The Hollow Ones(50)



“Odessa,” said Solomon. He held out his hand to her. She took it: cold and rough. “This is a special thing you’ve done for me. Thank you.”

There was emotion behind his voice. He was grateful to her, and maybe there was something more.

“Happy to help, really I am.” She gave his hand a light squeeze. “I’m really glad we met.”

“Aren’t you sweet. Do me a favor and give your parents my regards, they raised a special one.”

Odessa let out a soft laugh. “I’ll do that.”

She made to pull away, but he gripped her hand a while longer.

“We in the Bureau, we answer a higher calling. Something sacred.”

“Yes,” she said, smiling. She patted the back of his hand. “And you did it longer than anyone, it seems.”

Solomon closed his eyes, smiled, and nodded. “Not better, but sure longer.” With a chuckle, he released her hand, his head settling back against the top pillow. “I got to close my eyes a bit now,” he said.

“Rest,” she said, feeling a surge of respect for the man.

With a friendly nod to Mr. Lusk, she backed out of the door.



Odessa waited at the elevator, suffused with a lingering warm feeling of connection with Agent Earl Solomon, and at the same time a mournful ache for his apparent loneliness at the end of his days. She watched the floor numbers light up in sequence as the elevator rose to receive her. The only good thing about hospitals was leaving them.

Another person appeared at her side. She looked over with a courtesy grin and saw that it was Mr. Lusk, his chubby fingers tapping softly on his leather portfolio.

“Going down?” he said with a smile.

“Yes,” she said. He seemed pleasant enough, but also like he had something on his mind.

“Difficult,” he said, nodding with meaning.

“It is,” she answered. “He’s a good man.”

The doors opened. Mr. Lusk waved his arm theatrically for Odessa to enter, joining two other riders already inside the elevator car. They turned to face the closing doors.

“How long have you been Agent Solomon’s lawyer?” she asked.

“Oh, I am not Agent Solomon’s lawyer,” he said, again with a smile. “I’m just doing a bit of pro bono work for him as a courtesy.” His fingers drummed the portfolio again. “No, I represent Hugo Blackwood.”

Odessa turned to him. He stood smiling at the doors as they descended. “You’re Blackwood’s lawyer?”

He nodded.

“Then why can’t you get him to visit Solomon?”

“Me? Oh no. Mr. Blackwood does as he pleases. I don’t have any luck persuading him to do anything. I am simply his representative.”

The doors opened, and they walked together to the exit. Odessa said, “I don’t suppose you want to tell me what Mr. Blackwood’s business is, or how he affords personal counsel…”

Mr. Lusk smiled and shook his head. “Mr. Blackwood has asked me to take you to him. He wants to show you something.”

“Show me what?”

“I don’t know the answer to that.”

“He wants you to take me?”

They stepped out onto the street. “I have a car with me,” he said.

At the curb, parked in a clearly marked yellow NO PARKING NO LOADING zone, was a Rolls-Royce, vintage but not antique, black with faint gunpowder-gray styling.

Odessa stopped. “That’s your car?”

“That is Mr. Blackwood’s car. A Rolls-Royce Phantom.”

Odessa smiled and shook her head. “Here’s what bothers me most,” she said, as though Mr. Lusk cared. “The presumption that I would do what he wants. Get in his car and go to him and be shown whatever it is he wants to show me.”

Mr. Lusk nodded, smiling pleasantly. “I feel exactly the same way.”

“Like I don’t have anything better to do,” she said.

Mr. Lusk smiled and half shrugged. “Completely in agreement.” He opened the door for her.

“What could he want to show me anyway?”

“There is one simple and straightforward way to find out.”

Again he swept his arm forward theatrically toward the interior of the vehicle. Odessa saw that it was weirdly roomy inside, and well appointed: burgundy leather seats with dark stitching, a bar to one side that appeared to feature only bottled water, tinted windows. There was no one else inside.

“He’s not here?”

“I am to take you to him.”

Odessa looked around at the street: the people walking past, glancing at the fancy vehicle; cars rolling by; buildings high above. It almost felt as if she were leaving this everyday world for another one.

She remembered Solomon’s words from their first meeting, which had made little sense to her at the time, but kept coming back around in her memory. Everything is an invocation. Little moments of holy summoning.

“You know what?” she said. “Why not?”

She entered the vehicle, and with a formal nod Mr. Lusk closed the door behind her.





The Phantom rolled out of the city, heading north. Odessa had accepted Blackwood’s strange invitation with the assumption that the destination was close by.

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