by Carl Damen
Edarus nodded. "I don't know what happened, I didn't choose this. But now I'm one of them, aren't I? I've got more of an interest than ever to help them."
Forre returned the nod. "Your secret's safe from me. As long as you keep their best interests in mind."
Edarus extended his sticky, syrupy hand to shake, but paused as the doctor's comment really hit home. Of course he would keep the Defender's best interests in mind. But they weren't the only group he should be thinking of. "I want my family kept out of this, as much as possible. You're the doctor; you come up with the story that will keep my wife happy."
"Why not?"
Forre leaned back in his chair and began to absently play with his tablet. "Because I'm still waiting on a definite answer from the CDC. Pointless speculation at this point might lock us into certain assumptions, which might not be helpful when we actually find out just what's going on."
Edarus cleared his throat. "Any news on when that'll be, by the way?"
Forre didn't look at him. "Probably a few more days."
"I just don't want to risk infecting anyone..."
Happy surprise tinged with suspicion radiated from Amanda; she wasn't used to such selfless action from her husband.
"Whatever it is, we've all been exposed by now, so really, there's nothing more to consider from that end."
"Good, then let me finish eating."
Forre wiped off his hand, stood, and left the kitchen.
Edarus finished eating, pushed his plate away and went upstairs to shower. Every household staff member he passed along the way tried to push back against the wall, to avoid the hairy man in the bathrobe who threatened the well-being of their day. Once in the Presidential suite's bathroom, he took in the man hanging in the mirror: he looked deranged, ready to pounce and kill someone with his bare hands... had he possessed the strength to do so, which didn't seem likely.
He was in the shower, trimming his beard in a small mirror under the spigot, when a storm front of nervous indecision billowed into the room, followed by Amanda. She leaned against the door, her slow breathes sending swirls of cool air through the steam.
"Edarus."
He turned down the water pressure so he could hear her better.
"What's going on?"
How much did she know? He tried—clumsily—to push into her mind and see, but all he was able to find was vague foreboding. "I'm sick."
"I got that. What's really going on?"
"I'm sick."
"There is no way that was natural. I—I have suspicions, but—I want answers, Ed. You can't keep me in the dark forever."
He turned the water all the way off and stepped out of the shower. "Maybe its better in the dark."
Amanda crossed her arms and stood motionless as Edarus wrapped himself in a new bathrobe. She nodded. "Maybe. But I'm not in the dark anymore; no one is. The problem is, though, is that I'm still treated as if I am in the dark, and so no one will tell me what dangers are at the end of the light."
"You're taking the metaphor too far."
She slammed her hand against the door and lunged forward. "I'm trying to protect my family! You're not making it any easier! Two days ago we had a full-scale riot a few miles from our house, then your uncle gets killed! Now this—" she gestured at Edarus, who seemed pitifully small in the folds of the robe, "And you expect me to go along, business as normal? No. No more. Either you start telling me things, letting me know that my son is safe, or we're gone. Do you here me? Do you really understand? I'm tired of sitting under a table while you put your life in danger to save the goddamn country." The steam around her was swirling faster now.
Edarus put down the towel he had been drying himself with and looked—really looked—at his wife. He saw past the beauty-queen smile, the chemically-enhanced eye-lashes, the dermatologist's dream skin. He saw with more than just his eyes, felt the energy barely contained beneath the surface. And he knew that nothing he said would comfort her. He had missed his chance, long ago, and it was too late; she didn't need him anymore.
"I honestly don't know what's going to happen. But I can promise you this: you're safe here. Than's safe here. This is just about the safest place on earth right now."
"What about last night?"
"I'm sick; that's all."
"What about Defenders?"
"I'm going to take care of that right now."
She left, and soon after so did Edarus. He dressed, finding all of his clothes too large, and went barefoot into the hall.
Right outside the door he nearly collided with Ashheart. "Good; I was about to come find you."
"Yes, sir. Doctor Forre is looking for you, sir. He wants to do some tests."
"Good." He followed her out onto the steps leading down into the atrium. He looked out over the void and felt—nothing. He feared nothing now. "I need to make some calls; matters of state."
She produced a large mobile, seemingly out of thin air, and passed it back to him. "Fully secure."
She left as they neared the small clinic in the lower level of the compound. Edarus continued on and found Forre inside. "You're looking better."
"You said you could teach me to be normal. Let's begin."
"Not yet. Right now I want to do a check-up, take some blood samples. I want to make sure this is—"
"Shh." Edarus held up a hand. "We were stupid earlier, in the kitchen. The walls have ears."
Forre looked around, then fixed Edarus with a skeptical stare.
