Laura's Secret (6 page)

“Okay, continue your diagnostic while I check that out.”

She wheeled around to a metal cabinet in the corner. Opening the doors she pulled out a mini mag-lite and lit up quadrant two. After tightening the loose connection she closed the cabinet and went back to the monitor where codes were streaming across the surface.

“Maggie, I think I’ve repaired the problem in quadrant two, give it another check for me please,” she spoke aloud, the microphone built into the system picking up her voice easily.

“Thank you, dear. Everything is ship shape now. I’ve set the house temp to a comfortable seventy-two degrees. If I have any problems I’ll ring you,” said Maggie’s disembodied voice.

“Okay, Maggie, the house is yours.” Turning off the monitor Laura turned to Ben. “Any questions?”

He stood up carrying his chair back out, Laura following behind. They went back in the direction of the kitchen since it was time to start dinner preparations. “Only about a million of them! I hope I get a chance to learn from you.”

“I’m sure something can be worked out,” she said, moving to the refrigerator. All of the counters and appliances were down on her level. The walls were covered in art instead of cabinets. She had a large pantry with easy access shelves and a walk-in refrigerator set up to her specifications. In addition to her kitchen, she also had a catering kitchen at normal scale and there was a third commercial kitchen several levels down. It was part of her large addition in the caverns. She was looking forward to explaining it all to her new, hopefully friendly, shifter acquaintances.

While Laura worked in the kitchen, Tom and Ben unpacked all of her office equipment. They didn’t hook up anything, just arranged it in an orderly fashion on the long conference table at one end of the room. There was so much stuff that even Ben was unsure what to put on the desk. In the bedroom Mara was putting away all of Laura’s clothes. She set aside a bag of dirty laundry to take into the laundry room off the kitchen. She was just finishing when Ben came to the door.

“Mara,” he said in a low voice. She looked up and then followed him out of the room. When they got to the office/conference room he stepped to the side and waved his arm over to the corner. Stacked up were thirteen aluminum briefcases, all of them were locked. She walked over to them and stretched out her hands. The words of a revealing spell ran past her lips and she jumped back—evil!

“This is bad, this is really bad. Damn, she seemed like such a nice girl too. Chances are good she’s with the Shayatin or The Society, both were made up almost entirely of humans. It’s a good thing the alpha will be here later, he’ll be able to pass judgment.”

They both heard the whirl of Laura’s wheels rolling over the hardwood floors well before she arrived at the door to the office. By the time she got there, they were all over by the conference table acting as if they were placing the final pieces of equipment in order. But Laura didn’t have a genius IQ for nothing. One quick sweep of her eyes and she knew the gig was up.

“It’s a good thing dinner is almost ready. Your Alpha is going to be here soon right? I can tell you guys need to hear what’s up right away. Don’t touch the cases okay, those are for your Alpha. He should be the one to decide what happens to their contents. I feel like there’s some really bad shit in there. I tried to purify it as best as I could for the journey. Tom, bring that laptop on the end along with the power cord and one of the portable mouses too. Ben, did you happen to come across a small red box filled with flash drives?” she asked, trying to read their shocked faces. He just nodded.

“Good, bring that too. That’s also for your Alpha.” Finished speaking, she turned her chair and headed back to the kitchen, praying she’d make it there alive. She talked a good game, but she was shaking inside.

Chapter Seven

Alpha of the Montana shifters, Marshall Connor parked his pickup outside the massive garage at the end of the road. He smelled snow in the air. At this elevation they could have snow sporadically into May. Not enough for skiing, just enough to turn the roads into dangerous icy shit. They’d had a streak of sunny days though, so he guessed they were due.

He went around the side of the garage and over to the walkway. As he went up the mountain he looked over the tramway to his left. The tramway was surrounded by a low wooden wall, then about every eight feet a support column held up a peaked roof. He supposed it would keep the snow off in winter. When it passed under trees, the tramway was covered in plexiglass and when it was in the open, the roof was made of corrugated green plastic painted to blend into the surroundings. He could see why it was as open as possible, it would be like a long dark tunnel otherwise and really claustrophobic. This way the trip up or down would be bearable.

