by Eric Burney
I reached his room and stopped at the door to collect myself. I took a deep breath.
“You can come in, Charlie.”
I peeked my head around the corner and there he was. He was heavily bandaged around his ribs and chest, and one leg was splinted and elevated by a cable mechanism. In other words, he didn’t look too good. But you wouldn’t tell it from the game show host smile he wore.
“Come on in; I’m not going to bite you, of course.”
Only time would tell.
Rubber boots and a big stick, I reminded myself.
“Looks like you took a pretty rough beating,” I said. I couldn’t think of anything nice to say to jumpstart the conversation.
“Yeah, I suppose you could say that. Your old bestie did a number on me. I have to say I was quite impressed.”
“Impressed, huh? The guy nearly folded you into a pretzel from the looks of it and you admire him for it?”
“Not because of what he did to me, but how he went about it. Make no mistake, Charles. His actions will be answered with an appropriate response at the date and time of my choosing.”
He still brandished a toothy smile, but I could sense the anger was brewing beneath the surface. I also had a growing suspicion this was all new territory for him. He’d been embarrassed by a lesser foe in his eyes. That's when it dawned on me: Standeval was just like our father, Viktor. As much as he would never admit it, that fact was now painfully obvious to me.
“Do you think that place and time of your choosing might coincide with mine for once and we can work together? I know this may be a hard concept for you to come to terms with, but could you give it a try?”
He was my brother, much as it pained me to admit, and I didn’t trust him, but who better to even the odds against Cain and the juggernaut that was Evolution?
“We shall see, little brother. We shall certainly see. But I may be a little empty-handed at the party, should I accept your invitation.”
He removed something from underneath the sheet. It was his most prized possession—his cane, broken in half. That was definitely a bad omen.
“Your old pal owes me a new cane. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that I won’t be of much use without it.”
“Don’t worry. You focus on getting better. I may know someone who can fix this.”
“Sounds dashing,” Standeval said, adjusting his head on the pillow before closing his eyes. “Now… if you don’t mind, I would like to catch a few winks before you go off and start World War III.”
“No problem. Oh, one more thing before I go. Why were you on that ship in the first place?”
Standeval didn’t even bother to open an eye.
“To rescue you, of course. Family always takes care of family, Charlie. You’d be wise to remember that.”
“I’ll try my best.”
I took the broken pieces of his cane and closed the door behind me.
Chapter 61
Viktor observed the hustle and bustle unfolding around him with curiosity. Men and women alike cheered and celebrated as though they had just won a great victory. Depending on your point of view, that wasn’t too far from the truth. From where he was sitting… well… he hadn’t decided yet. This could all turn into a nice opportunity if he was smart about it.
He watched, amused as several of his former Chirac henchmen walked past, cups brimming over with spirits. Not one of them even had the decency to make eye contact. They didn’t have the nerve. Such cowards. If he was successful in gaining the upper hand, they would be dealt with—severely. No one liked a deserter, especially Viktor. Bad apples needed to be plucked from the tree.
He tugged against the metal restraints on his wrists. With his abilities rapidly returning, freeing himself from the bonds soon would be as simple as snapping a toothpick. But he couldn’t reveal that he was almost back to full strength. Not yet. He had to know who he was dealing with first. And so far, his captor appeared to be a man of considerable abilities in his own right.
Viktor observed his mannerisms among the avid flock of followers who seemed to worship their leader. He remembered how that felt. A feeling that was ripped from him in an instant by his own flesh and blood. Power can be such a fleeting thing.
“Are you being treated well?”
Viktor realized he had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that the man was now standing in front of him. He was a big, physical man; imposing to most, even without the freakish abilities. Viktor wasn’t among them. He’d recognized him the moment he laid eyes on him back on the ship.
“About as well as one shackled in chains could expect, I’d say.”
“Yes. I would apologize for that, except we both know you cannot be trusted.”
Viktor laughed and the chains rattled along with the movement.
“You offend me…” Viktor paused, “…pardon, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Now you offend me. I think you do know my name. Or at least the one I used to go by. Your son and I were close. As close as brothers before he left me to die in a watery grave.”
“Oh yes, yes! Now I remember. You were that pesky college friend who followed Charlie around like a little puppy dog. Now look at you. My, my,” Viktor marveled. “Haven’t we changed philosophies.”
Cain was unshaken by the insult and took it in stride. He lowered his eyes and tugged at the iron chains, checking their effectiveness for good measure. They wouldn’t hold forever, he knew. But they would do the job until Viktor was no longer needed.
“I never followed anyone around like a dog. If anything, I kept that pathetic excuse for a son of yours from falling apart. He was weak. He still is. So, if you think about it, your downfall should probably be attributed to me in the end.”
Cain followed with a lighthearted chuckle. Now it was Viktor’s turn to show a kink in the armor. His once arrogant smile lessened to nearly nonexistent.
