Pipe Dreams

by Destiny Allison

  Michael put his hand on her shoulder, holding her in place. Sensing her tension, he didn’t understand its cause. She wanted to run, but didn’t. It would show fear. Fear was like bait in the water. It drew the sharks.

  “Evening, Colonel,” Michael said. The air was charged with his simple words. Her stomach churned as she waited for what would come next.

  “Michael, Vanessa,” he acknowledged. “Glad I ran into you. Vanessa, I was going to send for you after dinner, but since you’re here now, do you mind coming with me? I have a few more questions I’d like to ask.”

  Vanessa trembled. McGrath’s voice was smooth, calm, and polite, but it did not fool her. She blinked, trying to will away the tears pooling in her eyes. How could she have allowed herself to believe she was safe, or that the rules would be any different here? The military, like the NSO, demanded obedience. Those at the top would do as they pleased.

  Michael could not protect her, but Vanessa could protect him. She stepped away from him, crossing the distance to the colonel. The few paces were a vast desert. Each small footstep brought her closer to another small death, but this time the effort was worth it. She would not let Michael fight for her and be crushed.

  In front of McGrath, she raised her eyes to meet his and nodded. Speech was beyond her. He looked down at her, crinkling his forehead in surprise. Had he not imagined she would come so willingly? Reaching out, he took her arm and spun her toward his office. Vanessa fought to control her nausea as he opened the door and led her inside.

  “Have a seat, Vanessa.” He gestured to one of the upholstered chairs in front of his desk. She did as he requested and, saying nothing, waited for what would come. Behind her, the door shut. A lamp clicked on and the overhead lights dimmed, bathing the office in shadows. Then he approached her. Would he slap the back of her head, or caress her gently? A tear escaped, but she did not wipe it away. Closing her eyes, she was frozen in the eternity it took for him to act.

  McGrath stood next to her for a moment, the scent of his aftershave a cloud around her head. Then, he was bending, reaching. The air shifted as he moved. Any second he would touch her. Vanessa squeezed her hands until they hurt. There was another click and through her closed eyelids, the room got brighter. Rigid with tension, she didn’t hear his feet padding away from her.

  When he sat behind the desk, she risked a glanced in his direction. He looked at her in alarm. Vanessa raised her head and her tears fell. She could manage the predictable, but she could not fathom what was happening here. Suddenly more vulnerable than she had been, a violent shudder shook her and she was freezing cold. She bit her lip until she tasted blood and pulled her arms around her chest.

  “Jesus Christ Almighty!” McGrath said, looking at her. “Vanessa, I am not going to hurt you.”

  He picked up the phone on his desk, punched an extension, and told the person on the other end of the line to come into his office. Replacing the receiver, he put his hands flat on the desk. They were strong and white with short, broken nails. “I’m going to leave my hands where you can see them until Lieutenant Marino gets here. Then, I’m going to pour us a drink,” he said.

  Vanessa did not respond. His words meant nothing. That promise had been made too many times. Always the same, it meant, “I’m not going to hurt you if you cooperate.” She flinched when the door opened, but did not turn around.

  “Thanks for coming, Lieutenant. I’d like you to join us. I think our guest could use a little support right now,” McGrath said as the person came up behind her.

  “Vanessa, this is Lieutenant Marino. She’s one of our medical personnel and a good person. I think you’ll like her.”

  A woman? How was she supposed to behave? This was not her nature, yet she had to comply. If McGrath beat her into submission, Michael would know what she had done. Vanessa waited, heaving. The lieutenant stopped next to Vanessa’s chair, her perfume fruity, fresh, and light.

  “Hello, Vanessa. Do you mind if I sit next to you?” she asked in a voice not unlike Mariah’s. Vanessa shook her head, keeping her eyes on her knees. Pulling a chair close, the lieutenant settled into it and crossed her slim legs. She wore uniform trousers and practical shoes. McGrath cleared his throat.

  “I’m not sure what happened, but I think Vanessa and I can both use a little help. I’m going to pour us a drink. Would you like one, Lieutenant?”

