Jessa Ch. 04

Dear Readers: SPOILER ALERT. This chapter contains significant back story and plot development. If you are looking for mostly erotic passages, you might want to skip this chapter, but if you enjoy complex, multi-layered characters (and worlds) then by all means: read on.

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"Jessa, wake up." She rolled over and the muscles of her limbs screamed in protest. Torah was standing beside the bed holding some sort of juice concoction. She was relieved to see that the anger hadn't returned. Maybe he hadn't been talking about the pandemic last night. Maybe she had read far too much into his words. "Hurry." He reached down and threw the bedding back. She sat up, trying not to groan and accepted the glass from him. "Drink up, then shower. I set out clothes for you." He gestured toward the foot of the bed and Jessa glanced over. He had laid out a long dress, similar to what she had worn when they had flown from Summer's End. It was the sort of day wear that a titled woman would wear when in public.

"Are we going to town?"

"We have an appointment. In Dusseldorf. Shower."

"Dusseldorf?" She tried to scrape together her memories from geography program. "There are people in Dusseldorf?"

He pulled her to her feet and pushed her toward the bathroom. "Shower. And drink that, don't pour it out."

"But, Dusseldorf?"

"It's a long drive. We can talk about it then. Go."

She padded toward the bathroom, her mind spinning with curiosity. It was common knowledge that all the large cities had been emptied out as the pandemic had spread. The concentration of so many people in a small area was catastrophic with a highly communicable disease. The vast majority of the dead were from the big cities. Some had lived to flee and spread the disease even further. Most had died where they had lived. Why would anybody return to those cities?

The shower eased her sore muscles and the juice filled her belly. Whatever Torah had put on the welts had worked virtual magic. They were still pinkish, but the swelling was gone and the shower didn't sting like it had the day before. Even where the skin had been broken seemed to be healing fast and without infection. The ache deep in her belly, though, had not changed. She wondered if she could hide it from Torah. She wondered if she should. He had seemed impatient, but not angry this morning. She was really hoping to keep it that way. She looked in the mirror as she brushed her hair, and determined that she was going to do whatever he asked of her today; anything to keep that fearful anger from boiling over again. By now, there was nothing she could do to prevent a pregnancy, anyway. Her fate was no longer in her own hands. And, she was hopelessly, almost frantically, curious to find out about Dusseldorf. Torah had all but promised her more information.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Torah had gone. She dressed quickly, feeling somewhat glamorous in the long dress. She even took a moment to admire herself in the mirror on the dressing table. She had left her hair down, since Torah had mentioned liking it that way, though she wasn't sure if he meant the look of it, or the way he could pull and twist it. She found a pair of sandals and was pulling them on when he came back in the room. "I think I'm ready," she said, jumping up. He just stared at her for a long moment, until she finally asked, "Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "Why can't you be as cooperative as you are beautiful," he complained.

"I..." she started, but she didn't know where to go after that. "I don't know," she admitted. "I guess my parents want to know the same thing."

"I'm sure they do," he said with a sigh. He walked over to her and took her chin. "Jessa, you need to understand something. Dusseldorf is the Council Seat. I've told you before. You don't fuck with the Council. You can't be running amok on the streets of Dusseldorf. If you think the punishment yesterday was bad..." He paused until he was sure he had captured her undivided attention. "What the Council will do to you will be a hundred times worse. You will wish for death. Do you understand what I am saying?"

She nodded, thinking of the creepy men on the helicopter. "I will behave, Torah."

He held her chin a moment longer. "I wish I could believe you." Then he moved his grip to her arm and was pulling her along. This time, after they reached the main floor, he led her through a part of the house that she hadn't seen before and down more steps into a basement of sorts, then finally through a door and into a garage. Jessa stopped and stared. There were three cars in the garage, along with several utility type vehicles, presumably for maintenance of the villa's grounds. In her little residential community, they all had to share a car, reserve days when they needed to use it. Torah had gone to one of the vehicles and opened a door, holding it for her, but she was staring at a different one.

"Come on," he scolded.

"Torah, isn't that a gas fueled car?"

He sighed in exasperation. "Sometimes I have to go far and fast. I don't have time to be stopping and recharging. Now get in."

