Larkspur (11 page)

Never afraid to step into the fray, Sandy
asked, “What’s going on?”

Jill stared at the back of her head.

“
I don’t like this one
bit, Jill,” Sandy said. “We’re leaving.”

“
Yeah, well,” Colin said.
“You can’t leave.”

“
Why not?” Sandy
said.

A tiny woman, Sandy stood up to her full
height. With her shoulders pressed back, no one doubted that she
could cause some serious trouble.

“
We’re waiting for MJ,”
Samantha said.

“
MJ?” Jill blurted
out.

“
He’s going to track your
pregnancy,” Samantha said.

“
What’s going on?” Sandy
asked.

“
No one can tell you right
now,” Samantha said. “That’s why I’m here.”

“
To not tell us?” Sandy
asked.

“
To assure you that you’ll
know what’s going on in time,” Samantha said. “Right now, all I can
say is this office was doing something that’s not quite legal. Not
just with you, Jill. With everyone. They sent Val’s
stuff . . .”

Colin cleared his throat and shook his head.
Samantha sneered at him.

“
Anyway, it’s a huge
mess,” Samantha said. “For them.”

“
But Val,” Jill couldn’t
help but put her hand on her heart. She felt her boys’ worry as
well.

“
Let’s just say that your
dad went down to pay that genetics lab a little visit,” Samantha
said.

Colin burst out laughing. She scowled at him
and he shrugged.

“
And me?” Jill
asked.

“
We need to take a DNA
swab from you, Jill,” Colin said. “That’s why we’re waiting for
MJ.”

“
Only he can do it?” Sandy
asked.

“
He has our kits,” Colin
said. “We don’t trust anything here. We want our own
stuff.”

“
What will you do with my
DNA?” Jill asked.

“
They will use your DNA to
track the lab work and experiments,” Samantha said.

“
Lab work?” Jill swallowed
hard.

“
Your dad, uh,
discovered
they had done
quite a bit with your samples,” Colin said.

“
My samples?” Jill
asked.

“
Pee, blood, vaginal
swabs . . .” Colin stopped talking when he saw
Samantha’s stern look.

The small exam room fell silent.

“
I don’t like this,” Jill
said under her breath.

“
If it makes you feel any
better, Jill, they did this to a lot of people,” Samantha said.
“This office didn’t realize what they had when they sent your
samples in. They were just following routine.”

“
You mean all those women
out there . . “ Sandy started.

“
And their kids,” Samantha
said.

“
But don’t worry,” Colin
smirked. “They won’t do it again. In fact, they won’t be doing
anything again for a long, long time.”

Samantha gave him the standard,
oldest-sister “Shut up, you’re being an asshole” look. Clearly used
to the look, he smiled. Jill scowled.

“
What?” Sandy asked
Jill.

“
Just wondering how this
could happen,” Jill said.

“
There’s a lot of money to
be made in pharmaceuticals,” Samantha said. “Doctors don’t make as
much money as they once did, so some are always looking for ways to
supplement their income. As far as they’re concerned, they’re
turning waste products into gold.”

“
So they let them
experiment on their own wives?” Sandy asked.

Samantha’s pinched lips told them that the
doctors spared their own wives. MJ came in. Clearly flustered, he
nodded to Colin and Samantha and went to Jill. He held out the
little comb and she opened her mouth. He took the sample and
nodded.

“
MJ is going to be with
you the rest of the time,” Samantha said. “He’s going to go to
every doctor’s visit and be with you when you have the baby. He
will personally take control of your samples to make sure they go
to Blane.”

MJ nodded.

“
I’m glad,” Jill said. “MJ
saved Sandy’s life. His daughter is Katy’s cousin. I’d be honored
if he helped me.”

Sandy was surprised when Jill smiled and
nodded.

“
Is there anything else?”
Jill asked.

“
We’ll let you know,”
Colin said.

Jill smiled and they left the exam room.
They were almost down the hall when Jill stopped and went into the
doctor’s office. Inside the office, Sandy heard the doctor scream.
Jill trotted out of the office. She gave her the sweetest
smile.

“
Anything else?” Sandy
asked.

Sandy heard a noise in the lobby. By the
time they got there, all the women in the waiting area were
standing at the desk.

“
I heard they’re doing
experiments on us,” one woman said.

“
Without our permission,”
another woman said.

Before the receptionist could answer,
another woman yelled, “I can’t believe it! Wait until you hear from
my lawyers!”

The women were quickly becoming an angry,
pregnant mob. The receptionist called for security. Jill smirked
and they threaded their way through the crowd.

“
How’d you do that?” Sandy
asked when they were at the elevator.

“
I figured that I only
have a few weeks left with these powers,” Jill smiled. “Better to
make the most of it.”

“
What did you do?” Sandy
asked.

“
The women heard inside
their heads that the doctor was using their samples to create new
drugs without their permission,” Jill said.

“
No, I mean the doctor,”
Sandy asked as they stepped onto the elevator.

“
Oh, I don’t think he’ll
have any more children,” Jill said.

Sandy laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Friday mid-day — 2:15 p.m.

“
Jake!” Valerie yelled
into the phone.

“
Are you taking cell phone
etiquette from Delphie?” Jake asked. “You just broke my
ear-drum.”

Valerie chuckled.

“
Jacob, my darling baby
brother,” Valerie said. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with
you.”

“
I’m kind of in the middle
of something,” Jacob said.

He stepped out of a six-foot trench and
waved to the backhoe operator. The engine revved and he missed what
Valerie said.

“
Sorry, I missed that,”
Jacob said.

Television news blared in the
background.

“
I’m in the airport,”
Valerie said. “We’re coming home.”

