He doubted anyone would notice or care, however. The Aliomenti wouldn’t know to look for him, and after the debacle at the Starks’ house a month earlier, they were likely to spend every resource looking for Will. They’d not notice something as obscure as odd coincidences surrounding the travel habits of a single elderly man traveling to a remote community in the northwestern United States.
He drove the nondescript rented sedan to the neighborhood and pulled the car into the driveway. There were no people outside, but he did spot a For Rent sign in the yard, confirming he’d found the correct place. The house had undergone significant renovations, including new sod in the front yard and a fresh coat of paint on the exterior. The house was, generously, a quarter the size of the house the Starks had lived in before, but they weren’t billionaires now, just a widow, her father-in-law, her son, and, eventually, her newborn daughter. The house would be perfect for their needs. Josh would need to adjust to having neighbors living so close to his house, just as he’d have to adjust to going to school. But his enhanced senses, intelligence, and maturity left him well-equipped to handle those adjustments. And he’d have his mother and Adam there to help.
He glanced around, tried the front door, and found, to his surprise, that it was unlocked. He walked inside. “Hello?”
A woman popped her head out of the kitchen area. “Oh! Hello, there!” She had a bubbly personality, one his enhanced senses judged to be genuine, and he took an instant liking to her. “Did you have an appointment?”
“I didn’t, no,” Adam admitted. “But I talked to the woman who owns the house and told her I was looking for a rental here in this area. She recommended I check this unit out. I’m really here for my daughter-in-law; she recently lost her husband—my son—and she and my grandson are looking for a fresh start.”
Her hand went to her mouth and her eyes widened, and she seemed on the verge of tears. “I’m so, so sorry!” Adam’s empathy sense suggested that, while the emotion was genuine, she was exaggerating the effect with the tears in an effort to build rapport with him.
“Thank you,” he said. “It’s been difficult but I’m ready to move on.”
She nodded. “Would you like me to show you around the house?”
He nodded. “That would be great.”
He spent the next thirty minutes touring the house with her. The entire interior had been redone, the woman explained, as the previous owners had lost their jobs years earlier and hadn’t maintained the home well. Eva’s renovation company had made the space livable, and they were charging a bargain rate on the rent. He asked about the neighbors (“quiet for the most part, but they do have block parties during the summer that run somewhat late”) and the schools in the area (“very highly rated and within walking distance”) before he asked about terms. He showed her the power of attorney that “Phoebe” didn’t know she’d signed, and put a deposit down to rent the house on a two year lease. Move-in date was set for roughly a month later, which, according to the owners, would give the renovation team and cleaning crew time to finish their work. Adam smiled and nodded. The human renovation team would finish the structural and cosmetic repairs, and would be followed by a “cleaning” crew from the Alliance that would coat the inside of the house with a variety of scutarium-laced substances.
He walked away with the signed lease, climbed into the rental car, and drove away.
They now had a place to live. He’d next need to start purchasing supplies and furnishings for their new home. He rented a large storage unit, which he lined with scutarium when the owners weren’t watching and after he’d temporarily disabled the security cameras. It gave him a place to store his purchases as well as a teleportation base until the house was prepared. He drove around town in his rental car and found a used minivan in good condition and paid for it in cash, with the title in the name of his daughter-in-law. He returned the rental car and took a taxi back to the minivan. With the additional transport space, he visited a secondhand thrift shop and purchased two chairs and a dresser, and then called it a day. He’d return to the city several times over the next few weeks, more easily now that he could teleport safely, and finish purchasing the remaining furnishings and supplies they’d need to set up their household.
After unloading his purchases into the storage unit, he made his last stop for the day, a local credit union. There, he set up a checking account, savings account, and obtained both credit and debit cards they could use for purchases and cash withdrawals. He presented a cashier’s check to fund the accounts, explaining that it was the partial proceeds from the life insurance policy on his son. The community would be well aware of the back story for the Trask family by the time they moved in.
Adam walked out with the checkbook and cards an hour after entering, around closing time, and drove the minivan to a long-term parking facility. He then hailed a taxi that he used to return to the storage facility. Once there, he phased invisible—a task that required far less Energy than teleportation—and moved inside his scutarium-lined rental unit. With his chance of detection finally eliminated, Adam teleported back to the safety of the basement room within Judith and Peter’s house.
Peter was working with the cloning machine, but glanced up as he sensed the Energy burst announcing the arrival of a long-range teleporter. “Hey, Adam,” he said. “I think I’ve figured out a few techniques we can use to extend the lives of clones. I wish we’d had this a month ago, but, still, having clones live longer than a few days may prove handy in the future.”
Adam nodded. “Sounds promising, Peter.” He held out a folder containing the personal documents for the newly created personas of Phoebe and Fil Trask. “Can I ask you to hang on to these? We’ll turn them over to Hope and Josh when they emerge from the bunker in the next few weeks.”
Peter nodded. “I’ve got a safe we can use.” He accepted the folder from Adam before asking his next question. “Where are you off to next?”
“Ashley and Archie’s house. They’re running the servers handling the account transfers. I want to recheck the sequencing of the sweeps from account to account, and it’ll be handled best directly at the source.”
