25. Clark #2
She squeezed my hand before letting it drop, pealing out a musical laugh, saying, “Oh my dear boy, no one wants to hear me sing. Now, we’ve put you in the Bird Suite, and Monsieur Barkhouse, lovely to see you again.
You are with us, of course, in your favorite, the Japanese Suite.
Monsieur Evans, your wing has been cleaned from top to bottom, and your rooms await you.
May I suggest that after everyone has a chance to freshen up from the travel, we reconvene in the dining room in fifteen minutes?
Chef Richard—no relation to The Rocket, you cheeky boy—has been cooking up a storm for you three.
I believe the main course is beef Wellington, your favourite, sir.
He has also prepared a vegan version, as we weren’t sure of your preferences, young Monsieur Evans. ”
“May I suggest something?” I ventured. “Perhaps you could just call me Clark, and that would clear up any confusion between myself and my grandfather.”
She looked a tad scandalized, but then slowly nodded.
“You are correct that it would ease things a bit...Clark. Take your bags, and I will escort you to the Bird Suite. This house is large enough to get lost in at first, but once you spend a bit of time in it, you’ll grow to love it.
Did you know that we have a copy of Audubon’s Birds of America in our library?
It was what inspired the decor of your room.
I will make sure you get a showing of it before you leave us. ”
Before I leave in a body bag, you mean, I thought.
Madame Travers almost tripped when I “said” that, and that was all the confirmation I needed.
I was surrounded by psychics. I had no secrets anymore, and everything divulged to me by Olly, Thomas, Shepard, or Bea was ripe for the picking because I hadn’t one single clue if I was shielding properly or not.
Fuck.
“Did you not enjoy your dinner, Clark? Chef Richard perfected the recipe after, ah, borrowing it from a Michelin star chef,” Robert asked me, much to my surprise.
He’d been nothing but cordial and downright friendly since we arrived, which I found highly suspicious, despite learning about the potential for mind control to have been involved.
I mean, if that wasn’t really him injecting that drug into me and making sure I made it onto that plane like a lump of cargo, it could only have been my own grandfather.
I knew I was going in circles about this, but right now it looked like the way things stacked up it was: Gramps, evil.
Robert and Jeff, not evil. And Olly? In the wind.
The stakes were beyond fucking high. I had to find them before any lasting damage was done to them or Bea.
“Robert, would you mind if I had some time alone with my grandson? I was thinking of starting a chess game with him in my study.” That was when it happened.
It was almost like smelling something in the air, but this wasn’t a scent, more of a feeling.
Resentment and a touch of fear coming from Robert.
Holy shit, I didn’t even go digging for that.
It just kind of wafted my way. Maybe that was a sign my shields weren’t holding up well.
As I entered the study, following the old man through his wing, he said, almost casually, “Your shielding is fine. You just need to work on longevity. You were doing much better even just a few hours ago. It takes practice and stamina to get them to hold up all day, especially when others are attempting to breach them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I blurted out, as I sent what spare energy I had to my shield.
Grandfather stood beside a freestanding chess table with comfortable-looking leather chairs at either end and gestured for me to sit down.
“Of course you know what I’m talking about, Clark.
Your abilities were finally unlocked. I have a feeling I have the McLeod siblings to thank for that.
” Or an enormous kraken with power of its own beyond measure, that had taken a shine to me.
You know, after it was done wrapping me up for a few days, or minutes, depending on where in creation a person was.
“You do realize that you killed three out of four in that family, right? Olly doesn’t have a
sibling anymore.” I aggressively moved a pawn forward two squares, not giving a shit if I won or lost, but wanting to take advantage of this time to get as much information as I could.
“I don’t know whatever you are talking about, Clark. They died in a tragic accident.”
“That is true. It was tragic. Except you messed up. You didn’t kill the whole family. Olly was a loose thread for you, and you hate loose threads, don’t you?”
“I still don’t understand why you think I had anything to do with that accident.”
“Because guess who I found out can control the minds of others? I mean real, literal mind control? Oh, that would be you.”
“Good Lord. Next, you’ll be blaming The October Crisis on me.” He snatched one of my Knights, and looked quite pleased with himself over it.
“If you are half as powerful as I think you really are, you could have made Mrs. McLeod drive in an unsafe manner. You could have put the eighteen-wheeler driver asleep. The possibilities are really endless, aren’t they, Grandfather.
And so tempting, in a single stroke, to eliminate an entire family who had become a thorn in your side. ”
“The parents did like to discuss finances, as if their ruin was my fault, as well,” he murmured, contemplating his next move.
“Was it? Did you somehow bankrupt the McLeods, making them desperate enough to exploit their children for you and your insane mission?”
I felt it again, a sharp feeling of surprise, this time. He had no idea I knew as much as I did. Hell, I wondered if even Olly knew that her parents had been forced into a corner by this old vampire, who just loved to suck everyone around him dry of their money and manipulate their powers.
“Do you understand how unethical your experiments were, or have gotten? How taking over someone’s mind is like rape? How forcing them to yield their secrets is just like a physical attack?”
“Ooh hoo! Now I’m a rapist! You have such an imagination, Clark. So vivid. As if I would ever violate someone’s mind in such a manner.”
“You did it the day before yesterday when you made Robert and Jeff kidnap us.”
“Kidnap you? I’m hosting you here at my home, a place I rarely let anyone enter. You’re in my very study, which holds the most important documents and discoveries The Organization has collected over the past seventy years. If you were my prisoner, would I have you in here?”
“Perhaps, yes. Ugh, screw this. I’m going to find Robert.” I toppled my King, conceding the game, and marched toward the study door.
Behind me, in the most honest tone I had ever heard from him, he said, “Clark, I’m dying. I brought you here to see if you could be made ready.”
My hand on the doorknob, I asked, “Ready for what?”
“To take over The Organization. To care for all those in our charge. To continue to work towards a way to traverse the multiverse. The multiverse is real, Clark. It has to be. It’s the only thing I have faith in.
And if we can just touch it, maybe we can save our own world.
That is why I brought you here. To measure your character and hopefully reignite your passion for astrophysics.
When and where else in the world would you ever get a chance to use your knowledge and your gifts to possibly save the planet? ”
I took my hand off the doorknob and slowly turned around. “Start talking. But if your first words aren’t about where Olly is being held, I don’t want to hear them.”