Sammie grabbed the weapon and quickly demonstrated the proper firing technique. “It’s a good rifle,” she said between labored breaths. “These things just saved our lives. The enemy didn’t expect us to be locked and loaded. Soon as we started firing, they hesitated. Otherwise, we’d all be lying dead on the side of the road right now.”
Sammie pointed to the mottled blood across Jamie’s belly, but he insisted the wounds were healing. Sammie clambered up the slope, peered over the top, and saw no movement.
“They can’t be far behind. We need to keep moving northwest.” She motioned in that general direction. “That should take us to the highway. The woods can’t protect us forever.”
They moved into deeper woods, tangling with thick undergrowth. Ten minutes later, with no sign of enemy movement, Sammie raised her hand to halt. Jamie and Michael hunkered down on either side of her, again alongside a slope but surrounded by bramble. She demanded no one speak.
They noticed the ubiquitous rhythm of the police helicopter searching the area but focused more on the unmistakable sounds of highway traffic.
“We’re close,” Michael whispered. “Let’s book.”
“I don’t like this,” she said. “It’s too perfect. If we take off in a full dash, we’ll reach the road in less than a minute. It’s right there, and we haven’t heard a peep from the enemy.”
“Exactly. And I gotta hand it to you, GI Jane, you brought it home for us. Now let’s go.”
“Those men wouldn’t give up, but they would be cautious. If they played it right, they’d know we were heading to the highway. Instead of coming down on us, they’d keep their distance and flank us. With luck, they could get ahead of us and be waiting at the finish line.”
Jamie’s heart sank. “An ambush?”
“Why not?” She said. “They could take us when we’d least expect.”
“You gotta be kidding,” Michael groaned. “I ain’t believing this. I’m supposed to be in first period with Mr. Turner right now. I oughta be joking about them cafeteria ladies having to deal with burgers made from cow shit. But this is …”
Sammie grimaced in confusion, but Jamie ignored Michael’s rant. He felt the shadows racing across the Earth. He heard their footsteps. The Jewel was opening his senses to understanding of what he did not see.
“What do we try now?” He asked Sammie.
“Here’s the thing: These Chancellors are all trained soldiers. Even Christian. I trained alongside him for years. None of them are stupid. The police are close by, so if the shooters tip their hand too soon, they could get more trouble than they can handle. They already blew one chance at us, and people can hear rifles from a long way off. We can’t even be sure how many soldiers we’re facing. They’ll be spaced out to cover all the angles.”
“But we can’t just sit here and wait for them,” Jamie said.
“No. We have to draw them in closer to each other. They need a reason to change their strategy. If we do it right, we could open up a flank, slip past them and make the highway.”
Jamie saw the AK shaking in Michael’s jittery hands. He understood what Sammie was proposing, even if Michael did not.
“You need a diversion, right?” When she nodded, Jamie thought fast. He grabbed Ben’s flash drive and handed it to Sammie.
“What?” She stared in disbelief. “What is this?”
“Hope? It was Ben’s. I don’t know if Ben was just full of it or what, but there might be something on here that can help you if you’re able to go back home. You know, to the other Earth.”
They spoke with their eyes. He didn’t want to hear another word, and Sammie understood. Jamie illuminated Michael.
“You need a diversion, and I’m the only one they want.”
Michael tried to interrupt. “Dude, you’re tripping.”
“It’s the only plan that makes sense. Sammie can take you home, but she’s gotta be alive. Just do this, all right? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Sammie shook her head as Michael put his feelings into words.
“No freakin’ way. We’re staying together. Don’t matter how this ends – we’re the whole damn team right here. We got power.” He gripped the AK. “We got Sammie Schwarzenegger at quarterback. We can take down those yahoos and make tracks for home.”
“You know something, Coop? I reckon you could sell snow to an Eskimo. But you heard her. Those guys are gonna be spaced out, waiting for us. They’ll pick us off before we see them. We have to draw them out.”
Jamie begged Michael to go along with this.
