by Leyton, Bisi
“Your daughter was worried. I was reassuring her,” Sabine stated.
“I said shut up.” Her mother didn’t look away from the nearing boat.
“Don’t worry.” Aunty Jenny rubbed Wisteria’s neck. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
This time Wisteria’s mother turned to her sister and opened her mouth to speak. Before she could get a word out, the motorboat reached them.
A man in his fifties dressed in a tattered military jacket and khaki trousers was on the small boat. He seemed vaguely familiar, but Wisteria couldn’t place him. He peered up at Aunty Jenny and then at Wisteria’s mother. “Demi, you said we would be alone. Who are these people?” He wasn’t the first person to call Wisteria’s mother Demi.
“What’s your name?” Her mother now produced a weapon.
“Carlos Hernandez,” he replied, “President Carlos Hernandez.”
“You’re joking.” Covering her mouth, Wisteria walked over to the man, but Sabine pulled her back. “President of the United States?”
“He’s not the president anymore. There hasn’t been an election in five years and he was already on his second term,” her mother corrected.
“I’m not here to discuss my job or politics with you. You said we’d be alone.” Carlos pointed at Wisteria, Sabine and Aunt Jenny. “Why are they here?”
“You brought a warship?” Her mother gestured to a massive vessel in the distance. “I’m guessing you’ve more than three people aboard.”
“This meeting is over.” He scowled.
“No, wait.” Wisteria’s mother lowered her weapon. “Don’t leave. These women are my friends and she’s my daughter. No one else is on the boat.”
“Wisteria?” He glanced over at her.
Her mother nodded.
Another speedboat with two men sailed toward them. It then stopped few feet away.
“Fine let us go. We don’t want to keep the Chairman waiting.” Carlos gestured to Wisteria.
“We’re not going anywhere.” Shaking her head, Wisteria moved back. This didn’t feel right.
“We’re going to talk.” Her mother took her arm and whispered. “You wanted answers. This is your chance. Come now or lose the right to ever say I hid anything from you.”
“Fine.” Exhaling, she stopped resisting her mother and moved to the stern of the boat.
“Don’t worry, we’re right here,” Sabine tried to reassure her.
Wisteria wasn’t comforted. She climbed over the edge of their yacht into the speedboat. To her relief, her mother climbed down after her.
“Demi,” a man said with a German accent when Wisteria, her mother and Carlos boarded the second boat. “This is where you have been hidden.”
“Jonas Werner.” Her mother turned to him. “I’m surprised you came here in person.”
“When you said this could end the virus and the Family I wanted to see what you meant.” Jonas stroked his beard. “I need to see firsthand if there indeed is light at the end of the tunnel.”
A way to end the virus, Wisteria wondered what her mother told them.
“Let’s verify your names,” her mother nodded at the two men.
“You first.” The third man, a beefy man with a thick Eastern European accent pointed at Demi.
Her mother glanced over at Wisteria. “Oluwademilade Hannah Tella.”
“Vadim Chernov,” the Eastern European replied.
“Jonas Werner,” the German added.
“And you little girl?” Vadim smiled.
“Little girl?” Wisteria raised her eyebrows.
“We do,” Carlos replied. “You were at the center of one RZC’s most expensive experiments. Jonas was president of RZC America and Mr. Chernov was the chairman of the RZC Africa.”
Wisteria’s mother and stepfather worked for RZC Biotechnologies as well as most of the people who migrated to the Isle of Smythe. Aside from manufacturing and distributing pharmaceuticals and experimenting on Wisteria, they’d created the Nero virus after being fooled by Coia.
“You worked for Alan Raubacher?” Wisteria recalled Doc’s heartless boss in Franklin.
“For him? No, my wife’s adoptive family, the Zahls have run RZC from inception,” Vadim replied. “Until Alan disappeared.”
“He’s in Frank—”
“Here.” Her mother took out a black vial from her pocket. “My daughter was infected with Nero and we stumbled across a serum that cured her.”
