The Girl With Pink Hair: Pt. 05

My apologies to anyone expecting to pick this up and get a quick fix. To understand what's going on you'll need to revisit earlier episodes.

As ever, any resemblance to persons living or dead is co-incidental. Constructive criticism is very welcome.

Recap

In "The Girl With Pink Hair: Pt 4" Elena and Jess meet with Alan Forrester, an agent for the Centrist faction of the Folk. The girls are both attracted to Alan and the meeting at the loft progresses to an evening of physical pleasure. After Alan falls asleep, Jess acts to try and entangle him with Elena, which would reduce his effectiveness as an agent for his clique. However, it seems no intervention is necessary. When Alan wakes, he is horrified as his real motive for meeting Jess and Elena was to investigate whether they were the precursor to the re-enactment of a powerful and dangerous myth. Now that he is entangled with Elena - and through her with Jess - they are one step closer to becoming the Trinity which is itself only one step away from the focus of the myth.

Elena is furious with Jess as she suspects her of being underhand, something she promised she would never do to Elena. Jess protests her innocence and during the resolution of the argument, Elena comes into her Talent. Her latent ability has been the source of previous otherworldly events. Now Alan and Jess must try to teach Elena control while avoiding being completely overwhelmed by the myth.

Unfortunately, events overtake them.

***

I've got a girlfriend ...

The loft 11am, 30 ^th May

The loft was bedlam. Jess and Alan hurried to secure whatever they thought necessary, and Elena tried to stay out of their way. She started for the door only for Alan to take her by the arm.

"You can't leave, even for a moment. We have to be out of here in the next few minutes, so we need to have line of sight at all times. Trust me."

Trust again, Elena thought. That was becoming a very precious commodity.

"Who sent you the message?" she asked.

"Family," he replied, tersely. "I hope they covered their tracks."

Family in the espionage business? How could that be? Unless ... unless they were working with very small numbers! They called themselves The Folk, the latter word derived from Proto-Germanic, literally meaning 'kin' - like in 'kinfolk' - which analytical brain's pedantry utility observed was a tautology. Elena hissed and shook her head. Not now! The pedantry function was taken offline.

Her mind worked furiously. Did the need to reinforce the genes make the extended family the critical unit? Was this less like a nation state and more a loose federation of tribes with shifting allegiances?

And the incidence of Talent in the general population must be quite low or the Folk would be directly or indirectly running things. In which case, the espionage must amount to no more than a shoestring operation of surveillance, harvesting gossip and - what did Jess call it? - oh, yes, 'nudging'.

Elena cursed herself for being blindsided by this. The last few months had lulled her into complacency. As she processed her conclusions, she busied herself getting a few basics from the kitchen and then stood staring at them wondering how she was going to carry it all.

"Where can we go?" Jess shouted as she pulled out handfuls of clothes and threw them into two suitcases. At the back of a drawer was a small, gift-wrapped box. She looked at it briefly, that moment would come. It arced into a suitcase, following the clothes.

"I don't know!" Alan shouted back. "All my assets are compromised now and yours too. I can't use my car, it'll be tracked."

Elena had an idea. "I'll get a cab. They can't have taken over my phone yet, they don't have the capacity."

Alan stopped what he was doing. "How do you know that?"

"You were sent here to investigate me, but until a couple of hours ago I was just some local oddity. There can't be enough of you to run a proper surveillance operation, otherwise why send a valuable asset like you?"

Now Jess hesitated, and she and Alan exchanged glances. "Where do you suggest we go?"

"Take the taxi to the swimming pool. It's a possible normal destination for us but then it's a five minute walk from there to Sanjay and the others. They can't be part of the picture yet, either. We can take stock then."

There was an infinitesimal pause, then Alan walked over, took her face in his hands, and kissed her soundly.

"Brilliant."

***

On the way out, they encountered Sylvie in the hall. She surveyed their appearance and the suitcases and looked at Alan in obvious query.

"Going somewhere?"

Jess dropped the suitcase she was carrying and took Sylvie by the hand. "Oh, I'm so glad I caught you!"

Sylvie smiled in confusion, "You could always have texted me."

"No, I couldn't. We can't use our phones."

Now Sylvie's eyebrows climbed. "Are you in trouble?"

