“Why don’t you come here and we’ll clean you up?” She went to the small sink in the cabin and started to soak a rag. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
He stared at her for a moment, then blinked and shook his head. “No. No, I don’t think so. I … I can’t tell.”
“Hank was worried you were hurt, the way you left.”
He looked down at the floor. “No, I didn’t get hurt at all. It’s … It’s all … Animalis blood.” He stayed where he was, just inside the doorway of the cabin, hesitant to move.
Grimshaw brought the rag over to him. “Jax, don’t worry about anything in this cabin, we can clean it later. Right now, I just want you to feel like yourself again. Do you mind?” She reached for his hand.
Jax didn’t say anything. She crouched beside him and began to gently wash his hand.
“Sometimes,” she said, “the world crumbles in ways we never thought it could. I have no idea what happened, Jax, but I know that the person I met this morning was good. And it’s the same person I’m with right now.” She stood up and looked into his eyes. “Just do whatever you need to do to survive, Jax. It’s never immoral to stay alive.”
Jax closed his eyes; her words pricked at the fear that he felt building within. He pulled his hand away. “How could you know what you’re talking about?” Jax felt a tinge of anger at her. “You’ve never hurt a thing in your life, you don’t protect yourself, and you love everything you meet. It’s worse than being ignorant.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, giving him a little smile. “You’re right. I don’t know what you are feeling. I don’t know what you’ve done.”
Jax saw that she was now focused on his hand, not irritated at all by what he had said. A tousle of red curls hung down over her nose. She looked up, and he could see into her golden-brown eyes. He realized he was vulnerable, letting her eyes stare into him, and so he looked away.
The rag pressed against his other hand. The dried blood softened from the moisture and soon absorbed into the warm fabric.
Then Jax heard a soft scratching at the door. Something chittered. Grimshaw went to the door, opened it enough to let Little Hank in, and closed it behind him. The little black creature scampered over the floor to Jax.
“He loves you, Jax,” Grimshaw said.
Little Hank stood on his hind legs and began to lick Jax’s hand.
“No!” he said, jerking his hand away.
Don’t lick that, Little Hank! That’s someone’s blood.
He looked at Grimshaw. “How? How could it love me? It doesn’t even know me,” Jax said. “He doesn’t even care whose blood it is—just loves the taste of it.”
“He doesn’t care if its blood,” Grimshaw said as she continued to wash his hand. “All he wants is for you to be clean—and safe. It’s a friend’s instinct.”
“I … killed a man,” Jax said without thinking. But part of him wanted her to despise him for it. “Animalis, too.”
Slap me, Grimshaw. Throw me out of your beautiful white plane.
He looked down at her to see her reaction. The rag continued to scrub back and forth on his hand. She didn’t look up at him. Little Hank moved around his legs, licking his boots and pants.
“I don’t know how many,” Jax kept talking. “A dozen.”
She stood up.
“They kept coming … and I kept killing.”
He noticed that she was almost as tall as he was.
“Some of them were just working there. They had no idea what was going on, and I—”
Without speaking, she wrapped her arms around him. Her chest trembled, and tears dripped down onto Jax’s neck and then his back. She was crying, sobbing.
Jax wanted to push her away before the blood on his shirt soaked into her blouse, but it was too late. His stomach tensed up, twisting into confused knots.
“I’m sorry, Jax,” she said quietly. “I’m so sorry. No one should ever have to kill. You can’t take it back. You can never take it back. And they will never leave you alone. I’m so sorry, Jax.” Her hug tightened. “But you can’t trade places with them. No matter how much you want to. Your blood will never be able to pay the price for theirs.”
Jax furrowed his brow. Had he been wrong about Grimshaw? Had she gone through something like this? It sounded like it, and now it felt like her pain was resonating through him—and it seemed to wash him cleaner than the rag could ever have done. He brought his own arms up to hold Grimshaw’s trembling body.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t … I didn’t think you would understand.”
