by Imogen Rose
“Oh, stop being a whiner. Why do you have to be up so early anyway? Luna didn’t say anything to me about an early start.”
“Gee, why am I not surprised?” he muttered, rolling his eyes and throwing himself back into the bed, burying his head in the pillow.
I grabbed the edge of it and swiftly pulled it from out under his head. He groaned and sat up.
“So, why do you have to get up so early? And did you find out what the heck we’re doing here?”
“It’s fairly clear that they–whoever they are–are trying to recruit us. Simla and I were separated this evening and I haven’t had a chance to catch up with her yet. She was wiped and went straight to bed when we got back. After you and Luna left, Olivier drove me to a gym. It was kinda weird. We didn’t talk much, just worked out. He said that he needed to assess my fitness level. Once we’d done that, he told me that we would be spending the next few days in Paris and then going to London where I’d meet the rest of the team and start my proper training. He said he hoped that I would decide to join. I did try to get more info from him, but it was like questioning a stone. Did you have better luck? Who was the guy you were sitting with at dinner?”
“That was Potomal’s son, Stan. And get this, turns out that Luna is Potomal’s daughter!”
“Sheesh!”
“Anyhow, I pretty much drew a blank on the info thing. Apart from listening to Luna go on about the various buildings, all I really found out is that we are probably in the 21st century. Justin, when did that Dan Brown book you like come out?”
“Why?”
“Luna mentioned it, so I am guessing we are after the publication year of the book.”
“I think it was 2003, but I can’t be sure. I’m not good at dates.”
I sighed. This had pretty much been a total waste of an evening. I made no headway. A stroll through Paris, that’s it. I had no idea what to expect tomorrow. By all accounts, Luna had been tasked with babysitting me for the next couple of days until we traveled to London where everything, I guess, would be revealed. I looked over to Justin to ask him what was planned for him tomorrow. He’d fallen back asleep, so I quietly left his room and climbed back into my royal bed and closed my eyes.
It was a full house at Constance’s place. Rupert followed Constance up the stairs, Ella sleeping soundly in his arms, as Olivia made her way into the living room, following the sounds of chatter. Her eyes focused on Larry and she walked straight over to him. In this mess of confusion, he was her rock–he had to be. There was no chance of him suddenly wandering off. She needed that assurance, especially now that she’d found out that her own husband had such potential. Everyone stopped talking when they noticed her walk in. Everyone included Amadea, Grayson, Inez, David, Morgana, Javier and Lars.
“Olivia, how are you holding up?” Inez inquired, once she was seated next to Larry.
“I’m not sure. Not good.”
Inez nodded. “We’ll wait until Constance and Rupert join us. Kellan is going to wait upstairs with Ella.” Once the two returned and Rupert had taken his place next to Olivia, Constance took the floor.
“Rupert, I take it you’ve had a chance to update Olivia completely now?”
“I have,” Rupert affirmed, putting his arm around Olivia’s shoulder.
“Olivia, I know all this is hard for you to accept, so we’ll be very mindful of that in our discussions. You now know that you are married to Sigma-W royalty, which makes you and your family a target.”
Royalty? Rupert hadn’t put it quite like that; she gave him a look. “Why are we a target now? Why didn’t the subversive group try to take control before?”
Constance signaled Amadea to take over.
“Potomal’s group is relatively new, formed a little over a year ago. He’s been trying to recruit new members to strengthen the group but has found it difficult to do so. Our Intelligence tells us that he has now started recruiting humans, for the day-to-day groundwork, which leaves him more time to concentrate on strategizing. So, now is when he is ready to make a move.”
“Has your Intelligence managed to find out if Potomal is, in fact, responsible for Arizona’s disappearance?”
“Yes. I just heard back from my husband with the latest update. Potomal has Arizona, Justin and Simla, as we suspected.”
“Where are they?” Olivia whispered.
“We are coming up blank as far as location goes, for the moment. Intelligence is still trying to track their whereabouts. It’s proving very difficult. They may not even be here on this planet.”
