The Perfect Soldier

by B D Grant

  Mom scurries off to the bathroom. “Excuse me a moment,” she spouts before shutting the bathroom door. The sound of weeping that follows from inside the bathroom is hard to ignore. Uncle Will examines the wall behind Sidney’s bed as he says to me, “Things were bad for us as kids.”

  I nod my head in understanding. “Until Aurora.”

  “Until Aurora.”

  When Mom emerges from the bathroom, her smile is forced. “So,” she says, looking over Uncle Will, “are they forcing you to wear an ankle monitor because of me?”

  “It could be,” he says, stepping back from Sidney’s bed to face my mom. “Or,” he says as Mom’s smile wavers, “it could have to do with Kaufman, my attorney, begging the council to let me be with my family since my niece was found, my sister reappeared after being missing for months, and Sidney was shot after being held against her will for I don’t know how long,” he says, pointing at each of us.

  Sidney brings her hand to her chest giving him big eyes. “You told them I was your family?”

  Mom doesn’t give him time to answer. “Did the council say anything about shutting down The Movement’s activity in Baton Rouge?” Uncle Will shakes his head. “That place is huge. They’re working, training, and housing their people there, and that’s just what I saw. I can’t imagine what all they have going on in there. The labs were high tech.”

  “You saw the labs?” Uncle Will asks, stepping closer to her.

  “I all but lived in those labs,” Sidney says quietly. Uncle Will looks between Sidney and my mom.

  “You have to tell them,” he tells them both.

  “I did,” Mom says. Sidney stays quiet. “I even swiped some of the vials they were making in the lab I found Sidney in.”

  “I didn’t see them making anything,” I say, trying to think back to something I missed but nothing comes to mind.

  “It’s what they give people,” Sidney says, looking down at the arm covering her stomach. “I watched them giving it to some of the prisoners under the school. It’s like it ate them up from the inside out. There were some older Dyna students they were injecting too, but it couldn’t have been the same stuff because it…”

  “It made them reach their full potential,” I finish for her.

  Her eyes flicker over at me. “How did you —”

  “Jake mentioned it when he was telling about his time in the basement. He’d seen a guy get really big, really fast while he was still down there.”

  Uncle Will is shaking his head in amazement. “The council needs to know all of this.”

  “I gave the council a vial,” Mom says, taking her seat back on the edge of Sidney’s bed.

  Sidney’s mouth drops open. “You just gave it to them? They might be the council but we don’t know if we can trust them.”

  Mom gives her a sly smile. “I said I gave them a vial, not all of them.”

  Uncle Will is frowning at both of them. “We have to trust the council. Kaufman’s informed me of the formalities detectives ran into once they saw you going into the building,” he says to my mom. “Legally they couldn’t access any of the upper floors without consent. The warrants they managed to get before going in only encompassed ground level up to the third floor, which was all being used as some workout club which detectives suspect was a money laundering operation.

  The only reason they made it as far as they did was because they got a break when they were stopped by a couple of Dynamar wanting to inspect their warrants. It just so happened that one of the detectives recognized one of the men from footage of the raid and was wanted for questioning. When detectives attempted to detain him, he was nice enough to run from them. A wanted man running from the police gave them reason to chase him higher up in the building, but that only took them so far. Around that time the higher levels began being locked down quicker than they could get to them. The wanted Dyna was captured easily once he got locked out.

  They’re at a dead lock now. The whole place is still locked down. They haven’t been able to get to any of the higher levels since. The council is our best chance of getting in there and finding out what they’re hiding.”

  Our best chance, he says, like he’s part of the team of detectives now and not the man facing the wrath of the council for what occurred during the raid.

  Mom glances over at me before turning back to Uncle Will, “So there’s still people working in those laboratories?” Mom asks.

  Uncle Will shrugs. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t. They could be disposing of the labs’ contents as we speak.” I slump in my chair. “Why?” he asks, watching Sidney offer me her hand to hold. “Did they give you anything?”

