Jenny Plague-Bringer: (Jenny Pox #4)

by J. Bryan

  Niklaus shoved him against the wall and clutched his throat, filling him with fear. Niklaus leaned in close again, his gray eyes burning, his teeth bared in a smile.

  For a moment, Sebastian saw through the human mask of Niklaus to the monster behind it, a thing the size of a great mountain, made of rock and bone, a thousand horns on its massive dinosaur-skull head, dark fire burning deep inside its bony eye sockets. It made an ear-shattering inhuman screech, loud enough to tear worlds apart. The fear-giver.

  Then he was trembling and useless, staring into Niklaus’ eyes.

  “You made a mistake,” Niklaus whispered. “Let’s get you into a cell downstairs.”

  Niklaus punched him again, then dragged him out of the hall, shouting for more guards.

  Sebastian spent hours shivering alone in a dim concrete cell, terrified by every sound that echoed through the cellblock, paranoid that they were going to punish Juliana for his actions. Frightened that she might already be dead, and nobody had told him.

  Niklaus’ spell gradually wore off, but he was still trembling when the panel outside his barred window opened. It was Alise, her usually bubbly smile gone, her face hard and cold and slathered in makeup.

  “Here he is,” Alise said, to someone he couldn’t see. “Why did you have to mess it all up, Sebastian? Everything was going so well for you.”

  “I just wanted to see Juliana.”

  “That’s too bad. Now you’ll never get to see anyone, not for a long time. A shame, with your children on the way.”

  “I don’t have any children.”

  “Oh, no one’s told you?” Now Alise’s smile was back. “Juliana is pregnant with your child. So is Mia. The first two babies of our supernormal breeding project, true Aryans of the future.”

  “What breeding project?”

  “You’ll never see either of the children, of course,” Alise said. “They belong to the Reich. They will be raised and educated properly. One day, they might command armies. You’ll never know. You’ll be down here, wishing you had never caused us any trouble.”

  Sebastian walked to the barred window, anger burning away the cobwebs of fear Niklaus had left in him. “They’re both pregnant?”

  “One day, my child will command both of yours,” Alise said. “I intend to have a son, and raise him to lead the Reich.”

  “You’re pregnant, too?”

  Alise scowled at him. “You have a visitor. Someone who wants to say good-bye.” She stepped aside, and another face took the place of hers. Jonathan Barrett, of Fallen Oak, South Carolina. Sebastian immediately wanted to spit in his face.

  “What are you doing here?” Sebastian asked. “Coming to see how you’ve destroyed our lives?”

  “Are we not having a happy day today?” Barrett asked, grinning.

  “You’d better get us out of here, Barrett. This place is a prison run by crazy people.”

  “You got exactly what I promised,” Barrett said. “Scientific testing of your abilities. I heard you were doing well here until recently, Sebastian.”

  “You’re a liar,” Sebastian said. “I’m warning you, Barrett. You get us out of here now, or I’ll make you pay for it.”

  “And how are you going to do that? You look so cozy there in your cell.”

  “I may not know how, but it will happen,” Sebastian said. “I never forget. If you leave us here, I will come back and I will destroy everything you care about. Your ridiculous idea of a legacy. Whatever you create, I will ruin. I’ll burn your house right to the ground. I’ll burn your name right out of history. Nothing you do will last, and everyone will forget you ever lived.”

  Barrett chuckled and shook his head. “Sad. Truly sad, threats made from a cage.”

  “Mr. Barrett,” Alise said, “We’d better get going. You don’t want to miss your train.”

  Barrett nodded. “Nice visiting with you, Sebastian.”

  “This is your last chance, Barrett. Get Juliana and me out of here now.”

  Barrett smirked and walked down the hall with Alise.

  “I mean it, Barrett!” Sebastian shouted after him. He banged his fist on the door. “I won’t forget. Even when I’m dead, I won’t forget.”

