Paradise Awakened Trilogy

by Mackenzie Morris

  "Why the warning?" Doss asks. "You know something I don't?"

  "I know that you're a high profile target, being third in command of the military. You never know if the Blood Force will attempt to . . . remove you from office."

  "Gotcha. I can handle myself."

  Velex doesn't look amused. "Like you did down on Earth? I know all about you being whipped and tortured by those androids."

  "I was, um . . . just pretending to be weak so they wouldn't be intimidated by me."

  "Oh, give it a rest, Doss. You can't keep acting like you're still as powerful as you used to be before you fell. You're never going to be like you were. It's over and you need to focus instead on making the best of what you do still have. Lift some weights, go for a swim, get out and run a few miles. You have to get your physique back, man."

  Doss turns away from him and starts walking down the alley. "Wow, thanks for telling me I look terrible, Axel."

  "You look fine. I'm just trying to help you. As your superior, I want what is best for you."

  "I don't need your help."

  * * *

  After three hours of waiting in the café with no sign of Velex, Doss gave up and came upstairs. He sighs as he places his key card into the dull glowing hologram and the automatic door slides open. He steps into the welcoming darkness as the door closes behind him. The artificial moonlight fills the room, serving only to remind Doss how exhausted he is. As he begins to remove his armor, something rustles in the darkness on the other side of the bed and the spots the blue haze of a hologram.

  "Where's your wolf, Uriel?"

  Doss jumps and turns on the lights to see the dark skinned archon with elaborate gold wings in the back corner of the room. "Gabriel . . . what are you doing here?"

  Gabriel sets down the holographic book that he has been reading and walks up to Doss with a dark grin on his face. "I came to congratulate you. So, still not going by your true name? What a shame."

  "Where is Abel? If you hurt him-"

  "Don't get your feathers rustled, Uriel. He's playing with Cain down in the lobby. They're becoming very good friends . . . almost like brothers."

  "If your demon wolf kills my dog, I will get my revenge." Doss threatens him.

  The door to the bathroom opens and a very pale archon whose skin is splattered with blood around his shimmering black wings tosses a bloody dagger on the bed. "Such a temper."

  "Why are you covered in blood, Michael?" Doss asks.

  "I had some . . . issues to take care of. Turns out that security in this building doesn't like us coming in here unannounced. Some military grunts tried to stop us, so I dispatched them. This entire area is now under Blood Force control. Clark will be joining us momentarily."

  What? No way. Doss has to find a way out of here before the man who cut off his longest feathers with a welding torch comes here to finish him off. Where is Velex? He has to know if they did something to him. "Where is Velex? What did you do to him?"

  Gabriel winks. "That's our little secret."

  "What do you two want?"

  "We came to talk to our favorite oldest brother." Michael says. "We want you to surrender and come with us to the underground missile silo."

  "So you can kill me?"

  Gabriel picks up Doss's short sword from the dresser and examines it. "We prefer to think of it as securing payment for your crimes. While Admiral Velex and the rest of the military have accepted you back with high honors, we still know."

  "Crimes? What about you, Michael? You killed all of those innocent people in Paradise. What about Kazimir or Remi?"

  "Remiel betrayed us." Michael says. "He faced the fate that all traitors face. And as for Kazimir, it was just his time to go. He'd lived for over two hundred years and hadn't made any meaningful contributions to science in close to half a century. Isidore was the last thing he did that had any value."

  "He was our Creator!" Doss shouts. "You have no remorse? No lingering attachment to him? He gave us life and you gunned him down like he was some worthless stranger. Listen, I didn't get along very well with the guy either, but that doesn't mean that I would kill him."

  Gabriel shakes his head. "Oh, look in the mirror, Uriel. You look just like Kazimir did when he was twenty-five. That's the only reason he cared about you more than us. You were his clone."

  "No."

  "Here." Gabriel looks through the screen on his watch communicator and pulls up a picture. "Identical."

  If Doss had a large beard and longer hair, he would match the man in the photograph perfectly. "So what?"

