Immortal (19 page)

Jonah wandered around the staging area, and
spoke here and there with the other honorees. A few would reveal
physically noticeable enhancements, and some, like Jonah would
reveal largely internal enhancements. The more he talked with them
the less he knew he had anything in common with them. His choice on
the vocal enhancement truly was for Vanessa. But the enhancement to
his memory was for him and him alone. And now that he knew what he
had not remembered, it angered him to have been so blatantly
manipulated. And his blood boiled at the thought of the not so
thinly veiled threat Roger had issued, of withholding rejuvenation
from Vanessa. How dare that bastard even say her name, he thought
as he grabbed a glass from the table in the corner and filled it
from the sparkle water fountain. He drained the glass, and tossed
the glass into the slot next to the table. He was angry. And he did
not feel that he could stomach more conversation with the waiting
honorees. He leaned against the wall near the corner, and suddenly
almost fell through, as the paneling swung inward. He caught his
balance as he grabbed the edge of the doorway and stood up inside
the adjacent room. He looked around briefly to see if anyone was in
the room, and noticed that the far wall had an open panel. Through
the opening he could see Roger’s back, seated in a chair. Quietly,
he swung the panel he had come through almost closed, and then
edged along the wall and approached the opening. He was close
enough now to hear them as they spoke.

“What do you mean, they haven’t caught the
bastard yet.” Roger yelled at Charles.

“Exactly what I just said.” Charles said
coolly.

“I told you to handle this!”

“And I ordered an entire squad of Guardians
to be dispatched.”

“Charles, this is ridiculous. We can’t have
some specimen running around loose.”

“Sir, I am well aware of this. The latest
report has the Guardians chasing them into the fetal prep area.”
Charles said.

“The fetal….the fetal prep area. Have you
lost your mind! That means it had to go through the warehouse!”
Roger yelled, and jumped up from his chair. Jonah eased back a
little to make sure that he was not seen. He bumped into a side
table, and set a small figurine in motion. With lightning fast
reflexes, he grabbed the figurine and stabilized it. “Wait…you
said, they. Damn it Charles, what the hell is going on?”

“They…did go through the warehouse. It
appears there are two intruders. We also have reports that some
storage tanks and product have been damaged in the warehouse.”
Charles said.

“Product damaged? Damn it, Charles, so help
me!” Roger paced the room. “Do we know whose product it was?”

“Not yet, sir.”

“Anything important damaged?” Roger
asked.

“It’s all important, in one way or the other,
sir.” Charles replied. “Some eyes, skin sections, a few major
organs.” Jonah’s eyes opened wider, as he listened stealthily from
the other room.

“You know, that could mean life or death for
several subjects.” Roger said.

“What’s done is done, sir. We’ll reprogram
the system to get replacement specimens started as soon as
possible.”

“Whatever.” Roger said, and stepped up into
Charles’s face. “You listen to me, Chancellor.” He said with severe
sarcasm. “You find them, and kill them right now!”

“We’re working on it-”

“I don’t care what you are working on. I am
telling you, you will find them right now. You! Personally! And
kill them!” Spittle flew from Roger’s lips as he yelled. “And if
you don’t. I’ll take care of you, myself!” Roger walked to the far
wall which slid open, and turned back. “Do I make myself clear?” He
asked.

“Yes, sir. Crystal.” Answered Charles. Roger
exited the room, and the door slid shut behind him. “Bastard.”
Charles said under his breath. He pulled his comm unit from his
tunic. “Amelia. Meet me in sector two immediately. And come armed.”
He put away his device and walked through the opening into the room
where Jonah was. Two steps in, he stopped. He had noticed that the
figurine was turned differently than before. He walked over to the
small table, and adjusted the figurine slightly. Satisfied that it
was correctly repositioned, he walked to the rear wall and touched
a section of the wall, which slid open to reveal an elevator. He
stepped inside and the door slid closed behind him. Slowly, Jonah
stood up from behind the chair in the corner of the room.

