Rise and Run (Broken Man Trilogy Book 1)

by RJ Plant

  That brought a slew of unfortunate images forward, some of them inappropriate.

  Sorry, that was me.

  Contagious … At least my skin wasn’t melting or ripping apart anymore. I didn’t feel quite like death. I tried to push all thoughts aside and deal will this as I would with Rian. Ask the right questions to speed up information acquisition. Choose one avenue of questioning. Stick to it.

  “Where am I?” I asked again.

  “We’re Stateside, in GDI’s headquarters.”

  “How long have I been … out?”

  She counted back in her head.

  “Eight days.”

  I shoved my right hand toward her face, and said a bit louder than I meant to, “Doesn’t seem like only eight days, Kaitlyn.”

  “Yeah, that seems to be one of the side effects of the virus,” she said. “Conor’s DNA repairs the damage your virus causes to the body. One of the benefits is that, during the repair process, Conor’s DNA also fixes other damage.”

  “My virus?”

  The words came out shrill. This wasn’t real.

  “Kazic,” Kaitlyn said slowly. Hesitantly. “It’s a biological weapon, Felix. It’s you.”

  “I get a deadly virus and Conor gets accelerated healing. Seems fair,” I said.

  You want to talk about fair? How about we start with—

  “What are we doing here?” I said, tried to drown Conor out. It had been so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to live with him in my head. Not just the little bursts when he tried to get out, this was a more fully integrated feeling. Alien and familiar. I had to force myself not to take comfort in his presence. I felt more … more real.

  “Conor brought me here so I could run tests. I’m trying to figure this out, Felix, trying to fix it. What I gave you to suppress the virus symptoms isn’t permanent. Your cells are still breaking down. I need to get blood samples from you while you’re still like …” she waved a hand me, “like this.”

  “Conor—” I said.

  Yes, dear?

  I clenched my jaw, tried to keep from grinding my teeth. I tried again.

  “Why would Conor help?”

  “Because this affects both of you,” Kaitlyn said.

  Because we’re dangerous. Because GDI is going to come after us, no matter what, either to use us or to kill us. I don’t know about you, Felix, but I want a life. Even if it’s yours.

  I rubbed my hands over my face. Encountered the beginnings of a beard along my jaw. Eight days. Everything seemed different. A year might as well have passed. Ten years.

  Stop whining. This isn’t insurmountable.

  “I’m not whining.” The words were out of my mouth before I’d thought them. An automatic response.

  You’re not not whining.

  “Felix?” Kaitlyn said.

  “Where’s Rian?” I asked.

  “He’s safe. Shaina’s safe.”

  “Seth.”

  “I’m sorry. Felix, I’m so sorry,” she said, eyes downcast.

  I knew. Don’t really know why I said anything, why I thought I needed confirmation. My chest tightened and for a minute I couldn’t say anything. Couldn’t do anything.

  It was him or us.

  “Piss off already,” I said. I wanted to mean it more than I did. When I looked up, Kaitlyn was staring at me. “Get me in touch with Rian.”

  “You can’t contact him. If you make a call to Rian and it gets traced back, it’ll blow everything.”

  “Please, Kait,” I said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head.

  I lunged for her, fell to hands and knees mid-motion.

  You’re not playing by the rules.

  There was pain. Like he was coming to the surface, but only just, and every time I tried to move it felt like an acupuncture session gone horribly wrong, the pressure so crushing I could barely breathe.

  I wasn’t going to touch her. I just needed to call Rian.

  We play together or you don’t play at all. Do you understand?

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Felix?” Kaitlyn’s voice asked again from the distance, more uncertain this time.

  My vision was blurry.

  It was Conor who answered through my mouth.

  “Stay back, Kaitlyn. It’s having a chat, we are. Just to sort things out.”

  “What do you want, Conor?” I asked again.

  If you promise to be good, I’ll let you up and make the pain stop.

  “Fine,” I said.

