Athena's Secrets

by Donna Del Oro

  Bundled up in a wool fedora, scarf, and heavy jacket, she grabbed her hobo bag and ran for the Metro. Pressure to bring her work up-to-date for her painting class weighed upon her. She intended to put in a long night of catching up. At once, a frisson of warning crept up her spine as she descended the steps to the subway platform for the Blue Line, which took her closer to Old Town, Alexandria. Someone—that man with the red wool cap, black coat and hunched-over posture—was following her, she was sure of it! Inside the subway car, she held onto the pole, cold even to her gloved hands, and glanced around. There were steamy exhalations everywhere, but there he was, standing in the same car, two poles over, glancing at her, but trying not to be obvious about it. She averted her eyes quickly, but could sense his eyes remaining on her. At the third stop, near Washington and King Streets in Alexandria, she got off and, pretending to pull up her thick sock, bent halfway around and noticed he’d gotten off, too.

  With a renewed feeling of urgency, she pulled out her cell phone as she ascended to the sidewalk. When Chris answered—he was waiting until their father returned Sunday morning before going back to the Academy—she told him to run down to the Hallmark store nearby and meet her there. It was a matter of life or death!

  By the time she reached street level, she was running all-out, congratulating herself between gasps, for wearing her ankle boots that day. The soles were thick and had a thick tread, gripping the snow like snow tires. The Hallmark store was filled to overflowing, a good place to seek refuge. When her breathing had settled down, she glanced outside the large plate window in front of the store. The red wool cap was nowhere to be seen. That didn’t mean he wasn’t close by, however. A few minutes later, Chris jogged to the front of the store, met her stare through the window, and shrugged his shoulders, like what’s the big deal?

  Athena joined him for the short walk over to Prince and Pitt. Their condo building welcomed them as she laughed off her creepy feelings and told him about the guy in the red wool cap. They trudged up the exterior stairs of their shingled townhouse, chattering all the while.

  “I saw a guy outside of Murphy’s Pub on the corner by the Metro station. Red snuggy hat? Black coat, boots? Yeah, I saw him.”

  Her laugh cut off. She jabbed the key into the front door lock. “Damn.”

  “Who would want to follow you? I mean, is this the same guy from work who you said you’re not dating any more? Did you dump him, and now he’s sore?”

  “No, not him. Someone else.”

  “An art student-stalker type?”

  “No, I’ve never seen him before. Don’t say anything to Mum, okay? She’ll only worry.”

  “When’re you going to call her Mom, like Americans do?” Chris had adopted American ways and slang like a duckling to water. Having lived all over Europe and the UK, he’d finally found a place that suited his independent nature. Athena thought that meeting the Skoroses had a lot to do with his sense of feeling more American.

  “Like never, Yankee boy. I’m a citizen of the world, and I can speak as I see fit.”

  Athena, her right hand still trembling a little, asked Chris to punch in their code-key. Finally, they entered their spacious condo—they were middle-class, after all, not rich by any standards—jostling and teasing each other, stomping and shaking off the snow on the rug in the tiled entryway. One look at their mother stopped them in their tracks. Holding her cell phone in one hand, a dishcloth in the other, their mother looked grim, Tilly, the part-time cook and maid, was standing nearby at the stove and looking equally as grim. After a breezy greeting and a friendly tousle of his hair by his mother, Chris strode to his room, electronic game device already in hand. Athena wasn’t so lucky. Her getaway was blocked.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” her mother told her sternly. “’Thena, put your jacket back on and bring the umbrella. That was your father. We need to walk and talk.”

  “Why outside, Mum?”

  “I’ll explain. Let’s go.”

  There was a large courtyard in the center of their U-shaped complex, a bank of garages serving as the fourth and rear side of the complex. They reminded Athena of the old-fashioned mews one found in London, behind fashionable mansions and townhomes.

