Chapter Thirty-Seven
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Lauren threw open the door of the car before it had come to a complete stop and ran to Jenks, who was also running in their direction. They met in a passionate kiss in the center of the campground.
"Laurie, Laurie," he whispered between kisses. "Thank God ... Laurie."
"I love you, Jenks. I love you." Tears streaked down Lauren's face and her voice shook.
"And here I always thought you were a smart girl," Jenks said with a smile, though tears gleamed in his own eyes. "Ah, fuck, Lauren, I love you, too."
"You do?" She had a terrible hope in her eyes, wanting to believe it but desperately afraid it might not be true.
"More than I know how to say, 'cause I'm not all romantic and shit, but yeah, I do."
She jumped up into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist and their kiss was hot enough to put the forest around them in danger of spontaneous combustion. Jenks spun around and pinned her against the side of a nearby tree. Lauren moaned and tangled her fingers in his hair.
"Um, I'm not sure I should be watching this," Jane said. "It's rapidly edging past a PG-13 rating."
They broke from the kiss and Lauren sobbed into his neck. Jenks closed his eyes and held her. He whispered something into her ear that made her clutch him even harder.
Edward turned to Bella with a smile and put his arm around her waist. He was happy for them. He was always happy when one of their friends found love. And speaking of which, Alice and Jasper stood beside the RV, their hands clasped. They turned to each other with soft smiles and Jasper gave her a sweet, soft peck on the lips.
Collin sat on top of one of the picnic tables, smoking a cigarette, his eyes intent on them. Bella made a note to talk to him about it because the creepiness factor was increasing steadily.
They walked to the RV and accepted the hugs and "Welcome backs" of their friends. Jane had her hair rumpled by the guys (which she secretly hated but accepted with good-natured grace). They all greeted the older woman in their midst politely.
Bella introduced her. "Guys, this is my Aunt Esme."
"She's the one with the yucky chocolate," Edward offered. Everyone nodded, as if this made sense to them.
Aunt Esme shook her head in amusement. "I don't know what you two have against Godiva."
"Can we ... uh ... just call you Auntie, or something?" Forks asked and scratched his head. "It could get real fuckin' confusing with two of you."
"Oh, I shan't be staying," Aunt Esme said.
Bella blinked. "Where will you go? Aunt Esme, it isn't safe. The Theta Project ..."
"Oh, I'll be fine, dear, don't you worry. I have connections."
"Look, lady, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think your membership to the country club is really gonna help you right now," said Phoenix.
Aunt Esme snickered. "Not exactly," she said. "All I'm going to say is that I went to college at Berkely back in the 1960s. I made some friends, and some of those friends are still underground to this day." She turned to Bella. "I probably won't see you again, my dear. Not for a very long time, if ever."
"I'm sorry, Aunt Esme," Bella said. "I shouldn't have dragged you into this. I really didn't imagine they would be watching you."
"Pfft," Aunt Esme said and waved a hand. "I expected something along those lines sooner or later. As I said, 1960s, Berkeley ... you catch the drift."
"Holy shit, were you, like, a Black Panther?" Forks asked, eying her with a newfound respect. "Or one of those Weatherman people?"
"Weather Underground, you moron," Phoenix said. "Al Roker is a weatherman."
"No, I really think they were called Weathermen," Forks insisted.
Aunt Esme chuckled. "Something like that. Anyway, I should be going." She kissed Bella on the cheek. "At Grand Central in New York City, there's a rental locker, 1092-C. If you ever need to contact me, slip a note inside. Drop me a line now and then and let me know how you're doing."
"I will. Thanks for everything, Aunt Esme." Bella hugged her, and Edward hugged her too. Her hands brushed his back and she froze as a small frown tugged at her lips. She looked up at him in confusion and then her eyes widened in awe.
"I always get a kick out of watching the noobs when they discover the wings," Forks commented. "Hey, Auntie, will you give me a ride to town so I can steal us another car?"
"Sure, sure," Aunt Esme said, her features slackened in a daze. She followed Forks toward the car and then turned back to face Edward. "Take care of her," she commanded.
"That's my only purpose," Edward replied and wrapped his wings around Bella. "And my only desire." Under their concealing softness, they kissed: long, slow and sweet.
"Hey, Bella?"
