“OK, this is what we are going to do. Send a Gentech squad to the Palace keep it under surveillance and watch for the girl and her companion. We see them, take the girl, before they have a chance to enter the Palace. The Esperanzi stays on her tail – we need him to confirm that they’re heading to the Palace”.
He turned to the Library man “you had better be right about this” he whispered as he turned to the guards and ordered them to take Library man to his quarters and keep him confined until further notice.
Lily
Jason wouldn’t start the ‘talk’ until I had something to eat and drink. I guess he needed time to collect his thoughts. I hadn’t slept very well, although the term log comes to mind every time I tossed and turned and noticed Jason beside me. He looked refreshed, chipper and was even smiling this morning.
“Where do you find the energy to smile” I asked as I looked at him through sleep deprived, blood shot eyes. He just grinned at me mumbling something about a really good night’s sleep. We were still in the motel room, the light shining in through the window actually made me think it might just turn out to be a normal day. Just for a moment anyway, nothing about my life felt like it would be normal ever again.
“Earth to Lily” that’s what I heard before I felt Jason’s ridiculously big hands waving in front of my face. I slapped them away wanting him to understand that I was not sharing his ‘big smile, I had lots of rest’ mood.
His expression sobered as if he picked up on my mood. “It’s time to talk…We know what’s coming for us Lily so we really need to figure something out quickly. We can iron out any details and pick up any supplies on the road if we need them”. He paused, looking at me. Actually it wasn’t so much a look as it was something between a stare and a search.
“You know, if you just let those walls come down Lily, I could pick your mind and understand more about what your face is doing right now”.
Well, that got my attention “excuse me” I said, “let the walls down, what walls. And what’s wrong with my face”. He’s grinning again. I suppose at a different time, in a different place that grin would be quite charming but right now my hand was itching to smack it right off his face.
“Your face is all contorted and serious looking. You’ve been frowning since you got out of bed”. So I poked my tongue out at him. It wasn’t the most mature action I could think of, or even the most threatening but it’s just what happened in that moment because by now I was sitting on my hands to stop them from doing something more drastic. Again, that grin.
“What walls” I asked again.
“Your mind, I can’t get in. You have these walls – it’s the best way I can describe them – they contain your thoughts and your feelings and I can’t get past them. And I’m usually good at getting past them, but yours are locked solid. I can’t get through so I have no idea what you’re thinking so you’re going to have to contribute, verbally, to this discussion so we can figure out what we are going to do”. Whoa. Was my first thought, too much to process.
“My thoughts” I whispered “you’re trying to read my mind, what the hell gives you the right to read my mind”.
He looked a little stunned as he raised his hands to the surrender position “calm down Lily, that’s what we do, read minds. Most of us communicate that way. I’m finding it hard to communicate with you, you’re not giving me anything here. Can’t you just give me a break”?
I had to sit on my hands and feet right now. I was gobsmacked. So much so that I couldn’t even process any of my own thoughts. “OK” I heard him say “I’m not mind reading here, only guessing, you’re pretty angry right now”, he said “I’m beginning to recognise that look.”
Yes, I was angry among a few dozen other things which is why I started to calm myself down. It was Axel. He was the one who had taught me to accept my emotions and not be ruled by them and around Jason I was beginning to feel ruled. And around this time, remembering Axel I started to calm myself down, for this moment in time I’d forgotten all about him and remembering his words, remembering him brought back the realisation that if I didn’t find him I may lose him forever.
“If you want to know something Jason, just ask. You are not getting into my mind. So stay out of it. Ask me anything you want to know and I’ll answer. Can we please talk about Axel now”?
“But Lily, I need to read your emotions as well as….” I hope it was my stony ‘blink’ stare that stopped the rest of that sentence because soon I would be tempted to pull down those walls temporarily just to let him know exactly how pissed off his mind reading crap was making me feel.
“Tell me about Axel. Where are they taking him?” I sounded a lot calmer than I really felt at this minute. I figured getting into another fight with Jason wasn’t going to help me help Axel and I just wanted him back. Jason just watched me a moment. He does that a lot. I guess he’s trying to get to those walls of mine.
“They’ll be taking him back to the Palace” he said with a long drawn out sigh. “Look Lily, I know you want to save him but I don’t think this is a good idea. In fact I know it’s not a good idea”. He held out his hand at this point because I was about to interrupt with a few expletives.
“Look. I promised Axel that if anything happened to him I would continue our original plan and take you to your father’s home. That’s what Axel wanted. That’s what your father wanted. There are a lot of people out there looking for you right now and the only way I can keep you safe is if we continue our journey to your father’s home.” He paused here watching me, waiting. I didn’t immediately speak. It took a few seconds for me to even understand how I was feeling right now. Jason however was clearly indicating it was my turn to speak, well, here goes…
“I understand you made a promise to both Axel and the other guy, my father” It’s a word I didn’t want to use for anyone other than Axel, it’s a word that made my stomach churn with fear about what was happening to Axel right now.
