“Continue?” Joe asked crass. “What is with this arrogant attitude?”
“Father, I . . .”
“Hal!” Joe raised his voice louder. “Do you understand what you are doing? I placed you in charge of three communities! It is your job to be leader!”
Hal stood up. “And I am doing my job!”
“You!” Joe pointed at him, “will not face off with me. You will not even attempt to stand toe to toe with me. Sit your pompous ass back down in that chair and listen to what I am saying. Shut up, Frank!”
“What?” Frank tossed his hands up.
Hal slowly sat back down.
The whistling caught Joe’s attention, and he swung a hard view toward the door. “No! You two. Hold it!” he shouted to Danny and Robbie who were trying to sneak out. “If you two think I view you as totally innocent, you’re out of your goddamn minds. Get back in here.”
They inched back in.
“Shut the goddamn door.”
A little frightened and feeling like a ten year old, Robbie reached out and closed the door.
“Ow.” The painful voice emerged from the other side.
Everyone looked.
“Who in Christ’s name did you just shut that door on?” Joe asked irritated.
“I don’t know,” Robbie answered.
“Well look for crying out loud! Christ Almighty, I’m gonna have to start calling you Frank.”
“Dad,” Frank interjected. “That’s my name. You can’t do that.”
With typical arrogance, Hal tossed up his hands. “And we listen to him.”
“Robbie!” Joe yelled. “Open that door!”
Robbie did. “Oh, hey. Sorry, Dean.”
Dean rubbed his head and stepped in. “That’s OK. You didn’t see me.”
Frank snickered.
Joe spoke up calmer because Dean really hadn’t done anything, at least he thought. “Can we help you, Dean?”
“Well, Joe, I was looking for Frank, I heard he was here.” Dean walked further in and closed the door. “I have something very important to tell him and if I don’t get cornered into telling him I may not tell him.”
With an ‘uh-huh’ Joe nodded. “I see. We’re in the middle of something. Bye.”
“I don’t think so.” Dean took a seat. “Aside from telling Frank what I need to say, I’m here to assure you stay calm. I heard you yelling. You can’t be yelling and getting upset, Joe.”
“Fine,” Joe said with an edge and returned to Hal. “All right, Mr. ‘Fill-in Leader’. You tell me where your head was except up your ass when you made this decision.”
“Defending the placement of my head,” Hal retaliated, “I was thinking of this community. They have done it to us, why not do it to them.”
“I know the ‘reasoning’ of the Jess situation. I know your plan. What I want to know is did you think because I was on leave and I wasn’t around, you could do this without my knowledge?”
Calmly, Hal nodded, ‘yes.’
“Wrong.” Joe’s hands swung out through the air. “Do you know what you did? You let out a man who was detained for being a traitor. You let him out to call his people because you trust him.”
In the same manner, Hal nodded again. “Yes.”
“What in Christ’s name made you think you can trust him? You can’t.”
“He said . . .”
“I don’t give a damn what he said!” Joe nearly yelled. “Whether or not he defected with intention to spy or used that as an escape, he did not come forward earlier, which tells me he’s one of them. He probably had a lot to do with a lot of shit that went down in this community.”
Frank, with his arms folded, not only watched Joe, but Jess, who leaned forward in a chair, face buried in his hands.
Joe continued. “Jess Boyens cannot be trusted. You buy his ‘I love Beginning. This is my home’ line but I don’t. You, Hal, abused your position of authority. You took advantage of my absence and advantage of time I granted to think. You are not the only guilty party. Robbie, Danny . . .”
“Dad,” Frank’s voice cracked as he spoke up.
“Frank, I’m busy. What is it?” Joe rubbed his head.
“No.” Frank shook his head almost with confusion. He shifted his eyes to Jess again then back to Joe. “Forget I said anything. Jess is not a traitor. You and I, we’re wrong.”
On the sudden change of demeanor, Hal looked curiously at his brother.
Joe took a step to Frank. “He’s not a traitor now? Five minutes ago you were ranting and raving how Hal was single handedly helping the inside sources of the Society, and now you say you were wrong. What happened, Frank?”
“I . . .” Frank cleared his throat. “I had a revelation.”
