Invincible Heart: The John Baker Chronicles: A Permutation Archives Division (The Permutation Archives Book 1)

by Bryan Tann

  Looking ahead, John could hear running water, and he grinned.

  “So I think that our problems are taken care of.”

  “How do you mean, John?”

  “Running water. I’ll dive in, that should throw the dogs off the scent. I’ll drink some of the water that will help us out until we can get some food right?”

  “Sounds like a really good idea! Hurry up!”

  When he finally made it to the lake, he didn’t hesitate to charge right into the water and began his decent into the water, opening his mouth to suck the water down he realized just how thirsty he had been.

  “Better?”

  “Much, much better. But we need food. Bad,” Queen replied nervously.

  “Don’t worry about it, I will get us something soon, don’t worry. This isn’t necessarily the Amazon, but there has got to be something to eat.”

  As he swam, he could feel the agony in his stomach growing. He surfaced and took a deep breath looking through the forest. He could hear the sound of helicopters flying overhead and dogs barking in the distance. Taking a deep breath, he went back under water.

  “I saw a cave further down the bank. I’ll get us there, then I’ll get us some food alright? Don’t worry, Queen, we’re going to be alright. You just keep it going in there, I’ve got out here taken care of.”

  “Please hurry, John. Please? I…”

  “I know, Queen. I don’t want to die either. We aren’t going to die. We have too much to do.”

  He forced his limbs on. His own emotions intensifying, his companion’s fear pushing him to hurry to find sustenance, his own survival secondary at best.

  As he remained submerged, he could feel the water beginning to bother his eyes, and he knew that the nanobytes in his bloodstream were weakening. As his vision became murkier, he saw a small opening and entered.

  As the spacing began to shrink, and his lungs screaming for air, he swam upward and released a loud gasp as he sucked in sweet oxygen.

  The cave was spacious from what he could tell. He hadn’t realized how reliant he had become on the nanobytes for his vision until that moment. His stomach crawled and growled, screaming its dissatisfaction of being empty.

  “I am sorry, John. I am doing my best to keep you on your feet. You need to eat.”

  “Okay. Don’t worry.”

  He groaned lightly, wondering just where he could find anything that would sustain him. He heard a slight squeak in the darkness, and his mouth began to salivate.

  “Bats,” he said hungrily, moving into the darkness in a crouch. “Can you do anything for me?”

  “You will have to catch something soon. It’s taking everything to keep you on your feet.”

  “Just do what you can.”

  He closed his eyes when the tears came. When he opened them, his eyesight was sharper. He could see multitude of bats in various colors of gray, tan, and brown.

  “They’re kind of high in the air,” he said, feeling a dull ache in his stomach, and his focus starting to wane.

  “I can’t do much more for you.”

  He reached to his hip, and unsheathed one of his batons and extended it. He took a deep breath and muttered a silent prayer and hurled it with all of his might into the thick of the masses.

  The smack of metal on flesh and rock rang through the cave. Countless carcasses fell to the cave floor dead, others landed on the cave floor squeaking loudly in agony. Those not injured by the attack abandoned the cave to the new apex predator.

  He savagely charged into fallen group of bats, shoving the nearest flapping animal head into his mouth and bit down hard causing a loud crunch to reverb off of the cave walls, the thrashing body went still.

  He chewed hungrily, impatiently, and swallowed the head down roughly. He then sank his teeth into the creature’s torso, tearing into the furred flesh ferociously chewing just enough to swallow the warm flesh and blood.

  Devouring the entire body, he closed his eyes as a sense of peace washed over him. His breathing calmed, and he felt warm spread throughout his body. His growling stomach and his instincts demanded more, and he was happy to oblige.

  He reached down for one of the other moving, screeching bodies and repeated the process, his savage hunger not sated.

  After finishing the second bat, he reached for the third, the process did not change. He didn’t register the movements were slowing, or were becoming fewer as death claimed the injured; he reached for anything that moved and consumed it.

