The Shadow Constant

by AJ Scudiere

  In his head, behind his heavy sigh and closed eyes, Evan swore a blue streak. They all might be in danger here, but Kayla was clearly going to be the main target. And if these guys had figured anything out about her, then they would have realized that the standard threats wouldn’t move her. So there would be bad guys coming after them in new and odd ways and Kayla was likely already in someone’s crosshairs.

  He could have a nightmare and chances were good it would be a better option than this. After all these years of just him and Kayla standing up to the world, he couldn’t lose her. And beyond that, she loved this machine. He couldn’t ask her or even tell her to let it go. And he didn’t want to. He might not have Kayla’s end-goal drive, but he did know that if nothing changed, nothing would ever change.

  His words came out as a beaten consent, rather than the battle cry they should have been. “Screw the high price of gas. How do we patent?”

  Winters, finally, motioned toward the table.

  Apparently, Evan had asked the triggering question, leading the other man to understand that he finally gained some ground or had been accepted and it was time to sit like civilized people.

  Winters spoke while he arranged his papers. “Kayla is in the greatest danger. As the owner of the knowledge, that’s who these people will come after first. If she owns the patent and the company, then after they dispatch her, they can then follow the beneficiaries right down the line until they find someone who can be manipulated.” He looked at Kayla, and the grim nature of his stare turned Evan’s stomach. “You’re the inventor, so—”

  “No, Whitney invented it. And Reenie’s grandfather put further work into it, too. So, I worked on it, but I’m not the sole inventor.”

  Marcus wasn’t swayed. “You’re the only one alive who contributed to the design. You are the current owner of the intellectual property.”

  Lovely. That was a brilliant thought. Evan held back an actual groan.

  They all looked to Kayla.

  Kayla nodded. “So Whitney and Edwin Carroll and me?”

  Marcus shook his head. “They’re dead. Only you.”

  Evan felt his muscles freeze at the thought.

  Ivy’s voice cut through the haze he was seeing. “Well, that’s sucky.”

  Leave it to an ex-stripper with a Ph.D. to use “sucky” to describe this situation.

  But Kayla missed all the emotion running rampant around her, leaving Evan to field the innate fear that went with wondering if someone was right outside the door. With being concerned that there was now a bug inside the house, maybe in this room. He kicked himself for being so slow, but for the first time he thought maybe it wasn’t a thing, but a person.

  “I need your phone. And any recording devices you have.” Evan blurted to Marcus.

  The lawyer didn’t even blink, just handed over one of each and said, “I’m kind of surprised it took you this long to ask. You can pat me down, I’m not wearing any weapons or doing any kind of recording.” After a small pause, he sat back and kept going. “Kayla will hold the patent, but we need to create a corporate board to own it. Remember, everyone who owns the machine is at risk. So who’s on the board?”

  He looked at Kayla first, then one by one at the rest of them.

  Evan raised his hand, volunteering himself. Kayla nodded. “Reenie, too. If you want. Your grandfather is part of the design team, you should at least get some credit or royalties or something.”

  “No.” Evan put his foot down. He couldn’t keep Kayla off the list but he didn’t have to have Reenie on it, too.

  “I’m in.” Reenie’s voice was soft, but sure. She didn’t stiffen, she didn’t get angry; she simply gave him a sad smile. And that killed him more than anything.

  Evan’s eyes sank closed.

  He’d never been able to save anyone he loved.

  His parents had died. They were two folks who loved a good party and lived in a world of social networking back when that meant appetizers and martinis with friends. His father’s blood alcohol had been just over the legal limit the night they put the car into that tree.

  He hadn’t been able to stop the school kids from bullying his very intelligent sister. Though he’d put a damper on it for a while, he’d graduated and hadn’t been able to do much other than tell a few younger friends to watch out for her. But while they’d done a passable job, Kayla had been exposed to small ridicules every day at school.

