Mimics of Rune 02- Surrender (26 page)

Another bark pulled her away from her thoughts.

She blinked once.

Twice.

On the third, she bolted upright. “Oh, my god, I fell asleep.” Dizziness took hold of her head. She swayed, propped herself against her bed and let the fog of her mind clear.

A third bark had her opening her eyes. Outside, beyond the glass, a white Maltese yapped over and over.

Lily forced her body steady, but with no way to let Maggie in, she held up her hands.

Maggie’s little head tilted to the side, and before Lily could move, the white dog ran from view.

Two people jogged past her window as Maggie trotted her way back by Lily.

A laugh burst free as she watched a ten pound dog outrun two adults.

Maggie feigned left but went right.

Her pursuers went left, bumped into each other, fell on their butts and rose.

“This is better than Saturday morning cartoons. Go, Maggie.” Lily clapped her hands.

One of the two people angled fingers at the other. They split up, corralling Maggie between them. Maggie’s head went left and right, back and forth until she shot off again but right into the hands of a captor.

“Shoot.” Lily’s happiness died. She knocked on the window, not knowing if they could hear.

Both of them, and Maggie, turned their heads.

Oh, they can see.
Lily waved.

Maggie’s holder motioned toward Lily and to the dog.

Lily waved them forward as if to say ‘that’s my dog!’

The two put their heads close together, though Lily could hear none of their words. One nodded. The other waved. Lily didn’t move. One pointed. The other pointed. Lily shrugged, adding a ‘huh’ to her face with her lips squished.

They absconded with Maggie in their hands.

“Shoot.” Lily stomped her feet but whirled at a knock on the main door. A glance at the clock sent a shiver through her body.

The numbers read 7:59.

“They would be right on time.” She stepped into the living room as the doors opened. “And be able to walk right in.” Lily crossed her arms over her chest. “You know that’s totally rude and uncalled for, right? You won’t let me out, but you’ll let yourselves in without asking? What kind of operation is this?” Her tone pitched sharp and high. “I mean, I’m brought down here, and then I’m treated this way?”

A woman, dressed in black slacks, a cream shirt and a white lab coat, stepped backward. “My apologies, Miss Crane. Privacy is of utmost importance when you’re in your personal domicile.”

“Then how come you came in without waiting for me to say ‘come in’?”

She inclined her head to the side. “Your light was on green. I should have been more mindful, though, and not have entered before being invited. I’ll just leave.” The doors slid open again.

“Wait!” Lily rushed forward. “How do I get out?”

The woman spun back around. “Were you not shown how to use your privacy settings?”

“Um … my what?”

The woman walked to the panel where Lily had played with the light switches the night before. “This switch here sets your interior room to private.” She turned the red switch Lily hadn’t played with. “See that light over there?” The woman indicated the green one in the corner—the light Lily had thought represented a recorder in operation. “That indicates whether or not you accept intra-room communication. Not all our residents …”

Residents?

“… wish to have their days filled with work and their nights, too. My apologies that you weren’t properly shown. I’ll have those who were in attendance with you properly disciplined. In any case, it was green when I arrived this morning, which, to us, means you will accept visitors, and when you didn’t respond to our intra-call, I took it upon myself to enter. Again, I’m sorry.” The woman held out her hand. “I’m Marlie.”

Lily took it and shook. “Lily.”

Marlie smiled. “Yes, I know.”

The door swished open again as the two people from outside entered with Maggie still struggling in their arms. “Miss Crane, is this your dog?” one of them asked.

Lily held out her hands. Maggie jumped into them.

“Would it be possible for you to keep her in your room from now on?” the same asked.

“What if she needs to go out?” Lily asked.

Marlie rolled her eyes in an overt show of annoyance. “Thank you for returning Miss Crane’s pet.” The door swished closed. “Lily—may I call you Lily?”

“Yes, please.”

“Come this way.” Marlie strutted over to the big window, her dirty blond hair bouncing. She pushed the curtains open and pressed a button at the side of the window.

One by one, the glass panels slid to the side until all three receded, and the sounds and rush of the ocean filled the room.

