“I know. And I will go to bed. But . . . can I just sit with you. Just a little?”
“Sure.”
Ellen slid her head down and rested it on his lap. Like a child, she curled up in a ball, clinging to his leg. “I’m so scared for him, Dean.”
“Me too.” Dean closed his eyes and swallowed as he ran his hand down her hair. “Me too.”
^^^^
One-fifteen A.M. was the time when Frank looked at his watch for the umpteenth time. He had paced so much around the small holding room that he could have sworn he wore a hole in the floor. It was cold in holding and there wasn’t anything Frank could do. No blanket on the bed, no coat. He still wore the bloody tee shirt he had on when he was shot.
He rubbed his arms with a chill as he leaned against the steel door. Almost in defeat, Frank slid to the floor. He sat, legs bent up, arms crossed over his knees, and he rested his head on his arms. He raised his tired eyes to look once more around the room. As the reality hit him, so did the fear. His chest filled with the heaviness of it. It was real. It was really happening. And suddenly it dawned on him. If he had reached this point, how far out of the question would it be for him to be completely taken out.
Frank closed his eyes tightly. He didn’t want to look anymore. He didn’t want to think that the holding room could very easily be the last vision he would ever see if his home . . . Beginnings.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRTY
“Damn it,” Ellen cursed with aggravation as she fought desperately to remove her blood samples from the phlebotomy tray. There weren’t that many of them, but she could barely hold them in her trembling hands. As she reached for the next one, a hand came down gripping hers. A hand so familiar, she could have sworn it was Frank’s. She peered upward, her eyes following his forearm. “Johnny.”
“You O.K.?” He took the sample from her hand.
“Just trying to get out of here to go back down in the lab. Did you take your father his clothes? I need him to change that shirt. I don’t want him getting an infection.”
“Yes, Ellen. I gave it to the guard. Why didn’t you take it up?”
“Because I’d want to see him. They won’t let me. John Matoose refuses to let me.”
“He what?!” Johnny yelled, sounding so much like Frank. “We’ll just see about that. Come on.” He grabbed her hand, and in a pull, led her hurriedly from the lab.
With a loud bang of his fist to his dad’s office door, Johnny flung the door open. “John!” He stepped inside. “Give me the keys to holding!”
“First off young man, you don’t come in here barging like . . .”
“I’m not fucking around John!” Johnny glared down to him, his hand pointing downward. “Give me the keys!”
John hesitated in his answer, staring at Johnny. At his dark face and mean eyes that matched that snarl upon his face. He had the frightening makings of Frank. “No.” John shook his head.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Johnny shook his head, his finger tapping hard to the desk. “Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. This is not a request. If I have to beat the fuck out of you I will. Now you will let my mother see my father!”
“Don’t threaten me, you punk. She can’t see Frank and that is final.”
It was a shock hearing her voice in the office at that time. It carried, though she didn’t yell. It carried right into the room and definitely through John. “You are wrong!” Jenny stepped further into the office. “You hear me John? Wrong.”
John peered up to his wife. “This is none of your concern, Jenny.”
“The hell it isn’t.” Jenny was adamant. “These aren’t strangers. This is family. This is a very serious situation. Let Ellen see Frank.”
John was shocked. “I can’t believe you are siding with her over me.”
“It’s not about me and Ellen. This is different. That is your friend in there. And standing here is your friend’s wife. You will let him see his wife or, at the very least, let him speak to her.”
“I’ll be breaking rules.”
“Then you break them.” Jenny flung her hair over to her side. “You break them or I will not speak to you. John. If I were in Ellen’s shoes and there was a threat of you being ousted, I would hope to God someone would at least let me see how you were doing. Do this John. Let them speak to each other. It isn’t right if you don’t.”
John rose slightly from his chair, shaking his head in disgust. He pulled a key from the chain and handed it to Johnny. “This will open the building but . . . She can’t see him. She can speak to him through the door. That’s it.”
Johnny gripped the key and grabbed Ellen. “Let’s go.”
In the middle of being pulled, Ellen stopped. “Thank you Jenny. Thank you very much.” With a rush she ran from the building with Johnny.
^^^^
Frank slipped his clean tee shirt over his head, smelling it as he did. He ran his hand over his wet hair that he had just washed in the water they brought him. And he paced some more.
“Frank.”
The call of his name sent shivers through him. It made his heart drop to his stomach. “El.” He spoke her name in such relief, spinning to a stop and racing to the door. “El.” He placed his hands on it. “I needed to hear your voice. Oh God, did I need to hear your voice.”
“I needed to hear yours, too. How are you Frank? How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine.”
“They won’t let me see you.” She placed her palms flush on the door. “I need so badly to see you.”
Frank shook his head, placing his cheek against the coldness of the steel. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“They’re voting tomorrow to oust me.”
“It won’t happen. It won’t. I’m gonna get the truth, Frank. I promise you.”
“But what if George finds a way to get rid of me anyhow?”
Ellen could hear the desperation in his voice. The fear. She knew he was scared and he had all night alone to think about it. “Frank . . .”
