Scientist: An Earth 340K Standalone Novel (Soldier X Book 1)

by D. P. Oberon

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  Wenqi looked up from his musings. He said, “Are you expecting anyone?” There was complete silence as Old Man Yok and Lady Lee shook their heads sideways. “Not us; we only know the both of you.”

  Hazou said, “Everyone in Urumqi knows you. You are renowned for making the greatest noodles in all the empire.”

  Wenqi kicked his friend.

  “Ouch,” said Hazou.

  They waited for a moment in the silence that ensued and heard another knock.

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  A timid knock, as if somebody was embarrassed or too shy, or maybe whose hands were afraid of knocking.

  “It’s obviously not Dang Mao,” said Wenqi jokingly. “And not that fat Water Intendant. Not after we gave her a quarter of our business,” said Hazou.

  “Let’s go and check,” said Lady Lee, standing and slapping her hands.

  “Come on then,” Wenqi stood up slowly and positioned his shoulders so that Hazou’s fingers latched on them. He turned to the old man and old lady. “Do you mind following, bringing that big wooden spoon, please? And that old vibro-blade?”

  “Sure, sure,” said Old Man Yok, and he scurried off. He soon returned with the old vibro-blade and switched it on and gave his wife the battered wooden spoon the size of a child.

  The four mismatched and completely not fear-inducing strangers approached the door hesitantly. Hazou stubbed his toe just as somebody began to knock on the door again.

  “Hello?” said Hazou.

  A high-pitched voice said something but then it was silenced.

  Hazou turned to Wenqi. “Where is the handle again?”

  “On the right, yes, you’re nearly there. Bit more.”

  Hazou’s hands reached the awkward handle. He turned to his left and glanced at all of them. “Be ready.”

  Hazou swung open the door.

  A young woman’s battered face glanced up at them. She slumped there, sopping wet with her clothes clinging to her. The left part of her eye a black pit, and a cut glazed across her right eye.

  “Ahh,” Wenqi’s voice choked and caught in his throat.

  She looked like an ethereal ghost and he was afraid she might dissipate at any moment.

  “Please help,” Nuan said.

  Chapter 15 - Jaws

  Nuan shivered as she stepped into the house. The four adults so taken aback by her appearance they didn’t even notice the slight child shadowing her.

  “Lizhang, my daughter,” she said, pressing her daughter close, revealing the blue-black bruises on her hands as she did so.

  Nuan’s eyes met Wenqi’s and then he stepped forward and pressed himself against her. She remembered how he’d liked her all those years ago. What did he think of her now? She hadn’t wanted him to see her like this. Never like this. His sobbing fractured her heart. She felt like half a woman as she stood there. He didn’t even have hands to hug her, so she hugged him instead.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, as Nuan pulled back. She turned back to Hazou.

  Wenqi spoke to Hazou with faltering words. “Nuan’s been beaten up real bad.” He didn’t say who. They both already knew who.

  “Nuan?” Hazou held out his hands. She rushed into her brother’s hands and for a few seconds they just stood there. When Nuan stepped back, Hazou asked, “Where’s Lizhang?” Nuan led the little girl to her uncle where he gave her a hug and patted her on her head. “There, there, little one, you’re safe now.”

  The words spilled out of Nuan before she could stop them. “Dang has been upset ever since the failure of the Chao-chao experiment. Recently he came back home and he seemed changed. Angrier. Stronger. After he finished with me, he turned on Lizhang. He’d never done that before. If I didn’t escape he would’ve killed us.” Never in a million years did she think she would say those words.

  Wenqi said, “You should’ve left him. He’s been beating you ever since you married him. Did you actually think? Or was all the money and glory of being married to the director such a pull?”

  Nuan sneered and rage twisted her pretty face. “And what, go with you?” She stabbed him with her index finger. “You were too busy playing scientist. Why didn’t you come and take me away? Do you think it’s so easy for a woman to leave her man? He’s Dang Mao. He would’ve tracked me wherever I went,” she trailed in a whisper, her eyes losing their focus.

  “You’re safe now,” said Hazou in the empty silence.

  Nuan’s eyes took in the disabled scientists: one blind and the other armless. Who were those old people?

