-1-
Grandad had strangely come to a new place with his grief. He’d sobered up and spent the rest of the day planning the funerals in elaborate detail even though it wasn’t clear if we were even going to get a chance to have one. I didn’t like to think about the funeral and what I’d have to do and how I’d be forced to make my grief so public.
I pass the day with Grandma Sara, helping her read diagrams
as she attempted to built a new battery for Luce. She was using some of Isaac’s
spare cybernetic parts and scraps she'd found.
We were all moving on eggshells as we figured out what happened next. Luce had left for the train station at the crack of dawn to wait for Haley. It was getting well into the evening and we hadn’t heard from him.
Grayson had taken to spending the day hiding in whatever little spots he could find by himself. He’d spend all day squished behind a curtain reading a book or staring at something on his tablet under the kitchen table. He didn’t even want to come out to eat.
Kenji had somehow managed to coax him out and they were sitting on the living room floor with a drawing tablet. Kenji had asked Grayson to draw what his life at home was like for him. He’d drawn a big gray square for their apartment with he and Haley on one side and Sara and Luce on the other side.
“You’ve a very talented artist. I like your details,” Kenji tells him looking at the drawing. “Why didn’t you draw your Dad’s tattoos?”
“Because they’re bad words and I’m not allowed to write those,” Grayson says. “Can I draw something new ?”
Kenji’s about to ask him another question about his picture when the front door opens and Luce rolls in with Isaac trailing behind him.
It’s just the two of them and Luce looks furious.
“Upstairs.” Luce snaps at Grayson.
“Where is--”
“I said upstairs. Now,” Luce barks.
Grayson’s eyes get wet and Kenji puts a steady hand on his back
“Come on. How would you like to see my office ?,” Kenji asks softly, walking him upstairs.
Grandma Sara stands from the table with her arms folded and Grandad comes out of the kitchen eating an apple.
“What happened ?,” Grandma Sara asks once Grayson is out of earshot
“He wasn’t on either of the trains. I talked to everyone who got off. No one had seen him,” Luce says. “He’s not answering his syn. It’s like he just disappeared. But Alex…he wouldn’t have just left.”
“What do you think, little brother ?,” Grandad asks bluntly. “Dead or missing ?”
My unflappable uncle falters for a moment before answering.
“I don’t know. I’m going to use my cybernetic system to hack into the Federation security grid to see if I can track him on CCTV--”
“Absolutely not.” Grandma Sara snaps. “If you overwork your system and blow your server we don’t have the backup ready. You’ll kill yourself. We can pull Twyla in. She should be in the Sprawl by now--”
“What is she going to do, Ma ?,”
“Colette has resources,” Grandma Sara tells him as she dials Twyla on her tablet.
The line picks up as a voice call and I can hear the buzzing of a large crowd in the background.
“Twyla ?,” Grandma Sara calls into the line when Twyla doesn’t offer a greeting.
“I’m here. Sorry,” Twyla answers. “I’m just processing a lot of information right now. I just got some intel that some of Rias’ ex-guards may have been in on this--”
“No shit. Twyla, listen to me.” Luce cuts in. “Haley went to the Sprawl to deal with a Maxwell issue and now he is missing—”
“What--”
“I need you to send me all the raw security footage from Ft. Perch Medical Center and the train station for the last two days--”
“Send you what ?,” she asks. “How exactly do you expect me to do that ?”
“Break into the hospital's server room. It’s either on premises or in a secure station nearby. You might have to go to the archive and steal blueprints to find it. Or bribe someone. Once you get in to the server, install a spider code to--”
“Can we back up a minute ? I don’t know how to do any of that--”
“She’s right. It’s too hi-tech,” Grandma Sara tells Luce. “It could take weeks. You need to work this low-tech, Twyla. Ask around. See if anyone has seen him--”
“Do you still want me to keep an eye out for Kenji--,”
“Yes, you’ll have to do both,” Grandma Sara tells her. “And we need to give you an update about Kenji…”
---
Nobody tells Grayson his dad is missing but he’d figured it out the minute he’d seen Luce’s face. Me, Grandma Sara, Kenji and even Luce were running a relay race of trying to console him.