The garage had been built at sixty-four hundred feet up the mountain, the house nearly another two hundred feet up. He hadn’t been up this way so he was surprised at how the finished product blended in so well to the surrounding forest. It consisted of wood, stone, and glass. The central portion looked like a greenhouse only there were metal shutters closed over all the windows and part of the roof. Margie had mentioned something about her growing plants indoors, with that much glass she’d need to burn a lot of fuel to keep it warm enough in the winter months. She didn’t sound like a very smart human, but she was definitely a rich one to have accomplished all this. He walked the rest of the way to the front door and rang the bell.

“Hello, this is Maggie House. Have you come to call?” said a voice to the right. A panel slid open and he saw a screen and a camera lens.

“I’m expected for dinner,” he said.

“Alpha Marshall?” At his nod she continued, “Welcome, come right in,” just as the door clicked open. He walked through but no one was there. As he stepped forward the door began to close again. Looking around he could see the mechanism that opened and shut it. Then the voice came again.

“If you’ll step through the foyer, there is a staircase to the left, or if you prefer, the elevator is straight ahead,” the voice said with a soft British accent that actually sounded vaguely familiar. He took the stairs down and they left him at the end of a hallway. He could hear voices coming from a room off to the right up ahead.

“Your last dinner guest has arrived and should be here momentarily, Laura. Is there anything you need me to do?”

“I think I have everything under control, Maggie. I remembered to turn off the burners on the stove and I’m ready to serve. Thank you for your help, I couldn’t remember all the ingredients. I guess I’m more nervous than I thought.”

“I was glad to help,” said Maggie just as Marshall stepped into the kitchen.

“Laura Donahue?” he inquired.

“Hello, I hope you’re hungry, there’s a lot of food.” Just then Mara appeared in the doorway behind Marshall.

“Here, Laura, Ben, and I will help you carry all this into the dining room. Alpha, Tom has some stuff for you and Laura has a tale to tell us over dinner.”

Laura worked up a smile,
here goes nothing
.

As her guests carried everything into the dining room, Laura wheeled in behind them. She had purchased a heated serving cart but it looked like she wouldn’t need it tonight. Marshall took the seat she gestured him to at the head of the table. Mara sat on one side while Tom and Ben sat on the other. Finally Laura wheeled up to the empty space at the foot of the table. After she made sure her guests were comfortable and had wine or water there was very little talking as the food was passed around the table and each person helped themselves.

Once everyone had a full plate, Laura decided to jump in with both feet and started telling them her tale.

“Okay, long story short. I’m the seventh child and only daughter of loving parents. Found out I was allergic to the sun while still a baby. Got hit by a drunk driver while trick-or-treating when I was seven. Mom got compound fractures to both legs and I got a broken back. Learned to be a programmer from my mom who quit her job with the NSA, where my dad is still working, to be at home and take care of me. Designed my first video game at nine, you may have heard of it, Fae Wars. Started hanging out in chat rooms to see what my next game should be and came across people talking about shifters. My next game was Alpha Quest. Life went on and with time on my hands, combined with a high IQ and access to NSA software, allowed me to set up searches on the internet, social networks, VOIP calls, etcetera, to find out what people were saying about my games. Found two things out. First, shifters and other magical people really exist. And second, there is a war of good and evil being fought under the noses of most of the population. I was a few months past my thirteenth birthday.”

She stopped talking long enough to take a long drink of water. She hadn’t touched her food yet. Here came the hard part.

“I knew I had enough proof that my father would believe me about the shifters. At least he would take a closer look. I didn’t say anything because this was my private secret, Laura’s Secret Shifter World was what I called it and I didn’t want to share that with my overprotective, loving, and sometimes smothering brothers. By this time my mother had died and my father and brothers were worried about losing me too. My health has been frail since my accident. So I decided to gather more data on both sides of the shifter/Shayatin conflict. Using my hacking and data-mining skills, as well as my uncle’s FBI access, I learned quite a bit. By the time I turned sixteen, I’d not only accumulated a huge amount of information, I’d also chosen a side. Good guys being the shifters and magical people and the bad guys are The Society and the Shayatin.”

