Resolution

by Douglas E Roff

  “Today was a good day, Misti. A very good day.”

  “You did good old man. You did very good. I knew the real you that first day when I was eight and you told me what you had to do, what I had to do and, if we each did our job, there would be nothing but happiness ahead. And I believed you. I always did.”

  “Even the part about Adam? I might’ve turned out to be a big liar.”

  “Yep, that’s the leap of faith, the truth that Kierkegaard revealed to us all. Believing in what can’t be proven. Knowing that no matter how hard or strange the journey may be, that, in the end, we will get to where we want to go. If you have faith. It doesn’t have to be religious faith; it just has to be what you believe in.”

  Misti paused.

  “But, as Adam reminds me far too often, ‘Pride goeth before the fall’. His pride, my pride and your pride too old man. We’ve all been guilty, and to excess. But we’ve all come home, made our amends and changed; changed ourselves inside, the only place that really matters. And we’re a family and doing amazing things, not just one of us but all of us. All of us together.”

  Edward smiled, “You’ve been around Adam too long, or he around you. Adam told me that you once told him you were both old souls. He said he didn’t understand what you meant until one day he just woke up and, suddenly, he did. He listens to you, you know. He doesn’t do that with other people very much. Prefers to stay ‘inside’, if you know what I mean.”

  “Well, he’s right about many things, more often then he’s wrong. Family anyway; the rest of the world is still a giant mystery to him. You can never repeat that, of course.”

  “Lips sealed, key thrown away.”

  “You did us all proud today old man and I can’t tell you enough just how proud I am of you. Of who you are, and who you have become. You won’t be upset if I hug you a little, will you? Maybe even just a little too long? I need a big hug. Your daughter needs a hug, and maybe a little cry.”

  They stood together in embrace. Adam, off in the distance, was the last to avert his gaze as he went back inside the Tech Centre with Alana.

  ***

  Alana looked at Adam; he seemed less talkative than usual. The events having just unfolded had affected him, and he seemed unusually emotional.

  Alana said, “Want to talk about it, bud?”

  “Yeah, maybe in the privacy of your office for a little bit. To tell you how much I love you, and how much you mean to all of us. If I don’t tell you enough then I am ashamed of myself for being so, shallow and self-absorbed. Where would any of us be without you?”

  Alana smiled her most tender smile for her Adam, “You tell me every day, as you do Misti and Noki and Hannah and, yes, even Miss Vera Capri when she feels low.” Alana cradled his face in her hands and said, “And I, we, all love you back. Every one of us every day. It’s OK to let go, you know. It isn’t a crime.”

  “Not in front of the children.”

  “C’mon. We can both have a moment in the privacy of my officer, drapes drawn. And, I have some of the good stuff hidden in my lower desk drawer.”

  “The M&M’s?”

  “What else?”

  “Have I told you today how much I love you?”

  “Don’t worry mister, you’re still getting your M&Ms.”

  Chapter 13

  Alana was already in her office in the Tech Centre when Adam arrived in the morning a few days later, skipping her normal breakfast and coffee with him at their residence. Adam had left a little early the previous day to work with Norman in his office and was surprised when he got home to learn that Alana was working late on a project of her own. Alana had met with Hannah the previous day looking into some “irregularities” Hannah had found. Alana resolved the issue quickly but, in so doing, had found another irregularity herself.

  The discovery of that irregularity was far from compelling, and even Alana thought that little would come of it. But somewhere around midnight, she discovered she was wrong.

  “Adam, come look at this.”

  “What is it?”

  “Yesterday I was helping Hannah find some items in Tomas di Gensarii’s diary. You know, all ten volumes of it. But I noticed that each volume was bound with the same format, ten blank pages in front, and the same number in the back of the book. The first blank page in the back of each volume contained a note, in his handwriting, ‘To be continued …’. Each volume contained approximately the same number of pages, but the last volume seemed to end abruptly, about a year before the death of his wife. A suicide, if I remember correctly. Tomas lived for a couple of years after her death, so why would he suddenly cease making entries into his diary?

