by Nat Kozinn
“Oh, well then we might already know where she is,” Linda says and scratches the back of her head.
“What? How could you know that” I ask.
“Linda is overstating the situation. We don’t know with certainty,” Ben says. “But there’s a bunker on the outskirts of the Los Angeles Metro Area, a Maceo Steel bunker. I figured it was just a hub to connect the Metro Area to her personal think.Net. I was going to use the signals to track back to the source, but then the Differents took the Manna Fields and we were preoccupied with the coming apocalypse.”
“It’s our only lead, let’s go,” I say.
“Did you miss the part about the Maceo Steel walls? It doesn’t matter if she’s in there, if we can’t get in ourselves,” Ben says
“I’ve got a solution,” I say and walk over to our truck.
I open the back. The Beast is hunched over into a ball so he can fit under the low canvas ceiling.
“Him,” I say. “Or more specifically his knife hand.” I say and point to the Maceo Steel blade, the only thing on earth capable of cutting Maceo Steel.
“That was my knife first,” Ben says.
“No take backs.”
#
“We cleared the area the best we could,” Maria says. “There aren’t many people around, but anyone who is out here, is the type who doesn’t like to be found. I’d bet anything there’s more than a few poor souls in some of these ruins, so if you’re planning some sort of battle royale between Differents, you won’t get that clear conscience you’re looking for. If you level the area, people will die. Not to mention that you’re not all that far from the Metro Area proper. There are apartment buildings a mile way and I imagine that isn’t very far to you anymore.” She points.
I bend my cornea to see the building; it’s one of those massive B-Crete projects filled with hundreds of units.
“That isn’t the plan. She already surrendered and so did her army of Differents,” I say.
“Did you get a headcount?” she asks with skepticism. “We found what you’re here for. The bunker is built into the side of that hill. Who knows how far it goes underground? She could have a thousand Differents down there. What are you going to do if she does have that army?”
“Better I find her than let her enact whatever her next phase is. But I don’t think it’s like that. I think she really did give up. And how do you know what I’m here for?”
“Giant Maceo Steel doors that go straight down into the ground are a pretty rare sight. It was well hidden but we’re police officers and we know how to find things or did you think only Differents could do anything useful?” She asks with a smile, but she kind of means it too.
“How do your officers feel about working so far from your precinct?”
“At this point, anything strange that I do is assumed to be related to you. Everyone knows about our relationship, or whatever you’d call it.”
“I thought that was an easy one, friendship,” I say with a smile.
It’s true, not that I still don’t think she’s beautiful it’s just that having a date with woman seems like a pretty far off concept at this point. Like something that happens to someone else, something I’d read in a book.
“I suppose that’s all it’s going to be now,” Maria says and looks off.
“Hey that’s on you. I was willing. Although romance is pretty far from my mind now. I’m not even a person anymore.”
“You might be a giant, and have whatever that stuff is on your back, but you’re still in there,” Maria says.
“Maybe there’s still a drop of me, but I’m like the ocean now. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to slow down my thoughts and translate them into simple words? While we’ve been talking I’ve been working through what the sea level is so I can get the depth to the bedrock so I can get at least one maximum dimension for calculating the area of Nita’s facility. Not to mention performing constant calculations on my calorie consumption and production. All this and I really don’t even know how to take full advantage of being a Big Brain yet. Did I mention I don’t even need to talk to you? If want I could read your thoughts and eventually, I could even make you think things, does that sound like a fun person to a have a relationship with?”
“I don’t know what your self-image was before Gavin, but I have a news flash for you, you were already a huge weirdo. I could never tell if you were listening or thinking about something else. You already had to manage whatever goes on in your body. Maybe you feel weirder, but besides the new look, you seem exactly the same to me,” Maria says points at me.
“In that case, now I see why you still like me, I’m too big a weirdo to get weirder. I’ve achieved maximum weird.”
“I said you’re the same Gavin, which means you’re a weirdo, but you’re also kind, caring, and brave. It means you’re willing to charge headlong into God knows what because you think you might be able to help some people. That’s pretty damn admirable.”
“I guess if it’s why you like me, I should get to that headfirst charge you mentioned. I’m supposed to take her into custody and turn her over to an army checkpoint a little north of here. Why don’t you pull your officers back?”
“I thought there’s not going to be any battle royale?”
“That’s right, but it’s dangerous out in these slums. The police should do something about it,” I say and smile.
Maria hugs me, which is an incredibly awkward experience. Her head is in my belly button and her arms don’t stretch wide enough to go around me. I place my massive hand on her back; one arm is enough to wrap around her. Yeah, that relationship thing isn’t going to happen.
#
Linda and Ben sit on the bumper of the truck. They finally accepted that The Beast isn’t just going to charge out and murder them. I tried to convince them that even at his worst he never killed fellow Differents unless they were a threat to him, but even I felt ridiculous trying to parse facts regarding an avowed serial killer.
The Beast, Thomas, has sworn he’ll do whatever I ask and keeps insisting I’m some sort of Savior for our race. And so far, he’s followed through on his word. He could be faking his allegiance, but subterfuge is not his forte.
