AfterLife (25 page)

“So we can do what instead? My brother just got in a cab
with the enemy. He kissed her. I’d say he’s feeling pretty comfortable with her
already, wouldn’t you? I’m not sitting around in the apartment waiting for
instructions!”

“Then what are you going to do, Wes? Take on the Atumra by
yourself? You don’t have to think like that anymore. It’s not just you against
the world. Be patient just a little longer and you’ll get more help than you’ll
know what to do with. Besides, what choice do we have? Do you know where they
are? Do you know where Jez was taking him? Oscar said he’d let me know as soon
as they come up with anything, and as soon as the Ancestors decide what to do
next. Between you and me, I think they’re probably more worried about losing
your brother to the Atumra than you are.”

“I don’t see how. To them it’s just another recruit they’ve
lost to the bad guys.”

“No, Wes, I’ve heard what you can do when you sync. If your
brother has those same abilities and they can recruit him, they’ll have a very
powerful weapon in their ranks. It makes sense they would want to recruit him.”

Wes hadn’t thought about his “special” syncing ability in a
long while. It wasn’t something he did often. In fact he’d only done it a few
times with Emily and Ken while training in Charleston. Ken had been helping him
determine the extent of his ability, and they had made some discoveries. Still,
for the most part he followed the advice he was given not do it until he knew
more about it.

“The Atumra couldn’t know that I have that ability. No one
knows but the Ancestors, Emily, and you.” Wes slowed his pace and looked down
at Meri suspiciously. “How do you know, anyway? I never told you.”

“Emily told me to watch out for it,” Meri said, looking up
at Wes. She was still hanging on his arm, and smiled a lopsided smile at him to
ease the tension. “Actually, she had a long list of things I should look out
for. She also said I should sync with you so that if anything were to happen to
either of us we’d be able to communicate.”

“That’s a good idea. Maybe we should do that when we get
home.”

Dusk was settling in when they got back to their apartment
even though the hour was still early. Wes tried to read for a couple of hours
to get his mind off his brother. It didn’t help. Meri finally went into
meditation and Wes decided he’d follow suit and do the same.

He closed his eyes and retreated into his mind. He stood in
the nothingness trying to decide where to go. He didn’t think his park would
offer the comfort it usually did. Not tonight. There was too much on his mind,
and it wouldn’t disappear by simply walking through false fantasy lands. He had
to concentrate on how he could free Lyall from the grip of the Atumra.

Once he calmed down enough to think rationally, he realized
he couldn’t save his brother by himself. There was wisdom in Meri’s pleadings
to wait for the Ancestors to devise a plan. AfterLife would be there to help
him and he needed to be patient enough to let them. Nothing would be achieved
by separating himself from Meri and the rest of their organization. For the
first time in a long while he allowed himself to depend on someone else, and it
was pleasantly surprising how reassuring it was to admit he not only needed,
but had others who supported him. Others who cared about him.

 As he moved through the nothingness, Wes realized there was
something he could do. His conversation with Meri reminded him that he didn’t
need satellite tracking equipment and spy cameras to find Jezebel. He could
talk to her regardless of her physical whereabouts. If she was the actual
reason for his death and not the pills as Anne Marie theorized, then she had
synced with him. If she had synced with him once, he should be able to connect
with her again. The power to talk to Jez had been his since the night of his
death.

He focused on Jezebel and concentrated his thoughts on only
her. The darkness swirled around him and soon he was walking along a path in a
beautiful botanical garden. Small puffs of clouds crawled across a dazzlingly blue
sky that contrasted with the deep greens and glowing hues of the flora. As his
surroundings came into focus he saw her ahead of him sitting cross-legged on
the grass surrounded by flowering bushes. She was twirling a vibrant purple
flower in her fingers and staring at it with the appearance of mental
preoccupation.

“What kind of flower is it?” Wes asked as he approached.

Jezebel looked up and the flower stopped dancing in her
fingers. Her eyes widened as a look of surprise came across her face. “Wes?” The
word “How” was formed by her lips but no sound accompanied the question.

Wes ignored her shock and sat down on the grass next to her.
“It doesn’t matter how, does it? I’m here and we can talk uninterrupted.” Wes
motioned to the bloom she was holding. “The flower?”

