Council of Peacocks (9 page)

“You’ll see in due time, Mr. Ross. Come.”

Standing in the parking garage, David felt
even more removed from reality than before. It was like an alien
world, filled with concrete and too many shadows. There were no
other cars on this level, nor were there any grease stains on the
floor. With the exception of the soft rumble of the ventilation
ducts, everything was quiet and still. Even in running shoes, his
footsteps echoed loudly back through the empty garage.

Elaine placed her hand on a flat, red scanner
to the left of the elevator. When the scanner turned blue, she
punched in a series of numbers on a nearby keyboard. Only then did
the elevator open to a dark-skinned giant of a man in a black suit,
and a Doberman Pinscher on a short leash.

“Get in, Mr. Ross.” Elaine motioned him
forward but did not step into the elevator. “This will take you to
Mr. Wisdom. I’ll meet with you later this afternoon to go over some
paperwork with you.”

David hesitated. He looked at the dog and
thought of what those teeth could to do to him. Could he stop the
dog before it ripped out his throat?

Elaine shook her head. “We didn’t bring you
all this way to kill you, Mr. Ross.” She pushed him into the
elevator. “If you intend on lasting here, don’t be so jumpy.”

As the elevator doors closed, David struggled
to keep his eyes off both man and dog. He was afraid either one of
them could attack at any moment. There was no soft elevator music
to fill the air, just the constant panting of the dog. David
studied the mirrored walls of the confined space and fought a
losing battle with fear.

‘Too late for second thoughts,’ he thought.
Sweat ran in streams down his back. ‘Besides, I can’t go back home.
The police are looking for me.’

The doors opened to a busy corridor. Men and
women in dark suits walked in every direction. Over by the
reception desk a man in a brown uniform delivered flowers. Another
man in a rumpled grey suit shouted at the receptionist, something
about rescheduling an appointment.

David got out of the elevator and looked
back. He expected the giant man to get out and guide him to
Wisdom’s office. Instead the man let the doors close and
disappeared.

He started toward the reception desk. A group
of men in almost identical suits nearly crashed into him. They
swerved mid-conversation without so much as an apology. Then, he
felt a tickle in his skull and stopped. He turned in a circle until
he saw a woman dressed in a tight, black business suit. She had
long, straight brown hair but it was her eyes that captured him.
They were emerald green like his, luminescent like a cat's at
night.

“A word of advice, Mr. Ross,” she said. “Most
women do not take a gaping jaw and drool as a compliment. My name
is Garnet. I’ll take you to Wisdom. Follow me and try not to set
anything on fire.”

David swallowed. “Does everyone know about
me?”

Garnet turned and walked away from David. He
rushed to catch up to her. His eyes drank in her body, the way the
fabric hugged her curves.

Garnet stopped and glared at him.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m not used to people
reading my mind.”

“Work on that,” she said. “And, to answer
your question, only a few of us know what you did back in Nova
Scotia.”

They passed several white doors that he
assumed led to offices. All the doors were shut and there was not a
window to be seen. It felt less like walking through an office
building and more like being filed away in an archive.
Occasionally, as he walked on, sounds came from behind the doors.
He heard moans, laughter and muffled conversation. Once he had an
impression of something large and not quite solid moving behind one
of the doors. After that he kept his eyes forward.

“Is it much further?” he asked. His voice
sounded pale and insubstantial in this place.

“Do you have another appointment, Mr. Ross? I
do hope we’re not keeping you from something.”

The green-eyed woman slowed her gait.

David slowed his as well. He did not want to
walk beside the woman. There was something about her that scared
him as much as the unseen things behind the doors.

At the end of the hallway was a second
reception desk. An old woman with grey hair typed at her computer.
She was dressed in a bright dress of pastel flowers with matching
gold necklace and hoop earrings. Garnet led him past the
receptionist to a black door. She did not knock. She simply placed
her hand on the face of the door for a moment and then pushed the
door open.

David followed her in.

***

Wisdom stood from his desk as Garnet entered
with David. “Right on time,” he muttered under his breath. He
walked over to the newest arrival and shook his hand.

