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Part 1
Part 3
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Part 2
All my life I had dreamed of a dinner like this one (and not because of the food, which was good but not extraordinary) with my father, but the reality was not as I had dreamed.
Mom wasn't there. While some variations of my dream allowed for a step mother, certainly I never imagined one like Rebecca, a formidable amalgam of intellect, dry humor, and kindness which I imagined must arise out of the pain and difficulties of her own life. I decided Rebecca deserved careful study.
I had never considered that my father might be someone whose name I knew, and I certainly never imagined he would be someone infamous for dark and evil deeds. When I first heard his name, I could think only that he must have raped my mother, but after today, I knew that was not true. Mom must have known the human hidden behind all of those walls. How angry that must have made Adam!
So, there we were, an odd little 'family' of three, a tiny bit of tenuously connected human community in the wider world of human apathy and indifference. I realized I was glad to be here-with these particular people. That surprised me. I wasn't quite where that was coming from, whether I was denying who was sitting across from me, or more surprisingly, changing my mind about him. I just knew I was adapting rapidly to my new circumstances.
"Catherine, I'm a pragmatic man. I'm asking you to give thought to what you want to do with your life during the next few days. We can sit down and discuss details of how to get you there. I've had the same discussion with my other three children."
"What exactly do you mean?"
"The old what-do-you-want-to-be-when-you-grow-up question, except with the sobering addition of what will be required to get there. I believe it is critical that one have useful, marketable skills, and I'm no snob about it. I do not care if those skills are acquired in a college classroom or in an apprenticeship program. I care only that it be useful and enable you to take care of yourself and your dependents."
Rebecca laughed. "Mason will gladly help you become a plumber or an orthodontist, but whatever you do, don't tell him you want to get a degree in something like 'Literature of the Post-Literate Age' or similar nonsensical hogwash, like the degree my sister-in-law Sherri has."
Mason laughed now. "Or 'Urban Anthropology'. Or 'Womon's Studies'. 'Wimmin's Studies'. 'Womyn's Studies'.
"'Literature of the Post-Literate Age'. I don't even have any idea what that could be," I said.
"I suppose it could be nearly anything," Mason said. "Advertising, for example. But to return to my serious point, Catherine. I want to help you with training or schooling. Make no mistake: I do not believe this compensates for the years lost between us. I want to do this because it is the proper thing to do now. I'm sure you would resent any presumption that throwing money at your needs makes fine and wonderful the fact you're nearly grown and that we only became aware of what we are to one another in the last forty-eight hours. Know that I feel cheated as well."
"Are you angry with my Mom for not telling you?"
"Some. But it's done, she's gone, and there is no changing the past, only the present and future."
Rebecca and I had servings from the buffet table, but Mason had been drinking a chalky looking pink slurry poured from a one-liter bottle.
"What is that?" I asked.
"A suspension of nutrients in relatively simple forms, amino acids instead of proteins, simple sugars instead of carbohydrates. I can eat whole food sparingly, but my gut flora copes much better with this formulation."
"How long have you been consuming that?"
"Since 1991, some variation of this. The earliest versions were foul-tasting concoctions. By now, the flavorists have gotten pretty good at masking the flavor of the components."
"I cannot imagine living that way."
"Most people cannot. I've made a host of other accommodations and adjustments as well."
He lifted his left sleeve, show me wear the biopolymer did not fit as well as it did about the face.
"This is not an impermeable barrier, nor was it engineered that way. The design is intended to keep living and near-living organisms out while allowing maximum transpiration of water -sweat-or I'd be at constant risk of heat stroke. I still do not dissipate heat with anywhere near the efficiency of other people. If I spend much time outside in warm weather, I have to wear a suit that circulates water and enhances the efficiency of the biopolymer. That's why my office is kept so cold. I require blood transfusions, though nowhere near as frequently as I did in 1991. Initially, I stopped producing red and white blood cells completely. Every year since 1997 I've shown gradual recovery. I can nearly get by with the blood cells I generate, but not quite. Fortunately, there are people here who donate blood, which is much safer than accepting pooled blood from strangers."
"Who?" I asked before realizing how personal a question that was.
Rebecca answered. "Jesse and me."
"Jesse?" Jesse was giving his blood to Mason Eckhart? Adam would need a bag of antacids when he heard about this. Although it certainly seemed like the kind of thing Jesse would do for someone.
"I count Jesse and Emma among my friends, Catherine. I was not just invited to their wedding; I gave away the bride. They're not just my employees. You look so surprised."
"I am." I was. Perhaps I was wrong to be shocked, perhaps I had been told a lot of lies.
"They want to meet you for breakfast tomorrow. You can talk to them then." I wanted to see them both, but had no idea what to expect. Adam's predictions were not working out very well.
That would be interesting. Adam swore Eckhart had to be exercising some sort of control over them. I was beginning to doubt that, however. Maybe they had both gone crazy.
"What about your wigs?"
Eckhart laughed. "That's one of the oddest things. My own hair was dark like Grey's, but some months ago I began growing hair again, unpigmented. What you see is real. I know how it looks, but it's real."
I thought about it all for a moment, chewing on cheese-saturated broccoli. Adam had laughed about Eckhart's condition and required precautions. Even if Adam was not responsible -and I wondered now about that-his attitude towards Eckhart was needlessly cruel. Seeing him inches away from me now, drinking his pink chalk slurry wearing wrinkly biopolymer covering his arms, I could not think of Mason as a fit subject to laugh at. Laughing at his condition now seemed cruel, and if Adam was responsible, well, then who was the monster?
"Everything sounds very difficult."
"I'm used to it. The alternative is worse."
One thing I did wonder about but wasn't about to ask was about sex. They obviously adored one another, but did they do anything about it? I might never know, and I wasn't ever going to ask.
"I'd like to see the message from Adam." I caught Mason off-balance. Surprise registered in his eyes.
"Very well. The original is in my office, but we can go back there when we're done with dinner. I'll warn you, however, you may not care for the content." He wasn't hiding anything from me. He as trying to protect me from something. Adam?
"That's okay. You've warned me. I want to see it."
Well, that frosted the balance of dinner. Rebecca tried hard to make nice a couple of times, but backed off and retreated.
"Of course, one can always say that the disk is a fraud or tampered with, but that said, I swear that this is the original, unchanged since I received it. I'm sorry, Catherine, but you should know the truth."
Mason inserted the disk, and Adam's image appeared in moments.
I didn't know this Adam. I didn't like the smirk on his face or the sarcasm in his voice. Most of all, where was his care and concern, "I'll take care of it as if you were my daughter" promise? I was thankful for Adam's unusual brevity.
"Do you need to see it again?"
"No."
"Neither do I." Mason retrieved the disk and returned it to safe storage.
"I could learn to hate him." I was very angry with Adam. Of course, the message could be a complete or partial fraud, but I didn't think so. "Did he lie to my mother, too?"
"I don't know. Probably. He manipulates everyone. Don't waste your energies on negative emotions, Catherine. Adam claimed to be my friend, once upon a time, but dwelling upon his sins and crimes committed against me won't help me now. You are outside of his influence. Be glad of that."
"It's been a long day for all of us. I think Mason and I should show you to your room and give you some time to settle in."
"I'm going to live here? I'm not going home with you?"
"I am home, Catherine. I have a small suite of rooms with filtered air and other devices to keep the air very clean, which I share with Rebecca. We're not abandoning you in an empty building."
"You live here?"
"Ever since 'Incident X'. Since that time I have slept elsewhere only one night, the day I was freed from the stasis pod. Some people hid me overnight."
I turned to Rebecca. "Did you release him?"
"I'm afraid not. I was living in Ohio with Steve and Sherri. I had no idea Mason was in stasis. I thought Ashlocke murdered him."
"I'm not going to reveal my liberator's name, Catherine. I owe them that protection."
"Okay."
We recovered 'my' things from the locker room, and went on to the room that would be mine.
"I'm afraid this room has no windows. Rooms like this one were constructed for security purposes." Mason sounded apologetic.
