by Kimbra Swain
“I’ve fallen for you, Lukas,” she said.
The water poured over both of us as she waited for me to respond. “I told myself that wasn’t possible,” I said honestly.
“I told myself the same thing, but I rarely listen to myself,” she said.
“I don’t listen to you either,” I said. She laughed as her lips met mine again. When she pulled away, I dared to speak what I knew I felt, “I love you, Abby.”
“I love you, too, Lukas.”
Eventually we worked our way from the shower to the bed. As she slept in my arms, I tried not to concern myself with what the future held for us. I wanted to remember this moment for the rest of my short life. This strong, beautiful woman chose me. She loved me. I would adore her until the day I died.
“I want to get right to business. I’m sure all of you know me by reputation. However, for formality's sake, I am Abigail Davenport, head representative in the field for the Agency. This is my partner, Tadeas Duarte, and my team. We are here to stabilize our operations and holdings in the city. I have a list of each of your names. If I call on you, please raise your hand so that I can put a face to the name,” I paused and sorted the notes Ashely gave me. “Amelia Kearney, head of cyber division.”
The woman raised her hand. “I’m Miss Kearney.”
“Thank you. Miss Kearney, I need unlimited access for my team to all KBS systems in Atlanta. You can coordinate this with Ashley Montgomery who will go over the specifics for you. We need security clearances for all systems here in Atlanta. All current passwords and access is to be purged for every single employee in the building. Access to files level 2 and above is restricted to you, myself and my team. Any approval to these files must be cleared through Miss Montgomery. I know I’m pushing through these instructions quickly, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.”
“Yes ma’am,” she said as she wrote notes on a tablet.
“Once Ashley has access, she will work with you to revamp the firewalls and reset the servers,” I said. “All digital recordings kept on the server from the day Mr. Gilbert died needs to be sent to Tony Lemalu.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said again and typed a few other things.
“Next, Leon Filipek, head of accounting and assets.”
Leon raised his hand at the end of the table.
“Mr. Filipek, every corporate credit card held by employees is to be cancelled. We will issue new cards on an as needed basis. This decision will be made by my team and myself,” she stopped as the whole room groaned. “Forgive me for the inconvenience. However, it seems that multiple individuals within the company are involved with Mr. Gilbert’s untimely death. I will track every single penny that goes in and out of the Atlanta accounts until I am satisfied that Mr. Gilbert’s killer and conspirators are brought to justice. Also, I need the accounting files for the past 5 years compiled and sorted by employee. I need these files tomorrow.”
“That won’t be a problem,” he said.
“A new proxy will be brought in for training, but I do not anticipate this training to be a long process. The gentleman is adept and ready to take over Atlanta as soon as I can retrieve him from his current position. I foresee doing this in the next couple of days. Mrs. Maura Chapman and Miss Ericka McNeil.” The two ladies sat across from each other. “The two of you will work with Miss Montgomery on obtaining a condo close to the main offices and having it fully furnished within three days.” They both nodded.
“Julia Schultz, Human Resources,” I continued.
Julia stood in the back. She must have come in after the meeting started. “Excuse me for being late. I was dealing with some arrangements for the Gilbert family.”
“Is there anything you need from the Agency for his family?”
“No, ma’am. I think we have all of it covered,” she explained.
“That was my topic for you. I spoke to Caroline yesterday at the funeral. She, nor anyone in her family is to be given information regarding the investigation into Mr. Gilbert’s death. I will convey all needed information to her myself. I want the family completely taken care of, with no expense spared. If you need anything, I want you to contact me directly, if possible. Andy was a good man. We will all miss him.”
“Thank you, Miss Davenport.”
“Lastly, where is Barrett Tillens?” I asked. A burly man with a scruffy beard and wiry brown hair raised a hand.
“Mr. Tillens, you have been recently elevated to the position of Head of Security, correct?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said.
