Unwind: UnWholly Part 24

He sits in the observation room. He's been there more often than he'd like to admit, spying on Risa-although when it's officially allowed through a one-way mirror, it's not called spying. It's called surveillance.

On the other side of the gla.s.s, Risa stares at the contract Roberta put before her. Her face is stony, her jaw clenched. Finally she picks up the page . . . then folds it into a paper airplane and throws it at the mirror. Cam jolts in spite of himself. He knows she can't see him, but still she looks into the mirror at almost the right spot to make eye contact. For a moment Cam feels like she can see not only through the gla.s.s, but through him as well, and he has to look away.

He hates the fact that she hates him. He should have expected it, but still, her words hurt him deeply and make him want to hurt her back. But no. That's just the reaction of the various Unwinds in his head; kids who would lash out at the slightest provocation. He won't give in to those impulses. There are enough sensible parts of him to balance things and allow him to control those parts that threaten to disturb the peace. He reminds himself that, as Roberta has said, he is the new paradigm-the new model of what humanity could, and should, be. The world will get used to him, and in time revere him. And so will Risa.

Roberta comes into the room behind him and speaks quietly. "There's no point staying here."

"Jericho," he says. "She's a wall, but she'll crumble. I know she will."

Roberta smiles at him. "I have no doubt that you'll win her over. In fact, I suspect she'll change her mind sooner than you think."

Cam tries to read between the lines of her smile, but she reveals nothing. "Cat that ate the canary-I don't like when you keep secrets."

"No secret," Roberta tells him. "Just an undying faith in human nature. Now come, it's almost time for your photo shoot."

Cam sighs. "Another one?"

"Would you prefer a press conference?"

"A sharp stick in the eye? No thank you!"

Cam has to admit that this new approach to the media is far better than press conferences and interviews. Roberta and her friends at Proactive Citizenry have cooked up a first-cla.s.s advertising campaign. Billboards, print ads, digital, the works. All just photos, but even so, the ads are powerful.

The first round of ads will feature extreme close-ups of various parts of him. An eye; streaks of his multicolored hair; the starburst of flesh tones on his forehead. Each image will be accompanied by a pithy but enigmatic caption like, "The Time Has Come," or "The Brilliant Tomorrow," with no other clue as to what's being advertised. Then, when public curiosity is piqued, they move to phase two, where the ads will feature his face, his body, and finally his whole self.

"We'll create a mystique around you," Roberta told him. "Play into their puerile fascination with the exotic until they're champing at the bit to see more."

"Striptease," Cam had said.

"An elevated version of the same concept, I suppose," Roberta admitted. "Once the ad campaign has rolled out, you will enter the public eye not as an oddity, but as a celebrity-and when you finally deign to do interviews, it will be on our terms."

"My terms," Cam corrected.

"Yes, of course. Your terms."

Now, as Cam watches Risa through the one-way gla.s.s, he wonders what could possibly make her live by his terms too. Roberta has told him that he can have anything he desires, but what if the thing he desires most is Risa choosing to be with him of her own free will?

"Cam, please-come now, or we'll be late."

Cam stands, but before he leaves, he spares one last glance through the mirror at Risa, who has struggled onto her bed. Now she lies stretched out on her back, looking morosely at the ceiling. Then she closes her eyes.

The eternally sleeping princess, thinks Cam. But I shall free you from those poisoned brambles that surround your heart. And then you will have no choice but to love me.

30 * Nelson

The Juvey-cop turned parts pirate makes a side trip to check one of his most successful traps. It is, however, in an unfortunate location. Unfortunate because it's in a field that floods during storms. Nothing's more irritating than a drowned AWOL. Except maybe disposing of one. He would rather continue searching for safe houses, with hopes of finding Connor La.s.siter in one of them, but with major storms projected throughout the Midwest, checking this particular trap is worth the effort.

The trap is a piece of drainage pipe-a concrete cylinder five feet high and twenty feet long, lying in a fallow field that no one has farmed for years. Half a dozen such pipes rest in the field, surrounded by weeds-all abandoned when some public works project got canceled. It's a nice hiding spot for runaway Unwinds-and in fact, one of the tunnel segments has a store of canned food right in the middle. The inside surface of that same cylinder, however, is painted with super-adhesive resin that sticks to clothes and flesh with such tenacity that anyone caught in the pipe might as well be nailed to the concrete. It tickles Nelson that he can catch Unwinds the way other people catch roaches.

