“What happens when they do?” the sheriff asked.
“We can terminate the experiment,” Big Red said. “Or as we said back in my old job, we terminate with extreme prejudice.”
The Groundlings murmured in agreement. The colonel closed her eyes, apparently sending a message of confirmation back. “Over and out.”
Colonel Regan “Big Red” Herring kept her hand on the grail for one last moment. “We’ve got to stand together; remember we are family.”
She took her hand off the grail. The cloud disappeared. The box closed on itself. Denise, Denny and Jen were thrust out of the colonel’s brain, out of the box and back into the hospital room. The box itself disappeared.
While her mom’s head had been raised up, conscious, in the vision, it was back to its original position, her eyes opened, but staring into space blankly.
“Did you get that?” Denise asked Denny.
He nodded. They looked at their mother, who blinked one eye.
“What was that?” Denny asked.
“I think Hikaru had set it up so he—we—would see what happened when someone touched the grail.”
“But he’s dead,” Denny said.
“I guess he could only have that connection after he was dead,” Denise said.
“Was that ummm… live?” Denny asked.
“I don’t think so. But it seems pretty recent.” This wasn’t quite live, but they were unsure how Hikaru had replicated this experience. His powers combined with his access to tech were more powerful than they had imagined. “I bet he could only get a connection when someone touches a grail, and only after he died.”
“Well, the colonel knows we are going to get the grail, and they’ll terminate us with extreme prejudice when we get there. What does that mean?” Denny asked.
“They can kill us. They will kill us.”
Jen blinked at them twice, then did it again and again.
“But if we don’t go, she’ll die,” Denny said.
Jen blinked again.
“So, if we go there and bring the grail back, we can save you?” Denise asked.
Jen blinked again.
Someone knocked on the door. They both jumped. “We have permission to be here!” Denny said.
It was Dr. Patel, backed up by Piranha. “I think both of you need to come with me.”
“Are you gonna terminate my mom?” Denny asked.
Chapter 61
Dr. Patel’s fourth floor office had a nice view of the lights of Las Cruces twinkling in the desert night. Denise was disoriented. There were also some lights going upward in the distance above the city lights, and Denise didn’t know if they were coming from the missile range, the spaceport, or Lordsburg.
“Please have a seat,” the doctor said to Denise and Denny and directed them to the plush chairs. Piranha stayed in the room, chewing on an unlit cigarette, which made the twins uneasy.
“Is something wrong?” Denise asked.
“I’m afraid there is,” Dr. Patel said. “Your mother’s condition is worsening. She had a Do Not Resuscitate form on file. However, we need another signature as an assurance per our malpractice carrier. I’m calling her POA to sign the form to take her off life support.”
“But she just blinked!” Denny said. “She knows what’s going on! She wants to live!”
“It was probably a random muscle contraction,” the doctor said. “She’s brain-dead.”
“I’m her daughter, he’s her son,” Denise said. “I was there, she blinked several times, and nodded at us several times.” Denise neglected to tell the doctor that this was in the psychic vision.
“I don’t want my mother to die,” Denny said. “I won’t sign shit!”
“We won’t sign sh… anything!” Denise said.
The Doctor lifted up a piece of paper and pointed to a signature. “That’s not your decision. We have a medical POA that gives the ultimate decision to her cousin, Susie Song. Susie Song returned to Korea to get your mother’s affairs in order and is flying back on the next available flight to El Paso. As you might expect, that is not a direct flight. She said she will return here tomorrow to sign the form to take your mother off life support and let nature take its course.”
“Why don’t you two take a night?” Dr. Patel said. “You can come back tomorrow to say good-bye to your mother when your cousin arrives. You can all be here as a family for her passing. Your mother would like that.”
“No, she wouldn’t!” said Denny. “She would want to live.”
Chapter 62
As they walked out to the parking lot, they were surprised to see Rayne and Rita pull up in the Regal and park in a handicapped space. Rayne gingerly exited the car, cradling a thermos in her left arm. She had a cane in another.
Rayne gestured to them with her free hand. “We only have a minute,” Rayne said. “Let’s talk in the light.”
Under a flickering streetlight, Rayne and Denny had an awkward reunion. Denny went in for a hug, but Rayne offered a handshake. Rayne kept Rita behind her with her pointed elbow.
“Why are you here?” Denise asked.
“I want Rita to see her grandmother before she dies.” Rayne said. “Her other grandmother.”
“I have a right,” Rita said.
“Did you know about the colonel?” Denise asked.
“I swear to you that I didn’t,” Rayne said. “I always sensed it though. I always knew she was disappointed in me. It’s like she didn’t trust me to bring me into the conspiracy.”
“You should take that as a compliment, mom,” Rita said. Still behind her mother’s elbow, she wiped away a tear. “I like your mom, Auntie Denise. She was famous once for being a lawyer. I want a real grandma, not some crazy colonel who is probably collaborating with alien invaders.”
“She is human, but she’s like a collaborator with them alien invaders,” Denny said. “And you guys are descended from them. No offense, Rita.”
