Blood Soaked and Invaded - 02 (21 page)

“No,” I whispered.

“Fhank,” it said, and my blood ran completely cold. F-31 was Scott and Mara’s child, and somehow it remembered me.

I needed to kill it, and soon.

“Hey, Dr. Lucas?”

“Just call me Jenny, Frank!” She was still rummaging around for a microphone.

“I’ve got to go talk with Dr. Sharma. Thanks for the tour!” I didn’t bother waiting for a reply, but crossed the room as fast as my upgraded self would go.

I did leave the white jumpsuit behind, but it was a near thing.

Building One didn’t bother being anything other than completely industrial. No one hung art in the hallways, and there certainly wasn’t any music playing. It felt something like a gulag looks. Cold and oppressive. The effect wasn’t improved by my recent experience with my unpaid debt made flesh.

I decided to activate my internal heads-up display so I could pinpoint my targets with a little more accuracy than wandering around would give me. Almost instantly I knew that they were hanging out in the physical therapy room around the corner from the lab.

Easy. I scooted over at top speed.

“Hi, love,” I pinged Charlie as I got closer. “Have you told them yet?”

“Oh, yes. I can see that you’re almost here,” she paused for a moment, “and that you’re a whole pile of interesting emotions and colors when I look at your icon in my head.” I could hear her make a “Hmm” noise inside my head. “Is this part of the upgrade special?”

“Yes. Strange, isn’t it?”

“Uh huh. I don’t really see what it has to do with keeping us alive or optimizing us for combat, but it certainly comes in handy for taking someone’s emotional temperature.”

“So, before I open the door, how did they react to the news?”

“I’d call it a stew of very mixed emotions. Jayashri made me pee on a stick to be sure. They’re currently debating the science and medical ramifications of a child who would have the upgrades from the start. I had to stop listening because it was starting to upset me.”

I closed the internal connection with her, and opened the door to the PT room. Bajali and his wife were seated at a table towards the near side of the space and were gesturing with more than a little animation, but saying nothing out loud. I assumed they were using their cerebral cell phones to hold the conversation, since the only other option was they were yelling at one another in some kind of sign language. Simple politeness would have been enough reason to not interrupt them, but I was more motivated to get my arms around my girl than I was to say hello. I fucking needed some comfort.

Charlie was sitting on the end of an examination table to the right of the Sharmas, and her face was strained. I walked over and threw my arms around her because she looked like she needed it and I certainly did. There’s nothing quite like a win-win situation in the middle of more strange shit, even if unusual feces is our order of business on any given day. She once told me to treasure the moments of Normal, and I have never forgotten that.

The moment I touched her she exhaled like she was clearing the stale air from the beds of her toenails, and I knew that I had done the right thing. In the little cocoon of Normal that I’d created we relaxed into one another’s touch and I kissed her shoulder as I curled my head into the crook of her neck. I made a second mental note about seducing her into the bathtub, or any other semi-private location that I could wrangle in the very near future.

“Frank?”

“Yes, sweetie?” I pulled my head up and looked into her eyes.

“Do you think we could find some private time to,” those gorgeous eyes twinkled at me, “cuddle like crazy when we’ve finished talking about this stuff?”

How much more in love with her could I possibly be? “Darling, I was just about to suggest that we do that at our immediate convenience! You are so perfect!”

The twinkling eyes gave birth to a bouncing baby grin and we both chuckled like co-conspirators. We were, in a way.

“Talk like that got the two of you into this situation in the first place.”

“Maybe. There is more to him than an insane willingness to snuggle.”

“Are you telling me that Francis has charms that he has never revealed to the rest of us?” I could her the smile in Jayashri’s voice and was grateful that there was no condescension or criticism behind her words.

“You betcha! It is so cute when he runs around the store in the buff when he thinks no one is watching!”

Jaya raised her right eyebrow and a tiny smile fought to quirk her lips. On anyone else I would have called it a lecherous look, but there was no way she would sink to that. I blushed despite reassuring myself that she was above such things, and she broke out into a peal of musical laughter. I caught it and so did Charlie. Baj? He looked a little lost.

“I am going to guess that the laughing has nothing to do with the reason that Charlotte wanted to talk with us.” He looked around at each of us before he continued, “Would I be correct?”

“You’re right, mostly.” I tried to answer his question, even if it was probably rhetorical, but ended up at a loss. “Then again, broadly… eh.” I just shrugged in surrender.

“I wish that I had good answers or even good speculations for the two of you.” Baj looked like he was trying to contain himself, or his emotions. “We are in an unprecedented situation, and it is incredibly frustrating not to know more or have some sort of control over the way events are unfolding.”

He had our attention. Jayashri looked at her husband with trepidation and compassion. Charlie echoed those sentiments, if I’m any judge of her facial expressions. As for me, I was feeling something a little different. I think the stress flipped my switch.

“Yeah. It is incredibly frustrating to have my life go bat-shit crazy. First we got people coming back from the dead and I had to fight for my life. A little bit later I started fighting for the lives of people I care about. Then you gave me a present: untested high-tech nano shit. Well, that threw my equilibrium for a loop, let me tell you!” My voice got louder and harsher as I spoke. “I got to kill my brother and my dad. Woot! On top of that, some fucker put a bullet in my head and I spent a good bit of time getting my noggin rebuilt in ways we don’t understand. So, excuse me if I don’t feel incredibly compassionate.”

“Frank, I am sorry if you are upset with me for doing what I had to do in order to help the people I care about stay alive. It is horrible karma that you found yourself in the role of executioner, but…”

I cut him off.

