Encompassing (12 page)

CHAPTER 40

“It’s probably best not to tell those you love how they die.”  -- from the book of Illumna

At that Illumna walks in and says dryly, “Actually, Grandfather, you try to kill Father first but he kills you.”

Renfield turns and in a slightly scolding voice says, “Nice, Illumna!  I’m sure that bit of information is perfect just before he and I put our lives in each other’s hands and try hard not to think of what could go wrong.”  Adam wonders and thinks to her, “What would motivate you to bring up that tidbit of information at the exact wrong time.”

Illumna thinks back, rapidly, as usual.  Without words she responds to her father, “If he’s truly your friend, he already knows you won’t kill him until I exist and that is a long time from now.”

Renfield thinks back to her, “Keep time right.  To you it’s the future, to me it’s still the past!”  He unconsciously takes a deep breath and turns to Brady who’s face is slight contorted.  He can tell Brady is considering all that is going on around him, but he can tell he is adjusting to what he just heard from Illumna, when she spoke out loud.

Brady turns to Renfield and says, “I suppose there’s time for that.  For now you have a plan and…”

Solstice interrupts, “He always has a plan and time is a confusing thing.  It doesn’t mean that because it happened in Illumna’s memory of the future that it’s going to happen.”

Sara was listening outside the door and goes to find her mother.  She’s quite aware.  She understands Renfield well, but Illumna, her own daughter is someone she can’t always wrap her head around.  As usual she keeps it to herself, but she knows her mother needs to be ready.  She is concerned that what Illumna just did may usurp Renfield’s plans and she wonders why.  Talking to her mother might explain things to her, but she had to keep in mind that in this timeline her mother didn’t raise her.  As she walks into the room she sees her mother holstering a gun and several weapons on the table.  Sara’s eyes open wide and she runs over to stop her mother’s hand.  “No, mother!”

Christina gives her an angry stare of determination.  “I’m going!  How can I let Renfield go alone?  I know Brady is with him.  I know Renfield is fast, but I almost watched him die.  If he can take Brady than Illumna can take me!”

Sara holds Christina’s arm to stop her from finishing holstering the weapon and looks at her pleading.  “If you die, my sister dies.  I die and Illumna dies.  We won’t ever exist.  Don’t you understand that?”  Tears form in Sara’s eyes.  “Not to mention Illumna can’t take you there.  She doesn’t know how.”

“Of course, she does.  We still have that plane and she did it once!”  Christina retorts.

“Once, mother!  Do you have any idea how much that took out of her?  We can’t understand how painful it is for them to do what they do, but they do it because they believe in what they are doing!”  Sara lets go of Christina’s arm but then adds, “This isn’t easy for them.  We can’t see all that they have, but they have their reasons.  Even my sister!  More than anyone Renfield, he’s determined to fix something.”

Christina looks deeply at Sara realizing that is the most she has ever said.  She searches her face to try to understand.   Her daughter.  Grown and with a daughter of her own.  Her mind reels back to the first time she saw them. Sara looked the same but Illumna was a child.  She still wonders how the universe could be so odd.

“Sara?”  Christina pauses, “Was I a good mother to you?”

Sara stares at her mother, “You will be, it’s why I am a good mother to Illumna, and that is certainly not easy when she can hear all of my thoughts.”  Sara’s face changed, “I suppose when I met Renfield that is why I loved him.  He understood.  He did the same thing, but he is honest when he says he didn’t know.  He was gone, doing something else in a different place, he came back home, you were angry he was gone, we met.  I did not have any intention of hurting you or him.  I suppose I saw the same things in him you did.  By then he assumed you had grown tired of waiting for him and he moved on and we met.  Does that answer your question, Mother?”  Sara exhaled, “You’re not picking up that gun to go help him.  You’re angry and you want something to take it out on.  Anything else, but me or him or Brady.  That I am familiar with.  You did it before, I went out, got a job, but stayed close to you.  He came back looking for you and found me.  I even know now that it is because I reminded him of you.  It makes him angry that he loves us both, but how could he help it.  Before you ask, YES, I love him too.  He thought it was a mistake not to teach you how to recognize the resets so he taught me.  He didn’t teach Illumna because he still wasn’t sure and he didn’t want to affect her.  Your granddaughter is like him, so yes, she figured it out.  You know how much it pained him to teach Solstice and have her suffer.  I do understand him.  You should try doing the same.”

“Sara, he does things that…” Christina began.

