Synthetic: Dark Beginning (17 page)

Chapter 19

Alex hadn’t forgiven Randall for beating the crap out of her after Mrs. Rothschild’s visit. He seemed to sense this and left her alone, even though he was completely stressed out about his celebration. Randall’s favorite way of blowing off steam was pounding on Alex, so she felt lucky for once. The day after the incident, he didn’t even expect her to come in to work, so she sat around in her apartment for a whole day, depressed over her failure to get rid of the chip. When she turned up at his office the next morning, Randall was talking to David over the phone. Alex had heard David’s name countless times over the years, but she’d never met him. While Alex was Randall’s assistant, David was the one he called when he needed to arrange big banquets and parties for his clients and execs. Unlike Alex, David got shit done. He also didn’t get hit. Right now, David was working around the clock on the celebration, finalizing all the details for the astounding moment when Randall revealed the freshly hybridized—and hopefully fang-free—Ruby to a room packed with stinking rich clients and a dazzled press. Alex hoped it blew up in his face.

She’d decided to take a new approach to her plot against Kora and do some digging. Maybe little miss perfect had screwed up at some point and managed to bury her mistake. When it came down to it, Alex didn’t really know much about Kora other than she always wore white, had hideous blue hair, and spent all of her time in her lab with that massive, slimy sea creature. There had to be more.

“Make me a drink, dear,” said Randall. “I’m so parched I can hardly speak another word. My goddamn messenger never showed up and I need to get these damn fabric swatches to David.”

Alex slowly poured vodka into a glass of ice and added a touch of tonic. She pointed at the pile of fabric on his desk as she handed him his drink. “What are they for?”

“Kora’s wedding dress for the celebration.”

“Has she been wearing white all these years just to prepare for her wedding?” asked Alex, making herself the same drink as Randall and downing it in one gulp.

“How the fuck should I know?” said Randall without looking up. “Why don’t you go back to your apartment and mope. I’ve got work to do.”

“If you ask nicely, I might take those to David myself.”

Randall looked up, his face hopeful for a moment before it crashed in disbelief. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you? You’ve never helped me with anything except empty my liquor bottles.”

Alex slid the swatches off the desk. “Tell me where this David creature lurks and I’ll deliver them for you.”

David’s studio was made up of twelve modern buildings spread out over a far corner of Mirafield's grounds. Alex hardly ever went to this part of campus, mainly because it was all lush gardens planted with exotic plants and trees. She preferred strip malls covered in graffiti. Waterfalls spilled down fake mountains of rock to settle in clear pools where mermaids lay around drinking cocktails. Mermaids were corny as hell but Alex had to hand them one thing: the bitches could drink. She downed a bottle of whisky here and there throughout the day but the mermaids knocked back one fruity damn cocktail after another. No one could outdrink a mermaid. Alex guessed it was because they had nothing else to do all day. Aside from prostitution, they couldn't work and though all of Mirafield's lakes and streams were connected, life was probably still boring without legs.

Inside the door of the main studio building, David had his own synthetic receptionist who had the nerve to try and stop Alex when she strolled past her fancy table. Alex covered the girl’s face with one hand and gave her a little shove that sent her flying backward into the wall. It felt good, and it got David’s attention.

He met her at the doorway and his name was instantly clear: David was a living replica of Michelangelo’s famous statue. She may have big feet, but David had an enormous head. His hands were crazy big too. He was covered in sparkles and wore a loose, linen jumpsuit that showed off his smooth, chiseled chest. “Are you here to beat the crap out of my staff and stare at me?” he asked.

Alex tossed him the fabric swatches. “Randall wanted you to have these.”

David held the fabrics up and squealed with delight. “These are just what I was imagining. I guess this means Randall does care.”

“About what?”

“Kora’s wedding dress.” David was about to leave when he made eye contact with his receptionist. He turned back to Alex. “Why are you still here?”

Alex searched her brain for a quick explanation. “Randall told me to check out your progress on the stage. He wants my opinion.”

David pressed his big lips into a pout. “Somehow I doubt that, but I don’t have anyone here strong enough to get rid of you, do I?”

“Not unless you’ve got a human tucked away in there somewhere.”

He exhaled loudly. “I should, but I don’t. Next time I talk to Randall, I’ll ask for one. You can see the stage so far, but it’ll have to be quick. And don’t touch anything!”

Alex followed him through a series of bright rooms that looked onto a courtyard planted with colorful wildflowers. Instead of the standard uniform, these synthetics wore flowing gowns and artistically cut suits. Many looked up curiously when she passed but then went back to work. If nothing else, she was known as Randall’s assistant who could kick every synthetic ass on campus. Usually that was enough for Alex but right now, she envied the bustling activity and creative energy of David’s artsy-fartsy crew.

