by Daco
Her cheeks burned with embarrassment at her mistaken assumption, but she opened the box, and what she saw astonished her. The ring was, indeed, an exact replica of her engagement ring. Even the jewel looked authentic.
“Wearing the duplicate is the only rational thing to do,” he said.
“You’re right. And it’s very thoughtful of you.” She looked into his blue eyes. Most of the time, his gaze was slightly distant and unreadable. Now, his eyes were lucid and conveyed only one thing—he had her best interests at heart. She pulled The Mayor’s ring off and replaced it with the duplicate.
“It’s not going to change anything. I’m still going to marry Bobby Baumgartner.”
Alexa expected Sigfred to say something harsh or judgmental, but he only nodded and wouldn’t meet her eyes when he said, “It’s no sin to make sacrifices for the greater good.”
“I ... I’m glad you understand.”
Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure that she understood.
• • •
When Alexa returned home, she went back to bed and pulled the covers over her head. All she wanted to do was sleep and forget what had befallen her in recent days. Nothing made sense. But then nothing had made sense since the day she’d lost her father. When the clock chimed noon, she woke with a start. She couldn’t be late—she had a date with her uncle. After quickly dressing, she met her uncle downstairs in the foyer.
“Let’s take a stroll in the garden,” Uncle Montgomery said. “We have a lot to talk about.”
Arm in arm, they walked down the corridor to the front door, where Sigfred happened to be dusting a Ming Dynasty vase filled with the yellow roses her uncle had brought her. Sigfred stood at attention, all business again. Alexa envied his ability to be so calm and controlled amid such chaos. She’d never been on such bad terms with Sigfred before, and it rattled her more than she’d expected.
“Good man,” Uncle Montgomery said to Sigfred. “I admire cleanliness.”
Sigfred bowed slightly.
“I also like the shine in your shoes, Sawyer,” Uncle Montgomery said. “Few men of your young age take such meticulous care of themselves these days. Hear, hear!”
“Thank you, sir,” Sigfred said.
“I’m old fashioned, I’m afraid,” Uncle Montgomery said to Alexa. “Servants aren’t what they used to be. But you’ve done a good job with your employees, my dear.”
Though Alexa no longer thought of Sigfred as a servant, she enjoyed her uncle’s praise. “Sigfred is very loyal and the most efficient of our staff,” she said. “There’s no one like him. We’re not so strict about dress codes in this day and age, but he has very high standards.”
When Sigfred snapped stiffly to attention, she realized that she’d wounded his pride in her attempt to please her uncle. She opened her mouth to correct herself and assert that, of course, Sigfred was not merely a servant, but her uncle spoke first.
“You’re a true Manchester, Alexa. I hope that as we get to know each other, you’ll let me guide you. I was never blessed with children of my own. My dear brother Mickey was the one who was blessed. Now I have an opportunity to be a parent.”
Alexa only nodded, but she was thinking that at her age, she wasn’t in need of parenting.
At lunch, Uncle Montgomery ordered for them both but then, for himself, ordered another full plate of fish and chips and two more slices of lemon meringue pie.
“Pardon me for asking, Uncle Montgomery, but do you always eat so much at meals? You’re in such good shape. How do you do it?”
Her uncle smiled. “Good genetics and clear objectives in life, my dear. They keep the metabolism going at top speed. I hope you have both.”
As they ate, they made small talk. Well, she mostly made small talk, going on about The Mick, her goal of providing affordable energy to the world, the disaster with The Magpie. All the while, her uncle munched on his second order of French fries. Only when he was drinking his second double-grande mug of mocha with whipped cream did she ask, “Where have you been over these long years, Uncle Monty?”
“Traveling the world. I’ve been everywhere—to Europa, Africana, through Russiah and all the way across Siberita, throughout Asiana and the Distant East, to the Americanas, North and South. Really, there’s nowhere I haven’t been.”
“You didn’t mention Antarcticia.”
“An inadvertent omission. I was there in December of ’91. Summer in the Southern Hemisphere, of course.”