  Barrett laughed without looking. “Destroy me from beyond the grave? You’re amusing, Sebastian.”

  They walked out of his sight. Sebastian slammed his head against the door, furious with himself for ever getting tricked by such a man. His hatred for Barrett seethed all the way into his bones, right down into his soul.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Tommy’s heart raced as he approached the narrow armorglass window looking into Esmeralda’s cell. She looked up at him from her bunk, her eyes widening slightly in recognition, but otherwise her face remained blank.

  “Let me in,” he told the two guards that accompanied him.

  “We don’t take orders from you,” one replied, while swiping the access card the opened the door’s electromagnetic lock.

  Tommy didn’t have time to fight, so he nudged past the guard and pulled the door open. The guards waited outside as he stepped into the cell. Esmeralda looked him over quietly. She wore an orange jumpsuit so that everybody at the facility would know she was a prisoner.

  “Hello,” he said. It seemed a little weak, since he hadn’t seen her in months, but he wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “You finally decided to come see me.” Esmeralda spoke softly, looking at the concrete floor and avoiding his eyes. “That took long enough.”

  “What do you mean? I thought you just got here.”

  “I’ve been here for weeks. Or months. I don’t know, it’s hard to keep track anymore.”

  “General Kilpatrick didn’t tell me that.”

  “Who could have guessed he was dishonest?” She looked up at him, and her eyes were full of hate, startling him. “Lucky you, you agreed to do what he wanted. If you’d said no, you’d be locked up here like me.”

  “The general says it’s because of national security. They don’t want any paranormal types like us running loose.”

  “Oh, no, can’t have people running loose,” Esmeralda said.

  “I just think we have a chance to use our powers for greater good, like General Kilpatrick says. We should take the chance.”

  “Who decides what is good and what is evil?” she asked. “The guy who kidnapped me? Or is it you who decides? Or is it me?”

  “Just...the people in charge. The experts.” Tommy didn’t really know how to answer her question.

  Esmeralda sighed. “You always believe what people tell you, Tommy. You’re like a fucking clueless, needy child. If you don’t have Ashleigh to lead you around, you find somebody else. You never look at anything with your own eyes or measure them with your own mind. You never make your own choices.”

  “You’re still giving me the same shit after all this time?”

  “You’re still doing the same shit, so you don’t leave me much choice.”

  “I came down here because I was worried about you. They told me you were here, and I insisted on seeing you. I didn’t know you hated me so much, or I wouldn’t have bothered.”

  “I don’t hate you, Tommy,” she said. “I just can’t be what you need. And you can’t be what I need.”

  “Don’t you care about me at all?”

  “Do you love me, Tommy?”

  The question surprised him. “Of course.”

  “Don’t say ‘of course,’ like it’s obvious. Help me get out of here and away from these people. Help me get back home.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said.

  “You’re not caged up. They like you here, they let you wander around, you’re so happy to work with them. You’re in a better position to get me out of here than I am. Can’t you talk to them?”

  “They won’t listen to me.”

  “So you won’t help me.”

  “I just don’t think I can get you out. I’ll try. Is there anything else I can do, though? To make th
ings easier for you?”

  Esmeralda lay back on her bunk and stared at the ceiling. “If you’re not going to help me, you can leave me alone.”

  He stared at her for a long moment. “Esmeralda, I’m sorry. I said I’ll do what I can.”

  She didn’t answer him or look back at him again. After a minute, he left the cell, feeling sick and hurt all the way through. Esmeralda had no love left for him, and maybe he deserved it.

  * * *

  “I found these for you,” Niklaus said. He slid a pair of fashion magazines through the bars of Evelina’s cell, and she took them eagerly.

  “No books today?” she asked.

  “Sorry. Maybe next week.” He smiled as she flipped through the magazines.

  “Thank you, Niklaus. These will help.” She looked up and returned his smile. His heart kicked up its beat. He’d been visiting her a few times a week, and she was gradually warming up to him. “When are they moving me out of here? Have you talked to Alise yet?”