  “Thank you, Colonel, no. I’m fine.”

  McGrath opened a drawer. Glasses rattled. When Vanessa looked up, he was setting them on the cluttered surface of his desk. He opened a bottle of whiskey and poured a healthy dollop into each. Then he shoved one of the glasses toward her.

  Vanessa had not tasted alcohol since she had been reassigned as a worker and she missed it. It wasn’t common for the administrators to share their wealth, but the few times they did she had been grateful. She was grateful now. The drink would soften the blows. She reached for the glass and took a deep gulp. The whiskey warmed her, burned her throat, and made her cough. She took another, smaller sip and held it in her mouth, savoring the taste. After she swallowed, Vanessa looked sideways at the woman who had joined them. She wore her brown hair short and her face, free of makeup, was plain. Her eyes were kind.

  “I haven’t seen your file yet, but from the little I’ve heard you’ve been through hell. Nobody is going to hurt you here. I can promise you that. When you’re ready, I’m here to help,” the lieutenant said. Vanessa looked from her to the colonel and back again.

  “Vanessa, Lieutenant Marino is a psychologist. She’s very good at her job. You can trust her. I asked her to join us because, unfortunately, the questions I have can’t wait and I didn’t think you were, ah, disposed to answering them. Under the circumstances, I don’t say as I blame you. But Vanessa, the lieutenant is right. No one will hurt you here. It’s my job to make sure you’re safe. I can’t do that until we stop what’s happening on the island. I need your help. Will you help me?” McGrath asked.

  In her head, her grandfather’s voice said, “Trust no one.” Vanessa was still shaking and afraid, but in her brief stay at the base, she had not been hurt. If McGrath was going to do something to her, it made no sense for him to call a plain woman in regular clothes into his office with them. The lieutenant rose from her chair, stepped to the back of the room, and returned with a large jacket. She placed it over Vanessa’s shoulders. Vanessa pulled it on, grateful for its warmth.

  “Why me? I’ve already told you everything I know,” she asked when she could control the shivers.

  “Not everything, Vanessa. It would seem you’ve made some omissions. Why don’t you tell me about your father?” McGrath said.

  “My father? My father’s been dead for years. What does he have to do with anything?”

  “We’ve been doing background checks on all the refugees. It came as quite a surprise that your father was a CIA operative, with ties to Israel. It’s a bit of a coincidence that a rabbi, who was your legal guardian, was involved in the design and was also the one who tipped off the CIA to what’s happening inside the city. Don’t you think that’s odd, Vanessa?”

  Vanessa protested. Her father was a diplomat. He wasn’t in the CIA.

  “Okay, let’s try again.” McGrath scanned a paper in front of him and then continued. “From what we’ve gathered so far, your family is pretty interesting. Not only was your dad an operative, but your grandfather was a chemist, right? A biochemist, as it turns out, which is a little alarming, given the recent chain of events. Isaac Cohen was your family’s rabbi and your guardian. Vanessa, I know you’re scared. I know you’re a victim here. Honestly, I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been through, but somehow your family was involved. I need to know how.”

  Vanessa refused to accept what McGrath implied. The men who had shaped her life were not involved, in spite of what had been said about Isaac. All of them had worked to make the world better, resolve conflict, heal, and comfort. They had been intelligent, warm, and faithful.
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  “You’re wrong, Colonel. It’s impossible. Just because there are coincidences, doesn’t make your accusations true.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But here’s what we know. Your grandfather and Isaac Cohen attended the same university. Your parents died in a crash that was labeled an accident, but the circumstances were suspicious. You’re house was ransacked right after their death. It looked like a burglary, but since your parents were dead, nobody could tell if anything was missing.

  When Isaac left the synagogue, he retired to Edenton. For a few years before his death, your father paid him regular visits. It’s likely your father persuaded Isaac to share some information with the CIA. Your father’s visits began almost immediately after your grandfather’s death and continued until his own.