“Rup, how can that be? Arizona couldn’t survive on another planet!”
“Ollie, we’ve no idea where they are at the moment, or even in what dimension or time frame.”
Amadea interrupted. “We’re trying to get that information from the humans working for the Sigma-W-Pi, which is what Potomal’s group call themselves. They are, however, scattered all over the world, in the different time/dimensional planes, so it may take some time. We are more likely to hear from Potomal first, with a ransom demand.”
“So, what are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Olivia asked, getting agitated. She looked around. How could she have allowed herself to become involved in this insanity? She felt a squeeze to her hand and looked up into Rupert’s eyes.
“Honey, it’s going to be all right, I promise.”
“How do you know? How do we even know if Ella is safe? They could have taken her while we’re down here,” she mumbled, and got up to make her way to check on her younger daughter. Rupert pulled her back down gently.
“Ollie, look,” he said, pointing at the computer monitor at the far end of the room.
It clearly showed Ella sleeping peacefully while Kellan sat beside her, ever watchful. Olivia was reassured, but only momentarily. “What about Harry? Has he been warned? I tried to call him earlier, but he wasn’t answering his cell.”
“He’s fine. We do want to bring him here, though, which is something we need to discuss now,” Amadea suggested. “Rup, we could fly him over or I could head over and collect him. I would prefer the latter if that’s okay with you and Olivia.”
It was only then that it hit her. Harry was Amadea’s biological grandson. Could that mean that he had Wanderer potential? Could her own son be a Wanderer? “Amadea, is Harry a Wanderer?”
“Like Rupert, he has Sigma-W potential, but it lies dormant for now. He’s unaware of it.”
“Seeing that he’s your biological grandchild, why did Potomal take Arizona instead?”
“That’s another mystery and we’ve been discussing that as well. The most obvious reason may be that Potomal just doesn’t know. I do want to reassure you that Potomal will treat Arizona very well. The fact that she is not my biological grandchild is irrelevant, she is just as important to me as Harry is. She will be considered of royal lineage and he’ll treat her as such. He may be after power, but he is not by any means a violent man.”
“How will he seize control without exercising violence?” Olivia asked.
“Well, by creating havoc, I presume, such as he’s doing at the moment. Spencer, that’s my husband, will be forced to hand over power to minimize chaos.”
“But won’t that ruin the whole Sigma-W operation?” Olivia wondered. “What’s the aim of the group anyway?”
“No,” Amadea said, shaking her head. “Potomal will take over and continue to carry out the chartered operations.”
“Chartered by whom?”
“I’m not at liberty to divulge that.”
Perfect. So, what now? Start a knitting circle while they waited for someone to get back to them with more information?
“Shall I go and get Harry?” Amadea asked again. “A flight would just waste time. We need him here with us.”
Olivia nodded, on autopilot. Then she shook herself. “What are you going to tell him?”
“Not a lot when I pick him up. I was merely planning to do just that, pick him up and bring him here and we can expl
ain it all to him then. I won’t be long.”
“Do you even know where he is?”
“Yes, he’s at late night hockey training. I’ll wait until they’re done and pick him up once he has changed.”
Once Amadea left, the room erupted into a low murmur. Grayson looked particularly agitated and finally spoke. “What about Justin and Simla? Much I as share in the worry over Arizona, I’m terribly concerned about them. While Arizona will be afforded all the privileges that come with her standing, that’s not the case for them. They’re just Wanderers, and as such not of a revered rank. What will Potomal do to them? Will he harm them?”
Inez took his hand to calm him down.
“Grayson,” Constance said gently. “As we’ve discussed, the most probable reason for their disappearance is that Potomal is trying to recruit them. If they have the sense–which I expect they do–to go along with it, they’ll be fine. Potomal will try to win them over with his hospitality and generosity. If they decide, for whatever reason, to try to escape or decline his offer, I’m not sure how he’ll react. My worry for them is more that they’ll probably be in the care of his ground staff, and there’s no telling what they may do, they’re humans after all. So, it’s important that they’re very much a part of any rescue plan.”