“This better not be another power play. I don’t want to find I wasted jet fuel to get here.” He reached for the vial.
“Vadim, I’ve never reached out to any of you before, so that should tell you something. I also have files on her treatment,” her mother continued, “You’ll have enough to reverse engineer the serum.”
“If that’s so.” Carlos shook his head. “Why don’t you re-engineer the serum and sell it to us in exchange for more weapons, medicines or supplies?”
“After all Demi, you’ve always been one to take care of your interests first,” Jonas added.
“My community doesn’t have the technology or skill-base to do this. You all do,” her mother said.
This struck Wisteria as odd because the one thing Smythe did have in abundance were scientists who’d worked for RZC Biotechnology.
“We’re based across two continents,” Jonas retorted. “How do you expect us to work together?”
“You always find a way,” her mother replied.
“Things have changed since the last time we met.” Jonas shook his head.
“I agree. The last time we met, you were trying to kill me,” she reminded him.
“Yet, you called this meeting?” Jonas went on. “Curious.”
“Because you need a way to get an upper hand on Nero and I’m offering it to you. You can save all humanity.” She waved the vial at them. “I’ll give you all the information you need. Plus, you’ll have my daughter.”
“What? Mum—” Wisteria grabbed her, but Demi shook her off.
“Your daughter?” Jonas scoffed.
“I’m not going anywhere with those people.” Wisteria let go of her mother and backed away from her. Sabine and Aunty Jenny weren’t too far away, so she could swim back. She intended to jump into the water when someone pulled her back. It was Jonas.
Jonas held her arm in a tight grip. “Sit down. You jump off the boat and my people will shoot you.” He gestured at one of the large vessels. “And then I’ll deal with your demented mother.”
Without a word, Wisteria sat on the side of the boat.
“Don’t threaten my daughter.” Her mother grabbed him.
“Or you’ll do what? You’ve absolutely no leverage, otherwise you wouldn’t be here offering this cure or the child you’ve worked so hard to hide,” Jonas seethed.
“I simply want to see this madness end and you guys can make it happen,” her mother continued.
“Demi, this madness would’ve never happened if you’d left the girl at Franklin six years ago and allowed Deji to finish his work.” Carlos’ face twisted into a frown.
“Wisteria couldn’t help him come up with a real cure for Nero and you know it. Things are different now; she’s been treated and has developed antibodies—” her mother defended.
“What’s going on, Demi?” Carlos asked. “I can’t understand why you want us to take her now? If you were able to cure her once, Sabine will eventually to reverse engineer the treatment. So, what do you want?”
“Does it matter? You wanted the girl and you can have her, but you’re going to have to keep her alive if you’re going to unlock the cure,” her mother said.
“Mum, please don’t do this…” Wisteria’s heart pounded in her chest. “Listen, I agree, I’ve been difficult, but it’s over.”
“She’s scared,” Vadim spoke up. “The Family is after her daughter and she can’t protect the girl anymore.”
“The Family?” Jonas gasped.
“Makes sense. Who else could scare De
mi enough to come to us for help?” Carlos continued. “What did you do?”
“The boy, Bach, found her and used her to release Coia,” her mother informed them.
“Bach didn’t summon her. Doc did,” Wisteria blurted out. “And Alan, he—”
“Shh, the grown ups are talking.” Jonas pointed at Wisteria.
“Are you mad? If there’s any hope of stopping you—y—” Wisteria’s words slurred.
“If I recall, Coia was helping us to unlock the cure and stop the Family, so why is her return a problem?” Jonas pointed out.
“Coia was never going to help us take down the Family,” Wisteria scoffed. “You’re as thick as Doc.”
“Demi, control your daughter,” Jonas warned.
“She’s right,” her mother stated quietly.
Wisteria was stunned her mother openly agreed with anything she said. Her mother was up to something.
“She wasn’t helping us. She created Nero to distract us and stop us from understanding her true agenda,” her mother divulged.
“What did we really understand about what Coia was working on? That does explain why after eight years, no one was able to process any of her research.” Carlos acknowledged.
