by Leito, Chad
“I would have preferred a vile of blood,” Teddy said.
“Well I don’t have a vile. Do you want out of here, or not? Where are the keys?”
“The old lady upstairs has some keys in her pockets. Go get those, and hand them to me. I know how to open the cell.”
Instinctually, Mama’s hand went to her front right pocket as she listened to the recording. Her keys were, in fact, gone.
On the recording, they could hear Allen coming up the stairs, then him kneel down. There was the jingle of keys as he removed them from Mama’s pocket, and then his footsteps descending the stairs. “Give em here,” Teddy said. It was quiet for a moment, and then they could hear the jail cell squeal open and two sets of feet coming up the stairs. “I’ve been in that cell way too long,” Teddy reflected. Allen didn’t respond. Asa listened to their footsteps as they left the room. The tape reeled on for four more minutes until they heard Asa come in. Mama reached over and stopped the recording.
It was quiet in the room for a time. Asa sipped on his milk.
“Where do you think they went?” Jen said. She looked over everyone except Asa.
Asa answered: “The Hive. Allen said that they were going to the Hive.”
Mama asked, “Do you know where that is, or how they are getting there?”
“No idea,” Asa said.
Mama stroked her chin, and smiled. “I guess you are pretty special to us, Asa. You have a Multiplier cure in your DNA. And your father kept that such a secret.”
Asa smiled nervously. He had been thinking about this a lot. “Do you think that I should turn myself over to the Academy, so that they could do some kind of test on me? Maybe they could make a cure out of my DNA.”
“Bad idea,” Boom Boom said. “They’d get the cure, but they’d also be able create the vaccine that allows Multipliers to Multiply more often. Robert King doesn’t want Multipliers from the Hive to proliferate, but he sure wants his Multipliers to be able to reproduce. You can’t trust the Academy with that.”
Mama added: “If your daddy wanted the Academy to know about your secret, he would have told them.”
“This is another reason for the Multipliers to want to attack me.” Asa ran a hand through his hair. “Mike, do you think that you could make the cure from my DNA? Would that be possible?”
Mike considered. “I don’t know. I could always try, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. I wish that we had someone else that could help us.”
Asa leaned back into the couch cushion, thinking of how his father recommended that he find someone named Francine Black, and get in touch with the Davids. He still hadn’t told anyone else about that, and for the moment, he felt too tired to relay the story.
They sat around like that for another hour before Mama announced that she was going to bed. She told them to prop the door up when they left.
“Don’t you want to stay with one of us?” Roxanne asked.
“No,” Mama said. “I like it here. My bedroom door locks, and Ozzie is with me. I should be fine.”
Mama locked the door to her bedroom as she retired for the night and one by one the Sharks trickled out until only Asa was left. He stared at the clocks, thinking about the pool of water below the Shop. He knew that he hadn’t actually seen his father, but still, his heart ached with loss. He felt like he could have stared at his father’s hologram for hours.
Without being aware of what he was doing, Asa leaned over on his side and put his head on the pillow. He stared at the clocks as they ticked away time on the wall, and tried to plan out what he should do next. What should I do with these vaccines? His eyelids were too heavy, though. His eyes closed and visions of his smiling dad played in his head. He then began to full-out dream, hugging a pillow absently to his chest.
Epilogue
Two weeks passed.
The Fishies were all graded on whether or not they moved their Blood Canaries into the appropriate stalls and the semester was officially over.
It was eleven in the morning, and the graduation ceremony was scheduled to start at eight o’clock. Roxanne would be graduating, and Asa was somewhat excited for her. Graduating was better than dying, like Bruce had, he supposed. Roxy had told Asa that Travis wanted to marry her as soon as she was a graduate. Though she did not expressly speak of how disturbing it would be to sleep beside a Multiplier every night, she paled considerably when the issue was brought up. Boom Boom had voiced his concern that Travis would kill her; “I’m not saying he’s working for the Hive, or whatever. But word gets around. You’ve killed a couple of Multipliers, Roxy. These are violent people. I don’t know what you should do about it. You’ve got to marry him. Just be safe, I guess.”
