Chu-Lung reached into his pocket, pulled out a small red capsule, and dropped it into his tea cup. He took a slow sip, his hand shaking, his bottom lip quivering as it met the cup’s edge.
“If you two are who you say you are, then you must have information about my brother. What did they do to him?” he asked, raising his voice. “My brother and I spoke daily, and I visited him at the palace every weekend. But now he doesn’t answer my calls, and Liaison no longer connects me to him or allows me to leave a message.”
So now it was confirmed. Shen-Lung had nothing to do with Harrington’s revised plan for us.
“Calm down,” said Michael, holding up his hand, “We don’t know what happened to your brother.”
“Yesterday I went to the palace to speak to Shen-Lung in person,” he continued, “but I was denied entrance, turned away at the gate, my band no longer allowing me access, and my Liaison no longer recognizing Shen-Lung’s existence.” Chu dropped his head. “A SEC eventually escorted me from the palace gate.”
Chu-Lung, his eyes glazed with tears, was not what Michael and I expected or planned for.
“Now, please,” begged Chu. “If you know something, anything, tell me.”
“We already told you,” said Michael. “We don’t know where he is.”
“If we did, we’d tell you,” I added.
“He’d call me if he could,” said Chu. “That means something or someone is not allowing him to do so, and it’s not just me. No one I know has heard from him or is able to communicate with him personally or through Liaison. Something’s wrong. I know it.” He leaned across the table and his forehead wrinkled.
And that’s when we told Chu-Lung the rest of our story: escaping to Region Three, finding refuge and then despair at Trail’s, and ending with Michael’s capture and rescue.
“So who gave the order for you to come here?” asked Chu-Lung.
“Magnum, unless it came from someone above him. All we know is that so far, Trail, Magnum, Marshall, and you are on the same team, and Magnum took Victoria from me against my will, which makes me wonder who’s the worse evil—your secret society or Harrington,” I said, forcing the words out through my gritted teeth. “We don’t know how all of you are officially connected, how many more of you there are, or what your ultimate plan is, but what I do know is that I want Victoria, I want my twins, and if there is going to be a Van Winkle Project, it’s going to run under our terms.”
“It can’t be under any other circumstances,” said Michael, raising his voice. “We won’t stand for it to be any other way.”
The tea cup Chu-Lung held fell to the floor, splintering into fragments, and just as his little dog slipped from his lap to enjoy another warm lick of tea, Chu grabbed it and set it back upon its satiny pillow.
“We are not evil. We fight against evil,” said Chu-Lung. “Don’t we,” he said to his dog, and gave it a pat on its head.
“Then tell us everything you know,” said Michael. He squared his shoulders and lifted a commanding eyebrow.
Chu abruptly stood and crossed the room. Facing the wall of paper fans, he put his hands behind his back, and sighed, dropping his shoulders. “And that is something I cannot do.”
“But it is something you need to do. It’s not fair to leave us in the dark when Michael and I play such an instrumental role in what’s going to happen in the future.”
“You have no idea what’s going to happen in the future,” he said sharply.
“Then tell us!” I stood and screamed. “Your group took my baby from me, and I want to know why!”
Michael rose next to me, his nostrils flaring and his hands balled into fists.
Chu-Lung’s Pekinese jumped from its pillow, darted across the floor, and rushed toward us, snapping at my heels. It gave my calf a nip and I gently pushed it away with my foot. The little dog scrambled back onto its paws, its nails clicking against the tile.
“He bit me!” I shouted. My pant leg was punctured and a growing red dot told me his tooth broke through my skin.
“Hu-tu,” said Chu-Lung when his dog came at me a second time. “Come here. Please don’t hurt him,” he begged. “He’s just trying to protect me. He knows how fragile I am right now.”
Michael scooped him up, holding Hu-tu snuggly in his arms with a light grip on the back of the dog’s neck to keep Hu-tu from biting his hands. The dog yipped and jerked his little legs.
“Please do not hurt him. Give him to me,” Chu-Lung pleaded. “I will take him and put him in the other room.”
