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The Receptionist, a middle-aged brunette in sober business dress, at Derwin-Hepler & Reading-Smith was clearly relieved to see Kai when she entered the building the next morning, “Welcome Miss Riordan. Mr Derwin-Hepler left strict instructions that you are to be escorted straight up to him when you arrived.”
Kai smiled... until she heard: “Maybe she can work out why my boss is being so nasty all of a sudden. He cancelled all time off until further notice.” The receptionist was dialling a number and not looking at Kai.
Damn, I thought that effect had disappeared. She sighed and looked around. The area was filled with people. Some sitting, some pacing, others having conversations that Kai couldn’t quite hear. “You’re busy this morning,” She said to the receptionist who looked up and frowned.
“No, not really. Ever since the boss cancelled time off and made it compulsory to stay in the office at lunch time, I hardly see anyone. They’re all terrified of what he might do next.” The woman shrugged, then spoke to someone on the other end of the line, “Miss Riordan is here. Can you send someone down to escort her to Mr Derwin-Hepler, please?”
She listened for a moment, then put the phone down, “Mrs Reading-Smith will be down for you in a second or two. If you’ll just take a seat?”
Kai looked around again, intending to ask where and realised that the reception area was empty. Where did they all go? I could have sworn that this place was heaving... picking a seat, she sat down to wait.
A pair of security guards walked past her, looking grim. The receptionist said nothing to them. Kai looked from the woman to the two men and blinked, I’m sure I just saw... but... maybe I ought to go see Amira again? Or failing that, maybe I need to get some more rest...
“Miss Riordan, welcome.” A blonde woman in a narrow pinstriped trouser suit and impossibly high heels stepped out of the lift and walked toward her.
Kai stood up and there were suddenly hundreds of people, walking between them and up the stairs or out the doors. She watched as the blonde woman walked right through several of them with her right hand outstretched. I’m seeing things. Is this like the hearing comments?
As the woman got close enough for Kai to respond, the people disappeared. Kai looked around, bewildered.
“Miss Riordan? Are you all right?” the woman said.
Kai pulled herself together, “Oh yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking.” She took the woman’s hand, “Mrs Reading-Smith, I presume?”
The blonde woman smiled, “Yes, that’s me. I’m Mr Derwin-Hepler’s partner. If you wouldn’t mind coming up to my office, we can talk a bit before he arrives back from his meeting.”
Kai followed Mrs Reading-Smith into the lift. The moment the doors closed; the lift was full of people. Controlling herself tightly, Kai stretched out her senses toward the nearest man. He turned, looked at her and smiled, before fading out. As he disappeared, the rest of them did, leaving only herself and Mrs Reading-Smith in the space.
“You seem a little preoccupied, Miss Riordan. Is there anything I can do to help?” the other woman said.
Kai shook her head, “It’s all right, I’ve just got a lot on my mind at the moment.”
“Your office said that you were on holiday at the moment, we weren’t expecting your call this morning.”
The lift doors opened, and they stepped out into a large open plan office. A pair of security guards stood either side of the lift doors and looked at them as they opened. When they saw Mrs Reading-Smith they relaxed.
That’s the pair of guards I saw earlier, but one of them has a two-day old beard now. Odd. Worried faces looked up at Kai and then at Mrs Reading-Smith from the desks. Kai didn’t need to use her abilities to tell her that something was very wrong in this workplace.
As they arrived at the glass walled office at the far end of the room, Mrs Reading-Smith spoke to one of the nearest office workers, “Would you get us some coffee please?”
He nodded and headed toward the small kitchen that Kai could see through a nearby door. Mrs Reading-Smith opened the office door and motioned to Kai to go through first, saying “The events of the past month or so has everyone on edge.”
She gestured to a small arrangement of leather chairs and couches in an alcove, “Please take a seat.”
Kai was tempted to say “Where would you like me to take it? The cinema perhaps?” as a way of breaking the tension, but she held her tongue and sat down in a single chair. Mrs Reading-Smith sat on the nearest couch to her.
“Can you recap the problem here, for me?” Kai said, “I want to make sure that my recollections are correct.”
The woman grimaced and sat back into the couch’s embrace, “It started a few months ago. We have a large office petty cash box because we trust our employees to only buy what is necessary for the smooth running of the office. Money began to go missing and when I had to restock the box for a third time, I knew we had a thief in the office.”
