The Bloodless (30 page)

              “What do you mean?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.

              “Have you ever read X-Men?”

              “You mean that antique comic book series?”

              “The very same,” Emma said, her smirk growing.

              “So you were attempting to engineer mutants?” I asked astonished.

              “More or less,” she said. “What we were really after was that healing attribute. The problem with the pre-existing super soldiers was that they could still be killed. It was a tough assignment, sure, but it was possible. We wanted to rectify that. You can’t lose a war if your soldiers can’t be killed, see,” Emma explained when I still looked shocked.

              I tried to pull myself together. This was some pretty startling news. I knew after our venture into substation number two that there were some dubious undertakings being concealed in there, but I never thought it would go to this extent. Something like this goes way beyond the moral code of scientists, which a lot of my kind seem to forget quite easily when fat wads of cash are dangled in front of their faces. There’s an unspoken rule among scientists worldwide: We don’t use our knowledge to develop weapons of mass destruction. Not anymore, anyway.

              This unspoken rule came about after the release of the HFV-2120 which wiped out New Zealand entirely. It was so destructive and deadly that there is no longer evidence of human life ever having existed on that island. That weapon came about after a particle physicist and a microbiologist were contracted to collaborate on a WMD. Nobody was really expecting them to create much of anything that went beyond an aggressive fireworks display, but they apparently were out to prove most of the military-science crowd wrong. We learned that day not to discredit any scientist with a chip on his shoulder, especially when he was designing a device to kill loads of people all at once.

              “Well,” I said as I came out of my contemplation, “that would certainly explain the monsters inside that building.”

              “You actually saw them?” Emma asked excitedly. “What were they like? Were they impossible to kill?”

              “Wait, I thought you were designing a weapon in there?”

              “The super soldiers were the weapon you stupid ass smart guy,” she said with a laugh.

              “Ah gotcha,” I said feeling exactly like what she called me. “I don’t remember if they ever died, to be honest,” I said trying to recall that extraordinary day. “They definitely fell hard when we shot them in the head, just like the Bloodless, but we didn’t stick around long enough to watch them get back up, if they did. Probably doesn’t matter anymore,” I said as an afterthought.

              “I see,” she said with a note of disappointment in her voice. “I figured they were destroyed in the takeover because I went by that building not long ago. The place was completely leveled so I didn’t think any of them survived.”

              “We leveled that area,” I told her. “It was all we could do to escape with our lives.”

              “Nice,” Emma said. She slowly climbed to her feet and stretched her hands over her head. I stared inappropriately at her. She caught me and smiled, “Haymaker?”

              “What?” I asked trying to regain my composure.

              “Did you use a Haymaker to clear it out?”

              “Oh, no. We used, well Fox did it, nearly killed himself in the process. He lived, but it was a stupid move on his part. Stupid, but brilliant I suppose.” Emma looked at me expectantly, “It was a Crowd Pleaser,” I finally told her. I suddenly felt overly talkative in her presence. A feeling I usually only experience when I have feelings for a person in my presence. I was really lonely apparently because she wasn’t even my type.

              “Ah I fuckin’ love Crowd Pleasers. I didn’t think they did that much damage,” she said.

              “They definitely do,” I assured her. Then came that awkward moment of silence that usually shows up at least once during a lengthy conversation. We had been talking for quite some time as the sun had begun to descend across the sky, but it appeared as though we had run out of things to talk about. I hate moments like those because one person always worries that the other person is waiting for them to start being interesting again. Luckily I was sparred a long drawn out silence because I saw Burns in the distance as he approached my camp.

              “So,” Emma broke the silence as Burns was still walking towards us, “you still gonna kill me?”

              “I’ve decided to let you live,” I replied. “For now, anyway.”

              She smiled, “That must be Burns coming towards us.”

              “You really have been following us,” I said as I waved at Burns to let him know everything was okay.

              “You could say that,” she said. She waved at Burns too and he looked really confused. I figured it was because he had no idea who the crazy lady waving at him was. I was wrong.

