Transient: The Cryptograph Read online

  Transient #1

  The Cryptograph

  K.M. Hill

  Copyright © K & M Hill, 2017.

  The right of K.M. Hill to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author. You must not circulate this book in any format.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  TRANSIENT TRILOGY

  THE CRYPTOGRAPH

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  From the Author

  Also by K.M. Hill

  TRANSIENT TRILOGY

  BOOK ONE - TRANSIENT

  #1 THE CRYPTOGRAPH

  #2 TRANSIENT

  #3 TETRAD

  #4 THE CELL

  * * *

  BOOK TWO - OUTLIERS

  #1 FLIGHT

  #2 LIFELONG

  #3 REPENTANCE

  #4 OUTLIERS

  * * *

  BOOK THREE - SOURCE (coming soon)

  Sign up to the mailing list to be notified when SOURCE is available.

  THE CRYPTOGRAPH

  Chapter One

  Rae didn’t want to be caught. Not now, not this morning. Not today of all days.

  She stood at the top of the steps, waiting for her chance to creep downstairs and escape. Listening to the noises below. If she timed it right, she could make it out without anyone knowing.

  You’ve done this before.

  Once she got outside, she was safe. Nobody would follow her, pepper her with questions or force her to talk about today.

  She quietly slung her backpack over one shoulder, wiggled her other hand under the opposite strap then balanced the weight of the bag on her shoulders. It wasn’t heavy, but she didn’t want it to make too much noise as she ran.

  Rae held her breath, waiting and listening some more.

  Carefully, quietly, she began to creep down the carpeted steps.

  Then heard a loud thunk from behind her, and froze.

  What was that?

  The noise came from inside the room. It sounded like a book falling over and landing flat on the desk. A heavy book. Probably the dictionary.

  Window’s open, she realized. I should have closed it.

  It was too late for that now. She was already halfway down the stairs, and all set to run.

  She had done everything to get ready. Showered, makeup, slipped into jeans and a robin’s egg blue sweater that enhanced the color of her eyes (which her best friend Jenny called ‘ice-blue’). She’d even repainted her nails and let her dark wavy hair hang loose, instead of tying it up in its usual messy knot.

  Today was the Big Day.

  Everyone would be looking at her, talking about her, judging her. Especially when they found out what she’d decided.

  That would be all anyone would talk about.

  Rae gripped the shoulder straps of her backpack, and took another step down.

  The step creaked.

  Damn.

  She froze, waiting.

  She practiced her patience, judging the long moments as they crept by. In the air was the scent of cooking. She smelled bacon.

  Bacon and pancakes.

  The TV was on low. Some newscaster mumbling the weather forecast.

  Eyeing the front door, Rae took another step down.

  Then paused again. She was standing in the stairwell, on the second step up from the floor, just out of sight from the kitchen.

  She studied the door. It was probably locked. She’d have to throw the bolt and open the door in one quick motion. She’d done it a million times before, but this time it was important.

  She heard the refrigerator door open.

  Now …

  Rae jumped down the last two steps and ran for the door. She reached it and grabbed the door handle and the bolt. She twisted the lock and pulled on the door. It didn’t open. Her heart sank. What?

  “Happy birthday!”

  Her annoying little brother had seen her. Thanks Carl.

  And instead of unlocking the door just then, she’d locked it.

  “Rae?” came her mother’s voice.

  “Bye Mom, gotta run.” She yanked the door open.

  “Rae.” Her mother’s tone had changed.

  She hesitated in the doorway. The bus stop was half a block down the street. If she pretended not to hear, if she just ran, if her feet would only move …

  But they didn’t.

  “What?” she replied, exasperated.

  “Get back in here.”

  “But the bus—”

  “You’ve still got half an hour.”

  “But Mom, it’s my birthday.”

  “And I’m making you pancakes and bacon. Your favorite.”

  That’s not my favorite. Not since I was six.

  “Don’t you want breakfast? Here.” Her mother set another plate on the table in Rae’s spot. “I don’t want you going to school hungry.”

  Rae sighed. She stepped back into the house, and closed the door. Then trudged to the dining room table like a death row prisoner on her way to the electric chair.

  Dead girl walking ...

  She sat down at the table.

  Happy birthday to me.

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you this morning.” Her mother turned off the stove and brought over another plate for herself.

  Her stupid little brother was tapping like he always did, like he was desperate to be a drummer or something even though he was only ten years old.

  Rae dug into her pancakes, avoiding eye contact with everything but the eggs. They were sunny-side up. She stabbed the two yolks and watched them run.

  “Happy birthday,” her mother said and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  She was staring at her. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Rae replied. “I just don’t want to be late for school.”

