Determinant: a gene or other factor that determines the character and development of a cell or group of cells in an organism.
Chapter 42: Wham, Bam, Thank You Sam - Return to Me
After Clem becomes the only pregnant woman in the entire world, the team is given another windfall: the location of Isaac and the other children. Reports also reach them about a mysterious ghost hybrid lurking in Peru, so the team sets off to find it in order to help Abe craft the cure for sterility. But nothing good lasts as the shocking identity of Mr. Duncan is finally revealed.
Clem finally got the okay to travel three days after the transfer had been completed. She had been constantly surrounded by nurses monitoring her condition for even the slightest fluctuations. The doctors were taking copious notes - likely for a paper on the first successful human fetus transplant. After three days of rest and recovery, they had no medical reason to keep her in the hospital any longer. So they released her into Abe's medical care, though Jamie was pretty sure Mitch would be the one checking on her obsessively.
Jackson had returned from Mexico with the plane and a two very interesting passengers. The first was Tessa, Jackson's sort-of-girlfriend. Jamie hadn't gotten the full story but she guessed from their body language they were close, though there was something huge between them causing tension. Jamie didn't really care what it was as long as it didn't interfere with the mission, and Tessa did seem to make Jackson happy. It reminded her of that first year with Chloe, and Jamie smiled sadly in remembrance of her friend.
The second passenger was much less pretty than Tessa, but far more interesting - at least from Jamie's standpoint. Jackson called the creature "Abendegos." It looked like a failed experiment from the Island of Doctor Moreau, and Jackson was certain it was smarter than it looked.
"It has to be," Mitch quipped in response. "Look at that thing."
Jamie wrinkled her nose as the scaly ape creature shifted within the steel cage that held it. Jackson had warned them not to get too close, and Jamie had suggested they set up a camera to monitor it from a distance to keep from agitating it. Jackson had volunteered and gotten a angry, rattling roar in response to his presence. But the camera was up and they were all crowded around the monitor to get a glimpse of the creature.
Jackson had detailed how he'd found Abendegos and his connection with Abigail and Mr. Duncan. The mention of the elusive ghost she'd been hunting prompted Jamie to reveal what she'd discovered with Westfield's help.
"Mr. Duncan was the one who accepted an entire shipment of Melvatox-B. Now we can't see his face through the windshield yet, but once we have that we can identify him and take him down." She showed them the picture they'd captured from the docking bay camera. It showed the large white van with the Melvatox inside, though the glare from overhead lights obscured the driver from view. There was a small bar at the bottom of the screen that was slowly inching toward the right. She explained that Westfield had given her a program that would strip away the interfering layers and let them get a look at the driver, but it was taking a while.
"That's great," Jackson said. "Once we get to Mr. Duncan, he can lead us to Abigail."
"It will lead us to more than that." They all turned as Robin, Harren and Dariela came bursting into the room. Dariela was holding a piece of paper over her head triumphantly, and as they joined the circle around the table she slapped it down. "When we talked to Isaac the other day he told us they were getting 'candy' for breakfast. We think that candy was Melvatox-B."
Mitch grabbed the paper and reviewed the data on it, but Jamie was furious. "How could the government sign off on kidnapping kids and feeding them poison?"
Mitch read the paper quickly, then glanced up thoughtfully. "In low doses, it's perfectly safe. I don't think they're trying to poison them."
"Then what are they doing to them?" Abe wondered aloud.
Robin answered with a very self-satisfied smirk on his face. "What they did was give us a way to find the kids. You see, Melvatox-B has a very specific radioactive signature. We're talking about thousands of kids with thousands of doses."
Jamie caught up just a beat behind Mitch, who nodded knowingly. "And that would produce a very significant radioactive footprint."
Surprisingly, it was Tessa who provided the last piece of the puzzle. "Highways have scanners that send out alerts if there's radiation."
Robin confirmed their speculation by raising his tablet with a flourish. "Voila," he grinned. "Follow the pills, find the kids."
Upstate New York was beautiful this time of year, but none of them were paying attention to the scenery as they marshalled their forces and put together a plan. Logan was running point with his team, using words like "choke point" and "hostiles," and everyone had agreed to help. Everyone including Clem, much to Mitch's chagrin.
"Absolutely not." He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, effectively blocking her entrance to the vehicle bay. Jamie stood just behind him double checking her ammo and half-listening to their conversation.
"Dad, I can do this."
"Before you had major surgery and became the only pregnant woman on the entire planet, I have no doubt. You're too important to risk. You stay with the plane."
"Jamie!" Clem pleaded. "Can you reason with him?"
Jamie stood up and shook her head. "Your dad's right, Clem. You should stay here."
"I want to help."
"You will be," Jamie promised. "By coordinating things from here. We'll need you to start the plane up and get us moving as soon as we're on board. We all might have our hands full with hundreds of kids."
"You're bringing them onboard?" Clem asked.
"We might have to," Jamie shrugged. "It depends on what we find." She knew the others would never object; everyone's primary objective was getting those kids to safety, even if it meant flying them home themselves. Logan had already contacted Westfield and told him their plan just in case things went sideways. The detective had promised to send back up if they needed, but Logan declined. Jurisdictionally, this was a cluster and it would be better if the IADG took point. Westfield forwarded a contact he had within the FBI and said that they could help locate families once the children were safe.
"Everyone ready?" Logan asked. A chorus of affirmatives answered him, and they were off.
The facility looked abandoned when they slipped up the back road, but Jamie knew looks could be deceiving. She felt her heart pounding as the vehicle slowed then stopped. Abe hopped out of the driver's seat and jogged over to the second vehicle that Logan's team had procured. Jamie hadn't asked where they'd gotten it, and it seemed no one else was curious either; as long as they got Isaac and the other kids away from whatever was being done to them.
Logan ran through the plan one more time, and the team split into three groups to surround the building. Jamie, Mitch, Harren and Jackson were side door detail. At Logan's signal Harren raised the rolling door and they were in.
It was eerily quiet in the large cargo bay. A faint glow from the back of the room drew her eye, and Jamie gasped as they rounded a large shelving unit.
"Mitch," she reached out to tap his arm. "Look."
"Well, that looks familiar," he sighed. It was a stasis tank, identical to the one Jamie had seen in the pictures Clem had showed her.
"Guys," Jackson knelt down and picked up a discarded jacket. It was the dark blue uniform of a New York cop, and it was stained with blood. "Wasn't Abigail dressed as a cop in New York? Logan said he took a shot at her."
"Well, it looks like he hit her."
Jackson keyed his radio and spoke softly. "We have confirmation that Abigail has been on-site."
They crept through the darkness to a door that led to a hallway. The lights were off, but a large window at the end of the hall let enough light in to see by. Jamie and her team cleared several rooms, all empty, before the announcement came over the radio.
"We got him!" It was Dariela, her voice tight with emotion. "We have Isaac and the other kids. No one else in sight. The building's clear."
"Affirmative," came Logan's voice. "It looks like they just left the kids here to be found."
Or to die, Jamie added silently, though she wisely kept it to herself. They made their way through the building to a large room with a false wall. Behind it was a cafeteria-like room full of children ranging from five to ten years old. Robin and the rest of Logan's team were trying to corral some of the smaller children who were nearly inconsolable. Off to the right, Dariela and Abe were checking over a young boy of about ten with a dark complexion and bright eyes.
"Isaac!" Jamie sprinted forward and accepted the hug he gave her.
