by Anne Tibbets
Then everything went black.
I’m on the train with Vira.
I’m five. And she’s taking me to my new job.
Mama and Daddy have told me to listen to her and to be a good girl. So I try and concentrate on what she’s saying to me. But my ears are ringing and I can’t hear her.
She’s stirring her tea with her pinkie extended, talking to me with a very mean face.
I know I’m supposed to drink my tea too. That’s what she’s saying. I know this even though I can’t hear her.
But I also know the tea will put me to sleep and when I wake up I’ll be in Central, and I’ll work for this woman for eight years until she sells me to the Line.
So I don’t drink the tea.
This makes her angry, and she shouts at me, and shouts. She points at the cup in front of me and shouts again.
Drink it! she mouths. Drink it!
I can’t hear her.
All I hear is the ringing in my ears.
I hope it’s enough to save me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
My eyes fluttered open and a surge of pain shot through my body.
I was strapped down. My wrists and legs couldn’t move. I was lying on a stretcher, I realized. There was a strap holding my head down too.
Somehow, I was staring at the gray and misty sky.
My first instinct was to tug against the restraints, to scream. But the pain in my right arm was so extreme, I passed out again.
I awoke sometime later.
I was being moved. Two Auberge guards carried the stretcher.
One of them noticed I was awake and said something to the other. I saw his lips move, but I couldn’t hear what he said. My ears were ringing so loudly I heard nothing else. It made my head ache.
A man in a lab coat came up from my left and stood over me. He jabbed a syringe into my thigh.
Everything went black.
* * *
I awoke again and this time I wasn’t strapped down. My right arm was in a cast and stuck to my side with a sticky sling made of tape.
I was in a room. It looked like a hospital.
Where was Ric?
My stomach lurched. I was back on the Line. But the tiles on the wall were the wrong color. These were green. And there was a stainless steel door in the corner.
I’d been here before. I was in Central headquarters.
I groaned aloud at the realization and then stopped. The ringing was gone. I’d heard myself groan.
I turned my head to the side and caught a glimpse of someone else on a gurney.
His leg was in a cast. The stiff casing was bolted into his limb and he had a mechanized joint at the knee. Half of the man’s face was bandaged from chin to scalp, as well. It covered one of his eyes and one ear. The gentle curve of the man’s fingers twitched and caught my attention. A sob escaped my lips and I choked on my breath as I recognized him.
“Ric?”
He moaned.
“Can you hear me?”
I tried to stand up. The room spun. I fought against it and struggled to my feet. I was naked, wearing nothing but an old Auberge hospital gown that flapped open in the back.
Stumbling across the cold tile floor, I made my way to him and leaned up against his gurney for balance. He looked pale. White even. But he was breathing.
I let out a shriek of happiness.
His uncovered green eye fluttered open when I approached and he cracked a pained grin. “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eye.”
It took me a second, but then I snorted with laughter. “That’s not funny. Are you all right? Can you get up?”
He didn’t shake his head, but I saw his eye scrunch at the thought. “Maybe. How much do you remember?”
“Just the blast. Then, nothing.”
“What were those hand bombs you used? It wasn’t like anything I expected. There were two blasts, one that toasted everything and sprayed shrapnel, and then another that burned white-hot.”
“They were bombs for biological weapon disposal. Trev gave them to me.”
“It released some of the toxin into the lab. We didn’t get the vault door closed. There were casualties. I remember one of the guards dragging me died.”
I suspected that would happen and felt a sickening cross of emotions. It was someplace between acceptance, guilt and satisfaction.
“But I heard a few of the guards talking on the ride to Central,” he said. “We did it. The stockpile is gone. There’s nothing left. They’ve closed down the whole lab.”
Tears welled behind my eyelids and I sighed. A massive weight lifted off my chest. “Good. It won’t be that much longer.”
“I wouldn’t think so.” He struggled with his hand and then took mine.
“They might execute us.”
I laced my fingers with his. “Probably,” I said with resolve.
We stared at each other a moment, and he grunted, moving to sit up. I helped him and rolled the gurney against the wall so he could lean against it. Then I used my good arm to trundle my gurney over so he had a place to prop his broken leg. I crawled up and sat beside him.
Laying my head on his shoulder, I sighed as he rested his chin on it. We sat a moment, nestled together before our impending demise.
The last time I’d faced death like this was when Auberge had captured me and I’d thought both Ric and Sonya had died. I’d never felt as alone as I had then. Now, I was so thankful to have Ric with me I was swallowed by shame.
How selfish was I, that I was glad I wasn’t facing death alone?
Suddenly overcome, I choked on tears and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
He shoved a finger into his ear and wiggled it around. “What’d you say? My ears are still ringing a bit.”
“I said I’m sorry. For all of this. For everything.”
He smiled, very softly. Even though half of his face was bandaged, he still had a dimple in his other cheek. I reached up and stroked it, and he kissed my fingers. “It’s not your fault,” he said. “I came along willingly.”
