Whispers of Ash (The Nameless Book 1)

by Adrian Smith

  “I can fly anything,” Allie said.

  “I think that answers that,” Booth said.

  “Very well. Please enjoy my hospitality. I’ll have refreshments brought to you. Your clothes have been laundered and are waiting. The bathroom is in the back.” Touma clicked his heels together once more and left, followed by his guards.

  The train lurched slightly as it pulled away from the station. Ryan glanced out the window at all the people waving and shouting. Men in suits, children in school uniforms, and women dressed like they had been on a catwalk. Some wore tradesmen overalls. All walks of life were here.

  Hogai plonked himself down in the seat opposite Ryan. “Mr. Yamada is going to take me back to Osaka. Just thought you should know.”

  “You be careful of him, Hogai. You’re a bright kid. I hope you find your family.”

  “Thanks for getting me out of the robotics workshop and keeping me safe.” Hogai stood and bowed.

  “You’re welcome. Good luck.”

  Ryan watched him sit down again beside Sofia and Keiko. He would have liked to have quizzed him further on the Kumobots, their capabilities, and whatever else YamTech were working on.

  He let himself relax and sank back into the couch. Cal nestled against him as a lady dressed in a waitress uniform entered the carriage. She pushed a trolley loaded with steaming food. A plethora of aromas wafted through the carriage. Some salty, some sweet, others spicy and savory. Ryan could almost taste the food before he knew what it was. The waitress uncovered their meals, bowed, and left the carriage, bowing again at the doorway.

  It was a feast, not only for the stomach but for the eyes too. Each meal was beautifully presented: rice in neat mounds; delicate skewers with chicken, beef, and fish, drizzled with teriyaki sauce; crumbed chicken on beds of finely chopped cabbage and rice; and precisely cut slices of fresh tuna on a rectangle of rice wrapped in seaweed.

  Booth swiped a couple of beers from under the trolley and piled a plate high with food.

  “Anyone else want a beer?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Ryan, Cal, and Sofia said.

  They ate in silence. When everyone had finished eating, the waitress reappeared and took the trolley away, bowing once again as she left.

  The Nameless naturally congregated together in a group of seats. Ryan looked at each of them in turn. It was plain to see that everyone was exhausted, but still an air of uncertainty hung around them. At least they knew a little more of what was going on.

  Ryan cleared his throat. “Normally we debrief, and I think we should still do it. But first, I want to thank all of you for your efforts. Never have we been so blind before a mission. You all acted exceptionally given the circumstances. Now we need to refocus. To figure out what we’re going to do next. However, we all need rest. Once we’re airborne, we’ll plan our next move.

  “Allie, what kind of plane do you want?”

  Allie shifted in her seat and chugged her beer. She wiped the froth from her lips. “Ideally a commercial passenger jet. A 787 would be best, but I can work with anything.”

  “Refueling. Is that an issue at the airport?” Ryan asked.

  “I should be able to figure it out. My father taught me. ‘No use flying them if you can’t fix them too.’ One of his many sayings.”

  “Good. Something we can work with.”

  Ryan glanced at Sofia. Other than Cal, she was his favorite person. Her brown eyes stared back, a faint smile hovering on her lips. “We need you to figure out as much as you can. Get in contact with Avondale. I want to know everything that’s going on at home. Who’s still alive. Update him on our situation.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  “Thank you. All right. Let’s debrief. Same as always. What went right? What went wrong? Why, and what can we learn from it?”

  It was a technique they always used. An open, honest discussion about each mission. No one was ever blamed for any faults. It was all about learning. How to improve and how to prepare for the next mission.

  The debriefing went on for another twenty minutes, then The Nameless relaxed into the luxurious seating. Keiko and Hogai huddled together, playing video games. Sofia, Booth, and Allie sat across from Ryan and Cal.

  “Sofia, you never did tell me the rest of that Netherlands story,” Allie said.