“Oh, my!” Lily placed Maggie on the floor and raced to the open window. She stepped out to a full ocean breeze.
Now this, I could deal with.

“I’m very sorry that no one took the time to show you this. Is your room to your liking?”

Maggie raced into the lawn, scratched at it and dropped to it before rolling over and over.

You’re really getting into the spirit of doginess aren’t you?
“Uh … yes, this is … wonderful.” Lily closed her eyes, inhaling the freshness.

“We’re so glad you like it.”

The deep voice had her spinning around.

A man, not Kevin but older, refined, with a light dusting of grey at his temples, stood in the middle of Lily’s living room.

“We try to make it as homey as possible for our residents.”

There they go again with this residents thing.

Lily tilted her head. Maggie trotted back into the room and sat on Lily’s feet.

He stepped forward. “Your light was green, so I assumed—my apologies for not waiting. My name is Matthew Williams.” He held out a well-manicured hand.

Lily took it in a small shake and let go.

“Have you had breakfast yet, Miss Crane?”

She shook her head.

“Would you care to join Marlie and me? We’ll be dining with Kevin, whom I believe you met last night.”

“Ah …”

“Come, come. Now’s not the time for shyness. We have a lot to talk about. We’re thrilled that you’ve chosen to join us here.”

Lily picked up Maggie. “Actually … I’d really like to take a shower. Among the other stuff no one told me about, they didn’t say how long I’d be here, and I didn’t pack well.”

Matthew cocked his head. “Marlie will bring you some extra clothes. Perhaps we’ll come get you in … half an hour?”

“Thank you,” Lily said.

Once he’d left, Marlie slipped to a side door Lily hadn’t seen. “We had this prepared just in case.” She revealed a full wardrobe of clothes in a walk-in closet.

“Wow. How long do you think I’m staying?”

Marlie didn’t answer. “Remember, red for privacy.” She mimicked the turning of the knob and followed Matthew out the door.

Lily twisted the button so the red light beamed back at her. She ran to the bathroom, spun the dial on the shower and put Maggie on the floor. “Come on, Maggie, tell me what’s going on.”

The little dog wagged its tail and stared back up at Lily.

“Why can’t I hear them on the plane? What’s going on? Where’s Cael?”

A small bark.

Another wag.

“Maggie, please. Come on. I want to talk to you without trying to interpret your barks. Why isn’t Cael talking to me?”

The shiver started at her tail until it encompassed her entire body and a small girl with cornsilk blonde hair sat, naked, curled over herself on the floor.

“You’re not Maggie.”

Big, wide eyes that resembled Max’s stared back at Lily. “No. My name is Leigh.”

• • •

Lily fell to the floor and grabbed Leigh into a huge hug. “Oh, my god, what are you doing here? And why are you pretending to be my dog?”

Her smile bloomed. “You mean
my
dog?”

Lily pulled her in for another squeeze before holding her at arm’s length. A second later, she crushed her to her body in yet another embrace.

A moment of panic hit her when she realized Leigh didn’t even know why she’d been hugged by a perfect stranger, and Lily let go.

“So, you’re Lily?”

“I am. Please tell me why you were outside my window.”

Leigh grabbed the towel from the rack behind her and wrapped herself in it. “No offense, but the whole being naked thing is kinda driving me nuts.”

Lily giggled as a moment of happiness bloomed. “I’ve been there and done that, many, many times.”

A small laugh came from Leigh as she sat cross-legged on the floor amid the steam escaping from the still-running shower.

“Yeah. How did you—” Lily started again.

“Maggie told me.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. This cute little dog came and sat next to me this morning on the beach, and after like two minutes of petting her, she transformed into this lady. Kinda freaked me out, you know, ‘cause no one ever visits me.”

Right,
that’s
the freak out part.

“She said she knew my Grandma, and she said some people were going to get me out of here.” Leigh offered a small shrug.

“Why don’t you sound like you want to leave?”

She picked at a thread on the towel. “I don’t know. After the first week, I kinda got used to it. And they’re really nice to me here. I have a room on the beach.”

“You have a room on the beach at home, too, in California.”