“It’s over there, by the remains of that old ranch, pressed right up against the hills. She’ll have seen all the activity,” Ben warns. “She’ll know you’re coming.”
“I thought we’re supposed to assume Nita knows what we’re doing and do it anyway because if we did something else, she’d know that too,” I say.
“There, see. My Big Brain genes are paying off,” Ben says.
“When are we moving out Captain?” Linda asks.
“We’re not, just The Beast and I. You two get to a safe distance. I don’t think Nita has any tricks left up her sleeve but if she does, there could be fireworks and with as strong as I am, they will be big ones.”
“My instinct is to argue with you, but I know I’m not smart enough,” Linda says with a smile.
“I am, and my instinct is still self-preservation,” Ben says with a smile.
“You know, if Nita’s unwilling, you’re basically the only other person on earth qualified to be Head Librarian. I understand it pays real well.”
“No thanks. This bird is free and never going back in a cage. Goodbye Gavin, and good luck.”
He extends his hand for a shake. I pull him in for a hug; I can feel him shudder from the physical contact.
I reach out to Linda who joins in the hug.
“No dying,” Linda commands.
“Understood.”
The pair walks away down the cracked and broken sidewalk.
I speed my perception of time as far as I can as they walk off. It’s going to take a while for their normal humans legs to take them away from here. Am I ever going to get used to the new speed with which the world moves? Maria was right that I’ve always been distracted. I’ve always had to keep a portion of my mind devoted to keeping track of the basic system
s of my body.
Part of me was always keeping a beat so that my heart-rate remained constant. Part of me was making sure my lungs expanded and constricted often enough to provide me with the oxygen I needed. Part of me was watching my hormone levels, my nutrient levels, my blood toxicity and on and on. That felt like a weight that held me down. But now my brain is so strong, those thoughts seem weightless. Keeping track of all those systems felt like it used to take half of my mind, now it feels like a sliver.
I take a breath before I open the back of the truck. I don’t need him. I’m so much stronger than him now, I could just take what I want. I could just break The Beast’s arm and rip out his knife. But I’ve come to feel some sort of kinship with him. He’s a monster, but now I understand why. His body is primed to kill. He made bad choices, but no one helped him make good ones. He didn’t have Section 26, or Larry Rosen, or friends. He only had people who were afraid of him and wanted him dead. I’d love to imagine I’d still be the same me, if I was born into his situation, but there’s that lack of self-deception thing again. I know I’d be angry at the world just like he is and searching for answers just like he is.
In any case, he deserves to know the truth. Nita exploited his weakness and desperation and used it to turn him into a killer. The Beast is a monster, but he’s a confused monster. Nita perpetrated her crimes with clear eyes. The Beast deserves the chance to confront her, and Nita should have to look her Frankstein’s monster in the eye. Maybe she’ll even feel a glimmer of the fear that The Beast’s victims felt before they died thanks to her instructions
I open the door to the back of the truck. The Beast was asleep but he wakes up at the sound of my movement.
“It’s time,” I say.
#
The Beast’s knife cuts through the Maceo Steel without effort. He opens a circle, which falls back down into the shaft. It only drops a few feet. Maybe this place isn’t as big as I feared.
“I’ll go first, make sure it ain’t a trap,” The Beast says then drops into the hole before I can react. He’s certainly devoted.
I hear him take deep breaths, filling his lungs with the air down in the hole and getting a good whiff.
“S’ok,” he yells up. “There’s only one person down here, and she’s a Chosen Daughter.”
“Hello Thomas, and Gavin,” a meek voice yells from down in the hole.
I drop down. My head still sticks up from the hole in the Maceo Steel. I have to hunch down to get myself into the room. There are large crates of Taste Cakes, Manna Bars, and dehydrated fruits. There’s also a makeshift toilet in the corner which has working plumbing. The only inhabitant is Nita Martinez. If she really is thirteen, then she’s a tiny thirteen. She’s less than four feet tall and would blow over from a stiff breeze. Suddenly, the idea that this tiny little person was my arch-nemesis makes me feel very silly.
The Beast takes a step towards her and she shudders.
“You! I thought I was talking to the Lord!” he screams.
“Keep back!” I order him, and he hesitates just a moment before stopping his tracks. “Are you alone?”
“I am. I sent my Telepath away. There was no reason anyone else should bear the burden of my choices,” she says in a tiny squeak of a voice.
“You’re ready to face justice? In that case do you have a good reason why I shouldn’t let him do whatever he thinks he should?” I say and point to The Beast.
“Gavin, you will not let him hurt me. I know that with as much certainty as I know anything in this world,” she says.
“You’re right, of course,” I say. “Not that you wouldn’t deserve it as penance for what you did to him.”
“Now you are the one who is correct,” she says then turns to The Beast. “Thomas, I am truly sorry for using you in the manner I did. I exploited your vulnerabilities in order to further my own ends. That was wrong.”
“You’re sorry? You’re sorry? You impersonated our Lord. You tried to turn me on our savior! Sorry ain’t enough. You gonna die,” The Beast screams and charges at her.