Alan frowned and Jess said without looking round, "She's a friend, Alan, and I'm going to trust her with what I'm about to tell her."

"Tell me what?" Sylvie asked. She gave off hues of concern more than alarm or worry and Alan relaxed a little.

"We're going to have to disappear for a bit and you can't tell anyone anything about us, especially people claiming to be from the police or security services or the government or anyone!" Jess finished in a rush.

"I ... see," Sylvie said, slowly.

"Moreover, they'll try to influence you," Elena added.

She laughed, "I'm too well off to take bribes!"

Jess squeezed her hand. "It won't be that kind of influence. I think you already have an idea of what I can do. My magic you called it. I wish we had more time, but this is going to have to do. I want you to concentrate on your emotions, how you feel."

Sylvie looked uncertain and Elena chipped in for reassurance. "It's weird but you have to have the tools to deal with it."

Jess dragged Sylvie's attention back to herself. "They're going to try to lessen your suspicion and make you more inclined to trust them."

"They?"

"The people that will come looking for us. Are you ready? When they do, it will feel like this."

Jess reached out to massage Sylvie's feelings. The other woman's eyes widened. "Holy fuck! What are you doing?"

"What they'll try to do to get you to co-operate. If you feel it, tell them to stop and they will. It only works if you don't realise what's going on. And no, before you ask, other than just now, I've never done this to you."

Sylvie was silent as she tried to process the abrupt reframing of her two friends and their new companion as fugitives with mind powers.

"Taxi's here," Elena said, urgently. "We've gotta go. Keep our room for us Sylvie. We will be back."

Her voice firmed towards the end and Alan and Jess looked at each other. Elena was making a promise and some of the Queen's authority infused her words. Sylvie nodded and her chin came up.

"Take care."

***

Senate Row 2pm, 30 ^th May

They ditched their smartphones in the rubbish bin outside the swimming pool and made their way up the busy street to where Senate Row branched off. Another hundred metres found them standing on the pavement outside the nest of the Unholy Trinity. Jess and Elena recalled the pet name for the three friends inside and exchanged unhappy glances at its newly unpleasant resonance.

Another two houses in the terrace separated the Unholy Trinity residence from the wall at the end of the lane which was the boundary to the cemetery. It was serenely quiet with only the distant sound of the busy thoroughfare behind them to disturb the peace. Elena glanced up at the sky in a way that wasn't quite a plea from an empiricist, and prayed that at least one of the three would be in. And conscious.

The door latch clicked and a yawning Sanjay, clad only in a pair of blue plaid boxer shorts, opened the door only for them all to push past him into the hall. Alison stood astonished in the doorway to the kitchen. Seconds later Merry appeared and looked over Alison's shoulder.

"What are you doing here? And who's that?" she said, staring at Alan.

"Alan, he's ..." Elena stalled, as trying to explain Alan needed more explanation than they had time for. In spite of their situation, Jess widened her eyes and Elena could feel herself blushing.

"... he's ... with us. Like that," she finished awkwardly.

"Where do you find them, Elena?" Merry asked. "One minute you tell me you haven't been laid in months and then you turn up with two of the most beautiful people I've ever seen!"

Elena put her hands through her hair, where to start?

"We need a place to lay low for a while," Jess intervened.

"Lay low? How wonderful! Like you're on the run! Are you in trouble? What have you done? What's going on?" said other three in no particular order and mostly at the same time.

Elena held up her hands to quiet them. "We are being, um, pursued. We think. Because of something we've done. Which wasn't illegal but has probably made us a target for Jess and Alan's former employers. And maybe some less savoury characters."

Merry put her hands on her hips. "That makes no sense. You're a waitress, Jess."

Elena shook her head in frustration. "I'd like to explain everything, but it'd take too long. For now we need to disappear until we can find out more about what kind of mess we're in, and who exactly is after us."

Merry and Alison looked sceptical. Help arrived from an unexpected quarter.

"My father has a house in the Brecon Beacons. It's quite isolated," Sanjay said.

"Dear God, no!" Alan gasped.

Sanjay was taken aback. "It's not that bad," he laughed. "There's running water and the internet and everything!"

Alan shook his head and tried to explain. "It's not that, it's just that the Arthurian myth is all through that area. We'd be better off going to ground somewhere like Dartford. There's not much majesty in Dartford."

