A thought struck Kadance. If his father had asked Lyndon’s grandfather to move to protect Lyndon because there was danger, perhaps Lyndon’s grandfather’s death hadn’t been accidental. But it’d been years later—why would this mastermind come for him after so long? Maybe it was all unrelated.
“I think that selflessness is why my father fell in love with her,” Lyndon said.
“They were an unusual couple, that’s for sure,” Dr. Pearce said. “You’d think they’d have argued more than breathed. But not once did I see them utter a harsh word to each other.”
“She enjoyed his personality. He did and said all the things she couldn’t. And he saw every good thing about her that no one else did.”
Like Lyndon saw the good in her, even after all she’d done. She held his hand tightly before she realized what she was doing. But she couldn’t let go now in front of Dr. Pearce. She’d just have to apologize to Lyndon later.
“What about their work?” Lyndon asked. “I’m sure my mother found a way to conduct research along with her other duties. Did she collaborate with anyone? I’d like to meet anyone who worked with her.”
Dr. Pearce pursed his lips. “Now that you say that, there was someone Aurel and Lee spent time with. She wasn’t with our group. If I remember correctly, she was conducting independent research.”
“Do you remember what kind?”
“Ebola, I believe. But I wouldn’t recommend hunting her down.”
“Why is that?”
“She seemed perfectly lovely at first. The hippy type who’d never outgrown her idealism. Tree hugger to the extreme. She’d yell at you for picking a flower by the roadside. She was eccentric, but then plenty of us were eccentric in our own ways. For goodness’ sakes, we volunteered to go into war zones.”
“Something happened to make you keep your distance from her?” Kadance asked.
“She came to our camp one night. Everyone else was out at one of the local villages. She was in rough shape—I quickly realized she’d had a very poorly performed abortion. I was able to stop the bleeding and kept her under observation for a while. We talked. I’d figured she’d gotten involved with someone she shouldn’t have—some of the locals wouldn’t have approved of an American white woman mixing with them—or maybe the pregnancy had been difficult, or the baby was unhealthy. But she said she just didn’t believe in having children.”
“What does that mean?” Lyndon asked. “She didn’t want children?”
“No. She didn’t believe in having children. She gave me this lecture about how people are killing the Earth, and humans don’t have the right to live at the expense of another. That right there is when I decided to keep away from her.”
“Wow,” Kadance said. “Do you remember her name? We’ll be sure to stay away from her while we’re reaching out to any of his parents’ friends.”
“Oh, what was it?” Dr. Pearce mused. “I’m thinking something with a V, maybe.” He shook his head. “No, it’s lost.”
“It was a long time ago,” Kadance said.
“I’m thankful you remembered as much as you did about my parents,” Lyndon said.
“Frank?” came a woman’s voice from inside the house.
“Looks like I’m being paged.” Dr. Pearce stood.
“Thank you for your time.” Lyndon took his arm away from Kadance and reached to shake Dr. Pearce’s hand.
They headed down the porch steps and to the car. Once they were down the street, Kadance said, “Too bad he didn’t remember a name.”
“I’m not sure how to search for someone with so little information.”
“I have an idea, but we’re going to have to look something up.”
“What’s your idea?”
“I remember hearing about this crazy movement one time. VPE, I think. Voluntary Population Extinction.”
“What’s that—some kind of group suicide pact?”
“More like a pact not to reproduce.”
“It’s an environmental group?”
“If I remember correctly, yes. Just like the crazy lady Dr. Pearce talked about. Did she maybe decide to take it a step further and cleanse the Earth of destructive human beings?”
Lyndon looked out the windshield, and his eyes glazed in thought.
“Off to find a library?” she asked.
His eyes remained glazed. “You know me well.”
She smiled a little. “We should be fast. Libraries have cameras.”
She found a library a little while later and stood with Lyndon while he zipped through screens of information as quickly as the internet speed would allow. It wasn’t a mainstream movement, so she hoped he was able to find some decent information.
He stopped clicking through pages, and Kadance leaned down to look at the screen. “Is that a message?”
twenty-three
“THROUGH A FORUM I’M READING,” Lyndon said.
Kadance shifted closer to read it: “That old man couldn’t remember to tie his shoes.”
“Dr. Pearce?” Kadance whispered. She’d noticed a traffic camera not too far from his house. This mastermind must’ve been watching. Or maybe they had some kind of facial recognition software running through systems all over.
Lyndon typed, “He was wearing sandals.”
Kadance smirked. And then glanced around the large space. She’d spotted a camera in the lobby, and there was one at the main desk, just behind them.
Another message popped up. “If he remembered a name—and that’s a big if—it’s not my real name.”
Confirmation that hippy woman is the mastermind. Female, white, American, probably fifty to sixty years old.
Lyndon typed, “I’m dying of curiosity.”
“I’m sure you are. One of your best traits is your curiosity. One of your worst traits is your failure to listen.”
“Tell her I’m not going anywhere,” Kadance whispered.
“No.” Then Lyndon typed, “She doesn’t slow me down, and she keeps me busy at night.”
