by Gini Koch
Christopher had identified the Gower girls’ talents a couple of months before our wedding, which was when Jeff and I had been advised. The C.I.A. had been running tests on the three of them, in conjunction with Centaurion, for months now. The tests on Serene stopped the moment she got pregnant, because Jeff insisted upon it. But Naomi and Abigail had continued on, to the point where they were at C.I.A. headquarters more often than any other A-C personnel.
However, the biggest mystery was that all three women had been helped to deal with their powers—helped by an unknown source they thought was a man, but couldn’t confirm. A man they’d never met but only heard in their heads. They’d been taught by this person when they were little, so their powers were kept hidden until we’d stumbled upon Serene during one of our more fun and frolicsome adventures, by which I mean most of us almost died a lot of times. In between food cravings and hormonal stress, I’d actually given this conundrum some thought. Thoughts it looked like it was time to confirm or deny.
“Paul, could I speak to ACE please?”
Gower sighed. “If you must.” He twitched. “Yes, Kitty, ACE is here.” Gower’s voice was still his voice, just a little different—a bit stilted and unsure—which always signified ACE having control of their now-shared mind.
“What’s going on?”
“Many things, Kitty.” ACE sounded as evasive as White had. Great.
“ACE, first off, let me ask something no one has yet. Were you the one helping Naomi, Abigail, and Serene to handle their mutated powers?”
Dead silence. Everyone looked at me.
“ACE? Really, no one would be upset by that. You helped them stay sane and not hurt themselves or others. Just wondering why you did that, when you’d only been paying attention to those in space, from what I’d understood when we first, uh, met.”
“Their powers were vast, they reached us from the Earth. And they were so young and terrified . . . ACE had to help.” His voice sounded filled with dread and remorse.
“ACE, you didn’t hurt them. You helped them. Why are you feeling so guilty?”
“Others do not like ACE to help.”
“Who? Anyone in this room?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t care what they think.” Another thought occurred. “ACE . . . are there sentient nets, like you were, up in places other than around Earth and in the Alpha Centauri system?”
“Yes, Kitty. Around other star systems with intelligent life. They are not A-C made, but . . . we can speak. Occasionally. They . . . do not like what ACE has done.”
“You mean help your penguins instead of hurt them?”
Reader coughed. “Girlfriend, really, the penguin analogy was confusing enough when you first put it out there. Don’t stress ACE out, please. Paul’s hell to deal with when you do.”
“ACE understands Kitty’s penguins. Kitty is right. The others do not . . . love . . . their penguins as ACE does.”
“See? ACE understands me.”
“At least someone does,” Mom muttered.
“So, ACE, you’re the one who helped the Gower girls and Serene?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, thank God, and more on that later. Thanks, ACE, love you as always, carry on, give us Paul back, do not berate yourself, we adore you and all you do for us, and so forth.”
Paul twitched. “God, the palsy stops when? ACE is relieved you’re not upset with him, Kitty. Couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks, just for the record.”
“ACE is the best, Paul, just like you. Now, Richard, since ACE doesn’t lie, and that means whoever contacted you was lying, it stands to reason that you need to stop protecting them and tell us what the hell’s going on. Before Jamie’s next feeding, please.”
White sighed. “Understood, and agreed. I got a call from someone who said he’d been helping them and wanted to speak to me about their futures.”
“Who?”
“He identified himself as Herbert Gaultier.”
Mom, Chuckie, and I all looked at Amy. She shook her head. “My dad’s in New York right now, not Paris.” Mom pulled out her phone and made a call.
“Did you meet with this man?” Chuckie’s eyes were narrowed.
“Yes, well, I thought I was.”
“Describe him.” Chuckie’s voice was clipped, and I noted he was watching Amy.
“Shorter than me, small, dark hair, eyes, and skin. Not black, darker than Mister Hernandez, however.”
Chuckie relaxed. “Amy’s father’s my height, redheaded, and fair skinned.”
Amy glared at him. “You really think I, or my father, had something to do with . . . whatever this is?”
“Yeah. I think it’s awfully coincidental that you’re here and that your father’s name was used to attempt to kidnap the religious leader of a group of exiled aliens, the control of whom is the basis for at least half of the conspiracies active at any one time.”
Mom hung up. “Herbert Gaultier is in New York with his wife. I’ve assigned an operative team to guard them.”
“Thanks, Angela,” Amy said gratefully. She glared at Chuckie again. “See? She didn’t think my dad was involved.”
“Sure I did,” Mom said with a smile. “Just not after I confirmed his whereabouts and Richard confirmed the man he met with looked nothing like your father. Stop thinking this is simple, Amy. We’re dealing with the highest levels of terrorism, internal, international, and interplanetary diplomacy, and a variety of other issues. All of those issues are a lot bigger than you. Catch up fast, or get run over.”
“She was just chased by twenty thugs and got to discover the world’s not the way she thought it was,” Christopher snapped. “Give her a break.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “Kitty killed a superbeing and was dragged off to fight Mephistopheles in less time than Amy’s had to get with the program. I note that never at any time, Christopher, did you suggest cutting her any kind of a break.”
