My phone rang as I was eating the eggs and bacon I had cooked for breakfast. Caller ID said it was my father again.

“Hello?” I answered.

“The code word is Mordred. Arthur. I have a strange request for you before we talk about anything else. No matter what happens, your name is Albert Lewis. Even Gertie will consider that your name going forward. She will deliver all of the usual credentials to you in an hour. Memorize the family and personal history that she will deliver. Burn the paper in the fireplace once you have committed it to memory.

“I will be coming over a short while after Gertie leaves.” His deep and resonant voice still struck me with awe. I knew mine had some of those qualities, from what others had told me. I had even been cornered into doing some announcing for my high school daily information over the PA system. I had also announced at our sports events.

“You mean I finally get to meet you? All it took was my Mom vanishing without trace?” I asked angrily.

“Son, I have wanted to see you in person for years. Your mother was sure it was too dangerous. Her family ordered her to have nothing to do with people like me. They threatened to disown her. That was a thing she could not bear having happen.” His tone was conciliatory, but I could hear the anger underlying it all. His accent also became more pronounced. “I can only share a small amount of the details of the problem, and I understand their issue. There is danger in sharing too much information.”

I could hear the internal conflict in his words and voice. “Okay. Share what you can, when you can, but I can’t promise not to get angry if I hear things that give me a reason to be.”

He actually chuckled a bit before he replied, “I hear myself in you when you are grumpy. Keep a grip on that temper. Take my word for it, you may do things you regret if you lose your control.”

“I’ll try, but I want as much truth as you can tell me. I have to admit , it will be nice to finally meet you though.” My face was expressionless as I fought to control my anger.

When Gertie arrived later, she stiffly handed me the paper and stood by as I memorized it. I was Albert Lewis from Columbus, Ohio. I was twenty-one. My family had died in a fire, and I was living off of the payout for their life insurance policies and for the fire insurance. The paper listed the current apartment I was in as a condo that I owned free and clear. A trust fund from my dead parents paid the taxes, utilities, and maintenance charges. I owned a small gallery in New York and had a degree in art history. Once I had the details committed to memory, Gerty provided me with a lighter and a metal bowl with a stone base. The paper went up in flames like a magician’s flash paper.

Gertie smiled coldly and nodded to me before leaving in her dark vehicle. My father arrived less than five minutes later.

He stood at the door and spoke clearly, “I know you are watching me on the camera system, ‘Albert’. Let me in, and we can talk.”

I let him in. He was a tall man. Taller than me by a wide margin. His dark hair was streaked on the sides with silver. His torso and arms were obviously heavily muscled and defined. His red polo shirt worked hard to not rip at any big movement. He was wearing dark blue jeans like I was. Now I knew where I got my permanently tanned complexion.

My father sat on the couch right in the middle. He looked up at me from his seat. I went and sat in the comfortable chair right across from the older man. “So, what is with the secrecy? The last I checked, I was already secured here.”

“’ Albert, ’ somebody has been looking for a redheaded guy with tanned skin named Arthur. They spent a large sum of money looking for him. Plenty of unpleasant people have been hired to look for this kid. I figured that we needed to make certain nobody confused you for the kid they are looking for.”

“I see. It’s a good thing I’ve never even heard of the guy. Any idea why they would be looking for him?”

His smile was grim. “I hear the motivation might be because of who his mother is. They have no idea who his father is. I may have to have a ‘conversation’ with their boss.”

“Tell me, Sir. I am curious. What kind of ‘conversation’ would need to take place?” I asked.

“ ‘Albert’, I would want to remind them of their manners and ask them to explain their motives. I might be ‘unpleasant’ in my questions.”

“By the way, you haven’t given your name. Might I know it? Of course, you know that my mother’s name is not Bridget Lafayette.” I told the man with a knowing smile.

“How rude of me. My name is Javier DeSaville. I will make sure nobody connects Albert Lewis with Bridget Lafayette.

“I enjoyed meeting you, Sir,” my father said. “I hope you will be available for dinner tomorrow night at 6:30 PM. I’ll send my assistant, Gerty. I’m sure she will get you there without issues.”

“It was nice meeting you too. I look forward to getting to know you. See you then.”

I walked back into my new home once I had seen the brake lights of his limo fade in the distance.

I got down to catching up on my emails as soon as I was back inside. Friends had emailed me homework assignments and recordings from my classes. My father had made the school aware I was involved in the search for my mother.

My friends all seemed confused about what could have happened to her. One girl who had stayed distant with me for the last year was abruptly professing her sadness and fear over my possible loss. My best friend was freaked out that I didn’t tell him about it before vanishing. He was also a bit shocked that Britany was suddenly so upset about my ‘family troubles,’ as she put it. “Yo! Brit is getting weird. She wouldn’t go out with you two weeks ago, but now, she acts like you guys were almost engaged. Am I missing something that happened between you?”

I took my time replying to my buddy. “Dude, Jimmy. I have no idea what Brit is on about. She made it clear that there was nothing between us. So, she must be off her nut. I’ll let you know if we make any progress looking for Mom.”

He answered back with questions about who ‘We’ included. It seemed an odd question, so I didn’t answer. Jimmy and Brit were acting nosier than usual. Jimmy and I were close, but we didn’t get into each other’s family stuff.

As I was getting out of my email, I saw another strange message. It came from an assistant executive director at Avalon Endicott Corporation. The subject line was ‘Items of mutual interest’. There was a phone number and an address in the signature. There was no message other than the name Layla Eldritch.