Resistant

by Rachael Sparks

  “And then you plan to try to locate this . . . Birdy character?”

  Navy nodded. They hadn’t told Rory yet, but TEAR had been at the farm. Cameras Army had installed there revealed a search party had ransacked it, activity that the three soldiers in the room had fully expected. But today they had learned that Birdy’s father was messaging neighbors and friends looking for her, saying she’d been gone for two days without word. Navy didn’t have concrete reasons to suspect TEAR was involved. His gut told him waiting for evidence would be stupid. They would infiltrate the compound where TEAR currently kept the donor farm, learn its security, then find AJ. If she was there, it would be quick and painless.

  “All right. So recon, in and out, possibly a single extraction. No more?” At their agreement, he sighed and gave them both the final half shrug of assent: I’m not your commanding officer, but you both respect me enough to treat me that way, so I’ll respect you enough not to say you’re dismissed.

  Army and Navy stood to leave, but Jeff said, “Navy, hang back.”

  Navy didn’t sit again, but leaned against the side table in Jeff’s office overlooking the rig, arms folded.

  “I assume you’re planning to tell Aurora about this friend of hers?”

  “I’ll inform Byron and Persy. They can tell—”

  “Oh, don’t be a damn coward,” he spoke over the younger man. “It’s obvious you two, I don’t know, bonded. What happened?”

  “I saved her life. She saved mine. Probably a couple times on each side.” Navy reconsidered and added, “More saves of me on her scoreboard.”

  “And you’re going to leave on this mission without telling her?”

  Navy shrugged. “She doesn’t want to speak to me. She can’t trust me now.”

  Jeff hesitated before finally giving the telltale shrug again. “C’mon, there’s snow crab tonight. If we don’t get there first, Army won’t leave a claw to suck on. Just . . . hell. You know I don’t like to give advice.”

  “All evidence to the contrary.”

  “Don’t be a fucking idiot, Nathan. That’s all. Tell her how you feel.”

  Self-conscious about the shirt comment, Rory followed her mother’s advice and left the empty lab to return to her small private room. She wasn’t a fan of the tiny, dormitory-style spaces they currently were housed in, but she was grateful for her single room. The first few nights she had cried herself to sleep, reliving the days and weeks after her mother’s death more vividly than ever. When that grief had faded, the pain of Navy’s betrayal remained. She had nightmares of waking on the boat without him near, knowing everyone she loved was dead. Somehow a dream of being alone without him was a terror worse than the same dreams before she had met him.

  Opening her door, she crossed to the sink and washed her face, then froze when she saw the black plastic shape on her desk. Her fiddle case. She crossed the room to open it and ran her fingers over the strings. Her father was making a gesture.

  It was the right one. She could hear him telling her to bring it to the mess hall, entertain the rest of the team, relax and laugh for a night. Rory smiled, grabbed it, and headed for the mess.

  Then she returned, changed her shirt—and jeans for good measure—and headed out again.

  Byron watched over his hands folded on the base of the harmonica he played as his beautiful wife sang again to the accompaniment of his daughter’s violin. He was glad the song didn’t require much of him, as his throat was tight with emotion. He’d always believed he would see them together again, a family unit once more. But when a year, two, and then three had passed without news from Persy, he’d doubted her survival. For now, he shook off the persistent fear of being torn apart again by TEAR and enjoyed the moment he was in.

  Persephone, always the best voice in the family, sang a playful melody of an ugly boy with a superior voice in a minor key, earning giggles from their audience when Rory emphasized the “ugly” with an off-key note from her strings.

  Across the room, Byron observed that Navy was still watching Rory. It hadn’t escaped the older man that Navy’s usual intensity always seemed to soften when he was with her. Rory perceived herself betrayed by her stoic, scarred protector, but Byron would be forever grateful to him. Bits and pieces of their journey had been relayed to him secondhand, and he’d seen the healing wounds on both of them. He didn’t ask, respecting the space she’d wanted from her father, but he sensed neither would be alive without the other one. And now that Rory was avoiding Navy, it hadn’t escaped him how miserable they both were. She fell in love with him, Persy had insisted.

