by Jade White
“Painful, as always.”
Ryker looked up at him as he held onto a cotton ball over the extraction site. “You know this because?”
“I studied werebeings before Dr. Delaney even graduated from college; of course, I would know. I didn’t study on the children, though. It was what brought about my downfall.”
“Your moral code?”
“Children are a different thing. If possible, I’d want kids to be kids until they decide to grow up. Alexia was never given that choice, but I assume you were.”
“What else has she told you?”
“Not much. Except the part where you plan to go to Alaska. She’s a good girl; you’re quite lucky to have been travelling with her.”
“This isn’t a vacation; it’s survival.”
“Ah, but every time you’re in a proper house with proper meals, wouldn’t you consider that a vacation?”
Ryker was silent, but he nodded in the end. Vacations were when he slept beside her, content that she was safe and close to him. He blinked, cutting off his reverie. “How soon can you come up with something?”
“What something?”
“Results,” he said impatiently.
“I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”
“Dr. Delaney said-" Ryker stopped, seeing the look on his face.
“How has she been doing lately?” the doctor asked the young man. “Any changes in her mood? Her weight?”
“I just met her a couple of months ago,” Ryker said. “How can you expect me to know much about her?”
“Because you obviously care for her,” he said, humming about as he cleaned up the table. “So, details. I like details. What about what happened to you earlier, when you were about to kill me?”
“You were holding a gun,” Ryker reasoned out.
“I was holding a tranquilizer gun,” he said mildly. “Now, the moment she touched you, you shifted back into your human form again. How is that possible?”
“I’d never seen her do that…” he said. “Back when we were in the lab, no one mentioned that. It was always her blood. Then, when they decided to kill her, they replicated her blood’s properties. Delaney said it was to keep up with the supply and demand. Alexia was no use to them anymore, except for her healing properties, which were found in newer, younger subjects.”
“So the main source of their research for so many years was to be terminated. Typical of them,” Barrett said. “Sucking the life out of Alexia, then continue onto the next. Were there many like her?”
“She was the only one to survive into adulthood. Until they found a few others who exhibited the same skills as of late. Do you call those skills?” Ryker looked tired all of a sudden. “Listen, can you not take too much of her blood? They took a lot from her, and she gets these nosebleeds every now and then that are terrible-" he stopped, seeing the look on the doctor’s face.
“Nosebleeds, you say?”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Perhaps it came with her recent changes. If you’ve never seen her use that magic touch of hers to change werebeings back into humans, then it must be new, too. And now they’ve found out. All the more reason they want to catch up with you now. Did this manifest with others seeing it?”
Ryker nodded, realizing the implications of it. She had caused Caliban to shift back into human form, and he hadn’t killed everyone in that attack…they must’ve reported it by now. He closed his eyes, wishing he could have just killed everyone.
“Same effect on you?” Barrett continued.
He nodded again. “I’d never seen that in the lab, back when they tested us together.”
“Did they develop you in any way?” he asked, knowing full well that werebeings who were forced to mutate even more developed severe psychological or physical impairments.
“They never got the chance to. Well, except for when they transfused her blood to me, after they tortured me.”
“How do you feel when her blood is in you?”
“A lot better. But I don’t want her blood in me. I mean, have you seen how sick she looks? Every time she ‘donates’ blood, she gets sicker, she looks paler, like a gust of wind can blow her away. I guess that’s why they made that commercialized form of her blood; in the event she dies, they still have stocks from their first successful subject,” Ryker said in an almost bitter note.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Barrett said. There were many implications with replicating her DNA’s properties, and most of them would turn out negative. They had gone through this before, back when he still worked for them, and he had repeatedly declined to further this part of their studies. “What changes did you experience being with her for so long?”
Ryker gave his racing thoughts a pause. What had he felt? Ryker noticed the more he was with Alexia, the more human he felt, that the urge to shift wasn’t as strong as it had been, and the urge to kill wasn’t as pronounced. “I can control shifting better.”
“Because she reverts you back to human form?”
“That. But I don’t get all riled up for it. There was a reason I stayed away from humans for a while after some people killed my parents in Oregon.”
Barrett’s eyes narrowed. “The Locklear couple?”
“You were there?” Ryker’s eyes widened, his heartbeat racing.
“No, but Dr. Wallace was. He spearheaded that campaign to use kids instead of adult werebeings…so you were the boy they kept looking for. We had heard of a werebear cub along those parts…”
Ryker closed his eyes, remembering how his parents had died.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Barrett said in a soft voice.
“It was a long time ago, doc,” Ryker told him.
“The past can catch up with us,” Dr. Barrett said in a wizened manner. “I told Alexia earlier that I’m ready to die for whatever atrocities I did before, but there’s one thing I’m glad about, and that’s never experimenting on children.”
“Children or adults, the torture’s still the same.”
“Children have a natural resilience that I didn’t want to exploit. Besides, like I said before, I want children to be children, and not lab rats.”
“You scientists have some effed up moral codes,” Ryker said.