“You had a revelation.” Joe nodded. “What in Christ name type of revelation? I didn’t see lightning bolt come in here and zap your big ass. What the hell, Frank?”
“I . . .” Frank cleared his throat in nervousness. “It’ll sound dumb. It really will. I always thought that if Jess wasn’t a traitor, Hal’s plan was good. But to me, Jess was a traitor. See? And now, I know he isn’t. I know,” Frank said strongly. “Trust me on this one. He isn’t. OK.” He lifted his hand. “Think back to a few days ago.
With his hand on his hip, Joe stared. “Go on. This better be good.”
Frank continued, “Think back. Jason was having sex with Josephine.
After being pelted by the unison sounds of disgust that flowed from everyone in the room, Joe stared for a moment at Frank. “Is this on the lines of Robbie wears a size twelve?”
“Yes,” Frank answered.
With his eyes shifting back and forth from his father to Frank, Hal mumbled. “My God, this is as obscure as using a Captain Rocket code ring.”
Joe ignored Hal’s remark. His eyes were still on Frank. “I see. All right.” A few nods escaped Joe and he ran his hand across his chin with a heavy exhale. He turned to Danny. “Danny, can you take Jess to Containment and then come back here? We all have to lay this out . . . in detail.” He glanced at Hal. “Before we proceed with Hal’s plan.”
In shock, Hal stood up. “Dad? You’re changing your mind?”
“I’m gonna . . .” Joe hesitated with a wince. “I’m gonna go with Frank on this one. I’m gonna trust him. Danny?”
“We’re going, Joe.” Danny stood at the same time as Jess. “Let’s go.”
Even as they left, Hal never took his view off his father. “Thank you.”
Joe nodded then let out a breath. “You’re welcome. Anyhow . . .” He spun to Dean. “Dean, would you like to steal Frank or just have us step out?”
“Just, um, step out would be fin.” Dean said with nervousness as he tried to hide his beating heart.
Joe led Hal and walked to the door. Before he stepped out, he watched Robbie roll up a chair and sit down. “Robert, what are you doing?”
“Dean looks way too nervous.” Robbie got comfortable. “I want to hear this.”
“Now that you mention it.” Hal walked back in the room. “Perhaps this is news in which our brother may need our support.” Hal also grabbed a chair and placed it on the other side of Robbie.
Joe tossed up his hands. “I might as well.”
“Swell,” Dean mumbled then ran his hand through his hair. “OK,” he said with an exhale.
Frank blinked. “I’m not reading you.”
“I’m blocking you.”
“A black wall?” Frank asked.
“It’s better than Jenny,” Dean replied.
“You’re right. Or Josephine.”
Hal shuddered. “Am I the only one in Beginnings not practicing this form of code?”
“Shut the fuck up, Hal,” Frank snapped.
“Yeah, Hal,” Robbie instigated.
“Robert,” Joe softly scolded. “Go on, Dean.”
“OK.” Dean clapped his hands. “I’ve been watching for a while. Frank, do you know how I’ve been doing blood tests on you? Well this
all has to do with that.”
“Do you need more?” Frank questioned.
“No.” Dean shook his head. “I took enough to tell me . . .”
“Oh my God!” Frank gasped seriously. “I’m dying.”
“No.” Dean shook his head. “You . . .”
“I have an incurable blood disease?” Frank guessed.
“Frank . . .”
“Hepatitis?”
“Frank, you . . .”
“My blood sugar is low.”
“Frank . . .”
“ I have low iron. My iron should be good, Dean, I’ve been eating lots of roughage.”
Dean snapped his fingers with a point. “Exactly.”
Joe, Hal, and Robbie questioned in unison with a loud ‘what?’
“Fuck,” Frank gasped out. “Eating too much roughage caused hepatitis?”
“No,” Dean whined. “No, listen to me, OK? Just listen. Say nothing until I’m done. This is very difficult to say.”
“Are the words too big?” Frank asked. “I can try to help.”
“Frank!” Joe yelled. “For crying out loud. Let the man speak!”
“Dad!” Frank returned the loud yell. “You heard him. He can’t. The words are too big.”