  But you have to play by my rules from here on out.

  “Fine,” I said again, louder.

  The pain eased significantly. I could move again. I still felt Conor in the back of my mind. That gave me a sense of relief that I didn’t want to admit to.

  I knew you missed me. Now, get back in the chair. Kaitlyn needs some blood.

  Having already prepped my arm, it was easier for Kaitlyn to avoid touching me. I watched the needle slide in.

  I’m going to make you an offer, Felix, and I want you to consider it very carefully.

  “Don’t have a lot of choice in the matter, do I?”

  Of course you do. He sounded irritated, a little angry, and something else. That’s why it’s an offer instead of me telling you what the fuck to do and then making you do it, you little gobshite.

  “Hurtful,” I said.

  Kaitlyn finished filling the tubes and stepped away, letting me argue with my other self under the illusion of privacy.

  Our main focus right now needs to be on Bernard.

  “He’s the …” I grasped for the last few clear memories, the ones from before I’d started swimming in and out of painful awareness. “Agent in Charge.”

  Yeah, only he’s not just heading up GDI. He seems to be the representative for a radical faction within the agency. He’s the one who did this to you, Felix.

  Bernard …

  “He’s here?”

  Not here. He left a couple of hours ago with two agents. They’re waiting for Rian and Shaina at your flat in Dublin.

  “Why?”

  I tipped Bernard off, Conor said. Before I could voice my outrage, he added, Rian and Shaina are tucked away safelike in Belfast, waiting for the next move. We’re going to draw Bernard out, find out exactly what’s going on and who all is involved. And then you can kill him.

  “Why haven’t you killed him already?” I asked.

  Killing Bernard doesn’t mean his little secret faction will stop coming for us or that their research into bioweapons will suddenly stop. We need Bernard to give us information. Killing him before we have it won’t gain us anything.

  “What happens to me when Bernard is dead?” I asked.

  I don’t know, Felix. Kaitlyn has to figure out how to fix you first.

  “That’s not how it’ll work,” I said, but didn’t elaborate. He knew what I meant.

  I’m not trying to fuck you over here, Felix. I’m offering Bernard to you. As a gift of good faith. We need to work together, the two of us. Stop fighting me.

  “Why would I ever?” I said. My head was starting to throb.

  Things will work better if you do. I’m giving you a choice, Felix. I don’t have to. We both know that.

  “You killed Seth,” I said. “You made me kill him.”

  And that’s exactly the way you remember it? He was going to kill us. I would rather we live. Wouldn’t you?

  “You could have run,” I said.

  Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll never know now. I’d rather not take that kind of chance. But Shaina and Rian are still alive. And Kaitlyn. You can protect them. We can find Bernard. Can’t you feel what he’s done to you?

  I could. I felt the effects of the virus increasing as minutes rolled passed. If Conor didn’t take over, we’d die from it.

  “I need to talk to Rian,” I said.

  You will. And then we’ll get Bernard. But I’m waiting on a little backup first. Now, that’s it. Time’s up.
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  *****

  4 November 2042, Birmingham, GDI Headquarters, Former U.S.

  Territory

  There was less pain this time, since the virus hadn’t done nearly the damage it usually did.

  It seemed that Felix didn’t remember forcing his way to the surface when I was fighting Seth. I hadn’t wanted to remind him because he might try again, but I didn’t want all the blame for Seth either. I wouldn’t have chosen that way for him to die.

  “That must have pleasant for a little scientist-type like you, pretty Kaitlyn,” I said after a while.

  I sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair, letting my body repair the bit of damage Felix had done to it.

  “Does he communicate with you like that?”

  “No,” I said. “He’s completely cut off from my side of things. When he’s off his meds, I can communicate with him, although meds or no, I can still always see and hear what he does, know what he knows.”

  “That would explain why you had to take the vaccine for the virus,” Kaitlyn said. “Since your genome is active while Felix’s is, you both would have died if they had tried to vaccinate him.”

