Seeking Crystal

by Joss Stirling

  ‘That’s fine.’ I moved away and built up my shields still further. ‘I’ll run interference with the butler.’ I crossed the threshold into a panelled foyer decorated with hunting trophies and swords—how unoriginal. ‘Hey, Jeeves, where shall I hang my coat?’ I called rudely. Out of interest, I tried dipping into the servant’s mind to see if I could sense anything about his connections like I did when I was looking for something for my niece—and got a shock. His brain was whirling but not in a random pattern as most people’s did; it was like getting on a roundabout, everything moving in an orderly circle: his duties, his loyalty to the countess, and his ties to his family. It was, well, almost robotic in its tidiness. I disconnected quickly, not wanting him to sense the invasion.

  ‘Madam can leave her coat here,’ the butler said, holding out his hand. I shrugged out of my jacket and passed it over. His expression did not change a jot—no smile, no glimmer of humanity.

  Saul came in. I raised an eyebrow but he shook his head. OK, no normal telepathy. I pointed to my chest, asking if he wanted me to try. He shook his head again.

  ‘Let’s keep that in the locker,’ he said in a low voice, ‘for later if we need it.’

  ‘Can I take sir’s coat?’ the butler enquired.

  ‘You might as well.’ Saul passed it over. While the butler’s back was turned, I tapped my temple, pointed at him and grimaced.

  ‘Hmm. Interesting. Eraser?’ Saul asked quietly.

  ‘I imagine so. Not natural. It seems she can reorder the mind to suit herself.’

  ‘It would explain this set up.’

  ‘This way.’ Robot Jeeves headed towards a pair of fine wooden doors. He pushed them open to reveal a beautiful old sitting room, a huge fireplace with roaring fire, and a matching set of rose-coloured chairs and settees. None of that held our attention though for in the room were all the people we had come to find.

  ‘Di! Oh my God, are you all right?’ I exclaimed, hurrying over to my sister. She was sipping a glass of champagne, looking none the worse for her abduction. I didn’t recognize the old-fashioned dress she was wearing—or the expression on her face for that matter.

  ‘Sorry, do I know you?’ Diamond put her glass down and stood up, holding out a hand to shake mine as if we were chance met acquaintances. ‘Oh dear, your name has slipped my mind. I might have had too much to drink.’ She grimaced ruefully at her glass, inviting me to join the joke.

  ‘Diamond—it’s me, Crystal. Your sister.’

  ‘Don’t be silly: I’m the youngest in my family. Mama and Dad were too old to have another. Not that Dad will ever admit Mama is too old for anything: he dotes on her. Sweet really, at their age.’ She took another sip, her hand shaking as if her body knew something her brain did not.

  ‘But Dad is … ’ I let the last two words trail away because I knew they were useless. Her mental clock had been reset and she did not seem to know that our father was dead or that I existed. When I looked in her mind, I simply wasn’t there. Everything and everyone that had touched her relationship with Trace had been deleted and, as I had been there from the beginning, I had been completely taken out of the picture. Memories of me had been sealed off like nuclear waste buried deep in concrete to stop it contaminating the other recollections. She was not the only one to be so blank. Phoenix and Sky were looking my way with polite interest; Karla was staring into the fire, not noticing that her husband had entered. He strode over to her and lifted her out of her chair.

  ‘Karla, you will stop this now!’ He put his face right in front of hers. ‘Listen to me—find me in your head—your heart! It’s me—Saul!’

  ‘Good lord, what is he doing?’ exclaimed Diamond, abandoning me and hurrying over to the pair by the hearth. ‘Is he mad? Leave her alone!’

  ‘Saul? Saul who?’ asked Karla, her eyes dim. She looked as though she was drugged—I wished it was as simple as that but from the state of her mental landscape, she’d suffered the same erasing treatment as the butler—they all had; but with her, because so much of her adult life had been with her soulfinder, there was frighteningly little left.

  The tiny dark clad figure in the winged chair on the other side of the fire now got to her feet. ‘Do you like my revenge, Benedict?’ she asked with bitter glee.

  Saul released his grip on Karla’s arms and gently put her back in her seat. He was struggling with such strong emotions that he was in no fit state to reply.

