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THE NEXT morning when Mathias was getting ready to go in to work, he got a duty recall message.
"Do you think they've learned anything from Sabrina?" Ivette asked him.
"I don't know. Where will you be today?"
"Today is the day Anne and I take the kids in for their medical checkups," Ivette said. "I'll let you know how it goes."
"And I'll keep you updated. I've got to com Dad and let him know I won't be in today."
Dr. Featherstone, a thin, middle-aged woman with platinum curls cut in a short bob, eyed the seven three-year-olds in her exam room who stared back at her with varying degrees of hostility, and said, “Oh, my.”
“I’m afraid they haven’t had many pleasant experiences with medical personnel,” Ivette said apologetically. “Perhaps if you removed the lab coat?”
“We’ll try it,” Dr. Featherstone said. Mathias’s mother had recommended the doctor; Ivette was pleased to see she was prepared to make allowances for the children’s fears. She hung the coat on the coat tree in the corner and turned to the first child who happened to be Jillian.
“I’m Dr. Featherstone,” she said. “And who are you?”
Jillian glanced at Ivette for guidance.
“Tell her your name, hon,” Ivette encouraged.
“Jillian. My name is Jillian Hayes-Bedingfeld, and this is Rika,” she put an arm around the vole who was sitting quietly beside her.
“Hello, Rika,” the Doctor said. “I’m just going to do a scan to take your vital signs. Shall I do Rika first?”
“Will it hurt?” Jillian asked suspiciously.
“Not a bit. It just makes a funny noise. Rika will be able to hear it, but you won’t. Afterwards, I'll show you how it looks on this screen. Will that be okay?” She tapped the large Holo screen fastened to the wall.
“Alright,” Jillian agreed. “But Rika will bite you if you’re lying.”
The Doctor’s eyebrows rose, but she gamely unlimbered her scanning wand, holding it out for Rika to sniff before turning it on.
The vole eyed it warily but allowed herself to be scanned.
When Rika’s image appeared on the Holo screen, the doctor pointed to it. “See?” she said. “This is how you will look on the screen. Over here is your temperature, your bone structure, how tall you are and how much you weigh. It also takes a vid of you.” As she spoke a 3-dimensional image of the vole appeared.
“Are you ready for me to scan you?”
“Okay,” Jillian said.
“Please come and stand here,” she pointed to an X marked on the floor. “How come she has to move if Rika didn’t?” Rafe asked suspiciously
“Rika is the only Vole in the room,” Dr. Featherstone explained. “There are nine humans present, and I want to avoid confusing the scanner when it takes your vitals.”
“Oh,” he said.
After another glance at Ivette for reassurance, Jillian obediently moved over to the marked area.
When she had finished her exams, the doctor turned to Ivette. “They are all healthy and they were all given the proper inoculations; all the correct antibodies appear on the scans. I usually give my young patients a lollipop after I’m done. Is it okay with you?”
“Yes,” Ivette agreed. She took a Vole cookie out of her pocket and handed it to Dr. Featherstone. “For Rika,” she said. “Jillian will expect you to reward her also.”
“Tell the doctor thank you,” Ivette prompted when they had all received the treat.
“Thank you, Dr. Featherstone,” the children chorused.
“They are certainly well behaved,” Dr. Featherstone complimented Ivette. “Might I have a few minutes of your time to speak privately?"
Ivette frowned. "Annie, please take the children out to the sled. I'll be with you shortly."
She waited until Annie and the children had left the room before asking, "Well?"
"Are you aware the children have DNA clone markers?" Dr. Featherstone asked. "I mention it because the markers will make it dangerous for them to visit earth."
"Yes, I know," Ivette assured her. "It's the reason why Mathias and I returned early from there."
"I see. Well, unless something untoward happens, I’ll tell the office to schedule you back in about six months.”
“Thank you,” Ivette said.
Outside the office, she was helping Annie get the children strapped into their booster seats when she sensed they were being watched. She glanced at Leo and Daphne, and noticed the young empaths were looking worried. They must feel it too. We need to get them started with lessons to block emotions as soon as possible, she thought.
