Tempest. Part 34

"Oh ... those rules." He slung an arm around Holly and she glanced over her shoulder at me.

"I'll be right back, I promise." The four of us watched them retreat, then I turned back to Dad. "You better make sure nothing happens to them. And keep this jerk from dropping things in people's drinks."

"What the h.e.l.l is going on?" Freeman asked Dad.

"I'll explain later."

"Let's go, Dr. Melvin." I pointed toward the far exit door of the hotel and then we walked in silence up to my room.

As I got into some clothes, Dr. Melvin sat on the couch in the front room and waited for me to talk first.

"Is Jenni Stewart still alive?" I asked. "She's still an agent and everything?"

Melvin balked a little but then answered, "Yes, she's in New York."

I pulled the chair over from the desk and sat right in front of Dr. Melvin, then I removed Freeman's gun and held it in my hands. "Now tell me about Axelle."

"Why don't you tell me how much you know first and maybe I can fill in the blanks?" he said, talking to me like I was five.

I had to laugh and then raise the gun a little, even though I'd never used one. But Dr. Melvin didn't know that. "Nice try. I visited a really interesting place once. This underground wing of the hospital, and I'm curious what exactly goes on down there."

His eyes were the size of golf b.a.l.l.s and then he nodded and sank farther into the couch. "Okay, I'll explain ... Axelle is a project designed to use a combination of my research on the Tempus gene and future technological developments we've obtained from various sources. The actual application of Axelle began in 1989, when we successfully implanted a fertilized egg into a surrogate mother. My team used the eggs of one of the female EOTs."

"Wait, so, you stole some EOT woman's eggs?" I asked. "Is that why they're so mad?"

"They aren't happy about the experiment, if that's what you mean. And yes, we took the woman's eggs. But we used the sperm of a normal man. An anonymous donor."

"Did you kill her?" I asked. "The EOT chick."

Melvin shook his head. "No, she escaped."

My heart pounded twice as fast. "Is her name Ca.s.sidy?"

"How do you know that?"

If I had been standing, I would have fallen over. The woman who tried to take me back to this timeline was biologically my mother. No wonder she looked just like Courtney. And what had she said to Dad? I believe I have a say in his well-being, given the circ.u.mstances. Much more than you ever will.

It was already too much and I almost told Melvin to stop, but hiding from the truth didn't appeal to me nearly as much as it used to. "We may have run into each other ... Go on with the story."

"Axelle's purpose was to mix the genetics of time travelers with that of normal humans to see if any abilities developed and, if so, how they differed from the others."

It felt like the wind had gotten knocked out of me. Another missing piece of the puzzle snapped into place.

"Half-breed ... Frankenstein," I muttered under my breath. It made perfect sense now. "Why would you want to create more of them?"

"Honestly, Jackson, I had no idea you would even be able to time-travel. Of course, we hoped for it. But we at least wanted to bring someone into the world with similar brain activity. The capacity they have to hold information is fascinating. I've been far more interested in that than I was in their ability to travel through time."

Yeah, like that made me feel better. "Why the half-mutant experiment? Why not go for the full deal?"

He nodded slowly. "This part is the hardest to understand. It's the main reason Tempest has to fight this constant and sometimes near-impossible battle. I can certainly try to explain, but you may lose trust in our organization."

"Um ... it's a little too late for that," I said. "You might as well use everything you've got. I doubt my impression of Tempest could get much worse."

His face fell, but just for a second. "The EOTs lack normal emotions. The ability to grasp concepts like fear, love, or grief."

I groaned and tried to refrain from rolling my eyes. "You're right, that's a lame explanation. So, basically, the Enemies of Time are evil sociopaths, and Tempest agents are the equivalent of Mother Teresa. Not very original."

He sighed and attempted to flatten his wild gray hair. "I never said evil. This is completely different. Perhaps they lack emotions because they don't see any permanence in time. For me and most people, losing someone you love is devastating because that person is gone and you can't go back to a time when they were still around. If I could, maybe death wouldn't weigh so heavily on my life. The fact that they can jump around and potentially re-create history is dangerous. It's the same for you fooling around with time-travel experiments. But the biggest threat isn't what they can do, it's the lack of humanity behind their decisions."

Well ... I could go back and see Courtney anytime I wanted and her death still had the same impact on me. Maybe even more. I was so absorbed in Dr. Melvin's explanation, I forgot about the gun and the fact that I was practically holding him hostage. "None of them seemed evil. They even apologized for ... well, for something that hasn't happened yet ... something that won't happen anymore," I said firmly.

