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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 8
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Part 7
Rebecca
“What now?” Catherine asked, stretching out on the futon.
She was a gutsy young woman, but she was scared. So was I.
“Well, we’re definitely not guests, no matter what Lili says. Let’s play along with the pretense of being guests for a while longer. There is no reason to be overtly hostile…yet.”
“How well do you know this woman?”
“Not at all. She had a lab across from mine in the early 1990s. I was pleasant to her, that’s all.”
“What was that about Paul Breedlove?”
“I know Mason’s told you he committed murder to keep the public unaware of the existence of Genomex mutants.”
“Yeah.”
“In 2007, Breedlove planned to release a statement and a book. Someone else did the actual killing, but at Mason’s command. That must have been this Frank Thorne. Breedlove must have known the public was likely to panic, but he was guilt-ridden. Mason did try to talk him out of the release, Catherine.”
“That’s okay. I understand why he did it. I know all about the way people react to Genomex mutants when they don’t understand them.”
I looked around the room. Piles of electronic junk were everywhere.
”He does have some nice computers, though. I’ll see if he’s silly enough to have a line out without encrypted access.” Catherine got up, switched on the nearest monitor, and smiled. Whatever he had worked on last was all over the screen. “I’ll bet we could learn some interesting things.” She looked up hopefully at the air duct. “In the movies, prisoners always escape through ventilation ducts.” Catherine looked up hopefully at the air vent, which was unusually large but would still require a person to drag themself through.
“I’m claustrophobic. The ductwork would have to be large enough for me to walk through. I don’t even do well in elevators.”
I didn’t do well with heights, either. Or places deep underground.
“We’ll find a way. Maybe we could annoy Adam enough so that he would throw us out.” Catherine smirked. “Between the two of us, we could annoy Adam a lot.”
“I’m sure we could make Adam miserable…but I’m not sure we want to do that, trapped down here with him. Antagonizing Adam is probably unwise.”
“Too bad,” Catherine said. “Annoying Adam would have been fun.”
“For every ingress, there is an egress,” I said.
“Who said that?”
“Cinnabar, the one o’clock fox.”
Catherine looked puzzled.
“A children’s book I read a long time ago.”
“Oh.”
Lilith
I was curious about Catherine. Adam told me several contradictory things about her, and I decided the only way to the truth was to find it myself.
“Okay. I’m here. What do you want?”
She wasn’t whining. She was being very direct.
“I find I cannot trust or believe the things Adam tells me about people. So, I thought if I was going to learn about you, I would ask you.”
“Oh.”
“You’re very quiet, Catherine. Have you so little to say?”
”I’m not a scientist like you or Rebecca. I don’t even know the right questions to ask.”
I studied Catherine’s face, searching in vain for some suggestion of her father. I found none. Adam and Mason both believed she was Mason’s progeny. But how unlike him in looks.
I watched her eyes. She studied me carefully, the way I’d seen Mason observe people. She either learned that from him…or had it encoded.
“You think a lot of Rebecca, don’t you?”
“She’s been good to me. That’s why I introduce her to people as my not-evil stepmother.”
I smiled at that. Rebecca always did tend to take in the lost souls.
“Rebecca was nice to me when I worked at Genomex. She didn’t need to be, but she was.”
“That’s how she is. Rebecca hasn’t hurt you. You don’t even know me. Why do you keep us here?” She looked annoyed.
“Adam’s miscalculation of my reaction made things very complicated. Adam thought I would enjoy harming the two of you to hurt Mason, but Adam is a barbarian. You do know Mason has done some dreadful things, don’t you?”
“He’s probably told me everything important. I’ve never caught Mason lying to me. Anything I ask him, he tells me.”
She did not have Mason’s forbidding exterior, but Catherine had that icy pragmatism.
“You knew Mason had Paul Breedlove murdered?”
“By a telekinetic who worked for him in those days.”
“I witnessed that killing. Did he tell you that?”
“He must not know.”
“I doubt he does. It’s been so long now, it does not matter. Adam mistakenly believed I would hurt you and Rebecca to hurt your father. Mason Eckhart is not one of my favorite people but I am not like Adam, and I do not think like him. So, murder doesn’t bother you?”
“I am a Genomex mutant. I know how most people look upon anyone different or ‘strange’. There would have been panic if Breedlove had gone to the press. People would have been killed on suspicion of being a mutant.”
“I agree with you. I tried to talk Paul out of a public statement. The last conversation we had was about that very subject. Unfortunately, Paul’s guilt clouded his judgment, and he remained adamant about releasing the statement and the book.”
“Breedlove created a lot of unhappiness. I know that from watching my mother.”
“I won’t defend the creation of the Genomex mutants. Making them at all was a mistake, and making thousands of them was catastrophic.”
“But you’ve got Adam here with you.”
Catherine really disliked Adam.
“And what has Adam done to you?” Adam barely mentioned Catherine, but clearly he loomed large in her thoughts.
“Oh, Adam…used me to steal for him…and misled my mother. She always expected Adam to show up any moment, and rescue us. Of course, he never did, and never intended to.”
“You sound bitter.”
“I grew up thinking Adam was my father.” My mother talked about Adam all the time, so I thought he must be my father.
“Your mother never told you otherwise?”
“No.”
“Understandable, perhaps. Having Mason Eckhart for a father would have been awkward at best for a mutant living covertly.”
“The possibility never occurred to me. In those days, among mutants, Mason Eckhart was regarded as an inhuman arch-fiend.”
“I imagine not. Before Eckhart emerged a changed man from stasis, and drastically altered procedures and policies towards mutants, nearly every mutant alive perceived him as an inhuman monster, an impression Eckhart encouraged.”
It just isn’t true that Mason hates these people. That’s just another of Adam’s confabulations. From all reports, Mason adores Catherine, and she adores him fiercely.
“Some strange things happen to us all, Catherine.”
“Did you know Rebecca is pregnant?”
“No.” She looked stunned by that. I wondered if Rebecca knew.
“She is. Possibly she may not know for certain, but my diagnostics leave no doubt. I was surprised.”
“I’m not.”
“No?”
“She’s lost others.”
“Mason’s?”
“Of course.”
Still waters, and all that. I hope you deserve these fiercely brave, fiercely loyal women, Mason Eckhart. Catherine seemed more amazed than offended I should ask such a question.
“How do you feel about that, Catherine?”
“I don’t want Rebecca to suffer any more loss. She’s lost enough. Please don’t say anything to her. Perhaps this will end like the last one, but this time she won’t have to know.”
“Wouldn’t you worry that a new sibling might displace affection Mason holds for you?”
“No. He went to great lengths to win my affection, with three other living children.”
“I’m sorry. I did not mean to be rude.”
“Baloney, Dr Chen. I may be your prisoner here, but we’re not unthinking people.”
“No. Indeed you are not.”
The world is full of unthinking people reacting without thought or reflection. I had erred in believing that this was in any fashion an ordinary family group. I have an unfortunate tendency to underestimate humans.
“How do you feel about being a Genomex mutant, Catherine?”
She did not hesitate to reply. “I resent Paul Breedlove for tampering with my mother and making her a stealth. She endured a lot because of the rarity of her mutation, and her health was never robust.”
I was taken aback by the directness of her reply. Fully under my control, she spoke her mind freely, exactly as Mason would have done.
“He meant well,” I offered.
“The road to Hell…”
She was right. Her eyes blazed with anger.
“I’m sorry.”
