Mutant Legacy (27 page)

No, my only hope was in leaving and that during my brief absence I could enlist the help I so desperately needed.

The woods of Mendocino were much as I remembered them, dark and wet with gray fog, the scent of wet wood heavy on the chill afternoon air.

I stood outside the towering redwood house, struck by a barrage of memories. I hadn’t expected the sight of the place to affect me so strongly. But it was so familiar, every turn, every winding curve of its peculiar design, even after all this time, so very familiar. I could see my father, my mother, even my long-dead grandmother, Sue Li, here. I remembered the sound of song, of laughter, and also the sound of weeping.

I pressed the keypad at the front gate.

“Alanna,” I said. “It’s me, Julian. Let me in. Please, open the door.”

There was no answer. Was she away? I probed telepathically: no, she was in there, all right. I could pick up her angry mental emanations.

“Come on, Alanna. Don’t try to hide. I know you’re in there.”

“Go away, Julian. I didn’t ask you to come here.”

I rattled the gate. “Dammit, I’ve got to talk to you. Right away.”

For answer she flung a telekinetic wave at me that, despite my attempts to resist, shoved me back toward my blue rental skimmer by a good twelve feet.

Yes, I had lied to Barsi out of necessity. I had never intended to go to Dream Haven. But if Barsi had known I was going on my knees to Alanna she would have found some way to stop me.

In vain I pressed the keypad repeatedly. Alanna was safe behind her walls. Obviously, she intended to wait me out.

The wind came up and I began to feel tired and cold. Skulking about in the damp woods was a task best left to younger men. Somehow, I had to get into that house.

I slipped into mindspeech.

Alanna, please.

No answer. And from this distance I couldn’t coerce her. It was a neat stalemate. But one that I had anticipated.

I wished briefly that I had been born a telekinete rather than a telepath. It certainly would have made breaking and entering a hell of a lot easier. I felt in the pocket of my cloak: the sonic disruptor was still there in its sleek black case.

Alanna, don’t make me break in.

Now I could hear her thoughts plainly. She sounded calm, even a bit smug.

I’m calli
widtng the police now, Julian. Imagine the headlines when vidnews learns that the head of Better World has been arrested for attempted forced entry.

Oh, the spiteful bitch!

My hand closed around the disruptor, and before I had really thought about it, the safety catch had been released and I was pointing it at the gate lock. The device hummed briefly and the lock shattered. I pushed my way through it and hurried up the slate walk to the front door. Again the disruptor hummed and I heard the sound of metal being wrenched from its housing. I shut off the device and put it back into my pocket. The door gave smoothly and then I was inside.

The front hallway was paneled in stripes of wood, from ivory to deepest mahogany. The old lavender rug had been replaced with a deep emerald carpet, and Alanna had had the old screened porch made into a glass-walled greenhouse. I saw exotic plants with large purple blossoms hanging from the rafters and lining the thick glass shelves. Otherwise the house was much as I remembered it when Narlydda and Skerry had lived here long ago. It was still Narlydda’s house, and always would be, as far as I was concerned. How peculiar that Alanna had chosen to live here. The therapist in me briefly pondered the psychological implications, but then I simply shrugged at the endless complexity of the human heart and mind.

The ground floor was dark, illuminated only by a skylight. There were carpeted stairs in front of me and I climbed slowly, feeling an arthritic twinge in my right knee.

Alanna was waiting for me in the center of Narlydda’s former studio. She sat there, queenly, in a wing-back webchair. Her face was calm but her golden eyes glittered with anger.

“I thought I’d made myself clear when last we met,” she said. “I don’t want to see you.”

“But I need your help.”

“Your problems don’t interest me, Julian. I assume you’ll pay for the repair of both the gate and the door?”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

“Good. Then I suggest you leave before the police get here—”

“Wait,” I said. “Please listen to me. Give me at least five minutes. That’s all I want.”

