by Sandra Knauf
“Don’t worry,” Zera said. “There’s no time to explain now, but,” she lowered her voice, “I saw your dream.”
Theodore jolted. He met Zera’s gaze and for the first time that afternoon he was fully there, he didn’t seem to be straddling two worlds, the world of living-in-the-now overshadowed by the world of his private nightmares.
“I saw it,” said Zera. “The meadow with the tree, the plants. I saw you when you were young.”
Theodore’s eyes widened behind his glasses, and she felt his disbelief, worry, a tiny bit of gratitude that someone may have witnessed his suffering and may actually know the terror he’d been through. “But . . . but, that’s impossible, Zera.”
“It’s not,” Zera’s voice remained low. “I was there too.” She looked around at the others, who were absorbed in their conversation. “I know I’m supposed to be here. Nonny told me some amazing things about our family, the Green family. We’re supposed to be protectors of the Green World, Uncle Theodore.”
“What?” There was something deeper than disbelief coming from her uncle. Zera could feel the word “protector” turn over in his mind. A glimmer of something akin to remembrance.
Drew was listening in. “Some protector,” he spat the words. “God help us all.”
Lily tapped Theodore on the knee as he stared at Zera. “All I have to say to you is, don’t mess this up. Don’t try anything. Because if you do, your little Tiffany may be out in that farmhouse for a long time.”
“Now,” said Lily, “We’re going to go over it again. What’s my name?” .
Chapter Twenty-eight
The limo glided to a stop at Void Corporation Headquarters’ front entrance. Jerry got out, strode around the car, and opened the door for Theodore and Lily.
“You’ll be going in through the back entrance,” Lily said to Zera. “I’ll see you soon.” After smoothing her skirt and grabbing her briefcase, Lily whispered to Theodore, “Remember, Jenny Muldoon. Your former assistant at BioTech.”
The lobby was dim as most of the lights in the building had gone off after five. At the front desk sat two men in uniform. They made for an odd couple; one large and flabby, with bulldog jowls, the other smaller and pale, with sharp features and wavy hair. As Theodore and Lily approached, the smaller guard stood.
“Hello, Mr. Green,” said the large one. “We missed you today.”
“Yes . . .” Theodore eyed the man’s name badge, “. . . Fred, I had business in Colorado I needed to attend to.” He signed the check-in sheet, pressing down hard so his hand wouldn’t shake. His heart lurched as he thought, if ever there was a time to try to turn the tables, it’s now. He thought about what would be the worst that could happen. She’s not armed, and Zera has no fear of Bear and Coop, um, Drew. I don’t think they’d harm her. I’d be a hero, to some. . . hated by others . . .
He handed the pen to Lily and her eyes bored into his. No, I can’t consider it. I won’t risk anything happening to Zera, and . . . the next thought turned his heart to lead. There’s no winning outcome, not for me. All I wanted was to make good, and . . . everything’s gone wrong. Theodore cleared his throat. “This is my former assistant from Biotech Multinational, Penny Muldoon. We’re very lucky she’s decided to join the Void team.”
Lily beamed at the guards and held out a hand to Fred. “I’m happy to meet you.” She turned to the wavy-haired guard, whose nametag read Howard Blake. Howard extended a skinny hand. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” he said in a vague southern accent. As they shook hands, Theodore thought he saw Howard wink at Lily. My god, could the guards be in on this too? A weird relief that he didn’t try anything filled him, even as he felt like a coward.
“Yep,” Theodore said. “Plane just got in, and we, um, wanted to do the paperwork tonight.”
“No problem, sir,” said Fred, obviously unconcerned with Theodore’s story. Theodore and Lily walked to the elevator and Howard called after them. “We’ll see you soon.”
“Let’s hope not,” Lily said under her breath.
She turned, smiled, gave a little wave. “Thank you!”
In the “CEO Only” elevator Theodore looked at Lily. They were alone for the first time. His heart skipped a few beats, but he couldn’t help himself, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was gorgeous. Lily avoided his gaze and seemed preoccupied with the elevator buttons. She’d told him in the limo that the elevator would be bugged, and warned him not to say anything.