“Coop. Bud. I love ya, dude, but this ain’t about the team. Maybe this is how it was meant to be.” He wiped his tears. “Just do what she says, Coop. Maybe we’ll hook up again.”
Jamie asked Sammie for help. She pointed west, up the slope.
“Keep low. Use the trees. When you make it to one, find the next before you sprint. Run fast as you can. Their fire should come from your right. The only way they’re going to take the bait is …”
“I know. They got to see me. I can do that.”
Jamie didn’t know what else to say. The moment he dreaded might have come at last, and he couldn’t tell her how he felt. He wouldn’t allow his mind to be distracted by anything other than the task ahead. He figured Sammie would appreciate that, like any soldier in the heat of battle. He wiped hair from his face and smiled. Then he grabbed his rifle and started up the slope.
“When the path’s clear,” Jamie said, “get the hell out of here.”
He reached the top of the slope and stood in the clear.
Exogenesis
2 years ago
I
GNATIUS HORNE WAS HEADING home to another microwave supper when Ben called. He heard the shakes in Ben’s voice, the desperation of a trapped animal facing extinction. Ignatius didn’t need details to know the bastard went ahead with his foolhardy plan and it backfired. He agreed to meet at their usual spot off Trevor’s Ford Road along the river.
Ben was pulling hard on a silver flask when Ignatius turned off the engine and stepped out of the patrol car.
“So, what’s the plan?” Ignatius said. “Get yourself blind drunk, pretend you didn’t screw up? Maybe you thought I’d be interested in a pity party.”
Ben dropped the flask. “I’m out. What did you bring?”
“I thought I was bringing sensibility and good counsel. Am I too late?”
Ben waved him off and walked to the water’s edge. “Don’t bother, Iggy. You told me not to do it. I was an asshole. Now I’m a dead man.”
Iggy rolled his eyes and removed a small flask from inside his jacket.
“We’re all dead men.” He offered whiskey, which Ben took with pleasure. “They rejected your theories. You knew they would. Tom and Marlena are hard-core regens. Even if they accepted the possibility of a human soul, they’d never openly concede it. I suggest you calm your nerves, have a long night’s sleep, and recant.”
Ben choked on the whiskey. “What? How? They’d never believe me.”
“They would if you turned over all the digital research. Delete it in front of them. Take a vow of silence. Promise to help Jamie to a peaceful end. Remember your ace in the hole: You are their son. The descendency ends with you, Ben. They won’t kill you.”
Ben smirked, as if Ignatius missed the punch line. “They already have. The last thing my father said to me was if I ever tried to see Jamie again, he’d kill me where I stood. But he knows I’ll see Jamie again because I love him. All I’ve done the past thirteen years is protect that boy. I gave him my whole heart because I knew Tom and Marlena never would.”
He took another sip of whiskey. “Iggy, I was sitting in my car at the end of the street afterward. I couldn’t move. I was terrified. I saw my father pull out, so I followed him long enough to see where he was going. Walt Huggins. He wouldn’t go there unless he was getting permission. Giving the big guy a head’s up about one less observer.”
A chill sliced through Ig
natius. The pieces fit. He underestimated Tom.
“You might want to consider hitting the road for a few days, Ben. I can set you up with five hundred bucks for now.”
Ben was apoplectic. “Run? Are you out of your mind? I’m not leaving Jamie with those people. Iggy, I need you to fix this. You’ve intervened before, right? There was that dustup with Arthur and Jonathan a few years back. Fix this, Iggy. For good. Please.”
Ignatius didn’t expect every observer to survive the fifteen-year exile, but he thought trouble would come from outside the Jewel’s family.
“Do you understand what you’re asking, Ben?”
He threw back more whiskey and nodded. “If I can’t help Jamie, what do I got left? He deserves the chance to live a normal life. If there’s even a thousand-to-one shot my theory is right, I have to try.”
“And if you succeed,” Ignatius said, “what then?”
“I don’t know, but I can be a father to him if I have to.”