“Carlos, we were close. Dr. Kuti assured—” Jonas started.
“Dr. Kuti was close for years, but never got anywhere. After spending six billion dollars, all I heard was, we’re getting closer. I should’ve cut that man off,” Vadim grumbled. “Now six billion dollars, seems like nothing.”
“She’s setting Dy’obeths free. In the process, she’s transforming Bach fully into a Dy’obeth. Once she succeeds, it’ll only be a matter of time before he crosses over from their realm to take Wisteria and use her to—” Her voice faded away as she pointed at Wisteria. “You need to hide her.”
“These are the people who tracked your family down once before, when you were in the middle of nowhere. You almost died,” Jonas pointed out.
“It was also the day they took down Red Phoenix in the Czech Republic,” Carlos added.
“What’s to stop them from coming after us?” Jonas waved his hands at her. “There are less people to stop them this time. No, I’m not going to be part of this.”
“Use the piron net that protects our island—” Her mother suggested emphatically.
When activated, the piron net created a green fog around the Isle of Smythe, making it impossible for anyone to locate the island, unless they’d been there before the net was set up. Anyone who stumbled in or were brought there would never be able to find their way back once they left. The Family used them to conceal their hideouts or dens on Earth.
“We have our own piron net Demi. Even so, I’m not going to risk drawing a blood crazed Dy’obeth to my back yard.” Jonas shook his head.
“It’s suicide,” Carlos noted.
“You want to stop the Family and their allies from crossing over, she needs to go to the nucleus and shut down the master threshold from their realm to Earth.” Vadim glanced over at Wisteria.
“I’m not sending her to Jarthan or the home realm,” her mother declared.
“Then, let the Family take her. Once they’ve got her, their interest in us should subside,” Carlos suggested.
“You might’ve avoided this if you’d let us take care of the girl,” Jonas hissed. “But you were only thinking of yourself.”
“I was thinking of her. She was not going to spend her life in a cage, if I didn’t take her.” Her mother seethed.
“But that’s what you’re suggesting now,” Jonas pointed out. “You’re begging us to make her a guinea pig.”
“What that matters now is our survival. My people estimate we’re five to ten years away from the biters starving to death,” Vadim hypothesized.
“I’m not risking my family or what’s left of my government.” Carlos looked doubtful. “The prudent step is to wait this out. I doubt the Family have any interest in a world as broken as ours.”
“They’ll always want new Thayns,” Wisteria noted.
“And from what I hear, the Thayns have a pretty good life,” Jonas added drily. “Food, housing and they’re disease free.”
“The Thayns are slaves. How can you say that’s a better life?” her mother exclaimed.
“I’m not,” Jonas shouted. “I mean the Family probably isn’t going to risk infecting their stock.”
“Stock,” Wisteria muttered. “They’re human beings.”
“Human beings who chose to follow the Family,” Jonas stated. “They don’t get my sympathy because they could’ve returned here anytime they wanted or at the very least helped us in some way.”
“They’ve been brainwashed,” Wisteria exclaimed.
“No, according to our intelligence, they were persuaded or influenced, but each person chose to follow the Family,” Carlos explained.
“Have you ever met a Thayn?” Wisteria rose to her feet.
“No… but I’ve read multiple accounts,” Carlos defended. “But bottom-line is we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if your mother did what she was supposed to do.”
“Leave me to be a lab experiment?” Wisteria accused. “Like she’s trying to do now?”
“I’m trying to protect you,” her mother maintained. “Carlos, listen to me—”
“No, Demi, you made your bed and now you’re going to lay in it.” Jonas crossed back onto his boat.
“You’re a coward and a fool. I’m offering you a cure to Nero on a silver platter,” her mother yelled as Jonas reached his boat.
“You’re lucky I don’t send a team to wipe out what’s left of your little village,” Jonas called back.
“If you find our base. Good luck trying,” her mother mocked.
“Please…with a yacht as small as yours, it’s clear you don’t live far from here. We’d easily be able to wait you out and follow you back,” Jonas suggested.
