by Jared Ravens
Ogden was furious and threatened to chop it up if its parents did not come forward. Martel had to talk him down from his fury and it was only with the intervention of Vivian that he calmed down. It was decided that Ogden would be the third parent and teach the boy his own ways. It was not difficult to do. Having been raised in a garden, the miraculous boy with unique origins was naturally drawn to plants.
Bookish and intelligent, Wilcox was a natural to medicine but his shyness had kept him from being on committees. He was no master of a scalpel either, though Martel had always thought he should give it a try.
“I do think he’s the best choice. Why isn't he leading this thing?” Celia said, waving her hand in the air as if it was a simple party to be dismissed.
"I think it’s because he deals with medicines and not surgery," Martel replied, walking towards a pitcher of grava on the desk. "At least not yet," she added as she poured the thick liquid into two cups.
"So..." said Celia, her hand on her chin. “Genesee takes control of another thing. Huh.”
"He said it was for the best."
"Of course he did," Celia grumbled.
"He's been practicing on animals. He's done quite well. Yesterday he mixed a bird and a tree runner. The thing seemed happy."
"Humans are different," Celia said, taking the grava from her sister. "They tell you if they are unhappy, they don't just fly away and forget what you did to them. You did that thing to the boy’s shoulder, didn't you? And it came out quite well, didn’t it? It should be you and Wilcox, not Genesee.”
"I think it's a trust issue."
"Of course it is," Celia said quietly. "And we all know why that is." She tilted her cup towards her sister. "I'm not to be trusted. And, because your my sister, you aren’t to be trusted either.”
“It’s trued,” Martel sighed. “He doesn’t like me because of the whole Bautomet thing. But that was so long ago.”
“Genesee’s not any good at this sort of thing but he won’t understand that until he’s botched this boy’s procedure. You care for this boy, right? You should find some way to get him to run away.”
Martel watched her sister, still looking out the window and drinking, her casual air turning to a devious mist. Martel sucked in air and relaxed her body.
“What are you thinking about?” She said.
Celia shrugged.
“I just want the boy to be safe, don’t you?”
“He needs surgery or some heavy medicine.”
“Why can’t Wilcox do that later? In some other, discreet place? He could do it for a lot of people, practice and then build himself up into the master surgeon Genesee himself to be. I just think it’s a wonderful opportunity for both of you.
“And, what does this mean for Genesee, really? It means he wants to create new people, over and over again. Think about that. Think about what goes on in his tiny little head. He wants to create an army, one person after another on an assembly line, building people to serve him and Goetz.”
Celia looked over her glass into Martel’s eyes, waiting for a protest.
“You really think that’s what he’s doing?”
“I know that’s what he’s doing. And this boy is just the beginning. We need to find a way to short circuit this before it happened.”
Martel drew in a breath
“And if that were to happen, you would support Wilcox in his surgical endeavors?”
“I think that would be fair.”
“You wouldn’t interfere? You’d help me set up someplace he could work on his skills discreetly?”
“I think that would b a wonderful thing,” Celia breathed out.
“What do you need him to do?”
Martel went to her son that very night. His light was still on in his room in the basement. He was receptive to the idea, his bird like frame leaning forward with interest. He was never a creature of ethics but of science, and the idea of experimentation excited him more than the idea of advancement.
“He needs to be out control," he said, looking towards the cabinet for liquids and plants at the opposite side of his tiny room. He shuffled the items on his incredibly messy desk until he found three vials of ground up roots and set them to the side, satisfied that those should be the base of the mixture.
"It should be delayed," said Martel, "so that it only comes on during the process. We want him to leave and never come back. It has to seem like its Genesee’s fault."
Wilcox nodded. Genesee had always been good to him but it hurt him that wasn’t even on the surgical committee, much less participating in the surgery.
"I've never done this before," he said meekly, looking up from his desk. "This is complicated."
“Just make it happen,” she said, kissing him on the forehead before walked up the stairs. Walking by a window she saw Vivian on the lawn near the forest. Martel stepped outside and walked over the wet grass in the darkness to her niece. Vivian was pushing clothing into a sack and turned at the sound, looking suspiciously up at her aunt.
“Just me,” Martel said, sitting cross legged beside the woman. “I was wondering why you were still here.”
“I was told to keep my distance, not specifically to leave.”
“You’re good at technicalities, just like your family.”
“This is still my home, technically.”
“And technically you should stay here,” Martel said, “and keep a peaceful distance. It’s all being handled.”
Vivian set her bag down beside her.
“What is she doing?”
“The boy will be running from here, panicked but otherwise unharmed, and soon forgotten. You won’t have to do a thing and you can spend as many days of the rest of your life with him.”
Vivian looked sideways at her.
“There’s nothing I can do to stop it,” she explained.
“But you were going to.”
Vivian sighed and leaned forward. She desperately wanted to return to the woods down below but she couldn’t pull herself from The Hill, not with what was about to happen.
“I made a mistake.”