"Aunt Jamie!" He wrapped his arms tight around her middle and buried his head in her stomach. She hugged him back for a moment, glad to see him alive and unharmed. He moved from Jamie's arms to Jackson's with a giant grin on his face. Jamie felt a stab of betrayal hit her as she realized that - at the very least - Isaac knew Jackson through photos or videos. It hurt to know that Jackson had been in contact with Abe these past several years and not her, though she completely understood his reasoning. The anger that had flared upon seeing Jackson again had settled once more, leaving an ache that their little talk and cry session hadn't erased.
She forcibly shoved all of her negative emotions aside to focus on the fact that the Kenyatta family was once again whole. Isaac retreated back to his mother's arms and Jamie turned to find Logan. He was surveying the congregation of children with a critical eye.
"We might wanna call that FBI guy Westfield gave us," she said. "They'll know how to handle this."
He nodded in agreement. "Good idea."
Within half an hour the facility was swarming with FBI and a half dozen other alphabet agencies. Jamie and the others stood aside as the children were checked over by medical professionals and added to a database to help the FBI locate their parents or nearest living relative. Once Isaac was cleared to leave, Jamie began rounding up the others.
"I'm not going."
Logan's announcement came as a small shock to Jamie. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I've been offered a promotion and I'm going to take it. I'll be in operations now, so I can help you from the ground." He raised his chin in the direction of the building behind her. "I managed to get the okay for you to take the stasis tank. I'm sure Mitch will want to tear it apart and figure out how it works."
"Logan, I -"
"No, don't," he cut her off. "I know we haven't ever really been friends, but I don't want you to say anything you don't mean." He gave her a small silver disc.
"What's this?"
"Your next hybrid. Three refugee camps near Tarapoto, Peru were attacked last week," he told her. "Eyewitness accounts say that the creature is some kind of ghost. That disc contains reports that argue this 'ghost' is actually a new hybrid."
Jamie glanced down at the small item in her hand. "Abe said we need spinal fluid from new hybrids to test his theory that the baby might end sterility." Then, after a beat, she added, "Where'd you get it?"
"New boss." He hitched a thumb over his shoulder at an older gentleman in a three piece suit. "I gotta go. See you around."
Jamie barely had time to react before he disappeared into a crowd of agents. She stared after him for a few more seconds, then turned to find Mitch and the others.
They made it back to the plane with far fewer numbers than they started with. Logan had taken with him his crew of four, leaving them at eight. Jamie looked down at Isaac nestled safely between his parents, a big grin on all of their faces, and decided they'd come out on top today.
Clem was waiting in the vehicle bay when they arrived. Isaac gave her a big hug, which prompted Jamie to explain to Mitch that Clem and Isaac had grown up something like cousins. Despite his still present bitterness at having missed the last nine years, that brought a smile to his face.
"You found the kids?" Clem was still hugging Isaac and spoke over his head.
"Yeah," Mitch answered. "So that's one in the win column finally." He turned to help Jackson and Tessa with unloading the stasis tank. Clem let Isaac go to join his family and turned to Jamie.
"Where you going?"
Jamie was halfway up the stairs and didn't bother stopping to answer. "I need to see if that image of Mr. Duncan is finished processing." She'd left the tablet in the lab, and as she walked through the door from the bay she stopped suddenly. "Uh, guys?" The lab was in shambles. One of the metal shelving units had been knocked over, its empty glassware shattered and littering the floor.
"Oh, right," Clem's voice grew closer as she came in through the door. "Uh, Abigail was here earlier."
"I'm sorry, what?" Jackson was hot on her heels as the rest of them followed her into the lab. "What do you mean Abigail was here?"
"You okay?" Mitch was near frantic. "Did she hurt you?"
"No," Clem shook her head as they settled around the center table. "She didn't touch me, but, um...she got Abendegos."
"We're gonna get Isaac settled," Dariela pushed her son toward the stairs that led to the upper level. "We'll be back." Abe followed her as Jackson, Mitch and Jamie crowded around Clem to hear the story.
"Clem, I need you to walk me through everything that she said," Jackson implored.
Mitch was still doing a visual examination of Clem. "You're sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine," Clem nodded, offering a little smile to reinforce her words. "She, uh, just wanted Abendegos. She was a little crazy about it, actually, like he was her child instead of an experiment."
"That tracks with her crazy villain speech in New York," Mitch confirmed. "I don't think she's playing with a full deck."
Jackson ignored Mitch's quip. "Did she mention me at all?"
"No," Clem shook her head. "She said if I didn't let her take him she'd kill me. I...froze, I guess." Her hand went instinctively to her stomach and Jamie laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You did the right thing, sweetie." She could see Clem was feeling guilty about it. "You're more important than that thing, okay? You did good." Jamie opened her arms when Clem's lower lip trembled, and the girl fell into her embrace like she was thirteen years old again. Jackson stepped away to give them some privacy as Mitch joined their family moment. Jamie took a deep breath and tried not to think about how similar this was to those precious few weeks after they'd come back from their whirlwind world tour ten years ago. Some her favorite memories were of the three of them curled up on the couch watching a movie or crowded around the kitchen table playing Scrabble. Jamie's eyes found Mitch and she could see the same nostalgic sadness mirrored in his eyes and Jamie kicked herself. Mitch had missed all of the moments in between and was clearly trying to make up for lost time.
Carefully she nudged Clem from her arms into Mitch's, and he clung to his little girl as she cried quietly. Jamie smoothed Clem's hair down and stepped away to check the tablet. Mitch was whispering reassurances to his daughter, and she could hear Clem's soft affirmative as he asked once more if she was alright. Jamie looked away from them and grabbed the tablet. Ninety seven percent complete. In just a few moments she'd be able to see Duncan's face for the first time, getting her one step closer to him and to Abigail.
Mitch came up behind her and laid a hand on her back. "Clem's gonna go grab a shower and a nap," he told her. "We should get in the air."
Jamie nodded and left him in the lab to check on Tessa and Harren in the vehicle bay. They'd secured the stasis tank and were closing the bay doors as Jamie walked in.
"Everything good?" she asked.
"Ready to go," Tessa confirmed. "Off to Peru?"
"Yep." Jamie slid the plane's control tablet from the cargo pocket on her pants along with the flash drive Logan had given her. She pulled the coordinates from the first file and plugged them in to the plane's navigation system. A loud warning bell sounded from the speakers on the wall, indicating they were getting ready to take off. She pushed Tessa and Harren to the nearest jump seats, not surprised to see Jackson and Mitch join them from the lab. It took them just a few minutes to get in the air, and once they were relatively stable Jamie unbuckled and made a beeline for the lab. The photo had to be done rendering by now, and she didn't want to waste a second tracking down Duncan.
Her heart dropped into her stomach as she approached the table. The screen that had been working to strip the image now only displayed a red warning message. Jamie tried to focus on something else, but the only thing she could see at the moment was the word "error" in large letters in the center of the screen. The bar was full, indicating the program had completed, but the image was gone.
"Everything okay?" Mitch's voice sounded far away, but as she turned slowly he was right behind her.
"It's…" she gestured toward the screen with one limp hand. "It didn't work."
"Oh," Mitch tapped the screen with a finger, as if that would suddenly fix everything. "I'm sorry."
"It should have worked," Jamie went on. There had been no indication of any type of corruption or errors within the image or the program. So what had happened? Everything was fine mere minutes ago, before she'd left to help Tessa. "Did you see anything?" Mitch had been the last one to see the tablet before take off, but he just shook his head.
"I didn't see anything wrong," he answered quickly. "But I'm still playing catch up on today's tech. Maybe there was something and I missed it?"
