Cora’s head pounded harder. She found difficulty keeping focus. Sitting Bull wanted to advise her on making allies of enemies, while Vincent being a big worrywart turned from nuisance to a distraction. There were just too many feelings in her head that weren’t her own.
“Don’t be alarmed,” she warned, holding out her arm to the side.
Vincent appeared from the ceiling and swooped to rest on her forearm. She stroked his back as Madeline reeled back in her seat.
“That bird!” she said.
Tesla turned around from the bar, his face a awash in confusion.
“He’s my spirit animal,” Cora replied. “And he can pass through solid objects, apparently.”
“I thought it coincidence when he attacked me,” Madeline awed. “You control him?”
“He’s a little too proud for that. We’re buddies, I guess you could say,” Cora explained.
“Caw,” Vincent replied, happy she corrected Madeline.
Tesla returned with a bottle, two tumblers, and a soda for Madeline. He sat at a couch across from Cora and poured a single for Cora.
“Pour yourself one and just hand me the bottle,” Cora said, trying to be gracious. “I have this regeneration my body does, it’s a whole thing.”
Tesla showed some concern, but did as she asked. Cora took a pull off the clear liquid and enjoyed the tingle as it made its way to her turning stomach. She set Vincent to perch on the arm of the chair. With the both of them feeling a little more relaxed, even without any change brought about by the liquor, Cora turned to Madeline.
“Alright,” she said. “You had dreams?”
“More like visions,” she replied. She traced the sign of the cross over her chest. “A light God has given me, to show the path to justice.”
“Justice?” Cora asked, intrigued.
Tesla cleared his throat. Madeline turned her head away from Cora, either unwilling or unable to answer the question. The doctor took a sip of his drink and motioned to the girl with his glass.
“Madeline’s father was also physicist,” Tesla explained. “He was here in Saclay, at University. I knew of him. Very talented young man, good father, love his family. Lucius approach him about a project he was working on. He refuse to join Tetriarch. One month later, his plane crash. Madeline lose both parents.”
“Oh, no,” Cora said, turning her gaze to Madeline even as she wouldn’t return it. “It was ruled as an accident, then?”
“Of course,” Tesla replied. He flexed his tiny biceps. “Lucius have power. Strong. Can make anything look like accident and police lie. But Madeline’s father a smart man. He sent Madeline to friend in Osaka. When he die, Madeline grow up with the elves. Made her strong. She grow up and want revenge against Lucius. Get implants, make her stronger. Men in black soldier suits come to Osaka, asking about her. Madeline ran, and found me.”
Cora took another long swig from the bottle, the kind that makes a bubble ride up to the bottom a few times. It helped her think. “She was already targeted by Lucius at the time? How’d she find you?”
“Some of my work,” he started and sighed. Shaking his head in disgust, he continued. “My work was same as her father. I publish paper for peer review in one of the journals, and a week later, men come to university in Moscow, asking questions about me.”
Cora turned to Madeline. “So, you heard about his article and realized it had something to do with your dad? Four years ago? You were, what? Twelve?”
“You sound surprised,” Madeline said, motioning to Tesla as if Cora were stupid. “He told you already. I was raised by elves.”
Cora shrugged. It was a stereotype, but the Japanese were well-known for their superior child education for centuries before a quarter of their population shifted into elves with The Awakening, and it only became more stringent afterward. With the ability to age at a snail’s pace, the elves crammed as much knowledge into children’s brains as they could take, using methods the Japanese had perfected over the past two hundred years. Madeline was no elf, though. Keeping up with elven learning methods must have been brutal for her.
“Okay,” Cora said, taking a breath to wrap her head around everything. “So, you two didn’t know about Project Phoenix. How’d you come to learn about the artifacts?”
Madeline shook her head and motioned between herself and Tesla. “We both have the dreams. Then Tesla find his, and wrote the paper. He told me this story after I find him. It matches my dreams. I see Paris in my sleep, even though I was too young to remember being there. It’s like the voice of God calling me there.”
