Part 38
Maria stared at the mansion that stood several hundred yards back from the heavy wrought iron gate at the property's entrance. It seemed out of place amid the miles of empty space that surrounded it. She walked over to the brick columns on the left side and pressed the call button on the metal box built into it.
The speaker crackled to life after she pressed the button for the third time and an angry voice grated out, "Go away. I'm not interested in buyin' anything."
"No, Mr. Dupree, I'm not here to sell anything."
"What do you want?"
Maria rolled her eyes. Of course, Michael's predecessor would be just as rude as he was! "I'd like to interview you for an article I'm writing."
"Why?"
"Mr. Dupree, if you would just agree to talk to me, I think I could clarify a little better face to face - "
"Are you alone?"
Maria glanced up at the surveillance cameras mounted above the brick columns and wondered why the old man was asking questions like that when the answer was apparent. "I'm standing here by myself, Mr. Dupree." Her gaze swung to the gate when she heard a click and the locking mechanism released in grudging invitation.
He made a sound of extreme impatience. "Well, hurry up then, girl! I don't have all day!" he huffed in annoyance.
"Yeah," Maria muttered as she trekked up to the house, "this guy's definitely your relative."
From his place hidden out of sight of the surveillance cameras, Michael laughed at the old man's tone. It was quite possible that she was right and the cranky old curmudgeon was related to him.
The large oak door was pulled open as she stepped up on the wide porch and she paused with one foot still on the top step as her gaze landed on Charles Dupree. He was in his mid-eighties, his hair was white but he wore it long so that it brushed over his collar, his tall frame was stooped with age, and his weight was balanced carefully on the cane he gripped in his right hand. But, the most striking thing about him was his eyes; deep, dark brown, and burning with intelligence and suspicion as he studied her. Michael's eyes, she realized, shaking herself out of her shock. The resemblance between them was uncanny, but it was his eyes that confirmed his relationship to Michael; she had never seen that much intensity in anyone else's eyes.
"Well? Are you just gonna stand there all day?" he snapped. "I'm not getting any younger the longer we stand here."
Maria stepped into the stuffy interior of the large foyer, waiting for him to close the door and lead the way into the house. She followed him into a sitting room, looking around in curiosity as he carefully made his way over to the chair that he clearly favored. The room was lit by lamplight, the natural sunlight blocked by the heavy curtains pulled tightly over the large windows.
"What paper do you work for?" he demanded, not bothering with pleasantries.
"I'm not actually affiliated with any newspapers, Mr. Dupree. I'm gathering information for - " She froze when he suddenly sat up straighter and his gaze turned predatory.
"You're with them, aren't you?"
Michael tensed at the man's words but he forced himself to sit still despite the fact that his instincts were screaming at him to go in after Maria. He would wait to see how she played it.
"What?"
"Why don't you tell me why you're really here," he suggested, his voice hard.
She should've known that he wouldn't just buy the story and go along with things the way she had planned. "Your name came up in some research I've been doing on alien abductees and I was hoping to ask you some questions."
He relaxed slightly and eased back into his chair, his thumb constantly rubbing over his right eye the only indication that he wasn't as unaffected as he wanted her to believe. "Why me? There are plenty of other documented abductees, so why would you single me out?"
"Who says I singled you out?" she countered. "I didn't say you were the only one I was going to interview."
"You're talkin' in circles, girl."
Maria sighed. "Why were you abducted? Do you have any idea why you would've been chosen?"
"Because that's the kind of luck that I have. How the hell should I know why they picked me to abduct for the purpose of experimentation?"
"Do you know why they did what they did to you?" She sat on the edge of the couch and watched him as he shifted his weight to his left side.
"Because aliens are sadistic creatures without morals and they don't have a single shred of humanity in their warped beings. What other reason would there be to abduct people, do tests on them, return them to their homes, and after time passes, take them and do it all over again?" He shook his head. "They're cruel and their methods of experimentation fall under the category of torture; they treat humans like lab rats, taking us only to return us to our homes until they're ready to poke and prod for more experiments. You have no idea what it's like to constantly straddle the line between reason and insanity, knowing that at any moment you could spiral out of control and begin the descent into total madness."
