Solaris Mortem: The New Patriots (18 page)

“Okay,” Alisia said. “Send him back to my office.” Alisia turned to Otis. “Wish me luck. If you could get the next patient ready…. It should just be a few minutes, I suspect.”

“You got it, Doc.”

Alisia tidied up her office while she awaited her visitor.

A knock at the door.

“Come in,” Alisia said.

“Dr. Casswell, Chancellor Verdin is here to see you now,” Lizzy said as she entered.

“Oh, good. Send him right in.” What a great liar I am, Alisia thought. “Chancellor, it’s nice to see you. Please–sit down.”

Rick sat, and as he did so, he sized Alisia up with his eyes. Or, maybe, ogled her was more apt. She didn’t care for it.

“What brings you here, today?” Alisia said,

Rick crossed his legs and got comfortable. He wore his ever-present smirk. “Well, first off, I wanted to tell you what a fantastic job you’re doing for our little community. We really appreciate it.”

“Oh, thank you, Sir.”

Rick continued to smile and stare, his eyes moving to her neck and breasts regularly. He cleared his throat. “Secondly, I wanted to talk to you about some medical records. And some of your procedures here.”

“I see,” Alisia said. “I’d be happy to talk about procedures and such in a general sense, but you understand of course, that I can’t discuss any of my patients or their medical records without their consent.”

“Oh, I think you can, Doctor. In fact, it’s your patriotic duty to do so.” Rick pulled a folded paper from his jacket’s inner pocket and flapped it out to open it. “Let’s see here…. Article 7 of the New Patriot Charter:
Medical professionals shall share any and all information freely with government officials, when and if asked to do so. Failure to comply shall be grounds for treason charges.
Don’t get yourself all tangled up in the old laws,” Rick said.

“That’s not in my copy of the Charter.”

“No. No, I imagine it wouldn’t be…. I just added it this morning,” Rick said. “It’s good, don’t you think?”

“It’s great,” Alisia said in a completely deadpan tone. “So, what do you need?”

“I knew I could count on you, Doctor. Actually, I didn’t know for sure, but I’m glad. It would be a shame to lose such a pretty face.”

The threat was not lost on Alisia. She knew she had to get out, now more than ever.

“What I need,” Rick said, “is your so-called chip flasher that I’ve been hearing about.”

“Excuse me?” Alisia said. “Chancellor, Sir, with all due respect, we really need that here—at the clinic. Why would you want it?”

Rick laughed in that hollow condescending way of his. “I think that should be pretty obvious, don’t you? C’mon, you’re a doctor. Don’t tell me you’re all beauty and no brains.”

Alisia did know why he wanted it, and her mind reeled with what she could do, how she could avoid giving it to him. Without it, there was no escape. Not for her, not for anyone.

“Your Charter mentioned medical records. It didn’t say anything about medical devices,” Alisia said.

“Oh?” Rick said. He pulled out the paper and looked again. “Oh dear. You’re right. Have you got a pen? Never mind. I’ve got one right here.”

Rick took the pen and added a quick revision.

Medical professionals shall share any and all information freely with government officials, AND OBEY ANY REQUEST FROM THE CHANCELLOR, when and if asked to do so. Failure to comply shall be grounds for treason charges.

“And there you have it, Doctor. Now—flasher, please.”

“But Sir, what will I do when someone gets the headaches? You can’t take it away.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Rick said. “You’ll still be able to use it when needed; you’ll just have to bring your patient to Command. We need more supervision with a device like this. Why, if it fell into the wrong hands, we could have a real problem. You understand, don’t you, Doctor?”

Alisia wondered if it was possible to give him a decoy. He wouldn’t know the difference,
would he?
Her mind raced to think of a suitable standin for the flasher. She remembered her voice recorder.
Could that work?

It was small and slim, had one button for record and stop, a pinhole for the mic, and a green LED that lit up when it was on. It could just possibly fool him—for a little while.

If he recognized it for what it was, then she’d probably be locked up—or worse. She couldn’t possibly give up the flasher, though. She wouldn’t.

“Yes,” Alisia said, “I understand. Let me grab it for you. I’ll be right back.”

She went to the exam room where she had left her recorder. Otis had the patient ready.

“Hello,” Alisia said. “I’m Dr. Casswell. I just need to grab something real quick, and I’ll be right back.”

