"Why is she here?"
"She came for a visit. She won't be staying long."
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Chapter 19
I expect my readers are wondering how Mathias was able to remove the gargoyle from the vault. You may also be wondering why Winnie was waiting in the church's kitchen with Wizard. Let's go back in time a few days. Remember: It was Tuesday when Mathias promised Kashmira that he would find Poco Mathias in the vault. He delivered the gargoyle to Kashmira Friday morning.
Wednesday morning, Alberta time: Mathias slipped invisibly into Doc and Granny's house for a hastily called, secret meeting with the directors. It was secret because Mathias didn't want Winnie to know that he was trying to help a girl. She'd believe that a romance was brewing and she wouldn't leave him in peace. The directors thought that this was a good enough reason to have a secret meeting. Wizard was the only other Wilizy there.
Mathias gave them the background on Kashmira but in broad strokes only. He outlined the two goals of what would be his personal operation: help Kashmira become self-sufficient so that she could live on her own; help her escape from the prison that her father had created without jeopardizing the lives of other people. Hank spent considerable time asking questions about El Patrón and his habit of killing people who annoyed him.
When it came time for Mathias to describe how Kashmira could earn an income, he simply replayed the sad song. Everybody in the room was wiping away tears by the end of the song.
"She's not playing an instrument?" Granny asked.
"No. Everything you heard was her voice. Kashmira does sing songs with words and has taught herself some basic guitar chords, but she prefers to sing vocals. She just makes it up as she goes. She knows nothing about writing music or the very basics of music itself. She just opens her mouth and out comes the emotion she's feeling at the time."
"Amazing," Yolanda said.
"Wait until you hear the next song. The first was subdued."
...
"Some man did something very wicked to her," Granny spoke first.
"I heard that too," Yolanda added. "Do you know what it was, Mathias?"
"Yes. It was very wicked."
"I didn't get any of that," Wizard admitted. "I wouldn't want to be the person who was wicked to her though."
"Why not?" Granny asked.
"She's coming for him. This song is a warning."
"I had the same feeling," Hank admitted.
"You know how Marie's touch can cause the hairs on your arm to stick up," Doc began. "This is the same feeling. Only far worse. This would give a guilty male a run and hide feeling. Should the man who did this to her be running?"
"Kashmira and I call him El Pervertido, which means The Pervert in Spanish. Yes he should be running. I know what she wants to do to him."
"Will she do it?"
"I don't know, Mom. Her anger after she had finished the song lasted quite long. Would it last long enough for her to actually physically attack him? I don't know."
"The first song was very sad. What happened to her, Mathias?"
"She lost something very dear to her. I've heard bits of other songs. She had a happy song, for example."
"How did you hear it?"
"Dad, she has a music board of some kind that she uses to record her songs. There's gotta be way more to the board than that. The manual is 200 pages long. I'd need TG's help in understanding it."
"Perhaps Mac's help too?" Yolanda asked.
"Yeah. For sure. Kashmira told me that she has had trouble holding her notes as long as she wants to. Mac could help her with that. The songs that I've heard – I don't think she's come even close to reaching how low or high she can sing."
"What do you want from us, Mathias?" Hank, providing some focus.
"I want the Wilizy to purchase the rights to her songs and sell them so that she will have enough income to lead a comfortable life. She also needs to own that music table and I need to learn more about it. She also needs guaranteed access to the room where she practices the music. Her church owns the table though a donation from her father."
"Wizard, what about it?"
"We can buy the rights easily enough. We could sell the music through the WC&D outlets. I don't know how well that angry song would sell, but I betcha the sad one would do well. If she has some happy ones, those would be best."
"Plus we'd have to give her some music lessons and that board's functions have to be explored. Is she easy to work with, Mathias?"
"No Granny, she isn't. But that's not her fault."
"You better explain that, Mathias." Yolanda said what all five of them were thinking.
