Jenny Plague-Bringer: (Jenny Pox #4) (40 page)

Seth and Jenny had both resolved to never to be used as weapons again.

Now, he waited anxiously as the door slowly opened, hoping that they’d sent Jenny
to see him for some reason.  He was disappointed when Mariella entered instead, and
the guard slammed the door behind her.

“Seth!” Mariella ran toward him, and he stood and awkwardly accepted her hug as she
pressed herself against him.

“Have you seen Jenny?” Seth asked.

“No...they wouldn’t let me see her.” She looked up at him. “But I’ve been doing their
tests, and they’re happy enough that I could ask for one privilege.  I told them I
wanted to see you.”

“You did?”

“Of course.  I needed to see you....I needed a friend.  And you always make feel so
safe.” She looked up at him and brushed her fingers through his hair. “Aren’t you
happy to see me?”

“I’m glad you’re okay.  I just wish I knew what they were doing with Jenny.”

“I’m sure Jenny’s fine.”

“How can you know that?”

“We’re fine, aren’t we?” Mariella smiled and touched his cheek. “They haven’t hurt
us, so I don’t think they’d hurt her, either.  If they wanted us dead, they wouldn’t
have bothered bringing us all this way.”

“And I wish I knew how the baby was doing,” Seth said.  He’d worried constantly about
Jenny losing this one, just as she’d lost all of them in past lives.  He knew it was
useless to hope, but he hoped more than anything else for a better outcome this time. 
He needed the baby to live—he could not imagine what life would be like if they lost
it.

“You’re under a lot of strain,” Mariella said softly, tracing her finger down his
cheek to the corner of his lip. “So am I.  That’s why I begged them to let me see
you.  I need you, Seth.” She rose up on her toes and tried to kiss him, but Seth dodged
it.

“What are you doing?” he asked, stepping back from her until his legs bumped against
his bed.  She moved closer, cornering him.

“I think you know.” Mariella wrapped her hands behind his neck and kissed him along
the cheek. “Play along, they’re watching,” she whispered.  Her fingers drifted down
along his muscular stomach, brushing the front of his orange prisoner jumpsuit.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Pretend to cooperate,” Mariella whispered. “It’s our best chance to find a way out.”

“I won’t even think about working with them until I’m with Jenny again.” Seth looked
up at the black dome in the ceiling. “Tell them that.” 

“Cooperating is the smart choice,” Mariella told him, not bothering to whisper now.
“If you don’t work with them, you’ll never get out of here.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Seth said. “Tell them I have to see Jenny, or I’ll make sure
everyone suffers.  Especially Ward.”

Mariella pulled back from him, looking angry.

“You’re making the wrong choice,” she told him.

“How can you be so sure you’re making the right one?” Seth asked.

“Just remember I tried to help you.” Mariella glanced at the black camera dome as
she left. “I did my part.  I can’t be responsible for what happens to you if you don’t
listen to me.”

“I’ll remember,” Seth said. “I’ll remember you turned on us the first chance you got.”

She had a hurt look in her eyes as she knocked on the door for the guards to let her
out. 

“You don’t understand anything, Seth,” she said.

“I understand enough,” he replied.  When she was out the door, he let out the breath
he’d been holding.

He was glad Mariella had left so quickly, because her visit had stirred up too much
of what had happened in the past and the confused feelings he still had for her. 
Mariella would be remembering those things, too, if she’d recovered her past-life
memories like Seth.

* * *

Niklaus knocked as he pushed open the door to Sebastian’s room.  The young S.S. officer
with the cold gray eyes looked without comment on the issue of
Amazing Stories
that Sebastian was re-reading for the tenth time.  No more American pulp fiction
could be brought to the base, under the irritating new guidelines that allowed only
“fine German culture,” such as films of Adolf Hitler addressing huge crowds, which
Sebastian hadn’t learned enough German to understand.  Sebastian could so far only
understand some common, simple words and phrases.

“Pack your bag,” Niklaus said in German. “You’re moving rooms.”

“Why?”

“Orders,” Niklaus replied. “Move now.”

“Where am I going?” Sebastian asked, standing up.

“Other room.”

“That’s very helpful, thank you.” Sebastian packed his clothes and meager belongings
into the suitcase he’d bought with Barrett’s money in Charleston.  It matched Juliana’s,
because she’d picked them out.

Niklaus took him past the double doors to the female dormitory hall, then unlocked
a third pair of double doors.  Sebastian had never seen them open before.

“What’s in there?” Sebastian asked.

“Other room,” Niklaus said again.

The mysterious third hallway had fewer rooms, just three doors on each side.  Niklaus
took him into the first door, into a room much larger than Sebastian’s previous dorm
room.  It was also carpeted, furnished with a fireplace, a dining table, a sofa and
ottoman, and hung with paintings.  Candles burned in sconces along the wall, and soft
chamber music played on a phonograph.  It was, Sebastian, could not deny, a much nicer
room.

The bed was queen-sized and hung with curtains.  Mia and Alise sat on the bed, holding
hands and smiling at him.

