Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1)

by Christopher Rankin

  “I’m not.”

  “So you’re going to tell me what the new DeathStalker is for?”

  “It’s like I told you before,” he said, “I need a monster to fight a monster.”

  ...

  Bernard Mengel held the worn maple acoustic guitar under his arm and rolled his fingers over the strings. The children at the day care center formed a semicircle around him. He sang a nursery rhyme in perfect tune with what appeared to be very little effort. “The little boys and little girls go wandering...” He started the beginning of the verse. The five and six year olds seemed to be entranced. The old man was more than comfortable around the children. He was like a plant that had found the perfect soil and one could nearly see the new life growing in his face.

  The woman who ran the Asylum Corporation Daycare Center, a petite forty-something former kindergarten teacher, stood up when Bernard finished his song. She had never heard that particular song before and found it somewhat odd. She still clapped and did her best to show respect. After all, Bernard was one of the very few musical guests that the daycare center had ever received. His request to play for the children had come a few days before and the principal had been struck by the abnormal offer. High level people from the corporation didn’t generally take such an interest in the children or the daycare center.

  “Children,” the daycare director said, “will you all please give a big round of applause to Doctor Mengel and thank him for his visit. He’s a very important man who has taken this time out of his busy schedule to see you.” She asked the group,” Now, does anyone have any questions for Doctor Mengel? He isn’t just a rockstar you know. He is one of our top special advisors at the corporation.”

  “I don’t need to leave any time soon,” said Bernard. “As a matter of fact, I have a new song to debut and I would love it if you children were the first to hear it.” His eyes scanned and scrutinized every young face. The old man kept up his practiced smile. He found something in the back of the room that, for an instant, made him look like he was about to pounce. Then he composed himself and settled back in his chair while he strummed.

  The little girl he found in the back wasn’t paying much attention to his song. She seemed disconnected somehow from the rest of the group. As Bernard Mengel played, he found it difficult to take his eyes off the aloof little girl.

  When he finished, the children started a hearty round of applause. Bernard didn’t take his eyes off the dark-haired little girl in back. The daycare director clapped along with the class and thanked Bernard again for his time.

  “How many of you,” Bernard started to ask, “have ever been inside of a real laboratory?”

  Not one of the children raised their hands. Bernard stopped strumming and gestured to the quiet little girl in back. “You there,” he said to her, “what’s your name?”

  The little girl looked at him for a moment before going back to her crayons and coloring book.

  “It’s OK,” Bernard said to her. “Tell me your name. I promise I won’t bite you on the neck.”

  His strange assurance made her appear even more uncomfortable. “Rebecca,” she finally said in a soft, shy tone.

  “Well, Rebecca,” said Bernard. “Would you like to take a tour of the factory where we build the satellites?”

  Rebecca didn’t answer.

  Bernard slapped on the back of the guitar like a bongo drum and moved his shoulders to his own rhythm. He asked one of the young boys in front, “Do you like fighter planes?”

  The little boy cast a big wide smile and waved his face up and down. “Um hmm, Um hmm.”

  “Wonderful,” Bernard said to him with the smile of an assassin. He turned his attention again to the black-haired little girl in back. “What does your daddy do here?” Bernard asked her as he glided through a chord on the guitar.

  “He doesn’t work here. My mommy works in accounting.”

  The pupils in Bernard’s eyes slid open a bit blacker. “Does your daddy work nearby?”

  “No.”

  The director of the daycare center looked as though she found Bernard peculiar and his latest question somewhat invasive. “I think that will be all for today, Doctor Mengel. I know you’re quite busy and the children need to have their lunch.”

  “Perfect,” Bernard responded, pointing his finger into the air as if making a point. “I can stay for lunch and spend some more time with the children. I rarely get such an opportunity to see so many gorgeous, curious faces.”