“We all do.”
“A big one. I feel so badly for him.”
“He has free will.”
“Does he? Is that why I made him and they’re toying with him and now you are letting him escape? None of this is his choice.”
“The thing I have learned to accept,” Martel said, “Is that there is much more going on than any of us know, and we all have the ability to move freely within the circumstances we have.”
“Is that really true?” Vivian asked.
“Its something I have to believe, and you’d do well to believe it too.”
The Path
“Watch him,” she had said.
“I’m not a good spy or anything,” Dani had protested.
“He won’t know who you are. Just follow them as best as you can.”
McKenna had showed up in the middle of the night with this errand. Dani fidgeted mightily, nervous in the knowledge that he would have to go.
“You told him that it would good for him to go.”
“I need you to follow him and make sure it is. Please, Dani. They locked Felix up in a room and I can’t speak to him.”
Dani waited outside the Copper Tower in the early hours of the morning. Theo and Felix left early in the morning and he followed. they It was easy to keep pace; Theo's voice always led the way and they stopped frequently for smokes. Theo would bend over and cough for several minutes and then sit on a rock and light up a pipe. Significant time might pass before they started up again. Because of this it took many days to get to the top. While they stayed at inns Dani, having little money to spend, would sleep on the grass outside.
As the path got steeper and the temperature cooler the pace slowed and Dani could tell Felix's patience was fraying. Felix would tire of the constant stops and walk on ahead, forcing Theo to stop smoking and race to catch up with him.
McKenna had told Dani
that Theo would delay; he was in no rush to deliver the boy. He needed the time to establish a relationship with him. Whatever Theo thought he was doing, he was not ingratiating himself to Felix. But he was successfully isolating him. On The Hill, Theo would be the only human he could speak with.
At the top, a cold, dry wind blew over a crowd of people waiting at the thick metal gates while a frazzled guard attempted to sort them out. He saw Theo push his way to the front, flashing official papers. Theo was let in promptly, before Dani could push anywhere close to the front. When asked what his business was Dani gave a prepared remark about needing to collect some papers from an administrative office. The guard seemed receptive to his falsified plea and forged letter, but when he looked at Dani a suspicion crossed his face.
"Have them mail it to you," he said, turning his attention to the next screaming person.
This was the likely outcome but it didn’t make it any less frustrating. And so he did what McKenna had suggested. The property was massive and un-guardable. Many had slipped in over the years. The penalty of trespassing was brutal, sometimes even death, involving Atrios throwing the violator off The Hill as if tossing a ball. The screams of falling people served as a warning siren to not break the rules. Thus it was with a pounding heart that Dani decided to attempted to hide in the labyrinthine basement rather than cross the enormous yard.
He had to walk back down the path quite a ways before he felt alone enough to attempt this. He looked up and down the highway and saw it temporarily empty. Before he could think he walked into the brush and began to slide down the steep, rocky embankment. The situation was precarious enough to keep his mind occupied on staying alive and not on the wisdom of his actions. Directly below him was air and loose rock and not much else. He slide onto a long, thin rock ledge that ran just below the trail. Beyond that ledge was nothing; he would tumble into the outer boroughs of Sigma if he missed a step.
He carefully made his way along the rock ledge, thinking of excuses. He still had plausible deniability if he was found out. He could say that he had fallen off the trail or was searching for something. But he moved further away from the path and came closer to the worn tan stones in front of him, the excuses became vacant. He thought of his punishment, the feeling of being thrown off The Hill versus the feeling of just letting himself drop if a guard came his way. He decided that he must do the deed himself, hard as that would be.
When he reached the hole in the side of the cliff it was almost night. He looked at the blackness of the small portal, just as wide as his sholders.
"Its important to see what they do," McKenna had told him. "You don't have to stop it, but we need to know as much as possible."
"Why?" he had asked. "I can't stop it so what's the point?"
He hadn't wanted to see what they did to his friend. The very idea of Felix disappearing into some alteration of his body and mind was despicable to think of, much less watch. He had expected McKenna to badger him until he relented. Instead she had clenched her jaw and looked to the side.
"Why do they get to do what they want to us? Why do they get to use us like puppets for their schemes and get away with it? We need to know. At the very least we should be able to know what is happening to us and why."
He had been struck dumb by this. She was beautiful, a girl of privilege, contemplating how to report the conspiracies of those that lent her family their power.
“If he dies, it’s my fault,” she had said, softly.
Dani had pushed back on this. She had been trying to help him.
“I told him to go,” she had replied. “I’m as guilty as Theo or Celia or any of them.”
He thought of her voice, light and fragile as she said that, as he bend down and crawled into the gutter. A burden lifted from him momentarily. As he crawled into the hole he felt a sense of duty overcome him.
