Tabula Rasa

by Filip Forsberg

  “What have you done?”

  John did not answer but slowly walked around the bed and sat down beside her where she laid. She trembled. He smiled.

  “I don’t know how you got hold of his number and what you could say before I came in and interrupted you, but now he has been checked out for good and he will not be able to help you more.”

  Maria had been locked up in John's apartment and had managed to break free after several hours of coaxing. During the time she was imprisoned, she had repeatedly heard Dennis Topps name being mentioned, and when she was alone and got loose, she had managed to activate the holotelephone and looked up Dennis number.

  Maria trembled when John touched her, and he became stronger because of it. This was the whole point of life. Being able to dominate and control another person. A shiver of pleasure went through his own body.

  He got up, undressed his upper body. He knew she would be terrified when she saw him without a shirt. His powerful muscles tightened and he turned around. The glass-paved walls reflected him and he let Maria see him in his full splendor. On his body, a red, burning dragon was tattooed. The flaming eyes stared out of his chest and the glowing body twisted around his upper body. While Maria stared in horror at him the dragon twisted slowly and moved over his body. It was a magnificent piece of art, an outstanding expression of the power that burned within him. He blazed with the intensity when his vivid tattoo showed up in its full glory, and he enjoyed when he heard Mary's despairing moans from the bed.

  * * *

  Jaap leaned against Jonathan with an evil grin on his face.

  “We were interrupted, right?”

  Jonathan nodded weakly and pretended to give up. Jaap laughed triumphantly and never saw Jonathan's hand quickly thrust up the little laser blade that hit Jaap under the chin. The sharp tip of the knife slid without resistance into the lower jaw and further up towards Jaap's middle brain. Jaap froze and stared blankly toward Jonathan a few moments before his eyes rolled back in their sockets. He fell. Jonathan kicked away the dead killer and it took five minutes before he managed to cut off the second ankle buckle.

  He quickly rushed to the door and opened it. He ran back to Vendricks office and heard a subdued scream coming from behind the door. Quickly Jonathan teared a small fire extinguisher from the wall and then pounded on the door of John's office and took a step to the side and waited. Several seconds passed. The door slid open, but he did not move. A few seconds passed silently before Jonathan heard steps inside the room.

  John stuck his head out of the doorway and in the same second Jonathan struck hard with the fire extinguisher which hit John in the temple, and he collapsed on the floor.

  He stared at the bloody man lying on the ground in front of him and the living, bloody tattoo that slowly moved over the body. He rushed past John to locate the source of the scream that he heard, but when he ran on into the secret room, he saw a woman’s naked, bloody corpse in the bed in the middle of the room.

  His stomach turned and he had to struggle to not vomit. He stopped and walked slowly to the body, with the arms outstretched to the sides like a Jesus figure. The woman's face was frozen in a stiff cry with her mouth wide open and her unseeing eyes wildly wide open. Long, deep lacerations went from the shoulders down to the belly and thick, dark red drops poured from the fresh wounds. An ice-cold shiver ran through him when he heard John moaning. He turned back and disappeared out past John into Tabula Rasa internal domains.

  *

  Tabula Rasa, Madagascar

  2049-01-01

  Jonathan's left arm ached like it was dipped in fire while he ran from Vendrick's office. Pounding. A tearing sensation from the wound that ran from the elbow diagonally towards the wrist. It was deep. As droplets of corrosive acid dropping on metal, and with a sizzling, bubbling sound eating through.

  He clenched his teeth hard and flexed his jaw muscles even harder. Small, colorful stars flickered past his field of vision. The metallic taste of blood pushed into his mouth and he swallowed hard to repress the nausea. The rest of his body was more or less bruised but he did not think he had any more serious injuries than the wound on his arm.

  * * *

  The amber colored injections came to life and gushed forward in Vendrick’s unconscious body. Normally they fed of adrenaline and their power was reinforced by his anger but now they adapted to the situation and at the molecular level, they began to change the cellular construction of his body.