“Don’t give him the dog, Michael,” I said, knowing Michael would never hurt an innocent animal, even under these circumstances.
“I didn’t plan to.” Michael stroked the dog’s thick, golden fur.
“Don’t hurt him,” said Chu-Lung.
“Then tell us everything,” said Michael. “Or I will.”
“No, I can’t. Please. Hu-tu is my only friend now that my brother’s gone.” He held out his shaking hands.
“I’ll kill him,” said Michael. “Break his neck. Or maybe I’ll start by just hurting him a little, throwing him against the wall. Then I’ll twist his neck.”
Michael’s tone wasn’t too believable—at least not to me—and when Chu-Lung looked up at the ceiling like he was saying a silent prayer, Michael shot me a look like he didn’t know what to do if the Chu-Lung didn’t believe him.
“He’ll do it,” I said sternly to Chu-Lung. “Don’t test him.” Michael narrowed his eyes, and gave the Pekinese another stroke that ended at the dog’s neck.
“Please, no,” Chu-Lung continued to beg. His eyes watered with tears, and he drew his hands together palm to palm.
“Then answer my questions,” I said, “and then we’ll give you back your dog.”
“Okay, okay,” he said sharply.
“How big is this society you belong to?”
“Bigger than you can imagine. I, I don’t know exact numbers. We grow daily, but I do know there are chapters, hundreds of them, in every region, and each chapter has hundreds of members.”
Maybe there were enough of them to plan and implement a successful coup.
“Who founded this organization and why?”
“One of our forefathers. As a safeguard. In case one or more of the presidents ever deviated from the constitution, as they have. It started over one-hundred years ago. The constitution you know now is not the original. The first was manipulated, changed over time, replaced and erased from Liaison.” His lips trembled as he took a big breath. “But we have a copy. We know how things were supposed to be, how they should be. It’s taken many, many years to build our cause, but soon we will be ready to make things right.”
“How soon?” asked Michael as he continued to stroke the fur at Hu-tu’s throat.
“I don’t know. I swear. Right now only those at the highest rank know when and how it will be accomplished. I do not know how to plan a war. I am no commander, but when the time comes, I will fight alongside my friends, even give my life to ensure that freedom is returned to the people.”
“And Victoria? Where is she?” I asked, mashing my lips together.
“That, I also do not know,” he said. “But I do know she is safe. What is freedom without a future to enjoy it? You and your daughters are our future. You and your daughters are a key component in our cause.”
“Then you must know where she is,” said Michael, encircling the dog’s throat with his fingers.
“No, no. I don’t.”
“Then tell us more!” Michael demanded.
“You don’t need to worry about Victoria. She is in protective custody. She is being loved and provided for, and when the time is right, she will be returned to you. We would never permanently separate a mother or father from their child, and of course, we want the two of you to develop and run the Van Winkle Project when it is time. We only removed Victoria from your care now because it needed to be done. The risk of something happening to her had she stayed with you wa
s too great.”
“And if something happens to Cassie?” asked Michael, slipping his free hand into mine.
Chu-Lung said to me, “There is a plan in place, and that includes a repopulation program using your daughter. But I assure you, it is a plan of which you’d approve. She would be under the love and care of someone in our group who’d be qualified to care and nurture her for her role in this world. Her well-being, health, and happiness would be our first priority.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” I sneered under my breath and tightened my grip on Michael’s hand.
“Of course the program,” continued Chu, “whether under our direction or yours, would most likely begin after…” Chu clasped his hands together and inhaled deeply. “I have said too much. Please—”
“You mean a rebellion, some kind of revolution to overthrow the government,” I blurted.
Chu-Lung’s eyes darted from Hu-tu, to Michael, and then to me. There was no need for Chu to answer. His eyes held the word “yes.”
“When?” demanded Michael.
“I don’t know,” said Chu. “But it will happen soon, and when it does, more people will join our cause and no one will be able to stop us.”
