Strange Robby (53 page)

"You're not dying, Spider. You're regenerating."

Carrie was more than a little disappointed. She would have liked to curl up around Spider, but the boy was sleeping between them instead, and she had to be content to hold Spider's hand. Laura tried to convince the boy to stay with she and Tommy, but he freaked out, and Spider insisted that he stay with her. Then, of course, he had to sleep with them—and not just with them, but between them.

No doubt he felt that Carrie represented a threat on his claim to Spider. Spider was all the boy had, and after the shit he'd been through he needed Spider. Needed Spider to be his mother.

When Carrie told Mark that she'd talked to his parents, that they missed him and were worried about him, he didn't even seem to care. He hadn't asked her a single question about them or about his sister. It was weird, because they had been the only family he'd ever known, and yet he didn't seem to be suffering from any separation anxiety. He seemed more than happy to forget them and form a new life with his biological mother.

It was a good thing, too, because God only knew if any of them would ever get their old lives back.

Carrie wondered where she was going to fit into the equation if that happened. If Mark stayed with them, would he accept her as part of Spider's life? Could he grow to love her, and she him? Or were they just going to be in each other's way, each trying to get what they both wanted—Spider's attention.

For now, she was the adult. She realized that a little boy who had been through the trauma Mark had been through needed someone to hold on to. For the time being she could take a back seat, but she was damned if she was going to do it on any sort of permanent basis.

She could just barely make out Spider's face in the moonlight. She had fallen to sleep the minute she lay down, and seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Behind her, sleeping on a cot close to the door was the black man. The Fry Guy. He had killed dozens of people, but then so had Spider Webb. He had an awesome power, but if he had wanted to kill them he could have done it easily, so she wasn't afraid of him.

Spider trusted him, so she trusted him, too. Spider had given up everything, risked all of their lives for him. Therein lay the real rub. He was the cause of all of their problems. If it hadn't been for him, none of this ever would have happened. She and Spider would be home in their own bed, as would Tommy and Laura. Mark would still be with his family with no idea that he wasn't right where he belonged.

Suddenly a chill went up Carrie's spine and she was covered with gooseflesh as somewhere in her mind enlightenment dawned. She was where she was supposed to be. They were all where they were supposed to be. All that had happened to them their whole life had brought them to this place at this time. If only one thing had been different . . .

Everything she had ever done had pointed her to this moment in time, and given her the strengths she needed to help take down the SWTF.

With this new enlightenment, Robby Strange became not the man who had witlessly ruined their lives, but the purveyor of their destiny.

 
"Moreover, land has an advantage for everyone:
he who tills a field is a king."
Ecclesiastes 5:8

 

Deacon looked across the desk top at the evil, prune-faced man, and wondered just how he was going to break the news that Han's favorite project was dead.

"Well?" Hans asked after it had been too long. He put an inhaler up to his mouth and took a deep, wheezing breath.

He looked worse than usual, so maybe he already knew.

"Get on with it, Deacon. I'm a busy . . . " another breath from the inhaler, " . . . a busy man."

Deacon decided to just spit it out. After all, maybe the old fuck would have a cardiac and die—hopefully in pain.

"Brawn is dead."

The old man's head jerked around and he stared at Deacon with his cold blue eyes. He was a tired, fragile, wizened up old man, but when he looked at Deacon like that, Deacon's blood ran cold and the hair stood up on the back of his neck. This fucker was just plain wicked.

"What!" Hans shouted with a quiver in his voice.

"He's dead," Deacon said matter-of-factly.

"Did you capture the others?" he asked, all emotion now vacant from his voice.

"No, Sir, and they got the DA, too." Deacon only kept the smile from his face with an effort. "She'd uncovered a lot. Apparently Denisten was able to access files through the FBI and he downloaded them to Carrie Long. What they don't already know they can get from Doctor Grant. At this point they no doubt know more than I know about the project."

Hans looked thoughtful. "How did he die? Was it the black one?"

"No, Sir," Deacon couldn't quite keep the smug grin off his face. "He was most probably killed by the Oriental."

Deacon watched the old man's face with baited breath. His super-hybrid son had been killed by a normal human. The old man's face contorted in rage. He glared at Deacon, and Deacon looked down at his own feet.

"So, what are you going to do now, Deacon?" he hissed.

"Excuse me, Sir?" Deacon didn't understand the question.

Hans got slowly out of his chair, and stood up behind his desk. His every movement was a lesson in pain. He put his fists on the desk and turned slowly to face Deacon, and now Deacon had to look at him.

"It's your job to take care of security, Deacon!" His voice shook in anger. "You incompetent fools! We did all the work. All you had to do was take care of security, and you screwed it up. We were so close, and now . . . The whole project is in jeopardy because of you American idiots."

For some reason Deacon just didn't feel like taking his shit today. "With all due respect, Sir. They killed Brawn. Brawn who was in every way superior to any of us. If Brawn couldn't stop them, what makes you think we could?"

"Get out of my office! Get out!" Hans hissed.

Deacon left. He didn't slam the door, but he did in his mind. His comlink buzzed and he answered it. "Hello, Deacon here."

"Deacon, this is Franklin. Get over to my office right away."

Deacon took a deep breath. Franklin was further up the food chain than Hans. He didn't know what to expect, but he didn't like it.

