Immortal Beauty (The Immortals)

by Thomas McDermott

  “How are we on the files?” He was all business now.

  “I’m making progress but I still haven’t cracked the code yet. I think I could have it figured out by the end of today if I get started right now. I mean who needs sleep right?”

  “What’s wrong hotshot? I thought you could decode anything. I thought that was one of your things.” Claire was mocking him.

  “I can decode anything!” Frankie shouted proudly. “I just didn’t say how long it would take.”

  “If we can figure out what she’s up to then it might help us in the long run. It could give us something on her to hold over her head.” Claire searched the trees for Magdalene. She closed her eyes and called to her silently. The bird appeared from the horizon and sailed down toward them. She landed on Claire’s shoulder who patted the bird gently before walking down the stone stairs to the garden. Without looking back she said to the boys. “Let me know if the whiz kid comes up with anything. I need to recharge my batteries.” She slowly disappeared into the field of flowers and looked like some Greek goddess seeking her solitude.

  “Alright Frankie. We’re depending on you. Let me know the minute you find anything.” Marcus took his leave into the house. There were thousands of details for him to attend to. Frankie grabbed the plate of cookies and went in behind Marcus and headed to the office. He walked into the rich paneled room full of books and burgundy leather furniture. There was an old wooden desk of the simplest designs and there on top was a small laptop. Frankie tapped into the system and began to work. A few hours later he peaked his head out and spotted Virginie coming up the stairs.

  “Hey gorgeous! Can you tell Marcus I need him in the library? Thanks you’re a doll.” He winked at her and popped his head back into the room. Virginie couldn’t stop from blushing. She knew she should be insulted but when Frankie spoke to her in this way and he always spoke to her in this way she found it flattering. He was a funny one but there was also something about him that was very seductive. She never could put a finger on it. Usually she liked tall and lean men and she never liked her own country men but she would definitely not rule out the possibility of Frankie, maybe, sometime. She gathered her thoughts together and found Marcus in the great room sitting before the fireplace with a book in his hands. He did not seem to hear her come in so she coughed a little cough to let him know she was behind him.

  “Monsieur. Mr. Levoyer would like to see you in the library.” She saw him nod his head to let her know he had heard her but he seemed totally absorbed in his reading. She left the room to continue the tasks at hand before he put the book down. It was a book on the Celts in France from around 2500 B.C. until 125 B.C. when the Roman empire began to descend on the area making Paris a city of Rome and even changing her name to Lutetia. He quickly made his way to the library to see Frankie grinning from ear to ear.

  “I hope this means good news.” Marcus said upon entering the warmth of the book lined room.

  “Well…good news and bad news. Which would you like first?” Frankie poured himself a long tall drink of water from the pitcher on the desk.

  “Give me the good news first. I’ve had about enough bad news as of late thank you very much.” He moved over to glance at the computer screen. It was filled with scientific formulas with complex notations he didn’t understand. “What am I looking at?”

  Frankie put his glass down and said matter of fact. “This is what Celine does not want us to see. This is something she doesn’t want anyone else to know about. Let’s just say it’s her dirty little secret.” Frankie laughed at his own cleverness. Marcus was too tired and had no tolerance for levity at this time.

  “Alright Frankie…out with it. What does it all mean?” The symbols and formulas still looked like a bunch of nonsense.

  “You are looking at Celine’s secret project. Do you remember the scandal a while back about the Chimera research being done in Orleans?” Marcus shook his head before Frankie continued. “Well it wasn’t about finding the perfect protein or amino acid or the new collagen as Celgen told the press. It had nothing to do with her beauty products at all.” Frankie paused mostly for dramatic effect of which he was a big fan. “She’s creating some sort of hybrid embryo not to be destroyed like all the rest after a few days of replicating. She’s making some kind of hybrid creature and growing them to full term just like in those creepy Saturday night scary movies when there’s nothing on TV.” Frankie stared at Marcus looking for some type of reaction. There was nothing. Instead Marcus held his face in a look of stern concentration as if he was trying to fully comprehend what Frankie was telling him.

  “What do you mean growing them into full grown creatures? How is that possible?” Marcus’ frozen face finally broke into a look of genuine fear. Frankie pointed to a particular formula on the top right hand side of the screen. “She’s found an accelerating agent that makes the embryos grow at an exponential rate. Do you want to know what the agent is or would you like to guess what’s behind door number one?” Frankie just couldn’t help himself. This was too good.

  “Oh my God! You’ve got to be joking! Please tell me you’re joking!” Marcus’ mouth hung wide open.

  “Ladies and gentlemen I think we have a winner. And the answer is….water! And not just any water my friend..the water that flows underneath this very house.”

  Marcus wanted to hit Frankie suddenly. How could he be joking like this when so much was at stake? This was very serious and once again Frankie were treating it like it were a game. It was more than a game and they all knew that people could begin dying again very soon and once again Marcus could find himself defeated by the only woman he had ever truly loved. Instead of striking his friend Marcus just remained calm and moved on to the next matter of business.

