The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 8, Continued, Again

…Yet I was still standing, my heart was still beating. Where did the gunshot come from? And where did it go? Start singing cotton eyed Joe, I dare you.

"Are you okay, Madelyn?" Gideon was running towards me, carrying a handgun.
"Gideon, yeah I'm fine." I said, wrapping him in a hug. "I told you to stay with the kids. What were you thinking?"
"Hey, I saved your life, didn't I? For the second time." He asked, breaking away and giving me the gun.
"Thank you, Gideon. Now go, I've got work to do. Nada! Taeal alaa huna!" (Come here!) Nada came running even as Gideon ran away. Oliver's doppelganger wasn't dead. Gideon was either an amazing shot or a terrible one because he shot the not Oliver in both legs so that he couldn't walk. Nada and I took him down to the training room and tied him up. Tightly. Then I went to check on the others while Nada "questioned" him about what he knew.

All of the kids were fine, still safely tucked away in the panic room where I had left them. We all went back upstairs (through the back staircase so that they couldn't see our hostage) and I sat  the kids at the table while Hannah and Robin went off doing whatever. Olivia helped me make Mac-n-cheese and chicken nuggets while Noah and Gideon took care of the children. Once dinner was ready, I fed Finn and then left them to join Nada.

Not-Oliver (whose name was still yet to be discovered) was covered in blood when I got to the training room. A quick glance told me that Nada had brought her tools to the house with her, almost like she had expected this. It looked like she was having fun using her equipment, and I didn't doubt that we would get the information we needed by the weeks end, at most. Not that I knew what information we needed. I was never kept in the loop about these things.
"He said he has been acting as Oliver for a long time, even hacked his phone so that he could pick up instead of Oliver. He hired Caleb." Nada informed me.
Of course, it all made sense now. "So the thing at homecoming?" I asked him, "You intercepted my call to Oliver. You were the one who forced me to go. You were planning on killing me there." He spat in my face, smiling.
"Yep." I wiped blood and spit off my face as he started talking. "Of course, we didn't expect you to survive the warehouse either. But, here we are, the queen and a pawn. And you survived my double agent as well. It's incredible."
"Aye, I'm quite impressive." I said with mock sweetness.
"Go back upstairs, Madelyn." Nada ordered. I rolled my eyes but turned around anyway and went back upstairs.