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Chapter Six

Two Of A Kind

Two cards of the same rank.

*

The Major had taken the seat vacated by Dr. Al Rabeeah. When he sat back to study the other man, it suddenly struck Bonham that the officer didn't have a cigarette in his mouth. In fact, now that he thought on it, he hadn't seen him with a cigarette once since he arrived. Normally the Major would have been smoking like a chimney. With this in mind, Bonham cautiously glanced around the room.

"What are you looking for?" Klaus asked, his eyes narrowing. "The room is clean."

"That it is, Major," Bonham replied. "No ashtrays."

"Ah, so you noticed that."

"Hard not to with you."

Klaus gave a small grunt. "I smoked when I was under stress."

"And you're not under stress now?"

Another grunt. "I create my own stress now. And...it's very peaceful here."

Bonham studied the Major as though seeming to see him for the first time. After a long silence, he asked, "What now?"

"I have some questions for you."

"I thought you might."

An amused smile played at the edges of Klaus's mouth. He leaned back, crossing his arms. "Eroica tells me that you're not a Company man, Mr. Bonham. He believes your loyalties lie with him." He paused a moment to let this statement sink in before asking, "Is he deluded?"

Bonham replied almost immediately. "If you're asking if I'll betray my country, Major, the answer is no. Conversely, I won't betray the Earl, either."

"You won't betray the Earl?" Klaus repeated.

"No."

"And what of Agent Marshall?"

Bonham scowled. "I don't..."

"What will you do when your country orders you to end Project: Eroica by eliminating Agent Marshall?"

Bonham gave a start when the project name was mentioned. He shifted in his seat beneath the officer's intense gaze. "You know about the project?" he said in a hushed voice.

Klaus's eyes flickered. Not as much as I'd like to. "I know your feelings concerning that bit of...bureaucratic stupidity."

This caused Bonham to sit bolt upright and he cursed himself for not having realized sooner. The drugs had muddled his thinking. "You had the room bugged!" First he felt angry, then he decided it was probably for the best, considering all he had said to James. Klaus responded with a small smile, causing the older man to sigh heavily. "Oh, bugger. If you know that, then you know the answer already."

"I want to hear it from you."

Bonham met the Major's gaze levelly. "No, sir. I would not kill Agent Marshall if ordered to. It would be a monumental waste of talent."

Klaus's eyes flickered again. My thoughts exactly. "What did James mean about deprogramming him?"

Bonham sighed heavily. "Just what you think he meant. It's just a technique to help him... I dunno. Get out of character; I suppose is the best way of putting it." He looked at the closed bedroom door, shaking his head. "He shouldn't've started without orders, but...we all thought it was finished. Then they tacked this mission on after blowing his cover." He turned back, adding sadly, "He's not the Earl of Gloria, and he can't be John Marshall until this is over. So now...he's nobody."

"That's where you're wrong," Klaus said as he got to his feet. "He's Eroica."

Bonham frowned, looking up at him. "Come again?"

Klaus did not reply, leading the way into the next room.

* * *

G looked up when the bedroom door opened, relaxing visibly when he saw Klaus. He scowled when Bonham entered but said nothing.

"Excuse us, please..." Klaus gave a small smile, adding, "Greta."

This caused G to grin and giggle. He gave the astonished Bonham a bright smile. "You didn't know the Major had a sense of humor, did you?"

"Uh, no," came the startled reply.

G giggled again. "Neither did we!"

"Out!" Klaus ordered, waving his hands toward the door. His voice lacked any of its former venom, and he actually had a small smile on his face. He waited until G was gone before holding out a hand to Bonham, indicating that he take the seat at the bedside.

"M'lord?" Bonham said as he sat down, touching the Earl's arm. He was stunned at how hot he was to the touch and wondered just how high his fever was.

Eroica opened his eyes at the familiar voice, giving Bonham a weak smile. "Out on bail?" he asked softly.

"You might say that, m'lord."

"Oh, shit, Bonham, stop calling me that. Everybody knows it's a sham," Eroica moaned.

"I've...kind of got in the habit." Before the Earl could think of a suitable comeback, Bonham said, "The doctor says you've got a bad case of the flu."

