She landed close to the doors to the main building and had to wait for someone to exit or enter. Her wings safely tucked away in their canisters, she leaned against the wall and gazed out over the grounds, listening to the instructors shouting orders. She shivered but felt safe in her cocoon of invisibility. Doctor Gomus had assured her that as long as she didn’t touch the off button on the small module on her wrist, she would remain invisible.
Someone finally came out of the building. Jane recognized the woman as an instructor for the younger trainees. Jane quickly scooted inside before the door shut.
The door closed behind her, and suddenly she felt stifled to be back inside the hated place. She fought off the feeling of claustrophobia and deep-rooted anxiety, then began walking down the corridor to where Schultz’s office was located.
She leaned against the wall outside of his office, waiting for Schultz to either enter or leave. With her luck, he would be in the middle of a surgical procedure. It could be hours before anyone came to the door.
Time seemed to creep by slowly as she waited. It was quiet in this hallway. Only Schultz and Schmidt’s offices were located in this area of the building. No recruits were allowed near their offices unless the doctors summoned them, and they were usually escorted by guards.
She wondered what time it was. It would be easier to move around at night after lockdown, and when all the staff had gone to sleep. But she needed to listen to conversations between Schmidt and Schultz, and phone conversations.
Suddenly, Schmidt’s door opened. Even though she knew the man couldn’t see her, she bristled with fear, and her heart pounded so loudly she swore he could hear it. He walked swiftly to Schultz’s door, knocked on it once, then opened it to go in. Relieved, Jane quickly followed him before he had time to shut the door.
She stood as still as a statue in an empty corner of the office, well away from the seating area and Schultz’s desk. The man had a habit of pacing in front of the large picture window or imbibing in the whiskey stored in his sideboard.
“Now that Twenty-four and Ninety-one have successfully traveled to Brevona, what’s next?” Schmidt asked as he sat in one of the plush chairs. “How do we find out if they’re successful in getting rid of that pocket of upstarts?”
“We just have to trust they do their assignment and activate their implants. After they eradicate the rebels, the only evidence left will be their bodies. The upstarts will be reduced to ashes. And if someone finds Twenty-four and Ninety-one’s remains, the king will contact me, I’m sure.”
Schmidt frowned. “Isn’t he going to find it strange to discover more of our people dead on Brevona?”
“I’ll tell him that they were there on an assignment to gather geographic data or something. Fuck. I don’t know. I’ll think up some plausible story. How many have we recruited so far for the enhanced soldier program?” He walked to the sideboard and poured two glasses of whiskey. He downed the contents of one, then refilled it and carried the other to Schmidt.
Schmidt took the glass from him, swallowed the whiskey, then set the glass on Schultz’s desk. “Close to five-hundred.”
“Not enough. We need at least a thousand.”
“You are too impatient.” Schmidt leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. “Besides, the building to house them all won’t be finished for at least another month. That’s plenty of time to enlist another five-hundred. We can’t do this overnight.”
“World Leadership is pushing. They want to take over Brevona soon.”
One thousand enhanced soldiers? And if the housing facility would be ready in a month, it would give them little time to plan for the invasion. Jane had no doubt that the doctors had already begun enhancements on the five-hundred that had already joined the program.
“I know there have been a thousand people chosen for the first relocation project. How many do they plan to relocate in total if our first mission is a success?”
“A lot more. The chosen thousand are mainly families of the elite and wealthy from around the world. Our leaders will decide on others from a select portion of the populous once our control of Brevona has been established. Those that have been tested and confirmed free from disease or malformities will be offered a chance at a new life. Earth’s population will be purged of the undesirables thanks to the epidemic, and we can leave the rest to rot. They are dropping like flies anyway.”
“The whole plan is ridiculous! Abandon all attempts to cleanse our own planet? Earth can be saved.”
Schultz cocked his head at Schmidt, a curious expression on his face. “What’s with this soft streak so suddenly? You’ve had no qualms with our work in the past.”
Schmidt brushed his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. “I’m getting older. Maybe I’ve changed. Our population is dwindling rapidly since the epidemic hit a week ago. We have no cure for it, as you well know. These things spread quickly. It could reach here any day. We should be working around the clock to find a vaccine to treat the virus. Imagine if it hits us here. We’d lose years and years of work and many of our trainees.”
“You panic too easily. We’re far enough away from the crowded cities. It hasn’t come anywhere near us, and we’re not letting any outsiders through the gates for now, not even for deliveries. Let other scientists work on finding a vaccine. We have enough on our plate. Besides, it’s a natural way to cull the population.” He laughed.
Jane stood stunned listening to the conversation. The information about an epidemic shocked her. Even if any of them still had a family, would they survive the virus that was attacking the population?
Schultz drank the rest of the whiskey, stood and slammed his glass on the desk. “Enough talk. The operating rooms have been prepared for two-zero-nine and two-zero-six. I need your assistance with their enhancements.”
