Collin’s face became one of quiet sadness as he looked down at the giant lifting weights below him.
“Man,” Collin shook his head. “Does a single one of these guys have a happy story?”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
HEYER WAS NOT used to so many people having access to him at all hours of the day. As the population within Mr. Clean continued to grow, he found himself spending a great deal of time skulking about in shadows. Mostly, the catwalks that ran across the upper tiers of Mr. Clean’s layout. From above, he could quietly watch the rapidly evolving activity throughout the base.
One thing was clear, Jonathan possessed his father’s talent for leadership. With the help of Mr. Clean, he’d screened Heyer’s files on every implanted soldier and found the men who possessed highly specialized skillsets. He flagged several individuals and their extraction to Hangman’s Tree was prioritized over the rest.
All this was put in motion while Heyer had still been in a coma.
The priority extractions helped him address a number of problems before they became problems. For instance, Jonathan had already established a chain of command by pulling in those with military backgrounds to organize those who did not. As the population of Hangman’s Tree grew, this kept orders disseminating down the chain smoothly.
He’d made other men priority retrievals as well. Soldiers that possessed unique skill sets. These men arrived to find they had already been put on special project teams. They had less oversight than Heyer would have thought, but Jonathan said they were the sort who would be far more effective if they weren’t micromanaged. It was no coincidence that those men also tended to have survived being implanted longer than the average.
Schooling soldiers, especially those who had never seen a Ferox, was the largest endeavor. Simply having a military file wasn’t enough to tell how an individual handled themselves in a fight with a Ferox.
For this Jonathan already had a planned—curriculum—of sorts.
He put Mito and Perth in charge of assessing the soldiers strengths and weaknesses—their lethal acumen—upon arrival at Hangman’s Tree. But they were really accomplishing two goals at once. While assessing the newcomers, they were also working with Mr. Clean to develop and improve training scenarios within the projection chamber.
The projection chamber took up about a fifth of Hangman’s Tree by itself. To hear Collin and Hayden describe it, the space was part X-Men Danger room and part Star Trek Holodeck. While these references were lost on Heyer, the idea wasn’t a complicated one. Jonathan would have a man activated, then send him into the chamber where Mr. Clean manifested environmental conditions and opponents. This gave everyone a chance to learn without danger of death.
Some soldiers were quick to puff their chests. To be fair, the loud mouths weren’t always overestimating themselves. Thing was, they all arrived with no point of comparison. Most, shortly after watching Perth or Mito in action, quickly realized they had a lot more to learn than teach. Then there were the quiet ones. Far less likely to overestimate their abilities, and sometimes rather full of surprises.
Mito and Perth had figured out early on that it was best not to tell them they were in a simulation for their first assessment. Knowing the Ferox they fought wouldn’t actually kill them affected their behavior inside. They got a far better idea of how a man handled himself when he believed it was life or death.
Every once in a while, one of those quiet and reserved young men who had hardly said two words since arriving got their attention. They were usually the smaller ones with less compatibility to their devices.
One time in particular, Perth had come out of the chamber after viewing such an assessment and found himself standing on the catwalks beside Heyer. Perth looked paler than usual. He hadn’t said much, only shook his head. “Some men, they have to go to a darker place than I ever did to survive.”
The tryouts gave Mito and Perth a good idea of who they’d pick first for their proverbial dodge ball team. That said, they quickly realized they needed more people capable of assessing the men’s capabilities. Heyer overheard the conversation when they came to Jonathan asking for more veterans to help with training and testing.
“Separate the leaders from the killers,” Jonathan said. “You’ll find that some are both, add them to your team.”
“That’s it?” Perth had asked.
“It’s how I picked you two,” Jonathan said.
The most important part of Mito and Perth’s project was that for the first time, the soldiers were able to watch and learn from one another. Share exploitable weaknesses, assess enemy behavior, learn what others had observed about Feroxian strategy. All these things were fed into Mr. Clean to make the projection chamber a better tool for teaching men to kill the enemy.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the facility, Anthony had been put in charge of another project. One that seemed to have turned one of their minor problems into an asset.
Jonathan hadn’t been the only one with friends. People whose freedom had become endangered through no fault of their own except their proximity to a man with an implant. In the extreme cases like Jonathan’s, they had to be brought out of harm’s way. As a result, there was a small but growing number of civilians relocated to Hangman’s Tree. Jonathan never saw these friends and family members as a burden. Rather, because they could not be dragged into The Never, they were a special sort of asset.
Jonathan sent the civilians to Anthony to start training them in his Mech Prototypes. The beauty of this was, in The Never, an activated man could be sent out with a contingent of alien steel Mech armored soldiers backing him up. If the civilian’s shadow died, their true selves were none the wiser. Shortly after implementing this tactic they stopped losing their implanted soldiers. Disappearances hurt morale profoundly, but seeing them virtually dry up within days of Jonathan’s taking command went a long way to convincing those who had never heard his name to follow his leadership.
