The Secret (The Scinegue Series Book 1) (31 page)
“You know,” Uncle Bill put a hand on Billy’s shoulder, “the house in the Scinegue subdivision is yours. Yours and Sarah’s to do with what you like. We are making sure all the houses are cleared of any recording devices. We’re also disabling the tracking feature in the implanted monitors that the employees receive. It’s a nice safety feature, but until we can guarantee that it can’t be used for evil, we won’t be using it at all. That’s not what we have developed this company to be about.” He looked at each member of the group noting their agreement.
“We want to have like-minded individuals working for us that don’t have to be monitored. I’m afraid we, the Tops, became so caught up in our idealistic goals and plans that we forgot to keep a closer watch on what was happening within the company and we let someone like Mr. Bryant get a firm foothold.”
Mr. Radcliffe and Mary’s grandmother added their agreement. Billy let his eyes move from Mary to her grandmother, and decided he now had a very good idea of what Mary would look like when she was older. Still beautiful with silver hair replacing the deep red and an added layer of refinement that Mary was even now growing into.
“It shows a sad state of things,” Mrs. Sinclair sniffed, giving Mary a reproachful look and earning a contrite one in return, “when your own granddaughter is unsure if you are involved in a sinister plot just because an individual has enough influence within the company to convince everybody that his plans are ours. We have decided to take a more hands-on approach within the company,” she continued. “If people are acquainted with us, they will have no reason to question our beliefs and our direction for the company. Everyone will know if they hear of plans that run contrary to our own that we haven’t had a sudden change of heart, but that evil is once again trying to infiltrate our company, and I believe it will be stopped much faster.”
“That leads to another idea we’ve had,” Uncle Bill continued Mrs. Sinclair’s thought. “Each of us has chosen someone to take our place when we can no longer fulfill our duties. As you know, Billy, you are my chosen replacement.” He patted Billy’s shoulder.
“We are making a plan for each of you to begin your duties sooner than originally planned. We would like to have you in active roles as junior Tops, so to speak, rather than keeping you in the dark about our plans until you are thrust into a Top position. You will work within the company as our direct representatives while learning more about our beliefs. Is that something you are interested in?”
Billy sought Sarah’s eyes, knowing it was something he could never do without her full support. She met his look with a nod and a warm smile.
“I would be honored, sir,” Billy answered before giving his uncle’s coat sleeve a gentle tug. “I was hoping to speak to you privately for a minute, Uncle Bill.”
Uncle Bill dipped his head toward the group. “If you will all excuse us.”
Billy led him outside, and they sat on the large porch swing. “I found this in my great-grandfather’s desk this morning. My other great-grandfather’s desk,” he added for clarification. He carefully pulled the letter Jacob Roth had written years ago from his interior jacket pocket. “I think you should have it.”
Uncle Bill took the letter and read it slowly. Billy looked away when he saw tears streaming down the older man’s cheeks unchecked.
This should probably be a private moment for him,
he thought, wondering if he should leave.
Before he could, Uncle Bill looked up with a radiant smile on his face. “What a wonderful benediction! What a wonderful man.” He dabbed at his tears with a folded handkerchief he tugged from his pocket. “All these years with that guilt hanging over me, wiped away by his generous words. I hope you feel the same as he does, and are able to forgive me as well.”
“Completely,” Billy assured him. “The pledge he mentions in this letter?” Billy carefully watched his uncle’s face. “His copy was in the drawer with this.”
Uncle Bill looked up to watch a squirrel busy in a pecan tree nearby. “You read it?”
“Yes, Sarah and I both did. We know what you’ve undertaken. I probably wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t personally experienced it.”
“Do you believe it now?”
“I find it almost incomprehensible, but yes,” Billy nodded firmly, “I believe.”
“Do you think that is a commitment you would be able to make?” Uncle Bill asked, carefully hiding his anxiety over what Billy’s answer might be.