“That are hard to understand.  Trust in him.  You and I aren’t like him, my sister or my daughter, but they know what he is doing and why.  I believe in him and I believe in Illumna.  You should too.  You’ve heard he won’t teach Illumna, but do you know why?”

Christina looks at Sara, “Not really, he taught Solstice.”

“That’s why.”  Sara responded.  “He can’t keep doing it, that time thing.  And Solstice knows she will soon be like her father.  He’s done it too many times and he gets lost in his ‘clicking’ as he calls it.”

“So that’s why he got lost the last time?”  Christina asks.

“Yes, it happens to him more than he lets on.” Sara explains.

“He said you and Solstice were somewhere, for a long time.  What happened?”  Christina presses.

“Solstice took us someplace...” Sara looks away in thought for a moment, “She can regenerate like Renfield can.  Not as fast, but that’s also killing him.  I can’t, but in some ways I am glad at that.  I’ve watched both of them push it knowing it would end up causing them to…”  Again, her mind wanders, but she walk over to Christina and speaks, “Solstice has never been bad.  She gets upset and she has the ability to show that more than most.  We talked.”

Christina looks back at her daughter, “I saw you when you came back.  You were in bad shape, Sara.  Why did you let her take you there?”

“Solstice is my sister.  I know her.  She stops what is going on right now.  That’s the real danger, Mom.”

Christina looks at her and asks, “Who is your father and why would I ever…”

Just then Illumna walks in the room and says, “They left.  How about you two stop doing the mother daughter thing and let’s go down and help Solstice so she can finish her work?”

Christina finishes putting her sidearm in her holster.  She leaves the rest and looks at Sara.  “She’s an interesting girl.”

Sara replies, “She had an interesting Dad and a Grandmother willing to do whatever it took.”  Christina started to follow Illumna but turns and gives Sara a huge hug.

“So where they are now?  They both live, right?”  Christina looks pensive as she asks.

Sara begins to answer but Illumna stops and turns and says, “If they don’t it will just be you and Solstice in this house.  We will never have been.”

Christina looks to Sara for an explanation, but Sara simply states, “Illumna’s direct, but she does feel deeply.  She too is like her father.”

CHAPTER 41

“Ours is not to reason why.  Ours is but to do and be ready for the next assignment.”  -- from the book of Brady

“You’re going to plant that Brady. I’m going to cause a hellatious distraction!”  Renfield points at the device he handed to Brady.

“Yeah, I caught the plan Renfield, but what does this do?  You never mentioned that!”  Brady looks down at the device and wonders what Renfield has in mind and why it seems to be so important everyone else seems to be on high alert.

“It will give the world time.  They are working on something similar to what Solstice is doing right now.  If it comes off as a failure, then they’ll go back to the drawing board and give Solstice the time to finish before they do.  For everyone it will take years, but Solstice is smarter.  It’s a design she conceived in elementary school, so she understands it better than they can.”  Renfield explains.

“I’d ask what it does, but my larger concern is, once I’m in, how the hell do I get out?”  Brady looks at Renfield.  After hearing what Illumna said earlier, he wonders if that is even in the plan.

Renfield hears the thought process and turns to Brady and punches him in the arm.  “I love my daughter asshole, so you are getting out!”

“What happens if I can’t get this in place?”  Brady questions.

“Then Solstice and I will work harder while Illumna works on fixing our errors along the way, but that’s not the optimal plan, it’s Plan B.”  Renfield replied, checking the armaments he’s strapped to himself.

“OK, slow down.  Do you always count on your daughters?”  Brady looks at Adam with a question he’s been sitting on since he arrived.

“Yes, they count on me.  They want this to work as much as I do.”  Renfield retorts.

“OK, so what’s up with Solstice, not so long ago she was trying to destroy the world and now you trust her?”  Brady points out the obvious.

“Let’s say she was in a bad mood.  You know, that time of the millennium.”  Renfield looks back at the target.

“What does that mean?  You do realize we’re on foreign soil.  Do you have any idea the International ramifications if we get caught?”  Brady’s heart rate raises as he begins to consider what he has agreed to.

“When you arrested me, my file was filled with a lot that was redacted and that’s if most of it even exists anymore.  I think I understand International politics, Brady.  That’s the reason we’re here!”  Renfield stands and yells out, “Now!  Move!”

Brady’s mind hadn’t even finished processing the response, but he understood there was a small window and he began moving.  He looked back over his shoulder to see Renfield running directly towards the guards they had just spent so much effort avoiding.  He concentrated on his goal but glanced back, one more time.  He sees Renfield begin to move extremely fast.  He suddenly realizes how Renfield did that.  That’s when he saw it, Renfield fell.  He turned to run to him, but then he saw something else.  Solstice and Illumna grabbed him and then everything went blank.

