by Milt Mays
She jerked her head up so fast snot flew out. “Wait. I don’t have them but someone else does. A man on the other side of that wall. He’ll give them to me. It’ll only take a minute.”
Jabril’s head jerked to the left and his eyes blinked, his mouth grimaced, as if some unseen force had twisted his head. “A minute. Go. I will be here, waiting with your daughter. If you take too long, your lovely daughter will die.”
Rachel started to climb into the RX-7.
“Leave the guns,” Jabril said.
She dropped the guns, jumped in the idling car, slammed the door, jammed on the brake and put the car in reverse. She pressed the accelerator and the engine revved like a jet prior to takeoff. All she needed was enough energy to break through the wall. Perhaps going through it backwards would require less energy.
She let off the brake. The tires shrieked and spun and caught. The car raced backward.
Chapter 56
The back bumper hit the wall and seemed to melt into it, hardly any resistance at all.
She laughed and swiped her eyes with the heel of her free hand while she twisted to look through the rear window. Maybe in less than a minute she could be back to saving Alexis. Anyhow, those soldiers would likely take care of Jabril before she was back.
The edge of the wall passed by her window like a wet membrane. What if the soldiers’ gunfire, attempting to kill Jabril, killed Alexis?
She pushed the accelerator to the floor. Her heart raced. The car gained speed. The membrane slurped off the hood and had left a haze over the back window—making it hard to see.
She realized her mistake. Shit! She was going to ram Alex and Dan. The only two who could help her save Alexis, and she was about to mangle them.
She let off the accelerator and mashed the brake. But it was too late.
The RX-7 had too much momentum. It crashed into the side of the van, crushing the car’s trunk. Rachel’s head snapped back and forth. The car stopped, dead in its tracks. The smell of burnt rubber and oil mixed with sour sweat.
Had she killed Dan and Alex? No one was visible. Where were they? She had to get Dan.
The door to the camper opened and Alex sprinted toward her, worry on his face.
She threw her door open, jumped out and yelled, “Stop! I’m fine. Get Dan. I’m fine, but I need Dan or Jabril will kill Alexis.” She ran towards him and pushed open palms at him in jerky, frustrated waves. He had a puzzled look on his face, but kept coming.
“Please, baby, get Dan! I need the codes. Hurry!”
Finally, he stopped, turned around and ran to the camper. He must have sensed the problem, connected to her thoughts, connected to Jabril. Whatever it was, he was talking to Dan when she got there.
Dan sat in the seat, low to the ground. He smiled up at her, a black laptop open in his lap. It was a proud smile. “See. I told you I could help. You don’t listen. You’re like Lisette, and Sam, and Fred and—”
“Shut up!” She wanted to slap that silly grin off his face. Sam had more self-control than she had ever imagined, not having shot this bragging geek. Slapping would only hurt his face, though. If she mentioned that she’d left Jeff unconscious with Jabril? Oh how good that would feel. It would definitely put him in his place, but he would surely become a drooling dope again. She had to walk the line and get the information from his weird brain.
He deadpanned her. “Don’t have to get so snippy.”
She started to raise her right arm for a backhand slap, then relaxed.
“Sorry. Jabril has Alexis on the other side of the wall and will kill her if I don’t bring him the DNA codes and sequences for the GMO foods. Not the new ones, but the mistakes Alex and I developed in 2002. But hurry. He only gave me a minute to be back.” She crammed the words out fast and crisp, flooding them with frustration, hoping he would understand since he had lost Jeff once.
Dan pursed his lips, hunched over the laptop and started typing. “Okay.”
“Not bad,” Alex said, looking at her, and saying under his breath, “You might have a future as a geek psychiatrist.”
She smiled at him. He could always cheer her up. But how would he be if he found out Jabril had raped her?
He put a hand on her shoulder. “You sure about this?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Here they are,” Dan beamed up at her and pivoted the laptop screen on his knees to face her. Why was he shaking his head and smiling so disgustedly?
