[Brackets] (40 page)

“He’s pleasant,” Tucker muttered.

“He’s just trying to keep everyone safe,” Cole returned. “Ichabod is a dangerous dude.”

Tucker glanced at Cole with a pang of guilt.

“Hey, I should tell you something.” Tucker licked his lips. “I, uh, I
think I
saw Ichabod yesterday morning. While I was out jogging.”

“What?”

“He came up to me in the street and was really weird. Kept asking me if I thought I would win and if I liked seeing into the
future. He didn’t say his name or anything, b
ut I figured it was him after—”
Tucker tripped over his words and paused for a moment. “After he mentioned you by name.”

Cole exhaled slowly and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Sorry, man, I actually went up to tell you, but you were asleep and Nera answered the door and… I just thought that things would be safe and it would be a bigger problem if you left.
”

Cole looked around and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now, we all know he’s here. I didn’t say anything the first time I saw him either. But he’s seriously crazy, so next time, tell someone. A lot of people ended up getting hurt because I kept what I knew to myself.”

“Absolutely. You’re right.” Tucker turned as he heard heightened cheering from the stadium. “So is Nera okay with everything?” he asked.

Cole cleared his throat. “Um, I should get back. See you at half time.”

Both men settled back into their seats
for the final three minutes
. The score at the half: Nebraska 23, UCLA 24. 

[
Championship Game
: Halftime]

Th
e entrance to the Presidential l
uxur
y s
uites was down a short fli
ght of stairs off of the second-
floor concourse. It was a much-touted feature of the recent Verizon Center renovations, and it was specifically designed to give visiting dignitaries maximum security and maximum amenities at a
maximum price. T
he isolated skybox entryway had a guard in front of it. A second guard was stationed in front of the Potomac Skybox, ready to stop any stranger who might try to disrupt the peace of the South Korean delegation.

A minute apart from each other,
Tucker and Henry, then Cole and
Nera
,
made their way to the entrance and were admitted past the guards. From a safe, unseen distance, the
blue-jacketed
Marshall Bell observed their entrance while he talked on the phone.

Further away still, another pair of eyes noticed t
he Marshall’s peculiar
,
clandestine behavior. The Marshall was agitated but trying to hide it. Whenever he tried to speak,
he
only got two words out before halting.
Whenever he was
interrupted, he would roll his eyes or wipe the sweat from beneath the baseball cap on his balding head. The conversation wasn’t going well. T
he Marshall finally said “yeah,”
hung up, and immediately dove into his pocket and pulled out a handful of chocolate-covered peanuts. To the careful eyes watching, this was clearly no lawman.

But the time to act had not yet come. Patience.

*
             
*
             
*
             
*

“Tucker! Seriously, rock twice?”

It took Tucker a moment to orient himself to the voice yelling gregariously
at him from across the ritzy s
kybox. Twenty plush seats were lin
ed up in the center of the room
like a small movie theater, but most of the people were milling
about
the sides or back,
circulating around the
large spread of food
and the
mini
bar
. The
front
of the room was dominated by the most dynamic, provocative virtual display that any of the four had ever seen
, embedded somehow into the large viewing windows
. They could clearly see the hip-hop dance troop performing in the half-time show, but the view was
impossibly close and crisp
.
The
illusion
of being
right there
was almost too good, like a dream that felt too real.
The four were so
mesmerized
by it that Rick O’
S
hea was able to walk right up behind Tucker and slap him on the shoulder completely unanticipated.

“You know what’s interesting about you, Tucker,” Rick philosophized glibly, “and I was thinking about it even before you choked down there. You are a genius with these complex, dynamic groups, but I
think you have some trouble one-on-
one. Individuals don’t cancel each other out, so they’re harder to predict moment by moment. That may be your kryptonite.”

“Wait, wait, Tucker’s a genius? And Superman?” Cole asked.

Henry shrugged. “It’s news to me, too, and I raised him.”

“But it doesn’t surprise you, does it?” Rick said with a wink.

“No, sir. Like I said:
I
raised him.”

The
ir
focus went back to the display. “Amazing, isn’t it?” Rick said. “It’s new ChangZhang technology.
The company bought the booth
so they can test
these
new displays. They want
to capture that
Kaah Mukul
magic and translate
it
into a massive crowd experience without having to wear those awful headsets. And
what you’re seeing
isn’t even the full
effect
.
They turned it way down for halftime.
You should stay up h
ere
when the game starts
so you can see the full display and feel the rumble of the surround sound
. Of course,
” he added without missing a beat,
“
nothing beats having the pages of a good book in your hand. Am I right?”

Rick led them up to the food
table
which they attacked without hesitation,
Henry first in line.
They were soon joined by Abby, accompanied by an older man wh
o caught their collective attention
without saying a word. His graying hair and genial step conveyed the assertive aura of one who had
long ago
become
accustomed
to being the most important man in the room
.