The surprise on her face disappeared as quickly as it had
materialized, and she looked away. She started spinning the flower again. Its
long stem ran through her fingers to small bell-shaped purple blooms that
opened up at the top. “It’s hyacinth; one of my favorites.” The flower spun in
a circle one way and then back around the other way a few times as the two of
them watched. “All the flowers here are my favorites.” Her free hand pointed to
some bushes to their right. “Those are oleanders there, and over here I have
monkshood and begonias. On the other side of the walkway I have geraniums and
dahlias. I usually sit over there, but tonight calls for oleanders.”

“Well, for someone who has no heart, this is a very pretty
place.” Wes nodded as he looked around at the garden.

“I was expecting a verbal assault. I just didn’t think you’d
get to it so quickly.” Jez turned her head toward him and tucked the black hair
on one side of her head behind her ear. “You hate me. I know that.”

“I don’t even know you Jez. I don’t know you well enough to
hate you. I don’t know you at all, in fact. How much of the person I knew when
I was alive is really you?”

Jezebel looked up at passing white clouds in the blue sky.
She bit her lower lip and then slowly released it from the grip of her teeth.
“There was a little bit of me in that person.” She lowered her chin, her eyes
avoiding Wes’s, and began rotating the flower in her fingers again. “You don’t
understand, Wes.”

“I understand that you lied to me. I understand that you
killed me. I understand that you have my brother. How long before you kill him
too?” Wes’s voice was firm.

“I didn’t kill you, I saved you.” Jezebel said, her voice
hardening. “You might not believe it, but I did what I thought was best for
you. However, this isn’t about you and me. It never has been, and you’re naïve
if you think it is. By now you know I’m a soldier for the Atumra. You were a
recruit, an assignment. I did to you what I’ve done dozens of times before, and
I’ve never considered what would happen to any of the people I’ve recruited.
Until you. If you remember that night correctly, you’ll have to admit I didn’t
kill you, you were killing yourself. If anything I saved you, and then I left
you to be found by people you could be happy with. Just so you know, my actions
had consequences for me, too.” She stood up and threw the flower she was
holding at him and began walking away.

Wes stood up and followed after her. Catching up, he grabbed
her arm to stop her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d be so emotional about
this. I appreciate what you did, and you’re right, I think I knew I was dying.”
He had only ever thought about how his becoming a Mortui had affected him. He’d
never considered it from Jez’s point of view, or the penalty she might have to
face for failing to recruit him.

“Like I said, you don’t understand.”

“No, I guess you’re right. I don’t.” Wes dropped his hand to
his side. “I’ve been trying to understand all this for a while now. You’re good
at recruiting though. I completely fell for you. I thought I was in love with
you, you know.”

“I know. I could tell you were falling for me. It’s what I
wanted to happen. What I didn’t expect was …” She paused and lowered her head.
“What I didn’t expect was that I’d fall for you, too.”

“I don’t believe that.” Wes turned away. He didn’t want to
hear those words from her, truthful or not. He discovered he felt nothing for
her but pity.

“I didn’t expect you would, but there it is, take it or
leave it. I have nothing left to hide.”

“You’re hiding my brother.” Wes turned back to face her.

“Look Wes, you may have a chance to save Lyall. He’ll be
making the final transition to Mortui tomorrow night at the Atumra headquarters
here in Chicago. Seth wants all the new recruits to make their final
transitions there. He doesn’t trust us to do it anywhere else; not after I
screwed up with you.”

“Who’s Seth?”

“He’s who I report to, the head of our local division. He
reports to the Body.”

Even though the hierarchy of the Atumra had been explained
to him during his training, he didn’t quite remember all the details. “Where’s
the headquarters?”

“Do you remember that cupcake place we used to go to when I
was recruiting you?”

Wes thought for a minute and remembered the small bakery she
was talking about. “Yes.”

“That whole building is it. In fact, all the shops and the
pub along the street are operated by Atumra Mortuis.”

“What am I supposed to do? Do I just walk in and get my
brother out of a building swarming with Atumra soldiers? That doesn’t exactly
sound like a very good option.”