Bella was sitting by the fire pit, roasting another hot dog with marshmallows for Edward. Lauren's idea for a campfire dinner had been a smash hit. (With Quil around, there was never going to be any trouble getting a campfire started.) Edward had found that he liked hot dogs, but when Alice had accidentally bumped his stick with her own and smeared the marshmallows she was toasting onto his fourth hot dog, he had discovered a new favorite.
She withdrew the stick from the fire and used a plastic knife to smear the gooey marshmallow onto the hotdog before sliding it into a bun and handing it to Edward. "Last one," she warned.
"I will fly and get some more," he offered.
"Bella?"
"Edward, this is your ninth," Bella pointed out.
"Is that wrong?" he asked.
"Don't hold him back," Forks said. "I wanna see how many of them he can eat before he explodes. Boosh!" He made an exploding motion with his hands. "Nothing left but a pair of smoking hiking boots and a few little feathers floating down."
"You can't really explode from eating too much," Edward chided him. "I know. I looked it up."
"Bella?"
Bella finally realized that someone was quietly calling her name. She turned her head toward the sound and saw Collin back by the end of the RV, partially in shadow. He motioned to her.
"I'll be right back." She kissed Edward's cheek and went over to lean against the RV's bumper. "What's up?" she asked Collin.
His eyes were, as always, on Alice and Jasper. The two of them were giggling because Alice had overheated her marshmallow and they were trying to catch it between the graham crackers with little success.
"Bella, how do I get Alice back?"
"You can't," said Bella, bluntly.
"I need to tell her I made a mistake," Collin said. "I should never have-" He stopped and ran a hand through his mohawk. He was letting his hair grow out and instead of a sharp, erect ridge, it now flopped listlessly down onto his head. "I should never have done a lot of things, I think."
"It's good that you recognize it, but she's moved on now, Collin."
He narrowed his eyes. "If it wasn't your brother we were talking about, would you say something different?"
"That's not fair," Bella said. "I won't deny that I always hoped that Jasper would be able to win her over but not just because he's my brother. It's because I know he'll treat her well and do everything he can to see that she gets what she needs and make her happy."
"I fucked it up," Collin rasped. "I never meant to hurt her."
"But you did."
"I want to be better, really I do. I'm just not ... sensitive and shit."
"Because you don't want to be. You're afraid of opening up, Collin. You're afraid of being hurt, so you put on this tough-guy exterior."
"I'm not afraid," Collin said stubbornly.
"Yes, you are. It takes a very strong and confident man to be himself and show a woman his heart. You don't have that kind of courage. You can't take off the mask. And you're selfish. You think about what you want instead of what Alice needs."
He looked stricken and Bella regretted putting it so harshly, but maybe that was what was needed to get through to him. "Do you love her, Collin?"
He rubbed his forehead. "I- I don't know."
Bella's voice was gentle. "I don't think that you do. I think that you're just worried that you let a good thing go. And that's true. But you and Alice weren't right for each other, Collin. And I think that someday, you'll look back on this and realize that I'm right. Your true love is out there somewhere, but you've got a lot of changes you need to make before you'll be ready for her."
"What kind of changes?" Collin eyed her with suspicion like she was going to tell him he needed to learn about interior decorating and get a subscription to Cosmo.
"That's not for me to tell you. That's something you have to figure out on your own."
"Aw, Jesus, don't go getting all cryptic on me now," Collin grated.
"I'm not trying to be cryptic," Bella retorted. "I'm telling you that you have to figure out where you need to change. It's called 'soul searching' for a reason. I can't search your soul for you. Only you and your angel can do that."
Collin froze. "I have an angel?"
Bella refrained, with difficulty, from rolling her eyes. "Yes, you do. I told you. Everybody does, unless they turn evil."
"How would I know if I was evil?" Collin tried to sound casual, but she could hear the note of strain in his voice, a strain that she recognized.
Bella patted his arm. "You'd stop worrying that you were. The first thing you need to do is learn how to listen. Listen to that little voice in your heart because it will steer you towards the light."
She gave him a small smile and then headed back to the campfire to sit down beside her own angel, and as she did so, she reflected on how fortunate she was to have her angel here, with her, to be able to hear his voice with her ears, clearly, rather than straining to follow a whisper in her heart. Alice had admitted how difficult it was for her to hear Emmett. Maybe Jane was fortunate, too, because she'd told Bella about how often she dreamed of her "childhood invisible friend."
