First Estate

We discovered that the CIA was the agency we needed to check. They visited the McDonald's and got the information we planted. Mariha zapped over to Mexico to the clinic where Boston was supposed to be. She made some changes to their records and a couple of agents showed up to locate Boston. She had laid a false trail that was pretty convoluted for them to follow.

She was gone three weeks and when she got back she told me we were going to have to do something more about this. She thought I should find a way to contact one of the agents in charge and make this go away. She had them chasing their tails but they would figure it out eventually.

"I don't know how, and you won't teach me," I told her. "What do you want me to do?"

"Ask Lilith to teach you. She knows more than she lets on. Do you know that she was taken by six seraphim once? She was locked in a warded room with them and she killed them all and escaped. She's very lazy and like she said, decadent. It's very hard to get her to do anything but lay around. She won't do much unless it's something very interesting to her. I think it's a result of living so long and seeing so much. She loves you more than anything I've ever known of, Parker. I've known her for 3000 years and I've never seen her like she is with you. Get her to teach you things. She knows even more than I do about many things. She knows all kinds of survival skills and she can fight like nothing I've ever seen. I'd be terrified of her if she was my enemy. She killed seraphim, Parker."

"What are seraphim?"

"A special kind of Watcher. They're designed to kill. They form the guard around the throne room. They should have killed her easily, but instead, she walked out and they died."

I found her stretched out on the sofa, playing chess with Boston. I looked her over. She had always been just Mom to me. I never thought about the way she looked much.

She was very tall, taller even than Sagan was. She probably weighed 160 pounds. She was all muscle. You could see them play under her skin when she moved. She had medium length red hair and skin that looked like she was a pre-pubescent girl. It was very dark, almost a bronze color. She had small breasts, slim hips and a very muscular, but slim butt. I thought most men would think she was very attractive, evidently some female angels, too. She really didn't look dangerous, but you could tell that she was sort of half-asleep all the time. It was like watching a lioness lying in the grass in the sun. There was the feeling that if she woke up, she might kill something.

She looked very young. It was hard to imagine her being thousands of years old, or killing angelic war machines.

"Mom," I walked over and picked her up in my arms and kissed her. "I love you."

"Mmm," she nuzzled her face into my chest. "Me, too, baby.

I sat down and held her on my lap.

"Hey, hello," Boston said. "We're playing chess here."

I put Mom down and pulled her up against me. I patted my lap and Boston came and sat on me with her legs across Mom. "This will be more interesting," I told her.

"Mom, how do you kill six seraphim?"

She threw back her head and laughed, and then she shuddered a little. "You've been talking to angels, haven't you?"

"Yes, but I still want to know. You have to train me and you have to start now. If you don't, I'm a sheep among the wolves. You're my mother; will you do it?"

"Yes, baby, but it's so boring." She looked at me and I could tell she was a little ashamed about her remark. "I don't think you're boring, Parker, so stop looking at me like that. Seraphim are the toughest things you can imagine. They move too fast for the mind to follow, they could decapitate a triceratops with one blow and they have a decentralized nervous system so you can't get in a brain shot. They can go discorporeal or hard as diamond. They shoot beams out of their eyes. They can't be killed."

"So how did you kill six of them?"

"I persuaded them to kill themselves. You joke about me using the force, but it is strong with this one. I cloaked myself and transposed my image on one of them. The others killed it. They aren't very smart. I got them fighting among themselves and they tore one another to pieces. I incinerated the last one. It was too badly hurt to defend itself."

"Jesus, Lilith, you're so smart," Boston told her. "How could you think of that?"

"I've been in a lot of fights with a lot of very dangerous things. To survive, you have to use what's available. Your mind is your best weapon."

"Can you teach us to fight, Mom?"

"Yes. I can't give you experience though."

"Can you teach us to use the force?" Boston asked. "I don't like that. When did we start that? It's not the force. What is it really, Lilith?"

"Angels call it 'manipulation of presence.' I think they mean by that that they are immaterial by nature and they can manipulate time and space. They can also manipulate matter. It's like your telekinesis thing, Parker. You can become immaterial. So can you, Boston. Let's do it."

