The Clocks

Back in Miranda's office, Sara was the first to speak, "Remarkable! Three people with the identical rare skill in The City at the same time. The chances of it appearing in two consecutive generations like this must be a million-to-one or less. Then again, nobody had ever expected that Genie's talent would crop up even once, much less twice, as it did in Avellino. Darn it. I'd love to discuss it with Archbishop Comfort, but I certainly can see why I can't."

She looked directly at Miranda. "But I AM going to be spending some of my free time searching the older archives to see if this ability has been recorded." A thoughtful expression crossed her face. "Which I doubt. If it did occur in the past, those in power at the time would likely have had just as strong reasons for keeping it unknown as we do."

She winced and put her hand over her lower abdomen. "This little one is telling me that I need to visit the bathroom, immediately or sooner. So if you'll excuse me? I doubt that I'll be needed any more tonight anyway."

Miranda nodded. "We're finished for now. Robert can tell Mario what he'll need to do with bank business later. We have plenty of time, so I'm sure he'll be up to speed by the time they leave in the spring."

She stood. "Let's call it a night. We have between six and seven months before Genie and Mario can set out. There's no reason to exhaust ourselves on the first day."

Grinning evilly at Mario and Genie she added, "Besides. With Hiroshi working with you two for three days every week from now on, you'll be exhausted enough as it is."

Seeing the panic on their faces, she laughed and took Robert's hand. As the two of them left the room, they exchanged a tight smile. They'd fill the others in on how grave the situation really was later, after the excitement had worn off.

For now, their thoughts were the same. They had a chance to get to bed early, and they intended to make the most of it. For people with lives as hectic as theirs, a night where they could get a reasonable amount of sleep was something to be treasured.

-----------------

The next few months went as planned. Mario had a crash course in banking procedures and finance in general. They didn't have time to cover everything in depth, but he learned enough that he could discuss almost any topic that arose without looking like an idiot.

Robert had eventually decided that what he wanted Mario to do most was to present himself as a kind of roving ambassador for the bank. With banks where they already had a formal relationship, he'd discuss how much Robert et. al. valued their partnership and that they looked forward to continuing it for at least the next few decades.

At other banks, particularly the ones in cities where The Bank of the Griffon didn't already have a presence, Mario would introduce himself and discuss the means by which the free flow of funds could be maintained so as to prevent any one bank, or region from being swamped by capital demands. If he mentioned what might happen should said regions be "stressed" by "outside agitators," well, all contingencies, no matter how outlandish, needed to be considered, didn't they?

Hiroshi and Robert expected that even those whose managements were currently doing their best to convince themselves that nothing was wrong, might then start paying better attention to current events. If one of Hiroshi's agents with a well-to-do persona happened by a month or two later to open an account then wondered out loud if things were getting a bit too unsettled and, maybe, they should deposit their funds in a bank closer to Paris instead, well, that would just be a coincidence.

-----------------

As for Genie, she was just as exhausted as Miranda had predicted. In addition to studying at school, she had to take lessons from Sara and Patricia Garibaldi about rare books and the book business. On top of that were the ever-present lessons from Hiroshi. She'd thought that he was fierce before, but, now that she would be in the field, the intensity increased by half.

If anything, Mario's training with Hiroshi was more thorough than Genie's as, in addition to his rehabilitation, they had to invent new techniques that he could employ effectively with his weak leg.

He too was studying about books, but, wisely, Sara and Pat had decided that their students would do better if they weren't both present. It took twice as long, but their attention was better focused.

------------------------

Saturday, March 17 in The Year 725 After the Founding

Sara intercepted Genie as she left the dining room. She'd been moping around, and looking miserable, since Mario had left the week before. Two weeks earlier he'd discussed the situation with Robert and Miranda. They'd decided that if he and Genie were to present themselves as book traders, they needed some sort of verifiable back story in case someone became suspicious and checked up on them.

Consequently Mario was on a buying trip to Venice, Verona, and Milan. Besides establishing their cover story, the journey would help Mario assess his recovery. Working out and then sleeping in a soft bed at night was one thing, but nothing was quite the same as actually being on the road.