Michael frowned at the old man's agitated tone; Dupree was getting worked up and he didn't like the animosity in his tone. Listening to him, it sounded like part of his mind had already slipped into madness and he was simply struggling to hold onto some semblance of sanity with what was left.
"Mr. Dupree, have you ever considered that something good could have come from all that you went through? I'm not condoning what they did, I'm not saying it was right at all, but have you ever wondered if - "
"How could anything good have come from bein' tortured and abused?"
"What if there was someone who could prove to you that all of your suffering wasn't for nothing?"
"That's not possible," he denied, shaking his head.
"But, what if there was?" She cursed under her breath when she heard the pounding on the front door and Dupree looked at her suspiciously.
"You're one of them," he accused angrily.
"No, Mr. Dupree, listen to me, please." She felt herself stop breathing when he reached into the drawer built into the table next to him and withdrew a gun. He aimed it at her as he stood with the aid of the cane and moved around the room slowly, moving towards the front door. He hadn't reached the entrance to the room when Michael suddenly appeared there, his own weapon in hand and aimed at the old man. "I didn't give you the signal," she snapped, annoyed by the turn of events. This was not the way this was supposed to go down at all!
"If I had waited for you it would've been too late." He leaned forward and wrapped his hand around Maria's upper arm when she moved to stand between him and Dupree. "You don't stand between two guys with guns; it's not smart."
"Put your gun away," she hissed, placing her hand over his and pushing his hand down, effectively lowering the weapon. She ignored Michael's protests and moved to stand in front of the old man, meeting his gaze directly as she waited for him to focus on her. "Mr. Dupree… Charles… Michael may be many things, but he's not a threat to you despite the fact that he broke into your home and ran in here waving a gun around. He's the proof that I was talking about," she said gently.
Michael held his breath as he watched her extend her hand in the old man's direction, her fingers curling around the gun and exerting gentle pressure that slowly caused him to lower the weapon. "We wanted to talk to you, but we were afraid that seeing Michael without being prepared might be too much of a shock." She shook her head. "He wasn't supposed to come barging in here like this - "
"I thought you were in danger," Michael growled. "I was just watchin' out for you."
Charles ignored the younger man and focused his attention on the young woman urging him to lower his weapon and listen to what she had to say. "Do you often find yourself in situations where subterfuge and heavy-handed tactics need to be employed?"
"It happens on occasion," Maria admitted with a small smile. "And usually it's with him."
The old man chuckled quietly at her answer. "Somehow I have a feelin' that you enjoy getting yourself into these situations."
Michael frowned when Dupree gave just the slightest hint of a smile as he relinquished the weapon to Maria. Was the old bastard flirting with her?! What was it about her that caused this weird attraction between every incarnation of himself and her? "Are we finished here?" he demanded, annoyed by the old man's behavior.
Charles Dupree took several steps forward as he moved around Maria, approaching Michael with a steady gait. He paused less than a foot away, his dark eyes scanning over the younger man as he took in the unbelievable similarities. The kid could be his twin; he looked just like he had when he was much younger. What could possibly account for the similarity?
"Need your glasses?" Michael snapped, irritated by the way the man was studying him.
"Don't need glasses to see what's right in front of my face, you smart-assed little bastard. I can see the resemblance and it sure as hell isn't natural. I don't know why you're here, but if it's to feed me some bullshit story about how you're my illegitimate son or some long-lost grandson so you can lay claim to my fortune, you can just save your breath because I'm not interested. I'm not stupid, insane, or suffering from any loss of mental capacity; I remember my past quite well and there are no children in my past." He shook his head. "And even if there were - which, there aren't," he reiterated, "they sure as hell wouldn't look identical to me when I was your age. You tell me what I wanna know or I swear on every deity known to man that I will shoot you where you stand."
"You can try, old man," Michael taunted.
"Okay, boys," Maria said, stepping between them once again, "let's all calm down here. I realize how difficult it is for either of you to be calm or rational and it is becoming glaringly obvious that your antagonistic, territorial, aggressive nature cannot be solely blamed on alien or human genes, but you both need to back off so we can start this all over from the beginning."
It didn't take as long as she had expected to get them sitting down, Michael on the couch and Charles in his chair, but neither of them had broken eye contact once. They were staring at each other like warriors on a battlefield, sizing each other up as they concluded how much of a threat the other one was.
