The A.R.EX. Origin
Page 1
the
A.
R.
E
X.
Origin
Angelo Facchin
iUniverse, Inc.
Bloomington
The A.R.EX. Origin
Copyright © 2012 by Angelo Facchin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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ISBN: 978-1-4759-6836-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4759-6837-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4759-6838-5 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012923871
iUniverse rev. date: 12/20/2012
Contents
Author’s Note
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Author’s Note
I know that there are people out there who will read this and ask themselves whether or not I lost my mind because in their minds, I was setting up the A.R.EX. project to be science-fiction. After all, Patrick Sandlak was a scientist using a laboratory to create anthropomorphic reptiles.
Actually, taking a science-fiction premise and giving it a more fantastic angle was the idea when as I was finishing the first book. I had the formula of the project be a secret known only by Sandlak for that reason. Sandlak as a person didn’t want everyone to know that his so-called “scientific discovery” wasn’t at all scientific. That would have exposed a world full of anthropomorphic reptiles to humans, and would have discredited him as a genetics researcher. If a world full of sentient reptiles was common knowledge, it would have undermined his project and demystified Arex as a character to the audience right away. That said, this was foreshadowed in the A.R.EX. Project, so that the revelation here wouldn’t come completely out of left field.
When I had written the first part of the story, I was at first intent on making it as scientifically plausible as I could. Unfortunately, there are two reasons why that idea fell quickly by the wayside. First off, this premise has been explored and beaten to death in the comics and novels that have explored the idea of anthropomorphic reptiles living in a human world. Second, is the fact that I believe readers to be smarter than this and they will point out the inherent flaw in taking a scientific approach to physical transformation. The A.R.EX. Project, in the context of the novel, is impossible to do scientifically. Genetically modified flora and fauna exist, but these are mostly the result of accidents and years of research. I had to think of a way in which a project that involved creating a breed of humanoid super soldiers within the time it took from the ratification of the worldwide ban on nuclear weaponry (which I initially thought the United States had signed, but it turns out they didn’t), to the day of my brother David’s birth, something significant in that Jason Meyers represents me as a kid.
The idea behind Jason Meyers wasn’t to create ham-fisted pathos for the character of Arex, but to make Arex less intimidating in the eyes of the other characters, thus allowing them to be more comfortable around him and trusting him more readily than if Jason, an eight-year old child, was deathly afraid of him.
Back to the project. The idea behind the A.R.EX. project, in the context of the story, was that Patrick Sandlak had little time to set up the project and create the soldiers, while finding means to control them, and at the same time, contemplating the logistics of how his project would work. A lot of money was being put into the project, and if there’s one thing human beings living in a Capitalist society are not known for, it’s their patience. That is another the reason why I wanted to have the actual transformation take place in as little time as possible. Supposing it was possible to create an anthropomorphic reptile using an entirely scientific method, the transformation alone would probably take somewhere from a few weeks to a few months, since the subject’s genetic code is being rewritten. Not only that, but the subject would also have to be constantly monitored because there are so many things that could go wrong during that time, not the least of which, an intervention from the authorities. It was a conscious decision on my part to give the protagonists no time to stop the transformation. The only way I thought of making that possible, was to create a parallel world to our own in which live only anthropomorphic reptiles. That gave me the opportunity to make plots involving two of those reptiles living in our world, both of whom have very different experiences and involvement in the story.
Tom Smith was the one responsible for Arex’s creation, something he spent most of the five next years being haunted by. Gianlorenzo Di Nicola is the one that lets the main characters know about the other world. As for Whiplash, he teaches Arex just how lucky he is to have had such a great life, being essentially revered as a humanoid reptile.
Something else I wanted to explore, was Whiplash’s story which is basically one of the many scenarios that could have happened to Arex depending on how his circumstances played out. I also wanted that plot to help answer any questions that the readers might have had after reading the first book, especially concerning the first A.R.EX. test in July of 1998. This is a clear departure from many mystery novels that wrap everything in a neat and tight bow, which bothers me in the sense that their dénouement are too perfect. The fact is, real life mysteries aren’t always fully solved, with every question answered with perfect accuracy. There are things that are left in the air in real life, and that should let the reader imagine what the answer to those questions are. Even as I answer certain questions readers might have had after the A.R.EX Project, I still didn’t fully explain everything, such as who Sam Berry was and what his motivations were. The fact is, I have an answer, but I’m not going to write it in a story, because that would mean involving the character himself, something I couldn’t do within the context of the plot. There was no way I could shoehorn that character in the plot because he would have derailed it.
