Wilde Card, page 56
Sighing, Tia changed into the paper thin gown hanging on the door. She folded Summer’s clothes carefully and brought them back out into the room. Morales was gone. Tia glanced around the room, curiously, just a woman about to have a procedure done. She noticed that there weren’t any cameras in the room, and after furtive searching, nothing hidden in the walls. That didn’t reassure her. Beneath the gown, tied into the strap of her underwear, she was concealing a small dagger. She had removed her socks and was sliding around the room in the slippers provided.
She thought of all the women who had come before her. The women and the girls, desperate for a child, to feel something, to hold someone who had no choice but to love them. Tia thought about the Madeleines of the city, the ones without hope and faith, tricked into believing they could have both - all in exchange for their wombs. She thought of them lying in this bed, in this gown, closing their eyes against the brightness of this light. Praying, maybe, if they were religious, or imagining the baby they could be holding in nine months time. Tia felt despair and fury.
A knock at the door brought her back to attention and she realised she was gripping the sheets between her fists. She released them, smoothing them down as she called for the doctor to enter. The woman who entered was a study in grey. She could have been the whole city wrapped around a skeleton. Her hair was more grey than black, haphazardly shot through like lightning bolts. Her face was sallow, tight across the shifting bones, raising her brow into permanent condescension and her mouth into a cruel curve. She wore a simple blouse and grey trousers beneath her lab coat, and a weariness on her shoulders. When she saw Tia, she managed a smile that only made her seem more washed out.
“Mrs Davidson-” she began.
“It’s Ms.”
She waved the correction away and began scribbling in her clipboard. This was a woman who didn’t care. “I’m Doctor Fairchild,” she said as she glanced at her watch. “I’ll be doing your embryo transfer this evening.”
When she finally met Tia’s gaze, Tia saw that her eyes were so dark that they were almost black. With a small intake of breath, she realised that this was the woman who had watched Zeta grow up. This was the woman in charge. She wasn’t sure what made her so certain of the fact, but there it was. She resisted the urge to punch Dr Fairchild in the face. Instead, she simpered and allowed her to check her pulse.
“Are you okay? You’re a little flushed.”
“Just nerves.”
Fairchild looked away from the clipboard and frowned. “Oh, there’s no need to be nervous. Like we mentioned to you in your consultation, your chances of success are very strong. You had an abortion, what -” she consulted her notes. “Last year? There’s clearly no issue with your fertility. You did the right thing choosing our programme; we really are expecting wonderful things-”
But Tia wasn’t listening anymore. Abortion? Had this battleaxe of a woman just said that Summer had an abortion...last year? Her head was suddenly spinning but she forced herself to focus. She couldn’t afford to get distracted right now. By the time she had refocused her eyes, a nurse was entering the room and coming to stand beside her. The bed began to roll and she was suddenly being wheeled through the doorway. Dr Fairchild led the way, her heels clicking away on the floor.
“Are you going to knock me out?” Tia joked.
“No anaesthetic required,” the nurse replied.
Tia nodded, wondering when she was going to have an opportunity to run. This was the part that she had never had a plan for. How could she have planned anything? She had no idea what went on down here, and Kal hadn’t known much more either. The plan was pretty loose from here on now and she was relying on her quick thinking and her team to get her out of this alive. So, really, it was a lot of wishful thinking. She contemplated knocking the nurse out and slicing Fairchild’s ankles so she couldn’t run, stealing her keys and taking her chances with whoever else was down here. But then her shoulder twinged and she had to hold back her cry. Okay, so maybe that wouldn’t work so smoothly. With her being injured, she had to be smarter about her ideas. She had to be cunning rather than brutal, or she would end up nothing but dead.
The bed was pushed through another heavy door and into a second corridor, with an even stronger scent of disinfectant. Tia strained her neck as they passed the door Kal had described. That was where she needed to get to. The nurse kept going, wheeling her bed almost to the very end, where Zeta’s prison was. They went left just before it, and Tia was pushed through double doors she hadn’t noticed on her last excursion. It led to an operating theatre, everything lit up like the sun. It burned her retinas and she blinked rapidly, trying to gather her bearings.