“I’ll die out there, El. I’ll die out there. Without you and my kids I’ll become nothing but one of those animals.”
“I won’t let that happen. I will work every second to get you out. Please know that.”
“I do.” He closed his eyes tightly.
“Just don’t give up on me. Don’t give up.”
Frank swallowed hard as he pressed his face firmer against the door. He couldn’t speak right then. He had to be quiet. He physically couldn’t speak. He stayed by that door trying to feel Ellen’s presence because that was all he could do.
^^^^
“They let me speak to Frank.”
Dean turned slowly around to Ellen’s soft voice that carried into the cryo-lab. “When?”
“Just now.” Ellen walked in further. “And he’s scared. He won’t admit it, but I can tell.”
“And he has every right. They want to take him from his home. And that is so wrong.”
“I have to ask your opinion. We need proof to stop this...” She moved to him. “Do you think the proof will be found before tomorrow night?”
Dean lowered his head. “Probably not.”
“Next question. Do you think they’ll oust him?”
“I think . . .” Dean raised his eyes. “I think the community will vote to let him stay. But . . . I think George is going to find a way to get rid of him.”
“O.K.” Ellen took a breath. “Now that you’ve reconfirmed what I’ve been thinking. I need to talk to you.” She lifted his hands into hers. “I need to ask a short term favor.”
“Yes.” Dean answered her, his hand trembling as he did.
“I didn’t ask you yet.” Ellen said.
“I know what you are asking. You want to leave with Frank. And yes, I will take the children if you do so. I’ll take care of them all.”
“It won’t be for long. And I can’t let him go alone, Dean. I can’t. He needs to know we believe in him
and he’s not alone in the world.”
“El.” Dean raised her hands to his mouth and kissed them. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I understand.”
“I don’t get it.” Ellen tilted her head. “How did you know I was going to . . .”
“I know you. And if it were you faced with getting ousted, I would do the same thing. And so would Frank.”
“Am I being a terrible mother for doing this?”
“No.” He shook his head. “You’re not giving them up for Frank. You’re just making sure when he comes back to them, he’s the same man that left.” Dean released her hands. “But . . . we won’t have to worry about it. I have a gut feeling El that we’re breaking it soon. Real soon.”
Ellen smiled. “I feel that, too.” She walked over to the computer Dean already had turned on. “Thanks again, Dean.”
Dean smiled and went back to his work. He couldn’t tell Ellen, but he hated the thought that she wanted to leave. But he stood behind her reasons for doing so. He himself even thought of going with Frank on the same premises that the proof wouldn’t be far behind. But Dean knew he couldn’t do that. He wasn’t the one Frank needed to make living beyond the walls of Beginnings tolerable. There was only one person who could--Ellen.
^^^^
The loneliness of the night, the silence of holding, was far worse than the night before. Frank sat on the sheetless bed, rubbing his arms to warm up. The heels of his boots dug into the mattress as he sat there. He didn’t want to sleep though he had caught himself dozing off. He wanted to be awake every last second that he was in Beginnings.
There was so much on his mind. His father, how was his. And Josh. Was Josh better? Surely if he wasn’t, someone would let him know. He thought of his family, the family that had grown so big since they got to Beginnings. A part of him felt they were fine. How much he would just miss them all if he had to leave. Frank’s eyes rose as he rested his chin on his arms. The lock on the door had turned. The door slowly opened.
George walked in followed by John Matoose and Greg. “Frank.” George looked sternly at him.
“What’s going on?” Frank shifted his eyes about as Greg and John Matoose grabbed hold of both of his arms and took him from the bed. “What’s going on!”
George stood toe to toe with him. “We moved the vote up. It was cast tonight. You’ve been ousted.”
“No!” Frank felt himself being pulled. “Let me say good bye to my kids, to my wife.”
“No.” George stormed up to him. “You are out of here now. Right now! Get him out of here.”
“No!” Frank struggled but couldn’t struggle enough. They nearly carried him from holding. “No, John, Greg. I’ll go. Just let me say goodbye to my family. Let me see my kids and wife one more time. I have to see them.” He tried with desperation to reason with them. But before he knew it, the back gate was opened and Frank was on the other side looking in. “No!” He cried out stepping to the fence. “El! Ellen!”
Frank’s head sprang up from his arm where he had fallen asleep. He rubbed his eyes and stood from the bed. His heart pounding. It was all a dream. A bad dream. Or was it? Maybe it was a premonition of a reality not that far away.
^^^^
“Enough.” Dean snatched the dictionary from Ellen’s hand as she sat before the computer in the cryo-lab.
“Dean.” She typed in another wrong word. “Give it back.”
“Nope.” He turned her to face him. “It’s three in the morning. Time to come home and get some sleep.”
“I can’t.” Ellen tried to return to the computer. “In sixteen hours they vote to oust Frank. I have to do this.”
“Then do it first thing in the morning.” Dean ran his hand through his messy hair. “Johnny came and got me and said he couldn’t get you to leave.”
