Woe to the firstborn sons of the House of Bones.
“It was in the posts after vandals broke into a tomb in Egypt,” Circe said, and explained about the tomb of the lost firstborn son of Amenhotep II, seventh pharaoh of the eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She leaned on the word “firstborn.”
“Cool,” said Hu.
“Okay, bones and bones,” said Dietrich, “how does that relate to the ‘Inner C’?”
“Son of a bitch,” breathed Aunt Sallie. “The goddamn Bonesmen.”
Chapter Sixty-four
The Hangar
Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn
December 19, 8:41 P.M. EST
“Bonesmen?” asked Circe. “As in the Skull and Bones?”
Aunt Sallie gave her an approving nod. “Right, and the Inner C has to be the Inner Circle.”
“I thought they were a myth,” said Dietrich; then he answered his own comment, “Right, and we’re the DM-fricking-S, so they’re probably real.” He sighed and shook his head. “One of these days we’re going to find out that UFOs, Godzilla, and vampires are real, too. Sometimes I hate this job.”
Aunt Sallie shared a private smile with Church, and we were welcome to make anything we wanted out of that. It made me wonder if something that Dietrich said hit a nerve. With my luck it would be Godzilla.
“Have we had any dealings with the Inner Circle?” asked Rudy.
Aunt Sallie nodded. “Mr. Church and I have been looking into them since before the DMS was founded. We’ve been considering making them a ‘project,’ but they’re sly cocksuckers and gathering evidence on them is a lot like trying to punch through smoke.”
“We may have to take that look,” said Church quietly.
Circe said, “If we are to interpret this correctly, the Inner Circle are enemies of the Seven Kings.”
Church didn’t comment and he gave me a tiny shake of his head, so I kept my mouth shut about what he and I had discussed before the meeting.
“Looks that way,” Hu said, looking very pleased. “A clash of secret empires. This is sweet.”
“This can’t end happily,” said Circe. “What are we into here? Is this a three-way fight, or are we getting caught in the cross fire?”
“Points for using combat slang,” I said.
“Bite me,” she muttered; then to the group she said, “Actually, a clash makes a lot of sense. It explains the tip-off information. And it makes sense that the Inner Circle would reach out to the DMS.”
“Does it?” Church murmured.
“Sure,” agreed Aunt Sallie, “to use us to do the dirty work instead of having to endanger any of their own assets.”
Dietrich nodded. “Smart.”
“Isn’t it a little obvious, though?” asked Rudy. “I mean … if these are separate groups and if they are as secret as they’re supposed to be, then how do they know so much about each other? How can the Inner Circle know so much about the terrorist cells working with the Kings that they can feed reliable tips to Mr. Church?”
“A double agent,” suggested Circe.
“Or they managed to plant someone inside the Kings,” Auntie ventured.
“No,” decided Circe. “It’s too pat. If the Inner Circle wanted the Kings torn down, then they could just as easily pass that information along within channels. The Bonesmen are supposed to be wired into every level of government. Going outside their own network is an unnecessary risk.”
“Right,” agreed Rudy. “A letter with no return address would accomplish the same thing.”
“Doc’s right,” Dietrich agreed. “It’s either showing off, or it’s clumsy—”
“Or it’s misdirection,” finished Circe. “Don’t forget the Goddess and her posts. It’s all about misdirection.”
“Sorry to interrupt, guys, but you got to see this,” said Bug. He hit some buttons and suddenly we were looking at Wolf Blitzer. The feed cut in mid-sentence. “—rocked the foundations of power as four scions of powerful American families died under what can only be called ‘suspicious circumstances.’ Sources at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have not yet declared this to be an outbreak, and so far no one else who was in the company of the four victims has become sick. Even so, each site has been quarantined and—”
Aunt Sallie snapped her fingers at Bug. “Shit! Pull up a list of known members of the Skull and Bones.”
“On it.” The list flashed onto a second screen. Bug scrolled through the names, highlighting them as he went. Harrington, Milhaus … one, two, three, four. “Oh, man … they’re all on the list.”
“They’re Inner Circle,” Auntie said. “Those four are power players, and two of them for sure are Inner Circle. My guess is that all of them are.”
“Dios mio,” breathed Rudy. He put his hand on Circe’s arm. “You know what we’re seeing here?”
We all knew, but Circe put it in words: “The deaths of the firstborn.”
Rudy actually crossed himself.
“There’s been a fifth death,” interrupted Bug. “Just came in. Jessica St. Stevens, daughter of—”
“Congressman Pierce St. Stevens,” said Church. “I know him. Close friend of Dick Cheney. Jess is his only child. She’s estranged from her father. Works for Doctors Without Borders.”
Auntie gave a derisive snort. “No fucking way she’s tied into her dad’s politics.” She snapped her fingers at Bug. “Make sure you pull the names of anyone suspected of being connected to the Inner Circle. We need to identify their children and get the word out. Now!”
Bug worked furiously and more names began appearing on the main screens and that was quickly followed by biographical data and then contact information.
“No time to get this out to the local authorities,” growled Church. “We need to act now.”
We all grabbed phones and began making calls. The team leaders from the other DMS shops did the same. Within ten minutes we had three hundred people making calls to families, police departments, the Centers for Disease Control, hospitals, the National Institutes of Health, and a dozen federal agencies. It was a nightmare of urgency, and as we worked reports kept coming in. Six victims. Then it jumped to a nine. A dozen. We kept at it. Fifteen victims. Sixteen.
“Are we too late?” Dietrich asked. “There must be hundreds of Bonesmen. Are all of their firstborn kids being targeted? Or just the children of the Inner Circle?”
“No way to know,” snapped Church. “Call everyone. Go beyond the Inner Circle.”
The night ground on. Our calls were met with skepticism and hostility by those people suspected of being in the Inner Circle. None of them denied it. At least none of those who answered the phone in voices that were broken by sobs or screams.
The ordinary Bonesmen were shocked and angry. Most of them didn’t believe it. Not surprising, but also not helpful. A lot of people hung up on us.
Some of these people were past presidents. Many of them were generals, corporate CEOs, billionaires. Their combined might could crush even the DMS. And since many of them did not know about the Seven Kings or believe in them, we were the ones bearing the bad news, so a lot of genuine rage was directed at us. Mr. Church got a call from the President, who had gotten over thirty calls from members of Congress and colleagues of such political importance that their calls got through to him without red-tape hindrance.
Between calls I caught a fragment of Church’s side of that conversation.
“—yes, Mr. President, I believe that we can call this a terrorist attack. However, I don’t think we should say so to the press. A statement to that effect would be exactly what the Seven Kings need—”