Pavel was greatly winded. Still, during the journey over he’d never complained and only sank to his knees once they stopped. “I... need rest,” he said and grabbed his pocket, searching for the pills. Taking two out, he crunched them in his mouth. “I stay here and wait for you. You no worry about me... I be all right.”
Oh, not a good idea. Outside of a possible attack by Allenby’s men, there was still the law to consider and the possibility of extra officers to deal with the escapees, of which he was one. “I may need your help,” he answered. “You’re the computer expert, better than my friends are.”
Sighing, Pavel got to his feet. “Okay, I come with you. Give me minute.”
Harry allowed him five minutes, and then with a nod of his head he crept out. Darkness had fallen, and they picked their way through the backyards, leaping over fences and landing without making a sound. That was how it was supposed to be, he thought. Jump like a cat, land on your feet, and do the quiet and mysterious thing. He’d never thought of himself as being more animal than man, but there was something to be said for having the abilities he possessed.
As for Pavel and Linda, they had something extraordinary. He wished he’d had more time to examine Linda and see what her DNA was like, but she’d already left, and he couldn’t hold it against her.
It did please him, though, to find out there were others like him. Perhaps... perhaps when all of this was over, they’d meet. Perhaps the government would...
A second later, he squelched the thought. The government, Ulbricht in particular, was not into acceptance mode. Most of society didn’t seem to share that sentiment, either. Reflecting on all the events that had happened over the past year—meeting Anastasia, transforming into what he was, learning how the other side of life worked—perhaps Anastasia had been right, after all. People were too afraid of that which was different.
In addition, one hard and cold fact of life stood out. The law was after them. Avoiding capture remained a top priority, the most essential thing. In fact, it was the only essential thing.
“Are we close?” Pavel whispered, breaking into his thoughts.
“Yeah,” Harry answered. “It’s the next house. Stay quiet and let me check.”
He crept over to the target, noted the light on the second floor of Maze’s house, the large tree out back... and an agent patrolling in the backyard. One man there meant at least another one out front. Still... he saw no other way.
Returning to where Pavel waited, he explained the situation. “I will take out man in back.” A look of innocence flashed across his face immediately after he’d uttered those words. “I no kill him. Just knock out.”
“I’ll trust you.”
They made their way to the backyard and hopped over the fence. Fortunately, the agent had his back turned to them. Unfortunately for him, Pavel whacked him across the back of his head and he pitched forward onto his face. Checking to see if he was breathing—he was—Harry hauled him over his shoulder and made his way up the tree. Pavel followed him, and at the window, he tapped on the glass and peered inside.
Anastasia sat on a bed holding their baby. The room had to be Maze’s room, as it was filled with posters of the latest anime idols, same as her boyfriend’s room. Two peas in a pod, they lived for their games, cosplay meetings, and computer hacking.
Outside of the posters, the rest of the room was rather plain, consisting of a study desk, a bed, and a few magazines along with diapers and plastic bags.
The sound of the glass seemed to startle Anastasia and she looked up. Immediately, a look of delight crossed her face and she got up to open the window. “Glad you made it,” she whispered and looked at the unconscious form of the agent. “And you brought me a souvenir. That’s thoughtful.”
After tying up the agent, gagging him and tucking him away in the closet, Harry held onto his wife, kissing her fondly and yet feeling embarrassed at the same time with Pavel in the room. “Don’t worry, I look away,” Pavel had said just before the embrace.
“Thanks.” It was the only thing Harry could think of. With time being short, he wanted to make these moments count.
Once the kiss was over, though, he filled Anastasia in on the details of their fugitive status. Her expression, one of understanding, continued throughout the explanation. “Do what you have to do,” she said. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Where’s Maze? Is Jason with her?”
Anastasia shook her head. “No, he’s at home. The baby cries whenever she sees him.” A smile flitted across her lips. “Maze is downstairs, working on the computer. Her parents had to go out of town on a business trip. They don’t know about this, so they’re safe. She’s been checking on some information on Ulbricht.”
Harry’s eyes widened. “Does she know something we don’t?”
“I’ll ask her.”
Putting their now-sleeping daughter in the crib—she’d grown a couple of inches in only a few days—Harry gazed at his miracle. A smile was on her face and her chubby little fist was curled under her chin. What a miracle she was...
“Is cute baby,” Pavel rasped. He’d recovered from his run, but still didn’t look altogether healthy. “You give her Russian name?”
Surprised at the question, Harry shook his head. “Uh, no, we called her Sara Emily.”
A shrug greeted his response. “Is nice enough name, but Anna is good. You have Russian wife, so Anna is common but nice name, yes?”
Pushy, pushy, Harry thought. Pavel’s manner seemed so certain. Where was all this going? “It’s a good name,” he said, stalling for time. “But we decided on...”
The sound of the door opening mercifully cut short a total BS explanation. Maze entered carrying a laptop and came over to hug Harry and then Pavel. “Good to see you,” she whispered. “We’ve got company,” and pointed in a downwards direction and then held up three fingers.
Her meaning was clear—three fingers, three agents. “I told them Anastasia wanted to search for baby clothes online. They believed me. I’ve been checking on something. Hang on.”