“For me, being a Genomex mutant means more than a misguided research project. It implies an early death and makes unwise my ever having children. And for some people, my being a stealth makes me suspect every time something goes missing or things are altered without apparent explanation.”
She sounded bitter. I should not have been surprised by her resentment. I should have been able to predict it.
Rebecca
Fortunately, Lilith did not keep us confined to Adam’s room. With Adam and Lilith absorbed in some unnamed and undescribed technical work, we were free to wander about the unsecured spaces of Haven. We decided to ‘go for a walk’ daily, which meant making laps around the outer perimeter of the main Haven space, until we became completely bored with walking in circles.
No wonder racehorses get track sour.
As our circuit brought us by the koi pond and the noise of the waterfall, we stopped and changed the subject of our conversation.
“We have to get out of here. We cannot hope that Mason will somehow be able to find us. Even if he knew we were here, this place is a fortress. No one gets in here casually.”
“Maybe Lilith will get bored with us,” Catherine suggested.
“I think Lilith won’t care if she’s bored with us. I think she wishes we had never showed up, because now we know she’s hiding Adam and helped him get out of prison. We could put her in prison under the proper circumstances. We had no idea where she was before, and even after flying here, I don’t know where this place is. Do you?”
“I’m afraid not. Every time I’ve had an excuse to be in the kitchen, I’ve looked at everything to try to find a regional product, but everything is nationally distributed and available everywhere. Lilith’s secret hideaway may be safer than she thinks.”
“I wonder if we could convince her of that?” Rebecca mused.
“Worth a try. What do you make of her ‘troops’?”
“They certainly are…healthy looking.”
”I don’t think they’re mutants. I have not seen them do anything unusual. I think they might be what she is,” Catherine said.
“But when did Lilith have time to create them? She hasn’t been independent of Genomex long enough to have raised them.”
“Can they be human, just carefully recruited?”
“I don’t know. They share a similarity of height, build, and coloring. I’m certain they are related.”
“I’ve seen them reading books.” Catherine seemed surprised.
“What were they reading?”
“I couldn’t see the titles, but whatever they had, they were intense about it.”
“I don’t think they’re stupid. I suspect instead they are very smart.”
Catherine laughed. “Well, they do ignore Adam. Have you noticed?”
I smiled. “They appear devoted to Lili. They either have good taste or good judgment. But I’ve seen only three of them: John, Kurt, and Matthew. Perhaps with the right distraction…”
“Something to think about.”
“I wish we knew approximately where we are. If we got outside only to find ourselves in a forsaken wilderness, escape would be meaningless.”
“What was Adam thinking when he brought us here?”
“He wasn’t. For all his intellect, Adam remains highly emotional. He’s thinking only about revenge. Lilith can handle him. My only real dread is that Jesse might show up, and make peace with Adam.”
“Poor Jesse,” Catherine sighed.
“If you had seen him, you wouldn’t say that. He’s become someone that none of us know anymore. Or would want to know.”
“I liked the old Jesse.”
“So did I. But everything has changed.”
Rebecca
I knew things about Mason that probably no one else still alive knew, not Laura Varady, not even Miss Vermont. They weren’t sleazy, forbidden things, just the details that added up to each individual.
I knew that he preferred Orangesicles to Fudgesicles; that his favorite color –yes, he had a favorite color! – was a deep royal blue, and that that was the color he liked best for me to wear; that his favorite horror writer was H P Lovecraft; and that his favorite movie was ‘The Manchurian Candidate’.
None of these were critical matters. One could work with him for years and learn not one of them, since he habitually revealed little of himself. The importance of these things arose from the fact he shared them with me, and that I remembered them. Few people in his life troubled to learn much about him. Mason worked hard and gave his best without being urged or even asked. Most people came to expect this without ever wondering about his motivations.
No doubt many of my memories would surprise some people who thought they knew him.
One Saturday afternoon in August, rain fell all day. No thunderstorms, just rain.
We had not spoken in hours, intent upon our reading. We could do that and be comfortable, not requiring a constant flow of conversation.
“I have an idea.”
“Thinking is a dangerous habit, Rebecca.”
“We should go up on the roof.”
“It’s raining.”
“Exactly. You’ll see.”
Standing just inside the stairwell door to the roof, I turned to him and asked, “How long has it been since you felt the rain on your face?’
“Years. At least twenty.”
“Peel the faux skin off your face.”
Mason didn’t hesitate. He just smiled, removed his glasses and stripped the ‘skin’ away.
He stepped outside into the rain. The day was comfortably warm. For many moments, Mason stood without a word, eyes closed, face uplifted, absorbing the sensation of rain.
We take so much for granted. Being with Mason taught me to take nothing for granted.
One February afternoon, snow began falling heavily. We weren’t used to heavy snowfall. Darkness fell, and the snow continued to deepen, despite predictions. Then the wind came, driving the snow into drifts.
Mason stood by the window, pondering the surreal snowscape.
“No one will come to work tomorrow.”
“Hah! The way these people panic at the sight of White Death, you’ll be lucky to see half the staff here by 10 AM. Two days from now.”
“Pity I cannot compel them to make up time lost to snow the way schools do.”
He was only half-joking. He expected a great deal from his people.
“Let none make moan,” I said, quoting from an obscure poem.
“From what I can see, this is a wet, heavy snow. Do you know what that means?”
“No.”
“It will pack down nicely into snowballs. We should not waste this opportunity.”
That’s how we ended up outside, wind blowing snow sideways. The site was deserted by late afternoon except for the GSA people with the ill luck to have drawn this shift. No doubt the teams monitoring the badges and exterior cameras were astonished at what their sensors told them, but I doubt they could see much of Mason and me chasing each other through snowdrifts, throwing snowballs.
“We’re going to be the talk of the next security shift change meeting, whenever another shift can get here.”
“No one will believe a word of it!”
I have no idea how long we were out there, but I was exhausted when we came back inside.
Mason officially closed the facility the following day, and we slept in very late. He didn’t get to his office until 11.30.
Mason
People little appreciate or understand the comfort to be found in ordinary events. Some spend their lives in the search of the exotic and arcane, never realizing how important the mundane and routine is to them.
I understood. From the time Marcus drowned, I think I understood. With Marcus gone, everything changed, all the familiar details my life wove around. Mom withdrew. Dad hardly spoke to either of us. I hid in my room.
Just a few years later, even that chilly home was lost to me.
I wanted my home back, save that I wanted it back better than I had known it. For a handful of years in the 1980s, I actually had what I so desperately desired: a home, a family, a place in life where I was needed and belonged. I believed at the time I was loved as well, but with hindsight and the passage of time I honestly am no longer certain what Jackie thought of me.
I had it all worked out in my head: Sometime about 1992, at the latest, I was going to find another job at a place that wasn’t dirty like Genomex. No more children with haunted eyes. No more Paul Breedlove with his unholy dreams of altering humanity. No, the five of us, we’d leave the tainted world of Genomex behind and never look back.
Jackie shattered that plan with her affair with Adam, and the divorce that followed. Shortly after, Adam made sure I was tied to Genomex forever.
All the trivial details of my daily life with my family were lost to me. Possibly they meant far more to me than they did to people accustomed to such circumstances.
I lost myself in an emotional wilderness for more than a decade. The routines of replacing the biopolymer at least once a day, of uncounted injections, multiple transfusions, did not replace the ordinary, comforting routines that I lost.
I climbed out of that deep hole slowly, over a period of years.
