by A N Sandra
Brooke led the way to the dining hall and Joshua and Court followed, stopping conversations whenever they passed people.
“I’m getting the feeling people are surprised to see us back,” Brooke said after they dished up large servings of potatoes, scrambled eggs, and fruit cups and sat down to eat.
“Can you blame them?” Joshua grinned. He was joking. Even though executing the plan had been tough it had been the most rewarding thing he’d done since winning the section championship in basketball his senior year. Walking through the compound with Brooke and Court after pulling off the “caper” had felt a lot like walking through school after winning an important game. The Mexitrin in his system complimented the box in his pocket, amplifying the victorious feeling.
“Yes, I do blame them,” Court said. “They should have known we could do it.”
“They know now.” Joshua took a bite of hash browns. They were dry, so he added some catsup to them. As great as he felt, he would do anything for one more early morning breakfast prepared by his mother in which the eggs were scrambled fluffy, the toast was crisp on the outside, yet soft, the coffee was hot, and the potatoes melted in his mouth.
“Yes, they do.” Brooke said. “I’m not going to let them forget it, either. We put our butts on the line for them to have the best medicine money can’t even buy.”
“My sister Rachel will be here, and she’ll appreciate it. She’s almost done with nursing school,” Joshua said.
“No one’s going to argue that your family doesn’t belong here now,” Court said before shoveling some eggs from one side of her plate to the other.
Joshua knew she was thinking about Channing and he devoted himself to the rest of his breakfast to avoid accidentally making her feel bad. Suddenly he realized that Court took care of everyone else around her with only Brooke to take care of her. Even Brooke kept a certain emotional distance from Court to keep from getting hurt. If anyone was going to truly have Court’s back, it would have to be him.
Chapter 16
November 4th, Outer Banks, NC
The Simpson family island compound had been built with the idea of fostering family togetherness. As large as the house was (Daniel had roughly calculated it at more than six thousand square feet) with eight occupants, privacy was at a premium. The house had been designed so that grandchildren would sleep in a spacious loft occupying most of the top floor and their parents would use the bedrooms on the floor beneath that. The sleeping loft was currently full of computer equipment, so everyone had to fit into the four bedrooms on the next floor down. Tilly and Maddy shared a bedroom, Sugar and Bonnie shared a room, Travis and Daniel shared a room—although Daniel didn’t seem to sleep much at all and was almost never there. Sadie slept on a fold out couch in the game room, and Doctor Justin and his assistants stayed in the maid’s quarters off the garage where he had begun making vaccine. Everyone pretended not to see Sadie slipping off to be with Doctor Justin.
“Molly would die if she knew,” Sugar said to Tilly once with a huge grin on her lovely pink lips. And Tilly also relished that particular thought.
A thought Tilly didn’t enjoy was that Daniel admired Sadie in a way he had never looked at any woman before. Most men couldn’t help but appreciate Sadie, and Daniel wasn’t entitled to her affections just because she was the only woman to really interest him since he’d had his heart broken his sophomore year of college. Daniel had forgiven the young coed, who’d dated him all year but skipped out with her friends to go to Jamaica instead of going camping with Daniel. But Tilly hoped that Hattie was miserable wherever she was, the no good, heart-breaking tramp.
Sadie was not a wanton floozy. She had been more interested in her acting career than men until Doctor Justin had sauntered into Crackhouse. Tilly wondered if Sadie was mature enough to deal with someone like Doctor Justin, because sometimes Tilly got a twinge that he was up to something more than figuring out what the Hollisters were up to. His willingness to exploit Molly’s affections had been worrying enough, but he was also in on Molly’s staged plane accident. Tilly couldn’t prove anything, yet she worried that Doctor Justin was doing more than setting up his lab in the garage. He seemed to be watching her and Maddy covertly.
“We need more groceries,” Sugar noted, poking around the kitchen, opening cupboards before rifling through the refrigerator and taking note of the contents. “We eat a lot.”
