Chapter 3

"Security."

"Martha, I want to meet Mary first, where is she?"

"She's in the viewing room. April is down by the shore."

"Thank you."

Martin walked into the house and moved down and towards its center. In his viewing rooms were his only possessions that couldn't be replaced and they were the best protected.

He entered the room the first of his rooms of art and looked at Mary. She had perfect posture as she sat a chair. A young queen could not look more regal. She was small, probably not even 150 centimeters tall. All of us are small, Martin thought. We used to be normal height but the young ones grow larger and larger. Mary's hair was auburn and kept short, she was dressed in blues as had been her habit 100 years ago, and apparently still was. It suited her hair coloring, bringing out some blue out of her black hair. She had blue eyes and a hint of freckles. Her eyes were a little too far apart to call her a classic beauty but when she moved, beauty was all you could think of. She glanced at him and her blue eyes flashed.

"What are you hiding from me, Martin?"

"Something important to me that I can't let you see until another time."

"Don't you mean someone?"

"The same thing."

"One of your Martins?"

"Mary, what are you doing here? What do you want?"

"Well it has been quite a while since I've seen you, and I have several reasons for this visit. I want to view your collection. It's grown since I've last seen it. I need to talk to you about a matter of mutual interest. I want to find out if you tried to kill James. I have many reasons."

"James? Someone tried to kill James?"

"Do you deny you tried to kill James?"

"Touch my hand."

"I'll not speak while we touch," she warned.

Martin held his hand out towards her. She took it in hers. "I had nothing to do with an attack on James. I first learned of it when you told me." He pulled his hand loose. Even short connections could let thoughts slip through. Etiquette required her to say the same but she had declined. She might be involved or have a thought she was afraid would slip through.

The truth of his statement was obvious to her. "Please forgive me. I'll swear the same before I leave. I didn't really think you would be connected in any way, but I wanted to be sure."

"Can we go to another room? I have trouble concentrating on anything other than the paintings in here," Martin asked.

"Evan told me that you have the small room overlooking the forest, can we go there?" she asked.

"Of course."

The small room was the highest in the house, on the fourth floor, with flooring, walls, ceiling, furniture and almost everything in it being constructed of wood. Where possible, glass was used for things that couldn't be wooden. The floor was replaced every few years because the fir planks were so soft. The overall effect of the room was the illusion that you were inside a tree looking out at the forest. Martin found it a peaceful place to think.

"This room is unlike the rest of the house," Mary said after they had sat for a couple of hours. "Did the same young one design it that designed the rest of your house?"

"No. I did. Why?"

"Then you have done what you always wanted."

"What do you mean?"

"You have made art."

He was shocked. Perhaps I have. It speaks to her. It tells her the story I tried to put into it. A weak story and weak art but art none the less. "You may be right. I'll have to think about it. Maybe I've been trying to match painters. Maybe I should be studying architecture instead."

"Perhaps you should enjoy your art and share it with others?"

"Open my house to young ones?" he chuckled. "I don't think so."

"Open your house to James."

"Oh no. Just because I had nothing to do with trying to kill him, it doesn't mean I agree with him or even want to see him. The world is changing so fast, it's harder and harder for us to hide. If he goes public, it will be almost impossible. I would have to move every 20 years and I don't want to do that. I like my trees; I want to see them again in 200 years. He'll make that harder. Many of us will try to stop him any way we can, including killing him."

"Will you?" she asked.

"No. Not unless he directly hurts me or mine."

"Your precious Martins. That's what I have been kept from seeing, isn't it?"

"Yes. The last one. Would you hurt her?"

Mary took his hand. Quickly she said, "I won't hurt her and I won't let anyone hurt her. I had nothing to do with any attack on James." She yanked her hand loose. "There is no need for you to say you will protect her. I know your oath."

"I know why some want her dead but I can't tell you yet," she continued. "I am your friend in this matter. Keep her close to you. Protect her. I do have some information for you. The man you seek is named Robert Vasquez. He lives in Miami. Don't endanger yourself by going after him. Send some of your young ones."

"How do you know this?"

"I can't tell you." You might kill me, she thought. "May I meet her?"

"Perhaps, after I've thought about it. After I've talked to her and after I've spoken with Robert Vasquez."

"Security."

"Howard, you should be sleeping."

