Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (78 page)

Ding.

Victoria and Caroline exit the elevator to the first floor lobby. Two large men are there to greet them.

   “Ma’am,” the man to Victoria’s right speaks. He holds out a full-length leather jacket.

   “Thank you,” Victoria accepts the jacket and places it around her daughter’s shoulders.

   “We have moved your vehicle. It is at your home. We are here to make sure you arrive there safely.”

   “Thank you,” Victoria answers with a nervous smile. This is the reason she ran from the bloodline – the Network. They have tendencies and bad practices – the kind of actions that reveal innocence on one hand with a knife in the other. The only difference she can tell; so far, is that these guys seem more relaxed than the people she knew back in the day. More than that, however, they seem to be looking at her with respectful eyes – not the eyes that would reflect ill-intentions or the mindsight of male dominance.

   “Do you ladies need anything before we get there?”

   “No, we’re fine,” Victoria answers the man to her left, “Thank you.”

   “Very well,” the man responds.

   The two men turn and escort the ladies from the hospital. As they approach the street, three vehicles roar from the east and come to a screeching halt in front of them.

   “Ma’am,” the man to Victoria’s right speaks, “I will need you to ride with me. We will be following your daughter.”

   “Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”

   “She will need an instructor, ma’am,” the man counters, “We can’t release the car to her until she can drive it safely.”

   Caroline looks at three vehicles. The rear vehicle is an S.U.V. Ford Escalade. The lead car belongs to the California state highway patrol. But the center car is
awesome
.

   “What car?”, Caroline questions with her eyes glued to the blue-metallic paint job of the center vehicle.

   The man looks at Caroline with a smile. Victoria glances at Caroline.

   “Honey, you’ve been through too much tonight. I think we should wait until tomorrow.”

   Caroline pleads with her eyes, “Mom, I don’t remember anything.”

   Victoria purses her lips in thought. Truth is, she’s probably more traumatized than her daughter is. And with her daughter’s puppy eyes, she can hardly say no. Plus, as a doctor, she understands that getting back on the horse is the most therapeutic thing a patient can do.

   “Are you sure?”

   Caroline looks her mother in the eyes, “Yes, I’m fine. A little sore, but that’s it.”

   Victoria sighs and gives in with a nod.

   Caroline greedily hugs her mom and then looks at the man with expectant eyes. He smiles, reaches into his coat jacket, and retrieves a note.

   “This is for you,” the man hands Caroline the piece of folded paper.

   “Ma’am,” the man to Victoria’s left speak, “When you are ready.”

   Dr. Reynolds watches the man open the rear door to the fully-tinted Escalade. She nods.

   Caroline unfolds the paper and reads silently:

  
“Hello cousin,

          Welcome to the family. Even Jennifer would have a hard time getting hold of this beauty. It is a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. I had it custom painted for you. Enjoy!”

   “You have until you get home to master it,” the instructor informs.

   Caroline folds the paper and looks up.

   The man grins, “Think you can handle it?”

   “Oh yeah,” Caroline says with an excited smile.

   The man holds out his right hand, “Note.”

   “Oh - sorry,” Caroline says while tearing it into small pieces before handing it back to him.

   The man looks at his hand and laughs, “You’re a natural.”

   Caroline blushes while looking back at her mother.

   Victoria smiles, but it has nothing to do with her daughter tearing up a note. Instead, she smiles because Caroline smiles. She has not seen this sort of joy from her daughter in a very long time – not since her father lived at home. This smile almost helps to fade the nightmare of what has just been…almost.

   “Be careful.”

   “I will,” Caroline says before returning her gaze back to her new instructor.

   “I believe these are yours,” the man says while handing Caroline a keychain, “It’s mainly for the alarm. We’ll begin in the parking lot.”

   Victoria makes her way to the open door of the Escalade. She turns and looks at her daughter receiving a keychain. She smiles again and takes her place within the vehicle.

