Watchers of the Night

by Matthew Keith

Chapter 16

  “In 1981, I began having the dream. Just like most of us, I had no idea what it was at first, and it took me almost a year before I realized that what I was seeing was real. It happened as a result of hearing my little brother, Thomas, talk about something he’d done the night before. It was something I’d watched him do, but at the time I thought I was just dreaming. The next day, after watching him again during the night, I described what I had seen him do. He confirmed it, and from then on I knew I was a Walker. And so did my brother.

  “So when it happened to Thomas two years later, we both knew exactly what it was and of course on his first night I was waiting for him, because I was confined to the house unless someone left a door open long enough for me to get out.”

  Smiling, nostalgia painted on his face, Dr. Abrams continued, “We were close before that, but we became inseparable afterward. Nothing was out of our reach as long as we left our bedroom window open. We aced every test in school because we found ways to get in to the school at night and read the answers before the tests were given. We knew every dirty little secret about every person in our town and sometimes we used it to our advantage when we needed to. And the girls,” he glanced over at Natasha. “Well, you can imagine what we knew about the girls in Springfield, which was where we grew up—a town just outside of Washington D.C.” Natasha smiled and let him continue.

  “Unfortunately, it was our ability to know everything about everyone that led to us having to find a way to make it on our own as teenagers.

  “I was seventeen and Thomas was fifteen when we took our mother aside and told her we’d learned that our father was cheating on her. We told her who it was, we told her where it happened and how often. Our father, of course, denied it and our mother chose to believe him. So of course he continued to do it, until finally one day we confronted both my father and mother together. We only wanted what we thought was best for our mother, but instead of saving her, we condemned ourselves. When our father found out it was us that had leveled the original accusations, Thomas and I were no longer welcome in their home.”

  Looking away, Dr. Abrams paused to take a breath. Paul could tell that it was unpleasant for him for tell this part of story. “If this is something that bothers you to talk about, we don’t have to,” Paul offered.

  “That’s very kind, Paul,” he said through a weak smile. “And you’re right. It is painful to speak of. But it is also therapeutic. Some of the people here at Astralis know some of this history, but none of them know it all. You’ll be the first, and I’m glad to finally tell it.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Natasha spoke up for the first time. “It is well past time that we bring someone into the fold.”

  Continuing, Dr. Abrams said, “You can imagine how it was for two boys our age, with our condition, to try and make it on our own. We had friends, of course, and many of them let us stay in their homes, but it always ended with an apology and an excuse in some form or another as to why it wasn’t working out. We were just too abnormal and made the families we stayed with uncomfortable, and understandably so.

  “That is, until we stayed with our friend, Ben. His father was a private investigator who barely made a living, but had been doing it for so long that he didn’t know anything else. We’d been living with them for about a week, hearing Ben’s father often gripe about the different cases he’d taken but was unable to solve. Thomas and I asked questions at the dinner table under the pretense of simple curiosity, but we both knew we could help him.

  “After we’d given him good information on three of his cases, Ben’s father began coming to us for most of his work. In turn, we gladly helped him in order to remain in his home. After my graduation, I went to work for him full time. It took less than a year after that for him to become widely known as the guy who could find anything or anyone for you in the D.C. area.

  “He grew wealthy, and was always kind to Thomas and me, sharing the profits of his company with us. By the time Thomas graduated high school, we were both making more than enough money to live on our own and handled most of the smaller cases ourselves.

  “It was through one of those cases that Thomas met Natasha.”

  Paul looked over at her in surprise. She looked back, thin-lipped. Clearly, if Thomas was not sitting in this room helping to tell the story, there was not a happy ending. “I married Thomas in 1989,” she said simply.

  Giving her a supportive look, Dr. Abrams said, “Natasha was originally married to a different man who, as it turned out, was also married to not one, but two other women. He was in sales and traveled a lot, which allowed him to carry on his charade. Natasha knew something wasn’t right with her marriage and brought the case to our company for help. We solved it and somewhere in the midst of it all, Natasha and Thomas found love.

  “Natasha moved into our home, and on the first night back from their honeymoon something amazing happened; I didn’t fall into the dream at sunset. It had to happen a few times before we realized she was the common link. When we finally recognized that she had this affect over my sleep patterns, the result was that Natasha and I became great friends, because every night after dark there was no one in the house left to speak to except me.”

  Paul could already guess what happened next.

  At this point, Natasha took over the story. “Thomas became understandably jealous. Nothing ever happened between Abe and I that could be considered even remotely improper, but that didn’t matter. And although Thomas tried to be happy for his brother, night after night his feelings of isolation from me grew, eventually turning into something ugly and angry.