"Arthurian?" Alison murmured to Merry. "What's that about?"

Elena had an idea. "I might know a place," she said, thoughtfully and they turned to her with questioning looks. "The information is fifteen years old but I'm willing to bet not much has changed. Sanjay, can you get us a hire car?"

"Sure, I guess so. The girls might have to chip in."

"I'll cover it," Alan said quickly, fishing a money clip out of an inside pocket.

The Unholy Trinity stared at it and then looked up to Alan, Jess, and Elena in turn.

"What's really going on, Elena?" Merry asked.

Elena looked distressed and for a moment Merry regretted asking her. Then her jaw firmed. "We can't help you if we don't know at least some of what's going on."

Elena exchanged glances with Alan and Jess and came to a decision. "Merry and Alison, come with me. You three sort out our transport."

Elena swore there was the ghost of an approving nod as she gave her companions their orders. Jess caught her hands and looked up into her face. "Do you know what you're doing, love?"

"Gaining allies. We can't rely on anyone from your side or Alan's but these three are solid, I know it."

Merry and Alison looked at each other and then hurried after Elena as she marched into the kitchen where she threw herself into a chair and covered her face with her hands. Then she straightened up, visibly pulling herself together, and looked up at the other two.

"This is going to sound totally mad but hopefully I should be able to give you some evidence to back me up."

In silence Merry and Alison let themselves into the other chairs at the table as Elena took a deep breath.

"Jess and Alan aren't human." She held up her hands as both Merry and Alison started to frame a rebuttal. "Hear me out first. I phrased that badly. I should have said they're another branch of humanity. They have psychic powers and, as I discovered earlier today, so do I."

"But-"

"STOP!" the Queen ordered, and both Merry and Alison quailed.

Jess came running in and knelt in front of Elena to ground her.

"What in heaven's name was that?" quavered Alison.

"That was the Queen. She's a kind of psychic parasite," Elena mumbled from the crook of Jess' neck. "I'm trying to stop her from owning me completely."

"The Queen is like a legend made real," Jess said quietly. "In a way we're lucky she's trying to manifest in Elena."

"Is it something to do with King Arthur?" Merry asked.

Elena chuckled bitterly; her clever friends were joining the dots. "Sort of."

Jess continued, "If it had been me or Alan then we probably wouldn't be able to withstand her. But Elena has been brought up and achieved adulthood as a," Jess hesitated and then ploughed on, "a mundane. She's been educated as a scientist, so her thinking is logical and precise, and not prone to flights of fancy. It might have been very different if she'd been a creative.

Her powers have been latent until they manifested earlier today. The Queen doesn't seem to know what to make of her yet. Now we need some time on our own to teach her control and work out what to do next. Because if the Queen does take control, then things could get very bad. Very bad very quickly. You've had just the slightest brush with her power."

There was silence for a few moments.

"Your hair. It's real, isn't it?" Alison said.

Elena laughed and sat up. "Her hair?"

"Ali got a bit obsessed with it after the ball," Merry admitted.

Jess understood. Having been profoundly shocked, Merry and Alison were taking refuge in the everyday. "Yes, it is. Watch closely now."

The two women gasped as Jess became brown haired and brown eyed in front of them. Merry's gaze turned to Elena.

"Can you do that?"

Elena chuckled ruefully. "No. If I tried to do it, I don't know what would happen. We'd all become albino or something. I can't control myself very well yet and I'm reluctant to do anything that might let ... her in."

Sanjay stuck his head around the corner of the door. "I'm just going to get the hire car. I should be back in a few minutes."

"Thank you, Sanjay we won't forget this," Jess said, and he gawked at her.

"What's going on with your eyes?"

Alison got up and went to take his arm, "Brace yourself, darling. This might come as a shock."

He did take a step back, murmuring, "Gadhalund!" as Jess' hair resumed its neon shade, and her eyes became their familiar brilliant blue.

"Now, now, sweetheart, in English please," Merry said as she rose from her chair to take his other arm.

Behind him, Alan cleared his throat. "I hate to be pushy, but we need to get lost asap."

"Right, right, " Sanjay muttered as he turned to go, reluctant to take his eyes off Jess.