“Give them my best,” Peter replied.
Adam nodded, and teleported to Ashley and Archie’s house.
Ashley walked into the basement area and nodded a greeting at him. “Hey, Adam. How’d everything go in Oregon?”
“Perfectly. Peter’s got the paperwork and will be storing it in his safe. Any news on Myra’s house?”
Ashley nodded, and a smile emerged. They’d wondered what the childless, heirless widow would do with her home upon her death. “Ironic, in a way. She didn’t have any children or any relatives she cared for. She left the house and a large portion of her estate to Frank, her driver. Said she appreciated all he’d done for her while she was alive.”
Adam chuckled. “So the entire neighborhood is full of the Alliance now? That’s pretty impressive.”
“I know,” Ashley agreed. “All we need to do to finish this effort is get Hope and Josh to the Cavern to make sure they’re fully recovered from last month before they move on to Oregon.” She paused. “Do you think Hope will still have issues with her memory?”
“She probably does,” Adam admitted. “I’m not terribly skilled at memory blocks, so I’ll have to check all of them and remove any that haven’t cleared yet. I suspect I was a bit too aggressive when I set them.”
“That’s not surprising,” Ashley said. “It was something of an impromptu decision. Judith’s actually really good at those, by the way, if you’re ever in need of really good memory blocks in the future.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Adam started to move away.
“Gena said hello, by the way,” Ashley said. “I talked to her earlier today, and it sounds like she’s adapting and learning at a very high rate of speed. She wants to come back and be here when Hope and Josh emerge from the bunker.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Adam r
eplied, nodding. “She was a big part of the events that drove them underground. It would be wonderful if she’s there to see the end result.”
“Any idea when Hope and Josh will leave the bunker?”
“We suspect it will be during the first week of March, though we don’t have an exact date. It won’t be long now.”
“I’ll let Gena know.”
Adam nodded. Getting Hope and Josh out of the bunker would finish this era of his life. It had been an exhilarating time, full of twists he hadn’t seen, even with the advantage of the hindsight of future history. And despite the many sleepless nights, he wouldn’t trade his role for anything. He’d done a good thing—no, a great thing—and had helped out the people considered family through one of the most trying times in their lives.
But he was eager to move on to the next phase of his life with Hope, Josh, and eventually Angel. They’d start standing in wait for them each evening, watching the abandoned home site for any sign of activity. And soon, Gena would join them.
The thought made him smile.
XXVI
Emergence
March 7, 2030
The moon was a slender crescent in the sky, providing scant light to those gathered in the forest of the De Gray Estates. They had gathered here each evening for the past week, waiting. Tonight, perhaps, their wait would be rewarded, and Hope and Josh would emerge from the bunker.
They’d spent the previous evenings opining as to why they’d needed to use the bunker in the first place. Why, they asked, not simply teleport Hope and Josh directly to Peter and Judith’s house? Why the elaborate construction project, the creation of the elevator hydraulics, and the two month hiatus before mother and son emerged to breathe fresh air once more?
They’d realized the answer the night before.
“Will didn’t use Energy,” Judith noted.
“Well, right,” Adam said. “He didn’t want to alert… oh.”
“You’re kidding,” Archie said. “We had to build a bunker and go through all of that elaborate scheming because the Assassin forgot to shut the door to the house?”
Eva shook her head in amazement. “Much of the scheming was employed to deny the Assassin the opportunity to understand Hope’s nature and thus alert the Hunters and destroy the timeline for the day. But it does appear that the reason Hope moved to the bunker was for no reason other than the fact that teleportation was unsafe.”
“But why is she still there?” Peter asked. “I’m still not sure how Will got her to the bunker without anyone detecting any Energy, but I’m willing to chalk that up to a Will Stark innovation. But why does she need to stay there so long?”
“I think that’s my fault,” Adam said, frowning. “Those memory blocks? I don’t know if I did an optimal job with them, and I don’t know which of them, if any, are still in place. She might be in that bunker still because she doesn’t remember how to get out. Or she might not know who to contact to determine if it’s safe. And she may have no idea where to go.”
“Or her memory might be fine,” Aaron said. “The historical record says she stays in the bunker for two months and then uses the elevator she built to get out. Whatever the state of her memories, then, we’re likely to see similar timing on their emergence.”
“She wants to avoid using Energy to get out of the bunker at this point because she doesn’t want to take the chance she’ll have a welcoming committee of Hunters when she leaves,” Ashley had noted.
Hope would have a welcoming committee. But it would be composed solely of friends.
Adam yawned, watching his warm breath turn to vapor in the cool air. “Think our neophytes are doing well?”
Ashley nodded. “I talked to the MacLeans yesterday. They’ve gotten settled into their home in the Cavern and are going through the initial zirple treatments.” They’d found that taking large quantities of zirple before the morange purge lessened the most brutal effects of the berry. “They’re also talking to people there about ambrosia and the implications. Obviously, they have plenty of time to think about it—especially Dash—but the MacLeans have already provided blood samples for Dash’s future use.”
