Untouchable

by Stephanie Doyle

  “No, I have never noticed any particular changes. I don’t often see my skin as it’s usually draped in silk. In what way does it change?”

  “The look of it. Sometimes it’s as if it shimmers. Glows. Something. Other times it’s a natural, soft color. Like anyone else’s skin.”

  Again Lilith glanced down at herself. She searched for and found a patch of skin exposed on her upper arm. To her it looked like her skin. She didn’t see any difference. “I’m afraid the jungle has affected your mind and your sight it seems.”

  “No, I’m pretty sure I’m right. When you were sleeping there was no sheen. But when I threw the rock and hit you, instantly your skin started to glow again. It makes perfect sense.”

  “It makes no sense at all.”

  “Don’t you see? It’s a defense mechanism. The poison. And, as strange as this may sound, it’s not all that unusual.”

  Lilith whacked at another leaf with particular force and paused as a rat snake slithered down the branch off the high plant and out of her path.

  “You are saying that this condition is not unusual when I have told you that I was nothing more than a genetic experiment. Surely there are not more people out there like me.”

  “Unusual in a person, yes,” he agreed. “Not in nature, though. There are highly poisonous frogs in South America. You’ve never been there but they have jungles much like this. These tiny frogs can be more deadly than a viper or a cobra. But it’s not as if they are predators. They’re too small. The poison is simply a defense mechanism for the frog against those that would attack it. And the sheen on their skin lets their natural enemies know that they are armed.”

  “You think I am related to a frog?” She knew he didn’t mean it as such but she had a hard time not being offended.

  “I think, Lilly, that your poison is similar. When you slept it receded, but when you were threatened it returned. Think about it. When you’ve killed? What were the circumstances leading up to it?”

  Visions of her uncle attacking her came to mind. Then other visions of the village on fire. The man who slapped her cheek. Yes, they were times of stress and fear. But there had been other times. “I killed as a helpless baby.”

  “During childbirth,” Tarak pointed out. “People often talk about how stressful it is on the mother, but I imagine there is a fair amount of stress going on in the womb as a child makes that journey from darkness to light.”

  “Also, when I’ve been called to help the wounded or the suffering. I’ve been able to touch the water and turn it into medicine.”

  “Seeing someone suffering is a cause for stress. Especially with someone like you who feels so much. Look, Lilly, I can’t know absolutely, but I think you need to consider that what you can do is more under your control than you believe.”

  She stopped and let the machete drop to her side. The idea of what he was saying overwhelmed her. Control. It was unthinkable. Impossible. To control her curse would mean…everything. But it wasn’t possible, was it? She would have known. Surely at some point she would have realized.

  But how? How could she have known? When she’d accepted for so long that she was untouchable in every way. All the time.

  Tarak came up behind her and took the knife out of her hand, dangerously close to brushing against her as he did. Instantly Lilith jumped away.

  “Are you trying to prove your theory by risking your life?” she asked, breathing heavily. Whether it was from the exertion of the trek or his surprising hypothesis she wasn’t sure.

  “No,” Tarak said. “Now isn’t the time for that. But I want you to think about it. Defense mechanisms are unconscious reactions. Like fight or flight. However, once you understand how you react when threatened that’s one step toward taking control of your actions. Eventually your conscious mind can override your unconscious reactions. It just takes practice.”

  His words almost hurt. Desperately she wanted him to stop talking because with everything he said that made sense her heart bled. What he was doing was offering her hope. Planting a seed in her mind to suggest that she may not have to be isolated for the rest of her life.

  Maybe he thought he was doing a good thing. But what if he was wrong?

  What if he is right?

  Lilith rejected the dangerous whisper from deep inside her soul where her most cherished wishes lived. She’d lived too long knowing exactly how deadly she was to anyone around her. To suggest otherwise was treacherous as well as foolish. His motive, then, had to be less noble.

  “I believe you are saying this because you want to touch me. Even though you know you cannot.”

  He smiled then and it transformed his face from serious to charming. Lilith would have sworn she didn’t know what charm was other than a word she had learned while practicing English. Now she understood it completely.

  “While that would be a nice perk, I can assure you my survival instinct is stronger than my desire for you. Not by much, but enough. At least for now. I’m not saying this to upset you, Lilly. I’m saying it because, as unnatural as you think you are, Nature decided to let you live. If you look around this planet there are creatures filled with poison. Plants, flowers, bugs, frogs, snakes. In each case the poison exists for a reason. It is only logical that yours does, as well.”

  Tarak continued to walk then, the machete now in his hand as he took over the task of clearing a path for them.

  His words filled her head in a way that made it hurt. She couldn’t deny their veracity no matter how much she wanted to. How strange to think of herself as an anomaly all her life when really she was part of a different family. A natural family.

  It was sometime later that Tarak craned his neck over his shoulder to smile at her, his teeth flashing white against the heavy green backdrop.

  “Oh, and, Lilly,” he said casually. “I should also add that all those species I mentioned manage to find a way to mate.”

