The Athena Effect (29 page)

“Really? All I want to do is leave,” she snapped.

She ignored the boy’s wounded face, her eyes scanning the room from top to bottom. A pair of sparkling chandeliers hung from the high ceiling like diamond earrings, and the marble paneled walls were covered with framed art that looked like it belonged in a museum. She had never seen a place so richly decorated, or a dining table so extravagantly set.

A long, low flower arrangement divided the tabletop, and there was a bewildering array of polished silverware surrounding each place setting. Caledonia studied the gilded china, remembering the article that described Reed’s dismissal from the university.

“Who pays for all of this?” she asked.

The twins both looked to the professor to answer, but he dodged the question with a faint whiff of annoyance, “It’s not polite to discuss money at the dinner table.”

“Didn’t you get
fired
from the university?” She pressed him, pleased to see his colors betray his rising irritation, “Because of your
failed
experiments?”

“Professor Reed is a brilliant scientist,” Layla came to his defense. “His research is groundbreaking.”

“His research only broke ground to put graves into it!” Caledonia spat out bitterly. “He’s the reason that our parents are dead!”

Once again, the twins seemed surprised, looking to Professor Reed for an answer. They were obviously not used to his authority being challenged, and they looked back and forth between him and Caledonia; their colors blending into a bewildered shade of blue.

Caledonia addressed the two of them, “Did you know that he’s still doing it?”

“Doing what?” Michael asked, staring at her with pure fascination.

Caledonia was indignant, “He’s still experimenting with his Athena drug– giving it to helpless animals! Don’t you realize that it was his research that drove your mother to commit suicide?”

“That’s enough of that!” Reed exclaimed. “One more outburst and you’ll be taking your meals alone in your room.”

Caledonia looked up to see Max appear in the archway, ready to take her away. She slumped in her chair with her mouth shut, glowering menacingly at the professor. She knew he felt her malice, because he reached for his mirrored lenses, surprising the twins.

“That’s better. Now, let’s all try to enjoy a nice meal together.”

There was an uncomfortable silence, and Layla rushed to fill it with small talk. “That’s a really pretty sweater,” she told Caledonia.

The professor nodded with approval, “Yes, the blue is much more becoming on you than the red.”

Layla jolted in her chair as if she’d just been shocked by an electric current, because the violent reaction was transmitted from across the table even before the words were spoken.

“You watched me GETTING DRESSED?!” Caledonia bolted to her feet, knocking over her chair behind her with a thump that brought Max running.

“You’re under surveillance as part of a scientific study,” Professor Reed explained calmly. “It’s purely clinical. There’s really no reason to get so upset about it.”

“You bastard! How dare you!”

“Max,” the professor called over his shoulder, I’m going to need you to remove her from the table.”

Max entered the room and advanced on her, holding out his hand, “Nice try.” He smiled grimly, “Now give me the knife.”

Caledonia reached slowly behind her back for the steak knife she’d slipped into the waistband of her skirt. Before anyone could move, she drew her arm back and threw it hard. It stuck in the table directly in front of Professor Reed with a dull thud, vibrating like a tuning fork.

Three pairs of shocked eyes watched as she straightened herself and went with Max, turning back once to spew a burning red cloud of volcanic anger into the room. The twins gasped simultaneously.

Caledonia was roughly deposited back into her room, and once she was alone the reality of her situation came crashing down upon her all at once. Everything her parents had feared had come to pass; she was at the mercy of the madman who had ruined their lives.

She thought about Calvin with a sharp stab of pain, and threw herself onto the bed, burying her face in the pillow with a sob. It was hard to believe that it had only been a day since they swam in the river, splashing and playing like a couple of otters until they finally wound up in a passionate embrace.

She remembered how the water ran off his body as he rose from the river, and the way he pulled her down on top of him and made love to her right there on the riverbank. They held each other close afterwards, lying in the dappled sunlight and letting the warm summer breeze dry their bodies.

Life could not possibly be so cruel as to give her a taste of love only to snatch it right back again. What if he forgot all about her before she could get back to him? She looked through a veil of tears at the childish artificial room she was trapped in, overcome by despair.

Then she got mad.

Calvin had awakened something within her, and she didn’t want it to go back to sleep. She went from grieving her loss to being enraged, and it was the powerful rage of a woman in love, a blaze of angry red that darkened to nearly black. Caledonia got up and paced, the anger swelling within her, making it impossible for her to sit still. She thought about the hidden camera somewhere in the room and got even angrier.

If he was going to watch her, she might as well put on a show.

She picked up the perfume bottles, hurling them at the wall one by one, filling the room with a sickeningly sweet stench that only served to inflame her more. She tore apart the armoire, smashing the drawers and ripping the clothes inside them to pieces.

Professor Reed watched the monitor in his office, turning to Max, “Do you think she might hurt herself?”

Max shook his head with disgust, “I knew this was a mistake. We should have waited.”

“It’s only a childish tantrum,” the professor said, watching as the violence on the screen escalated. “I couldn’t simply sit back and
allow
an innocent girl to be compromised by lowlife scum.”

Max looked down at the monitor, thinking she looked more like a vicious beast than a girl. “We’re going to have to move her.”

They watched as Caledonia rocked one of the bedposts until it snapped, sending the canopy crashing down onto the mattress. She used the post as a club, swinging at the dresser, shattering the glass in the picture frames and the mirror, and finally punching great holes in the walls.

By the time Max flung open the door she stood heaving and panting in the wreckage. There wasn’t a thing left to break, and she was spent. The second guard lifted his glasses to stare in disbelief; it looked like a bomb had gone off in the room.

