“Because this room isn’t equipped with obscuras or voice detectors and the door on the other side of this room will take us to the far end of the secondary nursery,” I said, looking up from the schematics. “Baby Victoria should be just on the other side of that wall.” I pointed across the room with a hand that shook, rolled the monitor until it was no more than the size of a thick straw, and stuck it back in my bag.
“Then let’s go,” he said, urging me forward.
From this distance, the gray, unmarked door on the other side of the room that looked no larger than the size of my hand called to me. My vision, hindered by my intense desire to see Victoria, tunneled as I snuck cat-like on raised toes toward the other side of the room without looking down or left or right.
He was behind me, his steps ringing against the concrete floor, but before I reached the other side of the room, the shiny, rectangular boxes to my right finally caught my attention, seeming eerily familiar.
“Oh God.” Through a square window on the lid of one of the boxes, I peered into the face of a boy, someone about my age, with pale skin, pink cheeks, and red lips, lying in a capsule that was obviously designed to provide cardiopulmonary support to someone on the edge of death.
Michael didn’t have to tell me who they were. The containers held my brethren, fellow members of the S.T.A.S.I.S. program. Lifeless, but with their organs in stasis, waiting for an awakening. Each corpse silently called to me, pulling on my heart as they lay in this secret tomb, a holding dock for the half-dead.
“You didn’t tell me there were more.” I gasped. “You kept this from me. How could you?” I stormed through tight teeth.
“I promise to explain everything later.” He grabbed my hand, but I shook it away. “Please, you’ll understand once I—”
“Whatever,” I snapped. But there was no time to be angry. Right now I had to focus on saving Victoria. Later, I’d cry for them.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I need the sedative,” I said with my back to the cryonic capsules.
Michael produced a small, liquid-filled cylinder from his pocket. “This sedative is a strong one, but remember, the nurse might have to be restrained and prevented from speaking while it takes effect.”
“I know. No problem. I can do it. According to this,” I said, unrolling the E-Paper, “Victoria’s in room SN Three, which is obscura free, but the primary nursery, PN One, is under surveillance. In PN One, there are four obscuras with audio in each wall.” I enlarged the image on the E-Paper.
“So once we enter SN Three, the only way they’ll find out we’re here is if we make a mistake and accidentally alert them.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said, wiping sweat away from the back of my neck. “We can’t make any mistakes.”
Michael held up the spongy disk. With a tiny clink instead of its identifiable ding, the door unlocked like all the others we’d found so far.
With my first step, the cold metal door slid silently, but the rustle I expected to hear from the room, a rubbing of fabric followed by footsteps, never came, and after I peered inside, I understood why. With its back to me, an automatic rocking chair swayed up and down, emitting a sound like a rhythmical snore with its occupant sound asleep, mimicking the rocker’s ticking with its own set of Zs. The white bassinet by the door was empty. Where was Victoria?
Shadowed by a solitary light source in the corner of the ceiling, the room was dim and fantastically warm, unlike the morgue we left. Room SN Three was large but cozy, just like the nurse who slept in the rocker with her back to me, holding a thick blanket across her lap.
I motioned for Michael to follow behind me, giving him the all-clear sign. We crept on our toes, hoping not to awaken the large figure before I could sedate him or her with a quick hit to the arm.
When I rose onto my toes and stretched my neck to peer over the round shoulder of the nurse, I found the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. It was my baby sleeping peacefully, wrapped in a pink blanket, and with an automatic pacifier perched on her lower lip.
As her pacifier clicked in time like a miniature heart, I came around the other side of the rocker to meet my target—the exposed forearm of the caretaker.
Transfixed by the sweet baby face before me, it took two blinks before I realized that Victoria’s chubby nanny was Kale.
“Magnum should have told us.” I hissed in fury.
“He probably didn’t know. When he L-Banded Victoria, it was probably during the previous shift, which means a different nurse,” he whispered back.
“I can’t believe you agreed to be her caretaker,” I said as I jabbed the vial in Kale’s obese upper arm, the thin needle easily penetrating her skin.
The liquid dispensed quickly. Kale’s eyes popped open and she flailed one robust arm, holding my baby with the other and reaching for her L-Band. When her jaw dropped, I clasped my hand over her mouth and pressed harder when her teeth came in contact with my palm. Several seconds later, her legs unhinged, her head fell backward, and one arm dropped from the armrest.
In one motion, I scooped Victoria out of her arms, drawing her instinctively into my chest, letting her cheek rest comfortably against my shoulder. She hardly stirred, the pacifier continuing its soothing magic, and my heart settled with the euphoria of a mother’s bliss.
While I held her, Michael replaced the baby’s L-Band as instructed, letting the old L-Band fall gently onto Kale’s lap. Then he stepped backward toward the door and motioned for me to stand next to him. “Which way do we go, Cassie? Are we supposed to go back the way we came, or are we supposed to leave through the primary nursery?”
“Back the way we came, but only until we reach the A.G.-lift. Then I think we go right. I’ll have to check the map again.”
The route back through the hall of caskets was completed in less than twenty swift strides, centering my thoughts on Victoria instead of the twentieth-century bodies to my right and left.
