Song of Bees

by Andrea Hicks

  ‘So this is all about money.’

  He swings me around to face him so hard he nearly sweeps me off my feet, and it’s clear he’d like to knock me into the middle of next week. ‘Let me tell you what this is about. My father worked his arse off in that laboratory. He gave up time with my mother and me and my adopted brothers, one who had CF by the way, to find vaccines that would lengthen the lives of people whose health had been compromised. He gave everything he had. You want to know where he is now?’ I don’t answer. My eyes are on his face hardened with anger. I know no answer is required. ‘He’s in a nursing home with early onset Alzheimer’s. Dementia. You want to know what put him there? The stress of your bastard father running off with both formulas, the one for CF and the one he fiddled with. Thanks to him my dad barely knows me. The trials cost millions and my father was blamed for the failure of it and was dismissed for not keeping proper control over the trial. This was a man who had nothing else in his life apart from looking for ways to help people who were suffering from horrendous diseases. He couldn’t take it. It broke him. He changed from a confident, happy man to an empty shell that had no purpose. That’s what this is about. Your father owes us. He owes my dad, he owes my family and he owes the world. And when I find him I’m gonna take the formulas for the vaccines, get what we’re owed, then I’m going to kill him.’

  He drags me by my arm, and again I pull away from his grip. ‘My dad would never have done anything like that. You’ve got it wrong, got him wrong. I know you’re looking for someone to blame, I get it, Cain, I’ve done it myself, but you can’t heap the blame on him just because he’s not here to defend himself.’

  Cain pushes his face so close to mine I could kiss him. ‘Well, there’s the rub, Nina. There is no defence for what he did. All the other people in the department were fired. Some of them had mortgages, and kids to care for, families. The department was closed down and they were all chucked out on their ear.’

  ‘And what about me?’

  He stops and stares me down. ‘What about you?’

  ‘You said people wanted me for my blood. That was a lie wasn’t it?’

  He sighs. ‘Not exactly.’

  I frown and shake my head which is now thumping. ‘Not exactly? Cain, please, just be straight with me. Can my blood be used to heal people?’

  He nods. ‘Yes.’

  ‘So why do you need my dad.’

  He bites his lip and I can see he’s fighting with himself about how much to tell me. I still haven’t made my mind up about whether Cain is a good guy or a bad guy. Something in my gut tells me he isn’t exactly a bad guy, not in the essence of our understanding of bad, but I’ve decided some of his methods are off. He’s so angry, so incensed because of his father, and I’m guessing, one of his adopted brothers because he said his brother “had” CF. I’m thinking he’s no longer around, and if that’s right then he has my sympathy. Cain comes across as though he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, with jam on, like one of those people for whom nothing goes wrong. It’s in his beautiful mews house, the way he dresses, even in the ruffle of his hair and the bluest of eyes. The Midas touch if you like, hit with the lucky stick. But actually that’s not how it is. It’s all perception. It’s what we perceive, but it doesn’t make it true.

  He holds out his hand. I hesitate because I don’t know where this is leading, but he smiles and lifts his chin. I take his hand and we cross the road and walk to the café where we met in what seems like years ago. He goes to the counter and orders coffees and bacon sandwiches. He demolishes his in a few mouthfuls, and while I’m nibbling at mine and sipping my coffee.

  ‘Your blood can heal people, Nina, but only in the perfect conditions.’

  ‘Which are?’

  ‘Well, that’s the thing. We don’t know. There’s only one person who knows it and it’s your dad.’

  I frown because I know there’s more to this. ‘So how did you find this out.’

  ‘The others. The other people with blood like yours. The ones who were on the trial. They were all at Plan Bee at some point. Each one of them was tested, their blood taken, the minor operations, everything that you underwent, so did they, at least the ones we could find were. And with each one we got the same answer. They all had blood with the capacity to cure probably every illness, except there was something missing, the enablement for that to happen. None of it could be passed on to another person. It was useless without the missing component.’

  ‘And what was that?’

  He shrugs. ‘We don’t know. There’s only one person who knows.’

