Chapter 7- Shock
"Itex has sure changed a lot since I was last here." I said as I peered through the wrought iron black fence. All the once impeccable hedges were overgrown pointing in wild direction and weeds were destroying the pretty flower beds. There was a large hole blown out of the side of the building.
"Did you make that hole?" I asked turning to face Iggy. He grinned mischievously.
"Yup. With the Gasman. When have you been here before?" Iggy asked.
"We should start breaking in. the fence is about three and half metres high." I quickly changed the subject. My time at Itex headquarters had been short and I was unconscious for the majority of it. I flew over the fence and landed softly on the other side. Iggy followed a second mimicking my movements exactly. We ran up the grass to the front entrance. We were sticking to the ground because we could still be seen from the road. And nothing interrupts a secret break by random by-standers shouting out "OMG! Those kids can fly!" It really kills being inconspicuous.
I punched in the code I had found out back at the school into a key pad by the front door. There was a beep and a robotic female voice said,
"Doors unlocked. Welcome to Itexicon." I pushed the door open and pulled Iggy inside. I lead him down tiled hallway after tiled hallway. It felt chilling to be back here considering the state I was in last time. I gripped Iggy's hand tightly the whole way. I found my way to the central data base. I logged into to one of the computers.
User Name: RterBorcht
Password: McDonalds
I found it hilarious that ter Borcht's password was McDonalds. I laughed a little bit.
"What?" Iggy said.
"Ter Borcht's password is McDonalds." I snickered. Iggy smirked.
"Can't say I'm too surprised." I found my file and clicked open the first thing in there titled letter from father. It was a letter written on a type writer. It read,
10th February 1994
Dear Dr ter Borcht
I have thought long and hard about the offer you gave me about taking those two children off my hands. I can't bring myself to call them my children. I tried to get Arabella to get rid of them but she refused for some reason, she says she cares for them, loves them even. They are annoying and keep me up at all hours of the night which is preventing me from concentrating on the most important thing. My career. I have high ambitions in as a lawyer hoping to become a partner in the office at a young age and I know I will not achieve this with the twins weighing me down. So please take them off my hands.
I would like to lay down a few conditions. First, I know you will be using them for scientific experiments and will need proper documentation throughout their life. Do not under any circumstances attach mine or Arabella's name to this; I cannot have anyone finding out that I am connected to them. It would ruin my career. List the father as unknown and say the mother is some drug addict. Use one of the names from the big cocaine bust that is coming up.
Second, keep them separated. You may keep them in the same facility but do not let them meet. If they are together they have a better chance of tracking me down. As I said before I want them out of my life for good. I would die a happy man if I never saw them for the rest of my life. They've only been around for a week and a half and I already despise them.
Third, if you want to contact me do it via my office and use a fake name. Arabella cannot find out. I will attach my business card to this letter please call as soon as possible and tell me how you will take them. I help you or your colleges get into the house sometime at night shall we say 20th of February. I will make sure Arabella is asleep and I'll anesthetize the twins to stop them from screaming and waking her.
Thank you so much for helping solve my problem and fixing this stupid mistake. I will be forever in your debt. Please remember to contact me at my office and I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours Sincerely
Reginald Yolkman
I store at the screen shaking with anger. I couldn't believe that my father had let Fang and I be taken away by white coats because we would harm his career. He had organised it with ter Borcht who was insanity personified. I had always thought of my mother as the bad guy. The name the school had on their files was Christina Phillips. I googled her years ago and found that she had been arrested in a drug bust that had taken place about a week after I had been first grafted with the Avian DNA. I always thought she sold us for drug money. I had been so furious then. But this felt worse. So much worse. His job was worth more to him than me. Iggy put a hand on my shoulder.
"What's wrong?" He asked gently feeling that I was trembling.
"My Father gave me away to the school... because of his job... I was just a problem and a mistake." I read the letter out to him. He rubbed my shoulder and ran his fingers through my hair.
"Oh Violet, he sounds like such an ass. Like my dad, but even worse. He must have been a complete idiot to not notice how wonderful you were. But it sounds like your mom loved you."
"I guess." I said I opened up a picture. It was a picture of a woman who looked like an older version of me holding who sleeping babies. The babies looked identical. The woman was gazing down at them lovingly like they held the secret to happiness. There was a man who had my eyes standing behind them with an obviously phony smile on his face. After all those years of wondering who my father was, I felt so disappointed. But on the other hand I found out that my mother was so much better than I had first thought. I clicked on a media clip; it was of a reporter in front of a suburban home with the two people from the picture next to her. Except in the video the woman looked tired, pale and gaunt. She had lost a lot of weight since the picture. The man however looked the picture of health.