“You sanctimonious, intellectual, high and mighty… ARGH!” I closed my mouth and finished the rest of what I had to say in the privacy of our brains. “It’s bad enough that you laid this shit on us. The ‘karma’ Mister Sharma is that you visited the sin on MY UNBORN CHILD. I’m not the only person who gets to suffer–Charlie gets to suffer, and our baby gets to suffer. Is this thanks to my father being a megalomaniacal asshole or is it because you wanted to play God?”

In that moment I knew what it looked like to tear someone’s heart out.

The ladies stared at us, but heard nothing that I screamed at him, brain to brain. Well, that’s what I thought; I was wrong. I had broadcast it at all of us.

“You owe your life to both of us, Warren Francis Hightower.” There was enough ice in Jayashri’s voice to turn Hawaii into a glacier, and I was instantly aware of the wedge that I had driven into my relationship with both of them.

“And you don’t owe yours to him?” Charlie asked in a tone that could have cut steel, and I felt her anger in the pit of my bladder. It was like standing in the middle of a typhoon that I had started.

“I do not intend to dignify that question with an answer. As a medical doctor, I know that your hormonal balance as a pregnant woman is not compatible with rational thought.” I heard what Jaya said, and took two steps away from Charlie.

Bajali raised both his hands in a bid for mercy or peace; it could have been either. Separated by the gulf of our emotions, we were united in one thing: the shit had hit the fan and things were about to become ugly. Had I believed that sinking to my knees and begging forgiveness for the looseness of my tongue, blackness of my heart, corruption of my family, naughty thoughts about women or anything could have stopped the inexorable movement toward Chaos, I would have done it.

I would have done it, shaved bald, wearing a French Maid’s outfit with a live eel in my butt.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

“At least I can get pregnant.”

There should have been a peal of thunder and crashing lightning at the instant that Charlie’s words faded in the still air of the PT room. That wouldn’t have been a surprise, knowing the Almighty’s flair for the dramatic, but what did happen made my bladder leak.

Jayashri’s face fell into rigid perfection and lost all human expression as she walked across the floor to stand in front of the exam table. I believe that no un-enhanced human being would have been able to see her let fly with the slap that lifted Charlie off the table. I certainly didn’t see that the hand never stopped moving, because I was too stunned at my girlfriend becoming airborne; it just changed trajectory slightly and knocked me onto the floor beside her.

It was during those wobbly moments on the floor that I realized two very important things about who and what we had become, thanks to the lube-free insertion of technology into our lives. We had no clue how strong we were, and we’d become more willing to use violence against each other. How did I know this? Simple, I’m pretty sure that Jayashri had not planned to break my cheekbone when she slapped me... add to that her sudden disregard for Hippocratic Oaths and Hindu faith.

I had to wonder how much worse it was for Charlie, since she was on the front end of the bitch slap to end all bitch slaps. Unfortunately, the answer became speedily apparent.

“Oo boke mah jaa. Oo bisth. Oo boke mah fuh-hin jaa.” I heard those wet words and flipped over to see Charlie sitting up, bloody faced, with three or four teeth cradled in her hand. “Ah cahn bee-vee oo boke mah jaa.”

I was stunned, chagrinned and incapable of speaking. Baj looked pale and horrified; even his eyes were misty looking. Jayashri’s face defied my ability to classify or report what emotions it was reflecting. All I can say is that there were perfect pearl-tears rolling down her cheeks and that her mouth was set in the fiercest grimace that I had ever seen. I suppose it could have been horror, or something like it, but it could also have been rage in the wake of orgiastic violence. Fuck if I know.

“My bad,” I said, trying to make some attempt at closing the rift over the throbbing ache under my eyeball. “All of this stuff is stressing me out and I took it out on you guys. I’m sorry.” I held up one hand, since the other one was cradling my face, in a gesture of supplication. “I’m really scared and I hate admitting it.” There would have been more to say if my brain hadn’t pinged an incoming call from Omura. “Got a call. Back in a second.”

His voice appeared between my ears, as did his location, caricature and general emotional state. “Frank, before I even get to anything else, can you tell me what these awful colors are that are floating around your icons in the PT room? I want to say that they’re emotional states, but if they are… Jesus!”

“That’s about the size of it, yes. It’s a little tense in here.”

“Yeah, if you say so. How did you and Charlie end up with broken facial bones? Wait, don’t answer that question, I don’t want to know.” The little Omura in my brain’s heads-up display flashed through a pile of different colors before settling down into gray. “I need you and the Sharmas geared up and on the roof of the building in ten minutes. We have an away mission into the No Go. There’s a Blackhawk inbound to pick us up.”

“What’s the ‘No Go’?”

“That’s what we call the area around Nationals Stadium down into where the old Homeland Security building is. It got pretty nasty during active martial law and was cordoned off. Any activity down there is criminal, gang or zombie related, if not all three at the same time.” He paused a bit before dropping more information on me. “It sounds like our little visitor from earlier today crashed down there and the bigwigs want us to take a look since we’re not contagious anymore.”

“Sounds interesting. I’ll rally the troops.” I signed off with him and addressed the Assembly of Righteous Angst out loud. “We have to put this steaming pile of madness aside for the time being. Omura wants the two of you,” I pointed at them with my free hand, “and me on the roof in 9 minutes. Our little aerial amigo from earlier seems to have taken a nose dive into a nasty corner of the Nation’s Capital and they want us to go have a look.”

“Wa abah meh?”

“Honey, I think you should just hang out until your jaw finishes knitting back together.” Do I have to mention that she didn’t look at all happy with that?

“You face too!” She pointed at me and it was all I could do not to laugh myself sick at the gummy voice and child-like expression on her face. Then again, the bruising took the humor down a few notches. “I wanna go, too.”

“I know, but Omura just asked for the three of us. Go rest up.” I stood up and gave her a hand to help her up from the floor. “I need to go back to our place and grab a few things before I have to be back here to catch our ride. Want to walk back to the store with me?”