After the Golden Age

“Then why bring up a son? Because I don’t know anything about that.”

Wincing, Celia said, “Can we sit down?” She gestured to a secluded set of wicker chairs. Reluctantly, Janet joined her there.

“I originally found your name on a payroll report for West Corp. You worked at the Leyden Industrial Park building. The laboratory there was shut down after an accident. I want to know what happened.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Yes. But you must remember something. Simon Sito worked there—”

“I don’t want to hear anything about him.”

“I know this must be difficult.”

“Do you? Then tell me why you mentioned a son. I wouldn’t have agreed to talk with you if you hadn’t.”

She wondered if the old woman realized who Celia was.

“I know who the father was. I assure you, I learned by accident. It’s a long story, but I only uncovered the adoption records after I had suspicions.”

The tension in Janet’s face seemed to melt, as if now that the secret was out, she could stop working so hard to hide it. As if she knew this moment had always been inevitable, but not as terrible as she’d envisioned. She rubbed her face with a bony, trembling hand.

“I should have ended the pregnancy,” Janet said. “I saw what he turned into, and I just kept thinking how I let his genes loose in the world. That evil—” Celia didn’t even have to say the name. Janet knew who she was talking about.

“Did he start out evil? Was he always like he is now? You must have seen something in him, back then.”

“No, no. He was … it was a long time ago. My memory of him is colored, I’m sure. But he was driven, and I admired him.”

A lost love? A quick fling? Celia couldn’t guess what they’d been to each other.

“Ms. Travers, I’m not here about your son, or Sito, or your relationship with him. I learned about all that by accident. But you wouldn’t talk to me when I called you a few days ago. I’m sorry if I tricked you into talking with me, but I’m running out of leads. What I really want to know is what was going on at the Leyden laboratory. Anything you can remember, no matter how insignificant, would be helpful. I’d appreciate it.”

The woman gathered herself, pursing her lips and straightening as much as she could. Her hands lay in her lap, clenched around each other.

“That day, the day of the accident, was the first major test of the equipment.”

“Equipment? What kind of equipment?”

Janet shook her head. “The project involved using radiation as a treatment for mental illness. A generator was supposed to create a specific kind of radiation. I’m afraid I don’t know any more than that. I was a technician; I prepared tissue samples and microscope slides, that was all.

“The equipment … burst, I think. It overheated, or a power surge overloaded it. I don’t think anyone ever learned what exactly happened. It was very embarrassing for Dr. Sito, because Mr. West was there observing—”

“Mr. West. Jacob West?”

“Yes— Wait a moment. Celia West. Are you related to him?”

“He was my grandfather,” Celia said. She could see the light of recognition in Janet’s eyes. Oh, that Celia West. Janet must not have recognized her instantly because she didn’t watch the news. Probably got out of the habit when the Destructor was featured regularly. As reminders of ex-boyfriends went, that had to have been bad. “Please, go on.”

“West Corp financed the whole thing. The only thing worse than failure is failure in front of your investors. But Sito insisted on showing off the experiment. At any rate, instead of focusing the energy in a beam that could be directed at specific targets—such as parts of the brain, for therapy—the entire room got a dose of the radiation. Now, the dose was weak. It was designed to be safe for use on people, of course. I don’t think anyone was hurt by it. But Mr. West shut down the project and gave everyone who was there quite generous severance payments. He decided the research was too radical to continue safely. Dr. Sito never recovered from the disappointment.

“He … he came to me that night. Drunk out of his mind, despairing. He needed comfort. I suppose I felt sorry for him. That was the night I conceived. By the time I learned I was pregnant, Sito had been institutionalized. I couldn’t keep the baby, then. I couldn’t raise it alone, with the father in an asylum—” She looked at her hands and flattened them on her legs in an effort to stop wringing them. The tendons stood out.

“I never saw Simon again,” she said. “At least, not in person. When he started making the news years later, I didn’t recognize him. I’ve avoided hearing anything about him. I must be the only person in Commerce City not following his trial.”

“He doesn’t know that he has a child,” Celia said. Janet shook her head. “You could probably sell your story to one of the tabloids for a lot of money.” She was mostly joking.