Ari whipped his head around and stared at Kelsey. His face was beet red with anger. “What do you mean, he hit you? Why the hell didn’t you tell me this?” He pounded his hands on the table, rattling the dishes.
“Ari, will you just calm down?” Kelsey said, the others around the table echoing her. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d get crazy and freak out over it.” She turned her glare onto Julia. “Sometimes you just vomit from the mouth, you know that? You like instigating things, don’t you?”
Julia grinned behind her glass of wine while Ari continued yelling at Kelsey.
“You have to tell me these things. You can’t leave me in the dark with information like this. I have to profile him, find out what he’s doing, what he’s thinking and I need to know everything that happens. Otherwise the entire run is for naught.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a personality run to know what he was doing. He was testing me. He knew I took down Ricardo and his guards, so Desmond probably figured if he tried to physically hit me, I’d stop him. To prove a point that I was capable of committing the crime. I don’t need a profiler for that.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t stop him. Did you even put up a fight at all?” He searched her face. “Where’d he hit you? Did he hurt you? I’ll friggin’ kill him if he did.”
Joshua spoke up. “Ari, come on, like anyone is going to be able to actually hurt this girl. So, she’s got a bruise on her cheek she’s hiding with make-up. Big deal. She just took down Ricardo. I think she can handle a smack to the face. I’ve given her much worse myself,” he said jokingly.
Ari crossed his arms. “Yes, but we all know she has a tendency to take things too far. One day your luck just might run out, Kelsey.”
Kelsey huffed and shook her head, but the truth was, she was a little scared Ari might be right.
Chapter 8
ARI
They sat, side by side under the big oak tree on the main lawn of the academy. He, with his ever-present laptop and she with a collection of poems by Kipling. One would think they were studying, or talking to each other about their schoolwork, but if you moved closer, you’d realize they taught each other something entirely different.
“Thank you, in the familiar form, is “tedalink.” Love is “Titidalaah.” Kelsey pronounced the words as Ari typed them into the computer.
“I thought love was “Limili?” Ari asked.
Kelsey shook her head. “That’s “like.” And don’t forget, you have to say it fast. It should have the effect of the wind whistling through the trees. Also, don’t forget to click those consonants with the back of your tongue and blow air out of the back of your throat when you say the last letter for most of the words, almost like you’re trying to fog up your sunglasses.”
Ari nodded. “That’s the hard part, like I’m talking with my epiglottis and blowing through it all the time without sounding like I’m coughing up phlegm. How you came up with this entire language with this complex syntax and diction, while catatonic, continues to blow my mind. And you remember all of it and keep adding to it every time you have a freaking nightmare.” He scanned the database. “Kelsey, there’s over eight thousand words in here right now. I can’t believe we’re just getting to other uses for the words love and like.”
She shrugged. “Well, these are used specifically when referring to animals, not people. There’s a lot more, too. I just wish you were smarter so you could catch on faster.” He gave her a face and she playfully punched him in the arm. “I’m just glad you want to learn it. It’s nice to be able to tell it to someone and not keep it a secret.”
For the past three years, she’d been teaching Ari the complicated language of Tedanalee. He was a linguistics genius and was fascinated by the different enunciations and complexly structured context Kelsey had created. He could already speak what he’d learned fairly well, but she added words as fast as he could memorize them. It drove their parents crazy when they would converse to each other in their secret language.
“Ok, enough for now,” Ari begged. “I’ve actually got to study for both a Latin and Mandarin test for this afternoon. I keep doing this and I’ll start throwing in Tedanalee words and my professors will think I’ve lost my mind.”
Kelsey smiled. “Ah, crazy… that’s “Kitataza,” by the way.”
He exhaled loudly, plugged in the adjective and then shut the laptop.
“Tamas samala poplola dinkilola, Kelsey. (We shall rule the world, Kelsey.)”
She smiled. “Li, fi dididi lkinkilia. (Yes, if the gods allow.)
* * * * *
The midtown office building was a construction marvel. Covered in dark beveled glass and sixty-five stories high, it was built to withstand everything from an 8.9 earthquake to an airplane attack.
Ari’s offices took up the entire fifty-second and fifty-third floor’s and were designed with the intent of being retro-hip. The floors were gray cement and the ceiling had been removed to expose the internal copper piping. The inside walls were bright white and bare except for an occasional modern art painting. Wide floor to ceiling windows offered a breathtaking 360 degree view of New York City. Lines of computer banks and cubicles stretched across both floors and the place was filled with the hum of over a hundred people bustling by, typing code and researching. Open and airy, you could see almost the entire operation at once. A multi-colored glass staircase in the center of the office separated the two levels. The southwest corner of the lower floor was a communal center complete with both a pool and foosball table, multiple sets of couches and lounge chairs. There was even a kitchen area housing a top-notch coffee bar and manned with its own barista. The office buzzed with caffeine-fueled activity as the workers got their free afternoon fixes.
Within conference room B, one of only three rooms on the upper floor with actual solid walls and a door, a group was crowded around the large conference room table. Refilled mugs of coffee, half eaten muffins and empty yogurt parfait cups covered the table. Computer screens were embedded in the table itself and the people stared into their own monitors.