I never expected to see anything but the bottom of that emotional pit…except that I had. I had recovered my children, established friendships, and somehow, won Rebecca.
And now, all of that might be lost. Even Catherine was unreachable. Always reliable about responding to email or messages, I now heard nothing and was becoming concerned.
I cautiously sipped my pink slurry. Lately, everything was making me very sick. Simultaneously, I craved nourishment, and dreaded ingesting it. Very soon now, I would require intravenous feeding to stay alive. I could not keep enough pink slurry down to maintain my weight.
Nausea washed over me. I broke out into a sweat under the biopolymer. I closed my eyes, gripped the arms of my chair, and waited for the moment to pass. And waited. Finally, I put my head down on the table, realizing finally that I was descending into a health crisis and I could no longer ignore what was happening. Summoning the remnants of strength and the ability to concentrate, I reached into a pocket and activated what amounted to a ‘panic button’, setting in motion all kinds of consequences.
The men watching outside the door, ordinarily forbidden entry to the ‘family’ room, came charging in, weapons drawn. By then, I was barely conscious. I cannot remember who they were, but I do remember them saying something about the infirmary.
I’m not sure how they got me there. They may have carried me the whole way, or they may have used the food cart to transport me. I’m not sure.
Dr Prodana was automatically paged. I cannot know how long it was before she appeared, but I do not think it was long.
“Why didn’t you call before this?” she barked at me. “You look like hell. You never look very good, but now you look terrible.”
“Came on suddenly.”
Rebecca should have been automatically paged as well.
“Where is Rebecca?” I asked.
“We’re trying to find her.”
“Find her?”
“She hasn’t been at work, and she hasn’t been at Laura’s. Nobody’s seen her since Tuesday morning, right before lunch.”
“Why wasn’t I told, and why wasn’t anything done before this?”
“I was told that her group was concerned yesterday, and that Dr Nanavaty got on the phone and spent three hours tracking down Dr Varady. Laura Varady said she was coming back here to talk to you, had packed her things at Varady’s, and didn’t say anything about going anywhere else.”
“Have the police been called?”
“The police are in fact on their way here. Dr Nanavaty called them when she couldn’t reach you this morning.”
“I must have passed out. Has the GSA shift captain been informed?”
The police will think I’ve done something to her.
“Mr Delay is in my office, waiting for you after I’ve done an examination.”
Rowland Delay always looked like a nervous rodent with an upset stomach. He had escaped the staff purge in 2007 by being temporarily assigned to Washington. I don’t think he much cared for me. Perhaps he was grouchy with everyone. No matter; he was thorough and he paid attention to fine detail.
“This won’t wait.”
Prodana said nothing, but threw her hands in the air, shook her head, and went for Delay. She knew better than to argue with me.
“Mr Delay, has anyone spoke to you about Dr Steyn’s disappearance?”
Dr Prodana stood out of the way, by the wall. I saw her roll her eyes when I referred to Rebecca as ‘Dr Steyn’. Delay of course knew we were married, I naturally knew that he knew…old habits die hard.
“Dr Nanavaty called me this morning after she finally found Dr Varady about 10.45. I extracted Dr Steyn’s keycard log. Tuesday she logged out of the building at 12.03 PM and left the parking lot at 12.06. That’s the last the keycard system has of her.”
“Prepare a validated copy of the log for the police. Talk to her work group and find out who she talked to that morning. I have no idea where she might have gone.”
I wish I did.
Delay turned to leave.
“No, wait, put out an announcement to the entire facility, asking anyone who talked to her that morning to come forward. You and the police can talk to them at the same time; that’s efficient.”
He hesitated before speaking. “They’re going to want to talk to you, sir.”
“Of course. The spouse is always a suspect. Bring them here. I’ll be able to give them her brother’s phone numbers and anything else they want.”
Delay looked stunned for a moment. “I’ll go make that announcement.”
Lilith
Adam’s shopping expeditions typically ended with Adam depositing purchases all over Haven, leaving everything sitting out, leaving my sons the task of putting things away.
They were annoyed by this, of course, but getting Adam to change would take a lot of work.
I could hear Adam’s voice back in my lab. He was speaking much louder than usual, although sorting out individual words was impossible. Listening closely, I sorted out an unfamiliar male voice. Adam had dragged home another surprise.
On my way out of my lab to find out what Adam had dragged in this time, I met Kurt coming the other way.
“Adam’s brought along one of his mutant followers from a few years back.”
I did not stop to reply, but turned and opened the top drawer of the nearest file cabinet and tossed a palm-sized, smooth oval piece of metal into a lab coat pocket.
Whatever Adam might be up to, including taking over Haven, I intended to stop him immediately.
Adam and his companion had crossed nearly the length of Haven and were speaking to Rebecca and Catherine. I walked briskly to catch up with them.
“Look who I’ve brought with me.”
Rebecca does not scare easily, but she looked frightened now.
“Nice to see you, Rebecca, Catherine.”
“Adam, who is this?”
Adam turned to face me and smiled. I did not like that smile. “This is Jesse Kilmartin. He can walk through walls.”
“And wrench the unborn from inside their mothers,” Rebecca said softly.
I had no idea what Rebecca was talking about, but I was sure she believed what she said.
“Adam, why did you bring him here?”
“He needed a place to stay, and I thought he would be useful.”
“He’s a murderer, Lilith,” Catherine said.
“My daughter was killed, so I destroyed Mason’s grandson. Now, we’re even.”
“When the public finds out people like you and me exist, people like you are going to make us all look like menaces to society. If there’s a bloodbath, you’ll be part of the cause.”
“That isn’t fair, Catherine,” Adam said.
“You’re one of the last people in the world who should say anything about what is fair,” I added.
“How would you know anything about what I lost, Catherine?” Jesse demanded.
“Because when I was facing the same circumstance, I decided the preservation of humanity was more important than my personal wishes. Jesse, you were selfish and wrong to want that daughter.”
“Catherine, I don’t think you’re going to reason with him,” Rebecca cautioned.
“Probably not. But someone needs to tell him he is less of a victim than he believes.”
“What a world you’ve made, Adam.” But I knew Adam would never claim ownership of this world.
“I didn’t know what they were doing with my research.”
I laughed. Adam never changed his pathetic bleat. Catherine stared at him in disbelief.
“Adam, Breedlove created my mother the way she was, so I can’t blame you personally. But even in 1978, my mother was already showing signs of illness. What was in your mind when you made a thousand –or many thousands—more, as flawed as she was?”
“I was looking for cures.”
Adam’s lies never changed.
Lili startled me by laughing! “Adam, there are still a lot of people in this world who will believe that worn out story, but none of them are here.”
Adam was furious. The fact that Lili continued to smile softly, mocking him, did not help.
“Adam, it was always about feeding your curiosity and your ego. The sight of your mistakes disturbed you, but not enough to make you stop making more mutants.” Lili shook her head slowly. “One of the procedures all researchers follow is that if an experimental approach fails, one does not continue the very same thing dozens of times! One tries something else, or there will never be progress or improvement.”
I had been thinking the same thing, but I was not sure of how rational Adam was. Making points against him might not be a good idea deep underground. I had never seen Adam this angry before.
Kurt moved to stand a few steps closer to Lili, a not so veiled move making clear his intention to defend her if Adam attacked.
“Adam, you tampered with these people before they were born, frequently when they existed merely as eggs. How could you save them before they manifested a problem?”