   Victoria amuses over her daughter’s driving lesson. She drives, stops, chirps the tires, and kills the engine before repeating the disaster. But it doesn’t take long for the cheerleader to get the hang of things to the point her instructor allows her to make her way to the street. After about twelve blocks, Caroline learns how to accelerate without jerking the vehicle each time she attempts it.

   Something else Victoria has noticed is that the three men inside of the Escalade seem to be genuinely enjoying the show as well. They are not acting like the Network she once knew; especially, given the fact that she is a runner. Runners are looked down upon. A bloodline runner is considered downright blasphemous.

   Victoria looks at the man to her left. He is largely built with brown eyes and short black hair.

   “You don’t seem to be like your predecessors.”

   The man observes Caroline jerk the car at the stop light and kill its engine. He laughs. Touching his right ear, he speaks, “Let’s go ahead and circle back six blocks. We are getting too close to her home.”

   The man pauses before responding to the highway patrolman speaking into his ear, “That’s affirmative. She should have a handle on it by then. She’s a quick learner.”

   The man turns and looks at Victoria. His demeanor changes in an instant.

   “Do you mean I am incompetent?”

   “No, I just thought you were much nicer is all. I did not mean any disrespect.”

   The man studies the woman for a moment before revealing a small grin.

   “Had you going there for a minute.”

   Victoria forces a nervous partial grin.

   “Our Mother has made many changes, ma’am. They are all good changes as far as I can tell. But don’t ever believe that she is soft. That would be a mistake.”

   Victoria looks out of the window to her right. She thinks back to the incident on the parking lot; whenever, Julianna made her presence first known. Victoria thought she was going to die. She was so scared that she cried. There is no doubt that Julianna will act upon a threat she has made. Victoria could see the truth within the young woman’s green eyes.

   “Well at least you guys don’t act like mindless robots anymore.”

   “Ha-ha” the man chuckles, “Our Mother refers to it as mindless zombies.”

   Victoria looks at the man.

   “I think I even heard her call one guy a mindless cyborg.”

   Dr. Reynolds smiles. The man turns his attention to the voice in his ear.

   “She wants to go faster?”

   The man looks at Victoria. The woman shakes her head with a daring stare.

   “That would be a negative,” the man responds. A few moments later he speaks again, “That’s affirmative. Instruction speed as planned.”

   The man lowers his hand from his ear and smiles at Victoria.

   “Yes,” Victoria speaks with a quiet thank you, “I believe things are very different with her around. And it’s obvious that she knows how to hand-pick the best.”

   The man nods one time, “Ma’am.”  He looks forward and watches the Bugatti in front of the Escalade.

   Caroline sits down at the kitchen table after taking her shower. She is too wound up to sleep.

   “Is it still there?”, Victoria questions from across the table.

   Caroline looks at her smiling mother.

    “You never know about people,” Caroline defends.

   “They will not allow anyone to go near it” Victoria says with raised eyebrows, “You can be sure of that one.”

   “I wish they’d hurry up,” Caroline says while glancing towards the front door.

   “Your father had a lot of stuff in the garage,” Victoria reminds, “Don’t worry, they are quick and efficient. It shouldn’t be that much longer.”

   Caroline slumps in her chair, “I want my keys back.”

   “I thought you said it was keyless?”

   “I have to make sure the alarm is set.”

   Victoria rolls her eyes.

   Caroline grins, “I told Becca I had a ride in the morning, but didn’t tell her about my brand new Bugatti.”

   “I bet that was tough,” Victoria grins back.

   “You have no idea.”

   “Heh-heh. I’m pretty sure I do,” Victoria counters.

   “So...Julianna is of the bloodline like you,” Caroline runs over the facts she has recently learned, “And I’m of this bloodline.”

   “Correct,” Victoria agrees.

   “But we are - uh…”

   “Sub-prophecy bloodline,” Victoria helps her daughter with the new terminology.

   “Right. And Julianna is main-prophecy bloodline.”

   “Yes.”

   “So why did you run?”

