"Put your hands around my neck, Benedikta."
A face and a throat now occupied the space where the showerhead had once been.
"Choke me like you do when you murder those men."
"Mother?"
"Kill me, Benedikta. I deserve to die. I failed you."
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Chapter 11
It didn't take long for Mathias to catch on to Kashmira's routine thanks to a day of invisible scouting. A maid would pound on her bedroom door at 8:00 a.m., place a plate of food on the floor, and take an empty plate away. Some time later, Kashmira would open the door and the plate would disappear. At 9:00, the maid would reappear with Pablo who would knock on the door and be allowed in. The maid would retrieve the empty plate. At 10:00, Pablo and Kashmira would go outside and she would demonstrate her affection for him publicly. Pablo would leave and Kashmira would be escorted to a nearby church by four guards. She would spend the day there, return to her home, and go immediately into her bedroom. A maid would put a plate of food on the floor outside the bedroom. That plate would disappear inside and reappear empty about ten minutes later. The next day would be a repeat of the previous.
Mathias messaged Wizard, told him that he wanted to take some personal time away from the transports, and suggested that Reese could take over. Reese was in Maasin City the next day, eagerly awaiting his training. That took only a day since the Wilizy were running only one super transport this month and so he didn't have to fly two or three of them at the same time. Reese brought with him several boxes of special equipment that Mathias had asked for. In exchange for Reese's silence, Mathias agreed to let him be part of his private operation.
Mathias showed Reese the key people who would be part of Mathias' operation and Reese read their colours. El Patrón was solid black with heavy strands of intertwined red that Reese now believed indicated violence. Ramón had similar blacks and reds that were not packed as densely. The family's cook and Kashmira's maid? White and light yellows.
Kashmira's colours were a surprise. "I've never seen this before," Reese exclaimed.
"She has dark colours?"
"No. She has whites with other light colours speckled throughout. This is common. What's different is when Kashmira's whites are clustered together, they are so bright that they're shining. They hurt my eyes they're so bright."
Interesting.
"Wait. I see guilt. A lot of it. At least I believe it's guilt."
"I thought you said Kashmira had mostly whites."
"This guilt comes in the form of a white cord that surround her aura. Annika's mom had this same white cord. She was a good person who did something wrong that was affecting everything in her life. She tried to make it right. Probably by taking Annika away from her father which was sort of wrong, but something that had to be done. Kashmira has the same cord. She's done something wrong and she's feeling very guilty. But I'm still learning these colours. I could be wrong."
After Reese had left with the transport, Mathias took all of the supplies he had brought with him in the transport to the church's three-storey tower. The stone stairs up to that tower had crumbled and the various signs of birds and insects nesting in the small room at the very top of the tower indicated that nobody had been up there for a long time. The tower was tall enough that nobody in any nearby buildings could see down into it. It would provide shelter from the rain as well as privacy. Mathias set up a small camp where he could sleep without fear of being discovered.
A little time-travel into the past later, Mathias had gained entry into the family home. He planted drones throughout the main floor including the kitchen, the dining room, El Patrón's study, and a drone in the hallway leading to Kashmira's bedroom. He saw only bedrooms on the second floor and felt no need to record people going in and out of them. Mathias slipped upstairs to the third floor (more empty bedrooms), opened a window on the side facing the alley, and slipped out. He could now gain access to the house whenever he wanted to. The drones recorded everything that happened in the house from June 1 on. He also placed a drone in Kashmira's classroom and in the school's staff lunchroom.
Mathias saw what had happened when Pablo had been caught hiding in the kitchen and he recorded El Patrón ordering the deaths of his visitors. He followed El Jefe out of town and recorded the scene of the car exploding, El Patrón's men burying the dead, and disposing of the car. He watched but did not record the argument between Kashmira and her father. He wasn't surprised by what El Patrón had done; he was surprised that Kashmira had threatened to burn her hand.
What he had witnessed prompted Mathias flew to Manila where he used one of the gold coins that Wizard had sent him to buy clothes that could serve as disguises. He also purchased enough food to live on for several weeks.
Early Monday morning, July 15, Mathias watched as Kashmira left her home for the two block walk to the cathedral. Four guards accompanied her. He knew that none would enter the church. Each would watch one of the entrances/exits on the cathedral's four sides. All would stay until she left or until the shift changed.
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Chapter 12
Mathias heard the click-click of Kashmira's shoes on the slate floor as she approached the private little room at the far back of the cathedral. He had used William's unlocking probe to defeat the door's security and was waiting inside the room.
The room had been created out of empty, unused space. It was quite small in length and width, but very high. A massive stone cupola served as a cap on top of the space. A solid wooden wall prevented anybody from entering the room's interior except by opening the locked door; the stone of the cathedral's exterior walls served a similar purpose for the other three sides of the room. An intruder would have no possible way to enter the room except through the door. A window sat in one of the exterior walls, but it was too narrow to climb through.
