ME2 (S.E.E.D.S. Book 1)

by J Peregrine

  “Are you gonna sit up there all day? Cause I’m hungry,” he said, and rubbed his nose.

  “What do you propose we do?” I wondered.

  “What do you mean?” he said, as cocked his head and looked at me funny.

  “I mean, what do you usually do?”

  “Well,” he said, picking his nose again, “I guess you should come with me and I’ll turn you in.”

  “Who would you turn me in to?”

  He looked all annoyed with me now.

  “Mr. Mo, ain’t you ever been caught before?”

  I jumped down. “Nope, you’re the first. Can we go now?”

  “Finally. I didn’t think you was ever gonna come down,” he said, as he stood up and grabbed my wrist. “Come on, we gotta hurry. You got any food on you?” He looked me up and down for a minute.

  I paused and looked down at myself. "Ah, no, sorry," I said, as I gestured with open hands. "I don't have anything."

  He seemed to take me at my word and turned around moving toward the alley he had come in by. “Come on, maybe we’ll still be in time for food.”

  My captor seemed to be young and somewhat inexperienced at this, at least not too jaded by the world yet so I was hopeful I might be able to get some information out of him before we got to Mo. “So, how many have you caught before?”

  “You’re my first one,” he said, wiping his nose again. “I might even get promoted on account of me catchin’ you, and you bein’ good looking an all.”

  I smiled at this. “Really? No one’s ever called me good looking before.”

  He peered up at me. “Well you ain’t been around much have you? Cause you’re not even missin’ any teeth or anything.”

  I nodded and smiled again. “I guess you’re right.”

  The farther we walked, the chattier he turned out to be. I became privy to all the gossip a ten-year-old possessed. Teagan had just been promoted into his little group because he was fast, he said. This group was the taggers, and they were responsible for marking loners, not necessarily catching them. This was why he was hopeful of being promoted, cause if he was promoted, he would get more to eat. It became clear that food was key, especially to Teagan. That was fine by me, this way we both got what we wanted. He would hopefully get promoted or at least a bonus, and I would get to Mo.

  “So, Teagan, have you met Mr. Mo?”

  “Well sure, lots of times, he's in charge, ain't he? I brought him things before.” He looked up at me as we walked, “Small things, you know,” he said, and turned a corner with me in tow.

  “Like fruit and things? I used to do that for my grandfather,” I said, feeling a bit chummy.

  He gave me and look and then said, “No, like rats. I even caught him a rabbit. But then I got promoted.” He yawned.

  "Do you like Mr. Mo?" I asked, trying to seem casual and uninterested so I wouldn't scare him off from answering my questions.

  He turned an odd face towards me, it was squished and confused looking. "You really aint been around much, huh?" He shook his head and slowed his pace.

  Suddenly I could hear a commotion up ahead. Teagan stopped and looked around, “Quick, in here,” he said, as he pulled me after him into a hole in a wall. It was barely big enough for me to squeeze through the opening, but I managed. We crouched inside what might have been roomy if you were a mouse.

  The voices outside were complaining. “Don’t know why we gotta look for his lame ass.”

  We couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation. But it sounded like they might be looking for Teagan.

  As soon as their voices receded into the distance Teagan leaned sideways to stick his head out of our hiding place and have a look around. “Coast is clear,” he said. “We got to hurry now, come on.”

  “Were they looking for you?” I asked.

  “Yep, but I ain’t gonna let them steal you from me.”

  “Oh, I see.” I followed him again, impressed by his deception. This time we ran, stopping quietly to peer around each corner. Finally, he slowed, pausing every few steps to listen to the night. When we came to the end of the concrete path we had been following, he put a finger to his lips and moved off the concrete and started tiptoeing across a patch of dirt towards a building that wasn't visible before and was actually intact.

  “Who’s that?” came a shout.

  I looked towards the voice and saw a bundle of clothes that appeared to be housing an old man sitting next to a fire bin.

