by Ben Brown
What was going on? Come on Zac, snap to. You’re in trouble here! Zac shook his head and blinked again. Things were beginning to clear; the fog was lifting — gradually. There were two men and a woman in the room, he was sure of that. One of the men stepped in front of him; he was speaking, what was he saying?
“Good morning, Zac, I hope you’re well rested because we have a lot of work ahead of us. Zac, can you hear me?” The man leaned in and slapped his face.
Zac’s head snapped to one side, then he turned to look at his attacker again. After a couple more blinks, the man’s face came into focus. It was Dominic.
Zac lunged at him, but he could hardly move. He looked down at his body — large clamps held his wrists and ankles to the frame of the chair. He looked like Harry Houdini getting ready for one of his great escapes. Above him, a large surgical light illuminated his situation.
“Now, now, let’s play nice. I expect you’re wondering why I haven’t killed you.”
Dominic looked at him for a second, he clearly wanted a response, but Zac wasn’t going to play along.
“Don’t you feel like talking? Oh well, no matter. You see, I would have killed you except for one thing — you exhibited some fascinating abilities on the battlefield.” He moved in closer and lowered his head level with his prisoner’s and whispered, “Guess what — I want those abilities and I intend to have them, even if it means cutting you into hundreds of tiny pieces.”
Dominic straightened up and looked over Zac’s shoulder.
“Dr Hien, could you please fit our guest with the electrodes and sensory equipment?”
An old Asian man walked into Zac’s line of vision. His face seemed battered. Clearly, he had upset Dominic in some way.
The old man placed electrodes on his prisoner’s forehead, chest, and arms. As soon as he was done, he moved quickly away.
“Jane, would you be so kind as to carry out the physical side of the tests while I monitor the read-outs.”
Dominic walked over to a small table covered in equipment. Zac followed him with his eyes.
Zac turned his attention to Sinclair as she stepped in front of him. She smiled coyly, which made his skin crawl.
“Now, Jane,” Dominic called out over his shoulder. “If you could begin the pain test, I’ll monitor his responses.”
Sinclair looked at a tray of surgical equipment that lay on a table beside the chair.
Zac followed her gaze to the equipment, and then back at her. He tried to convey as little emotion as possible, but he was getting worried.
Her hand hovered over the tray as she considered her choice of tools, then she picked up a scalpel and played with it. With lightning speed, she slashed across both of his cheeks and stood back.
She looked in Dominic’s direction awaiting his response. A second later he said, “He exhibited no signs of pain. Try again, please.”
Her eyes leveled on Zac again. She smiled as she stepped closer. Then, looking directly into his eyes, she plunged the scalpel deep into his chest and drew its blade slowly down, leaving a deep wound that stopped at his stomach. The whole time, her eyes never left his.
“How about now?”
Zac had felt nothing more than the sensation of having something dragged across his skin. There was no pain, no sensation of fear or panic. He pulled his gaze from hers and looked down at his body. He couldn’t believe it; the rip in his flesh was already closed; it looked at least two weeks old, but it had only been a matter of seconds.
“Still no effect. I think the doctor should try,” Dominic said.
The old Asian came into view. He eyed the equipment tray hungrily. He picked up what looked like a pair of pruning shears.
Zac’s heart began to race — what the hell did he intend doing with those?
The old man grabbed his hand and placed his little finger between the blades.
“Let’s see if you can re-grow a finger,” he said as he hacked off the end of the smallest digit. The pain shot up Zac’s arm as he gritted his teeth.
Sinclair stared at the bloody stump; she clearly thought a finger would shoot from its grizzled end.
Dominic approached his tortured guest and looked at the stump. “He certainly exhibited signs of pain that time.
“Dr Hien, could you place the severed finger against the wound? If I’m right the digit will rejoin.”
Hien complied. He pressed the two blooded ends together, within seconds, the skin began to rejoin.
After about a minute, Dominic said, “Zac, can you move the finger?”
As much to satisfy his own curiosity, he did as asked. To his surprise, it moved with no signs of any injury having occurred.
“Magnificent! Have you ever seen such an amazing example of subject superiority?” Dominic began to pace back and forth as he contemplated the possibilities.
Up until now, Zac had said nothing, but he couldn’t contain himself any longer.
“You really are a sick prick, aren’t you? What makes you think you’ll ever find out how to replicate my abilities — you’re so arrogant.”
Dominic stopped in his tracks and turned slowly to look at his prisoner.
“I’m not arrogant: I’m brilliant. There’s a difference. Rest assured, I’ll find out how you do this. It may take me years, and you may end up a blubbering mound of putrid flesh as a result. Nonetheless, I will find what I want — I always do.”
Dominic walked slowly over to Hien and spoke softly to the old man. “Doctor, could you please collect some of our friend’s blood, then go and fetch Vladimir.”
The old doctor nodded and carried out his orders. After drawing off a syringe full of blood, he placed it in Dominic’s hand and left the room.
“Jane, could you give Zac some water; I don’t want him becoming dehydrated.”
She headed for the sink and filled the glass with water. She returned to the man she had tormented and placed the glass to his lips. He downed the cool clear liquid in a couple of gulps. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was.
