Live and Let Shop

by Michael P. Spradlin

  Hope you are well,

  Jonathon Kim

  Everyone smiled as he finished reading his copy of the memo out loud and replaced it in the file folder.

  “Satisfied?” he said. We all nodded.

  “Very well. Now that we’ve resolved this, I do need to speak to Rachel alone for a few moments.” They all looked at me, and I nodded my thanks. For about the millionth time since I’d gotten to Blackthorn, I felt like crying. Only, this time it wasn’t because I was mad or upset. It was because for the first time I could ever remember someone had stood up for me and hadn’t left me to fend for myself. I had never felt this way before. Maybe that Alex wasn’t such a big muscle head after all. I tried to compose myself as they all turned and filed out of the room. When they had gone, Mr. Kim turned to look at me.

  “Mr. Kim, you’re really not kicking me out? Are you really sending that memo to the judge?”

  “I am not kicking you out, and yes, that memo has already been sent to the judge. Yesterday, in fact. That is a copy that will go in your file.”

  “I don’t get it.” I was horribly confused.

  “Is there something in the report you don’t understand?”

  “No, that’s not it. I don’t get the whole thing. All of it. You, Mithras, this room, Simon Blankenship? Do you really believe this Simon guy with his supernatural Mithras coming out of the underworld to rule mankind stuff? That he is the human heir to Mithras?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Now I was stunned. I had convinced myself that Blankenship was crazy. Delusional. He’d latched on to this old religion and somehow it fed his fantasy of ruling the world. It couldn’t be real. It was just the ravings of a madman. Wasn’t it? Now Mr. Kim was telling me he believed it was true?

  “You can’t be serious,” I said.

  “Don’t misunderstand me, Rachel. One’s beliefs are relative. There are many mysteries of the world, many forces and powers that cannot be explained. Do I believe that there is a ‘real’ god Mithras? I don’t know. But Simon Blankenship believes it, and he has convinced untold thousands of others to believe it as well. That belief has caused his followers to do evil. So whether Mithras is real or not is irrelevant. The believers like Simon have made Mithras real and have caused pain, suffering, and death because of it. They must be stopped. Do you understand?”

  “I guess,” I said, still puzzled. “What happens now?”

  “That is up to you. You did a very dangerous thing. You put yourself and your friends’ lives in peril, and that is not something to be taken lightly. But your motives were pure. You were reckless and undisciplined, but at the same time you were bold and aggressive. You were, simply put, very impressive. You need more training and more discipline, but I think you have shown some remarkable skills and talents.”

  “I don’t know about all that. I was just following my instincts,” I said.

  “I know. And your instincts were correct. If I had tracked Simon to the ship without your intervention, I have no doubt he would have made every effort to kill me. I’m sure he had a trap set for me. The four of you jumping into things upset his plans and forced him to improvise.” I thought about that.

  “There is one thing bothering me, Mr. Kim. How did Blankenship know where to find us? I mean, he sort of came out of nowhere.” I said.

  “Don’t forget Simon’s network, Rachel. It is vast. I’m sure he even has contacts inside the FBI. I’m certain he was keeping track of Agent Tyler’s movements, and when he discovered your intrusion, perhaps he thought that if he captured the four of you, he could use you to get to me. As you saw, Simon is quite displeased with me.” I guess that made sense. Although I wished he had used another word instead of “intrusion.” How about “brilliant observation” or “outstanding detective work.” Those are much better than “intrusion.”

  “So where does this leave us?” I asked.

  “It must be your decision, Rachel. You know about me. You know about the school. If you stay, the four of you can’t say anything about any of this to anyone without my approval. But if you choose to leave, I will understand. I think I can intervene with Judge Kerrigan. You won’t have to go to Juvenile Hall. You can return home.”

  “Well, as I told you before, I still have some conditions,” I said.

  “Rachel…,” he started.

  “No. Hear me out. If I stay, I want the four of us to be involved in this. I want to help look for Blankenship. The four of us worked well together, Mr. Kim. If this guy is as bad as you say, then it sounds like you need all the help you can get.”

