Chapter 9
Josh’s apartment was a disordered collection of fast food bags and boxes, dirty laundry and empty beer bottles. His few decorations consisted of war and action movie posters.
“So, can I get you guys some beers?” said Josh as we each found seats by clearing trash off his couch and several folding chairs.
“We’re good. We don’t want to overstay our welcome.” Jonah looked around the apartment with a look of repressed disgust and shifted in his seat.
“Like I said in my text, we’re heading down to San Francisco. We’re tracking some dodgy stuff Innoviro set in motion. I assume you’ve heard the company went under?” Ilya happily picked through an open chip bag on Josh’s kitchen table.
“Not in so many words, but I did get a message from the old receptionist -Melissa something-or-other - not to talk to you guys.” Josh took a sip from his beer and his days-old beard bristled.
“Stupid bitch. Wouldn’t know right from wrong if it punched her in the face,” said Faith.
“What my sister means, is that Melissa may or may not be in on what’s going on. If she is in the loop, then she’s condoning some pretty scary stuff. Innoviro has plans to transform the whole planet into a variant-only environment.” Cole rubbed his own beard stubble thoughtfully.
“For starters, Ivan plans to set off an earthquake, on purpose, somewhere around San Francisco.” I heard the desperation punctuating my words. I ran my hands through my loose hair, failing to soothe my nerves.
“They were doing genetic experiments in Victoria. And in Vancouver they’d started some kind of variant botanical and silviculture program,” said Jonah, tugging on his shirt cuffs to straighten his sleeves. Even on the road, Jonah wore a casual button-up shirt with his crisp dark jeans.
“They’ve got some kind of variant bee too.” It sounded more ridiculous said aloud than it had in my head.
“Okay, let me get this straight. You all are chasing Ivan and Tatiana Krylov over plants and bees. And you think he can start an earthquake down in California. I heard Rubin’s dead and Thorn’s in charge now. Have you guys met Thorn?” said Josh calmly, looking at me over the rim of his beer bottle.
The image of Thorn’s reflective cat-like eyes leapt into my mind. The rest of Thorn’s face quickly followed. I remembered every detail of his grimy skin, decayed fangs and long matted locks.
“Yeah, we met Thorn,” said Cole darkly.
The image of Cole bound by Thorn’s web came back to me as well.
“And you all still want to tangle with them?” said Josh.
“We don’t want a fight, but we all helped further Innoviro’s research and development. Since that knowledge is going to be used to hurt people, we want to atone,” said Jonah.
“Hurt people is putting it mildly. When my father unleashes whatever he’s got up his sleeve, we could be talking about billions of lives lost, the destruction of cities, and the end of human society the way we know it,” said Ilya.
“Come on, man. This is a bit much, even for Ivan. You’re blowing things way out of proportion. Just because Ivan plays things close to the chest doesn’t mean he’s trying to kick-start the apocalypse. If you do give him shit though, there are more out there like Thorn.” Josh crushed his beer bottle over the kitchen sink.
Josh’s beefy hand sparkled with glass shards and dust, but not a drop of blood showed anywhere. He rinsed his large forearm under the tap and I saw it in the light as he dried it. His skin was flawless–completely impenetrable.
“We’ve got other reasons for chasing Ivan.” I glanced over at Jonah, who looked weary.
“My variation isn’t stable,” Jonah said. “I’m dying and I think Ivan knows how to help me. He’d been giving me injections to stabilize my metabolism. If he told the truth, he had something more effective in development. He might have already had it, only stringing me along to keep me working.”
“We know something is deeply wrong with my father too. I owe it to him to try to help,” said Ilya.
Josh reached into the back of a cupboard above his range hood and pulled out a handgun. He set it down on the kitchen table between Ilya and Faith who both eyed the firearm with furrowed brows.
“If Ivan doesn’t want you near him, you’re not getting to him without a fight,” Josh said. “You need to be prepared. You’ll need weapons and you’ll need to train. I can tell you that whoever else is working with Thorn on Ivan’s security team will not only be armed, with ranged and hand-to-hand weapons, they will each have a dangerous variation. Ivan had us all trained to use our variations with precision and deadly force. Before I worked for Innoviro, I worked for Halliburton. I wasn’t the only guy at Innoviro with a military background.”
