That Which Survives

by Ciana Stone

“Senna, I—”

  Colton interrupted. “I have a couple of things to take care of. Don’t leave. Don’t even open the door. I’ll be back within two hours.”

  Minora walked with him to the door. Konnor turned to Senna. “I still have misgivings about trusting this guy. He never did give us a satisfactory explanation.”

  “And he probably won’t,” Lucas volunteered from the other side of the table. “But you can trust him,” he added when Konnor looked at him.

  For a long time Konnor said nothing. Minora walked through the room. “I think I’m going to lie down.” Lucas nodded and Senna gave her a hard look.. She started to leave the room but Senna stepped in her way.

  “We need to talk.”

  “I’m tired, Senna. Can’t this wait?”

  “No, it can’t. You lied to me. Let me believe that you were injured, in pain, suffering for God’s sake! You let me give up my job, Min. A job I loved. All so I could be close to you and keep an eye on you. You betrayed me and I want to know why.”

  “Senna, everything I’ve ever done has been to protect you. You have to believe that. I certainly didn’t like lying to you, and believe me, being confined to that damn wheel chair was no pleasure. But I had to do it. To keep you safe.”

  “From what? Or who?” Senna demanded.

  “Senna I promise I’ll explain everything to you, answer all of your questions in detail. But right now, I really am exhausted. Please, I beg you. Table this discussion until I’m rested. Please?”

  Senna didn’t want to agree, but caved in to the pleading expression on Min’s face. “Fine, but I’ll be expecting answers as soon as you wake.”

  “Yes, dear,” Min smiled and patted Senna’s cheek. “I promise.”

  Senna watched her leave the room and turned to look at Lucas and Konnor. Konnor was still staring heatedly at Lucas.

  Lucas sat calmly waiting under Konnor’s scrutiny until finally Konnor spoke. “You never lied to me, did you, Lucas?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “But you did use me.”

  “Only because you volunteered.”

  Senna looked at Konnor in surprise. “You volunteered? Why?”

  His skin flushed and he looked down. She was surprised. She had never seen him look embarrassed the way he did then. “Well?” she asked curiously. “Why?”

  “Because he was in love with you,” Lucas answered then hurriedly continued, “even though he would never have admitted it at the time.”

  “Is that true?” she asked him.

  Konnor looked at her and nodded. She took his hand and held on to it. “Why is that so embarrassing?”

  “You were a kid,” he explained.

  “I was seventeen, not exactly an infant.”

  “But not an adult either,” he argued. “Which I was supposed to be. It was…it bothered me that I could fall in love with someone so young. I thought it made me sort of an old pervert or something.”

  “Well, if the shoe fits,” she teased him.

  “Hey!” He pulled his hand away.

  “I’m sorry,” she laughed then sobered as something occurred to her. “Konnor, that woman, the one you were in love with who died. Was that before or after…”

  “Neither,” he interrupted, and when her eyebrows rose in surprise, continued, “That was one of the false memories they implanted.”

  “But why give you a memory like that?” she asked.

  “You must understand,” Lucas spoke up. “Dealing with strong emotions is very tricky and difficult. Something as strong as love, especially passionate love, is very hard to erase. It is much easier to substitute one face for another. That way the emotions don’t have to be tampered with, only the facts and faces.”

  She thought about it for a moment. “Then what about me? Why was everything taken from me?”

  Lucas sighed. “You were… How can I put this? When I changed your memories, I implanted what I thought would be normal everyday memories for a teenage girl. I left the memories of your infatuation with Konnor untouched as I saw it as part of normal development. But then you were put through the process not once but twice more. Once by Marcus when he attempted to retrieve the information after Slater captured you, and again by Kitaro before you escaped and got back to the States.”

  She got up and walked back and forth for a few seconds, thinking back. “So, I wasn’t taken to Kitaro first,” she murmured, trying to remember clearly. She stopped suddenly and looked at the men. “I was taken to Marcus! He used the device on me and tried to extract the data. When it didn’t work he erased the memory of me being with him from my mind and that’s when Kitaro showed up.”

