“About what, dear?” she murmured absently, still thinking about her team overseas.
His voice was tense. “Who’s Sybil?”
There it was. The moment she’d been dreading ever since he’d arrived. On some level, she’d rather expected it. It was bound to have happened sooner or later, and she’d always thought he might be the one.
“Sybil who?” she countered weakly, trying to buy time. His abrupt question had knocked her off balance, and she needed to sit down. Faye tottered over to a stone bench in front of her oldest rugosa.
Zach followed and sat down beside her, sliding to the far end of the bench as he did so. “I found a letter…” he trailed off and his eyes darted away.
“Found?” she inquired softly.
“OK, I didn’t exactly ‘find’ it,” he admitted. His fingers made air quotes around the word “find.” She noticed how dirty his fingernails were from digging in the earth. He glanced back at her again. “I was snooping, alright? I know I had no business going through your things, but there’s a lot of strange stuff going on around here, and I needed some answers.”
“You might have just asked.”
“Like you’d tell me,” Zachary snorted. “I had to have some proof first that I wasn’t crazy or paranoid.”
“So, you read the letter?”
“Yeah, I read it, and it changed everything.” He paused and sat silent for a full minute, distractedly picking dirt from under his fingernails. “Who are you?” he finally asked.
“You know me, Zach.”
“I thought I did, but you’ve got a lot of layers. You’re like a lasagna.”
They both laughed. It seemed to break the tension.
“That may be an apt analogy,” Faye agreed. “You’re already familiar with the cheese topping. That layer would be your Gamma.”
He grinned. “Cheesy, huh?”
Her smile faded. “I’m afraid the other layers are hidden for a reason.”
He sat forward and stared at her intently. “Why don’t you trust me?”
The old woman sighed. “Because, my dear boy, you’re fifteen.”
“I’m almost sixteen,” he countered.
“You are still very young.”
“Fine!” He folded his arms defiantly across his chest. “Just when will I be old enough to be let in on the secret?”
She gave him a searching look. “It isn’t a single secret, Zach. It’s an entire world of secrets. You asked me who Sybil was and I’ll tell you this much. She’s the tip of an iceberg. A small chunk of a much larger mass that remains invisible to the casual observer. To tell you any more about her would put other people’s lives at risk. I can’t confide too much information in you too soon.”
He brightened as a new thought struck him. “You didn’t say never. That means someday you’ll tell me?”
She smoothed the creases in her skirt and turned the question over in her mind before replying. “I rather think I will.”
“Yes!” Zach punched the air triumphantly.
Faye fixed him with a bright stare. “I wonder if you appreciate your singular position, Zachary.”
That brought him up short. He peered at her uncertainly. “What do you mean, Gamma?”
“Nobody else in the family has ever shown the slightest interest in the secret layers of my life.”
He registered surprise. “Really? Nobody?”
She shook her head. “Absolutely nobody.”
“But how’s that even possible?” he cried. “I mean somebody had to ask questions. Sometime.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Would you consider curiosity to be a dominant trait in your family?”
He laughed ruefully. “Not hardly. I come from a long line of zombies.”
“That lack of inquisitiveness goes back much farther than you imagine,” she observed. “I suppose it began with my dear departed husband. He was the salt of the earth. Unfailingly kind but rooted as firmly in the ground as an oak tree. Not the least bit curious about anything unusual. He preferred to see what was directly in front of him and no more. At the time, his inattentiveness suited my purposes quite well. But after he was gone I thought perhaps someone in the family might show some curiosity. Might have the necessary spark to take a leap into the unknown. It became a test of sorts. I presented the opportunity for generation after generation to ask the right questions, but nobody ever did. Until you. You’re really quite distinctive in the bloodline, Zach. An eccentric. A rebel. Inquisitive enough to want to get to the bottom of things. Most people sleepwalk through their lives. It takes an eccentric to see the world a little differently. It takes a rebel to question the facile explanations that authority figures so often give. In short, it takes someone like you. The more I think about it, the more I believe you’ll be an asset to our organization. Yes indeed. You’ll make a fine tyro.”
“Huh?” His face was a blank.
Her mind was made up. She already began planning. “We’ll go at it in stages. When I feel you’re ready, your training will begin.”
“Training? Tyro?” he echoed. “What am I getting myself into?”
“A whole new way of looking at the world. You said you wanted your life to make a difference, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but it all sounds kind of scary.” His voice held a worried note.
“It’s no use developing cold feet now, young man.” She laughed. “You were in such a fret to get some answers. As the saying goes, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’”
Chapter 33 – Mercenary Considerations
Orvis aka Chopper Bowdeen was trying to suppress a yawn as he sat on a dais behind the bearded fossil at the podium. He was waiting to be introduced to the fifty greenhorns sitting in the audience gawking up at him. Every last one of them was wearing a black suit and tie with a white shirt. Their mouths were all gaping open in the same surprised O. They looked like a school of guppies.
Bowdeen knew the reason for their wonder. They’d probably never seen anybody like him in their lives before. He was
