Death must come.
Alex looked at Lisa. Lisa looked at Alex. Neither knew to say.
Neither knew what to do.
The beeping on Jason’s EKG increased. The room grew colder.
PART II
IN THE BEGINNING
Then the Lord said unto Moses “tell the Isrealites this: “you have
seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from Heaven: Do
not make any gods to be alongside me. Neither shall you make
gods of silver or gods of Gold
Exodus 20:22-23
CHAPTER 12
ICE AND FIRE
The room grew colder. Nerves of steel turned to ice. Sensibility turned to confusion. A loathsome apostle of Death was affecting His will on the child, Jason Brenton. Perhaps some trick had just gone very badly. Some misguided fun that had gotten out of hand.
Whatever it was, Jason Brenton’s disturbing battle scars were now all too clear. Questions were answered. Volumes of unanswered questions remained, or had suddenly materialized.
It was nearing the end of what had become a very long shift for Alex and he was no closer to solving the mystery of Star Club than he had been the moment he walked into the morning’s briefing. Finally, the stunned silence broke. For a few flittering moments, all stood still. Even the rhythmic beeping of Jason’s heart monitor seemed pushed into the background, drowned out by the screaming silence of Alex’s mind.
Gaining his composure, Alex looked at James. “James, did you have a chance to write up those reports on the Star Club?”
Softly, James whispered “No sir. I was on the way back to the office when I got the call about Jason.”
“You were alone?” Alex asked, assuming he had been partnered with the other officer on the scene, Chris Fields.
“Oh, No.” James confirmed. “Chris, uh I mean Officer Fields dropped me here then went back to the station. He said he would take care of the paper work, log me out for the day. The whole shot.”
Alex’s mouth contorted with disapproval. “And the Lieutenant knows about your current off-duty status?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, he’s been here and gone. Told me to call him if I felt that an extended leave of absence was necessary.”
Alex was trying to maintain his professionalism. Even he wondered how much emotion was playing in his counsel.
“James, I recommend you take that leave of absence,” he asserted. “I know that you want to catch this guy as much as anyone, but I am of the opinion that you might very well be a hindrance to the case, rather than a help. You understand, don’t you?”
“Well, I uh . . .” James stammered.
“Look,” Alex interrupted “It’s nothing personal. You have my promise that everything in our power will be done to catch this psycho, but we need everyone involved to have clear heads and I just don’t think you could distance yourself from your level of personal involvement.”
James looked as if he wanted to say something, but kept quiet.
“You disagree?” Alex asked.
“Well, no… I mean yeah, well I mean not really. I—Uh I mean I guess not.”
As if sensing the need for backup, Lisa interrupted. “James, I think Alex is right. You’re too close to the situation. I think you have no choice but to remove yourself from it, so that some real work can get done, real fast. You won’t be kept out of the loop, I can promise you. I’ll give you updates myself if I have to, but I really think that you can best serve this investigation by monitoring your brother’s recovery. He needs you now. If and when we do catch this idiot, we’re going to need our one and only witness, I’m sure.”
“Yes, of course.” James murmured.
“Lisa, we should get going,” Alex said. “I have a ton of paper work to look into and you gotta get up to speed on this thing if we’re going to be tackling it together.”
“Ok,” Lisa acknowledged, “James, you hang in there, you hear?”
James just nodded in silent reply.
“James,” Alex added, “I promise, we’ll catch the guy.”
Walking down the hallway toward the parking lot, Alex sighed.
“Problem?” Lisa asked
“None that I didn’t bring on myself, really.”
“Beg pardon?” Lisa said, cocking one eyebrow upward.
“Oh, I’m just questioning why I did that.”
“Why you did what?” Lisa asked
“Why I so vehemently suggested James take the time off.”
“Well,” Lisa began, “you’re a good cop. That’s why. Do you honestly think the kid would help the investigation by actively serving as a part of the investigative team?”
