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

by Bryan Tann

  “Can you see anything, John?” Karen asked as she was greeted to complete darkness.

  “The room is a dummy,” John replied. He could tell that the windows on the outside were as false as the door; he was unable to see any windows in the room.

  “What do you mean ‘dummy’?”

  “I mean there is furniture, but that’s it. No windows, no nothing to indicate this is lived in. It is just…here.”

  “That’s because that’s what it’s meant to be,” came a voice from the far side of the room making Karen jump.

  John turned, at the ready for an attack. Instead of a threat, he saw a man barely Karen’s height with long blond hair in the process of graying with a matching unkempt beard wearing blue cut off shorts, black boots, and a white wife beater style shirt.

  “Dr. Teller?” Karen asked cautiously.

  “Well I’m certainly not Dr. Newton. Fucker’s dead from what I understand and that doesn’t make me happy or sad.” He spoke fast, very fast, as though his thoughts spun faster in his mind than his mouth could express.

  “So, little lady, let me make sure I understand your plight; they used my technique to put old Doc Singer’s tech in you and they tell you that I’m the only one that can get it out?”

  “Yes, Doctor, that’s correct,” he replied.

  “Oh just call me Miles. I’m not a doctor anymore,” Teller replied with a smirk before his gaze turned cold and serious. “And tell me just why I should help you.”

  “Why?” John growled, the savagery still fresh within him.

  “John,” Karen said calmly, putting a calming hand on his shoulder before turning to look to Teller. She took a few steps toward him and gave him a sad smile. “Because I don’t want to die.”

  “We all gotta go sometime,” Teller replied in a cold voice before chuckling.

  “Yes we do. But I do not want to die at the whim of a mad man,” she countered. “He wants me dead because I helped John here. They wanted him to do something bad and he refused. I helped them create him. I am responsible for him. And they did this to me because I would not betray him. Doctor, please? I am begging you. They have used your research, your talents to do such terrible, terrible things.”

  “They have been using my work to do terrible things since I was a kid. You think this country was all sunshine and rainbows before King stole power?” he laughed bitterly, the laughter turned to a maniacal cackle. “This country has been doing evil for only God knows how long! King? He’s just doing it all out in the open now!”

  “I am aware of that,” Karen replied.

  “Are you? So again I ask; does it only matter because it now affects you directly?”

  “All I wanted to do was be a doctor. I couldn’t afford to go that far, so I became a nurse. I was handpicked to aid in the Invincible Heart Project that created John here. When they brought him in, I was in the operating room assisting when the Hive was put in him. When it began to beat, I felt like I was a part of something special.

  “I watched John wake up,” Karen said with a smile of pride, looking back at her friend. “I watched him do incredible things. Then they sent him into the field to kill terrorists. It turns out that they are trying to stop President King from doing something…evil.” She looked to Teller with a shrug. “I couldn’t let them kill John for trying to do the right thing.

  “To answer your question; yes it affects me now, but they are doing so much evil now that they have to be stopped. If I have to die while fighting him, I am happy to. I, however, do not want to die because that bastard has the control with the push of a button. Can you understand that?”

  “Yeah,” Teller said after contemplating for a few seconds. “Yeah, I can understand that. Damn the man right?” he cackled. “Damn the fucking man!” he cackled louder this time shaking his head.

  “So does that mean you’ll help her?” John asked gravely.

  “Well…” Teller hummed tapping his temple looking to the ceiling. “What’s in it for me?”

  “Damning the man,” John replied.

  “That’s definitely a good price tag. A damn good price tag.” Teller licked his lips. “What if I want more?” he asked.

  “What else do you want?” Karen asked.

  “Answer me this riddle and I will aid you. It will tell you what more I want.” He chuckled wildly.

  “We don’t have time for this!” John roared. “Matheson and his people could be tracking us! They could hit that button at any time and kill her, and all of us!”

  “Make time,” Teller growled. “You think I give a flying frog fuck on a frosty Friday morning if you’re in the Invincible Heart Project? You think I give a single solitary fuck? No! I don’t!” he laughed wildly. “You could kill me and I wouldn’t care, because I’d be dead! Then your beautiful companion is as good as the casing on a grenade!

  “So I suggest you play my little game and just answer my little riddle and tell me what I want. If you get it wrong, you get squat. You get it right and I will help you. Deal?” he looked to John. When John offered no further resistance, he looked to Karen. “Deal?”

  “I suppose you leave me no choice, Doctor,” she replied.

  “Outstanding! Now here is your riddle, and since you were so rude, you only have one minute to answer! Now here we go; what is greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it, you'll die?” he smiled.

  “I’m not good with riddles,” John admitted to Karen.

  “Neither am I, but we have less than a minute now,” Karen said pondering.

  “Forty five seconds.” Teller chuckled.

  “Fuck!” John shouted as his anger threatened to boil over.

  “Cut it out, John!” Karen hissed. “That’s not going to help anything at all!”

  “Karen…”

  “No, John! You yelling and getting mad? Nothing is going to come from that alright, John? Nothing!”

  “Ding ding ding! You got it right!” Teller chuckled.

