Son of Tesla

SON OF TESLA: Chapter 11

PETAR STUMBLED INTO THE doorway between the kitchen and pantry, favoring his wounded right leg, and came across a heartbreaking sight. Jem was carrying his younger sister over his shoulder. On his other arm draped his mother, limp and bleeding. The little girl was shaking with terror. And in Jem's eyes was a wild, hopeless look. The overhead lights in the kitchen had been flickering slightly, but now they approached chaotic resonance as Petar stepped under them.

Seeing Petar, Jem stopped cold. A look of defiance came over his face. Petar had to admire him. Not for the first time, Petar reflected on how abruptly this young man's world had been flipped on its head. And it was all because of him. Just another nail in the coffin? Could he shrug it off so simply? Petar didn't even know how many people had died as a result of his mission anymore. How many men had fallen at the CIA prison, cut down by the scythes of the Koschei reapers? What had he brought into this world? What else would come?

Sensing the change, Ashley looked up. Saw Petar's silhouette in the kitchen doorway. Screamed. Petar dropped the fermion rifle.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you."

"You," Jem whispered. "What are you doing here?"

"It's sort of a long story," Petar replied weakly. "Let me see her." He pointed to Rachel.

Jem tightened his grip on both his mother and his sister.

"You're suspicious," Petar said, seeing Jem's apprehension. "I get that. You have every right. But unless you let me deal with that wound, she's going to die." Too blunt, but maybe that's what Jem needed right now.

"She's going to the hospital," Jem nearly shouted. "We all are. If you try to stop us, I'll kill you."

Petar was surprised by the rage creeping around Jem's voice. Jem looked a little surprised, too.

"The hospital can't help her," Petar said after a beat. He reached for the fermion rifle he'd dropped. "See, this is a special gun. It fires a concentrated beam of quantum particles designed to disrupt the quarks in organic systems. Even if the initial blast doesn't kill you, the long-term effects are almost always fatal. It seriously messes you up," he added, not sure if Jem would understand the scientific explanation.

Jem looked uncertain.

"I need you to trust me. Your mother's life depends on it."

After a long, pained moment, Jem finally nodded. Petar rushed to grab the limp woman from his arms. He released her. Petar laid her on the ground.

"What's with the lights?" Jem asked.

Petar shut his eyes briefly, and with a hum the laundry room's lights steadied, bathing the twin washer and dryer and the stacks of folded clothes in unfiltered white light.

Ashley had been watching the exchange like a tennis match, an expression of confusion painted over her features. Now, out of the eerie flicker, she came out of her stupor.

"Get off my mother, you stupid jerk!" she shouted. "Jem! He just tried to kill us! What are you doing!"

"It's okay, Ash," Jem said softly. "I think he wants to help."

"He shot at us!" She apparently hadn't sorted the distinction between Petar and the Koschei. With the rifle in Petar's hands and a streak of blood coagulating on his cheek, his wild fistfight hair and piercing eyes, he certainly looked dangerous. She'd been facedown on the floor for the duration of Petar's fight with the Koschei. Now, she only saw a weapon. An enemy.

Petar ignored Ashley and pulled up the boson sequence on his wrist's polytransmitter. Green pulses raced under the skin. He lifted Rachel's shirt past her belly and looked for the hit. He almost didn't see it, until he tilted her body to the left and saw the long gash running along the edge of her side, just under the ribs. It had come that close to missing her. Petar cursed under his breath.

Carefully, hitting every seared edge along the gash, Petar traced the wound with his index finger, laying down a thick line of the white secretion. Probably twice as much as he needed, Petar knew, and his boson reservoir was already getting close to empty. But he didn't want to take any chances. As much as he wanted Rachel to live, he needed Jem on his side all the more. Killing the boy's mother would be a definite step backward in the trust department.

Finishing the circuit, Petar used both hands to hold the edges of the blood-encrusted laceration against each other. During the pause, he looked up. Both Jem and Ashley were watching him, wide-eyed. But while Ashley's expression was one of horror, Jem's was simply unbelieving.

"What did you just do to her?" he asked, the previous anger replaced by curiosity.

Good, Petar thought. He's decided to trust me. For the time being, at least.

"It's a boson film," Petar explained. "Quantum particles encased in a nano sheath that counteract the particles in the fermion bolt. Keeps the nasty side-effects away. And a regular ol' Polyxin B Sulfate additive keeps the cut from getting infected. An antibiotic," he expanded, looking at Ashley. "That's the part that makes it white."

"Are you, like, a spy or something?" asked Jem.

"Or a serial killer," sulked Ashley. Her anger had dimmed to a sullen acceptance of the situation. If the weird man was good enough for Jem, he was almost good enough for her.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Petar said, reaching for a stack of towels leaning against the wall and pulling off the top one. He pressed it to Rachel's side and lowered her shirt over it.

"Try me." Jem. Defiant again.

"On the way," Petar said.

"The way where?"

"The hospital."

"I thought you said–"

"They can now," said Petar, cutting Jem off. "Help me get her to the car." A beat. "You have a car?"

"In the garage. But we're going." He jerked his head in Ashley's direction. "Not you. Thank you for...whatever it was you did. I can handle it from here."

"I really have to. There might be more of them."

Jem glanced at the wall. Beyond, the living room. The dead Koschei, neck twisted like a broken puppet. He understood. But not entirely.

"Like I said, I can handle it."

"I really don't think you–"

"Get out of my way!" Jem thundered. He knelt and draped his mother's arm over his shoulder. She groaned, eyes still shut. Knees shaking, Jem stood, lifting her off the floor. He was taller than her, but his thin frame struggled with the weight. "Come on, Ash."

"I'm sorry," said Petar softly. He meant it. Before Jem could react, Petar reached out and pressed his palm against Jem's ear. Like a radio suddenly unplugged from the socket, Jem turned off. Petar grabbed the two bodies before they could hit the ground and laid them down gently.

Ashley, wide-eyed. Slow to grasp the split-second change that had just occurred. Petar quickly slid his palm to her ear as well. He caught her limp body under the arms.

He hated to do it like this. Would have given anything for Jem to come with him willingly. But in the end, negotiation could only go so far. He needed Jem. If he had to, Petar would tie him up and drag him all the way to Colorado.

The fate of the world depended on it. It was an elephant of a burden.

For a few seconds, the little two-story house on the quiet street at the back end of Rosewood Terrace was silent, populated only by a dead monster, three unconscious figures, and a tall, dark-haired man with the sins of the world in his eyes.

One by one, Petar pulled the bodies of the Parsons around the rear of the house and laid them in the seats of the white Ford Escape sitting in the garage.

Thanks for reading my story! Please VOTE and let me know what you think of it so far, then check out Chapter 12!