  Teagan was not deterred. In a girly voice he said, “It’s Missy, Mr. Marshall, I’m just going to go pee.” but he didn’t slow down a bit.

  “Hold up there,” yelled Mr. Marshall’s gruff voice. "Who is that?"

  I didn’t hear what else Mr. Marshall might have said, since Teagan quickly pulled open the heavy steel door at the corner of the building and pulled me inside.

  Chapter 32

  Inside it was cold and devoid of anything but a table where a boy sat, knife in one hand and a piece of wood in the other. Carving something I thought.

  “I got somethin’ for Mr. Mo,” Teagan said, now holding my wrist again.

  The boy gave Teagan a confused look. Then he saw me, and his attitude changed. He didn’t say a thing, but he looked me up and down and whistled. He stood up and opened the gate and Teagan hurried through, past the boy and down the hallway dragging me behind him.

  The hallway was dimly lit and silent, so our steps echoed as we walked. When we got to the end, I realized this door had no handle, instead, there was a box with numbers and letters displayed on its surface.

  “Not everybody knows the code,” Teagan said.

  9Y956X, I noted just in case.

  Once he entered the code we waited.

  “Who is it?” said a voice.

  “It’s Teagan, Mr. Mo,” said Teagan, “Wait till you see what I got for ya.”

  “Teagan,” said the voice, “weren’t you moved to taggers?”

  “Yes, sir,” said Teagan, “I was tagging, sir...”

  “What are you doing here? Get back out there and tag we got a runner on the loose and we need...”

  “But sir, I got me a girl.”

  “A what?”

  “A girl.” Teagan seemed to be sweating bullets from Mo’s anger but was trying to hold his own. I was impressed with his tenacity.

  There was silence, then the door clicked.

  Teagan pushed the door, groaning under its weight. As he did, the air inside the room whooshed out. It was cold and smelled of chemicals and something I couldn’t describe. As we stepped inside, I saw the stark white walls first. Then I saw the man sitting across the room.

  As the door shut, he rolled forward. He operated the wheelchair with controls on the arm. “Teagan you little bastard, what have you been up to?” He pulled what looked like a soggy cigar out of his mouth, smiling.

  Teagan stopped short and turned white as a sheet. “I been working hard, sir, all day.”

  “Of course you have, you little prick.” The man gave the boy a leering grin.

  He had huge ‘Coke bottle’ thick glasses which I had never seen in person. I had seen glasses like this on a character in a horror film I’d watched once.

  Reaching us, he rubbed the boy’s head and then knocked his cheek with his fist. “You didn’t spoil the merchandise, did you, lad? Ha!” He had a rude smile that made me instantly uncomfortable.

  “I don’t know,” said Teagan who looked most unhappy with how things were working out. “I don’t think so.” He studied me, looking unsure as to how he could have spoiled me.

  “I mean did you fuck her!” the man shouted at the boy and slapped his hand into the poor boy's crotch.

  Teagan jerked backward, doubling forward and grabbing his privates, his face glowing white and then red as he started to cry.

  “Stop that!” the man shouted.

  “I didn’t do nothin’, Mr. Mo. I just brought her to ya, that’s all,” he said, as he drooled on the floor.

  “
Watcher!” Mo yelled at the door.

  “Teagan didn’t do anything wrong.” I finally cut in hoping to save the child from any further repercussions.

  “Who asked you!” the man thundered. He moved toward a box on the table almost mowing Teagan down.

  “No one needs to give me permission to speak,” I said, “I will speak if I see fit.” My blood rose and I could feel the heat hit my neck. How could this be my father?

  “Watcher!” he had jabbed a button on a box attached to his chair.

  “The boy did nothing but bring me here and I am here because Josef asked me to come, so let him alone.”

  Mo, if indeed it was Mo, was visibly taken aback by this. He almost bucked in his chair as if I had struck him with. Then he spun his chair around to look at me more closely. “The hell," he said, his voice wavering. "Who are you?” He asked this in a hoarse whisper, and as he studied my face, unsure. Realization seemed to come over him.

