by James Somers
“Get him!”
More police officers surged after him from the elevator and the stairwell. Trenton tore down the corridor away from them, wishing he had taken one of their flack jackets. He still needed to protect his vital organs from sustaining too much damage.
They followed Trenton, the frontrunners opening fire. He prepared to turn right, but another two officers appeared as he closed on the intersection. Trenton mowed over them and kept going to the left. He didn’t usually work in this part of the building, but he could hear and smell lab animals nearby. He knew if he entered one of the locked doors, he might trap himself. A window came into view at the end of the corridor.
Trenton picked up his pace as the officers got a straight line of fire behind him and took advantage of it. Bullets ripped into his back. Trenton’s white shirt soaked through with blood. He gritted his teeth against the pain. Adrenaline rushed through his body. The window fractured ahead of him, as bullets impacted the shatterproof glass.
Trenton leaped at the window. It exploded outward. He fell four stories, but landed on his feet. He took inventory of himself—no broken bones, but plenty of bullet wounds. Trenton felt the inevitable low coming on him from taxing his body so much. He imagined recovering from tonight’s escapades would dwarf the usual hour or two of extra sleep he needed, since exposing himself to the mutagen.
He ran into the trees beyond the Genetic Corp property line as the police officers appeared at the window, searching the ground below for his corpse. So sorry to disappoint, Trenton thought. But even though he had escaped, he still didn’t have what he needed. As he passed into the trees, he whispered, “Jonathan, I’m coming for you.”
16 FULL BURN
Jonathan watched the traffic pass, as he sat in rear seat of Joseph’s BMW. The dark, tinted windows hid them from prying eyes, just in case. The Branton sign passed the window as Jay fidgeted with his laptop. “Jonathan, you really need to listen to me.”
He turned from his distraction—a hundred thoughts swirling through his mind. “I’m sorry, Jay. What were you saying?”
“This “Full Burn” document—it talks about one of the side effects of Trenton’s mutagen. It causes a dramatic increase in metabolism, so much it reduces lifespan.”
Jonathan focused now. “I’m not quite following—you mean I’ll die?”
“Sooner than you normally would, according to Trenton’s own research,” Jay said. “Apparently, the harder his lab animals were pushed in experiments, the more they flourished—but they also died much faster. It’s like they used up their natural lifespan by using the power the mutagen gave them.”
“Full burn—it makes sense,” Joseph said from the driver’s seat. “Does he talk about lab subjects that weren’t pushed in that manner?”
Jay searched the document on his screen again. “Yeah, he had another group that lived almost as long as his control group that didn’t receive the mutagen.”
Jonathan smiled a little. “Then I just don’t exert myself by using the strength the mutagen gives, right?”
“Not just that,” Jay said, “The mutagen will accelerate healing.”
“That would burn life too,” Jonathan concluded. He looked back through the window, gazing at the sky. Why has this happened to me, Lord?
The phone rang. Joseph picked up the cell phone from the front seat and checked the display. “Jonathan, it’s Trenton,” he said.
Jonathan and Jay looked at each other for a tense moment. “Please answer it, Joseph.”
“Sir?”
“We need answers more than anything…go ahead,” Jonathan assured him.
Joseph hesitated, then pushed the call button and placed the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
Jonathan watched Joseph’s reaction to hearing Trenton’s voice again. After all that had happened over the past few days, things could never be the same. Jonathan thought he saw Joseph’s face grow flush.
“Trenton, don’t you realize Jonathan was killed in your lab?” Joseph asked.
Jonathan heard the voice on the phone grow loud enough for him to hear. “Don’t play me for a fool, old man! Put him on the phone!”
Joseph’s face became hard—a sign he was giving way to his temper. “Trenton—”
“Joseph, I’ll talk to him,” Jonathan said.
