Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (35 page)

The next
night, Dana was working with Ari’s cells, angry with Bearden for not coming
back. She was also worried about him. The new Ari was almost ready for cell
direction, and if Bearden didn’t show up by tomorrow night, he was going to
miss it. She wanted his help building the biomer womb, too. Lee was busy making
more of the virus code and storing it in vials. He assumed Camden and Ganesh
would ask for it soon. It had been another long day and finally, at 2:00 in the
morning, Lee went home.

Dana changed
into the undershirt Bearden had left behind, wanting to feel close to him, and
then went to put a teakettle on in the kitchen.
 
While she waited for the water to boil, she sat in her green
chair, tucked her knees under her chin, and wrapped her arms around them. She
was completely alone again, so she thought about Bearden. She closed her eyes
and smiled as she relived their steamy night together in her mind. Dana wished
he were here with her now to keep her company. When her tea was ready, she sat
at the table and sipped slowly with her head propped up on her hand.

A sudden
crashing sound and breaking glass from the main lab made Dana jump up with a
start. She was a little disoriented and realized she had fallen asleep again at
the table. Her half-drunk tea was stone cold. She was on her feet now, looking
frantically to all sides of the dim room. She heard murmurs and whispers that
she could barely make out…sounded like cursing, coming from the main lab. Dana
gasped and instantly clapped her hand to her face realizing the noise she had
made.

Who the hell is that?
she
thought. The realization of just how alone she was
began
to creep into the pit of her stomach.
This
lab is secure. It can’t be broken into,
she reminded herself.

Maybe it’s Lee coming in, he’s the only one
who has access after hours besides Bearden, Camden, and me…no, impossible,
couldn’t be Camden. He’s still locked up at the TRU Building. Or, is it morning
already?
She glanced at the nearest clock as her mind raced, trying to
reason.
3:45 am, too early for Lee, plus
there are two voices out there, Bearden wouldn’t whisper.
Dana steadied
herself against the table because she had begun to shake with fear. She didn’t
know what to do. If she sounded an alarm, the government would be alerted to
her presence. The intruders surely assumed that the lab was empty tonight.
Whoever it was must have been watching for Lee to leave. It would be next to
impossible to break into this facility, which meant the intruders were highly
skilled or had help.

If they were highly skilled, it seems odd that
they would be so clumsy to knock something over.
Dana thought. She decided
that she had to reach Lee immediately, and then hide.

All of a
sudden she saw lights bouncing off the walls down the hall and heard papers
rustling and equipment being moved. Her instincts told her to run out there and
stop them before they could do any damage…or anymore damage to the embryos in
their stasis chambers. Then, her better judgment took over and she quietly
inched toward her small room. Her computer lay on the couch and she clicked it
on to make a call to Lee’s emergency line. He answered after one ring.

“What’s
wrong?” Lee asked.

“Lee. Oh my
God, Lee, you have to come now! We are being broken into right now. Two men are
searching the lab.”

She could
hear a door closing on his end of the line and realized he was already out the
door.

“Have they
seen you?”

“No, I was
in the back…asleep. They knocked something over. That’s why I woke up.”

“There are
no accidents, Dana, they wanted to be sure they were truly alone.”

“What do I
do?”

“I will be
there in three and a half minutes…approximately. Do not let them leave.”

“What??”
Dana’s voice was trembling. “But how…I don’t…what should I…”

“Whatever
you have to do to keep them there. It is likely that they don’t know you are
there. Use it to your advantage. My ETA is now three minutes.”

Lee hung up
and Dana let out a whimper and bit her finger. She stood up again from the
couch and shook herself straight. A hard determined look appeared on her face,
though her hands and legs were still shaking. She walked quickly and quietly
back
to the kitchen. She refilled the teapot and put it on
the water boiler.
Boil fast.
She
thought, then searched the cabinets for would be weapons and pulled down two of
the heaviest mugs she could find, set them on the counter, and grabbed a knife.
She noticed that the whispers had stopped and the flashlights were frozen on a
single point outside the kitchen.