Alex shook his head, but said nothing.
“Well then,” Lisa continued, “you did the right thing.”
“Yeah but—” Alex began.
“But what?” Lisa asked. “But you are questioning your motives? Is that it? You’re sitting there half glad that he’s off the investigation? Half on a power trip, because you were able to pull rank? Half wondering if you took him off the investigation to protect its integrity or to protect your own needs?”
“That’s three halves.” Alex smirked. “Sorry.”
He snickered, just loud enough to let Lisa hear.
Lisa smiled.
“Yeah,” Alex finally sighed “I guess I know I did the right thing. I just questioned that whole power trip thing you were talking about. Did I take him off the investigation to help the investigation or did I do it because I could? I’m not sure I’d go so willingly if I were in his shoes.”
The automatic doors opened, and Alex walked towards his car, with Lisa in tow. It was windy outside. The sun was just starting to go down. The ember coals of daylight were beginning their surrender to darkest night. Alex looked at his watch. It was nearly 7:00.
“My God!” he sighed “Where did this day go?”
“Have you eaten today?” Lisa asked.
“No, come to think of it. Haven’t had time.”
“Well, how do you feel about having dinner then?”
“I’m not anti-dinner.” Alex chuckled.
“Good,” Lisa laughed, “I thought maybe you were one of those anti-dinner extremists that have been running around picketing the evils of late night meal plans.”
Lisa and Alex made plans for the evening. Alex still needed to do some work at the office. At least go get some papers so that he and Lisa could discuss them over dinner. Alex dropped Lisa off at her place.
“I’ll run by the office, grab a few things and be back in about 45. Think you can handle that?”
“Sounds good.”
“So,” Alex asked, as Lisa opened her car door. “What’s for dinner?”
Lisa just shrugged her shoulders, stood up and offered “surprise me.”
* * *
Deep inside the bunkered research buildings of Fort Ackerby, Doctors Lance Forrest and Gene Collins sift feverishly through stacks of reports, notes and hypotheses. Despite being two years younger than Dr. Forrest’s 51 years, Gene Collins could have easily passed for a man in his sixties. He had the look of a Patrick Stewart, healthy and alert, but slightly gaunt and haggard. Balding, though he’d resisted Dr. Forrest’s assertions that he register it as a solar panel.
Dr. Forrest had the look of a 35 year old health nut. Health nut, he was. Thirty-five he was not. His hair was still a deep ebony, slightly graying in the temple area. Even though his lab coat, it was easy to tell that he was considerably more athletic than his companion. Or at least built more like a baseball player than, say, Dr. Collins’ swimmer build. Their facility was not sterile, at least not this area. It was used for more clerical duties, such as they were involved in at that moment. They were looking for something. Neither of them was really sure what they were looking for, but they both knew they would recognize it when they found it.
Seated on Dr. Forrest’s desk, he stared a file labeled “Coroner’s Report”. He picked it up for about
the ninth time in 5 minutes and said “Gene, are you sure these deaths have something to do with the—”
“Shhh!” Dr. Collins said “I asked you not to mention the project by name! And no I’m not completely certain. I just have a feeling and I want to be sure.”
“You remember what happened the last time you had a feeling, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.” Dr. Collins whispered, obviously cut by his colleague’s assertion. I remember the escape. I remember everything. I don’t need you to remind me how I screwed up.”
“Take it easy, Gene.” Dr. Forrest offered. “I was just trying to lighten the mood a little.”
“We don’t have time for you to be lightening the mood, Doctor.”
Gene Collins insisted. “We’ve got to find the Flannigan Prototype before things truly get out of hand. If Flannigan does have something to do with those boys at that night club, we’re going to have a real mess on our hands if the police find him first.”
“You’re assuming the police will find him first.”
“I’m not assuming anything,” Doctor Collins corrected him.
“I’m hoping they don’t or we could have more deaths to answer for.”
