Probe

by Douglas E Roff

  “I was wondering if we might have a talk this morning. Downstairs, before we start work.”

  “In the dungeon? Is it something secret, you know something luscious? Maybe some gossip about Vera Capri?”

  “No, not Vera. Not Hannah either. In fact, nothing like that at all. Something about you and me.”

  “Oh, boring stuff, I suppose. Bits and bytes? Or is Mom being … Mom again? Pop’s still upset and wants me to have a talk with the dragon lady?”

  “No, all good on the Western Front. At least as far as I know. Pops is a doll; your Mom is a voodoo doll.”

  Adam hadn’t looked up, instead managing the eggs, and buttered toasted raisin bagels that Alana had requested this morning. A little unusual but, not out of the ordinary. Alana, among the entire Barrows Bay family, was the only one who truly loved his French Toast and pancakes. This delighted Adam to no end and he hoped that Alana wasn’t just tolerating his favorite specialties to make him happy.

  In fact, she was not. But whether it was the French Toast, or the man making of the French Toast, would never be completely clear to her. But that he was cooking for her in the morning, delighted, and pleased her to no end. Had she not known any better, she might have thought his cooking skills somewhat erotic. Foreplay to their working relationship.

  This morning, for some reason, erased all doubt.

  “No, I had something else on my mind today. Not work, not the project and not family.”

  “What’s left?” Adam Labored on almost absentmindedly, easing the eggs from the frying pan onto her plate. He collected the bagel from the toaster, quickly buttered it, then presented his masterpiece to her place setting. Without a word, he quickly refilled her coffee cup, then sat at his chair opposite her, eating some rather plain looking oatmeal.

  “That looks dull,” Alana said, looking at his bowl. “I feel guilty that I got the good stuff. Want to share?”

  “Nope. To my steel cut oatmeal, I will add a little brown sugar, butter then a little half and half. I’ll be on a sugar high any moment now but pay no attention. Plus, the coffee is that new stuff I ordered from Ecuador. God it’s tasty.”

  Alana smiled and picked at her eggs.

  “Something wrong? Am I in trouble for something?”

  “Hardly. Misti does have you well trained, however. Seems that’s your default question these days. You are whipped, my love.”

  “Noted and immensely happy. Now what’s on your mind? Something is troubling you. Seems you can’t get it out of your head this morning, so just spill. You know you can’t offend me; I’m too insensitive for that. What gives, Alana my love?”

  “Please don’t say that. You’re not insensitive, and I would never, ever try to offend you. Or hurt you; you mean too much to me. To all of us. And you are kind, very kind; not at all the way you like to portray yourself, Mr. Tuff guy.”

  “That’s because you don’t know me. Not very well, anyway. And I’m always on my best behavior with you for some reason. Maybe you just bring out the best in me.”

  Alana thought for a moment. “How much more do I need to know? To understand you as you think I should. How much more, how much more deeply?”

  “Hard to say, but certainly more than you do. As much as Noki or Misti. They know who I am; what I am. From different perspectives, of course.”

  Adam’s face was suddenly serious, and the lightness of early morning coffee and pleasant chit chat was gone.

  “OK. Please tell me what this is all about. Please. It isn’t like you to be cryptic.”

  “Don’t be so suspicious Adam. I just want to talk. About something important. To me. And I don’t like this ‘you’ I’m seeing right now. You’re scaring me.”

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to. I just tense up a little when you seemed to … avoid the question. And yes, I am suspicious. It’s my natural state, especially these days. People trying to kill me, you know.”

  “You’re not the only one, bub. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt. At last count, seven or eight t-shirts. But who’s counting? You only have one, you pussy.”

  Adam smiled, collecting himself, and said, “You’re right, of course. Let’s finish breakfast and go downstairs so we can talk in private. It’s what you want, right?”

  “Yes. To be alone with you, handsome.”

  “Now you really are scaring me. Did Misti put you up to this? This something?”

  “This what?”

  “No good?”

  “May-be. May-be not. Let’s go, big boy. Down to my private place.”

  ***

  Alana grabbed the coffee jar Adam had used to make coffee that morning and the two shuffled downstairs to her office, closing and locking the outer door and her inner office door.”

  Adam said, “I think it’s just the two of us. Probably for a few more hours. Noki and Misti sleep like rocks and a thermonuclear device couldn’t get them up.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Alana said. “Habit. I have a price on my head you know. Always on edge. Dad thought…”

  “Thought?”

  “Thought I should be careful. More careful than ever before.”

  “He was right. But you’re now in the custody of the Eight Families in Barrows Bay. You’ll be safe for at least the next ten minutes. Maybe even fifteen.”

  “I’m reassured.”

  “So, what exactly is on your mind?”

  “We have never really spoken too much about the aftermath of Hawaii. The mind meld, the physical stuff, the other stuff. And we didn’t talk much about San Diego, either before or after. And then there are some things, things that have been on my mind since the beginning. But now I need to talk to you about them. And Noki and Misti.”

