“What are you trying to say, Dad?”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I should have told you sooner. I wanted to. But it just didn’t seem safe before.”
“Tell me what, Dad?!” She felt a storm brewing in her heart. The signs were easy to see in her watery eyes and trembling on her lips.
“I’ve been deceiving you all these years about your mother,” he began nervously. “Her name is not Mei Li. She is not Taiwanese. That was all a lie.” He paused for a moment before going on. “Yuki is your mother.”
She sat speechless for a few moments as that last statement hung in the air. Finally she burst out: “Daddy! What possible reason could you have for not telling me? Why didn’t Yuki tell me herself? All these years!!!” She yelped in rage and frustration. Her father looked deeply ashamed, as well he might. He had obviously cheated her of something, wronged her. But why? Whatever his reasons might have been, his worries about obscure dangers, none of it had any weight compared to the pain she felt right then. Nothing he could say wouldn’t seem like a craven excuse. Even so, she wanted him to answer, to tell her if anything about her life was true. His hesitation was choking her.
He let out a sigh and told her about Cardano’s assignment in Tokyo. He told her all the things Cardano knew. Then he told her about him and Yuki. She was born in Okinawa at the base hospital. They had been married a few weeks earlier.
He explained her grandfather’s research to her. She was disgusted. It seemed little more than a war crime to her, or some sort of atrocity without an official category yet. There was more he told her, stuff Cardano didn’t know. The Chinese had heard her grandfather had shifted his efforts from seeking a gene mutation to support the Predator drug to developing a mutation that would achieve similar ends independently of the drug. He was apparently convinced he could design a virus to implant the mutation in an adult subject. It would take effect in a few days. Perhaps it would even prove to be reversible. That, at least, was what the Chinese believed. Of course, even if such a thing were possible, the risk of the virus getting loose in the general population ought to dissuade any sane person from carrying on with the project.
There was still more, perhaps the most important part of all from his point of view. The files Yuki gave to Cardano and Meacham said nothing about the new mutation. She left them in the dark. The Chinese heard about it from an informant higher up in the Mori Corporation. But none of the files they had managed to copy had any information about the mutation. Still, they became convinced her grandfather had hidden the design of the mutation, or even the mutation itself, in his own body. The routine autopsy done after his death would not reveal any anomalies on the genetic level. The Chinese stole tissue and blood samples from the remains before the cremation. They studied them for years, but found nothing.
Naturally, or perhaps quite unnaturally given the subject matter, they turned their suspicions on Yuki. Perhaps she carried the mutation in her body. Cardano realized the Chinese were interested in Yuki. He assumed they thought she knew something about the Predator project. But George understood the true nature of their intentions. He also knew they would stop at nothing to get her child if they ever learned of her existence. Yuki was pregnant when she fled to Hokkaido with George. From that moment on, he bent all his efforts to conceal Emily’s true identity from everyone... even from Cardano.
After the attack at the concert, George realized Emily was in much more serious danger. She had begun to attract the attention of some very dangerous men. Did they know who she is? Or did they just think they could use her to get to Cardano and Yuki? George wasn’t sure, but he was taking no chances. He would do what he could to preserve the illusion that she was his brother’s daughter on the off chance anyone still believed it. That was why he insisted on taking Emily with him rather than accompanying Cardano and Yuki to New Mexico.
Emily listened in stunned silence. So many painful questions swirled through her mind. She couldn’t quite bring just one of them into focus. But the theme that recurred most forcefully in the jumble of her thoughts was “Who am I?” It wasn’t hard for her father to see this.
“It isn’t true, Chi-chan,” he said in a tone of voice intended to reassure her. “There never was any mutation. It was just a casual notion of your grandfather’s. He never pursued the idea in his work. You are just our little girl.”
“But how did I get to be so good at fighting?” she asked in a shaky voice. The thought was devastating, that the thing she loved best was just a product of some monstrous mutation.
