Well over an hour had passed when Marlene opened the door. “There you are. I've been looking all over for you.” She closed the door quietly behind her.
Jason's attention never wavered from the pictures. “You could have just asked Mentor.”
“Where's the fun in that if you want to play hide and seek?” Her eyes darted to the pictures. “Is this what you've been doing? Thinking? Brooding? Trying to figure out what happened? Turn it off, Mentor.” The wall screen went dark. Marlene crossed the room carefully in the dimness that remained.
She leaned back against the desk, her hands gripping the edge on either side of her. “What are you thinking?”
“Reaffirmation Day.”
“What about it?” Marlene asked with some concern.
Jason leaned back in the chair and sighed. “Before your meeting, I had another meeting. Kris and Stinger.”
“He's the one that kind of looks like a giant hornet?”
Jason nodded. “He wanted to talk. First to me and then with Angelique. He told me that Artie had a game in motion.”
Marlene hiked her skirt up a bit and sat up on the desktop, kicking her shoes off and crossing her ankles. “What does that mean?”
“Darque has a habit of playing a game of chess with someone.”
Marlene ran her fingers through her hair. “That Arkayne person?”
“I assume so, based on what Adalene said. They choose people for pieces. From what Stinger said, Artie has been learning from Anton.” Marlene wanted to ask a question, but bit it back, letting Jason tell her in his own way, realizing at the same time that he was working through the puzzle. Looking for a pattern, the way Adalene had described Jason after Reaffirmation Day. “You have fifteen men on the field.
“Mentor, put up a chess board on the wall.” The wall screen lit up, displaying the board. “Now, put me in as the white king.” A star burst appeared in the designated square. “Put Artie in as the black king.” “Artie Stephen Rocco-Bauer” appeared in the square of the black king. “Without your sense of humor, Mentor.”
“My apologies.” The name was deleted and left with a simple “Artie”.
Jason brought his hand up in a closed fist and rested his chin on it. “Now, the question becomes, who does Artie have as his pawns, rooks, knights, bishops and queen? The game that he's playing is blind. He is also choosing who my pieces are.”
“How can you be sure?”
There was a crimson flash in Jason's closed fist and then he held it out to Marlene. She lifted hers to take what Jason offered. He dropped a crystal pawn into her palm. It was severed in two. “I found that on her table when I went in to heal her.”
Marlene gave him a concerned look. “That's evidence. If Detective Harris finds out you have this...”
“He won't. He had officers on her door constantly. How did it get in there?”
“A nurse or orderly?”
Jason shook his head. “Warp. He teleported it in and left it for me to find.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because, for one, I saw it appear.” Jason stared at Marlene for a long moment.
“And?”
Jason pursed his lips. He was caught between wanting to protect Marlene and keeping her in the dark about how his life sometimes was and a day-old promise not to keep things from her. The promise won out. With another crimson flash he appeared a cream colored envelope with a broken red wax seal and black ribbon. He handed it to Marlene.
She gave Jason a questioning look. Marlene lifted the flap and slid out a single announcement card. It said, in an elegant script, simply, “When two objects collide, there is always damage of a collateral nature.” Marlene read it again. Her brow furled.
“So, Artie is a fan of A Game of Shadows.”
“You've seen it?”
Marlene nodded. “Beth and I went. Holmes went to Moriarty to ask that Watson and his wife not be used against him. Moriarty told him, 'In answer to your previous request regarding Dr. Watson not being involved, the answer is "no": the laws of celestial mechanics dictate that when two objects collide, there is always damage of a collateral nature.' Then he went on to explain how Irene Adler died.” Jason gave her a questioning look and Marlene laughed. Her laughter brought a smile to his face. “What?” Marlene asked. “You and Warren aren't the only ones that can throw movie quotes around.”
Marlene dropped her chin and cocked her head to the side. She raised an eyebrow at Jason. “Can I ask you something?” Jason nodded. “This Darque, you kept bouncing back and forth. You use his first name then you use his last name. Why?”
Jason rocked back in his chair, putting his head against the rest. He thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to answer. “I...” he began. “I respect him. As an adversary and as a man. Dating Angelique required that I sometimes interact with him. Part of me wants to like him.”
“But?”
“I use his last name to remind myself of what he is.”
“What about Artie? You don't respect him?”
Rubbing his chin, Jason said, “No. I've never respected Artie. Especially not since that night at the Stevens' party.”
Lifting her legs and resting her feet in Jason's lap, Marlene ran a hand down her leg to her ankle. “Isn't that part of how you got so messed up?”
Jason gave her a humorless smile and shook his head. “I underestimated him. That has nothing to do with respect. Artie has power. It was given to him. He didn't earn it. I can't say he really suffered for it.” He absentmindedly caressed Marlene's foot until his fingers touched hers and she laid her fingers over his. “In that, I don't think he has any respect for it. It's just another way for him to cause damage.”
“Well, I think...”
“Pardon the intrusion, sir. There is a call for you,” Mentor said. Marlene sighed.
