"What the hell are you doing here?"
I heard Marley peek out and gasp, jerking the curtain closed again to hide herself.
"I know what it looks like," he began.
"We know all about BioGene."
His eyes bulged on cue. I handed Marley the towel over the top. "How do you know-"
"You don't worry about that. I don't know what you want with us-"
"I'm not here to hurt you."
"You're just following us for…what?"
He sighed. "I'm one of you."
"One of us?" Marley asked. She opened the curtain a little with the towel wrapped around her. I growled and stood in front of her. Was she crazy?
"Yes, one of you. If you know about BioGene, I imagine you know that we were…experiments."
"For what?"
"All kinds of stuff. But that's not important. I know you've been running for a long time, but you don't have to. We don't want to hurt you, we want to help you."
"Help us what? We were fine until you started following us and trying to run us down in cars."
He shook his head. "If you remember right, I didn't hurt you. In fact, I helped her get you to the hospital."
So he did.
"So now what?"
"We want to bring you in for your own safety."
"From who?"
"There are a few of us that don't agree with the way some things were done."
"What happened to your mother?" I asked, changing the subject and seeing what he was made of. He didn't blink.
"She died during my birth. I was raised by nurses in the facility."
I paused. "Facility?"
"Yes. Where your mothers lived for almost a year."
What? I looked back at Marley and she looked as confused as I felt. I gripped her hand and she squeezed.
"OK, first things first," I told him. "Get out so she can get dressed. Then we'll talk."
He nodded with chagrin and backed out, going to stand in front of the window. I grabbed some clothes for her and placed them on the counter. I turned to face the bathroom door, not leaving her alone, and she dressed quickly. She asked me a hundred hushed questions. Did I believe him. Did I want to run. Did I understand what he was telling us.
I turned when she finished and calmed her, rubbing my hands down her arms. "Don't worry. We'll figure everything out."
She was gripping my shirt front, letting me comfort her, when the room behind me exploded in gunshots. We fell to the floor, my hand over her protectively. I crawled and peeked out the sliver to see our friendly neighbor being gunned down.
Biloxi.
But…how? He worked for them. Why would they kill him? I urged a silent Marley to the window over the toilet. She was shaking so badly, I wasn't sure she'd make it.
It was scarily like the day my mom and I escaped through the bathroom window. I couldn't have a repeat. "I'll go first to catch you," I insisted. I climbed onto the toilet seat and out the window easily, landing on my feet. It was a bit of a drop, but manageable. I coaxed her down. "Come on, baby. Hurry. I've got you."
When she climbed down, her behind rubbed against my neck and down my entire body. I gripped her sides to ease her down and didn't even get a chance to enjoy any of it because she was shaking so badly and I was so scared that someone was about to hurt her like they hurt my mom.
But I didn't plan to allow that to happen this time.
No longer a boy who lost it all, I was a man that realized how much I had to lose.
I took her hand and we took off running. I stuck my head around the building, but our truck was surrounded by men. I cursed and looked around. Downtown was only about half a mile. We could make it on foot and…I didn't know. I'd decide that later.
I took her hand and pulled her with me. We ran to the fence and I linked my fingers together to hoist her over. She climbed down the other side and I scaled it quickly. We were both barefoot, but it could be worse.
"Jude, what are we doing?" She hissed and lifted one foot. "There's stuff in the grass."
"Get on," I ordered, bending down for her to climb on my back.
"What about your feet?"
"Get on, sweetheart," I said quickly. "I'm fine."
She climbed on and I gripped her legs under her knees, walking swiftly. We were silent and Marley was still shaking slightly. We made it to the first gas station and I put her down as we walked in the door. I bought us each a pair of cheap flip-flops that had the picture of the state of New Mexico on the sole and a keychain-sized pepper spray for Marley.
She gripped it tightly and gave me a look. "Hopefully, you won't need it, sweetheart, but just in case."
"I love it when you call me that," she whispered as she looked out into the dark road. "We're going to find the facility now, aren't we?"
"Yes. I'm going to buy you a bus ticket and then I'll come when I get everything all-"
"Oh, my gosh. Are you out of your mind!" she screeched.
"Hey!" we heard from behind us. I looked at the gas station attendant. "Take it outside. No fighting in the store."
She took off in a huff and I followed her. Down the side highway, she walked angrily with me beside her. "I can't believe you're dumping me after all."
THIRTEEN
"I'm not dumping you," I promised. "Do you realize I'm going to have to break in? I just don't want you to get hurt."
"I'm not some little woman that needs to be taken care of. I've done just fine without you for my whole life, Jude! I'm not fragile."
"Yes, you are!" She stopped on the sidewalk and looked at me. I tried to tone it down. "You are fragile and you are a woman who needs to be taken care of." She started to protest, but I moved and took her face in my hands. "You deserve to be taken care of. You've done a great done job so far, but, sweetheart, there's nothing wrong with letting somebody take over for a while. Let me take care of you. Let me protect you. I know you've never had someone to look after you before, but now you do."