“You talk about him as if he were immortal.” Said Dr. Forrest.
“Well,” Doctor Collins agreed, “he might as well be. Remember the tests that were conducted? Flannigan was shot, stabbed, hung, burned and beaten. He survived everything we threw at him.”
“True,” Doctor Forrest acknowledged, “but we never threw his own self at him before.”
“Not quite himself,” Collins submitted “A clone. A genetic duplicate. A genetically altered duplicate, but a duplicate nonetheless.”
“Genetically superior, though, wasn’t she? At least, in theory.”
Collins nodded.
One thing I always wondered,” Forrest asked “was why you chose to make her female.”
“Honestly?” Collins said. “To see if we could.”
It was a simple explanation, but it required no further elaboration. Forrest and Collins were both scientists. They understood what was going on. They understood that there was a war on. A war to increase one’s knowledge. A war to increase one’s power. They understood that knowledge was power. The words “to see if we could” echoed the sentiment of thousands of scientists worldwide, possibly the bulk of the scientific community, searching for everything from a cure to the common cold to the ultimate weapon of espionage and destruction. The Flannigan Project was meant to be both, in a sense. Named for its first volunteer, a scientist by the name of Bryan Flannigan, it was meant to be the ultimate good combined with the ultimate evil. The ultimate answer to Alpha and Omega.
Beginnings and endings. By attempting to alter the genetic code of the duplicate, making it female, it was the hope of the entire team, unspoken as it might have remained, to create a new master race from which all human life would eventually spring. Adam and Eve reborn.
Free will exists in all of us. The choice to do good and evil.
Most simply lack the power to be one or the other, thus leaving their choice far more easy to make. Empower an individual with the light of life and the darkest depths of death, take away his free will to choose and ideally you have the perfection Man has often longed for. A true God in human form. A God that is powerless without Man pulling the strings.
“The arrogance of science is amazing,” Doctor Collins said.
“We thought we could put the choice of life and death in the hands of a human, however genetically altered he might have been, and not expect the free will to exert itself. People choose to be good or evil, Doctor. Not both. Nobody chooses to be both.”
“Yes,” Doctor Forrest nodded. “But without one, the other would cease to exist.”
“Your philosophical point of view is lost on me, Doctor.” Collins scuffed. “Good and evil is a battle of forces. They are setting about to destroy one another every day, but only arrogance would think that they could co-exist for a similar purpose. Man destroys man every day. Good is cut down by Evil just as Evil is overcome by Good. Battle lines are drawn between colors, between genders, between countries, religions and even political arenas. But the one battle line we forget about is the one inside ourselves. We tried to erase that battle line in the creation of Flannigan. We tried to make a God, but instead all we succeeded in doing is making him more human with less humanity.”
“More human?” Forrest questioned. “How do you figure giving him the power to take lives is making him more human.”
“Quite simply,” Doctor Collins said “We gave him what every person wants. The power of control. Control of what happens to him as well as control of the fate of others. We created him, hoping to control him through his lack of free will, only to give up control by forgetting to give him a conscience.”
“Flannigan still exists inside him.” Forrest said, trying to sound somewhat reassuring. “We did not kill Bryan Flannigan. Not the real Bryan Flannigan. He still exists.”
“Does he?” Collins asked “How much of Bryan Flannigan do you think would be left? How far down is he buried? Under how many others? At least 8 that we know of and the only one we saw for the last month was—.”
“Devin.”
“And we both know what he is capable of.”
“So,” Doctor Forrest asked, fending off a crawling spine tingle.
“Any word from the other?”
“None for at least two months, but she had orders that were explicitly clear. Her senses were twice what Devin’s were. Over 10 years, she surpassed him time and again.”
“Yes,” Collins said “But she was sloppy.”
“A flaw in our genetic sequencing.” Forrest admonished. “Human error, Doctor Collins. Not her own.”
“So, can she catch him?”
