“Enter,” Cain ordered.
In came a tall, lanky man with short, unkempt greyish-black hair and a lean and slender face. He had an unusual cybernetic eye implant that stemmed from the back of his head on the right side, formed a V-shape down toward his jaw, and then up toward the space just beneath his right eye. The implant wasn’t protruding at all, rather, it looked like it was seamlessly molded around the curvature of his face. Unlike his normal left eye, the sclera around his right iris was black, and the iris was a glowing red. He sported a scruffy goatee and had distinct wrinkles under his eyes and on both sides of his mouth. He looked to be a man in his sixties, but the truth was that no one knew how old he truly was, not even General Cain.
“Ah, the great General Vladimir Cain, as intense and ominous, as ever, I see.”
“Sit,” an impatient Cain interjected.
“Certainly,” Dr. Volda replied, unperturbed.
General Cain sat across from him in silence. He was livid, and made it a point to let Dr. Volda know. Whether it was a conscious attempt at intimidation or not, even Volda understood the nonverbal message being delivered. General Cain motioned with his hand to the holo-display and enlarged the frame exposing the attacker who had ambushed the TEAR unit just hours before.
“Explain this. And I’m warning you, don’t fuck with me,” an eerily calm Cain stated.
Dr. Volda appeared cagey, unnerved, which was a surprise to Cain. And then the air around Dr. Volda changed. His shoulders relaxed, and he leaned back in his chair crossing his legs and clasping his hands.
“Lookie here. I wonder how that got out, huh?” Dr. Volda said with a condescending smirk on his face. Dr. Volda’s unusual mannerisms made it hard to get a good read on him. His life’s work made him eccentric and bizarre at times. What a sly bastard, Cain thought.
“Stein, I’m giving you one chance to explain yourself,” General Cain persisted.
“Whatever do you mean, sir?” Volda replied innocently. General Cain slammed his fist on the metal desk, leaving a small dent. Dr. Volda’s relaxed demeanor changed to a serious one.
“Do remember, I have every record of every single offense you’ve committed that we swept under the rug for you! Your little fetish with raping and murdering vagabond prostitutes and hookers? Ring a bell? Or your backdoor dealings with black market doctors for your illegal experiments, hm? Or maybe your strange devout attachment to your lab? I can easily turn you into our authorities and have you rot in a prison for the rest of your godforsaken life if I wanted to! And don’t forget that I can force Prime Minister Honda to issue an executive order to defund your research program, effective immediately,” General Cain threatened.
“My, my, we’re awfully worked up now, aren’t we? All those things. Yes, I sure do believe you would follow through if I don’t comply,” Dr. Volda calmly replied.
“If?” Cain abruptly countered.
“Hmm, yes, ‘if’, my good man. See, the street goes both ways. Do not forget your flawed, corrupt and, might I add, bloody rise to power. Oh, I’m sure the already angry public would just love to hear the disclosure of your violent past. A distrusted public figure already detested by a distrustful public. They would revolt, bury you alive even, hm?” Volda replied.
“Answer my question, Stein!” Cain yelled.
Lt. Daav put his gun to the back of Dr. Volda’s head, licking his chops as he donned a sinister grin.
“Put the gun down, sir. I never said I wouldn’t comply. Ha, ha! A joke, yes? I was the one who released the Adriel Project, or should I say, the White Knight,” Dr. Volda said.
Daav lowered his weapon and stepped back. General Cain leaned forward, elbows on his desk.
“And why did you do this, might I ask? You understand this project was top secret, right? You also understand that this would be a breach of contract between Quantum, C.E.L.L. and us? Despite our absolute ownership of this city-state you do realize that even we have to play by the rules sometimes!?” General Cain asked.
“Odd coming from a man, who like me, broke all the rules to begin with, huh? Either way, yes, I understood the ramifications of being caught, by the wrong person, that is,” Volda slyly replied.
“So, you did this purposefully? Nearly killing my men for your own selfish reasons?” Cain angrily replied.
“Is that why I was summoned? Hmm, it wasn’t to undermine any operation you had going on, on purpose, that is,” Volda replied.
