by Ren Hamilton
Shep shook his head. “I was hoping it wouldn’t go down like this, but you’ve left me no choice. You’ll thank me for this eventually. It’s what you really want.”
She struggled against Margol, trying with all her might to bite his hand so she could tell Shep to fuck off one more time, but he held her with an iron grip. “Get her things together as planned,” Shep said. “Meet me in the van. Don’t take too long.”
Robin’s eyes darted to the window. The light had faded to darkness during this altercation. He must have planned it. It was far easier to kidnap someone in the dark.
“Keep her from leaving but do not hurt her, or I’ll hurt both of you.” Shep strolled casually out of the apartment, closing the door behind him.
Margol dragged her into the bedroom, with Allisto following behind. Once they got her inside, Margol stepped aside and Allisto stood in front of the door. “Pack,” he said, pointing to her bed where someone had left her suitcase open.
She glared at the two of them. Angels, demons, whatever they were didn’t matter. They were hired muscle. They were servants, and they had but one master. They looked so like Shep with their curls and wide eyes. Those beautiful faces that masked what they were.
She picked up the suitcase and threw it to the floor. “Fuck you!”
Allisto grabbed her. She thrashed and fought against his iron grip as he pulled something down over her head, a sack or hood. She sucked soft cloth into her mouth and panic set in. She fought like a wild animal but was no match for the strength of the hands that held her. Then the sack was removed, leaving her gasping and gulping in air. “Don’t fucking do that again! I’ll fucking kill you!”
Margol moved in on her, pushing her up against the wall, continuing her sense of being closed in. “We don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered in her ear. “You have choices here. You can come with us carrying none of your possessions, with a bag tied over your head, or you can pack up your personal belongings and walk out that door with us in a civilized fashion. Either way you’re coming with us. We have orders.”
She glared at him, but said nothing, momentarily stunned by how different he sounded since she’d last seen him, his grasp of the language and vocal inflection far more sophisticated. He must have interpreted her silence as submission, because he loosened his grip on her shoulders and stepped back. She tilted her head back and brought it forward, head-butting Margol square above the eyes.
He staggered, bringing his hands to his face, then grunted as she jammed her heel into his knee. Robin dove for the door, but Allisto was ready, grabbing her elbow, squeezing just hard enough to show his unnatural strength. She looked into his cold green eyes and saw the truth in them. She wouldn’t be escaping. They’d do their duty for Shep. They’d do anything for Shep.
He let her go, then stared silently as she tore through her dresser and threw some clothes into the suitcase. She spotted the little vial of blood she’d concocted with Aunt Betsy. It sat in the corner of her underwear drawer. She stuffed it into a pair of socks and packed that too. After grabbing a few pairs of shoes from her closet, she zipped up the suitcase and glared at her captors. Allisto held his hand toward the door in an “after you” gesture.
She went with them, comforted that she may have the weapon to their destruction tucked neatly in a pair of socks in her suitcase.
Chapter Forty-Three
Dr. Juliet Wang was the only woman Steven Litner had ever been in love with. At least it was the closest thing to love he’d experienced. The affair had been short but intense, and he honestly thought things would work out between them. They’d seemed so well-suited. She was brilliant, serious, and regimented, with a self-discipline that matched his own. She, in turn, claimed to appreciate these traits in him.
Unfortunately, like most women, she soon discovered there wasn’t much else to Litner’s life beyond his job. He didn’t let the regimentation go at the end of the day, as she did. With him it was a personality trait, not a work ethic. He tried to be more lighthearted and spontaneous, but when it came down to it, he couldn’t change who he was. Much to his disappointment, even Juliet Wang, the most serious of women, desired a certain amount of intimacy from him.
After the breakup he swore to himself that he’d spend more time on hobbies and cultivating friendships outside of work. And yet, the closest interaction he had with civilian life these days was when he profiled some monster with a terror scheme. Of course, until now, all of those monsters had been human.
Father Carbone was right to suspect Litner had prior knowledge of Cripulets. A team of scientists had accidentally opened one in India years before, and a bipedal reptilian figure had come through, looking startled. They reported that it looked vaguely humanoid, with sharp intelligent eyes. Seemingly aware of its mistake, the creature darted back through the Cripulet, which closed immediately after. Agencies had been researching Cripulets ever since. While Litner had accepted the truth of the report back when he first learned of it, never did he think that one day his own job would bring him face to face with one of the mysterious portals.
He liked to think he’d changed as a person since his mind had been opened by such things, made less closed-off. But it would do him no good with Dr. Juliet Wang. She’d married someone else. They remained friends and colleagues, as Juliet still did a fair share of work for him. But it was purely professional now. Litner, however, still felt the flutter of anxiety as he stepped into Juliet’s laboratory. He thought the butterflies would have quieted by now, but as he came through the double doors and saw her standing in front of a microscope, they were active as ever.
She glanced up at him through a pair of safety goggles, her eyes smiling as they fell upon him. “Hello Dr. Wang,” he said stoically.
“Hello Agent Litner,” she said, emphasizing the ‘Agent’ to mock his formality. He felt uncomfortable calling her by her first name. It conjured up too many intimate memories. She removed the safety goggles and walked around the long table to greet him. “Have a seat.” She signaled to a chair alongside the desk.
