Part 14
"I don't know, I thought you'd be more comfortable here," Claudia said as she stood over the boiling pot filled with spaghetti noodles. "I mean, there's no serious connotation here. If we went out to some place then it'd be kind of a big deal, you know?"
Theresa slouched on Claudia's couch, resting her feet on the coffee table.
"It does not matter where we are," she said.
"You're uncomfortable here?" Claudia asked nervously, looking over to Theresa.
Theresa shook her head, "Not at all. You seem to be the one that is uncomfortable. In your mind it is a date. In mine I am simply enjoying dinner with my only loved one."
Claudia stirred the noodles in the pot and shrugged, "I guess. You're good at making me feel stupid, you know that?"
Theresa sat up and turned around on the couch, looking over the back to Claudia in the kitchen.
"You know I do not mean to do that, Claudia," she said. "If I thought that you were stupid I would not consider you a friend. After all, Jorgen and I are far from close."
"I'm not retarded," Claudia murmured under her breath, turning her attention to the bubbling pan of sauce on the burner beside the pot of spaghetti.
"Neither is he. What would you like me to tell you?" Theresa asked. "You are upset and I do not enjoy that."
Claudia sighed softly and lazily stirred at the meat sauce cooking in the pan.
Theresa rose to her feet and her feet stepped across the wooden floor of the living room and into the kitchen. Claudia looked to her left as Theresa entered the kitchen. She sniffled and stirred the spaghetti with a wooden spoon. Theresa stepped behind her and cinched both arms around Claudia's waist.
"Why are you upset?" Theresa asked quietly.
"Because I feel stupid," Claudia muttered. "The food isn't gonna be good enough and the wine I have sucks and I'm afraid I'm gonna say some more stupid shit."
Theresa lightly kissed the crown of Claudia's head and said, "Wine is wine, food is food. The worst food can be palatable in the right company. Do you know what the last thing that I ate was?"
"What?" Claudia asked.
"Carrot sticks," Theresa replied.
Claudia looked back, "You like carrots?"
"God no, they are terrible," Theresa said, shaking her head.
Claudia smiled slightly.
Theresa's arms slipped from Claudia's waist and she returned to her spot on the couch, resting her feet on the coffee table once again.
"You have a strange notion that I am going to suddenly abandon you," Theresa said, feeling a sudden vibrating in her pocket.
"I just worry, is all," Claudia said as Theresa pulled her cell phone from her pocket.
Theresa flipped her phone open with her thumb, "What happened to the beautiful, confident woman you were when we first met?"
Claudia smirked, "Where's the nervous, mousy matador you were when we first met?"
Theresa's eyes skimmed the text message before slipping the phone back into her pocket.
"I am not good with meeting new people. Especially ones that Eleven wishes me to draw into the fold," Theresa explained. "Have you finished the meal yet, Chef Claudia?"
She shook her head, "No, almost."
"We have work tonight."
"Are you fucking kidding me? What?" Claudia asked in a raised voice. "It better be important."
Theresa smoothly slid her phone back into the right front of her black slacks, "It is."
As Theresa sped through the city streets Claudia sat beside her in the passenger's seat with her arms folded.
"So what was more important than our dinner?" She asked, sulking quietly.
Theresa shifted gears and said, "Iago is liberating our liberated truck."
"So?" Claudia asked, her finger pressed on the window button. "Someone else can deal with it. Jorgen and Viveka, somebody. Why does it have to be us?"
"Because Iago is there and he and I have unfinished business."
"That's more important than the two of us having dinner?" Claudia asked, her eyes welling up while she shoved a cigarette between her lips. "What did he kill your dog? Your dad? Are you afraid of getting in trouble with Eleven or something?"
Theresa shook her head and answered, "No. None of those. He and I have a long history together and I doubt that any of it would soothe you."
"I'm fine," Claudia lied, exhaling smoke with her words.
"I know when you are lying. The food will still be edible, I assure you I will enjoy it just the same as I would have had things not gone awry," Theresa explained.
Claudia sniffled, "But it's the whole point of the thing. Dinner with me is less important to you than getting back at Iago for whatever he did and you won't tell me why it's more important. Why even bring me along if it's between you and him."
A silent moment passed.
"I murdered a family. Mother, Father and their two children. I shot each one of them in the back of the head after tying their hands behind their back and forcing them to kneel in the living room of their quiet suburban home." Theresa said with a sigh. "Are you satisfied?"
"What the fuck does that have to do with him?" She asked.
Theresa snatched the cigarette from Claudia's lips and took a long drag.
"Because he forced me to do it."
Claudia wiped her nose on the sleeze of her hooded sweatshirt, ". . . How did he force you?"
"We were having a party. Iago, Sebastian, Ox, a few others you do not know. I drank more wine than I should have and once my guard was down, he mesmerized me," Theresa said, she took another puff from Claudia's cigarette. "I saw myself doing what I was ordered, I could hear myself speak but I could not control myself. It was something like a dream. I control, it is what I do. I control my body, my will, my insticts. If a problem occurs, I repair the damage and solve the problem. Being forced into compliance, trapped within my own mind is something I cannot forgive."
