by Jay Mason
“I was, but I was no boy. I’m slightly older than you.”
Alex shook her head. “Yes, of course, you must be. Unless you have a younger brother?”
“We were both so full of drugs,” said C0numdrum. “It wasn’t until I met you on that dreadful film set that I was sure it was you.”
“I see you kept the contact lenses.”
“Sadly, these are not contact lenses, Alex. I’m sorry I left you to walk this way alone, but I thought it was the best chance of triggering your memory.”
“Is this MK-Theta?”
C0numdrum shook his head. “No, this is a much older project and the main reason the Centre exists.”
“Genetic diseases?” said Alex. “Are all these children suffering from incurable conditions.”
“Yes.”
“So I was wrong about Straker all along,” said Alex. “He was treating me for schizophrenia — at least what I inherited from my mother. He is trying to do something good.” She closed her eyes, shutting out the world for a moment. “I can hardly believe it,” she said to herself. “I was so sure …”
“There’s something more you should see,” said C0numdrum, “before you make up your mind about Straker.”
“Okay,” said Alex. “But what about the violence that’s happening in the town?”
“Most of Straker’s people are out there trying to control the situation. It’s why I got you to come in now. I can get you to places that normally we’d have no chance of reaching.”
“Will people be okay?”
“I don’t know,” said C0numdrum, “but what I need to show you is more important.” He saw the surprise in her eyes. “Trust me, Alex. I’ve never lied to you.”
“It’s weird,” said Alex. “But I do trust you. I feel as if I know you — I mean, not just that I remember you.”
C0numdrum frowned. “There’s a reason for that too. You need to follow me now. They won’t leave the site this unprotected for much longer. Even Straker won’t take that risk.”
****
Alex followed C0numdrum down a series of white, wooden-floored corridors, until they came to a heavy steel door. C0numdrum used a key card in the lock. As soon as they were in, Alex felt the temperature drop. The corridor was poorly lit and she quickly realised it was sloping down.
C0numdrum nodded. “Yes, we’re heading underground. It’s going to get a lot colder. It doesn’t bother me, but it won’t be comfortable for you. Unfortunately what I am taking you to see can’t survive at normal temperatures.”
“Sounds intriguing,” said Alex with a slight smile. “Do you have a name other than C0numdrum?”
“Do you remember the injections?”
“Yes. Not clearly.”
“I’m not surprised. I blocked a lot of it out too. They were intensely painful, as were the after effects.”
“But if he cured my genetic fault — it has to be worth it. He did cure me, didn’t he? I won’t end up like my mother? She’s the one the schizophrenia comes from.”
C0numdrum stopped in front of a white door with a glass panel. He sighed. “Oh Alex,” he said. “None of this was ever about curing anyone.”
“What?”
“Beyond this door is a lab. I sometimes have to go here, so if you’re with me and we act naturally, anyone working there will likely pay us no attention. After all, we’ve got this far. But the area I want to show you is highly sensitive, so I must ask you do nothing to draw attention to yourself and when you see it, above all, do not touch it.”
“Touch what?” said Alex.
“It doesn’t matter how much you want to reach out. It’s beyond help now. Just remember, don’t touch.”
“Okay,” said Alex. “Can we hurry up. Only I need to get back to Rusty. My dad might be waiting. We might …”
“Later,” said C0numdrum and he opened the door.
****
Alex’s first reaction was disappointment. It looked like an ordinary lab. Two people in white coats fiddled with microscopes. Another person had their hands in some kind of isolation tank manipulating Petri dishes and pipettes. Unlike the school lab, this one had a high-tech and expensive-looking edge, but nothing particularly stood out.
C0numdrum nodded to a couple of people as they walked across the room. At the far side they came to a short flight of steel steps. C0numdrum looked round briefly, then hurried Alex quickly down.
They went down into a narrow corridor. Alex shivered. “This is even colder than the lab,” she said. C0numdrum gestured at her to be silent. Along the opposite wall Alex saw a series of hinged doors. The set-up reminded her of something, but she didn’t realise what until C0numdrum used his key card again and opened one of the doors. As he pulled the gurney out, she gasped. “It’s a morgue,” she said very softly.
On the steel shelf before her lay something under a sheet. C0numdrum motioned to her to come to the end of it. He put his hand to the edge of the cloth. Alex opened her mouth to protest, when she realised it couldn’t possibly be a body. The shape under the sheet had to be at least seven foot long. She stepped forward. C0numdrum pulled back the sheet.
As soon as she saw the face emotions cascaded through her. Grief, astonishment, recognition and anger all vied for attention. A faint blue bioluminescence flickered under the pearly skin. Alex’s chest tightened in hope, but the large almond-shaped eyes remained closed. “So beautiful,” said Alex, unable to take her eyes from this wonder. “Can I see more?”
C0numdrum shook his head and Alex saw his hand tremble. “Straker has done a lot of work …” He trailed off. Alex looked up and saw his eyes filling with tears.
Then in the back of her mind, she felt something; a fleeting feeling of warmth and welcome like a few notes from the most amazing melody.