“You don’t need to protect me,” Kadance said.
His voice was quiet but hard. “Doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.” Then he typed, “Let’s you and I stop playing games.”
“Ah, but games are so fun. See you in DC.”
He waited a few seconds. When no further messages came through, he cleared the cache, restarted the computer, and stood. “There’s a club a couple of hours away. If we drive fast, we can try to get in on their meeting.” He started toward the door, and she stayed with him.
She took the driver’s seat, and while she drove, after giving her the address, he stared into space for a while, surely reviewing everything he’d researched.
“At least we have a general description now,” she said.
His eyes continued to be unfocused. “We can start using the proper pronoun.”
The corner of her mouth twitched. She didn’t smile very much, never had, really, but he made her more than anyone she’d ever known. No one would likely guess he could be funny.
“And she confirmed DC,” she said. “Though we should be careful of if or where she’s trying to lead us.”
“Agreed. We’re probably nothing more than rats in a maze to her.”
“Me, yes. But I think you’re something more to her. Has she decided you’re too fun to play with, or maybe it would be a waste to kill you?”
“I figure she’s reaching out to me for one of two reasons: she’s having fun playing, or she’s decided I have information that might be useful.”
“Or maybe both. Either way, she’s definitely having fun playing. Or maybe she’s testing you.”
His eyes finally refocused, and he turned to her. “Perhaps she’s so impressed I survived the attempts on my life that she decided I might be worth keeping around.”
“Maybe.”
“You’re the only reason I survived.”
“And we’ll make sure you keep surviving.” She turned back to the road.
; She felt him looking at her and could almost feel what he was thinking—he wanted to keep her out of this, he wanted to protect her. He’d have to shoot her in the head before she’d back off.
He watched her for several more seconds and then went back to staring blankly at the dash.
LYNDON DIRECTED KADANCE to where the forum had said the VPE meeting was. She parked along the road. The place looked like a half-abandoned office building. The name of the old brick building wasn’t legible because half the letters had fallen off.
“Will you leave Mac in the car?” he asked. “I don’t know what kind of crowd this is going to be.”
She turned and looked at Mac in the back seat. “Look at that, buddy. You’ve won him over. First time for everything, right?”
He meowed at her, as if answering.
“People don’t usually like him?” Lyndon asked.
“More like he doesn’t usually like people. He won’t attack unless I tell him to, but you’d better not touch him.”
Lyndon glanced back at Mac and remembered the cat’s first reaction to him had been to growl. “So, I should be honored he lets me pet him?”
“Very.”
They got out of the car and headed into the building. The stairs had grime tucked in the corners. In the upstairs hall, the chair rail was falling off in places, and the carpet felt sticky against Lyndon’s shoes.
Lyndon stopped in front of 207. He didn’t like coming here, not when the mastermind had found him on a forum and had surely figured out what he was researching. She could easily guess where they’d headed. But Kadance had agreed they should come anyway. “You should probably take the lead this time,” Lyndon said. “Lying and misdirection will likely be necessary. I’ll be the infatuated boyfriend following his girl like a puppy.”
“I don’t think you’re the infatuated type, but we’ll give it a shot.” Kadance knocked on the door.
Not the infatuated type. He realized she was being funny, teasing him about his tendency toward science and logic, but the comment bothered him.
A young woman with long blonde hair opened the door.
“We’re here for the meeting,” Kadance said. “It’s our first time. Is it open to new people?”
“Sure.” Her long skirt swished as she stepped back and opened the door wider. “All Earth-lovers are welcome.”
Kadance threw on a glowing smile. “Great. We’re so excited. We heard about it on—” She turned to Lyndon. “What was the forum?” She turned back to the blonde and walked into the space. “Anyway, here we are. We’re so excited.”
Lyndon made himself smile. It didn’t feel genuine, though, until he looked at Kadance. He’d just have to keep looking at her. It fit in with the infatuated boyfriend role he was playing, anyway.
“Have a seat wherever you like,” the blonde said. “Josh will start in just a few minutes.”
“Thanks.” Kadance’s voice was much more bubbly than normal.
The blonde walked away, and he and Kadance glanced around the room. Some crazy part of him hoped to find an older woman mingling with the small crowd, but they were mostly young, with a few middle-aged people wearing Birkenstocks and smelling of hemp.
Kadance headed toward a couple at the back by a folding table with an old coffeepot, and Lyndon followed obediently. As she talked with them, he got the impression they were a nice couple, very environmentally conscious, but not tipping over to the crazy end of the scale.
They, mostly Kadance, talked with a few other people. Nothing anyone said raised any flags.
“Have a seat please,” the blonde called, and everyone shifted around each other in the small space to find a seat. Lyndon continued to play his role and followed Kadance. The man now standing at the front of the room eyed Kadance. Lyndon took a seat next to her, at the end of a row, near the door, and watched the man carefully.
The man—apparently Josh whom the blonde had mentioned—smoothed his hand down his short beard while he waited for the room to come to order and focus on him.