They’re coming!
Her mind scrambled.
They’ve heard me.

Muffled
footsteps approached down the hall. Dana’s heart jumped to her throat. She
grabbed her heavy mugs and knife and crouched down in front of the stove. The
barrels of guns appeared around the corner before the two masked men that
carried them. Dana got lower to the ground, so she was not directly in their
line of sight when they entered. Several seconds passed, and then the whistle
of the boiling water from the kettle filled the room and all three of them
jumped. The two men saw Dana and pointed their guns at her, just as she hurled
the mugs at their heads. Her aim wasn’t very good and she only clipped one of
the two in the shoulder, but it did cause the men to duck and miss the shots
they took at her.

“Don’t
move!” one of them yelled and stepped closer. They were clearly caught off
guard by her presence and she grabbed the boiling water and threw it at the
taller man, scalding her own hands as she did. One of the guns fired again and
Dana instinctively hit the floor watching the first man grab at his face, which
had taken most of the boiling water. He was yelling and cursing at her. She
felt fire in her left shoulder and saw blood dripping out of a hole in her
sleeve. Just then the second man hit the floor with a thud. Dana thought he
must have been hit with the ricochet, but then she recognized a familiar pair
of brown pants covering bare feet, standing behind him. Her terrified eyes
lifted to see Lee, standing firmly, looking more confused than scared or angry.
He was holding a syringe in his right hand. The first man, with his face still
burning, turned when his cohort fell and lunged toward Lee, who stuck him in
the neck with the needle as he was being tackled to the ground. The man was
almost instantly unconscious.

“Lee!” Dana
yelled and breathed heavily as she picked herself up and ran over to push the
man off of Lee. She saw more blood and realized that Lee had hit his head.
There was a small cut over his left eye where his glasses had broken and cut
him, and a small gash on his lip.

“Are you
okay? That man must have hit you,” she said to Lee whose eyes seemed fixated on
the ceiling.

Dana
immediately began to tend to Lee, who was now visibly shaken. She helped him up
and sat him at the table while she went to get some ice and some medical
supplies.

“How long
will they be out?” she asked.

“
A
..
a
..pproximately
one hour and thirty eight minutes,” Lee replied.

“Hmmm,” Dana
replied practically in hysterics. “That was terrifying! Who are they? What are
they looking for?”

“We will
find out in one hour and thirty eight minutes…approximately.”

Dana could
tell that Lee needed a moment to regroup his thoughts, so she stopped talking
and began cleaning his wounds, ignoring her own. She removed his broken
glasses, and then put one hand on his shoulder while she wiped the blood from
his forehead and mouth. She knew he kept a spare pair in his office, so she
handed him ice for his lip and ran down the hall to get them. When she flipped
on the lights, she saw that the main lab was a mess. Not ransacked, but
carelessly handled with tubes tipped over and broken glass on the floor. She
felt the urge to stop what she was doing to set everything right in here, and
assess the actual damage. One of the wombs was on the floor. Thinking about the
tiny life, thawing out and struggling, made her heart break just a little.

“First
things first!” She grabbed Lee’s glasses and ran back down the hall, rounded
the corner into the kitchen and leapt over the two men sprawled out on the
floor, to get to Lee.

Lee sat with
his back turned to the intruders holding the ice to his face. Dana figured that
whatever was in that syringe was strong enough that Lee was not a bit worried
they might get up and fight some more. Dana sat facing him and smiled weakly as
she slid the glasses over Lee’s nose. She opened her bag of supplies and began bandaging
his forehead. Lee was a good patient for her. Something about Dana made her
less offensive to Lee than other people. He didn’t freeze up or pull away when
she touched him. There was only one other person on the planet he enjoyed as
much, and he was locked up in a government facility trying to figure out how to
bend space. Lee watched her work on his wounds and felt glad Dana was there to
fill the void for him, even though her mind was not nearly what Camden’s was.
He missed the effortless profundity of their frequent late night conversations.
He saw Dana’s bleeding shoulder and put his hand over the opening, applying
pressure. She smiled.

