Thicker Than Blood (23 page)

They broke into a sprint. Satisfied, he unclipped his radio. "The eagle has landed." "I was wondering," she answered. The trio ran up to him as he waved them behind the Mausoleum. He towered over them. Their light urban jackets and smaller shoulders made them seem small compared to Skyler in his quilted nylon winter coat. Mark was panting. "So glad you could make it," he smiled and shook their hands. "Thank you," they all said in turn. "Not a big one." Skyler lied. "What's that for?" Mark pointed to the rifle placed on the mausoleum's ledge. "That's the best pair of binoculars I own." He lied again. "Nice belt," Joe grumbled. He pointed to the shinny cross on his belt buckle. "Thank you, it's my second favorite." He smiled. "You a Christian?" Joe inquired. The smile dropped off his face. "Why you asking?" Skyler looked mean. Joe looked a little scared, "Sorry, it doesn't matter." He looked at Joe's face and realized he had caught him completely off guard. Skyler's anger drained away. "Sorry. It's just every time somebody wants to know what I think about God, they're trying to tell me what God thinks. They don't know of course, they're just trying to manipulate me." "We wouldn't dream of it." Mark smiled nervously. He thought about who he was talking to. Scared kids make mistakes, I had better calm them down. "Let's go." Skyler tried to beat back the awkward silence. He started walking into the woods perpendicular to the road, the boys followed sheepishly. "I was a Baptist, but I'm not sure what I am now. I can't imagine they'd take me back," he continued the conversation. "Why not?" Joe inquired, still hesitant. "Cause I don't take no shit." The trucker grinned. He ducked and pushed some small branches out off his red curly hair.

"How about you Joe? You're Italian right? So you're probably Catholic." He stomped some low brush. "No, not really," Joe replied. "Catholic?" "No, Italian. If I was Italian, I could run to Italy. They might have stuck up for my Dad, but not me." Joe paused "Like it or not I'm American." He gritted his teeth. "I know the feeling." Skyler nodded. The group of four where silent except for the snapping of twigs and crunching of snow as they walked. Joe and Mark were shivering and Robert was a little blue. They approached a lit clearing which turned out to be a large parking lot. There were dozens of eighteen wheelers and truck cabs parked behind a homey looking bar. Skyler motioned down with a flat hand, palm down. They got the message and kept low. A truck pulled up in front of them blocking the view of the parking lot. They climbed the chrome monogrammed step into the near white cab. Skyler tossed his cigar in the snow as he climbed aboard. A black woman with long wavy hair sat in the drivers seat. She was wearing a T shirt and shorts and nothing else it seemed. Mark immediately started staring at her protruding breasts. Robert tapped his shoulder and gave him a look. She smiled a wicked smile. Skyler guessed she might have giggled had she been just a bit younger. "That's okay Robert, he can't help looking. He gazed into his wife's eyes. "I tried to come as close as humanly possible to the girl on the mudflaps." "Oh stop it, Skyler." She clearly didn't really want him to. Skyler patted Mark on the back hard enough to make his head shake. He hung his rifle on a rack with two shotguns. "Boys, meet my wife, Anna Belle Truman." "It's a pleasure." Robert held out his hand. Anna Belle shook it. "Hi." Joe shook her hand as well. Joe is a man of many words, Skyler smiled. "Hello. Nice to meet you," Mark said still wavering a little. "We love your show" Anna Belle spoke to Mark with a little extra twang. "What part of the cyborgs do you build?" "The control sisters," Mark stuttered, "I mean systems." "So you're a computer geek?" she asked. "Yes, and an outlaw." Mark smiled. 219

Joe laughed out loud. "Okay all you folks get to the back, we've got a schedule to keep if we want to actually get you boys across the border." Skyler smacked Anna Belle's butt as she climbed into the back part of the cab. She knew exactly what Mark did, she was playing with him. He shook his head and smiled. "CB, did you switch the crystal back?" Skyler called behind the curtain separating the front and the back of the cab. "No baby, I was sleeping in the back." Skyler pressed a button and picked up the receiver on the CB radio. "SGT calling Little Fish over." He shifted the truck into first as he talked. The radio was silent for a few seconds. "Hey SGT, it's Little Fish." "Get ready for us, cause we're a commin." "That's a ten four."

