Russ pushed past her and grabbed at his wrist. “His pulse is steady. What the hell is he doing out of bed?” He opened one of Edward’s eyelids, which elicited an oath from Edward. “Wake up.” ordered Russ.
Edward opened his other eye and struggled to focus.
“Let’s get you up. I don’t want you out of this bed for anything.” Russ’s voice was a pitch higher than normal. Brina moved to help Edward back into the bed. His bare legs were cold and flaccid, with hairy rolls of fat masking what used to be muscles. Edward had been in great shape at one time, but his heart was losing the battle with his appetite.
“We need the monitors and tests run, now,” said Russ.
“Did Roman find you?”
Russ shook his head.
“I have the door open. It was a code based on Mathew’s initials.”
“Finally, something goes our way.” He gave her a list of items he needed and directions for turning on the lights from the breaker box. Brina retrieved the flashlight and headed down, aware of the subtle noises that the house made as it cooled and settled. Hypervigilant. That’s what her therapist had called it. She was so used to things going wrong that she was now looking for things to go wrong.
She stopped at the top of the lab steps and took a deep breath, willing it to reach her toes and stop her heart from pounding. The dark was cold and sterile. She closed her eyes and pictured the lab: just a harmless collection of test tubes and computers. Labs were less of the Frankenstein style these days, looking more like offices with Bunsen burners. She knew where each item on Russ’s list was located and mapped out how she would collect them.
Her thumb pushed the grooved switch on the flashlight and sliced a yellow path to the hospital-gray tile fourteen steps down.
Chapter 26
The breaker switches for the lab were in the tripped position, not off as Brina expected they would be. The first one turned on the emergency lights, while the next two brought up the main lights and the computers. Their power backups beeped as they came online.
She dumped a box of papers onto the floor and began filling it with the items on the list, plus a few extras that looked useful. The lab smelled even though it had been sealed barely a day. The breakers had also turned off the fans that circulated air through the lower level. The only appliance hooked up to the main power line was the refrigerator.
The large double stainless-steel doors were locked with a bar through the handle. Russ instructed her where to find the keys. She fished those out of Edward’s file drawer and dragged her half-full box over to the fridge. Russ wanted two IV bags.
The keys clanked against the bar as she slid it out of the door handles and dropped it to the floor. So far so good, she thought.
The body fell straight out, brushing Brina’s shoulder as gravity pulled it to the floor with a sickening smack.
Mathew Roman stared up from a bluish haze with thin, blackened capillaries crisscrossing his face.
Brina’s scream choked in her throat and she was fairly sure she wasn’t breathing. It was exactly how she reacted in all her nightmares. Finally, a whimper echoed around her. “Holy shit!” She turned, running for the stairs, then stopped as she realized a few things. Mathew hadn’t been pilfering food because he was obviously dead. Moreover, the ranger couldn’t possible have seen him in a car wreck, because Mathew was here. Someone had killed him and put him in the freezer, and that someone was stealing food and having the run of the house.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Her hand flew to her mouth to stop the second wave of screams that she was certain would come out this time.
“Think Brina.” She stepped over Mathew’s body, grabbed two IV bags, and tossed them in the box. She hauled it up the stairs before the freezer door had a chance to slam shut.
Chapter 27
“Are you sure it was Mathew?” Russ had her by the shoulders, trying to get her to speak in complete sentences.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Shit.”
“Yes! Shit, double shit,” she answered. “Someone is playing with us.”
Russ looked over at Edward, who was in a stupor. “At least we can rule him out. What about Roman?”
“What about him?”
“Has he been with you the whole time?”
“Russ, he’s like—like four years old. He couldn’t hurt a grown man. Give Mathew a little credit for being sharper than that too. He wouldn’t let Roman get out of hand.”
“I’m just asking.” His gaze ran wildly over the room. “Then it’s someone else, which is scarier. There are a lot of people who’d like to see Mathew dead.”
Russ looked around, summing up the medical supplies she’d brought. He crossed the room and tied a rubber strap to Edward’s arm. A moment later, Edward’s veins began bulging from his flesh. Russ thumped one a few times, slid the needle in, and connected the IV. Blood snaked up the tube until he opened the valve, pushing the blood and the clear liquid into Edward’s arm. Edward didn’t blink an eye during the whole procedure.
“Do you think he’s awake?” she asked.
Russ shook his head, “I don’t know. He should be pretty out of it after all that’s happened.” He pulled another set of needles from the box and tapped a knotted vein on Edward’s other arm. He filled six tubes with the nearly black blood and then flipped them around a few times, coating the sides. “I’m going down to the lab with these. Mathew’s still on the floor?”
She nodded.
“I guess I’ll put him back in the deep freeze. There’s nothing we can do for him.”
“What if someone’s in the house? We shouldn’t split up.”
“Stay here, and don’t worry.” As he turned to leave, Edward gave a startled jerk, his hand shooting to his arm where the IV needle was taped in place.
“Russell?”
“Hey, relax. It’s just fluids, you’ve been out all day, and frankly, you look like hell.”