  The concept of time was lost to him when rationale finally reclaimed his mind. The taste of blood threatened to make him gag, but the need to keep down his sustenance overcame his revulsion.

  All five of his senses were at their peak, he was no longer cold, and he felt stronger than he could remember.

  “Oh my God…”

  “Don’t do that to yourself. It’s the cycle of life, John. They died so that we could live. You did not waste. You are, we are, a hunter. We need to survive.”

  “You’re right. I’ll skin and save this meat for later. I assume you’re all better as well?”

  “Yes, John. We are all better. I think we are safe here for now.”

  “I do as well,” he agreed, retrieving his baton, he wiped the blood from the bats onto his pants and secured it to the holster. He groaned; the taste of blood bringing fresh saliva to the surface, threatening him with vomit. He spit the excess out of his mouth, then put his face into the pool of water and began to drink, swelling his stomach further.

  “Better?”

  “Much better.”

  “Perhaps we shouldn’t get that hungry again?”

  “Good idea. I may not get sick from eating raw meat, but that doesn’t mean I like the taste.”

  “You could get used to it.”

  “Yeah, I have no desire for that. Not in the slightest.”

  Queen’s laughter in his mind brought a smile to his face. He took a deep breath, their combined feeling of safety from starvation almost completely eliminated the anxiety of their ordeal.

  “So what is our next move?” Queen asked as John inspected the belt that he’d stolen and discovered there was a five inch knife in a pouch. He released the blade and began to skin the remaining bats.

  “We’ve got to get back to the East Coast,” he said firmly.

  “We do?”

  “Yes. We need to get back to the Paradigm. Safety in numbers after all.”

  “Yes. The Government will be trying to completely eliminate us.”

  “Yes, they definitely will. That’s a positive.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Think about it, John; if you could control us, wouldn’t you? If they’re trying to kill us, it’s because we cannot be controlled.”

  “Is that why they don’t want anyone with a Nanobot Hive to have a Queen? Because we cannot be controlled?”

  “Well from what my files say, as I already told you, or I may have meant to tell you, the subjects showed some strange psychological effects. Keep in mind they were rats, but insanity and being unpredictable were some of the effects.”

  “But in a rat, it probably wasn’t insanity. It was that the rats were getting too smart. Or afraid because their minds aren’t able to handle it.”

  “That would be my hypothesis, John Baker. I have multitudes of files on the Invincible Heart Project, and…and files on you.”

  “Me? What about me?”

  “Do you really buy the story you were told? That you just volunteered?”

  “Well…”

  “John your file is quite extensive. They lied to you. They lied to you a lot.”

  “Not tonight, Queen. I’m exhausted.”

  “But John…”

  “Please Queen? Not tonight. I just…I just can’t deal with any of that right now. We just were damn near blown to shit and back, and Karen…Jesus she’s got to be in danger.”

  “She did risk much to save us,” Queen admitted. “She is also a part of the syste
m. She was also manipulating us, and would probably kill us. It is what the bosses at Fuji-O’Hara Industries, and the Government would want. We cannot trust her.”

  “I agree.”

  “She did help us though.”

  “Yes she did.”

  They were silent for a while. He finished skinning and gutting the carcasses around him, then rolling the meat into the fur.

  “Doesn’t that seem counterproductive to put the meat back into skin?”

  “I don’t have any leaves around here, and I’m not risking going outside just yet. Maybe in the morning.”

  “Good point. Are you sure, John? About going back to Mila? After what you did? She won’t trust you.”

  “No. I don’t suspect she will. We will just have to figure out a way to convince her that we aren’t a threat to her, and that we want to help her.”

  “Well…what if we could offer to give her something in good faith?”

  “Like what, Queen?”

  “Well we certainly got a lot from the files. I think that if we offer that information to her as a peace offering, perhaps she and her group would be willing to see us and not kill us on sight.”

