Arielle Immortal Awakening (29 page)

“I have to go, Arielle. Let’s go say a word to your parents.” He walked into the kitchen and told them that he had to leave due to an urgent business matter, and thanked them for their hospitality. “Have a safe trip,” Arielle’s father said, and her mother added, “Arielle will miss you, but don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.”

Then, taking his hand, Arielle walked Sebastian to the door. His strong arms wrapped around her waist and suddenly his eyes met hers. Her heart skipped a beat and she thought she was going to lose consciousness. Her breath halted in her throat and her knees buckled. His lips trailed from her ear down to her mouth and he kissed her softly. His mouth was hot and inviting, and his warm breath and wonderful scent made her body quiver with desire. He held her tight until the dazzling sensation wore off as he held a smile of complete satisfaction on his face.

“I’m not sure I’ll make it without you. Please come home soon,” she whispered, her eyes full of tears as they kissed goodbye.

“Miss me!” He whispered, and his lips curved up into her favorite smile as he walked out the door. She stood there, watching him walk to his car, and before long he was gone. As she walked back to the kitchen her heart felt empty and sad.

“Is he gone?” her father asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, honey, that’s normal. I’ve been away from your mother many times and have had to be gone for a week or more as business required.”

“That doesn’t mean I liked it,” her Mum said with an understanding smile. She came over and gave Arielle a big hug.

“You really like this guy don’t you?” she said.

“I love him, Mum. He is the man I want to be with for the rest of my life.”

Her dad looked at her, and with a smile on his face, he said, “Well, that’s a good thing, because he’s clearly in love with you, too. I’m sure he’ll be back as soon as he can.”

“He told you that he loves me?” she asked.

“He did indeed,” he said.

“What else did he tell you?”

“Nothing more,” he said. He laughed and got up from the table to walk out to the garden.

Arielle headed upstairs, her heart full and empty at the same time.

Chapter 22

A
s soon as Sebastian had seen Nathan’s name on the screen of his mobile phone, he knew it had to be urgent since he had specifically asked not to be disturbed. “What’s up?” he asked, feigning a casual attitude, not wanting to alarm Arielle.

“Sebastian, we have a very serious situation on our hands,” Nathan said. “You need to come down here as soon as possible.”

“What’s the problem?” he asked, walking away from Arielle.

“We’ve had a break-in the main vault here in London and all the product designs are missing. The certificates are still here and so is the money. I have a terrible feeling that this was not just a simple robbery.” Nathan paused for just a moment to let the news sink in, then added, “I’ve also received calls from the North Island and Auckland that groups of men simultaneously attacked both of our laboratories and abducted Dr. Swanson and Dr. Walker. We don’t know if they are being held for ransom or if they’ve been killed. Some of our best security officers were taken by surprise and were either hurt or killed trying to stop them.” He paused again. “These attacks were extremely well organized. There must be moles in our buildings. I don’t have any more details as of yet, but you need to come down straightaway. I called Interpol and I spoke with Dylan Jamison, the head of British intelligence. He is sending two of his agents to meet with us here at headquarters. I’ve been trying to call you, but your phone was shut off.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, Nathan. Remember, I told you I was going to be with Arielle. She was very sick and I didn’t want to disturb her, but she’s doing better now. I’ll be there shortly. As a matter of fact, I’ll leave right now.”

He had tried to cover up his level of concern as he had said his goodbyes and “Miss me”, but once he had left Arielle, he was filled with a feeling of profound wretchedness. The situation sounded pretty bad. Sebastian had said that the design documents that were missing would generate a disaster for companies around the world, and that millions of dollars would be lost if they fell into the wrong hands. Worse yet, they could even be used to create weapons with disastrous destructive powers. Obviously he couldn’t permit this to occur.

As he jumped into his car and drove off, he took a last fond look at Arielle, who was standing at the door with tears in her eyes. He had thought his heart would break. But how could that be possible when his heart had been dead for centuries now? It was as if his love for her was literally bringing him back into a fuller state of existence.

