“I’ll give you some images to take a look at, and Ice will show you the video.”
She frowned. “It won’t make any difference. Like you said, I could barely see them.”
“That may be true, but we’ll just try anyway,” Terk added. “It’s a simple-enough job. You just need to relax, sit in front of a screen, and take a look. That’s all.”
She nodded. “Okay, if it will help.” He patted her shoulder and walked away, when she called out, “Wait.”
He turned and looked at her.
“I just understood. Like really understood something. You are just as much of a victim in this as I am. For that, I’m sorry.”
He looked at her, then reached out to take her hand. “Me too, Celia, for all three of us.” And, with that, he headed out. His heart was heavy, and, despite everything, he felt overwhelmed. After everything he’d seen and heard, this was the most devious, disconcerting, and violating experience he could recall. The complete disregard of innocent life was getting to him.
To think that the child in her womb, with absolutely nothing to do with his fight, would be used as a pawn by someone? Knowing it was his son … that this was all planned so long ago? It all shook him to his core.
It was his own child.
A child he never expected.
A child conceived without his knowledge.
A child being carried by an innocent woman who had been pumped with drugs. He had to wonder what the drugs had done to the developing fetus.
He could never have imagined having a child added to his life in this way.
The mother of his child was distraught, and, as she’d finally come to the realization and could refer to him also as a victim, he felt even worse. It blew him away that all of this was happening while he’d been in the process of shutting down a government operation that took everything from him.
Somehow Celia had fallen into the parameters of what these guys were after and apparently was on the spot for whatever they had decided the end game was. Or maybe it was a backup plan. Terk didn’t know.
But somehow somebody she knew was a part of this.
He couldn’t imagine that she was just randomly picked off the street.
She had to fit some criteria.
He wondered about her ex-husband, but she didn’t want to talk about him. As he walked into Stone’s control room, Stone looked up at him and greeted him. “Hey, man. Good to see you.”
Terk smiled, then nodded. “You too.” He smacked him on the shoulder. “What a shitstorm.”
At that, Stone chuckled. “I always thought our lives over here were always more or less a shitstorm, but then I look at you. This is a whole new level, and I really hope this calms down soon.”
“I don’t know how the hell to calm this one down,” he said, while staring at the security cameras. “That woman has been to hell and back.”
“She has, and, now that you’re here, maybe you can make sure it doesn’t continue.”
“Yeah, I really hope so, but, at the same time, she’s carrying my child, and neither of us know how it was conceived. That is the equivalent of landing in the middle of the tsunami without a lifeboat.”
“I know that everybody is probably asking you the same thing.”
Terk looked at him expectantly. “About what?”
“About the child. What possible reason could anybody have to knock her up with your child?”
“I only wish to hell I knew.”
“I was wondering about that.” Stone added, “Did you ever think it’s because of your abilities?”
Terk froze. “What do you mean?”
“Did you ever think that maybe somebody is attempting to recreate your abilities by using your own sperm? A biological clone of a sort.”
Holy mother-fucking hell.
Chapter 3
Celia wasn’t sure what to think of Terk anymore.
After she heard Levi and Ice talking casually after Celia’s hypnosis session, about Terk’s abilities, Celia cornered Ice in the dining room the very next morning. “I heard a rumor.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“That all of this is some elaborate scheme to reproduce Terk’s abilities. That someone somehow went to all these lengths, hoping for those talents to be passed on to this child.”
Ice sighed. “That is a theory, one of many,” she confirmed. “We’re not sure, of course, but it’s a good one, as theories go. But we’re not certain how any of this works,” she noted calmly. “The bottom line is, we don’t have any answers, and everything is on the table, as we do what we can to try and sort it out.”
“Well, somebody needs to tell me what Terk’s ability is, so I understand why somebody might think that he would pass it down to a child.”
Again Ice hesitated.
Celia searched the woman’s face. Celia was hoping they were friends, but something was definitely going on here. “I get that people are hiding something from me, and it’s making me very nervous. I feel like I’ve dealt with enough secrets already.”
“And you have,” Ice agreed, with a nod. “This is just … personal, and the information you seek is not mine to share, and, well, it stretches some people’s beliefs.”
“In what way?”
“Psychic and some metaphysical abilities maybe.”
“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine,” she snapped, certain she’d just been given a load of BS, but, as soon as Celia looked at Ice, such surety in her expression that it changed everything. Some truth was here, and now her own instincts were quivering. Celia sat back. “What does that mean?”
“Terk can tell you better.”
“Interesting.”
“Why?” Ice asked.
“Because … No. That was too far-fetched for this.”
“Celia, if you have something to share, this would be a really good time to do it.”
At the same time, Terk walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, then headed to the window. Distracted, he didn’t even see them.
Celia bit her lip, not willing to share when nobody else was.
Ice nudged her gently. “The only way we’ll get to the bottom of this is if everybody opens up.”
“You mean, like why somebody won’t tell me what Terk’s ability is?” she muttered out loud, staring directly at Terk.
Hearing her voice, Terk was roused from his musings. “Sorry, what was that?”
“I want to know what is so special about you? Why you?”
His gaze suddenly narrowed, and he gave a clipped nod. “I guess that’s fair.” He sat down beside her.
With Ice on one side and him on the other, Celia suddenly felt squished between two very large personalities. Yet oddly enough, she didn’t feel threatened. It was a strange feeling, almost as if she were protected. She frowned and tried hard to refocus her attention on what Terk was saying.
“I know things,” Terk claimed, with a shrug. “I don’t always know what I need to know, and I certainly don’t always know things that would be helpful,” he explained, “but I get premonitions, and … I work with energy. I assembled a team with varying abilities of their own, and we’ve been quite effective as a unit.”