Leigh cocked her head. “I can eat whatever I want. The other two kids here are pretty nice. I learn a lot of cool stuff in school, not just history and math.”

“Like how to change into a dog?”

“Actually, I figured that out a long time ago. Dogs are the easiest, though.” Her eyes sparkled. “Cats are too lazy and making them go when you pretend to be one is hard.”

Wow. Why can’t I do that?
“So … you … like it here?”
How is that possible?

“Yeah. A little. I miss my brother. And my Dad.”

“Not your … Mom?”

Leigh curled into herself.

Uh oh.

“Okay, let’s not talk about that. Do you know who I am?”

Leigh shook her head. “Maggie just said you were an important friend.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, and she wanted me to tell you she thinks the com lines are down. I don’t know what that means, but she made me promise to tell you that.”

Lily smiled. “I think I get it.”
And that means I’m without backup or … Cael.

“Do you know when Maggie’s coming back?”

Leigh shook her head. “She just told me to stay with you … unless you tell me not to.”

“Okay. Well … now that my time is probably up, I need to shower and visit some people for breakfast.”
Though I have eight thousand questions for you.
“I think you’ll need to come with me, but you can only be the white Maltese. Can you—”

“Of course.” Leigh’s grin widened. “I like making the Tech’s chase after me. It’s fun. Everybody’s really nice around here.”

Such childish behavior made Lily laugh.
A true kid, still. We gotta keep that alive.
A frown took hold, though, as her thoughts wandered to Leigh’s comment about the staff. The two techs who’d appeared with Kevin hadn’t been unkind, but hadn’t been proactively helpful, either. Marlie and Matthew, on the other hand, had been quite the opposite.

There are two sides to every story. Sometimes, you just gotta find which one is the truth.

Wyatt’s words played back through her mind.
To find the one, I gotta find both.

22

With the Leigh-puppy tucked in the crook of her arm, Lily disengaged her privacy screen and walked out of the room.

“Miss Crane?” A short woman moved away from the wall opposite her door.

“Yes?”

“I’m to escort you to Professor Williams’ suite.”

“Oh … okay.”
Professor?

Lily stayed two steps behind the woman through a series of white hallways that all resembled one another. White with doors. Repeat. White with doors. Repeat.

Don’t they have any creativity down here?

The woman stopped at a door and knocked. It opened a second later, and she moved to the side, waving Lily inside.

Lily steeled herself and proceeded through.

“Ah, Miss Crane.” Matthew stood from the table, dropped his napkin to the chair and joined Lily. He reached for Leigh, who licked his hand. “Thank you for joining us.”

Leigh, at least, likes him.

Around the black, circular table, Kevin and Marlie sat, their plates empty except for crumbs and crust.

“Come.” Matthew guided Lily to an empty chair, where a plate of fruit had already been dished. “This is for you.”

Lily sat Leigh on the ground, and the dog lay across Lily’s feet. Though she had an urge to ask about Roy, she decided it might be best to let the situation play out a little.

Matthew held up a hand. “How are your accommodations, Miss Crane?”

Lily shrugged. “Fine, I guess. Marlie showed me how to use my room properly this morning. There’s a lot of privacy around here. I’m really surprised.”

“For good reason.” Matthew withdrew a business card from his jacket pocket and handed it to Lily. “You … of all people should understand.”

Matthew Williams, PhD. Director R.E.M. Program.

“We like to pronounce it ‘rem’, by the way,” Marlie said.

“What’s it stand for?” As Lily’s stomach rumbled its need for food, she forked a piece of pineapple and bit into the luscious, sweet fruit.

“Reproductive Energy and Manipulation.” Marlie pulled a folder from the side of her chair.

Leigh jostled on Lily’s foot, and she added a few more pieces of fruit to her plate but let a slice of bacon flit to the floor for Leigh, hoping she’d like it—if she wanted any food at all. “Um … what’s that mean … exactly?”

“All creatures use energy in the growth and change of their bodies. As we mature and our bones grow, we expend more … energy,” Marlie said.

This is where Cael would say ‘oh, so you’re a …’ and get every word.
Lily kept her eyebrow from rising as she drank from the water cup.