Resistant

by Rachael Sparks

  “I’m worried about Navy. It just makes me feel better to have information.”

  “Um . . . sure. I mean, we have files on them all you can read through. Here, let me show you. See, there’s kind of a dossier on all of the players we really know about—Kessler, his reporting officers, the key researchers at TEAR.” He opened up computer files on Kessler and let her peruse. “That Kessler, he seems like a real prick. My research shows he’s never had a social media account in his life.”

  Rory found that worthy of a chuckle. “And that’s what upset you about him?”

  Kurt shook his head in slow, dramatic fashion. “It’s sick, man. It’s pathological.”

  “Well, you’ve got a lot about him anyway. You even have his medications and allergies,” she mused as she scanned the info.

  Kurt nodded. “Well, that balances it out. At least that psycho can’t enjoy shellfish.”

  Rory glanced at him, afraid to reveal too much. He seemed oblivious to her plan, but she thought of Navy saying she didn’t have the skills for deception.

  “Show me what TEAR looks like. What their security looks like.”

  Outside Woodstock, Virginia

  “You know, I thought we had done demoralizing things in our time together,” Navy grumbled. From many yards away, his partner chuckled into the tiny earpiece Navy wore. His position near the gate’s guard station was chosen so that he would be seen, intercepted, and intentionally captured, yet no one had noticed him even during shift change. “A rent-a-cop would have found me by now.”

  “A blind rent-a-cop,” Army laughed in his ear. “We could be here all night if you don’t do something.”

  “If you ever tell anyone about this . . .” Navy began to belly-crawl toward the gate entrance.

  “Oh, I’ll be telling our grandchildren about this. Weekly.”

  “Now we’re both having children, eh? Got your eye on somebody?”

  “We’re about to save her, actually. Don’t steal my thunder and act the hero when it’s my turn.”

  Now Navy stifled a laugh. At the gatehouse, he decided to at least make it fun for himself, and jumped up to surprise the guard. The young soldier startled, trying to engage his rifle.

  “Safety’s on,” Navy hinted. As expected, the guard sounded the alarm and three more guards hurtled out the entry doors, guns at the ready. “Oh, shoot. I didn’t realize there would be so many of you. Darn.” As he let himself be cuffed and dragged inside, he glanced over his shoulder and saw Army easily dodge inside the compound gate, roll to the shadows, and reposition himself to follow them in.

  CHAPTER 33

  * * *

  Hibernia Wind and Energy Farm

  Her mind resolved, Rory threw a few items into the pockets of her jacket and snuck down to the boat launch. The catamaran sat suspended in a dock lift. No one but she could do this, the ultimate bargaining chip. She would get the boat close to Nova Scotia, far enough from the Hibernia that, when her wrist phone connected to TEAR headquarters, they wouldn’t suspect the rig’s role in the Resistance. It took her a few minutes to determine how to lower the boat into the water, how to reboard it, and then to find the place where Navy had taught her how to hot-wire it without a key. As the engine warmed, she walked back onto the deck and made sure all the dock ropes were released.

  “Rory. What’s going on?” She heard her father, and she looked up to see him a level above on the landing that led down to water level. She froze. She hadn’t considered this possibility.

  “Nothing, Dad.”

  “You are a really bad liar. What the hell are you doing?” He came down the stairs and confronted her as she continued to untie a dock line.

  Straightening, she faced him. “I’m taking a trip. I’m going to TEAR. And I’m going to play the ‘ultimate bargaining chip’ in a place that won’t endanger anyone.”

  Byron was struck speechless for a moment. “We don’t know if your theory is right yet.”

  “Actually, I just watched it proven true,” she said. “Which means the team can start work tomorrow on the next phases. And I have to do this.”

  Byron shook his head firmly. “Absolutely not. No. They could kill you.”