“Rescue plan?” Rupert inquired. “Aren’t we going to let the Sigma-W deal with this?”
“No,” David said emphatically. He’d been very quiet so far. “We’ve given them plenty of time. So far, all they’ve told us is what we suspected in the first place. I have to find Arizona and I’m not sitting around here and waiting anymore.”
“David,” Inez said firmly. “Hold on for just a moment. Let’s at least try to do this systematically.”
“Do what?” Rupert and Olivia asked.
“As you know, David was assigned to Arizona–here in this dimension–and he has a special connection with her, much like my connection with Kevin–I can feel him. David’s connection to Arizona is stronger and he thinks he may at least be able to transport himself into the same dimension she is in. He can feel her at the moment, but only very weakly. We are assuming the feeling will get stronger the closer he gets. It’s a long shot. But it’s all we’ve got for now.”
“I’m going with you, David,” Kellan announced, coming down the stairs with Ella.
“Mom! Dad! What’s going on?” Ella said sleepily, running over and clambering onto Olivia’s lap. “I thought you were going to let me sleep over at Sally’s!”
“Hey, baby. I’ll take you back over to Sally’s house soon. Did you have a good time?”
“Yes, Mommy. Can I get a snack? I’m hungry.”
“I’ll take her,” Rupert said, lifting Ella off Olivia’s lap and then carried her into the kitchen.
“Kellan, I’d like to take you. I don’t know that I have the strength to wander with you several times, as I’m expecting to have to do. It’ll be too draining. I’m going to have to do this on my own. Mom, I’m ready for phase one.”
“Hold on, David. Constance, we should tell them. I feel Kellan should go,” Inez interrupted.
“Mom, I can’t do it. I’d really like Kellan to come, but no.”
“David.” His mother indicated to him to quiet down.
Rupert had returned with Ella, who was sitting and happily munching on a cookie. Once Constance felt she had everyone’s attention, she spoke.
“Ella, hon. There is a TV in the room next door, Morgana will take you through and you can watch the Disney Channel for a while. Okay?” she asked, and Ella happily walked off.
Once she was safely out, Constance turned to Olivia. “Olivia, you must think that the world is full of Wanderers. That’s not the case at all. There are relatively few of us and a proportion of us, like Rupert, chose to forsake our destiny and live as normal humans. The reason you are surrounded by Wanderers is because of Rupert’s position.”
Olivia had felt Rupert tense up as the word forsake had been spoken. That must have been an incredible sacrifice for him. She reached over and squeezed his hand.
Constance continued. “You were basically surrounded by Wanderers ever since Rupert declared that he was going to give up his Sigma-W life to pursue you–the second time that is, we didn’t take him seriously the first time he mentioned marrying you, that day in New York, years ago. Inez told us all about it,” she smiled. “However, once he had made the decision, it was our goal to make it possible for him. As I said, you were surrounded. You are now aware of some of the Wanderers involved, but not all of them. In fact, some of the Wanderers are not even aware of the roles they have played and will play in the future. Larry has been your closest ally for years….”
“Larry’s a Wanderer?” Olivia gasped, looking over at him. “No way!” Larry was shaking his head adamantly at her.
Constance waited for Olivia to calm down. “No, he isn’t. Larry, this might be hard to hear. Your wife, Catherine, was a Wanderer. She was a Sigma-W.”
All eyes were on Larry. He had clearly not known this about his late wife. He was visibly shaken and Olivia moved over to comfort him. “She didn’t tell me,” he whispered, perplexed. “Why?”
“She wasn’t given permission,” Constance offered. “She was a Sigma-W. We had no authority to give her permission. My point in telling you this, at the moment, is to pave the way to tell you that your son, Kellan, has latent Sigma-W potential.”
“What?” Kellan spluttered and walked toward Constance. “I’m a Wanderer? How?”
“I already told you how, Kellan. Your mother…,” Constance explained.
