In Irina's Cards (The Variant Conspiracy #1) (15 page)

In a flash, I slipped back to that concrete room, watching Brad dispose of the needle and tidy his work area. Thirst and exhaustion tapped my energy and my eyelids got heavier and heavier. The last thing I remember was Brad walking past me out the door.

A crash out in the hall woke me. I put my feet on the ground and twisted my chair. A cry of rage slapped my ears. A body flashed past the open door. All I made out was a white coat, but I hoped it was Brad. Cole burst into the room and I’d never been so delighted to see him.

“We’re gettin’ outta here now.” He gently lifted me up off the chair, leaving only my hands bound behind my back. “Idiot bound us with zip ties. Faith melted hers and she’s pulling off everyone else’s right now.”

“Hugo . . . here. Rubin’s car. Watch yourself,” I said groggily.

“Yeah, Jonah’s all over that. We all saw those vehicles on the way in, remember?” Cole said.

My memory seeped back through the haze of whatever had knocked me out. Suddenly I wondered what Jonah could do to Hugo with a spray of water. And then I remembered my burns. He’d have to lay hands on Hugo to harm him. I followed Cole out into the center of the basement where everyone had gathered, including Camille, the twins, and Vincent.

“Wait, where is Faith?” I asked.

“She went after Jonah. He thought he saw Hugo and she didn’t want him going alone,” said Ilya.

“Sonofabitch!” said Cole.

“What about Rubin? His car is here and he’s probably reading our minds right now. He’ll be long gone ...” I grabbed my head as the intense ache returned.

My mind’s eye took over again and I saw Rubin, bloody and unconscious behind the wheel of his car. He was in a ditch somewhere nearby. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive, or whether or not the accident had even happened yet.

“Cole, go after him now. He’s in his car, out on the road if he hasn’t crashed already. Leave us here. Go!”

He paused and then ran up the stairs.

“Faith and Jonah found Hugo.” Ilya bolted towards the open sliding glass door and ran out into the back yard. Jonah screamed. I ran after Ilya, racing toward the sound.

A huge flash of flame flared next to the gazebo at the very end of the long narrow yard. Jonah lay on the ground and Faith had a stream of fire aimed at thin air behind his body. A shout of rage turned into screams of agony as the flames revealed a massive charred figure.

Hugo dropped to the ground on his knees and keeled over, lighting the leaves and grass around him on fire. Faith shrieked as she ran to Jonah’s limp figure. I ran to them.

“No!” I yelled. “This isn’t happening!”

“Irina, don’t!” Ilya shouted.

Jonah’s form was intact, but warped. His arms hung limp, draped over his head like a puppet dropped to the ground. One of his legs leaked blood onto his thighs. I heard the pounding of someone running behind me and I turned expecting to see Ilya. Instead, Camille barreled towards us.

“He’s dislocated his shoulders. He has a spiral fracture of his left femur. Let me hold him.” She dropped down beside Jonah’s twisted body. “Go inside, this will take a while.”

We returned to the basement to find Vincent securing zip ties around Brad’s hands as he sat lifeless in a chair, bleeding from a head wound. One of the twins wrapped a strip of cloth around and around his mouth. 

“At this point, I don’t think it’ll matter if he screams,” I said.

“Yes, I’m afraid it does.” She tied off the restraint and stood back with her hands on her hips, smiling at me as she surveyed the scene. The girl extended her hand and I shook it. I couldn’t help but stare at her wings. “Brad here can suck your brain out through your ear. I’m Sage. My sister is Rose. I don’t think we were ever introduced.”

“They’d look nicer with feathers, wouldn’t they?” Rose had come into the room behind me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”

“Don’t worry, everybody stares,” said Sage.

“Dare I even ask what enables Brad’s brain sucking?”

“This man’s got what you might call a silver tongue,” said Vincent.

“His variation is kind of like a symbiosis,” Ilya said in a tone of clarification.

“Every time I learn something new about variations, I get a bit more freaked out.”

“Honey, you’ve hit the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you’ve been living this life for a few more years,” said Rose.

“I realize that more every day.”

I let myself keep staring back and forth between Rose and Sage’s wings as they discussed the pros and cons of our group remaining in the house. I took in the details from the bone or cartilage frames to the thick smooth wing skin. If they shifted towards a light source, enough glow came through to illuminate a varied network of veins. The closest form I thought of in the natural world was a bat’s wing.