“So why did you let him loose? Do you understand the irreversible damage you could have caused? What if he went haywire and began murdering innocent civilians? What if he never ran into my highly trained unit?” Cain countered.
“I never knew you were a man to care of such noble things, sir,” Volda replied.
“Why did you release it? Give it to me straight, Stein!” Cain commanded.
“Twenty years ago, I had a brilliant student. Gifted with the kind of genius that only occurs once a generation. Her research was awe-inspiring and revolutionary within the scientific community. Far, far ahead of her time, even among the elite scientific thinkers of today. Her work would have changed the way we look at the human body, had she lived long enough to complete her research. Her name was—”
“Amiko Fayte,” Lt. Daav interrupted.
“Why, yes, that’s correct Lieutenant,” Volda replied.
“Can never forget her killer looks. Never gave me the time of day,” Daav said, nostalgic. Even Volda, for all his eccentricities and the lack of the normal array of human emotions, appeared reminiscent.
“She and my former colleague, Dr. Hisashi Sendo, developed the coveted, often dreamed about, ‘Nano Formula’,” Volda added.
“I believe I heard of that during my first few days after becoming General years ago. We thought it was nothing more than science jargon, a myth even. What exactly would this formula have been able to do?” General Cain asked.
“Essentially, it is the key of the creation of the ultimate being; the ‘Natural Hybrid’,” Volda replied.
“Natural Hybrid? Explain,” General Cain asked.
“Yes, a naturally born human, with techno-organic functioning organs. An organic, living breathing, evolving, sentient machine, equipped with the natural ability to reproduce! To exceed normal human physical and mental feats far beyond what we could have ever imagined. All the advantages a regular Hybrid would have, and none of its weaknesses. And who knows what other variables and unexplainable phenomena could be embedded in their genetic code? What their life span would be? Would they be able to experience the inner workings of technology more intimately? Even assimilate their consciousness into the technology? Then there’s the potential immunity to all viruses and diseases. The ability to run and heal faster, think quicker, process information on an entirely different scale! Pushing the envelope of the vast potential for learning and creating new things human eyes have never seen!” Volda ranted on.
“So, what happened to Amiko Fayte?” Cain asked.
“We had a bit of a falling out,” Volda deflected.
“Falling out?” Cain asked.
“She created the formula. The process was painstaking. Year after year of intense trial and error. Her consistent work in the field and research yielded a very small but very powerful amount of the formula in a small vial. Trillions of what she called ‘nanocells’; sentient nano-cellular sized super bio-computers. No one had seen anything like it before, not even I. I wanted it mass produced as fast as possible. However, it took years just to get that small vial. I told her we would need a test subject; preferably human. She staunchly opposed this. I needed to see these results. So, I threatened her staff, saying that one of them would be the subject. They also refused. Because they had the gall to disobey orders at such a critical time, I decided that they should all be punished. I think you know what happened next,” Volda alluded.
“Go fucking figure,” Lt. Daav commented.
“It was a shame, really. They were all brilliant people. Neverthe
less, she was the last one. She finally agreed to be the test subject,” Volda said.
Lt. Daav’s eyes shifted. Yeah, right. You left her no choice, he thought.
“And what happened to her afterward?” Cain asked.
“Shortly after the time of the injection, she admitted to being pregnant. But that wasn’t all. After many thorough diagnostic tests and analyses, it was revealed that the majority of the newly injected nanocells had found a home within her unborn child. His intrauterine development was simply astounding. She also began to change; her already brilliant mind expanded even further and her physical capabilities increased five-fold,” Volda said.
“And?” Cain asked.
“Well, the majority of the nanocells went to her child, but the remnants that remained in her system had a profound, albeit, secondary effect on her, as I stated a few seconds ago. After she gave birth, she took her son, and they escaped,” Volda said.
“You just let her go? Just like that?” Cain asked indignantly.
