Chapter 4
June 7th, 2004
Compass Financial Group Headquarters, San Francisco
From his revolving chair, Thomas Maxim Cardinal stared out of the window in his office in downtown San Francisco. Thomas was an Irish-American in his fifties, with black hair that faded to gray down the sides. Officially, he was the CEO of the Compass Financial Group, a collection of several chains of banks that operated mostly along the west coast of America. However, on the east coast, he was known as the boss of the Compass Mob, a fearsome Irish mafia. Only today were the two roles about to spill into one another, all thanks to one visitor.
Morgana came into the office wearing a black skirt-suit, buttoned at the top by her treasured brooch. She knocked on the wall to the side of the door, prompting Thomas to turn around in his chair, and greeted, "Good day, mister Cardinal."
Thomas greeted her in return. "Morgana, a pleasant surprise! I've never seen you in person before, and you look so beautiful!"
Morgana couldn't help but blush at the compliment offered to her, coyly replying, "Oh, thank you." Regaining her composure, she went on. "All pleasantries aside, I have a proposition for you. First of all, I assume you have read the files about me and the Omega Order?"
"I have, and I must say… I'm not exactly convinced. If you are indeed who you say you are… you know, a psychic, I shall require some demonstration of your powers. Just a little one, anything will do."
"As you wish. Now, let me see… Would you happen to have any spoons lying around here?"
"No, not unless we could go to the coffee room–"
"That won't be necessary. How about a pen?"
"Yes, I have those." He started to pick one up off his desk.
"Stop, please, stay where you are." Extending her hand, Morgana whisked a random pen off the desk using only her powers of telekinesis. "Impressive, no? But that's only the beginning. Now watch," she said as she rolled up her sleeves and held up her empty hand to show that she was hiding nothing. Then, grasping the pen in her fist and raising it to face level, she closed her eyes and concentrated her powers. When she opened them, the pen started to bend by itself, all the way to a ninety-degree angle! With a final "Ta-da!" she threw the pen back onto the desk and received some heavy applause from Thomas.
"Without a doubt, you've impressed me, Morgana. But certainly your powers aren't limited to such parlor tricks, am I right?"
"Obviously. Why, I could kill you now without so much as a snap of my fingers." She then snapped her fingers just to scare him. "But it would be bad for business if I demonstrated that here and now, with no one else around to volunteer. Speaking of which, I need to get down to business now. The Omega Order has experienced, shall we say, a loss of manpower as of recent. I propose that your Compass Mob join forces with us."
"Is this a good time to ask what's in it for us?"
"Psychics don't usually come this far into contact with regular humans – 'mortals', as we call them. But if you and your men would be willing to accept us for who we are, and cooperate with us, there are immense riches that we'd be willing to part with. Shall we go over the figures now?"
"Please," Thomas answered with great anticipation. "Would you care to sit down?"
"Thank you for the offer," Morgana graciously accepted, pulling a chair over from the wall using telekinesis. "For our first order of business, I need some help in netting some enemies of the Omega Order that I have been monitoring."
All of a sudden, Thomas's attention drifted to the bent pen lying on his table. "Excuse me, but would this be a bad time to ask if you could fix my pen?"
"Not at all, I'm sorry. Let me get that for you."
June 8th, 2004
Claude's Apartment, Santa Monica
As her multiple attempts at obtaining a drivers' license had all ended in complete failure, Alex had her friends drive her over to Claude's house for their date. She kept giving Sam directions until they arrived at the destination, which turned out to be a two-story apartment complex, like a motel with larger rooms and a pool out front, fenced off from all the non-residents. Claude's room was somewhere on the first level. Alex stood outside his door as she waved good-bye to her friends, and waited until they drove off before taking a deep breath and knocking on his door. His voice called out from inside, "Entrez-vous!" She was not expecting him to be speaking in French, so she assumed she misheard and did nothing. Soon he spoke again. "I said come in, silly!"
Alex did as she was told and, upon entering, first laid her eyes on Claude. He was in the middle of a butterfly stretch, his legs bent outwards on either side of him and his feet touching directly in front of his groin. Looking up at her, he greeted, "Ah, glad you could make it, Alex. And sorry for confusing you with the French."
"That, oh, that's no problem, really! The pleasure's all mine!"
"Just give me a moment to finish this stretch." Claude bent forward and held the stretch for thirty seconds as he explained, "Sometimes when I'm all alone, in the zone, you know, and someone comes knocking or something, my first instinct is to answer them in French. It's my first language and all, but I'm just as fluent in English too, so don't worry."
"That's a big help. Of course, a little French here and there doesn't hurt!"
"Indeed no," Claude grunted as he got up. It was only now that Alex could take a good look at what he was wearing. He had on the same outfit that he taught his class on Saturday in; only instead of shorts he wore blue swim briefs. These caught her eye most of all. She subtly pointed at them and commented, "Nice speedo. Seriously! It looks hot on you."
