Null and Void

by Susan Copperfield

  “Did hell freeze over? If so, I don’t want an invitation, Senator Forester.” I crawled out from under my desk and returned to my seat in an attempt to regain my dignity. “Why would the congress vote to confirm it’d taken complete leave of its common sense?”

  “We’ve been assigned as this year’s host kingdom for the premier charity auction, and the condition for winning the bid was making you the head of the committee. The king and queen sent us a rather clipped message stating if null prejudices lost Texas the auction, they’d come to congress for a special session, and that His Royal Majesty would be bringing some rope and four of his best horses.”

  “Rope and four of his best horses? Why?”

  “We’d be drawn and quartered. I’m fairly certain he was joking—mostly.”

  “What is drawn and quartered?”

  Senator Forester laughed. “It’s a medieval execution. The victim’s arms and legs are bound to the saddle of four horses, which are set off at a gallop in opposite directions. I’m pretty certain he wouldn’t actually do it, but as far as threats go, it’s a good one.”

  I grimaced. “That sounds awful.”

  “And bloody. So, on behalf of the rest of the congress, please accept the position. Douglass said he’d be willing to sacrifice you for the cause, but we have to convince you to take the job, and he refuses to give you to us full time, so you’ll technically be working two jobs. But you’ll get paid overtime, and if we bother you too much, we really might be drawn and quartered.”

  “By the king.”

  “You haven’t met His Royal Majesty, have you?”

  I refused to acknowledge I didn’t even know the man’s name, but shaking my head wouldn’t embarrass me much.

  “Her Royal Majesty?”

  I shook my head.

  “They usually show up at closed sessions on the critical matters. I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “Texas won the charity auction this year.”

  “As long as you’re heading the committee.”

  “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I have no experience organizing something on that scale, Senator.”

  “According to our sources, you’ve participated in one—New York’s, to be specific.”

  When it rained, it truly poured. “Yes. That’s correct.”

  “I dislike asking this, as it seems completely uncouth. What was your charity contribution?”

  “My mother bought the ticket for a thousand dollars. I’m still not sure why they let me in. New Yorkers are as prejudiced against nulls as most Texans.”

  Senator Forester sighed. “But I don’t want to ask this question, Mackenzie. Have mercy on an old man.”

  “You’re hardly old, Senator.”

  “Please,” he begged. “Have mercy on an old man. Please.”

  Wow. In all my time working with the Texas congress, I’d never seen a single member reduced to begging—nor had I seen one so blatantly repeat himself. “All right. Even I can’t be that cruel to an old man reduced to groveling.” I sighed. “Fortunately, I told my daughter yesterday, so if someone in the congress develops an unfortunately loose tongue, she won’t be caught by surprise. One of the attendees, let’s call him Dylan for the sake of this discussion, paid a null-supporting charity forty-eight million dollars for the privilege of my company for a day.”

  Since Dylan Mason didn’t actually exist, I did no harm using his name.

  Senator Forester’s mouth dropped open, the color drained from his face, and he spluttered. “Someone bid forty-eight million dollars to spend a day with you?”

  Even as the words left his mouth, he realized what his tone and shock conveyed, and he turned a sickly shade of green.

  I held up my hand, and he remained silent. “I was a novelty, Senator. I showed up at the auction wearing worn jeans and a leather coat, much like I do at the congressional sessions. Add in my status as a null, and I livened the party up for them. If that wasn’t enough to draw unwanted attention in my direction, one of the women in attendance decided one of the gentleman was her slave, and I took offense to it. She tried to slap me with her talon-like nails, so I kneed the bitch in the groin and left her whimpering on the floor.”

  I had to give the senator credit; he straightened, adjusted his tie, and pretended he hadn’t reacted to my words at all. “Who bid on you?”

  “From my understanding of the situation, sir, there were multiple bidders. I chose an exclusive contract with an expensive minimum bid.”

  “Which was?”

  Laughing in his face was rude, but I couldn’t help it. “Half a million per fifteen minutes of my time. I figured if I was going to be the laughing stock of the auction, I’d make my humiliation worthwhile. As it turns out, men can be quite competitive, and Dylan refused to accept defeat. I’d been acquainted with Dylan before the auction. He worked at my former company in New York, and he wanted to live out a fantasy. As he was one of the nicest gentleman I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, we enjoyed a rather energetic day together. Neither one of us were aware the birth controls we used were faulty, resulting in Mireya’s birth nine months later.”

  “You’re serious. Mireya’s the daughter of an elite?”

  “Dylan didn’t leave any contact information, and he had all his data stricken from the auction records. I can confirm he was an elite, but that’s that. I don’t even remember what he looks like anymore, except Mireya has his hair and eyes.”

  “And the rest is all you,” Senator Forester murmured. “I presume Dylan isn’t his real name?”

  “Correct. The name he gave to me was false, and he used his false name at the auction, too. No one seemed to know his real name, either. When I found out I was pregnant, my doctor offered to look for him. I agreed. We found nothing. We don’t even know if he was from New York. I think this has worked out for the best. My daughter is a smart, capable girl, and considering half her genes are from a reputable bloodline, she’ll manifest her talent during adolescence. She won’t be a null forever.”

