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“HAVE YOU heard from Carlos?” Judith asked, turning off her com. As promised, Randal had updated her about their plans to spend the night in the mountains.
“Yes,” Ava said. “He commed to speak to Francisca. Apparently they are going to be camping out near where he thinks Redglove has gone to ground.”
“That was Devon,” Tash said. “He said thank you for the MRE’s. Since none of them packed any food, I guess they would have gone without if we hadn’t taken care of it.”
“MREs?” Tommasa asked, “What are those?”
“Meals Ready to Eat,” Tash replied. “The Blue Moon Militia stocks them at their safe houses.”
“Did they find Redglove’s wife?” Tommasa asked.
“No, she was somewhere in town, but they didn’t want to try and chase her down. Devon found an address up in the mountains. It’s owned by a shell company, but apparently the company has ties to Redglove.” Tash sighed. “He mentioned something called the Dancing Whisps, but they didn’t see them because they only come out at dawn or dusk to dance on the waves. I’d love to get vid stills of them for my book on colony animals.”
“Why not?” Ava said. “Let’s plan an overnight trip. We can stay in one of the bed and breakfast places overnight and enjoy the beach a little during the day. It will keep me out of Mom’s match-making clutches a day longer.”
Judith laughed so hard she cried.
“It’s not funny!” Ava protested. “Do you realize what kind of cretins she’s been dragging out as possible matches for me?”
“Like that guy at the dinner you threatened to stab with your knife?” Judith gasped out.
“You saw that?” Ava asked.
Her sister wiped her eyes, “Yes, I did. I had all I could do not to spit out my wine laughing.”
“Quite right, too,” Aunt Carmen put in with a grin. “His father and grandfather were just the same. I’ve got an old friend who has a house in Dancing Beach. Why don’t I call her and ask if she minds if we stay there overnight?”
“Sounds good to me,” Ava said.
Tamara wasn’t exactly pleased about the upcoming excursion, but when she learned they planned to stay at a private home, she consented.
Agustin frowned at his great aunt. “I suppose this was your idea?”
“No,” Ava said. “It was mine. We’ll be staying with one of Aunt Carmen’s friends. I think the girls could use a little recreation to help them recover.”
“We’ll be taking my sled, Agustin,” Carmen informed him. “It has stealth mode and weapons; not that I think we’ll need them. And Graciella has excellent security at her beach house, because her late husband was paranoid; he was sure an assassin was going to get him.”
“Was he right?” Francisca asked, fascinated.
Carmen snorted. “Hell no, he lived to be ninety and died in his sleep.”
“That must have been a grave disappointment to him,” Ava said with a straight face.
“And you talk about my lousy puns,” Judith said.
Tommasa giggled. She felt as if she had fallen into a fairy tale. Nothing in her life with the de’Riccis had prepared her for this warm, open family of which she was now a member. The most astonishing thing to her was that they had accepted her so easily.
“Francisca and I both need bathing suits,” she reminded Aunt Carmen.
The next morning after breakfast, Tamara and Agustin watched the beach party pile into Carmen’s large vehicle.
“Do you think they will be safe?” she asked her husband anxiously.
He threw an arm around her shoulders and hugged her reassuringly. “From whoever sabotaged our Carriage certainly. Watch.”
Just as the tip of Carmen’s ancient sled poked it’s nose out of the three-tier latticed garage, it wavered and disappeared.
“She’s taking no chances; she’s invoked the stealth mode. And she wasn’t kidding about it being armed. That baby has a built-in pulse cannon.”
Ava had elected to sit in one of the rear seats, gladly ceding the shotgun position to Tommasa, who listened avidly as Carmen pointed out the features on the control panel located in the dash.
“Did you tell Randal where we are going?” Ava asked her sister.
Judith shook her head. “His com line was off, but I did leave a text message.”
“The same with Devon,” Tash said, stroking Fidget’s lavender head. The catamount nudged her hand comfortingly.
“Did you com Carlos?” Judith asked her.
Ava nodded, casting a wary eye on Francisca who was sitting beside Tash. “I think they intend to try to get into Redglove’s headquarters today.”
Judith shivered. “If he gets hurt before our wedding, I’ll skin him alive.”
“You girls worry too much,” Carmen said. “You’re all too young to remember; when Carlos Santana was still bounty hunting, he took down a much tougher cartel than the Red Conclave. He brought in their head man then too.”