"How?" Boston asked

"Use your will. Change yourself because you can and you want to."

Her little eyebrows drew together in a cute little frown. I couldn't help kissing her forehead.

"Parker, stop that! How do you expect me to concentrate?"

"Sorry, kitten, you looked to cute to resist. I won't do it again."

She frowned again and I could see her start to waver like heat waves on a road, and she was gone. I followed and Mom blinked out. I heard her voice in my head.

"Now move the black king, Boston. You move the white one, Parker. Don't become visible."

I reached out and dragged the white king two spaces. I saw the black one tremble and then it moved one space.

"You cheated, Parker. The king can only move one place." She started to giggle and she winked in and out and became visible. Mom popped back in.

"Good job, kids. That's most of what you need to know. Angels spend most of their time like that. It wears us out to be like that because we have physical bodies. They only appear when they want to. The only way you know where they are is by seeing something like a king moving. Oh, and they can't be two places at once. I'm told that only God can do that."

"What is one of the other things we need to know?" I asked.

"You need to know how to bend other people to your will. You have to do the mind tricks thing."

"How will we do that?" Boston asked.

"We need a human subject. Who will we use?"

"How about Sagan?" Boston offered.

"Boston, that would be wrong," Mom told her. "You don't do that to people you love. You don't do that to good people. You don't do that to evil people that aren't a threat to you or someone you love. Promise me now or I'll never teach you anything else."

Boston was guilt stricken. "I only meant like a prank."

"It's not a joke. It will get you killed and it will place everyone you love in danger."

"No, I won't ever even think of it again," Boston began to cry.

"Don't you dare cry," Mom was fierce. "When you make a mistake you take your punishment and you don't do it again. Crying bores me."

Boston dried her tears. "I'm sorry, Lilith. I won't cry and I won't do it again."

She gave a miserable little sniff and Mom thawed. "There child, I forgive you and I love you. You're bound to make mistakes. Just don't compound them by feeling sorry for yourself. Let's go find a bad man."

Boston leaped up, ready to go, and we followed her outside and we walked downtown.

"Boston, will you be the bait?" Mom asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, you're a very beautiful girl and there are a lot of sick sons of bitches in the world that take advantage of beautiful little girls. This is a very bad neighborhood and there are probably some of them around. Parker and I will become invisible and you can walk by that bar there. We'll be with you all the time and we won't let anything happen to you. It is impossible for anything to happen to you. If some creep approaches you I'll coach you and you can break him, okay?"

"Yes, I'd like to do that."

I was a little uneasy about this.

"Really, Parker? Do you really think I'd let something happen to this child I love?"

"No, Mom, I'm just pretty new at this. I'm trusting you."

"Thank you, baby. I'm going to talk so that Boston can hear us, too. Are you ready, sweetheart?"

"Yes, let's go."

She walked slowly down the street and in front of a seedy bar on the corner. Sure enough, two men fell in behind her. They didn't seem to notice each other and they evidently weren't together. Suddenly there was a crack and the one closest to Mom and I collapsed on the sidewalk.

"I felt that," Boston said. "What did you do?"

"There were two of them, honey. We only wanted one. I gave the other one a concussion."

Boston giggled and kept walking. We followed along; at least I did. I couldn't tell if Mom was there unless she talked.

"Okay, baby, now I want you to imagine you're in that man's mind. Use your will on him and make him think he's too close. It's just like moving your body, except you move your mind. Do it now. Make him think you're going to notice him following you."

I could tell Boston was concentrating on projecting her thoughts. The man stumbled and dropped back ten yards or so.

"Good, Boston, now I want you to make him think his dick is on fire. Make him think that if he ever lusts after another little girl like that his dick is going to burn off. If he's ever around another little girl he will remember this and he'll run away."

"Jesus, Mom! What's all this about dicks? She's ten, for God's sake."

"I don't care. She knows what a dick it and she knows what that creep wants to do with his. Burn him, Boston."