Wow, hadn’t even thought Mom had noticed that, in between her pushing me to notice that Christopher liked me. Felt all special for a couple of seconds.
“Kitty’s different.” Christopher had patented Glare #1 going. He never glared at my mother. Something was really off with him.
“Hey, I’m as smart and capable as Kitty.” Amy sounded really offended.
“Not saying you aren’t.” Christopher shot her Glare #2.
I nudged Jeff. He bent down. “I want full medical run on Christopher, right now. You and Paul are probably going to have to restrain him for it.”
Jeff nodded and made eye contact with Gower, who nodded back. They both moved at hyperspeed and grabbed Christopher. “What the hell are you two doing?” He was snarling.
“Tito, need you to rally the best med team and run a full scan on Christopher, ASAP.”
Tito didn’t argue, just pulled out his phone and started making calls.
“Kitty, what the hell are you talking about?” Christopher was shouting.
“Jeff? I want to see his arms.”
Jeff and Gower held Christopher’s arms out. Tim shoved his suit jacket up, unbuttoned his sleeves and shoved them up, too. My worst fears were confirmed.
Christopher’s arms were covered with needle tracks.
CHAPTER 20
“WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU been doing to yourself?” Jeff sounded angry and horrified.
“Son, why?” White sounded shocked.
I looked at Chuckie. He shook his head. “Not C.I.A. sanctioned, encouraged, or known about.”
Christopher’s teeth were clenched. “Let go of me and leave me alone.”
I looked right at him. “I know why you did it. It’s stupid, let me mention, and totally dangerous, but I understand it.” I looked around. “I want everyone out of the room but me, Richard, Jeff, Paul, and Christopher. Stay in the hall in case he makes a break for it, but otherwise, out.”
“Should I take the baby?” Reader asked me quietly.
I looked into Christopher’s
eyes. “Should he?”
“No.” Christopher shut his eyes. “I wouldn’t hurt her. Or you. Any of you.”
“I know, just yourself. Out, we’ll call you back in a couple of minutes. Tito, knock when the med team’s ready. Christopher’s going to need to go into isolation, like Jeff normally does.”
Mom took Jamie. “Just to be sure.” She and Reader left the room. They both looked as though they didn’t want to.
Chuckie left last. “You sure?” I nodded, and he went out, closing the door tightly behind him.
“Let him go.” Jeff didn’t look like he wanted to, but he did. Gower followed suit. I looked closely at Christopher. “You want them out, too?”
“Yeah.” He was close to breaking down.
“No.” Jeff and White said this in unison.
“Yes. Christopher’s not going to hurt me. Please, Jeff. It’s hard enough on him right now. You’ll be able to get to me if I need you.”
Gower put his hand on Christopher’s shoulder. “You know we’re here to help you, not hurt you.”
Christopher nodded. The others left the room. Gower had to drag Jeff out. I patted the bed. “Come sit down.”
He shook his head. “Not a good idea.”
“You’re not in love with me any more. Jeff knows it, I know it. Come here, Christopher.” He moved stiffly and sat down at the edge of the bed. I pulled him into my arms and put his head on my chest. “I told you I understood. You’re an idiot, but I can get why.”
“You don’t understand.”
I kissed his head. “Sure I do. You can’t fool the comics geek-girl. Happens in the comics all the time. Superhero sees others get more powerful than he is. There’s some ego involved, sure, but usually it’s motivated by wanting to stay strong, to be able to protect better. Jeff got enhanced in a scary way from that drug the Club Fifty-One people shoved into him. Serene did, too. Why not you, right?”
He started to cry. I knew there had to have been a reason for how crappy he looked. I’d sure hoped it wasn’t this one, though. I rocked him and kissed his head.
“Jeff has to focus on you and the baby now. He shouldn’t have had to go to Paris with me to deal with the superbeing mess or to get Amy. He shouldn’t have had to leave you, ever. I should be able to take care of business now.”
“Oh, honey. I know you did this out of love and to try to protect everyone. But it could kill you. It’s making you nastier than normal, too.”
He gave a half-laugh, half-sob. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“What about the tests they did on the girls started this with you?”
“I just . . . they’re the next stage, like you’ve always said. But they aren’t ready to take over what Jeff and I do. We need to be better, to take care of our people. Every day, there’s a new threat.”
“I know. It scares me, too.” I stroked his hair. “How’d you get the drug?”
“We have a supply, so we can identify it and counter it.”
“Did it work?”
“I’m stronger, more stamina. It’s easier to create a full-body image and hold it.”
“Nice. Needless, but nice. Not worth the risk, however.”
“I can see the people I care about, when they’re in trouble, if I’m thinking about them. Sometimes, anyway.”
“Okay, helpful, but still not worth it.”
“Worth it to me.”
“But not to anyone who loves you. You know, the easy way is just to find a girl and have babies.”
“Yeah, so I can watch her die in labor?” He was clutching me the way Jeff had.
“I came back.”
“Most girls aren’t you.”
“Maybe that means they’d do better. Paul’s mother had four, and she looks fabulous. Everyone’s different, honey.”
“Jeff won’t like you calling me honey.”