  “I did an ‘Adam’ and pondered why he would do that. Too distraught? Didn’t care any more? But, I didn’t think that’s what was going on. So, I checked the summary in Book of Gensarii to verify the number of volumes and there it was.”

  “There what was?”

  “Two volumes are missing. The last two volumes. Volumes eleven and twelve.”

  “Odd,” Adam said. “Tomas seemed like a very meticulous man. Seems out of character to get the number of volumes wrong or to misplace the last two volumes. Were you able to find anything else?”

  “I figured that if Tomas had wanted to hide the last two volumes for some reason, how, and where, would he have done that? There are tons of places, both physical and digital, where they might never be found. I thought, what if he wanted the tomes to be found? You know, he was hiding them so, they could be found later, after his death? I piled one wild ass guess and assumption on top of another and knowing Tomas was familiar with the Cloud and the Dark Web, that’s where I started. Right around midnight I found something. It was a non- password protected website on the Dark Web.”

  “What was there?”

  “A number of things, including the two missing volumes of the diary, some videos that are quite frightening, about a dozen or so audio tapes, some memoranda that appear to explain some unexplained events connecting the dots as well as other files, and data I haven’t had time to look at yet. For that matter, I haven’t listened to the audio tapes either. But the tapes, and list of other documents seem to be summarized in the last volume of the diary.”

  “I’m all a flutter. What did you discover?”

  “Well, it appears we had a couple of things wrong in the narrative of what happened to Tomas, and his wife. In fact, we have quite a few of the facts wrong.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, the foundation of what we thought happened to Tomas and his wife, his final days, and the history of the Gens, that you learned from Paulo in Tucson seem to be more fiction than fact. We have taken Paulo’s initial narrative at face value while at the same time not trusting anything else he had to say afterward. We should’ve been just as skeptical about his initial story too. Tomas contradicts just about everything Paulo said and presents an entirely different storyline.”

  “Such as?”

  “We assumed that Tomas’s wife committed suicide, and that Tomas died of natural causes. In fact, his wife was murdered by Paulo, and Tomas committed suicide as Paulo’s goons closed in on him a couple of years after his wife died.

  “There’s more?”

  “Much more but let’s assemble the teams so I only have to do this once. At least for the time being”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon. I think you, Hannah and I should explore what we have a little more, write it up and then have an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ chat. This is major, we need everyone in attendance type confab. This includes Bella and Helena.”

  “How so?”

  “I think Paulo would definitely like to see you dead for being such a pest, Alana. But I think Bella and Helena have moved way far up on the Collective’s ‘most wanted list’ since they actually know more about Enzo and Paulo that can bring them down. The totality of what they know, if Tomas is to be believed, is far more dangerous than what we, or they, previously had imagined. But Paulo, and
the Collective are probably going ape shit right now thinking that if certain things get out, leadership will have some ‘splainin to do.”

  ***

  The core teams gathered in the meeting room late afternoon the next day at the Tech Centre to receive the urgent update from Alana, Hannah and Adam.

  As soon as the last person was seated, Adam started in.

  “Alana has discovered quite a bit of new information on Paulo from Tomas that totally rewrites what we thought was going on with the Collective and Paulo and why. In sum, whatever we thought was going on, it wasn’t.

  “I didn’t know any of this new information until Alana showed it to me. My view is that the information will require some detailed analysis to fully understand what’s at play, but Alana, and I both agree that this information doesn’t materially change any of our future plans. It may have a potential effect on how we deal with Paulo, and the Collective moving forward. What he has told us about past events seems largely to be what he told the Gens Collective and the Councils. It might even be true that the Great Council, and Council of Elders don’t know the truth or at least all of it anyway.

