Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

After Jack and Katie stopped by his hotel suite to pick up a change of clothes for himself, they returned to her home.

Katie's room had its own ensuite, so it was convenient to clean up after they "christened" her room and before they headed downstairs to meet her father for lunch.

The weather was still pleasant, so they were going to eat lunch out on the deck, which had a splendid view of the lake.

As they stepped outside, he saw Katie's father, Orin, for the first time. The man was as tall as Jack but had a build more like a rugby player.

"Mr. Waldron," said Orin, reaching out for a handshake.

"Mr. Blake," said Jake.

Orin's grip was firm but not domineering.

After shaking hands, Orin pointed to a table and said, "Please, have a seat."

The table was round, with a brushed stainless steel frame and a glass top. There were three places set, with two chairs fairly close to each other on one side and one chair on the other. It was obvious where he and Katie were expected to sit.

Almost as soon as they sat, a middle-aged woman, dressed like a chef, came out carrying a tray with three drinks. She set one in front of each of them, then disappeared back into the house.

A moment later she returned with three plates of salad. She set the plates in front of each of them, then disappeared back into the house once again.

Each drink was different. Orin's appeared to be plain water, Katie's was a reddish-colored soda, and his looked like club soda with an already squeezed lime wedge floating on top of the ice.

He'd picked up a taste for club soda with lime from Jacob and Fran and tended to order it most places he went, but he'd never once mentioned it to Katie.

This was Orin's subtle way of letting Jack know he had investigated Jack.

Jack picked up the drink and took a sip while looking Orin in the eye.

Returning his drink to the table, he said, "I'm curious to know how much you discovered. Old Man Wallingford didn't do a very good job of it."

Several expressions flashed across Orin's face before settling on curiosity.

"And why would Old Man Wallingford want to look into your background? Have you expressed an interest in his granddaughter?"

Katie made a noise, and through their connection he could tell it was suppressed amusement. He'd already told her about the clothing store incident.

"No, quite the opposite. Not that either of them seem particularly interested in honoring my distinct lack of interest. "

Orin maintained an expectant expression for a few moments, like he was waiting for Jack to elaborate, but instead Jack returned the look with a blank stare of his own.

When the silence became awkward, Orin sighed and said, "According to my investigators, your orphan parents died when you were ten. You were eventually placed with Fran and Jacob Winters. Jacob died in a vehicle accident almost two years ago, and Fran succumbed to cancer recently."

Orin paused, and Jack made a 'please continue' motion.

"Fran sued Jacob's employer and won an out of court settlement for an undisclosed amount, and you inherited what remained of the settlement when Fran died. Your only known friend is Madison Kavanagh. You both were arrested on charges related to a supposed hack of Cascade Marketing.

"You were released the same day, no charges filed, but Madison was held without bail, though it looks like those charges will be dropped on Monday. My investigator could find no explanation for why the FIS would let you go so quickly."

Orin paused again and looked at Jack like he was hoping Jack would solve that particular mystery.

When Jack said nothing, Orin continued, "It also looks like you've engaged the services of one Abigail Wexler and are purchasing several homes in the NSU area. The amount of money you appear to be spending, very quietly I might add, would seem to exceed what you likely received from the settlement."

Jack was a little disturbed at how much Orin's investigator had managed to dig up. He wondered if Orin had discovered his lottery winnings and was keeping that to himself, or if he hadn't been able to dig that deep.

He didn't like people prying into his life, and something told him this was more than Orin just being protective of his daughter. It felt like a power flex. Like the father cleaning his gun collection when the boyfriend comes over to visit for the first time.

Using a sapient template to question regular people still bothered him a little, mostly because someone doing it to him would bother him. But he was getting over that squeamishness. In particular, he no longer felt any qualms about 'interrogating' Orin.

So, while his physical self continued the conversation with Orin, his soul space self, templatized Orin and began digging into the man's secrets.

In the physical world, he continued the conversation. "Well, that's more than Old Man Wallingford managed to dig up at the time of the incident, though he only had about an hour."

"Something happened between Lily and Kayden Richland recently that required Kayden to spend some time in the hospital. Is this the incident to which you refer?" said Orin.

"Yes. The short version is that I happened upon Kayden trying to rape Lily."

Orin's eyes widened in surprise.

"I told Kayden to get off her, but when the shitbird refused, I kicked him in the balls, hard."

Orin chuckled. "Ah, that certainly explains the tensions between Old Man Wallingford and Morton Richland."

"Yes. The old man initially assumed I was in cahoots with Kayden. It wasn't until he saw Kayden's grapefruit-sized crushed dreams that he finally understood that I had nothing to do with Kayden's foolishness. After some hard but not unkind words from me concerning his behavior towards his granddaughter, he apologized, then asked me to marry Lily."

Orin's mouth dropped open. "Asked you to marry Lily. She's fifteen!"

"I think the man's going senile. Maybe he knows it and is desperate to find someone to take care of Lily before he's too far gone to manage his own affairs. Though I feel like his hotel dowry gambit is going to backfire on him."

"And you're not interested? She's only three... 'ish years younger than you."