Amoeba (The Experiments) (57 page)

Aldo was stone faced as he finished reading the five page report that Greg had handed to him.

Greg stood up from behind his desk. “Because they are your horses
, I wanted to let you know this.”

“And you think this is going to make a difference?” Aldo asked.

“Difference? No, impact. Another blow.” Greg heard Aldo flutter his lips. “You don’t think?”

“No
, not at all.” Aldo shook his head and pushed the report forward.

“Maybe you should read it again.”

“Why would I need to?”

“Because.” Greg moved to the door. “You are much too confident. Much.”

“I can’t help it. I am.” When Aldo heard the door close and Greg leave, he let out a long breath, slid down in his chair, and ran his hand across his face.

“Here you go, guy.” Rickie led Reed out to sit on the porch. “Take in a little of the cool, fresh, Zombie free air. Want your tea?”

“O ank ew.” Reed shook his head.

Rickie sat down. “Yep. Look, we can watch Paul and Lou talk. Maybe zoom in with that one special ear of yours. How’s the hand?”

“I ant eel I ingers.”

Rickie shook his head at Reed then burst out laughing. “Uh, good one, Dude, whoa, you’re funny.”

Reed, in good spirits
, bounced in happy laughter.

^^^^

With arms folded in his body guard mode, Lou looked down at Paul who sat across the fire. “So what exactly is it that you’re saying? And speak English this time.”

“Sorry.” Paul cleared his throat. “I was merely saying that maybe we should put the demons behind us.”

“Behind us? Meaning get over it?”

“Yes.” Paul nodded.

“No more chasing me and trying to exorcize me?”

“No.”

“Hmm.” Lou rubbed his chin. “You want me to trust you?”

“Yes. I don’t want you to have to run from me anymore
,” Paul stated.

“Really?” Lou asked.

“No. I’m lying.” With quick action, Paul reached behind the log, grabbed for a spear, stood up and lunged it at Lou.

Lou ducked.

Reed screamed.

Lou stood up straight and turned slowly around to look. He saw Rickie pulling the spear out of Reed’s arm that was now stuck to the outside wall of the bungalow. “Asshole.” Lou faced Paul. “Like the man hasn’t been through enough. Shit.”

Paul bit his bottom lip. “Sorry.”

Lou grunted, waved off Paul
, and hurried to help Rickie with an hysterical and bleeding Reed.

^^^^

Cal had paced around the bungalow, and when the smell of soap and steam reached her nose, she knew it was time. She turned around as Jake walked from the bathroom. “Feeling better?

“Yeah.” He moved to the bed.

“Jake, we need to talk you and I.”

“Cal, I’m really wiped out.”

“I know. But we still need to talk.” She motioned her hand to the table. “To steal a phrase, sit.”

Jake pulled back from getting on the bed
and walked over to the table and sat down.

Cal sat at the table across from him. “O
kay, now. I know you. I know you so well, Jake.” She saw Jake look away. “And . . . I know you never talk to anyone about anything. Ever. And I believe, and this is based on my knowledge of you, I believe when you went to Billy, you went to him to pave a road. A road you are afraid to take for some reason. So you went to him knowing full well he would run to me. Smart. Because he did.”

Jake just looked at her.

“Good. Now having that established.” Cal reached over and grabbed his hand. “I would like to establish something else. Jacob Andrew Graison, there is nothing, nothing you hear me, nothing that would ever make me stop loving you or make me leave you. I promised you one night about three years ago, I swore on my soul I would never leave you and I meant it. Nothing can change that.”

Very seriously Jake looked at her. “Even if you found out I have been lying to you all these years
?”

Cal kept her eyes on him, never blinking, never flinching. “Nothing.” She felt his hand slip from hers. “Talk to me.”

After a long silence, Jake stood up. “This whole zombie thing tonight. This whole episode. It wasn’t aimed toward Paul. It wasn’t a physical test of the participants. It was my test. It was intended for me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Okay, well, some people are musically inclined. Some . . . artistically. Me? I was always scientifically inclined.”

