Chapter 26: A Ballgame and a Dance

After the discussions with Michelle and Lisa Woodall, I needed a rest, but more than that I needed lunch. I'd manage to doze for a short while, which helped a lot, but my hunger had awakened me and driven me towards some food. Entering the kitchen I discovered Anh had already anticipated my needs and had some ready for me. I ate slowly, trying to gather enough energy to keep going. Man it's tiring dealing with so many involved issues and having to keep your cards close to your chest. Especially considering I was still recovering from being shot, without any pain killers, and I could hardly sleep because I was trying to track random thoughts that appeared in my head throughout the night. I knew I'd have to get a decent night's sleep soon, but right now I didn't think I could afford it. Not until I had some idea of what Rakeem's plans were.

This morning was grueling, meeting with Michelle McCallister and her telling me the potential evidence I had against Rakeem was no good, then having to make a deal with Lisa I wasn't sure we'd ever want to take advantage of, and finally handling Clara Thomas again at Lisa's request, the very lady who had sicced Lisa onto us.

As I began chewing, Gail sat while Anh, my mother and Natalie continued puttering around the kitchen. Nikki came in and quietly watched from the corner. No one else said a word, knowing Gail was anxious to talk to me about the risk I had taken by trusting Lisa with as much as I had.

"I know," I acknowledged with a raspy voice, hoping to head her complaint off. "It was stupid of me to open up to Lisa."

"Yes it was, Alex. You know perfectly well how a single article or just a casual remark to the wrong person could get us all, but most importantly you and your family, into a world of trouble," Gail began.

"We don't mind trouble," Anh insisted. "We know the risks and accept them, but you are different. You are centrally important to everything happening here. Without you everything ends. You must honor your new role," she explained in a calming but cautious tone. She knew I usually took talk about my responsibility to her and her Sisters seriously.

I knew it was a huge risk I'd taken, but I'd learned to trust my feelings about people and I probably would continue to do so until it finally bit me on the ass. So far no one I'd decided to trust had betrayed me, at least not yet. It would only take a single time to potentially bury us, but you still have to abide by your instincts, I told myself.

'Just call it a feeling I have, ' I tried to explain my actions to them, speaking mentally to save my voice. 'I've generally trusted most of my decisions about who to trust and who not to. If I hadn't, Gail, you wouldn't still be friends with your girlfriends back in St. Louis, ' I pointed out.

"Generally, we trust your judgments, Alex, they've served you well in the past. But you've been making a lot of them, and each time you do you put everyone at risk. Now you've had someone try to kill you, and a reporter acting like she wants a story about you. I think you need to review your whole trust issue. The risk to yourself is just too high. Michelle knows you're hiding something from her, but so far has been too polite to press you about it. You've told, or accidentally revealed, many of your secrets to quite a few people, and simply hope nobody will spill anything. Your instincts were correct regarding Clara," Gail conceded, "but then you went back to her out of your concern for her, and she exposed us just as you'd anticipated. Granted, I was one of the ones who asked you to do it, but I'm trying to get you to see how you should approach risks differently.

"You've got to stop risking yourself. You are the lynchpin of everything happening to us. You're the one who triggers the abilities in everyone like us, and without you there will be no more of us. It's time you realize that what you represent is more important than us keeping our friends and families close. If you get exposed, what's to prevent one of the many people in the hospital from telling all they know about you? Are you sure your enemies at school don't already know more than is healthy about you? Michelle told you how easy it was to eavesdrop on your followers as they talked amongst themselves. We have no idea how much she actually learned, and how much she was simply bluffing, but the risk remains.

"What happens if Lisa decides there's enough material to extend her career longer than she thought? What if she decides she can end her career with a prestigious Pulitzer? Would that make her reconsider her promises to you? What if she does indeed follow through on her promise to you and only releases a book after you've died? What happens to everyone you leave behind? Do we all end up in a military camp somewhere? They did that to the Japanese-Americans during World War II. You don't think hearing about mind reading and potential mind control would generate a similar fear among your fellow citizens? A fear of terrorists managed to cancel most of our laws of due process, don't tell me I'm talking about past history."

