Clay (15 page)

Paul shivers, despite the blanket.

His clothes are damp. His feet are trapped in hard, wet boots. The weights on his eyelids are heavy; the hinges loosened after several attempts.

The bedroom is sparse with an unusually high ceiling and water stains around the light fixture. He drops his boots on the wood floor, the impact stinging his feet. He parts the curtains on the only window. His car is parked next to a barn that’s smothered beneath a blanket of snow. He wonders how it got there.

And then remembers.

A black dog waits outside his door, tongue hanging. Paul moves carefully around him, brushing against the wall. He passes the stairwell on his right and tries the door at the opposite end of the hall.

Locked.

He puts his ear against it, listens for any sign of life. He tries the knob again. The keyhole is an old-fashioned lock, one he could pick if he had some heavy wire. What would he do if he opened it? Jamie was unconscious, the last he remembers. He brought her here.

Too late to take her away.

His footsteps echo down the shallow steps, the wood faded where thousands of steps had worn away the color. Dark squares on the floral wallpaper indicate picture frames that have recently been removed.

He stops at the bottom step. The house is quiet except for the dog’s toenails clicking behind him. There’s a short hallway to the right with a chalkboard to the left and a locked door to the right. It ends at the kitchen and the smell of coffee. A clock ticks above the refrigerator.

Paul parts the frilly curtains above the sink. The barn door is closed. Aside from a trail of footprints, the snow is perfect. Despite the tower in the distance, there’s no service on his phone. No wifi, either.

The locked door opens in the hall.

Cali shuffles into the kitchen, followed by the brown dog. She’s wearing fresh clothing but her eyes look tired; her complexion deeply wrinkled. She pours two cups of coffee, slides one toward him.

“You’re Dr. Cali Richards.”

She nods.

“You look older than I expected.”

“Common courtesy does not tell a woman she looks old.”

“From my understanding, you’re about fifty years old.”

“Don’t believe everything you read.”

She grabs a container next to the refrigerator. The dogs tap dance.

“I’ve stayed alive all these years by hiding from M0ther. I’ve altered my appearance, like Nix, to avoid facial recognition. But my brother has chosen to expose me to you, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

She tosses a snack to the dogs.

“Who are you, Paul?”

“How do you know my name?”

She passes him a sideways glance. If she can hijack his senses, she can find his name.

“I’m a Seattle cop.”

“No. You’re an enigma, is what you are. Your background security far exceeds the rank of sergeant. You’re closed to the public. That’s unusual. And you show up with a girl that was quarantined at one of the largest shutdowns at the time. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”

“And that makes me a threat?”

“To me, yes. Why are you with her?”

“They were going to take her. She was in danger.”

“By ‘they,’ you mean Marcus Anderson.”

“She’s not a halfskin, you can scan her, you’ll see.”

“What compelled you to save her?”

“I’m human.”

Cali goes to the mudroom, where her boots sit in a puddle of melted snow. She wraps a scarf around her neck, reaches for her coat.

“Why is it so hard to believe that I saved a girl in trouble? Have you become so accustomed to manipulating your senses, that you no longer feel compassion?”

She sits on a footstool to pull on her boots.

“You pulled me into your perception field last night,” Paul continues. “You made me see and hear what you wanted, made me help you. You’re far past a halfskin; like your brother. He said he was 99%.”

He remembers the mind-fog at the warehouse, compelled to do whatever the bricks told him. He doesn’t remember being forced to save Jamie, but why would they?
No, I acted on my own. That was my choice, my own free will.

But would he know it?

“Is that true?” he says. “Are you almost a brick?”

She sits up. “Don’t lecture me. You don’t know me.”

“And you don’t know me.”

“That’s the problem, Paul.” She pulls on her coat, buttoning it. “There’s a dome of static that protects me and my property. It operates like back-reflection, showing M0ther there are no biomites within this sphere. It won’t work forever, I know that. She’ll eventually find me, maybe ten years from now, maybe tomorrow. I don’t know. Right now, though, I’ve got you and Jamie in my house. I need to figure some things out. It’s going to take Nix and Jamie a couple of weeks to recover.”

“After that?”

“I don’t know.” She cups her coffee to her chin, the aroma failing to revive her tired eyes.

“Is it true what they say about you?” he asks.

“Truth is rarely found in the news.”

“You were a biometric engineer that beat M0ther. You released the nixed code to the public.”

“Like I said, believe nothing you’ve read.”

“I see an old woman. Is that truth? You manipulated what I saw, heard and felt last night. And maybe you’re doing it right now. How am I supposed to know what’s true when I can’t trust my senses?”