He’d spent part of the next day hidden in the dog house
outside and thrown a tantrum when Luce pulled him out of it.
He’d then cried for 6 hour straight and
refused to eat dinner. I'd never seen him act so angry and I no idea where he found the energy.
Hotako had finally woken up one of his pediatric medical fellows who prescribed Grayson a low dose sedative. Then we’d all had to hold him down while the doctor sprayed it up his nose.
It was so awful.
I needed a drink.
Which is why I was knocking on the door to Isaac Prior’s attic room at two in the morning.
-2-
When he opens his door, his wearing just his boxers and his body was just as gorgeous as his stupid handsome face; broad shoulders, broad chest and an actual six-pack that tapered into a trim waist with a happy trail that I was trying really really hard not to gawk at. When he sees my face he quickly grabs a zip up hoodie from a nearby dresser and covers himself.
“Can I help you ?,” he coughs.
“I need a drink.”
He looks offended but then schools his features.
“I can make you coffee or tea--,” he responds stiffly.
“Don’t patronize me,” I tell him. “Cartel princess here. I’ve been around bodyguards my entire life. And I know you guys always have your little secret places where you smoke, drink and talk shit about your boss. Take me there.”
He gives me a reproachful look but doesn’t send me away.
“Meet me in front of the washroom in 10 minutes.”
I don’t have to be told twice. I go back into my room, slip on a pair of sandals over my leggings and tank top and tip toe my way outside to the detached washroom. Sure enough, Isaac is there and he’s holding two white ceramic mugs.
I follow behind him as we walk away from the house and towards what looks like a cross between an adult-sized sand pit and a sculpture garden. The space is backlit and dozens of white moths flutter around the lighting.
Issac sits on a marble bench in the middle of the sand pit and holds out the mug to me.
I sit next to him and take a tentative sip from the mug. The beverage inside is warm and sweet, with a slight cinnamon taste. It's good but it's got none of the burn I was craving.
“I would have preferred vodka--”
“It’s mulled mead,” he tells me. “There is no alcohol allowed on campus. None of the staff would disrespect the Washingtons by bringing it here. The mead is leftover from a beehive project some grad students are working on.”
“Seriously ? No booze?,”
“Yes,” he says and then shrugs.
I take another sip, the drink isn’t going to give me the loosey goosey floating feeling I was chasing but it was pretty damn good.
“So, what is this place ?,” I ask gesturing to the sand pit
“Mrs. Washington’s zen garden,” he says quietly. “Can’t you tell ?”
There’s almost something sarcastic in his voice, like he’s actually making fun of something the Other Washington’s did.
I inhale remembering what Kenji had said about the plants releasing serotonin but I don’t feel anything.
“Yeah, I think the whole zen thing might be bullshit.”
“It’s too loud out here for real mediation,” he continues. “With the crickets, moths and lights. When I really need to clear my head I go the Quiet. That is true silence.”
“Are you really going to make me ask what that is?”
He seems to think about this.
“You know... “ he says but I don’t. “Maybe you have a different term for it in the Sprawl. It’s what we call the places that were never resettled after the Serial Wars.”
“I guess we call that the desert ?”
“No, It’s bigger than that and….they’re more intact,” he explains. “It’s not places that were destroyed by the bombs but places that were evacuated and never resettled. I went there as security for some students who were trying to identify some of the bodies for a project.”
“Bodies ? They’re still bodies out there ?”
“Not many. But there were some people who never left or got lost when the evacuation order came in. Their families never got closure and the project was trying to provide that. The radiation only stared to wear off a few years ago.” he explains. “You wouldn’t believe how big it is out there. This country used to be so big before the war destroyed it and we were all stuffed into sprawls and megacities—”
“Not you,” I point out but he lets it pass.
“I don’t think I’d ever seen real human destruction that close until I saw the aftermath leftover in the Quiet.”
“I thought you were a soldier.”
“I was.”
“Can I ask how you lost your fingers ?”
He stretches the cybernetic digits.
“You have to understand that I don’t have family and went to Arkham on a special scholarship program. The Washingtons
even offered to hire me and cover my college courses when I turned 18 but I'd been given handouts my whole life and wanted to do something on
my own. So, I joined the UAF. Figured I’d be doing desk work on a base.