  ‘As you can see, every soulfinder has been, how would you say? Lost,’ continued the contessa.

  ‘Nothing is more powerful than the bond between soulfinders,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Except me.’ The contessa turned her attention to me. ‘Ah, Crystal, you got back much quicker than I thought. I am amazed to see you here this evening. I wasn’t expecting you to work out where I had taken everyone until, oh, tomorrow at the earliest. You have my congratulations. I underestimated you. Your lack of gifts made me think you lacked intelligence.’

  ‘Why have you done this to my sister?’ I swallowed against the lump in my throat. ‘What has she, what have I, ever done to you?’

  ‘Nothing—and it is unfortunate that you got involved in this. You see, my dear, to erase the soulfinder link you have to go so deep almost everything else goes with it. There’s not much left in their pretty heads. They’re not suffering; they are just … ’ she searched for a word with a flutter of her gnarled fingers, ‘vacant.’

  I refused to accept that but the first thing was to get them away from her. ‘In that case, surely your revenge is complete. Can we take them home with us?’

  She perched her head to one side as if she had difficulty hearing. ‘You are forgetting my son. I want him delivered to me—then you can have them back.’

  ‘And if we do that, will you return their minds to how they used to be?’ I asked.

  ‘I would be lying to you if I said I could do that. No, I thought it only fair to take something permanently from the Benedicts as they have taken the honour from my house. Too much public damage has been done for that to be reversed.’

  Saul held out his hand to Karla. ‘In that case, we’re going. Come on, Karla: the boys are waiting for you at the gate.’

  ‘Boys?’ Karla shivered and flinched back from the offered palm.

  ‘Your sons. Our sons. Sky, Phoenix—you too. We’re leaving. Yves and Zed need you.’

  ‘What odd names.’ Phoenix came forward and smiled up at him. ‘You’re funny. Why are you crying?’ She wiped the tears from his cheeks.

  Sky offered a tissue. ‘Don’t worry, Mr … um. Sorry, what was your name again? Anyway, we’re having a lovely time. You mustn’t cry.’

  The contessa smiled at her guests. ‘Do any of you wish to leave with Mr Benedict and this girl here?’

  The four looked at us as if we were vaguely interesting specimens in a museum.

  ‘Why would we want to do that?’ asked Diamond.

  The butler appeared at the door, flanked by a couple of bodyguards, almost as if he could hear Saul contemplating the odds of getting out with Karla thrown over his shoulder.

  The contessa waved towards the exit. ‘Thank you so much for calling. I’ll expect you to be in touch, shall I, about my son?’

  Saul did not reply. He turned on his heel and walked straight out, ploughing through the three men in the doorway. ‘Come on, Crystal, we’re not staying here. Rot in hell, contessa.’

  For a mild man, the oath came with a horrid punch of ill will. I couldn’t have put it any better myself.

  The drive down to our base in the lakeside resort of Malcesine was passed in silence. Saul had delivered the devastating news outside the gates in terse sentences, warning his sons not to react as no doubt the contessa was watching and relishing. The camera promptly exploded. I assumed that was the volatile Zed’s work but then saw Yves’s grim smile. We had agreed to depart and make plans out of sight and out of earshot.

  I’d forgotten how beautiful Lake Gard
a was: deep slate-blue waters, metallic grey mountain slopes rising from the shore, little towns clinging to the edge, rimmed with cypress trees. I had only visited in summer before; now the icy wind from the Alps rippled across the surface of the lake, and the air had a crystalline quality missing in the heat haze of August.

  ‘What do we do first? Police?’ I asked when we had parked outside our villa, a pale lemon two-storey house with a roof terrace. A vine wound round the gazebo, a handful of yellowed leaves clinging on despite the brisk breeze.

  Saul blew on his chilled fingers. ‘Dealing with any sort of bureaucracy always takes longer than you think possible. I’m not inclined now to go that route.’ He said the formal word with heavy menace. No, he was inclined now to draw blood. We all were.

  Victor gazed back up the mountain slopes to where we could just make out the black silhouette of the little castle on the crag. It looked so innocent from this distance. ‘We’ll need … I don’t know … maybe a helicopter or something to break in there. I’ve never tried getting into a place like that before. We might be able to blow the gates and get the cars in but it would be easy to block our retreat. Trace?’

