Chapter 213: Aida’s Enlightenment

Monday, July 12, 1971

“ ... so while this body is only sixteen years old, my heart, mind, and soul are fifty-six,” I concluded.

“That’s quite a story, but you didn’t have to go to all that trouble. After listening to Anna and the others, I was willing to give you a try, even though you are a little young for me!” Luisa said. It was her first words since she had accompanied me up to my suite. “But it WAS a very imaginative story. And you told it well. Did you make it up all by yourself?”

I had jumped to my feet, but stood rooted to the spot as I felt my temper about to explode. Biting my tongue, I tried counting to ten, then twenty, then...

“Michael?” I heard Catherine’s thought. But I was too angry to answer her now. The same with Vickie and the others.

“Get out!” I told Agent Rivera in what amounted to a low growl. “Get out of my sight, NOW!”

“What’s wrong, little boy?” Luisa baited me some more. “What happened to the fifty-six-year-old? Is this how a real man treats a woman when she doesn’t appreciate his coming on to her?”

Taking a step towards her only caused her to grin all the more. In the back of my mind, an alarm bell started ringing. Something wasn’t clicking. I needed to think.

Taking a deep breath and gripping the haft of my sword, I wrapped myself in my heavy-duty shield to block out her thoughts and actions for a moment while I thought this through.

Suddenly, I heard Luisa gasp, right at the same moment I realized what I had done. Immediately, I knew she had gasped because I had disappeared from sight. However, I wasn’t ready to drop my shield. I still needed to figure out what she was doing.

Of all the responses to my story, this is not one I would have expected, so I began to go over everything that Agent Luisa Rivera had said and done so far. I hadn’t been reviewing everything very long when I found myself wondering how I could have missed it. Then I laughed out loud.

The sound of my laughter while she was unable to see me, unnerved the agent, who quickly drew her government issued Smith & Wesson Model 10 with its two-inch barrel, which the Agency somehow deemed more appropriate for female agents. As a precaution, I moved a couple of paces to my left.

“Put it away, Agent Rivera,” I warned her. I’m sure she didn’t know that one of my pet peeves was having a gun drawn on me. Still unable to see me, Agent Rivera remained in a crouch as she slowly turned in a circle, scanning the room, looking for me or the sound of my voice. I wished she just put down the gun so I could scan her, but I was pretty confident in my conclusion. Agent Rivera, however, was out of her depths, in strange uncharted waters. As such, she was not about to lower her weapon. Neither was she ready to trust me.

It would appear that we were at a standoff.

While I knew I could disable her gun by applying energy to the firing pin, I wasn’t sure if she could get it repaired or replaced where we were going. And I would hate for her to really need it and not be able to use it. However, I couldn’t disable her gun without dropping my shield. And as edgy as she now appeared, if I dropped my shield, she might fire out of reflex. Of course, with my heavy-duty shield in place, I could not connect with anyone for help. Like I said, a standoff.

“Luisa?” I called out. Immediately she whirled around to where my voice seemed to be coming from. And she was pretty darn close. I moved to my right and spoke again.

“Please, Luisa. I am going to drop my shield and become visible again. I will not hurt you. I understand now what you were trying to do, and I’ll be glad to answer all your questions and even show you. However, if you discharge that weapon in here tonight ... well, neither of us would get much sleep down at police headquarters, right?”

Agent Rivera kept looking and listening, lining up her gun pretty accurately on the sound of my voice. I knew I could become visible and still stop any bullets she might fire, but like I told her, I didn’t feel like spending the rest of the evening dodging the questions that gunfire in the penthouse would surely arouse.

“You have to choose, Luisa,” I said as soothingly as possible. “Either you trust me or you don’t.”

I saw the first indications of doubt flit across her face and wished I could drop my shield and scan her. But as long as she held her gun like that, I couldn’t risk it. Besides, it now seemed important to me to know if I could trust her.

In the distance, I heard the muted ding that announced the elevator’s arrival. Since there were not that many rooms on this floor, I realized that it was highly probable that it was someone coming to see or check on me. Since I could not scan with my heavy-duty shield in place, I finally decided I would just pay to replace her firing pin when I sent her back to Washington DC tomorrow.

It was close. I heard the key turn in the lock as I dropped my shield and then melted her firing pin. I just had time to note that it was Ileana returning, and she had Aida and Eve with her, before Luisa, acting on reflex, fired at my reappearance, and then turned to point her weapon at Ileana and the others before it registered in her now befuddled brain, that her gun hadn’t fired.

Luisa became filled with panic and confusion as what had happened finally registered in her brain, but not how it happened. Then, as she finally realized that my story about time travel might just possibly be true, her mind just sort of checked out. That realization, on top of everything else she had witnessed tonight and last weekend in New York, just would not process completely.

I stepped to her left side and lifted the Smith & Wesson with my fingertips from her now numb fingers as she no longer seemed totally coherent.

Ileana, acting as if someone pointing a gun at her was an everyday occurrence, calmly helped Luisa back to the couch while asking Eve to bring her a glass of water from the bar. Then looking at me, she raised that single eyebrow as she stated, “I’ll bet this is going to be worth staying up late for!”

“Hold that thought,” I told Ileana. Then connecting to Anna, I thought, “Is it too late for a house call?”

“Can’t you call the front desk. I’m sure they have aspirin down there,” she replied sleepily. Even half-asleep, Anna had a sarcastic wit.