  She wrapped her arms around herself. “He’ll kill me. And if you keep me safe here, he’ll come and kill you.” She shook her head. “No, this was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have come.” She turned, pushed the door open, and bolted.

  # # #

  Wenqi twisted about as the aero-bus flew overhead, a woman in aero-skates cursed at him. He stumbled against the wall, his breathing going in and out so fast. He’d lost Nuan.

  Five minutes ago they had been in the Water Spinach Inn. “No!” Wenqi shouted as Nuan rushed out of the house. He blocked Lizhang from going after her mother and used his back to push her against his friend. “Hold her,” he told Hazou, and he leaped through the gap between the doors, twisting sideways and scratching himself against the latch. He chased Nuan’s fluttering white dress into the night.

  Now he’d lost her. His eyes caught the woman in white. There. She paused by the side of an aero-bus stop, bent over and vomited.

  “Nuan!”

  She turned and stared right at him. It was her.

  He chased her and called out her name. She eventually turned away from the main road. “Watch it!” Wenqi shouted.

  A man on a hover-bike gunned across the main road and spat a curse at Nuan. She barely evaded him. She turned, her stricken face looking wild and lost. Then, as if she hadn’t just nearly been bowled over moments ago, she pushed her dark hair around her ears and ran onto one of the side roads.

  “Nuan, I’m sorry, come back,” Wenqi shouted.

  His heart beat so badly he felt his chest would erupt. I’m so unfit, he thought. His entire life spent in a lab. He hated himself for being physically weak. He swore he’d get stronger, fitter.

  “Nuan?” Her trail led past a busy nightclub, Diyu Vixens, decked with revelers wearing hellish garb. The narrow alleyway beside the nightclub edged with junk. This was a seedier and darker part of Southeast Urumqi than even Tinmai Street. His mouth dried, his head kept pounding, but he didn’t hesitate as he entered the alleyway.

  An air-tinge turbine shrilled against the side of the wall. A skull painted on its side changed colors from red to yellow. A large food shack protruded at the rear of the nightclub like a shroom growth. The smell of fish, of things gone sodden too long filled Wenqi’s nostrils. The wet splash of water soaked the soles of his feet and he almost hit a mopbot who blinked its eye at him as he ran past.

  The nightclub stretched around the corner like a vestigial Gothic nightmare. He passed under a balcony fitted with bars like a jail. A striking pale man with a choker around his neck stared pleadingly at Wenqi. A woman sported a devil’s mask whipped her vibro-blade at him. The man screamed.

  Wenqi stumbled on.

  Eventually the alleyway led into a cul-de-sac. The moonlight kissed a moving gray outline. He followed the end of the cul-de-sac until an empty lot led him across onto another small road.

  “Nuan?”

  Only silence responded. Here the sound of poison-rust music and the thrum of the aero-buses couldn’t be heard. He’d taken another dozen turns, each time he thought he’d spotted a dim white plume. Like a ghost. He was well and truly lost.

  He turned. A skeletal pole spat fitful light. Somebody had put a carved pumpkin onto a dying tree. The pumpkin glowed orange.

  Surprisingly a wide road greeted him. It was desolate, filled with empty buildings on either side. A burned-out frame of an aero-bus lay against the side of the road. A barrel stoo
d next to the bus issuing forth a red flame. A wandering dog sniffed at Wenqi.

  But all thoughts failed him as the person stepped in front of the red flame.

  The light of the flame from the barrel highlighted Nuan's features. But it wasn't that which he saw. It was the man holding her who smiled at him.

  Jaws.

  Wenqi’s thoughts froze in his mind. But how? No, it shouldn’t be possible, another part of his mind said, yet here is the possibility, right in front of me.

  “She’s beautiful,” said Jaws. “A bit bruised up just the way I like.” His fingers wrapped around Nuan’s neck and shoved her against the aero-bus. He caressed her with his pinky—a metal replacement finger—that drew an angry line down Nuan’s cheek.

  “Looks like it’s going to be a feast night, men!” Jaws shouted, and out of the shadow, there came the ravaged faces, sore eyes, and a man so worn by land-tinge the interior of his lower jaw stretched through skin.

  “Jaws, it’s me you want. Not her.” Wenqi couldn’t believe the other man escaped jail. He had seen him only a day ago. He regretted to the pits of his stomach kicking Jaws in the balls.

