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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
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Part 8
Mason
Catherine had not sounded like herself. I couldn’t expect that she would, given what I had seen on the surveillance video. The brief, cryptic message screamed for explanation, but my impatience would hasten nothing.
My first action was to warn security of a possible hostile arrival, and that Catherine might be used somehow. The discovery of one gunship plunged deep underwater did not eliminate the possibility that there were others, ready to fly.
I would not be taken unawares by another invasion by Adam. That the voice was Catherine’s I had no doubt, but Adam might have coerced or tricked her into saying what he wished.
Adam, bane of my life, if you have harmed Catherine or Rebecca, I will see that you suffer for it.
We watched all the approaches, and still we were surprised by the heat signature of a hovering aircraft undetectable by site radar or visual cameras.
But Adam’s VTOL was cut up into pieces. How can this be?
We braced for a possible assault from above, following the heat signature as it descended to ground level, prepared for the worst.
Not even Adam could know Genomex was presently defended by surface to air missiles. Hardly anyone knew. I was prepared to let these arrows fly at the first sign of attack, or of harm brought to Catherine.
But nothing happened. Catherine appeared in view, towing a suitcase behind her. And only Catherine appeared.
I hugged Catherine before even thinking about what impression my agents would have of me, because I did not care.
“After I saw the video of your abduction…I feared I might not see you again. Adam will not leave any of us alone.”
“Down in Lilith’s hole in the ground, I was afraid I’d never see you.”
“Adam surprised even me sinking low enough to essentially sell me my daughter in exchange for a pile of scientific supplies.”
“Adam?”
“Yes. He sent me a shopping list of items.”
“I didn’t think Adam was involved in this at all. I wasn’t even sure he knew about my being set free.”
“What?”
“Lilith agreed to release me in exchange for Rebecca staying and working for her for two years, with Lilith working part of the time to develop a cure for you.”
“O Dear God. Two years…”
“Mason, Lilith’s in charge. She tells Adam what to do. She has a hidey hole that’s a near twin to Sanctuary, except that it isn’t damp or or prone to flooding.”
“Paul learned from the shortcomings of Adam. Lilith is better than Adam, and I would expect her works to be an improvement over Adam’s. Catherine, is she making Genomex mutants?”
I adored my daughter, and tried my best to make the question not sound as if I found mutants loathsome.
“No, no mutants. But what she is making is no less fantastic. She’s making people, gestating them in artificial wombs.”
“Genomex put a lot of effort and money into an ectogenesis project. No one’s been able to make that work.”
“Lilith already has. One of her ‘sons’ flew me here. He’s a combination of Lilith and Breedlove’s DNA.”
“She’s too young to have an adult son.”
“Oh, Kurt is their son, no question. He looks like both of them. Lilith has found a way to grow a human to maturity in six to seven years.”
“Six to seven years?”
“Yeah. They look like anyone else. There isn’t anything peculiar-looking about them.”
“What about their emotional and intellectual development?”
“Well, they’re very bright. Emotionally, well, if you didn’t know, you’d think they were a little sheltered or naïve, but not much. The one who brought me here is actually well-mannered and nice.”
“Not if he’s one of the thugs who broke Adam out of prison.”
“No. Kurt wasn’t with them.”
“And you are sure of that because?”
“He told me. Lilith assigned him to protect Rebecca and me from Jesse.”
“Jesse?”
“One day, Adam showed up with Jesse. I don’t know who found whom, but Jesse looked disturbed. Lilith didn’t trust him, either, so she had Kurt follow us around to protect us, carrying the controller for a kind of governor not requiring a subdermal implant.”
“Invented by Lilith?”
“Yeah.”
“Lilith is damn dangerous.”
“Anyway, Kurt spent a lot of time with us. Rebecca believed him, too, when he said he wasn’t part of the attack team.”
“Rebecca’s at least as suspicious as I am. Do you have any idea where this hidey hole is?”
She shook her head. “Trust me, I paid attention to as many clues as I could find, but there just aren’t many. We were in or above the clouds nearly the whole time. About all I can be sure of is that we were in flight for fifty-three minutes, but we could have spent part of that going in a large circle.”
“Better than nothing. Come inside. Are you hungry?”
“Not really.”
“Later on, we’ll order something special. Catherine, I am so glad you are home.”
“There must be some way of getting Rebecca out of there.”
Catherine’s eyes were pleading. She wanted me to have the answers. I wanted to have the answers, but I didn’t.
“Assuming Haven is built like Sanctuary, or, given that Lilith constructed this hole in the ground comparable to Sanctuary, and built even more securely, without knowing where the entrances are, and without knowing the key codes for access, getting inside would mean taking down a mountain’s worth of rock and dirt and then assaulting Haven with a small army…unless you know of any vulnerable points.”
“No. We spent our days looking for vulnerabilities. I wasn’t just looking for a way out. I was looking for a way back in, too. I think you’re right to think Haven is more secure than Sanctuary. Lilith said it would never flood the way Sanctuary did.
“I’m sure she thought of other refinements as well.”
I could be dead by the time Lilith releases Rebecca, if she ever chooses to release her. How will Rebecca even know how much time has elapsed?
“There is one design change I noticed: Lilith’s Flying Sow does not plunge into the camouflaged side of a mountain; it hovers all the way down. Doesn’t that imply that there are people living or working nearby who would notice planes flying into the same hillside over and over?”
I wobbled, unsteady on my feet. Catherine seized by left arm. I wasn’t in any danger of falling, but Catherine thought I was.
“Thank you.
“When did you get so thin?”
“Very recently.”
“Does Rebecca know?”
“Not to this degree…but to return to the Flying Sow II…if it hovers, its heat signature will linger for a few minutes at least. An infra-red search—that’s a beginning.”
“I even went through their food supplies one night, looking for store brands, but I only found nationally-distributed brands.”
I smiled. “Nicely done, anyway. You did well to think of that.”
“Everything was that way. The dishwasher detergent, the potty paper, everything.”
“Interesting that Lilith would do that.”
“She wasn’t expecting us. We were Adam’s little surprise. She plans to bring more people in there, her ‘Higher Humanity’ group. There was a whole sealed-off area not quite ready for occupation. That’s why Rebecca and I had to sleep in Adam’s room.”
“Adam’s room?”
“Without Adam, of course. He must have slept on a sofa somewhere.”
“He must have been livid.”
“He was. It was fun to watch.”
Mason
With Rebecca out there, somewhere, in a high tech hole in the ground, and no one able to find her, Catherine and I turned to each other.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about school, and I want to transfer, so I’m closer to home.”
“You’ll lose some time doing that. You’ll take longer to graduate.”
“I don’t want to be far away. Maybe I could even commute.”
Catherine knew I was ill. She saw more than my weight loss; she saw I no longer attempted to consume solid food.
She thinks there is a good chance she has lost Rebecca, and she fears she may lose me as well. Who else is left for her?
“We can start looking into local programs.”
“When I’m done with school, I want to join the GSA.”
“I’m stunned. Isn’t this sudden?”
