by Doug Welch
“A foreign country in which I have a covert team conducting surveillance and researching Borgia companies,” Paris said. “And I don’t intend to get the women involved except for possibly Kitty. They’re a reserve to hold the fort here.”
“I still think you’re delusional. You’re asking the impossible,” Dan said.
“Well we need to get the impossible done soon,” Paris replied. “We have a small window of opportunity while they’re still confused as to the status of the twin. If we don’t do something now we’ll lose a huge advantage and the effort will be even more difficult.”
Caesar, who had been listening to the back and forth between Paris and Dan, interrupted. “You’re losing sight of something else, Paris,” he said. “We’re fathers now. We need to consider our children. Do we want them to grow up with only one parent?”
“I am considering the babies,” Paris argued. “If they tried to kidnap Dorri do you think they’ll stop there? Sanjar is just as vulnerable, maybe more so. If they can’t abduct us, our children become a prime target.”
Tom’s voice cut into the discussion. “Why consider a frontal assault? Shouldn’t we soften ‘em up first?”
“How,” Paris asked.
Tom shrugged. “Go for the money. Don’t they need money too hire all the people who work for them? If they lose all their cash, it’s bound to hurt them, and if we do it right, we won’t need to bust a cap.”
“You can do that?” June asked.
“Ain’t tried it yet,” Tom replied. He clapped Bernardo on the shoulder. “But with my new buddy and me, the Borgias are toast. Although we will need some really kick-ass computers.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Paris said. “Buy what you need. I may have some other tasks for you, so make sure you get more than you think you need.”
June looked nervous. “How illegal is this going to be, Tom?”
“Trust me, June. You don’t want to know,” he replied. “By the way, do you know anything about money laundering?”
June’s face paled. She rose from the table and left the room.
After the door closed, Paris addressed Tom. “June’s got a point, Tom, just how illegal will this be?”
Tom spread his hands. “About as illegal as you can get and not rob a bank. But what’s the sweat? Didn’t these people steal the money in the first place? We’re just doin’ a straight Robin Hood. If you want, we can transfer it to charity. If you’re worried we’ll be caught, who are they gonna complain to? Besides if I can’t swipe a few bucks without leaving a footprint, I’ll hang up my keyboard.” He settled back in the executive chair and crossed his arms. “I admit it’ll be hard. It’d be easier if we had a key.”
“What do you mean by ‘key’,” Dan asked.
“A file somewhere in their system with account numbers and a password if you can get it,” Tom replied. “If I have that I can gut them.”
“I may be able to provide something,” Paris said. “Meanwhile do the preliminaries. Does anyone else have something to add?”
“I do,” Audrey said. “If you’re going to Italy I want to go with you.”
“The meeting’s over,” Paris said. “Dan, you give Tom and Bernardo the benefit of your police experience. I have a feeling they’ll need it. Audrey, stick around, I want to talk to you.”
Elizabeth rose and grabbed Alex’s elbow. Together they left the room followed by Caesar. Tom and Bernardo chatted with Dan and they too departed. Audrey sat alone at the end of the table. Paris moved down to join her.
“I’ll teach you to become an Adept,” he said, “but you’re going to school. That takes priority over everything.”
“It’s my baby, Paris.”
He sighed. “I know. And I can only imagine what you’re going through. If I’d have lost Dorri, I‘d be insane with grief right now. I wouldn’t be able to make rational decisions and I’d have to excuse myself from Family business. But until we know where she is, we can’t accomplish anything. I’ll compromise. You attend school and when we locate her, we’ll have this discussion again. Deal?”
Although seeming reluctant, Audrey nodded. “Deal.”
Paris checked her hands for crossed fingers.
Chapter 25
Failed Adept
“You knew how to do this all along and you didn’t tell me?” Alex’s face held an incredulous expression.
They sat huddled together in the study at the farm while Caesar checked the fields and livestock and Cecil kept watch over the babies.