“Mathew’s really dead?” Edward’s voice sounded hopeful as he squinted at them, as though seeing more clearly would help him hear.
“Brina found him in the freezer.” Russ juggled the tubes of blood in his fingers with a clink. “It’s time to tell us about the pictures.”
Edward struggled to wrap his tongue around his words. “There may have been a few unaccounted for.”
“A few what?” she asked
“Offspring,” he stammered.
“Could one of them be here?” Russ asked.
“It’s possible. We can’t know for sure,” Edward lied. He tried to sit up but lacked the strength to support his body. Russ let him struggle, watching him flop against the pillows.
“Edward, we need the truth.” Brina moved to the side of the bed and tried to get Edward to look at her. He turned his head away.
“Don’t you want Roman to be safe? He’s your proof that your theories work.”
Edward turned, glancing first at her and then up at Russ. “Perhaps if we could get out of here, I would have time to figure out which one is after us. They all came out so different,” he whispered.
Brina sighed, wondering what else he was holding back.
Edward licked his cracked lips, with spittle caked at the corners. “The truck could get us out; Mathew had snow chains for it.”
Russ paced the room, stopping at the door. “I could do that,” he nodded. “In the morning.”
“Go tonight,” said Edward, “and make sure the chains are there, and a shovel. You’ll need a shovel.”
Russ opened the door, looking back over his shoulder, “Keep an eye on him, and don’t let Roman out of his room.”
Chapter 28
With Russ gone, Edward slipped into a light sleep. Brina gazed about the room; it was bigger than hers, with two windows facing the back of the house. They all had the same view of the backyard, except for Mathew and Russ, whose rooms were across the hall. She picked up Russ’s trash, left over from hooking up the IV, and dumped it in the wastebasket. The computer was h
umming but had gone into sleep hibernation. She jiggled the mouse, and a moment later, the desktop lit up with a row of open programs on the task bar.
Edward’s desk had little else on it, other than the lamp and a nearly empty glass of Scotch. She opened the drawers and found most filled with junk-drawer offspring. There were a number of pens and paper clips, a pair of sunglasses, and a few note tablets. Closing the drawer, she turned her attention to the computer.
“Wait a minute.” She pulled the drawer back open and slipped out the notepad that had caught her eye. It had the same letterhead as the one she found in Mathew’s appointment book. She laid it on the desk and contemplated what it could mean. Nothing that she could be sure of, was the conclusion. She stared at it more, flipping the pages and even holding it up to the light to see if there were any impressions from previous notes. Still nothing. “So much for that clue, Nancy Drew.”
She put it back and grabbed a pen. The first program on the task bar was File Explorer. The list that came up was not encouraging. Her name, Russ’s, Edward’s, and a dozen others filled a folder named Background. She didn’t have to guess what it meant.
The date next to her file was a month before she had actually applied for the job. “I guess my getting this job wasn’t so random after all.”
She was marked; they knew what would get her there. At least it was after the accident. Otherwise, she would’ve suspected them of having had a hand in Michael and Josh’s deaths. That would be unforgivable. The thought dipped her memory to those days when the world seemed lost, or stolen. She ran fingers under her eyes, removing tears.
She tapped down to the next name. Russ’s file was much older.
“What would make you want to work here, Russ?” she whispered. There was a list of his immediate family and their addresses. His college transcripts were from Harvard. “Very impressive.” He had also graduated at the top of his class, which led her to wonder, even more, why he would be in the middle of nowhere working for a maniac. It took a while to find the likely answer. His older brother, Daniel, was autistic. Mathew had found the people he wanted, and then he had found a way to tap into their motivations. Nothing short of social engineering, but then again, what company didn’t employee those same tactics in one form or another? Mathew had just done away with the subtleties.
She glanced at Edward, wondering if he had been pre-selected the same way, or if he been part of the selection committee. If they were all here for a reason, what was it? In her head, she pegged each of them into slots, hoping that something would appear to explain it all. Mathew was at the center, and he was dead.
The press often portrayed Mathew as power hungry, and his public business actions had played out like a TV drama on cable news networks and in courtroom reports. The Mathew she knew was much more intense, remaining aloof to the rest of them, taking an interest only in Roman. He had required daily updates from her and spent an hour every morning with Roman alone in the study.
She had no idea what they did together, but Roman seemed to enjoy the time and was the only person she’d seen have a personal relationship with Mathew Roman.
She ran her eyes down the screen, scanning the rest of the names. None were familiar, and the saved dates were years past.
The silence of the room was deafening, Edward’s breathing was shallow but steady, and the heat whispered through the vent in an even monotone.
She minimized the window and opened the next program, email. Messages had arrived as recently as an hour ago, all of them with the same subject line: “Are you awake yet?” She clicked on the first one, and immediately a mail confirmation appeared and disappeared before she could stop it. Whoever had sent it would now know someone was looking at the messages, and there was nothing she could do about it.
The message was blank. They were all blank, and they all sent a confirmation. She tried to open the mail path, but the string of addresses pointed back to Mathew’s ID. “I hope that’s not right.” If it was, someone close by was using the wireless router and had tapped into Mathew’s account.