As he wasn't expected back for another five weeks, Genie had managed to work herself into a fine depression and was making sure that everyone else knew it. It wasn't doing her any good, and it was getting to the point where the rest of the family were almost ready to throttle her if she kept on with her theatrics.

Sara in particular had had more than enough. Luigi was not yet sleeping all night, at least not regularly, and she too was short on sleep as a result. It was all well and good that Paolo offered to help, but, all he could really do was change a diaper and cuddle him. Until such a time as God decreed that men could now breast-feed an infant, Sara had to be awake every time Luigi needed to eat.

She shoved her momentarily sleeping infant at Genie and said gruffly, "Come with me." Then she turned and strode briskly down the hall and around two corners, stopping approximately four meters from a dead-end.

"Give me your hand."

Genie was about to ask why, but, seeing Sara's expression, wisely decided that just then was not a good time. Puzzled, she tentatively stuck out her right hand. Sara took it firmly, then pulled Genie toward the blank wall in front of them.

Genie began to shout, "Watch ou...". Before the second word could make its way out of her mouth, Sara walked into and then through the wall ahead of her, dragging Genie along with her.

What in the world?

After another three meters, Sara made an abrupt left turn and led Genie into a small, but nicely appointed room. There were two comfortable looking chairs, a small desk, one bookshelf, and an elegant, woven carpet. Ample light streamed in through three high, south-facing windows. There was a small crib to the side, as well as a table with diapers and a tightly covered receptacle for used ones.

Sara pointed to one of the chairs. "Sit." After so saying, she did likewise in the other.

Genie was still trying to wrap her mind about where she was and how they'd arrived, which gave Sara time to get started.

"You're bored, somewhat lonely, tired, frustrated, and, more than anything else angry at your mother. You're also angry to a lesser extent at Blair and Hiroshi Macklin, but we'll start with Miranda."

Genie's eyes looked laughably like that old cliche, "as if they were about to pop out of their sockets." But she looked even more like a fish as her mouth was regularly opening and closing, but no words were coming out. Ordinarily Sara would have had a good laugh, but that would ruin the mood.

"Of course you miss Mario, but he'll be back in a few weeks. Besides, you shouldn't have time to be worrying about him, as the City Exams are coming up. What you should be doing is studying your head off for them. And that my dear girl is exactly the problem.

"Your mother is still stuck in the last century."

She rested her chin on her fist for a moment. "Perhaps a better way to say it would be that, for a human, she's nearly as bad at handling sudden changes as our species is." As she said the latter, she pointed to Genie and herself.

This time she allowed herself a chuckle as Genie's expression reflected her inner astonishment, both at what Sara had just said about her mother, and at her feeling that Sara was right, about both statements.

"Genie dear. This is a rather, um, 'odd' room. The reason you never noticed it is that there's a strong, but very localized Avoidance spell about half way down the hallway, about two meters in front of the 'wall' we walked through. If it weren't for my ability to detect and bypass such spells, it's highly unlikely that anyone would have ever found it. I have no idea who cast the spell, when, why, or how it's been able to last however long it's been."

She tilted her head back and looked at nothing in particular. "I find it interesting that Sven had no trouble bringing the furnishings in for me. The spell doesn't seem to work on him for some reason. Mimi, on the other hand, has only a partial resistance. If she's reading written directions as to how many paces to take and where to turn, she can come here. Without such directions, she can't enter the room either."

Sara shrugged. "I tested her once. With just verbal directions she gets confused and forgets where she was going and ends up wandering off to one of her regular duties.

"Paolo knows that the room is here, but he says he can't find it either. He knows that when someone looking for me is wondering where Luigi and I are, he needs to say that we're 'out'."

She sighed. "Frankly it's been a godsend. When we're really tired, and the twins are being overly noisy, Luigi and I come in here and take a nap."

Her expression hardened, and her gaze went to a book on the desk. "It's also an excellent place for me to work on analyzing the meaning of what's in that."

Shifting her attention back to Genie she added, "It's amazing what you can learn about your enemy by studying every single word in a treaty. Both sides always try to slip in verbiage that will twist things to their advantage. If you analyze how they say something, you can come to understand a great deal about how they think.

"But that's not today's lession. Maybe later. For now we need to deal with what's bothering you, right?"

