Neon Helix

by Nik Whittaker

  “It’s…” Owens remembered that the body he was in wasn’t his. “It’s Max, Maxwell Owens,” He finally said.

  Peter’s eyes widened, scanning the man’s face he didn’t recognise, but the voice, it had the same tone that Owens used.

  “Owens? But how?” He looked at Jacob who was smiling now.

  “I finally managed it Peter, complete cerebral transference. Owens here is in a clone of yours, one which I had kept off the cortex receiver program. Owens’ complete mind is within this body, the original Owens, not a copy.”

  “That’s incredible,” Peter whispered. “His mind? What happened to his body?”

  “He killed me,” Owens said, before Jacob could reply.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Peter said, his emotional response hindered by his admiration of the work Jacob had done.

  “I did not kill you Owens, but enough chit chat and reconciliation,” Jacob interrupted. “How is Mr Travitz here doing?”

  Owens sat back down in front of the monitor, checking the vitals of Julian before replying.

  “Initial procedures are good, I think he’s as ready as possible,” Owens said.

  “May I?” Peter said, stepping round to look at the screens.

  “Be my guest,” Owens moved aside.

  Jacob watched and felt a pang of nostalgia, the three of them working together again on a new groundbreaking process. The way things had played out in the past had upset him, and whilst he had no regrets, he wished Owens and himself had been able to come to terms with their ideals. Peter pressed a few buttons on the console, his eyes reading several data streams.

  “Looks good,” he finally said.

  “And the elixir, is it ready?” Jacob asked.

  “It just needs a few minutes to complete the compiling, then it will be ready for testing.”

  “Excellent, then let’s get you set to work on your task.” Jacob replied, turning to Peter.

  “It was nice to see you again Owens,” Peter said, as they left the room.

  “You too Peter, take care of yourself,” Owens replied honestly.

  Peter and Jacob made their way back to the main church.

  “The church has several dampeners installed to prevent any digital transmissions in or out,” Jacob explained, “So the receivers won’t work until you’re beyond the threshold.”

  “I figured,” Peter said. “Do we have any leads at all to start on?”

  “Only a handful of locations where the Hunters have met resistance, which we believe to be from Prime and some people he’s aligned himself with. Tombs will take you to the Underpass and get you anything you might need,” Jacob said.

  “Excellent. I’ll let you know when I have him, do we want him alive still?” Peter asked.

  “Ideally,” Jacob replied. “Though I fear there is something broken inside him.”

  Peter nodded.

  “I’ll be back soon,” Peter said and left the church to join Tombs in the car outside.

  Jacob watched as he left before turning back to head to the lab, it was time.

  Entering, he saw that Owens’ code was just finishing.

  “Are we ready?” He asked.

  “I guess, are you sure this is what you want to do Jacob? We’re talking about causing pain of untold amounts all across the Boulevard!” Owens pleaded, hoping there was some remnant of the man he used to know inside.

  “No great thing comes without sacrifice Max,” Jacob said, taking a seat next to Owens. “I don’t want to do this, but it must be done. We can’t be altering the natural state of man anymore.”

  “And what about the clones, Peter and Prime, how is cloning not altering the natural state Jacob!?”

  “They are biological beings, naturally occurring, which we have simply copied. As the single cell amoeba reproduce by creating a perfect copy of themselves, we are simply doing that very thing but at a larger scale. We aren’t playing with technologies we don’t comprehend fully and putting them inside our genetic coding,” Jacob replied.

  Owens didn’t reply, he knew there was no reasoning with Jacob. Instead, he handed over a small data stick containing the coding for the elixir.

  “Here, you just need to insert it into Julians PDA and it will autoroute.”

  “Excellent, let the rapture begin,” Jacob announced, as he plugged the stick into Julian's arm.

  That was when the screaming started.

  First, Julian's body froze, no breathing or motion of any kind. This lasted for a couple of seconds before his whole body arched to a point that seemed unnatural. A deep breath followed, before a scream escaped his body, partially just from his body trying to release all the breath within his body, partially from the pain.

  Blood pooled around several areas of his body; both his eyes, all along his scalp, his forearms, fingers, legs. Internally, changes were also taking place.

  “How many implants does he have?” Jacob said, watching in interest at the scene before him.

  “The scans showed thirty-five, but I believe he may have had more which the detector here wouldn’t pick up due to their size. Including his entire scalp which had augmented hair integrated. This procedure will be extremely invasive and painful,” Owens said, trying his best to remain clinical, despite what was happening.

  “Amazing,” Jacob said, taking closer looks at Julians bloody body. “And the coding will still be able to transmit once it’s concluded its work?”

  “It’s designed to remove all implants but to keep the transmitter inside his brain, which once reconnected to the Net, it will send the virus to anything with a connection,” Owens confirmed.

  “Elixir, not virus,” Jacob corrected.

  On the table, the bloodied body of Julian finally relaxed, his head now completely bald as the synthetic hair had been rejected but coated with blood. His eyes now a bloody mess, making his face a masque of red which continued down his chest and arms. Laying there, he looked like a victim of a horrific accident.

  “Vitals?” Jacob asked.

