Quantum (19 page)

“Yeah, something like that.” I spent the rest of dinner describing my high school to Stan. I told him about the hockey, my classes, and Kellan. I wasn’t sure that I should have mentioned Kellan, but my mouth blabbed about him before I could stop myself. Hopefully, I didn’t inadvertently place Kellan in danger.
 
Still, Potomal and his Intelligence must know all about Kellan and me. Stan was probably just trying to maintain a polite front by keeping me engaged in conversation throughout the dinner. He was very reluctant to talk about himself. The few times I tried asking him about his life, he always managed to bounce the conversation back to me.

Once dinner was over–the desserts were particularly delicious–Stan led me out to the dance floor. I had absolutely no idea what to do–I can’t dance for the life of me–but he seemed to know that, and deftly led me around, making it seem relatively easy. As Luna had warned me before dinner, I was required to stay for another six dances–the one with Stan had been unexpected–each with older Frenchmen–two of whom I had been introduced to earlier. Dancing with them proved to be much more challenging than it was with Stan. I barely made it off the dance floor in one piece and I was fairly sure that my poor dance partners would require extensive podiatric care.

Stan was laughing at me as I headed back to him. “Finishing school?” he asked, between guffaws.

“What?”

“Finishing school, as in Switzerland.
 
Dance lessons, etiquette?”

“You’re kidding, right? I think Mom went to one of those places when she was a kid. No one does that now!
 
And even if they did, I have way better things to do with my time.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him.

He did look genuinely surprised. “Luna went to one, said she really enjoyed it. I had to take dance lessons as well…,” he added.

“We’re in the twenty-first century, right? In fact which year is it exactly?”

“Stan, don’t answer that,” Luna said authoritatively, coming up behind me. “Your Highness, you may put your questions to Potomal when you see him. Right now, it’s time for us to go back to the apartment. Stan, you need to go back home and perhaps you would let me know before visiting again?”

“No probs, Sis,” he said, and kissed her cheek. “Arizona, it was a pleasure meeting you. Perhaps we’ll meet again when you visit London.” Then he bowed and faded away. Wow.

“Luna, why does it look different when the Sigma-Ws wander as compared to the Wanderers? You guys seem to turn into mist, while the Wanderers disappear like they are heading through an invisible wall.”

She shrugged, making it clear that she wasn’t divulging anything. “Arizona, would you like to go for another walk? Paris at night is so beautiful. If you’re not tired, we could walk up to the Louvre and then take a taxi back from there.”

I nodded. That sounded good. Besides, it would give me time to quiz her some more. We crossed over to the north bank of the Seine and walked along the river with the Eiffel tower in the distance.

“Have you been up to the top?” Luna asked.

“Yeah, actually I have, several times. It’s one of those things we do every time we visit. We have warm crepes first and then we head up to the tower.”

“Do you take the steps or use the elevator?”

“Gosh, the elevators! Mom did tell me that she had made it all the way up the steps when she was younger, but it seems like overkill to me.” We turned right and walked up the side streets until we came to the Louvre and its famed glass pyramid. I knew that this was the newest addition to this 12
^th
century structure. If I could only remember when it was built, it may provide me with a time reference, surely Luna wouldn’t be able to resist a history lesson? “Luna, when was this pyramid built, again?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as I could.

She bit. “Impressive isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“It’s the most recent addition to the Louvre and functions as the main entrance now. The pyramid structure was designed by I.M. Pei–who is actually an American designer, he designed the John F. Kennedy Library in Massachusetts and the East building of the National Gallery of Art in DC among many others, I’m sure you’ve heard of those.
 
The pyramid was built in 1989.”

1989
. Well, that didn’t help much. I had already guessed that we must be in the 21
^st
century.
 
Anyhow, Luna kept going.

“The pyramid consists of 603 rhombus-shaped segments and seventy triangular segments. It’s about seventy feet high.”

“Oh, I thought it had 666 glass segments.” I said. “I’m sure I’ve heard that.”

She laughed. “Oh, that’s just a myth. Did you read that in Dan Brown’s novel?”
 

I shrugged. “I guess.” What I did learn was that we were past Dan Brown’s novel–and I am guessing she meant the
Da Vinci Code
–publication date. Now when was that? I was trying to rack my brain trying to remember. I was drawing a blank. I’d ask Justin, it was one of his favorites. “Can we head back now, I’m a bit tired.”

“Certainly,” Luna said, and promptly hailed a taxi that brought us back to the apartment in no time. As soon as I had changed out of my Chanel dress and slipped into a comfy pair of flannel pajamas, I snuck through the hall to Justin’s room and knocked, hoping that he would still be up.

