Bio-Justice

by Scott Takemoto

  So she was to be an accessory to mass murder.

  Sarkis had called her to ensure her complicity. He must have been beside himself when he discovered a way to topple her from her moral high horse. Winfield probably assumed the rationale would be accepted by the scientists as a patriotic imperative. Conlan and Sarkis were already there. Now it was her turn to claim her dark membership.

  Felice quickly stepped into the corridor and hurried down the stairs leading to the conference room. She knew Winfield would be watching, waiting for her to appear, wondering why she hadn’t already—with those black, shifting obsidian eyes.

  CHAPTER 24

  “London bridge is falling down, my fair lady…” Nina sang out.

  Sheldon tilted his head for Greenwood to confer with him, their backs turned away from Nina. “When are they getting here? Are you sure you told them the seriousness of—”

  “…take the key and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up…”

  Greenwood’s face showed a defensiveness sprouting. “You heard me specifically tell Captain McQuinn. I said—”

  “…take the key and lock…”

  And then Greenwood and Sheldon heard the scramble, the padded feet slapping against the linoleum followed by the door slam.

  “Shit!” Greenwood shouted.

  Nina was amazed at how fast she was moving, how strong her legs felt, how extended she could make them. She could hear the chaotic clamor of steps behind her and their frantic voices telling her to stop. Ahead was the elevator they had used to escort her to the holding room. She slammed her fist on the buttons and the elevator doors instantly opened.

  Jumping inside, she heard the guards’ voices getting closer. She imagined their angry faces upon arrival. They wouldn’t try to be so nice this time. She hopped up and down as if it would help. The furious steps were almost there.

  The doors shut and the elevator lurched upwards although Nina had not designated any floor. She squeezed her eyes together, saying a little prayer to God. “Save me, save me,” she whispered and then opened her eyes as the car came to a stop.

  When the doors opened again, Nina found herself looking in wonder at the tactical forces that lined the wall. Men with helmets and flak jackets, holding guns as big as in the movies. Her eyes widened as the soldiers raised their weapons in unison and aimed them directly at her.

  “Have some more champagne, Mr. Caine,” Dr. Sarkis said as he noticed Felice entering the room. She was grim-faced and he knew something was wrong.

  Caine grabbed a bottle by the neck and slapped Sarkis on the shoulder. “Hey, you lizard-eyed bastard, you’re OK.”

  Felice, burdened with the truth and the scrutiny from General Winfield above, made her way to Danny, leaning towards him.

  “I have to take you out of here,” she uttered low. Danny’s gaze immediately went to the three armed guards in the room. They looked ready, as if their fingers were caressing the triggers of their assault rifles before squeezing.

  The other processees, taking large bites of sandwiches and swilling champagne and laughing raucously at each other’s overcooked humor, were the focus of the guards whose eyes were impaling each one of the celebrants in their sights. Danny spied the semi-automatic pistol holstered behind one guard hefting an assault rifle and saw his move.

  “Danny, we’ve got to go,” Felice said.

  Caine’s head craned towards them and twitched. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” The guards all turned to Caine.

  Danny lunged for the semi-automatic, ripping it from the guard’s holster and pressing the muzzle against Felice’s right temple.

  The room was hard-slapped into silence, as if for a moment sound did not exist. The first thing that broke the silence was the sound of Felice gasping for breath.

  The three guards had their rifles trained on Danny. Felice shut her eyes, not wanting to see the moment of her death. Danny could hear the buzzing of audible orders coming from the earpiece of the guard nearest to him. The guard stepped back and without expression, turned his weapon—as did the others—on Caine, O’Neal, Williams, Dobie and Vogel—and opened fire.

  The room became a tornado of exploding champagne bottles, chunked out pieces of wood and metal as bullets sprayed wildly. Dr. Sarkis ducked behind the podium and the others turned over tables and dove behind them.

  Sarkis slowly reappeared from behind the podium but with Wilson Caine’s heavily tattooed arm in a choke hold around his neck. A defensive Taser weapon hung on Sarkis’ belt. Caine took it with his free hand and turned it on.