Genie nodded. She had no idea where Sara was heading, but she still couldn't think of anything meaningful to say, and blurting out, "What in the world are you talking about?" would make her sound incredibly stupid.

"Good. Let's get back to your mother, or rather the local intelligence community. I know that you've been told that an agent needs to be unobtrusive. Standing out is a 'bad thing'. As a result, you've been instructed to do reasonably well on the City Exams, but not too well and not too badly either."

Sara nodded, mostly to herself. "And that my dear child is the problem. They're following the 'rules', but they're not thinking. If you're doing intelligence work, you need to be flexible, right?"

Genie nodded, but, finally had something useful to say, she hoped, "Ah. Sara? How is it that you know about intelligence work? You're a librarian not an agent."

"Right you are, in part. Yes I'm a librarian, but your problem is that you don't really understand what a librarian does. We don't just shove books around all day. A good librarian knows something about every single topic her collection covers. If we didn't, how would we be able to tell someone where what they need is? That's especially true when your patron thinks that what they need to know isn't where they think it is but is actually filed elsewhere under a different heading. I may not be an expert in intelligence, but I AM an expert in my field. So, yes, I know something about yours."

She smoothed the front of her dress. "Which brings us back to you. As I said, they're not thinking clearly. You need to not stand out. I most definitely agree with that. But what they've told you to do WILL make you stand out, and, worst of all, for a long time.

"What Miranda has forgotten to consider is what family you're in. Your sister-in-law, meaning me, scored first in the City Exams. Your older brother scored third. If you come in, oh, say, 35th, certain people will be thinking something along the lines of, 'Her older siblings are brilliant. She can't be stupid, she's just graduated from Ingvold. I wonder if she's trying to hide something?'. Others will just shake their heads and think that it's too bad that Paolo's younger sister isn't all that smart compared to him.

Seeing Genie's dawning comprehension, Sara finished with, "So, as you've just realized, the best way for you not to stand out is to excel in the exams. Which, if I have assessed the situation correctly, is exactly what you want to do."

Sara smiled gently. "You've changed, and for the good I think. Your desire to know things used to be a dim candle. Now it's like a fire. So go ahead, show everyone what you can do. I'll deal with your superiors. Once I've spoken to them, they'll not say a word to you."

Her smile changed to one that was best described as "predatory." "They won't dare after I'm finished with them."

Genie didn't move. Seeing Sara as she was at that moment, she didn't want to draw any attention to herself.

Sara took a deep breath. She turned to Genie and smiled in a companionable manner. Then she pointed to the bookshelf against the north wall. "Every single book you're going to need, other than those already in your personal collection, is there."

She made a calming gesture. "No, I don't know what the specific questions on the tests will be, but the subjects tested never change. If the test is to be fair and consistent every year, they can't."

Sara stood and retrieved Luigi. "Go ahead, indulge yourself. I'll have Sven come get you if you haven't surfaced by lunchtime."

She tilted her head a bit to the side and looked at Genie as if measuring her. "If you're dilligent from now on, you'll likely place either 5th or 6th. That should suffice."

Sara began to leave, but stopped and turned back. "If you concentrate, you'll be able to find your way back here on your own. Retracing a path is innate for us."

Then she left the room with a determined stride. Consuela and Stavros were gone for the morning, and she was urgently in need of a nap after being up most of the previous night. For a change, it should actually be quiet enough upstairs that she'd be able to sleep.

Genie sat without moving for several minutes, trying to absorb what had just happened. Then she rather bemusedly wandered over the to bookshelf. Seconds later she was wide awake. OH MY GOD! Several of the books were about things that had only been touched on in her classes, the teacher's reason being that there weren't adequate references available for them to do more than that.

Quickly she scanned the rest of the titles. Truth be told, were her nature different, she'd have been doing acrobatics just like Yoko. Oh well, one can't be expert at everything. Shrugging her shoulders, she extracted a book and made her way to a chair.

The next thing she knew, Sven was gently shaking her shoulder. All he said was, "Lunch time." Then he turned and left. Genie reluctantly put the book back on the shelf, marking her place with a scrap of paper from the box of such on the desk. Then she followed Sven down the hallway.