“I have no way to prove it short of bringing Misti back to speak with you all, but she has mentioned that if she catches me anywhere in her orbit, consequences will follow. A bit excessive in the tough love arena, but I will not test her warning; I have too much respect for her skill and her follow through. We all know she would try to injure me, something she thinks she can do, but can’t. She is enhanced, but not like me. Out of love, I will leave her be; I do not wish to harm her in any way.
“So, I am doing something I don’t wish to do, which I believe is a bad idea and a mistake, but for the good of our project and to restore your faith in me, I will consent to a search of my mind.”
“By who?”
“By whom, you mean. Both Alana and Noki. I offered to allow Hannah and Vera to search, but they both declined. You know that Noki is the best at this, and Alana is not far behind in skills.”
“How do we know you aren’t locking out access as you did with Misti. How can we trust you, even with Noki and Alana? This could just be more treachery. More lies and deception, taught by the Master, your father.”
“I have asked one other participant to assist, Kendra Boles. She can search my mind but will go where Noki and Alana tell her to search more thoroughly.”
“Doesn’t answer my question.”
“I have given each of you a kind of master key to my mind. Once instructed, I cannot lock anything out. Each person with the gene has the same feature. If not given up, the searcher cannot have full access. Noki, Alana and Kendra have the key. This is exceptionally dangerous for me, but I am willing to take the chance. One day you will see Misti again and she will back up my story and restore my good name. Until then this will have to do. For any who will not believe these results no matter what, you may collect your things and leave. You know who you are, so leave now. You will be a danger to me and I can no longer trust you.”
Seven men and women stood up and left, escorted from the Tech Centre by MI-5 security.
“You too Jensen and take your friend James Pitt. You never had a chance to get in her pants anyway, so why this charade? Get out before I kill you myself.”
The two stood up, glared at Adam, then left.
“The rest of you may remain only if you agree to accept the results of my mind probe by all three women, each of whom has greater skill than Misti. If you cannot abide me, then leave. If the three ladies find their probe inconclusive, then you are all discharged, and I will go it alone. It was always headed in that direction anyway.”
Kendra spoke up, “Not alone. This outburst may disqualify me as a judge of your claims but no matter the outcome, I will follow you.”
Adam smiled, “Then Noki, since you’re the best at this, please get started.”
Noki turned to the assembled crowd. “This will take days, maybe longer. Adam will be placed in a holding cell, the probe recorded, and the results dictated aloud. There will be pain. There is a chance of injury or even death. But I will find whatever is to be found and Adam will reveal everything contained in his mind, voluntarily or not.”
Alana said, “Then I will take over and it will take even longer as I will double check Noki’s results and use my own techniques. Kendra will observe and record what we do.”
There was general agreement that this was necessary and prudent.
Adam said, “When this is over, we go back to work. Anyone not believing the results will be discharged and their memories of work here wiped. If this is unacceptable, leave now.”
There was a general stir, but no one left.
Kendra made one last statement. “If Adam dies here during this examination over the next few weeks, I will kill Noki and Alana, then each and every one of you non-believers. If you think I cannot do this, step outside and I’ll kill you right now. If Adam risks his life for this ridiculous exercise to prove something to you assholes about Misti, who abandoned us, then you put your lives on the line along with him too. If this is not to your liking, then fuck off and leave. This is your final warning.”
Adam said, “Finally there are those among us who will believe me no matter what. Family and friends with me since the beginning, a few my entire life. Those names I have given to Kendra, Noki and Alana. They will not be harmed, no matter the outcome of this probe. They will be left to continue my work, if such is possible.”
Adam looked at the three ladies. “Let’s begin.”
Chapter 30
Within an hour, Adam lay on a bed in the Tech Centre, body strapped down and head elevated. In his mind, he bore Noki and Alana no ill will for what they were about to do, but he thought Noki didn’t believe him. She, more than anyone, was troubled by Adam’s ability to lock away thoughts in his mind. She didn’t possess this ability, at least not yet, and didn’t know if she ever would. Was it a native ability for those gifted with the gene, or a quirky skill only Adam could conjure?