  “She said...not yet. I don’t know what’s taking so long.” Alise had originally told Niklaus that Evelina was only being moved down temporarily, while the Party officials and a few trusted foreigners toured the base. That delegation had come and gone weeks ago, but Evelina was still here. He’d asked Alise about it, and she’d told him there was too much “racial impurity” in the program as it was.

  “I hope they hurry. Maybe you can help.” Evelina smiled again. She looked beautiful to him, dark hair, eyes that were large, soft, and brown, making him think of a wild young deer. It pained him that there was always a wall between them, both literally and otherwise. She was a captive, he was one of her jailors. How could she ever fall in love with him in those circumstances? He didn’t deserve such a girl, in any case, after his incestuous trysts with his cousin that left him feeling permanently disgusted with himself.

  “I am doing all I can for you, I promise,” Niklaus said quietly. “I will watch out for you.”

  “Thank you, Niklaus.” She hesitated, holding her breath, then reached her hand to the bars. Niklaus touched her fingers, for the first time, and it filled him with a simple, warm happiness. Her eyes widened and she pulled back—he’d almost forgotten about the fear in his touch.

  “I should go,” he said. “They told me Alise was looking for me.”

  Evelina frowned and backed away. “You had better go, then.”

  “I’ll come back soon. I promise.”

  She nodded and quietly watched him walk away.

  Upstairs, Niklaus ran into Alise as he emerged into the dormitory area.

  “There you are!” She grabbed the sleeve of his uniform and turned him right back into the stairwell. “We’re running late.”

  “Late for what?”

  “This way.” She walked back down the way he’d come, toward the cellblock below. He followed her.

  “What’s happening?” he asked.

  “Kranzler is cleaning out the program,” Alise said. “Roza and Vilja never demonstrated enough abilities to impress the scientists. They know too much for us to let them go, so I convinced Kranzler to move them over to kitchen staff instead.”

  “I won’t be breeding with either of them?” Niklaus asked.

  “Not as part of the program.” Alise’s voice had a cold, flat tone. She’d apparently given up on her attempts at pregnancy. She’d stopped visiting Niklaus at night, which was a relief. A dead look had crept into her eyes and now seemed permanently fixed. The heavy makeup she now wore made her appear even more corpse-like.

  “But not everyone can be trusted,” Alise told him as Niklaus unlocked the door to the cellblock. They walked past the guard station, where Niklaus nodded at the two S.S. men on duty, their gas masks on the desk before them, ready to be grabbed at a moment’s notice. Alise leaned over and whispered in one man’s ear, her fingers touching his face, and he smiled and handed over a key.

  “I think I understand,” Niklaus said as the entered the corridor of cells. He approached the door to Juliana’s cell. The American girl with the deadly plague had spooked everyone since her arrival.

  Alise continued on past it, towards Evelina’s cell.

  “Juliana is back here,” Niklaus told her.

  “Juliana is pregnant with a doubly supernormal baby,” Alise said. “As everyone keeps reminding me. Come here, Niklaus.” She inserted the key she’d gotten from the guard into the door to Evelina’s cell.

  “What are you doing?” Niklaus asked. “She’s done nothing wrong.”

  “She was born the wrong race. There’s probably even Muslim in her, look how dark she is. Open the door, Niklaus.”

  His heart pounding, Niklaus pulled the door open. Evelina stood up, holding one of the fashion magazines in her hand. She smiled when she saw Niklaus and Alise.

  “Am I moving back to my room?” Evelina asked. “Thank you, Alise.”

  “Execute her,” Alise said to Niklaus.

  Evelina’s eyes widened in fear, and she stopped walking toward them.

  “You can’t mean that,” Niklaus said.

  “Shoot her!” Alise ordered.

  “No,” Niklaus said, his voice shaking.

  “What did you say?” Alise’s eyes narrowed into angry slits. “Niklaus?”

  “I can’t. I...she’s a woman.”

