3 Thank God it's Monday by Robert Michael

Chief. Things like that. Professional. We
did it all professional. Out of respect.” Kyle coughed again. He seemed genuine.
He was dying. Who lied when they were dying?
    “We have to get you to the hospital, Kyle. Come on.” She
grabbed him under an arm.
    He shook her off.
    “No. It’s too late. You can’t waste any time. Jake is in
danger. They have him.”
    “Who? Who has him?”
    Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head.
    “Them. We don’t know who they are. No names. We have a code
for them. Them. Very powerful. More than money. More than murderers. We think
they have infiltrated the government.”
    “Who is we? Infiltrated where?”
    “We. We are the government. The Service. The CIA. NSA. FBI. The
Senate. Even Gabriel.”
    “Gabriel? What do you mean?”
    Kyle coughed again. This time his body seemed to shake and
he began to collapse. Hallie caught him under an arm again and lifted him up,
her hand bringing his chin up so she could look him in the face.
    “Kyle!  Talk to me. Jake is in danger. Gabriel is one of
them...”
    “No. Gabriel is one of us. We. We. We might fail. We might
not be able to protect him anymore. Not from Jake. Not from anyone. It is
bigger than that even.”
    “Do you mean the Consortium?”
    He perked up at that.
    “How do you know?” He asked, lucidity coming back slowly,
like a body drifting back to the surface of a lake.
    “Senator Swane.”
    Kyle smiled. Blood stained his lips.
    “There are some heroes in the world still.” He struggled to
sit back on the desk. “Just let me sit for a while. It hurts too much to stand.”
    “What did he do to you?”
    He laugh-coughed.
    “What didn’t he do? Crazy son of a....” he spit a red glob
onto the floor at the assassin’s feet. “I think he broke a rib and punctured a
lung, maybe more. Broke at least four fingers, my elbow.” He indicated his
right arm. “Messed that up pretty well. Had me screaming my mother’s name at
one point I think. Man, I am such a wimp,” he lamented.
    Hallie patted him on the back.
    “No. You are brave. A hero. We owe you big time, Kyle.”
    He looked at her, his eyes sad and remorseful.
    “You don’t owe me anything, Hallie. You were right not to
trust me. We were using both of you. After Jake went dark, we used you. We
shared Jake’s information. We augmented his programming ourselves.”
    “Lars?” Hallie felt the old anger swelling to the surface
and she fought it back.
    “Yes. We were working with the CIA finally. It was supposed
to be a joint operation.”
    “Violet?”
    “Yes.” He swallowed. “They were turned on us. The
information was going both ways. We knew, but we wanted to know who was pulling
the strings because it wasn’t Galbraith.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He shook his head.
    “We never found out.” His chin slumped to his chest and his
breathing came slower. “I guess we will never know. Please forgive me, Hallie.”
He never looked up. His life just wound down slowly.
    Hallie stood in front of Kyle, lifting his chin.
    “Kyle!  Where did they take Jake? You have to tell me.”
    She watched Kyle make an effort to pull himself out of the
dive.  She could see the light leaving his eyes like water going down a drain.
    “He put the information on a flash drive. In his pocket. I
have all kinds of stuff on there about them. I couldn’t understand it all.” He
said. His voice was just a whisper now. “Colorado Springs. He may be gone now,
though.”
    “Gone where?”
    “DC. Maryland, maybe?”
    “They want Jake to murder his father?”
    “I guess that is easy to figure out for everyone but him. He
can’t though,” Kyle said, his voice winding down like his batteries were dying.
    Hallie blinked away tears. Was she crying for Kyle or for
Jake? Both?
    She grabbed the wrist of his good arm. No pulse. Hallie
called security and exited the building under the cover of emergency personnel.
Someone would have to call Maddy, Kyle’s wife. Someone would have to do a