Lucy Kelly (15 page)

Chapter Ten

Breakfast had been delicious.  Even better, she’d gotten Markus to relax his work stance so she’d worked for a little over four hours in the office.  Becky was a full day ahead of schedule on her work.  The BEIP device had helped her finish all the backgrounds for the Nephilim who had come down from the Far Star Station.  The BEIP was her favorite new toy.

She pressed a speed dial button on her Bluetooth and placed a quick call to Addie.  She let her know the men were good to go and the buses could move out.  She also wanted information on what had happened to Valerie’s two helpers.

“Hello,” said Addie.

“Hey, Professor, I just called to give you the good news,” said Becky.

“I can always use good news, what’s up?”

“I finished all the identities with full backgrounds.  The buses can move out anytime.  Each of the suitcases, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, has a cell phone, hotel reservation paperwork and an itinerary of attractions. 

“They all have some free time, of course, but I didn’t want anyone getting bored.  There is a list of things to see, complete with maps and directions.  In addition, there are restaurant recommendations and even tickets to a show of some type for tonight. 

“I split them up into groups of four and six, and most will be staying at hotels near the Convention Center,” said Becky.

“Wow, you really went all out, above and beyond.  Really, Becky, I totally owe you on this one,” said Addie.

“You’re welcome - but that’s not all.  As I told you yesterday, I was able to find three more bank accounts and two more safety deposit boxes.  I got the evidence to fit the warrants already issued, so we’re good there.  I turned it all over to Captain Udaka’s chosen officer last night.  If the grin on his face is anything to go by, we’re in the clear.  I really think we have it all now.  The Kadyrov family will not be able to take another swipe at your family, Addie,” she said in a suddenly more serious voice.

Addie burst into tears, “Oh, Becky,” she sobbed. 

Rune saw her crying with the phone in her hand and rushed over to the picnic bench.

“What’s wrong - bad news?” he asked her in concern. 

She turned to him and grabbed his thigh, burying her face while she wept.  He reached down with one hand to take the phone, as he wrapped the other around her shoulder.  Others in their group had begun to draw near to find out what was bothering the Queen.

“Who is this and what did you say to Addie?” Rune barked into the phone.

“The
preggo
hormones are causing another waterfall?  I just gave her some good news; she’s overjoyed,” said Becky.

“Becky?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way out to attend the escrow closing.  In case Addie’s pregnancy kills brain cells, too, and she starts to forget things, would you remind her of something for me?” she asked, as she cleaned off her desk and turned off the computers. 

She stepped into the hall, then turned and closed the office door.  You needed to punch in a code on the keypad to get in.

“Sure, Becky,” said Rune, now that he understood nothing was wrong.

“Instead of setting up a separate Trust for Gilda and then other Trusts for Addie and Grace, it worked out better to just set up one.  Each person who contributes assets to the Trust - I called it the HeVan’s Gate Trust - by the way.  Each person gets shares in the Trust equal to the value of their initial investment.  They can cash the shares in with interest at any time,” she finished. 

“Would you make sure Gilda understands?” she asked.  “She’ll still be able to get her cash back any time she wants to.”

By this time, she’d walked into the kitchen; she wanted a quick lunch before heading to the Title Company to sign the papers.

“Okay, Becky, I can do that,” said Rune. 

“Are you feeling better?” he asked Becky. 

Addie was only sniffling now.  She’d stopped crying and he was running his free hand over her head and down her back in long strokes.

Becky answered, “I feel like a million, thanks for asking. 

“One other thing - I put you guys up at the same hotel that we recommended to the special invitees, so you’ll be surrounded by women.  If any of them approach you at the hotel, tell them you’re from HeVan, here to recruit women to emigrate.  Introduce Addie as Queen Aditya, yada yada yada…you know, like we discussed,” she said.

She walked to the fridge to pull out ingredients for making sandwiches.

“I remember.  And we’ll all remember to wear the ‘
Valerie Hudson Nephilim of HeVan’
buttons that Johanna made, too,” said Rune.