Turns out the UAF hires out soldiers to fight other country’s fights. They don’t send everyone out all at once so it never makes the mediastreams. My platoon was sent to help with a small conflict in the Balkan Mega Peninsula. One side was experimenting with bacterial warfare.You can’t see, hear, or smell it coming—well, not until soldier’s tissue starts rotting….I got out luckier than most. It happened so quickly. Nuclear bombs took our ancestors out but this bioweapon shit will take us out. It's why I'm freaked out about the packages.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“It was for the best, I think. We all got honorably discharged with a stipend that was clearly hush money. No one died. I got free top of the line cybernetics,” he says flexing his joints. “I don't mention any of this to earn your sympathy.”
“Hey. I’m the girl who some psychopath is trying to kill for her inheritance,” I remind him. “I’m too busy feeling bad for myself to feel bad for you.”
He looks at me for a long time and I don’t want him to stop.
“What are you thinking about?,” I ask.
“Just that you should stay here,” he tells me. “You’ll be safer.”
“Why ? Because you’re here ?,”
I think I almost make him blush.
“No. Because Kenji, Headmaster and Mrs. Washington are your family…but yes, I’d also be here.”
Typical Eloise. My world was falling apart around me and all I wanted was for this cute boy to kiss me.
And the way he is looking at my lips I think he wants it too.
I tilt my head to close the distance but just as I do he backs away slightly.
“Would you like me to walk you back ?,” he asks and I know he means walk me back to the house and then leave me alone in my room.
“Sure,” I smile.
As we walk back, I feel myself getting more comfortable in his presence. I’d never seen a future for myself in this place but for a brief moment I almost consider staying.
***
-3-
But I’m not allowed to consider it long.
With the way Luce and Grandma Sara are preparing and training me it’s clear they expect I’ll have to come face to face with NotKenji soon.
It’s been another two days since Haley left and I could tell my uncle was wrecked even though he never said anything. We hadn’t heard from Twyla either. Grayson barely slept at night and had taken to hiding all day long in little places we could never find him. Kenji suggested we give him his space to explore and be alone and Luce seemed more than happy to do that.
I didn’t know if they thought I was going to find Not Kenji or if we were waiting for Not Kenji to show up here. Everything seemed to be on pause and I go through the motions to get through the day.
But then there is a break.
I’m having lunch with my grandparents and Luce when Kenji comes in and he looks pissed. He’s studying a tablet as he approaches the kitchen table. Isaac materializes from upstairs, it was his day off and he was dressed in workout clothes which....yeah.
“There was a DNA match on the material Mr. Dory found on his shoe,” Kenji tells us gravely.
“That’s great!,” I chirp because it meant we were one step closer to something tangible.
“Who is it ?,” Grandma Sara asks.
“The DNA matched to a current student,” Kenji responds tersely.
“Who is it ?,” Luce repeats, an edge in his voice.
“I explicitly set the parameters not to include current student data,” Kenji tells him pointedly.
“Are you accusing me of something ?,” Luce asks.
“The current student DNA data is kept in a highly secure system.”
“What the hell do you think I did ? If I used my cybernetics to hack into something as complex as your student data I’d be brain dead on the floor right now. What the hell is your problem ?”
“My job is to protect these students and with each day I find myself trusting you less and less--”
“I could say the same thing,” Luce counters. “I know Hotako but I don’t know you--”
“But I know you. Or I know what MBC really is," Kenji snaps and holy shit they are actually fighting. "I’m angry about what happened to Zacharias and his family but how do I know you’re not using our school to wage some cartel war ? Do you have any idea how many of our students are here because they lost their families in cartel related violence--”
“I don’t give a fuck about the Shy Cartel anymore, I haven’t for years.” Luce fires back. “I just want to know who killed my brother's family. I didn’t hack your system so get the stick out of you ass and--,”
“Luce,” Grandma Sara says sharply. “Kenji, I know we haven’t given you a reason to trust us. I know you don’t even know us but we will keep this confidential. We won’t go after the student. We just need a place to start.”
Kenji stares between them.