When they reached the end of the third building, David stopped before a series of dress forms where a man and woman with folded wings greeted him in French. Alex poked at some drawings on the table and the woman had the gall to slap her fingers away. Synthetic angels were annoying enough but ones that spoke French were even worse. They huddled around the swatches, eyeing Alex suspiciously as they clicked through a series of holographic dress designs that bloomed out of the woman’s sculpted wrist device. The man darted away and returned with several bolts of fabric that matched the swatches, and this launched the three of them into a long, boring discussion that made Alex’s mouth feel dry. Although she liked jewelry, she didn't give a fuck about clothes. She had thirty-four jumpsuits, just like the one she had on now, hanging in her closet. “When will we see the stage?” she interrupted.

The French angels stopped talking and David, who’d forgotten that Alex was there, sucked in an annoyed breath. “If I show you, will you go away?”

Alex shrugged. “Maybe.”

He took off at a quick pace and she followed him through another series of workshops where an army of synthetics greeted him with quick progress reports as he whipped by. The last building they entered was large with vast white floors. In the center, a centaur was hollering at a team of fairies who were wiring lights onto a three-story statue of a woman who looked like the synthetic vessel Kora made for Ruby. The fairies buzzed around like fireflies, yanking tools from the little belts cinched around their waists as they labored over the massive woman.

“So this is where all the Harry Potter rejects go,” said Alex.

The centaur trotted over with a fat cigar in his mouth and ran his eyes up and down Alex’s body, his eyes lingering on her feet. He had a mane of long black hair and big beard that hung down over his muscular chest. Alex was certain he’d heard her comment, but he looked more impressed than annoyed with her. “So I finally get to meet the strongest synthetic at Mirafield. I’ve always wondered if those muscles help you when you’re on the other side of the wall?”

They don't even help me against a seventy-year-old human on this side of the wall,
she thought. Alex examined the centaur’s face to make sure he wasn’t teasing her. He smiled, showing large yellow teeth around his brown cigar, but there was nothing mocking in his blue eyes. “My strength doesn’t help, but I’m not afraid when I go. I prefer life on the other side of the wall.”

David pressed a hand to his hairless chest. “Are you serious? There’s nothing out there but filth and wall-to-wall savages.”

“No one’s ever hurt me,” said Alex. “And it feels more real in the streets. In here, it’s all green lawns, flowers, and fairies.” She glanced at Lawrence. Alex often mocked the fantasy creatures, but usually not to their faces.

Lawrence bit down on his cigar and drew his bushy eyebrows together. “I’d love to get outside of these walls but unlike you, I stand out too much. I’ve spent my whole life behind walls in fancy estates.” He gestured at the fairies behind him who were now sitting on the top of the statue eating lunch. “Dave, Rick, Charles, and I were made for the birthday party of a nine-year-old billionaire. He kept us around for a few years, while he was into fantasy bullshit, and then moved onto beautiful women like you. His parents sold us to another rich kid and it started all over again. We were nothing but living toys, and probably would have been dismantled when we got here if not for David.”

“Mirafield always has a place for synthetics who are talented and useful,” said David, glaring at Alex. “Over the wall is no place for us. Humans are selfish and only concerned with their own amusement.”

“That’s how they are in here. Out there,” Alex said, gesturing at the wall, “people look out for each other.”

“My crew looks out for each other,” said David. “But that doesn’t include you, sweetheart. I’m afraid no one looks out for you but then, you’re so strong, you don’t need anyone.”

That stung. Alex prided herself on her strength but the chip rendered it worthless. And David was right, Alex was an outsider at Mirafield, and outsiders were usually either dismantled or sent to the Executive Village where they were never seen again. It was only a matter of time before one of those two things happened to her.

David turned to Lawrence. “As much as I’m enjoying this heartfelt chat, we have work to do and Alex won’t go away until she sees the mockup of the stage. Show her what you have so we can get back at it.”

Lawrence puffed a cloud of smoke out of the side of his mouth and pressed a button on his arm bracelet that sent a 3-D model of the stage swirling into the air. He spun it around with his muscular arms and stopped it so the front was facing Alex. “The stage is in pieces right now, as you can see from the statue behind us, but here you can see the whole thing.”

Alex gazed at the polished floor, gleaming statues, and broad waterfall that formed a backdrop for the entire stage. It looked more like the set for a Las Vegas show than a wedding. “Where will Kora enter?”

“What the hell does it matter?” asked David.

