Daughter of Ra

by M. Sasinowski

  “You didn’t really think I’d go along with your ridiculous plan, did you?” she asked.

  Alyssa gaped at her, frozen, when Tasha stepped back and opened Alyssa’s backpack. She emptied the contents on the ground and picked out the box with the crystal.

  “Here is a little bonus for the Society,” Tasha said, and handed it to Korzo. She turned to Alyssa. “I will never forgive you for killing William,” she said, “but seeing what they will do to you will help ease my pain.”

  She clasped her hand around the back of Alyssa’s neck and pulled her close, her lips almost touching Alyssa’s ear as she whispered, “Paul wasn’t the only person I shot in Cairo.” She pressed her fingers into the scar in Alyssa’s side, making her wince. “This one is on me, too.”

  She backed away, a self-satisfied smirk on her absurdly beautiful face.

  Alyssa’s brain took a few additional snaps of its synapses to make sense of what she just heard. She lunged at Tasha, her nostrils flaring. “You two-faced—!”

  Tasha slammed the cell door in her face.

  Alyssa’s shoulders sagged. “How could you?”

  Tasha turned. “Some people never learn,” she said.

  Korzo’s cold smile matched Tasha’s icy expression. “I want the subject in the procedure room in five minutes,” he said before he and Tasha strode away, leaving the guards at the cell.

  Alyssa sank to the floor, sobbing. Tasha shot me?

  She took a minute to calm down then slowly lifted her gaze. She kept an eye on the guards from beneath her hair as she untucked the back of her thermal jersey from her pants.

  So far, their plan had worked perfectly. Before their—mostly—staged squabble at the cell door, Tasha had concealed a small pocket knife in her own palm. When Tasha had put her hand around Alyssa’s neck, she dropped the knife down the back of Alyssa’s jersey.

  Alyssa wiggled the knife into her hand. She allowed herself a small victory smile before she flipped it open and began working on the rope. The guards had checked her bonds and searched her before Korzo arrived, just as she and Tasha had anticipated, so Tasha made sure to tie the rope tight to prevent any suspicion. But couldn’t she have made it just a little looser?

  Alyssa grimaced when she nicked her wrist.

  Come on. Concentrate.

  One of the guards turned and opened the cell door just as the knife sliced through the rope.

  Alyssa folded the knife and slipped it in her waistband. She pushed her wrists together, squeezing the rope between them. She glanced up at the guard in the doorway. He was as wiry as a starved Terrier, his brown coveralls only boosting the resemblance.

  The man lifted up a menacing, two-foot-long stun baton. “This is Fred.” He pointed at the baton in the other guard’s hand. “And that’s Barney. Aptly named because they’ll have you babbling like a caveman for a solid hour. So, here’s the deal. You be a good girl, and Fred and Barney won’t have to make your acquaintance.” He paused for effect. “Understood?”

  What kind of sickos name their stun rods after the Flintstones? Alyssa thought and nodded as meekly as she could manage.

  “Outstanding.” The guard lowered the rod named Fred. “Get up slowly and come out. Nice and easy.”

  Alyssa complied. They led her through the corridor until they reached another metal door. “Barney” knocked. A moment later the door opened, and Korzo’s face appeared. He stepped aside as the guards brought her in and closed the door.

  The laboratory was every shade of gray from faded concrete to a pale slate. Black-top laboratory tables and a myriad of equipment and electronics lined the walls. A metal examination table with straps stood in the middle. Tasha lingered in the far corner, looking bored.

  Alyssa’s eyes flickered to the box with the crystal perched next to her. It’s still here.

  “Secure her to the table,” Korzo said, and he turned to a keyboard.

  Alyssa wiggled out of the guards’ grips. “No!” she cried. She backed against the door and stood, keeping her hands behind her.

  Korzo swung the chair around, an amused expression on his face.

  “I thought we had a deal,” the guard said, and lifted Fred. “You will end up strapped to that table. Whether you’re coherent or drooling is up to you.”

  Alyssa willed herself to stand still. Time seemed to slow as the guards advanced, stun rods at the ready.