  Rory leaned on her toes and gave him a kiss. “You know they can’t. They can’t afford to. Remember what you told me, Dad? ‘That it should be a friend to soothe the cares, and lift the thoughts of man,’” she quoted. “I’ll make them release every donor, and Navy and Army and AJ, if they have them. I’ve got a plan. Please trust me?”

  Byron’s heart was breaking as he let her hop back on the catamaran and disappear inside its windowed helm. The light, electric-powered watercraft backed slowly and silently out of the dock, the last rays of sunset illuminating the subtle wake it left. She turned at the window and waved to him. How had she grown up so fast, to the point where she had become someone he wished he could have been? He’d put her through so much, and then she’d gone through more to get them both here safely. Now she was asking even more of herself.

  Overwhelmed by pride and fear for her, he suddenly realized what he needed to do. He shouted after her, then ran off the dock and dove into the water. Seeing him, she stopped the craft and ran to help him on board.

  As he climbed aboard the boat, he shivered, “I always wanted to make a big, heroic gesture.” Rory only laughed and hugged him. “I never imagined it would be in forty-degree water. Tell me there’s a heater and clothes on this boat.”

  Outside Woodstock, Virginia

  Navy reasoned it was only maintaining the charade for him to fight back a little against the guards leading him through the compound. And if it incidentally left a couple of broken noses along the way, well . . . keeping up appearances was an unfortunate necessity.

  Within thirty minutes, they had handcuffed him to a chair in a small room and tried their hand at interrogating him. He did his best to keep them fully distracted as he listened to Army’s updates through his earpiece.

  “Why are you here?”

  “It looked like a cozy spot,” Navy replied. In his earpiece, Army confirmed the layout of the building for hallways Navy hadn’t been escorted through.

  “Who sent you?”

  “Kessler.” Navy noted that their eyes grew in fear and a couple whitened. So they were quite familiar with him.

  Army hissed in his ear: “I can’t find her, and I’ve now crossed the south half of the building. Some of it’s just offices. Heading across to the northeast quadrant.”

  “What?” the guards said in confusion.

  “Oh, shit. Well, I just found the farm. It’s worse than we thought, brother.”

  “How many people do you have here?” Navy asked, and the men looked to each other in shock. It didn’t matter, since he wasn’t actually addressing them.

  “Looks like fifty to seventy-five, all in beds,” Army replied. “Still, I don’t see AJ here.”

  Navy scanned the faces of the men watching him. “We know you have AJ on this side of the building. And we know she’s not under sedation. So logically, if I shout loud enough, she’s going to shout back. Which means that will be caught on camera at headquarters and you’ll all be out of a job soon,” Navy warned them. He took a breath in clear preparation, then let out an ear-drumming bellow. “AJ!”

  In his ear, Army cursed. “Ouch! I told you, I get to be the knight in shining armor this time.”

  In front of him, a guard barked out a laugh. “She can’t hear you from here.”

  Hearing it in his earpiece, Army responded with a soft, rebellious: “HUA. Northwest quadrant. Hopefully you haven’t deafened me so I can hear AJ call me her hero.”

  Navy started laughing so hard his eyes began to water.

  CHAPTER 34

  * * *

  Off the Coast of Great Seal Cove

  The dawn was barely breaking on the horizon, still no more than a blue light hinting at orange, when they passed the edge of Nova Scotia. They had each taken a break to sleep, avoiding calls from Per
sephone and Jeff demanding to know where they were. Rory felt it was best to tell them once they were out of reach of any attempts to reverse their plans.

  When Rory sighted the coast of the cove where she and Navy had first weighed anchor, she gave her father a nod. Byron took the helm and steered for the island.

  Stepping aside, she turned on her wrist phone and searched for the TEAR headquarters contact info.

  The call connected. Rory asked to be connected to General Kessler.

  “Um, I’m not sure if he’s available. I can put you through to his assistant. Who is calling?”

  “Aurora Rosalind Stevigson,” she replied. “He’ll be available.”

  Within seconds, a deep male voice answered. “Aurora? This is General Kessler on the line.”

