by Hanks, Greg
“Well,” said Slate, “it looks like you’ve lost five minutes.”
There was nothing we could do. As long as we were behind this shield, we weren’t going anywhere. And what was Celement’s play here, anyways? He would attempt to draw us out by using Justin? Maybe it would work on Tara, but the others would never go for it. Celement had to have known that.
“Let Justin go, you sick bastard!” yelled Tara.
“Me?” asked Slate incredulously. “Working with Celement? That cockeyed freak? I have nothing to do with your tag-along.”
“Then what the hell is going on?!” she answered.
“It would be a waste of time to explain it all,” he began. “You don’t deserve to know anything.”
Bollis spoke low. “You . . . wanted this to happen.”
Slate remained still.
My mind was running a million miles. Had Slate faked his death? What had happened between him and Repik? What was Genesis? Was the last month of my life good for nothing?
Bollis seemed to be catching on quicker than anyone. “You,” he began, “you used us.” He shook his head in silence.
Slates eyes pierced through Bollis.
Suddenly, a flash of realization overtook me. Repik must have wanted Slate dead. If Vane had been Slate’s vehicle to reclaim the throne, then Bollis was right; we had been used to fulfill a madman’s plan.
“When all is said and done,” started Slate, “you can put your blame upon Jonas Repik.”
“Why, because he managed to kick you out? You couldn’t even control your own corporation?” accused Bollis, confirming my suspicions.
The insult rebounded off of Slate. He began to pace across the floor and glanced over at his computer screen.
“Admit it!” Tara exclaimed. “Repik tried to kill you. All this time we’ve been feeding your revenge.”
“This world,” Slate said, “is so fragile and malleable. Without me, it would crumble into factions and districts with no purpose or desire. Repik made a grave mistake trying to eliminate me.”
“Get off your ledge,” jeered Vexin.
“Why Genesis?” I asked. “Why the weapons and secrecy?”
“Genesis,” said Slate as he paced, “was a plan devised back in the ‘20’s. Asia was giving us a lot of grief back then. We were trying to prevent World War Three. If you really want to know the truth, you were our ‘prototypes.’ Prototypes of the perfect soldier.”
Prototypes. Genesis was an anti-terrorism program? The “perfect soldier”?
“But it doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “You used your own corporation as the objective.”
“Conflicts around the world settled down around the time we started recruiting. Think about it. Using GenoTec as the enemy allowed us to control what information we used to rally your emotions. We had to keep you active and goal oriented. You should feel privileged—you’re the only ones who knew the truth.”
So our cause was true, but we were working for GenoTec the entire time.
“No wonder we had stalemates,” discovered Bollis. “And that’s why you were always gone.” He murmured to the floor. “How could I have been so blind?”
We were in a daze. Vexin looked sick. Tara’s face was red and her eyes never stopped misting.
We had been pawns. This entire time—Celia’s six-year tenure to my one month—was all for nothing. It didn’t fully make sense. All of my training and improvements in the Underbed—all of the life threatening events afterward—were just a sideshow.
Tara answered my question before I had a chance to ask. The question that had been burning inside of me since the night of the Turnmont incident.
“So why the hell bring me and Mark into this?” asked Tara.
Slate shrugged. “The more members, the easier it would be to regain control. You’re entrance into Genesis was purely situational. I needed two more, I found two more. I also got to see how quickly a person could be trained using our methods.”
“That’s why we were targeted,” I muttered, being overwhelmed with knowledge. “Repik must have known you had chosen us! He tried to take all three of us out that night.”
Slate clapped twice. “Congratulations, Mark. You figured it out.”
“You put your success upon us?” asked Bollis. “How did you know we wouldn’t turn on you? How could you possibly know that this would work?”
“Why are you using your time to ask such worthless questions?” replied Slate. “Look where you’re standing. It worked, trust me.”
“And what about Repik then?” I asked. “What happened between you two?”
Slate stopped pacing, staring at the ground. He turned to his monitor.
“When GenoTec was an infant,” he began, “there were six founders. Myself, Repik, and four others. Our goal was simple: ‘changing the world.’ However, my colleagues didn’t exactly share my ambitions. Except for Repik. He and I led GenoTec to where it is now—to the top. But he became greedy. He saw my leadership as a barrier to GenoTec’s true destiny. He was and still is a fool.”
“You couldn’t even manage your own servants,” said Bollis, laughing. “No, congratulations to you.”
Slate smiled with Bollis. “I knew all about Repik’s plan from the start,” he began. “Everything I did—from my death, to my abduction—was planned. Repik never knew where Genesis was, until I leaked the information. Everything I have done was to use Repik’s coup against him. I knew Repik wasn’t going to be up here. But once I gained access to the building, Repik knew he couldn’t control me. It’s over. And so is Genesis.”
“So you fake your own death, you use us to get back here, and now what? What’s your next move?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said frankly, “you’ll all be dead anyways.”
An evil thought crossed my mind. I didn’t want to even think about it, but I couldn’t contain myself.
“How could this happen? How did GenoTec survive Edge?”
