Paradigms Lost (35 page)

“So you have to know the truth about them—not just because it’s your right to know about anything that might be endangering you and your family, but also because we just don’t know what the ultimate results of the genetic tampering that was done to them will be. You might come home tomorrow to find one of them suffering from some disability or condition which simply isn’t even recognizable by medical science.”

To my surprise, Paula MacLain didn’t burst into a flurry of questions, and she didn’t attempt to argue about what was going on. She looked more pale, and after an inquiring glance at me, she lit a long cigarette and drew a shaky breath. A few moments later, she dropped her gaze and considered the half-smoked cigarette. “Usually I take my time on these.” She looked back up. “Jason, I appreciate your candor.”

I’m sure my startlement showed on my face. “Most people would have said something else, and ‘candor’ wouldn’t be even close to the meaning, either.”

“Oh, it’s a preposterous story, young man,” she said. “Yet I’m old enough to know that sometimes life
is
preposterous. However, that isn’t why I accept that most, if not all, of your story is true.”

Taking another drag from the cigarette, she continued. “I’ve been on many different committees over the years. I’ve seen a great deal of material marked ‘Top Secret’ and heard all the ‘in the interests of national security’ speeches. So, I’m familiar with the type of reports I get from my own investigators whenever someone has been nosing around my life.

“After I adopted Jackie and Tai, I started getting hints that
someone
was showing interest. The hints were terribly subtle, though, and whenever I hired someone to poke back, so to speak, they found nothing concrete. Just recently—about the time you first contacted me, in fact—these little hints became more frequent, and my best people came to the conclusion that whoever it was had to be top-level intelligence, and that there might be more than one group of them, all sniffing around my family. I tried using my own connections to find out what was going on, but got nothing.

“At one point, Jackie became aware that I thought someone might be spying on us. That night, he tried to leave, taking his little brother with him. When I got them back, he insisted that he had to, but he simply wouldn’t tell me why. He’s been worried ever since, and I’ve gotten the extremely strong impression from him that he is more worried about my safety than his own.”

I nodded. “That would fit.”

“It certainly would. Now, while I happen to believe you are telling me the truth, or as much of it as you think is safe, I’d appreciate a bit more in the way of solid evidence. I’ve come here without any meddling lawyers or bodyguards so that we could be honest and say what we want, and so I hope we can get this all out of the way.”

I glanced at the clock. “How much time do you have, Paula?”

She smiled. “A bit more than I might have implied at the beginning. Start out with the other side under pressure, that’s always been my motto. If you can manage to feed me, I daresay I can stay for the rest of the evening if necessary.”

Smiling back, I said, “I suppose I could manage that as we get around to dinnertime.” I switched on the air filter—while I don’t particularly mind smoke, some clients and friends do. “Assuming that what I said is true, what would your position be with respect to Tai Lee Xiang? He’s started a quite respectable carpentry and woodcarving business; he’s not a shiftless layabout.”

“My position isn’t markedly changed, Jason,” she answered. “I don’t care what dangers come with them, they’re my children now, and anyone—mad scientists or otherwise—who tries to take them from me will, I assure you, lose their hands. Their true father is another story, naturally. I have noticed genuine sadness in the boys on the few occasions they’ve mentioned their father, so I know that he inspired affection. This, of course, isn’t sufficient to prove that he was, or could currently be, a good father to them, only that he wasn’t such a monster or disciplinarian as to lose the love of his children. If I can be confident that he will be good for the children . . .” her face worked for a moment, “. . . well, Jason, we will work something out, I promise you. I lost my family once, you know.”

I nodded.

“Then understand—I know what that feels like. If I know that Tai Lee Xiang is a good man, then I will not cause him the same kind of pain. He will see his children again. To do anything else would make me the monster, and while the thought of letting the children leave me—perhaps for months at a time—hurts far more than you could imagine, I would rather bear that pain than know I was taking another person’s family away.” She was back under control, at what cost I really didn’t know. “I hope that makes my position clear enough.”

“Perfectly clear. And I thank you, Paula. I’m sure we will be able to work something out.” I glanced at my watch. “I think I can give you some more solid evidence, but not until later today.”

