by Bryan Tann
“Yup. Appeared right out of nowhere to where we just happened to be,” John agreed.
“Do you think he hurt Ruckus, or Ruckus turned on us?”
“No. If either of those things had happened, he would have been bragging.”
“You’re right,” Karen conceded. “He seemed so happy to torment and tease. Like a small child.”
“Exactly. This is a special that has a hell of a lot of mojo to him,” John said, unable to hide a sense of awe.
“What are we going to do?” Karen asked.
“Figure out how to kill him,” John said simply.
“How do you think we do that?” Karen asked.
“I don’t know. What I do know is that while it isn’t going to be easy, it will for damn sure be fun,” John replied grimly.
“Are we still going to the motel?” she asked, a slight hint of pleading in her voice.
“Yeah. I want a shower and get some rest.”
“Thank God. This seat is comfortable and all, but my ass is killing me.”
“You’ll get used to it,” John replied.
“I swear to God, John Baker, if you say that again, a shadow monster will be the least of your problems! I will cut your balls off just so you can regrow them and cut them off again!” she spat.
“Sounds kinky.”
“Go to hell.”
28
“Copy that, Drake. Have Colt on standby.” Matheson killed the transmission, his eyes narrowed angrily.
“What is it?” Nobu Tee asked.
The two lay in a queen sized bed in Matheson’s quarters on the Fuji-O’Hara Industries grounds. A mere hour prior the two had been locked in a naked embrace, pouring their passions for each other with every thrust and kiss. Before the call, they’d lain in a blissful clinch.
“The special, Colt, wasn’t able to get them. He reported they were on some shit back road in Wyoming,” Matheson said coldly.
“So his shadow powers were not as formidable as you had believed?” Tee asked propping his head up in his hand, his elbow stiffly in the pillow.
“Oh he was handling him just fine from what Drake says. That bitch apparently figured out something and distracted him.”
“Any distraction against the Subject is lethal,” Tee said.
“It absolutely is,” Matheson growled.
“My calculations say that the Nano Squad will be ready within the day,” Tee replied, hoping that this news would make his lover happy.
“Good. Very good. I need them. Send them in with this special, they should deal with him good,” Matheson said.
“However, if I may, Korvin?” Tee offered. “Get rid of the girl, it should weaken him.”
“I agree. And we definitely will.” Matheson smiled coldly.
“So why this continued game?” Nobu asked curiously.
“I want him to suffer, Nobu. Call me sadistic, but I want him to suffer horribly. However I do believe that it is time to be practical.” Matheson leaned over to his nightstand and pulled out his tablet. When he returned to laying on his back he tapped on the screen and smiled coldly.
“You’re activating it?” Nobu asked, a smile of anticipation building on his face.
“That I am. Nobu, I do believe that it is time that we up the stakes in this little game,” Matheson replied tapping the box on his screen that read ‘execute’.
“I agree my dear, Korvin. I do agree wholeheartedly.” He chuckled, placing small kisses along Matheson’s chest before focusing on his nipple.
“This excites you?” Matheson asked, releasing a gentle moan.
“Every single bit of this,” Tee replied making his way under the covers bringing a louder moan from Matheson.
“Oh God I need a shower so bad,” Karen said when they entered the motel room. She made a bee line for the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
“Sure. I don’t want to shower. I just built the bike and fought a damn shadow monster,” John called after her.
“Haven’t you ever heard the term ‘Ladies First’?” Karen shouted from behind the door turning on the shower.
“Show me a lady first,” John muttered bitterly.
“Oh let her have it and stop pouting,” Queen admonished.
John pulled out the burner cell phone and dialed Ruckus’ burner phone.
“Hey, kid,” Ruckus answered after three rings. “How are you?”
“Ran into a guy that said he talked to you,” John said shortly.
“Creepy pale guy? Dresses like a spook?”
“Yeah. Goes by the name of…”
“Elias Colt,” Ruckus finished. “He’s a special.”
“Yeah. I learned that for myself. Are you okay?” John asked.
“I’m fine. He came asking questions, I put him off your trail. I did my best to. He found you?”
“Yeah. He did.”
“I tried sending him south,” Ruckus replied. “Do you know how he got there?”
“He came out of nowhere,” John replied. “He controlled shadows. Sent a giant fucking one after me.”
“Controlled shadow? That’s new. Never heard of that before.” Ruckus grunted. “Where you at, kid?”
“Wyoming. Heading toward…” John trailed off, hearing a high pitch whine.
“Kid? Kid! You okay?” Ruckus shouted.
“I hear something. I’ll call you back. We’re fine,” John said hanging up.
John stood up from where he sat. The whine was steady, loud, and piercing leading him toward the bathroom where Karen showered.
“Karen?” John pounded the door. “Karen are you alright?”
“What?” Karen called out. “I can’t hear you, John! Wait your turn! If you have to pee use one of the cups or go outside! If you have to take a dump…well hold it!” Karen chuckled lightly and then stopped abruptly. “Wait. What the hell? Why is my hand glowing?”
The whine intensified causing John to clutch his head tight, trying to drown out the sound. The whine intensified and then abruptly stopped, a slight pop sounded as though a radio dial had found the right station.