“Wassup?” he asked, as he opened the door.

He’d obviously been sleeping, his eyelids looked heavy and his hair was all messy. I scooted by him into his room and made myself comfortable on his bed. A year ago I would have never dreamed of doing that, he had positively hated me. However, during the past year, things had calmed down between the two of us and we came to exist in a mutual, peaceful disregard for one another. However, staying away was not an option at the moment.

“Arizona, scram. I was sleeping.”

“Well, you’re not anymore, besides, I need to talk to you.”

“Oh, come on! I have to be up at six, I need to sleep.”

“Oh, stop being a whiner. Why do you have to be up so early anyway? Luna didn’t say anything to me about an early start.”

“Gee, why am I not surprised?” he muttered, rolling his eyes and throwing himself back into the bed, burying his head in the pillow.

I grabbed the edge of it and swiftly pulled it from out under his head. He groaned and sat up.

“So, why do you have to get up so early? And did you find out what the heck we’re doing here?”

“It’s fairly clear that they–whoever
they
are–are trying to recruit us. Simla and I were separated this evening and I haven’t had a chance to catch up with her yet. She was wiped and went straight to bed when we got back. After you and Luna left, Olivier drove me to a gym. It was kinda weird. We didn’t talk much, just worked out. He said that he needed to assess my fitness level. Once we’d done that, he told me that we would be spending the next few days in Paris and then going to London where I’d meet the rest of the team and start my proper training. He said he hoped that I would decide to join. I did try to get more info from him, but it was like questioning a stone. Did you have better luck? Who was the guy you were sitting with at dinner?”

“That was Potomal’s son, Stan. And get this, turns out that Luna is Potomal’s daughter!”

“Sheesh!”

“Anyhow, I pretty much drew a blank on the info thing. Apart from listening to Luna go on about the various buildings, all I really found out is that we are probably in the 21
^st
century. Justin, when did that Dan Brown book you like come out?”

“Why?”

“Luna mentioned it, so I am guessing we are after the publication year of the book.”

“I think it was 2003, but I can’t be sure. I’m not good at dates.”

I sighed. This had pretty much been a total waste of an evening. I made no headway. A stroll through Paris, that’s it. I had no idea what to expect tomorrow. By all accounts, Luna had been tasked with babysitting me for the next couple of days until we traveled to London where everything, I guess, would be revealed. I looked over to Justin to ask him what was planned for him tomorrow. He’d fallen back asleep, so I quietly left his room and climbed back into my royal bed and closed my eyes.

I
t was a full house at Constance’s place. Rupert followed Constance up the stairs, Ella sleeping soundly in his arms, as Olivia made her way into the living room, following the sounds of chatter. Her eyes focused on Larry and she walked straight over to him. In this mess of confusion, he was her rock–he had to be. There was no chance of him suddenly
wandering
off. She needed that assurance, especially now that she’d found out that her own husband had such potential. Everyone stopped talking when they noticed her walk in.
Everyone
included Amadea, Grayson, Inez, David, Morgana, Javier and Lars.

“Olivia, how are you holding up?” Inez inquired, once she was seated next to Larry.

“I’m not sure. Not good.”

Inez nodded. “We’ll wait until Constance and Rupert join us. Kellan is going to wait upstairs with Ella.” Once the two returned and Rupert had taken his place next to Olivia, Constance took the floor.

“Rupert, I take it you’ve had a chance to update Olivia completely now?”

“I have,” Rupert affirmed, putting his arm around Olivia’s shoulder.

“Olivia, I know all this is hard for you to accept, so we’ll be very mindful of that in our discussions. You now know that you are married to Sigma-W royalty, which makes you and your family a target.”

Royalty
? Rupert hadn’t put it quite like that; she gave him a look. “Why are we a target
now
? Why didn’t the subversive group try to take control before?”

Constance signaled Amadea to take over.

“Potomal’s group is relatively new, formed a little over a year ago. He’s been trying to recruit new members to strengthen the group but has found it difficult to do so. Our Intelligence tells us that he has now started recruiting humans, for the day-to-day groundwork, which leaves him more time to concentrate on strategizing. So,
now
is when he is ready to make a move.”

“Has your Intelligence managed to find out if Potomal is, in fact, responsible for Arizona’s disappearance?”

“Yes. I just heard back from my husband with the latest update. Potomal has Arizona, Justin and Simla, as we suspected.”

“Where are they?” Olivia whispered.

“We are coming up blank as far as location goes, for the moment. Intelligence is still trying to track their whereabouts. It’s proving very difficult. They may not even be here on this planet.”