  He hadn’t been able to get his socialite mother to see the wonder in her daughter. She only saw a girl who hated dresses and parties and didn’t have many friends. He had never been able to get his father to enjoy anything about her other than the fact that his only daughter could calculate baseball statistics fast enough to impress his friends.

  He couldn’t keep Reenie out of debt and clearly he couldn’t keep her name off the corporate documents. And while his heart hurt, he realized he loved Reenie so much that some of it was eased. He nodded at her and let her squeeze his hand. Reenie loved him enough to take some of the weight. Even when the creator of all that stress could never change it, and in fact had created all these problems just by doing something amazing. He allowed the small amount of weight Reenie’s gesture lifted from his conscience to disappear into the ether to never be borne again. He had enough to carry.

      

  Kayla smiled at Reenie. Good for her. The machine was trouble right now, but the device was Reenie’s family legacy and she deserved something for the contribution Edwin Carroll had made. It was the least the universe could do to make up for the fact that her grandfather had been taken away from her, likely murdered over this same device.

  Kayla looked to Ivy and Reggie. “You, too, if you want.”

  Ivy looked a bit shocked. “I’m not family. I didn’t invent it, I didn’t build it.”

  Kayla pulled her friend’s hand from where she was waving it, palm out, as though to ward off the patent-monster. “You don’t have to be on if you don’t want to. But you did help build it. You brought me food and made me get some sleep and drove me to Cleveland more than once. You made it possible for me to make the machine possible.”

  Ivy blinked rapidly, and it took Kayla a moment to realize the dark eyelashes were batting back forming tears. Kayla offered a sadder note, too. “You were kidnapped over it. You’re part of it. Also that puts three different family names on the corporation. The further our reach, the stronger the patent.”

  Ivy smiled at her, the tears gone. But she looked to Evan and Reenie. “Y’all are family. You can vote and I won’t be offended if you say no. But if you want me, and if my name adds strength to this sucker, put me on.”

  Kayla looked to Reenie and Evan. Their fingers were interlaced, Evan’s tight on Reenie’s more accepting ones. “Reggie, too.”

  Reenie nodded. But Evan reacted swiftly and fiercely. “No! He doesn’t get to come in here with photographers or worse and walk out with a piece of this thing!”

  Kayla shrugged. “He’s already a part of it. He gave us Edwin Carroll’s design, he made it possible. And most importantly, as soon as he goes home, they can’t kill us all in one house.”

  That made Evan start to shake his head as though that would remove the nasty thoughts. He was mad at the situation, but there was nothing for him to hit. She wished she had a two-by-four and a sanding belt or a hand saw for him. Maybe he’d feel better after obliterating a board or something. But she didn’t have that. “Marcus, too.”

  “What!?” Evan almost jumped out of his seat at her. He would have if Reenie hadn’t held him back. As it was, he looked at Kayla like he was for the first time truly contemplating having her committed.

  Reenie’s face changed though. She was thinking, and she tugged at Evan’s hand. “Kayla’s right, honey. Even if we add both of them we would still have a controlling percentage.” She looked to Marcus, “Right, we can do that?”

  “I can add a document that deals with the sale or any alterations to the patent, so that i
t must be handled by the entire group and that power of attorney may not be signed away by any of the owners.” He scratched something in a Sanskrit-looking scrawl on his legal pad. “I don’t need or want to be on it.”

  “And that’s exactly why I want you on it.” Kayla looked him right in the eyes. “You’ll be tied to both us and the device. You can’t sell it, so you’ll have to protect it.”

  28

  The Back Parlor, Hazelton House

  “Shouldn’t we go somewhere else?” Ivy put her palms flat on the table and leaned forward. “If we’re all targets, shouldn’t we split up?”

  Kayla rested her hand on her friend’s arm, still surprised by the warmth she felt from that simple touch. “We can’t do this over the phone or Internet; we know we’ve been hacked. We all have to be in one place, at least for a while. And this is the best place. There are so many doors and windows and egresses that we have the best chance of escape. And we have to protect the plantation, the devices.”

