Just This Once Read online

  Just This Once

  An F6 Novel

  Diana X. Dunn

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Also by Diana X. Dunn

  Books Written as Diana Xarissa

  About the Author

  Text Copyright © 2013, 2018 Diana X. Dunn

  Cover Copyright © 2019 Linda Boulanger – Tell Tale Book Covers

  All Rights Reserved

  Created with Vellum

  One

  February 2120

  “Not real glass,” Sienna Madison murmured as she pulled too hard on the ornate door that marked the entrance to the old church. She should have expected that.

  “Good afternoon,” a low voice said.

  “Ah, good afternoon,” she replied. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dimly lit interior. Once she could see the elderly woman who was looking expectantly at her, she smiled brightly and then sneezed before she could speak.

  “Bless you,” the woman said.

  Sienna took a deep breath and was immediately sorry. The musty smell of old books and incense from long ago made her sneeze again.

  “My goodness, are you okay?” the other woman asked.

  “I’m fine,” Sienna assured her.

  “You’ve not been here before. Welcome.”

  Sienna frowned. She’d been hoping that no one would notice her arrival or realize that she wasn’t a regular visitor. The other woman was staring at her. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s a lovely old building.”

  “It’s very special to us. Many visitors choose to light candles for themselves or for their loved ones.” The woman gestured toward a statue near the door.

  It was a badly done copy of a famous statue of Mary and Jesus that Sienna vaguely recognized from her research. In front of the statue was a small rack covered in tiny artificial candles. A woman who looked at least eighty was kneeling on a padded riser, feeding coins into the rack. As each coin dropped, a tiny light atop one of the small candles flickered on.

  Feeling as if she were being watched far too closely, Sienna shrugged. “Maybe after the service,” she said.

  “In that case, please feel free to sit anywhere. If the service was full, I’d offer to help you find a seat, but I don’t think you’ll have any difficulties today.”

  Sienna glanced around the church’s interior. There were rows of benches on either side of a center aisle. Most of the people scattered through the space appeared to be contemporaries of the two women Sienna had already encountered. There were a few families in a cluster near the front. Small children were already chattering and fussing. Sienna nodded and then walked away, sliding into an empty bench only four or five rows from the back of the building.

  In her twenty-nine years of life she had never felt the need to enter a church before, but her research had told her what to expect. So far there hadn’t been any surprises. Sienna hated surprises. She slid down onto the hard wooden seat and reached for the book that was in a pocket on the back of the bench in front of her. The unfamiliar feel of a real book in her hands, the weight and the texture of the cover, took Sienna’s senses a minute to process. It had been a considerable time since she had last seen a real book.

  “Welcome to Saint Mary’s Church, Erie, Pennsylvania,” she read from the cover. She ran her fingers over the letters, feeling indents that had been made as part of the printing process. After a moment, she opened the cover and began to turn the pages.

  “We encourage everyone to follow the service through this book, through the electronic version of this book, or through the audio version,” the first page read. Sienna sat back and tapped the audio code into the device on her wrist. A moment later, the audio began in her ear.

  “Welcome to the mass service for Christian Religions,” a warm female voice said. “This service is suitable for all Christian denominations as defined in Article 410-AX-3 of the World Religion Act. Would you like to hear the history of the church?”

  Sienna nodded slightly.

  “Saint Mary’s was founded in AD 1962, and the current church building is actually the original church building.”

  If she hadn’t already known that, Sienna would have been surprised. So few churches had survived the Wars of Religion and the brief period that had followed when all religions had been made illegal. It was strange that this little church, in a small town in Pennsylvania, could have survived the upheaval.

  “Would you like me to guide you through today’s service?” the voice asked.

  Sienna was about to shake her head, when someone slid onto the bench next to her. It would probably be best if she took advantage of the extra assistance that would help make it look as if she belonged there. Blending into crowds was an important part of her job, and she was very good at what she did.

  For the next hour she sat when the others sat, stood when they stood, and parroted the words of the Reverend Jacob Snow in time with them. She followed the service very carefully in the book she held, listening carefully when the audio whispered instructions to her. The man who had chosen to sit next to her seemed to radiate an energy field that Sienna found distracting, but she forced herself to concentrate on the service, steadfastly refusing to shift her attention from the book, in spite of feeling his eyes on her on more than one occasion.

  The option of ignoring her neighbor was taken from her as Reverend Snow intoned, “Let us share some sign of Christian community with one another.”

  Around the small building people began to shake hands, hug, or kiss the people around them while murmuring various phrases that Sienna couldn’t quite catch. She turned, reluctantly, to the man beside her. He looked at her, amusement clearly etched on his face, which suggested that he’d recognized her as a stranger in this church, one who was suddenly out of her depth. She frowned. She couldn’t afford to blow her cover at this stage. She held out a hand and smiled at him, taking a fraction of a second to classify him.

