CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Over the next month, Lachlan begins compiling research.
He picks up several new terms quickly enough, though he’s nowhere close to an expert.
What he really needs is a scientist capable of reading this material and reducing it into something useful in under five sentences.
He briefly considers asking Jolene for help before ultimately deciding against it, without examining too closely why.
Mimi turns six years old and feels the new age keenly.
She starts asking for clothes of her own choosing. She’s watching people closely and seems to be adapting the parts of their style she likes into something of her own. Whenever she asks for these new things, she’ll say, ‘I’m six now. I need them,’ expectantly.
Lachlan would give almost anything to take her out shopping.
He has a feeling she’d simply combust with joy to go on a little shopping spree, but that’s not on the horizon, so he and Blaire bring the stores to her.
A room in the East Wing is transformed into a clothing and toy store for Mimi, filled with all kinds, including ugly ones, so she can declare them thusly.
Danya suggests using fake money, but Lachlan thinks real money would be better. Mimi takes to the concept with sharp interest and critique.
‘Why do I need paper to get nice things?’ she asks him.
‘Because that’s how the world works, babygirl.’
She narrows her eyes, head cocked suspiciously. ‘Why?’
‘It just is.’
‘But I could just take them,’ she points out.
‘Yes, you could, but that’s stealing.’
‘Is that bad?’
‘Well,’ he sighs, knows he probably isn’t the right person to teach Jessamine Penhalyx about morality. ‘It’s not really allowed.’
‘Why?’
‘Because in this world, you have to get the paper.’
‘I make my own paper?’
‘It has to be this kind.’
‘I’ll steal it then.’
‘Or you could just do some things, and I’ll give you the money.’
Her eyes light up. ‘Like a job?’
‘Yes, exactly.’
‘I do what you do then. Bodygarden. No, no. Shadow Sneak! How much paper I get for killing Farfar?’
‘No killing, baby.’
‘But you do. You kill for paper.’
‘Not for paper, for you and Jewel.’
‘Then you don’t care about the paper?’
‘No, not really. But it matters to the world, so you need to understand it.’
‘Why?’
‘Because people need money to eat.’
‘Why?’
‘Because someone decided it.’
‘I’ll kill them, then.’
‘Maybe I should get Bee to explain this,’ Lachlan chuckles. ‘I feel like I’m not doing a good job of it.’
‘No, you are. Daddy explains everything best.’ Mimi eyes the money and the beautiful selection of clothes on the rack. If she pushes even an inch, he’ll let her have it all. He is stupidly soft for her. ‘OK, I do jobs.’
‘I will do jobs.’
‘I will do many jobs and get all the money for Mimi Store.’
‘Perfect. What jobs would you like to do?’
She smiles. ‘Bang bang.’
Lachlan shouldn’t laugh, but he can’t help it. He pulls her onto his lap where they sit in the middle of the make-believe store and kisses her cheek.
‘No killing.’
Mimi huffs. ‘Daddy.’
‘Baby, you’re too little and killing is…’ Wrong? Bad? Evil? ‘Difficult.’
‘I wanna learn,’ she whispers honestly. ‘Be like Daddy.’
‘You’d have to be strong,’ he tells her as they look out at all the clothes, the pink glittery walls, the life-sized checkout. Everything has a tag on it. A make-believe price. Racks and shelves and a little shopping cart nearby. ‘Daddy would have to teach you a lot of new things.’
‘I wanna learn,’ she says again, more serious.
‘Whatever you want.’
‘Daddy,’ she says, tone indicating a change in subject.
‘Yeah, sweetie?’
She looks at him with those big, dark blue eyes, head tilted curiously.
‘Who is my Momma?’
?
Lachlan remembers what Blaire managed to pull from the archives about Mimi’s mother during her brief time as head of household.
With Carrigan now in charge, he doubts he’d ever get near those records again, but one night in the kitchens, hidden by Zaitsev’s wraparound, he asks Blaire about it again.
‘I told you. Mimi’s mother was a surrogate Alistair Penhalyx paid to carry a child of his own seed to fruition and then sign over legally.’
‘That’s verbatim what you told me, yeah, but where did you learn that?’
‘The archives.’
‘What did it say? What was it? A report? A legal document?’
‘Mind your tone,’ she warns.
They’re not on good terms still.
He sighs roughly. ‘I’m asking you straight up. Please answer in kind.’
‘Do you know how careful I had to be?’
‘Just tell me.’
‘I saw Mimi’s birth certificate and the surrogacy agreement, nothing else.’
‘What was her name? The mother?’
‘Jane Doe.’
‘What else?’
‘I would have told you anything else.’
His expression sours somewhat. ‘Would you?’
‘What does that mean?’
‘I want to see the documents.’
‘Carrigan will tell him you asked, or worse, that you went looking.’
Lachlan looks to Danya, who groans.
?
They have exactly one minute forty-five seconds.
Zaitsev can only bubble the capture footage surveillance for that long. It’s the typical amount of time needed for Lachlan to get Jules safely into the East Wing after Jules has been out.