Lili had nailed him there. He looked trapped. Had he not been responsible for so much personal destruction, not only of the mutants he created, but of their families as well, I could have felt sorry for him. But I could not feel sorry for him; he was highly intelligent. Throughout his twenty years at Genomex, the company provided him with state of the art instrumentation and equipment, and recruited talented, creative people to assist him. Adam should have known better. Instead, he turned everything around and made himself the victim. There was something obscene about that.
“Lili, we’re both Paul Breedlove’s creations…”
“We have that in common, but I recognize the flaws in Paul’s vision. You remain rooted in denial. Adam, Paul came to understand how wrong he was. Why can’t you? If you weren’t so emotional, you would conclude the same, and work to contain the tainted DNA.”
“Do you think we’re freaks, Dr Chen?” Jesse looked crazy.
“That’s a cruel work for it, but yes, that’s exactly what you are.”
“You’ve been oddly quiet, Rebecca.” Adam sounded like he was looking for a fight.
I thought of all the pain, grief, and loss Adam caused over the years, especially to Mason. Especially to Mason. I looked Adam squarely in the eyes. “Mason says you blight every life you touch.”
Adam looked almost hurt when I said that.
Jesse’s eyes had the same unhealthy glitter I’d seen just before he attacked Julie.
“And Mason’s never harmed anyone?” Jesse challenged.
“Mason has never claimed to be blameless. He acknowledges what he has done. He takes responsibility for it.”
Jesse drew himself up as tall as he could stand, and glowered at me. Lili saw it, too.
“Actions have consequences, Jesse.” Lili said softly.
Jesse lunged towards Catherine and me over the pool. I’m not sure which of us he intended to attack, but in mid-path, he twisted his whole body about in pain and fell to the pond, partway in the water.
Lilith! Lilith was pointing a silvery metal object at him. The device fit neatly into her small right hand.
A governor? But Jesse was not implanted.
Adam rushed to Jesse, kneeling beside him. “What are you doing to him?” he demanded.
“Adam, you often give the impression no one else on earth but you can be inventive in matters involving Genomex mutants. Not so. Think back, Adam: Paul gave you the idea that you developed into several generations of subdermal governors. But after you left the company, Paul kept working on them.”
She lightly tapped her head with her left forefinger. “All of Paul’s technical notes and drawings are in here. From them, I constructed a vastly improved governor, one not requiring an implant. I’m going to release Jesse now, and hope he has learned something.”
As soon as Lilith released the governor’s hold on Jesse, he went limp onto the floor.
“He’ll be fine as soon as the pain ceases. There won’t be any permanent damage.”
“Lili, could you do something to guarantee our safety in the company of someone who walks through walls?”
“If Jesse tries walking through my walls, he’ll soon discover the price for such behavior. But I understand. Kurt, would you mind keeping watch on Dr Steyn and Ms Eckhart, just in case our latest guest becomes overly emotional?”
“No, ma’am, it would please me to do so.”
Lilith handed the governor remote to Kurt, then turned to Catherine and me.
“Kurt knows how to use this controller. He will not accidentally inflict pain upon Catherine, although the device is effective upon every Genomex mutant. Ladies, unlike some, Kurt was raised to be a gentleman. I am confident you will feel secure under his protection.”
Jesse remained curled up on the floor.
“Adam, when your friend can walk, please get him out of my sight.” Lilith came and stood over Jesse. “Jesse, make trouble here in Haven, and I will throw you out into the cold world. Don’t think I don’t have ways of doing it. Adam, if you have any influence over your former follower, I suggest you use that influence to persuade him Haven is not the place to exercise his rage. Excuse me, but I have work waiting.”
I turned to look at Kurt. He was blushing.
At first, I thought of Kurt as a kind of jailer. While I did like the way Jesse now kept his distance from us, we now had Kurt with us most every minute outside of time spent asleep, and even that was done with Kurt on an inflatable mattress placed against our door.
Kurt was, in fact, deeply curious about us. He was extremely bright, and for his apparent age, well-educated, well-educated and articulate. But he knew the world only from books, movies, and trips outside with Lili. He and his brothers had grown and developed too quickly—too noticeably—to consider enrolling them in schools.
I surprised myself one day by deciding I liked Kurt. He wasn’t exactly shy or naïve, but he did not affect the jaded world weariness and boredom I found in so many of the young in their (vain) attempt to appear sophisticated and mature.
Kurt was curious about everything. Catherine and I took walks about Haven to stay fit, and Kurt was always with us. He enjoyed discussion and banter with new people. I realized something else, too: he was interested in Catherine, and that was not a good thing. I kept reminding myself that Kurt was more than a brilliant, educated young man. He was Lili’s son.
What a pity. Clearly Catherine liked him back.
Kurt was somewhat the way I imagined Mason must have been once, based on the way Mason described his late youth before everything went s0 wrong for him: articulate, considerate, and quietly confident. Lili had done an impressive job raising him.
What if Mason had not been dealt so many damaging blows?
I knew the answer. He would have been another bright guy at Genomex, who probably would have thought I was quite peculiar, if there was ever any question raised at Genomex concerning me.
before one of them found what I had started to dread, images of Adam and unknown accomplices cornering the two women and taking them off, away from Rebecca’s car.
Mason
Despite my worsening health, I pushed myself harder. By day’s end, I wanted to fall asleep, not toss and turn while mulling over present miseries and possible things to do about them.
Since I now had evidence Genomex mutants formed some part of whatever Adam was doing, I successfully made the argument for the GSA’s involvement. Rebecca would not approve, but she was not here to comment.
Almost every time I sent GS agents into the field when someone caught the scent of Adam and Lilith, I accompanied them. I had never been this single-minded about Adam before, but these forays distracted me from the symptoms of my body failing me so many different ways.
None of these agents could be described as friends. I knew their names and basic details about each of them, but if something happened to me in the wider world, I wasn’t sure how some of them would react. I feared I them might be abandoned where I fell.
Dr Prodana weighed me three times daily, carefully tracking the trend of my weight. She adjusted the liquid I consumed to contain a good deal of fats and sufficient calories to keep weight on a lumberjack. I wasn’t absorbing nutrients properly. The adjusted formula had a negligible effect upon my weight. I could not consume ordinary food at all without days of distress.
The newer class of antibiotics Prodana tried effectively kept infections at bay, but my usual (and already hardly normal) gut flora were displaced and overgrown with miserable side effects, requiring embarrassing adjustments to my routine.
I awoke exhausted every morning, never feeling rested. I forced myself to keep going, to always be at my desk no later than 6.45 AM, reviewing overnight communications. I took care that my physical dress and grooming did not deteriorate. Increasingly I was having memory problems with everything.
Nightmares about Marc drowning began again. I hadn’t had those in years, but now I was reliving some permutation of that memory several nights a week.
If Marc had lived, how different would my life be now? Would my mother have chosen to stay on in this world? Would I not have been shipped off to school? Would Marc and I now be exchanging DVDs of our grandchildren’s birthday parties, both of us working in industries having nothing to do with dark secrets and perversions of science, driven by ‘black’ projects with terrible secrets hidden several levels below the ground. We’d have family reunions…but Marc was gone, never knowing nine years. Just about everyone was gone, weren’t they?
Maybe everything would have been different, but I’d never know.
I needed transfusions more often than Rebecca could provide. That meant blood from strangers, a necessity I had not worried about for years as I began making red and white blood cells. Now, the pitiful quantity of blood cells I produced was nowhere near enough.