“Dear God.” Hal tossed his head back. “Slap a leather jacket on the man and call him Vinnie Barbarino.”
“No, I am Frank,” Frank corrected.
Robbie laughed.
Hal growled.
Dean tried again. “All right. I’ll just come out and say it. Frank, when you were shot, I gave you an accelerator to heal you. Remember?” He waited for Frank to nod. “Now, we tested this accelerator, received some really good results, but it wasn’t tested on humans. I used a little on you before when you were injured.”
“Yeah, I was like your test subject.”
“A great one because you get injured a lot, but this time, since your wounds were bad and we knew you’d want to be up and about, we . . . we saturated your wounds with it. It worked.” Dean nodded. “So seeing the success in you, we gave it to Joe after his laser surgery only not in the quantities we gave you. Understand? Are you following me? Everyone?” Dean waited to see he had agreement. “I believe the reason Joe wasn’t affected is because we didn’t bombard him. Joe, you’re fine.”
“I’d say thanks, but,” Joe spoke, “somehow I fear where this is going.”
“It’s not bad. Well, sort of. It could be. But it isn’t. It actually has its perks for Frank,” Dean explained. “See, the accelerator agent I used was a DNA based accelerator which consisted of certain strands of DNA taken from . . . . a jackrabbit and killer babies. This accelerator is pretty powerful and so . . . so seems to be the jackrabbit and LEP DNA.” Dean nodded. “It was more powerful than I ever anticipated. The accelerator not only sped up the healing process, it sped up the mutation process. The carrots, the scent finding, the increase in speed, and the recent occasional . . .” Dean bobbed his head. “Hopping that Frank does are all attributed to the fact that the jackrabbit and killer baby DNA pretty much mutated and meshed with Frank’s.”
Frank stared with intent at Dean as he followed his explanation. “So what exactly are you trying to tell me?”
Hal lifted his hand. “Dean, are you saying our brother is . . . I don’t know, turning into a LEP rabbit?”
“ A LEP jackrabbit.” Dean replied. “Did. Is. Sort of.”
A rattle, crash, bang, and thump rang out loudly when in his hysterical laughter, Robbie fell out of his chair.
“Dear God.” Joe closed his eyes. “What the hell else can happen in the screwed up goddamn whacked out world of Beginnings?”
Robbie was barely interpretable as he laughed his remark. “He could grow a bushy tail.”
After a flutter of his lips, Hal snickered. “Can you see it, Robbie? Suddenly around April, Frank will get this urge to carry a big purple basket and hide colorful eggs about Beginnings.”
“He’s gonna have to grow his hair longer to cover up those floppy ears,” Robbie commented.
“Or perhaps.” Hal crossed his arm over his waist while he rubbed his chin. “He may have to lose the goatee. Lord knows the whiskers will clash.”
“With the pink nose.” Robbie looked at Dean. “Dean,. you better watch Ellen. You know what they say about rabbits and . . .”
“All right,” Joe cringed. “All right. Enough. Dean, if you’re serious, he’s not . . . Frank’s not gonna grow fur is he?”
Dean shook his head. “No more than he already has.”
Frank shrieked for an instant, pulled out his tee-shirt and peered in. He let out a whew of relief.
Dean closed one eye. “I was referring to your chest hair, Frank. There won’t be any physical changes. The mutation is complete. It’s more behavioral changes. The need for roughage. The catching scents and following them easily. Running.”
Frank snapped his finger. “Killer babies are fast.”
Hal rolled his eyes. “Too bad the jackrabbit intelligence didn’t mutate with Frank’s. I see he still has his own quick wit.”
Frank ignored him. “So Dean, the speed thing. That would explain how I made it from the back gate to the field gate in a little over two minutes.”
“Um, Frank?” Hal spoke up with sarcasm. “A Jeep would explain how you made it there in a little over two minutes.”
“No, Hal. I ran,” Frank corrected.
Suddenly Hal spun a view to him. “You ran that distance in a little over two minutes?”
“Yeah.” Frank nodded. “Mark in Tracking commented on how fast I got there. He said I must have been driving fast and I agreed, then I remembered I wasn’t driving. I ran.” He looked at Dean. “I ran those two miles in just over two minutes. Dean, do you know in one minute I almost ran . . .” Frank paused, closed his eyes, and drummed up a thinking look while holding up his fingers.
