by Jay Mackey
CJ shook his head. “Well, if you follow the lines, it’s just that if Nini is Venus, and her mother is Aphrodite, then . . .”
Penny gave him a look that said she was skeptical.
Oval, though, seemed unfazed. He said, “I don’t know, dude. I’ve always wondered about you, like the way you stare at stars at night with that funny look in your eyes.””
“Yeah, well, now you know,” responded CJ.
Oval grinned. Even he couldn’t quite laugh, given their situation.
Hours went by. There was no resolution; no questions were answered. Skinny Kid brought them a bag of McDonalds burgers and some Cokes, but the burgers were cold and most of the ice was melted in the Cokes, so CJ figured he may have had to go quite a distance to find the McDonalds.
Later, sometime in the middle of the afternoon, everyone in the little office was dozing—the kids spread out on the floor, Jack slumped over the desk—after not getting much sleep during the night. Sitting hour after hour with no change and no stimulation dulled even Penny’s hyperactive mind.
There was a scratching noise at the door, a noise that CJ had learned meant that someone was unlocking the door. Actually, they were unlocking the padlock that someone had crudely attached to the outside of the door, because there was no way to lock the door without it.
The noise caused CJ to sit, not alert yet, but not asleep. But everyone was quickly at full attention when the door swung open and in rushed, not Skinny Kid or Stringy Hair, but Blankenship.
“You miserable son of a bitch,” he screamed, looking at Jack. “You knew all along about this kid,” he went on as he pulled a gun from his belt. “Have you been hiding him all these years? Huh? And what about his parents? Where the fuck are they?”
Jack stared at him, eyes wide, mouth agape. “What? What are—”
Blankenship didn’t wait for an answer, yelling even louder than before, “I’ve got the results back, Jack. They don’t lie. I didn’t really intend to have the doc test you, but he did. And I discovered that, not only did you fuck me back then, back when I thought we were working together, you’re still fucking me. You lying asshole. I’ll bet you’ve been here the whole time. Flying off into space my ass. Your family’s here.” Spit was flying, but Blankenship seemed not to notice or care.
He looked around the room, eyes crazed, hands shaking. CJ couldn’t take his eyes off the gun, which Blankenship was waving all over. CJ wondered if the guy was drunk, or if his temper was really this bad.
Now Blankenship seemed to gather himself, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and standing a little straighter, though still stooped. He looked at Jack, and curled his lip. “There were rumors about you. Oh, yeah.” He started pacing, still waving the gun around. “You and Aphrodite. The little bitch.”
He turned quickly to face Jack again. “But they’re all dead. They told me.” He pointed to CJ. “So where did this kid come from, then, Jack? You’ve fucked me for the last time,” he said as he reached forward with the gun and fired.
It was obvious that Blankenship wasn’t used to firing a gun. His first shot missed everything, and the recoil threw his hand up almost over his head, nearly causing him to lose his grip entirely. But he quickly brought the gun back down and fired again, and again. The second shot hit the now-cringing Jack in the left shoulder, and the third hit him in the chest.
“It was all instinct,” said Oval later. “I didn’t have time to think about it. I just reacted. Old wrestling angles and weak points. If I’d had two good ankles, I’d have pinned him to the floor. But I didn’t.”
What he did might have saved all the kids’ lives at the time. He’d been on the floor in front of the desk as Blankenship entered, with his crutches next to him. As Blankenship yelled, Oval sat up and leaned against the desk, so he was just under Blankenship, and got sprayed when Blankenship was spitting venom at Jack. But then as Blankenship started to fire, Oval reached down, grabbed a crutch by the tip, and swung it at Blankenship’s legs. It hit him just behind his right knee, and he went down.
On the floor, Blankenship looked at Oval, surprised, not sure what had hit him. He’d dropped the gun, which slid behind him toward the door. He scrambled, trying to get to his feet, but Oval grabbed one ankle and pulled it back, taking that leg out from under him and flattening him on the floor.
Penny and CJ had been on the floor near the corner, with Penny closer to the door. When the shooting started, she cringed, grabbing CJ, forcing them both back into the corner.
