Greco (Book 1.5) (The Omega Group) (5 page)

“They were watching my house?”
Greco’s father asked. After their family’s tearful reunion in the hotel room,
they’d all settled in to discuss what came next.

“We think so,” Greco said.
“That’s the only way they could have known we were here. It also explains why
the guy that broke into our room thought it would be empty. If they saw us in
our car they would’ve only seen Mirissa and me because Asteria always lies down
in the back seat. When they captured us they assumed they had everyone.”

Mirissa, almost fully recovered
after her double teleportation, watched Gayle, feeling somewhat apprehensive.
Greco had only given her a brief insight into his past with his mother, but it
was enough to make her dislike—and distrust—the woman. She knew, however, that
those feelings needed to be buried. They still had a job to do. “So, what do we
know about this Alayna person? Why did she take you?”

Julian, the Omega Group’s
resident computer genius, had already pulled the property records of the house
where they were held. Her name was Dr. Alayna Sessions and she was head of
internal medicine at Candler Hospital.

“Like I said before, I only met
her that one time at my AA meeting,” Gayle said.

“You only
remember
meeting
her once.” Greco stared at the floor as he spoke. “I’m sorry, Mom, but you
could’ve spent time with her when you were drunk and have no recollection of
it.”

Mirissa watched as everyone in
the room found something interesting to look at on a wall, too uncomfortable to
make eye contact. Everyone except Gayle.

“You’re right, son.” Gayle looked
at each person in turn, settling her gaze on Greco. “And you shouldn’t be sorry
for stating the truth.”

That comment seemed to raise
everyone’s comfort level again and, Mirissa had to admit, she was beginning to
have some respect for the woman. “I think it’s time we go meet Dr. Sessions.”

They walked into Candler Hospital
as a group. Although Greco would’ve preferred to handle this without his
parents present, there was still the possibility of the men that worked for Dr.
Sessions coming after them. He couldn’t leave them alone.

Julian had already uploaded the
hospital’s layout to Asteria’s phone, so they had no problem finding the right
office. The secretary that was seated at the only desk in the small reception
area looked up from her papers at their arrival. “Can I help you?”

“No.” Without even pausing, and
despite the secretary’s stern objections, Greco and the others continued
through to the office in back. When they walked through the door, Dr. Alayna
Sessions stood with wide eyes. Then, as the reality of her situation seemed to
set in, she slouched back into her chair.

“Dr. Sessions, I’m sorry. They
just barged in. Should I call security?” The woman now standing in the doorway
sounded flustered at this unscheduled interruption.

“No, Cynthia. It’s fine. Please
close the door on your way out.” Once she was gone, the doctor looked at
Greco’s mom. “I want you to know that it was never my intention to hurt you, or
anyone else. I just needed to learn how you healed yourself so I could
replicate it. I’m sorry.”

“And the armed men that almost
killed us?” Greco let her see every bit of his anger in his icy stare.

“Those were Mr. Hamilton’s men.
He promised me, when I hired him to find Gayle, that there’d be no violence. I
should’ve known he wouldn’t keep to his word, but I was desperate.”

Greco’s mom stepped forward. “I
don’t understand. Why were you looking for me? How do you know me?”

“You don’t remember? You were
brought to the clinic last year with a broken arm. You were, uh, inebriated and
you passed out. When I examined your arm I saw that it was already through most
of the healing process. I knew it was impossible but there you were, right in
front of me, doing the impossible.”

“So you decided to cash in.”
Greco wasn’t surprised. For thousands of years greed had caused mankind to
commit unthinkable atrocities. If anyone ever figured out a way to remove the
gene that caused it, the world would be a much better place.

“No!” Alayna’s eyes flared.
“Well, yes, at first. I admit that I wanted to study you, Gayle. I wanted to be
the one to bring this amazing ability to the world. But when you left, and I
didn’t even know your last
name, that
was the end of
it. Then, a few months later, something happened and I needed to find you.
That’s when I hired Mr. Hamilton.”

“What happened?” Greco’s mom
asked.

