The Gene of Life

by Tetsuo Ted Takashima

  The chief hung up. “Get the boys and dispatch five cars!” he yelled, shaking his head.

  The young policeman froze in amazement.

  “What are you waiting for!?”

  He hurried out of there.

  The chief frowned and turned to Max. “Mayor Jefford’s ordered me to accommodate you to the fullest. I’m heading to the labs now, so if you would, please come with me. Personally, I’m not quite convinced,” he spat contemptuously; though he was being accommodating, his look of displeasure was clear. Sixteen uniformed police officers, including the chief, piled into the squad cars and headed for the laboratory. They stopped in front of the mass of steel that was the gate. When Max and the chief stepped out of their car, a security guard rushed out to meet them.

  “This morning a young woman washed up on the Labs’ private beach. We’d like to take her to the hospital immediately,” Max told the guard. The chief crossed his arms and glared at Max and the guard in turn.

  The guard saw the chief and the officers lined up and hurriedly picked up the walkie-talkie at his waist. Immediately, several men in suits came out of the building.

  “A man in a fishing boat saw a woman who drifted ashore on the Labs’ beach get rescued by the workers here. She’s with me. I’d like to see her as soon as possible,” Max stated firmly. Next to him, the chief was listening with a stern look.

  “I haven’t received any such report,” said one of the suits. “Maybe there’s been some kind of mistake?”

  “A diver was caught in a current and washed ashore on the Labs’ private beach. You helped her. That’s all. The second she’s back with me, everything is settled,” Max said.

  The men looked at each other with confused expressions.

  “There’s video of one of your guards helping her into the lab. That woman is my friend. You saved her. You have my thanks.” Max looked at the chief. “I’m telling the truth, right, chief?”

  The chief nodded with his chin slightly lowered and his eyes on Max.

  “A moment, please. I’ll go look into it,” said one of the men, who hurried to the guardroom and picked up the receiver. He was back a few minutes later. “A woman was taken to safety this morning, and she’s being treated at the infirmary. I’ll get her for you right away.”

  After around ten minutes, Katya was brought out, supported by a man in a lab coat on either side. She was wearing a white gown. Her unsteady gait made it clear how weak she felt. She stood in front of Max, but her eyes lacked focus, and she was hanging her head.

  “She ended up drinking a lot of seawater. She was agitated, so our doctors gave her sedatives. She’ll be back to normal in a few hours,” explained one of the suits, who gave Max a bag of diving equipment, an air tank, and a wetsuit. Max thanked him, and loaded them into the police car.

  Max and Katya were driven back to the motel.

  “Please make this be the last time I have to bail you out.” The chief grabbed Max’s arm as he was about to get out. “I don’t want any trouble with Aztec. Four years ago, we were driving down bumpy one-way roads.” He let go of Max’s arm, but didn’t stop glaring at him as he pointed behind himself with a thumb. “You saw the port, didn’t you? It used to be a wharf for smelly fishing boats. And now it’s full of yachts. We’ve even got a fancy restaurant down there now.”

  “So, in other words, no defying the town’s benefactors.”

  “I don’t want the higher-ups complaining to me, and Aztec Labs certainly doesn’t mind this arrangement. That company gives us huge amounts of money in taxes, and they also donate to the town and the city. They’ve got permission from the state and from DC, and they pass the state’s environmental standards. There haven’t been any issues since the place got built.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “I want you to leave town tomorrow. You’re more liable to cause trouble around here than they are. Or that’s what my gut’s telling me.”

  Max nodded and got out of the car. Meanwhile, an officer drove Max’s car into the motel parking lot.

  Max began walking, holding Katya up, when the chief poked his head out of the car window. “By the way—who exactly are you?”

  “We’re just tourists. Tourists who will be out of here by tomorrow. We won’t bother you again.”