To Heyer, it seemed there were a hundred other things going on. Some of it was beneficial for more obvious reasons, for instance, Jonathan had tasked his personal trainer, Lincoln, with assessing how quickly each man’s muscle mass could be increased outside of their combat training.
But then there were odd projects Heyer had yet to get fully briefed on. For instance, some of the men who had science backgrounds, had been tasked with acquiring large quantities of rotting broccoli. They were distilling it on a large scale. In addition to that, Jonathan had Mr. Clean spending rather large sums of money acquiring several chemical components in bulk. Jonathan was keeping a very tight grip on what his intentions were for these components.
When Heyer first asked, Jonathan only said that if there is one thing Malkier could not be allowed to learn of—it was this.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
PERHAPS JONATHAN SHOULD have seen it coming when Collin pulled him aside to speak privately.
“I want to try it,” Collin said.
“Try what?” Jonathan said.
“The Never.”
Jonathan blinked. “What . . . why?”
At first, Collin shrugged as though he didn’t think what he was asking for was a big deal. “Curiosity.”
Jonathan looked at his friend like he was about to explain to a three-year-old why they don’t run with scissors.
“It’s not a toy, Collin,” Jonathan said. “Mr. Clean isn’t stretching the fabric of existence so you can satisfy your curiosity. Now, if you’ve got a reason that might help our . . .”
Collin groaned.
If the redness entering his friend’s cheeks was any indication, his reason for wanting to use The Never were . . . embarrassing.
“Tibbs, come on,” Collin said. “You know why. Don’t make me actually say it.”
Jonathan’s brows went up.
“Honestly, haven’t got a clue,” Jonathan said. “But, it doesn’t matter anyway. Without an implant, sending you into The Never is a waste of time.”
“H
uh . . . why?”
Jonathan tilted his head. “The device is what collects your experiences inside. Without it, there is nothing to send or receive those memories across the time boundary. The short version, you wouldn’t remember anything.”
Collin’s expression softened. He looked a little dejected but nodded and began to walk away.
Knowing he would likely regret it, Jonathan stopped him. “But . . . and I can’t believe I am going to offer this. I could . . . I could tell your shadow next time I’m inside.”
“Tell my shadow what?” Collin asked.
“Well, you know, that he’s . . . a shadow,” Jonathan said. “My guess here is that there is something you wanted to test without there being consequences. Whatever it is, I could tell the real you how it went, but . . . I’m not doing any of this unless there’s a good reason.”
Collin chewed on his options for a moment. Finally, he let out a groan and leaned in close to whisper something. However, he mumbled so quietly Jonathan couldn’t make it out.
“For the love of . . . I’ve got things to be doing right now,” Jonathan said. “Just out with it alr—”
“Paige,” Collin said. “I want to ask, or see, you know, if . . .”
Collin put his palms up, eyes bulging at him with a look of why-aren’t-you-getting-this.
“Ohhh,” Jonathan finally said.
Suddenly, he was as uncomfortable as his friend. “Collin, I don’t know if that—”
“I know, okay, it’s not exactly what I’d call worth your time, or brave,” Collin said. “I just, I don’t have a ton of friends, given current events, I don’t want . . .”
Collin sighed. “There just isn’t any taking it back, and we’re all stuck together here until this is over.”
“Stop, stop, I get it,” Jonathan said, not wanting to endure another awkward moment. “If you can’t eat the cake, you’d still like to be able to sit next to it without the cake knowing you . . . wanted to eat it.”
A moment passed in silence between them.
Finally, Collin started to laugh.
“I’m sorry,” Jonathan nodded. “Terrible analogy.”
“So . . . ?” Collin asked.
“So, I’ll think about it,” Jonathan said.
Collin shrugged but accepted it, and finally they walked away from one another.
A few seconds after they’d parted Jonathan turned a corner and nearly bumped into Leah. They hadn’t seen a lot of each other since getting to Hangman’s Tree outside of the war council. She kept to her chambers a lot. She might have been avoiding him.
“Oh, hey . . .”
He paused.
“. . . how long have you been standing there?”
“Hmmm. Maybe I just got here,” she said. “Maybe I saw you talking to Collin and didn’t want to interrupt.”
She stepped by, but turned around to let her eyes linger on him with a coy smile as she retreated. “Really could have been either.”
He smiled back at her innocently until she was on her way.
“Mr. Clean,” Jonathan said. “Did Leah hear what Collin and I were discussing?”
“I estimate a 95% probability,” the AI said.
“Great.”
Every day was bringing in a new batch of soldiers. Some freshly implanted. Jonathan made a point of introducing himself to them before their training began. Lincoln had heard the speech a few times now. The words changed, but he thought it was getting better.
They were arranged in a line-up, and Tibbs would step out in front of them. “We don’t bend.”
Jonathan paused for a long while as he took them all in.
