The Aegis Solution (37 page)

"She had the kid. I don't know if it was the whole Catholic thing or what it was, but she didn't have
an abortion. So there I was, almost sixteen years old, with an eleven-month-old baby brother named
Maxwell."

She made a nervous, stuttering sound intended to be a giggle.

"Goofy name, huh? I refused to call him Max. I thought that sounded like a dog's name. Anyway,
I loved Maxwell from the moment I saw that wrinkly little guy come out of her. Yep, that's right. I was
at the delivery, standing right where the father was supposed to be.

"It's a good thing I did love him, because she sure as hell didn't. Well, at least I thought I did."

There was a momentary pause in her monologue before she went on. "The second she was over
the birth deal, she was back out on the town. I think she lost the extra weight in about a month. Oh,
she would breeze in and out making a big show of fawning over Maxwell, saying ‘Mommy this' and
‘Mommy that,' but I was the mother. There were only two times that she would really hold him and
spend any time with him – when her girlfriends were over and they were carrying on about how cute
her baby was, and when she breast-fed. And I think the only reason she kept breast-feeding was that
it made her boobs bigger for the guys.

"The rest of the time it was all me. I got up at all hours of the night, every time he cried or was sick.
I loaded him in the stroller and we went for walks. I dropped out of school so I could take care of him.
I don't think she even noticed I was out of school. I took him to the doctor. I did everything."

Tillie paused, her eyes closed as if she were trying to block out an image. As she began speaking
again, her voice was so soft that the three men had to strain to hear her words. "I wanted to take a real
shower. That was it. That was all it was. Just a shower. I always kept Maxwell with me. Every minute
of every day. He was never out of my sight. I even took him in the bathroom with me every time I went
to the toilet. One evening, as usual, my mother was out on a date, and Jason had come over to hang out
with me. We were going to watch a movie and eat some popcorn while we stayed home with Maxwell.
Fun date for an almost sixteen-year-old, huh? Anyway, before we started the movie, I picked up my
brother and asked Jason to carry the little playpen into the bathroom. I was going to take a shower, and
that was what I always did. Maxwell would be in the playpen right outside the shower stall.

"I couldn't ever take a long shower. As soon as I closed the glass door and the little guy couldn't
see me, he would start to fuss. So I would always rush. Jason knew this and suggested that I leave
Maxwell with him so that I could take my time. The thought of a long, leisurely shower, the first one
I would have had in almost a year, sounded wonderful. But I wasn't sure. I argued, but Jason promised
me over and over again that he would watch Maxwell."

Elias, sensing the direction her story was going, began to tense.

"He convinced me that it would be fine. I started to put my brother in the playpen in the living
room, but Jason said he wanted to play with him, so I handed Maxwell to Jason and went to take my
self-indulgent shower. My God, it felt great. There was a little voice in my head telling me that I should
hurry up and get out, but it felt wonderful. I stayed in there for almost half an hour. Then I toweled off,
blow-dried my hair, got dressed, and even put on a little makeup for my date with Jason.

"I came out, and Jason was sitting on the couch, talking on his cell phone to some friend of his!
Maxwell wasn't on the couch with him. He wasn't in the playpen. I freaked. Jason dropped the phone,
and we both started running around looking for Maxwell. But we couldn't find him anywhere. I was
going totally crazy. Screaming at Jason. Calling him every name in the book. He just kept apologizing
and giving me some crap about how he was only on the phone for a minute before I came out. Later
on, afterward…I checked his call history. He lied to me. He had been on that damn call for almost the
entire time I was out of the room.

"Maxwell was quite the crawler and could have gone anywhere. We checked the whole house twice.
All the outside doors were closed and locked. It was one of my habits. I locked them after Jason arrived.
We looked under the beds. We called my brother's name a hundred times. Nothing. I was totally
panicked and didn't know what to do. I went into the kitchen to call 9-1-1. As I was dialing, I looked
down at the bottom of the back door and saw the doggie door. I had never given it a thought while we
were looking for Maxwell. We hadn't put it in. We never had a dog. It was there when Mom and Dad
bought the house, and I had forgotten about it completely.

"I dropped the phone, screamed for Jason, and ran out back."

Tillie's eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her mouth twisted into a grimace. "Did I mention before
that we had a swimming pool?"

"Oh, Tillie," Wilson murmured.

Talking slowly, almost trance-like, Tillie continued, "I must have finished dialing 9-1-1 before I
dropped the phone, because the police showed up within a couple of minutes. One of them had EMT
training and took Maxwell away from me and tried to revive him while the paramedics were on their
way. But it…it was too late."

She fell into silence, vividly reliving the scene she had spent the last sixteen years running away
from. Her shoulders began to heave, and a series of racking sobs burst from her. Elias was the first to
move and sat on the sofa next to her. As soon as she felt his arm on her shoulder, she twisted toward
him and threw her arms around his neck, the sobbing intensifying.

They sat holding each other for minutes, neither speaking. The crying gradually ebbed off to a
gentle weeping, which diminished to a muted series of sniffles. Lifting her head from his shoulder, Tillie
looked up at Elias, her eyes bright red. "Well, now you know the answer to both of your questions –
why I'm here and why I don't trust anyone else."

Elias struggled to find something to say. He wanted to tell her that he was not Jason, that she could
count on him. He wanted to promise her that he would make sure everything turned out all right. It was
a combination of her very rawness and her abject vulnerability, as well as his own lack of certainty that
he would be able to keep such a promise, which stopped him. All he could think of to say, he said.
"Tillie, I'm so sorry."