  “You ain’t just a tourist. Not many tourists know presidential aides.” The chief spat at Max’s feet. “The aide called the governor, and the governor called the mayor. Apparently, the aide told them to send in the National Guard if I wasn’t up to the job. He must’ve meant business, threatening me like that.”

  “Next time I see him, I’ll tell him he made La Cruz’s chief of police none too happy.”

  The chief spat at him again before ordering the driver to pull out.

  Max took Katya to her room and helped her to the bed. She opened her eyes and tried to focus on him. She still seemed sluggish.

  “Don’t do something that stupid ever again.”

  “What was stupid about what I did? I know what’s important to me.” She tried sitting up, but frowned and lay down again. Her body wasn’t cooperating.

  “So waltzing into the Labs to get captured was important to you?”

  “But I’m back. I knew you’d save me,” she wheezed.

  “It just happened to work out. Stop being unreasonable.”

  “I’m not being unreasonable. I’m . . .” Katya stopped speaking. She teared up as she stared at him.

  “Why didn’t you talk to me first?”

  “I knew you’d be against it.”

  Max put a hand on Katya’s back. She shuddered a little.

  “I really want to find Aska,” she said. “If we examine her, we can find some new clues. Otherwise, you’ll—”

  “Stop talking.”

  “I want you to live, Professor.” Katya turned away from Max. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Max bought coffee from a vending machine and gave it to Katya.

  “Aztec is no ordinary laboratory.” Katya struggled to get up and reach for her wetsuit and diving gear.

  “Don’t exert yourself.”

  “I had a digital camera for underwater photography. I seized a window of opportunity and snapped several photos before those sedatives hit.” The camera was with the diving equipment, but all the data had been erased. Katya closed her eyes and paused to think. Eventually, she opened her eyes and started retracing her memories aloud:

  “I was taken to the building by the sea. The medical office had facilities similar to those of a large hospital. They have operating rooms and CT scanning equipment. There were several doctors there, too. It’s a fairly large facility. Also . . .” She put a hand to her head. “A man in the medical office was talking about a girl.”

  “Was it Aska?”

  “I don’t know. I did hear the word ‘daughter.’ He said the girl left the lab last week. She was a ‘substitute for her mother.’” She exhaled a faint breath. Her face was pale and her breathing faster.

  “You can tell me more tomorrow.” Max took Katya by the shoulder and gently laid her down.

  “Why did the police come? So many officers, too,” Katya said.

  “If I’d gone to the Lab by myself, they wouldn’t have let me in. And you would have been in even more danger.”

  “That chief didn’t look happy to be there.”

  “I pulled some strings with a friend. I was roommates with presidential aide George Anderson in college.”

  “You were just roommates?”

  “He was a good guy, and he had his talents, but those talents were never very well-rounded. When it came to math and physics, he was no more competent than a particularly unintelligent high schooler. I can’t believe he made it into Caltech. He said he was at the top of his class in high school, but at Caltech, that doesn’t quite cut it.”

  “I feel bad for the guy.”

  “I wrote most of his reports. He only graduated thanks to me.”

  “That’s fraud
!”

  “It’s the same story as your former boyfriend. He just didn’t have the talent for science. Just like I don’t have the talent for politics. Now he’s one of the brains behind the United States.”

  “Then he should’ve chosen the major that actually suited him.”

  “Unfortunately, he only realized his predicament when it was too late to start over.”

  “Well,” Katya looked forlorn. “I understand how he feels.”

  “I really can’t see you as the type who would. He was just bullshitting his way up.”

  “He was lucky. He woke up from his delusions and returned to reality. You’d never understand what he went through.”

  “You need to go to sleep.” Max put his hand on Katya’s forehead to make sure she had no fever, and gently touched her cheeks with his fingertips before getting back up.

  “Don’t go.” Katya grabbed Max’s hand.

  CHAPTER 21

  Max stirred with the distinct feeling something was off. He’d fallen asleep sitting beside Katya’s bed. He looked at her, she was sleeping peacefully. Then he realized his phone was vibrating in his pants pocket. According to the phone, it was two in the morning.

