“So where do you fit into all of this? No, don’t tell me. You plan to sell Pandora to the highest bidder and beat Ares at their own game.”
By the way she raised an eyebrow, Fox got the impression that he had insulted her.
“Sell? Pandora belongs to me. The only reason Ares ever got it is because I let them take it.”
“You mean to tell me you just gave it away?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. I had no choice but to let them have it.” Marx paced slowly from side to side. “It would’ve been difficult to weaponize it on American soil while keeping my cover at the CDC. Thanks to Valerik, I was able to let Ares do the job instead. When the ice man was accidentally discovered two years ago in the Arctic, I was once again given the chance to continue my work. I extracted a Pandora sample from the ice man and gave it to Valerik, who then gave it to Ares. Valerik told Ares of his retrieval of the perfect weapon.”
Fox sighed. “And Ares fell for it.”
Marx smiled. “Of course they did. Valerik and I kept in touch so that I could monitor its progress from a safe distance. Ares never really knew the origin of Pandora. All along they thought that they were dealing with a weapon that was created in the CDC labs several years ago. The Americans had a chance at controlling Pandora because of my genius. I remember when the Defense Department needed me back then. When my project was terminated, so was my necessity. Do you know how it feels to be someone’s puppet?”
“No, I can’t say that I do.”
“Really? You, an instrument of your government’s political ideals? Please, you’re a puppet and don’t even know it.” Fox sensed the iciness in her voice, as she uncrossed her arms. “You’re just like my parents, the way they lived their secret lives. My father worked for the CIA, whereas my mother for the KGB. Guess what?”
Fox remained silent.
“My father gets killed in a Soviet air raid over an Afghan rebel training camp, thanks to my own mother. I never knew this at the time, obviously. It’s ironic that I later accepted an offer from the Defense Department to work on a bio-weapon that was to be used against enemies of the state, giving me the chance to avenge my father’s death. Now I was the one keeping secrets from my mother. All of a sudden, the US signs the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act. I show up at work one morning to discover that all of my research was destroyed, then get handed a letter stating that my services were no longer needed.”
Fox lowered his head. “Who are you to compare me to your parents? You don’t know anything about my life.”
“On the contrary. I know that at one point in your life you wanted to stop serving your home country to settle down. The things that love can do to a man.”
Fox’s stare would’ve frightened the average person. But not Marx, she was way too psychotic. In fact, Marx’s smile grew the longer Fox stared at her. “Do you still dream about her, or am I correct to assume that they’re actually nightmares? I know you must have them from time to time.”
She’d caught Fox off guard.
Don’t let her gain control over me, whatever I do.
Marx took a sip of her drink. “Come on, it’s no secret that you were once a Warrant Officer in the Canadian Joint Task Force Two, and you quit to settle down and take a teaching position. You were even about to get married. All of that was cut short when a so-called traffic accident took your bride-to-be away from you.”
She’s trying to rattle me. This could be a precursor before she administers the Clarity drug. Just as Parris described.
“You must have spent several sleepless nights blaming yourself for not seeing it coming. Knowing that it was something you could’ve prevented. Am I right?”
Fox looked away from her so that her eyes would have less effect on him.
“Your pain drove you over the edge. You couldn’t bear to have her killers get away with it. You travel around the world with a gun hoping to bring down an organization that has links in many governments worldwide.”
Fox still didn’t say a word. The nerve to bring up Jessica’s death-fuck, there I go, letting her get to me. Fox looked past Marx at Tanaka. “I suppose it helps having friends in the intelligence community.”
“And why not? I make it my business to know as much about the enemy as possible. I’ve learned from my mistakes.”
“Is that right?” asked Fox.
Marx downed her drink. “Absolutely. For instance, I wish that I had known that my mother was the enemy before she confessed everything to me. It was painful to hear that her actions got my father killed. But it was even more painful to learn that she knew of my involvement with the Defense Department and that she was under orders to kill me.”
Fox still didn’t look directly at her, but the sound of her voice spoke volumes. In it there was a mixture of both rage and sadness. In fact, there was more rage. But he couldn’t allow himself to have sympathy for her. She was playing with his mind, that’s all.
“Coincidently, she had developed severe heart complications, and was never able to carry out her orders. Whether the CIA murdered her in revenge, the KGB did so because she never carried out her orders, or it could have even been natural causes, I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care. Not anymore. You intelligence operatives, you’re all the same-just mindless puppets.”
Fox chuckled as he shook his head. “And you’re supposed to be the puppet master?”
“You can call me what you want. Have you ever heard of Neil Kirkpatrick, the industrialist? Actually, come to think of it you would’ve been finishing high school at that time he was well-known.”
“Actually I knew of a Neil Kirkpatrick. I’ve done my background checks on you too, Dr. Marx. It’s strange how he died while horseback riding in rural Pennsylvania. Doctors said he had a heart attack, right after being given a clean bill of health. He must’ve been thirty years older than you at the time.”
“Yes, he was. He also was a huge donor to the politicians that voted in favor of ending my research on the bio-weapon we now know today as Pandora. ”
Fox closed his eyes briefly. “So you had him killed, didn’t you? On the side, you took advantage of the fortune that he had left you with.”