Edarus raised the mobile and shook it. "Can I make some phone calls while you're sucking me dry?"
"You're the president."
Edarus hopped up on an examination table, slid a little on the wax-paper covering, and placed a call to Senator Terstein. "Hey, Mitch. What? Of course I'd call! I'm your boss now, remember? I saw the speech; real helper for public support, there. You saw mine? Good; I'm looking to end this as quickly as possible; I'll be drafting something to put what I said into effect on our end. You still got Ahmad on your team? Good. Okay; I'm currently down with something. I'm with a doctor right now. No, he's staff. Listen, when I'm back up, I want to meet with you and Ahmad, and anyone else who'd be good for this. I know; this is a big concession. Probably illegal, too. But it'll be worth it if we can punch it through. Yes. I'll get more to you later. Goodbye."
He disconnected and looked over at Forre, who was swabbing the inside of Edarus's elbow in preparation for a large needle. "Q-bomb, buddy."
Forre raised a questioning eyebrow, and Edarus shook his head.
A needle jabbed into Edarus's arm.
Edarus barely felt the pain, still aglow from the call he had just made. Things were in motion, the path to resolution and peace was now begun. And for the first time in over half a year, he didn't feel like he was betraying anyone.
"Even without the concern of infection, it's probably for the best if we all stay put for at least a week."
The glow of starting the process to free the E.H.U.D.s faded over the course of the weekend: Edarus had been in and out of the clinic all day Friday and most of this morning; Amanda had skulked about, watching him with silent trepidation; Than...
Than had come to him in his office and stared at him from the door. "Hey, dad..."
Edarus looked up from the law book he was poring through. "What's up?"
"Just... just wondering if you were okay."
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?"
Than couldn't seem to make eye contact with him. "You just look different... and mom said to be careful around you."
Edarus blinked; this wasn't right. Amanda was turning their son against him. Wasn't she? No... that wasn't his thought, his fear. It was Than, feeling torn.
"I'm fine buddy. I'm just... Just making the country safe for you, all right?"
Than nodded.
"Everyone should be safe." Forre turned away from the First Couple and tossed his tablet onto a counter. "I still want to screen everyone, though."
He turned back and gestured to
Amanda. "If you don't mind, I'd like to draw some blood now, if you have the time."
"Sure."
The bodies in the room shifted around. Edarus stood and stretched, Amanda leaned against the examination table, and Forre prepped a needle.
In a moment they were done, and Amanda led Edarus out into the hall. He followed her, only peripherally aware of their ascent up the grand staircase, and pulled up short as she stopped on the upper landing.
"Whoa, warning next time, please."
"I asked you what you were planning on doing about the Defenders..."
Edarus blinked and ran through his memory. He seemed to recall something to that effect, days before. "I'm taking care of them."
Amanda turned; here eyes were puffy, she looked on the verge of tears. "So what was that, back with the doctor? Why are you doing this, Ed? Why are you bothering to keep it a secret?"
"I don't—"
"Just stop!" She took a deep breath, ground her teeth. "I've suspected for months now. You knew about the program, you knew all the dark secrets. And I've known since Friday." Her voice fell to a hoarse whisper. "I'm not blind, Edarus! I'm not a fucking idiot, I can figure out what's going on! I don't know why you did it, or how, or—I don't care! Just talk to me, tell me what's going on, don't keep me in the dark! Have you ever thought that maybe I could help you, could understand you?"
Edarus heard her words, but all he saw where bodies flying through the air, tables disintegrating, little booths with white covered forms issuing from them. And then he saw other forms, also white, floating through the light in the void beside him. "It's better in the dark, Mandy."
She slowly shook her head. "I've been out of the dark longer than you may think."
Edarus opened his mouth to respond, but the rapid clicking of shoes on steel echoed through the atrium and drowned out anything he may have said.
Ashheart appeared at the top of the staircase, her face drained of color. "Mr. President. We're evacuating you. Now."
"What—"
"Marine One is touching down on the roof as we speak."
Amanda lunged forward. "Where's Than?"
Ashheart didn't look up from her tablet. "He's been secured and is waiting upstairs; we'll rendezvous with him on the way up."
Edarus grabbed Amanda's shoulder and tried to force calmness into her. She slumped slightly, so he focused his attention onto Ashheart. "What the hell is going on?"
"Melana Ruiz has escaped with help from her guard; we have reason to believe the guard may have given up the location of this facility."
"How could she know that?"
Ashheart shrugged. "How could she smuggle the nation's most dangerous criminal out of the fucking Pentagon?" She turned and marched away from the atrium, into the building proper, confident the others would follow.