“No, honey. You’re good because you’re a tough chick. That’s all,” he said. “You’re just a normal kid, like any other. There is no magic pill, no special gene, no short cuts. Just a lot of hard work.”
“Those guys at the concert, is that why they attacked us? Did they think I’m some sort of freak?”
“I don’t know what they thought. All the world thinks you’re my niece, with no special connection to Yuki. But if our secret’s out, then we’re gonna have to approach things a bit differently from now on.”
It took Emily a while to digest all this information. Her entire life seemed to have been turned upside down. Everything she had grown up believing about herself and her family, such as it was, had been snatched away from her. She felt dizzy. But there was one comforting thought pulsating at the heart of all the confusion. Whatever else might turn out to be false, she knew without a doubt Yuki loved her. And now she knew why. She traded an abstract dream of a mother for the absolute truth of her real mother. Her mother had been with her for her entire life. Her mother loved her! Mei Li hadn’t cared enough to take her with her when she ran out. She cast that canard into the oblivion it deserved and embraced the mother who so palpably loved her. Emily’s feelings gradually changed from perplexity and rage to a warm feeling of confidence verging on joy.
Yuki would have a similar conversation with Cardano some time after they arrived in New Mexico. He needed to know everything about her father’s research, about what the Chinese thought he had done, and what Meacham and perhaps Burzynski were just now coming to believe. He would not be able to protect them all effectively unless he had the full story. He would also have to know the truth about Emily. He would be shocked and angry, though mainly at himself for not guessing the truth about her sooner. The news about the Chinese would be worse than he had suspected, and he became fairly certain Meacham’s renewed interest in Yuki must have come from something he learned about the Chinese program. This thought would change his entire perspective about the plans he had made for them, for his family, for everyone. It was clear that if they really believed there was a mutation hidden among them, so to speak, they would stop at nothing to get control of it.
George asked Emily to take out the papers in her pack. She rummaged through it and found a lot of cash, at least twenty thousand, a safe deposit box key to a bank in West Virginia, a birth certificate, a social security card and several passports. The birth certificate recorded the live birth of a baby girl seventeen and a half years ago on a US military base in Okinawa, Japan. Her name was listed as Michiko Tenno, which hearkened back to the family name of Yuki’s maternal grandmother. They chose it to conceal any connection to Yuki’s father. George Walker was given as the child’s father, using his middle name, which was also his mother’s maiden name. They had gone to great lengths to create a document she could use in perfect safety. It was a valid birth certificate; she was really born there to those parents. George was confident this identity would withstand careful scrutiny and not put her in danger. This is who she truly is. She could safely go anywhere in the world as Michiko Tenno, US citizen.
One of the US passports identified her as Michiko Tenno, as did the social security card. They were consistent with the identity established in the birth certificate. This was a valid passport, duly supported by the official State Department records. Two other US passports and one British passport identified her as Emily Chung or Emily Hsiao. A third US passport iden
tified her as Emily Kane, born in Hawaii, but the date of birth showed her to be now eighteen years old. These were very good forgeries. She could probably get through a border control facility using one of them. But if she were arrested and these passports examined closely, they would probably be discovered to be fakes. One last passport, from Japan, identified her as Michiko Tenno, born in Okinawa, and folded up inside it was a birth certificate recording her birth at Chubukyodo Hospital in Okinawa City. These were valid documents as well, supported by any legal records that might be found in a search of Japanese government records. Yuki had insisted on establishing valid Japanese citizenship for her daughter.
This was a lot of information for Emily to process. She had a name. But it wasn’t the name everyone knew her by. But it was a name all of the important social institutions she had to live within the authority of would recognize. George gave her very precise instructions about how to use the fake passports, about how to find her way to New Mexico, where to find her mother, what was in the safe deposit box. He told her as much as he could in the short time he had.