“She was smarter, faster, stronger. Always a step ahead. And that was before the injection of the nanocells. But after, she became something more. She disappeared off the face of the earth. That was until our newly formed CSSA team detected some unusual activity in one of their servers some fifteen years later after the time of Amiko’s escape. Someone had been monitoring everything that had anything to do with Zonos and Psi-Corp. It was a stroke of luck that this person was even discovered, really. The Net Code address led to a small settlement town called—”
“Integro,” Lt. Daav interjected yet again. He was surprised that he remembered this. A flash flood of memories stormed his mind at an overwhelming pace.
“Lieutenant?” General Cain asked.
“I found her. She had been living in Integro, before it became West Andromeda. She looked different, but somehow, I knew it was her. There was an explosion and she was at its epicenter. There’s no way she could’ve survived that,” Daav said as he began to remember fragments of Amiko’s death.
“I’m not entirely sure what happened, but word had it that she died while fighting off our forces, which somewhat corroborates Lieutenant Daav’s patchy memories, hm? Yes, indeed. But there was something they overlooked; they never found the body of her son,” Volda stated excitedly.
“What in the world does any of this have to do with the Adriel Project, Stein?” General Cain asked.
“That picture, yes, that one on your holo-feed behind the White Knight. It appears we have a common interest in that picture, good sir,” Volda stated while rubbing his hands together.
“Explain. I’m losing patience,” General Cain said.
“Eye color mutations within our general populace have rarely varied over the years, save for cybernetic vision enhancements like that of the Lieutenant’s, or other Hybrids per se. The range of eye color here is rather basic from dark and light brown, to hazel, amber, blue, even your atypical grey or green here and there. But never, since the Fayte bloodline came to be, have I ever seen such brilliant opaline shimmer in anyone’s eyes. She had luminous golden eyes that had a nuanced, polychromatic glow to them, especially at night. They were simply hypnotic, as if they could peer deep into your heart of hearts. She had the most powerful, soul-bearing, intimidating glare,” Volda said, almost chanting.
“Stein,” Cain uttered impatiently.
“That young man in that picture is the son of the legend! The holy grail of anatomical science! He represents a complete rewriting of the human genome! A walking, living, breathing, thinking, sentient, techno-organic, human-born man-machine of pure wonder and delicious discovery! He is the path to the future!” Dr. Stein Volda exclaimed with a flourish, finding himself on his feet.
“How in the world do you know for sure?” Cain asked.
“Oh, yes. I ran into him some days ago while I was, well, you know, satisfying my undeniable instinct for unchaste, beautiful carnage. There, this young man stood, in the flesh; glowing golden eyes and all. His features were just like his mother’s. Amiko Fayte’s offspring! Can you imagine?” Volda exclaimed.
General Cain was hardly amused, but engaged all the same. “You’re certain the same man in this picture is the one you saw that night?” Cain asked.
“Why, yes, Vladimir. I could never forget those eyes, even if I wanted to. He looked to be in phenomenal shape. I could sense a power deep within him. It’s monstrous, but dormant. I initially released the Adriel Project to further my aim of reaching a new step in human development by collecting data. I’ve been trying to recreate Amiko’s infamously impossible formula, to no avail. She and Dr. Sendo went to great lengths to conceal their research from me. They defied me! Me! Even though I was the head of the government’s science division! Their co-conspiring resulted in me losing access to their formula when they passed," he said.
"You mean when you had them killed, right? I'm no scientist, but doesn’t that kinda mean this little ordeal here is your fault?" Daav abruptly interjected.
Stein gave Lt. Daav a chilling glare, unwilling to admit fault in any way. Yeah, real fuckin' creep show you are, huh? Daav thought to himself about the strange Dr. Stein Volda.
"What about this formula you spoke of? You're telling me there is absolutely no trace of these experiments?" General Cain asked.
"None. They got rid of everything. Not a single piece of equipment was left behind. Amiko was two steps ahead of us, but as luck would have it, I have found what we need! Ever since I ran into that young man, I’ve had the White Knight trail him, but he has proven to be an extremely difficult person to track. It was a miracle that the White Knight re-located him near the Clone Farm,” Volda revealed.
