I turned off her mumbling and took a deep breath. That was it, wasn’t it? Mom had gotten pregnant, the douche probably ran like cowards do, and she was all alone. She would never tell me about my dad. They came, told her they'd help her if she helped them. I'm sure they made it sound like a Godsend in her time of need. When she found out what was going on, she ran somehow, got away, and we never stopped running.
I took another breath. God…my chest hurt thinking about her doing all that for me. Just so I'd never know what it was like to grow up in a room all by myself like those kids down there.
We heard a door and looked up to see a man in a doctor's coat enter one of the children's rooms. We couldn't hear them. I searched, knowing there had to be a way for us to hear them in an observation room, and found a button that turned on the speakers.
He told the boy, "…and the test will begin just as they always do. We'll poke your finger, put the blood on a piece of glass, and then we'll take a hair sample and a swab from the inside of your cheek. And then if that works, then…tomorrow they'll come and take a little marrow."
"No!" he yelled and backed away from him. "Please don't do that. It hurts."
"I know it hurts," the man placated, "but don't you want to help people? Don't you want to save people's lives?"
"Yes, but why do I have to be awake when you hurt me?"
The man cleared his throat. "That's the only way it can be done." The boy wiped his eyes, clearly not happy. "And they won't do any more tests on you for a week. How's that?"
The boy didn't answer and I imagined myself in the room below, waiting to be harvested for bodily fluids. I felt my eyes sting with angry tears.
Then the man left and went a couple doors down to another boy's room. He went through the same spiel as he had with the other boy except he looked at his chart and instead of taking bone marrow, they were taking his spleen.
His freaking spleen.
Marley was keeping her soft cries to herself as she covered her mouth.
I turned away. I couldn't watch anymore. I searched the room and the computer for anything new that might help us, and when I found nothing, I towed Marley into the hall.
She was quiet, as was I. I didn't want to think about those kids being down there for another second, but first, we had to get our evidence. The hall twisted and turned and I tried to remember which way we'd gone so we didn't get lost. We never saw a soul. I started opening doors and looking in them to see what was what.
We found more rooms with beds, but they were empty, a lab with humming machines and hospital beds, a small nursery...
Finally, we came upon a room full of computers, file shelves, and desks. It wasn't labeled, but we assumed it was the records room.
I sat at one of the computers while Marley got to work going through files. "These are patient charts, Jude."
"Oh, good," I said. "That will probably be great for-"
"No," she said, panicked. "Jude…these are patient charts." Her voice shook and I followed her eyes, gulping. The wall was lined, floor to ceiling, at least ten feet long with files for patients. So many people… How did no one know about this? How did they justify all those missing people?
I cursed and closed my eyes. This was bigger than some company with a couple offices in the city. This was…an operation.
She started tearing through them, looking for anything. But again, we didn't even know exactly what we were looking for. "These were all pregnant, Jude," she muttered softly.
I started going through files on the computer, financial records, contributions, donations, some people had even donated their body to the organization for scientific purposes. I'd never heard of this company, but in the scientific and medical circles, it was obviously a big deal.
Then, under the financials was a payroll listing. I found a USB stick already in the computer and started to put the most important things on it, that being one of them. If we made it out of this, the cops would have a list of all the people who worked there, all the people that they needed to arrest for murder. There was no way someone worked there and didn't know what was going on.
The job titles were all these medical professions that I couldn't even pronounce. Then I started putting the list of Test Subjects on the drive, too. I was sure there were plenty of missing persons cases this could help solve.
Then there were some company files, mission statements, meeting dictations, all sorts of things that I didn't have time to weed through. I didn't put those on the drive for fear of me finding something else more important that needed to fit on it.
I went back to the Test Subjects file. Then I gritted my teeth at what I found. A subfolder titled Terminated. Inside, the list was long and next to each name was a letter—a room letter I assumed—and then it said either Deceased or Terminated. I knew what the difference meant. I searched for my mom's name. It said Terminated by it. I clicked on the JPEG beside it and there she was. All vibrant and alive in a way that I never really knew her. And I felt like that little boy again, watching her die in front of my eyes.
Then I let my eyes search for Marley's mom's name, I prayed it said deceased. But it didn't. They had killed her like they killed my mom. The date for her death was when Marley would have been three years old. I looked at her and she knew.
"You found something about her, didn't you?"
"How old were you when she…gave you up."
"Three years, two months, and nine days. But who's counting?" She smiled sadly. "Just tell me."
I waited. I clicked on the picture of her and an older version of my Marley popped up. Her hair was longer, her skin somehow paler, and she was giving this little, shy smile. I closed my eyes and hated this. "Come here, sweetheart."
She came slowly and when she saw her mom's face for the very first time, I watched as her world shattered. I was sure it was nothing like she pictured her. She covered her face, everything but her eyes, and stared at the woman who gave her up to save her.
As she sobbed and realized her mom had loved her so much that she died for her, I held her tightly. She wrapped her arms roughly around my neck and held on. I soothed her the only way I was learning how to, by being there. I let my hands say what my lips didn't know how to and pressed her to me, rubbing her skin in circles under her shirt.
