Charged - Book One Page 12

  I flicked the corner of the folder a few times, trying not to think of the past. When I did open the file, the very first page was an eight-by-eleven photo of… her. Even after thirty years, grief rolled inside of me, mingling with the injustice of losing her. The woman I’d loved the most, the woman I’d found viciously murdered on our kitchen floor at ten years old, my mother.

  She was beautiful. She had thick, brown, wavy hair. She was almost six feet tall and a little too thin. She had an enormous heart, willing to help everyone and anyone she could. She honestly believed that everyone had something good inside of them. This was something that I knew wasn’t true. The few years that I did remember of our lives together, she’d spent helping out others that never appreciated it. She was generous to a fault.

  I didn’t want to remember and I didn’t know why Kye had given me the file. I closed the cover quickly, trying not to think about my mother. But the memories came anyway and I felt a little nauseous as the past pushed forward, as if they had never faded after all this time.

  The clarity was almost surreal; I could see the oak cabinets in the kitchen, the four-inch ceramic tiles on the floor and I remembered how they were white in the centers and darkened to a light tan towards the corners of each one. I could see that curvy swirl design in each and every corner as her blood spilled over them, spreading out, consuming their beauty.

  When I found her, I was standing next to Richie, my best friend. I remembered screaming, pulling on her, yelling at her to wake up. Richie ran out of my house to his, next door. He left me there, alone. I pushed on her chest trying to make her breathe, but it only made blood flow from her mouth. I could recall the jeans and pink shirt she was wearing, covered in blood.

  I took a deep breath pushing the memories back. I was hoping that, after all these years, they wouldn’t be so crisp. I opened the file again for a visual distraction, quickly turning her photo over. The file listed her date of birth, her marriage to my father, her divorce and her death. It also had his name, Isaac Dietz, the man who murdered her. He stole nothing; he was one of those crazies and my mother was just one of those people who left her doors unlocked. It was a senseless crime that could’ve been avoided if Isaac had the proper medication and treatment. He was a schizophrenic. Even though Isaac was really sick, they incarcerated him and he was murdered seventeen days later by some other crazy that probably also needed medication.

  I closed the file again, trying not to miss her. I closed my eyes and thought that, if Danel had ever actually read this, he wouldn’t have said, ‘we could use more coverts like you.’ If he had read it at all, he would’ve known what made me what I was. And that I was the type of person that wouldn’t let Kye be tied to him forever. No, he didn’t read it.

  I wished Kye hadn’t brought me the file. I rubbed out the water in my eyes with the back of my hand and tried to think about Kye. Maybe I was missing something that she was trying to tell me. I gave it some thought and all I could come up with was that she never had a mother. There was Alma, the only elder mother on the ship, but she was not Kye’s mother. I was too emotional to process anything at this point. I wanted to go to Kye, but I didn’t want to answer any questions, so I pulled the photo of my mother out of the file and I just sat staring at it. I touched her hair in the photo and slid my thumb across it and I could remember how smooth it felt in my hands as a small child.

  It seemed like hours passed as I sat paging through the unimportant parts of the file. Every woman I ever dated and every criminal I locked up were present and accounted for. It was strange looking at my life on paper; there were patterns in my life that I only vaguely recognized before. In a nutshell, my file said I was married to my job, had commitment issues due to the loss of my mother. Not what I wanted Kye reading.

  Did it say anything good about me? I thought about it from a different perspective for a moment. Yes, it did. It said I was hard-working… concerned for the wellbeing of humans and animals, I guess. Determined. Okay, it wasn’t all bad. But it was evident that, after my mother died, I really believed I was going to save every kid on the playground.

  The file referenced Richie also. He had it harder than I did. As the years flew by, he just got caught up in one bad turn after another. Even when we were kids, he was just a little off mentally, not like the other kids in class. Not that I could diagnose anyone, but I thought he was unstable: super-happy one moment and extremely depressed the next. It was probably best that my grandmother eventually sold the house and we moved.

  There was a light knock on the door and I quickly shook the memories out of my head, or tried to. It was the only wood door that I’d seen on the ship, supposed to make us humans more comfortable, I guess. I opened the door and it was Kye. She didn’t say anything. She was waiting for me to confirm or deny the contents of the file, I thought.

  I handed her the file. “You can burn this. It’s accurate.” And it didn’t change anything except the fact that Kye knew what sculpted my life, my career and my desire to be alone. But somehow I was different when I was with her. I wondered why she hadn’t just brought it up, since she appeared curious. I would’ve been honest with her. It was probably the same reason Aaron didn’t bring it up. I must somehow radiate the fact that I don’t want to discuss it. I never did talk about my family, not to anyone. Why would I? Nobody wants to hear that you have no family left.

  Her eyes were both sad and understanding at the same time. She grabbed the file and put it in a black duffel bag she’d brought with her and then she pushed her way into my small suite.

  “Aaron is staying with Jessica tonight. How about we watch a movie?”