“Isn’t that why they call us mad scientists?” Barrett replied with a smile. “Get some rest, Ryker. We’ll proceed with what tests my little lab can offer as soon as she’s up.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dr. Wallace smiled, seeing Stephen and Magnus II walk in the conference room. He had had a stressful morning, and he made up for it by administering tests on those werebeing soldiers that had failed their last ops.
Caliban had been most affected physically and mentally, a product of A129’s touch, according to the report drafted by a member of the assault team. He hadn’t seen such an effect on any werebeing until yesterday. He had put Caliban in a controlled comatose state for a few hours just to see what other changes had occurred. During his scans, his brain waves reflected that of a normal human’s already. Alexia was a threat to the very existence of werebeing soldiers.
“I understand the steroids are not up to par?” Magnus II said irritably, taking a seat as Dr. Wallace passed on test results to the two of them. He briefly scanned the reports, and while he was no scientist, it implied negative feedback.
Magnus II then looked at his younger brother. “What do you plan to do about this?”
“I’ll personally lead them to retrieve A129. Looks like she’s evolving.”
“She is,” Wallace told them, “on a medical theory standpoint. Perhaps, we should have exposed her to the outside world. There are many triggers for this. The food she probably ate, the stressors. There’s also the matter of being affected by X014. He didn’t shift, according to the surviving soldiers.”
Stephen’s mouth straightened. So his human soldiers had failed, so his werebeing soldiers had failed. The point here was not their failure but the strength of A
129’s newfound skills, if they really were skills. “Has it ever occurred to Sector 12 that she may have hidden these changes?”
“She can’t hide changes, not from us. We tested her nearly every day.”
“It was a seventy-thirty result. Seventy for failures and deaths accrued by using her blood,” Magnus II said.
“Whatever the results are, these werebeings have greatly shaped our military force. I’m only a scientist doing the president’s bidding,” Wallace replied.
“And I’m under direct orders from the president to follow through on this,” Magnus II told him. He turned to face Stephen once more. “When are you commencing?”
“In two hours. The convoy I sent ahead has spotted the jeep close to the Idaho border. X014 threw the Humvee’s tracker. We’ll have them in no time.”
“It’s the same thing that Caliban said to you,” Magnus II said. “Now, Dr. Wallace, what do you need from us?”
“I just want the girl alive. Then, we can begin making a new serum based on her recent changes.”
“Ah, the 200-million-dollar steroid program that still failed you.” Magnus II was stern. He didn’t like wasting money on this, not when there were other programs to do and finish. Besides, this whole A129 and X014 business was starting to get on his nerves.
“They’re adolescents, but don’t forget, they’re not normal teenagers,” Wallace told them both. “I’d like for X014’s body to be taken back; if possible, don’t destroy it. I need it for research. We may have to put Caliban down.”
Stephen shook his head. He had given Caliban numerous chances, and when the board decided to put down a subject, it was almost a unanimous decision every time. “X013 has been nothing but an excellent soldier. This was just a setback. Why put him down?”
“He’s volatile now,” Wallace replied. “These were remarkable changes to him. It’s as if she can cause the DNA to regress. Again, this is all in theory, so I need her here. While she isn’t here, there’s no reason to put down Caliban. He did grow up with her at some point.”
Stephen nodded, knowing he was racing against time and his father’s wishes. Expensive trials that went awry proved expensive to fix. Case in point for the two youngsters, barely eighteen. He braced himself for a long day ahead, knowing the escapees had provisions. Provisions wouldn’t last long. It was to be an extra careful retrieval, as they needed Alexia alive and Ryker’s body compact.
It disappointed Stephen that he couldn’t pulverize the werebear’s body into bits and pieces, or torture him for what he had done to his men. Some of those men trained with him back then, and those men were some of the best. Even those werebeing soldiers were the best, and yet they cowered in her presence.
The meeting ended quickly with Magnus II walking the opposite direction to where the new Sector 13 was being built. They had transferred close to Pennsylvania, a multi-billion-dollar project at stake, built with a low rise building above and multi-stories below. Stephen called out his name, and he spun around.
“Yes?” he said, facing his younger brother.
“I need more information about A129. I think it’s best for this operation to finish fast.”
“I gave you what was needed. I have nothing else to offer.”
“Look, I know it’s necessary to keep stuff secret, but I need more data on her. Where she’s from, if I can trace her family. Maybe--"
“That is part of Sector 13’s job, and it will be handed to you if need be,” Magnus II said to him curtly.
“You need me here; I demand to have access to these files.”
“If there were other files, I’d have given them to you by now. And you have no right to demand, soldier. Don’t forget where your boots are.”
Stephen blinked, surprised to hear his older brother so strung up. “You may be a general-"
“Don’t start with me. I trusted you to finish this quickly. Now, it’s been over a month, and still not a hair from their heads.”
“I said I would capture them, and I’ll do it. What happened yesterday was a setback.” “Aren’t you supposed to be ready for setbacks? I thought you didn’t allow them, because I certainly don’t want setbacks.”
“You’re acting like father,” Stephen breathed out, his insecurities resurfacing as he stood in front of his well-decorated war hero brother.
