by Lucy Rains
“What they were doing was fake, forced. It wasn’t real. You have to turn off your mind in exploring all the questions and meanings behind it.” His dark eyes were hard, his mouth turned down.
“Will my children be like that?” My voice tightened on the last word and my eyebrows came together. “Will they…? I mean, why wouldn’t our DNA work together?” I shook my head against Gavin’s hand and he squeezed my face with his thumb and fingers, trying to still me.
“We have no idea what variables from the surrogate mother might have done to the embryo’s. The science behind all of this is more than we can understand.”
He held my gaze with a demand of acknowledgment, and I nodded. His grip loosened and he put his hand on my chest. The sensation made me gasp and my eyes close. The double connection creating an intense pleasure of warmth and intimacy that I craved.
I let the feelings run through me for a long minute, letting the comfort it brought to cool and calm my mind and emotions. I couldn’t break down, this wasn’t a time to dissect past actions and consequences. Gavin’s attempt to comfort me had worked and I felt refocused. Losing all of my tension also drained out my adrenaline and my muscles sagged. When my eyes opened again he was still watching me, silent and still. I softened my eyes and he pulled away.
“Were they at the lab? My eggs and your sperm? In that cooler I opened?” My questions were directed towards Kyson.
He turned back to me and nodded. “Destroyed now.”
I nodded and looked over to Alex as he began unzipping his bag. “Since we have a few more minutes let's give everyone their new I.D.s.”
I held up the driver’s license Alex handed me and studied it. It was the same picture from my previous license, with an address I didn’t recognize and a new name.
My mouth turned down like I had swallowed a bug. “Helen Ferguson? I sound hideous. What the hell kind of name is that?”
“A boring one,” Pierce responded. “Won’t draw attention.”
I scoffed, “I hope your names are equally boring. Like Gaylord or Dick.” I leaned over to peer at Gavin’s and frowned again. “Seriously? Magnus Smith?” I eyed Gavin accusingly, “Did you make these when you were in a bad mood?”
Gavin tucked his I.D. into one of his cargo pockets and zipped it up, ignoring me. Alex also handed us our passports, and I tucked both forms of ID in my black bag, pulling on the zippers in irritation. “I want a new I.D. when we settle in Barbados or whatever.”
We rode in silence for a few more minutes before pulling up to an empty parking lot beside a small office building. The area was rural, quiet. The building old, dated. Pierce turned off the truck and turned his head towards Alex. Alex typed furiously on his lap top, his body hunched over.
“What can you find on the system?” Pierce asked.
“Nothing,” Alex answered.
“What do you mean nothing?”
“I mean, I can’t find any sort of alarm or security system on file for this building.”
I craned my neck to look out the windshield and scan the building. There were a couple street lamps illuminating the area. All nearby businesses were abandoned for the evening, outdoor security lights lining pathways and street signs. There were no cars out. The area was remote, desolate. A good place for hiding something important, I supposed. This was not a place I would think anything worthwhile would be kept.
“So entering the building won’t set off any alarms?” I asked.
Alex was quiet for a moment as he typed, “Not that I can see.”
Pierce opened his door and stepped out. “Gavin, you have the lock pick kit?”
Gavin grabbed his bag and stepped out of the truck without a backwards glance.
Alex shut his lap top and began shoving it into his bag. “Let's go see what sorts of treasures we can find, shall we?” he said eagerly.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked. We had just escaped one risky situation, and rather than running to the nearest airport we were sticking around to dig some more. We were testing our luck.
“Not really.”
I nodded, grabbing my own bag. “Good, I would be concerned if you did.”
I paced the sidewalk during the few minutes it took Gavin to crack open the old metal lock on the main front door and let us inside. I pointed out the black dome like security features on the outer wall and ceiling, but Alex assured me they were just for show.
“Lots of places put those up just for show. Like someone posting an alarm company sign in their yard but not really having an alarm in their house. It’s just to give the appearance that someone is watching.”
We entered the dated building, the smell of old carpet and dingy wood panels filling my senses. Our sensitive eyes adjusted to the dark interior, helping us avoid flipping on any lights. The walls were bare, the commercial carpet recently vacuumed. I found a sign on the wall for business names on certain units but I didn’t recognize any that would help us. Judging from the lack of names, many offices were empty.
“This way,” Alex jerked his head behind us, “Invoice said suite 105.”
When we found the unmarked door, no name or business title, no windows to peer through. Gavin crouched low again to begin working on the lock. My hands fidgeted with my ponytail, my feet paced in small circles. I felt jittery, anxiety ramping up my heart rate. I desperately hoped we would find something to make this extra ordeal worth our delay.
What I didn’t know was that the information behind the locked door would only raise more questions.
When Gavin pushed open the office door, it gave a slight creak of greeting and we all stood frozen for minute. My feet wouldn’t move, my eyes locked on the lone table and monitor sitting in the middle of the large office room.
A short black filing cabinet sat in one corner. One chair at the desk, a few pens and that was it. No bookshelves, no phone, no extra chairs for guests. The room was simple, the items within holding a sole purpose for one person.
