“I thought the same thing,” she whispered, “but now I’m not so sure.”
“You wanted to know if Hendrix was involved with the Hallucigenia Project, and now you know.” He reached out and drew her body close to his. “In just a few hours they want me to drive Talitha across the city for reasons I can’t wrap my head around and from what I just watched she’s become an instant celebrity. If this kid is somehow linked between you, Hendrix and the madness of what’s on the way I’d love to know what goes on in that lab of yours.”
Candice laughed suddenly with a humourless and hollow burst. “I do that and you’ll kick me out of here so fast I’ll be walking home barefoot, and that would make me sad because in case you haven’t noticed I kinda like being here with you.”
“Try me,” John said.
“You sure you want that?”
He reached up and brushed away the hair over her eyes. “You don’t have to worry about going home barefoot.”
“Okay,” she sighed, “but then I need to know what Hendrix had to say.” She paused for a moment to stroke the back of Bobbie’s neck, and then rested her hand on his fur while working out how to say what she had to say. “You know about the coded message that we’ve found in our blood and the device we built from hidden instructions, but what you don’t know is that this device has done some very things.”
“So what the hell does it do?” John asked.
“If you asked me that yesterday I would’ve told you death was what it did.”
“This thing kills people?”
“That depends on how you want to look at it,” she replied. “It sits on your head and seems to act as some sort of transmitter and receiver. We don’t know how, but it communicates with a program embedded in the network. At least we think it does.” Anxiety induced lines formed around her eyes. “We had test subjects try the device but there must’ve been something wrong, because it only took a few minutes before the experience turned real fucking nasty. It was so bad that some of them tried to kill themselves, and some of them succeeded too. I chose science because I wanted to learn some of the secrets of life, and instead I end up dancing with death and torment.”
John could clearly see the pain in her eyes. “Sounds to me like a job worth walking away from, even if it means missing out on the discovery of a life time.”
“Depends on what you mean by discovery of a life time. If you’re talking about what the device can do then I guess I won’t be missing out on anything, because just a few hours ago I put it on.”
“I don’t know if that makes you brave or insane,” he exclaimed with more than a little shock.
“Probably both, but it also makes me question everything I’ve ever known. This thing, it… took me somewhere. It was terrifying but stunningly beautiful at the same time, a place I’d never been before yet it felt like a warm forgotten memory.” Candice scrunched her nose with confusion. “I don’t even know how to put it into words. It was like all the strange dreams I’ve ever had sewn together into a world just for me, but when I was in there I wasn’t alone. Talitha was in there.”
“Like a recording of some kind?” John asked.
“No, not a recording. I couldn’t see her, but I could feel her presence, could hear her voice inside my head and I’m pretty sure she could read my thoughts somehow. It sounds totally fucking crazy saying it out loud like this but at the time it seemed so natural. I still don’t know what the hell the device is supposed to be used for, but I’ve got no doubt that little girl has a big role to play.” She placed a hand against his cheek. “That’s why I really need to know what she and Hendrix had to say.”
“Well, as far as Hendrix is concerned there was a story about some deep sea diver, a quick lesson in religious hallucinations and some fish feeding entertainment. Like I said, fascinating guy.” He flashed a quick, light hearted grin. “As for Talitha she’s a cute kid with the kind of smile that lights up any room she’s in, and considering the bad luck she’s been dealt it’s pretty damn humbling.”
“What do you mean bad luck?”
“The kid’s in a wheelchair and whatever put her there doesn’t look like going away anytime soon. Something to do with her brain I guess. Hendrix has been her doctor for quite a while by the sounds of things and the relationship seems to be a close one. To be honest there’s not a whole lot I can tell you, except that your friend is definitely a big player in the Project and there’s a young girl that made a point to remind you about the bad blood. Any idea what she’s talking about?”
“I don’t know.” There was frustration in her voice. “I’ve been thinking about it since I left the lab. I don’t have much to do with the DNA mapping stuff, but I remember back when we started there was a bit of a yelling match between Hendrix and the higher ups. Something to do with samples moved from his work station. It blew over pretty quickly and was never brought up again. I thought maybe it had something to do with him disappearing on us but then it could’ve been, you know, the world coming to an end and stuff.” Candice’s head was on fire with an overflowing torrent of thoughts yet cutting through them all was the musky smell of John’s skin. “You need to get that letter to him.”
“I’ll try to remember next time.” Suddenly he could see her red tinged eyes swelling with tears. “Hey, you’re crying…” he said softly.
“Only because I’m an idiot,” Candice said with a wipe of her eyes.
“Easy now, the only idiot in this room has his arms wrapped around you.” He leaned in close and used the tip of his nose to capture one of the tears. “I hope it’s not something I’ve done?”
“Not a chance,” she assured him. “It’s just all so fucking crazy and I feel like I’m being pulled under water and can’t breathe, and laying here with you it’s like I can see the surface, I can almost reach out and touch it, but I know I’m going to drown anyway.” She stole a kiss before drawing a deep breath. “I don’t want to drown.”
