S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11) (70 page)

After that, it wouldn't stop ringing.

“Whatever is happening to Drew and Sudha,” Ramon said, “we're not responsible for any of that. So no talking to the press. And if the police want to talk to you, they can come in person.”

“If we act guilty, then they'll assume we're involved somehow,” Lyssa countered.

“We're not acting guilty. Besides, they'll just twist anything we say. The laboratory doesn't need more problems than it already has.”

A bit too late to worry about that
, she thought bitterly. It troubled her that he expected her to behave normally. Nothing about what was happening — neither to Drew, nor to Sudha's family — was normal. Didn't he have any sympathy?

For that matter, she realized, couldn't he see how so much — the exercises and drills, the missing people and murders, the animal outbreak — fell outside of the definition of normal?

“The Ames team members are on their way,” he said, knotting his tie.

“They got onto the island?”

He gave her a strange look, narrowing his eyes. “Of course. Why would you say something like that? Were you hoping they wouldn't?”

She could only stare back at him, hating how he could be the bearer of information that undermined her understanding of the state of affairs. If they were coming, then Jay Bird had been mistaken in claiming the island was being forced into isolation. Had he lied about it? Or had something changed overnight?

“I'm expecting the scientists to be at the lab by ten o'clock, so we better be sure and be there before they are. As soon as Ronnie's here, we need to leave.”

He took her by the shoulders and tried to reassure her. “Getting back to work will help put all this crap out of our minds.”

But he was wrong. There was no relief from the media and their constant reminders. The lab's number, though unlisted, had apparently been openly shared among the press corps. Someone had undoubtedly obtained it from any number of Laroda's business contacts in the research community.

Within minutes of arriving, Ramon instructed the staff not to answer the telephones at all. “If it's important enough, they'll leave a message.” Of course, that meant someone had to screen through dozens of reporter calls.

Calls from law enforcement agencies were directed to Ramon. However, given that Lyssa had worked closely with Sudha on a daily basis, she was asked to provide insight into the woman's mental state, especially in the days leading up to her ‘psychotic break.' She insisted that Sudha would never do anything as horrifying as what the police were implying. “It doesn't make any sense,” she kept telling them. “She was so devoted to those children.”

The investigators seemed unusually curious about Drew, inquiring not just about his mental health and his relationship with Sudha, but also about his past. “I don't really know much about it,” Lyssa told them. “He joined us about a year and a half ago after moving here from Tennessee. No, he has no family as far as I know.”

By midmorning, he had become a person of interest.

By late afternoon, he was wanted for murder.

The new Ames team members tried to carry on, but it was clear from their looks of alarm and their hushed conversations that they were not happy. And when their bosses called them at three o'clock from Manhattan, their frustration became clear.

“They damn well better figure this out soon,” Ramon complained to Lyssa as they were driving home that evening. “This bad publicity is killing us.”

Despite the light traffic and the scarcity of tower work crews on the highways, there were other delays, checkpoints during which they were informed of new travel restrictions for animals. Two hours after leaving the lab, they arrived at Ronnie's apartment to pick Cassie up.

For Lyssa, the ride had seemed interminably longer than it was. Neither of them was in much of a mood to talk, and Ramon had flatly refused to turn the radio on. “I just need some peace and quiet,” he told her, and she didn't argue.

When they turned onto their street and saw the dozen or so news vans parked outside their home, he let loose a string of invectives so unlike him that Lyssa was shocked into silence. She finally managed to reach over and give his arm a squeeze. “You're upsetting Cassie.”

They suffered through burnt steaks for dinner that night, and the only thing harder to cut through was the tension hanging in the air around them.

“Cassie!” Ramon snapped at one point, “I told you before not to carry that rabbit around like that. You're choking him.”

“But—”

“No buts, damn it! You're going to get scratched.”

“Leave her alone,” Lyssa quietly said. “Look at her crying. You're scaring her.”

She could see the change come over him then, the realization of what was happening to his family, to himself. What he was letting happen. He seemed to soften then, like wax in the hot sun.

But the damage had already been done.

* * *

“I called the staff,” Ramon told her Thursday at breakfast. “I'm cancelling work today. For everyone. Call it a day of mourning. Or whatever. It's not like we're going to get anything done anyway.”

The phone was ringing nonstop in the hallway. It was the only receiver they hadn't turned the volume down on so they could screen messages, but it was still so loud that Lyssa could hear it when she was in the shower. Eventually, the answering machine would be glutted with messages.

“Hey, assholes,” the current caller was shouting, after waiting for Ramon's outgoing message to finish, “it's because of shits like you ruining our ecosystems and resources, our natural world, and shitting on it with your illegal cloning experiments that people are going crazy and murdering shit and helpless children and sh—”

Ramon disconnected the call.

He sighed. “And so the crazies have our home number now,” he said. “Damn it, Cassie, get away from the window.”

“Who are all those people in front of our house?”

“Nobody. Just stay away from the window. Don't let them see you.”

“Why not?”

Lyssa could see his face growing red. “Because,” she quietly told Cassie. “They're not being very nice. Now come over here and eat your breakfast.”

“I'm not hungry.”

Ramon prowled the kitchen like a caged animal. Finally, he stopped and looked over at the two of them. “We can't stay here, either. Call Ronnie and cancel. Tell her we'll still pay her. She doesn't need this hassle.”

“Really?” Lyssa asked, equally surprised at his willingness to pay for a day off for Cassie's nanny as with his decision to cancel work for the whole lab.

“We're getting out of here, out of town.”

“Leaving the island?” Lyssa asked hopefully, though doubtful he'd go for it.

“The beach. Just far enough to get away for a few hours. I just can't deal with any of this sh— This crap. Not right now.”

