THE PRICE SHE'LL PAY: For the secret she never knew she had...

by Cara Charles

  ‘Look forward to meeting her,’ the President IM’d back.

  Desiree sighed as she read the IM. ‘Enjoy your visit.’ Desiree IM’d back.

  Desiree was extremely fatigued. It had been the toughest 96 hours of her life.

  Joseph was their initial success. Tragically, they’d been too late to protect Elise’s family. They were playing catch up with more tragedy to follow. She dreaded telling Elise. How much more could she endure?

  They’d allowed Elise to sleep for another twelve hours. They’d given her breakfast, and walked her to the bathroom, still childlike.

  They’d slowly brought her back to her present age, recalling the events in the last 96 hours. Finally it was over. They could let her rest.

  Now they waited.

  Desiree brewed strong coffee, hoping the adult aromas would help her psyche. Desiree made cinnamon rolls, using the sense of smell to bring her back, fully.

  Elise woke up at noon in Desiree’s guest room.

  The sky was a brilliant lavender blue. Buddy slept at her feet. He stretched. She stretched, feeling strangely lighter. A fluffy white robe, wool socks and house shoes that looked like fluffy lambs, waited beside her bed. A coffee service was on the small table by the lamp. The pot was hot. Dez was so thoughtful. She poured herself a cup. As she sipped her coffee in the generous mug, she acknowledged she loved this room, painted a pale pink. With its antique bed, crystal lamps and mirrors. The door was cracked. Buddy went downstairs. She felt like a little girl again, safe and warm. Somehow this room reminded her of her own room long ago.

  The smell of cinnamon rolls hit her. She’d hurry to breakfast.

  She washed her face, brushed her teeth, put on lavender lotion, aware she was humming the Seven Dwarf’s working song, feeling so at home, never wanting to leave. She put on her new robe and new socks, her hair a wreck, but it shaped up quickly, put on a bit of lipstick and walked down to breakfast with her cup, trying to keep sad images out of her head.

  Half way down the back stairwell, she realized they couldn’t hear her until she stepped on the creaky tread. She didn’t know she’d lost a whole day.

  Elise heard Dez say, “She deserves to know.”

  A man answered, “I agree.”

  ‘Deserves to know what,’ Elise wondered. “Yum! Cinnamon rolls!”

  Buddy wagged himself across the room to her.

  “Good morning. Morning, my little Buddy.”

  Elise kissed his scruffy head.

  “Good morning! You look nicely rested!”

  Dez refilled Elise’s cup.

  “Yummy coffee! Thanks for bringing it to me. I must have slept like the…” she didn’t finish the rest.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE — THE TRUTH HURTS

  Elise was a bit subdued, but generally happier. The sadness behind her eyes was not as profound. It had only been three days since she buried her family.

  Desiree felt the post hypnotic suggestions were working. Desiree’s spirit lifted.

  “Yes, it’s a fine day. Meet Eamon our real estate wizard, and our Sheriff.”

  “Good morning Elise. So, I hear you’re from the “Old Country.”

  “Hi Eamon, nice to meet you. Your Old Country?”

  Elise laughed. They shook hands.

  “No not my darling Ireland. You know? California... is the Old Country in these parts.”

  “Oh, I see. You’re funny. I love that. How long did I sleep?”

  “You slept about twenty-four hours.”

  “Oh my goodness, what an imposition I’ve been. I don’t even remember getting up.”

  “We completely understand, entirely my pleasure to provide sanctuary for you. Eamon’s going to steward you into your new life. Whenever you’re ready.”

  Eamon raised his mug in a toast, “I’ll give you the deluxe tour. Dez clued me in on your dream place. I know of one in town, and several in the country.”

  “What did I deserve to know? Something about the island?”

  Dez and Eamon smiled, “Have a seat, and we’ll tell you what you deserve to know,” Eamon said.

  Eamon leaned toward Elise as she sipped her coffee, and pulled pieces from the cinnamon roll.

