Synthetic: Dark Beginning (15 page)

“Not a very romantic reason to get married.”

Kora adjusted the levels of the anesthetic.  “It's not about love.  I don't think it ever was.  But marrying him is the only way I can make things right.”

Vaughn tried to say something else, but Kora pressed the mask over his face. She watched until his eyelids closed and his body relaxed, then continued to stare at him while he slept.  She waited until Ishmael turned his back before leaning over to brush her lips against his, just as she had countless times with his drawing.

Chapter 17

Caleb held the antique, silk-upholstered couch high over his head while Ivan inspected the wall. He ran his fingers over every visible crack and then shook his head before pushing a little mop around the inlayed floor. Once everything was clean, he stepped back and signaled for Caleb to set the couch down.

“Where the hell did you hide that damn thing, Caleb?” Ivan dumped all his cleaning products into a large bucket for the giant to pick up. They passed by the twenty-foot dining table and stopped when Ivan spotted a streak. He attacked it with a rag and then moved on to another part of the table as if chasing the same blemish across the wood. “You’re with me every minute of the day and I’ve gone over this house again and again. There isn’t a single place you could hide it that I haven’t checked.”

He marched beneath the arch that led back to the main stairwell and Caleb clomped after him. Ivan popped open a slim door beneath the stairs, and motioned to Caleb to toss in the bucket. While Ivan occupied himself with straightening a cluttered shelf, Caleb pounded up the stairs and down the hall to his room. He rifled through his toy closet until he found a large metal box equipped with a long electrical cord.

He set the box down on his activity table and yanked off a container of colored pegs attached to the side with a magnet. He grabbed a handful of pegs and plugged them into the board as fast as his clumsy fingers would allow, paying no attention when Ivan burst into the room and switched on the monitor that swiveled over Caleb’s bed like an inescapable eye. The giant looked away as he struggled to focus on his task, but soon the squeaky voices and loud crashing sounds dragged his attention up to the screen. Still gripping a bright-green peg in his massive paw, Caleb toppled helplessly into a cartoon trance.

“Do you know places in this house that I don’t?” said Ivan as he made Caleb’s bed. “I’ve cleaned the damn thing thousands of times. There’s not a single beam I haven’t inspected for cobwebs. No carpet I haven’t pulled back for dusting.” He stared at Caleb’s huge, vacant face. A string of drool was trailing down the giant’s chin. Ivan jerked a tissue from a nearby box, scrambled up his leg, and wiped the spit away before it dripped onto his velvet shirt. He then set to work unbuttoning and unzipping until Caleb sat in a pair of blue satin boxer shorts. With massive effort, Ivan dressed him in a pink suit with a white bow tie and matching size twenty-seven loafers. After tweaking his clothes, Ivan stood on Caleb's shoulder, styled his black hair into a pompadour, then climbed down and stuffed all of his dirty clothes into a hamper shaped like a racecar.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes with a snack.” He was halfway down the hall when Ruby’s voice blasted into his skull.  “Dammit.” He gripped his head and staggered through a secret panel into a wall tunnel that was big enough only for him and the castle rats. He scurried up a ladder and burst into a room with parquet floors fit for a palace ballroom. At the far end, past nine windows draped in thick black velvet, Ruby lay in bed with the canopy curtains closed to further encase her in gloom.

“Come here, Ivan. Rub my feet. They’re sore from wearing those heels. I think I’ll wear my ballet slippers today.”

“Yes mistress.” Ivan hurried up to her bed and climbed one of the posts delicately carved with serpents, then hopped onto the duvet. He tossed back the covers to uncover Ruby’s swollen, wrinkled feet and set to work rubbing the tender flesh.

“What would I do without you Ivan? You’re the only one who cares for me. The others can go to hell.”

“I live to serve.”

“Good, because I have a job for you.”

“I’m very busy right now, mistress, the living room is clean but—”

“Take a break from all that work. No one around here gets more done than you.”

Ivan paused while kneading Ruby’s calves and glanced up to see she was studying him. “Take a break, mistress?”