  I stare at him and the realisation dawns on me. ‘Dad?’

  He nods. ‘We’ve tested many different groups of people. People with varying illnesses from the simple to the serious, but to no avail. The blood was rejected. We tried matching blood groups exactly to the last nth, it still didn’t work. The antibodies would not transport without...something else, the thing we don’t have. Without it, it’s useless. We’re so close, but...’ He shrugs again.

  ‘If you knew all this, why was I tested. Surely my blood would have been the same.’

  He chuckles. ‘Your father had obviously given you the vaccine at some point. You may have been given it before anyone else. I’m guessing you were. I was so certain you were the answer when I discovered who you were, the daughter of the man who worked with my father. Then we thought he would come looking for you if he knew you were being held which was why you were held for so long. Cecily was certain he would show himself because his daughter was in danger, but he didn’t show.’

  I drain my cup, interested now, but also devastated. I’m trying to hide the way I’m feeling behind my huge coffee cup because I can’t believe my lovely gentle dad would deliberately withhold something that could cure so many people, prevent so many from suffering from horrible illnesses. My thoughts go to Mum, lying in the hospital bed, a fine sheen of sweat on her face, her rheumy eyes that were once so bright and sparkling, all the colour leached out of them by the terrible disease that ravaged her body. The cloying smell of her skin filled the room, the sounds she made when she was in discomfort was something I would never forget. Would he not have come back for her if he’d known she was suffering? If what Cain says is true, he could have saved her.

  ‘There’s one thing I don’t understand, Cain.’ He lifts his chin to invite my question. I look at him, really look at him. His eyes might be the bluest I’ve ever seen, but I think they could be the saddest. He’s hurting. Really hurting. And he looks on the verge of tears. ‘Why did you want me to kill Cecily when she was working towards the same thing as you?’

  He shuffles the salt and pepper pots around on the table, like chess pieces. ‘Because she wants your dad for a different reason.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘She wants to destroy what he discovered. I want to use it. If she gets her hands on it first it’s game over. The Eugenics Chamber won’t allow it to be put out into the public domain. They think it could devastate not just the economy, but the balance of the world population. Natural selection would be a thing of the past.’

  ‘Aren’t you worried about that?’ He shakes his head. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because the vaccine can be used worldwide, meaning more people grow crops, more people to offer themselves for meaningful work. The NHS would need to be upheld in the beginning because of the time it takes to roll-out a vaccine that will be given to all, but when that’s done, the programmes will be there for newborn babies only. The NHS will metamorphosise into an Emergency only department for accidents. All the money currently spent on the NHS could go into research for climate change, for crops, for training people in other sectors, for improving the world’s infrastructure, to make sure we treat the Earth the way it should be treated instead of depleting all its natural bounty.’ Cain gets into his subject with passion. He believes in it. He believes he can make a difference. ‘What she wants to do, her and the others in the Eugenics Chamber, is.
..awful. They want to destroy some amazing research, something my father was involved in and I just can’t allow it to happen.’

  ‘Yeah, but...killing her though, Cain. Pretty radical. And you would have let me go ahead with it, wouldn’t you?’

  He smiles and sits back in his chair. ‘I told Luna you wouldn’t do it. You’re too fucking feisty, that’s your trouble. And probably too honourable.’ I raise my eyes heavenward. And there was I thinking being honourable was a good thing. ‘We’ll have to find another way. We have to get to your dad first, get him out of the woodwork and retrieve his research. Then we can start testing, on each other if necessary, and offer it to the pharma companies.’

  This is the part I’m not liking. The money part. It feels....wrong, like it’s making money out of people’s suffering. I don’t think I can be part of that. ‘Why can’t you just give it to the world? Is it really yours to make money out of?’

  His face hardens and I instantly know I’ve said the wrong thing. ‘It’s for my dad. If it was your dad sitting in a nursing home with a blanket round his knees and food down the front his shirt, where once he had so much pride and dignity, wouldn’t you want to redress the balance?’