Franklin's secretary waved him right into the office.

Franklin looked up at him.

Deacon couldn't read his face.

"Just talk to Han's?"

"Yes Sir."

"Sit down, Deacon," Franklin said.

Deacon nodded and sat down.

"How'd the old fuck take it?" Franklin asked.

Deacon shrugged. "He was angry. I think he's basically incapable of any emotion as complex as grief."

"Deacon ole boy, word just came down from the top. We're going to put an end to the project."

Having been told what she needed, Spider had gone to bed and stayed there, getting up only to use the bathroom and eat a light meal, the rest of the time she slept a deep, dreamless sleep.

They had given up on trying to get the comlink to work as a computer.

To pass the time, Tommy was teaching Robby and Mark Jujitsu. When they weren't doing that, Robby and Tommy were hunting or working in the garden.

Francis was still gathering rocks and laying them out on the ground in the clearing in a strange formation. When Mark couldn't find anything better to do he helped her.

Laura had started talking and as far as Carrie could tell she hadn't stopped except to sleep or eat since she had arrived. Apparently she had really been starved for female companionship, and hadn't found it in either Spider or the weirdo scientist chick.

Carrie was usually a very attentive listener, but today as she helped Laura hang out some laundry they had beat on rocks down at the creek, her mind was on more important matters. However she did realize that Laura had asked her a question.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Where the hell were you?" Laura asked with a laugh. "I asked if you ever thought in a million years that you'd be going back to the stone age."

"No, I didn't," Carrie said. She was still far away from thoughts of laundry.

"OK. What is it?" Laura asked.

"I left instructions with George to post the files on the internet if I came up missing for more than a month. It's been a week and a half, already. Spider's still sleeping most of the time, Robby and Tommy are off playing martial arts, and no one's come up with a plan of action yet," Carrie said.

"We're all waiting for Spider, Carrie. After all, Spider's the only one who's ever really done anything like this before."

"You don't understand, Laura. We're running out of time. If George posts the information on the net before we have a chance to do whatever-the-hell it is that we are going to do, then . . . Well, we're running out of time, that's all."

"If the information got out to everyone, then they'd have to stop the SWTF," Laura said. She really didn't understand the problem.

"And what about the hybrids? There are hundreds of them, Laura. What about the general public? Hell, how do we know they won't go nuts and decide to make war with the aliens? As of this date, the aliens haven't shown any signs of being hostile. They're experimenting on us, but then so is our own fucking government. Who knows what kinds of weapons they might have, or if they themselves are weapons?"

"People have wondered for years whether there was extraterrestrial life. Now we know there is. I think people will be happy to know that," Laura assured her.

"Just like the Spaniards were happy to find out there were people living here in the 'New World?' Humans don't have a very good track record, Laura. We have a history of discovering strange and beautiful cultures and destroying them. The masses will hate the aliens, and they'll hate the hybrids all the more because part of them is us. And no one wants to know that there is someone out there who can download every sin they've ever committed." Carrie looked at Laura. "We've got to do something before George puts the information on the web. At the time, I thought it was the perfect stopgap measure. After all, it was what Spider had instructed Tommy to have his friend do with it in the first place. If Tommy hadn't had him give it to me instead . . . The more I think about it the more I believe that what the SWTF has done will seem like a cakewalk next to what the general public will do. We're talking mass hysteria. At which point we can all kiss any chance we have of going back to anything approaching a normal life goodbye."

Tommy and Robby walked over then. Robby looked right at Carrie. "What's wrong?"

Carrie explained what she had been telling Laura. "I need to make contact with George."

"OK. But let's not bother Spider. We'll drive to Weston. That's about a hundred and fifty miles from here. That should keep them off us. You can call George from there," Tommy said.

"What if they have his phone tapped?" Robby asked.

"They no doubt do." Carrie was thoughtful. "I'll just have to be careful how I word things."

"Who will go?" Laura asked.

"Me and Robby and Carrie," Tommy said.

"What if they find us here?" Laura said. "Spider wouldn't be much help right now."

"Mark . . . " Robby started.

"He's a boy. You can't expect him to stop an army." It was Carrie who said it.

"They're not going to find this camp," Tommy assured them.

"I don't think we better count on that," Carrie said.

"I could go with Carrie and you could stay here, Tommy," Robby suggested.

Tommy nodded. He didn't like being left behind, but Robby could handle anything they threw at him. Realistically, Tommy knew that he couldn't—especially not their pet hybrids.

"OK. You leave tomorrow morning. After Spider eats her breakfast, she'll go back to bed, and while she's sleeping you guys take off. You should be back long before she wakes up for dinner."

Carrie hadn't remembered the hike being so long, but then all she had been worried about was getting to Spider. They took the trail at a fast jog. Carrie was not in as good shape as Robby was. She was about to pass out, and he wasn't even winded.

"Hold up there, Rob." She stopped and leaned against a tree.

Robby came back up the trail to meet her.

"You OK?" he asked.

"You're trying to kill me!" Carrie panted out. "I've got to take a break." She scooted down the tree and sat on the ground at its base. Then she took her canteen from her shoulder and took a long drink.

"But if we're not back before Spider gets up, she's going to . . . "

"The rest of you are a lot more worried about her being pissed off than I am. I've incurred her wrath before, and lived. Believe me, it's just not all that bad."