“What
are you waiting for?” Jamie’s mom yelled at them. “Wanda, I need you over here
now!”
Jamie’s head swivelled
toward Wanda, his mouth hanging open in stupefaction. “You know my mom?” he
asked in a whisper, dropping his hand from hers.
“We might have met a
couple of years ago, before I started working at TS Labs,” Wanda muttered. “We
really don’t have time for this now. I need to help your mom, and you need to
make a decision. Are you going to protect the plants, or protect people? The
decision you make really does determine if you are an Evil Genius, or just a
Lame Genius.”
Jamie’s mom turned back
toward the shrubs that were moving closer to the Hummer. She had the spray
nozzle set and the pump was primed. The two shrubs advanced on the vehicle and
Jamie’s mom sprayed them with the chemical.
There was a hissing noise
and the leaves contacted by the spray began to shrivel, turning from green to a
brown colour. “It’s working Jane, you’re doing great!” whooped Wanda as she
jumped from the roof of the Jeep to the hood and then to the ground. “Are there
more packs in your car?”
“Yes, I think I have five
with plenty of refill canisters. John has more, but he’s on the other side of
town making sure the plants haven’t multiplied too quickly.” Wanda ran to the
Hummer’s back door and grabbed a canister set. She strapped it on her back and
started priming the pump. Jamie was still standing gawk-eyed at his mother.
“You mean dad’s here too?”
“Of course your father’s
here, Jamie.”
His mother yelled over
the hissing of the chemical spray connecting with the shrubs. She continued to
spray the shrubs while trying to explain, but it took a lot of effort.
“We left to protect you,
but obviously that didn’t work. You must have been adjusted before we left. It
was only later that we realised the adjustment wouldn’t show until people
became adults. By then we’d already left, and you guys were doing so well with
Gran. We thought we escaped in time, and that you guys weren’t affected. We
stayed away to keep you safe.”
Wanda climbed on top of
the Hummer and joined Jane in the chemical spray fight. The hedges were trying
to regroup and figure out another way around the car to get toward town. More
hedges were coming out of the forest and were starting to converge on the
Hummer.
Jamie glanced down at the
road and saw that the back door of the Jeep was open. Jessica is no longer in the car, Jamie thought with panic. Had the
hedges gotten to her and turned her again? He felt panic in his heart as he
glanced all over to find his sister.
He finally saw her at the
back of the Hummer. She was strapping on a canister set and pumping the handle.
She looked weak but determined. A surge of fondness and pride leapt in Jamie’s
heart and he realised that he couldn’t have it both ways.
The plants were
wonderful, scientific, and amazing, but they were killing people. They were
trying to kill people he loved. He had to make a decision.
Jamie jumped from the
jeep and ran to the Hummer to grab a pack. He strapped it on as he was running
and skirted around to the back of the hedges. Jessica had gone this way and it
made perfect strategic sense to him. Surround the hedges, and hit them with the
chemicals from all sides.
He joined his sister and
started spraying the hedges. Jessica glanced at him and threw him a quick
smile. Maybe in time she would forgive him for hurting her. The hissing
continued for quite a while until the hedges had been subdued and turned into
shrivelled brown leaves.
Jane went to the back of
the Hummer and grabbed a leaf-blower with a large bag attached. “This vacuums
up the leaves so we can haul them away and incinerate them properly,” said
Jane. She made quick work of bagging the leaves and Jamie and Wanda put the
bags in the back of the Hummer.
“Okay, this is probably
the first time that I’ve ever said this, but, here goes. I don’t understand
what’s going on, mom,” Jamie said with chagrin.
“Oh Jamie, it’s such a
long story and of course you don’t understand. All this time, you thought you
were an Evil Genius and it was your destiny to experiment with the plants. But
it’s not true. You were adjusted to believe that. How do I explain this? It’s
like you were programmed. Yes, that’s a good analogy. You were programmed. Did
you ever notice your interest in plants was very sudden?”
“Well, I hadn’t thought
of it that way, but, yeah. I guess so. I just got this idea one day in high
school that I should start looking at the biological properties of plants and
see if I could make improvements to them. I always thought it was because Gran
wanted something to keep her garden healthy.”
“You’re a good boy
Jamie,” Jane said. Both Wanda and Jessica turned to Jamie with smirks on their
faces. “You just wanted to please Gran, but you were not really in control of
these impulses. Come on, we need to get into town to see if there’s any damage
there.”
“But I need more
explanation. What was it that programmed me? Why me?”
Jane put her arm around
Jamie’s shoulder and started toward the car.