“No problem,” said the patient, a middle-aged man—with headaches.
Go figure.

Alisia rushed back to her office and tried to still her heart. No dice there. “Okay, here you go, Chancellor.”

“Thank you,” Rick said. “So the next time you have someone that needs a chip replacement, you just come over and see me at Command. I’ll keep it safe for you.”

Rick marveled at how small the flasher was, turning it over in his hand. “It’s funny…this could be an MP3 player or something.”

Alisia tried to laugh, and she did pretty well. “I know, right? I thought the same thing. Well, I had best get back to work. Thank you for stopping by, Chancellor. Come back anytime.”

Rick gave her that ridiculous salute, and he was off. Alisia wasn’t sure if she was supposed to return it or what, so she just smiled and gave him a slight bow with her head.

After work, Alisia walked to Terry’s. Kat answered the door. “Dr. Casswell, hi,” Kat said. They had met a few weeks prior when Kat had taken Jonathan and Tabitha in for a routine checkup. “What brings you here?”

“Hi, Katherine. I hope you don’t mind me stopping by like this. I looked up Terry’s address…. Normally, I wouldn’t just drop in—is Terry here?”

“Kat, call me Kat. And Terry should be here any minute. Come in.” Kat showed Alisia to the living room and offered her a seat. “Could I get you anything? Coffee, water?”

“No, but thank you,” Alisia said.

“What’s going on, Doctor, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Alisia. Just call me Alisia.”

“Are you and my brother, are you guys like….”

“No,” Alisia said.

She blushed a little and Kat caught it. “Nothing like that. I just need to talk to him.”

“Okay,” Kat said. “Is everything all right?”

Alisia paused for a moment too long before she said, “Yes, fine. Say, how are your children?”

“Oh, they’re doing well. Adjusting, you know.”

“Oh, good,” Alisia said. She was fumbling for her next piece of idle chitter chatter when Terry walked in.

“Alisia. Nice to see you. What are you doing here?” Terry said.

“I need to talk to you,” Alisia said. “Could we go for a walk?”

“Yeah, sure.” Terry put his coat back on that he’d begun to peel off. “I’m ready.”

“Kat, thank you for your hospitality,” Alisia said. “It was nice to see you again.”

“Anytime,” Kat said, and she stood to see them off.
What was that all about?
she wondered.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Terry said, once they were out the door, “but what’s happening?”

“Sorry. I wasn’t sure if we could talk in front of your sister or not.”

“Up until a couple of days ago, I would’ve said you couldn’t. But now—she’s on board.”

“Oh, good,” Alisia said. “So, something’s happened. I had a visit from Rick today.”

“Oh? And what did he want?”

Alisia stopped walking. “He wanted the chip flasher.”

“What? Oh shit,” Terry said. “Did you give it to him?”

“Not exactly. He thinks I did, but I gave him a decoy. I don’t know how long that will hold up, though. I’m worried that if he figures it out, well…that would be
bad.
”

“Yeah,” Terry said. “That
would
be bad. Good thinking, though. Without that flasher, we’re sunk.”

“We need to hurry, Terry. If he finds out…. I’m scared. Not just for me, but for my mom. He’s a monster.”

Terry put his arm around her and somewhat to his surprise, she hugged him back. “I’m scared too. We’re getting out of here, though. Okay? Don’t worry.” They embraced for a moment longer, then Alisia pulled away to blow her nose.
God, even that was cute.
“We need to go and tell Duncan about this.”

When they got to Duncan’s, Terry knocked. He knocked again. And then again. On the last knock, the door popped opened. Apparently it was only loosely latched. “Hello? Duncan?”

No answer. He turned to Alisia. “Should we just go in?”

Duncan answered in his bathrobe.

“Are we interrupting?” Terry asked.

“No, not at all,” Duncan said, “Come in.” He closed the door behind them. “What’s going on? I can only assume this is more than a social visit.”

“Well,” Terry said, “We might have a problem…. Rick came by the clinic this afternoon and paid Alisia a visit.”

“Oh?” Duncan said.

“That’s right,” Alisia said. “He came to take the chip flasher.”

“Oh dear,” Duncan said. “Did you give it to him?”

“No—God, no. I gave him a decoy, but I don’t know how much time that’s going to buy us. If he figures it out.…”

“That would never do,” Duncan said. “What do we do now? Are we ready?”