  “Say hello to Fred,” the man spat, lashing out with the baton.

  Alyssa waited until the last moment then yanked the other guard into the path of the charge. The man’s expression curdled to shock as his baton struck his partner, causing him to twitch uncontrollably and slump to the floor.

  Alyssa snatched Barney from the limp guard’s grasp and swung it at the other’s legs, sweeping him off his feet. She flipped the baton in her wrist and drove it hard into his chest, activating it. The guard seized for several seconds before his body went limp.

  Alyssa rose slowly and lifted her head.

  “Yabadabadoo,” she said.

  Yuri Korzo cowered in the chair, his face pale. His gaze flashed from Alyssa to Tasha, who stood looking as bored as she did when Alyssa was brought in.

  Tasha gave him a shrug. “Don’t look at me. She’s crazy.”

  Yuri Korzo bounced out of the chair and dashed for a door across the room. Alyssa hurtled the baton at his feet, tripping him. He plunged face-first into a metal cart, toppling it and spilling its contents.

  Alyssa snatched a guard’s pistol from his holster and lobbed it to Tasha.

  Yuri Korzo groaned as he labored onto his back. He glared at them, a thin line of blood forming from a gash on his forehead.

  “I look forward to getting closer acquainted with you, Dr. Korzo,” Alyssa said as Tasha raised the gun at him.

  “Screw you!” he spat.

  Tasha fired, and a piece of black metal equipment near his foot burst into a shower of sparks. He tucked in his leg.

  “You bitch!”

  “That looked important,” Tasha said. She turned to Alyssa. “Did that look important to you, too? Because it looked pretty important to me.”

  “Trust me, she’s very good with weapons,” Alyssa said, touching her side.

  Tasha’s face turned crimson. “About that…”

  “Later,” Alyssa replied. Hell of a way to get a real reaction out of me.

  “What do you want?” Korzo’s voice shook like a badly balanced centrifuge.

  “Answers,” Alyssa said. “Let’s start with the Hybrid woman.”

  “The who?” Korzo said. Tasha fired again, bursting a bottle of clear fluid near him. He covered his head with his arms, cowering down as pieces of glass and liquid rained down on him.

  “Oops,” Tasha said. “Was that important, too?”

  “Probably not as important as his leg,” Alyssa said, her tone ice cold.

  Tasha took aim.

  “Stop!” Korzo pleaded, petrified. “Please!”

  Tasha lowered the weapon. “That’s better,” she said. “Answer the question.”

  “She provided the blood.”

  “Is she… alive?” Alyssa asked.

  Korzo looked at her, confused. “She was when I saw her this morning.”

  “She’s here?” Alyssa’s breath bottled up in her chest.

  Korzo nodded.

  “Take us to her, now.” Alyssa said. She cut across the room and picked up the box with the crystal.

  Tasha motioned to Korzo with the pistol. “Let’s go.” As he passed by her, she added, “And please know that, at the slightest provocation, I will shoot you in such a way that you will still remain able to point us in the right direction.”

  “You’re both insane,” he blurted.

  Tasha smiled a cold smile. “Another reason for you to play nice.”

  They exited the room and entered the elevator. Korzo pressed the button for the top floor. Alyssa shared a look with Tasha. Not where I was expecting us to go.

  The elevat
or stopped, and the doors parted into a spacious chamber. The elegant furnishings and floor-to-ceiling glass window on the far end stood in striking contrast to its rough stone walls. Alyssa squinted to adjust her eyes to the dim light offered by the wall sconces.

  A white-clad figure sat in an ornate, high-backed chair, flanked by four armed guards dressed in black.

  Photo-flashes of memory cracked across Alyssa’s vision.

  A shape in the night, wearing white.

  Eyes gazing down at me, spilling unconditional love.

  Alyssa’s heartbeat throbbed in her ears. Her vision swam. She opened her mouth, unable to speak. Finally, a single word came out, like a whisper of hope.

  “Mom?”

  13 Renley Estate

  Clay bolted up at the soft ding from the computer. Finally!