"Bollocks, I've got Malaria. He just won't admit it to my face."

"Is feeling sorry for yourself part of your real persona or your fake one?" Klaus injected sharply.

Eroica looked up, seeing the Major for the first time. "Fuck you, Major."

Klaus gave a small grunt. "Good. You're sounding more like a man every day."

Eroica shifted in bed. "I'd show you the kind of man I am, but I'm too busy dying just now."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "I can see that being an idiot is an integral part of your personality."

"You're just eating this up, aren't you? Some Divine retribution for tormenting the great Iron Klaus all these years."

Despite everything, Bonham could see them getting back into the pattern of sniping at one another, which was not what the Earl needed at the moment. "Sir, please, you're supposed to be resting..." he broke in.

Eroica gave him a stunned look. "Quisling! Turncoat!" He sputtered a moment before finally spitting out, "Benedict Arnold!"

Bonham responded with a heavy sigh. Before he could reply, the Earl was demanding of Klaus, "What did you tell him?"

 "Nothing," Klaus said firmly. "I asked him about his loyalties."

"Bastard!"

"He's loyal to you, you bloody idiot! Just as you thought."

Eroica's mouth dropped open. He looked at Bonham, who was clearly embarrassed.

"And I asked him about the accident that was planned for you," Klaus informed. "Mr. Bonham agrees that it would be a waste of a valuable resource."

Eroica put a hand to his head, which was already spinning, giving Bonham a horrified look. "You knew about that?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you were going to-"

Bonham jumped to his feet. "No, sir. Never. They'd've had to kill me first."

A small smile twitched at the edges of Klaus's mouth. "You see?"

Eroica closed his eyes. "Christ, I don't know what's what anymore."

Bonham gave him a sympathetic look before turning to the Major. "Is that all you needed from me, Major?"

"Not unless you can give me all the information on Project: Eroica," Klaus replied, receiving an astonished squeak in reply.

"It's probably in James' database," Eroica said without thinking.

"Database?" Klaus repeated. For the first time in his memory, he prayed the Earl would keep talking.

"His PDA was tied into it, I think."

"Where is it?"

"In his office in Castle Gloria," Eroica replied tersely. "You'll never get anywhere near it. You have an all points out on you, NATO wants your head on a pike, there's probably a bounty on you by now, and the Eroica gang-what's left of it-will be more than happy to take out Iron Klaus just for the shitty way you've treated them over the years."

"What's left of it?"

"What few government agents were at Castle Gloria were recalled a week after we started searching for you. The only ones left will be the real-" Eroica broke off, a startled look coming to his face. "Why the hell am I telling you this? I'm supposed to be arresting you!"

"Force of habit," Klaus replied, an amused smirk passing over his face.

"Smug bastard, taking advantage of a dying man..."

Klaus rolled his eyes but refrained from commenting. He stood thoughtfully a moment before asking, "What else is in that little bug's database?"

"Who knows?" Eroica moaned, waving a hand in the air. "Why don't you take Bonham to England so he can show you where it is and find out for yourself?"

* * *

Bonham knew Iron Klaus had balls. He'd seen the man on missions, facing down the KGB with little more than his overpowering personality. But this still didn't prepare him for the audacious plan the Major came up with in order to retrieve James' database. Even his own men were shocked by the plan, and not just because Klaus announced that he would be taking Bonham alone. It was the way he intended on going about it that shocked everyone into silence.

Before he left, P gave Klaus what little information he had discovered pertaining to Project: Eroica. It seemed that the operation had officially been proposed in the early 1970s, although P had been unable to find the exact specifics other than it was initiated by Richard Helms, who was removed as Director of Central Intelligence early in 1973. His short-lived replacement, James Schlesinger, did nothing concerning the project, which was very likely still in the developmental stages.

By the time William Colby, the next Director, was appointed, the U.S. was in the midst of the Watergate scandal. Colby put a temporary halt on the project. After the resignation of President Nixon in 1974, the project appeared to have been officially cancelled.

"Appeared to have been officially cancelled?" Klaus remarked as he read this highlighted section of P's notes.