Emily’s father died that night in a motel room in the town of Kane, Pennsylvania, on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. Emily felt completely bereft at first. When the police arrived on the scene the next morning, they asked a lot of questions. The death was clearly the result of some sort of violent incident, or perhaps a hunting accident. Emily was obviously grief stricken and under no suspicion herself. But the police did not know what to do with her. She was a minor with little identification other than a library card and a school ID. No one doubted she was exactly who she appeared to be, a bewildered, vulnerable child. The police were only interested in finding a relative to turn her over to. Emily made arrangements with the local funeral home to have her father’s remains cremated as soon as the investigation was closed, which she imagined would be soon. A small town police department was not going to penetrate the darkness surrounding the events that had just transpired. As the events of the morning fulminated around her, Emily consoled herself for the loss of her father by thinking about her newfound mother.
Later that afternoon she drove west out of town toward the interstate and turned south. She understood her father’s escape route, north then west then south to safety. It was a good plan, and it was a perfect expression of his character. But it did not suit hers. She turned back toward her pursuers. If she was the target, then going to New Mexico might bring them to her mother that much sooner. As much as she wanted to be with her mother at this moment, she had unfinished business in Virginia.
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Chapter 7: Back to the Woods
Emily retraced her steps back to Mill Creek, to where they had left the dirt bike. She was going back to the estate, and there was no way to approach it in a car without drawing attention to herself. She gathered the most important things from the various bags in the car and stuffed them into her pack, which she strapped to the back of the bike. It was too dark to ride through the forest, so she slept on the ground near the car. The next morning, she rose early, changed clothes, ate the last two rice balls and headed off into the forest. The logging trails were easy to follow and she had a pretty good memory for the route they had taken thirty six hours earlier. If she made good time, she could be back to the western edge of the estate by nightfall.
The emotional register of this ride was almost entirely the reverse of what she had experienced on the ride out. Then, she sat behind her father, arms wrapped around him, or he sat behind her enfolding her in his arms. They rode with the sunrise at their backs at heart-pounding speed, eluding dark forces with deadly intent toward a bright, uncertain future. Now she was heading straight for the darkness with grim determination, intent on wresting the future of her choosing from their clutches. She rode by herself, nothing to hold onto but the handlebars of the dirt bike. She roared up and down the logging trails, sometimes cresting hills, or racing alongside creek beds, occasionally bursting out onto an exposed ridgeline. The scenery was thrilling. The trees still wore their autumnal regalia. Under the canopy, the sun painted everything in shades of red and yellow. She rested under a tree just below one of the highest ridges and surveyed the landscape. In the early afternoon light she could see the terrain for miles around her, laid out like a harvest quilt, alive with color. A thin, small warmth stole into her heart. She lost her father just the day before. But she had found her mother, or at least recognized her for who she really was. She wept with sorrow and joy at the same time. She was loved. She had lost. The great absence of her heart, the mother who had abandoned her had been cast out by the infinite affections of the mother who had always been there, watching over her. This revelation had cost her her father. It was a heady mix of emotions, and she felt almost overwhelmed by it.
The thought of the enemy who lay ahead brought her out of this reverie. She knew she would eventually have to confront them. But she didn’t want to dedicate her life to vengeance. That was not her father’s way. He had devoted his life to protecting her from them, and he hadn’t done it just to leave an avenger behind him. She needed to honor him by turning her life to sunnier purposes. She felt now she could kill them all if she had to, but she hoped they wouldn’t make it necessary. She didn’t want that to be her defining moment. She got back on the bike and rode on.
Around dusk she spotted the familiar shape of Promontory Rock in the distance. She pressed on, going as fast as she dared on the narrowing trail. She had hoped to arrive before nightfall to avoid turning on the headlamp. Fortunately the moon was almost full, which provided enough light to move pretty quickly for a little while without lights. But the logging trail eventually dead-ended and she had to continue on hiking trails. Most of these were quite thoroughly carved out by mountain bikers, so it was pretty easy going at first. Soon these gave way to smaller walking trails, and then she found herself riding through the underbrush itself. She tried to keep to the rivers and streams as much as possible. There was a little clear sky over them. It was too dark under the canopy to ride safely. Finally she came upon the familiar stream bed and followed it to the base of her favorite cliff. She stashed the bike in the bushes, fished the rifle scope out of her pack, and climbed to the top.
