Chapter 11: It Begins
A few nights after the press conference Jill over heard her father and step mother arguing.
“Lisa you are not going to do that!” her father was yelling.
“Mike I am you wife!” Lisa yelled, “You don’t own me! You may own the company that built me; but you certainly don’t own me! I am going to the port to take those photos!”
“Lisa it’s too damn dangerous! We haven’t even gotten a sniff of Hozenbur and we know she’ll have to try something at this lift. The terrorizing of biopeople on this lift is just too great!” Her father retorted
“You mean that with all the Cops, MPs, Marines, and Militiamen you can’t keep one crazy old woman from disrupting the lift?” Lisa asked.
“It’s not just one crazy old woman and you know it!” her father snapped, “That crazy old woman has the equivalent of a Black Guard alpha team.”
“Yes she has one of the best closer teams the company ever fielded. But she is smart.” Lisa said, “She won’t try anything with me or with the first lift if she can’t get away with it. You know I am right about her. I am going and that is all there is to it!”
“It’s too damn dangerous.” Her father repeated. Then his tone softened a bit, “I couldn’t stop you with a platoon of marines could I.”
“Not even with one of the Princess’ alpha teams.” Lisa admitted.
“Okay,” her father relented, “But you go with a detail.”
“Okay,” Lisa agreed.
Lisa had come out of the master bedroom and saw Jill sheepishly trying to blend into the wall. “You heard that?”
“Yes,” Jill answered.
“Let’s go into your room for a bit,” Lisa asked. It was time to tell her about Hozenbur.
In her room, Jill asked, “How dangerous is it for you to be at the embarkation area?”
“Less dangerous than your father is making out.” Lisa replied a little anger still in her voice, “I’ll be around people who will be the first people to get off world. They won’t be interested in hurting me.”
“Why does this Hozenbur want you?” Jill asked.
“We’ve tangled back and forth for over 15 years.” Lisa said she still wasn’t ready to talk about all of her past with Jill. There were some dark episodes she hadn’t even shared with her husband. Yet, Jill had the right to know more about her than she knew now. “I was a production clone. I was a very small group of clones they developed to carry clones to full term. Through a series of misadventures I got off the production world I was born on. One of the company managers was transferring off of Holly where I was born. I was about your age at the time, and I hadn’t been put in production yet. To this day I don’t know why they didn’t get me pregnant at thirteen like many of the girls in my group. So they needed someone to watch over the manager’s kids and to wet nurse their youngest. So I went with them to their new station. There they turned me loose in the company medical school and trained me to be a healer. I guess you know that I have some empathic esper skills?” Jill nodded. She had cut her finger a few days before helping Maggie in the kitchen. Lisa had been there and had just by holding her finger, stopped the bleeding, and healed the cut. “Well they helped me to hone my skills.
“Afterwards my contract was sold to a medical personnel agency on the space station where I met Doctor Klond and your father. It was where I helped your grandmother recover from the injury she got on her wedding day. It was shortly after your father, grandfather, and grandmother left on their deployment that I was returned to the agency. Then the company realized who and what I was. So I was returned to a breeding facility on Holly where I had grown up on.
“They tried to get me pregnant, and when I didn’t conceive they were convinced I was sterile, (they had of course forgotten that I can control my menstrual cycle at will,) and put me in a containment team.” Lisa said, “I was the team medic.” She shuddered, “Patching their wounds up after their escapades. Truthfully they did do some good. There were company people who caused some harm. Great harm! The team I was on captured people who had stolen from the company or raped and abused clones. Sometimes they killed company officers. The company always wanted to deal with its own problems. That was some rewarding work. I helped shut down a smuggling operation that used the company transport system to transport crazy dust. Later I was rewarded by being assigned to a closer team. A team sent out to kill people who the company wanted dead. Hozenbur was part of the team. I didn’t last long. When I found that this team had killed your grandfather I couldn’t be on the team. I took care of some business and left.”
“What did you do,” Jill asked.
“Let’s just say I rendered justice,” Lisa answered, she wasn’t going to tell her step daughter how she had taken care of the business. “Hozenbur has been chasing me for years because of it. That and because some other stuff I have done to her over the years she wants me dead.”
“Is that why Dad is so adamant that you shouldn’t be out where this Hozenbur can get to you?” Jill asked.
“Yes,” Her stepmother replied. She wasn’t about to tell her step daughter the whole story at this time, “Hozenbur’s been after me ever since. She’s a sociopath among other things.”
“Mom,” Jill asked her emotions reeling from what she had just been told, “Is there any way I can get this bitch leashed?”
That got Jill the sternest look she had ever gotten from anyone. “Such language! Jill, the princess was given a confidential message from the CEO of Ebio that apologized for not being able to contain this closer team. I wish there was something you could do.”
Jill wasn’t convinced she couldn’t do something about this team. She was after all the major stock holder of Ebio now. She thought maybe she could get a message to Ebio headquarters to cease and desist. She had talked to the princess about the closer teams. She was having a hard time understanding why such teams existed. All of the company’s image managers betrayed them as a benign company looking out for the good of humanity.
“Mom,” Jill said, “I think I am going to talk to the Princess. From what you and the Princess have said, I want the closer operation closed down. I want the Imperial Bureau of Justice to find these people and bring them to justice.”
“Jill,” Her step mother looked at her, “I am pleased that you want to be so responsible and get rid of these people, but there are a lot of former closer’s here on Trena who are trying to do some good! Kellogg for one,” Jill remembered the excitement when Kellogg came to speak with her step mother. “There are others throughout the Empire who are trying to do some good like Kell.”
“Is there a way to get a message to them for them to talk with IBJ?” Jill asked. “Some way they can help to bring the closer operation to justice?”
“I don’t know,” Lisa said, “But Jill I don’t want you to go off halfcocked. You shouldn’t even been worrying about this!”
“How can I not,” Jill responded, “Some agent of my company is trying to kill my family. Has killed my grandfather and I am to ignore it?”
“Jill,” Lisa said, “I am not telling you to ignore what is going on. I am only suggesting that you be careful not to do any more harm than that’s already being done. I am very proud that you want to deal with this, but don’t be in too much of a hurry to be an adult yet.”
That just infuriated her. She was not going to let this group of animals kill her family.
“I know with everything that is going on. That you may be getting over whelmed! That you feel that you have to help.” Lisa spoke softly, she didn’t want Jill to go off halfcocked. “But you have to help in a constructive way. Not one that causes more harm. I know that we may not prevent you from getting involved, but I would hope that you would let Michael, Mylea and Kellogg deal with this.”
“But this Hozenbur might kill you!” Jill said.
“She and her team are going to have to work at it,” Lisa said, “Between the likes of Georgia and the protective
team your father has built around us and all the cops that will be at the port. I should be safe.”
Jill was quiet for a bit lost in her thoughts. She didn’t like the situation; but her step mother was right, She could do some harm by going off halfcocked. Finally she said. “Mom, I am worried about you. I don’t know what I can do to help. But I don’t want to cause more problems.”
“Just be yourself Jill.” Lisa said, “Let’s go see what the rest of this mob is doing.”
“You know mom,” Jill said getting off the bed, “I have to remember something grand mom said years ago.”
“What’s that?” Lisa asked as Jill helped her off the bed.
“If you can’t be part of the solution, don’t be part of the problem.” Jill said as they walked to her door, “the other part I have added, and don’t make the problem worse. I guess by going off halfcocked I could make things worse.”
Lisa opened the door and let her daughter walk through.
Jill would remember their conversation when all hell broke loose the next day.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 94