“Sarah and I talked about it, and I don’t think there is any other choice.” Billy shrugged. “Believing what we believe, whether we sign that actual pledge or not, I think it’s our duty to uphold it.”
Uncle Bill leaned over and hugged Billy, tears filling his eyes again. “I so wish Jacob and Elaine were here with us now. They would be just as proud of you as I am.”
He handed the letter back to Billy. “Thank you for sharing this with me. However, it is written to you and only right that you should keep it. I’m thankful you have been given a glimpse into what a great man Jacob was.”
Billy carefully returned the paper to his pocket. “So is the pledge something I take now?”
“Not just yet. If you are willing, you can work within the local Scinegue as a junior Top, as I mentioned, and take that time to learn and grow.”
He gave Billy a sidelong look. “As you read in the Pledge and have seen for yourself now, we’ve been up against a very real form of evil since the day we formed Scinegue, and the danger is also very real. And so hard to predict,” his voice held a note of frustration. “We can undertake one project with no interference at all, and then the next is under attack for its duration.”
“So, Mr. Bryant
was
possessed?” Billy caught onto the inference and asked with a slight catch in his voice.
Uncle Bill turned to face him. “We weren’t lying to you earlier. It would be very difficult to prove that Mr. Bryant was under an evil influence. But it is possible, and unfortunately would be far from the first time we’ve experienced something similar.”
Billy thought about that and finally broke the silence that was growing between them. “I have a lot to learn,” he admitted. “I feel like I wasted most of my life being on the fence about God. I was raised to believe in Him, and there were enough holes in the theory of unplanned evolution to make me believe that it took an actual plan to make us what we are, but I never jumped in whole-heartedly. I guess you could say I believed in God but didn’t accept Him, if that makes sense.”
Uncle Bill gave him a knowing smile. “You are far from alone in that I am afraid,” he said, remembering his own early struggles with the same issue. “I believe your indecision is what made you a target for Mr. Bryant. Without God on your side he believed he would be able to influence you to do what he wanted within the company.”
Billy considered that. “I want to live the way I’m supposed to live, and although I hope to never encounter anything as creepy as Mr. Bryant under whatever evil influence controlled him, if I do, I want to be ready. I want to make sure others are ready.”
Birds scattered into a burst of startled flight from the tree in the corner of the yard, and from the safety of a high branch a squirrel scolded an intruder that dared to encroach on its space.
Uncle Bill darted a distracted glance in the direction of the noise, then focused a far-away look on a cloud overhead, missing the quick flash of blue partially concealed by the tree’s trunk.
The swing moved with a slow glide, and Billy watched his uncle from the corner of his eye, hesitant to interrupt his thoughts. Finally, Uncle Bill’s head dipped in a slow nod as if in response to a whispered message, and he replied to Billy’s concerns, “You’ll be ready, my boy. You’ll be ready.”
Is Uncle Bill right? Will Billy be prepared for his next encounter with Evil as it takes on a new form?
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The Secret
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SR
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S
tanding hand-in-hand before the painting of a large, white
Catamaran
surrounded on all sides by calm blue waters, with just the suggestion of an island to the side, William Berkley turned to his beautiful new bride with excitement evident on his face. “Are you ready, my dear?”
Elizabeth Sinclair Berkley stared at the painting and hesitated. She knew if Scinegue said it was safe, it was safe. It was just so
new
. She took a deep breath and her green eyes flashed. She hadn't reached this point in life by being timid.
“I'm ready,” she told her husband, her lips curving upwards, her excitement building to match his. Together they reached up and touched the painting of the boat. And disappeared.
C
risp blue skies met and swirled with deep blue waters as Billy Roth’s focus on the painted sailboat blurred into a daydream. His eyes drifted closed, and he could feel the warm sun on his skin, smell the salt-tinged air as he sailed over calm seas. His head nodded, and his chin slipped off his fist. He jerked and straightened in his chair, looking around his office with surprise as he left the tropics behind in a blink.