“I don’t see where you have the right to ask me for anything at all, Julian. You broke into my house and now you expect me to just sit here quietly and listen to you? Have you lost your mind?”

She stood up, a slim majestic figure dressed in black with one long silver earring dangling like a hinged icicle from her left ear.

“Alanna, I refuse to believe that you don’t care about Better World.” I pointed at the wall, at a slim, graceful hatrack made from polished brown wood. It was empty save for a battered old black cowboy hat. Rick’s hat. During all this time in exile Alanna had kept Rick’s hat close by her.

She looked at the hat, colored slightly, but said nothing. As we locked gazes I could hear sirens in the distance, growing louder, nearer.

“Alanna, if not for me, then for Rick.”

The screech of skimmers coming to a sudden halt cut through the air. Footsteps crunched over gravel, then over stone. Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs. A moment later the room was filled with police.

“Don’t move,” said a strapping blond-haired officer. He put his hand on the h halater theolster of his laser pistol. “You reported a prowler attempting a forced entry, ma’am?”

“That’s right,” Alanna said. “And it’s about time you got here. Who knows what he might have tried?”

“Let’s go,” said the cop, jerking his chin at me. “We’ll read you your rights on the way to the station house.” Two of the officers closed in on me.

“Alanna,” I said, “don’t do this.”

“You should have known better than to come here.”

My hands were wrenched behind my back and I felt the cool sting of metal as the cuffs were sealed around my wrists.

They jerked me out of the room toward the stairs.

I sent a desperate image at Alanna: that of a recreation park in which an actor costumed as Rick capered and pranced like a trained chimpanzee in front of gawking tourists while souvenir stands hawked masks of Alanna and me.

That’s what you’ll see. That’s what they’ll turn Better World into. They’ll make fools of us all, Alanna. Destroy Rick’s legacy and distort his vision. Do you really want that?

I knew by the stricken look on her face that I had finally reached soft tissue. I pressed harder.

A travesty. That’s what they’ll make of your love for Rick. They’ll sell little hearts with holo pictures of you and my brother in them, kissing. Is that what you want? To become an exhibit in a corporate sideshow to which bureaucrats charge admission and strangers come to point and stare? Think carefully, Alanna. This is your last chance. They’re already clearing the land for it. I saw the bulldozers—

“Wait,” Alanna said abruptly. “Officers, wait, I’ve changed my mind. Don’t take him away.”

The cops looked at her in surprise.

“Let him go,” Alanna said. “It’s all right. I don’t want to make a fuss.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, we saw considerable signs of disruptor damage on both your gate and door. Are you sure you aren’t making a mistake here? If this man is armed and dangerous—”

“I told you,” she said, “it’s a misunderstanding. I won’t press charges. It’s a family matter.”

“You mean that?”

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I do.”

At that, the man in charge gave her a sour look. “Domestic problems. Nothing I hate worse. Nothing more dangerous for the police.” He shrugged. “Let’s go.”

They released me from the handcuffs and vanished down the stairs. A minute later I heard the sound of a skimmer engine revving and taking off.

In the newly restored silence Alanna had a difficult time meeting my eyes. She sank down into her chair, head averted. “All right,” she said huskily. “Make your case.”

“Alanna,” I said. “I came because I’m desperate. Ginny Quinlan, the chief financial officer, and Don Torrance, the city manager, are pushing me out.”

“What?”

“It’s a coup. I told you before that they were planning something. And it’s happening right now. If you don’t help me stop them, I’ll have nowhere else to turn.” I thought that wououghatld please her, and yes, a small triumphant smile crossed her lips for a moment. I was willing to concede her that. “You’ve got to help me, Alanna.”

“I don’t see why.”

“I know you’re angry at me for the way I treated you. And I was wrong, okay? I know that now. I’m sorry. Would it help if I got down on my knees?”

Alanna smiled openly and derisively. “Julian, you could stand on your head for all the good it would do you. It’s too late. How can we possibly come to any sort of understanding now?”