  The power of the injections was amazing. He woke up and got furiously on his feet. He rushed into the room where Jaap and Jonathan was but was met by Jaap's dead body on the floor.

  He roared. Wrath stormed within him, but at the same time he forced himself to enjoy. He lived, he had survived something no one would have survived. So he focused his anger and enjoyed being in possession of such a perfectly perfect body as his. No, it was more. More than perfection. Something alive that repairs itself. Outstanding. Perfectly outstanding. He roared again.

  * * *

  Jonathan came into what looked like a service tunnel and where fresh air flowed, and he instinctively knew that there was an exit further down the tunnel. There must be. The draft was stronger now. It was as an invisible magnet that pulled him forward and tried to help him out of this nightmare. He was hurt and without any opportunity to call for help. His mind fervently worked on what he would do next.

  His left arm was in pain and when he felt with his other hand, his fingertips became wet. He pulled back his hand and saw that his fingers had become sticky with blood.

  Groaning, he sank to his knees and leaned against the wall. A weak nausea had again begun to creep from his stomach and he had to fight down the desire to vomit.

  He was on the verge of collapse. His body and mind were under violent pressure and darkness began to creep into his field of vision. Small black edges approached and made his field of vision narrower and tighter. It would be so nice, so simple. To lie down here and let darkness take over. Not to fight more but finally get some rest. He closed his eyes.

  Somewhere in his head an idea arose. Or it was not a thought. It was more of a feeling. A small, bright dot. Like a lighthouse in an endless darkness. The lighthouse spoke to him. It shouted at him. Calling him. As a man standing in a storm shouting. You cannot hear what he says until you will get close. He listened.

  He opened his eyes. Slowly the darkness slipped back and he was able to focus in front of him. He shook his head but stopped immediately. His head throbbed and was on the point of bursting. Images of Kristina, Chantelle and Marie flickered past his eyes.

  Slowly he got up. His knees were shaking as if they were made of jelly. With one hand he leaned against the wall and began to move forward in the tunnel. The tunnel was vaulted and quite low in ceiling height. One wall was covered with various tubes and control panels. Narrow lights ran along the ceiling giving it a sterile appearance. He had only come a few steps when a voice was heard behind him.

  “There you are.”

  Jonathan froze and instinctively raised the laser knife.

  “I've been looking everywhere for you. You shouldn’t have run.”

  Jonathan spun around. Adam walked towards him while he smiled.

  “You must know now that there is nowhere to run. Don’t you realize that?”

  Adam reached out his arms and made a welcoming gesture. Jonathan’s body tensed for the fight and slowly nodded towards Adam.

  “Who are you?”

  Adam laughed.

  “You stupid little man. My father is the greatest man of all. John Vendrick III.”

  Jonathan blinked.

  “John Vendrick III?” he hesitated, “I didn’t know he had any children?”

  Adam moved slowly around Jonathan.

  “That shows how little you know and that's another reason to kill you. To free the world from someone like you is indeed a good deed.”

  Jonathan stared at the man in front of him who seemed to hate him. He fo
cused and reviewed his possibilities.

  Adam smiled, moved towards Jonathan and leaped forward and caught Jonathan in a bear hug and squeezed. Jonathan cried out when two of his ribs broke and he punched at Adam's head. The laser knife fell to the ground and went out. Jonathan's fingers tore and ripped into Adam's face. He grabbed Adam's powerful head, pushed his thumbs toward his eyes and pushed. The thumbs sank softly into the eye sockets. Adam, however, did not release his grip of but instead increased pressure until Jonathan's body exploded with pain as the powerful arms continued to squeeze.

  Jonathan fell to the ground and pain seared through his body. Adam staggered backwards with his hands on his bloody face. Jonathan frantically looked around for something to use as a weapon. He saw Adam standing bent over a few meters away and had stopped screaming.