The ride in the A.G.-lift brought us back to the corridor outlined in red on the E-Paper. I stopped and said, “Take her, Michael. I need to check the schematics.”
“What if she wakes up and cries?”
“Then improvise. Do you think I’m any better at this? I’ve never been a mother before. I’ve never even babysat,” I spat as my buried anger toward him began to resurface for not telling me about the others in the S.T.A.S.I.S. program still locked in half-death.
The pacifier started to slip during the transfer, and he had to awkwardly push it back into place with his index finger. He kissed the crown of her head and said sweetly, “Hi, I’m Michael. I knew your father.”
“Two lefts, three rights, and one more ride in a service A.G.-lift. That will take us directly into the parking garage,” I said, pushing the rolled-up screen into my bag so Michael could place the slumbering infant back into my arms.
A tiny noise came from Victoria’s throat as she stretched, but the pacifier stayed intact, continuing to tick.
After tackling a zigzag of hallways, we entered the last A.G.-lift on Magnum’s itinerary to freedom, which took us to Garage C, Level Two, the location of Michael’s mover. Magnum was there as promised, leaning against the seamless hood of the hovercar, looking like the spokesperson for a cigarette ad, with his legs crossed at the ankles, arms folded, and a white rag hanging from his back pocket.
Magnum pulled out the rag and whipped it across the front of Michael’s window. “You’re all set. Your mover’s invisible, too. I hinged the tracker to the ground.” He pointed to the floor directly under the mover where something the size and color of a pie tin lay. “I also disconnected the vehicle’s interior sensors, so the mover can’t detect how many passengers are inside the cabin, and I disengaged its L-Drive, which means you’re going to have to manually program each turn at least one hundred feet before you reach it. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yeah, we’ll work as a team. Cassie, you’ll have to call out each turn well in advance.”
“Okay, that won’t be a problem.” Victoria sighed, almost losing the pacifier.
“Michael, put the key I gave you on the dash. It will activate any toll, gate, or tunnel without recognizing or registering your vehicle. Oh, and I also removed the hoverment restrictor.” Magnum grinned and his dimples appeared. “Just in case you need to exceed the road codes.”
Michael moved forward. “You’re something else, Magnum. We can’t thank you enough.”
“I told you before that you don’t need to thank me.”
I turned so Magnum could see the tiny face of the baby peeking up above my shoulder. Her eyes opened, and when she yawned, the pacifier disengaged and dropped. Magnum quickly snatched it from the air before it hit the ground and handed it to me.
“So this is Victoria.”
“This is her.” I repositioned the baby in my arms and rocked her slowly, feeling complete for the first time since she was taken from me in the delivery room.
“She’s beautiful, Cassie. She looks just like you.”
“Thanks, Magnum. Thanks for everything.” From the look on his face, I already knew his next question.
“So, are you ready for me to take her?” he asked carefully. “My mother said it would be an honor, and I promise you, she’ll get the best care. I mean, look at me. My mom did a great job, right?”
“Yeah, she did a great job…” I paused, caught my lips with my teeth before they started to quiver, and said quickly before I changed my mind, “I’m ready. She’ll be safer with your mother, and it will give us a better chance to make it to Region Three, where we can be together again.”
Michael caught one of my shoulders with his hand and massaged it in an “atta boy” type manner. All I could do was shrug.
“I’ll be in Trail’s sector watching for you, and when it’s safe, I’ll bring her there.”
“We need to go,” said Michael sympathetically.
Could I really do this—watch her go a second time? But I had to, if Michael and I were going to make it safely into Sector Nine. “Okay, sweetheart.” I drew in a deep breath to halt my tears. “Mommy loves you. I’ll see you soon.”
Victoria’s forehead was smooth, soft, and baby fresh. I gave it a kiss and held her plump little hand between my two fingers. She whimpered for a moment, making cute, half-cry noises like a kitten in the middle of a yawn, and I gently placed her in Magnum’s arms.
Michael grabbed me at the waist in a side hug, and as our shoulders met, he said, “It’s better this way. It’s just for a few days.”
“I know. It’s just hard.” My last word wavered. “Bye, Magnum. Thank you, and tell your mother thank you for me, too.” I kissed his cheek while he held Victoria against his chest, and then I gave my baby a last kiss on the top of her head, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time I ever saw her.
“Let’s go,” said Michael. He opened the mover door and I slid into the front seat. As it rolled away and lifted from the ground, Magnum lifted her little hand and moved it up and down in a wave. When we cleared the parking structure, we reactivated our modified L-Bands, and I broke into an uncontrollable sob.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I still have Victoria’s pacifier,” I said softly. I gave it a squeeze, mimicking the clench of a baby’s gums, and it clicked back soothingly. “I forgot to give it to Magnum.”
“That’s okay. He can always get her another one. You know how resourceful he is. He’s probably shopping for baby supplies right now.”
The first time Victoria and I were separated, she was ripped from my arms, and my elation was replaced with panic and loss. This time, I handed her over willingly, and I felt exactly the same way, yearning for the tiny little thing I hardly knew but loved so much simply because she was mine.
