Ghost Knight
Chapter 12
by Anne Khushrenada
"Elena!"
In his darkened hospital room, Lucian snagged
fistfuls of his blankets, then thrust them aside,
grasping after something or someone he knew he
wouldn't be able to reach. Before him, an image of a
lovely young girl seemed to hover, a girl with
platinum hair and crystalline blue eyes. She wept and
she screamed, and she clawed at the figures of
Linnea, Nichol, and...someone else, someone Lucian
knew but couldn't see clearly.
"Elena!"
Then there was a figure in white beside him, and the
silvery glint of a needle in her hand. "No!" Lucian
cried, "no... I have to...have to... /Elena/!"
"Shh, shh, Lucian, it's alright," said a familiar
voice, and he turned his head to regard her. She sat
propped up in a wheelchair, looking as if she might
pass out any moment now. The light from the hall
caught in her red hair, and Lucian sighed with
relief. It was Carolyn.
"Caro," Lucian said, "Caro, what happened to you?
Where's Elena?" He didn't need to ask, really; he
/knew/ she was gone, knew the dream had been somehow
real. But...
Carolyn and the nurse were arguing softly.
"-doesn't need to know," the nurse finished firmly.
Dorothy and Catherine's daughter simply looked at
her. "He's got every /right/ to know," Caro said.
"But we mustn't upset him-"
"Look," Carolyn said, "he's plenty upset already,
lady- trust me, and it'll only get worse if I don't
tell him." The nurse left, and Carolyn looked back to
the boy lying in the hospital bed. "Nichol took Sarah
and Elena. He drugged me, then knocked us all out.
They say the drug's some kind of hypnotic-"
"Who says?" Lucian asked.
"Aunt Sally," Caro said, and he seemed to accept this
answer, so she went on. She explained the rest of
what had taken place, calmly, concisely. "He pushed
me," Caro said at the end, "and I remember falling. I
don't remember anything else until Mariemaia found
me. They're insisting on keeping me here at least
overnight, and Uncle Trowa has Preventers
/everywhere/, so I got one of them to bring me up
here to see you."
Lucian nodded. "I knew it was Nichol. He's working
with Linnea."
"We're just about convinced he is, yeah," Caro said,
"but we don't really know for sure."
"/I/ know," Lucian said firmly.
Caro looked at him carefully, taking in his
expression. "When you called out to Elena, you- saw
something."
He nodded. "I saw Elena, with Linnea and Nichol.
There was somebody else with them, too, but I don't
know who. It was dark, I couldn't see much. Elena,
mostly, but I /know/ the others were Linnea and
Nichol." Lucian paused. "Where's Terra?"
"Your mom took her and the other kids to my house,"
Carolyn said. "Jess is still sick, but they figured
my mothers could take care of everyone well enough."
She smiled a little, then paused. "Lucian. You're
sure of what you saw?"
"Yes," Lucian said.
Caro nodded, and reached for the phone. "Do you
think-?" she began.
"Mariemaia will believe you," Lucian said. "She looks
into the shadows and she sees our father. She'll
believe."
Caro raised her eyebrows at him as she dialed the
phone, but she didn't say anything.
"Hello?" Catherine said.
"Hi, Mom, it's me."
"Carolyn, are you alright?" Catherine asked. "Sally's
been keeping us updated, but-"
"I'm fine, Mom," Caro said. "Really. I'm visiting
Lucian, and he's come up with something, so I need to
talk to Mariemaia. Is she there?"
"Not now," Catherine said. "She left about the same
time Une did."
"Alright, thanks. I'll try the Lings' next."
"I /know/ she's not there," Catherine told her
daughter, "Mariemaia, Terra, and Une stopped there on
their way here. Which reminds me- you haven't seen
David, have you?"
"David?" Caro asked. "No, why?"
"His father doesn't know where he is, either."
"Really? Huh. Now /that's/ odd. I wonder where the
hell David could've gotten off to... Did Mari say
where she was headed?"
Catherine thought for a moment. "Last I heard, she
was going to the office to help Milliardo and
Lucrezia with something."
"Alright, thanks, Mom. You guys holding up alright
out there?"
"Just fine," Catherine said. "I'm remembering,
though, why Dorothy and I stopped at the three of
you."
Carolyn laughed. "How's Jess?"
"Her fever's down, and she's past the contagious
stage- thankfully, with all these kids in the house."
"Great," Carolyn said. "Tell her I love her, okay?
I've got to go see if I can't track down Mariemaia."
"Alright. Take it easy, Carolyn."
"Yes, Mom." Caro hung up, and began to dial a second
number.
"What's going on?" Lucian asked.
"Let's see. David Ling's gone missing, Jessica's
fever is down, and Mari's probably at-" Her call went
through and she cut herself off to listen.