Lawrence ignored his boss and turned the model to the side so she could see it from front to back. “After showing off Ruby to the press, Randall will introduce the designer responsible for her transformation. Kora will enter from the back wearing her wedding dress and the crowd will part for her forming an aisle.” Lawrence flicked his hand and an animation of a blue-haired woman in a wedding dress representing Kora made her way down the middle of the audience toward the stage.

Alex gloated that Kora was just another stage decoration. Randall cared about her and the wedding only so long as it added to his big show and increased his chances of making money.

David put a careful hand on Alex’s back and gave her a little shove. “Now that you’ve seen everything, it’s time to go.”

Alex turned to leave when something caught her eye. Four guards with guns were stationed high up in the rafters above the stage. Knowing Randall and his paranoia, this wasn’t too surprising. But the guns were clearly trained on Kora. “What’s with the guns? Does Randall think Kora won’t go through with it?”

David and Lawrence exchanged a look. David tried to pull Alex away and guide her to the door, but she easily jerked away from him. “I want the truth, statue boy, or I’ll snap your head off.”

Lawrence doused his cigar in a silver tray on the table and Alex realized, from his expression, that she'd noticed something important. “It’s just a precaution to make sure she goes through with the wedding and plays her part in the celebration,”
said Lawrence.

“Why wouldn’t she?” asked Alex.

“She’s gone back to her childhood home,” said David. “She might change her mind about marrying Randall while she’s there. Women sometimes do, and the wedding is an important element to Randall’s event. We might not need the gunmen but just in case, Randall wanted Lawrence to design the stage accordingly. Now can we please go?”

David’s eyes were wide and pleading; the prick had underestimated her intelligence. Alex knew there was more to those gunmen. She turned back to the model that still shimmered in front of her. After a subtle nod from David, Lawrence reached up to his wrist device to turn it off, but Alex grabbed his arm to stop him. With her other arm, she zoomed in on the model so she could see the animation more clearly. Bingo. This is what they didn’t want her to notice. Randall was a total bastard so it was no surprise that he had guns pointed at his bride, but these weren't just any guns. They were Randall's most powerful dismantlers.

Chapter 20

Kora spotted an object near the edge of the roof that looked like a thin-legged spider climbing over the wall. “Is that it?”

Gus squinted into the sun. “I think so.”

When they got closer, they saw massive spools of chain that looked more suited to the deck of an aircraft carrier than the top of a castle. Kora looked over the edge of the roof to see a ramshackle hut that was little more than an enclosed scaffold dangling two floors down.

“There’s the driveway the limo took when they brought me here,” said Kora. “I’m glad I looked up when I arrived, or we might have spent the rest of the day searching. How are we supposed to get down there?”

Gus grabbed onto the cable. “We slide down.”

“No way.”

“Are you the same girl who just climbed that dome?”

“But we don’t have gloves. It’ll tear up our hands.”

Gus looked Kora up and down. “You don't really have anything, huh?”

“We could rip the bottom of your robe off and I could wind it around my palms.”

“Please never mention ripping my robe again. Don’t you realize I wear this every day?”

Kora wrinkled her nose. “The same one? How do you keep it clean?”

“I hand wash it every week then let it air dry.”

“I have another idea,” said Kora, stripping off her shirt to reveal a white silk bra. “I’ll just put this over my hands.”

“Ivan would love that bra, by the way.  Very classy.” Gus lowered himself over the edge and gripped the cable through his robe. He slid down to land on the tin roof with a loud thud. “Your turn,” he called up to Kora.

She zipped down the cable, burning the insides of her thighs, and crashed into the roof with a loud bang. “I knew that was going to hurt,” she said as Gus helped her up.

“I don’t think Humphrey’s here. You just made an entrance like a drunk pterodactyl, and still it sounds quiet.” Gus flipped open a tin hatch, pulled a rope ladder off a hook, then lowered it down into the tiny living room. “Ladies first.”

Kora climbed down the flimsy ladder and stepped onto a floor made of wide, flat boards. Beside the wall stood a pyramid of tin cans, each filled to the brim with rusty nails and screws. Almost every inch of free floor space in the tiny house was stacked with old tools encrusted with grime and barnacles as if salvaged from the ocean floor. Boxes of glimmering rocks and seashells spilled over from every chair except two that sat in front of a small wood stove.

“Quite a place, isn’t it?” said Gus, pushing his way through a narrow path in a massive stack of old High Times magazines.

“He definitely outdoes you,” said Kora, who couldn’t resist tossing some crusty coins back into an old coffee can.