  “Beat it, old man,” rang out from the back of the daycare center. Dade Harkenrider was sitting on one of the tiny desks in the back of the classroom like he had been observing for hours. He said, “I got something much better than your lame little sing-along.” Dade displayed the palms of his hands like a magician before a trick. He then apologized to the daycare director, saying, “I don’t mean to cause a disruption but I have business with Dr. Mengel. But, before that, I have someone that I would like to introduce the children to. It will only take a minute.”

  The director seemed strangely relieved at the interruption. There was gratitude that she hadn’t been forced to be the one to ask Bernard to leave. “Dr. Harkenrider,” she said, “I think we can make five minutes but I know you and Dr. Mengel need to leave for important business.”

  Dade nodded, saying, “That we do. I promise we’ll be out of your way in no time. I just need to introduce someone special.”

  Dade Harkenrider’s smile was so wide and his manner so odd that the children were captivated. A few children called out, “Who is it? Who is it?”

  “He’s very quiet,” Dade said, “but very sweet.”

  Just outside the door to the daycare center, there were shouts and the sound of one woman screaming like she had seen an alien. A loud click clack, like a dozen tap dancing shoes, sounded out on the floor tiles in the hallway just outside. A few of the children became nervous but none took their eyes off of the doorway.

  Bright ruby laser eyes beamed through the doorway and scanned everyone inside. Then, titanium metal legs started to slip around the corner of the doorway. From the children’s perspective, it looked like a giant steel hermit crab, hiding most of its body in the hallway while its eyes peered all over the room. The sight of the thing frightened the daycare director but the children broke into an excited frenzy.

  “Bernard,” Dade announced, “I want you to meet your new best friend.”

  The robotic beast showed itself to be about the size of a Labrador retriever, with eight brushed-metal legs ending in feet like pointed daggers. In the manner of a centipede, its legs were coordinated in a highly evolved harmony of motion. The DeathStalker slowly slithered into the room and set its laser eyes on Bernard Mengel. It scanned the old man’s face and body repeatedly with the red beams. The advanced super-drone seemed to imprint Bernard the way a baby does with its mother.

  “He’s bonded to you forever now,” Dade told him. “You’re going to be the best of friends.”

  Bernard looked down at the red-eyed mechanical marvel. Just the sight of the thing made him uncomfortable. He told Dade, “It’s a very impressive contraption but I really don’t care for drones. I am still rather used to flesh and blood soldiers. I would appreciate it if you could somehow talk the thing into giving me some distance.”

  The titanium insect crept closer to Bernard. White and purple sparks flared from the weapon mounted to its tail. The children all yelled in excitement and stood up from their seats.

  “I’d be careful,” Dade told Bernard. “He bites.”

  “Please get this thing away from me.”

  “He’s going to be by your side every minute,” said Dade. “That is until you leave and go far, far away.”

  “My dear boy,” said Bernard. “I appreciate the warm gesture on your part but this simply won’t work.”

  “Oh, I think it will,” said Dade. “Get to know your new friend.” Then he started talking to the kids gathered
around. “You see, boys and girls, since we all love Bernard so much and we want to make sure that he’s safe, our friend the DeathStalker here is going to be protecting Bernard for as long as he’s here. If there is anything violent or dangerous going on, our friend the DeathStalker here is going to step in and make it all better. I, for one, hope that Bernard’s visit is so boring and uneventful that Mr. DeathStalker doesn’t have to do anything except just tag along and keep him company. I know it makes me feel better that there is a friend keeping an eye out for such a defenseless old man.”

  With his new titanium companion close by his side, Bernard walked over to Dade and whispered, “You should know that your little impediment is no concern to me.”

  Dade scowled back, saying, “What I would love is if you try to teleport away. I got my DeathStalker programmed to detect it before you do. It knows your tells. This is just the beginning, old man.”

  ...

