Chapter 29
"What is this place?" Spencer asked.
This wing was a large, open space, surrounded by glass. There was an elegance about it, a grace, something delicate and special. But it was covered in soot and dirt and grime now, the windows darkened, the walls grubby with oils. Sarai stood in the center and looked around slowly, sadly. "It's a music library." She said with a sigh. "At least it was supposed to be."
"Supposed to be?"
"I don't think anyone would want to dance here now." She said, hanging her head. "Not after what happened."
Dance. Dance. Maeve had wanted to dance, to teach him to dance although in his dreams he didn't know how. And she had, she had insisted. She didn't mean dance, he realized, not really, although the metaphor was apt. "Someone will want to dance with you." He said. "I know you feel like this now, but it's not. It's not what I see."
She just shook her head. "What do you see?"
He gently brushed his fingers over her temple to show her. She lifted her head, proud and assured now, into that touch. And when she opened her eyes again the soot and the muck were gone, the room glittered in the light coming through the windows. Let everyone see, he thought, we don't need to hide.
Wait, we?
She looked at him, standing there on the very edge of becoming something greater than he could imagine. "Would you dance with me?"
Spencer considered. "That's a question, isn't it? Not a request."
She considered a moment. "I don't know that I'm quite ready to request yet."
"That's all right." He considered this, what he knew of her, her strength, her loyalty, her intelligence, her curiosity about the world. And she was choosing him, him who's hair was too long, him who wanted to dress like the Doctor again for the next con, him who preferred Sundays in his pajamas with stacks of books and boxes of breakfast cereal. She knew all this and more, had from the moment he drew near and yet she was choosing him. "Yeah, when you're ready, I think, if you want to dance, we'll, um, dance."
Sarai smiled and stepped into his arms, and at that moment another library appeared next to hers, and the glass space of music and dance became the hall that linked the two.
"Hope to hell she's got something." Morgan said as he and Emily followed the Captain to the table.
She did, but it wasn't on her computer. She had his out, and was flipping through some of the pictures and videos they had been looking at the day before. Finally she found one and showed him, with a look and a gesture as if to say "Who is this?"
"That's George VI I think." Emily said. "He was King of England in WW II."
"Great. Now how do I get the concept of king across?" Morgan pulled over some paper and started creating a pyramid of stick figures, ending with one at the top and putting a crown over his head. "See, king. He's the head of everyone. Well, not so much, but explaining democracy is going to take a while."
But Eva seemed to get it. Okay. She pulled over her own paper and once again drew her family. Mother, father, and herself. "Got that." He nodded. Then above them she drew another family, this one connected to her father. "Okay, paternal grandparents." She made two tick marks beside her father, then held up one-two fingers, emphasizing two. "Okay, he was the second child." She gave her grandfather another son, gave him one tic mark, and held up one finger. "One. Okay, he was the first son. Your uncle. Got it."
Okay, okay. She held up a hand to say "hold on." and went out in the main room. As they watched she went up to certain people and was looking at them…no, at their uniforms. Then she came back in and next to her uncle she drew a decent representation of a caduceus. She pointed to her uncle and gestured to the people she'd been looking at. Emily looked around, they were different ranks and services, but…"Doctor. Her uncle is a doctor. He…fixes…broken people." She made the fix the break gesture and pointed to the arm Andy had broken. That got her a grin and a nod. "Okay, we're on track."
By now the General had come in and was watching over their shoulders. Next to her family Eva drew another family, mother, father, son with one tic, daughter with two. She pointed to all four, made the flapping lips gesture and pointed to her head. "Okay, that family is all telepaths, like Sarah in there." Emily pointed back. Eva nodded eagerly, pointed to Sarah and pointed to the daughter figure. "That's Sarah's family. Okay." Then as they watched Eva drew a crown over Sarah's father's head.
"What does that mean?" The General asked.
Emily looked around, her eyes wide. "I think it means that Crewman C over there is the equivalent of Prince Harry."
"Oh great." No one was crabbier than a General who could feel things slipping out of his control. "I wanted an interstellar diplomatic incident on my to-do list for the day."
She pointed from her uncle the doctor to the King and back again. Back and forth. "Like he works for him." Emily pointed to a doctor and then to the General. "I think she's saying that her uncle was the royal physician."
Captain Eva nodded but she wasn't done. She showed them the video of aerial bombardment on Morgan's tablet, along with the picture of the Olan on hers. "The Olan attacked, all right." Morgan nodded. She pointed to Sarah and patted her tummy. "She wasn't out yet." She pointed to her own stick figure and patted her tummy, "You weren't out yet." She nodded with him, pointed to the son, the prince and made a rocking gesture, and emphasized small. "He was a baby. Okay." She indicated the two computers, then pointed to the king, the prince and the doctor and made a motion like she was giving a baby to someone. The she used her hands to indicate a ship flying away and kind of crouched down like she was going to go under the table. Then she pointed to the baby prince, indicated growing tall, put an invisible crown on her head, and flew back the way she had come "Okay, so when the Olan attacked the King gave the prince to the doctor and they flew away to hide."
"Of course." Emily nodded. "They sent the Crown Prince off to safety until he was old enough to assume the crown. Who better to send a baby with than a doctor."
"So what does that have to do with us?" The General asked.
Emily almost gasped as the felt the hammer of knowing whack it into his head. "Where better to hide than a place with natural defenses against their enemies? Where they can blend into the population and no one will know?" She tuned to Eva and pointed to the prince and the doctor. "They're here?!" She gestured. Eva nodded.
"Oh hell." The General said. "I thought we had this contained!"
"If we're right they've been here for at least thirty years." Morgan reassured him. "If they were bringing trouble it would be here by now. They're probably keeping their heads down."
"Thank god."
Eva pointed to the doctor, made the fix the break gesture, the flapping lips gesture, and pointed to her head. "And the doctor treats telepaths." Emily pointed to the doctor, made the fix the break gesture and pointed to Sarah. Eva nodded again, made the flying gesture, gestured to her crew, and pointed to the doctor. "That's why they came here. She needs her uncle to heal the princess."
"Which means he can also help Reid." Morgan nodded. "So how do we find him? He could be anywhere?"
"Yeah, but they were scanning for something they found in DC." Emily turned "Where?" She asked, pointing to the globe. In reply Eva touched the gizmo she wore on her wrist and started it beeping. She turned in a circle and the beeping sped up as she faced DC. She pointed to it, pointed to her uncle and lightly touched Morgan's watch. "She's tracking some kind of signal coming off his watch." She gestured to Eva to come with them. "We're going to get them."
"You can't just go." The General said. "The military needs permission to operate inside the United States."
"No worries." Morgan said. "We're FBI. Let's go."