  “What’s the bad news?” At this Frankie finally frowned. “Well boss. This is all we got. This page here and a few more like it. The moment I broke the code all of the data began to self destruct. She put quite an expensive little bug in her computer and the other bit of bad news is that her bug is now destroying our computers.” Frankie winced as if he expected an actual blow.

  “What?” Marcus couldn’t take anymore.

  “Relax Marcus. I’ve isolated it to the computers in the library only. I disconnected everything from the network before I began working on Celine’s data. I had a feeling she’d do something like this. So we’ve only lost the computers in here and whatever information wasn’t copied to the network. I can’t copy Celine’s formulas anywhere else because the bug would do the same thing to any system I put them on. So I did the old fashioned thing and made copies, real paper copies..” He sighed and realized just how very tired he was. “ I hate to crap all over your lovely day and run but I have got to go to sleep. I don’t even know how many days I’ve been up now. Tell Claire she can keep her eye on the lovebirds tonight. But warn her they are very loud!” A hint of the old Frankie returned for a second before he handed Marcus the papers and walked away.

  “Wait!” Marcus shouted stopping Frankie in his tracks. “These hybrids. What exactly is she making?” He wasn’t sure he was ready for the answer.

  “I’d say it was some new species of animal. Except this animal will have human DNA in it as well. It seems to me she is creating Frankenstein’s monster. Doesn’t she know how that story ends?” Frankie stopped and leaned against the expensive dark wallpaper. “For all we know she may have an army of little freaks running around in the basement by now. The rate of acceleration is unprecedented.”He trailed off and for a minute Marcus thought he had fallen asleep on his feet. “She could be growing an army of monsters for all we know.” Frankie managed to get himself back into motion and left the room before he could hear Marcus’ reply.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Frankie sauntered off to the fabulous stairway and walked sleepily up to his room. He had done one hell of a job deciphering that booby trap and it had taken the last of his energy from him. His room was like the others
in the house. It was warm and lavish but his was filled with the oldest of all the antiques. Ancient scrolls from the fabled library of Alexandria and texts smuggled from Petra before the rest of the world knew it existed. Under a glass dome on a round wooden table were Egyptian dolls all in a row depicting some battle scene and on the black marble fireplace were trinkets and even a few relics from the forgotten kingdom of the Assyrians. The room had the feeling of the far east and was rich and exotic and even smelled like the spices to be found in the farthest corners of the world. His bed was low and narrow and not at all like the bed from which Ellen had escaped that very morning. It had a flat mattress and a small pillow. He undressed slowly and then bowed before his little altar and with the very last of his energy he lay his muscled body on the bed and fell into a deep dark dreamless slumber.

  Downstairs Marcus thought of what Frankie had just said. Something about making her own army. Another thought was also crossing his mind and knowing Celine the way he did he was beginning to think this was exactly what she was doing. He grabbed the pages filled with the formulas and went to his office to his own computer and jumped online. Chimera. He typed the word and saw endless results. Parahumans. It was all so far fetched yet here it was all over the world. Pig-human embryos were created to extract a hormone that would fight off disease. Of course no one was allowed to let these creatures actually grow past a cellular level. If Celine was using her water supply for this research that meant she would be running out well before her ration would be ready. Plus Frankie said she had been giving the water to Taylor for almost a week now. She would become frantic soon and even reckless if she had reached the end of her supply. She was up to something alright. She was going to try and take control of the water again. He knew in that moment that Celine had planned some sort of a coup and intended to take the house and all the property surrounding it. Well, there was no more use in pretending that a truce still existed between them. This was an all out act of war. They both knew too much about the other’s activities to pretend anything else was happening. He shut off his computer and reached for his phone. He dialed a number.

  “Bon Jour! Je suis Marcus D’Allesandro est il est necessaire pour moi a parle avec Celine. Tout suite! Oui…j’attend.”

