Yoko sat at the table with Jason standing behind her, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. Hibiki stood to the side, with her left hand on Jason's right shoulder.
Blair shook her head. Already these three were acting as a unit. She'd better have a talk with the girls about birth control sooner rather than later. They really shouldn't be getting involved in sex for several years yet, but she'd learned in her business that things that shouldn't happen frequently did. "Better safe than sorry" applied to potential pregnancies as well as the spying business.
There was no need for her to be involved in the current proceedings. In fact all she could do by hovering would be to mess things up. Therefore she strode to her desk and pulled out a piece of writing paper. Miranda need to know about this immediately, and it needed to be in person. No way was she putting a single word on paper about what she'd just learned.
What she wrote was, "In response to your most gracious offer, now would probably be an excellent time to begin. Let me know when it will be convenient for us to meet to discuss it. With respect, Blair Macklin."
She quietly slipped out the door and handed the note to the maid who was approaching. "No need to wait for a reply."
Her maid Ailin, while probably the most skillful ladies maid she'd ever had, or heard of, was also one of her best sources of information. It's amazing, or perhaps not, what a maid can hear in places that the mistress can't go. Whenever she heard useful information, a note with the pertinent details would appear on Blair's desk shortly after Ailin got home.
Blair's note would be in Miranda's hands within ten minutes or so. Even though it was almost dinner time, she'd probably arrive within half an hour. The code was extremely simple, but the best ones often were. All such notes began with, "In response to your gracious offer." The words following specified when they needed to meet. "Tomorrow," "in a week," or, as in this case, "now."
Miranda arrived at the door almost exactly 30 minutes after Ailin had left with the message. Once she had been admitted she turned to Blair. "Thank you for reminding me. I'd wondered where I'd left it, and I'll be needing it when I join Robert at the banker's breakfast tomorrow."
Blair bowed floridly. "Not at all my dear. Not at all. I understand how it is when you get older. I hear that one tends to forget things now and then."
Miranda raised an eyebrow. "To be sure. Like when you forgot your favorite fan at the Ducal Residence three months ago?"
Both of them laughed then headed upstairs, having reassured any nearby servants that this was no different an occasion than any other.
Upon their arrival Blair waved Miranda through the door, then followed and closed it securely. Next she pushed out a bubble of silence. It was her only talent, and she didn't use it very often, but it was extremely useful on occasions such as this. Miranda approved. It was overkill, what with only one wall being shared with other rooms, but caution was always desirable.
She'd nodded at the three children, who had properly stopped their activities and stood politely when she'd entered the room. Immediately thereafter they resumed...whatever it was they were doing. This had gone from a curious situation to curiouser -- if there were such a word. An urgent summons from Blair rarely happened more than twice a year. Never before had there been anyone else in the room at such a meeting. Finding children present... Now that was indeed interesting.
Blair turned and saw that Yoko had stopped working. "Yoko dear, have you finished?"
"Yes mother. Would you like to see it?"
Miranda noticed her embarrassment. Why, she wondered?
"Yes dear, please show it to us."
Yoko picked up the paper and turned it around to face the adults.
When Blair's reason returned, she found herself stretched out on the floor, with Miranda close beside her. She vaguely remembered thinking that she'd never make it to the chaise this time before she'd quickly lowered herself to the floor and stretched out. Apparently it was still possible to faint when horizontal, though it seemed to have been brief as the children were still running around the table to see what had happened.
Avellino.... Why did it have to be Avellino? And now of all times? Her mind caught up with her, and she almost laughed. There was never a good time for Avi to be in town, any town.
The children arrived, and she forestalled their questions by saying, "Please listen to me very carefully. This is extremely important. First of all, never tell anyone, ever, for the rest of your lives, what happened today or anything you see or hear the rest of the day. Both your lives and those of many others may well depend on it.