  “Let him go!” ordered the guard closest to Caine.

  “What’s that? I can’t hear you,” Caine taunted the guard, as he crept closer, his arm tightening around Sarkis’ neck. Sarkis was now sputtering and choking. The other two guards were trying to get a bead on Caine, but Caine kept jerking Sarkis in front of him, spoiling the shot.

  When he was close enough, Caine thrust out the Taser, shooting the crackling metal hooks into the guard immediately in front of him. The electrical bolts flowed through the guard, toppling him to the ground, his body shuddering in spasms. Still holding Sarkis, Caine grabbed for the incapacitated guard’s pistol and aimed it at a second guard who remained fixed in his “kill” stance.

  Danny released his hold on Felice and fixed his semi-automatic on the third guard who immediately stood down from his shot at Caine and lowered his weapon.

  “You going to use that—huh, fucker?” Caine raged at the second guard, pulling Sarkis in front of him. A bullet through him would have to go through Sarkis first.

  The second guard was now thinking self-preservation and aimed his weapon to kill Caine, and Sarkis if necessary. Sarkis saw the guard’s intent and summoned all of the authoritative command he could muster. “Carl,” he screamed, “put down your weapon!”

  “I can’t, sir,” the guard replied.

  “Put down that weapon,” Sarkis repeated. “That’s an order!”

  “I’m not going to die,” the guard said, trembling.

  “Carl!” Sarkis screamed.

  The guard made his last adjustment before firing but the bullet from Caine’s pistol exploded through the guard’s skull before he could pull the trigger. Sarkis screamed as the gunshot deafened him and he felt the intense heat from the fired gun burn his cheek.

  O’Neal grabbed the fallen guard’s rifle. The third guard, near Danny and Felice, dropped his weapon to the ground in surrender but O’Neal fired anyway, killing him instantly. Seven Williams sprinted over to grab the freshly killed guard’s rifle as Vogel kicked the Tasered, still-trembling guard in the head, knocking him unconscious, and snatched up his M4. He tossed Carl’s second weapon, a Glock, over to Dobie.

  Now fully-armed, the men rounded up Sarkis and Felice Bennett and held them in the center of the room. Caine let out a victorious war cry as he held his captured weapon high.

  The torrent of action had occurred in an instant and General Winfield sat in the observation booth in stunned disbelief. Conlan had his hand to his mouth.

  “What in God’s name just happened?” Winfield said in a surprisingly controlled voice. He addressed Lieutenant Davis without facing her. “Lieutenant, ready the unit and secure the exit.”

  When the tactical unit leader got the word from Lieutenant Davis that General Winfield had ordered to engage, he waved off the two soldiers who were holding Nina. “Let’s go,” he said. “Get to your positions!”

  As the tactical unit split off in different directions, holding their weapons in combat-ready position, Nina watched them leave and then curious, followed behind to see what all the commotion was about.

  Vogel couldn’t stop braying with the power of an M4 carbine in his hands. He pointed it a couple of times at Sarkis and Felice for maximum effect.

  “All right,” Danny interrupted. “Slow down. Everybody just slow down. Let’s think this out here.”

  “They were going to slaughter us like pigs,” Vogel said, making himself a
ngrier.

  “And probably use our backgrounds to justify it,” Danny said. Danny was now a team player but he did not let on that the scientists were trying to separate him from the pack.

  “But why?” Dobie said. “Why would they give a shit about us?”

  Felice looked up with contempt towards the viewing glass and hoped she was looking right into General Winfield’s eyes. Danny caught Felice’s glare and the sounds of the others went silent to his ear. He walked over to where Seven Williams stood and snatched the assault rifle from his hands.

  “Hey!” Williams protested, as Danny swung the weapon up towards the one way glass. The gun spat out ten shots before Danny released the trigger. The window exploded into a thundering rain of crystalline shards which fell a few feet from where the group was standing. Caine held his arm up. Dobie tripped backwards and was on the floor.