“Yes and no. I had a lot of time to think. Society –civilization—is threatened so many different ways. I want to do something to hold back ‘the night’. The GSA seems the best place for me.”
I smiled at my earnest and lovely daughter. “If indeed imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I am overwhelmed.”
Grey had never shown a moment’s interest in the generations-long tradition of service in our family. He would read about the War of Northern Aggression, but the possibility of service in any branch of the US military never came up.
Grey spoke of making money, buying a large house, driving expensive cars. To Grey, and people like him, their world seems solid and unshakable. Only a savage, a lower life form, would choose to leave civilization and fight. Fight for what?
Like most of his contemporaries, Grey was poorly educated. He had no understanding how a pretty world like his was able to exist. To paraphrase George Orwell, civilization exists because there are men willing to conduct themselves in a less civilized manner to protect it.
Grey did not understand, but Catherine did.
“Missions don’t come any more important than the protection and preservation of humanity, but I must warn you: it’s a thankless job at best.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“I’ve been characterized as everything from a zookeeper to a Nazi. I had to learn to work to my own standards and not expect anyone above me or outside the GSA to comment on my work, except, of course, when something went wrong.”
“I remember the stories.”
“Do you think you could track down and capture other mutants, Catherine?”
“Probably. Yeah.”
“The majority of Genomex mutants are living openly now. However, that does not mean they approve of mutants hunting other mutants. No small amount of bad feeling is held against GS agents who are themselves mutants. Do you want to deal with that?”
“About the only ‘wild’ mutants left are criminals. Besides their crimes, I figure they make all mutants suspect.”
“Very true. What are you going to do about school?”
“I want to transfer back here and I don’t want to be around anything reminding me of Patrick.”
“I can arrange for you to sit in on some academy classes. You already know a great deal more about mutants than the typical human recruit. You wouldn’t have any problem handling the material.”
“Are you trying to discourage me?”
“Not at all. Think you might want to run the GSA someday?”
“Yeah.”
“I believe you could.”
“You do?”
“Of course. You would bring unique understanding of the problem to the position, and you’d have me to advise you every step of the way getting there.”
“What would it take to expand the GSA’s authority to include Lilith’s uber-people? Lilith’s kidding herself if she thinks none of them will turn their superior selves to crime.”
“I hadn’t considered that, but yes, in a few years…I could rewrite the scope of the agency and have that approved before the first of Lilith’s ectogens breaks a law.”
“There’s nothing to distinguish Lilith’s children except their DNA, specifically their mitochondrial DNA.”
“Sounds like interesting times ahead.”
Rebecca
Foolishly, I had allowed the days to slip past, indulging in the far-fetched hope I would find a way out of my crazy Zen prison, or even less likely, that I would be rescued, delivered from captivity and returned safe and sound to the life and people I loved.
With Catherine gone, I felt claustrophobically trapped. Nightmares about the millions of tons of rock not far above my head disturbed my sleep regularly.
But the days slipped by, nothing changed, and my prescriptions were running out.
“Lili, my medications are nearly exhausted. These prescriptions must be refilled in the next two days.”
“Reasonable enough…but there will be a record of the purchase.”
“Send Adam to a different branch store every time.”
She nodded. “That works.”
I should have said, “Send Kurt,” because the drug names would have meant nothing to him. But they would have meaning for Adam. Sure enough, on his return, he was curious about my medications.
“Becky, why are you taking Synchronax?”
“My name is Rebecca. If you want to live, you will call me Rebecca.”
“Touchy. Is it that time of the month or is it maybe something else?”
I seized the bag from him. “You always did have problems with boundaries. The answer to that question is between me and my doctor, none of your business, none of your concern.”
“Here in Haven, I’m the only MD.”
I didn’t like the look in his eyes. I thought of a half-dozen different extraordinarily rude things I could say to him, the kind of verbiage he’d never heard out of my mouth before, but that I’m sure he’d heard from other women unfortunate enough to be in proximity to him.
“Adam, put a hand on me, and I will beat the life out of you. If what you are can fairly be described as life.”
“Touchy, touchy, touchy.”
“No, Adam, it’s the fact that I don’t like you. I know too much about what you’ve done to like you. The fact that I have to work with you is unpleasant enough.”
“Women at Genomex were thrilled with my company.”
“None with taste, self-respect, or intelligence. I have all three.”
Lilith glided out of her lab. She looked tired and annoyed. “Adam, go work on the plane or empty wastebaskets. Didn’t Eleanor teach you not to make a pest of yourself?”
“She told me I was wonderful.”
“Several times every hour, no doubt,” I smirked.
Lili rolled her eyes. “I believe it. Rebecca, did he get you the proper prescriptions?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Why don’t we go into the lab and be constructive. Adam, go see if we got our fuel delivery. They’ve been running a day late and I’m getting annoyed.”
I watched everything Lili did carefully, every day. The days were slipping past and I had yet to see any sign that she had put a minute’s effort into the problems of alleviating or eliminating Mason’s afflictions.
“Lili. Mason’s problems. When do we begin working on them?”
And always, when I posed this question in one form or another, she would respond with something very like:
“I’ve been giving them a good deal of thought. I must work through the issues in my mind first before setting up any experiments.”
I had no choice but to conclude that Lili either had no intention of performing work of benefit to Mason, or that such research was so far outside her range of skills and expertise that she would not attempt it.
That’s when I became desperate to get away from Haven.
I was walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood. I didn’t know anyone who lived there, but walking through it was the only way I had of reaching home, so I kept on walking.
It was not a pleasant day for a walk. The sky was overcast and the air chilly.
Someone pointed out a column of smoke rising into the sky, and explained that Mason Eckhart was dead and the smoke was from his funeral pyre.
I don’t remember anything more from that dream, but that was plenty. If dreams are “letters to ourselves”, then this one informed me how worried I was that Mason might sicken and die before I could get back to him. The possibility was very real. Mason’s health had been failing when Adam kidnapped me. And here I was, locked in a hole in the ground.
I knew from talking to Jesse and Emma that the original Flying Sow had the capability of flying itself, so I had hopes that the Pseudo Sow could do the same. I had no idea where I was, but merely getting outside the bounds of Haven would be a major step towards successful escape.
The hangar door was kept locked. I found electrical tape in Adam’s things, and I sat myself down next to the door, reading, anticipating Lilith’s weekly grocery expedition. After Lili and Matthew passed through the door, I taped the catch down. No one noticed.
I spent the balance of the active hours in Haven doing my best to avoid Adam and Jesse, not wanting to be the target of Jesse’s rage with the possibility of escape looming.
Lilith enjoyed her shopping days. They provided her time with each of her sons in turn, exposing them to the real world outside of Haven, and were much more than the acquisition of supplies.
I waited until everyone was in their rooms that evening. Lilith was dedicated, but she kept regular hours and expected everyone else to do the same. Adam whined about this, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Before the Flying Sow was dismantled, Jesse had shown me the control panels. Adam had great faith in automated systems, and the controls were surprisingly, shockingly simple. I like to be in control and know exactly what is going on, which the Flying Sow did not allow. I hoped that the flight deck of the Pseudo Sow would be much the same, if not identical, given how similar Haven was to Sanctuary.
