The Ninth Orphan

by Morcan, James

  Studying her eyes and features in the mirror, Isabelle felt like she was observing a stranger. Although still beautiful, she looked slightly more aged and world-weary now. She also noticed some lines that weren’t there before.

  In a way she wasn’t surprised by this sudden physical transformation as she felt like she’d undergone a metamorphosis from when she’d innocently photographed Nine in Paris. Back then, she was just another trusting person who was engrossed in herself and her work. She felt older and wiser now, yet emotionally wounded. She also felt she’d lost something: her innocence. That had been replaced by feelings of skepticism and mistrust.

  Doc Pichegru had told her she could look forward to a full recovery, physically at least, but Isabelle knew the trauma she’d experienced would always remain with her. She tried to suppress her feelings of grief as she thought of her parents and the manner in which they’d died. It was just too painful.

  Today was the day of her parents’ funeral, something she’d been dreading.

  Isabelle fingered the ruby hanging from the silver necklace Nine had given her before he’d departed from her life.

  #

  Isabelle and Doc Pichegru were among a dozen or so mourners who attended the graveside funeral service for the Allegets. It was a private funeral at a small Catholic cemetery in the 7th District of Paris. The number of mourners would have been much higher, but Isabelle had requested a private service so the media wouldn’t turn up. Fortunately, her plan had worked and the media didn’t get wind of the funeral’s location.

  Isabelle leaned on Doc Pichegru for support as the eulogies were delivered. She sobbed as she remembered the wonderful times she’d had with her parents.

  When the eulogies and prayers ended, preparations were made to lower the coffins into the adjoining graves. This was the moment Isabelle had been dreading. She wanted to rush forward and throw herself, screaming, onto the coffins. Sensing her inner torment, Doc Pichegru held her tight. Isabelle could only cry silently as her parents were lowered to their final resting places.

  After the graves were filled in and the mourners began to disperse, Isabelle turned to Doc Pichegru. “I think I will stay here for a while. You go on home.” Sensing the doctor’s concern for her wellbeing, she added, “I’ll be alright.”

  The doctor kissed her forehead. “God bless, my dear.” He walked slowly back along the tree-lined path toward his waiting car.

  Alone at last, Isabelle paid a personal tribute to her parents. As she knelt beside their graves, she finally gave in to her grief and cried aloud.

  Isabelle wasn’t totally alone. She didn’t realize it, but she was being observed by Nine. He’d been hiding in the nearby trees since the funeral service had started. His face was still bruised – a reminder of his recent run-in with Seventeen.

  Since securing his freedom, and Isabelle's, the former operative had been consumed by the need to find her. He'd been able to think of nothing else.

  Nine assessed her physical condition. He could see she still wasn’t her old self, but appeared to be in good shape considering what she’d been through.

  As he continued to observe Isabelle, his heart went out to her. He knew she had suffered enormously, and it was all because of him. She had well and truly been caught in the crossfire – as had her parents. Crossfire that was meant for him. He worried she may blame him for the death of her parents.

  Having never felt attached to a woman before, Nine was unsure how she would feel toward him now. He just hoped the spark of love he’d once seen in her eyes could be rekindled.

  #

  Isabelle never knew how long she spent beside her parents’ graves. In her grief, time seemed to stand still.

  Almost incongruously, glorious sunshine broke through the clouds just as light rain began to fall. Isabelle turned her face to the sun. Rain drops mingled with the tears on her face. She pulled herself away from the graves and walked slowly toward the nearest exit.

  Nine watched her, unobserved, from the trees as she neared his hiding place. As soon as she walked by, he stepped out behind her. Isabelle stopped, as if sensing his presence. She turned around and stared at him in disbelief. They looked at each other for several seconds, each trying to gauge the other's feelings.

  Nine was first to break the silence. “I’m sorry. For everything,” he ventured.

  Isabelle looked at him coolly. The former operative approached her hesitantly and stopped a yard short. The exotic beauty gave no clue to her feelings. Nine noticed she wore his mother’s ruby necklace.

  “Why did you return to me?” Isabelle suddenly asked.

  Nine reached out and touched the ruby. “Because without you I’d always be invisible,” he whispered.

  A feeling of happiness merged with the grief in Isabelle's heart. Still she gave no outward sign of how she felt. Nine searched her eyes with his, seeking some clue to her feelings toward him.

  At last, she smiled and fell into his arms. He held her tightly, enjoying the familiar feel of her soft body against his. Her strong feminine scent filled his nostrils.