I sank back in my chair, most of my lunch uneaten while I considered what Gail had said.

'You've got some excellent points, but I'm not sure I can just ignore important relationships around me just because it's convenient. Nikki, you still haven't gone to see your parents yet. It's looking like you aren't going to until I accompany you there. Once I'm gone you'll all have to resume lives in the real world. Remaining closeted together would undo everything we're trying to achieve. You've got to form normal relationships and raise normal children, in order to give this genetic anomaly of ours a chance to propagate. I can't just let you all pretend the world doesn't exist just because I might have some problems sometime in the future. As we've just seen, none of you have any idea how long I'll be around. I'll try to achieve as much as I humanly can, but part of that is protecting each of you from this tendency to run and hide from everyone not like yourselves. If and when we eventually run into trouble, we'll need family and friends to stand beside us willing to assist us.

'I've accepted the responsibility of looking after each of you. Part of that responsibility is making sure each of us maintains our own social networks. We all, but especially I, need the honest feedback of people not associated with us.'

"OK, everything has been said, everything is understood, the decision has been made, and there's nothing more to do," Anh said, dramatically wiping her hands of the discussion. "You know we listen to you. Your say so is enough for us." I was surprised at their casual acceptance of a decision I hadn't thought was final yet.

'You mean you're just going to accept it because I said I wanted to?' I asked.

Nikki spoke up from the doorway. "Yep. We knew you were unlikely to change how you like to deal with the world. We just wanted to warn you of what's involved. Like we said, you're the one facing the most risk. If you're exposed, we can just pretend we were all hoodwinked and quietly slip away. You've got nowhere to go if things go wrong, but again, it's your life you're playing with."

I turned and faced Gail, who remained seated while the others were moving away.

'So, are you giving up like the others?' I asked, confused by her unwillingness to continue arguing with me.

"Like Nikki said, you make the decisions and you're also the one who has to pay the penalty when things go south. What I'm responsible for, though, is to keep you safe. That means I'm going to be watching your every move from now on. You've had good instincts for the most part in the past, but I'm going to be there for when things go to hell. You just turned 18, your brain isn't completely formed yet, and you're likely to take unnecessary chances as a result. Like antagonizing someone pointing a gun at your head," she replied, looking at me pointedly.

'Wait a minute, ' I told her, wanting to clarify the issue. 'I want to straighten out this Alex-gets-to-do-whatever-he-wants nonsense. Why are you all just rolling over and accepting whatever I say? You're beginning to make me think maybe my father has been correct all along.'

"Alex," she consoled me, "as I just said, your impulses have been spot on so far. I question your ability to not talk yourself into fights, though, but somehow I trust you to do the right thing, even if it's for the wrong reasons. Even in the case of your provoking Rakeem, you seemed to have gotten a response out of him which helped us figure out what was going on. We all discussed it and decided you were unlikely to change your ways. You need that sense of honesty and integrity to do what you need to do, which is to get people to trust and believe in you. If you aren't truthful with the people important to you, I'm not sure you could pull off what you're trying to accomplish."

I had to admit she made a good point. I could almost believe it.

'All right, I'll concede the point. After all, it hardly makes sense for me to argue with your agreeing with me. But there's another point I wanted to discuss with you. I got the distinct impression Rakeem is feeling more relaxed and confident. Is there something I should know about?'

Gail looked guilty and the silence drew out for a bit.

"I hate to have to inform you, but I just got word a local judge released him on a medical release so he could return to Chicago and get specialized medical treatments for his supposed stroke."

'Yeah, I can see that happening, ' I conceded. 'But it doesn't really explain why he's so relaxed now. He's got to have something planned. He either thinks his lawyers can keep him from coming back, or something's up.'