"To keep people like me in?"
"To keep people like Brennan Mulwray out. I have a single window, but it is made of special stuff and would require a missile to breach it."
"What happens tomorrow?"
"Time with Emma and Jesse. Time with Dr Laura Varady. She's a psychologist, but don't panic. She's nice. She's probably more concerned about the effect you will have upon me than about looking for odd things about you. Dr Varady has been looking out for me since 1991. Assuming you stay here, we have to figure out how to complete your high school education. That will be part of Dr Varady's job."
"There will be plenty to do," Rebecca said.
"Sleep well, Catherine. Any onsite location, including my quarters, is listed by your phone."
"Thanks."
The door locked automatically, but had an alarmed panic release. I was contained, but I didn't feel trapped. I busied myself with inspecting and putting away all of my new things. None of the clothes were junk but they seemed more sedate that I would have expected from Emma.
I put on one of the new nightgowns and wondered what to do with myself after I brushed my teeth. I wasn't used to having this much time with nothing much to do, so I began reviewing the day.
Things had not gone the way I had expected. Or the way Adam had planned.
As long as someone else was talking, I had been able to shut out the small voice in my head, but now that I was alone, I could no longer shut out Adam's insistent voice. He sounded far away, at the bottom of a deep pit.
Adam must have watched me being transferred to the GSA, because as soon as I was along in my 'cell' I began to faintly hear his voice in my head. He told me I could be a great help to the cause by infiltrating the GSA.
*You lied to me, Adam.*
*About what?*
*Nearly everything."*
*That doesn't matter.* I could easily imagine Adam saying that, smug, confident expression on his face, certain everyone around him was either inherently stupid or easily gulled, and so, readily brought around to Adam’s position.
Adam just did not understand that his lies did matter. Making things up as he went along always worked in the past when he surrounded himself with people who did not know any better, so he saw no reason to change what he did.
*I don't want to be part of this anymore.*
*You don't really have anything to say about that, kid. I decide what you do, to whom, and when.*
"*I'm, he's my father. I think I like him.*
I could hear Adam's laughter echoing through the ether, rising up out of the dark hole in the distance. *That makes you just about unique in the universe. It’s been a lot of years since anyone liked Eckhart.*
*Even that's not true. There are people here who care a great deal about him.*
*Mr Creepy has friends?* Adam sounded more disbelieving than surprised.
*He has friends. And he has Rebecca. I think I like her, too.*
*Rebecca Steyn? She must be getting old and desperate to take up with Mason Eckhart.*
*She’s neither old nor desperate. You’re being nasty because she didn’t want anything to do with you, and you just aren’t used to rejection. She one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever met, and she’s been very kind to me.*
*Really impressed you, did she? I always thought Mason had a thing for her, but his condition precludes women.*
Does it really?
*They're married, Adam.*
He laughed again. *Mason was always conventional, but this sham beats all.*
*Adam, I think it's real.*
*Kid, what would you know? Your mother slept with everything with mismatched chromosomes. What could you have learned from Danielle about anything real and apply it to a pair of psychological oddities like Mason and Rebecca?*
*You’re cruel. They’re more human than you are.*
Psychological oddities. They were both unusual, different people, and from what I could discern, both had endured more than their share of pain and grief. Calling them psychological oddities was extreme, especially from Adam, who had managed no enduring relationship with anyone.
*It doesn't matter. You cannot shut me up. You have a mission to perform. I'm reminding you.*
*I don't want to harm these people. We had dinner tonight, like a family.*
*How charming. Did you consider what ties the three of you together?*
*No.*
*Mason's libido. That's funny, Catherine.*
*I won't do it, Adam. I won't hurt them.*
*You don't have much choice.*
*I'll find a choice.*
*You haven't got the inherent intelligence or the technical training to stop me.*
*Even if I can't stop you, someone else will.*
*Hah, no one else thinks outside of the bounds of morality and technology the way I do. The combination is hard to defeat.*
*Someone will beat you.*
*Perhaps. But it won't be you or Mason Eckhart.*
*I'm getting a terrific headache, Adam. And you know when I have a headache, I cannot function. Can you just leave me alone for a while?*
*Of course, Catherine. I'll check in tomorrow.*
As always, communicating with Adam was extraordinarily exhausting. I tried to watch some television, but could not stay awake.
When the phone woke me in the morning, as soon as I heard Emma’s voice the same question which plagued me the night before came to mind: how can I save my father and my friends from me? Adam had programmed me in some fashion that with the proper opportunity and trigger, I would lose my own will and do something horrible.
Emma sounded happy. Confident. The airy-fairy mysticism was gone. She promised to drop by in 30 minutes and we’d meet Jesse for breakfast in the cafeteria. Then I made my bed and lay back down on it and waited for Emma.
I pulled on the jeans I had worn the evening before, and a fresh shirt, taking care to clip the red visitor’s badge to it.
My gut instinct had been to refuse an implant in my brain as invasive and repugnant, but Adam had been insistent, and after all, it was Adam, so it must be a good idea and safe.
Except it wasn’t. Adam had been planning to use me all along. He probably had not schemed ahead to the grandiose possibility of getting me close to Mason, but he did want my stealth talents under his firm command.
Just because I’d been caught didn’t mean he’d lost interest in me, either. In fact, things had probably worked out better than he had imagined possible when he talked me into the implant.
Well, just because Adam is a devious, scheming fraud doesn’t make Mason a good guy. But it improves the chances of that possibility. I don’t want to hurt Mason. I don’t want to hurt Rebecca.
I picked up the phone and punched in 3 of the 4 extension numbers to Mason’s quarters. I could not punch in the fourth, not with the intention of telling about Adam’s implant in my mind. Adam doesn’t even need to be actively monitoring me to stop me. This is like belonging to someone else.
I was stunned when the door opened. Emma had always been exceptionally pretty, but now, with a tailored, adult dress and her hair tamed to flatter her sweet face, the effect was dazzling.
She swept into the room and hugged me. “Catherine, I’m so glad to see you! Jesse and I used to talk and wonder about happened to you, but we never had any way of finding out!”
All of this was genuine, I had no doubt.
“Emma, you look so…grown up.”
“I know. It’s quite a change from my former look of Excruciatingly Careful and Studied Casualness, isn’t it?” But you know, I really like it. Responsibility and respect are positives.”
This sounded almost too good. Emma sensed that.
“Oh, Adam probably told you some damn silliness about “selling out”. Adam’s time has come and passed, and he refuses to accept how much everything has changed. Let’s get to breakfast. I’m starved. Wait’ll you see Jesse.”
Emma’s keycard was linked to my own, so I was able to leave my room without security reacting, although they probably knew exactly where I was. Initially I found that overbearing and creepy until I recalled the way Adam and Mutant X invaded this place and wreaked havoc and worse, more than once.
“What exactly do you do here?”
“I do a lot of work with Dr Varady. After the disaster with Ashlocke, new hires are screened with extreme care. Also, Mason does not want the rebuilt Genomex harboring individuals of mixed or divided loyalties. We check out new hires back to high school for any sign of recruitment to a domestic or foreign agency. I can tell when people are doing some serious lying.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Yeah, but not for those reasons. The most common lie is about age. I don’t even say anything about that lie.”
We entered the cafeteria, nearly full during this hour of breakfast service.
“I’m surprised at seeing all these people.”
“The well-fed employee who has had breakfast is alert. He won’t overeat at lunch and be drowsy half the afternoon. The prices are almost at cost, but Genomex benefits all day.”
I hardly recognized Jesse. He stood up to greet us. He was formally dressed in a dark grey suit that fit him very well. I vaguely recalled Brennan laughing one evening, talking about the day he saw Jesse in a suit. I hadn’t believed him at the time he told the tale. Brennan said so much that simply wasn’t so.
“Doesn’t he look respectable?” Emma cooed for Jesse’s benefit. “You’d buy a used gene from this guy, wouldn’t you?”
