have kept any loss of life down to a minimum. Actually, nowthat I think about it, the way the bombs are designed would also have protectedthe land around the blast.”
Kala had a look of grudging respect on her face. “That makessense. So Ray gets out of prison and needs some cash and can’t get it himself.He goes looking for his ex because she’s always been his meal ticket. When hedoes find her, she’s building bombs for activist groups, and he sees a new wayto make her pay.”
Zach groaned as the truth hit him. “My father was the onewho introduced her to The Jester.”
Devi gasped. “Isn’t that the arms dealer person Tristanpretended to be after you murdered him and let Tris think he did it? That wassweet of you, by the way. Tris needed a major ego boost.”
Not the way he would describe it. “I did it so he wouldn’tknow I had figured out my mom worked for The Jester. I didn’t realize my dadwas likely the one who introduced them. We can’t know she was forced. From whatmy aunt says my father had power over her.”
