by Talis Jones
I rise my eyebrows in disbelief at his facetious rejection, laughter in my throat. “You’re a dead man.”
Win cackles wildly. “You better run, man,” he warns. “She kicked my ass on day one.”
Bones looks Win up and down. “Obviously.”
Now Remi busts a lung. “I wish you could see your face, cuz!”
It’s the comedic insanity needed after the rollercoaster of tension I’ve been wrung through in this small room. Calming down, my old self begins to resurface ready to focus on a goal and see it through, sleep be damned.
“Before I go…” I don’t know quite how to phrase it so I just go with whatever comes out. “Van mentioned that a vaccine is needed because people are still being affected by Dr. Xi’s drug?”
Sobering, Bones sits back. “That stabilized years ago. True some traits pop up now and again, but the deaths and the Aggressives have petered out.”
“Then why am I here?”
He shrugs. “Tori believes there’s a high risk for a second wave. It can happen sometimes with viruses, I guess. I don’t really know. I studied medicine, but this isn’t my area of expertise and to be honest I try to just focus on my assignments. I want to finish my stint and go home.”
“You’re really not curious?” I ask dubiously. “You’re going to let this go unquestioned? How can you trust them?”
“One person cannot solve every problem and certainly not the whole world,” Bones replies. “I’ve done my part and now it’s your turn.”
There’s truth in his words even if it chafes.
“Can I give you some parting advice?” he offers.
I shrug.
“It might look more civilized in here, but at least out there the shadows are honest.”
“If there’s one thing I learned,” I reply, “it’s that. Liz Convici let me serve her sentence in prison and that’s not something I’m going to be quick to forget.”
Bones stills. “Convici?”
“You didn’t know?” I frown. “It may have been Dr. Xi’s experiment, but it was Dr. Convici who put it into the atmosphere.”
He files this news away and I wonder, if he knows I’m innocent then what story will be told to explain how that’s so. Do people really think being freed from prison would be enough to win the loyalty of a demon?
I brace myself for more questions, but when Bones’ eyes return to my own, I get only one.
“When this is all over,” he starts then stops. “When this is finished, would you visit me and the Cai?”
There’s such hesitation threaded with hope in his voice, I remind myself that he thought his found family gone forever only to discover me. To my surprise I feel a similar tug of longing.
“If you can scrounge up some room for me, I’d be happy to stay there,” I smile.
Win makes a sound of indignation and I roll my eyes. “The Wild Cousins might be tagging along so I understand if you need some time to think about it.”
Bones laughs. “They seem like my kind of people.”
Walking towards the door he holds it open for us and as I move past he touches my arm. “I head out tonight and I don’t know if I’ll be back here, but…I’ll see you at home, okay?”
“At home,” I promise and my heart grows stronger once more.
“Oh and Morgan…” he calls quickly.
I quirk an eyebrow and wait.
His eyes lock onto mine and he pushes in a warning that makes me shudder. “Good luck,” he says before walking away.
Remi frowns in concern. “What was that?”
“He used his gift to tell me something,” I explain softly, my gaze sweeping the empty hall.
“Yeah? An address I hope,” Win teases nervously.
I shake my head. “Don’t shake Tori’s hand. She can influence emotions with skin contact. She doesn’t need it, but her power is much weaker without it.”
Win’s jaw drops a little and Remi’s fists tighten. I think back to when I first met her and shook her hand, that feeling of trust that warmed me and loosened my tongue, that feeling of commonality, camaraderie…I felt like we could be friends. I didn’t question it then, it wasn’t a strong push, just enough to settle me, but now…now I tug my sleeves down from my elbows and wish for gloves.
Twenty
2 YEARS LATER
A loud snore yanks my attention away from the textbook I’d been studying and I glance over to see Win leaning back in his chair asleep. Half amused and half irritated by the interruption, I grab my pen’s cap and send it flying right at his head. Sitting up with a jolt his eyes swivel this way and that before recalling where he is and why.