  “You seem confident.”

  “Dylan wore a platinum pentagram, although I never found out if the pentagram was due to his talents or his family rank.”

  “Holy Jesus Christ.”

  “I’d appreciate it if this doesn’t leave this room. No matter what, I’ll protect my daughter. I may be a null, but I’ve dedicated every moment of her life to her. She knows her father bought me at an auction. She knows the birth control failed. There’s no reason to drag her through the mud over a pharmaceutical company’s error. Her father provided birth control, and I was also on regular treatments. I regret nothing. As for her father, since he has no idea she exists, he has no regrets either.”

  “But what if he wants his daughter?”

  I stared at the folder on my desk, my hopes and dreams for the future in his hands. “Please don’t ask me that. You know the answer as well as I do. Right now, I’d lose everything. I’d never seen her again. I’d lose her because the law has decided I’m an unfit mother because I lack magic.”

  “Of all the reports to land on my desk, none of them are capable of expressing the prejudice as well as a single mother’s plea to keep her child when the cards are stacked against her. But that’s why you’ve been a thorn in our congress’s side, isn’t it?”

  “I have everything to lose, Senator Forester.”

  “And only the status quo to gain.” Senator Forester picked up the folder with my wish list for the congress along with the twenty-five case studies of dead null children and stood. “It will take a few weeks to push these measures through, but I’ll make certain the visitation legislation and child-trafficking regulations are pushed to the top. In exchange, you’ll head the charity committee. Are we agreed?”

  I rose to my feet and thrust out my hand. “We have a deal, Senator Forester.”

  When we clasped hands, I ignored that he was shaking.

  For the first time since moving to Texas, I believed someone in the congress
finally understood what it meant to be a null parent, and I had, with a single turn of events, secured the most unexpected of allies.

  “Tell Douglass he plays a mean ballgame, Miss Little. Also, you may want to wipe your face. You’re leaking. You’ll ruin your reputation as the meanest politician on the block if anyone sees you’re capable of crying.”

  “I’m not a politician,” I protested.

  “Thank God for that. You’d destroy us if they let you on the floor for more than a few minutes a session. You induce mass panic whenever you head for the podium.”

  He left my office while I spluttered, unable to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

  When I relayed Senator Forester’s message to my boss, he laughed. “I told him he’d be pushing through some form of visitation legislature by the end of the week. You were surprisingly merciful, allowing him to get away with a few weeks.”

  “I understand it takes time to get anything passed through the congress, sir.”

  “Of course you do. I expect he’ll work a few miracles and have some form of legislation up for vote within a week. All I needed you to do was remind him he’d be doing direct harm to you if he didn’t. You may drive the congress crazy, but you’ve been among them for almost eleven years. You’re not a stranger they can ignore. How’s Mireya doing?”

  “She’s attempting to invite a double handful of princes and princesses for dinner. I don’t think it’ll end well.”

  “For who? You or her?’

  “Them and me. She’ll smother them with kindness, sir. Apparently, several of them attempted to bully her, and she decided the best way to handle the situation was to bully them back. I’ve created a monster. Worse, she’s a conniving little monster.”

  “I question your use of little. She’s six inches taller than the other girls her age. Also, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Douglass already? If you need to whip out the sirs when others are around, that’s one thing, but we’re alone in my office, Mackenzie.”

  If I ignored my boss’s complaints about addressing him as sir, he’d never let it go—for today at least. I held my hands up in the air helplessly and tried to redirect the conversation back to Mireya and her mystery father. “It’s my fault—and her father’s fault. Her father didn’t have to look up to stare me in the eyes.”

  “Of course. Two giants equal a young giant. I should’ve known.”

  I sighed and flopped on my boss’s couch, draped my arm across my eyes, and tossed the aging man a bone. “She wants me to buy a car and drive her around the continent this summer in search of a man I barely remember, Douglass.”

  My boss grunted his satisfaction. “You have plenty of vacation time.”

  “I’m going to be the head of the auction committee. For the congress. Me, pretending I’m part of the Texas congress. It’s a disaster in the making. I’m not going to have the time, and let’s face it, with the cost of Mireya’s schooling, I can’t afford a car.”

  “There are plenty of reasons to travel abroad for the auction, but you’ll need to accept Texan citizenship so you can cross the borders without being hassled—or sent back to New York. Yes, I know you refused Texan citizenship because of Mireya, but she’s now over ten, so your reason for refusing it no longer exists. You know it, I know it, and at this point, it protects you to have Texan citizenship. We can help justify the trip by including a children’s charity for the auction. Mireya can be our control subject; she’s advanced for her age, but she’s still a child. This has a special advantage for us. It’ll enable you to layer the events at the auction. You can still make arrangements for consenting adults, but you can include families as well.”

  “I’m poaching that idea and claiming it as mine. I’m also going to have the committee provide viable batches of birth control—batches that have been tested and confirmed in a third-party lab.”

  “Very wise, Miss Little. That also keeps well with our Texan family values.”

  “Why on Earth would I need to drive around the continent for the charity auction?”