“There are eight of us, and no restaurants to go to, so we eat everything here. I wish we could call for takeout.” Tilly shrugged.
“Grandma Simpson ordered pizza sometimes and they brought it out here,” Sugar said thoughtfully. “They had a boat. I think she ordered more than five hundred dollars’ worth at a time…”
“I hate to be nervy, but if you ordered five hundred dollars’ worth of sushi do you think they would deliver it?”
“I’m about ready to spend a grand on sushi. Let’s do it and surprise everyone!”
“God, I love you,” Tilly said fervently.
“I have my charms.” Sugar smiled, scrolling down her phone to find sushi restaurants on the mainland. The first one Sugar called laughed before hanging up on her. The second one didn’t laugh but asked if Sugar was high. The next place she called was willing to at least talk. A compromise was reached where Sushi Express would deliver their goods to a dock and Sugar and Tilly would meet them there and bring it back to the island.
The sushi party was a hit. Daniel even came down to get squiggly squid rolls and barking dragon rolls before they were gone.
“This is possibly the best food coma of my life.” Bonnie patted her tiny waistline with a lusty sigh.
The entire group sat around the table, and then Doctor Justin excused himself to take a phone call and the rest poured more wine to chat over while they digested their food enough to leave the dining room.
“Maddy?” Tilly looked up as Maddy stood with an uncertain look on her face. “You okay?”
“I’m gonna go use the bathroom upstairs,” Maddy told her. “I might be a while, so I won’t take up this one.”
Sadie went back to telling the story of how she and Travis had played tricks on the Hollister Youth Foundation by using a projector to send images of horses running through their camp. The story was hysterical, and everyone was magnetized as she went through the details. Occasionally Sadie looked to Travis to make sure she wasn’t embellishing too much, but Travis never contradicted her. He enjoyed a good story as much as anyone else.
Maddy hoped her feeling was wrong, but she didn’t think it was. Mounting the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible she slid down the hall and popped open the door of her room to find Doctor Justin lifting her mattress from the box springs.
“Would you like to explain yourself?” Maddy said calmly. She was impressed with herself for not freaking out over seeing her privacy violated so blatantly.
“I—” Doctor Justin paused, looking blank. As a famous doctor he was unused to having to explain himself.
“Don’t have an excuse for this,” Maddy finished for him, still calm even though Doctor Justin’s offense was inexcusable. “So, you should just tell the truth.”
“One of you, Tilly or yourself, took something from Molly that upset her very much,” Doctor Justin said. He didn’t look embarrassed about getting caught at all, just startled.
“I think that’s pretty rich,” Maddy bluffed. There was no way she was telling this sneak about the ivory box in her pocket, doctor or not. “Molly had both Tilly’s and my bank accounts emptied and our cell phones disabled. Oh, not to mention trying to kill us with the chips you removed.”
“I’m not condoning any of Molly’s behavior toward anyone,” Doctor Justin said. “I promise. I just want to know what it was.”
“How would you know if you found it?” Maddy asked. “Not that there’s anything to find.”
“I just would,” Doctor Justin said simply. “I’d know it if I saw it. You could trust me to tell me. I removed those chips
and saved your lives.”
“We’ve all been very honest with each other around here,” Maddy said. “It bothers me that you aren’t being honest now. You didn’t ask Tilly or me about anything, you snuck off and went on a treasure hunt.”
Doctor Justin stood by Maddy’s disrupted bed without saying anything, not that there was much he could have said. Maddy wondered if he would try to personally shake her down for the ivory box. If he did, she would scream like hell, she decided.
“I’m sorry I made you nervous,” Doctor Justin said finally.
Maddy noticed he didn’t apologize for invading the room she was using and rifling through her possessions. That wasn’t encouraging. She wondered if years of examining naked people and cutting them open had given him the idea that he was above honoring the privacy of others. Most people would be mortified to be caught looking through another person’s bedroom, but Doctor Justin hadn’t even flushed or stuttered, much less offered to leave her room quickly.