Was this secret group even large enough to take on the authority of three governments? Would the majority of the clones drop their lemming mentality and join the revolt, or would they remain neutral or even loyal to the presidents? If the coup was successful, what then? Who’d be in charge? Who’d lead us into reestablishing direction under the original constitution, the one we were meant to follow after the plague?
It was too much to think about. I just wanted Victoria. I wanted to find my twins.
Michael readjusted his hold on the little dog, and then stroked its throat, letting his fingers lightly curl around its throat.
“That’s all I know, except, except, I-I know where your other daughters are,” he said quickly. “I can tell you everything about them that I know.”
“You do?” I said, releasing a pent-up breath and placing my palm against my chest. Michael squeezed my other hand, and I pulled him closer to me.
Chu-Lung nodded.
“Where are they?” said Michael. He gave Hu-tu a light pat, and the dog settled in Michael’s arm, actually giving his hand a lick.
“They’re in a very bad place, protected from harm but surrounded by evil. It’s a secret place. Area Four. I think it’s an island, but I’m not sure. Your daughters have been there since they were born.”
Surrounded by evil? My stomach soured, and the pounding of my heart became palpable. Maybe an island? Another island. A secret one and another government cover-up. Islands were the only areas they could keep from the eyes of the mainland.
“How do you know this?” I asked, my pulse continuing to rise.
“Because I used to work there,” he said in a whimper, his tone raw and his eyes full of disgust.
“They were supposed to be waiting for us in Tasma, but they never arrived.” Michael squeezed his lips together, and he stopped petting Hu-tu.
“Then they’re still in Area Four. They have to be,” I said.
“Then tell us where it is, and how to get there,” said Michael.
“Please, give me Hu-tu first,” pleaded Chu-Lung.
“No, not until you tell us more.”
Chu-Lung sank to the couch and put his head in his hands. “You don’t understand,” he said “People who go to Area Four never come back.”
“But you did!” I said, dropping to the couch across from him. Michael sat down next to me, and the Pekinese growled and struggled under his grip.
“I am a president’s brother, and you two are fugitives. Even if you somehow managed to sneak into Area Four, you’d never be able to break free from there.” With a deep breath, he crossed his arms. “Trust me. You don’t want to go to Area Four. I’m not the same man I was before I entered. I, I cannot sleep at night. I am plagued by nightmares—one after the other. My mind has not yet healed from the things I have done, the things I have seen there. I have to take medicine to control the tremor in my hands and smother the thoughts that keep me from functioning daily. I would not wish that upon the two of you, despite what you’re doing to me now…”
“But it’s the only way. Harrington will never let us meet our daughters, let alone raise them on our own. Especially not now.”
“You’ve been ordered to stay here, somewhere you will be safe. You cannot go to Area Four. I cannot protect you there.”
“Tell us where it is,” said Michael, and he gave Hu-tu a rough pet that made the dog yip.
“Okay, okay.” Chu-Lung stood up, and with his hand to his chin, paced the room.
Michael met Chu-Lung in the center of the room, forcing the man to end his erratic pacing. “Tell us,” Michael said again and came close enough to let Chu-Lung stroke the top of Hu-tu’s head.
“It is remarkable. I see the resemblance. VW2 and VW3 aren’t identical twins. They’re fraternal. VW3 looks like her father.” Chu patted Michael’s shoulder. “And VW4 looks like her mother.” As Chu smiled in my direction, my eyes became watery, too, and I had to look at the ceiling and take deep breaths to stop my tears.
“We need your help, not your protection,” I said. “Please tell us about Area Four and how to get there.”
Chu-Lung shook his head. “I cannot help you into a situation that will put you back under Harrington’s control.”
“That won’t happen. With your help, Michael and I can do this.”
Chu-Lung lowered his head, and when he tried to give Hu-tu another pet, Michael stepped away from him.
I said, “Maybe Harrington sent your brother there, and if he did, we’ll find him, too, and bring him back.”