It wasn’t as menacing as she had thought it would be. Considering she wasn’t going to be put under anesthetic, she shouldn’t have been surprised. There were no wickedly sharp tools on the table, and no one else in the room besides Fairchild and the nurse. They sanitised both themselves and her after she climbed into the chair in the centre of the room. There were spurs that she was to hook her feet into. She remembered, belatedly, that she was wearing underwear and that she had a knife twisted into them. She glanced around, looking for something to create a distraction. There was nothing.
“Put your feet into the spurs, please.”
Tia laughed nervously - half acting, half genuine. “Actually…”
Fairchild raised an eyebrow even higher than it already was. It was bizarre to watch. Tia swallowed, channeling an anxious Summer. “I think I just need a minute.”
“You’re quite young. Your file says you’re 33,” the woman said instead.
“We can’t all have good genes!”
They turned to face the doorway where a new nurse was standing. In all the shuffling about, Tia hadn’t even realised that the other nurse had left. But then the bed had to be taken back...so of course he had. And now, beaming at Dr Fairchild, was Kal wearing ill-fitting scrubs. They were too tight across his thighs and his chest but were stretchy enough to allow it. She could see this as he moved further into the room to stand by the Doctor’s side. Tia could only stare.
“Nurse White,” he introduced himself.
“Where’s Collins?” Fairchild asked, ignoring his hand. She looked very, very annoyed.
“Family emergency,” Kal offered. “I’m his replacement. I’m here to help with Ms Davidson’s procedure.”
Fairchild sniffed her discontentment. “Unacceptable.”
She turned to Tia and tried to look apologetic. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to wait a little longer. I can’t do this procedure with a nurse I haven’t prepped. I’ll have White transfer you back to your room in the meantime.”
Tia opened her eyes wide, as if greatly disturbed, going so far as to let her eyes tear up. Fairchild’s mouth became a firm, straight line in her grey face. And Kal dropped the thickest book in the history of books on her head.
“Oh, Jesus,” Tia muttered as Fairchild’s eyes rolled and she slid to the floor.
Kal helped her out of the chair, glancing down at the pile of doctor at their feet. “You’re welcome.”
“Don’t get cocky,” Tia laughed as she grabbed scrubs from the other side of the theatre and wriggled into them. He pretended that he didn’t see her wince of pain and she loved him for it. Together they pushed Fairchild into the corner, hiding her body behind the chair.
He held up her keys and jangled them. “Let’s go destroy some mutant eggs.”
“What did you do with the other nurse?” she asked as they pushed through the heavy double doors.
“He’s in the other operating theatre, taking a nap.”
She laughed and let her dagger dangle freely between her fingers, where it was most comfortable. He himself was hiding nothing except the raw power of his own muscles. She just hoped that it would be enough.
The key to the cleaners cupboard was old, the dullest one in the bundle. After a few tries, Tia realised that it would be this one - the door was different to the others, faded and scratched over the years. Kal kept watch as she pushed her way into the room and lost her breath. He was behind her in seconds, catching her as she staggered back.
It was very cold, as he had said. The door opened up into a space that was much bigger than she had expected. The back wall appeared to be made entirely of aluminum; a massive walk-in fridge/freezer. But it was what sat in front of the wall that arrested Tia. She rounded it, slowly, anxious about what she would face.
A woman lay in the hospital bed, her head turned away from Tia. Long, brilliant white hair trailed over her hospital gown. A blanket was pulled up to her waist, and hands wrapped in translucent skin clutched the edges. Her veins were startling, prominent and incredibly blue at the surface. Tia reached out to touch the woman, to see if she was alive - because her chest did not rise.
“I am alive.”
