“A what?”
Phoebe shook off the question, single-mindedly looking off to the east. “We need Aria.”
4
In the rain that managed to fall sideways now in a driving push to reach under his large golf umbrella, Alexander Crowe moved closer to Aria, as close as he could manage without seeming too fresh. They’d been closer before, but things had cooled since the new semester started, since some new objectives required their cooperation with the Stargate team, and all in all, they had both been burning their respective candles at all ends, leaving little time for each other.
Maybe she’ll grow fonder, Alexander thought, fighting back a shiver. They were both early admission freshmen, juggling too many classes, activities and of course, their other responsibilities. His father tried to keep those at a minimum, unless Aria’s special talent was needed, which was rare. She could shield their activities, their very whereabouts from other psychics, blocking them from remote sight. Previously, their enemies had used her to shield their camp and their plans until almost too late. Her father and mother had valiantly died protecting her, and now she was part of a new family. Alexander’s family, which made for various concerns and guilt. If their relationship progressed as he hoped it would, then it was a perfect situation. But if not, he knew things could get awkward fast.
At least she wouldn’t have to worry he’d ever snoop on her when they weren’t together, he joked a couple times. You couldn’t if you tried, she laughed back, and on that time, one of the last, they had kissed. Deeply, tenderly during a storm not too different from this one.
Thunder rumbled a ways off as it cleared past their area and headed east.
“So are we going to stand in the rain all day trying not to get wet, or are we going to get back to it?” She snuggled a little closer, looked into his eyes, and for an instant as the rain slashed at their legs and the wind threatened to rip the umbrella away, there was that connection again.
“Studying for Trisdeli’s Stats final, or…the other thing?”
“The other thing,” Aria said over the rain. “I’d like to help.”
“Before you can come into our office though, you know the rules.”
“Yeah I know. But I can focus it now, I can shut off the shield.”
Usually it was only off during the time she was asleep. The terrorists who had her captive in Afghanistan used drugs and other methods to keep her awake, things Alexander preferred not to think about, and memories Aria preferred stayed far in the past. Aria had let them know in advance of her visits, in case the psychic teams were working on objectives around the facility. Her presence could effectively wipe out all those efforts.
Right now they were working on something big.
“Uncle Xavier’s thing?” Aria prodded.
Alexander smiled. ‘Uncle Xavier’ wasn’t so much as he remembered him any longer. His father’s half-brother — a man with incredible clairvoyant powers himself, a man who had sacrificed himself for them, for the very world, and found his consciousness transplanted into the body of Senator Mason Calderon — once their worst enemy, was at this moment rallying the United Nations, along with NATO and other agencies, on a very particular quest.
A matter of international importance that held huge implications for the Stargate agency, for psychics in general, and possibly, for the safety of the world.
Alexander didn’t want to miss being a part of that. “Yeah, apologies to Professor Trisdeli, but I do…I really do want to get back there and help out.”
“Knew you did. I can tell. You fidget so damn much.”
“Well, maybe I’m just nervous around you.”
“Ha.” She snuggled a little closer, and her arm circled his waist.
“This…this is nice,” he said, looking out over the campus, the busses the raincoats and the array of umbrellas, everyone rushing from one place to another.
Alexander felt the moment of shared tenderness closing in and closing down, anticipation rising and about to collapse, as if a door was about to shut on a path of countless futures, limiting their choices now to just one. Helpless to stop it, he felt outside of himself, and suddenly her touch opened up a blind spot. Right there to his left, in a blurry shadow behind the corner of Starbucks. People hustled by in their raincoats, umbrellas bobbing and dripping, but in the gaps of vision, a figure stood there, one that hadn’t been there before.
“Mom,” he whispered, and felt Aria tense.
“Where?” her voice came back from an impossibly distant corridor of his mind.
The umbrellas and the people, the cars and buses, all transformed into unrealistic phantoms, sideshow illusions compared to the woman in the glowing verdant dress and the large-brimmed summer hat. It was an image from one of Alexander’s favorite pictures of her. Upstate New York, skipping stones at Sodus Beach on a late July Sunday after a double-chocolate twist ice cream cone.
“Alexander,” came her voice, carried with the echoes of fading raindrops.
He tried to call out, tried to move, but his muscles wouldn’t respond. He hadn’t seen her vision appearing to him like this in so many years, not since that fateful day below the modern library at Alexandria, after the earthquake, in the midst of so much destruction and death and loss.
Here she was again, looking no different, except maybe more lovely and perfect.
“Go…”
He strained and listened, trying to catch what sounded like a bubbling voice in a pool.
“…to Namodal.”
Where? Mom, I hear you, he tried to convey. And Mom…please, I miss…
The rain returned, a torrential downpour, washing away her image, melting the greens of her dress and the red ribbon in her hat like wet pastels running down a canvas soon blurred further by the bustle of crowds. Aria’s grip pulled him back.
“What did you see? Your mom, did she—?”
He could only shake his head, and hope the rain splashing now against his face would disguise his tears.
“I have to go.”
Aria nodded. “I sensed something too. Not what you did, but…something else.”
Alexander blinked, cleared his eyes and met her look. “What do you mean?”
“I can tell when someone is trying to find us. It’s involuntary, reactionary, but the shield…it’s been up for an hour now.”
“Someone’s looking for us? For you?”
“Both of us, likely.”
“And not just our Stargate people? Or Dad? You know how snoopy he can be.”
Aria smiled and then shook her head.
“This was different. Something…icky, I would have said years ago when I was in Afghanistan and feeling the same thing.” Her expression darkened. “I feel it’s that all over again, except a much stronger force. Darker and intrusive, angry. A confident mind looking for us, looking hard.”
“Keep the shield up,” Alexander said. “And let’s skip class.”
She forced a smile. “Normally I’d be excited to hear you being such a bad boy, but I’m guessing this isn’t going to be fun.”
“Maybe not, but I have a name, somewhere I’m supposed to go. It sounds familiar, but I need to talk to my dad first, and…we need to get back there.”
Alexander stepped out into the rain.
“To Stargate.”
5
After the test concluded, Boris Zeller shook Orlando’s hand and gave him a wry smile. “Hope I did ok. Although I think I wasn’t really feeling it today.”