  “I told you I would rip your throat out.” Jaws eyes briefly flickered to Wenqi and then back to Nuan. “I didn’t think your throat would be this beautiful. I have heard about normal people having sexual fantasies for the disabled. Is that what she has for you? Armless?” Before Wenqi could even reply, Jaws moved his hands down, twisted Nuan’s hands to her back, and snapped a set of plasti-cuffs around her wrists. He ducked and kick-swept Nuan from her feet sending her sprawling. He jumped on top of her as she kicked and screamed.

  Wenqi ran. Heedless of the things that pelted at him or the men ravaged by land-tinge who unsheathed their vibro-blades and moved to protect Jaws.

  Kicks and punches shook him. Wenqi twisted as a vibro-blade slashed down. A stone cracked against his back sending him crashing to his knees. He sprawled on the ground, his face covered in tiny stones.

  “Get him up. I want him to watch,” said Jaws.

  Hands roughly grabbed Wenqi and shoved him to his feet. More hands pushed against him and he slammed into the end of the aero-bus. A piece of glass quivered in a hand pressing against his neck where it cut him slightly. He remembered somebody once telling him in Urumqi, don’t be a hero, you only get one life.

  “Don’t gut him Lung-worm,” said Jaws. “Put the cuffs around his ankles.”

  Lung-worm bent down as two others held Wenqi against the aero-bus. The cuffs snapped tightly around his legs.

  “Let her go, Jaws,” Wenqi said. “Please.”

  Jaws led Nuan on all fours by the neck like a dog until she stood next to the barrel that gave off the red light. His hands clamped around her as he thrust her forward. He ripped at her dress in a violent downward motion eliciting a cry from Nuan. Then he slowly used his vibro-blade to cut at the bra and panties.

  Nuan knelt there naked in the dim light. A set of cuffs bound her ankles too.

  “I didn’t know you liked it so rough, Wenqi,” said Jaws, appraising Nuan’s body.

  Wenqi couldn’t help the tears that fell from his eyes. Bruises covered Nuan’s body from collarbone to the toes. A bite mark puffed around her left breast. Purple butterflies crawled along her ribs. Claw marks snaked around her inner thigh. More bite marks went from her knees upward.

  “I like bitches who like it rough,” said Jaws. He called to his men. “Bend her over and I’ll show her how rough I can get.”

  His men came to him—two stayed behind and pushed against Wenqi as he struggled—and they forced Nuan to bend over.

  “Look at that quivering asshole, Wenqi.” Jaws walked to the burning cylinder and grabbed a steelcrete pole. It had been resting against whatever was causing the red smoke and it glowed red hot.

  Wenqi struggled. “Don’t.” He realized the devil had granted all his wishes today. His heart shattered and he called out. Everything in his worst nightmares had come true. “Whatever you want Jaws, you have it. Just leave her...”

  Jaws smiled at Wenqi as he took the rusted steelcrete pole. His prosthetic pinky suggestively caressed its length. He spat at the end of the pole and it hissed. It glowed bright red. The light from the pole bathed his face in red as he bent over and began to insert it into Nuan’s anus.

  Nuan screamed.

  It all happened too quickly for Wenqi to take in. His screams mixed with hers.

  Flashes of light flared out from the dark of the road. The lights streamed through the air reminding Wenqi of the guiding lights on an aero-bus. A zinging sound accompanied the lights.

  Jaws’ face burst apart in a puff of red and spread into the air like a blooming rose that quickly dissipated. His body toppled over Nuan. The steelcrete pole clanged to the ground as Jaws’ men unleashed their nail guns.

  The thing scuttled into the light consisted of three silverite legs, a dome-shaped head, slender concave arms that resembled blades, and an octagonal chest that spat out fiery light. It looked like a cross between a spider and a person. The nail guns didn’t even stand a chance. The creature’s hands moved faster than the pulse of a vibro-blade.

  The man holding Wenqi let go and reached for his nail gun. The creature sliced him from head to bowel.

  Wenqi fell over the slick blood and threw himself to the side, slipping on more blood, his knees sliding as he tried to right himself; without hands it was hopeless.

  Cold silverite hands caught him. Triangular eyes met his. “I’ll get the woman.”

  Too shocked to reply even as his brain knitted fragments of the creature’s image together. He’d seen that creature before.

