“My brother Scythe,” Smoke said, stepping forward, with Rend at his back, pulling off his mask.
“Good work, Mismatch,” Rend commented, nodding at the bodies. His brows twitched, like his lip, at the sight of one of the dead men in the hall.
“She’s here, Rend. Serena’s alive.” Scythe held up his hand when they immediately started moving towards him, adding, “Wait. I’ll send them all out.”
He turned, finding the energy to move quickly down the hall, back to the clinic, picking up his weapon on the way. He didn’t acknowledge the wide stares he got when he pushed open the doors, but instead his eyes found Serena before he addressed them.
“The Blades have come for you, and the Humans with them are here to help us as well.”
He turned to Flame, who was now holding a little girl in her arms. “You can move everyone out, now.”
He strode to the nurses’ station, saying, “Let’s go, Ben.” Ben stood and took one more look at his son. The baby’s mother said, “What are you going to do, Scythe?”
“Have you made up your mind?”
“I don’t want my baby’s father murdered.”
“Then, he won’t be, at least not today.”
“Thank you.” She said to the guard in Human, “Good bye, Ben.” Then she turned on her heel and headed out the door, helping to push one bed with a free hand.
“Good bye, Enera,” said Ben before walking carefully beside Scythe to the nursery.
“I want you to download the files we’ll need onto this datapad. Will you do that?” Scythe asked the head nurse.
Horrified by the additional blood all over him, she quickly replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
Scythe untied her. Squirming away from him as soon as possible, she got up off the bed and walked out the door and to her station. She held her hand out for the pad, took it and began transferring information.
She commented, “There is further data in the lab, but I don’t have access to that.”
Scythe examined her, alerted to the easy way she was giving him what he wanted. “Why are you not worried about giving this to me?”
“At this point, the information will make little difference to the greater picture. The virus will be released immediately, probably by tomorrow, in Poinsea. It’s already there, waiting. There is no way anyone could make enough of the antidote in time to save even half of the victims. It just moves that fast and it takes time to make the vaccination. Here you go. Then, if it goes as planned, the virus will be mass produced for larger distribution.” She handed it to him, and headed back to the nursery. “I’ll just wait in here until help comes.”
Scythe and Ben walked down the hall and checked each room one more time. He grabbed a box of antibacterial cloths from a table and began wiping himself up the best he could.
“She’s gonna hand you over to whoever shows up, you know that, right?”
Ben answered, unconcerned, “You think so?”
“Yep, and she’ll have that same blank look when she does it.”
“Maybe you should kill her.”
“I probably should, but I don’t feel like it right now.”
“You could have your people do it.”
“My people?”
“The ones that just showed up.”
Scythe thought about that for a minute, until he reached the room where he had captured Ben.
Ben grinned, “Ah, our room. Remember when we met? You made me pee my pants. That was rude.”
“And you raped one of my sisters, repeatedly, I bet.” He turned and confronted him, the way he had been wanting to since he found out. Scythe was amazed by how quickly he could go from medium to boiling.
Ben shuddered at the blatant question and the fierce tone, but didn’t refute the words. He nodded. “I did.”
“How could you do that?”
“I...I could have said no. Maybe I should have, I don’t know. At the time, I saw how the other women were taken, aggressively, violently, and I saw Enera. She was the youngest by far; I just didn’t want that for her, so I asked for her and tried to be as gentle as I could. It was wrong, but...it was me or them.”
“I should kill you, right now.”
“You should. With my son gone, I don’t really care much what you do.”
Scythe took a breath, then let it out, “I’m going to work you over a bit, so they won’t question why you’re alive.”
No! his inner self argued. It wanted Ben's blood, but strangely, the rest of Scythe didn’t want to give it to him.
“Fair enough. Mind if I don’t thank you?” He sat on the ground and waited.
“Border guard?” The border guard was the term for mercenaries who worked for hire for people in the bordertowns. Because of the nature of much of their work, the ‘guard’ part of their name didn’t always accurately describe them.
“If I can, yes.”
“Okay, see you around, Ben the rapist.” Scythe kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious. Then he proceeded to beat him and kick him until his body was broken, bloody and bruised. He stepped out of the room and headed back to the nursery, hearing footsteps approaching from outside the clinic. He smelled Ian, Lena and Resner before he saw them, arriving at the nurses’ station at the same time they did.
“I hope you are vaccinated,” he said, taking in Ian’s furious mood, no doubt related to his being a family man.
Lena said, “Everyone in the city is. We thought, like everyone else, that it was the epidemic that was advertised, some type of bird flu. You okay, zooboy?”
She had raised her arm to wipe at his face with the sleeve of her shirt, but stopped cold when Scythe frowned angrily at her, “No.”
She squeezed her eyes shut before stepping forward and embracing him.
“Shit, Scythe, I’m sorry. That was a stupid question. I’m sorry we took so long. We couldn’t find you anywhere. We even came through this town and didn’t find this place, it was so well disguised.”