“We all have our skeletons, Fox. It’s funny how our lives are intertwined.”
“Really? How so?”
“Don’t you see it? The Cold War ends, hence terminating my chances of getting even with the Soviets. The Soviet Union collapses, and the KGB dissolves. Some of their agents go on to form the Arms of Ares, who later kill your fiancee. You’re recruited by the CIA, who help you to avenge her death. But along the way your friend, Pat Hiller, gets killed in Uganda. Now you’ve come after me.”
“You’re right. It’s a shame neither the Defense Department nor the CDC figured out that you were a psychopath in the making. Otherwise you’d be sitting either in a jail cell or an asylum right now.”
Marx’s eyes dilated to the point that she appeared to be insulted. “Me? A psychopath? Don’t you realize that we’re both the victims of other people’s agendas? When you lost Jessica, you chose to be a government agent. I, on the other hand, chose to be a free agent. I wasn’t going be a part of any regime-whether political or religious-that causes the same problems that we both want to end, through different means.”
“So what is your way of ending the world’s problems?”
“It’s simple. Use Pandora to end all wars.”
“Now you’ve lost me.”
“Think about it. We’ve experienced two World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War. Where has it gotten us, Fox? And now the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the so-called war on terrorism we heard so much about at one time, God knows how long it will last.”
Fox looked down at the table in front of him, in deep thought. He then looked back up at Marx. “You’re going to target certain countries using Pandora? You want to be in control of the arms race.”
“No, Fox.” Marx laughed. “You know you really are nai
ve, despite what I’ve been told about you.”
Fox thought about it for a second, but the only thing that came to mind was far too unbelievable to accept. “I don’t think so. You want to be the puppet master, therefore, having Pandora gives you a sense of control.”
“Wrong again!” Her explosiveness even startled Tanaka and the guards. “The world needs Pandora and a whole lot more than you’re willing to admit.”
“Oh yeah, tell me how?”
“Do you remember how the Second World War ended?” Dr. Marx giggled before Fox could answer. “Of course you do. Two nuclear bombs, code named Little Boy and Fat Man, were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over two hundred thousand people. Of course, the devastation was horrendous and is still one of the most talked about topics in history. What’s ironic is that the civilian casualties that resulted from the bombings were far less than the number of casualties that would’ve resulted had the madness of the war in the Pacific continued. Who knows how much longer the war would’ve gone on.”
The answer then became clear to Fox. He didn’t want to believe it for himself, but he had to accept it, given all of the facts. The events of 9/11 were the worst and most unforgettable ever perpetrated on US soil, in a single day that he could remember. Since then, leading world governments and their militaries have been on high alert, while the general public wonders where and when the next major attack will take place.
Now it wasn’t a matter of where the next attack would take place, it was all about when. And there was no government or nation who could accept that an even worse catastrophe was in their midst. And up until then, Fox wouldn’t have either.
“You want to wipe out the world’s population.” This was all Fox could think of when he looked at those chilled blue eyes of hers.
“Now you’re catching on. It’ll be a swift end to the forces that are destroying this world, resulting in a new beginning. I’m a learner. I believe that we as humans are meant to make progress. I’ve had the opportunity to live in a dysfunctional family with opposing views. What’s the end result? A zero-sum, that’s what. With the way things are going, the complete and utter annihilation of all life on this planet is bound to happen. It’s just a matter of when. I simply plan to accelerate what’ll be the inevitable. In the end, the chosen few will remain and we’ll all start life again and this time it will be an improvement.”
“You can’t be serious. You’re talking about global genocide.”
Marx laughed. “No. A global cleansing. Something about you told me that you’d be trouble when we first met. Already from our first encounter we haven’t seen eye to eye. At the CDC compound in Uganda, you saw the corpses. I saw an organism that can self-replicate at an incredible rate.”
“And you’re bound to run into a lot more like me. What’ll you do, kill us all?”
Marx stared at Fox with a glare that put a freeze on everyone around her. Even Tanaka lost his smile. But then she curved her lips inward, exhaled, and rested one hand on the table beside her glass. “Too blind to see things for what they are, aren’t we? But you don’t have to worry because it’s perfectly normal. There’s a reason I’ve kept you alive this long.” She signaled with a hand gesture. “You know things. You’re of no use to me dead, at least not until I have an idea of what you know.”
Again there was a short blast of loud music that signaled the waiter’s return. This time he carried a small metal box on his tray. He placed the cigar-box-sized container on the table beside Marx’s glass. He then walked away, the short burst of loud music soon followed.
“Can you guess what’s inside?”
“Sodium Pentothal, or Truth Serum, its more common name. But of course, you, a scientist, should know the dangers of mixing drugs with alcohol, so maybe it wasn’t such a good idea giving me this beverage.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be under constant supervision.” She opened the box and took out a syringe.
Fox smirked. “You’ll need more than that.”
“Oh, please. Look beside you.” Marx glanced briefly at the two ninjas while she held up the syringe. “I could have the truth beaten out of you or maybe have you taken back to the lab where I’d have you converted. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I love having fun with science. Especially when living specimens are involved.”
