A.I. Evolution: The Fall of Lucien

Chapter 47

Mark is relaxing on a chair at the only round table in the place situated to the left of the counter. "Please have a seat, the pie here is delicious, although the service is a little slow."

We sit and the same waitress as before approaches us, smiling as she sees Will. "Hello again, it has been years since I last saw you. You came in with the nice young boy. So, how have you been?"

Will instantly turns to face me, and I put up my hands in front of me. "Wasn't me this time."

The waitress looks between us, slightly confused. Will smiles at her. "Just fine, but right now we need to talk to the man sitting over there. Although how about some coffee for us, and a hot chocolate for the young boy?"

Henri chuckles at the reference to me, before adding. "Do you have any of that coconut cream pie we had the last time we were here?"

"Yes, we do," smiles the waitress. "It is our signature dessert. Do you want three pieces?"

"Yes."

Mark puts up his hand, having overheard the question. "Make that four. I have not had anything that good in a long time."

The waitress heads back behind the counter to get our order, as we sit around the table Mark is at. Henri leans forward onto the table as soon as we are seated. "OK, what is going on? We have been at the cabin, as you know for the last week and now it seems that all hell has broken loose again."

Mark looks around at all of us before answering. "Well, you have that right. It seems that a Miss Helena Rembrandt took it upon herself to make a statement to the public about the Son of God and how he has come to be the salvation of the people. The only problem is that she used some critical material from living people to create her masterpiece as she called it."

Henri quickly speaks up. "Do you mean the daughter of Joseph Rembrandt, who owns most of the mental institutions in Rome?"

"Yes," confirms Mark. "Along with most of the buildings around the Vatican. It also seems that he forced the caregivers at the clinics to use extreme measures to restrain the patients under their care. It appears that she entered a bank and killed the security guard first, then held the rest of the tellers, manager and two patrons as material for her work of art. It was reported that she used a gun to shoot them in the forehead, so the blood and grey matter could spray out behind them onto a canvas she had spread between two pillars. All the hostages were shot in this manner except one receptionist, who seemed to have gone along willingly with her plans."

Will visibly shakes. "That sounds gruesome. What did she paint with all that blood?"

Mark reaches for his leather satchel and pulls out the pictures of the canvas and other shots of the aftermath from the bank. He hands them to Will, who looks closely at each one before handing them on to Henri. The first one is the image on the canvas. "Take a look at this, Henri."

Henri takes it and shakes his head. "The white of the figure below the angel indicates innocence, but the red of the angel seems sinister to me."

Henri hands it to me as Mark nods his head. "The general consensus of the scene is that the Son of God will rip the soul from the innocent and turn it evil."

I shake my head and look up at them. "No. It means that all the pure people will give themselves willingly to the Son of God, and the evil ones will be punished by having their souls ripped from their still living bodies."

Mark pulls himself back from the table with a wild look on his face. "Why do you say that?"

I look around to everybody. "That is what the voices have been saying to me since we left the cabin. Some are waiting for me to lift them up, while others are begging me to show them mercy. I did not know what to make of it till I saw this picture. Now it all makes sense."

There is sudden silence around the table, only broken by the waitress bringing our drinks and pie over.

Mark looks sideways at me, clearly judging me for my latest remark. "You can hear others around you now?"

I look around the table as each of them wait for me to expand on my comment. "Well, it is not really being able to read their minds exactly, as it is the ability to sense their feelings, which of course relays their true thoughts."

Will turns to me, clearly intrigued. "We know you have been getting stronger, but have your abilities changed recently?"

"Yes, before we went to the cabin, I could hear the ones around me in the city, but the volume of people made it hard to distinguish any individual person. Then, at the cabin there were no voices at all, not even yours, or Henri's. I cannot explain it, but the silence at first was blissful to say the least, although by the end of the week I was anxious to have it back again. Then, as soon as we got close to the paved road into town they came back; only this time they were much stronger, and I seemed to have more control over reading what each individual is thinking."

Mark is clearly unconvinced about my abilities as he shakes his head. "OK, if you can read minds now, how many agents do I have in town?"

Without hesitation I answer him. "There are the three that Henri and Will could see when we pulled up, plus the two in the cars around the side of the diner out of sight. Oh, and the heavier one needs to use the washroom, but does not want to leave his post."

Mark reaches up to his lapel and clicks the small pin mounted there. "Ted, do you need to use the washroom right now?" Mark nods his head as he stares at me, obviously getting an affirmative answer from Ted. "OK, you might as well come in and relieve yourself. Lucien knows you are there."

I smile at his probing eyes, till I sense another person out behind the diner in the woods. "Wait a minute. There is another person in the woods, but he is quickly moving away from the area."

Mark smiles knowingly. "Yes, we spotted him as we were coming up from the city, pretending to be a hiker as he left his vehicle and stepped into the woods not far from here. Ted recalled him from a course he had taken in his early days. We don't know who he is working for, but we don't think it is any foreign government."

Henri grits his teeth and lightly taps his clenched fist on the tabletop. "This is getting out of hand. The two times we have gone to the cabin seem to have caused violent action in Rome all centered around the clinics that Lucien had interacted with while we were there the first time. The timing would seem to indicate that when Lucien is out of contact with the rest of the world, things seem to go wrong with mentally imbalanced people."

Mark puts his hands together on the tabletop. "Yes, that is the general opinion, and the reason I am here now. Commander Smit of the Swiss Guard is under pressure from the local police force to have Lucien brought to Vatican City as soon as possible, to hopefully prevent more incidents from occurring."

"So, they think Lucien is somehow involved in these attacks?" asks Will.

"The timing, as Henri commented on, is the reason, and I can't blame them. Besides, he is scheduled to be there within the week, anyway, is he not?"

Henri smiles at the thought of going home after all these years, for good. "I have to admit that I am looking forward to returning home. Also, with Lucien surrounded by the Guard within the walls of the city, it will be easier to protect him from whoever is after him and causing these attacks outside the city."

I stop with my cup of hot chocolate halfway to my mouth and turn sharply to Mark. "Are you expecting a helicopter?"

Then, just as he is about to answer, we can all hear the low thumping of the blades whirling in the air as it approaches. "Yes, it is your transportation to the airport and the plane waiting there, to take you to Rome."

"What about our things?" asks Will, more than slightly annoyed.

Mark smiles at him. "They are already on board the plane; other than the ones you have with you now of course. One of my agents will take your vehicle back to the Magic Castle, where we know that you still have a residence and parking space, so you can go with Lucien to Rome."

"Thanks, I guess," concedes a defeated Will.