Gus drew up to the kitchen counter where he inspected a half-eaten tray of brownies. He cut one loose and stuffed it into his mouth. “These are delicious,” he said, prying another large square from the dish. “Want one?”

“No thanks.” Kora dropped into one of the rocking chairs before the stove and gazed up at the ceiling dripping with fishing nets. Her eyes bobbed over colorful glass buoys until they landed on a tall shelf piled with crystals and a collection of skulls. She walked gingerly across the room and tripped over a bag of mud-encrusted coins that spilled into her path. She quickly scooped the coins back into the bag and propped it up against the wall, then continued toward the shelves where the skulls sat surveying the room. Two of them were obviously human, while the third was severely deformed with a small horn pushing out from the center of its forehead.

She was about to reach up to touch it when she heard a loud scraping sound and two men appeared in the doorway. The first was a handsome man with deep brown skin and large, dark eyes while the other was a creature who appeared to be part man and part walrus. When the walrus-man caught site of her, a huge smile spread across his jowly face and his eyes, perched high on his head like two ping-pong balls, opened wide with delight.

“This must be Kora!” He padded across the floor to envelope her in arms that vaguely resembled flippers. Kora’s feet left the floor and her nostrils filled with the rich smell of pot smoke and wood.

“Humphrey,” she said politely, trying not to stare.

“What a wonderful surprise.” He held her at arms length as if to get a better look at her. “Over near the door is Ramon, the head of my construction team. I have a few matters to discuss with him before I join you.”

“Can I meet Kora, too?” said Ramon, weaving through the junk with a hungry look on his face. He reminded Kora of the woman, Berta, she’d seen with Vaughn the other night. “Where have you been hiding?” said Ramon, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips.

“Now Ramon,” said Humphrey, “this is my little sister and she’s much too old for you.” He steered Ramon out the door and Kora could hear them speaking in Spanish on the porch for several minutes before Humphrey returned alone.

“Ramon is like my son, but he can be a pain…as I imagine all children can be.” Humphrey laid a hand on Kora’s arm and she noticed it was missing a few fingers. “Please come and sit. I have a wonderful tray of brownies… which I see Gus already discovered.” Humphrey’s whiskers twitched when he noticed the tray was already empty. “You do realize those brownies are highly medicated?” he said loudly. Gus didn’t seem to hear him but gazed blankly at a pile of rusty hammers he’d arranged into a sculpture. “I’m afraid we’ve lost him.”  Humphrey guided Kora to the empty chair she’d occupied earlier. “Gus doesn’t have much tolerance for anything but caffeine. Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” said Kora, unsure what he was referring to.

Humphrey took a large pipe down from a shelf beside his chair. Kora watched as he held his lighter and puffed the bowl to a bright glow. Then he held his breath for a frightening amount of time before billows of smoke poured from his flared nostrils. “I apologize for polluting the air, but I’m feeling a slight twinge in my lower back and this always does the trick. I must say, working on your lab was one of the happiest projects I’ve had since putting all the French windows into the kitchen and bedrooms. So much precious light.”

“Yes,” choked Kora, waving away the last wisps of smoke. “It’s a beautiful lab, but this is an interesting place you’ve built for yourself. When you walked in, I was admiring your collection. Where did you find all this stuff?”

“Different places,” said Humphrey. I came across the Spanish gold off the coast of Ecuador a number of years ago. I strapped it to the side of a migrating whale, an old friend of mine, or I never would have managed to get it up to California.”

“And that looks like part of an old ship,” said Kora, pointing to a curved piece of iron mounted on the wall across from her.

“That’s from the Brother Jonathan that sank off the California coast in 1865 loaded with San Francisco gold. Those bags of coins on the floor below are from that wreck. I really shouldn’t be rooting around in these magnificent graveyards, but it’s so hard for me to resist. One of my most exciting finds is that piece above the shelves there.” He pointed to a long, rusted slice of metal attached to the wall directly above the skulls. “I found that near the coast of Nikumasroro island in the western Pacific. It’s the prop off a Lockheed Electra.” Humphrey raised his bristly eyebrows and Kora tried to look impressed, but her eyes kept dropping from the rusted artifact to the blackened skull sitting just below it.

Humphrey padded over to the shelves and lifted the skull down from its high perch. “This, I believe, you do recognize.”

She moved toward him as if in a dream. “How did you know? I was looking at it earlier but—”

“It’s yours,” said Humphrey, holding the skull out to her.

She reluctantly took it and turned it over in her hands. “What makes you think this belongs to me?”

Humphrey took another long drag off his pipe and held it in which made his voice sound muffled. “I found it several years ago at the base of a large pipe that stretches from the catacomb into the ocean.”