“And then what?” asked Chu-Lung, his eyes full of pity. “Even if you find your daughters and my brother in Area Four and managed to escape, where would you go? Here? Security would be so tight, you’d be caught crossing the division.” Chu’s eyes grew wide. “You have no idea what goes on in Area Four. You have no idea what you’d be up against. And if they decided to send you back to Area Four, and force you to live in one of the wards, you’d never be able to escape a second time—they’d make sure of it.”
Chu-Lung’s hand, though hot against my tunic, sent a chill down my back. His eyes, intense with fear and anger, locked with mine, and I looked away to stare at the egg ring on my finger.
“We won’t get caught, and we’ll figure out what to do once we have them. The most important thing is finding Area Four and getting our daughters and your brother as far away from there as possible,” I said as confidently as I could.
“What exactly goes on in Area Four? Why are you so afraid of it?” asked Michael. He walked toward Chu-Lung, stroking Hu-tu’s throat. Chu-Lung backed up toward the couch and sat down. Michael took a seat across from him.
“The location now referred to as Area Four was created by a group of concerned survivors—doctors, politicians, geneticists—during the latter half of the plague. Pregnant woman unaffected by the first wave of the disease were taken to this special paradise to give birth to what they hoped would be fertile babies. It was a beautiful place then, free from the disease and full of hope for the future of mankind. Unfortunately, the babies born there were as infertile as their mothers now were, and this special place, once a secret utopia of optimism, became a covert location dedicated to cracking the code of the plague and restoring fertility to the people.”
Chu-Lung folded his hands and looked down at his lap. “Then Area Four became what it is today—a block of experimental labs, where its forced ‘participants’ are treated and tested like animals, enduring unimaginable pain and torture.” Chu slipped another red pill into his tea cup and refilled it.
“Then why did you work there?”
“My brother asked me to. He wanted to close Area Four, stop the experiments. But he had to convince Tupolev and Gifford, and then Harrington, that it was the right thing to do. He h
oped that in the meantime I could prevent some of the tests and trials from taking place and maybe sway some of the workers to take my side. But I…I lost my sanity in that place. After a month, I couldn’t take it anymore. My brother removed me at my request. And now my brother…if he’s there…he’s suffering.” Chu-Lung sobbed.
“Is your brother a member of…” I tapped my upper arm. “Are you all dedicated to organizing some kind of coup?”
Chu-Lung raised his hands. “Please don’t ask me those questions. Don’t force me to tell you. I can’t break any more rules. I’ve taken an oath.” He reached across the table to pet the dog and Michael leaned away. “Even if it costs me my life or the life of Hu-tu, I will not answer them. I’ve told you about your daughters. Isn’t that enough?”
Chu-Lung wiped his eyes, and my heart softened, feeling sorry for what Michael and I were doing to him. But it had to be done.
“Yes, it’s enough, at least for now,” I said. “And if your brother’s in Area Four, we’ll find him while we’re there.”
“And by then, we’ll know what to do next.” Michael gave Chu-Lung a reassuring smile.
“You mentioned a ward. Is that where the twins are?” I asked.
“Yes. There are three wards full of ‘participants,’” he sneered. “Your daughters are being kept in Ward One.”
“So, we still need to know how to get there?”
“Let me get you what I have.” Chu-Lung stood. Michael and I followed him into the kitchen, and I palmed the pistol in my pocket just in case Chu-Lung was going to pull a fast one.
“I hope we will know what to do next,” I whispered to Michael.
“We will. We always do.” He smiled.
He was right. So far, we’d figured out the next step before we got there, and it had worked out, but much of it was based upon luck. Good luck doesn’t last, it always runs out. But what other choice did we have than to try?
“Can we trust, Chu-Lung?” I whispered to Michael.
“I think so. We have to since we’ve already played hardball with him.”
“Here we go,” said Chu-Lung. He bent down and picked up a fuzzy dog toy, a plush red dragon that clicked and twisted its lizard-like body when Chu-Lung gave it a squeeze. The Pekinese barked in Michael’s arms.
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