  “Wait what is it?” John asked.

  “Nothing,” Teller replied with a grin. “Nothing is greater than God. Nothing is more evil than the Devil, poor people are in abundance of nothing, rich people need nothing, and if you eat nothing you die.” Teller smirked. “Good job! Now let’s go and get that explosive out of you shall we?”

  “What here?” John asked.

  “Well yeah! You think we just go down the road to Mon Valley Hospital and it gets done?” Teller shook his head. “Nope we’ll just head downstairs and get this done. Shouldn’t take that much time. Few hours.”

  “Downstairs?” John asked.

  “Yes. Downstairs. My equipment and stuff is all downstairs. Come on, if you’re coming you two.”

  Karen and John followed the mad scientist into the smallest bedroom of the double wide.

  “In here?” John asked.

  “Well, yeah.” The doctor smirked leading them to the closet. “Well get in. It will be a little cramped, but it will be alright.”

  He stepped to the side to allow John and Karen to enter before he followed and closed the door. As soon as the door knob secured, Teller began to tap random spots on the walls and then pressed the lock on the doorknob.

  The sound of hydraulics activating sounded as the back wall of the closet began to lower as though it were a castle drawbridge. Teller led them into the secret room.

  Various hanging lights illuminated the stairway in front of them. Once Karen stepped off of the drawbridge wall, the hydraulics activated to raise the doorway/wall back into its place.

  “What the hell is this?” John asked curiously as they reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped through the entry way into a sitting room, set up much the same as the dummy living room in the main room of the trailer.

  “My home. This land used to be a small community up until the late nineteen nineties, into the early two thousands. As residents grew older and died off, a lot of the houses were condemned. A company
came in, purchased the land and the houses so that the remaining residents could move. It was like that for some time.

  “When I…well I suppose the proper term is ‘cracked’ I decided to buy the property and put a double wide on it. Then after a year or so I began to notice that some of the government types driving through trying to ask me back for consults. I didn’t want to be bothered so I had this built so I could be left alone.”

  “How long have you been here?” Karen asked.

  “Almost twelve years. I’m glad I got it like this before King stole the White House. I definitely don’t want his people around here. They come around every now and again that is why I stay down here,” he replied.

  “It’s comfortable down here,” John admitted. The full living room set was a homey black leather with a big screen television mounted on the wall.

  “I worked hard to get it like this,” he replied with a nod of appreciation. “Now we need to get this finished and quickly. I need to figure out what they did to you so you can both be on your way. I am not in the mood to be killed because you two showed up on my door step.

  “Now you, big black, you sit here and relax. Doctor Denton, you’re coming with me.” Teller nodded toward the far side door.

  “Be careful,” John said sternly to Karen.

  “Don’t worry, big guy, I’m sure that everything is going to be alright,” Karen replied with a wink.

  “So you say you think it’s your hand?” Teller asked taking her back into his examination room.

  “Yes. My hand is itchy and irritated, and there is a little light there,” Karen replied.

  “Alright well put your hand there on the table and let’s take a look,” Teller replied. He held a small rod in his hand and ran it over her hand. As he did a three dimensional image of the interior of her hand on the wall.

  “Well they certainly did a number on you, didn’t they, girly? They definitely followed my design to the letter.” Teller looked to the screen tapping his chin lightly.

  “Can you get it out of me?” Karen questioned anxiously.

  “Oh I can deactivate it, it will just take a lot of time because if I do not do it just right, it is going to go off, and I don’t want that,” Teller replied.

  “What is ‘some time’?” she asked hastily.

  “Does it really matter?” Teller replied.

  “No.”

  “I thought not. So get on the table here. I’m going to give you a shot of something to knock you out because you do not want to be awake for this.”

  “How bad will it be?”

  “Lucky for you I’m good at what I do. You’ll have full function of your hand after a week or two so long as you’re smart. But I need you out because you will make me screw up if you’re awake.”

  “When do we get started?” Karen asked getting on the table as she was instructed and then yelped when she felt something sharp jam into her shoulder.

  “Right about now, bright eyes,” Teller replied.

  “Thanks…for….the…heads…” Karen tried to get out before she finally dropped off.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Teller replied putting an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth setting up an IV drip before washing his hands to prepare for surgery.

  “Open line,” Teller muttered. When he heard the familiar chime indicating that the line was opened, he nodded lightly. “Can you hear me, big boy?”

  “Come on, Queen,” John chided as he laid back in the black leather chair turning on the television. “Talk to me!” When no reply came, he grunted angrily.

  “Can you hear me, big guy?” came a voice from an intercom.

  “Teller?”

  “Yeah, who the hell else would it be? Listen I am going to be in here for a while with your girl here. You cannot come back here okay? You don’t come back here for anything because once I go into her hand, if I fuck up at all I could kill her. You get that?”

  “Yeah, Doc, yeah I get that,” John grumbled.

  “Well good. Now listen if you’re Invincible Heart, then you probably need something to eat don’t you? There is a fridge in that room. Go ahead and get something. Some of those protein things I have in the refrigerator are good. Have a full day’s worth to them, have quite a few so help yourself.”