Ignatius knew Ben wasn’t much good to anyone in this condition. At 21, he was a broken man, a shell of whatever promise he held before leaving the Collectorate. The deputy remembered the boy with a curious smile who crossed the interdimensional fold holding Jamie’s hand. The illusion forced upon an eight-year-old was suffocating the 21-year-old. Ignatius deferred to Tom and Marlena’s parental authority, but he resented their willingness to sacrifice Ben.
“Go home,” he told Ben. “I’ll see it done. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“What? What are you going to do?”
He opened the patrol car door.
“Go home, Ben. Sleep. Jamie will need you at your best.”
Ignatius made one more stop before crafting a microwave supper. Leftover peas, mac & cheese, baked ham. Third day in a row.
Bland repetition served Ignatius well. Food should be sustenance, not a distraction – a lesson he learned in the Unification Guard. He used meals to contemplate strategy, reconsider errors, and rehearse opening lines for every context. When did he require respect? Fear? Smiles or laughter?
Tonight’s context leaned heavily toward precise timing. He decided upon two possibilities and prepared the other logistics.
He wore black gloves, a dark overcoat, and a ski mask when he traveled in the shadows that night. He broke the lock on the Sheridans’ back door with ease. The rest was simple. No dog to break the silence, no alarms to alert the residents. He once warned them about their negligent attitude toward security. Typical Chancellor arrogance.
He entered the rear hallway. Three bedrooms. Master at the end. He looked inside Jamie’s room to make sure he wasn’t home. Dark. The boy was sleeping over at Michael’s. He heard TV voices in the master, saw the flickering blue light under the door. Chancellors were creatures of habit.
He pulled off the ski mask and pushed open the door. Tom and Marlena, staring at the screen with many pillows tucked behind them, did not notice him at first. Perhaps they thought Jamie came home early. He flipped on the ceiling light. They sat up but seemed more put-out than terrified.
“You watch these shows every night,” Ignatius told them, “but you despise them. A bunch of men telling venal jokes and interviewing vacuous celebrities. Your words, Tom. A celebration of depraved, mindless culture. Your words, Marlena. Yet here you are, after thirteen years. Admit it. You’ll miss them when you’re gone.”
Marlena grabbed the remote and muted the set. “How dare you waltz in here like you have a run of the place?”
Tom jumped in. “Did something happen to Ben?”
Ignatius raised the double-barrel shotgun he’d been dangling.
“That was quick, Tom. I thought Jamie was the make-or-break son. Marlena, toss the remote to the foot of the bed. Thanks. Both of you, settle down. I promise not to drag this out.”
Marlena sneered. “Whatever you plan to do, Ignatius, think carefully. The others will know. You will not survive the week.”
Ignatius shrugged. “I’ll be fine. But my reckoning will come, if it makes you feel better. I’m overdue.”
Tom laid back and wrapped his arms over his chest. “I know what this is. You talked to Benjamin, and now you want to terrorize us into forgiving him. I assume he shared his crackpot theories. He will not be a part of Jamie’s life, or what’s left of it.”
Ignatius scratched an inch on his neck where he shaved too close.
“Tomorrow, he’ll be Jamie’s guardian. It will be tough on them both, of course. Ben will be fighting his guilt and, as you may have noticed of late, a growing fondness for alcohol. Jamie will be devastated. And in his uneven state, I am concerned. The school psychologist diagnosed him with anger management issues, lack of empathy, possible criminal tendencies. Yes, a difficult time. But I’ll be close by, keeping a watch.”
“Did you rehearse this intimidation?” Marlena said. “You are far and away the best actor among us. Enough with the dramatics, Iggy.”
He saw indignance in her eyes. She did not believe death was possible. Ignatius realized this wasn’t going to be so difficult after all.
“What has always bothered me about Chancellors,” he told the Sheridans, “is their abject refusal to accept anything that might work against their narrative. Take Benjamin’s theories, for example. He proposes a link between human souls and Caryllan energy. If he’s correct, an entirely different life force exists in each of us. He imagines what might happen if we tap into that energy at the point between life and death. What might we become? How might we evolve? Instead of being prisoners to the inevitable, might we find the answer to eternal life? Or to godlike powers beyond our conception? I would think curious minds would jump on these questions and pursue them to their logical end. But not Chancellors. Stubborn, intractable, insecure Chancellors.”