“Catching him won’t be a problem,” Forrest assured him “The problem will be killing him. My question is can she do that?”
“Why couldn’t she?”
Dr. Forrest looked up at Dr. Collins. His confusion was most evident. “You don’t remember?”
“Remember what?”
“During the lab experiment. We were jacking around with their gene sequencing, somehow mixing her DNA with his. Shouldn’t have been such a big deal, since she was a clone of him, but something happened. They began to literally be able to feel one another’s pain. Weird part was he seemed almost to enjoy it. As they went on, it was as if she began to get a charge out of it as well. We separated them for a period of a year, but we hypothesized that the death of one would likely lead to the death of the other. Essentially the Good would die with the Evil.”
“So,” Doctor Collins asked “Why not just kill her and save a lot of trouble?”
“Because,” Doctor Forrest pressed. “It only seemed to work when one of them was inflicting the pain. If we poked her with a needle, it did nothing for him. If we hit him with a ball bat, she was unfazed. But, let him get within striking distance of her and her pain was always his gain.”
“So, what you’re saying,” Doctor Collins questioned “Is that it took a Flannigan to kill a Flannigan?”
“I hope so,” Doctor Forrest sighed. “By God, I hope so.”
“Jackpot!” Doctor Collins said, jumping from his seated position.
“What?” Asked Doctor Forrester.
“His diary! I found the sucker’s diary!”
* * *
Dinner was at Olive Garden. It was Lisa’s favorite Italian restaurant. She was shocked that Alex had opted for such a popular place.
There was work to be done and she was most certain it would be difficult to discuss case work in a crowded restaurant like that.
Still, it was a taste of romance and she always welcomed romance where Alex Mendez was concerned. She found herself less immersed in what Alex was saying than his cologne. It was the first time she’d smelled it today. She entertained the idea that it was freshly-applied, perhaps shortly before returning to her house after
his office work.
She did her best to listen as Alex sifted through photos of the dead teens, identifying each by name and age. He recalled reports and the sketchy information they had regarding the suspect.
As he laid out the description of the suspect, Lisa’s police instincts took over, if temporarily.
“From what we know,” Alex said, “The victims were seen confronting a young man, possibly in his early to mid-twenties. Dark hair, but nobody could say if it was brown or black. One witness described him as 6’2 and maybe 200 lbs. The other said 5’9 to 5’10 and maybe 180. They could be talking about two different guys. Or they could just be seeing from different vantage points. People appear different from different angles, in different light or… yeah, you’re a cop. Sorry. You know this. From what I gather, these kids loved trouble. Could be they picked somebody that had a friend. Both witnesses do, however, say the guy was wearing a gray duster-type overcoat. Kind of like those two in Littleton, Colorado that shot up that school.”
Lisa nodded. She was getting distracted by Alex again. She hoped that he couldn’t see the distraction in her eyes. Alex wanted to talk about the case. For some reason, Lisa just wanted to talk about “us.” The “us” that wasn’t. The “us” that needed to be. But, out of her distraction, she began to listen to her partner give his assessment of the situation.
God willing, many more conversations like this would be had. Between Mr. and Mrs. Alex and Lisa Mendez.
Okay, what was that he said?
“Huh? Yes, I’m listening.”
* * *
She was hungry. Hungry for adventure, for excitement. And a little Italian food seemed to be the perfect compromise. He wasn’t there yet, but she knew he wasn’t far behind. He never was. It was a shame, she thought, that her meal was going to be interrupted. But, she sighed, that’s life.
She was dressed to draw attention to herself. Red, silk top, black skirt – form-fitting, but not tight – and just above knee-length. She wanted to be seen. If she was seen, he would be less likely to go after another innocent. His friend was anonymity and stealth. Hers was familiarity and the appearance of brash courage. And the chaos that often occasioned it. The more people that knew about him, the less chance she would have to defend herself or anyone else.
Mendez Genesis Page 8