by Jan Irving
“I don’t go where I’m not invited.”
I swallowed. “I know.” I couldn’t say I was more afraid of myself than him. It was all I could do not to jump him. “You said you were going to track our car before we took some time out.”
He looked away as if he didn’t want me to read his expression. “Yeah. It would be safer if you stayed here.”
“So we’re separated and some creepy guy with milky eyes can kill or kidnap me?” He laughed. “I guess that’s a cliché.”
“In just about every action movie I’ve seen. We stick together, cowboy.” He shrugged.
“What’s wrong?”
He gave me a burning look. “I don’t like you seeing me for who I am.” “You don’t know who you are.” I cocked a brow. “That’s why we’re here.”
“I mean… I kill people. It feels like something I’ve done a lot of.” He rubbed his forehead. “How can I atone for that? And how can you, a healer, want me?”
A lot of what he asked were questions he’d have to work out alone. “I would really like to know the real Caleb Black.”
He held my gaze. “You won’t like who you find.”
“That’s for me to decide, isn’t it?”
His jaw tightened. “Yeah.”
“So…what was in that packet we rescued from the locker?”
Caleb sighed then took it out of his pocket, flipping it to me. I opened it and…hello, gibberish.
“It’s in code.”
“Some of it. I think it’s a formula.”
“For what?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. But obviously something important.”
“Okay.” I handed back the packet. “Let’s…hit the saddle, I guess.”
“Hit the saddle?” Now amusement lightened his face. In the late afternoon, his features looked stark and still exhausted, despite our nap. Well, I’d slept much longer than he had, I realised. He’d made time to hunt up honey, herbs and fish.
“I’d really like to get our car back.” I rubbed the back of my neck, stiff from sleeping on the ground.
“We will. I want you to walk behind me and…” He sighed. “Try not to make so much noise, will you, Doc?”
I grimaced. “I didn’t play commando in the backyard growing up. It was always search and rescue.”
“Very prophetic.” He nodded. “Come on, daylight’s burning.”
I had a feeling he could track just as well in the dark. Certainly he did it fast enough now. He ran ahead of me in spurts, stopping to kneel and examine tyre tracks every now and then when I just had to catch my breath. Our car had been taken off the main road, if you could dignify the rutted track by calling it that. Whoever had stolen it—technically for the second time in twenty-four hours—had driven it onto a dried-up streambed that was rocky underfoot.
I stepped over a large rounded rock carefully and glanced at Caleb…and no Caleb.
He’d disappeared again.
My belly tightened and I waited to see if he’d return as soundlessly as he’d melted away, sweat drying on my skin.
They came out of the trees, milky eyes fixed on me. Three…six…nine men.
Oh shit.
Chapter Seven
“Okay, this can go one of two ways,” I said, holding up my hands. I hoped the supermen surrounding me wouldn’t see just how these hands were shaking, but the way my luck was running, all bets were off.
“Is that right?” The tallest of the bunch crossed his arms, staring at me with the unmistakable stance of the leader. Well, things were looking up. At least he wasn’t talking about ripping my head off. He was menacing, sure, but he seemed sane.
I took a moment to study the group since it didn’t seem like they were going to immediately end me. Their leader had lank blond hair that looked as if it had grown out without any attempt at styling. Was he also former military like Caleb and the man Caleb had been forced to kill?
The men’s clothing was ground-in dirty and none of them wore any jewellery like a wedding band or watch, but Caleb had told me that operatives didn’t take such things with them into danger zones. So could these men also be former operatives?
The eyes were spooky but I also saw weariness in the harsh lines on their faces. They were without hope. It generated a reluctant empathy inside me.
“You guys can rip me to shreds. Or we can talk. I can help you.” I sucked in a breath. “I
want to help you, damn it all.” Tall guy frowned. “Just how can you help us?” He looked pissed off and some of the others muttered among themselves. Obviously I’d said something to set them off.