"Preventer HQ, /What?/" Milliardo snapped.
"Uncle Milliardo, it's Carolyn."
"Oh." She could just about hear his sheepish grin.
"Hey, kiddo. How's the head?"
"Still attached, though I feel like I've got a three-
alarm hangover. Listen, is Mariemaia around? Lucian's
got something I'd like to pass along to her."
In answer Milliardo said nothing, but Carolyn could
hear him moving the phone away from his ear. Quite
suddenly she heard a long and very creative string of
curses, not all of it in English, spoken in what was
clearly Mariemaia's furious voice.
"Mariemaia," Milliardo said, "telephone. It's Caro,"
he added quickly, before she could snarl a greeting
into the receiver.
"Hi, Caro, what's up?" Mariemaia asked with a sigh.
"How's your head?"
"I should've just gotten drunk," Caro replied. "At
least I'd have had some fun before I woke up with
this hangover. Anyway, Lucian- Mari, he saw
something."
"What?" Mariemaia asked, softly. "What did he see,
Caro?"
"Elena, with Nichol, /and/ Linnea. And somebody
else."
"Confirms what we suspected," Mariemaia remarked.
"Thanks, Caro. Tell Lucian for a sick kid he does
damned good work. How'd he take the news?"
"Pretty well, considering," Caro told her. "Think
he's kinda pissed, though."
"We're /all/ pissed," said Mariemaia. "If you get
anything else-"
"You'll be the first to know," Caro promised.
* * *
Terra leaned her elbows on the windowsill and sighed.
Behind her she could hear the other kids, talking and
sometimes laughing as they played. She wondered when
it was that she'd grown too old to take part in their
games, but these days Terra just didn't really feel
like playing. She had too much on her mind- way too
much, some might have said, for a ten year old.
Her brother would have understood. But Lucian wasn't
there, and she felt something like a gaping hole in
her days where Lucian usually stood. She hadn't
realized how much her twin was a part of her until
his own stubbornness had gotten him stuck in the
hospital.
Her other partner in crime, Elena, was also absent,
and that cut Terra's usual group in half. She and
Lewis Chang were the only ones at the Catalonia-Bloom
household, and it was not the same at all. Lucian
couldn't be taking Elena's kidnapping well, Terra
knew- he didn't like to admit it, but her twin had a
special fondness for her best friend, and she'd seen
the looks that passed between her mother, Aunt
Lucrezia, and Uncle Milliardo when Lucian and Elena
stood together. They knew something, something Terra
was beginning to suspect. Normally she might have
teased her brother about this, but it didn't seem the
sort of thing it was right to tease about.
Terra was less worried about Elena than Lucian,
really. Elena was strong, very like her parents in
that, and she knew Linnea and her friends wouldn't
dare to hurt her.
/Easy, Ter,/ a little voice inside her cautioned, /we
don't know for sure that Linnea has anything to do
with it./
/Don't be stupid, of /course/ we know that,/ Terra
thought. /Nichol has sure as hell been up to
something, and he hasn't got the brains to be working
alone. I still can't figure why they grabbed Elena
and Sarah instead of us- we're the ones they really
want- but we /know/ Linnea's involved, we just can't
prove it. Yet,/ she amended, because her mother and
the other Preventers were certainly working on that.
"Terra?" Lewis asked.
"Yeah," she said without turning. She didn't really
want to face him, not directly. What he could see of
her face reflected in the glass had to look bad
enough.
"I just thought of something. D'ya suppose anybody'll
think to tell Lucian what's going on?"
Terra shrugged. "You know adults, Lew. They might
think it's better to keep him in the dark, but
between Caro and all the Preventers hanging around
the hospital, there'll be somebody who will tell him
the truth."
Lewis sighed. "That's what I was thinking, too. I
wish we could be there."
"Me too," Terra said, "but it's not safe, that much
is /real/ obvious." She sighed. "I don't like it
either, though. Having Elena gone is bad enough. At
least if we were with Lucian, we'd have the three of
us."
"Hey, Ter, Lew," said Claire Maxwell. "You guys are
missing a musketeer, aren't you?"
"Two of them," Terra told her, "Lucian, and Elena."
"Can't be the Four Musketeers, can you?"
"Sure we can," Terra replied. "Athos, Porthos,
Aramus, and D'Artanian."
"Huh?"
"The Four Musketeers," Lewis said, rolling his eyes.
"You guys are weird," said Claire. This was a very
old discussion between the 'cousins'.
Terra laughed a little. "Yeah, we are."
"I wonder," Lewis said, "why Elena and Sarah. I mean,
you and Lucian are really the ones they'd be after,
right?"
"/If/ Linnea is who he's working for," Terra sighed.
