They found the room and Aleksei walked in, his hand clasped over his mouth as Yuri sniffed the air and growled, his body tense. “He has turned,” was all he said before his eyes found the window, which had been blacked out with paint, shattered and bloody.
Chapter 64
Ivan woke and shook his head, then spat out a mess of what appeared to be leftover vomit and blood, though he hadn’t a clue how it had got in his mouth. His muscles seized painfully and he winced, it was a feeling he was familiar with, having been tased more than once in his life. Who, though, had done this to him? He opened his eyes and found he was in a dimly lit and small room, much like a hospital room one might see in a mental ward. The door had a lock on it and he knew without testing it, he was locked in. His clothing was gone, all he had was a flimsy hospital gown, which did little to cover him so he arranged it like a makeshift loincloth after emptying his bladder in the stainless steel toilet and waited to see whose idea of a joke this was.
It seemed like hours passed by before the door opened and what looked like suspiciously like an orderly came into the room carrying a tray. “Good morning, 436-2080, how did you sleep?”
“Name is Ivan. What is this place?” Ivan asked, as the man set out his food on a hospital-like serving tray.
“You will find out soon enough, 436-2080. Eat up, they will not be talking to you if you do not eat your breakfast.” Ivan hated the way this man scolded him as if he were a mushy headed insane person, and he wanted badly to fling the tray at the man. Instead, he took it and started eating, making a face at how bland the food was as it had no seasoning to speak of.
“Can I not get salt and pepper at least?” He asked,
“No, 436-2080, you are on intake diet. You must be detoxified, but doctor will tell you all you need to know. Eat up, I will collect your tray when you are done.” The man left, locking the door behind him. He was as good as his word and, Ivan realized, he must have been watching because he came back in as soon as the tray was nearly empty and whisked it away, leaving Ivan a large bottle of water that tasted as if it had something in it. Not long after, the door opened again, this time admitting a bespectacled man who appeared to be in his mid-sixties.
“Welcome home, 436-2080.” He beamed over his clipboard, seemingly not at all bothered by Ivan’s bemused expression.
“My name is Ivan, why do people keep calling me by this number?” He asked, beginning to get a little bit annoyed at their refusal to use his name.
“Because, that is your name. You are number four hundred, thirty-six of five hundred, born in the year 2080.” The doctor offered and now Ivan was even more confused.
“Five-hundred…what?”
“Why, five hundred others just like yourself. That is why I welcomed you home, do you not see?” The doctor’s condescending tone was beginning to annoy, too, now that Ivan thought about it.
“I have home. Is in Moscow with…”
“With late Sergei Korzhakov? Da, I know. But he was not your father, as in, he was not who fertilized egg that grew to become you. No one was. You were completely and totally created in this very facility.” The doctor said, then paused and made a few notes on the clipboard. “We waited until your mother was ready, we had been monitoring her for some time. Then, on same night she was first with Sergei in Moscow…we implanted you. Of course, as I said, neither of them knew. We kept it that way.”
“Because of men like my half-brothers?” Ivan sneered at him, he was liking where this was going less and less.
“Ah, 1723-2070, 1724-2070 and 1806-2079. We had such hope for 1806-2079, but he was just as insane, just as unstable as all others from that breeding pool.” He smiled sadly. “Nyet, we did not perfect breeding technique until we perfected ability to create our own living semen and ova only then did we achieve our goal.”
“Then why do you need me? If you have four hundred and ninety-nine others…” Ivan said, but the doctor was shaking his head.
“There is only one. Female born at almost exact same time as you, 435-2080.” The doctor sighed, made another note. “She is why we needed you.”
“Nyet. I am not breeding anything. Besides, I cannot. I am sterile.” Ivan said, stubbornly.
“I think that we both know that is not true, 436-2080.” He held up a lab report and Ivan snatched it out of his hand, only to glance at it before dropping it on the floor. The doctor bent and scooped it up, looking ruffled. “It was not until we found those vials of blood in your so-called uncle’s compound that we discovered exciting news. Not only did we have two survivors, we now knew that we had two fertile survivors. So, in time military has ever so kindly spent looking for you, we have been preparing female so that her enzymes are synchronized to allow successful mating.”
