Synthetic: Dark Beginning (30 page)

Chapter 35

Joshua awoke in a tangle of gelatinous tubes that surrounded him like hair. At first Kora worried he might be in pain, but when a crooked smile broke his face, she reduced the amount of opiates filtering into his fresh bloodstream. He looked too blissful. Berta helped Joshua to sit up as Kora scanned him to make sure everything worked properly.

“How do you feel?”

“Hungry.” Joshua looked around at his strange bed. “I’m in one of these tanks which means I’m like superman, right?”

“I wouldn’t try leaping off any buildings,” said Kora. “But you do have the ability to drink like a fish until you’re a hundred, if that counts as a super power. I had to replace almost all of your internal organs.”

“Mother of Jesus.” Joshua swung his legs over the side without noticing or caring that he was naked. He threw an arm around Berta’s waist and kissed her cheek. To his surprise, she reached up and turned his head so she could kiss him on the lips. When they separated, he stared at her in awe. “Where are we?”

“My lab in Ruby's castle.  After Ishmael and I fixed you up, we transferred you here from Mirafield by helicopter,” said Kora.

“Can I take him home, now?” asked Berta.

“You mean the empty mansion?” said Joshua, his smile disappearing.

Berta kissed him again.  “You're not banished anymore, you idiot.  You're the clan hero.”

He gazed at her in wonder.  “A hero?  What for?”

“You mean you don't remember?” asked Berta.  “How those soldiers almost beat you to death?”

“Oh, I remember that,” said Joshua.  “But that's just sort of my normal day.  No big deal.”  He grinned and wrapped his arms around Berta.

“You're both free to go,” said Kora, eager to get rid of the groping couple. “But I want you back here in a week, Joshua, so I can make sure everything is working properly.”

“Berta will do that for you,” said Joshua, as she pulled him toward the door.

Kora woke Vaughn, who was asleep on the lab couch, and they climbed into the secret passage holding hands.  By the time he opened the panel into his room, Kora was exhausted.  She and Ishmael had rebuilt Joshua's entire body and transferred him back to the beach without even a five-minute break.  Building a synthetic was familiar territory but rebuilding a human was messy and complicated. She desperately needed some sleep.

Kora had just nodded off in Vaughn's arms when she heard a familiar voice in her ear.  “Wake up.” Gus shook her shoulder while Ivan paced the floor at the foot of the bed.

“What time is it?” grumbled Vaughn from where he lay curled around her.

“Two in the morning. Ivan and I have looked everywhere and we can’t find Caleb,” said Gus.

Kora’s eyes popped open and she unwound herself from Vaughn who repeatedly tried to pull her back into bed. She slipped on her robe while Vaughn rose up onto his elbows, his hair sticking straight up on his head as he glared at Gus.
“Maybe Caleb decided to go for a walk and you’re bothering us for no reason.”

Ivan sprung up from the foot of the bed, making Vaughn jump. “You know perfectly well that Caleb doesn’t go for walks.”

Vaughn collapsed back onto his pillow. “Go away, both of you!”

Gus crouched down so his mouth was inches from Vaughn’s ear. “Look, I know you and Kora scheduled a morning shag, but Ivan and I have a really bad feeling.”

Kora slipped an arm under Vaughn’s shoulders and dragged him up into a sitting position. “Come on sleepy head. Let’s help them look.”

“It’s no use,” said Ivan. “We’ve searched everywhere through the house, and the Food has already searched the beach and the hills. He’s just gone.”

“Maybe he went down to the catacomb,” said Kora.

“Ridiculous,” said Ivan. “Caleb doesn’t even know how to swim. He’d never go out into the ocean.”

“He doesn’t need to, remember?” replied Kora. “Let Vaughn and I get dressed and then I’ll show you.” Kora herded Gus and Ivan out into the hall, then disappeared into Vaughn’s closet. She ran her hand over a pile of cashmere sweaters and Vaughn lifted one and held it up to her.

“On you it’ll be more like a dress.” He slipped off her robe and ran his hands down her sides and over her hips.

