Super Soldier

by Charlie Carter

  As Napoleon prepared for take-off, the High Priest spotted him.

  ‘That is the boy who brought evil into our midst. Stop him!’

  The Greeks hurled spears and fired arrows. They whizzed past Napoleon, and clattered off the cliff behind him.

  ‘What about the ShieldField, Skin?’

  ‘It is slow to respond for some reason. Activating Twin Turbo Take-off!’

  Napoleon shot up into the sky like a bullet.

  Once well out of danger from spears and arrows, he slowed down, then stopped and hovered for a while.

  ‘Thanks, Skin,’ he said. ‘That lets my stomach catch up.’ He stared down at the sea. ‘Still no sign of TEX. He should have surfaced by now. We’d better get down there.’

  ‘ShieldField only just locking in, BB. We also need to add anti-liquid sealant to be sure of—’

  ‘Forget the sealant, Skin. If we don’t hurry, it could be too late. Dive!’

  In an instant, Napoleon spun around and nosedived straight for the sea.

  ‘Cone Mode activated,’ said Skin as they hit the water.

  The moment Napoleon sank below the surface, the cries of battle quickly faded. He drifted down through swirling bubbles and muffled sounds, until even they disappeared, leaving him in the soft blue silence of the deep.

  ‘Ten metres and dropping,’ said Skin.

  ‘12…

  14…

  16…’

  As Skin spoke, the depth readings flashed up on a screen in the ShieldField. Pressure figures and a gauge were also displayed.

  ‘Where is TEX, Skin? We should have seen him by now.’

  ‘We are locked onto TEX through the GeoChron tracer chip in Battle Book 20. He is 13 metres below us, and the gap is closing quickly. We should make visual contact any moment now.’

  The water grew darker and murkier the deeper they went. Napoleon peered hard. And then…

  ‘There he is,’ he shouted. TEX was several metres below, stretched out, face down, sinking while still clutching the Battle Book. ‘It doesn’t look good. We need to get under him, Skin, as fast as we can.’

  Napoleon dived past TEX and then came back up beneath him so that he was caught over the cone of the ShieldField.

  ‘Now let’s get out of here AQAP!’

  As they rose through the water, TEX’s face was pressed against the ShieldField. His eyes were closed. Was he just unconscious, or was he … ? Napoleon didn’t want to think about that.

  ‘Faster, Skin!’ he shouted.

  ‘Surfacing at a controlled pace to prevent decompression sickness. Patience recommended’

  How could he be patient? Doubts and questions churned in Napoleons mind like the bubbles swirling around them as they rose through the water.

  TEX was still holding onto the Battle Book, Napoleon noticed. This was a good sign, wasn’t it? But the doubts rushed back again; perhaps it was just the grip of a dead man.

  It seemed to take forever for them to break the surface. Napoleon gasped for air, suddenly realising that he’d been holding his breath all that time.

  ‘Twin Turbo it, Skin,’ he yelled. ‘Straight for the shore!’

  The ShieldField skimmed across the top of the water like a speedboat. It skidded to a stop on a tiny beach, and TEX slid off the front of the cone onto the sand. Napoleon raced to his side.

  The super soldier was slumped in a heap. ‘TEX,’ Napoleon shouted and rolled him over. ‘Are you okay?’ But there was no reaction, no movement, no sign of life.

  Napoleon stared in shock at TEX. He was only just getting to know him. He couldn’t die.

  Then Napoleons eyes fell on the Battle Book. It was completely still now, back in Alpha Phase. The danger was over. TEX had saved their lives by leaping into the sea with that casket. But he had lost his own in the process.

  A tear trickled down Napoleons face.

  ‘Despair misplaced,’ Skin said. ‘TEX is alive.’

  ‘How can he be alive, Skin? He’s not even breathing.’

  ‘Not perceptibly. He has suffered what is termed deep water blackout, a form of cerebral hypoxia caused by sudden sinking in more than ten metres of water. Any moment now he should—’

  Before Skin had even finished talking, TEX coughed and spluttered, then shuddered all over. His eyes burst open. ‘Where am I? What happened? Who the heck—’

  Napoleon laughed. ‘You’re on a beach in ancient Greece, TEX. And you just saved the day.’ He gave the super soldier a big hug.

  ‘Hey! What was that for?’

  ‘I dunno. Maybe you just deserved it.’ TEX and Napoleon smiled at each other.

  ‘Sufficient show of emotion,’ said Skin. ‘Please activate Exit Beam, Professor.’

  There was a bright light and a sudden whooshing of sound.

  ‘Do you think the mission was a success?’ Napoleon said to Skin when they were back in the change cubicle.

  ‘Most certainly. We collected some valuable data and answered several vexing questions about the Battle of Thermopylae. I would classify the mission as an unqualified success.’

  ‘But what about TEX?’

