by Michael Conn
Max mutters something.
“I never wanted you; you were always just their experiment.” She reaches for him, to touch his face, but her hand hits an invisible barrier.
A man appears at the end of the hall. “Are y ou alright , Emma?” he says .
Max glares at him, wishing he had stinkEyeBots to roast the man alive.
“I’ll be right there, honey . Everything ’s OK.” Emma answers . “Goodbye Max, don’t follow me.” She walks to the man.
“You stay . . . I go . . . No ooo following, ” Max mutters to no one.
---
Her back to Max, she hears what he mutters, and her breath catches in her throat . A memory is forced upon her , t orn from a place she thought was long gone , t aken f rom a dusty old box in her mind , and laid before her. A little boy , sitting on her knees , coos while watching a movie. A tear runs down her cheek.
---
The man puts his arm ar ound her waist and pulls her away. Two gorillas take the ir place at the end of the hall facing Max.
Max mutters something again, circles his can e around behind him and then walks down the hallway to his left. The gorillas run, t wo fullbacks pounding down the hall. Max walks , his cane clicking on the marble floor.
The gorillas hit the T-junction and try to tur n. Both of them fall hard , the marble floor where Max was standing seconds before is as slippery as a wet sheet of ice . The weight of the gorillas takes them crashing into the double doors across the T-junction .
Watching them Max sees one crack an ankle. The other hits his head on the door frame with a loud smack . Max moves to a door with an exit sign.
One gorill a struggles up; blood streaming from his forehead, then speaks into his wrist. “Second floor, north exit, target in sight, permission to fire . . . Ahhhhhh .”
Max assumes th at means no permission to shoot. He turns and enters the sta irwell on his right. The stairs only go down. At the top of the stairs he moves his cane from one side of the stairs to the other and says, “Wire .” Then he steps away from the door and says, “Fog .” Max partially disappears.
He hears the g orilla running down the hallway , the stairwell door bursts open , narrowly missing Max . The gorilla curses and moves to run down the stairs . Neither of his feet ever touch t he top step . His pitches forward and the nano trip wire cuts deeply into both ankles. Ripping free of the trip wire , he almost clears the whole staircase. Coming down shoulder first, Max hears his shoulder make a pop ping sound .
Max goes back into the hallway.
“Max, please l eave.” He hears Lara in his ear piece.
“Go invisible and get out.”
He walks back toward the party. An experiment. A gorilla appears in front of him. Max fires a BB. I t strik es the g orilla in the forehead dropping him like an empty sack.
Nearing the top of the stairs , Max hears a familiar voice. “Max, this is madness.” Max turns and sees Pirelli standing in a door way. “What you don’t understand is that I am one of the few trying to save your life. After me, there are only men with guns. Let me help you.”
“Max, go invisible and get out. I a m picking up others”
Max faces him. “What you don’t understand is that I’m nine-years-old , and I’m middle aged. I might live to see twenty. I think I can outrun gorillas with guns for ten years. Get bent old man.” Max turn s and moves to the massive stair case down to the cocktail party.
He feels it coming before it hits him. He has enough time to curl up and hold his can e tighter. Something knocks the air out of his lungs . He tumbles through the air. His mind races, ticking faster . The world goes by in slow motion.
He sees Virginia standing at the top of the stairs with Keith , both in black, both smiling down at him. He sees the stairs going by underneath him. He catches a glimpse of the party goers.
Max bounces off a stair; he feels something snap inside him. He spins faster.
Tick .
Max sees the grandfather clock at the bottom of the stairs. That’s coming at me a bit fast.
Tock .
Max catches a glimpse of the back of his mom leaving through the mai n doors, hand-in-hand with Mr. Man.
Max’s knees hit the stairs , and his s pins backward . Virginia and Keith are now moving down the stairs.
Tick.
Max sees Virginia and Keith release fogBots . They become hard to see .
Tock.
Max smiles be cause he knows he can beat them. He hits the marble floor and slides to a stop. Two people near him help him stand; he hears their voices far away from him. He pushes them away. A circle of space forms around him.
He sees Mr. Newton in the crowd. “They can’t beat me, Isaac.”
Max knows Virginia and Keith wi ll be confidently moving toward him. Being invisible does tend to make you confident in a fight. He mumbles , “Infection.” Bots spread from him in all directions looking for other bots. When they find other bots , they turn them into more InfectionBots and so on.
InfectionBot s are not FogBots . Virginia and Keith become visible. They are both stunned for a fraction of a second. But Max was ready , and a fraction is all he needed. He points his cane at Virginia and his hand at the boy and says “Shockwave .” Third generation shockwaves travel a way from Max at supersonic speeds . Virginia and Keith are lifted off their feet and thrown viciously against the stone wall.
“Bolas” doubles sets of bolas tangle around Virginia and Keith .
Max walks out of the building and nearly bumps into a gorilla pointing a gun at him. “Cullen.”
The guard’s fingers crackle as they freeze solid around the gun.
Max walk s away in the darkness. Snow begins to fall.
---
“Mr. Newton.”
“Agent Clark.” They shake hands and sit at another park bench. “You kn ow, I know where your office is. We could meet there.”