              “What the fuck she doin’ here?” Burns asked as soon as he was within earshot. He spoke in a more aggressive tone than I had ever heard him use before.

              “Nice to see you too, Kennedy,” Emma said, that pompous smirk back on her face.

              “Do you two know each other or something?” I asked looking at both of them.

              “Or something,” Burns said darkly.

              “Oh, come on now,” Emma said, “how long can a guy stay mad at a girl?”

              “Pretty fuckin’ long,” Burns replied.

              “Ok, one of you had better start explaining,” I said.

              “I’ll explain,” Burns said sardonically. He then took the gun from my hand and shot Emma in the leg.

CHAPTER 15

What Has an Ending Must
Also Have a Beginning

              “What the fuck Burns,” I yelled as I rushed over to Emma who fell to the ground; a single, anguished scream of pain escaped her lips.

              “She’ll be fine,” he said calmly.

              “You fucking asshole,” Emma yelled, gripping her thigh.

              “You’ll be fine,” Burns said to her. “Show ‘em.”

              “You coulda hit my femoral, Kennedy! What the fuck,” Emma said angrily.

              “Like it woulda mattered,” Burns said as he handed my gun back to me. I snatched it from him and glared suspiciously at Burns. I never thought he’d be the kind of person to just up and shoot someone like that. “Show ‘em,” he said again.

              “Show me what?” I asked confused.

              “It’s not a fucking parlor trick man, you can’t just do that,” Emma said, but she didn’t seem to be in as much pain anymore as her grip on her thigh slackened.

              “Show ‘em,” Burns said again, his patience waning. He took the gun from his holster and pointed it at Emma. I rushed over and tried to stop him but Burns was much stronger than me so it was a vain attempt. “Show ‘em or I’ll put two bullets in your other thigh!”

              Emma let out an exasperated sigh and removed her hands from her thigh. I looked down and saw only a hole in her pants that exposed the un-shot skin of her thigh. “Wait, what,” I said even more confused than before. “What’s going on here?”

              “Why don’t you explain to him, Emma Luck, what’s goin’ on here,” Burns said as he continued to tower over Emma.

              She looked back up at him, her expression slightly desperate. “You’re really still mad, after all this time,” she said slightly out of breath.

              “I ain’t mad, I’m furious. I will never forgive you for what you did,” Burns said, still as angry as I had ever seen him. “Are you gonna tell him, or do I have to? Because if I have to, I’m gonna shoot the shit outta you.” When Emma didn’t respond Burns nodded slightly and cocked his gun, the barrel salivating at the chance to expel a few more rounds. Emma still didn’t speak. Burns placed his finger on the trigger and flipped the safety off. Still Emma did not speak. Burns shook his head and moved his aim from her leg to her chest.

              “All right,” she yelled out as soon as the muzzle stopped over her heart, “I’m a Bloodless!”

              I stood there for a moment, not sure what I had just heard. I tried to work it out in my head but my brain wasn’t working like it usually did. “What?” was all I was able to mutter.

              “I was once dead, now I’m not so much anymore,” Emma explained. I stared at her face for the first time but there was no glow to her eyes, not even a hint.

              “I don’t get it,” I said. Was she just stalling?

              “You brought me back to life,” she said to me. “I was killed in a hit and run but you were able to bring me back to life.”

              “But you don’t look anything like the others,” I said still examining her face.

              “That’s because I’m not like the others. I was one of the few whose proper soul was returned to their body,” Emma said getting up on a knee.

              I gasped, “Ohhh. Wow,” I said in awe. “I’ve never met any like your type. What’s your subject number? I only remember those, it helped keep me detached,” I explained.

              “I don’t remember,” Emma answered, “I learned it once but I forgot. I’m not so good remembering numbers.”

              “You’re a weapons engineer, numbers are crucial to you,” I said nonplussed. Emma just shrugged. “How do you know this then?”