Asa had returned to his dwelling for a span of ten minutes, a couple days after they found that Teddy escaped, and had taken three items before locking the door behind him and returning to Viola’s dwelling.
The first item was the polaroid of his father. He stared at the blue eyes three and four times a day now, as though if he concentrated long enough, the man in the photo would come to life and tell him what to do. Once, he had even asked the photo advice on whether or not he should keep the vaccines. His father had remained quiet on the issue, and Asa had decided to empty them out on the forest floor before burying the glass syringes.
The second item he gathered from his dwelling was Charlotte’s letter that she had written him at the beginning of their second semester in the Academy. He didn’t know why, but he compulsively read the writing. It never made him feel good. He wasn’t talking with Charlotte. Jen and Asa hadn’t had more than a passing, quick exchange of words; he had not found the right time to explain why he had been caught kissing Charlotte at the dance. A dull ache filled Asa’s chest when he thought about either girl.
The third item he took was a shovel. On the morning of the fourth semester students’ graduation, Asa picked up the shovel and walked past Viola’s dining room table towards the door.
A newspaper from two weeks ago was still laid out on the wooden surface. “SHARKS DEFY ODDS! WINGGAME CHAMPIONS!” These words were printed out in huge font at the top of the front page. Asa found that a large, color picture of himself went with the main article. It was an incredible photograph, Asa had to admit, and he felt a ting of pride as he looked upon the image. The photo showed Asa flying towards the goal at a blurring speed. Jordan Hall, a giant mass of muscle, was swooping down to impede Asa’s route. The most spectacular part of the image was the small space right between the two competitors; coming out of Asa’s hands was a flash of white light—a bolt of electricity. Asa thought that the picture was flattering; he looked like superman, but with demon-wings.
Stepping past the newspaper, Asa walked over to the door, shovel in hand. He pulled on the handle, and felt his whole body tense up. A young man in black was standing in the doorway, his hand raised; he had been about to grab the door handle.
Asa’s heart was sprinting in his chest. Given the unpredictable and dangerous nature of his last year, he found that the smallest of surprises made him fidgety and alarmed. “Hi, Benny.” Asa said carefully, trying not to let on how much he was alarmed to see Benny Hughs at his door. He had not forgotten that Benny worked closely with the Hive, and had gotten Allen in touch with Stan Nuby earlier in the semester. “What brings you here?”
“Been looking for you, Palmer,” Benny said irritably. “I’ve been standing outside your dwelling for half an hour, knocking. I was about to kick the door in when I thought you might be at Viola’s. I hear you’re dating her.”
“I’m not,” Asa said.
Benny shrugged. “Rumors, you know. Anyway, Robert King wants to speak with you.”
“Now?”
“Right this second. In his office. You can follow me.” Benny’s eyes moved toward the shovel in Asa’s hand. “What’s that for?” he asked.
Asa had a pre-prepared answer for this, because he did not want anyone to know his true intentions. “Summer break is two months.
I thought I’d try my hand at gardening. Don’t know when I’ll get another opportunity, and it sounds fun.”
Benny frowned. “C’mon, Palmer.”
Asa put the shovel down, stepped out, and locked the door.
Benny led Asa to the official entrance of Robert King’s office, which Asa had never been inside of; he had only ever entered through the raccoons’ facilities. As they flew, Asa looked over the mountains, which were the greenest he had ever seen them. Clear, sparkling streams ran from the snowy peaks.
The wound on Asa’s neck from being bitten had faded into a hard, plastic-like scar. Being mutated, Asa healed faster than a normal human. He had not gone out in public for the first week after being bitten, fearing that someone would see his Multiplier bite. The mark was still obvious, but Asa didn’t think anyone would correctly guess what it was from.
The door to Robert King’s office became visible as they grew closer. Asa felt like vomiting.
