“How many people?” Yaw asked Joey Nugyen.
“A dozen. Maybe more. It’s tough to get an accurate head count,” Nugyen answered.
“Where are they now?” Chris asked.
“They get moved around. Never in one place too long. They were in City of Industry last week—a sweatshop in a rundown warehouse. Last I heard they were being held in an abandoned building downtown. Garment district.”
“Who’s moving them?” Yaw asked.
“Only thing I know is it’s not the Russians this time. Streets say new player, but I can’t pin it to any one person or institution,” Joey explained.
“In other words, business as usual,” said Chris.
“We can follow the money. That’ll tell us who,” Joey suggested
“My guess is it leads back to the Coalition,” Yaw said.
“Probably. Or affiliates. But we don’t’ have time for any of that now,” Joey explained.
Chris and Yaw looked at one another. Joey Nugyen had found his lane with the group. And that lane was street intel, particularly when it came to immigrants or refugees destined for the slave markets.
“We gotta go get them tonight. Can you get an exact location?” Yaw asked Joey.
“I should have it in the hour. Is there a plan?”
“We decide where to hide them once they’re ours and work back from that,” Camilla chimed in.
“What are you thinking?” Yaw asked.
“We can keep ‘em at Terminal Island for twenty-four hours. Then we’ll have to move them,” Camilla answered.
“They’re Chinese. We need Cantonese interpreters and help with placement,” Joey added.
Camilla did the math in her head for several seconds. She checked her watch. Smart phones or any form of electronics connected to the Internet were not allowed in meetings. The hands of the old Timex on her wrist read 9:23 p.m. “Okay. I’ll reach out to my contacts in the community. If you can get them to me by 3 a.m., I think I can move them safely among their people by 5 a.m.”
“Okay, so Joey, you’re gonna let us know where they are, and then we move,” Chris said. “We’ll get them to you before 3 a.m.,” he added, looking at Camilla.
“And we’ll cover you, should anything come up,” Yaw added to Camilla as he reached over and took hold of her hand.
“Where’s Masha on this? Is she up to speed?” Camilla asked Chris.
“She doesn’t like meetings. She’s practicing with her sticks right now. But don’t worry, she is raring to go.”
Yaw sat back in his metal chair, causing it to squeak. All four members sat silent around the small folding table—the only piece of furniture in the living room of a small apartment where they held their meetings. The apartment reminded Camilla of the one their former instructor, Master Winn, had.
“Where’s Alex on this?” Camilla asked Yaw as she bounced their daughter Kylie on her knee.
“He wanted me to handle it. Said bring him in if I needed to. Otherwise, run it without him.”
“You got this, bro,” Chris added.
“We all got this,” Yaw replied to the entire group who had been through so much together, starting from the streets of Los Angeles and going across the country to New York, and eventually across the globe to Trans Dniester.
“But where is he?” Joey asked. “Where is Alex? What is he up to?”
“He said that he and Nikki had something to take care of. And he’d see us at training tomorrow.”
“I’m gonna go check on them,” Camilla said.
“Are you hungry?” Alex asked Maria. The ten-year-old girl sat silent on the bed with her stuffed tiger Nala underneath her crossed arms, staring at Alex Luthecker.
Alex rubbed his temples. Maria had gone mute, and the patterns he could normally read in an individual—that would dictate their behavior—were still chaos when it came to Maria. It was frustrating, and he felt like he was in the dark, grasping at ghosts. It dawned on Alex that this level of confusion and uncertainty must be how most of the world felt, all of the time. It was no wonder that people retreated in fear.
“Let me try,” Camilla said as she stood in the bedroom doorway. In her arms, she still held her daughter Kylie.
Alex nodded, and Camilla entered the room. Maria turned her fiery gaze to Camilla.
“Would you like to hold her?” Camilla asked Maria, speaking in Spanish.
Maria looked back and forth between Alex, Camilla, and Kylie, put Nala aside, and held out her arms. Kylie squawked as Camilla carefully handed the girl over to Maria who held the child in her arms. The ten year old instinctively began to rock Kylie.