Jane held her breath as she watched the doctors leave the office. When the door clicked behind them, she quickly went to Schultz’s desk. His computer was on, the screensaver showing a series of pictures of children. She wondered who they were, but had no time to look at them all. She hit the enter button and heaved a sigh of relief when it didn’t ask for a password. What a moron. Even the youngest of the trainees had been taught to password protect their tablets. It was standard procedure. She took the flash drive out of her pocket and plugged it in before she began opening files.
As she had suspected, Schultz had a file for each recruit, from One to Two-hundred-thirty-three. She opened the file for One. It had deceased typed on it in big red letters. When she viewed the file for Two, it was also marked deceased. Jane grinned. We fooled the bastards. She didn’t have time to open every file, even though she was curious. After selecting all of them, she began to copy them to the thumb drive. The duplication of the files went quite fast. When it was done, she was tempted to delete all the data from his computer but thought better of it. It would alert Schultz that security had been compromised. She scanned the other folders and copied whatever looked important, then accessed his external drives. One of them contained all the files for the male division, and she copied those as well.
When she had finally ripped just about everything Schultz had stored on his computer and external drives, she shoved the small storage device back into her pocket. As far as she knew, Schultz kept everything in this office and on this computer. Now she just had to wait for his return. Or did she? The corridors near Schultz office were always deserted. Maybe she could sneak out, and no one would notice the door opening and closing.
She was just about to reach for the knob when the handle turned. She quickly stepped to the side. Carol, Schultz’s secretary, came in, placed a document on the desk, and turned to leave again. Jane barely had time to speed read the memo before she quickly followed Carol out of the office. The header had shown the message was from the World Leaders. It contained an order for Schultz and Schmidt to develop an antidote for the guanago virus that was killing hundreds of thousands.
Jane dashed over to the bassinet and peeked at the sleeping infant. She couldn’t tell what sex the little one was but assumed her to be a girl. The baby was adorable and slept so peacefully. A sick feeling invaded her stomach. Poor mite had no idea what was in store. After they had a plan of action against the Institute and the two scientists, they’d be too late to save this infant and the other trainee slated for surgery.
The door to the nursery had closed again, so Jane waited patiently for another opportunity. She couldn’t leave until morning anyway. The spaceship was due to leave for Brevona again the next afternoon.
A while later, another nurse came through the door. Quickly, Jane dashed through the opening before it closed. There were two rooms in front of her with their doors wide open. She inspected the first room. The back wall was lined with ten bassinets, each containing a sleeping infant ranging in age from newborn to about four months. It was a guess, but she figured if they were older than four months they’d be in a crib.
Jane couldn’t help herself. She approached one of the bassinets, reached inside and held a little hand. When the tiny fist clasped her finger, a tenderness filled her heart—a sensation she’d never felt in her life. Everything within her cried out to pick up the little one. She looked to be about a month old, and all Jane wanted to do was cradle her... to whisk her away to safety. She’d been told anything she held or carried instantly became invisible, like her, but she fought against the temptation. The risk was too great. Not only would the disappearance cause an uproar and tighten security, but the baby would not stay quiet for the length of time it took to get back to Brevona. And how would she take care of her? Bad idea, Jane.
A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. She flicked it away. Soldiers don’t cry. It had been drummed into them. She let go of the baby’s hand and went into the next room. It held numerous cribs with sleeping toddlers up to about age three.
Two of them had bandages around their heads. Jane’s heart bled for these innocents. The sooner they could overpower the doctors and help all the trainees, the better.
All the information they needed would be in the files she’d copied. Jane sighed. To have to spend the whole night inside the Institute was not an attractive thought, but she had no choice. No one but the doctors left the place after lockdown. The staff had rooms in a small, separate building. Where the doctors lived, she had no idea.
She thought about going to the medical wing but decided not to. Instead, she went to Carol’s office. There wasn’t a soul in sight, and Carol would be finished for the day, so she tried the door to find it wasn’t locked. She needed a pen and paper to write warnings for the older girls. She found what she wanted in Carol’s desk. Tearing the paper into small strips, she wrote the same message on all, then folded them into tiny wads. She’d get them to the girls first thing in the morning as soon as the doors unlocked.
Leaving Carol’s office, she went to the wing that housed the girls aged eighteen and up. Once there, she sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. All her senses were on high alert. She knew the trainees were on lockdown for the night, but she still worried that someone would find her. And how was she going to give the warnings to the others? What if one of the girls showed the scrap of paper to one of the doctors? Surely they wouldn’t be that stupid? She undid one of the small wads and read what she’d written in bold capitals.
DO NOT ACTIVATE IMPLANT. IT KILLS. HELP COMING.
The six o’clock alarm startled her awake. She’d drifted off even though she’d fought to stay alert. She stood and stretched. Soon, the trainees would be headed to breakfast. Maybe she could drop the tiny wads of folded paper on their plates.
Doors opened around her, and the hallway began to fill with activity. She flattened herself against the wall allowing the trainees to line up, then followed the queue of girls into the mess hall and waited until they all sat at their designated tables. She knew exactly which recruits she needed to target, all the ones eighteen and older.
