Code Name: Aries by Janie Crouch

24

Ian

“Why hasn’t Wavy woken up?” Finn demanded.

I stood in the corner of a doctor’s office as Finn ranted at the woman who’d been treating Wavy for the past three days.

Finn’s wife, Charlie, was also in the room, as well as his brother, Baby. I was here only because Charlie had argued on my behalf. She’d reminded her husband that I wasn’t the one who had taken Wavy. Wasn’t the one who had done this to her.

It was also Zodiac’s knowledge of what Mosaic was doing—the gene-editing, neuro-inhibitors, and drug cocktail—that had allowed Wavy to get the immediate medical help she’d needed. It would’ve taken them much longer to figure out how to treat her otherwise.

But I was still to blame for what had happened to her. I knew it, and Finn did too. I didn’t blame him for not wanting me anywhere near Wavy. But to make his tiny wife happy, he’d agreed to allow me into the room for this meeting with the doctor, so I was going to take advantage of it.

I just wanted to be near Wavy. The thought of being far from her was unbearable.

Once again, my assistants had worked their magic and set me up a makeshift office next door to the hospital here in San Diego. I wanted to be as close as possible in case she woke up and for some unknown reason wanted to see me.

Dr. Ling, the head of trauma at San Diego’s Jackson-Madison Hospital, nodded at all of us at Finn’s demand for answers. “Yes, we would’ve liked Wavy to show some sign of activity by now, but let’s look at the positives first. She has brain activity. That’s good. She’s breathing on her own. That’s good too. She had no sign of sexual abuse or trauma—given the fact that she was held against her will, that’s even better. She seems to have full movement of all her limbs, so we’re glad for all those things.”

Dr. Ling had been telling us those facts for three days, and they were all good to hear, but we wanted to address some of the bad things now.

“We’re grateful for all of that. But what about the rest?” Finn said. “Why is she still asleep? Why does she have those scratches all over her body, and why is part of her hair missing?”

Dr. Ling bridged her fingers on her desk. “Actually, the scratches point to what we think is part of the reason she hasn’t woken up yet.”

“What does that mean?” Baby asked.

“Based on the condition of her own fingernails, we think she scratched herself.”

We were all silent.

These weren’t scratches like oh, I’ve got an itchy back. These scratches had ripped through her skin. The scratches had been what had caused her to be covered in blood when we’d first found her. Even cleaned up now, the scabs covered her entire body.

Thinking about her living through that was agonizing. The knowledge that she’d done it to herself . . .

“Why?” I’d promised myself I’d be quiet, but I couldn’t stop the question now. “Why would she have done that to herself?”

The doctor let out a sigh. “When Wavy was brought in, we knew she’d been experimented upon.”

“Because of the bald spots on her head?” Baby asked.

She nodded. “Yes, those were used to monitor brain activity. She also had signs of multiple procedures, which, based on what Mr. DeRose has told us about this group Mosaic and what they’re attempting to do, were likely a type of gene editing.”

“And that went wrong?” Finn asked. “Made her start scratching herself uncontrollably? Some sort of allergic reaction?”

“Genetic editing is much further along than the government and media would have us all believe. Genome editing tools are becoming more available, which enables geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts of the DNA sequence.”

“What does that do?” Charlie asked.

“Normally, good things,” Dr. Ling said. “Curing certain types of blindness, diabetes, even some cancers. But what was done to Wavy was the opposite. She wasn’t receptive to the gene editing. That, combined with the chemical stimulants and drugs, was basically . . . torture.”

“She ripped at her own skin to try to make it stop hurting.” I rubbed the heel of my hand against my eyes in an effort to push away the image of Wavy in that much pain. It didn’t work.

Charlie muffled a sob. Finn and Baby looked like they might be sick.

Dr. Ling sighed. “Maybe in Wavy’s overwhelmed mind, she was scratching herself to get to her insides where the pain was. To try to stop it.”

“Is she still hurting now?” Finn asked. “Is that why she won’t wake up?”

“No, she’s not, that’s another good thing. Hopefully, it’s a matter of her brain figuring that out and allowing her to wake up. All the chemicals have been flushed out of her system, and the edited genes have been reversed. So nothing should be causing her any pain.”

Charlie wiped her eyes. “How do we help her?”

“You wait,” the doctor replied. “You sit there with her, you talk to her, and you let her brain know that she’s in a safe space. And you pray that it’s enough.”

