by Jill Cooper
The glistenings were gone. Jenna knew that, but in that moment, listening to them rush out, Jenna couldn’t care. Dirk kissed her again, breathing against her cheek. She wished for only a few moments to be lost in him forever. She buried her face against his neck, knew there was so much to talk about and do, but in that moment she wanted nothing more than to just breathe him in.
Jenna did not get her wish.
Dirk’s phone was ringing and he brought it up as Jenna cuddled against his chest, and his free arm squeezed her tight. “Rebecca.” His voice was tender against her ear.
Jenna snatched the phone from him and scrolled through the messages. “Wendy and my mother never arrived.” It looked like Jenna should have taken her mother’s calls after all.
****
Jane couldn’t believe their luck. What kind of backward hick part of the country where they in anyway? “You realize she is very close to having this baby right here? If it dies, it’s worthless. To everyone.” Her words were harsh, but with her gun outside, she saw no other alternative. Behind her Wendy’s breathing was rushed every few minutes. If the teenager didn’t start screaming soon that she needed to push, Jane would be surprised.
“We called the New Haven Initiative. They’re sending someone for her and the baby. It’s a monster, right? Be placed inside one of those bubble towns? Then we get our money. They told us not to let you leave, by any means necessary. This,” he said, pointing the gun in Jane’s face, “is necessary.”
Jane stared at it and realized she had no choice but to deliver the baby. She always told herself get from moment to moment. This moment she was alive and the next moment she might come up with a plan to escape, but right now, there wasn’t any such plan. Wendy was in no condition to run. At the moment, the girl was barely conscious, and for the good of the child, Jane needed to deliver it there. She would have to worry about where it ended up later.
“I’ll deliver the baby,” Jane said, seeing how pleased her captor was. “But I’m going to need a lot of towels. And hot water.” She returned to Wendy, whose eyes were glazed and from her breathing, a new cycle of contractions were beginning. The girl’s hair was thick with sweat and Jane smoothed it back. “I know you’re scared, but we’re going to get through this. Take it one breath at a time.”
“I can’t, not with them watching.” Wendy glanced toward the door.
Jane glowered at them. “Do you mind?”
When they had more privacy Wendy grabbed Jane by the shirt and pulled her close. “Once it’s born, I need you to take the baby. Run. Don’t let New Haven take it,” she whispered.
“Wendy,” Jane’s eyes grew wide. “You’re its mother.”
“I’m in no shape to run. I have to protect him. Which means you need to promise me.”
Jane swallowed hard. “That’s not what I meant when I said that. It’s not what I meant, darling.”
“If you can get the baby away from New Haven, you have to take it. Please,” Wendy begged and Jane agreed, if only to give her some peace as the cycle of birth continued.
Hours passed as Wendy’s contractions became so intense that they drew the attention of the wait staff. The girl was exhausted, and screaming, but not advancing as well as Jane would have liked. She got the girl on her knees, rocking back and forth to try to get the baby to descend, but Wendy only cried in agony. “Please, God,” she moaned, “don’t let me die.”
Jane seconded that prayer, but not aloud. If the girl managed to birth the baby, it’d be a miracle. Her vitals were weak and she was exhausted. She steeled herself for an emergency C-section. One that was sure to leave Wendy dead.
She could feel the top of the baby’s scalp. “It’s right there, Wendy. It’s right there. All we need is a few good pushes and we can get him out, I promise you.” Wendy’s arms shook from holding herself up, but she couldn’t respond. All she did was cry.
Outside Jane heard the sound of sirens. Seemed the cavalry had arrived and there was nothing she could do anymore as police swarmed the restaurant. It wasn’t the state police, but they wore badges that appointed them as part of a secret security panel for New Haven, the ones that took orders from only Alistar Humphries. Which meant they were dirtier than pigs in mud.
“Step away from the teenager, Dr. Morgan. We have a lot of questions for you and your organization’s involvement in all this. Harboring a known glistening baby? I think you know the punishment for that.”