“And then…would you let me go?” Ivan asked, warily, sure of the answer before the doctor spoke, though he needed to hear it for himself.
“Of course not, my dear man! You are too much of threat out there, you could tell anyone our secrets now that you know them. And if you fell into enemy hands, they could use you against us.” The doctor was rising now. “Nyet, you will produce one child for us, which is all we need. One fertilized embryo, actually, and then you will be…discontinued.”
Ivan groaned and sank back onto the bed, which fortunately for the doctor was bolted tightly to the floor. How on Earth was he going to get out of this one?
Chapter 65
One of the young women was, for lack of a better word, disemboweled, the other appeared to only have been strangled. The third, however, was still clinging to life, and Aleksei skidded on his knees to her side, sliding through blood on the floor. “Who did this, who did this?” He asked her, over and over, as she stared at the window in sheer terror. “Hey, who did this to you, to them?”
“He was…we were…and then someone…window shattered and man came in, built about like him,” she pointed a badly shaking and bloody hand at Yuri, “he…he did this…and then…man who was with us chased him back out and…I could see…I could see them wrestling with him and there was another man…big blonde…and they Tasered them and dragged them both away.” She said as Aleksei did all he could to stabilize her. In the end, she lost her battle, these wounds were meant to kill, not to injure, and they had been inflicted just so as to let her live long enough to share the story.
“They want us to come outside, Yuri. They are out there, waiting. Probably waiting for me, not you, since you were not in program.” Aleksei said as they left the back room of the strip club and headed back upstairs. “Trick is to figure out who…”
“Where is Ivan?” Rosa asked, then seeing the look on Aleksei’s face, she turned to run for the exit but Oleg caught her. “Let…me…go!”
“Nyet, sweet girl. Come up to my office, let us talk, hm? You are in more danger than you can possibly know. If you run out of building you will probably be dead inside of an hour.” Oleg whispered to her, loud enough that only Aleksei and Yuri heard over the loud music in the club. She slumped and let him lead her then, stopping to converse heavily with the door man, who had made the crude comment to her. He apologized to Rosa, but she did not seem to notice, her eyes were fixed on the escalators.
“She will try to run.” Aleksei said, in Russian, and as her Russian was still relatively poor, she did not understand. Oleg nodded as two men joined them, flanking both he and Rosa. Yuri and Aleksei had no intention, for the time being, of leaving the safety they knew the hotel afforded them. Not until they had something concrete planned.
Chapter 66
Two weeks passed before they received any word one way or another about the fate of both Ivan and Dmitri. When they finally did it was unexpected, almost, and it came in a most surprising manner. Aleksei was picking at his breakfast and eyeing Rosa to make sure she actually touched her own. Yuri had been bunking up with her at night, crawling into bed with Aleksei at daybreak most mornings, exhausted, his long black hair matted with tears from her incessant crying.
; Initially, the doctor had himself attempted sleeping in the same room with her but he was little help, as he hadn’t a clue how to comfort a female. Yuri, on the other hand, had some experience with women, and after many reassurances nothing would happen between them, and many sleepless nights of despair for the doctor, who was trying everything to comfort her, Aleksei gave in.
Finally, she had started sleeping through the night, but only just, and Yuri had actually made it down to breakfast looking as if he had slept the previous night. He was wolfing down his own meal with all of the table manners of a, well, wolf. When Rosa looked up behind Aleksei, she gasped and promptly dropped her spoon so that it clattered hard against her barely-touched bowl of hot cereal. Yuri followed her gaze and cursed, a growl rose from him so quickly that even Aleksei was compelled turn in his seat look.