Tom grabbed Marlena’s hand and they shared a knowing glance. Ignatius saw the sudden rise in genuine fear.
“You’re insane,” Tom said. “Just like Benjamin. He can’t accept Jamie’s fate because he got too close to the boy. Now, he’s pulling at wild strings.”
Ignatius nodded. “True. His emotions are colored by love, but who forced him into that role? I reviewed all his evidence. He has been sharing it for months. His case is compelling. Flawed, but compelling. Enough to give Jamie a third option when the time comes. Ben and I will make sure of it.”
Marlena wasn’t having it. “The plan for Jamie was set thirteen years ago. We have sacrificed everything for that tiresome child. If he does not emerge as a compliant new entity, then the mission failed. But we will not allow you to change the equation at the last moment.”
“It seems to me,” Ignatius said, “his brother’s plan may be the only viable one left on the table. Clearly, the Mentor has not arrived. Jamie would be at peace if he’d been receiving guidance from within. Instead, he is breaking down. He carries an anger he does not understand; he isolates himself from all but two friends. I have kept him out of jail. He is walking a needle, and the two of you have been no help at all.”
Tom raged. “You have no children, Ignatius. No understanding of our struggle let alone the science of assimilating human DNA with Jewel energy. You came onto this mission late for reasons none of us understood. And now, you have the audacity to suggest …”
Ignatius reached for the remote and turned up the volume.
“Correction. I do have children, but they live among the indigos. They’ll never know me. As for the Jewel? I spent a year in Special Services Division before joining this team. I know exactly what Jewel energy can do. Probably more than you. I spent time with a retired general, Aldo Cabrise. He was there at the fall of Hiebimini, when everything came undone for the Chancellory. He saw it happen. Most of the vids from that day were scrambled afterward or redistributed by our propagandists. The reports were rewritten, the true data stowed behind Admiralty firewalls.
“Five Jewels acted as one that day. They remade an entire planet. If I didn’t know better, I might have called it an Act of God. Half of us in Special Se
rvices saw the Jewels as the key to salvation, and the other half as the key to damnation. There’s a reason why a blockade was instituted around Hiebimini after the last natives were evacuated.
“Regens like you believe the hybrids will form an army and reproduce new, sustainable Chancellors. What if there’s a greater destiny at play? What if Ben tapped into a secret even our best researchers missed? When we eliminated deity worship, we eliminated articles of faith. Ben rediscovered that faith in the people of this Earth. He wants to believe in Jamie, and I intend to give him that chance.”
Tom threw back the covers. “I have damn well had enough of this. Put your rifle away and go home. Walt Huggins and I …”
“Had an arrangement. Yes.” Ignatius cocked the hammer. “Until I spent time with him this evening. He agreed with my assessment. Anyone willing to murder a son who poses no immediate threat to the mission is, by extension, a clear and present danger to the larger group. He asked only that I plan carefully, make this clean, and ensure a speedy arrest based on damning evidence. The man who will be charged is a felon, recently released from prison, with a long history of break-ins, always using a weapon just like this.”
Ignatius raised the volume to maximum. Tom held out his hands. Ignatius thought he might fall to the floor and supplicate himself. It would have been the one unpredictable moment. Instead, Tom begged:
“I made the decision. Not Marlena. She didn’t know about the …”
Ignatius rolled his eyes. “Of course, she did.”
He pulled the trigger. Tom’s chest exploded as he crashed into the night table and toppled a lamp. Marlena screamed, more emotion than Ignatius expected. He didn’t give her time to beg. When it was over, half her face was gone, the pillows coated in blood and brain matter.
He wasn’t sorry to see them go.
The next steps were critical. He brought along physical evidence and needed to work quickly. The miserable sod who’d be arrested made the misstep of settling down in Albion months ago. He reported to Ignatius between visits to his parole officer. Hair samples, fingerprints, shoeprints. A job mowing lawns in this neighborhood.
The Impossible Future: Complete set Page 20