Outside blood was screened before ever coming onto the site, and painstakingly re-screened by my own people. Nevertheless, infections became commonplace, and ever greater quantities of antibiotics were required. I began having difficulty keeping down the liquid diet.
I was miserable. I hurt all over, aching everywhere, but I did not dare show weakness, or allow anyone but Dr Prodana and a team of specialists to realize I had become so frail.
I began wondering if I was dying…this time. This time was different. My children were adults now, and they did not need me. Even worse, they did not want me. Grey would not return my phone calls. The speed of my descent towards oblivion was astonishing.
Dr Prodana was not Dr Breedlove. She could monitor my condition and fine-tune treatment daily, but she could not devise new or novel treatments. My stable of specialists was doing no better. They could detail to me exactly how my body was slowly failing me, but they weren’t inventive enough to devise new, effective treatment. They wanted to put me on tranquilizers to calm me down. I did not want to be calm. I wanted to fight back.
One afternoon approaching two, I felt so weak and ill I cancelled the balance of the day’s appointments and made my way back to our –my?— quarters. Just inside the inner door, I passed out. When I awoke, night had fallen, and I still felt ill.
I checked my messages. All were routine and expected. No one noticed that for several hours I had been incommunicado from this world, and that frightened me.
The episode of passing out for hours scared me enough to go to Dr Prodana first thing in the morning.
She was angry that I had not called the night before.
“Mr Eckhart, so many things are wrong with you that it is difficult to know how to sort out the factors that made you pass out. Have you ever considered taking a vacation to remove yourself from the stress of your job and to get some rest?
“How could I take a vacation? I cannot take my steel cave with me.”
“No, but you could bolt the door and shut off Genomex contacts. Seriously, if you don’t slow down and get rested, no treatment will help you.”
“There isn’t anyone to do what I do.”
“If Godzilla came charging through here and flattened you with a single stomp, your supervisors in Washington would find someone else to take over. If they can find a suitable warm body, I’m certain you can find someone better.”
She was correct. I just did not want to admit the truth of what Prodana said to her or to myself.
Lilith
“Lili, Kurt has been diligent and faithful in watching out for our safely, but Jesse presents a unique threat, especially to Catherine. Please set Catherine free. I’ve seen Jesse kill, and have no doubt that he’s capable of killing again. Catherine is his most likely target.”
“Why do you care? She’s not your daughter,” I said.
“That doesn’t matter. I want Catherine safely away from Jesse.”
For some time now, I had puzzled over how I would introduce this question to Rebecca, and now she handed me the opening.
“If I agree to Catherine’s release, would you be willing to stay here and work with me for two years, if, in addition, I would do work to find a means to alleviate Mason’s conditions or cure him completely?”
She was silent for a moment. Had she given up on her Mason ever being healthier?
“Do you think there is any possibility of that?”
“I don’t think Genomex did any serious research along such lines after Adam left in 1998. A lot of changes and advances have come about in the last fifteen years.”
“No doubt. If you would work on Mason’s health problems, yes, I would give you two years of work.”
I really had not expected that response. Human beings are innately selfish creatures.
“Does your Mason realize the degree and depth of your devotion?” I asked the question in all sincerity. Based upon my memories, he seemed one of the most unlikely people on earth to inspire such feelings. In no way was I mocking Rebecca. Of all the humans I had known, I considered her to have exceptional character.
“He does.”
“I hope he appreciates what he has. So many humans do not.”
“He has never taken me for granted. I am certain Mason would make a similar sacrifice for me. There is greater substance to him than he allows most of the world to see.”
“No wonder Adam hates him. If Adam did not have high intelligence and technical talent, I could not tolerate him. He would be no more than…”
“A con artist.” Rebecca interrupted.
“Yes.”
“Please get Catherine safely out of here.”
“I’ll have Kurt prepare the plane. Fuel was delivered today and it must be pumped into the wing tanks and the load must be balanced.”
“Allow Catherine to communicate with her father. Genomex is better defended than it was just a few years ago. If Mason believes the site is under attack, he will authorize a shoot-down.”
“As soon as Kurt tells me the plane is ready for flight, I’ll have Catherine call.”
Mason
I’m not easily intimidated.
That said, I found Rebecca’s sister-in-law Sherri intimidating. She was pleasant enough, but she stared at me. No one else dared to do that. I’m unsure whether Sherri understood how she affected me.
In between houses, during one of their numerous moves, Steve and Sherri came to visit us at Genomex. These people should probably live in a tent—or a Winnebago.
They had never been inside the sitRogues Gallerye before; Rebecca had lacked the authority to bring them through the door as visitors. But she had that authority now.
Taking them to Rebecca’s labs and anything else of interest meant walking them past the Eleanor Singer Memorial Fountain, with its eternally smiling, cloyingly happy children. No one could see this sculpture for the first time without some kind of comment.
“Oh. I didn’t expect to see something like this in a place like this.” Sherri’s words frequently failed to match her intent.
Steve just laughed and turned to his sister, who was smirking. “As carefully as you described this thing, Rebecca, it’s more grotesque than I imagined. The grins on those kids—they all look manic!”
“I hope she told you I had nothing to do with putting this maudlin monument in place.” I smiled slightly. I was beginning to like Steve.
“She did. She just didn’t prepare me for the size of this thing…and those faces!”
I pointed to the koi gliding through the water. “Even the fish are shamed by this.”
Steve laughed. Sherri started to smile, and then just stared. I realized why; she had never heard me make an intentionally funny remark. Sherri probably thought I was humorless.
Neither Steve nor Sherri were the least inclined towards technology. Rebecca said she always had to set anything digital for them, since they were baffled by digital clocks, DVD recorders, and such. Steve had a computer, but he never did more than process words, surf, or send email with it. When he wanted to buy a new one, Rebecca told him exactly what to purchase.
Sherri must have thought Rebecca’s work involved adding drops of magic liquid into test tubes containing solutions. When we entered Rebecca’s lab, Sherri looked stunned and lost.
“What is all of this stuff?”
Rebecca, thrilled with someone asking her about her instrumentation, proceeded to tell Steve and Sherri all about it.
“I had no idea it would be like this.”
“It’s been this way for decades: lots of computers, lots of instrumentation, and lots of ways for everything to break down.”
“Who fixes it for you?”
“The routine problems I fix, or one of the people who work for me do it.”
From that moment, I believe Sherri’s evaluation of Rebecca changed. She respected her afterwards.
Rebecca held up one of her lab coats. “I even get a white coat with my name on it.”
We continued on to my office, which had not originally been planned, but Steve wanted to see it.
As the office door opened, I turned to Steve and Sherri, and said, “My office is quite plain compared to Rebecca’s area. She has all the good toys.”
“I deserve all the good toys.”
“Well, you do. For what Genomex spends on buying them and supplying them, they ought to be good toys.”
“They are.”
Sherri’s eyes widened as she entered my office. “It’s so…modern.”
A technician on the catwalk above Podding caught her eyes.
“And you expected?” Rebecca asked.
“Something formal. Mahogany walls. An authentic Oriental carpet created by authentic Oriental nomads. Nineteenth century oil paintings.”
She was staring again. She had just described the kind of office I would personally prefer that I had never described to anyone, not even Rebecca. Had Sherri made some good guesses, or did she understand me more than I knew? What had I missed?
Sherri walked right past my desk, and gazed down into Podding Operations. The obvious candidates had long ago been securely podded. The remaining out of control mutants who were hazards to themselves and society were smart enough and cunning enough to stay ahead of the GSA and remain free…for now.