  “They were testing her blood,” Mom tells him.

  Uncle Will still isn’t satisfied. “So, no special drinks or food that didn’t taste right?”

  “Not that I can think of. I ate the same food that the Rogues living there were eating.” I tug at my shirt, suddenly uncomfortable.

  Mom perks up. “What are you thinking?” she asks him. “Should she be seen by a doctor?”

  He examines the wall again, mulling it over before answering. “She would know if they were drugging her. One or two doses shouldn’t have any long term effects.”

  “That you know of,” Sidney adds.

  Mom gets up from the bed walking past Uncle Will to pace below the television.

  “Don’t freak out,” Uncle Will tells her, shooting Sidney a look of annoyance.

  Mom rubs the back of her neck. She inhales deeply and tilts her head back to face the ceiling. Her hand flies to her mouth; I’m about to ask if she’s feeling okay when she takes off for the bathroom again.

  This is all my fault. If I would have simply stayed at The Southern Academy the day of the raid then none of this would have happened.

  Sidney pats my arm, watching me closely. Her head slumps back against her pillow but she still looks alert. She gives me a warm smile squeezing my arm lightly. I don’t have to be in her head to know that she’s just happy we’re all here with her.

  “How’re you doing?” I ask.

  “Good. If Karen were here, it would be the perfect ending to my day.”

  “She’s at The Southern Academy,” I tell her.

  “I know,” she says matter-of-factly.

  I hear Dad coming down the hall before he gets to the room. He holds the door for a doctor, awkwardly gesturing her through the doorway. Jake follows her in, and Dad lets the door swing shut. Uncle Will greets her, offering her his hand to shake. “Thank you for taking such good care of her.”

  “You’re very kind, but we’re just doing our job. We still have a lot of unanswered questions,” she says, shaking his hand. Mom walks out of the bathroom drying her hands on some napkins from the bathroom dispenser.

  “I told you,” Sidney croaks, “it’s cancer.”

  I scoot my chair closer to Sidney’s bedside, hoping to hear as much as possible before one of them kicks me out. “And I thank you for letting us know, but without any further information it isn’t much to go on.” She pauses to look at Sidney expectantly, who just stares back at her. “The tests,” she says to Uncle Will, “I’ve called for should, at the very least, start telling us what it’s not.”

  There’s a light tap on the door. From my seat, I peer between Jake and the doctor. A man in a suit makes eye contact with Uncle Will as he taps on his watch. He steps back, still looking uncomfortably into the room.

  “Kauffman is telling me that we have to get back,” Uncle Will says, leaning across Sidney’s bed to kiss her on the forehead. She whispers something to him as he’s turning away, and he pauses. His face darkens a moment before he leans back down, giving her another peck, this time on her cheek. “Thanks,” he says softly.

  Mom talks to Jake while Dad and the doctor have a hushed discussion at the end of Sidney’s bed. As I watch, I try to separate myself, just taking in the moment. I etch their faces into my memory.

  Uncle Will tugs on Mom’s ear as h
e walks past her to the door. Mom swats his hand away with an eye roll that looks familiar. “I’ll see you guys later,” he says to the room.

  His attorney stops him as he walks out the door. He takes a manila folder from his briefcase and offers it to my uncle. There’s black lettering on the tab too small and too far for me to read. A nurse hurries past them into the room. “Excuse me, doctor? We need you in room 311.”

  “I’ll be back,” the doctor barely gets out as she follows the nurse out.

  Before long, Uncle Will pops his head in the door. “Darrell, would you join us a minute?”

  Kauffman ducks off as Dad exits the room. Uncle Will uses the folder Kauffman gave him to wave my dad away from the doorway and out of my sight. “What’s the food like here?” Jake asks Sidney. He used to always be thinking about his next meal back when he was still in high school and playing basketball every day.

  Sidney’s expression turns bleak. “They haven’t fed me yet. I need an empty stomach for the first test that doctor is having me do. But, I can tell you now it’s not going to be any good.” She glances around at the three of us, the corner of her lips curling. “Feel free to sneak me snacks.”

