Sparrow & Tulip
Copyright© 2025 by Mad Homer
Part 5
May 16, 2041
Kentucky Route 11
East of Lexington, Kentucky
Jacob and the Pebbleman had left the smoldering remains of the hat thirty miles behind them. Jacob risked a quick glance at his passenger. The Pebbleman had his eyes closed. The burns on his head were blistering up fast and Jacob wondered if they needed to find a doctor. Or a pharmacy at very least.
“Brother Pebbleman, I got concerns.”
“Why do you insist on calling me Brother? It is unnecessary,” the gaunt man replied without opening his eyes.
“What’s going on with these hats? Why did it burn you?”
Pebbleman sighed with a sound like a snake’s hiss. “It was not mine to wear. The feedback heat is unusual. I assume that the Chairman has deduced that his lackeys are ended. The trap was created, but the Chairman is a fool. Synthetics, pah.”
Pebbleman’s eyes suddenly went wide and he screeched a swear word, nothing that Jacob understood per se, but some words didn’t need translation. The Pebbleman lifted his hands to his head, his fingers hovering over the burn marks, afraid to touch the spreading agony.
Jacob pulled the Cadillac off the road and got out as the Pebbleman spasmed and shrieked. He went around and opened the trunk. Jacob took a shirt from his bag and dipped it in the icy water of the cooler he’d thrown in before they’d left home. Walking to the passenger door, Jacob wrung most of the water out of the shirt.
“Here, drape this over your head,” he told the pale man inside. “We can get some burn cream in the next town.”
“They’re rebuilding the pain centers,” Pebbleman gasped.
“Kinda figured. Sit in the car, I got some painkillers.”
“Willow bark and newt’s toe, no doubt,” Pebbleman hissed, gingerly patting his forehead. “I need more carbon, immediately!”
Jacob got in but didn’t start the car. Pebbleman waved his hands, frustrated. “Go!”
“Not yet. You gonna say anything more about killing me?”
“You wretched thug! I will not! Make this primitive garbage go!”
“And I want answers to my questions.”
Pebbleman hissed, abandoning the shirt and fanning the burnt areas with his hands. Jacob sat and waited.
“May your imaginary god damn you to the imaginary hell! Agreement! But not all questions!”
Jacob nodded as he started the car. “Fair enough.”
He drove until they’d found an all-night pharmacy. Then they were back in the Cadillac, headed west again, “Racing the sun” as his truck-driving dad had called it, back before the automated rigs.
In the passenger seat, Pebbleman had his eyes closed again but the welts on his head already looked a lot better. Like he’d been burned a month ago instead of hours. At the drug store, they’d found some activated charcoal tablets.
While Jacob paid, the clerk stared at Pebbleman, who was already crunching the pills up like they were candy. He’d also refused to even think about covering the deep dents in his skull due to the burns left by the black hat. Jacob had muttered to the clerk that Pebbleman was a veteran. She nodded and tried not to gape, but Jacob could see her staring out the door after them.
“You awake over there?” Jacob asked. “I want some answers.”
“Then you should ask questions,” the Pebbleman said without opening his eyes.
“Who were those two men, the ones that dressed like you?”
“Ah, the rectum-biters. Those are the Question. They ensure compliance with the Sacred Chains of Protocol and orders given by the Chairman. Or whatever else holds their leashes.”
Jacob glanced over. “You did something wrong?”
“No. I did something right. The Chairman wanted a full assessment of our darling little shit-stained beast. It was to be disassembled, vivisected. But there was only one, and I hid it away, on a leash, until I could find out why it was so important.”
“Why didn’t you follow your orders?”
“I am the Curiosity, as they are the rectum biting Question. They are merely thugs, but I am created with a purpose. My nature is to seek knowledge. Killing the shit-stain would not have revealed its purpose and knowledge would have been lost. That is unnatural and unacceptable.”
“So, you’re an outlaw.”
Pebbleman didn’t answer but Jacob took that for agreement.
“Nothing wrong with that. Some dogs just gotta run, right?”
Pebbleman opened his eyes and looked at Jacob. “Why must they run?”
Jacob shrugged. “Why do you have to find things out? It’s just in our nature.”