She didn’t know but would soon find out.
She spoke to Adam. “Some of this will cause great pain, but I don’t know whether you will feel it, and, if so, only physically or mentally. This is the first probe ever attempted, so I don’t know exactly how to proceed. Are you willing to trust that I don’t intend to harm you?”
“I do.”
Kendra interjected, “Then why’re you doing this Noki? You’ve just admitted you have no idea what you’re doing or the effect on Adam. This is foolish.”
Alana said, “She’s right Noki. You can’t be sure you won’t hurt him. Or kill him. Let everyone who disbelieves in Adam go. We’ll wipe their minds, and staff up again. It’s safer and I think this is madness.”
Adam said, “No time, Alana my love. Besides Noki has her own agenda, don’t you dear? The great science experiment conducted by a metaphysician to gain the knowledge of the Gods.”
“That’s foolish,” Noki said.
“Is it? Why not try it on your brother first then?”
“We can stop right now if you wish, otherwise the probe is of your mind, not mine or Xin’s.”
Adam knew what Noki sought and he was willing to allow her experiment. To a point. Kendra would check Noki’s work daily and if Noki was crossing a line for personal reasons, including knowledge she was forbidden to know, Kendra would halt the exercise and turn it over to Alana. Kendra was forbidden, however, to harm Noki or her brother in any way.
They began immediately, and the screams of terror and pain resonated throughout the Tech Centre. Most workers there simply left, unable to bear his unrelenting shrieks for hours on end.
***
Edward, for his part was now desperate to find Misti, have her return and put an end to this. He called Carlos, but to no avail. She had left his boat and he had no idea where she was or how to contact her. Frustrated, Edward tried the old-fashioned way. He sent her an encrypted email on an old, but active account, and left a message on her voicemail on her old VoIP phone number.
Days went by, then Edward received a text from Misti.
“On my way. Be at the Tech Centre tomorrow night by seven. Stop this foolishness immediately and gather the doubters. I’m sorry; I never conceived this could happen.”
***
Alana and Kendra entered Adam’s room early the next day to check on him only to find Misti already there, seated next to her ex-husband. The video was somehow out-of-order, so her presence wasn’t yet known.
Alana rushed to hug Misti and her warmth was returned. Kendra, Misti’s old lover, greeted Misti too but Kendra held Misti responsible for all Adam’s current woes and his brush with death, so the reunion was no more than tepid. Misti detected the vibe right away.
“We’ll talk later before I leave,” she said to Kendra.
“I look forward to it. But beware. If he dies, I will track you down too.”
Misti didn’t respond to Kendra, but said to Alana, “He’s alive and will be fine very soon. I have seen to that and will explain this momentarily. So, my little kitten Kendra, retract your claws. You’ll be back in love with
me soon enough. Of course, the probing stops immediately, so, Noki, you are to go nowhere near him from now on until he’s better. Understood?”
Noki was standing at the entrance to Adam’s room. “As you wish.”
“Make sure that you do. For now, please leave now while you still have legs to carry you out. I know what you did, and it was foolish, rash. Your work has been materially advanced but at what cost? You never loved him, not really; he became little more than a lab rat to you, as is now plain to see. And please, don’t tell me that Adam agreed to this. I know that having just been in his mind. But you didn’t tell him all the risks, which was shameful. He trusted you.”
Noki hesitated, so quick as wink, Misti produced two throwing knives, sharp as scalpels. “Go!”
Noki left. She hadn’t done anything technically wrong and Adam had allowed her to proceed with the experiment. But Noki had delved too quickly, and too deeply into Adam’s mind; a race to discovery before her time was up and Alana took over. Neither Alana nor Kendra knew this before, though they did now.