  “Listen to me, and don’t interrupt,” came a woman’s hushed voice.

  “Who is this?”

  “An ally. Look out the window. Don’t turn on the light.”

  He went to the window.

  Looking through the gap in the curtains, he spotted a car parked next to the pool. He saw the dark figures of several people inside.

  “You need to leave the room as soon as possible.”

  Max hesitated for a moment, then he shook Katya by the shoulders. Katya’s eyes squinted open.

  “We need to pack up and leave, now.” He put a hand on her mouth. Katya looked surprised, but got up without saying anything. She moved slowly, but the drugs seemed to have worn off considerably.

  Max went to the window again. Several people were getting out of the car.

  “When I give the cue, vacate the room and go toward the parking lot. A blue Ford is on the north side. I’m in the driver’s seat,” she said, her voice charged with tension.

  “Are you telling me to just trust you?”

  “If you want to live.”

  “Who gave you my number?”

  “Your friend.”

  “Give me a name.”

  “Hurry up!”

  “When you give me a name.”

  “Mr. Feldman.”

  Max looked behind him. Katya had changed clothes, and was standing with her backpack.

  “Follow me.” Max unchained the door. “It’s the blue Ford on the right side of the exit.”

  The people who’d stepped out of their car were walking toward Max’s room.

  “Hold it!”

  A shadow was crouching in front of Max’s room, unlocking the door.

  The door opened, and the shadow gave a signal to the men behind him.

  “They’re in your room now! Hurry up out of there!”

  Max left the room, supporting Katya’s body and stealing across the parking lot as they headed for the exit.

  The blue Ford was parked right where the woman on the phone had said. Max opened the back door and pushed Katya in. As soon as they got in, the group that had entered Max’s room rushed out and started toward Katya’s room.

  The woman quickly turned the key in the ignition. Looking back as they left the motel, Max saw the men hollering and running toward the car. By the time they reached the road, they were hit by the screeching of tires and the furious roar of the engine.

  “Where are we going?”

  The woman sped up. When she floored it, they were thrown violently against their seats.

  “They’re gaining on us!” Katya shouted.

  Suddenly the rear window shattered.

  “They’re firing at us!” Max grabbed Katya’s head and ducked. “Go to the police station.”

  “They’re in the opposite direction,” the woman shouted.

  The car lights grew closer to them. Katya clung to Max.

  The sound of bullets ricocheting off the car rang in their ears. After each shot, Katya clung even harder. The car zigzagged and bumped up against a telephone pole. Somehow, the Ford made it out of town, and zoomed along the coastline.

  “Faster!” Max yelled, while looking behind him. The enemy was gaining on them. Their headlights blinded him.

  “There’s a sheer drop on this side,” the woman said, “and below that is the sea.” She pushed down the accelerator anyway, and the car sped up.

  The headlights gradually receded, but bullets continued to hit the car.

  “Turn off the lights! They’re aiming for our taillights!”

  “That’d be suicide!”

  “It’s either that, or getting shot to death, or driving off a cliff, so pick your poison.”

  “Open the backpack on the passenger seat.”

  Max took the backpack and opened it. In it he found night-vision goggles—the same type Feldman and company had when they abducted Dona. Max gave her the goggles; she grabbed them and expertly strapped them on. A few seconds later, the lights went out and darkness swallowed the world ahead of them. The gunshots stopped and the lights behind them receded farther still. Their pursuers had lost their target. Moments later, however, the gunfire started again. They could still see the Ford by their own headlights.

  “Shoot back! There’s a gun in the bag!” the woman shouted.

  Max found a handgun at the bottom. He aimed through the smashed rear window at the car’s lights and pulled the trigger.

  It took a few shots before sparks flew—one of the lights went out. The remaining lights fell farther back, but soon the distance closed again. The whir of a helicopter hovered above.