Cora turned to Tesla. “So, all this time, you’ve been taking care of her? I saw the scars. She needs to have those synaptic meshes adjusted with every growth spurt. That’s why they never do them on children unless they have to.”
Tesla stared back, but would not speak. Cora turned to Madeline and found the same chilly reception. It took a moment for Cora to put it together herself.
“They had to do it for her,” she said under her breath. She imagined the rehab and physical therapy Madeline must have undergone. If she was like most people that had the Tetriarch implants installed, she went in one side crippled and came out the other side superhuman. Dwelling on it too long made the images of the poor girl on an operating table. She shut down that line of thinking and moved on. “The suit, as well? You made that, too?”
Tesla nodded. “She needed to withstand electrical shock in early version of...machine.”
He spoke with such contempt referring to the device, a Nobel Prize winner on any day of the year. The machine could revolutionize the world the same way Tertriarch had by bringing cybernetics to the masses, yet he seemed to hate it.
“You don’t appreciate your invention?” Cora asked, the bottle already touching her lips.
“Oh, here we go,” Madeline said, rolling her eyes.
Tesla’s face flushed, he gesticulated wildly. “I am physicist! I write papers. I grade papers, I teach. Then I get this stupid pen, and all these memories come, like plague. Stupid American ancestor. He take what I know, bring what he know, and boil it together like goulash!”
He stood up, even more animated. His wild hair danced around his shoulders as he spoke, his voice growing louder with each word. “Then I don’t sleep. Ever. Brain won’t shut up. He make suggestion, I tell him no, stupid American! It doesn’t work like that! Then I figure out how his dumb idea work, and then I can’t sleep! Before I know it, I never sleep! All I do is build this FUCKING MACHINE!”
Cora motioned her hands to the ground. “Okay. It’s cool. Let’s take a breath.”
“You asked,” Madeline said, stretching out on the couch. She reached down to her suit on the floor, yanking at it until she found the spot she was looking for. Her hand dove into a pocket.
“Sorry, Doctor Tesla,” Cora said. Her eyes shifted to the side as gears turned in her head. “Wait, that Tesla?”
Tesla grumbled and sat back down. He held out his glass to Cora for a refill. “Stupid American.”
Madeline pulled a glass cube from her suit. Holding it out in the palm of her hand, she examined the ring resting inside. It was dull silver and ancient, by the looks of it. Small lines etched into may have held meaning to someone that once wore it, but that meaning was lost on Cora.
“What did you do with the others?” Cora asked.
Madeline pointed behind her, to the doorway at Cora’s back. “They’re in my room. You can have them. None of them were the right one. It’s this one.”
“Are you sure?” Tesla asked.
She nodded. “I knew where it was the moment I walked in there. I heard it calling to me.”
Cora held up a hand. With her other, she swept her black hair to the side, revealing the yellow blue feathers on a bead chain woven into her hair. “I should warn you. Holding it in your hand has different effects on people. Mine was overwhelming, but I found a way to put him in a corner of my mind. Now, he acts like a guide when I need his wisdom. I h
ave a friend that almost went mad when he got his.”
Madeline sat up, keeping her eyes on the humble prize in her hand. “I’ve waited for this moment since I was a child. I am ready.”
“Do you even know what that is?” Cora asked. If Lucius’ research was correct, Cora knew full well what Madeline held in her hand.
She nodded back. Once more, she looked to the ceiling and traced the sign of the cross on her chest. The glass case parted on a hinge, like a jewelry box. Madeline snatched the ring from the enclosure between her thumb and pointer. For a moment, nothing happened. With a start, Madeline’s back arched. Her eyes rolled back in her head. Her fists balled until her knuckles turned white. Tesla jumped from his seat. Unfazed, Cora leaned forward, ready to grab the girl if she fell.
