“I expect, in the next twenty-four hours, the United States should be compliant with Phase Two. I motion to adjourn this meeting.”
To Valerie’s relief, the motion was reciprocated, and the conference was over.
“Good job, wife.” Lucas stopped, studied her, and shook his head in disapproval. “You need something more fitting of royalty. I’ll send my tailor out to find you something suitable for the coronation and our wedding. I’ll pick out something for our wedding night. No more white for you, Missus Jarrett. Oh, when I’m done with you, there will be no way you could wear white.” He laughed to himself and waved a hand at Rob to begin the arrangements for her clothing.
Rob nodded and answered a knock at the door. Valerie’s father and Jack walked in.
“Ah! Pops! Just in time,” Lucas said. The men gave each other a back-beating hug.
Her heart pounded. Seeing the men acting so acquainted more than irritated her.
“I’m sorry. What is this?” she asked, pointing a finger at the two men.
“There is so much I haven’t gotten the chance to explain,” Mike started. “Luke and I have known each other for a long time. I met your mother when we were kids. What we didn’t tell you is we met in a genetic testing program run by Dr. Jarrett. Your mother had the DiaZem gene. I had the conductor gene. We ran away and got married, but knew either you or Kevin or both of you would carry on her DiaZem heritage.” Mike waited for Valerie’s reaction.
Lucas leaned against the wall, failing to conceal the amusement on his face.
Mike continued, “I wanted you to escape, but there is no outrunning this. I made sure Caleb was safe. I didn’t think you had the DiaZem gene and just assumed Kevin did. So many things didn’t go the way we planned. I didn’t get the chance to explain. Luke took Kevin and me, knowing we were leverage over you. We were never in danger. Max was in on the entire thing, and for his help, he was granted life in the facility.”
Hyka moved quick, sliding across the table separating her and the two men. Jack was able to dodge the right hook she threw at him. He grabbed her by the waist to subdue her, but he had left one arm free of his grasp. Hyka elbowed him hard in the ear. In retaliation, he lifted her off her feet and dropped her body onto the floor.
“Dammit Hyka! I didn’t know, either! Jesus.” Jack pushed her away from him and retreated, cupping his ear and looking at his hand for blood.
“Tell her the rest, Mikey,” Lucas instigated.
“No one else knew,” Mike continued. “Val, I love you. I never wanted any of this. I hoped time was on our side and we’d all be dead and gone before the gene awakened.”
“Stop beating around the bush,” Lucas yelled this time. “Tell her why she is really here.”
Mike took a hard breath. “Given Dr. Jarrett’s status and his discovery, he was promised his choice of partner. He chose your mother. When she passed, he chose you, if you were the one with the DiaZem gene. I thought it was Kevin with the gene, and that you were safe.” Mike studied her face for any sign of acceptance or understanding.
She offered none.
“Oh, but Mike, she has secrets of her own! Come on, sweetie, tell him our big news,” Lucas taunted.
“I am going back to my room now,” Valerie whispered as loud as she could without her voice cracking from the tears she held back.
As she walked to the door, her father offered a hug.
“You don’t get to touch me. Don’t follow me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t talk to my son. Leave. I never want to see you again.”
She walked out of the room with Hyka. No one else followed. Lucas even remained silent as she left.
On the train, in the elevator, and through the lobby, Valerie did not speak. When she reached her suite on the thirteenth floor, the sun shined red along the eastern horizon.
“Coffee?” Valerie asked Hyka.
“I’ll get it. Decaf? You should get some sleep,” Hyka suggested.
“No. I have some shopping to do for my wedding tonight.” Valerie’s tone was flat and defeated. She felt dead inside. She sat at the bar-height counter in the kitchen area of the suite. Her bedroom door opened, and Kevin stepped out. His hair was flat on one side and stuck straight up on the other.
“I’d take some coffee,” he said, taking a seat next to his sister. He reached over and rubbed her back. “Caleb is still out. I barricaded him on the bed with pillows so he wouldn’t roll off. You doing okay?”
Valerie hung and shook her head no.