"No," Jamie shook her head, cursing herself for even thinking it. "You're right. Even if you had seen something, you probably wouldn't know what it was." She took a couple of deep breaths and tried to focus on the next step. "Alright, well I'll call Westfield and see if he can do something on his end. He has a copy of the image, so maybe his techs can find something. In the meantime," she reached out and turned the tablet off, "let's focus on our mission."
She called Jackson and the others into the lab to go over the data Logan had given her. Tessa was understandably suspicious of its origins.
"Do you trust Logan?" she asked bluntly.
It was a tough question. Jamie's instinct was to say no, but that wasn't entirely fair to Logan. He'd made some questionable choices early on in their relationship, but everything about their encounters these last few weeks had been on the up and up.
Finally, she settled on, "I trust him about this."
Tessa remained skeptical. "A ghost hybrid?"
"It's not actually a ghost." Jamie resisted the urge to roll her eyes and keyed up the information. "I'm actually not sure what it is, but we need to get to Peru as quickly as possible and find out."
Jackson peered at the monitor and tapped on an entry near the bottom of the screen. "This says people have gone missing suddenly and without explanation."
"Mitch," Jamie turned to where he was speaking quietly with Clem, "are there any animals in Peru that could manage that?"
"Uh, a jaguar could do it," he said, "but there would be a lot of blood."
Jackson shook his head. "There's no mention of blood. No remains of any kind. They just vanish."
"Well, it is a hybrid so it could be based on a non-native species."
Jamie sighed. "Which means it could be literally any animal in the world."
"Well not any," he drawled. "No matter how big, I'm pretty sure a butterfly couldn't do it. But yeah," he leaned back in his seat, "our choices are pretty much every non-insect on the planet."
"Wonderful." This briefing hadn't gone quite the way Jamie had hoped. She'd wanted to be as prepared as possible, but it looked like they were going to be trekking through the Peruvian Amazon blindly.
They landed at a small airport that was little more than a long strip of well-packed dirt and a shack that served as a base of operations. There was no one inside when they knocked and Mitch let out a quiet chuckle.
"Looks promising."
"Alright," Jamie slipped the strap of her rifle from her shoulder and held the weapon in front of her. "The latest reports of the ghost are a few miles east of here," she pointed toward the dense forest in front of them. "We should get moving."
Harren had opted to come with them instead of staying behind to help Jackson and Abe work on the stasis tank. Jamie was glad for his presence. The three of them walked in a single file down the winding trail until they hit a road to follow. Despite the fact that it was technically summer here, they were high enough that it was still quite cool even in February. She was thankful for her thick jacket and wool cap as a particularly sharp breeze came over the hill.
The "road" they were on was mucky from a previous rainfall, and despite the majesty of the Amazon before them, all Jamie could think about was her nice warm bed back home. Something was off in the air, and she wrinkled her nose as the wind carried the smell of rotting vegetation and blood from a nearby copse of trees.
"This place looks like it's seen a warzone," Harren commented as they passed a destroyed shack that had likely once served as a waypoint for travelers.
Jamie shivered at the brownish-black stains set into the wood. Whoever had been in that shack hadn't survived. "The hybrids swept through here on their way from Pangaea to North America," she told him. "We thought they'd all cleared out." Clearly, whatever hybrid Abigail had cooked up had preferred the muggy rainforest.
They passed over a bridge, and in the distance Jamie could see another small shack that had managed to remain unscathed. She pointed it out as a possible rest stop for them.
"I gotta say," Mitch adjusted the grip on his weapon, "you've been taking me to some very romantic spots since I've been back. You catching that charming smell of death out here?"
Harren just shrugged. "I've been in worse."
Mitch took it as a challenge. "Back when I was an intern at the zoo, my first job was piling up the dung in the elephant habitat."
Harren laughed. "One time I chased a target in a sewer under a Tandoori restaurant."
"Winner."
Jamie had to agree, though she couldn't help but put in her two cents. She opened her mouth to tell them about the rat queens of Pender Island, but a rustling from the brush ahead made her snap her jaw shut and point with her rifle.
Harren stepped out in front, raising his weapon to bear and creeping closer. Jamie and Mitch held back, each taking up position on either side to cover a wider angle. Reports of the ghost flitted through her mind and she searched her mental catalogue for anything that might be useful.
A wolf, snarling and hungry, leapt from the bushes to block their path. It lowered its head and growled, foam and saliva dripping from its jaws. Jamie could see its ribs on either side and wondered if the ghost hybrid was responsible for its starvation.
"Back slow," Harren whispered out of the corner of his mouth. Jamie took one small step back, then another. The wolf growled louder and set down in its haunches, ready for a leaping attack. Jamie didn't want to kill the poor beast; it was only doing what it needed to survive. Unfortunately for the wolf, it was either it or them.
It pounced, jaws open and teeth gleaming. Harren took aim, pulled the trigger and -
Hit nothing. The wolf, who had seconds before been mid-leap, vanished into thin air. Jamie let out a cry of surprise as Harren stumbled back.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
"Tell me you just saw that," Mitch pleaded.
Jamie nodded, her eyes still glued to the spot where the wolf had been. "Did that wolf just teleport?"
"Maybe." His answer was cut off by a grunt of surprise, and he stumbled unexpectedly. Jamie saw the dart sticking out of his neck and panicked.
"Mitch!" She caught him before he hit the ground as Harren brought his rifle up. Footsteps brought someone out of the underbrush, and Jamie glanced up in shock as the man pushed his hood back.
"Max?"
Mitch's father seemed just as surprised to see them as she was. "Jamie?" He tried to come closer but Harren's rifle and stern expression kept him where he was. "Who is that?"
It was at that moment that Jamie realized they'd neglected an important step after Mitch came back. No one had informed his parents. She felt bad for Max, but the real pang of guilt hit her as she remembered Dianne sitting in Baton Rouge alone.
"Harren, he's okay." She turned back to Mitch and pulled the dart out of his neck as his eyes slipped closed. "Mitch? Hey, can you hear me?"
"Mitch? That's Mitch?" Max rushed forward toward his son, heedless of the imposing man with a rifle between them. "Oh my God." He fell to his knees and cradled Mitch's head in his hands. "How is this possible? Why didn't anyone tell me?" He sounded equal parts distressed and angry, and Jamie knew she owed her father-in-law an apology. But there were more important things to worry about first.
"What did you shoot him with, Max?"
Max didn't take his eyes off of Mitch's face, and Jamie thought she saw a hint of tears in his eyes. "I didn't know it was him," he murmured. "My boy."
"Max!"
He blinked and glanced up at her. "Uh, he'll be fine. It's a PL4 tranq. It's meant to keep an animal down for about half an hour. He'll be asleep for a while."
"You don't have an antidote?"
"Didn't need one." He settled back on his haunches and ran a hand down his face, and Jamie could suddenly see every moment of his seventy-plus years written on his face. "Jamie," he said solemnly, "tell me how my son is alive."
Harren stood guard as she detailed everything from Logan's message up to their little excursion in New York. He didn't need to know about her arrest or Clem's pregnancy, at least not yet. Jamie wasn't sure how many more surprises he could take right now.
"That's incredible," he breathed. "You never gave up on him." There was a note of adoration in his tone and Jamie smiled.
"I'm just glad everyone was wrong."
"He's lucky to have you."
Mitch stirred beneath them, groaning as he attempted to roll over.
"Easy," Max reached down help him sit up.
"What happened?" Mitch seemed to still be out of it, and Jamie reached out to steady him as he almost fell over again.
"You don't remember?"