* * *

“I was wondering if you might let me sit in with her,” I asked Finn nearly sixteen hours later.

I’d been very careful not to go inside Wavy’s hospital room. Her family had been with her every second, and it wasn’t my place to intrude given . . . everything.

So I’d come here at zero four hundred in the hopes of catching her without anybody by her side. I should have known better. Finn was there wide awake, looking as exhausted as I felt.

Finn shifted in his chair by the bed. “Look, DeRose, we all appreciate what you’ve done. Bringing in the specialists so Wavy got the help she needed right away, keeping law enforcement away from her until she’s ready to talk. Making sure security is airtight around her.”

Yeah, I’d told Callum he’d have to wait. If she woke up and asked to talk to law enforcement, he’d be the first person I called. Otherwise, he could cool his fucking jets. I didn’t give a shit that his bosses were breathing down his neck. Wavy’s wellbeing was my only priority.

I hadn’t known Finn was aware of that or the security. But he was right. There was absolutely no way someone was getting Wavy again. The security in this hospital was airtight. “I wasn’t sure you knew.”

“I noticed the one intern who happens to be packing a weapon and is always nearby. I noticed the two men at the outside door and the random patrols on the stairs. I noticed the extra security cameras. I’m not sure that the hospital approved those, but I don’t care. You’re doing what you can to keep her safe. I appreciate it.”

I should have known somebody with Finn Bollinger’s background would recognize security, no matter what form it took. “But you don’t want me around her, is that it?”

I couldn’t blame him if he never wanted me within a hundred miles of his sister again.

Finn leaned forward on his chair and dropped his elbows on his knees. “Did I ever tell you about the time some maniac kidnapped Charlie and nearly beat her to death?”

I froze where I was in the doorway. “No, I wasn’t aware of that.”

“It was before we were married. She had stumbled onto some intel a terrorist wanted and refused to tell him where it was. Takes a special kind of person to withstand that sort of interrogation.”

“What happened?”

He rubbed his eyes. “Charlie is strong. Not in a physical sense—she weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet. She’s strong in a way I will never be. My strength is honed, created from years of physical and mental training. Charlie’s strength is part of her genetic makeup. It’s not something that can be taken from her.”

Finn looked over at his sister lying in the bed. “Wavy has that same sort of strength. And I can guarantee you that whatever they changed with that gene editing, it didn’t strip away her strength. She’s never been tested like this, but she’s going to come through.”

I scrubbed my hands over my eyes. “God, I hope so, Finn. I can’t tell you how sorry I am about this.”

“I blamed myself for what happened to Charlie for a long time. She was in that mess because of me. Charlie was the one who eventually convinced me that the only person responsible for hurting her had been the guy who’d hurt her.”

He reached over and touched Wavy’s hand. “Same thing is true in this situation. The only ones responsible for what was done to Wavy are Erick Huen and those assholes at Mosaic. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is yes, you can sit here with my sister. She was so fucking happy before this happened, so maybe she’ll listen to you and wake up because God knows she’s never listened to me.”

He stood up and offered me his chair. “I only have one request.”

“Anything, man,” I said.

“You promise me that you’re going to take down the bastards that did this to her.”

“If I have to spend every dollar I have and every minute of the rest of my life, trust me, that will happen.”

He slapped me on the shoulder. “I believe you. I’m going to find my wife. Text me if anything changes.”

Finn walked out of the room. I sat down and placed Wavy’s hand in mine. It was the first time I’d touched her since before she’d been taken. For seventeen days I hadn’t felt the softness of her skin. Even though that soft skin was covered in scabs and scratches, it was the best feeling I’d had in a long time.

I would never take for granted the opportunity to touch her ever again.

“Hey, Rainbow. It’s me. You’re safe here now. I need you to come back.” I kissed her hand. “I need you to paint more pictures, not only for me, but for yourself. Because you still have so many beautiful colors in you, and you need to let them out.”

I talked like that to her for hours, letting her know that we were all here and that she was safe like Dr. Ling had told us to do. Eventually, I fell asleep, my fingers intertwined with hers.

I hadn’t slept in what felt like weeks because it had been weeks. My head was resting on the bed next to our intertwined hands when something touched my nose. I batted it away but it came back.

It was Wavy’s fingers.

I sat up and saw the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen: her green eyes open and looking at me.