Joseph looked astonished and covered the phone. “Sir, I don’t recommend doing that. He doesn’t sound himself at all. The mutagen has—”
Jonathan exchanged a thoughtful look with his friend. “It’s all right.” He reached, took the phone, and placed it to his ear. “Hello, Trenton.”
Heavy breathing on the other end subsided instantly. “Jonathan, I’m so glad to find you alive, cousin.”
“I’m a little surprised myself. As I understand it, your mutagen is the reason for it.”
Trenton laughed. “I told you I was working on something that would propel Genetic Corp far beyond the competition. Now you see what I’ve accomplished—Immortality—the next step in man’s evolution.”
“I already had immortality, as a believer, Trenton.”
“You mean you believe you had it, but I’m talking about something real, tangible!”
“From what Jay tells me, it will shorten our lives, not lengthen them,” Jonathan said.
“Jay? Oh yes, the boy…I wondered how you managed to get into my secure files. That’s actually why I’m calling, Jonathan.” Trenton’s feigned cheer grew icy.
“I thought it might be.”
“I want my files unlocked,” Trenton said.
Trenton’s voice was full of barely disguised malice. Talking to him sent a chill down Jonathan’s spine. “Trenton, I want to know why you killed those people.” Jonathan had no reason to play coy any longer.
Trenton breathed deeply. “Every great achievement requires…sacrifices, Jonathan. I would think you, as a Christian, would agree.”
Jonathan became indignant. “Sacrifices? What you’ve done is nothing short of mass murder, Trenton. If that’s what your research has achieved, then there’s no way I’m going to unlock those files—now or ever.”
Trenton’s breathing grew heavier, but the outburst Jonathan waited for did not come. “Jonathan, let’s be reasonable. Perhaps if we could simply meet and discuss this? After all, we are still family.”
“I hope you won’t hold it against me if I refuse,” Jonathan said.
“A public place, Jonathan. I’m not going to harm you. I just want to talk about this. It’s true. The mutagen in its present form will greatly shorten our lives, but I’ve come up with a modification to counteract that effect. I can save both our lives, Jonathan. Surely that’s worth at least hearing me out.”
Jonathan considered it. “The Branton Mall. I’ll meet you in the food court at 10 a.m., okay?”
“Perfect, cousin. I look forward to it.” He hung up.
Jonathan closed the cell phone as Joseph pulled the car over to the side of the road. “How can you agree to meet him?” Joseph asked. “He’s become a cold blooded killer.”
“Trenton told me he’s modified the mutagen formula to counter the Full Burn effect. He needs his files to complete the modification and save both our lives.”
Joseph stopped short of saying anything more against it.
“What’s to stop him from killing us when we meet him?” Jay asked, closing his laptop. “Joseph is right, that guy is crazy now.”
Jonathan smiled. “In case you’ve forgot, you know computers, but I know fighting.”
“He’s killed gang members, even cops,” Jay reasoned.
“Hey, I’ve got the same power he does,” Jonathan said. “I think I can handle him. Besides, if he killed us, he would never get his precious research. At this point, I’ve got nothing to lose by talking to him. If I’m lucky, I might just talk him out of going through with anything that might lead to more deaths.”
•••
Trenton hung up the public phone and spat on the sidewalk. Now it was cl
ear. The boy living with Jonathan was the key to getting his files back. The little delinquent had hacked his system and encrypted his files. Bad decision.
Trenton looked at one of the advertising displays until it showed him the time—midnight.
The streets were virtually deserted in Hilton this time of night. Trenton surveyed his shabby, bullet ridden attire. “I need some new duds.”
Trenton walked down the street until he found a clothing store. He jerked the security gate open and kicked the glass doors in. An alarm shrieked at the intruder. Trenton walked inside and filed through racks of men’s clothing, until he found something appealing to him.
He stripped off his tattered, blood-soaked clothing and dressed in a pair of black leather pants. He pulled on a black, short sleeve, spandex shirt, then retrieved a black leather trench coat from a nearby rack. A pair of Gortex boots completed his new look, just in time.