  They walked there, her mother holding a huge umbrella over their heads as the snow continued to drift gently down. With dread clutching her stomach, Athena expected her mother to scold her for what had happened with Kas.

  “This is too serious for evasions or modesty,” her mother began. “Your father informed me that all of the attendees from the British Legation in Washington were followed to and from the secret briefing site in London. The key word is secret, or it should have been. Our enemies, in particular the suspected assassins, had evidently discovered the location of this meeting. Why the attendees weren’t attacked, your father isn’t certain, but as soon as the British Legation realized this, security details were tripled. It was a miracle that there was no attack the day the Prime Minister attended the meeting. Or perhaps the assassins weren’t quite ready. Only the closest aides of the foreign ministry’s officers were privy to the meeting place.”

  Athena couldn’t help but frown in puzzlement. What did this security breach have to do with her?

  “In other words, ’Thena, your father believes our home has been bugged. This is the only place where security is lax. I know you were dating that young man from the coffee store. What was his name? Tony something?”

  Startled, she replied hesitantly. “Tony Grabowski.”

  “Lorena had a dream, seemed to think he might be involved with this potential assassination plot. We know you were alone that Friday night. Chris came home on Saturday, and your father, Sunday, on his stopover between California and London. That night, you had a date with him, with this Tony Grabowski. Did you bring him to our home?”

  This was it, the big question. Athena recalled the uneasiness she’d felt that evening, the long visit to the bathroom that Tony had made, his wandering around their downstairs rooms on his self-appointed tour. She’d been busy in the kitchen, making him a sandwich—

  She summarized the evening for her mother, up to and including the end, when Tony had seemed anxious to leave, all of a sudden. He’d accomplished what he’d set out to do. Whatever that was.

  “He didn’t disturb anything, Mum. I checked. Nothing was taken or out of place.”

  “Didn’t you use your clairvoyance that evening?”

  “No,” Athena admitted. “Maybe I should have.” How could she explain why she hadn’t? It was different with Kas. She’d wanted to see what Kas thought of her. With Tony, she hadn’t cared. At least, not that evening. She’d already written him off as a possible boyfriend. Her intuition—not her clairvoyance—had signaled her that he was not for her.

  Her mother just nodded. “We’ll let your father do what he has to do tomorrow when he comes home. We’ll go with his driver and pick him up at the airport. Meanwhile, a security team will sweep our home in search of bugs.”

  Athena almost laughed, but her mother’s angry countenance stopped her. “Bugs?”

  “Wireless transmitters. Which probably picked up a conversation that you had with Chris on Saturday or Sunday about your father’s secret meeting in London. Your father said he mentioned the location to you and Chris in passing. A lapse in judgment, he says, and blames himself. He thinks someone listening overheard that conversation and as a result, all the ministry officers’ lives were put in danger.”

  “Father…and you…think that Tony hid these bugs in our home?”

  Her mother’s eyes shone fiercely. “What I don’t understand, ’Thena, is why you didn’t use your clairvoyance to see through this young man. Your father recalled his name from when you spoke of him once. Tony Grabowski is not his real name. In fact, the Embassy’s security team ran a background check, and discovered that it’s an alias. No Tony Grabowski is enrolled at the University of Virginia, and the only man by that name with a driver’s license is a sixty year-old
engineer who lives in Georgia. If this young man’s working for those Serbian mercenaries, well…then you put yourself at great risk. And other people, too.”

  Tears stung behind Athena’s eyes as a lump formed in her throat, but she swallowed it down. How naïve she was! How gullible and desperate for attention she must be! Were Tony’s lines all lies, then? He had been nice to her just to gain access to her home?

  “I read him a couple of times,” she tried to explain, “but I wanted to be like the other girls. Normal ones. I guess I wanted the mystery of it, of not knowing exactly who he was.”

  Her mother nodded. “I understand, believe me. I’m not so old that I don’t remember how exciting and romantic it felt to be pursued by a man you could fantasize about. I remember, ’Thena.”

