Weaver

by John Abramowitz

  Chapter 10

  Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.

  “Dad?” Alex asked as they walked out of the restaurant and toward the elevator which would take them up to their room.

  “Hmm?” James asked, pressing the “up” button.

  “What are you going to do?”

  James turned a curious expression on his daughter. “What do you mean, sweetie?”

  “You said you wanted to get leverage over Mom to keep her from getting custody over me,” Alex explained. “Get leverage how?”

  Her father’s face darkened. “Alex … I’d rather you weren’t involved in that.”

  “Dad, really??” Alex asked, frustration quickly overcoming her. “I’ve been fighting for my life the last two weeks – when did you do that?”

  “In the military,” came her father’s ready answer. Alex, who had not realized her father had ever served, raised a questioning eyebrow. “I think the false assumptions run both ways.”

  Embarrassment instantly replaced frustration on Alex’s face.

  “But you’re right,” her father continued, sighing as he conceded defeat, “you’ve earned the right to be a part of this. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Her father took her to the room they shared on the hotel’s third floor. Upon entering, he flipped on a light and began rummaging through the briefcase he’d brought with him. “Shut the door behind you, please,” he told her softly. Alex did so, and when she turned to face him again, she found him holding a manila file folder in one hand – a file folder stuffed with papers.

  “What are those?” Alex asked.

  “Records from a safe your mother kept hidden behind one of the bookshelves in our living room,” James told her.

  “Mom has a hidden safe?” Somehow, this news did not surprise Alex at all. “How did you find it?”

  “I didn’t – she opened it in front of me when Agent McBain and her partner paid us a visit the night you disappeared. I just watched her do it and remembered the combination.”

  Alex regarded her father with unexpected admiration, a coy smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. “When did you turn all super spy?” she asked, clearly impressed.

  James did not answer, merely sat down on one of the room’s two large beds, beckoning her to sit next to him. She did so, and he opened the file folder to reveal a letter addressed to her mother on the letterhead of something called the “Vertigo Corporation.”

  “Vertigo Corporation?” Alex turned the words over in her mouth. “What’s that?”

  “A high-powered genetics firm with an office over by the Galleria,” James told her. “It looks like they’re the people your mother and her … associates,” he spoke the last word with disdain, “are using to alter you kids’ DNA.”

  “So this is the ‘leverage’ you were talking about?” Alex asked.

  “Unfortunately, no,” James shook his head. “There aren’t enough specifics in here to be real evidence. Most of this is just invoices and copies of checks your mother sent them in payment for ‘procedures’ they performed. That’s how they described it in the letters. Nothing about what those procedures were or who they were done to. Not enough to prove child abuse or illegal experimentation or anything that would convince her to back off.”

  “So how does it help us?” Alex asked, looking up at him curiously.

  His gray eyes twinkled behind the glasses as he spoke. “Because it tells us where we can find something that will.”

  Alex was silent for a moment, confused. Then, comprehension dawned. Her face went slack as her eyes widened. “You’re not really planning to –“

  “Yes,” he answered, his expression unwavering. “I am.”

  “But …” Alex was stunned. This was completely outside the lexicon of anything she’d ever imagined her father might attempt, or discuss, or even be capable of. Was there anyone in her life who wasn’t hiding major secrets? Maybe Tyler was the only one, she thought, and winced as her mind flashed again to his dead, burned body. “But what if we get caught?”

  “Then I’m a criminal,” James answered, “which is what your mother’s about to make me anyway, if she hasn’t already. And I doubt being in a cage is a whole lot better than being under a microscope,” he added, giving her a significant look.

  “No argument there,” she agreed without hesitation. Then she noticed her father regarding her sadly, almost mournfully. “What?” she asked.

  “I know you’re a big girl now and all that,” he told her, giving a deep sigh, “and I meant what I said: you deserve to be a part of this if you want to be. But this … this isn’t how I wanted your life to go. You’re supposed to be a sophomore this year, in school, meeting cute boys and making me pester you to bring them home to meet us.” He laughed mirthlessly. “This isn’t what I wanted for you.”

  “I know, Dad,” Alex replied soberly. “It’s not what I wanted for me either. But it’s not your fault. Besides, once we finish this up, we can move someplace new and I can start at a different school.” She smiled at the thought. “Maybe there’s something at that Vertigo Corporation that will show us how to undo what Mom did to me entirely.”

  “The way you know you’re not a kid anymore,” her father mused. “You’re cheering me up.”

  Alex gave James a warm look and put a comforting hand on his arm. “I love you, Dad.”

  James opened his mouth to reply, but Alex never heard the words. Her vision was consumed by a vast, blank whiteness which eclipsed her father, the hotel room, the view out the window – everything. She tried turning her head, but nothing changed. She tried shaking it vehemently to clear her vision, but it would not clear. Briefly, she felt what must have been her father’s hands on her arms, shaking her. He may have been calling out to her, too, but she couldn’t hear.