“I want you to spy on Kora for me. She doesn’t seem to be doing any work, just moving piles of junk around the lab like a madwoman. My procedure is coming up and I’m not convinced she’s even finished with the alterations to my synthetic body.”
Ruby rolled onto her side so Ivan could reach that knot of veins that gave her so much trouble.
“
I should follow through with my threat and start hacking off her limbs, but torture just takes so much energy, and I'm not as young as I used to be.
”

“None of us are, Mistress,” said Ivan, working Ruby's cellulite in circles. He needed to get out of this job. Today was the day he was going to find the transceiver, but that wouldn't happen if he wasted his precious time watching that blue haired witch. “How can I spy when she spends all of her time down in the lab?”

“Go down there and join them. Become one of the gang.”

A mocking laugh gurgled up Ivan’s throat. “I despise clickish behavior—I’m above such things.”

Ruby shoved him with her bare foot. “Then be their servant. You definitely know how to do that.”

“Not with them.”

“You’re whatever I want you to be.” Ruby leaned up off her stack of pillows and her left eyelid pulsed as if an insect was trapped under the skin.

He remembered her threat and held his tongue. “What should I look for?”

Ruby sank back onto her pillows with a contented look on her face. “I want to know what the hell she’s doing all day. I have a feeling she’s up to something with Gus. That miserable hunchback reads too many detective novels.  He has yet to return a single book to the library.  I'd charge him but I know he doesn't have any money. He’s always plotting something, and I’m sure he put some outrageous idea into Kora's head.”

“What am I supposed to do, go down and dust the beakers? They’ll be suspicious.”

“Take them food. Feeding the guests is one of your duties that I know you neglect.”

“Gus finds his own way to the kitchen. If I take food down there now, he’ll know something’s up.”

“Take it to Kora, not Gus. I doubt she’s eaten since she first got here.”

Ivan realized that this was true. He’d taken food down to her on that first day—mainly so he could check her out—then promptly forgotten about her after those rude comments.

“But to get Gus on your side,” continued Ruby, “take down the donuts you made me for breakfast. If he seems suspicious, just tell him it’s a thanks for his excellent camera work yesterday.”

Ivan dropped her foot. “Did you see his film? All he did were close-ups of Vaughn. You can’t even see anyone else. If you let him film your new show, that’s all it’s going to be: Vaughn’s idiotic face filling the screen.”

Ruby pulled the duvet back over her legs.  “That doesn’t matter. Right now I just need you to take the goddamn donuts down to the lab and keep tabs on Gus and Kora.”

Ivan bowed, hopped off the bed, and disappeared through a different panel in the wall.  He scurried down various ladders and through impossibly small holes until he burst through the back of a cupboard in the kitchen. He filled a cart with every type of food he could get his hands on and when it was nearly full, he packed the donuts neatly on top, making sure they didn’t get lost in the jumble of fried chicken and peeled oranges. He trundled the cart to the top of the stairs in the living room and locked it onto a mechanical arm that lifted it into the air and carried it down the wall. When they reached the bottom, Ivan unhooked the cart and steered it toward Kora’s lab where he could already hear Gus banging his stupid coffee filter against the garbage can.

“What are you doing here, Ivan?” said Gus, eying the donuts. “Ruby sent you to spy, didn’t she?”

Ivan kicked the wheel of the cart with his boot. “I knew it wouldn’t work.  She has no idea how much I loathe you.”

“Exactly,” said Gus, snatching up a glazed pastry and stuffing it into his mouth. “She thinks we just have a mild distaste for each other when actually it’s a deep, multifaceted hatred. Still, it’s fine with me if you want to be the castle mole.”

“Really? You don’t care?”

“Not at all. She’s got the place bugged anyway so even at this moment, I’m sure she’s listening in, aware that we’re aware of your betrayal.”

Ivan frowned, unsure whether or not this was a good thing.

Gus burst into laughter. “Actually I lied. This is probably the only room in the castle that isn’t bugged. They interfere with Kora’s machines so Ruby had to leave this room clean. She packed you off down here to fill in her blind spot.”

