The Phone
Simone was getting nervous. She had done little but worry after her conversation with Brian, and it didn't help that Zane was late. He had always been on time before.
She had picked a public place for their meeting – a busy mall parking lot. She was able to watch the spot Zane was supposed to appear at from nearby – another spot in the parking lot. She saw no sign of anyone else watching their meeting place, but she was not going to approach until he did. That was their agreed-upon procedure.
She let worry consume her as she waited. She feared she had lost Whitley's trust, if not his support for her. She also thought that Brian was the problem, he had mentioned his visit to the Order's leader to Whitley even when he was asked not to say anything. She wasn't sure how much Whitley had been told about Brian's visit, nothing had really happened. Still, Whitley was on to them now.
At least she had confirmed that Chloe was the Uniter. That was all she would be able to give the Order, unless Zane was still around.
She stopped waiting when he was 15 minutes late. There was a procedure to follow if he couldn't make the meeting - he would contact her tomorrow. Still, she was worried enough that she couldn't stop herself from at least trying to reach him. She started her car and moved it to park near the entrance to a busy store.
As soon as she was in the store, Simone approached the most un-Mai like woman she could find and asked, "Do you have a phone I could borrow? I'm having car trouble and need to call someone."
When she was given the phone, she called Zane's number. The phone was answered, but not with a voice, just a click. She didn't speak, she just listened to the silence for a few seconds, then disconnected. She was nearly certain now that Zane had failed and was dead or captured.
She briefly considered ditching the phone, but it wouldn't keep the Mai from finding its owner. The owner was distracted, anyway, and Simone knew that, even if they did talk to the owner, she would not be able to give much of a description of the woman who had borrowed her phone. The Mai could get a better description out of Chloe, if that was what they wanted.
She returned phone with a soft 'thank you', then left the mall, wondering if she should send Brian to Zane's room to see if he could find any sign that Zane was still there.
The Meeting
Chloe was trying to force herself to feel something, trying to force her empathic power to work on Whitley as she followed him into the room. It wasn't working, so she decided to try to touch him - that sometimes triggered feelings.
"Mr. Rezza?" She began. He had pointed at a couple of chairs for her and her mother to sit at, but stopped and turned to look at her. "Can we start with a…handshake?"
Both adults were looking at her like she was crazy, and she wondered if it was too weird, when Whitley took a step in her direction and offered his hand.
It didn't help, Chloe got nothing as she weakly took his hand before moving to sit, blushing slightly. Whitley looked at Meredith, who was already sitting. She just shook her head and said "I'm good."
It was a long table – 15 or 16 chairs. Chloe and her mother sat on one side, near the door, Whitley sat immediately across from the Uniter. True to her promise to Janelle, Chloe left the door slightly ajar, knowing the Mai girl would not let anyone else get close enough to hear their conversation.
After demanding the handshake, Chloe expected some kind of sarcastic comment from Whitley. It didn't come, all he did was ask "So, what is this about?"
Chloe wished she had thought more about what she was going to say – she had been putting that off until last night, or today. But Zane happened, and she hadn't been able to think about it.
"You know who I am," the Uniter began, "I mean, other than being the daughter of someone whose company you will be investing in."
She forced a small smile at her attempt at a joke, but Whitley didn't react other than to nod slightly and say, "I know."
She took a breath, then added, "I just thought we should talk. I don't want to hurt anyone, I'm not hurting anyone. I'm hoping you might stop the people trying to kill me."
Whitley had kept eye contact with her to this point, his face serious, though not really glaring. Now he glanced towards Meredith for a few seconds, then he spoke to Chloe. "Do you know who you are, what you are?"
Chloe nodded and softly replied, "The Uniter."
"Do you know what that means? Do you know what is said about you?"
"Said? Said by who?" Chloe asked.
"The Order." Whitley clarified. "Do you know what they say?"
Chloe shook her head. "I don't know. I don't really know that much about what the Mai say about the Uniter, just that they're really glad I'm here." She glanced at her mother who was listening attentively, before her eyes returned to Whitley and she added "most of them, anyway."
Whitley gave her a questioning look, so she said, "Maybe all of them. Some of them just want to control me."
"You really have no idea of what you mean to the Mai, or to humans." He said it like it was a realization.
Chloe shook her head. "I wasn't raised by Mai. I didn't go to Mai school or Order school. I don't know what anyone says about me, I just know I'm the Uniter."
"Well, it's not good, not for humans."
Chloe's expression darkened as she tried to understand. "What do you mean?"
"Mai and humans don't mix," Whitley said. "The power you bring to them…"
"Chloe would never hurt anyone," Meredith interrupted. "I've told you that before."
Whitley skewered Chloe with his stare. "It seems I was misinformed. I was told your mother knows everything about you. Perhaps you forgot to mention…" he let his words trail off.
Meredith wondered what he meant, and Chloe's reaction didn't give her any comfort, but she came to her daughter's defense anyway. "Chloe would never intentionally hurt anyone. We didn't come here to be insulted." She turned from Whitley to Chloe and asked "Do you want to leave?"
Chloe shook her head and kept her eyes fixed on Whitley. "I've never hurt anyone on purpose, and I know what not to do. You should know that – ask Brian."
At the mention of Brian, Whitley shot Chloe a quick glare, but quickly regained his composure. "And you should know that there's been more than one incident since you were identified as the Uniter."
Chloe was confused, slightly, and she knew it showed. "I…I'm not the only one here, but no one here would do anything like that on purpose." She believed what she was saying, though she remembered stopping one of the Sao Paulo Mai from killing someone.
