Forever and Ever

by Dan A. Baker

  “Speech!” he shouted.

  Jasmine finally spoke, sweating from the heat.

  “When we all started in science, the mystery is what drove us. We all wondered, what is this force? How can it possibly do the things it does? How can it regenerate every few years, and survive over millions of years of dramatic changes in the environment? How can it change itself at will, and become whatever the conditions demand? How does life remember? How does life store information, and what happens when this process goes wrong? Now we’re finally on the very edge of control. From this point forward, we can direct this vastly powerful force to give us exactly what we want. I hope the good in people will prevail this time. Through this, the most important change in the history of our species, I hope and I trust in the good in people, and promise to work for this outcome,” Jasmine said, raising her glass.

  “Here’s to science!” Will shouted, thrusting his glass in the air.

  “Here’s to science!” Nielsen shouted, while jumping up.

  “Here’s to skiing!” Darla shrieked, jumping in the water.

  As Will turned to sit in the driver’s seat, a long dark red boat changed course and headed straight at them. It slowed at the last minute and made a hard turn as the wake rocked the boat violently.

  “How about giving us some room?” Will shouted at the two men in the boat. They circled back and slowed. As they passed about fifty-feet away, the boat stopped dead in the water. One of the men picked up a large black tube, about six-feet long, about ten-inches in diameter, and pointed it at them while pressing some kind of switch. They circled the boat slowly, pointing the big tube at Will’s boat for about three minutes, then roared off.

  “What are they doing?” Jasmine asked.

  “That’s the strangest microphone I’ve ever seen,” Will said.

  “Let’s run back to the beach, Will,” Nielsen said. “I don’t like the looks of those hombres. I’ll call the chopper.”

  “Get in the boat!” Will yelled at Darla, as he turned the key. The engine started, stuttered, and then died. “What the hell is this?” he said, turning the key again. The engine tried to start, but died. He looked at Jasmine, mystified.

  “Darla, get in the boat!” Jasmine yelled, as the mystery boat came back, circling them much faster this time, the wake bouncing the boat around violently. Darla slipped and fell, banging her head.

  “What are you assholes doing?” she screamed at the boat.

  “These gents are serious people,” Nielsen said. “There’s something very dangerous going on here.”

  “The boat won’t start!” He held the starter down for a long time.

  “Is this where it gets rough?” Jasmine asked.

  “I think so,” he said, while unzipping his black nylon gun bag.

  “I’ll call the chopper!” Marjorie said, flipping open her cell phone. “It’s blank!” she screamed, holding up the phone. Jasmine quickly pulled her phone out. The little screen was lit up, but blank.

  “Turn on your GPS,” Nielsen said to Will, who punched a button on the satellite navigation receiver. The screen was blank.

  “HERF,” Easton said. “That tube, that big tube they pointed at us is a high-energy radio frequency weapon. It wipes out electronic equipment.”

  “But why won’t the engine start?” Will said, turning the key again.

  “A computer runs the fuel injection,” Nielsen said, looking very tense.

  “Why are they circling now?” Jasmine asked, as the boat made its closest pass yet, the vicious wake smacking the boat around.

  “I don’t know, but next time they come by, they’re going to stop,” Will said, pulling out the gun.

  “I’m getting dizzy,” Marjorie said, sitting down quickly. “I feel weak.”

  Jasmine grabbed at Will’s shoulder, turning him to face Marjorie. She had suddenly turned red with very distinct blotches. Easton sat down and began panting. The heat was overwhelming now, even under the Bimini. Will looked at the little thermometer on the dashboard, which said 124 degrees.

  “Get the cooler! Soak some towels in the cooler!” Will shouted to Jasmine as the boat bore down on them again.

  Will waited until the boat was just astern of them until he jumped up and leveled the gun. He motioned with his arm for them to stop, but they turned violently instead. He fired slowly five times. Chips of fiberglass flew off the boat. They headed off a quarter of a mile and stopped. There was some kind of commotion on the boat.

