The Hazing Tower (14 page)

He felt himself slump to the floor; it was like he had lost control of every muscle in his body. He could sense he was going to black out. He hoped Jinny had made it out somehow, that was the last thing he thought of before everything went black.

• • •

She could see her room from here, at the very top of the tower.

“Are you married?”

She swung around and saw a young boy, maybe seven years old.

She smiled. “You’re not supposed to ask a girl that question on a first date.”

He pouted, “So you’re not Alex’s wife then?”

She felt her heart skip a beat. She remembered the ring, the fake marriage. She had almost totally forgotten about it.

“Oh, yes, I’m just joking. I am his wife. Do you live near here?”

“My mom runs a shop in town; Alex hasn’t visited for so long. Hey! Want to see something?”

“Sure.” He grabbed her hand and took her down the trail to a thick bunch of bushes. “Look, you see it, inside.”

It was a snake. It looked almost like a garden snake but she couldn’t be sure. “Are you going to catch it?”

“Nah, my mom doesn’t like it when I do that. Hey, will you come to the store sometime?”

“I would love to, what’s your name?”

“Billy. I like Bill, but my mom says I’m not old enough.”

“Well, I can call you Bill.”

He gave her a big smile at that. She saw his eyes look behind her. She turned around and saw Alex.

“I see you met Bill.”

“Alex! Come see what I found!” Alex looked at the snake and smiled. “I think he lives here.”

“I met your wife,” the boy said. “She seems OK, I guess; she didn’t scream when she saw the snake.” He spoke to Alex as if Nikki wasn’t even there; she had to hold in the laughter.

Alex took her hand and it sent a shock wave of electricity through her.

“Yes, she is OK,” he replied, winking.

“How is your mom? Maybe we can visit the shop this weekend.”

“Yes! It’s been so long, I have some new fish and everything.” With that he went running off.

“I see you have a fan.”

“Nice boy. His family has been here for generations. They own a lot of the island actually. Good people. I see you passed his snake test. He uses that on everyone.” He laughed.

Nikki thought about how many people all over the world Alex must know. How many houses does he own? She realized they were still holding hands. She wasn’t about to let go.

“Want to go for a walk?”

She tried to act like she didn’t care; it didn’t work. “Sure, if you want to.”

He swung her hand back and forth as they walked down the path. She smiled a bit.

“It’s beautiful here. I see why you like it so much.”

“Wait until sunset. That’s when you will fall in love.”

She felt her face turn red. She hoped he didn’t notice. This whole place was breathtaking. It seemed just hours ago she was ready to kill herself in a dirty alley. Now, she was in heaven, except she probably was alive. She wasn’t so sure about that yet.

• • •

“Yes, about that. We have a problem. I am glad you’re up.”

“A problem?”

“Your agency men were good; you were right. They somehow found Alex’s estate. Josh and Jinny got the information from their dead drop. And it gets worse. They were taken. Logan’s men think they are Nikki and Alex; they found them in his mansion.”

Hunter put his head down and tried to think.

“Are they dead?”

“No, Logan will want them alive for now, Nikki for sure. She is no good to him dead, and, like I said, they think Jinny is Nikki. I think I know where they will take them. That’s where we’re flying to now. You should try to rest. I’m going to need your help when we get there; we have about eight hours. I need you stronger, understand? I wasn’t expecting this. This changes my plan quite a bit. We are going to need to improvise now.”

Hunter tried to sleep again, but it was useless. He had so many questions. He found the main cabin.
This jet was huge,
he thought. He had been on some agency private jets; they were half the size of this.

He knocked on the open door, not even sure what he was going to ask. Rebecca looked a bit sad sitting there. So calm. He knew there was something below the surface, something hidden deep inside. She hid it well, just like he had learned to hide things. They were a lot alike, he decided.

“Can’t sleep, I suppose. I guess you’re ready for some answers.”

He nodded.

“Do you drink whiskey?”

He smiled, “When you’ve been in the agency as long as I have, you bet I do.” He took the glass and sat down next to her.

She was quiet at first, as if she had to focus to remember it all. He could see the pain in her eyes.

“I was dying. I was in England at the time. You have to understand it was a different world back then. No one understood why I was sick. My father and two sisters had already died of pneumonia; my mother, well, she left when she thought I was contagious. Like I said, it was a different time so many decades ago. Logan came for me. I still to this day have no clue if that’s his real name. I learned later he was an expert with tracking family decedents; at the time, his work was beyond anything that existed. He tracked down the gene through my family tree. His understanding of science was so far ahead of his time I can’t even describe it.

“I remember waking up in his bed. I thought he was an angel at first, an angel sent to save me.

“I was young. He had just saved me from a painful death. The idea of eternal life was intoxicating, more powerful than any drug. I was addicted to the feeling, the power, the thrill. I was addicted to him.

“For a long time, nothing else seemed to matter. I traveled the world; I saw and did things that I had never imagined even existed or could be done. It was like a dream. He showed me everything. I learned to speak different languages; he taught me how to play the most beautiful music. It’s hard to even explain the feeling, knowing anything in the world can be yours, any skill you want to learn there is time for. It’s beyond explanation the power it holds over a person’s mind.

“I didn’t even notice myself changing at first, or maybe I did and ignored it. Like I said, I am not trying to forgive myself, it’s far too late for that.

