GeneSix (32 page)

“So it would seem.”

Jeff said, “What’s zeta energy?”

Faint lines had begun to trace their way across Mother’s face, though they were not so much the tired lines that come with age, but the lines that can come from a lot of smiling and laughing. Her hair was long and black but with strands of silver, and tied back in a tail.

Hasani was lying on the floor before her.

“Mother,” Snake said. “We need your healing touch.”

She nodded. “He is gravely injured. I don’t know what I can do for him.”

She knelt beside him, closing her eyes, and touched one hand to his forehead, and the other to his chest.

“What now?” Akila asked. “How long does this take?”

Snake shrugged. “It takes as long as it takes.”

Akila had waited patiently while they found Mother, who had been with a band of meta-humans at the other side of the city. Mother liked to make her rounds, as a way of keeping the community united. Akila had waited at Hasani’s side, as he lay on a mat of old blankets. He was unconscious, barely breathing.

  They were in an abandoned storefront, on a dilapidated street near the harbor. It had been a jewelry store once and the counters were still in place, though now covered with a thick layer of dust. Windows had been boarded over with sheets of plywood, but light crept in through gaps between them.

As Mother worked on Hasani, Akila and Snake stepped into a back room so Mother would have no distractions, and Akila told him her story. Snake then sent a runner to get Quentin Jeffries. He had an idea the situation this strangely clad girl Akila was talking about might fall more into Quentin’s field of expertise.

The runner was a young man by the name of Henry, whose ability was that he could run endlessly. He was no faster than the average track star, but he could run all day and night, without sleep. Tirelessly.

There was a knock at the door and Snake opened it, to find Quentin Jeffries and Chloe outside. Henry was with them. He was maybe fifteen. African-American, with short dark hair. He wore jeans and a green Boston Celtics jacket.

“They were hard to find, man,” Henry said. “Their headquarters are filled with cops. I found them across the street, on a roof top.”

Quentin said, “It’s a long story.”

“I filled them in on the way over,” Henry said.

Snake waved them in.

Lying on the floor was Hasani. Mother was kneeling beside him, her eyes shut.

Quentin said, “Is that him? The one for whom you were seeking Mother, last night?”

Snake nodded. “She’s working on him now.”

Quentin’s eyes went immediately to Akila. Not only was she fetchingly but strangely dressed, but she had a beauty that was like a beacon to the male eye.

Snake said, “This is Akila. She has quite a story to tell. I think you should hear it.”

They went to the back room, which had probably been an office at one time. There were crates to sit on, and a candle for a little additional light.

Akila told Quentin and Chloe of her world, and the mission to the past that she and Hasani had been on. She told of meeting the others, and of their battle.

“Kontar, the third member of our team, was killed. Hasani tried to get himself and me back to our world, but it had changed. It was not the world we knew. It was dark, and evil. The buildings were of a design I had never seen before. More similar to what you have in your world, than what I knew in mine. It looked like there had been a great war of some kind.”

“How did you get here?” Quentin asked.

She told of the battle with what were apparently refugees on a war-ravaged world, possibly the new future of her world, or possibly even this one, and Hasani had been injured. He attempted a teleport, but injured and drained, he landed them here by mistake.

As she spoke, Quentin was gently probing her mind. “Does Nate believe her?”

Snake nodded.

Quentin said, “As do I.”

“At first, we couldn’t understand her at all, but Nate gave her English. The language she was speaking was something I have never heard. It sure as hell wasn’t Spanish, or French. And it didn’t sound Asian.”

“Now, all we have to do is make some sort of sense of all this.”

Snake said, “It sounds like she encountered these friends of yours. The ones you and your team are trying to get ready to fight.”

“Indeed it does. But I am still puzzled about the where and the when of it all.”

Chloe said, “She’s talking about an alternate reality. It only makes sense.”

Quentin looked at her puzzledly. Snake diverted his gaze to her, but it was difficult to read his reptilian features. Snake said, “An alternate...what?”

“Reality. Another Earth, on an alternate plane of existence. Come on, guys. I’ve read physics books. I was on my way to college. Gonna be a physics major, before I had to hit the streets.”

Quentin nodded. “I have heard the theories.” He began to pace thoughtfully, his hands clasped behind is back. “And popular science fiction has used them as plot devices for decades. Another Earth, like ours in many ways, but existing on a different plane of reality. But..,”

Snake said, “Is such a thing possible?”

Quentin shrugged. “I am learning a great many things are possible. Things I once would have thought to be otherwise.”

“It would seem to answer a lot,” Akila said. “If such a thing can truly exist.”

“So,” Quentin stopped his pacing and faced her. “You went to the past to investigate this Great Stone, and its imminent collision with the Earth. An asteroid, possibly.” He glanced to Chloe, who nodded. “Then the man clad in blue and black, very likely Jake Calder, flew off into space and very likely stopped it somehow.”

Chloe said, “Is that even humanly possible? I mean, for a human being to be able to stop an asteroid?”

“Oh, yes. If that human being is Jake Calder. I don’t doubt it in the slightest. And then you,” looking back to Akila, “and this Hasani, returned to your present world, but found it greatly altered. Then, in desperation, the now severely injured Hasani attempted to teleport you elsewhere, and sort of shot blindly and you both ended up here, in a biker bar.”

Akila said, “Whatever a biker bar is.”

“You’re probably better off not knowing.”

Snake let out a snicker that sounded more like a hissing hiccup.

Quentin returned his gaze to Chloe. “Do you have any doubt now about the dangerousness of these people? It is possible they essentially wiped out an entire civilization, and created a new one in its place.”

She shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t sound like they were doing it to be mean. Sounds like more of an accident.”

“Indeed. I really doubt they intended harm. But don’t you see, that makes them even more dangerous.”

Chloe said, “Now, Mandy Waid - she’s what I call mean.”

Snake said, “What has she done now?”

Quentin said, “She nearly killed Peter LaSalle.”

“You’re kidding me. I didn’t think anything, short of maybe Calder himself, could hurt LaSalle.”

“She did,” Quentin said, “and she made it look entirely too easy.”

“Man, you gotta part company with her. I understand this crusade you’re on. Maybe I even agree with it – I don’t know. But she’s a loose cannon.”

Chloe was looking at Quentin but not saying anything. She alone knew the truth about how Quentin felt about Mandy.

Quentin said, his emotions entirely in control, “I understand the danger. But believe me, she is necessary. Calder and Tempest can command great power. I need to surround myself with the most powerful among us.”

Snake apparently shrugged. Difficult to tell, because his body language seemed to be sometimes different from that of a human. “You’ve done that. Chloe, here, could practically control the world if she wanted to. And that fire-starter Cosmo. But, my friend, be careful.”

Snake might have been smiling. He showed his teeth, and his forked tongue wriggled a bit.

Quentin returned the smile. “I will, old friend.”

Chloe said, “Akila, you said you have strength and acrobatic abilities?”

She nodded.

“Can you show us?”

Akila suddenly leaped upward and backward, toward the ceiling at one corner of the room. Spreading both legs into a perfect split, she pushed each foot against one wall, and with one hand she pushed against the ceiling, and managed to use opposing force to hold herself in place.

“Impressive,” Quentin said. “And you are a fighter?”

Snake said, “She took out an entire bar full of bikers. And some of them had knives.”

Akila released herself and landed lightly on the floor. “My bloodied sword is a testament to my fighting skill.”

Chloe said, “Quentin, with the big dude out of commission, we seem to have room on the roster.”

He nodded. “We have to do something about her wardrobe, though. She would stand out a little too much this way.”

“I’ll pull some money from an ATM and go shopping.”

Quentin looked to Snake. “How long do you think it will be before Mother has this Hasani fully functional?”

Snake shrugged. “He was near death. It will take at least a few hours. Maybe more.”

Quentin nodded. “I think I have a plan.”

Scott stared into a monitor, reading the data on Jeff’s scan. “He’s in remarkable health, considering he has never had a doctor’s appointment. Never received any vaccinations of any kind. And he’s been living more or less on the street all of his life.”

Jeff was sitting on a stool in front of Scott, chewing on a slice of pizza. “Like I said, Mother’s a healer. She also has the ability to make things grow. She boosted my immune system a couple times. I’ve never been sick a day in my life. Not even the sniffles.”

Jake was standing by his son, a beer in one hand. “Those aren’t bad clothes for a street person.”

“It’s Chloe. She manages to get money for us.”

“So, it’s like you have this sort of extended family among meta-humans. All of you living off the grid.”

“Yeah. Kind’a like that, I guess.”

“What about education?” Scott asked.

“They taught me to read, and do math and stuff. Mother  used to be a schoolteacher, before people found out about her healing power and she had to go on the run. Chloe seems to know a lot about science. Physics and stuff.”

“You know,” Scott said, “I had no idea there were so many meta-humans out and about like that. I had thought the gene was relatively rare. I would like to meet this woman you call Mother, and this Snake person.”

Jeff shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do. They don’t normally take to outsiders. It’s a sort of closed community. They usually only welcome in the ones Mother and Snake rescue. But since you’re like them, they might make an exception.”

April said, “So, Mother heals anyone who’s sick. And this girl Chloe uses her ability to provide money for food and clothing.”

Jeff nodded. “And the Darkness keeps us all safe.”

This got Scott’s immediate attention. “The Great Darkness?”

Jeff snickered. “Yeah. Except for the
great
part. No one really calls him that except the newspapers.”

“What do you know of him?”

Jeff shrugged. “Not much. He’s really kinda scary. I’ve only seen him two or three times. I talked to him once.”

             
“Describe him.”

             
“I’ve never really seen him. I don’t know if anyone has. He’s just the darkness. It’s kinda hard to describe, because I don’t really understand it myself. I don’t know if anyone does.”

Before anything more could be said, an audio field opened about them, and Sammy’s voice came through it. “Scott? Jake? I need you in the computer alcove. Something’s come up.”

Jake slapped his son’s shoulder. “Gotta go to work.”

“It’s okay,” Jeff said. “I’ll be all right. You guys got satellite TV. That’s not something we have on the streets.”

Jake and Scott met Sammy in the computer alcove.

Sammy said, “A name popped up on one of my random sweeps of FBI web pages and phone calls. Peter LaSalle.”

“They found him?” Scott said.

Sammy nodded. “Once the name popped up and I had a direction to focus on, I knew which files to hack. They found him earlier today, near death. Some sort of cerebral condition. Like a grand mal seizure, but the worst they had ever seen. He’s being held at Boston General.”

Jake was a little incredulous, considering the man’s strength. “They’re keeping him in a regular hospital?”

“He’s not gained consciousness. They don’t think he’s going to. He’s breathing on his own, but otherwise his brainwaves are totally flatlined.”

Scott began to pace. “I wonder if we could be of any assistance? After all, we have diagnostic equipment here that’s light years ahead of anything they have.”

“I would agree,” Jake said, “if it weren’t for the fact that the DTD is a branch of the FBI, and has caused us a lot of headaches over the years. Including trying to kill us last year.”