  "So you were his favorite." Gabriel says. "It's only natural that you feel some deeper sort of connection with him. But the rest of us don't give a damn. Now, enough talking. I'm getting tired of sitting around here. You can either come quietly with us to the missile silo, or we can have Clark forcefully remove you. Either way, we have a warrant for your arrest."

  "I'm the Himmel Military Captain. I have immunity from accusation brought about by the other factions."

  Michael puts his arm around Doss's shoulders. "We'll do this the hard way, then."

  Something sharp pricks Doss's arm and his vision begins to fade as the room spins around him. His legs buckle and he falls to the floor unconscious.

  * * *

  Katarina watches Zach as he operates on Jayce who is completely sedated and strapped down to a metal table with wires and cables attached to him. The monitors beep and tell Zach all kinds of information that Katarina has no idea what means. Even watching this is making her nauseous, but she promised Jarred that she would be here for him. She has to be, not just because he's her owner, but because he needs her. These past three weeks have been filled with planning, preparations, and getting to know both Jarred and Jayce.

  Zach strips off his latex gloves and washes his hands in the sink. "Okay. That should be about it. He will gain consciousness within an hour and then we will run some tests. With the hardware I installed and Raphael's secret project, you should have your sniper buddy ready to go back out in the field in no time, Jarred."

  "Really? Becoming a computer will get him shooting again?"

  "If it all works. He will be the first blind T.I.M.E. android sniper."

  Jarred laughs a tiny bit and takes Jayce's hand. "He'll love it, I'm sure. You'll have to fill me in on programming him and stuff. They only computer I've done much with is the system in my rifle."

  Zach wipes the sweat away from underneath his red beanie. "Not to worry. I've programmed him and installed a basic operating system. He will retain full control of everything and be able to make changes as he sees fit."

  Jarred's smile is gone now as he watches Jayce's shallow breathing. "What if he-"

  "Stop. He's still going to be the very same man you married. Don't worry about that. If anything, the programming could help him with his PTSD. Once he wakes up, you'll see that he's still Jayce."

  Isidore enters the room and pulls up a chair beside Jarred. "I can answer any questions you have, you know? My brain is seventy-five percent computer and has been since I was a baby. I now all there is to know about being a living computer."

  "What is Raphael working on?" Jarred asks.

  "He's just putting the finishing touches on something that he's giving to Jayce."

  "Raphael is taking this seriously, isn't he?"

  "He's Jayce's bonded and sworn guardian archon." Isidore says. "It's a very serious thing. He will do anything and everything to keep him safe and happy, as well as giving his own life for him."

  Jarred shakes his head and tightens his fists. "I'm supposed to be the one to protect him."

  "Is that jealousy, Jarred?" Zach asks.

  "I just don't want him to get attached to Raphael and forget about what we have. For ten years, it has been only Jarred and Jayce. We didn't have anyone else. We didn't need anyone else. That's what made us unstoppable. Now I wonder if Jayce is ever going to be the same as he was before all of this happened. We had a fight the other ni
ght and I called him 283."

  "His android number?" Isidore asks.

  "Yes. Then I forced him to wear a shock collar. I threatened him."

  Isidore looks concerned. "He has PTSD from being almost killed by electrocution."

  "Don't you think I know that?" Jarred asks as he holds his face in his hands. "I feel terrible, but I freaked out. Jayce has always been the dominate one who took charge and was in control. Now he's relying on me to take that place, but I don't know how. I'm not a leader. Seeing him so helpless and submissive scares the hell out of me. The reason we work so well together is because I have my role and he has his. Now he's expecting me to take control. That's just not me."

  "So is he the man in the relationship?" Zach asks with a mischievous grin.

  Jarred draws his combat knife and throws it at Zach where it sticks in the wall, missing him by less than an inch. "We're both the man in the relationship. There's not any girlie shit going on here. Say something like that one more time and see what happens to you. I have killed more people than you've ever met. Call me a woman and I'll get my knife out of the wall then make you one. Would you like that, pretty boy?"

  "Damn, Jarred. It was a joke."

