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2007 Alliances Old, Alliances New
“Adam did it again, Jesse. He did that weird thing of kissing me on the top of my head. He doesn’t do that to Shalimar.”
Emma was seated by the Meditation Pool, speaking softly and assuming a pose of deep relaxation, but she was angered and annoyed.
Jesse sat down on the floor across from her.
“What brought it on this time?”
“He insisted upon ‘examining’ me. He enjoys ‘examining’ me a lot more than I am comfortable with, but what am I supposed to say to him?” She did not want her emotions easily read by casual observation. “Great, All-Knowing Adam, I question the need for these frequent ‘exams’ and have the queasy feeling your motivation is other than paternal.”
Jesse rolled his eyes. He had doubts about Adam as well. “You could make the telempathic suggestion that you smelled bad, Jesse said, half-jokingly.
“He’d know I was intruding, and then he’d star asking and asking why I would do such a thing. Jesse, sooner or later this is all going to come out and it won’t be pretty or pleasant. I can’t begin to guess what Adam will say or do when that happens.”
“Sounds like you need time away.”
“As soon as possible, before I do any damage.”
Jesse lightly smacked himself in the forehead. “Ah! I just remembered! I need several boards and some spare parts, and I’ll just have to go make the rounds of computer and electronic stores to get exactly what I need! There. That was easy. What’s your excuse? Shoes? Can the lovely Emma ever have too many pairs of shoes? He’ll believe that.”
Emma closed her eyes, feigning deep thought. “No. I think I’ll say something a little more serious this time. I have wanted to take classes.”
“Adam and Brennan are gone, making an antacid and Twinkie run. We only have to tell tales to Mother Shalimar.” Jesse smiled.
“Won’t take me long to pack.” Emma sprang to her feet and went bounding off to her room to change clothes and pack.
Minutes later, they awoke Shalimar from a nap, and explained themselves to her.
“Tell Adam I’m going shopping for electronic geek stuff and Emma wanted to check out colleges, so I offered to drive her. We’ll be gone a few days.”
Shalimar stretched, still not fully awake.
“Just be careful to stay in widely separated places so he doesn’t get suspicious. He’s forbidden us to have any kind of relationship with one another.” Shalimar wasn’t smiling. This was no joke, but an inflexible, immutable rule of Adam’s
“We’ll be careful not to do anything to upset Adam,” Emma said. “He has a lot on his mind, and needs nothing more to worry about.”
“Drive carefully.’ Shalimar yawned. “I’ll tell Adam where you’ve gone. I need to complete this nap.” Shalimar’s feline genetic material found expression in many ways. On fine summer days, she was found of leaving Sanctuary to take naps in the sun.
Outside, it was early autumn, with many leaves gone to bright colors, with most still on the trees. The days remained warm, but the evenings were chilly.
“Hey, there’s another one!” Emma said, pointing to a newly-arrived, half-rusted Camaro in the Sanctuary parking area. “How many of these heaps do you think Brennan’s going to drag in here?”
“As many as his allowance and the available space allows,” Jesse said, unlocking the trunk of his car. “That’s the shabbiest one so far. He probably paid more to have it towed here than he paid for the car.”
“Adam would have a fit if he knew about all this steel. There shouldn’t be a parking lot out here.” Emma giggled softly.
“Oh, Brennan can do no wrong. Just ask Adam. Brennan could bulldoze the trees and turn the property into a rest home for aged and decrepit Camaros, say one hundred fifty or so, and Adam would smile and tell me to park my car somewhere else. Jesse loaded their suitcases into the trunk. “And now, off to the real world.”
“My, my, I detect an attitude!” Emma smiled, eyes wide at the vehemence of Jesse’s comment.
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? I didn’t exaggerate much.”
“The sad part is that it is true. I don’t understand why Brennan is his favorite. He’s a lot of trouble.”
“That’s the key. He is trouble. He requires watching and supervision. If you do your tasks reliably, without fuss, you may as well be invisible. Or nonexistent.”
Emma did visit colleges and Jesse did purchase a collection of boards and other electronics. When their day was ended, however, they retreated to an apartment and life they shared about which Adam knew nothing.
Adam had made clear his disapproval of any relationship between them other than as team members. His unwelcome intrusion into their personal lives led Jesse to lease a modest apartment in a bland neighborhood filled with utilitarian apartments and lower middle class homes on tiny lots.
The people who lived here typically did not linger long. Except for some elderly people who had lived in the neighborhood for decades, most residents were transient dwellers on their way to something better, including a large proportion of college students. Still others were on their way down, clinging to what remained of their respectability. In any case, few troubled to get to know one another. Emma and Jesse were able to remain anonymous and unnoticed.
Jesse dedicated one of the two bedrooms to his computers and to the assembly of electronics which he did not share with Adam, devices he used to help keep his hidden life unseen.
Jesse involved himself deeply in the assembly of devices he did not share with Adam. Rather than work on them furtively in Sanctuary, he built them here where he would not be interrupted by the duties of Mutant X. But this left Emma with little to do.
“Jesse, how would you like to take some time away from your work and drive over to what’s left of Genomex? I hear any mutant who want to can see Eckhart in a stasis pod.”
A handful of mutants still working there made it known that the individuals still remaining in stasis were available for viewing by others like themselves. These were humans known to have worked against mutants. Most infamous of these, the one most mutants came to see and stare at was Mason Eckhart, formerly director of the GSA, and the subject of mutant nightmares.
Their nemesis frozen safely in place, mutants could come and stand over Eckhart and feel superior, as if they were standing above a declawed, defanged beast trapped in a deep pit.
“No, thanks. I saw enough of him walking about and breathing.”
“I want to see him frozen in place with my eyes. I won’t believe it completely until I see it.”
“Well, go ahead, but if you could stop for groceries, that would be useful.”
“Will do.”
Security was lax. Emma walked in through the front door, asked directions of the receptionist, and followed yellow arrows on the walls to the stasis exhibition area.
