Balance (77 page)

The veil of
mystery
lifts from his eyes.

Looking down, unwilling to hold his gaze, Rena
discloses, “
That’
s how I was able to collapse the bridge puzzle,
understand your talents, recognize the presence of a hidden room
,
anticipate
were snipers would be
deployed and
…
recognize the sequence of events leading to
Chango
try
ing
to kill
my
godfather
.
”
 
Rena pauses to collect
herself;
knowing that going further will likely change much about
her and Michael’s relationship…
“
My
godfather
used
to
conduct mathematic exercises for the military.  Anticipate the next threat to t
he US, the next terrorist group
or
political
hot spot.
 
This
study referred to as
‘linchpin’ or ‘domino’ t
heory,
could
identify social and technological circumstances that could bring about the rise or collapse of power or technology.
He did all of these studies
for the CIA
.  When I was eleven, he was doing a
research
on the social development associated with orphaned children
.
While co
nducting inte
rviews
at the orphanage I was at, h
e recognized in me a
n
un
natural ability to identify these relat
ionships. 
F
earing
I would be identified by a scout and used
inappropriately,
h
e adopted me, kept me hidden, e
ventually mov
ing
me down here
.
”

“You’re a savant
!
”
Michael
states, incredulously.

She hesitates, taking a deep breath, knowing where this conversation will take them,
“Yes
Michael, like you
,
I am a high functioning savant.
”

They
gaze
at each other, neither knowing
what to say.  Michael
,
still trying to process a
ll
she
has just told him
.

H
oping the discussion goes no
further;
Rena is
unwilling
to
say anything
to propel it forward.
 
N
eeding a moment,
she
asks
, “
C
ould
you
get
me some more wine
, please
?”
 
Rising from the chair,
Michael
tak
es
the
empty
glass from her trembling hand and
walks
in
to the kitchen. 
She
knows
when he comes back
,
he wi
ll have realized. 
Tears fall from her eyes
,
expecting
he will never
look
at
her
the
same way
,
again
.

Standing at the counter,
Michael
refills her glass, his concentration distracted, trying to comprehend Rena’s last
declaration … Relationships … Chango, Leonidas … She knew.  The realization starts to creep in.  He
returns
to the sitting room
,
s
etting
the
wine glass
on the coffee table
,
he
slowly sit
s
down on
the
couch
in fro
nt
of Rena.  H
er head tilted down,
hair falling forward, hiding her
face
from him
.  When
s
he looks up
,
he sees her beautiful turqu
ois eyes framed in red, her che
e
ks
wet with tears
. 
“
You knew Chango was going after your
godfather
?”

The tears start to fall uninhibited.  “Yes
.”

“When?”

“Yes
…”

“Yes?”
U
nderstanding
,
he now realizes
what
this revelation means.

“Yes
…
it
’
s my fault.  This is
entirely my
fault
.
Y
ou, m
e, Alexander
…
Chango
…
my
godfather
.  All of it.”

Michael doe
sn’t get mad, doesn’t storm off.  He
takes her hands in
his and says nothing, just
gazes
a
t
her,
willing
her strength.

Rena confesses,
“My
G
odfather
didn’t discover the
Nexus
,
the anomaly
that could bring about the collapse of the
SuperElite
.  I did.  I showed
Leonidas
what I
’d
found.  To protect me, he presented
the general concept
, as his
own
. 
People would believe him, t
his is what he did, identified relationships.
 
Wh
en he did
that,
a shift happened. 
I identified a point in time where
one of the
SuperElite
would kill him
.  Killed to prevent the
information he knew, I knew
,
from going
public
.  That was
more than
four
years ago.  I spent months trying to iden
tify which one
  …
”

“
Chango
.
” Michael offers.

Rena nods, “
I
f
ormulated a way of preventing it, requiring
me to infiltrate Chango’s military forces.  I needed to
b
e the one
Chango sent after my
g
odfather
.  In order to do that, I needed an invitation.  I spent six months studying cage fighters.
”

“You found me.” He states calmly.

She nods
again
slowly
, tears pooling in her eyes. 
“
I needed one
that would make an impression, one
that a scout could not let get away.
 
When I discovered you, I sent out feelers into Alexander’s finder network
,
alerting him to
an
incredible
fighter that had to be seen.  I knew where you would be
,
even
pa
ying
the promoter to put a top tier
fighter in the cage. 
I had no idea you would fight like that.
 
