Sanctuary 2 (The Foliage Series Book 4)

by Aline Riva

  “And then we can move him back to the house,.” Joy added, “And we wait – I don't care what you say now, tomorrow something could change!”

  Riley glanced over to his best friend, then he gave a sigh as he shook his head.

  “You keep hoping for that, Joy, because I'm too afraid to.”

  “But we can try to hope,” she told him, and as he saw desperation in her eyes, he gave in and nodded in agreement.

  “Okay, I'll keep him here for the rest of the week, I'll monitor him, I'll run through scans and look through all the work he had done nine years ago and if I can come up with something, we'll try it. But it's not going to happen. Just remember that. I'm doing this for you, to show you there's nothing more I can do for him.”

  Joy felt a vague spark of hope somewhere deep inside a heart that felt cracked by grief.

  “You do that. Because I believe there has to be a way. I think that you just haven't found it yet.”

  The days passed by.

  In that time, the news had broken that End Cyborg Life had been taken out – apparently, by Freedom security forces in alliance with the army of King Steel. But while Josh rubbed his hands together at the thought of such a stroke of genius in his game plan, Riley resented the claim – it was hardly an olive branch, even if the Premier saw it that way...

  The demand for a fortune he could not raise still stood in exchange for the life of Felix Lynch – making his attempt at trying to smooth the way for partnership between the City and the Valley seem like a bad joke. Riley had already decided as long as Josh was Premier, there would never be an alliance of any kind.

  And the days counted down as painfully for Lynch in his cell as they did for Elise back home in the Valley as she watched each sunset with dread knowing the day was coming closer when Felix would take a final walk down to the gas chamber in Freedom City prison...

  Joy had spent her time between Jekel's bedside and taking time out to spend a few hours in the town of Bullet, hoping that maybe she could save Elise from the kind of pain that she was inevitably going to suffer when Jekel breathed his last. Joy wanted to help even though there was nothing she could do because there were no ex UNA androids in Cyborg Valley – let alone any androids capable of accepting the kind of programming Elise had removed from her finely tuned, highly programmed mind. Joy had decided it was bad enough she would become a widow, she didn't want that to happen to Elise, too. Travis was losing his father but if she could stop Fi from losing hers, at least she had done something to stop more pain being brought forth into this world...

  Joy's search in Bullet had got her nowhere, and by the time it was mid-afternoon, she took a walk up the hill to the small church, the place where she had married Jekel just a few years before. Today the church was closed, but the gates were open and she walked down the path, stopped and looked around at the graves – all were recent, at least over the past nine years – a cyborgs grave yard... But the headstones looked so ordinary, so belonging in the old world, because time could change much in the way the world was shaped by the disasters that had befallen it, but grief, that heavy shadow that had lived through the passing of many times and ages and lived on still, cast the same dark sorrow here as it had in the old world with words of love and memoriam etched into the headstones.

  One day Jekel would be up here on this hill...

  But Lynch would be there before him.

  Joy drew in a sharp breath, fighting anger and grief that swirled inside her as she thought of the injustice of it all. And it was all the harder to bear because she knew no matter how many times she thought on the battles she had fought with Murdock at her side, some battles could not be fought and won – sometimes, there was no way to win...

  But then Joy looked to the skies and recalled Murdock's words when he had promised to help her when Sanctuary had been at war :

  “I told you before, if you ever needed me, I'd not leave you for dead, Joy. You won a place in my heart. Your help all those years ago will never go unforgotten, you hear me?”

  “I still hear you,” she whispered as she stood there looking skyward and thinking of deep space beyond, “You should see him,” she added, “Travis...he looks just like you...I wish you could hear me...”

  Then she blinked, drew the communications device from her pocket and turned the dial, knowing it was impossible, but maybe, just maybe nothing was impossible... Perhaps Riley's tinkering with the device would make that signal reach much further than Freedom City...much further indeed...

  Feeling as if this was slightly crazy and she ought to know better, Joy hurried over to a patch of lawn near the church and away from the graves, then she knelt down on the grass and activated the device. The screen lit up and static rolled and she spoke anyway, wondering if her words would echo out into the vastness of space beyond the earth.

  “Murdock?” she said, “I don't know if you can hear me but if you can... I'm losing Jekel. He's dying and no one can save him and I'd give anything...But you can't help with that. You can help Felix Lynch, though. He's a political prisoner in Freedom and he goes to the gas chamber tomorrow and he doesn't deserve it and...I don't want Elise to lose the man she loves! I'm losing Jekel and it's killing me but please if you can hear this, if you can come back, please save Felix...Please, Murdock?”

  The only reply that came back was the hiss of static, then a red light blinked on the device and she studied the message on the cracked screen :

  Message auto saved...

  She gave a heavy sigh, realising the signal had reached the war bird, which was in its hangar on the hillside, it had been picked up automatically and recorded by the on board communication system. She had sent the message, but just her own empty ship close by had picked it up...