Seeming relieved to have a break from what was obviously a very emotional topic, she accepted a temporary shift away from the business conversation and spent the next little while quizzing me about the Morgantown Incident—getting my version of the story, rather than the trimmed, edited, and perhaps not entirely accurate version that the press releases contained. By the time we finished, it was getting towards evening.

“Well, Senator,” I said, “if your reputation can survive the scandal of being seen out in a restaurant with a younger man, I think it’s time to get you the dinner I promised.”

She laughed. “Mr. Wood, my reputation doesn’t need protecting. And having seen pictures of the young lady you’re currently dating, I suspect no one would believe any scandal about us anyway.”

“I didn’t know my love life was so, um, public.”

“It isn’t, really, but as I said, I had people investigating. With you being one of the principals in this matter, there was a fair amount of digging into your background as well.”

I wasn’t sure I liked that, but on the other hand it wasn’t anything surprising. I shrugged and offered my arm. “In that case, Paula, shall we?”

CHAPTER 49

Mother and Father

“Senator MacLain, welcome,” Morgan said, bowing and escorting us inside. “Master Verne is just this way.” He took our coats—it was chilly outside now in mid-fall.

Verne and Kafan—rather, I reminded myself, Tai Lee—rose as she entered. “Senator, what a pleasure,” Verne said, quite sincerely. “Allow me to present my foster son, Tai Lee Xiang.”

The two studied each other. Tai’s face was, if anything, more coldly controlled than MacLain’s—not surprising, since he knew that if it came to a dragged-out legal fight for custody, this woman was virtually certain to beat him hands-down. “Senator,” he said, bowing formally.

“Mr. Xiang.” She extended her hand, which Tai took after a moment. “I will say the same to both of you as I said to Mr. Wood: let’s not waste time on formalities. Call me Paula, and I’ll call you Tai and Verne, and let’s see if we can begin to reach some solution to this problem.”

“An eminently sensible suggestion,” Verne approved. “Very well, Paula. Where would you like to begin? I presume that Jason has already told you a great deal.”

She managed a small smile at that. “You might say that, yes. Let us start with you, Verne. Jason tells me you are no longer associated with any of your drug-dealing contacts. Is this indeed true? For you must understand that any—absolutely any—association with drug-dealing is poison to any political career. If the father of my children is found to be living in the same home as someone of that sort . . .” She trailed off, having made her point clear without needing to belabor it.

Verne sighed. “To be utterly frank, the answer is yes and no. No longer do I, or any of my associates, have any connection with people who deal in illegal substances. However, some of the ‘contacts’ I used during my days as a supplier of such substances I now use for other. They have shifted their, how shall I put it, inventory and supply lines.”

She looked a bit nonplussed. “You mean that the same people who used to ship, or arrange the shipping of, large amounts of cocaine and so on are the ones doing other, non-drug-related work for you now? They simply dropped such a lucrative trade?”

“Quite so.”

“You will pardon me if I find that a bit hard to believe,” she said. “Most people who were involved in such a business find that the money is quite tempting and continue in it no matter what.”

Verne’s expression was slightly amused. “In the majority of ordinary cases, I have no doubt you are correct, Paula. However, there is little that is ordinary in my case. My ‘contacts’ are not ordinary people, in any sense of the term, and have helped with matters of supply and demand, off and on, for an extremely long time. It is, in fact, their business—one in which they take great pride—to drop one line of supply and, within days or weeks, develop another pipeline of supply for an entirely different class of materials that is, in quality and efficiency, quite the equal of the one they dropped.”

Paula opened her mouth, closed it, thought for a moment, then spoke. “Hm. When you say ‘an extremely long time,’ Verne, am I correct in interpreting that to mean something long to a man of your nature, not merely long in terms I am used to thinking in?”

“That would be correct, Paula. For instance, many of the principals involved helped me obtain some of the materials that recently went on display in Cairo. I received these materials shortly after they had been removed from their proper resting place, due to the fact that my suppliers knew of my interest—very long-standing—in preserving materials of historic and cultural value when I could.”