  Behind him, Jonathan saw what looked like a control panel with a small stick sticking straight out. Slowly, Adam rose up in his full length. He was a terrifying figure. His well-trained body was dirty and bloody and shimmered with an unnatural light. But his face was worse. The eyes were gone and a sticky, bloody grime ran down his cheeks and into his mouth.

  Jonathan shivered. This had to make or break. He would not take on this man in battle, he had to put everything on one card. He ignored the pain in his tortured ribs, threw himself forward and smashed hard into Adam.

  Adam was unprepared for the violent attack and fell back against the wall and the control panel. He hit it, froze and looked down with his unseeing eyes toward his chest. A thin, bloody handle stuck out from the chest. A narrow trickle of blood ran down from his chin when he realized that life was about to leave him. Jonathan saw the last breaths that left the man who hated him so much.

  * * *

  Adam's dead body hung on the wall in front of him. A dark red puddle of blood grew under it. Jonathan turned away from the body and leaned forward. He was dizzy and confused. His brain swirled around and he struggled to understand. He tried to stay upright but his knees buckled under him. His ribs burned like burning phosphorus.

  White-hot pain sliced through his chest. He fell to his knees with his back against the wall. He sat there for what seemed like an eternity, and the pain subsided somewhat when the micro robots which Marie had injected into him feverishly worked to repair his body.

  As he was getting up and flexing his legs, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He turned to it and his stomach clenched.

  Vendrick appeared in the light. Smilingly. With slow movements that reminded Jonathan of a panther walking, Vendrick moved towards him. His body had changed. Into something else than before.

  The muscles on Vendrick’s body was like chiseled out of stone. Long, strong arms that ended in hands resembling bear traps were stretched out and pulled together. The huge shoulder muscles were so big that it looked like Vendrick's head rested on two small pillows. His abs were hard, rock hard. His whole body resembled a well-oiled machine that had reached its ultimate limit. Perfect in its completeness. Vendrick knew that he was a formidable sight where he stood. He flexed all the muscles in his body and enjoyed his superiority. The red dragon followed Jonathan with his dead eyes.

  “Finally.” John’s voice dripped with desire.

  Jonathan saw John coming closer and stop in front of him. Slowly John flexed his muscles and showed off. The bloody, terrifying body almost did not look human anymore. The veins in his legs were as thick as small tubes and Jonathan could see how they pulsed. The muscles were like cut out of marble and the dragon moved ominously over his body. Jonathan shuddered. John pulled his lips back in a shark-like smile.

  “Now you’re mine. You have no idea how much I’ve longed for this.”

  Jonathan smiled faintly.

  “Glad to make you happy.” He paused and continued, “But it's probably too late for him.” And bobbed his head towards Adam's dead body.

  Vendrick glanced over at Adam, his voice was low.

  “Adam was a hero and my son. A true creation here in Tabula Rasa. I'll mourn his death as it demands when I'm done with you.”

  “And now the whole world knows about the spheres. You have nothing left. And when the world finds out that you have communicated with the sphere without informing the rest of the world, you'll see everyone turn against you.”

  John fell silent a couple of seconds.

  “You are right that the discovery is out in the open but it doesn’t matter. That the world knows about the objects and their existence, but what does it matter? The important is the key. How to communicate with them. That is the main thing. And that's what gives power, do you understand?”

  Jonathan stared at Vendrick. The crazy man had a point. The real power lay with the one who could communicate with them. He closed his eyes. Vendrick saw how Jonathan was confounded.

  “Do you see? And since it is we who have the key to communicate with the sphere, it is we who have the power.” He paused for a few seconds and let the fact sink in. Before Jonathan could answer, Vendrick leaned toward him, grabbed his collar and threw him across the tunnel. Jonathan struck the wall and he lost his breath as the hard wall punched the air out of him. It flashed before his eyes.

  “We have the power and we will take mankind to the next level. You’ll see.”

