"But will killing him be enough?" said Rose. She turned to Harry. "What happens if your father dies? Is he part of an organization, or does he act alone? Will his people continue his vendetta?"
They were sitting around the picnic table eating dinner. Everyone but Tumcari, who leaned on the bank of the pond and kept them company while they ate. Sitting in between Antonin and Magnolia, Harry felt paralyzed with happiness. They were going to kill the Old Man! He reminded himself to chew on his mouthful of salmon patty. He tried to think about Rose's questions. It was hard to concentrate. He was still blown away that they hadn't called him a liar and kicked him out of here.
He swallowed and said, "He has a lot of people who work for him, but I don't think anybody knows all of his plans." He stared at the Wally and Polly salt and pepper shakers as he spoke, because if he tried to look at anyone else he might, depending on who it was, freeze, shout or cry. "And nobody really -- they're loyal to him because he pays well and they're afraid of him. But he acts alone. If he died, I think they'd all just start looking for other jobs. Except for Heiki. Heiki's been with my dad since day one. He's the only person who seems to... you know... care about him. But I don't think he'd go on a vendetta either. He'd be sad, maybe, but I also think he might be relieved."
"Can you fill us in on the security systems, the muscle and what kind of heat they carry?" asked Magnolia.
"And the location of the island," added Tumcari.
"You should draw us a map of the complex," said Rose.
"Okay," said Harry, terrified all of a sudden. He had never had this many adults pay attention to him all at once. And they expected him to do what they asked. Because they believed him. What if he screwed something up? He picked up a freeze-dried asparagus, hoping to get it into his mouth before the next question.
"Is it even possible to get in there and just kill him?" asked Magnolia.
Possible? It had to be possible. Harry set the asparagus back down again. "He has a staff of eight bodyguards. And there's all kinds of security systems all over the complex. But I know how the security systems work. And I know the bodyguards too. How they like to fight, their favorite moves." For some reason, Antonin squeezed his shoulder when he said that. "It'd be hard, but..."
"It's not enough to figure out how to sneak in there and kill him, we also have to figure out how not to get caught," said Magnolia. "If this guy is such a big deal, there'll be an investigation. "
"I have an idea," said Antonin around a mouthful of brown rice. "In order for him to reincarnate, Ygrasil has to die. What if we give him a fake of the virus, and he just kills himself?" He gave Harry a big grin.
Harry grinned back.
Magnolia gave a low whistle.
"Elegant," said Tumcari.
Rose gazed at her son, her eyes soft with pride.
"I don't like it," said Cid.
"What?" said Rose sharply. "What is your problem now?"
"In the first place, it means that Harry has to go back to Mr. Ygrasil--"
"So what?" demanded Rose. "He is his father."
Antonin opened his mouth in an 'o' of dismay. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Well surely you didn't think he was going to live out the rest of his life with us," said Rose, stabbing crossly at her asparagus. "He has to go home sometime, now doesn't he?"
"No, he doesn't," said Antonin.
Harry looked at all of them, bewildered.
"We can discuss the matter of Harry's continued residence with us at another time," said Tumcari.
Discuss? There was a matter of Harry living here that could be discussed? He stared down at his half-eaten salmon patties, asparagus and rice. "It's okay," he said. "I'll take him the virus. I'll do anything you need. After he's dead, maybe..."
"No," Cid said adamantly. "Even if it were tolerable for you go back there, which it isn't," she turned to Rose, "do you really think Ygrasil is going to use the virus on himself without checking it first?"
"How? How is he going to check it?"
"If he's been in touch with Rahul, as we suspect, he could know enough to verify if it's the real deal. And then he might take out his disappoinment on an innocent." She looked at Harry. She looked angry.
An innocent? Was she talking about him, or someone else? Why was she mad? "I'll do anything you need," he stressed again. "I don't mind. I'll go back. I'll do anything to help..."
"It won't. And even if it did, its unnacceptable."
"You're not his mother, you know," said Rose.