  “They’ve got a chopper now.” Max squatted to scan the sky, but all he saw was darkness.

  Katya screamed as the last of the rear window shattered. Gunfire lit up the sky. Bullet holes peppered the ground lit by their pursuers’ headlights.

  “Duck!” Max shouted. “They’re shooting from the sky, too.”

  The headlights behind them suddenly went dark. Then there was a loud screech, shouting, and a crash. Max checked the rearview mirror and saw orange flames.

  The woman slowed down and turned on the headlights.

  “Turn them off!” Max shouted. He stuck his head out the window to scan the skies. The helicopter dropped lower and passed thunderously overhead. The car stopped. “Don’t stop! There’s a chopper!”

  But the woman didn’t reply. Max looked at the driver’s seat; the woman was breathing hard with her face on the steering wheel. Max got out of the car with his gun. The wreckage of the car that had been following them burned about fifty yards away. A pillar of flame towered higher, and then there was a deafening boom.

  All of a sudden, the copter was above their heads.

  They were buffeted by the strong wind from the rotors. The pilot blinked the red lights and dipped lower still. Max went back to the car and shook the woman’s shoulders, but she didn’t move, her head still on the wheel. The helicopter landed on a hill about twenty yards away. Max pointed his gun at it.

  “Don’t shoot! It’s me,” shouted a man against the whir of the rotors. The door opened, as a man ducked, holding his hat to his head. Tall, impeccably dressed, gray hair—it was Feldman. As he walked toward the burning car, Max ran up to him.

  The fire was dying down, but flames still shot out from the edges of the car’s dented hood. They saw two charred figures in the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat. From the backseat, a man thrust his arm out the window at Feldman. Feldman’s arm shot up, and a gunshot rang out. The man’s eyes were wide open; he screamed something to Feldman. It sounded to Max like “You’re . . .” Another gunshot, and the man’s arm fell.

  Max stopped and stared at Feldman with blank amazement.

  Feldman took the gun from Max’s clenched hand before walking to
the car and getting into the passenger seat. The woman sat up and gripped the wheel. Max got in the backseat and reached out to a shaking Katya and hugged her to him. The driver said nothing and started the car.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Ignoring Max’s words, Feldman glowered at the darkness before them. Meanwhile, the chopper hovered above like a mother bird watching over her chicks.

  They drove for almost an hour on the late-night freeway. The helicopter flying overhead disappeared. Feldman folded his arms and stared silently ahead. The landscape changed, and they were now driving through the business district of a small town. They turned onto a back road and stopped in front of an old building. Feldman signaled for the two of them to get out.

  Together they entered one of the building’s offices. The second the door closed, Feldman turned on them: “If I hadn’t made it there in time, you’d be dead.” Max had never seen him look so angry. Feldman took in deep breath after deep breath to control his rage.

  A woman came in holding two paper cups of coffee. It was the woman who had been driving. She appeared to be Hispanic. She was very beautiful, in her thirties with long, black hair and dark eyes, and she had an intelligent look about her.

  The woman gave the cups to Max and Katya, then came back with two more cups. She handed one to Feldman.

  “This is Ms. Ryan. She’s the person you owe your lives to.”

  She smiled faintly as they thanked her.

  “She is an ally of ours. She was looking into Aztec Labs, and she happened to be there when a questionable car left the complex. You two should really thank your lucky stars. Without her, you would certainly have been killed.” Feldman’s tone had already returned to his usual calm.

  “We are incredibly lucky,” Max said. “Lucky that both of you came to save us. And for that we thank you. But you’re lying. She was watching us, not Aztec Labs. I saw her car parked in front of the motel last night.”

  “You’re imagining things. Without us, both of you would have died.”

  “So, how do you know they were going to kill us? Katya came out alive.”

  “What else could they have possibly wanted? To invite you to dinner?” Feldman raised his voice again.