The Children of the Sun (36 page)

“So you brainwashed her?”

“That is an ugly, simplistic term for a beautiful, complex process,” Charles said, his disdain evident in his voice. “What the Emperor did was free her. He freed her from the awful chains of her past and allowed her to realize her full potential. I must admit, I am disappointed to hear that she has any recollection of this woman whatsoever. I can only assume that we stepped down her conditioning too quickly. Those who were in charge of her development will hear from me about it.”

“What do I do if the Captain brings up the encounter?” Vanessa asked.

“Change the subject if at all possible, and downplay the event if not. Should that happen, report it to me at the earliest possible moment. Day or night, Vanessa, do you understand?”

“Yes, Charles.”

“Very good. My girl, you are a truly superior member of our organization. I am so very glad you were not lost in the battle.”

Vanessa felt her cheeks warming despite the reservations she still harbored about these new revelations. Compliments from Charles had always made her feel like this.

“Thanks,” she said.

“You are most welcome. Now, I think I shall meditate. You have given me much to think on, and we’ve still quite a bit of driving left. I trust you don’t mind?”

“No, not at all,” Vanessa said, though she felt a minor flash of annoyance. She was being dismissed, even though she wasn’t actually going anywhere. She supposed that she, too, should be meditating on the events of the previous night. How unfortunate, then, that she felt meditation to be a worthless waste of time.

Charles had already disengaged
from the conversation, and Manue
l didn’t seem to be the talking type. Vanessa put her oxygen mask over her face and took a few deep breaths, exercising her lungs as the medic had told her to. This made her cough, for a bit, but the pain was nowhere near as intense as it had been before. After it was done, she rested her head against the window and closed her eyes.

* * *

Charles was waiting for her in the hallway when she finished with the doctor, which surprised her. He hadn’t spoken to her after her debriefing in the car, and she had expected him to go immediately to his office.

“Still here?” she asked as she left the infirmary. Charles looked up and smiled.

“I care about your health, Vanessa. Additionally, there was something else I wanted to speak to you about, but I wanted to wait until we were sure you were checked out. Has the doctor cleared you to—?”

“He said I was fine, which I could have told you in the first place,” Vanessa said, but she was glad Charles had made her go. Hearing the news from Doctor Chambers was much more reassuring than hearing it from a field medic whose name she didn’t even know.

“Of course. Forgive an old man his concern,” Charles said, smiling at her. They began to walk along the hall, moving slowly. Charles did everything slowly now, it seemed.

“You’re not old,” Vanessa tried, and Charles gave her a wry smile.

“I feel old, lately.”

“You going to tell me what’s wrong?”

“No, I don’t think so. Not yet. Tend to yourself, Vanessa, and remember that no one else will ever do so with as much care. Not even me. Not even your brother.”

“My brother can go to hell,” Vanessa growled, and Charles turned his gaze upon her. Sick and weak or not, it still reminded her very much of being sized up by some large, predatory bird, and after a moment she looked away.

“Do you mean that?” Charles asked her, and Vanessa sighed.

“He’s a traitor and a coward. Charles, we’ve been through this. The Children have my loyalty until the day I die. Wherever my brother goes, whatever he does, I don’t care.”

Charles considered this declaration. They were nearing the elevators when he spoke again.

“Your brother is in a holding cell on sublevel three. We found him in Atlanta three days ago.”

If he was looking for a reaction, Vanessa wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. She forced herself to continue breathing calmly, to continue walking, and to speak in a tone of vague interest.

“Oh?” she asked. “What are you planning on doing with him?”

Charles nodded, as if pleased with this response. “To be honest, we aren’t sure yet. We had high hopes for him, but we gave him the wrong mission. It was a poor decision. The question the Emperor has now, of course, is whether he can be redeemed.”

“I doubt it,” Vanessa muttered. “Prime chance to kill a bat, and he just wanders off? How are you going to redeem that?”

Charles shrugged. “Have you never made a mistake?”

“Never one that dumb,” Vanessa replied. They had reached the elevators and were standing before them, but Charles had not yet pressed the button.

“The Emperor can be highly persuasive, but only when he is roused to be so,” Charles said. “We were hoping you might visit your brother and speak with him, to help determine if it’s worth the Emperor’s time to pay a personal visit.”

Vanessa didn’t know whether to be impressed or offended. What had her traitor brother ever done to deserve a personal visit from the Emperor of the Sun? Vanessa, a model soldier herself, had only ever been graced with his presence during a ceremony involving thirteen other people.

“I don’t have the first idea how to evaluate him,” she said.

Charles seemed unimpressed. He gave her a cool glance and said, “He is your brother, and if there is anyone in this building capable of judging him, it is you. I will not make you do this, Vanessa, but I very much wish that you would. He was a fine operative, and if there is hope for those such as Captain Perrault, surely there must be hope for him.”

Vanessa considered this for a time and said, “OK. If it will make you happy, I’ll talk to him. They’d better keep some bars between us, though, or I’m just going to end up strangling him. He never knew when to shut up, and I swear to God he makes a sport out of pissing me off.”

Charles laughed a bit. “Yes, I remember.”

Vanessa reached out and pressed the down button on the elevator.

“The guards have instructions to let you pass,” Charles said. “Take as long as you need. You need not report to me immediately afterwards. I’ve no doubt you are exhausted. Get some rest, write your reports, and then schedule a meeting with me. We’ll discuss your brother then.”

“All right. If you think it will help the Emperor, then I’m happy to do it.”

“Everything you have done since you came here has helped the Emperor.”

