“Don’t do that before I teach you how to swim. You could have floated like that for a long time, but we don’t know what’s down there.” Adam pointed down the river.
She noticed he hadn’t let go of her ankles and she looked at him with a pleading in her eyes. What she felt was not something she could help.
Adam let go of her, pushing downwards on her ankles and said, “Come on, let’s get the clothes washed so we aren’t putting back on the same dust and stink we just got off.” He turned and headed to the land. Adam could hear Tomorrow’s thought from behind him.
He tried to blink it away. Then he heard her in his head. “Now I know. I don’t like Gentlemen.”
He turned and looked at her as she shrugged at him. Then she said out loud, “But I understand, for now. Also, I kind of like the way you smell. Why not leave some of it on you?”
“Because the more we smell, the more other things can smell us. Some of those things I would prefer not to approach us while we are asleep.” Adam explained.
Tomorrow’s mood changed as she considered those words. She got out of the water and grabbed her clothes and headed back to the water behind Adam.
“Tomorrow, I have to tell you something.” Adam’s eyes narrowed on her.
“Okay, that sounds ominous. Are there rats in the water?” Tomorrow asked sarcastically.
“Technically, I would advise against standing in the same place you evacuate, if you’re trying to suggest you have. Just a basic warning.” Adam noted and looked back down into the water. “Not to mention the whole reason you’re washing your clothes in the river is to reduce how much they smell like you.”
Tomorrow moved towards him. “So there are rats in the water?”
“I doubt it, but yes, rats can swim. That is the least of what the issues are. That’s another topic. If you did, just don’t again.” Adam replied.
“Something has been bothering you for a long time. It has something to do with me, doesn’t it?” Tomorrow noted.
“You look shockingly like someone I used to know. More than I can explain, but younger.” Adam looked at her for a reaction. He noted there was none.
“Did you spend better time with her than you do with me?” Tomorrow quipped as she bent deep down and grabbed a rock.
Knowing what she meant Adam replied, “Yes, I’ve told you about her. We had a daughter.” At that statement, Adam’s mind went into overdrive.
Tomorrow suddenly felt bad for her retort and responded, “I’m sorry.”
Adam looked at her. “It’s okay. You don’t know, but now I think I know.”
“Know what?” Tomorrow asked.
“You can do what she did, but you…something is not right.”
“Thanks for the compliment.” Tomorrow headed for the shore feeling thoroughly insulted.
“No, I don’t mean that. Something Stephen did. It effected everything across timelines. I’m not even sure what I am talking about.” Adam yelled after her, but knew the misuse of words was going to be an issue for some time.
CHAPTER 11
“The obvious plan is to have a plan or at least plan on having a plan.” -- from the Book of Phillip
“I’m going in there. Don’t follow me. I think once I see what’s in there I can click before they even notice me.” Phillip said to Venetia.
“If you can’t and you get caught, I have no way out of here. Why do you want to check out that room so bad? You said you can hear thought in there. Thoughts come from people. If there are people in there you could get caught and then I would be too.” Venetia was whispering but her anger at his insistence on going in there was clear.
“Whatever their thinking about, they are thinking about it intensely. It’s very important to them. Which means it’s important to us. That also means they won’t notice if I am quite in getting in and can find a good place to click to quickly.” Phillip whispered back, without any doubt in his voice.
Venetia looked at him and produced a knife. “I knew this was going to happen. You’re very predictable. Fine, go in. You’re going to go regardless of what I say.”
Brian had already opened the door and was on the other side, closing it slowly. Venetia pushed her back to the wall as if it made her more invisible. Then she sighed as she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Brian noticed a rafter and clicked up to it quickly. He looked down and noticed that this room was quite large. He listened, but he wished he could get a better view of what they were looking at.
“We have all the models we need. We have decided on all of the category lines we want to continue. The rest will make food for the continued lines. As for those that have evaded the hunters and the sky crawlers so far, this line of hunters will be interesting.”
“What did your team do different with these, Dr. Pilnisky?”
“We found an interesting set of genes in one of the ones we have on the line now. We’re not the only ones who have noted she is different. The security team has noted a young man coming in and sitting by her every day. We don’t know why, but we assume she is family to him. I’ve told them to leave him alone, for now, but at some point we need to capture him and look at his genetic profile too. I’m going to assume he is among the few who escaped from here some time back. The security team agrees. They’ve seen him in other parts of the city and he seems to know it pretty well.”
Dr. Tenari looks at him. “So what are the genetic anomalies?”
“I’ll show you. A demonstration will explain better than I can.” Dr. Pilnisky goes on to explain what they are going to see. “These are the latest round of hunters. They handle very high levels of adrenaline and multiple stimulants well. They are the most aggressive of what we have produced so far. They are very high in testosterone, as you know, which is why they are very hairy like their predecessors, but we got around the calming factor in testosterone surges by increasing their cortisone levels.”
Dr. Sadar notes, “So basically, their psychotic?”
“Yes and no. They still take basic orders through the synaptic connection. What I want you to note may not be obvious at first.” Dr. Pilnisky reaches down and presses a button. The secondary door opens leaving only 15 inches of Plexiglas between them and what he is about to release into that staging area. “Don’t worry, it sufficient, it’s pliable, so no matter how strong they are, it has a tendency to radiate the impact.” Then he reaches down and pushes to more buttons, one with each hand, simultaneously.
The room burst with action as two similar looking models burst towards each other at lighting speed. They begin to rip at each other, throwing each other and tearing at each other. The room echoes with the sound of it, even through the acrylic barrier. Dr. Pilnisky raises a hand and points. “Now notice the depth of the gash on that one’s arm. Note the midsection rip on the other.”
