Immortal

73

Ethan packed the handful of dust-covered clothes that he’d worn in Misery Hole, pausing to glance at the thick bloodstains on his shirt before stuffing it into a bag and dropping it into the waste bin in his hospital room. The movement caused a painful twinge low on his flank where Oppenheimer’s blade had sunk into his flesh, the scar tissue only half healed beneath the surgical dressing wrapped around his waist. He slipped into the fresh clothes sent to him by Doug Jarvis, and turned his back on the room, walking down the corridor outside to where he knew Saffron Oppenheimer was staying, easily identifiable by the two state troopers guarding the door. Ethan introduced himself to them, and they stood aside to let him in.

The room was pleasantly spacious, and Saffron lay with her eyes closed at a comfortable angle on her bed with only a saline drip to show any evidence of her trauma. Ethan slipped quietly into the room and closed the door behind him.

‘About time you showed up, tough guy,’ Saffron said, opening one eye to peer at him. ‘Last I heard you were at death’s door with a little splinter in your side.’

Ethan grinned.

‘Go to hell,’ he said, crossing the room to her bedside. ‘The doctors have told me I’m not to exert myself for five days. It could lead to complications.’

‘Sure,’ Saffron said, but her eyes were dancing with humor.

‘How’re you doing?’ he asked.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, shifting her position slightly and propping herself more upright on her pillows, ‘now that I don’t have my breakfast running through my bloodstream. Took a while for them to stitch me up but I’ll make it.’

‘You did good,’ Ethan said. ‘If you hadn’t walked into that police station, Lopez and I would have ended up beneath a few tons of New Mexico rubble and Jeb Oppenheimer would have been planning who lived and who died in his new world order.’

Saffron smiled faintly.

‘Didn’t do me much good though,’ she said. ‘Guards at my hospital door and a lengthy prison sentence to look forward to. You should have left me in that cavern with Jeb.’

Ethan sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.

‘I’m doing what I can,’ he said. ‘I’ve got the DIA over a barrel about what happened in Lechuguilla Cave, both last week and in 1862. They’re looking at options for you.’

‘Why doesn’t that phrase fill me with confidence?’

‘It’s not easy,’ Ethan admitted. ‘You’ve become a high-profile victim of these events, but it’s still going to be hard to keep you out of jail.’

Saffron became melancholy, staring at her bed sheets.

‘I killed him,’ she said finally. ‘I killed my own grandfather.’

‘You defended yourself,’ Ethan replied. ‘He shot you first, remember?’

Saffron didn’t appear to hear his last words as she reached out and gripped his hand.

‘Promise me, you’ll call your parents,’ she said.

‘Why?’

‘Because you still can,’ Saffron replied. ‘Don’t leave it another day, okay? Just do it, before you wake up one morning and realize you no longer can.’

Ethan held her gaze for a long moment and saw the determination in Saffron’s eyes. He nodded and flipped her a mock salute.

‘Okay, I’ll do it. I promise. Scout’s honor. But you’ve got to do something for me.’

Saffron raised a questioning eyebrow as Ethan gestured out of the window.

‘You’re the heir to SkinGen Corp,’ he said.

‘I don’t want any of it,’ she said. ‘The whole goddamned company can go to hell and—’

‘That’s what I mean,’ Ethan cut across her. ‘You want to change things for the better? Selling the company off for nothing will achieve exactly that: nothing. Take the helm, organize something, even if it’s just distributing drugs to countries and people who can’t afford them. SkinGen is not a legacy to be avoided, it’s an opportunity. Use it.’

Saffron leaned back against her pillows with a sigh and released his hand.

‘I wouldn’t know where to start,’ she said.

‘Anywhere will do,’ Ethan said. ‘Just start. Jeb Oppenheimer was a monster but much of what he believed made sense, especially to ordinary people. Find those things, act on them. Don’t leave SkinGen tainted with the memory of Jeb: reinvent it in the image of Saffron.’

Saffron laughed briefly, but she saw Ethan’s expression and the laugh faded.

‘You think it’s worth it?’

‘It’s a no-brainer,’ Ethan replied.

‘Fine, I’ll do it,’ Saffron said. ‘Now get out of here, I’ve got a genuine injury to recover from.’

Ethan grinned and walked to the door. He was about to open it when she called over to him.

‘I won’t be seeing you again, will I?’

Ethan hesitated at the door.

‘If the DIA gets you out of this, you’ll be hidden away for quite a while.’

‘Maybe I’d have looked you up.’

‘Maybe you still should.’

Saffron shook her head and smiled. ‘I don’t have a chance while your Mexican spitfire’s watching your back.’

‘Lopez?’ Ethan said. ‘We’re just partners and—’

‘Like hell,’ Saffron cut across him. ‘She likes you, I can tell it from a mile away. You just watch your step with her though.’

Ethan sighed softly.

‘You mean because she sold out to Jeb Oppenheimer? You know she tossed the tracking device before we found the caves, right after she’d sent the DIA the IP address? She had a plan.’

‘She looks out for you alright, but she’s a firecracker, hard to handle.’

Ethan wasn’t sure how to react. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Put it this way,’ Saffron said, ‘if you’re walking about with a grenade in your pocket, you step lightly because it could kill you just as sure as it could save your life. She’s a wild card, Ethan, nobody knows what she might do next.’

Ethan opened the door, thoughts of Lopez clouding his mind.

‘I’ll bear that in mind.’