“That is up to Kamal. My followers are free to make their own choices and do as they please. If Kamal wishes to talk with this woman then she will do so.”
“Kamal is Melissa Cousins?”
“That is the name she has adopted. Yes.” Paveeth breathed in deeply through his nose, a look of serenity forming over his razor-sharp features as he let it out. “It is the word in my native language for lotus flower. Like all of my followers there is much beauty and delicacy in her.”
Shannon swallowed back what he wanted to say, instead asked, “If I bring her mother here will you let her talk to Kamal?”
“That is totally up to her.”
Shannon gave him a hard look. Paveeth smiled pleasantly back at him. “Before I leave here I want to talk to her,” Shannon said.
“That would satisfy you?”
“Yeah, I’d say so.”
“If that is what is needed.” He sighed as he smiled sadly at Shannon. “Let me see if I can persuade her.”
Paveeth uncrossed his legs and rose effortlessly to his feet. It was almost as if an invisible rope had pulled him up. He stopped to feed a piece of apple to a white cockatoo adorned with yellow head feathers, then picked up a phone sitting on a small decorative table near the cage and asked that Kamal be brought to him. He went back to the cockatoo and took it out of its cage. The bird perched submissively on his arm while he stroked its head feathers. Kissing the bird lightly on its beak, he put it back into the cage.
There was a knock on the door. It opened and Melissa Cousins walked in. She was barefoot, dressed in a white robe and was even thinner in person than she was in her photo. She was so slight in presence, but still stunningly beautiful with large green eyes and long blond hair that fell halfway down her back. When she first walked into the room and her eyes settled on Shannon, a look of apprehension tugged on her features but as she spotted Paveeth she relaxed into a contented smile. She moved quickly to him, nestling her head against his shoulder. In return he stroked her blond hair in the same manner in which he had stroked the parrot’s head feathers. Turning her to face him, he kissed her forehead.
“Kamal, my flower, this man does not believe you are here under your own desires. Please enlighten him,” he said.
She nodded and reluctantly left his side.
Paveeth waved a hand at Shannon, his fingers long and manicured. “You may talk to her privately, since trust does not seem to be one of your virtues.”
The door opened and the two stooges from before entered. They both nodded reverentially towards Paveeth, then stood like stone statues until Melissa walked past them, waiting until Shannon followed her out of the room before falling in lockstep behind him. Melissa led them further down the hallway, through a large solarium where thirty or so young and very attractive women in white robes sat and meditated. None of them bothered to look at Shannon as he walked past them. The same incense from the yoga studio burned around them creating a dense fog of smoke which stung Shannon’s eyes. He almost missed Melissa entering a room off to the side. The two stooges accompanying him stared daggers at him until he joined her.
Melissa sat down on the floor in a lotus position, just as Paveeth had earlier. Apprehension again tugged at her mouth as she stared at Shannon, her large green eyes jumping with fear as they followed him. Shannon took one of the pillows and joined her sitting on the floor.
“Melissa-”
“That is not my name,” she interrupted, her voice weak and barely above a whisper.
“I’m sorry, Kamal. My name is Bill Shannon. Your mother has asked me to help you. She’s here now in Boulder and wants to know that you’re okay. If I bring her here will you see her?”
“No.”
“Just for five minutes? It will be right here at True Light. You won’t have to leave-”
“I said no!”
“Is there a reason why you won’t see her?”
“Because I won’t. She is nothing to me anymore. My reason for being now is Vishna. My only purpose is Vishna. Not her!”
“Kamal, she cares about you deeply…” Shannon stopped himself in mid-sentence. The fight or flight look that had formed over her features stopped him. Muscles along her jaw and mouth had become rigid, and her eyes changed into something that made Shannon think of a feral animal. He considered her for a long moment before taking a deep breath and trying again.
“Kamal, please,” he said, his tone as soft and nonthreatening as he could manage, “your mother does love you and only wants to know that you are safe and happy. If you’d like I could call her now.”
Her face became deathly white, her eyes wide as she stared at him. He moved slowly to get his cell phone, and when he had it out of his pocket something in her snapped.
“No! No! I will not leave Vishna!” she burst out, veins streaking her neck like thin cords of rope. “Nothing will make me leave Vishna!” Then she started screaming ‘No!’ over and over again, her voice rising to a hysterical pitch.
Curly opened the door to peer in. Melissa, at that moment, scrambled to her feet and ran from the room. He watched her leave, then turned to smirk at Shannon. “Vishna wants to speak to you,” he said, a gleeful maliciousness shining in his eyes.
Shannon knew it had been hopeless with Melissa the moment he saw how she reacted with Paveeth. Unless he had thrown her over his shoulder and made a run for it, he would’ve had no chance of getting her to see her mother. Still, he couldn’t help feeling lousy about how things turned out. When he was brought back to Paveeth’s sanctuary and saw the smug smile on the cult leader’s face, it took every bit of restraint he had to keep his hands at his side.
“Are you satisfied now, Mr. Shannon?” Paveeth asked.
“One girl,” Shannon said. “You can’t let one girl go.”
“That is not my choice to make. As you have witnessed, Kamal is here of her own free desire.” He paused as he fingered his chin. “I see that you are smiling. Did something I say amuse you?”
“Not really. I was only wondering why you couldn’t have let me see her the other day.”
“And why must I bow to the whims of a bully?” Paveeth asked, his dark eyes staring intently at Shannon. His voice had shifted to the same lyrical sing-song he had used over the intercom. “When you came here you were told that Kamal had no desire to speak to you, but you persisted in forcing your way in. And yes, Mr. Shannon, you are a bully. Spiritually, you are a deeply broken individual. One of the many gifts the gods have breathed into me is the ability to see into a person’s soul. What I see in yours is ugliness.” He paused for a moment to smile patronizingly. “I can also see that it is not entirely your fault. It is clear that much violence has been brought early into your life and it has left you spiritually crippled. You can not help what you have become, but if you were willing to put yourself in my hands I could bring you into the lightness that you seek.”
Shannon applauded. “Not a bad performance. I particularly liked the pitch of your voice. Very hypnotic. Almost put me into a trance. And bravo on using the Internet and doing a background check on me. I guess that’s the least I should expect given your background as a chemical engineer. I’ve got a question for you. Where’d you get the money to pay for all this? I know parrots don’t come cheap, and this is quite a temple of narcissism you’ve built for yourself.”
A film fell over Paveeth’s eyes. He looked Shannon up and down slowly, then shook his head. “I see that I’m wasting my time with you,” he said, his tone flat, dismissive.
Shannon applauded some more. “You could look into my soul and see that, huh? Yet another of the gifts the gods have bestowed upon you. Another question. What’s a vessel of the gods doing employing Russian thugs?”
Paveeth looked away then and clapped his hands sharply. The door flung open and both of his cult-member stooges stormed in, violence flushing their faces as they scanned the room for trouble.
“He is leaving now,” Paveeth told them. His two followers stepped forward. “Do you want us to throw him out?” the smaller, angrier-looking one asked, his voice a high-pitched squeal.
Shannon couldn’t help smiling a hard smile. He gestured towards this stooge who looked a bit like a bald Shemp. “A regular ray of sunshine, huh?” Paveeth ignored him and told his two followers, “That is up to him.”