“Great, then people won’t think you’re crazy and it’ll create a great buzz for Saturday night.  I think that’s it…Oh, I remember.  Is Addie finished with her weeping spell?  I wanted to ask how Natalie and Jennifer were getting along with their long-lost cousins,” she said.

Rune threw his head back and laughed out loud.  “Their
Joins
aren’t here, and that’s probably a good thing.  Jaron and the others are taking their protection of the women very seriously.  The others have to ask their permission to speak to the girls.  Natalie and Jennifer are enjoying themselves quite a bit.  They also stayed up quite late talking to Addie.  She explained that she was leaving Earth early because of the people getting pregnant.”

It was Becky’s turn to laugh.  “It’s like she’s a reverse plague
.  ‘And a wave of fertility washes over the land.’
Hey, I wonder…”

“What?”

“Oh, I just had a thought.  I’m going to check into the farming statistics and see if there were any bumper crops over the last few months.  I’m wondering if her fertility affects more than people,” she mused, as she finished putting together a roast beef and provolone sandwich on sourdough bread.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.  It’s a good thing we’re leaving.  I’m sure your government is going to get suspicious, if they haven’t already,” Rune said.

“Yeah, well, give her a hug for me.  I gotta go so I have time to eat before I leave.  Remember, we’re all meeting for dinner in one of the small private dining rooms Friday night.  Now that I’ve met my
Ankida
-to-be, I should change the reservation to include them.  I’ll see you guys later.”

“Okay, hold on.  Addie wants to have a quick word,” said Rune.

Becky took a quick bite of her delicious sandwich while she waited for Addie to come on the line.  Then she began putting away the fixings.  She was rummaging for some seedless grapes when she heard her name.

“Becky, are you still there?” asked Addie.

“I’m still here if you’re done crying,” Becky said.  “I’ve got too much to get done this afternoon to listen to you weep happy tears, Oh, Pregnant One.”

“I know!  I cry at everything.  I can’t seem to stop, either,” said Addie.

“Well, don’t cry now.  Think what red, puffy eyes look like.  I need to gobble down my lunch and then go meet with the attorneys to close on the property.  In your honor, I’m wearing the Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard shirt you gave me.  So I know everything will be fine,” said Becky.

“Oh, Becky,” Addie cried and went into another spate of tears.

“Becky?  What is it this time?” asked Rune.

“Ask Addie, bye!” she said and hung up.

She was shaking her head as she went to the counter to grab an apple to go with her sandwich and grapes.  She poured herself a tall glass of milk, then took her lunch over to the table and sat down.  About halfway through her meal, Ari came in from the mudroom.

“I see you’re out of that cave you call an office.  Did you get everything done?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said smugly, “and I have no open projects.  I’m officially on vacation for the next month.  We don’t have enough time to start building on the property before the snows come.  Therefore, I’m planning to work part time until spring.  That should keep Markus happy,” she said.

“Yes, it should.  Do you really think that Kai and I will meet our
Join
on Saturday?” he asked.  He’d been fretting about it since before breakfast, when Becky had done her back-touching demonstration.

She tilted her head to the side, thinking, as she chewed the last bite of her sandwich.  Wiping her mouth, she picked up the apple and the knife and started to peel it as she considered her words.  She took her time because she wanted to explain it in a way he’d understand.

“I’ve always been successful.  Computer programming came easily to me from an early age.  One of the teachers at school got me a scholarship to computer camp when I was twelve.  The kids I met there were from all over the United States and several were like me.  Those connections came in handy when I started my little software company my second year in college.” 

Becky waved for him to sit in one of the chairs, and took a bite of apple before speaking again.

“Anyway, for about five years, my business grew steadily and I always had a job offer waiting in the wings.  Then, about eighteen months ago, my business just exploded and I had more business than I thought I could handle.  I considered hiring people to work for me and discarded the idea, because giving personalized service is my niche.  Three of the women I wrote specialized programs for turned out to be Nephilim descendants.

“And thinking back, most of my customers in the last two years have been women.  I think that many of them will prove to be descendants, also.  We already know that women have been pulled to this country and this area for centuries, if not longer. 