“I suggest we accelerate our timeline,” Terry said. “We may not have much time left.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Duncan said. “Let’s get everyone together. Everyone who’s left anyway.”

Most had fallen away since the refugee slaughter and impromptu museum of horrors had been set up in their old meeting spot.

“Tonight?” Alisia said.

“The sooner, the better, I would think,” Duncan said.

“He’s right,” Terry said. “I’ll go and get Vince. You got Austin?”

“I’m on it,” Duncan said.

Terry turned to Alisia, “Do you want me to walk you home?”

She looked at him incredulously. “Are you kidding? I’m not going anywhere.”

Terry liked the sound of that.

Terry and Alisia gathered Vince while Duncan gathered Austin. They reconvened at Duncan’s house in light of the SIFF’s recent conversion to a mortuary.

“I trust everyone is aware of what is going on,” Duncan said, addressing Vince mostly. Vince stood with his arms crossed and responded with a nod. “The question now, is what to do about it? I’m open to suggestions.”

“Why don’t we flash our chips right now, so we’re ready?” Austin suggested.

“Can’t,” Vince said. “If we do that, it throws up a red flag in the system. It tells them who and where and they’re gonna want to know why. They’d be on us, like—
right now.
” Vince cut Austin a look suggesting he’d already be dead if Terry and Duncan weren’t standing up for him.

“Vince is right,” Alisia said. “We can’t flash the chips until we’re ready to go off the reservation.”

“But wouldn’t that give them a heads up that we’ve escaped and in which direction?” Terry said. “How do we get around that? Or can we?”

Alisia pushed her glasses up to her forehead, rubbing her eyes. “I don’t think there’s any way around that.”

“What we need,” Duncan said, “is a distraction. Something to pull them away, out of the city. Buy us some time.”

Everyone stood around for a moment pondering their options. How to do this? Was flashing the chip and escaping the city even enough? Who’s to say they wouldn’t be hunted down and killed within twenty-four hours anyway? In which case, was it even worth it? Yes, Terry decided. It’s worth it. Better to die a free man than to live as a slave.
“I might have an idea,” Austin said.

“Well do ya’ or don’t ya’,” Vince said.

“I…I do. I could tell Rick that the Antis are meeting…
wherever
. Wherever we want. Whatever gets him and his crew as far away from us as possible while we make a break for it.”

“And how do you know he’s going to go for that?” Vince said.

“Trust me,” Austin said.

Vince laughed. “Trust
you?
”

“He wants you guys dead and he’s just looking for an excuse.”

“Austin’s right,” Terry agreed. No one voiced any disagreement.

“Rick still thinks I’m working for him,” Austin said. “If I tell him you guys have picked a new meeting spot, further out of town, with everything that’s going on—he’ll eat it up. He’ll never question it, and you can bet he’ll be there with his goons to
deal with the problem.”

“Okay,” Duncan said. “It’s a good plan. We just need to figure out the where and the when.”

“The Suburban’s ready,” Terry said. “My vote is for tomorrow at dusk and we send Rick in the other direction.” All agreed.

“One thing, I’m a little nervous about,” Alisia said, “is going over Snoqualmie Pass. Winter is coming.”

“I understand your concern,” Duncan said, “but this is our only shot. And, worst case, if the weather turns on us, maybe we find something else along the way where we can hunker down till we can go on.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’m just worried about traveling with my mom…and kids, with everything that’s going on.”

“We can do this, Alisia,” Terry said. “We can make it. C'mon, let's go talk to your mom.”

While Terry and Alisia went to talk to Diane, a last-ditch effort to get her on board, Austin went to talk to Rick. He held his breath and knocked on the door. It was a horrible situation to be trapped in. Wanting to run from the enemy but being forced to interact—regularly. Being forced to play nice. If it didn’t play off as intended, then deadly consequences were inevitable.

“Come in,” Rick said.

Austin pushed the door open and prayed he wouldn’t have to continue this charade for much longer. “Sir.”

“Sit down,” Rick said. “What brings you here?”

Austin took his seat. The chair skittered noisily across the cold tile floor. “It’s the Antis, Chancellor.”

Now Rick’s attention was piqued. “What about the Antis?”

“They’re moving again, Sir. I thought you had them shutdown, but they’re planning another meeting tomorrow night.”