“Our senses were fallible long before biomites.”

“Reality is not relative.”

She poses over her coffee cup, eyes distant and glassy. “These days, it is.”

She takes one final sip, leaves it in the mudroom. The brown dog follows her. Frigid air swooshes past the open door. Paul watches her drudge to the barn.

The black dog watches him.

The world rocks, up and down. Up and down.

Droplets spatter across Nix’s cheeks; a briny taste is on his lips. His head sways with the rhythm of up and down, up and down. The soothing sound of water feels like a lullaby.

The sky is unblemished. The blue is deep and endless. His eyelids succumb to the rhythm and begin to fall—

He sits up.

The bamboo raft rocks beneath his shifting weight, seawater sloshing over the sides. The bindings creak.

Where am I?

He dips his feet in the warm water. Far behind him, the rocky shore and the twin peaks are visible. A green meadow slopes behind them, and, despite the distance, he knows there’s a cabin on top of that where Raine waits for him.

Dreamland.

He’s never been out this far in the water. Occasionally, he would hop on a skiff with one of the local fisherman but they rarely ventured into the deep. And never on a homemade raft.

He envisions a sail and a gust of wind to push him home but his thoughts dissolve like daydreams. Nothing he imagines comes to fruition. The raft rocks beneath his feet. He dives into the sea’s depth. He grabs the edge of the raft and begins kicking. Eventually, he’ll reach the shores. What seems like hours go by, and he’s no closer. Home is in sight, but no more.

Cali put him out there.

This is my punishment.

The days are empty.

Paul spends most of them with Baxter, the black dog. He rarely barks or shows his teeth. Often, he watches Paul with an unusual sense of intelligence. Observing. Thinking.

Cali locks herself in the basement most days. The bedroom upstairs is always locked.

He’s hazy in the mornings, spending several minutes recalling where he is. The sand of sleep weighs him down for hours at a time. In the afternoons, he walks the property, going deep into the trees and out to the road. The dog doesn’t like it when he’s that far out.

Paul could leave, just hop the gate. Maybe he’d have to fight off the dog but then what? Where would he go?

What about Jamie?

There’s an old cell tower behind the horse paddock. By his estimates, it’s centered on the property. The scaffolding is corroded but the utility shed is new. So is the conduit that runs to the top of the tower.

The shed is locked.

This must be what generates her back-reflecting dome of protection. If this comes down, she’s exposed.

One morning, his car is gone. Paul finds it behind the house near an abandoned swing set, the corroded legs buckled like old bones. Footsteps lead back to the house. The railing leading up the front steps wobbles. He goes to the barn in search of tools. The tack room door is jammed. He uses both hands to get it open.

A red tool box is stashed on a shelf with a tin can full of rusty nails. He inspects the latch on the door. It’s as old as the house. It wouldn’t take much to dissemble and fix.

Something moves through the trees. Paul watches through the window as a red truck comes down the lane, a yellow plow blade carving snow to the side. It backs up several times, working its way toward the house.

Paul steps into the breezeway, but stays to the shadows.

Cali comes out of the front door, fastening her coat. A man gets out of the truck, waves at the old woman looking more tired than ever.

“Good morning, Stacy,” the man says.

Stacy?

He hugs her while a young girl steps out of the passenger seat, her arm tied in a sling. Both dogs come running. It’s the first time he’s seen their tails wag like that. She takes a knee, rubs their thick coats with her free hand. Paul can feel the weight of Cali’s mind press upon his. She’s exerting her field on him.

Stay
.

That’s why the car’s out back.

The conversation passes. The daughter lifts her wounded arm, explains how she sprained her wrist when her fingers got tangled in twine while bucking bales. The man fills his lip with a pinch of tobacco. Cali looks concerned for the girl. Several minutes later, they climb back in the truck and finish plowing.

Cali goes to the porch.

Paul steps into the opening with a hammer and a rusty can of nails. She stares for a long moment.

“Friends?” Paul asks.

“Neighbors help out from time to time.”

“Why’d you let them leave?”

“This isn’t a prison camp.”

“Just for us.”

“You weren’t invited.”

He peers around the corner. The truck has left long piles of snow. That sling was old-fashioned. Even the lowest dose of biomites could heal something like that.

They’re clay.

Their eyes meet. No words are needed. Cali Richards is keeping a secret. If you learn it, you don’t leave.

She goes back inside to lock herself in the basement.  

Paul fixes the railing.

Warm, dry air blows on her face.

