The End of Tomorrow (14 page)

“So you didn't program the nanorobots to bomb?”

She shook her head. I believed her. But I had also believed her when she had looked so shocked.

“Where is the research?”

Again she started to laugh.

“Is there research or did you steal it?”

Her eyes widened and the smile left her blood-coated lips. “It’s my bloody research! I wrote every bit of it!”

I hobbled to the corner where an old wine bar sat and lifted myself gingerly onto it. It took effort I didn't really have but standing was hurting more than anything. I sighed and tried very hard to not say the thing I had to say, but it was no use. My mother didn't care about the research. “She’s going to kill you.” I nodded. “It’s her way. You’ve been tortured and seen the castle and all our faces. She’s going to kill you and your research will be found eventually by someone else, and they will take the credit for it. If you tell me where it is, I will destroy it.”

Her eyes filled with tears as the last shred of hope faded away. “I won’t ever tell anyone what I have seen or said to you.”

“Like you told Drusack you wouldn't tell anyone about his evil plan?”

Her lower lip trembled as she nodded. “I swear.”

“She won’t believe you, she never does. She doesn't have compassion and she doesn't care if the research is found. She has no loyalty to anyone but me. I am sorry though. When she starts peeling your skin off, I won’t be able to see you again. I can’t bear to see it.” I slumped and waited for my mother to return. Janice sobbed until she lost her footing and from what I could tell from the screaming, she had dislocated one of her shoulders. I didn't get up to lift her. I didn't move. I forced myself to hold tight to the wine bar, even to the point one of my nails broke.

“There is no research!” she sputtered. “It’s all-all in my head!” she stated as she tried to get back on her tiptoes but slipped again in the blood and urine. Her feet slid on the stone floor. “No one will ever find it! I have it memorized! Catalogued! I do the work and burn or hide the evidence! I leave only the parts I need, the ones no one would be able to retrace my steps with!” She pleaded, “Please don't kill me!”

Piss poured down her legs, and I knew she was telling the truth. She wasn't a hardened spy like the rest of us. She was a scientist. She had protected her baby for as long as she could. I slid off the bar as slowly as I could, grunting from the pain in my feet and ribs as I hobbled to the door. When I opened it, Coop stared at me with a confused look on his face. “What did you do to her?”

“She slipped in the blood and piss, dislocated a shoulder. She’s telling the truth. The secrets will die with her.”

He clenched his jaw and stared me down before pulling his pistol from the back of his jeans and handing it to me. He grabbed the magazine from his pocket and slapped it into my hand, squeezing me and maintaining eye contact. I took both and turned back for the room, closing the door. I shoved the mag into the gun and loaded it, taking the safety off.

“Please!” Her dark eyes darted to the piece as she shook her head desperately. “I swear, there is no research. I used the lab Dr. Drusack built for me in that Bad something place, but I never told him what I was doing, and I destroyed the machines I used. The notes in my apartment are decoys. I won’t ever tell anyone anything.”

I lifted the gun, not a single tremor in my hand, and placed my finger on the trigger. “I know you won’t ever tell anyone, Janice. I know that.” I lifted the gun as she squeezed her eyes shut and screamed. I pulled the trigger, hitting the rope above her head, releasing her arms and letting her fall to the ground. She cried out in pain from the fall as I walked to her, my bloody feet stinging from her spit and blood and piss on the floor. I grabbed the arm that was okay and lifted her off the ground. “But now you are dead, you do not exist, and you can never leave this house. You will be part of our team. Agree to that or die. That's all there is.”

“Okay.” She nodded, turning her head and vomiting on the floor next to me as I dragged us both from the room.

Coop looked even more confused as I hobbled the two of us out of there. “Janice will be needing a doctor, one who will not speak to her.”

Coop shook his head but didn't say anything. I had to imagine it was the look on my face convincing him to stay silent. I handed him the Australian and leaned against the wall as my mother found her way back downstairs.

“What the bloody hell is going on?”

“She has never written it down. She has an eidetic memory, the same as Coop. She doesn't have research. She knows how to make nanorobots and she knows everything she needs, and when she was done building them for Drusack she destroyed the work. She doesn't have a real lab dedicated solely to this or evidence anywhere. If we kill Drusack and destroy his house, no one will ever be the wiser. He used the bots he had. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. She has the methodology in her mind.”

“This is a foolish notion, Evie. She has the ability to kill the world off with very little effort and no detectability. No one would ever see her or her little monsters coming. She has the power to kill everything, Jules and Mitch, you and me. That is too much for one person to have.”