“Your dad sold her out. He knew this whole time what was up,” Hyka said, examining the coffee pot to ensure it was clean. “The shitty thing is, it was supposed to be your mom.”
“Mom was a DiaZem,” Valerie explained. “They met in a program run by Lucas when they were kids. Dad let me walk all the way home, knowing I wouldn’t get to Caleb in time. He knew I would be forced to marry Lucas. Kevin, he didn’t even try to protect us.” Valerie wiped her face with the back of her hand.
A box of tissue flew across the kitchen, hit the counter, and slid to where Valerie was sitting.
“Thank you,” she sniffed.
“It was supposed to be me,” Kevin retorted.
“What?”
“All these years, I have trained, knowing I would have to use my status to stop the World Council from committing genocide. You don’t have the skills or maturity to do what needs to be done. You never have. You just cry and complain instead of trying to figure it out for yourself.”
Hyka’s arm wrapped around his neck, obstructing Kevin’s airway. The other arm twisted one of his behind his back into submission. He stood from the chair, and the two moved toward the door. Knowing what she intended, he grabbed the doorknob. Hyka released her choke hold and shoved him out the door, slamming it behind him and engaging the swing bar lock.
Valerie sat, mouth gaping in disbelief at what her brother had said. “Is everyone against me? Everyone hates me. They either think I killed their entire family or they are jealous? Of this? No one should live like this!”
“Man, your family sucks,” Hyka said, returning to the kitchen and pouring Valerie’s mug.
With her head in her hands, Valerie propped her elbows on the table. She was not tired, just needed to think.
“Everything is happening so fast. I’m just getting lost in it all. What in the world is a coronation? Like the cartoon princess thing? That’s a real thing? And a wedding. Just saying the word out loud makes me want to throw up.”
Hyka just stood next to her listening and holding Valerie’s coffee until she noticed her. Valerie held her hand out for the cup. She inhaled and wanted to think about anything else than the agenda for her day.
“Why did you hit Jack and not my dad?” Valerie asked, trying to objectify the situation. She figured nothing more could surprise or upset her at this point.
“I don’t know. Maybe after walking almost a hundred miles, he’d have let us in on the whole scheme,” Hyka shrugged, turning back to the finished pot.
“Something is going on there, between you and Jack,” Valerie put together, smiling. “He’s old enough to be your dad. He and your dad are actually really good friends,” Valerie laughed. She felt proud for having tapped into her friend’s softer side, but deep down she also found it comforting to have a semi-normal girl talk.
“Dr. Wilkes could be worse of an asshole than Jarrett, and twice as old.” Hyka stood across the counter from her, looking her in the eye.
“August is my only hope not to have to marry that sick, murdering, narcissistic chauvinist,” Valerie was yelling.
The corner of Hyka’s mouth twisted up, and she turned back to the coffee, satisfied with Valerie’s reaction.
“See? Can’t help who you fall for. Why don’t you kill Lucas like that weenis who shot me in the leg? Seems like an effective trick.” Hyka poured her coffee and looked at Valerie over the top of her mug while she drank.
Valerie sat back down in her chair. “I tried. Didn’t work. We a
re cycling the same energy of the facility. I’m not even sure what kind of physical harm would be needed to kill a DiaZem. Someone in the Council must know, but I doubt I can just ask.”
“They don’t know either. There is a rebellion happening in New Zealand. Despite what they said, the Council doesn’t have the country under their control. Because they are so isolated, the Kiwis aren’t a real threat to the Council. You are a much bigger liability. The United States has a bigger influence. Maybe reach out to New Zealand and see what they are up to.”
“They aren’t going to hand over their secrets. I’d have to earn their trust. How can I do that in twelve hours?”
“Mommy.” Caleb appeared next to Valerie at the table. She pulled him into her lap and brushed his sleep-spiked hair down.
“Hey, sweetie. Did Mommy wake you up?” she asked, kissing his cheek while he nodded his answer. “I am sorry Mommy scared you, but I’m okay. See?”