  “The islands’ economy should be a disclosure to prospective islanders. It’s tough to make it here unless you are a state employee, have a thriving business, and there are very few of those, or are independently wealthy or have a fabulous retirement with a large nest egg. Food, gasoline, and virtually all service prices are greatly inflated. Jobs are scarce, those few service jobs, have low wages. I learned what horrific tragedy brought you here to the island. Please accept my deepest condolences, Elise.”

  Eamon continued before she lost her composure, “I thought you deserved the truth upfront. In regards to the list prices, you also deserve to know... offer much less than the asking price, prices are still too high, even in this slow market. They’d welcome any offer.”

  Eamon’s body language was too stiff, his eyes too fixed, and wide.

  From her year as a prosecutor, she still could recognize a lie. Dez, being a psychiatrist would know not to have a body language tell.

  Dez watched Elise conclude Eamon wasn’t a good liar. Dez hoped Elise wouldn’t have a breakdown when she told her the reason she deserved the truth. It was now or maybe never.

  Eamon rose. “I’ve got floor duty. I’ll compile a list of places I think you’ll love. Better yet, I’ll just bring you all the brochures and pocket listings.”

  “Good idea. That’s so kind. It’s nice to have met you, Eamon. Hope a big client walks in today.”

  “I think one already has. One with the heart of a warrior!”

  Eamon shook her hand and left.

  Desiree broke eggs into a skillet. She wanted Elise to have a full breakfast.

  “If you’d like to shower, I’ll have breakfast made by the time you come down.”

  “Great idea.” Elise went upstairs for yoga and a shower, while Dez prepared the speech of her life.

  WHEN ELISE GOT in her bathroom, Buddy looked at her. He sensed her worry. He was telling her, they were worried and he was concerned.

  “They’re hiding something. You feel it too don’t ya, pal?”

  He barely wagged his tail, as the adrenalin of distrust suddenly coarse through her and stung her cheeks.

  Something was coming, something heavy. It was behind their eyes and in the muscles of their faces.

  ‘Whatever it is, I deserve to know.’ She tried to rationalize it away. ‘I’m a stranger. They know nothing about me.’

  But her instincts were never wrong. Not once.

  Elise showered, dried her hair, and argued with herself. Maybe she didn’t need to be with people right now. Desiree was gifted in comforting and trustworthy. She needed to believe in someone who was genuinely honest.

  It was probably all very innocent, but Elise quietly gathered her belongings and headed downstairs. Because she didn’t want to know the truth that was shadowing Dez. She didn’t want to be heartbroken, again.

  SHE TIPTOED to the front door. But Buddy didn’t follow. He raced ahead to the kitchen. She couldn’t leave him.

  ‘Damn, it’s locked.’ She turned to wait for Buddy to find her.

  Desiree was standing there with her coffee, smiling.

  “Oh Desiree, I’m so embarrassed. I’ve overstayed my welcome. You’ve been beyond kind, you’ve got the shop to run and…”

  “Come sit, dear.”

  “I should get out of your way today, Dez. I know you have the shop to consider.”

  “I’ve closed the shop for today, to spend time with you.”

  Elise put her things down by the door, then reluctantly joined Dez on the loveseat.

  Desiree read her face. Desiree picked up her hand. She felt Elise brace.

  ‘She knows.’ “I need to tell you... Elise, you came here because… you were instructed to come here… a long time ago.”

  “What do you mean?” Elise withdrew
her hand, but Desiree reached for it again. “No. Please. Just tell me.”

  “Remember the billboards of the Orcas on the 405 and in Oregon?”

  “Yes. Oh my God. Who are you?”

  “They guided you here, to safety. We are METAPHOR. A company of people, friends of your father’s, many gone now, but replaced with those who want to do only good. We’ve been together since you were small, still together long after retirement, to protect you. I set your programmed escape plan in motion by inserting the “Little Doggie in the Window” jingle, on your home phone. I’m an old colleague of your father’s from his intelligence days and a close friend of yours since childhood.”

  “You knew my father?”

  “Yes. You and I met many times when you were a little girl. I feel very close to you, having protected you all these years, especially since the loss of your father, even though I made sure you would not remember me when we met again.”