“Sure.”
“Hi, Catherine. Let’s eat.”
We went off to the serving line.
“Do you live here, too?” I asked Jesse.
“Oh, no, we bought a house in the neighborhood a few months back. Only Mason and Rebecca actually live here, but Mason doesn’t have much choice.”
“Jesse has dedicated the entire attic to his computers and techno toys. The rest of the house is nearly normal.”
“And the attic looks impressive, too. Geek City, Arizona. Rebecca brought you back?” he asked.
“Yeah. She seems very nice.” ‘Nice’ hardly began to do justice to Rebecca.
“Isn’t she a dear? And the two of them are so cute together.”
“As much as I like Mason, Emma, I have difficulty applying ‘cute’ to him.”
“Not to Mason by himself. The two of them.”
“Okay.” Jesse rolled his eyes, unconvinced.
Emma giggled. “A few weeks before Fortier and Harrison betrayed Genomex, Mason and Rebecca started a secret life together and no one but Dr Varady noticed anything. Rebecca sold her condominium and was living here. Right before Ashlocke took over, they went on a long lunch and came back married, and even then not many people knew.”
“Mason wears a ring, but you can’t see it under those gloves.”
“People are full of surprises.”
“You both seem so different. You seem happier.”
“Well, we’ve grown up a lot. Adam would have liked us to stay kids forever,” Jesse said. “Somewhere in his brain, Adam feels guilt over what he’s done. He set up Mutant X so he’d have the undivided attention of four of his creations, people who would not question his motivations or the version he told of the past.”
“It was time to live our own lives, not populate Adam’s fantasy universe,” Emma added.
“Where’s Shalimar?”
“She has a martial arts school downtown. She’s doing very well,” Emma said. “I’m sure Mason will let us take you to see her some evening.”
“Everything is different from what Adam told me.”
“I know. But it all comes down to Adam’s ego and refusal to accept that the work he did was other than benign. Adam becomes wildly emotional if cornered about the twenty years he worked at Genomex, ignorant of the uses to which his research was applied. He’ll rant about all the lives he saved, and he did save lives, but he cursed many more. Among those of us who had genetic changes, even in the best cases we’ve had difficult adjustments and in the worst, we carry traits making a normal life impossible,” Jesse said, selecting a pizza bagel.
“Or, as Mason says, ‘Adam blights every life he touches’.” Emma was not smiling.
“He’s right. Has Mason shared his theory about Adam possibly not even being human with you?” Jesse asked.
“Not human? No.” That was a shocker.
“Mason thinks he’s an android, constructed in part on the basis of Paul Breedlove’s DNA. Short of getting additional genetic material from Adam or better yet, a thorough examination of him, we’ll probably never be sure. The one sample Mason had examined was inconclusive.”
“Being an android would account for some of Adam’s thinking,” Emma said.
“And his complete lack of a past prior to showing up at Stanford at age twelve, all expenses paid by the Breedlove Foundation.”
“He knew Paul Breedlove that far back?” I had no idea.
“We can’t be sure but someone at the Breedlove Foundation knew him well enough to provide a complete scholarship. I’d be surprised if Breedlove didn’t at least know Adam’s name by then.”
“And he came here right after he finished at Stanford,” Emma said.
“Mason’s people did a thorough search of Stanford’s records. Care to guess what Adam put down for a home address in those years?” Jesse asked, smiling. “This is really good.”
“The front door of this place?”
“Better. Paul Breedlove’s home address.”
“That means something,” Emma said. “We just don’t know quite what.”
“And we may never know. Breedlove’s home address turned up in some handwritten dormitory records. The electronic records were mostly gone, either because of routine purging or by design.”
Emma laughed. “Rebecca’s convinced. She says she wants to pull out a circuit board or two and stomp on them!”
“Adam and Brennan are living out of the Double Helix now?” Jesse asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll bet Brennan is charming company these days now that he’s lost his fleet of junk Camaros.”
“How did you know? He talked about each of them like a lost child.”
“For him, they were possibly as important as a human. Brennan just isn’t conditioned or wired to believe people matter. He never pretended otherwise. Is he still putting away Moon Pies and Little Debbies?” Jesse asked.
“And Twinkies. He leaves the wrappers all over the Double Helix.”
Emma laughed. “That must make Adam crazy.”
“It does.” I smiled at the memory of angry Adam stomping the length of the Double Helix, picking up the wrappers Brennan deposited in his wake. What Adam’s swearing lacked in imagination or vulgar shock value he compensated for in volume and repetition.
Brennan did not care what anyone thought or said, and so was unmotivated to change. Adam needed him to steal things and zorch people, and would never turn him out.
Adam could stand inches away from Brennan, and scream at him about the messes he made and Brennan wouldn’t even look up from one of his martial arts magazines. One could safely conclude that their friendship had deteriorated.
“Who does the work on the Double Helix?” Jesse asked.
“Adam, mostly. When it flies. Keeping it up in the air is becoming more and more of a challenge. I heard a lot of bad language about the Double Helix when I was with them.”
“Keeping the Double Helix airworthy was too much like real work for Brennan. Real men burn their hours tinkering with rusting Camaros.” Jesse rolled his eyes.
Emma laughed. “He must have had two dozen of them scattered about the last time we were there. Most of them were probably hot, too.”
“Why worry over a technical issue like legal ownership, Emma? Shouldn’t the person who really loves those cars be the one to have them? Brennan said that to me once, I swear he did. I could not make that up.”
“That argument could be used to justify stealing anything,” I said.
“And in Brennan’s case, probably has. Good old unreliable Brennan. He’ll never be able to figure out how honest people behave well enough to imitate them and stay out of jail. What does Adam do with himself all day now that most of the mutants who aren’t crazy or criminal are out living open, relatively normal lives?”
“He tries to convince people everything Mason says is a fraud, and at some point, there will be a mass roundup of mutants. He locates ‘mainstreamed’ mutants, and tells them they are at great risk.”
“Even if that were true, a mass roundup like that would be noticed and create an uproar. The last thing Mason wants is a panic about the existence of mutants. If you grab a few thousand well-behaved, honest citizens from their homes and jobs, questions will be asked. Does anyone listen to Adam anymore?”
“Not really. The crazies, the criminals, the people who are on the edges of society.”
“Adam sounds desperate. He wants to keep living in the days of flitting about in the Double Helix and pretending he was important. He wasn’t. His efforts set back Genomex mutants, grouping the lunatics and criminals together with people like Jesse, Shalimar, and me. We’re as varied as the wider population.” Emma looked serious.
“What’s going on with Adam is kind of sad.” Jesse shook his head. “Adam is rapidly becoming a tragic figure, all of his talents gone to waste and ruin. Pity he does not find some other cause, something worthy of his abilities to challenge him.”
Emma shook her head. “That might have worked for him a couple of years ago, but he’s been involved in too many crimes. He still has a few powerful friends, people who could have placed him in positive work, but he’s little more than a criminal himself. The underground has degenerated into a conduit for drugs and high-value stolen goods. The safehouses don’t protect people anymore. They’re warehouses and hideouts for thieves.”
All of what Emma said was perfectly true. It just wasn’t everything. Adam was doing things Emma knew nothing about, and I was too ashamed to tell her.
Adam seemed so different when I stood apart from him in time and distance. I had known most of these things before but the way Adam talked around the obvious had made me ignore the truth that he was no dashing, heroic Scarlet Pimpernel, saving mutants from the doom of the GSA. Adam was instead a thief, a destroyer of lives, and a manipulative liar.
I had planned to confront Emma and Jesse over orange juice and scrambled eggs about Adam’s claim they had sold out to Eckhart. After everything I’d heard during the last twenty-four hours, the notion of “selling out” was absurd. Emma and Jesse had outgrown Adam. They were spontaneous and natural, much as I remembered them both, but more mature and confident.
Emma had no business staying a little girl forever anymore than Jesse should have stayed and been the technical wizard while Brennan the street thug was Adam’s obvious favorite.