“But the short of it is I don’t care. Usually a promise is something sacred to me so I’m letting you off the hook here. This whole thing, it’s not your problem, it’s mine. You are just an innocent bystander caught up in something unimaginable to me. So this is your cue to leave. Understand that I’m not expecting anything from you, go back to whatever you were doing before you met me and my father. No hard feelings. I have to go to Axel. I can’t live a life without him knowing something terrible has happened to him. I won’t live that life. For better or worse I am going to find him. All I ask of you is that you point me in the right direction and I’ll figure it out from there. You’ve been amazing up until now and I’m never going to be able to thank you enough for your help but it’s time for us to part ways.”
Oh boy, where did that come from? That’s not what I had expected to hear myself say when I answered Jason. I was looking at my feet now playing with my toes. I didn’t want to look up, even I understood how cruel and heartless that sounded.
The air around me had turned perfectly still. I couldn’t hear or sense anything. I still hadn’t raised my head “Lily look at me”. No I thought and continued playing me my toes. “Lily look at me”. No, no, no. I’m playing with my toes, it’s important.
So that’s when his hand shot out and oh so gently raised my head so that I was eye level with him. He kept his hand there, steadying my face and even though I tried to avert my eyes he held them in place. My breathing became shallow; I think I was having a panic attack. And still, he just kept hold of my eyes, not wavering, not speaking, not moving. His expression was hard. That’s the only way I can describe it. All his features hardened, his brow line, his cheeks, his chin. And still he just continued to look at me. It felt like an eon when he finally spoke.
“I’m not leaving”. He said and with this his expression started to soften. “Yes I made a promise to take you to your father’s home, I also mad
e a promise to keep you safe. And you are not getting rid of me that easily.”
Impatience was starting to creep into his voice “you have no idea how dangerous the people who are after you are. Not just the Palace but Gentech are after you as well. Someday, by the way you will have to explain exactly why that is. But for now you have to know, if they catch you Lily, they are not going to be kind – not if they are after something specific. Axel for now is ok. He was hurt pretty badly and they will have to heal him before anything else happens, that will take time. And you can’t go up against them alone, it will take more that your pretty face and sharp wit to get past the guards and anywhere near Axel”.
Ummmm, I have no idea where this is going, so I’m just going to sit here and nod my head.
“I get it. I get that you are going to go after Axel no matter what. It’s not what I think we should do. That being said I’m also not going to wander at every turn if this is when you’re going to run away. You’ve got that mind of yours locked up so tight that I can’t anticipate what you’re about to say or do. So, against my better judgement…Really against my better judgement, I think it’s time to go get Axel.”
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I nearly launched myself at him, I wanted to give him a hug to help him understand how important this was. But I didn’t. Sanity prevailed, and after all I had been playing with my toes, so gross, touching anyone with my hands. I just let it sink in for a second. I had been so afraid of him leaving, in fact I’d convinced myself that he would leave, that I now had to shift reality in my head to one where Jason would actually stay and help.
“So it will take Axel time to heal which means we have time to get to him before they really hurt him”. There was that grin again, “Yes. We are probably cutting it close. And we do have obstacles. Gentech will know by now what happened and they’re gonna be pissed, so they are probably deploying their men as we speak. We also have the Esperanzi to worry about and it’s at least two days drive to the Palace. So yes we can make it in time if we catch a bit of luck.” Jason also let out a deep breath as he said this, I guess he was a little worried about how this conversation was going after all.
“So we have a plan then. A plan we both agree on. We are going to get Axel.”
“Yes” Jason confirmed. We sat there for a couple more seconds just allowing our decision to sink in.
“Right” Jason finally broke the silence. “I have to go steal a car and you have to pack up all our stuff”. I know I felt worried and I guess it must have shown on my face
“Lily, I’m not going to leave you. That’s another promise I’m making. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve and I am a lot smarter than most of those guys. Don’t worry too much. I can get us into the Palace unnoticed. It’s the getting out we may need some divine intervention with”. Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.
“Jason” I called out as he was heading towards the door, “thank you”. He looked at me for a long moment and nodded his head in acceptance as he opened the door and disappeared outside.
Chapter 25
Lily
We were on the road to the Palace and I thought now was a good time as any to try and explain to Jason what I was doing at the centre of whatever this was, to the best of my knowledge anyway. I wasn’t entirely sure I understood it completely myself. No wait, that’s not true. I understand that my DNA is different to human and Traveller DNA, I understand the live nanites, I’m just not sure why it’s so important.
Jason after patiently listening to my segmented explanation let out a slow, long whistle. “OK” he finally said. “Now I get why they are after you”.
“Really” I snorted, “mind explaining it to me”.
Nice, I snorted again.
Jason took his eyes off the road for a moment, looking at me with that searching look again. “What do you mean” he asked.
“I mean, can you explain to me why I’m stuck in the middle of this. So I have different DNA, so what”.
He was quite for a moment before letting out a snigger “you’re kidding me right. You mean to say you have no idea why they’re after you”. “Nope” I said. “I’ve barely had a chance to stop for a minute since Axel took me from the Library. I get that I’m different but so what”.
