Do No Evil (Aeon Trilogy Book 2)

Prologue

Revered Tracy Cruz struggled to open her eyes against the bright lights. Where was she?

"These results can't be correct. Redo the tests." A man's voice.

Something was wrong.

"I know. This is the third time I've run them." A woman.

Very wrong.

"Always the same result?

What was it?

"Always."

There was a figure leaning over her. A solemn middle-aged man, balding, badly shaved. He was dressed in a white coat and wearing disposable rubber gloves. A doctor.

The room around her was full of medical equipment. Why was she in a-?

"Ricky!" she screamed. It was all coming back to her at once now. The helicopter. The explosion. The knowledge that her husband Ricky was dead. "My God, Ricky!"

The doctor turned his head and asked someone "what sedatives do you have her on?"

There was a pause.

Cruz struggled to sit up but realized she was held in place by restraints on her arms and legs. "I don't need any goddamned sedatives."

She heard the woman's voice again. "She had 20 CCs of sedaphorin two hours ago when she came in. It's wearing off. Do you want me to give her another dose?

"No." The doctor turned to Cruz. "Reverend Cruz, do you know where you are?"

Cruz struggled against her restraints again. "A hospital. Where's Ricky?"

The doctor looked down. "Reverend, I'm Doctor Geoff Fish-"

"I don't care what your name is. Where's Ricky?" She was crying. She could feel the tears trickling down her face.

"Do you recall what happened to you, Reverend? A couple of hours ago?"

"There was a bomb on the helicopter. My husband Ricky was on it."

"Yes. I'm sorry to tell you, Reverend, that your husband Ricardo did not survive. Neither did anyone else on the aircraft."

"I want to see his body."

"Reverend, when our emergency response teams arrived, you were distraught and suffering from smoke inhalation. We brought you here and ran a series of tests to ensure you were unharmed."

"I am unharmed."

"That's correct, Reverend, you are unharmed."

"So why am I here? Let me go see my Ricky."

"Reverend, there's something else."

"What?"

The doctor paused a beat. "Reverend, you're pregnant."

"That's impossible. My womb is barren." This secret was Cruz' lifelong shame, but it seemed trivial now. Especially if revealing it would get her out of this room faster.

"I know."

"So you messed up. I'm not pregnant."

"Reverend, there's no doubt." He turned and held out his hand to someone behind him before turning back. "Here are images of the embryo in your womb." He held up a tablet, which showed a video of a blob of something white in a dark space. It was blurry in her vision, because of her tears.

Cruz looked away. "It's impossible."

"It is impossible, Reverend. But it is true."

"Let me see it."

"Do you feel like you can remain calm if I undo your restraints?"

"Yes. Just let me see it. And then take me to see Ricky."

The Doctor nodded to someone behind him. Then he set the tablet down on a tray, and moved to Cruz' left, and began undoing the restraint holding her left leg in place. A young woman in a nurse's uniform walked to Cruz' right, and began working on the restraint on her right leg.

When they were done with her legs, they moved up to her arms. They both moved at the same methodological pace.

Finally, she was free of the restraints. She sat up. "Show me."

The doctor turned back to the tray and handed Cruz the tablet. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeves before looking at the tablet's screen. It showed the same video as before. A white blob against a dark background. "What does this mean?" she demanded.

"It's a four week old embryo." He pointed to the patch of flesh between her navel and her pubic bone. "It's right inside there. And it's in rude health, bigger and better developed than most embryos at this stage."

"It can't be."

The doctor shrugged. "It is."

"It's a miracle," interjected the nurse.

"My husband just died. And you want to talk about miracles?"

The nurse blanched and backed away.

"A goddamn miracle?" Now she noticed the delicately carved wooden crucifix inside a glass frame hanging from the wall to her right.

She swung her legs out on the right to occupy the space the nurse had just retreated from and stood up. She could feel the cool hospital air on the flesh left exposed by her hospital gown but she didn't care.

The nurse reached out to restrain her but Cruz shoved her viciously and she fell backwards with a little gasp.

"Nurse, call security and bring more sedaphorin!" called the doctor from behind the bed.

Cruz strode towards the crucifix. "You! You put this thing inside me! You think You can trade him for Ricky? You think You can trade with me?"

She slammed her fist into the transparent frame, shattering the glass and nearly knocking the crucifix to the floor. Jagged fragments of glass fell inside the frame and became trapped. She felt pain in her hand and knew she had cut her hand badly.

"Reverend!" it was the doctor. He was running around the bed towards her. She'd need to act fast.

She reached up and grabbed the largest shard of glass from inside the frame. "I won't let You get away with it! I won't let You get away with murder!"

She raised the shard of glass in both hands and brought it down as hard as she could towards the patch of flesh between her navel and pubic bone.

Strong hands reached beneath her armpits and blocked her forearms before she could strike home. "No!"

She didn't know if it was her screaming, or the doctor.

She struck again, this time trying to stab the doctor's arms. She saw her shard of glass gouging deeply into the hands over and over, but they wouldn't let go.

And then there were footsteps from the side and a needle being pressed into her and everything started to blur. "Why did You take my Ricky?" she asked as the darkness closed in.