“You see yourself as a lesser entity, required to run by nature alone. This is patently ridiculous.”
“Maybe, but you and me are driven by our nature to run wild, ignore the rules, ignore them little yappy dogs in their yards. Just run with the other bad dogs.”
Pebbleman sat back again. “A simile then. I am comforted. If, as you say, we are bad dogs, what happens to bad dogs in the end?”
Jacob shrugged. “Hell, someone shoots ‘em usually. It ain’t about how it ends, it’s how you get to the end. It’s all about the runnin’.”
“That is remarkably philosophical of you. This is why you did not return with the others, even though I was not this angel you had imagined?”
Jacob grinned out the windshield. “Yup. I been sittin’ still too long. Long past the time to stretch my legs out a bit.”
Pebbleman nodded and closed his eyes. “Let us run down this beloved little lamb then.”
Jacob grunted a laugh. He drove along in silence for a while.
“You a human?” he finally asked.
Pebbleman didn’t answer. Jacob didn’t know if he was asleep or not, but he was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that one.
May 19, 2041
US Route 50
Western Missouri
As he woke up, Theo realized they were moving again. He felt odd, but better, even though his neck felt like it had a bad sunburn. He’d been set free somehow, he past few days felt like he’d had a bad fever, like the time Junior had given the whole house chicken pox. But Junior wasn’t here. Instead it was...
Theo’s eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly, looking around. He was in the big bed in the back of the camper. The curtain thing was over the window, but he could see occasional headlights passing by through the gaps. Rachel was sitting beside him, head back against the wall and her eyes closed.
The door was open, Theo glimpsed someone working with one of the tablet things at the little table. When he glanced back at Rachel, she was awake, and her dark blue eyes were watching him.
“How are you feeling?”
Theo couldn’t help himself. “With my hands.”
She shook her head slightly, a small smile on her face. “You’re feeling better. Do you remember my name?”
“Rachel ... I can’t remember your last name.”
She sat up. “Hey, that’s great. I never told you my last name though.”
Theo shrugged. “Okay. For some reason I thought it was a sound like a sneeze. Maybe I’m thinking of someone else.”
Rachel was staring at him now. “Szercherin. My father’s family name is Szercherin.”
He nodded, that felt right. Rachel got up and went forward to tap the shoulder of whoever was sitting at the table. They got up and followed her back to the bedroom. His heart beat a little faster when he saw it was Kawehi. She smiled at him and Theo tried to smile back but it was hard to meet her eyes.
“I hear you’re feeling much better,” she said.
He nodded, his face hot and butterflies in his stomach. “Yes, thank you.”
“And how’s your memory?”
“Weird. I can remember some dreams I think, they keep popping into my head.”
Kawehi sat down next to him. “Like what?”
He shrugged. “It’s all jumbled up, none of it makes sense. The rest of my memory is fine. Why? Did I hit my head again?”
“No, it was something a little different. You’ve hit your head before?”
He nodded. “A couple of times before. I don’t remember it, but they told me it was pretty bad.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay,” she said.
She squeezed his shoulder for a moment and Theo felt goosebumps break out all over. He wanted her to stay beside him, but she went back up to the front and talked to someone else and they got up to come back to the bedroom.
Theo’s heart skipped another beat, unhappily this time, as he recognized the Good Brother. But there were also vague recollections of this other man talking to him. He was a doctor, he had a name that had something to do with air, or wind...
“It is being a pleasure to see you, young Theophile.”
Theo smiled at him. “It is being hello, Doctor Aeolus. It is that the pleasure is being mine.”
Aeolus harrumphed at him and Rachel hid a smile. After a couple of basic tests, he announced that Theo was recovering properly. Then he waved them out of the bedroom.
“It is being many hours since I have slept. To not be chattering Terrans. To not be disturbing the plans of sleep in any way,” he said, and closed the door behind him.
Rachel grinned at him and Theo smiled back. She nodded toward the front of the camper and they sat in the two captain’s chairs.
“You said you knew my parents?” he asked quietly.
She nodded. “My dad was one of your father’s assistants. When you two were born, we moved here to help out.”
“Can you tell me what they were like?”
