Encompassing (27 page)

Illumna makes a half choking/half laugh sound and stares hard at the screen.  She replies, “I don’t know which one of us is worse!”  She reaches down to the remote and again raises the volume.

They sit silently watching the movie for a while and then Illumna says, while still staring at the screen, “I’ve got Persistence.  She’ll grow up and figure it all out for us.”

Solstice grins and looks toward the hall leading to the kitchen.  She senses something, but ignores the thought determining that whatever made her senses rise is not a threat.  She reaches besides her and pets Snifalotapus on the head and says, “Good boy.”, to him.

Illumna’s face scrunches a bit into a grimace.  She remains silent and Solstice turns back to the television as they both watch the scene they’ve been waiting for.

CHAPTER 71

“When you see the shot, take it.  Wind direction can change pretty fast.” – from the book of Kevlovsky

The AI models and guards from the outside run in and begin strafing the room.  Renfield realizes they’ve chosen to accept risk to the ‘zombies’.  They know they will lose much of what they’ve worked for, but whomever is giving the order has made the call.  Furthermore, Renfield knows it’s the final logical decision.  He wasn’t expecting them to reach that conclusion so soon, but he’s prepared.  He throws some type of small machination into the middle of the room and clicks.

Outside of the hangar he notes a few haven’t entered.  He takes them out quickly and shuts the hangar door as fast as he can.  This part is the problem he had on both ends, but Solstice isn’t here so he pushes hard and fast.  He is struck in the back but watches as the bullet passes completely through him and makes a clinking sound against the door he’s trying to get shut.  He turns and notes some of the ‘zombies’ have clicked outside already, anticipating his next move.  He thinks to himself, “Can’t win them all!”  He clicks just as a massive explosion goes off inside the hangar.  He appears in a room and checks his pockets to confirm he’s gathered enough receivers for he and the girls to begin testing.  He chose a number that he needed with a rough estimate.  He guessed at how many would rendered unusable while they picked them apart.  He wants some to be useable in the long run.  Sara wakes and looks at him.  She quickly brushes a hand over her eyes as she sits up from sleep and hugs him tightly.  Then she yells out, “Christina!”

Renfield grins and leans down to kiss Sara as the door flies open and Christina tackles him from behind. 
Kissing his arms she looks at Renfield and says, “Do you know how worried we were.  Never mind.  Dumb question!”  Her arms wrapped tightly around his stomach she looks down and sees the damage.  She looks him over and looks at Sara who nods, but is smiling, so she takes that to mean that Renfield is fine.  Even when most would be downed by that much bodily mutilation.

Renfield loving the attention from the women he loves, extricates himself and looks down at Christina and Sara, “Where are the girls?”

Christina looks at him questioningly but Sara explains to her, “He’s still blocked.”  Then Sara looks at Renfield.  “Brady said to leave them alone.  He went downstairs and said they were having a ‘sister moment’ so he came back up and told us not to interrupt.  He also said, if you come back, let the girls have their night together.  They need to decompress.  I’m not sure if my father is right on that call.  I think they’re besides themselves with worry over you and you should let them know you’re ok!”

Renfield gets a grim look on his face but answers, “No.  Brady’s right.  I’ll stay silent.  They need their time together.”  He walks to the dresser and puts the receivers in the second drawer down.  Then he turns back and adds, “Plus, in the original plan Solstice was to pick me up.”  Renfield takes a breath and sighs, “I had time to act without bothering her.”  Then his gaze switches back and forth between Christina and Sara for a few second and he announces, “Did you know your daughters broke the plan anyway and showed up in the middle of that mess?”  Both of them look at him dumfounded.  He continues.  “Everyone is going to have to get better at sticking to a plan.  Too many risks when the plans change due to emotional reactions.”  Renfield glares at both of them as a reminder they did the same.  He also was purposefully making the point so they wouldn’t be to be harsh on the girls about it.  He wanted to make sure they realized they are their mothers and they set the example.

