Dangerous by Default

29. The chase

The black Prius pulled into Half Moon Bar airport. Caine leapt out of the car and immediately spotted Mina's green Porsche 911. He instinctively touched the hood with his hand. It was still warm, meaning he only had a few minutes left to find her.

She was standing on the tarmac, her body electrically lit under a sea os white spotlights. The harsh screech of a plane landing thundered from overhead.

"How did you find me?" She called out to him, struggling to raise her voice above the din behind them. Caine pointed to the pilot.

"It wasn't his fault. There's a note in the pre-flight log that says 'If contact needed, call Caine.' I think the pilots got wise to the fact that your phone is often on silent."

Mina nodded, her mouth hanging slightly open as she yawned.She looked exhausted. Caine focused his gaze on her eyes.

"You have every right to not want to talk to me. I'm sorry I betrayed you tonight. I'm sorry about the Button hat."

"It's not about the fucking hat," Mina's wet eyes fell into her hands as she sobbed. Caine was stunned. He rushed up and embraced tightly.

"What do you mean, Mina? I'm confused."

"Yes, I was pissed off about the hat. No surprise there. You promised me when we started doing risks together that it would be utterly secret. You broke that promise. On top of it all, Janus was there. What if she saw it? What if she's figured us out?."

Caine was thinking about all of the excuses in the world. About his ego. About the danger he might have put them in. She was right.

"I'm sorry Mina. I went into a dark place, all I could think about was the show. Everything else seemed to justify it, as if my ego warped everything to make sense in my mind at the time. I'm an asshole and I'm sorry so so sorry."

"I understand, Caine. I know you. And I wasn't present when you needed me. You've always been there for me through the ups and downs. God knows. And I know how important it is for you to have a sounding board to help you close the loop on your mental feedback when you are getting ready for a show. But I just couldn't. The truth is..."

Caine watched in horror as Mina clutched her travel case tighter and tighter with each word. If this wasn't about his betrayal, what the hell was it?. He could feel the weight of what she was about to say before the words even left her mouth. She was going to say goodbye.

"When you brought up the adoption agency, it triggered something for me Caine. What good is a woman like me, if I can't even carry your child? The look in your eyes when the chance of a pregnant woman was available, it made me feel utterly worthless.

"But you're not worthless! You are the most important person in my entire life. The opportunity to raise a family with you is something I care about, but we have a family already. It's me and you, and your crazy big imagination, and our love for each other. The only reason to grow our family is so that we can share that love with someone else, someone who can grow up in that love's embrace. I don't give a damn whether you have a uterus or not, Mina."

"But it matters to me!" Mina was sobbing openly, and Caine's eyes began to drip as well. He held her tighter.

"The reason I wanted to delay the meeting with the adoption counselor is the same reason we haven't been able to raise the funding."

"I don't understand."

"We've been working towards a secret project that I couldn't tell anyone on the outside about. It isn't even strictly legal, but it would change the world, even me, if we are successful."

"Mina, I know, you've mentioned this before. Something about organ transplants, but I don't understand half of your work anyways."

"Not just organ transplants. I've been doing that since I was 22 for chrissakes. This is something different.. Something that would change the course of human creation forever."

Caine looked at her in shock. It started to fit together. "You've made a..." he couldn't say the words.

"We've created a womb. A womb that can be transplanted!"

Of course. If it could even be done, his wife would be the one to figure out how.

"Ami is past menopause, but she couldn't have children even when she was younger. She was going to be our first test subject because she has been desperate to give birth before she got too old to see the child grow into adulthood. We were racing against the clock - her clock. We've been just on the edge of a major breakthrough - the last breakthrough, we think - for the last few days. It's why I was late tonight, I was coming from the lab."

Mina paused to take a breath through her sobs.

"I couldn't do it, Caine. I couldn't keep the company together. Tomorrow we run out of money. The project is over. If Ami's operation went successfully, and her baby had been born healthy, I was going to be next. That's why I asked you to wait for me. But now I can't have a child, and it's not because I'm a transgender woman. It's because I failed! I'm a fucking failure."

Mina fell into Caine's arms, her body nearly limp against his support. The roar of an airplane took off a few hundred feet down the runway, and Caine clamped on her ears protectively in response to the loud sound.

"Mina, you are not a failure. You still have a day. A single day in your hands means anything could happen. You only feel danger when you're safe. I'm sure you can pull something together."

"Caine, I can't. There's no one left, no hope. Jeff Stanson is dead. I'm sorry, but this is on me. You've tried so hard to help me, and now I've failed you too. I'm sorry... but I just need to be alone."

Mina wriggled her arms out of Caine's and ran down the runway. Caine fought to keep up with her. In spite of the fact that they trained often together, he could never overcome her in a dead sprint. She was soon far ahead of him, already approaching the plane. The pilot was waiting with the hatch open.

"Mina don't do this. Stay here with me. We can fight this together, like we always have," he called to her over the roar of the tarmac.

"Caine, I can't. I'm sorry." She barely mouthed. With that she turned and fled into the cabin of the plane. Caine remained at the foot of the stairs for one brief moment as the pilot closed the hatch and waved too him. With a sudden impulse, Caine ran around the wing to the windows, shouting with all his might.

"Don't do this Mina! We can handle this together!"

The plane started to taxi down the runway. The blinds of one of the windows slid up and a red-faced Mina peeked out at him. She placed a hand on the glass to say goodbye and the plane moved into position.

Caine felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Wasn't sure if he would ever speak to her again. Not because of the fact she was leaving, but because of what he was about to do next.

He looked at the message on his phone.

Don't have much time, the message read.

Mina pulled the window shade down and caught her breath. Her hands were shaking. The pilot turned around. "Need anything before we take off, Ms. Blue?"