Chapter 13

“Mommy, what’s with all the skins?” Trey knelt before the open footlocker, eyes wide with intrigue.

Elsbeth trudged through the door, tired from lugging bags of soil around the property. She looked at Trey for a brief moment and then sighed.

“Story for another time.”

Trey grinned up at her. “We have all the time now.”

The Old Man chuckled from behind Elz. “She has you there.” He closed the door and crossed into the kitchen to wash his hands. He and Trey had discovered, before Elz joined them outside, that the plumbing worked both inside and outside the house. When asked about it, Elz had jokingly said that she’d expected them to bathe in the pond they had found. Internally, though she’d cursed herself for another oversight. She’d been so excited to come to the cottage that she had not thought about plumbing or electricity when she’d decided they would stay for a week. That was hindsight however, and Mat’s renovations had obviously resolved the problem before it could become one.

“Okay, I’m sure we all have stories to tell. Wash up first.”

While Trey and Man Xiong took turns getting cleaned up, Elsbeth accessed her TDC profile on her original tablet. Her Feeder profile had been bookmarked for years as her login page, never needing to access more than the available jobs, her income or her inbox, all of which was accessible from that screen. There was nothing different about that page, everything was as it had always been. Her name, Elsbeth Jones; her occupation, Feeder; her sponsorship and affiliation with the Creaux council and even her status as an unregistered birth— which Elz had always felt had no bearing on her Feeder status but yet it appeared on everything. She tapped on the home screen and accessed her personal information.

On this screen there was a distinct difference in some of her info.

* Name: Elsbeth Jones-O’Morani

* Marital Status: Married

* Partner: J. O’Morani

* Offspring: Trey Leona Jones-O’Morani

* Sponsor: Creaux, Panthera

Elsbeth’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open as she read the first few lines of information. It wasn’t merely the fact that the data was inaccurate, it was the sheer audacity of the inaccuracy.

J. O’Morani was the name of a well-known conservationist who was responsible for driving treaty-compliant legislation in many countries. While some administrations, mostly members of the UTH, had used The Treaties to grasp a tighter control over their populations, O’Morani was credited with helping many non-allied countries draft and enact legislation that was less oppressive to their citizens and still Treaty compliant. He had also been cited as the driving force behind the rumored formation of a second world alliance, the SNFA, the Sovereign Nations Freedom Alliance.

Needless to say, the name was well known. What was less well known was the man behind the name. O’morani was a powerful benefactor, his agents were seen and known worldwide but the man himself had yet to be positively identified.

Elsbeth imagined that the intrinsic power of the name was what made him a perfect shield for her and Trey; his invisibility and assumed absence from the UTH also made it a difficult lie to refute. Still, it was brazen, and didn't sit well with Elz as she didn't understand the need for such measures. Also, more than anyone else, Elsbeth understood the lengths to which the laws were enforced in the American Territories of the UTH. She had no idea who had changed her records, and no clue how to change them back. The last thing she wanted was to end up with The Enforcers knocking at her door… again.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Elz took a deep breath and tried to talk herself down. Trey had been Balanced and her birth was sanctioned, so the situation was not the same. Elz stifled down the panic that was threatening to spin out of control. She could handle this. Elsbeth trusted Mat with her life, and if he felt that this was necessary, then she would trust that he had his reasons. At least, until she was able to get explanations for them-- and apparently The Old Man had some.

Elz put the tablet away and took her turn getting cleaned up. When she returned, the others had gathered in the main room with some snacks between them. Trey sat on the floor, next to The Old Man, who had pulled up a dining chair. Elz sat on the footlocker.

“Okay. I think its time we all told some of the stories we’ve been holding back. Everyone on the team has to be on the same page, and I am feeling woefully uninformed right now.” Elz took a pause, then looked at Man Xiong and grinned. “Wish you were here.”

The Old Man’s eyes widened. He looked around the room then looked back at Elsbeth. “No!” He exclaimed. Pulling his own tablet out of his jacket, he tapped at the screen a few times and then looked up in surprise. “This is it?”

“Apparently so.” Elz responded. “Now, why don’t you tell me a story.”

“Wait. What’s going on?” It was obvious the adults were having a conversation way above her head, and Trey wanted to be let in on it.

The Old Man rubbed her head. “Your dad gave me a code and an app, and told me that if one day your mom sent me a message saying ‘wish you were here’, I should use that app to get her location so I could join you.”

“So you never knew where the place was?” Elz asked.

Man Xiong shook his head. “Didn’t even know we were already here. He told me that the code would only work after you activated the security system. So I could use the app a million times before then and it would never give away the location.”

Elsbeth nodded thoughtfully. “I would have to activate the system and reach out to you. Minimizing the chances that we could’ve been compromised. But why go through all of this trouble?”

Trey was slowly catching on. “So daddy gave you an app so that you could find us here?”

Elsbeth nodded. “Yes. and that’s part of my story. Your dad fixed the place up for us. I don’t have to keep saving up to buy it anymore.”

“And the skins?”

Elz held her hand up. “Hold on. There are more important things to know before the skins story.” She turned to The Old Man. “Like why Mat so desperately wanted me to take Trey off grid.”

“He was trying to protect her…” Man Xiong paused and held Elz’s gaze before continuing, “Because Augurcorp will want to capture her.”

“Mataias wanted to tell you himself. But he died before he got a chance. Augurcorp was hunting him. Actually, they were hunting a genetic anomaly, but if they ever figure out that it was him, then his offspring would be in danger too.”

“What?” “Why?” Trey and Elz asked simultaneously, Elz with a tremor of fear in her voice.

The Old Man gave Trey a serious look, “You know why, Glowworm.”

“Oh!”

Elz looked between them, anger overtaking the fear. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Elz, Mat was a Mutate.”

Elsbeth was on her feet and across the room before she had a chance to think about what she was doing. “Mat was not a mutate.”

“MOMMY!” The alarm in Trey’s voice pulled Elz back. Man Xiong stood nose to nose with her, her hand wrapped tightly in his collar. The Old Man was unbothered. Elz let him go and sat back down on the chest. Trey stood and wrapped her arms around her mother.

“I’m sorry, Mommy. Daddy made me promise not to tell anyone.”

Elz didn't understand. Mutates were generally abominations; Misshapen, aggressive, afflicted with issues.

“Half my job is hunting mutates.” Elz insisted. “Mat was not a mutate. People aren’t mutates.” My baby is not a mutate. It was unsaid, but it was there right at the forefront of her thoughts.

The Old Man’s voice was gentle as he sat back down. “I know what you’re thinking, but all Cure-affected are mutates. The Evolved are merely Affected with mutations that are consistent and hereditary across the population.”

“But Mat was born years before The Awakening.” Elz struggled internally. Nothing she knew about The Cure indicated that humans could be positively affected. “And we know that human exposure to The Cure is fatal.”

Man Xiong leaned back, rocking the wooden chair back on two legs. “That’s not true, but to understand it, you’ll have to understand the backstory of The Cure. How it came to be and what went wrong.”

Man Xiong stopped and looked at the two girls before him. He was sure that prior to him joining them, Elsbeth thought of him as merely a friendly “grandpa” type who tolerated her daughter hanging around. Truthfully he had been very close to Mat and was very protective of both of the girls. He thought back to a lifetime long past when he lost a “little sister”— a beautiful spirit who was gone before her time. He was determined to not let that happen again.

“The Orwell Summit was the end, not the beginning.”