They all concentrate on those areas. They’ve seen these battles before. While not quit as agitated as this one seemed to be, they all had the same result. One would kill the other or they would eventually both bleed to death. The acrylic was becoming covered in blood, but they focused on the two areas the Dr. suggested. Then they watched them both fall.
Dr. Tenari said, “What were we supposed to notice?”
“Wait for it…”
Then they saw both of them jump back up and continue fighting again. The midsection wound on one seemed to have healed a bit and the arm of the other was healing as they watched. The two things tore at each other more and then Dr. Pilnisky spoke into a microphone. “Ok, order them back now. We don’t want these two dead.”
Dr. Sadar said. “Regeneration. And you say this is from a gene set you found in one of the people on the line?”
“Yes. Although she is past the stage where we can question her. There, were a lot of other interesting markers, but this is the first set we were able to isolate and could understand since it is similar to lizards re-growing their tails. Although as a full set, it’s not like that, really, it was at least identifiable because of the similarities.”
Dr. Tenari said, “Have we done any experiments on the subject with the gene set?”
“Some. I am waiting for her next level of the process of her becoming a synth. Right now, she is too delicate for us to try too much on her. But then will be a good time and she will be less resistant to our trials.” Dr. Pilnisky explained.
Both Dr. Sadar and Dr. Tenari nodded at the wisdom of that decision. Dr. Sadar said, “How long until you begin cloning those?”
Dr. Pilnisky looked at them. “We’ve already begun. I just wanted to assure you that what I am working on is worthy of the time I and my team have been spending on it.”
Everyone nodded. Phillip clicked, grabbed Venetia’s wrist and clicked again. When they appeared, Venetia asked, “Did they see you?”
“Not this time, but apparently they’ve been seeing me.” Phillips eyes were wide as he made his way to a chair and slumped over a table to gather his thoughts.
“Well was it worth it?” Venetia asked. Then she looked at his face and had her answer.
“Get everyone together in a few hours, I’ll explain. Right now I need to think.” He looked at Venetia. She looked back at him and he stated quietly, “Alone, please.” She nodded and then began to leave the room. “Wait!” Phillip looked at Venetia and sighed, then he said, “Let’s go to bed.”
Venetia pushed her head toward her shoulder and looked at him oddly. “It’s been a long time since you’ve asked for that.” She waited to let the impact of what she meant sink in with him. “What if I said, I wasn’t interested?” Phillip began to change the look on his face, but she held out her hand. “Never mind, don’t tell me. Come on.”
Phillip rose and took her hand. As they walked she asked, “Your quarters, I assume?” He nodded. Then unable to help herself she said, “Will it smell like Tina in there?”
Phillip walked faster but did not let go of her hand as he answered over his shoulder, “Probably.”
“I’m angry with you, but she won’t be.” Venetia states.
“No. It’s not like she doesn’t know I remember us. She and I are pretty open.” Philip answered back, slowing his pace.
“And if she were to be with James again?” Venetia stops still holding his hand.
Phillip turns. “He’s perfectly happy with Marla.”
“That didn’t answer my question. But now that we’re on that topic, you apparently were not happy with Marla. If I recall.” Venetia decided to open an old wound.
“Marla and James get along well and they work well together.” Phillip answered.
“Like Tina is good at working on your cockpit?” Venetia flares back.
“She does know what I like. She takes care of it well. She even set up a feeding system in it.” Phillip replies while letting go of Venetia’s hand.
As he turns to walk away, Venetia says, “You never did answer the question, but I suppose I already know the answer.” Then she runs to catch up with him but notices he has changed direction. She watches as he walks out to the area of his craft and Tina looks up at him. She runs to catch up to him, but he continues to walk even faster.
Tina takes in the scene and yells, “You to fighting again? Why don’t you too go to bed and work it out already?”
Venetia looks at Tina trying to mask the look her face wants to show towards her. But then she says, “Actually, we were about to do that.”
Tina doesn’t blink and replies, “Okay. Well, I have a lot of work to do, so you have a few hours. Just be gone by the time I get back.”
Venetia feels the sting of the casual phrasing. She grabs Phillip by the wrist and leans in to his ear. “I don’t care. I do want you. Just for a while is more than I thought I would ever want from you again, but it will do.”
Phillip replies, “Wait here then.” He walks over leans into the cockpit and kisses Tina. “Give us some extra time, deal?”
She kisses Phillip back. “You’re an idiot, but if you get yourself back into it, it’s up to you to deal with. I’m not getting involved.” She looks up at the sun. “I’ll give you until one tick up of the moon with no sun. Then I really am going to be tired and I don’t want to come back and have to deal with the way the two of you are going to be. No offense, but I don’t see how you can’t understand it’s not going to go the way either of you expect, deal?”
Phillip nods and turns to walk back over to Venetia. “Are you sure we should do this?”
“It was your brilliant idea, fly boy. Although you were right. It really doesn’t bother her. Hard to believe, but I guess dealing with James long enough makes her accepting of anything besides James.” Venetia turned and began walking towards his quarters. Then she slowed and waved her hand down at him from her hip. He caught the gesture he knew all too well and stepped up his pace to hold her hand.
As they walked, Phillip thought to himself, “Tina’s right. This isn’t going to go well. And why did I choose now?” He looks at Venetia as she turns to look at him and smiles. He twists and grabs her hand with the other waling backwards and blowing a kiss to Tina.
Venetia asks, “Did you do that to make me angrier or because you are gleeful that she’s so good to you?”
Phillip notes the last part of her sentence and remains quiet. He hears Venetia huff, but she doesn’t break her stride.