Long Plastic Hallway
an excerpt

EXCERPT #6

Verity sat back in the seat and glared at him. “You need to stop thinking like someone who’s ‘in the business’. You need to think of this like an op, and one of your agents has been compromised and needs extraction.”

Ashen stared at her like she’d grown another head. “You really think she’s in danger, don’t you,” he said, as if he was pretty sure he didn’t believe it.

Verity did. She really couldn’t believe that Ashen did NOT, but she was going to figure out a way to make him see the big picture here. “Look, this is the music business, right? You were the one who told me that. And what people will do to get ahead. I may not remember much of it, but I ended up an orphan because my mother couldn’t handle all of the stupid shit she felt like she had to do to be famous, and stay famous. If Nico being famous is what keeps Vincent Neely rich, then he’s going to be willing to do whatever it takes to protect that. And so far, you’ve been playing right into his hands, what with helping him keep Nico medicated and out of his way.” She shook her head. “Best thing you could have done would have been tell her he has these pictures, whatever they are, and then she could fire him and find a new manager. I’m sure there are lots of people who would give anything to be working for her, and they wouldn’t be feeding her pills or shuttling her off to private concentration camp hospitals, either.”

Ashen shook his head. “You don’t understand what it’s like. American Icon would totally denounce her for what she did before she appeared. I mean, she had to sign all these waivers and affirmations about her moral character and how she’d never done anything that might compromise the integrity of the show. They will totally disavow her and smear her in the media. She’ll be DONE. It will be over.” He looked at his phone, lying unused in his lap. “And she will never, ever forgive me.”

Verity stared at him. All of the things she’d thought about, watching Ashen with Nico, came suddenly together in her head. “You love her?”

Ashen screwed his eyes shut, as if he was trying not to see a truth that was right in front of his face, knocking on his eyelids. “I…I love her, she’s like a little sister…she’s like…a little sister who is constantly saying ‘look at me, I’m beautiful, I’m lustrous and alive and everything you think you want.” He stopped and looked up at Verity, and she was shocked at the stricken, painful look in his dark eyes. “And I’m poised at the edge of this cliff, ready to throw myself off. And I need you to stop me, but I’m going to be angry at you when you do.” He spoke the last sentence at a high speed, running the words together and then heaving a huge, desperate breath afterward. “What am I supposed to do if I save her, and she hates me?”

“Let her be alive to hate you. She’ll grow up and figure it out eventually,” Verity answered. “Because you need to come to terms with one thing here. Nico is in danger. And we are the only people who can do anything for her right now.”

Ashen nodded and took another couple of deep breaths. “Okay. So what do you think we should do next?”

All of Verity’s fears about Ashen knowing who she really was, and what she really did, or used to do for a living, came suddenly to the surface. She stared at him, at war with herself, and who she was, who she’d been up until now, and who she was going to have to try to turn into now that Legacy was no more.

I’m not a mercenary any more. But I can chose my own destiny here. I can do the right thing and protect someone whom I care about, who is worthwhile. I can use the skills I have, the resources I have, to try to save Nico.

“I think we should call Aunt Bea,” she said decisively, proud that her voice didn’t shake.

Ashen looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Who??”

“My employer. My former employer, rather. And she can conference in at least one of my colleagues. And they’ll have some good input on what we can do next. Because we’re going to save Nico. Not just her, but her career. And we’re going to take down Neely in the process.”

Ashen continued to stare for a moment. Then he shut his mouth with an audible click. “Alright. I’m open to suggestion at this point.” He reached behind himself and knocked on the glass between them and the driver.

Back in her hotel suite, the first thing Verity asked Ashen to do was to disable all the security cameras and any listening devices.

He had the grace to look abashed. “You knew about those?”

Verity made a vexed sound. “Give me a little credit, would you? And did you notice that I tried to do everything I could in the corners of the rooms, and in the bathroom?” She pulled her notebook out of her bag. “And thank you, by the way, for not putting one in there, too. I do value my privacy.”

“Well, you must admit, if I wanted to see you naked, I just had to hang around long enough. You weren’t too shy and retiring to strip down and swim the other night.”

Verity lifted her chin haughtily. “That was just a gesture of solidarity. And it was for Nico’s benefit, not yours. Presumptuous pig.”

“Sloshy floozy,” Ashen’s offhanded comment hearkened back to the night after Anubis, in the limo. Verity chose to ignore it, for the moment. It was true they were going to have to talk about that night eventually, but right now they had more pressing business to attend.

She had gotten online and sought out a chat room having to do with the Amsterdam Gamelan Society. Aunt Bea had established it as the common meeting place for Legacy employees when they needed to discuss a job. When Verity, Gideon, Aida or Beatrice herself logged on it sent text messages to each of their phones, if they weren’t already online. That way they could determine if each of the others was in a position in which they could talk freely or not, or agree to meet in another location.

AM LOOKING FOR NEXT SOCIETY FANCLUB MEETUP she typed, as this was the coded phrase that would alert the others to her request to speak with them. As she typed, Ashen leaned over her shoulder. “What the hell are you doing, we have some strategizing to do! This isn’t the time for you to be indulging your weird hobbies.”

“Really, you could use some culture in your life. The gamelan is an ancient Asian musical art. Not that this has anything to do with it. I’m contacting the rest of the Legacy organization as we speak.”

Ashen didn’t have an answer for that, and he sat down to watch her. “So that’s a coded message, I take it? This is all a little James Bond-ish for my tastes.”

“It is a coded message, and if you think it’s anything like the show business portrayal of espionage, you’re sorely mistaken,” she replied. “Do we have a way of accessing your computer from in here? You may have some information on your hard drive that could be useful.”

With a little twist of his lip, Ashen shook his head. “I never gave you network privileges.”

Verity clicked her tongue. “Well, I’m not surprised. That was a good idea, actually. I would have hacked into your computer by now anyhow.”

“Right.” Ashen replied tightly. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with Verity taking charge as she was, but he knew he had little choice. She had more resources, and ideas, about how to help Nico than he did at the moment. He startled slightly as her computer chimed. “Did you get a response?” he asked, leaning over to look at the screen.

Verity tilted the notebook so he could look at it also. He read a response to her query.

FANCLUB HAS BEEN DISBANDED, CAN MEET IN PRIVATE ROOM TO DISCUSS

Verity typed her answer. PLEASE ADVISE.

After a moment, the reply showed up. SETTING UP PRIVATE ROOM NOW.

--tbc