  “What are they going to do?” Jasmine screamed, frantically patting the wet towel on Marjorie’s face and arms.

  “I don’t know. Get down! I think they’re coming back!” Will shouted, as the boat powered up again and lined up on them. “Hang on!” Will shouted as he began firing. As the boat roared past them, the passenger pulled up a black rifle and began firing at the boat. Sharp geysers of water exploded straight up in a row as the bullets hit the water with a loud Slap! Slap! Slap! The boat headed off farther this time and stopped.

  “They’re going to kill us!” Jasmine screamed, holding onto Will’s leg.

  Will turned back to Marjorie. “We’ve got to get them cooled off! Get them in the water, now!” Will screamed. Jasmine started to walk Marjorie to the swim ladder as the big boat wheeled around again.

  “Here they come!” Jasmine pointed, as the boat lined up on them. The boat roared past them, stitching the water with bullets from the rifle.

  “What the hell are they doing? They fired at the water! What the hell are they trying to do?” Will asked, looking at Jasmine.

  “They must be trying to kill us!” Jasmine said.

  “But they had a rifle! They could have hit us easily!”

  “Darla!” Jasmine screamed, jumping up and running up to the bow, where Darla was lying down, her mouth open. Jasmine grabbed her behind her neck and pulled her up. She was flushed red, a terrifying red. Her eyes were wide open in a blank stare. Jasmine laid her down and stretched her neck back, feeling for a pulse. There was nothing. She looked back at Will who was trying to start the boat.

  Jasmine looked down at Darla, her mind racing. She started to press on her chest, but the overwhelming stillness of death covered her like an invisible blanket. She touched Darla’s neck again, hoping for a pulse at the carotid artery, but there was nothing. The compression of grief slammed into Jasmine like a semi truck. She screamed and burst out crying, holding Darla’s lovely hand, and rocking back and forth.

  When she looked up, Will was looking at the back of the boat. Jasmine suddenly leaped up, her heart racing. “Oh no!” she heard herself saying. She walked up behind Will and looked over his shoulder.

  Marjorie was slumped up against Nielsen. They looked like they were asleep, but their skin color was reddish, with tiny splotches. Easton was sitting on the aft seat, his mouth open, glasses in his hand.

  Jasmine held Will tightly, as they both succumbed to the numbness. The heat was like a sea of liquid glass pressing in on them, making it hard to breath. The first thing Jasmine was aware of was the sweat trickling down her back.

  They watched the mystery boat slowly motor away.

  Will went over to Marjorie and closed her eyes. He turned to Jasmine slowly, the sweat running off his forehead. “Cardiac arrest,” he said.

  “Darla,” Jasmine said.

  The heat pressed in around them like a cloud. Even the little sounds seemed muted and far away. Will slowly looked up and down the big lake. There were no boats in sight. He sat down slowly, looking at Marjorie, Nielsen, and Easton.

  Jasmine stood behind him in the awful stillness. The sweat was beginning to soak her eyebrows, as she reached up to wipe a big drop of sweat off her nose.

  Will looked at their dead friends intently, stroking his chin slowly. He pointed the gun over the side and clicked the safety on. He glanced at his watch.

  The visceral fear Jasmine had felt when Roy almost died flooded back to her as she sat next to Will. Her mind quickly raced through the po
ssibilities, but she had done this many times since Darla nearly died. There was just nothing there.

  Will held Jasmine and rocked her softly as the minutes passed. The waves of horror passed through them in nauseating little surges.

  “It’s mined,” Will said so softly the words seemed to come from somewhere else.

  “The treatment was mined?” Jasmine asked.

  “They somehow inserted a gene in the treatment that expresses under high heat conditions and shuts down the heart. It’s a heat shock protein. That’s the only thing that could explain this. There’s a whole suite of genes that will express rapidly in high body heat conditions. They just picked the best one and genetically modified it with a protein that shuts down the signals to the heart. The only reason Darla survived the first time was because she was in a hospital. I looked at that EKG for hours. When the signals from the brain resumed, they just popped back on. I’ve never seen that before.”