  “You won’t be. And it doesn’t matter, I can drive you. Don’t worry about the bus. Not today of all days. It’s your birthday. I can take you myself this morning and we can spend some more time together chatting in the car.”

  “No, Mom, that’s fine. My friends are waiting at the stop.”

  “You can see them at school.”

  She ate her pancakes quickly, hoping to finish breakfast before her mother said what was really on her mind.

  But she wasn’t fast enough.

  “Are you excited about the cryptograph?” her mom finally asked.

  Rae said nothing. She stared at her plate, defeated.

  “Honey?”

  She set her fork down and pushed her chair from the table. She didn’t get up, but crossed her arms and sat there. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Why not? I think it’s exciting. Don’t you Carl?”

  “Nah,” he said. “It’s just a dumb test.”

  “It’s not a dumb test,” their mother chided. “It’s an important test. The most important test a person can take. I know I sure was excited to take it. Your father was excited, too. Everyone’s excited—honey,
what’s the matter?”

  “Nothing.”

  Rae picked up her fork again and made short work of her last few bites.

  “Something’s the matter. The way you’re eating. Slow down, you’ll give yourself an upset stomach. It might throw off the test.”

  “I’m not taking the test.”

  Her mother started to say something. “You’re—” But that was it. Her mouth hung open, but no more words came out. She closed her mouth. Her face looked puzzled. Her eyes looked worried. She glanced away, then back at Rae. “Sweetie, of course you’re taking the test.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “It’s your birthday.”

  “I know that.”

  “Your sixteenth birthday. Sweet sixteen.”

  “What’s so sweet about it? They make you take a test. That’s not sweet, it’s mean.”

  “Rae, everyone takes it.”

  “Not me.”

  “Yes, you. Of course you. What did you think? It’s your sixteenth birthday. You should be excited.”

  “Well, I’m not.”

  “Your father already made the appointment at the center. We’re picking you up from school.”

  “Why?”

  “We thought we could all go together as a family. It’s such a big occasion. We’ll drive you to the clinic and wait there for you, and when you’re done—it really doesn’t take more than a few minutes you know, unless you don’t have an appointment, which you do—and when you’re done we’ll all go out for cake and ice cream. I know you’ll like that. You love cake and ice cream, don’t you?”

  “Of course Mom, everyone loves cake and ice cream, but that’s got nothing to do with the stupid test, which I’m not taking.”

  Her mother looked hurt. “I don’t understand.”

  “You didn’t take the test when you were sixteen.”

  “They didn’t have the test when I was sixteen. But I took it as soon as I could, when I was twenty-three, before you were even born, and it was very exciting and—”

  “Fine,” Rae said, “I’ll take it when I’m twenty-three.”

  Her mother glowered at her. “That’s not how it works. You know that. We talked about it. You’re sixteen, and everyone takes the test at sixteen now. It’s the law.”

  “It’s not the law.”

  “Yes, of course it’s a law, it was on the news. They passed a law. Don’t they teach you that in school?”

  This is not going well.

  “Yes, mother. I know all about it. More than you, it sounds like. They passed the law in February but it doesn’t go into effect until the beginning of next year. So it’s still a choice, it’s still voluntary, and you can’t force me to take it. Not until next year. I have six more months before I have to, and I don’t want to take it anyway.”

  “Why not?”

  She could feel her face getting hot. Why does everything have to be so hard …

  Rae said, “Because I don’t want to know, okay? It’s my life, and I want to live it without knowing when it’s going to end. Like people used to. Like grandma and grandpa did.”

  “Oh, sweetie.” Her mother’s expression softened. “You have no idea. You really don’t. No idea what it was like back before the cryptograph, how hard it was, how scary. Grandma and grandpa were afraid of dying every day of their lives. They didn’t know when it might happen. They had no idea, because no one did back then. But if they could have known – like we can now – they’d have taken the test.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Honey—”

  Suddenly a voice boomed down from the stairwell. “Happy Birthday angel.”

  The dining room fell silent as they all glared at Rae’s father.

  “What? Can’t a father wish his best daughter happy birthday anymore?”

  “I’m your only daughter,” she grumbled.

  “And you’re also the best.”

  “I made you some pancakes,” her mother said, and got up from the table.

  Rae’s dad clapped his hands in the air, and rubbed them together with glee. “You excited about the test, sweetheart?”

  Again, the silence.

  He looked at her mom. “What did I miss?”

  “Rae says she doesn’t want to take the cryptograph.”

  Her dad frowned at her, but not too seriously. “Is that right?”

  “I’m not going to take it,” Rae confirmed.

  “Well, I already made an appointment for you.”

  “I told her that,” her mother said. “She won’t listen to reason.”