  They kissed. It was a long, heartfelt kiss.

  Nine stepped back and admired her. “You're the only thing that matters to me now.” He pulled her to him again and tenderly kissed her forehead.

  The pair clung to each other as if their lives depended on it. Now, both were effectively orphans and each was the other’s entire world.

  Epilogue

  A profusion of colorful, tropical birds soared above the cliffs of a remote island a thousand miles north east of Tahiti. Their squawks were all but drowned out by the constant boom of waves crashing against the rocks far below.

  The island was one of the many that made up the savage and mysterious Marquesas Islands, that most northerly of archipelagos in French Polynesia. Its unprotected lava cliffs rose abruptly from the vastness of the sparkling Pacific Ocean – a result of huge undersea volcanic eruptions millions of years earlier.

  A solitary man stood on the cliff top looking out to sea. It was Nine. He was dwarfed by the vastness of sea and sky whose horizons seemed to merge into one never-ending expanse of blue.

  Suntanned and wearing only shorts and sandshoes, he looked totally relaxed. Here, on his own island, he could be himself. The former operative no longer needed to pretend to be someone else.

  As he took in his surroundings, Nine felt at peace for the first time in his life. He turned around and breathed in the tropical air as he studied the island’s interior. From here, it was easy to see why the island had been named Vahine, meaning woman, by early Polynesian explorers: its mountainous skyline resembled the contours of a woman’s body. He found it comforting he’d found his freedom in such a place.

  Leaving the cliff top, he followed a rocky trail down into a lush valley that ran between the island’s two rain-forested mountains. The grassy valley was fringed by palm trees, adding to the tropical atmosphere. As he walked, he thought to himself how good it was to be alive.

  It had been several months since he’d negotiated his freedom with Naylor at the Bilderberg Conference in Cornwall. After leaving Paris, he’d flown to Tahiti where he’d purchased a yacht and sailed to Vahine.

  Although he didn’t need to hide from anyone anymore, Nine had opted to retire to his island hideaway regardless. Living off the interest from his one hundred million dollar nest egg, he planned to spend the remainder of his days on Vahine.

  While he’d been settling into island life, a lot had happened back in the US. Naylor had been appointed to the post of CIA Director only weeks after attending the Bilderberg Conference. Along with securing the last of Yamashita’s Gold, Naylor’s enhanced power accelerated the Omega Agency’s New World Order agenda.

  Some of the more independent thinkers in the media had compared Naylor’s unexpected rise to the top of the CIA ladder to fellow Bilderbergers Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Both of whom had speedy ascensions to the White House and caught many political analysts by surprise.<
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  On the surface at least, there were similarities to Naylor’s appointment. While still a little known Governor of Arkansas, Clinton had attended his first Bilderberg Conference in Germany in 1991; the following year he’d easily won the US Presidential Election. Obama’s meteoric rise to the top had been even more spectacular and also followed a secretive Bilderberg Conference in Chantilly, Virginia.

  How Naylor had secured the top job within the CIA didn’t matter, though. The point was the Omega Agency now had one of their own in a major position of power. Their next target was to get an Omega man or woman to the very top of the White House.

  Seventeen, meanwhile, had tried to flee the Omega Agency, just as Nine had. She hadn’t succeeded however, and was soon captured by Naylor who placed her in a new mind control program so he could continue to manipulate her. Naylor planned to keep her indefinitely as his mistress.

  The sad thing was Seventeen would remain completely unaware she was being exploited, such were the ramifications of the insidious mind control programs.

  None of that mattered to Nine, though. Living on Vahine, he might as well have been on another planet. To his surprise, he rarely even thought about the world he’d left behind. He’d come to realize there was something about French Polynesia that encouraged its residents to take the time to smell the flowers and think less.

  His only regret was his mentor and surrogate father, Tommy Kentbridge, was no longer a part of his life. Nine knew much of his freedom was down to Kentbridge.

  Emerging from a stand of palm trees, Nine arrived at the island bungalow he’d built. Its open living design suited him down to the ground. What he loved best about it – and about life in general – was he had the woman of his dreams to share it with.

  After tracking Isabelle down in Paris, he'd asked her to accompany him to his island. To his relief, she’d agreed, pointing out that now her parents were dead there was nothing to keep her in France. Thinking of Isabelle made him quicken his stride.