  “I’m guessing that wasn’t in the file,” I said.

  “A lot of it was redacted. I bet Esposito figured it out after treating you … Felix … for all those years. That’s probably how he was able to manufacture a personalized virus.”

  Kaitlyn took off her gloves and threw them in the medical waste receptacle. The needle she’d used on Felix went in the sharps container on the wall a few feet away.

  “And it’s still fairly certain you are then that he made the virus?” I asked.

  “It makes the most sense. I figure that’s why he took Kazic back. I may have started the vaccine, but whoever made the virus and has your genome would have to finish it. Did you do that, by the way? Keep Felix from grabbing me?”

  I nodded. “Sometimes I can speak through him, sometimes control his movement. But it’s … difficult. I can’t hold him long.”

  She put Felix’s blood samples in a transport bag like the one we’d lost in Boston. She stood there a moment with her back to me, then asked:

  “So why haven’t you killed Bernard?”

  “Say I kill Bernard outright. What then? GDI will just appoint someone else and you can count on that person being involved in this nightmare idea of weaponizing me. Bernard himself indicated that he wasn’t the lone radical. We need him to tell us who’s involved before we can kill him.”

  “I guess just killing them all is out of the question.”

  While that seemed a bit unlike Kait to suggest, I realized how it would seem like an efficient strategy.

  It wasn’t.

  “There’s a reason GDI is around, Kait. Not everyone in the agency is a sociopath like Bernard and his lackeys. We find everyone in the agency on board with Bernard’s agenda and we remove them. Starting, of course, with Bernard, who knows the names and whereabouts of every member who has a stake in this weapon business. We take care of the problem and replace it with a solution.”

  “Replace. With whom?”

  And this is where Truepenny came in. Unless Rian tried to fill that gap first.

  “Brinly. She’s clean, she’s capable, and she knows the agency. Wiping their data will throw GDI into chaos, which will allow Truepenny to place Brinly at the top, in Bernard’s spot, and she can rebuild GDI from there.”

  “Because of course Brinly,” Kaitlyn said.

  “Do you have a better candidate?”

  She didn’t.

  25

  4 November 2042, Birmingham, GDI Headquarters, Former U.S.

  Territory

  Brinly was waiting in my room, a dark form in darker clothes looking both striking and dangerous even as she stretched out on her side across the bed with her head propped on one hand.

  Reading a book.

  “Are you going to tell me what your plan is yet?” she asked, sitting up.

  “Are you going to try to hit me again?”

  “What do you mean try?”

  “Fine. Are you going to hit me again?” I asked.

  “I might. You’ll just have to tell me and find out.”

  I told her what I’d told Felix, what I’d essentially told Kaitlyn—lure Bernard out, away from backup, and get the information we needed so we could put a stop to everyone affiliated with Kazic.

  “Piece of cake,” Brinly said. “I’ll go out on a limb and say Rian is the bait?”

  “Of course. We meet up with Rian and the others and let Bernard come to us. He should already be staking out the location I gave him by the time we get there.”

  I thought for a moment and my voice became a little heavier, even to my own ears, when I amended, “Meet up with Rian and Shaina.”

  Brinly stood up and put a hand on my upper arm.

  “I trust Olwen and Truepenny will be able to take it from there,” I said.

  “They’ve been working on it from a different angle, but yes. Now that the virus has finished uploading, Olwen will wait until we’re closer to Bernard before activating it. When do we leave?”

  “Now.”

  *****

  4 November 2042, Birmingham, GDI Headquarters, Former U.S.

  Territory

  “Now” may not have been as accurate as “ten minutes from now,” but it had sounded good at the time.

  I showed Kaitlyn to her own room, then got into the shower to wash away the feeling of sickness, of disease. There was a burning I could feel, even as I knew it wasn’t there. From Felix being out for so long. That must have been the reason.

