Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) (15 page)

Chapter 14

Eventually, Jace
actually did fall asleep.  I marveled at how men could simply shut down their
thoughts and instantly find succor in the world of dreams.  I didn’t feel the
need for sleep and had to endure an almost two hour flight before the
helicopter finally made its descent and landed.  Michael woke wiping the sleep
from his eyes before sitting up straighter and looking at us. 

“We should
probably take you over to our doctor first,” Michael said to me.

“Why?” I asked,
suspicious of his motives.

“We know you’re
blood can cure the Cain virus.  He wants to study it.”

“Why would you be
interested in the cure?” Jace asked, not quite fully trusting our new found
benefactor either.

“Because if we can
figure out what it is about her blood that acts as a cure, maybe we can design
the virus to be immune to it.”

“What do you mean
‘design the virus’?”

“The group I’m
with is responsible for making the Cain virus,” Michael revealed.  “We just
haven’t found a good way to mass distribute it yet.  But if Lucena can use your
blood as a cure, what’s the point?  We need to find a way to make the virus
immune to whatever special properties your blood contains.”

“How much about me
do you know?” I asked.

“Enough.”

“That’s not an
answer.”

“I know it’s not
princess
,
but we’ve got things to do first.  I’ll answer all of your questions in good
time.”  Michael slid the door of the helicopter open effectively cutting off
any more of my questions.

When I stepped out
of the helicopter, I saw we had landed in what looked like an old military
base.  Michael walked to an old green Humvee and got into the driver’s side
waiting for us to follow him.

“We’ll go see Wilford
first so he can take some samples of your blood and then I’ll show you where
you can rest.”

“What are you
planning to do with us?” Jace asked.

“We can talk about
that once you’re settled,” Michael said before starting the engine and driving
away from the tarmac.

A few minutes
later we stopped in front of a large five story building.  Michael instructed
us to follow him inside.  Once inside we had to go through two checkpoints
before being allowed to enter the elevator.  In the elevator, Michael pressed
the basement button.  When the door opened, we were instantly inside a
laboratory.  It looked nothing like the one the Queen had.  Where her walls
were white and pristine, this lab was old with cracked, tan painted walls and a
grungy looking tiled floor which obviously hadn’t seen the head of a mop in
ages.  There was some scientific equipment on the counters but it looked old.  I
was surprised any of it still worked.

“Wilford, she’s
here,” Michael called out.

I heard movement
from behind some cardboard boxes in the far corner.  A man dressed in a blue
and white plaid shirt and baggy blue jeans with red suspenders came out from
behind the boxes.  He looked to be in his early seventies with balding white
hair and a white upside down U-shaped mustache hanging from his upper lip.  His
wire-rimmed glasses were perched on a bulbous nose and from the brown age spots
on his face you could tell he had spent a lot of time out under the sun before
the war.  His face seemed to be puckered into a permanent scowl.

“Well about damn
time,” he grumbled.  “What took you so long?”

“Stop
complaining,” Michael told him good naturedly.  “It’s not like you had to risk
your life to bring her here.”

Wilford grunted,
tucking his thumbs under his red suspenders as he continued to shuffle towards
us.

“Well,” he said
stopping a hairs breadth away from me.  “I certainly see a lot of that woman in
you, girl.”

“Thank you,” I
said.  “The Queen is very beautiful.”

Wilford’s bushy
eyebrows shot up as he turned to Michael.  “I thought you said you were getting
to her before she got converted.”

“We tried,”
Michael said, “but we were a few minutes too late.”

Wilford grunted
again and looked back at me.  “Not sure your blood’s gonna be worth a shit now
with all those harvester nanites running around in it.  Guess we’ll just have
to see.”

“So you think my
blood is no longer valuable to the Queen?” I asked, troubled by the thought,
knowing how disappointed the she would be in me.

“Don’t know yet. 
Didn’t I just say that?”  Wilford grumbled.

“Take it easy, Wilford,”
Michael said.  “You know what it’s like for harvesters, especially right after
the conversion.”

“What do you mean?”
Jace asked.

