“Why have you changed your mind?” asks Chale who up till now has been listening quietly.
The evening sky becomes dark outside and I’m surprised by the sudden glow of many bluish lights all around the room. Marcia’s face looks worried in the half-light. “We have reason to believe the CEO is communicating with other hostile countries. He wants to join forces and take over this entire continent from coast to coast.”
“And we know he’s selling the serum to some massive crime organizations and countries that could pose a serious security threat,” says Junius leaning forward excitedly. “While he holds the serum he has the power to manipulate everyone.”
Suddenly it all comes clear to me. I put down my glass with such a clatter it takes everyone by surprise. “With the ability to control life and death,” I say, taking a deep breath. “He won’t stop until he takes over the whole world.”
It sounds so far fetched when I say it but when I look at Marcia and Junius they’re nodding their heads. I’m right and I’m afraid.
36
Junius shows us to our quarters inside a beautiful white dome shaped tower behind the president’s house. The building looks out onto a field of flowers and vegetables on one side and a row of long greenhouses on the other. The windmills are everywhere with their hypnotic whirring sound. So soothing I know I won’t have trouble falling asleep and I’m beat – too tired to think about Yul’s master plan. Tonight I want to just pretend that everything’s perfectly peaceful. For now.
We’re on the fifth floor all along the same hallway. Junius leaves me until last and when he opens the door of my room he puts his arm across the opening and looks down at me, his eyes glinting in the darkness.
“You’re not mad at me,” he says.
“I haven’t had time to process all this,” I say, longing for some time to just rest and think.
He moves closer. “I hated lying to you all this time but you realize now what was at stake.”
“And you didn’t feel you could trust me?” I say, feeling a little cheated. “I’ve been totally honest and you know I’d never let you down.”
His head droops. “I know. That’s why I care so much about you.”
I gently shove him aside. “I’m about to pass out,” I say. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
He kisses me on the cheek with those soft, cool lips and I shut the door, my heart pulsing a little faster. I turn to look around the room. It’s a very plain space, painted in those cool creamy tones and everything looks so natural. Pale linen couch, crisp white cotton bedclothes. Lots of scrubbed wood and clay tiles. Plants and flowers everywhere bursting from pots and planters and vases. I love it and the smell is like a tropical paradise. Not the fake kind from the compound but the natural scents I imagine in a real tropical island.
I fall down on the bed and bury my face in the lavender scented pillows and within minutes I’m enveloped in a dark, dreamless sleep.
The room is light when I hear the gentle but insistent knocking on my door. I struggle to remember where I am. So many places in such a short time has made it difficult to orient myself. Then I see the windmills and remember. While my brain wakes up the knocking gets louder and I pull myself up realizing I just crashed without even taking my clothes off. I stumble over to the door and pull it open to see Chale dressed in a pale blue tunic over matching loose pants. He holds out his arms and does a twirl.
“So – how d’you like this look?” he says, hands on his hip. “It’s a sort of religious mystic style.”
“Looks comfortable,” I say, wiping my eyes as he pushes past me and goes straight into my room. “Er – please do come in.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” he says, plumping himself down on the couch and grabbing an apple from a bowl on the table.
“I have to shower,” I say. “I mean is there a shower?”
He points towards a white door in the corner of the room. “Take a look in there. It’s like a nature spa. Clothes provided and all.”
I open the door to find the creamiest looking bathroom tiled from top to bottom in the same pale tiles. A small closet opens to reveal five or six tunic outfits in different colours all amazingly soft to the touch.
“Want some company,” Chale shouts from the other room.
“I’ll only be a sec,” I say, switching on the water in the shower. It’s the most fragrant shower I ever had. The water smells like lavender and rose petals, not like the harsh chemical odour of the Compound water and the soap is so fragrant I could eat it. It must be home made because it has flower petals embedded in it.
I come out feeling the cleanest I’ve ever been and when I look at myself in the mirror I almost fall back in surprise. My hair is longer and shiny and the bright Tinsel-town sun has bleached it blonder. My skin is so golden brown it makes my eyes look even bluer. I can barely recognize myself. Reaching into the closet I pull out the pale pink tunic set and slip it on over my head. It’s like wearing something made of feathers. I could get used to life here. It’s the closest to paradise I’ve ever experienced.
Chale’s leafing through some books on the table and when I come back into the room he stands up and stares at me with a sort of wide eyed expression. “You look – incredible,” he says almost in a whisper. “And you remembered how much I loved that sugar pink colour.”
Suddenly it comes back to me. The pink bikini. The fun night at the Beach Club. The feeling of excitement when he held me in the water. “We had so much fun that night. It seems so far away.”
Before I can say anything more he moves close to me. So close I can catch the scent of soap on his skin. He reaches out his hand and strokes my hair. “I like your hair longer,” he says and my body almost screams out for him to hold me. I can feel his silky black hair tickling my face as he leans forward and kisses me on the cheek. At that moment I can’t help myself when I grab his arms and pull him to me and suddenly I’m melting into his body and he’s kissing me with those silky lips. We stumble backwards and fall down onto the bed and his hands slip underneath my tunic. My insides are fluttering as he strokes my shoulders, his hands working their way downwards just as there’s a loud knock on the door.