"On the 20th February, three week old twins Albert and Violet Yolkman were taken from their San Francisco home during the night. There are no leads to who may have abducted them. I'm here with the parents of the infants, Reginald and Arabella Yolkman, do you have any idea who might have done this?" the reporter said pointing his microphone at them. The woman, Arabella, was first to speak.
"No I can't imagine who would take my babies. I just want them back, if any one knows anything about what happened please, please tell the police. I miss Al and Vi so much, I love them." She burst out sobbing onto the man's shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly.
"Thank you for your time in what must be a difficult time." the reporter said sincerely to Reginald.
"Oh yes you just can't imagine what we're going through. Thank you for helping get the message out there." Reginald replied lying through his teeth. The clip ended.
"I look exactly like her... my mom." I told Iggy.
"I bet you do." He murmured. "Are you okay?"
"I think so. I've got deadbeat dad but my mom seems like a good person, not at all how I thought she was. I always thought that she was a drug addict or something and had sold Fang and me for drug money. It just seems sad that my mom never knew what happened, that her husband betrayed in such a big way." I found an article saying that Arabella had filed for divorce a few months after the video clip and another saying it was finalised a few months after that. "They got divorced."
"That's good, she's away from him. She saw him for the scumbag he really is."
"I hope she's okay. That the school didn't kill her or anything."
"I'm sure she is. There would be something saying that she had died if they had." I printed out everything in my file including all the photos, articles and my medical records. The medical records were basically a detail list of every experiment or surgery the white coats had run on me. I skimmed through it again quickly checking to see if there was anything I didn't know about. There were a few minor things that they had done to me while I was unconscious but nothing that would affect me now or in the future.
I also printed out all the stuff in the other members of the flock's files as that had been the main aim of this break in. I found a pile of manila folders on a shelf in the central data room. I shoved each person's papers into a different folder. I put the folders in the bag. I was about to open up Iggy's file on the computers. I told him this and he stopped me.
"You don't need to bother. I already trust you and I know who my parents are unfortunately." He said.
"I know, I'm just going to look anyway." I went straight for his medical files. I found that he had only two surgeries on him, I found this slightly odd as I thought they would have tried to correct his vision at least once. I went down the eye surgery he had when he was four. There were some notes on it.
Surgery a success. I found this strange. Wasn't it failure? He had lost his eyesight. If that's not a failure I don't know what is.
Subject has complete loss of vision. Hopefully his others senses will develop more. Eyesight is easily restorable and if the subject does have better sensory it will be fixed at later date. I felt ill reading this. They had made Iggy, my Iggy, blind on purpose. It wasn't a botched job, but completely intentional. It was another test. I scrolled down to a note that was written a few years later.
Subject is making significant progress with hearing, smell, touch and taste. A date has been set for his vision restoration. It was today's date. If Iggy had stayed at the school and Itex didn't go on their genocidal rampage, he would be able to see again. Today. At this time he might be opening his eyes and seeing for the first time in eleven years. But he would be in the school and not with me. My mind raced as I tried to decide to tell him or not. Did I protect him or let him know truth. My thoughts were interrupted by Iggy grabbing my arm.
"I hear footsteps. Lots of footsteps." He whispered and pulled me under a table and we huddled together staying silent. Then I head rapid, mechanical footsteps coming towards us, all in perfect time with each other. Whatever was coming for us, they weren't human. Who did they work for? The footsteps got louder and a whole army of strange human like robots with glowing green eyes and machine guns for arms. They were incredible creepy. There were around fifty of them. Then a hand reached under the table and grabbed onto my arm. I was dragged out of Iggy's arms.
"Violet, No!" Iggy shouted but another of the things grabbed him. I struggled and kicked at the robot. I hit the base of its spine and it crumpled, releasing me. Must be a weak spot. I rammed myself at the one holding Iggy. Iggy was dropped onto the ground, he scrambled to his feet.
"What are these things?" I screamed.
"M-Geeks, they work for the Chu cooperation." I didn't have a chance to ask him what that was because another M-Geek hit Iggy's head from behind. I heard a sickening whack, and Iggy collapsed. I didn't have time to try helping him because and M-Geek kicked me in the stomach and I went flying through the air. I hit the tiled wall hard. I felt a blinding pain before I blacked out.