I had guessed at something of the sort, but it was still mind-boggling to imagine some group of people who acted essentially as general-purpose suppliers and had endured since at least the middle period of the Egyptian dynasties.

Something similar was probably going through Paula’s mind at this point, but her demeanor didn’t change. “I must presume, then, that they are experienced at being circumspect about their activities?”

“If you are asking if it is possible that they can be connected to me, especially in a drug-related context, I would say it is extremely unlikely. It happened once, very long ago, and those were special circumstances. In other words, you do not need to worry about these connections of mine becoming an embarrassment to you.”

Paula nodded, looked at Tai. “And yours?”

Tai shrugged. “Mr. Wood made the connection between me and the murderer the Viet were hunting because he thought something peculiar was going on, and because he’s very good at what he does. Mr. Wood assures me that the IDs that were supplied to me are unimpeachable. So I don’t think any evidence will come to light unless I make a nuisance of myself somewhere and make someone really start digging.”

Paula laughed suddenly. “I see! If, for instance, there was a loud, public custody battle, I might cause the very kind of uproar I want to avoid.”

Tai nodded.

“All right,” she said, “I’ve had my opening shots; either of you gentlemen wish to return fire?”

“I want to know about my children. How are they? Are they safe, really?”

Paula’s face softened slightly. “Jackie—Seb, to you—and Tai are perfectly safe. They’re wonderful children. Jackie always tries to do whatever he can around the house, even though he doesn’t really need to, and he’s so good in his studies. Tai, well, he’s a bit of a scamp, but he never means any harm. I would think they’re as safe in a senator’s house as possible.”

Until now, Tai had been taut in posture—like a cat with its back up. But as Paula talked about the children, he seemed to relax. There was no single specific change I could point to; he just seemed to settle back.
Something
had reassured him, far beyond anything her words could have done.

“They’d be much safer here,” he said, but there was no confrontational edge in his voice.

Paula raised an eyebrow. “You are so sure of that?”

“I would be here,” he said. “And so would Father. I know your military and your security. They aren’t bad. But they cannot guard a home half as well as we can.”

I could sense that Paula wanted to debate that, but she had intuition as good as mine, and knew Tai was telling the truth, at least as he saw it. “Do you concur with this, pardon the expression, extravagant assessment of his abilities, Verne?” she asked.

“Better, I think, that you ask Jason,” Verne replied. “He has more extensive knowledge of modern security than I, and has personally witnessed my abilities and those of Tai Lee.”

In response to her questioning glance, I grinned. “Beyond doubt. Paula, you must realize how difficult it is to ‘get out’ of the drug business, especially if there were highly placed people relying on you. Verne was able to provide them with a convincing argument to leave him utterly alone. By himself. Tai can take care of himself and those around him equally well.”

“I see.”

Morgan came in, carrying two trays of the sinful snacks he always provided to visitors. It was a good thing I didn’t spend more time here, or I’d start to become a far bigger man than I’d ever expected. Like Elvis. “No thanks, Morgan—I really have to cut down.”

“I’ll have some,” Tai said, hungry as usual.

Paula took a sampler plate and accepted a glass of wine. “Now, I was hoping for some direct physical evidence of the more unusual claims Jason has made. He said you would provide such evidence?”

Verne couldn’t quite restrain a smile. “I think we can arrange that, yes. I believe the same evidence that convinced Jason should suffice, eh, Tai?”

Tai smiled. “Why not.” He swallowed another bite, then went to the stairwell. “Genshi? GENSHI! I know you’re up there trying to listen in! Come down!”

That familiar clatter-patter of clawed feet immediately sped down the stairs. Genshi, now used to seeing people come and go, wasn’t nearly as shy as he had been the night Sylvie and I met him; he toddled up to Paula, who was staring down at him wide-eyed, and smiled, wagging his golden tail.

“This is my youngest son, Genshi,” Tai said. “My son Tai, named after me, can change to a very similar form, but was trained to avoid it. Seb’s transformation is considerably less extreme, though still very easy to notice.”