“Dammit,” he says, groaning and falling back.
I’m breathing so heavily I can barely answer him. “We’re pretty dangerous together,” I gasp, trying to straighten out my hair and clothing.
He grins like a big, lazy cat then kisses his finger and places it right onto my lips. “This will have to wait until later.”
I stroke his face and go to answer the door. It’s Kumaresh looking dark and striking in a pale yellowy tunic. “So is this our prison gear?” he asks, catching sight of Chale lying on the bed. “Did I interrupt something?” he says.
“Nope,” says Chale springing up onto his feet. “Just relaxing. Where’s breakfast?”
“That’s what we were trying to figure out but then some guy knocked on my door earlier and told us we were having breakfast with Marcia then there’s a special celebration tonight to honour us all.
“What are we waiting for?” I say. “Let’s grab Toby and Ida and go.”
On the way to the president’s house, Toby links his arm in mine and kisses my cheek. “We need to find some time to sit and talk,” he says. “I have so much to tell you about Johnny and I want to share more of his poetry with you.”
“I’d love that,” I say, catching a quick look at Ida who’s giving me a bit of a glare. It doesn’t take long to realize that she’s jealous. She and Toby spent quite a bit of time together and I’ve seen the way she always sits next to him. I get that sick feeling again because she’s a forever and he isn’t. Pushing the thought to the back of my mind stops that old headache from coming back. There’s so much work we have to do to sort out this mess – and we promised to help Carl who’s already obsessed with Edelia.
“Hey, snap out of it,” says Toby, nudging me. “You’re missing the roses.”
I float back to reality and see a rain
bow of flowers in front of me, their scents filling the air with sweetness. “It’s amazing,” I say, hugging him. Chale comes up behind us. “I’d be jealous if you weren’t her brother,” he says, nudging Toby. “Or is she your great aunt – or long lost cousin?”
“How did you know about us?” I say, catching hold of Chale’s hand.
“I had some long chats with Toby when you catching the bad guys up at Central Headquarters,” says Chale. “We became good buddies.”
“He’s a great guy,” says Toby, play punching Chale. “Wants me to join his band as a drummer.”
“If we had a band,” says Chale as we reach the big white house.
As they’re joshing around I become aware of the fact that someone is following us. When we left the building I remembered seeing a young guy sitting on the wall outside. He walked behind us for a while until we reached the field then some other guy came out of the greenhouse and gave a thumbs up as he began to tail us. I can see him out of the corner of my eye. He’s trying to look as if he’s got his own business to attend to but when we stop to pick some flowers, he slows down and hovers around the corner.
“We’re being tailed,” I whisper as Chale hands me a perfect pink rose.
“I guess there’s a lot we still have to find out about this paradise place,” says Chale following my gaze and seeing the guy.
“My motto is – don’t trust anyone,” says Toby. “Only family.”
“I noticed him too,” says Kumaresh. “We may have landed in just another kind of prison.”
“It’s important we don’t let on that we know,” I say. “Just act like we’re glad to be here – until we get the full picture.”
“Yeah like why we’ve been brought all this way,” says Chale.
“People always want something from us,” says Ida, finally speaking up.
“Well breakfast is waiting and I’m starving,” says Toby as we turn the corner to the grand entrance. Three or four men in white tunics are just leaving and I do a massive double take as the doors swish open and there – just walking down the steps is a familiar figure with a shaved head. I feel a rush of blood to my face when I realize it’s the Crime Lord – the guy who swept me onto his motor bike at Central Headquarters. The one who cuffed me, drugged me and carried me away. What the hell is he doing here I think - and especially when they told me I imagined him. Junius was lying – again.
I feel Chale shaking my arm. “What’s wrong, Paige? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s worse than that,” I whisper. “Something’s terribly wrong here.”
I don’t have time to explain myself to Chale because we’re swept into the main lobby by the president’s assistant, a nervous looking man with red hair and large glasses who introduces himself as Nelson.
“The President has important news for you,” he says, showing us into a spotless dining room where dishes of steaming food are arranged on a long table. “But first she wants you to help yourselves and she’ll be right with you.”
“Where is Marcia?” I ask as the others lunge forward hungrily and grab plates.
“Just in a meeting with her son,” he says, trying to rush away. “But please make yourselves comfortable.”
I try to focus on the massive array of dishes filled with fruits, yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, crispy potatoes, home made loaves and cinnamon buns, but my stomach is still churning. I can’t figure out why one of the Crime Lord soldiers would be here. Does this mean Marcia’s connected with them in some way? It doesn’t make sense.
“C’mon Paige,” says Toby. “Fill up your plate. You could use some meat on your bones.”
“Oh – sure,” I say, deciding to keep my suspicions to myself. After all I have to make sure it is the guy who captured me and not my crazy imagination. I heap my plate up and join the others at the table.
We’re halfway through our food when Marcia and Junius join us. My heart does a little somersault when I see Junius. His pale, wavy hair is brushed and shiny and he wears a dark grey tunic with gold edging. This isn’t the boyish Junius from the compound – instead a handsome, powerful young man strides towards us with his mother who pushes a a frail, white haired old lady in a wheelchair. I think suddenly of the granny stories Lynette told me.