  “That’s a good idea. We will need a Plan B just in case though.”

  “Do you have one in mind?”

  “Yeah. We get out of the country.”

  “John, that could prove quite…difficult at best. Near impossible at most realistic.”

  “Well, you asked.”

  “Yes, yes I did.”

  “But we do need to get out the country. They won’t stop until we are dead. We need to do something.”

  “We will go to the East Coast to meet up with Mila and the others. Dr. Horatia might be able to help you as well. As she…”

  “Queen. Please? Nothing about the files?”

  “I’m sorry, John. Perhaps we should get some sleep.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right. I am exhausted. Getting shot at, fighting public enemy number one while being brainwashed, being shot, dodging explosives, and gorging on bats in a cave takes a ton out of you.”

  “Yes, I suppose you are right, John. I am glad we are alive.”

  “Yeah, me too, Queen. Me too. I’m glad you’re here.”

  “As am I, John. As am I. I will always be here.”

  “Well where the hell are you going to go anyway?” John laughed out loud. “It’s just you and me right?”

  “Yes, John. Just you and me.”

  15

  “It has been almost ten hours, Drake. Give me some good news, son,” Matheson barked.

  “I’m sorry, sir, there’s nothing. The dogs have lost the scent and our overhead flights are finding nothing. It’s like Baker just disappeared.” Drake stood at his straightest attention. The sun burned into him, his eyes threatened to melt, but he dared not close them.

  Matheson had not stopped for more than a minute since Baker had escaped from the grounds of the Fuji-O’Hara Industries medical complex, and he expected his men to do the same. And they had.

  The entire Fuji-O’Hara Industries security team had come in an hour after Baker had escaped, the military reinforcements had been flown in in the following hours after the fact.

  “Nothing? Nothing!” Matheson roared. “Sergeant, do you realize what I have been through this morning in dealing with this shit show of a fucking failed science project? Do you!” Matheson exploded.

  “Sir, I…”

  “Do you know what it’s like to have the president of these United States of America tell you that if you do not find the ‘Invincible Heart Project’ that cost decades of research and near billions to develop, that he’s going to fucking castrate you with your own fucking ribs? Do you!”

  “Sir, no, sir,” Drake replied.

  “You’re goddamn right ‘no, sir’! But guess what, Drake? I do, goddammit!”

  “On the positive, sir, we at least have more men. We should be able to overwhelm him,” Drake offered.

  “Well sweet Virgin Mary in a brothel, Drake! I didn’t realize you were a shit smoothie glass half full kind of guy! Where the fuck is Dr. Tee, Dr. Newton, and Denton?” Matheson said taking a deep breath to calm himself.

  “Dr. Tee and Denton decided to rack out about an hour ago. They were working on trying to find Dr. Newton who is still unaccounted for. He hasn’t been seen since before the FUBAR shit show last night with the freak, sir.”

  “Tell me that we have men on their way to the good doctor’s home? You know, safety and wellness checks and all of that bullshit?” Matheson demanded.

  “Yes, sir. We are rotating the men out to get some shut eye as the new men come in, sir. A small squad was sent after we finished upgrading security around here, sir,” Drake offered.

  “What do you mean? What the fuck else happened?”

  “Well sir, we needed to deal with the local press coming to call over everything that went on. A hunter and his son were shot by some of our forces in the woods because they rattled our guys, they thought the man and boy were Baker, sir.”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake! What next, Drake?” Matheson growled. While he was grateful to have someone as capable as Drake handling these issues, the mission was just getting to be more and more a bullshit assignment. It angered him that he’d volunteered. However, the terrorist Mila Hunter had made a brother look foolish and the idea of training the instrument of her destruction had appealed to him. Now he was having second thoughts.

  “We also doubled and tripled initial security around the complex, in case he tries coming back, sir. Tech guys also believe that he may have…he may have gotten intel from Denton’s computer.”