# # # # # # # #
Mathias left the Directors' meeting with an agreement that the Wilizy would help Kashmira to benefit financially from her songs. Wizard would take the lead on that and would be in the music room Friday morning Philippine time to talk with her.
Mathias also described Kashmira's father and how he had treated her. He explained why they could not just help her disappear. The directors agreed that El Patrón would need to be neutralized – at the minimum. Mathias would call on Melissa for help with the planning. In the meantime, he would have access to the full set of Wilizy resources to carry out that plan and to ensure safety for all participants. When it became time to put an operation in place, Melissa or Mac had to be there to help. Some sling warriors would also have to be in the area in case they were needed.
After Mathias explained how Kashmira had lived her entire life without access to a mom, or to any relationship to any woman whatsoever, they agreed that Momaka should meet her and try to help her. Yolanda would also assist.
"But not Winnie, right?" Mathias had been quite insistent about keeping Winnie as far away as possible from his operation.
"No, we will keep this a secret from Winnie for as long as we can," Granny spoke for all of them. It was 11:05.
# # # # # # # #
Winnie was flying with her wolves that morning. They were enjoying themselves before leaving on a tour through the Wilizy businesses to check for disgruntled employees. She and the wolves had returned to the home compound at 10:45 and they were enjoying a game of Flying Fetch above the river south of the central meadow. At 11:05, Winnie sniffed the air, scratched her head, and looked around.
Had it been Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars fame who had sniffed the air and looked around, he would have uttered something like, "There's been a disturbance in the force." Winnie wasn't a Star Wars aficionado. "Somebody in the family is keeping an important secret from me," she observed instead.
# # # # # # # #
On his way back to the Philippines that Wednesday, Mathias mind-messaged TG and filled him in on Kashmira and what help he'd like from TG if he had the time. TG willingly offered to help break into the vault and change the security system so that Mathias could enter the vault whenever he wanted to. As to the music table, he suggested that Wolf was a better person to consult. Wolf happened to be sitting next to TG and said that he'd be interested in helping. Mac was sitting there too and she revealed that she'd be happy to help Kashmira with her breathing.
Since all the Wilizy in the satellite compound were in the same room, Mathias added Yollie and Melissa to the mind-message conference. He told Melissa about a possible operation that he and she would work on and he told William about the need for some special tools. He couldn't say what yet, because he was focusing right now on getting Kashmira to agree to the concept of the operation. Wolf, TG, and William all saw the interested posture of their wives, and knew they'd be asking questions about Kashmira soon. What she was like? Did Mathias like her? All three men made slashing motions across their throats when Yollie opened her mouth to talk. Don't ask. Don't ask. Too soon. Too soon.
Mathias arranged to meet TG and Wolf in Maasin City on Thursday afternoon but asked that this be kept a secret from Winnie. They all knew what she was like when a boy friend /girl friend relationship was possible a
nd all readily agreed. Yollie did a quick check on Liset and found her asleep in her bed. Liset's You spy for me, I'll spy for you friendship with Winnie was well known within the family.
# # # # # # # #
While Mathias was making his plans for Thursday, Winnie was popping in on Granny and Doc. She didn't mind if people kept personal secrets from her. She had an informal I won't peek into your head agreement with each member of her family when personal matters were at stake. But that agreement did not extend to Wilizy level secrets, as in somebody making plans for a Wilizy operation without including her. The secret that she had sensed was at that level. Since the plans for any Wilizy operation had to go through the directors, and since those meetings were always held at Granny's home where there'd be goodies, she decided to pop in for a quick goodbye.
She knocked at the door and peeked in. "Anybody home?"
"Winnie, come on in," Doc invited. He gave her a finger waggle of welcome and turned his attention back to his whittling stick. "What's up?"
"I'm off for a week to do a tour of our businesses. I only popped in to say goodbye."
"That's nice. Have a good trip. Granny's in the kitchen. She has some goodies in the freezer, I expect."
Why are you sending her to me, Doc?
Because not offering her goodies would be unusual.