  “Well, that won’t take long. Especially if it involves just those minor things. I mean…”

  “Be-have!”

  “Brat!”

  “Now what I wanted to say was that I think I’m finally ready to, you know, try to do the mind meld thingy you do. Did. With me. And with Noki.”

  “Don’t forget Vera. Or Hannah.”

  “Or sex.”

  “Well, there’s that too, of course. I mean I am…”

  “Humble?”

  “Not the word I was searching for, but yes. Let’s go with that. Humble.”

  “Sit down on the couch.”

  “What?”

  “Do as you’re instructed, please.”

  “You’re turning into a tyrant too, you know. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were sleeping with Misti Alarcon. St. James. Whatever.”

  Adam sat down on Alana’s couch. Alana jumped on his lap, looked down at him with the most beautiful pool green eyes he had ever seen.

  “Now, mister. You’re going to connect your mind to mine, and we’re going to take a test run.”

  Adam reached for her head with his hands, to place his thumbs on her temples.

  “Wait a second, buddy. I think you’re forgetting the main connection.”

  “The…”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, that connection. A gentleman never presumes, you know.”

  “From now on, you may presume … that. With me, anyway. That’s was the other piece of business I wanted to discuss with you. But, let’s skip the discussion, and go straight to the consummation. Unless you object.”

  Adam said nothing.

  “Well I can feel some, uh, hard movement down there. So, I guess you don’t object. Not strenuously anyway.”

  “Actions do speak louder than words. Or so I’m told.”

  “Then why don’t you plug in, and we can get started.”

  “You’re the boss.”

  “And you know just what to say.”

  Chapter 26

  It was actually early afternoon when Adam and Alana stopped their “communing”. Their first session had gone for an hour; their second for two. The third went on until Alana could bear no more. She was
exhausted, more mentally than physically, but she had been connected almost the entire time. Since she hadn’t had any skin-on-skin exercise there, well ever, she felt a wee bit sore. Friction. But as she said to Adam afterward, she was a game girl and needed the exercise.

  “Were you intending to go see Pops today? I think it’s your regular appointment.”

  “Cancelled.”

  “When?”

  “After session one. I was pretty sure after that little bit that I was going to want a smidge more.”

  “A smidge?”

  “It’s never a precise calculation. Not an international weight or measure. Kinda like a tad or a pinch.”

  “Really?”

  “You are arguing?”

  “As the beneficiary of the ‘smidge’, I am not. Definitely not. I’ll happily go along with your definition for as long as you’d like.”

  Alana smiled at Adam, “I wouldn’t mind another smidge.”

  “Nor would I.”

  ***

  Alana smiled, having composed herself after a somewhat lengthy session with Adam. They had taped a sheet of paper to the outer door leading into their offices. It read, “Do Not Disturb – Important Smidging in Progress”.

  Both Misti and Noki had come down to the basement to see what was going on but turned back when they saw the warning. Noki assumed that the time had finally come for Alana, and they would be told all about it when the pair was finished for the day. Noki remembered her first few heady days in London, and her appetite for all things Adam. Alana had a much more complicated pathology than Noki and a far different path to connection with Adam. Hers would take more time, more care and be far more dangerous. For both of them.

  No doubt Alana would initially take a more physical route in her journey with Adam; that would be just fine. She had earned her way, had waited until she was ready, but once connected, there would be no turning back. She knew so much more at the start, had been so much more prepared, and had so many more reasons to accept her connection to Adam. But, it would take time.

  Adam didn’t perceive any of this. But Alana did.

  Noki spoke to Misti, preparing her for what was next to come. Then, finally, afterwards, Misti would take that journey too. She would be the last, but equally essential piece. Misti would take that journey to understand how all the pieces, all the players fit in, fit together. And then she would be prepared to fulfill her role, and assist Adam with a future that was far from fixed, far from certain and far from safe.

  What Noki had seen with Adam was frightening and exhilarating; but it was only a handful of the many potential outcomes. As future turned to present and then to past, some new futures became more probable, some less. On the path to resolution, there would be pain. There would be casualties, but neither Noki nor Adam knew who they would be. No one could.

  In time, when all three women were connected to Adam fully, and he was able to join with the others, things would become clearer. Until then, they had to keep to the path, the only path they knew.

  Noki didn’t yet understand Adam’s connection to Hannah and Vera, except that, they too had a role in this future. Vera already knew that; she had connected to Adam and had visions of her own. Vera wouldn’t discuss those visions, only to say that what Adam had done had freed her and informed her of many possible things to come.

  Vera had then spoken to Noki, and told her she would await her role, whatever that would be, and whenever that would take place. Her time and visions were limited; but she knew there would be more and greater roles for her and for Hannah that weren’t anthropology and not logistics.

  Everything that had happened, in all the lives of all those now involved, would lead to a moment, a single moment in time and of the decision that Adam would have to make. Adam knew a lot, but he didn’t know what this would be. Noki was aware of the fact, but not the import, nor did she know what ‘this’ was yet. Alana would know next. Then Misti and Vera. When Hannah and the others came to this knowledge, the time would then come for Adam to choose.