As much as he loved his job, he was having trouble staying on task this morning. He pulled a stack of multi-colored folders across his desk towards him and shifted through them, feeling guilty for his brief, unscheduled vacation. He had a mountain of work waiting for him. Something just felt off today, in that elusive ‘scalp tingling’ sort of way that was persistent enough to make him restless and unable to focus.
He rolled his head from side to side and thought about calling his wife, Sarah, just to make sure everything was okay at home—maybe make lunch plans—then remembered that she and Linda Brown were teaching a class today.
Appearance wise, Linda and Sarah were about as different as they could be. Linda was tall with dark hair while Sarah was petite and blond and several years younger. But it didn’t take long for them to discover a shared interest in self-sustainability, and they soon started teaching preserving and fermenting classes together.
Billy’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food, and he pressed a hand against it. Breakfast had been a long time ago, and he was getting hungry.
Mary
, he thought suddenly. He would invite her to lunch, maybe run his concerns by her. She would at least know if anything strange was going on within the company.
He leaned forward and pushed the intercom button on his desk. Expecting to hear Mary’s voice, he was surprised when a male voice answered. He’d somehow forgotten about his new secretary, Tom Kemp.
“Yes, um, Tom,” Billy’s brows furrowed, and his face contorted into a frown, “would you contact Mary Sinclair? Invite her to join me for lunch in Kitchen 3. If she accepts, find out what she would like to eat, please.”
“Yes, sir,” Tom’s reply was prompt and meek.
Tom was a recent addition to the company, and Billy still wasn’t convinced he needed a personal secretary. He drummed his fingers on the desktop as he thought about it. He’d always just asked the main receptionist, Mary, for the few things he needed. But he now had a secretary.
A male secretary
, he thought, and then laughed out loud. He had a suspicion that Sarah was behind the idea to hire a man.
Several months earlier, he and Mary were trying to unravel the source of a plot within Scinegue that Linda had warned them about. A sticky situation had called for some role playing to avoid detection, and he and Mary had shared a couple of innocent kisses. He’d quickly confessed to Sarah, and she had been completely understanding, even gracious.
Still, a male secretary.
The intercom interrupted his musings. “Ms. Sinclair would be pleased to join you in thirty minutes if that works for you, and would like a chicken Caesar salad.”
“Thanks, Tom. Will you ask the chef to prepare two salads, please?”
“Yes, sir.” The intercom was silent again.
Tom was one of the first Scinegue employees to break the stereotypical mold that had been in place for years. He wore glasses and had braces on his teeth and was noticeably shorter than most of the men at the company, probably four or five inches shorter than Billy’s 6’2”.
Not defects by any means, but traits that would have disqualified him from the position by the previous manager, Eugene Bryant. Tom was sharp though. That was the one thing that was still required at Scinegue, intelligence
,
and a willingness to put it to good use.
Billy’s expression was thoughtful as he picked a pistachio from the glossy, wooden bowl on his desk—Sarah ensured he always had something healthy to snack on—and absently broke off the partially cracked shell before popping it in his mouth. He decided he really needed to spend some time getting to know Tom. Their only conversations so far had been similar to the previous one
:
brief and to the point.
He appreciated a hard worker with a polite attitude, but he also wanted them to be able to be friends. If they were going to work together every day—and it looked like they were—they should be able to enjoy each other’s company.
Maybe he would invite Tom to lunch tomorrow,
he thought vaguely.
He glanced at the time and popped another pistachio in his mouth then swept the shells from his desk into the trash and brushed off his hands. With twenty-nine minutes until lunch, he was determined to make up for the lost time he’d daydreamed away earlier. He pulled up a file on his computer that corresponded with the physical file he’d just opened about the new education program Scinegue was getting ready to release.
His worries faded as he immersed himself in the program overview. The trial results showed impressive increases in both aptitude and IQ scores over a very short period of time. The games and fun activities proposed for the center were designed to compete with video games, while adding several layers of learning that most video games didn’t provide.
