Author's note. All characters are over 18, as established in earlier Chapters or in "Master of Elements" to which this is a sequel.
The Mind Element Chapter 09
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." Siddhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha.
Christopher Ward was entitled to sleep in. He had been back and forth across oceans and continents in pursuit of Randall Ness in the last few months and now he was back in London, reunited with his wife and awaiting the arrival of Ness for what he hoped would be the endgame of this unwelcome saga. He had clocked up a lot of air miles and jet lag in the process and no doubt a horrible carbon footprint. Hopefully, it would soon be over.
So it was that Brigit was up first that morning and woke him with a cup of tea. "Here you are darling," she said, "I think you might need it."
Her tone of voice warned him that something was wrong, "Oh god, what's happened now?" he asked.
"Nothing too bad, but you're still going to hate it," the redhead replied, handing him her phone. She had it open at the Guardian news page, always her favourite paper, and pointed at a particular headline. It read, 'Reclusive billionaires in mystery deal'. He clicked on it and at once swore roundly. The article was illustrated with a recent photograph of Randall Ness looked calmly suave, and a rather grainy picture of Chris taken some years ago for a local newspaper when he had run the London Marathon for a charity appeal. He just looked sweaty.
The piece was based on a press release from Ness saying that he had been working in association with Mr Christopher Ward on some tremendously exciting and revolutionary developments. He would be travelling to the UK shortly to finalise several points with Mr Ward and his team and hoped to make a further announcement thereafter.
"I'm not even a billionaire, so the headline's wrong," Chris protested grumpily to his wife. "We're worth a few £100 million at most. But why's he done this?"
"Scroll down a bit and find the reference to Athena and the others," Brigit replied.
Chris did so and read that Randall Ness had stated that a team of Mr Ward's key associates had been seconded to him to work on the new project, including Professor Athena Makris, a theoretical physicist, Dr Sarah Chen, a marine biologist and Miss Jennifer Kitaka, currently training as a medical doctor. The first two had mysteriously disappeared from their usual homes in Italy and Taiwan some time ago, although Miss Chen had subsequently reappeared in the Philippines, while Miss Kitaka was on an agreed sabbatical from her studies. Ness explained that the secrecy had been necessary due to the highly confidential nature of the work.
Chris groaned, "Oh, now I get it. Ness has covered himself for the kidnappings. He knows I can't deny his story, without the risk of revealing too much about us and our powers."
"Yes, you must admit it's clever," agreed Brigit. "It also accounts for why he's coming to London and what Athena and Jenny are doing with him. The bastard has even made money out of it," Brigit added, pointing to a different paragraph where the newspaper noted that the disparate nature the specialities of the three women had fuelled speculation as to what the 'developments' might be, which in turn had led to the stock market price of a number of Randall Ness' companies jumping in value.
Since that was all the press had to go on, the rest of the piece referenced Randall Ness' known aversion to publicity and the fact that since Christopher Ward had inherited enough money to appear on the annual 'Times rich list' he had kept the lowest of profiles - hence the headline.
Brigit was right about Chris not liking it. His low profile was deliberate and designed to minimise questions about him and the five Mistresses of Elements. Even his relationship with them, other than his wife, was essentially hidden from most. Now Ness had outed some of it to the world; just another thing to add to the growing list of ways that Randall Ness seemed determined to ruin his happiness.
*****
Nor was that Chris' only problem. He had lately detected a few cracks in the morale of his strangely assorted and unselected - by him at least - team. They had all gathered in London for what Chris was hoping was the conclusion of this unpleasant business, but in truth Ness still had Athena and Jenny and Chris wasn't sure he could be certain of progress. The strain was showing in the others.
For one thing Marco has not yet completely forgiven Chris for taking Fay to see Ness without him and relations between the two men remained strained. Then there was an incident with Freya which Chris thought uncharacteristic, although his wife told him that was due to a typically male lack of understanding. Freya might seem careless on the surface but that just hid deep emotions underneath.
Matsu was staying to him and Brigit, but Chris had taken out temporary leases on two flats so Freya and Carter and Fay and Marco could have somewhere to stay that was more private and personal than yet another soulless hotel room. Freya was a frequent visitor to Chris' home as the three Mistresses of Elements always sought out each other's company.
Chris had thought that Freya seemed much happier since he relented and let her take a lover. In fact he thought that, despite the best intentions of both of them, there was a degree of romance beginning to blossom between her and Carter Jackson. Chris guessed that it was impossible to have quite as much amazing sex as those two seemed to manage, without developing some sort of affection for each other. Happily, he no longer felt any jealousy about that. Freya's continued devotion to him both inside and outside the bedroom was not in doubt and he was content to share, given it made her so obviously happy.
So it was with surprise that he saw Freya breakdown in tears over what seemed the most mundane of conversations. It was Freya's birthday in a few weeks and Brigit had just asked the Swede what she would like as a present. Freya had suddenly welled-up with emotion and replied, "There's only one thing I want - my sisters free and safe..." Then she began to sob.
Brigit and Matsu looked stricken and, without a word needing to be said, they both moved in to embrace and comfort the blonde girl, despite looking close to tears themselves. Chris quietly withdrew from the room. He was embarrassed not by the display of emotion but by the reminder that the five women shared a bond with each other that was different from the one they had with him. They were linked in a way he knew he would never quite understand. Their love and need for one another made the separation Randall Ness had imposed even crueller for them than it was for him.
However, he welcomed having a moment alone to think, because the truth was that he was still far from sure how he was going to get Athena and Jenny back. The Creature seemed confident that all Chris needed to do was take the Theia Stone to Ness and show it to him. He would be so fascinated that he would readily yield his prisoners in exchange for further opportunities to explore its powers. But beyond this general idea, his enemy turned advisor was vague on the details.
Chris wondered whether he was supposed to take some opportunity to defeat Ness directly, or trick him in some way through cunning, or whether he would actually have to help Ness obtain new powers. It was unclear and the Creature was silent on the subject. Chris was left with no choice but to take the stone to Ness and hope the next step became clear at the time. It was not a plan to make anyone feel confident of success.
*****
A couple of days later in the flat Chris had provided, Marco Ricci was in bed with his - in equal parts - weird and wonderful girlfriend, Fay. Since they had been in London she had not even mentioned further sexual experimentation with others. Instead she had clung to him closely, as if for safety. Marco didn't mind; the threesome and foursomes had been sexy and fun and he was open to a repeat, but at the moment he was enjoying having Fay to himself.
On the other hand it was plain she was worried about something, and that he didn't like, especially as Fay had offered no explanation. This seemed unfair to Marco, as he could keep no secrets from his purple-haired alien lover, given her ability to read his mind.
Their current situation was a reflection of this. Marco was lying on his back, his hands behind his head propping it up slightly so he could silently observe his girlfriend. He was naked, although from the waist down he was under the sheets, so only his well-muscled torso, arms and shoulders and his handsome face and mop of curly black hair were on display.
