Rebel Heart (3 page)

And when it rained outside the drops sounded so peculiar hitting the bubble. Did anyone inside ever want to feel the rain, or the sun on their face? Smell the water drops when they hit the earth?

"Here, sir," his scribe handed him a stack of papers and sealed folders. "Can I get you anything else? Coffee? A snack?"

"No, don't think I could eat a thing.

Is that all then?" he asked, setting them on his desk and pausing a moment waiting for his dismissal from the room.

"For the moment, but I will have need of you later." How much later? He would be here until midnight he supposed. And he expected his poor scribe to wait here too? No, go on have a nice evening."

"I have to be here for another hour or so. My ride home. Just give me a buzz if you have need of me," the scribe said.

"Very well." DeMontville rocked back on his heels, his hands clasped behind his back, thinking, remembering. Was there ever a time of peace? He couldn't remember.

The thieftakers had made the situation between the barbarians and the city dwellers so much worse. It had not started out that way. DeMontville remembered the first thieftakers. The city dwellers had been so proud of the thieftakers who had caught the men stealing the viruses from 'Lanta. All knew the profit as well as the risk. Shivers racked his body and a strange tingling sensation in the tips of his fingers crept up his arms to the back of his neck.

As he studied the first document, he rubbed his temples. Knots tightened his muscles. He frowned then rubbed his face, hoping he would begin to feel better.

The legislation concerning and banning the genetic allele transplant surgery was his to sign. It had been voted on in the senate as well as the house, passing both bodies of laws each by just one vote. He could veto this but he knew in the end his veto would be futile. Perhaps not...

Perhaps if he vetoed the bill, the next time through it would pass.

How many years had passed since the first surgery? Ten, perhaps twenty...

Desperation had forced the painful surgeries that killed and maimed more than they had saved. There was still no serum that would kill all of the mutating viruses...

New research had brought genetic surgery back into debate. New techniques and new instruments made the operation more plausible than before. Setting that one aside, he pulled the next document from it's folder--mandatory viral insurance. He couldn't help but give a frustrated laugh. Most of the city people couldn't afford the insurance, and the serums this was supposed to pay for rarely worked. The coalition was all about stuffing money in their pockets.

"Daddy, is it all right?" Tori's hushed voice followed a soft knock. Her head peaked around the corner.

"Come in." She was obviously forcing a smile. But she didn't have to do that for his sake.

The girls entered the room, both with heads held high. He grinned inside at that. Even Nessa, taking a leaf from her sister’s book was showing signs of rebellion.

"You wanted to see us?" Tori knew the answer, but DeMontville understood she wouldn't make this easy for him.

"I remember when the two of you were born."

"I do as well," Lady DeMontville stepped into the room.

A wave of displeasure swept through him. "I did not except you." Yet the disapproval was only because Kaitlyn would make this all the harder. He had asked her to stay at home. Dealing with another set of tears was not part of his plan.

"And you thought I would allow you to send the girls away while I sat at home doing nothing."

"I've signed the papers. There is no other way." DeMontville rose, pushing his chair back with his legs. An already bad day had just grown that much worse.

"There are always options," she told him. "I will take them to the mountains. They would not need to be purified." Her voice was stiff, her eyes red and that determined tilt to her chin meant an argument she knew she couldn't win but she meant to go down fighting.

"That would not do. There are people, even friends and family who are calling for punishment. We have indulged the girls and news of their exploits reaches all places--even the mountains."

"They have my blood and they are immune. The laws are foolish and should be reexamined."

Sunlight caught her golden hair and danced around her. She was the most beautiful lady he'd ever seen. She had stolen his heart that long ago day and she still held it fast. If he had the power to grant her this wish, he would. He motioned to his desk. Her gaze followed and she nodded, seeming to understand without the words that those were all laws that were being reexamined.

"They have been changed. Just this past month. If anything the laws are harsher. The people of the cities fear the diseases that can wipe out entire populations in a blink. I cannot..."

"Will not." She defiantly crossed her arms in front of her chest. She looked at the girls then back to him. "They are only children."

"Please, I do not want to argue. The gliders will be here within the hour. I assume their bags are packed."

"We are ready, father," Tori said her head held high, a look of defiance in her beautiful grey eyes. Her mother's eyes.

"Yes, I see that." DeMontville stroked his chin. Sudden admiration for his girls filled him. "You are determined then to be brave."

"We are both brave," Nessa said, stepping up to her sister to put her arm through Tori's. "We will do this with no complaints."

"Where are they taking them?" Lady DeMontville asked. "I have a mother's right to know."

"Despite your god given rights, I cannot tell you. But I chose each of their destinations carefully. If they follow the laws, listen and respect their elders, they will develop into adults everyone will be proud of.

"I'm already proud of them."

"Of course you are and I am as well. But when they return to us, they will be equipped in so many more ways and ready to run the labs in the tower that you have so painstakingly worked on over the years."

"We are ready down here," the intercom buzzed.

"Father, I have accepted what is to be," Tori began. "I understand that in theory we broke one of the laws of the city, but in truth, if I could have produced the passes you gave us, this would not be happening."