The chaos of Rubin’s attack on Ilya’s Sombrio Beach settlement played out in my mind. It was sheer luck that some of us had gotten away. Most had been captured. It had all happened so fast. It wasn’t simply a matter of Rubin’s variants getting the jump on us. We outnumbered them ten to one, but Rubin’s people had been assault experts.
“Then train us,” said Ilya.
Josh stared at Ilya long and hard before looking around at each of us as though evaluating our potential. He picked up a gun harness off the back of the couch and strapped it on along with his gun. “My parents have a farm out in North Bend. We can go there for space and privacy. My brother is there now with his girlfriend. They’re both variants too.”
“Thank you. You’re doing the right thing.” Ilya stood and shook Josh’s hand.
North Bend was a little over an hour’s drive east of Seattle. Josh and Ilya rode in Josh’s black Jeep while the rest of us followed in Cole’s car. I had eagerly called shotgun on Cole’s front passenger seat as soon as I realized the alternative meant fending off Jonah’s hand in the back seat.
I felt a wave of déjà-vu as we drove through town. It didn’t make sense. I hadn’t seen it in a vision or a dream. Then we pulled up to an intersection in the middle of town. Behind a neon sign for “Twede’s Café” the building on the corner advertised itself as “Home of Twin Peaks Cherry Pie” and I knew where I was. I had come to the middle of one of my Mom’s favorite television shows.
“Hey, look at that! We’re in Twin Peaks!” Faith craned her neck around as we passed the café.
“It’s a little before our time,” said Jonah.
“I think it came out the year I was born,” said Cole.
“Don’t you remember seeing re-runs?” said Faith.
“My mom loved it.” I still couldn’t remember Mom without a lump forming in my throat. The others must have sensed my tearful emotions because none of them spoke. We drove in silence until we followed Josh’s Jeep down a long gravel drive to a large white farmhouse.
A carved wooden sign announced “Foothills Glen Farm” on the front of the building. It looked like the sort of farmhouse I pictured belonging at a corn farm in Nebraska. The front of the house had a large veranda, complete with a bench seat swing. Surrounded by nondescript green fields, I couldn’t say what grew around Foothills Glen. With every fiber of my being, I hoped for a normal crop. Large rugged mountains rose up in the distance, separated from the farm by a border of woodlands.
“Josh wasn’t kidding about space, but I’m not sure what he had in mind for privacy,” Jonah said. He peered out the window at the landscape. “We’re wide out in the open here.”
Josh had one leg out the door of his Jeep when an equally large man stepped out on to the veranda. Josh’s brother had dark brown shoulder length hair and similarly chiseled facial features. His white T-shirt had copious dirt stains, as did his tan cargo shorts.
“Little brother!” said the large yet friendly man.
“Mad Max!” Josh grinned with surprising enthusiasm.
“These must be the kids you told me about,” said Max.
“Holy crap! Between the two of you, who needs training?” Faith asked as she stepped out of the car.
“You’d think, but my brother is actually the hippie of the family. Not a huge fighter, this one, but he’s got stealth covered,” said Josh.
We all looked at Josh and back at Max with confused expressions until Max reached out towards the whitewashed wood paneling of the house and his arm disappeared. Max moved his arm back towards us and it was like a section of the paneling had come off of the house.
“Dude’s a chameleon!” said Cole. He closed his car door and stretched his arms upward putting his powerful limbs on display.
“I can see how instantly perfect camouflage would come in handy,” said Jonah.
“Did you know Hugo? Are you like him?” I eyed Max apprehensively.
“I’m not sure. Who’s Hugo?” said Max.
“Who
was
he is the better question,” said Josh to his brother. To us, Josh said, “No, Max can’t disappear. He blends into the background.”
The front screen door squeaked again and a familiar, willowy blonde girl stepped onto the porch. Camille!