As he held her, and she held him, he could feel the knots of hatred loosening inside him: the hatred he had directed at himself as a mask, to disguise his guilt, and the hatred he had used to justify the killing of the Animalis. And somehow Grimshaw, holding him and mourning with him, had given him the forgiveness he needed. Knowing that the person he had unconsciously elected as the symbol of purity could still accept him, he could choose again what he would become and what mark he would leave on the world.
With the hatred washing out of him, Jax could feel the marks that were left. He had saved Hank, and was proud of that. He had survived the only way possible—by killing—but he didn’t want to be put in a situation like that again … ever. He had followed orders that he knew were wrong, that he should have stood against, and it would be the last time.
The outer hatch clicked open and Jax could hear voices. One had to be Hank’s voice, it was sharp and precise, and the other was someone mumbling.
Jax wanted to stay there in Grimshaw’s arms. Letting go would mean acknowledging the world and its responsibilities again. Little Hank ran to the door and sniffed. Grimshaw let go, pulling back to look at Jax. All Jax could see was the smear of blood staining her white clothes.
Then Jax heard a growl in the main cabin. Hank yelled something in return.
“Hodge?” Grimshaw called, looking worried. She moved to the door, throwing the rag into a basket attached to the wall. “Hodge?”
The growl was interrupted with barked words.
Jax followed Grimshaw out into the main cabin. He had to push the firefight out of his mind. Hank had come back. Is he coming for me? Jax couldn’t think of any other reason he would be here.
“It’s Hank—I didn’t want him to come in, not with that thing!” Hodge said. His ears were flattened out to the sides, and his lips were pulled high, exposing wrinkled, pink gums and his big canines. “Hurley, don’t go near him. I’ll chase him off this plane if he comes back out.”
“Did he go into this cabin?” Grimshaw knocked on the second cabin. “Hank? It’s Grimshaw. Can I come in?” She paused for an answer, then turned back to Hodge. “What do you mean he brought something with him?”
“An Animalis. I don’t know, a dog, cat thing. I don’t like it. It was covered in all sorts of horrible smells. Jax, don’t go in there,” Hodge warned.
Grimshaw tried the manual handle, but it was locked. “Hank? Do you need us?”
A hyena, Jax realized. So he wasn’t after Jax?
“It was alive, muttering some other language. I couldn’t understand it,” Hodge said.
Jax turned to Hodge. “He was carrying a hyena on board?”
“Yes, hyena. That’s what it was.” Hodge growled again. “He’s doing something in there.” His hair started to stand up. “I don’t know who is more wild: Hank or that thing.”
Jax sent a message to Hank:
Are you alright? What are you doing with that hyena? Where are the other units?
Hank replied:
I’m sorry, you should take Grimshaw and Hodge away for a bit. Stupid, I just need her compounding machine. We’ll lose the pyramid, Jax. It was the only thing I could think of. We have to find it. This thing is going to die anyway, but I think I can get the location. I just need this room to myself. Help keep Grimshaw away.
The sound of a printer started up in the room.
“Is he printing something?” Gr
imshaw asked. She pulled up a menu on the wall next to the door. Jax saw a printer menu, with downloads for Room 2, but Grimshaw was blocked for going further when a passcode box came up.
“He used his password to lock me out?” She sounded offended.
Another menu came up. She navigated to the door locks—blocked.
“Hank?” she called, then to herself, “Please, don’t do anything you’re going to regret in there.”
Jax didn’t know what to do. Hank wanted him to keep Grimshaw away. He needed Jax to be the muscle again, clear the way so that Hank could get the information. Jax could just hold his arms in front of the door and ask her to step outside.
There had to be some other way to find the pyramid, didn’t there? Jax shook his head to himself. Hank had gone too far.
“Do you have an ICT scanner?” Jax asked Grimshaw.
“Hodge, could you bring an ICT scanner?” she asked.
Hodge, though, was still in a furred-up state, ready to go into attack mode.
“Hodge?” Grimshaw said.
He snapped his head toward her, then blinked and finally said, “Yes? Oh … Yes, Hurley. I’ll go get one.”