***

Somerset Street 2pm, 30 ^th May

Back at the house in Somerset Street, Sylvie sat in the small parlour that she and Shawna used and pondered the events of the past couple of hours.

Number one, Jess and Elena had picked up a stranger and it had all seemed to be going well until the shouting and precipitous exit. Admittedly said stranger was rather hot but nevertheless a man. Sylvie was less militant than Shawna when it came to the opposition, but it was surely not happenstance that his appearance coincided with the turmoil of their sudden departure.

Number two, the awful business with Jess interfering with her feelings. Sylvie shuddered as she recoiled from the memory. The logical mind that had led her to her suspicions as to Jess' true nature reacted badly to the notion that that same mind was not sacrosanct.

Number three, Jess and Elena might be in trouble: real or confected, perhaps bound up with Mr X, their handsome unknown.

There was a knock on the front door. Sylvie gathered herself. If Jess' warning was to be heeded, then she needed to be calm and on her guard.

On the other side of the door, Kate Livingstone took a step back to feel for the mind that was coming to answer it. There didn't appear to be any sign of the Calamar girl or her partner. No matter, Kate was sure she could make the mundane spill anything she knew.

The door opened to reveal a woman in expensive clothes. Mid-thirties perhaps, with brown eyes and short blonde hair cut in a bob. Kate could not detect anything beyond cool suspicion. Surely Jessica Calamar had not revealed her true nature to this person?

"I'm looking for a Jessica Calamar. I understand she lives here," she stated shortly, as if this was an accepted fact.

Sylvie frowned. "No one of that name lives here," she said.

"I have information that leads me to think she lives here with Elena Kowalski. She may be using an assumed name," Kate said, briskly.

Sylvie's expression was neutral and her aura placid.

"Show me some ID, please." She paused and then tilted her head to inspect her visitor. "You're a long way from Cumbria. Barrow, I think. You've not quite got the glottal stop under control."

Kate struggled to keep the shock from her face as she drew a wallet out of an inside pocket and thrust it at Sylvie. She had worked hard to suppress her native speech mannerisms in order to fit in in the South. How the hell had this woman known where she came from? Was she also an operative? Kate reached out to dial down Sylvie's suspicion and increase acceptance.

Sylvie did not look at the ID, instead holding her gaze. Kate's attempt at influence slid off the other woman's mind and Sylvie raised an eyebrow.

It was Kate's turn to frown. "Your cooperation in this matter is essential. Jessica Calamar is person of interest in a matter of national security."

Still not looking at the proffered ID, Sylvie murmured, "I've never thought much of spooks. And you can stop trying to mess with my head. Good day."

The door was firmly closed.

"Fuck!" Kate swore aloud. This operation was going sideways at speed. She stood for a moment then turned away to walk to the waiting car.

On the other side of the door, Sylvie sagged against it, her feelings in turmoil. She was simultaneously relieved that her confidence in Jess and Elena had not been misplaced and at the same time appalled at the apparent confirmation of Jess' unlikely story. She rolled sideways to look out of the narrow window beside the door and watched the agent retreat. Sylvie's lips compressed into thin lines.

Hurrying into her study, she rooted through the paperwork looking for her Filofax. Shawna teased her about it, but Sylvie found comfort in its paper permanence. Although it was annoying that she couldn't phone it to find out where it was.

Discovering that it had been knocked into the bin, she reminded herself guiltily that that was probably the consequence of a particularly vigorous bout of lovemaking the previous day. She squirmed her thighs together as the memory of Shawna's fingers digging into her hair heated her loins. Shaking her head to clear it, she thumbed through the address pages to find the details for Elena's workplace.

On the verge of dialling the number with her mobile she paused and then put it back in her pocket. The landline was in the hall, and she used that instead. Mike and Stacy agreed to drop by after work.

She didn't have contact numbers for the Unholy Trinity, but that problem was resolved when they banged on the front door less than an hour later. Sanjay was gibbering.

"They can change the colour of their hair and eyes! And mess with your head!"

"Yes, I know," Sylvie said. "And they're in trouble."

"You know about this?" Alison was incredulous.

"Since about a couple of hours ago, yes. I've had my suspicions about Jess for a while before that."

"Right," said Merry firmly. "Let's see what we can do. Who else can we call on?

***