"Alanza…" Mom began, in her warning tone that I was going to get it if I wasn't careful.
"Max," Brin said finally, stepping forward towards Mom. Amazingly, Mom flinched upon hearing her name uttered, but said nothing. "It's me, Brin, no one else. Why do you doubt me?"
"Brin died…a long time ago," Mom replied and turned, walking behind the counter as she ran her finger along the edging of it.
"Who told you she was dead?" Brin asked.
"A friend."
"Zack?" I watched carefully, walking over to the couch so I wouldn't be in the way and get forcefully removed from the conversation. I had never seen Mom so uncomfortable before. It was actually kind of comical…in a weird sort of way.
Mom nodded in response to Brin's question.
"He didn't know what he was talking about. Perhaps Lydecker still had his hold on him." Brin shook her head and stepped closer to Mom, with only the counter separating them. "Look at me, Max, please. Tell me I'm not who I say I am."
Their eyes met and my mom sucked in her breath very quickly, then looked away. I knew instantly that she knew too. Knew the truth behind it. Now, all I needed know was what the heck was going on between them. More correctly put: what had gone on.
"You couldn't have survived the fire," Mom reasoned. "It was far too big and dangerous and…no, it's not possible."
"I was outside on the far side of the building, away from the initial beginning of the fire at the time. When it first started, I wasn't sure what to think. I suffered second and third degree burns pretty badly, but I managed to live. Long story. Let's not go there with all the technicalities and stuff."
"But the Protega?"
Brin smiled faintly. "I won't ever escape that, no."
"How come you're still alive now?" Mom questioned as she mentally processed the information Brin was feeding her.
"Apparently, Lydecker had done more work, not just to treat the defective gene, but to cure it once and for all. I didn't know that he had done this," Brin shrugged. "I just assumed it was normal treatments. But, in reality it was the process of curing the gene. He never would've told me, of course. That would've meant that I could live outside the walls of Manticore. And, he wouldn't have wanted that."
"Yet, what do you mean, 'you can't escape it'?"
"Do you remember the HIV epidemic a couple years back?" Mom nodded.
I remembered it too. People were so weak and sick it wasn't funny. The streets became graves as the people died one by one. Not pretty. And yet, nobody really knew how people were getting it because of the risks you have to take to get the virus. Apparently, it was eventually traced to some doctors who worked together in some odd cult like organization. They decided to get even with the world before committing suicide. Every one of their patients was injected with their contaminated blood. Life wasn't pretty.
"Well," Brin continued. "This disease is like HIV…kinda…not exactly, of course. You see, like HIV, the disease I have also is taking years to fully erupt. Lydecker may have thought he fully cured me, but he didn't. Only partially. The effect rate is slowed down, a lot, which is a good thing. But, it still is there, still affecting me. Does it make sense?"
"I guess…," Mom said, her voice trailing off as she realized that Brin had basically told her that she was going to die. I mean, everybody knows they are going to die eventually, but Brin had just put a stopwatch on her life.
