Chapter Fifty-Nine
Grace
“You’re not taking me away.” I held onto Wes. “My pack and I are innocent. I thought she was dead. I had no part in this.”
“Are you Dr. Grace Ellington?” a female voice inquired. “I’m Jira. You’re going to be okay. Just come with me.”
My arms tightened around Wes. “He comes with me.”
“Oh, is this Fade? Hello, Fade.” Jira’s dark hair was in a pixie cut. She wore a dress, not a uniform or a suit like Agent Weigmier.
“I’d like to stay with her.” Wes didn’t let go of me.
“Dr. Ellington, your family isn’t under investigation. In fact, you have helped us solve several questions that we’ve been asking since the incident you were involved with back on world 1218,” an agent said.
I couldn’t remember her name, but I recalled her vaguely from my time at the Authority.
“Go with Jira,” the agent said. “It will be okay.”
“I’m with the Precious Population Protection Protocol unit. I work a lot with Alister. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” Jira gave me a soft smile.
Alister? Who the fuck was Alister?
“It’s the cat, right? The cat’s name is Alister?” It’s all I could think of.
Jira blinked. “What cat? I was speaking of Agent Weigmier.”
“His first name is Alister?” Wes chuckled.
Agent Weigmier had a first name?
“Please?” Jira pleaded.
I noticed she had a tote bag and wasn’t dressed like the others.
Wait, there was one other person not in a uniform or a suit, who also had a tote bag.
She spoke to a sharp-featured, uniformed woman with blue eyes, black hair in a bun, and vampirically pale skin.
Huh. I didn’t remember people like that from my time at the Authority.
Though the woman with a bun reminded me a little bit of Gloria in processing.
“Will I be returned to Wes?” I prodded. It was probably better to cooperate than resist.
“Yes, I just need to talk to you about some things.”
“As long as it’s here and not back at your station. Love, you, Wes.” I gave Wes a kiss and followed Jira.
She led me to a room that could be where they questioned children. It was comfortable, with a couch and chair, along with toys and some child-sized furniture.
“Hi. Are you okay?” Jira got out a little tablet that reminded me of the one Agent Weigmier had.
“I’d like to go home.” I plopped down on the couch.
She took a chair. “I’m sure this evening has been taxing. We’ll get through this as speedily as we can. I don’t think we’ll need to go to the station. Now, do you wish to stay with your family, or would you like to be taken elsewhere?”
“I’d like to stay with them,” I replied.
Jira tapped on her tablet. “Do they treat you well? Do you have access to your world’s currency or a job to earn your own? Are your needs being met?”
Her questions reminded me of Mrs. Beekman’s.
“Yes, yes, and yes.”
She asked me a few other questions, then got her tote. “Would you like some snacks?”
Jira took some strange snacks out of her bag and put them on the table. I stared at them.
“Also, I have some comfort items. Would you like a blanket, plushie, or some socks?” she offered, adding more items.
Was Jira a social worker?
“Jira, what do you do for the Authority?” I picked up a box that was filled with the same star candy I’d gotten last time.
“I’m a wellbeing assessor,” she replied, with a smile. “Given the delicate nature of your status and designation, I’ve been sent to make sure that you are comfortable, treated appropriately, and that the proper amount of discretion is used.”
Yep. She was an inter-dimensional advocate. One Agent Weigmier sent to make sure all the work he did to erase my footprint and keep me with my family wasn’t undone.
“Oh, Agent Weigmier has a message for you. I hope that you know what it means because I don’t,” she laughed. “Um, he said to let you know that if Eugene is sleeping in your office, to please give him back to one of us.”
Jira gave me an expectant look.
Who the fuck was Eugene?
I thought for a moment. Oh. The cat. I made a joke about the cat being a shifter named Eugene who’d snuck into Agent Weigmier’s office for a nap.
“No, Eugene isn’t in my office. But if I see him, I’ll tell him to return to duty,” I replied as I ate some candy. No, I didn’t steal the cat. I’d already told him that.
“I’ll let him know.” She tapped on her tablet. “You can sleep a little if you like.”
“I’d like to see my mates,” I stated.
Jira nodded. “We need to talk to everyone, neutralize the situation, and get the rest of the answers we need. Also, another wellbeing assessor is here, given you have an omega and child in your family.”
Well, that was nice. I didn’t get that sort of treatment when I was being held by the Authority, even after I turned witness.
Taking one of the offered blankets, I curled up on the couch. But I couldn’t sleep. Fuck. Rosalind wasn’t dead. I’d punched her in the tits. Which felt good.
Still, Rosalind wasn’t dead.
I reached out through the bonds to make sure everyone was okay and got reassurance and love in response.
It all came down to jealousy, didn’t it? Rosalind had been jealous of my bio-mom, and I reminded her too much of her. Also, I had the audacity to be an omega.
And the potential to upend all her plans.
Fuck-a-duck, this was a mess.
Finally, the door opened.
“Dr. Ellington. I’m Agent Cora. I’m not sure if you recall me.” The agent, who seemed familiar, walked in, closing the door behind her. Pulling over a chair, she joined us.
“A little?” What was I even supposed to say? I had no idea if I was supposed to admit that I remembered everything. Though clearly, Agent Weigmier and Jira knew.