"Yes, sir," P replied. "I'm in the process of trying to find the names of the persons put in charge of the project. I have those from the original one, but don't know if they're the ones who continued after the termination order came down. Or even if the termination order came down."

Klaus nodded approvingly. "Good. Keep digging." I want to know exactly who is responsible for making my life a living hell for the past twenty-five years.

It seemed clear that Project: Eroica had been cancelled on paper only to be carried out as a Black Ops for reasons yet to be determined. No wonder they were in such a hurry to eliminate the Earl. The head of the CIA in 1976, the same year that Eroica made his grand appearance, was George H. W. Bush, later President Bush, the father of the current U.S. President. Now, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the United States' current war on terror, this throwback to Watergate and the Cold War would be a monumental embarrassment, to say the very least. Just what did the CIA have Eroica doing all these years?

* * *

Bonham decided that he would think about this as just another job, doing as he always had, playing the part of manservant and right hand man. He glanced at the Major and shuddered. It had been difficult enough working with the man when the Earl was around to keep him under control. Now the man was wanted by every government agency on the planet, and he had to work with him one-on-one. Perhaps the Company really was trying to get them all killed.

"Will you relax," Klaus hissed under his breath. "This is first class. You're supposed to be calm, not fidgeting like a two-year old."

"Sorry," Bonham said in an equally low voice. "I'm always jittery in first class. Every time we fly this way, James pitches a fit about the cost."

Klaus gave a small grunt, leaned back, and closed his eyes. "Good. So long as you act normal."

Bonham gave him a stunned look, his eyes wide. Normal! There is nothing normal about any of this.

* * *

Bonham lead the way from the airport, a porter pulling a cartful of luggage behind him. He saw the Earl's car waiting at the curb and John Paul having an animated conversation with someone who seemed to want him to move. Bugger. Well, here goes...

"Bonham!" John Paul said happily, glaring at the security man at the same time. "I told you they'd be along in a moment."

The security man gave him a dark look, said a few choice words under his breath, and moved away.

John Paul turned back just as the older man moved to the rear of the car. Then he looked around. "Where're James and the Earl?"

"James is chasing a chance of a hint of a blip...or hell, he's on the estate in Bali sulking because we wanted to come back and check things this end," Bonham replied, as the porter loaded the luggage in the car. "As for the Earl, um..." He turned to the main doors just as a blond vision in a brightly colored, long, flowing, gauzy affair swept from the building and then stopped dead. "John Paul! What a marvelous surprise!"

Bonham winced at the way the disguised Klaus beamed at the man beside him. Don't look. Don't think. Don't want to be here.

"My lord," John Paul grinned, "you look fantastic. Is that new?"

The "Earl" twirled in place. "Isn't it fabulous? I got it in Istanbul. Or was it Sri Lanka?" He gave a tittering laugh, waving a hand in the air and causing the gold chains on his wrist to jangle. "Somewhere warm and tropical where people don't wear many clothes. James will know. He nearly had a cerebral hemorrhage when he saw the bill."

Bonham had to admit that the Major was just as good at impersonating the Earl as the Earl was at impersonating him. Better, perhaps, because he could be as outrageous as he wanted and no one would bat an eye.

John Paul leaned closer to Bonham's ear, saying in a low voice, "When you said Bali, I was almost expecting him to be wearing a sarong."

Bonham closed his eyes, shuddering at the mental image this produced. You don't know the half of it. This is already so wrong.

"How about these sunglasses?" the false Earl went on, motioning to the colorful plastic monstrosity on his face that successful hid the intensity of his wrong colored eyes.

"My lord, they're you," John Paul grinned.

"That's just what I thought!"

"M'lord, the bags are in the car," Bonham said woodenly as he pulled the rear door open.

"Splendid. I have so missed England." The "Earl" ran a hand under John Paul's chin as he walked passed him, adding, "And my boys." He looked at the porter briefly over the top of his sunglasses and smiled. "Make sure you tip this handsome young man...handsomely," he purred seductively.

Please, Lord, just kill me now so the Major won't have to later, Bonham prayed as the man got into the car and then called, "Come along, Bonham!"

"Yes, m'lord."

* * *

Chapter End Notes:
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