“I know.” I nodded. “But I fear the Burrow and their motives far more than her. I think we need her. Drusack is one of the Burrow and part of the Organization. I recognized him right away.”

Mom nodded. “I know. I knew who he was the moment I saw him when Jack told me the story. This is exactly the one area your father and I disagree on. I would never work for the Burrow in the manner they want me to. I don't agree with population control. I don't agree with playing God. And they are famous for thinking they are helping the world. I knew it was only a matter of time before all those weapons and inventions would become a temptation.”

“But you and everyone have said that the Burrow is helping the world be free of the radical inventors and scientists who come up with ways for the Organization and their likes to misuse creations meant to heal the earth.”

“That is true, my dear. That is what the Burrow has long been intended for. But the power is in the hands of old people, people like me. People who have lived their lives and seen how the world has changed. They’re old school and afraid. And now in the last decades of their lives, they feel they have insight young people do not. They think differently than they used to. You have to remember this cache of weapons and brilliance has only ever been protected by one generation. Now that that generation is old, they do not quite feel the way they used to. In fact, most of them feel differently than they used to. And they are sitting on a mountain of possibilities. I knew this would happen.”

“So we are back to destroying the Burrow?”

“This has confirmed it for me, my love. Drusack is a founding father. He lived in Germany during the Second World War. He was a small boy watching as the German army led the Jews to camps. He saw the horrors and the pain and the chaos it all created. He was a German who suffered for no reason. No one ever thinks of the Germans who were just people of a country and had no say in what was done. But after the war everyone in Europe hated Germans. Everyone in the world hated them. His grandfather was a scientist, like him. He was forced to work for the Nazis. Vincent’s grandmother was taken to a concentration camp. She died there as a hostage, held as ransom to force his grandfather to work. No one ever thinks of the people of this great country who suffered under a madman and his dream team of torturers.” She sighed. “The point I am making is that if someone like Drusack can see the point in the Nazi propaganda, then it is time to destroy the Burrow and we need to do it fast.”

“Can you stay here with Fitz and the kids while we do this?”

She nodded. “This is the safest place for us. No one but Coop knew this place existed. Jack has managed to fool the staff into thinking he’s a playboy who likes to party and play with computers. The staff never leaves the house. Food and supplies are ordered and delivered. It’s an isolated castle in the middle of nowhere in Germany. No one is going to look for an ex-British spy and her grandkids here.”

“What about Fitz and the list of people from the Organization? What about his plane?”

“We landed in France and drove here. We didn't steal a car the way you children did, but we came in under the radar. The plane has gone home to Nevada. Besides, this house is a fortress with the most advanced security system I have ever seen. Jack spies on the help.”

“Don't call them that. It’s Este and—I didn't catch the butler’s name.”

Mom’s eyes sparkled with humor. “Oh, it’s your favorite name—James. Of course. A very English name. He’s been a butler for thirty years. His father was a butler and his father before that. They have served royalty and believe they still are.”

“Creepy. What don't you know?”

“Who you will pick out of the two gentlemen vying for your heart.”

I rolled my eyes. “I pick a vibrator who won’t punch me in the ribs and break them.”

She linked her arm in mine and nestled into me. “He must love you an awful lot to punch you.”

I started to laugh. “You sound like one of those abuse commercials. He only hits me because he loves me. Right?”

“Something like that, I suppose. But when a non-violent man is forced into a corner where he has to hit the woman he loves, it hurts him, a lot. Your father and I played this game once; it was terrible for him. I was fine at first, but he had a haunted look in his eyes for a very long time.”

“Oh, it hurt him.” I grinned, remembering the way Servario’s body had fallen like a huge tree in the forest. “It hurt him loads more than it hurt me.”

And that was the sad truth of the matter. I hadn’t wanted to hurt Servario, but I had done it to stay alive. My survival instincts were much more extreme than even Janice suspected. I couldn't even imagine how bad it might get, but I knew there was one thing that would trigger a full-scale meltdown in all reactors, and that was the safety of my kids being compromised.

Fifty shades of crimson

The view from the shower in my room was breathtaking. Across the narrow valley and above the adorable town of Gernsbach there was a castle, another one. Clearly they weren’t as rare here as they were in the US.

I assumed it was much more noticeable than ours as it was closer to town and above what appeared to be a vineyard, whereas we were located above a forest. The town was just visible to us, which wasn't a bad thing.

