Chapter 4: Oh Crap! Maybe I should be dead

To be truthful about the whole thing, I was more than just happy about her presence within me. It felt good, like I had a Maxi shaped hole that was suddenly filled up and I wasn't empty anymore. It made me smile every time I touched on that fact. Besides that, I liked the way she tasted and felt in my mind. She reminded me of honeybuns, a simple long pastry bun with a honey coating inside. She was warm and sweet without being too sweet, and the way she felt was akin to a warm fuzzy blanket. Call me crazy or kooky, but I liked having Maxi in my mind and body.

"Maxi is happy Solomon is not disturbed that it took his death for Maxi to be here." she said, but I could feel the sadness Maxi always felt whenever we spoke about this. "Maxi still thinks that Solomon needs his own kind around him." She added.

I asked with humour, "What 'kind' would that be, Maxi?"

"Maxi thinks that Solomon needs other humans around to interact with. Solomon needs smart, creative, and warm and friendly people."

I paused in my travels to let out a solid belly laugh, "I have all the people around me that I need. Not a single human wants to interact with me very long, Maxi, because I am too different. The smart and warm and friendly I have already with you. The only other ones that I remember interacting with me we just left behind because they have a life of their own, and I will not put them in danger." I stopped laughing and settled down a bit. "We are together from now on, Maxi, and thankfully we seem to get along with each other, I like you and I hope you like me also."

"Maxi is pleased that Solomon is happy with our pairing. Solomon has an energy and thought that makes Maxi feel good. Maxi will care for Solomon always."

"And I will care for you, Maxi." I stated.

We had stopped walking and had stood off to the side of the path, looking out across an open grassy area while we spoke internally. The only thing anyone would have seen was the few times I laughed or chuckled, and the odd change of expression on my face had they been looking, so I was quite surprised when Helaena strolled up beside me and said, "You seem happy for someone who just got told to fuck off. Do you really not care about us?"

"I was just thinking about things. I'm pretty sure that you'd be better off without the extra person interfering with your relationship."

"Sam was just feeling threatened because she's only seen me 2 or 3 times in the last 2 months."

"See, that's the problem Helaena, you are neglecting the people in your life to take care of someone who puts you and Shakti in danger." I turned my attention once again to the large field in front of me, trying to come up with additional reasons.

"You're grasping at straws there, Solomon," she said, standing next to me, "I think you're just trying to avoid some form of interaction with another person. It's like your file describes you, someone that eschews any kind of relationship with others."

"I don't know much about myself from before, so I can't say anything about the past. Sure, I seem to be alone all the time and nobody said they had any relationships with me, but that is all third party information and hearsay. There might have been something else there or another reason." I said conversationally, "Who knows. I might have been agoraphobic or something. The information was sparse at best. Right now I believe that I not only place you two in danger, but that Sam had a right to expect a functional relationship with you as before we met. You love her, don't you?"

I looked at Helaena for any response and saw her looking thoughtful. "I love Sam very much, she's exciting, smart, caring, warm and thoughtful. I believe I might have brushed her off during your extended stay in the cocoon, but it was for the secrecy and security of yourself. If people found you in that state they would have tried to turn you into a test subject. I couldn't have that happen."

"Do you feel that trusting Sam was not possible?" I asked, "Do you think maybe that might have hurt Sam or bothered Sam? Do you think that maybe Sam might have thought you had moved on from her and just didn't think it was necessary to tell her?" I probed.

There was silence for a while as I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She went through a series of facial expressions that assured me she was thinking about what I was saying. Then her head drooped and I could tell she had hit the right point of understanding.

"I let my scientific curiosity and fear of discovery overtake everything else, didn't I?" she said quietly, "I didn't trust her with anything and shut her out. Shit."

"You go back to Sam and make up with her." I said, looking off into the now starry night sky. The lights of the park had blinked on when we talked so not so many stars were visible, but it still looked pleasant. "I'll walk you back to your place, but I'll be moving on after that. I'll repay you for the clothing when I get some money." I added.

She didn't reply, but we walked back to the house quietly. It was going to take about an hour to get there, probably close to midnight, I thought, but I was wrong. We just got around a corner of the path when I heard the rumble of a motorcycle engine. A few more moments and Sam rolled past us on a dirt bike, and then did a 180 with flying dirt. She pulled up beside us and killed the motor.

