Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
“Audra, it’s safe to come up for air, now.”
Adam’s deep voice was muffled through the flannel blanket she’d hidden under for the duration of the trip. It had been overly warm, yet comforting, under the blanket, but she threw it off at his words, relieved to breathe fresher air.
He cut the engine and exited the car, flipping the seat up and leaning in. His expression bordered on sheepish. “For what it’s worth, you’re not the first woman I’ve had to smuggle like this.”
“It was safer this way.” Audra smiled back. “Besides, the blanket smells like campfire, bourbon, and flowers.”
Luann leaned in on the other side. “Let’s get you introduced to the others.”
There were others? Where were they? Audra looked around as Adam helped her out of the car while Luann grabbed the bag with the contents of Audra’s life.
They were in some sort of underground parking garage.
Small and empty but for two other cars at the other end.
Her heart jumped with a sting of fear. Was she wrong to have trusted these two?
Did they have nefarious intentions and she’d just walked into a trap?
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re finally here.” Another man’s voice jerked her attention to an opening in the wall. A robust figure sporting a white lab coat and a shock of mad-scientist white hair walked toward them, rubbing his palms together. If he mwah-ha-ha’d, Audra was going to bolt.
Instead, he smiled at her, his expression gentle and friendly.
Thoughts of Santa Claus bombarded her, even though this man was clean-shaven and was maybe in his early fifties.
He stopped in front of her and adjusted his rimless glasses.
Then clasped his hands together again, his smile wide and jubilant.
“Our Charlie is going to be so happy to see you.”
“You mean Dennis, Doc.” Adam turned to Audra to make introductions. “Audra, this is Doc Farrow. This is his Bat Cave, and we all live here with him. He’s the reason we know your brother.”
“Forgive an old man, my dear. We only just learned about Char—er, Dennis’s secret identity. And about you.” Doc lifted her hands in his. “Welcome to our home. Now. let’s get you reunited with your brother.”
She pulled her hands back and clasped them together at her waist. If these three were truly friends of Dennis’s, then they were now possibly in danger, like she was.
She’d had a whole car ride to this secret location to contemplate how Gage had found her so quickly after she’d arrived at the motel.
He’d joked about a voice in his head, and she’d assumed it was related to whoever had him wired for sound and visuals.
She’d been so careful to avoid security cameras during her week of crisscrossing the country.
So guarded with personal information. Had even used the fake ID she’d secured years ago for this very reason.
And no one had ever touched her go-bag or the items in it but her.
Yet all that caution had been worthless the moment Gage had walked into her motel room.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Doc. I’m anxious to see Dennis, but I should go and meet with him somewhere else. It’s not safe for me to be here. I think I have a tracker on me or something.”
Adam and Luann tensed, but Doc merely canted his head, his expression infinitely patient. “And why do you think this, dear?”
“Well, for all my paranoia and precautions, my position was still located. And it didn’t take long. Something has been compromised, and I don’t want to put all of you at risk.”
Doc chuckled at that, turning to put an arm around her shoulders as if in solidarity, and urged her toward the entryway. “Audra, my dear, this bunker was built by my great-great-great-grandfather to withstand germ warfare and nuclear winter. Whoever is hunting you, you’re safest with us.”
The four of them walked down a concrete set of stairs several stories deep into the earth.
Doc spent the time explaining the history of his family’s shelter, his medical experience rehabilitating cybernetic individuals, and the hydroponic foods business which served as a front to their actual mission to improve the lives of cyborgs.
Audra could only put one foot in front of the other and fight to keep her jaw from hitting the floor.
Doc chatted as easily as if they were old friends talking about the weather.
But in truth, he told her things that could get him lynched by an angry mob for being a cyborg sympathizer at the very least, or invaded by an army for being an insurgent at worst. When they reached the bottom and stopped at a bank-vault level metal doorway, she came clean.
“Doc, that’s fascinating, and I admire everything you’ve accomplished. But telling me all this could put you all at risk. I work for the Pentagon and this information in the wrong hands is dangerous.”
He paused, his hand on the hi-tech keypad and smiled at her, no ounce of regret or worry in his expression.
In fact, his eyes held a mischievous glint.
“I know. But I also know a few more things you don’t.
Now, when you see Char-er, Dennis, don’t be shocked by his appearance.
Let’s get you reunited with your brother. ”
The door opened on a whoosh of air that filled their nostrils with the warm aroma of fried dough and cinnamon. Audra had never smelled anything more welcoming, with the exception of Gage.
“Sweet baby Jesus, David made churros.” Adam practically moaned behind her. “Doc, if you don’t marry him soon, I will.”
Luann chuckled. “Eve might have something to say about that.”
“She’d understand.” Adam pushed past them and across the threshold, raising his voice to be heard. “David, I love you marry me.”
“You only love me for my churros, pendejo.” A laughing voice could be heard off in the distance—just how large was this area? “Besides, you’re not my type.”
Doc and Luann snickered at some private joke, and ushered Audra through the door. Once on the other side, Audra’s jaw dropped again.
An underground arena larger than a football field spread out before them like a lush garden utopia, the ceiling a domed replica of the sky, it’s simulated noonday sun beaming warmth and light down on them.