“We need to go find Caleb, remember?”

Vaughn groaned and leaned down to kiss her. “He’s probably sitting in the kitchen, right now, eating Cheerios.”

“There’s always tonight.” Kora arched up onto her toes so she could reach his mouth more easily, and Vaughn lifted her off the ground and rushed her through a jungle of shirts. He pressed her against the back of the closet and his passion was so overwhelming, it took a while before she noticed Gus calling out to them.

“I know you two are horny bastards, but Ivan’s crawling the walls like a spider.”

Vaughn set Kora back down and they both emerged from behind the line of suits. “We’ll get dressed and be right out,” said Vaughn, glaring at Gus.

“Maybe I should stay and watch, just to make sure,” replied Gus.

Vaughn shoved Gus out the door and closed it behind him while Kora slipped the cashmere sweater over her head. Vaughn rolled up the long sleeves until her hands appeared and raised her fingers to his lips.  “When this is all over, I want us to go off together for a while where no one can bother us.”

“Where?”

“I don’t care. Just some place we can be alone without work, Gus or Ivan. How about Belize?”

Kora stroked the side of his face. “Sounds amazing.”

Ivan stuck his head through the door. “Here you are fornicating while Caleb lies dying in some gutter. My God!” He reeled back as he gazed at Kora. “You’re wearing that as a dress? Don't you have any clothes of your own?”

“They're all white.” Kora didn't want to explain and luckily with Ivan, she didn't have to.

“After we find Caleb, we'll fix that,” he said
.
“Now out the door, both of you. I don't trust you in here alone.”

Kora and Ivan followed Vaughn into the hall, but Gus hung back, clearing his throat until everyone stopped to look at him. “Would anyone mind if we took the tunnels? I feel very exposed in the main house.”

“But there’s nothing to worry about. Ruby’s gone,” said Kora.

“I know, but it still freaks me out. The tunnels feel cozy and safe,” said Gus.

Everyone climbed through the secret panel and wound down between the walls until they poured out across from Ruby’s office. Gus pushed on the door and it creaked open to reveal her empty chair. He darted in, gathered her script off the desk, and wandered back in line behind Ivan, reading as they marched down the hall toward Ruby's lab.

“Just as I thought,” said Gus, waving a page in the air. “She wrote it so we’re all dead at the end of her new reality show. Vaughn is devoured by sharks, Humphrey’s shack crashes through a glass window, Caleb is dismembered by mountain lions, and Ivan falls off a tricycle, gets a minor head bump that causes his brain to explode two hours later.”

“Gus, can we keep on task here for a few minutes?” said Kora as she inspected the far wall of Ruby's lab.

“Sorry.” Gus plopped the script down at the base of the iron tower. “But we already tried finding a passage through that wall and nothing worked.”

“Vaughn figured something out when we were in the catacomb,” said Kora.

“We both figured it out,” said Vaughn, scouring the stones thirteen feet up until his eyes stopped on one that looked smoother and shinier than the others. He ran up the wall and pressed the brick as hard as he could before dropping to the floor again. The wall rumbled aside, revealing a stairwell curving into darkness.

Gus stepped into the opening and sniffed. “Someone’s had a torch in here recently.”

“Caleb,” said Vaughn, taking Kora’s hand and drawing her in behind him. They descended until they arrived at another wall that split automatically when they reached the bottom step.

“How can we make sure it stays open?” said Vaughn.

Kora pulled a torch covered in cobwebs off the wall and slid it between the doors.

“This is it—the catacomb,” said Gus, peering into the darkness. “I didn’t think I’d ever get here because I can’t swim.”

“I haven’t seen this side of it either,” said Vaughn.

“Which side did you see?” asked Gus.

“The catacomb was divided,” said Kora. “Most of it was cleared out for the living, and the dead were locked off in another section with a tunnel that leads out to the sea.”

“So you two explored the dead area, which means this is the fun side?” asked Gus.

“Yes, this is the fun side. Are you going in?” Kora nudged Gus in the back.

“It’s spooky in there. Why don’t you two go first?”
said Gus.