"Hey, asshole." she spat at me then turned to Helaena, "Your sister showed up and dragged Shakti off. She threatened me with all sorts of unmentioned horrors if I didn't get your ass back to the house now. Something about top secret research and toxic plagues or some such bullshit. What's that all about?"

Helaena looked at me shocked, there was definite fear in her eyes. "She really said the words 'top secret'?" she asked Sam.

"I knew she was crazyritch, but I didn't know she was plain crazy, also. She literally picked up Shakti and threw her bodily into her hummer and locked the door so she couldn't get out. I thought Shakti was staying with you from now on?" Sam asked.

"Shakti made a choice to stay with me since the last time she had an argument with my sister, but no legal papers were signed," she clarified, "Sam, are you sure she said 'Top Secret' to you?"

Sam nodded and pointed her thumb at the back of the bike. " I want to survive, so you better get your ass on the bike and we can return to the house. Clear this shit up with your sister and get back to living normal lives again." She turned to me as Helaena climbed on the back. "So long, asshole, now fuck off." she spat.

I waved at Helaena as they sped off and disappeared around a bend in the trail.

"Maxi is not sure that leaving them unprotected is a good idea, Solomon. The person who has a seed with her is Helaena, but I detect another more powerful and un-contained seed close by."

"If you can detect it, then maybe that seed can detect you also?" I asked quickly.

"Solomon is smart, the seed could detect us if Maxi was any closer and unprepared, but Maxi can shield well enough that detection would be impossible. Minor manipulation of various electromagnetic energies and we will be invisible to it." Maxi explained.

"Lets do this and see what help we can be to Helaena, OK?" I said as I began a high speed run back to her house. I quickly caught up to the dirt bike driven by Sam with a ground eating pace, but even with her looking back in the rear view mirror she didn't seem to notice me.

"Can she see me at all, Maxi?" I asked.

"With the exception of a polarized section in front of our eyes, Maxi is sure that we are undetectable on full spectrum of visible light, according to Solomon's eye structure." she responded.

If I remembered our conversation about augmenting me, I was pretty sure that I was probably invisible well into the infrared and ultraviolet section also.

"If Sam was to look very carefully at exactly where your eyes were," Maxi explained, "She might see something indistinct and confusing."

I giggled a little at this, as I now had total stealth mode and could do just about anything without anyone seeing me. It then suddenly struck me, which also meant that if I didn't pay attention to what was going on around me, that I could just as easily be run over or worse. Invisibility was not perfect, as it did not confer silence or invulnerability to me.

I followed Sam at a distance of 10 meters and arrived at the house within an hour. Some time around 3am was my guess. The house was lit up like a Hollywood party, and there were more vehicles than rush hour in New York. They didn't look like military vehicles, but I didn't trust that to be truth. I carefully made my way behind the motorcycle until Sam parked it by the front door. Helaena dismounted and headed in, followed by Sam and closely followed by me cautiously sticking close to them. I did not want to bump into either one, or anyone else, for that matter. we made our way through the house and into the living room. A rough military looking man in civilian clothes was conversing quietly with a small group of suspicious looking people. Conversation stopped when Helaena entered, and the leader of the group nodded to her and pointed to the hallway which led off to where my erstwhile room was. We made it to the entry of my room, which was being guarded by a hulking fellow with no hair and a shiny skull. He stepped aside slightly and the door was swung open to reveal a large hazmat suit encased group of people crawling all over the cocoon I had previously occupied. I slipped in behind Sam, almost too quickly, as I brushed her elbow lightly, she glanced around but didn't see anything. I slipped to the side of the wardrobe and positioned myself in an unlikely to be occupied place to listen.

There was one rather familiar looking female giving orders to the hazmat party, but once she turned to face Helaena I could tell she was the sister. They looked exactly alike, twins, identical.

"Helaena, what exactly goes through that stunted mind of yours, I wonder." she growled at Helaena.

"A lot more than money and power. What the fuck are you doing in my house?" she demanded of her sister. "I didn't invite you and your party animal comedy team, so get the hell out now."

"Shut up or I'll have you quarantined until the turn of the next millennium. What the hell were you thinking when you brought that DB into your home?" she demanded.