Scythe, stiff in her arms, finally found that he could pull the cold around himself. He wrapped himself in layer upon layer until he could say emotionlessly, “It doesn’t matter now. Should we take someone who can help with treatments? I have several nurses here...or maybe a doctor?”
“We’ve got the head doctor, Dr. Twilling, and your doctor. I think that’s enough.”
“Okay.” He backed away from her and strode to the nursery. “Wait here.”
When the door closed behind him, he pulled his gun and methodically shot each nurse, a clean shot to the heart or head. He didn’t even flinch at the increasingly desperate pleas for mercy or the outright sobbing. Then, he left the room without looking back.
He returned Lena and Ian’s outraged stares with the same unconcerned look that Resner wore, except the Kin’s apathy was tarnished with a bit of righteousness.
“I need to be kept away from people for a while, Lena. I’ve been infected with something nasty and it might be contagious.”
Lena pursed her lips and made an effort to control her temper. Finally she said, “We figured it was something like that. We have a separate car for you. Give me your gun and let’s go. We are way late.” She held out her hand.
“No,” he said blankly and headed toward the door. “Did you get all the data from the lab?” he asked as they walked down the hall; he didn't spare a glance for the fallen men.
“Yes, we grabbed the hardware.”
“Here’s what I have,” he said, handing over the data pad. “I know my specific files are on there. Sorry about the blood.”
Ian took it and slipped it into his pack.
He followed them as they made their way out of the facility, pausing once when they passed a dead soldier. Scythe leaned over and unstrapped the black helmet before pulling it off the corpse. He was surprised at how light it was, considering its size. His thumb passed over the angular ridges that formed tiny lines all over the face and over the sharp, pronounced bands that surrounded the eyes and trac
ed the edges of the mask. Thick, reflective glass covered the large oval viewing holes. Turning it over in his hands, he found ample space available inside for variations in bone structure, such as higher, wider cheekbones. A small air circulating unit was attached to the side to provide temporary cooling. He located the tiny microphone and headphones, along with the data interface which was displayed on the backs of the eyepieces. He leaned close, picking out depth and temperature meters, several other lists of numbers and words he didn't recognize, and a small area for messages to scroll down. Thumbing the dial on the side of the mask, he read the last ones that were transmitted:
--Mike, I need you and your team at the lab, stat.
--Forget that, the lab is taken, falling back to admin.
--Unit two holding the hall to the hospital.
--7 inc NE
The last line was red and was still flashing.
“You are not putting that on,” said Lena, misinterpreting his inspection of the helmet.
“No,” answered Scythe quietly.
“And I want that uniform off you as soon as possible...”
“Lena, back off,” Ian snapped, uncharacteristically sharp with his sister.
Gritting her teeth, she made a low, frustrated noise, but didn’t speak.
They left the building and climbed into a car that was the last in line behind four trucks. Ian and Resner sat on both sides of him while Lena took the wheel.
Scythe leaned back, slouching in his seat. The mask slipped off his fingers and rolled down onto the floor. His body was completely wiped out. Even his cool was thawing; the effort of holding it close proved to be too much for him. Somewhere along the line he had started shaking inside, and it was starting to work its way out. Feeling very young, he asked, “Ian, are we safe?”
“Yes, Scythe, you’re safe for now. Go ahead and rest.” Ian put a comforting arm around him.
Scythe closed his eyes, lulled by the movement of the car and the hum of the engine. He drifted off to sleep, noting absently a light, salty smell drifting through the car.
Chapter 14
“So, I’m not contagious?”
Lena said, “Nope. According to the doctors, the mutated virus has gone latent; that means it’s dormant. I don’t really understand it...but it isn’t airborne and the latent virus from your blood sample doesn’t seem to affect Kin or Human, infected, immune or uninfected.”
Ian added, finishing up his sandwich, “Your doctor, Lilly Mendus, was finally persuaded to share all her research. It turns out, she found a latent virus in both you and your mother when you were living in Menelaus. She concluded that your mother carried the virus and passed it on to you in the womb. You are both carriers of the original virus. When Mendus introduced it to the Kin infected with their virus, it remained latent. The scientists manipulated the two until they had a virus that would do what they needed. When the engineered virus was introduced to you, apparently it interacted with your existing virus, the parent virus, and it mutated. The mutated virus is still in you. It went active for a short time, but has since gone latent again.”
He sat back, smiled, and tried to lighten the mood with a joke, “Apparently, it's inherently lazy.”
Scythe grinned, and didn't say what he was thinking, that it was also inherently violent. He spent a lot of time trying to not think about what had happened to him in the hallway outside of the hospital. So far, his friends had been supportive of that, but he knew that eventually they would all have to deal with it. Just...not yet.