              “You forget,” she said with a slight smile, “I’m a scientist too. Curiosity is within my nature and something as significant as being brought back from the dead was bound to intrigue me.” Emma stood up and brushed herself off and continued talking but all the while she kept an untrusting eye on Burns. “I had no recollection of dying, but my husband explained the whole thing to me. Obviously at first I didn’t believe him but at the beginning I was still in considerable pain, so some of what he told me made sense. I also had some scars that have since vanished that helped corroborate his stories.

              “But I was still skeptical because, again, I couldn’t remember a thing, so I went and did some research of my own. I found news stories related to the accident that named me as the victim and I even got a hold of the morgue’s register showing my entrance and then the subsequent release signed off on by my husband. Obviously a morgue visit seemed strange to me so my next task was to visit this GoD Laboratories place that allegedly brought me back to life.

              “At this point I didn’t believe any of the stories anymore. All of the physical evidence was gone and my memories were completely blank when it came to the accident. But the stories were still there and my desire to get to the bottom of it all still burned, so I went to the lab. One lady was kind enough to give me all the records from that day, which was quite nice of her,” Emma smiled.

              “How’d you swing that?” I asked. “That information was confidential and wasn’t supposed to be given to anybody.”

              “Oh, the same way I always do,” Emma said arrogantly. “I just flashed my government ID with a super high security clearance and she handed them right over. It was within those records I found my name and learned my subject number. The manner of my death matched so that kinda sealed the deal.”

              I placed my face in my hand and shook my head. Our people weren’t supposed to do anything a government employee told them to do. The government had very explicit instructions on how to get pertinent information about certain specimens. Only certain people were authorized to share such information. “I always said we needed better training,” I grumbled.

              “Great,” Burns said, re-injecting himself into the scenario, “now that we all caught up, can I kill her?”

              “No,” I said loudly. “Also, why? Why is it so important that this woman is dead?”

              “Because she tried to kill my daughter,” he said, seething. I had to admit to myself that he had a damn good reason, but I still wanted to hear a bit more.

              “Stop saying that,” Emma yelled. “She’s not just YOUR daughter.” Okay, now things were starting to get interesting.

              “She became that the day you tried to take her life,” Burns retorted, waving his gun around irresponsibly.

              “It’s the only way to find out,” Emma said.

              “Yeah? Well then it looks like you’re never gonna find out. You’re not gonna find her, you ain’t comin’ anywhere near her ever again.”

              “You can’t keep OUR daughter away from me. I’m her mother!” There it was.

              “On paper maybe,” Burns said, his voice lowering to a forced calm quiet.

              “By blood,” Emma said, “and if you don’t think I’m not already aware that she’s holed up behind those ridiculous steal walls, then you’ve forgotten who I am.”

              “You mean Jericho,” Burns said with a slight chuckle. “She’s not there anymore. I had her moved the day you came poking around there. Oh yeah,” he said in response to the look on Emma’s face, “you ain’t the only one with ears everywhere.”

              “I keep telling you,” Emma said, changing tact at lightning speed, “she was never in any danger.

              “Wait a minute,” I said, my scientism kicking in. “Your daughter… when was she born?” Emma gave me one of her patented “You’re an idiot” looks. “No way,” I exclaimed, feeling as giddy as a Japanese school girl. This was remarkable news. Someone who was brought back to life actually gave birth to a human child, and if I remembered correctly, she seemed fairly normal. “Would that even be possible,” I thought aloud.

              “Obviously it’s possible, retard,” Emma said.

              “No, I mean the passing of traits that aren’t inherent,” I explained. “Did the procedure change you on a genetic level?”

              “Aren’t you people geneticists?” Emma asked confused. “Wasn’t that your plan the entire time, to alter the dead’s genetics?”

              “Well we certainly set out to alter the biology,” I said vaguely, still mostly inside my head. The biological alteration was the easy part and honestly the main goal, but we did have to activate the Lin28a gene, supercharge it really. Was it possible that this alteration became coded in the body and therefore was able to be passed along to offspring?