"We'll keep an eye out, but there's not much we can do now," she cautioned me.

'Well, it's Thursday, which means James Jones' game is tonight. We'll see if he gets himself in any trouble, which reminds me, I'd best warn Chalise and Caroline what might be about to happen.'

Gail agreed that would be a good idea, trusting I wouldn't compromise the investigation in the process. Having had our little talk, they each seemed to be happy now to leave me alone while I finished my sandwich. After I was done, they insisted I take it easy in my father's easy chair in the den so I could continue healing. I grabbed my homework assignments and tried to finish some work.

I glanced at my watch and saw it was nearly three, almost time for the girls to get home. I had to correct myself, with so many women around it was hard to specify girls without listing who they were, but I usually included Cate and my two girlfriends, Kitty and Chalise, when I referred to the 'girls'. When I referred to my followers I usually said either 'my girls' or the 'Sisters'. I passed a comb through my hair, glad once again I was a guy and had to do so little to make myself presentable.

I'd managed to accomplish a small amount of work when Kitty and Chalise both burst through the door and surrounded me. OK, there was a little advance notice like doorbells and such, but it still felt like they swooped down on me, and the end result was they hurried me out the door and into Kitty's car while Cate laughed at me. She offered no explanation for why she was staying behind, nor where I was going, but she seemed to think whatever they had planned for me was fine with her, so that was enough for me to trust I'd survive it. Although Cate's laughter at my expense left me a little nervous.

Following our discussion, Gail simply looked at me asking the unspoken question. When I nodded at her she got up as well. I already knew she'd let the girls do whatever they planned, but she'd quietly follow us, just to watch that nothing happened to me. She felt like she'd let me down by not following us home when she'd stayed behind in St. Louis so Lisa couldn't follow her, since that idea had proven fallacious as she'd located me anyway.

Without explaining anything, Kitty and Chalise simply talked about school and how upset everyone was about me as we drove to our unspecified destination. We ended up pulling up in front of a formal menswear store. I groaned as I was led in, and they both proceeded to lecture me on how I couldn't get out of treating them like royalty at our Prom simply by almost being shot in the face. I'd been so focused on everything else I'd nearly forgotten the Prom was tomorrow night. I knew everyone was expecting me there, even if I wasn't healthy enough to attend school, so this affected more than just the two girls. I also knew there was no winning this argument, and simply went along with it. They already had the outfit selected, and just needed measurements and alterations for it, which didn't take too long.

On the way back I took the time to undertake a difficult task.

"Chalise, I want to warn you about something which may occur tonight."

"Why? Is something going to happen?" she asked warily.

"It may or it may not," I croaked, being unused to speaking and my voice being unsteady as a result. "I've released some information to the police about your brother James. If he does what I suspect he will tonight, he may be in a lot of trouble." She looked confused for a few moments, and then I could see the various pieces coalesce in her eyes.

"He's going to do something during his game tonight?" I simply nodded my head.

"And it has something to do with the attack on you?" Again I simply nodded, letting her slowly put things together herself.

"I'm not making the connection. Does it have something to do with my father's relationship with the guy who shot you?"

"Yeah, the shooter was a Chicago bookie. James made a promise that he'd throw the game tonight by a guaranteed four runs, going so far as to specify how he'd accomplish it. That was their payment for the hit. Nothing can be traced, no payments were made, no promises made, just a case of a bad day on the baseball field," I explained. Her eyes grew larger the farther I went in my explanation.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe them. How friggin' devious. So you're expecting the shit to hit the fan tonight?"

I had to swallow before continuing. This extended speaking with my voice just barely recovered was quite difficult. Luckily Kitty handed me a bottle of water so I took a couple of swigs before I began.