“That’s not surprising.”

“Yeah. So . . . when the Army discovered this about me, they played on it. Took me from the field and I went to school.”

“For?” Cal asked.

“Biology.”

“For how long? Was it a course, what?”

“The entire time I trained as a ranger, I went to school. Eight years.”

“Jake, then that means you have your . . .”

“Doctorate. Yes.” Jake nodded. “It was not what I wanted to do. Being in some lab was not where I wanted to be. The knowledge I gained, medically, helped in my career as a ranger, in my survival and my teaching others to survive.”

“Jake
,” Cal said his name with a smile. “So you didn’t tell me about your education. That’s all right. You probably were worried that I would bitch at you for not using it when . . .”

“No. That’s not it. Because of my ability I was on this team that met every so often and we, as a team, developed this chemical
, a gas, that hits the brain.” Jake pointed to his temple. “Destroying all aspects of it with the exception of motor skills. So basically you’re like a . . .”

“Zombie.”

“Exactly.” Jake sat back down at the table. “It didn’t hit me until I saw the eyes. The yellow eyes. That was a tell tale sign of our chemical. The chemical caused bleeding behind the eyes, and when the bleeding stopped, the blood stayed, causing the yellowing effect. That is what told me that what happened out there this morning was from something I did. Something I created.”

“They got a hold of it. How?” Cal asked.

“I don’t know” Jake tossed his hands up. “I thought when I left the team, when the project was finished, they destroyed the weapon. I was wrong.”

“O
kay, they got a hold of it. They exposed people and made you remember creating it, so . . .”

“No
, Cal, they made me remember something else. They made me remember why I dropped off the team, why the research for the chemical was stopped. Because of what happened.” Jake paused to think. “Ten years ago, we were after the head of a cartel in a third world country. We knew where he was. We knew we had to get him. Sneak in, take him and his men out. I . . . I came up with the brilliant fuckin idea to test the gas on this person’s camp. After all, I was leading the raid, it was partly my chemical, and approval was given like that.” Jake snapped. “So me and my men, armed with gas masks and tiny little beads, seized this camp. The only problem was, I knew how long the gas stayed in the air, fifteen minutes, right? What I didn’t count on was for the winds to pick it up and carry it into the village not three miles away. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The entire village, men, women, and children were hit. Children, Cal. And this chemical doesn’t kill you. You don’t die from it. The only way out of the misery you feel is to be killed. And we created such a mess there, that we had to clean it up. Each hut, home, building we went through, and killed every single person affected. Men, women, and . . . children. Children, Cal. And I truly believed that it was some sort of punishment that I was unable to have kids. So I convinced myself I never wanted them. Until you. Until now. And look. You find out tonight that I haven’t been honest with you for four years, that I did something so inhumane, so sickening. I tried to put it behind me. I swear. I was so sorry for what had happened. But that doesn’t cut it. It happened. And it changed my life forever.”

Cal waded through a long silence. A dreaded one. “What do you expect me to do now, Jake?”

“I don’t know.” Jake swayed his head.

“Do you expect me to yell
? To scream at you that you didn’t tell me this?” Cal leaned into the table. “Do you expect me to tell you that you make me sick? That I hate you now for what happened? Well if that’s what you expect, I am sorry to disappoint you, Lt. Col. Graison, but you just aren’t gonna get that from me.”

“Cal?” Jake lifted his head.

“Does this shock you?” Cal asked him. “Does it shock you that I don’t bat an eye about it? Jake, please. You made a mistake. You moved on. Why punish you for it now when you have been punishing yourself for years? And besides, am I not supposed to be understanding to the husband who forgave my affair? Understand problems that I have? Wants to share in the child I’m carrying? I’ll tell you, if Caldwell thought this was gonna put a damper in our marriage . . .” Cal fluttered her lips. “God were they stupid.”

