Taren melted into a smile, thinking his sentiment sweet.
‘I’m not talking about daydreams here.’ Lucian was rather more alarmed than enchanted. ‘When I sleep I see us in places, the like of which I have never seen anywhere in the known worlds.’
Taren’s heart gave a ping of hope and joy.
‘I’ve imagined us on AMIE in the future, and in an amazing underwater room —’
Taren’s gasp cut him off.
‘What is it?’ Lucian was hopeful that she might be able to help — he hadn’t had a dreamless night since they’d met!
‘Sorry, do keep going,’ Taren urged. ‘What else have you seen?’
Lucian was clearly well out of his usual conversation comfort zone. ‘Do you think it’s significant?’
‘Completely,’ she stated surely, and so Lucian continued.
‘I’ve seen a lake house, and a place where water falls hot from a rainbow light storm in the sky, and lately …’ Lucian appeared a bit hesitant to mention this. ‘I had a dream that was different to the others.’
‘How so?’ Taren prompted, curious to know.
‘Well, since I started having these dreams, in them I am always with you, but the other night I dreamt that I was married to Dr Nardone, who then accused us of having an affair.’
Taren’s gasp near took her breath away this time — clearly Lucian could easily misinterpret these visions, if he wasn’t brought up to speed on the truth soon! This was the sign from the universe she had been waiting for. ‘Those are not dreams you’ve been having, they’re memories.’ She was truly amazed, but Lucian was alarmed.
‘I was married to Amie?’
‘In the future.’ Taren nodded. ‘But she betrayed you, and you made me promise that when I went back in time that I would destroy your marriage.’
‘Yes!’ Lucian lit up like a capital city on new year’s day, ‘I remember that!’
‘But as it turned out, I ended up having to come further back in time than expected, thus I have hopefully prevented your ill-fated marriage altogether! Amie was always meant to be with Swithin,’ Taren explained as Lucian processed the epiphany. ‘At the same time I was able to steer the project away from unwanted government influences that would eventually lead AMIE to ruin. That’s why our contract was so perfect, Lucian: I already knew exactly what you wanted. What I don’t understand is how you could possibly remember something from a future, parallel time line?’ She was thrilled, as this required psychic skill.
‘So, what you are saying is that I already have the Powers?’ Lucian summarised as Taren nodded — the choice of becoming embroiled in Taren’s secret war had already been taken out of his hands.
‘But this is not one of the Powers I knew you had. In fact, I don’t know of any psychic who can see across time and dimension!’ Taren declared. ‘But I guess it makes perfect sense, that if I can move through time, space and dimension, that you can perceive the same?’
As Lucian thought back over their conversation, he had to smile. ‘So if the man you work for is the man you love —’
‘— I love you,’ she confirmed, her heart welling to bursting point just to be able to say so.
Lucian was thrilled and returned her unsure smile with one more hopeful. ‘Then I’ll take that cosmic upgrade now, if it is all the same to you?’
‘No, it’s not all the same to me.’ She burst into a huge smile and hugged him for the first time in an age. ‘You can’t know how I’ve missed you.’
‘I think I have some inkling,’ Lucian said, although he suspected he still didn’t know the half of it. ‘I wish I remembered more than just fragments.’
‘You can,’ Taren pulled back from him to say. ‘There is a way, if that is what you really want?’
‘Will it hurt?’ He was keen but still circumspect.
‘Quite the opposite, I expect.’ Taren’s grin grew, as the chance to fulfil a long time fantasy of hers suddenly presented itself. ‘Trust me?’
‘I do.’ Despite everything, he sounded quite sure about that.
As Taren’s thoughts turned to Oceane, she hugged Lucian and whispered. ‘Prepare to get wet.’
Lucian had only time to smile before the tingling sensation of teleportation, and the accompanying explosion of white light, engulfed them completely.
The intense light faded into a steamy, moist atmosphere, and as warm rain began teeming down upon him, Lucian realised he was knee deep in water. Not the kind of wet I was hoping for.