Up they went swiftly, eighty-two floors to the top. Weak-kneed with emotion, Theodore was unable to think about anything but whether Lily felt anything but disgust for him. He thought back to when they’d dated, how they’d spent almost every minute of their free time together their senior year of high school, sharing lunch every day, going out every Friday and Saturday night, taking long hikes in the mountains until nightfall . . .
The digital voice of the elevator announced with a soft, feminine tone, “Executive floor.”
They entered the lobby. A woman sat at the desk — a familiar buxom blonde. Theodore gasped. “Crystal?”
The woman looked up and smiled. She smiled differently than Crystal, not as wide. Another Crystal-look-alike, like Langston’s secretary Brigette, this one with short blonde hair and gray eyes. Theodore breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re Mr. Green aren’t you? I recognize you from Brigette’s video directory. I’m Meg; I came in this evening for a couple of hours to finish some work for Brigette. Mr. Void worked late; he just left a little while ago.” She stood and offered a pretty hand. “I was just getting ready to leave myself.”
Theodore shook her hand, quickly and nervously, introducing “Jenny Muldoon,” and cringing as he remembered that he’d called her Penny downstairs.
“Unless you need anything; then, of course I would be happy to stay,” Meg offered.
“Oh, no,” said Theodore. “We’re quite fine . . . I’ll see you around.” He led Lily down the hallway.
“Nice going,” muttered Lily. “At least you got my name right this time.”
They walked past Langston’s office, with its gigantic double doors inlaid with the large, gold letters — “V” on one, “C” on the other. The next office, his, showed a brand-new metal sign. A gold planet Earth with three lines written across it in script:Theodore F. Green, President, Biotechnology Division. Without thinking, his hand went up to touch the lettering.
“You finally got what you wanted,” Lily said.
Theodore jerked his hand back. For an instant he felt courageous. He met Lily’s eyes and said boldly, “No, actually I never did.”
She looked away. “Let’s go in, shall we?”
They entered an office, smaller, but nearly identical to Void’s.
“Nice,” Lily said. Her sarcastic tone told Theodore that she’d obviously made a quick recovery from Theodore’s surprise statement. His heart sank. Lily opened her briefcase and took out a notebook. It held a hidden scanning device. She pressed several buttons and looked at the display.
“Great job, Drew,” she said to herself. “He successfully de-bugged it.”
“You mean the room was bugged? By Void?”
“Ted, if the situation wasn’t so serious, your naiveté would almost be cute.”
Theodore’s face felt hot. The way she said that . . . could it be possible she doesn’t totally hate my guts?
“Drew’s electronics wizardry, along with ‘Howard’s’ help down at security, is going to ensure that no one suspects a thing. At least not until it’s too late. They’re not even going to know we’re leaving the building by helicopter. All we have to do is wait for Drew to give the signal. That should occur in,” she looked down at her watch, “about ten minutes. We’ll wait it out till then.”
She walked to the leather sofa and sat down. “How about offering me a beverage?”
Chapter Twenty-nine
A red-eyed Hattie Goodacre sat on a long beige couch in the waiting room of Peak County Hospit
al.
“They’ll be okay, Mom,” said Ben, sitting beside her. Hattie wished she could believe him. She could tell by his tight mouth, the obvious hurt in his eyes, that he wasn’t convinced. The truth was, they just didn’t know.
Cosmic Dan walked down the hall toward them, his expression serious, until Hattie caught his eye. He attempted to grin but failed. Hattie caught her breath.
She and Ben stood as Hattie dabbed her eyes with tissue. “You talked to the doctors?” she asked.
Dan nodded. “Since they were unable to get in touch with Theodore, they finally let me know a little bit about what’s going on.”
“What did you find out?”
“A few things.”