"I know," Cid said simply, but she never took her eyes from Harry's. She didn't look angry anymore. He wasn't sure how she looked, but then she smiled and Harry felt like somehow, no matter what, everything was going to be okay. It was stupid. She wasn't his mom. He went back to eating and everything tasted wonderful.
#
Cid knew for sure now. Her response to Harry dispelled any doubts she still might have harbored. She truly was an organic robot, with all the drive to give people what they needed that came with being a robot. Here they all were, sitting around the picnic table with the dishes from dinner still scattered about, wracking their brains to come up with a plan for killing Richard Ygrasil, and all she could think about was how scared Harry looked with Rose on one side of him and Magnolia on the other, both of them peppering him with questions.
She wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be all right. Or did she? This was the worst thing about her reincarnation; she could never be sure if her feelings were her own, or were simply programmed responses.
"What other companies does your father own a controlling share in?" asked Rose.
"A-a controlling share?" said Harry. "Um. I don't know. I know he's on the phone a lot with some company called York Institutional--"
"That's a brokerage firm," Rose interrupted.
"Oh. Um. I know he owns a lot of mineral rights? There's mines in Africa and South America and China... all over, really."
"What are the names of the mines? What are the names of the companies that run the mines? That's what I need to know," said Rose.
Harry stared at her, flummoxed. "He owns gold mines, diamond mines, um... the Gorvengast Uranium mine, I think that's his. Oh, and oil fields. Lots of oil fields. I think he leases them? Something like that. I've heard him talk about Unoco, and Globoil, big names like that."
Rose typed furiously into her notebook. "Let me try searching on Gorvengast, maybe that'll turn up more information. He doesn't seem to directly own any of these companies you mention, though he's on a lot of boards of directors."
"Mom, we're trying to kill him, not take over his companies," complained Antonin, who had been displaced to one of the lounge chairs and was flipping disinterestedly through a Cowboy's Courageous comic book.
Rose looked at her son. "Who says we can't do both?"
Magnolia shoved a pad of paper and a pencil in front of Harry. "Can you draw me a layout of the complex?"
"I'll try," he told her. "It's mostly underground, or underwater, maybe is more right. It's an island, a coral atoll. He's tunnelled into the reef below. There's ten levels." He took the pencil from her and started to draw.
For a while, the greenhouse was quiet, just the scritch of Harry's pencil and the tap of Rose's keys.
Magnolia stared at nothing as she steadily broke a graham cracker into smaller and smaller pieces. Tumcari floated on his back, his eyes fixed on the dark sky beyond the greenhouse glass. Cid recognized both of them as being in deep thought.
Cid watched Harry carefully. He bit his lips in concentration as he drew a map of his father's island compound. He rubbed his eyes. His head drooped down over the map. The kid was dead on his feet. He'd been answering questions now for three hours. And it had only been earlier today that he ran out in the snow and nearly died.
As soon as Harry finished the drawing, Magnolia blinked, looked it over and asked, "You say your father's compound is on an island?" Harry looked up at her in a daze. His eyes tracking back and forth as he slowly processed the question. "Uh, yeah, along the cost of Belize."
"Can you identify it from this?" she tapped on her own notebook and showed him the screen, which displayed a sattelite map of coastal Belize.
Harry wrinkled his brow and leaned closer to the screen. His eyes closed, he forced them open.
"That's enough," said Cid, standing up. "It's late, and we're all tired. You can do that tomorrow."
"But--" Rose began to protest but Cid cut her off.
"No, Rose. He's exhausted. If we keep pushing him, he might make a mistake. Besides," she nodded to where Antonin was softly snoring, his head pillowed on his arm, drooling gently on his comic book. "You should get Antonin to bed," she told her.
Rose looked at her son. She nodded. "Right."
Magnolia also nodded in agreement.
Harry shook his head. "I'm all right. I want to show you were the island is. I think I can find it. Let me--"
"You can do that tomorrow, Harry," said Tumcari. "Cid is right. You're too tired right now. You could make a mistake."
