“You don’t,” Enlai stated. “But we were sworn to protect you and we will die to protect you.”
“Why?”
“Because our parents were also imprisoned within Chinese communist. We are also orphans, escaping to America on the same plane that you yourself escaped. Your grandfather promised our parents that he would help us escape. When we arrived in Boston, we were taken by our people and you were still with the couple. We thought, we thought everything was safe. We stayed in America for years before moving to the UK under the CIA. We returned to America just a short few years ago under the Department of Defense.”
Another memory, the plane trip, there had been others on the planes, refugees. Young small, boys, who looked as nervous as she had, and an elderly people, but she had not been interested in them. She only wanted to return, for her parents to come back, for her grandfather to hug her again. “I remember,” she said slowly. “I remember you,” she said.
“I…” she could not say more, her head hurt, as she stared at the two men before her. Things like this did not happen, this should not occur. Could not. All she wanted was to be normal. Normal like everyone else. Not haunted down by strange killers…not injected with strange DNA…not a freak.
“When will you take me to him…grandfather?” She asked.
“We leave, tonight. You cannot take anything from your home.”
“Where is he?”
“Near Washington D.C.”
Of course. “So be it.” She said.
She followed them out the condo, they were met with more than five men outside the door, Enlai and Song nodded to them as one, a large black man in a black suit, nodded. “We are ready, sir, the exits are secured.”
Enlai nodded. “Come, Rain, we must hurry,” he said, taking her hand in his, but unlike before, this time with power, direction. There would be no running away, not now. She was finally facing her past.
Instead of going down the elevator they went down the emergency stairs, hurriedly, as quiet as possible, making their way through the underground garage where large black jeeps were waiting. She followed behind Song as Enlai shut the door behind him.
“Go,” he said.
She didn’t trust them, still believing they were going to kill her, but at least she was finally facing her fate, meeting it head on. She would no longer run as she had for all of her life.
They did not head towards the main terminal in Sea-Tac Airport; however, they drove five miles further, to a smaller, private airport field. She kept quiet, following their orders, observing, following the men into a small jet plane. Once boarded they met with other official looking government agents.
“Ms. Rule?” One man said, “I am John Daniels, head of the Department of Defense. How are you doing?” He asked, escorting her to a seat.
“I still hadn’t figured that out,” she said. “Or if I am being led as a lamb to a slaughter,” she said.
“Trust us to protect you, you are very important to us,” John returned, smiling, but there was no warmth, he was a man of calculations. And for now, she was in the equation. “You have been briefed by our agents?” John asked.
“Yes,” she returned.
Song and Enlai sat down in the seats, the four seats turned towards each other as she heard the engines began, the captain speaking over the loud speaker. It all seemed so very surreal. Song took out a sleek laptop, his hands quickly typing over the keys. “Systems a go, sir,” he said.
“The firewall?” John asked.
“Protected.”
John turned towards a stewardess. “Tell the captain we are ready, now.” He said.
She nodded, rushing towards the front. Along with her, John, Enlai and Song, there were roughly twelve other people in the cabin with them, all dressed in business suits, seated with computers, and she did not miss the guns they all had upon their hips. She looked at Enlai who sat across from her, trying to still and hide the hurt within her that he had never been interested in her; she had been just a missing person’s case to him, a link to a puzzle.
She stared outside the window, this was why she did not trust, this was why she did not allow another close to her. All except, Belle.
“Belle,” she said to Enlai. “What about Belle, she is my best friend. If I don’t come to work or call her she will go to my house and the police and report me missing.”
“You will be able to contact her once we reach Washington D.C. on our secure lines.”
She nodded, refusing to say thank you, not to this man who had so recently turned her life upside down less than two hours ago. The thought of his deception she refused to think of, buckling her seatbelt as the airplane took off, cutting through the air swiftly.
“You should get some sleep, Rain, it’ll be another four hours before we touch down,” Enlai said.
Bu she refused to show any more weakness. Not in front of him, not in front of his brother, Song. She ignored his words, her eyes refusing to meet his, staring outside her window at the dark night, the twinkle of stars her only respite.
Normalcy would not exist for her. Not in the days to come.
She ignored the conversations around her, did not speak to the men even when they addressed her. They left her alone quickly, typing away on their computers, discussing briefs, legal matters, areas of defense. She got up once to use the bathroom and stretch her legs but other than that, she sat stiffly in her seat with her coat still buttoned, her hands still encased in her black, leather gloves.
When the captain announced their arrival in Washington D.C., she placed her seat belt back on, leaning back in her seat as she felt the plane begin its descent. She had never been to Washington D.C. but did not find interest in the city lights in the early morning sky beneath her. It was close to dawn but she knew sleep would escape her.
