Mom shook his hand. Then she gave me a stern look. “You’ve been up to all kinds of mischief, haven’t you?”
“Are we going to be banished to the other realm?” I asked, terrified to hear her answer.
“I hope not.” She pulled her genie phone out of her pocket and hit speed dial. “Roger, how far away is Genie Security?” With a glance at Maximillian, she added, “Better convene the Directorate and the Oversight Committee. We have a big problem.”
She hung up and turned to Dad in the van. “Park somewhere, Mike, we’re going to be here a while.”
Dad pulled away.
“Is there somewhere we can get out of the public eye?” Mom asked.
“My place,” Katie offered. She motioned to her condo. “Second floor.” She held out her hand to my mother. “Joe’s girlfriend. Nice to meet you.”
Mom shook her hand. “I’m Laura, and my husband is Mike. I guess we should get moving, then. Leo, I’m assuming you can transport Maximillian to the apartment. Discretion is the priority here.”
Wait a minute. Was she telling him to use magic?
“Yes, ma’am,” Leo said. He leaned down and grabbed Maximillian’s arm. Then the two of them disappeared.
Mom put her hand on my arm. “Let’s get Dad and you can show us the way.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I said. Then I threw my arms around her. It had been a long couple of weeks.
Mom squeezed me tight. “And here I thought you were the one I didn’t need to worry about.”
“I’m sorry.”
“C’mon,” she said.
“Want to explain what’s going on?” Dad said, as we met him at the van.
Mom tried a brief summary as we walked up the steps to Katie’s.
We followed Katie inside to where Leo stood over the groaning form of Maximillian.
“He’s one of your honored thinkers from history?” Dad asked.
“Our system isn’t perfect,” Mom said with an irritated tone. “Apparently, he’s been dating your neighbor?”
Katie nodded. “For years. Joe and I have spent quite a few evenings with them.”
“Money or love,” Mom said. “It’s always one of the two.”
Katie glanced nervously at the figure on the floor. “What should we tell Serena? She’ll be devastated.”
“Nothing. Keep her in the dark until we determine exactly what Maximillian was up to.”
“Does this mean Joe will be released?” Katie asked, putting her arm around Leo.
“Probably,” Mom said. “It should be easy to show that Maximillian’s been violating his vows.”
“Thank God,” Katie said, swaying with relief.
A loud knock at the door drew our attention.
“I’ll let them in,” Mom said. “If that’s okay with you?”
Katie waved away her concern. “Please do.”
Genie Security came in wearing plain black pants and jackets. There were three of them, a woman and two big men.
They handcuffed Maximillian who was starting to become more alert.
They pulled him to his feet and beamed out of the apartment.
“Why didn’t the police come?” I asked.
“We took care of it.”
“What took you so long, Mom?”
“I’m sorry, honey. We came as quickly as we could.”
My father glanced at the bullet hole in the wall and then hugged me.
Mom said, “Katie and Leo, I’m afraid you’ll have to come in to make your statements.”
“Will we be able to see Joe tonight?” Katie asked anxiously.
Mom considered for a moment. “I think we’ll be able to swing it. His minor son has been through a traumatic experience. I wouldn’t expect his release tonight, though. The statements and paperwork may take several days.”
“Days?” Katie’s face fell.
With a sigh, Mom said, “I’ll make some phone calls. See if we can get some pressure applied to the right people.”
“Really, Mom? That would be great!”
Mom turned to Katie. “Would you like to ride down with us?”
Katie motioned to Leo. “We’ll follow in my car.”
“And we,” Mom said squeezing my shoulder, “need to talk.”
Uh oh.
Dad gave me a pitying glance.
I was so dead.
We barely hit the car when my mother started. “Jen, you can’t be anywhere near a male genie. And you certainly can’t date one! Are you insane?”
“I’m sorry, Mom. He came to me for help. And we aren’t dating.” We weren’t exactly dating. Kissing a little. A few sparks flying. I wished we were dating.
“Jen, no matter who you’re dating, you shouldn’t hide it from us,” Dad said.