Renfield’s eyes lock on Christina who sits up uncomfortably and says, “I get the point.  I was supposed to lead by example.  I trained them.  I should have shown them how a well-planned operation works by synchronicity not by over-zealousness.”

From behind Brady booms, “Love was in the air.  You all love him and wanted to help.  But he’s right.”  Renfield turns to the voice and steps over to hug Brady.  Brady looks him over noting the damage.  He looks to Sara and she slightly shakes her head.

“Well, it’s good to know I’m worth waking up for!”  Renfield laughs and then slaps Brady on the back.  Renfield looks over Brady’s shoulder and sees Angela wrapped in towel.  She waves slightly at him and he reconsiders.  “Or not.  Why don’t you get back to bed?  Angela looks ‘tired’.”

Brady taking the cue, pats Renfield on the back and says, “Okay, man.  Glad to see you’re in a few pieces.”  They both laugh and Renfield turns around to his wife and Sara.  Renfield grins.  Then he disappears.  Christina looks at Sara who shrugs.  They both try to think of where he would go to in his condition.  Then he reappears and flops on the bed between them with a huge platter in hand.

“Cheese, fruits and some meats too!  Dig in, let’s celebrate our win!”

They both shake their heads at him while reaching for their own choices on his platter.  Christina says to Renfield, “The girls didn’t notice you clicking into the kitchen?”

Renfield gives her a look as if she’s lost her mind.  “Are you kidding?  I didn’t risk that.”  He grins. “I went shopping, Renfield style!”  Sara laughs and Christina looks at Sara realizing she’s more accustomed to Renfield’s antics.

They all reach back to the platter and Christina asks, “So how often do you go. ‘shopping Renfield style’?”  Sara giggles and Christina gives her a sharp look.

Renfield reaches down for the remote and turns on the TV to a random station.  He pushes the volume up then he turns to Christina.  “Oh yeah!  You’re a cop.  I forget.”  He grins again as she gives him a piercing look.  “We only spent a thousand iterations together through oh so many years!  It was so painful, I’m back again!”  He pecks her on the lips as she puts a piece of watermelon into her mouth.

Christina looks at him and scowls, “And you’re a kiss thief on top of that!  I’m bringing you up on charges!”

Sara giggles, but raises from the bed, turns and kisses Renfield goodnight.  She leans over him and kisses her mother on the cheek.  She giggles again and then says, “He’s not the only one, Mom.  I’ll see you two in the morning.”  She announces as she heads to the door.

Christina forms her hand into a replica pistol and looks at Renfield and says, “Put ‘em up mister’.”

Renfield replies, “Hey cop’er!  Are you sure you want to do that?  I’ve got a bigger gun just waiting to take you down!”

They both laugh as they close in on each other.

CHAPTER 72

“I’ve been kicked before.  It’s my job to take the hits so others don’t.  Destiny does not offer a raise.” – from the book of Phillip

Renfield wakes.  Christina is asleep with her arm over him and a leg crossing his.  He leans his head up, slowly, to inspect himself.  He’s healing well and he jokes to himself quietly. “That’s the power of love!”  So that he doesn’t wake her Renfield clicks out from under her knowing she’ll feel a slight sensation of falling, but won’t wake from that.  He opens the refrigerator in front of him as Sara steps in.

She mumbles, while palming her face and rubbing it.  “Good morning.”  She lifts a leg as if to stretch.

Renfield looks back inside the refrigerator and mumbles to Sara, “Well, some things never change.”

Sara laughs and walks up behind him wraps her arms around him gently, kisses him on the back and continues her mission towards the bananas and the coffee mission.  She begins to go into her morning routine and as she puts the pot under the drip, she turns and says to Renfield, “You’re looking for meat and other sources of protein.  I can make you something.  We’ve plenty of eggs, but I think the only meat in there is leftover.  I’ll shred it in. Pull something out of the freezer for lunch and something for dinner.  You’ll want meat those times to.”

Renfield stands, still looking into the refrigerator with desire, responds, “How would you know what I’ll be in the mood for later?”  He quips.

Sara punches him softly in the leg and gestures for him to move out of her way.  “Because you always want meat when you’re healing.  Some things never change.”