Mitch finally realized who was speaking, and he recoiled away from Max's probing fingers and tried to stand. "Max?"
"Easy, easy." Between the two of them, they managed to get Mitch back on his feet. "The dart I shot you with is not meant for humans. It's ketamine mixed with atropine. A side effect is temporary amnesia."
"You shot me with a PL4 dart?" Mitch sounded agitated but Jamie couldn't help but smile. If he was aware enough to identify the dart, he was going to be okay.
"It was an accident," Max shrugged. "I'm sorry. Probably lost half an hour."
"You know I just lost a decade, right?" Mitch pushed away from them and winced as he tried to straighten. "You wanna take another thirty minutes?"
"Okay," Max chuckled.
"What are you doing here, Max?"
"Me?" Max scoffed. "How about you? You're supposed to be dead."
"Exaggerated rumors, and all that," Mitch waved his hand.
"A phone call would have been nice," Max grumbled, though there was no real heat behind it.
"Alright," Jamie cut off their little tête-à-tête before it could become something nastier. "Max, what are you doing here?" She'd been so caught up in Mitch's health that she hadn't even considered Max's presence as an anomaly until she thought about it.
Max just smiled. "There are rumors that there's a sixty foot snake - high as a man's waist - roaming in this area."
Mitch rolled his eyes. "Of course."
"Here's the thing though," Max went on. "No one's actually seen it."
Pieces began to fall into place and Jamie looked at Mitch to see if he'd come to the same conclusion. He had.
"Like a ghost snake," he said flatly.
"Exactly." Max was far more excited than anyone had a right to be when talking about a sixty foot snake. "And, I uh, I have this finely tuned device to detect the heartbeat of a snake that size when it's within range. I've come close," he added with an obsessive-like glee, "haven't actually seen it."
"Max -" Jamie began.
"No, this is what I do. I'm a cryptozoologist -" At this Mitch rolled his eyes even harder "- and this is my white whale."
Jamie made a decision and blurted it out before Mitch could talk her out of it. "I think we're looking for the same thing." She ignored the rather pointed glare Mitch was throwing her way and quickly introduced Harren to her father-in-law. Once that was out of the way, she got right back to business.
"Did you see the wolf?" she asked.
Max shook his head. "I heard something, that's why I came over. I got here just in time to hear something large moving through the forest. I fired in that direction, hoping to hit it."
"And you hit me instead," Mitch grumbled.
"Can we move past that please. I already apologized."
"Boys," Jamie interrupted. "Max, can you track where the wolf came from?"
He just grinned. "Sure can." He scouted the area with Mitch, much to the younger Morgan's dismay. Once they were out of earshot, Harren leaned in.
"Are they always like this?"
Jamie shook her head. "Oh, this is them getting along," she told him. "Just wait. The longer they're around each other, the worse it gets."
"None of this makes sense," Max said as he emerged from the tree line. "I see the wolf's paw prints coming into the area but not going."
"Okay," Mitch gathered their attention, "you said you mythical snake is sixty feet long?"
"Yeah."
"That'd give it a diameter of - what - forty inches, right?"
"Give or take."
"Let's say you snake does exist," Mitch went on, "but nobody can find it because nobody can see it."
Jamie recognized Morgan epiphany and tried to contain her excitement. "What, you're saying it's invisible?" She didn't mean to sound incredulous; they'd seen some bizarre things since that first summer.
Mitch just tilted his head slightly in that way Jamie loved. "Not exactly. Go with me here. Snakes are already pretty good at camouflaging themselves when they're not moving, right? So what if this snake is a hybrid that has just taken its camouflage talents one step further."
Max finished his thought for him. "So it can blend into its surroundings even when it's in motion."
"See that tree?" Mitch pointed at a sapling that looked like something big had crashed through it. The larger branches were broken and bent over. "If the snake came in through there, ate the wolf, it would look like it just disappeared."
"Snakes don't just gulp their prey," Max argued. "They crush them to death first and then slowly eat them."
But Mitch had answer for that, too. "Other animals swallow their prey whole. Monkfish, certain frogs. Maybe this snake is just borrowing one of their tricks."
Jamie wondered how any of this was going to help them. "Yeah, but if it can do all that how are we gonna find it?"
"Well if we can't see it, we'll follow its path. A snake would return to its lair to digest. We gotta find its den."
Max held up the small cylindrical device in his hand. It let out a low pitch beep as he pointed it toward the wolf's last known location. He moved it around until he found the signal he wanted. "This way."
Of all the things she'd done in the course of saving the world, Jamie had to guess tracking an invisible sixty foot snake through the Amazon was pretty high on her most terrifying, right behind hunting leopards in the African jungles and working with Allison Shaw. Max was leading the way with his tracker and Harren was watching their rear, leaving Mitch and Jamie side by side in the middle. She watched him for any signs that the sedative he'd been injected with was still affecting him, but he seemed alert - if not a little grumpy.
It was at this point that Max decided to strike up a casual conversation, as if they were sitting in a restaurant rather than stalking a dangerous monster. "So, Mitch. I was a bit surprised to hear about the wedding. I think my invitation was lost in the mail."
Mitch just sighed. "We didn't send out invitations, Max."
"Oh." Max's voice was still light with false cheer. "Well, I'm happy for you."
"What are you doing?"
"What? I can't be happy that my son has finally found someone to spend his life with?"
Jamie could see Mitch's mood darkening with each word. She knew Max meant well, but the two men were like oil and water. They were never going to get along despite Max's persistence.
"It wasn't enough you 'accidentally' shot me in the neck? You have to pretend to care about my happiness, too?"
Max scoffed. "I don't know how you've become so cynical."
"I learned it," Mitch retorted sharply. "From the same guy who taught me about meaningful relationships."
Jamie knew they didn't have time to have a family therapy session here in the middle of the Amazon. "Guys," she stepped between them, "save it for later. We have a giant python to track."
"Actually it's more than likely a boa constrictor hybrid," Mitch said. Jamie celebrated her victory in silence as Mitch switched from estranged son to animal expert in a blink.
"Possibly an anaconda," Max added.
Mitch just shook his head. "Unlikely. Anacondas are mostly aquatic. They live in swamps, marshes, rivers, places like that. And this thing has shown a pretty impressive speed. It snatched a leaping wolf out of midair. Anacondas are too heavy-bodied for something like that."
"Okay," Jamie accepted the mini biology lesson with about as much enthusiasm as she'd displayed back in high school. "So what does all of that mean?"
"Well, younger boas are semi-arboreal," Mitch reasoned, "so we might be looking for a place where it could climb."
"Where the hell would a sixty foot snake go to climb?"
Harren snickered from the back of their group. "Anywhere it wants."
That drew smiles from everyone, and the previous tension seemed to dissipate as they all realized their predicament was far more important than worrying about familial issues. Max's tracker still emitted a low steady beep as they walked on, and Jamie glanced up at the darkening sky in worry.
"Should we maybe call it a night and start again tomorrow?" she asked.
"No," Max shook his head. "We're close. I can tell. If we don't track it now, we might lose it. Snakes can go long periods without eating. Our window for catching it is narrowing fast."
They walked a few more minutes in silence until they came to a large tin-roofed building. It was at least fifty feet wide and a hundred feet long, a perfect hideout. The jungle had already started to reclaim it. Vines snaked along the roof and walls, twisting and grasping as though they were pulling the entire building back into the forest.
"What is that?" Jamie asked.
"Not sure." Mitch pulled a flashlight from his pack and switched it on. The windows were all covered in a layer of grime and Mitch had wiped away a small circle to shine the beam inside. Jamie circled around to the edge of the wall and peered around the corner. Small trees and bushes near the back corner had been nearly flattened by something large moving over them repeatedly.
