Birth of Adam (Artificial Intelligence Book 2) (31 page)

When she left the library, Bastion sat at the dining room table, finishing off a bottle of wine. Simon and Pinchot kissed her goodnight and left. After seeing them out, she walked over to Bastion and sat down beside him

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She smiled. “It’s probably a good thing I don’t attend classes. I’m never going to be able to take them quite so seriously again.”

“They are excellent instructors.”

“They are,” she agreed, then laughed. “But they are very silly when they’re off the clock.”

A slight smile came to his face. “They can be most ridiculous.”

She caressed his cheek. “And you sat here worrying about me and drank too much in the process.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“I think you should stay here tonight—I couldn’t bear it if you were harmed driving home.”

He sighed. “I will not be of any use to you.”

“I just want you safe and alive. We don’t need to do anything until you feel comfortable. This cannot be easy for you, and if you decide you don’t want to, I will understand.”

***

Once she had Bastion settled in the last guest room, she returned to Bresnan and Adam. While Bresnan looked as if the bottle had worked him over, his misery seemed to be gone. He tried to sit up. “I should go.”

Adam’s hand settled on his shoulder. “You are in no shape to go anywhere. You will stay here tonight. And we might even manage to get some sleep before morning if someone will come to bed.”

Amanda changed into her nightgown and crawled in between them. She fell asleep contented, and hopeful a baby grew inside her.

***

Amanda opened her eyes to Bresnan’s stern scrutiny.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“A little,” he admitted. “Did you know Adam was sterile when you agreed to marry him?”

“I did.”

“Even though you wanted children?”

“I couldn’t choose a better father and provider for my children. He will adore them just as he does me.”

“Did you tell him about us?”

“No. But he’s very smart,” she added. “And very generous. He only wants me to be happy.”

“And I make you happy?”

“When you aren’t filled with misery. I was very worried about you yesterday. People can die from drinking too much. And it could kill brain cells you need to read my music.”

He laughed, then groaned as his head complained. “I don’t think I’m up to the task of helping you make babies right now.”

“Then lie back down and hold me,” she suggested.

***

Downstairs, Adam listened as Mark revealed the extent of his problems.

“Do you feel any obligation to either Beth or her children?”

“No, none at all,” Mark said.

“Well, you could try for a divorce, but I expect Hamilton would see you dead first, so I recommend we take advantage of that.”

“How?

“Simple. Let Hamilton believe he has succeeded in killing you, while you undergo plastic surgery and start a new life.”

“Will I still be able to play the violin?”

“You will need to spend a few years allowing a maestro to improve your technique, so he can take credit for your brilliance when you appear on stage, but beyond that delay, I predict your future will move much faster without Hamilton dragging you down.”

Mark nodded in agreement.

“However, there is a price to a new identity. You’ll have to give up all your friends and family.”

“Will I have to give up Amanda?”

“No. She can be trusted to keep your secret. In fact, she can give you advice on the matter. She’s changed her identity three times.”

“Will I be able to visit her?”

“That will depend on your maestro. I have heard Charles Schummer is very demanding.”

“Schummer... Charles Schummer is going to teach me?”

“He owes me a favor, and I don’t believe he will resent my request once he hears you play. In fact, he may decide he now owes me a second favor for sending him such a magnificent student.”

Mark shook his head in disbelief, then met Adam’s gaze. “How soon can we put this plan into action?”

***

Amanda wasn’t happy with the first part of the plan, in which Mark was to “pretend die” in a real assassination attempt, but Adam assured her he had the matter firmly under control. He had outbid the assassin’s allegiance.

Still, she fretted until Mark was safely in a hospital undergoing plastic surgery. When Bastion came and told her of Mark’s death, she burst into tears. Bastion was crying, and it broke her heart she couldn’t tell him the truth. While she comforted him with kisses and hugs, he finally relented to her affections and joined her efforts to have a baby.

***

A month later when her period didn’t come, Adam cautioned her not to say anything just yet.

“Why?”

“Well, for two reasons. First, they will be greatly disappointed if you aren’t, and second, they might think they should cease making love to you once the goal has been achieved.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I know how much you enjoy being loved.”

In the second month, Adam took her to a doctor and verified she was a healthy pregnant mother of three. She tried very hard to keep this wonderful news a secret. However, with Mark now safely recovering from surgery and three babies in her womb, she simply glowed with happiness.

“You are definitely pregnant,” Simon declared when he arrived the morning following her doctor’s exam.

“It’s too soon to be certain,” she said as she sat down to breakfast.

He watched her devour everything on the table. “Well, you eat like you’re pregnant,” he teased, then paused. “So if you aren’t sure, does that mean we should keep trying?”

She laughed. “Oh, I think we should keep trying right up to the point the baby pops out.”

Simon had left her with a very difficult assignment, and Bastion came over to ensure she did not pick up the bad habits of his other student. She knew he was referring to Adam’s one and only composition, and inexplicably she burst into tears.

“What’s this?” Bastion asked as he cradled her in his arms.

“Adam didn’t mean to cheat. He just has trouble imagining things. He’s a fact-based person.”

“I know that,” Bastion assured her. “I was teasing you.”

“But you aren’t. You’re angry with him. You made him destroy his composition even though it was very pretty.”

“I made him destroy it because it was plagiarism, and too well done for anyone to believe he was the composer, which meant you would have borne the blame for authorship.”

“But I didn’t! I don’t even think I could. I certainly couldn’t do that and my assignment in those few hours!”