“So, you knew! You’ve tested my patience long enough, Stein. Your bullshit ends here! I regret to inform you, but I’m going to have to put in an order to revoke your scientific license, the rights to your funding and research, and your position as president of the Science and Research Development division of Zonos,” Cain said.
“Or you could, perhaps, not, hm?” Volda replied.
“Stein, you have no say in this matter. You have clearly violated enough rules in your time. It ends here,” Cain said.
“General Cain, it is my understanding that your soldiers in the regular Psi-Corp ranks have begun to suffer greatly from the side effects of the now failing ScioN serum provided to you by C.E.L.L., yes?” Volda alleged. “And it has also been rather heavily implied by the brand ambassador and senior faculty board member, Layne Marling from C.E.L.L., that their company will be officially excluding Zonos and Psi-Corp from the private auction of the new, upgraded, side effect-less, ScioN serum, yes?
General Cain ground his teeth and looked away, angered by the subject.
“What if I told you, that if I captured the young Fayte boy, I could harvest his nanocells and create a formula far more efficient, powerful, and effective than the ScioN serum your soldiers are currently taking?” Volda tried to use this angle to win over the General. General Cain’s cold grey eyes connected with Dr. Volda’s in an awkward, and equally intense stare-off.
“Let’s say I go along with this plan of yours. How do you plan on capturing the boy? Do you even know where he is right now?” Cain asked.
“Not exactly, but both your special units, TEAR and the CSSA, haven’t been able to, while the White Knight has at least found him with a bit more success. So, what if we team up, and use both the White Knight and the TEAR and CSSA units together to zero in on this elusive Fayte child, yes? What say you?” Volda inquired.
“The Adriel Project, or White Knight, being out in the open poses a great risk to us, the citizens, and our secrets. You would have to reprogram him to recognize a Psi-Corp ally code identification if he does encounter our soldiers that aren’t TEAR unit,” Cain said.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that, he will remain unseen.”
“I’m serious, Stein. My men will have much more flexibility to track and move in on the kid, but even we cannot move in on
this Fayte boy without more evidence that he is, in fact, who you say he is,” Cain replied.
“So what strategy do you propose then, sir?” Volda asked.
Lt. Daav was the first to answer. “While the White Knight has had more success tracking this Fayte kid, and nearly killed us looking for him, might I fucking add, he can’t risk being spotted due to the contractual obligations to the Adriel Project Agreement, but he can continue to survey from the shadows. Then, if possible, he can relay coordinates to our team for us to investigate. At the same time, the CSSA can also use the intel gathered to find any other personal information on him; who his friends are, his buying habits, any girlfriends, fuck buddies, what his occupation is, and so on. I also have contacts within the Chimera Crime syndicate. Specifically, their two most notorious hitmen, Franki Butcher and Neo Masamune. We can use them to corner the kid for capture. That way, we force him to fight for his survival. By doing this, we can observe his abilities, and confirm whether he’s the real deal. If he is, then we take him in. If not, well then, we will have wasted time and Creds for being immoral shitheads,” Lt. Daav said.
General Cain ran his hand along his beard and smirked. He then looked to Dr. Volda who looked delighted about the idea proposed by the Lieutenant.
“It looks like we have ourselves a deal, gentlemen. If this works out, I will have a much more powerful military force at my fingertips; powerful enough to initiate our campaign of expanding further westward and assimilating other settlements into ours,” the general said. Stein cleared his throat and Cain rolled his eyes in exasperation. “And Stein will have his hands on this coveted ‘nanocell’ to do whatever he pleases.”
All three gentlemen stood.
“We shake on this as partners in this operation, then, yes?” Dr. Volda asked. General Cain silently nodded and both men shook hands. “Oh my, oh my, what shall we do about the do-gooder?” Volda asked.
“Oh, you mean Prime Minister Honda? Though he, like us, was chosen to govern this city-state by The Chosen Three, he is to know nothing of this meeting or this operation, period. Politically he is defanged and depowered, but he is adored by the people of this city. We cannot make him aware of our plans, for he will certainly try to intervene in some indirect way,” General Cain said.
Neon District: ALPHA (The Neon District Trilogy, Book 1) Page 22
