Day of Doom (15 page)

There was something about that name that was bugging him. And then he got an idea. Of course, ideas came to Atticus all the time. But he had a feeling about this

one.

Atticus closed the curtain, picked uphis phone, and began hitting buttons.

His phone had a Scrabble app. Hebrought it up and typed in the name
 
Dave Speminer
. There was something about thatname that seemed familiar, if one lookedat it in a different way.

A few seconds later Atticus was

proved   right.
 
Dave Speminer
 
was an anagram. The Scrabble app took the name
 
Dave Speminer
 
and turned it into another

name.

Damien Vesper.

Dave Speminer was Damien Vesper. Dave Speminer had murdered Atticus’smother.

And then Atticus, his huge brainfiring on all cylinders, made another leapof logic.

While not all anagrams of
Damien Vesper
, Atticus was sure that Damien Vesper,   Riley   McGrath,   and   Dave Speminer were one and the same. It justmade sense based on all the facts.

And one of those “facts” hit Atticus

like an artillery round. His eyes filled with tears. The man his mother had trusted

had killed her. And that man had been the dreaded head of the Vesper clan. He wiped his eyes and cleared the tears

away. His mouth set in a firm line. Now was not the time for grieving or sadness or despair. Now was the time for action, for justice. And yes, for revenge. He climbed down off his bunk and woke Jake.

His big brother looked very annoyedat having his sleep interrupted.

Atticus had heard Jake in his sleepsay the name
 
Amy
 
more than once. He hadto hide a smile as Jake looked at him.

But when Atticus showed Jake hiscell phone and the results of the Scrabbleapp, Jake sat up so fast he hit his head onthe underside of the top bunk.

Rubbing his head and looking cross,he said, “I’ll get dressed and get Amy and Dan. You stay here.”

As Jake was getting dressed, Atticussat in the chair by the window and gazed

out. Atticus finally looked over at his

brother.

“We have to get him, Jake,” said

Atticus.

“I know,” said Jake as he buttoned up

his shirt.

“He killed Mom.”

“I know, Atticus, I know.”

“We’ll get him, right? Make him pay?”

Jake laced up his shoes and then put a hand on his little brother’s arm. “We’ll get him, Att. I promise you that.”

Jake knocked lightly on the door of Amyand Dan’s compartment. Amy opened thedoor, dressed in sweats. Her hair was

tousled, her eyes puffy with sleep, and yet

to Jake she looked beautiful.

“Is everything okay?” she asked nervously. “Where’s Atticus?”

“Everything’s   okay,”   said   Jake softly. “But Att has figured out something, and you all need to hear it. Can you get dressed and come on?”

“Give us a couple of minutes.”

Jake waited outside the door, ever mindful that Isabel Kabra and her men

were on this train as well. However, no one passed by except a female conductor who looked vaguely familiar to Jake, but he figured it was because he had seen her pass by earlier in the day.

He didn’t look again at the woman.

Sinead Starling never glanced back, either. The wily Ekat with nerves the size

of Alaska kept walking until she reached another train car and passed through into it.

A few minutes later, Amy and Dan, fullydressed, were following Jake down thehall to his compartment.

Dan yawned and said, “This betterbe good, Jake. I was dreaming aboutfeeding Isabel and Vesper One to thesharks. And feeling sorry. For the
 
sharks
.”

They reached the other compartmentand Jake slid the door closed behind them. Atticus was sitting on the lower bunk. Jake sat beside him, and Dan and Amy satin chairs opposite.

“So what’s up, Atticus?” asked Amy.

He quickly explained about the Scrabble app and showed them the resultson the screen.

Atticus   said,   “It   can’t   be   acoincidence about the names being ananagram. The odds are billions to one.”

Amy nodded. “You’re right. So Dave Speminer, your mother’s assistant, is Vesper One.”

Dan eyed Atticus sadly. “And thatmeans he killed your mom?”

Atticus slowly nodded as he gazedback at Dan.

They had always had a special bond,both having lost their mothers. But nowthat bond had deepened. They both hadlost their mothers violently and pre-maturely to the Vespers.

Jake said, “So this sort of confirms,

doesn’t it, that Isabel isn’t Vesper One?”

“It does,” said Amy.

Atticus added, “And Dave Speminer is young, much younger than Isabel.”

“Ooohhh, Isabel must really hate that,” said Dan. “Taking orders from basically a kid.”

“When I was goading her in that alley in DC, I could see how badly she wanted to be the leader in all this,” said Amy. “Her blind ambition might give us an opportunity.”

“What do you mean, Am?” asked

Jake.