"At least you love them. A lot of people have made fun of me for wearing them. Must be an American thing. So, I hardly ever wear them while swimming anymore, just while training. It's a shame, 'cause I really love wearing them and, like you said, I've got the perfect body for them."
"Oh yeah, I mean, not just anybody can pull it off. But you, you're just so…" She cut herself off in mid-sentence and fell into a half-dream state, smitten by his sex appeal.
Claude shook Alex back to consciousness, taking the opportunity to observe what she was wearing: sweatpants and a tank top. "So, anyway," he asked. "In my call, I asked if you would dress warmly. Do you still have that leotard from Saturday or are you just going to train in those?"
"Oh no, Claude. I got something special just for you." She took off her outer clothes, revealing a sports bra and shorts in yellow with orange trim. An orange butterfly was printed on the front of her top, along with two orange stripes down each side of her shorts.
Now it was Claude's turn to fall into a partial daydream state. "That looks awesome, Alex," he said softly. "Now follow me."
He led her into his bedroom, where he folded his bed up into the wall and laid down two mats. However, the room felt hot to Alex. "Is it hot here," she asked, "or is it just us?"
They both laughed together, and then Claude explained, "I set the thermostat up to ninety degrees for our training today. Muscles stretch better once they've been warmed up, even literally. In fact, there's even a branch of yoga where people exercise in temperatures upwards of one hundred degrees! Then again, some experts prefer that you keep the heat down, since it's easier to breathe, and in that respect, I can't blame them. So, if the heat here is absolutely unbearable, just let me know and I can turn the thermostat down. But remember, no pain, no gain!"
"Aha, so that's why you wanted me to dress like this! Not just because you wanted to see me in… well, maybe that's part of it."
"In all honesty, yes, both are true. Now sit down, and I'll show you what we'll be working on. It's called 'the human knot.'" Alex sat cross-legged on one of the mats and watched Claude with undivided interest while he sat down and pulled his legs up and over behind his head, one at a time. Once he was finished, he leaned forward on his arms for support while Alex applauded profusely. At the same time, however, she realized the possibility that this might be too difficult for her to achieve. "Um, Claude…" she stammered, "What am I going to have to do to get into that? And won't I get stuck?"
"We'll mainly be doing frontbending exercises to achieve this. And don't worry; getting stuck isn't a real problem unless you go really far down your leg. Which I have achieved once or twice, without any problems, by the way. So, anyway, let's start by touching your toes."
Un-crossing her legs and extending them out in front of her, Alex was able to touch her toes on the first try. "So, how long do you want me to hold this?"
"Thirty seconds. Once we work up to a minute, we can go on." This felt like a very long thirty seconds to Alex, but soon the stretch was done. Alex took a breather, and then assumed the pose once more. This time, however, Claude pushed her back down to the floor, increasing the intensity of the stretch. After a few more repetitions, Alex was able to hold the stretch, with Claude pushing down on her, for a full minute. This routine went on for a number of different exercises, until finally, she was ready to attempt the knot.
At first, Alex could not achieve the knot without Claude pulling her into place, but when she did, it was a wondrous sensation that turned out not to be very painful at all. "I don't ever want to get out of this…" she sighed. However, Claude suggested that she do so and try to do it again herself. It took her some effort to bend her torso far enough forward so her feet would not slip out from behind her shoulder, but eventually she made it. Claude applauded her. "Thus ends the lesson for today, my student," he said with adoration.
"I've got to show this to my friends. You think they're ready for it?"
"I'm not sure what they're capable of, but if you go through the training routine we did together, they can definitely do it."
"Why not just teach it in your class next time?"
"It's on the agenda, don't worry. However, the advantage with doing it one-on-one as opposed to a class setting is the coaching I gave you, and from the looks of things, it sure made a difference. In the meantime, can I interest you in a massage before you leave? Massages are very good for contortionists, as their muscles need to be calmed down after a performance or such."
"I would love that, Claude. You think I could get a shower, too?"
"Oh… sure, there's a bathroom down the hall."
"Thanks…" She pecked him with a kiss as she added, "…For everything." Once she left, Claude fell back on his mat and sighed with joy. It wasn't everyday that he could give a backrub to a hot girl such as Alex. He got up and did some handstand moves just to pass the time, when he heard a car pull up in front of his apartment. Was it her friends, here to pick her up already? He looked at the alarm clock on his night table. It was fifteen past five already. The time certainly flew with Alex…
Then another thought came to him. Wouldn't she have called her friends when she was ready to be picked up? Without a doubt. However, she had not done so. Instinctively, he rushed out to his front door and looked out at the car, which turned out not to belong to Alex's friends. Instead, it was a red coupe, and out of it came two burly men in suits, followed by a young woman in some sort of black skirt-suit…
Morgana had come to visit. And she certainly was not interested in flexibility training.