  I looked at him, unwilling now that he had decided to play the villain to give him anything. “You know who I am,” I said, just as quietly.

  “Elzbeth?” he said.

  “And you are Mo.” I was pretty certain that this was the Mo I was looking for, but it was not the Mo I wanted to see, and I wished I was wrong.

  A smile spread across his face, also not the smile I was looking for but instead a smile that said, he had just won some kind of prize, it made my stomach juices turn to bile and rise in my throat till I forced them back down.

  “Sir,” came a voice at the door.

  “What!” Mo shouted, visibly annoyed at the interruption.

  “You called me, sir,” the boy from the front had opened the big, metal door and peered in.

  “Never mind. Get out!” Mo waved him away.

  Teagan, seeing his chance for escape, got up and scurried out the door behind him before it clicked shut.

  I waited for silence then I said quietly, “Josef is dead,” and watched his face for any signs.

  Chapter 33

  “Josef.” He paused as if considering something. “Hmm...” He turned his chair back around. “Dead you say, too bad. But you're not, the bastard.” He wheeled to the desk along the wall. Opening a drawer, he took out what I imagined was a key. Then he turned back to me. There were pipes lining the wall next to him and attached to the pipes were large dials. He tapped the dials in front of him. “It’s incredible, don’t you think,” he said, almost being drowned out by a din of pounding that had erupted from above, “how much effort it takes to make such a little bit of electricity.”

  "What?" I asked. I had no idea why we were suddenly talking about electricity. The noise reverberating around the room was now so loud I finally looked up and realized it was coming from one of the boys who had been chasing me. He was pounding down the metal stairs. As I watched him, I realized the stairs must have started at the roof and wound back and forth at the back corner of the room, and it was making it hard to think. “What does that have to do with Josef dying?” I asked.

  “Why are you here?” he said, not even registering my question. "He told us you were dead."

  I didn't know what to say to that, I was taken aback. “He told me to come find you.” I was finding this interview not at all what I expected, and I didn't like it.

  He looked at me. “Did he tell you why he wanted you to come here? Did he ask you to deliver something?” he said.

  I paused. I was here only to deliver the notebook. That’s what I had told myself. Because, like Jake had said, why would I want to see a man, even if he was my father, who had left me when I was still a baby and never come back? But I knew why, I wanted that connection, I had craved that connection. “Josef was dying,” I said, “And... I don’t know why, but he told me to come find you.” I was confused and annoyed and I was not about to give up the notebook until I got answers.

  “Well then I guess he never found the fountain of youth, did he?” He gave me a challenging look.

  “Even the fountain of youth would not have helped him survive a rocket blast.” I gave him back a disparaging look, he merely stared back at me. This was not the version of Mo I had envisioned for all these years. In fact, I didn’t realize I had a version in mind until I’d seen him, but this was not it.

  “Shall we have tea then?” he said, as if he had not even heard my comment. He had moved to a counter filled with lab equipment similar to what grandfather had had and turned up the flame under a small pot. The pot came to life instantly as it whistled, and steam rolled out the spout.

  While he was searching through a cupboard, the bottom of the metal stairs shook as if they were unattached and the boy coming down them finally got to the bottom. He tripped down the last of the steps and landed on his hands and knees. After he scrambled to his feet, he pushed his mop of yellow hair off his face and headed right for me.

  The man looked up at the newcomer and then back to his task. “Thomas, what are you doing in here?” Reaching into the cupboard, he drew out two cups and turned back to the steaming pot. The boy had stopped, and Mo looked at him again. The boy stood there like he didn’t know what to do. Mo shouted at him, “I’m sure I can handle her, Thomas. Get out!”

  I jumped as he shouted, and the boy appeared to deflate. He stood there giving the man a look that was somewhere between hurt and anger with not a little bit of terror. I watched him turn and rush out the door. Even after everything Jake had said, I had still wanted to give him a chance, to find out who he really was. Maybe he pretended to be a monster as a way to protect himself?

