by Dena Nicotra
The leather seats were heated and the warmth felt good on my back. Fortunately for me, our wealthy benefactor had left us with a full hydro tank as well. I smiled as we pulled out of the parking structure and lifted into the dreary sky. As soon as we were at a safe altitude, Two attempted to send a signal to Mic’s network. The hovcar in-dash monitor came back with an all-too-close image of Mic’s worried face.
“Two, confirm data access violations.” I recognized a slightly raised pitch in his voice that told me he was anything but calm.
“Violation attempted. Data lockdown sequence initiated.”
“Have you traced through your coding?” She glanced at me, her one remaining eyebrow arching upward.
“Yes, Mic. I initiated data breakpoints to be certain. Aren’t you going to ask me where I am? How about if Lee’s safe. Do you want to ask me that, Mic?”
“Is she safe, Two? Did you find her?”
“Now you’re coming around,” she said, sarcastically.
I pushed the button on the console to turn the monitor toward me. Mic’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah, I’m safe, Mic,” I said flatly.
“I was sure you were dead, Lee. I’m so glad I was wrong.” He had dark circles under his eyes and I noticed his typically clean-shaven face was sporting stubble.
“Yeah, so am I. Where are you? Did everyone get out safe?”
“We’re at an offsite I.D.E. facility, just outside of Los Angeles. Everyone made it out, thanks to you. I’m sending the coordinates to you now.” I nodded.
“Mic, do you have medical access there?” Two asked.
“Yes, and I can fix your eye when you get here, Two.” She laughed. “I don’t give a shit about that, Mic. Lee’s hurt.”
“What? Define hurt. What happened to her?”
“Dural tear with cerebrospinal fluid leakage,” said Two.
“I pointed my thumb toward Two. “What she said.” He was quiet for a moment, and then he clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them. “I’ll take care of you, Lee. Just get here as quickly as you can.”
“Working on it,” said Two.
Chapter 5
We arrived at the I.D.E. offsite facility where Mic was waiting on the roof with a stretcher. He was moving deliberately as he pushed my sleeve up and set up an I.V. — he hadn’t even said hello, come to think of it. Maude was there, with a cheery smile pasted so tightly on her face it made me do a double take. “It’s that bad, huh?” I asked. She placed her hand over mine and patted it reassuringly. “He’s going to fix you right up, don’t you worry!” Her voice was a bit too shrill to be convincing. I noticed Giz was holding the door open as they rushed me through. His expression was even more transparent. His half-hearted smile was so phony, I wanted to reach out and throat-punch him.
“Don’t look at me like that, Giz!” I snapped as they continued to rush me down the hallway. I tried to focus my attention on the square light fixtures in the ceiling as they hurried me along. Mic paused to place his eye in front of a scanner and then pushed through the doors with the gurney. Once inside the operating theatre, he started barking orders to both his Aunt and Giz. I heard him utter something about, “time being of the essence,” just before I went under.
I didn’t wake up until the next afternoon, and when I did, I was so disoriented that I thought I was still being held by Towering Aaron. A slurping sound caused me to shift my gaze to the chair next to my bed. Giz lowered a can of orange soda from his lips and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, did I wake you?” I cleared my throat and licked my lips, which felt like sandpaper.
“It’s good to see you, Giz,” I managed.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like someone beat me with a sledgehammer.” He handed me a paper cup, and I took a small sip. “So, what’s the verdict? Did he fix me?” Giz took the paper cup from me and filled it again at sink. There was a long pause before he turned to hand it back to me. “Here, drink more,” he said, evading my question.
“I don’t want any more. Answer me, Giz. Did he fix me?” He ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, he did, Lee. It’s all good. You’re going to be fine.” I narrowed my eyes.
“What are you not telling me, Giz?” The door to my room opened, and Alice stepped in cautiously. Was that relief on Giz’s face? “Hey there, looks who’s awake!” Giz held his hand out like he was revealing a grand surprise. Alice tucked her hair behind her ears and stepped closer to my bed.