"I found something." She made sure to keep her voice down in case their presence hadn't already alerted the snake. The others came over and observed the broken branches.
Max looked overjoyed. "This was definitely our snake."
"Come on," Mitch went back around the front door and pulled it open. It creaked loudly on rusty hinges and they all winced.
Because they were in the middle of the jungle, there was no ambient light to shine in the windows other than the half full moon. Jamie swept her flashlight back and forth across the dusty floor as they made their way through a small foyer and into the major space beyond.
It looked almost like a carnival, or at least a staging area for one, with tasseled tinsel hanging from rafters and cloth-covered food stands. Jamie paused at a rather colorful display near the back wall and wondered how long it had been since the Peruvians had celebrated anything. South and Central America had been hit hardest by the hybrids. With no wall to protect them, Abigail's razorback wolves had devastated the lands between Chile and North America, killing thousands. Many had moved east to Brazil and other countries beyond the dense forests of the Amazon hoping to escape the carnage. Some had made it to the Barrier. Some had not.
She could hear Mitch behind her and shuffling footsteps that probably belonged to his father. Harren was moving silently several paces beyond them, his eyes cast out for any sign of movement.
Jamie knew all of their work would be moot if they didn't spot the snake before it spotted them. They needed a way to find an invisible snake, and fast. Some red and reflective caught the edge of her beam and she grinned. That was just what they needed. She shoved her flashlight back into her bag and reached for the fire extinguisher. Hopefully it still had enough pressure.
She came back over in time to hear the end of Mitch's argument with his father.
"Well, if it's as big as you say? Uh, 250 cc's should do it."
"You can't do that. It'll kill it!" Max cried.
"While you two debate the bioethics of invisible snakes, I think I know a way to see it." She began to spray the gas in short bursts, sweeping the nozzle back and forth to get the white cloud to spread out. She kept doing this periodically, happy to see the gas was settling on the floor like fog. If something moved through it, they would definitely see it.
Suddenly Max's detector began beeping more rapidly and Mitch adjusted his glasses with his free hand. "Uh, Max? I think your white whale's here."
Jamie kept up the spray a bit longer this time. The detector beeped faster. Faster. Then she remembered what Mitch had said about climbing and aimed the nozzle just above their heads. A white cloud drifted out in front of them and for a moment the only sound in the room was Max's tracker, beeping furiously like a sprinter's heartbeat. Then all hell broke loose.
A huge snake's head lunged through the cloud. It was bigger around than their SUV and it hissed deeply as the air around it shimmered. It took everything in her not to jump back and shriek. Harren was steadier as he took aim, but just before he pulled the trigger Max shoved the barrel of his rifle toward the ceiling.
"Don't kill it!" The gunshot was deafening in the warehouse and the bullet ricocheted off of a rafter. The snake hissed again and recoiled, and the scales that had been visible seconds ago faded away in a quick ripple. They couldn't lose it again.
Jamie grabbed Harren and dashed off toward the back of the warehouse where a large hole had been torn in the side of the building. She heard Mitch call for her, but they had to make sure the snake didn't escape. And this time, she wanted Harren to have a clean shot.
She paused for a moment, hoping to be able to at least hear the thing moving. It was sixty feet after all - and invisible, not silent. She thought she heard something heavy shifting about, and she pushed Harren toward the hole as she turned down the next aisle. She kept spraying, hoping that the disturbed dust and the carbon dioxide cloud would give her enough warning to avoid being swallowed whole.
They didn't.
She'd forgotten, in all of the insanity, to keep spraying upward. One minute she was holding the fire extinguisher, the next she was airborne. No, not airborne, she realized. She was inside the creature's mouth as it moved. Strong muscles began to undulate, working against her and forcing her back toward the snake's gullet. She tried to scream but she couldn't breathe. The air was thick and stifling and each time she tried to suck in a lungful her chest burned. She had seconds before the end.
"Jamie?"
It was muffled, but she could hear Mitch calling her name. He had come looking for her, probably when the extinguisher had clattered to the floor. He couldn't see the snake, or her, and she had no time to wait. She thought about all they'd been through, everything they'd endured. They'd lost each other so many times, but somehow always found one another again. How many nights had she cried herself to sleep hoping that he wasn't dead? That he was somehow alive? How many days trekking through Canada had she told herself that it would be okay, that Mitch would come for her? And he had. He'd come for her. He'd lived. And now she was the one who was going to die.
No.
She wasn't going to die today. Not like this. The universe owed them too much to let a giant snake be the way it finally tore them apart. In the complete darkness of the snake's throat she reached around toward her back hip to the military grade knife she'd taken from the weapons rack. Mitch had made a snide Rambo quip at the time. Who was laughing now?
With as much strength as she could muster, she took the hilt in both hands and thrust upward. The snake lurched, shrieking in pain as the blade barely punctured through its thick hide. She redoubled her efforts and struck again, and this time the blade went all the way through. Heedless of the animal's cries of agony, she sawed her way backward away from the head. The snake shook once, trying to escape the pain, but then it lay still. Dead. She finally had a hole large enough for her small frame, and as she stood up she met the incredulous stares of Max, Mitch and Harren.
Remembering their earlier conversation, she took a deep lungful of air and spoke. "Does that beat the Tandoori sewer story?"
Harren let out a quiet curse as Mitch and Max rushed forward to help her step out of the snake's body. She was covered in a slime that she didn't really want to identify, but Mitch didn't care. She was in his arms the moment her feet hit solid ground.
"Are you okay? Did the teeth get you? Did it crush you at all?" His rapid speech was matched only by his hands as his fingers skimmed up and down her body in search of injury.
"I'm okay," she told him breathily. "Grossed out, but okay."
"It's a shame," Max lamented sadly. "He was beautiful." Jamie followed his eyes up to the rafters and gasped. Now dead and its camouflage ability gone, they could finally see the whole body of the massive serpent. Its body was longer than they'd guessed and almost as tall as she was at the thickest part. It had used the sturdy i-beams as its own personal climbing gym, its serpentine form draped menacingly across most of the upper supports.
"Let's just get the spinal fluid and get out of here." Jamie was ready to be back on the plane. Mitch led her over to a plastic covered chair and ordered her to sit down. She glared at him but complied, mostly because her brain was finally catching up to the events of the past few minutes and she was also now fighting off a pretty impressive panic attack on top of her adrenaline dump. Harren found an empty glass jar in one of the old food stands and gave it to Mitch for inspection.
"That'll do," he said. "Find me a scoop or a spoon of some kind if you can. Jamie, can I have your knife?"
She handed it to him with shaky fingers, nodding when his eyes asked her once more if she was okay. He proceeded, with Max's help, to extract enough spinal fluid to fill the jar a little more than halfway. Once the lid was screwed on, he thrust it at Max.
"Carry this." Max clutched the jar to his chest as Mitch came back over to her and knelt down. "Hey, you okay?"
Jamie hadn't said anything, but her pulse was racing and she was having trouble taking a deep breath. She recognized the first signs of shock and she shook her head slightly as Mitch grabbed her wrist. "Okay. Harren, give me the canteen." He took the half-filled container and offered it to her. "Small sips," he instructed. "I'd like to get you laying down, but we need to get back to the plane. You think you can walk to the car?"
Jamie replaced the cap and nodded. She could freak out later; right now they needed to get back. She gathered her feet under her and stood up. For a moment she felt okay, then her vision swam violently and she felt her entire body sway. She stayed upright only because of Mitch's grip on her arms. He slowly lowered her back to sitting and crouched again.