  Watching Navy reveal a hint of a smile as the performer in question was finally smiling and laughing again, Byron held a different opinion. He’s in love with her.

  After enjoying a brief applause, Persy looked to her daughter and asked, “Can we sing our song?” Rory gave a nod, then glanced nervously at her father. He winked and played a brief snippet to remind her of the notes, and she hummed her bow over the strings to copy them once, poorly.

  “I haven’t played that since . . . I haven’t played it in a while,” she said quietly, excusing her rusty sound. “Give me a second.”

  Navy could feel the warmth from her cheeks already reddening and sensed her discomfort, but she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and started to play. It was both an intro and a refresher she seemed to be playing, a sweet and plaintive tune. When she circled back and slowed it, Persephone took over with a soft southern curl to her voice, and during the chorus Rory sang quietly in backup.

  Red lights are flashing on the highway

  I wonder if we’re gonna ever get home

  I wonder if we’re gonna ever get home tonight

  Everywhere the water’s getting rough

  Your best intentions may not be enough

  I wonder if we’re gonna ever get home tonight.

  But if you break down

  I’ll drive out and find you

  If you forget my love

  I’ll try to remind you

  And stay by you

  When it don’t come easy.

  I don’t know nothing except change will come

  Year after year what we do is undone

  Time keeps moving from a crawl to a run

  I wonder if we’re gonna ever get home.

  You’re out there walking down a highway

  And all of the signs got blown away

  Sometimes you wonder if you’re walking in the wrong direction.

  But if you break down

  I’ll drive out and find you

  If you forget my love

  I’ll try to remind you

  And stay by you

  When it don’t come easy.

  Tears started to seep from Rory’s eyes, though she didn’t miss a note as she played through. Navy’s hand tightened around the beer bottle he had been nursing all night. He hated to see her in more pain. Persephone’s voice rose to a powerful crescendo, and several people rubbed goose bumps from their arms.

  So many things that I had before

  That don’t matter to me now

  Tonight I cry for the love that I’ve lost

  And the love I’ve never found

  When the last bird falls And the last siren sounds

  Someone will say what’s been said before

  It’s only love we were looking for.

  But if you break down

  I’ll drive out and find you

  If you forget my love

  I’ll try to remind you

  And stay by you

  When it don’t come easy.

  Army and Navy passed a glance between them, both impressed with the song, the singer, the violinist. They clapped with the others while mother and daughter laughed and hugged through their tears.

  “Maybe she’ll finally get some sleep tonight,” Army said with a good-natured smile and a swig of his beer.

  “What do you mean?”

  “My room’s next to hers. Rory hasn’t sl
ept through a night since we arrived. Last week cryin’ herself to sleep every night, this week I hear a scream every morning about three.”

  A few tables away, Rory hopped off her perch atop a chair back and announced she was wiped and heading for bed. Army met his friend’s eyes and tipped his head knowingly.

  As she put her violin away, Rory passed her father another smile.

  “I like the applause a little more than the howling, don’t you?” she teased.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I miss the chickens humming along.”

  Rory chuckled and gave him a warm hug, then kissed his cheek. “That was really sweet of you, Dad. Thank you for packing my fiddle.”

  Byron looked confused. “Sweetie. I’m loathe to admit this since you’re speaking to me again, but I didn’t bring it.” He raised his eyebrows and looked over her head. She followed his glance and met Navy’s eyes that she’d felt all night. She abruptly looked back to her father’s shoulder.

  “Good night.” With a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek, she disappeared.