Fortunately, no one was inside the pods below. I believe Sherri would have screamed at the sight of anything so unexpected and macabre.
“Those things down there look like futuristic coffins. What are they?”
I shook my head and feigned a casual attitude. “Those are treatment units. We rarely use them these days.”
Sherri turned to me, and yes, she stared. The sight of what I discerned in her face was enough to make me break into an uncomfortable sweat beneath the biopolymer. Plainly Sherri did not wholly believe my answer.
“Can we see your apartment?” Steve asked. I don’t think he noticed his wife’s moment of insight.
Rebecca referred to our steel cave as an ‘apartment’ when talking to Steve. She knew he would be displeased to see where and how we lived with the cave’s wraparound steel and limited –very limited—space intended to accommodate one person only.
“For Mason’s health, we’re the only people who go there. If anything needs to be repaired, anyone entering wears something like a spacesuit, with self-contained breathing air.
“Oh,” Sherri said, staring at me again.
“Too bad. I was intrigued with your descriptions of the filtered air and water.”
“Well, it is neat, Steve, but we’d be disinfecting for days if we gave you a tour.”
While not completely true, there was a good deal of truth in Rebecca’s excuse.
“We’d better be getting on to dinner. Our reservations are for six o’clock.” I hoped that would distract them.
Ever after, I had the queasy suspicion that Sherri had pieced together the lies and half-truths, and harbored a notion there was more to Genomex and me than she had been freely told. Later, Rebecca told me that Sherri asked whether or not I ever changed my clothes or wore anything else. Rebecca did not dignify the (rude, even for Sherri) question with a reply, but laughed.
Mason
Most of my adult life turned dreadfully, miserably wrong. Well, that description fits most of my life.
In the last few years, with Rebecca and Catherine, I discovered parts of myself I thought long-lost and irretrievable. Losing those hard-won gains seemed unavoidable now. My life was continuing to unravel.
One evening, I wandered through the rooms of my virtual house, the one Rebecca wanted to build as far away from Genomex as possible. Then I realized how little point there would be in now building it, without Rebecca and no children and grandchildren to visit. Staying on and continuing to work made more sense. Medical treatment would never be an issue here.
Inquiries at Catherine’s school revealed she had officially withdrawn from classes and with not much more work, the purchase of an airline ticket. Catherine’s trail stopped at the airport, and like Rebecca, she was a missing person as well.
With my wife and daughter gone missing in the same time frame, the police viewed me with far less suspicion. (I look suspicious to most people merely sitting at my desk.)
Rob turned out to be the last person on site to have spoken to Rebecca. He stopped by my office with a package.
“I don’t know what to do with this.”
“What is it?”
“A DVD recorder.”
“I know nothing about this, Rob.”
“I borrowed a VCR from her twenty years ago and never returned it. She wanted me to replace it with one of these.”
“Leave it in one of the chairs. Rebecca…has quite a collection of electronics. I’ll place it with those things.” I had slipped and not caught myself in time. But I wasn’t going to worry.
“I also bought some disks. They’re here.”
“Thanks.”
Rob turned to leave.
“Rob?”
He turned.
“Rob, I want to assure you that I continue to actively search for your daughters. There just has not been anything new to tell you for awhile. When I have any news, I will let you know within minutes.”
“Thanks, Mason.”
Mason
I was waking up too sick to swallow any breakfast. I made my way to my office early enough so that no one would see me make my painful way there. I even insisted now that Dr Prodana come to me. She was pulling blood out of me daily, submitting samples to St Kats with a number instead of a name so no one would know how ill I had become.
Rebecca had left Genomex suddenly, without a word to anyone. Very out of character.
The police would do nothing until adequate time passed to begin a search for a missing person. When that time passed, within an hour Rebecca’s car was found at the airport in short-term parking.
Where was she going? I thought about that for a long time before I considered the possibility that she wasn’t going anywhere, but was meeting someone.
Combing the passenger lists yielded Catherine’s name, and with that, everything began to make some sense.
I held meetings with small groups of doctors who worked there, assuring them there was no policy change and showing them Athellen Lee’s results. What dreary business, going over, time and again, the necessity for blotting out the life of an innocent whom I otherwise would have much enjoyed welcoming to this world as an honorary grandchild.
One of those meetings inevitably included Dr Angela Fontenelle. I knew she would do more than listen.
“Mason, you look terrible.”
“I feel worse.”
“Rebecca tracks your health more carefully than you know. Surely she is dragging you to doctors and tests.”
“Rebecca’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Kidnapped by Adam. He took Catherine as well. I don’t know if they are dead or alive.”
“I knew about Adam breaking out of prison. Even with a news blackout, I have good sources. But I had not heard the rest of it.”
“The police cannot find a trace, the feds aren’t doing any better, and I am beginning to despair of finding either of them alive.”
“I have ways of finding information, you know. I will look around. But Mason, you must know Adam is not regarded as he once was among mutants. There aren’t many of us left who would help him kidnap someone and hold them captive. He would almost have to recruit among the criminals, including human criminals. He could have developed useful contacts in prison.”
“The video evidence supports what you’ve said. Just the same, any scrap of information you find, please share.”
“Immediately.”
Rebecca
Catherine and Kurt were feeding Lilith’s koi while I studied a compilation of Lilith’s notes, when Adam and Lili emerged wearing absurd clothes. They were both wearing floor-length robes of shimmering black and purple silk, not a synthetic, but real silk, with the patina only a genuine silk fabric displays.
The robes were embroidered in gold and red, using alchemical symbols and Hebrew letters.
Lili possessed so much innate personal dignity that even when she dressed for the role of High Priestess in cheesy science fiction movie, she did not appear silly. Adam was not so fortunate.
I must have been gawking.
Like her father, Catherine could not resist making fun of Adam. In this case, he begged ridicule.
“Adam! It’s much too late for Mardi Gras and still too early for Halloween! What can it be? An alchemist’s convention? A spell exchange between ceremonial magicians? Mason told me about your foray into the Black Arts! He was laughing at the time.”
“You have a big mouth, Catherine.” Adam did his best to appear grave, but failed.
“You expect me to take you seriously when you’re dressed like that?”
“Catherine…” Kurt whispered, “don’t.”
She hesitated.
“You’re a rude kid, Catherine,” Adam said.
“You’ve spent your life hiding behind various poses, haven’t you? The serious scientist. The mutant savior. Always something grandiose and heroic. Always a lie, too.”
Adam muttered something none of us could understand and stalked off to the hangar. When the door was secured behind him, Kurt spoke up.
“I don’t know what Adam used to be like, but he’s got a foul temper and I may not be able to stop him. I’ve seen him blow up at Lilith and my brothers. It’s as if he completely forgets where he is. He’s not a mutant, so my governor won’t affect him.”
“He was never long on patience,” I added. “Kurt’s right. I know it’s hard to resist baiting Adam, but it is not the wise thing to do.”
“After all the things he did to Mom, Mason, and me, I don’t have any other way of getting back at him.”
“Adam’s done things to me, too…but Haven is not the time or place. Choose your battles carefully, Catherine,” I warned.
Kurt seemed shocked. “He’s done things to you?”
“Adam periodically invaded the facility Catherine’s father runs. During one of those invasions, I had the ill luck to discover Adam. I activated a fire alarm, and Adam had his mutant thug companion throw me against a concrete wall. Fortunately, all I had was a colorful collection of bruises, but I could easily been crippled or killed. Adam does not believe laws apply to him. He thnks he can make his own laws.”