  Now that is was quiet, I tried to gather my thoughts. The lab looked nothing like Grandfather’s lab. This one was larger, colder, sterile, and unfamiliar. At the far end of the long counter, I saw a machine that looked like it was doing a repetitive task. Then I realized it was not just a machine but a robot. I assumed it must be attending to some kind of experiment.

  Mo smiled. “You like Herman?” he said. “He is a superb replica of a twenty-second century robot without the complications of ‘Smart’ technology.” He grinned. “We don’t want them taking over the world, do we?” He laughed. “Better to keep them subservient like the rest of the masses.”

  My stomach clenched again, and I reminded myself that I had always promised myself I would find him. I wanted a family, and friends like the people in the books and movies I had watched had always had. I had also wanted to find him for Grandfather's sake, but now that I was standing here, I wished I was anywhere else.

  Mo looked up from his task. He had added a dry, green powder to the pot and now he had a tin from beneath the table. His coke-bottle glasses had slipped down to the end of his nose. “I'm surprised he sent you, he always became so attached. More the idea than the flesh I think.” He stirred the tea into the cups.

  I was confused. “What do you mean?”

  “Josef always became so attached, first to Elizabeth, then after she left, there was only you...”

  “Elizabeth?” I said, trying to follow what he was saying. "You mean my mother."

  “He thought he was in love with her.” Mo laughed.

  "What?"

  He disregarded me entirely. "We were all in love with her you see. She was a shining light before she succumbed to the bastard and his ploys, and then well.... She was not cut out for a rough life. Escape from the turmoil and the dross, that's what we all want, of course, but you don’t get that unless you are part of the elite.” He sighed. “Andre, however, Andre has the connections and the power to influence, always has. But I’ve got him by the hairy balls, now don’t I?” He smiled up at me. “Tea?” he said, and pushed the cup and the tin of biscuits towards me. Then he pointed to the stool at the end of the counter and took a kind of pipe from his pocket.

  I didn’t move. I was even more confused now than when I had arrived. “Elizabeth was my mother?”

  “Ha, ha.” He laughed. “Elizabeth? She wasn’t capable of being a mother, a goddess, yes, a mother, no.” He laughed again. “She m
ay have birthed you but that was only because we needed an incubator, I mean it could have been anyone."

  Adrenalin pulsed through me again as I became incensed. “What are you saying? You're mad or you are the most insensitive person I have ever met,” I said, shaking my head. “She was his daughter, he may have loved her, but he was not in love with her. After she died and you left, we only had each other, and he missed her. He was the only person I ever had and now he’s dead, too. The only reason he sent me and I came is that you are the last bit of family I have left and he wanted me to find you.” I stepped back from the counter shaking with anger and wishing Jake was here after all.

  “Oh, this is rich!” he said, throwing his head back and laughing. “What kind of lies did that old man fill your head with?”

  I was in shock. How could this be my father? How could he be so insensitive and vile? I didn't know what to do or say.

  He rolled back to the counter again, attending to his pipe. “Who do you think I am exactly? Your father, I suppose.” He wiped his eyes again and shook his head as he finished tapping his pipe and smiled his sickly smile at me again. “Joseph was a sentimental old fool.” He sighed and lit his pipe then took a long drag from it and as he exhaled, the smoke enveloped him. “I created you. That makes me your god, not your father!”

  Chapter 34

  My stomach seized and my ears filled with ocean swells. I was going to be sick. I clenched my fingers into my palms and tried to swallow. Mo was crazy.

  “...everything we did was for her.” He was still talking but paused now and puffed on his pipe watching me. “I suppose you’d like to see her?” he said.

  I jerked like I'd been hit in the throat but now wholly unsure of what I had heard. “What?” I said, when I found my voice. My skin broke out in a prickly, cold sweat.

  “Your so-called mother, you came to see a parent, I suppose she will do?”