7: Daddy’s Girl

Alex still felt unsure about the concert that night. He didn’t know what it was, but he couldn’t help feeling that something was off. About all he could figure was that with the increased number of people they’d have with a Saturday night concert, they’d likely have more things go wrong, so he clearly expected to be embarrassed or find himself in some uncomfortable situations tonight. But that was hardly unusual and he knew he had to get used to it, because it was now a constant part of his life. People would always come up to him at odd times and react in unexpected ways. He just had to deal with it and get on with life. He couldn’t fret about what he could neither change nor which was ever likely to change.

This was Alex’s fourth concert. Well, his fourth major concert. He once again felt overwhelmed walking into the Cotton Bowl Stadium. He knew the heavy concentration of people was good for him. While he’d been trying to hit cities based on their population densities, these concerts notched that up yet another level. There were more people packed tightly together here than he’d ever encountered anywhere else. Still, that many people mixed together added to the unexpected nature of how his followers and their family, friends, boyfriends and husbands reacted to him. He knew he was likely to run across even more problems than they typically had.

Despite the larger audience he was anticipating from a weekend concert, the Cotton Bowl Stadium was smaller than the other arenas they’d been in over the last week. What’s more, the other major stadiums in the area meant there would likely be even less people here than there could have been. On top of that, Alex realized an old rock star staple and a relative newcomer weren’t going to draw the numbers a more popular attraction might, so he wasn’t really sure what the night would bring. As always, there were simply too many unknowns tonight for him to guess just what was likely to happen.

What’s more, it was hard taking the time required to get to know each new follower he met in the madness of a live rock concert, but they provided a way to get many more new followers, which made it more efficient. Also, the sheer noise and confusion kept things from getting embarrassing. So in the end, the heavy crowds were actually more of a benefit than a hindrance.

He’d managed to handle things well enough the last couple of nights, so he knew they had a decent system worked out, although it didn’t help that they had to work with people even more unaccustomed to the process than they were. But he felt that if they stuck to what had worked before, they should be fairly safe into the future. With that he put his discomfort out of his mind and instead focused on what he had to do in the here and now.

Entering the Cotton Bowl via the backdoor, hurrying to arrange themselves around the stadium as usual to interact with the most people, someone ran out of a room and straight into Alex.

“What the shit are you doing here? Who the hell are you, anyway? What is this, a damn party? Who are all these people?” a tall shapely figure who Alex instantly recognized as Diane Kennedy demanded. She was a beautiful woman, with shiny brunette hair which curled around her face. But it had been a long time since she’d first hit it big, and time was beginning to take its toll on her. She had some obvious wrinkles around her eyes and along her neck, but the most noticeable thing was the deep frown lines along her face and her heavy scowl.

She was clearly unhappy, not only with Alex having gotten in her way, but that a bunch of ‘underlings’ were congregating in the halls instead of doing something more productive.

“Uh, I’m with—” Alex started to answer before he was cut off.

“I don’t give a damn who you are, you aren’t important. What is important is that I need to center myself, and I can’t do that if a bunch of idiots keep running into me. Get away from me, I need to calm myself. Where’s Kathy? I need a drink,” she continued to rant as she stormed off.

“Whew, I can see why she has such a bad reputation,” Cate whispered.

“She’s just lucky I wasn’t close enough to jump her,” Gail warned them. “I don’t like it when someone attacks Alex like that. It makes me jumpy, and you don’t want to see me jumpy.”

“Look, don’t worry about it,” Alex told them. “We were in the wrong here. We’re underlings and we’re not supposed to be wandering the halls with nothing to do. Now let’s see if we can get out of here without any more trouble. We’ve got enough to worry about.”

They managed to find their places so they’d be ready for the crowds to enter and for the concert to begin. Alex once again stationed himself in the far stall in the men’s room to wait for the concert to begin and the audience to settle down. He could hear the crowds moving about as people began entering the stadium and not much longer men began coming and going in the men’s room. Alex was trying to not look overly conspicuous when Gail alerted him.