“I’m acting like your superior, and I am your superior. Do your job, and I suggest you start with Idaho.”
“I know where I’m starting,” Stephen said through gritted teeth.
“Without your werebeing soldiers,” Magnus II added.
Stephen was dumfounded for a moment. “Without what? Without the soldiers I’ve trained well? Without the soldiers we’ve enhanced?”
“These werebeing soldiers are volatile. I am pulling them out of every sensitive ops program until Dr. Wallace has figured out a way to keep them from being affected by him or her.”
“Not everyone was affected; she can’t touch everyone,” Stephen insisted.
“Would I let them risk the opportunity to have her back in this lab?” Magnus II said in a cold, dangerous voice.
“No, that’s why I’m going. I’ll lower those risks. I know how my men think; I know how werebeings can think-"
“But you can’t predict how they’ll act if A129 ever does something to them. Then, you’ll have wasted a billion dollars’ worth of enhanced military men. You’re late, unless you need to be reminded of what you have to do.”
Stephen glared at his brother, taking deep breaths to make sure he wouldn’t step another toe out of line. He was desperate to finish this, desperate to prove himself worthy of the Caledon family name. That childish insecurity still lurked deep inside his psyche… He closed his eyes for the longest two seconds of his life that day, and then he saluted his older brother, spun on his boots and left.
Magnus II stared after Stephen. He hadn’t meant to be so harsh with him, but it was part of his job, after all. Results were needed, and results were lost during last month’s fire. Dr. Wallace needed A129 to recreate her DNA again. It failed as a steroid, but he had a feeling Dr. Wallace was up to something else, something else he didn’t tell them yet.
He’d need her to create a weapon to eradicate or cancel out anyone’s werebeing genes…maybe instead of making the werebeings feel better, she was making them more human than ever. He took a breath and headed for his armored car.
How long can I keep this up?
*
He only needed a few drops of blood underneath his college-grade microscope. It still did the trick, Barrett told them, and he didn’t need those fancy shmancy machines that Wallace had.
Alexia watched in rapt attention as she sat across the table from where the doctor worked. There was a musty smell in the air, and the basement was filled with cobwebs in the corners. It was clear that the only things he kept clean were his immediate workplace and his books. Even his clothes looked unkempt.
He listed down results on a notebook with yellowing paper. He looked at them all of a sudden, all serious. “I’ve never been so excited since I beat Wallace’s scores in med school finals.”
Ryker found himself smiling, amazed by the man’s resolve to keep his research going, but he knew it wouldn’t last too long, especially if the military came swooping down on them today. The basement was thankfully warm. He had peered out of the window an hour ago, and the forest was filled with heavy snow. His likeness as a bear wouldn’t be hard to miss at all if he shifted.
“We don’t have much time,” Ryker suddenly spoke up.
“Of course, we don’t. I’ve based my research from twelve years ago; I need to have this updated with what sources I have, and, thankfully, two have stepped right inside my home,” he paused, scribbling stuff down. “I theorized this before with Edith. As a behavioral doctor and a genetics specialist, she came up with the possibility of an anti-werebeing genome, or that an entire human could cause the werebeing to regress. Of course, it was all a theory, a theory I wanted
to happen.
I was excited, at first, to work with genetics and enhancing these werebeings that we had, but it was a project that drained me. I guess I was never as harsh as Wallace was and still is, I guess. Now, Edith. Edith sent me classified documents a few years ago, detailing A129, which would be you. You were among the last to be placed in the program, and the only one to survive into adulthood, right?”
Alexia nodded. “Well, the soldiers survived-"
“They’re another story. They survived, because they thrived on your blood. Now, I’m not making it sound vampiric, but let’s just say your red blood cells latch onto the red blood cells of the transfused patient. Some will die, a product of select mutation, and some will live, another product of selective mutation and natural selection.
Werebeings who survive your blood have it going for them, but since your blood is in them, they can be susceptible to you, too. Your touch is something that’s pretty new to me, almost like magic.” He gave a short laugh, his mind racing to explain everything. The words came out in a machine-gun fashion, and he left the youngsters with eyes wide open.
“Have you ever held another werebeing that didn’t come from Sector 12?” Barrett asked her.
She shook her head. “That was the first…”
“I remember Caliban,” Barrett said as he replaced the slide with another sample. “He came in late to Sector 12; he was taken from an orphanage. Wallace saw something in him that burned brighter than the rest of the children, even if his DNA was suppressed at first.”
“How do you know some are suppressed?” Ryker asked.
“Tests, mostly information from others that this person is behaving strangely. Do you remember your first shifting, Ryker?”
Ryker shook his head.
“You do remember your parents asking you to suppress it?”
No stressors, his mother’s voice floated into his head. He nodded. “It was to keep me safe. Mandatory registration was in talks. Even from birth, they wanted to test kids.”
“Would’ve bled the government dry, and it would’ve caused the collapse of this generation with the lack of babies, thus the poachers,” Barrett said. “Of course, people get creative to get rewards and favors.”