5 -
"Hey, Kate, when is the ceremony?" Solomon poked his head in his sister-in-law's bedroom.
"At 2pm, I guess. What did it say on the invitation?" Kate came out of her bath, fastening her towel as a turban.
"I think Nikko shredded the card." Solomon grimaced.
"He is in his 'el destructo' phase. He'll grow out of it. Eventually." Kate laughed.
"And I thought the two's were supposed to be terrible."
"And the three's and four's…." Kate and Solomon both laughed.
"What's so funny?" Three-year-old Nikko Zond poked his head in under his dad.
"You are, boy." Kate made a kissy face at her nephew as he laughed.
"Oh, by the way, have you made up your mind on going to Paris?" Solomon asked.
"I think I deserve a summer off to play, don't you?" Kate tickled Nikko.
"But I'll miss you, Aunt Kate!" Nikko grabbed her around her neck.
"I'll be back in the fall for school." Kate made a face. "I still have to get my masters' and PhD, you know."
"And you'll be the youngest doctoral candidate in a long time." Solomon looked very proudly at Kate.
"Oh, no. Not the proud brother-in-law look!" Kate tickled Nikko as they both laughed at Solomon.
- 6 -
A few weeks later, Kate was making her way down the Champs Elysee when she stopped at one of the sidewalk cafés. Soon after her server brought her café-au-lait, Kate looked up from the book she was reading to notice a man looking at her from one of the other tables. She wasn't sure about this guy. Before she realized what had happened, the man got up from his table and walked over to her table.
"Is anyone sitting here?" His voice was deep and rich, with a hint of an accent that Kate could not place—maybe a bit British, but definitely something more.
"Uh, no." Kate was flustered by this man.
"Have you been to Paris before?"
"Many times. My parents brought us here when we were kids."
"You and…."
"My sister." God, his eyes were hypnotic!
"Is she with you this time?"
"No, I am alone." Kate realized a split second too late that that was not what you told a strange man in a foreign city. He could be a serial killer, after all!
"What is your name?"
"What's your name?" Kate smiled at the man.
"Vincent Siminou."
"Kate Cayce."
"Nice to meet you, Kate Cayce. What do you do for a living?"
Kate gestured with her book. "I am a professional student at this time in my life."
Vincent chuckled. "Been in school a long time?"
"It only feels that way. I have more to go—my masters and doctorates. What do you do?" Kate challenged the man.
"I work in setting up security for several wealthy clients." Vincent looked up at Kate through his eyelashes.
"Meet anyone famous?" Kate laughed.
"Only a few heads of state, a couple of minor royals, and the occasional rock star." Vincent laughed back at Kate.
"Do you want to have dinner?" Kate asked.
Vincent looked a little surprised by the question. "Yes, but I thought I was supposed to do the asking."
"This is the 20th century. The woman can ask just as well as the man."
"Tonight? Shall I pick you up at your lodgings"
Kate looked at Vincent. "Yes."
- 7 -
The couple spent a lot of time together over the next couple of months, and parted in August with promises of calls and letters. Kate flew back to the States, and soon got settled back into the house she shared with Haley, Solomon, and little Nikko. Their days fell back into the pattern of work, school, and family.
"Kate, can I talk to you?" Solomon nabbed Kate as she came in from classes one day in October.
"Sure." Kate followed him into his study, where Haley already was sitting at the desk. "What's this about?"
Haley took a deep breath. "You know that guy you met in Paris?"
"You mean Vincent?" Kate's eyes got a bit starry when she said his name.
"Uncle Paul sent me some information on him." Solomon pulled a manila envelope from underneath a book on the desk.
"You had Paul check up on him?" Kate yelled.
"No, we didn't. Paul came across this information and remembered that you had met him this summer." Haley tried to defuse her sister's anger.
"Paul found out that this Vincent Siminou works for the organization that is trying to shut down Haley's work." Solomon pulled a bunch of photographs out of the envelope and passed them to Kate.
"You mean Dorna? I thought they were just a fabrication of that guy Tollan. You know, to scare you into giving up some of those artifacts you found." Kate looked back and forth from Haley to Solomon.
"No, they exist. And they want my research. And they want to stop me." Haley nodded toward the photos in Kate's hands.