  It was empty behind the shattered glass. General Winfield and Dr. Conlan had fled the observation booth before it exploded. Both men had seen the intent in Danny’s eyes as he took the weapon from Seven Williams.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Dobie said. “Why lure us up here for our blood and then try to kill us?”

  The question hung in the air as the other men grasped for an answer but came up empty.

  Felice started to speak, plainly and bluntly, catching Sarkis by surprise, leaving him stunned and astonished. “You were all expendable,” Felice said. “What they were searching for, in your blood—it wasn’t there.”

  “Dr. Bennett—” Sarkis warned.

  Dobie cocked his weapon, pointing it at Sarkis’ forehead. “Let her speak,” he said. Sarkis closed his eyes and swallowed.

  “It wasn’t there,” Felice continued. “Except for Danny.”

  Caine and the others looked over at Danny, like a bunch of class underachievers at the teacher’s pet.

  Dobie finally had someone to answer his questions. “But why kill us? I mean, who the fuck are we, that they needed to get rid of us?”

  “They couldn’t risk letting you leave,” Felice said. “You have to understand. Your knowledge of the project, even though you were kept in the dark, was an unacceptable liability to them.”

  Caine was growing enraged, and directed that anger everywhere. “Why are we listening to this bitch? She could be distracting us with this bullshit until they can regroup.”

  “Let her speak,” Dobie said.

  Felice had avoided looking into the men’s eyes but now she decided she could not live as a coward—not now. She looked at each of them, her eyes delivering truth straight to the soul. “Premium Sentencing was an accident, a by-product. Dr. Conlan’s studies in age progression was the background research necessary to discover what he was really looking for. The reverse of Bio-Justice—a Fountain of Youth serum.”

  Dr. Sarkis glared at Felice with a seething contempt as one would a back-stabbing traitor. If he could wrest a gun from one of his captors he would have let them be, while he shot Felice Bennett until she stopped breathing.

  In the corridor away from the exit door of the conference room, General Winfield stood toe to toe with the sergeant in charge of the tactical team as Dr. Conlan stood close. “This whole goddamn thing has gotten out of hand. As far as I’m concerned we could toss a couple of high impact grenades in there and blow the bastards to bits. But I need Fierro and I need him alive and healthy and unharmed.”

  “And Dr. Sarkis and Dr. Bennett?” Conlan asked.

  “They’re the ones who put him in there!” Winfield raged, then cooled down. “Yes, yes. Get them out safely, as well.” An idea came to Winfield—he thought a winning strategy. “The gas. Conlan, what about that gas you were telling me about?”

  Dr. Conlan made a face, not matching the General’s enthusiasm. “We don’t want to introduce any chemical that could interact with Mr. Fierro’s blood.”

  “Christ!” Winfield shouted, his frustration escalating.

  “We’ve got the area secured, sir,” the Sergeant said. “There’s no way they’re getting out of there unless we say so.”

  “And Fierro? Any ideas, Sergeant?” Winfield asked, all the while being distracted by a strangely behaving young woman standing a few yards away, singing to herself while doing a dance that required her to swing her arms like a tree monkey.

  “Are you talking about that poison you guys are peddling out on the street?” Danny said to Felice, more an accusation than a question.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Felice said. “The serum hasn’t been made available to anyone except one individual that I am aware of.”

  “What about Dr. Ellison? Conlan said he was a top man here, head of his own unit.”

  Felice shook her head vehemently. “Dr. Ellison has done experiments with different serums that were tested and rejected as being too toxic for use on humans. But these were earlier, cruder formulas. There is no way that stuff got distributed.”

  “I was there,” Danny said. “I saw Ellison. He’s running a fucking cartel out there.”

  Dobie, as usual, had more questions, and he wanted Felice’s attention. “Listen, I don’t care about the shit you guys are pushing on the street. What I do care about is the role I’m playing in this horror movie.”

  “There are elements within our blood which do not embrace the new serum. That’s why you were brought here, all of you…” Felice began.