The laptop beeped at her, and an instant messenger box appeared on the taskbar. Its flashing caused her pulse to skip. The message read, “Brina Brina Brina Brina,” over and over and over, filling up the entire screen.
“Crap!” She pushed the computer away and looked around. Whoever it was knew she was on the computer—not Edward, and certainly not Mathew. The string of text held a menacing quality that made her feel violated.
“Brina.”
She jumped with a shriek, banging her leg on the desk, and felt her adrenaline rush. When she turned, it was just Roman standing by the door.
“Roman, what are you doing up?”
He padded to her in bare feet, crawled into her lap, and closed his eyes.
“Roman, why are you up?”
He shook his head. “It was too loud in my room. I want to be with you.”
She didn’t know what he meant, and she was a little afraid to know. “You still need to sleep.”
He shook his head, “I want to stay here.” She looked around, considering. If he stayed in here, at least she could keep an eye on him and Edward. There was only one door to watch here instead of two. “Okay.”
She slipped him into the bed with Edward, tucking him in with a yank on the blankets and a firm warning.
“Don’t bother Edward. He’s sick and he needs to sleep.”
Roman nodded. “I know.”
Brina lowered the lights, letting the computer sink back into standby, and waited until Roman was asleep again.
The two of them, in the bed together, were an odd pair: creator and created. Edward was wrinkled and sunken with the IV pumping into thinning veins, and Roman seemed to be filling up with life and growing stronger at the same pace. The irony, under the current circumstances, seemed apropos.
She stepped out. Roman’s door was still open, and the room was as she had left it. The bed was jumbled with blankets and pillows askew, photos were still stacked on the nightstand, and thankfully, the window was closed and locked. The room was quiet. Spooky, but quiet.
She made use of the bathroom and changed into warm sweatpants and a sweater. She pulled a quilt and pillow from her bed and shuffled back to Edward’s room, wondering what was taking Russ so long. She regretted having slept through Biology. Then she might understand what was going on inside Roman and why Russ seemed so cautious of him. Even Edward was apprehensive about Roman’s improvement. Surely, they understood that a child is more than a sum of his genetics, no matter how contrived, or the science that made the combination possible. Russ may know Roman’s cells, but she knew Roman.
With that thought easing her tension, she curled up in the armchair and waited.
Chapter 29
Brina came out of a foggy sleep where Mathew and the park ranger chased her through the house with needles in their hands. Her legs were folded under her with next to no feeling, while her back and neck had fused into an unyielding curve. She sat up straight and took in the room. Edward and Roman were still asleep. Something had woken her up, but she couldn’t figure out what.
Stretching her legs, she pulled the blanket over her shoulders like a shawl. Snow was beginning to drift outside the window, lighter and more peaceful than the earlier storm. She let her thoughts relax and contemplated going back to sleep. Russ would eventually finish whatever he was doing and come back upstairs. Brina resettled and closed her eyes.
Something again.
This time she was awake enough to know, at least, where it came from. In the hallway, a shuffling of feet on the carpet snagged her attention.
She quietly crossed the room, hoping it was Russ. The door handle was cold, smooth brass that made only a tiny click as she turned it.
She looked out, then down the hallway, first in one direction and then the other. It looked clear. Shadows dipped around the corners and doors, but none were big enough to hide much. She listened to the house, but there were no unusual soun
ds, though she wondered if she could discern the sound of a body being dragged from that of a heavy wind stirring dead leaves outside.
She stepped back to close the door, but then saw a flutter at the edge of her vision. A photo, tapped to the door, darkened from a ghostly haze to show her sleeping in the chair. Standing behind her was Mathew, his eyes shining with life, a smile on his face, and his hand up in a small “hello” wave.
Brina jerked it off the door and closed and locked it, looking down at the image again. A debate in her head argued about whether she should stay put or go find Russ. Her heart raced. What was taking him so long? All the photos in the box had looked like Mathew. How many were marked missing, she couldn’t remember. More than one, she thought. This was one of them, she was certain. If he had gotten away, why would he come back?
Edward and Russ probably thought Roman would turn out the same way, too. They had to be looking for something inside of Roman. He was still alive for a reason. The others out there were alive because they had run away.
She knelt beside the bed, looking at Roman’s soft features, thinking about his daily discoveries and joys that had nothing to do with science. Even with the house being so remote, he had enough freedom to leave if he wanted, but he didn’t. Roman could love and make connections; maybe the others were missing that trait.
Edward had called Roman “perfected,” as though he was a cross breeding of rare orchids. They were trying to breed out some things while enhancing others. For all the copied genes, DNA mapping, and calculations, Edward and Russ really didn’t know what Roman would be. They were guessing, and that’s why they were afraid of him.
Brina sat back, wondering if her revelation was on target. It didn’t really matter, because they were stuck in the middle of a snowstorm with a maniac trying to kill them off one by one.
The doorknob rattled, and the door shook at the hinges. Brina held her breath and waited.
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