The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) (31 page)

“Here… This guy. He’s the one that found the girl and made all the arrangements. I swear, I only met them at the hotel.”

“Professor Theodore Reed,” the little man read the envelope.

“That’s the one… He knows where find her.”

“
Someone has the feds sniffing around, looking into your little adventure in Ukiah… Do you know who that might be?”

“No!” he protested. “I don’t know anything about that!”

“Alright,” the little man nodded towards his hulking counterpart. “Do it now.”

Once more the big man raised the gun to the private eye’s temple,
firing one well-placed bullet directly into his brain.

~

The insistent buzzing brought professor Reed to the door, wondering what fresh hell was waiting for him on the other side. He’d jumped the gun and ordered plenty of expensive new equipment, but once the bulk of the money from his research grant “fell through” he’d been forced to turn away several deliveries. He’d even had to submit to the indignity of a repossession when he’d bounced a check for a new centrifuge.

After a screaming phone call in which he was blamed for Layla’s escape
the senator refused to return his calls, despite his offers to track her down again. An aide to the senator even threatened to have him prosecuted for submitting a falsified grant proposal; he dared not push his luck.

Professor
Reed got the distinct impression that as much as the senator wanted Layla, he feared being found out much more than he desired revenge. His wife must be a real ball-breaker, the professor thought, congratulating himself for never having married.

He
shuffled down the hall without enthusiasm, opening the door a crack only to be knocked backwards by the force of it flying open in his face. He lay on his back, blinking up at the two men silhouetted in the doorframe.

“You
Professor Reed?” the little one asked.

He half scrambled
and half crawled backwards, rising to his feet with creaking joints. “What do you want?”

“Is there anyone else in the house?” the man asked.

“Who are you?”

“We want the girl… The redhead and her brother.
Tell us where they are no-one here needs to get hurt.”

“Who sent you?”
the professor asked, shocked to see both of the men brandishing pistols, aimed directly at him.

They closed the door behind themselves
, looking down the long hallway suspiciously. “Tell us where they are and you won’t get hurt.”

Profe
ssor Reed held up his head defiantly, “Exactly what do you want them for?”

The big man drew back his arm to deliver a
vicious blow to the old man’s temple that knocked him back onto the floor.

“
Hey! Take it easy, if you kill him we’ll never find them!” The little one knelt to look into the old man’s shocked eyes. “Listen buddy, we’re just tying up some loose ends, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll tell us where they are before my friend here gets carried away.”

“Loose ends?” the professor
gasped. “You want to kill her? You’re not aware of her special talents… Are you?”

“Talents?” the little man laughed.

The professor sat up, “She was running Max’s whole blackmail operation… That’s what she did to the senator, tried to blackmail him, right?”

The two men exchanged a glance, afraid that the old man knew much more than they feared.

“She’s just another whore,” the little one said.

“Oh, she’s much more
than that. She can hypnotize people, and make them do her bidding… She has the ability to make anyone do nearly anything.”

The big man scoffed, “Sounds
like a load of bullshit to me.” He raised his hand to deliver another blow.

“Wait! Wait!”
Professor Reed cowered. “I have proof.”

The men
followed Professor Reed into his lab, looking around suspiciously as he scurried over to a monitor. He pulled open several deep drawers that held thousand of recordings, selecting a few to play.

“I documented all of my experiments,” he explained
, hurrying to show the men before they changed their minds. The screen played images of a child, a tiny redheaded girl sitting alone at a table. A series of people were brought in and seated across from her, all of whom suddenly, inexplicably looked like they’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. Some laughed, some smiled broadly, but all of them were relaxed and happy.

“Now,” Professor Reed said proudly, “Here
… Notice how she demonstrates another behavior in this reel.”

The subjects came in exactly the same way, only this time it was very different. The girl seemed agitated, twisting her hands in her lap and biting her lip. Each subject slumped with sorrow, some cried, some became quiet and withdrawn. The girl looked to the camera
frequently, her eyes anxious.

The little man
leaned forward and watched the tapes carefully.

“It looks like an act
to me,” the big one said.

“I have years of studies
on record,” Professor Reed said. “She gets better and better as she ages.”

The professor quickly put
more recordings on, and they watched the child grow into a young woman, eliciting vastly different responses from all kinds of people.

“
With the proper motivation, she can control anyone’s emotions, and bend them to her will… er,
your
will.”

“How does she do it?” he asked.

“She was born with the ability to change people’s emotional state. She can generate and project a mood onto another person. She can make someone sad or frightened enough to confess anything… spill secrets… even go against their own best interests.”

“How long does it last?”

“Several hours… Long enough to sign papers, record confessions, make a few phone calls… Max was financing his whole operation using her.”

“
What’s in it for her? What does she want?”

“Oh,
Layla isn’t motivated by money… But she
will
do just about anything to protect that worthless brother of hers.”

The two men exchanged a look, the possibilities running through their minds.

“So you see, her talents could take you a whole lot further than just one perverted state senator ever could.”

“Interesting
.”

“That’s just the tip of the
iceberg. You have no idea what these girls are capable of.”

The little man looked at him shrewdly.

“Girls?”

~

THE END

~

The story concludes in the sequel, “The Redcastle Redemption,” due out in 2014.

Other books by Derrolyn Anderson:

~

“Between The Land and the Sea – Marina’s Tales #1”

“The Moon and the Tide – Marina’s Tales #2”

“The Fate of the Muse – Marina’s Tales #3 ”

“The Turning Tides – Marina’s Tale’s #4”

“The Athena Effect – #1”

“The Mackenzie Legacy – The Athena Effect #2”

~

www.der
rolyn.com