Checkmate

by Brian Cain

CHAPTER FIVE

  He studied the screen; he put his hand out and touched the image, his features held the handsome lines of his father, and his blood ran hot like the rampant chase of the wolf, courtesy of his mothers genes. He had heard of her but never seen her before, Roselyn Victoria Cavendish, vivacious, sexy, demanding, a feeling of want crept across his skin as his fingers followed the lines of Rose's image. He swallowed hard, all seemed irrelevant apart from the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, the surveillance cameras caught her smile, her long flowing blonde locks, her heaving cleavage, he was mesmerised. His father crept in silent as a bird of prey on the wing stood behind him and studied his son's reaction, he folded his arms and with a face of stone watched his son sit down in front to the screen, bewildered as so many had before him. "Who is she?" he asked as he again touched the image on the screen.

  "My heavy feet?"

  "Your reflection in the screen."

  "Roselyn Victoria Cavendish."

  "I've read of her."

  Stanton walked silently toward his son and stood next to him studying the screen. "And now you have seen her, she must never come of harm."

  "I want her."

  Stanton held face but was taken back. "You have avoided complications caused by family."

  "I've never seen anyone that was more beautiful than my mother." Stanton sat down looking inquisitively at his sons face studying the screen image of Rose, his look changed to one of latent despair. "You're worried and surprised father."

  Stanton looked down biting his bottom lip, he looked back up poker faced. "Rose is dangerous."

  "You tell me everything with your face dad, although I don't look at you your image is projected onto the back of my sunglasses, one of your ideas. I have said all my life when I see the woman I am destined for I will know, I've seen her." Stanton stood and walked to the wall some three steps, turned and studied his sons gaze, his son looked away from the screen, removed his sunglasses and looked at his father with a confident grin. "You knew did you not?"

  "Every man falls for Rose."

  "That's not what I meant and you know it, I've had my paws on many a beautiful woman, why do I feel different about this one."

  "Your face reminded me of me when I look at your mother."

  "Is that good?"

  Stanton wore a half grin and raised eyebrows. "That's a good question, you're not torn between two women as I have been."

  "Louise."

  He shrugged his shoulders. "You could say three."

  His son got to his feet, stood back from the screen and studied Rose, he held his arms across his chest, his right hand fiddling with his chin in concentration, his legs astride. As his father he had hardly aged, his head shaved clean, his shoulders broad and stout. "I will meet her as myself." His father said nothing. "So you don't object."

  "Rose is a member of the elite, your identity is safe with her, she is innocent as a child and dislikes deception."

  "I would have thought you would strongly oppose my attraction as you have done when aware of other women."

  "Rose is not other women, her safety is within our undertaking, how will you feel if she rejects your appreciation?"

  "I don't know."

  Stanton rubbed his forehead to hide a grimace. "At times I don't know who you are boy, some say you are black and six feet tall, some olive skinned with brown hair, some blonde with pure white skin, some say you have glasses. You have succeeded in my advice, but sometimes I don't know you."

  "The line has moved."

  Stanton wore a look of disapproval. "Jean Forbes, Abdul Nasih, Rudolph Forbes, Sandra Lovington, if I can't find them they must be gone."

  "Lovington is quite a toy; she will stay alive until I have finished with her."

  "So you have lost focus on our ploy."

  "No father, it is you whom have failed to move with the times. I am not confined to matters of state; I am loyal to none, servant to all, you object."

  "I don't know yet, Forbes, Nasih, Lovington are misguided."

  "Forbes Nasih and Lovington have not changed their ways no matter how much you tried, time has caught up with them."

  "I need to speak to Lovington."

  "Her time has come." He looked at the screen. "Destiny has beckoned."

  "All those people worked for us."

  "They are perpetrators of countless problems befalling the public."

  "You're mother will oppose your attraction to Rose."

  "If you're trying to get access to Lovington I can't help you anyway."

  Stanton sat down next to the screen studying the security monitors, his son joined him, Stanton watched in silence for a while. "Your mother will be furious."

  "Mother is furious with you not me."

  Stanton held his hand over the back of his neck, he twisted and grimaced. "It's who you are boy, sending you in directions you do not wish to go make's no sense."

  He took Stanton's hand. "Father I love you more than anything, I respect your integrity but fortitude has not been with you of late, we are in need of a stronger hand or you would have the king pins cornered by now."

  Stanton dropped his head and held his sons hand tight. "You're right boy, Bartholomew Ludlow Richmond, Grime?"

  "I let the Overlords know where he was."

  "He's back there?"

  "The Overlords have become somewhat less forgiving over time."

  "He's dead."

  "I'll send you information that will make things clearer, Grime was a little closer to his father than we have been led to believe."

  Stanton was stone faced and silent for a few seconds. "These people were misguided boy, not evil, will we start sanctioning people for pissing on the pavement."

  "Father please, read what I send you, we should meet more often."

  "We were inseparable, true we have to some degree lost each other."

  He shook his head. "Never."

  "Brannigan is very close to Rose."

  "He has his family close by here now, I know the story, he is an elite patriot, he helped build this place. Should Rose favour my advances he will watch over us. Brannigan is as much an expert in disguise and stealth as I, you were right father, no one looks for the dead."

  "So many unanswered questions."

  "Cadiche, Anthony and Robert, now you mention it yes."

  "You know where they operate from."

  "You know I don't, I don't need to know only how to contact them."

  "You must never know each others secrets."

  "Agreed, but I would like to meet my half brothers."

  "Dangerous."

  "What if they and no one else knows, I can be whomever, but I would like to see my family in person."

  "Fair enough."

  He chuckled. "Sometimes Australia comes through, especially when we speak of it."

  "A fearsome ally."

  "Was no luck father, you forged this empire."

  "Speaking of empires, I must go aloft and console your mother."

  "As soon as Rose is in her room I am going to present myself."

  Stanton folded his arms and sighed. "Best I brief your mother or this will all blow up in our face."

  "Ours."

  "Mine."

  John junior chuckled. "Mother can be angry with you for no more than thirty seconds."

  "Most terrifying thirty seconds of my life at times."

  "And what of Jodi and my half sister."

  "I can only hope boy, she had surgery a few days ago and is still in a coma."

  "I have seen mother cry about it when she thinks she's alone."

  "Your mother has a stark front, we know differently of her heart, she loves Jodi as much as I." Stanton got up to walk away.

  "Dad would you do anything differently if you had the chance?"

  "Hindsight questions are always futile, I have no answers for you as I have no proof within differentiation."

  "Why did I know what you were going to say?"

  Stanton smiled a
nd put his hand on his sons shoulder. "Time for me to face the music, go forth my son, use the grey of my wisdom and the wolf of your mother." Stanton walked away into a labyrinth of tunnels and caverns.