The robotic sentries were still. Ailsa walked towards the elevator and got in. The frosted, pentagonal ‘83’ button illuminated with a gentle melody and the doors closed.
This is creepy. He’s letting me in without a fight. He plans to kill me up there, neat and clean, like a lab rat or an old dog. One of his goons will be waiting for me. And it will be completely legal.
She looked around the spacious elevator car. It burst out of the building interior and climbed the outside of the building. Smoke billowed from the city. They were putting out the fires.
Gabriel. His taxi rose with her, he outside, she inside. She raised her hand to him. He looked away.
The elevator doors opened on the 83rd floor. She whirled around. No one was there. She poked her head out.
Ailsa stepped out of the elevator and walked down a pristine, white hallway. Frosted glass surrounded her. Lights illuminated on the floor to guide her path.
This is incredibly weird. She fingered the trigger of the Gard rifle. She held it close against the back of her thigh.
“Lizzy, I’m right here,” said a voice behind her.
She swiveled around. It was Milton.
“You’re dead,” she said.
Milton smiled. His skin was pink and smooth. His face was taut. He looked to be no more than twenty-five years old.
“You’re— He revived you.”
Milton nodded.
“Why?”
“Same reason he revived you, Lizzy. We belong to him.”
“Bullshit!” she yelled.
“Texa belongs to him, too.”
“No!”
“He created us. He is our god, you could say. He keeps us young, saves us from our—”
“That’s ridiculous!” she screamed.
“I know what I’m supposed to do,” he muttered. He twisted his body to look back.
“Who are you—” Ailsa started.
Milton whirled around and kneeled. “I’m doing the best… I… Okay! I can do more. But…”
Ailsa spotted the box. “Your neck…”
Milton looked over his shoulder at her, his eyes wide and gritting his teeth. “I know!” he yelled.
Ailsa took a step back. “Anyway, I—”
He stood up and ran towards her. “You can’t go in there. It’s my job. Yes, I know! It’s my job!”
He kneeled in front of her and reached for her hand. She jerked it away.
“We’re an experiment, you see,” Milton said. “He… Shut up! She deserves to know! He made us, together, as his perfect Adam and Eve. Together, we made Texa.”
“You’re not her father!”
He cocked his head. “I’m sorry. I know. I’m a little… pathetic these days. Yes! He let me keep my memory but he always took yours, and Texa’s.” He nodded his head with a strained frown.
“You’re insane!” She kicked him and pulled out the gun. “Don’t get in my way. I’m getting Texa and we’re—”
He lay on the floor and giggled like a baby.
She proceeded down the hall. At the end were two huge double doors. They were ajar.
She threw them open and screamed.
59
A cold, wet wind greeted Ailsa. It stank of smoldering plastic, gunpowder and rot.
Dr. Vernor Xemura lay dead at his desk. A thin, shiny piece of metal extended out of his forehead.
Ailsa cringed. She picked up his head and examined it. It was the same man who had threatened her in the white room. It seemed so long ago. The wind hit her again. She looked straight ahead, to the left of the desk. A pane of glass was blown out of the wall.
A black car hovered outside on the other side of the wall. Zora carried something wrapped in white. She placed it into the trunk and slammed it shut. The car rotated and a back door opened.
“Zora!” Ailsa yelled. She ran towards her. “What are you doing?”
Zora threw herself head first into the car and hit her head on the edge of the roof. “Go! Go, Gabriel! Go!”
Ailsa reached out the window. She looked down. It was pitch dark. The raindrops disappeared into the void. She grabbed Zora’s foot and pulled. Zora grabbed hold inside the car.
Ailsa looked into the front seat. A dark figure turned around. It was Gabriel.
Gabriel? She yanked on the leg and Zora’s shoe came off. Ailsa watched it disappear into the gloom.
“Let go!” yelled Zora.
“Tell me where Texa is!”
“Bugger off!”
The car inched away from the building. Ailsa held on tight. Only her feet remained inside the building.
