“That’s truly bizarre, sir,” Kenyon stated, echoing my own thoughts. “Are you certain no one else has the primary code?”
“Positive,” I assured him. That said, Myshtal actually did have a code, but it was designated as “temporary.” Basically, it was an alarm code that could be given to guests who were visiting and then deactivated when they left. It was a way to let visitors come and go at their leisure without compromising security to a large extent.
“Well, sir,” Kenyon continued, “I hate to say it, but maybe it’s time to change the primary code – just in case someone’s hacked it or something.”
I froze as he finished speaking, my thoughts turning in an entirely new direction. Basically, the notion of hacking a security system immediately brought one person to mind.
Someone who could break into any computer system on the planet.
Someone who could manipulate an app without breaking a sweat.
Someone who could digitally go and do whatever they wanted without leaving a single clue behind.
Mouse.
Chapter 46
I quickly got off the phone with Kenyon, thanking him for his time and promising to be in touch soon. Afterwards, I simply stood there, thinking – trying to put together everything I’d learned.
If my theory was correct, it seemed that Mouse had hacked the alarm system at the embassy and activated it. But then, like the world’s stupidest burglar, he’d set it off immediately afterwards. It was as if he wanted to get caught. (And if that were the case, maybe he had gone crazy like everyone was insisting.)
However, following this, he hacked the system again, this time making the security company think the alarm had been deactivated while actually leaving it on. That forced me to come home and turn it off.
But why? Why go through all that? What was the purpose? As far as I could tell, he didn’t really accomplish anything. All he succeeded in doing was getting me to come home.
Unless that’s what he wanted, I said to myself, the thought materializing almost unexpectedly. It’s the only thing that makes any–
“Hey, you planning to come back and join us any time soon?” Electra asked, cutting into my train of thought.
“Huh?” I muttered, my mind still elsewhere for the most part.
“Looks like your phone call ended a minute ago,” Smokey noted, “so we were wondering if you were just going to stand there brooding all day or come back to the table.”
“Sorry,” I apologized. “I wasn’t brooding – just thinking about Mouse.”
“Oh?” Electra intoned. “Did you come up with something new?”
“Maybe,” I admitted with a shrug, “but I need to check something out. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Wait!” Electra cried out, jumping to her feet. “We’ll come wi–”
Her words were cut off as I teleported.
Chapter 47
I popped up in the embassy, in the same spot where I’d appeared two days earlier, when the alarm was going off.
Okay, I thought to myself, throwing my mind back in time, Mouse manipulates events to get me here, and I show up like he wanted. Now what?
In all honesty, I was kind of at a loss as to how to answer that. Basically, what was the point of getting me to come home the other night? It’s not like he was waiting to talk to me, or left me a note. He’d been nowhere around when I’d arrived and had left no indication of the fact that he’d been there. Frankly speaking, assuming I was on the right track, I hadn’t even known he’d put in an appearance until just a few minutes ago. And then it hit me.
He wanted me to know he’d been here! I suddenly realized.
But for what reason? Mouse was obviously trying to tell me something, but it wasn’t clear to me what that was. In essence, simply knowing that he’d been here didn’t provide me with any particular insight. Aside from the alarm going off, there had only been one possible indicator of his presence: the open door to Myshtal’s room.
And just like that, the scales immediately fell from my eyes. I suddenly knew, with unmistakable clarity, exactly why Mouse had shown up at the embassy. I knew why he’d set the alarm off. I knew why he’d left the door to Myshtal’s room open.
He was trying to tell me where to find him. Or rather, how.
Chapter 48
Suddenly excited, I teleported to Myshtal’s room and immediately found myself in a spacious suite. Outside of the master bedroom, it was probably the largest such room in the place. As a Caelesian princess and favorite of the queen, Myshtal was undoubtedly accustomed to far larger accommodations, but she had made the adjustment easily and without complaint.
Glancing around, I couldn’t help but notice that my titular fiancée kept her room neat and clean: no random assortment of clothes thrown around, no shoes impulsively kicked off and left on the floor, no pillows tossed about haphazardly on the bed. Everything was in its proper place – including a number of items around the suite that I identified as being Caelesian in origin.
After a minute or so of eyeballing her room, I realized that I was out of my depth. I didn’t know what I was looking for – or not looking for, so to speak. I needed Myshtal – especially if my supposition about how to find Mouse was true.
With that thought in mind, I teleported to my cousin Monique’s house.
***
I popped up outside the front door of Monique’s home – a beautiful Mediterranean-style house on the beach. I had been inside before, but didn’t feel comfortable yet just teleporting to the interior.
I reached out telepathically and found both my cousin and Myshtal inside. I did the mental equivalent of tapping on the door of Monique’s mind and then established a mental link.
I teleported inside, appearing in a roomy kitchen with an oversized island counter in the center. Monique, standing nearby and sporting a paisley print sundress, immediately came towards me with her arms open.