"Chilly?" Edward asked when goosebumps raised on her arms. He wrapped his wing around her, a soft, warm blanket. She snuggled against his side.
"He's right on the edge," Edward said softly. "He's teetering on the brink of darkness."
"I think Amun is, too," Bella said. She had seen him only once, briefly, since her return when he had stopped by to check to see if Kebi had somehow found her way to their campground. According to Forks and Phoenix, he was doing a more obsessive version of Edward's idea of searching in ever-widening circles. He had drawn a sketch of her (quite good, Bella thought) and was passing out copies to everyone he met on the streets as he doggedly searched every inch of the city. He looked ill, his face drawn and pale, his eyes feverish with pain and worry. Bella hadn't realized how deeply he'd cared for Kebi and she felt badly for him, but she privately thought that searching the city was a waste of time. It was most likely that the Theta Project had taken her, and he'd be better off spending his time searching the server data as Ben was doing, trying to find the location of another facility.
Alice tried hard to find a vision of Kebi, but she was still blocked. Amun, who was the one doing the blocking - though by accident or on purpose was still a matter of debate amongst the team - seemed angry at Alice that she hadn't seen and warned him of Kebi's disappearance. Bella told her not to take it personally because Amun just wasn't himself right now.
She sighed and laid her head on Edward's shoulder. "Did you decide against going to get more hot dogs?"
"I'm not," he said, morosely. "Alice reminded me that gluttony is a sin."
Bella stuck her tongue out at Alice. "Spoilsport."
Amun returned as they were cleaning up the campfire debris. Even Collin left his solitary vigil on the periphery to pitch in and Bella gave him an encouraging smile for it.
Amun got out of the car slowly, like an old man. "I cannot find her," he said dully, the same thing he said every time he came back.
"We'll find her. I promise." Esme hugged Amun and Bella was surprised to see him accept it.
"Are you hungry?" Lauren asked. "There aren't any hot dogs left, but I have -"
"I don't eat pork," Amun reminded her. His tone was cool and distant.
Lauren flushed. "Oh, right, sorry."
A pair of headlights flashed on the road and they all looked around, doing a quick mental headcount. They had the campground to themselves (ensured by Jenks, who had paid to rent every lot) and everyone was accounted for. There should be no one approaching, especially at this time of night.
The men whipped out guns and took cover behind trees, the RV, the cars. "Get Lauren inside," Jenks yelled to Alice, who hastened to obey. Jasper darted inside the RV and returned with a gun of his own, and stood guard at the RV's door. He held the gun awkwardly, but Bella knew he'd use it to defend Alice if he had to.
"It's a fuckin' Express Delivery truck!" Forks said. "What in the holy fat fuck is an Express Delivery truck doing out here?"
"About to deliver a fuckload of trouble, most likely," Jenks said. "Stay frosty, people. Could be full of federales."
"Let's light the bitch up," Phoenix suggested. "Ask fuckin' questions later."
Quil flicked his wrists and balls of fire appeared in his palms.
"No!" Bella cried. "That could be an innocent delivery driver. Just wait ... please."
"Can you toss up a shield?" This came from Ben, who had left his laptop in the RV to join them, a rifle propped against his shoulder.
"Remember that it's up," Bella told them. "Don't fire until I say I've dropped it."
The truck rolled to a stop, its brakes screeching painfully. There was a long pause and then a man wearing a black uniform stepped from the opening on its side. "I got a delivery for a Bella Swan."
Dave escaped from Alice's arms and bolted through the door of the RV. He ran across the camp ground and braced his little legs in front of the man whose arrival had alarmed his entire pack. He growled his biggest, meanest, most-threatening growl.
The Express Delivery driver glanced around at the men crouched behind the vehicles and leaning against trees, and then down at the tiny, snarling puppy and decided it would be best if he stayed right where he was.
"I'm Bella Swan." Bella stepped forward and both Dave and Edward followed her. Edward had his sword in its scabbard hidden behind his leg and Dave had his little teeth bared.
The man gestured to his clipboard nervously. "Can I get you to sign here?"