There, arguing with two security guards, was Dmitri, who was holding a simple white envelope and to their shocked surprise, he once again had a working right eye. His long, curly hair was no more, shorn down now in such a way that it was clear he was back in the hands of the military. After a time, Oleg appeared looking sleepy and rather unamused at having been awakened before ten in the morning, but when he set eyes on Dmitri his sleepiness passed in favor of looking likely to faint. He saw Dmitri was looking towards the other three and motioned them to come to him, so they obeyed, all eager to hear what was about to be said.
“If you will follow me this way…er…sir, we will go up to my office. I am sure your employers do not wish you to speak about such sensitive things in public, da?” Oleg said, not waiting for a response, and getting none, he turned and headed up the stairs in the central lobby, which led directly to his office on the second floor. If a person knew where they were going, there was a much faster path but he wasn’t about to show Dmitri the way if he didn’t remember, and he didn’t seem to.
Once they were safely inside the office, Dmitri turned to them and introduced himself in a flat, toneless, expressionless voice, to Aleksei’s ears, he almost sounded robotic. “I am 1806-2079. I have been sent to deliver message from 436-2080 as part of his conditions for surrender.”
“I am sorry, who?” Aleksei asked, after translating, but Dmitri simply handed him the envelope, and he opened it. The letter within was addressed to Rosa, so he passed it to her, and she read it, her face growing paler by the moment as she read and then re-read it at least four times.
“436-2080, my counterpart. He has agreed to surrender to program under certain conditions, mainly that 1723-2070, 1724-2070, Yuri Korzhakov, and woman he only called Rosa would be allowed to live without any threat from Russian government. Also, he has requested those people not attempt to seek him out, as doing so would constitute breach of agreement, putting all parties in danger.” Dmitri turned as a fourth person entered, Anya, looking much happier and healthier now that Aleksei had gotten her weaned off of drugs, though the smile faded quickly when she set eyes on Dmitri. “1723-2070.”
“I take it I am 1724-2070?” Aleksei asked, as Rosa dropped the letter, her arm falling to her side as she swayed, looking dangerously faint. Anya helped her to a chair and Oleg put his hands on Rosa’s shoulders, comfortingly, as he stood behind her, eyeing Dmitri with a protective glare.
“That is correct.” Dmitri said in the same monotone voice. His eyes were glassy and, as Aleksei observed, one of them, the right one, the new one, looked about three shades lighter in color than the left. He winced, wondering who the donor of the eye had been, but did not comment. “If all is okay here, and we are in agreement, I will be going.”
“Wait…what will happen to him now that he has surrendered to program?’ Oleg asked, hesitantly, as if he knew already he wouldn’t like the answer.
“He will be discontinued, same as I, upon my return to facility this morning.” Dmitri said, then turned to go.
“Take me with you.” Anya said, and he turned back, and everyone looked at her in shocked surprise, especially Yuri, who had been stalking her in his free time for days, though she was not interested and had told him as much. In a very blunt, very rude manner.
“That was not part of deal, 1723-2070. 436-2080 specifically requested you not be harmed.” Dmitri didn’t seem to know how to deal with a deviation in the plan, so he turned again to leave.
“Fuck his deal. I do not want to live! Do you not remember what I have become?” Anya asked, moving towards him. He turned and stared at her a moment, then turned to leave again, seeming unable to respond to her outburst on his own accord. Oleg caught Anya by the arm, gently, pulling her back to him and away from Dmitri.
Rosa jumped up so suddenly everyone flinched and grabbed a pair of scissors from the desk. She sorted through and then clipped a lock of her hair from underneath, close to her skin as possible. It was clear that Dmitri had been anticipating an attack at her movement, he had braced himself and his body was tense under his military fatigues. When instead she held out the hair, he only relaxed and then looked at it, bemusedly.
“Give this to…to 436…please. To let him know deal has been accepted?” She said, and only then did he take it, nodding his silent agreement. After a moment, he held it up and took a deep breath, his dark eyes swiveling to her immediately.
“Do I know you?” He asked, and there was something in his voice that gave even Oleg pause.
