by Adam Steel
‘Jon,’ she beckoned. ‘Come…Your ascension is at hand.’
He moved towards her, hypnotically and she wrapped one hand around him and kissed his cheek; lingering, running her soft tongue towards his mouth. The sensation of her tongue, electrified every nerve in his body.
‘Can you feel it, Jon? Feel that power? It’s ours. Yours and mine. We can do anything together.’
In her other hand, she twirled the platinum key from around her neck. It was the key that would unlock Utopia’s secrets.
‘It is time for you to join with us Jon. To build the future. You must be with us - be with me.’
He felt very far away. Everything was as black as obsidian. In his mind a figure was coming and it was moving in time with her voice. The figure was dressed in splendid Samurai armour. Its face was stern and uncompromising. In one hand, it carried a perfect Katana. Light, from a faraway source gleamed across its deadly blade. In the other hand the figure held out a shining platinum key. Jon Li saw his own face behind the fearsome warriors mask. Emperor.
‘You must throw off the shackles of your old life, Jon,’ Royale continued. ‘It is time to take up the great mantle that has been prepared for you. We must build the future. We will create perfection together. You and us.’
She had stopped looking at him, and inserted her key into the system before her. She deftly hit the keys with one hand. Data poured across the screen, as she dug further - back into Utopia’s most inner workings. He watched: fixated on the screen.
‘To be with us Jon, there’s no going back. You must understand what it is to rule. What it is to be a Mason.’
In his mind, he saw the warrior raise his sword; posing to strike at him. With the other hand, the warrior offered the key. The light played between the blade and the keys surface. It was dazzling him.
Mason Li
Emperor
The words crackled with a life of their own. His eyes flickered. He tried desperately to shut out the vision and focus on the screen.
Royale sat back from the console and watched impassively. She revealed nothing of her emotions.
The information on the requested file spilled across the screen.
F2-PROJECT-GENIE-VERSION 0.3456
PROTOTYPE F
DRS A & J. CONEY, PRESIDING
ALPHA TEST 6
3 min 24 sec
The video was recorded before the Day of Reckoning. It was from a time when the very foundations of Utopia were being formed. The video file filled the screen. It was blank for a few moments, detailing only the time and date stamps and some other information which he wouldn’t understand. Then the screen came alive. It was obvious to him that the video had been recorded in a laboratory because the layout looked clinical and mostly spotless. In the recording, Alexis and Jonus Coney were standing behind a sheet of reinforced glass with clipboards. They were scribbling notes. He recognised them instantly. In the video they looked identical top how he had seen them on the tour. He thought that the environment, too, seemed familiar.
The video file moved on to show a scene beyond the glass window of the laboratory. He saw a large object standing there. It looked man shaped and it appeared to have been cast from iron. It looked to him, like an opened sarcophagus on hinges. Inside of the sarcophagus, he could make out hundreds of tiny needles. They fed back to a multitude of pipes that sprouted from the exterior of the device. On its side, there were two small spikes which faced each other. They were separated by a thin space.
The Coney twins were standing in front of a huge layout of panels and dials. All of the needles on the dials were resting comfortably on zero.
Jon Li shot a quick glance at Royale. She sat motionless, staring at the video screen blankly. He returned his attention to the images playing out in front of him on the screen. He saw a door open beyond the glass wall of the laboratory. A man in a full biohazard suit entered the laboratory. He was wheeling a large tray in front of him, on which was a bulky object covered in plastic. He stopped in front of the glass and stripped back the plastic sheeting. The body of a fully grown man lay spread out on the tray. The skin was ashen grey and the eyes were sightless.
Royale said nothing as the scene played out for Jon Li.
The video had no sound but he could tell that Alexis and Jonus were speaking. The man in the bio-hazard suit picked something up. It looked like an oversized rifle, except, that it had a tank attached to it and a nozzle which looked like a hose pipe. The man pointed the device at the body and depressed the trigger. A long stream of a thick, blue gunk spurted from the end and splattered the corpse. The viscous substance ran down the crevices. It pooled in the corpse’s dead eyes.