Placing
a la
rg
e anonymous bet on you
,
knowing that if you won
,
the promoter would
think a
fix
,
I
manipulated the fight and
orchestrated
the confrontation
in
the
hallway
for Alexander’s benefit
.
”
  Crossing her arms nervously over chest, she defends herself, “
I did all of this to prevent my
g
odfather
’s
death, but I failed to consider you as collateral damage.
  I never envisioned you as an assassin. 
When I’d seen you fight before, you were good.  I figured you would get invited as a bodyguard or something of the like. 
I thought it would be a way out of the Hustle.
However,
the fight that night, you were otherworldly.  I didn’t expect that.  I knew right
away, at the invitation
,
what they had planned for you.
T
here on the street,
I actually
hoped you
would’ve
escaped.  I couldn’t have known about your protective nature, so you stayed.  At t
hat point, I couldn’t stop it.”

Michael’s eyes take on a warmness, pride in her selflessness and his own.

“
On the plane I realized that our lives w
ere going to be linked together.
I knew I needed to be an agent in order to protect Leonidas.  When Alexander implied we’d be working closely, I expected you’d be an agent as well.  I never expected an assassin until
you asked me about a Dispatch
.
  When I orchestrated the invitation
,
I
never
fully
considered what would happen
,
once we were inside.
  I
also
did
n
o
t expect to fall in love with you.
  Now you can never go back.  If they ever discover
we staged the explosion
at the hotel
, which I’m sure Takada will eventually figure out, you
’ll
be on the run forever.”

Silent,
Michael
takes
her
trembling
hands
,
h
is face expressionless.

“Michael, I’m
so
sorry.
I didn’t mean for you to end up this way.  I’m
so, so
sorry
…
This ‘thing’ it
’
s me,
I can’
t turn it off …
I don’t
even
know if my motivations driv
e
it or
if
it driv
es
my motivations.  The only thing I know
…
I love you … how I got
there,
I’m not sure.  I’m not even sure if your feelings for me were the result of ‘it’
,
or me.  I’ll never truly know.
”

“
Where will you be?”
He
ask
s.

“Where will I be
?
…
W
hen?”
Rena
questions,
confused by the question
.

“When Takada figures it out.”

“I don’t know?”
Her answer
dispirited
.

“Then
,
that’s where I’ll be.”
  Leaning forward, he
kisses
her
,
as
he’s never kissed her before
.
 
Michael
realizes,
at that moment
,
it has finally happened,
the
journey he’
s been on fr
om the moment he first saw her …
the final mystery has
fallen …
this angel that has enraptured his soul …
he finally knows who she
is.
 

Four
in the morning,
Michael wakes.
T
he
bed
next to him
empty, h
e sits up, looking around the bedroom. 
V
acant
and quiet, h
e turns
on
the lamp
.
 
Finding
no sign of Rena, he gets
up
.

Quietly and
cautiously,
he
prowls the house. 
Unable to find
her
anywhere,
Michael
moves into the living room, scanning the entire
expanse
from
its
central vantage point.
H
e spots her
on the balcony
in her undergarments,
curled up
on a lounge chair
,
knees pulled up to her chest
,
and her
arms wrapped around her legs.  He
watches for several minutes
. 
Rena
sits unmoving,
staring out
over the dark lake. 
A
shu
dd
er
runs through her body from the chill night air
.

Grabbing an afghan
lying
across
the back of a
chair
,
Michael walks out to the balcony, approaching quietly so as not to startle her.  He gently wraps the afghan over
Rena’s
shoulders
.

She
rests
her cheek
on his hand, the warmth of his touch both
comforting
, yet
painful
.

Moving to the end of the chair,
Michael
sits down in front of
Rena
.
 
Her eyes,
puffy and red
,
it
looks as if sleep has not come to her in a long time
. 
His heart breaks.  Turning
to look out
over the
peaceful
lake
,
phosphorescent rocks peppering the walls of the massive cavern,
their
luminance reflect
ing off the mirror like surface, he asks. 
“What was it like living her
e
for all these
years?
”

“Lonely
.
”

“Please come back to bed.”
He
implores.

Wincing when he says the words, Rena
would like nothing more tha
n
to
curl up in his arms for the rest of her life,
but that’
s not an option
.  “I’m so sorry I pulled you into this
mess
.”
 
She
apologizes.

Michael considers her apology, coming to a different conclusion.  He sits up straighter, resigned, a show of his conviction,
“Let’
s see, my existence before you was
so grand and had
so much potential.  I was living day
to day, trying to stay alive, c
limbing into a cage every
couple of
weeks, risking severe injury or death every time I went in.
 
I’m not sorry …
I think I’d take
a
gorgeous
red
head wrapped in my arms
,
for even a day
,
over that.  Besides, you and I both know
,
my unique talents were going to get me invited into someone’s camp at some point.  At least now, I can do something about it.”

Rena
looks at
him
, confused,
“What do you mean?
  ‘Do something about it’.
”

“Well beautiful, don’t you worry about that right now.  You just come back to bed and
we’ll discuss it in the morning
…
or at least early afternoon.”

Giving
him a charming
half smile
,
she
leans in
and kisses the man she has come to love so deeply
.