I gathered the things brought with me to Haven—the things I would need in the real world outside—and made my way quietly to the hangar door. The door was unlocked, with my tape still in place. I removed the tape, then walked on briskly to the Pseudo Sow.
I all but ran up the ramp, taking time to figure out how to raise and secure it. I wasn’t planning on climbing above 10,000 feet, but having the ramp dangling in flight could not be good.
As I prepared to raise the ramp, Kurt glided silently into view.
“I can’t let you take my mother’s plane. We need it.” He wasn’t angry or excited. His voice was even and matter of fact.
“Kurt, I have to get away from Haven. If I don’t, Jesse will harm me.”
“I see the way he looks at you. He looked at Catherine the same way…it’s disturbing to see. I cannot imagine you or Catherine doing anything to justify such…hatred. Why does Jesse want to hurt you?”
“Catherine’s father, the man I married, caused Jesse’s unborn daughter to die. He did not act out of cruelty; the child would have had enormous, frightening powers.”
“Did you help him?”
“I did not know he was going to do it. He knew if he told me, I would talk him out of it. Mason loved Jesse like a son; doing this thing did not come easily.”
“And Catherine?”
“She was hundreds of miles away. She knew nothing about it.”
I had never lied to Kurt before. He had every reason to believe me.
“Jesse has already acted against Mason. He reached into the belly of Mason’s daughter-in-law and tore out the son she was carrying. Jesse used to be a good, decent man. He isn’t any longer. He’s crazy and he wants to get back at Mason and anyone Mason cares about.”
“Dr Steyn, I cannot allow you to take the plane, and I cannot take you out of here in it, because I will be found out. But there is one other possibility.”
“Tell me.”
“Are you afraid of heights?”
“Terrified.”
“Well…there is a staircase out of here. It winds around the opening. Most of it is steel mesh.”
“I won’t look down.”
“Try not to. The other thing is, if you have not cleared the staircase before there is a reason to take the plane out of here, I don’t know how safe you will be.”
“I won’t dawdle.”
“It’s a long way up.”
“I’ll try it.”
“Come with me. I’ll show you where the stairs begin.”
I dutifully emerged from the Pseudo Sow, and walked beside Kurt.
“Mother says the people outside are weak, stupid, and lazy. But you aren’t like that, and neither is Catherine.”
“Lili’s quite correct about most people, however.”
We stopped before a plain gray steel door with no markings.
“This is where it begins.”
“Thank you, Kurt. You’re giving me back my life.”
“You mean a great deal to Catherine. She won’t be happy with you here. You’d better get started. Do one thing for me, Dr Steyn.”
“Of course.”
“Tell Catherine I will never forget her. Now, get going. I’ll dim the lights down here; you won’t be as inclined to look down.”
“Goodbye, Kurt.”
“Good luck, Dr Steyn.”
I have always loathed steel mesh stairs and walkways. They are too open, permitting a view of sights below, sometimes far below. Steel-deck bridges, several hundred feet above the water were even worse.
Climbing the staircase snaking about the Sow II’s entry and exit portal required me to be both quiet and quick. Neither came easily. I wanted to scream. I wanted to hug the inner wall. I forced myself forward, to relentlessly climb, to rest as infrequently as possible, and to never look down, down to where the Sow II sat, bathed in light, glittering through the gaps.
Don’t look down. Well, I didn’t, but the light from below kept reminding me how far behind I had left the hangar floor.
In good lighting, or in daylight, I would not have been able to make the ascent at all. Only the deep darkness made the climb possible, and I was grateful for that.
I began to wear down, taking more and more frequent breaks. I could not tell how far away the ‘top’ was, since the apparent center was an ill-defined dark area.
A handful of times I sat down and listened. The hangar was typically silent. I wanted it silent; I did not want anyone taking a late evening flight.
I began to smell the world outside long before I saw or heard it: the scent of green, growing things on a summer’s evening well past sunset, with heavy dew settled onto everything. For the last few turns of the spiral, I quickened my pace. Suddenly, I was outside.
I had been underground so long I had forgotten what summer smelled like. And it was not still and quiet. The air was filled with the trilling and song of crickets and cicadas.
Down below me in the real world, I could see a regular pattern of streetlights. I couldn’t tell how far away they were, but between me and the lights, there was a lot of terrain. Waiting until morning was out of the question. Lili would send someone looking for me when I turned up missing and I did not wish to be found.
Fortunately, the night was clear. I took my bearings from the stars and set off for the lights.
I didn’t know what was out there, but I doubted I would find any humans lurking in the darkness. Most people are afraid of the dark, but I am not, not once my eyes have adjusted to it. People avoid the darkness and most animals will avoid people. I was concerned with what I would find once I reached the lights, however. I had to find a telephone, without finding any people inclined to harm me.
I walked through a lot of dried brush. I think I was mostly walking through neglected pasture. The terrain was too uneven to be tilled.
Once I collided with a mesh fence. That was the closest I came to falling. For a long while, I was walking downhill, but the land became undulating and I descended below sight of the lights. I kept to a straight path by checking the position of the stars. I picked my way across a wide stream or drainage ditch, then scrambled up a steep, rocky bank, suddenly finding myself at the perimeter of a large industrial park.
What I wanted to find was a plant or warehouse that worked around the clock. A large gathering of people would be safer than one or two. I stayed in the shadows as much as possible, not wanting to be seen first by anyone I found.
Every building looked empty at this time of night, with no cars outside and no lights on in offices. Even the cleaning crews must have finished hours ago.
I had been walking for a long time and was really not in condition for it. The industrial park went on and on; I might wander for miles without seeing anyone.
But, there was a better way. I knew that as soon as I saw the petunias cascading over the side of a ceramic planter. The plants were watered, meaning that the business within was functional. The planter was large and heavy. Lifting it took the last shred of will and determination I owned. I heaved it through the glass door.
The broken glass shattered magnificently and made a lot of noise. An alarm within sounded immediately, which was exactly what I wanted. But I took no chances. I pushed the remaining shards of glass out of my way and climbed through the door.
The receptionist’s phone glowed faintly in the gloom. I picked it up and dialed 911.
“I want to report a breaking and entering.”
The alarm, of course, was still going off. I cannot imagine what the dispatcher thought, but I told her I wanted the police, and quickly. I considered explaining something about my…situation, but realized that would make me appear crazy or criminal or both.
I had one more call to make. I dialed one of Mason’s hyper-secret phone numbers. He’d panic when he heard this ring, but he would answer it at any hour.
“Mason Eckhart.”
“It’s Rebecca, Mason. I’m free.”
“Where are you?”
“This sounds silly, but I don’t know.”
“Why is that alarm going off?”
“Because I had to break in here to use the phone. I expect the police any minute. I called them, too. Mason, I have to go. I can see their lights outside.”
I turned on the interior office lights and waited patiently for the first cruiser to appear. I wanted to be seen plainly, and I also wanted it plain that my hands were in open view and I had nothing to hide.