After groaning, Joe answered, “A mile Frank. You almost ran a mile a minute.”
“Man, you’re fast with math.” Frank shook his head. “Whoa. I’m fast with running. Running almost a mile a minute means I’m running almost. . . .” Again, Frank paused to think.
Joe solved the math. “Sixty miles an hour.”
“No.” Frank shook his head. “Fifty . . . no, forty, no sixty miles an hour. You’re right.
Joe tossed up his hands. “Sixty miles an hour.”
“Yes!” Frank clenched his fist. “I am running near small predators speed. Watch me outrun those bastards now.”
“Frank.” Robbie’s face grew bright. “If you catch a scent, eat carrots, run real fast like a rabbit, I bet . . .” He sang the last word.
Hal grinned. “Oh, that would be awesome.”
Robbie looked at Frank. “Do you know where I’m going?’
“No, but I know what you’re thinking.” Frank pointed to his temple. “I read minds.’
“Yes, you do.” Robbie smiled. “Hal?”
“I say lets test it,” Hal said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Robbie shrugged. “He could break a leg?”
Hal tossed out his hand. “He’ll heal fast. He’s Frank.”
“I am.” Frank moved to the door. “Let’s do this.”
With enthusiasm, Frank raced out with an excited Hal and Robbie right on his heels.
Joe looked at a bewildered Dean. “See? And you thought he would be mad.” He moved to the door.
“Where?” Dean pointed. “Where are they going?”
“If I know my sons, and I do, and if I know their train of thought, they probably took Frank somewhere to test his jumping ability. I think I want to see this.” Joe walked out.
“So do . . .” Following Joe, Dean stopped. “Wait.” He looked around the empty Communications Room. “This is a twenty four hour station. Joe!” Dean yelled out the door, but Joe was gone. “Great.” He threw his hand out. “Great. I haven’t a clue what I’m doing and they stick me down here . . . again.” Grunting in frustration a
nd totally aggravated, Dean pulled out a chair, plopped down, and figured while he was waiting on Danny’s return, he’d closed his eyes.
^^^^
The selection of the Supremes’ song he chose to sing was not an indication of his age of early thirties. The deep slurring voice of the male survivor blasted loudly in the Skills Room and Ellen, after taking a peek, retracted back to the hall. “He’s drunk.”
Jess shrugged. “Mildly inebriated.”
“Mildly inebriated? He’s . . .” Ellen paused at the loud bang above her head. She peered at the ceiling and listened to the series of voices from outside.
Robbie and Hal cheered, their voice carrying through the aluminum of the building.
“Come on, Frank,” Robbie yelled. “Do it again.”
“You can do it,” Hal egged on.
Ellen shook her head. “He’s gonna come right through this roof.”
“No he’s not,” Jess stated as he stood center hall with her.
“What in the world are they . . .” She cringed at the thump, thump, thump. “Doing?”
“Frank’s jumping.”
“Oh. Anyhow, he’s drunk.”
“He came in that way,” Jess explained.
“He came in yesterday. How can he still be drunk?”
“Blame Robbie. He likes him drunk so he gives Dwight . . .”
“Dwight?” Ellen asked. “Dwight?”
The tall, dark hair man poked his head into the hall. “You called?”
Ellen huffed. “Your name is not Dwight. It’s Rob.”
Jess shook his head. “His name is Dwight now. Blame Robbie again. He didn’t think there should be more than one Rob.”
“You know . . .” Dwight tried, really tried, to walk straight. “You’re pretty.”
“Me?” Jess asked with a snicker.
“Her.” He pointed at Ellen.
Ellen looked. “Thanks.” She turned back to Jess. “But he . . .”
Bang!
Ellen growled. “As I was saying . . .”
“Faster, Frank!” Robbie yelled.
“Really go for it!” Hal shouted.
Slightly rolling her eyes, Ellen gazed to the ceiling.
Frank’s running footsteps above her rang out.
Ellen tried to continue. “As I was saying . . .”
Frank’s scream squealed loud and interrupting just before a deadened thump.
The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20 Page 256