The man suddenly clutched himself and fell to the ground screaming. He screamed like his dick was on fire and it must have been agonizing. Boston hurried away and I popped back in and ran to catch up with her. I scooped her up and carried her home.

Mom was waiting at the door when we got there.

"What?" she said. "I hate rapists; especially those that rape little girls. I can't tell you the number of times I've been the victim of attacks by people like that."

Boston was trembling with excitement. "Did you burn their dicks off, Lilith?"

"Yes, some of them literally. You did good, baby. Didn't she do good, Parker?"

"Yes, but I don't want her talking about dicks for pity's sake. You're a horrible influence, Mom."

She just laughed. "You turned out okay."

"You didn't talk to me about dicks."

"No, did you want me to?"

I couldn't help laughing. "You're impossible, Mom. Don't ever change. I love you just the way you are. I think she's an old hippie, Boston. Don't let her corrupt you."

"No, I won't. You are very bad, Lilith."

"I know. I've always been perfect," she laughed. "Well, can you do that again, sweetheart? Can you do it, Parker?"

"Yes, it was a great lesson, Mom. What's next?"

"My God, I'm creating monsters. I need a beer and a nap. You kids wear me out. I'm done for today. We'll do more tomorrow or maybe next week."

"No," Boston told her, "we know how lazy you are, Lilith. Tomorrow you're going to teach us two more things, then two more the day after tomorrow. You are our tutor and we want to be taught every day. You aren't to just lie around in pajamas and dream. How did you ever keep a job?"

"Do you imagine that I need to work? It was novel for a while, but I just did it so Parker wouldn't find out too soon."

"Well, you have a job now," I told her, "and we expect you to work at it."

"Oh my God, what did I do to deserve two horrid brats? Okay, okay, I'll do it. I never knew it would be so much trouble to have kids that I love. The others were all odious by the time they were your age and I left them strictly alone."

"That's the way it is when you love someone," Boston told her. "They inconvenience you a lot, but you put up with it because you love them. You're even glad to be inconvenienced, because you want them to be happy. You would feel sad if they weren't around to inconvenience you."

"You're a very perceptive little Siren. I think I'll keep you," Mom told her. "We have a chess game to finish."

"I have two questions first," I told her as I opened two beers and gave her one. "What happens if you try to do that to an angel or someone like us, and can we be detected by angels by doing something like this?"

"You can do it to anyone, and the strongest one winds up forcing the other against their will. You can be detected when you do it. It's sort of like a radio broadcast to angels, but not if you're warded. If you change someone that an angel is watching, they'll know and they'll try to kill you."

"Have you ever forced anyone?" Boston asked.

"Aren't you ever satisfied, child? That's three questions, and I'm tired of them. Go pester Mariha if you want someone to answer questions. Do you want to finish our game or do you want me to take a nap?"

"Game," Boston said and they went off holding hands.

Chapter Nine

It turned out that work kept Mom from being having to give up her indolence. I spent a week in Brazil and had to turn around the next week and go to Austin. I took Sagan with me to Brazil. She had never been out of North America except for our trip to Petit Martinique and she fell in love with Rio. I was able to give her Portuguese fairly easily and she fit right in. We went out on the town every night and I've never danced so much in my life. Sagan was a very nimble girl and so smoking hot that I constantly had to fend off the locals.

I was thinking a lot about making her a Siren. I hadn't brought the subject up to her, but I worried about her every moment I was away from her. Boston was far better equipped than she was for the kind of life we were leading. Mariha dropped in on us and stayed a day and a night. I asked her what she thought.

"Well, it's up to Sagan. I would really feel much better about her if she were. We're mixed up in some pretty dangerous business, Parker. The CIA is looking for those girls actively. They know she isn't in Mexico. At least they know she isn't where she's supposed to be. She's a secondary target. They really want Boston, but if they caught her, they would try to extract information from her. You know that their extraction methods aren't exactly civilized. That senate report that came out a couple of months ago about how they tortured people is a pretty grim document."

"What if she were a Siren? Would she be strong like us?"

