Anodyne Eyes

by Milt Mays

  Chapter 67

  Rachel had to help her daughter and husband. She lowered the shotgun and kept walking toward them.

  “Don’t.” Alex’s eyes had also taken on the orange glow. There was more than a frown, now, a look that said he would swat her down like a bug if she came closer. A look she had never seen in their eighteen years together. Alex had always been the kidder, the easygoing, fun-loving guy. Stress him out and he made jokes.

  Alexis smiled and showed her fangs for all their magnificence, three inches of gleaming white. “Yes, Mommy. Don’t. Daddy might smack you. If he doesn’t I will.”

  Her face had twisted into a sardonic grin. Not in the least mischievous. Ugly, evil, uncaring. “Give us the codes.”

  Rachel wished she had stayed with Dan, if only for another minute. Hell, even another ten seconds. Alex would have saved them all; he would have taken the syringe, killed Jabril. But she always had to hurry, be the first.

  “I don’t have the codes. Dan was taking too long. I needed to get back in here to sa—”

  Alex laughed, a haughty and deep baritone. Rachel would have sworn it was Jabril. “You thought you would save us? Really? You think you can possibly save creatures so advanced, so utterly capable as your daughter and husband?”

  He took two quick steps toward her and swatted the shotgun to the floor. Her finger pulled the trigger before the gun left her hand. One barrel discharged. Loud. Her ears rang and she feared she’d shot him. The slug banged slantways off a metal cabinet to her left, ricocheting onto the floor. The shotgun clattered on the floor, echoing in the empty rooms.

  She stared at where the shotgun came to rest by the island. She couldn’t move. Her face felt loose, flat. It was all lost. Jabril had Alex and Alexis. Her legs began to quiver, the muscles suddenly unable to support her. But she could not fall, would not. She had to help them. Now.

  Whoever controlled Jabril controlled them. It was not her husband talking, not her daughter spitting angry words. They still loved her. They were nothing but puppets of General Hanson. How could she get at Hanson?

  “I’ll get the codes,” she said. “Dan has them. He’s right outside.” There had to be a way Dan could get the control away from the General. Give her daughter and husband back to her. Had to be a way.

  “Damn right you will.” Her daughter’s words had never sounded so snide.

  Rachel wanted to look into her lovely eyes, hug her, tell her this too will pass, that her mother would fix it.

  But instead, she turned and walked back through the hole in the ranch house wall, her shoes crunching on ice that was beginning to form where snow had blown in. She would fix it right now.

  From behind her, she heard Alexis. “Wait. I’ll go with you.”

  “No,” Jabril’s voice was weak. “Stay here. I do not trust your father.”

  Rachel never turned around, even though the sound of Jabril’s voice startled her. How had he awakened? She ran outside, her legs now strong and filled with purpose.

  But Dan and the truck were not there.

  #

  Jeff came out of the bathroom, running his tongue along his upper lip, pink and clean and without a hint of blood. His hair was wet, eyes bright. “I think I must have had a bloody nose and that’s where the bloody tear came from. You know, tears come from nasal discharge, right? Anyhow, my eyes are fine. But I’m really, really hungry. We got any non-GMO food?”

  He glanced at Sam, then out the window. “You never said where Alexis went. And what about Rachel and Alex? And,” he pointed at Sam, “who’s this guy?”

  Dan clapped the laptop shut again. “That’s Sam. I think there is real food in the pantry. This is Alex’s truck. I’m sure he wouldn’t have GMO stuff.”

  Jeff pulled open the pantry over the stove and found a large ziplock plastic bag with what looked like homemade granola bars and a smaller bag with raisins. He opened the plastic bag, grabbed a handful of raisins and half a granola bar, then opened the fridge and pulled out milk. He guzzled several ounces of milk, chomped on granola bars and raisins and guzzled more milk.

  Dan watched and smiled, remembering similar scenes when Jeff had come home after a basketball practice, famished. How wonderful his son was back.

  “Grab the food,” Dan said. “Alexis and Rachel and Alex need our help. I gotta go back and get a gun. There’s one under the seat in the car. It’s not far. Come on.”