  Her dad raised a hand, signaling the start of negotiations. “Now hold on a moment. Let’s talk about this. What’s wrong? You’re worried about the test, is that it?”

  “I’m not worried. I don’t care about the stupid test. I just don’t want to know.”

  “You don’t want to know the results?”

  “No.”

  “Well, I want to know,” he said. “And your mother wants to know. Everyone wants to know when they’ll die. That’s why the cryptograph exists.”

  “Well, I don’t.”

  He sighed and tilted his head a little, thinking. “The future is an uncertain thing. You don’t want to live with that uncertainty, believe me. All that worry. Precautions. Hell, I used to worry about drinking. Me, can you imagine? You know how I love a brewski.”

  “Exactly,” her mother chimed in. “You’ve seen how your father drinks.”

  He nodded vigorously. “I used to think I’d die of liver disease. You know, from all the frat parties and the drinks at the club and the bar scene before I met your mother. I even went to this little group they used to have. Alcoholics Anonymous. It was for people who used to worry about dying from alcohol.”

  Rae hated being talked down to. Especially by her parents. “I know what AA is, Dad. We studied it in school.”

  “Well, I used to be in AA.” There was a kind of pride in his voice, like he’d won some kind of award. “Bet you didn’t know that, did you?”

  “No.”

  “After your mother and I first got married. I promised her I’d change my ways. She wanted a family, we both wanted a family, but she thought I’d kill myself with all my drinking. So I made a promise to stop. So I could live long enough to raise a family—you and Carl. I did it for you. Because I didn’t know any better. I couldn’t know, you see. Back in those days, you could die of anything. Anything at all. Cancer, that was the big one. Cancer and heart disease, and maybe drinking too much. So I stopped. No more alcohol. Six years without a drop, so help me God, and I was true to my word. No bars, no booze parties, cold turkey. That’s what they used to call it, cold turkey. I don’t know why they called it that, but they did. And I just stopped cold. Because back then, anything could strike you down at any time.

  And then along came the cryptograph. And when I took the test, I knew I wasn’t going to die from drinking. And I couldn’t believe it. It was like some kind of miracle. Knowing the future. Knowing it wasn’t going to be liver failure or any kind of illness, but unnatural causes. Unnatural causes! What a way to go, right? But there it is. And now I know. I don’t have to worry about it. It’s right there on the calendar, like an appointment you can’t break, like a doctor’s appointment—but with the undertaker, right?” He chuckled. “It’s a done deal. I’m gonna live to be fifty-nine years old - Interim - and my DOD won’t have anything to do with me—just an accident. OK, so maybe it’s better to be Constant and get to live the high life, but Interim sure beats being Transient! My point is honey, knowing changes everything, and since the cryptograph I don’t have to worry anymore about drinking too much. Speaking of which … honey can you grab me a beer from the fridge?”

  “With your pancakes?”

  “It’s Rae’s birthday. We’re celebrating, aren’t we?”

  Her mother got up and grabbed him a beer. She opened it and handed it to him, like she had a million times before.

  “Happy birthday, sweet
ie!” Rae’s father said again, and took a long, hard pull on the bottle.

  Chapter Two

  Rae hurried down the school hallway, with the bell ringing all around her. She reached classroom 5 just as the ringing stopped. Yanking the door open, she saw her English teacher, Mrs Doucette, standing at the front of the room marking attendance. She was young for a high school teacher, tall with dark curly hair and blue jeans that clung to her skinny legs.

  “Rae Lennox,” Mrs D called out.

  “Here,” she answered, panting a little. Rae was never late to class - especially English class - but this one was close. Too close.

  She walked to the back of the room, where all the alphabetically-challenged students sat.

  “Kevin Young.”

  “Here.”

  “And Marty Zeller.”

  “Here.”

  Rae crossed behind Marty to sit at her desk between Kevin and Roger Wakefield.

  Waiting for her on her desk was a bright pink birthday card envelope with her name on it. She recognized her best friend’s flowery handwriting, with the big loops. Jenny sat at the desk right in front of her. She was wearing her bright red hair in a ponytail today, tied with a black bow. The ponytail whipped through the air as Jenny glanced back at Rae.

  “Happy birthday,” she mouthed silently followed by a grin.

  “Thanks.”

  Rae opened her backpack and got out her notebook, her pen, and her copy of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. She’d read it a couple of years ago, and had just finished it again last night, this time with a highlighter in hand and a pen for scribbling marginalia.

  Jenny whispered, “Did you read the book?”

  “Of course.” Rae opened it to a page at random and showed Jenny the yellow highlights and the scribbles. She fanned through the pages. There were marks on every page.