He shielded his eyes from the falling water and opening them, the professor was startled to see that he was standing amid tall shoots of vegetation that dwarfed him in size. The foliage reached up into clouds that were alive with colourful electrical activity and the scene invoked a feeling of déjà vu. ‘Whoa!’
Through the steamy mist he spotted Taren close by, wading about thigh deep in water, her white dress rendered see through as she revelled in the teaming rain.
‘Where are we?’ Lucian asked, mesmerised by the sight of her, and when she turned to him, Taren was a vision from a dream.
‘On a planet that you’ll discover in about nine years from now,’ she replied as she neared.
‘I’ve been here before,’ he told her, realising that he had dreamt of this moment the morning after he’d met Taren.
‘Actually, you haven’t ever been here on the surface of Oceane before.’ Taren was puzzled as she slid her hands around the back of his neck.
‘In my dreams, I have seen this moment before,’ Lucian clarified, feeling now that his heart had not been steering him wrong.
‘Then you’ll know what happens next,’ she whispered and, as her lips engaged his, an energy rush surged through Lucian and sent his consciousness soaring into the depths of his super-conscious memory.
Too excited to sleep, Taren drank cup after cup of tea as she waited for Lucian to awaken from his fitful slumber. She was delighting in the novelty of having him in her bed — just being able to sit and stare at him was an utter delight.
It was dawn when the professor did finally stir. He was understandably disorientated, but spying Taren seated on the bed in a bathrobe smiling at him, he returned the gesture. ‘Are we at your place?’
‘Yes we are,’ she was happy to inform him, but he appeared not so thrilled, as he peeked beneath the covers and he realised he’d been stripped to his underwear.
‘And did we …?’ The large frown on his forehead seemed to indicate that he did not recall the event.
Taren shook her head, still grinning. ‘One kiss … your being went into overload and you went out like a light.’ She clicked her fingers to emphasise how quick.
Lucian appeared unsure if he was pleased about that or not.
‘I’m sure you’ll build up a tolerance to me sooner or later.’ Taren ventured to kiss his cheek and slid off the bed. ‘Tea?’ She was only teasing; she had a piece of Juju stone for him that would fix their little problem.
‘But we’ve been together before and this never happened,’ he said surely, which halted Taren in her tracks.
‘How do you know that?’ She grinned expectantly, and Lucian’s expression turned to utter wonder.
‘Because … I remember.’ The statement nearly brought him to tears, as he sorted through the new memories in his mind. He looked at Taren in awe, as he concluded with pride and admiration: ‘You did it. You got us away from Maladaan and the MSS!’
The welling tears trickled from Taren’s eyes as she returned and sunk onto the bed beside him, nodding and finding solace in his claim. ‘I did.’
‘Oceane, Maladaan and Kila are all safe!’ He was so relieved, as he wiped the tears from her cheeks.
‘For the moment,’ she confirmed, ‘but we had a close call with Khalid this week.’
‘We certainly did.’ He realised now just how hard Taren had been working for him and the project. ‘You’ve done the right thing, waking me up now.’ He was clearly excited. ‘I’ll have ten more years in your comp
any! And ten more years to deal with Khalid’s trail of destruction.’
‘We’ll have help.’ Taren was beaming with happiness to have her partner back; she’d had no idea that she could ever have Lucian back with all his memory intact! With the event, her greatest fear — that of having to try to explain their history, with very little proof of it — dissolved away forever.
‘Where are they all now,’ Lucian wondered aloud, ‘our super crew?’
Again she was shocked and pleased. ‘No need to worry, I know where to find them, just like I knew where to find you … and there are more of them than we originally thought. Still, it will be five years before we’ll need to start recruiting most of them to the project, so …’
Lucian was grinning like a kid on his birthday. ‘I just knew you’d be like this.’
Taren laughed. ‘Hard work?’
Lucian shook his head. ‘From the moment I first saw you walk into our presentation venue, I knew you were going to change my life …’ This amused the professor in retrospect. ‘What I didn’t realise was that you already had changed my life.’ He hugged her close, as if trying to compensate for the time and space that had kept them apart, but then he began to tremble. ‘Damn,’ he muttered, flopping backward onto the bed to distance himself from the giddy euphoria of Taren’s touch.