“No, I mean how do I actually wander, so I can go and find Arizona?”
“You’re a Sigma-W. When Amadea returns with Harry, she is going to explain.”
“Harry?” Kellan inquired.
“Sorry, you missed our earlier conversation,” Constance sighed. “Harry is a potential Sigma-W as well.”
Kellan sat down. Olivia looked at him with compassion. This was incredibly hard to get one’s head around. She could only imagine what was going through his mind. They were going to have to deal with this again when Harry returned.
“Do I really have to wait?” David inquired. “I’d like to get going. Surely Kellan can join me once he’s ready.”
“We won’t be able to find you, David. You’re the only one with a sense for Arizona, so you’ll have to track her.”
“What happened?” Harry muttered, as he suddenly slumped to the floor with Amadea beside him.
Olivia hurried over and brought him back to sit between Rupert and her. She noticed both Kellan and David looking agitated as Constance brought Harry up to date. Could this really be happening? Had she really been told that her son was some sort of a paranormal being? He was just Harry! He was just an ordinary boy. He’d shown no signs of being odd in any way. True, he’d given her much less drama than Arizona, but she attributed that to him being a boy. Did she miss any signs?
Harry was conceived when Olivia had first gone through the portal to find Rupert. He’d been a regular, sweet toddler, always into everything. He was musical like his dad and had developed a fondness for hockey. He’d been good at school. Kumon–the Japanese Math class–had helped him to excel at math. She remembered all those years of him whining about doing his daily Kumon sheets. He had the expected interest in girlfriends, but had been fairly attached to Maria since sophomore year in high school.
His relationship with his sisters was very close and loving. He had readily accepted Arizona into his life when she had arrived through the portal. And he had instantly fallen in love with his new baby sister, Ella. Harry always served as the peacemaker when there were disagreements between the two sisters, which seemed to occur regularly. He had a way of diffusing chaos. Maybe that was it. Perhaps that was a sign that he was different, but it just never registered with her. She could see Harry’s body tensing up as Amadea gave him a brief background of his heritage. His face was planted in the palm of his hands. He look
ed up when Amadea had finished speaking.
“Dad, what does all of this mean? Can I wander?”
“Harry, you have the potential, and with adequate training you’ll be able to. The Sigma-Ws are required to fulfill their obligations if you are trained. That’ll mean time away from your family, from your friends. Your normal day-to-day life will come to an end. It’s a big decision to make, but one that you’ll have to make before you are given leave to wander.”
“So, you are basically saying that I, for example, would have to give up being with Arizona if I decide to accept Sigma-W training?” Kellan asked.
“Not necessarily,” replied Amadea. “It depends on how willing your potential partner is to adapt to your lifestyle. In the case of Rupert, for instance, he had to give up being a Sigma-W because Olivia would never have accepted that, not at that time anyway. Kellan, I don’t feel that this is the right time for either you or Harry to make a grave decision like this. It is just important for you both to know your potential in case of unexpected complications.”
“What kind of unexpected complications?” Larry practically shouted. “Inez, I’m so disappointed in you. All these years we’ve been so close. Not just you and I, but Morgana, as well. How could you have kept this from me?”
“Larry, I’d like to talk to you about this later,” Inez said.
Larry whispered, “I promise to keep my voice down. Please, Inez.”
“Larry, I had no choice. It was really up to Catherine. If she had wanted to reveal herself, she would have asked for the Sigma-W council’s permission to do so.”
“She did, Inez,” Amadea confirmed. “We had a meeting planned to discuss it, but she passed before it took place.”
“Why didn’t you tell me after?” Larry persisted.
“There was no need. What difference would it have made to your life?” Amadea retorted. “We’d every intention of telling Kellan when he was ready and when it was appropriate to do so. He’s been ready for a while, but there has been no need or reason to tell him. He’s a happy, well-adjusted teen living a full and happy life.”
“And you’re telling us now because both of us may be in danger from the subversive Sigma-W element, what are they called again?” Harry asked.