“She’s still alive,” said Alex. Equal parts of relief and horror washed over her. Automatically she reached out her hand to comfort. As her fingers touched skin the song in her mind brightened.
Then what sounded like every alarm bell in the Centre rang.
C0numdrum shoved her away from the gurney, breaking the contact. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled. Alex wanted to stay, but his surprising strength was too much. Running along behind him, she barely took in her surroundings. All her attention remained in the lab and with the creature she had seen on the gurney.
8. The Source Of All
“It — she — isn’t from Earth, is she?” gasped Alex as they burst out from the Centre.
“No,” said C0numdrum. “Where’s your car?”
Alex pointed. C0numdrum sped up, dragging Alex behind him. “You have to drive,” he said. “It’s too bright for me.”
In the car, Alex handed him her sunglasses from the glove compartment. “You need a hat,” she said.
C0numdrum coiled his long hair around his fingers and tucked it below his turned up collar. “Best I can do. Let’s hope the guard doesn’t look too closely.”
Alex drove off at a normal pace towards the barrier. Once there she rolled down her window. “I don’t know what’s happening,” she said, “but just after I finished my meeting all these alarms went off. I thought the best thing I could do was get out of the way.”
“Alarms?” said the guard.
“You might want to check,” said Alex. “Didn’t look like a whole lot of security around was around.”
“Thanks,” said the man. “I’ll let you out and lock down the barrier.”
As Alex pulled away, she turned to C0numdrum. “He didn’t see you.”
“Yeah, I was concentrating on that.”
“I’m sorry about, you know, touching her.”
“It’s hard to resist. We have an affinity with her.”
“How?”
“Haven’t you guessed?” said C0numdrum. “We’ve both been injected with her DNA. Alien DNA. That’s why you feel you know me. You do, don’t you? You feel you can trust me. We’re both her — I don’t know — not children, but some kind of descendent.”
“Bloody hell!” questions crowded Alex’s mind. “How? What? Why?”
“I’ll answer as many questions as I can,” said C0numdrum, “but I warn you I don’t have all the answers. Can you concentrate on driving at the same time as hearing this? It’s not something I’d want you to share with someone who wasn’t one of us.”
“You mean like Rusty?”
“Or your parents.”
“I can manage,” said Alex.
“Right, ask me.”
“Why?”
“I only have theories,” said C0numdrum. “I do know that the subjects chosen always display previous low-level psychic ability and that it generally increases after treatment. Straker has a series of military projects and military backers. I used to think he wanted us for espionage or some kind of super solider, but I’m the oldest survivor and I’ve never been involved in anything like that.”
“Oldest?” asked Alex without taking her eyes off the road. Pools of shadow gathered in the twists and turns of the country lanes now that dusk was approaching.
“Adults can’t survive the injections.” C0numdrum took a deep breath. “Usually once the subjects reach their early twenties their bodies reject the DNA.”
“What happens then?”
“They die,” said C0numdrum softly.
“You mean …” Alex struggled to get her head round what she was hearing. “…we die?”
“I’m not much older than you, but I’m way further along the changes. My eyes. My hair. Probably my abilities too.”
“I don’t have abilities,” said Alex.
“Of course, you do,” said C0numdrum. “And they’re growing. You entered the memories of a ghost. Have you even read of someone doing that before? Even on the wackiest, most exaggerated blogs?”
“The old mental hospital?”
“I sometimes sense your strongest — emotions. I even get images from time to time.”
“I don’t know how to feel about that,” said Alex.
“It’s not by choice. You may find that as time goes on you can sense things from me. If I survive.”
“This is a lot to process,” said Alex. “I can’t take it in. I believe you, but at the same time it’s — it’s unreal.”
“I know. And now, isn’t the best time, but I don’t know when I’ll next get the chance to speak to you alone.”
“Because of what’s happening in town?”
“It’s the first time that any of the Centre’s experiments have gone so wrong — or at least the first time since I’ve been there.”
“The kids I saw in the beds on the way in. Are they all getting the same injections we did?”
“I don’t think so. Straker’s very choosy about who he brings in to the alien project. They’re likely there for genetic disease modification.”
“So he can do what he claims? Help these kids?”
C0numdrum sighed. “I wish it was as simple as that. Yes, Straker does do a lot of good, but he also does a lot of evil — or that’s how I see it.”
“What’s his agenda?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
Alex pulled up in her driveway. “It all looks quiet,” she said. They found Rusty in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. He shrugged when he saw Alex. “I eat when I’m anxious, so su-” He broke off when he caught sight of C0numdrum.
C0numdrum stepped forward, “I’m C0numdrum,” he said holding out his hand. “Alex feels like she has known me her whole life, but I imagine I’m a bit out of the norm for you.”
Rusty nodded. “Are you wearing contacts?”
“No, but I’ve been exposed to more than one odd element at the Centre,” said C0numdrum. “Which is why I don’t often venture out. I work there now.”
“Right,” said Rusty.
Alex sat down at the table. “So what’s our plan?” she said. “Can you help us bring down the Centre?” C0numdrum gave her a startled glance. “Rusty believes Straker killed his father. Or at least covered up his death,” said Alex.