‘Whoops.’ Taren winced, as he closed his eyes. ‘Stay with me, Lucian.’ She slapped him about the cheeks.
‘I’m here.’ He forced his eyes open.
‘I have a gift for you.’ She flashed the stone of undulating colour before his eyes and they opened wide, as he took it in hand. ‘It’s a piece of rock from Oceane that carries the essence and protection of Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi.’ She was not surprised that Lucian suddenly found the energy to sit upright.
‘The Grigori,’ he gasped, remembering the helpful minions of the gaseous being that he’d once been able to summon and converse with.
‘They gave me one too.’ Taren allowed her armband to be seen against her bare arm; she had the advantage of being able to use her PK to hide her Juju, so she didn’t have to wear sleeves all the time.
‘That’s very clever,’ he commented, amazed and elated by the stone he was handling.
‘I’ll explain more about how I came upon them later, but right now all you really need to know is this —’ Taren kissed Lucian with all her pent-up passion and after a long engagement, when he was still responsive, Taren pulled back. ‘Do you see?’
‘That is very interesting.’ With a large smile on his face, Lucian gripped the stone firmly in his hand. He grabbed hold of Taren, who squealed with delight as he laid her back onto the bed and, lying down beside her, he pulled her closer than he’d ever dared to in this time line.
Lost in a kiss, her body writhing with the pleasure of being pinned beneath him, Lucian suddenly withdrew to kneeling and Taren was left panting in anticipation.
‘You are the daughter and heiress of the Queen of Phemoria!’ He appeared as alarmed by the fact as he had the first time he had discovered it.
‘Oh that!’ She waved off his concern, and sat up. ‘You are the one who discovered the means to lift my mother’s curse, remember? And so she is bound to adore you!’ Taren concluded. ‘And father already adores you!’
Lucian was shocked. ‘He knows about us?’
Taren grinned broadly, nodding to confirm this. ‘He’s known, since before I got involved with the project that, sooner or later, you would be joining the family.’ She laid back onto the covers, hoping he’d be enticed to resume their heated encounter.
Lucian’s smile returned, as he moved to lie close to her again. ‘I thought I was crazy, falling in love with you —’
Taren giggled. ‘Welcome back to my world,’ she whispered. He was so close. ‘Now you really do know everything.’
‘Infinitely pleased to be here,’ he assured her, as their lips sought and found fulfilment in a kiss that was familiar yet exhilarating.
The joy of having Lucian close and in her confidence was overwhelming for Taren; she’d been striving for this moment since she’d parted ways with him on Kila — a little planet in a universe parallel to theirs. ‘I never thought we’d get here,’ she uttered between kisses and silent tears of relief.
Lucian paused from his amusement to look at her. ‘You promised me something, if we ever made it this far.’ He smiled broadly in the knowledge that he could now claim that prize. ‘Do you remember?’
It was a long, long time — if ever — since Taren had felt sheer happiness; she’d wanted to marry Lucian since before they’d met — in any time line! ‘I do remember,’ she said, ‘and I am most eager to honour that promise.’ Her kiss conveyed how strong her conviction was, even though it seemed an eon ago that Lucian asked her to marry him. Still, here they were, past those insurmountable odds and back on the same page and team. Being touched by the man she loved was not the only reason the future was looking a whole lot brighter; for now that they were working together their chances of bringing AMIE through the next ten years unscathed, and avoiding the Maladaan/Oceane disaster had doubled, if not tripled!
Khalid’s attempt to imprison Zelimir Ronan had backfired rather dismally on him, for not only had he lost his prisoner, but he’d inadvertently brought two of his greatest adversaries back together again.
8
KHALID MANSUR —
THE SHADOW MASTER
‘What do you mean, he disappeared?’ Khalid Mansur was not happy when he received the news that the ex-chief of the Maladaan Secret Service had escaped custody.
‘I have viewed the footage from the security camera in Ronan’s cell,’ Norward said, in a cool, rational manner, ‘and shortly before we entered to collect the prisoner, he was visited by two Valoureans. He spoke with them casually, as if he knew them.’