  Dan took the black laptop, Jeff got the food and milk, and they exited the camper. The snow and wind were almost gone, only gentle flakes floating around them like feathers. Father and son piled into the cab. The truck cranked easily, once again reminding Dan of Alex, who cared deeply for his truck and his family. Alex deserved help. Dan drove back the way he’d come, cognizant of Sam lying in the camper, careful not to go fast. The RX-7 wasn’t far, maybe fifty yards. Easing the truck around the front of the car, he stopped gently, placing the car between the passenger side of the truck and the ranch house. He was going to help. Do something right.

  First, put the truck in park, then jump out, grab the gun and—What about Jeff?

  “You stay here, son. I’ll only be a minute.” He turned off the truck and pocketed the keys.

  Change of plans. Grab the gun; take the RX-7 and go get Rachel. Leave the truck. Leave Jeff here. Safe. No more danger. All done.

  He opened the door, could feel Jeff eyeing him. Then he remembered. He reached for the laptop sitting on the center console.

  Jeff grabbed his wrist. “What’s going on, Dad?”

  “Uh—”

  Over Jeff’s shoulder, out the passenger window, fifty yards away from where they’d just come, Dan saw Rachel drop from standing to her knees. Had she been shot?

  Chapter 68

  Rachel panicked when she saw no truck. Legs that had regained their strength running to save Alex and Alexis, gave out. She dropped to her knees. That fucking geek had left. All her muscles quivered, stomach rolled, her thighs like Alex’s beloved Gummy worms. She wanted Alex here to lean on, or Alexis, or even a goddamn piece of wood.

  Never mind. Fuck it. She would lie on the ground and die. Alex and Alexis were not only captured, but teamed up with Jabril and the General. It was all over. She hung her head, gritted her teeth, not wanting to cry. But the tears came.

  She looked at the sky and screamed. “Noooo!”

  A sound made her twist her head around.

  The RX-7 and a white blob behind it with a figure, blurry through tears. Was it a man waving his arms? She stood, wobbled and almost fell again.

  She pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes, wiping and smashing away the watery weaknesses. She looked again. It was Dan Trotter, and the white blob was the truck. Jeff was moving around the front of the truck, waving one hand as well, smiling. He was alive?

  She stumbled forward, began a tentative jog, then feeling a surge of hope, ran. It felt great, the cold air, the pumping of her legs and arms, the sight of someone who could help her. Yes, she needed that fucking geek. It would be okay.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” She coughed and spat and ran harder.

  “Hey, Rachel, slow down. You’re going to hurt yourself.” Jeff put his palms out and then started crawling over the hood of the RX-7, the shiny RX-7 she and Alex had given Alexis for her last birthday. Jeff slid on his butt on the car’s hood and stood in front of her.

  She ran into his arms. He didn’t have the heft of Alex or Rocca. But he would do, she thought. He would do.

  “What?” he said. His arms encircled her.

  She shook her head against his chest, tried to stop the breathing and coughing. She wanted to give out and weep, but she took a huge breath and let it out slow with the words, “He has Alex and Alexis.”

  On the other side of the RX-7 Dan said, “He has them. What do you mean? From what I know, Alex is too strong. He was just here. He’s too smart. Jabril can’t—”

  She pushed gently away from Jeff. “Jabril injected him with some GMO concoction. It inte
racts with them somehow to make them not only obey Jabril, but to agree with him. It’s like . . . It’s like . . . They’re lost.”

  She peered at Dan. “Please tell me you can help.”

  “You mean with the sleep control?”

  “Yeah, only not like last time. We need to coordinate better.”

  Jeff gently pushed her to arm’s length. “What do you mean?”

  She glanced at Jeff. Hearing the alarm in his voice, she forced a placid face, a calm and easy voice. “We have to get your dad into the computer. I have a back door built into a program they’re after. Dan can spring the trap so when I go back in the house—”

  “You’re not going back in there,” Dan said.

  She gave him the full force of the look Sam hated. “That is my child and my husband and I will not lose them.”

  Dan blinked twice, then twice more, then scratched his jaw. “I meant, without us.”

