Lilith Cohen Retribution

by William Manning

  “My Director.”

  “Discussing what kind of torture it will take to get me to sell my uncle down the river?”

  “No one is going to torture you. I will not let that happen.”

  “Your bosses may not give you a choice.” “You’re not the enemy, but if you do decide to help us, you will be well protected from retaliation. You will be housed in your own living quarters which is a lot nicer than my safe house.”

  She scoots to the edge of the seat and stares at the floor. “You really don’t see me as the enemy? Aren’t I guilty by association?”

  My brow creases. “No, of course not and neither does my bosses. Whether you hate me or not, I still see you as a friend, a sister I never had. Which is why I refused to go along with the original plan of bringing you in; which was to burst into your home in the middle of the night and drag you out of bed. You mean more to me than that.” She leans back and sucks in air. “I’ll make you a deal. I will look at the stuff you found on my uncle, but if it feels like someone is feeding me a line of shit I walk, deal?”

  I give her a quick nod. “Deal. Just know, we will protect you whether you help us or not.”

  It was probably stupid of me to say that, but I trust her moral compass to steer her to do the right thing.

  Chapter 5

  While we’re walking to the front entrance, I glance over at her and grin. “Damn, it’s a good thing you hadn’t dressed for bed yet. I’d had to snatch you out of your bed in those dreadful dolphin Pajamas.”

  “Shut up, Lilith.” She manages a smirk. “God, you’re still a bitch.” A chuckle escapes her mouth.

  After sliding my keycard, the doors open. Connie and Dominic are standing side by side. Connie greets us with a smile. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Conrad. If you come with us, Agent Dahan will explain everything.” We follow Connie to the conference room.

  Clare is sitting with her laptop booted up and waiting on us. Clare waves awkwardly. “Hello again, Tiffany.” Samira waves. “Good day, Tiffany.”

  Tiffany and I sit down next to each other. Connie sits at the head of the table Dominic sits down next to her.

  Tiffany's eyes fill with shock as she observes Connie more closely. “President Kimura?”

  “That I am, Tiffany, and more as you no doubt have noticed.”

  “What the hell? I voted for you.”

  She bows her head. “And I am grateful for your vote.”

  “You stand for justice and human rights. Why are you leading a criminal organization like the Hunters?”

  She smiles. “I still do, Tiffany. Unfortunately, in these times one must do more than simply stand less we get knocked over. Alas, we must save this debate for another time and get on with business.”

  I place my hand on Tiffany’s shoulder. “Are you ready?” I ask in a soft voice.

  She closes her eyes, and exhales. “Just show me,” she mutters.

  Clare stands up and places the laptop in front of her. “Okay, the images are already up. So whenever you’re ready lift the screen,” Clare says.

  Tiffany timidly places her hand on the laptop and pulls away. “I can’t,” she whimpers.

  “I know this is hard, but you need to see the truth.” She briefly gazes at the laptop and then opens it. She slaps her hand over her mouth; her eyes fill with horror at the sight of failed human experiments lying dead on the operating tables with their insides exposed. “My god, Lilith. Some of these people look barely sixteen years old.” She swipes to another picture with a satellite image of people being loaded into trucks against their will.

  “What you’re seeing is the test subjects being forcefully loaded into trucks in Syria to be carted off to Black Reign’s labs,” Clare says.

  Tiffany twists her face in disgust as she double-clicks the video. Her uncle is clutching a needle between his fingers filled with a grey substance. Tears run down her face. “Goddamn you, onkel!” she hisses. He begins speaking in the video. “This is test subject: 32. We have been attempting to recreate Athena and thanks to Lilith’s blood samples; I think we did it.It’s a pity she escaped. I would’ve preferred to have a steady supply of her nanites.”

  Shit, the fuckers did it! “How did you guys get this video?” I ask. “Venora stole the video and sent it to us,” Clare replies.

  She wants me to destroy Black Reign, but why? What does she gain from this? Whatever it is, I am not going to like it.

  DR Conrad walks over to a sickly woman lying on a hospital bed with short brown hair. “Are you ready, Mrs. Colvin?”

