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Katerina had no plan other than getting to her house as soon as possible to do something — anything. If it was too late to warn her mother that Patrick knew she was coming, then she would have to do something else. The gun in her waist-band jiggled while she ran and she grimly acknowledged she would use it if she had to.
The house looked perfectly normal as she approached; no sign of anyone or anything out of the ordinary. Indeed, the entire street was very quiet, unusually so for that time of the morning. There were no joggers, no kids on bikes, no cars pulling out of driveways to head into the city for work. Unnerved by the observation, Katerina paused a moment to consider the possible ramifications of an empty street but made herself shrug it off and keep moving, aware that her mother was undoubtedly already inside and possibly in trouble.
The curtains and blinds were all shut and drawn preventing visual access. There was however, an un-shuttered upstairs window, making it a logical vantage point. Her heart pounding frantically, Katerina crossed the lawn and climbed rapidly up their silver birch tree until she could see though into her parents’ bedroom.
It was empty and the door was shut. She swung herself out wide holding on to the tree with one arm and one leg as she fumbled with the window to see if it was unlatched. It swung open easily and she pulled herself awkwardly through into the bedroom.
All was silent in the house. Though she listened at the door for long moments there was no way of telling if anyone was outside it. Eventually she forced herself to move, pulling the gun out and holding it in front of her as she silently turned the handle and eased the door open.
But the corridor was empty too. She made her way quietly to the stairs and down to the ground floor. As she reached the bottom she heard a faint noise from the main lounge and shifted direction towards it. Again she listened outside, realizing after a moment that the voices were actually coming from the television. Once more she held the gun out in front like a shield as she opened the door and slipped through.
Sarah was alone in the room tied to a chair in the center and gagged. Hurrying to her, Katerina put the gun down on the floor and struggled with the cloth over her mouth. Sarah however fought her, shaking her head frantically and Katerina realized too late that someone was right behind her, waiting. Just as she managed to pull the gag down, Patrick spun her around brutally by her arms. He kicked her gun away and pushed his own into her chest, hard.
“Hello Kat,” he said.
“What are you doing!” she exclaimed before she could stop herself. Even though she knew him for who he was now, it still felt both unreal and painfully sad — having the man she had loved for over a year holding a gun to her.
“It’s been too long.” There was sarcasm in his tone. He nodded his head at the couch and forced her to move towards it.
“Patrick,” Sarah said in a low, warning voice.
“Save your breath Sarah.”
“What do you want with us?” Katerina asked.
“I’m going to help you kill Zeus. And then you’re going to help me.”
“How can you possibly help me?”
“We’re going to work out what you need to do to go back.”
“And how do you propose to do that?”
“You’re going to stay here, in this room, until you work it out. And I’m going to make sure you’re uninterrupted while you do so,” he sounded almost cheerful.
“And if I succeed, how do you think I can help you?”
“I’ll be going back with you Katerina. It’ll be our first international trip together.” He appeared to be finding her discomfort amusing. “And you will do exactly as I tell you — or my men will kill your mother. Isn’t that right Sarah?” he demanded, turning to her mother but holding the gun steady on Katerina. It felt like it was bruising her ribs but she dared not move.
“Where’s my husband?” Sarah asked.
“James will be along shortly. He’s been very helpful actually. We couldn’t have done this without him.”
“What have you done to him?” Sarah cried out.
Somewhere in the house a door slammed and Patrick smiled. It was unpleasant and Katerina felt her heart turn over inside her chest as she realized what he was implying.
“See for yourself,” he said and stepped away from Katerina, keeping the gun aimed at her.
A few moments later Katerina’s father, James, stepped into the room. He looked as if he had just come from the office, still in his expensive dark blue, tailored suit, his hair combed neatly back. He took them all in with one quick glance then ignored his family, facing Patrick instead. “Noah’s gone back.”
Patrick smiled slowly. “Good. You are the lucky last Kat...”