"Please," Lewis replied, "it's gotta be her."
"I agree," Terra said, "but Mama says we can't ever
assume things like that. If we focus too much on that
idea, and it turns out to be somebody else- I don't
think it /is/, but I see her point."
"So do I," Lewis said, "but that doesn't answer my
question."
"I dunno," Terra said after a few moments' thought.
"Maybe they weren't ready."
"Practice, like?" Lewis asked.
"Maybe," Terra said. "I don't think that's it,
though."
"Keep thinking," Lewis told her.
Terra sighed. "What else have I got to do?"
* * *
"We've got a problem."
Duo tossed down the stack of files he'd been going
through as he said this, and the others standing with
him in the Preventers' file room nodded their
agreement. After what had happened at the police
station, they weren't taking any chances, and Duo and
the others had set about digging up anything they
might need from their own files, before they
disappeared.
"I'll say," Alice agreed. "Who's got the personnel
files?"
"I thought you did," Heero said.
"The rest of them. I've got M through N, but..."
"I am /so/ not liking this..." Duo sighed. "Alright,
talk to me, Alice."
"Madison, McKenzie, Miller, Ming, Myers...ect, ect,
ect. Neely, Newman, Nillis, Norman."
"Aw, shit," Duo said. "No Nichol?"
"Uh-uh," Alice said. "Can't say I'm surprised,
though. But I would bet that what we need wouldn't
have been in these files anyway."
"Really?" Heero asked. "Where else-?"
"Hang on," Alice said, whipping out her cell phone
and hitting the speed-dial. "Hey, boss, McKenzie
here. Quick question- OZ personnel files?"
"I've got them, but-" Lady Une paused. "Where are
you?"
"Preventer HQ. Duo, Heero, and I thought we'd
investigate our own file room before it met with a
fiery death."
"Good idea," Une said. "Did you find anything?"
"Here? No." Alice sighed. "I was just telling Duo,
though, that I'm not real surprised about that.
Nichol may be an idiot in some respects, but he's not
/entirely/ stupid. I have maybe half an idea- which
might turn out to be crap, but I /think/ there's
something we can use in Nichol's OZ file. Not the
computer one, the paper one. The files that were
/only/ on paper."
"Out of pure curiosity, Alice, how long have you
known about /those/ files?" Une asked.
"Oh, I don't know. Couple decades now, boss?
Something like fifteen years, anyway. Why?"
Une sighed. "No particular reason."
"I paid attention, was all," Alice told her. "You
think you still have them?"
"I /know/ I do," Une told her, "but they're- well,
let's just say I won't subject your team to going
fishing in the dusty, cobwebbed halls of the old
Khushrenada place."
Alice laughed, and put a pleading tone into her
voice. "Would you please get them for us, Lady Une?"
"Certainly," Une said. "Meet me there in say, an hour
or two? I should have dredged them up by then."
"Alright," Alice said. "Thanks, Lady Une."
* * *
"You know," Mariemaia slammed the flat of her hand
into the side of her monitor, "I think we've got
problems."
"Really," said Milliardo. "And your first clue
was...?"
Mariemaia ignored that. "No, look." She gestured at
the screen with one hand, then went back to her
typing. "Remember those gaps you showed me when I
first got here?"
"Yeah," Milliardo said. "What about them?"
"They're getting bigger."
"Does that mean-" he began, but she nodded before he
could finish.
"That something's eating your files? Yeah. If I can
just get this-" She pounded a fist on the keyboard's
edge. "/There/ we go. I've got the drug file
isolated, for what that's worth. It /should/ keep the
damage localized, for now."
"For now?" Lucrezia asked.
Mariemaia shrugged. "Your programs, they're not
really behaving normally anymore."
"That- could be a problem," Milliardo said as
Lucrezia leapt at a ringing cell phone.
"Yeah," Mariemaia said. "If I were going to make a
guess, I'd say this didn't happen by accident."
Lucrezia hung up her phone, and turned back to them.
"That was Preventer Security. Somebody used Nichol's
passwords and access codes to log onto the computer
network today. Totally legit- except that they can't
figure what he did; the log didn't catch it."
"We know what he did," Milliardo muttered.
"Mariemaia?"
The young woman gestured to her screen, and Lucrezia
watched data vanish from it for a while, one piece at
a time. "Damn," she said. "We knew there were a lot
of fragments missing, but I guess nobody figured
they'd keep on vanishing."
"Yeah," said Mariemaia, "well, that's Nichol for you,
I guess." She closed the data file- or what was left
of it, and tapped her way into another program. "It's
probably way too late, but just the same I'm going to
scrap Nichol's codes. Better late than never, I
guess."
Milliardo shook his head. "We should have done that a
hell of a lot sooner. We should have realized he'd
try something like this."