“None taken,” Rita said. “But collaborator or no, I sure feel like a real little girl.”
“You are a real little girl,” Denise said. “No one said you’re not human. Just that your mom is one of the bad guys.”
“I’m still in shock about the whole thing,” Rayne said. “I still haven’t figured out if my mom didn’t bring me in to protect me or didn’t think I was good enough to be a bad guy. I do think she was grooming Rita to take over from her someday.”
Denise looked at her tall, awkward niece. Rita would grow into greatness someday, she just hoped it would be for the right side. But how?
“Can you help us?” Denny asked Rayne. He looked at Rita. “I tried to call you so many times, but your mom never let me get through.”
“I know,” Rita said. “That was the colonel’s doing.”
“Are you on our side or her side?”
“My mother was always disappointed in me,” Rayne said. “I was one of them in a way by birth, but I balked at belonging to them by choice. Did my own thing. Made my own mistakes.”
She didn’t look at Rita. Denny frowned.
“My real first name is Rosalind,” Rayne continued. “After the girl in some play. I always went with my middle name because well, I liked the rain. But I’m on one side and I’ve always been on the same side, my Rita’s.”
Rita nodded. “Wow, thank you mom.”
“How come Rita didn’t have one of them Shakespeare names?” Denny asked.
“The colonel wanted to name her Portia, but I told her I didn’t want to name my daughter after a car.”
Denise got the reference to The Merchant of Venice, Denny’s quizzical look indicated that he didn’t. She could sense the awkwardness. Denny and Rayne had had a one-night stand years ago. Both had gone in different directions in life, and they only had one thing in common, Rita.
“
I want my daughter to be proud of me,” Denny said.
“You can be.” Rayne frowned. “But right now, I’ve got a feeling that you’re going to have to go against my family and I don’t want to be there when that happens. Like I said, everything I do is for my little girl, to keep her safe. I don’t know if I want either of you in her life right now.”
Rayne opened the thermos she had been holding. By smell alone, Denise knew it was the toxic lake water.
“This stuff is keeping me alive,” Rayne said. She chugged it. “Rita, let’s get this over with and take you up and meet your other grandmother before she dies.”
Rita tried to pull away for a final hug with her father and auntie, but her mother dragged her inside the hospital.
Denise and Denny tried to follow Rayne back inside, but Piranha was sitting outside the lobby door. “I have orders not to let you two back in until further notice.”
“From Dr. Patel?”
“From Susie Song, the Power of Attorney. She gets in tomorrow; you can talk to her then.”
“Is she scared we’re going to rescue our mom?” Denny asked.
“I told her about you two,” Piranha said. “Like I said, I’ve got to keep control of your mother, make sure she’s alive when this Susie Wong or whatever gets here.”
“We’re trying to make sure she’s alive too,” Denise said.
“After that power of attorney chick gets here and signs the appropriate form in front of the doctor, it’s beyond my control. She dies, she dies, it’s not on my watch.”
* * *
Denny and Denise sat down outside on the bench under that rickety light. An ambulance hurried into the emergency lane, lights blaring. On the other side of the hospital a hearse drove out.
“Now what?” Denny asked. “I have no place to go right now. I thought freedom would be better, but it’s like even worse. I don’t like being an experiment.”
Denise looked at her brother and then at the hospital. She wasn’t sure if she could pick out her mother’s room above. She could still smell the lingering odor of the lake water from Rayne’s thermos. She thought about Hikaru and the grail and had an idea.
“Well maybe the experiment is that we’re supposed to save our mother by getting the grail,” Denise said. “It’s our destiny. We’ve got to go to the ranch. We sneak in and both touch the grail at the same time, and then fill it with the lake water. We then bring it back to our mom and pour it on her to make sure some gets inside her mouth so it can work its magic inside her body.”
“My whole life has been for this moment, to meet my mom, to make her proud of me,” Denny replied. “But aren’t the bad guys waiting for us? Do you think they’ll try to kill us?”
Denise frowned. “Maybe we do a distraction or whatever when we get there. Like, what happened with the Greeks when they tried to conquer the Trojans.”
“A Trojan whore?” Denny asked.
“Trojan horse,” Denise said. She touched Denny’s hand as if that would help with the plan. “Do you have any idea on how we can do it?”
Denny now got excited. “We use like decoys in the front, so they don’t know we’re coming around the back. Maybe Cordelia can come.”
“I don’t know if that would work. Would she even be willing to do that?”
Before Denise could even ponder the efficacy of a plan out of a bad movie, Denny grabbed her phone. After five minutes of pleading, Denny smiled. “She’ll do it. She might not be enough. We probably need more of a distraction than that. Do you know anyone else who can help?”
Denise thought for a moment. Cordelia would be a minor distraction, but not enough. They needed something, someone, bigger, more distracting? Was there anyone she knew who could literally stop the world?
Chapter 63
After some furious texting, Denise and Denny went down the street to Dew’s complex. Dew had texted that she would be down in a minute.