Dan motioned for Ben and Hattie to sit back down and parked his long, lanky body next to Hattie’s. His closeness gave her comfort. “You told me you knew the situation with Guinevere, Hat, and you said you told Ben this morning.” He rubbed his jaw, visibly troubled. “The cardiologist, Dr. Ball, said she’s in pretty bad shape, might not last the night.”
Hattie burst into tears and Dan held her while she sobbed. Hattie blew her nose and made an effort to regain control of her emotions. “She was having problems even before Sally and Ewan died. And these last years, they’ve been a struggle. But Zera doesn’t know, and Ted, well, he knows she’s been sick, but he’s never known just how serious her illness has been. That’s what gets me. She swore me to secrecy, and I feel like I’ve been helping a stupid, stupid conspiracy because Guinevere wanted me to, and now it feels like a huge mistake.”
“What about Zera?” Ben asked Dan. “Any change?”
“No.” Dan’s brow furrowed. “But she seems to be okay. It’s strange. She won’t wake up. It’s not really a coma, there’s no injury, and her brain patterns show a person who’s experiencing deep sleep. It’s all REM sleep, you know, rapid eye movement, like when people dream. It’s unlike anything they’ve seen. No one can figure out what’s going on and they want to wait until they get in touch with Theodore before they go further in trying to wake her.”
“I told you what she said she saw up on Tava,” Hattie said, her voice quavering. “Grandma Wren too. I’m sure it’s got something to do with that.” She dabbed her eyes again, tried to smile, then took a deep breath to compose herself. “I’ve got to pull myself together . . .”
Ben had put a hand on his mother’s other shoulder and Hattie patted it. “I haven’t been able to get in touch with Ted all day,” she said. “Talked to that bimbo secretary in L.A. probably a half-dozen times. I finally got out of her that Ted left yesterday for some family emergency here in Colorado! I don’t know what’s going on.” Hattie blew her nose again. “She said she’s been unable to get in touch with Ted’s boss. She did tell me Ted’s president of their Biotechnology Division. Guinevere never mentioned that; I don’t think she even knows.”
“We’ll find him,” Dan said. “You just need to hang in there. Zera’s going to wake up soon. And you’re going to be right there with a beautiful smile for her.”
Hattie tried to produce even a weak imitation of a smile, but found she couldn’t. “Is Grandma Wren still with her?”
“Hasn’t left her side.”
Hard rock music came from the floor, the v-phone in Hattie’s backpack.
“They call me Doctor (Doctor Love)
They call me Doctor Love (calling Doctor Love)”
Hattie looked at Ben and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Changed my ring tone again?” Ben jumped up as Hattie picked up her backpack from the floor. He looked ill. “That was . . . I did that yesterday after you all took off to Pikes Peak. I thought it’d be funny, to Zera. I’m going to get a drink of water,” He took off down the hall.
Poor kid, Hattie thought. He had a crush on Zera, it was written all over him, had been since he’d seen her at the house that first day back home. When he was out last night until 11:30 she suspected he might have gone over to see her. Could it have been just yesterday when they were all working in the garden so happily at Elsie Mayfield’s? It seemed like a million years ago.
Hattie dug out her phone. “Maybe it’s Ted, finally,”
She paused for a moment, staring. “Oh, all buttons! UGH!” She uttered a swear word as the tune of Calling Dr. Love continued, then stabbed at one of them. “Hello?”
An extremely handsome man appeared on the screen. “Hello. Is this Hattie Goodacre?”
“Yes.” Even in her overwrought state of near-despair, Hattie couldn’t help but think — he looks like a movie star.
“Ms. Goodacre, I’m Langston Void. I’ve been trying for hours to get in touch with Theodore Green. Is his niece okay? I heard she’s had an appendectomy.” .
Chapter Thirty
Lily looked at her watch. “It’s time, Ted. Let’s go.”
It had been one of the most uncomfortable ten minutes in his life.