  “Rachel, this is not a game. Simon is a very evil man. And you are all in peril now that he knows that you know about him. He will be watching for the four of you. Stay here at the academy. I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to answer your questions and help you develop your gifts. But you must decide whether you can trust me or not. I believe with all my heart that you truly belong here. In time, I think you will feel that way as well,” he said.

  I was beginning to think that Mr. Kim was just as stubborn as me. Time to change tactics.

  “Mr. Kim, I’m sorry that I wrecked the Book of Seraphim. I know it’s priceless and everything. I feel bad that’s it’s been lost,” I said.

  Mr. Kim smiled and walked to the wall across the room. There was a safe built into the wall there, with a small screen next to it. He put his palm on the screen and a green light flashed over his hand and the safe clicked open. He reached inside, pulled out the Book of Seraphim, and laid it on the table before me.

  “But what? I thought…” I was stunned. How had he pulled this off?

  Then it all became clear. I remembered the replica of the Randall Gallery in the Top Floor wing. Mr. Kim must have replaced the real Book of Seraphim with a duplicate. Simon had stolen the wrong book!

  “But why?” I said.

  “There are many reasons. Foremost is that we cannot risk the book coming into Simon’s hands, even for a short time. When the Kuzbekistan government foolishly agreed to put the book on display, I knew Simon would try to steal it. We replaced it with a very good forgery. A trusted contact inside the Kuzbekistani Ministry of Antiquities assisted us in constructing the fake. No one knew about this except for myself, Agent Tyler, and a few Kuzbekistanis that I trust. We know Simon has people inside their government as well as the FBI, so we needed to keep our plan secret. Of course, the duplicate is not an actual translation of the book—we couldn’t allow Simon to have an accurate copy.

  “We searched the river bottom near the ship and couldn’t find the fake book. Apparently Simon was able to retrieve it before he escaped. I am sure he will have a team of experts attempt to restore it, but it will do him no good.”

  “So what are you going to do with the real book?” I asked.

  “We are going to study it and learn all that we can from it. Even if he is able to repair and restore the stolen book, eventually Simon will learn that he has been duped. This will buy us some time. If we can decipher the mysteries of the book, then we can find the artifacts before Simon can and keep them safe.”

  That Mr. Kim. What a tricky one he was.

  “Then I really screwed up by trying to rescue the book, didn’t I? If we’d left it there, Simon would have it and your plan would have been perfect.” I felt really stupid.

  “Actually, no. I think your rescuing the book worked to our advantage. Because you took such great strides to save it, unknowingly and therefore convincingly, Simon will believe, for a while at least, that he has the real thing. Without realizing it, you actually did a very good job.” I did?

  “So you built that replica gallery to figure out how to switch the books so no one would know.” I was starting to see the whole picture now.

  “That is correct. That is the exact purpose of the Top Floor wing—for training and practice in various exercises like this. The field trip was a perfect cover for a few of the TF students to install circuit interrupters that would help us bypass the
alarms. We were able to get in and replace the book before Simon stole it.”

  “But I still don’t understand. If you knew Simon had stolen a fake book, why were you so upset with Agent Tyler that day? That was what made me so curious in the first place. You never get upset about anything.”

  Mr. Kim smiled. “I’m afraid I’m only human, Rachel. I was angry with Agent Tyler because his team had managed to lose Simon and his crew after they broke into the gallery. It was our best chance in years to capture Simon, and it was squandered. That upset me. So I took it upon myself to try to find him before he could leave the country.”

  For a moment I thought about Blankenship and that horrible creature I’d seen in the hold of the ship. Maybe Simon had had help getting away and it wasn’t agent Tyler’s fault. Maybe he had supernatural help. I shuddered.

  “Look, Rachel, there is much I cannot tell you yet. I realize you are not entirely comfortable at Blackthorn. However, I am going to ask you to make a leap of faith and stay. Please trust me when I say it is for your own good.” He was so sincere. It was a little unnerving.