“You will work directly with my heads of security Tony and Tommy Lemalu. Tommy is currently in Los Angeles, but will join us soon. Please allow them access to all your information concerning the murder of Mr. Gilbert. You will spend your days and nights with Mr. Tony Lemalu until this is solved. Is this a problem?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Tavaris Williams and his brother are not allowed in this building. Please spread the word to all of your departments that any contact with the Williams brothers will be taken as conspiring against the Agency. Dr. Maki, if you would please, get the door.” Ichiro got up and walked to the door, opening it. Tony and Matthew came into the room.
“Will you let him sit in your seat?”
“Yeah, sure,” Tadeas said. He stood against the wall watching each person as Tony guided Matthew to the table. I sat down in my chair as he sat down. He pulled out some lego blocks and began playing with them on the table.
“Hello Matt,” I said softly.
“Hi Miss Abby, that’s a pretty dress,” he smiled, but never looked at me.
“You are so sweet. Thank you, Matt. It’s so good to see you.” He fidgeted and nodded.
“This is my associate, Matthew Oliver. He is autistic. I ask that while he is in the room, we refrain from loud noise and outbursts. Bulla.” I spoke the word for the privacy bubble, and I felt it reach out and swallow the entire room. Several people shifted in their seats. “Mr. Oliver has a unique ability as a human lie detector. He knows when the truth is being spoken, and he also knows when the truth is being withheld. I advise you all to speak the truth for the following questions.” I paused and let it sink in. I looked to Tadeas. He indicated he was ready by nodding.
“Does anyone in this room have information not previously disclosed about the murder of Andrew Gilbert?” I paused again.
Matthew fidgeted rocking and nodding his head.
“Mr. Oliver tells me that someone here does have information. This is your last chance. I will use Clause Zeta on each person in this room, if someone doesn’t speak up now,” I said forcefully.
A slightly overweight man with a receding hairline and thin mustache stood on the right side of the table. “Miss Davenport, I am Bruno Carboni, head of Corporate Relations.”
“Mr. Carboni, please tell us what you know,” I said. I felt for the dividing line between my people and the others in this room. I knew exactly where I had to lift a shield wall if necessary.
“Miss Davenport, three weeks ago I was contacted by Mr. Giordano from New York. He said he suspected that Mr. Gilbert was working with a company known as the Geo-Enhancement Alliance.” I felt Tadeas tense. “He believed that Mr. Gilbert was funneling money to the company. After researching the company, it seemed to be a non-profit organization for helping corporations recover from natural disasters. I confirmed with Mr. Filipek that Mr. Gilbert was sending money to the GEA. It was after then that The Agency main offices sent out the alerts pertaining to geo-development and magical entities manipulating the fault lines. I turned all of this information over to Mr. Tillens to report to the Agency. I never received a response.”
“Why did you report it to Mr. Tillens, and not to Mr. Williams who I believe was the current head of security?” I asked.
“None of us trusted Mr. Williams. We all knew and loved Tavaris, but Jamal was always troubled. We didn’t understand why Andy allowed him in the building,” he said.
“Mr
. Tillens, did you feed that information to the home offices of the Agency, and when did you do it?” I asked.
Mr. Tillens stood. “I fed the information to the Agency within hours of Mr. Carboni giving me the information.”
Matthew became agitated. “Mr. Carboni, why did Mr. Giordano contact you instead of contacting the home office directly? Why you specifically?”
“I do not know why Mr. Giordano contacted me. I do not know his motivations,” he said.
Matthew stood up and looked at them both. “You are both liars.”
Tillens reached inside his coat. I threw up the shield wall. People started screaming and ducking. I put both hands toward Tillens, and force shoved him against the wall so hard he dropped the gun. Carboni bolted to the door, but was tackled by a beautiful, black jaguar who snarled into his whimpering face.
