The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (19 page)

Najwa stood outside the lab door and listened to the conversation. “No. No. Shut up, you are ruining everything!” she murmured. “You couldn’t leave it alone, could you? Now I have to do something desperate.”

She whirled around and ran down the hall and spoke urgently with seven people before she broke free of the hospital ward. There. That would stall him long enough. She scribbled a note and left it on his desk, then ran to implement her emergency plan.

Accosted by seven different people on his way to his office, he couldn’t believe everyone in the building had some trivial question to ask. It took about an hour to wade through all of them, then paperwork on his desk that couldn’t wait. As he leaned over to blow out the lantern, he noticed a note in Najwa’s handwriting.

He held it up to the light and read.

Corey,

Things are just getting too difficult between us. I know you feel the attraction that I have toward you and I wouldn’t want to be tempted to do anything that would hurt you or Kate. I know it is a bad time, but if I don’t go now, I know we will end up in bed together, soon. I can feel the passion rising between us after our last kiss. I know we won’t be able to refrain much longer. So I am taking a leave of absence. I want to go back home to the Darchori for a while. I will return in a year or so. Hopefully, you and Kate will be able to work things out and be well past all the trouble I have caused. If not, then maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe when I return, you and I can finally be together.

All of my love, 

Najwa

He read the letter three times, trying to make sense of it. There was absolutely no truth in it whatsoever. Surely she wasn’t delusional enough to imagine that they had kissed that night. And there was no way he was ever going to end up in bed with any woman other than Kate. It was just eerie. He lifted the cover off the lantern and burned the letter right then. This would be damaging if anyone ever found it. Even if there was no truth to it, people would believe it. Kate would believe it. Especially in her present anger, she would believe every word of it.

Kate!

He needed to get to Kate, now. This was going to end tonight.

He walked out his office door and closed it.

“Corey!”

He sighed and turned around.

“Corey!” Eunavae ran toward him.

“I found it! I found the cure!”

THE SETTING SUNLIGHT
streamed through the open veranda, casting an orange glow over Gregory’s desk, temporarily staining the items it drenched. Twilight neared, bringing a squire to light the chandeliers, then move on to complete the lighting of the rest of Dragon Castle.

Gregory sat back in his leather desk chair and rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t realized how quickly the light was fading. Some changes were needed concerning the castle staff. Now that his Kate was gone and the dragons no longer visited, a full complement of servants was unnecessary. Besides, he needed privacy that a crew of dozens could not keep if he was going to succeed in his plans for The Kate.

The photos of the stray marks he had taken in the boathouse QHR were blown up and spread out on his desk. He picked up each one and scrutinized it, scanned it into a marker board app on his computer, and rearranged them in every conceivable angle. He filled in missing lines, connected marks, but still no breakthrough. The code to the coordinates remained as inscrutable as ever.

A rattling sounded in the antechamber and the door to his office opened.

“Your tea, sir,” Janaki, a middle aged woman entered the office pushing a tea cart.

“Thank you.” Gregory picked up the china teacup with the pink floral design and golden accents. He dunked the tea bag a few times, then took a sip. “Have you prepared the guest quarters, Janaki?”

She held up a spoonful of green granules. “Mint sweetener?” He nodded and offered his cup to her.

She stirred in the sweetener. “Yes, sir. The lady will be pampered and treated like a queen, as you requested.”

“Good.”

“When can we expect her, sir?”

“Just be ready!” he snapped. He didn’t like questions he didn’t know the answer to. “She could be here any day!”

“Yes, sir. I will inform the staff.”

“About that, Janaki.”

She glanced up at the tone of his voice and pinched her face together.

“The staff,” he murmured. “What is the lowest number we can get by with?”

She shifted nervously. “Well, uh—we—uh—need at least one cook and one maid per floor. A groundskeeper, stable hands, and me if you want a personal assistant for the lady. I suppose we could do without the butlers and security. Of course, we have already turned away the dragon keepers. ” She spread her hands, then went back to crumpling the apron nervously between her fingers.

“Double up duties. You can be maid and assistant, keep one cook and one groundskeeper who will double as stable attendant. Send everyone else to my manor in London. I want as few people around here as possible.”

“Sir, you—you want one maid for the whole castle?”

“Get them to assist you in closing down all the rooms except those in use before they leave. You’ll be able to handle just a few rooms, won’t you, Janaki?” He pinned her with an arrogant glare and crooked the corner of his lip into a half smile.

She didn’t dare say no. Janaki bowed slightly and with a stifled huff of breath, left the room.

Gregory picked at the sandwiches on the tea cart and found nothing that whetted his appetite. He yelled after Janaki. “Keep the cook who makes those marvelous pot pies! No more sandwiches!”

He returned to the code in front of him. The candlelight danced across the images, seeming to mock his ignorance. “Arghhh!” He swiped the photos off the desk and they fluttered around him onto the floor.

Perhaps this Wallace fellow wasn’t the simpleton he pegged him for. The code seemed unbreakable. Gregory could find no meaning to the random scratches and was beginning to think that is just what they were: leftover marks that hadn’t erased completely.

He stood and strode over to the streaming wall, a quantum source perspective device he had invented. It recorded significant moments of decision across the quantum spectrum. He activated it and applied the names of the Keepers and Heartwork Village staff to filter out unrelated recordings. Scrolling through the streaming jumps, Gregory searched for specific patterns. One site seemed to have several signatures phasing in and out over the last few days, but the recorded decisions didn’t appear to be significant. He concentrated on that area since it was the most active at the present.

A scene popped up that caught his attention.

Wait. Najwa! He didn’t think to cross reference the Keepers with Najwa. He had planned to send her as soon as he found them. It didn’t occur to him that she would already be there because he sat in a time period that was the past to them. Anticipation wriggled inside of him.

He stopped scrolling and brought the frame into focus. There! Corey sat beside Najwa, surrounded by several others. Gregory’s fingers trembled in eagerness as he zoomed in on the scene and rewound it, adjusting the blurry lines. He pushed play and an unusual scene played out in front of him.

Corey sat in a meeting with several exotic looking people and the Keepers. The presence of these blue marked warriors had disguised the feed.

Corey crossed his arms and emphatically disagreed with the others. “No more jumps!” The words his mouth formed came through clearly even without sound.

Gregory paused the feed. That was it! The significant decision that caused this moment to enter the quantum record, one that Corey made to protect Kate!

Gregory threw his head back and laughed. “Thank you, Mr. Chastain, for that wise decision. Now I know just where and when you are.”

He stared at the frozen image of Corey, hunched over his knees with his arms crossed as though protecting his heart. Najwa sat beside him with her arm stretched protectively across his back, her eyes bright and calculating. He’d trained his agent well. She was a living breathing killing machine. Her skills in manipulation, as well as the sexual tension that surrounded her, made her perfect for the job. She would have Corey begging for her or she would find other ways to separate him from Kate.

One way or the other did not matter to him. Soon! The Kate would be back in his arms. “I wonder if I can find a recording of our old song,” he murmured and forwarded the streaming video to a still frame of The Kate. He placed his hand into the image at The Kate’s cheek.

“Could I have this dance, my Kate?” His smile faded into steel determination.