  ***

  “This will take some time for me, you know. We can’t stop here and go on as if there isn’t more to do, more I need to explore about what happened in Hawaii.”

  “I know,” said Adam. “I was there too.”

  “Yes, but Noki tells me even your knowledge is incomplete. You need us all to complete your visions. And, I understand you have had more than one. Many more than one, and we all have pieces, parts to play. Only together will you be given the knowledge and the opportunity to set things right. But we all contribute to the acquisition of that knowledge as well as the future it may bring. Assuming you’re successful. Assuming we all are successful, that is.”

  “That’s what I understand too. But my insight, like yours, comes from Noki. She was supposed to be the first; somehow what happened to us wasn’t supposed to happen when it did. But it did. We easily could’ve been killed. I didn’t know how to control anything, and I didn’t understand the intensity of what had happened to you. But from that experience came other insights for me, and for you too, if you remember.”

  “I do.”

  “I don’t know if the two events are connected or are unconnected, but I now believe that Hawaii was a separate piece from a separate source.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning I don’t know. I truly do not. For now, I will not concern myself with the issue of causation and will only concentrate on what I know. And what I think I know. The reality of this whole situation is too real, too vital to be ignored. And we cannot simply do nothing. There are others I will need on this journey, at least I believe there are. Including Hannah and Vera. Maybe if we weren’t so important together, we could all retire to Barrows Bay and live quietly.”

  “Not possible, Adam. And we can’t look back or be afraid of the future. There will be pain and death. We will not all come out of this whole or maybe even alive. But there are a lot of souls on this planet whose continued existence depends on what we do. On making sound decisions that accomplish our work. Not just yours, Adam. All of ours.”

  “What do we do now? What would you have me do?”

  “I need a month with you. Alone. No sharing, no complications. No distractions. Misti and Noki will leave us for that time and go to family. We will work every day as we always have; no change. But when we aren’t working we need large amounts of time to join, to commune.”

  “Are Misti and Noki OK with this?”

  “It was their idea. Or perhaps it was just Noki. But in any event, that’s what they both want. I do too.”

  “Where will they go?”

  “Noki will stay with Rod and Cindy. Misti will stay with Edward and Bethy. It’s all been arranged.”

  “And the evening walks?”

  “No change there either. We all gather before dinner, as usual.”

  “Poker night, Sunday morning brunch?”

  “Cancelled until further notice.”

  “Afterwards?”

  “We return to the Manor, continue our work with Vera and Hannah and try to stay alive.”

  “Who’s ‘we’?”

  “’We are you, me, Misti and Noki. The girls will come along too with the Eagan’s. Rod and Cindy will visit whenever they can. Daddy, your Dad, Bethy, Mom and Pops will stay here as long as it’s safe. They will leave too, eventually, maybe even when we leave. But I fear that your Mom and Pops will never agree to leave. If they don’t, they’ll be in grave danger. The only one who can convince them to leave is you. Pops will listen to you; he always has. Your Mom will follow Pops if he decides they have to leave, and you need to tell them their grandchildren will need them around. And alive. Your Mom will be stubborn; too many happy memories in that home. Too many eventful and fateful decisions made. She will be inclined to weather the storm. But they’ll kill her if they get the chance, you know that. They’ll kill her to draw you out. You must make her understand, and Pops needs to underst
and this too. Tell them everything, not just the bits you’ve given them but everything. It’s the only way.”

  “It’s a burden. A burden they don’t need to bear. They’ve done so much, so very much. I owe them everything.”

  “If you love them, you’ll do this thing. Even if it hurts, you know you must. It’s the only way.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “It already has, Adam. You know this.”

  Chapter 27

  “Dr. St James? Uncle Edward? It’s Vicente Marquez here, and I’m calling from Casky in South Dakota. You asked us to call you if we saw something unusual with the prisoners. Well, we’re seeing something unusual.”

  “Explain please,” was his gruff reply, ignoring that Vicente was family, and that he was new on the job.

  “You asked us to keep questioning the prisoners about when this change was supposed to happen with them. Well every day several times a day we kept at it. No muscle, just asking. They wouldn’t say anything, so we just left it. Those were our instructions.”

  Edward softened his tone a bit, his brain now fully realizing just who Vicente was.

  “Something changed today?”

  “Yes sir. They got pretty, you know, agitated. Pacing, the shakes and sweating like they’re going through withdrawal. Not sure about any of that. Thought maybe they were addicts.”

  “Do you have all the cameras on them? All on and recording?”

  “Yes sir. Just like you ordered. Nothing’s changed.”

  “What else?”

  “They keep saying over and over again that they need it. Give it to them or we’d be sorry. I have no idea what that’s going on about, but they’re getting more agitated.”

  “OK, good. Now, are they in the individual holding cells or in the jungle room?”

  “Jungle room sir. Just like you said. But like I said, they seem pretty damn unhappy, and pretty damn agitated. They aren’t eating the meals we give them. Demanding … raw meat and live animals. What do you want us to do?”