"We've been kind of busy," Lucrezia said. "And we
can't change what was, anyway. Let's just see if we
can't lock him out before he does anything else
interesting, huh?"
Mariemaia nodded. "Done, and done." She sighed, and
sat back in her chair. "Pure curiosity, mind you...
but is anybody else getting /really/ damned tired of
this guy?"
Lucrezia and Milliardo each raised a hand.
"I think," Milliardo said, "that we need to do
something rather permanent about ex-Preventer
Nichol."
"What we /need/ to do," his wife said, "is start a
list of the people we need to deal with."
"I was thinking about that," Mariemaia said. "Say,
Uncle Milliardo?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Have you seen Daddy's rapier lately? I sense a time
coming when it'll be needed again."
He shuddered, and she laughed.
* * *
David kicked back against the antique paneling in the
upstairs hall, glad that the hateful woman who owned
this lovely and yet somehow wretched dwelling, was
not currently at home. He didn't know where Linnea
had gone, nor did he /want/ to know- it was enough
that she had gone, and that Nichol had vanished
shortly afterwards, a laptop under his arm. He didn't
want to know what the former Preventer was up to,
either.
Things being as crazy as they had been since his
arrival, this was the first time David had really
been able to sit back and rest, and he was determined
to enjoy it for as long as he had it. Knowing only
some of what was going on, he had a feeling that it
wouldn't be very long at all.
He'd brought Elena and Sarah dinner, and had to count
it as a small victory that they hadn't made him taste
the food before eating of it themselves. The girls
knew by now, it seemed, that at the least Linnea and
the others didn't mean to poison them.
/And why,/ David thought, /would we do a stupid thing
like that, when we went to all the trouble of getting
them in the first place?/ He knew the answer, of
course, and in Elena's place, he wouldn't have
trusted Linnea, either.
"You do not trust her now," said a voice from
somewhere behind him. The voice was feminine, cool
and almost cold. David did not want to turn around to
see who it was, and indeed found that something
prevented him from doing so.
"No," David said, "I don't trust her. Why should I?"
"You serve a one you do not trust. I find that...very
interesting."
"You serve her, too, don't you?" he asked.
"What makes you say that?"
"You're here."
"Only just, David Ling. Only just."
"How- how do you know my name?" David asked sharply.
She laughed. "Dear boy, I know more than you could
possibly imagine. Know this- I do not serve the one
you call Linnea, but she /does/ serve me. If she
fails in that service, she will die- die again, I
suppose I should say. And all those who serve her,
all of these will die as well. You. Nichol. The
others, too... Remember that."
David gasped, tried to form words and found that he
could not.
"I can make that happen, David. Do you believe that?"
Hardly aware of what he was doing, David shook his
head. This was crazy. Disembodied voices, a woman he
couldn't even turn around and look at...this talk of
service and failure and death, it was just crazy.
He felt hands on his shoulders then, freezing, talons
like ice, like steel, cold and sharp and cutting so
deep into his skin- a pain so deep and so cold that
David wasn't aware he had screamed until he'd done
so. And her voice whispered, very very close, "/I can
make it happen!/ Don't tempt fate, David... sometimes
she reacts to that in ways you'd never dreamed of."
David moaned and fell to the thick carpet. His hands
clutched at his shoulders and came away bloody. As he
felt the cold presence receding, David turned his
head, and caught just the most fleeting glimpse of
black armor, another flash that might have been
violet eyes, or maybe just a trick of the stained
glass window she was fading into...
He felt the slap of an icy palm against his cheek.
"Don't look at me, boy. There are things you neither
need nor want to see."
"What the hell are you?" he yelled after her, amazed
at his boldness. /Shut up, idiot,/ he thought
furiously, a bit too late. /Shut up before whatever
she is, she comes back and kills you./
She laughed. "Those much more studied than you have
tried and failed to answer that question, boy. I
don't much trouble myself with it anymore. I am, that
is enough. I am, and I am stronger than you. You'd do
well not to forget that- you and the woman you serve,
as well." She paused. "Tell her that I was hear. She
will know who I am. And, do show her where I have
made my mark as well, won't you?"
"I-I- Yes," David said, finding he couldn't say
anything else at all. "I will show her."
"Good boy," she said, not at all kindly. "I spoke a
moment ago of tempting fate. This you have already
done. Your days are numbered- did you know that?"
He shook his head. "I don't understand..."
"Of course you don't; nor should you. You won't
understand a thing until it's too late, David; that's
the beauty of it."
/Crazy,/ he thought, /she's crazy, and so am I, to be
believing this crap.../
"No, not crazy," the voice drifted back towards him
as she faded. "Not crazy at all." A pause, then, "I
have marked you; you are mine now. For the brief time
you have yet to live, you belong to me."