  “There were arguments between everyone. Thomas simply couldn’t stand the idea that the woman he loved had some sort of chemical link with his brother. Even though it was truly chemical in the most clinical sense, it didn’t matter. He …” Natasha’s voice cracked and she stopped, visibly willing her cultured exterior to take over.

  Dr. Abrams cut in. “For lack of a better description, he went mad. Stopped listening to reason. The isolation was just too much for him and it caused him to lose touch with reality. It took about a year for him to leave. We’d amassed quite a fair amount of money from all the years of successful case solving and he took exactly half when he left.”

  “We tried to find him,” Natasha said, “but having been in the business of finding people for so long, he knew how to keep himself from being found.”

  “So where is he now?” Paul asked.

  “We’re still looking,” answered Dr. Abrams.

  There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as Paul let that sink in. “So—still? After all these years?”

  “Every day,” answered Natasha.

  Nodding, processing what they’d told him, Paul said, “I see how that explains the two of you but what does it have to do with Astralis?”

  “Everything,” replied Dr. Abrams. “When Thomas left, Natasha and I began working together on cases. It was a good partnership because she could take care of things like transportation at night or meetings that could only be held after dark.

  “In 1991, Ben’s father passed away and left the business to us in its entirety. It was that same year that an agent from the CIA approached us with a case she couldn’t solve. She’d heard about our reputation and was in a bind; the case she was assigned to was high profile and could make or break her career. We took the case confidentially and had it solved within three days.

  “After that, she began bringing us more cases. We solved 100% of them at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time it would take the CIA. Her career exploded and before long she gained the attention of the director of the agency. Being an upfront and honest agent, she explained her association with us and through that connection more cases were passed our way. Trust grew over time between our organization and theirs, the cases they passed to us became higher priority and, to make a long story short, eventually the Agency brought us to the attention of the United Nations. The UN off
ered us a ‘permanent situation’ to become a part of what they term as ‘world diplomacy.’

  “We accepted their offer so long as they agreed to allow us to work only through our original CIA contact who, by the way, we still trust implicitly. They allow us to recruit at our own discretion, to only take the cases we feel are not morally reprehensible, and they provide enough funds to establish and maintain these headquarters and training facility.

  “This is how Astralis was born and how it came to be. It is the child born of my desire to have the ability to help every Walker cope with our curse of isolationism. It is so that Natasha and I always have the resources with which to search for Thomas. It is so that no Walker is ever forced to try and make it alone.”

  Dr. Abrams leaned back in his chair, finished with his story. Paul looked from him to Natasha, not knowing how to reply to everything he’d heard. Latching on to the first thought that came to mind, he asked, “Who is the CIA agent?”

  Smiling, Natasha said, “That would be Lydia. She handles all incoming and outgoing communication for us and helps determine which cases we should accept.”

  “Paul,” Dr. Abrams said, “I know what James said to you last night. I know that there are people at Astralis who feel trapped, or that we should have more, or be paid big salaries. But look around. What are we lacking?”

  Paul’s pulse quickened at the unexpected shift in the conversation. So it was last night’s conversation that prompted this meeting.

  “Most of all,” Dr. Abrams continued, “I want you to consider the most important thing we have that would be very hard to find anywhere else. The answer should be clear: security. No one bothers us here. We are out of sight and out of mind.”

  So this was why he was here. This was Dr. Abrams telling him why he thought someone with a view point like James’ was wrong. The truth was that Paul didn’t have to be convinced. Although he could see the point James had been trying to make, there was a lot more to what a place like Astralis could accomplish than accumulating wealth for the people who were a part of it.

  “I agree with you,” Paul answered honestly, making sure he looked Dr. Abrams directly in the eye. “But people are people and there will always be differences of opinion, like with James. I can see his side of it, too.”

  Leaning forward with his elbows on his desk, Dr. Abrams face turned even more serious. “If it were as easy as a difference of opinion, we wouldn’t be talking about this. Everyone who lives here knows they can leave at any time. The door opens both ways. But it isn’t just James with an opinion. There are more of them and they’ve been talking.”

  “What have they been talking about?”

  “They want Astralis for themselves and they want to turn it into a for-profit institution. I believe they would have already tried if you hadn’t been found.”

  “What?!” Paul asked in alarm.

  “Remember, we found you over six months ago. We found you, watched you, and then inserted Lisa into your school to approach you. We were fairly certain you could move objects after the first month. This is why I believe they haven’t made their move to take over the installation. Now that they know someone like you exists, they want to keep you.”