  The man was much closer to her age than most of the others in the old building. Sienna judged him to be in his mid-thirties. He was tall, perhaps six inches taller than Sienna’s own five feet, eight. His hair and his eyes were both a pleasant shade of light brown, and both looked completely natural.

  He was wearing a dark suit with a light colored shirt, and a dark tie. Over this was a long black wool coat that would keep out the cold of the winter’s night. The outfit was perfectly fitted to a body that looked athletic. That too appeared to be natural, although it was nearly impossible to tell with the latest surgical techniques, especially through layers of clothing. Sienna mentally added up what the clothes must have cost him. It appeared that he was a very wealthy man.

  “Peace,” he said in a low voice.

  As their hands met, their eyes met, and Sienna felt her heart skip a beat, as a rush of electricity seemed to run down her am. The man was gorgeous and she felt a rush of almost overwhelming physical attraction toward him. Now was not the time to start flirting, she reminded herself firmly. She pulled her hand away, reading more amusement on the man’s face as she did so. Focus on the job, she reminded herself as she randomly shook hands with the people in the row in front of her, muttering nonsense sounds that seemed to satisfy them.

  Being the last to leave the chur
ch was part of her plan. She spent the rest of the service worrying that the man next to her might interfere in some way. To her surprise, he was one of the first to leave. Sienna felt both disappointment and relief as she watched him slip out the door at the back of the building almost the moment the service ended. She gave herself a mental shake and then carefully and slowly slotted the book back into its pocket. She sat back down in her seat and moved her hand down to retrieve her bag.

  Today she was a tall, slender woman with long straight hair that was currently dyed an uninteresting shade of brown. Her eyes matched her hair and her clothes were casual, and determinedly ordinary. To anyone watching, she was simply a pretty young woman who was taking a bit of time to gather up her things. Sienna rose now, with her bag in her hand and slipped into her coat.

  The church was emptying slowly. Lines of people were making their way to the back of the church, toward the doors. Sienna could see Reverend Snow shaking hands and talking with each group as they passed him on their way out. She studied him as he laughed and chatted with everyone, making sure to include the smallest of children and the oldest of ladies in his conversation.

  He looked at least twenty years younger than the eighty-plus that Sienna knew him to be. He had obviously taken good care of himself over the years, but she suspected that the surgery he had had when he was much younger had been topped up more recently. She wondered idly if it was vanity or something else that prompted him to pay to keep himself looking young.

  As the last few stragglers exchanged greeting with Reverend Snow, Sienna made her move. She slipped behind the final elderly lady, mentally rerunning the script she had prepared. She only hoped that her research had been good enough to insure that she got the right replies to her lines.

  “Ah,” Reverend Snow smiled brightly at her as she approached, “it is always nice to welcome a new member into our little family.”

  Sienna smiled back. This was just the opening she needed. She slipped easily into the role that she had written for herself. “Thank you.” She kept her voice soft and uncertain, adding a hint of an unidentifiable accent. “I wasn’t sure, I, well, um,” she stopped and looked shyly at the man, completely absorbed in her character.

  “We’re always happy to have new members,” Reverend Snow quickly assured her.

  “That’s so kind of you,” Sienna replied, carefully calculating exactly how innocent and ignorant she needed to act. “I’ve been thinking for a long time about joining a church.” She was nearly whispering now, offering her words as a guilty secret.

  “Obviously it is part of my job to encourage you,” the minister chuckled good-naturedly. Sienna knew he was also playing a part, of course.

  “Yes, well,” Sienna leaned closer to confide more secrets. “My parents don’t believe, that is, they are Anti-Religionists and they would be very upset if they knew I was here.”

  “I see,” Reverend Snow nodded. “I could never, of course, condone keeping secrets from your family, but maybe I could suggest that you spend more time learning about our faith before you make any decisions that you might feel you need to discuss with your family?”

  Sienna breathed out a huge sigh of relief. “You are exactly right,” she beamed happily at the man. “I should do that, learn more I mean, and then I can make the right choice.”

  She waited a minute, slowly letting her smile fade. Then she studied the man in front of her uncertainly.

  “Do you think,” she began hesitantly, “that is, would you have the time, maybe just a little bit of time, to help me get started?”

  She stared at him with wide-eyed pleading, waiting half a beat for him to begin to reply. “No,” she interrupted his hesitant response before he had uttered more than a syllable or two. “No, I’m sure you are far too busy. I can find some books somewhere about the church or something. I’m sure there is a ton of information available.”