“I’m a doctor.”
One minute I was confronting them in the middle of the dry streambed and the next I was on the ground, the leader’s hand wrapped around my throat. “Doctor! Just what we need.” Hatred burned in those uncanny eyes. “I’m going to rip your arms off first.”
I grunted and he eased his grip. “Look…” I coughed. “Something was done to you. I just want to understand it. If I can do that, maybe there’s a way I can help.”
“We’ve had all the help we need from scientists, thanks.”
“I’m not a scientist. I’m just a country doctor.” It was true, or would be after I finished my residency.
I was about to press my point when from behind us rocks were spat out from under tyres like bullets. The roar got louder and the men surrounding me threw themselves into the brush.
Their leader grabbed my arm.
Our stolen car skidded into sight, Caleb behind the wheel. He drove straight for us.
“Jesus Christ!” Tall and lanky yelled.
I yanked my arm free, rolling—
The car came to a halt an inch from my head. Caleb flung open the door, eyes wild, big gun out. He looked thoroughly spooked, which was unlike him. “Get in the car, Doc,” he ordered, his soft voice a contrast to the labouring engine.
“Shit, you nearly ran me over!”
He grabbed my arm and I winced. That was twice I’d been manhandled. It was beginning to piss me off.
“Caleb Black.” The leader stepped out of hiding.
“You know me?” Caleb didn’t lower his weapon.
Some instinct made me grip his wrist. “It’s all right,” I whispered. Caleb quivered under my touch but didn’t look at me. “He didn’t hurt me.”
Caleb gave me a cold and pitiless look. Okay, he obviously thought I was taking the Pollyanna view, but screw it. “He didn’t. And I want to help him. I have a feeling, if I can, I’ll be helping you.”
“Yeah, you got that right!” the leader guffawed.
Caleb frowned at the man. “He’s telling the truth, he only wants to help you. He’s not like you and me.”
Tall and lanky gave a grunt that might have been another laugh. “I didn’t think you’d ever have the balls to come back here, Black.”
Caleb rubbed his forehead. “We’ve met before.”
“Of course we have, son. You were one of the lucky ones. But time’s runnin’ out, isn’t it? You can feel it.”
“How is Caleb lucky?” I crossed my arms. I was getting to the bottom of this, oh yeah.
“Lucky as in the experiments didn’t work on him. He didn’t…transform. He’s not a goddamned mutant like the rest of us. You can go back to your life, Caleb.”
“That’s just it.” Caleb held the man’s gaze. “I don’t remember it. I barely remember ever being here or what was done to me.”
“All right, we get you’re bitter,” I told the leader. “But that doesn’t help you or us. What might help you is someone with medical training. You all have bruises, cuts… I’ll do what I can for you if you’ll in turn help Caleb remember what happened to him here.”
“I’m Templeton,” tall and lanky finally offered. He scrubbed his unshaven cheeks. “You’re a real doctor?”
I nodded. “I have some medical supplies in our car. Uh, as long as you didn’t take them.”
“What do you think?” Templeton sai
d.
“I think you took them. Give them back and I’ll help you.”
Templeton considered. “We all have basic medic training.”
“I have more than basic.”
“Peters!” Templeton called. “Bring the supplies.”
“Do they hurt you?” I studied Templeton’s eyes. I couldn’t figure out how he could see with them, but it was obvious his vision was fine—possibly better than my own. His hearing and reflexes had already proved to be superior.
“What do you think?”
“I think I’m waiting for you to tell me. I don’t make assumptions.”
He sighed. “I get headaches. We all do. It’s the change.”
I settled back and took a sip of the tea one of the men had brewed. We were sitting in a
rough clearing next to where Caleb had left the car. A fire was going and a few of the men were resting. They were thin and undernourished but despite their sorry state Caleb hadn’t left my side or put the gun away. He wasn’t exactly the trusting sort.
“What’s the change?”