“This person killed your blood,” Grandad reminds him. “Or have you fucking forgotten that ?,”
Kenji looks down at the screen and gives a small sigh of resignation as he projects the DNA match. It’s a 13-year-old girl with mousy brown hair and a sprinkle of freckles on her cheeks. She doesn’t look familiar to me at all.
“No,” Grandad says shaking his head and pointing at the projection. “I may be out of my damn mind but that was definitely not who I saw that night.”
“Her name is Marion Oliver,” Kenji says. “She shares common DNA with your attacker. She’s a new student so we don’t know much about her--,”
“It could be her brother,” Isaac says suddenly. “Her brother helped her move in this fall instead of her parents. I remember thinking that was strange. He even came to the Honor Class dinner at the house…that was the same night you and headmaster got sick. He could have poisoned you--”
“Isaac, that is quite the unwarranted accusation--,” Kenji tells him sharply.
“Stop being afraid,” Isaac spits back and it’s the first time I’ve heard him talk back. “We can’t fix anything if you won’t admit something is wrong here.”
“I’m trying to protect our students--”
“With all do respect, you’re protecting the school’s reputation.”
It’s weird seeing them fight but it’s also the most polite fight I’ve ever seen. Isaac looks into his syn and then turns to Luce.
“Vaughn Sachaklian,” Isaac tells Grandma Sara. “That was the student’s half brother’s name.”
“Sachaklian,” Luce says and wheels to look at Grandma Sara. “Wasn't that one of the old school Armenian gangs ?”
“It was...but those families were extinguished years ago,” Grandma Sara shakes her head. “Even before my time. Is the sister on campus ?”
“No,” Isaac responds. “I don’t think they are close. I checked all our backlogs and she’s never communicated with him while she was on campus.”
“When did you have time to check all the backlogs ?,” Grandma Sara says her eyes narrowing.
Isaac falters and his eyes go to Kenji.
“I--”
“You have access to student DNA profiles,” Kenji says slowly. “Issac, did you change the parameters of the DNA search to include current students ?”
“I was trying to help--”
“Help who ?,” Kenji bites out accusingly.
“Us. Whatever came for El is going to come for us. I was trying to take control--”
“By going against me ? You do not make those kinds of decisions. I'm putting you on probation and locking out your security access.” Kenji says in a cool voice and turns to Luce. “You have your DNA ID. You can do what you please but you will not interact with my students.”
Before Kenji can finish speaking, Isaac is out the back door and I am for some reason following him as he clears a path through the backyard. I catch up to him easily and pull him into the zen garden, right back to the place where we’d shared mugs of mead a few nights ago.
“It looks like they have something. You should go back and help,” he huffs.
“I said exactly zero words back there. How is it you are more helpful than me ? What the hell was that between you two ?”
“Just his pride. I told you how they can be, unable to acknowledge what happens outside these walls.” Isaac breathes and rucks a hand through his hair. “I lied to you.”
“About what ?”
He does a careful surveillance of the zen garden and then walks over to one of the large stone mermaid statues. He anchors his foot against the pedestal and with considerable effort tilts the mermaid statue to reveal a hollow space. He reaches inside the hole blindly and pulls out a bottle of melon liqueur
“Some of the grad students and faculty use this as a hiding place for booze,” he tells me.
I take the bottle and look at it. I’d really wanted this that night but this morning the last thing I wanted was to be buzzed.
“I can’t believe you were holding out on me,” I tease him, shaking the bottle.
“I was,” he admits
“What else are you holding out o--”
He closes the distance between us and gives me a tentative chaste kiss that feels like a question. I answer that question with a resounding yes.
I pull him in for another kiss, his lips are warm against my skin, his anger is still burning off him and I’m suddenly aware of every inch of my body. I drop the bottle of liquer as I find the rhythm of our kiss and tingles ricochet through my belly. This felt good and it had been a while since I felt anything good. So long since I’d done something impulsive and dammed the consequences.
His touch envelopes me so much that at first I don’t even
notice the flash of light in the distance.
I just barely make out the sound of the freshman dormitory as it crumbles to the ground. We pull apart from our embrace as a ball of volatile fire shoots out in it’s wake.
“What the--,” I start but stop when I hear the repeated tatter of machine gun fire.