Slate’s black eyes rose to meet mine. He inhaled, enjoying the satisfaction of being in control once more. He took a few steps forward. When he spoke, I don’t think I completely understood. I don’t think I was mentally ready for it.
In the most prideful tone, full of sadistic pleasure, Slate uttered the words that could have ended my life right then and there.
“I created Edge.”
58
Celement watched the computer monitor with distaste.
Slate’s cornered, he thought. Repik better realize my sacrifice in finding this brat.
“Hey, ‘screw-eye’!” shouted a bound Justin, squirming in the back corner. “You’re fuggin’ dead-oh, you bozo!”
“Shut up, you little wretch!”
“Oooh,” continued Justin, pretending to cry, “I’m so-ooo s-scared of you. Oh, please, oh, please, Mr. Celement. Let me go! Wah, wah, wah!”
Celement got up from the communications desk and slammed his boot into Justin’s gut. The previous pains of the day returned and Justin nearly blacked out.
“When I tell you to be quiet,” the deranged man said, flicking out a combat knife, “you be quiet.”
Without warning, Celement took the knife and ripped a part of Justin’s forearm open. The boy screamed in pain, but could do nothing as the blood drained from his wound.
Celement licked his lips, watching the red ink trickle.
“Now,” said the cockeyed man, going back to the desk. “Your ten minutes are almost up. It looks like your friends have abandoned you.”
Celement knew they would never be able to make it in time. But the manic desire to watch people suffer pushed him to have a little fun.
Justin groaned as he tried to position himself into a kneeling stance. The destruction within his abdomen pulsed with the heat of a burning kiln. He knew Tara wouldn’t leave him to be killed. He viewed Celement as nothing more than one of Repik’s toads, trying to scare him into thinking he was deserted. Someone would come. Someone had to come.
&n
bsp; “Has anyone ever told you,” struggled Justin, wincing with each word, “you look like a dead rat. Ugly as hell.”
Celement turned his head.
“You have no idea how much I can hurt you without killing you,” he said, going back to work on the boy.
Justin continued to mock his captor. Fear surged within his body, but after everything he had been through in the last month, he was ready to be done with it all.
Just as Celement was about to plunge the knife into Justin’s eye, the door whooshed open and a lightning hot bullet struck Celement in the shoulder. The cockeyed man fell against the nearby wall, whimpering and clutching his wound.
Justin opened his eyes and found his savior standing in the threshold.
“Well,” shouted the boy, “it’s about time!”
59
I was lost. The floor had fallen out from under me. Darkness and a chattering insomnia took hold of my brain.
Bollis blabbered indistinctly. Tara and Vexin couldn’t take their eyes off of Slate. Every single moment of pain we had experienced for the last five years had come from the psychopath standing in front of us.
Edge was manmade.
Bollis combined our thoughts for us and came to Slate with the single word that summed up our dying minds.
“Why?” His plea for an answer was almost depressing. His hatred had turned to dithering pity.
“You would never understand.”
“You . . .” said Vexin, losing himself. “ . . . Kyla.”
Slate held his gaze upon Vexin for a moment, then sighed and impatiently looked at the progress of his download.
“You killed billions,” quivered Tara.
Finally, Slate became hostile. Something had upset him on the monitor.
“You know nothing of my purpose!” he snapped. “This world was poisoned by media, political corruption, and degenerates unwilling to make a difference. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch the planet burn because of greedy men and hopeless beings incapable of accomplishing anything!”
“So killing everyone was your answer?!” I blared.
“Think of it more as retribution,” he hissed. “Those who died were holding back the rest of us from reaching our true potential. ”
“No,” I said, “I’ll think of it as murder, you twisted bastard.”
“Every civilization has to end, Mark,” he continued. “The leaders of this world were blinded by their own desires of gratification. If Edge hadn’t intervened, war would have.”
“What happened to you?” asked Tara. “Why are you like this? How could you murder innocent children and whole continents?”
“There is a change coming,” he gloated, calming down. “An awakening of enlightenment and true progress. No longer will we be held back by the chains of government and the absence of hard work.” He was staring into space, consumed by his own convoluted dream.
“You’re insane,” concluded Bollis.
“Once the final bodies fall,” said Slate, “the Sterile Communities will be released, and the planet will become anew.”
“The Steriles?” I asked.
Finally, Slate made eye contact with me.
“They are the talented, the capable, and the blessed. They are the generation who will ascend the human race to become deity.”
“You don’t give a shit about any of those people,” said Tara. “You’re creating a kingdom for yourself and yourself only. Don’t try to make yourself feel better by saying you’ve ‘saved’ the planet. You’re pathetic—an abomination. You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to this planet.”
Slate craned his neck back, enjoying Tara’s outburst. There was nothing to be said. Slate was a fanatic. His cause was forever imprinted on the back of his eyes. The truth would eternally scald my soul, but there was no use trying to make sense of it. This conversation was over.
I grabbed Tara’s arm and pulled her into the back corner.
I lowered my voice. “We need to find a way out of here. Now.”
She looked back to Slate, and then turned to me. “The windows?”
I shook my head. “Maybe there’s a way to turn off this shield from our end.”