“And more importantly, I think we all have something within us that draws others like us together – like attracts like.  We zeroed in on this area because of the Queen.  Now there are enough of us here that we’re being pulled to each other.  We pick each other’s ads out of the yellow pages, that kind of thing.

“It’s the power of the
Nam-Nin
, I think.  So yes, I believe that your and Kai’s
Join
will be there on Saturday,” she said.

“Good,” Ari said in a relieved voice.  “If you’re ready to go, Nyal and I are going with you.  Kai and Ishme had the night guard duty; they went to sleep right after breakfast.”

“Okay.  Find Nyal, would you?  We need to get going.  I don’t want to be late,” she said.

She had put on her suede jacket and was about to walk out the door when her cell rang.  Pressing the button on the Bluetooth, she walked through the mudroom and into the garage.

“Hello, this is Becky.”

“Becky!  This is Valerie.”

“Hey, Val, what’s up?” she asked.

“You know that big clunky necklace I gave you for your birthday this year?” asked Valerie.

“Yeah, what about it?” asked Becky, as she pressed the button to raise the garage door.

“You have to wear it today.  Right now, Becky, go and put it on,” she said.

“Really?  It doesn’t go with the shirt I’m wearing at all.”

“I don’t care.  Put it on under the shirt - just wear it,” Valerie said adamantly.

“Obviously, you’ve got one of your feelings about this.  Would you prefer I wear a bullet-proof vest?” she asked, half joking.

“If I thought you had one, I’d say yes.  Will you do as I ask?”

“Yes, but I have to hang up now,” Becky said, as she turned back to the kitchen.  “I have to change and I’m now officially going to be late for closing of escrow.” 

Nyal and Ari had pricked up their ears at the mention of bulletproof vests.  They followed her back inside the house.

Becky went rushing through the house and up the stairs.  She went to a hall door the guys had been curious about, since like her office, you needed a keypad to enter.

This was Becky’s storage room, slash treasure chest.  Working for various government agencies, she sometimes got experimental toys to play with.  She kept them and a few other things she was working on in her spare time in this room. 

As she crossed over to a cabinet, she whipped off her jacket and T-shirt.  Spinning the combination on the cabinet, she opened the door and reached in to pull out what looked like heavy fabric.

She turned to the guys and tossed them each a piece of the same fabric.

“Here, put these on,” she said, as she put on her own.  It looked like two T’s joined at the ends with a hole for the head.  She pulled it on and then wrapped the arms of the T’s on the sides.  Or tried to - she couldn’t get a good grip on her own.  Walking over to Nyal, she pulled his together in a strait seam.  The edges had a fine Velcro-like strip that created a smoother, flatter seam.  Then she held her arms out so Nyal could fix hers.

Snatching up her T-shirt, she quickly put it back on and bent to grab her jacket.  She went back and re-locked the cabinet.  Then she pushed the men back out into the hall.

Closing and locking the door, Becky had the guys wait in the hall as she ran down to her room.  She was back within moments, a piece of jewelry hanging from her hands.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said, as she took off at a jog down the hall to the back stairs.

She jumped in the Jeep and took time to put on the necklace and tuck it under her shirt, while the guys climbed in and put on their seatbelts.  She adjusted the seat forward, since Ishme had been the last one to drive.  Minutes later, they were pulling out of the driveway.

“Sorry, guys, I can’t answer your questions right now.  I have to concentrate on my driving,” she said.

She hated being late.  She took every short cut she knew and exceeded the speed limit a few times on her way.  She pulled into the lot at the Title Company three minutes after she was supposed to arrive.  Jumping out of the car, she rushed inside, Ari and Nyal following closely behind.

Her attorney was already there.  They went straight into the conference room to go over all the paperwork.  It took nearly three hours to go over everything and sign all the documents.  She had a large envelope of documents to put into the safe when she got back home.

Nothing had happened.  She would drive slower on the way back to the house and then everything would be fine.  Then she was going to call Valerie and give her hell for scaring her like that.