I watched the way the twins stood and the tiny nuances of their body language. They moved with grace and strength. It was such a shame they had to conceal themselves from most of the world. I knew Cole had been dealing with his variation since adolescence, and maybe Faith too. But wings? Unless they were ‘made’ like Jonah, the twins would have been obvious from birth. Were they born in hiding? Wouldn’t hospital staff have seen them? Or an ultrasound technician? Those variables depended on their age–and mother’s access to care. Regardless, these weren’t questions I could ask, not anytime soon.

No matter how they had stayed hidden, these girls must have lived a whole lifetime of never being able to function in the world doing the little things everyone else took for granted. Going to school, shopping, getting a job, going on vacation ... anything really. Ilya’s beach would have been a sanctuary for them. It made my heart ache to picture them returning to somewhere like the catacombs.

“We don’t have to decide right now. Let’s go upstairs and see if we can find some food, or at least somewhere comfortable to rest,” said Sage. Rose and the other three variants who introduced themselves as Thea, Chloe, and Gilbert made their way up the stairs.

I turned to Ilya. “Is there any way we can interrogate this guy without his tongue attacking us?”

“I’m working on it.”

“I could always spit on him. It’d be sort of ironic if he died that way, wouldn’t it?” said Vincent.

“Died?” I said with alarm. “That’s a bit drastic, don’t you think? I’m not cool with being on the hook for that. I won’t take part in a murder.”

“And what do you think will happen when the cops find Hugo and Rubin. Chances are pretty good that Cole crushed that telepathic psychopath. Besides, we need
this
asshole to talk, don’t we?” Faith gave Brad’s chair a violent kick while still mopping tears off her face.

“Until he comes around, there’s nothing to debate. Seems a shame to have Camille heal him, even if we can get him to cooperate. I’d like to put a few more dents in him if I can’t melt his face,” said Vincent.

“Hey, isn’t Josh telekinetic? How about getting him to ‘hold’ Brad’s tongue back? That way he could talk, but he couldn’t attack,” Faith suggested.

“Would that actually work? Wait, who is Josh?” I asked.

“Josh worked security at Innoviro because he’s got a sub-dermal exoskeleton stronger than steel,” said Ilya.

“Steel-man could come in handy. Where is he?” said Faith.

“Josh got a job with a military contractor. Same work he did before Innoviro. He travels around, so he’s rarely in town,” said Ilya as Vincent coughed violently into a nylon rag. The rag smoked from Vincent’s spittle.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

Vincent nodded as he recovered.

“Looking back now, I’m surprised Ivan let Josh take that job. I think Ivan wanted to keep a low profile more than he wanted everyone under his thumb. And it was important to him that people see Innoviro as a benevolent force,” said Ilya. “Besides, Josh still comes back to Victoria regularly.”

“Damn, Ilya, why didn’t you ever give us a heads up about your old man?” said Faith.

“I wasn’t sure. I’ve never been able to read him. He was really careful about what he said and documented–at least as far as I know,” said Ilya.

“Enough of that talk. I don’t give a shit what Ivan’s reasons are. If I see him, I’m going to spit in his face,” said Vincent.

“Can we deal with Rubin first?” I asked. “He might still cause problems if Cole doesn’t catch him.”

Footsteps thumped down the wood stairwell behind me. “He’s nothing to worry about now,” Cole said with a flat darkness in his eyes. “I caught him pulling out of the driveway. So I ran after his car and threw it in a ditch.”

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” said Ilya.

“Did you leave him in his car?” I asked.

“He’s dead. I’m sure about that. Nobody survived that impact, unless Rubin’s variation is more complicated than we thought,” said Cole.

“I believe you. The vision I had of Rubin in his car was exactly that. I must have seen a few minutes into his future. I thought of Rubin and I had a vision almost instantly. The injection Brad gave me must have ratcheted me up another notch.” I put my hand on Brad’s forehead. Nothing happened. “Ilya, can’t you read his mind?”

“Not while he’s unconscious,” said Ilya.

“Maybe that’s why I’m not getting anything either,” I said.

“But you’ve had visions from inanimate objects,” said Ilya.

“Oh yeah, good point. Damn, this is all going to take a long time to understand. I can’t even keep my own drama straight.”

“It’s safe to stay here for a while, so let’s wait for Camille to heal Jonah and for Brad to wake.” Faith’s voice was still shaky.

“What happened to Jonah?” asked Cole.

“He tried to kill Hugo,” I said.

“What do you mean ‘tried’ to kill him?” said Cole.