Magnolia shut the notebook and Cid came to stand beside her, looking down at Harry, still seated at the table. He looked up at her owlishly. She had the overwhelming urge to tuck this kid in, read him a bedtime story, bring him frigging cocoa. She realized she didn't know him, but it was impossible for her to be in the presence of someone in such need and not respond. And Harry needed a mom. "Come on," she said, and held out her hand.
He blinked at her and took it. As she led him out of the greenhouse, she was aware of the stares of Rose and Magnolia and Tumcari on them, but she just kept on going.
The guest room was covered with a light patina of Harry's belongings; socks and disks and comics scattered about the floor and the furniture. Harry, still dressed in his long underwear and his Henley, kicked off his shoes and climbed into bed. He sat with his back against the wall, the covers pooled around his waist. He looked as uncertain about what was going to happen next as she felt.
Suddenly Cid was overwhelmed with the ridiculousness of the situation. Was she really going to tuck a fifteen-year-old boy she barely knew into bed like he was a toddler? Harry looked at her expectantly. Yes. Yes she was.
Her own awkwardness made her movements stiff as she sat down on the edge of the bed. They stared at each other. She was just about to open her mouth and say she was sorry, and that she'd leave him in peace now, when Harry surprised her by saying, "I know I'm staring at you. I'm sorry. I try not to, but I can't stop."
Cid took a deep breath full of relief that the awful silence had broken. "That's okay. Who could blame you? Stare all you want. If... if this is making things more difficult for you, I can go. I just wanted to..."
"No! No, it's okay. I know you're not my... I'm sorry I freaked out earlier, when I saw you the first time."
She shook her head and dared to take his hands in hers. "Don't worry about that Harry. I mean, don't you ever try to hurt yourself again, for any reason. But... don't worry about getting upset. It's not your fault. I have that effect on people. Coming back from the dead makes things really complicated sometimes. Poor Magnolia. It was hard for her to deal with, and I actually was the dead person she was missing so much." Shit. Cid looked at her lap, mortified. "I'm sorry, that was a terrible thing to say."
His voice was a hoarse whisper, but he gave her hands a little squeeze as he said, "It's okay."
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then looked back up at him. "Harry, I'm not your mother, and I know I could never replace her. But if there's anything I can do to make any of this easier for you, I want to."
He gave a little shake of his head. "You're already -- it's more than -- you believe me. You guys aren't kicking me out. You're going after the Old Man. I'm the one who should be doing everything I can to help you. And I will. Anything. I'll do anything."
She shook her head. "Nothing that's going to put you in danger. I won't let you. And besides, you've already done the most important thing."
He looked mystified.
"You told us what your father was doing. And that was a very brave thing for you to do. And even though she's not here now, I know your mother would be proud of you."
Harry swallowed. He stared at her. He stared and stared like a starving waif outside a pastry shop and she couldn't stand it. He was going to cry in another second and there was no way she could let that happen without her arms around him.
Slowly, so he'd have the chance to push her back if she was wrong, she put an arm around him and when he didn't pull back from that she put her other arm around him and the next thing she knew he was clinging to her, his face wedged into the crook of her neck and her skin already wet with his tears.
She held him even tighter, as if her own life depended on it. "It's okay," she said, and she wanted to say, everything is going to be okay, but she couldn't, because there was no telling if that would be true or not and she wasn't going to lie to him. So she settled for the present moment, and said, "It's okay," over and over.
#
After Cid left, Harry lay on his back in the bed, staring at the darkness. He knew he should sleep. He had to be tired, but the thoughts in his head just kept whirling around and around.
They'd believed him. They were going to kill the Old Man. Antonin would be safe. And Cid...
Harry didn't know anything about love. He didn't know if there could be two ways to be in love. He knew that how he felt about Antonin was what people meant when they said being in love, but he thought that maybe there was another way too. One where you didn't really do anything, but someone else put love all around you, so that you were surrounded by it. In it. That's what it felt like Cid had done for him.