Silence overpowered DeMontville's office. It was all-consuming and seemed to sound a death knell in the little room. Tori had never spoken truer words. If he had been there for them as he had promised this would not be happening. If...

"What Tori is trying to say--"

"I understand, but Quentin Morray and his trained lap dogs tied my hands. I must, for your own protection, send you away. I fear for your lives if you remain in the city. I cannot send you to the mountains as your mother wished because it isn't any safer there. Morray has spies everywhere. He hears everything and seems to know what I am thinking even before I know."

"Then no one will know where the girls are located," Lady DeMontville said, furrowing her eyebrows in anger and perhaps disbelief.

"No one."

"Do you think that is wise? What if something happens to you, Robert?" Lady DeMontville asked. "Who will be able to find them?"

"I have left directions in the codicil of my will if anything were to happen to me. I cannot tell you where the will is located."

"I'm their mother." Her fists were clenched, her eyes blazed and he gave in almost told her.

The words formed even as he squelched the desire to give her at least that much. "For all I know this room has ears as well. I don't dare speak any words that might bring our daughters harm or you for that matter. They are our heirs."

"May I go to the gliders with them?" She pulled Tori close, giving her a hug, tears spilling from her eyes.

The door opened and DeMontville's scribe stood in the opening.

Tori strode to her father, "I will make you proud," she told him.

Nessa's courage seemed to have wilted away. The tilt to her chin had vanished and her eyes were clouded with tears. DeMontville knew Nessa did not deserve purification or the punishment. He wrapped his arms around both girls, the moment so tender and desperate he knew he would hate himself into eternity for not being able to prevent this. Tori, on the other hand, there wasn't a doubt in his mind. She would have eventually come to this. Her lack of common sense coupled with her fiery temper would have placed her in a compromising situation. He only hoped the good sisters at the convent would find a way to calm her temper and help her think rationally in every situation.

He stepped back, "Did anyone check their luggage?" He was suddenly concerned Tori might take something she shouldn't.

"Whatever for?" Tori asked.

"You did understand you were to bring nothing with you save your clothing and a few personal items. Everything else will be provided for you. And you, Tori, were expressly forbidden your research."

"My bag was searched and no contraband was found," Tori said with an indignant air about her.

"And Nessa's?" he asked.

"My baggage passed inspection also," Nessa said.

"Are you satisfied?" Tori asked.

"Tori, don't be so hard on father. We will survive and we will be stronger for the adventure."

DeMontville laughed. "I would have expected Tori to think on this as an adventure not you Nessa."

"I'm trying to look on the positive side."

"There is nothing positive about purification," Lady DeMontville said. It is an archaic and brutal means of keeping diseases from infiltrating the cities."

"Seems a bit strange that we have to be purified in order to leave," Tori said.

"You must go through the cleansing process because you reentered the city. It should have been done that very day but I, like the fool I am, tried to prevent it from happening."

"Sir."

"Quentin Morray and five others just set their gliders down in the terminal."

He thought the day was as bad as it was going to get, but now with Morray in the terminal, all hell could brake lose.

"Thank you."

Lady DeMontville's face had just turned a ghostly shade of grey. She knew how dangerous that man was to the twins.
Trust no one.

"I would like five guards sent to my office before we take the train to the terminal. Keep me informed."

"Jonathan," DeMontville said, surprised to see him. Jonathan Reese was a cousin to his twins and a renowned debater. He was overjoyed to see someone he could trust turn up at his door at this moment.
Trust no one...
He would be wise to remember that even with Jonathan. Every man had his own agenda be it good or bad.

"I brought four of the city guards. They are friends of mine. I too was in the terminal when Morray showed up there with his entourage. I don't believe in coincidence. So when I heard your request, I volunteered for the assignment. I would like to see my two little cousins make it to their destinations safe and sound."

"Then let us be on our way. We have one stop before we board the train."

"The chambers?"

"Yes."

"Are they prepared?"

"They know what will happen if that is what you mean. But I doubt if anyone can truly be ready for such a fate."

"I am ready. You don't have to talk as if we aren't here," Tori said. "I've been told that while the initial part, the taking of all your plasma and replacing it with clean plasma, is extremely painful, a person only feels it for a second. When they wake up, it is all over and it is as if nothing has happened."

"You make the process sound so..."

"I am at a loss for words."

"It does no one any good to fear something that is inevitable but won't kill you. Here in this room all of you have gone through this process at least once. And you are still present and able to talk about it. It is part of the world I live in so I must get used to the barbaric practice."

Forming a V around the girls and Lord and Lady DeMontville with Jonathan in the lead, they made their way to the chambers. The process would take about thirty minutes. The girls were ushered into the chambers, disrobed and hooked up to the plasma draining apparatus. Then the doors clanged shut. Stillness pervaded the waiting area; a hush fell over the seven remaining outside.

DeMontville rested his head in his hands, remembering so many things and so many times he should have taken a heavier hand with Tori. He had never had it in him to punish his headstrong oldest twin. She'd never really done anything so bad. Just as this time she did not deserve this. But for the machinations of Quentin Morray and his camp followers, she and Nessa would not be sent away. Seven years was such a very long time.