“And yet, your newfound abilities were derived from a device that I created. The same device that delivered you from your pathetic existence in my son’s shadow.” Viktor laughed again, louder this time. “And you call yourself Cain? Isn’t that a tad bit ironic? Cain, jealous of the one you once considered a brother. So filled with envy and rage that you wish him dead. Now tell me… in this particular story who, or better yet, what does that make me?”
Cain took a step closer to Viktor and glared at him. The calm, controlled demeanor he’d previously exhibited was now gone. In its place was a hedonistic stare that would make the devil himself cringe. The lighting flickered and darkness began to enshroud the room. The ground itself shook and trembled.
Viktor suddenly writhed in agonizing pain. He could feel his rib cage slowly being crushed as though a giant elephant were standing on his chest. He struggled to take a breath. Even at full strength, he couldn’t stop what was happening. Never had he felt so helpless.
“You are no god. You only continue to draw breath because I allow it. The sole reason for your being here is to assist in the re-creation of the Orion device. Should you prove ineffective or attempt to escape, you will know what it’s like to be in the presence of a true god.”
The intense pain in his chest subsided, and Viktor gasped. He sucked in a welcome breath of air that filled his nearly emptied lungs. His face portrayed disbelief at what had just transpired. Cain was much stronger than he could have ever fathomed.
In his blind attempt to reshape man in his own image, he had unwittingly created a monster. A monster he had no idea how to stop.
Chapter 62
Kara sat confined inside a cramped room and tried her best to reach out to Charlie telepathically. She’d been trying for hours it seemed, but she had been unable to contact him. Even the ear device Jasmine had given her wasn’t working. And Evolution must have found a way to block her abilities somehow, because every time she tried using mind control on the guard outside the door, she was unsuccessful. She couldn't read a single one of his thoughts. She grew frustrated from the inabilit
y to get out of her current predicament.
She thought about Charlie and how much he was probably worried about her. Kara knew he would do anything to rescue her, just as she had gone to great lengths to do the same for him. Her feelings for him hadn’t changed; if anything they had grown stronger. So much wasted time was spent ignoring each other over the past few months. She should have confronted Charlie sooner instead of letting pride get in the way. Pride and jealousy.
Charlie’s feelings for Allison were well-known to everyone and something she struggled to accept from day one. It was painful watching the man she loved so much have those same feelings for someone else. So, she did what she figured any self-respecting woman would do if she were in love with a man, but had ended up in a dreaded love triangle—the only thing worse than the friend zone. She ignored him.
It wasn’t her finest hour, and things royally sucked from then on, but she just couldn’t bring herself to talk to him. Luckily, they were both able to pull their heads out of you know where and have a much needed moment of clarity. And now, there was no denying their fevered attraction. Unfortunately, their current separation and lack of communication were not of their own doing. How long it would last was anybody’s guess.
There was a rasping knock at the door before it swung open and a young woman in her early twenties entered. She exuded confidence, and it showed in her brazen outfit. She sported a black biker’s jacket, faded blue jeans, and black Harley Davidson riding boots. In one hand was a plate and in the other a glass. She set them both down on the table next to Kara and stepped back, folding her arms across the chest. Her piercing eyes seemed to size Kara up.
“The sandwich and soda water are for you. Turkey and cheese on rye. That’s all we had so… yeah. Hope you’re not picky.”
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry,” Kara said in a slightly catty tone. She didn’t have any real reason for being a bitch. The girl had just brought her some food. But, girls will be girls. And she didn’t particularly care for the crude way in which she just stood there, eyeballing her.
“Eat. Or don’t; doesn’t much matter to me. You can starve yourself for all I care.”
Kara stood up and met the biker chick’s scornful gaze. She set her jaw and didn’t dare flinch. She was unafraid and wanted to let it be known.
“Why am I here? What do you want with me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Barbie. I’d just as soon see you tossed off the roof. Bringing you here was definitely not my idea. But Cain does have something special in mind for you. And I have to admit, his plan is impressive,” she said with a faint touch of an accent. Kara couldn’t place it but figured it to be either British or Scottish.
“Yeah, you don’t strike me as the type to come up with a master plan—no offense.”
That seemed to crack the biker chick up. She tossed her wavy, dark hair back and hugged her sides.
“I didn’t know you were a comedian, too, Barbie,” she said when she’d finally stopped laughing.
“My name… is Kara,” she said with emphasis, standing her ground.
They prepared to square off like a pair of lionesses over a fresh kill. Both studied each other for any sign of weakness or vulnerability. Kara wasn’t concerned about not having her abilities at the moment. Years of training alongside Michael and Nick had more than prepared her to deal with a young tart such as this. She clinched her fists and readied for a fight.
“Ladies, ladies. No need for violence.”
Kara dropped her fists and averted her attention just enough to see who was addressing them. It was Cain, the leader and architect of Evolution.
“Rebel, this is not how we treat our guests.” He shook his head in disapproval. Rebel showed just how little she cared by rolling her eyes.