Sure enough, there's a kid stuck in the pipe. "Help me!" the boy shouts, kind of like the Fly caught in the spiderweb. "Help me, please!" The kid is scrawny and acne-ridden, with crooked teeth yellowed from chewing tobacco or just bad genetics. Either way, he's not a prime specimen and won't fetch much on the black market. His hair is plastered with glue, although Nelson suspects it doesn't look much better clean.

"My G.o.d! What happened to you?" Nelson says, feigning concern.

"It's like glue or somethin'! I can't get out!"

"Okay," Nelson says, "I think I can get you out of there. I have some adhesive remover in the van." Actually he already has it with him. He pretends to jog away and jog back, then soaks a foul-smelling rag with the fluid, climbs into the tunnel, and begins dabbing the kid's clothes and skin. Bit by bit the boy comes free from the adhesive.

"Thanks, mister," says the kid. "Thanks a lot!" Nelson climbs out and waits at the mouth of the tunnel as the gooey, glue-covered kid slides himself out, just as nasty as a baby being born. Then, as he comes into the light of day, something finally occurs to this dim bulb. "Hey, wait a second . . . why would someone have that there adhesive remover stuff unless-"

Nelson doesn't give him the chance to finish his thought. He grabs the boy, wrenches his arms behind his back, and tugs a plastic cable tie around his wrists. Then Nelson pushes him to the ground and p.r.i.c.ks him with the DNA reader.

"William Yotts," Nelson announces, and the kid groans. "AWOL for four days. Not too good at hiding, are ya?"

"You ain't takin' me in," Yotts screams. "You ain't takin' me in!"

"You're right, I'm not," Nelson tells him. "You're not going 'in,' you're going 'up.' As in 'up' on the black market auction block. Ka-ching!"

The kid seems to go both pale and red in the face at the same time, making him all blotchy. Nelson surprises him with a hypodermic. Not tranqs, though. "Antibiotics," he tells the boy. "Clean out whatever diseases crawled into your system while you were in that pipe. Even the ones that were there before. Most of them, anyway."

"Please, mister, you don't gotta do this. Please . . ."

Nelson kneels down and takes a good look at him.

"I'll tell you what," he says. "I like your eyes, so I'll make you a deal."

He cuts the cable tie, and offers the same deal he always offers. A countdown. A chance to run. These AWOLs never realize that the game is rigged. It never occurs to them that Nelson can count as fast as he chooses, and they don't know that he's a very, very good shot.

This boy, like all the others, thinks he'll be the one to escape. He takes off, tripping in the field and picking himself up while Nelson counts. He nears the road as Nelson gets to "eight" and raises his gun. "Nine." He has a clear target-the clothing logo on the kid's back. "Ten!" Then Nelson lowers the gun and doesn't fire. Instead he watches as the kid races across the road, nearly getting hit by a car-but the car swerves around him. The kid then disappears into the woods.

Nelson applauds his own restraint. It would have been so easy to take the kid down. But he has other plans for this AWOL. The injection he gave the kid wasn't an antibiotic at all, but a delivery system for a microscopic tracking chip. The kind they used to monitor the populations of endangered species. This is the fourth AWOL Nelson has tagged and released into the wild since his new mission began. With any luck they'll get picked up by the resistance and give him a clear path to the AWOL sanctuary where Connor La.s.siter is holed up. But in the meantime, there are plenty of local leads to follow up on. Nelson smiles. It's good to have a goal. Something joyful to look forward to.

31 * Miracolina

Miracolina endures her captivity and deprogramming at the hands of the Anti-Divisional Resistance for weeks but never surrenders her core. She never gives in to the things they try to teach her. Oh, she's learned to function within their little world of ex-t.i.thes, doing what's expected, if only so they'll leave her alone. More t.i.thes are brought in, others are placed with families and given new ident.i.ties. There's no such plan for Miracolina. Even semi-cooperative, she's still too much of a risk. They have no idea, however, what she's really planning.

