Chapter 29
PRIORITIES AND PLANS
“Any questions?” Kail asks, stony faced.
Clearly, he is expecting the worst of the Weirdos, braced for curses or shock. It cannot be easy to stand there like that and know you do not fit into their idea of a human. I rise from my armchair and go to him, to stand next to him and face our audience.
I sneak my fingers beneath his and he accepts my hand without words, engulfs it in his, presses on mine.
His solid presence brushes tranquility through me.
Esau jolts forward and makes a dismissive gesture. “So this is why we are here. We’ve finally found one of the weird things, and we’re talking to it?” He looks at Molly and Ron. “I thought we wanted to rid ourselves of this kind of thing?”
They both seem dumbfounded, though Molly scowls and opens her mouth.
Oh god. This is my cue. I burst out talking before Kail can figure out words. “Hey! Kail is human underneath whatever they did to him! And it is they, Esau. Not him. He’s not at fault here.”
“Let them speak, please, Esau, all of us. Let them,” Molly says in an even tone.
Disgruntled, still, he reclines. “I’m listening.”
“Can I ask,” Melody begins, “though it seems self-evident. You sir, Kail, you are capable of independent thought, and are you truly made of various parts?”
His chest rises and falls—calming himself, I guess—before he answers.
“I am made of parts, though I don’t recall the process.
Somewhere like your institute made me. Yes, I can think…
I think.” Then he smiles. I’m glancing from Kail to this motley crowd of suspicious investigators and back again, and that smile certainly disarms Melody, for she smiles in return.
Esau relaxes, nods.
“Although what I said stands, since I won’t risk my job by participating in any criminal act, those I can fix.” She jerks her chin toward Kail. “I can remove the staples and sutures, if you want. I’ll get my kit from the car when we’re all decided on what we’re doing.” Melody folds her arms.
Good. I wanted to ask her this.
“Kail’s memory isn’t sorted out properly yet. We should be forgiving, for that reason alone. It’s even possible our institute created you?” I look up at him. “Sorry. It’s best to be truthful.”
He grunts. “I know you’re all wanting to blame the Large Hadron Collider, so there is this.
One of my memories is of my handler blaming that for a weird effect on the forest we walked through, and I got the impression there was more to it than that.
He’s gone, and I don’t know where, but this may interest you.
” Kail pulls the black phone from his pants pocket.
“It’s lost its charge, and I couldn’t get into most of the files.
I was hoping someone could do that. So. Here it is. ”
He lets go of my hand and advances to place the phone on the table and slide it to the middle.
Rasmus brightens and leans in to scoop it up. “My realm.” He rotates the phone, peering at the ports, unclips the back and checks in there before clipping it back together. “That’s some strange foreign manufacture. The port is different, so are some of the other internal parts. I can try, though.”
He checks on us all, and we are staring, waiting.
“We okay with me doing this?”
“Sure.” Kail backs away, takes my hand, and, kisses the back. “In case you’re wondering. I’m doing this, helping you all, because of Hailey. Nobody hurts her and gets away with it. Not Clay, not anyone.”
“Good to know,” Esau says. “I have my own reasons to hate Clay Skinner, and if the institute is somehow in league with the LHC corporation? Bam. I’m psyched.
I’ll walk over molten Lego to get that man in jail.
” He makes a hissing noise through his teeth.
“Where the hell do we think they got the bodies to make you?”
He’s hit on the biggest question there.
Melody answers first. “If they’ve been creating these frankenstructs, or doing research on it at the institute, they have to be using cryonics, and we know that’s already established there, legally. It’d be easy to add some more bodies. If you had absolute control inside that building.”
“They what?” I did not know this. “Cryonics? They’re doing it legally?”
“Yep.” Ron sniffs, drums the armrest of his chair. “Some of us oldies who have a few million and who fancy living on in the future are stored there. They’re hoping to be revived. Supposed to be less than ten people, last I heard. Expensive thing to do.”
“Welp,” Rasmus drawls, looking up from the phone that he has again dismantled and is peering into, “it isn’t them that you’re made of, Kail.”
“True. I’m young.” He lifts his opposite arm, blinks, seems frozen in thought. “I don’t know why or when memories get triggered but one just arrived. I think I was in the military.” His Adams apple moves. “I just remembered the day I died in a helicopter crash.”
Oh noes. I wrap my other hand around his arm and whisper, “You okay?”
“I will be.” His face has gone pale, but the color returns as he speaks. He pats my hand. “I am okay.”