I looked very carefully while we were in the serving line: neither of them wore governors, and neither bore the tell-tale marks of recently removed governors. Adam swore Emma and Jesse could not be serving Mason willingly, but there was no sign of coercion or unwilling conduct.
“Do you know what you’re going to be doing?” Emma asked.
“Not really. I was arrested. Brennan got away, but I was stuck.”
“Mason told us. I hope you don’t mind our knowing,” Emma said. “He asked us to help you settle in here, since you knew us in the past.”
“No, I don’t mind your knowing. It would come out sometime. I had never stolen anything in my life, but Adam convinced me that stealing stuff from International Scientific was part of a “mission”. I should have seen right through him.”
I was becoming more and more angry with myself for ever being part of Adam’s science supply warehouse crime wave. I was beginning to hate Adam.
“I don’t know anything much about the legal system,” Jesse said.
“Brennan knows it well,” Emma said. “One of these days he’s going to know it even better.”
“Just be glad you’re not around Adam and Brennan any longer. Is Mason trying to get legal custody of you?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s late, but it couldn’t hurt. I’ll say something to him, make sure the possibility isn’t overlooked.”
We were done with breakfast. Emma glanced at her watch. “Dr Varady’s probably waiting for us by now. Shall we go and meet her?”
“Emma, I’ll talk to you later. It’s good you’re here, Catherine. Laura Varady is no one to worry about. Bye.” Jesse got up from the table.
“She really is no one to worry about. Around here, she’s everybody’s mother or grandmother, even to Mason. Especially to Mason. You’ll see.”
“Adam said Mason drove his own mother to suicide.” I said that softly, not as an accusation but as a possible dark truth that I might not want widely shared.
Emma shook her head. “One of these days, Adam’s lies will catch up with him. Mason’s father was a nutcase, despite being a psychiatrist, and probably drove his wife over the edge. He did all kinds of things to Mason and his twin.”
“Mason has a twin?”
“Had. They were eight when Marc drowned. There are a lot of stories you’re going to have to know.”
“Why would Adam say what he did?”
“To be cruel.”
Emma was probably correct.
“First, I want to put your mind at east, Ms Hartman. I’m not here to hang some kind of label on you to define you as a crazy person. Mostly I’m here to direct employees with specific problems to therapists with special expertise beyond my own. In your case, we’re not talking therapy. Mason wants an evaluation of your past education, to get an idea where to go next.”
“He’s already talking to me about college or some other kind of training.”
“Your father is one of the most detail-driven individuals I’ve known. I’m not surprised.”
“My grades aren’t very good.” That was the sad truth.
“I saw your transcripts. You’re right, your grades are not good. But you are, aren’t you?” She smiled. She meant it.
“I’ve always been told I could do a lot better.” All my life I’d heard that. I wasn’t sure I believed it any longer.
“That’s part of what I’m supposed to assess. Mason isn’t like some parents who will be heartbroken if a child does not go to college. He’s a realist and knows that isn’t for everyone. But if you have talents and potentials, it’s best to find out now, and understand why your grades don’t reflect your abilities.”
“Did you know my Mom?”
“Why, yes. I’ve been here a long time.”
“She didn’t think school was very important. I always liked reading, but she never encouraged me much.”
“Now you know where that inclination comes from. Mason actually still reads books, a habit not much found among adults. Fortunately, he now has Rebecca, who reads the same sort of books. They actually talk about books they’ve both read.”
“Rebecca’s tried hard to be good to me.”
“I hope you’ve been nice back to her.”
“Not always. I didn’t know what to think at first.” I wasn’t sure what to think now. After all, I’d been at this place among these people less than day.
“Well, try to be nice to her. Rebecca’s been through her own personal hells. She’s understanding and patient with people in pain.”
“I noticed.”
“Good. For the first fourteen or so years she was here, she did little else except work hard. She opened up a little to a foreign-born PhD who was widowed with four small boys, but except for that, you could see she had decided people were not worth the risks. Watching her, it was obvious she had checked out of the human race. Several PhDs who worked here in the past were interested in her, but nothing came of that because she preferred her own company. She may not even have been aware of them. I had to explain Adam to him. Adam made an absolute fool of himself over Rebecca, but all she did was become irritated with his interruptions. Mind you, this was with three-quarters of the unattached women on site drooling over Adam.”
“She seems so fearless. I cannot imagine anything making her retreat.”
“Hiding and building walls are perfectly human responses to pain. The positive part is that she never became nasty. Even when Adam’s conduct sank to that of a rejected eleven-year-old, she just wanted things to stop. She could have gone to an attorney, and sued the company, but all she asked was that the silliness cease. I think that signifies high intelligence and a high order of logical thinking.”
“And you are telling me all of this because?”
“Ah, very good. Rebecca is key to recent changes in Mason. Three years ago, I think he would have gotten you away from the west coast, and probably deposited you in something like a convent school. Your bills would have been paid faithfully, but I don’t think he would have troubled to meet you. He would have kept his distance. I knew your father before Incident X, before his divorce, and he was a good, decent man. All these years he’s been protecting himself with this grim persona. I’m hoping his former self will still emerge more openly.”
“I never imagined that a technical center could have so much intrigue.”
“Most corporations have a surprising amount of intrigue. Political scheming inside of companies can be intense, even in businesses you might believe would be utterly boring. Any time you get a group of people together, there are allies, enemies, speculations, cultures, subcultures. It’s just our nature as human beings.”
“Amazing.”
“Yes. And endlessly fascinating, at least to me. Did you sleep well?”
“Surprisingly, I did.”
“Good. I’m going to get you started on those assessments.”
I spent the whole morning going through that tedious paperwork. I suppose it had to be done, but my head ached by the time I completed the last of it.
Rebecca claimed me for lunch. Afterwards, we took a walk around the perimeter of the property.
“Dr Breedlove had this walking trail built. It’s been here a long time.”
“What was Breedlove like? I cannot imagine being arrogant enough to tamper with human embryos and not be sure of the result.”
Something dark flitted through her eyes, something about Breedlove that she wasn’t about to share. A long time would come to pass before I would know the whole of it.
“Breedlove told everyone he was seeking cures for genetic diseases in children. To be completely fair, he did come up with a number of techniques still used today in pediatric medicine. But to be completely honest, much of his work was chamber of horrors material. I don’t know how he was able to get people to work for him. Long before my time, even before Adam’s time, he did his creepiest work.”
“Like what?”
“Human/insect intermediates. Mason used to prowl this entire complex in the middle of the night. He knows more of its secrets than anyone else, except maybe Adam. He found the preserved remains of the human/insect intermediates one night. Breedlove tried to hide the most unholy of his researches. Whole sublevels were sealed off, camouflaged as something else, with phony walls. Mason has spent years of sleepless nights discovering these things.”
“He used to walk around here all by himself in the middle of the night?” I couldn’t imagine wandering around the current labs late at night. The thought of prowling around and unearthing sealed levels was spooky.
“Yes. I had a night shift job once. After a while, the dark just isn’t scary anymore. I realized I could hide in the dark as well as anyone or anything else. The night becomes like day for you. One night, I was outside some distance from the main production building and one of the fun-loving production guys crept up on me from behind, thinking he’d scare me. I was the only woman on the shift. He tapped me on the shoulder –mind you, it was very dark, and I was crouched down to read the lot number on a solvent drum—and I didn’t even flinch. I just turned around to see who it was. He was very disappointed. That’s when I realized I was not afraid of the dark anymore.”
I hadn’t expected anything like that out of Rebecca, but perhaps it made sense after all. Rebecca had looked deeply into darker recesses of the heart. The more I knew of her, the more unique I realized she was. She had seen something human in my father when everyone else (except Dr Varady) assumed his humanity was gone.
“What happened to the human/insect hybrids?”
“Mercifully, they were put out of their misery. Mason has films and photographs in safe storage. He said the work was obscene, and worse, that some of the individuals have had some long-term viability. They could have become adults and might be still walking among us.”
