Dom gritted his teeth. “They don’t. Look, let’s get back to work.”
“Just a minute,” Vito said softly, his eyes on the screen. He’d let this play out because he was curious, both about Dom’s classmates and what kids were playing these days. He never knew when knowing current kid-speak would come in handy in the interview room. He’d caught many a teen off guard pretending to share their interests. But as soon as Vito’s curiosity was sated, Jesse would be out on his ass.
On the screen, the American soldier reloaded his weapon and muttered, “This was a trap. She betrayed me, the whore.” He cocked the rifle. “She’ll come to regret that move.” The scene changed and the soldier was at the door of a small French cottage.
“So what’s the story here?” Vito asked Ray.
“This is… the cut scene.” He said it like it was the Sistine Chapel or something. When Vito frowned, Ray looked disappointed. “A cut scene is-”
“I know what a cut scene is,” Vito interrupted. The cut scene was the animated movie clip where the main character talked to people, learned secrets, or simply got free stuff. “Most of the ones I’ve seen have been boring and just kept you from the game. What I was asking was, what’s special about this one?”
Ray grinned. “You’ll see. This is Clothilde’s house. She claimed to be French Resistance, but she gave our soldier up. That’s why he was ambushed back there at the bunker. It’s payback time. Jesse’s right. This really is unbelievable.”
On the screen, the door opened to the inside of the cottage as the game flowed into the cut scene. The graphics abruptly changed. Gone were the grainy characters and choppy motion. When the American soldier walked through the door and began to search the cottage, it looked real. The solder finally found Clothilde hiding in a closet. He yanked her out of the closet and up against a wall. “You bitch,” he snarled. “You told them where to find me. What did they give you? Chocolate? Silk stockings?”
The busty Clothilde sneered up at him, although her eyes were wide with fear.
“Watch her eyes,” Ray whispered.
“Tell me.” The soldier shook the woman’s shoulders violently.
“My life,” Clothilde spat. “They said they would not kill me if I told. So I told.”
“Five of my buddies died back there. Because of you.” The American put his hands around her throat and Clothilde’s eyes grew wider. “You should have let those German bastards kill you. Now I will.”
“No. Please no!” As she struggled the screen filled with her face and his hands. The fear in her eyes…
“Amazing,” Ray whispered beside him. “The artist is truly amazing. It’s like watching a movie. It’s hard to believe somebody created this.”
But someone had. Disturbed, Vito felt his jaw tighten. Somebody had drawn this. And kids were watching it. He nudged Dom aside. “Go check on your brothers.”
From the corner of his eye, Vito could see Dom’s face relax in relief. “Okay.”
On the screen, Clothilde was sobbing and begging for her life. “Are you ready to die, Clothilde?” the soldier mocked and she screamed, loud and long. Desperate. Too real. Vito winced and looked at the kids’ faces as they watched transfixed. Eyes wide, mouths slightly open. Waiting.
The scream ended and there was a long moment of silence. Then the soldier laughed softly. “Go ahead and scream, Clothilde. No one can hear you. No one will save you. I killed them all.” His hands tightened, his thumbs moving to the hollow of her throat. “And now I’ll kill you.” His hands tightened further and Clothilde began to writhe.
Vito had seen enough. “That’s it.” He leaned forward and hit the power button on the monitor and the screen went dark. “Show’s over, kids.”
Jesse whipped the recliner down and stood up. “Hey. You can’t do that.”
Vito pulled the computer’s power cord from the wall. “Hey. Watch me. You can play that crap in your parents’ house, but you’re not playin’ it here. Pack it up, buddy.”
Jesse weighed his options. Finally he turned away in disgust. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Dude.” One of the boys winced. “Without Dom’s science project, we got nothin’.”
“We don’t need him.” Jesse tucked the computer under his arm. “Noel, get the monitor. Ray, get the CDs.”
Noel shook his head. “I can’t fail again. You might not need Dom’s project, but I do.”
Jesse’s eyes narrowed. “Fine.” The others followed, leaving Ray and Noel.
Ray grinned at Vito. “His parents wouldn’t let him play the game at home either.”
Vito looked over his shoulder. “Will Jesse cause any problems for Dominic?”
“Nah. Jesse’s no match for Dom. Dom’s the captain of the JV wrestling team.”
Vito bent his mouth, impressed. “Wow. He never told me that.”
“Dominic can take care of himself,” Ray said. “Sometimes he’s just too nice.”
Dominic came back down the hall, Pierce riding on his back. The five-year-old had just gotten out of the bath and his hair was wet, and his pj’s were Spiderman. Vito was glad he’d turned off that filth before the little ones had seen it.
Dom looked at the remaining two teenagers. “Jesse’s gone?”
Ray grinned again. “Sheriff here ran him out of town on a rail.”
“Thanks, Vito,” Dom said quietly. “I didn’t want him watching that stuff here.”
Vito presented his back to Pierce, who took a flying, screeching leap. “Next time, just tell him to leave.”
“I did tell him to leave.”
“Well, then… toss him out on his ass, if you have to.”
“Awwww,” Pierce said. “Uncle Vitoooooo. You said the donkey word, Uncle Vito.”
Vito winced. He’d forgotten “ass” was on the swear-word list. “Sorry, pal. You think Aunt Tess’ll wash my mouth out with soap?”
Pierce bounced. “Yes, yes!”
“Yes, yes,” Tess said from the hall. Her hair hung in damp waves. Obviously as much water had landed on her as on Pierce. “Vito, watch your mouth.”
“Okay, okay.” He gave a final nod to Dom. “You did fine, kid. Next time you’ll do even better.” He jogged back to Tess, giving Pierce a ride.
“Well? Did she get it?” She was referring to the present she’d left for Sophie.
“Don’t know. She gets out of class soon. I guess I’ll find out then. But thanks for picking it up. Where did you find a memory neutralizer toy anyway?”
“Party store on Broad Street. Guy advertises he’s got every Happy Meal toy ever sold. The neutralizer was a pretty popular one when the movie came out.” She lifted a brow. “You owe me two hundred bucks for the toy and the curtains.”
Vito nearly dropped Pierce. “What? What kind of curtains did you buy? Gold?”
She shrugged. “The curtains were only thirty bucks.”
“You paid a hundred and seventy dollars for a Happy Meal toy?”
“The toy was in its original wrapper.” Her lips twitched. “I hope she’s worth it.”
Vito blew out a breath. “Me, too.”
Chapter Thirteen
Tuesday, January 16, 9:55
P.M.
Is something wrong, Dr. J?”
Sophie looked up to see Marta walking across the parking lot behind the Whitman humanities building. “My bike won’t start.” She got off and huffed a weary sigh. “It was running just fine right before class. Now it tries to start and just sputters.”
“Bummer.” Marta bit her lip. “You do have gas in the tank, don’t you? The last time my car wouldn’t start I got all upset till I realized I’d forgotten to get gas.”
Sophie bit back her impatience. Marta was trying to help. “I filled up this morning.”
“What’s wrong?” Spandan had joined them, along with most of the other students in her Tuesday night graduate seminar. This semester she was teaching Fundamentals of the Dig to a packed classroom, and while she normally would have hung around to answer questions, she’d bolted right after class tonight. Vito was waiting for her at Peppi’s Pizza and all she’d been able to think about during class was that kiss.