Adam nodded. New recruits were advised to give blood samples over time, up until they opted to take ambrosia, so that any children would have ample supplies of the cure available to them in the future. They’d had two cases where a newer recruit accidentally drank ambrosia before they were ready, and thus they encouraged everyone to give blood immediately as a precautionary measure. “Good to know. What about the Bakers and Millard Howe?”
“In transit to South Beach at the moment,” Peter replied. “Michael—our Michael, that is—is flying them down at the moment. With Project 2030 coming to a close, he’s looking forward to some down time in the Cavern.”
“He’s earned it, that’s for sure,” Adam said. The Bakers and Howe had been offered the chance to join the Alliance, an offer all had accepted. Like the MacLeans, they’d “died” in freak accidents that would leave no identifiable traces of them behind, giving them clean breaks from their lives in Pleasanton.
“I suspect they will run into Gena, then,” Eva remarked. “She remains at South Beach.”
“Really?” Adam raised an eyebrow. “She still hasn’t gone to the Cavern?”
“She has not,” Eva replied. “She felt at home at South Beach, and took up a role operating the teleportation desk. Her resulting schedule prevented her from being here today. Gena displayed Energy in the pink range before she departed, and we told her there was no need to rush to the Cavern with the remaining new recruits.”
Adam nodded, thoughtful. “That makes sense. I wonder if she’d be able to do morange without taking the zirple dosage first?”
“She does not need zirple or morange, Adam,” Eva told him. “What good would it do her? Most leave the Purge with less Energy sensitivity and capacity than she had when she left us two months ago. She will develop into a powerful Energy user, and need not suffer the Purge to do so.”
“Really?” Peter said. “That’s amazing. I wonder why that is? I wouldn’t mind losing the memory of that Purge experience.” He shivered.
“Indeed,” Eva replied. She didn’t look his way, but Adam knew that she had a strong suspicion as to why Gena’s Energy development had progressed at such an unusual pace.
“Think this is the night?” Archie asked, nodding toward the clear gray concrete that stood as the only reminder of the house that once occupied these grounds.
“Not sure,” Adam admitted. “The messages we have received said only that they would emerge in March, during the hours just after midnight. It makes sense; media interest has vanished, and we have no humans within the grounds any longer.”
Graham chuckled. “Have to admit, that was a huge shock to me.” Graham had served as Myra VanderPoole’s driver, dinner guest, porter of shopping bags—and, to everyone’s shock, as her sole heir. He’d been stunned to receive the call, but had recovered and settled into his new home inside De Gray Estates. He’d suffered through a week of unwanted fame; few could resist the allure of the story of the chauffeur inheriting millions. Interest had died down quickly, though, for “Frank” had proved to be unlikeable and a nightmarish interview on camera.
“All part of the plan,” Graham had told his Alliance friends after each interview made him less popular with the public. Soon enough, the requests for interviews stopped coming, the cameras left, and the group—and the neighborhood—were left alone once more.
Each night for the past week, they’d all left those unmonitored homes and traveled to stand in the trees surrounding the remains of the Starks’ home. They’d wait there until the sun’s appearance announced the arrival of the dawn, and then return home to resume their normal lives.
Graham’s head tilted to the side. “Anyone else hear that?”
Ashley put her hand on Archie’s shoulder. “I don’t just hear it… I feel it, too.”
Adam nodded, as a rising thrill of exci
tement overcame the gathering. “Tonight’s the night, then. Remember: Hope’s memory may still be a bit fuzzy, and it’s possible she won’t recognize any of us. I’ll approach her alone at first, and look for any memory blocks that haven’t self-destructed since the day of the fire. Once that happens, once she remembers everything, the rest of you can come out.”
Peter saluted him. “Yes, sir!”
Adam checked the folder in his hands, making sure that the identification papers were all there, and then moved closer to the house.
The sound and vibrations came from the hydraulic lift deep under the ground, which even now worked to push the platform within the bunker up to the level of the former basement. The engines driving the lift encountered strong resistance as the platform elevator car reached the solid concrete of the foundation floor. Adam watched as Hope’s concrete-cutting laser sliced through the material, and a line formed around the perimeter of the area of the elevator car. There was an audible crack as the engine burst through the last resisting bit of concrete, and the elevator car resumed its ascent. Dust and a few leaves blew off the rising slab in the cool, overnight March breeze. As the slab rose above the foundation floor, Hope’s golden hair became visible, and moments later she and Josh stood inside what had once been their basement, breathing in fresh outdoor air for the first time in two months. Mother and son walked to the concrete foundation walls, and Hope, after a cautious glance around, levitated both of them out of the basement and onto the grass.
Adam made his way closer to the foundation, listening to mother and son talk about the need to go into hiding, to assume new identities. “You’ll need money and a place to live,” he called out.
Hope spun toward him, her face anxious. That meant she still didn’t recognize him. After stepping out from the trees, Adam held up a hand, generating an Energy-based glowing orb. “I’m one of you, and I’m on your side.” Josh’s clear sense of recognition of Adam seemed to ease Hope’s concerns around their discovery.
Preserving Will Page 36