“He tried to drain him dry, but Hugo didn’t weaken quickly enough,” said Faith.

“So Hugo got away?” said Cole.

“No, I torched him.” From the look on her face, Faith’s shock had turned to anger.

Cole looked back at her with a subtle furrow of concern on his brow.

Camille entered the basement through the sliding glass door and we all turned our heads at once to look at her.

“Jonah is sleeping now,” she said.

“Is he going to be all right?” asked Faith.

“I healed his arms and legs. He also had a few broken ribs, but there’s something deeper that I can’t heal, something fundamentally wrong right down to the cells,” said Camille.

“His experiments,” I whispered.

Cole walked briskly past us all and out into the back yard. A minute later, he came back in with Jonah in his arms and carried him back to the bed where he’d been strapped down himself less than an hour earlier. “He’s aware.”

Chapter 14

We all agreed to lick our wounds for a while in the Highlands. A secluded location that worked well for illegal human testing would work equally well for simply hiding out. The twins made us a meal of pasta, chicken, and vegetables, having found the kitchen surprisingly well stocked.

Faith, Cole, and I took turns sitting with Jonah while Ilya, Vincent, and Camille rotated a watch over our captive. As day turned to night, the twins informed us that they planned to take the others back to town in Hugo’s extended cab pickup truck. I almost asked why they didn’t up and fly home, and then I pictured them being spotted dropping off one or more of their friends like a pale harpy landing in suburban Victoria. The truck made sense.

We still had Cole’s car anyway. Everyone knew the safest course of action was for all of us to disappear for a while, ideally each on our own, making us a multitude of targets instead of one variant jackpot. Ilya wanted to confront Ivan and reason with him, to talk him out of whatever plan he had for all this intense testing.

We agreed that with Rubin in a nearby ditch, we had to leave in the morning before his body was discovered. Even though his death appeared accidental, a search of Rubin’s car and a quick conversation with the neighbors could lead the police directly to us. If Brad didn’t yield any information by then, we would split up and move on–after removing him to somewhere he’d need time and effort to escape. Cole had already buried Hugo’s body in the woods.

It was my turn to sit with Jonah at around eight o’clock when he woke. I grinned at him and he smiled back weakly. I’d spent most of the afternoon and evening replaying what Ilya had told me about Jonah’s feelings for me, and whether or not I wanted to talk to him about it.

“Am I back in the basement of Hugo’s house, Irina?”

“Yes, but Hugo is dead. So is Rubin.”

“I feel like roadkill,” said Jonah.

“Well, you were nearly flattened, so that sounds about right. What were you thinking attacking Hugo like that?”

“I wasn’t thinking, of course. I panicked when I saw him. I couldn’t let him hurt anyone else.”

“So you tried to grab him? How long would you have to hold on to do damage to a guy that size?”

“I know, I know. Faith got him then?”

“Yeah, there wasn’t much left, but Cole got rid of the leftovers anyway.”

“And Camille must have worked her magic on me,” Jonah said.

“Thank God she was here and in one piece. If she’d been knocked out, or heaven forbid, worse, you would be in a lot of pain right now and probably in the hospital.” I took hold of his nearest hand.

I leaned over and kissed him lightly on the lips. In his weakened state, I hadn’t expected any reaction, emotional or physical. As I pulled away, he lifted his head and grabbed the back of my neck, kissing me with intensity. His lips were firm and his tongue earnest. He pulled me down on top of him. I wrapped my arms around his lower back, finding his muscular butt with my hands. He rolled me beneath his body, straddling me as he kept kissing deeper and deeper.

The familiar burning sensation started again. I felt lightheaded. A wave of guilt hit me as a moment of gratitude swept through me that he’d been weak enough to last that long before hurting me. A gasp at the door broke us apart.

She disappeared again before I focused clearly on the doorway, but I knew it was Faith. I disentangled myself from Jonah to go after her, but he grabbed my arm.

“Let her go,” he said.

I sat back down on the bed and sighed. Both brother and sister would probably hate me before the night ended.

A few minutes after Faith ran out, Camille came in to relieve me instead. The sympathetic look on her face nullified the need for an explanation. Whether Faith confided in her or Ilya translated our thoughts, she obviously knew. I squeezed Jonah’s hand and left him with the healer.

