New Beginnings by Marcia Gaines
Chapter Four
Adwin Kosan walked quietly down the long desolate hallway. Overhead a line of halogen lights preceded him along his path. The only sound he heard came from the loud echoing footsteps the heels of his polished shoes created with each step he took along the white marble floor-tiles. He reached the metal doorway waiting for him at the end of the corridor and pressed his palm to the scanner located to the right of the doorframe. A moment later a buzzer sounded and he pulled the door open.
Days after Pete and Myka returned with the Jones' locker Claudia found herself troubled. She sat at her laptop in deep concentration. Her hands rested on the keyboard and an image of Steve Jinks eerily stared out at her from her monitor causing her mind to wander. She had been watching his last recorded video for the umpteenth time and froze it at the point where he asked her to keep the faith. Something tugged at the back of her mind. His phrasing seemed odd to her. He knew we would find this video if he died. He knew we would only watch it if he was already dead. Why would he ask me to keep the faith? Faith in what? Claudia's thoughts raced with many questions, but few answers. It couldn't be that he wanted to keep me from thinking he was a traitor. He knew we would find out from Mrs. Frederic or one of the Regents that they sent him undercover to gather information from Walter Sykes. So what was it Steve was trying to say? The question nagged at her. She checked her watch. Nine-thirty. Pete and Myka were out to breakfast and she wondered how much longer they would be. Claudia wanted to talk with them about the video. She looked back at the monitor and sighed. Steve, what are you trying to tell me? Her thoughts were interrupted with the cacophony of Pete and Myka's entrance from the Warehouse. They were arguing over something, and as usual when they bickered, they reverted to the behavior of siblings.
"No, you stop it," said Pete and lightly shoved Myka in the shoulder.
"No, you!" replied Myka who punched him in the arm. "You started it!"
"Ow!" cried Pete. "I did not! I didn't even touch your boobies that time!" He rubbed his shoulder where Myka slugged him and grumbled, "Are you sure you were an only child? You hit like you had brothers."
"Girls, girls, you're both pretty!" said Claudia as she spun around in her chair to face them.
"Oooh! I'm pretty!" Pete grinned and taunted Myka with schoolgirl-ish prance as he faux-primped his hair.
Myka grimaced and punched him in the shoulder one more time before saying, "Grow up!"
"Guys. Seriously. I want to show you something." Claudia motioned for them to join her at her laptop and she turned around to restart the video. Moments later Steve Jinks' familiar face began speaking to tell them about the investigation into Walter Sykes. Claudia paused the video after his statement to her. "That!" she said emphatically. "Right there. Don't you guys think that's just a little weird?"
Myka and Pete exchanged uncomfortable looks. "Weird how?" Myka asked. It never got any easier on Claudia whenever they discussed Steve's death. Over time they fell into the practice of avoiding the topic entirely to try to spare her. His death was hard on everyone, but it was hardest on her.
"'Keep the faith.'" She answered. "He said 'keep the faith' and I don't know why, but that just doesn't make sense."
"I don't follow," said Pete. He was trying to understand Claudia's train of thought, but failed to pick up on whatever it was she was trying to say.
Claudia took in a deep breath and said, "He told me to keep the faith, but faith in what? We were bound to find out he was on assignment. And he had to know we would never see the video unless he was already dead. So why tell me to keep the faith? Faith in what?" She looked from Pete to Myka and back again hoping they understood. "It doesn't make sense to me that he would say that. Does it make sense to you?" Myka cocked her head to the side and her eyes took on a far-away look as she processed Claudia's words. It was a familiar gesture Claudia had seen her do on countless occasions, and the tilted head lifted her spirits. Myka never did that unless she was on to something.
"Pete," Myka began. She said his name in the drawn-out tone she used whenever she was mid-thought and needed his input. "What was it the hospital said about the poison used to kill Steve?"
Pete looked up as he tried to remember. "Uh. I think they said it was something like a Yule log. No, wait. Yucca. No. Uhm. Yew?" He squinted his eyes, unsure if he was even on the right track.
"Yew," said Claudia, correcting him. "It was English Yew." She paused briefly then gave Pete a look of incredulity. "Yule log. Really?"
"I knew it was something like that," said Pete sheepishly. "Wait. I think I remember... they said the poison was probably very fast-acting. Steve didn't have more than a few minutes from the time of injection." He looked at Claudia who visibly winced as he spoke. "Sorry, Claud…" He placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
"Okay," Myka looked thoughtful. "So, the poison was fast-acting. We found him seated, no sign of a struggle." She glanced at Claudia who sat with her eyes closed. Myka looked up at Pete, her facial expression indicating she did not want to continue. "M-maybe we should talk about this later," she offered.