The interior of the room consisted of four bare walls lit by two small artificial lights. El Patrón's donation to the church had included the creation of this room for his daughter's sole use and that included the electricity into the building. A cushioned loveseat sat against one wall. Loveseats are like arm chairs except that they have enough room for two people to sit beside each other. Dominating the room was a large electronics table with a wheeled chair positioned behind it. A copper plate fastened to the table revealed that it was the Aussie Music Integration Table or AMIT. Mathias looked at the music table, but eventually shrugged his shoulders and sat in the loveseat to wait. Whatever this AMIT did, he'd find out soon enough. A big audio speaker nestled in one of the corners of the room and a guitar sat on a flimsy wooden rack in front of the love seat. A low wooden stool was the only other piece of furniture in the room.
Mathias heard a key unlock the door. He watched as a feminine hand fumbled for the light switch but found the lights already on. Kashmira stepped into the room as Mathias rose from the loveseat.
"Hello," he greeted. "I'm not here to harm you."
Mathias figured that finding a complete stranger waiting inside a locked room might be disconcerting. He was right about that.
Kashmira quickly backed out of the room and shut the door. He could hear her fumbling with the key in the lock. Eventually it clicked and she spoke. "Four armed guards are outside the cathedral. They will probably shoot you dead. I'll give you ten seconds to leave."
Mathias moved next to the door so that his voice wouldn't carry far. "It's difficult to leave when you've locked me in."
"Who are you?" At least she wasn't screaming. If that had happened, Mathias' plan to escape her guards consisted of flying invisibly to the cupola and waiting for them to give up looking for him.
"My name is Mathias. I won't hurt you."
"Why are you dressed so funny?"
Mathias had decided that Kashmira should see his real clothes, not one of the disguises. He was wearing buckskins and moccasins. "I don't live in the Philippines.
This is what I wear at home. Why don't you come back in? I know you have guards who could kill me."
"If you're here to kidnap me, you'll never get me out of the building."
"I know. I'm not here to kidnap you."
"Why are you here?"
"Because you have asked for help. I'm your help."
# # # # # # # #
Kashmira was standing inside the room, her back against the closed door. She hadn't locked the door in case she needed to leave the room quickly. Mathias was in the far corner of the room, sitting on the floor as she had instructed. She had positioned the chair with castors so that he'd have to push it out of the way to attack her. She would have boxed him in with the loveseat, but it was too heavy for her to move. Kashmira was diminutive.
"What's this room for?" Mathias asked.
"It's my music room. Who sent you to be my help?"
"Nobody sent me. I came to Maasin City to look for things to buy for my family. I saw that you were in trouble. I stayed to help. I'll leave if you don't want it."
"Why do you believe I might be in trouble?"
"All those guards outside."
"They're there to protect me."
"No. They're there to imprison you. If you want to escape from your prison, I can help."
"What kind of prison do you think I'm in? I walk out of my house every day."
"Your father is a criminal who kills people that annoy him. His most recent murder was El Jefe and two of his guards. A grocery boy named Pablo heard your father order the killing. Your father forced you to have sex with Pablo so that he'd be able to explain why Pablo was in the house for so long. You are now being groomed to be a slut and you will be married to a son of a family that makes its money from prostitution. You are afraid that you will be made into one of those prostitutes when your soon-to-be husband tires of you. You wish that you could choose the man you will marry, but your father won't let you. You and he argue about that all the time. He always wins. That's your prison."
"You couldn't know that. Nobody knows that."
"But clearly I do."
"Did God send you?"
"No, I don't think so. If he did, I don't know anything about that. I'm not a religious person."
"So you're here to rescue me?"
"No. I'm here to help you rescue yourself. We have a saying back where I live. If you lie down with dogs, don't complain if you wake up with fleas. If you want to escape the fleas, first you have to get away from the dog."
"I can't. He won't allow it."
"Even if he did, you wouldn't leave."
"Yes I would. In a heartbeat."
"Have you ever cooked for yourself?"
"No. The cook does that."
"Have you ever cleaned the house or even your own bedroom?"
"No. My maid does that."
"You don't have a maid. Your father gives you a maid. He's the one who pays her. She does what he tells her to do. Have you ever worked for money?”
"I don't need to. I have an allowance."
"If you had to work, what skills would you provide to your employer?"
"I could learn skills. I've had perfect scores on all of my tests in school. My teacher says that I'm very smart."
"Your classmates in that school can barely read or write. You are smart only by comparison. You have perfect scores because your teacher is afraid to give you anything less than a perfect mark in case your father blames her for not teaching you properly. You receive perfect scores because of your father."
Kashmira started to sputter a response, but Mathias cut her off. He wasn't speaking to her in a mean tone, but he was saying things that she definitely did not want to hear. "So, say that you did escape from your father or your father let you leave. How would you live? You'd have no house. Would you live on the street? How would you survive? You can't take care of yourself without servants. You have no skills that would allow you to earn money. How would you feed yourself? How would you exist on your own?"
"I wouldn't have to be on my own. I'd be married to a man that I love and he would love me. He would take care of me."
"Why would he marry you?"
