by Bo Luellen
Shoshannah tilted her head back and hissed at him. The long years since she had seen him did nothing to quell her rage. All the old hurts were on the surface, perfectly arranged in detail, thanks to her creator’s design that gave her infallible memory.
The first creation of Victor Frankenstein gave her an injured look, “Is that all I get after all these years?”
John recoiled to the corner of the cage, “Oh, shit! That’s… Adam!”
The man ignored the Agent and squatted down in front of her, “Why did you let them take you?”
She pushed her face up towards the bars. “You imbecilic animal! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
A woman’s voice came on the radio, “Guard shack, report.”
Adam toggled his microphone and radioed, “All is well. Watch secure.”
Her eyes burned, “Leave now!”
Adam glanced at John, then asked her, “You care for this mortal?”
Her hands gripped the bars between them as she replied, “Would it matter! I’m not yours!”
He leaned on the cage, “Nor is our creator’s process. I just passed by a long assembly line of re-animation chambers. I smelled your blood there. You’ve been careless.”
Shoshannah felt like launching at him, “That’s a lie!”
Adam knelt down, “Oh, I suppose Jagger Clerval showing them how to re-animate is all just a part of my master plan to ruin your day.”
She winced, “Jagger is…”
He interrupted, “Possessed. Yes, you aren’t the only one with the ability to see, what do you call it, a soul light. I’ve been hanging around this camp for the better part of the day. The ghost left, and they’re keeping Jagger locked away while he’s gone.”
Shoshannah snarled, “I had a deal for his release.”
Adam’s eyebrows went up, “And these cultists are very trustworthy. Think about it. What will give your pet a better chance at survival? Trusting the Crimson Brotherhood to simply hand him over unharmed as the world turns to ash, or us working together to free him?”
She snarled, “Why are you here, Adam?”
The re-animated man stood up, “I just wanted to talk. Creator’s fury, it’s been over fifty years, Eve.”
Shoshannah gripped the bars and bent them, “That is not my name, creature!”
Adam nodded. “I’m sorry. Shoshannah, I came to make peace. What happened was a tragedy, and I have felt the burden of guilt ever since. It took me a great while before I grew past my impulsive nature.”
She spat, “I should have killed you.”
He sighed, “If you had, I wouldn’t have been here to see the birth of a new race. Your misstep has ushered in a novel breed of fiend onto this world. All that Victor feared is minuscule compared to what horrors the Crimson Brotherhood is about to unleash on humanity. Like me here or not, you’ve bound us both to seeing these monsters destroyed.”
She paused and then offered, “We get Jagger out first. Samuel will be witless without him.”
Adam snapped the lock off the cage, “I’ll continue my ruse of being a guard and get Jagger out to the road. Once we’re out of camp, then you can make your escape. They parked your car on the other side of a large milking barn.”
She stood up out of the steel pin, “Fine! If you get him killed, I’ll never stop hunting you.”
He pulled in close, his mid-chest even with her face, “In this tale, I’m not the evil. This story of greed and wickedness is yours. Do not weigh sins. You might find ours an even share.”
The two creations held each other’s gaze for several minutes before John asked, “Not to interrupt this reunion, but I’m all for Adam’s plan. Just how will we know when you have Jagger?”
Adam stalked out the door, growling, “You’ll know.”
They stood at the door and peered out the tiny cracks at the camp. The surrounding area was illuminated by large floodlights that emanated from three watchtowers. The building to her left was an old faded one-story farmhouse that had several soldiers on its porch. Directly in front of her was the colossal dairy barn that Adam spoke of. Cultists wearing lab coats wandered in and out of the building, carrying clipboards and laptops.
Roaming guards walked the ground with the Hounds on a leash. The re-animated dogs wore a restraining muzzle that did little to stop an undulating tentacle. The dark slimy appendage slithered its way out of its mouth and through the tiny bars. The overly muscular Saint Bernard passed close by their shack, dripping acidic saliva onto the grass as it marched.