  Your grandfather’s research was in bio-weapons and his lab was funded by unknown sources. We’re still working on trying to track them down. On top of all that, you ended up as an assistant in the NSO. Vanessa, you know what the people behind the NSO are capable of and what they’re planning. Your family was part of this. I need to how and I need to know why.”

  McGrath was loud, insistent, and convincing. Vanessa remembered the days after her parent’s death. She had been numb and couldn’t cry. She had only wanted to hide, to get away from the clucking and fussing of the people in her house. The funeral, on a sunny morning in June, had done nothing to convince her of their deaths. Though she knew it wasn’t true, Vanessa had pretended they were away on another trip. She kept telling herself they would be home soon. Even after the funeral, she couldn’t accept it.

  It hadn’t become real until the day the house was broken into and her grandmother sent her to stay with Isaac. She had said it would give Vanessa a chance to get to know the city before she started college in the fall. Though painful, the circumstances had deepened her relationship with the rabbi.

  “You’re lying!” Vanessa said.

  Lieutenant Marino put a hand on her arm, but Vanessa pushed it away. The colonel’s words had opened an old wound. She had never understood why she had been sent to live with Isaac. She had wanted to stay in her home, surrounded by everything familiar. It wasn’t fair she had been uprooted. Still, the women in her family had been taught to do as they were told and Vanessa’s protests had gone unheard. Her grandmother had kept repeating it wasn’t safe for her to be at home and her reasoning prevailed. In the years after the rebellion, Vanessa had buried that memory.

  Isaac had been wonderful and her first year of college was all consuming. When her grandmother had joined her in the city, her apartment had become Vanessa’s refuge from classes and friends. Over time, the pain had diminished and together Isaac, her grandmother, and she had created a new life. The old one had faded. Now, McGrath had seeded doubt in her mind.

  “After Isaac became your guardian, your grandmother sold your family’s house and all their possessions for you. The estate was put in a trust in your name. From what they were able to find, the only things that weren’t sold were your personal possessions. Why do you think she did that, Vanessa?” McGrath asked.

  “She only saved what was important. She said it was better that way. Something about custom. I don’t really know.”

  “What did she save?”

  “Photographs mostly. Hundreds of them. They’re all over her apartment.”

  “Did she save anything else?”

  “Only the knife.”

  “What knife?’ McGrath asked.

  “The Kovalic knife. It was my grandfather’s. His father gave it to him when he left to study in America. It was the only thing that survived his family after the Holocaust. My grandfather cherished it. He gave it to my father just before he died. My grandmother gave it to me. She said it was my legacy, that I must keep it to pass on to my own first born.”

  “Vanessa, where is the knife now?”

  CHAPTER 42

  It took CoCo a minute to react. Then he lunged forward and lifted Ashley off the bed. She flailed, screaming and kicking, but he held her in a tight clutch. For someone her size, she possessed a surprising strength. When she calmed, he gingerly released his grasp, expecting her to charge. Though trembling with rage, she didn’t move. Instead, she stared at the man on the bed with a savage intensity.

  Blood and mucus pooled in the hollow above his lip and spilled into his open mouth. Ashley had broken his nose. CoCo sucked in his breath as Ashley’s nostrils flared and her blue eyes flashed like one of the green broke colts on his family’s ranch in Montana,

  “You alright now?” he asked. When Ashley nodded, quivering, he continued. “Okay, then. Maybe you and I can step away and you can tell me who he is. That all right with you?”

  She spun on her heel and marched out. In the kitchen, she pulled a glass from a cabinet, filled it with water, and drained it in one long gulp. Then she set the glass on the counter and fiddled with her bloodied hands. She still did not speak, so CoCo broke the silence.

  “I’d wash them if I were you. No telling where that guy’s been,” he offered. Ashley complied, scrubbing her hands under the faucet. When clean, she wiped them on a dish towel and turned to face him.

  “He’s one of the one’s who took me,” she said, her voice shaking. “He’s one of the bone people. They kept me in a cage! They shaved my head and touched my body! I thought they were going to eat me!”