She set the laptop up and seated herself at a chair, muttering something about having no chocolate. A second later, a picture of Ulbricht appeared onscreen, followed by a list of the people he worked with. Taking a closer look, it seemed everything was in order.
“He’s with a lot of committees in Washington,” Harry said as he scrolled through them one by one. “He knows a lot of people, has a lot of influence.”
“There’s something we don’t know,” Anastasia put in. “Maze said recently he’s gotten a lot of money from a project outside the government’s scope.”
“Is it illegal?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Maze said, “but I can’t get into his personal files.”
She stopped speaking and looked at Pavel. Harry and Anastasia copied her gesture and Pavel caught the meaning. “Okay, now I know why you want me here,” he said, nodding. “I do this. Please to wait.”
He took over Maze’s position once she vacated the chair and started typing. “I need your email,” he said. Once she told him, he rapidly, although delicately, tapped the buttons. Seconds later, a message appeared in Russian.
“Your friends in Moscow?” asked Anastasia as she peered at the screen. “This is talking about a patch.”
“Same patch as before—you say app. This help override firewall. Wait and see.”
Trusting it would work, Harry said, “Go for it.”
Pavel installed the patch, the screen flickered... and then a sheet came up. One sheet, filled with numbers and bank accounts. “This you look for, yes?”
He got out of the chair and Maze reclaimed her position. “Yeah,” she said nodding and speaking in an excited whisper, “this is it.”
“What is it?” Harry wanted to know.
“What it is,” Maze answered in a low voice nevertheless filled with a combination of surprise and elation, “is this guy Ulbricht has been taking a lot of money from priva
te corporations and not declaring it... and one of them was ASR.”
Tax fraud, what a novel idea, Harry thought, but more important, the mention of ASR—it stood for Advanced Scientific Research—got him even more interested. ASR happened to be Allenby’s old company. It had done business with the FBI, among a number of other corporations, but after the concept of transgenic research became public, the FBI had cut ties with it. Allenby had then gone his own way, and the result was mayhem.
“Did Ulbricht arrange for any shipments or money to be sent to ASR?”
Maze tapped a few more buttons and a spreadsheet came up. “I just got into his accounting files. According to this,” she peered closely at the screen, “he just invested in the company, but still...”
Guilt by association—it worked for Harry—that, and blackmail. “We have to hide this.”
“Already did,” she answered as she furiously worked the keyboard and then hit the Enter button. “I just sent this to Jason’s site and told him to hide it in a separate file. I will, too, just in case the authorities ask—”
“Miss, are you okay?” an agent called up, interrupting the proceedings.
The harshness of the man’s voice woke the baby and she started to cry. Anastasia picked her up and held her, her nose wrinkling. “She needs to be changed.”
Maze poked her head out the door and yelled that the agents should be more considerate, there was a baby in the house and they should know better. “I’ll go down and stall them. You’d better go,” she threw over her shoulder as she gathered up the laptop and made for the door. “Nice seeing you again, Harry. Take care. You too, Pavel,” she added.
“Dasvedanya,” he said.
The sound of her feet thumping came a second later, which turned out to be a blessing as it caused the baby to cry more loudly, which in turn covered the conversation. “I have to go,” Harry said, feeling the breath catch in his throat, but knowing he couldn’t lose it. He kissed his wife again. “I’ll be back.”
Anastasia looked as though she wanted to cry, but bit her lip and rocked the baby. “We’ll be waiting. I want to go with you, but—”
“You have our daughter to think of.”
Anastasia turned to Pavel. She spoke in Russian and he nodded. “What we do about agent?” he asked in English, nodding at the closet.
Right, good move, Harry thought. He opened the closet, noted the agent’s unconscious condition, and hauled him up and over his shoulder. “We’ll put him back where we found him.”
It seemed like the thing to do. When he woke up, he’d sound the alert, but there was no choice. At the window, Harry paused to look at Anastasia again. She gave him a hesitant smile and mouthed “Come back to me.”
Count on it, he thought with grim purpose, and shinnied down the tree. Untying the agent and leaving him propped up against the side of the house, he and Pavel carefully stole out into the night. Once they reached the forest, the enormity of what was about to happen hit Harry in the gut and he sat down to wipe the tears from his eyes. “I’m not sure about any of this,” he whispered half to himself.
“Not sure about what,” Pavel wanted to know as he squatted down beside him. “This is big job. You are smart guy and your wife... you know what she say to me? She say to me to take care of you. See you are well. This is what she say. I take this seriously. You should, too.”
His words buoyed Harry’s spirit and he nodded. Resolve was a seven-letter word for getting it done.
Without any semblance of a plan, they went to the forest down the street to hide. It was pleasantly cool, and leaning against a tree, Harry felt a brief moment of peace, even though he knew the authorities were searching for them. He felt his eyes begin to close, but then Pavel interrupted with, “You always want to be researcher?”
Odd question to ask, but then again... “Since I was a kid, yeah,” Harry replied. “What about you, career soldier or did you have another plan?”