  ‘What about Uber Trooper Experiment One?’ said Skin.

  ‘Well, we didn’t get right into the thick of the fighting like the professor wanted us to. So we didn’t really test him out, did we?’

  ‘No, but he tested us out. Thanks to him the mission was almost an absolute disaster.’

  ‘You can’t blame TEX for everything, Skin. It wasn’t his fault that Battle Book 20 jumped into Delta Phase.’

  ‘Possibly not. But he initiated the sequence of nearly catastrophic events by mishandling Battle Book 66 in the Tome Tower.’

  ‘But he was trying to help me. And he made up for it in the end. If he hadn’t dived into the sea with that Battle Book, I can’t imagine where we’d be now. I mean, a Battle Book going off inside another Battle Book! You heard what the prof said; that’s what I call a catastrophe. TEX put his own life at risk to save us from that.’

  Skin was silent.

  ‘You don’t like TEX much, do you, Skin?’ said Napoleon.

  ‘I do not factor “like” into my equations, BB005.’

  ‘I like him,’ said Napoleon. He stepped out of his SimulSkin. ‘Just as I like you. And one day the three of us might have a more successful mission together.’

  ‘As you wish, BB005. Your comment will be processed within the pertinent parameters. Transferring to sleep mode in 5 seconds … 4 …’

  Skin glowed for a few seconds and then faded to a dull grey. Napoleon dressed and stepped from the change cubicle.

  In the Main Chamber, Professor Perdu was at the control panel, her face lit up by its green glow.

  ‘Where’s TEX?’ Napoleon said. He’d left the super soldier there in a debriefing session with the professor when he went to change out of Skin.

  Professor Perdu glanced up. ‘Over there,’ she said, nodding towards a far corner of the chamber.

  Napoleon’s face dropped. ‘You’ve put him in his cylinder already?’ He rushed across the room.

  ‘Yes. I’m afraid I still need to refine Uber Trooper Experiment One.’

  TEX was already immersed in a swirl of green gas, sparks flashing through it, his eyes closed. Napoleon tapped on the capsule, but TEX’s eyes remained shut. Something did flicker across TEX’s face, though. A form of recognition, perhaps.

  ‘I now see that I was a little hasty in sending UTEX1 off on this mission. There is still quite a bit of work needed on it.’

  ‘IT? You mean "him", don’t you?’ Napoleon frowned at the professor. ‘He is a person, you know.’

  ‘UTEX1 is a super soldier first and foremost.’

  ‘You sound like Skin, Prof. What’s wrong with feelings?’

  ‘They can get in the way of a successful mission. They can cloud judgement.’

  ‘Yeah, well, some of us like clouds,’ Napoleon snapped. ‘We don’t all have to have clear skies to see properly.’ He thumped the cyl
inder hard and shouted at it. ‘Don’t let them change you too much, TEX.’

  ‘Really, Battle Boy,’ said the professor. ‘That sort of outburst is unnecessary.’

  But Napoleon was barely listening. TEX had opened his eyes. The super soldier stared down at him for a moment. A smile drifted across his lips, and he winked. A second later, his eyes were closed again.

  ‘I can only imagine that you must be exhausted,’ the professor added.

  Napoleon didn’t bother replying. He turned to walk away, then stopped. The data screen for UTEX1 was still lit up on the side of the cylinder, and something had caught his eye. He stopped and stared.

  There it was–his own family name, entered under the heading Genetic Analysis:

  Smythe Genomic Imprinting Factor 4.

  ‘What’s this, Prof? Does TEX have my DNA?’

  ‘Well, it’s not exactly yours, BB. He has your great-grandfather’s DNA’

  ‘You mean from Battle Book 72–when I shook my great-grandfather’s hand?’

  ‘Exactly A most successful mission.’

  ‘But why has TEX got great-grandfather Ulysses’ DNA?’

  ‘Because it’s the purest form of Smythe DNA I could locate.’

  ‘Yes, but why does he even NEED it in the first place?’

  ‘TEX needs that DNA to get into the Battle Books’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘It’s quite simple, BB005. Battle Books can only be entered by those who have the right biological key, namely a certain DNA construct. Only a very few people on the planet have that key.’

  ‘Like the Smythes.’

  ‘Exactly’ Professor Perdu pursed her lips and cracked her knuckles. ‘You’re very special.’

  ‘If you say so. But—’

  Napoleon suddenly felt overwhelmed by what the professor had told him. There was so much to think about. For a start, it meant that he and TEX were kind of… related! That was too weird for words.

  ‘Now you really are looking exhausted, BB005.’ The professor smiled. ‘Go home and let it all sink in. Your next mission could be just around the corner. And we want you fresh and alert for that.’

  ‘I guess.’

  Napoleon left the Special Reading Room in a kind of daze.

  He had so many questions …