“He won’t mind.” I kissed his head again. “Here’s what he’s going to mind. That his cousin, his best friend, the person he’s always known loves him is slowly killing himself. Even when you hated him, he knew you loved him. Christopher, for so long, you were the only person he knew loved him. Don’t you know what that means to an empath, and to Jeff, in particular? How in the world do you think he’d manage if he lost you to something like this?”
“He has you and Jamie, now.”
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t need you any more. It just means there’s more of us who need you. But we need you, not some super-enhanced version of you. I know Jeff’s glad his powers were enhanced. But, Christopher, he’s been terrified for my entire pregnancy that because of the drug he was endangering me and the baby. We have no way of knowing. Maybe the drug is the reason why I, according to everyone, died and came back. Why would you risk that, risk putting yourself and the people you love, into that kind of danger by choice? Jeff didn’t take that drug willingly, neither did Serene. And they got it out of their systems as fast as they could. Serene and Brian are afraid, too, of what the drug might have done to her, might do to their baby. I ask again, why risk that willingly?”
“I’m never getting married, so it won’t matter.”
I sighed. It was really reminiscent of Operation Fugly, only this time it was Christopher who had his fatalism set to high.
“Oh, honey, sure you will. Maybe you’ll meet a nice girl in rehab.”
He managed a weak laugh. “Our rehab is isolation. Not a lot of girls in there.”
“You can’t make me believe that in all the world, the only two possible girls for you were Lissa and me.” He shifted uncomfortably, and I hugged him closer. “I love Jeff so much, as you know. But I think I could have managed to be happy with Chuckie. I’ll bet I could have managed to be happy with someone else, too. Maybe even you.”
“Uh, thanks. Not feeling better.”
“My point is that I had more than one or two options, and so do you.”
“Not seeing any.”
“Well, most nice girls do try to avoid getting attached to drug addicts.”
“I’m not an addict.”
“Yeah, right. Needle tracks say otherwise, honey.”
“Why honey, all of a sudden?”
“I’m a mother now. Comes with the territory.”
“You’re not my mother.”
“No, I’m not. But I know she wouldn’t want you doing this, more than me, even.”
“We have to protect you, you have a daughter now.” He sounded freaked and scared . . . and like a little boy.
Ah, there it was. “Christopher, you turning yourself into some scary super-A-C isn’t going to protect Jamie or me. You being you has been pretty effective all this time.”
“You save us a lot more than we save you.”
“Well, I am a modern feminist, after all.”
“Yeah.”
“And, it doesn’t matter who saves whom. It matters that we’re all trying to save each other. We’re not alone, like your mother was. We have each other. But Jeff and I won’t have you if you continue to do this to yourself. We want Christopher, not Scary Man, the raving Imageer Lunatic, who will terrify you with his bloodshot eyes.”
He managed a laugh. “I suppose.”
I held him and rocked him and spent some time hating their family. Not White or Jeff’s parents, but their parents and grandparents and all the ones who’d exiled an entire race here because they believed in a different version of God. The ones who’d turned little boys into men at ten years of age. The ones who’d cared more about power than love. The ones who had helped to shove Christopher into a mind-set where he could convince himself that what he’d done was a good course of action. Sure, he’d made the decision on his own, but it was easy to connect the dots to what his motivations were and who’d caused them.
“My father’s never going to forgive me.” He was crying again, quietly. “Jeff won’t, either. He won’t understand.”
The door opened and Jeff came in. He didn’t say anything, just came to the bed and pulled Christopher into hi
s arms and held him. Like me, he kissed Christopher’s head and stroked his hair.
“Medical’s here,” he said softly to me after a few minutes.
“He needs to be with you a little more first.” Christopher’s shoulders were shaking, and I knew he was crying again.
“He blocked me.” Jeff sounded worried. “I didn’t get anything from him like this, until you exposed him.” He was still holding Christopher tightly. “Because if I had, I would have kicked his butt.”
“I’m sorry. Jeff, I’m so sorry.” Christopher sounded close to hysterical. It had to be the room.
“Yeah, well, we all make stupid mistakes.” Jeff rocked him some more. He was holding him so tightly I was surprised Christopher could breathe. “Remember when I drank the vodka? In a while, I’ll get to tease you about being an idiot, too. But before then, you’re going to get cleaned up, and you’re never shooting that poison into yourself again.”
Christopher nodded and pulled away from Jeff. “I’ll understand if you don’t want me to be Jamie’s godfather after this.”
“Are you high? I mean, yes, you are, but I’m asking more in the sense of saying you’re really an idiot.”
“What Kitty’s so eloquently saying is that we both love you and will be hurt and insulted if you decide that your addiction is more important than being our daughter’s godfather.”
“We really need to get Christopher a girl.”
They both managed to laugh at that, though Christopher’s was still shaky. “Let’s clean him up first, baby.”
“Oh, I agree. So, Christopher, you still supposedly like’em stupid?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what I like anymore.”
White came in before I could ask a couple of pertinent dating questions. Oh, well, probably more important, that father-son reconciliation thing.
White shook his head as he came to us and Christopher cringed. “Son, I’m so sorry.”