“Does it matter? It’s over now.”
Alayna seemed to have resigned herself to the fact that she was going to prison
and that was fine with Greco. He didn’t care what her story was.

His mom obviously did. “It
matters to me. What happened?” she asked.

Alayna took a deep breath and
stood. “I’ll show you. Follow me.”

Greco wasn’t interested in taking
a field trip with this woman, but he could see that his mother needed this.
“Where?”

“Just down the hall. It’ll only
take a minute.”

“If you try anything…” Greco let
her imagination fill in the blanks.

“I won’t. You have my word.”

The secretary gave them a
quizzical look as they left the office, but Alayna didn’t respond. After a
thirty-foot walk she stopped and pointed to the room on her left. “This is
it.”  Greco’s mom entered first, followed by Alayna and the rest of the
group. “This is my son, Jeremy.”

Making her way to the sleeping
boy’s bedside, Greco’s mother asked, “What’s wrong with him?”

“He has Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease.  It’s a rare, degenerative brain disorder,” she said.
 “About a year ago he started having trouble in school.  He was
acting out, forgetting things—nothing too unusual.  Then his vision
started to deteriorate and he showed signs of coordination problems, so we knew
it was something serious.  At first we thought
encephalitis
or meningitis, but we weren’t so lucky.”

“There’s
no cure?” Greco asked.

“No, his brain is just…dying. He
doesn’t have much time left.” Tears were flowing down Alayna’s cheeks as she
spoke.

Greco’s mom gave him a pleading
look.  He knew what she wanted.  Hell, even he wanted to let Alayna
go. He could only imagine how she felt as the parent of a dying child, but if
he were ever in the same position, there’d be nothing he wouldn’t do. He looked
at Mirissa for support but saw her wiping away tears of her own.  Even
Asteria, the most upbeat person he’d ever met, was crying.

Greco nodded solemnly to his
companions, silently communicating his desire to simply leave this woman and
her son in peace.  As they turned to leave, he heard his mother speak.

“Alayna.  Take my
blood.  You know it can heal him.”

“No!” yelled Greco and his father
in unison.

“I want to do this.  I’ve
done so much harm in my life, mostly to those I love the most.” She looked at
Greco as she spoke but held on to his father’s hand. “He reminds me of you when
you were that age, son. Beautiful. Perfect. And dealing with something that no
child should ever have to deal with. I can’t change the childhood you had, but
I can change this boy’s.”

Greco felt his own eyes well up
at his mother’s selfless offer. She was fully aware of the consequences of an
Amazon giving blood, yet she still volunteered.  This was a side of her
he’d never seen.  And it impressed him.

“It won’t work, Gayle,” Alayna
interrupted. “Believe me, I’d hoped it would.  But Jeremy has a rare blood
type and it doesn’t match yours.  That was the first test I ran after
I”—she paused before continuing—“after I took you. I’ve spent the last three
days trying to isolate whatever it is that makes you heal the way you do so I
could replicate it, but I haven’t been able to.”  Alayna walked over to
Greco’s mother and held both of her hands. “After everything I did to you,
you’re still willing to help.  I can’t tell you how much that means to me,
and how sorry I am for what I put you through.”

“What’s his blood type?” Greco
asked.

“He’s AB negative. Why?”

Greco let that little piece of information
simmer.  By the looks he was receiving from both of his parents, he knew
they understood the same thing he did.  “I can do it.  I’m AB
negative.”

“I don’t know what to say.”
Alayna seemed overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from the very people
that had come to arrest her. “I appreciate the offer, but Gayle’s blood is
special. A transfusion from anyone else won’t help.”

“Gayle is my mother.  We
have the same…ability.”

Alayna’s eyes grew wide in
astonishment. “You aren’t serious.  You heal the same way Gayle does?
That’s amazing. Yes! Please, yes! God, yes.” Her tears of sadness suddenly
became tears of joy at the prospect of curing her son.

“No.  Absolutely not,” his
mother said.

“Greco, you can’t do this. 
You know what will happen if you do.” Asteria moved to his side.