The voice was old, laden with years, inflected with an unidentifiable accent. Tia jumped, dropping her hand before it could make contact. The woman’s head turned slowly until she was staring into Tia with eyes as white as snow. She had no iris, no pupil; her eye was one complete colour - or lack of. Tia stepped back, and Kal swore out of shock.
“Who are you?” Tia asked.
Her face was lined with an indescribable number of creases. She was old, beyond anything they had ever seen. Her hair was so lustrous that it seemed a cruel joke that it framed such a face. Her mouth was sunken, but parted to reveal a dark cavity. “I am the mother. Who are you?”
“The mother?” Tia echoed. She turned to Kal, who looked disturbed. “You don’t think she means Zeta’s mother?”
“You know where my Zeta is?” the woman snapped to attention. Her eyes seemed to narrow, though there were just so much to them.
“She’s safe-” Tia began.
“Bring her to me.”
“No,” Kal said, shaking his head. “We’re here to rescue you.”
He ignored Tia’s glare. That wasn’t why they were here, and she didn’t appreciate the change of plans. He approached the bed. “Why do they keep you in here?”
“Someone has to protect the children,” she explained, a dreamy tone slipping into her voice.
Tia stepped towards the wall, searching for a handle, anything. She realised after groping around for a few minutes that it didn’t open outwards or even inwards. It was a sliding door which could be pulled from the edge of the wall across to the right. It was surprisingly light and slid open to reveal a walk-in, and rows and rows of shelves. Her breath came out in a cloud and she craned her neck to take in the sheer size of it. She turned to ask Kal why anyone would choose an old woman to protect all of this and froze.
Kal was lying, unconscious, on the floor. His shirt had been ripped from neckline to hem, and lay in two pieces either side of him. Zeta’s mother was standing over his body, her hand pressed to his bare chest, and pouring from his body into her skin was a stream of steady blue light. Tia was so shocked that she could only stand and watch as the hair that flowed across her shoulders began to darken and kink, forming loose waves. Even from the back, Tia could see the woman’s skin becoming darker, losing its translucence and taking on a golden hue.
Suddenly exploding into action, Tia flung herself at the woman, knocking her off her feet. They crashed into the bed, sending it rolling into the wall as they tumbled to the floor. Tia sprang to her feet, ignoring the intense wave of nausea that rolled through her out of agony. She was too stunned to be sick. She was looking not at an old woman but at a girl barely older than herself. Dark hair, flushed cheeks, a smiling mouth - all but the eerie white of the eyes had changed.
“What are you?” Tia asked, horrified. She was worried for Kal, scared of what she didn’t understand, what she might not be able to fix.
“I told you, child. I am the mother. And I protect my children.”
“These aren’t your children,” Tia gestured. Had she seen Kal’s chest move? “These are eggs taken from Zeta.”
“They are her eggs, but I am her mother. In the end, they are all my children.” The woman smiled and it sent a chill down Tia’s spine. “You can call me Lilith, but I don’t see the point; you’ll be too dead to call me anything.”
She launched herself at Tia who had no time to do anything but go on the defensive. She dodged blows, throwing herself to the side to avoid the sharp rake of nails, ducking under Lilith’s sailing arms. She stumbled over Kal’s body, unable to avoid it. He didn’t move beyond her own momentum and she felt her chest constrict out of fear again. She turned a glare towards Lilith, who was circling her like a lion. “What did you do to him?”
“I live off the life force. They don’t let me feed as often as I like, or as much as I like, but whoever wanders into my little room...well, that’s a different matter.” Lilith cocked her head. “He is not dead. Yet. But you very soon will be. My children are off limits.”
Tia ran at her, brandishing her dagger. She managed to slice it across Lilith’s face, opening a deep cut across her cheek, before she twisted away from the clutching hands. She went on the defensive again, trying to observe what she could in this strange dance across the room.
“How could you let the Bloc do this to your own daughter?” Tia gestured towards the fridge.
“Don’t presume to understand things you could never.”
“You let them treat her like a pet womb.”
