AfterLife (26 page)

 Bored with waiting for Jezebel to wake from meditation,
Seth chose to check on their newest recruit, Lyall. He made his way down the
maze of hallways below street level to the room where the antemort lay subdued
on a metal table. Doc, stationed in the room to monitor the boy’s vital signs,
sat in a chair reading a book on a tablet. He was charged with the task of
keeping Lyall unconscious but healthy; Seth had plans for the antemort.
Tomorrow night, following AfterLife’s vain attempt at freeing him, he would
make sure Wes watched as he sucked the life from his brother. Then, after
witnessing his brother’s transition from antemort to Mortui, Wes would be
severed – a task Seth would enjoy doing himself.

Lyall’s breathing was shallow and Seth watched as his chest
slowly rose and fell. The boy’s body was in good shape; he would make a good
Mortui soldier and would be a great addition to Seth’s ranks. In addition,
there existed the hope that he could astral sync like his brother. If so, he
would be invaluable to the Atumra.

The idea truly angered him. How could such an incredible
ability rest in the weak antemort that lay before him? It should be his, Seth
thought. He would know how to use it properly. He stepped up to Lyall’s body
and reached out to place one of his hands on Lyall’s throat. One squeeze,
that’s all it would take, and he could kill this boy in his weak antemort
state. It was possible that he might become a Mortui anyway, but there was also
the chance he would sever in the process. Seth knew how, under the right
circumstances, to stop the change in others. He could do it with this one, too.
The power to kill this antemort was in his hand. It was power that didn’t rely
on Jezebel or the Body. He could end this antemort’s life, and possibly prevent
him from becoming Mortui. It wouldn’t matter if the boy possessed a power Seth
didn’t; he would be dead, and would never be able to develop the exceptional
gift he held.

Seth knew his thoughts were mutinous. If the Body knew he
was even considering going against their orders he would be terminated from his
position, punished harshly, and severed. It was the same punishment he would
receive if Jezebel failed in her attempt to lure the recruit she’d lost. Seth closed
his eyes, his hand still resting on the antemort’s neck, and listened to the
sound of the intravenous solution echoing in his mind as it slowly dripped into
the living body. One squeeze was all it would take.

“If you kill him, we won’t have anything to lure that Wesley
boy with,” Doc said, pulling Seth from his trance.

Seth opened his eyes and turned his head toward Doc who was
still seated behind him. “I wasn’t going to kill him.”

“Good,” Doc said, lifting his tablet back up to continue
reading, “I’d hate to think I’ve been keeping him alive and healthy for
nothing.”

“He has a purpose to serve and I intend for him to serve
it.” Seth removed his hand from Lyall’s neck. “I’m just checking on his
status.”

Seth rarely allowed such an informal manner. He purposely
had Doc transferred with him to Chicago when the Body assigned him to oversee
the region. He was the best medical doctor in the Atumra and one of the few
people Seth actually respected.

“I expect you to do your part when the time comes,” he
informed Doc.

“I always do more than I’m expected to do. Don’t you have
someone else you should be worrying about right now? Is Jezebel still in
meditation?” Doc was nonchalant and didn’t look up from his tablet.

“She was when I left her.” Seth abandoned the antemort on
the table and turned around to face Doc. “Am I wrong to distrust her?”

“You don’t trust anyone, Seth.”

“You’re right. I don’t. I’m going back to my office.”

Seth left Doc and the antemort and returned to his office.
Jezebel was awake, sitting upright on the couch when he arrived. “Did he sync
with you?”

“He did.” She was cradling her chin in her hands and her
elbows rested on her knees; her hair was hanging down, hiding the sides of her
face. “I didn’t believe he could really do it, but he did. It went just as you
said it would.”

Seth walked over to sit at his desk. It was good news. “Will
he be attempting a rescue?”

“Tomorrow night. I told him exactly what you wanted me to
tell him.” She lifted her head to look at Seth. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t
you?”

“He’s already dead, Jez, you know that. But yes, he won’t
make it out of here.”

Jezebel stood up and moved to leave the office.

“Don’t go too far, Jezebel. You’ll be needed for the rest of
the task tomorrow.” He turned his chair to face the window as she left the
room, then whispered to himself, “And once that task is done, you will be taken
care of as well.”