The truck had made a left, two rights, and another left. Kento tried to imagine a map of upstate NY. It was getting light out now, and sunrise was about thirty minutes later here this time of year. Driving at sixty miles an hour on the most direct route, we would have passed the border into Canada by now. We must be traveling parallel to the border, Kento thought, or we could be driving back to the city for all I know. Kento wished he could have peaked though the curtain to see what road they were on. Instead he was sitting on a bench facing the back of the truck in the corner of the rear compartment. Joe was snoozing on the upper bunk in the back of the cab. Mark absentmindedly typed in the air as he stared longingly through his translucent clarks at Skyler's wife on the other side of their shared bunk. Kento wondered if he had ever seen a woman before, well before Lucy that is. In any case Mark had made up his mind he likes them. Skyler's wife watched a movie on the cab wall with headphones, about an abused child coming of age. Kento didn't recall the title. Skyler pulled the curtain back and talked into the back. "Okay we're going to be there in about five minutes," he turned to look at the road and turned back again, "What ever you need to do so you don't need to breathe, you had better start it up." Mark immediately started rummaging through his bag. "Skyler, what are you talking about?" Kento slurred a little from exhaustion. "Mark said the nanites meant you could be sealed up tight. You don't need to breath for a while," he turned his head, "So we're going to smuggle you out all sealed up in some drums." The back of the truck started spinning, Kento thought he might vomit. 221

"I wasn't sure what I would be hauling, so this was the only way I knew would work." Kento held onto a handle bolted to the wall of the cab. He imagined a lid being closed on top of him sealing him in a drum. His heart was pounding. He managed to lift his head and look at Mark. Mark shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, "I didn't know," while shaking his head. Kento put his fist over his mouth to try to hide his heavy breathing. Shotgun hit the brakes as the truck bumped over a small curb. They were obviously here. Maybe I can cross on foot, Kento thought to himself. I'm sure I'm tough enough. I'd need to get Skyler to lend me that puffy jacket though. It's too cold out. "So where are we?" he asked voice wavering. "We're here," Skyler answered smugly. Can I ask again without seeming desperate, Kento wondered. Joe's head craned down from the top bunk. Mark pulled six large needles from a protective case. They were already prepared with filtered nanites. Mark talked as he worked, "We'll need about twenty minutes of fresh air to get these guys to one hundred percent, barring physical exertion." He looked right at Kento as he spoke. Mark depressed the plunger on a needle labeled "me" and flicked it to get a small bubble out. He plunged it into his own arm. Mark talked as he injected himself. "I'm not certain I've set them correctly for our blood types, immune system profile, etc, there is a chance Kento or I could have bad reaction. If our vitals get too bad I've written a simple program that will randomly change a factor per nanite every ten minutes. This is combined with a simple proximity election system where unmolested nanites advertise their configuration." "That sounds crazy." Joe had bags under his eyes. "It will avoid certain death." Mark smiled. Kento could barely follow the conversation. I thought those nanites were for emergencies, he thought. Kento felt his eyes cross a little. "Replacing it with what?" Skyler poked his head in the back. "Potential death?" Mark smiled weakly. Everybody stared at Mark. "Great." Joe jumped down from the top bunk and held out his arm. 222

"When you are dead..." Joe looked at Mark and Kento. "Will they know me at the school?" "We won't be dead. We are all networked together. I'll be watching your vitals and Kento's. You'll be watching mine and Kento's and Kento will be watching ours." I won't be watching anything after you seal me up in a tuna can, Kento struggled to act rationally. I am not going to die. I am not going to die. I am going to live. I cannot act weak. "Okay Kento, give me your arm," Mark said paternally. Kento extended his arm so Mark could inject him. Mark put a cotton ball in Kento's left hand and placed the arm on his right hand. Kento felt like he was swimming in fear. "Coast is clear," Skyler waved them into the sunless dawn. The three young men trotted through the cold up a ramp next to the loading dock Skyler had backed up to. A lanky Native American in a flannel and a baseball cap greeted them. "Hi, I'm Little Fish." Skyler walked in a moment later. "Guys this is Little Fish. The most trusting man alive." Skyler smiled a gigantic smile. "You don't need to advertise it." Little Fish grinned. "I'm going to unload the truck." "We've got a half an hour." Little Fish looked at his watch. "At least an hour." Skyler smiled. Kento saw a rolling chair near a desk by the entrance. He grabbed it and sat down before he fell down. "Make yourself at home," Little Fish raised his eyebrows. He was standing over Kento. Skyler zoomed around in the background driving a tiny forklift. He looked far to big for it. "He may not be well, we just injected him with nanites." Mark seemed to cover for Kento. "That's right, you guys are some kind of terrorists." "If you count curing cancer and AIDS as treason then yes." Joe spoke with authority. "Well technically." Mark started to correct Joe. Joe shot Mark a look that could kill. 223