On her right was a fenced-in area that had rows of generators locked inside. She recognized several of them as her own. The machines were rumbling and pushing power through a bundle of cables that went to the dairy barn. She squinted, as flashes of light sparked from within. Her enhanced senses picked up the ozone in the air.
She gritted her teeth, Electrical discharge. Damn, them!
John stole a Brotherhood coat from one of the dead men, “Darlin’ when this is over, you and I have to come to an understanding. AEGIS is the only reason you get to function in the United States. Doin’ jobs for crazy outfits like this ain’t healthy for anybody. I’m not sayin’…”
A powerful blast came from the farmhouse, rocked the shed, and cracked the window she was looking out. Fire spurts erupted from the old house, and flames kissed the outer walls. The cultists who had been hanging out on the front porch were launched into the yard. Their entire bodies were engulfed in fire and twisted into a grotesque displays of human cubism. An alarm whined in the night, and the tower spotlights came to bear on the area around the home.
John came up beside her, “That’s one hell of a signal!”
As the chaos swarmed, Shoshannah swung open the door, and the two weaved between the frantic cultists. Some were trying to put out the ones that caught fire. Others were busy getting a plan together on how to fight the flames. A group was headed her way, and she stopped next to an injured woman. The lady had a lab coat on, and a piece of wood jutted out of her thigh. Shoshannah and John lifted her up and put the woman’s arms around their necks. They buried their heads downward, as they hauled her to the milk barn and let her screams of agony pave the way.
As they rounded the corner of the barn door, the heat and flames billowed behind them. A pair of men wearing white lab coats were too busy adjusting dials and knobs on a panel to notice them. Shoshannah left the woman with John and quickly closed the distance on the two. The first man turned his chubby, sweat covered face towards her in time to feel the blade of her right hand strike his windpipe. He grabbed his throat and tried in vain to breathe in. As the man suffocated at her feet, his companion turned and saw her. He stepped back and pulled out a German Lugar pistol. In a flash of speed, she reached out her hand and shoved the barrel into her own midsection. The muffled round went off just as she thrust her open hand through his face and into the cranium. She gripped and pulled out a slimy portion of his brains.
Their prisoner went to scream, but John covered her mouth, “No, no. Let’s not do that. I’d hate to see you turn out like your co-workers over there.”
Shoshannah quickly pulled off the lab coats from both of them, and she and John put them on. The two dragged the woman down the long dirt-floored corridor of the dairy barn. As the Crimson Brotherhood’s attempts to put out the roaring fire continued outside, she examined Samuel’s handiwork. The empty cattle stalls had been modified to accommodate a long silver table. A series of electrode needles dangled like spiders’ legs from the walls of each compartment. Above, a sprinkler system was still dripping water from its last use and pointed at the bloodstains that decorated the silver table. Along the outside of each stall was a small tray with discarded vials that still had remnants of whatever strange concoction they had injected into the subjects.
John sat the woman down on a nearby bench, “We haven’t been properly introduced, darlin’. I’m John, and my friend over there, well, she’s…”
The technician blurted o
ut in fear, “Shoshannah Feinstein. I know.”
He nodded, “And you’ve seen what she’s capable of. Now, you’re going to answer some questions, and I’ll do my best to keep you alive. Okay?”
John took one of the vials, “What’s this?”
She glanced over at Shoshannah, who was still examining the equipment in the stall, “It’s a mixture that Jagger made.”
John shook his head, “Look, hon, this isn’t a game of twenty questions. We gotta be going soon. Whether we leave you alive or dead is dependent on how helpful you are in a short amount of time. So, wow me.”
The scientist nodded solemnly, “Fine. It’s a solution that contains twenty-five percent of Shoshannah’s blood and seventy-five percent stem cells.”
Shoshannah rummaged through the paperwork, “That’s impossible. I never gave blood to anyone.”