“Don’t give me that look,” he huffs indignantly. “Watching you work is dead boring.”
“I know,” I apologize, “and I’ve told you both that I don’t need bodyguards here, especially not when I’m just sitting alone in this private office with a door that locks.”
Win barks out a hollow laugh. “Have you already forgotten the idiot you let in right before they tried to kill you with a scalpel?”
“Oh please, he wasn’t trying to kill me,” I scoff.
Gesturing towards my face he adds darkly, “You still ended up with that.”
I resist the urge to touch the faded white line across my face. They’d offered a cream from the Alliance that would’ve sped up the healing as well as eliminated any scarring, but I’d wanted the reminder. The benefit to an Alliance prison is Alliance medicine, but while it would leave my body whole it would also leave my mind to wonder how much was real and how much was just a nightmare. I needed to remember. So when I could, I did.
I give Win a look and he drops the subject. “So how’s it going?”
“I spent almost thirty years gathering dust on what I’d once hoped to build my career on,” I sigh. “It’s going slowly.”
“No science books in prison?” he guesses.
“Not much above a high school level education.”
Win grins. “And you needed the big brain science books.”
I arch an eyebrow at his description but nod. “Most of it returned more quickly than I’d anticipated, but I’m getting into the intricacies of where I left off and without any real direction to go in for this vaccine, I’m left with a headache and an abundance of frustration.”
“Why don’t you ask Tori?”
“When she’s here, you mean?” Shaking my head, I answer simply, “She has very little expertise in this field. It’s her sister, Dr. Convici, Liz, who knows an Erlenmeyer from a Florence.”
“Mhm,” Win nods. “I hate it when people get those mixed up.”
Grinning I explain, “They’re types of flasks. For science.”
“Science people and their fancy names for everything,” he sighs. “Anyway, why don’t you try asking the doctor for help then?”
“Because for the years since we arrived, I have yet to see her.” Frustration clouds my face as I wonder why that is. “It doesn’t make any sense,” I vent. “I was an intern and even though I’d been recently promoted and apparently Dr. Xi saw promise in me, that doesn’t change the fact that Dr. Convici far outpaces me in this field or any science-related field I’d bet especially when for my help I’ve had to spend every waking moment reteaching myself the subject. Not even! I’ve had some of the staff here teach me! So why not them? Why has no one been able to unravel Dr. Xi’s creation?”
“Because of this,” Van interrupts.
Spinning in my chair I turn to see him striding through the door with Remi in tow. I eye the object in his hand skeptically. “Because of a book? What is it, a particularly complex formula? Like I told Win, you have far superior scientists at your disposal so I have a reasonable wealth of doubt that I’ll be of any help to you.”
“You promised you would,” he reminds me.
“Yes, and I will keep that promise to try, but do remember that I was serving multiple life sentences in prison when you asked me that.”
Tossing the boo
k onto the table in front of me he pins me with a sharp look. “The only reason you were worth the trouble of wanting, is because of this journal written by Dr. Xi himself.”
Shaking off the short-tempered insult I reach for the worn leather. Paper journals were rarely used except by the old school or the paranoid. Computers may have incredible backup capabilities, but they could also be hacked. It seems, however, that in the end the debate is moot because here lies a stolen journal.
“Where did you get this?” I whisper shakily.
“A woman who worked with Dr. Xi stole it,” Van confesses. “She’d planned to run with a man who helped care for the subjects. They wanted to stop what they believed were unethical experiments. She made it out, the man didn’t.”
“How…how do you know this?” I gape in horror.
“She told us,” he says. “And Agent Jester verified it.”
“Bones?”
Van nods. “Her story sparked something in his memory. Turns out the man she’d planned on fleeing with was his assigned caretaker. The man called him Henry much to Dr. Xi’s disapproval.”
“When was this?” I can’t even begin to fathom the scenario he shared.