Chapter 12
by Anne Khushrenada
"Elena!"
In his darkened hospital room, Lucian snagged
fistfuls of his blankets, then thrust them aside,
grasping after something or someone he knew he
wouldn't be able to reach. Before him, an image of a
lovely young girl seemed to hover, a girl with
platinum hair and crystalline blue eyes. She wept and
she screamed, and she clawed at the figures of
Linnea, Nichol, and...someone else, someone Lucian
knew but couldn't see clearly.
"Elena!"
Then there was a figure in white beside him, and the
silvery glint of a needle in her hand. "No!" Lucian
cried, "no... I have to...have to... /Elena/!"
"Shh, shh, Lucian, it's alright," said a familiar
voice, and he turned his head to regard her. She sat
propped up in a wheelchair, looking as if she might
pass out any moment now. The light from the hall
caught in her red hair, and Lucian sighed with
relief. It was Carolyn.
"Caro," Lucian said, "Caro, what happened to you?
Where's Elena?" He didn't need to ask, really; he
/knew/ she was gone, knew the dream had been somehow
real. But...
Carolyn and the nurse were arguing softly.
"-doesn't need to know," the nurse finished firmly.
Dorothy and Catherine's daughter simply looked at
her. "He's got every /right/ to know," Caro said.
"But we mustn't upset him-"
"Look," Carolyn said, "he's plenty upset already,
lady- trust me, and it'll only get worse if I don't
tell him." The nurse left, and Carolyn looked back to
the boy lying in the hospital bed. "Nichol took Sarah
and Elena. He drugged me, then knocked us all out.
They say the drug's some kind of hypnotic-"
"Who says?" Lucian asked.
"Aunt Sally," Caro said, and he seemed to accept this
answer, so she went on. She explained the rest of
what had taken place, calmly, concisely. "He pushed
me," Caro said at the end, "and I remember falling. I
don't remember anything else until Mariemaia found
me. They're insisting on keeping me here at least
overnight, and Uncle Trowa has Preventers
/everywhere/, so I got one of them to bring me up
here to see you."
Lucian nodded. "I knew it was Nichol. He's working
with Linnea."
"We're just about convinced he is, yeah," Caro said,
"but we don't really know for sure."
"/I/ know," Lucian said firmly.
Caro looked at him carefully, taking in his
expression. "When you called out to Elena, you- saw
something."
He nodded. "I saw Elena, with Linnea and Nichol.
There was somebody else with them, too, but I don't
know who. It was dark, I couldn't see much. Elena,
mostly, but I /know/ the others were Linnea and
Nichol." Lucian paused. "Where's Terra?"
"Your mom took her and the other kids to my house,"
Carolyn said. "Jess is still sick, but they figured
my mothers could take care of everyone well enough."
She smiled a little, then paused. "Lucian. You're
sure of what you saw?"
"Yes," Lucian said.
Caro nodded, and reached for the phone. "Do you
think-?" she began.
"Mariemaia will believe you," Lucian said. "She looks
into the shadows and she sees our father. She'll
believe."
Caro raised her eyebrows at him as she dialed the
phone, but she didn't say anything.
"Hello?" Catherine said.
"Hi, Mom, it's me."
"Carolyn, are you alright?" Catherine asked. "Sally's
been keeping us updated, but-"
"I'm fine, Mom," Caro said. "Really. I'm visiting
Lucian, and he's come up with something, so I need to
talk to Mariemaia. Is she there?"
"Not now," Catherine said. "She left about the same
time Une did."
"Alright, thanks. I'll try the Lings' next."
"I /know/ she's not there," Catherine told her
daughter, "Mariemaia, Terra, and Une stopped there on
their way here. Which reminds me- you haven't seen
David, have you?"
"David?" Caro asked. "No, why?"
"His father doesn't know where he is, either."
"Really? Huh. Now /that's/ odd. I wonder where the
hell David could've gotten off to... Did Mari say
where she was headed?"
Catherine thought for a moment. "Last I heard, she
was going to the office to help Milliardo and
Lucrezia with something."
"Alright, thanks, Mom. You guys holding up alright
out there?"
"Just fine," Catherine said. "I'm remembering,
though, why Dorothy and I stopped at the three of
you."
Carolyn laughed. "How's Jess?"
"Her fever's down, and she's past the contagious
stage- thankfully, with all these kids in the house."
"Great," Carolyn said. "Tell her I love her, okay?
I've got to go see if I can't track down Mariemaia."
"Alright. Take it easy, Carolyn."
"Yes, Mom." Caro hung up, and began to dial a second
number.
"What's going on?" Lucian asked.
"Let's see. David Ling's gone missing, Jessica's
fever is down, and Mari's probably at-" Her call went
through and she cut herself off to listen.