“Newbie harvesters
are all about pleasing the Queen,” Wilford said, like it was a bad thing. 
“It’s programmed into that damn awful chip in their heads.”

“Can you get the
chip out?” Jace asked hopefully.

“Sure,” Wilford
said, “if you want to kill the girl, I can get it out.”

“Wilford…” Michael
warned.

“Well it’s the
truth.  What do you want me to do, lie to the boy?”

“No but you’re
making it sound like there’s no hope.”

“Well I doubt she
can be turned with the Cain virus especially if her blood still contains the
cure.”

“Then what can be
done?” Jace asked.  “There has to be another way.”

“I … might have a
way,” Michael said hesitantly.

“What is it?” Jace
and I asked at the same time.

Michael shook his
head.  “If I told you, it would never work.  You’ll just have to trust me.”

“You throw that
word around a lot,” Jace said.  “But you still haven’t given us a good reason
why we should trust you.”

Michael looked at
Jace.  “You can trust me because I’m your father.”

Jace slowly shook
his head.  “That can’t be true.  My father was a harvester.”

“I was a harvester
once,” Michael said.  “The first male one in fact.”

“So you’re
infected with the Cain virus?” I asked.

“No.”

“Then how did it
happen?” Jace asked.

“I can’t tell you
that just yet.  There were other factors involved,” Michael looked directly at
me.  “But I’m hoping we can use the same strategy on Skye.  It’s the only other
way I know to fix her.”

“I don’t need to
be fixed because I’m not broken,” I said, feeling an irrational anger build
inside me.  “There’s nothing wrong with me.  I’m perfect.”

Wilford grunted. 
“Yeah and you’ll be perfectly insane just like that woman if we don’t change
you back soon.”

Jace turned his
attention back to Michael.  “Is my mother really dead?  Or did Lucena lie about
that too?”

“No, she told you
the truth.  Lucena had her harvested right after you were born.”

“Why?”

“Because I loved
her.”

“Why would Lucena
care?”

“Because I used to
be married to Lucena.” Michael crossed his arms as if fortifying himself to
tell us the rest of the story.  “As you might imagine, Lucena wasn’t the
easiest person to be married to.  She was demanding in her work and her
personal life.  When I met your mother, it was like I could actually breathe
again when we were together.”

“So you and my
mother were having an affair?”

“Honestly, I felt
like I was more married to your mother than to Lucena.  When Lucena found out
about the affair, she converted me into a harvester before she was able to
perfect the chip.  I think she thought it would make me into someone who adored
only her, but she was wrong.  I was still able to feel the love I shared with
your mother.  I think that’s how she became pregnant with you.  That’s why
you’re the only child of a harvester and human.  After Lucena found out you
existed, she altered the chip to make sure harvesters could only feel love for
her.  I don’t think she liked the idea of divided loyalties.”

“Why did you let
her take me?” Jace asked.

“I was told you
died in childbirth.  I didn’t even know you existed until a couple of years
ago.  I’ve been trying to get you back ever since.”

“Wait a minute,” I
said.  “Jace looks like he’s at least twenty-five but Lucena didn’t start
making harvesters until two years before the war.  How is that possible?”

“Jace is actually
only fifteen years old.  Lucena used growth stimulants to accelerate his
aging.”

I looked at Jace
realizing I was older than him.  The thought seemed odd to say the least. 

Wilford gasped. 
His eyes were opened so wide I thought they would pop out of his skull.   Michael
drew his gun from the holster at his hip and pointed it at something directly
behind me.

“Where the hell
did the two of you come from?”  Wilford demanded, his face was as white as a
sheet.

I turned to find
out what had spooked them both and saw Simon and Ian standing directly behind
me.  Simon was smiling as if pleased with himself and Ian just looked shell
shocked.    

“Where have you
been?” I asked Simon.  Rose had visited me once already since our first
encounter but I hadn’t seen Simon since he released Zoe from his protective
shield.

“I wasn’t allowed
to come until now,” Simon replied, knowing full well I knew my future self was
the one controlling when and where Simon and Rose traveled to in the past.