As she should, Jane thought to herself. She put her game face on as she faced them. “I think time to do that would be later. Right now this girl is about two minutes away from giving birth and I would like to see the baby born successfully first. I know New Haven doesn’t care, but if it doesn’t, it’ll kill the girl and it will die inside her. Any issues with me saving their lives?”
“We have an ambulance.”
Jane shook her head and behind her Wendy screamed. “I think you can see we won’t make it.”
“I need to push!” Wendy bellowed, lifting her head off the pillows, her teeth gritted together like a vise.
Jane did by holding both of Wendy’s feet in the air. For next several minutes she saw nothing but Wendy, guiding her breathing and her pushes, as she struggled to move the baby through the birth canal. The shrills of pain were intense and from the amount of blood Wendy was losing, it was hard for Jane to see if they were making any progress.
Wendy collapsed onto her pillow between contractions. “I feel like I’m gonna snap in two.”
“Sssh,” Jane whispered, “save your strength. Next push will be up in just a few seconds.”
The girl’s breath quickened and Jane could see the contraction playing out on her face. Taking a deep breath, Wendy pushed as long as she could. Between her legs, was a crown of black hair. “Keep at it,” Jane ordered. “Push, push! C’mon, girl!”
Wendy screamed, keeping her chin to her chest.
“Stop, stop.” Jane took the baby’s head in her hand. She cleared its mouth. It was smaller than Jenna had been by a long shot, but its features were perfect and under the blood, beautiful. “A slow, controlled push on the next contraction.”
Wendy nodded, and bore down. Jane slid the baby’s body free, but it wasn’t breathing yet. Small for a glistening, but about average size for a human newborn, she wasn’t sure if it was all right. Maybe it had come too soon. Just as she was about to say something, the baby’s limbs jerked and he cried that shaky newborn warble.
His mother cried too. “He’s really okay?” Her voice was so quiet, Jane barely heard her.
“He really is.” Jane wrapped the baby in the soft linens offered to her by the waitress. With the umbilical cord cut, she brought the baby over to Wendy and placed him in the crook of her arm. Wendy was beaming a new-mother smile but she was still in bad shape. She was still bleeding and her arms were too weak to hold the baby herself without assistance.
“You go clean him up for me?” Wendy said, but her eyes said something else.
Jane took a breath. “Yes. Then we get you to a hospital. You need medics.”
Wendy kissed the top of her baby’s head. Her chin trembled. Jane hoped she could hold it together as she took the baby from her and turned to the New Haven security officers.
“Where do you think you’re going?” their leader said. “We’ll clean the baby up at the hospital.”
“I don’t want his eyes to get infected.” Jane lied. “His face needs cleaning. He’s a preemie and is going to need extra care.”
The officer nodded, but the one beside him snorted. “Like it’s going to matter in the long run.”
Jane knew. She quickly slid past them and followed the waitress toward the bathroom. In the woman’s hand was a small key. “Never heard anything about a baby’s eyes getting infected after birth.”
“I’m sure you haven’t heard of a lot of things,” Jane said coolly. “Like decency and morality.”
The waitress snorted. “It wasn’t my idea. Once Dale gets an idea in
his head...” She pointed down the hall. “Bathroom is on the left. Straight ahead is the exit to the back. This,” she put the key in Jane’s free hand, “is the key to my sedan. Try not to wreck it.”
She left Jane speechless, thankful, but speechless. She didn’t try to thank the lady. No time. With a nod of her head, she left and headed outside where the sun was beginning to come up.
Inside the sedan she found an old blanket, wrapped the baby in it, and started the car. As she threw it in reverse, Jane searched for her PDA. She was going to need a lot of help. Soon that baby would be hungry. And the type of milk it wanted, Jane couldn’t buy in a store.
Dead ahead she could see the police were already hurrying toward their patrol cars. She prayed to God someone cared enough about Wendy to see she that got to the hospital.
Her phone buzzed and she saw it was her daughter. In the end, she always came through.
Chapter Twenty-Nine Wendy
While Wendy gave birth, Jenna’s van rocketed over the terrain, the headlights bobbing, illuminating small rocks along the side of the road. So far, no sign of Jane or Wendy. Jenna gripped the wheel and floored the gas. She had to catch them. Everything she went through couldn’t be for nothing and Jenna refused to lose her mother.
