The Green Rising

Chapter Forty-two

Cautious not to disturb the myriad tubes protruding from her mouth and nose, I kiss her ashen cheek. “Lily, you must survive this,” I whisper. “I’ve waited far too long for you.”

Her only response is the rise and fall of her chest and the steady, but weak pulse emanating through the monitor, both manufactured by the ventilator breathing life into her body. This is not how I envisioned our reunion.

“You have to pull through. I know your body is broken right now, but the doctors say your mind is intact and it is strong. I need you to stay with me.”

Footsteps trek into the room, and a nurse announces her presence by clearing her throat. Once she recognizes me, her demeanor changes from nurse to soldier and she offers up a firm salute. She apologizes for the interruption then exchanges the bags of fluids to the I.V. The nurse leaves as quickly as she came and I am left to continue my pleas.

“Where are the books, Lil?” I ask, to no reply.

I sift through her pile of belongings for anything the soldiers might have missed. The shine of a blue jewel catches my eye. I remove it from the plastic bag. It is a blue diamond ring hooked on to a necklace. With a smile, I pocket the ring for safekeeping. I stroke her hair and reminisce about our time together until the doctors usher me out of the room because she needs her rest.

For one week I spend nearly all my waking moments by her side, hoping for a sign of life, for some sign that she may return to me, that my voice can rouse her from her deep slumber, but her condition remains unchanged. During my sleeping hours, I toss and turn, wondering if she would have kept the ring had she been cognizant of the truth. I yell for her to return to me and beg for her forgiveness, but she yields nothing and it is what I deserve for my deception.

“I genuinely regret killing your sister.” I run my fingers through her locks, trying to comfort her as I confess. “She knew too much, and she would have pressed you to alert the authorities. I couldn’t chance more than fifty years of planning being cast by the wayside.

“Now, you may be wondering who supplied the other bodies in the explosion. Oh, how fortunate I was that the fire burned hot enough that forensics were rendered useless. Eyewitnesses placed me in the car, as well as you and your sister, but no one saw me stuff Mad Max into the trunk after the two of you had left earlier in the day. Max had harmed you, you see. I don’t regret his murder and I ensured that he would suffer. He was bound, gagged, and wrapped in a blanket, but he entered the car very alive. He spent time baking as the sweltering sun turned the car into an oven.

“There wasn’t any movement from him when I opened the trunk for a second time, just a few hours later.

Father Xavier had seemed capable enough when I first put him in charge of the ministry, but when he ordered Mad Max to attack you, I couldn’t have that. I confronted him, said that I had you and everything else under control, but it wasn’t entirely true.

“He claimed that my judgment had been clouded by my love for you, that you were playing me and soon we’d all be in prison if I continued my relationship with you. He said, ‘She’s proven time and again that she can’t be trusted, Sigmund, and the brainwashing didn’t take. You gave it to her yourself. She’s no good to us. If you won’t kill her, I will.’

“Can you believe his gall to imply that you were no good? To suggest that you be discarded like a piece of trash? He believed that you were the one being tested, but failed to see his own shortcomings, that you were part of his test, and he had failed miserably.

“You proved that his desire to protect the Order’s secrets and missions was negligible at best. But you proved much more to me when it came to this man who fancied himself as one of the highest priests in the Order. You proved he couldn’t follow instructions, that he had an alternate agenda that put himself above our security, and that he could not be trusted with our deepest secrets.