“Why don’t you ride with
me in the Hummer and Wanda and Jessica will follow in the jeep. I’ll fill you
in and Wanda will fill in Jess. Wanda, grab a couple of refill canisters in
case you have to stop along the way to deal with some of our botanical
friends.”
Jessica glanced with envy
at Jane’s arm around Jamie, but she silently agreed that she should ride with
Wanda. If Wanda was willing to stab her repeatedly with straightforward jabs,
she wouldn’t hold any punches on telling her what was going on either. And
Jessica needed to know.
“So spill it,” Jessica
said, as they strapped themselves into the front seat of the Jeep. “What is the
story? And don’t hold anything back. I need to understand what’s going on.”
Wanda peered at Jessica
out of the corner of her eye, nodded, and looked back at the road. “You’ve
changed. I don’t mean into a plant or anything. I mean, I can see that you’ve
grown up in the last couple of hours. Fighting for your life can speed up the
process to adulthood a little bit, I guess.”
“So tell me then. I’m
ready,” Jessica said heatedly.
Wanda spoke of how she
was a bored college whiz- kid in New
Mexico
They started talking
about escaping just in time from the director of TS Labs. The director tried to
convince them to work on a secret plant project, and they left before he could
force them to participate.
But they were worried
about their kids they’d left behind. One of them had started to work with
plants, and that was just too suspicious. They couldn’t decide if it was safer
to stay away or to go back.
Wanda jumped into their
conversation and said that she could help. They didn’t want to do it, but she
was bored and threatened to expose this situation if they didn’t include her in
their plans. Jessica was impressed by the audacity a young Wanda must have
displayed.
“So my parents were aware
that Jamie was starting to work on the plants?” Jessica asked.
“Yep, they kept up with
you guys from a distance. They realised the director programmed Jamie to work
on plants. The director gave Jamie a piece of candy – that’s how your folks
think the bastard put the virus inside your brother. They thought it would be
helpful if I went to the same college and started work at TS Labs. I was bored
and it sounded like a cool secret mission, so I agreed. It was easy since I had
such good grades. The school and the lab were excited to have me. Let’s be
honest, Jamie was excited to have me too,” Wanda finished with a gleam in her
eye.
“So dating my brother is
just part of your mission? To stay close?” Jessica asked in anger for the
brother that stabbed her a couple of hours ago. She rolled her eyes at her own
loyalty.
“At first. Later I
realised how awesome he was. Smart and fun. I wasn’t bored. He thought of me as
more than a pretty face. Liked my brain. Wasn’t intimidated. It was even more
important to watch him. His plants were his side-passion. I knew he was
influenced by the director, who wanted Jamie to create bio-weapons. They’d
remove a person of interest if that
person stood in the way of the director’s agenda.”
“By removing a person,
you do mean assassinate, correct?”
asked Jessica.
“That’s the term your
parents use, yes,” Wanda responded. “It’s a fascinating method for removing
your enemies. No one would guess a thing, and everyone would have an alibi. The
person just disappeared. No suspects. And it wouldn’t appear to be foul play.
Genius really. It’s Evil Genius.”
“But why did it start
here? Why my little town?”
“Mistake. The director
didn’t realise Jamie moved experiments outside the lab. They were still in
infancy and not ready for trial. But Jamie had success in your Gran’s garden,
and even in the woods when he was in high school.”
“And the idiot thought
this was a great place to see how the plants thrived.”
“He didn’t know the
creations were going to be weapons. He thought they’d work toward reducing
global warming, and effects on the environment caused by people.”
“He was trying to save
the world.”
“What better place to try
it than where there were people that he loved? He just liked calling himself an
Evil Genius because he was manipulating natural organisms.”
“If that’s the truth, why
was he so resistant to killing them earlier? He wanted to save them! Even when
he knew they’d killed people.”
Jessica quickly wiped her
eyes and glanced out the front window at the Hummer in front of them. Wanda had
been telling her story but not meeting her gaze. She had been intent on
evaluating the woods on the sides of the road for any possible moving plants.
“Well a mother loves her
child even when he does something wrong, you know? I think he was just feeling
responsible for these plants. Believing he still had a way to control them and
turn them for good. I’m sure that now that he’s heard your mom’s story about
the director, he’s going to feel very differently toward his babies. They won’t
be his babies any more.”
The brakes on the Jeep
screeched and the car slid sideways as Wanda crested a hill and saw that the
Hummer was stopped by more hedges and a few trees in the road.
“Let’s go prune some
shrubs, Jessica!” Wanda yelled as she exited the Jeep and slung her chemical
pack on her back.