  Mom chuckles, “I can bring you a cheeseburger and fries if you want.”

  I stop listening when Dad reappears just outside of the door holding the manila folder with black writing. He’s alone, but he doesn’t hurry in. He stands outside of the door thumbs through the folder quickly, glancing at its contents before flipping it shut. He catches me staring at him as he steps back inside the room. He gives me a strained smile. Nothing to see here, his expression says. He goes to stand by Mom, tucking the folder under his arm. “If we’re talking food,” he says, hearing Jake and Mom spitting out restaurant options in the area, “I suggest the Dominos we passed down the street.”

  The security guards hold the doors to the courtroom open as everyone from inside empties out. Finally. For a second, I wonder if I should’ve just watched Uncle Will’s trial after all. Mom and Dad had warned me that it would be boring, but surely it couldn’t be as boring as sitting outside for four hours.

  We hadn’t had time to get Sidney anything good to eat before the nurses came in to take her for her first round of testing. On her request for us to be there for Uncle Will, we left.

  I’m sure my parents had expected me to hang out with Jake while the afternoon portion of the trial took place, but he was called downstairs by detectives pretty early on, leaving me to stroll about aimlessly. There were attorneys, detectives, and other Seraphim coming and going from the second floor but most were chattering about the compound found in Baton Rouge. Some of the attorneys were talking about their clients related to the raid. A couple of older men dressed in suits were grumbling, “They won’t say a word. The ones that are speaking, keep repeating their names every time a detective asks them a question.” “I heard it was the same thing when the council tried talking to them.”

  I push inside the courtroom after waiting for a while longer, moving against the tide of bodies. Mom, Dad, and Uncle Will are still at the front of the courtroom gathered around one of the small tables. Kauffman clears away his last few papers, snapping the briefcase shut.

  Dad spots me before I make it down the aisle, and nudges Mom. “How’s it going?” I ask.

  Mom pulls me into a one-armed hug, kissing the top of my head.

  “It’s done,” Dad says, looking relieved. Kauffman turns from the defense table and looks past my parents and me giving a nod at someone behind us. I look to see Mitchell careening down the aisle behind me. Dad sees him too. “First and last day of the McBride trial,” he tells Mitchell when he stops behind us.

  “I have a great defense team,” Uncle Will exclaims.

  Kauffman grins, “It helps when your client hasn’t committed a crime.”

  “I knew it!” I say, nearly jumping in place. “See, Mom, I told you it would be fine.”

  Mom raises her eyebrows at me. “He didn’t totally get off scot-free. They’re still stripping him of his title as Dean of The Southern Academy.” I glance around interested to see if anyone thinks this is a big deal. From how Mom talked about the supreme council liking to make examples of Seraphim, I was thinking he’d end up behind bars. Dad’s looking sad, but Mitchell isn’t paying attention. He’s looking at Kelly who’s standing outside of the courtroom peering in. Kelly grins when Mitchell gives him a thumb up. He must not think it’s that big of a deal either.

  I give Uncle Will a once-over. He doesn’t let on if he’s upset with the decision. He’s checking out the long table lining the wall several feet in front of the defense table. All of the chairs behind the table are empty; a single wooden door is shut behind it. It must be where the council sits. The door behind the table must be why I didn’t see a group of Seraphim surrounded council by bodyguards leave the courtroom.

  “I didn’t want to be in charge of that school to begin with. Hopefully they’ll put in someone who can take care of our kids—but really, they lightened my workload. Have any of you eaten yet? Kauffman mentioned a great seafood place.” Most of us nod— I guess everyone has been too busy to eat.

  “I recommend the catfish special,” Uncle Will’s attorney adds.

  “Join us,” Uncle Will asks him. “My treat.”

  “I would, but my team could use the extra help getting prepared for tomorrow.”

  Uncle Will’s brow raises. “That’s rather fast.”

  The attorney gives a shrug and a small smile. “That’s the new Supreme Council for you.”

