The Pellegrine - A Brother’s Secret 4

Katherine Kensington, Personal Log.

Date: August 4th, 2656, Monday.

It’s my day off today. I was taking my morning walk when I detected a murderous thought from a woman that passed me by. Her name was Melanie Smith. It was 8 am and she was on her way to Ryan Communications Company (or RCC). RCC is run by a level eighteen magus and his high level magi running security. No rescue corps member needed there for sure. I willed her credit card into my hands so that I could have a talk with her. I caught up with her and pretended that her voice sounded like one of the newscasters from RCC. I found out where she was working. I had changed my appearance to that of a man. Her projected thoughts told me a lot of other things.

She had met Ryan White in a restaurant about two months ago. They ended up having a one night affair. After that she never saw him again. Now, she was pregnant. She had decided to give White a chance. If he didn’t want anything to do with her, she would just leave without telling him about the child. Otherwise, the child would have the hope of a full family.

I decided to move to her working place, knowing that I won’t be able to even penetrate the shields in RCC. I played a hunch that she might end up at her work place in the end. I was right. She appeared at her workplace, Redmond Medical Facility, at nine. Her emotions were stable and so those murderous emotions were just frustrations at best.

I pretended to be on the case of an elderly woman who was at the Facility. I could sense the presence of quite a number of magi there; so, I was well camouflaged. I also sensed a non-rescue corps member coming in at about the same time as Smith. He was obviously from RCC. He greeted me and then stayed for about half an hour before leaving. All this time, I was physically close to Smith whilst psychically present with the old woman. The RCC magus couldn’t have done anything without bringing attention to himself.

When I was sure that the RCC magus had left and it was safe, I observed Smith. She was frustrated but not really dangerous. I was about to leave when I caught Smith talking to a gynaecologist, Dr. Louis Burke. Normally I wouldn’t stay and would file a false alarm report. Call it curiosity because I stayed long enough to hear her conversation with Dr. Burke during a short coffee break.

Dr. Burke told her of a woman whose pregnancy was not viable. Asking for a moment, Smith went through her computer and checked the woman’s genetic record. Then she returned to a bewildered Dr. Burke and told him that she was pregnant and that she was willing to let the woman have her baby. Dr. Burke was aghast with the idea. Smith said that explained her situation to Dr. Burke. After some pestering, Dr. Burke agreed to think about the matter.

I kept a close eye on Smith from that time, pausing to sleep when she went to bed.

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Katherine Kensington, Personal Log.

Date: August 8th 2657, Friday.

An emergency brought Dr. Burke to make his decision to help Smith on the sly. The pregnant woman, Amanda Keith, was brought in by her husband when she started bleeding. She was already four months pregnant and she was suffering from the beginnings of a miscarriage. Smith pestered her friend a little more and then Burke agreed to the procedure. Burke asked Smith to assist him and the two were locked in the operation theatre on the pretext of an observation procedure. Smith had already got a virus ready to disrupt the recording instruments in the theatre. All they had was audio records. Other instrumental and visual records were not functioning. Burke sent in a false diagnosis. He said that one of the blood vessels that was lining the womb had burst, causing the bleeding and that he sealed the wound and advised the woman not to move about too much for the next three weeks. In reality, Burke transplanted the foetus from Smith to Keith. I am the only witness to this because I was in the operation room. I must say that Burke was a very good surgeon. The mess was very little, blood, I mean. Keith was sedated and Smith was still awake, talking as if she was really assisting the doctor.

After the procedure, Smith looked pale but she put on a brave front. I read her projected thought … at least her child would still be alive.

† — — — — — — — — — — — — †

Katherine Kensington, Personal Log.

Date: August 27th 2657, Thursday.

To date, there has been two incidents that could have taken the life of Melanie Smith. I dropped by at nine in the evening to see Smith to see how she was doing. I found her writing her diary and I sensed fear. She wondered if her end was near. Three days before, she suffered a cramp whilst swimming in the nearby pool. Due to the attentiveness of a nearby woman, she was dragged to safety. That very morning, she was about to enter the intrabuilding transport when she hesitated, realising that she had forgotten to bring her credit card. The transport burst into flames ten seconds later when she was in her apartment. I’ve investigated the transport and discovered that there’s were signs of microscopic level sabotage. There can be only one explanation for this … Magi. I fear that her life might be in danger. I can only think of one person responsible … Ryan White. If his indiscretions were known, it would affect his reputation and a living heir would affect the way he’s been doing things.

† — — — — — — — — — — — — †

Katherine Kensington, Personal Log.

Date: August 28th 2647, Friday.