“Do you realize what danger you’ve been in? Not just from Maximillian but from defying the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E.” Mom frowned. “I find it very disturbing that you have developed a relationship with one of the few people you have been forbidden to come in contact with. You could date any other boy—”
“We aren’t dating, Mother.”
“I thought you liked that irritating boy in Ian’s band.” Dad was always several steps behind.
“Let me get this straight,” Mom said. “A total stranger comes to you and asks you to help his father, also a total stranger, by breaking…how many rules?” She started ticking them off on her fingers. “Being in the presence of a genie. Lying about that disposable phone. Lying about your whereabouts.” She gave me a hard look. “Have you even seen Alex in the last few weeks?”
“Yes. Just not quite as much as I, um, led you to believe.”
With a huff, she moved on. “Eating dinner with complete strangers. Although, I have to admit Katie seems very nice.”
“Mom, this is what happened.” So I explained about breaking into her office and driving around Atlanta to find the culprit.
“Jennifer Farrelly. I cannot believe you’d violate my trust by breaking into my office.”
“Me either,” I said.
“Do you realize the kind of trouble you could have gotten into running around Atlanta by yourselves? You could have just asked me about the people I work with.” She stopped. “You did ask me, didn’t you? And the newfound interest in the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. and the Techno Echo…It was all just a way to find out more for Leo.”
“Yes, and no. Mom, I’m really interested in everything now. I understand what Dad always says about the dangers of sticking your head in the sand.”
“When we get home, I want a full confession of everything you’ve been up to.”
I winced.
“I can get your statements from the debriefing if I want, Jen. I’d rather you come clean with me.”
Uggh. “What’s the debriefing going to be like?”
“Long and tiresome. Your father will stay with you the whole time. I have a million other problems to attend to.”
Now I was just another problem for my mother to deal with.
“It should help that you were able to find the perpetrator,” my dad said. “They ought to take that into account when tallyin
g your offenses.”
“Mom, do they have iced tea in the other realm? And crushed ice?”
Mom laughed. “That’s a good one, Jen.”
“Wait a minute.” I desperately needed an answer. “I’m totally serious. Do they?”
“Oh,” Mom said. “Um. I really doubt it.”
Crap.
“They’re far more likely to take away your powers for a decade. Or two,” Dad said.
“Speaking of powers, Mom. You knew all along that I could get away with doing all kinds of cool stuff. Like teleporting. But you kept it from me.”
“Other genies have gotten away with a lot, Jen. But I was afraid they’d be watching you closely.” She sighed. “I guess I overestimated the surveillance. The fact that you’ve spent the last week with a male genie seems to have slipped by them.”
“Well, they’ll know now.”
“True. Jen, I thought you knew better than to hide things from us. I thought our relationship was stronger than that.”
“It is, Mom. This was just…” What was this? How could I explain that Leo had needed me? Without sounding like a moron or a lovesick girl?
Mom rolled her eyes. “What did you let him talk you into, Jen? Breaking into my office. If that boy had said genies couldn’t get pregnant the first time they had sex, you’d probably believe that too.”
My cheeks flamed. I can’t believe she said that in front of Dad. “No, Mom, I’m not an idiot.” Of course, if Leo was watching me with those killer blue eyes and talking in that soft, husky way he had…who knew?
“You’ve made some pretty poor choices lately, Jen.”
“Not that poor, Mom.” I was going to pretend the kiss hadn’t happened for now. She’d probably buy me a chastity belt if she heard about the smoke we’d made.
“We can talk about all this later,” Dad said, as we pulled into the parking lot at Genie Communications. He nodded toward the dozens of cars that weren’t normally there after dark. “Looks like they’ve called in the troops.”
It hit me that I was going to be grilled by some pretty scary people. Suddenly I couldn’t quite breathe. “Mom?”
She patted my hand. “You’ll be fine. Dad will be right there.”
All of Dad’s ranting from the last seventeen years came back to me. No rights for genies. He’d spent hour after hour arguing with Mom about the dangers.