Of Royal Descent (23 page)

Stephen fumbled with the control panel.  "The power's out facility-wide, but I have the override code," he said, more to himself than me.  He punched in some numbers, and we began the vertical climb out of the vault of horrors hidden beneath the clinic.

He squatted down beside me and withdrew a syringe from his pocket.  I relaxed as the drugs swept through me.

"My name is Stephen Ambrose.  I'm a friend of Russell Hawthorne’s, and we're taking you home."

I immediately panicked. 
"Where's Addy?"

"She's fine.  I made sure to get her out first.  We were planning on moving you on
ce you were in the second shade to avoid causing you unnecessary pain, but when Addy decided to undergo surgery, she didn't leave me much choice."

"She had the surgery?" 
Tears welled up as I pictured Addy being subjected to the same fate to which I was tethered.

"Yes, but
it's okay.  I removed her before she received the injection.  The surgery without the virus does nothing."

I exhaled sharply and tears of relief cascaded down my face.  "Stephen, thank you."

"Don't sweat it.  I wasn't about to let her become a royal.  I'm under specific instructions.  You were to be the only royal extraction from the clinic - period.  And I knew you would never leave without her."

I had about fifty questions ready to go, but the doors of the elevator slid open
, and a man aiming a shotgun directly at us took precedence.  The gun lowered quickly, and I realized the man was Chuck.

All I could think about was putting distance between us.  I scrambled backward against the floor of the elevator, in too much shock to scream.

"It's okay," said Chuck.  "You're not contagious until the third shade."

What the hell was going on?
  I stared at him, mouth agape, trying to make sense of what was happening. 

"What?  You didn't think I was going to let you have all the fun, did you?"  He smiled his cocky smile and I found myself grinning in return.

"Good to see you Charles," I said giving him a two-finger salute. 

"Doily."
  He nodded.

"Touching, but we
gotta move.  When the power comes back up, all the facility staff I locked up will be freed," said Stephen, reaching down to scoop me up.  We entered the foyer, and I saw two guards lying in a pool of blood.  One of them had been the guard that had first taken me to meet Bradbury the day I arrived.

We stepped through the double doors
, and two cars sat idling at curbside in the dark.  There weren't any street lamps lit as far as the eye could see, but as we neared the vehicles, I could make out the first car in line to be a shiny, black Infiniti QX56 SUV.  Behind that was Chuck's El Camino.

The driver door to the SUV opened and Russell jumped out.  He ran to meet us, relieving Stephen of his cargo.  He carried me to the back of the vehicle and deposited me into the passenger seating area.  Stephen crawled in beside me, shutting the door behind him.  Russell slid behind the wheel as Chuck claimed the front passenger seat.  We sped away from the curb.

Stephen pulled out another syringe and provided me with some temporary comfort.

"Where's Addy?"
I asked.

Jenny popped her head over the top of my seat, "She's in the El Camino with Mom.  It's good to see you Doyle."

"Jenny!"  She put her arms around my neck and hugged me, although I was too weak to hug her in return.  I heard her sniffle against me.

"Don't cry," I said, smiling.  "It's so good to see you."

"My condolences on your soon to be turning into a grotesque monster," came a flat voice from the back.

I smiled wider and closed my eyes.  "Hey Kai," I said without turning to look over my shoulder. 
"Anyone else back there?  My ninth grade geometry teacher maybe?" I joked.

"Just Katie
Jacks," said Jenny. 

"What!"

"I'm kidding, Doyle!" she laughed.

Chuck snorted from the front seat.  "Good one, Jenny."

"You kids be quiet a minute.  I'm trying to concentrate," Russell said.

Chuck turned to face me.  "Or so help him, he'll turn this thing around," he mouthed.

I suppressed a laugh.

"Charles, face the front," barked Russell.

The SUV fell silent as my adoptive father maneuvered the streets of Kettering and merged onto the interstate.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"South.  Your mother and I were prepared for just this situation.  We have a cabin hidden in the Cumberland Mountains," he answered.

They were prepared for just this situation?
  "Dad, who are you?"

My father's eyes met mine briefly via the rear view mirror.  "I work for
Anomaly, a division of the domestic homeland security department, as does your mother.  We specialize in containing threats from not-so-average sources.  You were assigned to our protection when you were adopted and that's all we've been trying to do since - protect you.  What started out as just as an assignment turned personal the moment we brought you home to live with us.  You are my son, and I was not going to allow you to remain in that clinic under any circumstances."

Why was it that every time I asked a question, ten more popped up in its place?
  My head was reeling.  "Okay, can someone start at the beginning?  I thought Bradbury worked for the government?  Why would the government assign me protection from itself?"

Stephen cleared his throat.  "Edgar's funding has restrictions.  When research was originally sanctioned on the first seven human test subjects and the MZ vira
l strain was discovered, the Department of Defense had a decision to make.  They saw the potential the mutant strain had of becoming a global epidemic as well as the potential in the weapon that had been cultivated in the royals.  A compromise was reached.  The human test trials were allowed to continue as long as a cure was also being researched.  Eventually, the two teams separated into two facilities.  Edgar is the clinical director of the facility whose focus is turning royals into super weapons.  The other facility, whose job it is to formulate a cure, is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  When they separated, so did the royals.  Half are in Ohio, half are in Tennessee.  The children of the last generation of royals were not to be touched, to provide the Oak Ridge clinic the chance to study the dormant pure virus.  When Edgar forced you into shading, he broke the terms of agreement."

"Wait, I've never been to this other facility before.  How could they study me?" I asked.