Bella dropped her shield partially and walked slowly up to him, Edward right behind her. Dave edged up in front to keep the baddog back a respectful distance from the winged-man's female.
It worked. The driver had to stretch from his position to hand Bella the clipboard. Bella took it and quickly scrawled her loopy signature along the bottom line.
The package he handed her was about the size of a magazine, an inch or so thick and weighed a couple of pounds. Bella thanked him and the guy retreated to his truck quickly. Dave pranced around in victory as she watched its taillights bounce away.
Jenks took the package from her. "No fuckin' way you're opening that."
"What? It's mine."
"I know. Go stand over there." He nodded toward the RV. "And take that little fuckin' dog with you."
"Come on, Bella," Edward coaxed.
"You're on his side?"
He nodded. "We don't know what's in that package. It could hurt you." He had that look on his face that meant he wouldn't be swayed. Bella sighed and conceded. She scooped up a very proud Dave and told him he was a good boy. His whole body wiggled with glee. She leaned against the side of the RV and picked at her nails while she waited.
Alice opened the window above her head. "Is it safe to come out now?"
"NO!" Jenks barked from his seat at the picnic table on the opposite side of the campground. "Stay the fuck back, all of you."
"Little testy, isn't he?" Alice commented. She leaned in the windowsill. Bella handed Dave up to her and Alice deposited him on the couch. "I made some coffee. Want a cup?"
"Please," Bella replied and Alice handed it down to her. She sipped the deliciously hot brew and watched as Ben, Jenks and Amun surveyed the package laying on the picnic table. They seemed to be deep in discussion. Finally, Jenks took his knife out of its holster and handed it to Amun, then he and Ben retreated a safe distance.
Ever so delicately, Amun slowly slid the knife below the flap, edging it forward a millimeter at a time. He peeked in the package when he had a small hole and then continued. Bella was biting her nails by the time he had finished.
"It appears to be an iPad," he announced.
"Destroy it!" Forks hollered. "They got, like, GPS and shit in those things."
"Moron," Phoenix said conversationally, "they already know where she is. The campground address is right on the fuckin' label."
"Oh," said Forks.
"'Oh' is right," Phoenix told him and he smiled at Forks affectionately. "I swear to Christ, you are the dumbest motherfucker I know."
Amun had examined the device from all angles during this exchange. "I believe it is safe," he announced.
"You sure?" Jenks said.
Amun shrugged. "As much as I can be. Bella, shield yourself and approach."
She walked over to the picnic table and sat down beside Amun. Edward stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders. She shielded the three of them, concentrating hard to make it as strong as possible.
Amun propped it upright and pushed the button on the side.
An image appeared on the screen. A live video feed of Aro Volturi. Bella recognized him from the photographs she had seen in old newspaper clippings that Ben had found, detailing the awards he'd received during his military career.
"Hello, Bella," he said.
She didn't reply.
"I've contacted you this way because we have a proposal for you."
"Who is 'we'?" she asked.
Another man entered the image. Bella let out a blurt of surprised laughter as she recognized a face she had seen many, many times on the evening news. "Hello," she said. "I voted for you. I mean, I voted for your running-mate, so I suppose that means I voted for you, too. "
"The party appreciates your support," he said in a wry tone.
"I suppose this means you're the Big Guy, right?"
"It's not my official job title, but I'm called that by some of my subordinates," he said. "I've found it's better to keep real names out of a situation like this."
"What do you want?"
"To put a proposal before you, as Aro said. A peace treaty, if you will."
"What kind of treaty?"
"The simplest kind of all. An immediate cease-fire. You don't bother us. We don't bother you. That is all."
She shook her head. "Not good enough. Here are my terms: The Theta Project is immediately terminated, dismantled, abolished ... whatever you want to call it, never to return. You release any Gifted persons that you are now holding, and you never bother any of them again. You give any babies you made in that sick breeding program of yours to their mothers or fathers. You end it all, or I will destroy you. That's my final offer."
"I'm not so sure you can carry out that threat," the Big Guy said. "We know about your weaknesses, Bella. We know about that small stroke you suffered during the Nebraska attack. And we're betting that you wouldn't survive a repeat."
"Maybe your intelligence isn't as good as you think it is," Bella bluffed.