I walked down the hall and out into the large central room of the basement. I heard voices upstairs through the stairwell. Vincent and Ilya debated the finer points of Vancouver’s nightlife, in anticipation of going over there soon. Vincent favored a pub near a bus depot and Ilya wanted to hit an underground bar on Granville Street. I couldn’t bring myself to join the small talk on the chance that Faith was in the room, sulking in the corner. So I opened the sliding glass door to the back yard and walked out into the dark.

Even though I believed that Rubin and Hugo were gone, I dreaded the oppressive black wall around me. Light from the house dimly illuminated the yard transforming it from picturesque meadow to creepy cave. The gazebo at the end of the lawn wasn’t as inviting as it had been when we first approached. As I evaluated whether or not to stay outside, I felt a hand on my shoulder and my whole body flinched.

“Wow, you were really lost in thought there,” said Cole.

I felt heat flooding my cheeks. I looked down at the ground for a moment.

“I’ve got lots to ponder. My life has taken quite a few sharp turns since I left home. And now I can’t go back. If Rubin told the truth–and I think he did–there’s literally nobody left from my hometown who even knows me. It’s like my life outside Innoviro doesn’t exist anymore. It’s hard to believe. I know I should call my sister, but if I do and she doesn’t remember me, I think I’ll lose it completely.”

“I knew Rubin could wipe memories, but I’ve never heard of him doing it to an employee before, let alone erasing someone’s past. Techs from Innoviro would have to be in on it. Hard copies would be out there, like photographs or any mention of you in a newspaper.”

“Doesn’t it seem impossible? How can you erase a whole life?”

“Haven’t you checked it out?”

“Not really. You mean Google myself?”

“For a start.” Cole pulled his phone from his pocket and started tapping. “Where would you expect to find your name online?”

I wracked my brain. I had never played sports or won an academic prize. I thought briefly about the sticky end of Nechako Motors. I was too far down the ladder to matter to anyone.

“I can’t find you so far, but when we get time at a computer, we’ll sort this out, one way or another,” Cole said. “This is going to sound totally selfish now, but I figured you were out here thinking about Jonah.”

I nodded. “There can’t really be an ‘us’ as things stand. I’m beyond confused about whatever is happening with him.

“Were you hoping to burn that candle at both ends?”

“No, of course not. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“So it’s Jonah then?” Cole demanded.

“I’m so sorry. I never wanted to lead you on.”

“You didn’t. I knew you liked him. I stupidly hoped you’d end up liking me more.”

“I do like you, Cole, but I fell for Jonah a bit harder. I think he feels the same way.”

“He does, at least from what I can tell. You know, you can’t really
be
with him though, not in the long run. And I’m not talking about his capacity to suck the life out of you. He’s sick. His variation is unnatural and it’s getting more unstable. I think he was so quick to defend Ivan at first because he was counting on the cure they were working on. Jonah either needs to stabilize his genetic development or reverse it altogether.”

“He sort of hinted at that, but when Camille said there was something wrong with his cells, I knew she meant his variation. All the same, I can’t help the way I feel.”

“And you know Faith has a thing for him?”

“I kind of figured that, but I wasn’t totally sure until about half an hour ago,” I said.

“They dated for a little while after Ilya broke up with her. Faith’s variation is actually the right match for Jonah’s. He doesn’t hurt her. It’s a shame when you think about it. It’s like they fit together, but he must not have been into it. Awkward as hell when Jonah ended things. He was already my best friend, but as the second guy to dump my sister in a year, he was on my shit list for a while,” Cole said with a joyless quiet tone.

“I never knew.” I really didn’t want to be the nail in their friendship’s coffin. I felt so low, I practically had to scrape myself off the ground to turn around and go back. But I did, and Cole followed me.

By morning, Brad was awake and alert again. Ilya and Vincent wanted the tie left around his mouth and nobody argued. Ilya tried repeatedly to read Brad’s mind, but kept getting mental shouts of “Fuck you, asshole!” and “Die-in-a-fire, motherfucker!” plus a selection of more elaborate curse phrases Ilya was unwilling to repeat.

I offered to take a turn and see if I could spark a vision. I tried concentrating like I had the day before when I saw Rubin’s car crash, but I couldn’t replicate the intensity. Vincent assured me Brad’s bonds were secure, so I reached out and placed my palm on his forehead. I was transported to a rundown building in a light industrial park, standing in front of an open bay door.