“How the hell did
I get here?” Ian asked, taking in his new surroundings.

“I’m sorry,” Simon
said to Ian.  “I couldn’t take the risk of anyone seeing me when I took you, or
I would have explained myself before bringing you here.”

“Can someone tell
me what the hell is going on?” Michael said, his gun still pointed in Simon and
Ian’s direction.

“It’s ok,” Jace
told Michael.  “They’re friends.”

Michael
reluctantly holstered his weapon but didn’t close the catch on the side to keep
it easily accessible.

“How the hell did
the two of you get here?” Wilford asked.

“I think the more
important question is why we are here,” Simon said, deflecting the question.

“Are you here to
help Skye?” The hope in Jace’s voice irritated me.  Why did everyone think I
needed help?  Why was Jace so insistent on making me human again? 

“No,” Simon
replied.  “I’ve brought Ian here to help you rescue Ash and Zoe.”

“Rescue?” Ian
asked.  “Rescue them from what?”

“Lucena has them,”
Jace told Ian.  “We don’t know where they are.”

“Ian can help,”
Simon said.

“I can?” Ian
asked.  “How the hell do I know where they are?”

“You have the
knowledge to find them,” Simon said.  “That’s all I’m allowed to say.”

Simon turned to me
and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.  “Have faith in your friends to
help you.  I’ll be back when you need me again.”  He leaned down to kiss my
cheek but I turned my face so that our lips met instead.

I instantly pulled
away.  The meeting of our lips wasn’t the physical release I had expected. 
Instead of quenching the lust I felt, it made me feel strangely revolted.

Apparently Simon
felt the same from the way he used the back of his hand to wipe any trace of
the kiss from his lips.

“I wish you had
warned me about that before I came here,” he said before vanishing.

“Ok,” Ian said
staring at the empty spot where Simon had just been a second ago.  “Who the
hell was that guy and how did he just disappear?”

“He’s from the
future,” I said.  “It’s how they travel.”

“They?  You mean there’s
more of them?”

“Don’t over think
it, Ian.  It would probably just give you a headache.”

“Where were you
before he brought you here?” Jace asked.

It was a question
I should have thought to ask but simply didn’t think about.  If I had been my
old self I suppose I would have wanted to know how my father and friends back
south were doing.  But, the thought didn’t even occur to the new me.

“I was in the back-up
Southern Kingdom helping Doc Riley set up the new orchard unit there.”

“How is everyone? 
Kirk?  Teegan?” Jace asked.

“Not the same
since Skye left.  People down there are divided into two groups now that the
cat’s been let out of the proverbial bag about trading humans to Lucena.  Some
of them want to come over here and kick her ass and others just want to keep
handing them over to her to save their own asses.”

“And what does my
father say?” I asked.

“He’s leading the
people who think we should fight.”

“Hypocritical of
him isn’t it?  He was all for it when it served his purpose.”

Ian eyed me up and
down.  “Since when did you turn into such a hard ass?”

“Lucena converted Skye,”
Jace said.

Ian’s face
darkened.

“How the hell did
you let that happen?” Ian said through clinched teeth.  “I thought you would
protect her while she was with that monster.”

“Do you honestly
think I willing let it happen?” Jace’s voice rose with anger.

Ian’s scowl slowly
faded.  “No,” he answered taking a deep breath.  “I don’t.”

Ian looked at me
with new found interest.

“So how are you
feeling?” He asked me.

“I don’t feel
much,” I answered.

“Riiigghhtt,” Ian
scoffed, “that’s why you just tried to have a battle of the tongues with future
man before he left.”

“Well if you think
you’re such an expert on how I’m feeling why ask the question?”

“People come out
of the conversion process differently.  I guess I was hoping you had retained
some of who you were.”

“I’m better than I
was,” I said.

Ian shook his
head.  “Just physically stronger, not better.  You’re weaker in a lot of ways.”

“How so?”

“Being able to
care about the people around you makes you stronger than any nanites can.  It’s
why the human race will eventually win this war.”

“Didn’t take you
for such a hypocrite.  You chose to be a harvester once.”