Page 22 of Sinner
“Yes. I want to pay him.”
“You can do that later.”
“Please,” Gloria said in a strained voice. “It has to be now. I don’t want a doubt in his mind as to his purpose.”
Mary could see Gloria’s nervous head-shake developing and didn’t want to distress her, so rushed to retrieve the laptop and set it up on Gloria’s lap. Within minutes, Gloria transferred money into Flint’s payroll account.
“Done. Eight million dollars. You’re next.”
Mary shook her head. “I don’t need your money, Gloria. I’m not doing this for the wealth. The Sisterhood will take care of everything.”
“That’s why I’m giving it to you, because you don’t want it.”
“You mean to Flint. You gave it to Flint. I won’t give you my bank details.”
“Then I’ll give the rest to Flint and he can give it to you if you change your mind.” A few more clicks on the keyboard. “Done.”
There was a flash of emotion in Gloria’s eyes as she closed the lid on the laptop. Something coy and knowing. As though she knew the answer to a riddle Mary hadn’t asked yet. Then it was gone, quickly replaced by another Mary tried to decipher.
Gloria idly slid her hands back and forth on the smooth laptop surface, thinking, and then dropped her heavy head back to the pillow. When she finally lifted her tired gaze, Mary recognized the turmoil.
A memory clicked.
She’d seen the same tortured look in a comrade during a training exercises in Japan. Mary had tutored under theOnna Bugeisha—a powerful secret society of female Samurai. Like the Sisterhood, they were all women. It was what the Sisterhood prided themselves in; secret women’s business. Men were a hindrance. Their tempers, their testosterone.Let them think they rule the world, but behind the scenes, we do. Women were the brains and the brawn. Slipping in unnoticed for centuries, assassinating and neutralizing threats, then slipping out with their enemy none the wiser. Who would suspect a nun of treachery—of sin?
This one particular time, Mary had been only sixteen or so, and the group of Japanese women she fought with staged a mock battle in the countryside. The first team to get to the other side, and capture the flag, won. Mary’s team was down to the last two people—her and a woman named Akari. Their battle had been desperate and two days long. Both girls were at the end of their limits and outnumbered, six to two, but Akari had this look in her eyes. Dark, hollow, determined. If she went down, then she would do it with honor. It was only a mock battle, but the sacrifice was real. She drew the enemy away from Mary which allowed Mary to cross the field and take the flag before anyone noticed. Gloria had the same look in her eyes now.
“Gloria,” Mary said, a warning tone in her voice. “What are you thinking?”
“You said your vision changed this morning.”
“Yes, Flint was added.”
“And who was taken away?”
Mary went cold. “What do you mean?”
“The laws of science say that with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Who was left out?”
Mary frowned. “I-I… I don’t know, I haven’t… my visions aren’t science, more like magic.” She was aBruja, that’s what the mean children in her youth had teased, it was what her parents had called her. It was the source of all her pain.
“Mary.” Gloria’s expression was condescending. “I don’t have to remind you what I think about magic, now do I? Look now. Think back. Please. It’s important.”
Mary closed her eyes, centered her breathing, relaxed. To conjure the vision she had in the elevator, she remembered the smells in there. The metallic taint of the steel doors, the musty carpet, freshly showered male… a hint of mint… then the vision came back, flashing and flickering like an old movie reel. One, two… she counted the adult faces she saw, the children, and then—an ache so sharp hit her squarely in the chest. No. It can’t be. Shame flamed Mary’s cheeks. She’d been so caught up with, so excited about… that she completely focused on the wrong thing. She shook her head. Unbelievable. How could she be so stupid? So negligent? So blind?
The mission came first and she failed.
Gloria was not in the vision.
When Mary reopened her eyes, recognition echoed back at her. She knew. Gloria somehow understood.
“No,” Mary said, determined to find a way. “It doesn’t matter. That vision is null and void because you had the child. You broke the cycle. Damn it, I should have written it down. Normally I record the vision. I’m so stupid.Pinche pendejo!”
“No. You’re not.” But Gloria’s lashes fluttered closed. “You are exactly what the children need. You and Flint. Me, on the other hand… I’ve never been able to accept the reality of being a mother. They’ve only been moving pictures behind a window. I’m not capable of more. I know it. Accept it. I’ve lost too much blood and am too weak to move far. I will slow you down. You must leave me.”
Mary’s veins turned to stone. “No. I’ll wheel you down in the gurney.”
“Mary, be realistic. You have eight children to move.”
