Mr. Sullivan accelerated, kicking up dust. The smooth ride of the Mercedes made little noise as they pulled up in front of the house and filed out. Fox One observed the house, still in shadow from the low rising sun.
Fox One waited by the trunk as it sprung open. He reached in, pulled out a lifeless body, and cradled it in his arms. Fox One turned toward the huge front door as Mr. Sullivan cracked it open without knocking, pushing it open with his fist.
Mr. Sullivan motioned for Fox One to bring in the body. The phantom mounted the steps and entered first. He squinted as he crossed the threshold, unable to see anything within, and paused.
Mr. Sullivan chuckled. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid of the dark phantom?”
“Absolutely not. I do like seeing where I’m stepping though.”
“Oh, you can’t see inside? Very well, do as you must. They don’t call you the phantom for nothing.”
Fox One held the body with one arm and reached into his vest, pulling out three glow sticks. He bit down on the ends and yanked with his free hand, cracking their protective shells. The bright neon yellow glow lit up his mouth and face.
He chucked the sticks haphazardly into the huge open room. They skidded across the wooden floor and came to a stop shedding light in the open space. Silence ensued. Fox One hefted the body under both arms and proceeded inside. Mr. Sullivan followed in tow but stopped just shy of the door jam, examining it. The phantom walked out into the middle of the floor and called out,
“Mrs. Sullivan! Evelynnnn!” He rotated in Mr. Sullivan’s direction. “Why are you not coming in; you’re making me nervous. Does she scare you?”
“Hardly, Fox One. Your nerves are influenced so easily? I doubt that. Better to be safe than sorry though, soldier.”
Sullivan pushed several buttons on his watch and held the face toward the opening, projecting a hologram of himself into the room. Quickly a green light glowed below his walking hologram and another high up on the ceiling.
A loud zap filled the room, and green lightning bolts came down upon the hologram striking it repeatedly till the image eroded away and disappeared. Fox One stood in the room motionless. He felt like he was in a giant bug zapper. The air smelled repugnant, causing him to cough. A loud voice came from within the room but wasn’t native to it.
“Ha, ha, ha! That was fun, wasn’t it? You can’t blame a girl for trying. Oh, don’t look so disappointed! You’re the one who sent those grotesque beasts to contain and then eliminate me. It was only fair I return the favor, or at least try.”
“Evelyn, shut up already and show yourself!”
“No doubt you most likely avoided my wonderful trap. The mighty Mr. Sullivan.”
The voice kept speaking. Mr. Sullivan knew it was a recording and tuned it out. He quickly reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a pool ball-sized metal sphere, and twisted it between his palms.
Mr. Sullivan hurled the ball into the space, and it came to rest, stopping precisely in the center of the room. It wobbled side to side as if magnetized, and light shot out in every direction like a net, draining and neutralizing Evelyn’s booby trap. Not wasting a second, Mr. Sullivan entered, walked through the network of light now filling the room unharmed, and called out.
“Enough tricks. That’s enough fun for now, Ms. Likvold. I had really hoped we’d have a much longer relationship. I think you forget who got you where you are, and that ultimately we’re working for the same goal.”
Silence filled the house once again.
“To the library. Let’s get her attention,” said Mr. Sullivan.
Fox One cracked his last three glow sticks with his mouth and threw one down the hallway, illuminating it. He turned the corner into the library, threw the two remaining sticks, which dimly lit the bookcases and podium. Cautiously, Mr. Sullivan threw another orb into the library, but it didn’t activate.
He entered and listened as Fox One spoke. “Here’s the man you sent to kill us. I think you underestimated our strength.”
Fox One threw the corpse of the Butcher down in the middle of the floor. The bot’s solid form thudded loudly on the wooden surface.
Mr. Sullivan called out. “You and Marty have been busy stabbing me in the back. Then you raised the Butcher and sent him after me and my pets. Don’t worry, Marty’s betrayal is coming to an end soon. And, of course, you now know what happened to your precious Butler.”
