by Giger, S. L.
“Let’s get you in front of a warming fire.” She looped her arm into mine and led me away from the main street. Her house was in a more rural area with fields and hills around it. Her two dogs, Pixie and Jackie, welcomed us with lots of bellowing. It sounded like a much too piercing noise in the calm night.
In front of a lovely, crackling fire, I answered her questions about how everybody was doing, and of course, she wanted to know how exactly the Orbiters got in touch with me. Upon my answer, she leaned back in her broad TV chair and absentmindedly stroked Jackie’s head.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
She stayed immobile for a moment and then swallowed. “I’ve transformed four Sirens in my life. I did it because I thought those girls deserved a second chance. Melissa is the one I keep in touch with most closely – she also needed the most guidance in the beginning.” She smiled with a warm light in her eyes. “That’s why she feels like my daughter. And when she visited me shortly before they went to Malaysia to find you, I warned her that every transformation came with a huge responsibility. In your case,” she raised her eyebrows in my direction, “it would probably be even bigger because your life would most likely be closely watched. I advised her not to do it.” She pressed her lips together, but soon, her face softened. “Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad you exist. You are basically my grandchild, and that’s exactly why I am sitting here with you now, preparing for an interview with a man who might lock us up and kill us if we make a wrong move.” She frowned.
“I can go alone. The Orbiters said nothing about talking to him. If you have doubts about it, don’t come with me – I don’t want to endanger you. But it looks like the next logical step in how to proceed.” I shrugged, not having any stronger reasons to give her.
She held my gaze and nodded. “Like I said, with the responsibility that came with creating Melissa, I also said yes to watching and accepting her own decisions. You belong to the family, and we will have more power when talking to Dr. Palmer if we are two people. But about the Orbiters’ wishes...” She shook her head. “They expect too much, to have you create an army of male Sirens. You won’t be able to watch them all. This can only end in disaster.”
I snorted. “I agree with you. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone. But on the other hand, I want Cathy and Alex to succeed. It would be progress if male Sirens could also exist.”
Claire sighed. “That may be true. I’m just saying, don’t recklessly create someone, because otherwise, you will lose control.”
I lowered my gaze to the ground. “It was never my plan – it’s the Orbiters’ wishes. I’m still hoping to find another way once we reach that point.”
“Good.” Her shoulders sank a few inches. “I’m too old for revolutions but you have the strength to push against the Orbiters’ demands.”
I puffed my cheeks and sank deeper into my chair. All these expectations from everyone. “Speaking of family, has Roisin stopped by here lately?”
She sent me a puzzled look. “No, should she?”
“She went to Cappadocia to look for Minotaurs two weeks ago and we haven’t heard from her since. I hope she’s all right.” I swallowed.
Claire took a long breath. “Roisin is similar to you. She also has her own ideas and always finds a way to land on her feet. She will be all right.”
Although she meant well with her words, they didn’t take away the uneasy feeling that had tugged at my nerves ever since Roisin left.
Then, we switched over to the topic of the interview. Claire informed me that we only had a slot in a fifteen-minute press conference. That wasn’t much, so it was even more important to go over the questions I had prepared and divide our roles.
The next day, shortly before the appointed time, Claire and I marched into the Hilton Hotel in Kensington. As we approached the reception desk in our black business clothes with our hair pinned into neat buns, we attracted several glances from the other well-dressed people in the lobby. We received IDs that we had to hang around our necks with the same wrong names that Luke had printed on our fake radio ID cards. Then, we followed the signs to the conference room. Before we could even enter the hallway that led to the press room, we had to step through a metal detector, and our equipment bag was x-rayed, as well.
“Good thing it wasn’t one of these full-body scan machines,” I whispered to Claire once we made it into the hallway.
“Yes, we should get a document that says we have a pacemaker. Or our well-invented cover will fail because they’ll detect that our pulse rate is highly abnormal,” Claire mouthed back, hardly making any sound.
We entered a room with a small stage, on which stood a long table with three chairs. In front of the stage, there were several rows of tables and chairs that were already filled with men and women in business clothes. They were going over note sheets or talking to each other in hushed voices. We took a seat next to a blonde, serious-looking woman who was typing away on her laptop. I smiled at the couple next to her, who were discussing yesterday’s evening news. They briefly interrupted their conversation to nod at me, but then dedicated their attention to themselves again.
I placed the recorder on the table to keep up our pretense and turned it on. From what I could tell, all the people in this room were normal humans. Everybody was busy doing something, and now that I paid more attention, I detected that the heart frequency in this room was pretty high. These people were nervous. I raised an eyebrow at Claire, who nodded and moved her eyes to the upper right corner, also listening. Either they were nervous because they’d soon interview a terrorist, or they were nervous because they could ask questions of the guy who was apparently saving the world. I tried to listen in on some of the conversations to hear whether they were mostly supporters of Dr. Palmer or if there also were any critical voices.
“If we get him to confirm that he agrees with the recent bombing in Amsterdam, that would strengthen his message,” one woman said. “Occurrences of the flu have clearly decreased since the people started revolting.”