“Then I’ll just make myself comfortable.” Ivan grabbed a cold chicken leg off the cart and proceeded to gnaw it like a rodent. It was the most delicious thing on the cart and he wasn't about to waste it on pastry-eating morons. “It’s not like I want to be here. I have more important things to do than listen to your lusty drivel about Vaughn.”

“I bet you have lots of corns to chew off of Ruby’s feet.”

Ivan stripped a fat piece of meat off the leg and dropped it in his mouth, never taking his eyes off Gus. “You have nothing to do all day but drink coffee, read idiotic detective books, and make a nuisance of yourself.  I, on the other hand, have responsibilities, and if I don’t get them done there are consequences.”

“Like what?”

“Like having my brain scrambled at the mere press of a button. Not that you would care. You think I relish my servitude—that I live to scrub every toilet in the house and then settle down to a nice evening of waxing Ruby’s bikini line. What I’d rather be doing right now is finding the miserable device that allows Ruby to carry out this brutal torture, but instead I have to sit here and spy on your stupid hump.”

Gus swallowed the donut he was chewing. “You know, I never really thought about your life before. Sounds horrible.” He sat down on the couch beside Ivan who immediately stood up. The hunchback had no respect for personal space. “I’d like to help you with this brain scrambling thing. Sounds like it’s right up my alley.”

Ivan snorted as he searched the cart for more chicken. It tasted even better than it had the night before. His own culinary prowess never ceased to amaze him. “Your help is worthless. Go polish your thermos or something but leave me alone.”

“I’m not as worthless as you think.”

“Of course you are. What could you possibly do?”

Gus swept off the couch to stand before Ivan like a magician. “I’ll begin with a few questions. I assume you’ve already looked around for this thing?”

“It’s called a transceiver and yes, I’ve looked everywhere.”

“And who originally made it—Ruby?”

“No, Caleb. He made it for Ruby a long time ago. At least that’s what Humphrey told me.”

“That’s wild,” said Gus, scratching his head.

“Caleb doesn’t remember anything about it. I grilled him all day yesterday.”

Gus paced back and forth before the couch.
“Does it work all over the house? Have you noticed if the signal is weaker, say, in the kitchen?”

“The signal doesn't weaken until I'm five miles from the castle.”

“Hmmm. Can't narrow it down that way, then.” Gus stared through Ivan for a minute. “Do you and Caleb ever play hide and seek?”

Ivan tossed his chicken bone into the nearby trashcan and resumed his spot on the empty couch. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Maybe nothing. I’m just asking.”

Ivan wiped his fingers on a napkin and checked his clothes for grease stains. “He’s a child. Of course we play hide and seek.”

“Where does Caleb usually hide? In the kitchen? The dining room?”

“He always hides in his own room. He’s not very adventurous and likes to be found.”

“That’s interesting,” said Gus, pausing with his finger pressed against his chin.

“No it’s not. It makes the game very boring.”

“Have you ever looked his room over for the transceiver?”

“I clean his damn room every day. I know it better than any room in the entire house.” He'd had enough of talking to Gus, but once you got the hunchback going, he never shut up.
Maybe he could bury the miserable creature in one of the wall tunnels no one knew about—they'd never find his body.

“That’s the problem. You know it so well you don’t see it.”

“This is ridiculous.” Ivan scowled and folded his arms over his chest.

“I just want you to close your eyes, try to relax, and think like Caleb for a moment.” Ivan grudgingly lowered his lids. “If you were Caleb and needed to hide something, where would you put it? In some distant part of the house?”

“No.”

“Remember, we’re not talking about Caleb as he is now, but how he was nine years ago.”

Ivan wrinkled his nose. “It’s too hard to remember what he used to be like. I imagine he moved around the castle more back then, but I know he still loved his room.”

“Let me try a different direction. Would Ruby have thought to search in Caleb’s room for anything secret?”

“I don’t know. You’ve seen Caleb’s room. There’s crap everywhere: toys and games stacked to the ceiling.  She wouldn’t have the patience to go through everything.”

“Then it would be the perfect place to hide something important. Something he didn’t want Ruby to find.”

“I guess,” said Ivan. “Can I open my eyes now?”

“You’ve been a great help.”