"No, she's human. Neither one of those girls have your genetic package. But she could use the presence just like you and Boston and she'd be stronger than humans. They have a couple of tame demons, Parker. They may press them for information. I don't mean they have them in thrall or anything, but they do deals."

"What would a demon know?"

"It would know Siren blood when it saw it. Well, I should say it would recognize the angel blood type. I'm not sure they would reveal anything like that, but you never know. The demon's jobs are to entice humans to evil. If they saw a way to turn something like that to their advantage, they would. You need to take some action."

I didn't know what action to take and I thought about it while I was in Austin. I figured out a plan and ran it by Mom and the girls when I got back to Cuba. Mariha wasn't around and they didn't know where she was.

I took Sagan out and told her I wanted to make her a Siren. I didn't know how she'd feel about that and I was very apprehensive.

"I've been waiting for you to ask me," she confided. "It's a bit scary, and I'm not sure that I'd do it under normal circumstances. I was content to wait until things took their natural course. These aren't normal circumstances. I want to do it, baby. Will you transfuse me?"

I felt a great burden lift from my shoulders. The girls I loved would be protected and I felt good about that. Mom stole some supplies from the hospital and we did it the next day. I didn't know how long it would take, but at least we were on the road.

Mom and I flew to DC a week later and we began to snoop around. It was tough to find anything out. The project to search for the girls was going through regular channels but there were levels on levels. We discovered, to our surprise that there was an ongoing black program to capture an angel. About 20 senior agents knew about them and they wanted one. They were drooling all over themselves to get it going but they had no way to track one. Boston was tied in to that program. They thought an angel had performed a miracle on her and that the exotic blood they had discovered was a result of that.

We familiarized ourselves with their human resources. There were two senior deputy directors that ran the program. I snooped around and took their cell numbers. I called one of them and proposed a meeting.

Mom thought it was a bad idea, but I couldn't think of anything else and she couldn't either. She was my backup and we set up the meeting. It was in an abandoned warehouse in Virginia and we agreed to meet at midnight. We ghosted around and found out that he had brought a team. There were 12 men posted around the warehouse. I left Mom to take care of them and I went down to the warehouse immaterial. I eased through the wall and he was sitting at a table in the center of a large room. There was a table and two chairs. I ghosted toward him and halfway there, I couldn't move. A red light began to blink on his wrist.

He stood up and walked toward me. "Hello," he said. "Don't mind my little surprise."

He spoke into a radio and I heard his team answer.

"Mom, you there?

"Yes, baby. Are you ready for me?"

"Yes, take out the team now. He's set some sort of trap. I can't move using the presence. I'm going visible. I don't think it's a physical trap. He was probably expecting something different than me."

"Call me if you need help."

He walked around me a couple of times. He turned on a black light and I saw he had some Shinarian symbols drawn on the ground. I was standing in the middle of one.

"You might as well show yourself," he said. "My team is on their way and we'll just flood electricity into you until you manifest. You can't get out of this trap. We've used it before."

I went visible and he stepped back. "If it worked before, why don't you have an angel?" I asked.

"We did for a few minutes," he said. "We made some mistakes. It won't happen again. Who are you and what are you?"

"What do you think I am?"

"I think you're a Watcher. I've never heard of one so big, though. Why did you set up this meeting? What did you want?"

"I want you to leave Boston McDonald alone. She is under our protection."

"That's what I thought. It isn't going to happen. Well, maybe now that we have you, she's become irrelevant."

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked him.

"We're going to take you apart and see what makes you tick. This country needs the information and technology you represent."

"What, exactly, does 'take me apart' mean?"

"We're going to run tests on you. Just think what I could do if, for example, I had your ability to become invisible. No secrets would be safe. We'd know what our enemies were planning and we could take steps to stop them."

"My information tells me that you don't care much what your enemies are doing," I told him. "I think what you really want is power. You want to control your citizens so that you have power over every aspect of their lives. Now that you've got your foot on their necks, you don't intend to let them up."

"I guess that's one way of looking at it. That's what the civil libertarians say. I don't give a fuck what you think. You're a lab rat now. I'm a patriot. I love my country and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep it safe."