Whitley recognized Chloe's confusion, and he believed her, based on what Brian had told him. "Well someone did it. We know the signs."
Chloe could feel her mother looking at her, but didn't want to turn, didn't want to see her face just then. She took a calming breath and said, "Some who have come to visit aren't as…caring about humans as we are here. Some aren't as caring about Mai, either. Zane, for instance." She gave him a look meant to say 'you know who I mean'.
Whitley saw the look and replied with a straight face. "I don't know who you mean."
"The Mai guy who tried to kill me last night. You didn't send him?"
Chloe could see the confusion on his face as he shook his head, then almost looked thoughtful. She was a little relieved, actually, that Brian's father was unaware of Zane, if nothing else.
Meredith spoke now, looking at both of them. "It sounds like neither of you really know what's going on, or you at least don't know everything that's happening."
"I know the Mai are dangerous," Whitley said.
"I know someone's still trying to kill me, whether you know them or not," Chloe said.
They looked at each other briefly before Whitley spoke to Meredith. "You have no idea how dangerous she is. Her coming has been feared for centuries – she could well be the end of us all."
Chloe snorted. "Drama, much?" When both looked at her, she added, "I'm supposed to unite, not kill."
"The Order doesn't exactly see it that way," Whitley countered.
"I don't care what the Order 'sees'." Chloe said. She was getting tired and was not sure this was getting them anywhere. "I don't care what the Mai say I am either. Neither will tell me what I have to do. I just want to be left alone and I want Mai and humans to live in peace. We don't have to kill each other."
"But the deaths still happen," Whitley said, in a tone Chloe really didn't understand.
"All the more reason for you and me to work together," Chloe said. "We don't have to be afraid of each other. The Mai in San Francisco don't want to hurt anyone, and we would help stop any Mai that did try to hurt people. The Assassin died because he was trying to kill me – I just want to be left alone."
Whitley considered what she was saying briefly, it seemed to agree with what Brian had told him about her. "Do the Mai follow a teenage girl?"
Meredith saw Chloe's expression of defeat, so she spoke to Whitley. "Yes. I didn't spend very long with them, but they listen to her. When they want her to do something and she refuses, they go along with her. Not that she gave them orders, or anything like that, but they listen to her, they do what she wants."
Chloe had been watching her mother as Meredith spoke, but the Uniter turned to try to see Whitley's reaction. She hadn't figured it out when her mother spoke again.
"And they will do anything to protect Chloe. If there is an army of them here, and I think there might be, it is because you are trying to kill her."
"Not me," Whitely denied, looking at the empty table in front of him as if it were his desk and there was something to read or sign on it. He knew there was some truth to her statement, but felt what he had said was the truth as well, because he hadn't know about the previous night.
"If you only knew what the Mai have done to my family," Whitley said softly, still staring at the table in front of him.
Chloe wondered what he meant, but decided that if he hadn't told Brian exactly what happened, he was not likely to tell her. She hesitated, then said "That wasn't me. I don't know what happened, but whatever it was, it wasn't me."
When Whitley lifted his eyes to look at her, she added, "I don't want to be your enemy. If the Mai are doing something they shouldn't, I will stop them. Would you just call off the people trying to kill me – like the woman who shot me?"
"Describe her," Whitley said, trying to show that he had any idea of who it was.
"Slim, short hair, knew who I was," Chloe said, knowing it wasn't much of a description. She couldn't say much more, she was too shocked, too busying dying, to worry about a really good description. "Said something like we need to talk about me, if I come back to life."
"Do you know who she is?" Meredith asked after Whitley didn't say anything.
"I'm sure she's part of the Order," he said. "I'm not really associated with them right now."
"Then you can't help me?" Chloe asked. "You can't ask them to call off their goons?" She knew she looked desperate, but didn't try to control it. "I really don't want any human to be hurt by Mai, and I really will do all I can to prevent it."
Whitley seemed to sigh as he said, "A Mai woman threatened me, and Brian."
When Chloe looked shocked, Meredith said "I didn't tell her that."
"That's not OK," Chloe said, angrily. "I've told them to leave you alone, and I will tell them again."
"I heard you tell them, Chloe," Meredith quickly said. "It happened before you told them that."
"Still," Chloe said. Both adults could tell she was fuming.
Whitley watched her reaction, still a little amazed, even after all Brian had told him about her. Hearing about the way she tried to protect Brian was one thing, seeing her reaction to a threat to Brian, was another.
"Very well," he said, "I will try to get word to them to stop attacking you, to leave you alone. But I warn you, if the Mai harm anyone unprovoked, I will work with the Order to destroy whoever did it."
"If it's unprovoked, so will I," Chloe said. "Then we have an agreement?"
Whitley just stared at her as he said "It doesn't make us allies."
"It does if the Mai hurt someone," Chloe said, rising from the table. "Thank you. I'll look forward to you, at least, not trying to kill me."
Whitley was nodding as Chloe turned, pulled the door opened, and, followed by her mother, walked towards Janelle.
"Did you tell anyone?" Chloe asked her Mai protector.
Janelle shook her head. "We do as you ask, whether we like it or not. At least I do as you ask."
Chloe nodded, gave a smile of thank you, and pulled out her phone. She had heard the tone for voicemail a little earlier.
"Chloe," Brian's voice said, "I know you're keeping your distance from me, but I was thinking of going back to my grandmother's this weekend. Do you want to go with me?"