“Dad?” Katerina asked painfully. Her mother was silent, staring at James as if she had never seen him before. “Dad?” she asked again.
“Stay out of this Kat,” James said, still avoiding her gaze.
“How can I!” she exclaimed. “I’m already involved.”
He looked at her then. “Just do what he wants and everything will be okay.”
“How can you say that!” it was Sarah’s turn.
“She doesn’t have a choice, none of us do,” James said calmly.
“I hate to break up this reunion,” Patrick interrupted, waving his gun impatiently at the three of them, “but it’s time to get to work Kat. Sit down...you too James, we’re going to need you too.”
“To do what?”
“To work out how to send Kat back. Katerina has to make some right choices and we’re going to help her work out what they are, but we don’t have much time. Zeus’s bodyguards will work out Diana is dead pretty quickly and decide to kill you on Kainnan.”
“Can they do that?” Sarah asked.
“Oh I assure you they can...and then I would be most unhappy. I should probably have to kill you too,” he said to Sarah, so off-hand Katerina stared hard at him to see if he was serious. He returned her gaze coolly and she saw the darkness in him.
“Who are you really?” she burst out, without thinking.
For the first time, she saw a flicker of something in Patrick’s eyes — was he uneasy? Watching him closely for another reaction she demanded, “What are you getting out of this? How are you connected to Wilhelm?” A shadow flickered across his eyes at that and she abruptly remembered the truth ring. An idea birthed and she got up off the couch and stepped towards Patrick, staring intently at him while she slipped her hand into her pocket and put the ring on.
“I have an offer for you,” she forced confidence she did not feel into her voice. “You answer some of my questions and I will answer all of yours.”
“You’re in no position to bargain,” he snapped, stepping towards her menacingly so they were mere inches apart again.
“Maybe not, but my help would make this process faster,” she returned, willing him to agree.
They stared at each other for long moments then Patrick shrugged. “I will answer some of your questions and you will answer all of mine?”
“Yes.”
He waited, and she turned away, feigning thought but really needing to see the ring without his knowledge. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-five.” The ring lit up soft gray-blue — and she wondered at the lie, for she had merely asked it to get started.
“You work for Wilhelm?” It was rhetorical really, but when he said, “Yes,” the ring lit up the same color again.
She turned slowly to look at Patrick again, starting to circle him cautiously. He leaned back against a chair, watching her with amusement. She studied his strong face, his eyes so dark green they were almost black, the black clothes she had never seen him in before. There was something there, at the edge of her awareness, a connection her mind was trying to make...
“What do you get out of this?” she asked, more to buy time to work out what was bothering her than anything else.
Patrick shrugged. “The usual — money.” Another lie. She couldn’t work it out. Was he going to lie about everything? Or perhaps the ring was not working.
“Was it you, trying to kill us last night at my mother’s building?”
“That was all Zeus’s doing; that was his men trying to save him.” That was the truth at least, but terrifying that Zeus was targeting her mother.
“Did you ever love me?” she asked suddenly.
His gaze seemed to soften a moment and he answered, “Yes,” but the ring showed he was lying again. Shocked Katerina stared at him, scrambling to understand the meaning behind his answers.
But, “That’s enough,” he said, standing up. “My turn. Start talking Katerina. What are your vices, who do you need to forgive, what have you done wrong? And don’t bother lying because I’ll know it.”
“I don’t know where to start...”
“Well then, let’s start with your parents and your resentment towards their work habits,” he said cruelly.
“Kat?” Sarah asked into the awkward silence.
“Well you do work a lot. You haven’t exactly been around much the last five or six years,” Katerina was unable to keep the resentment from her voice.
“I thought you understood.”
“What? That you actually work for a secret branch of the government and investigate another world?”
“That I got a promotion and you were older...”
“Maybe if you had been around more I wouldn’t have fallen for him,” Katerina said sarcastically, staring accusingly at Patrick.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Sarah nodded, her voice humbled. “But I believed him too, for months — until he started blackmailing me. I assume he’s been blackmailing your father too...”