  Elise searched Desiree’s face to find something familiar, something to trust.

  Desiree reached under the love seat, and pulled out the album and opened it to the first page and turned it for Elise to easily read. There they all were, in the old black and white photographs was little five-year-old Elise with her Dad, and Desiree.

  Tears were welling in Elise’s eyes.

  Desiree began, “When you were four years old, before this photo was taken, you overheard and retained a very big secret while at your father’s satellite surveillance office. I helped him enhance the program he created to suppress what you learned, to protect you and this secret you overheard so innocently.”

  “What secret?” Elise’s eyes were widening.

  Desiree felt it coming.

  “Elise, my darling. You are a brave solider, on a life-long mission. Since this age, you’ve been protecting a woman whom we scientifically confirmed in 2006 is a living miracle. Our biological Eve is alive, all this time by some miracle of nature. Lightning, she said.”

  “Impossible... no wait. I read this in The National Geographic. The Human Genome Project?” Elise said, as an epiphany was sorting itself out.

  “Private projects like that were created over fifty years ago to find her. She’s the reason the Russians re-started the once taboo Nazi science, genetic research, and she’s the reason the Germans searched Africa for her. Through the ages, she’s the reason some wars were fought, rumors of her through the Crusades may have been the reason the Catholic Church outlawed female religions, burned women, and she’s been a rumor among European cultures since the slave trade. She’s been sought by all powerful governments and religions across time. General Eisenhower took her story on faith, seventy years ago, and he believed her, even then. Your father’s mentor, General Eisenhower entrusted her care only to your father and briefly, to Captain Moss.”

  “Daddy and Uncle Brad?”

  “Your father and General Eisenhower began protecting her right after the war’s end. Ike brought her back with him right after she defected in Reims when the Germans surrendered.”

  “What?”

  “There’s more, Elise. Please, let me get it all out. When you were four, you overheard your father talking at his office one Saturday with Captain Moss President Eisenhower had then hand picked, then briefed to back up your father. You were innocently coloring, waiting on them to finish their business. You, yourself know you have a complete eidetic memory. You innocently listened to their entire conversation.”

  Dez took a breath to continue. “You heard a secret conversation between your father and Captain Moss. We thought Brad was killed by right wing extremists ordered by Hoover. We thought Hoover might have known why Eisenhower brought back an African-American nurse from the German surrender. You overheard them call her, ‘Eve.’ And that is when you started listening to them, drawing the places on the map they had planned to hide her. You drew it perfectly, look. But it was incomplete. You were interrupted,” Desiree turned the page.

  There was a map of the U.S. in crayon. Stars drawn on major cities.

  Elise shook her head, stunned and overwhelmed.

  Desiree opened the back of the album.

  Inside the back cover was “The Little Gray Donkey.”

  Desiree took it out of the casing and handed it to her.

  Elise’s heart quickened. She opened the front cover. There in her child hand was her name.

  ‘Elise Michele Larsen.’

  Elise put the book to her chest and cried. It was coming back. They had her book. It was all, true.

  Desiree stroked her hair. “I’m so sorry. It’s a terrible burden to have put on a child. But we had no choice, darling. If we hadn’t felt so exposed we would have never put you under this pressure.”

  Years of bending people’s minds, avoiding the known outcome was before her. This little girl, now a woman may not get through the part to come.

  “There’s more. Be patient with me,” Desiree said, tears building in her eyes.

  Elise nodded, not looking at her.

  Desiree felt the pressure in her chest. It was time.

  “You found out where they were going to hide her for your father’s lifetime and could recite it verbatim, and for months that followed. So with much discussion with President Eisenhower, we programmed you to protect her for your lifetime. And so, decades after the programming stopped, you proved your training was still viable. You followed your training to the minutest detail and arrived here promptly after your family’s funeral. We deprogrammed you by regressing you back to your youngest age, over the last few days, to remember where she is now, so we could get her to the President for protection. Professor Shanti Larsen, Southern Semitic Studies Scholar of George Washington University is now in the White House, safe.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY — THE UNTOLD TRUTH

  “This woman is my Shanti? Oh my God! She’s alive?”