"Preventer HQ, /What?/" Milliardo snapped.
"Uncle Milliardo, it's Carolyn."
"Oh." She could just about hear his sheepish grin.
"Hey, kiddo. How's the head?"
"Still attached, though I feel like I've got a three-
alarm hangover. Listen, is Mariemaia around? Lucian's
got something I'd like to pass along to her."
In answer Milliardo said nothing, but Carolyn could
hear him moving the phone away from his ear. Quite
suddenly she heard a long and very creative string of
curses, not all of it in English, spoken in what was
clearly Mariemaia's furious voice.
"Mariemaia," Milliardo said, "telephone. It's Caro,"
he added quickly, before she could snarl a greeting
into the receiver.
"Hi, Caro, what's up?" Mariemaia asked with a sigh.
"How's your head?"
"I should've just gotten drunk," Caro replied. "At
least I'd have had some fun before I woke up with
this hangover. Anyway, Lucian- Mari, he saw
something."
"What?" Mariemaia asked, softly. "What did he see,
Caro?"
"Elena, with Nichol, /and/ Linnea. And somebody
else."
"Confirms what we suspected," Mariemaia remarked.
"Thanks, Caro. Tell Lucian for a sick kid he does
damned good work. How'd he take the news?"
"Pretty well, considering," Caro told her. "Think
he's kinda pissed, though."
"We're /all/ pissed," said Mariemaia. "If you get
anything else-"
"You'll be the first to know," Caro promised.
* * *
Terra leaned her elbows on the windowsill and sighed.
Behind her she could hear the other kids, talking and
sometimes laughing as they played. She wondered when
it was that she'd grown too old to take part in their
games, but these days Terra just didn't really feel
like playing. She had too much on her mind- way too
much, some might have said, for a ten year old.
Her brother would have understood. But Lucian wasn't
there, and she felt something like a gaping hole in
her days where Lucian usually stood. She hadn't
realized how much her twin was a part of her until
his own stubbornness had gotten him stuck in the
hospital.
Her other partner in crime, Elena, was also absent,
and that cut Terra's usual group in half. She and
Lewis Chang were the only ones at the Catalonia-Bloom
household, and it was not the same at all. Lucian
couldn't be taking Elena's kidnapping well, Terra
knew- he didn't like to admit it, but her twin had a
special fondness for her best friend, and she'd seen
the looks that passed between her mother, Aunt
Lucrezia, and Uncle Milliardo when Lucian and Elena
stood together. They knew something, something Terra
was beginning to suspect. Normally she might have
teased her brother about this, but it didn't seem the
sort of thing it was right to tease about.
Terra was less worried about Elena than Lucian,
really. Elena was strong, very like her parents in
that, and she knew Linnea and her friends wouldn't
dare to hurt her.
/Easy, Ter,/ a little voice inside her cautioned, /we
don't know for sure that Linnea has anything to do
with it./
/Don't be stupid, of /course/ we know that,/ Terra
thought. /Nichol has sure as hell been up to
something, and he hasn't got the brains to be working
alone. I still can't figure why they grabbed Elena
and Sarah instead of us- we're the ones they really
want- but we /know/ Linnea's involved, we just can't
prove it. Yet,/ she amended, because her mother and
the other Preventers were certainly working on that.
"Terra?" Lewis asked.
"Yeah," she said without turning. She didn't really
want to face him, not directly. What he could see of
her face reflected in the glass had to look bad
enough.
"I just thought of something. D'ya suppose anybody'll
think to tell Lucian what's going on?"
Terra shrugged. "You know adults, Lew. They might
think it's better to keep him in the dark, but
between Caro and all the Preventers hanging around
the hospital, there'll be somebody who will tell him
the truth."
Lewis sighed. "That's what I was thinking, too. I
wish we could be there."
"Me too," Terra said, "but it's not safe, that much
is /real/ obvious." She sighed. "I don't like it
either, though. Having Elena gone is bad enough. At
least if we were with Lucian, we'd have the three of
us."
"Hey, Ter, Lew," said Claire Maxwell. "You guys are
missing a musketeer, aren't you?"
"Two of them," Terra told her, "Lucian, and Elena."
"Can't be the Four Musketeers, can you?"
"Sure we can," Terra replied. "Athos, Porthos,
Aramus, and D'Artanian."
"Huh?"
"The Four Musketeers," Lewis said, rolling his eyes.
"You guys are weird," said Claire. This was a very
old discussion between the 'cousins'.
Terra laughed a little. "Yeah, we are."
"I wonder," Lewis said, "why Elena and Sarah. I mean,
you and Lucian are really the ones they'd be after,
right?"
"/If/ Linnea is who he's working for," Terra sighed.
"Please," Lewis replied, "it's gotta be her."