  “Hello, General Kessler. I believe you’ve been looking for me.”

  He paused. “Yes, we have. We’ve been very worried about you.” Concerned. Fatherly, even.

  Rory smirked. “You’ll be happy to hear that I have the answers you’ve been looking for. I’ve solved the riddle, and I’m ready to share a cure with the world.”

  Silence stretched. When he spoke, his tone had softened, become cajoling.

  “I’m not a scientist, Aurora, but as you must know, I’ve been in charge of finding a cure for a very long time. I’d like you to come to my offices, meet with our scientists, and share with them whatever you have discovered. But for the sake of an old man’s excitement, will you tell me what you’ve learned that our years of research couldn’t?”

  Rory nodded at her father and pointed to the cove and the dock where he should stop.

  “I’m the cure, Kessler. My mother created a walking, talking wonder drug. So you’ll want to write down these coordinates and get someone here fast, or I’ll be partnering with anyone else who’s willing to pay more.”

  “Where are you?” he barked. She rattled off the coordinates.

  “And Kessler?”

  “What?”

  “Hurry. I know you have lots of birds. Send a big one.”

  Outside Woodstock, Virginia

  Army knew he’d found AJ’s room when he peeked around a hallway door with a video camera on a thin fiber-optic wire and saw two armed guards waiting outside it. A nurse in scrubs was just leaving the room.

  “She’s been given dinner,” she told them quietly. “The meal contains some sedatives, so if you hear her fall, I need you to page me immediately. It will just make her drowsy enough for us to fully put her under the stronger drugs.”

  The guards nodded and Army leaned back against the wall, calculating possibilities. If she had already eaten, she’d be more difficult to move. He didn’t want to harm the guards, but he would need them out of his way and unable to report back. The nurse, too.

  Bluff, his mind screamed. Easiest way is right through the door.

  Standing, he let the nurse head toward him and backed up so that, as she rounded the corner, she would bump right into him. He moved his holstered gun to the back of his waistband.

  “Oh! Sorry,” she said when she crashed into him, and he pretended to be hit in the ribs. “Gosh, are you okay? I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you.”

  “No problem, ma’am, my fault entirely,” he said with a southern drawl and a warm smile. “Should’ve warned you I was barreling around the corner. The patient named Avis James is down this corridor, right?”

  She nodded and then paused, thinking better of answering as she looked for his badge.

  “Ah, yes . . . but I don’t believe I know you.”

  “Nope, sure don’t. Sorry, Dr. Rajni sent me down here with a useless card, and security is still tryin’ to reprogram it. I’m sure you’ve seen that before,” he laughed with a wink. “Anyway, I guess patient James got bumped up in priority or something. I’m supposed to interview the patient about some exposures to farm animals and then travel and . . . gosh, darlin’, I’m boring you, aren’t I? Don’t you worry about it. I’ll go bore the guards down there and let you get back to work.”

  “Okay,” she laughed, charmed. “See you around.”

  “I hope so. You watch out with those skinny little elbows and comin’ around corners, you hear?”

  She sent him a smile over her shoulder, then checked out his ass as he rounded the corner. Odd, she thought. He was armed.

  CHAPTER 35

  Washington, DC, TEAR Headquarters

  Rory and Byron sat inside the powerful helicopter that had picked them up from the docks at Great Seal Cove. With the aircraft boasting a top speed of almost five hundred miles per hour, they were arriving before noon. Its massive, dual, forward-facing rotors below its broad top rotors had to fully stop before they were permitted to exit, and even as those slowed to a stop, the pilots told them to wait until the engines were fully off. Rory wished her pulse would slow in time with the whipping sound of the rotors, but it only seemed to accelerate.

  “Don’t tell them Mom’s alive, okay?” she leaned and whispered into her father’s ear.

  “I know, I know.”

  “And if they separate us, you make sure anyone who speaks to you knows you’ve got the same genetic makeup as me and you are not to be touched.”