  “But, how did they insert the gene?” Jasmine pleaded, wiping the tears from her face, and turning away suddenly when she looked at Marjorie’s body.

  “They must have somehow programmed the 9900 to insert genes into the batching program and mask the code. How? I don’t know,” he said slowly.

  “There was a satellite dish on the container,” Jasmine said.

  “What?” Will asked, jumping up and looking directly at Jasmine.

  “I found it, when Koji was showing me his scanner,” Jasmine said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me? What the hell were you thinking?” Will screamed, grabbing her arm and pulling her up.

  “I thought you knew! I thought it was yours!” she screamed.

  “If I had just known, I, I…”

  “Koji recorded some of the signals,” Jasmine said.

  “He did?” Will asked, turning to her.

  “He said it was in downlink mode when he was recording. It was the day after Easton arrived, when Darla crashed into the containers.”

  “Downlink mode?” Will asked.

  “That’s what he said.” Jasmine, overcome by a wave of grief, suddenly began sobbing uncontrollably.

  “God damn it! Why, why didn’t you tell me?” Will screamed.

  “I thought it was yours! I thought you knew! I thought Rammy knew,” Jasmine said.

  “Maybe he did,” Will said, slowly shaking his head.

  The heat seemed to peak suddenly. Jasmine felt dizzy. “I’ve never been this hot. I can barely breathe,” she said, in a voice that sounded like she was under a cotton blanket. She reached up to wipe the tears away, but they were gone, dried by the incredible heat in seconds.

  “What I can’t understand is why they didn’t kill us,” he said, tapping his fingers on the table.

  “Is it because we weren’t treated?” Jasmine asked, reeling from the shock, trying to make sense of the horror around them.

  “They must have known that. They want us to live for some reason.”

  “Why, why did they do this?” Jasmine asked, the pain welling up in her.

  “They want us to fail; fail in a big splashy way, and kill some people. They want… they want me, alive, to…”

  “Go down,” Jasmine said.

  “Biotech renegade kills patients with illegal treatment,” Will said.

  “Federal government announces big crackdown on small biotech firms.”

  “Trafficking in human cells to be outlawed,” he said slowly.

  “What if we hadn’t come out on the boat?” Jasmine asked.

  “They would have disabled Nielsen’s chopper the same way they killed the boat. By the time we realized what was happening, we would already be overheated, and the gene would start to express,” Will said.

  “The only thing we could have done was stay cool in the lake,” Jasmine said, crying suddenly.

  “That’s why they fired into the water, instead of the boat. They wanted us to stay on the boat,” he said.

  “This is so sick,” Jasmine said, suddenly standing up “Roy! We have to call Jonelle! If he, if he…” The tears gushed from her eyes so fast now they didn’t dry.

  Will stood up and held her. “We’ll call her as soon as we can. Whatever we do now, we can’t make a mistake. We have to play this very carefully,” he said, looking back on the big lake for the police boat.

  The hours passed slowly in the sweltering heat. Jasmine cried softly, then in long wailing sobs, rocking back and forth. Will said nothing. He sat in the driver’s seat and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

  He tried the starter a couple of times, but the engine stuttered and died. They dove into the lake to cool off, swimming around the boat.

  “Why? Why did they do this?” Jasmine said.

  “To slow us down five, even ten years at this point, gives them a generational advantage. Their generation of trans-humans will mature before ours do, and that could mean a lot,” Will said.

  “What’ll happen to Nielsen’s embryos?” Jasmine asked.

  “He protected his project very carefully.”

  “I forgot he was part of a group,” Jasmine said.

  “Yeah, one hell of a group, but our political protection died with him. We have to get out of here fast. I’m going to try resetting the computer on the boat. If it starts, we’ll leave tonight,” Will said.

  “Where are we going?” Jasmine asked. “We’re going to talk to Victor.”

  Will found a Crescent wrench on the boat and disconnected the battery. He waited a few minutes and reconnected it.