The display continued, while the twins made casual notes. They showed no emotion. Soon the body was coated in the gelatinous mass. It seemed to pulse and glow a strange blue colour. Jon Li watched with mounting revulsion, as the velvety blue substance began to sink into the flesh of the corpse. A web work of veins began to glow in a weird bluish tint, on the corpse’s arm. It almost looked alive.
One of the twins raised his finger and gestured. Jon Li couldn’t tell which one of them it was. Alexis. Jonus.
The man in the bio-hazard suit responded to the twins command and heaved the dripping carcass up. He leaned it into the large, iron device behind him. The needles sunk into the corpse’s dead flesh and hooks suspended it like a ragged banner fluttering in the wind. The man appeared to be making some adjustments to the device. The ooze (that covered the body) began to flow downwards, pooling at its feet. The man in the bio-hazard suit plugged the remaining needles into the body. Another worker joined him and smoothed the pooling liquid back over the upright figure.
Jon Li watched, too shocked to say anything.
The attendants stepped back, closing the lid of the sarcophagus and sealing the body inside. The wires all connected to it, began pumping strangely coloured fluids into the container.
The Coney twins both donned a pair of large goggles. They reminded Jon Li of a scuba gear.
He stared at the film in total disbelief.
One of the twins flicked a switch. The video was mute, but Jon Li could sense the power that must have been emanating from the bizarre machine.
Through a small view port, Jon Li could see the flames incinerate the body within. All the gauges on the twin’s side of the glass hit maximum. Three of them shattered. The device attached to the side of the sarcophagus sparked into life and huge bolts of electric current arced from one side to the other. It was pure un-harnessed power. Then as fast as the experiment had begun, it was over. The machines died and went cold. The gauges returned to nothing.
One of the twins nodded: satisfied, towards the camera and the screen went blank.
Jon Li had seen the sarcophagus before. He just hadn’t realised it.
It was a very small, very crude version, of the Genie Reactor.
Chapter 35: Exile
Jon Li’s Penthouse: Sector One
Late Evening: Friday 27th July
‘This is fucking nuts,’ Max reiterated for the sixth time, as he paced up and down the Penthouse.
‘We need to get the hell out of here. I thought you said he’d understand?’ Max said accusingly.
His accusations were directed at Ellie, who was slumped on the counter of Jon Li’s kitchen, picking at the remains of the sorry meal she had thrown together. Her appetite wasn’t up to it. None of theirs were.
The penthouse was beginning to take on the guise of a hospital ward, with blood-soaked bandages, used syringes and medicine blisters populating the surfaces. Ellie had managed to stabilise Max in the back of the ambulance. Then, she had grabbed as much equipment as she could manage and had done the rest back in the penthouse. Max had made a surprisingly good recovery, once she had removed the bullet from his shoulder. The antibiotics that she had pumped into him, were working well, and he seemed to be regaining his strength, and along with it, his temper.
Jon Li had been gone for twenty
four hours. As the evening drew in Max had become increasingly restless. He had slept most of the day, but as the evening progressed his strength returned. He wanted action. He was like a predator awaiting the coming of the hunter’s moon.
Dark storm clouds gathered outside of the windows of the penthouse. They brought with them the promise of rain. Aya had slept on the sofa, tossing, turning and twitching uncontrollably. The nightmares in her mind, gave her no rest. She mumbled terrified nothings into the soft material of the sofa.
‘I’m telling you,’ Max complained.
‘He’s turned us in, any minute now they’ll be here. We shouldn’t have let him leave.’
Ellie gave up arguing with him. She was starting to regret making him ‘better’. She couldn’t convince Max what Jon Li was really like. Privately, she tried to convince herself that she really knew him.
Max stamped his foot in frustration.
‘That’s it! We’re outta here. He should have been back hours ago. I’m not staying here to have that nip send TALOS or the CURE back to kill us,’ he stormed.