"No." Claudia opened her eyes and spoke in a strong and steady voice. "Whatever Steve wanted us to know…" She looked intently at the screen. "It's here. Somewhere. We just have to figure it out."
Kasan entered through the doorway and was immediately greeted by the presence of two women and a man. They were dressed in business-attire, like Kasan, and nodded their welcome to him. One of the men presented him with a file. He flipped it open to start reading and took in the face of Steve Jinks on the photograph affixed to the inside cover. He quickly read through the first two pages and then paused a moment before silently closing the file. Without a word he began walking down another corridor, and the other three silently followed him.
Pete's cave was more active than usual. He sat in his recliner and stared at the whiteboard thinking through all the data points Myka had written. She paced back and forth in front of it with a marker in her hand; pausing only occasionally to scribble new information on the board. Claudia sat in the corner and flipped through numerous files stacked all around her. She turned periodically to look at the whiteboard to see if they were gaining ground in figuring out the mystery.
Pete asked, "What's a Skyscraper got to do with the case, Mykes?"
Myka stopped pacing and said, "What?" She turned toward the whiteboard but could not determine what it was he was referencing.
Pete pointed at the board, "Right there. Between the big question mark and where you wrote 'Regent Sanctity'."
Claudia looked up as Pete spoke. What the hell is Pete talking about? She thought. Regent Sanctity? She unfolded her legs and winced as her knees screamed at her for keeping them awkwardly bent for so long. She rose slowly and hobbled over to stand next to Myka.
"That's 'Regent Sanctum', Pete," Myka corrected him. "And the word in between isn't 'skyscraper', it's 'Sykes'."
Pete raised his eyebrows and stared at the board for a brief moment. "Wow, Myka. You have atrocious handwriting." Myka narrowed her eyes at him and went back to looking at the board.
"Do you see anything, Claudia?" Myka asked her. "Nothing is jumping out at me just yet. But, I think the answer lies somewhere in here," she said as she drew a circle around the phrase "long game". It was listed under the column labeled 'Skyes'. She walked to the other side of the board and circled the word 'Plan' which was its own column header and then drew a line between it and the other circle she drew. She stood back from the board and watched it, waiting for something to present itself. She reached toward her neck and let her hand wrap around the locket's chain as she studied the board. Claudia stepped closer to the writing and darted her eyes between the columns.
"Myka, let me have that marker," she said. Myka handed it to her and she drew an arrow from the middle of the connecting line Myka drew and inserted a third circle between the two others. She wrote the word, "poison" in the middle and handed the marker back to Myka. The two women stood staring at the board.
"I know the answer is there. I can feel it," said Pete from behind them. They both turned to look at him as he spoke. "Somewhere on that board is something Steve wanted us to know."
The scanner near the door waited for Kosan to identify himself. He bent his face toward the small rectangular panel and looked straight ahead. The retinal beam searched his eye for a moment before letting off a small beep. He stood up and waited for the click of the lock. It was followed by a wooshing sound as the hermetic seal on the door broke. He looked at the group following him before opening the door and stepping inside. It was chilly, and their presence seemed to prompt some automatic refrigeration unit to infuse the room with more cold air. The overhead lights reflected off of numerous stainless steel surfaces that quickly began to resemble a bathroom mirror after a hot shower – their surfaces clouded by the change in temperature in the room. In the center of the room lay a single surgical bed. It was occupied by a body covered in a surgical sheet. Kosan walked to the table and folded back the sheet. He looked down into the face of Agent Steve Jinks.
"We're missing something," said Myka as she stared at the board. She took a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair. She was exhausted, and thinking about Steve and all of the circumstances surrounding his death in such detail was starting to drain her. Every twinge of emotion she felt about his loss only amplified her emotions about H.G. Wells, and it was wearing on her. Her hand found its way to the locket around her neck and she held it as she thought. Oh, Helena, if you were here right now you would know the answer, she thought. What would you see if you looked at this board? I bet you wouldn't even need a board, would you? You always did put information together quickly, and I truly miss solving these kinds of deductive challenges with you. It was true, and Myka knew it.
One of her favorite things about H.G. was their mutual ability to reason their way through evidence and draw eerily accurate leads from what most saw as a chaotic mess of unrelated data points. It took her much more time to get to the same conclusions without Helena's help, and it was certainly far less fun. She smiled as she thought and an image of Helena coalesced in her mind. Myka let the image linger. She liked remembering Helena in a happy moment. Myka could even hear Helena's voice exclaiming "Aces!" The image was of the look on Helena's face when she discovered sticky notes for the first time. Helena's eyes had lit up like a child on Christmas morning as she marveled at the impossibility of their simple function. It was truly endearing to see such awe over such a small thing, and it would forever remain one of Myka's most cherished memories.