  “Okay.” She grasped Jeff’s hand and started walking back around the hood of the RX-7, pulling Jeff behind her. “Let’s get that computer humming.”

  “Wait,” Dan said. “You drive and I’ll use the computer.”

  She got in, saw her Glock sitting on the dash, happily gripped the gun and slammed the clip home, enjoying the weight and knowing she now had a better weapon. If she would have had this gun instead of the damn shotgun, she could have nailed Jabril, even between Alex and Alexis. Soon he wouldn’t merely be a sleeping mutant; he would be a dead mutant.

  Rachel drove, Dan typing on the laptop next to her, Jeff in the back. She glanced at the screen and saw the DNA sequence flower for GMO wheat.

  “Okay,” Rachel said, “see that link at the bottom right?”

  “The one that says references?”

  “Click on it.”

  He did. There was a bibliography page of book titles and scientific journal articles.

  “Go to page seven.”

  “Maybe you should do this. It would be quicker.”

  She stopped the car next to the camper. “No. Two more clicks. On page seven, click on the last date of the third reference: 9/11/2001.”

  When he moved the cursor over 9/11/2001 it changed from an arrow to a bull’s-eye. He left-clicked on it and a black screen came up.

  “This is it,” she said.

  “A blank screen?” Jeff said.

  “The last thing to do is hit ‘F9’ then ‘F11.’”

  Dan did it and the screen flashed up lines and lines of computer programming code.

  “Now, on line fourteen you will see If A-L-E-X go to 7. That is the line that will spring the trap, only the trap is not what I want. It would end the program and everything would time out for an hour.”

  Dan glanced at her. “So you do it. You take the laptop and enter the code you want and let’s go.”

  “It requires another password I don’t remember. And, after that, there are activation codes that Alex showed me years ago, but I forgot. He was the programming genius. He will know all about this trap, and if the General is controlling him, he’ll be watching me very closely. I need you to make another trap, but this one will enter Jabril’s implant and kill him.”

  Dan frowned at the screen. “I don’t understand how that will kill Jabril. Anyway, if Alex knows programming, why can’t he show Jabril and the General all they need?”

  “The password that got you into the genome flower?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Alex did not want to know it. He only wanted me to have the key, in case the military ever captured him. Only I know it. And now you know it, too.”

  “So he couldn’t even get into the genome DNA sequences.”

  “Right.”

  “How did he program the trap if he couldn’t get in?”

  “He turned his back while I typed in the password.”

  “Okay. But how do you propose to kill Jabril with the controls? There’s no ‘Kill’ command, just a bunch of emotions and the sleep control.”

  “I’m thinking if you max out all the controls, it would short-circuit his brain and kill him.”

  “So max out Anger, Fear, Joy, Sadness, Sleep on the plus side?”

  “Exactly.”

  “What makes you think that will kill him?”

  “We already know General Hanson is simple, right? I figure if you minimize all the controls, Jabril will be docile and awake, but controllable: not what I want. Maximize everything and I think he’ll die in his sleep. I’d rather see him rotating on a spit in hell, but he’ll be gone. It appears that Alexis is being controlled by his words. Alex seems less controllable. I believe I can talk to Alex and he’ll listen, and the two of us can control Alexis, at least until whatever Jabril injected wears off.”

  “So if the stuff will wear off, let’s do the thing with Jabril now and wait it out. You don’t need to go in there.” Dan’s fingers were already tapping keys.

  “No. The General is waiting for me to return. If he gets suspicious, he may have his own trap set and none of this will work. I have to leave now.”

  She opened the door.

  Jeff opened his, too.

  “Wait,” Dan said, his head twisting from side to side. “You don’t even know how to get into the trap I’m setting.”

  She stopped, her eyes searching up and to the right. “At the bottom of the first page, instead of clicking on References, make it so I click on Detailed Sequences, and the trap starts then, not two clicks later. If the General got Alex to spill the beans about the trap, they’ll be watching me and not be suspicious if I click on something besides References.”

  Dan tilted his head back and forth, his bottom lip out, as if weighing that idea. “That’ll work.”

