Chapter Twenty-Six
Erik marched into the brig and got exactly the greeting he expected when the guard on duty pointed a rifle at him.
“You can’t be here, sir.”
He’d been restricted from entering this area the moment Doctor Dietrich showed up at Black Bay. He wasn’t the only one banned, but his name topped that long list. Everyone knew that if he got within arm’s reach of the geneticist, she’d be dead before they could react.
“I just want to talk to her.”
“Not without clearance from the general.”
“Fine. Call the general. I’ll wait.” He leaned against the wall and stuffed his hands in his pockets to make himself look as nonthreatening as possible. Despite his efforts, the guard looked leery about taking his eyes off him for even a second.
Unsurprisingly, General Davies wanted to talk to him.
“What’s this about, son?”
“Sir, as much as I hate to say it, if anyone can help Jayla, it’s her. I just want to talk to her.” Jayla’s injury was his fault, and he needed to fix it. If that meant being in the same room with Doctor Dietrich and not killing her, so be it.
Erik heard the general exhale. “Fine. But you’re not going in there alone. Trust me, son. It’s too tempting. She’ll nettle you, believe me. It’s what she does.”
The general could have a full platoon accompany him if that’s what it took. He had his more violent urges locked down, and they would stay locked down for Jayla.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Kong walked through the door with a file in his hand, and Erik almost smiled. Erik wasn’t the biggest or the meanest on base, but when it came to Doctor Dietrich, he had the most hatred, so the general had sent the strongest to hold him back if needed.
“Hey, man.” They clapped their hands together, and Kong pulled him in for a quick back slap, then released him. “Ready to go see the Wicked Witch?”
Kong’s lip curled slightly. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” He looked to the guard. “Get a bucket of water ready, Tin Man, in case we need to melt a bitch.”
The guard chuckled. “On it, sir.”
“If he’s Tin Man, who am I? Scarecrow?”
“Nope.” Kong grinned at him. “You’re Toto. I’m Dorothy.”
Erik huffed a laugh, glad to have Kong with him.
Outside the door to Doctor Dietrich’s cell, Erik took a moment, rolling his head on his neck. He could do this.
Kong’s hand landed on his shoulder. “You’ve got this, man.”
“For Jayla.”
“For Jayla,” Kong repeated.
The guard unlocked the door, and they both stepped inside.
There she was, sitting on her bunk, reading, dressed in pale grey sweats.
Her hair was grayer now, and the lines on her face were more pronounced, but she hadn’t changed much since Legratia.
His creator. The closest thing he’d ever had to a mother. His torturer.
“I hope you’ve brought more books,” she said without looking up from the page she was reading. “I’ve already read this one twice.”
Erik hadn’t been outside that day she’d first arrived at Black Bay, but he’d heard the story from some of the others about how she rolled up, acting like a queen.
She’d lost everything, her freedom, her wealth, her fucked up little science projects, but even after all this time in the brig, she hadn’t lost that air of superiority that clung to her.
Kong let out one of his more aggressive rumbles, and her head snapped up. Her eyes landed on Erik and held. Was that happiness he saw on her face? Did she not realize he could snap her neck in a heartbeat and walk away without a shred of remorse?
He turned his head slightly so she got the full impact of his scars. Her lips pinched. “Have you come to discuss the graft? I’ll –”
“The hybrids who can’t heal,” Erik said, cutting her off. “You tried to wake the dormant gene. Tell me about that.”
Doctor Dietrich sat up straighter, her eyes sharpening. “Something’s happened. Tell me what.”
Kong handed over the file. “Single GSW. The bullet was removed, but significant damage to the L1, L2 vertebrae.”
“Paraplegia,” Doctor Dietrich uttered as she scanned the file and nodded. “Who?”
“Does it matter? We’re all just numbers to you anyway.”
She looked at him, her eyes lingering on his scars. “No, I suppose it doesn’t.” She stood and began to pace the small area available to her.
Erik’s hands clenched into fists. Controlling his urge for vengeance was harder than he thought it would be.
It would be so easy to kill her right now.
Kong was strong, fast despite his size, but Erik was faster.
She was a monster. He wore the proof of her atrocities on his face and tattooed on his thighs.
She’d killed so many of them, tortured the survivors…
“We never managed to permanently wake the gene in those test subjects, but we had limited success with fetal-derived cells. Enough to possibly repair vertebral and local spine damage.”
“Fetal cells?” Kong asked. “Where the hell would we even get that?”
Erik could see it on Doctor Dietrich’s face. She knew something, but was hesitating. His lip curled with a snarl, and he stepped forward threateningly. “What are you holding back?”
She retreated until the bed stopped her, and she fell back onto it. The words came in a rush. “There’s a storage facility. I kept it separate from Legratia in case something ever happened. It was my insurance policy.”
Kong let out an aggressive sound. “Give us the address. Now.”
She gave it up, and Kong pulled out his phone to enter it.
“And these cells we need?” Erik asked. “They’re there?”
“Yes. Cryopreserved and labeled with each test subject’s alpha-numeric ID, so autologous, less chance of rejection.”
They might be able to give Jayla back her legs. “We need the details of the facility. Pass codes, security measures, layout; everything.”
Kong recorded her as the doctor rattled them off, as well as the procedures they’d need to follow to safely remove and transport the cells.
It looked like Doctor Dietrich got to live a little longer. When they were finished, Erik turned for the door. “Thanks, Mom,” he uttered, his voice dripping with derision.
“It’s true, you know.”
Erik looked back at her, and she added, “In your case, it’s true.”
“Excuse me?” He had to be misunderstanding.
“Holy shit fuck,” Kong uttered under his breath.
“You. My first success.” Doctor Dietrich stood with a look of pride. “You were created from a combination of my genetic material and that of a brilliant tactician. I carried you in my womb. Birthed you, and watched you take your first breath.”
Erik felt like he’d been kicked in the solar plexus. He stared at her, scrutinizing her face, wanting it to be a lie, but he could see that it wasn’t.
Erik let out a humorless laugh and motioned to his face. “You realize that only makes this worse?”
She dropped back down onto the bed, like her knees could no longer support her. “I know.” She stared at her hands. “I was never meant to be a mother.”
“On that we agree.”
“I wasn’t the nurturing type.”
“No argument here,” Kong chimed in.
“But I love you all.” When Kong scoffed, she added, “In my own way. When I first came here, I was so sure…” For a moment, her eyes looked haunted before she shook it off.
“Since then, I’ve had time to reflect.” Resolve showed on her face.
“That’s why I’ll help you with this. This, and with your facial reconstruction, and anything else you need. ”
“And you think that’ll buy you, what? Redemption?”
“Not redemption. Atonement.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
Erik left the cell with Kong right behind him. As soon as the door shut, he said, “We need to brief the general, put together a team.”
“Sure, yeah, okay.” Kong looked him up and down. “Are we going to talk about the fact that you’re the spawn of fucking Satan?”
“No.” Erik didn’t even want to think about it.
Right now, he just wanted to get back to Chloe and pretend he never heard that confession.
He’d never cared to know who’d donated their cells to his creation, and could have gone the rest of his life without knowing. Especially now that he knew it was her.
“Okay. Tomorrow then?”
Fucking Kong.