It’s 2 am now. I’m sensing the presence of White himself. He knows I’m here and that I’m protecting Smith. No doubt he’ll do me in. I’ve reversed the food dispenser and will be sending my log and Smith’s diary to a safe place. I daren’t try the psychic method because it can be traced by White. Even now, he’s trying to break down the shield. I’m invisible to Smith but not to White. He’s managed to prevent me from contacting the rescue corps. I just hope he isn’t jamming the physical systems as well. He’s almost through my shield. Got to stop …

“That was heavy stuff,” commented Jacques. “We can turn this over to the Magi Council, right? This is definitely the best evidence there is.”

“We can’t,” replied Jorg.

“Why not?” asked Jacques. “It’s all there, especially the last part! He was coming after her!”

“All circumstantial evidence,” explained Jorg. “White will definitely be able to insert doubt into this evidence. Though it mentions an indiscretion of Ryan White, there is nothing to say that he ordered the killing or even was there at the killing. We only have a dead rescue corps member’s log. Was she correct? Could she have been wrong? All these questions remain unanswered. The evidence won’t be able to stand.”

“Then the magus and that woman died in vain,” moaned Jacques.

“Not just any woman,” said Heath. “If she gave her child to Amanda Keith, Mark’s mother, then Melanie Smith is Matthew’s biological mother.”

“Yes, the true identity of Matthew Keith is clear. He is the son of Ryan White and Melanie Smith.” Jorg sighed and shook his head. “I tried conventional means to locate information regarding Melanie Smith but it seems that not even the news had a record of Melanie’s death. I had to reach into police files and found the report of the death of Melanie Smith. There was a fire in the apartment and it burnt two women to death. Investigations suggest that an electrical fault started the fire in the bedroom. I was not so successful in searching the magi records. Katherine Kensington’s death was recorded as death due to a rescue attempt.”

“How did you get into contact with the chip?” asked Jacques.

“The person to whom Katherine sent the chip sent it to me,” replied Jorg. “Please don’t ask me to divulge anything else about that person. That knowledge might lead to danger for that person.” Jorg could tell that Jacques was about to ask about his contact.

“So, are we going to tell Matthew the truth?” Jacques asked.

“We’d have to, but there’s more,” said Jorg.

“Why do I suddenly feel that I’m not going to like what comes next?” asked Jacques.

Jorg smiled slightly. Then with a serious face, he continued, “I’m about to reveal another part of the final destiny of the human race - the genetic part. There are four genetic sequences introduced to the human race to help in the evolution of the human race. Heath had one part, Jacques had two parts and the final part is found in Ryan White. Matthew inherited that from his father.”

“So?” asked Jacques again.

“Master Jorg, you want us to assimilate the final part from Matthew, right?” asked Heath.

Jorg nodded his head solemnly.

“But he’s straight!” Jacques protested. “How are we going to come up to him and say, Hi, I know you’re straight but we need to have sex with you for the sake of the human race. That sounds so cheesy! There must be some other way, through a blood transfusion or something. Maybe magi powers can help.”

“I wish there were some other way, Jacques,” said Jorg, trying not to laugh at what Jacques had just said. “You two are the only people who have the ability to combine the genes psychically.”

Jacques looked dismayed and tried to suggest some other way. “I’m sure that the gene is found in another magus. If he was a gay magus unknown to us, it might be easier. Matthew is Mark’s brother! He’s our friend. I don’t know how I can ask him for this …”

“I’ve tried to find others but even with the whole magi database at my disposal, I wasn’t able to find anyone,” admitted Jorg.

“Looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you,” said Kean. He was still maintaining a mirage shield around the four of them.

“Did you detect anyone trying to peep in?” Jorg asked Kean.

“I did sense some magi power nearby but it didn’t try to break through,” replied Kean.

Jacques knitted his brows and Kean explained, “The mirage shield is up and magi can see that there’s a shield, but they can sense some very strong sexual emotions emanating from the shield.”

Jacques made a face, he knew what this meant. It was a small tactic that Jorg had developed from the time the Pellegrine had her maiden voyage. It gave curious magi the impression that there were orgies occurring behind the shield.

“I say that we discuss this,” suggested Heath. “We need to see how to approach him and tell him what we know and what we want.”

“Yes,” agreed Jorg.

“What’s there to discuss, we ask him and if he refuses, we respect his wishes,” Jacques said.

“How much do we tell him?” asked Heath, “And how? After all, who’d believe us when the end of the whole thing, we asked for sex? That’s what it boils down to, isn’t it?”

“Precisely,” said Jorg. “We need to talk over this very carefully.”