“He told me of a group of people, some of them like us, with the genetic anomaly, some without. They had plans, big plans.”

“World domination, I suppose?” Hunter asked.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

“Of course, they didn’t say that. At the time, it seemed like we had all the power in the world already. Anything was possible. We could make things better, change the world, fix it.

“Over time, I realized what I guess history has always told us: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

“It became clear to me the plans were not for world peace —  far from it. I was still mesmerized by the power and the excitement of it all; I blocked out what I saw all around me.”

She paused again and her face lost color.

“Alex,” she started, then stopped for a moment again.

“Alex changed everything. It was a setup. My meeting him; the whole thing was staged, an elaborate game of chess.

“As you probably guessed by now, I fell in love with him, deeply in love. He was different. He wasn’t corrupted like I had become. He was genuine, he cared about people, and worst of all, he loved me.

“By the time he opened my eyes to what I had become, what was going on around me, it was too late. Everything started to fall apart. They wanted to use him, you see; he had a way with it. He was very good at the transition, like with Nikki. He could keep them alive. What I found out later was it wasn’t just for people with the genetic defect, if you can call it a defect. Logan’s people had much bigger plans. They were working on a serum derived from our DNA to work on someone like you, a normal person. Eternal life in a bottle. The dream of centuries. People would do anything to achieve that. Anything. Someone in your line of work would understand.”

He nodded.

“Did they do it? Was it possible?”

“Somewhat. Not completely. It worked on three people that I know of. Many died. I could have maybe stopped some of those deaths. The people it worked on had side effects. Some nasty. I only meet with one of them now; I don’t know his name. His face, his skin, it is completely deformed. It was a side effect. And recently, in our last meeting. I could swear he looked older. It’s possible he’s aging, very slowly.

“I wanted to run away with Alex. I was so foolish; of course, they would never release me. I told Alex everything. We had plans, we were going to run.”

She stopped.

“What happened?”

“They found me, of course. They told me they would kill Alex if I went with him, and they would have, of course. They never bluffed. I had one option: Leave Alex. I . . . ” She paused again.

“If I left him, they would let me live, let him live. But they could call on me anytime. And if they needed him I would help them. They have always been able to find me. I am never safe.

“I never saw Logan again, Not since that day. It has been more than 70 years now. I’m sure he is at the top of all this. I’ve been collecting clues for decades, trying to track him, find him.”

“Alex doesn’t know why you left then?” Hunter asked.

“At first, he didn’t. I think over the years he figured it out. I was never the same. I lied to him in the cafe that day, I got very good at lying. I never enjoyed this gift after I left him. I never enjoyed life again.”

Hunter held her hand. “I am truly sorry, Rebecca.”

She was surprised by Hunter’s caring. It had been so long since anyone had touched her. She didn’t want to move.

“Don’t be sorry for me. I could have changed things; I made decisions. I did things, terrible things.”

“Haven’t we all? None of us are saints, Rebecca.”

She looked at his face. She could see the pain, the years of worry. The death of his son. The people he had killed. It was all there, in the lines of his face, in his eyes.

“I guess we’re the same in a lot of ways — nothing left to lose,” Rebecca suggested.

“Maybe not. But we still have a chance to put some things right. If what you say about Nikki is true, then maybe there is a chance.”

She smiled, “I hope so. I really do. The serum I talked about. I know they are perfecting it. They have been working on it for decades. For all I know, it may work now, with no side effects. You know we can never let that happen, Hunter. If that power was available to anyone . . . ”

She didn’t need to finish. He knew all too well what it meant. It would be the end of the world as he knew it.

“Rebecca, I have never told anyone this story. When I was a new agent, I was in Russia on what was supposed to be a simple mission: mostly taking pictures, watching this guy. I was so green. One night I got a coded message to take the guy out. I wanted to prove myself; I wanted to show them I could kill someone. I broke into his house late at night and waited for him to get home. It seemed so easy. I pulled the trigger and he was dead; I even felt a rush flow through me. Then it all went bad. I was ready to leave when I heard someone scream. I panicked and fired. I looked down and saw her. It was his wife, I had shot her in the stomach. Blood was flowing out of her mouth like a fountain. I actually didn’t think that much blood existed in the entire world. She grabbed onto my hand as she took her last breath.

“I just wanted you to know: you are not the only one who has done unspeakable things.”

She nodded, “You never forget.”

He downed the whiskey and looked at her. There wasn’t much more to say. They had a lot of work to do and very little time — even less time to live.

He still had so many questions. He guessed some would have to wait.

“So I take it you are not invincible? I mean, you can die, right?” he asked, pointedly.

“Yes, definitely. I have seen others like me die.

“It has been so many years, lifetimes; you would think I would know more. I actually know very little. This genetic defect, or gift as I used to call it, it somehow activates around the age of 25 to 30, earlier in women, it seems. We call that the transition. As you can imagine, most people die. Right before the transition, the pain is excruciating, beyond comprehension. So, of course, most people kill themselves, or they drop into a coma and die. In order for the transition to happen, the person has to be kept alive through the transition. I only know of one person that did it with no outside help: Logan. There might be more, but none that I know of.

“If you make it through the transition, that’s when things get interesting.”

He was mesmerized and moved closer to her.