No response to their presence in the library struck Mr. Sullivan as very strange. He walked over to the pedestal and picked up his inactive orb along the way. Mr. Sullivan pulled out a small rectangular device and plugged it into the pedestal’s input terminal. He waited a few moments for the system to initialize. Lack of response from the system angered Mr. Sullivan. He slammed his fist down on the pedestal, cracking it.
“Impossible! This is my datacenter! Where is the system?”
Mr. Sullivan rushed over to the bookcases and pressed his palm against them. No response. The wall of protective panels remained black. Fox One examined the bookcase’s shiny black surface, cold to the touch. Fox One looked over at Mr. Sullivan, pressing his forehead against the bookcase in frustration. The phantom drew his firearm and pointed it in Mr. Sullivan’s direction.
“What on earth are you doing?” said Mr. Sullivan.
Fox One cocked the hammer. Confused, Mr. Sullivan contemplated his next move. He turned and faced Fox One with a scowl. As Mr. Sullivan began to speak, a translucent Evelyn passed through his body.
The image fluxed and became distorted from interference, then spoke. “If only I were there to see the look on your face. Ha, ha, ha!” Ms. Likvold said, delighted.
Mr. Sullivan began taping on his wrist device but froze.
“If you’re trying to track my incoming signal’s location, don’t bother. This isn’t live. It’s a recording. Sorry to disappoint. Let me tell you how things are going to go now. The data center is now out of your grasp, and I am moving forward with Phase Two.
Your R & D is quite impressive. I’d like to think we could have put our heads together, but we both know neither one of us will trust each other. Your Leo is quite amazing. I’ll admit you were right, he will help launch the future, with me.”
Mr. Sullivan was seething, he had had enough of her gloating. He tossed his orb and it fired up, neutralizing her recording and image with a zap.
Mr. Sullivan walked to the exit of the library. “Let’s get the hell out of here. I’ve had enough of her games. There’s nothing here for us. We need to locate her and put a stop to her plans immediately. It’s time to take off the leash.”
CHAPTER 3
A fter finishing his father’s letter, Leo now had a clearer picture of things. The whole experience was more than a personal one. It had implications that transcended his own life, it affected the world around him and beyond.
His decisions were critical, it seemed, to how tomorrow would come about. Such a profound monumental decision had been placed upon him and made him feel overwhelmed. He eyed the cabin of the silent plane and then closed his eyes, letting all his decisions rest.
Turbulence shook the plane, and Leo looked down the dim aircraft, saw no issue, then glanced up to check the safety warning lights. No warning had been issued, but Leo had a bad feeling. He stood up for a better view.
The dark cabin looked the same. He walked the length of the plane as it shook again. Leo stabilized himself and staggered forward to find one of the crew when the plane jumped in turbulence again. This time he nearly fell off his feet, using the seat back to keep himself vertical. The calm passengers seemed strangely silent. When he looked over at them, he froze, startled. Instead of humans, they were robotic, no flesh coverings for disguise, identical to the images Mr. Sullivan had shown him of the Butler.
“What the hell!” yelled Leo.
All of their heads turned toward him in unison as they opened up the window shades, revealing a blue light off the left side and green on the right. Leo shielded his eyes and l
ocated the source of the blue light. Mr. Sullivan stood on the wing glaring in at him, light radiating from his body. On the opposite stood Mrs. Sullivan, her body glowing green. Mrs. Sullivan’s mouth moved as the robots on her side of the plane relayed her message in a possessed monotone speech.
“You must choose now, there is no middle ground. We have worked together in peace. Choose Mr. Sullivan and you will receive the suffering and isolation he has brought you. He will leave you broken, controlled, used, and bankrupt, the lives of ones you love leveraged to the brink. He will make you choose between your heart and logic.”
Leo walked over toward her side of the plane, the jet tipped sending him into the seats among her drones.
“Leonard, by choosing her, you are putting a knife to your own throat. Her promises are a front for her true intentions. You will be discarded when you bring her what she needs. I have protected you from her murderous Butcher that she sent to reclaim you. Her victory depends on your contribution, a second chance for her to perfect her destructive tendencies. I haven’t asked anything of you, but she has demanded that her precious mineral be decoded. Don’t make the wrong decision.”