The cultist moved her leg gingerly into a more comfortable position, “It was collected after your fight with Marcus in the basement of the Enfield Estate. I know, because I was on the team that collected it.”
John peered around at over a hundred empty vials, “That doesn’t make sense. There’s not enough blood in Sho’s body to fill up all of these.”
The scientist nodded, “Jagger synthesized her blood. What you see here, that’s nothing. He was able to make just enough to ship off to all the other sects. The last batch left early this morning.”
Shoshannah pounded the desk with her hand, as John asked, “These tables were recently used. Did they make more Hounds?”
She smiled, “Oh, no. Those beasts were just a test. Jagger was able to produce just enough of your blood to send to all the sects. Master Enfield is helping to fulfill the prophecy. What we brought back will be used by the Herald to bring a plague of fire onto Tulsa. The city will break, and Cthulhu will....”
Shoshannah turned and sent her fist into the cultist’s head. The neck snapped in half under the sudden force, and her head tilted back like a Pez dispenser. Sliding off the bench, the woman’s body trembled for a moment and then went still.
John glared at her. “Prisoners are a good thing, ya know?”
She pocketed a half-empty vial of her synthesized blood and showed a clipboard to him, “It’s a shipping manifest. She’s was telling the truth. They sent several shipments, along with technicians to teach the other sect Masters how to reproduce my process.”
He flipped through the papers, and did a quick count, “Jesus! There are fifty cities on this list, but no addresses. They could create these Hounds anywhere in those cities. Those Cthulhu dogs look just like any other dogs. It will be like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles.”
She leaned down, “John, I don’t think you’re capturing the gravity of this situation. They have the means to raise anything from the dead, not just dogs. Humans, cats, lions, or whatever they can get their hands on could all be re-animated and infused with the power of Cthulhu. The terror that my creator had is being realized in a way that he never could have foreseen. If these beasts’ mate and produce offspring, it will push humanity to the bottom of the food chain.”
The vast depths of what she was conveying hit him as he announced, “Come on, Sho, time to go.”
He folded the paper into his pocket and followed her out, saying, “Look, we need to get this to Control. AEGIS has to contain this before they let those things loose on these cities.”
Shoshannah shouldered through the back door and snapped the outer lock from its hinge. Under a single security light sat her black Dodge Charger. Whim was parked alongside the AEGIS van and flanked by a string of Brotherhood vehicles. The top of the barn was silhouetted by the flames from the farmhouse as they tickled the night sky.
Shoshannah marched towards the driver’s side, “You let them drive my car?”
IGOR’s Australian accent came out over the speakers as she opened the door. “Good evening, Mistress. It seemed the best option considering the circumstances. I’ve been scanning the area, and regret to inform you that your re-animation process is no longer proprietary.”
She flipped a few switches to get the power started, “I’m aware!”
The AI offered, “During your stay, I’ve taken the liberty of developing several tactical options for eliminating your captors. May I deploy them?”
Shoshannah and John got in and secured their straps as she retorted, “Later. Give me an overhead with escape routes.”
The locks to the doors snapped shut, and the engine purred to life. The dashboard lit up as a red glow shined onto their faces. Through the front windshield, the surrounding camp was illuminated through a night vision filter. A 3D image of a red line showed her the most optimal path of departure from their hosts.
John cinched in the harness, “Sho, where in the blue blazes did you get this thing?”
She threw Whim into gear. “It comes factory standard with every Dodge.”
John gave a skeptical look, as they slowly moved forward in the night. She followed IGOR’s course and quietly made a beeline for an open section in the surrounding forest. They cleared the edge of the milk barn and saw the burning farmhouse. It was fully engulfed in flames with a ring of cultists standing a safe distance away, watching it slowly turn to ash.
