There was a long pause from Crawford. He probably didn't believe me, yet
it was too early to suspect I would be interested in keeping his Doll.
"Find him then," he finally said and hung up. That was when
the first twinge of regret came over me. I dismissed it as quickly as it
came. I refuse to acknowledge I had made a mistake.
Leon needed to be examined and treated for injuries. Bringing him into a
hospital, a Doll or Human, would no doubt bring the cops onto the case.
I frisked my pockets until I found Dr. Ishigami's business card he had given
to me. In the back of the card, he had scribbled his home address and
phone number in case I needed to contact him after office hours. I
didn't trust anyone that worked for Crawford's corporation. However,
Ishigami appeared to be the only person I'd spoken to who believed Leon was
more than a science project.
Leon was exactly how I had left him nearly ten minutes ago -- his eyes
half-lidded and staring at the body, with Souma's limp right hand still held
affectionately against his chest. He wasn't crying. He wasn't
showing much of anything actually. It was as if someone had pressed a
pause button on him.
"Leon," I said. "We have to go."
He looked up at me, and after a few moments of contemplation, he put down
Souma's hand carefully on the ground. He stood slowly, shakily using the
wall to help him up to his feet. He had bled through the shirt and where
he sat, there was a small pool of blood. Hopkins had torn him quite
deep.
"Take another shower," I told him. "You are bleeding
again."
He nodded numbly as his fingers worked to undo the shirt buttons. I
moved Souma's body into the living room and hoisted it onto a sour smelling
futon mattress. I drew the blanket over his body and went into the
closet to find some clothes for Leon. I pulled out a pair of pale
denim jeans and a white dress shirt that was probably Souma's. There
weren't much of anything else.
I spotted two yellow boxes in the corner of the closet. I pulled them
out and rummaged through them. The boxes had personal mementos that
belonged to Souma. They looked like the things he had taken with him
from his office the day he left Crawford's building with Leon. Two
picture frames with color photos of his family. His wife and two teenage
boys smiled happily for the pictures in front of some touristy places that I
couldn't identify. There was a coffee mug that had a photo of his boys
with their arms around a golden retriever. There were several hand-made
cards -- birthday and anniversary cards neatly bundled with a white ribbon.
I didn't read them. There was a worn blue notebook with its spirals bent
and twisted out of shape sitting on the bottom. I flipped through it
without reading it. It was his journal. I set that to the side to
take with me. There was a folder with his diplomas and photos with him
posing with the governor and a mayor. There were some other personal
effects that I didn't study too closely. I replaced the lid on that box
and shoved it back into the corner of the closet.
I opened the second box and realized instantly it was Leon's. Everything
was neatly bagged or placed in small, plain jewelry boxes with coded tags.
All except for one burgundy pouch that with a small leather band tying it shut
had a printed label. I opened it. Inside the pouch, the content
looked like coils of brown thread. I pinched a little bit of it and drew
the silken strands out. It was hair. I held it up so I can see the
entire length of it. It was the long hair Souma had cut from Leon.
I replaced the strands into the pouch and tied it shut. Instead of
slipping it back into the box, I pressed the pouch into one of Souma's hands.
I
took the rest of box with me and left it on the kitchen counter and went to
the bathroom to give Leon a towel and his clothes. I found him sitting
on the shower floor with the water running. He had unbuttoned the
oversized shirt he wore but he didn't take it off when he stepped into the
running water.
"Are
you all right?" I said.
He
didn't appear to hear me. He was staring at the tiled wall a few feet
below the shower head. I took off my jacket and rolled up my sleeve as I
walked to him. He didn't register me at all, even as I was taking his
drenched shirt off.
"Do
you want to cry?"
He
finally looked at me, then he shook his head.
"Are
you sad?"
He
shook his head again.
"What
are you feeling?" I said, and cupped his face in my hands. I wanted
to watch his eyes when he answer me. It surprised me when I saw tears
well up in them and rolled down his cheeks.
"I
don't know..." He said. "I don't feel anything..."