#
Rose sat a lounge chair in the greenhouse, her notebook on her lap as she Googled Richard Ygrasil. There wasn't much, but the work kept her from thinking about the threat to Antonin. Tumcari was right. It was just a threat to motivate that boy. Her rational mind knew that, but just the same, she couldn't let herself think about it. When she did, she felt herself edging toward hysteria, and that was no good. It never was.
The archive of a Michigan upper peninsula newspaper had an article about a twenty-year old Richard Ygrasil who had started with a tiny, defunct copper mine that turned up a modest lode of bauxite. With the money from the bauxite he'd bought a local mineral brokerage, and as that prospered, he bought, one by one, every mine and every brokerage in the region. She found another article, from a weekly shopper dated three years later, which heralded the opening of a Burger Barn near the region's most prosperous mine.
She hacked the Marquette county registrar and found a record for the sale of a parcel of land to Richard, and a year later, the town paper had a front page spread on a new Bauxite processing plant opening on that site. There were no more articles from that date onward. He must have learned to keep his name out of the papers
"What have we gotten ourselves into?" said Magnolia. Rose looked over the top of her notebook screen at her. She sat on the bank of the pond with her leggings rolled up, dangling her bare calves in the water. Cid was all the way in the water, her blue and aqua bathing suit flickering saffire on the sunlamp-dazzled surface. Tumcari lounged a few feet out, halfway to the center of the small pond, keeping himself upright using his tail to anchor himself to the bottom.
Magnolia leaned back and looked up at the black sky staring in through the glass dome of the greenhouse. Magnolia always looked so fucking young when she was tired. "This base of his," she said. "Mostly underwater, pass-key encryption, infrared, security guards... I don't know how we're going to do this."
Rose hated being the oldest. Well, except for Tumcari and he was... she wasn't even sure if age was a quality you could ascribe to him. She hated being the only one here who was a mother, anyhow. "Don't be ridiculous," she said. "Were not going to go after him at his base. That boy said Ygrasil would pick him up when he had the virus. So we have him tell daddio he's ready, find out where and when Ygrasil is coming to fetch the kid and when he lands, blow the fucker up."
There was stunned silence in the greenhouse and Rose allowed herself a smirk.
"That's..." Tumcari began.
"Simple," Magnolia said with approval.
"It's good," said Cid. "Simple is good."
Magnolia withdrew her feet from the pond and rolled down her leggings. "Okay then. We'll need some heavy ordnance for this but I'll get in touch with Becca in the morning. I’m sure she can arrange something."
Cid swam to the bank of the pond and climbed out. "Good night," she said, to Tumcari and Rose. She put an arm around Magnolia's waist and the two of them left.
Rose became aware of Tumcari staring at her. She looked up from her notebook. "What?"
"Aren’t you going to bed?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "In a little while. I want to do some more research on this guy, just because. Don't let me keep you up though, go ahead. Go to sleep." She paused. "Do you sleep?"
He gave a little laugh. "Sometimes."
Rose turned her attention to breaking into the Trade Association of Mineral Rights Brokerages data base. Using an encryption key her brother Kelira had taught her from his days in the Red Army Mercenary Fleet, she got in and called up a list of consumer companies with franchises onsite at mines. The name VisuAll popped out at her like a nasty boil and she had to pause for a second, and look all around her, reassuring herself of where she was.
Rose knew VisuAll from her days with Dano. They produced adult entertainment, both legit and black-market, and fully eighty percent of the large-scale mines listed in the database had VisuAll sattelite subscriptions in their on-site executive residences. Charming.
She opened another screen and did a search on Ygrasil Industry subsidiaries. There was VisuAll, one among many consumer companies ranging from porn to supermarkets. She went back to the database and checked for Food Giant, and wouldn't you know, most of the mines with VisuAll also had Food Giant outlets onsite.