"Secondly, Yoko dear, I need you do draw exactly six more copies. You stay here. Hibiki and Jason will go to Cook and tell her that I've given special permission for you three to celebrate the marriage of one of your older friends tonight and have dinner up here. If she asks why, just tell her that he's in Venice and you just heard about it, and that you wanted to do something to share in his happiness. She's a hopeless romantic, so she'll probably never bother to try and reason it out. Just take whatever food and drink she gives you and keep Yoko supplied so she doesn't get overly tired.
"Oh, and make sure that she rests if her hand starts to cramp.
"I'll send a note to Akane explaining that Jason will be having dinner with us today. He was worried that Hibiki was hurt when she slipped on a wet spot earlier and he wants to make sure that she's really OK. She'll understand.
"Jason, I'm so sorry, but you're going to have to lie to your mother. When you get home tell her exactly what I just said. Hibiki slipped on some wet pavement on Bleek street and you were afraid about how badly she might have hurt her ankle and escorted her home.
"Hibiki dear. Please explain to Jason what a lie to protect someone is and why we're going to do that in this special situation."
She levered herself onto her knees, then carefully climbed to her feet. Miranda was doing likewise.
Blair slipped out the door leaving Miranda to supervise. Not that there was anything she could do, but sometimes just acting as if you're doing something helps with the stress.
Blair went to the door of Hiroshi's office. He should be home now, though he would have stayed away from her's once he saw the door closed all the way. She knocked quietly, paused three seconds, then knocked twice more. She walked in, gave her husband a tight smile, and fell into the chair opposite his desk. "Avellino is in town."
Hiroshi's face turned pasty white, and he grabbed at his desk with both hands. He didn't pass out, but Blair could tell that it was touch and go for a moment. Shortly he managed three disjointed words, "How. Where. When."
"How - I'll explain that later."
"Where - in the RIng Park".
"When - about two to three hours ago.
"He's planning to kill someone. I'm not sure how soon."
Hiroshi responded, "Of course he's going to kill someone. He's always going to kill someone. He's an assassin. It's what he does, and.... Oh. Sorry love. It's just that....well, never mind."
He composed himself as much as he could and asked, "Why did you use those particular words? It sounds like you have some definite information."
Blair nodded. "Indeed I do. Unfortunately I have no information at all on his target, nor as to how soon. But I can conjecture. The next Festa Eve is tomorrow. Then or the next day would be the most logical times, and the safest for him as well, both to accomplish the deed and to escape."
Hiroshi steepled his fingers, exactly as Blair had earlier. "So we need to find him and stop him before he can strike. Afterwards we have about the same chance of catching him as we do a stiff breeze. He'll fade away no matter how many people are chasing him."
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Blair smiled wanly. "Indeed. We have to stop him, permanently, before hand. Look on the bright side. This is the first time ever that we've known ahead of time where he was and approximately when he was going to strike."
Hiroshi shook his head. "The problem is that there are only four people in The City who know what he looks like and it's possible that he'll recognize two of them. That's going to be a major problem. So...why are you smiling my love?"
"It's because I know something you don't dear." She cocked her head to the side and grinned, "Though I must admit that I didn't know it an hour ago. It seems that our dear daughter Yoko has been hiding something from us. She's probably the best portrait artist whose work I've ever seen. Right now she's in the middle of drawing seven copies of Avi's portrait."
Hiroshi's mouth opened and closed several times as he started to say something then thought the better of it. Finally he settled for, "She couldn't have seen him and recognized him, as she's never seen him or heard of him before, has she?"
Blair nodded agreement.
"Someone who has seen him is describing him and she's drawing some sort of likeness from that?"
Blair shook her head "no." "Remember? I'm one of the ones who has seen him, and it's an exactly correct portrait."
She smiled again. "Sorry love, it'll take at least an hour to explain it to you, and right now we don't have the time. Please figure out who you want your two copies to go to. I'm sending three with Miranda to get to her people. I'll take the other two to The Residence and work out with Dot and Bobby which twins we can trust with this and which of them have the best chance of surviving should Avi find out that they've spotted him."