The officer who showed up first looked very young.
I had seated myself on an office chair in an open space, placing my purse three meters away with my GSA and other identification spread out in front of it for inspection.
“Good evening.”
“Are you the one who called?”
“Yes.”
“Someone broke in here?”
“Me. It was the quickest way to get help. If you’ll look at my identification, you’ll see that I am GSA, and that I do match the photos.”
“This isn’t making a whole lot of sense.”
“It will.”
He picked up each piece and compared everything to me. I seemed to match.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I’ve been held captive for a while. I escaped tonight. I’ve been walking a long time. My name should also appear on lists of missing persons. The GSA will pay for all of this damage.”
“That’s quite a story.”
I nodded. “Best part is, it’s all true.”
“You’re going to have to come out to the car while I check out everything.”
“Gladly.”
He put me in the back of the car, locking me in, of course. I didn’t mind. I wasn’t even sure where I was, but that was nowhere near as important as the fact that I was free of Haven, Lilith, and Adam. I dozed off while he was checking everything. I didn’t care how long that took, just that I was no longer living under millions of tons of rock.
“Dr Steyn?”
“I must have gone to sleep.”
“People tell me a lot of crazy stories, but yours is true. Several federal agencies have been hunting for you.”
“I’ve been held in a hole in the ground.”
“An ambulance is coming for you.”
“Ambulance?”
“You’re all cut up, covered with insect bites, and you have a nasty gash right on your hairline that is probably going to need stitches.”
“I feel fine.”
“You’re probably keeping going by adrenaline and will power. You’ve been through a lot.”
Well, I’d been through even more than that. Afterwards, I was told that I presented a less than wholesome appearance. The gash in my scalp needed five stitches, my arms were scratched and bitten, and my clothes were torn. Blood had dried in my hair.
Mason
When Rebecca’s phone call first came through I thought it was some kind of unfunny joke. The sound quality was poor, and she did not sound right. But hardly anyone knew that number.
She sounded scared. Rebecca does not frighten easily, nor is she prone to panic. (Helpless women are so tedious.) But between the sound of her voice and what Catherine had told me, I could not get to her quickly enough. I left in such a hurry I nearly left Catherine behind…not that she had dawdled. She ran to the helicopter wearing socks and carrying her shoes. I was in no mood to wait for anything.
When Catherine described the desperate bargain Rebecca had made with Lili Chen, I feared I would never see her again. Lili would never let her go. I wasn’t certain what Adam might do to her, but I had a pretty good idea that Jesse might kill her, since Emma had left him.
None of our attempts to locate Haven yielded useful information. Lili had hidden Haven as skillfully as Adam had hidden Sanctuary.
I kept busy. I spent a good deal of time with Catherine, but inside, my helplessness in finding Rebecca made me desperate and depressed. Privately, I was miserable. I felt unworthy of the sacrifices Rebecca had made to return Catherine to me, while I could do nothing to rescue her. Isn’t that what I should have been able to do, rescue my Rebecca? After all, I commanded a small army, and with a little trouble, I could summon multiples of their number. But all this time, I had no notion of where Rebecca was held.
Hence my frantic morning flight into what remained of the hours of darkness.
When we alighted from the Genomex helipad, all we had were GPS coordinates from the phone Rebecca had used. Using the area code of the source phone, my agents were able to carefully search a limited area for Rebecca’s transponder and from that they determined additional coordinates. While in mid-flight, the local police contacted me; Rebecca’s claim of being GSA and the victim of a kidnapping had proven true, as unlikely as it must have sounded.
They directed me to a small rural hospital where they had taken Rebecca, assuring me that they only wanted to err on the side of caution. Rebecca was dehydrated, exhausted, and cut up by brush, but nothing seemed seriously wrong.
The sky was turning lighter in the east when we touched down in the hospital parking lot.
Having Catherine with me helped. I intentionally present a forbidding appearance. Once Catherine was introduced as my daughter, the doctors and police assumed she was Rebecca’s daughter as well. Catherine did not correct them. People spoke more freely than they would have done to me alone. Catherine made me more approachable.
Rebecca was sleeping. She had been given a sedative, and was now deeply asleep. I did not have the heart to wake her.
I was not prepared for the thinness of her face. “What has happened to her, Catherine?”
“Neither of us had much of an appetite. We didn’t trust Lilith’s food, anyway. Rebecca believed it might be spiked with something to keep us docile and quiet.”
“It’s possible. Control, control, control. Breedlove and Adam all over again.”
I turned to one of my agents. “Go and get the helicopter refueled. Find breakfast somewhere and bring enough back for the other agents and Catherine.”
“Why aren’t you eating?” She sounded like Rebecca.
“I’m not hungry, and when I do eat, it tends not to stay eaten.”
“Even the pink stuff?”
“Even that.”
The gash on Rebecca’s head had been stitched and some of the blood cleaned up. The police told me she must not have felt it while focused on escape, although it looked much worse when they found her. They had not been sure what she was at first, but everything she said was verified.
“The direction she said she walked in is empty for miles; there’s nothing out there. She had to walk miles through the brush in the dark.”
They seemed amazed by this. I was not. Rebecca was not afraid of the dark.
Rebecca’s escape would panic Lilith and Adam, because she might just be able to find her way back. Haven was now vulnerable. Would Lilith be desperate enough to fly the Pseudo Sow by daylight in search of Rebecca? She must know there was a good chance the area was now carefully monitored by satellite in visual and infrared scan.
Rebecca
Mason says I sleep like a prey animal, waking at any sound that is out of place. Well, he may be correct, but it is a useful tendency.
I found myself waking up slowly, muddled and fuzzy in my thinking. I could not sort out where I must be. Nothing sounded as it should, not like our steel cave, not like Laura Varady’s house, and not like Haven. But, it was so very hard to wake up.
“Mason.”
Mason was sitting beside the hospital bed I was in. He smiled. “At last. There you are.”
“Here I am. Been waiting long?”
“A few hours.”
I heard Catherine’s laughter and turned to see her sitting on the other side of the bed.
“We’ve really only been here about ninety minutes. Some of that we spent talking to police, and having breakfast.”
“The police. They brought me here. I remember now.”
“About forty-five minutes ago I received an angry phone call from the site manager of a branch of Alacron LLC. I assured him the GSA would cover all damages and take care to replace the flowers. I’m not sure he believed me.”
“Oh. That. It seemed like a good plan at the time.”
“It was a great plan.”
I reached up and touched my forehead. “Someone did needlepoint on me.”
“You required several stitches to close the gash.”
“Oh, yes. I think I collided with a fence post, but in the dark it was hard to tell. Do I have to stay here?”
“Is there somewhere you would like to go?”
“Home. I want to go home.”
“Home awaits.”
I shifted my legs and became aware how sore I was, even though I was feeling the effects of a painkiller.
“I took quite a hike last night.”
“You have the bites and scratches to prove it.”
I felt the remaining dried blood in my hair. “I must look a little scary.”