Pierce and Kyson walked in first, the rest of us following. Gavin took his tools and began working on the locks on the filing cabinets. Alex sat down in the chair and began typing, the monitor coming awake instantly.
I looked at Pierce and Kyson, their eyes scanning the room cautiously.
“This was too easy,” Kyson stated.
Pierce shook his head. “No. It just wasn’t meant to ever be found.”
“How did Charles know about it?” I asked.
“How did Charles know about a lot of things?” Pierce countered. “Your incident? The lab? The information we would want?”
These questions closed my mouth and I grit my teeth. I hated the point he made and refused to think of Charles as any kind of negative force to us.
“What about the computers at the lab, in the other doctors offices?” I asked, “Did you guys destroy them?”
Alex made a clicking noise with his tongue, “Of course. Fast moving viruses did their job.” He sat back in his chair and stopped typing.
“Did you find something?” Kyson asked, stepping around to look at the computer screen. Pierce and I moved to stand behind Alex as well.
“Here are her files, but I don’t know what to look for. I don’t understand her notes or abbreviations. Alot of it is medical jargon, or scientific terms for our testing and experiments.”
Pierce pointed a finger at a file folder labeled “Entries”, at the same time Gavin stood up from the floor, saying the files were unlocked.
When Alex clicked on the file and opened the folder, lines of dates appeared. Alex scrolled down and I read their dates. 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 18 years ago….He clicked on one dated Jan 22 of 2007.
Gavin made a noise in the back of his throat that drew our attention away from the computer. The expression on his face sent a jolt of shock through my veins and my heart jumped into my throat. He had found something. Something that would put a crack into his cool composure.
Gavin stood next to the filing cabinet, holding
sheets in his hand. He stared down at the papers, his eyes wide, his mouth gaping open. “What the...,” he whispered.
I straightened, taking a step forward. “What is it?”
My voice pulled Gavin out of his trance and he looked up to the rest of us. His eyes blinked once and he closed his mouth. There were several sheets in his hand and he walked forward to lay them out on the table.
“Pictures,” he answered softly.
The photos were black and white, filling the eight and a half by eleven page. We gathered around the table, angling our heads to look over the pictures. Kyson pressed on one side of me and Pierce on the other. Alex stayed in his computer chair, but leaned over to pick up a picture and take a closer look.
The pictures were of various shots taken in a forested area. A clouded sky, trees and shrubs blanketed in snow. But in the middle of each picture there was some form of wreckage. Twisted metal, pieces of machinery strewn around a larger mechanism. A couple of trees had been broken in half and lay to the side of what appeared to be a crash. It looked like some sort of metal enclosure, with an opening to allow entry and exit. The photos were grainy, the shadows too dark. Almost like it was taken with a low quality camera. It was hard to get a clear understanding of what we were looking at. Except for two of the pictures.
When Pierce placed the pictures in front of me I squinted, picking them both up. They were of children. Judging from their close cropped hair they were boys. Two boys in one picture, and two boys in another. In both pictures the boys were dressed in head to toe light, nondescript, plain pants and tunic tops. Young children, the oldest no older than 6 or 7. The other children were toddlers. In the picture with the oldest boy, he was holding a bundle in his arms. A pile of dark cloth wrapped around something. As I looked closer, I saw a tiny infant sized hand wrapped around the collar of his shirt.
My eyebrows came together and my mouth turned down. “What is this?” I dropped the pictures down on top of the other photos that the guys were studying.
“I don’t know,” Pierce said.
Alex leaned back and looked at the computer. His eyes scanning over the text showing on the screen. He frowned. “The journal entries are a bust.”
“Why?” Pierce asked.
“They’re in Russian.”
“Russian?” Kyson repeated. “Why the hell are they in Russian?”
Alex shook his head, clicking on other lines to see if he could find anything in English.
“What are these?” Gavin asked quietly, drawing our attention back to the photos. “They must be important, if she’s hiding them here.”
“There’s no dates,” Kyson said, examining a few photos front and back.
“It's obviously some sort of wreckage,” Gavin said. “But of what?”
Why was no one asking the real question? “Do you think,” I started, looking at the children and back up to Gavin, “these children? Do you think these are you guys?” I asked.
Pierce’s eyes came up to mine and I turned the photo around for him to see. The oldest child would have to be him.
“In a forest somewhere?” Alex asked dubiously. “Holding a baby?”
When he said the words out loud it sounded ridiculous. Everyone’s face turned a mixture of confusion and skepticism.
Pierce let out a heavy sigh and wiped a hand over his face. “What else are in the files?”
Gavin turned back and opened another drawer, thumbing throw, “Duplicates of the pictures, some notes in russian, some files with our names on them.” He held up a paper and scanned it. “But it's just hard copies of medical documentation that we’ve already seen on their lab computers.”
Pierce took a step backwards. “Look through every thing one more time and then we leave.”
“But wait!” I motioned towards the pictures, “These mean something. Can we take them with us?”
Pierce looked over the pictures, “See what else you can find. I’m going to find a water fountain and bathroom. Kyson, you should probably refill some bottles so we don’t have to stop for a while. Alex, try to print off some Russian journal entries and then clear the hard drive.”