The smiling, smirkily insincere portrait of Dr Harrison in the reception area was disturbing, bringing back memories of Emma’s dealings with the traitorous botanist. Harrison might run was left of Genomex, but he had no GSA to enforce his wishes.
Shalimar had been present when Eckhart was seized and podded by Gabriel Ashlocke and Dr Harrison. Her description of Mason Eckhart secured in a stasis pod had been accurate and complete but Emma still was unprepared. Unmoving, his eyes open and staring, he looked oddly neither dead nor alive. Emma was struck by how small and unthreatening he appeared.
Surely he must have been larger? Has he somehow shrunk during stasis? Eckhart could walk into a room and menace everyone there with a look, a tilt of the head. He exhaled malevolence. This fellow here just doesn’t look threatening.
Eckhart’s agents had pursued her through the streets, chasing her like a criminal. When she was finally captured and corralled by the GSA, they herded her into an outdoor pen with about a dozen others. Forcibly implanted with subdermal governors, Emma had not known such humiliation and degradation before or since. What kind of mind was arrogant enough to conceive of penning up people like stray dogs?
Emma circled Eckhart’s stasis pod like an animal making certain a predator was dead, and harmless. She sat down on the pod itself, allowing close, careful, thorough scrutiny of the man without the fear engendered during living encounters.
His captors had secured him in the pod with his unvarying black pinstripe suit and black shirt. Emma noted the oddly cut, carefully fitted black leather gloves and for the first time got a good look at the loosely fitted, slightly wrinkled biopolymer partly covered by the gloves, and extending out of sight up into the sleeves. Emma wondered if the shirt had sleeves. The plastic faux skin must have been miserably hot to wear. Like most people, Emma could not imagine a life spent never touching anything or anyone. The unnatural looking white hair was tidily in place. Believed to be a wig, or more likely, many wigs, not was absolutely certain, not even Adam.
With the satisfaction of a cat cornering a mouse, Emma leaned forward and whispered over Eckhart’s still form, “Locked away from the world, down in there, you cannot hold me prisoner, control me, or induce pain. You cannot do anything to me, or to anyone.”
Emma was startled to hear Eckhart reply inside her head.
*Surely you have a purpose for being here other than taunting me, Ms deLauro.*
She leaned farther forward on the pod unit, the better to see his face, even though it was locked and frozen in place, and even less revealing of Eckhart than it had been in full life. *What's it like to be trapped in the place where you imprisoned so many others?*
*Here? It's cold. Numbly cold.*
*Did you enjoy putting people in pods, Eckhart? Is that what you lived for, to lock people away? Did you enjoy it?*
*No. Not at all. I've had to do a lot of distasteful things. Putting people into pods was one of them.*
Emma was no stranger to Eckhart’s arrogance, but she wasn’t hearing that now. She paused a moment. Had she detected regret in his answer?
*But you did it anyway, didn't you? Dozens and dozens of people like me., and dozens of ordinary humans as well. Who gave you the right?*
*The authority to confine people in stasis came from the parent agency of the GSA. Did you think I was acting on my own? That the GSA was my own private army, acting on my whims? The alternative to stasis was execution. I was in fact criticized for podding instead of killing the most dangerous of mutants, the ones who were insane or out of control. If I was the monster you imagine me to be, I would have pulled the plug on Ashlocke’s pod as soon as Adam wasn’t here to protect him, and I would not now be in stasis.*
*Eckhart, if you aren't a monster, what are you?*
*Someone paying the price for Adam's unwise ambitions and unholy perversion of science. Just as you are paying a price. Adam is amoral. He cares about things which amuse him, or which feed his curiosity. He does not much concern himself with who gets hurt.*
Eckhart, talking about the hurt and pain of other people? As stunning as Emma found the notion, her nagging questions about Adam would not go away. She and Jesse discussed them, but could never find answers.
Emma felt vague, queasy disloyalty, but plunged ahead and asked the question anyway.
*What about Adam?*
*Do I discern a flicker of doubt about Adam? A questioning? That is good. There is a lot to question about Adam, and a lot of blank pages that need to be filled. Even I could not find all the answers.*
Emma hesitated to continue, but anger and confusion won out over restraint.
*I’ll tell you what I don’t like. I don't like the way Adam uses me like a tool, or the way he sends us into desperate situations while he sits in the safety of Sanctuary giving orders. We risk our lives while he never so much as breaks a sweat.*
*That is not the way of good generals, Ms deLauro. Something has happened, hasn't it? You'll have to tell me what it is. My news sources are sadly limited at present.*
This is crazy, Emma reflected. I am about to confide in Eckhart. Mason Eckhart, inhuman oddity.
*We're getting hurt. Adam patches us back together like machines, and does not seem to care about us. We have special abilities, but we heal no faster than anyone else. He pushed us to take chances, to go back before the pain goes away.*
*Adam cares only for Adam.*
*And you? How are you better? Making our lives miserable because we're different?*
*Ms deLauro, the truth is far more complicated than that. It isn't that you're 'different', it's that each mutant carries the potential for the long-term destruction of humanity, with your tendency towards disease and early death. Every human on earth carries at least three or four mutations in their genetic material, and those are naturally occurring changed, not deliberate intrusions by a Breedlove or Adam.