  For a moment, there was only – white.

  And then … her vision cleared, and she heard something. A voice. It was a man’s voice, and it was vaguely familiar to Alex, though she couldn’t place it. “I have to admit,” said the voice, its tone hinting at sultry, “I’ve kinda been wanting this for a long time.”

  “I had a hunch,” came another voice, its tone similar, which seemed to originate from Alex’s own body, but was definitely not hers. This voice Alex did recognize, though it took her a moment to realize why – it was Agent McBain’s voice. She was looking down at her hands, which were clasped in someone else’s, and she was being led toward … toward a bed.

  She looked up, and a business-suited chest greeted her. Her eyes travelled further up the frame – and she saw that she was looking at Agent Hall, whom she had met during her escape. He was grinning, his eyes gleaming brightly. He had the look of a man about to see a long-held dream fulfilled. She stopped them in the center of the room, and reached out to unbutton his shirt as he shrugged off his suit jacket.

  This made no sense, part of Alex’s mind registered. For one thing, she had just been – somewhere else, not here. For another, she didn’t feel the draw she had the last time she’d seen him, the involuntary attraction. Instead, the feeling was deeper, and in its own way stronger – Alex felt sure it must be something like love.

  But that made no sense, she realized. She didn’t love Agent Hall. She barely knew him.

  She felt an electric tingle as fingers touched the bare flesh of her stomach. She looked downward, gasping in delighted surprise – and as she did, her hair fell in front of her face. But it wasn’t blond hair. It was curled, red hair.

  Her brain realized what this meant, but she was powerless to break out of the vision or dream or … or whatever it was. Instead she could only watch as he ran his fingers up her – up Moira’s – sides, lifting her shirt up off of her body. It fell forgotten to the floor, and he wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her in for a long, slow kiss.

  As their lips met, all Alex – and Moira – knew was pain. Terrible, paralyzing, too-well-remembered pain.

  --

  Pain lanced through Moira’s ent
ire body, shooting from her temples to her toes and back again. She winced, and Andy pulled back, regarding her with concern. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he whispered, and though he was clearly trying to sound soothing, his tone sent a chill down her spine. “I haven’t done this in a while, I forgot that it could be painful at first. That won’t last long.”

  “What …” she rasped, having to exert monumental effort to force each word out, “what have you done to me?”

  “Making the Change,” Andy told her, still in the same soft tone.

  “The … change?” Moira managed to croak out.

  “I’m making you a Xorda,” he explained, smiling warmly at her. “Like me. Then we can be together.”

  “You’re … Xorda?” she asked, eyes going wide with shock and horror. “You’re … “

  “Oh, yes,” he told her, then stopped, frowning at Moira’s face, which had twisted into an expression of disgust. “You seem upset. Nothing’s changed – I’m still the same guy you thought I was, other than that. And I wasn’t lying – I’ve wanted this for a long time.”

  Something clicked in Moira’s mind as he spoke. “You … attacked… Mrs. Nemeyer?”

  “Not myself,” Andy answered her softly. “But I gave my people the remaining names on the Wells Society list we recovered, yes. We have to defend ourselves,” he told her earnestly.

  Moira was sickened. “You’re a … monster … “

  His face looked like she’d stabbed him in the gut. “Please tell me you don’t mean that.”

  She seemed to have actually hurt him with the words, but she felt no sympathy for him, only steely anger and fear. She said nothing, letting her face speak for her.

  “Moira, I’m not,” he told her, as if pleading with her to believe him. “I can’t help what I am, and even if I could – are you a monster for liking hamburgers or fried chicken?”

  “Not … the same … “ she rasped.

  “You’re right, it’s not,” he answered, smiling warmly at her. “My prey actually survives the meal. And not only survives, but becomes something better.”

  “Not … better …” In a state of barely-controlled panic, she wondered how long this near-paralysis would last. If she had any hope of surviving this, she needed to get away from Andy quickly. For now, he was preoccupied trying to regain her trust and approval – but she couldn’t be sure that would last.

  Andy raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Oh no? We’re a step up the food chain, aren’t we?”

  “Make … people … freaks … without asking …”

  “So do you,” Andy intoned, giving Moira a significant look that made clear that he was referring to the Wells Society.

  Surreptitiously, Moira tried to flex the fingers of one hand, to test whether she’d regained any movement. Perhaps it was simply her wishful thinking, but they seemed to move a bit more easily than they had in the first terrifying moments after he’d kissed her. Movement was still far from easy, however, and there was still far too much of the pins-and-needles feeling, as if he’d injected her with a tremendous dose of anesthetic. She needed more time. “So why … wait?” she asked, trying to put as much strength and conviction into her voice as possible.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I haven’t noticed,” she began, and found that speaking was decidedly easier than it had been just moments ago. Hopefully in another moment or two she’d be able to fight back. “That you Xorda are …,” she winced as another flash of pain shot through her, “ … are wildly fond of getting to know your prey before … unnnh,” she stopped again at another flash of pain, “before chowing down.” She stopped there, taking several deep, heaving breaths. She had overexerted herself, and she knew it.

