The Eleven

by Adrian Popa

  It wasn't long until they found me, five minutes in and a barrage of gun fire rained on me from the building to my right. I took cover behind an alley. I decided to take a less populated route to reduce any innocent involvement, it'll be easier to defend myself not worrying about bystanders. The rain of fire continued. I couldn't tell how many there were. Suddenly I heard gun fire from above me, to my surprise, I wasn't hit. Whoever was on top of that roof didn't shoot me. I noticed a ladder leading to the roof and began climbing it. When I got to the top, I was surprised, but also relieved.

  Hopefully I'll make it in time. I continued to quickly grapple my way to Jacob's location. Suddenly I heard gun fire, up ahead were two men wearing trench coats and sunglasses with machine guns, I saw a figure run into an alley. I stopped on the roof facing them and took out my Blue bird. These guys must be the Jeno hit men. I aimed towards them and began firing. They missed but it caught their attention. One of them shifted their guns and began firing at me, I took cover and exchanged a few bullets. I went to look over to check on Jacob, but to my surprise, he had climbed up, and laid down on the roof. I said to him.

  "Popular huh?"

  "Heh, now's not the time"

  Jacob looked like a regular man, he was probably around his 30's, he had a scruffy beard, and was wearing standard jeans and a jacket. The firing continued and we stayed down, he said to me.

  "Now what? We're pinned"

  "Don't worry, I got this"

  I took out a grenade and lobbed it over. An explosion was heard and I checked to see if there was anyone else. It was a lucky throw, and it looks like there wasn't any more for now. That explosion would definitely give us away. I quickly motioned for Jacob and we got off the roof. I let him take the lead and we began running. He turned his head to the side and asked me.

  "So, what the heck are you doing here anyway?"

  "Thought you might need some help, so here I am"

  "My location?"

  "Was tipped off"

  "I see, but what about Kayneth?"

  "The Discarded Knives are backing me up, the sooner we do this the better, but you can take your time"

  "It's alright, I'll be quick"

  "Say, couldn't we just fake your death?"

  "It isn't that simple sadly"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I've been in Jeno for quite a while, and I was a trusted member, I came out with quite a few secrets, of course the average worker wouldn't know"

  "But you weren't a worker"

  "Yeah, and I've come to know a few things that even S.J didn't know"

  "Wait, there's still more to know?"

  "Of course, a lot more, but unfortunately, we don't have all the time in the world to discuss this"

  His running came to a stop and we soon faced a standard apartment building. We entered and went into the elevator. He pushed four. He continued.

  "I'm sorry, I can't say why but I'll tell you this, everyone in the Discarded Knives has something to hide"

  "Even though the Discarded Knives are giving such an effort to cloak our presence?"

  "I think even we have doubts in our own abilities. I'm sure secretly they're all very warily of the amount of thing's that we're saying"

  "Because in the off chance we were being tracked, the entire plan would crumble"

  "Exactly"

  The elevator stopped and the door opened. We walked forward into the hallway and stopped at room 42. I stepped back and leaned on the wall besides his door. I had no right to intrude in his affairs. He unlocked the door with a key. He stopped midway in the doorway and turned to me.

  "You coming?"

  "Are you sure? This is really out of my field"

  "No, it's alright. You did save me after all, and besides, I have something to give you before the mission is complete"

  "Alright"

  I follow Jacob into his apartment. He was greeted by a woman and a young boy The woman had long black hair and was at around the same age as Jacob. The child was a lot younger than Lily, and had jumped into Jacob's arm. Jacob explained to them.

  "Sorry I've been away for so long"

  "It's alright daddy!"

  Jacob put his son down and told him.

  "The adults need to talk, so go along and play for now"

  "Okay!"

  The boy ran off into another room. Jacob motioned for me and we entered another room. This seemed to be the kitchen. Jacob pulled three chairs and we sat down. The wife was looking at me in confusion, but that soon faded. She said.

  "So, you must be the one in Project Eleven"

  "Yes, I'm sorry if I'm intruding in this"

  "Oh, don't worry, if you're fighting to stop Kayneth, than your a friend to me"

  "I guess you know what I'm here for then"

  " Yes I do, oh I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Jena, nice to meet you"

  "Likewise"

  "Although I was sad at first, I came to terms, I mean, that's life right, if not you, then the Jeno hired mercenaries will get to him"

  "I'll ask this again but, what about faking the death?"

  "In this city, especially with Kayneth, unless you were never detected in the first place, faking a death is futile"

  "I see, Jacob has been detected "

  "Well, that and being a clone will help"

  "I don't suppose Jacob has any"

  "Unfortunately not"

  Jacob sat back and sighed. He leaned on his chair and got up.

  "Be right back"

  He left the kitchen and came back momentarily. In his hand was a slip of paper. He stuck out his hand towards me. I took the paper, and looked at it.

  "Di7610*"

  It was some sort of code. I looked up and Jacob responded.

  "Did you look at all of the files in S.J's laptop?

  "I only looked at the Kayneth folder"

  "So you haven't gotten to Hades, well if you ever decide to, that's the code to unlock it"

  "Even after I've decoded it?"