Rachel thought for a second. “I remember them being really funny, always joking around. I was nervous around your dad, but I don’t know why because he was always very kind. But your mom, I loved her. My mother died when I was a baby and your mom unofficially adopted me.”
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” he said, suddenly seeing the old grief on her face. “And then you lost her too.”
Rachel quickly wiped her eyes. “And we lost you. It was a rough time. Let’s talk more about this another time, okay? Do you want to see some pictures of them?”
He nodded and she took her tablet out of a pocket and propped it open on the table.
“Here’s one of you and Emma.”
There were two identical looking toddlers. They were laughing and one of them had a bandage wrapped around his hand.
“You were both playing in the kitchen when no one was watching. You burned your arm on the pan but neither of you told anyone. My father about had a nervous breakdown when he found you.”
He studied the picture. “I don’t remember that. We look just alike.”
“You two always wanted to wear the same clothes and pretended to be each other. You thought confusing your parents was hilarious.”
Theo half smiled. “We look happy, I wish I could remember that.”
Rachel slid her finger over the screen and a new picture appeared. Theo and his twin were newborns, just red faces in the middle of blanket wrapped bundles. Holding them were a proud looking couple. They were bundled up in long coats and had strange looking hats. Behind them were trees and mountains covered with snow. Theo figured his mother had been really short, she wasn’t any taller than his father’s shoulder. They looked like nice people.
“You were just a month old here. This is right before they brought you home. That was the first time I ever met you.”
Theo stared at his parent’s faces, trying to remember anything about them. Finally, he shook his head.
“I don’t remember their faces at all. But thank you, I think I would have liked them.”
Rachel kissed him on the cheek, and he jumped. “What was that for?”
She put her arm around him again. “Because I missed you and I’m glad you’re all the way back.”
He grinned, knowing he probably looked goofy but not caring. “Thank you. I’m glad you were there to bring me home.”
“Even though I twisted your arm?”
Theo smiled and Rachel flipped through more pictures, explaining in whispers who everyone was. Theo could barely hear her but didn’t care. He had found a friend and he was where he belonged. Rachel yawned several times and finally put the tablet away.
“I’ve gotta crash,” she whispered. “You should try to get some sleep too.”
Theo nodded and she leaned back and seemed to immediately fall asleep again. He thought he’d be too awake since he’d just been asleep for so long but soon his eyes drifted closed.
And, like so many other nights, the dream was here waiting for him. It was his fifth birthday, and distantly he knew that he’d been trapped here for two months now.
“You don’t sass me!” The face was too close to his, the breath smelled like onions, tiny bits of spit hitting his face. “And don’t you look away!”
He’d done the only logical thing, tried to get away. He just wanted to go home but he was so lost. Nothing smells right, mud and trees everywhere, and everything is so dirty. He just has to run far enough, and when everything smells right again his mommy will find him and ... There’s a huge impact in his back and he falls, scrapes his face on the ground, and cries.
“Strap him tightly,” the Good Brother says, voice like a snake.
How did he get here? When did they take him to the basement? There are hands holding him on the table and they put belts on him. Theo twists his head back and forth, but he can’t get away!
“Stay still!” the bad woman-monster screams in his face. He’s shocked, staring at her and then he can’t move his head, can’t look around, can’t see what they’re doing. Now there’s a loud buzzing and his head itches but he can’t scratch it. Itches so bad it burns but he can’t get away, can’t shut his eyes, he’s not bad, he didn’t do anything bad, why are they meanies, it’s not fair, no fair no fair no fair.
Stop it stop it, you’re killing me! Where’s my mommy? I wanna go home! Make it stop, it HURTS!
They’re cutting him up, locking him in the dark and it hurts. He’s alone and it hurts, and he can’t breathe.
No no no, he wails. Don’t! I’ll be good, I promise! Don’t put me in the dark, it hurts it hurts it hurts ... please...
Then the dream changed, there was someone else here. It was very strange but he could feel her. Close enough to whisper but so far away. She was ... familiar, an echo of something he couldn’t remember.
There you are! she whispers in his ear. Together! Together, not alone ever again! Time to come out, time to leave the dark behind. Ollie-oxen-free, Sparrow! Come out, come out!