Refused.
“No answer, Jenn.” Dirk said softly, Jenna’s phone in his hand.
“Try again.” She was edgy, angry, but tried not to be with him. “Keep trying until she answers.”
They drove along and the road curved as they came to a bridge over a small ravine. The headlights shone on a metal hubcap and then a wrecked van. Jane’s van.
Jenna cut the engine and hopped out in one swoop, turning on her flashlight. “Mom!” She screamed, and tore forward. She nearly tripped over a leg. Using her flashlight she saw that the leg beyond to a man whose face was blown off. She tapped his forehead with her foot and more blood spilled out. She scrunched her nose as the scent made her stomach rumble with hunger. Disgusted, vomit rose in her throat and she swallowed it back while Dirk went through his jacket pockets.
“Looks like a shotgun blast.”
Jenna nodded because that's all she could do as her mind reeled. “My mother’s preferred weapon of choice.”
Dirk flipped through the man’s wallet. “Guess who? Our popular resident gun-for-hire.” He tossed it to Jenna, who gave it a glance before her eyes swept over the scene. The truck looked more like melted-down metal than a vehicle. And inside the van the gurney was empty. Medical equipment was scattered everywhere. And her mother’s fallen hat was on the ground.
Jenna touched it and her light illuminated sheets of the cot. They were stained with blood droplets. She bit her lip. “Where the hell are you?”
“Jen,” Dirk said from the front, pointing to a second body. “These guys are dead. On impact, it seems from how his face is one with the dash. Hard way to go.”
Jenna nodded, lost in thought. “So,” she said, “Thomas with his impeccable intelligence rams the van to reclaim his prize. My mother shoots him. Gets Wendy out and then what?” She hopped down from the chassis and back onto the rugged mountain. “Which way would they go?”
Dirk glanced at his phone, bringing up his GPS.
Jenna walked down the road, shining her light on bushes and twigs. In the mud she saw the impression of knees and a set of hands, like someone had fallen. Wendy, she guessed. Her stomach tight, she continued on, staying on the main road until it split. A green rest stop sign pointed south. It was only a few miles away.
That was where she would take Wendy, and then radio for help.
“Jen, Silver Train diner is only two miles from here. Gas, food, phones.”
“Let’s get back on the road. We might not have much time.” Jenna ran to the van, slid in, and shifted into reverse before Dirk closed his door. “Call the police. See if anyone has called in distress.”
Dirk was already on the phone. “We’ll find them, don’t worry.”
Jenna knew her mother was capable and could handle herself, but taking care of Wendy and her unborn baby would be of utmost importance. Jane would put her own wellbeing last, and while Jenna admired her mother’s strength and sacrifices, she didn’t want her mother to die for a glistening baby. If something happened to her, Jenna didn’t think she’d ever forgive herself.
“I should have went with them.” She muttered. “Damn it, Dirk.” Tears filled her eyes and Dirk squeezed her hand.
“FBI is running the show now,” Dirk said to her, then spoke on the phone. “Agent, I’m glad to have connected to you.” Dirk took a breath and listened to the person on the other end.
“Ha, New Haven jokes. Love it. Listen, we’re on the same side. I know you guys think we have carte blanche to do anything we want, but right now our goals are the same. I need to make sure a woman and a pregnant teen are all right. She’s in severe distress.”
Jenna’s heart wrenched at his words. Dirk really did care and she had been so blind by her own hate of the glistenings that she didn’t see it. Damn her blood, and her mother, for putting her in this position. She thought if she saw her mother again, she might punch her between the eyes. Thinking about it, made her feel better.
She glanced at Dirk from the corner of her eye. He was listening and nodding. “Several in custody? Who?”
Jenna took a deep breath and steadied herself.
“Okay, keep us up to the date on her situation.” Dirk slapped his phone shut, running his fingers along his lips. “Jenn—”
“Just give it to me straight, Dirk.”