Max heard the sound of pounding footsteps and went for his rifle. Someone was running up the corridor towards the suite. Ellie looked to door: eyes were full of terror. The door flew wide open. Aya woke up, let out a startled whimper and fell off the sofa in a heap. Her sleep-glazed eyes, peered tentatively out from behind the arm of the furniture. Jon Li burst into the room: breathless. His normally perfect hair was windswept, and a layer of sweat covered his forehead.
‘We’re leaving,’ Jon Li ordered.
Ellie jumped down from her chair at the counter. All the fear had evaporated, when she saw that it was him and not TALOS.
‘What do you mean, we’re leaving?! It’s late?’ Ellie asked, in a confused voice.
Jon Li ignored her as he rushed into the bedroom, and began stuffing an overnight bag. He raced from one room to another searching for his car keys and randomly grabbing things. The tails on his suit jacket flowed behind him. Ellie followed him, pleading with him for an answer to his hysteria.
‘Get your stuff. We’re going out the back door,’ he said, in a scared voice.
His behaviour frightened her.
Aya spoke up with a whimper.
‘TALOS are coming for us, aren’t they? I knew it, they’ve found us!’ she cried.
Her voice was getting higher and faster, as she climbed out from behind the sofa. Max remained silent and glared at Jon Li (who was still racing around the penthouse). Max had a grim look etched across his features. Ellie continued to chase Jon Li through the rooms trying to question him.
‘Jon…what is it? Where did you go? WHERE ARE WE GOING?’
She felt the panic rising.
Jon never rushes anything. He’s always calm and ordered. Not like this, she thought.
Jon Li turned on them, exasperation written all over his face.
‘We’ve got to go. NOW. We don’t have time for this!’ he snapped.
Ellie was halted by his abruptness. She looked hurt and scared at the same time.
Max hastily stuffed the two pistols into his belt and started to gather his kit together.
‘Suits me fine. Don’t know what took you so long to come to your senses. We shoudda got outta here ages ago,’ Max spat angrily.
He slung the rifle over his good shoulder and called to Aya.
‘Get your kit. We’re getting out of here,’ he ordered.
Aya was so jittery that Ellie had to help her to get some belongings together. Ellie gave her some of her clothes and, together, they filled a couple of bags with essentials. She tried to comfort Aya while they packed. Aya was convinced that the door was about to be broken down by TALOS guards who would shoot them all.
Ellie couldn’t understand Jon Li’s mood. She had never seen him acting so frantically and it scared her a lot. He must believe us now, or he wouldn’t be acting this way. But what’s he not telling us? Is there something even worse we don’t know about? She thought.
It took only minutes for the four of them to gather essential belongings and leave. Jon Li had adamantly refused to allow Max to take any of the weapons from his Sanctuary. They did not have time to argue the point. Jon Li went to open the back door that led down a long, metal, fire-escape, and into the parking lot.
Max stopped him.
‘Not so fast, me first,’ Max said, scowling at Jon Li. Max’s eyes spoke his true meaning. What are you planning you Nip bastard? Who’s out there?’ they said.
Jon Li’s expression was one of sheer frustration in response.
Max edged the door open and scanned the car park, which was far below them. It was dark outside and illuminated only by the multi-coloured glow, of street lights which cast eerie shadows, across the motionless vehicles. Max searched the darkness, looking for the figures that he felt sure were lurking there. Nothing. Max drew one of the pistols from his belt and slowly screwed a silencer to its barrel. Hawkins and Dillinger had been well equipped. It had never occurred to him before why the TALOS guards had been issued silencers. He now knew. They had been sent to silence him. Bastards, he thought. He raised Hawkins’s pistol and took aim. The car park camera system exploded in a small shower of sparks, as Max took it out. Dead Bastards now, he thought. The mechanical eye was rendered blind.
He turned to the others that were crowded behind him, and ordered, ‘Okay, let’s go.’
He let them file in front of him and took up the rear. He wanted Jon Li exactly where he could see him.
The fire-escape stairs squealed as if in pain as they made their way down. The metal protested at the sudden, mass intrusion, of panicky feet. It seemed to scream.