Valerie smiled to show her son she was not hurt or otherwise uncomfortable. “Let’s go back to bed, Little Mister.”
Caleb protested and choked Valerie with a tight hug around her neck.
She rubbed his back and rocked him. “Well, do you want to go shopping with Mommy? Maybe I can find you some candy.”
“Candy, yeah!” Caleb answered and hopped off his mother’s lap.
Valerie found some clothes for the boy and got him ready. The TV monitor displayed 6:30 a.m. and the sun completely shone in the sky. They found themselves alone as they walked through the lobby and the courtyard. They saw no one until they got to the airport. An old man sat at the security gate. When he noticed the two women come around the motionless escalator, he sat up straight and requested their badges. Hyka and Caleb’s badges were scanned and compared to their faces. When Valerie handed over her badge, the old man stood from his chair and bowed to her.
“I owe my life to you, Ms. Burton.”
The man’s words confused her. She had never met him before.
“Why? What do you mean?” she asked, knowing she might receive an answer influenced by Lucas’ lies.
“When the regular people were called to be with the Lord, you saved me. They fell around me, but I was the one left standing. Thank you for sparing my life. I am here to serve you.” The man bowed again and scanned her badge.
Valerie studied the man. He was indeed a conductor, but there was something wrong. He had not regressed in age like the rest. When she focused her attention on his energy, she saw a small pocket under his skin with a mechanism sewn into him, connected to his heart.
“What’s your name?” she asked him. She knew he did not have much time left unless he was able to release the energy he had absorbed since his dormant gene was awakened.
“Bernard Butler, my DiaZem,” he answered.
“Mr. Butler, you have my permission to leave this post. I need you to go to Sublevel 2, catch the train to Living Area Nine. On the eighth level, look for a suite labeled Dr. August Wilkes. Tell him your pacemaker is broken and I request that he remove it as soon as possible. He will know what to do. Then you will stop aging, and can continue to live like the rest of us.” Valerie was unsure the procedure would work, but it gave the kind man a chance.
“I will. Bless you!” The man hurried away.
The three walked down to the airport train to the terminals. On the platform, a statue of Jack Swigert stood ten feet tall.
“Astronaut,” Caleb pronounced the word slowly and pointed to the figure. Valerie let his hand go, and he ran to the plaque at the foot of the statue.
“He died of cancer right before taking his seat in Congress. Isn’t that some crap: survives space, dies of cancer,” Hyka said, standing behind Caleb and reading the plaque.
“I wonder if he was a DiaZem,” Valerie said out loud to herself.
“The gene we have does not allow for other genetic abnormalities like cancer. We’re immune to disease as well. Have you ever had a VD?” Hyka asked without a wink of humor, but Valerie laughed.
“No! What? Seriously?” Valerie needed a laugh.
Hyka nodded with a solemn expression as the train arrived.
“Whoo, whoooooo,” Caleb called at the train.
Shaking her head, she led her son aboard. They walked to the front end of the car. Caleb crawled up onto the seat to watch out the front window. Valerie sat to keep him from losing balance once the train began to move. Hyka stood and held a pole.
“I’m running this train. Lucas and I. Powering everything is involuntary, like breathing or blinking. I know when he is watching me. Well, I know when someone is watching. When I was at In-Processing, I thought it was August watching me on surveillance. But when we were at the bar, I knew it was Lucas. I can feel him now,” Valerie explained, becoming more aware of how difficult her situation was.
“That’s gross,” was all Hyka would comment.
The train approached Terminal B, where Rob had told Hyka they could find women’s clothing. As they crested the top of the stairs, a lingerie store awaited them.
“Tell me this is not what he meant by ‘women’s clothing,’” Valerie demanded. “I hate him. I hate him so much.”
“They have makeup and stuff here, too.” Hyka slapped her badge on the wall. As the gate rose, she ducked under and helped herself to a shopping bag.
Valerie let Caleb down. “Now listen. You can run and play, but you stay near Mommy, okay? Stay inside the store. When I say Marco, you say. . .”
“Polo,” Caleb shouted, excited about the game his father had taught him.