  Jasmine was carefully arranging the bodies on the deck and covering them with beach towels, crying so hard it was difficult to see.

  “Hold my hand for luck,” he said, as he turned the key. The big engine stuttered and died. Jasmine squeezed his hand as he turned the key again. The engine leaped to life as the gauges sprang up.

  “Let’s go!” Will said, as he shoved the throttle forward.

  They stopped in the deepest part of the lake. Jasmine couldn’t see through her tears and stubbed her toe while they were rolling Nielsen’s body over the side. They dumped the other three bodies in separate places.

  “I wonder where the police are. This doesn’t make sense.”

  They quickly picked up the personal items from the picnic area and headed to the marina. Jasmine looked briefly at the table before she cleared it: champagne bottles, Darla’s sketchbook, Easton’s big sombrero, all shattered. The pain rose in her so fast she couldn’t breathe, and then quickly morphed into real anger.

  “What’ll happen when the bodies start floating?” Jasmine asked.

  “They don’t float in fresh water. They’ll be down there until they disintegrate or until they’re found.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  The desert darkness had just descended when Will and Jasmine pulled up behind the dark house. Jasmine walked over to the dog enclosure. The dogs were gone.

  They looked at the house together. “I’ll get the gun,” he said. Jasmine stood behind him as he slid the glass door open. Bang! The noise almost knocked him down as he swung the gun around. Ritzy leaped up on him and barked loudly. He looked around her to see the big kitchen stool on the floor. He flipped the light on and looked around.

  Will quickly searched the bedrooms in the big house, pulling the gun up every time he opened a door. “Nothing,” he said, motioning to the garage.

  Jasmine stood behind him as he opened the door to the garage. It was empty. The mini-mainframe was gone. They looked at each other for a long minute. “I guess they didn’t have my computer tapped,” he said, opening the refrigerator. “The treatments are gone.”

  “They’re gone?” Jasmine asked, bending around Will to look.

  “Yeah, they’re gone,” he said.

  “Start packing. We might just make it out of here. My guess is they didn’t call the police because they wiped out their own cell phones, or maybe I hit one of them.”

  Jasmine looked out at the driveway. Two white Ford Victoria cars had quie
tly pulled up. All four doors on each car opened at the same time.

  The Lake Havasu detectives simply walked in. The two men seemed too young to be detectives, Jasmine thought. They were dressed in casual polo shirts and Docker pants. “Mr. Behlen, I’m Lieutenant Everett Barksdale, and this is Detective Francis Monroe. We’re here to serve a search warrant for your premises, regarding illegal medical and or drug activity at this address. We ask that you wait outside by the pool while we conduct the search. Please step away from your firearm.”

  “Let me see your identification,” Will said, studying the badge case.

  Will looked at Jasmine slowly, as a police officer opened the sliding glass door, motioning them out to the pool.

  Will and Jasmine sat down at the table by the pool. Jasmine had just caught a look of herself in the sliding glass door, and gasped quietly at her sweaty face, which was streaked with tears. “We are here because of complaints. Your neighbors and others have reported traffic patterns, including aircraft at late hours that often indicate illegal activity,” he looked directly at Will.

  “And…,” Will said.

  “Several persons have been seen around this property with IVs, indicating illegal medical activity. As you may know, Lake Havasu prides itself on rigorous enforcement of all laws, particularly those that are in place to protect senior citizens from the kinds of sham medical clinics that are common in Mexico.” The younger detective looked back and forth at them.

  “You are not under arrest at this time, but anything that you say may be used against you in a court of law. You may answer my questions, or you may choose to contact legal counsel to represent you at a later interview. Please note that this warrant includes property leased by you at this address.” The detective tapped his finger on the address of the trailer yard by the river.

  “Now, would you like to answer some questions?”

  “I won’t be answering any questions without counsel.”

  “Where are the rest of the people living here?” he asked, staring at Will.

  “I have decided to wait until I have access to counsel to answer your questions,” Will said.