“You could tell me what you took,” Doctor Justin said as Maddy continued to look at him as if he were a science specimen. “Whatever it is, it’s important enough for a million-dollar reward for finding you, and for Molly to hide and pretend to be dead to get you to come out of hiding.”
Maddy still said nothing.
“That was smart, not to call your relatives or do anything that could be monitored,” Doctor Justin said. “But whatever you have is really important to Molly and she’s not going to back down while you have it.”
“Why do you care?” Maddy finally asked. “You are supposed to be spying on Molly to find out about the chips but instead you’re sneaking around with Sadie and tossing my bedroom. You could have sent your assistants to make vaccination serum.”
“I needed to know the things Daniel is learning from the Dark Web,” Doctor Justin said. It was clear he didn’t think he should have to answer for himself and only did so reluctantly. “I saved your life and you should trust me. I know you, or Tilly, or both of you has something important to Molly. We should be using it for leverage with the Hollisters.”
“No one leverages the Hollisters,” Molly told him with certainty.
“You don’t know what I’m capable of.” Doctor Justin looked at her seriously.
“You should title one of your Ted Talks that way,” Maddy said lightly even though her heart was pounding. “Share the real Doctor Justin with your fans.”
Doctor Justin brushed her slightly as he left the room and Maddy sensed that he considered grabbing her and shaking her down. It was strange how calm she felt. Normally, confrontation with an authority figure caused her to sweat and grit her teeth, but Maddy was sure that her outward appearance was just fine. In fact, she had a feeling that if Doctor Justin took her blood pressure or her heart rate, either one would be within a normal range. To give herself a moment, Maddy straightened up her bed and went through her belongings, but Doctor Justin hadn’t made a mess of things even though he’d searched thoroughly.
Locking the door, Maddy sat on her bed and pulled out the ivory box. It was warm from being kept in her pocket, but the way it almost glowed still intrigued her. She hadn’t figured it out.
“I don’t know if I want to know the secret in here,” Maddy mused. Footsteps in the hall outside her room caused her to hastily put it back in her pocket and jump up. The doorknob twisted, but since the door was locked it didn’t open.
“Maddy!” Tilly called from outside the door. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Maddy walked across the room and unlocked the door.
“Come say goodbye to Doctor Justin, he has to leave right away.” Tilly turned back down the hall after delivering her message.
Thoughts ran through Maddy’s mind the same way a cardsharp shuffles two decks of cards at one time. Should she tell everyone he had been going through her room? He might say she’d taken something… and she had… Tilly and Sadie knew her well enough to guess she had because she couldn’t really hide things from them. She didn’t want to hide things from them, but the box was different. It needed her to keep it safe. That was an irrational thought, she knew, but she couldn’t help believing it to be true. But not calling Doctor Justin out on his behavior would tell him she had something to hide. He would know.
“He knows already, anyway,” Maddy admitted to herself. “That’s out of my hands. I know he knows, and I’ll play cool.” The trouble was, he knew she had something worth having and he wanted it for himself enough to take it.
“I’m coming!” Maddy called and followed Tilly down the stairs.
Chapter 17
Ancient Times
From the moment the Blood Drinkers were within sight of Atlantis people reacted with fear, terror, and chaos. Lelan and Celeste loaded many of the mortals into boats to try to escape since they were incapable of fighting, but most of them were picked off on the open sea between the island and the mainland by flying snakes who tossed their prey into the air, before feasting on their blood as they floated in the waves. The empty boats bobbed along on the surf amidst the incoming hoard the Blood Drinkers commanded. Celeste washed back on shore without being taken by the Blood Drinkers, but she wasn’t thinking clearly. She stumbled about and required help of some young women to get back from the oncoming threat.
Golda, Sith, Braxion, and Barden were the center of resistance effort. They conferred quickly and raced to do what they could.
