The Only Ones (2 page)

He starts tapping his nails on the desk.

That is what they generally want where I work. A lot of people got the stupid idea if they have sex with a Powell’s Cove hardy, they won’t die—well, it is a pretty ignorant clientele. But that’s not my problem. I did not like sex and tried to pitch other things, like blood or urine. I got no idea what they did with it. They even bought teeth sometimes. I think they wore them on a string, for luck. They even bought fingernails.

I’m pretty sure no one will ever spring for this guy’s fingernails. They are cracked and funny. Tap, tap, tap.

“Thing is,” he goes. “Typically, a simple ID will access some databases that I would very much like to explore and might be some Compensation for the fact the product in the Pak turned out to be,” tap, tap, “completely useless—not what I’d thought I was getting, and quite a bit of what I did get was compromised, in fact,” now he smacks the desk, “dead! Not your fault, but I’d like to see if I can get some return for my expenses—access to interesting files, possibly by running a few tests, but I need to know what I’m testing for. Some very basic history might help—labwork, illness—nothing is coming up from your ID or Pass. Can you tell me something about your vaccine history?”

I shook my head.

He put his head in his hands a minute and said, “This isn’t going to work.”

Right then, Janet Delize came in with coffee and the donuts on a tray. “Delmore called,” she said, then leaned and whispered something, and he said back to her, “Can you just deal with it?” and she went off.

He did too. He went down the hall. I heard water running.

I had a donut.

It is pretty dark in here. No windows. Three doors though. One to the orange sofa room, one door shut, and one opens to the back where he had went.

He came back with his beard and hair dripping like he put them under a faucet, and is very bright and cheerful like, put your head in water, that really does the trick. “Yes! Let’s give it another shot. I might be able to get at your files through some local grid.” He’s back at the screen. “Did you reside in any other areas than Corona?”

East Elmhurst.

He looked it up and thought a little. “How did you end up there?”

“The Vargas brothers took me when they bought me from foster care.”

We could hear the phone ringing again.

“Bought you from?” he said. He sat still, like he had some trouble following.

See, this is what comes from running intake. They like to ask the questions. Then they cannot take the answer.

The phone stopped.

He said, “And,” he still seems to be having trouble, “and after that?”

“They die when we move to Powell’s Cove. Edgar Vargas have the TB. Well, they said it is the TB. It could of been that thing with fleas. Manny Vargas, they said they didn’t know.”

“Who said?”

“The Vertov brothers.”

“Junior!” That’s Janet Delize calling. “Junior!”

“Janet!” he yells. “Will you please fucking deal with it?”

She yelled back, “Delmore says now he heard horses.”

Rauden punched his phone on so hard if I am that phone, I will punch him back. So this guy got a temper. I seen worse. Edgar Vargas was worse.

Rauden went into the other room to take the call, which I don’t know why he bothered, because I can hear everything he says. “Calm down, Del. Just take a few deep breaths. You know they don’t come out till dark.” When he came back in he just sat in his chair and thought. Or I think he thought. When he finished thinking, he goes, “Yes! We’re getting nowhere. There could be a jam on your regular ID. I’m going to run some pure code if you don’t mind.”

So I’m like, why would I mind? A Subject like myself? I run pure code all the time.

Like I got any idea what it is.

He wipes a stick in my mouth, smears that on a plate. Ok, I had done this before but we call it something else in Queens. You do it to get a Pass, so they are sure you’re who you say you are and not someone else, who should be in jail. If they had a jail. He is sticking the plate in a slot in his gizmo when Janet Delize came through in a coat, and Rauden threw up his hands. “Janet, Janet, what is this? I need you here. I’m sorry if I was rude. But I do fucking need someone to take fucking Del’s fucking calls.”

She said she thinks Delmore’s right. She was going home right now to check her home alarms, in case there really is a raid. “And you should check yours too,” she said. “And watch your language.” She went off. The front door slammed.

Rauden put his head in his hands.

We could hear a motor starting up outside. Also a noise I didn’t hear before, like wind, but different than the wind I heard when we got here.