John returned the kiss then looked deep into her eyes. “You once asked me if I believed in destiny, but I’m starting to think destiny is only part of the equation. I don’t know how the universe works, or what sort of forces brought our worlds to collide, but if you ask me destiny is just another word for what’s possible. After that, it’s a matter of fighting for what you believe in.” He leaned down and ever so softly nibbled the skin of her neck. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, the surface might seem far away but I’m holding my breath right beside you. Destiny? I say we make our own.”
“Even if we make it to the surface only to find the sky on fire?”
“Sounds romantic to me.”
She was about to say something but he didn’t give her the chance, sealing her lips with his and clawing and the buttons on her shirt. Annoyed at the sudden movement, Bobbie pranced to the corner of the bed and curled into a ball. Candice moaned loudly as she welcomed John inside of her and dug her fingers into his shoulders. It was pleasure that she needed so much and with his every move her body was charged with an orgasmic electricity, and yet the physical bliss wasn’t enough to hold back the thoughts of the strange forest she had entered.
There was no point fighting it so she gave in to the pleasures of the flesh while the memories of the day replayed over and over. Her nerves were alive to his every touch and thrust but deep in her mind’s eye she was back in the garden with Kiki and the strange sky, a foot in each world as emotions tore at her heart. The world was going to end, and she was making love while echoes of a hallucination bounced along the inside of her skull.
John ground his hips as deep as he could into the back of her thighs then arched his back with a primal surge of giving. Sweat dripped from his stomach down onto the sheets. He collapsed beside her, exhausted and slightly numb from the release.
“You’re incredible you know that?” he managed through a heaving chest. “Here we are stuck in the middle of literal insanity and somehow you make me feel like I’m in high school again, ready for an endless
summer.”
“Maybe it’s the insanity making you feel that way.”
“Don’t say that,” he frowned. “I know time isn’t something we’ve had, but that doesn’t mean this is just some convenient fling. Neither of us know what’s going to happen from here or when this city turns itself inside out, but however things play out I’d feel a lot better if we could work out a way to deal with it together.”
“You actually mean that?” she asked.
“I hope I didn’t come across too creepy,” John joked.
She reached out to stroke the outline of his jaw. “Considering I swore I’d never touch another man again yet end up crawling into your bed before you even get here means you’ve probably got a good idea of how I feel. Things are fucking crazy, no two ways about it.” She placed a hand across his heart. “I guess the question now is, what do we do from here?”
As if wanting to know the answer himself, Bobbie stood from his spot at the corner of the mattress and clawed his way onto Candice’s exposed stomach. John watched with surprise before bringing his face closer to hers.
“What we do from here is make it through today,” he said confidently. “I’ll do the drive and see if I get another chancing at slipping Hendrix the note, and you head back to your lab to find out what this bad blood is all about. When everything’s done and dusted we meet back here to work out where the hell we have a chance of watching a few more sunsets, because regardless of what happens something tells me this city won’t be a good tourist destination for much longer.”
“Are you saying we should run away?” Candice asked with a trace of excitement in her voice.
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
“Then let’s do it. The lab is being shut down in the next twenty four hours any way, and I sure as hell don’t want to conduct anymore tests that leave bodies on the floor. There’s a few things I’ll need to take care of but I should be ready by tonight.”
“Then it’s settled,” John said with a nod of his head. “Besides a stack of red lights I can’t see the drive across the city causing too many problems so I shouldn’t be too long. That is, unless I get us lost or Talitha gets seen.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful John, please?”
“I promise.”
“Good, because the feeling that things are about to get real bad won’t go away.”
“You might be right, but for now let’s just enjoy us.”
As their minds began to shut down and the very first few rays of sun began to curl around the distant horizon, sleep came upon them. For Candice it was a bitter sweet slumber that was blissful thanks to John’s body against hers, and strangely haunting as dream distorted memories of the magical garden carried her away. As for John, the ability to sleep was testament to his exhaustion more than anything else, but it was a sleep that was quickly invaded by the demons that sensed his vulnerability. With the chemicals weak in his blood, the sheen of their teeth was exceptionally vivid. When the first nightmare hit and jerked his body awake, Bobbie hopped onto his chest and watched until he was able to slip away again.
Chapter 29
John opened his eyes and checked his watch. His muscles ached and head was throbbing and he figured he had slept for just under two hours. Beside him, with mouth partly open and hair ruffled against the pillow, Candice was still in the grip of the void. There was a growing urge to throw his phone off the balcony and slide back beside her, but he’d made a promise to Talitha and wasn’t in the habit of going back on his word. Sure there was the chance he could be heading straight from the oven into the fire, but his word was a currency that wouldn’t be compromised.
He grabbed his phone from the bedside cabinet and eased his way into the kitchen, confident that Candice and Bobbie hadn’t stirred. When he checked the message waiting for him on the screen his senses shot into focus. Standing there naked and rattled, he had less than ninety minutes to get to the specified address.