“Pleasure to finally meet you, David,” he
said. “I’m sure you have a million questions. First, realize you
are amongst friends here. No one will judge you on your past.
Certainly not me. Garnet, can you pour us some drinks?”

Garnet bowed her head and went to a table
covered with crystal tumblers and bottles of liquor.

“I don’t even know where to start,” David
said. He glanced around the room, eyes wide in wonder. The room was
luxurious, with thick carpet and mahogany furniture. Then he saw
the wall of framed photographs to his right. He fixated on one of
them – Wisdom sitting with a group of men on a beach – and his
mouth dropped.

“Is that JFK?”

Wisdom smiled. “Yes. I met him a few times.
Charming fellow. Always beat me at tennis.”

David looked at Wisdom from the corner of his
eye.

Wisdom smirked. “I’m older than I look.”

“Who are these other people?”

“You wouldn’t recognize their names, I’m
afraid. The one to my left is Bill Bundy, one of Kennedy’s
advisors. The one with the big ears is David Rockefeller. He taught
me how to play poker. But that’s not important now. Let’s talk
about you. When did you first realize you were different?”

Garnet returned with drinks and handed one
each to Wisdom and David. Then she returned to the bar to pour her
own.

“When I was fourteen,” David said as he
sipped his scotch. “It started on my birthday. Mom had this cake
all lit up with candles. When I went to blow the out, the cake
exploded. Disaster. A few days later, I woke from a dream and my
blankets were on fire. Mom thought I set it on purpose. She
grounded me for a month and got rid of all the lighters and matches
in the house. The next week, I heard her talking about how she was
scared of me. Only she wasn’t speaking. I realized I was hearing
her thoughts. For years I thought I was crazy. Then there was prom
and, well, it seems you know what happened there.”

“Indeed.” Wisdom motioned for David to sit on
a red loveseat and then sat beside him. “No need to go over that
right now. You’re not alone. As I’m sure you’ve figured out, Garnet
is like you. So were the other two you met in the car earlier,
Jessica and Amy. Currently there are 48 young men and women just
like you under my care.”

“So many.” David’s hands shook. “What the
hell am I? A mutant?”

“Not exactly. I prefer the term Anomaly. Each
of you has advanced psionic abilities. No two Anomalies are exactly
the same but there are some similarities. Over the years I’ve
perfected a system of training people like you. I can make sure you
never lose control again. I know the guilt is eating you, David.
You can’t live with yourself because of what you’ve done. I
understand. I’ve done many things in my past I’m not proud of.
That’s why I do this.”

“Have you killed people?”

Wisdom sighed.

“I’m sorry,” David said. “I don’t know what I
was thinking. That was rude.”

“No need to apologize.” Wisdom finished his
drink. Garnet came over with a crystal decanter and refilled it.
“It’s a valid question. You have a right to know about me, what
kind of person I am. Yes. I have killed. Many times. Things were
very different in my youth. As I said, I’m much older than I look.
Back then, sometimes murder was a necessary tool. Then, years ago,
I had a near-death experience in the south of France. I realized
that, despite all my years on this planet, I hadn’t achieved
anything. No legacy. If I died, no one would remember my name. I
needed a cause, so I chose you. The Anomalies.”

“How did you find out about me? About
us?”

Wisdom waved the question away. “Long story.
For now, just know I have methods of finding people like you. In
time, you’ll get more details. You must be tired from your long
trip. You must want to shower and get into some clean clothes.
Garnet, can you show young David to his room?”

Garnet stood and offered a hand to David,
helping him to his feet.

“Yeah,” David said. “I’m pretty rank. One
last question. Why is there so much security around here?”

Wisdom glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t
think it’s enough security. I’m not the only one that knows about
you, David. About the Anomalies. You have a power others would like
to manipulate. They will stop at almost nothing to do so. Be glad
that I found you first.”

Chapter Eight

Garnet led him up a flight of stairs to a
common room filled with plush beige couches and armchairs. Several
strangers, all of them children or young adults, gathered around a
large plasma television. They barely glanced at David as he walked
by.

“This is your room.” Garnet stopped in front
of a white door. She handed him a keycard. “Someone will get you in
the morning for breakfast.”