“We’re glad to see you, blood, bites, and all.”
“You’ll be fine after you scrape off the grit,” Catherine said. “We brought some clean clothes and shoes. I think you’re going to want to throw away what you wore here.”
I willed myself to sit up in bed, then swung my stiff, sore legs over the side facing Mason.
“I didn’t think I was going to see you again, Mason.”
“I had my doubts. Catherine told me all about Lilith’s hole in the ground. How did you escape?”
“I didn’t exactly ‘escape’. One of my keepers showed me a back door.” I turned back towards Catherine. “Kurt.”
“He was a good guy. Maybe Lilith has a revolt on her hands.” Catherine smirked.
“Could be.” I slid down from the bed. “Where are those clothes?”
Catherine plucked up a plastic bag from the floor and brought me the clothes. Then she hugged me.
“We’ve been trying to figure out some way to get you out of there. Short of bringing down half the hill, we couldn’t come up with anything…and that was only if we knew where Haven was.”
“Do you think you could find Haven?” Mason asked.
“Maybe. First, I have to change out of this lovely gown.” I was a mess. And something else. “I smell, don’t I?” I asked Catherine.
“Yes.”
I rolled my eyes at her, and padded off toward the bathroom.
“We like you anyway,” Mason said.
I stopped and turned to face him. “Thank you.” He was smiling slyly, very pleased with himself. “You have the sneakiest smile of anyone I’ve ever known.”
Catherine laughed. It was true.
“My smile is one of those qualities my enemies find so endearing.”
“Your friends, too.”
Lilith
Rebecca always enjoyed a solid professional reputation at Genomex. She worked hard, and was respected for the unembellished, honest, succinct reports she generated.
She had given her word to stay behind and work for me. I never considered the possibility of her not keeping her promise. Nevertheless, it was 10 AM, and she had yet to appear in my lab. I became concerned that something had happened to her. I put down my samples. On the way to Rebecca’s room, I came upon Adam and Jesse tinkering with a pile of electronic junk.
“Adam, have you seen Rebecca this morning?”
“Who?” Adam did not look up from his junk.
Adam must be in one of his obnoxious moods. I should throw him and his unbalanced follower out of here.
“Rebecca Steyn.”
“Oh, her. I think she left.” Adam sounded excessively casual.
“Left?”
“She doesn’t seem to be in Haven. Jesse and I searched everywhere. We even drafted your pathetic little canine feral Mandy and had her sniff around the place.”
Adam’s manner was casual in an annoying, calculating way. He was trying to be irritating. He was succeeding.
“Why didn’t you say something hours ago?”
“Well, she’s long, long gone, Lili. Mandy says the trail is hours and hours old. I did not want to upset you needlessly.”
How thoughtful you are, Adam.
“Where is this trail and where does it lead?”
“Up and out.”
“Meaning?”
“The access shaft stairs. You never thought anyone would climb those stairs except in an emergency, but Rebecca appears to have done exactly that.”
“How did she get into the hangar?”
“I have no idea.”
“Shouldn’t we be going after her?”
“If it was dark outside, yes. During daylight hours, we’d attract attention.”
“Damn.”
“Face it, Lili: you didn’t have any idea how to hold up your part of the bargain. Rebecca figured that out. She’s not stupid.”
“I was giving the problem a great deal of thought.”
“How was she supposed to understand that?”
“I suppose she wouldn’t.”
“Lili, Rebecca’s a fool about only one thing, and that’s Mason Eckhart. About everything else, she’s pretty sharp.”
Rebecca
Washing off some of the dirt and clean clothes made me feel a lot better. After seeing what was left of the clothes I had worn last night, I agreed with Catherine that they were not salvageable.
I emerged somewhat more presentable from the bathroom. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Catherine took a few steps to stand near Mason. Not until then did I notice he was once again using a cane. She was ready to help him, but with a focused, deliberate effort, he rose without assistance. His face had looked thin, but not until he stood could I see how gaunt he had become. He saw my alarm.
“Rebecca, there is no need for the panicked look you are wearing. I’ve been worse. Every day I grow stronger. I am recovering. Catherine will vouch for this.”
She nodded.
Mason took my arm when he reached me. “We’ll hobble out together.”
Which we did. I wasn’t sure who was helping whom. The truth was, I was unsteady on my feet.
“We’ve already collected your purse,” Catherine said. “It’s in the helicopter.”
“Thanks.” I turned to Mason. “Did Catherine tell you Lilith broke Adam out of prison to be her assistant?
“Yes,” Mason smirked. “It’s about time he learned some humility and it sounds like Lilith is teaching him well.”
“He’s not a happy boy, not at all.”
“So Catherine told me. But hearing it again is pleasing. Adam’s never been subordinate to anyone but Paul.”
“If I can find the back door again, will someone go in after them?”
“Absolutely. But it won’t be me or any of my people. Since Catherine was released, she and I have spoken with the heads of several agencies who want Adam and Lilith cornered and caught badly, as much as I do. Adam has broken so many laws he may need several lifetimes to serve all the sentences.”
“How long would an android live?” Catherine asked.
“I have no idea, but he’s not going back to an ordinary prison. A special place is being constructed for him and Dr Chen, a place underground. Should another of Paul’s nightmares try freeing them, they’ll first have to burrow deep into the earth. An antique missile silo from the 1960s is being remodeled specifically for the purpose of containing them. It will even have a sun room. Two hundred meters down, with light balanced like sunlight so they will not be able to complain about these conditions.”
“Another hole in the ground!” I laughed.
“Yes. We’ve learned something from Adam.”
“Doesn’t that qualify as cruel and unusual punishment?” Catherine asked.
“And hence, be unconstitutional?”
“That objection was raised as soon as I suggested the underground prison. But the Constitution applies only to humans, which they are not.”
The three of us walked slowly back towards the parking lot entrance. Catherine and Mason flanked me. I put on a brave show, but I was sore and exhausted.
“It’s good to be outside in the sun again.”
“We aren’t meant to be subterraneans.”
“Catherine, you must have told Mason what Lilith said about ectogenesis.”
“As much as I heard.”
“Well, I’ve seen what she’s doing. She’s making it work. I’ve seen the chambers. She’s taken all the principles and theoretical work, and brought it all together into a practical, functional procedure.”
“Catherine said Lilith claimed three sons by the process.”
“That’s another aspect of Lili’s work. She has developed means to hasten gestation and dramatically shorten time to mature size and adulthood.”
“This sounds more and more like Brave New World.”
“Lili’s work is exactly that, except that she’s making only alphas, hyper-alphas at that. She’s using eggs implanted with her own exceptional cut and paste DNA.”
“What is Adam doing with her?”
I laughed. “Adam is Lilith’s assistant. He didn’t seem to be bringing more to the project except refined lab skills.” I laughed again. “Lab skills, and the fathering of hundreds of developing embryos! I saw them, Mason, swimming in artificial amniotic fluid!”
“Hundreds?” Mason did not surprise easily, but this was bizarre.