  “Can we at least get some big dogs?” Ivy set her forehead on the table as though the smell of burnt wood and the fumes that lingered from the extinguishers had done her in, worn her out.

  Kayla perked up. Why hadn’t they thought of that before? “That’s a great idea!”

  When Evan agreed, she knew the world had gone to hell.

  He’d never permitted a pet; he had her. She was the thing he had to feed and check up on and take care of because it couldn’t take care of itself. Not that that was completely true, but adding a dog—something else he’d be responsible for—had always been something he insisted would never happen. His easy acquiescence now showed how far down their world had spiraled.

  Kayla saw Reenie slide her hand to his and squeeze. “Tomorrow morning? The shelter?” But she was looking at Kayla.

  Kayla heart clutched tight in a moment of sharp happiness. Things were in the crapper, but she was finally getting a dog!

  Evan sighed. “Get four.”

  Her mouth dropped open, as did Ivy’s. Reenie smiled. Kayla’s chest tightened again.

  Marcus cleared his throat. “That’s a good idea. Dogs are harder to circumvent than security systems.”

  Kayla noticed he didn’t say “‘impossible,” but he was talking again, cleanly steering them back to the topic at hand.

  “We’ll need someone to draft the designs for the patent.”

  “I can do it.” Kayla perked up again.

  He smiled at her, softly with some sorrow in it. “It’s for patent and corporate designs. We’ll have to find another—trustworthy—professional to bring in.”

  She wondered why he hadn’t added “sorry, honey” or patted her on the head. She was opening her mouth when Evan beat her to it.

  “She is a professional. And we already have enough people in this little cabal. No one tells anyone else.” He glared at each person in turn, which Kayla thought was wasted because no one had any desire to spread this any further.

  Marcus eventually gave in, and a while later they all signed what Kayla pegged as rudimentary incorporation documents. The sole purpose of this little company was to control and protect the device. Then he turned to Kayla.

  “What do you want to do with this machine?”

  She looked from side to side not knowing what to say and her answer came out with that same tone. “I want to power my house? . . . and be left alone.”

  Marcus looked at her weird. Well, he should have known better than to ask an Aspy such an unpointed question. “Do you want to sell the design to a factory to produce them? Or create your own manufacturing plan? Do you want to run seminars to teach people how to build their own? How do you want to get it out there?”

  She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I thought we could post it on the Internet?”

  He shook his head. “There’s no money in that.”

  She had money. She didn’t need money. People needed power. And the earth needed less carbon dioxide.

  As Reggie smiled, Winter got the hint. But he turned first to the older man. “Is this okay with you?”

  Exasperated, Kayla frowned at him. “Then why did you ask me?! Reggie’s fine with it.”

  “Mr. Standish may want a return on his investment. Why don’t we let him answer?” Marcus turned and looked at the older man who was now grinning broadly.

  “You heard her. Let’s put it on the internet!”

  Marcus burst out. “But, sir. You’ll lose thousands, maybe millions of dollars on this! I can’t advise it.”

  Shut up, Marcus, Kayla thought, but bit her tongue, closing the portal of escape for the words inside her head.

  Reggie smiled sweetly at his young lawyer. “So? I have money. And they already took this away from me once. More importantly, they took my friend, and look what they did to you. I think a little healthy revenge is in order.”

  “You may not have any money left when this is over.” Marcus muttered under his breath.

  “I heard you, young man. And I don’t care.”

  “All right.” Marcus Winter, Esquire, gave up the fight. “Next order of business, then. Kayla, you need to teach a master class in how to build this thing. ASAP.” Then he turned back to the group. “Who’s going to learn?”

  “Everyone but you.” Kayla smiled.

  Reenie’s eyebrows went up. She probably thought that was pretty ballsy. Ivy was trying not to laugh and Evan was simply in agreement with her.