“No. If I’d just not gone to the clinic that day.”
He raised his one eyebrow. “That far back? We never would have met. Is that what you want?”
“No. But I might not have destroyed the world if I hadn’t.”
“It’s not destroyed yet,” he said, frowning. “And if they don’t listen, it would have been destroyed anyway, no matter what we did or didn’t do. Besides, I wouldn’t trade what we have. Not a thing.”
“You could have had a life.”
He scoffed. “What are you talking about? What life? Life inside Auberge is an illusion. It’s not real. It’s slavery and indentured servitude whether you’re on the Line or not, and that’s no way to live. But with you, for a time, I was alive. For real. Living free. Don’t give me that look. Okay, free-ish. But at least I got the chance to love you, and the girls. That’s because of you coming to the clinic that day. The only part of my life when I was really alive was with you.”
“You’re just saying that because we’re about to die.”
“I’m saying that because it’s the truth.”
I nuzzled my head on his shoulder and he grimaced, but kissed my hair.
“I hope it’s quick,” I said.
“I hope they kill me first.”
“No, not that. I meant the missiles from Flora. If Auberge won’t listen. I hope the girls don’t know about them, that they don’t have the chance to be afraid. I don’t want their last emotion in life to be fear.”
“I hope they’re sleeping when it happens, that they’re dreaming of a better place.”
I nodded, unable to talk with that thought inside me. The image of their bodies pressed
together in their crib, all plump and serene, it burned like fire.
We sat in our grief. Silent. Aching. It was easy to get lost in time. There were no clocks in the room, no windows, no means for us to determine how long we sat on the gurney together, at the end of all things.
“You were the first,” I said. I realized how odd it sounded coming from me, but apparently Ric didn’t hear it that way.
“The first what?” he asked.
“My first love,” I said. “I mean, I loved Peni, but only to a degree, because I knew I would die on the Line, and she would die—and I saw no point in loving someone wholly, if that was the case. And I love the girls. But that’s a different love. It’s just as powerful, and frightening, but they’re a part of me, so it’s easy, it’s automatic. With you, it’s always been different. You were the first I allowed myself to love.”
His breath hitched in his chest and he sighed, squeezing my good hand in his. “Your trust doesn’t come easy, and I’m honored you gave it to me.” He took his hand and raised my chin so we could look at each other.
“You handled me and all my issues,” I said. “You were patient. I appreciate that. I know that couldn’t have been easy.”
“I wasn’t always patient.”
“You were human. I just...I don’t know why you stuck around.”
His voice dropped low and his eyes brimmed with tears. “Because I love you.”
My throat tightened and I swallowed thickly. “And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why.”
“And that’s part of the reason,” he said, although I didn’t fully understand what he meant. He kissed my forehead.
There was a buzz and a pop from the stainless steel door. It opened, and two Auberge guards entered.
“On your feet,” one of them said.
The other tossed a pile of clothes on the floor in front of us. “Get moving.”
* * *
After dressing in pairs of drawstring pants and plain green T-shirts, Ric and I hobbled down the hallways of Auberge headquarters, escorted by two guards.
We entered an elevator, rode it up and stopped on the eighth floor.
The guards led us down a long hallway to a large conference room. Four people were already there.
There was an old woman in a suit with a tight bun of silver hair, a young man with glasses so large they magnified his eyes, a businesslike dark-skinned man with a dense head of hair and a woman, pale blond and sickly skinny. They sat around the conference table, staring at us, but said nothing.
“Hello,” I mumbled.
Only the old woman acknowledged that she’d heard me. She nodded.
The door burst open behind us.
A man rushed in. He wore a dark, well-tailored suit. He had black hair with gray at the temples. Marching through the conference room door as if he owned the place, he stared at Ric and me and then went all the way to the head of the table.
At first, I couldn’t quite place why my internal organs had twisted and a rising panic had begun to flood my veins, but then I recognized him and I understood.
I knew this man. We’d met once before.
He saw the recognition on my face and pressed his lips together. Then his hand went out, indicating we should sit.
Ric seemed surprised when I did.
The Chairman of Auberge pulled his chair up under the table and folded his hands in front of him. He made no indication of noticing the people sitting around him but kept his eyes directly on me. “You didn’t know before now who I was?”
It was a statement within a question. I shook my head. “No.”
“Did she know what?” Ric asked.
“You must forgive Naya, Dr. Bennett. She’s had a bit of a shock, and I’m sure she won’t mind if I explain?”
I shook my head, still trying to wrap my head around what this meant.
“She and I have met before,” Chairman Etienne explained. “While she was on the Line, I visited her once.”
Ric instantly turned crimson.
“Not like that, Dr. Bennett. Calm down. She can verify this herself.”
I nodded.
“You see? I merely visited to verify her placement in the Carrier program, although she didn’t know it at the time. I made it a point to pick each Carrier personally. It was a way for me to feel a part of the rebirth of Auberge. How are the children?”