"Do all Tenth Lords have gas cars?" she asked as she climbed into the passenger seat.

"No," he replied and shut her door, leaving no more room for discussion. He circled the car and climbed into the driver's seat. The electric engine hummed softly to life as the garage door lifted behind them. Jessa bit her lip. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but not if it would make him angry at her. But then he looked over and said "What? I can see you're dying to ask something. Spit it out."

"I, um... I guess I thought you would have a servant to drive."

"I do," he said, backing out of the garage. "But not to Dusseldorf. Everything about Dusseldorf is confidential, just like the other seats." He looked over at her before putting the car in forward. "You do understand the concept of confidential, right?"

She nodded, feeling chastised. For someone who was supposed to be so bright, she was feeling kind of stupid. She wasn't sure she was going to be capable of making the leap to Tenth Circle. She watched as they drove along the access road down to the armed gate. When Torah pulled up at the gate, one of the guards came out and spoke briefly with him. Torah told the guard that they might be staying the night if it got too late. She didn't know how to feel about that. The thought of staying in Dusseldorf where so many had died felt like staying in a haunted house with ghosts around every corner. Then they were through the gate and driving down toward one of the old superhighways she could see in the far off distance.

Torah looked over at her a couple of times as he drove. "Surely you haven't run out of questions already," he said finally.

She spread her hands. "I just don't even know where to start."

"Then I'll start," he said. "Where did you learn to run like that?"

"My father," she answered softly. "He was a runner, and his father. He told me that one of our ancestors was an Olympian."

"Impressive," Torah admitted. "Do you still run with him?"

"He doesn't really talk to me anymore," she murmured.

"Why?"

She shrugged, trying to sound casual. "When I came home from my first Summer's End, he was disappointed. He was sure I would find someone."

"And you weren't even looking," Torah concluded.

"Yeah. And then, when they caught me with Peter... He wouldn't have anything to do with me after that."

"What did he think about you still doing programs at the age of twenty-three?"

Her head snapped around to look at him. "How did you know?" she demanded.

"I know a great deal. Answer my question."

She was wringing her hands and playing nervously with the ring that Torah had slipped on her finger two nights ago. "I don't think he knew. Momma said she snuck the money. Told him it was for something else."

"Why were you still taking programs?"

She shrugged. "There was always more I wanted to learn."

"Astrophysics? Chaos theory?" he cocked an eyebrow at her before looking back to the road.

Jessa looked out her side window, wondering if there was anything he didn't know. "Well, I'm sure if I had been able to learn that cities like Dusseldorf were still occupied, I would have taken those programs. Or that the Circles had fossil fuel vehicles." She could feel him looking at her, but she didn't turn. "We were always told that only Security Forces were permitted fossil fuels. But I guess a lot of what we were told wasn't true." She wanted to kick herself. She had sworn that she was going to be well-behaved and here she was, baiting him, practically throwing fuel on the fire she was so afraid of. He was silent for so long, she finally looked back down at her lap, then dared steal a glance at him from the corner of her eyes. He seemed lost in thought, but not angry.

Finally, he spoke again. "Jessa, why don't you want to have children? You obviously have nothing against men, or the pleasures of being with them," he added, rubbing salt in her wound. "So it must be children. But you are wonderful with Samu and Saula, you sincerely seem to enjoy them."

"I do," she exclaimed.

"Then why not your own?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said. "The choice has been taken out of my hands," she added with a hint of bitterness.

"I want to know. I told you I would do everything in my power to give you the life you want. And Jessa, I do have power. So tell me what it is that you think you have to give up."

She shook her head, wiping at tears that wanted to fall. "My dream has died. I've buried it so that you can have your dream, so let it lie in piece."

He looked over at her for a long time as he drove along the empty straight road. "Jessa? Jessa!" he repeated more sharply.

"What?" she said softly, thinking he wanted to continue the argument.

"Why are you holding your stomach?" It took her a moment to process the sudden change in topic, then she snatched her hand away.

"I'm not," she insisted.

He slowed to a stop, pulling to the side of the road, even though there wasn't another vehicle in sight. "Does it hurt? Where?" He unbuckled her seatbelt. "Show me where it hurts." When she didn't answer, he took a deep breath, striving for patience. "You told me you were going to behave. That includes telling me when something's wrong."

