Chosen (31 page)

“No, can’t say that I do.”

“Not much into politics, I guess?”

“Not if I can help it.”

The man laughed again and extended his hand to Will. “Let me formally introduce myself. Phillip Warren.”

Even the politically ignorant knew the name Phillip Warren. It surprised Will that he didn’t recognize him. He shook Warren’s hand. “Senator, excuse my ignorance.” The fact that he was shaking the hand of the senior senator for the state of California and a presidential candidate in the next election scared the shit out of him. What the hell kind of mess was Emma caught up in?

Senator Warren waved his hand. “Nonsense. It’s good for me to be grounded every once in awhile. It’s not advisable to have people fawn over you all the time. Please, Mr. Davenport, have a seat.” He walked toward a pair of club chairs by the window and sat in one.

“Thank you, Senator,” Will said, sitting across from Warren.

“Please, call me Phillip.” The senator leaned toward Will and held his glass up to Will’s. “To a long and lasting partnership.”

Will touched his glass to Phillip’s and took a small sip. “In that case, please call me Will.”

“Will, I’ve heard great things about you.”

“Then you are a step ahead of me, Phillip. I’ve ignored politics for some time.”

“I find it refreshing to start off at ground zero. I won’t hold it against you. Scott thinks you would be a great asset to our organization.”

“Again, I’m at a loss. I know nothing about your organization.”

“No, you probably wouldn’t and we try to keep it that way. We are a secret organization.”

“So why tell me?” Will asked.

“You are part of us now.” The senator sipped his drink.

Will ignored his statement. “What does Emma have to do with any of this?”

“There you go again, cutting right to the chase. I think Scott is right about you.” The senator studied the glass in his hand. “I find it interesting that you don’t ask what any of this has to do with you, but instead ask about Ms. Thompson.”

“It seems I was pulled into this via Ms. Thompson.”

“Not quite true. We’ve been aware of you for some time. We decided to use you to obtain Ms. Thompson as a test to see if you were a good fit for our organization. We didn’t anticipate the trouble you would have. I confess it was short-sighted on our part.” He pinched his lips together. “Several things were.” He paused, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. “The irony is that we’ve waited so long yet we neglected some minor details that turned out to be quite important.”

“And what would those minor details be?”

The senator set his glass on the table and looked at Will’s arm. “I see that the mark is real. There was some question as whether it would be real or metaphoric.”

Will said nothing.

The senator pointed to the mark. “That was an unexpected minor detail. However, maybe not so minor. Will, do you know what it means?”

Will decided playing stupid would be the best way to get more information. “The mark? No.”

“May I first ask when and how you received it?”

“Several days ago. It just appeared.” The less Warren knew, the better.

“Excellent. While you were in close proximity to Ms. Thompson?” He tapped his finger to his chin. “Many have wondered how it would happen. Would he be born with it? Would he have it tattooed without realizing what he had done? The purists said it would just appear and so it did.”

“So what does it mean?”

“It means that you, William Davenport, are the long-awaited Chosen One.”

“What does that mean?”

The senator waved his hands around in a circular motion. “It’s shrouded in a lot of mumbo-jumbo. No one knows for sure, but many have desired the title. It appears Ms. Thompson was the one to give it to you. Some questioned that as well.”

“Again, what the hell does it mean?”

“It’s all a guess, of course. This is all enveloped in mysterious prophecies. But many speculate that you are bound to her now. That you will feel a tie to her. Do you feel these things, Will?”

Will scrutinized him. Phillip Warren was a very powerful politician for a reason, and that reason was his innate ability to make people trust him and do what he wanted. He reminded himself he couldn’t trust this man.

“Not necessarily.”

The senator laughed. “Bravo. Even now, you try to protect her. I heard about your afternoon in her room. There’s no need to lie.”

“In that case, there’s no need for me to confess any feelings I may or may not have for Emma. You have your assumptions.”

“Now, now, Will. No need to be defensive. Only an observation on my part. You’ve been anticipated for so long that there will be many questions. You should expect it. You should also expect many enemies. It was presumed a member of our organization would be the Chosen One. Many assumed it was dependent on Ms. Thompson, and they thought once she arrived they could approach her and see if it was one of them.”

“My apologies for stealing their coveted crown. But what does any of this mean and what does it have to do with Emma?”

“It has everything to do with Emma. She is the prophesied mother of the elevated one.”

“The elevated one? You mean Jake?” That would explain why the other group was after him for so long. He struggled to remember the lines.

“Jake? Her first son? No, many speculate that her second son will be the elevated one. It is believed that the Chosen One will be his father, which is what makes him the elevated one.”

Will kept his anger in check. “How exactly were all those men going to see if they were the Chosen One?” He clenched his fist.

“Not what you think, Will. She would have been protected.”

“
Would
have been?”

“The window of time has passed. It wouldn’t do any good now.”

“What window of time?” But it all came together as he asked the question. The deadline. Alex being upset she hadn’t arrived on time.
Even if it wasn’t too late, it would be most difficult given her condition
. The Chosen One was presumed to be the father of the elevated one. She was to arrive during the full moon.
The elevated one will arise from great sorrow
could only mean Emma’s agony over Jake’s death.
In the full moon after the summer solstice
was the first full moon after the official beginning of summer. His head swam.

That meant that he…

“You’re a smart man, Will. I see you’re putting the pieces together. Let me ask, did your mark show before or after you impregnated her?”

The fury spilled out before he could keep it in check and he hauled the senator out of his chair by his shirt.

“I really wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the senator said, lowering his voice. “You have far too much to lose.”

Will released him with a shove.