“Silence!” I screamed above the yelling. The only sound in the room was the low growl of a predator cat. Tony produced cuffs and placed them on Tillens’ wrists. As Tony walked over to Carboni, Tadeas backed off, but crouched ready to pounce. Tony cuffed him, dragged him away from the table, and placed him against the wall. Tadeas shifted back and walked back to me. He stood very close behind me. Matthew sat at the table with his hands over his ears rocking back and forth agitated.
“Now. Get up off the floor and sit in your seats,” I told the rest of the room.
Slowly the employees found their seats. They all looked rattled.
I put both hands on the table leaning forward toward the whole room. With a small touch of magic, I forced my voice across the room, “Here’s my advice to all of you. Tell your departments that I will get to the bottom of this. If you had something to do with this, and you haven’t spoken to me or my team about it, do not come back to this building tomorrow. There is nowhere you can hide from me, for I will have justice in this matter. Mr. Filipek, send me all the information you gathered showing that Andrew sent money to the GEA. Please do not be lying to me about your part in this discovery. If there is nothing else, you are all dismissed.”
They all picked up their notebooks and tablets, exiting the room. “Tony, is the rest of the team on the way?”
“Yes, ma’am, they will be here in the next couple of hours,” he said.
“Make sure that Ashley and Ichiro have safe transport to take Matthew to the estate. Make sure he is comfortable. Do not trust any person in this building,” I said leering at Tillens.
“Yes, ma’am. Would you like me to go with them?” he asked.
“Yes, Tadeas can stay with me. We will be leaving for Alabama in the next couple of hours. Take Mr. Tillens down to a holding cell. Let's not have any more escapees. Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
“Ash, you guys take Matthew to my office until Tony secures you a ride to the estate,” I said. Ashley walked over and spoke to him sweetly. He stood up with her.
“Miss Abby?”
“Yes, Mr. Oliver?” I said smiling at him.
“I did good?”
I walked up and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed. “You did wonderful, Matt.”
He smiled and walked out with Ashley.
“Put him in a chair,” I told Tadeas and nodded to Carboni.
“Please?”
“Please. Sorry, I was ready for anything, but I didn’t expect a gun,” I said.
Tadeas walked over and hefted the man into a chair. He whimpered.
“Mr. Carboni, in accordance to Clause Zeta in the contract of employment that you signed when you joined KBS, I am going to read your memories of this incident,” I said.
“You sure about this?” He looked worried.
I nodded at him. “You have my back, right?”
“Always,” he said.
“If you flinch or breath the wrong way, Mr. Carboni, I will break your neck,” Tadeas said.
I put my hands on his temples, and spoke the word, “Memento.” I concentrated on Mr. Carboni’s description of talking to Mr. Giordano on the phone. The memory flashed before me, but I couldn’t lock onto it. I tried with the memory of consulting with Mr. Filipek. Again, the memory flashed before me like a silent movie. I could not lock on to experience the memory first hand. Digging deeper, I felt a mental wall then his body jolted in the chair.
“Abby something is wrong!” Tadeas’ frantic voice filled my head. I pulled back out of Mr. Carboni’s head. He shook like he was having a seizure and fell over in the floor. Tadeas rolled him over and black foam leaked out of the edges of his mouth, his nostrils and his eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, what the fuck was that?” I said.
“He just started jerking in the chair. Did you see anything?”
“No, it’s like it was blocked. Someone very powerful hid his memories from me,” I said and cringed. Tony came back in the room.
“What the hell happened?” he said.
“I tried to look at his memories. There was a magical suicide spell or something there blocking me. I must have triggered it. Damn it,” I said.
“Get out of here. I’ll clean up the body,” Tony said.
Tadeas grabbed me by the arm. “I killed him,” I said feeling stunned.
“No, you didn’t. He was a traitor, and he killed himself, Abby. We need to be very careful, if we decide to go to New York,” he looked at me with such concern. Tadeas rarely showed fear, but I saw fear in his eyes. He feared that this would provoke my shadow. I was going to have to deal with this constantly now. He’d ever be fully confident in me anymore.