Edarus expected a burst of panic from Amanda, but instead he felt cold resolve.
Ashheart led them to a secondary stairwell hidden in a concrete chimney running up through the compound. She ushered them in, then pressed a finger to her ear and ordered, "Activate the scramblers."
"No!" Edarus lunged forward and grabbed her hand. "No scramblers!"
She looked at him, concerned that this was somehow a result of his medical crisis. "Sir?"
Amanda was looking at Ashheart, a sense of piteous contempt exuding from her.
Edarus cleared his throat and released Ashheart. "Um... if she's near, sending up scramblers might alert her."
"Reading our minds might alert her."
He was about to respond when the shocking buzz of the scramblers burst through the walls. In his previous life, they had merely been annoying, at worst nauseating, but now the scramblers ripped through him, roiling through his intestines and up past his esophagus, taking his mind and tearing it away from the new world he had discovered.
"Turn... off... the fucking... scramblers..." he forced past chattering teeth.
Ashheart furrowed her brow, made connections best not made, and returned her hand to her ear. "Cancel that."
A moment later, the scramblers ceased, and Edarus slumped back against the safety rail. "Thank you."
Ashheart nodded, not taking her eyes off him, then gestured up the stairs. "Your son's waiting."
When they were about half way up the staircase, Amanda sidled up next to her husband and whispered, "No one's going to be in the dark now."
They pushed through the door at the top of the stairs, found themselves in a walkway hidden inside one of the exterior walls, and met up with Than, his nanny, and two armored guards. Edarus felt strangely uneasy about the hulking grey forms.
Than broke free of his escort, hugged his mother, and extended a hand to his father. "What's going on?"
Edarus took the proffered hand and led the family after Ashheart. "Um... you know that lady on AmeriNews, Melana?"
"Yeah?"
"She... she wants to talk with me."
Amanda swallowed, her throat convulsing wildly. "It'll be alright, sweetie."
"She's the one who killed uncle Isaac, isn't she?"
Edarus glanced at Amanda, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged minutely. "Yes. Yes she is."
Than didn't say anything, but Edarus could feel him steeling himself for what was to come.
Ashheart led them up a second hidden staircase, and then they were out in the chill night air, walking across the rough grey roof of the compound towards a large, presidential-blue helicopter that was just settling down.
Edarus let go of Than's hand and pushed him towards the helo as Ashheart stopped and circled around to the rear of the group. She put her hand to her ear again, then froze mid-movement.
Edarus turned back to look at her, found her standing perfectly still. He gulped in a lungful of air to shout a warning, but found himself unable to empty his lungs. A moment later his chest tightened and he fell to his knees as a horrible pain wrenched through him. He tried to scream, but the pain was too intense. He knew enough about basic first-aid to recognize this as a hear attack, and then the world began to turn red and hazy around the edges as the air he had sucked in moments before began to turn toxic inside him.
Somewhere out in the ever receding world was a presence peering into his mind, cool and disinterested. It didn't really want to cause him pain, but it had to kill him, and it had to look natural. The presence calmed him, reassured him that his family would be safe, his country would go on without him, all would be well...
Edarus heard the words, felt the meaning, began to slip into them, to fall away from his body and let the world go...
Red turned to black...
And everything was still...
…
…
A violent force shook him and the world burst into crystal clarity. He was still on the roof, still dying as cellular waste built up in his lungs and his arteries carried increasingly less vitality to his body. Two more minds had joined him, though, two more presences to shore him up, remind him why he was there.
The first was small, frightened, but unwilling to let go of him, urging him to stay and fight, to acknowledge it and protect it. The second was a roiling inferno of righteous indignation, focusing on and surrounding the smaller mind, refusing to allow Edarus to leave, imploring—no, commanding—him that he could not leave until the small mind was safe, until his duty was done and the world was put right.
He latched onto these minds, these primordial beings that he didn't have the strength to identify, honed in on them, curled them down and into himself, pulled their energies down into his chest until it was so full that it burst against the cold mind that wanted him dead. He yelled, releasing the dead air in him, pushing out his mind in every direction in a concussive wave, feeling the glass walls of the house, the windscreen of the helicopter, everything bursting and falling away. And then there he was, seeing Amanda and Than, the guards, the helicopter pilots, all the world frozen before him.
"Edarus! Do something! You can't let him see you die!"
His body burst forward, over Than's shoulder, and at the guard standing nearest to him. He and the guard tumbled backwards, bounding on the concrete, the armor coming off none the worse for wear, but Edarus's back ripping open under his now tattered shirt.