“Good morning,” she says, parking the wheelchair up at the table. “I’d like you to meet my dear mother, Helen McCaffrey.”
We all stand up to greet her but strangely she doesn’t reply. She simply puts her hand to her cheek and starts to breathe in short, shallow gasps. “It’s all right mother. These people are friends,” says Marcia, placing the withered hand back onto her lap. She looks back at us. “My mother has an advanced case of dementia. Her brain has deteriorated to such a point that she can’t speak any more and barely recognizes me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say, lost for the right words.
“Just one of the realities of old age,” says Marcia in such a direct tone I feel a sense of guilt that I’ll never experience that kind of decay. Suddenly I realize how vulnerable we are here and anywhere we go where people are not the same as us. I must have a horrified expression on my face because she immediately brightens up and asks Junius to get her a coffee.
“My son and I have been talking about how to proceed from here,” she says, patting his arm as he hands her a cup. “So I thought I’d go over some of our ideas and you can give us some feedback – add in some details.”
Chale is on one side of me and Junius sits down on the other with a heaping plate of food so I find myself sitting between the two men who’ve been vying for my attention. It’s difficult to concentrate when I feel their energy pulsing on either side of me but I try hard to focus on what Marcia’s saying.
“My sources tell me the fighting is finally over in Tinsel-town and the ARP security forces have inflicted major damage on the Crime Lords – so much so that they’ve retreated back to their headquarters in the desert where they’ll probably try to regroup and recruit some new warriors.”
“Crime Lord Central is in Sin City or Vegas as they used to call it,” says Junius and I think immediately of Lynette and her honeymoon there. Is there some coincidence that the Iduna Compound was designed to be just like the mega-hotels there? None of it makes any sense.
“So Yul’s won again,” I say, trying to mask my confusion. My appetite’s gone for now.
“I still can’t believe he pretended to be my best buddy,” says Chale. “I mean – he was almost like my brother.”
“He’s been around a lot longer than you Chale. Using people just became a way of life for him,” I say, laying my hand on his. I swear Junius does a double take when he sees that.
“Yul has proved to be unbeatable up until now,” says Marcia. “So we have to try a different tactic. We need to cut off his supply of youth serum and feeders. When that dries up – so does his bargaining power.”
“So that means we have to infiltrate the compound and stop production,” says Junius.
“But we don’t even know where the whole reproduction process takes place,” I say. “None of us ever saw that or even remembers anything.”
“That’s because the Psych Centre erases any memories that might cause security breaches,” says Junius.
“We know head on attacks can’t beat Yul so we’ll plan an undercover operation in two stages. The first team will head out to Realtown and set up a base there from which we’ll launch the second phase – the infiltration and eventual destruction of all operations in the Iduna Compound,” says Marcia, finally taking a sip of her coffee.
Chale leans towards the table, his face animated. “My donor mother lives in this place called the Sanctuary. I think with her help we could set up a perfect base camp there.”
“Just what we need,” says Marcia. “Then you can lead the first team out with a couple of helpers.”
“I’ll come with you,” says Toby. “I know every inch of Realtown and I know how to get things done there.�
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I’m just about to volunteer my services when Junius cuts in. “And of course you’ll have to take Edelia. She’s the only one with access to the compound.”
“Great – looks like you have your first team,” says Marcia. “It’ll take a couple of weeks to prepare the mission so that gives us some time to work out the details of the entire operation.”
“I thought I’d be leading a team,” I say, trying not to sound like I’m pouting. I don’t relish the idea of being left here without Chale or Toby or anyone I can really trust.
“Of course,” says Marcia. “You’ll be heading the second phase with Junius. We’re planning to infiltrate the Crime Lords in Sin City but I can’t say anything more about that yet.”
“And what about the other forevers from the feeder pod?” I say, a bit stunned at the thought of going to the desert. “We freed them but we haven’t considered what to do with them.”
Kumaresh speaks up at that point. “Maybe they just need to stay here in safety,” he says. “Once we’ve put a stop to the whole operation then is the time to consider what to do with them.”
“And what to do with the technology,” says Marcia. “This is a major security concern with far reaching implications for the entire world. It seems to me that’s a question to be addressed once the immediate crisis is over.”
I know she’s right but I can’t put aside the nagging feeling that something about this whole situation seems suspicious. Marcia’s taking it for granted that we’re on her side but there’s still a lot we don’t know about her. And especially since I saw my mysterious kidnapper this morning. Somehow I feel I’m losing control of the situation and I’m powerless to stop it.
37
When breakfast is over Junius offers to take us on a tour of Carter City. I try hard to be as enthusiastic as the others. In fact I ask myself why I’m always the person who looks too deep and finds the flaw in everything. Maybe I just don’t know how to be happy. I’ve never learned. Chale tried to teach me and I guess that’s the closest I’ve come to true joy but soon he’ll be leaving and I don’t know when I’ll see him again.
The Forever Ones (The Iduna Project) Page 21
