Purpose - A New Beginning - 11. Chapter 11

"Mr. Secretary," Griffin said, sounding more like an underling than a cop. "This is Gar."

The man in his expensive suit walked over and held out his hand. “Good to finally meet you.”

I ignored his hand and kept my eyes on him. I'd started to read his mind when he walked over, but he knew enough to keep his thoughts on anything but the topic at hand. That's what I get for talking too much and letting people know my secrets.

He kept the hand out and I could feel Griffin's unease. Too bad. I wasn't in a polite mood.

"What do you want?" I put my right hand in my pocket. If he didn't take the hint, I'd 'tell him' to put it down.

The brief glare broke his otherwise seamless armor of outward cool. A fake smile forced its way onto his face as he lowered his arm. “Would a modicum of decorum hurt?”

“You had Griffin fake his own kidnapping to get me here, you use Barrington to test me, and only then do you tell me what you really want. If you want congenial, go look for the Tooth Fairy.”

The National Mall was empty, but my box detected several attempts to follow us electronically. His car ‘left’ per my instructions, but I expected it would be back once they realized they couldn’t keep tabs on their boss. Not for the first time I thought I should have gone home to Ryan.

“Since you read minds, why don’t you tell me why we’re here?” His pulse told me he didn’t have ice water in his veins, but I saw no other signs of his anxiety.

“You can relax, even though you lied to me and have this place under intense surveillance I’ve no intentions of harming you.” I raised an eyebrow at his slight moment of panic. “Yes, I can detect and neutralize them–all of them.”

“So you don’t know what we want?”

“Mr. Secretary, if I want to know anything about you, all I need is some time to root through your mind. If motivated, I’ll find things you don’t even remember you know. But we both know you’re doing everything you can to think about anything but what you asked me here to talk about. So either you tell me what you want, or I’m leaving–for good.”

I cast a sideward glance at Griffin and the man had the decency to be embarrassed.

After staring at me for another few seconds, the secretary reached into his suit coat and removed a white envelope. “Homeland security uncovered some peculiar information from Russia.”

He offered me the packet, but the information flooded the forefront of his mind. Accepting the envelope, I ignored it as I assimilated what I’d learned.

“There are more of you?”

“There are many more of us, but only my other and I are in your dimension.”

“Could this one have come through before or after you?”

“No. As I told you once before, the ability to travel between our planes of reality would require an event that has not happened since my other and I arrived.”

“Could another have come before you?”

“Again, no.” I sensed agitation in It. “Your world is very parochial in its thinking. There are endless numbers of other species that it could be.”

Staring at the white envelope I handed it back. “Another test?”

“It’s my nature to be distrustful.” The Secretary took the blank pages and handed them to Griffin. “So do I have your interest yet?”

“No.” It had nothing to do with Ryan and me. “Why tell me?”

“Are you kidding me?” Griffin stepped closer, bringing us fact-to-face. “One of your kind is tearing up Europe and you don’t care?”

“Loose the righteous indignation, Detective.” He flinched at my words. Good. He needed to feel ashamed. “First this isn’t ‘one of my kind.’

“What?” Griffin’s vocal reaction mirrored the director, only he hid his emotions better.

I rolled my eyes at them both. “Humans have this misguided belief they’re alone in the universe.” I ignored Its amusement and continued. “You search for other life out in the stars, but ignore any sign that some of them might be here on Earth.”

“So this is…what?” The secretary asked.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s not my concern.”

“It is something we should investigate.”

It took an effort not to react outwardly. “Maybe that’s true, but they don’t need to know we’re interested.”

“This game you play with your own is difficult to understand.”

It might be right about being straight forward, but I needed to ensure Ryan’s safety before I said more. I scanned their faces once more and started to go.

“Gar, wait.” Griffin put his hand on my arm and seemed almost surprised when it felt real. “Please. I didn’t do any of this for personal reasons, I…we…need your help. This is beyond anything we know. It took an arsenal to take down the killer and from what I could read….”

“It gets harder every time. Yes, I know.” It certainly sounded like It. I slipped a card out of my inner coat pocket. “Send me all the intelligence you have on it to this email address.”

The Secretary eyed the card. Without reading his thoughts I knew his concern. “Trust me, it’s secure.”

“I’d rather give you a thumb drive.”

“Fine. Have your driver bring one here.” I made sure they couldn’t see me any longer. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

Moving quickly, I found my phone and called Ryan. It rang twice before he picked it up.

“Will?”

“Hey, handsome.” I started to feel better immediately. “How do you feel about spending Christmas with me in DC?”