  Ryan groaned, rolling his eyes. “Not this again.”

  “The gimp one?” Cal asked.

  Booth chuckled and said, “Please Mr. Frodo, that’s one of our favorites.”

  “You really want to hear it?” Sofia said.

  “Yes!” chorused Booth and Allie.

  “We had this assignment, one of our first as a team. We were tracking down the daughter of a politician for extraction. Little junkie had got herself involved with a sex-slave ring. They took young girls out of countries like Romania and Bulgaria and forced them into prostitution. Fetish clubs, sex shows for tourists, that kind of thing.” Sofia grinned and looked at Ryan, smiling as he slid deeper into his seat. “We tried all kinds of techniques to gain access to their club, where they were holding her. French mobsters ran it. Heavily guarded. There was no way in without causing a diplomatic embarrassment. Something we are always told to avoid at all costs.”

  “How did you get in, then?”

  “Connors here went full gimp to get into that weirdo club. Walked straight past the security.”

  “Full gimp?” Allie asked.

  “You know, leather mask, with a toilet brush attached. Leather thong, chains. The works.”

  Allie chuckled and then began laughing, a surprisingly deep sound. She paused long enough from her mirth to raise her beer at Ryan.

  “He looked so sexy,” Cal said.

  Ryan didn’t mind the laughter. It had been the only way to enter the club. Doing so had saved a life and saved a family from years of pain. He had also made an asset in the politician that day. He got up and poured himself and Cal a cup of chamomile tea each and plonked back into the seat. Getting comfortable, his mind turned to thoughts of their daughter. “Do you think Zanzi’s okay?”

  “Definitely. Somehow, I know she’s well. I feel it in my heart. It’s funny. When we spent all those weekends training them, I often wondered if we were stealing their childhoods. When all their friends were off shopping at the mall or going to parties, we had them in the forest assembling rifles, building fires and shelters. Did we know, somehow that something like this was going to happen?”

  “Maybe. Subconsciously. I’ve thought about that over the years. Maybe, because of what we did, what we saw, we wanted them to be prepared.”

  “I just wish Liam was here with us.”

  “I do too, every day.”

  Ryan kissed his wife and gazed out the window at the still-glittering lights of Tokyo.

  He had come to this city seeking solace and anonymity, looking for purpose after he’d thought he’d lost it all. His old life had come back, asking not to be forgotten, to be embraced once more and met head on. Perhaps now, in this bustling metropolis, he had found his purpose again. It had taken the end of the world to reawaken his spirit.

  “For the many, we sacrifice the few,” he said to himself.

  Epilogue

  Doctor Kosei Ando sprinted down the brightly lit corridor. He could barely keep his excitement in check. For decades he had tried. Tried and failed. Test after test had ended in disaster.

  Now, during tragedy, he had succeeded. He smoothed down his lab coat and adjusted his glasses. Not that he needed the spectacles; the nanites gave him perfect vision. He kept them more out of habit. To appear meek and dutiful. He breathed deep and knocked on the door.

  “Enter,” a muffled voice instructed.

  Takeshi Yamada sat behind a simple desk, the top of which was covered in green leather. Unlike his father, Touma, he preferred minimalist decor. Takeshi had no desire for luxurious items.

  “Good evening, sir. I apologize for the interruption.”

  “What is it, Doctor?”r />
  “I’ve done it. Finally.”

  “No question this time?”

  “None.”

  Takeshi stood and clasped his hands behind his back. He looked up at the framed photograph of his father hanging in the center of the wall.

  “He cast me out, Ando. Like he does to so many. Threatened as he is. Told me to make something of myself. Prove myself worthy of his respect. To come back only when I had something useful to contribute.”

  “Sir, I think, with what we have created, he will step aside and serve you,” Ando said, bowing low.

  “Huh.” Takeshi pushed past the bowing Ando and strode from the office. Ando allowed a small, quick grin to flash across his face before following.