"Oh, I think it's pretty good." The Big Guy reached up and turned the camera to include the space to Aro's right. And sitting beside him was ...
"Kebi," Amun said, his voice like an open wound. He reached for the screen involuntarily, as if to touch her.
It all clicked into place now. "You're Aro's girlfriend, aren't you?" Bella said.
Kebi hesitated for a moment and then nodded. She was the one whom Edward had been sent to spy on when he was captured, drugged in front of her sister's empty house.
Aro leaned over and kissed her. She didn't resist him, but her eyes stayed fastened on the camera. "My sweet girl."
Amun let out a small groan and walked away from the table. Bella saw him pace. Saw his hands clench in his hair. Saw him double over as though he'd been stabbed in the gut and fall to his knees.
"You cunt," Jane said from behind Edward, where she'd crept up to peek around the edge of his wing at the images on the screen. For once, Bella did not chastise her for her language.
"You lied about your family in Egypt," Bella said to Kebi, stupidly. "You lied about everything. Who was Sam, then?"
"Sam was just supposed to inflame Jenks's protective instincts," Aro said. "Jenks has a reputation for rescuing abused women. We hoped you would take Kebi with you. We didn't expect you to kill Sam, but we're not all that sorry you did. The man was becoming a liability anyway."
"And the men who attacked Aunt Esme? Were you watching her house or did Kebi tell you where we went?
"Kebi," Aro confirmed. The Big Guy gave him an irritated look as if he didn't want to spoil he illusion that the Theta Project's eyes were everywhere. "She called us to give us periodic updates until she had the opportunity to slip away."
Bella glanced over at Amun, still on his knees on the packed earth of the campground's common area. He had not moved.
"Bella, give it up," the Big Guy coaxed. "This is killing you. You don't have to die before you're thirty. Call it off. Find yourself that little island that you want to live on with your boyfriend."
Alice gave an indignant huff, offended that Kebi had apparently reported on all the conversations she had overheard.
"If I die before I'm thirty, at least I know I'm going to heaven. How about you, Aro?"
He looked startled at that question and then very uncomfortable. He glanced over at the Big Guy, whose face was impassive.
"I've told you my terms," she said. "I want you to know this: I won't stop. I won't stop until the Theta Project is nothing but ashes." She pointed at Kebi. "And you, bitch, have something special coming."
Kebi looked like she wanted to protest but Aro moved the camera away from her.
"You were once a soldier, Aro," Bella said. "Maybe you once knew what it was like to be willing to die for a cause you believed in. That would have been back during the Cold War. Back then, we were enemies of the U.S.S.R and we were told that we were fighting the good fight, that the Russians wanted to take away our freedom of speech, our freedom of worship, our economic system ... everything we held dear. That's what we're always told about our nation's enemies, I suppose. But there were thousands of brave men and women in our armed forces who believed they might have to lay down their lives to protect those freedoms. You were among them. I don't know if you believed in the cause of protecting freedom back then, but I do know that today, you're on the wrong side. You're on the side that steals, and lies and kills and takes away freedom. You are the enemy. And I am willing to die to protect freedom."
"Very pretty little speech, Miss Swan," the Big Guy spat. "But you're dealing with things you don't understand. National security - "
"Oh, fuck me, not this shit again," Jenks groaned. "You fuckers use that excuse way too much and it's losing its efficacy."
"Disbelieve it if you will, but I assure you that if we just released our test subjects, they would be taken to other countries' programs. Don't you get it? It's not just us. We have to have this program because other countries have these programs."
"We cannot have a Doomsday gap," Bella thought. "Then it looks like I have a lifetime worth of work ahead of me because I swear that I will end this evil wherever it's found. And you can't stop me. That's why you're trying to parlay now, to save your skins. Because you know you can't stop me."
Bella picked up the iPad and stared into its tiny camera hole. "You'd better make your peace with whatever god you have because I am coming for you." And with that, she smashed the iPad into tiny fragments.
There was utter silence at the campground, except for the song of the crickets, the splash of water in the nearby brook. Amun still had not moved from his position on his knees, his arms clamped around his abdomen as if he were trying to keep himself from falling into pieces.
"Damn, Bella, didja have to break it?" Forks said. "I would have liked to check my e-mail."