"You'll
be fine," I whispered. "It will hurt for a while, but the pain
will go away."
He
didn't understand my meaning but he nodded anyway.
I
helped him bathe then dressed him. His fingers were shaking so badly that they
couldn't button the shirt. I did it for him. He watched the mound
of blanket on the futon as I buttoned his shirt. He didn't ask if that
was Souma but I think he knew. Suddenly, I wanted to leave that
place. I wanted to grab Leon by his hand and run him downstairs to my
car and drive the hell out of the place.
I've also came to understand the core of my regret then. I should not
have ever accepted this job.
Leon
fell asleep minutes after I started driving. Somehow he had managed to
curl up like a small cat in the seat and rested his head on my right thigh as
he did so. More than a couple of times, I found myself caressing his
face as he slept -- my fingers paused on his mouth just so I can feel his warm
breath. He woke up once with my hand stroking his cheek.
"Are you in pain?" I asked him. "I don't think we can get
to where we need to be for at least another hour."
"I'm fine," he said. His voice had lost the child-like quality
to it and sounded more like an sensuous twenty-something year-old.
"Who am I to you?"
He
pressed his hand over mine and turned his head slightly only to kiss the palm
of it.
"You are my user," he said.
"I
don't like that word. Just call me Chris."
"Anything you like," he said with a small smile as his thick lashed
eyelids closed. "Chris...."
He fell
asleep again with his hand covering mine, and my hand still cupping his cheek.
Leon had shed the child-like persona and assumed a new one. Like a
change of clothes. Exactly what I had seen in the filed experiments.
I realized that I liked him but not in the same way I liked Paris before I
knew he was a Doll. I was intrigued by Leon and I found myself urgently
wanting to explore the yellow box full of his past life Souma had kept.
More importantly, I wanted to know what kind of thoughts went through Leon's
mind. Perhaps when my curiosity has been fully sated, he would be
returned to Crawford.
I had interrupted
Ishigami's dinner with his family when I finally arrived at his small condo.
He closed the front door behind him and asked what I wanted. He was not
pleased to see me.
"Souma's
dead," I told him and gestured for him to follow me.
"How?"
"Long
story that you will probably read about in the paper in a day or two," I
said. "But there's something else I need you to take care of."
We came to my
car parked at the curb and I nodded at the car. He bent down and looked
through the window. Leon was still asleep, curled up in a ball in the
seat.
"My
God..." he whispered and reached to open the car door. I stopped
him.
"Let him
sleep. He's been hurt badly and needs all the rest he can get."
"How come
you didn't bring him to Crawford?"
"There's
a small matter of me being given misinformation about this assignment that I
want to clarify before I hand him over."
"I don't
understand."
"I'll ask
you the questions later," I said. "Right now, I would rather
have you get what you need to get from the house to treat him."
"I can
treat him here."
"I told
Crawford I didn't find Leon when I told him Souma's dead. Sooner or
later Crawford will send people to sniff after my tracks to see if I had told
him the truth. Did you want him to find out Leon had been here from your
family or neighbors?"
He didn't say
anything for awhile.
"Wait out
here," he said. "I'll go get my bag."
Half way up
the stone steps, he turned and looked at me.
"How do
you know I wouldn't pick up the phone and call Mr. Crawford right now?"
"Because
I know you wouldn't."
He regarded my
reply for a few seconds then turned and continued up the steps and into the
house. I lit up a cigarette and smoked half of it when Ishigami
re-emerged from his house. He had changed into a dark sweater with
matching color slacks. He was also carrying two black briefcases in both of
his hands. He got into the backseat and we left as soon as we could.
"What
happened to him?" Ishigami asked in a low whisper so he would not wake
Leon.
"From
what I could piece together -- the hideout Souma chose came with a very big
and very mean landlord. He was most likely the one who beat Souma to
death before making off with Leon as rent."
"Rent...?"
"He'd
been beaten and raped."
"And you
found him in this...landlord's place?"
"I went
there first to ask where Souma was staying."