The screen was bright, colors crisp. It was an elegant display of the entire corn genome in concentric circles, a rainbow flower of genetic content showing the nucleobase sequences, recombination, methyl-filtration, cross-species orthology, and centromere localization.
She paged down and found the particular sequence that set this particular corn variety outside anything ever seen in nature. That area was what Jabril wanted—the mistake that had changed the world of food.
“Is the mouse DNA—?”
“Right here,” Dan said as he reached around and tapped the Page Dn button once.
She inspected it. Yep. Everything there.
“Okay, print—” Then she realized why he had been smiling so disgustedly. No printer. She sighed, nodded at Dan. “Shit! How can I get this to Jabril?”
Dan shrugged, the idiotic smile still there as if to say, Gotcha.
Oh how she wanted to stuff that laptop up his ass.
“Give me that computer,” she said.
“Nope. My son gave it to me. You’d have to kill—” His voice trailed off and his eyes got wide.
Yeah, she thought. I will kill you in a heartbeat to help my daughter, you heartless geek. She had no guns but strangling him would feel pretty good.
Then a thought hit her. The computer room! The Plexiglas room inside contained a computer. She could have Jabril go to the site and download—No! That site had too much other info, things about Alex that Jabril could never see.
“Copy the file and put it in a secure site in Stratos.”
Dan’s gaze went from frightened to puzzlement. “He has a computer with 5G?”
It was her turn for the smug smile. “Yes.” If anyone had 5G capability, Ambrosia did.
He pivoted the laptop and tapped a few keys. “Done. The password is B-a-d-F-o-o-d. Don’t forget the cap on B as in boy and F as in foxtrot.” He paused and looked like he was going to say something.
She waited. Maybe he would apologize, say something like, I’m sorry, you can have this laptop to save your daughter.
No time to wait. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “Thanks. I don’t care what Sam says. You’re a great guy.”
Dan pursed his lips and frowned and looked away. Not a word, though. Not a stinking word. The guy was about as socially apt as a piece of wood.
“Let’s go, Alex. Dan can watch Sam and the truck. I’m gonna need you with me in order to pull this off.” She had something up her sleeve for Jabril.
Chapter 57
It only took Jabril thirty enjoyable seconds: Drop Alexis, sprint, dodge, jump, then slash the soldiers and run back. He estimated thirty seconds. Maybe less. He licked the delicious blood off his lips. Pretty simple. For a mutant or whatever he was. He wondered at times. He still felt like he did as a child in Iraq, talking and walking and thinking, his mother taking him to the hospital to help with the starving and dying. Mostly children. Innocent bystanders of a starving embargo and killing war. Until his mother died, Jabril had been innocent, too. But after . . . No further belief that helping was the right way. The only way was destruction. That is all the infidels did to his family, to his country. To him. If it had not been for their bombing, their food blockade, their war, he would still have been in Iraq, helping his mother and father, tending the farm. He would not be alone. He would not be a . . . monster. He would be at peace.
He gazed at the daughter, the boy, their unfettered breathing. Rachel had been gone too long. No matter. He would not kill the daughter. Not yet. He wanted her.
Needed her. Her slender neck still oozed blood where he had drawn claws across the pale skin. The blood and her pulsing neck gave him an idea. What if he fed her the blood of the werewolf mice, or perhaps just fed her the mutant wheat and GMO milk? Maybe she would become more like him. She could be his bride. He would not be alone anymore.
He quickly gathered the Plexiglas box of milk and a handful of grain. Rachel would return soon and surely bring Alex. Why could he no longer feel Alex? The walls must have a magnetic field that interfered. He sat Alexis up against his leg, tilted her head back and poured a trickle of milk into her open mouth. She swallowed. He poured more and she kept swallowing. Next came a mouthful of grain. Her eyes fluttered, but he shoved the grain into her mouth and closed it. Reflexively, she swallowed again, this time struggling against his hand that held her mouth shut.
Her eyes opened. He smiled. “How about more milk?”
She smiled, her eyes kind. She took the clear box of milk and glugged down a liter while she held onto his arm. She came up for air and looked at him with kind green eyes. “I was thirsty. Thanks.”