  He had been on pins and needles for the last five hours, waiting for the final iteration of his image recovery routine. The computational resources at Renley’s estate were nothing to sneeze at, but the job would have been done in half the time on his server at the WHO. Or in a few minutes on the Society’s quantum computing rig. He still cringed at the fate of that digital marvel.

  Let’s see what we’ve got.

  He navigated to the recovery folder and clicked on the first image. A photograph of a woman filled the screen. Elegant features and stunning golden eyes peered at him from the monitor. He brought up a picture of Alyssa’s mom next to it.

  He frowned.

  Bollocks.

  He studied both photographs, scratching the stubble on his chin. He could see a resemblance to Alyssa in both women.

  What does that mean?

  He transferred the picture to his phone and headed for the door, looking for George Renley.

  Alyssa stared at the stranger before her. The woman’s face and high, arching cheekbones looked carved out of marble. She studied Alyssa with a sense of bemused curiosity through almond-shaped eyes that glinted with a golden hue, the irises catching every bit of the dim light.

  The woman flicked her hand, and the four guards surrounded them. Tasha put up her hands and didn’t resist when one of the guards disarmed her. Alyssa didn’t feel another man plucking the box from her limp grip. The guards placed the weapon and box on the table before the woman.

  “And so we meet,” the woman said. “Sit down. We have much to discuss.”

  Alyssa was numb with disappointment. Numb and furious for allowing herself to hope. A feeling of self-pity swept over her. She looked to Tasha whose face was a blank mask as she stared at the yellow-eyed woman.

  The woman opened the box. Her eyes widened ever so slightly when she glimpsed the crystal inside it. She lifted it, her eyes focusing deep inside as if seeking a lost memory. Then she peered at Alyssa, who flinched at the intensity in her eyes. The woman’s gaze was hypnotic, both irresistible and impossible to hold.

  Alyssa couldn’t shake the feeling that she had met her before. No, not only met, that she had known her. The odd sense of familiarity nagged at the back of her mind.

  “Why was I not informed that the girl was here?” the woman addressed Korzo.

  “I… I thought the tests—” he stammered.

  “You may be a brilliant scientist,” she interrupted, “but you are still an imbecile. Get out of my sight.”

  Korzo tensed and opened his mouth then closed it with a snap and turned on his heel.

  The woman turned to the armed guards. “Leave us,” she said.

  Alyssa shared a surprised glance with Tasha as the guards withdrew. Only now did she note their appearance. They were tall, muscles bulging beneath tight, black outfits. Alyssa struggled to place their features, their dark skin in contrast with their piercing blue eyes. She kept her gaze on them until they exited.

  The woman perched the crystal on the table and rose. She was a sculpture of elegance and power, soft curves and hard muscle. She approached Alyssa with leonine grace, her white dress fluttering, tracing her fluid movements. She was the most striking person Alyssa had ever encountered.

  “I’m afraid we have gotten off on the wrong foot,” the woman said, her expression softening. “My name is Nephthys.”

  Alyssa’s skin tingled at the sound of the name. Again, the sense of familiarity.

  “Are you a… Hybrid?” Alyssa asked.

  A strange flicker crossed the woman’s eyes. She gave a small smile.

  “Now what would make you ask a question like that?”

  “I feel like I know you,” Alyssa replied. “And… your eyes.”

  The woman approached and lifted her palm. Alyssa wanted to pull back, but could not bring herself to drop the mesmeric gaze. Nephthys grazed her cheek. Her skin was smooth, and her touch made Alyssa’s skin tingle beneath the woman’s fingers.

  “I have so much to teach you,” Nephthys whispered, almost to herself.

  Alyssa spotted Tasha’s eyes dart to the pistol on the table. She balanced on the edge of the chair behind the woman’s back.

  “Are there more of you?” Alyssa asked, trying to keep the woman’s attention. “And how do you know—”

  Tasha leaped out of the chair. She reached for the gun—and flew against the wall as Nephthys pinned her to it with one hand. Alyssa barely noticed the woman’s lightning quick movement.

  “Stop!” she yelled and vaulted up.

  “Don’t move,” Nephthys warned. “I don’t want to hurt either one of you. But I do need your attention.”