“Since they were part-human, putting them down could be considered murder, couldn’t it?”
“Strictly speaking. As I said, a chamber of horrors.”
“I don’t understand why none of this was ever exposed publicly. A lot of people had to know about what went on here.”
“A lot of people did know. To be fair to Adam, dozens of people worked with Breedlove before Adam came, and not one of them came forward. Mason’s tracked them down to be sure they aren’t creating their own chambers of horrors. The ones who haven’t retired are still working in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.”
“Why wasn’t Breedlove ever prosecuted?”
“Because he was never charged.”
“Why didn’t Mason do anything about him?” Even as I asked the question, I surprised myself, sine I did not ask the question as an accusation. I asked out of puzzlement, out of the belief that seeing charges brought against Breedlove would have been the right thing to do, and what I would have expected from Mason.”
“By the time Mason knew the secrets of this place, he owed Breedlove his life several times over for devising ways to keep him alive dozens of times over. Mason should have died so many times. Only Dr Varady believed he was going to live. Dr Breedlove kept coming up with workable solutions to problems as they cropped up.”
“Was I conceived before or after Incident X?”
“Almost certainly before. Among other effects, Incident X left Mason sterile.”
“How many people like my mother did Breedlove and Adam make?”
“Adam might know, but I don’t know anyone who can answer that question confidently. Mason keeps finding more of them that do not appear in the Genomex lists, but obviously were created with Genomex technology.”
“And what do you think that means?”
“Technology developed here was applied elsewhere, with comparable results.”
“I suggested to Mason once the unpleasant possibility that Adam may not be unique, and that other “Adams” could be out there in the world, hatching Genomex-type mutants to this day. Nearly all of the original Nazis are dead now, but there are still enclaves in this world where they and their children are welcome, and where you’d never guess that the Third Reich was more than 60 years destroyed. Enclaves of a sick Germany. With their absurd racial theories, someone like Adam might have been welcomed.”
“Other Adams creating their own uber-mutants. What a thought.”
“Mason dreads finding out that this is the case. If true, then the problem is much larger than he feared, and probably unstoppable. If he found proof of other programs, he might even retire.”
“Is that what you want him to do?”
“I want him to be able to enjoy his grandchildren the way he could not enjoy his children. This task he has taken on is thankless and will not end in our lifetimes, or yours. And there are books he wants to write. He can’t do anything like that now.”
“What about you?”
“I haven’t really thought about me. I’m adaptable. There are books I want to write, too.”
“I don’t know quite what to make of all this. I’ve heard so much that’s opposite of what I’ve been told my whole life.”
“Change is the only certainty life promises, Catherine. While you’re weighing everything, look for consistency. Pay attention to what people do as opposed to what they say.”
“Do you go along with everything Mason does? Or did?”
“Not blindly. Don’t think there aren’t ‘lively’ discussions of practices and policies. I won’t argue with him in front of other people, but before he does something I consider unwise, I tell him what I think and why, especially if I think of a better way. Mason’s smart enough to listen.”
I hadn’t considered that Rebecca might have influenced the way Mason ran Genomex and the GSA, though the possibility was obvious.
“I feel kind of overwhelmed.”
“You have a lot to think about.”
“Yeah.”
“Fortunately, no one’s going to pressure you for a quick decision. Just take in the data, and keep evaluating where they lead you.”
I spent the balance of the afternoon with Emma. We went through ‘my’ new things, and evaluated what else I needed, and then we went off-site with a shopping list.
“I’m stunned that I’m allowed to leave.”
“Why?” Emma asked.
“Well, I might escape.”
“You aren’t planning that, are you?”
“No.”
“I could have stopped you. It wouldn’t have been fun for either of us, but I would have done that. I wouldn’t have taken on the responsibility if I thought you would run off, however.”
“All of your powers are intact?”
“Complete and undiminished.” Emma smiled. “If anything, they’re stronger. If you’re asking me indirectly if Mason’s had me tampered with, the answer is no. An unqualified no.”
“You’re certain? You don’t remember anything being implanted in your head?”
“I’d remember something like that. What an odd question. Where did that come from?”
“Adam was working on something like that. I thought these people might have something like that, too.”
“How creepy. But that sounds like Adam. He devised the governors and pods. Did he bother telling you about that?”
Adam designed the subdermal governors and stasis pods? I shook my head.
It’s not something he tells mutants very often. For someone who claims to champion our cause, he spent a lot of time constructing devices to control us. Fortunately, many people are seeing through him.”
“What’s this St Katherine’s like?”
“State of the art.”
“Could they have helped my mother?”
“Very likely. Mutant afflictions are dealt with daily there.”
“What does Mason do with…the really dangerous ones?”
“If they’re out of control or insane, first they try governors and medication. If the medication works, they can go back into the world, but only if they live in one of the residences where their medication can be monitored and given consistently. That way, they can have nearly normal lives. Podding is the last resort, Catherine, but if they’re insane and capable of destroying half a city, it’s the only humane alternative. Mason spent months in a pod. Podding isn’t something he signs off on lightly.”
“I guess not. I don’t know what else could be done with someone like that.”
“We only admit this among ourselves, but it’s true: a percentage of us think we’re better than ordinary humans and don’t believe we’re bound by their laws. Such mutants think they’re above general population, the next step in human evolution. This dangerous attitude makes monsters of its believers, when taken to extremes. One of the lessons the very young ones are taught is that they are modified humans, not superior, not inferior, but modified.
“I think it’s sad we’re expected not to have children.”
“It is. But making another generation, possibly with mixed talents and unpredictable outcomes, well, that’s hardly fair or kind, is it?”
“I see the sense of it, but it’s still sad.”
“There are already a lot of orphaned mutant children whose parents have died young. That’s sad, too. Mason’s program is tough, logical, and probably the most human approach to dealing with the existence of Genomex mutants. The program includes placement of those mutant orphans with responsible mutants who will understand their abilities. Jesse and I have registered in the program.”
“Adam thinks Mason is controlling you and Jesse.”
“What do you think?”
“I think Mason has so much to worry over he doesn’t have time to watch what you and Jesse are doing. He simply trusts you.”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t let Adam get near you.”
“Don’t worry. Adam should be careful not to come anywhere near me. Neither Adam nor Mason have any idea just what I could do to them. Mason doesn’t want to know and doesn’t have anything to worry about since he’s always straight with me. Adam’s another story.”
“Adam’s always that way, isn’t he”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
That evening, I had dinner with Mason and Rebecca, but this time, things were quite different. We had a picnic out of sight of the complex with a view of the lake. Rebecca had changed into jeans, but Mason was formal as ever.
“Catherine, before even asking him if he has any other clothes, the answer is yes, somewhere at the bottom of his closet.” She was laughing.
“My approach does allow for simplicity and ease in planning one’s dress. Unlike some people.” He was playing.
We just talked that evening, beginning an almost unchanging pattern early every evening. Like a family.
Sitting outside in the fresh air made me sleepy. After dinner I took a long, soaking bath in some nice-smelling stuff I’d bought with Emma. I turned in early, falling asleep reading a book Rebecca had loaned me.
I was very annoyed when Adam’s voice woke me a few hours after I dozed off.
*Adam, I’m exhausted. I just want to sleep.*
*But we need to talk. You have to tell me what you’ve learned.*
*To begin with, the only one wearing a governor in this place is me. That includes Emma and Jesse.*
*You saw Emma and Jesse?*
*I had breakfast with them. They’re independent people. They’re not wearing governors now, and their necks don’t show any marks of their being recently removed.*
*How is Eckhart controlling them? Could he have implanted the next generation of control devices, like the one you’re wearing?*
*You said the technology was unique.*
*I believed it was.*
*Adam, Emma and Jesse seem spontaneous, genuine, and themselves. They don’t seem reluctant to talk about anything and they aren’t careful about what they say, either. Most of all, they appear to be happy.*
I enjoyed telling Adam that. I could almost feel his anger and aggravation, and that felt surprisingly good. He did not want to believe his “children” could be happy or succeed without his special guidance. The truth was that Emma and Jesse had been suffocating under Adam’s control, and they blossomed once free of Adam.