Myka sighed and bit her bottom lip as she placed the marker back on the tray attached to the board. She was of no use at the moment, and needed to clear her head. "Guys, I'll be right back. I need to get my mind thinking of something else. I think I'm concentrating too hard. I'm going to get in some target practice with the Tesla."
"Have fun," said Pete. "I'm going to help Claud organize our data files on Sykes. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something we've been missing." He and Claudia walked back to her make-shift duty station and started stacking folders into categorized piles.
"Okay," Myka said. Let me know if you come across anything." She walked out of the cave and headed for the targeting coil. She lost herself in thought as she walked. Ever since the Warehouse's return she felt like Helena's death loomed larger than it ever had before, and it was unsettling. As broken up as she was when it first happened, the way she felt lately eclipsed those early days. Back then, every time she thought of Helena she was filled with anger that she would so cavalierly sacrifice her own life. There had to be at least a hundred other options they could have tried without purposefully condemning any of them to die in that explosion. All they needed was just a little more time.
It took Myka weeks to accept Helena's choice. It took her longer to understand it. They were more alike than she ever really knew. Myka eventually realized that if circumstances had been different – if it had been she who could save Helena, but only at the cost of her own life, she would have done it without hesitation. Still, Myka could not help but question whether or not the trade made on that fateful day was a good one. Helena had given the world so much with her inventions, writings, and research. What had Myka, or any of them, given the world that could compare?
Adwin Kosan held out a gloved hand until someone placed The Philosopher's Stone in it. It was much lighter than he thought it would be, and he turned it over in his hands contemplating the task ahead of him. He looked down at the body on the table and lifted the sheet over the left thigh just enough to reveal an ancient looking coin affixed with tape to the Agent's body. Kosan reached into his own jacket pocket and removed a small metallic clasp which he snapped into place around the Stone before lowering the conjoined artifacts in his hand until it touched the coin. He held it in place and waited.
Myka looked up as she reached the end of her aisle. She was facing the containment area. Somehow between leaving Pete's cave and coming to a stop, she subconsciously found her way to the one spot she had been avoiding since the day the Warehouse returned. She looked at the oval-shaped structure and felt a surge of anxiety. This was where she watched Helena die. The images and emotions began to stir as she willed herself forward toward the enclosure's entrance. She stepped inside and her eyes immediately sought out the area of the floor where Artie, Pete, and she stood during the explosion. There were no marks, no scorch marks, and no remnants of debris. It was as if nothing ever happened. She stood for a long while at the location where she last saw Helena, and her mind reeled with a slideshow of memories.
Instinctively, she reached for the locket and held it while she thought. Now that I am here, I can finally mourn. I can let it all go. I can let her go. She wept as her long-repressed emotions rose up like a river overflowing its banks. All her anger, fear, pain, and love spilled out and she allowed it to finally wash over her in overwhelming waves. She gripped the locket as she closed her eyes. If I could just talk to her, again… if I could just say the things I was too afraid to say when I still had the chance. If I could tell her all the things I know she would have understood – the things I never told anyone; but, I could have told her. She was my closest friend, and no one ever knew me like she did. How do I pretend to be okay with knowing the only reason I live, today, is because she chose to die? All her thoughts and regrets fought to be released, and she did not have the strength to hold them back.
So tumultuous was the cathartic experience that Myka did not realize just how tightly she gripped the locket until she noticed the drops of blood intermixed with her tears on the floor. She let go of the locket and immediately felt a sharp pain in her hand. She winced audibly and unfurled her fingers. A moderately-deep gash stared up at her from the middle of her left palm. Damn it, she thought. I forgot to file that edge down, and now I'm bleeding again. She looked around for a bandage and spotted a first-aid kit hanging on the wall. She grabbed a large self-adhesive dressing and placed it over her cut.
Light danced on the surface of The Philosopher's Stone making it shimmer with mesmerizing fluctuations. The coin it touched began a slow change of hue until eventually settling on a peculiar shade of green. The Stone flashed twice and the transmutation was complete. Kosan broke the two artifacts apart and handed the Stone to the woman of the silent group. She took it from him as he returned his gaze to the body and let the seconds pass. It did not take long for the coin to complete its work. Less than a minute later, Agent Steve Jinks opened his eyes.
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