“Why did you make the cops let me go?”

“Because you frightened me with your telepathic tricks.”

“Bullshit. You rescued me because you knew I was showing you the truth, and you couldn’t take it. Despite what you say to me, I know you still care, Alanna. I know you don’t want Better World dismembered by a bunch of corporate raiders and accountants.”

“You’re living in some fantasy, Julian. Better World should be closed down.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “How can you say that? Once you fought like hell to stay a part of Better World.”

“Yes, but I was wrong—young and foolish.” She waved her hand in some sort of dismissal. “When I realized that I let go.”

“If you let go, then why is Rick’s hat still hanging on your wall?”

“Allow an old woman some sentiment, Julian. I’m not entirely made of stone, you know.”

“No?” I reached toward her, pleading. “Then prove it. Help me save Better World.”

“Better World has been a distortion of mutant values, mutant skills, and a source of social discord for generations. The sooner it collapses, the better.”

I dropped my hands. Her smugness made me furious. Why hadn’t I brain-burned her long ago? If I had kept her under control to begin with I might not be going through this now. But no, I had to remain calm, must not give in to my desire to shout Alanna down, to punish her for this betrayal.

“How does it feel, Julian?” she said, grinning like a witch. “The shoe is finally on your own foot. How do you like it? How does it fit?”

“You’re the one who’s crazy,” I said. “You’re poisoned by resentment.”

“Look, Julian, I saved you from the police. But if you don’t leave of your own accord right now I’m going to throw you out of here. On your head.”

“You don’t mean that,” I said. “Please, wait.” I struggled with myself furiously, trying to find an argument that would win her trust, sway her somehow. I knew she cared. I didn’t believe her for a minute when she said she wanted to see Better World destroyed. But what would Rick have done? What would he have said? His voice was so faint in my memory. I didn’t know.

“You must listen to me,” I said. “Please.”

“I’ve listened to plenty already and all I see here is an old man who’s frightened of losing his power and prestige. Why don’t you just give in, Julian? Why not bow to the inevitable? Retire and write
your
memoirs.”

“That’s your solution,” I said. “You turned your back on us after you cus fy">

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s cheap armchair psychology, Julian. I expect better of you.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not at my best right now.”

“It’s your church,” she said. “You wanted it that way. Fix it yourself or lose it.”

I slammed my hand against the wall in frustration. “It’s not my church,” I said. “It’s Rick’s. And it’s yours.
And
mine. It is for everybody who needs it—mutants, nonmutants. Everyone. You can’t fool me, Alanna. I just won’t believe that you don’t care.”

“Telepathic eavesdropping, Julian?”

“I don’t need telepathy. Just some knowledge of the nature of the human heart. Have you so thoroughly buried Rick that you no longer care what happens to his memory?”

“He was dangerous. An anomaly.”

“Yes, of course he was. But we loved him, didn’t we? Didn’t we, Alanna? Why else have we remained as we are, two solitary figures in our early old age, never marrying, never connecting with anyone else?”

“I’ve been too busy.”

“You haven’t been too busy. And neither have I. It’s because Rick took all we had to give of love and shaped it into something else. He shaped
us
into something else. Something wild and unexpected that nobody could predict. Something that benefits mutants and nonmutants, that unites and nurtures them. Isn’t that what we’ve been striving toward from the first Mutant Council meeting? From the very first page of the Book to the last?”

Alanna opened her mouth to disagree but I swept on and over her. “Rick gave us something wonderful, something magical, and left us here to tend it, which I have been trying my best to do all my life. I’ve just done what seemed obvious and natural, trying to ride a tsunami, to steer it whenever possible. I’m not power-mad, no matter what you may think. Please, Alanna. Don’t turn away from me. Not now. I need you. Rick needs you. And everyone who believes in Better World. Don’t let it become just some corporate monolith more interested in profits and private agendas—another cynical cult milking its hapless members of their savings.”