“Put it through,” Jason told the AI. The wall screen flickered to life again. This time with an image of Ash. “Ash? What's going on?”
“Well, Jason, I though you should know.” Ash turned her camera to Warren and Kate's second story window. Warren, right hand in a cast, was directing Leah and Dani in replacing the window frame.
Jason rocked the chair forward. “What happened?”
Ash flipped the camera back to her. “We had unexpected company. One of those mechanized assassins, Warren's 'killbot', showed up.” Jason's mouth drew tight.
“Is everyone okay?” Marlene asked.
“Yeah,” Ash said smiling. “Except for Warren's hand. He broke it disabling the bot. Jason, the first shot that it took, it was targeting Kate. The shot went through the window and took out that antique mirror of her grandmother's. At the distance, I assume it had to rely strictly on its visual sensors and none of the fancy targeting. Or it would have realized that it was aiming at a reflection.”
“Is there any other damage?” Jason asked.
Ash quirked a smile at the camera. “Just my shirt. It fired one of those freezer rounds. I figured hitting me with whatever it had fired was better than it hitting Warren's house. The girls are getting frustrated with him. He's pretty frustrated that he can't fix it himself.”
Jason hung his head in thought. “Was there anything around after? A clue? Anything?”
“Yeah.” Jason's raised his head to look at the image of Ash. “There was an envelope addressed to Leah. Plastic film, both the envelope and the sheet inside. It read, 'My condolences on your loss.' And signed, 'Steven'.” Rocking back in the chair again and turning his head away from the screen, Jason rested his chin on a thumb and ran the side of his finger below his bottom lip. “What are you thinking?”
He turned his attention back to the screen. “Nothing else was found? Maybe a crystal chessman?”
Ash shook her head, “No. We did a pretty extensive sweep. We're turning over the remains to Wildfire. What's left, anyway. You know how those things burn themselves up.”
“Yeah,” Jason said quietly. “What about Kate's mirror? Is it salvageable?”
“That's taken care of,” Ash told him. “Warren called Binder. She's here working on putting it all back together. Promised Kate that it would never be broken again.”
Jason sighed. One less thing to worry about. “That's good,” he said, nodding to himself.
“Jason?” He looked up. “How are things there? How is Jessica?”
“She's good, Ash. All patched up.”
“That's good, too,” the blonde said with a smile. “Anything on the archer?”
“Not yet. I sent what I had to Callahan. Told Michaels to get it to him and have him get in touch after. I'm still waiting on that call.”
“Then I guess I'll let you go. Take care of him, Marlene.”
“I plan on it, Ash,” Marlene said smiling at Jason. The screen went dark. “You're tired. You need to rest.” Jason's hand found its way back to Marlene's foot in his lap.
“I'm not tired.”
“No. You're not. You're exhausted. If you aren't interested in sleep, then I'm interested in distracting you,” she teased lightly.
Jason uncrossed Marlene's ankles and held one in each hand as he stood. “Desk fantasy, Miss Palmer?”
Marlene gave him a smoldering look. “I've had desk fantasies, Mr. Scott, but it wasn't this desk. If it is fantasy fulfillment you're thinking of, I used to fantasize about you coming in my room at night and having your way with me until the wee hours of the morning.”
“You don't really have a room here right now,” he said, his voice low.
Marlene smiled. “Then we'll have to look into one of the other ones. Like where you cart me off to your room and have your wicked way with me.” She picked Jason's tie up off the desk. “So, shall we?” She rubbed her foot against his side.
“What do you have in mind?” he asked, leaning in close to her.
Jason's fingers caressing her legs made her moan. “Whatever you'd like? Experiment a little?” she said breathlessly. Jason leaned in and kissed her. His fingers slipped his tie from hers and Marlene pressed her hands against his chest, teasing at his buttons. “Jason? What?” she asked in surprise when the tie bound her wrists together.
He knelt down and slipped his fingers into her shoes. Then, standing back up, he easily lifted her with one hand and tossed her over his shoulder. “You wanted to be carted to my room. You're being carted,” he teased her back.
Out in the hall they ran into Trese. “What's going on?” she asked.
“I'm carting Marlene to my room,” he told her playfully. Marlene laughed.
“Uh huh.”
Jason turned to go before turning his attention back to the redhead. “I'm expecting a call from Callahan. It is absolutely imperative that I talk to him, Trese. No matter what, let me know when it comes in.”
“Is it about Jessica?”
“Yes.”
Trese nodded. “As soon as the phone rings.”
“Thank you.”
“Go...whatever it is you're going to go do.”
Jason quirked a smile at her. “Whatever I want.” He turned away and headed down the hall. Marlene smiled and waved at Trese with bound hands. Trese gave her a questioning look and then shook her head. She turned in the opposite direction. She stopped when Marlene squealed and, “Jason, that tickles!” echoed down the hall.
Shaking her head and muttering, “Children”, under her breath, Trese went on her way.