  "Heh, that folder in particular needs extra care, I'm kind of the go to guy to pass on things like this, but, I guess they'll need to find a new one"

  Jacob turns to Jena and says in a consoling voice.

  "We've been through a lot, but I have to go now"

  Jena brings Jacob into her arms and hugs him while whispering a few words into his ear.

  "Good bye, and may you find peace"

  Jacob then walks out of the kitchen, I take it as my queue and walk back into the living room. I make my way to the door. Jacob's son comes rushing by towards him, Jacob leans down and catches his son in his arms. I watch and a bitter feeling brushes me over. I turn towards the door. From behind me I can hear Jacob saying softly to his son.

  "I'm sorry, but daddy won't be able to come home"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, I have to go now, and I can't come back"

  "Where are you going?"

  "Some place else"

  I can hear Jacob's voice cracking up. He starts weeping, I can imagine him hugging his son tightly crying over his shoulder. Finally I hear him whisper something.

  "I'm sorry but, this is good bye, Adrian"

  After a few minutes, Jacob gets up. He walks towards the door and we exit. Just before I close the door, I see his son, still very confused as to what is happening. I pray that Jacob's family will do well in the coming times, as now, it's time for a member to be lost. As bitterly as I am about this, I just can't ignore this mission. Not when everyone is counting on me, and even when Jacob himself is counting on me, I have to do this no matter what, even if it's going against my morals. Sometimes taking risks is necessary. Day and day I find myself slowly losing the grip I had, all of this killing and now I'm up to save the world, but I guess I have no right to complain. I did sign up for this after all, even if there was a hidden rule I didn't read. I swallow my lingering emotions and continue walking with Jacob. We eventually make it outside of the apartment building in a small alleyway.
The hit men aren't anywhere near us. Jacob looks at me with strong eyes. He says to me.

  "My underground base, isn't far from here as you know. Once this is all over, I want you to look in my laptop"

  "Okay"

  "I never did get to know you, the newest member of the Discarded Knives but, maybe if we had more time, we could have been friends"

  "Maybe, but I have a feeling that even if we just met, we still share a common goal"

  "I guess you're right, we're one and the same, ha ha, I guess I just like the cliché stuff, Jena loves it"

  Jacob stands with his hands in his jacket pocket. He looks towards the sky and continues.

  "You know, this world we live in, is a strange one. But once you get used to it, it's alright"

  Jacob looks down and then towards me and gives a small grin. He continues.

  "Maybe I can't move on, but you can, and that's what makes this world interesting, one life is given away, but one life is pushed forward. Good luck, and please, stop Kayneth"

  I pull my Vendetta towards him and aim at his head. Jacob nods his head, and I tighten the grip on my gun. I pull the trigger, just as his final words reach my ears.

  "Good bye, friend"

  The bullet goes through his head making a clean shot. His body flops down onto the ground. I holstered my gun and looked towards the sky. It left a bad after taste in my mouth. I grappled my way onto a nearby roof and quickly returned to his coordinates and found the entrance to the underground hideout. It wasn't locked. I entered and found his laptop. I could look at this back at my base. I took it and made my way back. I called up Rat and told him that the mission was complete. Once I arrived back at my base I opened his laptop. There was a single folder. It wasn't locked or hidden. It read as.

  "The truth"

  I opened it unknowing to what he wanted me to see. But whatever it is, I'll heed his call.

  Chapter 26

  "Jacob Anning, Test subject 015, Male, Artificial. This was the name I was given to when I was in Kayneth's lab".

  I read the first sentence in Jacob's folder, and I was already expecting the worst. I braced myself and continued reading.

  "I was one among many of Kayneth's experiments. Before he even got the notion of cloning, he dipped into an even darker science, some may call it alchemy. The bottom line is, he wanted to create artificial life, Project Homunculus. He wanted to make human lives from scratch, and he did succeed"

  Creating human lives from scratch, that's something that I would never think of. Kayneth had some crazy aspirations. I continued reading.

  "We were being taken care of by his wife, Serena. When he made us, we started off as infants and grew up naturally. She took care of us as a mother and I'm sure we all came to love her as such. I never did get to see any of the other homunculi. We were all raised in separate environments"

  So even Kayneth has a wife huh, I wonder where she is in all of this. I continued.

  "When we were about teenagers, assuming we were all created at the same time, he had us take a test. It was an intelligence test, and I guess we all passed it perfectly. At the time when I was made I thought nothing of what was going on around me. Kayneth had even showed me around his hideout multiple times and I thought nothing of it. But I soon grew aware of my own consciousness, he had given us artificial intelligence, but that soon became real"

  I don't like where this is going.

  "He wanted mindless zombies doing whatever he asked them to. Cloning could easily make those minions, use them before they grew aware and then throw them away. Making just us homunculus took a lot of resources and time, and it proved to be less efficient. Especially when we started thinking for ourselves. He had ordered all of us to be killed"

  Yeah, I saw that coming. Happens far too often in all of these kinds of stories. I wonder if Lily would like this kind of twisted story. I continued.

