Marilena dialed Nicky's school and asked to speak
To Mrs. Szabo.
"Oh, Mrs. Carpathia, we were just about to call you,
244 24S but we understood you were on vacation. Mrs. Szabo has had a crisis arise in her family and had to leave us virtually without notice. Her mother died suddenly, and her father is unable to care for himself. Apparently she was the only sibling available. Anyway, we will be announcing a replacement for her as soon as we find one."
Panic rising, Marilena resorted to something she had told herself she would never do. She called the university and asked for Sorin. In the years since she had left him, he had never once connected with her without her initiating the contact. She had sent notes, pictures of Nicky, even school reports. When she did hear back, she got cordial notes, thanking her and wishing her the best. Each contained bromides about what a handsome son she had produced and how Sorin hoped she was happy and productive. He even said occasionally that he had heard good reports about her research work.
Not once, however, had he written or called unbidden. He apparently had no real interest in her or her son's well-being. Marilena had to face that she had been merely a roadside stop on the highway of his life. She was convinced that if she had not intermittently kept him up to date, he would have forgotten her in no time.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," she was told, "but Dr. Carpathia is no longer associated here."
"Excuse me ?"
"It's been nearly two years, ma'am." "Well, where is he?" "Retired, I believe." was reeling. "Connect me with Dr. Baduna Marius please." "Oh, they left at the same time."
Marilena, shaken, asked for one of her former colleages
But she was in class. "I'm sorry to be such a
." Marilena said, but she asked for a woman profesor- she had known from the psychology department.
woman had always been good for the latest gossip, they hadn't spoken in years.
After the usual how-gooditistohearfromy°u, got to the point. "Whatever became of my husband and his lover?"
Well, they married, as you know."
"Yes, but they left the university?"
"More than eighteen months ago. Of course, it was a matter of time. They must have won the lottery, na. Had it been a known prize, we all would have aware, but--" "What are you saying.
"Well, not long after you left, right around the time their marriage actually, Sorin and--what was his
"Baduna."
"Yes, they started living high on the hog. Oh, I
when it was. Not long after Mrs. Marius's You heard about that."
!i "I was there."
"Oh, certainly. Anyway, Sorin and Baduna were slid- living in the lap of luxury. We speculated that his had left him a ton of money
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"I don't believe she came from money," Marilena said.
"--or that he had taken out a massive insurance policy on her."
"Unlikely. And don't companies hesitate to pay for suicides?
"Well, he and Sorin somehow came into serious money, because they sold Sorin's apartment, sold Baduna's house, and bought a multimillion-leu penthouse condominium in downtown Bucharest."
Impossible.
"But true. We all knew it would be only a matter of time before they left here. I'm surprised they stayed so long. They clearly didn't need the " "
Income. "What are they doing now?"
"Writing, lecturing. Their books don't sell and their lectures can't pay much. For all anyone can tell, they've virtually retired."
Marilena thanked her old associate and became maniacal to find out what Viv Ivins had kept protected behind lock and key for so many years. The woman had never allowed Marilena into her bedroom. Marilena pulled a fork from the kitchen drawer and bent back all the tines but one, fashioning it into a rudimentary pick. Within minutes she had tripped the simple doorknob lock and swung thee door open.
EIGHTEEN
BASEBALL SEASON had proved as dismal as Ray Steele . feared. The seniors he had played with the previous three
'.ars mostly found reasons to not come out or to drop off the team early. That left Ray as the senior statesman, pitcher, and first baseman.
He was healthy, but he had lost a few miles an hour
fastball. Ironically, that made him a smarter pitcher--he had to bemand he led the team in wins.
there weren't enough of those to give Belvidere even a winning season. While he was named MVP, it was Ray's least fun sports experience in four .years. In fact, it soured him on playing over the summer. He would concentrate on his flying and finishing up at ..the tool and die.
His father would make that difficult, but Ray decided was not his problem. At graduation Ray received
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more accolades than anyone else--scholar-athlete, athlete of the year, and a couple of peer-voted honors: best-looking male and most popular.
Again such things left Ray feeling empty, though he enjoyed congratulations from many friends, classmates, and parents. Any time someone congratulated his parents, however, Ray heard his dad mutter, "Of course I'm proud of him, but a lot of good it does me."
In the fall Ray would attend Purdue University on academic and ROTC scholarships and keep his options open for admittance to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He didn't want to mislead the air force into thinking he wanted a military career. This was all a means to an end. He planned to be a commercial pilot and make enough money to have the kind of house and cars--and wife--he wanted.
Viv's room proved tidy--no surprise to Marilena. But the individual locks on the closet door and several dresser drawers puzzled her. What was so important that Viv felt the need to protect it so securely?
Marilena tried picking the locks, but they were not so simple as the one on the door had been, and she didn't want to leave evidence.
She soon repented of that as her angst rose. Why no phone call from Reiche Planchette or from Christ Church? Her heart galloped as again she felt isolated and helpless.