The engineering center had two small catapults that had been used to teach physics theories to younger members of the colony, and Sith instantly organized a small group of young men to help him drag them out in the open where they could be used as weapons. While that was going on Barden, Braxion, and Golda hastily concocted several “fire bombs” (Braxion had actually been thinking how to make them in all the spare time he’d had at the colony), which they flung at the Blood Drinkers with the catapults as they approached.
“Be careful!” Wesslan yelled as he tried to secure several part-Eternal children in the refectory to keep them from harm’s way. He didn’t argue when Golda thrust several ivory boxes containing life samples of totem animals into the refectory to help keep them calm. “Don’t hit us!”
“Look out then!” Jurgon yelled with glee as they loaded the first round and prepared to let them go.
“Now!” Sith commanded, and Braxion and Barden let the flaming bundles fly toward the incoming snakes. Both “bombs” missed, but the snakes were startled, and the Blood Drinkers were unable to control them for enough time to prepare for another round. The hoard continued to advance to the shore on makeshift rafts they must have concocted from boats they had destroyed somewhere on mainland docks.
“Take that!” Jurgon crowed as the next round actually hit one of the approaching serpents as it tried to land. The snake writhed in the sky before making an emergency landing on the beach, twisting, injured, and shrieking on the white sand. Jurgon turned back to Braxion. “Good aim!”
“Keep going!” Sith commanded. “Now!”
Golda and some quarter-Eternal young women directed other efforts. The colony had almost no weapons of any kind, so every effort had to be improvised almost on the spot.
“Get the knives from the refectory kitchen,” Golda yelled to a young woman who looked particularly capable. As she thought of other things that could be used to harm someone, she directed them to be gathered in front of her main research area, where most of her samples of totem animals were still secured so that they would be the most protected things in the colony. The young woman came back with all kinds of knives in a large bucket and Golda sent her to pass them out to colony members who looked ready to use them.
“Good one!” Sith congratulated Braxion as one of the flaming missiles struck a snake squarely in the face and it raced to the ocean to plunge itself into the water to cool the stinging burn. “Salt water won’t help much!” he called after the screeching snake. Indeed, the snake howled in pain as the sting of the salt water met the already painful
burn.
“Charge him! Now!” Sith commanded several quarter-Eternal young men once Golda had given them knives and even a couple of long sharp fire pokers for makeshift spears. One of the Blood Drinkers has seized a woman who had thought she was well hidden in a small garden shed and flung her to the ground. Her life had been instantly snuffed out as her back broke when she hit the decorative stones. The Blood Drinker had fallen upon her crumpled body to quench his blood lust and found he had to contend with several very strong opponents who used their makeshift tools of combat efficiently. One young man from the colony wielded a shovel with graceful violence that gave Golda great hope.
More fire was flung, and more screaming, crying, and wounded people spun in chaos. As the sun climbed higher in the sky and the heat of the day grew, the battle got worse. The people of Atlantis mounted a better defense than they could have predicted, largely due to a good placement of totem animals keeping people calm enough to think on their feet. Even so, they only had makeshift weapons and no training in combat at all, so they were not a well ordered fighting machine.
“I think we’ve only gotten two of those serpents,” Barden told Golda as she brought him more supplies while he was setting up battle arrangements. The dead and injured members of the hoard were scattered where they had fallen. The normally immaculate grounds of the colony were littered with human wreckage.
“That’s better than nothing,” she answered. It was probably not enough though, she thought, as she tried to keep focused on the task in front of her instead of the suffering that extended clear to the beach. The waves washed up with red foam and overhead the gulls screamed in excitement over a feast they could not hope to replicate.
“Just keep firing!” Sith yelled to Barden as he ran to the refectory for reinforcement. He banged on the huge wooden door with both of his fists. “Get out here, Wesslan! You can’t hide and wait to be rescued. We need all the help we can get!”