“What did you do for a living?”
“Anything and everything—merchant marine, soldier, roughneck on an oil rig. But I made my fortune importing and exporting.”
“Importing and exporting what?”
“Anything and everything.” He said again, then paused. “So long as it was legal.”
“My father told me that he had a brother but not much else about you. He said that there was a falling out, that you left the family and never returned. That you disappeared.”
“With all due respect to your late father and my dear brother, I don’t know if ‘falling out’ is the right word. I’m sorry to say that your late grandfather—Mickey’s and my father—believed in the old feudal concept of primogeniture. Mickey was the first son, and I was the second, so Mickey was to inherit everything. Our father made it very clear that Mickey would get the family business. Even Mickey objected, but it was no use.” He smiled wistfully. “Maybe the reason I’m so old fashioned is because I’ve acquired that trait from my father. In any event, my father said that while Mickey would take over the family holdings, I had a great gift, because the rest of the world was mine for the taking. So I left. And let me tell you, Alexa, the rest of the world turned out to be a precious jewel. It was a far greater gift that my father gave me than to your father, God rest his soul.”
Much to Alexa’s surprise, her uncle became teary eyed. He dabbed away his tears with a napkin. She felt for him, but she still wasn’t satisfied by his response. “You didn’t come to my father’s funeral.”
“I am very, very sorry. The truth is that I’ve been out of touch for so long. I only learned of his passing months after it happened. I should’ve reached out to you, but I felt that I had no right, that it wasn’t my place. Though I will say, I’ve been following your progress and have known how wonderfully you’ve been doing, despite the tragedies that have befallen you. When I read about your recent problems, I had to come back.” He reached out and took Alexa’s hands and squeezed them affectionately. Just as her father might do.
Chapter 16
In the days that followed ...
Alexa felt as if she’d been caught in a social whirlwind. She and her Uncle Montgomery became ever closer. He had a vast knowledge of the family’s history, regaling her with tales of Manchesters who’d been long forgotten by everyone else. He spent an entire day taking her on a tour of the mansion, uncovering secret panels and hidden closets that she’d never found, even as a child. He devoted another full day to describing the history of the Manchester art collection, educating her about paintings that had hung on the wall all her life but that she’d never truly appreciated. And while many in his position would’ve pried into her personal life—she sensed that he and Bobby did not like each other—he remained discreet, listening uncritically when she revealed her doubts about the impending marriage.
And her personal life had, indeed, become complicated. Mayor Bobby Baumgartner had planned a number of campaign events in his quest for Prime Minister—he coyly denied to the media that he’d decided to run—and he made sure that Alexa was a large part of it. So, she attended several get-togethers with potential donors and political-party leaders. Bobby particularly used Alexa to target Miss Henrietta Hensinger of WEEDS, who lived modestly but who’d reputedly inherited tens of millions from a maiden aunt and who might give a lift to The Mayor’s campaign with a generous donation.
During this time, Alexa played the dutiful fiancée, always at Bobby’s side. She had to overlook his preening and
flirtation every time a beautiful woman, or even a not-so-beautiful woman with money, came into the room. Worse, he had taken to referring to her as, “My dear little Alexa who runs a very big company.” Often, she had to grit her teeth to avoid transforming when he used this line. She tried hard to feel affection for Bobby, tried to remember what about him had sent thrills down her body when she’d been much younger. Bobby Baumgartner was certainly handsome and charming. But he seemed to have no interest in her. The only time he kissed her was when there was a photographer around to post a picture of the loving couple on the Internet.
She’d been right about one thing, though. The Mayor of Kensington City was giving her cover and credibility as she waited for Momo to make his next move, even if The Mayor had no idea that she was Electromancer. So far, she’d used her powers to stun a mugger trying to hold up an elderly couple outside of Hyde Square; to fly a woman in labor to the hospital when the ambulance got caught in gridlock on the Kensington highway; and to prevent a bridge from collapsing by welding the metal footings back together. She’d learned how to move so quickly that those involved could barely detect her. All of this in preparation for Momo’s next attack. Yet, the news media only reported on her exploits when she was by The Mayor’s side. No one suspected that Alexa Manchester was behind the platinum mane and silver threads of Electromancer.