  And apparently he did too. “You poor thing,” he whispered softly, sympathetically. “It’s terrible to leave you in this state. Let’s finish this, shall we?” He leaned in again, presumably to finish the job.

  “Answer me first,” she grunted, desperately playing for time. “Before I change … I want to know … why you didn’t just do this the day … we got partnered.”

  Andy raised one eyebrow. “It isn’t obvious?” he asked, as if in disbelief.

  Moira shook her head.

  “Because I love you,” he answered immediately, without hesitation. “And I want – I wanted – the change to be voluntary, this time.”

  Moira’s head spun, and she shook it in disbelief. “People – things like you,” she corrected herself, “Aren’t capable of love.”

  “Funny, there’s a lot of people that would say the same about you,” Andy retorted. “Though I must admit, in this case, it took me by surprise too. My first thought was that you were a Happy Meal like any other. Imagine my surprise when the pheromones didn’t work,” he snorted.

  Moira raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, they didn’t … ?” Even before she finished the question, though, she understood what he meant. According to Ainsling Cronlord, Xorda pheromones made them nearly-irresistible to humans of the opposite sex. And yet she hadn’t felt particularly drawn to him at all when they’d first met. They’d been partners for years before that changed, and even when it had, she’d steadfastly refused to admit it, even to herself. From what Ainsling had told Moira, this was not typical behavior in the presence of a Xorda.

  Her expression seemed to tell Andy that he needn’t answer her question. “You seem to have already figured it out. It was frustrating, at first – we’re not used to losing a meal. But we’re also not used to socializing with people who aren’t Xorda – longer than it takes to sink our teeth in, anyway.”

  “Glad I could help broaden your horizons,” Moira glowered at him.

  “You did more than that,” he told her, regarding her with a look like wonderment on his face. “My kind are used to manipulating yours, not knowing them. After the last few years – I’m amazed we understand you well enough to manipulate you, pheromones or no. I can’t help what I eat, Moira, but I’m not one of them anymore, not really.”

  Moira regarded him skeptically, even as his own look evinced something like pleading. “I’m not! Why do you think one of my kind with less … umm … scruples … hasn’t sucked your soul dry already?”

  “What? You put out a hands-off order or something?” Moira asked derisively. “And that’s supposed to impress me?”

  “Well something ought to! I can’t help what I am!” He was now pleading outright.

  Moira opened her mouth to answer, stopped. The revulsion she felt toward her partner now was undeniable, but something in her heard the truth in what he said. Could he help what he was? From what she knew of the Xorda, they didn’t tend to give their victims much choice in the matter. Logically, what he said made sense. And yet …

  “I’m sorry,” she told him, a sadness creeping into her voice. “I can’t.”

  Andy stood there for a moment, a long moment, as if she’d just punched him in the stomach. He seemed hollow somehow, empty, as if he were only a shell, and not a person. And then, his jaw set. His eyes narrowed.

  “Fine,” he rasped, his voice just above a whisper, cold and menacing. “But which of us is the monster, then?” He gripped her bare shoulders, leaning in to finish what he’d started.

  “Andy, no ….” she whispered, horrified.

  “I’m a monster,” he answered, eyes cold. “Why fight it?” He leaned in further, their faces only centimeters apart ….

  And Moira head-butted him, her forehead colliding with the bridge of his nose. He staggered backward, reeling, blood dripping from his nostrils, letting out a sharp cry of pain. He held his face for a moment, wiping the blood from his nose. “But you – but you’re –“ he stammered, looking up at her in surprise.

  Moira’s own face was hard, her jaw set, and her gray eyes locked on his face with cold fury. “I got better,” she told him, voice almost a hiss. Then her right leg lanced out, delivering a vicious kick that connected with his left temple, knocking him to the ground. Her aim was perfect, and
for a human this would have been a knockout blow, but Andy was not human, and even as he hit the ground, he was already rebounding, pushing off with his hands to launch himself upward again.

  Moira, running on pure adrenaline, was not surprised to see that Andy was not incapacitated as easily as he should have been, and she brought her boot heel down on his chest, to pin him to the ground. He grunted, then brought his leg up with astonishing speed and agility, landing a kick to Moira’s lower back that threatened her balance. He took advantage of the moment it took her to regain her balance, grabbing the leg attached to the boot on his chest and yanking with all his strength. She fell forward onto her face, and he rolled out of the way before she landed on top of him.

  Leaping to a standing position, he gave an utterly inhuman roar and leapt on top of her, seizing her roughly and pulling her face-up. “Now we finish this,” he rasped. As he was leaning down for his meal, however, there was a deafening BAM! that eclipsed all other noise in the room, and then a shrill voice issued from a few yards away.

  “NO!!!”