"Okay, no walking. Harren, you and Max go get the car." He unzipped his coat and shrugged it off. "Jamie, lie down."
She started to protest, to tell him she was fine and just needed a few moments. But then she saw the worry and resolve in his eyes and relented. He wouldn't budge on this. She let him help her down to the floor as Max and Harren made their way back toward the front door. Before he left, Max took his own coat off and offered it to Mitch.
"For her feet," was all he said, then he left.
Mitch folded it into a small, bulky bundle and placed it under feet, then took his own and tucked it over her torso. "Don't move," he told her. "Are you seeing spots? Any chance you're going to lose consciousness?"
"No, Mitch, I'm okay," she reassured him. "The moment just caught up with me, I think. I'll be fine after some rest." He accepted her answer with a quick nod, the movement stiff and jerky. He was agitated. She pushed her hand from beneath his coat and found his arm. "I'm okay, Mitch. I promise."
He tucked her arm back under for warmth and sighed. "I was terrified, Jamie. We came around the corner and you were just gone. I knew immediately what had happened and I...I couldn't breathe. It felt like I was suffocating."
Jamie remembered the sensation of being strangled by the snake's powerful muscles and how difficult it had been to find a breath inside its throat. From the look on Mitch's face, she guessed it had probably been just as terrifying from the outside. Then his eyes softened and the worry lines on his forehead smoothed as he gazed at her fondly.
"That was a pretty nice move with the knife, though. Kinda felt bad for the snake."
Jamie chuckled, a quiet noise at the end of one of her ever-deepening breaths. "All I could think about was how much the universe owed us for all of the shit it's put us through. Then I decided to take matters into my own hands. Literally."
He laughed at that. "We have had a pretty bad run, huh? I mean, there was the time Evan Lee Hartley tried to kill you for the mother cell."
She returned his playful jab with one of her own. "You were almost mauled by a bear."
"We both were almost mauled by leopards."
"Plane crash."
"You were lost in Canada for months."
He'd made it sound almost accusatory so she flipped it on him, adding a bit of challenge to her tone as she lifted one hand to tick off her points on her fingers. "Wolves, insane townspeople, Logan."
He mimicked her gesture. "Kovacs, chased by a gator, Allison."
"Wait, when were you chased by a gator?" She was pretty sure she should have heard about that at some point.
"We were following moles under a building to find the earthquake sloth," he explained like that cleared it all up.
"Nevermind." She thought about the rest of that summer with sadness. "We lost Chloe."
"But we gained Dariela."
Jamie glared at him half-heartedly. "You hated her when she first came on board."
He scoffed lightly. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who decided to go a round with the Army Ranger."
She conceded his point and went on. "Davies. The Noah Objective."
"Pangaea," he added sadly. "The universe definitely owes us."
"Definitely." She accepted the sweet kiss he gave her, and it warmed her more than a thousand blankets ever could. They hadn't had many quiet moments since his return.
The faint sound of a car engine ended their jaunt down memory lane. Mitch reached down and helped her sit up slowly. "I'm alright," she told him when he fussed. He tried to get her to take his coat along with hers, but she refused. "Harren's probably got the heater on. I'll be okay." The horn honked to announced their arrival, and Mitch kept one arm around her as they walked slowly through the building to the front doors.
Max hopped out of the passenger seat to open the back door of the SUV, and Jamie leaned against him as Mitch climbed in first. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered. She offered him a brief smile before settling in next to Mitch.
It took a moment of adjustment, but they managed to get Jamie mostly lying down with her head in Mitch's lap and her feet flat on the opposite seat. Her knees rested against each other on the seat back, and she hummed in contentment when Mitch pulled her knitted cap off her head and began threading his fingers through her hair gently. Between his ministrations and the drone of the car as Harren took them back to the plane, it wasn't long before Jamie fell asleep.
She woke as the SUV lurched to a stop inside the cargo bay. Mitch helped her sit up and she was glad to find that her legs worked again as she slid out onto the metal grating.
The others were waiting for them on the upper walkway, and Dariela's eyes widened in surprise when she saw Max. "The cat dragged this one in again?" she quipped.
Max just grinned. "It's nice to see you again, Mrs. Kenyatta."
"Grandpa!" Clem surged forward and wrapped her arms around Max's neck in a big hug.
Max returned her embrace fiercely. "It's good to see you, Clem. It's been too long."
Mitch cut their reunion short by thrusting the jar of viscous white goo at Clem. "We got the spinal fluid."
Clem looked past the jar to Jamie, who was now leaning back against the SUV wearily. Jamie could feel the gross, sticky viscera on her clothes and in her hair, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than a hot shower and a nap.
"From a herd of what?" She took the jar and examined its contents. "And what is that smell?"
"You don't wanna know." Jamie pushed away from the car and began trudging toward the stairs with Mitch right on her heels.
He didn't physically support her again, though she knew that if she stumbled he would catch her before she fell. She began pulling off her jacket before she even reached the door to their bedroom. Mitch collected the articles of clothing she discarded on her way to the bathroom and she heard him open the hamper and dump it all in as she turned the water on as hot as it would go.
He was waiting for her when she emerged, and she dropped her towel in favor of the fluffy robe he'd pulled from her bag. She leaned against his solid frame, humming in contented exhaustion as he pressed his lips against her forehead in a long kiss. She let him lead her to their bed and lay her down, robe and all. He pulled up the sheet first, then the heavy comforter in an effort to keep her warm. She felt her eyelids grow heavy as she finally let her muscles relax, and he sat on the bed next to her, his clever fingers massaging her scalp lightly with each pass over her temple.
"Get some rest," he whispered in the dark room. "I'll wake you for dinner."
She could barely hum a reply, too tired to keep her eyes open any longer. She felt his stubbled cheek scrape hers lightly as he placed a feather light kiss on the corner of her mouth, and then she was under.
She jerked awake some time later, her heart pounding from the nightmare that had almost become reality. Mitch was still sitting on the edge of the bed, but something about the slump of his shoulders and the tension he radiated told her something had happened while she was asleep. She called his name groggily, and he turned slightly to face her.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay." She pushed herself up to sitting. "What's going on?"
"It's the baby," he began, and for one heart-stopping moment Jamie feared the worst. "He's okay for now, but Clem's immune system is attacking his blood. He needs a transfusion."
Jamie willed her heart rate back down to a normal level and sucked in a deep breath. "Okay," she sighed, "so we get him a transfusion."
"We are," Mitch scooted back to let her pull the covers away from her legs and turn to mirror his position on the side of the bed. "Luckily Harren has the same blood type, but it'll take time to make sure that his blood is a good match for the baby. In the meantime..." he trailed off and Jamie leaned against his side for support. One arm snaked around his waist as she set her chin on his shoulder, silently giving him as much strength as he needed. He was obviously taking this hard.
"Is Clem okay?" She asked when it was clear he wasn't going to complete his thought.
"She's okay for now." The corner of his mouth stretched up in a pale imitation of a smile. "She's a natural mom, already protective. She's determined to do whatever she has to for the baby."
Jamie had known Clem would make a wonderful mother even before she'd become pregnant. She was so generous and compassionate, with her father's intelligence and tenacity. "That's good, isn't it?" Jamie was still confused at his somber demeanor. The baby was going to be fine and Clem was doing well. There was no reason for his sour attitude.
"She's going into the tank," he said finally. "It'll keep her in stasis until Harren's blood is tested so that no more damage is done."