I try to reach into his mind to stop him. Spreading my thoughts into his. But I don’t feel any thoughts, just pure animal rage.
The Beast moves like the wind. But to me, he might as well be a bumbling toddler. I don’t even have to slow down my perception of time to out move him. I can see his action, think through how I want to react and perform the maneuver in a blink. Unlike when I used to slow my perception of time, my body can now react just as quickly as I can think.
I dart in front of him, plant my feet, and deliver a punch to his solar plexus. I don’t hit quite as hard as I can because that might kill him, but I still feel a rib crack. He flies across the small space and slams into the wall. I can hear him struggle to catch his breath, which is actually a good sign because it means he’s alive.
“Was that necessary? You possess the physical prowess to stop him without causing injury,” Nita says.
“Since when do you care about him? You played him like a fiddle,” I say.
The Beast finally gets a few decent breaths, but he stays down on the ground. “I thought I was going to be redeemed. I thought God had picked me. I thought I was special.”
Nita walks over towards him showing a shocking lack of fear.
“You are special Thomas. Unique. I do not believe there has ever been a Different that could share your classification. Your physical enhancements are not what separate you but rather the changes in your brain. I have not studied you in detail, but my hypothesis is that you contain an enlarged medulla oblongata, and enhanced ganglia clusters around your body. This system mimics that of other animal species with less complex nervous systems. Your inner conflict stems from the fact that you likely possess a normal frontal-lobe and cerebral cortex. Essentially you have both an animal mind and a human mind and they are attempting to share one brain. You are truly unique, but being unique is rarely a boon to the human experience.”
“We got that in common Gavin. We both unique,” The Beast says and looks to me for approval.
“Gavin is not unique, rare, but not unique,” she says, stern faced.
“Excuse me?” I ask. That’s not the kind of thing a ten foot man like me expects to hear.
“I’m sorry Gavin but I believe it to be the case. There has been at least one other Different with your abilities. Chester Cabot.”
“Come again?” I ask.
I thought that it was too good to be true that Nita would turn herself in without some sort of fight. I suppose she’s conceded that she can’t beat me physically even with an army of Differents. Now she’s going to try to confuse me. I’m curious how she’s going to sell her ridiculous notion but I must be careful to watch out for the next phase in her plan if it happens while I’m distracted.
“Gavin, surely by now you have realized that Anthropomorphic Control is a poor classification for your abilities. Your gifts range far beyond the ability to control a human body. After all, the human body is not capable of running at hundreds of miles an hour, the human body is not capable of broadcasting it’s thoughts over a distance, the human body is not capable of performing photosynthesis. Your abilities clearly run much deeper than control over your body, you control your very genetic sequence. Am I correct?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever wondered how Cabot was able to make the bacteria that caused the Plagues?” Nita asks.
“He was a Bacteria Producer. Like Michael Grange or Elson Ray. They’re not completely uncommon,” I reply.
“Five-hundred-sixty-seven Differents have been evaluated by Section 26 and classified as Bacteria Producers. None of those individuals has shown the ability to produce more than a single unique strain of bacteria, and not a single individual has demonstrated any conscious control over the bacteria that they produce. How could they? It would take the ability to control a cell’s genetic information in order to perform that task. Cabot created the various bacteria strains that devastated our globe.
They were not an accident. He tested and refined different genetic sequence combinations until he found successful permutations. I imagine you performed a similar process while changing your body to gain your new abilities.”
What she’s saying makes sense, but of course it makes sense. She possesses the greatest reasoning skills on the planet, any argument she puts forward is going to be compelling.
“She’s right,” The Beast says picking himself up off the ground. “It’s clear why I’m supposed to serve you. Why you’re so important. You’re our savior reborn. Mankind refuses to accept the natural order of things and the Lord has brought you back to show us all the light.”
I don’t know what to say to that. An alarm starts ringing from a machine in the corner, red lights flash.
“What the hell is that?” I ask.
“Radar proximity alert. An aircraft is inbound on a trajectory towards this location,” Nita says and looks to me for permission to attend to her console, I nod yes because I always give in to curiosity.
She turns some knobs and a green display appears, showing a screen I’ve only seen in movies and don’t know how to read.
“The aircraft is traveling at a high speed and altitude consistent with a bomber jet,” Nita says.
“You’re telling me they launched a nuke? At the edge of the Metro Area? That’s insane,” I protest.
“I did not speculate as to what is occurring. I merely informed you of the information provided to me from this machine,” Nita explains.
Another device starts flashing a yellow light. Nita sees me looking.
“It is a radio receiver that oscillates through the frequencies looking for a signal. The light indicates that a signal is present. May I turn on the radio to the appropriate frequency?” Nita asks and pauses with her hand in the air. Why stop being stupid now? I nod yes and she flicks a switch.
“…it wasn’t authorized I swear it wasn’t authorized!” Larry yells from the speaker. “General Reeves. He ordered it and got the pilot to go radio silent. Gavin, Ben, Linda, if you’re hearing this. Clear the area. If you’re receiving this message please answer. We’re going to stay off the band for ten seconds.” The radio goes quiet.