“Look around all you want freak. I’m on a frequency that only you and the nearby dogs can hear,” came the voice of Korvin Matheson.
“Matheson?”
“Yes. Glad to see you remember the sound of my voice. Did you enjoy the new friend that came to find you?”
“That pussy? Yeah, had a barrel of fun.” John smirked.
“Well I’m glad to hear it, son. There is tons of fun coming for you and the pretty doctor, that’s for damn sure.” Matheson chuckled.
“How in the hell are you…” John began.
“How in the hell am I talking to you right now? Radio transmitter inside your girl. It is quite simple really; she’s going to die, John. It will be quick, but she is going to die. However you may be able to save her. If you play the game. You say yes, she gets to live a little longer. You say no? Well I kill you both now.”
“You son of a bitch,” John growled angrily, squeezing his fist tight as blood began to squeeze from the crevices of his enclosed hand.
“Yes I suppose so. However that is not the answer that I’m looking for. You say either yes or no in the next five seconds or Karen Denton is one dead bitch. Tick tock.”
John’s eyes narrowed as his own internal clock began to count down the time.
“I’m already bored, Baker. I suppose I’ll just hit the button…”
“Yes! You fucker! Yes!” John snarled angrily.
“Good. Real good. Now let me explain to you how this game is going to be played, boy; see President King has specials at his disposal like Colt just waiting to come and find you. Granted they are focused on Mila, she is the King’s prize. However there are some that can break off for you.
“My Nano Squad? They will be coming for you also. But I am getting ahead of myself. The transmitter I am broadcasting on is a part of a bioorganic explosive that has been injected inside of Doctor Denton’s body while she was s
leeping on the way to find your ass. Call it a contingency in case she did what I knew she was going to do. Frankly if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t even be going through this. Long story short, she is a walking bomb that I sent for you.”
“You fucking bastard!” John exclaimed.
“No. My parents were married. She has enough napalm in her to level the entire motel and perhaps a good mile radius give or take. There is nothing you, or she can do to fix it without her going up. Only a specially trained Fuji-O’Hara Industries scientist will be able to help. Now there are a few on this side of the country, but I will give you the ability to find one on the East Coast since that’s where you’re trying to get to. And therein Johnny boy lies the game. With me so far?”
“Yes,” John said between clenched teeth. “I’m with you.”
“Excellent. Now I am not going to tell you where he is. But I will tell you that to find him, you need to go to Chicago. You will have complete safe travel from Wyoming to Illinois. Once you get into the Chicago city limits, unfortunately for you, you will have some trouble. Find Dr. Edward Singer. He will tell you how to get to the doctor that you need to save Karen.”
“Why are you doing this?” John asked angrily.
“Why? Because I want to test my Nano Squad. I want to see how well I trained you. I just want to see what is going on. Besides, once you are captured, and you will be captured, I want you to be closer to D.C. so that we can turn you into King’s top scientists.”
“Matheson, I swear to Christ I am going to tear your heart right out of your body and feed it to you!” John bellowed.
“Son, you aren’t going to do jack, shit, or wipe until I have had my fun. Then you are going to get caught and you will spend the rest of your short live in misery. I would get a good night’s sleep and a shit load of money for it. You are going to have a long fucking day ahead of you.” Matheson chuckled before the transmission broke.
“John?” Karen said weakly. John opened the bathroom door and threw open the shower curtain. Karen sat in the corner of the tub, her knees pulled against her chest.
“John, please? Please don’t let me die,” she whimpered.
“You do not believe that this is a little bit risky, Korvin?” Nobu Tee asked after Matheson completed his broadcast from his communicator.
“Risky? Absolutely. It is just like I told them, Nobu; I need them as close to D.C. as possible. The President wanted him at the Spartan, but the goddamn rebels destroyed it.”
“He is already heading east though, Korvin,” Nobu explained.
“Exactly. I didn’t lie to the bastard though. Think about it though, Nobu; your ticket is punched if the Nanos are able to overcome him. And this ‘Invincible Heart Project’ thing goes from being David Newton’s baby to Nobu Tee’s baby. Exclusively. So we give the Nanos the chance to catch him,” Matheson replied with a grin. “We can have whole platoons of soldiers outfitted with Nanobot Hives within the next six months. Within the next five years our entire military can be outfitted. And guess who gets all the glory, Nobu? You.”
“So this is all going to be one big military exercise, Korvin?”
“To prove that your research works, Nobu.” Matheson smiled. “We have proven that Baker was a success, an anomaly, but a success none the less. That’s what you said right?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, we eliminate the anomaly, but show that the project itself works. Because the President has a very special interest in this. Why do you think you and Newton have had an endless checkbook since he came into power?” Matheson smirked. “He wants this project to succeed, and it is my job to ensure that it fully does.”
“So you are sending him to Chicago to find Dr. Singer and then what?” Nobu asked.
Matheson only smiled a wry smile before reaching into the nightstand, pulling out a bottle of scotch and taking a deep swing.
“You heard it?” John asked.