“Wendy gave birth at the Silver Train under duress. Some guys there recognized her from TV and they were going to sell the kid to the highest bidder.”
Jenna took a sharp intake of air. Damn her mother and her luck for trouble. “And Mom?”
“Your mother took the baby and escaped, taking a waitress’s car. She was seen going west. If we hurry, maybe we can catch up.”
Relief washed over her, but it was brief. “There’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”
“There were New Haven police on her tail. Special Forces, straight from Alistar’s private task force.”
They passed the Silver Train Diner and Jenna accelerated, continuing west. This was the road that would take Jane home toward Chicago. If New Haven hadn’t already killed her and the baby, that was. Jenna could see her mother, defiant in the face of certain death, even as she stared down her would-be assassin. Her mother was too good for that. If only Jenna could make her understand how much her life was worth.
“Wendy?”
“It’s bad, Jen. But she was taken by ambulance. They are headed to the hospital now. They’ll call us when they get there.”
“Call my mother again,” Jenna said.
Dirk complied and this time, he got an answer. “Jane? Hold on.”
Jenna snatched the phone from him. “Mother, how do you get yourself in these messes?”
“Probably the same way you do, dear. I need your help. I have New Haven on my tail and I can’t shake them. I need you to intercept.”
“We’ll work on it. Can you send me your location to this phone?”
“Doing it now.”
“Good.” Jenna took a breath. “When you see us coming, keep going. Don’t look back. We’ll catch up with you later just get that baby to your compound. Is it...is it all right?”
“So far he’s sleeping, but he needs food, Jenna.”
“And you’ll get it the food it needs. Just keep going.” Jenna hung up and handed the phone to Dirk. “Work on a way for us to cut them off. We’ll never catch up from behind. I don’t care if we have to turn this van into an all-terrain vehicle, we have to get there before New Haven overtakes them. Or uses their rumble strip.”
They fell quiet while Dirk worked and Jenna drove. Each minute felt like an hour until he handed her the phone. She studied the gravel roads and the off-terrain paths she would have to travel to cut them off. Looked like there was a guard rail and a wro
ng-way highway trip in her future. People were always saying she was on a suicide mission.
Jenna took a hard left and the van rocketed down a path designed for bikes. When her phone chirped she scanned it with laughter and handed it to Dirk. “This just in: Rebecca Seers’s press conference, and evidence has been presented to the Department of Justice. New Haven Police authority has been suspended outside the bubbles. And an arrest warrant has been issued for good ol’ boy Alistar Humphries.”
Dirk whistled. “Straight to the top. That Rebecca works fast.”
A few more hard rights and a hard left sent them careening in what felt like a circle. Jenn pressed her foot to the floor and the van rocketed through the trees and crashed down on four tires onto the open road. The van buckled, nearly tipped, and Jenna gripped the steering wheel for support as Dirk braced himself on the dashboard. She read his look of surprise. Maybe he thought she was crazy, but he kept the thoughts to himself, so Jenna pushed on.
She straightened the wheel, her eyes straining through the trees that lined the road. The roar of traffic grewlouder, and she could make out headlights through the trees. Dirk glanced at her phone to pinpoint Jane’s exact GPS location. “Drive three minutes this way, cut across the highway, pass the divider, and we’re golden!”
“Be your chance to be a crash test dummy.”
Dirk laughed and shook his head at her. “I love you, Jen.”
“I’ll say it, if we survive.”
Jenna timed her driving and waited almost three full minutes before turning right. The van bounced over some small rocks, sailing over a ditch and landed on the highway. Traffic was light for a rural highway, but horns wailed as she cut a few people off and merged with the flow of traffic. Jenna made a hard left across the divide, using the gaps in the guardrails the cops usually reserved for u-turns on official business. The van rocketed across and Jenna cranked the wheel, doing a one-eighty.
She yelped and slammed on her breaks as a beater vehicle barely escaped, horns wailing. The crew of cruisers behind the car convinced Jenna that she had found her mother. The cruisers’ brakes squealed as the vehicle rolled toward the van at an alarming speed. The seat belt wrenched Jenna’s shoulder.