He had guessed that Robert King would summon him the day after the incident beneath the Shop. Surely I was recorded on a camera, Asa had thought. But after ten days with no incident, Asa concluded that either Robert King didn’t know who was to blame for Thom’s and Jules’s death, or he didn’t care. Asa wondered if perhaps there weren’t as many cameras in Town as Robert King wanted people to believe.
As they came in for a landing, Asa chastised himself for not coming up with some kind of story that he could use to explain why he had been walking through Town with a bunch of Multipliers the night of the dance. At the moment, he could think of no logical explanation other than the truth.
They landed, and the door instantly opened, as though it had been waiting for them. A tinny voice came through a speaker mounted on the wall; “Hughs, thanks for retrieving him. Palmer, walk on down the hallway, and come inside. The door to my office is straight ahead—make no turns.” Then Robert King’s voice cut off.
Benny smiled crookedly at Asa. “Good luck,” he said.
Asa muttered something inaudible, and walked inside. His face was pale and sweaty.
The door automatically shut behind Asa, and little, glowing green fish inside of hanging glass spheres lit the initial hallway on either side. The fish were ugly, with tiny eyes and sharp teeth. The entirety of the animals’ bodies were phosphorescent, and the greenish light they gave off reminded Asa of the way directors sometimes lit cemeteries in scary movies.
He walked forward, occasionally glancing down the vast, green hallways that led off the main corridor. I wonder if Volkner is being tortured somewhere in this facility, Asa thought.
The long hallway ended in a jewel-encrusted gold door, which automatically opened wide when Asa approached.
“Come in, Palmer. Take a seat.” Robert King sat behind his massive mahogany desk, wearing a maniacal smile as though something was very funny. His eyes were black orbs—all pupils—and his hair was immaculately combed over to the right side of his head. Jamie sat atop his desk. There was no leash coming down from his neck today. The David was wearing a clean white collar, a New York Yankees jersey, and shorts tailored to fit his chimp legs. He eyed Asa as he came in and sat down.
Even though Asa had seen Robert King’s office before, it was still startlingly impressive to him. The right wall shone through to the biggest aquarium in the world; the rippling water above sent a calming blue light into the room. On the left was Jamie’s giant playroom, which was enclosed in golden bars. Pictures lined the walls—some paintings, some photographs.
Asa’s eyes stopped on one particular photo and he felt his breath stop in his throat. The image was of his father and an orangutan, both of whom were smiling. The picture was labeled, “FRANCINE BLACK AND EDMUND PALMER.”
In his mind, Asa could hear his father’s voice telling him to find Francine Black. Francine Black is a David? Asa thought.
He did not have much more time to think about this, because Robert King spoke: “Do you like the photos?” Robert King asked. His head twitched to the right—a side effect of Vipocrit—and his country accent had been replaced with clear and fast speech.
“Yes, sir,” Asa said, turning back to Robert King casually, as though he did not know that Edmund Palmer was his father, or anything about Francine Black.
Robert King smiled—or he showed his teeth, at least. “Let’s get down to business, Palmer. Why do you think that I brought you here?”
Asa went with a safe answer: “I don’t know, sir.”
Robert King showed his teeth again. He seemed to be more on-edge than last time he met with Asa. “Where did you go the night of the dance, Palmer? You didn’t stay there all night, did you?”
Asa’s mouth felt terribly dry. “I-uhhh…”
“What’s that, Palmer?”
Asa tried to swallow. He felt trapped. He hated how Robert King never revealed how little or how much information he had. He wished that The Boss would slip into one of his rants about how he might be a god, instead of going forward with this line of questioning. “I was with Multipliers,” Asa said. As soon as the words were out, he regretted them. But what else was I supposed to say?
“I know,” Robert King said, although Asa wasn’t sure if he believed The Boss’s words. “Why were you with them, Asa?”
Sweat was gathering on Asa’s forehead, and he wiped it away with the sleeve of his suit. He felt so helpless. He desperately wished he had come up with a lie to tell anyone who questioned him. Now, he found that the only plausible story he had was the truth. He decided that he would attempt to leave some crucial things out.