“
Great,” Jacob said.
“Should I make your bed? Leave a chocolate on the
pillow?”

Valerie laughed and he chuckled.

“
I wanted to tell you
before we got there,” Valerie said. “You know how you said Jill was
seeing cats?”

“
Uh-huh,” Jacob picked up
his shovel to clean up the trench.

“
Those aren’t cats,”
Valerie said.

Jacob waved to the backhoe operator.

“
Sorry,” Jacob said. “I
missed what you said again. There’s a storm coming in and we want
to get this done before it hits. Maybe we should talk
tonight?”

“
Oh my God,” Valerie
said.

“
What? What happened?
Val?” Jacob screamed into the phone.

The sound of the television news got
louder.

“
Oh my God,” Valerie
repeated.

“
Valerie!”

“
It happened, Jake.”
Valerie’s voice was low and filled with emotion. “Just like you saw
it.”

“
What
happened?”

“
The street buckled.
People are caught under the concrete. The trailers
flipped . . . People in trenches. All the equipment
is either in the ground or flipped over. How do you flip an
excavator? Jacob, you have to go. Go now.”

“
Go where?” Jacob
asked.

“
Your old site,” Valerie
said. “Did you get the equipment out?”

“
Yesterday,” Jacob said.
“It’s at the farm.”

“
Call everyone,” Valerie
said. “We need to be there to help dig them out.”

“
Help what?” Jacob
asked.

Rather than respond, Valerie held the phone
up to the television.

“
This just in,” a male
announcer said. “There has been a catastrophic earthquake near
Denver International Airport, just outside of Denver, Colorado. The
airport is closed until further notice. This story is unfolding.
Please be advised, the footage you are seeing is graphic. Viewer
discretion is advised.”

“
People in the trenches
are . . .” Valerie whispered. “Blood everywhere,
screaming, . . . It’s like one of those doomsday
movies, Jake, but real. You have
to . . .”

“
We’re on our way,” Jacob
said. “You’ll . . .”

“
We’ll be there as soon as
we can,” Valerie said.

Whatever she said next was lost as the
workers around him were receiving the news. His phone rang and he
clicked over to speak to the site manager responsible for closing
the big site by the airport, Jerry Siegle.

“
Did
we . . .” Jacob started. His team’s cellphones all
seemed to ring at once.

“
All three teams are at
the farm,” Jerry said. “Your dad’s here. We . . . Oh
my God.”

“
Go.” Jacob looked up to
see everyone on the team was talking in low voices into their
phone. “We’ll be there as soon as we can get there.”

“
Done,” Jerry
said.

For a moment, the team stared at each
other.

Monday’s meeting had run long because they
had argued through this very scenario. It took hours, but they
finally agreed. No matter what the state did, no matter how
difficult the other guys were, if the earthquake happened, the
Lipson Construction crews would respond.

“
Load up,” Jacob said
before answering his phone again.

With a nod, they got to work. They loaded up
the backhoe, packed up their shovels, left a note for the homeowner
and headed toward their old site.

They only hoped they weren’t too late to
help.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Fifty-five

Dirt

Friday afternoon — 4:52 p.m.

Jacob stepped aside so that a police officer
with a cadaver dog could get past.

“
It’s not stable over
there yet.” Jacob used the crowbar in his hand to point to his
left. The police officer nodded to him. “You’re all right in that
direction.”

Whatever the police officer said was lost in
the icy wind. Jacob nodded to encourage the man and the dog moved
to his right. Running his hand over his wet face, Jacob felt the
remnants of the bruise left from Monday’s scuffle with the rapists.
He sighed. For a moment, the weight of the week felt too heavy to
bear.

Around him, Lipson Construction
owner-employees, police, and National Guardsmen were looking for
survivors. More than a few men and women would not go home tonight.
The man who had irritated him with his smug superiority, now lay
under a blue tarp in a tent morgue currently run by Bambi and
Honey. One after another, full ambulances took survivors to
overflowing emergency rooms. There were more than a thousand people
working this site when the earthquake hit. More than two hours
later, they were still missing over a hundred.

Jacob looked down. He was soaked. He
couldn’t tell if he was wet from blood or the misting snow. He
glanced up at the news helicopter flying overhead and wished he
could work the weather. He sighed again and pulled his Carhartt
jacket tight around him. Most of his mental energy went toward
trying to keep the area stable in the midst of the near-constant
vibrations from aftershocks.

“
What do you hear?” Sam
yelled to Jacob.

That was the worst thing. Jacob could hear
people. He heard them weep for their condition, scream in agony, or
pray in resignation. He heard them die.

Even with his best efforts to stabilize the
area, the ground still shook. When the first Lipson teams got to
the site, no one was willing to venture into the wreckage for fear
of falling in. By the time Jacob and his team arrived, Jerry and
his team had set up a support structure. Everyone on the site wore
safety ropes that were clipped to the structure. They hadn’t lost a
person. Yet.

Jerry’s team had rescued most of the people
caught under equipment and those who were working in trailers when
the earthquake hit. When Jacob arrived, Sam had sent Jerry’s team
back to the farm for a break. Sam and Jacob’s team had joined
forces to rescue people who’d fallen underground.

“
Check the map,” Jacob
yelled and pointed to an area off to his left. “Sounds like a
cavern or maybe a sewer pipe.”

Sam pointed to the map and nodded.

“
We’re here,” Sam said.
“They poured the pillars for the overpass on Tuesday and the trench
shoring was set for a sewer line to run here.”

Sam pointed in a diagonal line to their
left. He passed the map to Josie, the backhoe operator.

“
They must be caught in
the trench shoring,” Jacob said.