  “It’d be an easy way to arrange for you to speak with the delegation of every kingdom excepting New York. We’d fly any delegations from New York in so you won’t have to enter their kingdom. In fact, I’ll handle most direct contacts with any New Yorkers. You’ll have to present information to the New York royalty, but it’ll be easy for you to dodge them. I’m an elite. To them, you’re just another null.”

  I grimaced but nodded my acceptance of the truth.

  My boss shrugged, holding his hands up. “I can’t help it they’re even more prejudiced than the average Texan. Call it a two-month tour, and you could do most of the organization on the road while dodging congress at the same time. Better yet, it would be an all-expenses paid trip, and you’d be doing it on a corporate credit card. Since you’d be traveling on behalf of the Texan government, you’d even be eligible for Royal Protection Services if you run into any issues. It’s an idea worth pursuing. We have four months to plan the auction, so if you’re scouting for the next two months, you can get a feel for the participating royalty—”

  “Royalty?” I squeaked, bolting upright.

  “Royalty. We had several proposals from other kingdoms suggesting we make our charity a Royal affair.”

  There were two ways Texans addressed royals. When they bothered to be respectful, I could hear the capital R, as haughty as the elite themselves, breathed with respect. Whoever had made the proposals had earned more than feigned deference from my boss, which terrified me even more than the prospect of heading the committee in the first place.

  I was in so much trouble, and since I’d already sold my soul to Senator Forester, I saw no way out of my predicament. “You really expect me to be able to handle working with royalty?”

  “I expect you to do as you have done from the first day you stepped into my office, Mackenzie. I expect you to do your best. With that out of the way, I’m going to need a proposal for potential auction venues, dates and times you think might work within our window, rules for participants, and a list of charities you think we should support. Also, you’ll be expected to report all hours worked, be it here, at congress, or at home. You’ll need to acquire appropriate apparel for yourself and Mireya; I’ll have a corporate credit card issued to you for the purpose. Welcome to the big leagues.”

  “If they wanted something other than dusty jeans and a leather coat, Douglass, they would’ve picked you to head the committee, not me.”

  My boss threw back his head and laughed. “I’m still issuing you a corporate credit card. If you insist on wearing dusty jeans and a leather coat to congress, at least humor an old man and wear new ones.”

  I gave my coat a glare, but I couldn’t argue with him. The years hadn’t done my jacket any favors. Maybe he was right.

  It was time to let go of the past and look towards the future.

  “I’ll get a new jacket,” I conceded.

  “One that you buy, brand new, from a designer shop. There will be no going to thrift stores and picking a forty-dollar coat for yourself, Mackenzie.”

  Once my boss made up his mind, he didn’t change it, and unless I did like he wanted, he’d nag me until I gave up and did what he wanted. “My lucky day,” I grumbled.

  “It really is, you just don’t realize it yet, Mackenzie. Trust me.”

  I glared at my boss but kept quiet, as there was nothing wise about arguing with a man who was usually right.

  Chapter Ten

  Two men in black suits wearing the lapel pin of the Royal Protection Service waited outside my office, and both of them were armed. While Texans loved their pistols, most left theirs at home during work hours, and my boss barred firearms from leaving the lobby downstairs.

  Only authorized employees or the RPS were permitted to carry anywhere else in the building, and most times, even the RPS left their firearms at the security desk.

  Why were two of them at my office with their guns? Terror froze me
in place, and the worst-case scenario seared through my head and drove away every other thought. “Is something wrong with Mireya?”

  If something had happened to Mireya, I didn’t know what I’d do.

  Both men turned, and my eyes widened as I recognized Agent Geoff Howards, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Geoff checked in with me now and again, and because of his seniority, he wore his weapon everywhere.

  “Oh! Agent Howards. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” I flashed him my best smile, pretended my heart hadn’t tried to stage an escape from my chest, unlocked my office door, and stepped inside. “What can I do for you today?”

  Geoff returned my smile and followed me inside while his blond haired, blue eyed companion fidgeted in my doorway. “We’re here on behalf of the royal security team today, Mackenzie. We have some questions.”

  I relaxed at the classic lowercase r in his tone. If he whipped out a capital R, shit was about to go down—shit I didn’t want to be involved with at all. “Please tell me this isn’t about Mireya.”

  As though reading my mind and somehow gleaning the truth of my daughter’s plan to smother royal children with her abundant kindness, he chuckled and mimicked one of my flops onto one of my guest chairs. “In part.”

  “She’s all right? Is—”

  Geoff held up his hand, and I knew him well enough I clacked my teeth together and applied the brakes to my mouth. “Your little girl’s safe and in no trouble, Mackenzie. For the sake of the entire RPS, please acquire a prescription for a parental chill pill and take a dose.”

  I laughed, went around my desk, and sprawled onto my chair. “You got me. All right, Geoff. What’s going on? You’re here in a professional capacity, but you’re not trying to drive me crazy calling me Miss Little today, so you’re either off the clock or you were given orders to make sure I don’t run out of the building in terror.”

  “You only ran during a third of your pregnancy, Mackenzie. Did you know we had to draw lots to see who’d keep an eye on you? None of us have seen a flightier principal.”