*What about that other sell-out, Shalimar?*
*Shalimar doesn’t work here. She never did. She has some kind of martial arts business. It’s doing very well.*
Adam didn’t want to hear that, either. He treated Shalimar more like a child than any of the others, since he met her when she was only fifteen.
*This is all so fantastic, Catherine.*
*But true, Adam. Either these people all had drastic personality changes as soon as you stopped seeing them daily, or your recollections are faulty.*
Of course, what I meant was ‘or most everything you’ve told me about them was a lie’, but I wasn’t prepared to argue with him, just let him know how much I questioned what he told me. From a distance, powerless to flash his I-Know-More-Than-You-Do Adam smile, he would be greatly annoyed. I could almost see him excavating his pockets for a roll of antacids. Admitting he was wrong was almost impossible for Adam.
*Oh, come on, Catherine, when did you ever hear anything good about Eckhart?*
*He’s treated me well. And if he was so rotten, what was my mother doing with him?*
*I don’t have an answer for that. Maybe he assaulted her in a drunken stupor.*
*Adam! He’s treating me with respect. I’m going to meet his other children.*
*The Progeny of the Beautiful Jacqueline. I wonder if they have Jackie’s sense and Eckhart’s looks? Hah. Danielle never told me anything that made me think Eckhart might be your father. This is very odd. I have to admit to continuing puzzlement over your pedigree.*
But you would not have wanted to consider that possibility, would you? No, not proud Adam.
*Adam, I don’t think I want to help you any longer. I know I don’t.*
I could hear his laughter in my head, not as if he was speaking to me in the same room, but thin and tinny, echoing from a distant place.
*Catherine, you don’t have any choice. I tell you what to do. I haven’t forced you to do anything yet because it hasn’t been necessary—yet. In my way of thinking, you have gained access to my enemy’s inner places and that is an advantage I intend to exploit.*
*You can’t make me hurt these people.*
*Who?*
*Mason. Rebecca. Emma. Jesse.*
*Care about them already, Catherine?* He mocked me.
*Yes.*
*Silly girl. That’s a human frailty. You’re a mutant. Be better than a human.*
*I am a human, and I won’t hurt them.*
*I can make you do anything I want you to do. You’ll see. Don’t question me.*
He shut down his half of the dialogue before I could respond. Hours went by before I could sleep again.
After a while, I became accustomed to Mason’s ‘Mr Creepy’ took. Since my relationship with him was positive, the look ceased to be frightening. After a little longer, I stopped ‘seeing’ it at all.
One evening after the Genomex employees had gone home, Mason and I went for a walk by the lake. I suppose he did not want his people seeing him do anything so human. I know it wasn’t about being ashamed of me because he made no secret of being my father.
“Dr Varady and I discussed your educational assessments today. You’re very bright, Catherine, but I doubt you’ll be shocked to learn your education to date has been hit and miss.”
“I’m not shocked. Mom and I moved a lot. Some of the schools weren’t very good.”
“Have you given any more thought to what you want to do?”
“I don’t have any clear idea. From what Dr Varady says, I have more possibilities than I thought.”
“I’ve always made my way with my mind. I’m not a snob about this, but it is what I know, and it is the direction I’ve encouraged my other children to take. I’ve also tried my best to make sure that whatever they did to make a living, they would be more than knowledgeable in their field. Having a rich interior life to draw upon made all the difference seeing me through the last eighteen years.”
“What do you mean?” He was telling me something important and I did not want to miss his meaning.
“During the darker moments of my life, such as Marc’s drowning, instead of losing myself in pop culture, I lost myself in learning. The more you know, the more varied and subtle connections you are able to make in your mind, not just about what you do for a living, but about everything. I’ve hired a lot of brilliant individuals with remarkable formal educations. Within the bounds of their expertise, some had no match in the world. Outside of those fields, many of them knew not much of anything, and could be readily gulled by propaganda and emotional appeals. I’m not saying I know everything, but I know a little about a lot of things, most of that not acquired in formal classroom settings. Is this making sense to you?”
“Some. I’ve never heard anyone say anything like this.” I don’t think anyone –not even my mother—had ever spoken so seriously to me before. I decided I liked the way he was speaking, realizing he respected my intelligence and was concerned about the kind of person I was and would become.
“That’s because it’s an old-fashioned attitude fallen out of fashion.” Mason smiled at me. He genuinely liked me.
This discussion wasn’t about his progeny having more degrees or credits than the cultural norm. No, this was about adaptability and survival in a difficult world.
“And you want me to always land on my feet, like a cat.”
“Yes. Surprise your friends. Awe your enemies. As I do. Everytime.” Smiling, he invested that reply with great emotion.
“I’ve seen people attempt to force a child to be someone they’re not. That’s why I am explaining things to you this way. I am prepared to put together whatever combination of classroom instruction, one-on-one tutoring, or organized reading program to develop your mind, but only if you want that. I won’t force you. It has to come from you. You would have to work very hard and develop a level of discipline I honestly do not perceive in your character at present. Talk to Rebecca as well. She doesn’t wear her scars as obviously as I display mine, but she has been through a lot. Life can be very hard, even if we strive to do everything right. She’ll tell you how she came through the worst of it without bitterness or even madness.”
“And if I say thanks, but no thanks to catching up on my education?” I didn’t really mean it. I wanted to hear what he would say.
“Your life is your own. The choice is your own, not mine.” He sounded disappointed.
I wanted to scream at him, ‘Adam has put this thing into my head, and is going to force me to bring harm to you, just as I’m beginning to surprise myself and care about you. Get this thing out of my head! Find someone capable of removing it or neutralizing it!’…but every time I started to say something, nothing would come out. I was making odd, involuntary choking noises.
“Catherine?”
“I’m okay.” Well, I wasn’t. Now I knew just how much of me Adam possessed.
How am I going to save you from me?
“I want to try, Mason. I just wondered what you would say if I refused.”
“It’s going to be a lot of work. Hours of serious study daily. I suspect you’ll have to learn how to study to begin with.”
“I’m tired of being told I’m an ‘underachiever’. I want to find out what I can do.” And I wanted to prove I was as good as his other children. A secret part of me wanted to prove I was better.
“Very well.” He was pleased, more than his face showed.
I realized something at that moment: how important it was to me to please Mason, win his approval, and be a source of pride for him. I had not expected this.
“You must be curious about your half-sibs, yes?”
“I’m dying of curiosity. Especially about Grey. I’ve always wanted a brother, an older one, to stick up for me.”
“I have not said anything about this to Rebecca, but what you think of the idea of bringing them here for Thanksgiving, and Emma, Jesse, and Shalimar, maybe even Rebecca’s brother Steve and wife Sherri? A family kind of feast, with all the traditional trimmings, and all the traditional anxieties?”
“Wow.” Wow, indeed, considering Laura Varady’s description of his retreat from people. And what would Rebecca think? She did fine in business settings, but I was beginning to think that was merely camouflage.
“Last Thanksgiving with Rebecca was the first one I did not spend alone since 1990, when I was still with Jackie, and Grey was very small.”
All of the time I’ve been alive, and more.
“I’ve never done anything like that. A few times, Mom and I did Thanksgiving with one of her boyfriends and their children from assorted marriages and relationships, but never with the same guy twice, so it never ‘felt’ the way it’s supposed to.”
No, it hadn’t. Some of Mom’s boyfriends, were, well, no one I wanted ever to see again. Their offspring were frequently stupid (like their mothers; why are men surprised when the children they sire with witless women turn out much like their dams?) or top-heavy with emotional problems.
“I’m not intending to go anywhere or abandon you, Catherine.” Mason read people very well. No wonder he could instill such fear.
“I can tell. I just cannot believe my luck. My good luck. I’m glad I’m here.” I meant every word.