“For now, there are hundreds. Not all of them will survive. The weak ones will never develop; she’ll allow those to die, the way a gardener culls weak seedlings.”
“She has this all planned?”
“From animal work, she has a good idea of how development will go. Only the strongest and most vigorous will complete gestation.”
“This sounds obscene.”
“It is. The words are Lili’s, not mine.” I continued. “Of the children who are decanted –she uses the vocabulary of Brave New World deliberately—she is prepared to cull a majority of them and retain perhaps five percent of the most brilliant and physically hardy.”
“Echoes of Paul Breedlove’s Nazi beginnings without the racist agenda. What will she do with her culls? Murder them?”
“No. They’ll be intellectually and physically superior to most of us. While maintaining an elite core group, she will carefully distribute the others to orphanages, and in the long term, she believes they will make a significant improvement to the wider gene pool.”
I did not approve of Lilith’s plan, but I could not pick a flaw in the logic of her thinking.
“Won’t people notice children who grow up so quickly?”
“She’ll withdraw treatment. Once outside of her care, they’ll grow the same as other children.”
“So, in about 20-25 years we’ll start seeing people with a vague resemblance doing well in a variety of fields, coming from all over?’ Catherine asked.
“Yes, except that their brothers and sisters raised entirely under Lilith’s tutelage will have blazed their way through life years before.”
“This project is a blasphemy.”
“Yes. I’ve given a lot of thought to the ethical aspects. Even if Lili is captured and prosecuted for breaking Adam out of prison, I think her ectogenesis project is legal. I don’t believe there is any way to shut it down legally, certainly not after she has decanted individuals who are physically sound, thoroughly human, bright, and indistinguishable from anyone conceived and birthed in the traditional way. Lilith’s assistants, her sons and the mutant cultists would carry on without her. Stopping the project may be impossible.”
Lilith
Adam was just not well-informed about matters not concerning…Adam. He really had never heard of St Katherine’s. Mason Eckhart’s mainstreaming program, dubious at first, turned out to be as presented, nothing more, nothing less. Only criminals or psychologically disturbed mutants ever dropped out of the mainstreaming program, and back into the ‘underground’, so Adam never heard of the hospital. I was dubious about St Katherine’s myself when I first heard of it, and that Mason Eckhart was behind its creation.
Over time, I never heard anything suspicious about St Kat’s, and I was watching closely. But I never heard of a mutant disappearing after admission or behaving oddly after treatment. I heard no suggestion of experimentation on mutants.
Mason Eckhart was an odd man, but whatever task he took on, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to its completion. St Kats appeared to be one of those tasks, with no hidden purpose or secret malevolent function.
“Lili, what is this St Katherine’s Hospital?”
I was very busy. I hoped Adam would go away and leave me to my work. “It’s a hospital for mutants funded by Genomex. Eckhart started setting it up in 2008, refurbishing run down St Katherine’s Hospital, creating a unique facility for mutants. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of it.”
“Did Genomex run out of space for their chambers of horrors?”
“Get with the times, Adam. Genomex got out of the horror business in late 2007. Maybe Eckhart had a religious experience while he was podded, because he changed everything after he came out of stasis. This hospital is not a trap or a con. Mutants go into St Kats for treatment, if there is one for their particular affliction, and then they are discharged. They go back to their lives.”
“That’s impossible with Mason involved. Nothing he ever does is that straightforward or benevolent.”
“Adam…my patience is wearing thin. Your fixation upon Eckhart is tiresome. He’s cleaning up the mutant catastrophe you and Paul made. He’s not the AntiChrist. Why don’t you obsess over some of our real problems, such as improving storage or nutrient monitoring of the undecanted?”
No wonder no one wanted to work with this man.
“I just don’t believe it.”
“Well, St Kat’s does serve Eckhart’s mission of containing the hazards mutants present to society.”
“One day all these people will be loaded up like cattle and dragged off to a remote podding center.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. Adam just did not understand. Mason Eckhart had not magically transformed into the savior of all mutants. He just applied a more humane strategy to achieve tha same goals. The mainstreamed mutants liked living out in the open, free to live without constant fear. Most of them supported the prosecution and containment of criminal and insane mutants. Eckhart made no secret of the GSA’a vigorous and ruthless pursuit of such individuals.
Eckhart’s overall strategy was effective and humane, but I doubted it would ever achieve complete success.
I roused myself from my somber reflections. I stood up, stretched, and tossed my lab coat into my chair.
“Adam, let’s go see for ourselves.”
It’s difficult to surprise Adam, but I had succeeded.
“Shake off your stupor, Adam, we’re going on a fact-finding expedition.” Adam remained rooted to his chair.
“What are you talking about, Lili?”
“Do you want to know the truth about St Katherine’s or not? Let’s stop speculating and find out first hand.”
He rose slowly. “Lili…security there must be like Genomex. We can’t just walk in.”
“I’m told that that is exactly what we can do. The public can walk right in through the front door.” I laughed. “It’s really quite clever, Adam: Eckhart has hidden a treatment center in plain sight, and because it does not appear extraordinary, no one becomes curious about the patients.”
“I think this is foolhardy.”
“At the first indication of a problem, we will leave.”
Adam followed me reluctantly to the plane.
“What will you say, Adam, if St Kat’s is exactly what it is claimed to be?”
“That just cannot be.”
I shook my head. Adam had an answer for everything. Not always the most rational answer, but always an answer. Any matter related to Mason Eckhart elicited an emotional, irrational response. I had learned not to listen carefully to these rantings.
“My sons are all busy with tasks that desperately need doing. Jesse can earn some of his keep around here by acting as pilot, and staying with the plane while we go on our fact-finding expedition. Go find him.”
Jesse’s usefulness and disinclination to find or invent a task that would make him useful was a sore point between Adam and me. All Jesse ever seemed to do was eat, sleep, and brood. While Rebecca and Catherine were here, he also spent time menacing them.
“Jesse may not want to go. Half a dozen federal agencies are looking for him.”
“Too bad. I need a pilot and Jesse is available. He has to do something, Adam. My sons are becoming resentful of his free ride. I want him to fly us to St Kats. Now, Adam.”
Adam said nothing but turned and wandered off towards the room he shared with Jesse, a hot water heater, a washer, and a dryer. He emerged with a sullen, dirty-looking Jesse. I made a mental note to have Adam run Jesse through the showers when we returned. If Jesse was going to live in Haven, he wasn’t going to stink.
Rebecca
“You were gone a day before anyone was certain you were missing.”
“I thought that might happen. I should have been more careful, but it was the middle of the day and Catherine was waiting.”
“Please don’t ever take a chance like that again.”
“I won’t.”
“The agents who interviewed Laura Varady were told you had packed your car, and were coming back here.”
“I was. I’m back now.” I was still fearful of this particular conversation.
“But that is not the whole of it?”
“I shook my head. Mason, I’ll never leave you. But I cannot go on living here. Too many terrible things have happened on this site. I have to live somewhere else.”
“You want to live offsite. I suppose that could be managed, but there would be security issues. I’m unsure how practical it would be.”