"And you
killed this man to get him back?"
"He was
already dead when I arrived," I said and glanced up at the rearview
mirror at him. I wanted to see the expression on his face when I say the
next sentence. "Leon was the one who killed him."
It
probably took everything he had, but Ishigami held back the barrage of protest
that was brimming at the tip of his tongue. It would have been an
one-way conversation anyway. I have no intentions of debating with him
with what I knew what he what insisted could not be. Ishigami
leaned back in the seat and said nothing for the rest of the 40-minute ride
toward one of my apartments on Long Island. He didn't even utter one
word when Leon did wake up for a moment to search for my left hand and fell
asleep again after he secured it in his arms against his chest.
I parked
the car in the carport and carried a drowsy Leon in my arms up to my
apartment. Ishigami followed with his briefcases. His eyes darted
back and forth suspiciously, as if he expected Crawford's men to leap out at
any minute.
"It's safe here," I told him. "I know everyone who lives
around here."
"Are you sure we weren't followed?" Ishigami whispered. He was
nervous and a little scared. A thin film of perspiration had formed on
his forehead.
I
maneuvered the lock on the door and somehow managed to open it without
dropping Leon or banging him against the door frame.
"Did you have a reason to believe Crawford would think you would be the
first person I would come to if I had the Doll?"
He came
into the apartment after me and immediately closed and locked it.
"No," he said nervously. "Of course not."
I took
Leon into the spare bedroom I had and laid him on the bed. He woke
finally but his eyes were still half-closed and his movements were languid.
"Leon," Ishigami said with a soft, fatherly voice as he sat down on
the bed next to him. "I need to take a look at you, honey."
Leon's
eyes snapped open and a smile grew on his lovely face. He sat up and
wound his arms around Ishigami's neck.
"Papa..." Leon said, his tone of his voice returned to the way he
had when he spoke to Souma.
Ishigami
held Leon for a while, then unlaced Leon's arms from around his neck.
"Can you take off your clothes for me? I need to take a look at you so I
can make you feel better."
Leon
nodded and scooted off the bed. He started to undress as Ishigami picked
up the briefcases and opened them on the bed.
"Is
that how you doctors and scientists interact with him?" I asked.
"Like he was a child and he responds to you in the that manner?"
"Not as perverse as you think," he said with a small grin.
"Leon's made for the functions as you've seen the tests for. I'm
sure you've already started to get a taste of it yourself. The people
who are involved with Leon on work-related basis, like myself or Dr. Souma,
cannot have Leon try to seduce us all the time. So for certain people in
the organization, when he comes in contact with us, we prompt something in his
system that would cue a change in his role to that's a lot like father and
son. He would obey our orders but will never expect to have a sexual
interaction. It's like powering down a computer into a sleeper
mode."
"It
is perverse," I said. "Even more so than those men who used
him for sex."
He
shrugged.
"Not my decision to make him this way," he said. He looked
back to Leon who had already stripped away his shirt and was pushing off his
pants. Ishigami gasped at the bruises on him that had darkened even more
than I had seen earlier.
"Do
what you have to do," I said to Ishigami and pulled out my gun and gave
it to him. "I'll go out and get him some clothes and food.
I've not been in this apartment for several months."
With a
shaky hand, Ishigami took my gun and put it on the night stand.
"I
assume he eats."
Ishigami
nodded. The perspiration on his forehead came back again.
"Take care of him," I said and left the apartment.
Most of
the stores downtown were already closed but after some pounding at the door of
an Armani boutique I often ordered my suits, the owner came out and let me in.
He was in his sleep clothes and had scrambled from upstairs where he lived to
open the door for me. His frown instantly went away after I ordered five
pair of pants, six shirts, several pairs of socks and a pair of shoes for
Leon. After he cheerfully took my credit card for the items, he ran the
bags out to my car in his robe and slippers.
"Wake me up any time," he said and waved at me from the door way as
I was getting into my car. I drove off to a 24-hour market a little
further down the block and bought enough food for a couple of days then went
back to the apartment.