“Great to see you, as always,” she said as she gave me a brief hug.
“Same here,” I replied. “Unfortunately, this isn’t a social call. I need to–”
I abruptly stopped speaking as I unexpectedly picked up on a curious warbling sound – a captivating amalgam of fluctuating musical notes that combined to form an enchanting melody. It wasn’t excessively loud, but it resonated in a way that I almost felt rather than heard.
“What is that?” I wondered aloud, immediately recognizing that it wasn’t a bird I was hearing, but the sound wasn’t quite like any singing I’d ever encountered.
“Yeah,” Monique droned, “I was going to give you a call about that.”
I didn’t respond to her statement. Instead, I began following the sound, with Monique right behind me. It appeared to be coming from an area that had been designated as the great room; however, when I was about halfway there, it changed, becoming something akin to a bewitching aria. More to the point, I was now able to recognize and put a name to what I was hearing: Caelesian singing.
Upon entering the great room, I saw the source of the singing immediately. As expected, it was Myshtal. A gorgeous redhead, she was currently stretched out on a couch and wearing a white crop top with blue jean shorts. Eyes closed, she continued singing for a moment, oblivious to my presence. Her voice was sirenic, and I probably would have stood there listening to her indefinitely had she not suddenly become aware of my presence.
Apparently sensing someone nearby, she stopped singing and opened her eyes. As soon as she realized it was me, her mouth flew open as her face took on an expression of giddy surprise.
“My prince!” she squealed, coming to her feet. Before I could say anything, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a fierce hug (which I returned, but with far less ferocity).<
br />
“Uh…hi,” I muttered, somewhat surprised by her enthusiastic display of affection upon seeing me. Empathically, I felt a broad range of emotions coming from her: anticipation, excitement, anxiety, contentment, adoration… Simply put, her feelings were so wide-ranging that it was difficult for me to get a handle on what was going on with her.
I let my arms drop from around her, anticipating she would step back after the hug ended. Instead, she simply shifted her arms from my torso to around my neck.
“You’re a bad boy,” she stated almost huskily as she mussed my hair with one hand. “You didn’t call me last night.”
I frowned in confusion, as Myshtal continued to teasingly berate me for not maintaining our nightly tête-à-tête. I reached up, trying to remove her arms from around my neck; much to my surprise, she proved to be surprisingly adept at slipping out of my grip and putting them right back where they were.
At the same time, I noticed that her eyes were swiftly going through a broad swath of colors. It was a physical trait of Caelesians: their eyes changed color with strong emotions, although it was something they typically learned to control at an early age. The fact that it was happening to Myshtal meant that something was way off.
Continuing to struggle with her, I glanced at Monique and demanded, “What’s wrong with her?”
My cousin sighed. “You know how Avis is always calling me a boring housewife who doesn’t know how to have fun?”
“Yeah,” I answered with a nod. Avis was always teasing her sister for being content with domestic life rather than using her incredible powers to be a superhero.
“Well,” Monique continued, “she sent me some ‘choice’ brownies from a specialty shop, if you know what I mean. It was meant to be a joke – she knew I wouldn’t eat them – but it was her way of telling me to loosen up and have fun. I should have thrown them out, but I was going to send them back to her with a smart-aleck response, but somehow Myshtal found them, and, well…”
She gestured towards Myshtal, whom I was still struggling with.
“Are you kidding?!” I exclaimed. “She’s high?!”
“As a kite,” my cousin added sorrowfully. “I’m sorry, Jim. I should have been more attentive.”
“It’s not your fault,” I assured Monique. “It’s just bad timing because I need her for something right now.”
Finally getting a good grip on her wrists, I pulled Myshtal’s hands from around my neck and looked her in the eye.
“Hey!” I blurted out. “I really need you to focus. Can you do that for me?”
“Anything for you, my prince,” she said with starry eyes, attempting to stroke my cheek with a finger.
“I’m serious,” I uttered in exasperation. “I need you to concentrate.”
“You are so cute when you’re angry,” she said, tapping my nose with a fingertip, which made Monique giggle.
“It’s not funny,” I hissed at my cousin.
“I know,” Monique conceded, covering a wide grin with her hand.
“Okay, I need to get her home for something,” I told my cousin. “I’ll bring her back when we’re done and she can sleep it off, detox, or whatever needs to happen to get it out of her system.”
Without giving Monique a chance to reply, I then teleported me and Myshtal.
Chapter 49
We popped up in Myshtal’s bedroom at the embassy. Unfortunately, when we reappeared, she appeared woozy for a second. Teleportation can occasionally disorient people, and to the best of my knowledge, this was the first time I’d teleported someone who was stoned.
I immediately put my arms around her to make sure she didn’t fall. As before, she responded by putting her arms around my neck.
“So you’ll catch me if I swoon?” she asked cheekily. “I’ll have to remember that.”