The new mutants have qualities which make them superior to ordinary humans. If mutated DNA spreads unchecked through the population, humanity will suffer slow extinction. All we have ever been, known, made, or done will come to an end. What do you think I've been trying to prevent?*
*I suppose I never thought much about your motivations. I always thought you hated us for obscure reasons of your own.*
*No, Ms deLauro. I harbor no special hatred of mutants. My goal was to spare humanity a genetic plague.*
*Adam calls you a sociopath. He used to know you, so I believe his evaluation. You and Adam were part of the same program, weren't you? How can your hands be clean if Adam's aren't?*
*My hands. . . are not clean. They are covered with blood. Most of the induced mutations, including your own, were performed years before I joined Genomex. I am not formally trained in the life sciences beyond basic biology. I was in fact brought in when Paul Breedlove realized the program had the potential to get out of control, and that Adam could get out of control as well. I have spent my adult life cleaning up the mess Breedlove and Adam made. So many lives, so much destruction and chaos.*
*You rounded us up like animals, and penned us in cages. Have you ever been in a cage?*
*I have lived within the confines of a polymer skin for almost twenty years. The doctors insist I will never break free of that ‘cage’, so yes, I do know something about being trapped.*
*That. . . must be difficult. Emma had never considered Eckhart a victim of the Genomex program, but realized for the first time the implications of his condition.*
*Would you have come along quietly had I issued polite invitations? I think not. With the exception of the emotionally unstable, the plan was never for permanent podding.*
*No?*
*Emphatically no. The plan was to make phenotypic, and more importantly, genotypic fixes of individuals, who would then be allowed to return to society with our blessings and good wishes to live lives of ordinary humans.*
*And if they could not be 'fixed'?*
*We would offer them sterilization and release, or re-podding in hope of better repair techniques in the future.*
*That isn't what Adam says.*
*I do not doubt it. Adam says a good many things. Why would I lie to you now? I'm just this side of life in stasis and in no position to harm or threaten you.*
*I need to know the truth.*
*Keep listening, then. Everyone needs to know the truth.*
*How can I believe you?*
Eckhart, never at a loss for words, did not immediately reply, but thought for a moment.
*You could 'read' me. Then you would know the truth. There is no way I could deceive you.*
*I could.*
I could, but your mind is not a place I want to go. The prospect is distasteful and more than a little scary.
*Ms deLauro, I am podded, I cannot harm you. I command no one here. Are you afraid of what you might discover?*
*A little.*
A lot. The possibility that you are telling me the truth is disturbing. I’m used to thinking that anything you say must be deceptive and manipulative, and is not to be trusted. To learn otherwise is to turn my world around.
*Lies are more worthy of your fears.*
*'Reading' you would not be a precision process. There will be 'leakage', and I will learn things you would not choose to share. You may not like some of the things I will learn about you.*
*I have less to hide than you imagine. I accept the necessity of an intrusion. Any discomfort I feel from loss of privacy will be more than balanced by your learning the truth about Adam, and taking that truth with you. Possibly this is the only opportunity I will have of telling anyone on ‘your side’ what I know about the work Breedlove and Adam did. Adam will not tell you. If I am to be frozen here, someone must know the truth.*
*I’m still surprised you would open yourself to me. You have been known for your concern and guarding of personal details. No one really knows much about you. I must admit, I am suspicious.*
*For a moment, consider the possibility that nothing is operating here other than the obvious. Ms deLauro, you are the telempath. I am the mere human, defenseless against your kind.*
*I know.*
*Please. . . proceed. . . before I reconsider.*
Emma closed her eyes, covering them with both hands to eliminate distractions. She concentrated upon forming a firm link with Eckhart, allowing rapid, complete transfer of memories.
These memories were not merely the recollections of the Eckhart Emma knew in the present, but those of a much younger man, little like the formal, cynical Eckhart, but a thoroughly human young man who cared very much about several people and who made no secret of his concern, an ordinary looking young man who had not yet been irreparably damaged and changed into a physical and emotional oddity, a serious and conscientious young man who nevertheless did smile and smile sincerely.
She shuddered as Eckhart’s memories of Adam struck with the physical force of a strong wind: people, events, confrontations, all as Eckhart recalled them. Intense, overwhelming emotions, Eckhart’s emotions, flooded through Emma’s mind, a torrent of feeling and humanity.
Mason Eckhart was the coldest, grimmest individual Emma knew. Re-living his unexpected and forceful emotions stunned and shocked Emma as she acquired the sum of all he knew about Adam and the experiments in genetics. Almost as Eckhart had lived it firsthand, Emma experienced the ‘accident’ apparently induced by Adam, that left Eckhart more dead than alive, and knew his deep terror when Breedlove explained the implications of his crippled immune system. Adam was interwoven through all of this, and not in the way Adam recounted those days to Emma and the others.
The datastream halted abruptly, inducing a severe and sudden headache. Emma bent over in pain, massaging her forehead as Eckhart’s memories unwound and lodged in her mind, settling in to become much like recollections of her own.
*Ms deLauro, where are you?*
Contact had broken sharply, as if she had bolted and run from the room. Despite his eyes being wide open, Emma had not understood until this moment they were unfocused and unseeing.
She opened her eyes slowly. *I’m here. I have not gone anywhere. The memory transfer was painful when it stopped. Give me a moment while my head clears and I can think again.*
How could I have been so blind? How could we all have been so blind and foolish?
*I had no idea things were that way. I had no idea about Adam.*
*Hardly anyone is left who knows the whole of the truth. Ms deLauro, do you believe me? I did not mask anything to make myself appear better than I am.*
* I do believe you. I know about Breedlove’s murder now. You knew I’d discover that, along with everything else.*
*Thank you for believing.*
*I saw Breedlove’s murder through your eyes. I know you ordered it, even if someone else did the killing.*
*I deny none of it, Ms deLauro. Since you have my memory of the murder, you also must have in mind the motivation. Had Paul Breedlove made his public announcement, paranoia and hysteria would have followed. Anyone displaying unusual talents would have been suspect, and at risk from the ignorant. Just consider the irrationality people have shown over bioengineered tomatoes with a prolonged shelf life and otherwise deficient staple crops modified to produce all essential amino acids. Tomatoes and rice sit passively on your dinner plate. They don’t walk and talk like a mutant. I believe a lot of innocent people, mutant and human alike, would have been injured and murdered had I not stopped Paul.*
*I’ve been on the receiving end of peoples’ irrationality. I agree with you.*
*I have never claimed saintliness.*
*I’m overwhelmed by your memories of Adam.* Emma paused and massaged her forehead. The memories were still settling into place. *There is so much to absorb, so much different from the way Adam tells the tale. I don’t like the way he has manipulated all of us by claiming he didn’t know what was being done with his research. If anyone is a sociopath, it’s Adam. I don’t like being deceived.*
*No one does. Do not be hard on yourself, because Adam can be charming and persuasive. He fooled me for years. Adam is an intelligent man, but he hides elements of the charlatan behind legitimate science and technology.*
Emma stood up, and walked deliberately towards the head of the pod, where it linked to a maintenance unit controlling individual requirements. She studied the controls briefly, found most of them arcane and confusing, then found what she was looking for.