He watched a police cruiser pull up outside the front of the store. The officer stepped out and retrieved his pump shotgun. Trenton wasted no time. He leaped through the front window, catching the officer by surprise. The policeman tried to aim the gun at him, but Trenton outmaneuvered him and seized the weapon. The officer went for his pistol as Trenton smashed him in the side of the head with the butt of the shotgun. The officer went down like a sack of potatoes. Trenton aimed the gun at the unconscious man, then reconsidered messing up his new outfit. “This is your lucky night, Officer,” he said. “It wouldn’t do for me to meet my cousin with blood on my clothes.”
Trenton walked around to the driver’s side of the police cruiser. The door had been left open and the keys left in the ignition. How convenient.
Trenton started the car, put it in gear with a smile, and closed the door. He pulled forward in a sharp turn, hitting a large bump in the parking lot. “Oops! Sorry, Officer!” He cackled and spun the vehicle around in the street, then gunned the accelerator in the direction of Branton.
•••
Michael Stamos sat stunned inside the police surveillance van. A paramedic gave him oxygen through a mask, like a fussy mother hen. “I don’t believe it.”
“It’s Jonathan Hallowed’s cellular line for sure, Detective. We’ve been monitoring it just like you said,” the surveillance technician said.
“Jonathan is alive,” Michael pondered. “That explains the break-in at the morgue.”
The technician nodded. “What now, Detective?”
“Now we get everyone together in Branton and go after Trenton Hallowed.”
17 BRANTON MALL
Meeting Trenton at Branton Mall, almost twelve hours later, had given Jonathan, Joseph, and Jay a little time to prepare. Jonathan spoke into his hidden receiver-transmitter. “No matter what happens, Joseph, you have to keep Jay away from Trenton. He’s the only one who can unlock those files.”
“It would have been helpful not to have mentioned the boy’s involvement,” Joseph scolded.
“I blame myself, but Trenton knows I’m a dunce when it comes to that sort of stuff.”
“I’ll guard him with my life, sir. Don’t take any risks with Trenton. There’s no telling what he’s capable of now.”
Jonathan took a sip of his soft drink. “I’ll be careful.”
He noticed there weren’t as many people in the mall as he might have thought, but then Jonathan rarely went to such places. Joseph always did the shopping for his clothes and any other needs—he only need request something and his longtime friend attended to it. Joseph had even seen to his attire today—one of Jonathan’s Ivy League tee shirts, a pair of jeans, and sneakers. Jonathan wanted to fit into the middle class Branton scene, and just in case Trenton started trouble, he needed freedom of movement.
“I’ve spotted him,” Joseph said through the receiver. “Coming up in front of you, near the yogurt shop.”
Jonathan surveyed the people coming from that direction and spotted Trenton almost immediately—only he didn’t look like Trenton. What has this stuff done to you? Jonathan thought. Trenton looked like a first rate, psychopath gang member, right out of Donalee. Men, and women, doing the mall-walking routine, gave him a wide birth. He wore all black attire, and his thick hair was greasy, slicked back, falling in curls upon the collar of his leather trench coat.
As he sauntered toward Jonathan’s table, Trenton stuffed an entire half of a sub sandwich into his mouth and chewed it. He washed it down with an upended two liter bottle of soft drink. Trenton tossed the empty bottle aside. He slapped his hands down on the table and took the seat opposite Jonathan. “One thing about it, cousin, being a god sure does make you hungry.”
Jonathan baulked at the remark. “You’re not a god, Trenton. I mean look at you…you’re a highly acclaimed geneticist, top of your field, and here you are dressed like a thug. Not to mention, you’re a wanted killer.”
“Don’t cry for those people, Jonathan, they were only criminals,” Trenton explained. “I did the world a favor.”
“What about Detective Link? What about the police officers you killed at Genetic Corp while trying to get your files?”