"Jude," she swallowed, "I'm coming with you." I gritted my teeth. "You can't do this by yourself. I need to see this for myself as much as you do."
"I want you safe."
"They ruined my life, too."
Dang…she had to throw that last jab. I released her. "Fine."
"Fine," she rebutted and we walked in silence.
I had to pat myself on the back for staying calm because right then, I was about five miles south of fine. I didn't want her anywhere near that place, but what was I going to do, tie her to a park bench?
I growled at the thought of them finding her.
"What are you growling about?" she spouted.
"I think you probably know." We made it to the highway and I looked for a taxi. I flagged one down, but he kept going.
"I don't know," she rebutted. I tried to flag another one down and she threw her arms up in exasperation. "Jude, this isn't New York. Taxis don't just pull over to pick people up in New Mexico."
I turned, growling at how badly this whole thing was going down, but stopped. A dark SUV pulled into the gas station we had just left and the man who got out was Biloxi. Three other men got out, too, and went inside. They left the car on. I could still hear the engine.
I didn't think. I grabbed Marley's hand and we ran to it, jumping in. I looked in the backseat, a quick glance, before locking the doors and slamming it into reverse. They saw their car leaving, but I was sure they couldn't see us in the dark windows. I sped from the lot, looking back to see Biloxi punching and kicking one of the men. Probably the one driving.
Marley said my name in a quiver, "Jude." I looked over to see a gun in her hand. A silver handgun. "It was under the seat. Take it," she insisted. I did, seeing how many bullets were left, and checked to make sure if there was a safety it was on before sticking it in the back of my pants.
"The chamber's full."
"You got your gun after all. So…we're doing this."
I peeked at her as we sped down the interstate. "This ends toni
ght." I took her hand and held it tight as I said the next words. Wow, I was becoming a chick. "I understand why you needed to come." She looked at me with no anger. "I do. I just hate the idea that I'm bringing you to the danger instead of waiting for it to find us. But I'll protect you. No matter what."
"I'm not worried. Everything seems to be pulling us there. Even this car." She pointed to the NAV and went to saved searches. The address of the facility was in there and she pressed for it to take us there. "See."
"All right. We're doing this. Stay low, stay behind me, and if we come across somebody, just act like you're supposed to be there."
"Like we're the cleaning people or something?"
I smiled. "That works for me."
"We're wearing flip-flops, Jude. I don't think there are any positions that would let us wear flip-flops."
I laughed, but it was laced with all sorts of feelings. This was it. I was finally going to figure out what happened to my mom, why she was always running with me, and why they were after us.
I glanced over at Marley and could see her wheels turning, too. I squeezed her hand and she looked at me with a sad smile. "Either way, we'll know," she said and wiped one tear from her eye.
I nodded. "Either way, sweetheart. This is it."
It took us about two and a half hours to get there. It was late and the compound was dark, all except one wing. There was a gate around the entire building and parking lot, but it was open. We went in and I stiffened when a guard who was sitting by the front door stood. He looked closely at the car and then waved us on from afar, content to go back to his seat.
Well, that was easy.
I pulled around back and we parked for a minute to look things over. The place was kind of small and disappointing. This was headquarters and I figured it would have been bigger or more…bigger.
"Should we ring the bell?" Marley spouted.
I smiled. "Hold your horses. We need to figure out how to get in. The fence may have been open, but I seriously doubt the door will be.
A car pulled in behind us and a scraggly man got out quickly, juggling his coffee and folders while he sprinted to the door. I watched his hand for the code.
He went in and I looked around before I got out. She followed suit and we walked to the door. I punched in what I thought was the code, but it didn't work. It beeped to let us know that we got it wrong. "Oh, thanks, door, for stating the obvious."
She giggled and sighed. She punched in a code, only one number different from mine and the door clicked. I yanked it open and looked at her like she stole my thunder. "Men," she scoffed. "You need to get glasses, by the way. You're welcome!" she sang in a whisper.
I clicked the door shut and we stared at a long, white corridor with multiple doors. "What is this, the freaking Matrix?" she asked.
I looked at her, slack-jawed. Now she was a Matrix movie buff?
God had sent this girl to me.
She started to inch down the hall. I took her hand and moved her behind me, giving her a look that said what my mouth didn't dare. Her look said, Fine, whatever. I started to go, but stopped. I turned and with my hand on her jaw, brought her to me. One kiss to take with me to whatever fate waited for us down this hall.
She licked her lips and blinked a few rapid times. I nodded to tell her it was go time.
We inched down the hall to find room after room of glass-walled, empty offices. They had desks in them and chairs, but looked to be empty. Looked like no one had ever even used them. We searched the entire place and found not one piece of paper, not one soul. I was so confused.
We had just seen that guy come in. There had to be something we were missing.