“Cal.” Jake stood up and moved to her. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you any of this before. I just didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to remember. And if I told you about the science aspect of my life, I’d have to tell you about what happened to end that aspect of my life.” Jake grabbed her hands and pulled her up. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And don’t thank me.” Cal hugged him. “I was really expecting something much more worse.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Cal stepped back with a smile. “You know what I thought?” She started to laugh. “I thought . . .” She grabbed her chest and her words “I thought you were going to tell me that you have been working for Caldwell the whole entire time.”

Jake was quiet. “Cal.” He spoke her name solemnly. “I have been.”

“What?” Cal lost her smile. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been working for Caldwell since the first experiment. Who do you think invented the stasis?”

Cal’s mouth moved slowly before she said anything. “You?”

Jake lowered his eyes, then lifted them. “No.” He stepped to her and cracked a smile. “And guess what I just did? I just spontaneously fibbed to you. I’m kidding about Caldwell.”

“Oh.” Cal gasped out with a smile. “Jake.” She smiled impressed. “Jake, that was really good. Good job. You got me.”

“Yeah, that was good.” Jake nodded with excitement. “And Cal
, it just came to me. I mean, you said that about Caldwell and a bulb went off in my head. I thought, why don’t I take this opportunity to get Cal and lighten the mood? And I did it, didn’t I?”

“Yes you did.” Cal reached up and tapped him on the cheek. “Oh Jake, maybe you’re finally lightening up.”

There was a moment of silence, then at the same time, Cal and Jake both shook their heads with a ‘Nah.’

^^^^

Bang!

“God
, Jake!”

Jake looked up from the floor. “I can’t help it
, Cal, the bed is too fuckin short.”

“You’ve been here long enough to adjust.” Cal fluffed her pillow. “Adjust
, damn it.”

“All right.”

“God,” Cal said again, annoyed.

“All right!”

“What are you doing anyhow?”

“I forgot to do something.” Jake, still on the floor, crawled for Cal’s shoe. Holding it, he climbed back in bed, and covered up. Sitting up, ignoring Cal’s irritated glances at him, Jake tossed the shoe across the room, knocked the shirt off the camera, then Jake laid down, snuggled next to Cal and kissed her. “Night.”

After watching the flash so briefly of Jake happily climbing under the covers with his wife, Dr. Jefferson spun his chair slightly to Greg, who kept staring up at the monitor, tapping his hand on a folder.

“So
,” Dr. Jefferson said.

“So.”

“It backfired.”

“I wouldn’t say backfired.” Greg laid his hand flat on the folder and turned his head to Dr. Jefferson. “It just didn’t work.”

“Did you think it would?”

“Yes,
and so did you.”

“No.” Dr. Jefferson shook his head. “I said maybe. Yes, I recall saying maybe.”

“Well, even at maybe, you were wrong. I was wrong. It was a good bit of his history, though. Dark, demented.” Greg shrugged. “Oh well.”

“What now?” Dr. Jefferson asked. “I know you have other things planned for the target couple. What’s next?”

“Nothing.”

“You have nothing planned.”

“No, I have things planned, but I’m doing nothing.” Greg ran his hand across his own head. “I’m done.”

“I thought you didn’t admit defeat.”

“I am in this case. Why bother? I have other fish to fry. I have bigger plans to conquer. They still may die. Or at least one of them,”

“They could.”

“So I have that. But . . .” Greg tossed his hand up. “As far as breaking them up as a couple, I’m not even going to waste my breath anymore. If they can survive infidelity, an illegitimate child, and a hidden sordid past, I think these two can survive anything. So . . . defeat admitted.” Greg slumped.

“Good. Glad to hear you say that.”

“Why? Does it show my human qualities?”

“I’m just glad that you’re moving on. I was bored. And in answer to your question
, no.”

“No?”

“No. How can your admitting defeat show your human qualities?” Dr. Jefferson looked at Greg. “When I’m pretty much getting convinced that you have no human qualities at all.”

For a second, only a second, Greg peered with deep seriousness to Dr. Jefferson, then after that he looked straight ahead with a smile upon his face.