Trenton smirked. “Heard about that did you?”
“You’re all over the news, Trenton!” Jonathan said. “Don’t you realize what you’re doing?”
Trenton leaned forward. “They were expendable, along with anyone else who would keep my research from the world.”
Jonathan leaned forward as well. “Including me, I suppose?”
Trenton cracked a smile. “It doesn’t have to be like that, cousin. Let’s play nice. You have the kid unlock my files, and I’ll save you from a short life.”
Jonathan’s expression remained stoic. “My life isn’t what’s important here. You’re a threat to everyone around you now.”
Trenton reclined in his chair, surveying the mall around them. “If I’m such a threat, then what’s to stop me from killing everyone in this mall, right now? Maybe I’ll decide to show them all just how powerful a man can become—”
“—I wouldn’t let you do that,” Jonathan said. “I’d stop you.”
Trenton grinned. “Maybe, but some of them would die anyway…or you could simply do this the easy way and give me back my formulas.”
Jonathan grew tense, getting ready for a fight. In his mind he was already rehearsing aikido moves in order to take Trenton down fast and subdue him.
Trenton focused his attention behind Jonathan. “Or I could just take them back myself.” Trenton kicked the table into Jonathan’s stomach. The table pinned him against a column as Trenton leaped over two other tables and a display. Jonathan whipped the table away and stood up. He saw Trenton running for a nearby escalator. “Joseph, he’s spotted you!” Jonathan said into his transmitter. “Get Jay out of here!”
Jonathan saw Joseph pull his handgun and pull Jay away from the second floor railing where they had been keeping an eye on him and Trenton. Jonathan took off after Trenton, only half realizing the people around him had pulled guns from their shopping bags, purses, and coats.
“Freeze Hallowed! This is the police!”
Trenton and Jonathan both stopped. When Jonathan saw Detective Stamos as one of the disguised shoppers, he realized he wasn’t the man the police were after. Trenton laughed when he saw Michael revealed. “You again, Detective? Didn’t I teach you well enough the last time we met?”
Trenton disregarded the police presence and sped up the escalator, leaping over five and six steps at a time until he reached the top. Detective Stamos, and a hundred other officers in disguise, surged after him.
•••
Joseph held tight to the hoodie Jay was wearing as they retreated from the escalator where Trenton had stopped when the police revealed themselves. Police officers on the second level ran past them trying to intercept Trenton coming up the escalator. “Freeze!” one of the officers yelled. “Trenton Hallowed, you’re ordered to surrender, or we’ll open fire!”
Joseph turned in time to see Trenton reach the top of the
escalator. He stopped, glaring at them. From what Joseph could tell, the police really meant business. They brandished submachine guns, pistols, shotguns, and Tasers, in addition to the body armor they all wore.
Trenton sneered at the police, then lunged forward after two SWAT officers. They fired on him, but didn’t slow him at all. He punched one of the men through his riot helmet, cracking it into two pieces. Trenton snatched the man’s submachine gun and shot the officer next to him at point blank range. The officer went down as bullets strafed his body. Even with a flack jacket on, he had been hurt bad.
The other officers used caution, considering their two fallen comrades lying on the floor in front of him. Trenton opened fire on them all. The officers scattered for cover as submachine gun fire erupted between the two sides.
Joseph pushed Jay down, behind a nearby bench, and took aim with his own 10mm Glock. He touched the trigger, and a red laser sight activated. He placed the beam on Trenton’s head, then fired. The first shot hit Trenton square in the temple, getting his attention. He screamed, then staggered, and grabbed the wound. He looked at Joseph—vengeance burning in his eyes—then evaded the next two shots and ran wide in an attempt to flank Joseph’s position.
Joseph grabbed Jay up and ran toward a department store ahead. He didn’t want to think about how Trenton had just survived a direct hit to the skull with a 10mm round. He had to get Jay away from him.