by Shawn Jones
“Let’s do it then.” Both of them were speaking as members of the conspiracy. Cort relaxed at that. It meant they didn’t see him as an enemy. “Wait here while I suit up.”
“Suit up?” Gaines asked.
“Put my armor back on and better arm myself.”
--
utmost
As they walked to the flight, Dr. Gaines only followed half of the conversation. She was thinking back to her childhood. Sitting in the library, listening to the elders as they read from the family history. Her grandfather always emphasized how strong and decisive the man who founded the family was. How he saved people and protected them. Her father always talked about how smart the founder was. Mother always talked of hope when she read the stories to Kay and her brother Rand. I miss Rand. This man beside me cannot be him. He just cannot. But the wolf. The family legend talked about the wolf too. How the large beast was loyal to and protected the founder of the family.
“I wish we could have made the trip in daylight. I would love to see what the area looks like now. It was a desert in my century. It seems lush now.” They had moved all the equipment from the flight in just one trip. Gaines and Wills were amazed at the anachronistic man before them. He really was a Hercules by their standards. He carried half again as much gear as the two of them combined. Even the wolf had a full pack strapped to his back. It contained the ration packs for the team of top-siders. While walking to the flight, they had talked about food and the fact that the top-siders did not seem to produce urine or solid waste. They still produced them, but their synthetics processed the waste more efficiently while it was still in their bladders and bowels. Using the excess materials in the waste to replicate, humans now only had to relieve themselves once every few days, though most chose to once daily. Their rations however, were infused with synthetics. Boosters in a sense. Cort and Sköll shouldn’t eat them, but neither should they share their own limited rations with their guests.
“I can show you pictures from my flex pad.” Wills offered.
“Thank you but no, Doctor. I want to see it with my own eyes. I want the first time to be with my own senses. Does that make sense?” Cort asked.
“More than you know. Your ‘toy store’ will produce the exact same emotion in me, Mr. Addison.” He is carrying fifty kilos, plus his armor and armament. He is not even breathing heavy. They were clearly a tougher breed back then.
“I suppose that’s true. How long will it take to rebuild the barrier?”
Gaines answered this time. “It will be complete by dawn.” She looked at her watch. “Within four hours.”
“Good. Will they have any way to know it’s not the original barrier?”
“No. Well, other than it will not be covered in dust.” She wasn’t the first person to think, Just how paranoid is this guy?
“Okay. We can’t have everything I guess.” Sköll’s ears perked up. Cort dropped his load and raised the AR15. “Hold.” He flipped down his goggles and tapped a switch on their side. Then he tapped a button on the side of the weapon. To his shielded eyes, a thin red light projected from it, reflecting off the ground, then a nearby tree, then sweeping across unseen foliage. While the scientists tried to determine what was going on, Sköll’s rumbling growl was the only sound in the silence. They both jumped when Cort pulled the trigger twice. He swept their perimeter again before he unclipped the wolf’s pack and he told Sköll “Retrieve”. The wolf bounded off into the darkness. Cort was silent and ominous the rest of the hike back to the cavern. He had strapped the wolf’s pack to his own chest and was walking with the load once again. He paused frequently, sweeping his weapon in front of him. He appeared to be tracking the wolf visually, but the scientists didn’t ask. Sköll was waiting at the blast doors. At his feet was a dark pelted cat that looked to be at least as large as the wolf.
Cort scanned through the partially open doors with his night vision goggles. The hermetic barriers were still zipper sealed. Sköll walked warily through the doors. He looked at both sides of the tunnel before returning to his prize. He dragged the big cat into the tunnel by its neck. Cort directed the scientists to follow the wolf. Once inside, Cort dropped the equipment from the flight and asked the doctors to build the barrier while he cleaned the cat. Handing them two chemlights, he told Sköll “Guard.” The wolf stayed with the others while Cort threw the cat over his shoulder and headed down to the cavern. He shot the cat with a disruptor in case it had eaten human flesh from the security team, then he dressed and butchered the animal. Keeping two steaks out for the next meal, he vac sealed the rest of the meat in Sköll-size portions.
After he was done, he headed back up the tunnel to check on the others. Both scientists were sitting on the ground near the blast doors. “How much longer?” Cort asked.
Wills grinned at him. “I believe the phrase from your time was You’ve got to be kidding me! We have been finished for some time. The barrier is already building as you can see. But Sköll decided we should all wait here. It did not seem prudent to question his judgement.” Behind them, the barrier was fully formed, but not very thick. The inner surface was rippling. Cort suspected that was the effect of the material being layered on.
“Good call, Doctor. Explain this to me.” Cort pointed at the barrier and listened as Gaines explained the process that created the nearly impermeable clear wall.