Mirissa walked over, grabbed him
by the arm, and pulled him outside the room with the others in tow. “Greco, I
know you want to help this kid, but you can’t. Not only will it kill you, but
our secret will be out in the open.  We’ll be hunted down, studied, poked
and prodded—or worse.”

“Actually,” Greco said. “That
last part I can do something about. Give me your phone, Asteria.” 

Mirissa sat at the end of the
couch in Alayna’s living room.  Although the hospital would have been the
obvious place to do a blood transfusion, for their purposes it was far to
public. Considering the gift the doctor was being given, she was more than
happy to move the procedure to her home.

Greco was still intent on saving
this boy’s life, despite her almost constant arguing.  It wasn’t that she
wanted the kid to die, but she couldn’t lose Greco. He was her friend.  He
was her guardian. He’d stood by her through all of the craziness that was her
life and, despite his severe lack of social skills, had wormed his way into her
heart.  She couldn’t bear the thought of him giving away his life, even if
it was to save a child.

She’d tried every tack she could
think of to talk him out of it.  Logic was usually the easiest way to
convince him of anything, but this time it wasn’t working. He understood
exactly what would happen to him and stubbornly refused to change his mind.
Alayna was almost ready to begin the transfusion and Mirissa was no closer to
stopping it.

He’d just spent a private moment
with his mom and dad, presumably to say his goodbyes.  They’d come back
into the room and his parents collapsed on the other end of the couch, sobbing
quietly.

“Mirissa, before I do this,
there’s something I need to tell you.” Greco was kneeling in front of her.

“Oh, there’s a whole bunch
I
need to tell
you
.  Starting with what an incredibly stupid idea
this is.  You can’t…” Mirissa stopped short when she saw the look in his
eyes. Something in his gaze told her that he needed this, so she nodded her agreement
and followed him out of the room.

“Mirissa, I’ve made a lot of
mistakes in my life…”

“Yah.  And this is the
biggest,” Mirissa interrupted.

Greco shook his head.  “I’ve
made a lot of mistakes in my life, but there’s only one that I truly regret, and
it’s been eating away at me ever since. God! I should’ve told you this a long
time ago. ”

He ran his hands through his
hair, grasping it as though he would pull it out. He took a step forward and
reached toward her, stopping himself before he caressed her cheek. Mirissa had
never seen Greco like this. The anguish he felt was palpable and she couldn’t
even begin to guess what was causing it. “Just tell me, Greco. Whatever it is.”

After a few deep breaths he
began. “When I was thirteen years old, after my mother told me for the
millionth time that I wasn’t worthy, I stole her ring. I knew what it was, what
it represented, and I wanted to take it away from her. I was going to sell it
at a pawnshop or something, but when I held it in my hand something told me to
put it on.

“That was my first trip to
Tritonia. I was terrified. I remember seeing the statue of Artemis and
thinking, ‘So these are the people who told my mother I was worthless. The
people that made her hate me.’ I hid in the trees so that no one would see me,
inching my way closer to the statue. I don’t know what I was planning on doing
once I got there—probably something stupid—but before I could get close I heard
voices. They were talking about you. They said that you were special. That you
were destined to save the world by stopping Daedric. That you were going to be
the greatest Amazon to ever walk the earth.

“I was so angry. All my life my
mother told me that I wasn’t worthy of being an Amazon. That I was an
abomination that should never have been born. Hearing them talk about you that
way made me hate them—and you.

“So I went back home and did
research until I found Daedric. That’s when I called him and told him about
you.”

Mirissa stared at him,
dumbfounded. He’d caused it all. Her mother abandoned her because of him. Her
father had been kidnapped because of him. She’d almost died because of him. And
he’d pretended to be her friend, her guardian. She’d trusted him with her life.

Greco placed his hand on her
cheek and whispered, “Please say something.”

Mirissa turned an icy gaze on
him. The utter shock she felt at what he’d just told her obliterated all other
thoughts of their current situation and caused an instant reaction. She slapped
him hard across his face and walked away. She kept walking until she was out
the door and far away from the man who had betrayed her.