  Chapter 19

  I can smell the crawfish boil as soon as I step off of the shuttle bus in the restaurant parking lot. The restaurant isn’t too busy this early in the evening, but Uncle Will still asks for a table in the back.

  The food bar we passed on the way to our table has everything fried you can think of except oysters and frog legs, which are both available on the menu as part of the seafood platter.

  Kelly’s grandmother was expecting his phone call, so Mitchell and him decided just to pick up fast food on their way back to the hotel.

  Over our early dinner, Uncle Will informs us that some members of his faculty are to stand trial next. “The council chose to only put the team leaders from the raid on trial,” Uncle Will says quietly, taking apart his wrapped utensils. He takes the butter knife and drags the edge along the inner side of his left thumb. “And, since most of them didn’t survive it shouldn’t take them long.” He presses harder on his thumb, the skin blanching, but he’s still nowhere close to breaking the skin.

  Mom is sitting beside him with Dad on the other side of her. She rubs her hand back and forth over his shoulders until he lays the butter knife down. “It’s going to be okay,” she says gently.

  “Yeah well, if everything stays on track, preliminary hearings will begin next week for the Rogues we captured who were seen shooting at students. Thanks to the footage from my team leaders’ body cameras, most of them won’t be able to talk their way out of what they did.”

  Mom’s eyes widen. She’s impressed. “Your people have recorded the raid?”

  Jake hasn’t been very talkative since we collected him from detectives. On the ride to the restaurant, he told me that they had him identifying Rogues who worked in the basement while he was being held down there. I don’t ask him if he was able to identify the Rogues who made him hunt down Mr. Thomas and the others, but I hope he was able to kill two birds with one stone.

  My etouffee was fishier than I’d like. When dessert is offered after everyone is nearly finished, Jake and I agree to split a chocolate pie. When the oversized slice arrives, Mom sneaks in a couple of bites as Dad and Uncle Will go to the register to pay.

  When we return to the council building after lunch, we are advised by a security guard to stay put when my parents start discussing logistics of where we go from here. It’s not like we were about to head back to our old home after it had been defiled by Rogues. New Orleans would have been
our only option, and isn’t that far away but none of us were going to tell the security guard that.

  Since we would be staying put, the council offered free rooms at the hotel they have Seraphim staying in. We obliged them. “Being close to the council means we will also be well guarded,” Dad said, after the guard left us to notify the council.

  We decide to stop by the hospital one more time to tell Sidney goodnight before visiting hours are over. Already knowing how she feels about the hospital food, we pop by the vending machines before heading upstairs.

  She’s asleep sitting up in her bed when we walk in. “Should we wake her?” Dad asks Mom as they walk into the hospital room ahead of Jake and I.

  Behind me, Uncle Will keeps the door open to the hallway looking out at the nurse making her rounds with the medicine cart. “We won’t be able to wake her up if they’ve already given her pain medicine for the night.”

  Sidney stirs. “It’s not pain medicine,” she mumbles, lazily opening her eyes. “I’m just old.” She smiles. “I’m almost to the age of falling asleep midsentence.”

  “We just wanted to stop by before it got too late to let you know that we’re staying in the area,” Mom tells her, moving to stand next to the left side of the bed. Dad is on her heels, keeping a hand on the lower part of her back as if they’re attached. “We’re not sure how long though. The council has told us not to leave just yet.” Sidney looks between Mom and Uncle Will, who has shut the hospital room door. I follow Jake to the couch, sitting down beside him as Uncle Will goes to stand on the other side of Sidney’s bed. I hand the television remote to Jake who gladly changes it off of the weather channel.

  “Are you not worried?” Sidney asks.

  Mom glances at Dad and Uncle Will. “Not really.” Mom reaches behind her back to take Dad’s hand in hers. “I answered all of the detective’s questions, and I gave a statement about what happened in Baton Rouge.” Jake, unable to find anything he’s happy with, hands the remote back over to me. I put it back on the weather channel.