“She is your little sister now.”
Maria looked up at Camilla.
“We are a family here, Maria,” Camilla continued in Spanish. “And you are part of that family now. You are safe here. We will protect you. We will always protect you. And we trust you. And you can trust us. You can trust Alex. He has special eyes. Special eyes that can see things in people.”
“What can he see?”
“He can help people see their true selves. And share it with them. And if they want to, they change for the better.”
“What if they don’t want to?”
“Everyone has a choice. Including you.”
“He can’t see me,” Maria blurted out. “No one can.”
Camilla gave Alex a brief glance before looking back to Maria. “He can if you let him. He can help you. He helps us all. And we all help one another. Even Kylie, who you hold in your arms right now—she’s going to need your help. She’s going to need her big sister. She’s going to need you.”
Maria looked again to the child in her arms. Kylie reached up with a tiny hand and grabbed Maria’s nose. Maria broke out in a big smile, something she hadn’t done since Enrique died. She thought about Enrique and how much she missed him. She still wanted to get the people who had killed him. But now she was torn.
She’d never had a younger sibling. She had protected Enrique whenever she could from the cartel soldiers, but in the end, she failed. Maria remembered that Enrique had protected her as well, on countless occasions. He protected her by keeping their father away from her when he was angry. He protected her by making sure she had enough food to eat. He protected her by taking her to the county fair, where he used the last of his money to buy her Nala. Enrique had even sacrificed his life for her.
And it had all led to this moment, where Maria held this little girl Kylie in her arms, a little girl who would need her. Kylie’s mother had said that Alex had special eyes that could see things in people. Well he wasn’t the only one with special eyes.
Maria couldn’t see things about the man named Alex, which was strange. But she could see things about Camilla. She could see that Kylie’s mother was sincere and loving. She could see that Camilla could be trusted. And it was because of Camilla that Maria decided she would talk to Alex.
But she didn’t trust him yet, because she couldn’t see things about him, not like she could with everyone else. So she decided that she wouldn’t just talk with him. She would test him.
Maria held out Kylie, and Camilla scooped her from Maria’s arms.
Maria turned to Alex. “Will you help me, like Camilla said?”
“If you let me, yes.”
“Thank you, Camilla,” Maria said to Kylie’s mother, the tone of her voice telling Camilla she should go now.
Alex nodded to Camilla in thanks before watching her leave the room with Kylie. He turned back to Maria and found the young girl’s intense gaze locked on him. This should be interesting, he thought to himself.
Maria spoke first. “I want you to help me find the men who killed Enrique, and then help me kill them.”
Alex sat still for several seconds before answering. “That will not help you,” he finally answered.
“But they will kill more people.”
“The one I spoke with will never kill again. And killing the others would only perpetuate more killing. It is better to remove the cause behind their desire to kill. It is better to not need the Beast train at all. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“When I look at people, I can sometimes tell what they are going to do. Is that what you can do?”
Alex sat back against the wall. Could this be the reason he could only see chaos when he looked at Maria? Was it possible that Maria had the same abilities that he had? Was it possible that she was just like him?
Alex had a hard time getting his head around the possibility. Kunchin was a pattern reader after many years of intense training and isolation. Maria was just ten years old. If Maria was another natural pattern reader like himself, that changed everything.
“Yes. I can,” Alex finally answered. “I realized that I could do this when I was about your age.”
“Did everyone seem blind and stupid to you?”
Alex laughed. “Yes. They did.”
“So what did you do?”
“I avoided them. Until I learned that avoiding them wasn’t the answer.”
“When did you learn that?”
“I saved someone. And that led to making a choice.”
“But what if the blind and stupid people won’t leave you alone? What if they take away everything you love?”
Alex took a deep breath before answering. That quandary struck the heart of so many things that the family fought for. “That’s a very good question, Maria. One that I struggle with too. But did you know, with what you can do, with the special gifts that you have, that you could help people become less blind? That you can help them make the choice to not hurt anyone?”
“Can you do this to everyone?”
