Chapter 16

16

As promised, the CIA cleanup team boarded in Ferrara.

While two of the four agents set to work removing any signs of the encounter from the hallway, Billy took the other two into the cabin where Rogers’s body lay.

The leader surveyed the situation, then said, “Okay. We’ve got it from here.”

Billy went down to Tessa’s cabin and knocked before sliding the door open.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Please do,” Tessa said.

With her were Peter and Stacy, who looked less off-kilter than earlier.

Hattie was in the cabin next door, keeping Lizzie and Adriene occupied.

Making sure Adriene remained in the dark about the events had been simple since she’d slept through everything. Getting Lizzie back to her cabin without her finding out had been accomplished by the art of distraction. When she and Hattie had returned from the restaurant car, Billy, Peter, and Tessa had staged an animated conversation about a scene in Peter’s new script, and in the process blocked Lizzie’s view of the blood on the floor.

Stacy was another matter entirely. She had seen too much.

“How are you feeling?” Billy asked her.

She snorted. “Like I just stepped into one of Peter’s movies.”

“I can imagine.”

“Did you actually shoot the guy that grabbed me?”

“I did.”

She made several aborted attempts to ask a follow-up question but couldn’t find the words.

“If you’re wondering if I had a choice, the answer is no,” Billy said. “It was either I shoot him or let him shoot you.”

She mulled it over for several seconds, then said, “Can I ask a question?”

“You can.”

“Please don’t think I don’t appreciate you saving my life because I do. I really , really do. But why did any of that happen in the first place?”

“That is an excellent question.”

“And the answer?”

He winced. “Well, it’s complicated.”

“You need to tell her,” Tessa said to Billy.

“Tell me what?” Stacy asked, confused.

Billy knew Tessa was right. He’d known it since the moment Stacy looked into the corridor. But knowing it and actually bringing her into the fold about his big secret were two different things. But try as he might, he could not come up with an alternative. “There’s something you don’t know about me.”

“Really?” she said exaggeratedly. “I would have never guessed.”

“It’s something that very few people know. If I tell you, you must agree never to talk about this to anyone who doesn’t know.”

“Why?”

“Because people could die.”

“You—you’d kill me?”

“Of course I wouldn’t kill you. But there are a lot of people out there who would love to kill me, and since you and I work together, you might become collateral damage.”

“I’m not sure I want to know now.”

Tessa put a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be better if you do, I think.”

“You already know?” Stacy asked, confused.

“Both Peter and I do.”

“Hattie, too,” Peter said.

“And Ben,” Tessa said.

“But Adriene and Lizzie don’t,” Billy said. “And it needs to stay that way.”

Stacy chewed her lower lip and after a moment seemed to come to a decision. “All right. Whatever you’re about to tell me, I won’t share with anyone else.”

“I have your promise?” Billy asked.

“Do you want me to sign my name in blood somewhere?”

“Now there’s a thought.”

“I was kidding.”

“So was I.”

She frowned. “I used to know when you were kidding.”

“You still do. You’re just a little on edge at the moment.”

“You think?”

He smiled reassuringly.

“So, what’s your big secret?” Stacy asked. “Are you Superman or something?”

“Or something,” Peter said.

“Are you going to tell me he’s the Hulk, then?”

“You’re intertwining comic book universes.”

Exasperated, Stacy said, “Is that really what’s important right now?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not a superhero,” Teddy said. “You told me once that you’d be better at your job if you knew everything I was up to.”

“I’ve told you more than once.”

“Not the point I was trying to make, but yes, you have.”

“And…?”

“Billy Barnett is just one of my identities.”

“What do you mean? You have multi-personalities like that old movie? What was it called?”

“ Sybil ?” Peter offered.

“Never heard of it.”

“You mean Split ,” Tessa said.

“That’s it.”

“I believe the character in that movie had dissociative personality disorder,” Peter said. “That’s not what Billy’s talking about. Think more Mr. & Mrs. Smith .”

“Donald Glover and Maya Erskine or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?”

Peter shrugged. “Either one.”