‘Alex, head’s up, you’ve got some company coming your way,’ she cautioned, but her warning had an odd lilt to it, though what that meant wasn’t clear. But her warning was.

Alex sat up straighter, paying more attention. He remembered the men who’d come to confront him in the men’s room in Houston, and he could easily imagine the same thing happening with some guys who weren’t quite as happy about their dates pining after another man. He listened carefully, and a few seconds later he heard the door to the men’s room slam open.

“Hey, you can’t come in here!” someone shouted, which only brought up a number of possible visions of the type of person who wouldn’t be allowed into a public restroom. They must be one bad-assed—.

“Hey, fuck off buddy, we aren’t here for you,” the brash voice of a pissed off woman rang out. “Just finish what you’re doing and we won’t bother you.”

“Do you see him?” asked another woman’s voice.

“No, but I think he’s at the end of the room. You can’t mistake his presence.”

Alex heard the rapid tap of heels on a tile floor, accompanied by the complaints of men being pushed aside. He figured he’d better address this before the disruption the women were making in a men’s room escalated. He could imagine any one of the guys complaining to someone about this ‘abusive treatment’ and then his quiet hideaway would be spoiled. Getting up quickly, he opened the door and stepped out.

He saw three women walking rapidly towards him, though they made an odd assortment. One was an angry looking young woman in her twenties with short blond hair and an attitude, another was a dark haired older woman who seemed to revel in the freedom her companion’s brazen attitude gave her, while the last, a lightly freckled young woman with brunette hair with a blondish tint to it, seemed to be meekly following the others. When he met their eyes, two of them stopped suddenly, jerking back as if struck. The third, the meeker brunette, continued on until she realized she’d lost her companions, she was about to say something when she realized the person she was looking for was standing before her.

“Holy mother!” the one in the short irregular haircut swore. The other older woman looked so shocked Alex was afraid she might collapse. The final girl, looking at Alex in confusion asked, “You’re him, aren’t you?”

“And who were you looking for?” Alex teased. He knew he was being cruel, but he couldn’t help it, the expression on her face made it worthwhile, even if it took him hours to talk her down from his response.

“You’re ... you’re... ,” she tried to say before she was interrupted.

“Sweet Jesus, you’re... ,” the blonde said, also unsure just how to finish the statement. The older woman, who Alex guessed was probably in her mid to late thirties, looked like she might collapse and was too busy crossing herself to answer. Alex glanced around and noticed a number of men either watching them in fascination or hurrying to flee the scene.

“Follow me, we’re attracting too much attention here,” he told them quietly and turned on his heels and crossed over to the other side of the divided restroom, not bothering to see if anyone heard or was following him. The side he’d been on consisted of toilet stalls while the other was comprised of a long row of stark white urinals. There were several men glancing in their direction when he entered, but when they saw the three women follow him in they quickly zipped up and hurried out, seemingly in a hurry to get away. One man didn’t seem to be so inclined, a small leer starting to spread across his face. He started to turn towards them, his hand still holding himself, apparently ready to expose himself when Gail walked up behind him.

“Freeze, buddy. I’m a cop, and if you don’t want to be spending the night in jail I’d suggest you zip up and get the hell out of here. I’ll take care of this.”

The man quickly turned and ran out, hurriedly trying to zip up as he went. The younger blonde giggled behind Alex. Seeing as they were now relatively alone, he turned to his three new followers.

“Not exactly the best timing in the world, but I’ve had worse first meetings.” When his response didn’t get a single smile he decided to change his approach. “OK, we’ve got to hurry. Quickly now, what are your names?”

“I’m Jamie Stone,” the blonde answered without hesitating. She was interesting looking, to say the least. She was pretty, but she seemed to have turned ‘pretty’ on its head, as if she was tired of how people responded to her based on her looks. Her hair was erratically cut in a short bowl type of cut, but you could tell she’d paid some real money to have it done to her. She’d had a sharp look to her eyes, but right now they were looking at Alex in pure awe, her gray eyes wide and attentive, even though she, like the other one, had trouble meeting his gaze.