“One thing that concerned us about the events that happened on world 1218, was that we didn’t know where your colleagues got the technology.
They admitted that they didn’t invent the devices after it was proved that you didn’t create them with your research.
All that your colleagues told us was that they bought it off someone but didn’t actually know how to get in touch with the sellers.
Which was concerning because this has been happening for a few decades across several worlds.
So many things point to world 1218 playing a role in these events.
But it’s puzzling because it’s Class IV.
Not to mention most of the worlds involved are Class IV or V and Type H.
Thanks to you, we’ve figured it out,” she explained.
“Me?” Sitting up, I looked through the snacks on the table.
“We’ve had someone undercover in this world for a bit, because people here keep taking part in smuggling rings and because of Dr. Kepler’s discovery.
When our undercover agent realized what was in the vault, and that the person who stole it escaped to another world, during a part of the smuggling ring on this world that was especially problematic, along with several scientists, things came together,” she said.
Oh. Well, that fit with what the agent from the Bureau told me.
“So, Dr. Kepler discovered other worlds, but did so more concretely than Dr. Thanukos and Dr. Katsopolis, and whoever else in Europe discovered stuff?” I ate the weird little cookies in a pink bag.
“Yes. She was actually working with a team from our Outreach department. But one day, some events here made her realize that your world wasn’t ready, so she locked her research in a vault and left it behind.
Dr. Kepler didn’t destroy it, hoping one day your world would be able to handle it,” Agent Cora told me.
“We didn’t know the data had been stolen. ”
“Okay. So, my aunt stole it, and what?” I blinked. Though she said that she’d been hired by the scientists, then asked her to take us with them.
“Within the omega-smuggling ring, was another smuggling ring that was less altruistic. As far as we can tell, Rosalind Ellington and her brother were hired to steal the information from the vault. After realizing its value, and the death of her family members, she used the information as a bargaining tool for safe passage for you and her. She became a very active part of an information, people, and equipment smuggling ring across a number of Class IV and Class V worlds. They were quite clever, working hard to circumvent our laws, and mostly moving among mostly Type H worlds that weren’t monitored by the Authority,” she explained.
“Oh.” Now Rosalind’s comment about people noticing if I was brought here made sense. This world was being monitored.
So did Solomon’s comment about Rosalind making a bad business decision and needing to help elsewhere. She sold stuff to the wrong person and needed to escape the heat. However, she only removed herself and not Solomon. So telling.
Just like her sending Abel to get me.
I looked at Agent Cora. “Rosalind and her friends were selling the information, and sometimes the equipment, to move through worlds. Which isn’t technically illegal?”
“Yes. It’s the act of moving between worlds and not sharing the information or technology that’s illegal because we never thought we’d need to make it illegal for Class IV and Class V worlds to do so, given that these worlds aren't even aware of these things. Obviously, we need to fix that. We can’t be having worlds have free access to world numbers, coordinates, schematics, and such without fully understanding what they’re doing,” she replied.
“Okay, that makes sense.” Though I’m sure some moving of worlds happened, otherwise how would the information be disseminated?
It was also so silly that Rosalind didn’t know I worked for Rydor Corp. After all, Dad knew where I worked. That was probably why my brother got ‘weird’ after I ‘died’–he realized how and why.
“Please don’t kill us or stabby-stab us or blow things up. My family, and I, are innocent,” I pleaded, needing to protect my family.
Jira nodded. “You won’t be harmed.”
“The good agents of this world will forget the things that we need them to, but there is no need to level the building. Probably just erase some files. Your immediate family in this world will not be harmed. The men who say they’re your brothers, Rosalind Silvers Ellington, and her mother, are another matter,” Agent Cora said.
I sighed. “Can you just erase Abel’s memory and send him home to his girlfriend? He’s an idiot, but he also didn’t know about this until yesterday. They told him about it because I’m guessing he’s not illegal in this world.”
Agent Cora looked at her little tablet. “Abel, and not Solomon?”
“As far as I know, Solomon was working with Rosalind and fully aware of what was happening. Abel does what Solomon and Rosalind tell him and honestly thought they were just going to talk to me.” I rubbed my forehead.
“That doesn’t deserve prison. Though if you can make him nicer, that wouldn’t hurt. ”
“Noted.” She tapped on her tablet
“Maybe do the same to Mrs. Silvers? I don’t know what her role is in this.”
She nodded. “I see.”
“Um, are you going to try Solomon and Rosalind?” I was curious about how all this worked. Also, Rosalind would absolutely turn witness for a lesser sentence.
“Yes. They will most likely be found guilty. If they are found innocent, a request has been made for Rosalind to be remanded to this world to be tried for her crimes. We are unsure about Solomon. If found innocent, his memories will probably be erased and he’ll be returned to his world of residence,” she told me.
“Sounds good to me.” Even though I’d once grumbled to Agent Weigmier about remanding Rosalind here for her crimes, I’d rather she rot in inter-dimensional prison.
She asked me a few more questions. Jira disappeared and returned with a sandwich and some coffee for me. I ate it while Agent Cora finished up.
“We should be able to give you back to your mates soon,” Agent Cora said. “Thank you for cooperating.”
“Of course.” This felt too easy, but wasn’t I due for easy?
Food finished, it was once again just me and Jira.
The full weight of everything hit me. Curling up on the couch, I began to cry.