She tore off the clear plastic cap over the emergency controls, installed to prevent their accidental use. Without hesitation she touched the upper screen which said, “Emergency de-stasis. Activate ONLY under expected or prolonged power loss.”
*Ms deLauro, did you just pull the plug on me?* Eckhart sounded sad and disappointed. * I feel so peculiar. Numb. I don't feel the cold anymore. I don’t feel anything.*
*There aren't any instructions here for a normal de-podding, so I activated emergency de-stasis.*`
*You?*
*Me. I've listened to Adam and believed him. There was so much he never
told us. Certainly I never knew about Adam and your wife. They both. . . betrayed you. And Adam was your friend.*
*Once.*
*I won’t tell anyone else. I wasn’t meant to know. No one else needs to know.*
*Thank you.*
*How do you feel now?*
Nothing. Nothing’s there. No sense of anyone’s presence. Did I damage him bringing him out of stasis? Did I kill him?
Vague panic seeped through Emma’s mind. Fifteen minutes ago, I would have been pleased to kill him. Now, I’m horrified at the possibility. This is crazy-making.
Emma rose from the stasis pod, and stood over Eckhart’s body, ready to run to avoid discovery if she was sure she had killed him. She watched carefully, absorbed in finding any sign of continuing life. When the plastic pod cover automatically released with an audible click of the lock mechanism disengaging, Emma jumped backward. Realizing what it was, she lifted up the surprisingly thick and heavy cover, and swung it fully open. Eckhart looked inert and still, not dead, but not alive, either.
What have I done? Shouldn’t alarms be ringing somewhere now that I’ve done this? Shouldn’t guys in lab coats be here any time, probably including creepy Dr Harrison? Just how sloppy has this place become?
Mason Eckhart's head twitched, his eyes fluttered, then opened and blinked. Then they focused upon Emma.
*You look different.*
“Can you move?” Emma asked audibly.
*I think so.*
Slowly, with difficulty and obvious distress, Eckhart drew himself to a seated position.
“Speaking is difficult.”
“We have to get out of here. I’ll hold you steady.” Emma offered him her hand.
Eckhart hesitated for a moment, then extended a gloved hand to hers when he assessed how weak and unsteady he was.
“Where is Ashlocke?” Eckhart asked.
“Fortunately, he’s dead.”
“What happened to him?”
“His body’s own flaws caught up with him. Adam actually tried to save him.”
“Adam…has so little sense. Where are we going?”
“A safe place Adam doesn’t know about. Jesse’s there. You have to talk to him. He’s had doubts about Adam longer than I have.”
Eckhart struggled to rise on his own, steadying himself with Emma’s hand as he nearly fell. His coordination improved slowly as he emerged from the pod, and took each step. By the time they reached an outside door, Eckhart nearly ceased relying upon Emma to steady him.
“The exterior doors are all alarmed. At least, they used to be.” Eckhart reached inside his jacket, removed a keycard, and swiped it.
The lock released.
“Someone got sloppy.”
They stepped out into the daylight.
“It’s autumn.” Eckhart was astonished. “I’ve lost several months.”
“You had no idea?”
“None. In stasis, I could think with clarity and focus, but there was no time-sense.”
“My car isn’t far.”
“Good. I don’t believe I’ll be able to get very far. You were able to drive onto the property?”
“Yeah. Ashlocke released all the mutants from stasis. The remaining. . . humans were put on view for mutants to see.”
“Is anyone is charge any longer? Someone should be noticing what you’ve done.”
“Dr Harrison? Does that sound possible?”
“Yes. Malevolent miscreant.”
Emma turned towards Eckhart, sensing deep fury directed towards Dr Harrison. There was little to be found in his face.
They reached the car. Eckhart grasped the roofline as Emma unlocked the passenger door.
“He’s the one who betrayed you to Ashlocke, isn’t he?”
“He is. I should have seen it coming. I blame myself. I’m going down fast, Ms deLauro.”
She opened the door, and steadied him as he struggled to enter the car.
“Can I do anything?” Emma asked.
“Just get us away from here.”
Eckhart buckled himself in securely, and almost immediately fell asleep, waking sometimes in traffic, and then sleeping once more.
There were two flights of stairs to climb to the apartment. Three-quarters of the ascent behind him, Mason Eckhart stopped and braced himself against the wall. He had hardly spoken during the drive.
Emma halted a step above, turning to him with a questioning look, but saying nothing.
“I'll be fine. I was dizzy for a moment. I am very, very tired.” Eckhart sounded exhausted.
Emma smiled. “Well, you haven't eaten for months.”
“True.”
Emma reached out her hand. “I can help you the rest of the way.” She was not sure what she saw in his eyes, but she sensed a welter of emotion unbetrayed in his face. Fear. Fear of her. Extraordinary pride. Self-loathing for what he considered weakness. A deep, overwhelming sense of loss, very personal, very guarded. “Please. Justify taking my hand for practical reasons, if you must. If any of my neighbors pop out into the corridor, they will remember seeing you.”
He said nothing, but nodded, grasping her hand, and continuing on up the stairway.
“Jesse will be. . . startled to see you. Jesse will be stunned to see you. It might be best if I did the talking.”
“Very sensible.”
Reaching the door, Emma removed a key from a coat pocket, and turned it in the lock.
“Just a simple lock?”
“Yes, but electronically, Jesse has shielded the unit from the sensors Adam has. He has also rigged the comlinks to indicate the positions of both of us elsewhere, in different places.”
“Why are you hiding from Adam?”
“He has forbidden us to be together.”