He slid stiffly into the chair. “What have you got for me?”
Juliet slid in behind the desk and opened a folder. He tried not to stare at her big dark eyes. Instead, he watched her lips as she chewed the end of her pen, then forced his eyes to fall to the folder she held. “Well, it’s not poison,” she said.
Litner straightened in his chair. This was not the answer he was expecting. “It’s not poison? Are you sure?”
She raised her eyebrows and nodded. “At least it’s not showing up as a toxin on the test chart. We also tested it on some of the lab animals. Aside from a little digestive discomfort in the rats, it seems to be a harmless substance. It’s very unusual, but harmless.”
Litner felt his world falling apart around him. He’d been so sure the crop was toxic. This ruined his entire theory, and left him questioning his own judgment. Also, his boss Michaels would no longer trust his instincts that there was an active threat centered around Joey Duvaine. Without the crop, he had nothing. “Okay, so it’s not poison. What do you mean it’s unusual? Unusual how?”
She flipped through her folder. “You’ve heard of Triticale?”
“It’s genetically engineered grain.”
She smiled. “Very good. Crossbred to make the seed hardier. The stuff can grow in the oddest of climates. It can even grow in the winter.”
“So this is Triticale?” Litner asked.
She shook her head. “No, but it’s like Triticale in the sense that it’s a manmade cross-breed. Seeing a genetically modified seed is not the unusual part. Hell, most crops out there have some genetic alterations. But this is something truly unique.”
“So exactly what is this stuff?”
“That’s the unusual part. Donald says he’s never seen anything quite like it. There seems to be some of your average wheat in there, and a generic form of grain, but there’s another substance we just can’t identify. There’s a strand running througho
ut the mix that doesn’t come up on any known charts. See this?”
She held up a diagram, a bunch of letters connected by straight lines. It looked like a puzzle. “What am I looking at?” Litner asked.
“This is the chemical structure for the unknown substance. We can break it down to its base elements. We simply can’t identify it. As far as our agricultural expert is concerned, it’s an unknown. Who’s growing this stuff anyway?”
“I’m sorry. That’s classified, Dr. Wang.”
She smiled. “Of course. But please Steven, call me Juliet. We are friends, aren’t we?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Of course we’re friends Dr…Juliet. These tests you conducted on the lab animals…are the results indicative of the effect the substance would have on humans?”
“Not necessarily. I would say it is more than likely that if the substance does not harm animals, then it won’t harm humans. As far as being one hundred percent sure, I can’t say. There are, after all, diseases and viruses that we contract that animals cannot, and vice versa. But still, a toxin would have shown up in the original reading.”
“Then we need to test it on humans,” Litner said with resolve.
She looked up at him, her face blank for a moment, then she sighed and rubbed her eyes. “You know I can’t do that, Steven.”
“It’s important,” he said. “You’ve done human testing before.”
“Not with such little data. If you can give us some time—”
“Time I don’t have. We’ll need to test it now.”
“Steven, this is an unknown substance. I personally don’t believe it to be harmful, but it’s still an unknown. I can’t test it on humans now. I won’t. Even if we could get approval, which we won’t, I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting people at risk.”
“I’ll volunteer,” he said.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“We’d never get approval for it and you know it.”
“Fuck the approval!”
Juliet looked up at him with open shock. He hadn’t realized how loose his emotions…and his words had become since he’d been working on this investigation. The personalities of Patrick and the others were rubbing off on him. He was immediately embarrassed by the uncharacteristic outburst. “I’m sorry, Juliet.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse before, Steven,” Juliet said with a smirk.
“No one needs to know about this test. Just us.”
“Steven, that’s crazy. You don’t know what this crop is! I’m not going to be responsible for harming you. I can’t live with that.”
“If you get caught, you can just say—”
“It’s not my career I’m concerned about, Steven, you idiot. It’s you. You’ve never taken risks like this before. Why now?”
“Please Juliet. Please. It’s important. Big picture important.” He looked at her and tried very hard to let her see his sincerity. It was difficult, since his normal expression was deadpan. He’d spent years perfecting the vacant stare.
“Big picture how? Do you mean life or death important?”
“It could be,” he said honestly. “I have to be sure, Juliet. This is one of those times that I need that hundred percent.”
She sighed and shook her head.
“Please. You just said you don’t personally think it’s harmful. I take full responsibility for any outcome.”
Pointing at him with her pen, she narrowed her eyes. “I’ll give you the absolute smallest dose of the substance possible. You’re going to have to undergo a complete physical exam, before, during, and after you ingest the substance. I do mean complete, Steven. It is not going to be pleasant.”
He sighed his relief. “Thank you.”
“You won’t be thanking me soon. We will extract every fluid you have, as well as some you didn’t know you had. You’re going to feel like a human pin cushion. And that’s only the safe part. Still want to do this?”
He smiled. “You’re not actually trying to frighten me, are you?”
Her smile matched his. “Oh, I forgot. The big bad agent isn’t going to be afraid of a few needles.”