Miracolina considers herself up for any challenge. While she is a t.i.the, she has not lived the same sheltered life as most other t.i.thes, and although she's not a girl from the hard streets, she considers herself street-smart and world savvy. Escaping from the velvet-gloved fist of the resistance will be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

Early on Lev personally warned her of the futility of an escape attempt. "There are sharpshooters with tranq rifles everywhere," he said, making it sound hopeless. Yet every bit of information helps her, because Lev let it slip that although there's a fence, it isn't electrified. Good to know.

She explores every corner of the huge mansion to which she has access, paying special attention to the many unused, dilapidated rooms and corridors too far gone to be restored. Most of the windows are boarded over, and all the doors to the outside are locked. But the more forgotten an area is, the less reliable those locks will be-and a padlock hasp is only as good as the wood it's screwed into. Such as the lock on the garden door, which has an unpleasant termite infestation. Once she finds the door, she files the information away for future reference.

The ex-t.i.thes' meals are usually served on chipped china that must have been part of the Cavenaugh collection in better days, but on Sundays, the finest stuff is brought out, including silver platters just large enough to fit beneath her s.h.i.+rt, like armor. Again, she files the information away for future reference.

Now all she needs is a diversion-not just inside the mansion, but outside as well. Unfortunately, that's not something she can create, so she bides her time, confident that an opportunity will present itself. An opportunity such as a tornado watch on a Sunday night.

The wind is already picking up at dinnertime. Talk of the coming storm rumbles throughout the crowd of kids. Some are scared, some are excited. Lev is notably absent. Maybe he's left to avoid the storm, whisked away by his protectors to a place of greater safety. When the meal is over, Miracolina clears her plate, taking with her a couple of silver serving platters, presumably to bring to the kitchen.

"You don't have to do that, Miracolina," says one of her teachers.

"It's okay, I don't mind," she says with a smile, and the teacher smiles back, glad to see her finally settling in.

The storm hits like spring storms do, a warning wind, then a deluge like heaven itself has ruptured. Rain pours through holes in the roof into the areas that have yet to be repaired. The ballroom, where Miracolina was first greeted by Lev, is at least an inch deep with water. Pans set up beneath leaks in bedrooms fill and must be dumped. It's like bailing out a sinking s.h.i.+p. The Weather Channel shows a grid of Michigan counties blinking angry red with tornado alerts.

"Don't worry," says one of the teachers, "there's a storm cellar if they call a tornado alert in our area." Which they do, at exactly 8:43.

Immediately the staff begins rounding up the kids. With lightning striking and agitated kids, it's hard to keep track of everyone. That's when Miracolina slips away with several serving platters and disappears down a side pa.s.sage, hurrying toward the termite-ridden door.

Standing in front of the door, she shoves the larger platters under her s.h.i.+rt, both front and back. They're cold and uncomfortable but very necessary. She slips two smaller platters down the back of her sweatpants, turning them into protectors for her rear. She waits for a powerful burst of lightning to fill the sky in uneven, strobing flashes, and the moment the thunder rolls in a few seconds later, she smashes the door with her shoulder. It gives on the second attempt, while the thunder is still rolling, hiding the sound of the door as it bursts open.

There is still the remains of a path left in the middle of the ruined garden. She races down the path, immediately drenched and almost blinded by rain. Then she races from the garden into the weedy clearing that leads to the woods, in clear view of any sharpshooter, and she wonders if infrared lenses can see through sheets of rain. She knows metal is a conductor of electricity, and in the back of her mind she fears that the lightning might seek her out-but she has to believe that won't happen. She has to believe that G.o.d has brought this storm for her, so she can escape-so she can do what she was meant to do. And if she does get struck by lightning, well, that would be a sign from above too, wouldn't it? So she says a silent prayer.

"Lord, if what I'm doing is wrong, then by all means strike me down. Otherwise set me free."

32 * Lev

A lightning strike is provided. Not one to strike Miracolina down, but to illuminate her for all to see. Or at least for anyone who happens to be looking.