They waited at the door for the barrier to finish. As the dawn began to illuminate the distant hills, Cort turned away from it. “I will wait until I can experience the full effect.” Kicking the discarded material containers from between the blast door, he slapped the “CLOSE” button on the wall. “Doctor Wills, let’s take a tour of your toy store.” Addison walked down the long tunnel with his three companions close behind. Toy store indeed!
Six
One Week Later
Wills really had been a kid in a toy store. Cort and Clare saw him at meals and during discussions, but seldom any other time. Cort had given him permission to explore any open container, but never to open more than one of any sealed item. The man would have decades of work after this was over. He had access to pristine artifacts that in reality, were brand new.
Clare Gaines spent her time studying the seeds and garden, as well as Sköll. Cort collected blood samples from the wolf and himself for her. He gave her full access to his library of data, and made himself available to both of the scientists for any questions they had, in exchange for the same thing from them. Unbeknownst to either of them, he shot himself and Sköll with a disruptor once a day. He wasn’t taking any chances with the synthetics, regardless of how much he had grown to trust his guests.
One morning, after Wills had snuck off to explore a crate of books, Gaines found Cort reading a history book on her flex pad. “May I have a few minutes of your time?” She asked.
“Of course. Why so formal?”
“I did not open them, but I saw the heavy books you have. The ones that are…” she paused, looking for the word he had taught her “laminated.” Cort’s eyes contracted. “I swear I did not open them. But we need to talk about them. Do you know what the Latin phrase at the bottom of the coat of arms means?”
Cort shook his head. “No. I’ve been a bit busy to research that yet. Please do not read the books. They are personal.”
“The phrase means ‘Hope Lies in the Blood’. It is the final piece of a puzzle I have been working through.”
“I thought Wills was the historian.” Cort was suddenly very uneasy. “Where is this going?”
“Long version or short version?” She asked.
“The latter.” Cort stared at the woman.
“It is my family's coat of arms. You are my twelfth great grandfather. The founder of the maternal side of my family.”
At that same moment, Wills came around the corner with a comic book in his hand. “Who was Batman?”
--
“So let me recap.” Cort said two hours later. All three of them were sitting around a table. Gain
es and Wills were on crates while Addison sat in a chair with Sköll lying between him and Wills. “Amber used the money I left her to buy the subterranean rights to this area. She, Barr, and Kevellen then spent the better part of two decades filling the cavern with everything they could imagine that I might need.” He paused to make a note. “Then they placed the rights in a trust. They also faked an even larger radiation accident to ensure the area would be sealed off. Since they owned the rights, the government washed its hands of the area, and told them if it ever contaminated the surrounding area, the trust would be responsible for the cleanup. Uncle Sam thought he dodged a bullet.”
“Who is Uncle Sam?”
“A nickname for the US government. So named because….” Wills responded before Cort raised his hand to silence him.
“She gets the idea. That was good thinking on their part. Yada, yada, yada, all my descendents. Which brings us to you, Dr. Gaines. And your thirty day deadline. UNA got the land back. And now wants the rights to whatever is under it. Am I right so far?”
“Yes, sir. That is correct, so far.” Gaines told him.
“Stop calling me, sir. It’s still Cort. You are the a member of the latest generation of direct descendants and together with your mother and maternal grandfather, you administer the trust. So the three of you have to respond to the government’s request at that hearing, where the three of you had planned on agreeing to the request. Until you heard about the strange readings coming from the site. Your mother is disassociated for personal reasons, but your grandfather asked you to accompany the team. He felt uneasy about the readings.” Cort paused again and wrote another note. “Even if you don’t agree, unless you can show that you’ve made use of the site, the government stands a good chance of winning.” He looked up from his notes. “Is that about the size of it?”
“Yes, and mother and grandfather are not inclined to fight UNA over this. We have been offered a fair price for the rights. Unless I can convince them, which I doubt I can, or I can offer some other reason to stop the acquisition, you will be discovered within a month of the hearing.”
“I’ve already been discovered.” he looked at both of them. The firefight replayed in his head. “What will they do when I walk out of here?”
“They will try to sequester you and Sköll. Both of you will be studied. Ultimately, you will be given synthetics, and he will be cloned. It is the only way this can happen.”
“She is right.” Wills spoke up, “But I have an idea. I think I can stop it. But you will have to give up some of your ‘toys’.”
“Go on, Doctor.” Cort put the pad down and gave his full attention to the man.
“I am an archaeologist. This is an historic site. If I present some of your belongings, and another colleague confirms the artifacts are genuine, I can keep control of the site for decades with the trust’s support.” The other two regarded the quiet little man with a new respect. Until now, his only concern had been his research. Now he was suggesting that they use his research to help Cort.
