Abomination (16 page)

“You’re not kidding,” said Ryan. “When the bad guy was
chasing after her in the alley, I probably didn’t need to smash his face in
with a metal trash can lid. But I wanted him to feel it, you know? I wanted him
to remember that moment.”

“Have you ever tried candy or flowers, buddy?” asked
Steve.

“You’re a funny guy. Listen, I hate to ask for any more
favors, but –”

“Consider it done,” said Steve, anticipating the
question. “I have an office in Atlanta with some great guys running the show.
They’ll set up a secure house before she arrives. We’ll look after her here for
a couple of days while you get settled in. If they want her, they’ll have to
get through us. And that ain’t easy, my friend.”

“No, I imagine it isn’t,” said Ryan. “Thank you. Uncle
Sam will be cutting you some checks if I don’t get myself killed or sent to
prison when this is over.”

“Who do you think paid for the houses and the jet?”

“Good point.”

“She’s still awake. You should tell her you’re leaving
and return this with my thanks,” said Steve, handing him the book. “I’m going
to head home shortly.”

Ryan and Steve talked for a few more minutes and
finished their coffees before he headed upstairs to Kristina’s room. He stopped
short of her doorway and looked at the cover of the book. Most people wouldn’t
let something so expensive out of their sight, but she gladly gave it to a
virtual stranger so he could enjoy its pages. He thought about the men in
Baltimore who tried to hurt her, and it made him angry. He shook off the emotion
and knocked on the open door.

“You should really try to get some sleep,” he said.

“I can say the same for you.”

“Well, that probably won’t be happening anytime soon. We
believe Derek and Joshua are together in Atlanta. My team and I will be leaving
for Georgia shortly. Oh, Steve asked me to return this with his thanks,” said
Ryan, handing her the book.

She stroked the cover gently and sat quietly for a
moment. “I love where these stories can take you. After only a few pages, I’m
sailing with Captain Flint and Long John Silver along the Spanish Main. For a
few hours, I can escape with the characters to the wonderful chaos of their
world and leave the confusion of mine.”

“That does sound appealing,” said Ryan.

“I do have to admit,” said Kristina with a smile, “I
can’t remember ever having so much time to just sit and read. When I don’t
think about why I’m here, it’s the closest thing to a vacation I’ve had in
years.”

“I have to say your ability to adapt is impressive. I
don’t know anyone who would think being stuck in this house with a bunch of
intense-looking watchmen is a vacation.”

“Actually, these guys are great and very doting. I can’t
tell you how many times a day they ask if I need anything or if they can do
something for me.”

“Well, the feeling is definitely mutual. I think these
guys are used to protecting old, rich, fat, extremely paranoid, and demanding
businessmen. All things which you’re not.”

“Thank you, I think?”

“I’m sorry,” said Ryan. “It’s been a long couple of
days. I think a few hours of sleep would do me good.”

She paused for a moment, looking down at the floor. “Was
it suicide?”

He didn’t hesitate with his answer. “No, he was killed
and then the scene was staged to look like he did it himself. I’m not sure who
did it, but I am sure it happened fast.”

“Did anybody care?” asked Kristina, raising her head to
look at Ryan. “Or was everyone glad the monster was dead?”

She was trying to be strong, but was losing her battle
to hold back tears. He never wanted to see her cry again.

“Me,” said Ryan. “I care. And so does my team.”

“I know you do,” said Kristina, wiping her cheeks. “I’m
sorry.”

“Listen, I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for what
you’re doing. We’ve taken your life and turned it upside down, and all I’ve
done is ask you to trust me. I want to thank you for doing just that.”

“You’re very welcome,” she said, regaining her
composure. “But you haven’t turned my life upside down. It’s more like you
saved it.”

Ryan fought off the usual protocol of remaining
professionally, and physically, distant from civilians involved in a case. He sat
next to her on the bed.