  “Low, but stable. He will need time to adjust before he can be moved.”

  The procedure had been a success.

  Jacob looked over the bloodied body of Julian which Owens had begun to clean up, and admired the purity of the body. He was completely stripped of all his implants, a complete purging of all the augmentations.

  “I will leave you to tend his wounds Owens,” Jacob turned to leave, unlocking the door. “I’ll give you two hours, then I want him connected to the world, regardless of his condition, he will be the necessary sacrifice if needs be.”

  Owens just nodded as he continued cleaning the blood before it dried.

  Jacob opened the door and was confronted by a woman.

  “Who are you?” He demanded.

  CHAPTER 37

  Julian

  Julian’s mind was still aware of where he was, laying in pools of his own blood, his whole body was stinging like a burn that covered his entire body, inside and out.

  He kept his eyes shut, remembering what they had done.

  Five minutes earlier

  “You better get started,” Julian closed his eyes and sighed.

  Owens prepped the NanoCube for activation, by passing a small electrical current through the cube to allow it to release its bonds, keeping it solid. More than simply activating though, Owens needed the nanocubes to be programmed for the task of purging the toxins.

  “Are you sure this will work?” Julian asked, watching Owens as he set the equipment up.

  “I can program the nanos to make sure the virus will bypass them. Once they’re connected to the mainframe again though, I can’t be sure if they will fully trigger before the toxin can purge them, theoretically it will work, but we don't have time to test it unfortunately Owens replied as he inserted a connector directly into the cube.

  “Great. Is there no way to get a signal out of here?” Julian asked, he wanted to send a message to Quartzig. Once his body had been purged of all te
ch, he wouldn’t be able to communicate with him until the nanocubes had done their job, if they worked at all.

  “I’m afraid not, sorry,” Owens completed his adjustments.

  “OK, it’s a small injection to get the nanobots into your bloodstream but you should hardly notice it.”

  Julian sat on the side of the table as Owens pulled the nanobots into a syringe. They broke down into smaller and smaller parts until they looked more like a liquid that a solid.

  “Ready?”

  “Do it,” Julian winced as the needle punctured his skin, it felt like a cool liquid was being poured into his muscles as the nanobots spread into his bloodstream, settling all around his body, dormant but ready for the signals.

  “Feel ok?” Owens asked.

  “Cold but ok,” Julian shivered.

  There was the sound of the door unlocking behind them, Julian lay down quickly as Owens moved beside him.

  “How is our patient?” Jacob asked as he entered.

  “Stable, he’s almost ready for the primary injection,” Owens said, monitoring Julians’s vital signed carefully making sure the nanobots had bonded successfully.

  “We have a visitor, you may remember him,” Jacob said.

  Julian lay motionless, trying hard to keep from shivering as the cold of the nanobots continued their journey around his body. They were still latent, deactivated other than their base programming to saturate the bloodstream. He knew that the next stage would be much more traumatic, by the sounds of it, Jacob would want to begin the process soon. He listened to them talking more. Trying to identify who the other person was, they had said his name was Peter, Julian’s mind raced as he put the pieces together.

  Once he heard them leave, he opened his eyes.

  “That was close,” he said, turning to Owens.

  “Closer than you think, Peter knew exactly what we’re doing and chose to keep quiet,” Owens said, turning the monitor so that Julian could see it, Peter had typed on the screen when he had come to look at Julian’s vitals.

  ‘I can see what you are doing. But I won’t tell ;-) You owe me,’ the screen read.

  “Peter as in Peter Henshaw?” Julian asked.

  “That’s the one,” Owens let the information sink in. “Perhaps he felt he owed you for helping him escape his prison sentence” Owens said.

  “Thanks for that,” Julian answered.

  Julian shuddered, still feeling cold in his veins.

  “He’ll be back soon, are you ready for this?” Owens asked.

  “I don't think I’ll ever be ready, but what choice do we have?”

  Before anything else could be said, the door opened and Jacob returned.

  “Are we ready?” He asked.

  “I guess, are you sure this is what you want to do Jacob? We’re talking about causing pain of untold amounts all across the Boulevard!” Owens glanced at Julian, who had just lay back down in time.

  Julian lay there, listening to the two scientists discussing the procedure, he drowned them out as he tried to prepare himself for what was about to come. He wished he had talked to Quartzig again, and Ally, he hoped she was ok too.

  “Here, you just need to insert it into Julians PDA and it will auto-run.”

  Julians’ mind tuned back in just as he heard the words from Owens, this was it. His muscles tensed unwillingly.

  “Excellent, let the rapture begin,” Jacob announced, as he plugged the stick into Julian's arm.

  The pain was so intense, that it took Julian a few moments to acknowledge it.

  Then it hit him, like a thousand needles being plunged deep into his tissue across his entire body. He felt his nerves tense and his body jump as it tried to shrink away from the pain. His mind separated from the agony as he felt the dampness of blood soak his skin.

  Then, his internal organs felt like they were melting in an inferno, his eyes opened as he tried to escape from the pain. All he could see was red, realising the blood was seeping around his eyeballs and filling the sockets, he blinked to clear it but with no success. The smell of iron flooding his senses, he coughed blood as he felt blood welling up inside his body.