Even Dr. Melvin's composure had changed. I was the student and he was the teacher. "This is why it's hard to explain. We live in a world with people like them. Not actual EOTs but those who make every decision through logical and calculated risk."

"Again, that doesn't seem so bad."

Dr. Melvin lifted his eyebrows. "Really? Then think about war. Someone is in charge in every country. One man or woman has to make a decision to send soldiers off to fight. Young people who have loved ones that need them, men and woman with children waiting at home. Whoever gives the orders to risk those lives is making a calculated decision. Weighing the benefits of losing a few lives in the hopes of saving more. We need people like that in our world, yes, but imagine if everyone was like that."

My shoulders slumped farther down as the weight of his words pressed on top of me. "Do you think I'll be like them? I was normal until I was eighteen. What if I just keep changing and eventually I'm the same as them?"

Melvin smiled a little. "I've known you since before you were born, Jackson. You could never be the one sending people off to die, no matter how many lives it saved. Their methods are mathematical and yours are heartfelt, though impulsive at times. It's a wonderful quality. But it's also a weakness."

"They view it as a weakness, or you do?" I asked.

"Both," he said immediately. "Doctors fight the same internal battle. There are times when you have to set aside your compa.s.sion for a patient and use only medically driven facts to make a diagnosis or treatment. Other times, connecting emotionally with a patient has amazing benefits, but often it's hard to turn one part off at the right time."

I didn't miss the sadness that washed over his face. "Like with Courtney? You tried to keep her alive longer than you should have?"

"She was in a lot of pain. I knew that and still I didn't want to give up." His eyes were misty, but no tears fell. "I don't know if it was right or not. For her, I think the change was starting earlier than you. One month, everything was clear, and the next, her brain was covered with inoperable tumors. There's no way I could have ever predicted that happening." He sighed and focused his eyes over my shoulder. "We had the best brain surgeons and oncologists in the entire world studying her case. But no modern medicine could change what happened to her."

"So it's possible she could have been like me ... if she hadn't gotten sick?"

"Yes," he said. "I'm just not sure telling you all of this will do anything but make you more miserable."

"I wanted to know." I shook my head and stared down at my hands. "But now it's a little difficult to feel connected to anything ... to my father, when I'm just some experiment."

The words were out before I could stop them. At least it was just Melvin in the room. My dad told me in 2007 that Courtney and I were his a.s.signment, his job. But I wanted to be his son.

"I don't know how to convince you otherwise, but I can tell you for sure, your dad's side is the right one."

I remembered something Marshall had said in 2007, when we were standing over Harold's body. He's one of Dr. Ludwig's sp.a.w.ns.

"Who's Dr. Ludwig?" I asked.

Melvin's eyebrows lifted. "A scientist, like myself. Someone with a similar fascination with the time travelers' minds. Only his products are pure-breeds, but not originals. Copies."

"Are you talking about cloning?" I asked.

"Something along those lines. Genetic mutation as well."

My mind painted an image of rows of Harolds, Ca.s.sidys, and the shoe-print guys all lined up in giant incubators. Creepy.

"Wait ... I'm not a clone ... am I?"

Melvin shook his head vigorously. "Absolutely not. You and your sister were developed in the same way many children are brought into this world. No different from a woman who has difficulty getting pregnant."

I sighed with relief. Science experiment was bad enough, but actually being made by some machine or however it worked was far beyond what I could grasp and still maintain sanity. "So where is this Ludwig guy? Is Tempest going to take him out or stop him or something?... I mean, he shouldn't be doing this making-people s.h.i.t ... Wait ... he's not on the CIA's side like you, is he?"

"No, he's not on Tempest's side," Melvin answered firmly. "And Dr. Ludwig is not alive."

"Someone got to him already?" I asked.

"Something like that."

He had given me the information I wanted. It filled in the missing pieces perfectly and yet I still couldn't trust my father or the EOTs. Maybe they were p.i.s.sed off because Melvin stole some lady's eggs. It kinda made sense.

I believed Dr. Melvin cared about me and Courtney. I had gotten good enough at reading faces to know that, but he wasn't calling the shots. Chief Marshall was, which meant I couldn't rely on Dr. Melvin.

I stopped thinking it over because Dr. Melvin stared at me so intensely I was worried he could read my mind. Adam had given me the answer I needed earlier today. I could choose a side without selling my soul. "Okay, tell me the truth. Is Chief Marshall lurking around here somewhere? I'd like to speak with him, alone."