As she looked over the sexy garments, her heart sank. She had no intention of showing anyone her underwear. She wanted to mourn the loss of her husband, the one man she was in love with from the beginning. She remembered shopping in similar stores when she was young and surprising him in the evenings when they were dating. Caleb had changed her body. So much so that no matter how much Scott had wanted her, she felt unattractive. She wished she had not stopped wearing these things for him.
“Marco?”
“Polo.”
Having a difficult time concentrating, Valerie looked for things she would have picked before her transformation.
“Extra small,” Hyka said over her shoulder. “You don’t have mom hips anymore, remember?”
Valerie looked at the pair of medium panties in her hand. Embarrassed, she set them down and picked up the suggested size. She put those down as well and grabbed a handful of small panties and shoved them in her bag. Hyka returned and dumped an armful of cosmetics into Valerie’s bag.
“I don’t want any of these things,” Valerie protested.
“Oh, those are mine, but I grabbed some stuff you can use for your crowning ceremony. Go through the motions, Val.”
Hyka returned after each lap around the store with more things to put in the bag, until she just took the sack from Valerie.
“Marco. Marco? Marco!” Her heart pounded. She ran, hoping she could find him in the empty terminal.
“Polo,” a man answered. The sound tied her stomach in a knot. She cursed herself for letting him sneak up on her. She reached the front of the store. Caleb sat on Lucas’ shoulders with a smile on his face.
“Daddy. Daddy. Daddy,” Caleb repeated while treating Lucas’ head as a drum.
“No.” She glared. “Put him down. Now.”
Lucas just smiled and bounced the boy, making him squeal and giggle. Valerie pulled her son down and held him.
“What? He likes me. I don’t mind if he calls me Daddy. They’re our kids now.”
“You listen to me. You can have my father, my brother, and whoever else you think you might need on your side. These are my children. They are Scott Russell’s children. My name is Valerie Russell. My children’s names are and will always be Russell. They will grow up knowing what you did to their father, and why. They will know what an abusive and sick person you are.”
She spoke into her son’s ear, “Caleb, baby, this is a bad man. He’s stinky and
mean, and he hurts Mommy. He’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous,” Caleb answered, frowning toward Lucas.
“Getting them to hate me is only going to make things worse for you, my dear. The thing is, until about thirty minutes ago, I had no clue why Ole Bernie had not died with the rest of the old and plagued people who weren’t under my protection. Until you looked at him. You looked at him and saw inside to what was ailing him. I guess I never take much time to look at people. But you found the problem. So then, I wondered what I would see if I looked at you, and boy, what an exciting discovery. Val, honey, do you want to know what I see when I look at you?”
Lucas raised his brows, waiting for her response. She did not care what he saw in her. She cared for the two children she carried: the one on her hip and the other in her womb.
“No? Not even a little curious? Because I heard Hyka tell you we don’t get sick. We heal ourselves. But you, you were very ill until you got here. Your body was not regenerating as a DiaZem should. Like Bernie misdiagnosed with a heart condition, instead of maybe anxiety. Catching an unnecessary pacemaker was great thinking on your part. Your condition was critical. You were knocking on death’s door until you got here. You were so very, very sick. So, what is ailing you? Your baby? Of course, pregnancy has certain symptoms, but should DiaZem be ailed if they are the most superior beings? The answer is no, Valerie. There’s something else brewing in there. We’re having a girl.”
Valerie failed to see the relevance of her child’s gender. She adjusted Caleb to her other hip, turned, and walked away from him. Hyka followed. Lucas did not pursue.
With her hands full, she let the tears blur her vision before blinking them free to fall down her cheeks. She could not raise her daughter to be strong and not be a victim while she let Lucas treat her so horribly. She could not teach her how to fight when she, herself, could not. Valerie considered putting the baby on a raft of reeds like Moses and floating her away from this place. But there were no rivers, reeds, or anywhere else she would be safe. She would have to fight, for herself and her children.
Apparent Power: DiaZem Trilogy Book One Page 21
