33 Degrees of Separation (Legacy)

by Rain Carrington

  Ian felt that in his heart, because he’d felt the same way, until Pat. “There’s nothing I do that should make Pat love me, but he does. And don’t say this, what we did tonight. I not only had a lot of help, but I was nothing like this at first. I went hiding in a cabin. There was nothing to love, and still, Pat saw things about me that I didn’t know were there. I don’t deserve him any more than you did. I don’t think anyone deserves him, but for some reason, you, and then me, he saw us and loved us.”

  Javi nodded and said, “That’s why, Ian. That’s why he loves you. Stop this shit before I try to take you away from him.”

  “Not possible, but if he ever got tired of me, the only other guy I’d want is you.”

  Javi leaned over the seat and kissed him on the mouth, letting his lips linger there for a little longer than Ian would have liked, but he wouldn’t push him away, not with Javi feeling so down. He’d tell Pat, of course, and wouldn’t let him be angry about it.

  “Let’s get me home. I just hope Pat doesn’t kill me for taking the vaccine.”

  He didn’t. Like Javi, once Ian told him everything, he was on the fence, struggling to stay angry. “Babe, this is insane, but it’s good too. If we have this, we might be able to make more, and thwart all their scheming.”

  “Unless they find out first and switch viruses, Papi. You don’t think they got a backup plan? These guys, shit, they’re whole thing is a backup plan.”

  “Yeah, but not if they don’t find it missing right away. If we can get another vial in there, we may be okay.”

  Javi slapped a hand over the book. “That ain’t all he’s got, that was just the part he was worried to tell you. In the same room with the vaccines and viruses, well, the lists of who got which.”

  “The lists? Of who they plan to give the virus to?”

  “Yes, and the lists of those who get the vaccine, and then there were some lists not filled out, of the people we were supposed to get to know and find out about for the Grail.”

  Pat stared at them both for a moment, then came to at least one decision. “Baby, go get that makeup off. Matthew left some creams and astringent to take off the prosthetics and get changed back into your suit. We need to head back and speak to your father. I want to know why the fuck he didn’t tell us that the virus was there. I’d have never let you go if I would have known that.”

  “Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell us. He knew you wouldn’t let me go.”

  Pat growled and stormed out of the room, leaving Javi and Ian to wonder how much of a blowout it would be back at the estate. “Mijo, he’ll chill out before you get there. At least, I think so. Do what he said, get back to your own face.”

  “Thanks, Javi.”

  With the makeup and prosthetics cleaned off, he changed into his own suit once more. As he did, he thought about Pat’s reaction, knew how upset he was, and thought about what he’d said. His father hadn’t told them about the virus in the bunker. Did he know? If not, why didn’t he know?

  He had a million questions by the time they got to the estate. The party outside was over, but there were still groups in the home, his father’s study held five Grail members when Ian came in, pretending to be intoxicated.

  “Ian, come, sit and have a brandy with us, unless you’ve overindulged.”

  Ian caught the hint but wanted to stay. “I probably have had a little too much, Father, but we only have so much youth to sew our oats, yes?”

  A few of the men chuckled dryly and agreed with him, so his father seemed to relax and handed him a brandy.

  As Ian swirled it around the glass, the stem between his ring and middle fingers, he watched over the other men, all a little tipsy themselves, but hiding it nicely.

  “How was your evening, son?”

  “It was fun, thank you, Father. I went back to my apartment and some friends were there to celebrate with me.”

  “Girl friends?” The man who asked was a skinny, balding man with terrible acne scars on his face. Ian thought wildly, why wouldn’t he have had those fixed with surgery, but then again, why should he? He had a beautiful wife anyway, thanks to his money and giving her everything she could ever want.

  “Some, yes, were girls. Very pretty ones.” He turned to his father, asking, “Can I speak to you alone for a moment, Father?”

  “Ian, we can’t be rude to our guests.”

  Ian looked over the faces, some he knew, most he didn’t. “I guess I can say it in front of them.”

  “Ian, please, if you’ll meet me in the morning, I’m sure we can still discuss anything you need to tell me.”