Billy pictured himself with Sarah, each holding a toddler’s hand as they explored the activities at a place like this. Family fun
and
learning. What more could you want? He focused on reviewing the research that led to this idea and the expected results once it was implemented.
S
he uncurled and arched her back, her eyes flashing a brilliant blue as she surveyed her surroundings. Flexing her paws she unsheathed the deadly claws from within before just as quickly retracting them. She wasn’t sure how long she’d slept in the rocky crevice just outside the city, but time was irrelevant for her now. Days, months, years. They blended together until she could no longer tell one from the other.
She’d been awakened for a new mission—a simple mission really, how hard could it be to destroy a helpless, unborn babe? If success was hers this time, she’d be free of this cat-like form she’d been confined to for far too long. And if the master was very pleased, she might be able to free her cousin as well.
“M
r. Roth,” Tom’s voice blared through the intercom.
Billy’s eyes darted up to check the time. He was amazed that the twenty-nine minutes had passed so quickly! That was something he really loved about this job; his work was always so interesting the days usually flew by.
“Mr. Roth?” Tom questioned. “It’s time for your lunch with Ms. Sinclair.”
Billy clicked to close the computer file before pushing the intercom button. “Thanks, Tom. I’m on my way now.”
Down the hall a few doors, Billy entered the gourmet kitchen/dining room. Bold paintings of larger-than-life fruits and vegetables decorated the pale walls, adding vivid splashes of color that highlighted the place settings on the table.
The chef glanced up and nodded at Billy.
“Hey, Matt. Smells great!”
“Thank you, Mr. Roth.” Matt smiled as he finished slicing a chicken breast before adding it to the bowls of crisp salad greens on the counter.
Mary stood by the table. Tall and regal looking, with deep red hair and a porcelain complexion, she was impeccably dressed as always. She leaned forward as Billy bent to kiss her cheek. “Thanks for joining me, Mary.”
“Thanks for inviting me,” Mary replied with a teasing smile. “You know a lowly receptionist like me doesn’t have a private kitchen.”
She winked at him and he laughed, both of them fully aware that she, along with all of the other employees, could have an excellent meal at the restaurant located on the other side of the building.
They sat at the round dining table, and their meals were placed before them with a flourish.
“Thanks, Matt. This looks delicious,” Billy told the retreating chef.
And it really did. All of Scinegue’s food was grown using very precise conditions intended to yield the highest quality food, and as an added bonus the high quality food was scrumptious.
Mary bowed her head, and Billy gave thanks for the food.
“So, have you heard anything from your grandmother since they left?” Billy asked, before taking a bite of his salad.
“Not a word.” Mary shook her head, and a smile played across her lips as she cut off a small piece of chicken. “I think they’re going to be true to their word and stay completely unreachable for their entire honeymoon.”
“Good for them!” Billy raised his glass of water in a toast. “Sarah and I are so happy for them both. It was unexpected, sure, but Uncle Bill deserves a chance to have a happy marriage. Even if it is coming pretty late in the game.”
“And Grandmother is a very strong, proud woman, but she was widowed almost twenty years ago! I’m really happy for them, too.”
“Have you made a decision yet?” Billy asked seemingly out of the blue, but Mary easily connected the question to her grandmother and her role in the company.
“About my future position?”
“Yes.”
“I’m leaning towards remaining a Protector,” she shifted towards him and confided quietly so the chef wouldn’t hear her. “I will become a Top if I’m needed, but I’ve been raised to be a Protector. It’s in my blood.”
Billy nodded as he chewed. “I can understand that. You’re lucky you found your place in life at such a young age. It took me almost thirty years to figure out where I belong.”
Mary laughed at him. “You have a ways to go before you’re thirty. Anyway, you know I had a little more help than you did. I don’t think there was a day of my life that my parents weren’t preparing me for my position. Your parents didn’t even know you had a position.” She put down her fork and caught Billy’s eye. “Do they know now?”