There was so much to do. The animals at work were badly neglected. Lyssa realized she should've collected urine and blood samples the day before, but hadn't. She still hadn't bothered to check the results in the trunk of her car. She just couldn't see the point anymore. She was so tired, bone tired. She was mentally and physically exhausted, and had been for so long.

Maybe a beach day was exactly what they needed.

They dressed as if it were just another weekday— Cassie in her school clothes and the two adults in their business attire. But in their bags they packed towels and swim suits. They hoped it would be enough to fool the reporters standing out front drinking their fancy coffees and joking amongst themselves while they waited for their hapless quarry to emerge from their hiding place so they could pounce.

“What about Ben Nicholas?”

“The beach is no place for a rabbit, honey,” Ramon told her. Cassie's face fell. “But you can bring Shinji. Dogs love the beach.”

“Are you sure this is what we need?” Lyssa asked. “Cassie looks a little pale. Are you feeling alright?”

“She's fine, honey. She just needs to finish her breakfast. And we're all tired. How could anyone sleep last night after— No, Cassie, don't throw that cereal away.” He shook his head and huffed. “Never mind. Just come on. We need to get going.”

They slipped into his car inside the garage. When they were ready, Ramon hit the button to open the door. As soon as they had enough clearance, he pushed against the accelerator and raced down the driveway, scattering reporters.

“There's a van parked right in front!”

“I see it!” Ramon yell, and he wrenched the wheel to the right and drove over the neighbor's lawn. They hit the street with a hard enough thump that Shinji yelped and tumbled to the floor. “I think we took them by surprise,” Ramon said after taking a turn much faster than he needed to. He glanced into the mirror and nodded.

“Mister Locke's not going to be happy about his lawn.”

“He'll live.”

Ramon turned to her and there was a sparkle in his eyes that hadn't been there before. The corners of his mouth turned up in a slight grin.

He's enjoying this. How can he possibly enjoy this?

“You should see the look on your face,” he said, chuckling.

“Have you gone mad?”

“No, but look—”

“Screw you,” she replied. But there was little malice in it. She, too, felt a little bit of the exhilaration of the escape.

“Is that any way to speak in front of your daughter?”

“After last night's blue streak,” she responded, “I don't think you have any right to criticize my language.”

He blushed, shrugged.

They turned onto Route
135
heading south. “I feel like I should be going to work,” he confessed. She didn't answer.

When they reached the Southern State Parkway, she turned to check on Cassie and found her asleep, her head bobbing and swaying with the motion of the car.

“Don't you wish you could sleep like that?” Ramon asked.

“I don't think she's feeling all that great.”

“She's fine. She's just picking up on our stress. You need to stop babying her. She's a big girl.”

The next five miles passed beneath them in silence. Finally he sighed. “We used to have so much fun when we were younger. Remember when we used to sneak up on each other and jump out, pretending to scare the other? All for the thrill of hearing the screams. And the laughs. What happened to us?”

“We got old.” Lyssa looked out the window. She could smell the sea and she closed her eyes and imagined its vastness just a mile away. “
Living
made us old.”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

She felt him grab her hand and give it a squeeze and her heart suddenly felt too big for her chest. Sadness welled up inside of her. Sadness for all the bad that had happened to them. And to the people around them. Maybe they were cursed. It sure felt that way.

“Or maybe we've just lost touch with what it means to be alive,” Ramon went on. “Both of us have been so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we've lost track of each other. And ourselves.”

“And Cassie.”

He nodded. “Especially her.” He took a deep breath. “But all of that other stuff, what say you and me just pretend it doesn't exist for today?”

“Pretending won't make any of it go away. It won't solve our problems.”

“No, but neither will fretting about things we can't control.”

 

Lyssa slumped over her desk with her head in her hands and wondered if Ramon had yet realized how much their little ‘vacation' to the beach the day before had actually made things worse.

It had been such a relief to get away from it all, at least until they got back to the house. It was like they'd managed to find a pocket of sanity, or that place of happiness they'd been struggling to reach ever since Remy's death.

They had taken a circuitous route, casually commenting how they were like spies being chased by villains, finally arriving in what remained of Nicoll Bay after the flood. They hadn't expected much of a crowd, it being a Thursday, but to find it so deserted was a pleasant surprise.

They settled on a sandy spot that wasn't too infested with gnats or mosquitoes and spread out their blanket. Cassie played quietly in the sand with Shinji. Lyssa found herself amused by the dog's boundless energy and his willingness to challenge the waves that pounded mercilessly over him. He did a good job protecting them all from the raucous gulls.

When they got too hot, they went for a swim. When they were hungry, they ate. And when they were sleepy, they napped.

It had been a good day, a much-needed escape from work and the tragic events surrounding Sudha's family, from the cloud of uncertainty which had coalesced around them and the lab. There, with the brilliant sunlight reflecting off the surface of the restless waters and the comforting blanket of haze which came and went, tempering much of the unbearable glare of the sunlight, they really felt as if they had managed to set it all aside.

Cassie fell asleep while digging in the gravelly sand. Lyssa went over and planted an umbrella over her so she wouldn't get burned. And when it was time to leave, Ramon carried her back to the car. Lyssa placed her hand on his lower back as they stumbled with their bundles across the spongy sand, the ropes of his muscles rippling beneath her fingers. Exhausted, both she and Cassie slept for most of the drive home.

Ramon woke her before they reached their neighborhood. He warned her to brace herself for the inevitable onslaught. But even expecting it, they couldn't have prepared themselves for the vitriol that would be hurled at them, the cruel accusations, the spitting, the rotten vegetables. It shocked them to see how willing people were to judge, how quickly they could be incited to hate. These people were strangers to the Stemples. And yet they acted as if they knew all there was to know about them. They blamed Ramon and Lyssa for what Sudha had done allegedly to her own children.