“It wasn’t easy,” Elizabeth replied. “I had to exert a great deal of will to keep my mouth shut. But Alex it was for your own safety. I can’t do it without Paris’ help. Trying it without Adept talents could kill you or make you lose your mind.” Okay, so I’m lying a little, Elizabeth thought. Still, I’m right. It’s easy to lose yourself without help.
“So you’re saying if I do as Paris suggests, I can link with my son?” Alex asked.
Elizabeth nodded. “It’s bizarre but it’s wonderful. You can’t imagine how amazing it is.”
Alex pouted. “Oh yes I can. I have a really good imagination. I’m still pissed you didn’t tell me.”
“Paris and I discussed it,” Elizabeth said. “He worried if the Council found out that he could teach me how to do it, they’d suspect he still had copies of your father’s research papers. Of course, that all changed when we learned of my mother’s existence and the fact she was half Shadow, but by that time Paris felt it was too dangerous for you to attempt it. We didn’t know much about the hazards then and we still don’t. Alex, you know if I’d told you, you would have tried it and if you’d died, Caesar would have gone ballistic.”
“Well...maybe. But we’ll never know now. Will we?” Alex said.
“You’ll find out tomorrow. Paris plans on training you and Audrey,” Elizabeth replied.
“I know. I wonder what’ll happen,” Alex said. “All the Shadows are making a big thing about my potential. Paris says I’m supposed to have some whoo-whoo Adept powers or something. Even if it’s true, I certainly don’t feel very sparkly.”
“While I don’t anticipate you glowing in the daylight,” she replied, “Paris has certainly acquired some strange abilities and you’re genetically identical to him except for sex. You should at least be able to do what he does.”
* * *
Paris sat next to his sister in the darkened hidden room in the basement of the farmhouse. He’d linked his mind-glow to Alex at the start of the exercises and now he observed her mind work as she stared at the projection screen. The screen displayed the same pattern of random dots that had nearly killed him the first time he tried it.
He monitored her progress, ready to intervene if her mind began to consume itself. He could see her patterns change as her mind slowly made order out of chaos and her latent Shadow abilities began to emerge. The patterns unwound and reconnected, attaching areas of her mind unknown to medical science to her awareness. It was as if clouds in her mind-glow had dissipated, reformed and roiled, unleashing flashes of lightening that danced back and forth.
Alarmed, he was about to made the attempt to interfere when the clouds vanished and her mind-glow settled into a natural rhythm. The disappearing clouds had also revealed something else, something he’d never seen before. Buried deep in her mind was an area, a nugget of space that seemed as energetic as the core of a sun. A mind-lock of some sort kept the nucleus from expanding and he was reluctant to tamper with it. He almost regretted the fact that he’d helped awaken her but it was far too late.
Alex let the breath she’d been holding escape with a whoosh. “There, I did it. What’s next?”
Paris wondered what he’d done. Now he understood what the Council sensed. If the central core of Alex’s mind-glow were ever unleashed, it could consume all of them.
* * *
“Well that was a waste,” Alex said.
She and Elizabeth once again conferred in the farmhouse’s study whil
e she poured out her bitter frustration to her sister-in-law.
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked. “Do you mean you can’t see mind-glow?”
“Yeah I can see it, but so what? The link to Sanjar has always been there, I just couldn’t sense it before. I’ve always known in advance when he needed his diaper changed or when he needed to be fed, but other than that I can’t do squat. Audrey has more whoo-whoo than I have. So much for being the queen of the Shadow world.”
Elizabeth looked incredulous. “You don’t have any of Paris’ abilities?”
Alex shook her head. “Nope. Not a one of them. I may as well have not tried. All that effort for nothing.”
“I hardly think it was for nothing, Alex. Have you tried linking with Caesar?” Elizabeth asked.
Alex calmed a little, thinking of her link to Caesar. “Yeah that worked. You’re right about it being like two puzzle pieces. I never realized how close we’d become. I suppose that’s a plus.”