  She took his hand and squeezed it tightly before continuing. “At least I was able to see the human face of the church tonight. Now I can explore what is behind it by myself. I need to find a way to figure out if it is for me or not. There must be something out there for me, to fill the sense of emptiness in my life, to…” she broke off, blinking back tears.

  “My dear child,” Reverend Snow patted her hand gently. “I very rarely make personal appointments with parishioners. Otherwise I would never have time for my own study and prayer. In a case like this, however, I am happy to make an exception.”

  “I don’t want to be any trouble,” she said softly. “I’m sure it would be such a help to talk to you instead of just reading about it, though. So much of the world today is electronic and impersonal. I have such high hopes that finding faith won’t be like that.”

  “I’m sure it won’t be,” Reverend Snow assured her as he reached into a hidden pocket in his long robe and dug out a small appointment book.

  “I’m afraid I’ve never been very enamored of today’s modern conveniences,” he explained to Sienna as he turned the pages of the book. “I keep track of my whole life with this little book and I never have to recharge it.” He winked at Sienna as he continued to flip through the pages.

  “Is there any chance you’re free tomorrow afternoon?” he asked her.

  “I can be free whenever you are,” she assured him. “I have so many things that I want to talk about with you.”

  “Well, I can give you an hour at three if that suits you. I had something scheduled but it was just cancelled.”

  “How very lucky for me.”

  “Or perhaps it is God’s hand?” Reverend Snow smiled piously at her.

  “Oh yes, perhaps that,” Sienna smiled back at him, rather liking the idea that some higher power had intervened on her behalf on this particular mission.

  “My wife and I live in the house across the street from the church,” the man told her. “That is probably the best place for us to meet.”

  Sienna poured out profuse thanks as he escorted her out of the church and back into the gray and dismal evening. The cold temperatures were accompanied by lightly falling snow, which might have been pretty if the night hadn’t been so dark and forbidding. Sienna could well imagine someone seeking comfort in the church on a night like this one.

  This weather seemed designed to drive people to an empty loneliness. And at least some of those people might try to fill that emptiness by seeking answers to life’s biggest questions. Why are we here? Is there a God? Whatever. For Sienna, the big question tonight was “Why can’t the scientists running the Terrashield allow a bit more warmth and sunshine into a miserable Erie winter?”

  She knew that those scientists were constantly monitoring and adjusting the earth’s temperatures to make sure that the planet never warmed or cooled outside of carefully defined levels, but that made for miserable winters in northern cities like this one. Sienna thought, as she shivered in the doorway, that global warming, had it been allowed to continue, might have been a good thing for Erie, Pennsylvania.

  Mentally rerunning the conversation she’d just had, eager to address her plans for the next stage of operations, Sienna crunched down the snow-dusted steps and turned toward the public transport station. She jumped when someone stepped out of the shadows near the church, reaching instinctively for a weapon that wasn’t there. Every muscle tensed as she assessed the situation, considering whether screaming or fighting would be more appropriate for her character.

  The tension drained from her as she recognized the man who had been sitting beside her during the church service. She would wonder, later, why she’d been so intuitively sure that she would be safe with this stranger.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you,” the man told her, his voice deep and compelling in the cold darkness.

  “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be out here,” Sienna allowed some of the excess adrenaline she was feeling seep into her voice. She should have been startled and frightened and she tried to convey those emotions.

  “I was hoping
that I could persuade you to join me for a drink somewhere, but I had just about given up on you. I thought I must have missed you somehow. You must have been having one heck of a chat with Reverend Snow.”

  Sienna frowned in the darkness, reviewing and discarding a handful of replies in seconds before responding. “Just confessing all my sins,” she laughed lightly, making a joke of the matter.

  “In that case, I would suggest you weren’t in there nearly long enough!”

  They both laughed and Sienna was at once enchanted and wary. She sternly reminded herself that she was working. Then she turned and continued down the path by the side of the empty roadway.

  “Hey, don’t rush off,” the man took her arm. “Please, have a drink with me?”

  Sienna looked up into the deep brown eyes, and felt her heart skip a beat.

  “One drink? What possible harm can that do?” the man coaxed, beginning to lead Sienna away from the transport station toward a line of restaurants and bars that lit up the night.

  “One drink,” Sienna echoed his words. She firmly resolved that it would be just one drink, just this once. She could imagine that the woman she’d created for this assignment, Sienna Madison, would jump at the chance to have a drink with a handsome stranger. It was very important for her to stay in character.

  Besides, she’d had a very successful night, persuading the secretive Reverend Snow to make a private appointment with her. She deserved a chance to celebrate a little. Tomorrow afternoon’s appointment would see the successful conclusion of this particular assignment. In less than twenty-four hours she would be back in New York with a different identity and new mission.