by R E Gauthier
“She almost fell and hurt herself because of me?” Nikki asked, her chin trembling.
Kelsey’s heart went out to her best friend. “Oh, no, I didn’t mean it that way. God, Nikki, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to Aisling. She may not have told it to you yet, but I’m going to tell you that the influence you have had on one another is almost magical. You are both better for meeting the other.”
Nikki closed her eyes. “She has come to mean more to me in a short time. If I didn’t know any better, I would say, I have been waiting for Aisling my whole life. When we first met, I only saw the anger and thought she hated me. Then…well, then you know what happened.”
Kelsey smiled, she didn’t know the specifics of how Nikki and Aisling’s first time came about, but she did see the profound results of their frequent couplings. “I know what you’re trying to say. I felt the same way when Miranda and I came together. Of course, for me, it was my first time, but I know what you mean about the intense emotions.”
“I’ve had many physical relationships with women over the years, but they were fleeting one-time flings or casual hook-ups. One time in Aisling’s arms, and I am…” Nikki let it trail off without speaking the rest.
Kelsey heard the rest in her mind and smiled. I wonder when they’re going to say it to one another.
“I love you too,” Aisling said hoarsely. “Can someone get me a drink of water. Then we have to talk about how many women you were with.”
Kelsey giggled. “I guess I got my answer, and that’s my cue to leave and get that water. It may take me longer than usual, so take that time to have that chat.” Kelsey rose and winked at her sleepy cousin.
Thank you, Kels.
You’re welcome, Ais’.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Castle Eileen Donan Baston, May 29, 2012
The sun glinted on the binocular’s lens, making Kelsey blink. Looking over the land bridge from the mainland, she watched a vehicle approach slowly. From her vantage point on the Castle’s baston, Kelsey used her binoculars to see into the vehicle’s windshield. The person driving the dark blue sedan wore a black cap obscuring their face. From the build and size, it appeared to be a man. There wasn’t any possible way to see if someone sat in the rear of the car.
Nikki’s voice came through the earbud. “Mack, can you see the driver of the car approaching us?”
“No, I cannot get a clear view of the face. They’re wearing a cap with a long peak like they’re trying to hide their identity. It does appear to be a man, though.” Kelsey closely watched as the vehicle drew closer. “Who else would be crossing the land bridge. It has to be him. Is everyone in position?” Kelsey asked, already knowing how Nikki would answer; she knew Aisling had handled the agents efficiently.
“Everyone is in place. That car won’t get too far within the gates before it’s surrounded.”
“Make sure the jammer is functional because we don’t want him to be able to reach out to anyone and notify them that this is a trap.”
“We have it all in place. Do you want to come down to greet our guests?”
Kelsey thought about what Aisling saw in her vision. A few days before, Kelsey’s cousin saw a dark form coming at her. The dark form then took everyone from her, leaving Aisling all alone. Aisling expressed how frightened she was, and she felt as though she knew the dark shape, but something was blocking the person’s face. Could the person be the Ghost or someone else? Kelsey wasn’t about to let anyone take her away from Aunt Cat and Aisling again. “I’ll be right down,” Kelsey said.
***
Inner Area at Eileen Donan Castle, May 29, 2012
As the car drove through the front gate, it closed, and dozens of agents advanced with their guns drawn, effectively surrounding the vehicle when it came to a stop. There wasn’t any movement inside the car.
Aisling said in a loud voice, “get out of the car with your hands over your head.”
When the man stepped out of the car, everyone tensed to see who he was. The man put his hands over his head and went along with the order to kneel on the ground. “What is going on? What have I done?”
After three agents cuffed the man and searched him for a weapon, Nikki nodded to Kelsey.
Kelsey knew this man wasn’t the man called the Ghost. From the man’s fear and uncertainty, Kelsey guessed he was sent as a decoy or for a way to give the Ghost the upper hand. “We’re the ones asking questions here. Who are you, and did you come here on your own accord, or were you paid?”