“Would you like some more?”
Zac nodded.
After three glasses, he had had his fill.
“Thank you,” he said as she placed the empty glass on the equipment tray.
“Not at all. We have to keep a splendid specimen such as yourself in good condition.” Her eyes drifted slowly up and down his body.
It made him feel uncomfortable because he couldn’t read her intentions. Dominic’s intentions were clear, but hers weren’t. He felt that she might be the bigger threat.
“Jane, come and look at this,” Dominic called out.
Zac looked in Dominic’s direction as Sinclair headed off. Her eyes didn’t leave his until the last possible moment.
She stood next to her superior as he sat staring at a monitor.
“What are we looking at?”
“This is a sample of his blood — now watch as I introduce my nanites.”
Dominic pressed a button and a small stream of nanites shot into the sample. Within moments, the blood had all but consumed the tiny devices.
“What does this mean?” she asked, somewhat puzzled by what she saw.
He glanced over at his prisoner.
Zac could just about see the monitor above Dominic’s head; he knew what they had all just witnessed on that monitor would cost him dearly.
Dominic leaned in close to Sinclair’s ear and whispered, “It means I won’t be able to control him. If my nanites can’t make it from the blood stream to his brain, then it’s impossible for them to rewrite his neurology.”
He straightened and picked up the blood-filled syringe. “Now watch this.” He squirted out three small droplets of blood onto the bench top, each only a few millimeters apart.
Sinclair looked at him with a puzzled expression.
Dominic simply pointed at the blood, and she returned her attention to the droplets. For about ten seconds nothing seemed to happen, but then the outer two droplets began to quiver. It was
almost imperceptible, but it was there to see. A second later, the outer drops moved and rejoined with the middle one.
She stared at Dominic with her mouth wide in disbelief.
He held his index finger to his mouth, signaling for her to remain silent.
Her open mouth turned into a smile as she imagined the power and wealth that possessing those abilities would bring.
The door opened as Dr Hien returned with the man Dominic had requested; both turned at the sound of the door opening.
“Good, we are ready for our next test,” Dominic said with a broad grin. “Zac, allow me to introduce Vladimir. He is quite a remarkable gentleman, even by my standards.”
Zac’s eyes scanned the man up and down; he was enormous and terrifying in appearance. His head was completely bald, with a long, jagged scar that ran from the top of his scalp, across his face, and down to his chin.
The scar crossed his left eye socket, which was void of any eye; a mound of scar tissue remained in its place. It was clear that at some point the eye had been clumsily stitched shut.
Everything about the man seemed larger than normal. His hands were the size of shovels.
A creeping dread started to grow in Zac as Dominic continued to talk. “As you can see, Vladimir is quite a size, and he is also immensely strong. You see, Vladimir has two things that make him unique in this world. The first, and the rarest, is he has the subjects’ D.N.A. code; so I enhanced him. The second, and the more common, is he suffers from pituitary gigantism. This accounts for his rather large and imposing size.”
“Fascinating. Let’s just get to the bit where he tries to pound the crap out of me. I’m sure that’s where this is all heading,” Zac said with all the sarcasm he could muster.
Dominic stared at him angrily; he enjoyed his little monologues, and didn’t like being interrupted. “Yes, he is going to pound the crap out of you, as you so eloquently put it. But all in good time, let’s not rush things. I think it’s always polite to introduce two strangers — don’t you?”
Zac raised his eyebrows and let out an impatient sigh.
Dominic continued, “I found Vladimir in a village not far from Chernobyl in the Ukraine. Maybe the radiation caused his gigantism, and his brain disorder. You see, his brain is only twenty-five percent the size of normal adults’. He is an imbecile, but a very compliant imbecile.
“That scar on his head?” he pointed. “His father did that. He used to beat his son because he has an IQ just above that of a small bowl of fruit. Well, when I unlocked Vladimir’s abilities, he repaid his father in kind. By the time he had finished with him, I could barely tell that the beaten pulp was once a human, let alone his father. My enhancements did a lot for his strength but, unfortunately, nothing for his IQ.
“Now we come to you, Zac,” he turned his attention to his prisoner. “I want to see how much you can take. I want to see how fast you can heal. So Vladimir here will do what he does best — he will put you to the test.”
Dominic headed off to his monitoring equipment as he shouted to the giant in Russian.
Vladimir began to laugh as he rolled up his sleeves. Zac braced himself for the onslaught.
The giant formed a fist with his right hand; it was immense and nearly the size of Zac’s head. Then, with a gut-wrenching yell, he swung.
Zac closed his eyes just as the giant’s fist hit the left side of his face. His head snapped violently to the right as his eyes flew open from the force of the impact. His whole body strained against the restraints — but for his shackles, he would have flown clear across the room.
Zac brought his head around to look at the giant as he stepped back to admire his handiwork. His face turned from one of joy and pleasure, to that of shock and rage. Vladimir had clearly expected to cause more damage with his first volley. He gritted his teeth and swung with his left hand.
Zac’s head snapped to the left, this time he felt pain; he could feel blood trickling from his right ear.
Once again, he returned his gaze to his attacker.