Seconds passed without a breath. As if breaking the surface of deep waters, Madeline gasped. Her eyes returned to normal. Her face a mask of terror, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Tesla panicked, looking like a deer in headlights without a clue how to help. Cora lurched forward, grabbing for Madeline. She began to thrash with her torso, her arms frozen as though tied down.
“Ça brûle! Ça brûle!” she cried, tossing herself from the couch. She landed in Cora’s arms, and she eased Madeline to the floor.
Cora covered over her mouth with one hand, and embraced her with the other. Madeline’s muffled screams continued yelling out the same words. Cora’s eyes went to Tesla, desperate for an answer.
“What is she saying?” Cora yelled over her.
Tesla shook his head, tears filling his eyes. “She’s saying ‘it burns.’ What’s happening to her?”
Cora shook her head and laid on top of the girl. Even as she continued to scream, Cora shushed her and held her close. It wasn’t scientific in any way, nor did she have a clue what she was doing, but she hoped a caring embrace would bring her mind back to the real world, not lost to the memories of a dead woman. It broke her heart to see the young girl in such pain, but it would pass. What little she had learned of Madeline said she was as tough as nails. She could handle it. Cora motioned her head to Tesla’s chair. He sat down and remained quiet, observing the scene with an anxious quiver.
Cora laid with her on the rug of the living room for five minutes before her wailing turned to quiet sobs. As her chest bobbed with heaving tears, Cora sat up and pulled her by the hands to join her. She held Madeline close, hugging her tight. Before long, Madeline wrapped her arms around Cora, too. She held on until the crying was under enough control that she could breathe. Separating from Cora, she held her head low and refused to make eye contact.
“Merci,” she said with a sniffle. “I didn’t expect it to be like that.”
Cora shook her head. “From what I can tell, it’s different for everyone.”
“All I could feel,” Madeline said, choking up. “All I felt was the fire. They burned her alive.”
“I know,” Cora replied with a heavy nod. “Where is she now?”
Madeline shut her eyes and turned her head. Another tear streamed down her cheek. “I feel her with me. She is so patient. She’s waiting to speak until I’m ready.”
Cora stood up and offered her hand. Madeline took it and rose. Tesla got up from his chair and put his hand on Madeline’s shoulder. She rested her hand on top of his, looking back at him with the kind of love a daughter has for her surrogate father. Cora knew that look all too well, catching herself giving it to Richard and Johnny more than once. It was every bit as heartwarming as it was sad.
“What happens now?” Tesla asked the two of them.
Madeline shook her head and walked for her room. “You two decide. I have what I came for. We...need to pray.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cora asked.
Madeline looked over her shoulder with the first genuine smile Cora had seen. It lit up the room. “I will be. Saint Jeanne is with me now. Excuse me.”
A Growing Family
Cora sat on the platform in the lab, watching Tesla. He opened a scorched panel near the top of the large metal box against the wall. His legs shook as he balanced on a stepladder to reach it, a wrench quivering in his old hands.
“Do you have an escape plan?” Cora asked. She rolled her eyes at her own question. “Of course you do. How mobile is this device?”
Tesla shrugged. “I can break down and fit in box truck.”
“That doesn’t sound like something you can do in an emergency,” Cora replied.
Tesla braced himself against the machine and turned around. He waved his wrench at the ceiling. “Lab wired to blow. Dragon will not have this technology.”
Cora looked down at the bottle of vodka in her hand. To her chagrin, she hadn’t done much damage and endeavored to change that. She glanced across the room to Vincent’s perch on Tesla’s desk. It was going to be a long night. She took a swig and chose her words carefully.
“You’re sitting on the most revolutionary invention of the 21st century,” she said. “And you two are all alone.”
“We manage,” he said, turning his attention back to his work. Amid the foam falling to the floor, puffs of black smoke wafted as he exposed the panel. Inside, a black coil the size of radiator stretched across the width of the machine.
“That’s what I’m trying to say,” Cora pressed. She tested a few steps closer to him. “You’ve only made yourselves a bigger target today. Eventually, someone will catch up with you.”
