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Christopher glared angrily at Nykki's retreating back as she abruptly turned around and started back to where she had come from. "Damn you Nykki!" Chris swore under his breath. She had been avoiding him for days. "Damn, damn, damn! Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?" he muttered angrily as he stalked away. The sexual tension had been building up in him, eating at him for the past three days. Every time he saw her, his loins would tighten and he would have to struggle to contain himself. If he had not mastered self-control during those long judo lessons years ago, he would have run after her, dragged her off to a dark corner of the academy, and taken her there, whether she was agreeable or not. His colleagues had already noticed his irritability, and had deduced the reason for it. Chris knew that they had been snickering and joking about it behind his back, but he couldn't care less. All he wanted to do now was to get Nykki out of his mind, before something really happened.
"Nykki, I heard from your father this morning..." O'Malley began without preamble, after Nykki closed the door and settled into the chair. "You heard from Dad? It's about time. Is he all right? Where is he? What are his plans? When will he be coming? Does he know about Nick? What's he planning to do about it? Is..." Nykki was interrupted by O'Malley. "Mason didn't say much. Only that he was in the area and to ask me to look after you." "He didn't say anything about when he'll call back?" "No, not a bloody thing. Damn! He has to know about what happened to Nicholas! He cannot be unaware of it," O'Malley said, almost to himself. He looked at the girl sitting across from him. "Nykki, promise me that you'll be extremely careful. Now that your Dad is in the area, those people will stop at nothing to get at him. It's already bad enough that they have Nicholas, if they also had you." "What are we going to do now? Just sit here and wait?" The irritation was clear in her voice. "That's the only thing we can do! Look, I'm just as anxious as you are." "Sorry," she apologized, "I was out of line..." "Nykki, is there anything bothering you? "Nothing, I'm just a little stressed. I'll be fine. Once this whole thing is over, I'll be fine."
Christopher watched her as she walked out of O'Malley's office. Once she had turned the corner, he barged into the office. "All right Richard, what the fuck is going on?" "I had a feeling I would see you in here sooner or later. Although, I was hoping it was later." "Enough already. Answer the question!" "Cool it. I guess you know most of the background huh?" "Her parents killed and her dad resurrected, yeah, I know all that. But why all this secrecy?" "Her father is Mason Storm." Christopher's mouth dropped open. "Alex Mason is Nicole Storm?" he asked incredulously. "The one who used to play those pranks on me? The almost emotionless creature out there is the same one who used to throw mud pies at me every time she saw me?" The one who walked out on me is the same girl? Impossible. He laughed mirthlessly. "Now, why don't you tell me the absolute truth for once?" "That is the truth, it just depends on whether you believe it or not." O'Malley shrugged. The honesty in his words registered in his confused brain. He pulled a chair and sat down. "Well, then explain this to me. How come she doesn't know who I am? She can't be faking that, can she?" "She's suffering from retrograde amnesia caused by psychological trauma. She can't remember anything of the past since the incident. I always hoped that she'd recover, but after so many years..." Richard O'Malley sagged back into his chair, looking much older than his fifty-four years. "Nicholas said to me once after they joined the academy, 'If Nykki can't remember her most hated childhood enemy, what hopes are there for her recovery?'" He looked at Christopher. "I was hoping you could help her." "I never guessed... I always thought that she was just a rebellious kid." He remembered the dark-haired, skinny waif. Who could have known that the flat-chested thirteen-year-old girl who had made his life hell would become the woman he had fought with at the pool. "She's no kid anymore, Christopher, I learnt that years ago. Until the day of the funeral, she stayed in the house and cried her heart out. Every morning I would see her at the breakfast table, eyes red and puffy, nose swollen. When we returned after the funeral, she swore that she would never cry again... and she hasn't... for eight years. Shows you how strong she is, to be able to make a promise at fourteen and keep it. Not many people can do that. Sometimes, I really wish she wasn't so strong - I think stubborn is a better word," O'Malley smiled suddenly, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "I really wish she would just lose that cool, almost cold facade of hers, to stop being so damned independent, and just lean on someone. She's not