She went outside to the shed near the tiny corral, and as the horse snuffled at her, Marilena found a hammer and long screwdriver. Was the horse now her responsibility? She hadn't thought of that. She had never mucked out a stall and wondered how cruel it would be to.leave Star Diamond wallowing in his own waste for a week. But why should he have it any easier than she? And what made her think it would be only a week? If her son had been stolen, she would be alone the rest of her life. Would the association, Planchette, and his minions allow her to stay here at all?
Well, this wasn't the innocent horse's fault. Later she would find the shovel and do her duty, but Star Diamond had better know to move out when she entered. Marilena
no idea how to maneuver a horse.
Back in the house she tried to gently pop the lock on Viv's closet, but the more she worked, the more she scratched the lock and left nicks in the wood. Finally she there was no choice but to do what she had to. Marilena threaded the blade of the screwdriver through the C-bolt of the padlock and pressed the blade against i the closet doorframe. She pushed with all her weight, screwdriver sank into the soft wood, finally split-it and reaching the wall beneath.
The lock was not about to pop off, but the frame and were slowly giving way. By now she didn't care
what kind of a mess she made. Soon the framing broke the wall crumbled at the point of entry, and the still secure to itself, hung from the door.
Unless Marilena could find a handyman with skill and there would be no hiding this invasion of Viv's
25O
privacy. Marilena didn't care. Anything this secretive likely pertained to her and her son, and she felt entitled to it.
Once the door had been forced open, she was confronted with a safe. Fortunately, it was not state-of-the-art and hardly top-of-the-line. It too had a combination lock, but she believed she could break into it with the tools she had. A few minutes later she had bent the d
oor and popped it open. Consequences be hanged. She was in way too deep to turn back now.
Inside the safe lay an overstuffed accordion file. Not surprisingly, Viv had precisely organized the documents chronologically. They were labeled by year, starting several years before Marilena had met Viv, then skipping ahead to a year or so before they met, containing several pages per year since then.
Marilena was on to something. She removed and stacked the papers on Viv's bed. Her heart nearly stopped when she realized what she was looking at--from her own pre-Sorin Carpathia days: correspondence between Viviana Ivinisova and Maritena's future husband.
Sorin had known Viv? He had never said a word, not even years later when Marilena had dragged him to Viv's meetings.
One of the early letters from Viv:
The carrier of the chosen child must be bright, well-read, and at least agnostic, if not one of us. According to the spirits, the looks may come from your lover, but the intellect must come from you and whomever you select to bear the child.
Mr. Stonagal sends his greetings and best wishes and asks that I thank you again for your many kindnesses to his now late son, who told him more than once that Zurich was among the happiest seasons of his shor life. In the bonds of the spirit, Viviana Ivinisova
Could these documents be forged? Had Viv hoped
'.na would one day discover them? Were they meant to torment her? Was it possible Sorin had been in this from the beginning? from before the beginning?
Baduna too? They were the sperm donors? Marilena uld not make it compute. Sorin had attended a private
school in Zurich, his prodigious mind earning him llder-rubbing privileges with the children of inter-
wealth.
She riffled through the documents, coming to one from referring to his first wife:
Ms. Ivinisova:
My wife, of course, has proved unfit, as have two promising students. But I am still diligently searching. How much easier this would be, were I allowed to use our own association as a pool. But I see the value of an outsider as a vessel, provided she is not an enemy of the cause. Still searching and humbled to be o? use. Sorin C.
Marilena could barely breathe. Subsequent letters told s discovering Marilena and slowly, carefully
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determining her suitability. It stabbed to see his references to being grateful she would not be contributing to the boy's appearance. Later he spoke highly of her intellect and academic capacity.
Viv urged him to be cautious but expeditious. We are being urged to make this a priority. Don't rush, but don't dawdle either.
Later Sorin sought advice on how to broach the subject with Marilena, his live-in lover, who had quickly become merely a live-in colleague: pleasant enough, but not romantic material.
Viv had responded:
The desire for a child can be prayed into her, Sorin, if you know what I mean. It's crucial that she thoroughly believes this is her idea.
Sorin wrote disparagingly of Marilena as a target:
I married her, per your suggestion and with the long-term financial benefit in mind, so please assure me / am not wasting the best years of my life.
Viv assured him of just that.
Then came the strategizing of how to plant within Marilena the longing for a child and expose her to the diversion of a weekly meeting that would introduce her to the spirit world. Sorin had been attending private meetings for years with Baduna. Marilena shook her head at her naivet6. Not only had she assumed Sorin had been seeing another woman, but she also never suspected he was anywhere but in someone else's bed all those lonely evenings.
The maternal instinct merely a construct? Marilena had never felt anything so deeply, wanted it so badly. She could not be persuaded, despite this evidence, that it had been anything but real. Planted by Lucifer? Could that explain the driverless car? It couldn't be. Marilena's fingers shook as she flipped through the pages, her wasted life documented in computer print-
UtS.
