CHAPTER NINE "Sorry," Marty answered Peter as she checked the records on the computer. Her associate was still in Switzerland, while she stayed near San Francisco. "Jeremy is still missing, and nobody has turned up anything. Not one of my regular contacts has seen or heard anything." "This is very troubling. Anything about my sister?" "Zilch, though I have her credit cards being monitored, and her house is under surveillance. She apparently doesn't want to be found." "I wonder if she's gone looking for Jeremy? Maybe he's contacted her?" "Could be the reason for her disappearance. We'll keep checking. But, about Rose Academy." "What did you learn? Everybody here thinks highly of the place--no bad reports, nothing but praise." "That's mostly understandable. Julian Rose is in charge. He's brilliant, well educated--an apparently unblemished career. His former students hold positions of power worldwide in business, industry, and government. Rose alumni are represented in the media, many in films and television both in the USA and in Europe. Rose himself never married--has lived a near monkish existence." She paused. "Problem is that his roots are obscure--maybe deliberately so." "Meaning?" "He lists himself as an orphan--and there are hints that he was abandoned as a child. His national origin is dubious, though he claims Switzerland as his home. He apparently came from nowhere and accomplished a great deal in a relatively short amount of time." "Nothing wrong with that. You usually admire self-made men." "True. But I always question murky pasts, and he may have muddied his own pond. I'm doing some serious inquiring as we speak." "I sense that something is bothering you," Peter observed wryly. "What haven't you told me?" "He's a dead ringer for Faison." "Marty, Faison is dead. Bullet in the brain. Fini. History. The guy is dead and buried--we both saw the body. It would take more than a soap opera writer to bring this guy back." "I know that. Okay, maybe I'm just being paranoid. It's my job. Anyway, has Luke Spencer tried to contact you?" "No, though the authorities here are looking for him and two or three young people of undetermined sex. I take it Lucky and Nik have arrived?" "That's a definite possibility. I spoke with Laura this morning and she says that Nik and Lucky left Russia a few days ago and are believed to be looking for Luke. My guess is that they found him and are holed up out of the media spotlight." "So who's the third kid?" There was a pregnant pause. "You don't suppose....." "Reggie." Lila Quartermaine called her trusted employee and friend to the study where she asked, "I need you to do something for me." "Anything, madam." Reggie was more than eager to do whatever Lila needed him to do. He alone knew the extent of her involvement in espionage in the old days--having heard about it from her as well as from his grandfather. "What would you have me do?" "It's Ned, Reggie. He's very troubled--much more so than when Lois left. This is something frightening--something dangerous, I believe. He left here not long ago and he's on his way to the airport to go somewhere in the jet. I want you to follow him--discreetly, of course. Stow away on the plane if you must, but stay close to him." "I'd better be leaving." "Take this." Lila held out a leather attaché case which he accepted. "There is a laptop computer in there, along with a cellular phone and everything else you'll need. Cash, as well. Keep in touch with me--via the internet, or by the phone." "What are we looking for, Madam?" "You are watching to see whom he contacts--and see if you can determine what has upset him. I will work at this end to understand why, after years of living in and around this place, a rose could possibly bother him." "Roses?" Reggie was baffled. "Mr. Ashton has always liked roses." "Until now," Lila told him. "He's exceedingly troubled and this is most unlike him." "Then I'll phone ahead and arrange for a flight delay." "No need. I've already done that. The pilot has been extremely accommodating--as always. Your cousin, Winston, is the best pilot we've ever had." "In that case, Madam, I'll be off." Julian studied the jadeite rose in his hand for a few more moments. His hidden treasures encompassed far more valuable pieces, but the rose was of singular beauty. He looked back at Jade Wu, and asked, "And the other gift?" Jade lifted one delicate black eyebrow and said, "The other gift is, perchance, more valuable than this. This gift knows of the inner workings of many of your potential enemies, and, has expressed a wish to gain some measure of revenge against them." "Then, send Mr. Corinthos in." Julian smiled as he contemplated working with the mobster. Jade smiled. "You underestimate me, Mr. Rose. Surely you don't think that I'd bring a mobster to you, put your operation at risk in such a fashion. Mr. Corinthos is being sought worldwide, and while I do know where he can be found, he's hardly a gift. More a liability." Julian was intrigued. A woman of beauty and intelligence? In his experience, this combination was far too rare, and when encountered, far more deadly than most of the men he knew. But, he mused, all the more fascinating. "Then, surprise me, Ms. Wu." Jade turned to the doorway, and beckoned her guest. A blonde woman dressed in a red business suit approached, her eyes wary, yet knowing. "Mr. Rose, meet Katherine Bell." "Well, I'll be damned," said one saffron robed 'priest' to another as they studied the Rose Academy through binoculars. From their perch on a hillside, they'd been watching the entrance to the school, trying to learn something about the comings and goings of the administration. "Whatever is Miss Kitty Litter doing here?" "I beg your pardon?" Nik asked, taking the binoculars. "Kathryn Bell? What's she doing here?" "That's what I asked," Luke told him. "Sorry, Nik. I know that you like the woman, but you gotta trust me on this when I tell you that she's one very shady lady." "But she saved Bobbie from Helena." "Kat isn't above doing good to accomplish her ends," Luke assured the young man. "Son, you've got a lot to learn about women. They're the most delightful creatures ever created, but they're the most devious, as well." Nikolas handed the binoculars back to Luke, feeling the same odd sensation whenever Luke called him 'son'. He wasn't certain that he'd ever grow comfortable with the thought that they were father and son, or that Luke would ever truly accept him. But, they'd worked out an unspoken truce, a trial period to see if they could arrive at some sort of understanding. "You refer to my mother." Luke smiled. "Nikolas, your mother did what she had to do--at least what she thought she had to do. She thought I was dead--that's what she was told. Helena hated her--but needed her--all at the same time. Now, we know why--at least the 'need' part, though back then we didn't. I don't know why she hated Laura, unless she thought that she might lose control over the family somehow. Anyway, your mother outsmarted them, but at no small cost." He and Nikolas sat back to talk, far enough from Lucky and Jeremy that they wouldn't be heard, or interrupted. "But she left me with them..." Nikolas wasn't certain how to take that--it had bothered him for years that she'd left him, but even more so now that he knew that he was Luke's son. "Nik, she'd have taken you if she could have--and she told us both that she'd intended to return for you, but Lesley was apparently killed and Laura was too scared to try. Besides, by then, she knew she was pregnant with Lucky. She also knew that if I knew, I'd try to get you back, and she was afraid to run the risk of losing both of us. She also believed in her heart that Stefan would take good care of you." Odd, he reflected, how much sense it all made now, while he was explaining it to his son. His son. Luke looked into Nik's questioning eyes, and knew a moment of joy that was at once clouded with shame. Where were the words that he needed to say? How could one apologize for all that had gone before? For failing the son he'd never known about? For damning Nikolas for being......hell, just for being! Luke had never felt quite so uneasy in his entire life--never when he'd stared death in the face, when he'd gambled with everything he'd had--because never before had he doubted the decency of the man he was. And this young man, his son, was seeking answers from him that he didn't know if he had. "It's okay," Nikolas told him, reading the troubles in his father's eyes. They saddened him even as he saw Luke's struggle to deal with some deeper emotion. He had no idea how his father felt about him, whether or not they'd ever develop a father/son relationship. "Neither of us knew, and she thought she was protecting us both that way. We can't change what was--but we have the future."