“What happens if they fail?” I ask.
Mother gives me a hard stare. “They must not fail.”
Gigi raises her hand. “Do you know who this first maiden is? Did MESS ID her?”
“Yes,” Mother says. “We know who the first Key to the Key is.”
“How do we handle this?” Theo asks. “Kidnaping? Deceit? Cards on the table and persuasion?”
Gigi makes her voice sound deeper. “Your mission, Maiden, should you choose to accept it, is to save Mount Evor!”
Almost everyone smiles, even Grandmother.
Mother doesn’t. Nor does Uncle Rich.
“The Key to the Key will be kept in the dark about her true mission, and about the existence of Mount Evor,” he says.
I screw up my face. “How on earth can we get her to help us if we tell her nothing?”
“Under what pretenses will you have me approach her?” Theo asks, assuming he’s the man for the job. “If we are to work together, I must build trust.”
“In the revelation, Max works with her,” Mother says.
“Our front shop in France, MINDFUCH, will offer her a well-paying job,” Uncle Rich adds quickly, distracting the audience from Theo’s discomfiture.
I try not to sound too ironic. “I’m sure she won’t suspect anything.”
“Carlo’s agents will make it seem natural,” Uncle Rich deadpans. “She’ll be given a special assignment, and then you will manipulate her into locating the key while making it look like it’s part of her MINDFUCH assignment. You will tell her only what she needs to know.”
“Wouldn’t she be more efficient if she knew the truth?” I ask. “We can have her sign a confidentiality agreement.”
The truth is I abhor lying to women about my intentions, whether it’s my lack of emotional commitment or the preprogrammed obsolescence of the relationship. There’s nothing more liberating than being up-front, especially with the ladies. In sex as in business, honesty is my preferred policy as far as women are concerned.
Uncle Rich clasps his hands together. “She’ll sign a confidentiality agreement with MINDFUCH, not with the House of Valois-Montevor. In case the pair of you fail or MESS misidentified her as the Key to the Key, then the less she knows about us, the better.”
“For us,” I point out.
“For her, too, darling,” Mother says. “Don’t forget how powerful our enemies are. Her ignorance will protect her better than you, your bodyguards, or Carlo’s MESS agents ever could.”
“Think of her cluelessness as her bulletproof vest,” Uncle Rich adds. “You wouldn’t want to take it from her, would you?”
5
LUCIE
“Sorry, Madame Laborde. We just hired someone.”
Bummer!I wasted three hours and amétroticket. Again.
I jog back to themétro, eager to get home and grab a bite, as I haven’t had anything to eat all day. Home is a tinychambre de bonnenext to Mom’s bedroom above our little shop in the Croix-Rousse quarter of Lyon.
Having used the last of my discounted ten-ticketcarneton the ride here, my options are to purchase a newcarnetor a single ticket. I go for the latter and regret it immediately. The pain of paying two euros for a ticket is so sharp my eyes well up.
Well, at least, I can ride the Line C from here to my neighborhood without having to change lines or switch to a bus. Finding a vacant seat soothes the pain a little but doesn’t suppress it entirely. Two euros wasn’t a negligible amount for me, even when I had two jobs. But now it’s a small fortune.
Damn!I should’ve walked.
Forcing myself to stay positive, I make plans for thefuture, but my thoughts keep turning around my dried-up finances and my extinct love life. Assuming that what Jerome and I had qualified as “love.” Honestly, I don’t know if it did. I cared for him—and despite his betrayal, I still do—but “friends with benefits” would be a better term to describe our relationship.