CJ, seeing Oval’s attack, tried to jump up and help, but fell over Penny in his attempt. He kept scrambling, and awkwardly got to his knees just as Oval pulled Blankenship flat. Spotting the gun, CJ crawled toward the door.
Even flat on the floor, Blankenship was almost able to reach the gun, but he was old and slow, and CJ got to the gun first, grabbing the handle and pushing at the old man with his other hand.
Both men now realized who was in control. Blankenship pulled back and looked at CJ, who leaned away. Oval released Blankenship’s ankle, and he slowly got to his feet, his eyes never leaving CJ’s, who also stood.
CJ held the gun pointed at Blankenship. He wanted to say something, yell “stop,” or anything, but no word came.
The look in Blankenship’s eyes never changed. It was fear, or defeat, CJ wasn’t sure. But suddenly he dipped his head and darted for the door, quick for an old man. Again, CJ wanted to yell, tried, but failed. He did manage to follow Blankenship to the hallway, and point the gun at his back as he limped down the hall, as quickly as his age would allow. CJ thought about pulling the trigger even before he heard Oval yell, “Shoot him!” But Blankenship disappeared through another doorway before CJ acted.
Penny yelled, “My God! Jack’s bleeding. He’s dying!” and that woke him. He returned to the room and saw Penny standing over Jack, blood all over both.
Jack was alive. Grimacing, he said, “Get out of here. Now!”
“Where are the other two men? They’ll come after us,” said Oval. He looked at CJ. “Why didn’t you shoot him?”
Ignoring the questions, CJ moved to help Penny. “Is he okay?”
“Can’t you see the blood?” she said as she tried to stop the bleeding with her hands.
“Jack, Jack, are you . . . what’s going on?” CJ didn’t know what to say, what to do.
Jack, whose eyes had been closed tight against the pain, looked up. “Go. Those thugs will be back. You’ve got to get out.” The front of his shirt was now soaked with blood, and Penny was having no luck in slowing the flow.
“No, not without you,” said CJ. He looked around frantically for something to use to help with the bleeding. He thought about the bathroom across the hall, and bolted for it, returning quickly with a pack of paper towels and a roll of toilet paper. He and Penny packed the towels around the hole in Jack’s chest.
As Penny pushed on his chest, Jack said, “I’m all right. I’ll go with you, but we’ve got to get moving.” He stood, unsteadily, grabbing onto CJ for support. “Go,” he grunted, pushing CJ toward the door.
“Coast is still clear,” said Oval from the doorway.
CJ tucked the gun into his belt, and they all moved slowly down the hall and out the door to the back parking lot. A blast of heat met them, nearly taking CJ’s breath away. It was late afternoon in the desert, and the sun was unmerciful.
The back of the building looked much as it had when they’d arrived—only the backs of the adobe buildings and the open desert behind were visible. No vehicles were parked there—someone had moved Jack’s car and the van, and the rest of the lot was as vacant as when they’d arrived in the middle of the night.
CJ, adjusting Jack’s arm over his shoulder to provide more support to the struggling man, pointed to the right. “Penny, run ahead and find someplace for us to go, or find help.”
Turning to Oval, he said, “Oval, you help her,” knowing that Oval, limping along on his crutches, would be unlikely to be of much help, but at lea
st he’d be moving away from the door, where CJ feared Stringy Hair and Skinny Kid would emerge at any second.
Jack stumbled, nearly pulling CJ down to the ground, but then caught himself and straightened. “I’m okay,” he grunted. “Just go.”
They slowly followed as Penny raced ahead, pulling on doors, banging on them, and then running to the next. Oval followed, banging on doors again after Penny had moved on.
The doors were unmarked, for the most part, except for one that had “Deliveries” painted on it, and the “Lab” on the door they’d escaped from, so CJ didn’t know what kinds of stores or offices were on the other side. No windows appeared in the plain walls that stretched before them.