  “Yes,” Lucas agreed. “Apparently, when Marcus failed, Slater decided to turn you over to Kitaro. His job was either to get the information or kill you. But something happened and he never fulfilled those orders. That was what led to the rift between Slater and Kitaro and they have been bitter rivals ever since.”

  “It all makes sense,” she said more to herself than to them.

  “What does?” Konnor asked.

  “Kitaro.”

  “Well, how about explaining it to me?” he asked. “Because I don’t get this Kitaro-Shen thing at all.”

  “Shen?” Lucas asked. “Who’s Shen?”

  “That would be me.”

  Everyone jumped at the sound of the voice that came from the direction of the small sleeping quarters in the rear of the cabin. Shen stood in the doorway holding Minora by the arm. He nodded to Lucas and Konnor and released Minora. She ran across the room and bumped into the table. Senna jumped up to help her to a seat then turned.

  “Shen?” she asked.

  “Yes, it is I.”

  She frowned. “Why are you here?”

  “We must go to the control center.”

  “No,” Lucas argued.

  “Yes.” Shen looked at him. “And we must hurry. There have been unexpected developments.”

  Minora stood but Konnor remained seated. “Before we go anywhere I want to know the truth, Shen.”

  Shen’s eyes narrowed for a moment then he smiled. “Very well. Please, have a seat everyone. I’m sure you’ll all find this highly enlightening.”

  Senna remained standing and he walked over and took her arm. “Would you like to tell them or would you prefer I do it?”

  “I’ll tell them,” she hissed. “And let go of me.”

  His smile was one of amusement at her tone and demand but he did as she said. She turned and looked at the others. “You want to know about Shen? Okay, but first you have to know about Kitaro.”

  She looked at Konnor. “I told you about first meeting Kitaro. He took my clothes, chained me, and raped me. After that he left me alone for a long time, several days, in which time I had no food or water, nothing except my fear. The third day he returned. He asked me for the information and I told him I didn’t know anything. That’s when it really began. He beat me and abused me for weeks. Several times I really thought I would die. The days turned into nothing more than one type of abuse after another. It took him almost two months to realize that I really didn’t consciously know anything. That was two months of being raped and beaten, starved and terrorized with rats and snakes and being given to three and four men at a time while Kitaro watched. But when it finally sank in that I couldn’t tell him because I didn’t remember, things changed. That’s when he started using the drugs. Unfortunately, they didn’t work either. The only thing that accomplished was to turn me into an addict.”

  She gave Shen a hateful look. “But that suited Kitaro just fine. He used my addiction to torture me. He would give me the drugs sometimes and others he would make me go without. I would suffer all the withdrawal symptoms and when I was at my weakest he would pump me full of them again.”

  Senna closed her eyes and blew out her breath slowly, trying to release the hatred and rage that the memories inspired. “I reached a point that I was ready to die. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I begg
ed him to kill me. He refused, but something did change. He took away the drugs. That was bad enough. It took me weeks to get them all out of my system and I was really sick. When I was finally clean he came up with a new game. He would bind me and rape me. But he had an audience now. It would be like a big party. People would be laughing and drinking and he would have me brought in. I was the entertainment. When he was feeling generous he would allow his guests to have a turn. Nothing was too perverse for his tastes.”

  Konnor stood up and tried to take her in his arms but she wouldn’t let him, despite the fact she was shaking like she had a high fever. “No, I have to get this out,” she said.

  He sat down and she cast Shen a glance. His face was a mask, as if his emotions were being held tightly in check. “One night, after one of his parties, he had me taken back to my cell. I lay on my pallet and cried for hours, trying to will my heart to stop beating. I guess I cried myself to sleep. Something woke me. There was someone with me. He was touching me, so gently, and whispering words of comfort to me. I looked at him and screamed. It was Kitaro. But he didn’t act like Kitaro. He didn’t shout at me or hurt me. He looked like Kitaro on the outside but inside he was Kitaro’s opposite. He said his name was Shen and that he had come to save me.