W
es remained in
meditation as he thought about his next move. He wanted to tell someone about
his conversation with Jezebel. Thinking first of Emily, he dismissed the
thought. Meri was his partner now. After arriving home from their walk, they
quickly synced in order to create a connection, and now it would be a simple
matter to reestablish that link whenever they needed to.

He was still thinking about it when suddenly Meri was
standing in front of him in the nothingness. Her arms were folded and the
corners of her mouth were drawn up in a smile. Boy, he was getting good at
this; just the thought of Meri connected them.

“How was Jezebel,” she asked as Wes approached her.

Her directness startled him. “Um, how did you know I went to
see Jez?”

“I’m just good at reading situations,” Meri said. “You wanna
keep walking while you tell me about it?”

“Sure. You knew I’d want to talk to you after I saw her,
didn’t you? That’s why you’ve been waiting for me.”

“I didn’t know for sure but I thought you might, and I’m
glad you did. It tells me that you trust me.” Meri was walking beside Wes as
they moved through the dark void. “So, Wes, how is Jezebel? Did you know she
was my partner too before she defected to the Atumra? We weren’t paired for
long before she switched sides, but I did get to know her a little bit.”

Wes knew Jez had been a member of AfterLife before she
defected and switched sides, but he’d never heard any other information about
her. Poor Meri, that meant she’d lost her last two partners to the Atumra. He
decided to stick to the topic at hand instead of asking about Jez’s time at
AfterLife.

“She doesn’t seem happy,” Wes started to say more, but Meri
interrupted him.

“Did she give you that flower?” Meri paused their walking by
touching Wes’s arm. It was evident the question and answer were important to
her.

Wes looked down at the flower Jez had given him before
leaving her garden. He forgot he was carrying it. “Oh right, well, she did give
me this. She also said something about remembering the oleander. I asked what
she meant, but she didn’t say.” Wes’s concern for his ignorance of what now
seemed to be a meaningful part of his interaction with Jez began to grow.

Meri started walking again and Wes followed. “Wes, do you
remember if there were other flowers around?”

“There were, but I don’t remember all the names. There were
the oleanders and this purple one. I think she called it hyacinth. We were in a
garden so there were lots of other bushes and flowers, but the only other one I
can remember is the begonia.”

“That’s interesting.” Meri reached for the flower that Wes
was holding. “Do you mind?”

“No,” Wes said, handing her the flower, “not at all.”

Meri took the flower and began to spin it in her fingers
like Jez had been doing in the garden. “Sorry I changed the subject. Go on with
what you were saying.”

“She’s not happy,” Wes said. “Apparently she’s being punished
for losing me as a recruit and was ordered to get my brother Lyall. She told me
how we can get into the Atumra headquarters in Chicago to free him.” Wes
recounted his conversation with Jezebel. When he finished, Meri appeared to
consider everything he told her.

“She’s warning you, Wes. I think she was telling you what
she had to, a script if you will, but I think she was warning you that it’s a
trap.”

“How do you know that?”

“Let’s stop and sit down.” An iron and wood park bench
appeared in the nothingness and Meri sat down. “Here, sit down and I’ll
explain.”

Wes complied.

“Okay Wes,” Meri said, turning to face him. “I have no doubt
that part of what she told you is true. I think she is being punished for
losing you. The Atumra doesn’t like to lose recruits. They would rather kill
them than allow them go to another organization, especially AfterLife. Anyway,
I think the flowers are the real clue. Flowers, like colors or gemstones, have
different meanings. For example, when you think of red roses you think of
romance and love. Other flowers can be interpreted to mean different things,
too. The oleander usually means caution and begonias are usually used to tell
the recipient to beware of something. I think she was telling you that your
brother can be saved, but you need to be cautious. I think she was put up to
it; she was told to give you information to lure you to their headquarters
where they plan to destroy you. The flowers were her warning.”

“Meri, that would mean she was expecting me to show up. She
was sitting in the flowers when I found her. How would she have known to have
them there? She doesn’t know I can connect with other Mortuis like I can.”