“The way Adam tells it, Genomex was staffed with amoral monsters.”
“Blithely ignoring the fact that he collected a paycheck from Genomex for years.”
“Years? How long was he there?” Kurt sounded surprised.
“Twenty years, from 1978 to 1998.”
“To hear Adam tell it, he was there only a short time, long enough to have his ideas stolen and misused.”
“With Adam, you must always check the facts. Adam wasn’t off in a corner turning out his research for unknown applications. Adam helped run Genomex. He knew about mutants from the first month he was there.” Catherine still harbored resentment towards Adam. Dwelling upon that resentment was probably unhealthy.
Kurt chuckled. “That must be why Lilith laughs every time Adam talks about his research being stolen.”
“Probably. What were they dressed for, Kurt?” I wasn’t sure Kurt would tell me anything, but the question was worth asking.
“Lilith’s trying to organize the younger mutants, the ones who are second generation mutants and not sure of who or what they are. She set up some kind of religion, something she calls The Higher Humanity.”
“Higher Humanity? I saw flyers about that at school.” Catherine managed just the right level of curiosity without appearing too eager.
“Lilith’s recruiting. When the Firstborn are decanted, she wants their caretakers to be dedicated to their well-being.”
“Why would a young mutant want to live here?”
“The Firstborn will be the beginning of faster evolution of greater intelligence. Anyone who is part of their raising will be part of their success.”
Finally I realized why Kurt –and to a lesser degree, his brothers—looked familiar. Kurt looked much lie a young Paul Breedlove, when people knew him as Kurt von Schuler.
“But I thought Lili believed the Genomex mutants were a mistake.”
Kurt shook his head. “They won’t be mutants. They’ll be human. Highly intelligent, unusually healthy humans.”
“That’s what the new cavern is being fitted for?”
“Yes. Living quarters for the caretakers.”
Rebecca
I left Lili in her laboratory and went looking for Catherine. I followed the sound of her laughter coming from the direction of the koi pond.
She was telling Kurt a story in an animated fashion, one they both found very funny. Against all measures of good judgment, I liked Kurt more the better I knew him. So did Catherine. I was especially impressed by the way he treated her, with respect and old-fashioned manners.
But he’s Lili’s son.
“Excuse me. Catherine, something has come up and we need to speak privately.”
“Oh, my.”
“It can’t wait.”
Catherine bounded down from her perch above the water, stopped and turned to Kurt. “I’ll finish the story later. You won’t believe the way things turn out.”
I walked briskly back towards our room, Catherine catching up with me.
“What is it?”
“Keep your voice down after I tell you. I’ve worked out a deal with Lili.”
“What kind of deal?”
I closed the door behind us. I didn’t care if Lili monitored what we said or not. “Pack your things, Catherine. You’re going home.”
“What brought on this?”
“I told Lili that you were at risk with Jesse around. She agreed; Jesse doesn’t look stable or trustworthy to her, either.”
“So, she’s turning me loose? What about you?”
“We made a bargain. You are delivered safely to Genomex and Mason while I stay here with Lili and work for her for two years. In addition, Lili promises to work on treatments to lessen the severity of Mason’s condition, or cure him completely.”
Catherine sank down onto Adam’s desk chair. “I can’t leave you here in this pit.”
“You have to go. The way things were going, we were going to be here a long time. Mason cannot lose both of us.”
“Jesse’s crazy. He’s just as likely to try to hurt you as me!”
“I agree. But I made the deal, and you have to go. You’d better start packing.”
“Mason’s got three other children, but only one wife. Why should I be the one to get out of here?”
“Because you are young. Because you have so much of your life yet to live. Because you are Mason’s favorite; he sees much of himself in you, Catherine, and has high hopes for you.”
“His favorite?”
“Oh, yes.”
“How do you know?” Tears welled in her eyes.
“I know. Pack up and be ready to get out of here.”
“I never thought I could be anymore than second-best, since he found me so late, and because of what I am.”
I shook my head. “Forget all of that. Mason loves you for yourself. He is proud of what you’ve become in just a few years. Beyond health concerns, he does not care that you’re a stealth.”
“I was trying to live up to being his daughter.”
I smiled. “You are succeeding. Now, please, get your things packed.”
“I feel rotten leaving you.”
“I know. But I want you to be safe. Lili will have her plane prepared, and you better be ready when the plane is. I don’t want her changing her mind.”
Catherine hugged me. “I think you must be the least-evil stepmother in the world.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll try to help Mason find a way out of here for you. Anything I can do, I’ll do it.”
Catherine packed quickly and when done, went to Lili’s lab to contact Mason. I waited for Catherine to return at one end of the koi pond. Kurt was gone, presumably readying the Pseudo Sow.
Adam was one of the last people in the universe whom I wish to see. At the moment, he was also unavoidable.
“Lili just told me about the bargain the two of you made. I thought she was joking at first.”
I did not look up from what I was doing, which was my way of showing Adam as little respect as possible.
“And you thought it was a joke because?”
“Two years of your life, Rebecca? You would throw away two years of your life down here in hope that Lili can come up with a treatment to lessen Mason’s ills or even cure him?” Adam laughed. Few individuals had a laugh as heartless as Adam’s.
“Which part amuses you?”
“Your willingness to sacrifice so much of yourself for Mason’s sake.”
“Mason matters to me.”
“I know. That’s the part I don’t understand.”
“Can you imagine yourself making a similar sacrifice for anyone?”
“No.”
“That’s why you don’t understand. No one else has ever mattered much to you.”
“That’s nasty.”
“It’s true, isn’t it?” It was, but Adam wasn’t going to admit that.
“Look at your own life, Rebecca. You couldn’t make any kind of normal life for yourself. There were normal guys who were interested in you, but look at what you did: made some sort of peculiar life with a man no one else could tolerate being around. I haven’t seen Mason’s medical reports for years, but the adjustments and accommodations required must have been extensive.”
“Adam, has anyone told you yet today how deeply offensive you are? What about your life is ‘normal’?
Adam opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Realizing he had nothing to say, Adam turned and wandered back towards the room he shared with Jesse.
Mason
As long as my children were children, children I knew only as electronic images, I never felt that I could lose them. The same with Rebecca; as long as she was Dr Steyn whom I could coerce to attend useless ‘community’ meetings so that I could be in her company, however fleetingly, she, too, was an abstraction that I could not lose.
Now they were all real people to me, and losing them left me more alone than I had ever been in the years before.
Rebecca and Catherine, were both under the control of Adam, whose mental stability became more and more questionable. I knew why he took them. He took them to hurt me. Curiously enough, as Adam inflected more insults and injuries upon my life, he was compelled to bring more and more harm to me, as if our roles were reversed. I wonder what Dr Varady would make of such behavior.
If he hurts either of them, I will find a way to kill him.
I was startled when my private line rang. Only a handful of people knew my private numbers.
“Mason Eckhart.”
“Mason, it’s Catherine.”
“Catherine?’
“They won’t let me talk long. I think they’re going to return me to Genomex. Tell security…not to shoot at anything unexpected, because I may be part of it.”
That was all.
I wasn’t much surprised a few minutes later when told I had a message coming in from Adam, with visual contact. Adam never could resist flamboyancy.
“Mason. Aren’t you surprised to see me?”
The man had a talent for being tiresome.