  CHAPTER 26

  * * *

  It was barely ten o’clock, but Navy stood outside her door in an empty hallway, unable to knock. All his training told him never to take on a mission without being completely prepared. He was not prepared for this. If she didn’t let him in, didn’t forgive him, he would leave tomorrow having hidden something from her again, and he wasn’t prepared for the betrayal she would feel then.

  You haven’t been prepared for a fucking thing since you first met her, his brain countered. She’s had you off-balance since you fixed her jammed fingers. And it had been the best time of his life. Goddammit, man up.

  He reached up to knock.

  Then he heard her scream. He grabbed the handle and cursed at the lock. Ten seconds later, the door shut behind him. She sat in the bed, arms folded over her knees, her head hanging, sobbing and sucking for breath.

  “Rory.” He reached the bed a second later and slid his hands over hers. At the moment she registered his weight on the bed, the warmth of his touch, she launched herself into his arms.

  “Navy. You were dead. Everybody was dead . . . you were dead, and I was on the boat, and you weren’t there anymore, and I was alone.”

  His arms crashed around her slim form, drawing her shaking body to him. “Shhh, baby. I’m here, Rory. I’ve got you.” Navy felt the wave of relief, of rightness wash through him as she slowly stopped sobbing and caught her breath, but he didn’t move an inch.

  “I missed you so much.”

  Navy worried he might crush her when his arms tightened reflexively. “God, I’ve missed you, Rory.”

  “How . . . how are you in here?”

  “I was at the door.”

  Rory leaned back enough to see his face in the dark. “It’s locked.” She saw the shadow of a smile.

  “I’ve got skills.” Touching her face, he closed the inches between them and kissed her softly, then leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, Rory. I hated hiding anything from you.”

  “I realized tonight . . . if you’d told me my mother was alive, I probably would have trusted you less.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  Rory kissed him. “Yes. I can’t help it.” Then she kissed him again, wrapping her body around him as he pressed her into the pillows.

  She woke in his arms and, like their few mornings on the boat, she watched him sleeping again in the pale morning light that her tiny window permitted. She hadn’t forgotten how his body was shaped and felt, but she had underestimated how much she craved his closeness. Rory wondered if there would be a day when they could live a normal life together, not under threat of discovery, not desperate to solve the world’s post-antibiotic crisis. Not burdened with the memory of people he’d given to TEAR, a guilt she knew darkened his face more than his deep blue marks. She feared she was the answer to her own questions. If she could solve it, they could give the cure to everyone. They could expose TEAR. They could return those poor people to their families. They could live somewhere other than this man-made island. She felt no closer to that elusive answer than she had back in Woods Hole.

  “You’re staring at me, Rory. What are you thinking?” he spoke without opening his eyes.

  “How do you do that?” she asked in amazement. “I would have sworn you were sleeping.”

  “I keep telling you. I have skills.” Opening his eyes, he kissed her forehead.

  She answered his original question. “I was thinking about how to solve the mystery of my resistance. My resistance to resistant bacteria. If I could do it, maybe life could be normal for us. For everyone here.”

  He leaned up on an arm, studying her face. “Have you made any progress in the lab? Jeff tells me everyone really respects you there.”

  She shrugged and sighed. “I feel like something’s in my grasp, but the lab equipment analyzing the genetic side of things keeps giving us lots of noise. I need a better lab, I suppose.”

  “I know Jeff didn’t spare any expense there, but if you need something, you should ask him. He’s willing to do anything to help the researchers.” Navy toyed with her fingers, bringing them to his mouth to kiss.

  “What’s his motivation here? I know you told me a little about his background. Emile in the lab said his wife died of an infection, but it sounded like rumor.”

  Navy nodded. “It’s true. He’s only told me the story once, when he was deep into a very expensive bottle of whiskey on their anniversary. It was . . . it was awful. She died slowly, painfully. By the time she passed away, over a dozen surgeries had left her a quadruple amputee. She begged him to help her die. I don’t know if he did, but I can tell you he doesn’t like to speak of it. And if you help solve this problem, he’ll make sure it’s available to the whole world.” Navy watched her try to hide her suspicions with little success.