We headed back to the office. I walked in the room, and Ashley knew immediately something was wrong. I shook my head at her, and she paused. Tadeas followed me in, shutting the door quickly.
“No one comes in,” he said. Ichiro got up, locked the door, and stood by it. “Abby, look at me.” He turned me around, and I stepped back into the wall. “I promised to help you with this, but you’ve got to talk to me.”
“Would you stop? Please. The man is dead, and I triggered it. I know it was an accident. You can’t freak out every time something bad happens. You’ve got to trust me,” I told him.
“Of course, I trust you. You found these guys within a few minutes of being in the room. You know what you are doing. I don’t understand why you are upset at me.”
“I saw it in your eyes. You thought I was going to freak out,” she said.
“No, I was concerned,” he tried to explain.
“Concerned? Is this going to happen every single time we run into trouble? Because if it is, we are going to have to make other arrangements. I can’t deal with you judging me all the time.” My frustration with him grew.
“Damn it. It’s not like that. You know what, have your fit. I’ll be back later,” he said, storming out the door. I closed my eyes and composed myself. I went over to the desk while Ashley stared at me. I told them about Mr. Carboni.
“The moment I questioned myself over Carboni’s death, he was all over me, waiting for my shadow to resurface,” I said turning to stare at the lights of the city.
Tony came in the door. “The car is ready. You guys ready to go?”
Ashley said, “You two go ahead. I want to talk to Abby for a moment.”
Tony said, “Abby, the board room is cleaned.”
“Thank you, Tony.”
She came over to me, but I refused to look at her. “Abby, fix this with him. You are wrong this time, and you need to apologize. We are used to your stubbornness. He cares for you, and the shadow in the car scared him the crap out of him. He’s still trying to figure it out. I just ignore you when you get like this, but he doesn’t have that luxury.”
“We will work it out,” I said. I knew she was right, and I felt foolish.
She stood in front of me forcing me to look at her. “I told you once before, the two of you just need to kiss and make-up.” Memories of the night that we danced in the compound flooded over me. I was enthralled to him then because Ashley had
a premonition that led me to allow him to control me for that one night.
“You think I should let him enthrall me permanently?” I asked.
“No, I want you to admit that you might just love him. You are mad that he doesn’t trust you, but you don’t trust him with your heart,” she said, walking out before I could respond.
I flipped a bit of magic to the light switch and sat in the dark. My phone buzzed on the desk. Ashley texted me from downstairs. “The clothes are hanging in the bathroom. The weapons are in the black bag under your desk. The car will be delivered by 5pm.” At least my team knew how to do their job.
I forgot what it was like having a partner and trusting each other completely. Beyond that, I knew loving someone like I did Lincoln and Lukas scared me. Ashley once told me that everyone feels that way when they fall in love, for it was just part of the deal. I hated to admit, but her instincts were spot on as usual. Hoping that the bond wasn’t causing my feelings, I knew that the nature of our partnership put us in dire situations. It’s not unusual for people to connect who face life and death together, and that wasn’t going to change as long as we were partners. Despite my misgivings about the bond and about trying to do a job with the distractions of a relationship, I knew my heart. My stupid, vulnerable, weak heart.
In moments like this, I cannot feel her, and it’s like a piece of me is missing. I sat on a bench in front of the building. Even the night air was humid in the south. The rest of the team came out and headed to the Yukon idling on the street.
Ashley and Ichiro approached me, “You coming with us?”
“What do you think?” I said. She knew I wouldn't leave Abby behind.
“Then get off your ass, and get back up there,” she said.
“And do what? She isn’t wrong, you know.” I said.
“You don’t trust her?”
“I do, but I just don’t know when the shadow might return. I don’t know what to do if it does,” I said. “It scares me to death. I didn’t even say anything, and she became irrational.”