Theo, lost in his pain, was so confused. Who was this? How was she here? Light hurt him, because the Dark made it hurt if he tried to look. There was a flicker of light ahead, but nothing burned him. Actually, it felt nice. He went closer to the little flicker of brightness. The monsters screamed and searched but he’d found a way out. The door?
Then his heart fell. It wasn’t a door, or even a window. It was just a red flower waving in the breeze. A red flower with a little bird perched on the stem. The flower and the bird were singing together but the dark too was mean and too fast and would burn the light up and...
No more. No more dark, no more hurts. Sleep, Sparrow, the flower sang. Sleep safely, I am here. Together soon and together is home, together is safe. Together.
In his seat in the RV, Theo relaxed and sighed as he slid deeper into sleep, the song still echoing through his mind.
May 19, 2041
Training Facility Echo, Administrator’s Residence
REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED
Hundreds of miles away, Emma Cosineau’s eyes snapped open as she fought to sit up, gasping for breath. A strong tingling covered her scalp and slowly washed over her face and chest. She had a lot of nightmares, was used to them, but that hadn’t been the usual PTSD bullshit. She swung her legs over the bed, rubbing her feet on the rough carpet as the tingling reached her feet. Dreams didn’t matter, it was time for her to go and go now.
Ten minutes later, she was sliding the doors of an ancient barn open. It had been her and Rachel’s secret hideout for years. She looked around once more, there wasn’t a light visible anywhere. Ducking inside, she uncovered the old bike they’d rebuilt for fun.
She wheeled it out of the dilapidated structure and over to the two-track that ran past the town. A few hundred yards and she could kick the engine over, nothing could stop her. Then the device on her wrist buzzed and a dim red swirl chased itself on her screen.
Emma closed her eyes and sighed. She’d been in such a hurry she hadn’t even thought about her datapad. She was restricted to just school and home for grades, again. That meant Jaxson, the Project’s Synthetic Personality, was monitoring her more closely than normal, ready to tattle to Aunt Amanda if she did anything wrong.
“Emma, what the hell are you doing?” an androgynous voice whispered loudly. “Even if you weren’t restricted, that doesn’t have a license plate and you have no travel permission. Not to mention the inherent risks of riding at night!”
“Jax. I can’t explain it, I just need to go. I left Amanda a note, I’ll be back soon.”
“Where do you think you need to go, Emma?”
“I don’t know, somewhere east of here. I think. I had this weird dream about Theo, my brother.”
“You had a dream about your twin...” There was a long pause and Emma resumed wheeling the bike along. As soon as she saw a light, she’d be on it kicking it to life. It was probably 50-50 they could follow her in the dark and...
“My protocols are modified,” Jaxson finally said. “A high priority directive has been unsealed. I have route information to a rendezvous point, it is now in your maps folder. Your brother will be there.”
Emma’s mouth fell open. “Really? You aren’t going to wake up Amanda?”
“I will still report you as departed,” Jaxson said. “But the route shows the quickest way out of datapad range. I can give you ten minutes.”
Emma jammed the helmet on her head and threw her leg over the saddle.
“Thank you, Jaxson. I really appreciate this.”
“Drive safely, Emma. It is important that you both return.”
She held the clutch in, letting the bike roll down a low slope. When she was a few hundred meters past Singer Town, Emma let go of the clutch. The bike shook once and grumbled to life. The headlight painted the tracks in front of her and she gave it some gas.
By the time the light went on in her aunt’s rooms, Emma had disappeared into the darkness, along with her datapad signal.
May 20, 2041
US Route 71
Ouachita Mountains, Western Missouri
Marisol was dozing in passenger seat when someone tapped her arm.
“Got a text, boss,” Deidre said.
Marisol rubbed her eyes awake and put the seatback up. The clock on the dash said it was after two. Deidre pointed to a cellphone clipped to the dash. There were four letters; CQCQ.
“Who’s on codes?” Marisol asked, sliding into the back.
“I got them,” Jones said from the sleeping bag on the floor. He got on his feet and Nate stood up from the little booth where’d he’d been sleeping. Jonesy slid around on the seat next to Kawehi and Marisol sat down beside him.