CJ felt his shirt getting soaked already in the heat, as sweat poured off his face and down his neck. But then he realized that at least some of the dampness was blood. He looked at Jack, and could see he was biting his teeth, undoubtedly in pain, and was still bleeding from his chest wound. He didn’t know what to do, except struggle on.
Penny disappeared into a gap between buildings. CJ got worried when she didn’t immediately reappear, fearing she’d been caught, or worse, but then she reappeared and started running back. She stopped when she reached Oval, who was about halfway to the gap, pointed ahead and said something to him, and then ran to CJ.
“There’s a door with a glass window in that alley up there,” she panted. “Maybe we can break in and find a place to hide.” She looked at Jack, and CJ understood her meaning—maybe there’s a place to hide Jack while we look for help.
“Great,” said CJ. “Help me.”
Penny took Jack’s other arm and put it over her shoulder. The three of them moved as quickly as they could. Oval disappeared into the gap, and CJ heard glass breaking shortly thereafter. Oval reappeared, with a grin on his face, and waved them forward.
When they reached the alley, Oval greeted them at an open door. Carefully helping Jack through the door, trying to keep him from falling, CJ peered into the dark interior. They entered into a small room, with one open door leading to a hallway directly ahead. The room was empty, with bits of paper scattered around the bare concrete floor, mingled with dirt and dust, and an open, empty cardboard box in the corner.
“What is this?” CJ asked.
“Don’t know,” responded Oval. “Nobody here, dark in the hallway. Lights don’t work.”
CJ felt something crunch beneath his foot as he helped Jack move toward the hallway—glass, from the window Oval had broken to get in.
“How’d you break the glass?” he asked.
Holding up one of his crutches, Oval said, “With my main weapon, the crutch of death.”
Oval was always Oval.
Penny, who’d gone out into the hallway, reappeared. She said, “Looks like an empty office or maybe a store, I can’t tell. Down the hall is a big open room with some windows, so we’ll be able to see what’s going on out front.” She came over to help CJ move Jack again.
“Oval, see if you can put a piece of paper or cardboard in the window to cover the hole you put in it. Maybe it won’t be so obvious that we came in here,” said CJ.
He and Penny helped get Jack down the hall to the open room, where he sat down and leaned slowly against the half-wall that cut through the room.
Penny went to one of the windows that flanked the front door. “There’s a parking lot, but no cars, except one black Cadillac parked in front of the office at the end, where we were being held, and Jack’s car parked beyond that. Nothing else. It looks like this strip mall is deserted, everything closed. It was probably mostly offices, not stores, but whatever it was, it’s vacant now.”
Oval came into the big room and said, “Maybe nobody’s after us yet because only Blankenship is here, and we have his gun.”
Penny turned, excited. “We can go after him! Take his car and get Jack to a hospital.” She went to the front door and tried to open it, but while she was fiddling with the lock, she looked out the window and took a quick step back. “Shit!”
“What?” said CJ.
“The van just came back, and our two buddies jumped out and ran into the door of the lab.”
“Did they see you?” asked CJ.
“No.”
“Then they don’t know where we are.”
Oval said, “I was able to cover up the hole in the window in back, and I locked the door, so we should be okay, at least for a while.”
“Is there any sign of friendly people out there?” asked CJ. “A store that’s open, a road, anything?”
“No,” answered Penny. “We’re alone. If we try to make a run for it, we’re going to be out in the open. In the desert.”
“Fuck,” said CJ. “I’m not sure we can wait. Jack needs medical attention.”
“Don’t worry about me,” said Jack, gritting his teeth.
CJ watched as Penny used the toilet paper to slow the flow of blood from Jack’s chest wound. She was successful in slowing it to a trickle, but Jack didn’t look good. CJ said, “I’ll go. You two wait here and take care of him.”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Penny. “There’s nowhere to go. The only road I can see is down toward the lab, and we’re surrounded by open desert. You’ll be in plain sight as soon as one of those jerks walks outside.”
“Yeah, man,” added Oval. “We’re going to have to wait until dark. I think he’s stopped bleeding.”
CJ looked over at Jack, who had his eyes closed.