              “Well, it appears you did much more than that,” Emma said with a sideways glance at Burns who was still brandishing his pistol. “I don’t know for sure the extent of the mutation because Captain Firecracker over here wouldn’t let me run any tests.”

              “She was three years old and you wanted to cut her arm off,” Burns yelled.

              “What I do know,” Emma said talking over Burns, “is that she has never been sick one day in her life and she has to get haircuts every other week.”

              “So you believe mitigating factors are present that could explain away what you hypothesize to be hyper-regenerative capabilities passed on in her DNA coding?” I asked, my mind finally joining the conversation.

              “I know the regenerative capabilities are there,” Emma said, “but I have to be sure. People like us always have to be sure.”

              Burns marched right up to Emma and wrapped his massive hand around her throat and clenched, “No way you comin’ anywhere near my daughter again,” he said.

              “Burns,” I yelled and grabbed his arm but for all my strength, I had a better chance of uprooting a mountain than forcing him to let Emma go. “You can’t kill her, we need her!”

              “Naw,” Burns said and squeezed a little harder. Emma kicked and clawed at his arms. “That’s what she wants you to think, but really she just wants Adara or ‘our little science experiment’ as she likes to call her.”

              I pulled at his arm some more but then I remembered how weak I was so I stopped. I then reached into my holster, pulled out my Desert Eagle, and placed it up against Burns’ temple. “Let her go,” I said sternly though I was shaking slightly.

              Burns looked at me out of the corner of his eye and I don’t know if it was the fact he was staring down the barrel of a large caliber, fully automatic hand gun or that he saw the resolute look on my face but his grip slackened enough for Emma to gulp in breaths of air but not enough to let her go. “You know what, fine,” Burns said. “You the boss around here, so I’m gonna do what you say, gonna be a good soldier and follow orders. But don’t expect any help from me when she leads the wolves into our backyard. All she wants is Adara and she’ll stop at nothing to get her.”

              Burns fully released Emma who promptly fell back to her hands and knees. She slowly pulled herself back up to her feet for the umpteenth time, looked at Burns and punched him full in the face. It didn’t faze him much, if at all, but it probably made her feel better. “I’m here to help, you overinflated Roman candle,” Emma said, rubbing her neck. “You need to know something,” she said as she turned to me and when she did I could see a hint of desperation in her eyes that I haven’t seen in many people before, but that look was always followed up upsetting news. And sure enough Emma said, “Mendel knows what you’re up to. He knows what you’re planning.”

              “What,” I said, utterly aghast. “How does he know? And how do you know he knows?”

              “It’s enough that I know,” she said calmly. Emma took a breath and looked at me, that cocky grin shadowing her face, “Isn’t it obvious,” she said, “One of your numbers is a spy.”

              I was stunned. The thought of a spy never would have crossed my mind. I trusted all of my people implicitly, but before I could even begin to think about it, before I could get another sound out of my mouth, a massive explosion rent the air and all three of us were thrown to the ground. A loud ringing filled my ears as I rolled around on the ground in shear agony. I could feel the hot, sticky blood oozing from my ears. The ground beneath me began to tremble and with my orientation completely thrown, the chaos was overwhelming. My insides erupted and splattered the ground around me.

              I got to my hands and knees. My gasping for air was punctuated with involuntary regurgitations and I thought for sure I was going to die. But slowly I was able to regain my composure and my vision cleared. Before I saw Burns and Emma sprawled on the ground apparently unconscious, the sight of a large armored vehicle approaching filled my sight. The truck slowly rumbled up to our position and when it stopped two men exited. They weren’t exactly imposing men, they actually looked quite normal but they moved without fear and with a confidence that made it seem like this had been planned.

              One of the men, who was thinner and vaguely familiar to me, walked over to Emma who was also attempting to get on her feet. He grabbed her by the hair and started to drag her away. When she realized what was happening, Emma began to resist and flail her arms, attempting to strike the thin man. He took out a stun gun and I noticed how gingerly he handled it before plunging it into Emma’s midsection. She immediately crumpled over and collapsed back to the ground, her limbs twitching.