Chapter 23

A little over two hours after heading up to the mansion to help Katie with an electrical problem, Brennan returned to The Cave, only to find no one there. Lexa and Shalimar were off hunting down that lead, but Jesse should be around somewhere. Brennan had expected to find him typing away at one of the computers, as he had been for most of the two weeks since they set up the new Sanctuary. Not finding him in either the main room or medbay, Brennan went searching for him.

Ten minutes later, he found Jesse in the dojo. He watched Jesse take on the wing chun dummy in the corner of the room. The martial arts training tool looked like a misshapen coat hanger to most people, but Brennan knew that it was one of Jesse's favorite training tools. Though he hadn't often used it in actual combat because it was so deadly, Jesse was trained in, and very proficient at, many forms of the martial arts, his favorite and best form being kung fu.

Brennan watched as Jesse's arms and wrists moved slowly but efficiently and sharply against the prongs of the dummy. His torso and feet shifted as he ran through one of the several routines he used to practice. Jesse began to accelerate his movements, soon reaching a blinding speed. The movements were precise and controlled, with the occasional kick and body block tossed into the routine. Finally, though, the movements slowed again, and the exercise came to a halt. After Jesse had finished the last movement, Brennan applauded him from the doorway.

"Nice moves man. I guess all that time at the computer recently hasn't slowed you down."

Jesse smiled. "Actually, it did. But you wouldn't be able to tell. You just use brute force when you fight."

"Hey, don't knock what works."

Jesse reached down to grab a towel of the floor in the corner. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, neck and arms as he walked. "Were you able to fix the problem for Katie?"

"Oh, yeah. Just a blown fuse and a corroded circuit wire. What she really wanted was to have a chat."

Jesse tossed the towel down and retrieved a pair of handwraps. He wound them onto his hands and began to assault the punching bag. "What did she want to talk about?"

"Lot's of stuff. What kind of stuff we do for fun, my relationship with Shalimar, your relationship with Lexa."

Jesse chuckled. "She's chatty, huh?"

Brennan rolled his eyes. "God, yes. Loves to talk and ask questions. Started to drive me crazy after a while."

"She was the same way when we were kids, always asking me about my new schools. Don't let her fool you, though. She's a good listener too." He landed a roundhouse kick high on the bag. "But she does love her gossip."

"Speaking of you and Lexa…"

Jesse paused to look at Brennan and laugh. "Which we weren't really doing."

"How are things between you two?"

Jesse, bouncing on the balls of his feet before resuming his assault on the bag, smiled. "They're good. I think she's going to stay." He landed a series of jabs on the bag.

"So, have you two, ehh, you know?"

"You know, Brennan, not everything is about sex," Jesse said, giving him an exasperated but good-humored look. "Besides, I want to wait until she's comfortable. I don't want to scare her away."

"That's cool, that's cool."

Brennan paused for a moment. He had wanted to talk with someone about this, and now seemed as good a time as any. "What do you think Adam's doing right now?"

Jesse stopped punching and let his shoulders and arms slump down. "I really don't know. I'm sure he's alive. The Creator cloned himself so that he could have second mind, a second pair of hands to do his work. Maybe even to have a successor. And the Dominion wants to please the Creator, so I'm sure he's fine. Why do you ask? I thought you were mad at Adam for not telling us he was alive."

"I was. Still am, a bit. I was thinking about, when we finally find him, if he'll want to come back. With the Creator, he can finally do what he's always wanted to do. Build the perfect genetic structure."

Jesse nodded, then went back to the punching bag. He remembered things Adam had said and done when he had last seen him. Adam had seemed so obsessed with that genetic hologram in his lab, and then again when the Creator had shown it to him. As he remembered, he vented some of the distress the thoughts caused by punching the bag particularly hard. "I don't know Brennan. I really don't. Like he said, what the Creator was doing was his life's dream."

"If Adam doesn't come back, how will we find a cure to stabilized mutants' genetic structures? What about all those mutants? There's got to be thousands of them. How many do you think there are?"

"Seven thousand four hundred and sixty one, give or take."

"You've thought about this, I see."

"Just a little," Jesse said sarcastically. The intensity of his kicks and punches increased. Brennan moved over to hold the bag for him. "I couldn't heal all those mutants if I wanted to. There are too many of them and their expiry dates are too close together. Plus there's the fact that I'd have to worry about what their types are. The genetic structures of moleculars and elementals are hard to fix. Their abilities usually aren't natural to the human body, and come from the fact that their DNA has a large variance from the average. Thus, most of their expiry dates are soon. Psionics and ferals simply have preexisting abilities amplified. Their structures aren't as skewed, so they're easier for me to heal and have more time until their expiry dates."