"That's OK, Doc. I'm not hungry. I'll just poke my nose in." Winnie really did mean the bit about her nose.
...
"Hi Granny. Off on a tour. Bye Granny."
"Bye dear."
That was terribly quick. Do you think she was here to pry?
Nah. The directors' meeting ended only fifteen minutes ago. How could she have learned about Mathias' operation so quickly?
She wasn't here long enough to learn anything. Thirty seconds max?
Yeah. I had my head down and was whittling. She couldn't see my face.
I had my back turned and was reading a cookbook. She couldn't see my face either.
We're good then.
# # # # # # # #
Well, not so fast Doc and Granny.
Winnie noticed that the floor by Doc's feet was virtually bare of wood shavings. This was very unusual for a Wednesday. Doc didn't sweep up his week of shavings until Sunday night. Obviously, somebody had cleaned them up early. Question: Why would somebody clean the floor early? Answer: Because Yolanda was coming over and she'd be fidgeting in her chair wanting to pull a broom and a dustpan out of the kitchen closet. Granny wouldn't do that to her. She'd sweep them up first.
As soon as she had come through the front door, Winnie noticed a faint smell of baking. While she was talking with Doc, she took a deeper breath. Chocolate. When she put her head into the kitchen, the smell was clear. Chocolate brownies had come out of the stove recently. For most visitors, Granny zapped some goodies from the freezer. This morning, she had spent at least an hour preparing chocolate brownies. That meant that the Wilizy had held a directors' meeting and more than four of them had been at the meeting. Chocolate brownies were a young person's treat. The directors were not especially keen on them. Plus two chairs around the dining room table were not fully pushed in and this would have been uncharacteristic behaviour for the directors. She suspected that there had been six at the meeting.
Winnie activated her sling and flew to tree top level. She accessed the GPS screen on her sling that told her where every Wilizy was at this moment. Only one person's signal was moving quickly on the screen. Mathias. She TiTr'd back half an hour and accessed the GPS screen again. Mathias had been here in the compound. Wizard was here as well. He normally was in Toronto. He was still here.
Winnie hadn't heard anything recent about what Mathias was doing. As far as she knew, he was piloting the jumbo freight plane. Another day backwards in time later, she determined that he had been in Maasin City in the Philippines. OK. Nothing secretive about that. He'd be delivering or picking up Wilizy freight. Winnie TiTr'd back a full two weeks and then skip forwarded a half-day at a time, looking at the GPS data. She saw when Mathias arrived in Maasin City... she saw Reese arriving... she saw Reese leaving... and eventually, she saw Mathias leaving for today's meeting.
Hmmmm. Why would Reese go to Maasin City? More importantly, why hadn't he told her? Reese was one of Winnie's main informants. He must have been put under a do not tell Winnie edict.
A little TiTr later through the GPS screen and Winnie knew that Reese had been flying all over the world since he had left the Philippines. Right now, he was in Southern California.
Hey Reese
Hi Winnie.
I heard that you're piloting the jumbo. Way to go. Is the job permanent or only temporary?
Ah, only temporary. Mathias wanted a little holiday.
Still you're getting flying experience, right? Are you enjoying it?
Yah.
I heard that Mathias has an operation going in the Philippines. Something about a girl.
Ah, I wouldn't know anything about that. I'm only flying the jumbo.
Where are you now?
Southern California.
Gotta go. You're looking for things to import, right.
Yah. I haven't seen anything yet.
Fifteen minutes later, Winnie was slinging to Maasin City. She packed enough drones for a major investigation. She also included enough clothes that would allow her to stay for at least a week. Reese had lied to her twice. Once about Mathias wanting a holiday, and again when he denied knowing anything about an operation involving a girl. Reese always hesitated before he lied.
# # # # # # # #
Thursday afternoon, Wolf, TG and Mathias were in the music room learning about the Australian music board. With Kashmira at home and no guard listening outside, they could experiment with it. Wolf was very impressed with the board.