   “Sub-prophecy bloodlines are usually part of the Network,” Victoria says while nodding her head towards the sounds coming from the garage area, “Those guys are all Network.”

   “They’re sub-prophecy bloodline?”

   “No, just Network. People like us weren’t treated to well. The higher-ups of the Network thought that sub-prophecy bloodline family members were just in the way.”

   “In the way of what?”

   “Ambition,” Victoria says while her eyes become distant, “They would lie and present false evidence against us. The main-prophecy bloodline would have no choice, but to order our termination.”

   “Like death?”

   Victoria refocuses her eyes upon her daughter. She nods.

   “That’s messed up.”

   “Members of the main-prophecy bloodline never involved themselves with the inner-workings of the Network. They had no idea what was really going on.”

   Victoria takes a deep breath and sighs.

   “You have an aunt who died before you were born, my twin sister, Jaquelin.”

   “You had a twin?”

   Victoria’s eyes water. She nods while wiping the salty tears from her eyes.

   “We all called her Jackie. She had a wonderful personality – so full of life. She loved everyone. And anyone who met her felt the same way about her.”

   Victoria’s saddened stare changes to that of resentment.

   “Except those guys in the higher-ranks. They thought she was only there because of privilege. She tried to make changes – too many changes. She was killed for it. And that’s when I ran.”

   “And they didn’t come after you?”

   “There’s no hiding, Caroline,” Victoria says, “They use the term
runners
, but it is used loosely. Someone has been watching us always. But as long as I never posed a threat to the bloodline or to them, I was safe.”

   Victoria reaches across the table and pats Caroline on the left hand, “You were safe.”

   “Why would I even say yes to something like this?”

   Victoria removes her hand from her daughter, “From what I can tell, it seems your cousin has been making a lot of changes to the way things are handled. But I haven’t seen enough to say definitively.”

   “The Network is complicated,” Victoria continues, “It is worldwide, in all branches of government, and in every occupation you can possibly fathom. The watcher teams report to a higher authority than the ones who set your aunt up. After I ran, I was safer because of this. If the higher-ups ordered my execution without just cause, they would have all been put down. The watcher team would have seen it all and reported it. There has never been any tolerance for selfish gain or decision-making. And at the end of the day, I am still of the bloodline – as you are.”

   “What kind of evidence did they make up against her?”

   “I honestly don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. But did say that she had found something out that she wished she had never known.”

   “This is some serious James Bond crap,” Caroline says before pausing to take in everything.

   Victoria takes a deep breath and exhales, “I would have to agree with you.”

   After a few moments of silence, Caroline makes eye contact with her mother.

   “So if I did say yes, then I would work for the Network?”

   “I don’t know what your cousin wants,” Victoria answers truthfully, “But from what I can gather, the sub-prophecy bloodline holds equal value to the main-prophecy bloodline. It is one of the many changes your cousin has made. Or at least, that’s what they told me on the way here. I am skeptical – too much water under my bridge. But that doesn’t mean they were lying. Your cousin may have very well made those changes. You will have to ask her for yourself.”

   “You sure know a lot about this stuff.”

   “I grew up in it, sweetie. It’s easier for me to see the subtle changes made.”

   “We are still safe then?”

   “Absolutely,” Victoria reassures with a mother’s comfort. Her demeanor changes to a serious nature, “But do
not
go against her about her identity. This is not a game. It is serious business. She can order your execution with a single look. Never cross her.”

   “I won’t mom. But I don’t understand something.”

   “What’s that?”

   “If she’s so scary and powerful, then why did she not have Tamara killed when she beat her up?”

   “Tamara beat her up?”

   “Yeah – and Mandie – I mean Julianna looked really, really bad. But tonight, when I saw her, her face was almost completely healed.”

   Victoria reaches across the table and takes hold of her daughter’s hand again, “Listen to me very closely. Do not interfere with your cousin’s plans. You must keep her secret. If she allowed Tamara to do something like that, then she has her reasons. Do not push her for knowledge. Live your life like nothing has changed at school. Julianna is a big girl.”