Leo stepped over toward Mr. Sullivan’s side, and the already tilted aircraft shifted toward the blue light. Leo anticipated the plane’s movement and didn’t walk all the way to Mr. Sullivan, stopping in the middle. Leo realized he was in control.
They both needed his direction if either of them were to prevail. While Leo did have control, it was short lived, with indecision, both sides became desperate and began tearing the plane in half. By not picking one or the other, disaster ensued.
Leo hastily tried to make a decision, but it was too late. His hesitation sent cracks spreading down the center of the plane. Leo hopped toward Mr. Sullivan’s side, but the floor burst open, leaving him hanging on for dear life.
Dangling from a seat back 30,000 feet above the earth, Leo began to yell and scream, the torrent of wind drowning out his voice. “I’ve made my choice. Restore this plane or lose it all! I’ll let go!” The seat back he was clutching tore away, leaving him with a hand full of fabric as he plummeted down into the clouds.
Mr. Sullivan called out from the white abyss. “It’s too late, Leo; it’s already begun.”
Leo watched as the plane became smaller and smaller, the wind so deafening he could hardly hear his own thoughts. Leo passed through a thick section of grey clouds, unable to see his own limbs before him. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his wrist. Squinting he tried to make out a face. Unable to see clearly, he strained to hear a voice from within the sea of clouds.
A voice familiar to him spoke. It was loud and clear. It was the voice of his father. “Leo, this future will be set in motion if you are unable to decide. This decision is on your doorstep now. You cannot run from it. You cannot play both sides if you are to succeed. Choose wisely and choose quickly, or your fate will play out as it has here. I didn’t choose wisely, but you can fix all that. Oh, and don’t forget to, wake up!!”
Before reality returned, Leo’s last vision was that of his father’s face in the haze, fading away to a point of light in the distance. The image faded to another. Leo looked up at a beautiful Sarafina, face and hair like an angel. While his outstretched hand held hers, confusingly, she began yelling something to him. His surroundings slowly came into focus. He lay on his back in the center isle of the plane.
By the looks of it, his own screams weren’t contained within his dream. The flustered, embarrassed Sarafina stared down at him, along with the surrounding irritated passengers. Her demeanor changed to a smile when she saw Leo coming to.
“Well howdy, cowboy. You sure do know how to get a woman’s attention. You’ll let go, huh? I sure hope you never do,” she said with a wink. Sarafina pulled him upright, and Leo dusted off his pants as a flight attendant approached him.
“Welcome to Croatia, sir!” the woman said with a thick Slavic accent.
CHAPTER 4
M rs. Sullivan, or more accurately Ms. Likvold, hoped the data center and the relationship with Mr. Sullivan would have lasted longer. She knew it would fall apart at some point; after all that was her intention from the start.
Anyone could see that they didn’t meet eye to eye, and she wasn’t about to be left behind. She had prepared for this moment and had begun the process of transference as soon as she learned of the Butler’s final moments.
After upload of the Butcher’s memory into a new body, she gave him coordinates to her new position. Hindsight is always 20/20, and she was now kicking herself for implanting her whereabouts within the Butcher’s line of code. She never considered he would fail, so it should be a relatively safe gamble; however, his capture meant Mr. Sullivan would know her secrets.
The ease with which the Butler was defeated was a concern. Mr. Sullivan’s R & D had put him ahead of her. This self-destructive foaming acid he had developed was very smart. No proof, no evidence, no data for any enemy to comb through and gain insight or discover weakness.
She had no doubt of her ultimate dominance over her more organic enemy. Mr. Sullivan’s pets were a different story. She wouldn’t have needed to worry about Mr. Sullivan if she hadn’t informed him of her plans for phase two and leaving him an empty data center was sure to piss him off.