  Her mother’s sympathy helped to ease her hurt feelings. “I trusted Tony. He seemed sincere. He acted like he really liked me.” Her voice caught and she forced an emotional lump down in her throat. The pain of Tony’s betrayal would serve as a lesson, that was all. She would never trust a man again unless she could read his mind and see the possibly ugly truth behind his words and actions.

  Her mother touched her arm with her gloved one. Athena knew the older woman understood but that did not negate the real danger that her naiveté had created. What if the foreign ministry’s officers and Embassy staff had been attacked in London? What if her father had been killed? All because she wanted something she couldn’t have?

  Normalcy.

  Good God, it’s time to grow up, Athena. You are who you are. You will never be normal. You will never have the things normal girls have. Never.

  Her mother’s thoughts echoed hers. ’Thena, you can’t escape it. You must accept the gift you have. And for your own protection, Dio mio, use it.

  ****

  Anna called Athena and Chris early Sunday morning, after receiving the call that Trevor’s driver was downstairs in his Range Rover, ready to take them to Dulles Airport to pick up her husband. She’d already warned them both not to mention their father or their suspicions aloud while in their condo, and, as they were leaving, she let in one of the British Embassy’s security teams. Three men began bustling around in complete silence, each carrying a small case of electronic equipment, while Anna and her son and daughter quietly left.

  With a heavy heart, she took the elevator with Chris and Athena. She felt violated. First, a strange young man whom Athena barely knew had not only ‘bugged’ their home, but had put her overly trusting and lonely daughter at risk. They now knew where the Embassy’s cultural attaché and his family lived. Anna felt acutely the presence of danger, even though Trevor had assigned a security team to guard their building day and night until the danger had passed for the British Legation in D.C. Which meant, until the PM had arrived and then left the U.S. in continued good health.

  Lorena had been correct in her interpretation of that dream about the Embassy’s staff during the Prime Minister’s visit in January. She’d seen Athena and a dark-haired young man on the fringes of this plot, in her own words. The young man had duped Athena into allowing him into their home. Her daughter! With all of her skills at seeing beneath the surface of people, her own daughter had refused to use her powers!

  Perhaps Athena would learn from this experience. She hoped and prayed so.

  Two hours later, as scheduled, she re-entered their condo with her family. Chris carried his father’s suitcase, Athena his briefcase, while Trevor, looking wan and haggard from his red-eye flight from London, entered the kitchen where the three security men waited at the table. Anna had prepared a pot of tea for them before leaving, and now they were down to the dregs in their cups. It obviously hadn’t taken them as long as they thought. The family gathered around the three men, all wearing blue jumpsuits with fake “Ajax Electrical Services” decals on their fronts.

  The oldest of the three, a gray-haired man of medium-height and florid complexion, stood up and went over to the kitchen bar counter. On the speckled granite countertop were three electronic devices. One was different in appearance than the other two. It was larger, boxy, and had a switch and button on top.

  “We found two bugs. These.” The security tech held up the two smaller devices. “Radio frequency transmitters with a range of about two kilometers. There must be a monitor in the area or a receiver that’s receiving, converting and sending the signal somewhere else. One was under a shelf in your study, Mr. Butler, the other under the cocktail table in your great room.”

  “Our living room?” Athena asked. “I remember his walking around in there, Father. Later, he took a long time in the bathroom while I was in the kitchen. Did you check there as well?”

  “Yes, miss. We checked all over, every nook and cranny, we did. These were the only two.”

  Her father rubbed the blond stubble on his cheeks and chin. Anna knew how weary he was after all of the travel he’d done these past two weeks, plus the additional worry and stress. She reached out and touched his shoulder. He looked at her, bleary-eyed, and smiled. At least, we now know where we stand, and we’re on top of it.

  “What’s that?” Chris asked, pointing to the third device, larger than the other two with a toggle switch on top and a button that pulsed a red light.