“Eight of diamonds,” Mariella said.

She sat at a table in one of the big concrete laboratories, next to a divider wall. 
A small hole in the wall allowed her to hold hands with the person on the other side. 
At the moment, that was a nineteen-year-old African-American girl.  Like most of the
subjects ASTRIA trucked in for this kind of testing, she was an Army soldier recently
out of basic training.  Mariella couldn’t see her, but she knew the girl was sitting
in front of a deck of cards, slowly turning them over one at a time.  Mariella had
to predict the next card before the girl turned it.

A few men and women in white coats watched her from across the room, while Ward watched
from the window above.

“Correct,” a lab assistant said, and she couldn’t help smiling a little.  Numbers
and letters were difficult to see in her visions of the future, but she always saw
things more clearly the nearer they were in time.  Over weeks of testing, she’d shown
a ninety-one percent success rate at seeing the cards, if the other subject was female,
and an eighty-seven percent success rate if she was holding hands with a male soldier
instead.  Interestingly, and embarrassingly, her rate of accurate predictions dropped
to seventy-four percent when she was physically attracted to the soldier in question,
as revealed by all her intimate heart, breathing, and brainwave data, which everyone
in the room could see on the monitors.

“Ten of clubs,” she said.

“Correct.”

“Jack of spades.”

“Correct.”

“Three of hearts.”

“Correct...”

When the day’s tests were finally done, Mariella was met outside the lab by a pair
of guards in body armor.  Instead of escorting her back to her own residential area,
though, they took her up to the administrative level and right to Ward’s office. 
He didn’t rise, only stared at her with his feral green eyes as she walked in.

“Did you want to see me, General Kilpatrick?” she asked Ward.

“How did it go with Seth?” he asked, though he certainly knew.

“Not good.  It’s going to take more time.”

“You were supposed to win him over,” Ward said.

“In one try?” she asked.

“He’s young and stupid.  You assured me it would not be a problem.”

“General Kilpatrick, sir, it’s nothing to seduce a man...but taking his heart requires
time.  His girlfriend is pregnant.  His feelings can’t be changed in a day.”

“In this line of work, we only care about results,” Ward told her. “We don’t care
how you get them.  Try harder.”

“I will, sir.”

Mariella left, feeling frustrated.  She understood why Seth wouldn’t want to cooperate
with Ward, but it was their only real choice for now.  They weren’t going to get anywhere
if they stayed caged up in the cellblock.  Why couldn’t he see it?  Why couldn’t he
at least pretend to play along?  Stubborn, stupid boy.

She told herself that her real frustration didn’t come from the part of her that hoped
to touch him again, the part of her that wanted to put her own feelings ahead of Jenny’s. 
She didn’t want to acknowledge any of those feelings, but they kept troubling her
anyway.

* * *

Mia couldn’t stop kissing Sebastian, and kissing wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy
her.  She grabbed at his shirt and tried to push it up, then grew frustrated and ripped
it open instead, little buttons raining down on the carpet at her feet.  Her hands
went to his bare chest and down his stomach.  His skin was radiant, like gold...the
entire world seemed washed in a golden fog, and all she could think about was the
hungry desire that threatened to consume her if she didn’t get even closer to him,
feeling his healing touch all over his skin.

His warm hands slid up the backs of her thighs, raising her dress.  He lifted it up
to her waist, and she eagerly held up her arms so he could take it all the way off. 
She reached her arms behind herself and unlatched the heavy brass hook on her bra,
which was stiff and starched and concealed half her torso.

“Enjoy each other,” Alise said, her voice like a distant echo that barely registered
in Mia’s brain.  Mia had entirely forgotten that Alise and Niklaus were still there. 
Mia paid them no attention as they looked at each other and laughed, and she didn’t
think of them again after they left and closed the door.  Her need for Sebastian filled
her body and mind.

She giggled as he threw on her the bed and then lay down beside her.  She lost all
sense of time as they kissed, her hands exploring the taut muscles of his body while
his fingers moved up her stomach, pulled her loosened bra aside, and touched her hard,
swollen nipples. 

Her hands found their way to the front of his trousers and pulled until they broke
open.  She reached inside, taking his hard length in her hand.

He made a kind of growling sound and rolled her on her back, and she hurried to take
off her underwear.  When he lay between her legs, she put him inside of her.

Every
part of him felt good, radiating his healing power.  She felt like a miniature sun
had flared to life between her hips, scorching her from the inside.

She whispered again and again that she loved him, she loved him, she loved him...

Tommy looked over the two rows of eight soldiers each, more of the kids just out of
basic training, standing ramrod-straight in their fatigues, their faces blank.  Their
last order had been to stand at attention, and then the officers and scientists had
all left the room, sealing them in with Tommy.

“So, what are you guys afraid of?” Tommy asked.  None of them replied, and he smirked.
“Going to war?  Getting your arm or your head blown off, maybe?  What about your families
back home?  Your parents?  Do you worry about horrible things happening to them? 
Nobody’s talking.”