  Sick fuck! Using his wife as a test subject. This bastard’s greed knows no bounds.

  She clutches Colvin’s hand tightly and gives a strained smile. “Yes, Doctor. Let’s be rid of this cancer.” Colvin, you stupid son of a bitch.

  He turns to Conrad. “Doctor, are you sure this won’t kill her?”

  His wife hacks up blood into a rag. “Please, darling. Let’s do this I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

  The Doc gazes at him grimly. “Sir, I can’t guarantee anything with her body as weak as it is.”

  “It cured Lilith’s cancer. So why not hers?” he yells Conrad sighs nervously “Yes, sir. But we don’t know the state Lilith’s body was in when she received Athena. Your wife’s body may not be able to handle the drastic change that Athena puts it through.”

  “Honey, let’s do it this.” Mrs. Colvin asserts in a wheezy voice.

  Colvin leans down to his wife and kisses her passionately on the forehead. “Honey, are you positive you want to do this?”

  She strokes his cheek and sobs. “Yes. I’m dying anyway, so I believe this is worth the risk.”

  Tears pour from his eyes as he kisses her on the mouth. “Do it,” he says gripping her hand.

  He pushes the needle into her arm injecting the serum into her body. Colvin and Conrad stare at her with desperate hope in their eyes.

  Tiffany jerks her head away from the screen. “This is not happening. This is not happening! How can he do this? He raised me to respect all life. Not treat it like a plaything.” Apparently, her uncle followed the philosophy do as I say not as I do.

  Tiffany shifts her head back to the screen when Mrs. Colvin lets out a blood-curdled scream as she writhes on the bed. “Doctor help me! Something’s not right. My insides are on fire!”

  Blood streams from her eyes and ears as she bursts into a seizure. Her body abruptly goes limp, her face frozen in pain. Hysteria consumes Colvin's face when the heart monitor flat lines. The doctor tries to resuscitate her several times, but no response. Conrad looms over her and groans in frustration. Colvin sinks to the floor wailing and crawling over to his wife laying his head on her chest sobbing.

  Conrad grips his chin. “Interesting. I successfully replicated XT-D21, and it still killed her. Perhaps her body was too feeble to accept such a drastic change to her physiology. It turns out Lilith was telling the truth after all. We need to get more of Lilith’s blood so I can try to tweak it to be more universal or get me a raw form of Athena,” he says in a matter of fact tone.

  He rises to his feet, wiping the tears from his face. “That would require us infiltrating the Hunters again, and that won’t fly a second time. We’ll continue to try to apprehend her, and you will make this shit work, or you’ll be retired,” he says, stepping off-screen.

  Conrad clenches his jaw inanger. “This concludes the video journal. Doctor Franz Conrad signing off.” He switches off the camera.

  Tiffany springs out of her chair and grabs the closest trash bin and throws up. She sits down on the floor, leaning against the window, panting rapidly. “I’ve always wondered why my uncle became so distant lately. Now, I wish I didn’t know.” She glances over at me, slowing her breath. “Lilith, be honest with me. What did they take from your blood?”

  I kneel down in front of her. “I guess there’s no harm in telling you now. They took a sample of nanites from my blood that we call Athena. The nanites enhance the human body b
y making me faster, stronger, and agiler. I take a sip from my flask. “Athena also amplifies my immune system. The nanites even make my bones slightly tougher than your average humans by fusing together into a mesh reinforcing my skeletal structure. I pass the flask to her, and she takes a sip. “Athena also grants me immortality and immunity to the effects of aging along with regeneration. Meaning, I heal faster than normal human beings. I’m not invincible though. If I were to take a wound that kills me outright, the nanites wouldn’t have time to heal me.”

  She takes another gulp and passes the flask back to me. “Shit. You’re starting to sound like a character from my vampire novels.”

  “Yes, but unlike your beloved vampires I can walk in the sunlight, and I don’t require blood to heal or survive.” “I guess, that explains why all the drinking and smoking hasn’t taken its toll on you. Is there any cons to Athena?”

  “Yes I am unable to bear children, and I will outlive all those I know and love.”