An hour later, Sebastian arrived at headquarters in downtown London. Everyone was there, including the two Interpol agents, Mark Salvador and Tony Westbrook, who would be taking charge of the operation. The agents started to ask questions, but there were very few details to be provided. There were no fingerprints found at the London office and there were no witnesses who could provide any useful information.

Sebastian and Nathan’s special intuitive gifts were telling them that they were dealing with a very dangerous group of spies who must have somehow infiltrated various company locations. They were both aware of just how deadly the results of such espionage could be. After all, in the past this type of espionage had shaped governments, even changed the course of wars.

This operation had been perfectly organized to hit all the company locations at the same time, creating mass confusion. It was unsettling to say the least. Following a detailed briefing of what Nathan already knew, Sebastian, Nathan, and the two Interpol agents agreed to be on an 8:00 flight to Australia that night.

It was a long flight, approximately 21 hours. It felt even longer to Sebastian, since he was worried about the situation in New Zealand on one hand and the necessity of leaving Arielle behind on the other. He slept fitfully, and in between bits of sleep he was tormented by violent visions. When they landed at Sydney airport, the head of operations at North Island headquarters met them and took them immediately to the lab. There they were informed of the bloody details. Two of the three guards at the gate had been shot dead. So had a young engineer in his early twenties, Theodore Samson, whose body had been found next to the main laboratory. The third guard was in the hospital in critical condition.

This too was a clean job; there were no fingerprints anywhere near the bodies. It seemed as if Dr. Swanson had vanished into thin air. The only witness was Michael Swanson, Dr. Swanson’s son, also an engineer at the lab. He told them he had left the laboratory for a short time to get dinner for his father, and when he returned his father was gone.

“Did you see anyone on your way out of the building?” Officer Salvador asked. “Did you see any cars driving towards the building?”

Michael thought for a while and then he said he did remember seeing a dark van with a white stripe along the side, but he wasn’t sure if the van was blue or black. It was too dark and he hadn’t seen the color very well. He had seen two men in the front of the van when his headlights momentarily illuminated their car. “The driver wore glasses, that’s all I remember,” he said apologetically.

As Michael spoke, Sebastian was able to conjure up the faces of the two men whose memory was in Michael’s mind. He looked at Nathan and his lips moved, but no human ear could hear and no human eye could perceive the immortal ability he was using in that moment. He would discuss the details of those two men with Nathan when they were alone.

Sebastian could see that Michael didn’t have any more information, and he smiled at him, gently assuring him that he would do his best to find his father and bring him back safe. The officers asked Michael a few more questions, writing down all the little details of his answers. Unfortunately, there was very little to aid them in their investigation.

The next morning Sebastian and Nathan flew to Auckland, where they heard a very similar story. Dr. Walker had vanished from the Auckland lab in much the same way Dr. Swanson had disappeared in Sydney without a trace left behind. As in Sydney, both guards at the gate had been killed. However, in Auckland, the four engineers who were present at the lab were bound with duct tape around their mouths, ankles, and wrists, and left alive, locked in a closet.

“Why would they have left witnesses alive in this location?” Officer Salvador wondered aloud. He proceeded to question each of the victims individually about what they had witnessed. They all stated that they had heard shots and then three men had burst into the lab, making them lie on the floor facedown as they bound them and locking them in the closet. Unfortunately the men had worn masks and heavy gear, so their faces were concealed; however, the victims remembered that they had spoken with Russian accents.

One of the four engineers, Khalhemah, was very quiet, and Sebastian could clearly read his thoughts. And because he could read his thoughts, he knew that this man was a conspirator who had helped the assassins succeed in the abduction.
So that’s why they were spared…
he realized.

The other three men were completely truthful in everything they said, and had had absolutely no part in the assault. When Officer Salvador had gathered all the information he could, they went back to the hotel. “I don’t know what to think,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s try to put it all together and start fresh in the morning.”

After the officers had retired for the evening, Sebastian and Nathan met in Sebastian’s room and discussed what Sebastian had seen in Khalhemah’s head, as well as what Nathan had been able to foresee using his special powers. Then they left the hotel.

