"You want to wake everyone up? Are you sure?"
She cast him a stern glance.
"Okay, you're sure."
Henrike hated himself.
Hated what he was doing. What he was about to do, or let happen.
At the beginning, he'd had no mixed feelings about agreeing to do this thing for the FBI agent named Cooke. He was available, he was needed by the United States government, and it would pay well. Possibly even enough to allow him to pay off some very volatile men to whom he owed money. Men who weren't intimidated by his powers.
But now, after having met the man called Guardian and having seen firsthand what he was about ... What if he'd picked the wrong side in all this?
He put change into one of the last pay phones in L.A. and dialed the number he'd been asked to memorize. Agent Cooke answered.
"About time," Cooke said anxiously. "You were supposed to report in hours ago. Do you have what I asked for?"
Henrike hesitated, momentarily debating, but ultimately decided it was pointless to resist. This was the government, after all. As a foreigner on their soil, they could make his life much more complicated than it already was.
"Yes. I have the address."
Grant willed the bright overhead lights to come on, and much commotion ensued from the far corner where the sleeping areas were draped off.
Morgan remained momentarily in the small corner she and Grant had occupied. She told Grant she needed to make a quick phone call to confirm something, and then she would meet him and everyone else in the Common Room.
And she would tell them everything she could about her recent activities.
Slowly, one by one, Grant's friends-his team-emerged from their beds. All were groggy and wiping away sleep from their eyes, and no one was terribly happy about being woken up.
Alex was the first to speak up. "This better be life-and-death, sweetie."
"Come on, come on!" Morgan shouted, appearing over Grant's shoulder. Apparently her phone call was done. Her proper British accent added greatly to her commanding tone of voice. "All hands on deck! Everyone! Gather round!"
She turned to Grant. "I should like Dr. Cossick to join us as well."
Grant harrumphed. "I bet you would."
"The doc doesn't make house calls these days, remember?" Alex added before yawning long and hard.
"Grant, surely you could persuade him to join us?" Morgan offered.
"Doubt it. He won't come down here, not for anything."
Morgan glanced at the stairs. "His light is still on, he's awake. Leave him no choice in the matter," she concluded with a cold casualness.
"Oooookay," Grant replied.
Within minutes, Daniel was protesting loudly as his desk chairwith him still seated in it-floated on air, gently descending the staircase to the ground floor. By the time he and Grant reached the Common Room, he'd folded his arms and fumed silently to himself.
Less than five minutes-and a number of bleary-eyed complaintslater, everyone present was gathered in the Common Room area. Grant sat on one end of the faux-leather couch, Julie at his side. Fletcher seated himself next to her, and Alex was directly across from them in an armchair. A folding chair groaned under Hector's weight, threatening imminent collapse, while Nora sat alone on the floor at the far edge of the circle. Wilhelm also sat alone along the periphery, though by his own choice.
Many of the others sat elsewhere on the floor or in other chairs that Grant had pulled into the circle with his mind. He didn't see Henrike and concluded he must be a heavy sleeper.
His eyes fell upon Nora. His thoughts focused again on the black woman, thinking back to when she had found the group about the same time as Hector. Unlike most of the others, she'd had difficulty integrating into the group, preferring to work alone. As Grant understood it, she had a history of abuse and violence and had spent more than one night in jail. She isolated herself often, which was understandable, given her power, but also had the effect of keeping her from integrating with the others.
Nora rarely felt like she belonged here, a fact that was painfully obvious. The only time she seemed to enjoy herself was when they were on a mission and she was able to unleash her abilities. The first time Grant had seen her do it, it had chilled him to the bone.
But she was a powerful asset to the team-one of their most valuable members. Everyone believed her ring gave her the ability to render others unconscious.
And Grant was content to go on letting them believe that. If anyone knew the truth ... it could be disastrous.
Morgan sat in another armchair not far from Alex. Dozens of bleary, sleepy eyes stared back at her. Her own manner lost the excitement she'd displayed just moments ago, and now settled into a foreboding resolve. She settled back into her seat and interlaced her fingers, looking slowly around the room.
She offered no apology for waking everyone up at this hour. She was contemplative and subdued.
"I've been working on a personal project," she began. "Honestly, I'm surprised none of you determined on your own what I've been up to. I don't think it could be any more obvious. I've been trying to decipher the mystery that is the Secretum of Six," she quietly announced, her voice filled with introspection. "And I think I've found the answers I was looking for."
Silence followed her statement.
"Which answers are those, exactly?" Grant asked.
Morgan's eyebrows bunched together, and her eyes became unfocused. "All of them," she focused on him at last. "The rings. The Dominion Stone. The prophecy. The Bringer. I think I've figured it out."
Sagging heads perked up around the room.
Morgan was silent for so long, seemingly lost in such deep thought, that Grant spoke up. "Are you going to tell us?"
"Yes and no," Morgan replied. "There are parts that you simply are not prepared to accept. There are truths about the Secretum that are too fantastic, too astounding for you to believe without proof, and rightly so. But I have seen things of late ... And I know the truth. You will soon know the full truth as well, but until then, my words will fall on ears ill equipped to understand what I have to tell you."