I pressed my lips together. Of course, only supporters would speak their opinion out loud here, since none of us wanted to lose the interview space.
A door at the front of the room opened, and two broad-shouldered men entered and waited next to the door. Heads turned, and everybody’s attention focused on that door. One of the men took a step forward and addressed the audience. “Once again, we want to remind you that video recordings and pictures are prohibited at this press conference. Only voice and text transmissions are allowed.”
I narrowed my eyes, but the other people motioned in agreement and obviously had been aware of that rule.
Then, a bald guy sprinted to the table on the podium and sat down. He was shorter than I had expected. I only saw his bald head as he was looking at some papers that lay on his table. Somehow, I had expected that this man would radiate a stronger sense of authority - after all, he’d gotten thousands of people all over the world to listen to him. The two bodyguards took seats on either side of him. Dr. Palmer lifted his head with an unreadable expression and seemed to study the people who were sitting behind us.
“If you want to ask a question, raise your hand,” one of the bodyguards said. A few hands shot into the air. I and some others followed a little more slowly. It would be difficult to even be able to ask one of my questions. The bodyguard pointed to a woman of whom I only saw a waterfall of black hair in the second row.
“Dr. Palmer, with the killings of twenty-three people all over the world in the past week because other people exposed them as Alternatives, would you say that you are still on the right path?”
“You sound quite accusing when you say this.” Dr. Palmer spoke in a voice that sounded much more nasal than the one from all the TV propaganda. “I would never encourage unnecessary bloodshed. But humanity is in danger of becoming extinct because of a flu against which we have no weapon. It’s important that the people of this earth are aware of their enemy.” He s
till gazed above her head, and I turned around to figure out what he was looking at. If his glance skipped above all the journalists, he’d be looking at a few replicates of Mondrian square paintings at the back of the room. Claire and a few others confusedly turned around as well, but the woman who asked the question probed further.
“Among the deaths were eight children. Do you agree with that, as well?”
One of the bodyguards held up a hand. “Only ask a follow-up question if we allow you to.”
“It’s okay,” Dr. Palmer said. “Children are the seeds of their parents, and they will be even worse and more powerful once they reach adulthood. Therefore, it’s important that we aren’t blinded by their feigned innocence, and I would never judge anybody who tried to do something for society.”
I put up my hand again, but somebody else was chosen. It went on like that for the next ten minutes – Dr. Palmer patiently answering every question, his tone of voice never changing one bit, and him never looking at the people. I glanced over at Claire, annoyed that we came here for nothing. However, she leaned forward in her chair, squeezing her eyebrows together, staring intently at Dr. Palmer. I tried to see what she saw, but again I followed Dr. Palmer’s glance to the back of the room.
When he had finished with answering another question, I didn’t wait not to get picked again – I just bolted my question into the room. “You say that the Alternatives use magic. What proof do you have of that? So far, I haven’t seen anyone flying around on a broomstick.” I tried to steady my breathing, but my chest rose and fell rapidly since the whole room’s attention was dedicated on me and you could have heard a pin drop.
For a brief moment, Dr. Palmer’s gaze zoomed around the back of the room like a camera that had lost focus on the puck at a hockey match. One of the bodyguards got up and strode toward my row. “Ma’am, I have to ask you to leave this conference.”
“But you were never going to pick me. I came all the way from Ireland. Our country attracted tourists with the slogan that Ireland is a magical place. I only want to know what is so bad about magic in general.”
“You had a chance like everybody else in this room, like at any normal press conference. Please, leave the room, or I’ll have to call more security.” He penetrated me with his stare.
I huffed and turned my glance back on Dr. Palmer – who, if I wasn’t mistaken, smiled coldly in our direction, as if he couldn’t be bothered less. I got up and packed the recorder in my bag, not exchanging another look with Claire so that at least she could stay until the end of the press conference. A woman in a gray skirt and blazer who had been standing at the back of the room with a phone in her hands led me back to the elevators.
“Thank you anyway for the opportunity,” I said to her, my lips in a thin line. Back in the lobby, I sat on a lounge chair and impatiently tapped my foot on the floor as I waited for Claire.
When she stepped out of the elevator and spotted me there, she waved inconspicuously, and I followed her outside.
“I’ve never been thrown out of anything.” I banged my hand against the window of the bus shelter in which we stood.
“It’s okay, you’ve at least stirred up the crowd a little,” Claire replied. “After you left, the next person picked up your question.” She swallowed, milking my curiosity. “Dr. Palmer replied that he had studied the Alternatives for many years. Real magic was ‘nothing dreamy like we imagine it to be in Disneyland’ – those were his words.” Claire furrowed her brows. “He said the Alternatives were using their forces to show that they were more powerful than the rest of the world. And now, listen closely, his example of magic...” Claire rolled her eyes. “‘Don’t you all know those moments when you walk into your room or the kitchen because you want to fetch something,’” Claire repeated, imitating his nasal voice, “‘and then you don’t remember what you are doing in that room? That’s when an Alternative robbed you of a piece of your memory to enforce the strength of their own mind.’”
“And the journalists accepted this crap?” I asked, outraged.