They both looked at James for affirmation, hoping that was the reason he was helping Patrick. He glanced once at their captor then nodded. “He threatened to hurt you both.”
Patrick was smiling, a look she could only describe as pleasure on his face. He was tapping the gun quietly on his leg and she followed the movement with her eyes, scrambling to put the pieces together.
“I had no idea you felt that way about my job,” her mother was saying. “I’m so sorry, I would have...”
“What?” James spoke up again. “You would have what? You love your job. You wouldn’t have sacrificed it for anyone.”
Surprised Katerina glanced at her father. He sounded angry, but his mouth was tight which was his tell, how she knew he was bluffing when they played games together. He was playing a part, she realized abruptly, but for who? For her? For Patrick?
Her parents started arguing and she zoned out, watching Patrick from behind her long hair so he could not see her eyes. He kept tapping the gun on his leg, slowly, rhythmically and her eyes were drawn to the movement again. It was making a soft clinking sound as it connected with his ring. The ring he had told her belonged to his father before he died. Probably another lie, invented to pad out his character.
She nearly sat upright as a thought occurred but forced herself to remain still and relaxed. He always wore the ring, so after her first perusal many months ago she had barely looked at it again. But now she examined it carefully as best she could across the distance between them.
It looked like hers. It looked as old. It looked like the same metal but from vague memory she recalled the inscription inside was quite different, in another language. He had told her it was Arabic and a dedication to his father from his father’s father. But that could have been another lie, like everything else. Yet if this was the second ring, the one which enabled the wearer to deceive those around them, surely it would explain Patrick’s ability to fool them all so completely. Or did she just want it to be so, so she didn’t look such a fool?
“Katerina?” Sarah was saying.
“Yes?” she forced herself to refocus.
“We are both so sorry we’ve been so absent for you. Can you forgive us?”
“That depends. What’s going to change?”
Patrick laughed. “You always were such a challenging girl.”
“What do you want changed?” Sarah ignored Patrick, focusing on Katerina. Patrick moved as if he would physically silence her but his phone rang and he answered it instead, watching Sarah warningly. The others fell silent to listen unabashedly to his end of the conversation.
“Yes...what?! But Nicole was vetted extensively...no she didn’t...” A long pause. Then, “I will take care of it myself. It will be a pleasure,” though there was no hint of pleasure in his voice. “Where is she now?” Patrick listened a moment longer then snapped his phone shut. He advanced on Sarah, his face dark with anger. “Well done, you had me fooled! Nicole played her part very well.”
“Yes, she did. She forced herself to pretend to like you when she really despised you for what you were doing to my daughter.”
“Such a shame really, that she will pay for your mistake,” Patrick sneered. Katerina shuddered at the look on his face. “Nate,” he yelled and a huge, heavily tattooed man entered the room. “Watch them. Shoot them if you have to, but don’t kill them. I need her to finish her task,” he pointed at Katerina. As if as an afterthought he added, “And search them and take their phones.” He waited while Nate did so then finished sarcastically, “It’s been a pleasure as always Kat. See you soon...”
Immediately after Patrick left, James turned his attention to the guard, asking him questions which Nate ignored. Sarah used the distraction to lean in to her daughter and whisper, “There’s a mobile phone hidden in the toilet cistern. You need to warn Nicole he’s coming for her, hurry!”
Nate called in a second guard, Ant, to escort Katerina to the bathroom. Ant waited right outside but she figured standing in the shower with the door closed and a towel over her head should muffle her voice sufficiently. She dialed Nicole with shaking fingers, terrified she would be too late or Nicole wouldn’t answer her phone. But it was picked up on the third ring.
“Nicole, it’s Katerina,” she whispered.
“Kat? I can hardly hear you.”
“You have to listen to me. Patrick knows about you working for my mother. He’s coming for you!”