When it came to the parallel world, I didn’t want to ta
ke the predictable route and have the reptiles disguise themselves as humans and study them simply for the sake of studying them. There had to be a very good reason for them to come here and study our cultures and history, and not just because it fascinated them. The only real plausible reason for that would be that we have technology that they don’t, and they want to explore what we know scientifically. Not only that, but I could then explore how they knew about the existence of our world, and how they knew how to go from their world to ours and back easily and without anybody knowing, because secrecy is key when you’re spying on an alien race. The interdimensional portals were an obvious plot device, but they had to be a natural phenomenon, just like the nameless amber coloured stones that physically disguised the reptiles.
Which brings me to my next point: the anthropomorphic reptiles. Arex’s character didn’t necessarily need to be an anthropomorphic reptile. The point was his character and how it developed over time, and how fragile that character really was despite the years that passed. His entire character became based on the project he was created in with any influence from the people around him. Because of everyone’s initial reaction toward him, he was comforted in the knowledge that he was unique. To see that that wasn’t the case, it obviously devastated him, but I didn’t want that news to break him down mentally. I wanted to show the fragility in his character, but not to the point where he could easily and violently snap. In the last chapter, I wanted that to come to a head as he confronts the other reptiles, as they have affected his life in many ways. The fact is, I could have easily made it about any other anthropomorphic animal, it wouldn’t have changed how the story played out.
There may also be some people who say that I was inspired by Twilight, since I took a traditionally villainous character and made him a protagonist, but this isn’t true. For one thing, I find Twilight to be uninspiring as a below average Harlequin Romance novel with truly hateful characters. I found out about Twilight as I was going through the first draft of this book. The fact is, romance in real life isn’t “happily ever after”. In fact, most of the time, it isn’t the case. It’s true, at the end of this book, Arex and Janiece Ryder are planning to become a family with Jason, but in no way did I ever say they were going to be married. I will never write them getting married together, even if I did end up using these characters again for another book, which I don’t think I’m going to do. You may read them engaging in romantic banter, but that’s as far as I will go. I am not willing to weight my book down with the logistics of a human-reptile relationship. I couldn’t possibly make it interesting anyway.
I hope these notes will help you understand this book better. Thank you very much, dear reader, for choosing the A.R.EX. Origin. I hope you will enjoy reading it.
Prologue
In 1996, the Biological and Genetics Corporation (BIOGENCORP) started working on a top-secret project to create a new breed of soldier for the American military, or so they thought. Patrick Sandlak had originally begun the project with the idea of creating a handful of anthropomorphic reptilian soldiers that would form a small squadron of fifteen beings, a concept that would be expanded if successful. They would then be trained to perform various covert military operations ranging from field reconnaissance to high-profile assassinations. In July of 1998, Sandlak conducted his first test of the A.R.EX.(Anthropomorphic Reptilian Exo-Skeleton) project. The test failed disastrously. He had lost over half of the staff that was working on the project and he himself was severely wounded in the incident. The project was put on hold for some times afterwards.
During the final week of October, the FBI received an anonymous phone tip from a BIOGENCORP employee which sparked an investigation into the company with an initial focus on the financial history of the company. Agent Mika Nomura was sent undercover to try and obtain a job as a forensics researcher and try to figure out what the company was hiding and what had happened to the dead scientists.
Because of her knowledge of American sign language, she was asked to accompany Sandlak to Bare Hill Correctional Institute and help him extradite Erikson Meyers, who had been convicted of murder six months earlier and had lost his ability to speak before that.
Sandlak had forged the necessary documents in order to extradite Meyers. He had realized almost immediately that he couldn’t possibly obtain any real “volunteers” for his project so he had to resort to creating his soldiers by using less than legal means. With the threat of his sponsors terminating their contract with him, he knew he needed a working soldier by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Janiece Ryder, Meyers lawyer, found out about her client’s extraditing and that her own signature was forged. To make matters worse, her friend, Daisy Carter, who had been working at BIOGENCORP, discovered the existence of the A.R.EX. project while she was cleaning the company’s computer’s. Janiece was left helpless with that knowledge as she had no idea where Meyers was, and she now had to contend with stolen information pertaining to a project she wasn’t supposed to know existed.