“You’ll look around this place—you’ll see a lot of men who have survived these monsters. Maybe you expect those guys are gonna do the real work. Let me disillusion you. The only difference between you and them is that they wouldn’t be alive if they had needed to hear this speech.
“They don’t bend.”
He paused again. And Lincoln watched over the new recruits as they took it in.
“You’re going to be afraid. Maybe you think, ‘I have superpowers’, I’ll never be afraid again. You’d be wrong. Comic books don’t tell you this part. When you fight a monster, you’re a man in a cage with a bear. If it takes power to stand a chance, it means that no one without power can help you once the claws come out.
“The Ferox, they’ll be stronger than you. They won’t be afraid of you. They won’t hesitate to kill you. They won’t wait for you to throw the first punch and they don’t much care how they win.
“Look to the man standing next to you. If the Enemy gets the better of you out there, the only thing in this world that might be strong enough to pull him off . . . is that man.
“That is why, from this day forward, you will hold that man to a higher standard. I don’t care if his compatibility is half of yours. I don’t care if he is the weakest soldier in this entire army.
“You need him to be ready. I need him to be ready.
“He can’t bend.
“When I was where you are now, I gave myself an entire day to shit myself. An entire day to come to terms with the truth. After that, every moment I had was spent thinking about how to be ready. I’m alive, because from that day forward, if it wasn’t making me stronger, it was only a distraction that would get me killed.
“I can’t give you the entire day I gave myself. I’m giving you a single minute to decide. It’s not a war that is coming, it’s the war. We don’t yet know precisely when it will be here; until we do, we assume time isn’t on our side. I tell you this, so that you understand just how valuable this minute I’m giving you really is. Use it to convince yourself of two things.
“First is that the Ferox isn’t afraid of you, and that is its greatest weakness.
“Your fear is going to drive you to become whatever you must. To spend every breath becoming a better killer than these monsters. It’s going to be hard and you’ll want to quit everyday. Some days, you’ll want to quit every waking minute. But your fear will not let you.
“That said, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, which brings me to the second thing you must convince yourself.
“One day I will stand in front of you and tell you that the Earth is safe, that you no longer need to be afraid.
“That we did not bend.”
Jonathan walked away. Each time he did he would exchange a glance with Lincoln before the man joined Mito and Perth in front of the recruits. Lincoln was always the first to speak, but he gave them their minute of silence before he began.
“I hope you’ve all convinced yourself, because from this point forward, I’m the guy in charge of everything your body does. You will sleep, eat, and train the way I tell you. If I’m not making you stronger, then Mito and Perth will be making you better killers.
“Understand, your fitness no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the world.”
Lincoln felt his speech was getting pretty solid as well.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
HAYDEN HAD BEEN lost in his thoughts as he poured his first cup of coffee. Until Collin spoke, he’d barely registered his friend was sitting at the table.
“So,” Collin said. “I have an idea but you’re probably not going to like it.”
“Um, were we talking?”
“No, but we are now,” Collin said.
“Right,” Hayden said, sitting down across from him. “What’s this idea then?”
“How we should end The New Testament Reloaded,” Collin said.
Hayden sipped his coffee, staring blankly back. “Collin, the world might end any day now. If by some miracle it doesn’t, we’re still fugitives. Either way I think our publishing careers are over.”
“Right, it’s just I asked Mr. Clean to check and . . .” Collin trailed off, then shook his head. “No. You’re right. Forget I mentioned it.”
Hayden swallowed his coffee, his eyes narrowing into a glare. “Stop baiting me. What is it?”
&nb
sp; Collin smiled. “I asked Mr. Clean to check on sales of the first two books,” Collin said. “They’re going up not down.”
“Does it matter?” Hayden asked. “We don’t really need money anymore.”
“No, I’m just saying people still want to know how the story ends.”
Hayden took a sip of his coffee, then let out a long breath. “Fine . . . let’s hear this idea.”
She was stretching her legs on the catwalks when she noticed Heyer leaning over one of the rails. As she got closer, she saw he was listening to her two roommates below.
She had yet to have a conversation alone with the alien. Despite everything she’d learned since coming to Hangman’s Tree, she still struggled at times to see the blond man as something more than the person who’d entered their home and attacked her friend. Context mattered, but the fear she’d associated with the man for months didn’t disappear overnight.
With that in mind, she thought this might be an opportunity to push past her reservations.
“We’ve never really spoken,” Paige said.
The alien startled a bit when she spoke. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
“I was just . . .” Heyer trailed off, as though rethinking whatever he was about to say.
Paige looked down on Collin and Hayden and frowned. “Eavesdropping?”
Heyer closed his eyes. “Yes.”
She found his embarrassment oddly humanizing.
“That’s funny,” Paige said, coming to stand next to him at the rail. “Because you’re always avoiding them.”
Heyer sighed. “At first it was easier to keep from getting cornered if I knew where they were.”
She grinned. “Sure.”
The alien, considering her, seemed to lose the desire to maintain the pretense.
The Never Army Page 43