  A grim expression washes over her face. “Did Karl know about the serum?”

  “Yes, he did. And he had the reaction I expected.”

  A laugh slips out of her mouth. “I can just hear him now, “Holy shit, babe, you’re like a superhero.”

  I grin. “That was exactly his reaction.”

  She grins. “Yeah. My bro was very predictable on certain things.”

  I extend my hand. “Wants some help up?” She

  grabs my hand, and I pull her up.

  Connie leans on her cane. “So, Ms. Conrad. Are you going to assist us in locating your uncle after this

  revelation?”

  “Look, lady. Let’s get something straight I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for him. He is sick, and at the aquarium whenever animals were too sick to cure, we put them down to ease their misery.” Her eyes burn with wrath. So that’s what I see myself doing by helping you, is putting him out of his misery.”

  Connie grins at her. “Well then, I see we have our answer. “Let’s all head up to the command center,” she says. Leaving the room, we head up to the command center.

  We all march over to the computer touchscreen table. “Alright, Tiffany. Where is his house?” Connie says.

  She sighs. “He lives in a house in upstate New York in a small town called Middletown. His house kind of sits outside the city. Here’s the address.”

  I punch in the address on the computer and within seconds the computer locks on to his location along with a hologram of a clean-shaven man with grey hair and glasses. “Well, ladies and gents, you have your orders now get out to Middletown. I’ll arrange lodgings for you. Tiffany, you go with them.”

  “What why do I need to go with them?”

  “You’re a valuable asset to them. You may have more info you can give them.”

  “No way! I am not putting myself in harm’s way again.”

  “Ma’am, I must agree with, her here. We don’t need her help anymore she can stay here.”

  Connie waves at me dismissively and walks toward Tiffany. “You know, I've done a bit of research on you; you lost a career as a Marine Biologist due to this Black Reign mess, right? Well, what if I told you I could get you a better career. One with the United States Navy Marine Mammal program.”

  “Uh, no offense, but I don’t want any part of that disgusting program. Those pricks put dolphins in danger by having them sniff out mines. Dolphins should be free to live not be used as the militaries’ personal watchdogs and don’t even get me started on the reports of animal abuse in that program.”

  She smiles. “That right there is why you are perfect for this. The US Naval High Command wants someone who is an expert with sea life so they can stop using live animals for these tasks. They want to replace them with robotic dolphins with artificial intelligence, but they need your expertise with making the dolphin's movements authentic.”

  She shrugs. “That sounds like a nice offer, but I don’t know shit about AI.”

  “And you don’t need to. Your job is to be there as an advisor. I’ve already arranged for you to have a security clearance at the naval base in San Diego. Plus you will be provided with your own house on base.

  I grab Tiffany by the shoulder. “Tiffany, listen to me I know you’re pissed about losing that career, but there is no need to put yourself back in harm’s way.”

  She yanks away from me. “Lilith, listen to me. I’ll never feel safe again so if this new career keeps me protected then so be it.” She nods at Connie. “I’ll do it, President Kimura.” Her voice laden with fear. Connie smiles. “Excellent!”

  “Tiffany are you sure about this? Because you’re subject to be exposed to more danger and you may be forced to kill.”

  “Yes, I am sure, Lilith. He is my uncle, and I want to be the last thing he sees before he’s punished for this evil. After hearing that poor woman scream in agony, and how he could just throw her away like she was garbage. It’s clear he’s no longer my uncle… he’s a monster.”

  It both pleases and disturbs me she sees things as I do, but this is not her, she’s not a killer. My only hope is I didn’t turn her into a reflection of me by showing her those images on the laptop.

  I cross my arms. “This is the second time I heard about an infiltrator in our midst. The first time was from Venora and now from Colvin. Did we ever get any leads on that?”

  “No, but I got Nina and Josef trying to figure out who it is on their end, and I’m investigating it on our end,” Dominic replies.

  “In the meantime, you and your team get to Middletown and dispose of Dr. Franz Conrad.”

  “Roger that, Connie. Come on people we got a flight to catch,” Dom adds.