Hiroshi rubbed his head, wondering, not for the first time, if his habit of rubbing it when stressed had anything to do with the hair he was losing. Blair had raised the most important question. Which of his agent teams who were in town had the skills to tail Avi without being detected and yet could survive if he did notice them and decided to take them out before they could spread the word?
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For the next two hours Hibiki and Jason devoted their efforts to keeping Yoko functional. It's hard to draw a detailed portrait quickly, and Yoko had yet to learn how to capture an accurate image without putting in everything that she'd seen. By the time she got to portrait number six, she'd begun to figure out a few of the tricks, so the last two required less total work. However she was slowing down due to fatigue, both physical and mental.
The others did the best they could to support her -- plying her with food and drink, rubbing her shoulders when they tightened up, and making her take short breaks to rest so they could massage her hands when they threatened to cramp.
Near the end Hibiki, whose sense of humor could most kindly be described as "wicked" and more realistically as "base", decided that, since Miranda had vanished an hour or so earlier, the mood needed lightening. She pulled Jason over to a back corner and asked, "So Jason, you said that besides us the only girls you have seen naked are your sisters. How often does that happen?"
Yoko would have spit out what she was chewing at the moment, but she didn't want to have to start all over with the current drawing. She was concentrating hard enough that she couldn't even say anything in "twin." Before she could swallow, Jason, who hadn't yet known Hibiki long enough to fully understand her sense of humor, answered.
"Pretty much every day I guess. We have a really large bath on our floor, so it's fairly common for all of us to be soaking after we wash. Since we children are on a separate floor, and there's a door between the balcony and our hall, in the summer Kaho never wears anything at all when she's at home. She says it's because she gets too hot and sweaty, and that way she doesn't have to wash her clothes so often."
He lightly pounded his left fist in his right palm and turned to Hibiki questioningly, "Oh I see. So that's it. Do all girls do that?"
Hibiki's answer was both gentle and a bit sharp, "Do what? You need to explain what you are thinking when you ask questions that only someone reading your mind can answer. Uh, you do not read minds too, do you?"
Jason hastily shook his head. "No. Not at all. Even when Yoko is concentrating hard on something I just sorta feel the general idea of what she's thinking. It's not like its words."
He nodded. "I understand. I'll explain. When Kaho started changing, I mean from looking like a little girl and toward looking like a woman, I'd hear her talking to herself now and then. She'd ask if she were 'always going to be flat like this' or 'are my hips ever going to start to grow' and things like that. Sometimes she'd even come ask me if I thought she were growing. Then she'd turn around in a circle. She always seemed really anxious for some reason.
"Of course I always answered 'yes'. I mean, she'd been getting taller her whole life, and she hadn't stopped yet. It was so obvious. I still can't see why she'd bother to ask me that."
Yoko had swallowed by then so the laughter hit him from both sides. Yoko had fallen to the floor and was rolling back and forth.
Jason looked on with a mixture of surprise and exasperation. He'd definitely said something funny and he wanted to know what it was. He liked making people laugh. He hoped they'd hurry up and finish laughing so they could explain.
The twins had a quick conversation in "twin 2" and decided it was Yoko's turn. She was blushing, but she held her head up and looked straight at him. "Jason dear, it's like this. There's this thing they call 'body image'. Every girl going through puberty has worries about it. We're changing into women. It's exciting but also somewhat scary. After all, you're changing from what is, in a way, a sexless being and becoming an adult who can bear children.
"Every woman knows that men like looking at women. Most of the time the first thing they look at is a woman's breasts. It's not really very nice, but that's the way humans are built. It's not entirely under their control. We don't mind so much if they just glance at us, but it gets really uncomfortable if they stare at our chests.
"Even so, growing breasts is proof that we're becoming adults. That's what your sister was really asking you about. She wanted you to confirm that she was truly becoming a woman."