“Oh, Lee, it’s just amazing, isn’t it? I mean, aren’t you just so incredibly thankful right now for—” Giz cut her off mid-sentence. “Honey, where’s Bady?”
“She’s napping, sweetheart. Don’t worry, Maude’s with her.” Giz had his back to me, but I could tell by the confused look on Alice’s face that he was making a pitiful attempt to clue her in on something. I cleared my throat, which caused Giz to turn and face me. Now they both stood there with stupid smiles on their faces.
“Okay, what the fuck is going on? Am I not going to be able to walk? I automatically started wiggling my toes as I spoke, taking a mental inventory of my ability to command my lower extremities to respond to me.
“Yes! Of course, you will walk!” Alice was nodding in the affirmative for added confirmation. I gave her a direct stare. She abruptly stopped nodding. “Why don’t we open up this window and get a little light in here for you.” She moved across the room and busied herself with the blinds.
“Giz, go get Mic,” I said flatly.
“Yeah, good idea. I’ll do that.” He backed out of the room nervously. Alice turned around and smoothed invisible wrinkles out of her long skirt. “I can’t believe how fast I am showing this time. You know I could hardly get into this skirt this morning?” She took a seat against the wall and shifted uncomfortably. No longer convinced that everything was fine, I crossed my arms and starred at the ceiling.
It didn’t take long for Mic to come strutting into the room like a knight in shining armor, with his trusty side-kick behind him. He paused to check readings on the equipment and then gave me his most dashing smile. “How’s my beautiful patient this morning?”
“Beautiful, huh? What the fuck did you do to me, Mic?”
“I did what I had to, and the good news is, you’re going to make a full and complete recovery. In fact, you’re going to have little to no downtime.”
“But…?”
“No “buts,” you’re out of the woods, completely fine and you’ll be stronger than you ever were.” He didn’t meet my eyes on that last part.
“Stronger…there’s something in that word that makes me twitch, Mic. What did you do?”
“I’m just going to go check on Lady Bady Bug,” said Alice.
“I’ll join you,” Giz added. With that, the two of them scattered from the room like roaches when the lights come on. I crossed my arms and glared at him. “If everything is so good, why is everyone acting so jumpy around me?” A knock at the door made us both flinch. “Can I come in?”
“Two has been anxious to see you,” he said with a half-hearted smile. “Good, maybe she’ll give me the straight story,” I said, sardonically. Mic shifted uncomfortably as my double entered the room. I noticed immediately that her eye was fixed. In fact, she looked completely refreshed.
“Has he told you yet?” she said, pulling a chair closer to my bed and taking a seat.
“I don’t know what he’s beating around the bush about, but clearly there’s something I don’t know yet.”
“Yeah, he’s probably afraid you’ll be pissed off, but I don’t know that he had much of a choice. The alternative for you would have been much worse.”
“Then spit it out already,” I snapped.
Mic took a moment to adjust his lab coat and then looked me dead in the eye. “All right, Lee. I had to make some difficult decisions on your behalf, and if you hate me for them, I guess I can live with that.” “Go on,” I said.
“Spinal fluid leaks after back surgery were not uncommon ye
ars ago. In fact, in most cases, small dural tears were usually repaired during surgery. Of course, in your case, this wasn’t a part of the plan. I had to go in, and attempt to repair some extensive damage.”
“Jesus, Mic, just cut to the chase, or I’ll do it for you! What a lame ass ramble of bullshit you’re spewing!” Two shook her head, and I had to admit, she beat me to saying the same. Not the least bit affected, he continued. “Normally, one would use a fibrin sealant to create a clot that would thereby seal the leak. This sealant works as a sort of glue that holds the tissues together.”
“Yada, yada, yada,” said Two, clapping four fingers against her thumb. Now he was beginning to show signs of frustration.
“I didn’t have any fucking glue, so I had to improvise.”