"I'm fine, sir."

"When you have some time, select about half a dozen new security people for me to interview, all of them females."

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else?"

"Yes. There's a man in Miami named Robert Vasquez. Send someone there to take some pictures of him. Get the photos to me. Do not email them. I don't want to leave a trail."

"Yes, sir."

"April, will you join me in a walk?"

"Why? Am I playing run around again? I know there's another woman here. Why are you afraid to let me meet her?"

"If you come for a walk, I will explain. I will also explain what she is and what I am."

Together they walked along the running trail. Her thoughts are hard to read, he thought. I need a neutral place, neither beautiful nor ugly. "Let's sit over there by the big mossy rock," he said as he led her into the firs, just off the path. He indicated a fallen log for her to sit on and he knelt on the ground, knees together with his feet crossed behind him, like a karate student in a dojo. She wished the log she sat on hadn't been quite so decayed and damp. The back of her jeans would be stained as would the knees of his pants. The light greens of the forest were spilled onto the ground. Young plants hunted for the little light that filtered through the firs.

"I can read your surface thoughts," he started. "No, you don't believe me but you will."

"Think of a color. You started to pick blue but you know that most people do so you picked yellow. No, you're right that proves nothing."

"Now think of a person. Your mother and the reason that I didn't say that I would avenge her is because she was not the seed of the first of my Martins. She was your father's wife. Still, not proof enough."

"Think of something that I can't possible know, take a moment to think of it."

The image in her mind was curious. "Did you find that you enjoyed doing that to him in that position?" Martin asked.

April blushed, she was beginning to believe him. "How can you do that?" She asked.

"All of my kind can do that. We can read the surface thoughts of young ones like you. Mary is like me, and so I didn't want her reading your thoughts before I knew if she meant to harm you. I had to keep you two apart."

"You listen to my thoughts all the time?"

"I'm sorry it intrudes on you, but sometimes I can't help it and it seems so natural to me that I often do it without thinking. I'll teach you a couple of tricks to deal with it for a short time, but be assured I've heard it all before. You think thoughts that are normal for a young one, if somewhat difficult to read. There is no sickness in you."

"I'm hardly young any more. I'm 23 years old."

"And I am over 2000 years old. Mary is almost 2700 years old. To us, even your oldest person is but a child."

"Are you some kind of vampire?" April felt silly even as she asked the question.

"No," he laughed. "I don't believe there are vampires. I would have met one by now."

He paused, "we are just another type of human. I have been taught that we can interbreed but I don't know if it's true. For one thing, my kind doesn't have the appetite for sex that yours does. We have sex only for procreation, not for entertainment or for pair bonding. We really don't form pair bonds. For the majority of our lives we are alone. Two of us will come together long enough to raise a child, to keep our population constant, but after the child is 40 or 50 years old, they leave and the parents will also go their separate ways. It is a pragmatic and logical way to preserve our kind. You would find it lacks any romance. I think of us as Homo sapiens lazarus."

April was silent.

"Although we can read the surface thoughts of young ones, like you, we cannot read them in others of our kind, unless we are physically touching. We can also verify the truth of any statement made while touching one of our own. But since surface thoughts can sometimes seep through a touch, we are loath to touch one another for long. We have a very formal etiquette involved for touching each other. It can be relaxed sometimes but it is very complicated. I need to explain some of it to you. Another difference is that we heal much more quickly than you and our immune systems fight disease and infections very well. But we can be killed just as easily as you can."

Martin looked up towards the sky as he continued, "I protect you because back in the 16^th century, an ancestor of yours saved me from death. I was impetuous at the time. I gave him my name, he had no familial name, and swore an oath to protect him and his seed as long as they kept the name Martin. You can imagine my surprise that my oath is still binding 500 years later. So here we are, and I am still protecting you. I have come to almost enjoy it, and others of my kind see it as curious hobby."

April nodded and waited for Martin to continue.

"In 2000 years there's sufficient time to make friends and enemies; for alliances to form and fade. I don't know if you are being hunted for something your family did, or if the attacks were made to get at me, but I do know that Mary will protect you, so you don't have to be afraid of her. I verified this, but be wary. Some of her thoughts slipped through when we touched. She is excited about meeting you and she knows something about your brother's death. There was no malice but what she wants may be different from what you want."