“I cannot believe mine. The evening before she flew out of here, Rebecca warned me not to raise my hopes too high, that you could be wearing nipple rings, obscene tattoos, and be carrying Mulwray’s twins.”
“Mulwray’s twins!”
“Yes. The thought of Brennan Mulwray as a de facto son-in-law inspired murderous fantasies. Not that I require much motivation to think unpleasant thoughts about Mulwray.”
I laughed. “When I first met Brennan, I thought he was pretty darn cool, but about a week after Adam took me in, I couldn’t stand him, and then things got worse.”
“What made you re-think Brennan?”
“He swiped my change. I don’t think he can walk past a vending machine without feeding. I could not leave change in my pockets overnight. I had to hide my wallet and change under my pillow overnight.”
“Mulwray’s a thief.”
“Full time! And he never forgets that. Then, there are his clothes. When I was younger, I thought it was cool, but there is something sad about a guy Brennan’s age wearing stuff you’d expect to see on a marketing-entranced fourteen year old. Seeing Jesse the way he dresses now convinced me.”
“Mulwray was never in the running as a potential son-in-law?”
“No. His name never passed the entry box.”
Mason laughed. “Can you tell me you don’t have any embarrassing tattoos?”
“Not a one. No tattoos of any kind.”
“That’s a relief. And your mother never said anything which made you think I was your father?”
“Nothing. Most of the time growing up I thought Adam must be my father, just from the way she talked about him. Well, she thought a lot of him.”
“I’m not going to presume to speak for Adam or know his mind, but he may well have used her as he did most other Genomex mutants, as research subjects. Adam always did his best to charm the ones whose traits intrigued him the most.”
Mason was trying to be gentle. But I already knew the truth of Adam. Everything he did was about Adam, not about anyone else.
“What was your father like?”
“My father –your grandfather—still is. He’s an MD, a psychiatrist. I have not seen him in 20 years. I have no wish to see him. He’s either insane or incredibly cruel. Dr Eckhart might even manage to be both. I blame him for Marc’s drowning and my mother’s suicide. He had a stroke years ago. I resolved a long time ago not to be like him, at least, not with my children. You are not missing much by not knowing him.”
Mason sounded bitter, and miserably unhappy. Rebecca had told me the story of Marc’s drowning and how Mason found his mother’s body. He had the intelligence to do his best not to be the kind of parent my grandfather had been, and that was a good thing.
“What happened to your father to make him that way?”
Mason shook his head. “I have no idea. Anyone who might have known is gone. Growing up, I never even heard any stories. Explaining him would not have excused his actions, although there is a story buried somewhere in his past.”
“That’s all so sad.”
“Yes. But all is not lost: I found you. You found me. If Adam had not sent me his nasty video message I would not have known you.”
Mason spent time with me without Rebecca. She was smart enough to understand and not be jealous, as some ‘evil stepmothers’ might become. I learned a lot of family material this way, and he learned my much shorter history.
For some time, I had wanted to ask Mason a particular question.
Every Genomex mutant knew his name, and each had a collection of stories about Mason Eckhart as well. I had grown up hearing these stories. Some tales were utterly fantastic, obviously exaggerated to the point of crediting him with supernatural abilities.
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful or rude, but…I need to know. All the stories about you…they’re not all lies, are they?”
With most everyone else, Mason hid behind his thick-framed glasses and beneath his hair, but unlike his employees, I knew he was human, and he could not hide from me. I did not think he would try, and he did not fail me.
“I would have to know the specific story to answer with certainly, but I’ve done enough that some of the stories are undoubtedly true. Catherine, I have done terrible things.”
He looked very sad. I felt badly for bringing this up, but I had to know the truth.
“I have to know.” I could be very blunt with him, I learned. He preferred that to wasting time with hints dropped here and there.
“You deserve to know. I’ve run a secret law enforcement agency with domestic intelligence responsibilities. I’ve dealt with dangerous mutants and circumstances. Extreme, extraordinary measures were often my only option. I am afraid you will hate me if you discover too many of the stories are true, and I do not want that. ”
“I don’t think that will happen.” I had fewer illusions about Mason than he probably realized.
“I’ve never pretended to be a nice man, Catherine. Much of what I’ve taken on could not be done by a nice man. I have done some horrible things. But, to this day, I cannot think of any other ways to accomplish the same ends.”
Mason mixed regret and pride oddly when he said this.
“A cold man, a man with no heart, would have left me to find my own way through the legal system. Had I made my way back to Adam and he had told me you were my father, I would never have come looking for you. Everything that has happened is because of your choosing. Your decency and kindness.”
“I’ve done for you what my sense of responsibility and honor demand.”
“Exactly.”
“You may abandon me when I tell you specific things I’ve done.”
“No. I won’t do that.”
By now, I was in awe of Mason, though I had not told him. Rebecca was good at thinking about things, but Mason was incredible in the way he thought about people.
“Tell me what you’ve done.”
“Murder.” He spoke without hesitation.
Well, why start with the small items?
“Related to the job?”
“Absolutely.”
“Rebecca knows?”
“She does. And has from the beginning. Being other than honest with her would have been unfair. She would have heard the stories eventually, and I decided better to tell her myself than hear them from someone else. She has no illusions about what I have done or who I am.”
Rebecca was made of sterner stuff than I had realized. They both were.
“I’ve ordered men killed. I’ve had things done to individuals to enhance whatever abilities they had—processes which could be painful or traumatic or both.”
“Did you offer these people a choice?”
“Typically, they were people all out of choices…criminals. They had a choice…of sorts. I was manipulating them. Using them. But not for me.”
“And you did these things…why?”
“To stop the spreading of Genomex DNA through the entire human population. I don’t know what Breedlove was thinking. If the genes spread through the entire species, health problems similar to your mother’s and my own will become commonplace, and they will tend to die young. The transgenics will splinter off into dozens of sub-species, probably producing sterile offspring, the way most mules are sterile. All of this leads to one end: extinction.”
What Mason outlined made simple, straightforward sense. I wondered why I had never heard it discussed among mutants in underground circles.
“Adam knows this?”
“Adam and Breedlove explained it to me. They understood perfectly well. They had faith a future cure would be found. I have seen a lot of misery for lack of that projected cure.”
“They knew, and they went on and created mutants by the hundreds?”
He shook his head. “Possibly by the thousands. I keep turning up more and more of them. Breedlove’s biotech empire extended well beyond Genomex, with satellite clinics all over the US and Canada.”
“I can’t imagine anyone knowingly creating such pain.”
“Yet they did. And it appears they never had difficulty hiring highly skilled people to assist them. I should have left when it was clear what was going on here. My life would have been different if I’d left Adam and Breedlove and this unholy mess behind, before the twins were born. It’s strange the way things we believe are important in the past turn out to be illusory. I thought it was critical to provide well for my family, but by staying here I lost them.”
“To hear Adam talk, you were one of the prime forces behind the creation of mutants, as much if not more than he was.”
“Do the math,” Mason said softly.
“I know. I don’t know if people wanted to believe ill of you, but I’ve never heard anyone comment upon how the numbers just don’t work.”
“Adam appeals to their emotions. He blends in a pinch of the truth into his impassioned displays, and people assume anyone who is that much of a true believer cannot be lying. They don’t think to check plausibility.”
“If you hadn’t been here, who would have done...what you’ve been doing?”
“I don’t know. You haven’t noticed a collection of trusted lieutenants around me, have you?”
“Only Jesse.”
“Well, Jesse came along much later.”
“Except for you, is it possible Adam might still be working here, still creating mutants?”
He smiled and I didn’t know why.
“Yes, I suppose it is possible, but Rebecca had something to do with the departure of the Prince of Genomex. It’s her story, not mine. She’ll tell you if you ask.”
“Adam doesn’t like Rebecca.”
“He did then. Rebecca’s tolerance for fools is similar to my own—or perhaps even less. That includes Adam.”
I was given access to much of the Genomex complex. As soon as Adam forced that info bit out of me, I was soon prowling about, gathering information for him.