“So what!” exclaimed Jason “OK! I’ll explain the so what” it took a moment it seemed for him to collect his thoughts. I had to admire him for that. I’m so use to my filter less mouth that I can admire someone who takes a moment to consider what they are about to say.
“We” he started “specifically the Travellers have been on Earth for a really long time. As much as we would like to believe our gene pool remained undiluted it hasn’t. How could it, it’s been too long. If it’s not only because we mixed with the humans it’s because our DNA has adapted to Earth over time. This is significant because with these changes some of our traits have changed. We still have our knowledge and that’s our leading edge over humans. Our abilities like our psychokinetic and telepathic abilities, well let’s say they are not as strong and influential as they use to be and I’ve never heard of anyone having naturally occurring nanites” he paused here looking still somewhat shocked at what I had told him about me.
“According to the Palace library there was a whole lot more we use to be able to do -connected with our genes – that we can no longer do. So imagine what happens when someone like you comes along and has a near identical genome to our ancestors. I can already think of about ten questions I’d like answers to. And that’s just me. I can only imagine how eager the Palace and Gentech are to get their hands on your blood. If they can map your genome, ok, when they map your genome they can figure out how to alter their DNA to match yours, getting their super powers back”.
OK, I can’t breathe. It’s the idea of what they want to do to me that’s starting to freak me out.
“What do you mean alter their DNA” I asked.
“Remember the Esperanzi, the beasts” Jason said. How could I forget, I keep waking up from the beast dream before it can speak to me again, ugggh.
“Gentech have dozens of hybrids and chimeras. Animals, I loosely use that term, that have been genetically altered, and their genomes combined to enhance various features. The beast on our tail is not a wild animal. It’s a soldier that can manipulate technology and use mind altering techniques – as you already know”. He paused for a second. “Lily, one of the things the Travellers want more than anything is complete superiority over the human race. The Palace wants to be in charge to make this world better, Gentech just want to be in charge and do things their way. This is something both sides could achieve if they had their original DNA and all the perks that brings with it. Do you realise you healed Axel? His recovery makes so much sense now. Your blood, specifically the nanites healed his wounds. Do you understand what that could mean to all of us. We’d be indestructible”
I couldn’t comprehend all this at once. I would need a minute, so instead I concentrated on one thing. “So you have about ten questions. What is one of them?” Jason looked over at me again “Really? You wanna know”.
“Mhmm”.
“OK, there’s one glaringly obvious question I’m sure everyone’s asking. Where did you come from? Wherever you came from, well there has to be more DNA like yours. I’m guessing it’s your father’s home. I’m guessing that’s one of the big questions everyone after you has”.
My gulp was pretty loud. It should be, a sick butterflies are dying in my tummy type of feeling was growing and extending out into my brain. Somewhere inside me, somewhere primal a terrified scream was building. It wasn’t ready to come out yet but it was building steam. I didn’t want to speak anymore. I felt Jason look at me sideways before silently bringing his attention back to the road we were driving on. Everything went pretty quiet and stayed that way for the next hour or so. r />
Chapter 26
Lily
The thing that scared me the most was the lack of chase. I could feel Jason getting more and more tense and when I asked him about it he echoed my concern. “This can only mean that they know where we are heading and they are already there setting up an ambush” he quietly said.
He never asked me again whether I really wanted to rescue Axel, I guess he understood my determination. I just wasn’t sure why Jason was coming along. I know he feels some kind of loyalty to the man he continually refers to as my father but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s something more than that, I just can’t figure out what it is. Actually thinking too hard about anything right now is difficult.
Jason has been going over our rescue plan. Luckily he still has most of the alien tech he brought with him so he will be able to confuse our trail near the Palace to cover our tracks, hoping that at least that would throw off the beasts. He was still pretty calm about getting in, it was the getting out that he wasn’t sure about. He kept saying that it was something that he would need to decide once he knew the situation, whatever that meant. I was too scared to ask. And that would be when he dropped his ‘there’s only one more thing I need from you to make this work’ bomb.
I held my breath as I whispered ‘‘what’’.
“Don’t get mad”
“You know I’m going to get mad just because you tell me not too right”, he laughed at this.
“We don’t have any form of technical communication with us and we need to be in communication the whole time we are in and around the Palace, especially if we become separated. Soooooo…. You are going to have to learn how to let your walls down, open a door and let me into your mind so we can keep talking to each other throughout this mission.”
My shoulders didn’t like hearing this, they stiffened right up at the mere mention of Jason listening into my thoughts. I don’t know why I was resisting so much. I guess in part it had something to do with Axel. He drilled and drilled and drilled me on this, about keeping my thoughts to myself. I spent most of my life in a state of no thought because I now knew he’d been so paranoid about someone listening in. I didn’t even know why Axel taught me apart from the standard answer of ‘wellbeing’ so I just did it because it meant so much to him. So much so that I wasn’t consciously doing it anymore, the walls were up and I had no idea how to bring them down let alone open a door.