The door opened and he looked up, expecting to see Lea, but instead he saw a little boy wearing footie pyjamas, his thumb stuck firmly in his mouth. The child looked at him solemnly from over his curled fingers then took the thumb out of his mouth with an audible pop. He made a few motions with his hands and repeated them when Jones just looked at him in confusion, until Jones realized he was using sign language.
“I don’t speak it, sorry kiddo,” he said, trying to gauge if the child understood him. “Where’s your mom?”
The boy studied his face then turned and left the room. He returned a few moments later tugging Lea by the hand and pointed insistently at Jones. Lea looked as though she’d just gotten out of bed, her hair a mess and her dressing gown tied haphazardly over her pyjamas. Her worried expression turned into a small smile when she saw him sitting upright and she came over to the bed to inspect his shoulder.
“Your son?” Jones asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Andy. Sorry if he woke you up. He’s pretty nosy.”
“I was already awake.” Jones looked over her shoulder at the boy, who had stuck his thumb back in his mouth. “He doesn’t talk?”
“No, he was born mute. Hold still.” She peeled the bandage away from his side and prodded at the graze across his ribs. “You’ve taken a hell of a lot of damage. What were you doing, fighting a war?”
“Something like that.”
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you don’t want me to call the cops. So start talking.” She looked him over for a moment. “After breakfast. Feel up to sitting at the kitchen table with us?”
“I think I can make it that far.” He pushed himself up from the bed, wobbling a little for the first few steps, then walking steadily. Lea helped him out the door and pointed him to the bathroom when he asked, then went into the kitchen to make breakfast, Andy trailing along behind her.
Jones went into the bathroom and locked the door behind him, then leaned heavily on the sink and stared at himself in the mirror. The face that stared back at him was gaunt and bruised; the gash across his temple had scabbed over into the ugly stage of healing and the darkness of his growing beard only emphasized how pale his skin was. Washing his face improved it only slightly and he gave up on making himself any more presentable, going to empty his bladder before heading into the kitchen.
Lea waved him to a seat and started serving out fluffy pancakes, setting down a steaming coffee mug in front of Jones and a glass of orange juice in front of Andy. Once Lea sat down they ate in a comfortable silence, broken only by the clink of utensils against plates and Andy slurping at his juice. The food gave Jones a boost of energy and he ate until his stomach was uncomfortably full, then pushed his plate away and leaned back in his chair.
“Andy, go play, okay?” Lea gave the boy a kiss on the forehead and shooed him out of the kitchen, then sat back down at the table and looked at Jones. “All right, talk.”
He took a moment to collect his thoughts then started talking, beginning with Elle’s request and ending with Andraeon’s disappearance and his own arrest by the cops for crimes he never committed. He kept out the information he had discovered at Edgeman Research Group and any of his history that didn’t directly pertain to his explanation. Lea listened without comment, moving only to refill his mug with fresh coffee halfway through his story. When he was done she sat quietly, obviously turning it over in her mind.
“I believe you,” she said finally. “I’m usually pretty good at knowing when people are lying to me, and you’re not lying.” She smiled a little. “Crazy as it sounds. And you don’t know where Andraeon is now?”
“Just those two names, but... like I said, it could have been a dream. I don’t know anyone by those names. I don’t even know where to start looking.”
“I can look for you, but you have to do something for me in return.”
He eyed her warily but his instincts were quiet; he didn’t sense danger from her. “What?”
“You stay here for a while. You let your shoulder heal, and your side, and your head, and all those other injured bits of you.”
“I need to find him.”
“I understand that, but you’re just going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere and that’s not going to help anyone. So you stay here for a week and I’ll find out everything I can on where he might be. Deal?” She reached out a hand towards him, catching his gaze and holding it.
He hesitated a moment, then took her hand and shook it. A shiver went up his spine as their skin touched and he saw her eyes widen, then she gave him a warm smile. He couldn’t help returning it and only realized he was still holding her hand when the doorbell rang, startling them both into jerking back in their seats.