“I was trying to stop them. I started feeling sick at the dance, so I went out for a walk. I was getting some fresh air when I spotted the Multipliers.”
“A walk?” Robert King asked, his eyebrows raised to indicate that he knew Asa was lying.
“Well, it was more of a fly,” Asa corrected. “And I saw some people on the banks of Fishie Mountain. So, I flew down to see what they were up to.”
“I see,” said Robert King, his black eyes rolling in their sockets. It was impossible to know what he was looking at. “So then, what?”
Asa was breathing, thinking hard. He had already skipped the part about Teddy so that Conway and Mama wouldn’t get in trouble for illegally keeping a Multiplier in their basement. He also didn’t want to tell about how he was bitten. “And then they took me as a hostage.”
“As a hostage?”
Asa nodded. He looked over at Jamie, who was shaking his head in disbelief. Asa went on: “They said that they were going on some kind of mission—they wanted to steal something, but wouldn’t tell me what. They said that they wanted me as a hostage in case someone attacked them. Then, we got in a boat, and came over…”
Robert King’s hand pounded down on the top of the desk and Asa jumped. “Listen, Palmer, I’m not asking you to get information, I know what happened that night. I’m asking you to see if you’re lying.”
“I’m not lying,” Asa said. Something in Robert King’s face made Asa believe that The Boss did not have all the information that he claimed to. Asa was not going to tell the truth. If Robert King found out about the secrets that Asa’s DNA held, he might be subjected to cruel laboratory tests.
The Boss rubbed his temples. “Here’s the deal, young Palmer. I know you’re lying. I know it for a fact. But I also have…incentives not to punish you. Never mind that. Let me make you understand something; I don’t care if you killed a graduate that night. Honestly, I don’t. I don’t care how you got into the situation you got into. All I care about is one thing—did the Multipliers get what they were after?”
In truth, the answer was yes and no. They had not acquired the vaccines, but they had gotten away with some of Asa’s blood, which was on Allen’s shirt and was laced with DNA that could code for the same results the vaccines could produce. Asa hesitated, and then said bluntly, “I destroyed the vaccines.”
Robert King’s eyes widened, and Asa saw with some pleasure that he had actually
surprised The Boss. “Under the Shop?”
“The vaccines are gone. The Multipliers didn’t get them.”
Robert King nodded, and then reached down for something in a lower desk drawer. He sat up straighter, cradling an item beneath the desk so that Asa couldn’t see it. “You did a good thing, Asa. And I like to reward people who do good things. Put your hand on the desk, palm up.”
Asa hesitated.
“Don’t hesitate, Palmer. It will do no good. You don’t really have a choice.”
This was true. Robert King had the power to make Asa do just about anything. Asa put his hand on the desk, palm up.
Robert King rubbed the inside of Asa’s forearm, just below his suit, with an alcohol pad. The smell burned Asa’s nostrils. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Giving you a reward,” Robert King said. “I’ve already told you that.” Then, The Boss pulled a tiny syringe filled with white liquid up onto the desk. He flicked Asa’s arm to make the veins stand out. “Don’t be nervous. It won’t hurt much.”
The needle went into Asa’s vein, and Robert King squeezed the plunger so that the white liquid shot into Asa’s cardiovascular system. Asa’s heart was working hard due to his anxiety, and he expected to collapse at any minute from whatever drug Robert King had just injected.
Robert King removed the needle, and then dabbed at Asa’s blood with a gauze pad. Asa sat there for a minute, feeling normal.
“You can go, now,” Robert King said.
“What was that? What did you just inject me with?”
The Boss winked. “It’s a mutation. You’ll find out. Go now, Asa. I don’t want to have to ask you again.”
A little scared about what might be running through his veins at that time, Asa stood up and began to walk out. He looked up at the picture of Francine Black and his father as he passed it.
Two hours later, Asa found that the white vaccine Robert King had injected him with still had no effect. Deciding that there was no point in lying around Viola’s dwelling all day speculating about what his body might do, Asa grabbed his shovel and set off into the forest behind the dwellings to work on what he had planned for the day.