“Cole Kaman, Nera Pedrad, Henry and Tucker Barnes, I’d like you to meet Dr. Bryan Casing, our beloved boss.”

Casing shook everyone’s hands cordially. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting all of you. Have you been enjoying the game?” They all had. “Good. We’ve been following the unexpected twists and turns with you four, so let’s hope that all that begins well, ends well.” He turned to Cole. “I’d made a point of watching the Boston College game, and
I was quite concerned when
Dr. Faulkner
provoked that fight with you at the end. Did you ever find out what
made him do it?”

Cole shrugged. “He thought I’d cheated on my bracket, like someone had told me what to put down or something. I think he just had issues with losing.”

Casing was quiet for a moment. “It’s tragic when someone invests so much in winning that they can’t deal with failure. Nothing is worse than an inability to cope with the inevitable.”

“I guess,” said Cole, who was unprepared for deep conversation.

“So very true,”
Rick mused as he put an arm around Abby. “I remember when I first
met Abby
and I knew immediately that we’d be together
. She was
miserable for months
trying to ignore my existence
. It was fortunate that, when my ways finally prompted the inevitable to occur, it was only her fiancé that lost his marbles.”

Abby
clasped Rick
’
s
hand
and
nodded soberly. “Poor Raúl.”

“Well,” said Casing, turning b
ack
toward
Tucker and Cole, “I’m certain that
whoever wins and whoever loses will make gracious exits tonight. What you have both
done is astounding. Even so, i
t
can be hard to be as accepting of
the
end of a lucky break as you are to accept the beginning.”

Rick raised his cup. “It’s like Bryan always says: ‘Control is the goal, eat rolls in a bowl, patrol all the shoals
,
and extol all the Coles
’
. Or something like that.”

“Yes, something like that,” Casing nodded with a wry, somewha
t forced smile. “Tucker, I can
’t
imagine what it must have been
like
to have such close and continual contact with Rick and Abby these past few weeks.”

“We can,” Nera said under her breath. 

“I know that you don’t have a lot of time, but I wanted you all to go meet our host, Mr. Myung-Ki Noh. He’s upstairs, and he insisted that he get the chance
to meet
you two.
”
Casing
pointed to Cole and Tucker.

“I’ve heard of Myu
ng-Ki Noh,” Cole said
. “Doesn’t he have something to do with Kaah Mukul?”

“He invented Kaah Mukul,” replied Casing, amused.

“Oh. Wow.”

“All of this technology you see, those screens up front and everyt
hing else, it’s all a beta test
and
some
of the people
in the
room are potential investors, i
ncluding us. So eat
up
, he’s excited to show you some of his latest toys.
”
Casing turned to
Tucker and his dad. “Although, I was hoping to borrow Tucker here for a few minutes before you go up, if you don’t mind, Henry.”

“Take him,” said Henry, who
had
returned to the buffet.

Casing motioned for Tucker to sit down on one of the chairs overlooking the arena.

“I wanted to thank you for helping out Rick and Abby with the Wol Pot situation,” Casing said as he sat across from Tucker.

“
It didn’t help much
much,” said Tucker. “Now that everyone knows about the deal
,
it’s going to get real hard for them over there.”

“Yes, the leak was unfortunate. Many Hands is not a group
that balks at playing
countries off
of
each other.”

“You think Many Hands leaked it?”

“It sounds like something they would do, don’t you think? In fact, it’s my understanding
that those protestors outside have significant financial backing from some suspicious
Southeast
Asian sources
. You can ask the foreign minister about it later, if you get the chance. He’s
quite
worked up about it.” Casing waved his hand to change the subject. “But I didn’t pull you over to talk about politics. I have an offer for you.”

“You’re finally going to tell me who you
people
are?”

Casing nodded. “
I will, soon, but
since
we don’t have a lot of time right now,
I just want
ed
to
introduce you to
an
idea and we can discuss the details later. My group is building a research facility in Kentucky which we are looking to fill. Rick and Abby have suggested that you would be a good fit, and I’m inclined to trust their judgment. The facility itself won’t be ready until next
year, but there is plenty to
prepare for until then. You could
begin
work
ing
with
us
by the first of May
, after the end of the semester
.”

Tucker
found himself feeling simultaneously confused and honored
. “Dr. Casing,
that all sounds cool and all, but I’m not interested in research.”

“What are you interested in, Tucker?” Casing asked.

“I mean, I’m going to law school. Where I come from, there are a lot of people that need legal help. They get screwed over by big companies and banks all the time. I want to go back and help and be
the kind of
lawyer who fights for them, you know, work
s
for the people there.”