“I’m okay,
Lee. But what are we going to do now?”

“I have an
idea. Get something strong…rope will suffice. Tie them to these chairs after
you have searched them for identification and other weapons. Place anything you
find in a box.”

“Where are
you going?” she asked somewhat frantically as Lee had gotten up and started to
leave. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to lift them on my own.”

“Oh, um yes.
I have work to do. I will be back in two hours.”

“They might
be awake in one!” Dana said.

“They will
be secure with rope. Don’t tell them anything.”

“But…” Her
voice cracked. “Wait please…what if I can’t…”

“I have to
take care of this now.” Lee interrupted. “I will work in Lab D.”

“Take care
of what?? Something more important than this?” Dana asked with her voice
cracking.

Lee bustled
out, a little frustrated with Dana for being so panicked. He let out a short
hard sigh as he left.

Dana looked
at the men lying on the floor. Her knees were weak again with fear and she felt
a tear roll down her cheek, which reminded her of her bloody shoulder. She took
her shirt off and saw that the bullet hadn’t gone in, it had only scratched her.
She slapped a bandage on it, put her shirt back on, and ran to the storerooms
to find some rope. Five minutes later she came back with an empty box and some
heavy twine…it was the best thing she could find to tie them with.

Dana
approached the men cautiously, looked them over and sized them up. She glanced
at the clock. She wasn’t sure exactly how many minutes had passed since Lee had
dosed them, but she estimated twenty minutes. That meant she might have an hour
and thirteen minutes to do this…approximately. She picked up their guns and set
them in the box, then started with the first one who fell. She pulled his boots
off and found a knife, then worked her way up, patting his legs and checking
pockets. In his right front pocket, she found the answer to the only question
on her mind. There it was, a security access card with Camden Riles’ name on
it. She cringed at the sight of it, then threw it in the box, removed his belt
and jacket then pulled off his facemask. Dana was surprised to find a normal looking,
handsome even, guy and not a monster. She put her hands in his waistband and
under his shirt. One more small hand gun for the box. On his right hand, was a
thin, transparent glove, no doubt encoded with Camden’s
fingerprints.
She opened his eyelids and sure enough, contacts. She plucked them from his
eyes and put them in a cup.
 
When
Dana moved on to the other guy, who had tackled Lee, she removed his facemask
first. His skin was red and blistered, and he looked so helpless. She grabbed
the ice she’d used on Lee, set it on his face and continued to search him.

When
everything but their shirts and pants was in the box she was ready to tie them
up. She would never be able to lift them into chairs, so she dragged them over
to the table and propped them up, back to back, underneath it, with a table leg
between them. Knot tying was not in her repertoire of expertise, so she overdid
it. After she tied their hands and wrists together behind their backs, she
practically mummified them with the twine from toes to neck and tied them to
the table with twine going around and in between all four legs. These jerks
weren’t going anywhere. After she was satisfied with her work, Dana sat on the
floor across the room from them and meticulously went through every item she’d
stripped away from them and put in the box. There was no identification, but
they were both wearing a small badge on their jacket. It was engraved with the
tri-arc government symbol and a sword underneath. She wondered what that could
mean; knowing in her heart that there was only one rational explanation…Bearden
was responsible for this. Dana felt another tear roll down her cheek and her
head became hot with anger. She ripped his shirt off of her body and tore it
into as many shreds as she could, crying and cursing at it. She went on like
that for more than a minute before she regained a little composure, took a deep
breath, and decided to go into denial.

“No, it
couldn’t be. He wouldn’t do this to me,” Dana rambled aloud. She could not let
her mind believe that Bearden, Bear, had betrayed her like this. Not with what
they’d just gone through…and were still going through. She stared at the tied
up men, wondering if Lee was going to kill them and if she was going to have to
watch. As she sat there, still, for the first time since she heard the
intruders, she became aware of her shoulder throbbing with pain and her hands
felt raw from the water that had scorched her. She looked down at them, still
gripping the shirt shreds, and noticed her naked body. She pulled herself up
and went to her room to dress before Lee came back or the men woke up.