I shifted my gaze to Two for an explanation. Two propped her boots on the edge of the bed and put her hands up behind her head. Leaning back in her chair, she broke it down quickly. “No human fibrin equaled a paraplegic Lee, so he used simp fibrin,” she said matter-of-factly. I pulled myself upright.
“You did what?”
“That’s not the worst of it.” If I didn’t know better, I would swear she was enjoying this. Mic opened his mouth to speak, but stopped short. Whatever it was, he knew I was going to be pissed.
“He cross-linked your molecules with simp properties. Let me make this really…”simple” for you, Lee. Your spine is a sack of wires.” A part of my brain went numb and just couldn’t grasp what she’d said. The other part of me wanted to fly out of the bed like a banshee and rip Mic’s throat out. He’d sewn me back together with cyborg parts! I felt numb. I had no words.
“Look, I know you’re angry, but if you’d just step back and look at this situation with a logical perspective, you’ll see that I did what was best for you. We’re in precarious times! Your situation was grave. Meningitis would have been the least of possible outcomes! Who even knows the kind of long-term care you would have needed, and we don’t have that kind of time or the resources!” His eyes beseeched me to understand his decision. I looked away. If I’d ever lost sight of how much I blamed this man for the state of the world I lived in, I had it back now. He rambled on, but I was no longer listening to him.
My thoughts went back to my childhood. My father had been such a strong man. He’d worked hard to build a business to support his family, and there were days that he would come home and take comfort in his favorite chair with a cold beer. He wasn’t one to complain, but my mother would instruct me to let him rest. She’d tell me that his back was hurting and that I shouldn’t disturb him. I wondered absently if Mic could have fixed that. It was a stupid thought. My father would have chosen a lifetime of pain over any solution derived from I.D.E Incorporated.
“Get out, Mic,” I said. He didn’t move. In fact, he just stood there, looking confused. “GET OUT!” I shouted. “I think she means it,” said Two. He moved slowly, and without another word he left the room. Two removed her feet from the bed and stood up. She pulled a pint of whiskey from her back pocket. "Here. I figured you’d need this.” Next, she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket and lit one for me. “Thanks,” I said, removing the cap from the bottle and taking a huge gulp. Without thinking, I handed her the bottle, and watched as she took a swig, equal to my own. “Whatever gets you through,” she said with a dry laugh.
I guess there are times in life when you need someone around you that doesn’t ask any questions. At least, that’s what I need. I’ve never been big on taking advice from others, and that was something I’d grown to like about Two. She didn’t really offer any. She thought like I thought. She reacted like I reacted. Best of all, she brought me whiskey and smokes.
It was Maude who visited next. Two stayed at my request. After she settled herself, I did my best to listen to what she had to say. In a nutshell, she wanted me to understand what her nephew had done, and why he’d done it. “You have to understand how much he cares about you, Lee.” I rolled my eyes and then focused on her doughy face. She was pleading with me to understand, but her efforts were a waste of time. I just didn’t have it to give. In fact, I’d heard all that I could take.
“Thanks, Maude. I appreciate how much you admire your nephew, but I’m really not up to hearing any more of this bullshit.” I took another swig off the bottle and accepted the second cigarette in less than a half an hour that Two passed to me. I lit it, and exhaled directly at her. She blinked a few times and then waved her hand in front of her face to get rid of the smoke.
“I guess you have to come to terms with things on your own.”
“Yeah, pretty much. I get that you think he’s a saint and all, but right now, I’m not really feeling it.”
“What are you feeling, Lee?” She clasped her hands in her lap and tilted her head to the side. I scowled, and pointed my finger at her. Feeling the warm fire in my belly from the whiskey, I didn’t hold back.
“I realize he’s very special to you. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say the whole world loved your nephew. He’s really good at pouring on the charm. I’ve fallen for it myself…and that’s saying a lot. Still, at some point you have to be honest with yourself. He’s a dangerous man. He’s made decisions that have affected the entire world, for shit’s sake!” Maude shook her head.
“You’re drunk, Lee.”