  “Over the next few months the abuse continued. Kitaro must have been receiving pressure from someone because he began again trying to get the information. Each time he failed he would fly into an awful rage and make me suffer more than ever. But each time it happened, Shen would appear in my cell to take care of me. It started to feel like he was an angel. When he was there with me I was safe and loved.

  “I don’t know what happened, but suddenly Kitaro stopped trying to get me to remember. And the parties stopped. For weeks I didn’t see Kitaro or Shen. Then Kitaro had me brought to his private quarters. He wanted me. By then I had lost the nerve to fight. I didn’t fight and it seemed to surprise him. The way he touched me was different. I thought he was Shen and I responded to him. I even called him Shen. When I did it was like waving a flag in front of a bull. He started beating me, demanding to know who Shen was. I told him the truth, that Shen was a man who came to me when I was alone who wore his face, that Shen was a man who loved me. Suddenly he just seemed to freeze in place. He looked like a statue made of flesh and blood. I thought for sure he was going to explode any moment and tear my head off or something, but he didn’t. Instead Kitaro disappeared and Shen emerged. He held out his hand and told me that we had to leave. I was too afraid and confused to argue. I did as he said and he took me to Japan. I stayed there, as his lover, until Kitaro emerged one day. He was dominant for two weeks then Shen took control. He told me that he had to send me away. Then he used the device he had taken from Marcus on me. I was taken to a private plane and flown to the States, then taken by car to Harlan’s house. When I arrived I didn’t know where I had been or what had happened.”

  Everyone looked at her in shock when she finished. Her only concern was for Konnor and his reaction. “Konnor, you have to understand. The adversary you thought Shen was fighting all these years…it isn’t another person, it’s another part of Shen. Or more accurately I should say, Shen is a part of Kitaro. He’s a result of Kitaro’s mind fragmenting. Shen is Kitaro’s consciousness. He is, basically, the good side and Kitaro is the evil but they are, in the end, the same person.”

  Konnor looked at Shen. “Damn you.” His voice sounded strained. “Damn you to hell. You lied to me.”

  Shen’s face suddenly transformed from an expression of patience and compassion to one of arrogance and menace. “You pathetic fool,” he sneered at Konnor then included Lucas and Minora in his glance. “All of you, fools every one.”

  Senna jumped forward as he reached into the pocket of his coat. He grabbed her and wrapped one hand around her throat, holding her gasping for air as he lifted his weapon.

  “So, now at last you all know the truth,” he said, directing the comment to the others. “And now you can take it to your graves.”

  Konnor dived as Kitaro’s finger tightened on the trigger but he was too late. Lucas lurched backward in his chair as his chest exploded from the shot. Konnor had crossed the distance between him and Kitaro when Kitaro raised the gun and pointed it at Senna’s head. Konnor jerked to a stop.

  “Now, I believe we have somewhere to go,” Kitaro said. “After you.”

  “Lucas,” Senna gasped.

  Kitaro looked across the room to where Lucas was tied to the chair. His head was drooped forward so that his chin rested on his chest. Blood covered the front of his shirt. “He is dead.”

  A muffled sob came from Minora. “Move!” Kitaro barked. She walked over beside Konnor. He took her hand and after a moment’s hesitation walked ahead of Kitaro. Senna gulped air as the pressure on her throat eased and Kitaro shoved her behind Konnor. She bumped into Konnor and reached out to grab him for support.

  “Do not touch her!” Kitaro barked as Konnor started to take her arm. “She can walk on her own.”

  “Where are you taking us?” she rasped hoarsely.

  “To our destiny,” he said with a victorious smile.

  For a moment she hesitated, wondering if he would shoot her if she just took off running. At that moment she would almost have preferred it because she knew if she did what he wanted she would live in hell for however long he allowed her to live. More than that, she knew that he would never allow Konnor to live and she didn’t think she could bear seeing him die.