Jason nodded his understanding. "Oh, I see now. I think I gave her the right answer, but for the wrong reason. Is that right?"
The girls nodded at him, then he turned to look at Yoko. "I see. I see. Then that means that when you were looking at yourself so hard in the mirror, you were worried about when your breasts would start growing."
He smiled at her. "Don't worry. Kaho didn't really start to grow that way till she was nearly 15. You still have plenty of time."
Yoko was crimson by the time he finished. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to kill him for being insensitive or hug him for understanding. What she did was utter a gruff, "I've got to get back to work," pick her pencil up off the floor, and then start drawing again.
Jason was somewhat perplexed. He had now learned enough about such things to realize that he'd probably done something right, but also probably not in the right way.
Hibiki took his hand and pulled him over to a pair of chairs where they sat while she spent the next 20 minutes explaining to him, in vivid detail, the changes a woman goes through, how she feels about them, and what men are and are not supposed to say about them and when. When she'd finished that, her sense of humor tripped up her common sense and charged ahead before it could recover.
That was when she began to delve into some of the more, shall we say "frank" parts of the relations between men and women. It seemed that nobody had ever talked to Jason about sex. Even though it would be several years yet before they would put what she was describing into practice, she was a strong believer in the saying: "Anticipation is the best foreplay."
She knew she wasn't supposed to know what that meant, but, at the moment she didn't care, and it did seem to fit the situation. Besides, she obtained a great deal of pleasure from seeing Jason squirm. She'd been whispering, using her regular voice, so Yoko had no chance of overhearing. She hadn't wanted to be interrupted by her sister exploding.
Both girls finished at about the same time. Yoko stretched and yawned. "FINISHED!"
Before the echo died down, Blair swept into the room, picked up the final three copies of Avi's portrait, then vanished out the door again.
Yoko turned and saw the others sitting in the corner. Jason blushed and refused to meet her eyes. Hibiki looked like a cat who'd not only discovered a bowl of cream but had drunk every bit of it before any of the other cats found out. She was also purring.
Yoko planted her fists on her hips, and glared at her sister. "Exactly what have you been doing?"
Hibiki contrived to look innocent. "Who me? Not much."
Then she let her expression change to one that was, on the whole, extraordinarily sensual. "I just explained some things to Jason about how girls change when they mature and what it is safe for him to say about it. After that we still had time. You were drawning and there was not much else to do, so I explained everything to him. And by 'everything' I mean everything about men and women's relations."
Right at the end, she opened a channel to her sister and let her emotions flow through it before she closed it off again.
Yoko spun around and squatted on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees. She shut off everything she could insofar as radiating emotions was concerned. One thing she absolutely didn't want Jason to know was how she was feeling. She was mortified, scared, very angry at her sister, and at the same time strangely excited.
Jason started to go to her to ask what was wrong, but Hibiki restrained him. "It would be best to grant her some private time. She is tired and needs to sort some things out in her mind. She will be fine. Even for twins like us, it is sometimes necessary to be by one's self."
Jason nodded. "Well, if you say so, then I guess it's OK."
Hibiki nodded back, took him by the hand and led him out of the room, carefully closing the door behind her. Then she continued on to her room. It was unlikely that anyone would come looking for them for a while, and she was still intensely stimulated. She convinced herself that just kissing would be safe, and right then would be a good time to practice and learn how to do it properly.
Once in her room she explained her thinking to Jason who nodded and said, "That makes sense. We need to learn, and we don't have anything else to do right now."
His comment was anything but romantic, but by then she was so excited that she no longer cared. When they surfaced some 10 minutes later he realized that he'd learned something very important. There were some things about human relations that you couldn't analyze rationally or learn about properly from even a detailed description. Some things you just had to experience for yourself.
A small hand reached up, snaked itself behind his neck, and pulled gently but insistently. It seemed that Hibiki had decided that there was time for a bit more kissing practice. As always in such situations, he deferred to her judgement.