“Catacomb? Gus never mentioned the castle had anything like that. A roller derby track, but no catacomb.”

Humphrey tilted his head back, blew his smoke across the ceiling, and chuckled. “I’d forgotten all about that. No one believes me, of course, but these things do exist. It’s just hard to get to them these days. The castle construction never stops so it becomes a bit of a puzzle to keep everything connected.”

Kora traced a finger along the warped frontal bone of the skull. “It’s extremely deformed. Whatever creature this is from must have had severe neurological trouble. It’s not one of mine.  My specimens are all perfect,” she said proudly, then thought for a moment. “Well, almost perfect.”

“I didn’t say it was your creature. I simply said that the creature belonged to you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Of course it does. You didn’t make the creature—you simply cared for it.”

Kora found this idea alarming.  From the contours of the skull, this mutant would have made Ivan look like a beauty queen.  “Why would I care for something like this?”

Humphrey lumbered back to his chair and motioned for Kora to sit across from him. “Years ago, Ruby inherited a large amount of land in Malibu, and she settled here after graduating from Stanford with degrees in medicine and microbiology.  When the government collapsed, makeshift prisons popped up all over the country and Ruby converted her sizable property into a place where one of her lovers, Randall Williams, could stash his enemies.  He'd just started building Mirafield, and due to the controversial nature of his business, he had a significant number of people he wanted out of the way.”

Kora closed her eyes as if this could shut out Humphrey's words.  The truth about Randall just got worse with every passing day. “So he rounded them up himself and brought them here?”

“He created his own police force to snatch them up in the night, never to be seen again,” said Humphrey.  “I won't tell you all the tragic details of what happened when she built her first lab, but out of the dozens of woeful creations brewed up in the first year, I somehow managed to survive. Ruby made me carry the bodies of my less fortunate siblings into the basement of her modest home where I had to label them according to their date of creation and death. You may have noticed that she’s a meticulous collector.”

“Gus has been telling me, and I saw the living room,” said Kora.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Humphrey. “It wasn’t long before the basement filled up and a terrible stench permeated the house. I tried to persuade Ruby to stop her murderous madness, but she wouldn’t hear of it.  So, I proposed a new structure along the cliffs of her property overlooking the ocean where these wretched souls could rest with more dignity. We argued over several designs and finally settled on a series of deep, labyrinthine tunnels dug deep into the cliffs.  As work progressed, she decided that she wanted this structure to serve not only as a catacomb, but as the foundations for a great castle.  Randall was pouring tons of money into her pockets to keep her quiet, and she needed to spend it.”

“So this is one of Ruby’s early creations?” said Kora, holding up the skull.

Humphrey nodded. “Once the catacomb was finished, and we had endless room for storing bodies, Ruby increased her production two-fold and I was forced to split my time between construction and carting bodies. It was around this exhausting period that Caleb managed to survive beyond the usual three or four miserable days that most could call a life. I was overjoyed. I was no longer alone, and I had a brother built like a mountain. Caleb could carry the bodies in a fraction of the time it took me, and then spend the rest of the day helping with construction.”

“So the two of you built the castle?” Kora prepared herself for the cloud of smoke as she watched Humphrey take another drag off his water pipe.

“I didn’t have my crew back then. Caleb and I worked alongside each other for many years building this place. He was a brilliant inventor and electrician back in those days.”

“But what does all of this have to do with me?  And why did you tell Ramon I was your sister?  And too old for him?” Kora couldn’t keep the annoyance from seeping into her voice.

The look of peaceful reminiscence on Humphrey’s face disappeared. “You may have heard that long ago, Ruby and I were intimately involved.”

Kora resisted the urge to groan and cover her ears. “Gus mentioned something about that.”

“She is a demanding lover and eventually ruined my lower spine. If it weren’t for the Food’s powerful hydroponic weed, I would suffer terribly. After my injury, Ruby turned to Caleb for sex but he wanted nothing to do with her. He wanted a wife; someone similar to him that he could love and care for. Ruby was furious—she never takes rejection well—but she needed Caleb to finish the castle and she also needed someone to help in the catacomb. I was doing construction full time and though Caleb was good at carting the bodies down to the lower regions, he wasn’t good at moving them beyond the pile. Things were getting messy. So Ruby created you with two goals in mind: to be Caleb’s wife, and mistress of the catacomb.”

Kora felt bile moving up her throat. The skull dropped out of her hands and rolled across the floor where it came to a stop before Humphrey’s bare feet. “I’m sorry, but that’s just not possible.  I’m human.”