Lachlan and Danya move fast and silent into the West Wing, headed for the archive; a room in the back of Alistair’s office. He hates this place, but he wants to see these documents. The crackle of radio static is their go ahead.
The door unlocks when Danya uses the override and they head to the door on the far left, repeating the process. Inside this new room, the air is stale. There are hundreds of books on the shelves. Incredibly old, sitting behind protective glass. Ancient artefacts. Private treasures.
Lachlan has no interest in those.
He goes right for the files.
Old, hardcopy files in secure archival drawers.
Lachlan breaks in easily. ‘Here,’ he tells Danya.
Together, they scan through the drawers fast.
‘Got it,’ Danya tells Lachlan, pulling out a file. ‘Under one minute left.’
The file is labelled Infant Records.
Lachlan flips through the paper, scanning for Jane Doe or Jessamine Penhalyx. He ignores everything else, including a stunning amount of medical notes for Jules but the boy’s birth certificate is worth three seconds.
CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH
Child’s Full Name:
Julian Sael Penhalyx
Date of Birth:
November 11, 1999
Father’s Full Name:
Alistair Sael Penhalyx
Mother’s Full Name:
Isabel Basine Seravienne
He sees a death certificate for Isabel, but Lachlan has no time for that. He needs information about Mimi’s mother. She asked him, and he wants to have something concrete to tell her. He finds very little with her name on it. As Blaire said, a surrogacy agreement but no birth certificate.
PRIVATE GESTATIONAL SURROGACY AGREEMENT
Alistair Sael Penhalyx (“Intended Father”)
and
Jane Doe (“Gestational Carrier”)
It’s all boilerplate stuff beneath, nothing specific, no name but Jane Doe.
‘We need to go.’
‘One second.’
‘Lachlan,’ Danya warns, sing-song stressed.
‘Wait,’ he snaps quietly as his eyes fall on a full-page report.
UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD ANALYSIS REPORT
BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE REGISTRY
Collection Date: 29 August 2012
Sample Type: Umbilical Cord Blood
Infant Record: PENHALYX, J. C.
Processing Authority: Helixx Biosciences - Genetic Research Division
Maternal Sample: Type PN-A / Rh+
Adrenergic Analogues: Severely Elevated
Electrogenic Enzyme Expression: Hyperactive
Mycelial Symbiote Density: Dense
Paternal Sample: Type PN-A / Rh+
Adrenergic Analogues: Moderate
Electrogenic Enzyme Expression: Stable
Mycelial Symbiote Density: Low-Moderate
NEONATAL SAMPLE ANALYSIS
Infant Blood Type: PN-A / Rh+
Stem Cell Density: 4× maternal baseline
Adrenergic Analogues: Extreme
Electrogenic Enzyme Expression: Critical Amplification
Mycelial Symbiote Density: Saturated
Cellular Regeneration Catalysts: Accelerated
Peripheral Sensory Enhancement: Acute
COMPARATIVE OUTPUT INDEX
Maternal Baseline: 1.6
Paternal Baseline: 0.7
Infant Output Projection: 9.8
Result exceeds all recorded PN-class neonatal thresholds.
LAB NOTE:
Dual PN-class inheritance confirmed. Compound expression demonstrates cumulative amplification. Infant subject classified HIGH-YIELD BIOLOGICAL ASSET. Long-term observation strongly advised. Containment Forecast: Unstable
STORAGE RECORD
Cord Blood Specimen Preserved: HX BIOVAULT
Access Authorization: Helixx Biosciences
Lachlan filters through a few more pages but finds nothing relevant. Danya grabs the files, stuffs them back and re-locks the drawer before Lachlan can say another word, dragging him out quickly with not a single second to spare.
They’re just back in position when the radio crackles to signal surveillance is back up again. Danya calls Lachlan a foul name in his mother tongue, and Lachlan can’t help but think what a fucking waste of time that was.
His skull is pounding, pressure like he’s too deep underwater.
Fucking airless hell-hole of an office.
‘What did you find?’ Danya asks quietly, headed for the East Wing.
Lachlan sighs, disappointed. ‘Nothing.’
?
‘You’re avoiding him,’ Blaire says in early September.
They’re outside by the pool on one of Lachlan’s very few days off.
Jules, Savannah and Vasily are in the pool with Mimi playing together. Lachlan tries not to look at Jules for too long. It runs counter to all his instincts but he’s getting better at it lately.
‘I know.’
‘You’re avoiding everything, in fact.’
‘Please let’s not.’
‘I know the research is important to you, but—’
‘But what?’
Blaire never takes her necklace off even in water.
Lachlan loves the way it catches the sunlight, glinting against her skin.
Her black hair is longer than it ever has been, past her shoulders now, naturally wavy.
In a bathing suit, she is outrageously beautiful, but Lachlan has long since accepted that he sees her like a sister.
‘You hardly train him anymore.’
‘Danya knows more about CQC than anyone on earth.’
‘You’re spoiling Mimi, too.’
‘What?’
‘Not in that way. Not…’ Her tone softens. ‘Not like that, but you are. You’re warping her.’
Lachlan looks at Blaire, flooded with a sour mix of shame and anger. ‘The fuck did you just say to me?’