  I wasn’t wholly present just yet, still thinking of the past. Before I could answer, she had a six-pack of beer on ice and a selection of movies on the screen. She coaxed me into my queen-size bed and before I knew it, we were laughing at a comedy she had selected. For the rest of the night, everything was fine. She was on her side and her back was lying against my chest and she was stroking my hands with her fingers. I held her in my arms and pushed my face into her hair, smelling her.

  “Why did you give me that file?” Even I could hear the grief in my voice.

  She turned around and faced me, eyes full of regret.

  “I’m… I’m sorry. I just wanted to know if you were as alone as… as I am.”

  More honesty. Something I could get used to. Yes, yes, I am, I thought. She turned back around and I pulled her close to me and there was a slight sting at the thought that she was really as alone as me. I didn’t answer her. The answer was obvious.

  CHAPTER 29

  WE’D SPENT THE NEXT three weeks like this. We shared our breakfasts, lunches and part of our evenings together discussing everything under the sun. I wanted to spend every waking moment with her. She was real, refreshing, funny, brilliant, mature and beautiful. Clearly, all that I was really missing in my life was an older woman. She was different around me; that sadness faded significantly until she came upon Danel. And I was somehow different too. On a couple of occasions I even found myself talking about my mother.

  Sometimes I slept in her quarters, but rarely. She didn’t want to upset Danel any more than she had. She told me to just think of him as her overbearing, controlling boss. So I did and I made it very clear she should quit her job. This made her laugh, so whenever he ticked her off, I just kept saying, “there’s plenty of jobs out there, Kye.” It became our private little joke and it always got a smile from her.

  Every third or fourth day, she had to work topside and was gone for about twenty-four hours, which gave me my alone-time. But I found myself thinking of her and wondering if she was thinking of me. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go with her. I only got a vague impression that if I did go with her, it created more risk of them being detected.

  Aaron and Jessica were best friends now, as far as I could tell… maybe growing into something more. She was the youngest, so it made sense they got along better than he did with the elders.
He even let her modify his pupils so he could see perfectly in their dim lights. She offered the same for me, but I declined.

  On one of the days that Kye was working, Aaron and I let Jessica cleanse our bodies, ridding them of any ailments they might have. It took two hours, but I felt ten years younger when she was done. It seemed like a good idea, since Kye’s body was fifteen years younger than mine physically. I could breathe better. I could taste more. My back didn’t hurt in the mornings like it always had. It was astonishing.

  Aaron and Jessica were having a ball, really. She made his hair and eyes glow blue and even fixed some of his teeth that he had neglected. I almost didn’t recognize him anymore, but he was happy, so I didn’t care. Jessica was alive and vibrant just like Aaron, willing to try anything. I could even picture her skydiving if Danel would allow it. And when we did spend time together, all he talked about was Jessica and all I talked about was Kye.

  Aaron, through Kye, had made arrangements for someone to run the shop without him. And I’d moved everything out of my apartment and into storage, via Kye again. I planned on staying forever, we both did.

  Ben and I played chess while Kye was working and he always won. Always. Eventually, he gave me a job cleaning out their version of a ventilation system, which didn’t actually vent anything. It was more like an atmosphere purifier for the station, which they preferred since humans were putting more and more toxins into Earth’s atmosphere. This job was not my first pick. He started me with all twenty stories of it. I found myself one day hanging from a harness five stories up in a shaft that was no wider than a closet, asking myself, “how did I get this job?” I had to laugh at the craziness of it, because I hated heights. Yet, I had to admit everything was less scary because Jessica could heal whatever I broke. Almost everything.

  Ben started to remind me of my father, who died when I was young. He was funny and too old to be too serious, but a very good listener. I asked him if it would be okay for me and Kye to be really together. He raised his brows at me. I wasn’t sure if she had the human version of anatomy that I was hoping for. I’d spent the night in her quarters, but it was always to sleep. He laughed at me hard and then laughed some more and told me I could just ask her. Even though he made me wait a few minutes, he eventually disclosed that her genetic makeup was actually seventy-two percent human. He seemed interested when I talked about Kye. It was like he’d never seen her the way I saw her.

  Everything was perfect for exactly two more months. Everything was fine until I was in L corridor when Kye had already gone topside for work 10 hours earlier. And I saw her leaving Danel’s quarters. It just didn’t seem right, because she was always gone for twenty-four hours or more. I quickly turned around and headed the other direction, saying nothing and I didn’t think she saw me at all. There was a part of me that didn’t want to know.

  CHAPTER 30

  THE NEXT MORNING, I thought about everything over a cup of coffee and decided I was just being ridiculous.

  After I cleaned out ventilation sections 12 thru 10, I would just find Kye and talk to her and hopefully she would talk to me. If this was unsuccessful, I would find Danel and confront him.

  When I was done working, I searched for Kye. After twenty minutes, I found her, Aaron and Danel in the same large conference room where we had originally discussed the box.

  “Was I not invited?” I tried to ask in a comedic way, as I walked in.

  “You were working when Kye got me,” Aaron said.

  “Well, why the long faces?”

  I noticed three files on the large table. They were labeled; Brian, Lolita and Marie. The look on Aaron’s face was disturbing. I think he was in shock.

  “Wasn’t Brian taking care of your shop?”