  Sarkis chopped at the air between him and Felice with his hand. “I think you’ve explained quite enough, Dr. Bennett.”

  Caine pulled Dr. Sarkis by his hair and growled, “Shut up, lizard eyes, or I’ll gouge them out one by one.”

  “Leave Dr. Sarkis alone,” Felice protested. “I understand his desire for secrets. That’s what we scientists do, work in a world full of secrets. Please, let him be.” Caine let go of Sarkis after smacking him lightly behind the head.

  “Go on,” Dobie said.

  “Premium Sentencing introduced compounds into the blood producing system, creating in some cases, a valuable mutation. You all have developed elements—mutations—in your blood which seem to act as an on and off switch to cell rejuvenation. Those elements were to be synthesized into a workable formula.”

  Caine let his hands slide over his weapon for emphasis. “Which is why you were going to deep six the whole lot of us.”

  Felice’s voice grew clearer, more sure of itself. There was no hesitation, no holding back now. Only the truth would do. “Danny has eight parts to ten ADP-5 platelets. The plasmatic compatibility with Serum 59, Type A requires a high density of ADP-5 platelets. The rest of you had from three to five parts. That’s why you were no good to them.”

  Instead of being mollified by the truth, Caine was seething from it. He returned his finger to the trigger. “Bitch! And you were going to let it happen.”

  “I didn’t know they intended to do you harm.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Caine hollered. “Let’s cap her and this other prick!”

  Felice had miscalculated her immunity from violence. Her truth telling brought her closer to the violent edge as the unwanted bearer of bad news. Her pride and sense of indignation was now being assaulted by fear, of pain and death. She looked over at Sarkis who only replied with a face filled with contempt and disgust.

  O’Neal snapped his assault rifle in readiness and Caine cocked his pistol. Even Seven Williams picked up his weapon.

  Danny came forward, cocking his weapon, so the click could be heard by all. “All right, who’s first?”

  Caine smiled. “Me, motherfucker. Let’s start with me.”

  A light came into Danny’s eyes as if he were ready to go all the way. Felice, terrified and astonished by the infantile display of macho that threatened to take them all down, jumped forward and shouted, “If you two can stop the dickfight, we’re going to be dealing with something even bigger in a few seconds.”

  Danny’s eyes narrowed at Felice. “Like—”

  “She’s full of shit,” Caine sneered.

>   Vogel laughed too. “Yeah, there aint no-fucking-body gonna do fucking nothing.”

  Felice shut her eyes and then spoke clearly and forcefully in Vogel’s native tongue. “How about the Armed Forces of the United Fucking States of America, you fucking moron?”

  The room fell silent again and Vogel nodded, actually impressed.

  CHAPTER 25

  General Winfield needed a punching bag and Dr. Conlan had always been a favorite. “I gave you a strict order to get him out of there.”

  Conlan rankled with righteous indignation. “I’m not some corporal you can just order about. I’m a scientist, not a soldier.”

  “You’re a scientist, a very well paid scientist who is doing work subsidized by the appropriations budget of the Department of Defense, so I can pull rank, Doctor.”

  Castigating Conlan seemed pointless since there was little satisfaction to be had hurling shots at a befuddled old man, so Winfield let his eyes wander to the young woman again, still full of kinetic energy, bouncing even when she seemed determined to stand still.

  “I thought we cleared this floor of all staff,” Winfield said.

  Conlan looked over his glasses. “We did, General. I don’t know how she got in here. I don’t even recognize her.” Then to Nina, he shouted, “You—”

  “Allow me,” Winfield said to Conlan. “Miss—” he called out. Nina heard Winfield and looked around, then cautiously sauntered over to the General.

  “Miss, this is a restricted area. Weren’t you told that staff was being evacuated temporarily?”

  Nina didn’t register what Winfield said as anything but gibberish. She made a nervous face and rolled her eyes.

  Winfield, feeling the effect of the serum or maybe thinking he should be feeling some effect, was smitten by Nina’s disheveled, youthful beauty and didn’t even question her inappropriate reactions, or her blackened bare feet.