“I don’t think you’d like the company I keep.”
“Our boy has gone quite far. The directors of the CIA , Interpol, MI6, and Mossad were all at that party. This bumps Ma x up the priority list a little . . .” Agent Clark pauses.
“I will wrap up my part of it then,” says Mr. Newton. “If he ever d oes come in , he’ll be one of the best.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think he will ever come in .” Agent Clark sighs.
They both go quie t and look out over the water, i solated in their thoughts.
---
Agent Clark sits at his desk and open s a file on the Canadian Incident . He skims a few sections.
Current Activities: 10 agents mobilized in Bucharest 20 more agents on route, ETA 8-12, 06:15
Heavy presence at the airport, bus, and train stations Air and ground surveillance of roads leaving Bucharest . . .
Analysis: If the target is on the move then coverage of the roads will be the weak point . . . If the target hides in Bucharest expect weeks or months before they are found . . . any other means of travel from Bucharest will likely result in interception of the target . . .
Expecting the target to flee the area as this is their typical pattern. . .
Status: Target on Must-Contain list; Target on Must-Bring-InAlive list.
Agent Clark closes the file and shreds it.
---
Lara meets Max near the palace and brings him back to the apartment . She helps him lie down. Max sleeps. Lara and Catherine agree Max needs to recuperate , and they should stay in Bucharest until he is better. An hour later, Max wakes as he tries to roll over. “Why did you let me fall asleep? If we stay here we’re dead. They’ll be descending on Bucharest with everything they have. We have to keep moving.”
“Max,” Lara points out, “You can die from broken ribs. You need to let them heal.”
Max ignores her. “Catherine , find me a new lab and start shipping equipment and supplies there. Then fly me out o f here.”
“The airports are under heavy surveillance .”
/> “OK, no flying then,” Max says. “So we drive or take the train.”
“A sleeper car would be best,” Lara adds, “that way Max could heal a bit.”
“I have bad luck with trains, ” Max says.
---
Max has his arms wrapped tightly around Lara and is still practically freezing to death on the back of her motorcycle. He says , “You know a train would be a lot more comfortable than this.”
Lara playfully smacks the back of her helmet against the visor of Max’s helmet.
You were always just an experiment . . . I never wanted you. Max leans into Lara. Romania is big and cold. When I’m free , I’m going somewhere warm.
Max and Catherine talk bots while they drive toward Constanta. Halfway there , Catherine says . “Max, bad luck, local police just called you in as a possible sighting. They are not sure , but they called it in anyway. The local police have been told to stay away. Agents are planning to intercept in Constanta.”
“Catherine . . . seriously, how did they find us . . . Lara pull over.”
They stop beside a canal just south of Alba.
Max takes his helmet off and paces , speaking his thoughts out loud . “There is no way they could find us. We made it this far out of Bucharest. No roadblock. They could have followed us all the way from Bucharest, doubtful since we’ve had CuraBots out the whole time. Catherine could be leading them to me . Lara could be leading them to me . They could be tracking our cell phones. We could just be having plain bad luck.”
“I don’t have bad luck. The records from the CIA show ed what I have. I have chemical and gene therapy. Rev 14a-12 that’s what I have . Longevity unknown. Altered.”
Lara stares at Max. “You’ll figure this out .”
Max looks out over the canal; two large container ships are passing each other. “I think I need a CAT scan. They could have a tracking device implanted in me.”
“Let’s just figure out what to do next,” suggests Lara.
“We have to disappear. We can’t ride right into the m on this highway. They’ve too much advance notice, too much time to prepare.” Max looks up and down the canal. A cruise ship moves slowly toward them.
“Right now we need to be off this highway. Lara can you get us down to the service road beside the canal?”
Lara nods. “Sure, easy.”
Max gets back on the motorcycle. “Well, let’s go.”
“Catherine which way to the nearest cruise ship that is tied up.”
“North, back toward Alba.”
Lara turn s the bike around.
“Catherine , book us a cabin on that ship.”
“Done.”
---
Onboard, Max gets comfortable. He sleeps most of the way to Odessa, Ukraine. When they arrive , Catherine already has sup plies waiting a t a warehouse. Max’s latest lab.
Chapter 27 –Odessa
Lara works relentlessly, setting up the lab, absolutely refusing to let Max help. So Ma x has plenty of time to obsess over how the MGA found them on the road to Constanta.
With the lab setup , Lara stands close to Max looking down at him . “No working for three days, ” s he instructs.
“Alright.” Max is already on his fifth novel since they got here . He’s so anxious to get working again that his current novel is a bit hard to read.
“Oh, and Max . . . this is for you.” Lara hand s him something wrapped in Ch ristmas paper. “Merry Christmas .”
“What? Christmas . . . I’m sorry, I . . .”
“That’s OK, Max,” Lara smiles at him. “Open it.”
Max rips open the package; it’s a hat, with a large firm brim. “So, I’m Indiana Jones now?”
“I thought you and Catherine could hide more bot things in it.”
Max rolls away from Lara and says, “Thank you.”