Stopping once again she looked up at her guests. Unable to meet their eyes and see condemnation she’d been staring at her plate while she played with her food.
Okay, no one was sprouting fur and fangs, so far so good.

“End of story coming up fast. I started making plans to contact the shifter contingent. All of the data I’ve amassed on the bad guys, where their money is, their properties, names, etcetera. Well, I wanted to hand that over to the good guys. I searched for and found this property and started making arrangements to buy it and build this house. I think that covers all the main points. Any questions?” she asked.

“Oh and Tom has a box filled with flash drives. It holds the most important and immediate information on your enemies. There’s quite a bit more, but that will get you started on defending those under immediate threat.”

Mara and Marshall had exchanged a few looks during Laura’s speech. Tom and Ben remained quiet, this was above their pay grade. Marshall was sitting still and calmly eating his very tasty dinner. Inside he was seething, how had a child found out about his people. Their very existence was at risk. If this small human actually had what she said she did, she could show the world at any time. This was not acceptable.

Something had been bothering Mara, so she spoke up while Marshall digested Laura’s words along with her excellent food.

“What’s in the cases?” she asked.

Laura actually blushed. She had done some pretty illegal things and now she had to confess.

“Um, when I discovered the bad guys I kind of hacked into various law enforcement databases. Whenever there was a transferring agent with time on their hands, I set up false orders for them to surveil or set up electronic surveillance on my behalf. One and two day assignments that were routine to them and wouldn’t be noted. The agents I used left the various towns and cities soon thereafter, so they weren’t suspicious of turning over any evidence or information, it was expected. In some cases, I used more clandestine organizations and contract agents. I was able to discover ten artifacts of power. They are evil, four belong to The Society and six were retrieved from the Shayatin. Whenever I uncovered the existence of a grimoire or other object I waited until I found the right person to retrieve it so they wouldn’t be affected, or could at least withstand the evil in the short time they were exposed. They are all packed with healing herbs and surrounded by vials of blessed water,” she explained.

“Why are you here?” he asked her in a quiet voice. He needed to find out what motivated her. Everyone wanted something.

“I’m not going to lie to you. When I first found out about shifters and magical beings, I had hoped to find someone that could heal me. I let that dream go after a few years. I saw some of the things your enemies were doing. I intervened when I could and I think I saved some lives. I have skills. My entire family works for a better world. My dad with the NSA, my uncle and one brother in the FBI, two brothers in the Army, two in the Navy and one in the Marines, while I sat in my dad’s basement programming video games!” her voice going up at the end, showing her emotion and frustration.

“Sure, I might be able to get a job as an analyst with an agency. But once I knew about shifters and what was happening in this world, I realized I had a lot I could offer this community. If I could figure out shifters are real, someone else could too. I’m needed here. I have skills that would be a real benefit in your struggles with your enemies. Well, that’s my story. Are you going to let me live? You can easily kill me you know. I don’t have a box of evidence that would fall into the hands of the authorities or anything if I disappear. I’m more committed to this cause than that. I’m putting my life and my future in your hands,” she stated in a quiet voice. She was determined and wanted them to know it.

She knew she was taking a chance, gambling with her life. How many times had she heard her brothers talk about drawing a line in the sand, making a stand and then living with the consequences? This entire adventure had been about making a stand. And now her life would either end here, or begin here. It seemed like everyone around the table held their breath.

“You’ve been so busy talking, you haven’t eaten. The food is good, you should eat,” he said in his deep gruff voice. He had a great deal to think about. He was Alpha of this region, if she had what she said she had, he needed to consult with the national Alpha. And if what she said about how she learned about them was true, his video conferencing system wasn’t secure. He’d have to find another way to contact national.