  Faced with his knowing expression, Rory gave in. “I was worried about that. If he became so rich from his businesses, I feared he would try to patent something and make himself richer. I know that assumes I’ll get over these hurdles, but . . . I followed you because you assured me this team was trying to help everyone.”

  Navy kissed her forehead. “I know you didn’t follow me because you trusted me right then. I’ve worked with Jeff for three years now. If you solve this, he’ll make sure no one has to pay for your cure. And he’ll make sure you never have to worry for money, either.” Navy glanced at his watch and then met her blue-green eyes again. “Now it’s time for a conversation I didn’t want to have. But I want you to trust me.”

  Her anxiety for what was to follow was all over her as she sat up in the bed. “You’re going, aren’t you? You’re going after TEAR.”

  Navy’s response didn’t reassure her. “I’m going after the people I hurt. The people I stole from their lives and families. I may not get them this time, but I plan to find where they are. Returning them all to their families will be a bigger mission.”

  “So, you and Army? Just—what? Recon?”

  He smiled tenderly at her use of unfamiliar military jargon. “Basically, yes. I know where they were, and I think I know where they were moved in the last year. But . . . that’s not all I need to tell you. Yesterday, we learned that AJ—Birdy—her father is looking for her. She’s gone missing for three days.”

  Rory’s face drained of all color and she gripped his hand. “What? Birdy’s missing?”

  “I wanted to tell you yesterday, but . . .” he shook his head. “I couldn’t ruin the first night I saw you speaking to your dad again. Army and I are going to find her. We’re going to try to bring her here.” The conviction in his voice didn’t seem to lessen her fears.

  Rory turned and leaned her face into her hands. “I did this. I put her in harm’s way.” She shook her head, the guilt overwhelming. Her closest friend, now in the grasp of the very people they had been trying to evade. “What a coward’s way. I traded my safety for hers.”

  “You didn’t, and
you saved her life. We both know that infection would have killed her.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “No.”

  “Don’t act like I didn’t save your ass several times on the last mission.”

  He chuckled. “Thank you. But still no. This isn’t something you have any training for, and I’ve had my fill of seeing you in danger. Your training is needed here.” He lifted her face to his. “Hey, AJ’s on my team now, and Army and I never leave a team member behind. We will get her back.”

  CHAPTER 27

  * * *

  A storm was blowing in from the north when the helicopter lifted off, Army at the controls. Rory held Navy’s eyes through the window before it banked, turned away east, and flew toward the mainland. She reminded herself what he’d told her as they got dressed and said their goodbyes that morning: In a week or two, we’ll be back here with AJ, eating lobster and crab and celebrating Christmas. And you’ll solve this.

  She hoped he was right. For now, they all huddled against the cold spray of an angry ocean and headed back indoors to the lab. The team there was anxious to review new lab reports from the mice they had injected with antibodies isolated from Rory’s blood serum.

  Settling down at a conference table with the small group of scientists, her mind on AJ’s whereabouts, she mused that she was in a room full of the smartest people in the world for this particular problem. Navy was right, she was needed here and should focus on this problem if she wanted the government to stop hunting them. If they couldn’t solve it together, no one could.

  Emile, the molecular biochemist, was working on nanoparticles that could defeat some resistant bacterial defense mechanisms. Petre, a Georgian virologist, still felt strongly that bacteriophages could be trained to deliver gene therapies that disabled the bacterial genes causing antibiotic resistance, restoring efficacy to medicines long thought useless. Veronica was from Seattle and had a doctorate in microbial genetics, and had completed brilliant work that might identify new human gene therapies to aid in natural human immune response. And Rory’s mother, who had worked in each of these fields, was the thread that helped weave their findings together in hopes of a powerful tool that could do everything. Everything that Rory’s body had figured out, but wasn’t revealing.