F Wilson - Fatal Error

"Yes!"

Sometime last year he'd told her about oDNA, the Otherness-spawned genes hiding in the mass of junk DNA cluttering the human genome. Dawn's baby was the fourth generation of what someone had called "barnyard genetic engineering" aimed toward creating a child packed with oDNA. For what purpose, no one knew.

She pressed her palms against her temples. "She told me her name was Dawn and that she'd just had a baby… I should have put it together. But who'd ever guess?"

" 'Just' had a baby?"

"Yesterday morning, she said."

"Wait. That's not right. She was pregnant last April… ten months ago. But that's not important. Her moving in across the hall from you-that's important."

"I know it's a coincidence, and I know what the Lady told you about coincidences, but she's just a scared kid."

Jack remembered the Lady's words, spoken at Kate's graveside: No more coincidences for you.

"Things like that don't just happen. Someone-whether working for the Otherness or the Ally, I can't tell anymore-put her there for a reason."

"But that would mean they know where I am."

Jack nodded. "Exactly. I'll bet that's why the Order was looking for you."

Weezy looked a little ill. "Eddie called me yesterday and said they had a photo of me."

Eddie… that was what he'd come here to discuss with her, but the shock of seeing Dawn had blasted it out of his head. He'd get to Eddie in a minute, but first…

"That clinches it. They found you."

"But he told them it wasn't me."

"They were testing him, I bet. And he flunked."

Another reason to want Eddie gone.

Weezy frowned. "But how could they have moved her so fast?"

"When did her furniture arrive?"

"Um… yesterday afternoon. I see what you mean. Still… awfully fast."

"Fast or not, the fact is she's here. And the only reason I can think of for that is to get to know you."

"No way," Weezy said with an emphatic shake of her head. "She wasn't faking. She was about to pass out. You can't fake green color and sweat."

"I'm not saying she knows, I'm saying she's being used."

"And you call me paranoid."

"Seriously, Weez. I think you should stay away from her. She says she had a baby just yesterday, so what is she doing here?"

"She said the baby died and-"

"Whoa. Died?"

"She said it had birth defects."

Jack thought about that. "Makes sense in a way. Maybe all that oDNA was too much for it… turned it into some awful mutant. No surprise, considering who its father was. Was it misshapen?"

"She said she never saw the body."

Jack held up a hand. "Wait-wait-wait. How can that be?"

"Yeah, I know. Weird. She said she'd had a glimpse before they whisked him away, but after that… 'They wouldn't let me see him.' Those were her exact words."

Jack knew as much about labor and delivery as about particle physics, but he figured every mother had a right to see her baby, even dead.

And then he knew.

"They lied to her. It's alive."

"Why would anyone-?"

"This is a unique child, a unique being. Somebody wants to keep its existence secret, even from its mother. Did she say where she's been staying until now?"

"No. She might have come around to mentioning it, but you knocked on the door. And I guess we'll never know if we're going to avoid her like she's Typhoid Mary."

Jack wanted to know… needed to know. But was that wise? Maybe that was why she had been put here-to make them seek out the answer to the question of the baby's purpose.

But which side would the answer benefit? That was the bigger question.

"Let's put Dawn aside for a moment and deal with a more immediate problem: Eddie seems to be on the Order's hit list."

Weezy shot from her seat, her hand against her mouth.

"Oh, no! Are you sure?"

He told her about the shoot-out.

"I think we have to assume he was on a one-way ride. And that means we have to disappear him like we did you."

"Eddie's going to be tougher."

Jack nodded. "A lot tougher."

Weezy had kept most of the considerable proceeds from her share of her parents' estate, swelled by her father's death benefit, under her maiden name. The Order had been looking for someone named Myers, so she'd had time to transfer them to a new identity. Eddie wouldn't have that luxury.

"Where is he?"

"He's stashed in Abe's garage, but he can't stay there very long. It's not meant for human habitation."

"He can move in with me. I've got a spare-"

Jack shook his head. "Not a good idea. We have to assume they know you're here. They may be out there watching for him, expecting him to run to his sister. You two have got to stay separate."

"But where-?"

"I'm going to take him over to Ernie, just like I did you. We'll get him some papers then start building him a new ID."

"If he needs money-"

"He's okay for now."

"Poor Eddie. He's losing everything… his home, his business… everything he's worked for."

Jack sensed guilt in her tone. Weezy hadn't had much of a life after her husband offed himself, rarely leaving her house, virtually no social contact except Eddie, so going into hiding hadn't been an appreciable change in lifestyle.

"I don't see any other way."

She wandered over to the window. "I warned him. Why wouldn't he listen?"

Jack shrugged. He understood. "He thought his sister might be in trouble so he got involved. Trouble is, he's a direct guy. He's not cut out for that sort of thing."

"Yeah, but now his life is ruined." Her voice thickened as she stared out at the city. "And it's all my fault."

"Bullshit. He's a grown man who made a choice-a noble one, I might add."

"But he'd never have had to make that choice if I'd kept my mouth shut and stayed out of the Order's business."

"You smelled something rotten and cried foul."

She turned to face him, her eyes red. Her words came in a rush.

"And did I change one damn thing? No. Life goes on just as before, with the same people pulling the same strings and everybody dancing to their tune while Eddie and I are both in hiding, which is better than dead, I guess, which is what we'd both be if not for you."

"Easy, Weezy. It'll be all right. We take it a day at a time. And who knows… I mean, who knows how much time we really have left?"

"You mean about everything ending in the spring?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"We're losing, aren't we."

"We're not winning, that's for damn sure. And we'll never win as long as we let them keep us on the defensive."

She said, "We don't seem to have much choice."

"It only seems that way-because they have a center, a focal point, a leader. We don't."

"We have Veilleur."

Jack shook his head… Glaeken. But Glaeken wasn't Glaeken anymore.

"Who won't let me go on the offensive. He's old, he's tired, he's fading. He's got only a few more years left and he knows it. He's ready to pack it in. But the One, the Adversary, R, or whatever we're calling him at the moment-he's immortal, he's got powers, and he smells blood. He's going for the kill."

"It's like those lines from 'The Second Coming'… 'The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.' "

"I guess it is a second coming of sorts. He lost out in the First Age, but now he's back to get it right. And he's got troops to help. The Otherness maintained an active infrastructure during the half millennium the One was imprisoned, while the Ally let its own deteriorate."

"And hasn't done much to rebuild it since the One's rebirth," she said. "Plus the other side's got something we don't: a specific goal."

Jack knew exactly what she meant. "Kill the Lady."

A bizarre errant thought popped into his head and he brushed it away before it could complete itself. Something must have shown in his expression.