“Will you hold my hand?”
Juliet’s brows shot up. “Wow. A sense of humor. When did you develop that?” She’d meant the statement as a joke, but he flinched, and she saw it. The words cut deep. His rigid personality had been the major cause of their breakup. “I’m sorry, Steven. I didn’t mean that. It was cruel.”
“No,” he said, “it was deserved.” He stood and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. She looked surprised and a little bit sad. “I do appreciate this, Juliet,” he said. “Now, where do I go to register as a lab rat?”
Chapter Forty-Four
Patrick sat alone on the big back deck, peering out at the fields, bathed pink with the falling sun. He could see the shadowy figures of the followers loading barrels of the red grain into the guest house, and some into the backs of the Arcania Food trucks. It made him nervous. Something was going to happen very soon. Patrick tried not to let his doubts consume him. Agent Buttercup, or Walsh, or whatever his real name was had promised to get him out safely. He was trying to maintain hope.
Robin still hadn’t arrived. When Klee let slip that Shep had gone to the city to collect her, Patrick wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. Now all he could do was wait, beside himself with worry for her safety. He heard noises in the kitchen and turned to look, but it was only Joey and Russell. The sliding door opened and Joey pushed Russell out onto the deck. “Go get some air!”
Russell walked slowly onto the deck and weaved over to a nearby lounge chair, falling into it. He looked dazed, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses. His short black hair was pushed flat in the back as though it hadn’t been brushed. Patrick glanced at Joey, who stood just outside the door, gazing thoughtfully at Russell. “Obrien, could you keep an eye on Russell for a while?”
Joey wore an old tee shirt with a baseball cap. He looked like the old Joey, the one that worked in a financial office and played pool on the weekends, not the enchanting false prophet of Forest Bluffs. Patrick felt a twinge of affection at the sight of him. He wished they could all go back in time. “Watch Russell?” Patrick asked, confused. “He’s a grown man, last I checked.”
Joey nodded. “Please. I think he dropped acid or something. He’s all fucked up and I can’t watch him. I have to make dinner for Klee.”
Patrick glanced at Russell, puzzled. “Sure. I’ll watch him. I guess.”
“Thanks, Obrien.”
Klee peered out from behind Joey’s shoulder and stole a glance over at Russell. He looked concerned and a little bit guilty. He saw Patrick watching him and ran back into the house. Joey went in after him and shut the door.
Patrick dragged his chair over to sit near Russell, who seemed to be watching things that weren’t there. “Hey Russell. Why aren’t you wearing your glasses? Get contacts?”
“No.”
“Are you all right?”
Russell lifted his head until his eyes focused on Patrick. A flicker of awareness passed over his face. “Obrien.”
Patrick chuckled. “Yes, Russell, that’s my name.”
“If you grew your hair long, you’d make a great Viking.”
“Did you take something? Are you on something right now?”
Russell looked down at his fingers. “Sort of.”
“What? Mushrooms? Or was it just Shep’s turbo weed? I know from experience that shit’s pretty strong.”
“No. Nothing like that.”
Patrick leaned in closer. Russell’s pupils did seem a bit dilated. “Russell, come on. Tell me what’s going on. You don’t look right.”
“I can’t tell you. You won’t believe me. And if you do believe me, you’ll hurt me.”
“What the fuck? Why would I hurt you? I’m trying to help you.”
“Yeah, right. You despise me.”
“Look I know we haven’t exactly gotten along lately,
but I don’t despise you. I’ve been too high before in the past, I might be able to help you come down. Have you had enough water today?”
Russell’s face twisted into a grimace. “There’s something going on, Obrien. It’s the brothers. There’s something weird about them. They’re not normal!”
“Oh.” Patrick sighed. “Yeah. The brothers’ weirdness is not in question. Tell me what’s got you so spooked, exactly.”
Russell winced. “You said you’d break my kneecaps if I ever went near him again.”
“Break your kneecaps. Are you talking about Klee?” Russell sat tight-lipped. “Russell, tell me! Does this have something to do with Klee?”
Russell’s haunted eyes met Patrick’s. He looked different without his glasses on. In fact, he looked different period. Despite his obvious terror, his face had a healthy glow, contrary to his usual pallor.
“Russell?”
“He came to me. It wasn’t my fault. He came to me.”
“Who came to you? Klee?”
Russell began to shake so violently that Patrick was afraid he was going into some sort of fit. He knelt down and held Russell’s arms. “Russell, my God! What’s the matter with you?”
“I’m scared. I’m so fucking scared.” He jerked his head up and looked into the night sky. His eyes darted around as though watching things move.
Patrick looked up but saw nothing. “What are you seeing?”
“Bugs. Birds. Bats. Stars. Satellites. You name it, I can see it.” Russell met his eyes. “I see too much!”
“But your glasses—”
“I don’t need them anymore.”
Patrick stood up and walked all the way over to the other side of the deck. “How many fingers am I holding up?” he called over to Russell as he held up four fingers.
“Four,” Russell said without hesitation.
Climbing off the deck, Patrick walked backwards ten feet on the lawn. He adjusted his hand so that only his index finger stood up. “Now how many?’’