  “It was worth a try,” she said, then she turned off the device, put it back in her pocket and got up, brushed grass from her clothing and headed back out of the gates and down the hillside, back towards the path that would lead back to Sanctuary, where she needed to be, at her husband's bedside once more.

  In Freedom City, as the afternoon skies began to cloud and rain threatened with a far off rumble of thunder, Steph looked nervously to the door as a knock sounded. Then she answered the door, and saw her personal guard standing there. He was just a guard, not a lover like Kade, but she valued his loyalty and the fact that his sister was a cyborg and lived in the valley had gone a long way to making this plan possible...

  “Here it is,” he said to her, handing her Joshes personal ID card, “I said the Premier's wife mislaid it and needed a second copy right away before her husband found out. Security were only too pleased to help.”

  She smiled.

  “Is my courier ready?”

  “Fifteen minutes, ma'am, “ he replied.

  “Very good,” she told him, “Thank you.”

  Then the guard left and she closed the door, thought about Josh down in the meeting room and quickly hurried over to the safe.

  Her hand shook as she turned the dial in nervous, jerking movements, recalling all the times she had seen him set the code. As the lock clicked back she opened up the heavy door and smiled at the sight of the large, plain brown cloth bag that was tied with slender, golden rope. She recalled a day long ago when the city was still in ruins and Josh had been personally over seeing the removal of rubble to clear the way for the rebuild – back in the days when he had card enough to make the effort to be hands on – and he had found something...

  “It's all ours!” he had told her, “One day, when the city is on its feet and I'm no longer Premier, we can live like kings thanks to this...”

  “Not we...” she murmured, snatching the bag from the safe and closing it up once more. Then she ran to the bedroom and hid the bag inside her packed suitcase that was at the side of the wardrobe – Josh had assumed it was packed for her trip to the Valley. It was actually packed for a much longer trip because she was leaving him for a new life in the Valley with Kade – but she would be going nowher
e until his duplicate pass card had been delivered to Cyborg Valley. It was all she could do, in the hope that someone could find a use for it – even if saving Lynch was impossible, at least it would mean some of that power he didn't deserve or use properly would be in the hands of King Steel, who could probably do a lot of political good with the Premier's personal key...

  The minutes ticked by. Steph put the card and a note into the envelope, then placed it into a secure metallic casing, which required Riley's thumb print to open, then as another knock sounded on the door of the apartment, she took a deep breath, went to the door and handed the package to the courier, knowing this was not quite her final gesture to the man she was leaving soon – before she departed, he would know exactly what she thought of him and his terrible management of Freedom City, his treatment of General Lynch, and what she thought of him as a husband, too...

  It was evening and the skies over the valley looked streaked with amber and gold as the sun sank low and sleepy over the hillside. Elise was sat at the table in Riley's office in the medical centre, with Fi beside her, because he had explained he couldn't conduct this call from the mansion, not while he was monitoring Ash so closely. As Riley switched on the screen and began to tune into the private line, Elise looked to her daughter and smiled, making sure Fi was happy and would not be shedding tears. Fi did not know this was the last time she would speak to her Dad. Elise had already been put in the picture regarding the crazy fine that would be demanded in the morning, and Riley had been brutally honesty. Elise had not given up on him finding her an android, and he was sure she only clung to that hope because to accept all chances were gone was too much to bear.

  As the screen cleared, she saw Felix and her heart beat faster as she kept back her tears as the human side of her whispered that soon she would know that pain she had always feared – the pain of losing the man she loved. It had almost happened after the war, after the explosion had ripped his body apart. She had watched him struggle through terrible pain and learn to live as a cyborg and then, in changing times, a fugitive – and to think his death was being forced upon him come morning, was enough to make her want to scream. The human side of her was by far the strongest when it came to understanding human emotion, and in her hybrid mind she processed that pain as the death of the one she loved – but never the death of her love for him...

  Felix was standing at a distance from the screen, wearing his usual black clothing, his long coat was open and he wore his fingerless leather gloves and the studs on them shone under the light in the cell. He limped as he made his way over to the seat, then he pulled it out and sat down and looked into the camera. He looked immaculately groomed and as he looked into the screen, he smiled. Elise caught the pain in his eyes but Fi did not as he put on a brave front and began to speak.

  “I'm aware of the deal...I'm also aware of the obvious outcome,” he added, “But the good news is, the connection in my leg has been temporarily sealed so at least come morning I can take that walk with dignity...Have you made any progress with that list of yours, Frankie? Have you reached number five yet?”

  Elise shook her head.

  “No, but...it's not tomorrow yet.”

  “When are you coming home, Dad?” asked Fi.

  Elise looked away at that moment, unable to catch the look in his eyes as he hid his grief from his daughter.

  “When this is over. However it ends, I will come home. But sometimes we can only live as a memory, Fi. Promise me you'll always keep me in your heart, just in case?”

  She looked at him in confusion.

  “In case of what?”

  He gave a little shrug as he looked down at the table, unable to lie and look his daughter in the eye.

  “Just...because sometimes its the best way,” then he met her gaze again, “But I do love you very much, sweetheart. Many years ago I could have been a dad, a husband, too - I could have done a lot of things but I didn't. And then I met your mother and everything changed. I changed. You changed my life, Fiona.”