“And neither will you. I’m staying here until I break this thing.”
“El.” Dean fought with her as she reached for the dictionary. “Look. Let’s go home. We’ll get up early, take the kids to the nursery, and be down here by seven. You need to sleep. If you don’t sleep you won’t do this right. And I will stay with you down here the whole time.”
“You don’t have to.”
“No I don’t. But I want to. O.K.?” He tilted his head in a pleading way. “Please?”
“All right. One second.” She tried one more word and the computer shut down. She placed her book mark in the dictionary and underlined her last word with the date. She set it down next to the computer. “Done.”
“Good. Tomorrow is another day.” Dean told her as he waited for her to stand. “Tomorrow is our day.” Letting her lead the way out first, Dean shut out the lights and followed her down the tunnel.
George watched. He had been waiting for a while, really thinking Ellen would hit it. He waited until they were completely far from the lab, then he went in and turned on the light. “Sorry Ellen, the suspense is killing me.” He walked over to the computer and picked up the dictionary. “Now how close are you to the word ‘murder’?” He flipped open to her mark and gazed his eyes down to her date. George smiled. “Very good, very good.” He closed the book setting it right where she laid it. Satisfied and knowing it wouldn’t be long, George left the cryo-lab. Yes Ellen was close. The last word she typed in was mundane.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
It was surprising to Ellen, so surprising that it took away her concentration from her password hunt. Dean was slamming the rabbit cage, not once but six or seven times and following that through with swearing. Swearing? She flinched in her stool when she heard the crashing sound of breaking glass. “Dean?”
“Sorry.” He began to put things back.
“What’s going on?” She slid off her stool and walked over to him. “I’m the one supposed to be frustrated here.”
“I’m sorry.” He reached for a cloth and began to wipe up the clear substance he spilled on the counter. “I thought I had it. This would have just been so easy if it just would have . . .”
“Dean?”
“Nothing Ellen. I just thought that if I could pull Joe through this then he could get Frank out of this mess. George would be history and that password search obsolete.”
“You were coming up with a wonder cure for stroke patients?”
Dean just tilted his head to her.
Ellen saw the look on his face “My father didn’t have a stroke did he? The lifeless bunnies. Your obsession with them. How long have you known?”
“A while.”
“That’s why the vial information is so important. George gave my father something in those vials.”
Knowing that it meant his head, Dean answered her anyway. “Yes.”
“You know . . .” Ellen backed up. “I should be really pissed at you right now. Really pissed for not telling me. But I’m going to save it. You work on what you were doing and I’ll work on the password.” She went back to the computer and grabbed the dictionary. “Back to work. Murals.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, just the word I’m on.” Her fingers clicked fast. “Shit.” As soon as her eyes peered upon the word, something stirred in Ellen. The book dropped from her hands and she closed her eyes. Her hands immediately folded before her face.
“What’s wrong?” Dean noticed her from across the room.
“I’m praying.” Ellen’s mouth moved and her eyes stayed closed.
What an odd sight, Dean thought as he watched her finish, open her eyes, and look at him. “Done?”
Ellen smiled at him. “I’m going to do this. And I’m going to do this right now.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s perfect. The next word.”
“You’ve said that before.” Dean commented.
“I’ve never felt so strongly about it before.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“Have you ever seen me stop to pray?”
“No, that was a first.”
“I’m go
ing to do this.” Ellen sat up straight and hesitantly began to type, speaking the letters out as she did. “M--u--r--d--e--r . . . enter.” Her eyes lit up. “Yes, it opened one.”
“Oh, it did not, you don’t even sound excited.”
“Dean, yeah it . . .” The loudest scream Ellen ever made, came from her mouth and she jumped up from the stool, squealing her voice with excitement. “Dean! Dean! It’s the vial information.”
Her sound, her face, she found it. “Print it up.”
“Thank you, God.” She hit the print button and raised her eyes to watch Dean excitedly run to the computer. “We did it, Dean. We have, one, two, three, four . . . shit, pages and pages of it. Complete break downs, what they are. Oh, this is so . . .Yes!”
“What?” Dean stood by the printer. Fingers tapping waiting for the slow printer.
“Page six. Population control conference proposal by Senator George Hadly. And it . . . Dean, this must be very important, I think this file is going to disappear.”
“Why would you say that?” Dean asked, the fourth page beginning to print.
“There’s two little timers on here. One says, two hours forty-two minutes. The other says . . .”
Dean quickly made it to the computer. “One minute three . . .” His eyes saw both timers and the name on the box that headed them. “Guardian Fulmination Program . . . oh shit, Ellen! It’s gonna blow up!”
“Oh, quit being so melodramatic.”
Forty-five seconds
“Ellen!” He grabbed her and began to drag her out. “Fulmination, explosion, same difference, get the hell out.”
“You’re serious?”
Thirty seconds
“Leave.” Dean ran to the printer.
“No.” She followed him. “You’re waiting for this, I’m waiting, too.”
“Ellen, please.”
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 152