“We have some new faces, I see.” Josh smiled, and his gaze landed for a few seconds on Kadance. “You’re all here because you love the Earth.”
Several people called out their affirmations or clapped.
“Maybe almost as much as me,” Josh continued. “The question is how much do you love the Earth? Are you willing to give up all gas-powered transportation? Do you use only solar power or other clean energies? Are you willing to give up all meat consumption? I have made all of these commitments and more.”
The room broke out in applause. Lyndon noticed it’d started with the blonde sitting in the front row.
“You seem excited,” Josh said. “Good. But how strong is your commitment, really?”
He paused, and the room was quiet.
“How much do you love the Earth?” he continued. “Do you realize she is the only reason you’re alive? You owe her everything. How much do you really appreciate her?”
He looked around the room. His gaze again drifted over Kadance.
Lyndon felt his back and chest tighten but did not allow himself to clench his jaw or his fist.
“Are you ready to treat her as she should be treated? Unsoiled and free of human pollutants?”
“Yes!” several people chimed.
“You’re in the right place, then.” Josh smiled. “I’m here to lead you down that path. I’m here to teach you how I have made the necessary commitments. Now, it’s not easy. I can attest to that. It’s difficult at times, especially when so many in society don’t take the Earth seriously. They’re selfish and hurtful to our mother. They deny the truth just so they can have what they want. And we have to live with these people, all while still holding ourselves to our virtuous ideals. If you don’t think you can do that, if you don’t think you’re strong enough to take the steps that I’ve taken, I’ll understand if you feel the need to leave.”
He slowly looked around the room, making eye contact.
No one moved. Of course no one is going to leave under that kind of pressure.
“There are some secrets to making this choice an easier burden, ways to strengthen yourself against society’s arrogance. And I will freely share these secrets. As you become ready.”
Lyndon wanted to roll his eyes.
“The first thing you need to do,” Josh continued, “is dedicate yourself to the VPE movement, to the commitment it demands. Voluntary population control. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Simply choose not to add to Mother Earth’s burden. Isn’t that the least you can do to save your mother?”
The room broke out in applause. Kadance joined in, appearing to be enthusiastic, and Lyndon followed suit, though he was sure his enthusiasm was much less tangible. He let himself look at Kadance to help him hide his annoyance.
Josh stepped forward and started greeting people. Some of them hugged him and looked at him adoringly. The blonde moved around in the background, got him some water, answered questions, and took donations.
Lyndon caught Josh glancing over someone’s shoulder at Kadance. Lyndon leaned close to her ear and murmured, “He has a thing for you.”
She nodded once.
“It’s up to you if you want to use that.”
She kept her smile on her face. “My favorite thing. Being treated like a doll.”
“You don’t have to. We can leave right now.”
“Walk with me but get distracted by something when the time is right.”
“I’ll follow your lead.” And he’d also make sure no one touched her. Although he knew she could probably take out this whole room if she wanted to—and he had to admit that was a part of her attractiveness.
He followed her as she mingled through the small crowd. Lyndon peripherally watched Josh as he slowly moved closer. Lyndon slid to her other side, leaving Josh a clearer line of sight to her.
Lyndon moved a couple of feet away and talked with a group of three people—well, he tried to pretend to be interested and asked a
few questions.
“Did you enjoy the talk?” Josh asked Kadance.
“Fascinating.” Lyndon heard the smile in her voice. She was so good at faking that he started to wonder if she’d ever been fake with him, but then he remembered she’d always been blunt and never made an attempt to be charming.
“How did you hear about our group?”
“A friend of mine mentioned VPE once. James. When I heard about this meeting, I figured I should check it out.”
Josh’s eyebrow cocked at the name James. “You should come back again next time. Though your brother there didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic.”
Lyndon wanted to roll his eyes. He knew he’d allowed himself to look at her with much more freedom, to obviously appreciate her. He had not looked at her like a brother would.
“He’s my boyfriend,” Kadance said.
“Really? He just doesn’t look like your type. Not nearly as strong as a lovely woman like you deserves.”
Lyndon could almost feel Kadance’s urge to punch Josh in the face. The image made him smile a little.
“So, what’s the root of this movement?” Kadance asked.
“People who want to protect the Earth. You see, humans cause damage to the Earth in many ways. There’s—”
Oh yeah, that guy’s getting punched soon if he’s not careful.
Kadance interrupted. “I mean who started the movement and why?”
“The true origination story is one of the secrets held for only the most worthy.”
Of course it is.
The blonde walked up and said quietly to Josh, “You wanted to speak with Elizabeth before she left.”
Josh glanced toward the back of the room. “Ah, yes.” He turned back to Kadance. “Will you give me just a few minutes?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll be right back.” He weaved his way through the crowd toward a young woman wearing her shiny brown hair in a bun at the base of her neck.
As he spoke to her, her brow furrowed, and she glanced past him toward the door.
Kadance started casually toward the back of the room, toward the table with coffee. A few seconds later, Lyndon broke off from the group he was with and joined two young men talking closer to the door. He could just hear Josh’s conversation.
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