There was a knock at the door and the office worker that Mrs Reading-Smith had sent for coffee, entered with a tray.
He placed it on the small table between the two of them, “Angela called up. Mr Derwin-Hepler has just arrived back from the meeting.”
“Thank you, Stephen.”
He left the office without saying anything.
“You said events earlier, surely the thefts are just a single occurrence.” Kai said.
“Well, we’ve had a spate of problems. First it was the thefts, then clients started calling up and asking to get out of their contracts because they couldn’t rely on us to perform our duties correctly,” she sighed, “final straw was yesterday.”
“What happened?”
“Our IT department discovered the presence of some malware that was accessing client’s personal information and sending it to an unknown recipient. I spent all day yesterday with the guys in IT and they couldn’t work out how to deactivate the thing.”
“Is that why everyone here is worried?” Kai looked out through the glass walls, spotted the familiar figure of Mr Derwin-Hepler walking slowly toward the office.
“We’ve had to clamp down on security. No one is allowed in or out of the office between 9 am and 5 pm, and we had to cancel any holiday for the foreseeable future.” Mrs Reading-Smith shrugged, “We explained everything to them during a meeting the day before you were due to come in.”
Kai blushed, “I’m sorry about that by the way.”
The other woman waved the words away, “It wasn’t your fault after all. Getting sick isn’t something that you can really control.”
Ah, so that’s how Edward explained it. Kai smiled, “True. Anyway, I’m here now so how can I help you to solve your problems?”
The door to the office opened, “You can’t I’m afraid. It’s something that we will have to deal with in-house. Thank you for coming though.” Mr Derwin-Hepler said as he came in.
An intake of breath from Mrs Reading-Smith told Kai a great deal. She wasn’t expecting him to say that. Kai looked from one to the other and back again. I get a very strong sense that he’s just changed whatever plan they had discussed.
Standing up, Kai shrugged, “Well I’m willing to work with you on whatever you need me for. All you have to do is call.”
He stood stiffly as she approached him, hand out. “Thank you for the offer, Miss Riordan, but we won’t need your services at all at this time.”
As Kai got closer to him, she heard: “I can’t let her interfere with the plan.” It was repeating over and over again in his mind. She dropped her hand, but he didn’t relax. Mrs Reading-Smith leapt out of her seat and in two steps was beside Kai, who heard her say “What in all the hells is going on?” in her mind as the woman came level with her.
I’m hearing them thinking about themselves, not about me. Well, that’s a little different to before at least.
“I’ll escort Miss Riordan back down to reception.” Mrs Reading-Smith said aloud.
Mr Derwin-Hepler nodded and walked over to his desk without another word, clearly no longer interested in them.
Kai looked around as she left. If anything, the office workers look more worried than they were when I arrived. Something is very, very wrong. They entered the lift and as soon as the doors closed, Mrs Reading-Smith turned to her, “I can’t talk about it here, clearly, but something is affecting Mr Derwin-Hepler as well as the business and I am sure that it is connected somehow. Can I come to your office?”
Kai shook her head, “I’m not in the office at the moment; I have a lot of investigation to do...” she looked carefully at the other woman, “... part of which is to do with your niece.”
Mrs Reading-Smith pressed a button on the lift, and it juddered to a halt, “That’s another subject that I cannot talk about in the office. My Brother-in-Law said that he would deal with everything to do with Tabatha.”
“Then perhaps you can bring him to a meeting with me? I’ll pay for a meal for all of us in a safe location and maybe you’ll be able to tell me a lot more than you have currently.”
“Hmm, I think that might be a good idea. Tell me where and when and I’ll bring my husband, his brother and my sister-in-law.” Mrs Reading-Smith pulled out her mobile phone, “I’ll give you my number...”
Kai thought about the police file at home, “No need, your Brother-in-law already gave it to me. I’ll text you as soon as I have something set up.”
She nodded and pressed the button again. The lift started moving and dinged as it arrived at the ground floor. They stepped out into the reception area and were surrounded by people again, including the man who had winked at her before. Kai blinked and they disappeared. This is really weird.
“Thank you for coming.” Mrs Reading-Smith said, shaking Kai’s hand firmly.