Fuck.
Knowing it would be a miracle to make it in time he fired off a jumbled request to Vanessa, jumped in the bathroom to freshen up and throw on some clothes, and topped Bobbie’s cookie bowl up. Amazingly, Candice was still curled up and oblivious to his rush and so he paused at the bedroom doorway to soak in the serene vision. Regardless of what the day had in store he hoped more than anything that the night would bring them back together.
There was anticipation in the air as he rode the elevator down, and as he dashed through the lobby he kept his eyes to the floor and all but ignored the greetings from the morning staff that were far too bubbly for such an early hour. His body language, it turned out, wasn’t obvious enough to stop the spritely porter from opening the glass door for him. He scraped a crumpled note from his front pocket and handed it over as though it was on fire and stepped out into the now familiar thick still air.
What he could see of the sky was basked in a silver red glaze of clouds that seemed close enough to touch, and while it wasn’t quite the threat of a storm it was surely a sound promise. Once he slid his sunglasses on though, things looked a little less haunting.
The phone buzzed in his hand. Assuming it was Vanessa he brought it straight to his ear and did his best to sing a hello. Only, it wasn’t Vanessa.
“You better have a bloody good explanation boy.”
“Well I’ll be,” John mumbled to himself.
“I’m not a man who likes jumping to conclusions so this is your window to illuminate my short comings in assuming you’ve fallen for some well trodden American greed. John, what’s happened to my money?”
John scanned the area to be sure the conversation was private. “Well, I guess the short answer to your question is I needed it for a deposit of faith.” He winced a little at the pathetic truth bending. “Things are getting complicated over here.”
“No dear boy, they are becoming expensive. You need to reverse this deposit of faith within the hour to avoid true complications.”
“Here’s the thing Sebastian, I did what I did to get closer to Rebecca. I guess the question right now is what’s more important, a chunk of money or a chance to win back your wife?” Usually he would have had a bitter taste in his mouth from blatant lies, but in this instance things were remarkably sweet. “After all, that’s what you sent me over here for.”
There was a pregnant pause from the other side of the line, though he was sure he could hear another voice whispering in the background as he checked his watch. The minutes, it seemed, were racing away.
“We’re not talking about a chunk of money boy, we’re talking about millions of dollars. And let there be no confusion about the matter, we’re talking about millions of dollars of my money. The account was set up with specific parameters in place to avoid any temptation inspired discretions so I can only view this as a calculated event.” Sebastian’s voice began to simmer with a hint of rage. “Now don’t you dare question the love I have for my wife, are we clear? That’s the only reason you’re there, and the illusion of money was to ensure you could get close to those people. Now the illusion has become a deception, and if it’s not resolved right now you’ll curse the day I knocked on your door.”
The threat came through loud and clear but there was just a problem or two. He was on the other side of the world and, assuming Klementina and Rebecca weren’t bluffing, was also full of shit and more than guilty of his own level of deception. So while the threat was there, for John it was a bark with no bite.
“Actually,” he said with a firm grip of the now slippery phone, “opening the door to you is already filed away with the best of my fucking regrets, and if it’s intimidation you’re hoping for you’ll have to do a lot better than that.”
“Careful with your choice of tone John, you’re in a very dangerous playground over there and I know how to play the games a lot better than you.”
John shook his head with disbelief. “You really wanna flick the switch huh?”
“What would you have me think? I give you a job
and the chance to get away when most people said you were a wash out, trust you with a substantial sum of front money, and ask only that you tell my wife that I want her to come home. Now the money has vanished, Rebecca is still there, and you speak to me like I’m some sort of fool. It is you who is flicking the switch, and I can assure you it is a very dangerous action.”
“You know what? I’ve had a fucking gutful mate.” Beneath the glow of the morning sky he spotted Vanessa’s car as it turned towards the hotel. “You say you love your wife but if you ask me you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get her out of the city to tidy up your bullshit business deals. Yeah that’s right you motherfucker, I had a good chat with your friend Nick and for all I know he’s just the tip of the ice berg.” The frustration that had been growing since he’d stepped off the plane was threatening to rise to the surface with a blistering fury. “But here’s the crazy part. Even with an insane, pissed of Russian mobster and the FBI breathing down my neck I would have tried to get you what you wanted, but it turns out it wasn’t the Hallucigenia Project I had to worry about lying to me. No, while I’m over here getting a crash course in madness you’re putting the pen in Felicity’s hand to take all that I had left.”
“If I knew you’d be taken a fool so easily I would never have knocked on your door.”
Vanessa brought the car to a stop and waived at John through the window as though they were getting ready for a picnic. It was time to bring the call to an end, though he couldn’t help throwing out an ultimatum.
“Okay mate,” he said with an exaggerated calm. “Tell me you’re not working on taking away my house and I’ll do whatever it takes to get your money back. And in case you’re thinking of bluffing, you best know that the cult you’re so worried about has enough resources to find out when you last picked your nose.”
The Hallucigenia Project Page 49