Complete Novel

The Black Knight Squash Fiction League Match #3

The Loose Strings  The Racketeers
.
CHAPTER 21

There’s Always a Bigger Fish
by Pierre Bastien

Hayden digested the news: Marc-Andre was in trouble. So was Chantal. Hayden had asked Marc-Andre for help, and he had generously obliged. Now he was in trouble, and it was her fault. What if he got hurt, or died, because of a simple favor he’d done her? Hayden buried herself in layers of guilt and confusion, feeling the pressure stack up from her abdomen, rising to her heart, her shoulders, and up to her neck, threatening to suffocate her.

She remembered, suddenly, how to calm herself. She drew a long, deep, slow breath, and then exhaled completely. She’d done this before on the squash court, before critical points. It was her way of gaining a mental edge, taking control of her body in a moment of uncertainty and fear. She was pleased to find the technique worked here.

Ted looked on, nervously at first, but then increasingly with pride as she saw her daughter taking command of her own body.

Outside the A-frame log cabin, the last dashes of light began to disappear into night.

Hayden took a few deep breaths, and then finally spoke up. “What now, Mom?”

Ted took out her phone and punched a number. She put the phone up tight to her right ear, and plugged her other ear using her left index finger, as if to drown out noise from the room, even though the only sound was wind pushing faintly against the windows.

Hayden listened as Ted issued instructions to her team. She was calmly dispatching them to Marc-Andre’s house to “clean up” the situation. Hayden marveled at her mother’s grace.

Ted hung up. Hayden stared at her.

“Is Marc-Andre going to be alright?” asked Hayden.

“Yes,” replied Ted. “Everything will be taken care of.”

“But,” said Hayden, “Steve had quite a gang backing him up. What about them?”

“There’s always a bigger fish,” replied Ted.

Hayden thought about it. “Wait, did you just drop a quote from Star Wars?”

Ted dropped her head in mock disgrace. “Yes,” she mumbled into her chest. “Meesa sorry.” Then Ted looked up, grinning.

“Wait,” said Hayden, “I need the details.”

“Don’t worry,” said Ted, “I’ll tell you. But first, let’s make some tea.”

“I think I need something stronger,” replied Hayden. She scanned the room, quickly laying eyes on the liquor cabinet. “Bingo,” she said.

“When did you become such a booze hound?” asked Ted. “During your gentlemen’s club days?”

“Princeton,” said Hayden, delighted, as she pulled a bottle of Knob Creek out of the cabinet.

Ted shrugged. “I’ll have one too.”

Hayden poured two glasses, neat, and plunked them down on a small wooden table near the liquor cabinet.

Mother and daughter sat, clinked glasses wordlessly, and took swigs.

As Hayden gulped down her mouthful of whiskey, she felt it warming her, inside-out. Instinctively, she felt like Marc-Andre was going to be okay. She trusted her mother on that point.

Hayden thought back to the firefight with her father. She felt strangely unsentimental about taking him out.

“Mom,” started Hayden. “Why did Dad put a gun to your head?”

“He is—was—an impulsive man.”

For the first time, Hayden began to appreciate fully the permanence of her action. “Mom,” said Hayden, “I know this might sound weird, but I almost feel like he wanted me to take the shot.”

“Honestly, Hayden, I wouldn’t put it past him. He was a strange duck.”

Hayden could sense her mom wasn’t telling her everything. “I thought you guys were on the same job here,” said Hayden finally.

“We were, but he screwed things up.”

“How so?” asked Hayden.

Ted blurted: “He wasn’t supposed to kill Ollie!”

After a long pause, Hayden asked, “Why did he make me do it then?”

Ted took a swig of her whiskey. “It just wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Hayden shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“It’s all about a particular oil pipeline, you see. Our mandate was to keep the pipeline project moving forward. Ollie had done some research that would damage the pipeline’s prospects. We couldn’t let that information come to light. But we weren’t trying to kill Ollie. We just wanted access to his research.”

“So,” pressed Hayden, “why did dad have me kill him?”

“Well,” said Ted, “either he didn’t like the two of you together, or he just wanted to see if you’d do it. Or maybe both.”

Hayden was stunned, but she kept turning the puzzle in her mind. “And Jean-Luc,” she said, “was working for other side. He wanted Ollie’s research to be published, to damage the pipeline project.”

“Exactly,” said Ted. “That’s why Jean-Luc recruited you to keep Ollie safe.”

Hayden sat in thought for a minute, and then asked, “What is going to happen at Marc-Andre’s house? Who’s the bigger fish?”

“Well,” Ted began, “when it comes to oil pipelines, there’s always a bigger fish.”

“What did you do, call in the Koch Brothers?”

“Yes,” replied Ted.

Hayden waited for her mother’s wry smile to wrinkle the corner of her mouth, but it never did.

Just then, a text message came in for Ted. It said Steve had been captured. No casualties.

“Mom,” asked Hayden, “how’d you get to be such a boss?”

“Just followed my nose,” replied Ted.

“Following my nose just seems to land me in trouble,” said Hayden.

“You got that from your father,” said Ted with a smirk.

Hayden found herself smiling. “What else did I get from him?” asked Hayden.

As the question floated out of Hayden’s mouth, she started to get misty-eyed.

“That killer instinct,” said Ted after a minute.

Hayden gulped her drink, fighting back tears. In her mind, she replayed shooting Jack in the neck.