Zora kicked her. “Let go, you stupid bitch!”
Ailsa wrapped her hand tight around the top of Zora’s calf muscle and dug her nails in.
Zora screamed.
Ailsa steeled her hand. Her feet slipped off of the edge of the building but someone grabbed them.
She turned her head. It was Milton.
“I’ve got you, Lizzy. Let go!” he yelled.
The wind buffeted all of them and the cab slammed into the building. Milton, Ailsa and Zora landed back inside.
Ailsa got on top of Zora and punched her. “Where is she? What did you do with her?” Ailsa pulled a fist back and droplets of blood splattered to her face.
Milton grabbed Ailsa’s legs and pulled her away from the window. “We don’t need them, anymore, we’re back together now,” Milton said, “and we can make another one.”
“Let go of me! Another what? What are you talking—” Ailsa started.
Zora ran and jumped out the window into the cab. Gabriel sped off.
“Another Texa, of course,” said Milton.
60
“You need to tell me everything you know. Where did they go?” Ailsa asked Milton. They sat on the floor of Dr. Vernor Xemura’s office. The rain blew in through the hole left by Zora and Gabriel. The dead man sat in his desk chair. Ailsa shivered.
Milton shrugged.
“Do they have her?” she asked.
Milton nodded.
“Where did they take her? What do they want— This has to do with her power…”
Milton shrugged. “Zora wants Dr. Xemura’s company. She says Texa can enable her to control the Republic Trustees, and then she will put the world back to how it was.”
“You helped her kill Dr. Xemura and you helped her get away with Texa,” said Ailsa.
“I did it for you, Lizzy. I did it for us,” he said. “Now that he’s dead, the messages will stop. I’m okay now.”
“I have to find my daughter,” she said.
“I can help you,” Milton said. “And I fixed your device.” He pulled a device out of his pocket.
She recognized it immediately. “That’s my computer. Where did you get it?” She ripped it from his hand.
“When you died, Lizzy.”
“Why did you take me there to die? Why did you let us die?” she asked.
“I knew he would bring you back and then we could be together again, all fresh and new like before… you know what.”
A tremor ran up her back. She walked over to Dr. Xemura’s desk and pushed the chair with his body out of the way. “How does he use his computer?”
Milton ran over and swiped his hand across the front right corner of the desk. “Use his hand to do it, hurry before it gets too cold. Are you worried about money? Don’t worry, I have some.”
She brought the body back and swiped the hand. A screen rose out of the desk.
“Authentication, please, Dr. Xemura,” a voice said.
“The password,” she said to Milton. “Do you know it?”
Milton twisted his head to one side and grimaced. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”
“Milton!”
“Why don’t we just revive him?”
“He’s got a hole in his head, Milton, and he has lost a ton of blood. He’s not coming back.”
Milton screwed up his face. “Okay. I heard him say, ‘That which is yours cannot b
e denied.’”
Ailsa repeated the words. The screen came to life. “Track Gabriel and Zora,” she said.
“Input insufficient,” the voice said.
“There was a black taxi,” said Ailsa, “right outside this window, owned by Gabriel Xemura—”
“Gabriel Xemura,” said the voice. “Brother of Dr. Vernor Xemura, CEO of Xemura Life Sciences. Deceased May 17 of the current year.”
“What?” muttered Ailsa. “When? He’s dead?”
61
A photo of Gabriel Xemura appeared on the screen. It was her Gabriel.
“He revived his brother, too?” whispered Ailsa. “Who hasn’t he revived?”
A call came in. “Answer,” she said. “Hello?” She felt oddly comfortable in this office.
There was a silence. A thick male voice spoke up. “Who is this?”
“Who is this?” Ailsa answered.
“This is Alexander Nelson, President of the Republic Trust for Dr. Vernor Xemura. The nature of the call is very urgent.”
“Well, he’s dead.”
Alexander was silent for a moment. “Oh my God. What happened?” he asked.