‘Valoureans?’ Khalid frowned, finding that hard to believe.
Norward confirmed with a nod. ‘The intruders also appeared and disappeared on camera. Thus, I conclude that they spirited Ronan away once our party was clear of the psychic containment cell.’
Khalid had outwardly calmed. ‘Bloody good evaluation,’ he admitted, liking that his new 2IC did not attempt to make excuses for the blunder. ‘But your regular Valourean cannot teleport, that is a talent that runs —’
‘— in the Phemorian royal family, yes, sir.’ Norward knew this. ‘But there is no one on our database with such a talent, so unfortunately I find myself at a dead end. I have, however, put out an apprehension order on Ronan in all four systems of the US secret service.’
Khalid was quietly fuming, but he was not going to take out his frustration on Norward, who had the efficiency and fear of a robot. ‘Dismissed.’ Khalid took a seat behind his new desk.
‘May I say,’ Norward deferred his departure, ‘that I am stunned that Ronan tested positive for the Powers, Chief. I thought I knew him well, but clearly, I did not.’
‘We have all been deceived,’ Khalid agreed. ‘Ronan’s deceit has no reflection on you, Norward.’
‘Thank you, sir.’ Satisfied, Norward left the office.
‘What the fuck?’ Khalid appealed to the heavens; he’d not come across another with his talent in a long time, and now two ordinary Valoureans had telekinesis? He wasn’t buying it. Spyridon was still out there somewhere; he’d not given the shamed and broken Duke of Vidor a second thought in twenty years; but he was the only other known individual that could have pulled this off. Anselm’s new little upstart had obviously had some kind of psychic talent, but thanks to his recent death by midair explosion, he was no longer a concern. ‘Cocky little prick deserved it.’
Khalid decided to retire to his own private quarters — he had the psychic means to track down his missing hostage and Spyridon, and once he’d taken leave of his office, he intended to do exactly that.
In retrospect, he had to give Chief Ronan credit; not even Khalid himself would have suspected him of having the Powers, or of having any friends psy
chically in-the-know enough to shield the ex-chief from being found. If Ronan wasn’t hiding vital information about someone, then he wouldn’t have been worth retrieving. Khalid’s intel had recorded Anselm’s young upstart talking to his partner about the boss, and whoever this boss was, even Anselm aspired to befriend him! Someone was quietly acquiring power and influence without his knowledge, and that made Khalid nervous. He thought perhaps he should have questioned Anselm’s young hotshot before having him terminated, but his partner was still out there somewhere. The intel from Khalid’s secret agents in the field had failed to turn up so much as one picture of the man known as Mythric Zeon. Even the security cameras at the facility where he worked had failed to capture one single image of him! A feat like that required psychokinesis — that’s how Khalid kept his private space surveillance free — and if this fellow had PK he was likely to have TK as well, making him another candidate who could have pulled off Ronan’s escape. Who was Mythric Zeon? Now that Khalid had charge of the MSS and its database, he would find out. All he needed was one image of the man to telekinetically locate him.
For the first time in many decades, there was a challenge and mystery afoot, and that appealed greatly to Khalid’s appetite for sedition.
On the top floor of the MSS building in Maladaan, Khalid found privacy in his surveillance-free penthouse. He wasted no time in conjuring up a mask for his face, and an image of Chief Ronan in his mind. With the intention of joining Zelimir Ronan, Khalid prepared to confront his escapee and was exceedingly more furious the longer he remained where he was.
‘That’s fucking impossible!’ He flew into a tantrum. ‘No one can shield themselves from me!’ Only the Queen of Phemoria, who was psychically protected by the Phemoray, could deflect his will. Could she be protecting Ronan?
It made no sense that Valoureans would rescue the chief of the MSS for anything other than his torture! Although lately the chief had softened his stance on psychics, which might have inspired Phemorian sympathies, the Phemorians rarely cared about anything outside of their home planet. What could Ronan have that would be worth such a political risk for Phemoria? Khalid’s gut feeling was that some other, as yet unknown, player in the intergalactic psychic war was framing Phemoria with the chief’s disappearance. He had a psychic nemesis somewhere; he could sense it.