  Or maybe something had gone wrong. Maybe science had gone wrong.

  I turned the shower off and wrapped a towel around my waist after drying myself. Brinly was still reading on my bed when I walked in. She looked at me. And kept looking.

  “Not for you,” I said, although I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Then who?” she asked, her words soft.

  Between her low voice and seeing her on the bed, I had to fight urges I usually only encountered through Felix’s point of view.

  When I didn’t respond, she shrugged and said, “A girl can look,” and went back to reading.

  “Let’s go,” I said, after getting dressed.

  I grabbed my jacket and walked to Kaitlyn’s room with Brinly trailing. “It’s time,” I shouted as I banged on the door.

  Kaitlyn was wearing khaki slacks and a dark blue sweater that made her eyes seem brighter, more blue than gray. I must have been looking at her for longer than warranted, because she indicated Brinly’s clothing and mine and said, “I didn’t get the drab-colored wardrobe memo.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “I wanted to be comfortable. It’s a long trip.”

  When I still didn’t say anything, she grabbed her bag and started down the hallway.

  *****

  5 November 2042, Belfast, United Irish Republic

  I was getting tired of riding around in the Raider. The trip lasted more than long enough for my arse to go numb. Too bad a teleportation device hadn’t been invented before the world went to shite, but I suppose that was asking too much.

  I really hoped that Rian and Shaina had, indeed, reconvened at Rian’s home.

  Brinly landed the Raider and powered down the motor. I opened the door and stepped out. Kaitlyn ignored my outstretched hand, hopping the short distance to the ground, and hurried away from the slowing rotors. Brinly came around the front of the helicopter and followed me to the door where Kaitlyn stood.

  The afternoon light did nothing to make Rian’s home look more appealing. I gave the door three hard knocks and waited. Best not to walk in and surprise anyone … like Shaina.

  “Are you sure they’re here?” Brinly asked.

  “If you told him to be here, he’ll be here,” I said. “Maybe.”

  I was just about to knock again when the door opened.

  Rian stood in the doorway. For a moment it l
ooked like he might give Kaitlyn a hug as she entered, but he let her pass with nothing more than a murmured greeting, and nodded at Brinly as she followed Kaitlyn in. Then he moved to block the door, motioning me to step back. He came out after me and closed the door.

  “Rian,” I said.

  “I want to talk to him,” he said, walking toward me. “Kaitlyn told me everything.”

  “When did she …?” I started, but I could guess.

  She must have called during the last fuel stop when Brinly and I were busy checking in with Olwen. That was a stupid move. Letting Rian see Felix would be a mistake—a physical, mental, and emotional atomic bomb of a mistake.

  The front door opened. Shaina appeared. She leaned against the door frame. She looked different, less alive. No sign of anger or, really, anything.

  “I think you owe it to us,” Rian said.

  Heat flushed my face as his words sunk in. I laughed. It wasn’t a happy sound. The very thought of owing Rian anything was more than a little ridiculous.

  “You locked me away in the most devastating kind of prison, didn’t you?” I said, tapping my forehead with my right index finger. “You made me out as some kind of monster, in my own body, and you never even knew me. How could you even have the chance?”

  My voice was ugly.

  “You never gave me the chance to be someone, anyone, just tried to keep me hidden because you knew you couldn’t control me like your golden boy. So you all but killed me with your fucking meds and brainwashing.”

  I took a deep breath and, when he didn’t say anything, I took the opportunity to continue. I wasn’t even sure if I could stop.

  “You know why you have to suppress me and not Felix? Because I’m the original,” I said, shouting the last, though I wasn’t sure that “original” was the right word.

  Didn’t matter, the meaning got through.

  “This is my body. Fuck! Felix was my brother, Rian, and you took that away. From me, from Felix. You poisoned him against me, poisoned everyone. Felix was my family. He was all I had! You took everything from me and locked me up where all I could do was watch the world just pass me by.”