“You can’t stop me, Mark,” called Slate, walking to his monitor and swiping a number of items on the screen. “In a few moments, the entire world will know about Jonas Repik’s ‘betrayal’ and my subsequent resurrection. Things will be set right once again.”
“For years we trusted you—befriended you. I looked up to you,” Bollis was spiraling. “How can you just disregard all of that?”
Slate finished collecting his data and shut down the monitor.
“Allow me to demonstrate how meaningless you truly are,” he said, snatching a thumb-sized device from his hip pouch.
He brought the communicator to his mouth and began to speak.
“Celia, my dear” he said.
Genesis came alive. The four of us approached the barrier, but could only watch like caged animals.
“Who’s this? Vane? Is that you?” she asked.
Hearing her young voice knotted my stomach. Tara’s eyes began to fill with tears.
Behind his metal mask, Slate imitated Vane’s raspy voice.
“Yes. We’re all okay. We’ve got Repik.”
“What?! Tell me everything! Is he talking?!”
We were afraid to shout or do anything, knowing we might unintentionally cause Slate to kill her. But I don’t think he was going to spare her either way.
“Celia,” continued Slate, “we need an access code to Repik’s AI. I created a safe file for it before all this happened. The file is called ‘Repik AI’.”
“Okay, looking for it now. God, I’m glad you’re all safe. I spoke with Justin not too long ago, but his channel was cut off. Is he with you now?”
I closed my eyes and began praying. It was the first time in ten years or so. If there were a God, I would never ask for something more in my life than to stop this from happening.
“Yes. He is. Did you find the file?”
Celia hummed for a moment. Slate still wore the same expressionless face.
“Okay! I found it. Why is it encrypted?”
Slate stepped forward, inches away from the shield and held out the receiver.
“Goodbye, Celia.”
“No!” Tara screamed.
Out of the receiver came the sound of a muffled explosion. Everything went to white noise.
The four of us imploded, having to restrain all of our anger. Bollis fell against a bookcase, bewildered. Vexin held his stance, burning holes into the ground. I rested my elbows onto the glass table and ran my fingers through my hair. I think I was in shock, but I couldn’t tell.
Slate threw the receiver to the ground and started walking away.
I couldn’t contain the rage and thrashed the table while screaming. I pounded the glass with my fists and shattered the top, collapsing the equipment thereon.
“Archturus?” came a totally different voice from the intercom system. “Archturus, I know you’re in there.”
Slate stopped at the threshold of the office. The rest of us tilted our heads upward.
The voice laughed. “Archturus, you’re surrounded. It’s over. It was a nice try, but it’s over.”
“It’s Repik,” said Bollis, readying his ELBR.
Maybe we had our chance. This could be our ticket out of here. We had to be ready for anything.
“You’re bluffing, Jonas,” returned Slate.
“I don’t care what you think, Slate,” said Repik in his dreary, sneering voice. “I just want you dead.”
“Then kill me!” Slate shouted, spreading his arms. “Turn on the news, Jonas! Look what I’ve done!”
There was a short pause in their conversation.
“We control the news, Archturus. While I’m still alive, nothing you do is going to work.”
“Jonas,” finished Slate, “it’s a shame you and I could never see eye to eye.”
&n
bsp; All of the sudden, there was a large explosion at the far end of the hallway. The first set of double doors flew to either side and smoke clogged the rest of the corridor.
Repik wasn’t bluffing.
“You’ve always been incredible at making mistakes, my friend!” shouted Slate before taking a small sphere from one of his pouches and dashing it to the floor.
Rays as bright as the sun blinded our eyes and knocked us back. A clatter of gunfire came from the hallway. People started yelling indistinctly. Glass shattered and a gush of cold air swept through the office.
60
“Dodge! Justin!”
I rubbed my eyes once more. The blinding whiteness began to decrease, becoming small flashes with each blink. My head throbbed and the room bounced with each inner pulse.
“Here.” Vexin offered me a hand.
Once my eyes refocused, I caught sight of the living dead. Dodge was indeed standing before us, clutching his M580, speaking with the others. Justin was explaining to Tara in great detail about their mission to save us.
“You’re alive!” I called to Dodge. We embraced and started to discuss what had happened.
“Where were you?!” Bollis asked.
“I was stuck under a huge pile of debris from that ‘copter! You guys left me!”
“Trust me,” assured Bollis, “we wanted to search. How did you figure out Justin was in trouble?”
Dodge grinned.
“For some reason, Mark’s earpiece was picking up the surrounding noise,” he said. “I grabbed Justin and used a tiny bit of explosive on those doors. I stole some from you before we blew the sewer. I guess it came in handy after all.”
“Thank God you did.” Bollis smiled.
I felt my earpiece, wondering why it would do such a thing. Did Celia activate it remotely? Was it her last act to inform Dodge what was happening? Did she know Dodge was alive the whole time?
“Where’s Celement?” asked Tara, joining us with the boy.
“Still in that com room. Don’t worry, he’s not going anywhere.”
“You didn’t kill him?!” blasted Vexin.
Dodge looked stunned for a moment. “We might need him, Mr. Anger. What the hell?”