I wasn't sure how long we stood like that, but we needed to get moving. I hated to interrupt her when she needed this time to grieve, but I had to. I lifted her face, smoothed her cheeks of tears, and hoped to hell that she was going to be all right. I knew what guilt looked like—I'd had years to deal with mine—but hers was just now hitting her full-force. "I'm so sorry, baby."
She nodded. "Me, too."
"We've got to go."
She nodded again. "I know."
I turned back to the computer and printed the picture of her mom off for her. I took it from the printer on the back desk, folded it, and stuck it in her back pocket for her. I kissed her once.
"Thank you for finding her," she whispered.
I didn't feel like I deserved any thanks. On our way out, she stopped me and said that we should take our mothers' files with us. We looked, but couldn't find them. They were in order of date, so we looked for our birthdays, but that didn't match up. Then I realized it wasn't their birthdays or ours, it was by their Terminated date. Sure enough, we found both folders that way.
Marley stuffed them both into the back of her waistband and let her shirt cover them. That was a good thing because as soon as I opened the door, we came face-to-face with a man that didn't look happy to see us there.
"How did you get in here?" he asked, truly perplexed.
I reached for my gun slowly and told him, "You were the guy in there with that little boy."
His eyes widened and he huffed. "How long have you been here? How did you get in?" He reached for something in his pocket, but I was faster on the draw.
"Nuhuh, big boy. Hands up."
"Are you a terrorist?" he asked, glancing down the hall
nervously. "Our anthrax isn't the kind you can weaponize, you know."'
"I'm not here to steal your anthrax." I pushed him to the wall, the gun under his chin. I saw a ring on his finger. "Married? Got kids?"
"Yes," he stuttered and seemed to get an idea. "Yes, I have three beautiful, talented little girls who would miss their daddy very much. Please, let me go."
I scoffed. "So because your kids are talented you're worth more than other daddies? Is that what you're saying?"
Marley stuck behind me, her fingers gripping my shirt. "No…yes, maybe. I don't know!" he roared. "You've got a gun in my face!"
"So you would never want anything to happen to them, would you? Like being put in a room for the rest of their lives and harvested for organs! Or plasma and blood." My lividness reached maximum capacity. "You sick bastard!"
I reared back and punched him with the fist not holding the gun. It was my left for crying out loud, but he went down like a sack of onions and cried like he'd been chopping some, too. I jerked him up by his collar. "Get up. We're going for a walk and you're going to tell us everything."
"Everything about what?"
He tripped and I made him stand. "About our mothers and what you were doing with them."
"Your mothers?" He tried to look back confused, but I made him walk. "I don't know your mothers. I would know their room number and last name. That's all. We don't make things personal around here. Just professional."
I scoffed louder. "Why? To keep your conscience clean?"
He didn't answer, lucky for him. I shoved him back into the observation room and pushed him into the chair. I put the gun back into my pants because I could see this guy was a pansy and would cause no trouble. I told Marley to let him see the picture of her mom. She did, her fist closed tight. The man shook his head. "I don't know her. I wasn't working here then, but if you were the children of women in this facility, then that means…"
He was interrupted by the door opening behind us. It revealed a rather large man and three other men carrying rifles. They were in uniforms like security guards, but he was in a black suit. I swiftly, discreetly, stuck the gun in the back of my pants again. The security guards looked pretty pissed. I smirked. "You got chewed out, huh?" I tacked on a wink for good measure.
One of them stepped forward like he was going to bust my teeth, but the man barked for him to stand down. He smiled at us. "Look, I'm sure there's some logical explanation for all of this. Let's just sit down and we'll work it all out, yeah?"
He told the lab coat to get lost, then ticked his head out the door. One of them grabbed my arm to drag me down the hall. But that meant… I looked back to see the shortest one snatch Marley in front of him. When I heard her gasp, I saw red. I slammed my elbow into my guy's nose, actually smiling when I heard it crunch, and went for Marley's. He didn't stand a chance as my fists connected with his chin. He went down and I pulled Marley to me. The other two jumped on me quick and one rifle butt went into my gut and the other the back of my head.
I hit the floor, hearing Marley's scream. I shook my head and blinked as I rolled over. One of them had his arm around Marley's neck as she looked down at me. I made myself get up for another go-round.
The suit took one of their rifles from the men and shot it into the ceiling once, halting us all. "Hey, hey, hey!" he yelled. "All right, let's all just calm down."
"Get your hands off her right now or you'll be eating that arm," I threatened the man with Marley. The suit could shoot me, but I wasn't going to watch as she was hurt anymore by these people.
The suit told the guy to let her go. He glared at him, but did so. She bolted to me and wrapped one arm around my middle, while the other inspected the back of my head, turning my face. "Oh, my gosh," she whispered.
She turned to them. "He's hurt. He's bleeding because of you."
"He's bleeding because he broke into my building," the suit countered.
I squeezed Marley, hoping she understood not to say anything. I was thinking it was a better idea for this guy to make his own assumptions about why we were there. If he found out we were returnees, he might decide playtime in the operating room wasn't over for us. Who knew what the hell these people would do.