I sighed. “I knew you would eventually come up for air and tell the world (once again) how brilliant you are. Your ego requires frequent, heavy feeding.”
“I have a shopping list of items I need badly that turn out to be difficult for individuals to purchase.”
“You’re well-connected with the criminal element. Can’t they supply you?”
“Not nice, Mason. I need these things badly enough to propose a trade.”
“A trade?” Here it comes.
“You know I have Catherine. I’ll give you Catherine in return for these supplies.”
Of course I would barter Catherine’s freedom. Adam knew that.
“Send me your list.” I resigned myself to playing Adam’s game.
“As easy as that?”
“There is nothing complex about dealing with a common criminal.”
That stung. I could see it in his eyes. Did he persist in thinking of himself as one of the great scientific minds of this time, protector of all mutantkind? Surely he knows by now any good he achieved long ago was counterbalanced by his crimes and excesses? No, not Adam. He still believes his old stories.
He must have no idea that while a few, a very few Genomex mutants still regarded Adam a hero, many more of them—and their unfortunate children—now knew the truth of his role in creating their biological misfortune. Adam was not there to take care of them, but St Katherine’s was now that more of them were afflicted. Surely Adam has heard of it?
“Don’t bring up that tiresome business about my work at Genomex, Mason. That’s all ancient history.”
“Ancient history perhaps to you, but not to the people suffering the consequences of your work. However, I was speaking of more recent events: the murder of eleven prison guards, and kidnapping.”
“Aren’t you curious about Rebecca? She’ll be disappointed if I tell her you didn’t ask about her.”
“I had confidence you would be using her to barter for something you wanted.”
“And I will. I just haven’t thought of it yet.”
“Harm Catherine, and Danielle will be waiting to greet you at the gates of Hell. Harm either of them, and there will be a price to pay with me.”
“Catch me if you can. I’ll send my shopping list and instructions on where and how to leave the goods. You’re going to have to move quickly.”
The transmission ended abruptly. To Adam, this was a game. All the lives he affected were game-pieces to him.
Adam would have taken pains to make the transmission untraceable. I wonder if he would have cared that a recording of the exchange would be played later today for the Genomex Mutant Council, an independent association of mutants, mostly successful professionals, with whom I routinely shared news of interest to them. They could make what they would of the recording, call it a fraud or accept it as truth. I never told them what to think.
I had never lied to them, however, and they knew who Catherine was. The first time I walked into a Genomex Mutant Council meeting, I wore body armor and had Catherine with me. Those days were long past, fortunately. Most likely they would accept the exchange as genuine, further darkening Adam’s reputation. I strongly suspected they had means of contacting and informing nearly all of the mutants I had mainstreamed over the years. I was careful to never say anything suggesting that I wanted a copy of any mutant census. I had my own list, anyway.
There were other lists as well: the Genomex mutants requiring treatment at St Katherine’s, and a small but growing list of mutants whose condition led to an early death. No one doubted my claims of the lethality of their genetic tampering any longer.
So, Adam was selling me back my daughter?
Lilith
“Would you like to see my work applied in a practical way, Rebecca?”
“Biology is not my specialty.”
“You understand more of it than any other chemist I’ve worked with.”
Rebecca knew enough to appreciate my work. She would be impressed with what she saw, even if she did not understand the fine technical details. Few people would.
“I’ll show you.”
She could hardly refuse.
I was quite proud of my work. Research work of this sort typically required dozens of workers, but I had made progress by myself, with only my sons to assist me.
“To the best of my knowledge, what has been done here is unique. No one else has brought together everything required for ectogenesis to be successful.”
The gestation room was kept behind a plain steel door keyed to my irises and those of my sons. I did not want Adam in there without me. I could not be sure what he might do. I did not trust him. He might destroy some of it out of jealousy for my successes.
Behind that simple, single steel door, the gestation room extended 150 meters deep and 50 meters wide. Row upon row of gestation units stood, brightly lit. The impression I strived for one of quiet, professional efficiency, not one of science gone mad. I stopped at the closest unit.
“The units are nearly identical, except for minor improvements made in later units. There are a total of 240 units here. When I designed these, I used off the shelf components wherever possible, avoiding expensive, custom parts that could be difficult to replace. Some parts can be found at any hardware store. Nearly all the rest are available from major scientific supply houses.”
“Very wise, Lili. Custom fabrication is a pain.”
“And this is also much cheaper.”
I pointed to what was the analogue of a womb.
“The first step is the careful sterilization of everything. I use a combination of heat and irradiation. After the ‘jar’ –that’s what I call these—is absolutely sterile, we introduce a nutrient solution and cells that have evolved and may attach to the jar walls, to form an analogue of the endometrium.”
I watched Rebecca’s eyes. Even some technical people were made uneasy or disgusted by a description of the process. Not Rebecca. After years of familiarity with the heroic medicine keeping Mason alive, probably nothing would shock or disgust her.
“When the ‘endometrium’ is properly prepared, we introduce the embryo. Attachment is not left to chance.”
The room was quiet, with the faint hum of fans and pumps, and very little else.
“Once we have an embryo safely attached, then the really interesting process begins. Other groups developed artificial amniotic fluid, but I improved upon all of their formulae. Mine is the best.”
“I also had to develop artificial blood. I grow red blood cells compatible with all the embryos, all possible embryos, then add nutrients—minerals, vitamins, amino acids, simple sugars, everything a very small human requires to develop properly. Waste is processed by a unit comparable to one used for dialysis.”
“Everything –everything—about each unit is monitored continuously. If I wish to know at 3.43 AM what the temperature and pH is in Jar 4A, I can bring that up in my bedroom computer.”
“These fetuses will be fed growth stimulants in a careful manner. Making a human the traditional way requires nine months. These units will complete the task in 11-12 weeks. They’ll be fully developed, and will not need special care to stay alive.”
“Why the rush?”
“Because I won’t live forever, and I want to be certain this job is done right.”
“Sadly, not all of the embryos are going to be successful. We monitor all development with care. When an individual begins to fail, we try a few basic techniques to bring them back. However, if they respond poorly to treatment, we stop. We assess how much distress or even pain the individual is suffering. We choose whatever method will end their lives quickly. This is always a terrible time. As soon as we can determine their sex, they are given names. We do not speak of A-734 or Q-079, no, we speak of James or Sharon or Peter or Elizabeth.”
“You must have several levels of backup power.”
“Naturally. And all systems are independent of Haven.”
“Most impressive, Lili, though I’m not sure the world is in need of more people.”
“The world needs these people. Worldwide, as the standard of living improves, intelligent women are having fewer or no children. The implications for humanity’s future are obvious should that trend continue, with the number of Genomex mutants increasing. My ectogens will not make up all of the differences, but their positive influence will be everywhere.
“Will Adam be the father of all of them?”
“Oh, no, future years of children must have a broad genetic background. Reliance upon Adam –well, really Paul Breedlove—alone would be unwise. No, in another part of Haven I have liquid nitrogen storage of semen of 27 brilliant men in a variety of fields and several different races. I will collect more as I am able.”
“Lili, what will you say to one of your children if they come to you, unhappy about the way they were created?”
“Oh, I don’t believe that will be a problem. My sons are content and appear emotionally normal.”
“But there are only three of them. When you have several dozen, and cannot give them all close attention, they might not be so content. When they learn how people live in the real world, connected by family ties. Even you had a family, Lili.”
“I had not considered that.”
“You’d better. Humans don’t do as well in packs as they do in families.”
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 8
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