Chapter 11

Megan stared at the little girl, startled by her appearance.

"You have grown." she said, It should not have been possible, but here it was, Veronica, looking like a ten year old, instead of six.

"Yes. It is a new treatment. Which has nothing to do with the assignment."

Verhoff grunted in the background.. He did not look happy. Megan could guess why. If Veronica had gained four years, Cecily could too. And for Cecily it meant a body past puberty, a whole new world opening for her. And leaving Verhoff and his tastes behind...

There was a potential problem with Verhoff, when all his bed partners could acquire adult bodies. How would he satisfy his tastes then?

Well, that was a problem for later on...

"Well, the assignment as I understand is to flush out the handler. We may feed false information to Richard. I am well positioned for it. Give him a false name and address, and wait until someone turns up."

"I want an example made of Richard Zimmerman. I want him executed." Verhoff said.

"It is too early for that. We can get information out of him."

Cecily nodded.

"We are aware of the emotional ties between him and Dr. Julia Hoffman" Veronica said. "And how she might retaliate against you."

"We cannot execute him without a trial" Cecily said. "he has the right to be heard."

"There is an automatic death sentence for what he is doing. We do not need to go through the trouble of trying him."

"The way Megan told us, he might be sincere about wanting to leave the Mossad and start a new life. And there is this claim that he never met another vampire in all those years in the Mossad.. It deserves investigation." Cecily could not forget that Julia Hoffman had given her the chance to get an adult body, and wanted to repay that debt. But she knew how difficult it was. Others had been summarily executed for less than what Richard was now doing... if he was indeed doing it.

Verhoff gave her a withering look, but she did not flinch.

"We do not need to go to all this trouble for an avowed member of a spy agency. The standard procedure is to execute them as soon as they are discovered. The freedom of all depends on it. Do I need to quote the law for it?"

"We have made exceptions before."

"Those we knew were under duress and wanting to escape, and proved it by their willingness to run risks for us. There is nothing to show that Zimmerman is one of those."

"I think that his statements deserve examination." Megan said. "If the Mossad has been employing a vampire all these years, we should want to know more about them. Richard can give us that information."

"I can interrogate him." Veronica said.

Megan knew what 'interrogation' meant. Veronica had a lot of anger due to her inability to grow out of her childish body. That anger found expression in sanctioned ways within the community... and interrogations...

"He probably has a lot of different stories to feed you. No, he will not refuse to talk. He just will tell you one false story after another, and have you on wild goose chases, which may also be traps. Like going to a pre-determined spot, looking for a certain contact. That's a good way to let his handler know that he's been captured and is being interrogated...No, Veronica, your way is too risky."

"But we want the information, still."

"I may have better luck with that. I know how to put them at ease. When their guard is a bit down, they let out bits and pieces that we can put together."

"It is enough! I may the decisions here!" Verhoff shouted. "And my decision is that he dies!"

"Not without a trial." Cecily said. "In that I will not budge."

There was an undercurrent between those two, Megan realized. Their fight had nothing to do with Richard Zimmerman. It was because of Veronica's growth spurt and how it changed the balance of power between Verhoff and the children...

And she could do nothing about it...

"How many cards have I written already?' Louella said. "I wish we did not know so many people. I am getting cramps from ring to them. And when I think of how much I spent on gifts... Even if they are cheap ones, still, they do add up... I am sure glad that Christmas comes once a year."

"I know, I know..." Willie said while bouncing Pearl up and down.

"And Tammy's getting married now. Why can't they wait a bit more and give us a breather? It is not as if she was pregnant nor anything."

"Probably it was Barnabas' idea."

"Barnabas has no sense in his stupid head."

"Agreed. But we love him, anyway."

Carolyn opened the liquor cabinet.

She knew that she should not, but come the holidays, she felt more and more her isolation.

"You should not," Roger remonstrated her.

"I know, Uncle, I know."

"Then don't"

"What are we going to do for Christmas? I got tired of being lonely. I got tired of inviting people who come to pay homage to their employer... I just want friends..."

"We have friends..."

"Uncle, we do not. "

"I know that you want Adam back."

"Not just Adam. I would like to have Vicky. I would like to have David. I would like to have Quentin. I would like to have Barnabas. I want to be surrounded by people who love me, who like me."

"It cannot be done..."

"Don't you wish to have David, Uncle? Don't you wish to have Vicky? She is your daughter after all."

"She is not legitimate."

"David was and you neglected him shamefully. I know, because you thought that he was Burke's son... Or was that the excuse you gave to wash your hands off him?"

"Carolyn, I know that I made many mistakes..."

"More than mistakes. Manslaughter. You did run down a man and killed him so that you could frame Devlin and send him to prison."

"It was an accident."

"A very convenient accident. Like Burke's plane blowing up."

"Barnabas probably did."

"Barnabas was scared of modern technology. He would not come close to a plane nor anything that smacked of technology. But you... you did not want Burke around. He was going to marry Vicky and move to Seaview. He would be your neighbor. that you could not tolerate."

"Carolyn... Carolyn... Carolyn... it is not true. I had nothing to do with that... It was bad luck,"

"You make your own luck, Uncle."

"No, I don't. Nothing came the way I hoped. I just think I did... "

"Yeah... Same with me. I too made my own luck. I really did, didn't I? With a husband who is no husband, a child who is no child of mine, a pretend family... Pretend friends... and ending up locked up in this house, just like mother..."

"You are not locked up. You can leave."

'You are right! We can leave. We are going to Boston, and celebrate Christmas there. We are going to have fun. And we are going to meet people. We are going to make friends out there. "

"You want?"

"Yes. Start packing, Uncle, and start packing for Edmund. Going to Boston is a lot better than staying here feeling sorry for ourselves."

Jake rubbed his wrists. Where had the bitch learned to tie such tight knots? His wrists had been rubbed raw when she had tied him up.

Sure, he had asked her to knock him out and tie him up so that he would not be blamed for her escape. But the way she had trussed him up... It had been hours before he could get somebody's attention so that they could free him.

He should have remember how she had come to be locked up. She and Delia had had plenty of time to practice knots...

Yes, those hours that he had spent tied up in the closet meant that she had a good start. She probably had made it to Collinsport, and, just as they had planned, she was holed up at the Old House. Waiting for the big party to celebrate Tammy's engagement..