The sled banked sharply to dodge another tree and Ava winced. Their erratic flight path from the city to the Dancing Beach suburbs involved a high-speed weaving in and out between the giant trees who poked their tops out of the rain forest canopy. Carmen was taking no chances on their being caught on vid cam.
Their destination was a house a little outside the city boundary, a graceful, white walled Spanish style with an enclosed patio. The house and grounds were surrounded by a tall, thick brick fence also whitewashed. Carmen brought the sled down near a sleek lattice structure and cut off the stealth mode, so it appeared as if the sled popped out of nowhere.
Carmen’s friend, Graciella Cantilupe, was tall and spare, with twinkling blue eyes and silvery hair done up in an elaborate hairstyle. The lines on her tanned face showed she had spent too much time in the sun. She greeted Carmen by throwing her arms around her with a whoop more suited to a teenager than a septuagenarian.
“You came! It’s been ages since I’ve seen you!”
Carmen laughed, grinning back at her. “You must let me introduce you to my family; this is Ava, Judith, Tommasa, Tash, and Francisca.”
Graciella smiled warmly at them. “Welcome girls. It will be so nice to have young things about me again. The bots will bring in your luggage. Come and have a nice tall glass of something ice cold.”
They spent a carefree afternoon at the city beach, renting boogie boards allowing them to skim along the edge of the water. To no one’s surprise, Carmen proved an expert at judging the right time to jump on her board and ride it all the way in. The rest of the party attempted to imitate her skill with varying degrees of success.
Tommasa and Francisca had just dropped their boogie boards off at the rental shop when Tommasa turned around and came face to face with the woman she had called mother for the first fifteen years of her life. Carlotta de’Ricci was, as always, impeccably made up, even for sunning on the beach. The two youngsters with her were ten and eleven. The girl Selina was wearing makeup and looked older than her eleven years—at least thirteen or fourteen. She wore a skimpy thong bikini in imitation of her mother. The boy Alonzo also wore stylish men’s trunks, but his mother’s influence hadn’t kept him from becoming coated with beach sand—probably from building a sandcastle. Tommasa and Mrs. De’Ricci stared at each other in silence for a moment. Later, after she had time to think about it, Tommasa realized the woman was just as shocked and embarrassed as she was. Finally, Tommasa nodded head, “Mrs. de’Ricci,” she stepped aside, waiting for Francisca who was flirting with the young man in charge of the board return counter.
Mrs. de’Ricci flushed an ugly shade of red and put protective arms around the boy and girl with her as if she was afraid Tommasa might hurt them. Selina gave her a quick, guilty smile but didn’t say anything. Alonzo grinned insouciantly at her, and said, “Hi, sis. When did you get here?”
He’s tougher than his sister; Carlotta was going to find it difficult to control him as he got older, Tommasa thought.
Carmen came bustling up. “What’s taking you girls so long to return a couple of boards? I’m hungry.”
Tommasa pointed with her head at Francisca and the boy.
Carmen gave him a once over. “Oh, not bad, but he could use a little seasoning. At least her taste in men is improving. Francisca! You’re holding up the line and if we don’t check in with the restaurant, they may give away our reservation!”
Reluctantly, Francisca waved goodbye to her new friend and came to join them.
Carmen became aware of the staring contest going on between Tommasa and Mrs. de’Ricci and looked the other woman over suspiciously.
“Introduce me, Tommasa,” she prodded.
Tommasa jumped, recalled to reality. “Aunt Carmen, this is Carlotta de’Ricci. She used to be my mother before she disowned me. Mrs. de’Ricci, this is Carmen Garneys, a member of my new family.”
Carlotta, whose complexion had almost returned to normal, flushed an ugly red again.”
Carmen put a protective arm around Tommasa. “Her loss is our gain,” she said. “C’mon girls, we’ll miss our reservation.”
“Did she really disown you?” Francisca demanded as they walked away.
“She did. Her husband is in politics, and I was an embarrassment. Getting myself kidnapped by the Red Conclave was the last straw for them.”
“Gosh!” Francisca said. “I can’t imagine Daddy doing that. She sounds like a terrible person.”
Tommasa gave a wry laugh. “Honey, you’ve no idea.”