  "I'm not in a joking mood. That's never something to joke about, Zach. Someone get me a drink."

  "Beer or whiskey?" Isidore asks as he goes to the cabinet and searches through it.

  "Both."

  Zach pries the knife free from the wall and hands it back to Jarred. "Okay. There has to be a story here with this. Why are you so defensive about your relationship with Jayce?"

  Jarred pours the beer into a pilsner glass then adds an ounce of whiskey. "I've caught enough flak for being with a man, even though it's legal and we've had equal rights for a hundred years. So many people still hate us, but it's what they don't say that gets to me. You just know they're thinking things, always watching and judging you."

  "What's to judge?" Isidore asks. "I don't understand. Am I missing something here?"

  "You've been around Blice for so long that nothing seems strange to you." Katarina says.

  "True. But it's not strange, is it? Maybe I just view this differently because I'm not human."

  Jarred shakes his head and drinks his entire drink. "Just forget about it."

  2

  The blindfold is torn away from Doss's eyes and he squints in the single bright light shining directly down on him in the otherwise pitch black room. This place looks to have been abandoned years ago and it smells like it hasn't been cleaned in just as long. A thick choking musty smell fills the cold air along with what Doss can only surmise as being his own blood. The bright red blood has stained his armor and trickled down to his arms which are bound to the metal chair he is sitting in. As he continues to come to his senses, he becomes all too aware of the elder-looking man with the cane sitting on the table in front of him who is twirling some jumper cables in his hand.

  "Good morning, Doss. Enjoy your beauty sleep?"

  "What's this, Clark? Jumper cables? Is that supposed to scare me?"

  Clark hits a switch on the underside of the table and the room lights up to reveal the cables attached to a large generator. "Does that scare you a bit more?"

  Oh, well that changes things. Doss grabs the arms of the chair. "I would be lying if I said no. Let me go. What do you want? I can get you anything you want."

  "Oh, how the arrogant have fallen. No, I already have what I want. You."

  "Don't do this. If the military finds out about this, they will come down hard on you and your Blood Force."

  "But see, that just means that I can't let them find out." Clark says. "No survivors. Then I get rid of your body and the evidence. It's so simple."

  "What do you hope to achieve by killing me?"

  "Nothing. I hope to gain answers and information by torturing you."

  Really? This is exactly what Doss should have expected from him. "Oh, that's right. You're a sadistic bastard."

  Clark slaps him hard across the face. "You will learn to have some humility. Your constant fighting against your fate is never going to get you anything but more pain. If only Byron hadn't fought back . . ."

  "Byron? What did you do to Byron?"

  Clark shrugs his shoulders. "It's tragic, really. Now Katarina is a widow at such a young age."

  That news hits Doss harder than any slap he could have received. Byron. While he didn't know him for very long, Byron always seemed like a good guy. How heartbroken is Katarina going to be when she finds out? She loved him. That much was clear. This shouldn't be overly surprising, seeing the circumstances they have all found themselves in. In the end, the vice admiral who was interrogating Byron was a member of the Blood Force. She must have removed the omega code and the rejuvenation ring from his body and left him there to die.

  "Wings or fingers?"

  Doss looks up at Clark. "What?"

  Clark holds up a welding torch. "Do you want to lose you wings or your fingers first? I'm feeling generous today so I'll let you decide."

  Doss squirms in the chair in a desperate attempt to get away from the hot blue flame. "Uh . . . you're not a very good interrogator, are you?"

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Well, you're supposed to ask me questions first and then torture me. You haven't asked me anything."

  "I simply want to hear you scream." Clark says as he leans closer to Doss's face. "I think that you deserve much worse than I can ever do to you. In what universe is what you've done considered to be right? Going against your archon brothers and joining the military under Velex's command then attacking my ship? Haven't you learned your lesson from the last time I got my hands on your wings? Now you have the balls to show up here in Himmel then parade around like some kind of hero? A prodigal son returning home? You want to play the game? Fine. I want to know what the military is up to. What was under your dog's collar last night at the ceremony? Don't think for one second that I didn't see that. Clever, but too obvious. Now tell me what you and Velex were up to."