"My father says that I'm the most beautiful girl that has ever existed. That's why he'd marry me."
"You know that your father makes money by lying and cheating. And yet, you believe him when he tells you that? You're pretty, but all of my sisters are more beautiful than you are. They're beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside."
"What is this inside?"
Mathias ignored the question. "Your husband. He'd be wealthy?"
"Of course."
"And he'd have servants to cook and clean up after you. He'd give you an allowance for your clothes. And everything would be wonderful."
"Yes. We would be in love."
"And what would you contribute to this marriage?"
"I would have his children."
"And who would raise them? A nanny?"
"Yes. Of course."
"So your entire contribution to this marriage is having sex with your husband. Right now, you are entirely dependent on your father for the life you lead. You believe that you will escape from your father's prison through marriage but you will end up being entirely dependent on your husband for the life you have with him. You would still be in a prison but it would be your husband's prison. You would still be in a prison that you couldn't escape, because you have no skills of any kind. You can't do anything for yourself."
"I don't think I like you."
"Then you won't like this either. Let's look at this new life of yours, the life where you are entirely dependent on your husband for your housing, your food, your clothes, your life style, everything. You give your husband sex and he gives you all of these things. How's that different from being a prostitute? You'd be an expensive one, but still a prostitute. You would earn your living by having sex with a husband who will soon tire of you."
Kashmira's response was a torrent of Spanish words.
"Inglés, por favor." [English, please.]
That request produced more vehement Spanish words. When Mathias didn't respond, Kashmira added: "Well, now I know that you're not an angel sent to help me. Angels speak Spanish."
"I never claimed to be an angel. I understood some of those words. You're not an angel either."
# # # # # # # #
Half an hour later, the tone in the room wasn't as hostile. Kashmira was perched on the stool. Mathias was sitting in the loveseat. The door was locked so that nobody could blunder in. Mathias had described how Kashmira had to change so that she could live outside of a prison. He had also described how he would help her.
Kashmira had listened to this dreamer long enough. "Let say that all of this worked. Even if I could live on my own because of your help, my father still wouldn't let me leave the safety of the house."
"You know that he doesn't love you, right?"
"Yes. I know that I'm not a lovable person. I am a useless chunk of semi-pretty flesh. You have made that clear. I know that my father wants to use me like the peasants outside the cities use chickens. I'll give you a rooster if you give me three laying chickens. I'm only a laying chicken to him."
"And when you're gone..."
"He won't think of me again. I know that. But he won't release his laying chicken until he can take profits from me. How will you force him to let me go? He'll hunt you down and kill you first."
"He may try. If so, I will have the advantage."
"You will fight my father's men? And you'll fight the other men he'll bring in from the prostitution family? You'll do this all by yourself?"
"I'd probably ask somebody in my family for help. Probably my Granny."
"You and an old woman against dozens of criminals."
"Don't forget yourself."
"I don't know how to fight."
"I'll find something for you to do."
"What? Sex? With you?"
"No, not sex. But you have to be part o
f the team fighting your dad. Otherwise, you're still being dependent on somebody else. You have to learn to fight for yourself."
"Three of us then. Against dozens."
"Yes. We won't need any more. You'll see when we go into battle."
"Talk is cheap. Show me now."
Mathias looked around the small room. Nothing at floor level. Higher? Three stone walls. Thick and ancient. The stone cupola providing the ceiling for the room? There. A tiny statue of an ugly creature. He pointed at it. "What's that?"
Kashmira had to stand next to Mathias to follow the line of his finger. "That's a gargoyle. This one is intended to scare away demons."
"Would you like it?"
"It's ugly. I don't want it. I have you now to scare away demons."
"Does that mean I'm ugly?"
"You said it. I didn't."
"Would you go and stand in front of the door?"
She did.
"Turn and face the door."
She did.
"Now close your eyes. You may hear some noises. You will not be hurt. Do not turn around."
Mathias activated his sling, flew up to the gargoyle and hovered in front of it. He created a cutting laser from his weapon array and sliced the gargoyle free from its base with only minor noise. Kashmira hadn't moved. Mathias landed well behind Kashmira and walked towards the door. "You can turn around now."
She did. Mathias held out the gargoyle and offered it to her.
Kashmira looked at the stone carving in her hand and then at the empty space at the top of the cupola. Her eyes widened, but otherwise she did not react. She took the gargoyle and rotated it. In doing so, she touched the base and pulled her hand away.
"The heat will go away," Mathias reassured. "Now you have your own personal gargoyle to protect you."
"I thought you were going to do that." Then she held the gargoyle up next to Mathias' face. Her eyes flicked from Mathias to the gargoyle and then to Mathias. "There is a certain resemblance," she said.
"Compare them now." Mathias furrowed his brows and opened his mouth in a gargoylian yawn.
"A perfect match," she confirmed. "A long lost uncle, perhaps?"
Mathias added some growly sound effects to the yawn and Kashmira giggled.
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Chapter 13
"That was nice," Mathias said from the soft love seat. "What was the song about?"