The front desk was vacant, Meg gone. Efficient, Theodore said to himself, as he and Lily approached the elevator and got in. He thought again of the secretary’s resemblance to Crystal, how eerie that was, and for a moment his mind touched on cloning. No, he thought, that would be impossible, crazy. His next thought mocked him — as crazy as plants growing human organs? He forced himself to think about what he and Lily were now doing. Lily had explained to him that Drew made sure digital imagery in the surveillance cameras were altered with “doctored” versions, to make it look as though he and Lily had left the building through the front doors. The security guard “Harvey,” an expert forger, would take care of their signatures on the sign-out sheet, and make sure Fred was away from the desk when Lily and Theodore “left.”
“Rooftop,” said the female elevator-voice and the door opened. The landing-pad lights were the only ones on. The chopper’s blades were revolving at a high speed. In the lighted interior of the helicopter, Theodore saw Drew, Bear, and Zera.
At the door Lily barked, “Next to Zera.”
The door opened and they climbed in, Theodore next to Bear and Zera, Lily up front with Drew.
In an instant they were whirring over the city, tens of thousands of lights twinkling below them.
“Is everything set for the lab?” Lily asked Bear.
Bear nodded. Lily glanced at the floor next to him to some gray metal cases and said, “Good.”
“How are you doing, Zera?” Lily asked.
“I’m okay,” Zera said.
Lily reached back and patted Zera’s knee. “You are an awesome young woman.”
With great difficulty, Theodore averted his gaze from Lily.
Chapter Thirty-one
Zera wasn’t really okay, like she’d told Lily. She’d been on edge since their arrival at Void Corporation. For awhile she hadn’t felt too worried, but as the night went on the calmness and well-being she felt after she materialized in the oak tree completely disappeared.
Everything was happening too fast. Bear and Drew, busy with preparations, hadn’t told her any details about their plans. Now the helicopter moved silently through the nighttime sky, toward god-knows-what. Low and weaving almost noiselessly through the city, the craft reminded Zera of a dragonfly, specifically, the Blue-eyed Darner, or Aeshna multicolor.
My second flight today. A lump came to Zera’s throat as she thought of Nonny, Hattie, and Grandma Wren. She’d had time to think since the ride from the country. If I’m here, in California, did I disappear from Colorado? And if so, what’s Nonny thinking — that I ran away? Zera’s stomach clenched and she fought hard to control her racing thoughts. I thought Uncle Theodore was putting her through so much, and now look what I’m doing. Who I’m with. What the Green Guerillas are involved in is illegal and dangerous. If they’re caught, and from what I sense from all of them, they expect to be, what happens then? Will they go to prison? Will I be taken away from both Uncle Theodore and Nonny for being a part of this?
She reminded herself to breathe deeply and saw her uncle looking at Lily again. It was clear tha
t that he cared about her like he’d never cared about Tiffany or any other woman. Zera liked and trusted Lily. She had never felt that way about Tiffany. Yet, pangs of disloyalty troubled her. Tiffany had been in her life for several years; she had tried, in her own way, to connect with Zera. It was not easy to cast Tiffany aside after all.
She also thought about Ben. What was happening in Ute Springs? What was Ben doing now? He said he wanted me to be his girlfriend. We kissed. That thought made the others go away for a moment. She’d waited, forever it seemed, to have someone like him in her life. He really cared about her. Now what would happen?
Lost in her worries, Zera hardly registered the hour-long trip to the edge of the desert. The next thing she knew, Bear was pointing through the helicopter window to a structure in the distance. As they neared the huge building, a dim, ghastly-green glow became visible — the rooftop greenhouse she’d heard them mention. The light contrasted with the heavens visible through the helicopter’s ceiling. Twinkling stars filled the clear desert sky. Zera thought of her mother and father and their appearance as the two stars at Tava. Her fears ebbed a little. What lay before her, no matter how fraught with danger, was important. This was where she was meant to be.
Theodore and Lily were also gazing up through the helicopter’s clear plastic top at the stars. Zera sighed. Being in her uncle’s nightmare, experiencing his fear and sadness, had given her a different perspective. For the first time since she’d known him, she saw him as someone whose life, like hers, operated on a crazy pattern of happiness and hurt, success and failure. She saw him now as not a guardian or uncle, but as a human being.