  “Thanks. What do I do if…” John began.

  “If you need to reach me just command the line to open and it will. Don’t pester me though or I’ll probably screw it all up,” Teller grumbled.

  John got up and went to the kitchen and helped himself to a few the meals the doctor had told him about and sat back down in the recliner and closed his eyes.

  John’s eyes snapped open when the sound of an alarm refused to quiet itself. He rubbed his eyes weakly looking to the screen.

  “Fuck,” John growled. “Open Line.”

  “The fuck is it, big boy? I’m trying to save your friend’s life!” Teller roared.

  “We have a problem,” John said simply looking at the screen.

  “And what problem is that?”

  “Invincible Heart problems,” John replied looking at the screen closely, he saw Alpha standing in the rain in front of the double wide, his massive arms folded across his chest as the thunder rolled and lightning flashed. The skies continued to darken as the storm rumbled closer.

  33

  “Baker!” Alpha roared toward the double wide. “Baker! Get your ass out here, hijo de puta!”

  “Alpha! Alpha! This is Drake! I am ordering you to stand down! I repeat I am ordering you to stand down!”

  “Drake what in the fuck all hell are you doing?” Matheson roared stepping into the control room.

  “Sir? I…Alpha has gone rogue, sir! He was ordered to remain in the West Virginia area…”

  “Yes. Yes he was. How did he find out where Teller was?” Matheson growled.

  “Bravo, sir,” Drake replied. “The Nanos are taking Delta’s death pretty hard and Alpha well…”

  “Alpha is taking it personal. Isn’t that interesting?” Matheson smirked lightly.

  “Sir? The head Nano is disobeying a direct order and…”

  “And now that he’s got Baker in his sights he is not going to back down, Drake! So yelling in that microphone isn’t going to stop a goddamn thing! Where are the other Nanos?”

  “In their zones per orders. Alpha’s orders,” Drake replied.

  “All we can do now is just wait then,” Matheson grumbled. “If he gets the job done, I call that even.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Drake asked.

  “He’ll be dead and it doesn’t matter. But Baker hasn’t been able to stick with Alpha, so I’m not worried.”

  Matheson leaned toward the desk past Drake and activated the microphone.

  “Alpha this is Matheson. Acknowledge. That’s an order.”

  “Alpha reporting in. Sir,” the Nano replied compulsively. Matheson smirked at his own superiority of knowing the command terms that others did not.

  “You’re violating orders, son. You’re supposed to be quite a ways south of there,” Matheson said harshly.

  “Yes, sir,” Alpha replied.

  “New orders. Bring Baker’s heart, head, and balls to me. Understand?”

  “Sir, yes, sir,” Alpha replied.

  “Then go get him. Matheson out.”

  “Baker!” Alpha roared turning off his radio, pulling his earpiece out and tossing both to the ground. He walked up onto the porch and kicked at the door in a rage. When the door did not give, Alpha just cackled.

  “You really think this door is going to keep me out, Baker? Pendejo, I am what nightmares are made of!” Alpha kicked at the door again, leaving a dent.

  “You cannot let him come in here, do you hear me?” Teller called out from the operating room.

  “Yeah, no shit,” John grunted rolling out his neck. He looked to the half-finished food laying on the coffee table and stuffed it into his mouth hungrily.

  “Just think, Baker; he gets in here, I die, wh
ich means your friend dies,” Teller called out.

  “Yeah. I know,” John said. “Is there another way out of here?”

  “Go back into the kitchen. Sit in the chair against the wall and just lean back. It will take you into an exit tunnel. Leads to the street. Hurry up, because all of this talking is interrupting my work!”

  John went to the kitchen as instructed, and sat in the chair and leaned back. As he rolled end over end, he was positioned on his feet facing a long dark hallway.

  “Goddamn nut,” John grumbled walking down the hallway.

  “Queen…I need you. Please? Please wake up!”

  When no answer came, he took a deep breath and continued on down the hallway. When he came to the end, he saw a set of ascending stairs. When he climbed them to the top, he opened the door directly above him he stepped out and noticed that he was at the car crossing of the railroad.

  He exited and let the door slam shut. He could see Alpha pounding on the door like a mad man.

  “Baker! Come on you, bastardo!” Alpha roared in a fury. “You, that whore, and some psycho doctor holing up in there like the three little pigs? Fine! I can do this all day and night! I will huff and puff and blow this fucking place to the ground then tear your hearts out of your chests and shower in your fucking blood!”

  John walked down the street watching the giant pound in a rage on the door. His senses told him that Alpha had come alone. It was more than a mission for the giant now. John knew it.

  “I’m right here, Alpha,” John called out to him from the road.

  “There you are,” Alpha growled leaping from the porch to the pavement, stalking toward John before stopping just a few feet in front of him.

  “I owe you,” Alpha growled. “I owe you for what you did to Delta.”

  “That right?” John asked. “Well here I am.” Looking up to the giant, he’d almost forgotten just how huge Alpha truly was. As he removed his fatigue colored regulation jacket, he looked even more physically imposing than he had before.

  “I’m going to tear your fucking heart out,” Alpha snarled removing his weapon belt.