  Ando was an old man. By rights, he should have died decades ago. Touma Yamada had gifted him with drugs, derived from the scorpius plant, that had prolonged his life. Now he had millions of nanites. Repairing cells keeping his mind sharp and clear. He may have lived a long life, perhaps too long, but he was tired. He had seen too much, things that would break another man. Some of which he was responsible for.

  They entered the lab. Takeshi dismissed the other staff with a flick of his wrist and waited until they had gone.

  “Show me.”

  Ando led him to a curtain and pulled it back, revealing a sealed room with a large window to view the test subject.

  Takeshi Yamada smiled. Sitting on the bed was a female with red hair and pale skin covered in freckles. The female stood and moved in front of the window, naked and unashamed. She drew her finger across her throat and pointed at him, her eyes flashing with anger.

  Two portals in the wall opened, revealing guns mounted on stands. They followed the woman’s every move. Ando pressed a button on a console, and they sparked to life, their muzzles blazing as they spat out bullets. The female barely flinched as the rounds thumped into her. The guns stopped and the red-haired female shuddered and toppled over. After a few seconds, the wounds began to heal, the bullets oozing from her flesh. A minute later and the female was struggling back to her feet. She stared at them, eyes flaring. If they could speak, they would be saying, “I’m going to kill you.”

  “I know this, Doctor,” Takeshi said. “We perfected this rate of healing last year.”

  “Yes, but as you also know, electricity has always been the nanites’ Achilles heel. A strong enough jolt and it knocks them out, long enough for an assailant to administer a killing blow.”

  “Ando, unless you have something new, I’m going back to my office. I’m a busy man.”

  “I do. I do. Please, sir, bear with me.”

  Ando clicked another button. The red-haired woman was hit with four metal prongs attached to thin coils of wire. Electricity coursed through her body. She instantly became rigid and collapsed to the floor once again. A gun barked to life, once more shooting. Once, twice, and a third time. A small cluster centered on her chest.

  This time the healing took several minutes but, like before, the female healed. She coughed blood as she sat up. She pulled the taser prongs from her body and screamed, not that Ando or Takeshi could hear her behind the soundproof glass.

  “If I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it. How?”

  Ando grinned. He disliked Takeshi but enjoyed his enthusiasm. “What do you know of C60?” he said.

  “Nothing.”

  “In short, it’s a naturally occurring molecule comprised of sixty carbon molecules. It’s naturally spherical because they cluster together. Perfect for nanoscale technology.” Ando gestured wildly, his excitement growing. “We used axolotls and planarian worms, both known for their healing. The geneticists found the genome in their DNA, the genome responsible for this ability. It has long been believed that humans have this capability. It’s slow, but it’s possible. I combined it with our nanites and an advanced form of C60. But that only took care of the healing. We had to invent a new product to sort out the electricity problem. I call it Andogel.

  “We achieved it by combining C60, ceramics, and aerogel, an amazing product that has thousands of air pockets. Also, I turned off some of her pain receptors.”

  “She still looked in pain to me.”

  “She was, but I had to leave some of them on. She became a mindless monster otherwise.”

  Takeshi clasped his hands behind his back and paced up and down the viewing window, his eyes never once leaving the naked form of the female. “What about fire?”

  “We’re still working on that. Some success, but the subjects don’t heal fast enough. Most died during the process.”

  “I want another demonstration. Something other than bullets. Try the gas.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Ando pressed a button, and a low, buzzing sound set in. The female stood up and walked toward the viewing window. The portals reopened, releasing a deep yellow gas. She gasped and choked, eyes popping out of her head, but she remained standing. Fans sucked the gas out, and the female’s breathing returned to normal.

  “Mustard gas.”

  “Amazing,” Takeshi said.

  “She can also survive extreme weather conditions.”

  “Impressive, Doctor. Any other attributes?”