She was beginning to get a feel for Ygrasil's power structure as a whole, and some idea of how he had done it. It was an amazing achievement. When that boy said he owned half the planet, he wasn't so far off. Of course most of it wasn't in Richard's name, but was owned by subsidiaries to Ygrasil Industries. Or by subsidiaries of those subsidiaries. He was a master of vertical integration, controlling every step of the process in each industry he'd taken on, from processing equipment to the bars and restaurants frequented by the people who worked in those plants.
Rose considered their tiny portfolio, aided and abetted by some discreet hacking on her part, and felt ashamed. She castigated Cid for not licensing the virus, but had she really forced the issue? They had Magnolia's outstanding warrant for the murder of Spider to consider but that wasn't all of it. Rose too preferred anonymity in this arctic wasteland refuge. She felt safe here in the cold and the dark, and the media attention that an immortality virus would engender made her want to hide under her bed. It was a conspiracy of mediocrity between all three of them.
But this Richard Ygrasil; bullshit fear and other people's interests were nothing to him. He did what was profitable. He made his business grow. And he had achieved something she'd only ever dreamt about.
When she was a child, she'd played pretend with her brother Kelira in the muddy streets of Jakarta. He was lots of different things; a doctor, a soldier, a rich American. But she was always one thing: CEO of the Universe. It was a silly child's dream. The idea that one person could be in charge of that much power and money, it was the stuff of pothead conspiracy theorists and wishful children. Or so she'd thought until tonight. Her dream was possible, but not for someone limited by fear, as she was.
Rose rubbed her tired eyes as the figures on the screen of her notebook swam in front of her. She needed to rest. She looked up. All the lights were out except the one over her lounge chair. Tumcari was a shadow in the water, gently floating.
Rose closed her notebook and thought about going to bed, but her room upstairs seemed too far away. Instead she rolled over onto her side, and closed her eyes. Everyone here thought she was so tough, but she was a failure. Antonin could be the son of the richest woman in the world if she were only strong enough to overcome her fear. Her stupid fear. She didn't even know what it was she was supposed to be afraid of. Everyone already knew what she was. Knew just by looking at her. It was in the lines spreading at her eyes and mouth, in the sag of the skin under her arms. Old, dirty and used up. Not like Richard. He'd never grow old. He'd never be afraid.
Richard had her magic pen and briefcase. They were supposed to be hers but when she tried to reach for them, her brother Kelira was there, standing in her way. It turned out Kelira was also Antonin. "They're mine," she said, still reaching for the pen and the briefcase but the three of them just laughed at her. That secret, nasty laugh that boys made together, against girls. It was starting to rain, afternoon rain in Jakarta. Antonin took Richard's hand and said, "You're my real father." They turned and walked away. Rose tried to follow them but the mud came up and up, up over her feet, up to her knees. She tried to pull her legs out but the lines from her face were holding her down, tether lines sinking into the mud and pulling her down into the fear that she'd thought she was hiding from.
"Rose?"
She jerked awake and almost pitched her notebook into the pond. She clutched it to her chest as she sat up and blinked away sleep. Tumcari was at the edge of the pond, staring at her. It must have been his voice that woke her.
She blinked again. She didn't like the way he was looking at her. She couldn't tell if it was concern, or pity, or just flat out curiousity. "What?" she said crossly. "I was sleeping. What do you want?"
"You were having a bad dream," he said.
"So? Don't you know it's bad luck to wake someone up from a bad dream? You're supposed to let it run its course."
He raised his eyebrows in polite, feigned interest at this news.
"Besides," she belatedly added, "how do you know it was a bad dream?"
He sighed. "Never mind. Look--"
But she never found out what he was about to say, because at that moment, the greenhouse doors opened and Antonin and that boy came in. Holding hands. Again.
Rose studied the boy. He always looked so scared, like he was guilty about something. Well, and he had been, hadn't he? But he had told them about it. That was something. She wondered what arrangements Richard had made as far as a will. Sometimes even the most accomplished, brilliant people neglected to make wills. And when they did, their next of kin generally inherited everything. When they succeeded in offing Richard Yrasil, this Harry could well wind up with all of it. And of course he wouldn't be able to handle even the smallest detail. Besides being fifteen years old, he was a nutcase. He'd need someone to take care of it all for him.