emotionless, she's just mastered the art of hiding her feelings. Nykki doesn't have to try to remain aloof, it's become a part of her. She never gives any indication of what she's feeling - maybe to some people she's arrogant, it's probably the way she looks down her nose at you, even if you're a head taller. She has this astounding ability to go completely expressionless. You should have seen her when I finally told her that her father was alive. Her face became blank, even a statue shows more emotions than her..." O'Malley paused for a breath. "I believe she's hurting inside, she doesn't want to be hurt again, so she doesn't let anyone get close enough. She treats me casually, like a good friend. The only person who has any idea of the depth of her real feelings is Nick, but even he doesn't know her well enough." "And you think I can help? As you said, even her twin cannot get through to her, how can I, a complete stranger do it?" Christopher asked incredulously. "She likes you, I can sense it. If you found the correct time and place, you might be able to break that shell she's enclosed herself in. Most importantly, you have to be patient. She used to bury herself in her books, studying an assortment of esoteric subjects, and managed to excel in all them. But I can count the number of dates she had in high school on one hand. She went to college and then to Harvard. Nykki took two majors at Harvard, Criminal Law and Finance - she graduated a few months after her twenty-first birthday. Nicholas also put a lot of his time in his studies, except that he found out how to enjoy life again." He sighed then, it was just a soft airy sound, but the intense wealth of feeling behind it nearly overwhelmed Christopher. "You really think I'll be able to help?" The doubts were clear in his voice. O'Malley nodded. "All right then, I'll try my best." "Thank you Christopher, that will take a load off my mind."
Nykki put the tape into the cassette player. She rewound it and pressed the 'play' button. Static. Car engines being switched off. Silence. Then finally, voices. "Hey Calabrase, nice to see you again." "Yeah, nice to see you too." The voice was heavily accented. "Got the friend I told you about." "Hello, it's good to meet you sir." Calabrase. "I should hope it is, Mr. Calabrase." A third cultured voice that made her of her classmates form Harvard. That voice, there's something very familiar about it! She heard her father mumble something in the background, but could not make out what he was saying. "You know, murder is a very serious business, Mr. Senator, and an expensive one." Calabrase. "You will be very well compensated Mr. Calabrase, money now, and a lot more when I get in that office, and you can take that to the bank!" "Slowly, slowly, and always with caution." "Now you listen to me, I want you to turn Senator William Caldwell into a memory. I'm not waiting around for that old bag of pipes to die of natural causes." "Look! This calls for a little patience. The man is public, he's in the papers every day! "The next time I read about him, he'd better be in the obituaries." The second speaker spoke up. "Okay, enough bullshit, Calabrase, can you do this job or not? Because if you can't ..." Calabrase cut him off. "It'll be taken care of." "Gentlemen, enough bickering. I think we understand each other." The Senator. "Oh yeah ..." Static. She heard her father swear softly. "The jet is a light plane, a Lear P61. We want it to take off, we don't want it to land." The Senator. Suddenly a crash. Her father let loose a string of expletives which she had never heard before. "What the hell's going on hear?" The Senator was shouting. "I thought you said this dock was clean! What do I have here? People listening to me?" Shouts mingled in the background. Static again, and the tape stopped. Nykki replayed it again, trying to make out any background voices. Nothing. She scowled darkly at the black cassette.
Having listened to the dratted cassette for the upteenth time, her head was throbbing from too intense concentration. A hand pressed against her temple and the fingers lightly massaging the painful throbbing, Nykki picked up the remote control with her other hand, switched on the television and flipped to CNN. Senator Vernon Trent was talking about curbing violence again. His handsome and expressive face crowned with golden-yellow hair showed every emotion he wanted the voters to see. His warm amber eyes shone with passion as he spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to put a stop to it, and we are going to stop it right here." His fans clapped and cheered. He put his hands up to stop the noise. "We are going to put an end to violence in this state, and you can take that to the bank!" A burst of clapping and noise, but Nykki heard nothing. Enlightenment dawned. The mastermind behind the killings was none other than the country's favorite senator, Senator Vernon Trent.
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