  “Yes, an old friend and now he’s dead,” Aaron said sadly.

  I looked at Kye, but she looked upset as well.

  “Lolita?”

  Kye looked at me with sad eyes, which meant Marie was dead too. Kye shook her head and she got up quickly.

  “We did manage to save this.” She pulled out a small kennel from behind her and placed it on the table opening the gate. I was shocked as Zero came running out and leapt into my arms.

  “Z… oh, I missed you, buddy.”

  I knew this was no time to be happy, but I loved that dog. He licked my face and Kye smiled that she had saved something that was obviously very precious to me.

  I cradled Zero in my left arm, “thank you,” I said.

  Danel let out an irritated sigh the minute he saw the dog.

  “How did this happen?”

  “They were all killed the same way Richie was,” Kye said.

  Not like Richie. I slumped down into one of the oversized chairs and hung my head, closing my eyes. I wasn’t expecting this.

  “It’s because of me — because I found the box and brought it to his shop and the killer probably followed me to Lolita’s and probably waited for me to return.”

  “Lew, you didn’t even know what the box was,” Aaron said, trying to reassure me.

  “We have to make some calls,” Danel said, as he got up to leave.

  Danel didn’t get more than two steps out into the hall when Ben approached him.

  “What?” Danel said, impatiently.

  “They’re coming.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “I know that, but they’re in flight in this direction now.”

  Kye looked at me, then Aaron.

  “Can we get them out of here?” she said.

  “How long?” Danel asked Ben.

  “An hour, maybe less.”

  By Kye’s expression, this was not enough time.

  Now I was concerned. Who was coming? Military? FBI?

  “FBI?” I said.

  “I wish it were; we have people there,” Danel mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his large hand.

  I now thought about how Richie died. Instinctively, I felt for my revolver in the shoulder holster, which I wore today, but who were they?

  “I thought you had coverts all over. FBI, military, cops?”

  “We do,” Danel said.

  “Then who’s coming?”

  Ben’s and Danel’s eyes were locked. Even in the dim blue light, I could see their bodies stiffen, their muscles contracting with tension. This sent a wave of urgency through my body, so I stood up and took two steps closer to the hall. Aaron now stood up, following my lead. The silence was unbearable and images of Richie flashed through my mind: his mutilated skull, his lifeless body. And now more people were dead.

  “Who’s coming?” I said again, now trying to control my anger. I wondered what could be worse than aliens. What could be worse than aliens doing genetic experiments with humans, splicing human DNA with alien DNA? What in this world would make even Danel speechless?

  “Just show them,” Kye said.

  “They nearly passed out when they saw me,” Danel said.

  This made me feel worse. What did she mean, show them?

  “We don’t have time, just show them.” Kye’s voice was now demanding.

  This was bad. This sounded very bad.

  “Contact station ten; they are the closest. Tell them to get here as soon as they can and call Rigdon with the FBI. Maybe he can get here faster,” I never saw Ben move so quickly — in an instant, he was gone.

  Quickly, I put Zero back in the kennel.

  “Gentlemen, follow me.”

  CHAPTER 31

  WE WERE SPRINTING down another long corridor that I’d only been in once. I remembered it; it was corridor G where the clones were. We were not moving as fast as I would’ve liked, but with Danel’s long strides, Aaron and I were almost running to keep up. After a hundred yards, we reached another medical lab that had a number of computers and more machines that I couldn’t identify. Collin was standing in the center of the room writing something on a clipboard in his hands. I was getting better at recognizing them.

  When Collin looked up, I couldn’t read
his expression, but if I had to guess, I would say he looked confused by our presence.

  “Show them the creature.”

  Collin nodded his head and his glowing eyes dimmed for just a second. Then he led us into another section of the lab through a very large metal door with a keypad lock. As we entered, the dim blue lights came on. It was a small room and all I saw was a dark mass in the center of it.

  “Bright,” Collin said and the light increased significantly.

  “Oh my God!” Fell out of my mouth and I walked back three feet, almost dropping the kennel. Zero whimpered and then started growling.

  There it was, laid out in the center of the room. Sick terror filled my stomach. My throat thickened and I almost couldn’t breathe.

  “It’s dead,” Kye said, trying to calm me.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. This was coming? This thing? I was frozen: my mouth agape, my eyes locked open. And it wasn’t just one coming; he said “they” were coming.

  Danel was right; it was so much worse than his kind. The species on this station were at least humanoid. The dark shiny mass in the center of this room was not. My heart was hammering against my chest. Danel at least had hands I could shake, eyes and even some semblance of a nose and feet.

  “Several of our coverts were attacked by this and they managed to kill it and bring it back,” Danel said.

  I tried to compose myself and swallowed hard. My heart was still racing and I couldn’t unlock my eyes from this thing in front of us.

  Aaron, being his usually too-calm, too-curious self, moved around me to get a better look at the creature in the center of the room.

  “It can’t harm you,” Collin said to me.

  “You mean it can’t harm us yet.”

  Collin looked at Danel.

  “They’ll be here in less than an hour,” he said.

  Collin looked at me and now I could actually see a distinct nervousness in him, something about his eyes becoming wider around the centers.