"Hard to tell. If they simply lose the game, nothing much can be proven. If he makes it more obvious, he could be in a lot of trouble with the sporting authorities, which would thereby point the finger at your father. So it'll either be a shitload of trouble or absolutely nothing. I've got no idea which it's going to be, but I think you'd better call your mother and let her know what she might be in for."

She took my advice and made a quick phone call. While she was doing that I contacted Gail. I hadn't been able to see her, but I knew she was behind us.

'Gail, we need to discuss something. I just managed to get a clearer message from Rakeem. It seems he made a connection while visiting the doctor and managed to arrange a hit on me. I don't have anything specific, but he's gloating to himself that his problems are all going to be over on Saturday. I don't have any names, times or details, but I've got a couple of faces I can recognize if you think you can identify them. Of course, there's no way we can justify knowing about it ahead of time, but at least we know what's coming.'

'Shit, ' she responded. 'OK, hold on and let me think about this. We can't go to Michelle or the authorities with this, but maybe I can arrange something. I'll have to consider it. Unfortunately it doesn't give us a lot of time. This is officially a shitload of trouble you've landed yourself in this time.'

'Yeah, it really is. I knew he was planning something, but I wouldn't have expected this. I'm guessing it was important for him to schedule it today, so he could tell James and Rodger I'd be taken care of before tonight's game.'

'So how do you want to handle this?' Gail asked me. 'Should we simply move you out of the area so they can't find you? Try for a protective detail? Any ideas on how you'd like to try to handle this?'

'I think we've got to let this play out. I have a couple of other images of people close to Rakeem, so I can always claim someone associated with him paid me a visit and revealed something to me. That'd serve to justify our knowledge, as well as to potentially undermine his trust in his own organization when we leak the information. If I go away they'll just track me down. If we have the police sitting outside they'll just grab me somewhere else or simply wait, which means we won't have any idea when they'll attack. I think we need to stick this out. Let them come to us after we've prepared for them, ' I told her, pretending I felt more confident about it than I did.

'I'll have to think about this to figure out what to do, ' Gail said, sounding doubtful about what might be involved in this whole undertaking. 'We'll have to get together to do a sketch, but I don't have access to a sketch artist since I'm no longer on the force. Plus we'll have difficulty getting access to Chicago crime photo books if there's been no crime committed. Still, we'll figure something out. What does he look like?'

I sent her the images of the two men Rakeem had remembered, so she could use them.

'By the way, Gail, don't mention this to anyone. I don't want anybody to panic or tip off someone who might be watching us. Besides, the last thing I need is Cate or the girls figuring out what's going on.' Gail didn't sound like she liked this last request, but she conceded it made sense. I then returned my attention to my two girlfriends.

"Mom is pretty anxious," Chalise told me after she finished her conversation. "Becky thought she might be better if they came over and spent the evening with you tonight. Is that OK?"

"I'm sure it's fine. I'll let my parents know."

Kitty laughed. "Alex, everyone does whatever you say. That whole household is under your direct control. Especially now that you are 18 and have your own place."

"Still, it's only polite to let them know when we're having company."

"You're such a good boy, so why is it you're always bringing home strange women and getting into trouble?" Kitty teased.

When we returned home the girls quickly took my tux from me and hung it up so it wouldn't get wrinkled, although Natalie said she'd press it before we left tomorrow, since she didn't think much of the job the rental company did.

"Do we have enough corsages," I asked, teasingly. The girls just looked at me like I'd just told them the moon was round. I should have known better.

Anh and Mom managed to make yet another great meal, and everyone had a great time, no one asking what Chalise and Caroline were here for. Afterwards they sat around and talked about Cate and Becky's newest theories concerning my abilities. Finally we moved to the living room where we watched an insipid romantic comedy. Kitty seemed to like it, but Chalise seemed preoccupied.

After it was over I headed into the kitchen looking for a snack, where Mom stopped me.

"Hey, Alex, you're always surprising me with little things. We just left the den and both your girlfriends are watching a baseball game while you're hiding out here in the kitchen. Are they fans or something?"