The horse was out of the barn; an experiment gone woefully wrong. However, Kendra would never again trust Noki and would monitor her work and her interaction with Adam very carefully.
“Don’t let anyone in and leave me alone with Adam for the next hour or so. I know what to do; how to repair his damaged mind. Then call in the agnostics, family and teams. I wish a word.”
Alana asked, “Will you stay?”
“You know I cannot, but I will tell you everything I know before I go. You, Edward and Kendra. I can’t have our little acolyte running around killing everyone who threatens Adam, though I greatly admire her commitment and her sense of purpose. Adam needs Kendra as he needed me. But her instincts and skills will better serve Adam’s present needs.”
“And the baby? Where is he?”
“Happy and healthy with the Eight Families. Aurelia and the Tias, as Adam would want. He’ll be back with his father soon.”
***
An hour and a half later, Misti entered the Tech Centre and stood before the assembled family, employees and core teams working with Adam both from the Manor and Lansdowne Park. She looked around the room, not expecting to see some of the faces. She handed Edward a piece of paper, a list. Edward said nothing, just stood by Misti as she spoke.
Misti began, “I wanted to clear up a few things before I leave this time. Adam is fine and will fully recover from this mishap. Though Adam agreed to something, he didn’t agree to what Noki did. Adam has asked that she not be blamed for this miscue and that her work continue to proceed as usual. Adam will be mostly healed in the next two weeks so, soon things will be back to normal here at the Manor and at Lansdowne.”
She looked around the room. “I have a little more on my mind before we break up.” Raul and James took up positions at the only way in or out of the Tech Centre, guns drawn, locking the door quickly and quietly. Only certain adults, though the most important, were present; those with children or grandchildren were absent.
“Where’s Marcus? Marcus and Tawney? The Detwiler’s? Anywhere?”
They were huddled together off to the side together, half expecting some sort of accolade or another. “Here,” they said in unison.
Misti turned to them. “Been busy have we? Marcus has been in touch regularly with the FBI and Tawney sending coded messages to the CIA. My, my that was very naughty of you.”
“I did no such thing,” protested Marcus then Tawney in sequence. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? I have your encoded messages right here in my hot little hand. Alana intercepted them right from the git go. Altered the content of course for our benefit but here they are, messages sent, and messages received. Amazing accuracy too. Must have had help here at the Manor too, but we’ll get to that soon enough.”
Silence.
“They’re planning to round us all up and rendition us to Poland, I think. With the help of the Brits. Seems that’s where the good Drs. Detwiler come in. They are cordoning us off right now as we speak. Can’t get through my net, my bubble, but that’s how the cookie crumbles. Doesn’t it, Richard? Sold us out along with the Thierry’s. Can’t tell you how that disappoints, just not me. Edward however, is a different story. Adam, when he’s able, will be piqued. Won’t be a pretty picture.”
The elder Detwiler said, “You’ll never get away from here or Britain for that matter. You’re surrounded, and you have no way out. Our work is done, patriotic work, but yours has just begun. You will reveal your secrets no matter how long it takes. You’re finished.”
“Mighty cocky old man. I am sincere in saying you are not only wrong, but dead wrong.” Misti pulled out a twenty clip 9mm Mauser and shot all four mathematicians in the head. One shot each, deadly accuracy.
“Now, moving right along. Where is my favorite almost step-mommy? Bethy, you slinking away? No can do, dearie. Time to face the music.”
“What do you want, Misti? Edward, you won’t let this whore treat me in this fashion? I’m still with the State Department. Whatever you intend to do is a federal crime. Their search for you will be vast and unrelenting. Let me go while you still have time.”
Edward, never slow on the uptake now realized that Bethy had been reporting back to State and the other agencies.
“Why? Why this charade?”
“You fool. You thought I still loved you? Mother was right all along, you were a small-time hick who would never amount to anything. And she was right. You married a whore and had a psychopath son who married to a psychopath daughter-in-law.”
