Chapter 19 Mattie
MATTIE
With eight enhanced soldiers carrying furniture through the street like the world's most intimidating moving crew, the procession back to the lab was even more surreal than the walk to the debris pile had been.
It wasn't that the items were heavy and required enhanced strength to carry, but extra hands were needed.
Number One had the carved headboard balanced on his shoulder, Two and Three carried a dresser between them, and the remaining five had distributed the other pieces Mattie had selected: a nightstand with a cracked top, a writing desk with broken legs, two wrought-iron lamps without shades, and a gilded frame mirror with missing corners.
It was more than she'd intended to take, but she couldn't bring herself to leave behind all that she'd found to be either thrown away or taken by other scavengers.
By the time they reached the lab building, Mattie's problematic leg was protesting, but she paid it no attention. She was happy and excited and couldn't wait to arrange the pieces in her and Dimitri's room.
Most of all, though, she was grateful to the Eight who had made the trip to the pile of treasures possible and were now carrying her loot and keeping her safe.
Life was indeed stranger than fiction.
When Dimitri opened the door and they entered the lab, Petrov looked up, his eyebrows climbing toward his hairline as the enhanced soldiers walked in with her stuff.
"What is all this?" He set down the beaker he'd been holding and stared at the parade of furniture.
"I thought you were planning to go to the bar," Dimitri said.
"I still am, but I had to finish this first." He pointed at the beaker. "What are you going to do with all that junk? Are you planning to turn into a carpenter now? Open a furniture restoration business?"
Mattie didn't appreciate him referring to her treasures as junk, and she was perfectly capable of fixing the items herself, provided that she could get the proper tools and materials.
"I'm going to do the restoration myself," she said.
It had been on the tip of her tongue to say that she didn't have much to do in the lab anyway, but Dave was standing right there, all eight of him, and he was supposed to believe that her work was essential to the lab's operations.
"It's not like I have anything to do or anywhere to go after my workday is done," she added. "Might as well have a project."
The eight bodies turned to look at her in unison, a synchronized movement that still made her skin prickle with unease.
"You have no friends other than these two scientists?" Number One asked.
Mattie hesitated. It was a strangely personal question, the kind she wouldn't have expected from Dave. But then again, the Eight had been full of surprises lately.
"I have friends in the hotel," she said. "My former roommates. But I don't..." She caught herself before she could finish the sentence.
She couldn't tell him that she didn't feel safe leaving the lab because she was afraid of running into Tarik and his friends.
"You don't what?" Number One prompted.
"I'm afraid to leave the lab," she admitted.
"Why are you afraid?"
The question hung in the air, simple and direct.
Did Dave even understand fear the way humans did? Or the way regular immortals did?
She didn't know much about the eight remaining enhanced soldiers other than that they had formed a unified consciousness and needed carefully calibrated drugs to keep from going insane.
To her, Dave seemed like an eight-bodied computer.
"Women aren't safe here," she said carefully. "No one protects us from those who wish to harm us."
All eight pairs of eyes focused on her with uncomfortable intensity.
"Did anyone harm you?" Number One asked.
Mattie's throat tightened. She glanced at Dimitri, who had gone very still, his expression warning her to be careful. But what was she supposed to say? Dave had asked a direct question, and lying to him felt both futile and dangerous.
"Yes," she whispered.
"Who did that?"
"It doesn't matter." The words came out too quickly, too defensively. "He didn't get far. Dimitri stopped him before—"
She broke off, realizing too late what she'd just revealed.
How could a human prevent an immortal from doing anything he wanted?
The eight bodies shifted, turning their attention to Dimitri with predatory focus.
"How did you stop the immortal?" Number One asked, his voice deceptively calm.
Dimitri's jaw tightened. Mattie could see him calculating, trying to find an explanation that wouldn't expose them both.
"It was in the bar," he said. "In the hotel. There were other immortals there who told the guy to stop harassing the barmaid. I didn't have to do much."
It was a reasonable lie, delivered smoothly enough that it might have fooled anyone else, just not Dave.
"That is not what happened," Number One said.
"It is—"
"Tell us what really happened."
The command was spoken with the resonance of compulsion, and Mattie felt the pressure in her mind.