  “If you think to defy me, bear this in mind,” Kitaro seemed to read her mind. “I will make them suffer a very long time.”

  That was enough to get her moving again. He made Konnor drive the jeep that was parked outside. They drove to what appeared to be some type of aircraft hangar and he ordered Konnor to stop. There were no guards, no soldiers, not a living soul in sight. Senna could not figure out why the base seemed deserted. If the Sumer project was so important then it should have been guarded. But she had no time to ponder the question. Kitaro motioned them toward a door in the side of the building.

  As soon as they walked in they all stopped dead in their tracks. A craft unlike anything any of them had ever seen took up almost the entire area of the cavernous building. It looked at least four-stories high and almost as long as a football field. Its surface was a dull matte black and it was a bit reminiscent of a Stealth bomber, only many times larger.

  “Behold.” Kitaro’s voice was barely above a whisper and carried a hint of awe. “Sumer.”

  Senna marveled at the sight. The prototype Lucas had developed was actually only the control center. He had been interested more in the instrumentation and how it worked than the actual application of it to any type of craft. Her eyes traveled over it and she noticed what appeared to be some sort of ramp that extended from the belly.

  Kitaro motioned them toward the ramp. The interior was cool but well lit. Every wall and ceiling inside seemed to be made of the same type of material—a slick silver metal that oddly enough didn’t seem to reflect light. The floors were a dull black material that felt like very thick, hard rubber. It had a bit of give to it when they walked but absorbed all sound.

  They were directed to a door that slid open when they stopped in front of it. Kitaro motioned them inside and keyed in a sequence on the lighted control pad. Senna felt a slight motion, and although she could not tell from it whether they were ascending or descending, she knew they had to be rising. The doors opened and Kitaro prodded her forward.

  Her breath caught in her throat. It was almost like being transported back in time. They had reached the control center. It was circular in shape. All along the walls banks of controls were mounted. Each, she knew, had a specific function, but all were controlled from central command.

  The ceiling of the room rose to a peak in the center. Suspended from the central point was an enormous globe of glass. From the information in her mind she knew that it was a type of viewer, offering a three dimensional image of wh
atever the sensors were targeted on.

  Directly beneath the globe was a structure that resembled a raised circular lectern. On two sides there were crescent indentions, forming almost a niche in the rounded structure. Each of these two sides rose at a slight angle to a flattened point in the center. Each sloped surface bore a control panel. The panels looked something like a keyboard, but instead of letters and numbers the keys were lit and marked with symbols.

  Kitaro shoved her toward the stand. She lurched forward and caught herself then turned to him. “Please,” she beseeched him. “Don’t do this. You don’t need this, Kitaro. You’re already a wealthy, powerful man. You don’t have to—”

  “Silence!” he shouted at her.

  “All right.” She recognized the insane gleam in his eyes and knew not to push him too far. She had to find another tactic, anything to stall for time. “But will you please answer something for me?”

  He narrowed his eyes then nodded curtly. “Was Lucas working with Slater?”

  “Slater thought so.”

  “Then Lucas was telling the truth. He wasn’t working with Slater and Marcus.”

  “In the beginning he was.”

  “I don’t understand. If he didn’t want Slater to get his hands on the machine then why work for him?”

  “He needed the funds Slater could provide and he trusted Marcus and Andrea. When he discovered who Slater really was and what he wanted with the research, he betrayed them.”

  “So he ordered my mother…Andrea’s death,” Senna said.

  Kitaro’s face lit in a sly smile. “Indeed he did.”

  “You find that amusing?” she asked angrily.

  “Highly,” he replied then looked up for a split second as if in thought. “Perhaps I should have let Lucas live a bit longer. It might have been worth the bother just to see the look on his face.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He pulled a communicator from his pocket similar to the type law enforcement agencies use and spoke into the microphone. “Bring her in.”

  Senna stared at him in confusion then looked at Minora. Min shrugged as if to indicate she had no idea what was going on. The entrance doors to the control room slid open and Senna felt like she was going to faint.