"I agree," Terra said, "but Mama says we can't ever
assume things like that. If we focus too much on that
idea, and it turns out to be somebody else- I don't
think it /is/, but I see her point."
"So do I," Lewis said, "but that doesn't answer my
question."
"I dunno," Terra said after a few moments' thought.
"Maybe they weren't ready."
"Practice, like?" Lewis asked.
"Maybe," Terra said. "I don't think that's it,
though."
"Keep thinking," Lewis told her.
Terra sighed. "What else have I got to do?"
* * *
"We've got a problem."
Duo tossed down the stack of files he'd been going
through as he said this, and the others standing with
him in the Preventers' file room nodded their
agreement. After what had happened at the police
station, they weren't taking any chances, and Duo and
the others had set about digging up anything they
might need from their own files, before they
disappeared.
"I'll say," Alice agreed. "Who's got the personnel
files?"
"I thought you did," Heero said.
"The rest of them. I've got M through N, but..."
"I am /so/ not liking this..." Duo sighed. "Alright,
talk to me, Alice."
"Madison, McKenzie, Miller, Ming, Myers...ect, ect,
ect. Neely, Newman, Nillis, Norman."
"Aw, shit," Duo said. "No Nichol?"
"Uh-uh," Alice said. "Can't say I'm surprised,
though. But I would bet that what we need wouldn't
have been in these files anyway."
"Really?" Heero asked. "Where else-?"
"Hang on," Alice said, whipping out her cell phone
and hitting the speed-dial. "Hey, boss, McKenzie
here. Quick question- OZ personnel files?"
"I've got them, but-" Lady Une paused. "Where are
you?"
"Preventer HQ. Duo, Heero, and I thought we'd
investigate our own file room before it met with a
fiery death."
"Good idea," Une said. "Did you find anything?"
"Here? No." Alice sighed. "I was just telling Duo,
though, that I'm not real surprised about that.
Nichol may be an idiot in some respects, but he's not
/entirely/ stupid. I have maybe half an idea- which
might turn out to be crap, but I /think/ there's
something we can use in Nichol's OZ file. Not the
computer one, the paper one. The files that were
/only/ on paper."
"Out of pure curiosity, Alice, how long have you
known about /those/ files?" Une asked.
"Oh, I don't know. Couple decades now, boss?
Something like fifteen years, anyway. Why?"
Une sighed. "No particular reason."
"I paid attention, was all," Alice told her. "You
think you still have them?"
"I /know/ I do," Une told her, "but they're- well,
let's just say I won't subject your team to going
fishing in the dusty, cobwebbed halls of the old
Khushrenada place."
Alice laughed, and put a pleading tone into her
voice. "Would you please get them for us, Lady Une?"
"Certainly," Une said. "Meet me there in say, an hour
or two? I should have dredged them up by then."
"Alright," Alice said. "Thanks, Lady Une."
* * *
"You know," Mariemaia slammed the flat of her hand
into the side of her monitor, "I think we've got
problems."
"Really," said Milliardo. "And your first clue
was...?"
Mariemaia ignored that. "No, look." She gestured at
the screen with one hand, then went back to her
typing. "Remember those gaps you showed me when I
first got here?"
"Yeah," Milliardo said. "What about them?"
"They're getting bigger."
"Does that mean-" he began, but she nodded before he
could finish.
"That something's eating your files? Yeah. If I can
just get this-" She pounded a fist on the keyboard's
edge. "/There/ we go. I've got the drug file
isolated, for what that's worth. It /should/ keep the
damage localized, for now."
"For now?" Lucrezia asked.
Mariemaia shrugged. "Your programs, they're not
really behaving normally anymore."
"That- could be a problem," Milliardo said as
Lucrezia leapt at a ringing cell phone.
"Yeah," Mariemaia said. "If I were going to make a
guess, I'd say this didn't happen by accident."
Lucrezia hung up her phone, and turned back to them.
"That was Preventer Security. Somebody used Nichol's
passwords and access codes to log onto the computer
network today. Totally legit- except that they can't
figure what he did; the log didn't catch it."
"We know what he did," Milliardo muttered.
"Mariemaia?"
The young woman gestured to her screen, and Lucrezia
watched data vanish from it for a while, one piece at
a time. "Damn," she said. "We knew there were a lot
of fragments missing, but I guess nobody figured
they'd keep on vanishing."
"Yeah," said Mariemaia, "well, that's Nichol for you,
I guess." She closed the data file- or what was left
of it, and tapped her way into another program. "It's
probably way too late, but just the same I'm going to
scrap Nichol's codes. Better late than never, I
guess."
Milliardo shook his head. "We should have done that a
hell of a lot sooner. We should have realized he'd
try something like this."