“Henry!” He’s on the phone again. “Delmore thinks there’s going to be a raid. Yeah, he’s going ballistic. Janet thinks I should rig up some alarms. That green light hoo-ha in back? I thought it just ran the generator. Oh, right, that kicks off the old system. And I hook it up to the main system in front? Yup, I’m working with the Powell’s Cove hardy. Like pulling teeth. I think she is a little challenged. Gotta go.”

He looked through boxes in the Box Room until he found a long cable, plugged one end under his desk and took the rest down the hall. I eat another donut. When he came back, he said to his screen, “Oh, what’s this now?”

I already saw it went black. That is how challenged I am.

He got under his desk, did something, sat up, and stared at the screen.
“Subject: I. Kissena Fardo. Location: Zone North.
So this is new.
Origins: unknown.”

It is not new to me.

Outside, the motor sound got louder.

He just sat there tapping his nails. “Kissena.” Tap, tap, tap. “What sort of name is that?”

The motor got softer, outside.

I told him it is where the bus stopped.

“So.” Tap, tap, tap. “You were named for a bus Stop.”

Oh, what is it with this guy? He got a problem with everything I say, like, who is even named for a bus Stop? Who do they even call I?

Well, tap this, fat guy. I’m not going to tell you why the bus stopped there or who was on it or why it’s in my name. It is not your business. I just told the guy I didn’t know.

He pulled a metal bottle from a drawer and unscrewed the top.

The motor sound outside got softer, then softer. Then it’s gone. So I’m alone in this place I never been with some guy with a temper who got a bottle. It’s not like I never did this before. It’s how it works. It’s not like I am scared.

He had a long drink. “Let’s try something else. Have you been in close contact with, let’s see, someone infected by, hmm, one of the Luzon viruses, say—even a lesser one like, well, Avian—I think I could test for that. TB is not relevant, hmm, and you don’t know your vaccine history, or so you fucking say.” He had another drink. “Help me out here.”

Well, he looked so sad, I began to think, watch out. He could give up and send me home. Better think of something to tell the guy. “I could of had one vaccine,” I said.

So he goes, “Bingo.”

So I said but I don’t know if he could find the file.

He had another drink. “Why not?”

I said Lonnie Vertov could of gave me a fake ID.

He had another drink. “And why would Lonnie Vertov do that?”

“If you are a minor.”

He just held his hand out, like, this would matter because?

“It was a vaccine trial.”

He was about to have another drink but stopped before he got it in his mouth. “What vaccine?”

I said I didn’t know. And by the way, that’s true. I did know they ran the test on a boat called
Flora May,
and the boat was in Flushing Bay.

He typed all that in his gizmo, then said, “Bingo,” again. He stood and clapped his hands. “Sounds like some early version of Universal vaccine. I can use those antibodies as a Control and work from there.”

Whatever.

At least the intake’s over.

He leads me up front then around to where he had went to check my ID and Pass in a shiny little room called Lab 3, where he sits me on a table, sets up a syringe and I’m like, with this guy’s nerves, what are the chances he finds the vein, but he does it fast and good. “These are express kits and we should see some results in minutes. Why not relax in front?”

He’s putting on a mask and Hygiene gloves while I go back to the orange sofa and look out the window that doesn’t open. It’s starting to turn dark and by now I am sleepy. I started so early for this trip, all the way from Powell’s Cove, and even once I got to Jersey, there is the whole hybrobus trip up.

The phone rang. This time Rauden picked it up. “Harold, hey! Daisy? But that’s way early. What’s the timing on her contractions? Harold, I’m a little busy. Can you try Walter or Sook? Get back to me if nothing works.”

I could hear that wind real good through the window. It’s still just light enough to see trees moving around in it. I also heard a bell. Then Rauden, breathing—you hear him breathe before you see him. He leaned on the door and looks like he is going to cry. “I’m not finding any Universal history in your blood. That seems incredible, if you’ve taken the vaccine. Are you sure you did?”

So I said they could of lied.

The wind is getting really loud.

He sat down in a chair like he is tired too. “What do you mean?”

“They could of gave a different vaccine than they say.”

He is so tired. “Why would they do that?”

“It was a shady operation.”