  WATER

  When Taylor woke that morning he thought that Sasha must be in the bathroom and lay in the big empty bed waiting for her to come out. After a time he began to suspect that maybe she wasn’t there any longer even though she didn’t seem the type to have sex and then sneak out. It could be that she just didn’t want to wake him which he found very cute. He smiled at the thought of her. Last night had been amazing in every way. Dinner was great and the walking around Paris at night had been magical and the boat cruise was nothing less than romantic. He really hadn’t intended to do more than some serious making out and then they started kissing. All of their chemistry came into play and took over any thoughts of control either of them may have had. It was like they had been lovers for years and knew exactly what the other wanted. At least that’s how it was for him and judging from her responses she seemed to feel exactly the same way. He started thinking that maybe reincarnation wasn’t such hocus pocus crap that he had always believed. From the first time he heard of reincarnation he found the whole idea repulsive. Just thinking about coming back again and again to some random set of parents in some random setting made him uneasy. Even if the events weren’t random the idea was still disturbing to him. He felt that one time on this planet was quite enough. Who wanted to go through puberty again and sickness and old age over and over again? He hated the very idea until he met Sasha. It wouldn’t be so bad if he knew that they would find each other over and over again. He sat up and the first thing that hit him was his thirst. Damn it! He had been thirsty since arriving in this country. Was there something in the air that was making him parched? Was it all the cars in Paris polluting the air so everything smelled like the back of a bus that was causing this chronic dryness? He got up and reached for a bottle of water from the refrigerator. There was no more! He must have drank the last one the night before. Usually Celine had made sure it was stocked for the day. Was he overstaying his welcome? Did she forget him with her new crisis of the missing assistant? He grabbed a cola instead and downed the whole thing in a few seconds and found himself just as thirsty as he had been a few minutes earlier. This was crazy! If he didn’t know any better he would have sworn he was addicted to this water. Water. Something very familiar was running around in his mind and it had something to do with the water. Celine had said something about a cure for aging. Something about curative waters and the healthy waters to be found all over France was stuck in his head like a bad song. It was all about the rich mineral content here in Europe. These waters were considered a tonic. The pieces were beginning to become coherent but not quite. Something was still missing. He grabbed one of the empty glass bottles and held it up to the light looking for something and then he saw it. At the very bottom of the glass on the underside was a small symbol. He turned the bottle over. His heart began to beat a little faster. It was something he knew very well. It was the company logo for Celgen with the C and G linked together to form two circles. Maybe her company had beauty water. Come to think of it ever since he had the first sip of the stuff he seemed to acquire an inhuman thirst and the only thing that staved off the thirst was that particular water. Could it be that Celine had developed a water with addictive properites? It certainly was brilliant if not illegal from a business standpoint but highly unlikely that anyone could really get away with it. Not in this day and age of forensics and labs and the countless agencies a product had to go through before it became available to the public. No it must be the trip and the water was doubtless full of minerals that his body was not used to. Anyway he had to get a move on. His rescheduled interview with Celine was in half an hour. It wouldn’t do him any good to show up late. Besides he knew she had more water in her office. He jumped in the shower and called the front desk to arrange for the car to come pick him up. He was surprised to find that the car was downstairs waiting for him. Celine was expecting him. He dressed as quickly as he could and ran to the elevator. Sure enough the lovely young driver was there in the lobby waiting for him. She held open the door and he slid into the backseat. Once they started on their way the driver spoke to him over the intercom.

  “Monsieur Hamilton. Miss D’Aumont has arranged for a tour of the Orleans facility. She instructed me to inform you that the interview will be held there as well.” She was barely civilized to him but he was used to it by now. He was excited about Celine’s turnaround concerning the lab. He was dying to get inside and now it had been accomplished without any effort on his part.

  “Very good Miss. Drive on!” He laughed at his own insolence. The car flew along the Parisian roads coursing its way through the impossible traffic that never seemed to abate. Soon they were racing along the country roads and Taylor opened his window to the fresh country air that was beginning to revive him. He opened the small bar in the limo and much to his dismay found that there was no more of the wonderful water he was craving so much. For a moment he contemplated making himself a cocktail but immediately tossed the idea out of his mind. He was done with all that and there was no point in bringing back all that misery into his life. He settled for another soda and drank the whole thing in about a minute. It only temporarily quenched his thirst as he knew it would. Maybe he caught some crazy bug on the way over. He truly had not been feeling normal ever since he got to Paris and the dreams he kept having here were making him crazy. He felt that at any moment a cloud would break in his mind and the sunlight of understanding would begin to stream in but for now he was wandering around in a fog. Finally the car got off the highway and headed into a heavily wooded area. They passed quaint little houses that were more like cottages and he figured this must be Orleans. They left the little town behind and made their way down an old country road where he saw a medieval looking chateau complete with a moa
t. The car pulled into the driveway. There were no signs anywhere conveying that this was anything more than a private residence. It was the perfect location for a secret lab outside the city. Other than the protesters he wondered if anyone really knew about its existence.

  “We are here Sir.” The svelte driver got out of the car and opened her door. By now the sun was well set in the sky and the air was warm and filled with the scent of lavender. He noticed the purple blossoms in a field behind the chateau. He stretched lazily and thanked the woman for her excellent driving. She was not amused and asked him to follow her up the double doors made of ancient oak wood. There was a keypad on which she punched a series of numbers to gain entrance. Pretending not to pay attention Taylor watched the sequence and began memorizing it. 157529. He said it in his mind until he was sure that it was locked in there. Not that he was planning any sort of espionage, but as a reporter he knew well enough not to overlook any opportunities that presented themselves. The door produced a clicking sound and she turned the handle down and pushed inward. Swinging open the doors revealed an impressive entrance hall with old tile and wood beams along the walls and ceilings. There were even some stained glass windows at the top of the cathedral ceilings and he still would never have believed that he was in any sort of laboratory. The sound of clicking heels on the black and white tile made him turn his head and he saw Celine coming from a doorway to the right. She was dressed in an olive green business suit that looked very much like Chanel. It was classy and very understated yet it did nothing to hide the amazing physique underneath. With every step her breasts were accented and now her hips and finally her long legs that seemed to grow out from the flawless fabric. The color of the suit showed off her eyes and her hair in such a way that she looked a little bizarre and unearthly. She smiled as she walked up to greet him.