“Approximately twenty-two years ago.”
The air vacates my lungs and I slump back in my chair. “That is not possible.”
Van frowns. “Has no one told you? Dr. Xi survived that explosion. He relocated and opened a new research facility, this one sanctioned by the Alliance.”
A thousand thoughts, a thousand feelings, tumble through me and for a moment I wonder if I’ll faint or be sick. “No,” I manage though I’m not sure if they heard me. Dr. Xi was treated like a taboo subject and I supported it not wanting to dwell on the man, I hadn’t even wanted to look up his obituary, but Tori should have told me. She should have told me.
“I’ve been told your knowledge has returned to a level where you can begin to be useful,” he presses on either unaware or ignoring the gut punch I suffer. “That journal has all of Dr. Xi’s notes regarding the experiments you were unwittingly aiding once ‘promoted.’ So, now that you have a direction to go in, we expect results. Good day, Ms. Travers.”
With that he spins on his heel and leaves while I struggle to do more than stare at the worn cover of this seemingly innocuous lump of tree pulp.
“I still don’t understand…” my voice drifts off as I flip open the book and stare at a meticulous mess of formulas and gibberish.
“A code,” Remi breathes. Win smashes his fist against the wall in defeat.
I scrutinize the tidy handwritten letters and symbols and a small smile tugs at my mouth. “I’ve seen this before. On memos sent from Xi to our project leaders. I was a curious pest at times back then and convinced them to teach me some of it. Dr. Xi was practically paranoid with his work so he’d developed his own code only his upper level minions were allowed to learn.”
“Wait, so you can read that?” Remi hopes.
I shake my head. “Parts of it…more might come back to me with time or context and some I never learned, but maybe I’ll be able to remember enough…”
Glancing up I catch their pained exchange before they can hide it from me and my stomach sinks. Having Win and Remi, no matter how recent our acquaintance, has been like a security blanket. The first friends I made in decades, they helped ground me and now…now I have to let them go.
“It’s been two years you know,” I hedge. “I can’t promise how long it will take me to decipher this journal not to mention to even begin on this vaccine…”
“We’re not leaving,” Remi grunts stubbornly. “We stay until you leave.”
Win nods in agreement but I’ve been noticing their increasing anxiety. Win snaps the rubber band around his wrist so often I hardly notice it anymore and Remi tugs his hair so much I’m surprised he hasn’t managed to pull it all out. They’re the Wild Cousins and keeping them caged is slowly killing them.
“You’ll suffocate in here if you stay for much longer,” I say softly. “I can survive being alone knowing what waits for me outside, but I can’t survive you resenting me.”
“We don’t resent you,” Win rolls his eyes.
“You’ll resent me,” I insist. “You will. Your promise made out of honor, friendship, curiosity, whatever it was it will eventually erode under stress and you will resent me. I made you a promise and I want to keep it. You two need to go.”
Win throws a book at my head that I catch out of reflex while Remi pulls a chair next to mine and sits in it. Reaching out he holds my hand and pauses to make sure I’m listening. “We go when we say we go and the moment either of us begins feeling too close to the edge or even a hint of resentment towards you, we split. Promise.”
I nod, selfishly grateful that I don’t have to say goodbye just yet.
“But that day is not today,” Win chimes in. “Meeting adjourned for lunch!”
Dropping my gaze back towards the journal, the old familiar adrenaline of a puzzle surges through my veins. “Well, I’d really like to get started on this–”
Win grabs my arm. “Nope. Lunch. We leave you behind and you’ll starve because sometimes you have a bit of trouble knowing when to stop and do things like eat, sleep, pee...”
“That was one time,” I blush.
“And yet everyone still remembers your desperate screeching through the halls as you ran to reach a bathroom in time.”
“Fine,” I snap. “Lunch.”
The small office locks automatically and the door scanner will only grant access to a very limited group of people, but I pray quickly anyhow that the journal will remain safe then follow Win and Remi to the cafeteria.