“I’m Stephanie Dolson,” mentioned the taller woman with the dark hair. She had a broad grin which showed a lot of white teeth. She looked like a lot of fun, but Alex guessed she normally felt a bit intimidated, so she’d relished following Jamie’s lead when she brazenly led them into the men’s room. “Everyone calls me Steph, though,” she added.

“I’m Brittany MacFarlane,” answered the still hesitant younger girl, the lone Watcher of the trio. She had flowing two toned hair which framed her face and covered some of the many light colored freckles which covered her nose and cheeks. She seemed to have recovered more than the others, as she was now smiling widely, apparently pleased as punch to have found Alex in a public men’s room.

“All right, I’m not going to say who I am, because I’m afraid we may have too many people listening still, but you’ll learn it soon enough. The woman guarding the door, the one you stormed past a few moments ago, will accompany you outside and explain a little about me. As for myself, I think I’ll try to lose myself so we don’t continue to attract so much attention.”

Once again Alex turned and marched towards Gail. She was currently staring down a couple of guys who were trying to get a peek at what was going on. She seemed to be successful because she stood aside as Alex reached her and waited for her new charges to catch up. Alex could tell from the hurried click-click-click of a couple sets of heels that they were each hurrying to do as he’d instructed. Only two of the girls were wearing heels.

As he exited the restroom Alex saw several people nervously watching him, both men and women. Apparently the men who’d fled the bathroom had already informed their wives and girlfriends what had taken place, so Alex was anxious to get away, hoping they’d focus on him and not on the girls who were following him out. Striding purposefully, Alex walked briskly into the crowded auditorium.

Several people were watching him intently, but he didn’t slow down and he certainly didn’t try to establish eye contact with anyone. He entered the stadium arena, where the audience was waiting for the show to begin. Alex was hoping to loop around, exiting through the next corridor, but the crowd of idling people was a bit thick, so he had to stop several times waiting for people to move aside. However, each time he did, one or two people seemed to fall in behind him. As he was waiting for another couple to step aside the lights dimmed, notifying people the show was about to begin. It was almost like someone was watching him, and decided to help him out. As a result, most people turned and moved closer to the stage, moving out of Alex’s way. But the damage was done, while some were watching to see what was happening on stage, the others, aware the show wouldn’t be starting for several minutes yet, watched this strange young man with the several curious people scurrying along behind him. Rather than lose himself in the crowd to avoid attention, he’d done the opposite, making a spectacle of himself before the hundreds of people near enough to be watching.

‘Well, I’ll give you this, you certainly know how to make an impression,’ Gail teased. ‘I’m trying to head the girls away from here because everyone is watching us like a hawk watches a field mouse free for all.‘

‘You haven’t seen anything yet, ‘ Alex warned her. ‘I was trying to get away, but instead I’m leading some more mice your way, just like Pied Piper. I just walk in and they all follow me out.’

She laughed at that. ‘You should know by now that you really can’t predict how people are going to respond to you. No matter how carefully you plan, someone always manages to surprise you.’

‘OK, try to meet me at the next arena entrance, ‘ Alex told her. ‘I’m contacting the other Seer we met earlier to alert the other girls that we’re changing our location. Hopefully this won’t mess everyone up too much.‘

‘Yeah, we’ll see if that’s far enough away. Frankly, from the interest of the people around here, we may have to go to the far side of the stadium to escape any unwanted attention.’

Alex figured it would be best if they split up, especially since there were so many people for him to interact with. He debated contacting the new girls telepathically and telling them to seek out Cate on the upper floor, just so they’d draw the curious away from him, but he knew if he did that without a warning he’d freak them out. He usually only did that when he was facing someone directly, or they’d been briefed ahead of time. So he continued with his original plan.

He figured he wasn’t going to be any less conspicuous, and already the people around were growing bored with watching him, so he turned and motioned for the girls behind him to follow as he headed to the outer hallway where they’d have a little more privacy.