“Unfortunately, their head trauma specialist is out for the evening. Hangover or something,” I replied.

“Seriously?” she asked. So I gave it to her. All my memories since we left the luau. With Anna, it only took a few seconds.

“On my way!” was her reply before I finished. “Keep her still and DON’T do anything!”

I saw Aida start to say something, but Ileana shook her head, indicating that she should remain silent. But I wasn’t sure how long it would last. I also saw that Ileana, and to a lesser extent, Eve, had picked up on my memories as I had shared them with Anna. Aida, of course, didn’t really have a clue. And for the hundredth time I found myself wondering why Zeus had ever bothered to “gift” me with her.

Luisa’s eyes were still glazed as she took the glass of water from Eve automatically, but then sat there, just holding it without drinking. When Ileana looked at me, I just shrugged my shoulders. None of us said anything as we waited on Anna.

And that’s how Anna found us when she walked into the suite. Ignoring us, Anna made her way to Luisa and began to examine her.

“Can you let me see her brain?” Anna asked. Instantly, I scanned Luisa’s brain, connecting Anna as I did. Not knowing what I was sensing, I just waited on Anna to guide me. However, after a moment, Anna sighed.

“She’s in shock,” Anna said. “Help me lay her down and elevate her feet. And would you bring me a cool washcloth? Please?”

After Luisa was attended to, Anna turned to me. No one else had said anything yet.

“Okay. I got the memories, but not why you decided to tell her. What gives?”

“I was going to offer her a job. She seemed to be fitting in and I knew the others, including you, had talked with her. And when I did a cursory scan, I thought she seemed receptive. I guess I mistook her curiosity about what happened Friday night, in New York, for acceptance,” I explained.

“What DID happen Friday night?” Eve asked.

Instead of explaining, I replayed my memories of the assassins shooting out the windows as they swung into the hotel room. Then how, as they turned their automatics on Princess Grace, I had wrapped her, Luisa, and myself in my heavy-duty shield to deflect the bullets. Neither the Princess, nor Luisa were aware of how we had simply disappeared in the eyes of the assassins, causing them to hesitate momentarily which allowed me to drop my shield and paralyze them long enough for Luisa to fire.

“So she was baiting you? Trying to get you angry enough to reveal how you did what you did that night?” Anna asked.

“Yeah. She was so intent on it, she didn’t really listen to my story. The whole time, she thought it was just some elaborate plot to get her into bed. Then, when she started baiting me, I got mad. That’s when I finally figured it out. But, by then, it was too late. We were in a real standoff.”

“Standoff?” Aida asked.

“Luisa seemed so spooked that unless I could talk her into holstering her gun, I was concerned that she would fire as soon as I dropped my shield and reappeared. I couldn’t drop my shield unless I either ruined her firing pin, paralyzed her, or I wrapped her in my shield, in which case, she could have killed herself with the ricochet,” I explained.

“But she’s so-o-o old! Don’t tell me you were really trying to get her in bed with you, were you?” Aida asked me. “I mean isn’t she like almost thirty? And isn’t that like, seriously over-the-hill, like?”

Anna, who was thirty-two, looked annoyed but kept quiet as she focused on the still shell-shocked agent. Eve covered her grin with her hand and Ileana just smiled as she again arched an eyebrow at me. Someday, I was going to have to write a treatise on all the things that my mate could say with that single eyebrow arch.

I sighed and rolled my eyes without responding.

“C’mon, ‘Ee-da,” Eve said as she grabbed Aida’s hand and pulled her towards my bedroom. (Aida is pronounced: eye-ee-da).

I made a mental note to thank Eve later, somehow.

“Oh, I think he’ll find a way! And probably sooner than he thinks!” Ileana thought.

“ ... so I was thinking that we just put her on a plane back to Washington,” I was telling Anna what I had in mind for the FBI agent.

“You might want to re-think that one,” Anna said.

“But I did all I could to try and hire her!” I replied. “What else could I have done?”

Anna gave me one of her disapproving looks. Then she spoke to Ileana.

“Michael’s right. He’s done all he can for Luisa tonight. Ileana, why don’t you help me get her next door to her room?” Anna asked. “I’ll stay with her until she comes around.”

“That’s not fair!” I whimpered, still remembering Anna’s withering glare.

“With great gifts come great responsibilities,” was Anna’s reply as they helped Luisa back to her room.

I was standing out on the suite’s balcony, listening to the sounds of the surf and looking out into the darkness that was the Pacific Ocean, when Ileana returned. Turning off all the lights, she sidled up to me and wrapped an arm around my waist. Then leaning her head on my shoulder, she sighed contentedly.

“At times like this, it seems like we have known each other forever,” I thought as I placed my arm around her waist and hugged her to me.

“I like the sound of ‘forever’” she thought back.

Suddenly, from the bedroom came a voice that I was finding more and more irritating.

“Michael? Are you out there?” Aida called out.

“We’ll have our forever, Sweetheart. But right now, you have a couple of young ladies waiting on you,” Ileana whispered softly as we walked back into the suite. I had but to scan my mate to see what was going on.

It seemed that Eve had been wanting some of my time and attention, but with all the others around, she had gotten lost in the shuffle, so she had gone to Ileana.

Aida, overhearing Eve and Ileana, also expressed her desire for some of my time. Unfortunately, Aida, in her innocence, did not fully understand the kind of attention Eve craved. And Ileana, instead of explaining it to Aida, had simply invited her along.