“Arrogant of him. And not surprising.” A fleeting look of distaste crossed Eckhart’s face. Emma realized that by watching carefully, she found it possible to read Eckhart.
She opened the door, entering first, sensing through Eckhart's glove a slight tremor, indicating just how taxing ordinary effort was for him.
“Jesse?” She closed the door behind them, throwing the deadbolt with one hand and holding on to Eckhart with the other.
The room was ordinary, the walls bare, the furniture new, cheap, and bland, dominated by beiges and browns.
“Do you need help with the groceries?” Jesse Kilmartin did not look up from the laserprinted pages he held until entering the modest living room. His unguarded smile of greeting for Emma fled at the sight of slightly rumpled Mason Eckhart within the walls of his home, leaning against Emma, not twelve feet away.
Jesse tensed, ready to defend himself and Emma against this man.
Emma spoke softly and calmly. “Jesse. He has not harmed me. He is not a threat to us. I chose to bring him here.”
“That's hard to believe.” Jesse set the printout on a cheap, plastic-topped end table.
“Mr Kilmartin, as unlikely and outrageous as it sounds, it is true.” Eckhart turned to Emma. “May I sit on your sofa?”
“Of course.” She steadied him the few steps to the dark brown sofa, where he sat down slowly, in some distress.
Jesse followed every move Eckhart made, searching for a trick or a ruse.
“I think I'm going to have to lie down.” Eckhart eased himself onto the coarse fabric cushions. “The contradictory fact about emerging from prolonged stasis is the extreme need for genuine. . . sleep after months in the twilight between death and life. I intend no harm to either of you. I may, in fact, be able to help you both.”
His eyes closed. A shudder coursed through the length of Eckhart's body, and with that, he lapsed into a deep and profound sleep.
Emma turned to Jesse, speaking just above a whisper. “I know how this looks, but everything is fine. He did not do anything to me.”
Jesse came to stand beside Emma, kissing her softly on the forehead. “Emma, that is Mason Eckhart, isn't it?”
She nodded. “I broke him out of stasis myself. I believe what he says. I want you to listen to him later. You have to listen to him.”
Jesse shook his head, and pointed to Eckhart’s immobile form. “I'm more than a little uncomfortable being in the same building with Eckhart. Having him napping in my living room makes me want to bolt and run far away. Or kill him while I can.”
Emma shook her head. “I 'read' him, Jesse. There are things he knows that you need to know.”
“You’ve been inside his head? He allowed you to 'read' him?” Jesse asked.
“He invited me. We have a lot to re-think. Your misgivings about Adam are justified. More than justified. There is so much about Adam that isn’t very good. He has lied to us. He has misrepresented himself.”
“But Emma, no matter what Adam has done, that is Eckhart. He sent his creeps after you. He podded up many of our friends. He is not a nice man.”
“He doesn't claim to be. Listen to him when he wakes up. This is a complicated story. Once you sort it out, things are different than what we've been told.”
Jesse sighed. “Black is white, and white is black, and the answer is through the looking-glass?”
“Something like that. Something that different. I know I cannot go on with what I used to believe was real.”
“More pragmatically, what are we going to do with Eckhart?”
“For now, we're going to let him sleep. He could not stay awake in the car, and I had to help him up the stairs.” Emma turned and removed an afghan from the back of a chair, and gently draped it over Eckhart's sleeping form, now drawn up into a nearly fetal position. Then she carefully removed his glasses, setting them safely aside.
Jesse watched in disbelief, hands on his hips, shaking his head. Emma turned to face him, saw his bewildered expression, smiled, and nodded towards the hallway.
“Let's take this discussion to your study,” she said.
“I'm not comfortable turning my back on this man, not after everything he’s done. Can you blame me?”
“Come on, Jesse.”
He followed her into the smaller of the two bedrooms. Nearly all the space was taken up with computers and other electronic gear. There was only one office chair, so they sat together on the floor.
“If I had not seen you with Eckhart just now, I would not believe it. Kindness and concern for Eckhart? He deserves another kind of treatment from people like you and me.”
“I understand, Jesse, really, I do. When you've heard him out, you won't think I'm so crazy.”
“I'm afraid he's using you somehow. He’s capable of doing anything.”
“Not this time. That's very hard to do with someone like me. I generally affect other people.”
“I know. But coming from my kind of family, I knew all sorts of brilliant, ruthless, manipulative men --and a few women-- who allowed very little to stand in the way of their ambitions. From what I've seen of Eckhart, he belongs in the front rank of such men, except that they dealt in money and property, and Eckhart deals in people and lives. Most of these guys cared about something besides themselves--a son, a daughter, a dog, a racehorse. Eckhart's the coldest man I've seen. He doesn’t seem human. Watching you in the living room just now was spooky.”
Emma sighed. “The act of 'reading' someone else's memories is not like transferring specific data files. It's sloppy. Eckhart allowed me to know his memories of Adam, but he also shared personal memories involving Adam, painful memories. He wasn’t always like this, and he never wanted to be the way he is now. I promised him I'd tell no one his personal memories, and I won't, but Eckhart's had his heart sliced out and stomped on. He’s lost so much. Jesse, I feel sorry for him. He's pitiful.” Tears welled in her eyes as she re-lived Eckhart's memories.
“You’re sure he isn’t lying somehow? Fooling you is next to impossible, but this is Eckhart.”
“Certain.”
“This really got to you, didn’t it?”
“Emma nodded. “He used to be somebody else. He was never charming, but once upon a time, he was human. There were people he cared about and who cared about him.”
Jesse hugged her. “That's what makes you special, Emma. You have. . .an open heart.”
“It's not always easy. Taking on the emotions and memories of others can be ugly.”
“I can see. I’ve seen you pay the price for knowing too much about someone.”
Emma shook her head. “But not in this case. Eckhart’s not a monster. I would prefer to know how someone became…as he is than to believe some people are born that way, cold, aloof, detached. There’s still a human buried deep inside of him, Jesse.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it. Adam describes Eckhart as always being pretty much like that, as if he takes evil pills every morning.”
“Adam’s at the heart of all this.”