  Byron smiled at her and kissed her forehead. “You’re a brave woman, Rory. You make me very proud.”

  Rory’s gaze shot out the window at the figure on the landing pad. “Why does he look so familiar, Dad?”

  Byron followed her gaze to see Dr. Rajni standing outside the edge of the landing zone, flanked by officers.

  “You used to play with his son, sweetheart. You two were best pals.” Byron’s heart clenched at the memories of the beautiful boy who had built forts and raced down slides with her. At the memory of his funeral.

  They climbed out when the officers came forward to open the doors and release a set of steps. Dr. Rajni ran forward, hesitantly searched Byron’s face, and then reached out a hand to shake his firmly. After a second, they pulled each other into a tight hug.

  “Jason. I’ve missed you,” Byron said sincerely.

  “It’s good to see you, Byron.” Jason looked to Rory, who stood back observing them. “You probably don’t remember me very well, Aurora.”

  She shook her head slightly. “Well enough. It’s nice to see you again.”

  “And you as well. You look very much like your mother. You have her eyes.”

  Rory’s eyes hardened; they weren’t there for teary reunions. “I think you know who I’m here to see. Will it be very long before we can meet Kessler?”

  Jason held her gaze and nodded, acknowledging her demand. She wondered if he really knew that Persephone was alive. She knew that he had helped nearly kill Navy and Army. Whatever their history was, she wasn’t going to trust him an inch.

  “Come right along. He’s waiting for you.” As he led them through the building, Rory stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets and counted hallways, doors, and turns on her fingers. She hoped she could remember them if they had to try to escape. Jason tried to explain, “My whole team is very eager to meet with you and learn what you’ve discovered. And they’re very honored to meet Persephone’s daughter as well, but mostly they hope you can teach us something that—”

  “Do you have a virologist on your team?”

  “Of course,” he answered her, surprised at her curt interruption.

  “Phage experience?”

  “Ah . . . no, I don’t believe so. We quit all research with phages about three years ago after complete failures. It’s such an outdated field of study.”

  “You’ll regret that perspective.”

  Through a final set of double doors, across a carpeted office lobby, and into a large meeting room, they finally saw the general seated at the far end of the oblong table. He stood casually as Rajni introduced them.

  When he extended his hand to shake hers, she resisted a shiver of disgust at the feel of his cool palm.

  “Hello, Aurora. And Dr. Stevigson. Please, let’s sit. You mus
t be tired after such a long journey. You started in Nova Scotia, yes?”

  “We started at our farm. But I’m guessing you lost track of us somewhere outside Freeport, Maine, a month ago.”

  Outside Woodstock, Virginia

  Army approached the guards at the end of the hallway with a confident swagger. Though the men were armed, their guns were holstered and their stances relaxed. They weren’t guarding a threat or a resource likely to escape.

  “Hey,” he greeted them. “Looks like he’s getting bumped up in priority. I’m supposed to ask him a couple of questions, and I have instructions from Rajni to bring him up to Bethesda.”

  The guards glanced at each other, then back to him. He was obviously out of uniform, but the fact that he was in the building implied he had credentials.

  “This patient is a female.”

  Army looked surprised, then gave a laugh. “You can see it was a rushed request. I skimmed it myself.”

  “Got transfer paperwork?”

  “Out in my vehicle. We might not need it, depends on the questions.” He gave a shrug and rolled his eyes. Stupid scientists, always changing their minds.

  “We weren’t told you were coming.”

  “I understand, but I’m short on time if the nurse gave the patient sedatives. Let’s ring General Kessler, shall we?” Army lifted his wrist and punched a few buttons. Their eyes widened.

  “No, man, don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s fine. You can go speak with her.”

  They used their badges in conjunction with a biometric eye scan, then opened the door. Army nodded his thanks and walked inside.

  Sitting on the bed, her legs crossed, was AJ. A plate of food sat on the table nearby with its lid off. When her eyes met his in shock, he smiled and held a finger to his lips as he crossed to her.