Lilith darted forward, grabbing hold of Tia’s dagger in her bare hand. She felt it slicing deep into the woman’s hand, but Lilith didn’t even cry out. She yanked it free, throwing it across the room. “Women like us don’t deserve to die out.” She laughed. “The world must know us.”
A terrible thought struck Tia. “This was all your idea.”
“You’re not as stupid as you look,” Lilith snorted. She closed her hand around Tia’s wrist and twisted. The pain was swift, and Tia had to twist with it for relief. She whimpered, feeling small bones crackle in Lilith’s grip. Thankfully, it was her good arm or she would have passed out right then and there. She looked up at her, from where she now kneeled, and saw joy. “Of course it was my idea. And now I know that you have taken my daughter, I’m giving you one chance to tell me where she is before I rip you into pieces.”
“She’s perfectly happy where she is.”
“You could not begin to understand what happiness is for us. You people of normal abilities, middling strength and limited intelligence. As if anyone like you could have come up with this. I have your kind building my army, using yourselves as incubators this time.” Lilith sneered, “Where is my daughter? I will not ask again.”
“You really like to hear yourself talk, don’t you?” Kal quipped. Tia’s dagger flashed through the light and then it was scoring past Lilith’s chest, carving a crimson arc into her flesh. She screeched, releasing Tia in her anger. Kal had missed, but he was righting himself, preparing to try again.
Tia didn’t hesitate to lunge, wrapping her hands around the woman’s throat, her shoulder screaming. She rode Lilith’s body to the ground, squeezing, pressing. She was gasping, tears rolling down her cheeks from the pain. Kal and Tia weren’t used to fighting together, they didn’t know how the other worked, how they moved. She yearned for Talia or Jay who would have already been by her side, helping her to strangle the life out of this monster.
“Tia, you were supposed to run!” Kal yelled as Lilith kicked Tia in the stomach, sending her flying across the room.
Through blurry eyes, Tia saw him kick down at Lilith who rolled away from his leg. He continued to stomp, his thick legs tensing with the jolt and Lilith dodged every one. She rose to her feet, coughing at the pressure Tia had applied to her throat.
“Such a shame to have to kill you. So pretty and so strong...we could have used your DNA,” she smirked.
Kal scowled before the dagger flashed again, this time leaving a bloody gouge across her arm. Again, and it left its mark across her neck. Her blood was as red as theirs. Tia staggered to her feet, using the bed for leverage. She made it to Kal’s side, breathing heavily and suddenly very aware that her wrist felt brittle. Everything hurt, and her whole body was crying out. She ignored it. Lilith was observing them with something more than amusement, maybe even respect that they kept on coming.
“Why would you want an army?” Tia panted.
Lilith raised an eyebrow. “You really want to know, little dragon?” She shrugged. “For years, I was tortured by your government. They wanted my secrets, but I had none to give. I know nothing of who I was born to, or why I am the way I am. They didn’t care. Eventually, I learned to lie. They were happy with those lies, and I was allowed comforts. One of them took a liking to me, began to visit me just to talk. I liked him, he was the only one who was nice to me. We got carried away. A pregnancy took hold. His superiors got rid of him for his foolishness, but they were curious about my child. They hadn’t even considered that I could have children, but once they knew I could, everything changed. They took Zeta from me the second she was born. I have never seen her, my own child, though I know what she’s capable of.”
If Tia wasn’t mistaken, she could hear pain in Lilith’s voice. A pain that had festered for decades. A yearning for her own child. For peace. She shook herself, reminded herself that this woman was dangerous and guarding the mecca of scientific abominations. They had to destroy those eggs, no matter what. She had a lighter tucked into her bra, and if she was going to have to die so that Kal could get to the fridge, then so be it. It was a startling realisation in the moment - that one of them might not survive this. She never once looked away from Lilith, but she was aware of the open walk-in at her back, not least because of the chill that was emanating from it.
“They used me like an incubator. They tried to replicate Zeta, but every child was a stillborn, or died within days. They didn’t stop until I was the mother to 7 dead boys.”