Jezebel shook her head. “No, the building will be almost
empty. None of us actually live there. We live all over the city like you do.”

She was right. None of the Mortui in AfterLife lived at the
Hub. They lived, as Emily had once put it, among the living. The only people
who were at the Hub regularly were the Ancestors and Oscar because he was in
Ops. In fact there were times when it was almost empty.

“I’m not saying it’ll be easy,” Jezebel continued. “Seth
will be there and a few soldiers, but if you bring some backup I’m sure you
could free your brother. They’ll be completely unprepared for any type of
intrusion so the element of surprise will be on your side. No one’s ever tried
to break in before.

“There’s a stainless steel door next to a garage door in the
alleyway that runs down the back of the building. I’ll leave it unlocked. Your
brother is being kept in the basement; that’s where we do rebirths. There are
sensors and cameras of course, but I’ll take care of them for you. I can distract
the guy who will be on surveillance.”

Wes wanted to believe Jezebel, but this didn’t feel right.
She’d lied to him before and he was sure she was lying to him now. It sounded
like a setup.

“Look, Wes, I’m recruiting your brother because I have to. I
made the mistake of letting you get away, and to make up for it I had to bring
in Lyall. Part of me did have feelings for you. There was a part of me that
wanted to leave you to live the rest of your life in peace. Except I couldn’t
do that. The Atumra would never have allowed it. If I didn’t recruit you,
someone else would have been sent to do it. Then, when I came across you lying
on the floor dying from an overdose, I found a way to help you escape the
slavery I face every day. Now I have to pay for the loss of a recruit. I
realized soon after joining the Atumra what a mistake it was, and I have been
trying to free myself from them ever since. The problem is that I’m further
from freedom than I’ve ever been.”

She tucked her hair behind her ears as it fell forward into
her face again. “Use the information I’ve given you. They’ll never know you’re
coming. I’m not going to tell them or they’ll know I’ve talked to you. That’s
the last thing I want. I’m in enough trouble.”

Maybe he could trust her, Wes thought. Her words seemed
genuine. Besides, who would know they had talked? No one in the Atumra could
possibly know of his ability. If she revealed this meeting and she really was
the slave she claimed to be, the punishment would be worse than anything she
was currently facing for losing him as a recruit.

Jez led them back to where she had thrown the purple
hyacinth at him. “I want you to have this,” she said, picking up the flower and
handing it to him.

Wes took the flower. “I should probably go now. I have to plan
a rescue mission.”

She nodded as she tucked her hair behind her ears. “Yes, you
do. Be careful. Remember the oleander.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing.” She waved him on. “Forget it. You should go now.”

Wes turned and walked down the path away from Jezebel and
the garden slowly faded around him. There was a lot to consider. If Jezebel was
telling the truth he would have the opportunity to free his brother from the
Atumra. If she wasn’t, they would walk into a trap. Either way, it was time to
share the information with the people who would be helping rescue his brother.

S
eth sat behind
his desk gazing at the shadows that flittered around the room. They were caused
by the rays of the various street and business lights on the street below. It
was a quiet night; the sounds of the city never reached his office or dared to
permeate his private domain.  Jezebel lay on his office couch in meditation. He
was hoping Wesley had taken the bait. They had purposely made sure he would see
Jezebel with his brother earlier that day, and if the information about
Wesley’s ability was true, he expected Wes would sync with Jezebel to find out
what was happening. His hope was that Wes was synced with her at this very
moment, and if so, the next part of the plan depended on how well she played
her role. She had better play it well, he thought.

Destroying Wes and assimilating his brother were his first
priorities and represented a major portion of his strategy to reestablish his
competency in the eyes of the Body. He needed everything to work according to
this plan, and he wouldn’t allow Jezebel to interfere. He watched her on the
couch, her eyes closed, and thought how vulnerable she was. He could end her
existence instantly if he wanted. This whole situation was due to her
incompetence. Unfortunately, he needed her for the plan to be successful, but
once she served her purpose, he had every intention of throwing her into the
incinerator in the catacombs. Her demise would serve to illustrate his control
over the soldiers under his command.