Hydroponic towers and trellises covered nearly every inch, carving out the perimeters of open-aired communal rooms furnished with minimalist pieces in watery colors for a casual, relaxed atmosphere.
Above the sound of conversation was the trickle of water features and the subtle buzz of the occasional bee.
The flicker of vibrant orange wings caught her eye. A butterfly flitted between flowers.
This bunker was its own sustainable eco-system, like a giant terrarium for its humans. It was not built to merely withstand and survive. It was intended for the occupants to thrive.
“Doc, this is amazing.” Audra struggled to take it all in.
Is this where Dennis had been all these years?
The constant niggling worry that he was okay evaporated immediately.
But where was he? She glanced around, trying to peer around corners and over taller shrubs to catch a glimpse of him as Doc steered her further into the bunker and toward what looked to be the kitchen area.
Adam leaned against the counter, his arms banded around a statuesque woman with auburn hair and a sultry laugh.
Two other men chatted with them. The shortest of the group was Hispanic with silver strands in his thick hair and a presence that equaled that of the taller men.
Next to him stood a man with a svelte runner’s physique and blondish hair.
He laughed at something Adam said, and the broad, politician’s smile stopped Audra in her tracks.
“What’s wrong, hon?” Luann hovered at her left, as if ready to protect her from an attack.
“That man.” Audra flinched when he noticed her and turned that same winning smile in her direction. “That man is supposed to be dead.”
That man was Everett Dean, founder and CEO of Preditech, the premier company responsible for and at the forefront of cybernetic systems. Preditech was the reason cyborgs even existed.
And Everett’s private jet had nose-planted into a field in northern Indiana two months ago.
His body had been assumed disintegrated and burned to ash with the plane, and his company had been swooped up by the Department of Cybernetic Oversight.
Luann threaded her arm around Audra’s and laughed. “Yep, he’s supposed to be dead. We all are.”
She pointed to the other woman as she steered Audra closer.
“That’s Eve, a former Preditech exec who supposedly died in an apartment fire.
This is David. He, Adam, and I are all cyborgs so we don’t really exist. You’ve met Doc.
And this”—she waved a hand toward a beautiful black-and-tan German Shepherd who leaned against Eve’s leg like he was glued there—“is Apollo, another cyborg stray. Doc rescues us and gives us a home.”
“Yes, but who really saved who?” Doc teased as he walked into David’s waiting arms and accepted a quick kiss.
Everyone greeted Audra like she was long lost family, all open smiles and good-natured teasing.
Their easy welcome was both wonderful, and suspicious.
Audra couldn’t remember a time she’d been this comfortable with anyone.
Her adopted family had been cold and critical.
Her life at the Pentagon had been restrained and competitive.
Only her brother had ever accepted her without expecting she prove herself, and she’d been ripped away from him when he was five.
Speaking of—
“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. But where is Dennis?”
“I’m here, Squeak.”
Her heart shot to her throat and she whirled around. If the man standing in front of her hadn’t known Dennis’s childhood nickname for her, she would have denied it could be her brother. In fact, she still might, the resemblance to the man she’d last seen over a decade ago was minimal.
Shorter than she remembered, but his posture was worse, his shoulders folding over and around like he was a giant human S in baggy, soiled rags.
What should have been dark blonde curls were dirty, matted clumps that reached past his shoulders and blended into the scruffy beard that covered most of his handsome face.
Only his blue eyes, deep like the mysterious waters of the ocean, were familiar, set in a face that had witnessed a lifetime of hardship even before these last ten years had piled the suffering of homelessness on him.
“Careful. You don’t want to get near me.” He smiled at her, and it was the only confirmation she needed. This was her brother. “I stink more than Mrs. Guthrie’s gerbil cage.”
“Dork.” She smiled back, but her lips quivered and tears watered her vision. She hiccupped. “I’d hug you even if you rolled in Catterson’s chicken coop.”
He opened his arms and she plunged in, wrapping around him and burying her face into his chest. He was skinny, his bones poking through the threadbare layers of his clothes.
And he smelled of dirt and stale body odor and refuse, but she didn’t care.
This was her brother. Her brother who she hadn’t seen or talked to for years.
Her only living family member, and more importantly, the only blood relation she had.
Their parents had died in a car accident.
They’d suffered a spree in foster care. Then she’d been adopted and he hadn’t.
Separated from each other before she turned eleven. Before she could do anything to stop the process or ensure he would still be part of her new life, even if distantly. Before she could make any hollow promises of protecting him.
Audra sobbed again, but this time for a reason that had nothing to do with her cancer.
Suffer breast cancer? Hell, her entire childhood had been a cancerous growth of misfortune trying its damndest to suck the life out of her, a tumor that had pushed out anything good and left only devastation in its wake until she was little more than an empty hull of a human being.
Until Dennis had found her.
He’d never shared what had happened to him after she’d been ripped from his clinging arms and driven across the country to a new home and a new family.
She’d been too afraid to ask, certain it would make her own miserable life look like a picnic.
When he’d asked her to do him a favor, she’d agreed before he could outline what that favor entailed.
Then she’d worked on that favor these last several years.
The micro-drive in her bag was the completion of it.
Audra would give it to him soon enough. But for now, she just wanted to hold her little brother a little while longer.