  “That is our radio frequency jammer. By moving the lever, we jam the signal—you see the red light there. On the other end, they hear only static, probably think it’s a local cell tower or power line interrupting the signals. By moving it the other way, the light on top flashes green and the signals from the two bugs continue transmitting.”

  Trevor turned to Chris and explained, “We’re putting the bugs back in place.”

  “Why?” Athena asked. The guilt was so apparent on her face that Anna felt sorry for her. All the way back from the airport, Athena had apologized to her family in a dozen different ways.

  To her husband’s credit, Trevor gave Athena a warm, forgiving look. “We’ll feed them, whoever the buggers are, misinformation. Only what we want them to know. We’ll control the stream of information. We don’t know how long it’ll be before they figure out something is off, but until then, we’ll give them false intelligence. My meeting tomorrow with the ambassador and the other officers will determine exactly what that false intelligence will be.”

  The older security man interjected, “To prolong feeding this misinformation, I advise keeping the green button on as much as possible. Just be aware of what you say down here in the living room and in the study. These are two of the most advanced transmitters I’ve seen, so if you have to speak in confidence, jam the signal for no longer than two or three minutes. Any longer or more frequently than once or twice a day and they’ll get suspicious. They’ll know we’re on to them. Or, to be discreet, go upstairs and keep your voices low. They might have directional mikes focused on the upper rooms. But that, we can’t control.”

  Trevor nodded, and both he and Anna saw them to the entryway. “A huge thanks to you, mates. Let me know if you find out any more about this young man who calls himself Tony Grabowski. If you can find him, you might have a direct link to the Serbs.”

  Everyone stared a moment at the red light on the jammer. They had a few minutes to speak candidly with each other before turning off the jammer and speaking guardedly. Athena approached her father.

  “I was followed home from work yesterday. A man with a red cap and black coat.”

  Her father grinned crookedly. “One of our security men, Athena. Don’t concern yourself. He wanted to stand out. Like an amateur would, he wore something that would make him noticeable, so you’d see him and let me know that they were on the job.”

  “Oh,” was all her daughter could manage before continuing, “Tony left work at the coffeehouse, you know, with no forwarding address or number. The Saturday before yesterday. Just all of a sudden quit. I called his cell phone number, but it was discontinued and no one at work has heard from him. He said he lived near campus—the U of V. But that’s probably a lie, too.�
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  Anna and her husband stared at their daughter, the yearning to redeem herself in their eyes as plain as day. They waited.

  “If he contacts me…and that’s a big if…but if he does, what shall I do? Besides let you know, of course?”

  Trevor glanced at Anna, then down at the floor as he wearily passed a hand over his forehead. “Let me pose this question with Sir Peter.” Ambassador Peter Willcott had been knighted by the queen two years before. “My first reaction as a father is to tell you to stay as far the bloody hell away from him as possible, especially if he does contact you and wants to arrange a meeting. But, considering the assassination plot and the danger on our very doorstep, so to speak, I don’t know. The Embassy might want to enlist the FBI and set up a trap.”

  Fear rushed through Anna as horrible images swirled in her mind. “One thing we’ll not do, is use Athena as bait,” Anna said vehemently. Insane, to even entertain the possibility of using their daughter to lure a member of the assassination team out in the open. She wouldn’t allow it!

  Trevor stared first at her, then at Athena. His face crumpled. “Of course, my darling Anna, I won’t even consider it. Now, I’m going upstairs to lie down. Busy day tomorrow.” He looked pointedly at the jammer on the kitchen counter, glanced back at them and then flipped the switch. A green light pulsed.

  Tensing up, Anna felt her pulse race again. It was terrifying to know people were listening in on their intimate family conversations, on their telephone calls. She looked over at Athena, who just nodded solemnly and walked away. Making sure her mother couldn’t touch her and read her mind? Like turning a psychic jammer on? How ironic, their predicament was!