On top of that, Kirk Hall, one of Janiece’s colleagues, had seen the file that Daisy had given her and immediately informed Sandlak. Fearing legal repercussions in the long run, Sandlak went ahead of schedule and had Meyers transformed after rendering the latter unconscious. Using a special computer he called the Mind Shifter, Sandlak also erased Meyers memories, leaving the new being with only whatever impersonal knowledge Meyers had at the time.
The new being, named Arex after the project he was created in, was soon sent after Janiece Ryder to kill her, under Sandlak’s claim that she was actually a criminal, using her position as a lawyer to get away with everything, including murder.
Sandlak’s plan did not go as intended. After Arex was dropped off at an abandoned apartment building, he began having doubts as to what to believe, and who to trust in the matter. To further complicate matters, he started having questions about his creation, his identity, and his role in life.
His doubts proved justified when he met Janiece Ryder. After a lengthy conversation with her, he decided that killing her would have been a terrible mistake.
Janiece, on the other hand, still had her doubts about the reptile, despite letting him stay for the night and alone in her apartment for most of the next morning. Uncertain about what to do, she enlisted the help of her boss, Joe Henry.
Arex experienced a whirlwind during that time. While Janiece was away at work, Jason Meyers, whom Janiece adopted, brought his friend Kip Simon over to the apartment to show Arex off. Later on, Mika Nomura and Mike Scatchard, the pair of FBI agents who were investigating BIOGENCORP, arrived at Janiece’s apartment. They didn’t react very well to Arex’s existence, and insisted on staying in the apartment, waiting for Janiece to return.
When Janiece finally returned with her boss, she couldn’t hide her doubts any longer, personally calling Arex out as a monster, and getting angry at him for involving Jason in the entire affair, even though it wasn’t his fault.
Arex felt deflated, realizing that nobody but the young and naïve children trusted him. His depression helped fuel his decision to offer himself as bait to lure Patrick Sandlak to the abandoned apartment while the FBI put together a fake news report on Janiece’s death.
While the group was putting that plan in motion, Janiece received a phone call. When she answered, she was shocked as she heard her friend Daisy’s murder over the phone, at the hands of what she thought to be another A.R.EX. soldier.
By that time, Patrick Sandlak had caught a whiff of Arex’s betrayal. He had decided that he had to take matters into his own hands and transformed himself into a reptile. After disposing of Daisy’s body he went to New York City.
He caused a shock when he appeared to Arex. It took a moment before the latter could recognize him. Sandlak’s plan was to get rid of Arex and replace him as the project’s first creation, thus ensuring renewed interest and continued funds from the sponsors and the completion of his life’s work. A verbal confrontation escalated into a
violent struggle that saw Mike Scatchard, who had been hiding, being thrown ten feet away. Mike then managed to get up during the fighting and shoot Sandlak as the latter had Arex pinned down, trying to strangle him to death. As Mike called for emergency services, Sandlak took out a concealed Swiss Army knife and committed suicide on the spot.
With Sandlak dead, BIOGENCORP Laboratories found itself neck-deep in legal trouble. C.E.O. Mark Reeves was put in the spotlight when it was discovered that the Pentagon had nothing to do with sponsoring the project. The FBI hit a wall when they tried to figure out the real identity of the person using the name and rank of three-star General Samuel Berry.
The entire surviving staff of the company was put on trial for corruption and treason, something Arex couldn’t understand, since Sandlak had been the one primarily responsible for the entire project. This was especially true for Mark Reeves, the ex-C.E.O. of BIOGENCORP. Arex knew he had nothing to do with how the project was lead, since the man was on vacation when his creation happened.
It didn’t help that he felt out of place in the human world. He felt the burden of his creation and his physical appearance on a daily basis. He also felt that his identity was non-existent and that there was great disconnect between him and his past as Erikson Meyers.
Arex was even more horrified when he learned that Reeves’ trial was being held on his behalf as a victim of the A.R.EX. project, something he did not condone. Standing up to his friends in the courtroom he declared that he was dropping all charges against the former C.E.O..
In the end, Arex received the monetary compensation that was promised to Meyers, and he started his new life as Alex Rivers. The question on everybody’s mind was: Could Arex live a normal life in a sprawling metropolis such as New York City?
Chapter 1
Friday, July 4, 2003, 6:58 p.m.