Murmurs swelled through the room; several sounded angry.
"This doesn't make any sense," Alex noted. "What are you playing at?"
Morgan leveled an even but unforgiving gaze on Alex. "This is no game. After the kind of day you all have had, after the last few months and all of the terrible things that have been happening to our planet ... I would never be so trite as to belittle our work by teasing you about it.
"Understand me clearly: I am not withholding information to be cruel or coy or secretive. I intend for you to know everything I know. But before that can happen, there are things you will need to discover on your own-things you must see with your own eyes-that you would not accept as hearsay from me or anyone."
"You're saying an awful lot of absolutely nothing," Grant said.
"I'm not a fan of Oscar Wilde, but he was right on one count: `The truth is rarely pure and never simple.' We have shaken off the coils of the past and carved out new lives for ourselves. Free of the plans the Keeper had for us, we've made something new, something better. And I can't tell you all how proud I am of you for this. The events of this day alone have shaken us all, but still we stand firm, holding to what's right. It would have been so much easier for us to take an alternate, more comfortable route...."
She drifted off, lost in thought for a moment. Then she cleared her throat. "No matter. I tell you this because I don't wish to lead any of you to believe that I disapprove of our recent activities. Quite the contrary.
"Still, despite this newfound purpose you have embraced, I've found it difficult letting go of the original purpose for which we were intended. Or more precisely, the ones who intended it for us. I am speaking of course of the underground organization responsible for empowering us with the Rings of Dominion and Shifting us into our new lives. The Secretum of Six. They sit in places of great power and authority, and thei
r actions are not idle. They move with precision of purpose and a plan that will lead to the ruin of everything we hold dear."
Many of those listening shifted and squirmed uncomfortably in their seats. Unsettled glances were exchanged, dismay on the faces of many.
"Come on, Morgan," Lisa spoke up. "Is it really necessary to go down this road again?"
But Grant's ears perked up as his mind returned to the odd conversation that afternoon with the sickly old man.
"`For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes,"' Morgan recited. "I know you don't want to think about this, but someone must take responsibility for bringing the Secretum to justice, and undoing whatever grand plan they have set into motion through all of us. Who else is there to do this? It's no secret that whoever they are, wherever they come from, they are skilled, resourceful, and deft at keeping themselves hidden. All that is required for them to accomplish their goals is for us to look away and do nothing."
Grant remained attentive but couldn't get the old man's face out of his head. Something about Morgan's words was causing an odd itch inside his head.
"Finding information about them-even records of their very existence-has proven more challenging than even I expected. But we managed to turn up a symbol that I believe may lead us to-"
"We?" Alex asked. "Have you been working with someone outside the group?"
Morgan hesitated, and Grant felt very uneasy at the look on her face.
"It's Payton," she replied resignedly, to much shock among those gathered round. "I asked him to help in my investigation, to be my eyes and ears in the field. I realize this may come as a surprise, considering our history ... But the two of us have one thing in common, and that is a powerful desire to see the Secretum's plans exposed and ended once and for all. After all of the lies that organization fed him for the last nine years, you might say Payton is feeling a bit ... bloodthirsty."
"So when he left after everything that happened with the Keeper," Fletcher said, three steps ahead of everyone else per usual, "it wasn't because he didn't want to stay. It was because you sent him off on this mission to track down the Secretum."
"That's right," Morgan nodded. "Payton is what he is, and I know he makes many of you uncomfortable. He makes me uncomfortable. I thought his absence might make things run more smoothly for the group. So this plan killed two birds with one stone. And his help in this task has proven invaluable."
More murmuring. Grant was displeased that she'd kept this to herself, but understood her reasoning. Still, Payton had been a huge help in the end with their struggle against his grandfather. He still believed the Englishman could make a valuable addition to the team, if he could learn to tone down his casual lethality.
"You mentioned a symbol?" he said, bringing everyone's focus back to the matter at hand.
"Yes," Morgan replied, clearly grateful to get back to her point. She took out a piece of paper on which she'd scribbled a symbol by hand. It was a series of lines that connected to form a six-pointed star, with an identical star inside of that, its lines half as long. Another star was inside the second one, only half as big, and so on, until the center was a bulging mass of lines too close together to make out.
"Do you recognize this?" she asked, turning it slowly so the whole group could see. She handed it to Alex, who examined it and passed it on so the entire group could get a closer look.
"Maybe," Grant replied. "I'm not sure."
She produced a photograph and handed it to Grant. "What about now?"
The picture was a familiar one. It was a photo of his parents when they were younger that he'd uncovered months ago at his old family home. His dad was leaning over his mom, who sat at a desk. They both wore military uniforms, and they had turned to the camera and smiled.
A tiny "x" had been marked in ink on the photo long before he'd ever found it. The "x" marked a very small tattoo that was visible on his father's wrist, if you knew what to look for.
The tattoo was tiny, but Grant held the photograph close to his eyes.
And there it was. It matched Morgan's symbol. Right before his eyes, he'd seen it a dozen times.
Of course!