I’ll be in touch.” Kai said with a smile and left the building without looking back.
On her way back to the loft, Kai passed through the park. There were three times as many people in there as had been the last time she walked through. Some of the tourists she saw seemed to walk through others as if they weren’t there. I’m almost certain now that most of these people aren’t really here, but where they’ve come from, I can’t figure out.
She dropped into the Divinatory Office, but there was no one there, not even Sebastian and she had to unlock the side door to get in. When she walked through into the waiting room it was packed and she recognised every single client she had worked with over the last five years. Maybe I’m seeing the spirits that have been here in the past? But I only moved ‘Lady Starwind’ here six months ago.
As she locked up and exited the building, a group of tourists walked past. Kai studied them carefully and saw the same man who she’d seen in the Derwin-Hepler & Reading-Smith building. He winked at her again and disappeared. Who is that? I don’t recognise him at all, but he obviously knows me... maybe he’s from the future? She shook her head and sighed.
Back at the Loft, Kai locked her door and collapsed into the sofa with a groan. “I’m exhausted again. This is getting ridiculous.”
Her phone rang and with another groan, she rolled over and picked up the handset, “Hello?”
“I’m glad I got hold of you, Kai.” Amira said, “Have you had any more adverse effects from the curse?”
“Depends on what you define as adverse. I’m getting tired very quickly.” Kai lay down full length on the sofa and put the phone onto speaker, closing her eyes.
“That’s normal exhaustion from the ritual. You need to spend more time resting.” Amira said and Kai could hear the amusement in her friend’s voice.
“I thought I had superhuman healing abilities now, surely that means I won’t get tired anymore?”
“The ritual took a lot of energy out of you. Getting drunk straight after and passing out didn’t help either.” The Dragon Priestess pointed out.
“How do you know I got drunk?” Kai said, “Actually, that brings up something else. The Temple and the White Tiger’s office were the only people that knew I was participating in the healing ritual. Edward and Sebastian just know I’m on holiday. So how did the White Tiger know I was home and drunk alone?”
There was a long silence.
“You told them I was home?”
Amira said nothing.
“Are you the one who bugged my loft? Is that how you knew I was drunk?”
“What? No, I would never invade your privacy like that.” She snapped, “I knew you were drunk because I felt it. The ritual linked the two of us briefly and it takes a while to disconnect. As to the White Tiger knowing you were home, the Crystal Dragon has taken a special interest in you and insisted on knowing the outcome of the Ritual. Maybe they told the White Tiger.”
Kai opened her eyes, “The Dragon’s Council Rep? Why? I know you recommended me to the Council for the Jade Cat post.”
“I thought it might be something that you would be interested in; you always were investigating things in University.” Amira said, “Are you going to take it?”
“I don’t know yet.” Kai sighed.
“It sounds like you need to get some sleep.”
“I will do, I just have to figure out something first... actually you might be able to help me.” Kai pushed herself back up to sitting. Do you know much about the Fae?”
“I speak a little of their language, but other than that, no.” Amira said slowly, “You’d have to talk to Special Division to find out more.”
Damn, I was hoping that I could circumvent that one. Kai rubbed her eyes, “What does Leabhar na Fae mean?”
Amira repeated the words and then hummed and hahed for a while. Kai could hear pages of a book turning in the background. “It means, The Book of The Fae. Essentially, it’s their History, Lore and Grimoire in one volume. I’ve only ever seen it once when I accompanied the Crystal Dragon to a Triang Meeting. The Gold Phoenix carries it around with them.”
Kai absorbed the information and turned it over and around in her mind. So, If Tabatha is being read to from it, that means that she’s Fae at least.
“What does Ceann Maoirseoir mean?” she asked, remembering the name that Tabatha had called the person who was calling the shots where she was.
There was more page turning, “Head Mage. Where are you getting this from?”
“One of my cases. Thanks Amira, that helps a lot.” Kai stretched a little.
“Well, I just wanted to check up on your progress. I’ll call you again tomorrow, but for now I want you to eat something and rest.” Amira’s voice took on a lecturing tone, “You have to recover from the ritual properly.”
“Yes mother.” Kai said with a straight face.
Amira laughed, “At least your sense of humour is intact. Go rest, Kai.”