I leaned back and let the shower dump water on my head. It massaged my scalp and distracted my brain from contemplating the fact that I had chosen to spare her life at a cost to us all. It was the wrong choice but I had made it. Not that it mattered; if Janice even blinked the wrong way my mother would kill her. But the whole thing troubled me. I wasn't comfortable leaving her here with my kids, but I wasn't comfortable killing her because she was too smart. She couldn't come with us without being a weight and we couldn't take her to the Burrow.

At least I understood the reasoning for creating the Burrow first hand. It was a tricky decision to kill someone because they were a genius. I lowered myself gently to the bench and sighed, letting the water nearly drown me.

“Mommy!”

My eyes popped open to see Jules holding up her middle finger, not giving me the bird but showing me the obvious boo-boo she had sustained. I opened the door and let her waltz into my shower in her flippers and swimsuit with her goggles still on. “Uncle Fitz let you walk up the stairs in flippers?”

She shrugged. “He said I should take them off, but I said I could do it so he bet me five dollars I couldn't.”

“Did he?” I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed through the annoyance. “And what happened to your finger?”

“I dove in the pool to get a rock I was diving for and it scraped on the bottom.” She winced. “I think it needs a magic kiss.”

“Of course.” I laughed and nodded. “It certainly does.” I kissed the finger with an exaggerated
muah.

“Thanks.” Her bug eyes in her goggles didn't even take notice of the fact I was naked. Back home, between her and the cat, Ralph, my time was rarely my own. She turned and walked out of the shower but paused in the doorway. “I like Uncle Jack’s family’s house the best I think. Even if he said I have to call him Walter and he talks weird. He says he’s trying out for a movie and wants to get the part so we hafta call him Uncle Walter.”

“Is he? Well, we better help him then. And yes, it’s a pretty nice house.”

“Swanky!” she corrected me.

“When did you join the Rat Pack?”

“I didn't.” She cocked a dark eyebrow, saying it matter-of-factly and not knowing what the Rat Pack was. “It’s what Uncle Fitz says this house is—it’s swanky.” The way she said it with her missing teeth was about the greatest thing that had happened to me in a very long time. “How long are we staying here? I don't wanna miss hockey!”

“Not long. Just a short vacation.” It was a promise. I would have this cleared up in no time flat. She waved and flippered out of my bathroom. “Take those off on the stairs or you won’t be allowed in the pool!” I shouted after her.

It was met with a groan, but I knew she would take them off. She was my good girl.

Seeing her cleared up the one issue I was having. I was no longer conflicted. I knew exactly what to do.

I hurried and dressed, again pulling on some of Jack’s leisure clothing. My nipples would start to chafe if I didn't get a bra on them soon and I was missing wearing underwear. It was nice to have things like ass sweat contained to a single compartment, not just running amok in my pants.

If we did all of this right, we could be free of everything, and I might even find my way back to Boston. I hurried, which was still a snail’s pace, down the hall to find Coop. I needed to know if he had spoken to the boss man in a while. We hadn’t had much of CI on our side in ages. They had been keeping it low key with us. The brothel bust had been too loud and in the face of the public.

I tapped on a door and opened it, smiling the moment I saw Mitch lying back with his headphones on. His eyes were closed so I snuck in, about to scare him, when I saw a book on his iPad. My jaw dropped and my head started to shake, and I didn't know how to cope with the fact that my tween son was listening to
Fifty Shades of Grey.
The world halted and I found myself dragging my eyes from his chest where the iPad sat to the pillow over his groin. My nose wrinkled and I gagged a bit, stepping back slowly.

He popped open one eye, jumping when he saw me. “Mom, jeesh. What are you doing sneaking around?” He sat up, losing the pillow. My eyes shot to the ceiling as I stumbled over my words. “Oh, you know. I was—uhm—coming to see if you wanted something like hot cocoa.”

“Sure. You okay?” He gave me another weird look.

“Why are you reading that? It’s for adults and not
all
adults!” The words jumped from my mouth.

He scowled. “What? I’m not reading. I was listening to music.” His eyes lowered to the iPad as a big grin crossed his lips. “Oh that. I wasn't reading it, I swear. It’s downloaded from the cloud at the house. That's just the last book that was read I guess.”

My jaw dropped. I had enjoyed the book, certain aspects of it. Did I want my tween son to know that? No, no I did not. I licked my lips. “Delete it.”

