Alien in the House

given me some information I’m sure our enemies didn’t want me to have.”
    “The delay was because of us,” the Dingo said. “He was able to shoot because of your sister and your friend.”
    “So, he knows you’re here?” Raj asked.
    Surly Vic nodded. “Again, because of the two women.”
    “They’re really sorry and won’t do it again. So, do you have any guess, any guess at all, as to why Eugene was set up to kill Brewer at my dinner party, in front of tons of people, so that Eugene would be caught and convicted of the crime? Everything else that’s going on makes some kind of logical sense, but that doesn’t, any more than killing off your own supporters seems like a sane move.”
    “How varied were the causes of death?” the Dingo asked.
    “We think there was probably more than one person doing the assassinations,” Raj said quickly. Took that to mean he didn’t want me to share the Master and Apprentice theory with our friends the assassins. Pity.
    “We’ve been told there’s one Mastermind out there who’s cooked up almost every conspiracy and related theory since the nineteen sixties. We believe that this person has passed on their evil wisdom to an Apprentice, who becomes the Mastermind when the other dies.”
    “Like the Sith?” Surly Vic asked.
    “Yes!”
Star Wars
was truly omnipresent worldwide.
    “I could believe it,” he said. “The C.I.A. is very involved in many bad things.”
    “Speaking of which, Esteban Cantu, Master or Apprentice?”
    “If he was the Master then his Apprentice has taken over, because he is not accessible,” the Dingo said calmly. “And believe me, we would like access to him, because the price on his head is quite high. He is an open assignment—whoever has Proof of Death will receive payment.”
    Tried not to worry about Mom and Jeff and the others going to visit the guy who had the Assassins’ Open Season sign on his forehead. Failed.
    “As for the others,” the Dingo said, “if you are correct and there is competition for a slot, while at the same time there is the desire to ensure no one is aware you are killing specific people, then random selection would enter.”
    “Random selection?” Rhee asked. Apparently Amazons had great hearing.
    The Dingo nodded. “You choose a set of victims for each contender. You put one or two of your truly desired candidates into each group.”
    “Ensuring, of course, that each candidate does not know your true identity,” Surly Vic added. “Otherwise, you risk too much exposure.”
    “This method allows you to test your recruits’ ability to follow orders while proving their loyalty to you. You are able to see if they are skilled enough to ensure the authorities consider the deaths accidental or natural, and if they are not successful here, they are the ones who the authorities arrest. And you remove your enemies at the same time.” The Dingo said all of this like he was outlining how to best prep for the after-Christmas sales.
    “They’ve killed almost two dozen people.”
    Surly Vic shrugged. “We have more than two dozen enemies. So do you. If the Mastermind is any good, so does he. So he used this test to remove many enemies at once, both for this plan and for others. If he
is
the Mastermind, then this plan makes much sense and becomes even more efficient.”
    “Your bigger issue is the public death, yes?” the Dingo asked.
    “Yes. Because it seems out of character for the rest of what’s going on.”
    “I agree. It was very . . . showy, yes?”
    “Yes,” Raj said. “In a very horrible way.”
    “The question is why? Why kill Edmund Brewer in such a public way, when every other murder has been done so quietly?”
    The Dingo shook his head. “That is not the right question. The correct question is this: Who had the most to gain from the situation?”
    “The Mastermind,” Gower said promptly.
    The Dingo shook his head again. “No. The Mastermind wants the quiet deaths. His plan is insidious, yes, but it is a quiet plan. I would presume the Mastermind would have preferred no one notice that these deaths, any of them, were murders.”
    “One of those trying to become Apprentices,” White suggested.
    “Logical,” the Dingo agreed. “However, which one had the most to gain?”
    “We don’t know who any of them are,” White said.
    “Find out who had the most to gain and you find your aspiring Apprentice.”
    “I would have said Pia had the most to gain,” Raj said.