  ‘But your dad will benefit from it in other ways, Cain. It might cure his dementia. You’ll have a life with him, the one you used to have and thought you’d lost. What’s with the money thing?’

  ‘The pharma companies will make a mint out of it, Nina. Why should they? Why should they take everything. These huge companies run everything, not governments and politicians as we’re led to believe. It’s all a sham. It’s like they’ve got us by the balls and they’re squeezing, and once they’ve got their hands on this information they’ll squeeze even harder.’

  I can’t argue with that, but something occurs to me. ‘Are they squeezing you by any chance?’

  He rolls his eyes and presses his lips firmly together. ‘I’m on a retainer.’

  ‘With whom? A retainer? To do what?’

  ‘With Isotonic Pharmaceuticals. To find your father and deliver him to the company with the key to dispensing the vaccine in his hands.’

  My stomach churns again because I hate hearing someone talk about my dad like this. ‘His head on a plate you mean.’

  ‘If you like.’

  ‘You don’t care, do you? You don’t care that I feel about my dad, my family, the way you feel about yours. You’re no different from me, Cain. You want to protect your family and I want to protect mine. What’s the difference?’

  ‘We’re owed.’

  ‘Why? Why are you owed more than me? I lost my dad years ago. You’ve still got yours.’

  ‘But I don’t have my brother. My brother died from CF when he could have been saved if we’d had the vaccine.’

  ‘The brother who was adopted?’

  ‘Both my brothers were adopted. Hikaru is the other one.’

  I gasp. ‘What?’

  Cain shakes his head and looks distraught. ‘He’s an arsehole. He teamed up with an opposing pharma company, Kronas Pharmaceuticals. He knows it’ll be worth billions and billions. He and I were never close. We could have worked on this together to save Dad, but he decided to go it alone, and he’ll cut me out if he can. And he couldn’t give a fuck about Dad, the man who saved him from certain destitution. He hasn’t been to see him in years. D’you see, Nina. It’s not just me who needs him.’

  I narrow my eyes. Cain has a history of playing me. I still don’t trust him.

  ‘You said you were going to kill him.’

  ‘It’s how I feel.’

  I chuckle and push my cup away. ‘Well, I’m not going to help you do that. He’s my dad. I haven’t seen him for years and if he’s found I’m not about to let you kill him. I’ll do all I can to protect him and stop you.’

  He nods while looking at me hard, and I know he’s formulating something, probably something to his own advantage. ‘Let’s make a deal.’

  ‘What kind of a deal?’

  ‘Help me find him, and I’ll help you protect him. Whoever finds him he’s going to need protection.’

  ‘There’s just one problem.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘I don’t trust you, Cain.’

  He throws his hands up in the air. ‘So it’s stalemate and we never find him. Hikaru gets his hands on him and that’s the end of it I can assure you, including your father. He’ll last until he hands over the goods. Hikaru won’t want him muddying the waters. Your father will be a liability to him. Hikaru is more ruthless than I could ever be. Good luck with that.’

  ‘And what if Cecily finds him?’

  ‘I’m counting on it.’

  I pull a face. ‘Why would you want her to find him? You’ll both get nothing and your dad will never return to the person he was.’

  ‘I want her to use everything she’s got to find him. She has far more resources than I do. MI5 and MI6 will get involved. The Eugenics Chamber have people all over the world. She can find him, but she needs you to do it, because if I’ve judged this right, if he knows MI5 have got you, he’ll come looking for you.’

  ‘That’s what you meant when you said I’d be used as bait.’ He nods. ‘So what do I have to do?’

  ‘You have to walk back into Plan Bee and give yourself up.’

  ‘And what if they kill me?’

  ‘They won’t.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you’re too valuable to them.’

  I swallow hard and inhale deeply. The thought of going back to Plan Bee, and willingly, makes me feel anxious. I allow myself to calm down and try to look at it rationally. Cain is right about one thing. If Hikaru gets hold of dad, God only knows what he’ll do to him. Hikaru sounds like a thug, an utter nightmare on legs. He’ll probably get the information he wants, then Dad will never be seen again. If Cecily gets hold of him, she’ll destroy all his research, or at least take it from him and keep it until she needs it, and then probably throw Dad in prison...or worse. Either way I won’t get Dad back. I’ll definitely never see him again. At the moment, it’s all I want, to see Dad. To be part of a family again. To feel safe.