Hodge left the room, sending Little Hank skittering away from where he had curled up underneath one of the retractable seats, to follow after Hodge. Moxie, though, was nowhere to be seen, Jax noticed.
Only a moment later, Hodge returned with an ICT scanner. Little Hank had curled around his shoulders.
“Thank you,” Grimshaw said, taking the scanner.
She pulled up a program on the wall screen and moved the scanner over the door to the cabin. The program quickly compiled the information in a simulated three-dimensional image, only lacking color, and frozen in time. Hank had his back turned to the door. On the floor beside him was one of the hyenas Jax had thought was dead. A hole could be seen just under the hyena’s left clavicle. Jax noted straps holding its arms and legs tightly, and a blindfold covered most of its face. Hank was holding a syringe. The computer quickly interpreted the chemical formula held within it and displayed the product. Jax recognized it: a potent drug used for interrogations—an extreme measure, banned from use on humans, that left some of its victims in a crippled mental state, or dead.
“Oh, no. Hank, please no,” Grimshaw said. She slammed a fist on the door. “Hank! Don’t you dare touch him! Don’t you dare hurt him!”
She pulled on the manual handle and shook the door. Her hand slapped the wall screen beside the door, bringing up another menu, navigating to security settings. The authorization to reset passwords had been blocked by Hank’s password as well. The door would be impossible to open without Hank’s permission, as long as it had bolts to hold it shut.
Jax pulled out his laser tool and set the focus to one inch. “Here, is it alright to cut into your door?”
Grimshaw stepped back and gave a quick nod. “Yes, hurry! Thank you, Jax.” She pointed to spots around the frame before stepping back farther. “The locking bolts are here.”
Jax pressed the laser to the frame at the first bolt and lit the tip. He heard a sharp pop from tiny bubbles of air expanding rapidly under the heat of the laser. The plastic frame of the door melted and oozed beside the cut. He moved to the next and began to slice through again. Halfway through it, the tool beeped. Jax kept going, moving to the next bolt. The alert began again, and a moment later, the laser gave out. The power cell had dried up.
“Do you have any power cells this size?” Jax asked, pulling out the cell. “I’m empty.”
“Hodge?” Grimshaw said.
Then a piercing shriek came from within the cabin. Hodge growled.
“Hodge!” Grimshaw said louder. “Power cells! We need one this size.”
She tossed the cell and woke Hodge from his focus. He caught it and left.
“What’s going on, Jax? Why is he doing this?” Grimshaw said. “It isn’t right! I can’t let him do this!” Grimshaw struck the door again and her bracelets shook with the sound of shackles. “Hank! Stop it! Stop, please, stop! There’s another way! Please, let us find another way. There’s no information he can give you that’s worth putting yourself through this!”
Jax knew what Hank was doing: he was trying to find where the pyramid had been taken. But why would he come here? The other small units would be at the warehouse now, and they could have devised some way to find it. Instead, he had invaded Grimshaw’s serenity, like Jax had done. But he wasn’t looking for a sense of solace.
“Can we get another ICT scan?” Jax asked.
Grimshaw stopped pounding and let her fists rest against the door. Her chest rose and fell, her eyes staring far beyond the barrier in front of her.
“Yes. Alright,” she finally said.
The scanner ran across the door again. The material of the wall extruded and shifted, forming the 3-D scene scanned from behind the door again. Grimshaw leaned her head against the door, not looking at the image appearing.
“Please, Hank,” she whispered.
With a slight turn of her head, she looked at the wall screen. Immediately she turned her head back against the door and groaned.
Jax took in the image that had formed on the wall. Hank was frozen in time, kneeling over the hyena with an empty syringe in his hand. Below him, twisted and writhing in unbearable pain, lay the hyena. Its spine arched to the side with a sharp bend that would have broken a human’s back. Held together with restraints, the hyena’s hands had clenched into tight fists, the nails digging into its own palms from the strain. The face was …
Jax couldn’t look at its face. He wiped the image away from the wall. Jax couldn’t let this happen.
“Here, I found these.” Hodge had returned, carrying a handful of various-sized power cells.
Jax went to him and started picking through the handful to find a match.