I had
been gone for over an hour and Ishigami was still treating Leon in the
bedroom. I peeked in to the room to see Ishigami give Leon an injection
into a patch of a large bruise. Most of the darker bruises had lightened
into a pale tan color already. Ishigami only glanced up from his work to
acknowledge me.
"This solution will dissolve the bruising," Ishigami said.
"It will not harm him."
"So
his body is nothing like ours," I said. "His body can mend
quickly with benefits of chemicals."
"Something like that," he said. "I've already given Leon
something for the internal laceration. He shouldn't be bleeding anymore
and fully healed in a day or two."
"Does he feel pain?"
Ishigami
emptied the syringe he had and replaced the cap on it. He picked up
another filled needle from the brief case and removed the cap from it.
"Of
course they do."
"Then regardless whether he is human or not, isn't it immoral and
inhumane to do this to him? To have him abused and hurt like this, then heal
him quickly so someone else can do this to him again in a couple of
days?"
"I
have no say in any of this," he replied. "Leon does not belong
to me. The entire project does not belong to me."
"But you are a willing employee of an organization who did own him and
likes of him. So what does that make you?"
Ishigami
sighed. Leon didn't seem to understand or care that he was the topic of
the discussion.
"And I suppose you will be the one to change all of this by keeping Leon.
Make sure he'll never be hurt again. Maybe you would be raiding the
Crawford Corporation's inventory and free all of the Dolls from their
oppression."
I
grinned at his suggestion.
"Did you think I am that chivalrous?" I said. "I hunt and
kill humans for a living. I have no hesitation taking a life, even
yours. I kept Leon because someone lied to me about what he was.
And I absolutely hate it when someone lies to me."
Ishigami
continued to work at the injections, his eyes didn't leave Leon as he spoke.
"What lies?"
"Souma told me he was made from a human baby."
Ishigami
paused for a few seconds, then put down the needle on the counter.
"We'll take a break, okay?" Ishigami said to Leon with a soft voice
and kissed him on his forehead. "You've been a very good boy."
Leon
beamed brightly at the compliment.
"Go
on and take a shower."
Leon
nodded and slid off the bed and walked off into the bathroom that was attached
to the bedroom.
"There's more to the story than that," Ishigami said and replaced
the cap on the half-empty syringe. "Souma didn't know
everything."
"Was he made from a human child?"
Ishigami
picked up the gun from the nightstand and stared down at it. He got up
and handed it to me.
"Depends on your interpretation of what is a human child," he said.
"Leon was made from a still-born baby."
"How certain are you that the baby a still-born?"
"I
was the first person to hold the dead baby," he said. "I
delivered him. The baby didn't turn properly in the womb and it was
strangled by the umbilical cord."
"Leon also told me he's never met Crawford, yet the way Crawford spoke
about him -- Leon was the pinnacle of his life. He claimed he loved him
since the first time he saw him."
"Leon hasn't met Crawford, that is correct. I can't vouch for the
sincerity of this love he has for Leon but they do have a relationship."
"And that is...?"
Ishigami hesitated, he looked regretful of the information he had already told
me and he didn't want to say anything more.
"I
would be glad to try and get the answers out of Leon myself," I said.
He shook
his head.
"He
wouldn't know. He has no memory of his childhood...if he had such a
thing," he sat down on the edge of the bed and buried his face in his
hands. "Oh God...I wish Souma would have just...."
"Killed him?" I finished for him.
He
didn't say anything for awhile.
"If
Leon fell into the wrong hands, Mr. Crawford could lose everything. I
don't think the government would approve this project and probably levy
criminal charges if they ever found out the first Doll was made from a
human...even if it was a dead human."
"Then it would be Crawford's best interest if Leon is dead. Why was
he so important to Crawford that he would risk everything he had to keep Leon
alive?"
"From the scientific point, Leon's invaluable because he set the
standards and essentially allowed the other Dolls to be made. In some
way, he was their mother and father. Crawford would not kill him simply
because of who Leon was..." Ishigami paused. "Leon...was Mr.