  Ivy stared lifelessly at the computer screen in her cubicle. Her meager office space was only a tiny element of a vast array of cubicles in one of the Asylum Corporation’s dozens of lower buildings. All around her, ringing phones and chattering voices melded into a cacophony that made her dizzy. It was nearly four hours after lunch but the huge room still stunk like microwaved popcorn and cabbage.

  The numbers on Ivy’s screen, the dollar signs and zeros all the way down to the pixels, started to wiggle like tiny candle flames. Something seemed to be wrong with her eyes or perhaps she had been staring at the screen too long. She had slept eight hours after a quiet evening the night before, but she still felt something akin to a hangover.

  Freddy, another level one analyst who shared a neighboring cubicle, leaned over the wall and said to her, “Hey Ivy, are you feeling OK?”

  “Of course. I feel quite tremendous,” she answered in a weird monotone. She didn’t take her eyes off of the dancing numbers on her screen.

  “I don’t think you’ve moved a muscle in four hours,” he told her. “I wish I had that kind of discipline.” Freddy continued to hover over her desk as though he had something else to say. Listen,” he went on, looking nervous suddenly. “There’s a volleyball tournament this weekend down at the beach. I was thinking about heading over there. I hear there is gonna be lots of food and fun stuff to do.”

  Ivy continued to stare at her computer screen in silent hypnosis.

  The lack of response seemed to be making him even more nervous but Freddy went on to ask her, “Would you want to maybe go with me?”

  “Why?” she asked without looking at him.

  Freddy let out a nervous laugh as though she had to be joking around with him. “I don’t know,” he said with his face turning red. He struggled for some way to say it.

  “Is this some sort of plan to have sex with me?”

  “Whoah!” blurted Freddy so loudly that people around him heard. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just trying to be nice.”

  She picked up the phone on her desk just as it was starting to ring. “Fine. I’m coming up,” she said to the person on the line. With her face somehow both blank and purposeful, she stood up from her desk in the middle of the cubicle farm. Without looking at Freddy, she told him, “Stop trying, Freddy. It’s too late for me. Get out while you still can.” She picked up her purse and coat, removed the only personal item on her desk, a photo of herself as a little girl of three or four, and headed toward the door as though she had no intention of ever coming back.

  Just as she was walking away, Freddie thought he heard her whisper, “Please help me. Please someone help me.”

  He asked her if she said something and she replied, “I said this place is finished.”

  The elevator took her to where the CEO’s office spanned nearly the entire floor. Philip Handley, the chief executive officer of The Asylum Corporation, stood up to greet her as she walked in. Next to him, Doctor Bernard Mengel gave her a gentle wave. Dade’s DeathStalker was right at the old man’s feet, scanning him and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. As strange as the machine was, Ivy barely noticed it. She looked like she was in a trance.

  “My lovely and dearest Ivy,” Bernard said to her, “forgive the interruption of your work but we have some very exciting news for you.”

  Ivy looked at them blankly and it took her a few moments to summon an answer. “Oh,” she said meekly. “That’s good.”

  The CEO turned to Bernard and looked at him disapprovingly. “I don’t know what the hell you did to this girl,” he said.

  “She’s at the beginning,” said Bernard. “She’s just a child learning.”

  Ivy looked confused, like someone who had just stumbled into the middle of a controversy in a foreign language.

  The CEO told her, “Miss Cavatica, it seems as though you have a very powerful friend in this corporation and it turns out that a new position has opened up.”

  “That’s nice,” said Ivy like someone who was mostly asleep.

  “You’re my new vice president,” said the CEO. “VP of special products and prototypes.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “Bernard,” said the CEO as he turned to the old man, “I’m giving you what you want here and I hope I won’t regret it.”

  “You won’t,” Bernard answered as though the question had annoyed him. He added, “And don’t ever forget who you’re talking to. I’ll have you sucking your brains out of your head through a straw.”

  ...

