“It’s a prison,” I said. “Maybe it doesn’t have the bars and the cot and toilet in the corner, but it’s still a prison. You’re f
lying me to that island and dumping me there, and that’s where I’m going to stay for the rest of my life.”
A hand touched mine under the table. Ashley’s. She slipped her fingers through mine and squeezed hard, and I felt tears come up in my eyes, like she was pumping them to the surface.
“Nothing is definite,” Abby said.
“Everything is definite,” Nueve said.
Abby ignored him. “I’m leaving tonight to make a personal appeal to the board.”
“And what if the board still says no?” I asked.
“It will,” Nueve said.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“He doesn’t,” Abby said. She looked at Nueve, who was smirking at her.
“I know all that needs to be known,” he said. He lost all his smirkiness and leaned toward me, black eyes shining.
“Do you really think my interest in you terminated with obtaining the Seal, Alfred Kropp? Are you so naive or foolish that you can’t see where the true value of extracting you lies? In your veins flows a power not seen in our world for over two thousand years. Why that power would be given to you, of all people, is for greater minds than mine to ponder. Nevertheless, because that power exists, we have an obligation to protect it and see that this Item of Interest more important than Solomon’s trinket does not fall into the wrong hands or become lost through carelessness and neglect.
“That is the purpose of our Office. That is the reason we exist. That is the mission, and I am the Operative Nine. I am the mission, and the mission will be accomplished.”
He shouted over my shoulder, “You may come in now!”
The door opened and a guy built like a tree trunk came into the room. He had a wide square head and a body to match. His eyes were narrow and his lips thin; you really had to look hard to see them. He gave a short, militarylike bow in Abby’s general direction.
“Alfred,” Nueve said. “May I introduce Dr. Mingus. He’ll be examining you today.”
03:17:15:23
After my examination by Dr. Mingus, a couple of guys from the security detail took me back to my cabin. They had to take me back, because I wasn’t able to move under my own power. I noticed other dark suits outside the main house and along the trails, even a couple slipping in and out of the trees. All of them wore black and all wore the same dark Ray-Bans. The OIPEP Mafia.
It was around five o’clock and nearly dark. They dumped me on the bed and the lock went snick. I listened to the absolute silence—if you can listen to absolute silence.
Dr. Mingus had a funny accent, thick and slushy. Tiny beads of spit hung on his sliver-thin lower lip as he talked.
This will go easily enough, if you cooperate. We’ll take some measurements, run a few nonintrusive tests, sample a bit of your blood . . .
Beneath the château, behind a sealed metal door, at the bottom of a flight of stairs was a medical complex. Operating rooms. Examination rooms. A room with a gleaming white CT scan machine. And other rooms I didn’t get to look in, though I may have been inside them, because Dr. Mingus gave me a shot that put me under, I’m not sure for how long, but it seemed like a very long time. I don’t know what he did to me while I was out. I just know when I came to he was just beaming, like a little kid who had found a special surprise under the Christmas tree, and I was feeling like a scooped-out pumpkin from a different, darker holiday.
In cabin thirteen, I buried my face in the pillow.
I am a genetic engineer, Alfred. Do you know what a genetic engineer does?
Needles extending from syringes the size of my wrist. Vials of dark, arterial blood—my blood—rows of them, each with a different colored label: Spec Ops . . . GDT . . . Sofa . . . That last one confused me, but it was about the tenth he drained out of me and my vision was pretty blurry by that point. Sofa? What the heck was Sofa?
This is very exciting. The most significant development in the field in my lifetime. In anyone’s lifetime, Alfred! You are at the center of the most astounding breakthrough since Watson and Crick cracked the code!
Dr. Mingus injected me with something that made me feel very good, sleepy, and floaty. His wide face swam in and out of focus as he leaned over me. I was tied to a gurney and they were wheeling me toward the room with the big scanner.
This will not hurt, Alfred, but you must remain very still while we image your brain. Have you ever had a CT scan before? It’s not painful.
As I lay inside the scanner I think I heard Nueve’s voice and the name “Sofia,” but I told myself I was dreaming or hallucinating, but it reminded me of Samuel. He was my guardian and he had sworn to protect me. Where was he? And who was going to protect me now?
After the scan, I looked up into Dr. Mingus’s face and whispered, Am I done?