Crawford's half brother."
Ishigami
explained Leon had been a child from Scott Kennedy's third wife, Kana.
Crawford was from the first wife and he had his last name changed to his
mother's maiden name since the couple's divorce. Ishigami had been
Kana's personal physician and he gained his post with Kennedy estate through
that connection.
"Kana had problems conceiving," Ishigami explained. "She
desperately wanted to have a child since she was very young. Strong
maternal instincts, I suppose. Through years of therapy and a lot of
heartbreak, she finally became pregnant. I think she was happier that
day than she was on the day she got married. She did everything
right...but the baby didn't survive. I didn't tell her about the baby
until the next morning. I wish I could have kept the truth from her
forever."
Ishigami was
misty-eyed when he looked up at me.
"It was
the most difficult thing I had to do in my life..." he said.
"To tell someone that she was not meant to have the baby she had tried so
hard to have. She demanded to see the baby and refused to believe me
until she did. So I allowed her to see the baby. She held her dead
baby for awhile, then went back into room and hung herself in the bathroom
about an hour later. Mr. Kennedy broke down. He lost a son and a
wife in a less than ten hours."
Leon came out
of the shower wearing one of my bathrobes that looked a little too big for
him. He was toweling dry his hair and his motion paused when he saw
Ishigami on verge of tears.
"Papa...?"
Ishigami
blinked his eyes to clear the tears from them and forced a smile across his
face.
"I'm
fine," he said. "I'm not upset."
Leon looked at
me with a tinge of anger. He knew I was the source for Ishigami's
stress.
"In the
living room, there are some clothes for you in the bag," I said.
After he got
an approving nod from Ishigami, Leon walked past me and into the living room.
"So Leon
was a vain attempt to bring someone dead back to life," I said.
"That was
the original intention I suppose," Ishigami said. "Mr. Kennedy
asked me to join him in this project to make these Dolls a week after the loss
of mother and son. After watching Kana being buried, Mr. Kennedy could
not bear to watch his baby disappear into the earth as well. I
agreed...although I was never certain why I did. Maybe I was just as
disillusioned about life as he was."
He
scratched his chin thoughtfully and smiled sadly.
"The first subject was Leon," he said. "But this Leon
would be the child that never died and never broke his heart. Leon was
revived artificially and with the aid of a lot of machinery and an A.I. built
into him, but he never really was human...do you understand?"
"I can't
say I do," I said.
"Mr.
Kennedy was so happy when Leon...that still-born baby, had a heartbeat finally
and can breathe on its own. He wanted to share that kind of happiness
with the world. So he developed the idea of mass producing Dolls from
Leon. As Mr. Crawford probably had told you many times, the Doll's
suppose to be a form of happiness you pursue. Be it a form of a lost
love or a new love or physical love or emotional love."
"If what
you say is true, then I don't think Kennedy would have put Leon through those
tests of yours."
"He
didn't," Ishigami said. "After Mr. Kennedy passed away, Mr.
Crawford took Leon back from where he had lived in the mansion with their
father and deleted his memories. So Leon has no memories of his
childhood. Mr. Crawford also stopped Leon aging process at that point
and begun the experiments. Mr. Kennedy was more devoted to having a son
and last memories of Kana than the idea he had laid out, and it never sat well
with Mr. Crawford. So as soon as possible, Leon was returned to lab and
data collected from him to accelerate the Doll project."
"Crawford
never did see Leon as a sibling?" I said it in a question but it was
fact.
"Leon was
an investment to him. Mr. Kennedy nearly lost his entire fortune on Leon
and we are talking about nearly 700 million dollars. Mr. Crawford will
see to Leon restore that and then some."
"The
lines about his love for Leon...they were all said for my benefit."
He shrugged.
"I really
don't know," he said. "He might have genuine feelings for
Leon, even if they are strictly financial. I would imagine there's an
emotional tie that made him refrain from placing a fail-safe in Leon or
sending you out to kill Leon instead of taking all the trouble to bring him
back. If Leon went to the wrong...or I should say, right people...Mr.