Gradually their eyes adjusted to the bright
light that emanated from the open doorway, and Jericho eased into
the new hallway, Gabrielle right behind him. The walls were
featureless and blaring white. The entire ceiling was the light
source. She eased up beside him, and they continued down the
hallway side by side. Twenty feet down they came to the first of a
series of doorways set on either side of the hall. It opened
automatically, and surprised Jericho to the point that he jumped
back. He swung his arm up to protect Gabrielle from whatever it may
contain. From his vantage point, it appeared to be a room similar
to where he had found Gabrielle earlier. It was featureless except
for the bed. However this bed did not have the metallic arms to
loom over it. It did however have something similar, yet not as
menacing, located at the foot of the bed. Gabrielle peeked inside,
and then turned to continue down the hall. The next door on the
opposite wall slid open as she approached. It was another room,
exactly as the previous. Jericho glanced inside as he passed by,
and approached the next doorway. Again the door opened into another
room exactly the same. They continued ahead to the next doorway of
the series and as it opened, they also heard the hallway door from
where they had come slide open. Jericho lunged into the room, and
pulled Gabrielle with him. They flattened themselves against the
wall by the door, his control stick ready for action. A rectangular
machine zipped past the open doorway, with a tank sitting atop its
shiny surface.

“It’s one of those-” Gabrielle began, as she
tried to describe the tanks where she had seen the tiny baby.

“Shh!” Jericho said quietly. They heard
another door slide open, and he quickly peeked down the hallway,
and watched as the rectangular machine turned into the next room,
and the door slid closed behind it. “Come on.” He said to
Gabrielle. They inched out into the hallway, and looked back down
from where they had come and saw the door was closed again.
Cautiously, they approached the next doorway, which suddenly slid
open. The rectangular machine exited, pivoted, then ran up the
hallway and disappeared around a corner. Jericho and Gabrielle
looked at one another. It had not carried the tank. The door in
front of them stayed open, and carefully they both looked
inside.

The tank sat on the floor next to the end of
the bed, and the metallic contraption at the foot of the bed busily
draped cloth over something on the bed. There were two large raised
areas near the foot, but from their vantage point it was hard to
see. Jericho motioned for Gabrielle to stay in the hall, and as she
nodded her acceptance, he eased into the room, and kept his back
against the wall as he did so. As he eased further into the room,
he could see that the bed was occupied. Apparently asleep, a woman
lay there peacefully. It was a woman he knew. Sarah. He looked down
at the tank on the floor, and Jericho realized what was happening.
Sarah was being implanted with an embryo. The embryo of her second
child.

The multi-armed metallic thing at the end of
the bed had positioned her body, so that her legs were raised near
the end of the bed. As it continued to work there, an additional
arm deftly opened the top of the tank, and then retracted. Suddenly
another arm, that ended in a large tube-like device shot into the
tank, paused, and then slowly began to move back and forth. Then
gently it raised out of the liquid, pivoted back under the sheet,
and disappeared. Jericho eased back out of the room.

“What’s happening?” Gabrielle whispered. He
realized she could not see Sarah from her position in the
hallway.

“It’s Sarah.” He said quietly. Her eyes went
wide.

“We have to get her out of-” She began as she
started to enter the room. He restrained her, and pushed her away
from the door, which slid shut behind them.

“No, Gabby.” He said softly, as she continued
to fight him.

“But it’s Sarah! We have to save her!” she
said louder now.

“Shh.” He said, and held her even tighter as
she continued to fight. “She’s not being hurt.”

“But that thing-” She began, as she still
struggled with him.

“Its implanting her.” He said. “With her
second child.” Her struggle died down, as realization began to
dawn. The tiny hand in the tank flashed back to her, her own hand
on the tank. “Her new baby.” He said softly. All fight was gone
from Gabrielle now, as she looked into his eyes.

“Her second child.” She said dejectedly. He
nodded. She looked back down the hallway, towards the door that led
to the hallway lined with tanks. Tears welled up, and then
overflowed. Her lip trembled, but she did not utter a single sound.
He held her. She sniffed, and wiped her eyes, as she drug her
forearm across her face. “Let’s go.” She said, and turned and
walked further down the hallway. Jericho, tears in his own eyes,
nodded his head, and followed.