  He looked at her, his eyes unfocused, thinking. “It will take some time for me to program this stuff. Stall for time. You’ll know when I’m finished if you hover the cursor over Detailed Sequences and it turns green.”

  “Green?”

  “Yeah. I like green.” Dan looked at Jeff. Green is the best.

  He caught Jeff’s gaze. “You don’t need to go.”

  “I do, Dad. Alexis will listen to me. I know it.”

  Rachel swung her legs outside. “Green it is.”

  Before Dan could say another word, both car doors closed and his son was gone. There was a brief puff of cold air from the outside. The snow came down harder, the hood of the RX-7 already coated. The windshield was fogging at the edges. In the rearview mirror, through the thin veil of falling snow, Dan saw Rachel and his only son walking toward the ranch house. Dan could jump out, tackle Jeff, plead with him. He reached for the door handle. Jeff was his own man. He had to make his own decisions, especially about the woman he loved.

  “Shit!” Dan blurted it out. He’d forgotten to tell Jeff about Adam. Jeff had to know. Had to. If Dan ran out and told him now, Jeff would come back. He would come back.

  Dan twisted his head around and watched Jeff walk, each step sure and determined. This was what he wanted.

  Dan turned back around and started typing. If he did this right, perhaps he could save them all.

  Chapter 69

  A few feet before they walked through the ragged hole in the wall of the ranch house, Rachel stopped and handed Jeff the Glock and clip. “I really want to keep it, but if I do, they’ll know I’m up to something, probably keep me from doing what I have to.”

  Jeff stuck the gun into the small of his back inside his pants and started forward again.

  She put an open palm on his chest. “Wait here.”

  “No way.” He grabbed her wrist. “I love her and I’m going to help.”

  “If you want to help her, stay here until I call. With your soldier garb, the gun . . . The General will kill you. He thinks he can control me with Alex and Alexis. I can’t risk losing you.”

  He gripped her wrist tighter. “You can’t stop me.”

  “No. You’re right. But if you want to help Alexis, please, stay here.”

  Jeff thought about Alexis,
the way her touch made him feel like he was on a warm beach with no cares in the world but making her happy. How he got lost in her green eyes. He wanted more than anything to help her. His past life had been stupid, a dumb-ass attempt at being a hero, but escaping the important responsibilities. He would never again do that. He thought about how he had ignored his dad, gone against his best advice. He thought about how Alexis had talked about her dad and mom and how much she loved them.

  He let his hand drop from her wrist to his side. “Okay. I’ll wait. Five minutes. That’s it. If I don’t hear from you in five—No, make that three minutes, I’m coming in.”

  Rachel took her hand away from his chest. “That should be enough time. But if you hear me yell, ‘No way,’ don’t come.”

  “What about if you need me sooner?”

  “I’ll call your name.”

  He nodded. She started off.

  “Rachel.”

  She turned.

  “You seem like a great mom. I’d love to be part of the family. Be careful.”

  She smiled and walked toward the ranch house. The smile did not give him warm fuzzies. It looked like the smile of that huge black guy on his walk from death row to the electric chair in The Green Mile, another of his dad’s favorite movies. They could use that big dude now.

  To hell with waiting. He took a step after her. She was going to her death and knew it. He knew it, too. How stupid could he be?

  But he stopped, pulled the gun from his back, and held it at his side, relaxed but ready. He looked at his wristwatch: 3:15 and twenty seconds. Snowflakes landed on the crystal and melted. Wind nipped at his ears and scalp. He pulled the hood on and watched Rachel duck and walk through the wall’s jagged hole. Her footsteps crackled and crunched.

  He looked at his watch again: 3:15 and thirty-five seconds. Wow! Fifteen seconds. He had Jules Verne beat. No need for a complicated time machine. All he had to do was worry and time . . . slowed. He studied one snowflake from the heavens and followed it all the way to the ground. Then he released his focus and tried to take in the entire sky. The snow was like a cloud of moths flitting back and forth, wandering down, touching his face with wet, cold, fairy’s breath. He stuck his tongue out, yearning for the flakes, remembering his dad’s saying from when he was a kid at a Broncos game: It’s nature’s cotton candy. Sweet and fun to play in.