Little Fish saw Joe's look and asked, "Why would they do that?" "They're too lazy to do more security work." Joe words rung out with anger. "So they are to lazy to secure the cure for cancer?" Little Fish frowned. "Or incompetent." Joe growled. "Hmmm, government lazy and incompetent." Little Fish paused thinking. "I'll buy that." He smiled. "Hey, where are the pallets?" Skyler's voice yelled from behind a wall of boxes. "On the side." He walked toward Shotgun's voice. Mark came over to Kento offering him a hand up. Kento took it. They all followed Little Fish. Kento felt his heart pound harder with every step. When they got to the pallets Kento nearly fell over. He caught himself on the nearest skiff. "I'd better check his vitals." Joe flipped his clarks down off his head. "No he's fine. I just checked him." Mark covered for Kento again. Joe looked at pallets stacked with looseleaf paper and pens. "Where?" Joe asked simply. Little Fish pointed at the top. Joe pulled himself up and winced when he leaned on his bad arm. Once he climbed on top of the loaded pallet, his frown changed to a smile of recognition. He stared and smiled. Finally he spoke up. "It's a big drum in the middle." Mark flipped his Clarks down on his head. And typed in the air. "We've got to wait about ten more minutes. We're just about at fifty percent." I'm not going to last that long, Kento thought. "Did I hear you say you're networked?" Skyler asked. "Yeah," Joe replied. "You have to shut it off. They scan for radio signals at the border, encrypted or not. For bombs and the like." "Can we just pull the drums shut when we get there? We need to watch Kento," Mark asked. "Nope. Sometimes they have dogs. We've got to seal you up here." Skyler looked at Mark. "Look at him." Joe pointed at Kento. "He's a mess, he could die."

"Look, twenty five minutes after the truck leaves the bay, we'll be at the border. When you feel me jerk the brakes three times shut em off." "Okay." Joe seemed satisfied. Little Fish and Skyler walked to the back of the warehouse, discussing some drunken exploits at someplace called Horny Henry's. Joe wandered off toward a very cold looking bathroom. "Mark, I can't handle it." Kento looked unraveled. "We don't have a choice." Mark frowned. "I do. I'm going to pass out once I'm in there. I know how to force myself." Kento's eyes were wide. "I understand. Don't worry, I won't think you're dying." "What about Joe?" Kento asked. Mark smiled. "I wrote the program, he'll see what I want him to see." "Thank you." Kento wheezed. It felt like a year as Kento waited in silence for the most terrifying experience of his life. He imagined himself restrained and suffocating when he closed his eyes. Instead he stared blankly at the pallets. He was barely able to stand. He stopped himself from hyperventilating several times. "Okay, we have to go now." Skyler yelled as he strode up. "Eighty eight percent on Kento." "It will have to do." The room started to spin again. Mark and Joe climbed up on the pallets and stood up in their drums, bags in hand. Kento just watched. "Hey this is bigger than I imagined," Mark said. Kento guessed he was trying to help. "Those are one hundred ten gallon drums," Little Fish said, "Useless for anything but terrorists and toxic waste." "I kinda like it." Joe smiled darkly. Kento hung to every word. Everybody was looking at Kento's pale shaking form. I have to do this, Kento thought to himself. He climbed up the pallet backwards and stood up tall in the center of the large drum. He looked around at the perplexed audience. "Okay, down you go." Skyler went to close Kento's lid first. Kento felt like a cornered dog. He found himself rearing around to punch Skyler but redirected the swing to the inside of the drum at the last second. 225

Kento winced at the loud thud. His legs gave and he fell over backwards as the lid came down, eclipsing the florescent light from the warehouse. Kento wanted to scream but instead bit down on his hand. He tasted blood as the rapid breaths left him. He barely saw the inside of the barrel go dark.

Terror. Skyler could not let these kids get caught. I don't want to kill a bunch of border guards either. He pulled a handgun out from under his seat and tucked it in the back of his pants and pulled his shirt over it. Skyler squinted to blur the empty road. White snowy trees blurred into streaking lines in the light of the early dawn. He recognized the last billboard before the border. He gave the brakes three distinct pushes. Okay here we go. Anna Belle looked as Skyler. "You okay SC? You look a little worried." "We've never done this before. Who knows what we didn't think of." "We smuggled this way before." She looked serious and ten years older. "Yeah, heart medicine." He shook his head. "A few less consequences if we got caught." "SG, you didn't read that link I sent you did you? Unless they execute you, you would have spent longer in jail for the cloned pills." He smiled a crooked smile. "Unless they execute me." He slowly steered the truck to the commercial side of the border guard house. He lined his window up perfectly with the shivering guard. Skyler handed him some papers. The guard rubbed his gloved hands as he read the crinkled paper. "You're a couple of hours late." "I had a few drinks down at Horny Harry's, I needed to sleep it off." Skyler felt his heart beating faster as he lied. The guard typed at his computer terminal in a small booth. He watched the screen for a minute and shook his head.