Grant looked back up at Morgan, eyes wide.
"I believe this symbol is the insignia of the Secretum," she explained. "I have a theory that they use it as a marker-for their strongholds, their assets, their files and information. Anything-or anyone-that belongs to them, is identifiable by this symbol."
"Seems kind of simplistic for such a powerful secret society, doesn't it?" Alex asked. "I would have expected something more ... I don't know ... elaborate?"
"Ah," Morgan's eyes flashed, "but you're ignoring the cunning of creating a secret symbol around a common shape. It's the symbological equivalent of `hiding in plain sight.' To an untrained eye, found on any document or scrawled on a wall somewhere, it could be nothing more than a smudged asterisk. But looking closer reveals lines on top of lines, smaller and smaller inside the primary shape. It's terribly clever."
"What does it symbolize, exactly?" Grant asked.
"I've put considerable thought into this, and honestly, I'm still not certain. But I believe the shape itself could be less significant than the number it represents-denoted by how many points the star has. They are known as `the Secretum of Six,' and here we have a six-pointed star. It could be just that simple. Or perhaps it goes deeper.
"The number six is steeped in tremendous historical significance. There are six points on the Star of David-the symbol of Israel, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and Judaism, one of the world's oldest religions. The first humans are said to have been created on `the sixth day of creation.' Even our measurements of time-minutes, hours, days, months-are numbers built around increments of six. Mathematically speaking, six is the first `perfect number', and there are six sides to a cube. From a scientific point of view, six is the atomic number of carbon-and every form of life known to exist is built upon a foundation of carbon compounds...."
"Good grief, woman," Nora mumbled loud enough for all to hear while stifling a yawn, "we get it. Six is all that and more. So what?"
Unmistakably annoyed, Grant slowly turned in her direction. "This is the listening part of the meeting. Keep the commentary to yourself."
Morgan watched and waited as Grant and Nora studied one another. Alex shifted in her seat, no doubt feeling the sudden tension in the room.
"Go on, Morgan," Grant said, still looking at Nora.
"I sent Payton to France, back to the cave where he was buried alive nine years ago. If you'll remember, he and I were there together at the time, looking for a fragment of the Dominion Stone. The cave is a historical monument, and therefore overseen by government agencies. His investigation led him into a government records building, where he discovered a file belonging to a company called Trigate International-a company I believe to be one of many used as fronts for the Secretum-that supposedly provides labor and maintenance for the government division in charge of national historical landmarks in France. The file he found bears a small, handmade mark that matches the symbol of the Secretum."
She paused to allow everyone a moment to let that sink in.
"Payton tells me that this file contains references to other holdings by this same front company-mostly international deals similar to their deal with the French government. All of which I suspect to be forged information. But there was one reference in the file to something that had an air of authenticity to it-it was a reference to some sort of repository."
"Repository?" Grant asked.
"I've no idea what kind," Morgan replied. "It could be information, it could be supplies, or it could be ... an army. If we ever want to know, there's only one place we'll be able to find out: London."
Grant registered surprise at this, as did most everyone else. "England?"
"This dummy corporation's headquarters are located in Great Britain. Though it won't be easy getting there, as I'm sure you're all aware of
the events that have played out today in London. And Fletcher, before you ask, yes, I've considered the possibility that the lockdown in London could be connected to Payton's investigation of Trigate. The company's home office is inside the quarantined zone."
The room was silent for a few minutes. No one seemed to want to speak, but Morgan waited patiently. There were too many implications in her suggestions, too many truths that none of them wanted to face.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just send Payton to London?" Alex asked. This suggestion got nods of approval from others.
All except for Grant, whose thoughts were miles away, locked on the eyes of an old man who was missing a hand.
Three events ... Three signs ...
A countdown.
"He will be joining us there, but you're still not grasping the magnitude of this," Morgan replied. "The rest of the world has no idea that the Secretum is out there, but we have tangible evidence in hand that it exists. This symbol may very well be the key to locating and confronting the Secretum once and for all. For all we know, they could even be located at or near this Trigate International headquarters in London! Do we really dare send one man alone to bring them to justice? Considering all of the resources they must have at their disposal, it seems the only logical course of action is to take them on with everything we can."
It was Grant who eventually broke the silence. "But how do we do something like this?" Grant put a voice to the hesitation etched on every face. "Are you suggesting we just pull up stakes and hop across the ocean? All of us? And what if this turns out to be a wild goose chase? What about the people of L.A.-they need us here, now more than ever. How are we supposed to just leave-"
Morgan jumped to her feet. "Stop it!" she shouted. It was a rare display of anger, of indignation-so rare, the gigantic warehouse was deathly still in the pauses between her words. Even Grant had never seen her so indignant. "Stop making excuses! Don't let yourself think for one instant that any of what I am saying is a suggestion.
"If you have ever believed my words or respected anything I have done for you-for all of you-then please, you must believe me now. I have a great deal more information at my disposal than I have shared with you, and I know I'm right about this. The Secretum can be found, and it's our responsibility to find them. And they must. Be. Stopped.
Fearless (Dominion Trilogy #2) Page 9
