The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

his face and smiled. Then he grabbed his rifle and started up the slope.

“When the path’s clear,” Jamie said, “get the hell out of here.”

He reached the top of the slope and stood in the clear.

  Exogenesis

2 years ago

I

GNATIUS HORNE WAS HEADING home to another microwave supper when Ben called. He heard the shakes in Ben’s voice, the desperation of a trapped animal facing extinction. Ignatius didn’t need details to know the bastard went ahead with his foolhardy plan and it backfired. He agreed to meet at their usual spot off Trevor’s Ford Road along the river.

Ben was pulling hard on a silver flask when Ignatius turned off the engine and stepped out of the patrol car.

“So, what’s the plan?” Ignatius said. “Get yourself blind drunk, pretend you didn’t screw up? Maybe you thought I’d be interested in a pity party.”

Ben dropped the flask. “I’m out. What did you bring?”

“I thought I was bringing sensibility and good counsel. Am I too late?”

Ben waved him off and walked to the water’s edge. “Don’t bother, Iggy. You told me not to do it. I was an asshole. Now I’m a dead man.”

Iggy rolled his eyes and removed a small flask from inside his jacket.

“We’re all dead men.” He offered whiskey, which Ben took with pleasure. “They rejected your theories. You knew they would. Tom and Marlena are hard-core regens. Even if they accepted the possibility of a human soul, they’d never openly concede it. I suggest you calm your nerves, have a long night’s sleep, and recant.”

Ben choked on the whiskey. “What? How? They’d never believe me.”

“They would if you turned over all the digital research. Delete it in front of them. Take a vow of silence. Promise to help Jamie to a peaceful end. Remember your ace in the hole: You are their son. The descendency ends with you, Ben. They won’t kill you.”

Ben smirked, as if Ignatius missed the punch line. “They already have. The last thing my father said to me was if I ever tried to see Jamie again, he’d kill me where I stood. But he knows I’ll see Jamie again because I love him. All I’ve done the past thirteen years is protect that boy. I gave him my whole heart because I knew Tom and Marlena never would.”

He took another sip of whiskey. “Iggy, I was sitting in my car at the end of the street afterward. I couldn’t move. I was terrified. I saw my father pull out, so I followed him long enough to see where he was going. Walt Huggins. He wouldn’t go there unless he was getting permission. Giving the big guy a head’s up about one less observer.”

A chill sliced through Ignatius. The pieces fit. He underestimated Tom.

“You might want to consider hitting the road for a few days, Ben. I can set you up with five hundred bucks for now.”

Ben was apoplectic. “Run? Are you out of your mind? I’m not leaving Jamie with those people. Iggy, I need you to fix this. You’ve intervened before, right? There was that dustup with Arthur and Jonathan a few years back. Fix this, Iggy. For good. Please.”

Ignatius didn’t expect every observer to survive the fifteen-year exile, but he thought trouble would come from outside the Jewel’s family.

“Do you understand what you’re asking, Ben?”

He threw back more whiskey and nodded. “If I can’t help Jamie, what do I got left? He deserves the chance to live a normal life. If there’s even a thousand-to-one shot my theory is right, I have to try.”

“And if you succeed,” Ignatius said, “what then?”

“I don’t know, but I can be a father to him if I have to.”

Ignatius knew Ben wasn’t much good to anyone in this condition. At 21, he was a broken man, a shell of whatever promise he held before leaving the Collectorate. The deputy remembered the boy with a curious smile who crossed the interdimensional fold holding Jamie’s hand. The illusion forced upon an eight-year-old was suffocating the 21-year-old. Ignatius deferred to Tom and Marlena’s parental authority, but he resented their willingness to sacrifice Ben.

“Go home,” he told Ben. “I’ll see it done. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“What? What are you going to do?”

He opened the patrol car door.

“Go home, Ben. Sleep. Jamie will need you at your best.”

Ignatius made one more stop before crafting a microwave supper. Leftover peas, mac & cheese, baked ham. Third day in a row.

Bland repetition served Ignatius well. Food should be sustenance, not a distraction – a lesson he learned in the Unification Guard. He used meals to contemplate strategy, reconsider errors, and rehearse opening lines for every context. When did he require respect? Fear? Smiles or laughter?

Tonight’s context leaned heavily toward precise timing. He decided upon two possibilities and prepared the other logistics.

He wore black gloves, a dark overcoat, and a ski mask when he traveled in the shadows that night. He broke the lock on the Sheridans’ back door with ease. The rest was simple. No dog to break the silence, no alarms to alert the residents. He once warned them about their negligent attitude toward security. Typical Chancellor arrogance.

He entered the rear hallway. Three bedrooms. Master at the end. He looked inside Jamie’s room to make sure he wasn’t home. Dark. The boy was sleeping over at Michael’s. He heard TV voices in the master, saw the flickering blue light under the door. Chancellors were creatures of habit.

He pulled off the ski mask and pushed open the door. Tom and Marlena, staring at the screen with many pillows tucked behind them, did not notice him at first. Perhaps they thought Jamie came home early. He flipped on the ceiling light. They sat up but seemed more put-out than terrified.

“You watch these shows every