  Marcus just nodded. “Then we all go home and get some sleep. The rest of you reconvene tomorrow, bright and early. I need all five of you able to build a working model by end of day.”

  He packed up the few things he’d taken out of his briefcase, snapping it closed and turning for the door with a few “thank yous” and “goodnights” as though they had simply had him over for drinks and appetizers.

  Reggie stood, too. “I’m going to follow him. Two cars are harder to get. I’ll be back tomorrow morning at seven?” He looked to Kayla and she nodded, though Reenie grumbled, “I hate you both.”

  Then it was just the four of them again. All dead on their feet. All ready to crumble.

  Suggesting she was the least in need of sleep, Ivy volunteered for the first shift of watch. She would sit in the hallway and read, walking a circuit of the house every twenty minutes to half hour. In three hours, she would wake Evan, who was already as far down on the watch list as he could stand to be.

  All four of them got ready for bed in shifts, and Kayla was tucked under her covers alone, unable to sleep, when she heard the voices in the hall.

  “Get some sleep, Evan. I’m here. I’ll defend her with my life.”

  Kayla blinked at the vehemence in her friend’s voice.

  “Why?” Evan asked back.

  It’s what she wanted to know, too.

  Another sigh from Ivy. “Because, she makes the world better, and we can’t let anything happen to her. Because this has to be done. Everyone’s tired of high gas prices and even more, we don’t deserve to be jerked around by big companies because we don’t have other options. Some people can’t feed their kids while these companies are posting record profits. I’ve always hated it, but I didn’t have a viable alternative. So I didn’t do anything. We’re the David here, but I’m in this.”

  “We’re going to take down a Goliath, aren’t we?”

  Kayla could almost see Evan, slumped against the wall next to Ivy, not sleeping like he should be. “Or we’ll die trying? . . . You would really save Kayla over yourself?”

  Maybe Ivy had nodded. Kayla didn’t hear anything. Not until, “In case you you’ve been too slow to figure it out, I’m in love with your sister.”

      

  “Wait, why does this piece go here?” Evan was two seconds from swearing a blue streak.

  Though Kayla was a brilliant mechanic and electrician, she was a terrible teacher. Her answers were often “because that’s how mechanics work” or something equally pointless. Her teaching method appeared to
be: build a demo model, then ask the “students” to build one from scratch and point out what they’d misplaced or why their model would blow up the earth or such.

  Evan felt bad for Reenie and worse for Ivy. Reenie—the architect—had a good sense of three-dimensions and mechanics. But Ivy was the artist. She was the one who’d commented early that she liked the standard ‘repetition and variation’ of the gear design.

  In spite of this, Ivy had held it together best. She also sported the most band-aids. Reggie had smiled his way through failed model after failed model. He smiled despite Kayla’s obvious frustration with all of them. And he soothed her by saying that if she wanted to give her machine away, she had to be able to teach other people how to assemble it or else she’d end up as a line worker, building each one by hand.

  Evan had latched onto that, more than once mumbling, “Be nice, Kay, or you’ll die in a factory.”

  He felt he’d finally achieved a decent grasp on the mechanics when Reenie tapped out. She stood up from where they were all hunched up, building like the factory workers he threatened Kayla with becoming. His sister wasn’t quiet about her discontent, not with them or even the lighting. He knew Kay saw deep irony in building Whitney Devices under lights powered by the grid.

  Reenie called a halt to the whole thing. She stretched, putting her hands low on her back and arching with a sigh. “We need lunch. And dogs.”

  Reggie nodded. “I’m buying.”

  Kayla, instantly forgetting to be irritated at her failing students, perked up. “Lunch or dogs?”

  The older man shrugged in a gesture that looked young on him. “Both. Dogs keep you safe. I need you all safe.”

  No one mentioned that the whole point of this exercise was to make sure that if anything happened to any one of them, or particularly to Kayla, that the knowledge of the machine didn’t die with them.