  Charm. Yes, now she understood it and why people apparently had a hard time resisting it.

  “Where the hell are we?” The humidity was thick in the air, signaling another downpour. The mere idea of more rain was enough to irritate every nerve in Echo’s body.

  Rolf looked up from his GPS receiver and sighed. “We’ve still got over a hundred kilometers to go. Maybe another day on foot.”

  “But this is boring!” Echo shouted. “I need to be doing more than slugging through this damn country.” She clutched the necklace that dangled from her neck and felt it bite into her hand the more she squeezed it. The pain made her feel better as it was less boring than walking.

  “Once we find transportation we’ll be out of here soon enough,” Kent reminded her. “Unless you have a better idea, we’re stuck walking.”

  Echo’s eyes thinned to slits. She imagined slitting Kent’s throat with the blade she kept attached to her ankle and watching his expression of stunned horror as his life faded away. That definitely wouldn’t be boring. She might have done it, too, just to set an example that she wasn’t someone the men should feel free to converse with, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she might need him still.

  The first drop hit her face and she groaned. Soon the sky opened up and in seconds she was drenched.

  “Oh, Mummy, there are so many things I will never forgive you for, but forcing me to come to this forsaken place is definitely one of them,” she muttered to the sky. Then she laughed and looked down at the ground and laughed even harder. “Sorry. Wrong direction.”

  “We should think about making camp soon,” Rolf suggested. “We’ve only got another hour of light. If we can find some dry wood now and keep it dry, when the rain stops we’ll at least be able to have a fire.”

  “Fine,” Echo relented. “How far inland from the river are we?”

  “About two kilometers,” Rolf reported.

  Echo had sent him out a few times during their trek to search for any trace of civilization as well as to keep his eyes open for anyone who might be following. While Echo tho
ught the possibility remote, she wasn’t taking any chances.

  “We’ll need to cross it eventually to stay on course,” he continued. “I saw a rope bridge, but it’s back a few kilometers.”

  “I’m not going backward,” Echo insisted. “We’ll swim across if we have to.”

  Rolf opened his mouth to protest, but one look from Echo was enough to silence him.

  “Go find some wood that isn’t drenched. And while you’re out there find me something to eat. I’m getting tired of fruit. Be manly men, won’t you, and kill something. I have a hankering for some meat.”

  “They’ve stopped,” Tarak noted as he continued to stare at the blip.

  He showed the GPS receiver to Lilith but it wasn’t much more to her than a dot on a small screen.

  “The necklace hasn’t moved for at least a half hour,” he said. “No doubt they didn’t want to continue on in the rain. A good sign.”

  “Why?”

  “It means they feel comfortable enough to stop. They don’t suspect that anyone could be following, which will give us the advantage of surprise when we move.”

  “Tonight?” Lilith asked, both fearful and determined that the time had come to take back what was hers.

  “Tonight,” Tarak confirmed. “We’re about three kilometers back. We’ll want to get closer, but not too close. Her men will set up a periphery that they’ll secure with regular watches.”

  “That seems excessive if they do not think they are being followed.”

  Tarak shrugged. “These men are soldiers. Hired or not. They’ll fall back on their training, which is to be watchful and on guard at all times. Even if not directed to do so by Echo.”

  Lilith nodded. “We’ll need a plan.” She didn’t have to be a soldier to know that much was a given. She thought about what approach she might take and other than attempting to sneak by Echo’s men and steal the necklace she didn’t have many ideas. And if Echo was wearing the necklace, as Lilith had done, and could erect her force field to prevent Lilith from touching her, then that idea wasn’t feasible.

  Tarak dropped to his haunches. He found a stick and began to draw lines in the mud. Lilith sank to her knees and studied his crude map. Not for the first time, she silently praised herself for having the forethought to know she would need Tarak on this mission. She’d seen him be curious about her condition, thoughtful about the information she’d relayed and most recently charming.

  Now she was watching him at his most focused.

  There would be yet another layer to him. When he had to confront Echo’s men she would see the violence. While she understood why it was necessary, it wasn’t something she was looking forward to. It would change him and she couldn’t say how she would react to that change.

  Then she shook her head. It didn’t matter if her opinion changed or if he became less attractive to her. All of this was temporary. Their journey, Echo, the necklace…Tarak. Eventually it would be over and then she would return to her village and continue on with the life she’d created for herself.

  Peaceful. Quiet. Studious. Helpful. It was her only option.

  Unless Tarak was right. Unless she could find a way to control…No, she refused to accept it. If she’d been able to control the poison she would have certainly found a way by now. For over twenty years she’d lived like this. There was nothing in her past to suggest that she could live any other way.

  Only because you never tried.

  Lilith grimaced. There were times when listening to the inner truth of the mind was not very satisfying. Especially when she told herself that she couldn’t believe what it was saying.

  Rather than dwell on her thoughts she concentrated on the map Tarak was making in the dampening earth and the task in front of them.

  “We’re here. They’re there.” He pointed with the stick. “They’ll probably only create a perimeter of about a hundred meters around the camp to patrol and her men will take shifts.”