Nicole was silent for several moments, then demanded, “How do you know that?”
“Long story...but wherever you are right now, he knows. You have to get out! He’s on his way.”
Another silence. “I’m in hospital — I broke my leg. I can’t walk.”
“You have to find a way out,” Katerina urged. “You have to get out somehow! Do you understand?”
“I’ll get help, I’ll get a nurse to move me...”
“Which hospital are you in? Because he already left my house ten, fifteen minutes ago.”
There was a noise which sounded like her friend was rearranging herself with some effort. Then, “Oh God,” Nicole whispered, “he’s already here!”
“Nicole?” But the girl was quiet. Katerina could hear loud voices then a gun-shot followed by loud screaming. She couldn’t tell who it was. Horrified she closed her eyes, pressing her fingers to her mouth to stop from crying out. After a few minutes the screams began to subside. She heard footsteps getting louder, approaching the phone — then a crunching noise and the line went dead.
She had to force herself to hang up because something in her wanted to keep listening, just in case Nicole miraculously came back on the line. When she looked in the mirror she saw she was sickly pale and her eyes looked like someone else’s. Splashing water on her face made no difference. All she could think of was that she had failed. Nicole was probably dead and it was her fault. If she had seen through Patrick, Nicole’s involvement would never have been necessary in the first place.
Sarah saw it immediately. She asked, “Nicole? Is she...?”
“We’ve failed — I’ve failed.” The tears were starting to trickle down her cheeks.
“It’s not your fault...”
“Mum it is! I dated that monster. I brought him into our home. I trusted him. Is that why I got chosen to go to Kainnan? If I hadn’t, Nicole...”
“Nicole volunteered.”
“She wouldn’t have had to if I hadn’t made such a bad choice! And I did the exact same thing on Kainnan. I always thought I had some discernment, but this just shows how stupid I am.”
“Patrick is a master manipulator...”
“But I was with him a whole year. If I couldn’t see through him in that time, there’s something wrong with me.”
“There is, honey,” her father said. “You’re human. You’re not perfect and you never will be. None of us will. We all make mistakes.”
“Your father’s right. Your mistakes don’t make you a failure, just human.”
“I thought you believed we could be perfect; that we have perfection inside us, we just need to draw it out?” Katerina asked sarcastically. She was referring to one of their humanistic beliefs espoused to her years ago.
James said grimly, “I gave up on that idea a long time ago, about the same time I started working for the Company and began to see the evil that’s out there in the world.”
They were all silent at that, lost in their own emotions.
“So how do I handle this?” Katerina asked eventually. “It’s all very well to say I’m allowed to make mistakes but how do I get myself to believe it? When Nicole...” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
“You make friends with being human,” Sarah said. “You accept that you can never be perfect and that’s alright. Life is not about being perfect. It’s about learning from your mistakes and becoming a better person in the process.”
“You’re suggesting failure’s not the enemy I’ve always seen it as? It’s actually what? Good for me because it helps me grow?”
Sarah nodded. “That’s right, re-frame it. Forgive yourself when you get things wrong then learn from them, so you don’t repeat your mistakes.”
“I sure as hell won’t be falling for someone like Patrick again,” Katerina said grimly. “Thanks parents.”
For a moment they smiled tentatively at each other then Nate’s phone rang, returning them to reality. The call was obviously about them because he kept looking their way, saying, “Lots of talking...maybe...not yet...”
“Tell him I need to get out, I need space to think,” Katerina said. Patrick obviously heard it for Nate held the phone out to her.
“Your friend is dead and your parents will be too if you don’t get to work,” Patrick said as soon as she put the phone to her ear. It sounded like he wanted a response. Instead she clenched her fists so tightly her nails bit into her palms so she wouldn’t react to the horrific confirmation. “You can go outside with Nate. When I get back, we’ll get to work.” There was threat in his voice.
“You can’t help me — I have to do this on my own.”
“We’ll see,” he said suggestively and hung up.