  Elise was stunned and grabbed Desiree and began to cry.

  “Yes, darling. However there’s more… It involves Ivan Kimirov.”

  “And Shanti is… mEve? How’s Ivan involved?”

  “As a young Russian soldier, a linguist grad student before the war, conscripted as their interpreter, Ivan Kimirov’s unit invaded Berlin a few months before World War Two’s end. He rescued Shanti, her German name Herta from Ravensbruck, and helped her defect to Eisenhower. It was Ivan Kimirov, who fell in love with the German High Command secretary Winifred Schmidt, secretary to General Keitel. She met Herta, Shanti’s former German nick-name, when she was taken from the Desert as part of Rommel’s assassination investigation. General Keitel following Hitler’s orders was following up on the rumors of her existence. Keitel protected her but at Ravensbruck, they were studying her like an exotic lab specimen. It was Ivan and his love for Winifred, and his love for Herta that saved her. Ivan is a hero, humanity’s hero. You yourself in your wise soul at your tender age of four, renamed her Shanti, Shanti from Jungle Book. Do you remember?”

  Elise nodded, crying.

  Desiree continued, “It was Shanti’s determination to come to America for protection instead of returning to Ethiopia where she could no longer hide. Ivan brought her to Eisenhower. He fell in love with her too, when he lost Winifred. All these years later, after he assured us he’d destroyed Winifred’s papers, he lied to us. He had kept Winifred’s copies of Rommel’s dossier that documented the discussion of the rumor and African Eve legend, but denied Shanti was the living legend. Because… that was all he had left of Winifred. Her heroism. Ivan’s granddaughter Mavra, found out about Herta by looking for his will. He warned us a few days ago, and left a message on your phone. Now he’s dead, probably killed by Mavra. We’ve been protecting you, ever since your father and President Eisenhower asked for my help. We protected your family, too… but they got the upper hand. I’m afraid you’re in mortal danger too...”

  Elise fell on her knees, screaming... She wouldn’t be calmed.

  “I knew Mavra was involved, but she slaughtered my family to get to me?” />
  Desiree tried to get her to her feet, but she fought her off.

  “There was an imposter imitating you. That made them leave the condo to come home to you...”

  “You and your resources couldn’t protect my family? Why couldn’t you? Answer me!”

  “We had a team of four with them, darling. They died too. No one could have survived that avalanche. We just had no contingency or preparation for that magnitude of evil…”

  Elise held up her hand.

  Desiree stopped. “Please Elise take a moment.”

  Elise cried for a long time, then she was struck by a hard epiphany that instantly sobered her. She stopped crying. She got to her feet and paced like a caged animal.

  “Listen to me very carefully. Your resources, including the President will help me find Mavra Kimirov! Am I making myself perfectly clear? Promise me!”

  “We promise. I can’t speak for the President.”

  Elise got down on her knees and cried. Desiree knelt beside her and let her scream it out.

  “Why didn’t she come for me? Why didn’t she just come for me?” Elise broke down further, rocking herself. “Why didn’t she just come for me?” Elise screamed, visualizing her family dead in the snow.

  Eventually, Elise had gotten out the rage, but she was unable to stand on her own.

  Desiree helped her up into the love seat and knelt in front of her to get Elise to look her in the eye.

  “They sent the whole mountain down on the team that was protecting your family. We killed two of her men outside your condo, the night before. You did the right thing by being prepared to run at a moment’s notice. That’s why you’re here and not her captive…”

  Elise was strangely quiet, looking at the ground, seeing nothing but her plan.

  “Where is Mavra Kimirov? The radio said she died.”

  “We blew up her plane, but due to the thick snow falling when they boarded, her body double boarded. A clear visual confirmation was impossible. We know now, she wasn’t on it. She’s out there. We’re looking for her. The President has agreed to protect you and Shanti. You have METAPHOR’S word we will carry out her sanction.”