  The following morning, a strong surf was ramming ten foot waves into the beach. The hiss and eventual boom could be felt throughout the beach community of Palos Verdes, even up to the beehive lab on top of the hill. Ann Marie sat on the hood of her car in the empty parking lot after attempting, for the fourth time in her young life, to drink coffee.

  After a particularly smoky and gross sip, she tossed the mostly full cup into a nearby trash can. Hissing frothy water climbed nearly all the way up the beach as a wave broke.

  She heard a sharp click-clack of titanium legs on the concrete behind her. She turned around to find Bernard Mengel. His DeathStalker, Ann Marie’s body guard, stood between them. It flashed its infrared scanning stare right at him. Its inner-workings hummed almost like a growl.

  “I’m starting to find the little bugger quite charming,” he said to her. He was smiling the way she always imagined a grandfather would.

  “I’m not supposed to be talking to you,” she said.

  “Do you really think I’m so dangerous that you can’t even speak to me? Come now, Ann Marie. Are you really going to believe everything Dade Harkenrider tells you? I know you have more sense than that.”

  Ann Marie shrugged her shoulders, saying, “He doesn’t lie to me.”

  “Is everything OK?” Bernard asked her, turning away to look at the rough surf.

  “Yes, of course,” she answered, knowing somehow that her face was giving away her lie.

  “It must be very difficult,” Bernard said. His grey hair tossed around in the strong breeze. “To be a child and a mother at the same time.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, don’t mind me,” he said. “I’m just an old man. I don’t always make sense. It just seems to me like you gain a year of age every time I see you. It’s not normal for a girl in the prime of her bloom. It’s not natural.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re a genius, Ann Marie. Of course you’re not fine.”

  “Why are you talking to me? Dade told me to stay away from you.”

  “He did indeed,” answered Bernard. He pointed to the Death Stalker drone, which was standing by his side and scanning him for the very first sign of a threat. “He also made sure that you were perfectly safe from me.” He twiddled his fingers and opened his eyes in a way that was meant to look comically menacing. “Because I’m so dangerous and scary. Let me ask you something, Ann Marie. Have I ever done anything to threaten or hurt you?”

  “I g
uess not.”

  “Just because Dade is angry with me over something in the past doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to speak to the best scientist in the United States.”

  “I’m not the best. Dade is.”

  “Whatever you say, my dear,” Bernard replied somewhat playfully. “I’ve just really been looking forward to getting to know you.”

  Ann Marie looked surprised and asked him why.

  “Because,” he went on, “I know your work so well and it’s simply extraordinary. It’s no surprise that Dade wanted you here in the flesh, so to speak.”

  “It’s not that extraordinary.”

  “Dr. Bandini,” Bernard started to ask, “is your father a scientist by any chance? I have a pet theory that your kind of drive and abilities are genetically inherited.”

  “I don’t know,” said Ann Marie plainly. “I’ve never met him.”

  “Oh dear,” Bernard said with a great deal of sympathy in his voice. “That’s unfortunate. I’m sorry to have brought up such an uncomfortable topic. I have absolutely no social grace. Please accept my apology.”

  “It’s OK. My mom says he left and that’s about the only part of any of my mom’s stories that I believe.”

  “Well,” said Bernard. “If that is the case, then he threw away the winning lottery ticket, so to speak.”

  “I guess.”

  “The bond between parent and child is a complex one,” Bernard told her. “I have no children of my own but I must confess that I’ve always wanted a daughter.” He noticed that he had all of Ann Marie’s attention and he continued. “Speaking of children,” he said as he abruptly changed topic, “how are things going with Dr. Death?”

  “Good,” she answered delicately. “I’m learning.”

  “Indeed,” said Bernard as his smile collapsed. “Has he included you in his extracurricular experiments?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come now, Ann Marie,” he said as he narrowed his eyes. “Let’s not bullshit each other. We’re colleagues after all.” He turned up his smile to her, looking like he was about to tell her the punchline of a joke. “Don’t tell me young Dade is keeping the tank all to himself?”