Dr. Melvin's face tightened, but he nodded and pulled out his phone.

"I'm going to check on my friends. He can find me when he's ready," I said as I headed out the door.

As I was walking out toward the pool again, Adam sent me a text that said, You can thank me later.

I had no idea what that meant, but the second I spotted them, sitting in lounge chairs scooted close together, Holly jumped up and threw her arms around my neck. She had thrown her dress from earlier over her swimsuit, not that I expected them to be swimming and having fun while I had my little life-altering chat with Dr. Melvin.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "Adam told me everything."

My arms went around her and I looked at Adam over her shoulder, trying to converse silently. He lifted his eyebrows as if to say, Just go with it.

I racked my brain for theories about what he might have told her and then settled on a few; Dad not being my dad would be the most likely, given the reason for me escaping on this weekend trip. He could have said the information was on the hard drive. A little far-fetched, but it's possible she believed him.

"How come you're taking this government stuff so well?" I asked Holly.

She laughed a little and we both sat, facing each other on one lounge chair. "Promise you won't get mad at me if I tell you something?"

I smiled at her. "I doubt I could ever be mad at you."

"I have an entire diary of theories about you and most of them were a lot crazier than son of CIA agent."

"Like what?" Adam and I said together.

This was total news to me.

"Um ... well ... I considered money-embezzling. I thought maybe Adam was helping you hack into computers of foreign banks. Then there's you being a mobster, of course."

"Of course," I said. "And how exactly would Adam be involved?"

She leaned closer to me and I was honestly intimidated by the excitement on her face. Apparently her little-girl fascinations with espionage hadn't faded as she got older.

"Adam could have been your source for false identification, like if you wanted to hire illegal immigrants for your construction business and you needed doc.u.mentation. He makes some kick-a.s.s fake IDs."

And fake FBI badges.

"Holly, why is it you're dating Jackson again?" Adam asked.

She shook her head and smiled. "G.o.d, you have no idea how many times I've asked myself that same question."

I leaned forward and touched my lips to hers. "I don't blame you."

"The mobster thing is a really good idea," Adam said. "We could totally pull that off."

Holly cracked up. "Adam being in the CIA surprises me a lot less than you being a secret agent. There's not a single member of our senior cla.s.s that doesn't think Adam will either become some super hotshot software programmer or some kind of government code breaker. Personally, I thought he was probably already working for someone, playing the average high school student by day, and by night..."

Adam let out this evil cackle to punctuate Holly's story. "I just wish I could kick some a.s.s like Jackson. That was totally sweet."

"I'll teach you sometime."

"And you'll teach me, or I'll tell everyone your secrets." Holly stood up and s.n.a.t.c.hed her purse from the ground. "I'm going to get snacks for all of us."

I waited until she had reached the bar, where Dad and Freeman sat watching us, before saying anything to Adam. "What did you tell her?"

"Aside from our CIA recruitment? Just the he's-not-Jackson's-father story. I figured she'd go for that, especially if I made your dad seem like an a.s.shole."

"So ... did you get to look at the Axelle stuff?" I asked. He dropped his eyes and nodded. "Pretty freaky, huh?"

"Yeah," Adam said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry you had to get involved ... What did they do to get you to talk?" I asked.

The color drained from his face. "A combination of threats against most of my family, you, Holly, and then eventually your dad took over the interrogation and said he'd bring me along, to make sure nothing happened to you guys. He wasn't exactly nice about it, but at least he didn't threaten me, like the other dudes."

Holly returned with food for all of us, but I saw Chief Marshall walking toward Dad. "Save some nachos for me, okay? I've got another ... meeting."

Holly nodded and I could feel her eyes following me as I walked toward the man who, last time I saw him, had nearly strangled me to death. This should be interesting.

I stopped right in front of him and made sure to have my game face on. I had to crane my neck a little to make eye contact with him. "Mind if we chat for a few minutes?"

His face stayed cold and distant, like always. "Of course."

Dad started to follow us, but I turned around and held my arm out. "This is just between me and Chief Marshall."

Dad looked like he might object but gave in quickly, which only increased my suspicions. I turned to Marshall. "No earpieces or communication devices."

He hesitated but removed the small piece of plastic from his ear and dropped it on the ground before smashing it with his shoe. Then he took off his watch and handed it to Dad.

I led him all the way to the very back of the building. My room was probably already bugged by Dad or that Freeman guy. I took a breath and focused on sounding as a.s.sertive as possible. "I want you to make me an agent."