“You did, once.” Rosa said, then cut another lock of her long hair. “Here, take this one to him and keep other one for yourself. Deal?” Again, he nodded, his eyes regaining their glazed-over appearance once more. He stood staring at the two locks of hair, one in each hand, for a long moment. It was only when Oleg spoke to Anya that he even seemed to remember he had to be somewhere, and then moved towards the door.
“Let him go, my dear. I need you to stay. I need help with re-homing dancers and others when their contracts are up. You speak their language, you know what they need. I have good reputation for helping my employees, but truth is, I feel that I could do better. Stay with me, Anya…” he said, almost pleadingly.
Dmitri opened the door and exited, closing it quietly behind him and disappearing into the morning light as if he had never been there. Yuri glanced down at the letter, read it and then sat hard on the floor before handing it to Aleksei with a violently trembling left hand. He did not cry, not immediately, not there in front of everyone, no more than Aleksei did. When they were safely back in their suite, however, it was hard to say who howled the loudest. The letter read:
“My Rosa,
Get Aleksei and Yuri out of city. I know they do not wish to go, but they must. They cannot save me from my fate, any more than you can. Know that I will always love you and that I will breathe my last thinking only of your face.
Goodbye, sweet one,
Ivan”
Chapter 67
“It is done.” Dmitri said, tonelessly, and Ivan gave a heavy sigh, then looked down as Dmitri held out something between the forefinger and thumb of his right hand. A lock of highlighted brown hair. “Woman named Rosa sends this, as proof deal has been accepted. She gave 1806-2079 lock of hair, too. 1806-2079 thinks she might have known us, but cannot remember how. Cannot remember…cannot…” He shook his head vehemently, as if trying to chase away the memory, rather than admit it. Ivan wondered at that. Had Dmitri not been reprogrammed? Then how did he now remember her, even if he did not want to? Did that mean it would be possible? No, of course not. There was no coming back from death, which was where he now knew he was headed.
“I would ask how they all took it but you have no clue how human emotion works, am I right?” No answer, but then, Ivan had come to expect none. Whatever had been Dmitri was dead, just as dead as his body was about to be, along with Ivan’s own. He nodded to the doctors then, a whole team of them, and went back to his small room, still not thrilled, but knowing full well it was this or watch Rosa, Yuri, Aleksei, and even Oleg die. They were as good as their threats, after seeing what Dmitri had gone through to be reprogrammed he had no doubt of this
. He held the hair gently and stroked it, smelling on it the faint scent of Rosa. His Rosa.
Tucking it safely under one of the many military training manuals, all he had been allowed as entertainment, not that he’d bothered. He turned to face 435-2080, who was now entering the room. She looked something between overjoyed and already half in love with him, a sentiment which sickened him. He was wearing only too-short hospital scrubs pants and she was wearing only a thin hospital gown. The lights dimmed and he knew the doctors were crowded just beyond a two-way mirror, observing. The mating would be clinical, surgical almost, he refused to derive any pleasure from it. Procreation, he told himself. More for the survival of his family because, after the mating, he would be euthanized. The thought chilled his blood.
Once the procedure, as he preferred to think of it, was over, Ivan was not even provided food or a shower. He was simply led into a different room where there were two gurneys. Dmitri was already on one, his arm outstretched, his head turned towards Ivan. No one spoke, they simply guided Ivan to lie down before stretching his arm out and strapping it to a cold metal armrest. He watched as the needle was inserted, then closed his eyes and let his mind take him back to the first night he’d been with Rosa, when she had come to Chicago to find him. As his respiration slowed, there was a small smile on his face and finally, blissfully, the dream faded into blackness.
Chapter 68
Two Years Later
Rosa laughed and watched over the top of her sunglasses as Yuri floated on his back letting the squirming, blonde-haired toddler girl splash at the water. Twice now he had copped a large amount straight in the face and given an over-exaggerated reaction, bringing a cackle from the girl. Finally, as if bored of the game, she jumped off of him and he rolled out of the donut-shaped float he’d been sitting in to assist her to the side. Already she was a strong swimmer, thanks to having been in the pool almost daily since she was only a few months old.
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