He shook his head. “Never heard of it.”
Mr. Needlemier spoke up. His voice was shrill with excitement. “I have! A utopia is a perfect society!”
Op Nine stared at him without expression.
“Well,” Mr. Needlemier said. “It is.”
“This is very curious,” Op Nine said. “The Charter mandates that Section Nine operatives be briefed on all sub-sub-sec ops.”
“Aquarius,” I said. “I’ve seen that name before, on your computer.”
“Aquarius,” Op Nine said, “is François Merryweather, the director of OIPEP.”
“That does it,” I said. I grabbed the 3XD out of Op Nine’s hand and jammed it under Mike’s chin.
“Mike!” I yelled. “You’ve got to the count of three!”
“Alfred,” Op Nine said. “If you do this, we may never solve this riddle.”
“You don’t remember,” I shot back. My voice was shaking pretty badly and tears stung in my eyes. “You don’t know everything he’s done. Not just to me, Op Nine—Samuel . . .” It felt weird, calling him Samuel after knowing him for so long as Op Nine. “But to everyone.”
“Killing him will not change that,” he answered.
“I don’t care about changing it,” I said. “I care about making him pay.”
“How he pays is not your decision.”
“Don’t bring up God or heaven to me, Nine. Don’t even go near there. I never saw much evidence of him before all this happened and I sure as hell haven’t seen any since it all happened.”
“Put down the weapon, Alfred,” Op Nine said.
“Not till I’ve put him away.”
Mike gave a loud moan and his eyelids fluttered. I poked his Adam’s apple with the muzzle of the gun.
“Wake up, Mike!”
He moaned again. I brought my face close to his.
“It’s over, Mike. We need the Seal and we need it now.”
“Bi . . .” he whispered. “Bi . . .”
“Bye?” Mr. Needlemier said.
“ ‘By’ what, Mike?” I asked. “What is it by?”
“Bite me,” he gasped.
“No thanks,” I said. “I think I’ll just shoot you.”
“Tell him we have her,” Op Nine said.
I looked at him. Who did we have?
“Tell him we have his mother.”
“You’re bluffing,” Mike said. “There’s no way.”