“No.” Billy frowned down at his salad. “Uncle Bill left the decision up to me of what, if anything, I want to tell my family about this whole situation. So far, I can only see it bringing my parents pain. And Sarah and I decided not to tell her parents about my future position unless it becomes absolutely necessary for some reason, and I can’t imagine that it ever will.”
Mary chuckled. “Sarah filled me in on her mom a little bit. It sounds like if she finds out you’re a ‘somebody’, she’ll brag about it to every person she knows. That would not help you maintain a low profile at all.”
As the potential future head of a large company which maintained a low profile itself, Billy certainly didn’t need every person in the surrounding area knowing his connection.
A dish clattered against the side of the sink as the chef returned the kitchen to its pristine condition, and Billy glanced towards the noise before turning back to Mary with a sigh. “Sarah’s mom is nice, but she’s all about image. My position as a garbage collector almost did her in. Her precious daughter married to a ‘sniff’ garbage man.”
Mary laughed.
“She was just fine when I was working two office jobs trying to make ends meet. It’s not like I changed in any way when I collected garbage, but her image of me sure did.” He jabbed his fork into his salad.
“There are some days when there’s nothing more I would rather do than tell her that her lowly son-in-law is in line to take over a huge company.” A sheepish smile replaced his pensive expression, and he looked at Mary with a shrug. “Can’t help it. I’m still human.”
“I know the feeling.” Mary took a sip of her water. “You might be surprised at how many people come into this building and treat me terribly just because I’m the receptionist. Believe me, there have been so many times I’ve wanted to tell everyone that I’m a Protector, that I’m important, chosen to help keep the world safe for people just like them.”
“People really do judge others by what they do, rather than who they are,” Billy said thoughtfully before adding, “Well, I respected you long before I knew you were a Protector.”
“Yeah, that’s because you were just a
lowly
trash man,” Mary quipped and had them both laughing
“What’s Sarah doing today? I’m sure you would much rather be having lunch with her,” she teased.
“She and Linda had a fermenting class this morning. We have jars lined up on the counter, jars in the fridge, jars in the cupboard.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “She has been doing a lot of experimenting trying to get everything just right for this class.”
He looked up at Mary. “Do you do any of that stuff?”
“Fermenting? Sure. Sarah gave me some milk kefir grains a while back, and they’ve been growing strong ever since. I’ve already had to separate the grains twice, and I was able to pass the extra grains on to some friends who wanted to be able to make their own kefir.”
Billy winced. “I don’t really like to think about stuff growing in my milk.” He pictured the gelatinous, cauliflower shaped kefir grains. “Anyway, they were invited to provide a class to a group of women who are interested in learning how to make their own stuff.”
“Linda’s really expanding.”
“She is,” he confirmed. “It’s amazing to see how she was able to not only overcome the murder of her husband, but to turn it into a purpose. She’s more committed than ever to helping people learn how to provide for themselves. Now, with Scinegue’s backing, she’s able to expand in directions that interest her.”
Billy refilled Mary’s water glass from the pitcher on the table before topping off his own. “Changing the subject a little, talking about Farmer Dan’s death just reminded me that right before everything went down with Mr. Bryant, I was in the atrium one day and overheard you talking with some people.”
He gave her a searching look. “I’m guessing now that they were other Protectors?”
Mary looked surprised but nodded briefly in confirmation.
“Well, I heard someone ask if you told me everything about what was happening. You said you hadn’t.”
Mary remained silent.
“May I ask now what else was going on?”
Mary twisted the cloth napkin in her lap a few times before coming to a decision. “Billy, you know about the pledge for the Tops, right?” She looked up to see him nod. “Well, the Protectors have a pledge of their own. It’s not that I don’t trust you, because I do. I really,
really
do, but until you take your pledge and become a Top, it’s not something I can reveal to you.”