  Ignoring him, Ian lifted his hands out from his sides and said, “No, Father, I should probably speak to everyone. You see, I wanted to properly thank you.” Ian’s father eyed him hard, but he definitely had the rapt attention of the rest of them. “Being with family, right now, a family that goes beyond blood, but to a lineage and legacy that goes back hundreds of years, I wanted to thank you, Father, and now, all of you. I got to see tonight, this life, versus the one I had been living in school. My friends there, well, they mean well, I suppose, but being a Grail now, I see beyond that. Beyond insignificant friendships and lovers. I see the future, and the future is the Grail. Leading the world, giving power to those of us that count, it’s truly the right way.”

  Ian’s father glared at him, but another of the men said, “Ian, this is so good to hear. We understand you had been hesitant, well, after the initiation. Many of us were, but we come around to see the truth. Welcome, son. Welcome.”

  His hand was shaken by all the men in the room, and to each, he nodded, and thanked them individually. Finally, his father shook his hand and told the others, “I’ll walk him out. Excuse me, gentlemen.”

  After closing the doors of the study, Ian’s father walked him to the stairs. “That was a nice save.”

  “I need to see you as soon as you can get away.”

  “What happened? Didn’t you find-”

  “I found the papers, but I found more. There’s no time now but come to my room as soon as you can.”

  “Of course.” He started to head back to the study but stopped and turned. “Are you in danger, son?”

  “Not exactly. No more than everyone else, I suppose.”

  In his bedroom, Pat waited for him, and the moment the doors were closed, Pat grabbed him and practically yanked him off his feet, holding him so tight, Ian could barely breathe. “I’m never going to like you taking risks, Ian.”

  “I know,” he mumbled on Pat’s shirt. “I knew you’d be mad, but I had to.”

  “What did your father say?”

  “I won’t know that until he comes up here and talks to me. He was surrounded by Grails.”

  Pat pulled him to the bed and started to take off his jacket. “Go get in the shower and wash that place off.”

  “Yeah. I need to. Pat?”

  “Yeah?”

  Ian didn’t look at him as he started for the bathroom. “I’m scared I won’t be able to do this. I’m scared for…everyone.”

  “Me too, baby. Me too.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  It was two hours before Ian’s father came to his room. Pat stood by the door and got a long glance from the man. “I know you’re not really a bodyguard, but can you stand outside the door and keep watch?”

  Pat’s eyes met his, and Ian nodded to him. “He won’t say anything I won’t tell you, and he knows that.”

  “I do,” he grumbled.

  Once Pat was gone, Ian had his father sit on the couch across from him. “Why didn’t you tell me the virus was there?”

  He watched his father’s reaction, the way his eyes widened, jaw dropping and knew that it was a surprise to him as well. “What did you say?”

  “The virus, Father. The vaccines, they’re there, at the bunker. The bunker that only the top people in the order are allowed.”

  After rising and turning away, Ian’s father went to the window, snapping the drape aside
as he stared out of it. “Jesus Christ. They know about me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, Ian, I should have been told it was ready. I should have been told it was moved.”

  “Father…”

  Ian didn’t have to wonder if his father was acting, he felt it from the man. The pain of it, and the realization. “Ian, tell me everything you saw.”

  Ian did, from the time he got there to the time he left the mountain. The only thing he left out was how nervous he was, but he did admit to stealing one of the vials.

  “Ian…that was probably unwise but I’m glad of it.”

  “That’s the general consensus. What now?”

  “Now, Ian, I take a vial back, and find out why I haven’t been told.”

  Feeling himself shaking from the mere thought, he stood and yelled at his father, “You can’t!”

  “Ian, sit down!”

  “Father, put the vial back, fine, but to ask them why they didn’t tell you? What if they kill you?”

  Looking older and more tired than he should, Ian’s father sighed, “They can’t kill me, Ian, for asking a question. There would need to be a tribunal and vote from the entire order to kill me, being my status. The perks of being over ten degrees.”

  Ian hadn’t known that. He slowly sat again, gaping at his father. “So they wouldn’t need that for me?”