Renfield grins at the retort, turns to Sara, grabs her and pulls him to her for a kiss.  He says, “45,000 years ago mankind followed mammoths to the bitter cold of the Antarctic.  Hunger is a powerful force!”  Then he announces.  “I’m going to check on the girls.”  He takes the block off his mind because it is taxing to keep it up.  Then leans in, kisses Sara once more, smacks her buttocks and clicks.

He looks at his daughters on the couch and realizes they stayed up all night.  They both look peaceful.  He finds a certain peace to see them sleeping and leaning on each other.  He realizes they do lean on each other, so it’s fitting.  Solstice is lost without Illumna and Illumna is lost without Solstice.  He thinks about their workstations.  He considers his idea to set them up so they would face each other.  He grins thinking, “Once they got past their differences they realized their similarities and found compassion for each other and started working as a team.”  Then he thinks of the hells they have both lived.

As the fond moment in his mind is painted over with the reality of the horrors his two girls have seen, Solstice awakes with a startle and looks at him.  Her startle causes Illumna to move, but she doesn’t’ come to full consciousness until she hears her sister say, “Are you ever going to just die and leave us alone?”  Solstice leaps to her feet and into her father’s arms.

Illumna is already there and looks at Solstice.  “That was mean!  He deserves a proper hug from the one that loves him!”  She sticks her tongue out at Solstice.  Solstice shoves herself in anyway.  Renfield looks down at his blessings then states, “I honestly wasn’t sure if this would be.  I’m glad it has come to pass.”

Solstice looks up at her father’s face, then to Illumna then back at her father.  “We weren’t sure either.”  Solstice begins to cry and Renfield realizes the pressure that was on both of them.   Illumna begins doing what Renfield told her he called ‘the pee dance’, when she was young.

Renfield looks up at the ceiling and says, “Go Illumna!”  Illumna clicks away.  Renfield is fully aware she really just wanted to cry privately.  He again thinks about the pressure on his daughters, but he knows they would be more upset if he left them out of this.  He also realizes they’re very smart and they think of things he doesn’t.  Consistently.  He squeezes Solstice to him.  He realizes he has few choices in the matter.  She finally looks back at him as Illumna clicks back into the room.

“How many did you get?”  Solstice asks while wiping her eyes.

Renfield replies, “I had time to pull out more than twenty.  I’m guessing you girls grabbed some too.  I’m sure we have enough to figure out how they work and what frequency they are on.  Consider it’s based around your concept for encrypted, but fast communication between your mind and your AIs.  SO if anyone is going to figure out their frequency and how they work, it will be you.”

Solstice nods and replies, “Do you think we took enough of them out to slow them while we reverse engineer their ‘zombie’ network?”

Renfield stares at the wall in deep thought, a trait he’s clearly passed on.  Then he looks over at Illumna looking at him with inquiry painted across her face.  He breathes in and replies, “It will be close.  It won’t be long before they figure out the true nature of our assault and start pouring R&D funding at changing their technology and frequency.  You now I want to stay on this timeline, so we can’t take an advantage there.  I didn’t get the impression any of the ‘zombies’ have begun learning that trick.  If they had, they would have used it. I wasn’t listening to them, but I could certainly sense their desperation for self-preservation.”

Sara enter and says, “There you are!  Did you wake the girls?”

Renfield bows his head in guilt.

Sara says, “Well now I have to make more, but I used all the meat in yours!”

Renfield still holding his daughters close to him looks at Sara and says, “Did you make anything for yourself?”

Sara replies, “No.”  Then considers why she didn’t think of that.

Renfield says, “Okay, so then…” he clicks away and then returns directly in front of Sara with 3 more sets of silverware and holds them up as if giving a production, “…we split that four ways and I will go make more.  Then he growls and chuckles, “Even if it’s just eggs and crackers in my special super peppery dish that no one likes.”