“Wow. You got me in the feels there, Kail.” Esau cups his hands over his face, hides for a moment, then lets them fall.
“My brother was a marine. He died last year. In action, overseas. Fuck me, though…if they’re using guys like him and…
you, for this, without asking.” His jaw works.
“No words. No fucking words. We need to stop this.”
“Aye. We do. We have to help stop this happening.” Rasmus nods then everyone joins in. Even me.
The consensus shakes me. We are in agreement. This is what Kail and I wished for.
“Ahem.” Molly interrupts this quiet swell of harmony.
These people. I’m so glad I could meet them all.
“We need plans. What and how and who and all that,” she continues. “Rasmus, you have the phone to explore. That is super important. It could hold some info that will give us Clay’s liver on a platter.”
“Yup.” Rasmus taps the phone. “One addition, before I forget. I recall there was mention of a cache your dad left you, Miss Hailey?”
“Yes. Something I don’t remember him telling me about.”
“It could be on your computer.”
I shake my head slowly. “He never touched mine. Ever. Except, you know, when I was a teenager.”
“Okay. If so…” He sits thinking. “What about your old email addresses? Ones he might’ve known the passwords to that you don’t use now.”
“If they still exist then yes. I had one, but aren’t those deleted by the email provider after a while?”
“Not if your dad kept them alive. Check the draft emails in there. The cache could be in there in the drafts folder. Never sent but you can read them.”
Interesting. “Sure.” I guess it is possible, if a roundabout way of doing this. What if I never looked? But also, what if he knew how curious I get, banked on that, and he wanted a really secret method? “Okay. I will check there. I’ll have to find the old password. Thanks, Rasmus.”
“If you need any help with that, just say. Here’s another idea for a plan, because if Clay Skinner is after you, Hailey, he has the manpower to surveil you.”
“They’re spread out up in the hills, right now,” Ron says. “The institute doesn’t have an army.”
“Not forever, though, Ron. My idea—we do a switch and let these two stay at different houses, switch the vehicles used, if that’s possible. Is that possible, Ron?”
“Hey. I don’t want you all in danger. We…” I squeeze Kail’s hand. “…know it could be. It’s our choice.”
“Ours, too,” Esau says, head down, then he raises it and studies me. “I’m in. Like I said, reasons. Clay deserves retribution. As for this being dangerous, I don’t think he will act while we are near you. That man likes to hide his felonies behind a company wall.”
I wonder at Esau’s reasons, because something bad must have happened. I am not surprised. Clay is an a’hole of the highest order.
“So, one is the phone. Two.” Ron counts on his fingers.
“Rotate houses and cars to avoid detection. And Kail’s clothes?
A hoodie is an easy disguise we can use to throw them.
We can loan the Laramies’ car to you and Kail.
We’ve been keeping it in order and driving it once a week. You can stay with us, when needed.”
“Me too.”
“Me.”
“And me.” Esau, Melody, and Rasmus chip in.
“Plan three. I’ll look for signs of bodies coming in through the port,” Rasmus adds. “I’ll do some subtle fishing in the port admin’s toing and froing. Their website is full of holes. And trucks, too.”
“Long as it is subtle.” Ron nods. “You two can stay here, tonight, and we’ll drive your Chevy home. Arrange other accommodation as you need it.”
Holy cow. The plans they’re all making on the fly.
“Thank you.” Kail dips his head. “This sounds good.”
“Yes.” I smile up at him.
“Do we have a four?” Molly asks. “We done? We are?”
“I’ll go get my staple remover and kit.” Melody stands. “Just anywhere lower down, any stitches that need snipping, we won’t be doing those.” She actually blushes as she indicates Kail’s pants.
“That’s okay. Hailey can do those.”
Now I’m blushing. I cannot recall if any down there need removal. His cock? Ohmigod. Melody is not going there anyway.
“Hell, man.” Esau stands up too and stretches. “You need any pulled outta your ass, I can volunteer. Hailey don’t want that job.”
Kail chuckles. “Be careful there. I might say yes.”
“Mr. Esau Wrath, you are terrible.” I mock frown at him.
His belly laugh becomes a chorus as everyone starts laughing. It lights a soft glow in my chest, and I have to clamp down on my emotions or I will start tearing up.
Finally, I feel we have a chance of succeeding.
Kail goes behind me and wraps me up in a bear hug, then clasps his hands over mine at my waist. When I breathe, his arms move, as does his chin where he rests it on my head. Standing together like this feels right.
“Thank you so much, all of you,” I tell them, and I pray I haven’t jinxed us by thinking we have a chance.