Conclave...Part 5

I stopped speaking for a moment, taking time to look at each of my companions before dropping the bombshell that was about to come out. Each of them was clearly absorbed in what I had been saying, but they all seemed to sense that a change was coming as well.

I leaned forward a little bit, looking down at the floor before continuing. “Daniel Bernstein had the goods on Drake, right down to a genetic profile of the man that identified a very scary fact, one that may impact each of you. Mrs. Al Farhan is not the only known relative of Drake.”

Ravyn piped in. “What? Who else is related to that abominable man?”

“Well, darling, you are almost definitely related to him, probably less distantly than most other Casters, given how strong your talent is.”

“You can’t be serious! Can you?”

I held up my hands at sounds of derision and anger that everyone was starting to make. “Unfortunately, I am. But let me explain a little bit.”

They all settled back, most with looks of confusion or doubt clearly expressed on their faces.

“Daniel was first and foremost, a first class geneticist. He actually had a number of different specialties for a man his age, but his true love of science fell in the field of genetics. He was doing a lot of work for Drake under the guise of the Omega Project. He had several teams of people out there gathering genetic samples from several sources.

“First, he had a team that was offering free genetic screenings for young women and couples looking to have children, ostensibly screening for various diseases and carrier genes that might cause problems. They provided some of that information to those potential parents, but they retained a great deal more for Daniel’s secret library.

“A second team was out doing research using various media sources to gather signs of what might be considered ‘magickal incidents’ and tracking down the names of the people involved. Then using the resources of the Bureau and operating under the auspices of certain shady provisions of the Patriot Act, they set about obtaining genetic samples from any available source. These ranged from taking samples that folks gave up voluntarily to their doctors, such as when they had blood tests done to even using sneak and peek searches of the homes of people who were gone at the time so that they could collect hair follicles from hair brushes or even tooth brushes.

“Finally, other teams were out infiltrating known groups of Casters, such as this one, using every possible way to collect further genetic samples, up to and including arranging the snatching of folks off the street, drugging them into unconsciousness, and taking samples before releasing them in out of the way locations.”

Cerrydwen interjected this time, with more than a little sarcasm dripping from her voice. “So, how does this relate to Drake being my long lost great, great grandfather?”

“I’m getting to it. Anyway, as he began to analyze his data, he began to notice certain common markers that almost every tested Caster shared to one degree or another, something that pointed to a common ancestor, even among seemingly disparate cultural and ethnic groups.

“Daniel had had a suspicion that Drake was hiding something for a long time. He had noted how Drake never actually ate a meal in his presence, and never seemed to drink anything other than occasional sips of water over the course of their many years of working together. He suspected that Drake was a Caster of some sort as well, but whenever he tried to broach the subject, Drake just smiled, shrugged and usually ignored answering the question altogether. When he did offer an answer, it was more in the form of a question-’Have you ever seen me use magick?’ or ‘Why would you think that, Bernstein?’

To be continued...