Once they all began eating their breakfast, she made her move. Carefully dropping a tiny wad on each plate, right in their food, she hustled around the tables of the older girls before they had a chance to finish their breakfast. Heaving a sigh of relief after she dropped the last message on a plate, she stepped aside and watched for reactions.
Jane had to suppress a giggle. The expressions on some of the trainees’ faces, were priceless. Several looked up, beside them, behind them, confused looks on their faces. None of them opened the wad of paper, but she saw most of them pick it up, examine it for a second, then slip it into their pocket. Satisfied that she’d accomplished what she’d intended, Jane left the mess hall. She needed to get out of there fast so she could get back to Brevona with all she’d learned and collected.
Chapter Nine
When Jane landed near Edrian’s home, she saw Starla and David sitting at a table in the park.
“We’ve been on pins and needles since you left,” Starla said after briefly hugging Jane. “I’m glad you’re back safe. How did it go?”
“Let me get out of the suit first. Oh, by the way, Twenty-four with Ninety-one from the male division were sent here to get rid of a pocket of insurgents.”
“We know. Go and get changed. We’ll catch up when Edrian joins us shortly.”
Jane hurried inside where Bidiana pulled her into her arms for a quick hug. It was odd, but she could feel the tenderness radiating from the older woman. She wondered if this is what it felt like to have a real family—to have siblings greet you, and a mother worried about her child. “I am glad you are back safe, Jane.”
When Bidiana released her, she quickly made her way to the guest room Starla knows about Twenty-four and Ninety-one? She took off her harness and wings, then her suit, and changed into the tights and top that Bidiana had washed and laid on her bed neatly folded. When she was done, she hurried back to the little park. Her heartbeat sped up at the sight of Edrian sitting with Starla and David.
Jane sat and helped herself to a glass of juice and crammed a cookie into her mouth. She was starving since she hadn’t been able to eat anything during her short adventure. Digging in her pocket, she took out the flash drive and handed it to Edrian.
Their fingers touched briefly as he took the drive from her hand. It was as if a bolt of electricity shot up her arm. Their gazes met, and he held hers for a few moments, his golden eyes sparkling with warmth and something else that made her skin prickle with heat. She yanked her arm back as if scalded.
She took a deep breath to slow the racing of her heart. She really needed to get her body under control before she did something to embarrass herself.
Clearing her throat, she turned to Starla and David. “I copied just about everything that was on Schultz’s computer. He had all the files from both the divisions on the one system.”
David nodded. “He more than likely has it all on a computer in his office in the male division, too, and the systems are probably linked.”
“Your file is marked as deceased,” she told Starla.
Starla laughed. “Hah! Our ruse worked. Yours and David’s will be marked deceased, too. And very soon, Twenty-four and Ninety-one.”
Jane looked at them. “I overheard Schultz and Schmidt talking about them. They have been sent here to take out a band of insurgents. They also talked about a viral epidemic raging on Earth that’s killing a lot of people, and there is no vaccine to fight it.”
“Did they mention the name of the virus?” David asked.
“No, they didn’t. But Carol put a memo on Schultz’s desk that I managed to read. It’s called the guanago virus. W
orld Leadership ordered the doctors to develop a vaccine, but the way Schultz talked about the epidemic, they’re not going to. They’re quite happy that people are dying by the thousands, especially Schultz. There is probably information about it on the flash drive.”
“Any travelers on their way here from Earth will have to be quarantined, and all travel between Brevona and Earth will need to be suspended for the time being,” Edrian stood and held his hand out to Jane. “Come, we will give the data to my father. He will inform the king immediately.”
Later that day, Jane stood in the gardens outside of Edrian’s home and gazed at the mountain peaks. They were rugged, and ice-capped, much like the Alps near the Institute, but here on Brevona, she felt free even though she was on the ground.
Edrian had given the flash drive to Timyt and warned him of the virus plaguing Earth. Measures were immediately taken to protect Brevona and its people from Earth’s epidemic, but without a sample of the guanago virus, Brevona’s scientists could not assist in formulating a vaccine against it.
Footsteps behind her broke the silence. Edrian. The prickling awareness, the rush of heat in her veins, and the fast tempo of her heart told her who it was. Why did her body react like this every time he drew near? Was it desire? Lust? Or something more?
He drew up beside her and turned her to face him. Cupping her chin, he leaned down and whispered against her lips. “It is so much more.” He kissed her gently, then pulled back and gazed down at her. “And once this is all behind us, I plan to show you exactly how much more.”
The hot look in his eyes incited a desperate yearning deep within her... a pang of hunger that gripped her body and soul. She didn’t want sex just to procreate as the scientists had explained. She longed for so much more. A home, a life, and a family with this man. The empty recesses of her soul cried out for it and her heart filled with pleasure at the very idea of it.
Tentatively, she wound her arms around his neck. “I don’t fully understand what is happening to me, but I think I have finally found my true home.”
Virama Page 7