“I can’t live here. I’m not sure I can work here. If you won’t leave with me, we’ll have to make some accommodation. I’ll visit you or better, you’ll visit me. I won’t give you up. I want nothing more than to be with you. No one else has ever loved me back.”
I felt tears welling up. I cursed myself for being weak and losing control.
“You’re the only one who didn’t want something from me. You only wanted me.”
“I’ve given a lot of thought to you. I haven’t thought about much else. You need to know something else. I’m carrying your son. Marcus Grey.”
“Given that, what other choice have we?”
“I have one condition. It is not negotiable.”
“Which is?”
“You resign, and we leave this nightmare behind. Forever.” There. I’d said it out loud.
“No one else has the stomach to do this job.”
“Very true. But if you fell through an open manhole tonight and were never seen again, someone would be appointed to replace you.”
“You know what is at stake. What if my replacement lacked my devotion to duty?”
“No one will match your dedication. Perhaps the job you’ll been doing will have to be divided among two or three people. I will not raise your son with a long-distance father. I will raise him with you, beneath the same roof, in the same household, knowing you, or I won’t raise him at all.” There. I’d said that out loud.
I had surprised him once more. Mason’s history was riddled with loss. Now, I was bringing the possibility of yet another loss.”
“You would give him up to strangers?” he asked, disbelieving.
“My pregnancy is maintainable only by adhering to a medication schedule. I would stop taking the drugs. Simple as that. I will miscarry in a few days, at most 10 afterward. My doctors made clear that keeping up with the medication was critical for the next four months.”
“Rebecca, no…”
“Life offers no guarantees. But a child with two living, competent parents is best raised by them.”
“I won’t argue otherwise, but this job is my life…what I’ve lived for.”
“This job will become the death of you.”
Mason, can this job be more important than your son? Than me? Your own health and life? I know you better than that, at least I believed I did.
I could tell by his eyes he was struggling to sort out all the factors and reach a balance. Mason couldn’t imagine anyone else in charge of Genomex/GSA. He had never seriously considered leaving the job.
“The war you’re fighting is unwinnable. Humanity’s pedigree is now tainted. Oh, you’ve delayed the catastrophe by several generations, but the wild mutants, the ones making babies, are the crazies and the criminals. They’ll make more crazies and criminals. You’ve won over the sane and decent mutants to your logic, in essence, culling the sane and decent. The next generations will be far more trouble.”
For Mason, this was no shocking revelation. His formal education did not include genetics but he understood the principles. Privately, he admitted anxiety about ‘wild’ mutants, but I’d never heard him say anything about the way his own policies would select future generations for the traits of ‘wild’ mutants.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then said. “Yes. I believe you are correct. But wouldn’t I be abandoning command the night before battle?”
“No. You’ve been fighting battle after battle for years. You’ve accomplished many concrete, positive things, but you don’t give yourself proper credit for them. The medical treatment for Genomex mutants at St Katherines is your greatest achievement, and the most overlooked. These people have nowhere else to go where their conditions are understood and they are handled in a humane fashion. They ought to rename it St Mason’s.”
I was not exaggerating or being excessively dramatic. St Kats was the only hospital in the world where a Genomex mutant could describe their afflictions with complete honesty, be taken seriously, and be treated with respect, not like a candidate for the psychiatric ward.
“What would I do?”
“Work at getting your health back. Build the house you’ve planned. Write the books you talked about writing. Raise your son. Enjoy your grandchildren. Love me.”
“When must I decide?”
“Now. If you have any ambivalence about choosing between Genomex and your son, you should stay here. I don’t want to hear regrets forever after, and I don’t want our son to hear such regrets.”
Our son? What a novel possibility. I still cannot get used to it.
Mason stood there, saying nothing. I wanted to shake him or scream at him, or quite possibly, both.
“Didn’t you tell me you wanted to leave in 1987?”
“And I couldn’t because the twins were on the way.”
“Can this be a difficult choice?” I asked.
Mason hobbled a step towards me. “Let’s be done with Genomex, and go to personnel to give notice.”
I embraced him tightly, and was horrified by discovering how thin he was under his clothes.
“Mason, there’s so little left of you.”
“I’ve been much worse. I’ve started putting weight back on. I think I may have lost my older children. Grey still won’t speak to me.”
“They have only one father, and you’ve been good to them. Time will work in your favor. They will want to know their youngest brother, won’t they?”
“You’re probably right. Let’s be done with Genomex, and to personnel to give notice. We have to get there before Ms Shaeffer bolts for the parking lot.”
Rebecca
I don’t know what woke me. I sat still and silent as I could, and listened intently for anything that did not belong. The electronics generated a faint background noise. This was slightly changed when Mason walked between the units and me. I had noted that when he rose in the middle of the night. That difference was what I heard now, the change caused by someone walking past the equipment. But I could feel Mason next to me.
Just to remove the last fragment of doubt, I reached and touched his arm, sheathed in biopolymer, then his hand, gloved in leather. There were horror stories of spouses killing spouses in the dark, but whoever was out there was not Mason and meant us no good.
Slowly, silently, I reached down to the floor and found my GSA automatic just under the bed. Kept this way, I had to be consciously thinking about my actions, reducing the chance of a mistake.
I had not been raised around guns. Mason insisted I spend hours and hours in training, not only to improve marksmanship, but to increase the likelihood that I would use a weapon effectively. It is against human nature to kill another human; that nature has to be overcome by conditioning. Armies and police departments had used such training for years. And there I was, painstaking conditioning yielding a careful trained response. There was no time to wake Mason.
“I want to see your faces.”
I knew the voice. I hoped it would be someone else, but who else could have passed through steel?
He switched on some of the lights. Jesse’s eyes looked crazy.
Oh, Jesse, bright, sweet Jesse. Please, God, don’t make me do this.
“I wasn’t expecting this, Rebecca.”
“I’m a light sleeper. Jesse, you know I’m trained nearly as rigorously as a field agent. Leave now.”
“I can bounce bullets safely away.”
“Until you need to breathe.”
“Mason is the root of all this evil. That’s why he has to die.”
“If you want to blame someone, blame Paul Breedlove. Everything goes back to him. Mason was only part of the cleaning crew.”
“He enjoys godlike power over our lives.”
“Untrue. Last chance, Jesse. Leave, or I will empty every round into you. You’re not going to kill Mason.”
I don’t think Jesse believed me. Watching too much television filled with weak women who cannot act to defend themselves or their families will distort your judgment.
He took a step towards Mason, the last he ever took. I was good as my word. I had tracked Jesse and had aim at the center of his chest, the only way to deal with a threat like this. I made every shot a kill shot.
Had he reached Mason and massed, he would have crushed him easily.
Even as Jesse collapsed to the floor, blood everywhere, I fired until there were no more rounds life.
Mason startled to full wakefulness.
“I’ve just killed Jesse.”
Blood was on everything. Killing someone at close range is messy, not like the movies. Fortunately, my training had prepared me for this as well.
“I should have thought of this. He designed part of the system and would know how to turn off sensors after he passed through the steel doors. You did the right thing, Rebecca.”