  ‘Okay.’

  Cain grins, leans forward and grabs my hands. ‘Good girl.’

  ‘There are conditions though.’

  He looks wary. ‘Okay. What?’

  ‘My friends. I need to see them before I give myself up. They’ve helped me and I trust them with my life because they’re all I have right now. I need them to know where I am, and I want them kept in the loop. The other thing is that one of them, Tom, works for the government. He’s a techie. He might be able to find Dad first. If he does we can use it as leverage to release me from Plan Bee. If not, and Dad is still alive and makes his own way to Plan Bee to find me, or contacts Cecily, you must work with Tom and Baxter to stop him before he gets there. You must work with them, Cain, or the deals off. We do this together or not at all.’

  Chapter 20

  Ava and the others are waiting for us at her flat. When I told her I was bringing Cain with me she wasn’t sure if it was something she was happy with, but I assured her it would be okay and she relented. I asked her to contact Baxter and Tom to get them over as well. When we get off the bike outside the apartment I can see that Cain is reluctant. He doesn’t want to meet Baxter and Tom, but it’s tough. It’s my way or no way from now on. I’m taking a leaf out of his book. Baxter is just as bad when we get inside. He eyes Cain suspiciously, and I have to take some control and kick things off. This needs to work, and it needs to work in a way that will keep me safe and prevent Dad from falling into the wrong hands.

  ‘Right, first of all, thanks to Ava for letting us meet here. And of course, my thanks to all of you,’ I look pointedly at Cain, ‘for being on my side. It’s been tough because at the beginning of all this I had no one to turn to, and honestly, I thought my days were numbered, but since I’ve met you I’ve begun to feel more optimistic. I hope you’ll bear with me while I explain
what I’m planning to do.’

  So I tell them. It doesn’t go down too well, at least not with Baxter.

  ‘Are you freakin’ mad? Why would you want to do that? We haven’t spoken to the PM yet. He might be able to help you without you putting yourself into so much danger.’ He glares at Cain. ‘I suppose this is your bright idea, knobhead.’

  Cain returns his glare. ‘It’s easy for you to have an opinion when you don’t know the full story. It’s the only way.’

  Baxter nods. ‘Oh, right. You mean it’s the only way for you to get what you want.’

  ‘It’s the only way for us all to get what we want. Nothing will happen to Nina. She’s too valuable.’

  ‘And you think using her as bait is acceptable? I suppose it would be to you, bearing in mind you’re not the one putting your neck in the noose. I don’t like it.’

  Cain shrugs. I wish he wouldn’t. He has this way about him that’s hard to define. It’s like he thinks he’s better than everyone else and only his opinion counts. I can see why he’s got Baxter’s back up. ‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it. It’s not your business.’

  I realise I’m losing control of the situation. ‘Hey, hey, guys. C’mon.’ I glare at Cain. ’Do you have to be like that? Baxter...and Tom and Ava, they actually care about me, Cain. They don’t have an agenda like you. You want something from this. They don’t.’

  ‘Well, actually, we do,’ says Ava. ‘More than anything I want you to be safe, Nina, but don’t forget my sister, Grace and what happened to her. I have questions too.’

  I hang my head. Of course Eva wants to know what happened, and why. ‘I’m sorry, Ava. I know you want answers, and when my dad comes back, he’ll have them, I promise you. He’s not a bad man. Please don’t think he’s a bad man.’ I look around at everyone for encouragement, but of course, they never knew Dad. He could be Hannibal Lecter for all they know.

  I puff out a sigh. ‘Anyway...the way I see it it’s the only positive thing I can do. Cecily will probably catch up with me anyway. And I’m not sure she doesn’t have the PMs ear. He seemed to like her.’