Another immortal gift they possessed was an exceptional ability to trace people by their scents, and they wanted to see if they could discover anything by just wandering around. Following their scents, they ended up in a small residential neighborhood, in front of an old, beat-up apartment building. They stopped in front of a door and tapped softly. Khalheman opened the door without taking the chain off the lock and saw Sebastian and Nathan glaring at him.

Later he could only remember trying to close the door, but he couldn’t for the life of him comprehend how Sebastian and Nathan had ended up standing in the middle of the room. He tried to reach for his gun and was amazed to find that suddenly Sebastian had him in a headlock, and his gun was in Nathan’s hands. He watched in complete shock and dismay as Nathan squeezed the gun between his fingers, turning it into pure dust before his astonished eyes. He was petrified with fear as he realized that he was dealing with something beyond his ability to understand.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” Sebastian growled, and the anger in his voice stunned Khalhemah.

“What do you want from me?” he asked, his voice shaking with fear.

“We know you are a liar and that you are party to extortion and theft. Don’t try to tell us any more lies because we can see into your mind. You have no idea what we can do.”

Khalhemah looked at them warily, wondering whether to believe what he was hearing, but he didn’t move.

“We want to know who broke into the London office and where we can find them,” Sebastian continued. “You are also going to provide us with the names of the people who abducted our scientists.” Sebastian could clearly read his mind, but he wanted to make sure that nothing was hidden in one of the murky corners of his head.

“I can’t tell you anything, they’ll kill me!” he said.

“
I’m
going to kill you if you don’t start talking right now,” Nathan said. His voice froze the blood in Khalhemah’s veins as Khalhemah felt Sebastian’s hands tighten around his neck. He started to lose consciousness, barely able to breathe.

“We will shatter each one of your bones slowly and then we will bury you alive. Start talking now!” Sebastian hissed. His voice struck terror through Khalhemah’s bones, and Nathan’s eyes pierced through his soul, making him shiver with fear. Khalhemah knew that these two men were not joking. He could feel the strength of Sebastian’s arms and remembered watching what had once been his gun turning to dust between Nathan’s fingers. He looked at each of them and when his eyes met theirs, he felt the cold chill of death run through his spine.

“All right, all right…” he gave in. “But I only know the name of the guy who broke into the London office. His name is Alexie Miroslav and he has the documents. He is the person in charge of all the groups engaged in extortion, and murder. They are located in every country outside Russia. But we don’t know any other names, or who is the head of the organization. I know there will be two meetings in Nigeria. The first meeting will take place at the Ald Gausha restaurant in Abuja Sunday night, at 10:00.” He paused as if considering whether to say more, but one glance at the two men continuing to glare at him convinced him to tell everything he knew. “All the people involved will gather their documentation and hand it over to Alexie at that time,” he said. “The second meeting will take place at the African Institute of Science in Abuja on Monday at 2:00 in the afternoon. That is where Alexie will hand over the documents to the higher-ups from Russia.”

“Where exactly are they going with those documents?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know the exact location, but they will be flying to St. Petersburg to deliver the documents, and your scientists. I don’t know the names of the people in Russia, and I don’t know the names of the people he is to meet with at the museum, and that is the truth.” Sebastian, who had not loosened his grip on the man, now let go, and Khalhemah collapsed, holding his head in his hands.

Sebastian knew he had all that he needed now. The man was telling the truth and he didn’t know anything more. Before they left, Nathan used another of their immortal gifts to make sure that Kahlhemah would remember nothing about them or their conversation by erasing his memory of recent events.

They returned to the hotel around 3:00 in the morning, satisfied with the progress they had made, and went to bed.

Early the next morning, Sebastian’s phone rang. It was Officer Westbrook, wanting to know if Sebastian and Nathan would like to have breakfast. Sebastian politely declined and asked if they could meet in a couple of hours in the lobby. Then he called Nathan to give him the meeting time and headed to the shower. He took his time dressing and then called Arielle. Her phone rang several times and then went to voice mail. “Miss me!” he whispered and hung up.

He met Nathan outside his room and they walked down to the lobby. There the officers where waiting for them.

“Good morning, officers,” Sebastian said, reaching out his hand.

“You can call me Mark,” Officer Salvador said.