“You haven’t told him?” Templeton gave Caleb an accusing look. “I haven’t seen my wife in over two years. I wouldn’t…not the way I am now.” Templeton squeezed his eyes shut. “I want her to remember who I was. Not some freak show.”
“Caleb doesn’t remember what happened to him. That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
“The change,” Templeton said with leaden emphasis, “is how they made us—super soldiers. We were the best, could do things that would have been impossible previously.” He gestured to his eyes. “Then this happened. They shut us away. Some they had to put down because they went crazy. We could see what was in the wind so my men and I escaped.”
“Escaped from where?”
“There’s a facility not far from here,” Caleb said. He was rubbing his forehead again.
Templeton nodded. “You remember that much. You should, since the escape was your idea.”
Caleb blinked. “A cage. I see you in a cage, colonel.”
“Yeah.” Templeton’s voice was suddenly husky. “That’s where you found me.”
“Why haven’t your…employers come looking for you?” I asked. “They came after Caleb and me.”
“I don’t think their operation is very big. I think they lied about what happened to us and now they don’t have the resources to round us all up.” Templeton lifted his hand, which was shaking minutely. “And, anyway, I’ve already got the shakes. Soon I’ll go crazy like the others.” He held Caleb’s eyes. “I’ve already asked my men to take care of it, when the time comes.”
I swallowed hard, having a pretty good idea what Templeton meant. “Not acceptable, soldier.” I resumed cleaning an open sore on his thick wrist. “Something has to be done to help you and your men.”
“You’d need access to the labs where they cooked the shit up,” Caleb said. “If you could see what went down, you’d be better able to help.”
“Yes,” I agreed absently. Then I caught the ramifications of his idea. “Oh, hell, no,” I groaned.
“It’s the only way, Doc. The only hope these men have. I have no way to decipher what was done to them but you…”
“I’m not a scientist.”
“You’re better than that. You care. Didn’t you wind up taking a sabbatical because you cared too much about one of your patients? I know who I want lookin’ into this with me, Doc.”
Now I was rubbing my forehead. “I lose perspective.”
“Do you really believe that? Because I’ve been a soldier and I’ve done my duty but it didn’t make me a fucking machine. I cared about people, wanted to protect the innocent from the scumbags of the world.”
Sometime while he argued with me, Caleb had lowered his gun.
“Oh, hell,” I grumped. “Why not?”
Caleb grinned at me.
“We’ll visit the site after I’ve seen to all the men.” I gave Templeton a sober look. “Those open sores…”
He nodded. “My immune system is screwy—it’s another sign.”
“I’ll do what I can to help you. Will you come with me and Caleb?”
Templeton shuddered. “Not for worlds. And he wouldn’t either, if he could remember it. But I guess Caleb has no choice. Time is running out for him too.”
Caleb didn’t meet my questioning look. “What do you mean?”
“Like I said, we were all normal, except for enhanced vision and hearing, strength… And then we changed again. It’s only a matter of time before Caleb is like the rest of us. He’s a dead man walking, Doc.”
* * * *
“We’re going to talk about this,” I told Caleb later. “As soon as we get out of here, we’re going to find a way to do a decent work-up on you.”
“Whatever you say, Doc, but can we postpone long enough for me to break into a secret government facility?”
I gulped. “Ah, sure…”
He gave me a wicked look. “Don’t worry, we’re already in over our heads.”
“Very reassuring,” I said dryly.
“I’m a ray of sunshine.”
The door was dull metal, rusted where water from a run-off in the tunnel seeped over it. “Are you sure this isn’t… I don’t know, part of the sewage system out here?”
“I’m sure.” He leaned his head against the door and using a couple of pins began to manipulate the lock.
The wind hit my back, chilly and playful. I thought I caught the sound of brush moving behind us. It could just be the breeze.
“Is it going to take much longer to do that?”