“Because I like the Donald and Maya one better.”

“Me, too.”

“For me, it’s Brad and Angelina,” Tessa said.

“Only because of your childhood crush on Brad Pitt,” Peter said.

“I feel like we’re getting off topic,” Billy interjected.

“So, not like Mr. & Mrs. Smith ?” Stacy asked.

“That’s not what I—” Billy stopped himself, took a breath, and said, “You’re probably too young to remember this, but many years ago there were news reports about a rogue former CIA agent.”

Stacy’s mind spun for a moment. “I vaguely remember that. He killed some people who turned out to be not so great themselves. At least, I think that’s what my mom said.”

“Your mother is a very intelligent person.”

“Tommy something, right?”

“Teddy.”

“Right. Teddy…”

“Fay.”

“Yes! Teddy Fay.” She looked happy at making the connection, but her smile waned as Billy continued to stare at her. “What?”

“Nice to meet you, Stacy. I’m Teddy Fay.”

She laughed. “Right. The one thing I do remember is that Teddy Fay is dead.” When she noticed no one else was laughing with her, she said, “He is dead, isn’t he?”

“He is not,” Peter said, shaking his head.

“Billy’s Teddy Fay?”

“He is,” Tessa said.

“How long have you two known?”

“Since about the same time we came to Hollywood,” Tessa said.

“He saved our lives, too,” Peter said.

She looked back at her boss. “If you’re Teddy Fay, why aren’t you in prison?”

“Another excellent question,” Billy said. “I’m pretty good at hiding, but more importantly, I have a presidential pardon.”

“You have a pardon?”

“I’d show it to you, but as you probably can imagine, I don’t carry it around with me.”

“So, the guy who grabbed me…?”

“Was sent to kill the man with whom I was going to meet.”

“And that man was the other dead guy,” she guessed.

“Correct.”

“Why were you meeting him?”

“Because I’m doing something for the CIA.”

She stared at him. “ The CIA? The same agency you went rogue from?”

“I’m certainly not talking about the Culinary Institute of America.” Billy motioned at the door. “There’s a team of agents in the hallway right now cleaning everything up.”

She narrowed her eyes for a moment. Then she moved to the window and pulled the curtain away enough to peek into the corridor. “My God. You weren’t lying.”

“I haven’t lied about anything.”

She turned back to him. “You mean you haven’t since we started this conversation. Because clearly—”

Billy held up a hand, stopping her. “Yes. As of this conversation.”

“And if I hadn’t seen what happened, I’d still be in the dark, wouldn’t I?”

“Today, for sure. Though chances are, it would have eventually become necessary to tell you.”

She looked at Peter. “Totally Mr. & Mrs. Smith .”

“Right?” Peter said.

She whipped her head around to look at Billy again. “Hold on. Is it just Billy and Teddy? Or do you have more identities?”

“About that…”

She snorted. “So, what? Are you going to tell me you’re Mark Weldon, too?”

“Whoa,” Peter said, impressed.

“Good guess,” Tessa said, clapping.

With a roll of her eyes, Stacy said, “I was joking .”

“Have you ever seen Billy and Mark in the same place?” Peter asked.

“I’m sure I have.” Stacy’s face scrunched up in thought. The longer she stayed quiet, the more worried her expression turned. She looked skeptically at Billy. “You can’t be Mark. You don’t even sound like him.”

Adjusting his voice to that of Mark Weldon, Billy said, “Are you sure about that?”

Stacy slammed back against the seat. “Oh. My. God.”

“Believe me now?”

She hesitated, then nodded. “How many others?”

“Those are the main ones.”

“How many people know about this?”

“Less than twenty.”

She looked at him for several seconds, then said, “Is it too early to have a drink?”

Just outside of Padua, traffic control ordered the passenger train to stop for five minutes, ostensibly to allow a freight train to pass through the area ahead of them.

The actual reason for the stop was so that the CIA cleanup team could disembark with Rogers’s body, the delay arranged by Lance through his counterpart in Italian intelligence.

When the train began moving again, no evidence of the short but deadly encounter remained.