By the time they had reached the doors of the fortress Felix had grown so tired of Theo's voice that it took everything he had not to run in the opposite direction. He had listened to his entire life story, told nonlinearly, at least twice and three different ways. According to Theo, he was always in the middle fo something big and it always resulted in success being snatched from the jaws of defeat. His brilliant thinking always made him into the hero. What Felix saw clearly now was that, rather than being the builder he promoted himself as, Theo was more of a slick power broker covered in the veneer of business. He had talents, and story telling was his most prominent one.
He pried Felix for information and tried to ingratiate himself to him. But it was difficult for Theo to hid his reptilian impulses and his slight distain for Felix was always apparent at the edges. Here he was, taking time out of his schedule to lead a boy up a hill and present him in a way that Theo probably wished he himself could be presented: The next Big Hope, the new toy for the powerful. If he couldn’t get Felix to become his pal then it was wasted time.
He sensed that the journey wasn't going well, since by the last day he had begun to shade his speech with the same sort of threats he had presented at his penthouse.
"You know, I do know everyone," Theo said. "And they can help you, if they feel like it."
Felix asked him what that meant.
“I know this isn’t easy for you,” Theo replied, puffing on smoke, “But you should really make it seem like you’re excited. These Titans have egos, and they want to think they’re doing the right thing.
“I’m supposed to pretend like this is fun?”
“Well,” Theo laughed, “You have the wrong goal in mind! You think this is about getting big and strong and helping your leaders out? Wrong! It’s about making the right contacts. Letting them know you’re on their side. You’re the flavor of the day for how long? And then they just throw you to the side.”
Theo had chewed on his pipe and looked out at the sky in uncharacteristic contemplation.
“I’m not going through this just to meet people,” Felix had protested.
“And that,” Theo had told him, “is a fatal flaw. You should think about where you’ll be when this is over, and who you’ll need.”
Felix told him he would keep it in mind, though this was a lie. Felix could barely hold onto a thought more than a second. He had barely slept. The sugar root helped but he was becoming dizzy from it as the altitude grew.
When he finally reached the fortress he was separated from Theo. As he walked down the hallways, surrounded by armed escorts, he felt a need to jump out of his skin and run up the walls to escape them. Theo made one last effort, yelling down the hallways that they should be rooming next to each other. His voice echoed down the hallway and disappeared. For the first time Felix felt alone. He momentarily missed Theo's voice.
Genesee's quarters were up a circular set of stone stairs. It was a small, plain room in the turret. From thin windows he could overlook the yard and the crowds that crossed its green pasture to reach the front doors. Felix was shocked by Genesee's simplicity and the dullness of his surroundings. Despite being immaculately dressed he was nearly charmless. He was polite in his questions and brief in his statements.
After Genesee had quizzed him gently about his personality he told him his responsibilities.
"You would have a small troupe of soldiers with you and you would take on tasks our regular soldiers are not equipped to do. Reconnaissance missions, expeditions, fighting in certain situations..."
The role he was taking on was bewildering to Felix. He had no training in the skills he was expected to have. He felt scared and diminished, and a spurt of anger piqued up in him. Genesee finished his part of the conversation and the guards moved to escort Felix out.
"What about me?" Felix said.
Genesee glanced at him, baffled.
"What about you?"
"I have questions."
“All right.”
"I hurt. A lot. Everywhere. Will this make it go away?"
Genseee nodded.
"Of course we will."
"That
is why I agreed to this."
"Yes, yes. You should be fine. I don't want a hurt soldier."
He laughed at this as if he had made a joke and Felix smiled politely.
"We'll fix your legs and your shoulders, and like I said, you won't want for power, physically or mentally. I do envy the things you will find yourself able to do. It will be a great leap for everyone!"
Genesee was genuine excited at the prospect and it comforted Felix. Felix asked about a few details of the surgery and Genesee answered with a comforting tone.
"And who,” Felix asked finally, “will I answer to?"
"Me," Genesee replied.
"And what about Celia?"
"No, you answer to me," he repeated sternly.
"Do I need to see Celia next?"
"No," said Genesee, "And you never will need to see her."
Dani crawled through the dark slime for an endless amount of time. He had a small lamp but he found it better if he didn’t see what surrounded him. A pin point of light became visible in the darkness. It grew from pinhole size to a glowing window as he moved towards it. The orange light from the square was not strong but was blinding to him as he squeezed forward one final time.
He fell half a body length to the ground and laid there, allowing his eyes to adjust. He blinked at the enormity of the empty room around him. Orange and yellow brick surrounded him. To his left, high up, was a solid brick balcony and he shuttered for a moment with the idea that someone could be watching him. To his right was a great vat of water that flowed up towards him as if he was on a brick beach. Its size was not discernible as it flowed off into the darkness.
The huge square room he was in was the reservoir. All the water that rained on the fortress above him flowed down into this room. The overflow ran down the tube he had just come up. He looked around him; it was empty. The palace was too large for guards to cover it, just as McKenna had told him. There was also not much use for a huge division of guards. No one on the The Hill were likely to be harmed by humans; the guards mostly kept the occupants from being annoyed by them.