In a few steps they had arrived at the turn
the rectangular machine had disappeared around, and cautiously
peered ahead. The continuing hallway was clear, and they quickly
proceeded further, and paused as they came to a large indentation
on the right wall. Gabrielle hesitated and looked further down the
hall, then at the indentation, and then at Jericho. He pointed to a
control panel, and she nodded. She laid her hand across it, and
seconds later keyed in a sequence of commands. Suddenly the
indentation split in the middle, and each side slid into the wall.
They stepped to the edge to look inside, and saw a fairly large
square shaft with an open grate for flooring. As they looked down
they could only see darkness beneath the grating. Jericho motioned
for Gabrielle to wait, as he tested his weight on the grated floor.
It held firm, and he motioned for her to join him. Even as she
entered, she too stepped cautiously on the grating, and was
unnerved that she could see right through it down into the dark
abyss below. She quickly moved to the side, and wrapped her arm
around a metal pipe that came up from the floor. As she did so, she
followed the pipe up with her eyes, and realized that it
interconnected with other pipes that came up from the floor as
well. And at the interconnection, she could see that it connected
to a cable of sorts.

Suddenly the bottom fell out beneath her. Her
heart lunged into her throat. Her hair began to wildly stream
upwards as she fell. As she still held tightly to the pipe, she
screamed, and heard Jericho scream as well. She caught sight of him
out of the corner of her eye, and saw that he held on for dear life
as well. Suddenly, the fall stopped, and she was thrown to the
floor. Her control stick was wrenched from her hand, and she
watched in horror as it slipped through the grated floor. She
lunged for it, as it slid completely through, and disappeared into
the darkness. She looked over to Jericho, who still held tightly to
the pipe. He let go, came to her, and helped her up just as the
wall slid apart. They looked out into a monstrous cavern with
disbelief. From their vantage point the place seemed immeasurable.
The huge ceiling vaulted high overhead, higher than any ceiling
they had ever seen. And it was not made of the smooth flat stone
that buildings in the village were made of, but instead it was
rough and multicolored. It was unlike anything they had ever seen
before. In awe, they cautiously edged out of the grate floored
room, and entered the cavern. Two steps out, and the door slid shut
behind them. Jericho whirled back, and quickly began to look for a
control panel. Gabrielle joined his efforts, but like the ceiling
above, the walls here were rough and irregular. There was nothing
flat except for the door itself. There was no control panel.

“Well.” Jericho said, as he gave up on
finding a way to reopen the door. “Let’s see where we are now.” He
walked cautiously ahead towards one of the large stacks of boxes,
which seemed to be everywhere within the cavern. He used it as
cover, and peeked around the corner. He saw that the stacks were
actually in specific rows, with just enough space between them to
walk between. He motioned to Gabrielle, as he began to weave his
way deeper into the cavern. As they moved, he was able to see a
large contraption that stood high above the stacks on the floor. He
paused. Gabrielle helped him climb the closest stack to get a
better look. His foot slipped, and he almost fell, but was able to
catch himself, and finally climbed the last box to the top. He
stayed crouched on top of the stack as he took in what he saw.
There appeared to be some type of series of rails suspended
horizontally from the ceiling. And attached to that rail system was
a large machine that would lower itself, pick up one of the stacks,
and shift it to the center of the room. Then it would zoom back,
and pick up the next stack, and shift it to the center of the room
as well. He could not see exactly where the stacks were moved, but
did notice that they were closer together there.

“What’s that?” Gabrielle asked, as she
startled him when she pulled herself up beside him.

“I don’t know.” He said, and pointed as the
machine set another stack in the middle of the room. “I think we
should go over there.” He said.

“Up or down?” She asked.

“Up or down?” He said, his expression made it
clear that he did not understand.

“Go there, from up here?” She said, jumping
to the top of the next stack of boxes. “Or down there?” She said as
she smiled, and pointed to the ground. Jericho smiled as well.