"Nah, Chalise's brother is playing a game tonight, and she and Caroline are interested in watching it. Now, I'd better go in and make an appearance, otherwise I'll be accused of falling down on my job of being an insensitive sports centered jerk," I told her. She merely shrugged her shoulder, acknowledging she didn't understand and wandered off, and I returned to watch the game with them.

My father seemed intent on the game as well, but I got his attention and let him know through pantomime that he may want to watch the game in his room. He rolled his eyes at me, but he got up and excused himself and left. My sisters weren't really into the game, so they wandered back into the dining room to discuss Cate's experiments, which left me with Kitty, Chalise and Caroline.

"I've never been this excited about a baseball game," Chalise told me nervously, while Kitty held her hand, hoping to calm her by simply being there for her.

Nothing much happened. I've never been into baseball, but I could follow the game well enough. James was a relief pitcher, meaning he came on once they thought they had a comfortable lead and hoped he could maintain it, so it was a long wait. The Cubs had a solid two run lead and no one was scoring any runs in the 8^th inning, when James relieved the current pitcher. Everyone sat up and focused on the game again at that point. Since we were more interested in the results than on the actual play, we'd turned down the sound, essentially silencing the normal obnoxious announcer. The play seemed normal enough, but they managed to put a player on second when James threw a wild pitch which resulted in two runs that tied the game. The announcer's excitement over that play was obvious even with the sound turned down. James then struck out the next batter, quite decisively ending the inning.

"That doesn't prove anything," Caroline offered.

"But it doesn't look very good," Chalise countered. "He'll have to be more aggressive about it if he's going to let them get a significant lead. Hopefully, if he does, his coaches will pull him out before they can get that far ahead."

I chose not to say anything, but sat beside Chalise and hugged her tightly while we waited for the Cubs to finish batting. Their opponents kept them from scoring any more runs. Finally James was back up and everyone was on the edge of their seats again.

He started off with a pitch which hit the batter's calf, earning him first base. The next batter managed to hit a single, moving everyone up a base. However on the next throw, the catcher managed to catch the runner on second stealing third, and threw him out before he got there. James didn't look pleased, but everyone assumed he was upset at the jump the runner had gotten.

The following pitch was a fastball the batter missed. However the next throw was way inside, so the batter spun out of the way, however, in a move that demonstrated James' precise control over the ball, he managed to miss the batter only to strike the catcher in his throwing arm. You could see the catcher yelling as he bent over, tending his arm. The opposing coach stormed on the field, protesting James attempt to punish his player for his own player's foul up, while James' coach held a brief conference with the catcher. All in all it was a perfect play as it looked perfectly innocent, but it was obvious the catcher wasn't going to be throwing full force for a short while, however they decided to keep him in anyway. James wasn't very popular with his catcher at that point, both for the changeup and for hitting him.

On the next play the batter got a bunt down. The next ball was thrown hard inside to the catcher's sore arm, clearly going against his signaled play, causing him to drop it, the ball rolling to the backstop.

"Passed ball," we could hear the announcer shouting joyfully. "The man on third scores, the catcher is having some difficulty locating the ball. The player from second is rounding third. The catcher locates the ball and it is a footrace. The umpire signals safe. The Cubs are now down two runs! The catcher is having a terrible day and James looks the victim of some hard luck of his own."

In what was becoming somewhat formulaic, James struck out the next player with a series of blazing pitches. The score was now two runs ahead. The following pitch was a soft hanging curve ball which the batter anticipated, putting it right between second and third base. The next pitch was a grooved batting practice fastball that even I could recognize, but the batter flubbed it and only hit a single.

"Two out, man on first and second. It looks like they are trying for some insurance runs," the announcer gloated. Despite the low volume on the sound, everyone was anxiously listening to his descriptions now.