Sara begins to tell him that she will just go make something else for her and the girls, but she understands he wants to spend time with the three of them by the way he is clinking the silverware together over his shoulder as he walks to the deck.  The girls follow and she realizes that he also feels that he is pressuring everyone and trying to do his pressure valve thing.  She smiles to herself knowing he’s not as good at it as he thinks, but she knows he tries.  Then she yells after him, “Because you can’t add salt anymore. It doesn’t taste as good as it used to.”

Renfield turns to give Sara a disapproving look and moves his eyeballs gesturing to the girls.  He notes that they aren’t paying any attention to the comment and makes a gesture with his hand for Sara to keep walking with them.

While they are eating, Solstice looks at Illumna and says, “We need to focus more on cooking!”

Illumna looks at her sister and says, “Do you really think that will get us boys?”

Solstice replies, “Sure.  What’s the old saying?”

Renfield chimes in, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?  I don’t know if that really works.”

Sara laughs and adds, “It does.”

Renfield laughs and looks up at the sky.  He watches the clouds move past each other at varying levels and contemplates the concept of three dimensions far more in-depth that the situation calls for.  He smiles and looks at his daughters.  Then he puts out a hand for Sara to hold.  He reminisces on how many times and iterations of his life Sara has been by him and never left his side.  He feels blessed by how well she understands him.  He looks over at the sliding glass door that leads in and out of the deck.  Renfield notices Christina standing in the doorway smiling at them all.  He gestures for Christina to join them.  She opens the door and walks out to take a seat at the table that seems abuzz with talk.  As Christina sits he moves what remains on his plate to her.  “Well now, I better get busy!  A lot of mouths to feed.  I suppose Brady and Angela will be up soon too, so I better get hopping!”  Christina and Sara both begin to stand.  Renfield looks at them, with an oddly pleading looks, “Don’t rob me of my culinary moment in the sun.  According to the girls, it’s the way to a man’s heart.”  They all laugh and he jogs in to the kitchen and begins.  Then he thinks back to Illumna and Solstice, “About what time do Brian and Persistence wake?”

Illumna thinks back to him.  “Probably in about an hour, but they’re too young to eat your slop.  They were born lucky.”

As he starts to comment back Brady leans over his shoulder, “Please tell me you're not on KP this morning?”

Renfield grins and says, “Indeed I am.  We need more meat in this house!  Coffee is done.”  As he begins to inquire about Angela being awake or asleep he sees her head to the deck.  Then he adds to Brady, “I’d grab her one too.  She doesn’t seem as spry as you this morning.”

Brady smiles as he moves to the pot of coffee and then inquires, “So what’s next, Adam?  I know part of you had been considering that they have resources we can’t begin to match.  Not just manpower, they have funding and you’ll run out soon.  Which, by the way is why there isn’t endless meat in the house.  I obviously can’t get a job.  It would seem strange that I was running command at my post and at the same time flipping burgers hundreds of miles away.”

Renfield nods while concentrating on filling plates.  “So, you think flipping burgers will make a difference in this scenario?”  Brady turns to defend his quip, but Renfield grins at him.

“My ideas is this:  I know you have a long term plan Adam, but we have to keep them weak, on their toes.  We have to keep their resources wondering how to spend.”

Renfield nods, “Yup.  Been thinking about that.  I can do most of that solo and keep everyone else out of harm’s way.  I don’t want to risk losing one of us.  That literally cuts into manpower, not to mention, I don’t want anything to happen to any of us.”

Brady holding two cups of coffee looks at Renfield, “Hey buddy, you’re one of us.  You forgetting that in your plans is what caused the issues of people breaking orders and acting on their own to protect you.  Consider, as much as you were a success in that mission, you too were a failure because you didn’t take that into account in your super plans.” He sips from one of the mugs with his eyes firmly on Renfield as he walks past him to deliver the goods.

Renfield considers his words and begins to think on them deeply.  He turns to Brady’s back walking away from him and yells, “Hey!  Come back once you drop those off and help me get these plates out there!”

Brady smiles as he continues walking and yells back over his shoulder, “And here I thought you could do everything by yourself?”

Renfield goes into deep thought trying to balance Brady’s words with risking people he loves so deeply.