Kate began to look through the pictures. There was one of Vincent with that guy Tollan, and then one of Vincent with Tollan and some other men.
"So he is the enemy." Kate said, her voice flat.
Solomon sighed. "Yeah, afraid so."
"We debated telling you this for a while." Haley looked her sister in the eye.
Kate looked at her sister with tears in her eyes. "I'm going to go have a good cry over this, then I'll write a 'Dear John' letter to Vincent." Kate paused to hug her sister, then left the room.
"We had to tell her, Haley. She needed to know who this guy is and what he does to people." Solomon went to rub his wife's shoulders.
"I wish we didn't have to hurt her in the process."
Solomon leaned to kiss his wife. "Our baby girl is going to have to grow up sometime."
- 8 –
Kate turned the key in her hotel room door, and went inside. She was tired after a day full of lectures and talks at this conference Solomon and Haley insisted she attend on behalf of the Veritas Foundation in San Francisco. She had to smile at the thought of the foundation, which the three of them had put together just a few months before with the blessings of her surrogate uncles Alexander Zond and Paul Taylor. They had worked hard for this, and Kate knew that with her sister's theories on history, their fellow historians and archaeologists would have to sit up and take notice.
It took Kate a minute after she switched on the lamp to notice the man sitting in the chair by the window. He was sitting in the shadows, and after he turned on the small lamp next to him, Kate threw her bag onto the bed.
"Great, just what I need. One of the goon squad trying to intimidate me." Kate glared at the man.
"I just need a few moments of your time." Vincent slowly stood up to face Kate.
"Are you armed?" Kate wasn't taking any chances after the last couple of months of harassment from Dorna.
"No."
Kate put her hands on her hips and began to tap her right foot. "So what do you want?"
Vincent sat for a moment, contemplating what to say. "I am sorry for deceiving you in Paris."
Kate glared at him. "You seduce me and then break my heart, and you are sorry?"
"I understand your anger, but I was told to follow you while you were in Paris. I was not supposed to make any contact with you on a personal level." He captured her eyes. "Any contact we had was something I decided to do on my own."
"You went against your orders?"
"And I was punished for it by my superiors." Vincent looked away. "I didn't intend to fall in love."
Kate started laughing. "You want me to believe that you were in love with me? How gullible do you think I still am? I am not that naïve little girl that I was four years ago."
Vincent glared at Kate. "I did not break into your hotel room to rehash our past history."
Kate turned her back on him and removed her jacket. "Why did you?"
"I need help."
"How could I possibly EVER help you?"
Vincent took a deep breath. "I want out of Dorna."
Kate spun around. "What?"
"You heard me, but I will repeat it: I want out of Dorna. It will be hard for me to leave on my own." Vincent stared into Kate's eyes. "Unless I am in a coffin, Tollan will not let me go without a fight."
Kate hung her head so Vincent couldn't see her face clearly. "You want me to believe you would give up all the power you have now to come over to our side?"
Vincent knew he had to convince her of a few things. "I no longer believe that Dorna's mission."
"You mean the one where you guys keep a possibly different historical timeline from the general public?"
Vincent looked serious. "Haley is getting to be a thorn in Tollan's side."
Kate had a thought flash into her mind. "So Haley is getting close to the truth."
"She's at least getting into same ballpark. I know things that could help her in her search."
"What makes you think that Solomon and Haley want anything to do with you? "
Vincent smiled at Kate. "I will just have to convince them…."
A couple of days later, Kate is sitting in the family's home office, trying to convince Solomon and Haley that Vincent seriously wants their help.
"He may have more information on Dorna that could be helpful." Kate was about ready to ring Solomon's neck.
"And what if he betrays us to Dorna? We aren't exactly in the same league as them, and they don't play fair." Solomon was about ready to strangle Kate for believing that man.
"Why don't we help Vincent leave Dorna, and work with him on a trial run?" Haley trying to be the voice of reason in the room, but both of them had a point. "Besides, didn't Uncle Alex tell us about a Dorna agent who was getting rather unhappy with Tollan? I guess he meant Vincent."
Solomon conceded to his wife. "Okay, we'll help him out, but he has a tail on him at all times."
Kate nodded. "I wouldn't do anything less myself. I believe him, but he has a long way to go to prove his loyalty to Veritas."