"We've been kind of busy," Lucrezia said. "And we
can't change what was, anyway. Let's just see if we
can't lock him out before he does anything else
interesting, huh?"
Mariemaia nodded. "Done, and done." She sighed, and
sat back in her chair. "Pure curiosity, mind you...
but is anybody else getting /really/ damned tired of
this guy?"
Lucrezia and Milliardo each raised a hand.
"I think," Milliardo said, "that we need to do
something rather permanent about ex-Preventer
Nichol."
"What we /need/ to do," his wife said, "is start a
list of the people we need to deal with."
"I was thinking about that," Mariemaia said. "Say,
Uncle Milliardo?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Have you seen Daddy's rapier lately? I sense a time
coming when it'll be needed again."
He shuddered, and she laughed.
* * *
David kicked back against the antique paneling in the
upstairs hall, glad that the hateful woman who owned
this lovely and yet somehow wretched dwelling, was
not currently at home. He didn't know where Linnea
had gone, nor did he /want/ to know- it was enough
that she had gone, and that Nichol had vanished
shortly afterwards, a laptop under his arm. He didn't
want to know what the former Preventer was up to,
either.
Things being as crazy as they had been since his
arrival, this was the first time David had really
been able to sit back and rest, and he was determined
to enjoy it for as long as he had it. Knowing only
some of what was going on, he had a feeling that it
wouldn't be very long at all.
He'd brought Elena and Sarah dinner, and had to count
it as a small victory that they hadn't made him taste
the food before eating of it themselves. The girls
knew by now, it seemed, that at the least Linnea and
the others didn't mean to poison them.
/And why,/ David thought, /would we do a stupid thing
like that, when we went to all the trouble of getting
them in the first place?/ He knew the answer, of
course, and in Elena's place, he wouldn't have
trusted Linnea, either.
"You do not trust her now," said a voice from
somewhere behind him. The voice was feminine, cool
and almost cold. David did not want to turn around to
see who it was, and indeed found that something
prevented him from doing so.
"No," David said, "I don't trust her. Why should I?"
"You serve a one you do not trust. I find that...very
interesting."
"You serve her, too, don't you?" he asked.
"What makes you say that?"
"You're here."
"Only just, David Ling. Only just."
"How- how do you know my name?" David asked sharply.
She laughed. "Dear boy, I know more than you could
possibly imagine. Know this- I do not serve the one
you call Linnea, but she /does/ serve me. If she
fails in that service, she will die- die again, I
suppose I should say. And all those who serve her,
all of these will die as well. You. Nichol. The
others, too... Remember that."
David gasped, tried to form words and found that he
could not.
"I can make that happen, David. Do you believe that?"
Hardly aware of what he was doing, David shook his
head. This was crazy. Disembodied voices, a woman he
couldn't even turn around and look at...this talk of
service and failure and death, it was just crazy.
He felt hands on his shoulders then, freezing, talons
like ice, like steel, cold and sharp and cutting so
deep into his skin- a pain so deep and so cold that
David wasn't aware he had screamed until he'd done
so. And her voice whispered, very very close, "/I can
make it happen!/ Don't tempt fate, David... sometimes
she reacts to that in ways you'd never dreamed of."
David moaned and fell to the thick carpet. His hands
clutched at his shoulders and came away bloody. As he
felt the cold presence receding, David turned his
head, and caught just the most fleeting glimpse of
black armor, another flash that might have been
violet eyes, or maybe just a trick of the stained
glass window she was fading into...
He felt the slap of an icy palm against his cheek.
"Don't look at me, boy. There are things you neither
need nor want to see."
"What the hell are you?" he yelled after her, amazed
at his boldness. /Shut up, idiot,/ he thought
furiously, a bit too late. /Shut up before whatever
she is, she comes back and kills you./
She laughed. "Those much more studied than you have
tried and failed to answer that question, boy. I
don't much trouble myself with it anymore. I am, that
is enough. I am, and I am stronger than you. You'd do
well not to forget that- you and the woman you serve,
as well." She paused. "Tell her that I was hear. She
will know who I am. And, do show her where I have
made my mark as well, won't you?"
"I-I- Yes," David said, finding he couldn't say
anything else at all. "I will show her."
"Good boy," she said, not at all kindly. "I spoke a
moment ago of tempting fate. This you have already
done. Your days are numbered- did you know that?"
He shook his head. "I don't understand..."
"Of course you don't; nor should you. You won't
understand a thing until it's too late, David; that's
the beauty of it."
/Crazy,/ he thought, /she's crazy, and so am I, to be
believing this crap.../
"No, not crazy," the voice drifted back towards him
as she faded. "Not crazy at all." A pause, then, "I
have marked you; you are mine now. For the brief time
you have yet to live, you belong to me."