Now wondering if she’d feigned being lightheaded, I made sure she was on her feet and then removed her arms from my neck again.
“Look,” I began, “you said you’d do anything for me. You remember saying that?”
“Of course, my sweet,” she replied.
“Okay, then. I need you to take a good look around this room and tell me if there’s anything missing.”
“If you insist,” she said, sounding more somber than I’d thought possible. Then, just when I thought she was taking me seriously, she stretched out her arms and began spinning in a circle, shouting, “Wheee!”
I groaned aloud in frustration, wiping my face with my hand. This wasn’t going at all how I had envisioned.
Stepping towards Myshtal, I firmly (but gently) gripped her shoulders.
“Listen,” I said. “This is serious. I really need you to–”
“My ring,” she said, cutting me off.
I looked at her in confusion. “Huh?”
“My ring,” she repeated. “One that the queen gave me before we left Caeles. It’s missing.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes,” she stated with a nod. “I looked while I was spinning around. I usually keep it on the dresser and it’s not there.”
“Okay, great,” I said, as this proved my theory.
Part of the reason Myshtal had left Caeles was that she had some budding superpowers, which Queen Dornoccia had felt would be more properly developed on Earth, where such abilities were more common. One of her talents was the ability to find things.
Of course, there were limitations on this particular power. First and foremost, the thing she sought had to be something she had a close connection to, whether a person or object. In short, she probably couldn’t find someone like, say, Smokey, whom she hadn’t known for long or developed any kind of bond with. (In fact, it was probably safe to say I was the only person on the planet she had that kind of affinity for.) However, something like a precious heirloom from a beloved family member would be an entirely different story.
Basically, my hypothesis was that Mouse wanted me to find him, but for some reason couldn’t directly tell me where he was. Thus, he had set off the alarm to make sure I’d know he’d been in the embassy, and – being aware of Myshtal’s power – he had taken an item from her room that he felt she’d be able to trace.
Bearing all this in mind, I then asked Myshtal what was probably the most important question: “Do you think you can find it? The ring, that is?”
She gave me a dazzling smile. “Of course.”
Chapter 50
I teleported the two of us to Mouse’s lab. Based on the fact that he’d left his bug-out bag, I had to assume he was somewhere close by. (And if that were the case, Myshtal would find him – or rather, the ring he’d taken.) As before, it was dark when we arrived, but after a few seconds, the lights started coming on.
“Okay,” I said to her. “Do your thing.”
Myshtal simply nodded as she cupped her hands in front of her and closed her eyes. I watched as her brow furrowed in concentration for a moment, and then a small white spark began to form between her hands.
Having seen her demonstrate this ability before, I smiled in anticipation. In a moment, the spark would become a white flame and then zip away from her hand, leading the way to her missing ring – and presumably Mouse’s location – like a bloodhound.
Much to my dismay, however, the spark simply seemed to fizzle out.
“Hmmm,” Myshtal droned – more to herself than to me – as she opened her eyes. She appeared to frown in confusion for a moment, then closed her eyes again.
Once more, the spark began to form between her hands; however, just as with her previous attempt, it seemed to wither and die a short time later.
Somewhat frustrated, Myshtal turned to me, saying, “It’s not working.”
“How’s that possible?” I asked. “I thought you were supposed to be able to find anything you had a connection to.”
“I can,” she insisted. “But something weird is going on. It’s not simply that I can’t locate it. It’s like the ring doesn’t exist anymore.”
“Why don’t we do a dry run?” I suggested. “Instead of the ring, try to find me.”
“But you’re standing right there,” she pointed out.
“I know,” I agreed with a nod, “but we’re just trying to make sure that it’s not a problem with your abilities.”
She seemed to mull this over for a second, then shrugged. “Okay.”
Once again, she cupped her hands, but didn’t even bother closing her eyes. Almost immediately, a spark formed, burst into flame, and came zooming in my direction.
“All right, your power seems to be working just fine,” I concluded, “but I’m not sure…”
I trailed off as I realized that Myshtal wasn’t listening to me. Instead, she was staring at a corner of the room with a fierce intensity, like there was some mind-boggling sight there that only she was privy to.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
The sound of my voice almost made her jump, and she spent a moment with her head swiveling back and forth, looking at me and then the corner again several times in rapid succession.
Still high, I thought.
“Are you doing your twin thing?” she asked unexpectedly.
I gave her a nonplussed look. “Excuse me?”
“Did you duplicate yourself?”
I frowned. Myshtal was referring to a power I had recently developed – basically, the ability to make a second version of myself. In essence, I could create a second Jim, but we were still the same person, sharing the same mind, thoughts, etcetera.
I shook my head. “No. I haven’t duplicated myself in a while.”
“It’s bizarre,” she said, “because when I tried to find you, I got the distinct impression there was a second Jim in the corner over there.”
Isolation Page 19