“Go on, Doctor Wills. We’re all ears.” Cort said.
“Well, any privately owned active pre-Cull archaeological site cannot be annexed by the government. So long as the owner, in this case the trust, is actively working the site, the government has no say in the matter. If the owner does not wish to work the site, it is placed in an academic trust that is required to share all profits with the private owner. Can you see where I am leading? I can attend the hearing with “Batman” and a few other goodies, and ensure the legality of the claim. If Clare can convince her family to maintain control of the site, the trust will profit from all proceeds related to the site. If they do not, my organization takes over the site and shares the profits with the family trust. Either way, with Clare’s blessing, I maintain ostensible control of the site.”
Cort turned to Clare, “Will it work?”
“I think so. And if money is involved, my grandfather will immediately withdraw his support of the annexation. But how do I get that money to you? It is yours after all.”
“Where does your grandfather stand on the family legend? Will he or your mother support my claim to the site?”
“There is no way my mother will. She is, well, different. Nothing matters to her anymore. My grandfather told me the legend when I was a little girl. He told me stories about ‘the man with the wolf’ for most of my childhood. He may accept you. But he would never give up the money for you. Protecting and growing the trust is all that matters to him. At most, he would agree to give you one fourth. He is his own brand of wolf when it comes to protecting the family fortune. If you established your identity, which I do not think is possible, he might ensure you are provided for. But we cannot establish your claim beyond ‘circumstantial’. Certainly not without risking you being taken into custody.”
“Wills, you’ve seen my inventory. How much money are we talking about?” Cort’s mind was racing. How do I establish a claim? Genetics won’t work unless I let them stick me. That’s not happening. What about Sköll?
“Billions. Literally billions of credits.” He saw Cort arch his eyebrows. “An inter-alliance credit. The preferred currency for UNA. Or do you mean you need a reference? After all, I could mean the equivalent of a cup of coffee, I suppose.” Cort remained silent as Wills continued, “If I were to hazard a guess, I would say you are going to be among the one hundred wealthiest individuals in the Atlantic Alliance. Atlantica, that is. Of course that depends on Clare’s family. If they fight, you could be destitute. And we have not touched on the matter of your citizenship and identity.”
“Nor have we decided what to do about the men I killed.”
“I have been thinking about that.”
This time it was Clare. “The cats are a good plan. Our group was attacked as we opened the facility. Val told us to rebuild the barrier while his team held them off. They died defending us. That part is pretty straightforward. Our problem is the two of you. I have enough of Sköll’s blood to establish a small cloning program. And I have enough of yours to prove we are family, as well as genetic studies. But we still cannot let anyone get possession of either of you. The government would see you as a threat and Sköll as an asset.”
Cort thought about what they had both said. “Is there any way to avoid them trying to take Sköll?”
“No. He is scientifically too important. Since The Cull, scientific progress trumps everything,” Gaines replied.
“Is there any place he would be safe? Another alliance perhaps? Are there any non-allied countries?”
“There are a few very small non-allied countries. Hawaii and Cuba come to mind,” she said. “But there is no way to get him there. And certainly no way to get you anywhere you would not stick out like a sore thumb.”
“Wills, how many people would you need to work this as a dig?”
“Of course! If I work the site alone, you could stay here. Both of you. If the site stays in the family trust. If it goes into the receivership I talked about, it will have to be inspected bi-annually. Can you keep the site, Clare?”
“Yes. I’m the senior trustee. And Grandfather will do whatever yields the most profit.” She looked away.
“As I said, Mother does not care anymore.” Sköll stood and stretched in a stereotypical yoga pose before walking around Wills. He settled again next to Clare, laying his head on her foot. It was the first time he had touched either of the new people.
“Pet him, gently.” Cort said. The women put her hand on Sköll’s side and pet him the way she had pet cats in the past. He sniffed her hand once and laid his head back down. He had accepted her. Cort didn’t know if her tears were over her mother, or being accepted into the pack by Sköll. That’s what we are. A pack.
--
“Why did you come here, Cort?” Clare asked. Wills was off exploring. She and Cort had been reading the old family histories Amber had left him.
“I didn’t have anything holding me there except Sköll, and I brought him w
ith me.”
“That is not true. You had Amber.”
“No. I did not have Amber. That was a fling. Do you know what that means?”
She nodded. “It was hardly a fling if you gave her enough money to establish an empire.”
“It was just a fling. I think her getting pregnant changed it some, but neither of us knew about that at the time. After all, I left just a day after we slept together.”
Clare didn’t know the phrase ‘slept together’, but she understood what Cort meant. “People must have been much different back then. The legend says you had a family though. What happened?”