"Dimitri hit him with a syringe full of toxin.
" The words were spilling from her lips before she could stop herself.
"But it didn't knock him out, and he attacked Dimitri.
The other immortals pulled him off and told him that Lord Navuh would be angry if he killed the scientist in charge of the enhancement program.
" She clamped her hand over her mouth, fear flooding through her as she realized what she'd done.
What would Dave do now that she'd told him that Dimitri had attacked an immortal?
Tears burned in her eyes, blurring her vision. She looked at Dimitri and saw the same fear reflected in his face.
"Why are you crying?" Number One asked.
The question was so incongruous, so utterly divorced from the gravity of the situation, that Mattie let out a choked laugh that was more sob than humor.
"Because I just told you that Dimitri attacked an immortal. You forced it out of me with that thing that you do. It's not fair." She looked at Dimitri, guilt constricting her throat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
"Dimitri did the right thing."
Mattie blinked and turned to look at Number One. "What?"
"Dimitri protected you," Number One said matter-of-factly. "That was the correct action. It was fortunate that he had something to defend you with. A syringe, you said?"
Mattie nodded because she had no choice.
All Dave's bodies turned to Dimitri. "What was in that syringe?"
"A neurotoxin. I needed a weapon to defend Mattie, and that was the only thing I could make. It wouldn't have killed him. That wasn't my intention. I just wanted something that could incapacitate an immortal long enough for Mattie to escape."
"Why did it fail?"
"It wasn't strong enough. I miscalculated."
Eight heads tilted to the side. "That is not like you, Dimitri. How could you make such a mistake?"
Mattie was stunned by the direction in which the talk was going. Dave wasn't mad at Dimitri for creating a weapon that could knock out an immortal. He seemed troubled that Dimitri hadn't made it strong enough.
"I didn't have time to perfect the formula or anyone to test it on."
"Did you perfect it since?" Number One asked.
"I made it stronger," Dimitri admitted.
"Will it work on me?"
Dimitri shook his head. "I don't think so. You are enhanced. It will take much more to knock you out."
"That is good to know." Dave's eight pairs of eyes regarded Dimitri with curiosity. "You don't consider me a threat to the one you love."
"I don't."
"That is good to know as well." Dave's eight pairs of eyes turned to Mattie. "You are lovely, for a human, that is. But we have transcended such base urges. We don't feel the need to procreate."
It was freaky, but kind of sweet that Dave thought they needed to apologize for not being attracted to her. She'd known that on an instinctual level but hearing it stated as a fact was reassuring.
"You are valuable to the enhancement program." Number One turned back to Dimitri. "And it undermines the program if you can't concentrate on your work because you worry about Mattie."
One of the bodies, Number Four, Mattie thought, though she still had trouble remembering who was who, reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. It was a standard Brotherhood-issue device, the kind every immortal warrior carried. He held it out to her. "Take this."
None of the service staff had phones. Only those in upper management had them.
She stared at it like it was a live grenade. "I don't understand."
"This is so you call us if you need help," Number One said, and for a moment, it seemed like all eight bodies were converging on her. "If anyone threatens you again, you just press and hold this button." He pointed to a key on the phone's surface. "We will come."
Mattie's hand trembled as she reached out and took the phone. It was heavier than she expected, solid and warm from being carried in Number Four's pocket.
"Each of us has a phone, but we only need one," Number One said. "Now you have one as well. You will use it when you need it." It was a command, not a request.
"I will."
"Good," Number One said. "Now. What was the name of the one who attacked you?"
The way he said it sent a chill down Mattie's spine. She was reminded that the Eight who were Dave weren't her friendly protectors but a deadly weapon.
"What are you going to do to him?"
"That is none of your concern. His name."
She felt his mental power pressing against her mind, and the name burst out of her lips. "Tarik. That was what his friends called him."
"Describe him to us."
Mattie looked at Dimitri, desperate for guidance.
"Tell him," Dimitri said quietly. "Resistance is futile."
"He's tall, has dark hair, and a lot of bulging muscles, but that could describe most of the immortal warriors on this island. His name doesn't sound unique either. He usually hangs out with four other immortals, but that's also not unusual. I don't want you to get the wrong man."