To my left, more industrial structures obscured the skyline of downtown Vancouver. The royal blue sky of early night complemented hundreds of orange and white twinkling lights peeking out from behind the dark black buildings nearby. To my right, I saw the water and a large pile of something yellow, maybe sulfur. The patina-green Lion’s Gate Bridge stretched ahead into the forest. The downtown core was across the water somewhere to the south. Floodlights revealed the industrial coastline of the North Shore. I tried to walk into the building in front of me, but my feet felt heavy. I forced myself to move and as I walked in through the bay door, blackness enveloped me. It was complete nothingness.

I withdrew my hand from Brad’s forehead. My eyes came to rest level with his. The glare of hatred unnerved me. He mumbled what I took for a verbal version of the cursing in his mind.

“I saw a crappy building in an industrial park somewhere in Vancouver. It had a partial view of downtown from the North Shore, near a giant sulfur pile. But I couldn’t see. It was dark, and when I went to walk inside, the world disappeared, like everything, everywhere was gone.”

Ilya considered the situation for a moment and then said, “Rubin must have wiped his memory. I think he did it to me a few times, but I didn’t have proof. I never had the guts to ask my father about it.”

“There’s something worth looking at in this building then,” said Vincent.

“Great. Let’s leave for Vancouver right now.” Irritation radiated from Faith, permeating her gestures and movements.

“Camille and I will stay behind. We’ve talked and we just can’t get involved any further. It’s too dangerous,” said Vincent.

“What! You’re going to leave it to the five of us?” said Faith.

“No worries man, I know you’ve got a family. Besides, we don’t have room for everyone in my car anyway,” said Cole.

“I think we should hold off until we’ve got more than this to go on,” said Ilya.

“Yeah, we need a better plan than walking around the North Shore until the setting looks right. Even if we did find the place, there’s no telling what messed up scene could be waiting for us. I can’t be sure I could protect everyone, not if we don’t know what we’re getting into,” said Cole.

“I’ve already tried to heal Brad’s mind. That gap isn’t from a traumatic experience. I think the memory was–taken. There’s nothing more I can do. I’m sorry I can’t help, but I just don’t have it in me to go to war right now,” said Camille.

“We understand, really. I’ll spend more time with Brad. Eventually, he’ll let a thought slip out or Irina will have a new vision,” said Ilya.

At the prospect of being probed further, Brad wrestled against the bonds around his wrists and ankles. He twisted his neck and jaw in an effort to release the tie around his mouth. Vincent kicked one of his legs.

Cole stomped on the ground and the basement shook. His foot left a crack in the concrete and the entire room went silent. “Sorry about that, but we need to get out of here. Remember the car I threw in the ditch? Unless something’s changed, eventually the cops will turn up here. Sooner or later they’ll find what remains of Hugo too. Does anyone have any ideas other than going straight to Vancouver?”

“Why don’t you try one of those old buildings in Chinatown? There are a few with signs in front about a development coming,” Vincent said. “I think they’re empty, but I don’t know if they’re condemned, hazardous, or anything like that. Camille and I will stay here and when the cops come, we’ll give them the runaround.”

“Works for me. Let’s go squat downtown for a while and see what shakes loose from our friend here. I’ll wake up Jonah,” said Ilya.

“I’ll grab my car. You guys get ready,” said Cole.

I’d left my bag in Cole’s car, so I didn’t have much to do. While Faith, Camille and Vincent went upstairs, I stalled by splashing some water on my face in the basement’s grimy bathroom. As I stared in the mirror, I thought back to the bathroom in my parents’ home. I thought about my sister and my parents and how simple things were back in high school, or even while I worked at the car dealership.

I thought of Bridget, still backpacking through Europe where Rubin hadn’t been able to reach her and a glimmer of hope emerged. She would remember me. Now that Rubin was dead, she always would remember me. If I went back to Prince George one day, Bridget would know me. Even if Rubin had wiped the minds of everyone else who knew me, in my best friend there was proof I existed.

I splashed water on my face again, this time to refocus on the moment. In the light of what I’d lost, being at odds with Faith didn’t seem so bad anymore.

We found the old buildings Vincent described and slipped in after Cole pulled apart two sections of fencing. Ilya had worried that other squatters already lived there. The homeless population was much higher near the downtown core and this site was an easy target. He explained that the number and relative visibility of Victoria’s street population was part of Ivan’s logic for choosing the Innoviro office location. It would be easy for his sewer-dwelling variants to blend in when they emerged.

Ilya easily shielded our cumbersome entry into the building from the few pedestrians we passed. His illusion was flawless or the people on the street were completely apathetic, but either way, Cole was able to carry Brad–aggravated, but restrained–down the street and through the construction zone without drawing any attention.