  "I overheard Serena one day after she had left my room. They would start in numerical order. I was number fifteen, I had to think fast. I made quick work and had an easy escape route. Along with a high intelligence, I also had immense strength. And an abnormal regeneration rate. I don't know if it was due to the intelligence we had received but I somehow knew what to do. I was on auto pilot, from finding the escape, to creating an entire body double"

  I guess in this day and age I can't be too surprised as to how far we've gone. But damn, these would have been crazy soldiers.

  "I figured that they would burn us as to try and combat our regeneration, so it fooled them. I made my escape and into the city of Courtlyn. I soon met up with the rest of the guys and here we are. Over the past years I figured a few flaws with Kayneth's formula. My regeneration was slowly fading, and the immense strength and super computer intelligence was slowly fading away. My wife knew about what I was and the fact that we could have a child was amazing. Although he didn't inherit any of my abilities, the mere fact is mind boggling"

  Hmmm, so this is what he wanted me to know. I put down his laptop and opened Steve's. I checked his folders again and looked at the Hade's file. I opened it and got a password screen popping up. I typed in the password and the file opened. There was a single video file. I put in earphones and played it. A screen opened covering almost the entire screen of the laptop. It was black for a few seconds, and then it started playing. There was a figure moving about on the screen. It was a mere silhouette at first, but it slowly became more and more clear. It was a familiar face, someone who was long gone. Steve Jole appeared on the screen. He inhaled and then began to speak.

  "If you're watching this, then I must be dead. Hello Adam Henning"

  Is this going to be another will?

  "If you're wondering, this isn't my last wish or some kind of video will or anything"

  I guess not.

  "There are some things that shouldn't be kept a secret, and I guess this is pretty important information"

  I'm listening.

  "Lily Haywin, is the daughter of Kayneth"

  Now, I'm speechless.

  "You probably already know the run down on the whole homunculus deal"

  Yup.

  "It'll make things easier. Serena of course had a special attachment to Lily, her daughter. She loved her more than anything. But as Kayneth grew more and more in power, growing more of these ideas of his, he soon came to realize something pretty twisted"

  Not this again. I already know where this is headed.

  "Much like his homunculus which he deemed as a detriment and ordered their annihilation, Lily who at the time was only just about a year old was to be killed, along with Serena"

  Dammit Kayneth, just what are you doing.

  "Something to do with wanting to reign on the world by himself, or maybe something to do with his paranoia about who knows him, who knows what he was thinking, but he wanted them gone"

  Not without a fight I imagine.

  "Serena took Lily and made a run for it. While on the go they bumped into George Haywin, you should already know him. George assisted them and his wife, Haylee was also filled in. At the time we were kind of shadowing this whole ordeal happen, Jacob Anning proved to be very helpful"

  There was a pause in his voice. He moved off camera, after a moment he came back on and continued.

  "Serena left Lily with George and soon after was killed. From then on it was smooth sailing, George and Haylee continued to do what they did, more so on George's part"

  Way to dodge a topic.

  "Lily grew up and eventually we had the ordeal with George being hunted down. We found this out later but, Kayneth put the kill on George to you mainly due to the fact that he accidently received accurate information about him on the streets. It was a flaw on our hands that we didn't cover it up well enough."

  Received accurate information on the streets? I'm sure any member of the Discarded Knives wouldn't just do that, who else would be able to slip information like that?

  "It was way too convenient for Kayneth, because not only di
d he get rid of another man who knew of him, but he also saw Lily, and with the gang and you, Adam, out to get him, he saw it was two birds with one stone"

  Convenient huh.

  "But you proved that it wasn't going to play into Kayneth's hand. We covered up your trails pretty well and even now he should not know about Lily staying with you. Saving as many lives as we can is one of our little side goals. And it really boosted our morale, it was a win for us."

  A win for you guys huh, I wonder.

  "Shortly after we had informed Lily of the situation leading up to that day. Her origins, and everything we knew about Kayneth, and about you. She was his daughter, it was a fitting way to inform her of what kind of parents she has. She took it with face value, un scratched, we can see how strong she's become"

  I began laughing. So she knew all this time. Well this is getting interesting.

  "Well, that pretty much ends this, it's all you need to know"

  Well great.

  "For now"

  I have an odd feeling of amusement coming from him.

  "Well actually this wouldn't be fun unless it ended with a bang, so you know what, I'll give you a little secret. If you remember from before I mentioned that George was tipped off about Kayneth. It wasn't any of us. And whoever did it was someone we didn't know. So we tracked him down"

  And you found a group of people along with him.

  "He wasn't alone, there were about nine others the last time we checked, we even made contact with them, we shared similar goals, but they never did join up with us. They would rather work in their own group, which is fine with us. When the time is right, they'll be a strong ally. You should check up on them sometime, drop by, I was the one who went and made friends with them, so it'll only be best if they were informed about my current condition"

  Telling off a group of friends that someone they knew died. It's going to be a rough day.

  "Here's some coordinates, if they haven't relocated that is"

  Steve pulls up a piece of paper with coordinates on it. I inputted the numbers into my GPS and saved it for later. The video was coming to a close.