“Correction, Bethy, ‘daughter’”
“Look at you. Blood on your hands, a family chock full of illegals and a felon for a best friend. Who did you kill that warm summer day in Oaxaca? The Mayor’s son? Just for a little trade in stolen artifacts? You were an idiot then and you’re an idiot now. You were and are beneath me. I’ll rejoin the State Department and have a giant plaque on the wall for bringing you in. You, on the other hand will be experiencing ‘enhanced interrogations’ in some far-off land as your women rot in cells next to you. The guards will probably have some ideas how to elicit Adam’s cooperation.”
Misti smiled. “Nope.”
She put a bullet in Bethy’s heart with two more, center mass.
“Now, that leaves Edmund’s main squeeze. Where are you darlin’?”
Tessa Selwin rose slowly from her seat next to Edmund, who knew nothing of the goings on. Tessa knew her fate, having stolen tech and sold it to private industry, the US government and other interested nations. Of course, her data, like all the data stolen and given to minders, was tainted. Corrupted.
“We have Raoul and James to thank for most of these revelations. They suspected, then gathered evidence, then asked for my help and Alana’s, then eventually Adam’s, with the interceptions and decoding. Without them, we would be in a world of hurt. Instead we’re surrounded by a prophylactic net and have disabled every weapon and vehicle within two hundred kilometers of the Manor.
“So, no point in denying what’s patently true. We’ve expropriated your bank accounts. Now, you’re dead.”
Misti shot her in the forehead. She dropped to the ground in a heap. Edmund’s look of horror was very sad, as he looked up at his daughter, then to Misti, then down to the woman he loved.
Misti said, “She sold you out Edmund. All of us including your daughter. She helped plan the attack tonight on the Manor.”
Edward leaned over and whispered something to Misti.
“Oh yes, one more. Where’s our Israeli friend? Still wheelchair bound I see.”
George Armstrong Oak reached for something inside his coat pocket, but Raoul was quick to disarm him.
“George, there was always something about you that James disliked. Not sure what it was, maybe just the arrogance. But you, naughty boy, have been feeding the Mossad intelligence, corrupted, of course, ever since you first arrived here in Great Britain. And that wheel chair, what a great
prop!”
Raoul pushed him out, forcing him to stand up.
George said nothing. So Misti shot him several times too.
“Well, all, that wraps up everything here. There are buses outside, red for Brits and blue for Yanks and other nationalities. The blue bus leaves directly for Heathrow, if MI-5 lets you through. If I ever see any of you again, run. Not sure who else is involved, but then I only had one clip, so I can’t really just kill people for the fun of it. Don’t go to your rooms, just get on board your buses, and if you say anything to anyone about any of our work, you will be dead within twenty-four hours.”
Just then, as the last person left the room and boarded the bus, Adam came through the adjacent door, groggy and sporting a massive head pound.
“What the fuck is going on here. And why all the dead bodies?”
Misti walked up to Adam, gave him a gentle kiss and said, “Honey, I’m home!”
Chapter 31
The balance of the families and team members remaining gathered in the Great Room of the Misti Residence. They sat patiently waiting for Misti to appear and tell everyone what the hell was going on. Some folks there gathered had information, but apparently only Adam and Misti knew the whole story. Edward had the vague outlines of the past and intended future, but key components were missing. Misti’s casual murder of the men and women who had betrayed the project remained a shock. Edmund was unable to speak; he just looked down or occasionally at Alana. Alana for her part said nothing.
Misti entered the room.
“I’m terribly sorry for all that bother in the Tech Centre, but action had to be taken and only Kendra and I were up to the task. And my little kitten here might’ve hesitated at killing folk she had no idea were guilty of doing anything wrong. Adam, had he been in his senses, might have done the same, but again he might have balked at offing Marcus and Tawny. So, that left me. I hadn’t expected to return so soon, but events moved faster than I thought, compounded by Noki’s out-of-hand experiment gone oh so wrong.”
Resolution Page 17