“I think the reason why it seems I’ve adapted so well is
because I’m not surprised this is happening,” she said. “I left the project
over six months ago, but I was constantly looking over my shoulder. I knew they
were about to cross the line, and it was only a matter of time before the
technology superseded their humanity. I should’ve seen it coming. I should’ve
left years ago, but the work we were doing was groundbreaking. It was
incredible. I also felt like somebody needed to be there who actually cared
about the test subjects. Someone that didn’t look at them as guinea pigs the
way the Colonel did. Someone that would make sure they knew exactly what was
being done to them.”

“Someone like you,” said Ryan. “The funny thing is, they
probably thought they were looking out for you, but the reality is that you
were looking out for them. And what makes you more impressive is that you still
are.”

“I left them behind, Ryan,” said Kristina with a slight
quiver in her voice. “In my useless protest of quitting, I let the Colonel win.
I let the Colonel take them and turn them into murderers.”

“You couldn’t have possibly known this was going to
happen,” said Ryan, reassuring her. “If you did, you never would’ve left them.
I know that. The Colonel would’ve found a way around you, regardless of your
attempts to keep them safe. I believe he sent those men in Baltimore to keep
you quiet.”

 “You know, it really is true about having the feeling
of being watched,” said Kristina. “I’ve had it every day since I quit the lab
until you showed up at the bookstore. I told you before, most of the men in my
life feel like they need to protect me. The difference is, I believe you
actually can.”

“Take advantage of the next few days and get some rest,”
said Ryan, becoming uncomfortable being so close. “You may not have much time
for that when you join us in Atlanta.”

“Okay. Take care of yourself, Ryan.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

Ryan walked downstairs to find Steve putting on his
jacket and grabbing his keys. He said good-bye to his old friend and made it to
the backdoor before he stopped and turned around.

“Steve.”

“Yeah, buddy.”

“Nothing bad happens to her. Do you understand?”

“Not on my watch, shipmate. And yeah, I do understand,”
said Steve with a grin.

Derek and Joshua arrived in Atlanta several hours after
Ryan’s team landed. Joshua dropped Derek off at one of the three locations they
used as hideouts. They spent a week at one and then moved to another, but never
with each other. They only met when plans needed to be discussed. Joshua
continued to the hideout located in the North Georgia Mountains a little over
an hour outside of the city. Derek occupied the house on the south side of
town.

When Joshua arrived, he only spent a few minutes in the
house before he left again. A quick shower and change of clothes was all he
needed to feel re-energized after the long drive. He was overcome with a
familiar urge that wasn’t genetically introduced by the scientists at the lab.
It hit him when he drove through a small college town less than twenty minutes
from his lair.

He was stopped at one of the two traffic lights when a
young woman from the college was walking toward a local music venue. The
twenty-something-year-old blonde wearing a short skirt and small tank top
caught his eye. She crossed in front of him, not noticing his stare. The light
turned green, but Joshua didn’t accelerate through the intersection until he
was sure she went inside the popular bar. He didn’t want to draw attention from
local law enforcement, so he resisted the urge to speed home. But he wasted no
time returning to town.

He parked across the street from Danny’s Pub with an
unobstructed view of the front entrance. He barely moved in his seat for over
three hours waiting for her to leave the bar. He only broke his patient stare
for a few seconds when a group of drunken frat boys walked past his window. None
of them noticed the danger.

His prize stumbled out of the doorway being helped by a
young man. Joshua could feel the boy’s perverted thoughts as she giggled,
missing the last step down to the sidewalk and falling into Romeo’s arms. She
only slightly regained her composure as they walked together toward the campus.

A few hundred yards from the false safety of the dorm,
the two preoccupied students had to pass by an unlit alley between two old
brick buildings. Joshua easily covered the distance running silently at thirty
miles an hour from where he parked the car at the end of the alley. He made
little attempt to conceal himself in the shadows of the deserted town square.
As he lay in wait, he thought about what was going through the young escort’s
mind as the dorm rooms came into his view. He chuckled to himself, knowing there
was nothing the couple could do to change its destiny. He became lightheaded
swimming in his own hyper-inflated sense of his new undeniable powers.