The room was larger than he expected. It came
with a private bathroom, a king-sized bed and a white leather sofa.
His canvas bag lay on the floor beside the sofa on the rich crimson
carpet. There was no TV or radio in the room but there were several
shelves filled with books. A computer sat on a desk in the
corner.

After a quick shower, he lay down and tried
to sleep. Not long after, the two creepy girls from the Hummer paid
him a visit. They walked in without knocking. Still, David knew
they were coming before the door opened. He
felt
them
coming.

“He’s not surprised,” the Asian girl
said.

“Of course not, Amy,” Jessica said.
“Remember, I told you he was strong.”

“Hmm, doesn’t look strong to me.”

“Are you little monsters here for a
reason?”

Jessica put her hands on her hips. “Well,
we’re not here to make friends, if that’s what you’re thinking. We
don’t like you, remember?”

“We definitely don’t like you,” Amy said. She
carried a Barbie doll in a red ‘Gone-With-the-Wind’ style dress and
swung it gently in her right hand as she spoke. “But it’s probably
better for us if you don’t die. You have to be careful now that
you’re here. Especially if you’re outside. Of course, they don’t
let us go out much anymore.”

“They say it’s for our own protection,”
Jessica said. She hopped up on David’s bed not far from him and sat
cross-legged, studying him while she tossed her blond bangs away
from her eyes.

“It is, Jessica. You know what happened to
Madeline.”

“Who was Madeline?” David got off the bed and
walked over to the sofa. It made him uncomfortable to be so close
to them.

“We’re not supposed to talk about her, Amy.
Wisdom will do bad things to you.”

“Will not. I’m his favorite.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “We both know that’s
not true. I’m the favorite. Anyway, since you’ve told first and I
can blame this all on you, I’ll tell him. Madeline was this old
lady from somewhere in Spain.”

“It was France.” Amy walked over to the bed
and sat on the corner.

“Whatever. She was pretty but not very smart.
One night last month she decided to take off without telling
anyone.”

“She liked to go for walks at night.” Amy
brushed the hair on her Barbie with her left index finger. “And she
wasn’t that old, either.”

“Was too. I heard she was in her late
thirties. That’s practically ancient. Anyway, later on that night,
Amy and I woke up. There were all these people rushing around. Even
Wisdom raised his voice and that never happens. Never. That’s why I
got out of bed and went looking. I knew it was bad.”

“There was blood all over carpets. Even some
on the walls.”

“What?” David sat forward and pushed his damp
hair off his forehead.

“She’s exaggerating. Amy tends to do that
because she’s an only child. That’s also why I adopted her as my
sister. Not because she exaggerates but because she’s an only
child. No one should have to be an ‘only’ anything. The blood
wasn’t all over the carpet. It was just…I don’t know…leaking behind
Madeline. Now,
she
was covered in blood. I couldn’t see very
well but, from what I sensed in her mind, she was cut by very big
knives. Knives that looked like peacock feathers.”

“She was also set on fire. Don’t forget
that.”

Jessica grabbed Amy’s Barbie and threw it
against the front door. “You’re jumping ahead and ruining my story!
Stop it!”

Amy walked slowly over to the doll, picked it
up and adjusted its hair with her index finger. “Don’t do that to
my doll, Jessica. I won’t warn you again.”

Jessica opened her mouth, squinted her eyes,
and then shook her head. “I won’t. I promise. Don’t be mad, okay?
Anyway, David, we found out after she was dead…”

“Dead?”

“Well, yeah. We forgot to mention that,
didn’t we? Well, after she died, Amy overheard Elaine and Wisdom
talking. It wasn’t a random attack. This was deliberate.”

David pulled a package of cigarettes from his
canvas bag only to have them pulled out of his hands by an
invisible force. The package fell onto the floor between him and
the girls.

“No smoking in here, David,” Amy said.
“Wisdom has allergies.”

Jessica rolled her eyes again and got off the
bed. She walked over to the cigarettes, picked them off the floor,
and threw them into a nearby metallic garbage can. “He does not
have allergies, Amy. How many times do I have to tell you? Things,
I mean people, like him don’t have allergies. He just doesn’t like
cigarettes because they smell bad. They’ll make you give them up in
class, too, so you might as well stop now.”