A major issue proved to have been her reluctance to into Luciferianism with the gusto they had hoped. had written to Reiche Planchette:
That would have solved everything, but she is a tough case. Even my moving in with her, which does not seem to have made her suspicious, has not seemed to move her closer. She's a dilettante, but I am beginning to fear she will never be a disciple.
Expendable, per J.S., Planchette had replied. Marilena's eyes began to swim. Her life had been a someone else's idea. She tore through the rest of documents, catching snatches of details she thought
made up the vicissitudes of her existence. She had been a pawn, her life choreographed by others their purposes and their gain. Her own husband had her to win a fortune and to seed a cause in which claimed not even to believe!
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Was it possible her own son had never connected with her, never returned her affection, because he was not hers at all? Was he merely a product of the spirit world--a pseudo cheap imitation of the Christians' incarnation--and not flesh of her own flesh? She could not accept it, not abide it. She was bonded to Nicky as if he were part of her--an organ, a limb, an extension of herself.
Marilena's forearm throbbed, and she was horrified to notice that redness and swelling had spread from all four sides of the bandage. Infection. And a fast one. She could consult online medical resources, but she knew she was in trouble. The hand on her bitten arm quivered as if she had Parkinson's, and her vision began to cloud. She must not let her anguish make her physical injury worse.
The phone rang and she ran to it, light-headedness forcing her to grab at the wall and then slump to the floor once she answered.
The male voice sounded middle-aged. "Yes, ma'am, is this Marilena ?"
"Speaking."
"Are you all right? You sound shaken."
"Who's calling please?"
"This is the proto#op at Bisericd Cristos."
"Yes, Vicar, thanks for calling. I must come see you, but I fear I need medical attention first."
"What's wrong? How can I help?"
She told him but said it had been a dog bite.
"I'm afraid I must recommend you take a cab to your
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doctor," he said. "I have obligations this afternoon and was going to suggest that you drop in to see me around five o'clock."
"I can do that," she managed.
"Are you sure? Should I call someone for you?"
"No, please. Thank you. I can make it to the doctor, and I will get to the church by five."
Marilena had to call three taxi companies before she ,und one in Cluj-Napoca that would send a car that far, they demanded a hefty premium. They were to pick up in an hour.
Perhaps it was her imagination, but Marilena was :onvinced the redness around her bandage had deepened in the past few minutes. She fought panic when she felt pressure beneath it and something oozing. She staggered .back into Viv's room and quickly spread out the final few pages of the file, speed-reading them to be sure she nothing.
Marilena froze when she noticed Mrs. Szabo's name.
knew her? had known her before? planted her? the whole school issue part of the ruse, a setup to Marilena against Nicky? And the doctor! Even he, :"Doctor Luzie," and the medical facility were named.
But there the file ended. There had to be more!
Marilena moved to Viv's computer, but it was password protected. She tried every combination of words and numbers she could think of, using Viv's birth date, addresses, names of friends and associates, words associated with spiritualism. When nothing worked after more ithan half an hour, Marilena started entering the numbers
backward. Viv had been born June 12. Marilena had tried and failed with 612. She tried 216.
As she heard tires in the gravel outside and a horn, the home page opened and welcomed "Viviana" to the Internet. Marilena quickly scanned the lists of folders and files, spotting one titled "
SC." If that stood for Sorin Carpathia, it might have the latest information.
Marilena stood to ask the cabdriver to wait, but dizziness struck and she had to sit on the bed a moment. Finally she slowly rose and made her way out. She held up a finger to inform the driver she would be another
few minutes, but he angrily pointed at his watch.
"I'll hurry," she said.
"Two minutes!" he shouted.
NINETEEN
MARILENA hadnot had enough to eat? Something pierced gut. If anything, she had, in her panic, eaten too
So why was she light-headed and nauseated? She close to the wall, extending her good hand for and found her way back to the computer.
The SC folder demanded a password as well,,and 216
again. Viv was apparently, fortunately, not terriputer literate. The folder contained a list of files
dates, and Marilena quickly deciphered that r matched the documents she had found in the safe.
have saved so much time and mess by starting the computer, but how could she have known? With her vision fast deteriorating, Marilena fought to
At the end of the detailed list she found docu- dated later than what she had read. Why had Viv
out all this stuff? It made no sense. If she wanted a to find it, why had she not just shown it to her?
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Blinking, eyes swollen and dry, she leaned forward to read an entry from just three days before. It was to Planchette.
Nicky has devised an ingenious way to provoke Marilena. He amazes me afresh every day.
Marilena was no physician, but she had read enough in the medical field to know the signs of shock. And that's where she believed she was headed. Racing against the clock, she squinted at a sentence she feared her own wounded mind had conjured up:
If we can effect this before we reach Cluj-Napoca, your man will be in place.
Your nan? The doctor? Marilena racked her brain to recall the hospital visit. They had not had to wait for a physician; that was rare. And had they gone through the usual red tape--the registering, the insurance check, all that? She couldn't recall. But the doctor had seemed sympathetic, mentioned that the bite was human, offered to examine the child who had inflicted it. How did that fit? Or was it all part of the plot?