“So everyone understand the plan?” Ari said. “It’s a quick in and out job. Get the second disc locked in Raul’s office and hit the road. Got that?”
Everyone nodded.
“Good. We’ve been monitoring his activity for days now. The perps have seen Kelsey for two nights in a row and they’re sure to make a play for her tonight. Raul is leaving to visit his mother in Brooklyn and shouldn’t return until the morning, as he does each time he visits her. Only his security crew will be in the vicinity.”
Ari turned to Kelsey. “I’m having someone come work with you on this assignment.”
Is he serious? “It’s an easy recovery job. I don’t need anyone to help me.”
He picked up some documents and scanned them as he spoke. “You will tonight. The entrance to Raul’s office building is personally coded. When you disable the men, you’ll need to place one of their handprints on the keypad to gain access. You won’t be able to pick them up yourself. One of the guys is pushing two-fifty.”
“I expected to just get the little one.”
He shook his head, looking at her. “He’s still heavier than you. Easier if you had another pair of hands when it goes down.”
“So who’s coming with me? Joshua?”
“He can’t. He just left for a job in California and won’t be back until next week. I’ve already got someone else lined up for you.”
“Who is it?”
“I’d rather not say.”
You and your damned secrets. Kelsey blew out a sharp breath. “Ari, come on. Stop with the games already. You know how much I hate surprises.”
He shook her off. “I don’t have him fully briefed yet, but don’t worry. He’ll be qualified and it will go smoothly.” He called across the room. “Seung, how you doing?”
Seung lifted his head briefly, his eyes never leaving the screen. “Fine, but I’m not ready yet. You can’t rush
these things, man. The disc was encrypted with a virus and I’ve got to decrypt each and every word if you want to read it.”
“Fine, just let us know as soon as you’re done.”
Dennis called out to them and they turned to their table screens. Kelsey’s eyes drew to deep slits as she watched Raul come out the front door and climb into the black Towncar waiting for him.
Ari squeezed her shoulder. “Kelsey, we’re getting close. You keep your cool until this is over and then you can destroy the bastard. But not until we have the map and are one hundred percent sure there’s nothing else that animal has that we need.”
Kelsey turned to stare at her brother. Keep my cool. How about you practicing what you preach, bro? Still, only he knew how much she could take and how far she would go to get what she wanted.
* * * * *
“Enough! Both of you!” Claire yelled. She threw the hand towel to the ground in frustration and stormed over to Kelsey, grasped her chin in her hands and turned her face left and right. Her daughter’s cheeks were bruised, her top lip was swollen and her right eye was literally blackening right in front of her.
She glared at Ari, his face a mass of contusions. “Why you both persist in doing this to each other is absolutely beyond me. Fine, you want to beat each other up, go to it, but I won’t be privy to it any longer, helping you both pick up the pieces.” She stormed out of the kitchen, but not before turning back to level a threatening gaze at both of them. “And you can both make yourselves your own dinner tonight and tomorrow night because there’s no way in hell I’m going to sit here and look at either of you for the next few days!”
As their mother stomped away, Ari turned to Kelsey and grinned. “You lotht.” He lisped, dabbing his bloody lip on a napkin.
Kelsey squinted at him and placed an icepack on her cheek. “Don’t worry. I won’t renege on the bet.”
A year into Kelsey’s martial arts training, Ari had decided to join up as well. Damned if he was going to let Kelsey be better at anything than him if he could help it. Their father even constructed a dojo in their basement and the two of them sparred constantly. Although he was older and bigger, Kelsey was quicker and sharper, which evened things out beautifully for them.
To keep things exciting, they made little bets with each other on who would win. Household chores and homework assignments were usually the prizes over the years, but their fights had started to escalate and become more vicious and so the stakes had increased as well.
Kelsey wanted to spar every free chance she had. She didn’t know why, but she had this burning need to fight. It gave her a thrill to hit something. It seemed to release energy pent up in her body. Her mother told her once she figured it had to do with her attack and it was Kelsey’s need to feel in control, but Kelsey didn’t think that was it entirely. It actually excited her, deep in her gut. Touching someone and hurting them, even it was Ari. That was something she didn’t feel the need to tell her mom.
So this past evening she pushed Ari to spar with her and he didn’t want to. They had a big argument about it and finally he made a bet with her that if he won, she had to do something for him very different than the other bets. Something much more dangerous.
Kelsey thought about it for mere seconds and then agreed. It had been a heated battle, and they had gone after each other much longer than the three minute match limit. Neither of them would back down as they were both committed to winning. And, since neither of them was scared of being hit, or of being hurt, it made things even more dangerous.
But today, Kelsey lost her focus for just a moment. It was enough for Ari to get inside. He punched her in the face, kicked her legs out from under her, threw her to the ground and won the match.
Now she had to pay up.