Now that Pierce mentioned it my bladder was squeezing tight from all the water we had drank on the way over. But stopping for the bathroom at a time like this seemed trivial. My body complained otherwise.
I found the bathrooms with Kyson and Pierce, tucked on the other side of the building, quickly took care of business and then hurried back to the office. Alex was swearing at the printer that was out of paper and Gavin was squatting low by the last filing cabinet.
I gathered up the black and white photos and slid them into my backpack.There was no way I was leaving them behind. When I stood up to walk over to Gavin, a presence flickered on my empath senses.
Jade! Pierce called out.
My feet stumbled and I froze, my eyes unblinking as I reached out.
“Jade?” Gavin said.
The presence was confident, and...furious.
“Someone’s here,” I choked. I lifted my head and tried to feel where the person was coming from.
Pierce! I yelled out mentally.
Stay in the office, I’m coming.
Alex stood up so fast the rolling office chair flew into the back wall. He grabbed his backpack and threw it over his shoulder.
“Pierce said to stay!”
“I know,” Alex huffed.
My chest tightened in fear, my energy pulsing in my palms.
Gavin stood up, also grabbing his black bag and slinging it over his shoulder.
The presence came closer with each passing second, and my palms starting to sweat. Where was Pierce and Kyson?
Pierce?!
And then I heard the gunshot.
CHAPTER 41
My feet ran without thinking.
My body was a magnet, pulling towards Pierce’s. I called out to him again mentally but got no response. Icy fear pricked in my veins, in my lungs, in my hands. Gavin and Alex called after me, tried to pull my arm to stop me but I was too fast, my body desperate to find Kyson and Pierce.
Something bad had happened. I could feel it through my sixth sense. Kyson’s fear was palpable and the other person...triumphant.
When I came up on the final hallway corner, my eyes saw the scattered water bottles. Water trickled out onto the floor, their caps laying next to them.
I should have stopped before turning. A smart person would have come up slowly, peered around the corner, assessed the threat. But my body wouldn’t stop, demanding to find the immediate threat and kill it.
When I saw Pierce, laying on the ground with blood pooled around his head, all the air left my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. His legs were bent, his head turned to the side. Unmoving. Kyson was sitting on the ground, my mother holding a gun to his head. Her head turned to me and the evil that glinted in her dark eyes shown through.
A feral scream sounded in my ears as my hands flew up and energy rushed out of my body. My mother had a fraction of a second to turn towards me before her body flew backwards and slammed into a wall.
But I didn’t stop. I didn’t drop my hands or release her from the suffocating push of my energy. I held her against the wall, her body hovering, her feet dangling a foot off the ground, her face pinned to the side. She still gripped the gun in her right hand, unable to move her fingers in the force pushing down on her.
There was laughter. A low chuckle coming from her partially opened mouth as her wide eyes tried to turn in their sockets far enough to see me.
Rage roared through me like an inferno, giving me an unlimited source of power that I had never experienced. My ears hummed, my eyes watered. I wanted to crush the life out of her and see blood poor from her eyes. My heart was ripping in half, a deep pain pulsing in my chest.
Her mouth opened and her lips moved. Slowly, quietly she spoke. “You...brought this...on yourself.” Her breathing was stifled from the energy pushing into her body. I pushed harder.
She
let out a shriek of pain and her eyes pinched together tightly. “Should have...come home. This...never would have...happened!” She tried yelling, her voice a strangled cry.
“Kill her, Jade!” Gavin yelled.
Where I thought there was no end to my energy, I had been wrong. My arms began to tire and my breathing had become labored. I let out another roar of anger and pulled deep within my fibers to continue rushing a wave of energy over her that she could not move from.
My right hand twitched, moving the main source of energy from the middle of her body up, and to her throat. Her eyes pinched together again and she tried struggling. Her black patent flats shaking to try and break the hold.
“Do it Jade!” Alex said from behind me.
I watched my mother’s face, contorted in pain and gasping for air. My hands outstretched and burning from the heated energy. The rage suddenly turned hot and painful, into a desperate longing. Images flashed through my mind, images of my mother from my childhood perspective. The need for love, for acceptance, still rooted so deeply inside of me.
She needed to die, I knew this. I had killed before, the ability was in me. But this was different. I knew her. My mother, the person who had cared for me and raised me. A war raged in my head, what I needed to do, but ultimately could not.
My hands dropped and I fell to my knees, tears pouring down my face. Shakes took over my arms, my shoulders. A weight of pain and weakness filled my body. I hung my head in my shame as I felt the disappointment rolling over the guys.
My mother fell to the ground as well, sliding down the wall and landing on her knees. The low chuckle came again. She propped herself up on all fours, regaining her strength and oxygen. “I always knew there was more to you,” she said. “You were special.” She flipped her head back and shook the hair out of her face. My eyes went to the gun, still grasped in her hand. “And you will be again.”
I sat back on my heels, my palms resting face up on my thighs, glaring at her in hatred, wishing I had the power to end her life. “You have no power over me.”