“You’re damn right it is,” Elizabeth said. “Maybe it just takes time to develop the rest of your abilities.”
Alex sighed. She’d been anticipating much more and the reality had been disappointing. “If there’s something there, Beth, I sure as hell don’t feel it.”
* * *
Audrey gloried in her newly-found confidence. Paris had warned her that she wasn’t allowed to use her abilities for anything but self-defense but the temptation to ease her way through life was very strong.
If she wanted to, she could force her teachers to award good grades, or convince others to give her almost anything she asked. She could walk through a crowd without notice or paralyze someone with her mind. Her God-like abilities made her feel powerful, something she’d never before experienced.
Although Paris had her rapist locked up in the Family Center, she hadn’t visited him as Paris suggested, He’d called him Brian and she’d discarded that, because giving her baby’s father a name made him real. She preferred to think of him as a thing. The pain and the guilt were too fresh.
As she meandered through the campus of Kentucky State University she examined the mind-glow of the students who passed her. Each was a rainbow of colors, smells and sounds, each a potential slave to do her bidding.
The thought caused a wave of remorse to flow through her. She’d been on the receiving end of that kind of mind manipulation before and it hadn’t been pleasant. Shaking off the groove into which her mind had wandered, she guided her path to the physics building and entered it.
Searching the building she made her way to the staff offices, stopping in front of the one marked ‘Professor Bowles’. Knocking on it, she heard a voice come from within. “Enter,” it said.
Opening the door, she saw a man sitting behind a desk. He stood, and she could see he was short, shorter than her. He wore glasses, and had a fringe of gray hair surrounding a totally bald head. His eyes danced behind the lenses and his genuine smile warmed her. She sensed she had nothing to fear from this man.
He cocked his head and stared at her. “You must be Audrey. Paris said you’d be attending KSU.”
Startled because she’d never before met the man, Audrey asked, “How did you know?”
Bowles shrugged. “I know Alexandra. You look exactly like her except for the hair color. Sit down, let’s talk a little.”
Audrey found a chair next to a small coffee table. He emerged from behind the desk and joined her.
“Would you like some tea? I have coffee but it’s instant,” he said.
Cautious, but curious as to his motives, Audrey shook her head.
“I suppose you’re wondering why Paris asked you to meet with me when you got to the campus,” he said.
Audrey shrugged, but still didn’t reply.
“Have you thought of a major?” he asked.
“Not really,” Audrey replied. “I thought I’d take the general-Ed courses and something would pop out.”
“Paris asked me to mentor you while you’re at the campus,” Bowles said. “That’s the reason for this meeting. Have you thought about studying physics?”
“No sir. It doesn’t sound like something I’d be interested in,” Audrey replied.
“Before you dismiss it,” he said. “Let me explain why I asked. You see, I’m specializing in a research project, investigating the physics of the mind. How the mind works at the subatomic level. Actually I’m studying Shadows but I can’t let the school know that. You’d be perfect as both a student and a research assistant.”
“You mean as a lab rat, don’t you? I imagine Paris told you what I am,” she said.
Bowel’s face colored with embarrassment. “No–No, not like that. That’s not what I want at all. It’s just that I thought...Look, if you were trained in physics, you might be able to provide a unique perspective as to how the process works. Despite its organic nature, at the atomic level the brain is a quantum machine. I’m convinced that the Shadow abilities stem from certain quantum principles but I’m having a hard time proving it. You could help me.”
Audrey was far from certain that he spoke the entire truth. She decided to test him. “Do you know that I could paralyze you in that chair? You wouldn’t be able to move a muscle. If I wanted to, I could motivate you to give me good grades or do favors for me. And if you pissed me off, I could burn out your brain, turn you into a vegetable. Aren’t you afraid?”