  “No, just the agreement of at least five top members, Ian. We do have our perks, as I’ve said. Keep up what you did in my study earlier and you’ll be top member faster than I became one.”

  “I don’t want that, Father. You know that.”

  “You were so convincing. Your grandfather would have come in his pants to hear you tonight. I guess it brought me back to my own eagerness at your age.”

  Blanching at the thought of his grandfather, and anything to do with orgasms, Ian pushed down his rising bile and soothed, “No, Father, I’m nothing like you or him when it comes to the Grail. I hated it from the start and will always hate it. Don’t ask them, Father, please. Let’s come up with a plan.”

  “I thought we had one.”

  “Sure. Javi is finding the members of the army, he’s going to talk to them, offer the money we’ve put up to them. Now, we have the sheets, showing them that most of their families will not be saved. I’m talking about for the Grail members. I’m talking about stopping them. Without their army, they’re vulnerable.”

  “They can raise another army in weeks. Maybe faster, Ian.”

  The impulse to shake the man was strong. It seemed he was ready to give up, and Ian wouldn’t allow that. “You got me into this, Father. Tell me what we do to stop them. All of them.”

  Ian’s father sat forward, his eyes finally meeting his. “We have to kill them, Ian.”

  “Kill them? We can’t, I don’t know, put them in prison?”

  “Ian, get real. They’d buy the judges and everyone else. If they did get into prison, they’d pay to escape, then pay well to never be found. There would be no freezing their assets, because little is in our individual names. It’s all companies and offshore accounts. Ian, the only way to stop the Grail is to kill them. I thought you realized that.”

  There was no shock to it, because he did know that. “I guess I was hoping there was another way.”

  “There isn’t. You got the vaccine. Would it have been as easy to get the virus?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “We should destroy it as we do them. Possibly, we could do it all at once, but only the top members,” he was musing more to himself than to Ian, and once he realized that, he assured, “I’ll tell you when I’ve thought it out more completely.”

  Ian was afraid to ask, so he didn’t. For once, he didn’t want to know. “I trust you, Father.”

  “You probably shouldn’t, Ian, but thank you. I don’t take that lightly.”

  Ian moved to sit next to his father, and in a moment of rare closeness, his father reached for his hand and held it, squeezing. “You know, son, my father…he was a terrible man, looking back. It wasn’t that he ignored me most of my life, except when he was demanding excellence. It was that he wished for this to happen in his time on earth. I think the greatest disappointment of his life was that the culling didn’t happen while he was alive, so he could watch it.”

  “That’s sick, Father.”

  He turned to Ian and smiled a little, then asked in a cracking voice, “Can you…can you call me dad?”

  “Yeah. I can do that. Dad.”

  Pat came in after Ian Junior left, and he obviously wanted to know what was happening, but to his credit, he didn’t push for answers. He took Ian into his arms and then took him to bed, undressing him, kissing him, loving him.

  Ian needed that, to be in Pat’s arms all night, to syphon the strength from him that he’d need. He was about to become a mass murderer. He’d kill all the Grails if need be, and he wouldn’t regret it. That bothered him only a little, thinking on it. That lack of guilt he’d feel that would make him only slightly better than the Grails themselves. Killing without remorse, making decisions for mankind.

  Playing God.

  Pat made love to him, but it wasn’t as gentle as Ian expected. Pat knew he’d need it rough, to take him out of his head, and that’s what Pat gave him. Holding him down on the bed, pounding into him, telling him what a dirty boy he was for begging. And Ian did beg, pled with Pat for more, for harder, the sweat on them both making them slide against one another lewdly.

  Ian’s desperate groans was in terrific contrast to Pat’s rough grunts. The whole thing was a contrast, one giving, the other taking, one brute and the other timid. Ian gave his control over so willingly that night, he feared he may never get it back, but Pat would never allow that. Ian would need it in the coming days.

  Like he was being split in two, Pat hammered inside him, and he wanted more, tearing at Pat’s flesh whenever Pat would release his hands. They were animal in that coupling, more that Ian needed. To be human seemed to be foreign to him, having human feelings, human conscience. It was easier, better to be an animal, running on instinct and need.