She saw no sign of any activity on the estate. The main building looked gutted from here. The garage seemed to be intact, and the family car was still parked out front. There were no police cars or fire trucks visible. Had the fire department even been called? Perhaps the house had just been allowed to burn itself out. It would be almost impossible to spot any tactical teams on the grounds in the dark from this distance. She would just have to chance it. She needed a few things from the apartment over the garage. It seemed reasonable to expect whoever had attacked them had already done a thorough search of the main house and taken anything they thought might lead them to Michael or his family. They were probably looking for any signs of an active lab on the estate. Emily hardly knew what they actually could have found, she realized. But she was pretty sure they wouldn’t have been interested in what she was there for. She needed clothes and shoes, but in a different style than she was used to, some camping equipment, but also some papers,... and her school books! She needed the materials to restart her life as Michiko Tenno.
It was getting colder as she climbed down from the rock. She got the pack off the bike, hoisted it on her back and made her way through the forest toward the main buildings. In the depths of the forest, away from the beaten path, she heard the whirring of a camera motor panning. Were they still running? Was anyone watching at the other end? She had reacted instinctively. It hadn’t picked her up she thought. But she would have to be alert. At the edge of the woods, she could see the north lawn well before she cleared the cover of the trees. She sat in the underbrush and scanned the area. There were new cameras in the trees, and they were definitely operating. She spotted four of them, all placed so as to scan the grounds away from the buildings. There were probably a couple more on the other side of
the house watching the main gate and the front drive. But they didn’t seem to be set to cover the buildings themselves. If she could slip past them, she could move about the garage freely.
Once inside, she went to the attic and brought down two large duffles. She put all the socks and underwear she had in one, as well as whatever she could find of her shirts, pants and shoes. But then she went down to the basement passageway and made her way to the storage closet under the main house, hoping the fire hadn’t gotten all the way down there. It was dark, and she couldn’t risk a flashlight. There was no power in the upper basement. The floor boards had been partially burned away over the rec room, but everything else seemed to be intact. No significant smoke damage. In the store room, everything had been turned out of drawers and boxes and strewn across the floor. She was looking for Michael’s wife’s clothes. She wouldn’t have taken her fall and winter clothes to Naxos. Emily wondered about wearing her mother’s clothes, but they would never fit her. Yuki was a full four inches shorter, and at least twenty pounds lighter. Andie was about her height with a similar build. Emily was probably slimmer, because she was so much more physically active, but that wouldn’t matter much. The important thing was that Andie had a completely different style. Lots of long elegant things, form fitting pants, and loads of really nice shoes.
Emily grabbed whatever she could find and stuffed it into the duffle bags. She paused over a box of underwear. Andie had really nice stuff! It was silky soft and smooth, totally unlike anything she would ever think to wear. She grabbed a fistful, and then another: bras, panties, shirts, stockings, whatever. Just as she was about to go, she noticed a turquoise wig. She grabbed it too, stuffed everything in the duffle and made her way back through the passageway to the garage. Her dad kept a pickup truck at the far end. She tossed the duffles in the back, as well as her dad’s sleeping bag and a two person tent. She went back up to the apartment and collected her school things and the keys to the truck. Her dad kept the papers for all the vehicles in a cabinet in the garage. It had been rifled through, but apparently was not of any interest to anyone except her. She took all the paperwork for the truck and the motorcycle and stuffed it in the glove box. Last of all, she got a screwdriver and removed the license plate from the back of the truck. She didn’t know if this was a useful precaution. They may have already gotten all this information already. But on the off chance they hadn’t bothered, she saw no reason to let the cameras pick up the plate number as she was leaving.
Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) Page 6