“What do we do now?”
“Call the police. We cannot hide what has happened. This is home invasion. Disgruntled employee breaks into supervisor’s home. Other people heard him threaten me.”
“But he isn’t armed.”
“Did he threaten you or me?”
“Yes.”
“How could you know he was not armed? I doubt there will be any consequences. What a waste of a fine young man.”
“Mason, I feel so strange.”
“You would be odd if you did not. Get dressed. I will call security and have them get spacesuits for the police.”
I walked around the bed, expecting to find a shattered body.
“Mason, hold off on the phone call for a moment.”
“Why?”
“Jesse seems to be evaporating. Can you increase the airflow through here and exhaust it though several different lines of ductwork?”
It was true. The blood was lifting from all the surfaces and vanishing.
“His last thought must have been intangibility. He’s dispersed and unconnected now.”
“Vent quickly. Don’t take a chance of the molecules coming back together coherently.”
“This is a gift from the universe, Rebecca.”
“We should take it as a sign to get out, and get out now. This hour.”
“Where would we go?”
“Drive straight through to Steve and Sherri’s. They have that barn of a house. They’ll hardly know we’re there.”
“Sherri stares at me.”
“Stare back. Mason, it’s time to go. Wake up Catherine.”
Mason
Fitting everything into the car took a few tries. I wasn’t about to trust the case carrying General Gray’s flag to movers, and I wanted it carefully placed for travel. A chain of people had taken great care of it, and I wasn’t going to be the one to damage it.
I had decided not to give the flag to Grey. The original symbolism of the flag, of the Confederacy, the Lost Cause, and all the rest, good and bad, were no more than historical curiosities to me, as I suspect they were to my mother (who, after all, married a Yankee).
A Grey served under Pershing in the Great War, one under Bradley and another under Patton in WW2. My uncle Robert Grey served Powell in Vietnam, and died there, or the flag would have become his. What I had been doing at Genomex most of my years here was a different kind of war, but a war nonetheless.
General Grey’s flag now possessed an abstract meaning, symbolizing family, honor, and duty. Honor and duty? Grey? Grey was unworthy of ownership.
Catherine was well worthy of the flag, but she intended to be a genealogical dead end.
Now I had hope of someday giving the antique to someone who would not grow up to be the tame puppy Grey had become. I would make certain of that.
I had not moved the family heirloom in twenty years. I placed it on the floor of the trunk, with a folded blanket providing padding.
“Can I get a good look at that in the daylight?” Catherine asked.
“I want you to get a proper look at it.”
Rebecca stood silently while I fussed. Somewhere in her two bags she had a set of gold Sabbath candlesticks, brought from Germany in the 1800s, and said to be 150 years old.
Catherine crawled into the back seat of the car, and rearranged the overflow luggage to make herself a snug sleeping nest.
“As soon as we hit the interstate, I’ll fall asleep.” She laughed. “Wake me for breakfast.”
Breakfast. I had packed a month’s supply of pink slurry, but this coming morning I thought I might dare something whole.
“Last chance, Eckharts; remember something now, or wait for the movers to bring it, months from now.”
“I can’t think of anything,” Catherine said.
I shook my head.
Rebecca turned the key in the ignition. “Then we’re off.”
We had always been free to come and go as we pleased, but in practice we had never left Genomex together for any reason without a GSA escort. I had the heady sensation of somehow getting away with something vaguely forbidden.
Leaving the parking lot at this hour required the swiping of Rebecca’s keycard. The chain link gate topped with three strands of barbed wire rolled back.
Each of us still carried our Genomex keycards and a badge serving to locate us. We could return all of these to security by mail, but by that time all the coding would be outdated and useless. There was nothing unique or advanced in their design, nothing not used in dozens of facilities. The difference at Genomex was the frequency of changes and the irregular periods of time between changes, whimsically dictated by what Rebecca thought should be done that morning. Sometimes coding changed consecutive days; sometimes it stayed the same for a month.
“This is the right thing to do, Mason. We both deserve some good years after Genomex.”
“I haven’t been on a long road trip since the 1980s. I’m going to have some fun.”
Rebecca laughed. I liked the sound of this light-hearted laughter. Genomex had weighed upon all three of us for too long.
Beyond the gate stretched a short access road connecting the Genomex parking lot to the residential neighborhood surrounding the complex. Fortunately, Rebecca was driving slowly, anticipating the speed bumps in the street beyond when a pair of figures loomed up ahead in the roadway; she turned sharply, almost leaving the road. Unfortunately, she had not locked her door, which was opened from the outside.
“Get out of there, Rebecca. Now.”
I hadn’t been sure after the glimpse I had of the faces in the darkness, but I had no doubt about the owner of that voice.
“Do as Adam tells you, Rebecca.”
I did not recognize the woman’s voice, but it could only belong to Lilith.
“Adam, don’t you ever weary of these tiresome little dramas?” Rebecca sighed, and unbuckled her seatbelt.
As soon as Rebecca released her belt, Adam lunged into the car, and dragged Rebecca from her seat with such force she could not keep to her feet. He then dropped her to the pavement.
“We have some questions for you. Where’s Jesse?”
I did not give any conscious thought to what I did next. I leapt out the opposite door and around to the pavement as quickly as I could in my state. I heard Lilith sigh, and say, “Adam, that was excessive,” but I didn’t care about anything except Rebecca sprawled on the pavement.
Adam had his back to me; used to my never presenting a physical threat, he ignored my presence. My cane was made of heavy wood; I put everything I could into swinging it back then down with force into the back of Adam’s knees, breaking the cane in two. Adam howled, and fell down, kneeling, one hand on the road surface.
“Do something, Lili.”
I reached down, and steadied Rebecca, moving away from the howling Adam.
Lilith stood quietly, watching Adam. Then, she replaced her gun in its holster, smiled, and walked up beside Adam. “Adam, it is time to leave.”
Lilith then did something I thought impossible. Lilith was thin, not muscular, and did not give the impression of strength. She seized Adam’s neck in the crook of her right arm, braced his head with her left hand, and twisted Adam’s head at an unnatural angle, acoompanied by the sounds of tearing and breaking. She then pushed the body away from herself. She smiled.
“I don’t care what happened to Jesse Kilmartin, and Adam had become a burden and a nuisance. I still hate you for killing Paul, but murdering you for that would be weak, emotional, and human, and I am none of those things. I have no argument with you. I just gave you your lives, I ask you to return the favor, since I know you’re both armed. Allow me to leave peacefully.”
She kept smiling as she turned away. She stopped just short of the darkness beyond the reach of the streetlight. “Oh, and I’ll be careful to leave an especially low and messy heat signature so your story will have substance. Humans aren’t strong enough to do what I just did, anyway.” She vanished into the darkness.
“Is Adam really dead?” Rebecca asked.
“I think so, but I’m not going near the body. Let someone official define him as lifeless.”
“With Adam gone, we’re free.”
“I know.”
Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a gazelle or a lion.
When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.
-Sheikh Mohamed Al Maktoum
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
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