Another shriek penetrated the door, followed by a string of incomprehensible sounds coming from the hyena.
Jax found a match and slid it into the tool. He lit up the laser and finished cutting through the middle bolt.
“I’m sorry, Grimshaw. He’s a good person, really. I didn’t know he could do something like this. He’s …”
The pyramid, it was so vital to Hank. Was it worth this?
The tortured Animalis continued to babble in the room. Grimshaw went to Hodge, stroking his ruffled fur, looking into his eyes and trying to soothe him.
Sparks shot from the last bolt when Jax finished cutting through it.
With a kick, Jax hit the door hard and it folded open. Hank leaped away from the door, tossing the syringe and backing toward the wall. His foot hit against a laser gun he must have taken from the warehouse and it clattered onto its side.
The hyena writhed slowly on the floor, words slurring out of its mouth. The hole in its chest had ripped open farther and was bleeding into its shirt and out onto the floor.
“Jax, I got it! It was all—Hey!”
Jax shoved Hank into the wall. The image on the screen rippled from the impact.
“Jax,” Hank wheezed, catching his breath, “the pyramid.” His face showed confusion, apparently surprised that Jax would come at him like this.
“Hank! What are you thinking? You tortured it!” Jax held him to the wall, but it was his own face he saw on Hank. Jax pressed the face into the wall screen in rage.
Grimshaw, meanwhile, had run to the hyena. Hodge had thankfully stayed outside. Kneeling over the hyena, Grimshaw pulled off the blindfold and checked its eyes.
“You didn’t even know what you were doing!” Grimshaw said. “You might have killed him, Hank! You can’t tell what their reaction to the serum is unless you watch their eyes!” She grabbed its wrist and laid two fingers on the skin there, checking its pulse. “Jax, I need your help with him.”
Jax pressed Hank for a moment longer. He was his friend. He had stood by his side for the past six years, before they joined the military, and he would be his friend after the military. Jax knew that.
Let him go, Jax told himself.
“He was dead anyway, Jax. You left him there to die,” Hank wheezed. “He knew where the other transport was taken. We might be able—”
Jax dropped his hands away, releasing him from the wall. “I’m sorry, Hank.” Jax didn’t want to look him in the eyes. Hank had said it was the fate of humanity at stake. If Jax had Hank’s conviction, would he have been able to do what was necessary?
He looked into Hank’s eyes and felt a cold chill on the back of his neck when he saw Hank glaring at him. Jax backed away, feeling the distance between them manifest. He turned and went to Grimshaw.
“Take the medical kit,” she said. “We need to stop the bleeding in his chest. His blood isn’t coagulating like it should. He needs an IV. And I should put in a call for an emergency car.”
“No,” Jax said, stopping her.
What would happen if it was taken to a hospital? What would they do if they were able to revive the hyena? Let it return to the Animalis militants?
“We have to!” she said. “You saw the ICT scan. That lung is completely separated in its chest. It’s floating around in there, and now it’s bleeding again. I have to. I’m not going to let this life die, Jax. Help me, please.”
She got up and headed toward the wall. Hank moved away from her as she came to it. It looked like he expected her to attack him. When she ignored him and pulled up a request for an emergency car, Hank’s eyes started shifting around, navigating his retina monitor.
Jax shut out what had happened between him and Hank, and instead focused on the bleeding hole in the hyena. He took out an expandable splint and rolled it into a tight shaft. The hyena trembled and winced as Jax slid the splint into the laser hole, hoping it would stop some of the bleeding. He pulled open the kit and searched for a stimulant. After the energy it had exerted during the torture, the hyena would need a boost to keep its heart going.
Grimshaw came back and pulled out an ice pack. She cracked it and held it to the hyena’s forehead.
“Jax, we have to go after the pyramid,” Hank said. “You want to let the Animalis win? Let the stupid hyena die!” Hank spoke with a surprising fierceness. “You want the whole human race to disappear when they start using the pyramid? I did what needed to be done! He knew where it was going, Jax—and it’s leaving tonight.”
Animalis Page 10