Michael gave me my peace while we traveled, letting me cry in silence as I was hit with the reality of what I had done and what we were doing. It came as a stream of questions, wave after wave, and with each pass he squeezed my knee, but I rocked it away, turning from him.
What if Magnum was caught before he made it to his mother’s house? What if his mother ended up being arrested? What if he wasn’t waiting for us at Trail’s house? The “what ifs” built up until it was hard to catch my breath between each flow of tears.
“Everything is going to be okay,” Michael finally said when I wiped my face and took a deep breath.
“I hope so,” I said, looking out the window for the first time.
“So, this is your first time in a hovercar,” he said in an obvious attempt to take my mind off Victoria. “What do you think?”
My anger toward him still lurked, waiting to strike, but at that moment, my battered spirit prevented it from taking root. “It’s kind of scary. I know we’re only five feet from the ground, but it’s just so different from what I’m used to,” I said, looking across the twilit sky. Egg-shaped cars soared past silver buildings, many structures at least two hundred stories high. I couldn’t help but smile at its technological beauty.
As the official navigator, I kept the E-Paper unrolled on the top of my knees, trying to estimate at least one hundred feet of road before each turn, so I could direct Michael right or left, and he could program it into the dashboard display. He used the time in between to educate me on movers, hoverbuses, and flyers, pointing at each as we passed and identifying each make and model.
The roads were full of hoverbuses, with or without passengers, following their assigned routes, and many of them were patrolled and flown by bots.
The universal key provided by Magnum sat on the dash like a good-luck token, and at each toll a floating arm lifted, letting us through without registering the vehicle’s passage and deducting units from some poor, unknown clone’s transportation account. My good-luck tokens were in my pocket—the two pieces of pottery. When I thumbed the one Michael found for me, recognizing it by its shape, it was enough to keep my anger toward him at bay.
“Michael, do you think they know we’re gone yet?”
“I don’t know. I hope not. I want to make it to our first hoverflight before they do, since it’s easier to find and track a public mover than a personal one.”
Magnum’s itinerary had us switching hoverflights several times before boarding a transatlantic flight that would take us directly to Region Three, Sector Nine, or what I liked to call it: Australia.
Magnum’s route also consisted of the less-traveled toll roads and highways that were considered no-risk zones, thus they were unmonitored, void of fixed obscuras on every post, but it made our journey so convoluted that at times we felt like we were going in circles.
“How long will Kale’s sedative last?”
“For several hours, so that means she won’t be the first one to alert the authorities, unless her shift ends before then and another nurse comes in to relieve her. We just need to hope that your long nap won’t become suspicious until then.”
A long nap, that’s what I needed, anything to take my mind off Victoria, and keep my rage at Michael from surfacing.
“We only have a few more turns,” I said with zero enthusiasm, “and then we’re supposed to leave your mover parked on the street outside the Shopping Precinct and walk to Hover Terminal Thirty-Six.”
Two turns and ten minutes later, Michael lowered the mover and eased its wheels against the curb, picking a section of the street already dotted with a row of parked vehicles of the same make and color, which wasn’t too hard to do considering that only three models from one factory and two possible paint colors existed in this region.
“I need to get out of this uniform. It’s too obvious.” He kicked off his shoes, slithered out of his pants, and started to pull off his shirt.
Damn, he was hot, though I tried not to watch. My best peek came when his tunic caught under his chin, and it took him a few seconds to pull it free and tug it over his head. His abs were well defined, rippled with hard muscle, along with his pecs, shoulders, and arms, bringing me back to the kiss when my fing
ers rode the path of each one from under his shirt.
Men’s boxer briefs hadn’t changed much from my century. I’d seen enough advertisements on Liaison to know, but now I saw a pair in real life, black stretchy fabric hugging down to his upper thighs. It was enough to raise my body temperature.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat to face the window as he dug in his bag and produced a pair of tan pants, black shirt, and a pair of smooth, black shoes.
From the window, I caught my breath and watched the people in the Shopping Precinct bustle from one store to another, some pushing hovering carts with the ease of using just one finger. A mother and daughter walked hand in hand across the square. The little girl stopped to pet a dog on a leash as it and its owner passed, and the mother gave her daughter’s arm a gentle tug to move her along. I frowned and wished Victoria was in my arms.
These peaceful clones moved in and out of their busy lives, oblivious to the fact that in ten to fifteen years, the world they knew could be gone, replaced with chaos, fear, and a survival of the fittest mentality.
Could I sit by and watch it happen, knowing I could turn the key? It was different now that I was a mother. Could I really be that selfish and let Victoria and all of the other children on this planet inherit a society gripped by fear and death?
If they’d just asked me first and allowed me to make my own rules. With Michael, the genetics genius, at my side, I knew we could have made the program work. Maybe we could come up with our own program, and once established, we could try to work out a deal with Region One that included the awakening of the other men from my time.
“So,” I began. “This secret place you’re taking me to, is there a genetics facility there—one that could house something similar to the Van Winkle Project?”
Michael turned to me. “There is, but don’t worry. Nobody there’s going to force you to continue with the project. They don’t know the project exists, and no one will ever find out that you and Victoria are fertile.”
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