Lara puts a hand on his shoulder for a moment, and then leaves him alone.
I never wanted you . . . I saw you leaving, I saw that. A canoe paddling away in moonlight. I see both stories now . The one where you scream and are held back while they take me away. But I also see th e one where you leave quietly .
Experiment al .
Finally sitting in his lab, Max begins his work by reviewing code. “Catherine , I’m changing the cell phone code. That has to be how they got close to us. That must be how they found us on the road.” Max works on the code until Lara comes and pulls him away from his laptop.
“Wait , I just have to commit this?” Max clicks once more. “I had to change our cell pho ne code . The call packets run entirely on their platform now, so both incoming and outgoing packets will be invisible to anyone else.”
“Ya , ya , you’re a very clever and greasy boy.” Lara pushes Max toward the bathroom . “Shower .” She stands there and points until he enters the bathroom.
---
Early the next morning, Max is up and working in the lab. He has his trench coat lying on the work bench. Running his finger over the coat he looks up and out th rough the large grimy windows, s mall squares of single pane glass he ld in place by thin metal bars. A few window panes are broken, a song birds sit s in one of the openings. No Max, you cannot fly. Hover, can I hover? Just for effect think how creepy that would be. Hovering down a flight of stairs in a darkened mansion. No you can’t hover. Bots with enough lift would be more like shrapnel than a plane . Glide. Maybe I can glide for a while .
“I need a better coat. Catherine I need materials . . .”
Max loses himself in designing the coat.
Two days later, with Max not having slept, Lara pushes food at him . He eats . She looks down and sees a fine mesh with some thicker wires attached to it. “Looks like a bad coat to me.”
“It’s not done. I t needs bots now.”
“Max it has been two days straight and you . . .”
“I k now . . . I’m going . . .” Max staggers into bed. Lara wait s until his breathing slows before leaving.
Max whispers , “Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me . . .”
---
“Catherine , can you start a new search-and—steal routine? I’d like to know about how longevity works in humans, what controls how fast we age?”
“Yes, but Max , you do not know that you will die at twenty.”
Max doesn’t answer. He just puts his head down and watches the bots spread over the coat framework. Busy with his work he doesn’t not ice Lara behind him in the door way.
Lara leaves the room, and then calls out, “I’m go ing out to get some groceries.”
Max mumbles something in return.
Outside the warehouse, Lara stops and calls Catherine .
“Yes Lara?”
“What did you just say to Max in the lab? What do you mean twenty years?”
“A while ago Max stole a whole lot of data from the CIA and then later from MGA. Max did not just look for his mother in that data. He looked for himself. This is what Max put together from that data. MGA has been creating these kids to work as field agents for quite some time. You can see they are not like other kids; some are strong, some are fast, some are smart, some are empaths. Everything has a price. The kids’ genetics are altered. MGA also kept them on numerous drugs from nearly right after birth.”
“Max thinks MGA sped them up, that he is programmed to die at twenty?”
“Yes.”
“Is he?”
“I do not know .”
“What do you think he will do next?”
“My psychological routines suggest he will seek revenge on those he believes shortened his life and took his mother away.”
“What will you do?”
“I will help him.”
“What do you think the MGA and the CIA will do?”
“I think they will let him come. Every time he fights th em, they steal his technology. When Max is careless , pieces of me get sto len. They will let him attack—they hope to steal more.”
“You’re using him too ar
en’t you?”
There is a pause.
“We are bonded .”
Lar a moves away from the warehouse, g lad to have a mundane chore to distract her from thinking about Max, and Catherine , and the other kids.
---
Max rips the sea ms of the hat open and inserts wires and batteries. When all the electronic s are added and Max is finished with the hat , it will become an extension of the trench coat and cane. But e ven at this early stage , he can demonstrate it.
Lara comes back; Max pulls on the trench coat, dons the hat, and picks up his cane. “Hey Lara, I was working in the lab, late last night . . . and I need to show you something.”
Lara comes to the doorway of the lab. “You’re a goof , but the hat looks good.”
“Watch this.” The col lar of the coat extends up as a visor drops down to meet the collar. The coat lengthens until it touches the floor. Max is completely covered by an armoured coat and hat.
“Um, OK, you’re covered in black.”
“It’s armour, Lara. I think it could stop a real bullet.” Max makes the coat and hat turn to normal. “The down side is that I can’t be invisible when covered in armour.”
“Hold on, Max,” Lara says, “You think it’s bullet proof, how are you going to test that?”
“You have a gun, shoot me . . . no? We could hang it up in the warehouse and take shots at it.”
“Max, you won’t be bullet proof. What if someone has a rifle?” asks Lara.
“Ya , ya . . . OK, but watch this.” The coat shrinks until it looks like a wind breaker.
Lara smiles. “Very nice Max. I’m going to make some dinner. But remember; don’t count on th at thing to be bullet proof. I’m sure it will stop a lot of things but not real bullets . Instead, you should work on getting to a place where people don’t shoot at you to begin with.”
---
“Where’s she now, Catherine ?”
“90% probability that she is still in Bucharest. I have seen no travel bookings for her , and she has not shown up on any security cameras.”