  “Enhanced strength, sight, and hearing.”

  “Excellent. How do you control her outside her room?”

  “She has a chip implanted into her brain.” Ando held up the small remote like device. “One press of this red button and it sends enough of a jolt to knock her out.”

  Takeshi appeared pleased with this answer, nodding at Ando. “How soon can you perform the procedure on me?”

  “Sir?”

  “What? Did you think this was all fun and games? I want the same abilities. My father may only want Japan but I … I want to teach the four families that we Yamadas are not to be laughed at. Always they are laughing. No more!”

  “I…”

  “How soon, Ando?”

  “I’m not sure. It took us twenty years to achieve her results. Twenty years of painstaking work. We had to modify her DNA, invent products tailored for her unique genome sequence.”

  “But you know the procedure now. You must be able to replicate it. You have a week.”

  “Impossible.”

  Takeshi grimaced and slammed Ando against the window. His breath was hot as he spoke. “One week. That’s all the time we have. How long do you think it will be before the other families move against us?”

  “I’ll have to consult with my team. Take DNA samples.”

  “Good. I’m glad we understand each other.”

  Doctor Kosei Ando waited until Takeshi had left before sitting down in his office. Takeshi was mad. They had no way of knowing if they could replicate the C60, and the same abilities, into him. It had taken him nearly eighty years of research to reach this point, to create the superhuman Touma wanted.

  He sighed and checked if his door was locked. He sat at his computer and spent several moments typing before clicking a video icon. Within seconds, Touma Yamada’s face appeared.

  “Kosei, old friend. Is everything in order?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Have everything ready to go. We’re moving operations to a new location. I’ll be there in a couple of days.”

  Touma reached out to end the call.

  “Wait,” Ando said.

  “What is it?”

  “He wants the C60 procedure himself.”

  An explosion rattled the room. Ando flinched and glanced at a separate screen. Black-clad commandos were flooding the complex grounds, tearing up the driveway in armed Humvees.

  “Offenheim’s men are here. Upstairs.”

  Touma blinked and slammed his fist to the desk. “Lock it down. I’ll send a team.” He turned away from the screen for a few seconds and spoke to one of his guards.

  “Ando. You know what you must do. You can’t let them have all our hard work,” Touma said. The screen went dark.

  Ando pushed his chair back and rubbed
his temples. He and Touma had achieved so much together, but he was tired. He had been responsible for too much misery and pain. He had promised himself long ago to leave, but scientific curiosity always kept him here, waiting, and full of pride as each new discovery was made. Now Offenheim had sent his commandos to steal his research.

  He shook his head at the empty room and raised his eyes to the young woman in the cell. Not if I have anything to say about that.

  He walked over to the window. “All right Ebony, my red-haired beauty. Time to test you in the field.”

  ***

  END OF BOOK ONE.

  THE STORY CONTINUES IN

  SHADOWS OF ASH

  (COMING SOON)

  ***

  Buy it now.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This series started as a seed of an idea while I travelled through Japan in 2017. I had spent the morning hiking a pilgrim trail up Mt. Koya near Osaka. When I reached the top, I was in awe of the breathtaking scenery: mountains, lakes, trees, and wildlife. It was invigorating and serene. As I often do, I daydreamed and wondered: what would happen if there was some apocalyptic event and I survived, only to be trapped? How would I get home? Could I?

  The more I thought about this, I knew I had to turn it into a story.

  As a teenager I was fascinated by tales of World War Two; about escapes and espionage; the level of planning that went into D-Day; how mistakes, bluffs, and double bluffs turned the tide of the war.

  I wondered, could a secret group of powerful men and women bring about the apocalypse if they so wished?

  After taking all those ideas, the story grew into what you’ve just read.

  I hope you enjoyed it and want to read more. I would be grateful if you leave a review. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but reviews really are an author’s bread and butter. They help in so many ways.

  Thanks again,

  Adrian

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