She would have to press Leonard harder; with his mind, she would unlock advantages that would give her the edge. Moving all the servers and storage on such short notice wasn’t feasible, so she had made preparations long ago. She needed something large enough to handle production but remote and unnoticed for all her activity. She had found all that in a neglected, unkempt plantation-style mansion off the Potomac.
Pulling into her new center of operations, she was excited knowing Mr. Sullivan, Stratus, and Leo would all be trying to find her. She would start up production and have units ready for Leo to equip with new discoveries. Improvements must be made to her current prototype.
Marty would be putting in long hours working on ideas for the new model, but she was excited to see what Leonard came up with. Assuming Leo was cooperative, and things went as planned, she would lead the charge.
She checked on Leo’s coordinates, thanks to a tracker she placed within the tablet he now had. She was fortunate enough to convince Cronos to help her out with Leo’s travel plans and GPS. Everything was on track as long as Leo didn’t deviate.
Ms. Likvold rolled down the dark tinted window on her Lincoln town car, reclined the seat position, and listened to the dull quiet of her new facility. Soothed by her tranquil setting, she envisioned how it would soon change. Soon it would harbor life within, the smell of liquid steel, plastics, and chemicals, in a humid, hot production floor.
And with Leo’s help, an endless supply of Mimetite on hand. Brrring…brrring, her phone interrupted her visions, but she remained relaxed and watched as the car’s Bluetooth brought up the caller’s information on the dash screen.
“Answer call…” she said to the car’s voice recognition. “Tell me the good news my new favorite Fox.”
“Reporting as requested. Mr. Sullivan is on site. I tried to delay his discovery of the empty data center, but Fox One sneaked up behind me and put a gun to my head.”
“One step ahead, huh. That snake. I had hoped for some time before he discovered I had abandoned that site. There is a bright side though, at least Fox One didn’t kill you. Abandon your post and meet me here. No detouring or changing your mind. Mr. Sullivan won’t be happy you mislead him into thinking I was still there. There’s no going back for you.”
“Yes, I know that, I made my choice when I decided to stay behind for you. What about Mr. Lattamus? If he shows up here, there will be no one, he will be suspicious.”
“And how is that a bad thing? Just leave the thinking to me. Let’s hope we don’t encounter Mr. Lattamus ever again. I’ll expect you here by the end of the day. Oh, and I have a job for you. It carries the utmost importance.”
Ms. Likvold heard a faint sigh on the
line from her soldier. “I’d send my butler but you’re all that’s available. Suck it up! This is what I pay you for! I need you to pay a visit to my long-time friend Marty. He will be reluctant, but I need you to bring him here to me. This will be a permanent arrangement, but he doesn’t need to know that yet. As proof to him that you’re acting upon my wishes, tell him both models are toast. We need upgrades and Mr. Sullivan is no longer a partner.”
“What if I’m followed? Ill lead them right to Marty and your new location.”
“Do not allow them to track you; if you do you’re as good as dead because I’ll kill you myself. Head straight to his shop, Marty’s Metal Mayhem. If you need to, be persuasive, if you know what I mean. If you don’t bring Marty, don’t bother showing up here. You have twenty-four hours; after that I’ll assume you failed. You will be rewarded nicely. Good luck, I’m depending on you.”
Ms. Likvold, pushing the button to open the sunroof, ended the call and closed her eyes, enjoying her reverie once again. Sun dappled her face through the swaying weeping willow branches until finally a vibration snapped her mind away from the edge of sleep.
Keeping her eyes closed she said, “Read message please.” The car played her message out loud.
Leonard has arrived on the ground in Rijeka. Do you have an asset you would like sent to monitor his progress?
Ms. Likvold spoke as her phone typed her message. “Asset already in place. I’ll handle it from here Cronos.”
Everything was running as smoothly as possible given the circumstances. Stealing Mr. Sullivan’s data center and operating out of his control had to be driving him mad. She smiled, this made her feel all warm inside. Ring, ring, her phone sounded again as the caller’s name pulled up on the dash.
“Speak of the devil! Answer call, she commanded. Well, if it isn’t my Ex. Are you calling to apologize and make up?”
The Second Rising Page 2