Brennan let Jesse talk. It seemed like the molecular was having lingering emotional issues with his new ability. After letting Jesse get it out, he decided to change the subject. "Hey, do you want a sparring partner?"

"Nah, thanks though. I'm almost done and the girls should be back soon."

"Okay. I'll be in the computer bay." Brennan turned to leave the room, but then stopped. "Oh, hey. I looked for you in medbay before I came here, and there was a green triangle flashing on one of the screens. What's that all about?"

Jesse frowned. "I'm not sure. Let me take a look." He unwound the handwraps, slung them over his shoulder and followed Brennan out of the room.

When Jesse saw the green triangle on the screen, his eyebrow rose in surprise. "So soon," he muttered.

"What's so soon? This icon is new to Sanctuary's database and systems. I don't recognize it. What's it mean?"

"Well, it's actually a communiqué from Lexa's old Dominion contact. He saved Lexa and me when there was a firefight in the holding cells. He said he'd be in contact, but I didn't think it would be this soon. He sent the message to my private, off system site. The new computer system picked up on it and forwarded it here. That's what the little green triangle was all about."

"Well, what's it say?"

"I'm not sure. Just let me…okay, got it. Hmm. It's a phone number."

"A phone number. What, does he want us to call him and shoot the breeze?"

"Hmm. Wait, this doesn't make sense…"

At that moment, Shalimar and Lexa walked into the room. "Hey, you guys have good timing," Brennan said, looking up.

"No, actually our timing sucks."

"What do you mean?" Brennan asked.

Shalimar answered. "When we got there Sandovar was dead. So was his whole team. The Dominion rigged the place to explode and made it look like an accident. There's nothing left."

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine Jess. But that was our only lead to finding Adam."

"Maybe not. That's a nasty gash on your arm. Want me to take care of that?"

"No way, buster. You've got another 24 hours before you can come anywhere near me. I'll take care of it the old fashioned way for now."

Lexa smirked for a moment, but then her expression turned serious. "What do you mean, 'maybe not?''

"Well, we got a message from your Dominion contact. It's a phone number. The phone number belongs to a private residence in northeast Illinois. Why would they have extensions? There's no business registered at the address."

Jesse watched as one of Lexa's eyebrows rose. "A home phone number with extensions, huh? The Dominion's not exactly big on using standard communication channels. Let me see. 1 (224) 938-3279 ext 31. It's not a phone number…they're coordinates. He once told me a story about how they once had to encrypt information that way."

Jesse hunched over the computer. "Really," he said with interest. "There's no way of knowing which is longitude and which is latitude, or if it's north or south or east or west."

"We'll just have to run the possibilities, see what that gets us."

"How long will that take, Jess?"

"Are you kidding? I've already started and am almost done. Just bringing up this program here. Okay, there are 32 possible coordinates. Sixteen don't exist on the longitude-latitude scale. Ten more are in the middle of the ocean. So there are only six possible locations. Two are in China, one each in Greenland and Antarctica, and two in the U.S.

"And the Dominion didn't exactly put in a quick order for polar coats. That would be strange enough for Jake to put on his list. That and the fact that Greenland and Antarctica are a little remote eliminate them as possibilities," Shalimar pitched in, getting into the swing of things.

"Exactly. Then there's the fact that China has some pretty strict laws against foreigners. Even if they went in 'secretly,' there'd be some kind of trail. In fact, that makes it even easier to find things, because there's no red tape or bureaucracy to get lost in. Our system hasn't picked up on any potential Dominion activity in the area. The two U.S. coordinates are for the towns of Santa Rosa, California and Charlottesville, Virginia. Those are our best bets."

"But what exactly is there? A contact maybe? Or the place where they took Adam and set up shop with the Creator?" Brennan asked.

Jesse swiveled the chair to face Lexa. "Any ideas?"

It took Lexa a few seconds to answer. She had been distracted by Jesse's body, which was outlined nicely in the sweaty sleeveless t-shirt and track pants, the damp cloth clinging to his muscled frame. "No, no, not really, it depends on how close he was to the Dominion council, and whether he was privy to that kind of information. He might have just plain stolen it. I wouldn't even know which location to check first."

"Well, I vote we make that decision in the morning. We should weigh our decision carefully, because we don't exactly fly from one location to the other – we won't have another Helix for a month or so. There's nothing we can do tonight, and maybe we'll get more information in the morning. Right now, I'm beat. I spent some time in the dojo and it took a little more out of me than I thought. Lexa? You okay?"

Lexa, whose gaze had settled back on Jesse, lifted her eyes from his upper body once again. "Sounds good. I'm definitely ready for bed."