"Come into my office. That's not a request," he said, pointing at me with his gaze. "You broke in, I didn't bring you here. I don't know what you're after, but I'm sure we can keep the police out of it if we just calm down."
I shook my head. Of course he wanted to keep the police out of it. They were murdering people and who knew what else. But he thought we were common thieves. So we followed him, arms around each other. I tried to let her know it was all going to be OK, but we just stared at each other. They held the door for us and pushed us to sit down on a small couch in the corner of the room.
"Now," he asked, leaning on the edge of his desk, "what is it that you were after, how did you get in here, and how did you know we had what you wanted to begin with?"
I looked at the door, but shorty was guarding it. So, I told the truth, mostly. I told them we figured they were a medical facility and would have anything we wanted and we waited, watching the guy put the code in. Then we just walked in because there was no one around.
"Yes," he drawled and gave the men a look, "apparently football was more important than intruders." He smiled at me. "The Patriots beat the pants off the Jets, by the way."
"Ah, come on, man!" I complained.
He laughed. "It was ruined for me. It was only fair to ruin the game for someone else." He watched us. "Now, what to do with you?"
Marley shook in my arms. I rubbed her arm to soothe her, but it was pointless. I had let her down.
"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" he asked and I told him a firm no. I didn't want any poison they had to offer. "All right, well as I said, we'll leave the police out of this. Nothing was stolen yet, so no harm, no foul."
I didn't smile. I didn't trust this guy as far as I could toss him. He looked between us several times before standing.
"All right, well we're gonna go chat for a sec. Sit tight." He winked and grinned as he left. He wasn't letting us go. He knew it and I knew it.
I sighed. I couldn't look at Marley as I spoke. I was strangely calm for someone who was probably about to no longer walk this earth. I was just…spent.
"I'm so sorry, Marley." I played with her fingers on my knee just to keep touching her, to remember exactly what it felt like. "I don't know what to do to fix this."
She smiled sadly and reached up, touching my lips with her thumb. "It's not your fault."
"No, it is my fault that I couldn't protect you."
She took a shaky breath. "I'm not your responsibility, Jude. I'm just a girl who got dumped on you." She looked down at her lap.
"A girl that I adore," I corrected.
"A girl you adore that you're stuck with because you're a gentleman and you…you won't…"
I shook my head, my brow low. "Marley." I moved until I was right up against her, or she was right up against me. I bent a little while pulling her chin up, making her look me right in the eye. "Don't you know?"
"Know what?" Her enraptured voice made me swell with happiness that she wanted me, too.
"That you're mine."
She blinked rapidly, the corners of her mouth lifting. Before she could say anything, the door swung open again…to reveal Biloxi.
I jumped up, shoving Marley behind me. He smiled at me. Or…at Marley. "Marley, you've finally made your way back to us."
I frowned at that. He continued. "Come on, honey. You've done your job. You got him here and that's all we wanted."
The blood rushed in my ears. What did he just say? Marley wasn't denying it. I turned slowly to find her open-mouthed and looking at me strangely. What the hell…
"Marley?" I questioned and finally, she opened her mouth.
"Jude, no, I'm not with him."
He laughed sadly. "Come on. The jig is up. You don't have to pretend anymore… Oh, no." He looked betwee
n us and sagged a little in defeat. "Good Lord, you fell for him, didn't you?"
"Yes," she whispered and looked at me, only me. "Yes, I
fell for him." She shook her head. "Jude, you can't believe him. After everything that happened, you believe him?"
I stared. I didn't believe him, not really. There had been too much that was real. Too much that was raw. I shook my head. She gripped my fingers in her hands, distracting me, when I felt the crack on my skull.
I went down, my head on the floor, and watched her adorable toes scramble away as my vision disappeared and sleep claimed me.
FIFTEEN
I woke, the smell of pepper choking me and burning my nose. I opened my eyes, only to be assaulted there, too. I looked around the room, sitting up and immediately regretting it, and saw Marley's pepper spray on the floor. The air was coated with it so she must have used it.
Which meant they'd taken her and she tried to get away.
Good girl.
"Mother…" I groaned as I stood and felt the back of my head. There was a lot of blood, but I had to find her. I felt the back of my pants and the gun was still there. I left it there, keeping my hand on the handle, but finger off the trigger, and inched into the hallway.
I leaned on the hall wall and made my way down. My head pulsed and my vision went in and out in blurs. I made myself keep going faster. When I heard a door slam behind me, I slid quickly into an alcove. I heard someone yell, the echo carrying it down the hall. "He's not here!"
I squeezed my eyes shut. If only I had gotten further away before they found out. I heard one say he was going this way and for the other guy to go that way. I listened and when his running footsteps almost reached me, I threw half of my body out, slinging my arm straight and tightening it. His neck slammed into it, effectively close-lining him as I'd been trying to do. He went down hard, choking on my arm, and the thud as his head hit the tile didn't sound encouraging that he'd get up again. I took his gun, slinging the strap over my shoulder, and then picked up his radio. I tried every channel, but heard nothing.