Cora pointed down the hall. “More than that, you know she isn’t going to stay still. Now that she has her artifact, she’s going after him.”
Tesla sighed as he surveyed the damage inside. “You have suggestion. Spit it out.”
“Come back with me,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know. Maybe if we work together, we can take care of each other better. I can’t even imagine how many artifact holders are already working for Tetriarch. Lucius is ahead of us. There is strength in numbers.”
“Maybe I like you, Cora,” he replied. “You seem like good girl. Maybe I don’t like your people, though. You were at museum with this soldier-man from TV?”
Cora nodded. “His name is Julian. If you can believe it, he’s holding King Arthur’s Excalibur.”
Tesla laughed. “How old you are?”
“I’m twenty-four,” Cora replied.
With a gentle step, Tesla eased himself down from the ladder and faced her. “I’m old enough to remember before Awakening. King Arthur was western fairy-tale, like Three Bears.”
Cora laughed back. Despite his rage issues, he was a sweet old man. “Our understanding of history keeps changing with every Illuminati report, right?”
He nodded in agreement until the smile left his face. He looked at Cora, deadly serious. “I won’t live forever. Madeline is good girl. She need someone to watch her.”
“Come with me, Doctor,” Cora implored.
Tesla held her gaze a moment longer, then nodded. Resolute with his answer, he went back to his work. “I trust you. Always follow my gut.”
“I have to make some calls,” Cora replied. She headed for the hall. “I’ll make it happen. How much time would you need to get ready?”
“I bring machine? Six hours. Less if you help load truck,” he replied.
“Sounds good,” she replied.
“I need time to disassemble, get everything together,” Tesla said, his voice rising again. “Take out burnt coil that always break on this FUCKING MACHINE!”
Cora checked over her shoulder with a perplexed look. The old man banged away at the side of the machine with his wrench like he was trying to hammer a nail. That didn’t seem part of the disassembly process, but it was definitely helping the old man work out some personal issues. She left him to his madness and returned to the living area. Vincent followed. Tapping the button on her comm, she could only hope Julian’s team got out alright.
“Call Gideon,” she said.
Five rings. No answer. She shut her eyes.
“Miss Blake.”<
br />
Cora’s brow furrowed. That pompous, regal accent annoyed her as much as Julian answering. “Why didn’t Gideon pick up?”
“He’s here, Miss Blake. I’m doing well, by the way, thank you for asking.”
“How...how bad was it?” Cora asked. She never wanted the answer, but she always asked anyway.
“Some injuries, no casualties,” he replied. Something was off. His replies were measured, his tone dry.
“I have the ninja and the doctor willing to join us,” she said, pacing the room. “They have the four artifacts you’re missing as a peace offering. I need to bring them in.”
He paused. “Where are you?”
“Saclay, south of the city.”
“I know it,” he replied. “Can you get to Amiens? I’ll have some men rendezvous with you there.”
Cora swiped out the holographic screen from her Arcadia and plotted a route in her map app. “We have some cargo we’re bringing with us. A box truck. I can be there at 0800.”
“Tip-top,” he replied. “I’ll send the rendezvous point to your Arcadia in a moment. Goodnight, then.”
The call closed. Everything about the conversation bothered her. His replies were too pat and curt. Gideon never said a word if he was in the background, and Julian offered no information about their escape beyond injuries. She turned her attention to the holovid screen.
“Holovid, turn on GNN...in English,” she said, taking a seat. She sipped some vodka and rested the bottle between her legs.
An anchor appeared behind a desk. A banner ran at the bottom of the screen that read ‘Breaking News.’
“...though it’s unclear at this time if this was a terrorist act or a robbery attempt. Paris Police have confirmed that a group of Bauer Securities soldiers on vacation drove past the Louvre when they saw men breaking into the building. Those suspects are now in police custody, although the main entrance to the museum will be closed tomorrow due to some damage to the lobby.”
The Pendragon Codex Page 13