“You’d never find our camp and if I took you there, you’d never leave alive.” Her mother glowered.
“Next time you call, we won’t answer,” Vadim promised.
Wisteria watched the two Europeans sail back to their larger vessel.
“He’s right. This will be the last time anyone will come out this far. We don’t have the resources.” Carlos maneuvered the boat back toward Sabine and Aunty Jenny. “I can’t say you’ll be missed. Wisteria, none of this would’ve happened if your mother hadn’t run off with you,” he explained to Wisteria. “Back then, we did have a chance at preventing all of this. She’s not as smart as she looks.”
“Don’t insult my mother,” Wisteria said calmly, but firm. “She’s kept our family alive, and she understands more about the Family than you’d ever learn from your RZC reports.”
“Really?” Carlos scoffed. “I doubt it.”
“The Family infiltrated RZC without your comprehension,” Wisteria called out. “So, I’d question all your intelligence if I were you.”
“No one infiltrated us. You’re turning into quite the liar, like your mother huh?” Carlos remarked.
“Didan Logan, your once Chief Financial Officer was a member of the Family,” Wisteria informed him.
“Enough already, whatever you and your mother were planning is over,” Carlos bellowed as he reached the yacht where Sabine and Aunt Jenny were. “I hope to hell, I never see either one of you again.”
After her meeting with the RZC executives, Wisteria felt furious with her mother for trying to get rid of her. Granted, her mother tried to protect her in her own way, but that seemed to be the underlying motivation of all her mother’s twisted behavior. “Why didn’t you tell me this?” she demanded once Carlos and the executives were gone.
Her mother was sitting below deck studying a map. She didn’t answer her.
“Why didn’t you leave with RZC if it would’ve saved everyone from Nero?” Trembling, she sat opposite her mother. “Billions of people would’ve been saved.”
“Baby.” Her mother put the map dow
n. “You weren’t the first descendent of the First Pillar they encountered. If I left you with them you’d be tortured, cloned and dead.”
“Maybe it would’ve helped.”
“Helped? How? Coia would’ve escaped and taken you sooner. That’s the difference. Your father—Doc wasn’t looking for a cure. He wanted supernatural powers to fight the Family. That is all RZC’s ever wanted. They don’t care about you. They only need you now that Datura is gone.”
“Datura?”
“I’m sorry.” Her mother scowled and rubbed her face. “I shouldn’t have turned to those idiots for help. I forgot how pathetic they all were.”
“Who’s Datura?”
“I should’ve spoken to you about this first.” Getting up, she walked over to Wisteria and kissed Wisteria’s forehead. “Baby, I’d never let them turn you into a weapon or an experiment. Never. Once you understand that…you’ll be almost as smart as I am.”
“Even if it meant saving the world?”
“But giving you over to RZC wouldn’t change or save the world. Would you have handed Oleander over to Doc, even after she tried to kill you?”
Oleander or Ollie was a child created by Doc using Wisteria and Bach’s DNA. Even though the girl was seven, she’d been aged to be about sixteen. Ollie had tried to kill Wisteria because she feared being abandoned by Felip.
“No, I would never have left her,” Wisteria stated.
“And if you had a way to save her, would you take it?”
Hot tears poured down her cheeks as Wisteria recalled the moment she learned her daughter was dead. Even though she’d been with Ollie for a few days, it was as if she’d loved the girl a lifetime. “Yes.”
“Then, you can understand why I’d never let you go.” Getting up, her mother headed up the stairs to the upper deck.
“Mum.”
“Yes?”
“What happened to my real father?”
“I went out and when I came back he’d been pulsed—fried to death.” Lara bit at her lip. “It was a very painful way to die.” She shook her head vigorously. “We shouldn’t talk about this.”
“No—talk to me.” She grabbed her mother’s shoulder. “I can’t keep begging you to tell me about your life.”
“Then stop begging. I would’ve thought what you heard from those idiots was enough.” Her mother left.