“I will believe your evaluation until I have a good reason to change my mind. But we have some major problems to solve beyond my expertise, unless Eckhart has the answers himself. What are we going to feed him? What about his infamous plastic faux skin? Isn’t that supposed to be changed at least once every twenty-four hours? And his blood? The last Adam knew, Eckhart required transfusions, a lot of them, because his body makes no red or white blood cells. This isn't like bringing home a puppy.”
“I could not leave him there, not after I knew what happened to him,” Emma said, defending her actions.
“No. But we have challenges here, and we have to get back to Sanctuary tomorrow. If we stay any longer, Adam will have a lot of questions. You know how he is.” Jesse rolled his eyes.
“We've talked about this before. When we go back, I think this should be for the last time. We have to break with Adam for good.”
“Do you think that time has come?” Jesse asked.
“Knowing what I do, I will be uncomfortable being with Adam.”
“We aren’t going to be able to walk up to Adam, and tell him that we’re quitting Mutant X and have him wish us well. He thinks of Mutant X as a lifetime commitment. Adam will see quitting as disloyalty, unforgivable disloyalty.”
“We’ve talked around this before. We don’t tell him. We walk out and never come back.”
“We haven’t worked out the fine points of how we could live safely away from Adam and all of his contacts. Adam has resources he doesn’t tell anyone about.”
“Adam will go crazy,” Emma sighed.
Jesse did not sleep well. In the middle of the night he rose and padded quietly to the living room to see if Mason Eckhart really was sleeping on his sofa.
The light was dim, but Eckhart was there, and soundly asleep. He had not moved in hours, still drawn up in a fetal curl. Jesse pondered for a moment whether Eckhart had died, and briefly wondered how he would get rid of a body.
I had never considered that Eckhart sleeps like other people. How could anyone that paranoid allow themselves sleep? And where has he been sleeping? Did he sleep under his desk? Roll a cot into his office? And who did he trust to watch for him while he slept? He never seemed to trust anyone.
Eckhart looked small and insignificant on the dark sofa. More than anything, he looked vulnerable. Jesse intellectually believed Emma was convinced of the need to listen to Eckhart. He found the change in Emma’s attitudes disturbing, too swift and too drastic, although Adam had lately given no shortage of reasons for doubt.
This is the man who terrorized us for so long? The stuff of stories? The bogeyman Adam spoke of daily?
Jesse found himself in the middle ground of not believing Adam or Eckhart, and at that moment, if he could have had his wishes, Jesse would have preferred to be done with them both. The issues involved would not go away, however, even if the individuals were gone.
An irrational thought came to Jesse. He had never had a better opportunity to destroy Eckhart, who had made him and Emma miserable many times over. The thought passed, and Jesse returned to bed and restless sleep.
Near daylight, Jesse woke once again. Quietly as he could, Jesse made his way to the living room. This time, he found the sofa empty. For a moment, he thought Eckhart had bolted.
“Good morning, Mr Kilmartin.”
Jesse startled at the sound of Eckhart's voice, and knew Eckhart had seen him flinch, since he was backlit by the hall nightlight. He had the awkward sense that Eckhart had once again gained an unspoken advantage from his habit of surprise. Jesse collected whatever poise and balance he possessed at this hour and tried to sound unruffled.
“Good morning. I don't know quite how to address you.”
Eckhart stood by the farther of two windows, a black silhouette crowned by odd white hair made faintly visible by the glow of the sodium vapor streetlights illuminating the neighborhood.
“It is awkward, isn't it? And ironic.”
Any guard Jesse let down due to Emma’s assurances was fully restored. Eckhart sounded alert and…arrogant, the Eckhart he knew, calculating, cold, predatory, demanding the greatest caution and care. Jesse became fully wakeful, ready to defend himself.
'I'm not armed, Mr Kilmartin. You could go granite, and smash me with no trouble. I am very much at your mercy. When I was put in stasis, they troubled themselves to disarm me. Fortunately, they took little else. Careless of them.”
“I won’t lie to you. I'm not comfortable having you around.”
“No one ever is.”
Jesse wasn’t sure. Had he detected the faintest hint of regret?
“Do you have any family that could take you in?” Even as he asked the question, Jesse did not believe in it. He asked the question ritually, reflexively, something he would ask of a normal people with the expectation of a normal answer.
“My son is living in a dormitory, and not taking guests. He's a little younger than you.”
Jesse was momentarily confused. The possibility of Eckhart having a connection to another human being had never occurred to Jesse. Eckhart gave every impression of being other-than-human, a creature hatched or decanted or cobbled together like Frankenstein's monster in a subbasement of Genomex. For a man who dedicated himself to the containment and control of mutant anomalies, he himself presented a more anomalous appearance and demeanor than any of the Genomex mutants.
The impression was not accidental, but deliberately cultivated by Eckhart since he found it so effective in handling people.
The possibility that Eckhart had parents never crossed Jesse’s mind, and the data point that somehow, sometime he sired a son was no less than stunning, with all that implied.
Jesse seated himself in a chair by the nearer window. “I don't know what to do with you.”
Outside, the sky was now light, and the pale light clearly disclosed Eckhart's smirk, which made Jesse cringe inwardly. That smirk never meant anything good before.
“Would you feel any better if I admitted this conversation is no less difficult for me?”
Jesse shook his head. “I don't know quite what you mean.”
“I'm sorry. I'm not used to explaining myself to people. I'm not used to being with people. This is the first night in nearly eighteen years I've slept somewhere other than a sterile room or in my nearly sterile quarters at Genomex.”
From anyone else, Jesse would accept the statement as sincere. From this man, he did not know what to conclude.
“You don't expect me to trust you, do you?” Jesse asked.
“Given our history, no.”
“I want to know what you told Emma which convinced her. And I want you to know I find her change of heart hard to believe. “
“Your misgivings are perfectly reasonable. I would be surprised if you did consider the possibility that I tampered with Ms deLauro. She 'read' my memories of Adam. In that sense, there was nothing told, because nothing was selected or edited. She now knows the truth of Adam to the limits of my memories and rationality. If she’s wrong, it can only be if I have lied to myself about nearly everything. Don't you believe her?”