"I'm going to buy one of these for Mac. It's possible for one person to sing a song six different times in slightly different ways and then put them all together in one song. Mac could sing background for herself. She could harmonize with herself. The room has a natural echo because of the cupola, but this machine allows you to put in your own echo. Mac could add a piano to the song. There's even a feature where we might be able to add visuals."
"Could Kashmira do the same?"
"Sure. She'd need somebody on the machine controlling sound levels, but the manual gives clear instructions. There'd be a learning curve, but technology is always like that. You say that she can't sing the vocals and add words at the same time. With this machine, she could."
TG added a sobering thought. "Do you see a manufactured date on this machine?"
"Oh, drat," Wolf said. [Narrator: Wolf didn't actually say drat.] "It was made before The Troubles."
"Still, if Kashmira's father found one..."
"Do you need me any longer, Mathias?"
A shake of the head later, Wolf was gone.
# # # # # # # #
Thursday night, TG and Mathias were waiting invisibly outside the vault in El Patrón's basement when Kashmira snuck down the stairs. They had gained access to the house through the third floor window and had drifted down to the basement when people weren't around.
I can see why you're interested in her.
I'm not interested in her. Just trying to help.
Right.
Kashmira was carrying a pad of paper, a pen, and a measuring tape, all of which she placed on the floor in front of the vault's door. She put her face up against an electronic screen on the vault door and held it in place for a few seconds. Then she entered a four digit code in the door's keypad, waited, and entered a second set of four digits. The door was heavy but she managed to pull it open. When she bent down to pick up the measuring tape, Mathias and TG glided through the opening.
Asking her to measure the door was a good way to stop her from closing the door too quickly
I figured the opening would be too small to enter easily. Will you have any trouble with the security system?
Nah. A retinal scanner will be inside and I'll add your retina to the approved list after she's gone. People don't bother protecting computers inside a vault; they figure the vault is protection enough. You have the pass codes now too. Why is she taking out all those bottles?
To hide something that I won't be able to find.
# # # # # # # #
While Kashmira, TG, and Mathias were downstairs in the vault, Winnie was also inside El Patrón's house downloading the files from the drones that Mathias had hidden inside the house. The open window on the top floor was a dead giveaway that he had been inside. She witnessed everything that happened in that house in the last two weeks. Since El Patrón used the garage to receive visitors, she added a drone there. Unlike Mathias, Winnie was not reluctant to travel back in time and put her own drone in Kashmira's bedroom.
Kashmira believes that she's having sex. Is she incredibly stupid?
A few hours more of watching drone data gave Winnie another emotion.
Nobody talks to her in this house. Certainly, no woman. How would she know what sex is? The father's a beast.
Winnie had a breakthrough when she discovered that Kashmira confessed weekly in a nearby church. She heard music coming from a tiny window and figured that Kashmira was the person singing. Winnie entered the church to find where she was singing. A creepy-crawly vibration from a passing priest prompted her to drop her invisibility and hide in the cathedral until he walked by again. [Winnie had to be out of her sling to read people.] Afterwards, she went back in time and slipped drones into the confessional, the paterfamilias' office, and his sleeping quarters. She listened to every confession Kashmira made after she had entered puberty. She watched the paterfamilias as he performed the ceremony of laying on of hands. She was outside the little window in the music room when Kashmira sang her sad song. She was also present when she sang the angry song. She was moved both times.
Not once did Winnie intrude into Kashmira's life when Mathias was with her. That was because she and Mathias had not gotten along very well the last few years. When Winnie was still learning about her powers, she had revealed something about Mathias to her brothers that he did not appreciate. The ensuing confrontation did not go very well for Winnie.
Winnie had come to Maasin City to learn more about the secret operation. There was also an element of checking out the possible girl friend. As she learned more about Kashmira, the more she became convinced that Mathias had to be warned. The prospects of a romance between the two of them were not an attraction to her any longer. She did feel sorry about Kashmira's life, but the likelihood of Mathias and Kashmira having a lasting boyfriend-girlfriend relationship was laughable.