  How did he know about any of that? If Doss tells him the truth, that he was trying to detonate a bomb beneath the stage to assassinate the chancellor, then Chancellor Dressler himself could have Doss and Velex both executed. That is if Velex is even still alive. The most Doss can do is buy time until someone realizes he hasn't shown up for flight simulation training. He doesn't know what time it is, but surely it is nearly morning. He feels like he's been out of it for hours.

  A sudden sharp pain in Doss's groin forces him back to reality as he gasps for breath and Clark kicks him again. He clenches his teeth and the tears swell in his eyes.

  "I asked you a question. Are you going to answer or not?"

  Between ragged breaths, Doss speaks. "We were just trying to . . ."

  Clark begins removing Doss's armor and pants.

  "What are you doing?" Doss asks.

  "I need to be able to reach the more sensitive parts of your body just in case you try to prolong this. It's all up to you, Doss."

  Doss closes his eyes and grabs the arms of the chair until his knuckles go white.

  * * *

  Jarred helps Jayce up into the fourth floor of the nearly destroyed building where they had been camped out for a few hours waiting to find Ben Crowe a few weeks ago. Katarina tosses their bags down on the dingy carpet. She was so happy to leave this place the first time and she wouldn't have been disappointed if she never came back.

  "All right, buddy." Jarred says. "Let's try this out. There is a chicken somewhere in this sector tied to a pole. I want you to find it and shoot it."

  "A chicken? Where in hell did you find a chicken?" Jayce asks.

  "I stole it from one of the biogenesis farms. Don't worry about that. Find the chicken then shoot it so we can have something good for dinner." Jarred hands a rifle to Jayce and sits down next to him in front of the window. "Remember all the stuff that Raphael was telling you? Just focus on that program in your mind and you'll be able to find
your target."

  "So how does that work, exactly?" Katarina asks.

  "Because Jayce now has computer hardware in his brain, the program is able to simulate a virtual reality in his mind. It stimulates the same area of the brain that would normally process sight. In essence, he has his own virtual view of the world around him."

  "Interesting."

  "Now be quiet and let him get used to it."

  Katarina looks through her own rifle until she finds the poor chicken struggling to get free from its binds. It's about half a mile away from their location and she knows that even she would have an issue shooting it from here. How is a blind man going to do it?

  "What do you see?" Jarred asks.

  "It's difficult to explain. It's almost like a dream. It doesn't look like reality, but I think I know where we are. You just want me to take the shot when I think I've found it?" Jayce asks.

  "Sure. Go ahead."

  Jayce fires one shot and Katarina watches the chicken get hit right in the breast. She grabs his arm. "You did it! Oh my God, you actually did it!"

  Jarred hugs him. "I'm so proud of you."

  He pushes him away, stands, and slings his rifle on his back. "Just doing my job."

  Katarina spots a group of people moving up the side street between the courtyard and the Presidential Palace carrying torches and makeshift flamethrowers. They are setting everything on fire seemingly indiscriminately.

  When they begin to cheer and shout, Jarred takes notice. "Kat, go down there and see what that ruckus is about. Find out if they're humans or androids and what, if any, allegiance they still have to Ben Crowe's men or Isidore."

  "I'm on it." She props her rifle up in the window and heads for the stairs.

  "Be careful. I'll be watching from up here, ready to shoot if they try anything."

  Katarina carefully makes her way down what's left of the crumbling stairwell and out into the perpetual night of the underground city. The electricity still hasn't been restored in most sectors of the city so even the systems that would usually power the artificial sun aren't working. With how many humans and androids were killed in the fighting, there haven't been enough people to tend to the wounded, find food, and keep Paradise running as it should. It's difficult for her to see the city she has loved, the only place she has ever known and the one that her father would have given his life for, decaying into a nothing but war, starvation, and death. Eventually, they will have to find a way to survive and thrive on the wasteland surface or all life will cease to exist on Earth. They are the last ones alive, after Doss slaughtered the remaining survivors on the surface when his programming malfunctioned.