He sat on his bed, leaning up against the wall. Lena rested on the floor and Ian sat on a chair in front of him. They were all taking a break from the latest in a long succession of stressful days. The Youngs were in Scythe’s room in a temporary camp just a few miles from Poinsea. It was the location of one of the Kin’s temporary military facilities, consisting of several buildings and a handful of training areas. The rescued patients had been brought there to be evaluated before their release into the city, to ensure they could not spread the contagion. Because of the difficulty of assessing his unusual case, Scythe was the only one left in the camp guarded jointly by Kin and the Human unit led by Lena and Ian.
“So, I won’t be sick again?”
“We’re not sure. There isn’t any information on this mutation since you are the only one who has it, but many times latent viruses will become active as a reaction to different things, like reduced immunity or stressful events or sometimes exposure to external forces, like sunlight. You may be contagious when the virus is active, though, so we have to watch out for that.”
“The virus was active when I was in the clinic, and no one got it, right?”
“That’s right, and because of that, the theory now is that, if it is contagious when active, it might transmit only through body fluids like blood, sweat or saliva.”
“There was another woman, a Kin, before me who had the same thing happen to her...”
“Yes, the doctors think she may have had the latent virus you and your mother had as well, but, no one is sure. If it’s true, then the latent virus is present in some Humans and Kin, or your mother could have passed it on to the Kin when she lived in Poinsea. It is also possible that she contracted it from a Kin, perhaps your father.”
“How are the other Kin? Are they still sick?”
“Each patient we brought back, plus the two women, your aunt included, have been treated with the antivirus successfully. The children were already immune, which makes us think that there may be a genetic reason why the virus goes latent in you. That doesn’t explain your mother, though, unless the immunity is a Human-linked trait. Nearly all Humans tested in the experiment were infected and symptomatic.”
“Humans were tested, too?”
“Yes, it turns out that there were some Humans who were experimented on as well. That’s how they developed the inoculations that have been used in the cities. They were collected from the bordertowns and the wilds, people that weren’t missed, apparently. Their bodies are long disposed of, however.”
“Like we would have been,” said Scythe.
“If it weren’t for you, Scythe, we’re sure those contingency doses would have been used before we could have gotten into the clinic. It was a close one for everyone involved,” Lena said, getting up and hugging him.
“Ian, what happens now between the Kin and the Humans? Will there be a war?”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to see. The virus was supposed to have been released in Poinsea already, according to the doctors and the few conspirators we were able to get a hold of, but nothing has happened yet. The day after we arrived here, the Kin leadership, led by Poinsea’s governor, opened the first diplomatic discussions in months, sending a very clear message to our government. The moment one Kin citizen contracted a certain disease, the entire Kin civilization would consider themselves attacked and declare war on the Humans. He insisted that no quarter would be given to man, woman or child.”
He nodded at Scythe’s shocked expression, “Yeah, it had a real impact. The Kin have instituted major disease control measures across the globe, working tirelessly to produce the vaccine that they are going to release as a flu shot, similar to what was done with the Humans. We don’t have much more information than that, because negotiations are extremely tense right now.”
Lena added, “We know that if there is a war, it’s probably the end for us, so our leaders are doing their best to convey that this was not an operation condoned by our government. Everything is top secret, of course. The general public has no idea…no surprise there. The ambassadors are telling the Kin it was done by a group of fanatics who wanted to see Humanity rule the globe again. However, the conspirators were very well funded and had to have been well connected to be able to pull it off so smoothly, and with military support, no less. There had to have been several people in high places pulling the strings, but we haven't been able to pinpoint anyone yet.”
“The facility where you were held doesn’t
exist in any records we’ve been able to locate,” continued Ian. “But, it operated in the city for over two years without anyone the wiser. The raid alone was a work of incredible subtlety and genius. We still don’t know how the prisoners were transported without anyone noticing. There had to have been several key figures in the border patrol involved.”
Scythe looked up just before there was a knock on the door, and Lena went quickly to open it, smiling at the two Blades, Durn and Smoke, who stood guard. The Kin were clearly going out of their way to make the new arrivals very nervous.
“May we speak to him, just for a moment?” asked a middle aged man. He was working on keeping himself collected because Smoke was suddenly standing a little too close to him.
“Scythe? You feel well enough to talk?” she asked him.
“Sure. Heya, Smoke. Durn.” Scythe raised a hand to the Blades.
The man entered the room with his assistant, a well dressed woman with her hair tied up in a bun. They were followed by Smoke, who leaned casually against the wall by the door.
Smoke explained, “No one sees you without a brother at your back, okay?”
Scythe grinned appreciatively and answered in Kin, “Sounds good to me. Thanks, Smoke.”
“We’d prefer it if you wouldn’t talk in Kin without translating,” said the man.
Scythe considered before answering, “He doesn’t trust you, and I don’t blame him. I don’t trust you either.”
“I assure you, our government is no threat to you,” he lied.
Halfblood Heritage Page 20