  “How can you be certain?”

  “It’s what I would do if I were among them. The best we can do is eliminate one, and then hope another comes looking for his fallen mate. That will leave her with only one man back in camp. Once we have two on two I’ll feel a little more confident in going after her on her turf.”

  Lilith nodded.

  “You understand what’s required?”

  She lifted her gaze from the map and met his eyes. They were colder than she had ever seen them. It made her sad and it made her realize how she’d been able to forget at times who he was at his core.

  A warrior. That’s what the monks had called him. They were right.

  “If it comes to it you’re going to need to kill. Without remorse or hesitation. Both of our lives could depend on it.”

  “I understand.”

  Tarak shook his head. “No, I don’t think you do, but we don’t have time to waste. I need to be able to trust you, Lilly. Completely.”

  She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I understand. I will follow your orders. How will we get the necklace back from her?”

  “Good question. But it’s our last concern. First her men, then we worry about her. All right?”

  “First her men. Then Echo,” Lilith repeated. She felt the coldness she’d seen in his eyes settling in her own stomach. It was a sick feeling. She wondered how he lived with it. But she could also see how it helped. Cold quickly turned to numbness. Numb, she would be able to work in contrast to her beliefs in order to do what needed to be done.

  “Tarak, please know that I do understand that if we have to kill her to get the necklace…then she dies.”

  Chapter 11

  A llison Gracelyn carefully read the information being relayed to her by the information networks of Oracle. The computer hummed in the silent office of a now-empty town house in Alexandria, Virginia. Unable to sleep, she had chosen to work instead. Pushing herself and the resources available to her to their utmost capacity. And it had worked. She’d finally found what she was looking for.

  She allowed a brief smile to cross her lips.

  “Got you,” she said.

  South Africa.

  India.

  Allison had been tracking the messengers that Arachne had hired and deployed before her death for weeks. One messenger had succeeded in delivering his package to Kwan-Sook.

  Through the now-dead crime boss, Allison had learned the dangerous fact that the data contained in the package was merely a portion of Arachne’s information empire. So many world leaders’ secrets out there somewhere in the world for anyone to find. Secrets that could be used to manipulate powerful figures for money, power, more information. It was a deadly cycle.

  And knowing that what they had discovered and eventually lost was only a piece of the puzzle kept her awake at night, working.

  But at least now, she knew where to find the other two packages.

  South Africa.

  India.

  She leaned back in her leather chair and stretched. Long hours in front of a computer screen had tightened her muscles and the tension of knowing what was loose out there in the world hadn’t helped.

  “Who is there, Arachne?” she asked softly although she suspected she already knew the answer. “Your other daughters no doubt.”

  No, not daughters, Allison reminded herself. Biological offspring. There was a difference. Was it one of those offspring who had killed Kwan-Sook? Three daughters, each with a piece of a powerful empire. If they were anything like their biological mother in temperament it was only natural to assume that they wouldn’t be satisfied with a mere piece of an empire.

  Each one would want the whole enchilada. To get that they would need to destroy the others.

  Or would they? What if nurture had won out over nature? What if these two women had been raised to know the difference between good and evil and the person who had stolen the information from Kwan-Sook was another figure entirely?

  What if it turned out that Arachne’s children were a
llies and not enemies?

  If there was a chance of that, then there was a chance that Allison and the Oracle agents could track them down without complications. If these women offered no struggle, Allison could retrieve the data, destroy it and Arachne’s legacy once and for all.

  Maybe it was improbable, but even just the hope that the end was almost in sight was enough to have Allison thinking that she could take a few hours of sleep. She missed sleep.

  In the end, whether these women were like Jackie or not wouldn’t matter. Friend or foe the result would be the same. It had to be. The data—all of it—would be found and destroyed.

  But if they were like Jackie…if they were out for the power that the data could bring them, Allison understood deeply what the cost of bringing down those two women might be. More lives could be lost.

  Allison thought of Kwan-Sook, the giantess. Despite her deformity she’d been a powerful enemy. What were the other two like? What genetic marvels had Jackie concocted in her secret lab?

  There was only one way to find out.

  South Africa.

  India.

  It was where she would start.

  Chapter 12

  “Y ou know what to do?” Tarak whispered as close to Lilith’s ear as he dared get.

  Just before they had left their camp he’d smothered the fire. In the waning glow of the embers Lilith’s skin practically glowed. There was no doubt that in her current state she was lethal.

  “Stay covered. No matter what happens. Don’t give them anything to shoot at.”

  She nodded, but he wouldn’t know how she would react until the moment was upon them. They had been over the plan several times, but their preparation would mean nothing if Lilith froze at a crucial moment.

  He thought back to how she had handled herself the night Echo torched her village. Standing tall in the midst of destruction and ultimately death. She had calmly looked into the eyes of a tiger and assured him it wouldn’t attack, shooing it away like a kitten rather than a ferocious predator. No, she wouldn’t freeze. He was all but sure of it.