“Any more fun ideas from your conspiracy theory buddies?” I ask as we wind our way through the busy hall.
Remi shrugs, “They always have new ideas.”
“Yeah, but for the past few months they’ve been sticking to the same story,” Win points out.
“The one about it containing a mind control drug?” I laugh.
“Don’t laugh too hard,” he snickers. “They’re from the Coalition and out here we don’t have a whole lot of trust for technology or government or even scientists really.”
“Not much tolerance for things we can’t understand,” Remi agrees.
“I suppose I can understand that,” I allow, “but really, why would Python, Dr. Convici, or even Sanctuary for that matter want to mind-control people? Turning brains into puppets is a lot more complicated than people think. It’s essentially fictional in my opinion.” Though I am twenty-nine years behind the times, I don’t admit out loud.
Win throws up his hands. “Hey, we just report the gossip.”
“It’s just a bit unusual for them to be so stuck on this idea,” Remi adds quietly.
“Is it?” I ask curiously.
“Yeah, they’re a bunch of nutters to be sure, but they love bouncing from theory to theory, swapping them like baseball cards.” Remi rubs the back of his neck, feeling unsettled. “It’s just odd that this one particular theory never fades and it’s their least colorful one. Doesn’t get embellished, doesn’t come and go, it just stays steady and when they bring it up it’s in hushed whispers. I think they only let us in their ring because we’re friends with you and they’re hoping we can corroborate one of their theories.”
Remi’s concern bleeds into me and I frown in thought. “I’ll check into it.”
“Excuse me?” Win smiles.
“What can it hurt?” I decide. “Either way you’ll have something to contribute to your little club of conspiracy buddies.”
“And if it’s true?” Remi asks.
Win snorts. “Please, cuz. Like Auntie Mor just said, there’s no way it’s even possible.”
Twenty-One
Temptation to start deciphering Xi’s notes nearly blocks out anything else, but Remi’s worry won’t stop pricking my brain and so I decide to go ahead and clear that conspiracy up. I bribe some privacy from Remi and Win by g
iving them my portion of cake and use the silence to hone in on my task in efficient focus. With a quick swipe of my badge, I stride into my assigned lab and walk straight to the file cabinets where my search is slower, but without a digital trace.
The door gives a faint click as someone enters and I force myself not to react like I’m guilty of snooping. Glancing over my shoulder I see Tria, a medical student smuggled from the Alliance. Her big brown eyes and warm smile find my cold ones.
“Good afternoon, Dr. Travers,” she greets kindly.
I’m just Ms. Travers, but I was too thrown off to correct their assumption that first day and now it feels far too late. “You’re back early,” I note. “Skip lunch?”
“No, Farrel was being particularly irritating today,” she shrugs before settling herself at her usual station. “Why are you back to work so early?”
I resume riffling through the files. “The sooner I finish this project the sooner I can leave.”
“Oh.”
She sounds genuinely surprised and it has me turning back to see her face.
Tria blushes. “It’s just…I thought you might stay.”
I shove my derisive laughter deep down. “Why would I do that?”
The girl shrugs, returning her gaze to the comfort of a microscope. “To help people.”
Her words make me pause. Giving myself a sharp mental shake, I once more return to the files. “Isn’t that what I’m doing now?”
“Yes, but you could do so much more,” she insists.
A snide snort slips out. “I’m out of my depths with the progress made in the field while I was…away.”
“Oh really?” she challenges. “Then why would they go to such lengths to find you?”
“Find me?” I laugh. Narrowing my gaze I look at Tria closely. “Do you know who I am?”
Slowly she sits up from her work and faces me. “I don’t listen to rumors.”
My eyebrows rise. “Maybe you should.”
Turning back to my hunt I feel agitated, my focus slips piece by piece and I want to kick the cabinet until my foot goes right through. Wrangling my hostility back into a box, I sigh.