The man looked afraid now. When he first exited the car, he looked annoyed, but he seemed genuinely fearful as he took in the scope of the armed agents surrounding him. “My name is John MacIntyre, and I was hired to pick up a man here.”
“What man; what is the name he gave you?” Kelsey asked, stepping forward and holstered her Glock. She signaled everyone to return to a more relaxed position. This wasn’t the Ghost, but it could be a way to learn more about the man.
“He…he said his name was Eeeth…than Mac..Ddd…donald”, the man stuttered.
Aisling gasped and swore.
Kelsey didn’t need her gift to know what Aisling thought because she thought the same thing. Signaling everyone to back away, Kelsey smiled and assured the man he was not in any trouble. She went to him and put a hand on his trembling shoulders. “John, you’re safe here. I promise nothing will happen to you, but how did this man reach you? Did he call you, or did he contact you by other means?”
“He called me on the service’s line and requested to be picked up here at…” John glanced at his watch on his shaking arm. “I’m supposed to be here for…for two o’clock to pick him up. I didn’t do anything wrong. I won’t say anything. Please, let me go home to my wife; we’re expecting a grandchild in a month.”
“Relax John, no one is going to hurt you, and as I said, you’re not in any trouble. Can we have your phone to look for a way to contact this Ethan MacDonald? That is the man’s name; you were supposed to pick up here, wasn’t it?” Kelsey knew the man wanted to run, but they needed him to stay until they could determine what the Ghost may have told him. There was also a chance they could locate the Ghost from the call he made to the car service.
“My phone is in my jacket pocket,” John said, frowning.
Kelsey held out her hand for one of the agents to give her the key to John’s cuffs. “In good faith, I’m going to take the cuffs off of you, but you have to promise you won’t try to run. I don’t know all of these men and women. Some of them may be trigger-happy. We don’t want anything to happen, do we, John?”
John shook his head. “No, Mam. You have my word; I won’t go anywhere, I promise.”
“Good, John. I’m going to take the cuffs off, so you carefully take out your phone and give it to me. Do you understand?”
Kelsey didn’t think John would give her much trouble, but she decided to be careful and keep the agents close as she advanced on the larger man. Desperate men did desperate things. Kelsey decided that it was best to keep John MacIntyre, thinking that the agents would shoot if he made one wrong move. She could read the man’s mind, but even so, she didn’t want to take any chances. They had to determine what he knew about the man called Ethan MacDonald. To do so, they needed to search John’s phone for any evidence. Was the man calling himself, Ethan MacDonald, the Ghost, or someone playing a game for the Ghost?
Slowly John took his phone from his jacket pocket and held it in his open palm. “Yes, Mam. I was to come and wait for Ethan MacDonald. You can take my phone.”
Kelsey took the phone, and immediately Aisling was at her side. “I’ll take it to Nikki; she will search for anything to tell us who, where, and how this man called the car service.”
“John, we need to search your phone for anything that could help us. While you wait, I’ll have an agent take you somewhere more comfortable. If you need anything to drink or eat, we can do our best to get it for you. As soon as we can, we’ll have you back with
your wife; you have my word.”
John nodded and smiled and thanked Kelsey before the agents led him off to a secure area of the grounds to hold him until they deemed it safe to release him. Kelsey swore under her breath, and then louder, she growled, “what the fuck just happened?” How did he know this was a trap? Only the agent with Interpol knew that this place wasn’t open for regular business. The Ghost would think he was coming to a public place full of people to pick up files that would finally give Aisling and Aunt Cat their freedom from running. The only way the Ghost would send a man here instead of coming himself is if he suspected something or he knew this was a trap. Had someone within Interpol let this leak or the Ghost was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. Kelsey went with her uncle’s theory that a mole helped the Ghost. It’s time we have a closer look at these files Uncle Stephen hid on the Interpol server.