Meanwhile, things had been strained with Sigfred since the dinner. Oh, he still served her faithfully, rarely uttering anything more than, “Yes, madame,” or “No, madame,” or “As you wish, madame.” But Alexa missed their easy camaraderie. She missed the way he’d gleefully report yesterday’s cricket scores while driving her to The Mick even though she had no interest in the sport; the way he’d unconsciously hum the latest hit pop song even though she preferred classical music; and mostly, the way they’d “coincidentally” meet for a late-night snack in Yurdlemon’s kitchen when everyone else was asleep. She wanted to take him aside and explain that she’d misspoken, that he was far more than just an employee to her. But she’d barely had a spare moment since Uncle Montgomery moved in. The man was surely making up for the lost time of his absence. He seemed fascinated by Alexa’s every move, hot on her heels or lurking in the shadows every time she turned around.
One afternoon, while Alexa and Uncle Montgomery were having high tea, he said, “What do you say we take a ride to The Mick? I’d love to see The Magpie. It would mean a lot to me. Almost as if I was visiting my poor, dear brother’s gravesite. In memoriam.”
“I’m afraid The Magpie failed, which means I failed my father,” Alexa said. “I can’t bear to look at the thing.”
“Nonsense, Alexa. It was simply a temporary setback. Your father had many such setbacks in his early years, and he never gave up. We won’t give up, either. Now, let’s go.”
She thought for a moment. Uncle Montgomery had shown her so much about the Manchesters’ past. She owed it to him to show him the family’s present.
“I’ll get Sigfred to fetch the car,” she said.
“No. Let’s take the car ourselves. I enjoy driving.”
With Uncle Montgomery at the wheel, they drove out of the mansion and to The Mick. Her uncle seemed happy, almost gleeful. He even hummed what he told her was a Siberitan folk song about living on top of the world.
When they arrived at the facility, they passed through security, which was still heavy. Once inside, Alexa proudly escorted her uncle from one end of The Mick to the other. In the generator room, they stopped in front of The Magpie, which was still cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape.
“Let’s have a look inside The Magpie,” Uncle Montgomery said.
“It’s off limits. Chief Constable Petaud has designated it a crime scene, and our engineers think it still might be hazardous.”
“Nonsense. This is Manchester property, and we may do all the looking we so desire.” Without waiting for a response, Uncle Montgomery crouched down and maneuvered his strapping body under the yellow tape.
“Uncle Monty, please. It’s too dangerous.”
“Balderdash.” He went over to The Magpie and started to study it, touching the surface with his fingers like a doctor examining a patient.
She wanted to tell him about her experience, about how this dreadful machine and the Electromite had transformed her into Electromancer, but she stopped herself. He wouldn’t believe her. He might even think she was crazy, like so many others in her city had.
She took a deep breath and went under the tape herself. “The Magpie failed,” she said. “And the Electromite isn’t what it seems. It isn’t what my father thought it was. So, he wasn’t infallible. The Electromite might even be harmful to the population.”
He patted her arm reassuringly. “Your father would never have created something that would threaten the lives of innocent people. Let’s have a look.”
“Uncle Monty, how will your looking—?”
“I’ve had many jobs, dear niece, as I said. My first job was as our father’s laboratory assistant, along with Mickey. I know machines.”
Uncle Montgomery climbed the stairs to the catwalk that allowed him to peer into The Magpie’s internal mechanism. Alexa stayed close in case something went awry. Her nerves jangled, and even the thought that the Electromite was no longer in the machine didn’t comfort her. This machine created Electromancer, so who was to say that the machine couldn’t destroy her even without the rock inside?
“What a mess,” he said. “Just look how warped the titanium framework is. What caused this?”
