He couldn’t believe it, any of it. At first he couldn’t believe his luck. When the report came back that two Lao women had thwarted an attempted attack at Central Park West, he immediately snuck away to find them. He did find them — and her. There she was, right before him once more. It was fate.
And yet he had failed — again. Failed spectacularly, beyond his wildest nightmares. Granted, it was that fool’s own fault for interfering. He himself could hardly be responsible for the wrongheaded and misguided notions of other people. And yet he was responsible for his own failure. His mortification would have been almost unbearable if he had not discovered one thing that could very well make up for all the other disasters leading to this point.
After frantically ditching his motorcycle, helmet and jacket in the duck pond, he tried to make it seem like he had just been going for a stroll in the park — which was ridiculous, he realized, because no one strolled in Central Park any more. He ran smack into that strange group of people from upstate. Maybe it was because he looked so distraught, so deeply troubled, but for whatever reason they told him why they were here and what they were seeking.
It was just too perfect. This one would be even more spectacular than Maggie’s had been. It was exactly what he needed for his fourth success.
+
“There’s a problem and I might need all of your help,” Jo explained. “One of the Lao women is missing.”
“You need us to help find her?” Harrigan volunteered.
“Not quite. We think we know where she is now, but — well, there are complications. She just joined us yesterday, and she’s a little — strange.”
I was having a hard time processing her words. “What do you mean strange?”
“Well, she’s pregnant, but that’s not the strange part. She also claims she’s a virgin.”
I almost started laughing, though there was nothing funny about the tone of her voice and no part of me that felt any sort of comic relief. “Jo, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Those people from Wiley? Turns out we didn’t find them; they found us. They were looking for us. Specifically, they were looking for her. And it looks like they may have found her, not far from here. They’re religious fundamentalists of some sort, and they heard the rumor.”
Harrigan and Ruth stared so hard at Jo I thought lasers were going to shoot out of their eyes. “The virgin birth stuff?” Harrigan asked. Jo nodded, seeming a bit impressed with his acumen. Seeing my tired confusion, Harrigan explained. “A lot of people, including our Wileyan friends apparently, see all the terrible things that have been happening as signs of the apocalypse. There have been rumors making the cyberspace rounds about one of the Lao Babies being a pregnant virgin. They see this as proof of the second coming. Or something like that, near as I can figure.”
“It’s Nell, isn’t it.”
Ruth, again, almost inaudible but still commanding our complete attention. Again Jo looked surprised — and wary. “Yes, that’s her name. Nell.”
“Ruth.” She turned, looking surprised at my tone, at the rage simmering beneath the syllable of her name. I was getting tired of not knowing what was going through her head considering that it affected all of us. “What do you know about this?”
I didn’t expect her to tell me anything, but again she did. Like Lindstrom, like everyone, she was running out of time. She hadn’t wanted to talk about the past for 40 years, but now that I was here before her — the first Lao Baby, her first success — I guess she had the only listener she’d ever wanted.
“There was always the possibility that a Lao Baby could eventually achieve parthenogenesis with only her own genetic material. In normal human beings, this would result in a 100% failure rate. The closer two people are in terms of genetic material, to put it simplistically, the more likely they will produce offspring with serious genetic defects — which as you know is the reason many cultures eventually ban intermarrying between siblings, cousins, and other close relations.”
I could feel the weight of Harrigan’s stare, even though it was aimed at her and not me. He had no idea why Ruth was going on about these seemingly random topics, though, impressively, he’d managed to follow those seemingly random topics rather well. “But a Lao Baby — woman, rather — wouldn’t have these problems?” he asked.
“That is correct.”
I could see the wheels turning in his head. “And is that what this — Nell? Is that what happened to her?”
“Also correct.”
“But — I mean,” I stammered. Something about this still wasn’t making sense. “She couldn’t just spontaneously impregnate herself. Someone did this to her, so to speak.”
“Gerald Lindstrom?” Harrigan suggested.
“No,” I said. I looked steadily at Ruth.
She nodded. “She found me before you did.”
Ruth, again, was the answer. Yet the more answers I got, the less clear things became. “Why did you do it?”
“Because she asked. Because she thought she’d never be able to have children. She was 41 and hadn’t reached menarche yet. Her adoptive family, I’m afraid, had not treated her well; she showed significant signs of psychological trauma including delusions and hysteria. But she found me all the same. And asked for my help.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “And you thought it was a good idea for a psychologically damaged woman to have a child?” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Harrigan nod slightly. Clearly he wanted to see Ruth brought down a peg or two.
Ruth would not be brought down. “I had reasons. We had created near-perfect beings in that lab. I wanted to know if those beings could create themselves. If they could, it would bring them even closer to perfection.” Ruth had never sounded like some kind of stereotypical mad scientist before, but she was coming close to it now. Perhaps she knew this, for her next words sounded more along the lines of her usual dry commentary. “I suppose, too, like all humans, I simply wanted to see the continuation of life, though I imagine people would find that statement odd coming from a woman who gave away her child — her children.”
No one said anything for a while. What could be said? It was impossible for me to think of myself as Ruth’s child. Sylvia and I had problems, did we ever, but they weren’t all that much different from the kinds of things other mothers and daughters went through. Ruth was a stranger, and I could no more consider her my mother than I could consider myself some freak monstrosity created in a lab.
Finally Harrigan broke the silence. “So you did this — procedure on her and then sent her out in the world?”
“Certainly not. I sent her to Gerald, told him to protect her. I wanted her safe, and ironically he’s the only one I trusted, because I gave him an incentive. If anyone found her, they might find out that he was not the one responsible for her pregnancy, so to speak. And then they might keep probing until they found out everything.”
“And his house of cards would fall,” said Harrigan.
“Correct.”
“But it didn’t work.”
“She must have run away from him.” She turned to me. “I imagine you’ve been questioning my motives all along, wondering why I came along with you, wondering whether I was really trying to lead you astray in order to protect either Gerald or Baxter or both. It was neither. She’s the one I want to protect — and you as well. All of you.” There was a trace of something like defiance or pride in her voice, as though it would be ludicrous to assume she cared anything for Gerald or Baxter the way she did the Lao Babies. “I joined you because I wanted to make sure he was keeping her safe in the midst of all this other nonsense he felt the need to perpetrate. Safe from people like these Wileyans, safe from Baxter, safe from everyone else who has tried to harm you.”
Now she turned to Harrigan with a cool glance. “You wanted to find Lindstrom? I suspect you will. I know Gerald. I know how his mind works. He figures out a way to use every situation to his own advantage, to his own glorification. He will want to get to her as much as we do — and as much as Baxter does. I believe everyone is about to find what they’ve been looking for.”