"You were friends?" Claudia asked, reaching for her cigarette between Theresa's fingertips.
"In an earlier time, yes. Before you, before Twelve and Thirteen. When Eleven was a mere police detective. Iago, Sebastian, Ox. One, Three, and Four. Sebastian and Ox left with Iago, I was asked to come along. I was tempted with power, with money. I refused and we remained friends. I would help them if they needed my assistance as long as it did not compete with Eleven's work."
Claudia took a drag from her cigarette, "Eleven used to be a cop?"
"Yes, he discovered me. He tracked me down using clues from the crime scene that I had left behind. He cared for me in his own small way. He would give me money for food. He helped to forge my identity. Years ago there was no Theresa Sebben. He helped me to track down the colleague of my first victim and earned my trust. Though I know in reality he sees me as a monster, no different than anyone else. Perhaps more monsterous considering our history," Theresa said.
Claudia tapped ashes from her cigarette out of the window, "Why'd he stop being a cop?"
"He was fired, he could not stand the hypocrasy anymore," Theresa explained. "Every criminal he sent to trial being given a slap on the wrist. Those that he sent to prison being paroled only to return to their life of crime. One day it broke him and instead of apprehending the suspect he shot him thirty-two times. He was quite possibly the best policeman the city ever had thanks to his gifts."
"So who was two?" Claudia asked.
"Angela Brooks," Theresa said. "She was killed in a gunfight with the police after accidentally killing a policeman instead of disarming him with a shot to the wrist."
Claudia flicked her cigarette out of the window, "What was her thing?"
"She had none, she was simply a good shot though not good enough."
The car began to slow and the headlights turned off as they neared Eleven's safehouse. Outside they could see several dark figures in front of the building and several cars. Theresa shifted the car into neutral and shut off the ignition. She pulled her car across the driveway of the safehouse and put the car into park.
"This place looks different at night," Claudia whispered.
Theresa slowly and quietly opened her door and crept out, her knees bent with her torso leaning forward. She reached into her coat, drawing out her pistol with her right hand as Claudia followed in tow. Theresa passed across the front of the car, moving along the shadowy path between the trailer parked in front of the safehouse and the brick wall of the building beside it.
As they moved closer Sebastian could be seen faintly through the front window of the tractor as Ox stood between the tractor and the trailer opposite the wall, working the crank to lower the trailer onto the hitch. From behind the trailer was a bright golden glow emanating while Iago stood staring into the contents with his arms folded.
Theresa looked to Claudia and nodded to Ox.
Claudia nodded in understanding and drew her baton from her pocket. Her wrist snapped and the baton extended. She stealthily moved around to the other side of the truck, hugging the side before leaping onto Ox, pulling the baton tight across his throat. He let out a shout and began swinging his massive body back and forth, swatting at Claudia as she pulled the baton harder across his neck.
The driver's side door swung open suddenly and Sebastian hopped out, immediately spotting Theresa squatting a few feet to his left in the darkness.
"I really hope you pull this off, Patches," he said quietly.
Iago ran to the passenger's side of the trailer and drew his pistol and aimed it at Claudia.
"Get off of him now, little girl or I may have to pop you off and that wouldn't be fun for either of us," Iago said.
Claudia looked to him and Ox hurled her backwards through the air. She tumbled and fell to the cold asphalt driveway.
He smirked and shouted, "Seven, I have your girl. Come out and play."
Theresa grinned wide and leapt under the trailer, rolling underneath of it and launching herself at Iago's legs. She wrapped her arms around them, tackling him to the ground and climbing on top. Fire exploded in Ox's face suddenly and Claudia spun around, rising to her feet, whipping her baton against the side of his knee. His knee collapsed from under him and dropped heavily.
Theresa pistol whipped Iago, swinging her fist into his face.
Iago smiled with his blood lip and said, "This isn't a very fair fight, love. You've gone and snuck up on me."
He rolled himself backward, slipping his feet under her arms and launching her backward. Theresa slammed back against the side of the trailer and fell forward, landing on her hands and knees.
She pointed her pistol at Iago and he chuckled.
"Ah-ah-ah," he said, nodding to Claudia.
Claudia stood motionless, her eyes vacant. Ox stood hunched over, panting heavily. He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
"You cheap son of a bitch," Theresa growled, returning her pistol to its holster.
"You should know me better than that," Iago said matter-of-factly as he folded his arms. "You know the drill, we leave, you get your precious little girlfriend back. I can assure you that I may leave her mind intact."
Theresa sighed heavily and nodded.
Iago returned to the back of the trailer and shut the doors and locked them in place. Ox walked over to Theresa and dropped Claudia to the ground. Theresa knelt down, lifting Claudia's upper body into her arms. She sighed and brushed a strand of black hair from Claudia's face.