Pavel heaved out a sigh. “I was born in poor family, just outside Stalingrad. I have three sisters and two little brothers. I am oldest in family, no father. He die when I was twelve. My mother, she marry again and have more children. So I grow up and fight for food, for friends, for everything... it is all I know.
“My friends, they join army. They say is good life, get money and get respect.” His voice grew quiet. “I join, I box in army and I win. Then my sickness starts and I end up... like this.” He touched the side of his face in a self-conscious gesture. “All I want is to go back and be normal, but I can never be.”
He fell silent, his head sagged, and he half-closed his eyes. He appeared to be sleeping, but a moment later, his eyes snapped open. “Someone comes,” he muttered.
Harry sniffed the air. Clones... no, these were people. Had to be law enforcement officers, probably police who’d been instructed to capture them or shoot to kill, whichever came first. Getting to his feet, he pulled on Pavel’s shirt. “Let’s get going.”
Laboriously rising to a crouching position, Pavel pointed back to the woods. “We just get here. Where we go now?”
“I have an idea.”
Harry began to run, but only twenty yards into his escape he felt the sting of something in his neck. Pulling up short, he yanked it out. It was a dart. Then another hit him in the shoulder and then one more in his butt. Tranquilizer darts... that’s something new...
The world turned hazy and he felt the ground smack him in the face. Before his eyes closed, he saw Pavel toppling over as well...
Waking up was never easy, especially when he wanted to sleep. Harry did come to, and found himself lying on a cot. This all seemed so familiar. He’d been caught so many times before, woken up in cells... sure enough, looking around, dirty floor, cracked toilet, it was a cell. A small window offered a view. It was night, but the green grass of the countryside stood out.
A sudden jolt sent a vibration through him. Were they moving? Sneaking another peek outside, yes, the trees and fields sped by. They were moving, all right, and at a high speed, too.
“Hey, Goldman, you up?”
Pavel’s voice cut into his thoughts. He was sitting on a cot in a cell across the way, shaking his head as if to clear it. Two other empty cells sandwiched his. Great, six cells, two occupants and what were they going to do about it?
“I am now,” Harry replied with a mouth tasting like dirty cotton had been shoved inside it. “You know where we are?”
“I no tourist guide. I am new to this country, yes?”
His reply seemed an apt one, and Harry had no comeback. Thinking things through, they were probably in a police cell somewhere out of the way so the public wouldn’t see them. A door lay at the end of a short corridor, so he called out, “Hey, we’re up! Can we get some water?”
No one answered for a time, but after a few minutes, the sounds of footsteps came. The door opened, and Ulbricht, along with a large guard armed with a pistol, stepped inside. The senator carried a small pocket-sized camera. “Ah, you’re up,” he said. “I was informed of your capture by the authorities and came here as soon as I could. Give us a smile for posterity, you traitor!”
He clicked off a few pictures and did the same with Pavel, then put the camera away and asked, “Are you enjoying your accommodations?”
“No,” Harry answered, taking a quick sniff. No smell—this was the real one, as was the guard. “Where are we, some kind of mobile transport?”
The large man flicked a quick glance at the senator who shrugged. “Yes, it’s a new type of transport we figured out for you,” Ulbricht said. “If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, then it’s because it’s all legal. As I told you before, I work for a number of committees in the Senate. One of them is the Department of the Interior. Another is the Homeland Defense Committee, a special branch I set up once you and your kind made your appearance on our national stage.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “It took a lot of talk to convince the other senators and their constitue
nts to see things my way. They were all for human rights. Human rights,” he snorted. “A bunch of bleeding hearts, that’s all they are.
“However, when the death toll began to rise, that’s when I went with another idea. I convinced them to classify you as potential threats.”
This was more than totally bogus. It verged on BS of the highest order. “You know I’m not a threat,” Harry protested. “If anything, I’ve had mobs chasing me, trying to kill me and my wife. They’re all a matter of public record. Check with the police. They’ll tell you.”
Ulbricht waved off the retort like someone shooing a fly away. Apparently the truth wasn’t very interesting to him. “Maybe you’re a threat and maybe you aren’t, but you’ve also killed and injured others. And that’s why we can’t put you in a regular prison. Hence this truck, which we are using as we speak.”
Tapping the wall, he added, “Originally, this semi was designed to carry hazardous materials and spent nuclear fuel to storage and burial sites. The government decided to get new trucks, so we modified it to suit people of your type. The walls are solid steel, bulletproof and resistant to acid. You’d need an armor piercing round to get through it.”
Clever ideas, Harry had to admit. “Okay, so you got us. But we’re not the ones you want. Allenby—”
“Appears to be gone,” Ulbricht cut in smoothly. “Rest assured, law enforcement officials on every level are looking for him. We’ll find him, sooner or later.”
“I not think you will, well-dressed man,” Pavel said, coming over to the bars to shake them. They rattled, but there was absolutely no give to them. “You cannot capture him before, so why you think you find him now, huh?”
His retort caused the guard to eye his boss, while Ulbricht tugged on his carefully knotted tie. “Allow me to enlighten you on a few things. You are a foreigner here—in more ways than one. The United States government can and more than likely will accuse you of sedition.”
Reunion Page 11