Once the children were all buckled in, the big sled lifted into the air and slid smoothly into the traffic pattern. Dr. Featherstone's clinic was across town from the Lake House.
When the Holo Com chimed it was Mathias. Ivette turned the control to auto pilot and the com to full visual so all the children could see him.
“How did the visit with the doctor go?” he asked and was immediately swamped by seven voices all telling him about the experience.
“It went well,” Ivette assured him when she could get a voice in edgewise. “I think Dr. Featherstone is going to be a good choice. We need to be sure and thank your mother for arranging for us to see her.”
“Good,” he agreed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there with you. My unit is still on alert, although it was bumped from Orange to Yellow.”
“Do you know why? Never mind, of course you can’t tell me. We’ll celebrate when you can come home.”
They spoke for a few more minutes about mundane things before the proximity alarm went off and three sleek black sleds popped out of nowhere. They flew dangerously close to Ivette and the children.
“I’ve got a problem. I have to go,” Ivette said, hitting the emergency switch which caused safety nets to drop over the passengers, herself and Rika.
“What’s going on? Leave the com open,” Mathias ordered.
Ivette switched back over to manual control and punched the power. The three menacing vehicles easily kept pace.
“Damn!” she said. “They’ve got more legs than we do. It’s alright kids,” she said brightly, “we’re going to play a game. That’s why the special nets came down.”
She didn’t have time for more reassurance. She needed all her piloting skills to handle the sled. She wrenched the wheel to the right, making it look as if she intended to ram the sled on that side. The pilot must have thought she intended to do just that, because he turned to avoid her. At the last minute, she pushed down hard on the wheel and dropped under him, barely skimming his belly before darting away at a right angle to their original course.
“Ivette?” Mathias demanded.
“We’re okay. I got us some running room,” she said absently, feeling atop the dashboard for the lever that would open the weapons panel, hoping she was right about its presence. When it slid open under her fingers, she said, “Grandma, you were a paranoid old bitch, but I love you.”
“What happened?” Mathias demanded again.
Behind her the three sleds had managed to turn and were closing in fast.
“This sled was designed by my grandmother Loren,” she said. “It’s got more muscle than I thought. Can’t outrun these boys, but let’s see how good their eyes are. Going invisible, now.”
She pushed the stealth button and heard the mirrored tiles slide over the sled's outside skin, and the light bender take effect. She slowed and dropped, watching as the three sleds sped past overhead.
“They passed us, but they’ll soon figure out they lost us and come back.”
“Did you contact our home security?” Mathias asked. “I sent them a signal you needed help, but they didn’t answer me.”
“The sleds are programmed to automatically send one when I changed to the emergency mode on the vehicle. I’m going to turn it off and stay in stealth mode when I go over the estate. We’re almost there now. Mathias I see bodies lying outside.”
“Get away from there!” he said.
“I will. I’m taking the children to the Sea Dream,” she said.
“What is Sea Dream? Did you tell me about it?”
“I showed it to you the first day after the children went to bed,” she reminded him.
“Oh, yes, now I remember; you did say something about a sea dream.
“It’s the name grandmother gave it. I have to turn the com off now,” she said. “We’re about to submerge. I love you. Take care of yourself.”
“I love you too,” he said. “You kids be good for your mother. I love you all and I’ll join you as soon as I can.”
“We love you Daddy,” Daphne was the first to respond, followed by Leo and the others.
Ivette closed the com and turned on the underwater sonar. The love words had come surprisingly easy. She remembered her grandmother telling her sometimes in an arranged marriage it would happen. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, she thought.
She glanced at the viewer; Her sled had barely disappeared under the waves when the three pursuing sleds appeared on the screen. They passed overhead in a search pattern, obviously looking for her and the children.
“We’re heading for the safe house?” Nanny Germaine asked.
“Yes,” Ivette said. “Have you ever been to Sea Dream?”
“No, I was hired by your mother, so I never lived at the Lake House. Is there a way into the Lake House itself from there?”
“Yes, but we might have to stay at Sea Dream for a while. We won’t starve; the robot staff keeps it well supplied and looked after.”