“I was right next to a stereo speaker,” Karen replied wrapped in a bath robe. “So he’s going to blow me up? Great. Just great.” Karen half sobbed, half laughed.
“I’m not going to let that happen, Karen,” John said firmly.
“How are you going to stop it from happening, John? You going to do a little bit of field surgery, Marine? Huh?”
“We are going to Chicago. We’re going to find this Dr. Singer and we are going to make him fix this.”
“So we are going to go into a major metropolitan American city, where the psychopath has already said he would have his best and strongest waiting for you. We are just going to waltz in there and get this taken care of?”
“Yes,” John said coolly.
“And you do not seem to care one minute that all of this could be a trap? They want to take you to D.C. and cut you open, John! Experiment on you, and make sure they can have a fully one hundred percent rate of success in their Invincible Heart Project!” Karen shrieked.
“No. I don’t.” John pulled off his shirt moving toward the bathroom.
“Why?” Karen asked.
“You helped me. I’m helping you. End of story. Deal with it, Karen. We are going to Chicago and we are going to find this Singer and he is going to tell us just how to get those explosives out of you.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Karen asked, sniffling.
“Oh. He will,” John said in a tone that made her shudder. The look on his face made her blood run subarctic. “And if he won’t, I’ll convince him to.”
29
The next evening signs welcomed the duo to Chicago, Illinois. Their discussions reduced to monosyllabic mutterings as John pushed the bike on.
“John.”
“I’m going to save her, Queen.”
“I know you are, but, but you need to be very careful. We are going right into a trap. You know that.”
“Yes. I know. But everything that Matheson and King have thrown at us we have survived. I’m not afraid of any of these bastards. Not one.”
“John, that special we fought is powerful. He is very powerful.”
“I know, Queen. But we won.”
“With her help.”
“And that, among other things, is why I’m going to save her.”
“You are determined, John Baker. I love that about you.”
“You have my back. I love you for that.”
“Do we have an address for this Dr. Singer?” John called out to Karen over the sounds of the road.
“Yes,” Karen replied yelling back to him. “From the zip code I’m thinking that it’s on Chicago’s north side.”
“Do you know anything about the area?” John asked taking the north exit.
“Not much. I came through here for an internship, but I was only here for about two months before I was hired by Fuji-O’Hara. I didn’t get a chance to get to know the area. I lived in Aurora.”
“Fair enough,” he replied calmly. “How’re you doing?”
“My hand is itching and it’s lighting up a lot,” she said looking to her hand with disdain.
“Has to be where the bomb is. God Fuji-O’Hara is horrible.” John cleared his throat.
“Or that’s just the trigger,” she said bitterly.
“Doesn’t matter. We are going to get to this doctor and he’s going to give us the information that we need.”
“I know what you’ll do if he doesn’t, but what about that alarm bell in your head that rings ‘This is a fucking trap!’?”
“You sound like Queen,” he said dismissively.
“Because we both make sense that’s why, John! You need to realize that! I don’t want to die, I do not want to die. John, I am scared! But what if we go in there and…”
“Enough, Karen,” John said with finality. “Whatever Matheson throws at me I’m going to fucking kill. That’s a promise. You’ve saved my life, I’m going to save your’s. Do you get me?”
“Fine, John.” She sighed in exacerbation. “Just please be careful okay?”
“Caref
ul would be my middle name if you all had thought to give me one,” he replied with a slight grin pressing down the throttle, accelerating the bike along.
“Okay, boys, we have a hit!” Drake called into the radio at his desk, typing furiously on the keyboard in front of him at his desk. “Facial recognition puts Baker and Denton in Chicago as of ten minutes ago. They are on route to the good Dr. Singer’s house. Bravo! Delta! You’re up, boys! Give ‘em hell!”
“Yes, sir!” the two Nanos replied in unison over their radios.
“Commander’s orders are as follows; pacify Baker. If it’s permanent, so be it, but get the remains to a facility for resting. Temporary you get him to the nearest facility and get him on ice for testing. Understood?”
“Yes, sir!” the Nanos replied.
“Once Baker is dealt with, eliminate Denton as well. If you want to have fun with her first, that’s fine,” Drake added.
“Yes, sir!” the Nanos replied.
“How’s the local precinct treating you?”
“Chicago PD has been very accommodating, sir,” Delta replied.
“Excellent. Let them know we are going to be working in the Gold Coast, boys. You know the cover story.”
“Of course, sir,” Bravo responded.
“Good. Happy hunting. Drake out.”
“You ready?” Bravo asked.
“Absolutely,” Delta answered.
“Then let’s go and kick some ass.” Bravo smirked. The two gave each other a slight nod and made their way from the private office the Superintendent of Police had commissioned for them earlier on in the day and entered the nearby Sergeant’s office.
Manuel Velka glared at the two men as they marched into his office without a knock.
“What can I do for you?” he asked in contempt.
“Sergeant Velka, our suspects have been placed in the area heading for Gold Coast,” Bravo stated firmly.
“We are going to require your S.W.A.T team to be on the ready simply as back up. We are also going to need your Coroner’s Office to be on hand as well,” Delta added.