“Caleb,” called Ivan, frantically pushing past them until he was swallowed into the gloom. Kora reached around the wall and flicked a switch. Three bare bulbs hanging from a cord lit up a long room similar to the ones she and Vaughn explored except that instead of bodies, the shelves were stacked with empty beer bottles. A coat tree stood near the wall hung with flannel shirts, similar to those worn by Humphrey, and boxes of empty tin cans crowded the floor.

“Electricity?” exclaimed Gus. “All the way down here?”

“We’re in Kora’s realm now,” said Vaughn.

Gus tripped over a can and picked it up. “Looks like you guys drank a lot of beer and ate tons of vegetarian chili. And you could have used an Ivan down here to clean things up.”

Kora kicked a path through the rubbish. “It’s no wonder Ishmael likes clutter. Must remind him of his squidhood.”

They followed Ivan, who was still calling out to Caleb, through the narrow entryway into a towering cave where a tall wooden ship sat on a series of heavy supports. Kora flicked several more switches on the wall and strings of glass bulbs, woven through the masts, twinkled all the way up to the crow’s nest. Even Ivan fell silent for a moment as they all stared at the wondrous sight of the legendary Spanish Galleon all aglow in the dank cave.

“What’s a ship doing down here?” asked Vaughn.

“I’m beginning to think all of Humphrey’s stories are real,” said Gus.  “They made it for Ruby but couldn’t figure out how to get it above ground without destroying it,” said Gus. He pointed at the prow where an object had been stripped, exposing an unpainted rectangle of wood. “I bet that’s where the figurehead of Ruby that’s above the stove in the kitchen came from.”

“They at least got that part up,” said Vaughn.

“Caleb!” called Ivan, his voice echoing.

While everyone talked and marveled at their surroundings, Ivan scurried up the ramp and stood at the back of the ship, calling out into the empty room that seemed as vast as the ocean.

“We need to stop sight-seeing and help him,” said Kora. “Let’s break up.”

Kora grabbed Vaughn and guided him into a tunnel that branched off into a series of workshops where heavy equipment loomed in shadows beyond the reach of their torch. She opened a door at the very end and switched on the light. They both stared up at a painted blue ceiling covered in fluffy while clouds.

“I don’t believe it,” said Vaughn. “I've dreamed of this sky my whole life.”

She walked over to an oak counter covered with dusty machines and test tubes with dried substances clouding the bottoms. Jars full of organs, all of which still seemed to still be functioning, covered the wall in an elaborate system of tubes and wires. It was a strange sight, to see something so technologically advanced set into old-world shelving beautifully carved with fruits and vines, like a Victorian curiosity cabinet come to life.

“Does that have anything to do with me?” Vaughn pointed at a heart beating at the center of the wall that pushed a red fluid through a stream of glass vessels.

“This must be how I came up with you and Ishmael's unique ability to survive without breathing. These ideas never made it out of this lab, unless Ishmael has them tucked away somewhere in that great brain of his.”

“I hope not. I want to be the only guy strolling along the ocean floor. Avoid the crowds.” Vaughn walked over to a shimmering glass tank that looked like a massive, hand-blown bubble. “I feel like I’m reliving my childhood. This was where you made me?”

Kora nodded. “It’s so much more beautiful than my tanks at Mirafield. Everything here was hand crafted for me by my family.” She ran her hand along the rounded wood that surrounded the tank. “My most amazing memory is when you spoke to me one day.”

“I spoke to you? What did I say?”

“I drew you to the surface to check your vitals and you opened your eyes and said,
blue
.”

Vaughn waited. “Anything else?”

“Nope, just blue. So I told myself that if I ever managed to build myself a new body, I'd give myself bright blue hair.”

“I hate to break it to you, my love, but I was probably talking about the painted ceiling. I wish I was talking about your eyes, but they're brown and—”

He looked relieved when Kora laughed. “I know that.
I just didn't want to forget your first word.”

Vaughn picked up the leg of a giant rubber squid that crouched beside the tank. “Ruby's been looking for this prop for decades. What’s it doing down here?”