  ‘Air is the best of our bad options,’ agreed Trace.

  ‘I’ll have to put the girls out somehow—asleep I guess would be best—so we can carry them out. It sounds like they’ll not come willingly.’

  ‘’Fraid not,’ I confirmed.

  ‘Then we’ll have to get in ourselves—hire our own pilot as the red tape with the police takes too long. I’m not waiting for them to change their mind,’ said Zed.

  ‘Yes, but how do we get a helicopter pilot that can do a stunt like landing on that handkerchief sized bit of mountain at short notice?’ asked Will.

  Stunt? ‘Actually, guys, I do know how.’

  Xav swung round to me. ‘If you have the answer, we will be your humble servants for the rest of our lives.’

  ‘I’ll hold you to that. The film crew. We saw that they’re in the mountains setting up the action sequence of the Steve Hughes movie. The photographer on the set told me they had stunts with helicopters to work out. I know the director a little … ’

  ‘And Steve, according to the international media, is your “boyfriend”,’ growled Xav.

  ‘A kind of friend at least. I can get you in to see them and then you’ll have to take it from there.’

  ‘No problem,’ said Victor. ‘I can be very persuasive if necessary.’

  First port of call was Lily, whose mobile number I had. She was more than happy to hear from me. ‘Oh, do come by, Crystal. I’m bored out of my mind here and so cold!’

  ‘Would it be OK if I brought a friend or two?’

  ‘Sure. Who are they?’

  ‘You remember Xav?’

  ‘Of course—the gorgeous American.’

  Listening in, head resting on my shoulder, Xav raised a brow at that.

  ‘Well, he’s kind of my boyfriend now.’

  Xav shook his head and pointed between our two hearts, then linked his fingers together.

  I almost missed what Lily said next. ‘Oh, shut up, I’m so jealous!’

  ‘His brothers and dad are over from the States. They want to see what you’re doing.’

  ‘Not much down here. All the action’s up on the ski slopes. Maybe I could arrange passes for tomorrow. How many of them are there?’

  ‘Eight.’

  ‘Eight!’

  ‘Is it still OK?’

  ‘Sure, after that fantastic shoot in Venice, James owes me a favour—or eight.’

  ‘I’ll be right over. There’s something I need to tell you.’

  Lily’s hotel was only a couple of streets from our base, so it took no time to track her down. Work all done until the real shoot began, Lily was delighted to see me but a little surprised when I turned up with the entire Benedict clan in tow.

  ‘Wow, girlfriend, where did you get these guys?’ She nudged me. ‘Are they all spoken for?’

  ‘Nearly all. Not those three.’ I pointed to Victor, Uriel, and Will. Trying to pretend this was mainly a social call so she didn’t get spooked, I played along with the flirting.

  She sighed. ‘Shame I’m too old for them.’ She may have said that but I noticed she lingered a little longer chatting with Uriel as she took drinks orders.

  ‘Where is the set exactly, Lily?’ Xav asked.

  ‘There’s a nature reserve up on Monte Baldo—great pristine slopes already snow covered. It’s a bit of a drive. If you want to visit, you’ll need to be in four by fours as the roads up are pretty treacherous.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Miss George, we rented some before we came,’ said Saul. ‘We live in the Rockies so are familiar with these conditions. We already had a drive up there earlier today and our cars managed fine.’

  ‘Great. They’re filming a shot where a stuntman, standing in for Steve, drops from a helicopter and skis down the run, shooting bad guys all the way.’

  ‘How many helicopters are they using?’ asked Victor.

  ‘I think three—one for the stunt, two for cameras. We’re lucky with the weather. They couldn’t fly if it got too windy.’

  There was a knock at the door.

  ‘Come in!’ called Lily.

  Steve Hughes walked through. I could feel Xav stiffen beside me. ‘Hey, Lily, do you want to go for a drink? Oh, you’ve got company. I hope I didn’t interrupt.’ He gave them his hundred-watt film star smile, not intimidated by standing among a group of men all taller than him. He spotted me at the back. ‘Hi, it’s Crystal, isn’t it? How are you, sweetheart?’ His voice dropped into what I thought of as his golden syrup register, saved for members of the opposite sex.