They departed on the tarmac, armed guards and black jeeps waiting for them. This time John joined their jeep and they drove more than an hour before the large jeep stopped in front of a large, gated home.
“This is your grandfather’s home,” Song said.
She did not react to his words, a dead calm within her. This was the beginning of it all, she thought to herself. This strange man, the last of her blood lines, a scientist who had paid these men to find her.
The door was opened by the drivers and upon the early dawn’s light she made out a figure as she was escorted out the truck.
He was tall, her grandfather, his dark, mocha colored skin surrounded by a shock of silver white hair, his eyes beautifully warm blue, he was dressed in a plain white business shirt and gray pants. There was no one else waiting at the stairs with him. Her mad hope that her parents had survived finally crushed. It was her grandfather, the man that had saved her from Ethiopia and the mad men that had destroyed everything that she had ever loved.
He rushed down the stairs as she stood unsure, and she remembered, he looked nearly the same although twenty five years had passed, the same as when she had huddled on his lap, for protection and comfort and felt his tears upon her upturned cheek.
There was nothing she could say to speak the depth of the emotion within her. She was no longer an orphan. No longer so completely alone. No longer so completely terrified.
“You are my granddaughter,” he finally said.
“And you are my grandfather, although I do not know your name.”
“I am Lebna, granddaughter. You are Aamina…it means one who is safe in our language.”
Rain nodded. “Hello, Lebna,” she finally said. “There have been many changes in my life. I shall keep my English name for now, until it is time.”
He nodded his understanding. “Of course, of course,” he said his voice deep, lightly accented and musical. “Come, all of you, inside.”
They made their way inside his large home, following him into a large dining area that was set for breakfast. “John, Enlai, Song, you have my eternal gratitude,” he said, shaking the men’s hands before they were seated, she to the right of he
r grandfather, John to the left, Enlai seated next to her and Song seated next to John.
“Of course, sir,” Enlai stated. “It is with pleasure to reunite you to your granddaughter.” He stated.
Rain’s fist tightened in her lap, she kept her gaze upon the window, outside of her element, not knowing what to do, only wishing that there was somewhere that she could be safe, that she could hide and be normal.
Breakfast was served by two maids and then they were left alone, a tantalizing array of Belgium waffles, fluffy eggs, muffins, bacon and sausage and fresh fruit. Yet, Rain could not eat, as the men began to. They spoke of mundane things, the weather, the upcoming elections, a governor recently convicted of fraud.
“Will I stay here?” Rain finally interrupted, the first thing that she had spoken since sitting down for breakfast.
Lebna nodded. “You will be safe here; Enlai and Song will reside here also, to protect you.”
That she did not know and did not wish. Yet, what could she say? She felt like a careful pawn in a game much greater than she. Nodding, she tried to eat a bite of waffle and some fruit, but it sat heavily upon her. “I am very tired, may I be excused and can you please show me my room?” She asked Lebna, reserved, remote.
The men stood. “Enlai will show you to your rooms, Rain. I will be available to you when you awaken,” he said.
She nodded as Enlai escorted her from the rooms, the two quiet until they had reached the second floor and down one long hallway and then another before he handed her a key to the door.
“Yours,” he said.
“One small key will not keep out those who wish to do me harm,” she replied, staring at the silver key in her hand.
“If they make it to you it will only be because they have killed me…and Song. I do not plan on that ever occurring.”
“You cannot give your life for mine,” she refuted, unlocking the door and walking into a large bedroom, decorated in a contemporary design. She walked around touching the furniture, there were no windows and the room was dark, it was Enlai who turned on the light.
“It is my honor and duty,” Enlai returned. “I owe your grandfather my life.”
“Duty…” she began, smiling wryly, feeling the fool. “It was duty that caused you to kiss me. Duty that pretended interest. You have performed your duty quite well, Enlai.”
“That was not duty that was forgetting my mission and losing myself in you.”
She scuffed at his words. “You are an agent, you will do what needs to be done in whatever way that you can. Please, I can take no more lies.”
He closed the door behind him, stalking to her, but she stood her ground, refusing to back up, refusing fear. “It was not duty,” he stated fiercely, pulling her to him, where she struggled from his grasp, but he refused to release her. “There is not one day that has passed that I have regretted the circumstances that have brought me to you, caused me to hate these lies that I have given you. Yet, I did it, I did it for your safety, to assure your return to your grandfather. I wanted you the moment I saw you. I still want you even though it goes against every fiber of my being as an agent. Yet, you will not believe me and I do not blame you. I will protect you with every fiber of my being. I will die for you, I will kill for you. Make no mistake about this Rain.” He said before capturing her lips in his, ignoring her struggles, before she began moaning, her arms wrapping around his neck in need and pleasure.