“Hello, everyone!”
“Camille! What are you doing here?” Ilya stepped over and hugged her while the rest of us looked on with smiles.
I felt so pleased to see a familiar person in good health and spirits.
“We’re all so happy to see you,” said Ilya.
“Coming from you, I’ll take that literally.” Camille returned all our smiles. “I’m here with my boyfriend, Max.”
“A boyfriend?” Ilya paused to think. “Yeah, I can see it. Of course, you’d come to Josh after things went sideways at Sombrio and in the Uplands. I’m glad you found Max. You two are much better suited to the farm here than the big city.”
Max frowned at his brother, at Camille and at Ilya.
“Ilya is a telepath. And an old friend,” Camille said to Max as she put her hand on his white wood arm. Max’s arm and face returned to normal as he relaxed.
“So what did you have in mind for training?” Jonah asked Josh.
“Did you want to wait until night, so we have some cover?” said Cole.
“The woods out behind the back fields have a clearing we can use.” Josh lifted his arm to indicate a spot on the horizon.
“I’m not sure I should be training in the woods.” Faith snapped a flame to life in her palm.
“I can keep tabs on any collateral damage,” said Jonah.
“Are you sure you should be training too?” Cole asked.
“I’ll sit down with him for another healing session tonight.” Camille slipped her arm between Max’s body and bicep, cuddling into him as she looked sympathetically at Jonah.
“I thought you couldn’t really fix him,” I said.
“I can get him back to his full potential wellness, even though I can’t repair the genetic problem. As his condition worsens, his baseline will continue to drop in terms of total health,” Camille answered me softly. To Jonah she said, “I can bring you back when you’ve overdone it, but I do suggest minimal exertion until you’ve got the underlying problem under control.”
“What kind of irrigation system do you have?” asked Ilya as he scanned the ground around us.
“All forty acres behind the house have industrial grade above-ground PVC piping and impact sprinklers every two hundred feet,” said Max, slicing the air in front of him at sample intervals.
“That should be more than enough to draw on if I need it,” said Jonah.
“I’m still not sure what you want us to practice,” said Cole.
“As far as actual training exercises, let me think for a while. We should cover who can do what, exactly, along with range attacks, body combat and defense strategies. Some of you will need to work more on defense and steer clear of actual fighting. Not all variations are compatible with combat,” said Josh. He walked as he spoke, getting taller as he came closer to me.
“Makes sense. So when can we get started?” Cole cracked his knuckles with a POP-pop-pop and his muscles flexed.
“We’ll start tomorrow morning. You all need a good night’s sleep,” said Josh.
We unpacked Cole’s car and settled into guest rooms, but not the way we had divided ourselves at the Bella Maria. The Foothills Glen Farm had six bedrooms. With Josh and Max’s parents in Palm Springs for the season, Max and Camille were staying in the master bedroom. Josh took his old bedroom, leaving four rooms for the rest of us. Faith and Ilya took a room together. They made no announcement, but started acting like a couple again, holding hands and exchanging the odd kiss. Three bedrooms were left for Cole, Jonah, and myself.
After we each put our bags away, we met in the large dining room around the long thick oak table. Floor to ceiling windows flanked the table opposite the side where I sat. A painting depicting orcas at sea hung on the wall behind me. Toward the kitchen, a large china cabinet was full of beautiful dishes with a floral pattern. I looked out the window at Josh’s family’s forty acres. Whatever they were growing, it must be a lucrative crop.
Camille and Max served us a hearty dinner of pork steak, corn on the cob, a berry and spring mix salad, and buttermilk biscuits. We had fresh apple pie with vanilla-bean ice cream for dessert. I knew Camille and Max hadn’t made all the food from scratch with supplies from the farm, but for a moment, I wanted to experience a pure farm life, totally self-sufficient.
The sky faded from soft lilac to deep cobalt behind the Cascade Mountains as we finished our dessert. We laughed. We drank wine. I almost forgot the next day would bring the start of training to use our ‘mutant powers’ in battle.