  “Please, I’ll listen,” Alyssa lifted her hands. “Just don’t hurt her.”

  “Of course,” Nephthys said and gently released Tasha.

  “I wish to speak with Alyssa alone,” Nephthys said.

  “And if I say no?” Tasha glared at the woman, rubbing her neck.

  Nephthys’s lips curved into a cold smile. “I would insist.”

  “It’s okay,” Alyssa said. “I’ll be all right.”

  “You sure?” Tasha asked.

  Alyssa nodded. Tasha shot Nephthys another glare then moved to the door.

  Alyssa waited for her to leave. “What do you want?” she asked.

  Nephthys studied her for several moments, as if contemplating the question, then smiled. “I suppose the more appropriate question is, what can I offer you?”

  Alyssa blinked in confusion.

  “Your visions, dreams,” Nephthys said, “they come unbidden. They are becoming stronger, more intense. At times you cannot tell where the vision ends and reality begins.”

  Alyssa sank into the chair, slack-mouthed.

  “I told you, I have much to teach you.”

  “What is happening to me?” Alyssa asked.

  “You are becoming a true Hybrid,” Nephthys replied.

  A Hybrid?

  “You are already noticing the changes.” Nephthys continued. “You are becoming faster, stronger. You can sense things.” She moved closer. “But your mind is confused, unable to deal with it. Hence the visions, the daydreams.”

  “How… how can you know?” Alyssa stammered.

  “As ingenious as the device was that your friend constructed to allow you a glimpse into the crystal, it opened a floodgate of knowledge that was thrust into your mind. The parts you remember are but a fraction of all the memories your subconscious holds. Now, the buried thoughts are rising to the surface, merging with reality.”

  Alyssa blinked, struggling to absorb Nephthys’s words.

  The woman eased into the chair beside Alyssa. “If I don’t help you, the memories will eventually overwhelm you.”

  “Are there more like me? Like my mother?”

  Nephthys’s face darkened. “We are the last two of our race.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Somebody who understands what you are going through.”

  “How?”

  “Because, a long time ago, I went through it myself.”

  Alyssa rubbed her temples, trying to clear her mind.

  “Who are you?” she repeated.

&
nbsp; The woman rose. “I am Nephthys, direct descendant of the Queen and Sovereign Ruler of the Island Kingdom of Atlantis.”

  Alyssa’s head spun, her mind unable to process the information.

  “Are you part of the Society?”

  “The Society?” Nephthys gave a small laugh. “The Society is nothing but a pawn.”

  “Did you have anything to do with the break-in at the genetics institute?”

  Nephthys leaned closer. “You know as well as I do that the institute was not fit to safeguard Thoth’s weapon. The Society had the resources to take possession of it before someone else did, so I enticed them to secure it.”

  “Enticed them? You mean by offering them your blood? Your genes?”

  The ghost of a smile edged Nephthys’s lips. “They never knew about me. They believed Korzo’s story that he successfully synthesized the ancient genes from the data. Convincing them that the virus was required to finalize their transformation guaranteed their full commitment.”

  “Then you killed them!”

  “Alyssa, the Society had plans to use the virus to engineer an advanced bioweapon. Eliminating them was the only way to ensure it couldn’t happen.”

  “How…?” Alyssa started, then realization struck. “You convinced Yuri Korzo to betray them.”

  “Regrettably, it was the only way to stop their efforts.”

  “Why kill them?” Alyssa bristled. “You already had Korzo.”

  “You are naïve, Alyssa. There are dozens of Yuri Korzos. They would have found somebody else to continue his work.”

  Alyssa inhaled deeply in a vain attempt to make sense of it all.

  “Why do you want to help me?”

  Nephthys moved to the table and lifted the crystal again. She held it against the light.

  “Your father was wise in giving you the sacred stone. He knew it was not safe at the Museum. But even he does not know the true value hidden within.”

  Nephthys lifted the crystal to Alyssa reverently. “This stone does not hold the memories of just one Hybrid, Alyssa. It holds memories of an entire race. You can help me bring them back. But to do so, you must allow me to unlock your mind. Only then will I be able to revive my race. Our race.”