"Other than the fact that it wasn't dead and it was a human being? Oh, I don't know, maybe I was thinking that I was a compassionate human, unlike you."

A suited drone rolled up beside her and said officiously. "No complete genetic material was found and no anomalous energy signatures are here, ma'am. This is just dead and inert biological soup containing a genetically known cellular structure. It's just that Solomon Eris Freeman DNA. No alterations or anomalous structures in the cells could be detected."

"None?" She demanded.

"Any segment of DNA found was so badly damaged that no information other than similar markers to the DB could be found."

She wheeled on her sister and shouted. "Where the fuck did you hide him? I want that specimen or I'll make sure you and your ... lover, never see the light of day. I'll have you sitting in a sterile cell filling out paperwork for the next twelve lifetimes!"

Sam stepped forward, "if you want that prick, he's a few K's south down the trail out back. Now back off and leave us the fuck alone, ya PMSing slag."

Helaena's sister snapped her fingers and pointed to the door, and in one well choreographed dance the entire hazmat group gathered up everything from equipment to the cocoon and exited the room, followed by boss-lady who paused at the door to look back. "If I find you've lied or you were wrong, I will personally return and have you beaten bloody and crippled."

Once everyone was cleared from the property, in an amazing 5 minutes, Helaena turned to Sam and slapped her so hard she hit the ground about 2 meters away.

"How dare you! How dare you give my sister any information about anything! You have most likely condemned a man to a painful and horrid death!"

Sam stood up rubbing her face, which now had a red hand mark imprinted on it. "I'd rather it be him than you and I. He's been nothing but trouble since he arrived." she grumbled, "I didn't trust him from the start."

"How the fuck can you trust him? You didn't even get a chance to get to know him, for fuck sake! You just threw him to the wolves so you could get your girlfriend back! Did you know he left after you told him to go, and when I caught up with him he reprimanded me for what I did to you? He said that I ignored my relationship with you and that I didn't think of your feelings. He wasn't upset that you treated him badly, he was upset that I treated YOU badly! And YOU don't trust him?" Helaena was beside herself. "I'm not sure I want to be with you any more. You're not the person I thought you were." I could see tears starting to flow as she stormed back into the house from where we had watched the troops leave.

Sam stood there dumbstruck, watching her return to the house and slam the door shut. I could see this was not going to end properly, so I quietly walked over to the bike and loosened the spark-plug cable. Sam tried for about 5 minutes to start the bike then gave up and knocked on the door.

I stood back a ways from the house hoping for the best results. "Solomon has a 'good heart', Maxi thinks the proper idiom is. You care about people enough to help them at the risk of Solomon's own life"

It suddenly struck me, it wasn't just my 'Own' life any more, it was mine and Maxi's life now, and that I had to also think of her and not just me anymore. "I promise not to endanger us any more, Maxi. This was particularly thoughtless of me. My actions don't just endanger me anymore, they endanger you also. I will consult you before I take actions like that again." I said apologetically. I moved towards the side where the pool was and made my way towards the pool house, where the rest of the things Helaena had bought were stored. If I was going to leave, I was going to take everything she bought for me and repay her for it all later. It was unfortunate that Shakti had been taken home with her mother, as I would not be able to say goodbye. I gathered up everything and placed it in a plastic garbage bag from the janitorial bin, then removed the air to make it a compact bundle. I sealed the bundle and, using cloth ties, and then made a makeshift travel satchel. I looked around for anything I might have missed, stepped out of the pool house, turned and locked the door. I started heading in the direction of the park gate again, but paused. I couldn't go that way any more. They would be waiting for me.

"Maxi thinks that no matter which way Solomon goes they will be there waiting." she whispered.

I stood there for a few moments loudly thinking to myself about options and sifting through ideas.

I could possibly leave through the street access and walk to town, but it would make me conspicuous, or I could possible take the park gate and avoid the trails, or I could try to go in the opposite direction that I originally went and hope for the best.

"Maxi thinks Solomon is getting a bit desperate with that last idea, but it might be an idea to just walk down the street access. As invisible as Solomon is, street access would be the best route. Less suspicious and direct access to the town, from there Solomon would have a higher survival and escape probability."

I considered what she had said as I had forgotten that I was in fact invisible. "Might be better than the probabilities of the park path." I thought.