#
As he and Antonin entered the greenhouse that morning, Rose smiled at him. Uh-oh, thought Harry. Up until now, Rose was the one person here who wasn't nice to him. She didn't like him and made no bones about showing it, but he didn't mind. In fact, it was a comfort. Without it, the whole situation would just be too much. It would evaporate in a big puff of too-good-to-be-true. No, Rose's sour looks and cold words made the whole thing real, and in a weird way, he was grateful to her for it. But now. Harry braced himself for the unravelling of spacetime.
"Good morning!" said Tumcari.
"Good morning," added Rose. She stood and gave Antonin a hug. And then she smiled at Harry again and he broke out into a sweat. "Hi Harry," she said. "What would you boys like for breakfast?"
Antonin gave him a look at least as surprised as the one he must be wearing, and shrugged his shoulders. "Um. Waffles?"
She smiled again. Christ but that gave him the willies. "Great, come with me. I'll start fixing them and you can pick out what you want on them. Then we'll bring everything back out here and have breakfast with Tumcari. By then Cid and Magnolia should be up too."
Harry looked desperately at Antonin for guidance, but Antonin seemed equally mystified, though he was intrigued enough to follow her. Harry trailed after them with a backward glance at the lounge chair Rose had been sitting on when they came in. It had deep dents in the cushions, and her notebook sat at the foot of it. He looked again at Rose. The side of her face bore the same waffle-weave pattern as the lounge chair. She moved stiffly, and her clothes were wrinkled. She must have slept here last night. Or worked almost all night and then fallen asleep. Maybe that explained her behavior; she was so tired she'd forgotten to hate him. He comforted himself with the idea that things would return to normal as soon as she'd had her coffee.
In the kitchen they were joined by Magnolia and Cid, both of them dressed in sweats and looking sleepy. Magnolia and Rose gathered around the coffee maker, and Cid poured herself a glass of something green from a jug in the fridge. Antonin sidled past her and grabbed a carton of orange juice. He got two glasses down from the cupboard over the sink and brought them to the kitchen table.
Harry stood at the far end of the kitchen table and watched Rose warily. She closed her eyes as she sipped her coffee, blinked and then drank up the rest of the cup. She poured herself more. Now she eyed Harry speculatively over the edge of the cup. By now Cid and Antonin had both sat down at the table and Magnolia was rummaging around in the refridgerator. But Rose just stood there, leaning against the counter, staring at Harry.
He was just about to give up all pretense of being normal and hide under the table when Magnolia leaned over the back of Cid's chair and said, "Why do you think your dad wants the virus, anyway, Harry?"
Harry shrugged.
"It's a miracle drug, it'll make a fortune," said Antonin.
"He already has a fortune," said Rose.
"Well, a thing like that, once he knows about it he can't risk it falling into anyone else's hands, it's too powerful," said Cid.
That sounded like the Old Man. He'd take something just to keep someone else from having it.
"You guys are overlooking the obvious," said Rose. "He wants to live forever. Think about it. What would someone who already has everything want? To keep it. Forever."
"We don't know that robot bodies are immortal," Cid pointed out.
"So what? When one wears out, you just grow a new one and do it again."
"I wonder if it would work that way," mused Cid.
Something was squirming around in Harry's brain, trying to straighten itself out. For some reason he kept thinking of Dr. Johah giving him all those shots when he was little. His superhero treatments, his mom had said. Only he knew they weren't. There was something wrong with him. He was sick and the shots were supposed to make him better.
But then one day Dr. Jonah had said there was no cure. Harry remembered the look on the Old Man's face: fear. It didn't make any sense. Why would the Old Man be afraid, just because Harry couldn't be cured? Unless Harry wasn't the one they were trying to cure. "He needs it," he said. "He's sick. I think maybe he's dying."
Copyright © 2009 by Anne Harris
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