His cheeks flushed. “Gross, Mom! You read that?”

I trembled but forced a nod. “I did.”

“Is it weird like Bran said it was?”

“Yup.” Sweet baby Jesus, save me. “Why did your friends read it?”

He shrugged. “Their moms were talking about it all the time and so they read it and said it was all people muttering and mumbling and then weird sex and then the guy was kinda mean. I don't know.”

I couldn't actually stop nodding. My head wouldn’t stop. “Right, well. It’s—uhm—yes. It’s weird. Some people like weird books.”

“Did you like it?”

I wrinkled my nose. “No.” It was a bold-faced lie, but I was not having this discussion.

The door opened behind me and the voice that spoke made my spine straighten. “Hey, what are you guys doing?”

Everything moved in slow motion as Mitch lifted his iPad, revealing the naughty book cover as his screen saver. Even his voice was deeper and slower. “Hey, Coop! Mom was just telling me about this book and how she didn't like it. Did you read it?” Mitch grinned, knowing he was being a little shit.

“Uh, no. No, I can’t say I read that one. I’m more of a Tom Clancy man myself, Mitch. I leave the girlie books for the girls. You should check out some Clancy or even a Koontz novel. Dean Koontz. Funny guy with scary books,” Coop answered with a totally awkward tone as he reached forward, gripping my arm. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Yup, be right there.” I nodded at Coop but pointed at Mitch. “Delete it.” He flinched at the way I growled.

“Okay, I don't like girlie crap anyway.” His cheeks were bright red and his mood soured, but I could still see a little humor toying with his lips as I left the room and closed the door.

I covered my face and moaned. “He had the book and a pillow over his—I thought he was—oh God!”

Coop wrapped himself around me, hugging me tightly. “Yeah, wow. Mommy porn on the iPad. That's a new screw-you form of technology, literally.”

“What is the cloud?” I asked desperately.

He shook his head. “I don't think anyone understands the cloud. Well, I guess Jack does. I don't. Luce for sure doesn't. It’s handy when it comes to music.”

I groaned. “Oh my God. He’s getting to that age, isn’t he? The one where I have to knock and wait for him to answer.”

He pulled me back, giving me a grave look. “Uh, yeah. Dude. You can’t just walk in. He might be yanking his own chain; he’s old enough. I did it when I was his age.”

“Oh my God.” My heart broke and my stomach sank. The impact of it all made my broken ribs hurt more.

“What? It’s fun. Boys discover it and then it’s like years of entertainment.” Coop chuckled, making his handsome face light up. “Calm down. He’s a good kid. Trust me. I can tell when kids are assholes. I am very good with them.”

My broken heart didn't recover from that. Coop was very good with kids. It made me see that he needed to have his own one day. “I have a plan for Janice,” I blurted out, maybe too loud. I just desperately needed a new subject.

He gave me a look. “So you are coming out of the haze of foolishness?”

“Yeah. But we need Servario.”

He gave me a long sigh and an even longer blink.

“I need to talk to him. I need him to get me something.”

“Really?”

“Yup.” I nodded. “It will fix the whole thing.”

“The whole thing?” He didn't believe me.

“The whole thing with Janice. The rest is going to involve terrorism and violence. But I believe we can solve it without hurting her.”

He cocked an eyebrow and pursed his lips. “One condition.”

“Whatever you want.” I nodded.

He bent down and lifted me over his shoulder, carrying me down the hallway. I didn't squirm. I couldn't breathe with the broken rib digging into my side. I tried to gasp and tell him that he had to put me down, but he didn't hear me. He walked me to a room and laid me down on the bed. I coughed, clutching to my side and fighting the tears threatening to spurt from my eyes.

“What?” He winced. “Oh shit, the rib! I totally forgot!” He dropped to his knees and buried his face in his hands. “I am so sorry, Evie.” He ran his hands through his hair.

“I’m okay.” I rasped like I was dying.

He crawled up onto the bed and wrapped himself gingerly around me. “The one thing I want you to promise is that you will be straightforward with me. I don't want to be second fiddle. Deal?”

“Okay,” I nodded and answered breathlessly.

He leaned forward, brushing his lips softly on mine. “Let me get some painkillers and we can alleviate some of that pain for you while you tell me about this brilliant plan of yours.”

I lifted a thumb, really not wanting to speak again.

“You really are a hot mess.” He shook his head and left to get meds. When he was gone I tried really hard not to rehearse the breakup speech I had planned.