“His resurrected brother and his assistant jammed a piece of metal into his forehead and blew his brains out.”
“Are you Ailsa Santamaria?” Alexander asked.
“Why? How do you know that name?”
“Listen, Ailsa, time is short and the Republic Trust is in danger.”
Ailsa laughed. “Go smoke yourself.”
“There’s too many of us,” said Alexander. “Too much rabble. Too many hungry mouths. And—”
“Save your bullshit propaganda, Alex. I want my daughter and I want out of here.”
“I can probably help you with that.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re all liars.”
“Just listen, Ms. Santamaria! You and your girl are responsible for the chaos that’s happening outside right now.”
Ailsa turned around. The fires were bigger now and there were more of them.
“It’s getting worse, too,” said Alexander. “We must stop it before more people die.”
“You kill people, so I should just hang up on you now,” she said.
“I can help you get your daughter back!” Alexander yelled.
62
“What’s in it for you?” Ailsa asked. She pushed Dr. Xemura’s body out of the chair and took a seat. She crossed her legs and leaned back.
Alexander cleared his throat. “We restore stability to the protectorates. You get your daughter and safe passage to wherever your like.”
“What if I want to kill you bastards?”
“Listen, Ms. Santamaria,” started Alexander, “you’re legally dead. You and your daughter. You legally have no rights. And right now, rogue elements in the Xemura family with sympathies for the Rising have your daughter. They plan to manipulate her and her power to destroy the Republic so that they can gain control of it for their own ends.”
“Okay, good.”
“When they’re done,” he continued, “they will either kill Texa or lock her away indefinitely under sedation as a lab rat.”
“Gabriel wouldn’t do that!” she said.
“The late Dr. Xemura’s brother has already betrayed you, hasn’t he? Do you trust Dr. Collins?”
Ailsa was silent.
“Collins and Xemura are outside the Republic central office. I am dispatching soldiers to accompany you there, right now, to safely get your daughter back and then you have my promise that we will send you wherever you like with enough funds to sustain you for many years to come.”
“Don’t trust them!” Milton whispered.
Ailsa took a deep breath. “Bring a gun for me,“ she said. “This one’s charge is almost dead.”
63
The air was thick with the smell of blood and sweaty men. Ailsa stepped out of the troop carrier. The early morning air outside was only marginally more breathable. Dark-helmeted soldiers poured out behind her and surrounded her. Two approached her from the front.
“What? Let’s go,” she said to the men.
“Proper protective gear is required, ma’am,” said the one on her left.
She scowled at him. “Robots?”
The soldier took off his helmet. His jawline was sharp and covered in black stubble. His dark blue eyes pierced her. “Do I look like a bot to you?”
She smiled. Why does the Republic get the hottest men? Probably genetic engineering. “Okay, go ahead.”
He wrapped her in dark blue body armor from head to toe. He offered her a helmet.
“No,” she said. “No helmet. Now give me a gun.”
She walked up the gray, cement steps of the Republic Trust Central Office. It was a simple red brick and cement edifice. The first rays of the morning sun glinted off of the sliding doors. They refused to open.
Ailsa brought her gun up and fired. It blew a hole in the door. She fired twice more, than stepped through.
“Ailsa! Stop right there.” It was Gabriel.
She brought the gun up and pointed it at him. “Where’s Texa?” she yelled.
“Now, Ailsa, just—” he started.
“Shut up! Just give me my daughter!” She ran up to him and put the gun to his neck.
Gabriel swallowed hard. “Just relax. Ailsa. You know I wouldn’t—”
She swung the gun up and whipped him across the back with it. He fell to the floor and gasped for breath.
“Where is she!” she yelled.
A door opened behind Ailsa. She whirled around.
Texa carried her arms like a ballerina. She turned around and gently closed the door behind her.
“Texa?” Ailsa asked. “What did they do to you, baby?”