  He felt as though his skin was being ripped down his forearms, peeled away to leave pure muscles left raw. The pain continued across his body until he felt like he had been completely skinned, the sting of uncovered skin glowing across his entire form.

  Then he blacked out.

  CHAPTER 38

  Xander

  Xander stood up, his legs taking a while to adjust to being used after laying down for so long.

  “Three months. How the hell am I still alive?” He said to Ava.

  “I put you into an induced coma, almost into complete stasis, so it completely shut your body down other than basic functions,” she said, putting an arm under his to help him stand. He shrugged her away.

  “And who are these guys-” Xander nodding towards the newcomers, before he froze. He couldn’t believe who he was looking at. The girl he didn't know, but the man he knew very well. He had felt his blood over his fists and the anger it brought, still fresh from the construct.

  “What the hell are you doing here?!” He shouted, marching his way towards Prime, his fist clenched at his side.

  “You know who I am?” Prime replied, taking a step back.

  Mollie stepped between them as Ava put an arm on Xanders’ shoulder.

  “He’s on our side, he’s helping us,” Ava whispered.

  “This man is a murderer and a psychopath Ava! He’s the reason I lost my job.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Prime replied.

  “Sure you don’t Peter,” Xander mocked.

  “He’s a clone, he has no memories from before today,” Mollie said, trying to explain.

  “Let me jog your memory then. Your name is Peter Henshaw, I arrested you on counts of kidnapping and murder over a five-year period. You destroyed the minds of several people, then took their lives. Not only that, but you tortured and maimed them before killing them. You escaped serving your sentence on a technicality, due to a report of corruption in the MPD,” Xander spewed the information like spitting venom.

  “I…I don’t remember any of that.” Prime stuttered. “All I’ve known is the hotel where I worked and what’s happened today. Someone told me that I’m a clone of someone else but I didn’t know who. Perhaps that’s the person I’m cloned from. But I never did those things.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Mollie replied. “I met him today, and he's completely lost.”

  Ava stepped forwards towards Xander and spoke directly to him.

  “Whatever this is, it has to wait, Yuri had compromised Donovan somehow and if we don’t stop him, he may kill again. I don’t know if he killed Owens or not but regardless, we need to find him. Yuri has input nanobots into someone in the Boulevard, a patient zero, and he’s planning on activating them tomorrow. Once he does, they will multiply and enter every person with a connection, allowing him to assimilate them,” She said.

  “How do you know this?” Xander asked, taking a deep breath to calm his anger.

  “When we were connected to Donovan, I had access to his mind, I could see all of Yuri’s plans but was unable to do anything until we had disconnected. When he escaped the mind lock, he pulled the connection between us out. I was conscious of what was happening here but unable to disconnect without causing you to be lost in the construct. I saw Donovan over by the nurse. Placing his hand on her head, he absorbed her. Her body broke down into nanobots which integrated into Donovans structure. I’m not sure if Donovan is a host for the nanobots or if Yuri has taken control of his body completely. Regardless, the person walking round as Donovan is a highly advanced nanotech structure. If we don’t find him, then who knows what he could do.”

  Xander nodded, accepting the priorities of the situation.

  “And what are these two doing here?”

  “We found you guys from your signal. Prime here can recei
ve radio waves in his mind, he intercepted your call for help,” Mollie said.

  “You mentioned CyBio, and this is all I have to go on to find out what happened to me,” Prime held out the coin Razz had given to him. “We want to help you stop this Yuri and find out who I am.”

  Xander took the coin, examining it on both sides. The CyBio logo reflecting light off his face.

  “Keep it,” Prime said. “A sign I’m serious.”

  “We got here and helped Ava to disconnect from you safely,” Mollie continued.

  “How did you do that?” Xander asked.

  “I had three months to work out the structure of the lock,” Ava replied. “But until they reconnected me to the mainframes at CyBio, I couldn’t utilise the information.”

  Xander was getting lost in the tech speak but nodded anyway. He was comfortable on his feet by now and was ready to take control.

  “So we need to find Donovan and Yuri and stop them from releasing the nanobots?” He said, lighting a cigarette. “Why was Donovan in the prison if he was a nano construct?”

  “That I don’t know,” Ava replied. “Perhaps he felt you were a risk and wanted to keep you out the way?”

  “Hmm, perhaps,” Xander didn’t agree, but he kept his thoughts to himself, there was much more going on here than he could understand right now. He wanted to keep some cards to himself.

  “Any ideas where to start this search?” He asked.

  “We might have a good idea,” Prime ventured, not sure how Xander would react.

  “We’re all ears,” Xander said, putting the coin in his breast pocket.

  “Ava filled us in on the Nanotech, and if Yuri is planning to utilise them, then he’ll need to transmit a signal to activate them,” Prime said.

  “And where better to transmit than from the headquarters at CyBio,” Mollie finished Primes thought.

  Ava nodded.

  “He would need to have the nanos implanted in as many people as possible, then trigger them. The launch tomorrow for the new technology would be the perfect opportunity for a localised trigger,” she said. “And it could cause a cascade affect to the rest of the population.”