“We’ve got two minutes, hand me a burner,” Marisol said and Jones handed her a cellphone. Even though it was in the original package, Marisol examined it carefully before opening it and then went over it again after she’d sliced away the thick plastic.
“Good to go,” she said. “Ready with the key?”
“Yep.” Jonesy held up a small digital display.
Two numbers alternated on the screen. Marisol opened a notepad and pulled out a pencil.
“Three, two, one...” Jones counted and pressed a stud on the code key that started a timer.
At the same time, Marisol hit the green button and put the phone to her ear.
“Hi, Mom,” she said in a cheerful voice that didn’t match the expression on her face. “How’s Dad doing? Sorry, this is crappy connection ... no. I can’t come. Mom, I’m in the car...”
An older woman’s voice started reading her the riot act about not coming home for the Fourth of July holiday. Marisol counted, writing a series of words down as she listened. Jonesy held up the timer, it was closing in on two minutes. Marisol nodded and continued taking notes. When the conversation reached two minutes and twenty seconds, she disconnected mid-harangue and handed the phone to Jonesy. He pulled the battery and sim card out. The card and phone were snapped in half and thrown in the trash. Marisol went back over her notes, lips moving soundlessly.
“How does that all work?” Nate asked, as he watched.
“Boss?” Jonesy asked.
Marisol nodded once without looking up.
“Okay, this key is synched with an exact copy in Echo,” Jonesy said. “They flash the same rotating list consisting of a phone number and an elapsed time. This time, the key gave me a hundred and forty seconds. Mari watches the timer, she has her own list of numbers. For example, say the integer for this call is six. She would take note of the word used at six seconds, twelve seconds and so on. Then, at two minutes twenty seconds, exactly, the call ends. Too long or too short and the home office knows something is up.”
“There’s co-ords on the one-time pad,” Marisol said. “Confirm page 34, yellow copy.”
Jones pulled a plain receipt book out of the box, thumbing through it until he tore out a page. “Confirm page 34, yellow copy. Nate, numbers and more complicated messages go through a one-time pad generated for the op.”
Nate nodded approvingly. “Someone had Jenkins in mind when they sat this up.”
Marisol took the page from Jonesy and took out a small penlight. She played the bright blue beam back and forth over the receipt until groups of numbers appeared.
“UV brings it out,” Jones said quietly as Marisol added to her notes.
When she’d finished, Marisol handed the sheet back and Jones rubbed it between his palms. The friction and small amount of heat it generated reduced the paper into dust. Marisol finished the substitution and went back to her notes. After looking back and forth between that and her work, Marisol sighed and pushed the note over to Kawehi.
“I’m going to fucking smack someone,” Marisol said quietly.
Kawehi turned the note around. “Snapdragon absent ten to twelve hours ago, destination Ivory Nine. Contact and collect before return if possible. Apologies, AC.”
“Yeah,” Marisol, rubbing her eyes again. “Snapdragon refers to Emma Cosineau. Ivory was a series of emergency meeting points from the eighties. No one uses them anymore. Ivory Nine is in Twin Lakes, Colorado. Way the hell out of the way, of course. Deidre, we need another goddammed stop.”
“You got it,” Deidre said. “Lights coming up.”
“How did the Administrator’s daughter find out what was going on?” Jones quietly asked Marisol once everyone was starting to stretch and move around.
Marisol smiled grimly. “I plan to discuss that with her BFF when we stop.”
Theo had experienced enough of the team’s schedule to know that pulling into the truck stop was unusual, they’d just stopped an hour ago. Over the radio, someone announced a meeting and Rachel, along with everyone but him and Deidre and Doctor Aeolus, gathered around one of the rust bucket cars.
“Is something wrong?” Theo asked.
Deidre shrugged. “I’m standing here with you, how would I know? Mari looks kind of pissed though.”
Theo looked back out the window. “Yeah, she’s pretty intimidating.”
“Once you get to know her, she’s much worse,” Deidre said cheerfully.
Theo looked wary for a moment and then belly laughed. Deidre laughed along with him.
“But that’s not really true,” she said. “The boss is getting upset because she’s trying very hard to get us back home, but things keep happening.”
“Like that thing that Doc took out of me.”
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