“Maybe I could sneak over and hotwire that van or Jack’s car,” he said. “I’ve got the gun, in case they see me.”
“When’s the last time you hotwired a car, hotshot?” asked Penny.
“Do you really think you’re going to shoot someone?” added Oval. “’Cause you kind of hesitated back there when you had a chance to shoot old Blankenship.”
Jack opened his eyes and looked up at CJ, grabbed his arm and pulled him down. “I’m okay. Sit down. I’ve got to tell you some things.”
50
Groom Lake, Nevada 1948
During the months following the transfer of the crash victims from Muroc to Groom Lake, Jack continued to spend time with Aphrodite. They often sat together on the couch in Aphrodite’s room when they worked on their language lessons. It wasn’t a big couch, so they sat close. She would frequently reach over and touch him lightly, on the arm, or on his leg. It was nothing, really, but Jack found it stimulating, yet uncomfortable. He knew it was innocent, but felt guilty that he was so aware of her, so attuned to her. He was careful not to react to her touch, at least not consciously.
Jack found that when he really concentrated on a word or an idea, she was able to pick up on it more easily.
One day, she smiled and said, “Yes, I am a quick learner.”
He accused her of reading his mind.
She denied it. “I am not reading your mind. I am hearing what you are saying.”
He shook his head. “But you’re hearing it before I say it.”
“So it is a matter of time that upsets you then, yes?”
“No, it is that you know what I’m thinking.”
“I only know what you are saying to me. Sometime, I know before I hear.”
“How is that different than reading my mind?”
“How is it the same?”
He reached over and grabbed her arm, something he’d never done before, other than for medical purposes. Startled, she stared at his hand on her arm.
“Don’t play games with me,” he said. He was not angry as much as he was confused. That she had this ability and he didn’t understand. That he cared as much as he did. That she would know how he felt.
That’s when he had his second run-in with Captain Ernst, who came barging into the room, much as he’d done a couple weeks before.
“What the hell are you doing to her, Lieutenant?”
Quickly releasing her arm, Jack felt the blood rushing to his face, mad, and embarrassed that he’d been caught in such a compromising posit
ion. “Nothing,” he stammered. “I—she—we’re doing nothing.”
“Well, her daddy sure thinks something is going on. He’s upset as hell.”
“What?” Jack was caught off guard again. “Her daddy? Who’s her daddy?”
“Why, Zeus, of course.” Ernst smirked.
Jack was confused. Zeus didn’t seem nearly old enough to be Aphrodite’s father. He put her as midtwenties. Zeus was late thirties at most.
“You’re kidding, right? Just because of their names?” he said. Zeus was Aphrodite’s father in mythology.
“I guess you haven’t learned everything about your little patient, have you?” said Ernst. “Zeus really is her father. Whatever you’re doing, stop right now. In fact, why don’t you make yourself scarce? Give somebody some pills. I need to talk to Aphrodite myself.”
Jack stood, mad at himself. He could see Aphrodite was upset, but whether it was because he’d grabbed her and yelled at her, or because Ernst was there, he didn’t know. He decided this wasn’t the time to make a scene, and so he left, wondering how Zeus knew that she was feeling some distress.
As time went on, Captain Ernst continued to be a thorn in Jack’s side. Ernst had a team of people working with him. They regularly talked with the patients, interrogated them, really. These sessions usually took place either in the patient’s room or in a separate suite of rooms that Ernst used.
Aphrodite was invariably upset whenever she returned from one of her sessions with Ernst or one of his crew. Jack was dying to find out what the interrogations were about, but that was clearly across the line that Ernst had drawn. Plus, he didn’t want to make Aphrodite’s mood even worse by talking about something that was obviously unpleasant.
Often, after a session with Ernst, she’d take frustrations out on Jack, complaining, “The same thing, over and over. How do you do this? How do you do that? Why do you do this? I don’t even know what this is.” On another day, she said, “How do they think I would know how to make things go? Am I a mechanical, or whatever you call it? No, I make things grow. I make things live. That’s all.”