Fox felt that she appeared to be overconfident. She might expect him to resist while being held down for the syringe but probably nothing else. The burning candle in the centerpiece, he could use that. Dr. Marx was rather insistent on him drinking. Let her see what she wants to see. He could still get away. Alcohol on an open flame might not be much but it should distract them long enough for him to tackle Tanaka and grab his gun. But the two ninjas would be quick to respond.
“So let me get this straight. Your brainwashing drug, should you choose to use it, would disrupt my reasoning abilities in the RES?” Fox specifically did not refer to the drug by its real name, Clarity, since it was only Parris who had mentioned that to him. Marx looked at him with a half-smile as she raised the syringe to eye level. “The RAS, Fox. It’s not called the RES.” She tapped the syringe causing the remaining air bubbles to surface. “And that is the area which screens out conflicting information going to the brain. This will first disrupt the ability to reason, along with personality formation.”
“In the hindbrain.” Fox raised the glass and stopped short of his mouth.
“No, the forebrain and the hypothalamus.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure of that.” Fox held the glass in hand and turned to the ninja to his left. “Do you mind checking that out for us? I’m curious to know who’s right.”
“Just give me his arm,” snapped Marx.
In that instant, Fox threw his drink onto the open flame in front of him. There was a loud popping sound and a flash of flame and sparks. Fox kicked up his legs and sent the table flying at Tanaka. He launched from his seat and reached into his pocket to grab the sand while he spun around. He then threw it into the eyes of one of the henchmen. At that the henchman doubled over with both hands at his eyes, Fox engaged the other as he blocked off a set of rapid strikes to his chest and face.
Dr. Marx backed away from the melee as Fox temporarily overpowered him, giving him time to tackle Tanaka to the floor and snatch his Sig P226 firearm from its holster, spin around, go down on one knee, and pull the trigger twice. As he expected, the same henchman, already in mid-air flight towards him, caught both bullets in the chest, and crash landed beside him. Fox was about to plug the other henchman when he was kicked in the hand, causing a shot to be fired into the ceiling. Fox was then kicked in the stomach which sent him crashing backwards into a table behind him, knocking it over.
This ninja was no ordinary street thug-he was a trained assassin. But then, so was Fox. His opponent attacked him, but Fox blocked the attacks and soon overpowered him, flooring him. The henchman tried to get up, but Fox had already thrown his leg out and connected the front of his shoe to his temple, knocking him out.
The Sig was still within his reach, and he snatched it up and aimed it at both Marx and Tanaka. “It’s time for a change of authority around here.” He could shoot them both right now and end this, but it would still leave him at a dead end since he didn’t know where Pandora was hidden, not to mention how many locations it could be stored at.
But now that he was in control, he would be the one to ask them questions, not only to uncover where to find Pandora, but also how to undo the effects of the Clarity drug.
“You.” Fox pointed the gun at Tanaka. “Get up.”
Tanaka’s grin faded and he did as told. Fox then pointed the gun at Dr. Marx.
“And you. Go stand beside him.” Marx, however, was much slower and obviously didn’t feel as threatened as Tanaka. Her stare went cold as she tightened her grip on the syringe as though to crush it in her hand.
“You won’t need that anymore, so give it to Tanaka.” Her eyes narrowed and the same coldness he fe
lt when he first met her seemed to penetrate his bones, to which he responded by pointing the Sig at her head.
“Now!” Fox said, this time louder.
Marx sighed and handed the syringe to Tanaka. “You continue to impress me. I suppose you’re going to force me to take the truth serum to get the information you want. Pity it won’t work.”
“Oh yeah, why’s that?” Fox moved closer to them, stopping short about five feet away.
“I designed truth serum upgrades for the military, as well as their blockers,” she answered. “In fact, I’m on one of them right now.”
The shot Fox fired grazed Marx’s upper right arm, spinning her down on one knee as she grasped the wound with her opposite arm. Fox noticed beads of sweat form on Tanaka’s forehead.
With her back to Fox, Marx shot a look over her left shoulder in cold rage. “You idiot!” Her scream stung Fox’s eardrums.
Fox then smiled. “Tell me, Dr. Marx. Would you call this putting science to use? I got to say I like it. I’m curious to know how many bullets in your arms and legs you’d have to get before you start talking.” His sarcasm then lost its bite and his tone darkened as he glared at Marx. “Where’s Pandora?”
“You can kill me, but you’ll just end up destroying yourself and contributing to the global cleansing.” She got up, still holding the wound, and turned to face him. “The plans are already set in motion.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Am I? Do you honestly think I’d have researched such a deadly microbe without knowing how to destroy it just in case something went wrong?”
“No, but then again if you shared the cult’s philosophy, you wouldn’t have bothered, would you?” Fox pointed the gun at Tanaka who still held the syringe. “Give her a shot. Or I’ll give you one.”
Glass shattered at the entrance of the cocktail lounge and an avalanche of loud music flowed inside. Fox counted more than six gunmen pour in quickly, before he ran into one of the booths for cover. When he looked out, slightly above the headrest, he saw Marx, with Tanaka’s help, running away.
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