Most everyone is already in, or en route to the storm cellar, which may or may not stand the force of a tornado, considering how old it is. Lev, however, who has always loved storms, and actually has a window in his room to view it, is slow to leave. He stalls, taking a few moments to watch the raw violence of nature. A gust of wind rattles the old windows almost enough to break them, and a particularly long flash of lightning hits. In that flash he sees someone running across the gra.s.s and into the woods. It's only a brief glimpse, but it's enough for him to know exactly who it is, even if he can't see her face.

33 * Miracolina

She doesn't hear the first rifle fire, but she feels the tranq dart as it hits the silver platter strapped to her back, its barbed tip caught in the fabric of her sweats.h.i.+rt. She doesn't know where the shooter is, except that he's behind her. She was hoping that the sharpshooters had left their stations to shelter from the storm, but at least one, maybe more, are still on the lookout-perhaps knowing that a storm like this is a clear flight opportunity for any kids not yet deprogrammed.

Another dart whizzes past her, inches away, and from a different direction. There is more than one shooter still in place. She knows they're going after her body because they wouldn't risk a shot to the head, so she pulls in her arms, making herself a smaller target. Another dart hits one of the smaller platters covering her rear. She almost didn't put those there because they hampered her ability to run. Now she's glad she did. This time the dart doesn't stick, it just bounces free.

In a moment she's in the woods with the trees whipping around her. If there are any sharpshooters here in the woods, she would be really surprised. More than likely the shots came from the mansion itself. She doubts even the most dedicated snipers would hold their positions in the woods in the middle of a tornado threat. She has no idea in what direction she's running, but any direction is the right one if it's away from the mansion. She knows that eventually she'll come to a fence. She can only hope that it's not too high to climb.

The only view ahead of her comes from freeze-frame glimpses in flashes of lightning. Her clothes are torn and her face scratched by whipping branches. She stumbles into mud but picks herself up and continues. Then, in a flash of light, she sees a chain-link fence up ahead. It's about eight feet high-not too hard to climb, but there's barbed wire across the top. More sc.r.a.pes, more cuts, but she'll deal with that. She's sure any injuries will heal before she's unwound.

Out of breath and near the end of her stamina, she hurls herself at the fence, but just before she reaches it, she's. .h.i.t by someone even faster than she is, who takes her down, tackling her to the wet ground. She catches only a glimpse of his face, but it's enough to know who it is. The golden child himself has come to capture her.

"Get off me!" she says, pus.h.i.+ng Lev, scratching at him. She tears the platter from her chest and swings it. It connects with his head with a heavy bang. He falls, but he's right back up again.

"I swear I will take your head off with this if I have to!" she says. "Let me go. I don't care if they wors.h.i.+p you, I don't care if you're their patron saint. I'm leaving, and you can't stop me!"

Then Lev backs off, breathing heavily, and says, "Take me with you."

It's not what she expected to hear.

"What?"

"I can't be a part of this anymore. I can't be what they want me to be. I'm no one's patron saint, and they can rescue t.i.thes fine without me. So I'm getting out too."

Miracolina doesn't have the time to figure out whether this is a trick. She doesn't even have the time to process what he's saying, but if he's telling the truth, she can test his resolve.

"Give me a boost up the fence."

He does it without hesitation. He helps her up, and she scratches herself on the barbed wire coming down the other side, but at least she's on the other side! Then Lev, the boy who she saw as her jailer, climbs over and joins her.

"There's a road," he says, "maybe a hundred yards or so through the woods. We can flag down a ride."

"Who would be driving on a night like tonight?"

"There's always someone desperate to go somewhere."

The wind dies down a bit by the time they reach the road, but in tornado weather that could be a good sign or bad. They haven't seen hail yet, and hail's a sure sign that something worse is on the way.

Sure enough, there's traffic on the two-lane road-not much, just a car every minute or two, but all they need is one.

"They won't know we're gone until after the storm pa.s.ses," Lev says. "If someone picks us up, promise me you won't tell them about the mansion and what we're doing there."

"I won't promise anything," Miracolina tells him.

"Please," Lev begs her. "The other kids there aren't like you. They don't want to be t.i.thed. Don't condemn them to something that was never their choice."