I take out my pistol and start to run back towards the house but Isaac grabs my arm and pulls me in the opposite direction—towards the woods.
-4-
“Get off me ! We have to help---,”
“I don’t think we can!” he shouts back pulling me away and looking up in his syn. “We need to run. Kenji says something is going on.”
His voice is urgent and sure. But I wasn’t running away
again. I turn back just in time to see a fire blooming from the top of Hotako's tudor house followed by more gunshots. I have to save them but Isaac won't let go of my arm.
“This is my chance! Let me go! I have to fight,” I tell him, wresting from his grip and running back to the house.
“If you die they win,” Isaac shouts after me.
The gunshots are getting louder and closer. A round of stray bullets rip into a tree and boars a dotted circle right through it.
Fuck.
My pistol is no use for whatever fire they are bringing.
I turn on my heels and jog back towards Isaac. He extends his arm and leads me into the woods.
We speed walk for what feels like hours, we get so far into the dense trees that I can't see the campus. There are no trails and paths and it all looks the same but Isaac seems to know where he is going. There isn't much breath left in my body and he has to half carry me as I huff along side him.
In the distance I hear a stranger calling my name followed by gunfire. That motivates me to run a little bit faster.
"We're being followed," I huff in a soft tone.
Isaac puts a finger to his lips. He pulls me behind a tree and points up.
I look up to see the sky striped with tall branches. It takes me a second too late to realize that he expects me to climb the tree. I argue with him silently that I was not physically capable of that, he shakes his head and scales the tree with a high jump and well placed hand. He wraps his legs around the trunk and holds out his arms to boost me up.
It shouldn't work but it does. I step into his hands and he vaults me up just enough to grab a branch and then he shows me where to hold and set my foot to climb up.
Once I'm perched on a steady branch and out of view from the ground he instructs me to hold on the trunk and mouths he'll be back. Little spikes had pushed out of his cybernetics and he's able to get down the tree like a fucking squirrel. The minute he hits the ground he runs off into a random direction.
I sit absolutely still as animals and bugs came way to close for comfort but I was sure my life depended on me not making a sound. After a while I hear running, yelps and gunshots from the way we'd come and I grip the tree tighter as two masked men run past my tree, following the path Isaac had made.
I curse myself a second later. I should have shot one of them from my position up here and made them give me answers. Grandma Sara would have known to do that. Luce was going to kill me for my stupidity.
It's nearly an hour later when I see Isaac again. He motions for me to come down and I try to do it the way he did it but I end up slipping and nearly land on my ass.
But he catches me.
"I made a false path that ends at a river," he reports. "I left my syn for them to find. I know another way we can go back to campus. It's out of the way. It'll take a few hours."
"Back ?," I ask as he sets me on my feet. "You think there is something to go back to ?,"
"There are emergency exits all over the school grounds," he explains. "Security would have taken care of whatever this was."
I silently follow his lead through the woods. It's probably only early evening but the woods make everything seem darker. Isaac tries to engage me in conversation but I can't talk. Not without spilling how inadequate I was at all of this.
Relief floods over me when I see an outcropping of light in the distance.
We walk back into the light but instead of the decimated Arkham Campus all I see is a large bulbous building covered in thick dust. It’s not the Washington's Tudor house--it’s a drive thru hamburger restaurant with an old fashion style sign. Beyond it I see a station for selling gasoline with pumps and the prices on big pieces of plastic. I suddenly realize it's not dust on everything.
It's ash.
“Is this The Quiet ?,” I ask cautiously.
He nods slowly.
"I--shit, I--" he starts. "I mean, yes it is. But...I...didn't mean to bring us here. Sorry, I must have gotten turned around."
"It's okay," I say. "You don't have your syn.You said you've been here before....right ?,"
He shakes his head.
"I've never been here," he says quietly and he sounds distant. "I mean this is a different section than the one I've been to...”
“Okay, well which way back to Arkham ?," I ask walking back into the woods.
Only he doesn't follow me. He just looks around bewildered and says
“I don’t know.”
End of Part I
----
You: Wait...there are parts ?
SHV: There are now!
There won't be a big pause between Part 1 and Part II but there will be a break between Part II and Part III....it will make sense later...I hope 😬