I stiffened from head to toe. “What do you know about my children?”
“Only that you were carrying twins when we released you. After you burned down the Line, the details surrounding your life get a little fuzzy, as I’m sure you intended.”
“I didn’t burn down the Line. You did.”
He shrugged. “Details.”
The others around the table shifted uncomfortably at this, but none spoke.
I said nothing. What was there to say? I was looking straight in the eye of the man I’d considered “my best appointment.” I still dreamed about it, on occasion, someplace sandwiched between my nightmares and my memories. But I’d had no idea the man, my “best” appointment by the mere fact that he’d never touched me, had been the Chairman of Auberge. If I’d known, I would have scratched out his eyes with my fingernails.
“How are they now, the children? Are they well?” the chairman asked.
I didn’t like his tone. He was condescending. Cocky. “What does it matter to you?” I challenged him.
“Don’t you want to know who their father is?” he asked.
My insides lurched. I felt blindsided.
Ambushed.
Good God. He knows who the father is.
Why was he bringing this up now?
For lack of anything to say, I scanned the other people sitting at the table. The only one who looked me in the eye was the old woman.
“I’m their father,” Ric said.
I turned to him. He looked stern and ferocious. His broken leg stuck straight out in front of him. The half of his face that wasn’t bandaged was flushed. I knew he must have been working hard not to blow his top.
It was taking effort on my part too.
How had this become about me and my children? I wanted to shout at the chairman to get to the point, but I didn’t think that would make a difference. I gripped the arms of my chair with white knuckles and fought to control my breathing. There would be no sense in diving across the table and strangling him, although the idea was tempting.
The chairman raised an eyebrow and smirked. “How sweet of you. Are they the Bennett heirs?” He laughed arrogantly at his joke, then cleared his throat. “But of course you know I mean to tell her the identity of their biological father.”
“I don’t see the point. I won’t be able to verify your information,” I said, trying to appear calm. Inside I was bursting at the seams. What the hell was he playing at?
Etienne shrugged. “I can have the records brought in, if you like.”
“You kept records...?”
The chairman scoffed. “Of course we did! Do you think I would allow just anyone to donate DNA to the Genesis Project? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m surprised. I thought you were smarter than this.”
I clenched my jaw. He seemed determined to tell me. Maybe he was using it as a means to keep me on the defensive. But why? We’d just blown Auberge’s stockpile of biological weapons sky-high and he was taking the time to humiliate me? That seemed infantile. Why didn’t he just kill me and get it over with?
“I don’t want you to worry,” Etienne continued. “The biological father has no intention of taking custody of your children.”
That cinched it. I was through with this conversation. “I don’t want to know who he is. And that’s not even why we’re here. We have vital information to give you from—”
“Now, now. We’ll get to that,” he interrupted me. “I find this very intriguing. Are you scared of what you’ll find out about him, the biological father? Very well.” The chairman tapped the tips of his fingers together and pressed them to his lips.
“Didn’t you hear what she said?” Ric blurted. “We have information for you from Flora.”
“Yes. I heard. Now, how about the location of your birth family?” the chairman said, ignoring our warning completely. “Would you like to know that?”
“Are you thick?” I asked. “Why are you still talking about me?”
“Your mother, sister and father are alive and still within Auberge. Did you know that? I can tell you exactly where to find them. Would you like me to send guards over to their house to collect them? I only hope they cooperate. I would hate for them to put up a struggle. Someone might get hurt.”
I spoke through my teeth. “Leave them alone.”
“How about the rest of you?” Ric said, talking to the remainder of the people at the table. “Would anyone else maybe want to hear how Flora plans to blow up Auberge?”
The committee bustled. I saw the old woman and the man with the glasses exchange looks.
But the chairman only raised his eyebrows. “Yes, yes. We’ll get to that in a moment,” he said. “So, are you telling me that even though your family is responsible for your lifetime of slavery, you still don’t want them hurt? Tsk, tsk. I believe that’s called codependency.”
“In two days!” Ric seethed. “Flora plans to eviscerate Auberge in two days!”
The chairman looked as if he was enjoying himself. “Oh, poor Dr. Bennett, losing his cool.”
“I’m telling the truth!” Ric spat.
“As I’ve said, we’ll get to that in a moment. For now, I’m more concerned with Naya. So far, she’s been calling the shots, making decisions that affect millions of lives, and my life too, so I’m showing her that actions have consequences. And in her case, she has a lot to lose.”
“This isn’t about me,” I seethed, tired of his games. “Don’t you hear us? Auberge will be destroyed, and everyone in it, if you don’t listen.”
He barely blinked. “You know, I would have killed you ages ago,” Etienne confessed, “if I’d gotten ahold of you sooner. But now, well, if what you say is true and Auberge is under attack, then the only way you would know that is if you’ve been with the enemy. And I want your information. I’m willing to trade for it. I tell you information, you tell me information. You see? I’m not totally unreasonable.”
