Chapter 14

 

Here’s  The  Deal

“What…what do you want with me?” Stanley stuttered.

“I just want to talk for now.” Cassie said. “Let’s go have a cup of coffee in the Student Union.”

Cassie turned and headed toward the Student Union. Charles stepped to the side of Stanley and nudged him in direction that Cassie was going. Grace was right behind Cassie. Like always, she had her back.

The walk to the Student Union took about ten minutes and Cassie’s mind was rolling over and over that whole ten minutes. What were those images she had about her and Stanley all about? Was he one of her distant relatives on her mother’s side of the family? Yes, she had a lot of questions to get answered.

As they walked up the steps to the door into the Student Union, another student opened the door to exit. As the glass door swung open a beam of light was reflected off of it. Cassie flinched as a sharp pain throbbed through her eyes. Almost by instinct, she whipped out the sunglasses she wore to keep people from noticing her distant stare when she faced them.

Grace had noticed the flinch, “Cassie what’s wrong?”

She eased up closer to her, just in case Cassie had detected some danger that she, herself, had not noticed.

“Nothing Grace, just a sharp pain in my eyes. It’s okay. “

With that she grabbed the door handle and pulled it open as she stepped into the Union. There were students all over the place, some studying together, other playing games. In one corner a group was watching TV, while in the corner making up the coffee shop were more drinking and chatting. Cassie headed to the counter where her group placed their orders.

“My invite so I’ll pay.”

She placed a credit card on the counter. Soon all four coffees were on a tray that she picked up and carried over to a distance table with nobody near it.

After sitting, Cassie watched Stanley as they all sipped their coffee. The coffee seemed to settle him down some. “Do you know who I am?”

“Ah egh, not really, we knew some of the families were hunting for a person with your name but we did not know why.”

“Did you know of Cassandra Howly Alanson?”

“Of course, everybody in the family knew of her. She was the greatest Seer the family had produced in centuries. When she died it was a great loss to us. We did not know who she picked as her successor.”

 

“I was born the day after she died. She left everything to me. My dad is still finding hidden assets after more than 14 years. I was named after her. Now, here’s the deal.  A year or so ago I was attacked up in Idaho. There were 11 men and 1 woman. 1 man and the woman were allowed to escape. Between me and the other Deputy U.S Marshal we killed 10 men that day.”

 

“About six months ago a contract was put out on my father and mother. It was stopped. The crime family in Cleveland, Ohio that took the contract no longer exists. I talked to the local Mafia’s Don and he passed the word:’ Attack me or my family and you die and all your family and pets die.’ Now I don’t know which branch of the family you are part of, so you contact yours and let them know the same. One of these days I would like to get better acquainted with my mother’s family but right now I’m not very happy with them.”

 

“Take another look at my badge and think about what it means.” She laid her credentials open in front of him.  He absently picked them up while staring at her once more. He glanced down at her badge then looked back at her with a double take as he stared at her badge.

“Presidential! What…”

“That is correct. I am a Special Deputy US Marshal appointed by a Presidential Executive Order with the power of a full US Marshal and my jurisdiction is anywhere under the laws and jurisdiction of the United States of America. I answer only to the President not even to the Attorney General. I can call on any Federal Law Enforcement or Military to support me. One branch of my family is already in trouble because they attacked a Federal Agent. Tell your branch not to make it a twofer.”

“Well Stanley, please let me know what they have to say.” Cassie stood up with her people covering her as she left the Student Union.

It was a week later that Stanley sat down next to her in Psychology. He did a quick look around and leaned closer.

“My Grandmother told me to thank you for the warning. But quote ‘Dearie, don’t try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs.’ It was not our branch of the family. The word has gone out to all members of our branch to keep our mittens off you.”

Stanley sat back up straight and ignored her for the reminder of the class.

 

 

Over the next month Cassie threw herself fully into her studies.

Periodically in that same month she would have flashes of pain in her eyes. They came and went, and slowly they came more often.

It seemed to her that as she worked more and more in the labs and stretched her ‘sensing’ abilities she was able to see deeper into the sub-atomic particles space.  She soon found that Heisenberg was right: there was no way to fully separate the observer from the observed event. Too many of her experiments on the sub-atomic level did not conform to the known observation of reputable scientists.

Soon she began to do secret tests that she did not record for the school. Cassie made sure that they were all done out of sight of any security video camera and when no other lab workers were present.

One day a disk of aluminum weighing about half an ounce floated from her lab table up to the ceiling where it hovered for ten minutes before slowly floating back down.  Cassie was alone in the lab at that time except for Grace who was standing against the wall behind her.

When they left that night to return to the estate Grace quietly asked her, “How did you make that disk float?”

Absent mindedly and without thinking Cassie answered, “It’s a diamagnetic effect, though Aluminum is not magnetic under an intense magnetic field the electrons in its molecules will align with the magnetic fields and float.”

The silence was almost deafening. “But Cassie, there was no magnetic field. I watched everything you did. You did not setup any electro-magnetic apparatus. All your equipment was for measuring effect not for causing any.”

Cassie turned her head slowly to face Grace, then she winced closing her eyes momentarily. “I forgot for a minute that you were there. Grace, you guys are not to mention or record anything strange you might see involving me and my labs. Like the floating disk.”

“Cassie are your eyes hurting again?” Grace asked.

“Yeah, every so often I get a flash of pain in them and then it goes away.”

“When was the last time you had them checked?”

“When I was twelve: we gave up on the Doctors ever finding out what happened or being able to help. After two years of testing they had no more idea what was wrong then they did the day it happened.”

“That might have been so then, but it’s been almost 5 years and they are now starting to hurt. Cassie you need to see a Doctor again. What if this happened during an incident? If it makes you flinch at the wrong time a bystander could get hurt.”

 

Cassie sat still, thinking.  Grace was right. She would, personably, rather not see any Doctor ever again. But she could not take the chance on hurting an innocent bystander. “Control.”

“Control online, go ahead Shadow.”

“Staff Sgt Schultz, Please.”

Staff Sgt Schultz, online.”

“Schultz, get my medical records forwarded to an ophthalmologist and make me an appointment.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Control offline.”

“Control breaking it down. Offline.”

“You are right Grace, thanks.”

With that Cassie leaned back in her seat and ‘looked’ at the aluminum disk in her briefcase sitting on the floor of the Tahoe. As she watched it, it slowly lifted up from the bottom of the sleeve it rested in and floated edgewise up until it pushed on the closed flap of the case. She continued to watch as the pressure built and the case began to float up under the pressure.

Grinning to herself, she slowly released the disk and the briefcase settled back to the floor.

 

 

 

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My thanks to Grumpybear for his editing and proofing help. But the final results are mine and all criticism should be loaded onto my shoulders.

© Virgil Lee Fuqua III a ‘vlfouquet.wordpress’, 2008-2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Vlfouquet and Virgil Lee Fuqua III with appropriate and specific direction to the original contents