  I thought for a moment. I thought about my life and how I had always been on my own. How I couldn’t trust people and always had to fend for myself. And now here was Mr. Kim saying “trust me” yet again, like that first night in the woods. The difference was that in the short time I’d been there, Mr. Kim and the others had shown me that I could trust them. Maybe things really were different here.

  “Mr. Kim, I know you mean well. I just…well, it’s hard for me to trust anyone but myself sometimes. Can’t you tell me something about why you think it is so important that I stay? Please?” I didn’t know what else to do. Part of me wanted to stay. Part of me wanted to run away and hide and hope that I never saw that man-bull-thing ever again.

  Mr. Kim was quiet for a long time, and the look on his face said that he was weighing something very heavily. Then he spoke.

  “Rachel, what did you learn about Mithras in your research down here?”

  “Just the basic stuff. God of darkness and the afterlife. Worshiped mostly by legions of the Roman Army. Was popular for a while but then died out.”

  “Did you read anything more about the mythology?”

  “No.”

  Mr. Kim walked over to a file cabinet and pulled out a book.

  “There are several variations to the story of Mithras as it spread throughout the world. One version tells us that Mithras was finally banished to the underworld by Etherea, a goddess of Light. Her myth became very popular in the Persian Empire as its influence grew and the Roman Empire’s influence declined. In the Persian version of the myth, it was believed that Etherea was sent by the gods to punish Mithras for attempting to rule the world. It is said that one day the gods will grant Mithras his freedom from the underworld and allow him to battle Etherea once again for control of the Darkness and the Light. That is the story, anyway.”

  “Neat. But what has that got to do with me?” Truth be told, it sounded kind of boring, and I was pretty sure I had seen a story just like this on an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess.

  “Everything,” said Mr. Kim.

  He laid the book on the table before me, open to a reproduction of a painting. In the painting a woman floated in the air above the clouds, pointing to a man/bull creature that was disappearing into a cave in the side of a mountain. The man/bull was Mithras and the woman was Etherea, goddess of Light. I know this because I read the caption. I also know this because it looked exactly like the creature thing I’d seen on the ship and that made me want to hurl right there.

  But then my breath caught in my throat. Mithras was saluting Etherea as he stepped into the darkness, a funny salute with his fingers spread wide and his thumb touching the center of his chest. The exact same salute that Simon Blankenship had made to me as he watched us run away.

  “What? Why?” I felt the hair on the back of my neck start to rise and my palms start to sweat. It felt like my body was a coiled spring and if there was one more twist I was going to snap. As if I didn’t already have an active enough imagination.

  “It has more to do with Simon than it does with you, I think. Simon believes that Mithras will soon rise from the Darkness. He has something up his sleeve. He believes he can summon Mithras soon and start the battle for dominion over mankind. Now, in his insane mind, he believes he has found Etherea. And I think he thinks it is you. So now, Rachel, we have to see this through. There is a madman out there who has you in his sights. And he won’t stop hunting until he’s found you. That leaves us only one option.”

  “What’s that?” I said.

  “We must find him first.”

  Don’t miss Rachel’s next whirlwind adventure in

  SPY GODDESS BOOK TWO To Hawaii, with Love

  And the Oscar Goes to Rachel Buchanan

  We made it to the Charter Office at the airport by nine o’clock. Alex parked the van at the back end of the parking lot so no one in the office would see us get out by ourselves. Before we had left I had dug through the stuff I’d brought from home, and in the van I put on all my rings and earrings and teased up my hair. I wanted to look as “Beverly Hills” as possible. I put my Ray-Ban sunglasses on to complete the effect. I strode into the office having a pretend conversation on my cell phone.

  “I don’t know what Tad could have been thinking! Taking Mitzi to Spago’s after Winter Ball in the Jaguar XL? That is so last year,” I said to no one.

  There was a middle-aged guy behind the counter. He looked up as I came in. I smiled and he smiled back, and I held up a finger as if to say I’d be with him when I finished my so-important call.

