Rules of Fate

Chapter 3 - Things are looking up!

Why was I here? I mean I hadn't had a failure in months! I chewed my bottom lip desperately thinking through all the projects I had had. There was the girl, but she had eventually hooked up with the love of her life and they were now planning a wedding. The surgeon, I closed my eyes, she was now on paediatrics and spear-heading some brilliant research. I didn't really want to think about the effort it had taken to get her to that point. Hours and hours of exhausting work that had finally paid off. So it couldn't be about her!

I opened my eyes as the door clicked shut and the hippie strolled to the desk. The Indian was absent as was Mags. Not something I was upset about. According to me the further Mags was the better. Hippie didn't look overly happy though.

'You have a good file,' he finally said, his pale blue eyes like ice as he sat down behind the desk.

'Thank you.' I figured some courtesy might go a long way. I wished I could read his mind, but all upper level Fatelists kept a lock on theirs for obvious reasons, and he was unfortunately no exception.

'You have some talent,' he continued grudgingly. Was that good or bad? He leant across the desk and pressed a small button. Almost immediately Ethan walked in, barely acknowledged my relieved smile and sat down. 'As your mentor, Ethan has a say in this.'

I looked at Ethan expectantly. What was all this about? Was I getting sacked? That wasn't a good thought to have. I knew what that meant. A sacked Fatelist was either a dead Fatelist or a drooling vegetable, neither of which appealed to me.

Ethan looked steadfastly at the hippie and said, 'I think she's ready.' A vote of confidence from Ethan?! Yay!

'OK,' hippie stared at me, 'You're in.'

'Great!' I replied enthusiastically, expecting more information, but Ethan took my arm and we left. Outside I turned to him to say, 'What was all...?'

'Shh...' he cautioned and led me to his sparsely furnished office. I had no choice, he was willing my feet forward. Oh well. Inside he locked the door behind us and faced me, his green eyes giving nothing away.

'No offence Ethan, but do you mind telling me what's going on?'

He gave me a tight smile. 'Your future.'

'I gathered that, but what about it?' I insisted, my patience wearing thin now.

'We need a problem-solver for a small operation,' he breathed out slowly, 'that's you.'

Holy...I thought about it for a second. It all seemed win win at the moment. I nodded, 'Great, what do I have to do?'

He avoided my gaze and shuffled some random papers instead. 'Not much, just be there when I need you.' And that was that.

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Now standing in the rain I couldn't figure out why I'd thought this was a win win situation. My hair was plastered to my head and the water was dripping down my clothes. The raincoat I had on was soaked and I was sure it had sprung a leak. My fairly sensible shoes were water logged with enough water to fill Lake Michigan! Life stinks! I thought not for the first time that night.

I was in charge of keeping the "subject" under surveillance. I had no idea why, but then again, as Ethan had pointed out, I didn't need to know...yet. It all sounded like a plot from a Jeffrey Archer novel to me, but I kept my mouth shut. Sometimes not knowing was the best thing.

I clutched my coat closer around me, sent up a desperate plea for the rain to stop and checked out the thoughts floating around in apartment ten in the building facing me. All clear so far. I had been following this guy for the past week and besides going to several parties and clubs, his life seemed fairly normal. He worked at a restaurant as a waiter and if I was honest with myself he was very cute in a six foot tall, hunk kind of way. At the moment, judging by his thoughts, he was just getting ready to leave.

I threw in some basic suggestions; raincoat, umbrella, wellies! God knew he needed them! I even suggested a cab to the club. He seemed open to my ideas initially and then calmly rejected half of them. Luckily he agreed to the cab which allowed me to get into the back with him thankfully, invisibility intact.

So far I had figured out that his mind, though open, still thought for itself. He was more of a thanks-for-the-help-but-I'll-decide type of guy. Good in some cases, not in others. We got to the club and he was immediately swallowed by the crowd. My heart sank. I had locked onto his thought processes but for some reason I couldn't get him back on my radar. Shit! I scoured the dance floor, squeaking inaudibly as a massive shoe landed on my right foot, crushing my toes. The night was getting better and better. I wanted to go home and shower and get into some dry clothes, and I knew I couldn't, at least not until I had finished babysitting. I sighed and kept moving through the crowd.

Being a Saturday night the place was packed to the roof. Good luck finding my guy! I thought pessimistically. Maybe if I...I used second sight, something I had been taught to do at the Academy. The threads were all lying fairly straight and level. No one's fate was getting messed up. That was good! Now to track down my elusive prey; I searched for his particular fate thread. It was a type of purple-grey colour, full of steady deliberation tinged with pessimism. My kinda guy! Ah there it was. I followed the thread until I found him dancing with a girl who's thread was almost clear, no hang-ups but not much of a personality either. He can do so much better, I thought as I watched them from the side-lines. But there was no harm in having fun. Grabbing a drink from a bemused bartender I settled down to enjoy the rest of the night.

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