“THEY’RE HERE! GUARDS! THEY’RE WALKING DOWN ME!”
Max gritted his teeth. Everything seemed to be too loud. He was glad when they hit the tarmac and were piling into Jon Li’s silver limousine. The staircase’s warning went unheeded.
Ellie sat in the front with Jon Li and Max and Aya tumbled in the back. Ellie looked at Jon Li and noticed that he was still sweating. He never sweats, she thought. Her mind was full of anxiety. What the hell happened to him? It must have been terrifying to make him want to run. What did he find out? Questions were flooding into her head as they raced out of the car park, and into the gloom of the night.
The car smelled strongly of air freshener and new leather, but Ellie was thinking that she could smell the faint whiff of a woman’s perfume on him? It was a heady erotic smell. She was thinking that it was nothing like any of the perfumes that she would wear and a picture of Royale wearing it intruded into her mind. She felt uneasy.
Jon Li sped down Opal Avenue in the silver limousine and out past the botanical gardens. He wasn’t used to driving and it showed. They passed the monorail station and headed out past Plastic Paradise into Sector Two. It was late and the streets were quiet. Jon Li remained silent while he drove them away from the city. His expression was very grim. It was so firmly entrenched across his features that Ellie wondered if it would ever change again. He did not look at her. His eyes remained firmly focused on the road. He briefly caught a glance of Max’s face in the rear mirror.
Max’s eyes still betrayed his thoughts. They had the look of complete distrust.
‘So where we headed?’ Max quipped.
Hawkins’s pistol lay across Max’s lap. It wasn’t pointed directly at Jon Li, but it wasn’t exactly facing away either. Both men knew exactly what the deal was regarding the pistol. Jon Li ignored Max, as he raced past the buildings. Max slumped back into the plush seat and fingered the gun on his lap. The silence intensified Max’s feelings of anger. He was angry, in pain, and extremely tired from his injury, which had sapped his strength. A ghostly voice in his head started up.
“He’s taking you in soldier. That’s why he ain’t talking.”
Max tried to ignore it, but the voice began to sound like his old drill instructor, Samson Son-of-a-bitch Jones. He popped one of his dwindling supplies of Apexir pills to help num
b the pain. Ellie hadn’t let him take any of them, while he was recovering, but now that he was out of her sight, he took the hit. As the Apexir haze began to kick in, he brooded on how much he hated his old drill instructor. Samson’s voice rang down the years. It still seemed so clear in his mind.
“ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID - YOU SORRY ARSE SACK OF GINGER SHIT?!” it seemed to scream.
“YOU’RE LETTING YOURSELF BE DUPED BY A FUCKING, JAP-CHINKY MAN!”
Max rubbed his eyes.
He was so tired.
“He was standing in the parade line. Privates Cooper and Wills stood in line alongside him. Samson screamed in his face. Out of the corner of his eye, Max could see Wills trying to stifle a laugh.
He chanced a look down at his hands. They were young and fresh and bore none of the scars, or bloodstains they would later obtain.
He caught a shower of spit in the face.
“YOU LOOK AT ME WHILE I’M TALKING TO YOU, YOU SHITHEAD!” Samson yelled at him.
“IT’S YOU NOT OPENING YOUR EYES, THAT’S GONNA GET YOU KILLED. YOU WET FUCK!”
Samson could shout for England. Indeed he did. Frequently, thought Max.
“YOU LET YOUR GUARD DOWN SOLDIER! YOU’RE LETTING THIS FUCKING CHINKY-MAN, DRIVE YOU STRAIGHT TO HIS SHINY FRIENDLY BUDDIES, SO THEY CAN KILL YOU, GUT YOUR CARCASS AND SKULL-FUCK YOU!”
Wills burst out laughing.
Samson joined in.
“Don’t need no fucking idiots in my outfit…” he snorted.
Samson’s face began to change as he jeered. His lips began to melt and his eyes started to run. His angry cheeks blistered.