***
Aisling’s Office, Back at MacKenzie’s Estate, May 30, 2012
Nikki helped Kelsey search for the information in the files her uncle buried in the Interpol server. What they found shone a light on what her uncle worked on and how he knew more about the criminal underground of Europe and the Middle East. After an hour of searching, there still wasn’t anything on his theory of who the mole within the intelligence agencies could be. Kelsey stood and began to pace the room’s perimeter. She felt concern coming from Nikki and Aisling but wasn’t sure how to reassure them.
“I’m sorry Mack, I’ve tried everything I could to find the exact file about the mole’s identity. If your uncle uploaded the file, it would be here. Is there a way he may have hid it somewhere else?”
Looking heavenward, Kelsey closed her eyes. “Aisling, can you think of any other place your father may have hidden the files. Did he have any personal effects he sent you or a gift to your mother?” Kelsey looked at her cousin as Aisling rubbed her forehead.
“Dad would send mom a gift every week while he was away. He had many special delivery companies on his beck and call. But on the last trip, he sent her only one gift. Mom received a new necklace for their wedding anniversary one week before his death.”
The immediate look of melancholy on Aisling’s face, coupled with the emotion slamming into Kelsey, made her go to her cousin. “I’m so sorry, Ais’. Through all of this, you have not been able to mourn him properly. When this bastard is caught, we will change all of that.” Kelsey hugged Aisling fiercely. She wished she could take all the pain away. Aisling trembled in Kelsey’s arms.
“I never got to say goodbye. I thought we would have more time. Mom still thinks he’s out there because she’s too fragile to tell her that the man she’d loved more than life itself is gone. If her gift hadn’t failed her; she’d know already. I don’t want to be the one to tell her. Kels, I hate what this disease is doing to her.” Large, shaking sobs tore through Aisling’s body.
Kelsey held her cousin tightly and tried to soothe her silently. When they were kids, Kelsey had this method of drawing Aisling’s sorrow out, leaving her cousin smiling. Try as she might, that method didn’t work this time.
Nikki approached the two of them and put her arms around Aisling as well. “Aisling, is there a way we can have a look at your mom’s necklace?” Nikki whispered in Aisling’s ear.
Aisling turned out of Kelsey’s arms and looked into Nikki’s eyes. “Why do you want Mom’s necklace? What could it possibly do for us now? It’s a simple but elegant gold chain with a diamond pendant.”
Kelsey also asked Nikki what use could the necklace be to them.
“Your father wasn’t just a simple intelligence agent, was he?” Nikki asked Aisling.
Aisling shook her head. “How did you know? No one knew what he did. I knew because he used to try and teach me to code. I’m afraid I never had his aptitude for the computer.”
“Your father is like many other coders; he left his signature on everything he did. His files have a unique quality, that once I recognized it, I could find his work anywhere. I found an encrypted file buried so far inside the server, no one would have found it for years, but I did. I believe he would have left a contingency plan in the event of something happening to him. If my gut is right, he left that plan with the one person he trusted more than anyone, your mother.”
“But, Nikki, what sort of contingency plan could he leave with a necklace?” Kelsey asked, still confused about how a necklace could help them.
“Mack, remember that case where the guy stole over three million dollars after killing those bank tellers? We had a hard time finding where he hid the money. We found a piece of zirconium on a necklace around his neck, and there were numbers on that crystal. Those numbers led us to a bank account he opened in a fake identity in the Cayman Islands.”
Kelsey saw where Nikki was going with her train of thought as well as saw the idea inside her best friend’s mind. “Yes. Do you think my uncle had a code engraved on the diamond?”
Nikki nodded and smiled. “I saw his work; he was a brilliant man. If he thought he was in danger, he would have done all he could to ensure the information he learned would be safe.”
Aisling wiped away the tears and smiled briefly. “If you’re right, then we may have what we’re looking for to put away the Ghost and finally find the mole my father said was planted deep within the intelligence agencies.”
Nikki nodded and drew Aisling into her arms. “Can you get your mother’s necklace for me? Once we have it, I can get on decrypting the file and get the answers we need to bring down the number one mastermind and most wanted assassin the world has ever known.”