Alex was growing tired of trying to escape who he was. If he drew too much attention they’d find a way to deal with it. People were attracted to him, and his ‘presence’ surprised them so much they often reacted oddly, attracting attention. They could minimize it, but wishing it wasn’t so wasn’t going to change anything, and continually pretending he wasn’t who he was also wasn’t going to change anything. It was time he finally took the bull by the horns and accepted the role he had been given.

There were now four women following him, each looking sheepish about it. But they were clearly drawn to him and this time they weren’t as easily dissuaded. They scampered to catch up to him as he reentered the outer vestibule. There they met Gail and the other three girls.

“I’ve already given them the general overview,” Gail explained. “They still have a lot of questions, but you don’t have to give your traditional ‘I’m not an angel’ speech.”

“Are you an angel?” one of the new Watchers asked him, her eyes seemingly growing even larger.

“I’m the person the press has labeled ‘the Angel of New Orleans’,” Alex explained. “As Gail intimated, I’m not an actual angel, but I project a certain kind of energy which draws people to me. What’s more, I trigger a reaction in some people, who we call ‘Seers’, who can see this energy,” he described, indicating the three women standing beside Gail. “Their typical reaction is to call me an angel. There’s an open discussion amongst my followers whether that’s true or not, but I’ve never had any indication of it, and you’d think God would think to mention something about it to you if you were, so I’m still doubtful.”

Instead of wasting time giving them an overview, Alex instead sent the first three girls to talk to Cate, so he could communicate through them with her while sending the other four Watchers to talk to their only other Seer. They’d cover the basics with them while freeing Alex to do what he needed to. Getting these people up to speed quickly would free up more people, allowing Cate to join him. That would help prevent him from getting overwhelmed too quickly. As everyone split up heading in different directions, Patricia come on stage by the time Alex and Gail reentered the arena floor.

Things slowed down after that, which gave everyone time to get organized and Cate eventually joined Alex and Gail, having assigned the new girls her previous tasks. The place was packed and it was difficult to talk. Alex had several girls he’d recently met around him. The two talking to him at the moment were Haley Hewitt, a young girl with a bright red stripped t-shirt and blue jeans who’d turned out to be a Watcher and Kayla Odell, who was a quiet young thing with short black hair and heavy glasses which gave her a serious but quirky look. Alex was trying to tell them what they needed to know when Gail alerted him to someone else.

‘Someone headed your way in a hurry, Alex,’ she warned him. Turning, Alex saw a tall woman with somewhat wild brunette hair and freckles heading toward him in a rapid march, like she wasn’t just seeking him out, but wanted to have a serious conversation with him. As soon as Alex looked at her, her head jerked back and she took a misstep, hesitating briefly. But she quickly set out again, stumbling slightly on her way since she was unused to her new vision.

“Alex?” she asked once she’d reached him, shocking Alex that she knew him. Her eyes were still glazed from her recent activation, but she seemed intent on telling him something, and seeing she already knew who he was, Alex immediately forgot about everyone else around him and focused his attention on her.

“You know who I am?” he asked.

“Yeah, I just came from New Orleans. They told me I was a likely Seer and that I should seek you out. My name is Linda Evens, by the way.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Linda. I take it they explained what you needed to know about being a Seer?”

“Yes, they did, although they told me they couldn’t explain much about the visions because I couldn’t really understand it until I’d experienced it. They were right. But I need to tell you something before we discuss anything else.”

This certainly got Alex’s attention.

‘Do you need me?‘ Gail asked.

‘Maybe, I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know as soon as she explains what she’s here for, ‘ Alex told her.

“And what would that be?” Alex cautiously asked.

“I work for... ,” she said before hesitating, taking a moment to figure out how to explain her relationship, “my boyfriend is a Private Investigator in the eastern end of the state. He was hired by someone who was anxious to dig up dirt on you. He was very insistent, so I figured it would be important that you know about it.”

“I see,” Alex said, not quite sure he really did yet. “And how did you come to be here then?”