“You’re well rid of her,” Carmen pronounced. “She had that poor little girl made up like a tart on the Marriage Market!”
Because she had been distracted by her anger at the sight of Selena made up to look like the teenager she wasn’t, Carmen, who was usually very attentive to her surroundings, failed to notice the non-descript man watching them from the shade of a nearby tree. Antoni Guissipe had risen high in the Red Conclave ranks because he could so easily fade into the woodwork. He watched them enter the restaurant and concluded they would be there for some time. He went to report to his boss.
Giulio Lupin looked like a body builder. He wore his long, curling blond hair shoulder length. With his looks it had always been easy for him to romance any woman he was directed to.
He had escaped the net spread for the Red Conclave operatives after the hostages at Morthan Castle had been rescued. He hadn’t wasted the opportunity to exploit the gap left in the Conclaves ranks by the arrest of so many operatives. His new boss, Adeline Prowd, was second in command next to Jerome Redglove.
“Why are we chasing after a teenage girl, boss?” he asked cautiously. Prowd liked initiative in her operatives, but she would resent it if he seemed to question her decisions. “Not that it matters, but we did some checking into Santana’s background last spring when he defended Agustin Garneys, and I discovered he is a dangerous man. Threatening the kid might be the same as poking a stick at an adder.”
“I agree, but Elinor Crawley has been helpful in the past. She asked if we could remove the girl, so watch them and if you get the opportunity to take out Francisca Santana or Ava Garneys do it, but don’t draw attention to yourself.”
Now he looked at Guissipe with a frown. “Well?”
“They went inside the restaurant. I overheard enough to know they plan to stay for the Whisps performance, so they’ll be there a while. You want my opinion?”
“Yes, I do.”
“We won’t get the girl right now. Ava and Carmen Garneys are too aware of their surroundings. If we do it at all it will need to be a sniper.”
Lupin considered a moment before he nodded. “Yes, I agree. Waste of time getting rid of the child—I don’t know why the Crawley bitch thinks Santana will marry her if his daughter is killed. He’s much more likely to marry Garneys. I’m calling this one. We might try again when things cool off.”
Nirvana, the restaurant Graciella had chosen was situated almost on the beach. The indoor tables on the terrace were just tall enough to allow patrons a good view of the Whisps when they came out to dance on the waves.
Despite their beach clothes, the headwaiter showed them to their table with every deference.
“Friend of yours?” Carmen asked Graciella with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.
“Yes, but not that kind,” her friend responded. “He bats for the other team.”
“Pity. With his looks he could make quite a bit of extra income from all the society broads I saw today on the troll. Some of them even seemed to be pimping their daughters.”
Tommasa swallowed her iced fruit drink the wrong way and Ava had to pound her on the back. She knew Carmen had been referring to her ex-mother.
“Did you remember to bring your vid-cam?” Judith asked Tash.
Tash lifted a small box with a view-screen she had sat by her plate. “Right here,” she said.
They were enjoying a cup of coffee with their deserts when the head waiter announced the appearance of the whisps.
Graciella touched a button on the table, invoking a half circle of silence around it. They could hear each other but not the other patrons,
“Oh,” Francisca said softly, “They’re beautiful.” The Whisps were charming. A soft hum drifted across the waves as they danced gracefully on the crest of them.
“Are they singing?” Tash asked.
“There is some debate over the sounds they make as to whether it’s actually an attempt to communicate with us or among themselves,” Graciella said softly.
“Are they ever seen at times other than dawn and dusk?” Tash asked.
“They’re very shy,” Graciella told her. “Occasionally fishermen have spotted a small family group or a single Whisp, but they hide as soon as the fishing boat is spotted.”
They were close enough that Tommasa could see their soft, delicate skin which ranged from dark blue, dark grey, purple or light grey or a combination of these colors. Their bodies were semi-transparent, resembling whisps of rainbow hued smoke. Their arms and legs looked like extended strands of smoke. The eyes were dark and almond shaped, and their noses were a small extended bump, their soft lips appeared as a rounded ‘O’ shape.
The music produced by their dancing grew louder and stronger, and the movements faster and faster before reaching a crescendo. Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, they were gone, fading into the sunset.
Tash drew a deep breath. “I’m glad I got to see them. Thank you for arranging this Carmen and thank you for allowing us to stay with you Graciella.”
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