“Listen to me.” George clutched her shoulders. “Just give me some time to figure a way out of this.”
“I don’t trust him.” Miriam’s eyes glistened. “I don’t want to be a prisoner in this place, and I don’t trust Vale.”
George held her close in a long embrace. Clearly the stress of regaining her sanity and her youth had become too intense a strain on her mind. She needed time to adjust, he told himself. She just needed to get used to the idea that she was young again.
“You need to get some rest,” he whispered. “Clear your mind. Why don’t you go back to the room and lie down?”
“I don’t want to lie down!” She pulled away and her tone grew sharp. “I’ve been doing nothing but resting all week. Stop treating me like I’m still an invalid.”
“Fine,” George said. His voice softened. “You’re right; let’s find something else to do.” He looked at Amanda. “What do you do for entertainment around this place?”
Amanda showed them the fitness room in the south wing and the entertainment center stocked with all manner of games, movies, and other crafts and activities to pass the time. Miriam found an old game she used to play as a child, and her spirits seemed to lift slightly. And with a little effort, George persuaded her to go back to the room and get dressed. The two of them would get in a light workout together and perhaps sit in the hot tub for a bit. Her mood brightened further at that suggestion.
Miriam left, and once George had Amanda alone, he cornered her in the game room. “Okay, tell me what’s going on here. Who was the woman they brought in?”
“Woman?” Amanda stammered. “What… woman?”
“Stop with the act. I saw her. I saw Carson leading her away in handcuffs a couple hours ago. Who was she? And who did they bring up in the white van?”
“No.” Amanda shook her head. “I can’t say anything. He’ll find out. And it’s not your concern.”
“Where are they?” George persisted. “Are they down in the caves? Does it have something to do with the N’watu?”
“Stop it.” Amanda’s eyes darted away. “I have to go. I have work to do.”
George grabbed her arm. “Answer me! Whatever you people are doing up here, you won’t get away with it.”
“You have no idea what we’re doing.” She yanked her arm from his grasp. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t even think about crossing him. Not if you want her to live.”
George glared at her but he could see only fear in her eyes. She wasn’t his enemy. She was just a fellow prisoner living in fear. She had been shipped out here by her desperate parents, however well-intentioned they might have been. They were trying to save her life but had unwittingly relegated her to a living nightmare. An unending one. What would it be like, George wondered, to work for a man like Vale for ninety years? He could only imagine what other sorts of jobs Vale would have found for her, and he wondered if such longevity as perilium offered could become more of a curse than a blessing.
Miriam returned and they spent the rest of the afternoon together. Her strength and stamina were clearly heightened by the perilium’s effect as she long outlasted George on the treadmill. Then they sat in the outdoor hot tub and played a game of cribbage before dinner.
Vale had invited the other residents again for dinner—raw meat and all. This time Amanda provided George with a cut of meat that was cooked. George did his best to appear amiable, though deep down he had just wanted to spend the evening alone with his wife. His young, vivacious wife.
It seemed the group all came together a few evenings each week. They gathered around the big dining table as though they were at a medieval feast. And Vale sat at the head, directing conversations and moderating debates, always having the final word.
George wondered what it would be like to live within such a small community. Seeing the same few faces year in and year out. Some for more than a century. From the conversations, George gathered more details on how each one had arrived in Beckon. In most cases, their stories were not so different from his own: wealthy souls, stricken with some disease and willing to pay a fortune for the chance to cheat death.
Vale had practically built the town himself after discovering the cave in 1878. At first George wondered why he would build a town in the first place. Why draw people to the very place you’re trying to keep hidden from the public?
But then it struck him: it was obvious that Vale needed some type of human community just for his own survival and sanity. Or ego. Though still, it seemed an odd way to keep a secret.
George surmised that eventually Vale’s fortune would have begun to wane and he would’ve needed additional funds to maintain his way of life. He was a businessman at heart. So he had found a way to use the perilium to his advantage and began his search for others whose circumstances he could exploit, then convinced them to join him. Or perhaps lured them here would be the better description.
George learned that Malcolm and Loraine Browne had arrived in 1893, followed shortly afterward by Frank Carson, who’d once been a colonel in the Union army. And then in 1897 came Dwight Henderson, who had been a physician at the time. Henderson was tight-lipped about the precise circumstances that had brought him to Beckon, but George got the feeling he might have been trying to save someone. Someone close to him.
He also discovered that Max and Fiona Dunham were low-level British royalty who had arrived from England in 1914 just as the First World War was breaking out in Europe. Fiona had suffered from some sort of aggressive cancer.
George already knew that Amanda had arrived in 1923 and the Huxleys in 1972, but there seemed to be a big stretch of time between them, and he wondered if there had been others that he didn’t know about. Others who perhaps didn’t wish to remain under the rule of Thomas Vale. Not for all the perilium in the world.
George noticed that Henry Mulch was not present. When he asked, Vale simply said that Mulch was busy with a job he’d asked him to do.
He made it a special point to look for any hint of dissatisfaction among the group, but the general mood was light and jovial.
The gathering began to disperse shortly after ten o’clock, so George and Miriam excused themselves and retired for the evening. George wanted to get to bed early. He had plans for a morning excursion to locate the cave under the lodge. It was a risky maneuver, but he needed to find some answers.
So he arose early the next morning and slipped downstairs to look around. The place was quiet. He followed the corridor past Vale’s office and discovered a door hidden in a narrow side passage off the main corridor. It opened onto a stairway leading down into darkness. George caught his breath as a sudden wave of apprehension seized him.
“Where are you going?” Miriam’s hushed but urgent voice came from behind him.
George nearly jumped out of his trousers and cursed. “What are you doing? I thought you were asleep.”
“I woke up when you left,” she said. “And I’ve been following you, snooping around.”
George shushed her. “I’m not snooping. I’m…”
“Nosing? Sneaking? Spying?”
“Exploring.”
“Ah,” Miriam said with a stern tone. “Then I’m coming along.”
George stuck out his hand and stopped her short. “No, you’re not. You need some rest, so go back up to the room and—”
Miriam brushed his hand aside. “I am not going back to bed while you go exploring. I’m coming with you.”
George sighed. The last thing he needed was for Miriam to see more of this place than he wanted her to. But he also knew she wasn’t going to listen to him. Besides, she was now probably stronger and nimbler than he was, so even if he wanted to stop her, he doubted he’d be able to.