  “Niklaus?” Evelina whispered, shaking now, wrapping her arms around herself as if cold. “Please...”

  “For God’s sake! We don’t have time for this.” Alise rolled her eyes and took the Luger pistol from his belt. She fired three times, missing Evelina once and then hitting her in the stomach and the chest. Evelina screamed, and Alise fired again, blowing away the upper left corner of Evelina’s head. A gout of blood splashed across the wall behind her, and she fell to the floor, her eyes seeming to plead silently with Niklaus as she died.

  Niklaus felt like he was drowning. It had happened too fast for him to stop it, and now it was done.

  “Look at her brains all over the sink!” Alise cackled.

  Niklaus ran into the room, dropping to his knees next to Evelina’s body. Horror filled him, and then agony, as it sank in that she was gone. He cradled her bleeding head in her body. A look of hurt and betrayal was etched into her lifeless face. He’d said he would watch out for her. He’d lied.

  “Gross, you’re getting her all over you,” Alise said. “Let’s go tell someone to clean up this mess.”

  As she turned away, Niklaus reached for his holster and found it empty. Alise still held his gun. If he’d had it, he would have shot her right in the back.

  Instead, he knelt in the cell, clutching Evelina’s body, and he began to sob, mumbling curses down on himself and his wicked cousin.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  “They tell me you’re ready to deal.” Ward grinned as he approached the clear wall to Jenny’s cell. Behind him, the projection screen had gone mercifully blank, and the recorded screams had been silenced.

  “I don’t think I have any choice.” Jenny spoke in a quiet, defeated tone. She was less than a month from giving birth, and she’d found no way to ever escape without using the pox. “It’s time to stop thinking about myself and do what’s right for the baby.”

  “And that is?” Ward folded his arms, still grinning.

  “I’ll do whatever you want, if you guarantee the baby’s safety.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “I just have a couple of conditions.”

  Ward smirked. “And those are?”

  “First, the birth has to be done in a very specific way. I can explain the details to Dr. Parker, but it has to be done right, or the baby will die.”

  “As long as Dr. Parker agrees, and nothing violates our security.”

  “Second...I need the baby to stay here with me. Live here with me, if this is where I’m going to live.”

  “I’m not so sure about that, Jenny.” Ward’s face hardened, his smile gone.

  “She’s my own baby.”

 
“And we have to think about her health and safety, don’t we? You could be deadly to her. Like you were to your own mother.”

  Jenny wanted to snarl at him, but she kept herself looking calm. Nothing for me, everything for the baby, she reminded herself. “But I can’t just give her up.”

  “I’ll tell you what, Jennifer. You behave yourself, follow orders, and don’t cause trouble, we might set up a spot for her right here outside your cell. You won’t be able to touch her—we can’t have her dying, can we?—but you’ll be able to watch.”

  Jenny nodded. Her baby did need protection from her. The thought broke what remained of her heart.

  “Is that all?” Ward asked, and she nodded again. “Good. We’ll plan to start your tests after you give birth. You won’t have that baby to hide behind much longer, Jennifer.” He glanced at her huge belly. “You’re making the right choice here.”

  Jenny frowned, and soon he walked away, leaving her alone with her thoughts and the growing baby kicking and turning inside her, eager to be born.

  * * *

  Juliana stood in the laboratory looking down at the young man on the stretcher, bound by straps and gagged, straining helplessly to pull free, looking up at her with fear in his eyes. She couldn’t move from where she stood. A leather collar and cuffs bound her neck and wrists, each mounted on the end of a long pole, and three guards in gas masks stood behind her as puppeteers, controlling her movements.

  “No!” Juliana shouted, and the middle guard jabbed his pole into the back of her neck, making her stumble forward. The other two pushed and turned their poles until Juliana’s hands landed on the man’s bare chest. He convulsed, dark lesions opening all over his abdomen. “Stop it!” Juliana screamed, but they ignored her as always.