  As his eyes shone with warmth he smiled.

  “I have so many wonderful memories, and when I can't be with you, those memories keep me going. What do you want to be when you grow up? Have you decided yet?”

  Fi smiled.

  “I want to be a princess like Melissa Thorn-Riley.”

  Lynch laughed softly.

  “Well I'm not sure that will happen because Melissa was married to Blake's son who died in the Sanctuary war, that's why she's a princess...but you'll always be my princess.”

  “I love you, Dad,” said Fi, and he looked at her for a moment, taking in every detail of her face.

  “I love you too,” he promised his daughter.

  Then Lynch looked to Elise.

  “How is everyone back home?”

  “We're losing Jekel,” she said, “His power line burned out and he's in a coma. There's nothing Riley can do.”

  Sadness flickered in his gaze as he thought of the gentle man who he had forced to take up arms and fight years before, vowing he would force him to earn his stripes – and he certainly had, and well deserved the nickname of Tiger...

  “When I first met him I thought he was no fighter but I was wrong,” he replied, “He's faced so much with courage...right to the end...Oh god, poor Jekel...be sure to give my love to Joy and Travis.”

  “I will... and I just wish I could give my love to you right now, I wish I could reach through that screen and take hold of your hand one more time.”

  “I'm so glad we met, Frankie,” he said softly, “I don't want to say goodbye, but I really do think I must. I don't want to say it -”

  “Then don't!” she said sharply.

  Lynch blinked, staring at her through the screen.

  “But Elise, I've spent days getting ready for the inevitable -”

  “And you can shut up now!” she said firmly, “You're going to listen to me, okay? You will get released tomorrow, you're not going to the gas chamber! You're coming home to Cyborg Valley and we're not living between the pub and the motor home any more, we're going to find a proper place to raise Elise. And...we're getting married!”

  Her words had stunned him.

  “Elise,” he joked, “Me? Marriage? That will make me not want to come home! Are you trying to make the gas chamber seem like a welcoming thought?”

  The flicker of a smile briefly showed on her face then it was gone.

  “I haven't given up and neither should you, I love you and you mustn't underestimate how hard I'm going to try to stop this! You belong here with us, forever.”

  A light blinked in the corner of the screen.

  “I think this is our last goodbye,” he said in a hushed voice, “Time is running out.”

  She placed her hand on the screen as Felix did the same, and as he looked into her eyes he saw something of the slightly other worldly look about them that reminded him his Elise was so much more than a mere mortal.

  “I will save you, I'll find a way,” she vowed, then the screen fell dark as the communication ended.

  Elise took her hand off the screen and looked to her daughter.

  “Let's go home,” she said, and as she got up and her daughter followed, she cast a glance to Riley.

  “There's still time. We need an android. You have the part. Find the android, fit the part and activate the program. You can't stop looking now, we've got hours left!”

  “I haven't stopped looking, I'll run through the data base of every patient who has been through the med centre in the last nine years...it's going to take a while but maybe there's been a few androids who have been seen by my staff...I can't personally recall any, but maybe...”

  “Good idea,” she replied, “Don't lose hope – there's still time.”

  Riley nodded.

  “I'll stay up all night and work on it if I have to. Appeal process wont be debated until nine am and then...if the worst comes of it... well, let's just say we have around twelve hours to try and solve this,
okay?”

  “Thank you, I know you'll try, Blake.”

  Then she and Elise left the room and Riley gave a heavy sigh, sat down at his desk and thought of the impossible task he was faced with. If there was a high specification android in Cyborg Valley, and they were found before morning – maybe there was a chance...But the chance of finding one, was practically zero. Riley turned on his screen, linked it to his computer system and waited for the old machinery to start up as he prepared to spend a long evening ploughing through old medical records, hoping at some point he had treated an android for repairs who matched the criteria.

  As she watched Travis sitting at his father's bedside, Joy felt powerless and hated the feeling, knowing there was nothing she could do to change this situation.

  “Please don't die,” Travis said quietly as Jekel lay there with his eyes closed, unaware of his son's presence, “I can't imagine you not being there. And I'm not grown up yet. I need my Dad.”

  Joy thought silently of his real father and she wished that communications device had worked, she wished she could have heard Murdock's voice again, even if just to know he was out there and could still reach her, it would have been some comfort, but now she felt so alone and incapable of fighting this because it wasn't a situation that required fighting skills – this was the tall shadow of death casting its never changing shadow, and nothing could defeat it...She knew she was losing him and had never needed Murdock's presence in her life more than she did now...

  She looked to Travis and felt enough hope to pull her through the worst when it happened. He looked so much like his father – he looked like Murdock and had been raised by Ash, he had so much of the best of both men she had loved and still loved...

  “We should go now, time to go back to the house and time soon for you to go to bed. Your Dad wouldn't want you staying up all night.”

  “See you tomorrow, Dad,” Travis said, and he kissed his father's cheek before stepping back from the bed.