The next thing Brady hears is Renfield yell, “Now! Move!”  What was happening, he wondered?  They were back at their starting position.  He tried to make sense of it and looked at Renfield.  He didn’t look good, but he had stopped questioning and he started all over again and saw Renfield running again.  Same direction, but something was clearly wrong.  He wasn’t moving as quickly.  Brady started to sweat.  Something happened and it wasn’t part of the plan.

CHAPTER 42

“Memory doesn’t work as expected.”  -- from the book of Solstice

“What just happened?”  Christina asked.

“Dad.”  Illumna replies dryly. “It’s getting worse, but he’ll do it.”  Illumna answered.

It was clear from the look on Christina’s face that she wasn’t accepting that answer.

Solstice looked up at her mother and shook her head slightly.  But in opposite of her gesture she replied, “It’s fine.  I have to get back to work.”

Sara sat silent.  She wanted to believe all would be fine, but she knew it wasn’t.  By now, Renfield would have clicked all the way out.  She knew he must have been using multiple short clicks like Illumna and something went wrong or his mind would not have yelled out for the help of his daughters.  She looked at Solstice.  She thought to herself, “Space again, it’s harder, but you took Illumna because she could click back shortly.  Even those of us who can’t do what the three of you do know when something is wrong.”

Solstice and Illumna turned to Sara at the same time and both made a “Hrmph” sound.  Illumna spoke and said, “Mom, he can do this.  Stop worrying.  It’s distracting!  Why don’t you and Grandmother go get tea?”

Christina jumped in, “What does that mean?”

Sara stood and said, “Come on Mom, it’s best we leave them alone.  For now.”

Christina shot back, “What?  No, I don’t want tea, I want explanations!”

The other three women looked at each other.  Sara, not able to hear, but being used to being heard shot back to Solstice and Illumna, through her own thoughts, “She can’t remember.  Don’t make her!  Get on with your work and let me deal with my mother!”

The two younger girls looked at each other and decided for all their abilities, they couldn’t compare to the way Sara fixed things.

Christina noted the quick interchange and asked, “Why can’t I do that?”

Sara began to answer but Solstice interjected, “For you, it hasn’t been long.  You’ll get it and that will make all of this easier, as long as Dad doesn’t…when he finishes this first part.  We really do all love you.  You’re the only one he has the patience to deal with when he’s misunderstood.  I’m sure you figured out he has little patience for almost everything else.  I remember all of the years with you and with him.  You keep him grounded, even if you were a pilot.  He needs you.  That I know. One day he’ll…”  Solstice trails off.

Illumna and Sara both give her a scolding look.

“I need to get back to work.  So who’s on the building task?”  Solstice asks.

Illumna responds, “I can do that.  If I remember, the materials you need are in there.  I’ll need help getting in there.”

Christina looks over at a door she simply hadn’t paid any attention to.  It was clearly disguised, but when she went to look at it, it was extremely fortified.  She thinks for a few moments and then says, “I can help with that!  AFTER I have tea with my daughter.  As for my other daughter”, she looks at Solstice, reaches down and hugs her, “You keep working, I’m young and learning, but some things I’m beginning to understand.”

Solstice looks up as if a ghost is speaking to her and responds, “Some things you should not have to.  I have little doubt you have a plan to get around Dad’s machination.  You do when you know it’s right.  On that, I almost failed us.”

Christina gazes down at the daughter whom is the same person she is currently carrying inside her and wonders what causes the looks she gets from her.  Then she turns to Illumna, kisses her forehead and take Sara’s hand for the tea being offered.

As they ascend the stairs Christina looks at Sara and asks, “Why does she look at me that way?  I went down to help.”

Sara looks deeply at her mother’s worry lines.  While young, they were the ones she remembers years from now.  “Solstice might love you more than any of us can imagine.  You are what makes her work so hard.”

Christina looks at Sara as if she’s crazy, “She tried to kill me, not too long ago, so I don’t see it.”

Sara pushes Christina gently from behind, urging her to the tea.  “She wouldn’t have.  She just gets confused and that leads to her being angry.”

“What is she confused about?”  Christina stops.

“Well tea for one, didn’t you notice she doesn’t drink it?”  At that Sara laughed at her own joke and Christina smiled too and they continued their ascent.  Sara adds, “Strange that she will try coffee every now and again, but always ends up pouring it out.”

Christina turns to Sara and laughs at the fact that they both noticed the same.