“No, I’m not. I’m comfortable, but I’m not drunk. Sometimes you need to recognize when the devil is in your midst.” Her face scrunched with indignation. “Are you calling my nephew the devil?”
“If the horns fit.”
“Well then maybe you should be more cautious about who you bed down with.”
With that, she left the room. I didn’t care that I’d hurt her feelings. What stung was the truth in her words. Nothing about my attraction to Mic made any sense. He stood for everything I hated, and had actually caused most of it. I couldn’t even justify my attraction to him for myself, let alone anyone else.
Two was at the window, her back to me. “Maybe he’s just good in bed.” She was offering an answer to my internal questions.
“Speaking of beds, how long do I have to lay here?” I asked, evading her last remark.
“Another day from what he said.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic. What else don’t I know about what he’s done to me?”
She turned from the window and crossed her arms. Her eyes met mine, and for several moments, we just stayed that way. Finally, she spoke. “You’re going to need to have permanent synthetic maintenance. The work that he’s done will require synthetic blockers to keep the artificial fluid in your synthetic spine from reaching your brain. The good news is, Aaron can’t pull anything else from your spine. If he caught you again, the only way he could get what he needs would be to decapitate you and take the fluid from your brain.”
“Well, that’s comforting. Any more whiskey where you found this?” I took another long pull from the bottle. Two stood up and dropped something on the rollaway table in front of me. “I’ll see what I can do.” With that, she left me to my thoughts.
I looked down at the paper sack she’d left with curiosity. Gifts from my synthetic sister…what was the world coming to? I carefully unrolled the top of the crumpled bag and peered inside, a slow smile spreading across my face. Reaching in, I pulled out my present, turning it to adjust the wrist strap. It wasn’t mine, but it was a damn good alternate. The handle was ergonomically molded and made of metal. It felt comforting to have a slingshot in my hands again. Reaching back into the bag, I withdrew the package of precision quality, galvanized steel BBs. Five hundred 3/8 inch ammo balls, and they were all mine. Yeah, I felt a little better. I tucked everything back in the bag and stashed it under my pillow.
When the bottle was empty, I chucked it to the floor, taking some small amount of satisfaction in the sound of the glass breaking on the floor. Synthetic spine…decapitation….these were my last thoughts as I drifted off to sleep again.
Damn my nightmares. Whiskey was
a tricky thing. Sometimes it made me numb enough to sleep deeply and escape them. Other times, it made me incapable of waking up to pull myself out of them.
Towering Arron stood over me, his blistered, purple lips peeled back into a sneer. “Now you are one of us, Leeeeeeeee. That’s always been a part of the plaaaaaan!” I’m strapped to a table and I can’t move. My eyes search the room for an escape, but there is none. That’s when I notice Mic is in the room. He’s wearing a white doctor’s coat, and he’s busy checking the monitors. I beg him to help me, but he ignores my pleas. Instead, he addresses Towering Aaron. “It’s just as we’ve expected, she’s the genetic alpha.” He leans in closer and pulls my lip up to inspect my gums. “Yeeeeees, she is a prize specimen of genetic superiority.” Towering Aaron smiles and the tight skin on his purple lips cracks open. His over-sized purple tongue snakes out to lick at the dark fluid that trickles from his rotting mouth.
I woke up to the incessant beep of one of the machines I was connected to. The room was dark and I was alone. There was no way to reach the machine to stop the noise, and I’d tolerated it for as long as I could. Why in the hell wasn’t someone coming to make it stop? I clenched my jaw and willed my body to move so that I could get up and make it stop. When that didn’t work, I decided to yell. “Could somebody come stop this fucking machine?” It took a few more expletives before my door swung open. The light was switched on, flooding everything in brilliant fluorescent annoyance.
“I’ve got it, calm down, I’ve got it.” A slender woman with shoulder length dark hair moved across the room with all the urgency of a slug.
“It’s about fucking time!” I shouted.
She gave me a disapproving glance over her shoulder before she turned to continue clacking on a keyboard beneath the monitor that had finally stopped beeping.