  “Shit. I want him found Sergeant do you understand me? I want that freak of nature found, I don’t give a fuck how it gets done, I want it done. Do you hear me?”

  “Absolutely, sir.” Drake cleared his throat. “Sir, if I may? Why don’t you rack for a bit yourself, sir? I mean…”

  “Your concern is noted, Sergeant. Now go and do what I asked you to do. Find the most capable egg head you can find among the new maggots and make them your second. Get some shut eye.”

  “Sir, yes, sir,” Drake replied.

  “This is a goddamn mess,” Matheson growled.

  “This is Alex Vandercamp of WORG News 22 in Portland. We have a story out of Musgrave that is rather alarming, and even ended with tragedy. Our own Jessica Sowder is on the scene, Jess?”

  “Good morning, Alex, and you’re right this quiet town of Musgrave. Now Musgrave is a quiet mill town just a few miles from Mount Hood National Forest. It was considered a major boon to the local economy as well as to the environmentalists in the area when the Fuji-O’Hara Industries Building of Science was erected.

  “That building, along with a few others in the area provided much needed jobs in the local economy. However many are questioning exactly what they are doing at Fuji-O’Hara when military troops and air craft were in the area.

  “Now local law enforcement has reported receiving multiple calls reporting gun shots and explosions on the Fuji-O’Hara grounds.”

  “That’s alarming, Jess.”

  “Yes it is, Alex. It gets worse however. Everett Stewart and his son Dillon, whom were out hunting in Mount Hood were shot and killed.

  “I would like to introduce via telephone Sergeant Conrad Drake, who we are told, is second-in-command of the operations going on here in Musgrave. Sergeant Drake, thank you for joining us.”

  “Thank you for having me, Jessica.”

  “Sergeant Drake, can you offer our viewers any information on this tragedy, or the events that led to it?”

  “I can offer you what I can, as this is a military matter and there is some information that is classified.

  “The Fallen Paradigm, a terrorist group from the East Coast has a cell here on the West Coast.”

  “That is quite alarming.”

  “Yes, Jessica, it is. It goes to show that these renegades will stop at nothing to cause dissention among th
e American people. What I can tell you is that there was an attack on Fuji-O’Hara industries by the Fallen Paradigm.

  “That attack caused the loss of life of some Fuji-O’Hara employees, whose names we will not be releasing to the press until we are able to get in contact with the families first. Air craft were called in to aid in the apprehension of these terrorists due to weapons they had and their numbers.”

  “Sergeant, do you know the reason why they attacked? If they were after anything?”

  “That is, of course, classified, Jessica. They were tracked going into the forest where the Fuji-O’Hara Industries Science Building borders. We sent a group in there and I can tell you that Mr. Stewart, and his son were being held captive by members of the Fallen Paradigm. Unfortunately we were unable to rescue the Stewarts before the terrorists executed them.”

  “Oh my…”

  “Yes, Jessica. However we were able to capture and eliminate those responsible for the loss of innocent American life.”

  “Are you prepared to release their names to the public?”

  “Yes. Known Fallen Paradigm Members; Donald Rankin, Peter Heller, Pamela Hooper, and Charles Trotter.”

  “Well Sergeant Drake, thank you for your service and protecting us from these terrorists. Do you have an estimate of how many of their number you are searching for in this recent attack?”

  “Unfortunately that is classified information as well. However we will catch them and they will be brought to justice. As of now, we are working in full cooperation with local and state law enforcement and Fuji-O’Hara Industries security staff.

  “We are also asking local citizens to keep their eyes open and report to us anything that they see that would appear to be out of the ordinary. Just be careful, go about your normal routines. Just report anything.”

  “Thank you so much, Sergeant, for your time today.”

  “Not a problem, Jessica. If your network would get in touch with our communications officer, you will be provided a name, you will be given a scheduled press conference from our commanding officer Commander Korvin Matheson. That should be around nineteen hundred hours this evening. I apologize, seven o’clock this evening.”