I did my best to resist Adam. I discovered he had scary ways of making me do as he wished, but not by inflicting pain. He would wake me from a sound sleep, demanding I do something, and stopping my breathing or my heart until I rose from bed to do his will and bidding.
Arguing with Adam when he had such persuasive capabilities was out of the question. Adam knew nothing about the newer security measures in place, but little by little he used me to probe the system to find weaknesses.
I wanted no part of this. The guilt I felt knowing I was doing things that eventually would harm people who obviously cared about me was overwhelming.
I was puzzled why Emma could not detect my emotional uproar, and decided Adam’s implant must also mask emotions it generated.
One day, I heard Adam’s voice with unusual clarity.
*You sound…close.*
*I am. I’ve come back home. I’ve returned to Sanctuary.*
*Was Brennan’s fleet of junk Camaros still outside rusting in the weeds?*
*Most of them. What he’s really excited about is the selection of snack treats distributed in this part of the country. He came back to the Double Helix with all the goodies he couldn’t find out west.*
I’ll bet. Bags and bags of sugar and far. Perfect Brennan fodder.
I tried my best to be careless and sloppy, hoping I’d be caught. I wanted so badly to be found out. To my great relief, eventually I was.
Rebecca looked downcast and drained. Mason just looked cold and indifferent, which from him was scarier than any other impression he could have given. Emma looked grim.
‘I’m confused, Catherine. You were found in possession of three blank badge templates and I cannot imagine what legitimate purpose you would have for them.” He tossed the templates onto the glass surface of his desk, and glared at me.
Adam was right there in my head. I didn’t care anymore what he did to me. I was relieved to have been found out, because now the people I cared about were safe, from me.
“Ad--,” but I could say no more, breath drawn out of me. I pointed to my head, and pleaded with my eyes until I passed out.
Rebecca and Emma were hovering when I opened my eyes and recognized where I was. Contact with Adam was gone.
“Adam … implant—“ but that was all I could say when he crawled back inside my head.
*Catherine, I thought I lost you for a moment.*
*You did. I blacked out.*
“She’s terrified of something,” I heard Emma say, sounding faint and distant.
“She may be scared, but of what? ‘Implant’ sounds like something out of bad science fiction.” Mason sounded so cold. He believed I had lied to him all along.
*Tell them anything, and I’ll stop your heart. Forever.*
Adam had no idea I’d told them anything.
Mason came and stood over me, very close, glaring at me the way he must…at traitors and liars. “Catherine, is this a story?”
That look must freeze over the hearts of your enemies. But I’m not one of them. I’m trying to save you.
I shook my head emphatically, NO, and then I did something else.
*What are you doing, Catherine?* I could tell Adam was confused.
*Go ahead, stop my heart. I won’t hurt these people.*
By now, I was crying and I did not care who saw my tears.
*You can’t save them.*
*I will try. You’re not going to use me to hurt my father or my friends.*
*Fool.*
I passed out again. Mason and Emma both caught me so I wouldn’t hit the floor.
“This is not an act, Mason. She’s scared. She also cares very much about you, about both of you. She’s trying to protect you from Adam, who is directing her actions. I don’t know how.”
“Did Adam ever say anything about refining the governors?” Mason asked.
“Adam always had plenty to say. He was always tinkering with something. Jesse would know more.”
“I’ve got her, Emma. Concentrate on learning whatever you can.”
“Rebecca, please page Jesse. I want to believe her, Emma.”
“It’s hard to focus on her. But you can believe what she is saying. Adam is making her breathing stop long enough to make her pass out. She’s shielded somehow; I can tell you what I have only because we’re touching. She’s lost now…confused images, almost a dream state.” Emma kept both hands resting on my forehead.
“By going after Catherine, Adam’s gone farther than he knows.”
“This is a new low, even for him.” Rebecca was a reflective, patient woman, typically slow to anger. She was angry now. “Something has to be done with him. Someone has to do something to him. Maybe me.”
*Lost you again, Catherine. Where did you go?*
As if he did not know. I recognized that Mason was keeping me from falling, and realizing that, held onto him. Please, believe me. I don’t want to hurt you or Rebecca. This time, as I rose up out of the fuzzy gloom, things were different. Emma lurked just out of Adam’s ‘seeing’, and ambushed him as he intruded.
*I didn’t expect to meet you here, Adam.* Emma wasn’t afraid of him.
*Lovely traitorous Emma.*
*Whatever you want to call me, Adam. I don’t care. Your name-calling is not going to bother me. But I do care about whatever you’ve done to Catherine.*
*Just a little something I whipped together in my spare time.*
*Tell me how to free Catherine of it. Now.*
*It’s permanent. Remove it, and she’ll be brain-damaged permanently.*
*Oh, but Adam, you’re so clever. There must be some way to ‘pull the plug’.*
*Stop him, Emma.* I was pleading.
*I’m out of patience, Adam. Destroy the linkage to Catherine, or I’ll reach across the miles and homogenize your brain, and you’ll never again know the thrill of telling everyone about your intellectual superiority.*
*Emma, starting to come into your own?*
*Something like that. You don’t want to find out what I can do.*
I sensed confusion and rage from Adam. He knew Emma wasn’t bluffing and he knew she was angry enough with him for what he had done to me to unleash whatever potentials she had onto his brain.
*Do it, Adam. Right now.*
I felt a brief moment of pain—the brain wasn’t supposed to feel pain—and the sensation of ‘connection’ vanished.
Suddenly, Adam was gone. I was still only partly aware, and confused. I knew Mason was there, and I knew he trusted me again. I came back up to awareness, as if rising through murky water.
“Adam’s in retreat,” Emma said. “I hope I put enough of a scare into him to keep him out of our lives.”
“I couldn’t not do what he told me to do. Please, believe me.”
“I do believe you.” He hugged me. “How long has he been in your head?”
“Since they day I got here. Nearly every day he’d ‘drop-by’ and ask me things. You’ll have to change some of the security procedures, because he made me tell him. Every time I tried to refuse, or tell you, he’d race my heart or make my breathing stop. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m sorry I failed to protect you. I didn’t think I was underestimating Adam, but obviously, I was.”
“And he’s back in the area.”
Mason went ahead with his plans of gathering a large group at Genomex for Thanksgiving. At first, I looked forward to it, and then as the weather turned cooler and reality began to seep through, I became terrified at the prospect of meeting my half-siblings, even though I “knew” them from electronic images for some months now.
“I’m scared, Rebecca.”
“What part worries you?”
“The half-sibs. I’m afraid they’re better than I am.”
“Hogwash. What if you dressed for the day, something feminine and soft, something not jeans?”
“That would help.”
Rebecca hated shopping, but she had a formidable collection of catalogues, which we studied together one evening.
“I don’t remember the last time I wore a skirt or a dress.”
“Old memories are about to return.”
So it was my ‘wicked stepmother’ Rebecca got me dressed and shod for the big day, well in advance.
“I’m still scared.”
“That’s normal. Try not to worry about it too much. They don’t seem like horrible people. You will have to cut the twins considerable slack, however.”
“Why the twins?”
“They have no memory of their father other than the webcam images. They’re going to want his time and attention, and he owes it to them. Don’t be silly and decide because he pays more attention to them while they’re here that he thinks more of his ‘real’ daughters than you—understand the crazy circumstances. You see him every day. He thinks the world of you. Grey will want time with him, too, but Grey won’t be as obvious as the girls. If you’re smart, you’ll do everything possible to steer them towards each other.”
That made sense. I hadn’t considered any of it.
“What about what I am?”
“A Genomex mutant?” Rebecca asked.
“Yeah.”
“I know Mason hasn’t explained that part to them yet. Your governor should be gone by then. Just don’t go stealth over dinner, and talk to everyone, not just Emma and Jesse. Samihah will have her hands full with her three boys, but she’s an interesting woman and worth making an effort to get to know. Try not to worry so much.”
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Part 1
Part 3
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