Crawford will lose everything. All of the Dolls in the inventory would
have to be destroyed."
Leon had
dressed and came back in to the room. He looked nice in the white dress
shirt and black slacks. Then again, he could be wearing a flour sack and
still looked nice. He had the body and face for anything.
"We'll
talk later," I said to Ishigami. "Leave what you need to leave
here for me to treat him with. I'll call a cab for you to take you
home."
"So will
you be bringing him back?" Ishigami asked as he transferred bottles and
syringes from one briefcase to another.
"I'll
think about it."
"It's
very dangerous for you to keep him," he said.
"He won't
kill me," I said.
His eyes lit
up. He suddenly remembered what I had told him earlier.
"I had
meant Mr. Crawford would probably start to send people to trail you since you
were the last person to see Souma alive," he said. "But, about
that...are you sure?"
"I don't
think Hopkins crushed his own windpipe and then ripped open the side of his
neck," I said. "The door was locked from the inside and the
windows were nailed shut. Leon was the only other being in that
apartment."
Leon watched
us talk, his eyes shifted back and forth like a kitten watching a tennis
match.
"Hopkins
merely placed him under such a severe stress of physically restraining him
from going to his present user that he struck out the only way he could."
"They are
not suppose to react violently," Ishigami said. "In any
situation."
"Think
about it -- you programmed them to be loyal to the present user. If that
present user's gone, especially by force, wouldn't the programming in them cue
for them to try to get back to the user in any way and as soon as
possible?"
"I don't
think that's ever been tested in the lab..."
"You
don't need to," I said and gestured at Leon. "You know what
will happen now."
Leon came to
me and placed his head on my shoulder and wound his arms around my waist.
"And
somehow you've been defaulted as his present user," Ishigami said.
"I
suppose so," I said. "So do you still think I ought to bring
him back to Mr. Crawford? You know what they say about a dog that's had a
taste of human flesh."
"I don't
think he understood he had killed someone in the same capacity you and I know
he did."
"That's
precisely the caveat, doc," I said. "It is because he didn't
know it that should be your concern. If he's capable of this little
glitch than all of the Dolls in the inventory will have it also.
Congratulations' in order, I suppose. You've just created a little army
of sociopaths. The military should be putting in their orders for these
from your company soon."
Ishigami's
face ashen. He didn't say anything more as he hurriedly finish packing
his bags. He closed both and only picked one up.
"I'll go
out and flag down a taxi myself," he said in a low voice.
"This problem will come to light when Souma and this Hopkin's body turns
up. I'll address it to Mr. Crawford and the team. For now, can you
just keep him safe until I know what will happen to him if he was
returned?"
"Two
days," I said.
He nodded gave
Leon a lingering look before he left. Leon stared after him, and at the
front door that closed long after Ishigami left.
"Would
you like for me to draw you a bath?" Leon asked as he nuzzled against the
side of my neck and kissed it. "Or would you like for me to prepare
the food you've brought home?"
I laughed.
He pushed himself away from me so he could look at me.
"Now I
know why so many people want to make off with you."
He tilted his
head slightly and gave me an endearing smile.
"It
didn't bother you that you had to listen to what Ishigami and I had to say
about you?"
He shrugged
and detached himself from me.
"I don't
care what anyone had to say about me."
He took my
hand and walked me into the master bedroom. He laid his hands on my
shoulders then slid his hand down my chest to the bottom most button of my
jacket.
"What do
you care about?"
He unbuttoned
my jacket and pushed it off my shoulders. The jacket pooled behind me on
the floor. Leon then began to work out the Windsor knot in my tie.
"I care
about making you happy," he said. "In any way I can."
His voice was
pure silk as he said it. I grabbed his hands that had only loosened the knot
and held it in mine. I was torn between arousal and my principles.
He leaned in and licked a thin trail from my chin up to my mouth, planting
feathery kisses on my lips until I opened up and devoured him.
Screw
principles.
End Part 4