“My boyfriend, Harry, went to New Orleans to see what he could discover about you,” she said. “He basically ran into a brick wall, and figured he’d have more luck if he had a woman try to get some information. So he flew me in and sent me into your community there. They were cautious about me, protective of their community, until we talked and they got to know me. After they asked me a few seemingly general questions, they announced I was one of them, and that I needed to contact you because it would change my life. I quickly went from seeking information for Harry, to seeking it for myself. They didn’t hesitate to tell me everything once they knew I was one of them. They told me they knew they could trust me.

“I went back to Harry and informed him I couldn’t help him anymore, because I was going to join your movement, and if he cared anything for me, he’d stop trying to damage you. Without listening to his decision, I told him I was going to follow you here. Your girls told me you’d be here tonight. Once Harry heard that he called up his client and told him he could no longer represent him due to a conflict of interest. However I don’t think the man’s likely to change his mind. He seemed pretty obsessed with causing you trouble.”

“You wouldn’t know this man’s name, would you?”

“No, Harry’s real adamant about his client’s privacy, it’s a central tenet of the PI Industry. He described what the case was about when he brought me in. Normally I do his bookkeeping and act as his personal assistant, so he doesn’t usually brief me.”

“Well, it’s not much to go on but thanks for warning me,” Alex told her, his mind dancing, trying to figure out how to respond to this news. “I at least know someone has it out for me. I’ll tell you what, why don’t you talk to Gail over there. She’s my bodyguard and as such has more expertise in this kind of thing. She’ll have a better idea of how to deal with it than I do. She’s got contacts with the police force in Illinois, so she may be able to use that as leverage with your boyfriend.”

Linda set off to speak to Gail and they had to move a little further away to make themselves understood over the noise, Gail not wanting to overwhelm her by speaking telepathically until Alex had introduced her to the idea first. Alex returned to his previous conversation with Kayla and Haley. They didn’t ask him about what he’d been talking to Linda about, figuring it wasn’t any of their business, so Alex resumed telling them about the communities in New Orleans and Carbondale when they both looked over his shoulder. They were surrounded by people since Cate was talking to another two girls as well, but they were set off a little from anyone else. Seeing the girl’s attention shift Alex turned to see what they were looking at, and he saw an older man with thin graying hair conspicuously wearing a business suit to a rock concert. Alex thought it odd, but didn’t think much of it until he saw the man’s eyes. He was staring intently at Alex. His eyes seemed to have an unbalanced look to them, and there seemed to be a cold burning hatred in them which alerted Alex that this was likely serious. When he saw Alex glancing at him he responded.

Anthony Barlow had waited outside until he’d spotted Linda Evens coming into the stadium. He knew he’d have no way of finding the supposed ‘Angel’, Alex, on his own. There were just too many people here and too many places to look. Getting a picture of her had been fairly simple. A simple Google search using her name and her home town of Beaumont, Texas produced a fair sampling of photos. As he’d expected, she zeroed in on Alex right away, heading directly to him without even pausing to consider where he might be. He didn’t take much time to consider why that would be, however.

He tried to stay back far enough from her to not be conspicuous. After all, he was looking to surprise his target. He was intending to merely speak with him, to warn him to leave his daughter alone. He wasn’t sure why, but he’d felt it necessary to bring an old Luger along which his father had brought back as a souvenir from World War II. He’d at least taken the time to clean it, since it hadn’t been used for the last thirty years. He didn’t even know if it would work, and he certainly didn’t plan on using it. He merely wanted it so he could scare the miscreant away in case he couldn’t get him to see the situation rationally.

When he saw the tight band of women surrounding the man he was after, most of them young beautiful and seemingly innocent, he was overcome with a righteous indignation. Each of these girls was like his own daughter. Each believed in this man out of their own naïveté and their own sense of the purity of man, never once suspecting just what he was planning to do to them. He could easily see this supposed angel taking advantage of each of them, leaving them penniless in some strange city days weeks or months in the future.

The ‘angel’ didn’t look anything like he’d imagined. He was just a young man who seemed to have delusions of grandeur, since he didn’t seem that impressive. He appeared clean cut, but Anthony assumed a con-man would have to project that image in order to get others to trust him. But the fact he projected such a false image just set Anthony off that much more. He felt himself losing it at that point, his hands shaking with rage.