Texa walked right past her. She did not look at her mother. She put her hands on Gabriel’s head. He awoke, stood up and dusted himself off.
Ailsa stared at them, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.
Gabriel sighed. “I wanted to spare you this. Texa is not your daughter. She’s mine and Zora’s. We ran the test. It’s confirmed.”
Ailsa laughed. “That’s ridiculous. I gave—” Ailsa thought back to the moment of Texa’s birth. The memory did not come.
Gabriel cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t actually remember her birth, do you?”
“I… It’s the stress. I’m really stressed right now.” She cleared her throat. “Texa,” she said in a firm, loud voice, “we’re leaving. Let’s—”
Texa turned to her and screamed. “You killed me! You’re not my mother! Get out!” She pushed a hand forward and Ailsa was thrown down the hallway. She crashed through the unbroken glass door and continued until she hit the troop carrier she came in.
64
The soldier with the sharp jawline snapped his fingers in her face. His chest said, “Hanshin.” He slapped her with an icy hand.
It came back to her. “They did something to her,” Ailsa said. “She doesn’t—”
“We heard,” said Hanshin. “Your armor is wired up. What I need to know is what you plan to do about it.”
“She doesn’t want me anymore.”
“They brainwashed her, ma’am,” said Hanshin.
“Her powers have—” she started.
“We know, Ailsa!” said Hanshin. “But the situation is active. What is your plan of action?”
“Well, tell me what else you know!” she yelled. “How did they do that? How do I undo it?”
Hanshin shrugged.
“Well, can you ask somebody?”
Hanshin just stared at her with dead eyes.
Ailsa rolled her eyes and stood up. Her back ached and her steps slowed. She stepped through the now larger hole in the doors.
“Texa,” she yelled down the now-empty hallway, “I love you and I’m sorry. I’m sorry I killed us. We were both so sad all the time and they were uplifting our protectorate. I didn’t want you to feel that pain. It wasn’t fair to you.”
A dozen so
ldiers came in behind her.
“It’s about time you guys made yourselves useful,” she said to them. “Follow me in. I’m going to do whatever—”
“Put the gun down and lay down on the floor,” said Hanshin.
Ailsa turned around to glare at them. “What the—”
They aimed their guns at her. She looked down at her chest. A dozen red dots orbited her heart.
65
Zora appeared next to Ailsa. “They answer to us now.” She took Ailsa’s gun and pulled her towards the wall.
Ailsa sat down against the wall. I’ve been the best mom I could. I’ve done what I can. Everyone is against me.
“Well?” asked Zora. She tapped her foot. “You have a couple options. We can kill you right here or you can take a flight out of the Republic right now. We’ll give you some coin. Head to Jamaica or Barbados for a while.”
“And do what?” Ailsa whispered.
Zora shrugged. “Find a man again, a real man. Enjoy the beach. Just stay away from the Republic and our truce will remain in effect. Texa will be safe.”
“So,” asked Ailsa, “you control the Republic now? And the Gards?”
“Gabriel and I have inherited his late brother’s corporate holdings and his Republic trusteeship.”
Ailsa glared at her. “Then why do you need my daughter?”
Zora looked down at her with amusement. “You know why we need Texa. She’s my daughter, by the way. I switched the egg when we genned her. It’s her power. She’s the experiment that succeeded.”
Ailsa looked at her quizzically. “I don’t believe a word you say.”
Zora’s eyes darted to and fro.
“That’s why you have personal control of the Gards now,” said Ailsa. “It’s my girl.”
Zora smiled. “Influence is what you call it, right?”
“She’s my daughter,” said Ailsa. She stood up and grabbed Zora’s throat. “She doesn’t look like you. She doesn’t love you! She’s my girl!”
Zora scratched at Ailsa’s arm. Blood welled up from the deep gouges in her skin. Zora fell to her knees. She waved her arms wildly for the Gards to take action. Ailsa tightened her grip and locked her other hand on the back of Zora’s neck. Zora gasped for breath.
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