“No. Not everyone is ready. And it’s not something you do to them, it’s something you do for them. And if you do it for enough people, you change the momentum.”
“What’s the momentum?”
“I can teach you what that is. I can help you find your place in this world because you’re just like me. But you have to make a choice first. You have to choose between fear and hate, and love and hope. It all starts there.”
Maria looked away from Alex and turned her attention to Nala, her last connection to Enrique. Nala, who had been at her side throughout everything she’d seen.
Maria stroked the animal’s back several times, feeling the softness of its fur. Enrique often spoke of the difference between fear and love. And it was for Enrique she would do this.
She looked back to Alex. “Teach me.”
“She just went down to sleep,” Alex said to Nikki as he watched over the dozing Maria.
Nikki stood next to Alex and looked at Maria lying still on the small fold out bed, clutching her stuffed tiger close.
The ten-year-old girl’s face looked so peaceful. From that peaceful look, it would be impossible to tell that she’d recently been ripped from her home, rode on the back of the Beast train north, only to see her brother shot in cold blood.
“Camilla mentioned she finally opened up to you,” Nikki said.
“Yes, she did.”
“What did you two talk about?”
Alex stood behind Nikki and put his hands around her waist. He kissed her on the neck before answering. “We need to adopt her.”
“What?” Nikki said, abruptly spinning around so she could be face to face with Alex, shocked at the unexpected turn in the conversation. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. Where else is she going to go?”
“I don’t know, Alex. But she needs a stable home. She needs to go through social services…”
“She would become lost in the system. Trust me, I know. And I won’t let that happen.”
“We can watch over her. Keep tabs. We can’t really give her a life…”
“The world can’t either. Not her. She’s different. And we’ll adapt. We’ll save a life.”
Nikki stepped back from Alex and looked at him with curiosity. “What are you not telling me, Alex? What do you see when you read her?”
“I can’t read her. I only see chaos in her patterns. And that’s because I think she’s just like me.”
Nikki’s jaw dropped, and she put her hand to her mouth. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure, yes. I may not be able to read her patterns yet, but I know there is nothing accidental about this. She belongs with us. I feel it in my heart. And I need to know if you’re with me.”
Nikki looked at Maria, then at Alex. The responsibility of raising a child had always been daunting to Nikki. When men in her past had brought up children, it was a sign of the end for her.
But it was different with Alex. She trusted him. And although their circumstances were far from secure, she knew that somehow, he would see to it that they would be okay. And if what he said about the young girl was accurate, that if Maria was just like him, at least one part of what Kunchin had said in Tibet was beginning to make sense.
“Yes. Of course I’m with you,” she answered.
A loud knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Nikki moved away from the bedroom entrance, down the narrow hallway of the two-bedroom apartment, and into the living room, Alex right behind her.
She reached the door and looked out the peephole. It was Officer Dino Rodriguez, and a young female officer was with him.
“It’s Dino,” Nikki said to Alex, before she opened the door.
“Sorry to bother you guys,” Rodriguez said as he looked from Nikki to Alex.
“Come in,” Alex replied.
“This is Officer Ellen Levy. She’s new, but she’s on our side.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Nikki said as she and Alex shook Levy’s hand.
“Likewise.”
“So what’s going on?” Nikki asked.
“Something happened today. Something I think only you can answer. We had two vehicles act on their own with no drivers and take down a pair of suspects in a coordinated effort. I was contacted by an unknown source via text message, telling me both of the crime and exactly where the perpetrators were.”
Nikki’s heart sank. She knew exactly what had happened. Her worst fear had come true. She thought that she had more time, but it was clear now that she did not. What Kunchin had predicted about PHOEBE had begun, and she was beginning to act out completely on her own. Nikki could no longer ignore the implications. She had to find a way to get PHOEBE to open up to her before it was too late.
“We need your help on this one,” Rodriguez continued, his words cutting through Nikki’s thoughts. “Is there any chance that software program I know you run, what’s it called, PHOEBE? Is there any chance you can use it to help us find out what the hell is going on?”