* * * * *
It was one a.m. and Kelsey stood outside the administration office at Woolard Academy, hidden under the branches of a weeping willow tree. This particular building was one of the most beautiful on campus with its red brick façade and Tudor design, but she wasn’t admiring its beauty at this time. She was excited, waiting for one of the two security guards who drove around campus on their golf-carts, to pass by. The school didn’t have cameras within the buildings, so all she had to do was avoid the ones outside, which had been easy to do.
She waited until one of them finally circled by her on his never ending loop and then left the safety of the tree, climbed up the fire escape, and jimmied the old window of President Hamilton’s office. She glanced around one more time to see if she’d been seen and when she didn’t notice anyone, she slipped inside.
She put on her penlight and made her way to the secretary’s office. The top desk drawer was ajar. She reached inside and rummaged in the back, easily finding the key the secretary used to lock the files each day. She discovered this just yesterday while creating a fake medical reason for the woman to locate one of her own school files for the nurse. With her split lip and bruised cheek, the backstory about a fall down her house stairs wasn’t too complicated. Her boyfriend of the moment wasn’t as easily fooled, though. He knew she had sparred with Ari and didn’t appreciate him beating up his girlfriend and messing with her face. Her brother was going to have to watch his back around the guy for a while. That made her smile.
Kelsey had pretended to be immersed in a book while the woman tried to be discreet about where she hid the key, but Kelsey saw everything.
Headlights swung into the room and she ducked under the desk, waiting for the security guard to continue his loop again. Seconds later she heard his golf cart chug past and continue to another part of the school.
She moved to the metal filing cabinet behind the desks and unlocked them. After rifling quickly through the student personnel and staff files, she found the list of codes to the school databases that Ari specifically said he wanted. She made copies of an extensive set of financial documents and put the file away. She was about to replace the key in the drawer and leave when she changed her mind. She slinked into President Hamilton’s office and inserted the key in the filing cabinet she knew he hid in a closet in his office.
She marveled at their ineptness when the same key worked. The cabinet was filled with additional personnel records. Kelsey scanned through the folders and found hers. It was very thick and included a complete psychological profile. Her eyes widened as she rifled through the documents and she read quickly. She’d had no idea how much testing the Goldmans had done to get her well. Not to mention the underlying belief many of the institutions had about her own personal well-being. She glanced back in the cabinet folder and saw an additional extensive collection of the medical work-ups that had been done on her. Anomalies popped up throughout it.
My stomachaches? Apparently as a young child she suffered bouts of unexplained illness. The doctors attributed all of it to the stress of losing her brother and then her parents at such a young age. Of course that didn’t explain the three other hospitalizations at the age of two, three and six. Again, no conclusive evidence was discovered for her symptoms and they seemed to disappear on their own.
She turned to another series of files and her stomach clenched. Oh, no. Report after report discussed her nightmares and the strange language she’d speak at night. A language no one understood or could figure out. There was talk she might have a split personality or schizophrenia and she’d need to be watched. Kelsey was taken aback. No one had discussed this with her, ever. It was one thing for her to think she was a little crazy herself, but to have the authorities think so as well? And the principal and teachers at school? It was a bitter pill to swallow. She realized she’d have to hide the stomachaches and queasiness that still occasionally popped up. She’d also have to hide the fear of her nightmares and keep them stored deep inside. There was no way anyone was going to “put her away” or incur intense psycho-therapy as some doctors in the file had suggested.
Swallowing hard, Kelsey returned the documents, locked the cabinet and returned the key to the secretary’
s desk.
Then she grabbed Ari’s papers and left the way she’d come in, skirting around the cameras and catching up with Ari who waited for her in their parent’s car behind the gym. Neither of them paid much mind to the fact that Ari wasn’t of age to drive at night, nor did their parents even know they had taken the car. Their mother was barely talking to them anyway. She was still mad at them, so it made it that much easier.
She jumped into the car and tossed the papers in his lap.
“You took longer than you should have.” He shot her an accusing look. He put the papers in a manila folder and placed them in the backseat. “I thought I was going to have to go in after you.”
“I got distracted. There were a lot of things to read in there.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Care to share?”
“Are you going to share with me why you needed the financials of all these people?” she shot back.
The stared each other down.
“No.”
She clucked her tongue. “Then I have nothing to tell you, either.”
“I’m sure I can find out.”
She eyeballed him. “You scare me sometimes, you know that?”
He turned onto the highway, his jaw set. “Good. Then the feelings mutual.”
Chapter 9
THE MEET UP
New York City at night is like no other place on Earth. With six million people living in just a few square miles, it’s never entirely silent. Yellow cabs flew by on streets so congested during the day, you could spend twenty minutes just trying to travel four avenue blocks across town.
It was ten o’clock at night and the city was just waking up. Couples were leaving to go to the clubs and the restaurants were packed with late night diners. The homeless, who you didn’t notice as much during the daytime since the mayor came down on them, were in force once the sun set. They slept on the various church steps around the city or shuffled through town with their ever present shopping carts filled with whatever bric-a-brac their antipsychotic medication made them collect. Police cars cruised the streets, their red flashing lights on but sirens off, and in the relative din you could hear the sounds of the subway trains clearly as they rumbled below, whisking passengers from one end of the borough to the other.
The Hunt for Xanadu Page 6