A few bumps and turns later, Shoshannah had found her way out of the woods and onto a dirt road. John looked behind them as she pushed the pedal to the floor. The 500 horsepower engine screamed to life as she streaked off into the night. Clouds of dirt folded into her rearview mirror as her car quickly ate up the road.
IGOR announced, “Mistress, there are two men ahead on the road. Alert! One of them is reading a body temperature of 32 degrees. Shall I deploy the weapons?”
She decelerated, “No. You shall take no offensive actions against Adam, for now. We have a truce until we can destroy all my blood, and the creatures the Brotherhood has created with it.”
The AI protested, “Mistress, based on past behavioral patterns, the probability that Adam will betray you is one hundred and thirty-two thousand, two hundred and twelve to one.”
A beleaguered Jagger and the towering Adam came into view of her headlights, “IGOR, disengage voice option until further notice.”
She unlocked the doors, and Jagger was unceremoniously launched into the back seat by Adam. The six-foot seven-inch tall man wedged himself into the vehicle as it settled under the new weight. Shoshannah slammed the door and poured on the speed.
She glanced into the rearview mirror at Jagger, “Are you okay?”
The man was shaking from a mixture of fear and shock as he replied, “I believe so. I’m not sure. Sho, I’m sorry. I couldn’t do anything to stop him. I tried. I tried so hard.”
Shoshannah felt a swell of tears drip from her face, “I know you did. This is my fault. This is all my fault.”
Adam’s face lurked in the upper corner of her backseat, “I warned you this would happen.”
Fury overtook her, “I swear by our creator! Not another word!”
After a moment of awkward silence, John turned to her, “I know y’all got some catching up to do, but there’s this thing I got about savin’ the world. Does this car have a phone?”
In response to his question, a ten-digit pad appeared on his side of the windshield. He dialed a number, and Agent Patrick Decker answered. He got him up to speed on the Brotherhood’s plans. John read off the list of locations the blood and technicians had been shipped to.
Patrick gave a stoic, “I’ll inform Control. This is going to be a massive search. At least it makes sense now as to why the Crimson Brotherhood has been one step ahead of us. Richard Enfield has the UCC and the police department feeding them intelligence.”
John rubbed his head, “We don’t know how far that influence goes. All it takes is one good Christian in the CIA or FBI to report to the Crusaders that we’ve found one of these hideouts. They will bug out of whatever hole they’re hiding in long before we can get there.”
His partner paused o
n the phone before asking, “What do we do?”
He leaned back, “We take a page out of the Brotherhood’s playbook. We compartmentalize. We will have to keep this completely within AEGIS. The Branch offices in each of those States will operate under radio silence. Control will be the only point of contact for everyone.”
Patrick sighed, “It’s a solid plan. I’ll run it past Control. We’re setting up shop in downtown Tulsa. We found a warehouse there that can act as a base of operations. I’ll send you the address on this number.”
Shoshannah programmed in the location and then told the Texan, “I’ll help you, but you have to get Jagger’s family to safety. If you do that, I’ll join AEGIS full time until we track down whatever abominations they decide to make.”
John stuck out his hand and shook hers, “Deal, partner.”
Adam’s deep voice skulked from the back seat, “When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come and see!’ I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”
Chapter 18: Richard VIII
Tulsa, Oklahoma - Friday, November 16th, 2018 – 10:43 p.m. CST
It had been almost two hours since the first report came in about the facility bombing, and the War Room had been abuzz ever since. Richard Enfield sat at the head table of the downtown Brotherhood Library and assessed the evening’s report. He held his weary head in both hands and listened to Maxwell Garner read off the names of the lost Brotherhood members.
Richard pulled out a bottle of Tylenol, as Max asked, ‘Headache?”
He popped two pills in his mouth and replied, “Yes, one the size of Shoshannah Feinstein.”
Max chuckled, “Well, there is some good news. The members weren’t entirely incompetent at evacuating and covering up their retreat. Also, all the shipments left the facility without incident. They should arrive at their destinations within twenty-four hours.”