Lea looked toward the door then got hurriedly to her feet and grabbed his plate and mug. “My room is the furthest one down the hall. Go there and shut the door. I’ll come get you when it’s safe. Go, quickly.” She took the dishes and dumped them in among the other dishes in the sink then went to answer the front door.
Jones didn’t waste any time going down the hall, though he kept his footsteps as quiet as he could. He went into her room and gently drew the door closed, putting his back to it and looking around the room. It was uncomfortable being in a woman’s bedroom, especially when he noticed she’d just dropped her clothes of the night before in a heap by the bed. He walked carefully around them as he went to check the window, easing it open so he had an easy escape route. As he turned back he saw the light glint off something silver on the bedside table and reached over to pick it up before he thought about it.
The dogtags slid through his fingers and dangled down below his fist, swinging gently as he lifted them to read the stamped writing. The design was immediately recognizable, though of course the information was different. He absently noted that Lea was a few years older than he was and wondered if that was why they had never run into each other in the military.
The door opened suddenly and he jumped, automatically dropping the dogtags into his other hand and closing his fist around them. Lea raised an eyebrow at him then crossed the room to close the window again, kicking her bra under the bed as she passed. He watched her as she moved, searching his memory for any knowledge of her.
“What?” she asked. “I know my room’s a mess, I’m a busy single mother. That was the cops, by the way, but I told them I hadn’t seen you.”
“You were in the army?” he said. “When?”
“About ten years ago.” Her gaze went to the bedside table where the dogtags had been, then to his closed hand. “Do you always go picking up things that don’t belong to you?”
“Sorry.” He handed them back to her. “I was just wondering if we’d met.”
She studied him closely, then reached out to turn his face from side to side. “Actually... With a shave and some food...” She laughed suddenly. “Weren’t you the one who was made to run laps naked? You didn’t keep your uniform neat enough.”
He blinked, then couldn’t help a grin. “I’d forgotten that. It didn’t work very well.”
“Hey, I wasn’t complaining. It livened up my day.” She smiled a bit. “I was a medic. Did a lot of paperwork and not a lot of actual doctoring.”
“Did you work on the project? The big one, the one supposed to turn us into super soldiers or something.”
Her smile faded. “Yeah. I was a participant. You too, huh? That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Why?”
“They preyed on the disillusioned. Did you... notice you were different after you left?” She studied his face. “Like strange abilities?”
“No. I wasn’t much different. Still pissed off at everything. Did you?”
“...No. It’s nothing, just forget it.” She turned to put the dogtags back on the bedside table but he caught her arm and turned her back towards him.
“I trusted you. At least do the same for me. What do you know, Lea?”
“I can read your mind. Not well and not everything, but enough to know when you’re lying. And I gave it to Andy somehow. He’s a lot better at it than me though. I don’t know why.”
“When did it start?”
“A few months after I finished the program. I started hearing bits and fragments of voices when no one around me was talking. It went that way for a couple years and I got pretty good at tuning it out. Then I finished my tour and got pregnant with Andy, and while I was pregnant it was like... I was a shortwave radio and I just got everything everyone was beaming out. My husband thought I was literally crazy, or maybe he was, because I’d answer questions he only thought about asking.” She shrugged. “Then Andy was born and my husband was killed in a car accident, and I stopped hearing most of it. Instead Andy does.”
“Are there others?” Jones asked absently, thinking of Emily and the Edgemount Research Group. He hadn’t noticed her doing anything unusual, but he had been away a lot and the file he had found on himself labelled him a failure; but it had also had that note about watching Emily.
“I honestly don’t know,” Lea was saying. “I assume so, since there was a big group of us, but I haven’t really tried to find anyone. I’ve been trying to keep a low profile.”
“Listen... When I find Drae, I’ll bring him back here. This might be my best chance to find my daughter.”
She smiled a little. “Then I guess we better get started on finding Drae.”
No comments:
Post a Comment