Jabril felt warm all over, relaxed, almost happy. This girl he had almost killed now seemed so . . . so nice to him. He stared into her eyes, green and so lovely, so kind. Eyes like he had never seen. So kind. So—
He shoved her to the ground, closed his eyes and shook his head. He’d forgotten her power. His claws were almost gone, his fangs mere vestigial eye teeth.
Then the daughter started to convulse, eyes rolled back in her head, a mewling whine came from her drawn lips.
The GMO food? Had to be. It would be too bad if she died like this—a blond—young, firm, and Rachel and Alex’s daughter. There was so much he wanted to do with her while they watched, and after he’d killed them. They would not be as compliant with his plans if she was dead and all he had was the boy. Jabril knew they would come for him. And right now, as he stood there watching this beautiful blond woman convulse, he would be nearly powerless to overcome them.
He ran for the guns Rachel had dropped.
The wall parted and Alex was through and pulling Rachel behind.
Jabril had the guns and was back with Alexis before Alex could finish heaving Rachel through the wall. Alexis had stopped her seizures and lay on the ground. He checked her pulse. Still alive.
Leave her alone. Take me. It was Alex, or at least his thoughts bouncing around Jabril’s head. Alex stood tall, Rachel by his side, his eyes pleading, yet at the same time studying Jabril, curious about his weakened state.
Jabril pointed the M4 at him, the Glock at Rachel. “Do you have the codes?”
“We have them,” Rachel said, “but we had no printer to print them out. They are in Stratos. You can get them using that computer over there.” She nodded her head toward the Plexiglas computer room.
“I do not know Stratos.”
“It’s like a giant hard drive in the Web, available to store reams of data. We have the codes saved in a secure file. All you need is the password and you will have them.”
Jabril thought: No paper, but the codes were available in a computer. He could transfer them to those who engineered these foods and mice and they could begin production right away. Even better than paper. He did not know if the computer here in this outbuilding would allow him to take over production. Probably not. But he could verify what Rachel said, then get into the ranch house. There would be someone there in power.
He would need someone with knowledge about the codes to help.
Take me, not her. I can help you. Alex’s thoughts kept pounding his brain.
“Rachel will show me on the computer.” He nodded at the glassed-in computer room.
Rachel started forward immediately.
Alex put a hand on her but she shrugged it off and kept walking.
“Yes,” Jabril said, “that is a good idea. Alex stays. Rachel comes with me and Alexis.”
Jabril pointed the Glock at the unconscious Alexis to his left. “Pick her up and take her with us.”
“I can’t lift her,” Rachel said.
“Drag her.”
“You don’t need her,” Rachel said. “You have me. I have the codes.”
“Until I have the codes, I need you both. Bring her.”
Rachel walked forward with slow steps, desperately surveying the situation, trying to decide how best to kill Jabril and still save her daughter. Jabril was no longer in his animal state, only a very thin Arab man. She could kick his ass, no problem. Step between him and Alexis, kick him in the crotch, hammer his Glock hand with her fist, then smash his face with her elbow.
As if reading her thoughts, Jabril stepped back a pace, out of her reach.
No problems. Now her back to Jabril, between him and Alexis, another attack came to mind.
If Jeff’s eyes hadn’t fluttered open.
She wanted to tell him to lay still, be quiet. A roundhouse kick to Jabril’s face and his guns wouldn’t matter; he’d be out just like her karate teacher years ago. She planted her left foot for the pivot.
Jeff shook his head, as if trying to wake up. He pushed up to hands and knees and stood. She wanted to tell him to stop, to lay back down. Wait ten seconds and she would have Jabril on the ground and her daughter safe.
Jabril was behind her, Alex in front. Alex started toward them.
The gunshot behind her was deafening. Alex crumpled right in front of her, a bloom of dark red on his thigh.
Chapter 58
“No!” Rachel screamed. She twisted her head right to look at Jabril, this time ready to kick. But he had stepped back another pace. She could hear Jeff’s boots scrabbling on the dirt, as if he were running toward Jabril.