“I don't want her hurt or used.”
“I did not ask her to release me from stasis. I did not even know what she was doing. My first thought was that she was cutting power to the unit, killing me. I have no plans of hurting or using Ms deLauro. I owe too much to her.”
Gratitude? From Eckhart? To one of us?
“Tell me about Adam. Emma insisted I must hear what you have to say about him. You hate him, don't you?”
“Yes. With every damaged cell in my body.”
Eckhart’s vehemence surprised even Jesse.
“You were friends.”
“For a long while.”
“What happened?”
“Adam is not what he seems. He is to everyone what he believes he must be to gain his greatest utility and advantage. Has he told you how sick all of you are, or that your sickness can only worsen over time?”
“We had to discover that for ourselves.”
“I’m not surprised. Breedlove created the first mutant by himself at the end of the 1960s. Gabriel Ashlocke was a disaster. Breedlove had the good sense to replicated this work with great caution, and greater success in the next ten years, creating a relative handful of mutants. These are the individuals who are the parents of grown or nearly grown children today.”
“The work goes back that far?”
“It does. Adam joined the company in 1978. Shortly afterward, despite the problems Breedlove’s mutants were already displaying, the creation of mutants accelerated.”
“I came in late to Genomex in the mid 1980s, but from what I saw, Breedlove and Adam fed each other's ambitions. They pushed each other's work into areas research groups elsewhere would not explore because of ethical constraints.
After more disastrous mutants were created in the early 1980s, one would think they would stop their work, but they did not. Adam pushed for additional experimentation on humans. They continued on and officially created over one thousand of you, lying to your parents about the nature of the experiments, making the thousandth mutant no healthier than the twentieth. I consider that criminal.”
“It is, if it's true.”
“I did say “officially” create. Breedlove’s medical empire extended well beyond Genomex. I suspect there may be thousands more mutants. The ‘Children of Genomex may be only a fraction of the whole.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Except for brief excursions, the Genomex complex has been the entire scope of my world since the accident. Nights I explored every office, every lab, every broom closet, every tunnel, and every archive. I found the original consent forms signed by the parents of the children of Genomex. The forms changed slightly over the years, but none of them reflected the drastic or random character of the experimentation being done, even though it was known to Breedlove and Adam, well before I joined the company. Adam even drafted the language in these forms. I found his notes and signatures on forms sent to printers.”
“Can you show me these forms?” Jesse asked.
“The building which housed them was gutted in a fire.”
“Convenient.” Jesse made no attempt to hide his sarcasm.
“But the hardbound notebooks used to document this unholy work were all microfilmed, as were the volumes of computer generated data. The microfilm archives are maintained in a unused salt mine sitting partly under Lake Erie, where they will kept anywhere from fifty to one hundred years. They aren’t going anywhere. A number of corporations keep records there.”
“How would anyone ever retrieve something like that?”
“A private company operates storage in the salt mine. I have the account number written on a card sewn into my clothes. I have access anytime I desire with that account
number.”
“Useful. You thought ahead.”
“Knowledge really is power, Mr Kilmartin. The interesting thing about Adam is that there is so little information about him. I commissioned three separate, independent agencies to investigate Adam.
Before he turns up in college, Adam does not seem to exist. He does not seem to have been born anywhere or to have attended school anywhere. Adam simply presents himself one day to begin college, a precocious adolescent. These agencies produced three reports which are utterly dissimilar and cannot all be true. One even indicated that Adam is not human, but created, an android. In all the time you've known Adam, how much has he told you about his life before college?”
Jesse reflected for a moment. “I can't recall anything.”
“That's more than a little peculiar, don't you think?”
Jesse nodded his head in agreement, then said, “But what do we know about you?”
“My life is traceable in public records back to my birth. That information may still be replicated at Genomex.”
“What else do you want me to know about Adam?”
“Has he told you that he invented the subdermal governors and the stasis pods?”
“Yes, but he took his time getting around to it. What do you believe Adam is trying to do? If you know, why don't you tell me?”
“Adam’s ultimate intentions are as obscure as his origin. I'm certain he's using Mutant X to achieve his goals. Haven't you ever wondered why he did not recruit individuals who already had technical training, who could be of great assistance to him? I was able to find and recruit such people, not by the ones and twos but by the dozen. We had the same list. Instead, Adam gathered people with an emotional dependence upon him, or people who lacked connections elsewhere. Or a thug like Brennan, wanted by several police departments, who would be motivated to stay in Adam’s good graces for protection.”
Jesse had wondered about Adam’s selection of team members, especially as he became acquainted with more of the mutant underground, which did not lack for intelligent, skilled people. Yet Adam had not recruited from their ranks but selected individuals personally loyal to Adam, as opposed to those having loyalty to a cause. Jesse was perturbed by Adam’s expectation of unquestioning compliance with his wishes, much like the leader of a cult. Jesse was uncomfortable with the demand to do things he did not understand.
The sun was just up past distant rooftops, and Jesse’s face was clearly visible. Eckhart watched him carefully.
“I can see that this has troubled you. Good. If you have begun to doubt, you have commenced thinking. Adam would have you believe he gathered you all out of the goodness of his heart. Do not be fooled, and do not allow him to steal anything dear to you.”
Eckhart's eyes flicked briefly from Jesse to the hallway and bedroom where Emma still slept. The gesture was so quick and subtle that Jesse did not process the implied warning immediately, and once the moment passed, he felt awkward going back and confirming Eckhart's meaning.
Emma? Does he mean Emma? What else could he have meant? And why is he warning me? Why does he bother?
“As to the problem of what to do with me, I have a solution, but I have no intention of activating it without your knowledge and coordination. I owe Ms deLauro my life. My sense of honor–-whether you believe I have such does not matter to me—demands my protection of her, and you.”