“That’s exactly it, Wes. That’s why I’m sure there’s more to
this than we think. She was in a garden surrounded by warning flowers to tell
you how to save your brother on the very night you saw them together. Do you
remember how shocked you were that I knew you could astral sync? Only a few
people actually know. Emily told me because I was being placed with you. She
told me that the only other people who know are the Ancestors and Ken and his
wife. I’m sure it was shared with the Ancestors of the other AfterLife Hubs
around the world because that’s what they do, but no one else is supposed to
know. So…”

“So,” Wes interrupted, “there is an Atumra spy among the
Ancestors who gave them the information, and now they’re using this knowledge
to try to get rid of me.”

“Yes. That’s the only explanation that makes sense. In the
process of getting rid of you they can recruit your brother who may exhibit the
same abilities once he becomes a Mortui. I think Jezebel was trying to warn
you. I also think she feels guilty about what she’s doing.”

“How do you know that?”

“This flower,” Meri said, handing Wes the purple hyacinth,
“means she’s sorry.”

His simple conversation with Jezebel had quickly become far
more complex than Wes imagined. This was all a plot to trap him. Well, he
shouldn’t be surprised; it had felt like one from the beginning. “How far do
you think this goes? If what you’re saying is true, then everything from being
sent to Chicago, to seeing Jezebel with Lyall, to our rescuing him is all part
of Atumra’s plan.”

“I’ve had suspicions they might have people in AfterLife. It
only makes sense. We have people hidden among their ranks. I recommend we
follow their plan so there’s no evidence that we suspect anything. That would
only put Lyall and Jez in danger.” Meri took the flower from Wes’s hand to
examine it again. “If we want to win this game I think we’re going to have to
play it.”

“How?” Wes asked. He didn’t know who to trust now. He didn’t
want to trust Jezebel but it seemed she was warning him. He trusted AfterLife
but someone in the organization was working with the Atumra to finish him off.
Was it one of the Ancestors at the Hub here in Illinois or was it one from a
different Hub? At this point there was no way to know. “Who do we trust?”

“Tomorrow we’ll contact the Ancestors and see what their
plan is. They’ll need to know you synced with Jezebel, but we won’t tell them
about the flowers or the warning. I have a feeling that whoever the Atumra spy
is, it’s someone close to our operation here. We want that person to pass on
the information that Jez did what she was supposed to do. When we talk to the
Ancestors about this, let me do the talking. I want to plant some traps of my
own.” Meri had an excited look on her face. She looked like a war strategist
who had just stumbled upon and decoded the enemy’s message detailing their next
attack.

“Fine with me. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all
this.” Their plan sounded good, but he didn’t know what Meri’s larger plan was.
He needed to trust her, he decided. He already thought – no, he knew – she was
someone who cared about him. He would follow any plot she devised. If he
couldn’t trust Meri, there wasn’t anyone he could trust, and he’d be better off
walking away from all of them. Unfortunately, with his brother to save, that
was simply not an option.

“T
he
information Jezebel provided is consistent with what we already know about the
Atumra,” Anne Marie said, her image displayed on the laptop’s screen, “and I
don’t think there is any reason to doubt her. From your account of your
conversation with her, Wes, I can only believe that what I thought about her
before is accurate. She’s never been happy since she left AfterLife, and she
did develop feelings toward you before your death. I think we should cautiously
consider her an ally, as she seems to want to help you rescue your brother.”

“Do you think we’ll have any problems getting into their
headquarters, Anne Marie?” Meri, who sat next to Wes on the couch in their
small apartment, leaned closer to the screen.

“We may. There are some holes in the information we’ve
gathered, but like I said, the facts Jez provided are consistent with what we
already know.” Anne Marie disappeared from the screen for a second, then
quickly reappeared holding a tablet computer in her hand. “We were already
aware of the location of their center of operations and that very few soldiers
are present there at any given time. The building is mostly a training facility
similar to the Hub. We have many members who have transitioned from them over
the years, and they have provided substantial documentation concerning the
Atumra’s operations there. We even have a layout of the floors that exist in
the building’s lower levels. It’s not as detailed as we would like but at least
it’s something. I’ll forward all the information we have so you won’t go in blind.