“How do you mean?”

“A Tech died.”

“Died?” He sat right up. “How did he die?”

“Well, his eyes bled. His skin too.”

“But—why would this happen from that vaccine? It almost sounds like symptoms of—” then he stopped and is, like, thinking, thinking, “but who would mess with that?”

Now I heard the whole building make a noise. Creak.

“Well the Tech was the only one who died,” I said. “The others just went to Emergency. I was ok.”

“Wait—everyone got sick but you. And you were how old?”

The phone rang again. He let it ring.

I go, “Thirteen.” Right away I wished I didn’t say thirteen because he looks like he did about the foster care. So I said, “It could be fourteen.” To tell the truth, it could be twelve. The look he gave me now, I wish I said sixteen. I wish I never told him anything.

The phone rang again. “Harold! Talk to me. And you tried Walter? No, I’ll come! What?
Where?
Keep your eyes open and I’ll see you in twenty,” then, “Janet! Are you there?” He’s just running around. “Will you fucking pick up? Daisy’s having a breech birth—Harold’s Daisy. And Delmore’s not the only one who saw horses. Please come get the Subject. I have to leave her here.” He went to Lab 3 and came out in a white coat like Techs usually wear, carrying a black bag. He wrote down a number for me and told me to call it from the Box Room phone and Janet will come get me. He said don’t let anyone but her or him in, no matter what they say, and he went out the front door.

Then he came back and locked the door an extra way. I heard his truck drive off. I was alone on this empty, creaky Farm way out in the sticks. I been in worse situations, believe me. At least this one got heat.

I tried to call the number Rauden had left, but no one picked up. The Box Room screen was black again when I went in there to call.

I just went back in front and sat on the orange sofa and listen to the wind blow and the building creak.

Then I tried to call again.

The lights went off.

After a while, a phone was ringing. Not the regular phone. A different phone, near the freezers. Then it stopped. Then it rang again. This time it didn’t stop. Finally I went down the hall in the dark and picked up this different phone. A machine said, “Backup system will be activated in one minute. Please pull the lever at the green light to confirm.”

I put the phone down and felt my way past the freezers till I got to a green light which has a lever underneath I could see by the green light. I pulled it. The lights went on.

Something was hitting the window like rain, snow, when Rauden came in the front door, wet and excited, saying to the phone, “Two little heifers. Daisy’s doing great.” He seemed surprised to see me lying on the sofa. “Let me take a quick look around. Oh! Shit! What’s this now?” That was from the Box Room. “Can I get back to you?” I could hear him moving all the way down the hall. Then all the way up to me. “Did you touch something?
And do not goddamn say you do not know.”

I told him.

He sat down on the chair. “Henry! The old system was in place, storm knocked a cable out, that kicked on the old backup system and when the failsafe message went off, the Subject did what it told her to, and now the whole system’s totally fucked. Password? What password?”

He heaved himself up and went back down the hall toward the green light hoo-ha. The lights went off. Then on.

“Yup,” I could hear him say. “Her pure code was in the drive. And there was uncompleted bloodwork running. Let me check how that’s doing.” In a minute he was saying, “Please tell me how you knew that, Henry.” Then, “You’re kidding me. You’re fucking kidding me.” So he came all the way in front breathing noisy like he does and when he got to me, stared really hard, then said, “Dear fucking God,” and sat down on that chair. “You’re sure, Henry?”

So I’m in trouble now. I should not of pulled the lever. I should not of even picked up the different phone. He’s going to send me right back to the Mound.

But he just kept talking to Henry. “You’re saying I should pull her codes out, as a test?” He went in back. The lights went off, then on. “Then put her codes back in?” The lights went off, then on. I heard him say, “Dear God,” then he came up front and stared at me again. “You’re right! That’s how it used to work. What a crazy piece of luck. I’ll call Bernie right away.” He walked around in a little circle, saying, “Yes!” a few times, then, “Bernie? Rauden Sachs here. Long time! Look, can you fit a Subject in for a checkup? Let’s not go into detail on the phone but this could be something very special. Think you could squeeze her in between virgins? You still use the RV? We should make it by morning.”