Rage & Fury

by Darryl Hadfield

  “Yeah, when you under-estimated just how much I could do on my own.”

  “Fair statement, and, I was never really wrong – I was right, just to a lesser magnitude than you managed to pull off.” His voice hardened. “Now, quit fucking around, and tell me even one time when I’ve been WRONG.”

  I grudgingly said, “Never.”

  “Now… Fathead’s the guy who’ll take over for you. There’s a reason why, and you haven’t even bothered to ask me that – which is a habit you’ll need to break. Dr. Cranum was, yes, disconnected from the system and was being ostracized as a result of his illicit and unethical experimentation with the Neural Enhancement Research and Development program.”

  “uhwut?”

  “He’s the person who invented the implant. He – without permission – started experimenting not just with the basic idea of the implants, but also, changed his own – far in excess of what anyone else ever considered to be possible.”

  “Wait.. Fathead MADE those things? And then made his own better than yours?”

  “Better is a subjective term, but yes, his does more than mine – or anyone else’s – does. The way he did it, however, and the extent to which he made changes, was not approved by the medical authorities, which is why they essentially terminated not only his work, but also his access and generally, made his life something he didn’t wish to live.”

  “wha…” I felt like my brain was turning to mush and leaking out my ears.

  “They shut him down because he didn’t ask permission to do what he did.”

  “That’s… fuckin’ stupid.”

  “It’s not my place to judge, but generally, I’m inclined to agree – privately. Publicly? I have no comment – and neither do you, if you want to go far. Seriously, kid. You need to learn to shut up and listen – that’s why you’ve got two ears, but only one mouth.”

  “Okay okay, so… Fathead’s the guy who’s gonna take over. How?”

  I’m not going to go through all of the details, since this is my story, not Fathead’s. In a nutshell, we started… no, I started having him take more of a role in the gangs – so people got the idea that some of what was happening wasn’t my idea, but was his.

  Ry and Pug didn’t squawk, but I think they had pretty much the same opinion I did… until they started seeing just how much his ideas were helping all of us.

  The hardest part was that I had to explain to them – carefully – that the best guns we had, wouldn’t work against the army, since they could basically shut them down. I didn’t go into details, I just told them I found out from Fathead – who they already knew was pretty smart for a guy who was so fuckin’ lazy.

  Almost but not quite as hard, was knowing how this was going to play out. With Colonel Bradburry’s help, we got all of this stuff rolling, and then, late one night, I just… left. I waited till the sun had set and there wasn’t much light out. I left my Fury behind, and crawled out my second-story window, dropped to the ground below, and walked to the Hudson river. Without distractions, it was a 10 minute walk, tops – but it took me closer to 30, since I’d already gotten the patrols to be VERY careful about anything they saw. I didn’t know their route, or times, but I took my time and only had to hunker down and hide twice, while they passed by – on foot, spread out, and looking all around.

  When I got to the river’s edge, Colonel Bradburry was there in his little boat – it was small, and made out of some flexible rubber stuff. He didn’t whisper, he talked normally, but really quietly – we got into the boat, and he did something with the motor – and it just… moved us. Slow, but totally silent. Neat toy.

  When we got close to the far side of the river, he changed something, and all of a sudden the engine got a lot less quiet and the boat lurched ahead, nearly knocking me down onto the deck.

  Half an hour later, we showed up at an island that had this massive fucking statue on it – kind of dirty and wearing some kinda dress, but all concrete. Weird bitch was holding up a busted bottle like she was gonna carve someone above her. Colonel Bradburry steered the boat towards a dock, and used a piece of rope or something to tie the boat to a pillar there. We got out, and started walking towards the statue, and as soon as we got off of the dock and onto the island proper, I heard a set of footsteps behind us.

  “You’re early, sir.” I turned and had Rage out, getting ready to kill whoever had caught us.

  Colonel Bradburry looked at me and rolled his eyes, barely visible in what little light was there. “Put that toothpick away, kid.”

  I didn’t know why he figured it was safe – I could barely see the person, despite there being enough light that I should have been able to. “Fine, Colonel.” I re-sheathed Rage, and edged a little closer to him, thinking whoever it was, if the Colonel trusted them, they’d target him first and I could still make a run for the boat.

  “Sergeant Ballard, this is James. He’s the last of the current in-take group. Are the others ready to depart?”

  “Yes sir, They’re staged on our recon ship at the dock on the other side of the island. All of a sudden, a tiny guy – probably 5’8, if that - appeared, dressed in a dark gray uniform. It almost looked like the black Multicam I was wearing, but instead of a pattern, it was just a single dark gray color. I tried hard not to look amazed, but goddamn if that guy wasn’t damn near invisible only seconds before. That was some impressive camouflage.

  “Well done, Sergeant.” He turned to me. “James, this is where I leave you; remember what I’ve told you – Sergeant Ballard will take you to the others, and you’ll be departing on another vessel of ours to go to a training camp. Remember, you’re just another kid there, you’re not… what you were in the Bronx.”