Vladimir’s chest heaved in and out as he worked himself into a fury, then he unleashed everything he had. He began to pummel his target’s head from side to side, like a helpless human punching bag. The room around Zac turned to a blur, as his head snapped from one side to the other. He could hear and feel the bones in his face breaking as the pain began to rise to an unbearable level.
Images started to race through his mind. He saw Lea unconscious on the ground, then he saw Martinez and Jacobson flying off in the chopper. Images from his childhood, and visions of his parents faded in and out of his mind.
Was this it? Was he going to die? The images started to drift out of view as all the sounds around him began to fade.
Dominic watched the monitor intently as the life signs on the screen began to fluctuate wildly.
“So you’re not invincible after all,” he whispered to himself.
Sinclair looked on anxiously; she worried that the Russian would destroy her valuable commodity. Vladimir was showing no signs of fatigue, or any signs of stopping.
She looked over in Dominic’s direction.
He wasn’t even watching the onslaught; he was engrossed in the read-outs on his screen.
She rushed over to him. “Dominic, you need to call him off, he’s killing Zac and we need him alive.”
“He’s fine. Just a few minutes longer my dear.”
She grabbed him by the shoulder and whipped him around.
“Look — he’s not fine,” she screamed. “He’s near to death. Now stop that psychotic animal!”
It took him a second to respond, and then he shouted, “Vladimir!”
The giant stopped instantly and looked towards his leader.
Dominic flicked his head, gesturing towards the door.
The giant looked at the door, then at the near unconscious and blood covered mess that was Zac; he wanted to finish his work. He clenched his fist and stepped closer to his prey.
“Vladimir, leave now!” Dominic screamed, as he stepped closer to the giant Russian.
Vladimir dropped his head and left the room, needing to duck to get through the doorway.
Dominic turned slowly to look at Sinclair.
She took several steps back — she had overstepped the mark and he never let anyone do that.
“Jane, my dear, don’t ever tell me what to do. I was in full control of that experiment at all times.” He drew himself to within an inch of her.
Hien headed over to the bloody pulp that sat clamped to the chair. He busied himself tending Zac’s many wounds, wanting to stay well out of Dominic’s reach.
“I’m sorry, it’s just — I know how involved you get with your work. Sometimes, you need a little reminding to look after yourself and others. It’s not your fault; all brilliant men are that way. You can shut everything out; it’s a gift I wish I had. But, sadly, normal people like me can’t do that.”
He smiled and stepped back.
“You’re right,” he crooned, “as always. Please, if in the future I need reminding again, please feel free to do so.
“Dr Hien, call us when our guest wakes up. I’m guessing it will be a while.”
The old doctor stood and bowed.
“Come, Jane, my father will be here soon, let’s make ourselves presentable.”
He held up his left elbow, which she took with a smile.
27
The Land Cruiser came to a jarring halt in the middle of the village.
O’Brien switched the engine off and sighed loudly. “Driving through the night on unlit dirt tracks takes its toll on the old nerves. All I want t’do now is have a shower and head straight to bed.
“Okay fellas, this is the end of the road for me. I’m sure Dominic will be along any second now, so I’m off. I doubt I will see ya again, Doctor Skinner, It’s been nice knowing ya.
“Michael, I’ll catch up with ya later,” O’Brien said as he quickly got out of the car and headed off, leaving Mic
hael and Skinner alone.
Michael had the feeling that O’Brien meant trouble, but he shook off the sensation. He had far more dangerous and troubling things to deal with.
“I’ve been waiting for this for years,” Doc said as he peered from his window. “Finally, I get to see my son again.”
“How are you feeling, Doctor? It’s been a rough night.”
Skinner turned to his traveling companion and smiled. “Well I’m as stiff as hell, but other than that, I’m o … .” Doc stopped mid-sentence.
Michael followed the old man’s gaze.
Dominic was approaching the car with a beautiful woman at his side.
As soon as Michael saw him, he felt his anxiety rising. He wasn’t sure he could fool the man to whom he was once so loyal. He wasn’t sure he wanted to fool him either. He felt an urge to confront him, there and then. However, he knew that would be suicide, and he quickly discarded the notion.
Doc gently patted his shoulder. “It’s show-time, my boy. Stay calm and in character and we’ll both get through this together.” He climbed out of the car.
As soon as Dominic saw his father, he froze to the spot.
Michael felt Dominic’s hatred for his father pour over him.
It took Michael the briefest of moments to steady his nerves. He looked at Sinclair. The expression on her face made it clear to him that she, too, had felt Dominic’s intent.
Dominic’s emotion consumed him. Every bit of hurt he’d felt when his mother died came flooding back. He felt like crying and hurting his father. He fought back his emotions, especially the urge to kill.
“Patience, Dominic, patience. All things come to those who wait,” he whispered to himself as he straightened up and headed for the car, and his father.
“Hello, Father, I’m glad you’re here at last. Allow me to introduce my companion. This is Jane Sinclair; she is one of my most trusted advisors.”
As she held out her hand, Doc approached her. “I’m pleased to meet you, my dear. Haven’t I seen you on the television?” The old man shook her hand warmly.