  He didn’t allow Pat to spill his seed in the condom, moving quickly from under him, pushing him over to his back and stripping his cock of the condom. He sucked him then, wanting the taste of him to carry him into sleep.

  He swallowed like he was starving, cherishing every last drop that Pat gifted him. He was brought up after, onto Pat’s chest, over his wet, curled chest hair to lay and regain his breath.

  “Sleep, Ian. I’m not fucking asking. You’ll sleep tonight. You need the rest.”

  “Don’t you want to know what my father and I discussed?”

  “Not tonight. I told you to go to sleep and I fucking mean it.”

  How could he argue with that?

  The next morning, he went to the kitchen with Pat, and was surprised to see Theresa there cooking with Fiona. “Where did you find this woman? She’s amazing,” Fiona exclaimed, hugging Ian before they sat at the counter.

  “I called her to come here,” Pat told him. To Fiona, he said, “We ate at this little diner in the mountains, and couldn’t get her food off our minds, so Ian surprised me with having her come cook for us. He then hired her for once a week, and when she called last night, I figured, why not? She can come here.”

  Theresa laughed as she cracked eggs into a bowl. “I’ve cooked in a lot of kitchens in my time, but never one this fancy. This is beautiful.”

  “I like it,” Fiona bragged. “If I ever open my own place, I always thought I’d model the kitchen after this one, with a few changes for the public, of course. It’s set up perfectly for a cook.”

  Ian loved hearing the banter about things mundane and ordinary. He’d told Pat everything as soon as they woke and wanted to forget it all again for a little while.

  “I need to get started on her majesty’s breakfast. I can’t even imagine how she’d react to a Denver omelet. She’s faint or something.”

>   “God forbid,” Ian drawled.

  “Is this a permanent move?” Theresa asked as she whisked.

  “Yes,” Ian said, surprising Pat. “Well, not permanent, but we’ll be here a while. I need to be close to my father right now. We have…we have a lot of work we need to do.”

  “Sure, sure, and why not? This place is great. I just never saw you in a place like this, though,” she said, then stammered, “N-not that…no offense!”

  “That was a compliment,” he assured. “I think, after here, Pat and I will probably have our own place.”

  Theresa grinned at them, and Fiona dropped her skillet with a clang. “Moving in together? Ian, honey, that’s just great!”

  Not that they’d spoken about it, but he looked to Pat to see his reaction. Pat was smiling, and added, “An older house, something Ian could restore.”

  “I think that’s great. You two will be very happy.”

  Pat grabbed his hand and informed the women, “We already are. Very happy, that is.”

  Ian knew he was, under all the dread and pain he was experiencing. He wanted to be finished with all of it, so they could move on, into that house and be together, happy, unencumbered by the worries of the world.

  In less than a week, they’d be in the thick of it. Ian’s father gathered them in the den, making Pat bring in Javi and Denny as well.

  “Give me the vial, Ian.”

  Handing it to his father, he felt a pang of guilt. “Are you…putting it back?”

  “No, I need to know what it looks like to duplicate it. I’ll take it back tonight, after I get the duplicate.” He read the label on the vial. “Vaccine for SJ567. The virus they are using, this SJ567, it’s targeted. It hits the immune system first. The scientists they have on staff, they took bits of different diseases and synthesized them, taking the one part of them they needed, and discarding the rest. It will hit the immune system, like an auto-immune disease, say lupus. The immune system will attack itself first, taking itself out of the equation.”

  Javi broke in, “So a person’s immunity will not fight the rest of it?”

  “Yes. That’s why it’s lethal. Scientists have been doing this for decades, now. Those in government labs, making bioweapons, they needed the research from illnesses that affect the immune system, therefore making it impossible for our own bodies to attack whatever plague they want to give us. With things like lupus, Celiac disease, AIDS, of course, the research they did on all the different diseases have been beneficial to them. They can target the exact part of the immune system that would allow our bodies to fight off the virus they created.”