  At the mention of the Bronx, the sergeant’s eyes widened slightly. Bradburry caught it as well. “That reminds me, Ballard, here’s the waiver for the kid’s pigsticker. We’ll handle it as a religious waiver.” He handed a piece of paper over to the sergeant. “James, that blade of yours needs to stay sheathed while you’re at training. You’ll be allowed to carry it, and if anyone asks, just tell them it has a spiritual importance to you. If you use it on anyone, that will be an immediate ‘end of the road’ – and you won’t like how you fail out of basic training at that point.”

  He turned and started walking back to the boat.

  “Colonel… Sir… what… “ I wasn’t even sure what to ask, I just felt like something wasn’t done.

  He stopped and turned. “Go with Sergeant Ballard, James. You’ll learn everything else you need to know. Don’t worry, I think our paths will likely cross again. Ballard smirked.

  As the colonel walked away, Ballard addressed me. “You’ll be addressed as ‘recruit’ from here on out. You aren’t ‘James’ unless you’re handling paperwork with one of the clerks. Anyone in uniform outranks you – which means you’d better do anything any of those people tell you, no questions asked. Let’s go, recruit.” He had to look up at me, towering over him at over six feet tall.

  He turned and started walking away, and I followed him, head swirling with feelings. This was *NOT* how I expected it to play out.

  We ended up walking around the edge of the island, to another dock – and there was nothing there. Ballard walked to the very end of the pier, and started to step into what looked like thin air… and disappeared.

  “Hey, what the fuck?” I was, as you can imagine, more than a little surprised.

  “Hurry up, kid. You have things you need to finish before you rack.” The voice was Ballard’s, and came from the direction he had went, but I couldn’t see shit.

  “Uhh… hurry up what?”

  I heard a muttered curse. “Goddamn street kids, no fuckin’ implants…” He reappeared, and stood, what looked to me, on thin air. “Walk directly toward me, recruit.”

  I hesitated.

  “NOW recruit! Move your fuckin’ ass!”

  I took a slow step towards him… and it landed on nothing. Another step, again on nothing.. m
y eyes must have been pretty wild, and I could hear Ballard laughing. One more step… and all of a sudden a ship’s deck appeared around me. “What the fu…”

  “It’s a stealth ship, recruit. You can’t see it unless your implant is authorized, and you don’t even have one. That’s one of the things we’ll address in the next week or so.”

  The ship was underway within the hour, and I was immediately subjected to a whirlwind of tasks – documentation had to be filled out (and I could read, but hadn’t ever written anything, so it was… messy), medical tests had to be administered… it was a fucking nightmare. I never had to do any of that shit in my empire… all I had to do was tell someone and they took care of whatever I wanted. I was already regretting this.

  It wasn’t all bad, though – and in face, some of it was even rather pleasant. Ballard took me to an office in an inner area of the ship, and left me with “the orderly who will handle your in-processing.”

  “So kid, “ the busty blonde in front of me said, “Looks like you’re one of Bradburry’s special needs kids. Guess we’ll have to fake some of this shit. Don’t worry, it’ll all get ironed out, but you get to make decisions the rest of us never get to.”

  “Uhh… ma’am… I’m not .. I don’t..”

  “That’s Corporal Hotez, and don’t sweat it. First, do you know your birthday?” When I told her no, she laughed and said, “well, you’re here, so you must be at least 18… Birthday, hmm..Bradburry’s kid… Yeah, your birthday is April first, ‘69. Remember that.”

  She seemed to think that was damn funny, and I didn’t know the joke until much later – then again, she also worked for me later, so, I laughed last.

  The same set of forms needed my name… “James.”

  “Yeah, and?”

  “uhh… and what?”

  “What’s your last name, recruit?”

  “I never had any name ‘cept for James.”

  “Hm. Okay then.. umm…”

  I apparently had been gawking at her bigger-than-average tits, and she laughed at me – not entirely mean, but yeah, there was an edge to it. “You look like the big bad wolf, getting ready to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Well, too bad, but you’re gonna get fucked over like he did, too. We’ll call you James Wolf. Remember that, too. Someone yells for ‘Recruit Wolf’, they mean you – so fucking answer to it.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “DON’T FUCKING CALL ME MA’AM, I WORK FOR A LIVING!”

  I leaned back immediately. Shit. This bitch had a set of lungs under those tits, too.

  We went through the rest of the paperwork she had in front of her – I don’t get why they did it on paper, since they obviously all had those implants, not to mention a fuckload of tablets just laying around. When we were done, she stood and told me to follow her. Damn me to hell if she didn’t have just as hot an ass… We went down a couple flights of stairs, and down a hallway, and she stopped and turned, and looked at me.

  I looked back. Silence.

  “Berth 149-A, Recruit!” She sounded pissed, again. I had no fucking clue what she was saying, though. I mean, I heard the words, but what the hell did they mean???