  He slowed as he neared the bungalow. Isabelle was tidying up at the kitchen window. She hadn't seen him. Nine stopped to admire her. Island life agrees with her. She looked radiant. Her shiny, black hair had grown almost down to her waist and her caramel skin looked even more beautiful in the tropical sunlight.

  Isabelle finally saw Nine and ran outside to greet him. They kissed. Then she told him she’d had morning sickness and had developed a sudden craving for certain foods. It took Nine a few moments to register that Isabelle suspected she was pregnant – and even more astoundingly, he could soon be a father.

  As a product of the Omega Agency, he’d never imagined fatherhood would ever be a possibility for him. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Having a family with Isabelle and bringing their children up on Vahine gave him a warm feeling.

  Nine pulled Isabelle close to him and looked into her dark, shimmering eyes. She was pleased to see how happy he was about the idea of fatherhood. Nine’s face registered total contentment.

  As they held each other close, Nine noticed a colorful bird hovering in the sky high above them. The bird was a rare Marquesas Kingfisher, an endangered species. It swirled in the air currents. With its wings outstretched, the kingfisher looked down at the lovers embracing then flew off toward the sea where it would hunt for prey.

  Nine watched the kingfisher as it flew away. The airborne miracle of Mother Nature seemed to mirror his own inner emotional state. He now felt as free as a bird.

  THE END

  If you enjoyed the writing in this book you may care to read the historical adventure novel Fiji, also written by father-and-son writing team Lance & James Morcan.

  Fiji: A Novel

  As the pharaohs of ancient Egypt build their mighty pyramids, and Chinese civilization evolves under the Shang Dynasty, adventurous seafarers from South East Asia begin to settle the far-flung islands of the South Pacific. The exotic archipelago of Fiji is one of the last island groups to be discovered and will remain hidden from the outside world for many centuries to come.

  By the mid-1800's, Fiji has become a melting pot of cannibals, warring native tribes, sailors, traders, prostitutes, escaped convicts and all manner of foreign undesirables. It's in this hostile environment an innocent young Englishwoman and a worldly American adventurer find themselves.

  Susannah Drake, a missionary, questions her calling to spread God’s Word as she’s torn between her spiritual and sexual selves. As her forbidden desires intensify, she turns to the scriptures and prayer to quash the sinful thoughts – without success.

  Nathan Johnson arrives to trade muskets to the Fijians and immediately finds himself at odds with Susannah. She despises him for introducing the white man’s weapons to the very people she is trying to convert and he pities her for her naivety. Despite their differences, there’s an undeniable chemistry between them.

  When their lives are suddenly endangered by marauding cannibals, Susannah and Nathan are forced to rely on each other for their very survival.

  * * *

  Fiji is a spellbinding novel of adventure, cultural misunderstandings, religious conflict and sexual tension set in one of the most exotic and isolated places on earth.

  Fiji is published by Sterling Gate Books and available now for purchase.

  If you enjoyed The Ninth Orphan you'll love books two and three in the Orphan Trilogy...

  The Orphan Trilogy

  The Ninth Orphan is the first novel in the Orphan Trilogy. Written by James & Lance Morcan, the first book sets the stage for a new thriller franchise.

  The Orphan Trilogy includes a prequel, The Orphan Factory, and a sequel, The Orphan Uprising. Books two and three in the series are coming in 2012.

  Are you wanting more of Nine, Isabelle, Seventeen, the other orphans and the sinister Omega Agency? Are there questions left in your mind after reading The Ninth Orphan? Questions such as...

  How exactly did Kentbridge train all his orphans to reach genius levels?

  What happened to Nine and Isabelle after they settled on the island?

  What was Nine’s childhood like and how did Kentbridge groom him to kill?

  After learning they were siblings, did Nine and Seventeen become allies or remain foes?

  What happened to Naylor and did the Omega Agency ever create a New World Order?

  These questions and more will be answered in the prequel and sequel. Books two and three are as action-packed as The Ninth Orphan, containing a clever balance of thrills, romance and intrigue. The Orphan Factory enlarges on the back story of the first novel. The Orphan Uprising picks up where the first novel ended, moving straight into fast action sequences with life-and-death situations.

  In reading the Orphan Trilogy, you will get to know all of Nine’s fellow orphans from The Pedemont Project. You will follow their adventures as the orphans grow up with Nine in the prequel then hunt him down in the sequel.

  The Orphan Factory and The Orphan Uprising will both be published by Sterling Gate Books in 2012.