Jamie’s head is sunk in a pillow. The dusty strands of a spider web wave in the ceiling vent.

Sensation returns to everything but her left arm. The last thing she remembers is going to the car, but this isn’t the hotel. Her internal clock announces the time. It seems like they were at the hotel a minute ago but three days have passed.

Three days have been snipped from her life.

She sits up. Her mouth is dry and gummy and her left arm is wrapped with gauze. Her pale fingertips feel dead, as if someone sat on her arm. She balances against the wall, stumbles barefoot to the door. The strange surroundings smell of old linen.

Someone is downstairs.

She goes one step at a time, gripping the railing with both hands at first. A conversation is heating up, somewhere downstairs. The muffled voices aren’t familiar. They’re coming from the first floor, behind a door in the hallway. She leans against the chalkboard, sliding her feet to keep the floor from creaking. The argument comes in bursts, most of it unintelligible.

“No one’s leaving!” a woman shouts.

The other person is apologetic, reasoning, even pleading, for a response. Jamie feels the wall slide up her back as she slowly goes to the floor, her legs too weak.

A door opens somewhere in the house.

Toenails click toward her. A black dog stares from around the corner, and heavy boots follow.

“Jamie.” Paul pulls off his gloves and crouches beside her. His brown hair, so often combed to the side, is a mess over his thick eyebrows. “Are you all right? How’d you get down here?”

She grabs him with her free hand, latching on like she won’t let go, like he’s the only thing that’s keeping her from melting into a puddle. He’s the only thing she can remember.

He’s safe.

Paul almost carries her into a kitchen where she sits at a weathered table. A glass of water finds its way into her hand.

“Little sips.”

She takes big swallows and he has to pull it from her. It cools her throat, settles her stomach. He keeps his hand on the glass the next time she drinks, monitors how steeply she tips it.

“Where are we?” she asks.

“What do you remember?”

She wipes her mouth. It takes too long to remember what Nix looked like, what he told her.
Somewhere safe.

The kitchen feels like it’s stuck in time with spice racks and dried flowers hanging over a window. Safe wasn’t a house in the country. She was expecting something to take the pain away.

The fear of living was still a cold lump in her chest.

An old woman stops in the hall and stares. A young man, however, walks boldly past her. He’s vaguely familiar, his hair prematurely gray.

“You’re awake,” he says.

She shrinks from his comforting reach. He steps back and looks at Paul. He resembles Nix, but there’s a difference of about twenty years. The hair, though, doesn’t fit. She attempts facial recognition, green lines racing through her vision. There’s no outbound connection to the Internet.

“I was an old man when you last saw me.” He sits across from her. “I had reconfigured my facial features. The hair isn’t as malleable as flesh. This is what I look like in real life.”

Real life? What does that mean anymore?

“Where are we?”

“We’re at the farm,” he says. “You’re safe.”

The old woman’s face is darker than the shadows appear. Jamie continues staring, not remembering any discussion about her. She seems irritated, but finally relents.

“My name is Cali Richards,” she says flatly. “You’re safe in my house.”

Jamie doesn’t believe her. Her body language suggests she didn’t invite them. There’s a vague recall of Nix explaining the facial reconfiguration and a promise that he’d help, but not where they were going.

“How does your arm feel?” Cali asks.

“I can’t really feel it.”

“You suffered a compound fracture. Unfortunately, your biomites are exhausted from years of abuse. I don’t think I need to tell you how close you are to charring. Your body will have to heal itself.”

“Why not boost her?” Paul asks. “Seed the break.”

“She’s at 49.9%. We’re not doing that.”

“What are we doing?” Jamie asks.

Cali takes a bowl of eggs from the refrigerator. She puts a pot on the stove then cracks a hardboiled egg on the counter, peeling the shell under running water.

Nix jaws clenching.

There’s a chat session between them. Nix looks up just as a warm sensation trickles inside Jamie, a sort of honey-sweet emotion that bubbles from inside her chest. Jamie is enveloped in the invisible arms of an all-loving mother. She doesn’t know why this happens, doesn’t care. For the first time in forever, she doesn’t want to crawl out of her skin.

She feels safe.

“Start with this.” Cali puts the hardboiled egg on a plate. “Give that some time to digest, then eat the soup.” 

They watch her take a bite. The attention keeps her from swallowing the egg whole. The silence is broken only by the ticking clock.

Cali leaves.

Nix follows her into the basement. Paul attends the pot of soup, stirring it with a spoon while Jamie finishes the glass of water and indulges in the warmth that feels like home.

I’m safe.