“We’re not really sure. Charles Chin, the chief engineer, believes that the casing that held the Electromite suffered damage, causing microscopic cracks that expanded when the mechanism was activated. That’s one theory, at least.”
“What’s another theory?”
“That it was sabotaged.”
“Can you show me the casing?”
“It’s missing. Again, there are two theories. That it melted in the explosion or that someone stole it. There’s also the missing Electromite, so ...”
“What do you believe, Alexa?”
“Let’s just say that my father would never make a casing that would melt.”
Uncle Montgomery pondered this. “You do have a dilemma. The only way to prove that there was a defect in the casing is to examine the casing; and yet the casing is gone.”
She nodded.
“What about the prototype? Isn’t there a prototype that we could examine?”
“The engineers have already looked at it. They found nothing that would’ve caused a meltdown.”
Uncle Montgomery let out a sarcastic laugh. “Well, the engineers don’t have my knowhow or my knowledge of how Mickey worked. We’ll just have to examine the prototype ourselves. They must’ve missed something. Show me where it is.”
Why not? Alexa thought. They’d tried everything else. “Yes, let’s have a look at it.”
“Sorry, Ms. Manchester, but you can’t be in here,” a voice said.
Alexa turned to see Dr. Charles Chin, accompanied by several members of his engineering team and three security guards.
“Ms. Manchester is the owner of this facility,” Uncle Montgomery said. “She can do as she pleases.” There was something menacing in his voice.
“This is a crime scene,” Chin said. “My team and I are the only ones authorized to examine it. Authorized by Chief Constable Pete Petaud himself. Not even Ms. Manchester can breach the crime scene. Now, with apologies, I have to ask you both to come back on this side of the yellow tape.”
“Fire the son of a bitch,” Uncle Montgomery said.
Alexa felt her face flush. “I’m not going to fire Charlie,” she whispered. “He’s indispensable. And only doing his job.”
“Then I’ll fire him,” Uncle Montgomery said.
“I’m here because I have a message for Mr. Manchester,” Chin said. “That’s you, sir, am I right?”
Uncle Montgomery balled up his fists and looked as if he mi
ght charge and assault Chin, but Alexa put her hand on his arm and said, “This is my uncle. What’s the message?”
“Sigfred Sawyer called looking for you. I don’t know how he knew you’d be here, but ... He said that there’s a package for Mr. Manchester, and the person who delivered it said it was urgent.”
Chapter 17
Early the next day ...
Traveling incognito in a trench coat and fedora—when you’re The Mayor of a large metropolitan city, sometimes the most obvious disguise is the best—Mayor Bobby Baumgartner drove his second car, a broken-down Ford jalopy, albeit with a turbocharged engine, to the Kensington-Manchester Medical Center. He was going to visit Zachary Zero, not because he cared about that larcenous tippler, but to make sure that he’d kept his mouth shut. Montgomery Manchester’s sudden return to Kensington City had made The Mayor feel as if he’d been ambushed by a battalion of deadly mercenaries. Montgomery was the man who’d fondled his nanny and shattered his ability to trust anyone. The Mayor had hated the man all his life, and the hatred only became stronger when he saw him. It took all his mental strength not to attack the man who’d so rudely crashed the engagement party.
The Mayor had another problem—Momo. To take on that problem, he needed Zero’s help.
He entered the hospital and took the stairs to Zero’s floor. When he got to Zero’s room, he found the man snoring contentedly.
The Mayor closed the door and jostled Zero’s bed with his foot.
“Rise and shine,” The Mayor said.
Zero stirred, and his eyes popped open and bugged out. “What? Who? Time for lunch?”
“You won’t be here for lunch. They’re discharging you today.”
Zero rubbed his eyes. “Mayor? Is that you? Why are you dressed like a two-bit private investigator?”
“You let me worry about my wardrobe. Now, get dressed.”
“Mayor, I’m a sick man. I suffered multiple injuries to numerous parts of my body. Besides, this is the best food I’ve had in months. I’ve finally gotten some rest, and I don’t have to work for those slave-driving flower ladies. I’m staying put!”