Jesse was confused. Putting together Eckhart’s apparently contradictory fragments was difficult business, and he could not be sure what he thought of the man. The only certainty was that he was far more complicated than Jesse ever imagined.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I have superiors in Washington. No doubt they have been looking for me since I was put in stasis. There is a transponder tucked away underneath my skin, but by now, if it is still active, the signal is weak. The storage room prevented the signal from getting out, or an armed party would have been there inside of twenty-four hours when no one heard from me.”
“I had no idea.”
A whole other dimension to the GSA that none of us ever considered. Adam must have known. Was he keeping us focused on hating Eckhart?
“Surely you did not think I acted independently? I suppose you did…I need to send email or contact these people by phone. They will be wherever I want to meet them inside of two hours. I need to be careful of how I contact them, because if their priorities or leadership have changed in the past months I am not sure I will be able to protect you.”
“Good Morning,” Emma said, wrapped in a pink bathrobe and wearing a pair of pink bunny slippers. “I’m glad to see you strong enough to stand.” She entered the living room and sat down on the floor beside Jesse’s chair.
“I’m feeling much better, Ms DeLauro, and thinking with much greater clarity.”
“Eckhart tells me he has superiors in Washington who will be very curious about what has become of him.”
Emma seemed surprised. “Superiors?”
“Of course. The GSA is –or was— part of the federal government. I’ve had a chance to examine my pockets and the inner linings of my clothes to see what remained safely with me. My captors were sloppy; all they did was disarm me. I still have every critical account number, every critical phone number, every critical email address I need. They even left behind cash, a personal bank card, and an ATM card. Just the right email or coded phone call, and I can summon a small. . . army inside of two hours.”
“A small army?” Emma asked, stunned.
“An elite force, highly trained and equipped with an array of technical capabilities. The Genomex site is miserably vulnerable and difficult to defend. It sprawls over acres, and has too many points of access. I encouraged Breedlove to relocate years ago, but he liked being able to look out over the water. They will retake Genomex, probably using the plan I developed myself.”
“You?”
“My time at West Point put to good use.” Eckhart watched their reactions, smiling slightly. “Did you think I graduated from Satan’s Academy for Archfiends? You seem so surprised to learn anything positive about me. You probably imagine I amuse myself by tormenting kittens and puppies.”
“No,” Jesse protested weakly, but he had in fact wondered what Eckhart found amusing, if anything.
“It doesn’t matter,” Eckhart said.
“To me it does,” Emma said. “Who are these people in Washington?”
“A coalition of several federal agencies, allied with a multinational agency. Between them, they have broad enforcement mandates. I want to initiate their arrival properly. If I can first talk to the woman who coordinates this group, I will be able to convince her to give you considerable protections from Adam, but if something has happened to her, then I can promise nothing, and want neither of you traceable to the phone call.”
“Why would we need protection?” Emma asked.
“From Adam. If you choose to break with him, and live free of him, I can offer some assistance, but staying free of him will not be easy. He will not be pleased with you. Have you ever seen Adam truly angry?”
“No.”
“Adam is accustomed to getting his way. He can be highly emotional, explosively so. When you return to Sanctuary, take great care with what you do and say around him. Any hint of contact with me will elicit strong suspicions and accusations of long-term duplicity.”
“What about hiding from you?” Jesse asked.
Anyone else would have displayed anger. Emma watched Eckhart, and saw only a dim flicker pass through the shaded eyes. She decided he knew exactly how people perceived him.
“On my honor –which I know does not mean anything to you— if you and Ms deLauro wish to go your own way, I will make no attempt to follow, and no one will know her part in releasing me from stasis.”
“How will you explain your release?” Jesse asked.
“If I must, I’ll lie.”
Jesse turned towards Emma. “With that interesting comment, if half of what he says is true, we have a lot to learn about Adam.”
“Whatever he says, he believes in the truth of it. Jesse, I think it’s time for us to break with Adam,” Emma said.
“Can you really see yourself doing that? What other home have you had?”
“I cannot comfortably serve with Adam any longer. I think you need to get away from him more than I do.”
“Meaning?”
“Because you were part of Mutant X before Brennan. Because you have technical capabilities Brennan will never acquire because he lacks the discipline and the smarts to learn them. Just the same, he’s somehow Adam’s favorite. I know that grates on your nerves. Watching it grates on mine.”
“Adam favors a marginally literate street thug over you?” Eckhart asked, astonished.
Anger in her voice, Emma answered for him. “Yes, he does, even if Jesse won’t admit it. Adam takes Jesse for granted. Good old reliable Jesse. Adam assumes Jesse’s technical expertise will always be available to him, on demand.”
“That must be infuriating. But I’ve seen Adam make odd choices before. Perhaps in Brennan Mulwray, Adam resonates with a kindred criminal personality.” Eckhart smirked, pleased with himself.
Jesse was not pleased with Emma’s phrasing, but wasn’t going to say anything with Eckhart standing there. He looked to Eckhart. “What do you have to say about our breaking with Adam?”
“I know what I would do in your position, but your lives are your own. The decision is yours, not mine.”
Emma spoke. “My intention is to return one last time to Sanctuary. There are a few irreplaceable things I have not yet carried out of there.”
“Do you have another place to live?” Eckhart asked.
“We’re not going to tell you where we’ll be going,” Jesse said sharply.
“Jesse…” Emma chided.
“I wasn’t asking the where, Mr Kilmartin. I don’t want to know the where. I was asking the whether.”
“This furniture is rented junk. All we really have to move are the hard drives and a suitcase or two of personal items.”
“Wise.”
The sun was fully risen now; the colors of sunrise faded from the sky. Eckhart left the window and returned to the sofa.
“I will call April from a pay phone…that would be safest for everyone.”
“You’re going to stand out in this neighborhood. Jesse, let him borrow a long coat of yours. Nobody wears suits in this neighborhood. I’m going to get dressed and drive Eckhart to a phone.”
“I’ll start pulling hard drives.”
2007 Alliances Old, Alliances New part 2
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The Sun Never Sets on PureMX.net
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