"I'm still waitin'," Charles reminded them without looking away.
Maria wondered how long they could continue staring at each other before one of them gave in to the need to blink. "You're both too stubborn for your own good," she muttered, shaking her head. "I suppose if I want you two to stop staring at each other I'd have to strip naked - " Uh-huh, that did it, she thought, rolling her eyes when two pairs of identical brown eyes swung across the room to land on her. "Okay, that's a little creepy… although, not completely unexpected. Certainly not from you," she said, shoving Michael's shoulder as she sat down next to him.
"I'm not gonna apologize."
Of course not, Maria thought with an expressive roll of her eyes. Michael Guerin, apologize? Not even a perfect alignment of the planets could make that happen! "Oh, I hope not; it's quite possible the Earth might suddenly stop spinning on its axis if you were to do any such thing."
Michael shrugged, unconcerned with her comment. "I'm not gonna turn down an opportunity to see a naked woman."
"Would you two like for me to leave you alone?"
Maria glanced up at the old man's annoyed question. "Sorry, Charles, your relative here has a tendency to have a one-track mind any time the word naked is mentioned." She waved a hand in response to his glare. "Getting back to the matter at hand, why don't we tell you what we came here to tell you, and then we'll decide where to go from there?"
Charles listened for the next couple of hours as the young woman shared a tale that was unbelievable and shocking, filled with stories of warring alien races, alien devices capable of altering space and time, parallel universes, special government units who existed for the sole purpose of hunting down aliens on Earth, and alien royalty re-created using the genetic material gathered from carefully chosen humans and altered in science labs on a planet called Antar.
His mind was reeling by the time she began to wrap the story up and he settled back in his chair when she fell silent. He didn't know how to respond; there was no point in calling her a liar because the proof was sitting right beside her and there was no denying the younger man's resemblance to him. It was just too much to take in all at once and he sat there staring at them without even realizing it, his mind a tumultuous sea of thoughts.
Michael shifted under the old man's stare, unconsciously staring at the man who had unwillingly contributed to his existence. Even though there were sixty years separating them in age he could see some marked similarities between the old man and himself. At least he still had all of his hair, he thought, unwilling to let his mind wander any further.
Beside him Maria was looking between the two men, cataloging their reactions to the story and to each other. She knew Michael and Charles were both struggling to come to terms with the other's existence and what it meant to each of them. Neither of them looked particularly pleased with the culmination of the afternoon's revelations and they had yet to say a civil word to each other.
"Perhaps it would be best if we left now," she said, standing up. "I can imagine that this has most likely been a shock for you and you could probably use some time to process everything we've told you today."
Charles finally shook himself out of his thoughts and reached for his cane, leaning on it heavily as he stood up. "I think that's a splendid idea, Maria." His gaze followed them as the young woman nudged Michael into a standing position and herded him out through the front door.
When Michael stepped down off of the porch and paused, waiting for her to join him, Charles cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Was there something else, Charles?" Maria asked, turning to face him as she ignored the hateful glance Michael shot at the old man.
"Why did you come here and tell me all this?"
"I know what it would've meant to my Michael to meet you in my universe, Charles. I'm hoping that it'll help you and Michael find some sort of… I don't know… acceptance or peace. What they did to you wasn't right by any means despite the fact that they were only doing what they felt was necessary to preserve their future." She shot a quick glance over her shoulder. "But, he's stuck on a planet without answers just like you are and it's not fair to him either."
Charles Dupree analyzed the young woman's words and her attitude. He reluctantly admitted that she seemed to genuinely care for the alien. "You care about him."
Maria was startled by his observation. Yes, she cared about him. Not the same way she had cared for her Michael, but… oh, hell, not again! She tried to come up with the best possible answer as she looked at him. "Of course; he's a major pain in the ass, but we're stuck with each other and, well, even though he's not my Michael…" She shrugged, not sure how to explain it so she didn't elaborate any further.
"If you don't hurry up I'm gonna leave your ass here," Michael yelled as he continued on his way to the wrought iron gate.
Maria pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolded it so that the hotel letterhead was visible. "This is the hotel we're staying at; I wrote our room numbers down in case you're interested in talking or if you have any questions."