Michael picks her up and carries her into the bedroom.  They lie
together
,
staring at each other until Rena falls asleep.  Confident
she’ll
rest through the morning, he closes his eyes.

Michael wakes first.  He quietly gets up and starts preparing breakfast.  He hear
s
Rena
get up and walk out
side
. 
Putting
fruit and jui
ce on a tray, he
takes it out to
the balcony
.

He spots the disturbance in the
lake
, just before her head appears on the surface.  He sets the tray down on a small table and watches her glide through the water.  She looks at peace.  He can
no
t help but feel
these next few weeks will be
‘
the calm before the storm
’
.

Emerging
from the
lake’s
edge
like an angel, the lights from the house reflecting
off her glistening naked body,
Rena climbs the stairs to the balcony
,
while
Michael
waits
at the top
with a robe.
 
She kisses hi
m as he wraps it around her
,
embrac
ing for long
minute
s
before
he
directs her to a chair next to the tray of food.  She sits and casually eats the fruit
.

Michael stands with his back to her, leaning on the railing
,
gazing
out over the water.
“Last night, you said …
you had discovered the
Nexus
that could bring about the collapse of the
Elite
.”

“Michael, I know what you’re thinking.  It would be insane.”

He
turns
to face her,
still
leaning against the railing,
“Listen
,
this world is messed up
, you, I and most of the world knows it.  If we or anyone else stands a chance of living a better existence
…
isn’t it worth it?”

Rena just looks at
him
, admiring his chivalrous nature. 
With
Michael,
i
t’s always about the right thing for ever
yone else.  He’
s without fear
, the intensity of his person, reflected there, in the depths of his steel-blue eyes
.
 
A
t that moment
,
she
achieves
complete
clarity
;
know
ing
exactly
what has to happen.

“Can your plan be put in place and executed by two extremely well trained operatives?”
He
asks.

“Yes, I think so
.
”

“Can you explain it to me?”

“I can do better than that.”

Michael immediately notices the change
.
H
er ‘fierce’
has returned
.  Sh
e exudes the strength that makes
her the most dangerous
I
nfiltrator in the world
, maybe something even more
. 
He
understands
,
Rena
doesn’t
just
think
it
could
be done, she knows it can.
“Can you show it to me?
” He
asks.

“After you join me for a swim, maybe we’ll have time to look at it
after
dinner.”  She
half smile
s
at him
,
her
strik
ing turquois eyes
appearing to glow with a light all their own
. 
Rising
, Rena drops
her robe
to the deck
, trailing her hand across his
bare chest
and suggestively
down over his taunt abdomen;
she
seductively walks down the stairs and into the lake.

Michael makes a ligh
t dinner, something
eat
en while having a heavy discussion
.
 
They dec
ide to
dine
at the chopping block table
, to keep it informal and
all
business. 
He watches
Rena
, wearing a
formfitting
white
turtleneck
and
black
leggings
,
her hair pulled back into a
loose
braid down her back
.
 
Her eyes;
fierce and focused.  S
he’s smiling
and more comfortable
than he’s ever seen her. 
Tonight
,
Rena is
beautiful and powerful
.

She makes light conversation, until the moment
’s
right, when they’ve shifted from dinner to the task at hand.  “
Y
ou asked if
I could show you the
Nexus
, the conditions that could result in the destabilization of the
Elite
.  Before I show you, I need to make sure you understand how we got to where we are.
”

Michael looks at her, indicating a willingness to listen to whatever she has to say.

“It started back,
around
the turn of th
e century.  The perfect storm, a
series of conditions that
,
when
occurring simultaneously
create far more damage than the sum of the individual conditions occurring
separately.
”
Rena
prefac
e
s
the discussion
.

E
xpecting
to be
quickly
lost
,
Mich
ael
no
ds.

She
continues…

”
The internet created instantaneous global information access.  Whatever was going on anywhere
in the world was
streaming real
-time
on the net. 
Media
conte
nt became extremely competitive.  S
ensationalism became the
backbone of the news
.

The economy in the United States was booming, excess everywhere, the populace increasingly going deeper into debt.  The excess drove inflation, inflation drove income demands, income
drove more excess.  Inflation drives the need
to make more money to buy the same excess
.

Domestic
manufacturing costs increased, driving businesses to outsource manufacturing
and engineering
to other countries. 
M
oney
, revenue,
was being redirected
offshore
.  Those countries started seeing
massive financial growth.

Then
the
2008 recession hi
t, caused interesting enough, b
y corrupt business practices
and massive private debt
.  The US debt grew.
T
o stop the downward spiral
of the recession
,
exasperated
by
fear,
the
US
debt had to be secured.  The only people that could secure i
t were the new
ly
wealthy
.  This was the true beginning of the global
economy,
t
he cross-
pollination
of
business ownership
…
not necessarily a bad thing.