There it was. Jamie knew he hated the tank. Though they were becoming more infrequent, she still felt him tossing and turning at night, fighting the demons that had grown from his own time in the tank. He was likely thinking the same things and dreading what being put in stasis would do to Clem.
"You were in the tank for almost ten years," Jamie told him. "Clem's only gonna be in it for, what, a day? Two at the most? She'll be fine."
"Yeah." He didn't sound convinced, but a sense of acceptance settled over him. She closed the small distance between them and kissed his cheek.
"Come on," she stood and stretched before reaching for his hand. "Let's go find her."
Clem was already in the cargo bay along with Jackson and Abe. They were going over the specifics of what they had discovered about the tank and its properties, but as Mitch and Jamie entered they stopped.
"Hey," Jackson came over and wrapped Jamie in a bear hug. "Mitch told us about the giant snake. Are you alright?"
Jamie laughed and hugged him back. "I'm fine." She was still working through her anger about his leaving, but she had to admit it felt good to have Jackson back. She'd forgiven him for what had happened and it was time to look to the future instead of the past. When he stepped back she smiled at him, and she could see in his eyes that he knew what she was thinking.
Clem was next, though her hug was quite a bit tighter than Jackson's. Jamie could feel the apprehension in the girl's body as she clung to Jamie fiercely. Jamie ran a hand over her head and slipped her hand down to grab Clem's when the girl stepped away.
"You okay?"
Clem nodded. "I'm okay. Just...nervous, I guess."
"It's going to be fine," Abe promised. "Jackson and I have been over every inch of the tank. There is nothing to be afraid of."
"It'll be like taking a really long nap," Jackson added.
Clem's smile didn't quite convince. "At least I'll get to catch up on all the sleep I've missed this semester."
Mitch's harsh tone cut through the veil of humor. "Are we sure this is the safest option? What if the tank fails while she's inside?"
Jackson shook his head. "The only way that could happen is if it loses power. This thing has a self-sustaining power core. I don't think anything short of an EMP is going to knock it out."
Jamie caught the slight look of panic on Clem's face at her father's words and she elbowed Mitch sharply. "Nothing's going to go wrong," she said pointedly. "We'll all be here when you wake up." She reached out to hug Clem again, grateful that this time she seemed more relaxed.
"You weren't going under without saying goodbye to your grandpa were you?" Max came strolling in with Dariela and Isaac on his heels. Clem smiled and accepted the giant hug he gave her.
"It's not goodbye, Gramps," she said. "I'm just...unplugging for a bit."
Max stepped back to let Isaac wrap his small arms around Clem's waist. He laid his ear against her stomach and frowned. "Are you sure there's a baby in there? I can't hear him."
Laughter filled the room at his innocent statement, and even Mitch seemed to lose most of the tension he was carrying as he laid a hand on his daughter's shoulder.
"Sure is, kiddo," Clem patted Isaac's shoulder affectionately. "And in nine months or so, you'll have a brand new cousin to love."
"Cool." He went back over to his mom when she beckoned, and Jamie didn't miss the almost desperate hold Dariela kept on her son. It was almost like she was afraid he would disappear if she didn't hold onto him, and Jamie made a mental note to check on her later.
As Mitch and Clem embraced, Jamie stepped back over to Jackson and lowered her voice to keep it from carrying. "You're absolutely sure this is safe?"
"One hundred percent," Jackson said. "Clem's going to be fine." Jamie accepted his answer with a quick nod. Jackson loved Clem like she was family; he wouldn't let her come to harm.
With all of the hugs exchanged, it was finally time for Clem to get in the tank. Mitch watched Abe like a hawk as he hooked her up to the monitors, then took her up a ladder to the top of the apparatus. The platform would lower her into the water-like substance inside and give them a way to get her out should something go wrong. Mitch had told her about his near drowning when he'd been awakened and was glad they'd come up with a way to avoid that unpleasant scenario.
When Abe pressed the button, Jamie grabbed Mitch's hand and watched with him as their girl was slowly suspended into the stasis tank. Her eyes were closed but every monitor showed she was perfectly fine. It had worked. Jamie stayed there with Mitch for as long as he needed, even as the others began trickling from the room. Finally it was just the two of them left staring at the blue-white glow of the tank.
"She's gonna be okay," Jamie promised. "Let's go." She tugged gently but he didn't budge. "Mitch?"
He blinked, and Jamie finally saw the shine of tears in his eyes. "Yeah, okay." He let her pull him to the door and out into the hall, but not before turning back one last time to look at his little girl. As the door slid closed he cleared his throat and let her go. "I'm gonna go grab a shower," he told her.
"Okay." She could sense his need to be alone for a while to process everything, so she bit down on her offer to join him and let him walk away. She turned instead toward the lab to find Abe and get some answers about Clem's condition. Abe was conspicuously absent, but Max was tinkering around some of the equipment, and when she came in he smiled brightly.
"If it isn't my favorite daughter-in-law," he quipped lightly. "How do you feel after vanquishing the mighty beast?"
Jamie felt the urge to roll her eyes at his melodramatic description. "I'm fine, Max. How are you doing?"
"Well," he answered quickly. "I, uh, I keep telling myself that Mitch spent nine years in one of those tanks and he came out fine. Clementine should, too, right?"
"She'll be okay," Jamie reassured him. "The baby, too."
"And wasn't that a wonderful surprise," Max grinned. "Mitch and Abe filled me in on the details. I have to say, I was pretty shocked."
"We were, too," Jamie agreed. He was still smiling, but there was something like pain behind the false cheer he was projecting. She'd been so focused on how this was all affecting Mitch that she hadn't realized how this was hurting Max as well. "We have two - well, make that three - of the best scientists in the world on his plane."
He took her compliment graciously and chuckled. His eyes wandered back to the screen he'd been looking at when she'd arrived and he gestured with one hand. "This is interesting," he told her. "What crazy compound is my son working on now?"
Jamie frowned. As far as she knew Mitch wasn't working on anything. She stepped over next to him and peered at the screen. It was the rendering Abe had done of the chemical structure of the Melvatox-B compound. As far as she knew, Mitch hadn't touched it.
"What do you mean?"
Max pointed at a section of the spinning structure. "See that sequence of covalent bonds? That's Mitch's signature. It's kind of an inside joke only scientists get."
Jamie's memory cast back over a decade to a small bar in Alabama when Mitch had explained almost the very same "tagging" concept to them in regards to the chemical found in the wolf's brain. That signature had led them to Leo Butler and eventually to the Mother Cell. The implications of Mitch's signature on the Melvatox-B compound were staggering, and even Jamie's sharp mind was having trouble putting all of the jagged pieces together.
"Mitch? Are you sure?" She had to make sure, because the idea that had popped into her head was so ludicrous that she had to be absolutely certain before she moved forward.
"I'm positive," Max chuckled. "See the bond angle and the spatial orientation? That's all him." He went on, unknowingly crushing whatever high spirits Jamie had managed to muster with each word. "First time he used it was his high school science fair project. It's kind of been his thing ever since. I don't even think it's intentional."
But Jamie wasn't really listening any longer. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. She felt sick at the thought, but it was the only explanation that fit all the evidence. She pushed away from the table, interrupting Max's reminiscing.
"Excuse me." She left Max standing alone in the lab and made a beeline for the lounge. She dug her phone out of her pocket and dialled one of her recent numbers. It rang four times before Westfield picked up.
"You have a lot of nerve calling me."
Jamie stopped for a moment, struck by how angry he sounded. "Westfield? What's going on?"
He laughed dryly. "That's a good one. You all have been playing me from the beginning, that's what's going on."