  As CoCo listened, large tears fell from her eyes. Soon, she was sobbing. In an instant, Ashley had transformed from a feisty young woman with incredible courage into a terrified little girl. It broke the commander’s heart. He took two steps, pulled her into his arms, and stroked her head while she cried.

  After awhile, her sobs faded to hiccups and she pushed him away. She wiped her nose on the back of her arm, took a deep breath, and pulled up a stool. Sitting heavily, she rested her elbows on the counter and cupped her chin with her hands.

  “I would have killed him if you didn’t stop me.”

  “I bet. I’d kill him too,” CoCo agreed. “Do you want to finish telling me what happened?”

  Ashley nodded and picked up where she had left off. CoCo chuckled in appreciation at her description of Lewis on the bedroom floor. How many females of any age would have performed so admirably in a similar situation?

  “He got what he deserved,” he said.

  “No. He deserves much worse,” she replied. Her small mouth curved downward in a frown and her eyes gazed inward.

  “Yeah. I imagine he does.”

  Ashley continued to describe her journey through the drainage pipes and into the spillway. She told him about arriving back at the basement, just as the trucks pulled into the neighborhood, and warning Jeremy of the impending purge. As CoCo listened to her tale, an idea began to formulate, but he needed more information.

  “Ashley, this is important. What else did Lewis say?”

  “He didn’t make any sense. He said something about a shot and Isaac not needing it anymore. He said he would give it to me so I can stay like this. Then he asked if I wanted to watch him burn somebody.”

  CoCo frowned. Ashley had provided invaluable intelligence that might mean the mission’s success. If Lewis had access to the vaccine, he could lead them to its location, but how would he find Lewis? The girl in front of him was tough and smart, but did she have the wherewithal to remember the important details? He touched her hand.

  “Ashley, can you remember where Lewis lives?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “If I showed you a map, could you try to remember?”

  “Yes. I can try,” she replied, sitting up straight.

  He smiled and led her back to the library. Pulling a map from a waterproof pouch on his belt, he spread it on a large, oak table. Then he aimed a bright reading lamp on the paper. He marked their current location with a small dot. “Here’s where we are right now. Here’s the spillway. Can you remember where you might have come out of the pipe?”

  Ashley studied the map, trying to compare the s
mall lines and grids with her memory. She hadn’t paid attention to street signs and her zigzagged journey had blurred the details. The drainage pipe was near an industrial area, but the map only showed streets and parks. She knew the names of streets in her neighborhood like she knew the graffiti on the buildings and the lines in her hand, yet she didn’t know the rest of the city at all. The effort was hopeless.

  CoCo winced at her frustration. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up in an environment like this. By the time he was her age he had explored every nook and cranny of his small hometown and could find his way anywhere. Only the hours in the day or the amount of gas in the tank had limited his freedom.

  Forty-five minutes later, they were no further along. Ashley’s eyes had narrowed to shadowed slits. She was exhausted and pushing wouldn’t help.

  “Okay. Let’s call it for now. You need to get some sleep,” CoCo said.

  “Okay, but I want to check on Jeremy first,” Ashley said, yawning.

  In the infirmary, Derek and Bill slept on chairs next to Jeremy’s cot. Derek’s pointy chin drooped and Bill snored, his arms across his burly chest. A shrill whistle escaped his lips with every exhale. Jeremy lay on his back, his dark skin glistening with sweat. Sharp cheek bones were made even more prominent by lockjaw. Beneath the clean, white sheet, his narrow chest rose and fell lightly.

  As they approached, the SEALs woke. Derek sprang to his feet and intercepted CoCo before he could get close to the bed. “A word, Commander?” he asked. CoCo nodded and the two men retreated to the far side of the room.

  “What’s up, Derek?”

  “A couple of things. First off, the guy in the other bed is a junkie. He’s in withdrawal, but I’m guessing he’s coming out of it. I gave him a sedative to shut him up. He’s not in good shape, seriously dehydrated, but I didn’t put him on a drip. I don’t have enough with me to take care of both of them and I can’t take care of one of them for long.”