  “The key?” Jonathan tried to laugh but stopped immediately when his ribs screamed in pain, “We also know what the key is to communicate with the spheres. The key is the Skydisc, or to be more correct, all the Skydiscs that are being found all around together with the spheres. With that you can access the knowledge inside the spheres. Did you think that we didn’t understand that yet?” he continued, “And we will make sure that the world understands how to communicate with the spheres so that all its knowledge will be for all of us.”

  John stared hatefully towards Jonathan while he painstakingly stood up. Jonathan's body burned as it was dipped in lava. He staggered up on his legs and held out his hand against the wall to support him. His brain raced, grasping at all the straws he could think of. Nothing. Vendrick ran towards him and before Jonathan could react, Vendrick kicked him hard on the knee so he fell screaming down to the floor. The pain was relentless.

  This was the end, and images and fragments flashed his by his eyes, in his mind he heard Marie call on him and he reached for her. Her voice was far away and he could not hear what she said. Jonathan looked up through the fog and could see the outlines of Vendrick who stood over him. Vendrick was too strong. A thought flashed through his brain, the small syringe that Marie gave him on Greenland. It was still in his inner pocket. He dug after it, did not feel it, dug deeper into his pocket and found it. He remembered Marie's words that echoing warned him. He pulled out the syringe and held it tightly to his chest.

  Vendrick looked down at Jonathan and smiled.

  “What do you have there?”

  Jonathan did not answer, but pulled the cap from the syringe and stabbed the syringe quickly down towards Vendrick’s foot, hit it, and the amber liquid slid into the Vendrick. Jonathan's hand fell weakly to the side. Vendrick laughed out loud.

  “What was that? Did you want to give me a vitamin injection?”

  Jonathan could not answer, the pain within him burned away all the logic and he focused on not screaming. In the corner of his eye Vendrick’s foot shimmered in dark colors. He stared in fascination at how the muscles under the skin seemed to change character from soft to something else. Dark streaks occurred on the surface of Vendrick’s calf, and the veins bulging out.

  Vendrick looked triumphantly down at Jonathan and stretched a powerful hand down against him to pull him on his legs and deliver the coup de grace. But before his fingers reached Jonathan, he froze. A shivering jolt went through his body and his gaze got blank.

  He looked down at his leg and saw the dark streaks slowly propagate from his calf, above the knee and on towards his crotch, he staggered backward.

  “No, no!”

  Jonathan saw how Vendrick started tearing at his legs an
d how his sharp nails pulled up long wounds along them. Dark blood poured out and oozed downward and met more of the thick, dark stripes slowly rising upwards. Vendrick's voice yelled.

  “No, stop, stop for God's sake!”

  Vendrick staggered backwards and nearly fell. He took some cramped steps as he continued his fight against the dark streaks growing on his body. Jonathan looked in fascination when they grew up over Vendrick’s belly and up against his chest. Vendrick's voice sounded more like a whining, dying animal than a human being.

  “No, no, stop, that's not fair, it's not fair.”

  Inside Vendrick, chaos reigned. The disintegration of muscles, bones and nerves accelerated. The amber colored liquid was in frontal attack on the nano-robots that he had already injected. The two different robot groups were incompatible, and when they were mixed, they immediately began destroying each other with a violent frenzy and they used his body as a battlefield. Jonathan threw himself forward to the laser knife lying on the ground, and in a sweeping motion he lit the knife and drove it deep into Vendrick's bloody chest and the dragon screamed while sliding over the wound.

  John staggered backwards and Jonathan saw Vendrick fall and in a haze, he heard screaming that was turned into whimper that turned into sobs that turned into silence. Jonathan tried to stay awake, but the darkness rose from the abyss and embraced him.

  E P I L O G U E

  After John's death, Jonathan had been taken to the hospital at Tabula Rasa where he was detained for three days. During that time, Backmann had struggled for a United Nations intervention force to get to Tabula Rasa as soon as possible to retrieve Jonathan.