Tell me you want me, she thought to herself with such need such passion, she assumed she whispered the words aloud when he pulled away and spoke those very words that she wanted to hear.
“Rain,” he said, pulling away, staring at her with something close to fear. “You are in my head,” he whispered.
She stopped dropping her hands, staring at him. “What do you mean?”
“You did not speak those words, you spoke them, inside of me,” he said in curiosity.
Shaking her head, she did not understand his words.
“Think something else,” he commanded her. “Without saying anything, with the same passion, think something else.”
Touch me, touch my right arm, and hold my right hand in yours.
He did as she requested his eyes wide as she shook her head in denial.
“Has this ever happened before?” He asked her calmly, still holding her right hand. “Have you ever…ever commanded others with just your thoughts?” He asked.
She shook her head in horror, feeling tears weld up in her eyes. “My, God. What am I? What experiments did they perform on me?”
She laid in her bed, it was now well past eleven in the morning, she had not slept, simply stared in wide eyed shocked for the past couple of hours, her very being shaken in distraught, anger, horror at a dead grandmother who had so radically changed her DNA she had created a monster, at a grandfather who had found her when she should have died in the wilds of her country, she wished herself dead.
In her horror she’d not sworn Enlai to secrecy, she knew he would tell her grandfather. Knew they would want to do experiments on her. She would not be able to stay here, she would hide, and she would run again, began life anew far away from anyone and everything. She would not contact Belle, she did not want to bring her into the horror of what was now her life, and she would not endanger Belle’s family just because she had an insatiable need to find human touch and comfort, to belong.
She searched through the bedroom and bathroom; there were clothing, shoes, feminine articles, and personal effects, everything that she would need as a long term guest. Taking a shower she changed into a pair of jeans, a shirt and some snow boots and put on her heavy coat. But before she left, she sat in a chair near the door, her thoughts centered on Snow.
He formed in her mind’s eye, the silkiness of his hair, his angelic but masculine face, the deep timbre of his voice. She searched for him and found him in her mind’s eye, he was speaking with Enlai and her grandfather. He didn’t realize she was there, penetrating his thoughts, careful so very careful as she heard their conversation as they stood - locked away in a vaulted room, spread with computers, laptops and instruments.
“Lebna, we have to figure out what experiments your wife performed on Rain, immediately, she has more power than any of us realized, if China finds her they will destroy her, they will take her every blood cell, every organ and her very genetic code and they will perfect their race of soldiers and annihilate the earth.”
“I do not know,” Lebna said in horror. “She kept the experiments from everyone, even I. And then I was taken, there was no word from her, I did not know even when she was killed by them, the ministry. She destroyed everything.”
“Did she have any assistants?”
Lebna shook his head. “I do not think so. Much of her work she performed at Oxford. When she heard that Rain’s mother was pregnant she flew back to Ethiopia and established a small office in the back of our house in the city. That house was decimated. The most I remember is that she had modified a certain mutant gene…she called it the genotype 2978. She said its’ mutations is what leads to sickness, early death. That is all. I spoke not of my research to her and she spoke not of her research to me. We could not. Our jobs were of the most importance, government restricted.”
“What occurred, Enlai?” Song asked.
“She commanded me, in my head, to do things. I had no choice in the matter.”
Rain could feel the tension in Song, his anger. “What did your wife create, Lebna?” He asked in horror.
“She knows not her power,” Enlai interjected. “She is afraid of it. She does not want this, did not want it thrust upon her. She wants to be normal.”
“How would you know this?” Snow asked. “If it is as you state than this is just the beginning. Lebna, you must figure out her power and you cannot delay. If we piece together her DNA maybe we can understand what your wife created.”
“She is not some freak,” Lebna said.
“Yes she is,” Song returned. “I know it i
s not her fault, I know it is not of her doing, I know she is an innocent in this, but that does not change the facts. Right now we are holding her against her will although she has been cooperative. How long will she continue to be cooperative? Even now she may decide to do things out of desperation that she would not normally.”
“Then we should free her,” Lebna stated. “She is not a prisoner.”
“She will never be safe,” Enlai said. “They will find her and they will kill her.” He stated. “The ministry has no compassion, no human emotion. They are built upon the fact that they will annihilate their enemies and Rain is their enemy as is the United Stated. She stays here.”
“She stays,” Snow said.
Rain removed herself from the conversation, her breathing heavy, she had an explosive headache and was nauseated. She barely managed to throw up in the toilet, feeling horrid, before passing out on the bathroom floor, her last thoughts on Enlai.
The Beginning Of Rain In December Page 4