  “Listen, darling, I’ve got to go. When I’m home on break we will turn Rodeo Drive into a smoking hole in the ground. There is simply no place to shop here. I mean, the mall? Please. Anyway, gotta run. Kiss kiss. Ciao!”

  I snapped my phone shut and launched into diva mode.

  “I’m Rachel Buchanan. My daddy has arranged for us to take a charter flight to our environmental conference in Hawaii. I assume you have our reservation?”

  He picked up a file folder on the counter and smiled.

  “Hello, Miss Buchanan. My name is Frank Hansen, owner of the company. I have all of your material right here.”

  “Good. Let’s get going. We have dolphins to save,” I said.

  That was when Mr. Hansen frowned. Uh-oh.

  “Don’t you have an adult going with you?”

  “No. Since Daddy made the reservation, and Buchanan Enterprises is paying for the flight, the school decided we could fly on our own. We’re being met in Hawaii by a representative from the conference.” I put a heavy emphasis on “Buchanan Enterprises” because I had a feeling I was going to need the full weight of Charles Buchanan pretty soon.

  “I’m afraid there’s been a mistake. We can’t fly unaccompanied minors.”

  Like now.

  “Are you serious? I can’t believe this. My father—Charles Buchanan, I’m sure you’ve heard of him—is going to be so furious. Why weren’t we told this? Now we’re going to miss the conference and dolphins will die and it will all be your fault!” Mr. Hansen gulped and started looking through the papers in the file.

  “I’m very sorry, Ms. Buchanan…but our policy clearly states…”

  I held up my hand and reached into my pocket for the cell phone. I pretended to dial my dad.

  “Hello, Theresa, it’s Rachel.” I put a near-hysterical sob in my voice. “Is my daddy there?”

  Mr. Hansen looked a little nervous. He knew who my father was and he could see maybe this wasn’t going to work out so well for him. At the very least, he’d be out a huge fee for the flight. I launched into a full-fledged wail.

  “We’re at the airport and this mean man is giving us problems. Apparently he doesn’t want to take us because of some policy about unescorted minors. Daddy knows how important the dolphins are to me. I want him to fix it!”

  I covered the phone with my
hand like I didn’t want “Theresa” to hear me and addressed Mr. Hansen again.

  “I don’t know what kind of operation you are running here, mister, but my father will have plenty to say to you. You could have gotten a lot of business from Buchanan Enterprises out of this, because my daddy loves me and wants me happy. And now the dolphins are going to die!” I started to cry. Pilar, Brent, and Alex just stared at me openmouthed.

  I took my hand away from the phone and spoke into it again.

  “I don’t care if he’s meeting with the governor, Theresa! There is a really mean man here and he’s not going to fly us and I want Daddy to fix it! Didn’t I tell you there are dolphin lives depending on this? Not to mention the poor humpback whales? I want you to make sure that Daddy never uses this company again, and I want him to get Marvin to file a lawsuit because I can’t get to the conference and the whales and dolphins…”

  “Miss Buchanan!” Mr. Hansen shouted at me and waved his arms. “Miss Buchanan, please, it’s okay. You’re all seventeen years of age, aren’t you?” he asked.

  Everyone nodded. “Well, of course we’re seventeen,” I said.

  “Great, we can fly seventeen-year-olds. Unaccompanied seventeen-year-olds are okay.” He stopped and rubbed his forehead. I felt bad jerking the guy around, but we had a supervillain to thwart and we were in a hurry. I starting chanting in my head: Don’t ask for ID, don’t ask for ID, don’t ask for ID.

  “Are you sure? Because I can talk to my father. The governor won’t mind waiting.” I said.

  “No need, no need, we’ll get you to Hawaii. All the paperwork is in order and the flight has been paid for. Please, really, there is no reason to upset your father. We’ll get you on your flight.”

  “Never mind, Theresa, he’s taking us,” I said, and flipped the phone shut.

  Thirty minutes later we were airborne.