He wasn’t quite sure what happened from that stage, all he knew was that he was filled with an overwhelming anger at the injustice of it all. This self-appointed saint was enriching himself while stealing young girls from those that loved them, taking their innocence but also irreconcilably destroying their relationships in one fell swoop. When asked later exactly what he did, what he said or why he chose to do it, he wouldn’t be able to answer; all he knew was that it was over in an instant.

“You’re not going to do to these women what you’ve done to my daughter,” he snarled as his hand came out of his pocket. Alex wasn’t entirely clear on what he said, due to the loud music surrounding them, but his intent seemed clear. He seemed to be holding something in his hand. As his hand rose everything suddenly slowed down once again. Alex had experienced this before, so he knew what to expect.

Suddenly he no longer noticed the music filling the arena. Instead he picked up a bunch of seemingly irrelevant details; like that the man’s suit looked to be an expensive European cut and his shoes were freshly shined, as if he wanted to look his best for this confrontation. He also noticed those around them, mostly the girls talking to Cate, seemed frozen in place and Alex noted the pretty patterns in their dresses frozen in mid-movement.

The man’s hand continued to rise slowly and Alex noted a glint of dull metallic gray, but that was the last detail he managed to register. Before Alex could respond, he was simultaneously hip-checked and shoved from the side. Knocked off balance, he had time to glance over and see Haley, a slightly bigger girl, had shoved him out of the way for protection. As he began to slowly topple over, falling in a twisting motion, he saw her moving forward towards the man approaching with the gun.

Things continued to move in slow motion, but now his mind was focused on his inability to observe what was happening. As he fell away, he was no longer able to observe the man, but his overactive mind was recording everything else it saw flashing before his eyes, most of it immaterial to the threat on his life. The old chewed gum and beer stains on the floor, the movements of those around him as Haley and Kayla rushed forward. They seemed to move glacially slow, but they were moving faster than anything else around him as everyone else was too surprised to react.

Most of all he was aware of how powerless he was. He’d been too surprised to react, but even the ability to do nothing had been taken out of his hands. Now he was merely observing what was happening, both to himself and those around him, as an outsider without a clear view of what was happening. The man no longer in sight, he had no idea what he was doing or what he intended. He had no clue how everyone else was responding. What’s more, he had no indication of how much of a threat the man was, or whether anyone else was in danger as well.

If he’d had more control, he might have been able to respond. At the very least he could have moved away, drawing the man away from the others. Instead, now he was a helpless bystander, a potential target amongst multiple unintended victims, unaware of what was happening and unable to respond to it.

They fell out of his field of vision as he continued twisting and he now found himself only a few feet off the floor when he heard what sounded like a couple of firecrackers off in the distance. “Pop!” “Pop!” Despite not hearing the music playing in the background, Alex was aware of silence hanging in the air for a moment, as the speech around him fell silent from the interruption of the unexpected sounds.

Since Alex’s mind was now in overdrive, and he could no longer see what was happening around him, his mind raced, trying to guess about what was happening. Instead of being worried about himself, his thoughts immediately flew to those around him. Not just Haley and Kayla, but the girls with Cate who were between him and his attacker, in the line of fire as well. He tried desperately to think of what he could do, but even if he knew what was happening, he’d be unlikely to stop bullets already fired. Not knowing what was happening prevented him from even attempting to. His mind recorded the footfalls of the girls, the whizzing sound of something traveling at high speed slicing through the air, and then the sickening sound of flesh being torn and the gasps of pain exhaled in slow motion from above and behind him. He had no idea who, but someone had been shot. He didn’t think he’d been injured, but he knew how the mind played tricks on you and tended to block out minor details like the perception of pain. He hadn’t felt pain when Rakeem had shot him at point blank range. Alex was pretty clear he hadn’t been injured, but that left him wondering just who had been struck, and whether he was actually the intended target or whether the man was upset at someone else entirely. The mind goes to unexpected places in these circumstances, but it was in hyper-drive now, and it was trying to fit the many pieces together into a coherent whole. Then all hell broke loose.