“You can leave us now,” Cain said and waited patiently for her to leave the room. Rebel lingered a tad longer, then scowled at Kara, hoping they’d get the opportunity to scratch claws soon. She would show her a plan when she shoved a flaming rocket down her pretty little throat.
“Close the door behind you,” Cain called out. Rebel huffed and pulled the door closed with a bang.
“Girlfriend of yours?” Kara asked.
“Hardly,” he said with a smile. “Well, it’s… complicated. But I don’t have to tell you what that’s like, huh?”
Kara took a deep breath and looked away. She had no desire to have the conversation he seemed so keen to strike.
“That’s a thing of the past. We’ve all moved on. Even Allison.”
“To Michael, if my intel is correct. You know, I have to say, I kinda saw that one coming. Charlie didn’t though. He never saw anything coming. He believes in the best of everyone. He believes somewhere deep down, there’s a part of you that will always do the right thing. A part that will sacrifice it all for the good of others—for the good of man.”
“I agree with him.”
Cain laughed.
“Of course you do. You’re his new queen bee. If it means anything, I was always rooting for you anyway. Charlie wasted good years on someone who clearly wasn’t that into him.”
Kara sat and listened. So far, he seemed perfectly normal. She didn’t see any signs of the monster everyone presumed he’d become. Maybe that was an overreaction. Maybe Freddy was still in there somewhere, underneath the surface, waiting to be saved.
Kara looked deep into his eyes.
“Ah, you noticed I don’t wear prescription lenses anymore.”
He walked around the room methodically in a slow circle.
“After my exposure, I quickly found my vision had improved to the point of perfection. Actually, I can look out this window and tell you what magazine the old widow is reading near the cobblestone path a mile down the road with remarkable clarity.”
“That’s cool. You’d come in real handy if I ever misplaced my car keys.”
“That’s not all.”
Kara saw his eyes grow darker and cross into a realm of being she’d never witnessed before.
“I thought I was dead. Apparently, I was announced clinically dead at the scene once they found me. The EMTs didn’t even bother trying to resuscitate me. Said I’d been under the water too long.”
His voice grew deeper, his face darker. Kara observed the lights starting to flash and dance.
“Do you know what it’s like to wake up in a morgue on a cold slab with no idea who or where you are?” Cain didn’t wait for her to respond. He seemed to be almost talking to himself, lost in the painful memory. “Of course you don’t; no one does. I walked around for days trying to figure out who I was and what was wrong with me. Then, it started to come back to me, only in small flashes at first. I realized I wasn’t cursed. I was given a gift. I was meant to be on that rooftop at the precise moment the Orion device was set to go off.”
“If what happened to you was a gift, why do you blame Charlie? He did everything he could to save you, Freddy. I was there, too. Remember?”
Cain squeezed his fists so tightly, his fingernails dug into the skin and threatened to draw blood. His eyes changed and began to radiate an eerie shade of green as Kara grew ever more uncomfortable in his presence. He looked like he could go nuclear any second.
“I gave Charlie everything I had. I was his best friend, true ‘til the very end. He promised to save me. He failed. He wasn’t strong enough, physically or mentally. He left me to die on the bottom of that river. I will never forgive him for that.”
Cain placed both palms out in front of him and stared at them.
“I am the future now. Evolution is the future. Together, we will reign supreme. And Charlie will know the pain and anguish I felt just before this world is removed from its current self-destructive path and transformed into something beautiful.”
“You sound like someone else I knew who had that same point of view.” Kara said. “He had similar ideas, right up until you helped us stop him.”
“Who? Viktor? He’s a short-sighted egomaniac. He also lack
s imagination. What I have planned will effectively rewrite human history. I will succeed where he failed. That’s also where you come in.”
He smiled darkly at Kara who felt a sudden pang of fear. She was wrong. The man she once knew as Freddy was long gone. In his place was the form of something evil and sinister.
“I have a masterpiece to perform. And you, dear Kara, have landed the role of a lifetime. You get to play the damsel in distress. You see, I also remember your eternal connection to Charlie. If one of you dies, so does the other.”
Cain’s smile broadened as he towered over the much smaller woman. The lights continued to flicker uncontrollably until the fluorescent bulbs finally popped, enshrouding the room in total darkness.
Kara screamed.
Chapter 63
Viktor was led into a junky makeshift lab by two nervous henchmen at gunpoint. They made sure to keep their distance and not engage him in conversation—just as Cain had instructed. Even though still chained, he posed a serious threat.
“This way,” said the taller, gruff looking one. He thrust the muzzle in Viktor’s back and steered him to a workbench where the gaunt, lean features of the man known as the Chemist was hard at work on the guidance system for Orion II.
“Good, good,” he muttered through decaying teeth in what may have been an attempt at emotion. No one could be certain with the way his face twitched involuntarily and the lazy eye that never seemed quite able to keep up with the other one. “Bring him to me now. Come on, come on! Time is wasting!”