  The creature bent over Nuan and sliced away the cuffs at her wrist and ankles. A fine light spread from the creature’s triangular eyes over Nuan’s body. Wenqi started as he realized the light turned into a fine webbing that enclosed Nuan. The creature tied the webbing around its lower torso, tethering Nuan to its body. It held out its hands to Wenqi. “Hurry, I don’t want anybody to see us. I’ve no power to cloak.”

  Wenqi walked into those hands that resembled curving scimitars. Huge bright red wings flared to life behind the creature. Its entire face bathed in color as it tensed its legs and then launched into the air.

  It was like being held in the arms of an avenging angel.

  Chapter 16 - Conversion

  Dang frowned as he exited the aero-car onto his front porch. Nuan should’ve been at the front door to greet him. The door should’ve been open. She should’ve been dressed beautifully in that cheongsam he loved to take her in. The smell of freshly made noodles and sesame paste should’ve wafted in the air.

  His nostrils flared as he smelled something fishy. The lights inside the house doused themselves. His eyes narrowed as he passed by the two huge lions that edged the walkway. Nuan’s shawls wrapped around both of them. A pink shawl wrapped around the lion on the left and a red shawl wrapped around the lion on the right. She’d wrapped the eyes and tied the knots under their roaring maws. The smell of her sweet jasmine perfume infused the shawls, but he didn’t care for this. He growled as he ripped away the shawls. He’d hidden the cameras in the lion’s ears—they were camouflaged and recessed against the huge golden ears—and the shawls ends stuffed itself right inside of them. How long had she known?

  He sniffed at the shawls and then dropped them to the ground. His wife had known about the cameras. Something twinged inside of him and he ran up the walkway and dashed the door open.

  “Nuan?!” he bellowed.

  The lights flared to life as if in response to his summons. Nuan’s green velvet slippers lay sideways near Lizhang’s smaller pink slippers. It marred the white marble flooring. His heart beat wildly in his chest. Anger peeled back his lips.

  The painting of a tiger crouching in tall grass as a heron stood one legged in a pond, sat askew. He frowned as he walked past and adjusted it.

  She appeared to have been in a hurry, said a part of his brain. But no, she must b
e asleep upstairs; maybe she’s sick? She knew the punishment for a lack of decorum. She was on hand even when she was sick. He’d beaten that much into her at least.

  Dang ran upstairs, pushing against the jump-pad so that it flung him to the level above where he landed with a thud, and grabbed at the edge of his bedroom’s door and vaulted himself in.

  The lights illuminated a messed up blanket as if Nuan had just woken. The blanket lay half on the floor where it formed a trail with clothes from the cupboard.

  He walked in a daze toward the cupboard. The expensive cheongsams hung there as if they hadn’t been touched. Her gardening clothes gone, as well as those stupid pair of pants, and the white dress. He shouted in a rage and ransacked all her remaining clothes and flung them to the floor.

  “Nuan!” he screamed, jumping up and down on her clothes as his world reddened.

  He stopped and ran toward his daughter’s bedroom. Here the room lay in a mess. Lizhang’s clothes strewn all over the floor intermingling with her toy dolls. He whipped away the blanket to stare underneath the bed. “Lizhang?” Nobody. The cupboard doors clanged aside as he reached in. He’d caught her hiding inside the last time.

  “Lizhang?” he called out again. This isn’t happening, a voice said inside his head. This isn’t happening. You should’ve watched her closely, said another voice. You knew she would try this. She tried to escape once before, remember?

  Dang’s neck twitched as the blood rushed through him. The world looked completely immersed in red. He stomped down and took the jump-pad to basement where he’d never allowed Nuan to go. As he did so, a call came in to his house’s AI and displayed itself to him.

  Suyin Mao, Dang’s sister, stared back at him with appraising eyes.

  “What have you done to her now, Dang?” Suyin’s words dripped with ice.

  Dang felt as if his heels would slip on that ice. Normally in full control of his thoughts, the words that came out of his mouth sounded inarticulate.

  “She’s here, brother.” She shook her head. “Not in my house. She’s moved back to Urumqi and she’s got Lizhang with her.” Suyin shook her head again. “She called me to ask to borrow the piano. She’s living in her parents’ old house.”