  “Alana and Hannah have prepared an extensive memorandum cataloging what Alana found and summarizing what they know. If you haven’t read it, you should. I did a quick and dirty highlighting parts that may be more relevant to one team or another. Those thoughts, the materials and the memo have been uploaded to the DL Main, Staging One, Drive J. I’m available to assist with search tasks of the new material, so send your queries to me ASAP if you have any. With that, I turn the presentation over to Alana and Hannah. Ladies.”

  Alana looked around the room, then began, “Hannah and I talked over the potential value of this meeting and we think it might make more sense to reconvene with interested parties tomorrow or the day after when you’ve all had a chance to review the memo, the data and Adam’s map to what we found. You can call any of us, at any time but, I’m not sure what we can say right now that will help anyone before you’ve done a thorough review and analysis. Like Adam said, Hannah and I don’t think what we’ve found changes any future plans, but it may guide future political, and propaganda activities. In the end, this information may be more useful to Bethy, and Bitsie than anyone else.

  “The sole exception is the software that we found embedded in one of the files that appears to translate the entire Gens Common Tongue to English, and four other modern languages. Translations, dictionaries and a whole lot of linguistic gold. There’s other stuff there too, most of which may be useful to Team Cryptology in addition to Adam, Norman, Bella, and Helena. I used a special algorithm I developed at the NSA, modified it to our needs and was able to extract the highlights of the software quickly. Hannah and Misti identified what it was, right away.”

  Adam interrupted, “You wrote an algorithm? Or algorithms? When? For what? You never told me that. You said you didn’t write algorithms.”

  Adam didn’t appear angry, just surprised. His interruption was “old Adam”; rude and stream of consciousness. He hadn’t even looked up from the tablet screen he was looking at. His comment was simply off the cuff.

  Alana swiveled to face him, her face beginning to redden.

  “Is this necessary right now, at this exact moment? I mean what the fuck does this have to do with anything? You fucking give me the third degree over whether I write algorithms? Really? I mean, Jesus fucking Christ, WTF?”

  “I’m sorry … I didn’t mean …”

  “What Adam? You didn’t mean to be a rude prick questioning every little fucking detail of what, and how I do my work? Well you don’t get to do that asshole. Not now, not ever. Now relocate your ass to the back of the room and keep your mouth shut so, someone with something to add can ask an intelligent question.

  “Questions? Anyone? I didn’t think so.” She turned, gathered her papers, and strode out of the Tech Centre briskly, headed for her quarters at the Misti Building. The ones she shared with Adam.

  Dead silence. The jaws of everyone there dropped to the cement floor. Then all eyes turned to Adam.

  “Don’t look at me. I’m clueless.”

  Misti looked at he husband, glaring, and said, “Brainiest thing you said today. Maybe ever.”

  ***

  The relationship between Paulo and Tomas was strained. He was in charge of the Library and was writing the Book of Gensarii, just in case the Gens lost the conflict between the Collective and the humans in the apocalyptic war of the species. As the relationship deteriorated, so too did the threats from Paulo augment. Pauli wanted less information about present activities and more emphasis on the mythology of the Gens ‘Camelot’, most of which was Fortizi fiction.

  Tomas declined, instead saying that history should be just that, history.

  Paulo’s response was to have Tomas’s wife murdered. He had heard through sources that Tomas’s wife threatened to go public after she read a letter from Tomas, one of the ones he never sent. She found all the letters he ever wrote but didn’t send. In them he explained who he really was, but she never read them. Just one. Tomas never thought she would ever find the others, but she had. Paulo assumed she knew everything.

  Though the death of Tomas’s wife was staged as an accident, the message Tomas received was clear. She was human and meaningless. His fate would be next due solely to the fact that he was Gens. Tow the line. Tomas brooded over the cold-blooded murder of his wife of many years then began assembling all documents in the Libraries he did not have but needed.