Ivette opened the front viewer as they neared Sea Dream. Its design merged so well with the surrounding lake area a scanner would think it was a part of the lakebed. The dome shaped building was a surface pressurized house sitting on the lakebed at a depth of almost sixty feet. The house had three floors; the two bottom floors each had over a thousand square feet of space, the top floor, which was smaller was designed as a control/weapons room. On the bottom floor was a lounge, a dining room, and kitchen. The bedrooms were on the second floor.
Sea Dream had originally been designed as a place for her grandfather to study the aquatic life in the lake. The dwelling had several large, clear observation areas and even special feeding mechanisms to encourage nearby wildlife to provide a beautiful marine view. Her grandmother, being of a more practical bent, (or simply more paranoid) had added to the house design by disguising it to look as though it were another of the many coral colonies who made a home on the lakebed. In addition to disguising Sea Dream, Loren Hayes had insisted on installing a complete forcefield generator and a few offensive weapons.
Ivette guided the sled to the lowest level of the house before sending the signal to open the sea locks so the sled could slide into the entry.
Once inside, she turned off the defenses on the sled. “Everyone stay in their seats until all the water has been vacuumed out,” she said.
Once inside, she allowed the children to explore while she instigated the security protocols installed by Loren Hayes. They were all going to need clothing as well as food, she realized. She checked the 3-D printer supplies. It was stocked with the algae and seaweed residue collected from the outside skin of Sea Dream. She estimated how much material she was going to need to manufacture toys to keep the children occupied as well as clothes for everyone and set the collector to start gathering more.
Several hours later, she watched smiling as the children crowded up to the observation window in the dining room to watch a school of colorful fish swim by. They were as fascinated by the house as she had been as a child.
“Are you alright with this?” she asked Annie. The nanny had been a little queasy before dinner. The underwater pressure system affected some people that way.
The older woman nodded. “It was a little strange, but the nausea is gone, and I don’t think I’m going to have a panic attack.”
“Okay. I’m going to the war room to see what I can find out about what’s going on at the house.”
The war room had been her grandmother’s innovation. Smaller than the two levels below it, it covered the top of the dome. Besides links to all the vid cams inside the Lake House and grounds, the war room held the communication center and controls for the force field and the underwater cannons.
Ivette sat at the main control console and keyed in her identity. While she waited for the computer to recognize her, she checked her personal com, hoping for a message from Mathias or her mother. There wasn’t one.
The grounds were still littered with dead bodies, but several soldiers in an unfamiliar uniform were now loading the corpses into a waiting sled. She tried to angle the lens in closer to the sled, but although she didn’t recognize who had died, she assumed from the civilian clothing the dead had been among those who worked for her.
Her mouth thinned in anger; she switched the security cams to do a constantly sweeping view. When it focused in on the living room, she drew a hissing breath.
Her mother and Minerva were seated on the couch. Anastasia stared back at Alexandre calmly. Thirteen-year-old Minerva simply looked scared.
Ivette touched the screen for one-way vocals. This would allow her to hear what was being said without being noticed.
“Alexandre, this is foolish,” Anastasia was saying. “The Rex's personal security was tripled during the alert, and Junta Command will be ready for any attack you mount against the Portal. They outnumber you three to one.”
He smiled at her. “I have more men than you think. I’m not in this alone.”
Anastasia sat back, apparently relaxed. “Really? Are you talking about Jeremiah Boone? That fat old man and his skanky daughter, Bridget? I wouldn’t count on them too heavily if I were you.”
A twinge of anger crossed his face, and his hand clenched into a fist. “That’s enough! You’d better look to your own survival. Your ‘friends’ at Junta Command are going to think you had a part in this.”
“Because you attacked my daughter’s house so you can use it as a rallying point? I doubt it.”
“Don’t be too sure,” he sneered. “I took your youngest daughter out of school, and my men will soon have your eldest in hand. She won’t make a move that might endanger those brats of hers.”
Ivette grinned to herself. Little did he know she and the children had already escaped.