  Nice of him to remember my name. ‘Oh, fine, Steve. Just nursing a broken heart according to Gossip Magazine.’

  Steve did not get my sense of humour. He actually became worried I was serious. ‘You did understand, didn’t you, that it was just a date?’ He glanced at the door, contemplating leaving the messy emotional stuff to Lily to deal with.

  ‘And there was little old me thinking an evening out with you was inevitably going to lead to a big Hollywood wedding and hundreds of babies.’

  He frowned. The hundreds of babies bit had been a broad enough hint for him to understand. ‘You aren’t serious?’

  Poor little humourless mega star. ‘That’s right, Steve. Meet my boyfriend—my real boyfriend I mean. This is Xav. The others are his brothers and father. They’re from Colorado.’

  Xav did not offer his hand for a shake. He put his arm possessively around my shoulders. ‘Good to meet you.’ His tone suggested the opposite—unless the meeting involved pistols at dawn.

  Steve now looked really anxious. He had leapt to quite another conclusion as to why I should be here with my boyfriend’s entire family in tow. ‘I didn’t touch her, you know. All that stuff in the press—just speculation.’

  ‘But you did kiss her.’ Xav fixed him with slash of a stare.

  ‘Because the train on her dress was ripped—we didn’t want that on the front page. I was doing her a favour.’

  Xav really growled this time.

  ‘I mean it was very nice for me too, of course.’ Steve backtracked, realizing that had sounded vaguely insulting. ‘But I won’t kiss her again. Ever.’

  ‘Let the poor man off the hook, Xav,’ said Will. ‘It’s fine, Mr Hughes; we aren’t here about that incident.’

  ‘You’re not?’ Steve looked hugely relieved.

  ‘No. We’ve got a serious problem.’ Victor moved forward, smooth as skates over ice. ‘Victor Benedict. I’m with the FBI.’

  Steve shook his hand. ‘Bit out of your jurisdiction, aren’t you?’

  I was impressed that Steve hadn’t immediately been intimidated by Victor; I would have been shaking in my boots to be the focus of the attention of the iciest of the brothers.

  ‘I’m here in a personal capacity. We all are. The story is wild even for the movies so brace yourselves.’ Victo
r included Lily in that comment. ‘I’m going to let you in on a secret because we need your help.’ He then sketched out what had happened since Trace met Diamond in Denver. I noticed that he did not use his persuasive powers, but was trying to convince them with the unvarnished truth. I suppose it would be a violation of human rights to bend someone to your will without overwhelming cause. That’s what put Victor on the side of the angels rather than devils like the contessa. She wouldn’t have hesitated.

  When Victor finished, Steve sat on the sofa with a heavy groan. ‘Sorry, guys, but this is all too much to believe. Is this some kind of set up?’ He glanced over his shoulder as if expecting a candid camera crew to jump out on him. ‘Or a really weird pitch to get me interested in your next movie?’

  Saul sat next to him, his wise face a reassurance after the dose of incredible news. ‘We couldn’t be more serious, Mr Hughes. Not everything in this life revolves about film making.’

  ‘Try living in my world.’ Steve gave a self-deprecating laugh.

  Lily folded her arms. ‘OK, you’ve just spun us an amazing tale but I take it being a Savant isn’t like religion: we don’t have to take it on faith. If you have these powers, why don’t you prove it to us? Then we can decide if we will help you.’

  Victor blinked once then smiled. ‘I like this friend of yours, Crystal. She’s nobody’s fool. OK, who wants to go first?’

  Yves stepped forward, hand raised.

  ‘Good idea. Just don’t do more damage than we can pay for.’ Victor moved back.

  ‘Oh, I wasn’t thinking of anything like that.’ Yves cupped his hands together and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he had a ball of fire spinning in the space between his palms.

  ‘What the—!’ exclaimed Steve, leaping over the back of the sofa.

  ‘Crystal!’ squeaked Lily.

  I patted her arm. ‘It’s cool, Lily. Just watch.’

  ‘It is not cool! It is a freaky great big fireball!’