“Put ‘em back on,” Max barked at him.

The two men took Caledonia by the arms, leading the shaking girl out of the room and into the hall. She used her last ounce of energy to kick at their legs as she was lifted off her feet, half dragged and half carried down the corridor to an elevator. Max pressed a button and Caledonia could feel her stomach drop as they went down three floors to the basement.

Max was fuming.

All of his worst predictions were coming true, and here he was, spending his precious time putting out fires instead of taking care of business. The stupid old man wouldn’t listen to reason, and now they had a huge problem on their hands, a problem that threatened all of his plans.

He’d just put a down payment on a sweet little beach house in Aruba, and he didn’t get to see his expensive girlfriend nearly enough. Now he was going to have to spend even more time here, riding herd on this little hellcat and taking orders from a crazy old man. Max gripped Caledonia’s thin arm even tighter with irritation.

The elevator door opened to a sterile white hallway lined with doors, and the men dragged her increasingly less resistant body down to one of them, opening it to reveal a small cell. The two men picked her up and heaved her in like a sack of potatoes, standing back to rub their bruised shins.

The door slammed behind her with a resounding thud, and Caledonia found herself alone in a room completely unlike the one she had just trashed. It held only a metal sink and toilet, with a thin mattress set on the floor in the corner. She looked up to see a camera trained down on her, and crouched on the floor with her head between her knees, hands trembling from hunger and fatigue.

A few minutes later the door flew open, and Professor Reed’s voice filled the room. “I hope you’re happy with yourself. You’ve completely ruined our dinner.”

She looked up, bleary eyed, “I’m elated.”

He shook his head in disappointment, “Do as I say, and you’ll see I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”

She laughed bitterly, “How about giving me my parents back?”

“What’s done is done,” he said. “They knew the risks when they signed on to the project.”

“I doubt that they expected that you’d kidnap their daughter.”

His colors betrayed his frustration, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to withhold some privileges from you until you learn how to behave.”

She dropped her head again, shaking it with disgust, “Withhold away.”

“I went to a great deal of trouble to prepare your room for you…I’m afraid that your new quarters won’t be nearly as lavish.”

She looked into the face of a madman, still unable to see his eyes, “Go to hell.”

He turned to leave and the door slammed shut again. Caledonia’s shoulders slumped, and she crawled over to the thin mattress, unable to hold her head up any longer.

“Oh Calvin…” she curled up and whispered his name, missing him with increasing desperation. Unable to maintain her brave front any longer, tears began to stream out of her eyes, and she hid her face with her arms, unwilling to let the professor’s camera see her give in to despair.

She swore that she would get back to Calvin if it killed her, and she meant it. If Layla had been watching the monitor she would have seen the pool of deep blue anguish that surrounded Caledonia change, becoming a cloud of steely gray determination that dissipated like a puff of smoke when she finally drifted away to an uneasy sleep.

~

Chapter Twenty Two – MUTINY

~

She dreamed she was with Calvin, walking hand in hand through endless museum galleries. He bent down with a smile to deliver a toe-curling kiss that sent her heart pounding and her blood pumping. She woke to find herself tucked into a fetal position on a thin mattress, fighting a losing battle to return to her dream before reality set back in.

Caledonia felt the girl arrive before she saw her, and she sat up to watch the door open, revealing Layla standing anxiously in the entrance, two guards directly behind her.

“Excuse me,” she said timidly. “But I brought you something to eat.” She held a covered dish on a tray in her outstretched arms, “May I come in?”

Caledonia scowled at her, “Did he send you to try again?”

“No, I asked if I could see you.”

“Why?”

“I want to talk.”

“Sure you do,” she scoffed, rubbing her eyes defiantly.

“Please?” Layla begged, her eyes intense.

Caledonia looked at the tray, and the big man standing behind the nervous girl. She knew that she’d better eat. She couldn’t afford to weaken if she expected to fight him again, and one way or the other, she knew that she’d be fighting him again.

“All right,” she agreed.

Layla stepped into the room and turned back to Max, “Can you leave us alone?”

“You have fifteen minutes with her,” he said, closing the door on them.

Layla handed the tray to Caledonia, stepping back to smooth her skirt and sit on the floor with her legs folded under her, “Don’t worry, I won’t try anything.”

Caledonia shrugged, lifting the lid over the plate to reveal a sandwich, “Do I look worried?”

Layla smiled wryly, “He
did
ask me to try and change you again, but I know that it won’t work. You’re just as good at it as I am… Maybe even better.”

Caledonia looked up with narrowed eyes; she could tell that Layla was being truthful. She gestured to the camera with a toss of her head, “He’s watching us, you know.”

“Yes, but he can’t hear us. Please don’t frown. He thinks I’m trying to make you relax.”

Caledonia scrutinized her, and she could see that beneath her nervous anxiety lie a burning hunger. She wanted something. Bright red hair floated all around her shoulders like a flaming cloud; her yellow curiosity made her look as though she were on fire.

Layla cleared her throat, not sure of how to start, “Caledonia… That’s a pretty name.”

“You can call me Cal… I mean, Cali,” she answered. “Why are you here?”

Layla leaned closer, her voice intense, “What do you know about my mother? Please tell me.”

“First I need to know where we are… What city is this?”

Layla looked surprised, “San Francisco.”

Caledonia sighed with relief. At least she hadn’t been taken too far. “Do you know how to get to the deYoung Museum from here?”

If she could only make her way to someplace she’d been before, she felt certain she could find her way back to Calvin’s house.