“Have a seat, Will. If you can’t control yourself, I’ll be forced to have my bodyguards join us. But I prefer the privacy.”

Will sat, taking deep breaths.

Phillip Warren assessed him with narrowed eyes. “You’re a dilemma for us. You have significance, yet you’re not one of us. Some will most likely want you dead, but we don’t know the consequences of that, either. If you die, does your power transfer to someone else or is it simply gone? Is it worth the risk to find out? But alive, you are dangerous to us. If only there was some way to make sure you were on our side, to ensure your loyalty.”

“Who
are
you people?”

The senator pulled a dining room chair from a table and sat down in front of Will, elbows on his knees, and leaning over to stare into Will’s eyes.

“We are a secret organization, Vinco Potentia. A society formed by a select group of students at Brown University.”

Will shook his head, trying to focus on the senator’s words. He was still trying to process the senator’s proclamation that he fathered a child.”Like the Skull and Bones society at Yale.”

“Yes, very similar but much more powerful and much more secretive. Our group formed in the 1800s and recruited members who were interested in political influence. Former and present U.S. senators, congressmen, governors, political advisors. Men who made a mark on history with their leadership.”

“What does any of that have to do with Emma or me?”

“One of our members was a philosophy major. While still in school, he had a job archiving documents for the philosophy department. One day he came across some documents written by a little-known Italian philosopher, Lorenzo de Luca. De Luca fancied himself to be like Nostradamus; he made predictions. These were generally disregarded and the archival was in regards to his philosophy papers, but our member studied the predictions and found that while on the vague side, they often correlated to incidents in history. He brought the papers to the attention of our organization.”

“Does this little story have a point?”

“Patience, Will. We’re getting there. The group was divided on the importance. Some thought it was nonsense, but others saw the validity of it. The group splintered and we formed our own sect, using the papers as a basis to help further our own political causes. The papers had predicted World War II, Kennedy’s assassination, 9/11, among other things.”

“Wait. You’re telling me that these things were predicted, yet you did nothing to stop them?”

“Some things furthered our causes, others were too vague to completely understand until after their occurrence. Besides, there are others we did prevent, that the world never knew of.”

“How long have you had these papers?”

“About fifty years.”

“How many of you are there?”

“About thirty members, all very powerful men in politics or business. All with much to gain with the power that was foretold.”

“I still don’t get what kind of power you think I have.”

“We’re not sure of your power, nor Ms. Thompson’s, other than she’s the mother of the elevated one and the supplanter.”

“What?”

“We believe her first son, Jake, is the supplanter, which is why the other group wants him. We disagree over who the winner is. We believe it is her child with you. The other group believes it to be Jake.”

“Winner of what?”

Senator Warren sat back and crossed his legs. “Power. Control. Influence over the world.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Any crazier than a mark appearing on your arm?”

Will grimaced at the reminder. Anything that gave this lunatic validity was bad.

“So what? You wait years for these boys to grow up and have some kind of showdown? Then the winner takes over the world?”

“We think that the boys will not necessarily rule themselves, but have influence. It could be that their battle occurs before adulthood.”

Will remembered the prophecy that Jake gave him. It didn’t fit with the senator’s version. Jake’s version sounded like the elevated one would rule.

“Can I hear the prophecy?” Will asked.

“I don’t see the point.”

“If this directly affects me, shouldn’t I be allowed to know what it says?”

“Very well.” The senator walked over to the bookcase and pulled a small bound book off the shelf.

“Are those the real papers?” If they were, perhaps he could steal them and hold them as ransom for Emma.

“No, the real papers are in a safety deposit box in Washington, D.C.” The senator smiled and raised his eyebrows. “I’m not going to make it
that
easy for you.” He opened the book and pulled a pair of reading glasses from his pocket.

“
The Chosen one will serve

The mother of the two

Elevated and Supplanter

Will battle for control

Their influence will be felt

Across the lands

“The elevated one will

Conceive in the full moon

After the summer solstice

Born of great sorrow

The mother shall accept

Her Chosen One

And he will bear her mark

Protecting her until the end.”

It’s not the same prophecy
.

The senator closed the book and raised a smug eyebrow. “Happy now?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You’re screwing up people’s lives over
that
? That’s the worst poem I ever heard not to mention a bunch of vague bullshit.”

“Yes, I can see how you would think so, but there is other supporting evidence. Dates, locations, all written in a code we had cracked. How do you think we knew where to send you to find Ms. Thompson? How do you think the other people knew where to show up to find you and capture Jake?”

“Jake is dead. He was in the truck when we saw it explode.”

“Yes, I know you insist on that, but we believe differently. It doesn’t fit with the prophecy.”

“Listen to yourself. A grown man talking about some fantasy. That’s a bunch of bullshit and you know it.”

Warren looked at him for a moment before answering. “You know, Will, I might be inclined to believe you if you hadn’t shown up with a mark on your arm that matches the one in this book.” When he opened the pages and showed Will a drawing of his mark, Will knew he lost any chance of reasoning with him.

“So now what?” Will asked.

“Now we must decide what to do with you.”

“What about Emma?”

The senator smiled. “You really do care, don’t you? What if I told you that our plans are to kill her after she gives birth to her son?”

Will gripped the arms of the chair instead of breaking the senator’s neck.

“Aww, just as I thought. I think we can work out an arrangement.”

“What kind of arrangement?” Will asked through clenched teeth.

“Your cooperation in exchange for her life. You will work for us and we will provide for her safety.”

“Somehow ‘provide for her safety’ means something completely different to me than ‘we won’t kill her’.”

The senator shrugged. “In either case, she lives. Besides, you know even if we let her leave, the other group would kill her. So technically, we are providing her safety.”