Jamie felt that same stab of dread threatening to swallow her. His belligerence was only reinforcing her fears. "Okay, I'm going to tell you something and you're not going to believe me but it's the truth."
"I'm not listening to any more of your lies. I've already put an APB out for your husband. You should tell him to turn himself in."
It was the nail in the coffin and Jamie leaned against the wall wearily. "It's him, isn't it? He's Mr. Duncan."
"You're trying to tell me you didn't know?" She could practically feel his skepticism over the line.
"Westfield, I'm telling you he probably doesn't even know. There's a biodrive in his brain, developed by the Shepherds. They are the ones who kidnapped him and kept him in stasis for almost ten years. Only I don't think they kept him in stasis at all. I think they used that biodrive to control him, to create this Mr. Duncan persona." Jamie spoke rapidly, keeping her voice low in case someone was close enough to overhear.
She could hear Westfield's sigh, a sharp static noise that made her wince. "You expect me to believe that?"
"I have the brain scans to prove it. We disabled the biodrive with an electrical impulse, but we can't remove it." Jamie had tried not to think about the tiny device that could take Mitch from her at any moment. Removing it would cause permanent and total amnesia, leaving it in would kill him. She explained it all to Westfield then waited for his judgment.
"Alright, let's say I believe you. Why would anyone want to turn Mitch into this Mr. Duncan?"
Jamie had an answer for that, at least. "Because the things Mr. Duncan has done? Mitch would never do them. My guess is the Shepherds wanted someone with Mitch's brilliance but without his morals and empathy." It was an extremely dangerous combination, and it's what had elevated Mr. Duncan to the second slot on the Hunters' most wanted list.
"Does he know?"
"I...I haven't seen him yet. I just figured it out myself. How did you know?"
"The picture," Westfield explained. "He was the driver of the van."
Jamie thought about the error that had ruined any chance of her seeing the image they'd pulled from security cameras. Everything had gone smoothly until the last second, and as she recalled the moments leading up to that she remembered that Mitch had been alone in the lab during that time. Had he caused the error? Had he lied to her? She couldn't imagine him ever doing that, but if the biodrive wasn't completely inert he might not even be aware of it controlling him. She needed to talk to him.
"Can you send me the finished image?" she asked. "I'm going to talk to him."
"Is that a good idea? What if this Mr. Duncan persona switches on when you confront him?"
"He won't hurt me," Jamie said confidently, but even as the words passed her lips she knew it was more a dream than a reality. If the biodrive was controlling him, if he was Mr. Duncan, then she would be nothing more to him than an obstacle. It was harrowing, but she had to do it.
"Just sent it to your phone," Westfield said. "I'll cancel the APB for now, but keep me in the loop. If I don't hear from you in 48 hours, I'm sending the cavalry to come get him." He hung up without saying goodbye, but Jamie didn't even notice. She was already opening the image file in her messages. It was still a bit blurry, but there was no mistaking the driver's face. She'd spent almost every single day of two years with him and then the next nine seeing him in her dreams every night. She knew his face better than she knew her own, and she stifled a sob of disbelief at his emotionless expression in the photo. There was no doubt she was seeing Mr. Duncan and not Mitch, but it was still proof that he hadn't been in stasis for the entire nine years. Abigail had stolen him away to use him for her plans, and Jamie once more felt that terrifying darkness that had nearly overwhelmed her after Caraquet.
"Jamie?"
For the first time in the nearly twelve years of knowing him, his voice sent a jolt of fear through her. She hated it, and in that moment Jamie knew that if she ever saw Abigail Westbrook she would kill her. Mitch was still waiting at the top of the stairs and she forced herself to act normally as she climbed up to meet him. Judging from his worried expression, she'd failed.
"Jamie, what's wrong?"
For one dark, impulsive moment she thought about not telling him. He was already dealing with so much. Learning that he'd been used by Abigail, that his intelligence had been perverted for some heinous purpose, might break him. But Mitch was stronger than anyone gave him credit for and she wouldn't lie to him about this.
"We need to talk."
Her somber tone cut off whatever quip might have been on his lips, and he just nodded tersely and let her lead him to their bedroom. When they got there she entered first, and when he slid the door closed behind them she turned and held out her phone.
"What's this?" He took it a glanced down, obviously not recognizing the image on the screen or the man behind the wheel.
"It's the image that Westfield sent me," she said. "His program didn't encounter an error, and he sent me the image of Mr. Duncan."
There was something wrong in his posture, a too-tight bunch of his shoulders and a stiffness when he handed the phone back. Half a second before the words left his lips, she figured it out.
"I know."
A sharp lance of panic hit her as she examined him closely for any sign that Mr. Duncan had come out to play, but there was a regretful sorrow in his eyes that she didn't think his alter ego capable of. When he looked at her fully, he was still Mitch.
"I'm sorry. The image finished rendering while I was in the lab and I couldn't believe it. But then I saw the chemical structure of Melvatox-B on Abe's computer and I started having these flashes, memories that aren't mine but they are. It's hard to explain. I knew you would freak out, so I didn't tell you. I managed to push enough buttons that the image just sort of disappeared. I wanted some time to figure out how to even begin to explain it to you."
Anger replaced the panic in her chest. "You knew and you didn't tell anyone? What if Mr. Duncan had taken over before you could? Are you even aware what he's capable of?"
Mitch grimaced. "You mean what I'm capable of?"
"No." Despite her anger at his actions, she couldn't let him believe that he and Mr. Duncan were anything alike. "That thing in your head, it isn't you. Abigail created an entirely new person with that biodrive."
"But he isn't," Mitch countered. "Not really. He has all of my memories, my knowledge, my intelligence."
"But he doesn't have your heart." She surged forward and placed her palm flat on his chest. "He doesn't have anything that makes you, you."
Mitch's hand came up to grasp her fingers tightly as he pressed his forehead onto hers. "I didn't think you'd forgive me," he whispered hoarsely, and she could hear how close to tears he was.
"I love you," she answered fiercely, rising up on her toes to kiss him hard. He grasped for her waist desperately with his other hand, bringing them flush together before threading his fingers into her hair as he kissed her with abandon. She could feel the dampness on his cheeks as they clung to one another in the darkness of their bedroom and she cursed Abigail once again.
"We'll figure this out," she murmured against his lips as his touch began to grow firmer. She let him push her toward the bed, all rational thought flying away in the face of his passion and need. He undressed her before he saw to his own clothes, and as he laid his body along hers he finally admitted the fear she could still see in his eyes.
"I'm afraid."
Jamie laid her hand on his cheek and wiped away the last trace of his tears. "Of what?"
"Hurting you," he said. "Hurting Clem, or the baby. I...I have no control over this. I don't even know how it works. What if Abigail can switch it on whenever she wants? She can turn me into...into him and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Hey," she pulled him down for another slow kiss. "We're going to figure this out. And you're not going to hurt anyone. We're going to get that thing out of your head safely, we're going to take Abigail down, and then you and me are going back to Baton Rouge to live a nice quiet life. No more crises, no more apocalypses. Just you, me, several dogs and many, many long years of happiness."
He didn't say anything for a long moment. Then he chuckled, a low, throaty sound that sent a puff of breath across her cheek. "Can we negotiate on your choice of places to settle down?"
Happy to hear even a sliver of hope in his tone, Jamie laughed. "Sure."
His fingers slipped across her brow lightly, pushing back an errant lock of hair before he lowered his head for another kiss. Jamie let her worries fall away under his touch, and she focused all of her attention on helping him do the same.