The furthest thing from his mind was being stopped. He
knew his fingerprints and DNA wouldn’t be in any law enforcement forensic
databases. The Colonel literally erased the identity and history of all the
Marines who volunteered for Didache. When the Colonel dug deep into Joshua’s
past, he discovered a juvenile arrest record sealed by the courts. The discovery
was made several weeks after the first round of gene therapy was introduced to
the volunteers. Pulling Joshua from the program would set them back nearly two
months. It was critical that all the test subjects maintain the same therapy
schedule. Removing one would necessitate starting over. Starting over at that point
would have cost the program millions. Colonel Brown not only resealed Joshua’s records,
he had them destroyed.

The child psychologist assigned to Joshua’s case wrote
nearly fifty pages of notes about the offender’s violent and sexually deviant
behavior. The first occurrence dated back to a week after Joshua’s tenth
birthday. He forced two of the neighborhood children to undress and perform
sexual acts on each other while he watched. When the seven-year-old girl
refused to let the eight- year-old boy insert a toy inside her, Joshua choked
her until she fell unconscious on the floor. The boy did nothing to stop him
out of fear of the same punishment. Joshua then finished the game.

The girl never told her parents about the assault. He
was caught after the eight-year-old boy tried to play the same game at school
during recess. The new offender told the teacher where he learned the rules.
After Joshua successfully completed his mandatory therapy, his family moved out
of the county.

At an early age, Joshua had an advanced understanding of
how to manipulate others into following his orders. He excelled at instilling
fear in the young impressionable minds to avoid further interruption from
meddling adults. For years after his first exposure to the thrill of controlling
others, his games accelerated and evolved into sadistic rituals. Each
successful engagement propelled him deeper into the darkness of a young
sociopath. He became a master at using manipulation, fear, and punishment as
tools to convince others to participate as his pawns. He rarely incriminated
himself by being an active player in the games. He preferred to direct the
action.

Three weeks before his fourteenth birthday, he was
temporarily out of the game. He convinced three classmates to sneak out after
dark and meet him in an abandoned cabin in the state park near his home. The
two boys and sole girl showed up as ordered. Joshua drugged the girl with
over-the-counter sleeping pills his mother kept in ample supply. He stripped
and bound her face down on a mattress he had brought the day before in
preparation for the event. He directed one of the boys to place a dog choker
around her neck. He was told to pull back hard on the leash while he raped her.
When the second boy was ready for his turn, the young girl started to regain
consciousness. Joshua instructed him to pull even harder until she stopped
fighting. He followed each command without question.

Two hours into the assault, a park ranger on patrol
noticed a light coming from the old deserted cabin. When he entered, he saw the
second boy on top of the motionless girl yanking hard on the leash. The ranger
was so fixated on the assault he didn’t notice Joshua quickly swallow several
of the sleeping pills and fake being unconscious in a chair. The girl had been
dead for nearly an hour.

All three were arrested for the murder of the
fourteen-year-old girl, but Joshua was able to convince authorities he was a
victim as well. There was no physical evidence he participated in the rape and
murder. Test results showed he was drugged with the same substance as the
victim, leaving reasonable doubt he had anything to do with the crime. The
prosecution couldn’t legally introduce any of the evidence from the prior
offense when Joshua was ten. The community wasn’t as easily convinced of his
innocence, and the family was once again forced to move. Leaving the county
didn’t satisfy the locals. Joshua’s parents didn’t resist the pressure and
quickly moved out of the state.

Joshua looked at the move as a fresh start and
immediately began the recruitment of players shortly after the family settled
in their new home. He learned a great deal from his previous brushes with the
law and honed his skills of deception and discretion. His juvenile records were
sealed when he turned eighteen.

On his birthday, his parents gave him a gift of a two-week
vacation to Miami with several of his friends. He returned home to discover his
key no longer fit the lock on the front door. When he peered inside a window,
all of the furniture was gone. Joshua may have deceived the authorities, but
his parents weren’t as easily fooled. As soon as their legal obligation to
allow him to live in their home was satisfied, they did their best to forget
the pure evil they created.