“It takes as long as it takes.” Caleb gave me an amused look. Okay, so obviously he wasn’t spooked. Good for him. “Ah…”
A second later he pushed the door open with a protesting creeaaaaakkking sound that rubbed my raw nerves. Inside was the enticing sound of dripping water and complete darkness.
“Is this where you escaped from?”
He blinked. “No. I just…knew this was here. From the schematics of the facility.”
“You’re remembering more?”
“Bits.”
“That’s good.”
But he didn’t look like he thought it was a good thing. He hesitated. “About what Templeton said…”
“I don’t believe it,” I said flatly. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“Doc…” His head fell back as he let out a deep sigh. Then he looked at me. “I wanted to see you again. Just see you again.”
“Don’t you dare finish that with ‘one last time’.”
“I never loved anyone in my life the way I love you. I don’t need to remember to know that,” he rasped.
“You haven’t exhibited the same symptoms as those men. Do you have super strength?”
“I wish…”
“Then I think we shouldn’t make assumptions, Caleb. What we need are answers, and, as unappealing as this tunnel is, I’m hoping we’ll get some.”
“This place… It was abandoned but it may not be exactly empty.”
My gut chilled. “I figured. Come on, Caleb. You deserve answers.”
“You deserve better than this. I fucked up your life, Doc.”
“So we’ll unfuck it.”
The words resonated but they should. I’d said them before. And as he looked at me, I saw Caleb remember.
“I don’t want to fuck up your life,” Caleb murmured, his eyes closed. He was lying on top of me in the clearing by my house, our bodies still sweaty from lovemaking.
“I’ll just unfuck it if you do.” I carefully kept my voice casual but it was increasingly hard to keep things light with him. Words ached under my breastbone. I loved him. I wanted to tell him. I was afraid to tell him. “Are you sure you have to leave Monday?”
His face hardened. “I’m sure.”
“Will you write?”
“Doc…” He sat up, reaching for his shirt.
“How about calling? Or you could hire a plane to fl
y over head with one of those messages…” I caught his expression. “Don’t. I won’t stop hoping.”
“Don’t hope,” he said harshly. “Just don’t.”
I grasped his face in my hands. “Don’t tell me not to hope. I can’t do that.” I kissed him. “Be with me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice was so soft I barely made out the words. “Why the fuck couldn’t I stay away from you?”
“Too late.”
“Still regret hookin’ up with me?” he asked me now. “Are you kidding, who else would show me such a good time? Being attacked by strange killers and now visiting this palace.”
“Okay then.” A slight smile touched his mouth.
I took a deep breath and followed him into the darkness. His flashlight was a small pool of yellow, casting just enough light to help with our footing. Sounds echoed. Our footsteps, the endless drizzle of water, the wind blowing through the mouth of the tunnel.
We splashed through a stream, the root branching down, deeper into the earth.
“You said the first time you saw Templeton, he was in a cage,” I said.
“Yeah, I got this flash of him… His eyes weren’t as milky as they are now, just a little white showin’. He was the only specimen still alive in the room.”
“Specimen? God!”
“It’s what we were to them. I bet if I checked with Templeton’s wife they told her he’d died on a mission.”
“How could they do that?” My hands balled. “She needs to know the truth. And whatever he says, I don’t think it’s right she’s denied the chance to see him again.”
“Why would she want to?” Caleb’s face was impassive when I glanced at him before turning my attention back to my footing.
“Because. She loves him, presumably. And a chance to be with someone you love is all we’ve got in this life.”
Chapter Eight
The institute didn’t seem any more intimidating at first look than the admin part of a hospital.
Caleb led us into a maze of hallways, lit by flickering fluorescent bars overhead. We passed doors labelled ‘Dr Phillip Drew’, or ‘Lounge 15’. At the lounge, Caleb broke the door and hit the light switch.
“Looks just like the one in the hospital,” I mused, taking in the plastic chairs and cheap faux wood table. And the abandoned coffee mugs… “Looks like they left in a hurry.”