In an instant Jeff came into view. He ran at Jabril. Jabril pointed the Glock at Jeff. She wanted to scream, but her voice wouldn’t come.
The shot cracked. It was too loud. It hurt her ears, made her chest tighten into a knot of ropes. Jeff grunted and spun around as if a giant hammer hit one shoulder, toppling him, his chest thumping the earth like a heavy backpack, partially hidden behind one of the empty mice cages, his legs jutting out, unmoving. Not even a quiver.
Instead of the roundhouse kick, she merely finished turning her entire body, planted her right foot on the ground and like a sprinter starting at the Olympics pushed off and ran full tilt at Jabril. He rammed the hot muzzle of the M4 carbine into her injured shoulder. A fiery pain tore into her. She gritted her teeth and brought her other fist in a vicious uppercut toward Jabril’s jaw.
She had the momentum, had to—something hard slammed into her jaw and everything went dark.
The dark was welcome. Peace. Quiet. It had been so long since she had slept—really slept.
No. You can’t sleep. You have to help Alexis.
A slap to her left cheek. She tried but could not open her eyes. Pain seared in her left shoulder. “Shit!”
Jabril stood above her, rifle muzzle pinning her shoulder against the Plexiglas wall, a hot knife in a mound of nerves. She opened her eyes and saw Jabril and Alexis were with her inside the Plexiglas room with the computer. The right side of her jaw throbbed and felt two sizes too big. He must have hit her with the Glock. To her right sat Alexis, legs splayed in front, leaning back against the clear door. Blood stained her right earlobe, a dried rivulet on the right side of her neck.
What had that monster done to her while Rachel had been out? Yet, besides the blood, Alexis’s eyes were open, watching, taking everything in as if it was all a new world. The computer hummed on the table in front of Rachel, the screen black with one pulsing red dash.
“Wake up, Rachel, or I will use a claw on your daughter.”
“Are you blind as well as cruel? I’m awake.” She glared at him. “What is that blood on her ear? What did you do to her?”
“A mere scratch. But I will do more if you do not give me codes.”
She twisted her head around to find Alex. He lay facedown behind her. What would she do if he were dead? His bo
dy shifted. Yes! He must be alive. Jeff lay on his side, back visible to her. His chest moved in shallow breaths.
“Yes, they are alive,” Jabril said. “But not for long, unless you show me this Stratos file.”
“I can’t think with that gun in my shoulder.”
Jabril pulled the gun away and the knife pain left. Dull ache remained. Oh my God, she thought. That was better. Back to sleep. Dark. Rest.
Another slap on the cheek. Not hard, but enough. “Okay.” She tried to stand but her legs were bands of dough.
A hand under her left arm. Sharp. Hurt. “Shit!”
Then she was sitting at the table facing the computer.
“Show me.” Jabril’s voice sounded weak.
Breathe in through nose. Expand diaphragm. Hold it one, two, three, four. Breathe out through lips, low hum. Just like her yoga meditation. One more: in . . . out and she said “Ohmm.”
Jabril squinted at her.
She put her fingers on the keys. In twenty strokes she was in Stratos. Another five and the file flashed up.
She typed B-a-d-F-o-o-d.
The genome flower of the GMO corn filled the screen. It was the whole, all of the genes in different colors with filaments in the center connecting important related areas. Anyone with experience in genetic sequencing would know this artistic representation of the entire genome. The important gene base sequences that made the GMO organisms dangerous were on the next screen, outlined in a typical table with G-C--A-T base sequences. But she did not show him that.
“A flower? Where is the code?” His voice had an almost meek, supplicant quality.
“You have no idea what this is, do you?” She wanted to laugh. Not at him, but at her honesty in showing him the real thing. It could have been the genome of a Madagascar hissing cockroach and he wouldn’t have known. And then she wanted to raise her fist in the air at her triumph over this monster. At least she had kept the important information secret.
He pointed the Glock at Alexis. “I know enough. You will show them. Let’s go. Get your daughter.”