  Tomas wanted to punish Paulo and reveal the Gens to humanity. Tomas could no longer transform; he gave that up to be with his wife. When Paulo found out about what Tomas had assembled, he decided to kill him to silence him. But Tomas never told Paulo where the Library was. When Paulo’s teams of assassins found Tomas, he was already dead by his own hand.

  Tomas’s note to Paulo simply said, “You’ll never find the Library; but someone will. Then your reign of terror will end and the Prophecy will be fulfilled.”

  It was a miracle that Adam was that person who found the Library, and that Edward would realize its significance.

  It was Tomas who contacted the FBI with the mistaken identity story. He hoped that someone would find the Library and reveal it to the world. He had contacted two anthropologists at the University of Texas, Austin and was going to deliver all his materials to them. They were found murdered in their offices on campus they day before Tomas took his own life.

  Chapter 14

  Everyone was quiet as Alana left, angry and in tears. The episode was shocking for two main reasons, neither having to do with Adam or his rude behavior. First, nobody had ever witnessed Alana losing her temper, or even being angry or showing pique. And, least of all with Adam, whom everyone knew she loved and adored. Second, nobody had ever heard Alana curse – especially within in earshot of her Dad. Alana didn’t refrain from cursing to please her Dad; she refrained from cursing because those words weren’t in her vocabulary. Well, at least not until recently.

  Misti watched Alana walk with purpose toward the Misti Building, never looking back. Then Misti turned back inside the Tech Centre seeking out Adam who was still seated in the back of the room, completely lost and wondering what had just happened. Truly, he had no idea.

  Misti would speak to him first, but not right away. She would have him guided across the Bridge to the field beyond where he could sit by himself on one of the park benches in silence and wait. Wait for Misti to arrive, though he knew nothing of this plan either.

  Misti spoke to Edward and Noki then left. They had their assignments and she had hers. She disappeared into the bowels of the Tech Centre and only came out an hour later. As she exited the front entrance of the building, she spotted Adam already seated alone, off in the distant field on the other side of Willow Creek. She started walking in his direction, the temperature cool, and the chill wind up.

  ***

  Adam saw Misti cross the Bridge alone and walk toward him withou
t hurry. Thoughts raced in his mind that the ensuing conversation could be pleasant or unpleasant, particularly if Misti was the messenger heading his way. She could be soft as a down pillow in satin or as rough as old straw in burlap. He wondered which stick, short or long, he had drawn.

  Misti said, “Need some company bud? You look a little roughed up?”

  “That depends. Are you here to finish the job or help me understand?”

  “Only help out. And to love you madly, even when it doesn’t seem so.”

  “It seems so, most of the time. Even when I’m in trouble. What did I do this time? And to Alana of all people? I don’t …”

  “Get it? I know, sweetie. This one is really tough since Alana too doesn’t understand what she did or why herself. I’m sure of it. She just kinda went hormonal and boom! Massive explosion. She is pregnant you know. Allowances must be made.”

  “The thing is I really thought I was making progress with Alana and everyone. On the road to being more open and accessible, less rude and selfish and, yes, even a little more normal. More caring and understanding about people who are not family, but who are, or should be, important to me. And I’m truly more interested in how they’re doing, how they’re are feeling. Learning about them and their families. I guess I was just fooling myself. I can’t fool anyone, least of all Alana. I am what I’ve always been.”

  “OK, OK mister. Let’s stop the pity party right now. None of that is true; you just need to get up to speed on the changes going on around you. Things have been slow to change, and I get that you don’t see those changes, or most of them. But none of this is bad; most of it is really good. But those of us closest to you every day have seen the change in you for a very long while. We’re not surprised that you haven’t. You have immense matters on your mind, four women, and a baby boy to care for every day, and a chica and redhead who are pregnant with your kids.

  “You run a ginormous organization, have people and organizations who want you dead, a Mom, two Dads, three if you count Edmund along with two nieces, and their grandparents all counting on you every day. You have a brother and sister in the field who you talk to every day and worry about every minute.