Devotion (Chosen by the Karal #5)(39)

“We have talked it over, and Elissa has a plan,” Marin said.

“You do?” Tikki asked, relieved that she had her big sister here to help her with this. However, the problem of Elissa having a female baby wasn’t their only one. Not now the chip in Charlie’s teddy had been found. The child’s words still haunted her: what had the bad men been trying to achieve?

Tikki looked down the road, hoping to see Okil approaching, but there was nothing, only an early morning mist.

“Are you OK?” Elissa asked.

“I’m not sure. You had better come in so that I can explain everything to you.”

“You mean there is more?” Marin asked, sounding worried.

“I’m sorry, Marin. I expect you had an easy life before we came to your world,” Tikki said, trying to make light of it, but Elissa saw her worried look.

“Let’s go inside, you had better tell us everything.”

Tikki walked back inside and Elissa and Marin followed her. “Okil has already gone to the tower,” she said as they went into the small sitting room. “But I think you had better meet the other man of the house. This is Charlie.”

Marin went white, with explosions of red across his face, whilst Elissa had to put her hand on the sofa for support. She recovered enough to say, “Hello, Charlie.” Then to Tikki she said, “Perhaps an explanation might be in order?”

“It’s complicated,” Tikki said. “Charlie, are you all right to play in here while we go and have some tole in the kitchen?”

He nodded, looking warily at Marin and Elissa, and then he went back to playing with his toys.

“What the hell did you bring a child here for, Tikki? Of all the irresponsible things you could do,” Elissa said, her temper rising. “Who is he anyway? I’ve only been gone for five months, so he can’t be yours.”

“Bringing him here was the responsible thing,” Tikki said feeling hurt that Elissa was speaking to her as though she was the child. “Harri was trying to find him.”

“Harri? You mean that little boy is what he was looking for?” Elissa shook her head in disbelief.

“Have some tole and calm down.” Tikki handed Elissa a mug, and then glanced up at Marin who hadn’t said a word, but was staring back to where Charlie was playing with his toys.

“Calm down? I think if I have any more shocks I will go into labour.” Elissa accepted the mug of tole, though, and took a sip.

“I’m sorry.” Tikki blew on her tole, watching the steam rise as she tried to compose her thoughts. “We weren’t going to tell you, but something happened.”

“Is Okil OK?” Elissa asked.

“As far as I know. I hope so.”

“Hey, come on, Tikki, why don’t you tell us what the hell is going on here?” Elissa came and stood next to her sister, her arm protectively around her shoulder.

Tikki took a big breath and then began her story. “Basically, Sienna came to me two weeks ago and asked me to look after her child for a few days.”

“He is Sienna’s child?”

“Well, no, as it turns out he isn’t.”

“Then whose child is he?”

“I was hoping you might be able to tell me.”

“Why? I have never seen him before in my life.” Elissa turned to look at Charlie again, who stared back at her.

“I thought he was Sienna’s child. That was what she told me and at the time, I had no reason to question her. As I told you yesterday, I thought she was a pent prostitute. She asked me to hide him so that his father wouldn’t find him. Only now do we know that’s a lie.”

“Why did she give him to you?” Elissa asked, as confused as Tikki was about the whole thing.

“I think she needed to hide him somewhere and she knew she could trust me. Or maybe she thought I was too stupid to ask questions. Of course, she had no idea I was planning to come to Karal. She couldn’t know that.”

“But you changed your mind? You were going to stay on Earth and look after him,” Elissa asked, the pieces falling in to place.

“Yes, I told Okil I couldn’t leave Earth. That’s when he arranged for Darl to take his place. But when Harri showed up looking for Charlie, I had to run. You see, Sienna wasn’t the only person to die in the canal. Charlie recognised the face of another man on the Stream, he was pulled out of the same canal. Charlie called him Funny Daddy. Weird thing is, Reja said this man was a StreamStar who made a documentary about the Karal. He tried to expose them. How he ended up helping Sienna, I have no idea. None of it makes sense.”

“Wait, I remember something about the resistance finding an undercover investigator amongst them. He had tried to get close to members of the resistance because there were rumours of an attack being planned. Maybe that was your StreamStar.”

“And the resistance finally caught up with him when they tracked down Sienna.”

Tikki had to ask Elissa the next question, although she hated to. “Elissa, when you were involved with the resistance. Do you remember anything about a doctor being held captive?”

“A doctor? No. Not that I recall.” She was quiet for a minute. “No. I never saw anything or heard anything about anyone being there against their will.”

“Only Charlie said his parents were being held by the people Harri was working with. He even saw Harri threaten his mom.”