She reached over and pointed to the area where the ache seemed to radiate. "What kind of pain?" he demanded.

"A dull ache. It's not bad. I'm sure it's nothing."

He glowered at her with exasperation as he sat back and pulled out his cell phone. He tapped on it a few times, then held it up to his ear. "Yeah, it's me. Yeah, we're on the way. We'll be there on time. Listen, I need you to do me a favor. After the other tests, we need to get in to see a gynecologist or internist, whoever you can find. Yeah I know, can't be helped. We'll do it in the morning if we have to, but try and make it tonight. Okay. Yeah, dull ache, lower right quadrant. No, none of that. Okay. Where are we with that other little project?" After that, he listened for a long time, stealing glances at both Jessa and in the rear view mirror. "Okay," he finally said. "Let me know, and I'll touch base with you before we leave. Thanks." He tapped a few more times on the phone, read something, then returned it to his pocket. He glanced at Jessa one more time, then put the car in forward again. "Fasten your seatbelt."

After a long silence, he said, "Come on. I know you have questions. Spit one out."

She cringed slightly, expecting the return of his anger. "Am I going to die?"

He glanced at her. "Why do you think that?"

"You said Peter may have infected me."

"Probably not. We're still looking in to it, but it looks like his people were second wave. That would have put them before the mutation."

"So you were talking about the pandemic," she concluded. "What mutation?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"I thought you'd seen my program studies. I've covered molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics. I know what the hell a mutation is. If you weren't so damned determined to hide information from the rest of us..."

He held a hand up. "All right, all right. There were people, a very few, who fell sick and recovered from the original infection."

"Their antibodies led to the vaccine," she said.

"Do you want to tell this story?"

"Sorry," she whispered.

"There was a mutation, fairly early on. It was called the First Mutation, though there were probably many. It turned the infected person into a carrier. Mind you, by that time most of the people were dead. A few had survived the infection. An isolated few hadn't been exposed. Those survivors were vulnerable to the mutation. They didn't get sick and they didn't make others sick unless the virus passed back through the system of a mosquito. The mosquito's RNA is what altered it back into a virulent strain. That first mutation was localized to the Mediterranean area because travel had basically been shut down by then. It couldn't jump continents, but it moved north toward us and south toward Sub-Saharan Africa. So some of the people in the first wave of refugees had provided the antibodies for a vaccine which could protect those of us in the northern latitudes as the original disease spread. And some of the people in the first wave were carriers, seemingly healthy, but if bitten by a mosquito, they spread death by a mutated virus which was immune to the vaccine."

"The secondary pandemic," she said quietly.

"Yes. Eventually, the eradication efforts put a serious dent in the mosquito populations, tests that could identify carriers were developed, survivors had fled congested living centers, populations moved to even colder climates. We had managed to get some kind of control. That was when the second wave of refugees came. It was much smaller. People like your Peter's family, who had lived in isolation, or in high altitudes..."

"Yes, Peter had said his people raised sheep and goats high in the Alps."

Torah nodded. "With the infrastructure decimated, food ran out, those few remaining survivors came north. It was more orderly, people were tested, resettled. The other continents experienced similar waves of refugees and resettlements with varying success."

"But you said Peter's people came before the mutation?"

"Before the Second Mutation."

"And what was the Second Mutation?"

"We don't know."

"Then how do you know there is a mutation?"

"Because there is a tertiary pandemic." Jessa stared at him. She could feel the blood draining from her face.

"People are dying?" she asked.

He nodded. "Not in great numbers yet, so not a pandemic. Yet. We've been able to keep it under wraps. The Americas are reporting similar deaths, so the mutation wasn't confined this time."

"Russia?" she asked. "Australia?"

He snorted. "Russia won't tell us anything. Australia is so decentralized, they are having trouble determining, but they're working on it. Nobody has any idea what's happening in China and Southeast Asia." He waved a hand. "The rest devolved into chaos long ago."

"A mutation of the carrier mutation, maybe? Hard to track in the same way?"

"Jessa," he said softly.

"What?" She was suddenly certain she wasn't going to want to hear what he said.