“That she’ll do anything to become Vesper One.”

“Including  knocking   off  Vesper One?” said Dan.

She gazed at him. “You know as well

as I do that Isabel will kill anyone to get

what she wants.”

“Yes, she will,” agreed Dan.

“Well,” said Atticus, “she’s on the train right now.”

“Yeah,   which  makes   me   very nervous,” said Jake. “If she spots us, we are dead.”

Atticus continued, “What I was thinking was that we might turn her being here into an advantage.”

“How?” asked Dan.

“If we can search her compartment, there might be something in there that could help us.”

“But we don’t know which one is her

compartment,” said Amy.

Dan held up his phone. “Already

hacked into Amtrak’s reservation system.

She’s in Train Car A, Compartment

Three.”

“But,   search  her  compartment?” exclaimed Jake. “We’ll get caught for sure.”

“Not if we can create a diversion,”

said Atticus.

Amy said, “Atticus, do you really

think the risk is worth it?”

Atticus   took  a  moment  beforeanswering. “I’ve given this a lot ofthought, Amy. I am the last Guardian andit’s my job to stop the Vespers. But nowit’s
 
personal
. He murdered my mom. Sonothing will stop me from beating the Vespers. And I’m tired of just reacting towhatever the Vespers do.”

Jake added, “Yeah, they have had usrunning around, doing all of their dirty

work for them.”

“Amen to that, brother,” said Dan.

They all looked at him curiously.

He said sheepishly, “I’ve been watching movies from the eighties on my laptop. They said that line a lot way back then. I’m not really sure why.”

“But we still need a diversion,” noted Jake.

Atticus smiled. “I have a plan forthat. A really cool one.”

“Amen to that, bro,” said Dan.

Atticus held up a fist. “Word.”

They all looked at one another andthen started roaring with laughter. Evenunder the dire circumstances it justseemed like the right thing to do.

Isabel Kabra sat alone in her privatecompartment. She was staring into themirror over the tiny sink that made up partof her lavatory.

She never had ridden on an American

train before. First class or private planes had always been part of her world. And luxurious train travel in Europe. As the pampered wife of a billionaire, she had always assumed that the world would

literally be at her feet. She was appalled at having to travel this way, and with ordinary people so close around her. Why, a man in a uniform had come in and said it

was time to go to the dining car to eat.

To eat with ordinary people!

She would have shot him for his

insolence, if she could have figured out a way to dispose of the body.

And then there was the tiniest of bathrooms in the compartment. It doubled as both a toilet and a shower! She was sure to the peons of the world —  meaning pretty much everyone except herself —  it was just fine. But to her it was unthinkable. She shuddered at even the

thought of wedging her perfect self into that minuscule space both to pee and to bathe.

But the train it had to be. Her privatejet had attempted to take off from Washington DC after that fiasco involving Amy Cahill in that alley. But afterrepeated attempts her pilots had reportedthat they could not safely get into the air.

She couldn’t believe that the Cahills

had actually called in the police in DC. That was not playing fair at all. The battle was between the Vespers and the Cahills. It was a family matter. It should be kept in the family. She would make Amy’s and Dan’s deaths a million times more painful to make up for that insult.

She looked over some of her AWW materials. She smiled. What a brilliant

subterfuge, and the idiots ate it up like chocolate. But once she dethroned Vesper One, AWW would be an important

element of her overall plan. Vesper One, the snot, could never be this subtle. Subtle? Ha! He was about as subtle as a charging rhinoceros.

But   that   would   work  to   her

advantage.

She looked at her watch. Two in the

morning. She should get some sleep. She had to keep up her beauty rest, even in the midst of her quest for total and complete world domination.

After all, a girl had to look her best ifshe was planning on ruling the world.

And   Isabel   had   always   beenbeautiful. All the men thought so. Evenones who were her sworn enemies. And

all the women were jealous of her looks, she was well aware of that. But then

again, people were always intimidated by

perfection.

She studied her face in the mirror

once more. She then looked closer.

Was that a wrinkle?

The lights in her compartment went out. She jerked up so suddenly, she hit her head on the little overhead light.

Trembling with rage, she screamed into her cell phone, “Here. Now!”

The door to her compartment flew open and two of her men stood there.

“Yes, Mrs. Kabra?” said one of them nervously. “Is there a problem?”

“A problem?” she began sweetly. “Why, just a teensy-weensy one.” Then she roared, “The lights went out, you idiot. Find out why! And I hit my head. I’m going to sue whoever owns this crummy train.”

“I think the Americans own it,” said the other guard meekly.