“Are you sure about this?” Denny asked. “Why do we want to see your cousin? Cordelia said she wants us to pick her up real soon back at her motel over in Lordsburg or she ain’t coming. I still think she’ll be enough. She comes in through the front gate of the ranch, they go toward her and then we sneak in the back.”
Denise would never trust Cordelia. “Wait one more minute. And who said we were waiting to see my cousin?”
Dew finally emerged from an apartment on the first floor, directly below her own. Dew was carrying her cat, Sahar. Sahar now had a little vest that said COMFORT ANIMAL. The cat held the plush laser cat toy in her mouth like a dead mouse.
“What is she going to do?” Denny said.
“It’s not her, it’s her friend.”
“Friend?”
On cue, Petro emerged from the apartment. Denise almost didn’t recognize him. He looked well… sober. He was wearing a loose Hawaiian shirt that had flying saucers hovering over the waves, with aliens on longboards. One of the surfers had a caption labeling him the “Aloha-alien.”
“Hey cousin,” he said to Denise. Denise didn’t know if she wanted the Aloha-alien to marry into the family.
“You’re that guy who went away to college to be an astrophysicist,” Denny said. Petro was a few years older than Denny and knew each other only vaguely. Being an astrophysicist was the apex of professions in Denny’s view. “Did you graduate?”
“Do I look like I graduated?” Petro said.
“What is the plan?” Dew asked, clearly impatient.
“It’s simple,” Denise said. “We pick up Cordelia at her motel and she gives us the scouting report. And then Cordelia and Petro act as a distraction at the entrance to the ranch. All the Groundlings come out to greet them. Meanwhile, Denny and I sneak around the back, duck under the barb wire and touch the grail and bring it back. You and Sahar stay behind as a look out and getaway driver.”
“Sounds simple,” Dew said. “Is that it?”
Denise nodded. “Then we drive like hell back to the hospital, pour the lake water from the thermos into the grail and pour it on my mom’s face so hopefully some gets inside. All before Cousin Susie pulls the plug.”
Sahar purred. The plan sounded good to her.
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Petro said. “I’m in.”
“Remind me to bring my staff,” Denise said. “I’m driving everyone. We’re taking one car.”
Denise was starting to like being in charge, she liked channeling Hurricane Luna.
“Don’t forget to pick up Cordelia,” Denny said.
“I wonder how she feels about going back to the beginning of all this madness,” Denise said.
Chapter 64
Saturday, August 15
Cordelia thought back to the night that started this whole adventure, overlooking the ranch when Denny went crazy. If only she had given Denny the phone instead of the gun. She wondered if she’d made the right choice.
She wondered if she was making the right choice now. She was going against her family now.
It was after midnight, and Denise’s carload of people had just arrived. Cordelia was waiting in the Last Palm parking lot, all alone. She was in her usual cowgirl outfit but had gone with sneakers instead of boots. She might have to run for it this time.
“This car smells like shit,” Cordelia said. “I was about to go back to sleep. Are you guys sure about this?”
“We’re sure,” Denny said to Cordelia. “Are you?”
“I don’t know.” It had been one thing when it was just the sheriff and his goons, but now the Groundlings were there. She’d never liked them. She had never really known what this was all about, although she’d always suspected something illegal. What was worse than illegal?
She’d seen some weird stuff when her father had his “meetings.” She had always assumed that the meetings had something to do with the Klan or G
od knows what. She had given them all a wide berth. Hell, part of the reason she hooked up with Denny was to give her family the finger.
She remembered the magnetism—or whatever weird force it was—she’d always felt when the old timers had gathered with her dad and then closed the door. She could feel it through the walls even. Something drew her in, but through sheer force of will she had pushed it away. Perhaps it was the strain that led her to the drugs, led her to Denny.
Cordelia waited another moment and then squeezed herself in the back seat with Denny and Petro. She gave Petro a cramped hug.
“So, you know Petro here?” Dew asked.
“We’re cousins,” she said.
Petro nodded. “We used to be close. They run people out of town sometimes if we don’t quite fit in. That’s kinda why I drink and drug so much. It’s a long story.”
They drove in silence for another mile south of town until they came to the park under the cylindrical water tower, on the other side of the ranch.
“Drop me and Petro off here,” she said. There was still time to run away back into town. She wanted to figure out what Petro would do first.
Her cousin Petro had been brilliant at one time, but alcohol and other drugs had dulled his senses, dulled his abilities. While many of her cousins had had drug issues and died, it was amazing that he was still alive. Then again, she was no stranger to drugs either. She was a miracle of survival as well.
They parked by the old military tank at the entrance to the park. Cordelia did not get out. “So, what’s the plan again?” she asked Denny.
“You guys go in front and pretend that you’re happy to see them,” Denny said. “I’m betting that your spark or whatever Denise calls it, confuses them.”
Petro looked confused. “Huh?”
Denny was not good at explaining the plan. Denise knew she’d have to take over. She made eye contact with Petro so she could penetrate his defenses. “You know how when you say, ‘We’re not going anywhere,’ and somehow your sheer force of willpower can influence people?”
The Shakespeare Incident Page 33
