Free Genesis by Paul Antony Jones Page A

that I don’t know exactly where it is I’m going, and, well, you know how dangerous it is out there. I don’t want to have to worry about you. Besides, I need you to stay here and look after his lordship over there.” She nodded toward Thor, who was asleep by Adam’s empty cot.
    “But . . . but . . . what if something happens to you?” Rhiannon blurted out. “What if you don’t come back? I’ll be all alone.”
    Emily stepped in closer to the girl. “No way. No way is that going to happen and no way would you be on your own. I’ll make it back with Adam. And even if I don’t, then Mac will, do you understand me?”
    “But . . .”
    Emily placed both hands on Rhiannon’s shoulders. “No buts. We will all be okay . . . okay?” She smiled and then added a hug when she received a halfhearted, unsure smile in return. “Now, I need to finish packing.” She released Rhiannon and moved to the closet, pulled down two boxes of ammunition for her .45 and the extra magazine she kept on the top shelf. She checked the boxes to make sure they were full and then tossed them on the bed too.
    “But you said that the council wouldn’t give you permission to go find Adam,” said Rhiannon.
    “I know.”
    “So how are you going to get the helicopter?”
    Emily stopped for a moment and looked at Rhiannon. “I’m just going to borrow it. That’s all.”
    “You mean steal it, don’t you?” Rhiannon said, deadpan.
    Emily almost laughed. “No, I mean borrow it. I’ll bring it back when I find Adam. Listen, these people refuse to believe me. They haven’t seen any of the things that you and I have. They still think this is some kind of global pandemic or something, that everything will eventually go back to how it was. They’re living with their heads shoved firmly up their own . . . heads buried in the sand. So the only way I’m going to get Adam back is if I do it my way. Besides, it’s not like they’re going to need it; no one else knows how to fly the thing apart from me.”
    “Can’t we wait until Mac gets back?” Rhiannon asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed, next to Emily’s backpack.
    Emily continued packing. “By the time Mac gets here it’ll be too late. I have to go now.” She didn’t want to add what she was thinking: that there was a high possibility that Mac might never make it back, but she forced her mind away from that thought. “Food,” she said. “I need supplies. Where did Mac leave the MREs?” She was halfway to the cupboard where she remembered her husband had stored his surplus military Meals Ready to Eat when there were two loud thumps on the apartment’s front door.
    “Emily. This is Provost Fisher, please open up.” Three more dull fist thuds against the door followed.
    Thor started to bark.
    “Stay here,” Emily told Thor and Rhiannon as she slipped her .45 into its holster and stepped into the hall, closing the bedroom door behind her. A trio of thoughts manifested themselves unbidden in her mind as she walked toward the front door: What if I’m crazy like Valentine seems to think? What if Fisher’s here with news about Adam? What if they have found him? Well then, this would be one occasion when she would be more than happy to apologize to Valentine. Her heart skipped a beat or three as she released the latch and opened the door.
    Fisher stood in the doorway, his face stern, the two guards who had been in her apartment standing on either side of him, arms folded across their chests.
    “What’s going—” Emily began to say.
    “Get her weapon,” Fisher ordered. The two goons leapt at Emily, grabbing her and pushing her face-first into the wall. One twisted her arm up behind her back while the other grabbed the pistol from its holster on her hip.
    “What the fuck are you doing?” Emily demanded through teeth gritted in pain. “Get your Goddamn hands off of me.”
    “Emily Baxter, on the orders of the Point Loma council, I am arresting you on