Bastion kissed her temple. “I know that. I cannot imagine how a man with so little training could create such a composition, but he obviously did. And I know for certain you did not. You do not copy. You do not even mimic. Your music is uniquely your own. And I am now certain Simon is correct in his belief that you’re pregnant, for nothing less could account for this outburst.”

She smiled up at him. “If I were pregnant—and we cannot be for certain, but if I were—it could be yours.”

He held her tight. “That would please me greatly, but I will love your child no matter who the father might be. Now, before we both burst into a fit of weeping, let’s get back to your assignment. I understand it to be most challenging.”

She handed him the list of items Simon wished to see portrayed in today’s composition.

Bastion shook his head. “A challenge indeed! It inspires me to take pencil to paper and see if I can, at last, outdo you. Experience will lend itself to my favor.”

Amanda feared he might be correct about experience favoring him, and thus refocused on her composition, determined not to fail this challenge.

Amanda stared at the short-haired blond German with his majestic hawk nose on the monitor of her PC.

“Well, what do you think?” Jon Mann asked.

“I think you look like a serious young man with extraordinary talent.”

“Yeah, but would you sleep with me?”

“Absolutely,” she assured him.

“I... I don’t know what I can and can’t say with you. I don’t talk about my past with anyone here. I remain aloof now, so I don’t have to answer questions. I avoid bars, because if I drink, I might talk too much.”

“I know. I understand exactly what you’re going through. It will get easier with time. So tell me, how are your classes with Charles Schummer?”

His demeanor brightened. “They are fabulous! This is the best thing that could have happened to me. He says I came just in time. I was developing some habits that would have limited any further improvement. Another few years, and he believes I would have been ruined.”

“I never noticed any bad habits, except that you went to bars too often,” she teased.

“God, I love you,” he blurted out. “Is it all right if I say that?”

“Absolutely,” she assured him. “And I love you too!” She was happy when her declaration cheered him.

“So how are you? How is your composition coming along? I listen to your recording every night. I wish you hadn’t lost your voice.”

“I don’t miss it. Composing music is a lot more fun.”

“And you’re very good at it. I’m jealous Bresnan is allowed to play your pieces, rather than me.”

“Well, you would have a great deal of trouble playing an orchestra piece all by yourself,” she teased. “However, today Simon gave me an assignment to create a movement using a single instrument, and I wrote it with you in mind. Bastion played it. Did you know he played the violin?”

“Of course I knew. He was my.... second choice of instructors if Schummer didn’t take me.”

“Shall I send you the piece?”

“Nothing would make me happier,” he assured her.

“You cannot share it with anyone, because Bastion wants the entire opera to be finished before anyone hears it. He’s most annoyed with Adam for placing my first composition on the recording he made. Adam offered to remove it from his copy, but that only made him angrier. So don’t share the recording with anyone,” she warned him.

“If I let the other guys hear it, they would steal it from me. I’m not exactly popular.” He sighed. “However, whenever the hostility gets to me, I just think of you and how well you survived. I remind myself it isn’t important what these cretins think. All that matters is music and true friends.”

“I have some fabulous news to tell you. I hope you’ll be happy as well...”

“What?”

“I’m pregnant.”

He moved away from the monitor. All she could see was his empty narrow cot.

“Mar—” Realizing she’d used the wrong name, she struggled to alter the sentence. “...tin is hoping for a girl. Jon, please come back to the phone,” she pleaded.

He turned off the camera feed. “I have to go now.”

“You can’t go feeling like this,” she insisted.

“I love you,” he whispered, and ended their connection.

She burst into tears, and Adam came to comfort her.

***

She hoped with time Mark—Jon—would come to his senses and talk to her. Instead, he refused further money from Adam and would have had to leave school had Schummer not found him a scholarship.

When Adam told her this, she kissed him. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For the scholarship Schummer found.”

He pulled her into his arms. “You had become his whole life, and the announcement of your pregnancy destroyed whatever unrealistic dreams he held in his head,” Adam explained. “On the positive side, Schummer says he has never played better. He says he will have nothing more to teach Jon by the end of this year. An excellent German agent wishes to sign him when he leaves.”

“Then why does he not sign him now?”

“Schummer does not allow his students to have agents.”

“He is very wise.”

Adam sighed. “I remember Sean Darmont telling me I was doing a poor job of taking care of you.”

“And he was entirely wrong.”

“Not entirely. Normally, I can find out whatever I need to know about an industry and the people who run it, but in the music industry, much of what you need to know is never written anywhere. On paper, Jules had an excellent reputation, but once he became your agent, I realized he was not as good as I had hoped, and the longer I knew him, the worse he proved to be. I thought Sean could be your way out, but he was right when he told me I had made a grievous error in thinking he would help. He was never going to, and he never will. Even after declaring at our wedding he would not fail you again, he tried to refuse your recording because, without hearing it, he declared it poor quality.”

She laughed softly. “It’s a magnificent recording. I wonder what he thought once he heard it.”

“He’s spent over a hundred thousand dollars trying to figure out what I did to prevent it from being duplicated.”

“What if he succeeds? Bastion will kill me if parts of my opera are published.”

“He only received the aria. However, I will bury him in lawsuits if he publishes it without paying each of the musicians’ royalties once he finally breaks the code.”

She studied him for a moment. “And when will he break the code?”

“When he has spent a quarter million on this secret project. At that point, he will have painted himself into a corner and will desperately need some legitimate means to write off the losses. Accountants get cranky when they are asked to write off costs used to commit copyright infringement.”