James then threw two more fastballs before throwing yet another easy pitch, which the batter managed to nail. With two outs the batter and the men on base took off on contact. The outfielder managed to run down the ball and was preparing to throw it home, but James waved him off, getting him to throw it to him instead. Once he got it he looked around in apparent confusion until the fourth run scored, then he nailed the throw home, putting an end to the game with an exact four run lead, exactly as predicted.

The rest of the Announcer's observations were drowned out by Caroline's gasps and Chalise's cries. My heart sank, although I'd been expecting it to happen all along. I'd really hoped against all expectations that he wouldn't have gone through with it.

The entire thing occurred just as I'd forecast, I still didn't know if it was decisive enough to prove anything, but it was our strongest hand. I doubted the police would have any justification to question him about it, but hopefully they'd be talking to the baseball commissioner, which I assume they'd already done, potentially putting pressure on him to explain why he did as Rakeem had supposedly predicted.

Since no one else knew what was going on, they were surprised when Chalise yelled and Caroline started crying. Cate and Becky entered and looked on questioningly, but I was too busy trying to calm two distraught women. Mom and Dad also entered. Dad looked at me and mouthed "It was only a game" to me while rolling his eyes. I let him know with a look that he'd best not say anything as I continued to focus on the girls. Cate continued giving me her questioning look so I gave her my patented 'can I get some help' expression, and she hurried over and helped me with the girls.

"Was that what was supposed to happen?" Caroline asked me through red rimmed eyes. I nodded.

"He hit the spread exactly, and even his beaning the catcher to keep him from interfering was planned," I told them. "What's more, he waited until the very last moment in order to increase the betting odds."

"I think we should be heading home," Caroline said bravely.

"Nonsense, Caroline. The two of you aren't going anywhere. You can take the spare room if you want some privacy, but you'll do better with support right now."

Just then Nikki came in with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. She didn't know why it was necessary, but she was ready to offer assistance. It was a long evening, but we managed it without Caroline or my girlfriends spilling the beans about why the game was so important. Actually, they didn't know themselves, they just knew that James had thrown the game to pay for his attempt on my life. But that didn't explain why he'd be making the payment almost a week after that attempt had failed. Luckily, no one asked that particular question.

'It's done, ' I told Gail. 'It went down just like we expected it would.'

'I'm not surprised. I'll give Michelle a call, though I assume it's out of either of our hands now. Either the Baseball Commission will do something or they won't. If they don't, we may have to consider other options. But the police can't really get involved if the commission doesn't think it's significant enough.'

'Maybe leaking it to the press would help?' I suggested.

'Possibly, but you'd need something to get their attention, and frankly you don't have anything that would do it. It still looks like a weak case. I hate to say it, but if we could catch the people trying to kill you again, and publicly tie them into the baseball game, thereby establishing clear links to everyone, which would really get everyone excited about it.'

'Yeah, I can see that. It's looking like my idea of letting the assassination attempt play out is our best bet.'

'Yeah, but I don't like it. You are much too important to be playing as a pawn. The problem is no one knows your true worth on the game board, and we can't tell anyone about it, either.'

'Don't worry, we'll work it out. But right now I've got other things to focus on.'

So I spent the rest of the evening taking care of several distraught women. I finally ended up sleeping in the spare room with both Chalise and Caroline, all of us fully clothed. Of course that meant eventually the other women migrated in as well, so we ended up with a bunch of women lying on the bed in the spare room all fully clothed. But at least everyone managed to sleep.

The next morning I awoke temporarily confused by the sleeping arrangements. I was cuddled up to Chalise who was nestling her mother, someone was cuddling me but I didn't know who, and there were women all around us. I stretched and started to get up, which wasn't an easy thing to do in such a crowded bed.

'Good to see you're up, ' Anh told me. 'Natalie and I will be in to grab everyone's clothes and press them. Caroline and Chalise didn't bring any clothes, but we have enough people here I think we can find them something to wear.'