  She waved her hand at the door, and it opened – even without her touching it. Inside was a bed, chair, desk, and a closet. “Your quarters – Berth 149-A.”

  She kept looking at me, and I figure she meant I should go in – so I did. Next thing I know, she’s walking away and the door closes… and wouldn’t fucking open!

  I had a doctor walk into my room on a few hours later, cocksucker was able to open the door, no problem. Fuck, these people were assholes!

  He was in uniform, though (I knew he was a doctor because he said so – “Hi, I’m Doctor Kevinic” but gave me no clue who or what the hell he was, otherwise, though), so when he sat in my chair and said to lay down on my back and relax, I figured it was an order I didn’t have a problem obeying. He slipped on a mask, and I didn’t think anything of it, until the sleep hit me so fast it was like a rock to the head.

  I woke up with the worst goddamn hangover of my life – and I hadn’t even been drinking. What the hell? I had to take a piss, too, I hadn’t gone since before I’d left the Safe House, yeste.. Shit. I’d been gone less than a day.

  I stumbled out of bed, and walked over to the door, thinking I’d pound on it and see if I could get someone to let me out so I could go take a leak – but as I got closer to it, the door opened automatically. Great, at least they’re not gonna leave me to shit the bed. Odd, though, there was no-one there. Dammit, that’s no help.

  I walked out and the door closed behind me. I started walking back down the hallway, thinking I’d try to re-trace my steps from the night before and maybe find Corporal Hotass.

  I was almost to the stairs when someone came down them (they weren’t very big, only one person at a time could go up or down). This guy was HUGE… like… 6’4 and 300 pounds. He looked like he could squeeze me like a zit… and he was in uniform.

  “Excuse me, uhh…”

  “What do you want, Recruit?”

  “I uhh.. don’t know where anything is and I really gotta take a piss!”

  He wasn’t very helpful, he just said, “Accept.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I replied, “Uh what?”

  A really pissed look crossed his face, and then went away just as easily. “Ahhhh you’re the last of the street kids. Yeah, okay, go up these stairs, turn to the left – NOT the right – and go back along the corridor. Last hatch on the left.” And then he was gone, turning sideways so he could shove past me – half knocking me down when I didn’t turn sideways, too.

  I followed the directions, though, and sure enough, there was the shitter. I did my thing, and then figured I’d head back to find Hotass so she could let me back into my room. I managed to re-trace my steps to where her desk was, but she wasn’t there – Sergeant Ballard was in another desk nearby, though. “Excuse me, Sergeant, can you please let me back into my room?”

  “Your berth’s access should be granted to you now.”

  “I couldn’t get in yesterday when Corporal Hotass took me there.”

  He laughed.. “Don’t let her – or anyone else – ever hear you calling her that. Didn’t Doctor Kevinic see you yesterday?”

  “Yeah, the doctor guy showed up, gassed me, and I passed out. I figured it was so he could do more medical tests and shit on me.”

  Ballard laughed. “Yeah, you could say that.” He stopped and concentrated for a moment.. Then looked back up at me. “I see, he implanted, but it needed time to mature before he could activate. Come sit over here.”

  I did as he ordered, and he looked at me intently. A few seconds later, feeling very uncomfortable and about to look away, I felt a sharp pain behind my eyes, and between my ears. “OH FU..” and then my eyes blurred… and when they sharpened, I saw a red dot blinking at the upper right of my vision.

  “There, you’re enabled. Sounds like you didn’t read the note he left.”

  “Uhh… no, I woke up and needed to take a piss in the worst possible way so I just went.”

  “Fair enough. We can’t hold it against you since you’re so new to all of this. Your implant has been enabled; even not enabled, it should let you in and out of your berth. Head back there now, read what he left, and you’ll understand.” He looked back down at his paperwork, and evidently I wasn’t moving fast enough. “Dismissed, recruit. Get the fuck out of my space.”

  I left, fast. For a short dude, he looked angry, and mean, and I had a sneaking suspicion he was someone I probably shouldn’t mess with.

  My door opened for me when I got close enough to it and stopped. I walked back in, and sure enough, there was a little book on my desk, “How to Use your Implant.”

  Without boring you to tears, it boiled down to configuration, and training. Configuration was a matter of a specific thought that indicated confirmation, another one for “NO”, and some other guidelines. You could go with a heads-up display (boy, THAT was
cool to play with!) or stick with direct neural interaction, which boiled down to… “We’ll just talk to the right part of your brain and leave it at that.

  I had access to damn near every book in every library (I COULD read, after all) and video out the wazoo, including porn. That was fun, but got boring, fast.

  What was kinda neat, was that I taught myself to write much better than previously… I didn’t want Hotass pissed at me again (how am I gonna get in her panties if she thinks I’m an idiot who needs help for everything?). Then, for good measure, I looked up what else it would let me do.

  Yeah bitches, I now speak fluent English (which is to say, I possess a far more extensive vocabulary than I previously enjoyed).

  Fuck me, that sounds cool, but at least I understand it now.