A tall, good-looking man entered the library. “Sir? Could you step outside?” he asked.
Cosimo! The rat! No wonder Leo had been so sure he wanted to hurt Mathias! The last thing this group must have wanted was for Mathias and herself to return and live here. Their presence certainly interfered with using this house as a staging area for Alexandre’s army. She wondered if Alexandre had heard the rumors Mathias was suspected of having been recruited by the Hive, the secret order charged with keeping abreast of threats to the Junta and Junta Rex. If he had heard the rumors, it must have made removing Mathias from the property imperative. Ivette wondered if Alexandre was aware her mother was a member too. Well, now she knew what game Anastasia had been playing with Alexandre. Colonel Lewellyn had obviously gotten wind of the conspiracy and identified Alexandre as a weak point.
Mathias needed to know about this. Ivette prepared a coded message telling him about Alexandre using their house as a rallying point for the rebels and sent it off in a two-second squeal.
Everyone knew The Hive existed, but its members were all sworn to secrecy. They didn’t talk about it or admit they were a part of it.
A slight movement in a corner of the library caught her eye. She zoomed the cam in on it. Yes! Shīfu Abhishree Wong had survived. Her old teacher was using the Disguise Move, enabling her to go unnoticed. The Shifu was directly opposite the camera lens.
Taking a chance, Ivette clicked the focus twice, causing a blue light to flash once. Abhishree saw it and blinked once. She now knew Ivette was watching.
Minerva saw it too and she wasn’t as good at concealing her responses, she stiffened in her seat and reached out for her mother’s hand. Anastasia patted it reassuringly.
“Alexandre!” she called. “Am I allowed to make some coffee? I could use a cup.”
He had been frowning thunderously at whatever Cosimo was telling him. He scowled at her, before he forced a more pleasant expression to his face.
“Of course, my dear. Cosimo will accompany you to the kitchen; it seems to be all you're useful for," he told Cosimo. "You'll excuse me Anastasia, I have something I need to deal with outside.”
A bit sulkily, Cosimo gestured for them to follow him into the kitchen.
While her mother took out the large coffee maker and began loading it, Minerva looked around.
“What did you do to Mrs. Morelli?” she asked. She might be afraid of Alexandre and his men, but she had known Cosimo all her life. She certainly wasn’t afraid of him.
Cosimo looked blank. “Who?”
“Ivette’s housekeeper.”
He shrugged. “When I got here, all the staff were gone or if they resisted, they had been killed. Why do you care?”
“I’m so glad my sister didn’t marry you!” Minerva snapped. “You’re a vicious—”
“Minerva,” Anastasia intervened quietly. “Please get some cups and saucers out of the cabinet and put them on a tray.”
Angrily, the girl turned to open the cabinet.
On the screens, Ivette had followed her mother and sister into the kitchen. The vid cam gave her a good view of the other side of the work island. A long smear of darkened blood ran down the side, and a puddle of it was partially dried on the floor.
None of Alexandre’s other men had followed them into the kitchen. Shifu Abhishree slipped silently behind Cosimo and grabbed his throat with one hand and covered his mouth with the other. Cosimo hadn’t spent his free time honing his body into a weapon; He fought her, but to no avail. Her martial arts training had given her muscles he didn’t even know existed. She let him slump to the floor, unconscious, and Anastasia knocked the huge pot of water and grounds over on top of him.
Shifu Abhishree jerked her head at the pantry door and Minerva darted inside. Anastasia followed her.
The Shifu opened the door to the grounds enough for it to be noticeable before she too entered the pantry.
“What do we do now?” Minerva whispered.
“Hush!” her mother instructed.
A panel slid aside, and Anastasia pushed her daughter into the corridor it revealed. Once they had all three entered, it closed behind them, and a dim line of light appeared to enable them to see their footing.
“Can I talk now?” Minerva whispered.
“Yes,” Anastasia replied in a normal voice. “The tunnel is sound proofed.”
“Where are we going?” Minerva asked.
“Sea Dream, where unless I’m mistaken, we’ll find Ivette and the children waiting for us.”
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