“That would be unlikely,” said C0numdrum slowly. “I’m not saying Straker is snowy white, but he draws the line at coldblooded murder. If there had been an accident he might, I suppose, cover that up.”
“You know him?” said Rusty.
“Very well,” said C0numdrum, “and I’m not a fan. But you have to understand that whatever else the Centre might be involved with a lot of good people do good work there. It’s not as black and white as you might hope.”
“So how do we deal with MK-THETA?” said Rusty. “Preferably before the whole town goes rampant.”
“Straker will be taking measures to subdue the reaction,” said C0numdrum. “By which I mean he will have sent out some tactical teams with anaesthetics and jammed local radio and TV stations.”
“How can he get away with that?” said Alex.
“Sunspot activity,” said C0numdrum. “One of the heads of departments is talking to the national press this afternoon.”
“But why doesn’t he stop whatever is making these people go nuts?” asked Rusty.
“It’s possible he doesn’t know how,” said C0numdrum.
“But that’s not what you think, is it?”
“No, I suspect he needs the experiment to run on for some reason and is trying to control the collateral damage while he finishes the project.”
“And you saying we shouldn’t blow this place to hell and back?” said Rusty.
“Not with people inside,” said Alex. She glanced sideways at C0numdrum. “Or any one,” she added.
“No,” said C0numdrum, “there are children in the building too.”
“Damn it,” said Rusty.
“Perhaps we could destroy the MK-THETA lab,” said Alex. “I don’t think I want Straker to succeed in perfecting any form of mind control. Even if he doesn’t have a use for it, there will be plenty of countries willing to buy it.”
“I agree,” said Rusty. “How can you help?”
C0numdrum shrugged. “I don’t believe I can. I have no access to those labs. I’d advise patience. Straker will have to rectify this situation.”
“My insane mother is locked in the cellar with one of my equally insane friends, thanks to this device,” said Alex.
“I know you won’t like this, but your best option would be to hand them over to Straker’s teams. They’ll be well taken care of and if anyone knows how to get them back in their right minds it’ll be Straker.”
Rusty pushed his chair back and stretched out his long legs. He stared at C0numdrum in stony silence.
The silver haired man stood up. “I need to get back before I’m missed. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.” He touched Alex briefly on the shoulder. “I hope to see you again soon,” he said.
Alex got up, intending to walk him to the door, but Rusty grabbed her. “You can’t let him go without him giving us more than some nonsensical ‘don’t interfere’ advice. He must have come here for a reason. Talk to him.”
But by the time Alex left Rusty there was no sign of C0numdrum. She opened the front door and looked out, but she couldn’t see him. She went back into the kitchen. “He’s gone,” she said and slumped down into a chair.
“So what the hell did he come here for anyway? To warn us to back off? To trust Straker even though he may have covered up my father’s death? Even though he’s up to goodness knows what at that Centre?” Rusty’s face reddened with rage. “I can’t believe it. After all this time he’s spent contacting you to turn his back on us now.”
“I think he’s trying to protect us,” said Alex.
“So we fall in line like good little soldiers?”
“Heck, no,” said Alex. “I say we find a way to blow that lab to kingdom come.”
9. Ultimatums And Endings
The soup on the stove had just began to simmer when Alex’s father walked through the front door.
“Dad,” said Alex and ran forward to hug him. He embraced her. “How did you get in
?” she asked.
“The back window. Your mother?”
“In the cellar, still out cold,” said Rusty. “Whatever you gave her, it must have been hardcore.”
Lewis looked at him over his daughter’s head. “So you’re mixed up in this?”
“In case you hadn’t noticed the whole town is mixed up in it,” said Rusty.
Lewis scowled at him. Then he pushed Alex gently away from him and stood holding her at arm’s length. “I am almost certain the problem is coming from the MK-THETA lab, but I don’t have clearance to get in there. I’ve been trying to get it or even borrow a pass since last night, but,” he shrugged, “no luck yet.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Alex.
“I don’t know yet, sweetheart, but I’ll come up with something.”
“Thought of handing your wife over to Straker and letting him fix it?” said Rusty. He caught Alex’s eye. “That’s what a friend of Alex’s suggested.”
“It hasn’t come to that yet,” said Lewis.
“Don’t you trust him?” said Alex.
“I trust Straker when his interests align with mine. But I don’t know what his agenda is. I wasn’t even peripherally involved with MK-THETA. I don’t know how important it is to him. Or what he’s prepared to do to protect it.”
“We heard he’d sent tactical teams into town,” said Rusty.
Lewis’ frown deepened. “You’re very well informed for someone so far away from town.”
“Rusty’s been on the phone to his family,” said Alex.
“I see,” said Lewis. “Are they all right?”
“So far,” said Rusty.
“They should stay inside,” said Lewis. He looked down at his daughter. “As you should, Alex. Whatever happens, I don’t want you heading off to the Centre.”
“I won’t,” said Alex.
“Good,” said her father. “Now, I’m going to check on Irene.”
“And Joe,” said Rusty. “He’s also gone nuts.”
“You’ll need to give him something too,” said Alex.
Lewis headed out of the room, muttering under his breath.
“Do you think he knows more than he’s telling?” asked Rusty.