Aisling frowned. “Mom never takes it off of her neck. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but we’ll have to think of something good to make her want to give us that necklace.”
“If anyone can convince your mother, it would be Nikki and you.” Kelsey knew that these two determined women would do what was needed, while she thought of a way to find this Ghost. She had an idea to use her gift to do something good for the MacKenzie Family finally.
Chapter Forty-Nine
MacKenzie’s Estate, May 30, 2012
Kelsey sat in the garden with her eyes closed and thinking about the night the Ghost attacked Aisling and Aunt Cat. She tried to concentrate on the man who grabbed Aisling in her bedroom. Trying to see anything that could help identify the man.
In the dark recesses of her mind, there had to be a clue or a way for her to see the man now. Doc taught her a few exercises to use to regain locked memories or repressed parts of her visions. If there was a time, she should try this method; it was now. She began by slowing her breath and mimicking the state her mind was in when she slept. Kelsey then concentrated on the vision she tried so hard to forget. In moments the room where Aisling slept that night materialized with Kelsey standing watching a man enter.
Every fiber in her being was alert, and she saw the man reaching under the bed and grabbing Aisling. Kelsey willed her mind not to look away this time. Her adult mind took in the man’s features, height, and weight. If she had to guess, the man was approximately six feet and three inches and weighed one hundred and eighty-five pounds. His black hair and dark face appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, and he had a small tattoo on his neck of a bird. Kelsey concentrated on that bird as the man covered his face with a mask. She shook herself and counted to ten.
Kelsey opened her eyes to see the blue sky and Nikki approaching with a smile.
“So, while Aisling and I were working our asses off, you were taking a nap.”
Kelsey threw Nikki an annoyed glare.
Nikki chuckled. “Sorry, I know this has been rough on you. I came looking for you because Aisling figured a way to get her mom to give her the necklace. She is going to tell her mother that we need to check it for any electronic bugs. We’re to meet Aisling in her office in three minutes.”
“That’s great, and I may have found something locked in my memories that could help us identify this Ghost. In my vision of that night, Aisling said the
Ghost broke in and attacked her and Aunt Cat and shot Uncle Stephen. I went back to that vision of that night and concentrated on the man who entered Aisling’s room. I saw a tattoo on his neck of a bird and thought maybe you could use the intelligence database to identify who the Ghost is.”
“Wow! Here I thought you were resting, and instead, you may have given us one of our biggest breaks. Why have you never thought of that before?”
Kelsey shrugged. “Until recently, I thought the vision I had might not be correct. It wasn’t until Aisling verified it happened the way I had seen it in my vision and not altered by Nanna’s meddling, that I knew it to be true. After learning the truth, I have been thinking about ways to get home and get out of this mess. I never tried to use the relaxation and memory recovery technique Doc taught me months ago.”
“Well, you couldn’t have used it at a better time. Let’s get to Aisling’s office to see if we can identify the tattoo in the database. If this man has been seen before, but under another alias, then we may have finally found something to lead us to the true identity of the Ghost.”
***
Aisling’s Office, Later in the day, May 30, 2012
When Nikki and Kelsey arrived at Aisling’s office, they were greeted with some bad news. After telling Aisling about their idea to use Kelsey’s vision recovery exercise to identify the Ghost, Aisling said that the ploy to get her mother’s necklace hadn’t worked. Aisling said she thought of another idea and would leave them to work on finding the tattoo in the intelligence database.
Kelsey explained the tattoo looked like a bird, and Nikki asked pertinent questions to help figure out the type of bird. Kelsey knew she saw the bird before but wasn’t sure of its name. She described the bird to Nikki having long legs, a longish neck, and fanciful feathering.
“Mack, it may not be an exact depiction of an actual bird, but a frivolous drawing made to look nice as a tattoo. I can show you several bird-like tattoos known and stored in the intelligence database. They really should get a better security system in place to guard their servers.” Nikki chuckled. “I might ask for a job after this…hey, wait a minute. Is this what your bird looked like?”