“Some of them did as the next question was how to best shield our minds from such attacks.” Claire sighed. “But that’s not what irritated me most about the last fifteen minutes.” She took a breath. “When the bodyguard approached you, I didn’t take my attention away from Dr. Palmer’s face for a second. When you got up, he actually looked at you with a hollow smile. It was as if the muscles of his face were responding to somebody else’s demands. It didn’t fit the package of his small, pig-like eyes behind the thin glasses, and it was more as if somebody had put an evil mask on the lower part of his face.”
I tilted my head. “What are you getting at?”
“Did you also notice how otherwise, he never actually looked at anybody but stared at the back of the room?”
“Yes, I thought that was a strategy because he didn’t like to speak in front of crowds.”
Claire pursed her lips and shook her head vehemently. “At the back of the room, there were paintings of even squares – something regular that would keep his attention focused, even if something irritating happened around him.”
“Okay, and why is that noteworthy?” I narrowed my eyes.
Claire dropped a bomb by saying, “Because, on top of that, his expression was completely empty as if we were talking to a robot. If you ask me, these were all signs that he stood under hypnosis.”
I chewed my lower lip. “Do you have any experience with hypnosis?”
Claire pressed her hands against her cheeks and checked again to make sure nobody was listening. “The first girl I transformed apparently wasn’t a correct match to become a Siren after all,” she said quietly. “Even after going hunting with her attached to a leash several times, she still jumped at the victim. I wanted to help her, and I heard that hypnosis had a calming effect on people. I found a woman who read tarot cards and claimed to be able to hypnotize people, and she taught me how to do it on Olivia.” She swallowed.
“You hypnotized someone?” My eyes widened.
“Only for a couple of months. It worked, but it was exhausting for both of us. On me, because I had to be focused all the time, and on her, because she had to suppress her true self.” Claire looked at me intently. “But her eyes and her facial expressions were the same as Dr. Palmer’s.”
“So, if he is hypnotized, that means...” I searched my mind for an explanation.
“That somebody else is pulling the strings on the puppet,” Claire said. “Dr. Palmer is only the messenger, the public figure, while the true leader acts in the background.”
My shoulders sank. “But who is he and how can we get to him? Did he have to be present in the room to hypnotize him?” I tried to remember the faces of everybody else who had been in the room.
“I had to be near Olivia, but if the person is more advanced with hypnosis, it probably would be possible to channel it from further away.”
“Still, if he uses Dr. Palmer as a puppet, Dr. Palmer might eventually lead us to him,” I said.
Claire nodded. “I can keep an eye on him and his entourage, but I won’t approach him directly. Drawing as much attention to yourself as you did will only affect you negatively.”
I lowered my gaze to the ground, pursing my lips. “Sorry. I came all this way, and I didn’t want to leave without even trying to get in touch with him. But yes, please don’t let us lose track of him.” I looked back at Claire. “What happened to Olivia once you stopped hypnotizing her?” I asked, my voice a bit unsteady.
Claire closed her eyes. “Instead of using the needle during one of our hunts, she dug her teeth into a human’s chest. Her face turned from deep satisfaction into an agonized expression, whereupon her skin melted to an empty shell.” Claire gulped. “The Orbiters killed her.”
I attempted a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, I can accept it now. If I hadn’t transformed her after her accident, she’d have died then. I could smell in her blood that she was a smo
ker, but I wasn’t experienced enough to know that her addiction would keep her from being able to control other desires.”
I ground my teeth. “If it’s hard finding a suitable woman to transform into a Siren, that narrows down the suitable men we could transform even further.” I sighed. “I should go back and hear what info Luke and Cathy have collected.”
I thought about the three silver whistles that were hidden in my backpack in Claire’s house. I had wanted to bring them to my family in Switzerland. Now, however, I felt like I still hadn’t achieved anything that would return their lives back to normalcy. As long as there wasn’t an immediate danger to my family, I needed to hurry in figuring out a solution for what the Orbiters wanted and, at the same time, figure out a plan to find Dr. Palmer’s puppet-master. Yet, today had taught me that I couldn’t just approach our enemy and hope that it turned out for the best. Next time, I had to be better prepared.
Chapter 21
It was still afternoon when I arrived back at the Cape. I had skipped one night by spending it on a different continent.
I entered the lab and raised my eyebrows in surprise when I saw that Luke was here as well and had already returned from Canada. Alex gave me a kiss and hugged me tightly, but nevertheless, he had a serious look on his face.
“What’s bugging you?” I asked.
His shoulders sagged. “All the cells died,” he said to Luke. “It’s not the right approach. The ones with more spit from Cathy lasted longer, but now they’re dead, too.”
“Damn.” Luke scratched the back of his head. “Cathy won’t like hearing this. What is the next step?”
“We need a stronger merging fluid. Or a catalyzer,” Alex replied.
Then Luke turned his attention to me. “And, did you find him?”
“Martin, yes – I found him and talked to him and his wife, and about Dr. Palmer...” I puffed my cheeks. “It’s a bigger riddle than I thought it would be. And you?”