So we started backtracking and I almost missed it for a second time. The stairwell door was white as well as the walls. I told her to be quiet as I eased the door open. There was no squeak and we went in. The door shut and then we heard it bolt into place. Marley tried to open it, but it wasn't budging. They were obviously trying to keep anyone without a code from getting out. I imagined my mom in a place like this, locked in…
I went first down the stairs and came to the bottom. It was just one level. I eased it open and peeked into the hall to see another long hallway with doors. We went and searched for anything that would help. This was it. We were there.
Marley's breathing was getting ragged behind me and I gripped her fingers tighter. I knew she was scared, but she was also tough as hell.
I pulled us to a stop in front of a room labeled Observation Room. I felt my skin crawl at the sound of that, but we inched inside. I gasped at what I saw.
The room was big and shaped like a horseshoe, but the part that made my heart stop was what was below us. There, in small walk-in closet-sized spaces, were a bed and a dresser. And room after room was a child.
x
Marley gasped and pressed her hand to the glass above one boy's room. He couldn't have been more than five years old, but even when she knocked on the glass, he didn't look up. "It's one-way glass," I told her.
"Jude," she whimpered and looked back at me, helplessly. "What are we gonna do?"
I looked at them all, nothing the same or different about them. There was no rhyme or reason, no pattern or gender to explain it. There were nine in all, four boys and five girls.
I searched the room for anything. There was only one computer in the corner and it was blinking a picture of a globe with a DNA strand around it like a planet ring. I touched the mouse and the brightly lit home screen popped up. There were so many files on the desktop, so I just double clicked one. There were a lot of links inside that only had dates to differentiate. It was a video, a woman. A date flashed above her head the entire time along with the letter C. She was explaining how her pregnancy was going, how she wasn't sick, that she felt great and energized, her feet hadn't swollen any, and she had no reason to know she was pregnant at all except for the bulging belly. She laughed at that.
I knew something bad was coming.
I clicked further down to a later date and she was still chipper and telling them her details as a deep voice asked her specifics off camera. But at the end of the video, she asked about seeing her father again. She said, "I don't understand why it's so hard. Why can't I just call him?"
"You'll disrupt the experiment. No electronics of any kind are to be within ten feet of you and the baby."
"So put him on speaker phone. I just want to talk to him. He'll be worried if I don't call. It's been months."
"He knew you were going to a secret location to help your country with an experiment. He'll understand."
"I just don't see why-"
"Miss Core. That's enough for today."
"Can I please have something to do other than crossword puzzles?"
"No electronics," he repeated harder.
"It doesn't have to be." She sat on the bed, looking tired emotionally, but physically, she looked pretty amazing. "Just something else."
"I'll see what I can do."
Even I knew that was a crock.
The camera stopped and I clicked a later date. I sat in the chair there and pulled a quiet Marley into my lap. We needed to see, but I knew it was going to hit too close to home. Our mothers probably had a video just like this somewhere.
I clicked the very last date in the file and Marley gasped, covering her mouth. I wrapped my arms around her and stared at the shell of a woman on the screen. She was weeping, banging her fists on the glass like she'd been doing it for hours, days even, with no results. She was mumbling something I couldn't understand. I slowly clicked the speaker icon and turned the volume up until we could make out the pleas of the mother before us.
"Give me back my baby."
FOURTEEN
Marley turned, shaking and whimpering into my shoulder. She didn't want or need to look anymore, but I had to. She didn't know what her mother looked like and to her, that could have been her mother. But I knew mine, and I needed to see. But first…
"That wasn't her, bab
y," I assured into her hair. "That wasn't her."
"It could've been, Jude." She sniffed, trying to keep it together. "We'll never know which one was her."
The woman on the video had been dark olive skinned and my girl was pale and blond like a porcelain doll. There was no way that woman was her mother, but the not knowing was torturing her.
I wished to all that was holy that she had let me save her from this by getting on that bus.
I stood, scooting her up so I could pass, and went to find the kid. I just knew since the dates weren't as far back that he or she was there. I looked and it didn't take long to match the dark hair and skin to a little Mediterranean beauty below us.
She was wearing a plain white smock or hospital gown with no socks or shoes and couldn't have been more than eight. There was no TV or radio or anything in the room. She sat on the bed and sang some song that I couldn't hear. I beckoned Marley to me and she rushed to the window. It was obvious this girl was her daughter and not Marley because of the dates I saw, but Marley was on a mission that was a little different from mine.
She wanted to know what happened to her mom to make her throw Marley away.
I went back and pressed lots of those folders and links to see if I could find my mom, but couldn't. There was just too many of them and we needed to get to the room with all the information. Files, records, whatever. We got that there was some shady experiments going on, but we needed to know why.
The last link I clicked was an older date, a couple years before I was born, and I went to one of the last links in the folder. She was talking to the wall for all I knew. No one appeared to be there, but she was confessing everything. I realized who she was confessing to when she gripped her huge belly and cried as she spoke.
"Oh, God…I didn't know. They said they'd help me. They said if I helped them with their experiment, it would all be paid for and I'd be helping people, too. But it's not that at all. I'm so sorry. I've killed you by bringing you here. I've killed myself. They won't let us stay together. You'll be all alone. I'm so sorry, baby."