“Oh, come on …”

“Truly, Vanessa. You are one of our finest soldiers. I understand that you are disappointed with last night’s action, but if you are in any way worried about the Emperor’s judgment, then let me assuage those doubts right now. He is very pleased. I have heard it from him personally, and I can assure you that your promotion to Captain is but a mere formality at this point.”

Vanessa felt her cheeks warm again and turned away from Charles for a moment to collect herself. Captain? That was crazy. She had only been made lieutenant a few months ago.

As if guessing her thoughts, Charles said, “It seems fast, I know, but you have proven yourself. Again and again, you have proven yourself. We are watching, Vanessa – the Emperor, the colonels, and me. He sees all, and through him we see as well. You are the very best we—”

Charles stopped speaking suddenly and looked up, and to the left, as if receiving word from on high. His right eye twitched once, and then again, and he drew in a sharp breath. He began to make a noise, loud and high pitched, like an engine with a slipped belt that screeches, shrill, in the middle of the night. His lips pulled back in a grimace that made Vanessa wince.

“Charles?! Are you OK?” she cried, dimly aware that behind her the elevator doors were opening. Two people stepped out and stopped, frozen in their tracks. A small, silver strand of drool had begun to run from the left side of Charles’s mouth, which was frozen in rictus, and Vanessa felt for one short moment the obscene urge to reach forward and wipe it away.

If I don’t do something, he’s going to die right here,
Vanessa thought, and a bright streak of adrenaline flashed through her, seeming to loosen the grip that fear and panic had held on her body. She spun to the soldiers behind her and saw that she knew one of them.

“Woodson, go get Doctor Chambers, right fucking now!” she snarled. The blonde boy – he was barely more than eighteen – didn’t disappoint her, taking off down the hall without so much as a ‘yes, ma’am.’ The other one – a tall, black recruit whose name she didn’t know – stared at her, and Vanessa stabbed a finger at him.

“Take off your shirt. Take it off!”

He did as he was told, pulling the grey T-shirt over his head and holding it out to her. Vanessa snatched it from his hands and spun again, back toward Charles, whose entire body had seized and contorted, twisting like the limbs of a water-starved tree in some distant desert.

“You’re going to be fine, Charles,” she said. She dropped the shirt on the ground and stepped forward, stooping down and placing one hand against the back of his knees. With the other she took his shoulder and pulled, and this seemed to break his paralysis. He slumped and she caught him, helping him to the ground and resting his head on the balled-up shirt. His eyes had rolled upward, and while the screeching noise had stopped, he was now making a clicking, coughing noise that she liked even less.

“Lieutenant?” the private asked, uncertain of what to do next.

“Empty your pockets,” Vanessa said, and even in the midst of this crisis, she was able to appreciate the fact that he didn’t ask her why; he just did what he was told. His pockets contained a keychain, a battered wallet, a multi-tool and a pen. She grabbed this last with one hand and extended it out to him.

“Get that between his teeth and over his tongue. Move, private!”

The soldier leaned forward, prying open the jaws that Charles had clenched so tightly shut, and pushed the pen in. It caught in Charles’s molars, holding his tongue down. The speed and intensity of his noises – those click-click-cough sounds that made her spine crawl – intensified, and for a moment she thought this was the end, but then they faltered, and his seizures seemed to lessen.

“Good,” she said. “You all right?”

“Better than him,” the soldier said, and Vanessa gave a short, surprised laugh.

“No kidding. Listen, you stay here and help me keep this old, ugly motherfucker alive, OK? I am
not
going to let him die in some shitty hallway. We clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She heard the sound of running feet in the hallways and looked up to see the first private, Woodson, returning with Doctor Chambers.

“What happened?” the doctor asked as he ran up, dropping down to his knees next to Vanessa.

“Seizure, I think,” she said. “He was right in the middle of talking and just … locked up. We did the best we could.”

“You did fine. The pen was good. We don’t need our friend choking to death on his own tongue.”

No
,
Vanessa thought.
We really don’t need that
.

The doctor was holding one of Charles’s eyes open, shining a small light into it. There was no consciousness or comprehension to be found there, just an empty gaze. The doctor shook his head and made a small noise of distaste.

“We’re going to have to move him,” he said, standing up. “Stay here with him. I’m going to send someone back with a gurney.”

“Hey, sure,” Vanessa said. It wasn’t like she was going anywhere, at least not until she was sure Charles was stabilized.

The doctor hurried off down the hall, and Vanessa rubbed a hand across her face and shook her head, trying to clear it. She had already been tired, the small sleep on the flight home doing little for her, and now that the adrenaline was leaving her body she felt suddenly exhausted. Fuzzy.

“Can we do anything else to help, Lieutenant?” Private Woodson asked her, and Vanessa shook her head.

“No. Wait, yes. Stick around and help me when it’s time to lift him. After that I’ll let you go, and if I made you late for anything, just tell the officer in charge to take it up with me directly. I’ll smooth it out.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Woodson said, and for a few moments they stayed like that in silence. Vanessa looked down and was surprised to see that she was holding Charles’s hand; she couldn’t remember having taken it.

“I am so fucking tired,” she said to no one in particular.

“Heard you had a busy night, Lieutenant,” Woodson ventured.

“That’s an understatement.”

“Guess you get to add saving the Emperor’s Left Hand to your list.”

Vanessa gave him a wan smile. “I’d rather have skipped that one. I’d be asleep by now, and this guy would be down in his office writing reports.”

“Yeah. And I’d be running laps.”

“Guess you didn’t make out too bad,” Vanessa said, and he laughed.

“Guess not.”

Vanessa could see a young woman in a white coat rushing up the hall with a gurney. In a few moments more, they were lifting Charles up onto it, and he was headed back toward the infirmary. Vanessa dismissed the privates and, not knowing what else to do, turned and headed for the medical wing.