  Chapter 6 Smoke rises from my cigarette as I watch Dom talk on his cell. Clare slips a suppressor on her CZ and stuffs it inside her green army jacket.

  I didn’t want Tiffany to become me. I just wanted her help. On the plus side, if she becomes like me, maybe she’ll survive this.

  Tiffany lumbers out of the restroom, pale with sweat on her forehead she wipes her mouth, and sits down on the bench next to me; her eyes stare off into space.

  “You okay?” I ask. She brushes her hand through her hair and cranes her neck. “Yeah, I just can’t get those… images out of my head.”

  “And you never will. But after a while, they don’t haunt you as bad.”

  She leans forward, digging at her thumb cuticle to the point it starts bleeding. “I just don’t understand. My uncle was my childhood hero.” She scoffs and smirks. “I used to love having him tutor me for science class.” A tear streams down her cheek as she rests her head against the wall. “He could teach science in a way that wasn’t dull for me.”

  “Sometimes heroes fall and become the very thing they’re fighting against, or they end up like my father, dead. In the end, heroes always fall.”

  “A week ago, I would’ve have said you're just being a cynical bitch. But now, I see the world for what it is, corrupt, evil and people are out just to get theirs. If there is a god, why does he allow this?” she says somberly.

  It always pissed me off when people blame God for everything like he is some sadistic asshole holding a magnifying glass to ants. When what they should be doing, is living in the real world and realize that you either did it toyourself or shit happens. Good and evil is the natural order of things black and white and sometimes in between.

  “God granted us free will. It’s not his place to allow or disallow things. We allowed this world to become the way it is when we adopted this apathy trend of pretending it’s not happening. God doesn’t shape our world. We do. He only lays the paths in front of us, and it’s up to us to decide which one to take.”

  I flick off a piece of ash on the deck. Reading her expression, I can tell she didn’t expect that response from me.

  “I don’t know if God is real, but whoa that’s pretty deep, Lilith.”

  Blowing smoke from my nose, I cross my legs. “The mistake most people make is we see G
od as some magical genie to grant wishes. When in reality, he is a grand architect, an engineer of the universe, an all-knowing scientist and teacher.”

  “That’s a pretty realist concept for a Jewish girl like yourself.”

  I shrug as I take another drag, sending a shroud of smoke toward the ceiling. “That tends to happen when your mom is a physics professor and religious at the same time.”

  “Lilith.”

  I turn to her. “Yes, Clare?” “The TOC is up and running.” “Good.” Dousing my smoke, I pour a glass of Vodka and return to my seat, sipping my drink.

  Even I can’t cull the sight of Colvin’s wife dying in agony on the operating table. Oh well, more nightmares for the collection.

  The jet touches down at our private airfield, just outside of Middletown. The ramp on the aircraft lowers, and bone-chilling wind wafts through the hold as we step off the jet, heading to the Black SUV waiting for us in a half-empty parking lot. We load our stuff in the back of it and leave.

  Snow caked pines tower above the wet country highway on both sides. I keep it at a safe speed considering the roads this time of year contains black ice. Dominic tells me to turn left down a narrow muddy path. I steer the GMC down the road which is surrounded by more pines blanketed in snow. A few snowflakes fall on the hood as I stop the vehicle in the driveway. “Cool. I love snow,” Clare exclaims with excitement. That’s because she hasn’t been through hypothermia. I exit the truck and stroll up to the oak front door and enter my agent number into the keypad. The locks release. Stepping inside, I flip on the lights; there are empty desks and weapon racks stocked with SMG’s, rifles, pistols, and three bedrooms. I glance toward the kitchen; it’s massive with red oak cabinets, granite counters, and a sleek flat stove top. Wandering into the kitchen, I rub my hands on the reflective black granite and smile as flashes of Karl and me try to hone our amateur cooking skills. We almost burnt the kitchen down; we had to settle for Chinese food that night.

  “Okay, we're set,” Clare sits down and brings up a Sat image of Doctor Conrad’s residence. I call Tiff over and point at the satellite image on the laptop. “Tiffany, I just want to confirm the Intel you gave us. That is your uncle’s house, correct?”