"There are no carriers."

"They were cured?" she asked in confusion. "I know you said they developed tests to detect them."

"Not cured. They couldn't find a cure or a vaccine. There were no antibodies, because they weren't sick. Their bodies didn't recognize the virus as alien."

Jessa stared at him with a furrowed brow. "But... What?" Suddenly she clapped her hand to her mouth. "Torah! Stop. I'm going to be sick."

He pulled over, then held her hair as she opened the car door, leaned out and threw up on the paving. After a long series of dry heaves, she finally sat back in the car seat, her eyes closed, feeling utterly miserable. "They killed them?" she whispered.

"It was the only way," he said softly.

"Even in ancient times, they had leper colonies!" she exclaimed.

"Leprosy wasn't transmitted by mosquitoes."

Her eyes flew open. "And you're taking me to be tested, because I may have been exposed to this tertiary pandemic? I thought maybe I was going to be killed by a disease, not by..."

"Hush. No one is being killed. WE are going to be tested, in a secure facility. But I already told you, Peter has been all but cleared. It's just pro forma."

"I took Latin, too."

"I know," he said with a reassuring smile. "Wait here. I had a lunch packed. You at least need something to drink." He got out and went around to the trunk of the car.

"Wait here, he says," she muttered. "We're in the middle of nowhere. "Where am I going to go?"

"What?" he asked, climbing back into the driver's seat. He had a bag that he opened and started digging through, handing her a bottle.

"Nothing. What's the connection with Italy? You freaked when I said Peter was from Italy."

"I just know that the scientists think there's some kind of connection involving Italy and Greece, or what's left of them. Something having to do with the vector. It might not be mosquitoes anymore."

She took a few tentative sips. "You, know, if you'd let me in on all this, I might be able to help. Just because you see me as a baby factory doesn't mean I don't have a brain, too." When he held out a sandwich to her, she took it and began eating eagerly.

"I've already told you more than I should have," he said, "Since you aren't Tenth until we marry. Anyway, studies are a lot different than hands-on lab work."

Jessa's hands and eyes dropped to her lap, the sandwich forgotten.

"What?" Torah demanded. She shook her head. "Then eat!"

He tossed the remainder of his own sandwich out the window and started driving again. Jessa nibbled at her sandwich without enthusiasm. She stole glances at Torah as he drove, finding it interesting that he checked the rear view mirror with regularity. She hadn't seen another car on the road since the beginning of their trip. For some time, they drove in silence. Jessa took note of some active fields and occupied residences.

"I can't believe you've run out of questions," Torah teased her. She was beginning to think she didn't want any more of her curiosity satisfied if the answers were going to be so horrifying. But his talkativeness seemed like too opportune a moment to pass up.

"Tell me about Dusseldorf, then. Are there other occupied cities?"

"Only a handful. The cities were emptied out. But after a time, the people in power realized they needed the infrastructure of the cities. They didn't have time to start from scratch. They established the Council Seats and a few more where Security Forces are based and where advanced medical research facilities already existed."

"Why Dusseldorf?"

"Location, mainly. With transportation being limited, centralized locations became important. Berlin was too far East. Too close to Wroclaw."

'That's another seat?"

"Yes."

"And Paris? I'd heard rumors there were people living in Paris all my life, but I didn't believe them."

"Yes, Paris. And Birmingham."

"And the medical research?"

He glanced at her and frowned. "I'm not sure. Not really my bailiwick."

She watched out the window as they passed a town. She saw a handful of cars and people in the streets. "Is this where we were going to go shopping?"

"There's a town to the north that is closer," he replied. "Come on, what else do you want to know?"

She leaned back in the seat. "Does your mother hate me?"

He laughed. "You're going to give me whiplash changing direction that fast. Why do you think Mother hates you?"

"She must know I didn't come of my own free will."

He considered his answer for a moment. "She knew it was a possibility, although I imagine she thought it would be because you were interested in someone other than me. Not that you weren't interested in anyone. And I wasn't permitted to tell you that I was a Lord. To seduce you with my title," he said with a grin. "Like that was even a possibility. That was why the Council dictated that I leave as soon as my decision was made. To avoid an awkward scene on Sunday if there was a competitor for your affections."