"Your yearly checkups, Doyle," my father replied.  "Every year, since we adopted you, you've had blood samples drawn.  They were sent to the testing site in Oak Ridge."

I thought of my numerous visits to the doctor over the years.  I had been told high cholesterol
ran in my biological family tree beginning at a young age and the blood work served as a precaution for early detection.  I felt like a moron. 
High cholesterol
.

"How close are they to finding a cure?" I asked, trying not to get my hopes up.

There was a pause while everyone waited for someone else to answer.  Finally, Chuck spoke up. 

"I guess they have to research it two different ways.  What shows signs of potential for the dormant virus doesn't for the activated virus.  It's the dormant virus they think they are on the brink of curing."

I understood what Chuck was implying, but I felt the need to ask anyway.  "There's no cure for the activated virus is there?"

Chuck turned in his seat to look at me.  "No," he said gently.  "The closest attempt was able to kill the virus, but I guess the virus is what keeps the body running after the natural death."

I closed my eyes as Stephen gave me another injection of pain medicine.  "So until they figure out a way to cure death, I'm stuck as a royal?" I asked glumly.

"Hey," said Chuck.  "Anything's possible."  He tried to appear positive, but it wasn't very convincing.

Another thought occurred to me.  "If I'm incurable, why would the government allow you to take me from Bradbury's clinic?"

Chuck smiled broadly.  "I always end up having to save your ass."

"Charles, language," warned Russell, checking his side mirror before merging into the left lane.

Chuck continued, "When I left you at the clinic, I went to see Addy
, just like I promised you.  Imagine my surprise when she told me she worked at the very clinic I'd just left you at.  Only, she didn't know of any basement level.  I was still there when she got a call from her boss, offering her a job as your personal nurse.  She made me promise to spend the night there before I headed back to Maine.  I guess she thought I wasn't in a state of mind to drive.  Girls," he said, shrugging on the last word and lifting his hands palms-up into the air.

"You were a blubbering mess, Chuck.  Even I felt sorry for you," said Kai from the rear of the vehicle.

"
Anyway
," Chuck drew out, eyeing Kai, before returning his focus to me.  "I agreed and spent the night at Addy's.  In the morning, when she never came home, I figured you had either died or were very close.  I called Russell to tell him you were sick, I thought he should know.  Turns out he had a very good reason for pulling a gun on us."

Russell pursed his lips and shifted his eyes to Chuck.  Chuck didn't acknowledge the expression.

"We met and he explained everything.  When I told him how you practically shoved me out of the facility, he began to ask me all these weird questions.  As I'm sure you're aware, our blood oath as kids turned out to be an issue.  But not an entirely bad one.  Your dad made some phone calls.  Turns out Anomaly was willing to trade the freedom of one royal for the never-before-seen dormant viral blood of a subject born to non-viral parents."

"Only Edgar was unwilling to part with you once the order came down," broke in Stephen.  "Knowing it was only a matter of time before we were given the okay for a hostile extraction, he hatched his plan to turn Addy into a royal.  He knew, as I did, you weren't going to leave her behind."

We fell silent once again, and I watched the trees flying by the window.  I was glad to be out of Bradbury's control and back with my family.  I was thrilled my adoptive parents hadn't turned out to be the bad guys.  Despite all this, I was still plagued by melancholy.  At least in the clinic, I was going to be caged and away from those I loved, thereby ensuring their safety. 

"Dad, I have to go to the bathroom," Jenny said from behind me.

"I told you to go before we got on the road," my dad said, exasperated.

"I didn't have to go then," pouted Jenny.

"We're kind of in a hurry."

"I have to go too," said Kai.

My dad pressed his mouth into a thin line.  "You kids are going to be the death of me."

He put on his turn signal and crossed two lanes in order to stop at the next exit.
  We pulled into a gas station, and Dad stepped out to top off the tank while Kai, Jenny, and Chuck went in search of a restroom.  After another round of morphine, Stephen arranged me so that I might be more comfortable, lying horizontally across the two middle seats while he assumed a sitting position in the floor.

Gretchen opened the door next to the arm rest I was using as a pillow.  She hugged me around the neck,
kissing me on the top of my head.  Her tears fell in my hair, and I patted her hand. 

"
It's okay, Mom."

She continued to weep.  "They did awful things to my baby.  They're just lucky your father wouldn't let me bring the explosives.  I would have lit that clinic up like the Fourth of July."

"Not the Fourth of July again, Gretchen," groaned my father from outside the SUV.  "We didn't have clearance for explosives.  How many times do I need to explain this?"

"They're bad people, Russell.  They stole my baby!  Who does that?  I'll tell you who, people that need blowing up, that's who."

My father exhaled loudly.  "Yes, dear."

"Mom?
  Is Addy okay?" I asked.

"Yes, she's fine.  She's just a little nervous about seeing you.  She thinks you're going to be angry with her for having the surgery
, and she doesn't want you to get upset in your condition."

"Yes, it was a stupid thing for her to do.  But could you tell her I'm not mad?  Tell her I love her.  Mom, please stop making that face." 

My adoptive mother's forehead creased and the sides of her mouth drew back as her lips slightly pursed.  It was the expression made by females around the world whenever they saw something so cute it was actually painful.

"Did you hear that Russell?  Our Doyle's in love."  Her eyes
welled up with tears.

"Yes, I heard, dear.  Don't embarrass the boy," Russell said, opening the driver side door and preparing to slide behind the wheel.

At once, there came a sudden scream of terror from inside the gas station, and I instinctively flinched.  In a blur of movement, all three of my traveling companions withdrew firearms from out of thin air.