Bowles’ face blanched. “I knew Paris’ parents. They were my best friends. They were good people, people you could count on and they raised two wonderful children who are also my friends. I know what you’re capable of, but I don’t believe you’re that kind of person. If you were, Paris would never have trained you.”
She took pity on him. “You’re right, Professor Bowles, I’m not that kind of person but I’m still not convinced I should help you.”
“Audrey–can I call you Audrey?–My name is Gordon. I want to know how your brain works. This is really important research, research that could benefit all of humanity. I’m just beginning to understand all of its implications. Just say you’ll give it some thought.”
Audrey nodded. “I will. But I’m only a freshman. I won’t be able to start my major until I’m a sophomore.”
Bowles grew excited. “I can help you there. I know all the rules and how to creatively bypass them. As I said before, Paris asked me to mentor you through school. I’ll even tutor you if necessary, even if you don’t take physics.”
Satisfied he was sincere, Audrey extended her hand. “I’d be grateful, Professor –uh –Gordon and I’ll certainly think about what you said.”
* * *
Paris strolled to the medical offices at the Family Center, trying to find Doctor Mahmoodi. Through a little unofficial manipulation, he’d managed to get Mahmoodi a license to practice in the U.S. and the Doctor hadn’t disappointed him. Checking the names of the medical staff on the office doors, he found him leaning on his desk and reading a medical chart.
When Paris walked in he put it aside and stretched his hand out. “Mr. Fox. It’s a pleasure to see you.”
Paris shook it and looked around for an empty chair. “I can stay only a minute, Doc. I just decided to check up on you to see how you like Kentucky. How’s your family doing?”
“They are fine,” Mahmoodi replied. “The children are happy at the new school and my wife Alia loves our home. She really likes all the open space and plants that surround it. I confess, I worried that we might not be welcome but everyone has been friendly, very...what’s the word...hospitable, yes, very hospitable.”
“Well be sure to let me know if you need anything,” Paris said. “I’m sorry there’s not a nearby mosque but the only religion practiced around Jamestown is Christian.”
“That’s not a problem. A Muslim needs only the eastern sun and a Koran. Buildings are of no consequence.” Mahmoodi said.
“Have you spoken to your father?” Paris asked.
“Not recently. I’ve been too busy at the clinic,
” he replied.
“Well call him soon. I know he’s worried about you and he’d be relieved to know you’re safe. If necessary call him on the clinic’s phone line and don’t worry about the cost.”
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Paris left. He had a motive for asking Mahmoodi to call his father and he’d check to make sure it was done.
He planned to ask Ali for a favor.
Chapter 26
Enlisting Kitty
Paris answered the knock on the hotel suite’s door to reveal Kitty standing at the threshold. The severe cut of her dark jacket contrasted with her snow white blouse but complimented the dark slacks she wore. He could see her automatic weapon peeking out of the side of the jacket. The incongruity of the anything but conservative Kitty wearing plain clothing made him hesitate.
“Well? You gonna let me in?” she asked.
Smiling, Paris bowed and swept his arm toward the interior.
Kitty brushed by him and, hands on hips, looked around the suite. “Where’s my new niece? For that matter, where’s Beth?”
Since Kitty had exhausted her medical leave and was back at work, Paris had flown his family to Detroit ostensibly to present his new daughter to her FBI agent aunt. In reality he’d wanted to confer with Kitty about his plans for the assault on the Borgias. It seemed Kitty, in her typically independent manner, would make her own mind up about that.
Elizabeth emerged from the bedroom carrying Dorri. “Beth’s here.” She extended Dorri for Kitty’s inspection. “Do you want to hold your niece?”
Kitty took Dorri in her arms and looked around at the furnishings. Fixing on an arm chair, she walked over and sat down. “She’s got blue eyes,” Kitty said. “Are they gonna stay blue?”
“She’s too young to acquire pigmentation yet,” Elizabeth said. “We don’t know how her eyes will turn out.”
“The reason I asked,” Kitty said, “is because she’s staring at me. Is that normal for a baby this young?”