From across the room, as if reading Elias' mind, Wilson again spoke soothingly. "Jason is not in
this room. So much time has passed since then, Tillie; you are older now and you must learn to trust
your insights. You have already had some time to get to know Elias, haven't you? I'm not saying that
any of us are the heroes from some blockbuster movie. In fact, as of this moment, I have no idea who
will prevail. I don't believe that we could hazard a guess in that regard. But, Tillie, the effort will be
made, and you must trust in that. And if I am wrong, if I have so grossly misjudged the situation, then
I am a bigger fool than I thought."

Tillie swayed back, away from Elias, dragged the sleeve of her shirt across her face, and sniffed. She
looked at Wilson, lingering on his face for a moment, before she glanced briefly at Stone, who had
moved to the front edge of the bed, and finally returned her eyes to Elias, quietly asking him, "Promise
something?"

"I will. What is it?"

"Promise me that you'll at least try to be Bruce Willis. Just till this thing is over."

He smiled at her and nodded. "I promise, as long as I don't have to shave my head or sing."

"He's bald?"

A subdued laugh came from Elias. "You have been out of touch for a while, haven't you?"

She smiled back. "Deal."



They had agreed that this might be their last opportunity to get some rest before facing the ordeal
ahead. The sun had gone down long ago and the florescent lights had come on, so the battery and
electrical system seemed to be functioning. Since Stone had been resting in his quarters before they
rescued him, he offered to stand watch as the others slept.

Tillie, exhausted from the day, as well as from her emotional outpouring, crawled into her bed and
fell asleep almost immediately. Wilson, maintaining his unruffled composure, propped his feet on the
coffee table and tilted his head back, commencing a sonorous symphony of snores within minutes.

Elias was having trouble clearing his mind enough to take the much-needed nap. Stone walked
quietly to where Elias stood and cautioned him, "If you don't catch at least some sleep, you're gonna
be worthless later."

Elias, answering softly to not disturb Tillie or Wilson, replied, "I know. But there are a couple of
things that don't fit. They're driving me crazy."

"Only a couple? You're doing better than I am, then."

"I'm serious, Eric. Why did they, whoever they are, want me in here alive? Tillie's right. Normally,
I would just disappear. It doesn't make any sense."

"Insufficient data at this time."

Elias spun his head and looked at Stone. "What?"

"I'm saying that we don't know enough to answer that question. That's part of what we need to sort
out after we get some rest."

Elias stared at him for a minute before he reached up and rubbed his eyes. "I guess you're right. A
little unconsciousness would be a good idea."

"Yeah, it would."

"Keep your eyes open."

"Not to worry."

Since Wilson was supine in the wing-back chair and Tillie had crashed on the bed, Elias moved to
the sofa and lay down. He saw Stone position himself off to the side of the main area so that he could
watch both entrances. Satisfied, Elias lowered his eyelids. Within five minutes Stone heard the steady,
rhythmic pattern of snores coming from Elias.

He sat patiently and waited an additional five minutes before silently easing off the stool where he
was perched, and carefully walking away. It took him the better part of twenty minutes to reach Elias'
cache. Wasting no time, he picked up the large backpack loaded with the firebombs and started to leave.

"Put them down, Eric."

The voice came from the darkened passageway ahead, and Stone froze, recognizing Elias' voice.

In slow motion, ensuring that both of his hands were visible throughout the procedure, Stone
unslung the bulky pack from around his arms and shoulders, and eased it to the floor.

Elias stepped forward, and Stone could see that he was pointing the AK-47 directly at his chest.

"Talk."

"How'd you figure it out, Elias?"

Elias shrugged, the barrel of the rifle did not waver. "When you and Tillie returned, I asked her to
describe the procedure you used to test the Incendergel. Pretty clever, actually. A rookie wouldn't know
that the gel needs pressure, fuel, and ignition to go off. The fuel was present. You only introduced
ignition."

"You wouldn't have asked her if you weren't already suspicious."

"You're right. I was. To tell you the truth, old friend, I was a lot more than just suspicious."

As he detected the tone in Elias' voice, understanding dawned on Stone. "I see. They told me you
were getting close. I assume you found out."

Elias was staring at him dispassionately, and did not answer.

"So I guess you didn't come in here to rescue me."

"I came in here to kill you."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Entering not his administrator password, but the password assigned to Dr. Bonillas, which one of
the Accelerants had obtained for him, his hand quickly manipulated the track ball, moving the cursor
around the modules on the interface where all of the department heads uploaded their summaries of
notes and reports. It took less than a minute to find Bonillas' designated subdirectory.

"She must have just filed it," he muttered aloud, smiling. With a few more clicks he was done; his
only delay was as he decided whether to copy the files or move them, opting for the latter.

"Got it!" he said to himself as he slipped the flash drive into his pocket. The lab was deserted at this
time of night, for which he was grateful. Shutting down the computer, he crossed the large room to the
exit, switching off the lights before he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

"Doctor Boehn! What are you doing here so late?"

Boehn whirled around to see Rudy Kreitzmann standing five feet from him, a quizzical look on his
face.



"Manager Pierce?"

Mildred Pierce, who was sitting at her desk in near darkness, the only illumination coming from
a candle flickering beside her elbow, turned to see that Will Rogan was standing at the door to her
office.

"Come in, Will, please. Have a seat. Would you care for a glass of this dreadful wine?"

"We have wine? I thought the supply drops didn't include any recently."

"One of our people tried to make some."

She took a sip and crinkled her nose in disgust. "It is vile."

"No, thanks."