Phoenix Rising (Book Two of The Icarus Trilogy) (34 page)

“With this program we don’t just imprison and force these men to kill each other, already a transgression for our posited concept, but we also force them to enjoy it.  We force them to love the very act.  We don’t just abscond with their free will, but their very capacity for it.  We destroy them completely and utterly, leaving their free will as just another scrap on the operating table,” Jasper said before sitting down in his seat, sinking down into the creaking leather.  “Does that not bother you?”

Darren looked at the wrinkled old man and had his answer ready, but he could not help his thoughts from faltering.  He had not considered the extent to which the program could be considered immoral, and in a rare event Christiansen actually felt a weight on his conscience.  He pondered it, but did not let it show in his expressions.

“No, Jasper.  It doesn’t,” Darren said, not sure why it actually bothered him.  The old man considered his answer for a moment and then gave a slight smile.

“That’s good.  You stick to your ideals.  Quite respectable in a future leader,” Montgomery said before sitting back in his chair.  Christiansen looked his teacher over and grunted.

“Well, if it bothers you, would you like to cancel the program?  I’m sure we could get rid of their current subjects,” Darren stated, but Jasper merely scoffed at the idea.

“Why would we do that?  I never said I agreed with anything I said.  In fact, I’m much more in line with your way of thinking, Darren.  And, if you haven’t watched the games, it has made things quite interesting,” Montgomery said before raising his eyebrows, increasing the wrinkles on his forehead threefold.  Darren laughed at the remark.

“I thought you never watched the games, Jasper,” Darren said, feeling something in the back of his brain nagging at him.  He didn’t let it show.

“Oh, I didn’t before that little meeting of ours with Maxwell, but this ‘hero’ program got me interested.  Jenkins is a remarkable fighter, and interestingly it has brought out quite the competition in others,” Jasper said, bringing his crystal glass to his withered lips once more.

“Oh, really? How so?” Darren asked, curious as to what could draw the attention of the puppet master.

“There’s a fellow, Roth, on the Hammerheads.  He has quite literally transformed from the worst soldier to the best.  He used to be on the Crows with Jenkins.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, and it seems to have affected him quite a bit that his former teammate was able to shine.  I would love to see the two meet,” Jasper said, his attention flickering back to the games he had just watched prior to Darren’s arrival.

“I’m sure we could make that happen,” Darren said, smiling as usual.  However, it was only an outward expression.

He just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

-

Hawkins grinned at the woman wiling away her life on his experiments.  He had never seen a woman who was so enthusiastic, so supportive and so willing to work with him.  It made his black heart beat a little harder every time he saw her looking at the display and working out some problem for him.  He had never been so attracted to a woman; a woman who shared such a passion for science.

The two of them were figuring out how to manipulate Roberts’ pain receptors for his next resurrection.  Hawkins had to admit that he’d gone a little overboard with the last clone.  He had done worse, of course, but it looked rather bad for the operation when Roberts would cause such self-harm.  Garrison had personally contacted the scientist, which is something the bureaucrat would have never done otherwise.  Hawkins took it as a sign to cool off for a little while.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t plan ahead for his little guinea pig.  While some of his test subjects were given over to far more cruel and useful experiments, there was something special about Roberts.  Hawkins had been trying to break the little action figure for years, now, but he had gotten almost nowhere.  The boy was depressed, sure, but Hawkins had expected a fair dose of insanity.  It had come almost immediately with Haywick.

Roberts was just different.  The boy soldier would medicate himself and struggle through such terrible pain.  Hawkins would have been angry that the action figure was throwing off his results, but his rampant sadism kept the whole struggle tantalizingly delicious.  Roberts could be tortured endlessly, and so the experiment could continue endlessly.  It was a dance of pain and Hawkins enjoyed every minute of it.

“I’m having trouble with this particular incarnation,” Dr. Kane said, breaking Hawkins out of his stupor.  He looked over at the beautiful almost-genius and then rose out of his chair.  He stepped towards the doctor and then leaned up against the back of her chair, lowering his head so that his mouth was by her ear.  He thought about whispering a dirty little nothing and taking the woman for his own, but he much preferred the mental domination.  The physical could wait for a little while yet.

“What’s the issue, Charlotte?” Hawkins asked, using the woman’s first name almost exclusively, now.  It helped the scientist feel closer to this raven-haired temptress.  Dr. Kane continued to look at the display, absorbed in her work.  The tease of it was enough to drive Hawkins to madness, but he focused on the task at hand.

“Well, I feel like we’ve done similar parameters before.  How many incarnations have you manipulated so far, Peter?” she asked, turning her head slightly so that she could peer at him out of the corner of her eye.  Hawkins almost fell into the dark, brown eyes gazing at him, but he did what he could to concentrate.

“Oh, I have no idea.  I keep a record of them so that I don’t execute the same variables each time, or so that I know when I do it so I can possibly observe similar results.  Here,” Hawkins said before he backed off towards his own terminal and started to look through Roberts’ brain mappings.  Dr. Kane rose to join him and looked over his shoulder.

“Ah, I was wondering how you kept your book-keeping.  Do you keep all of them here, Peter?”  Hawkins turned to look at the woman, whose face was hovering just a few centimeters away.

“All of what?” he asked, distracted from his own activities.

“All of the brain mappings.  For instance, are Markham or Haywick in here?” Dr. Kane asked, her voice slightly deeper than normal.  Hawkins had to gather his senses so that he wouldn’t keep his mouth open.

“Well, yes.  All of my experiments are in this directory, even the soldiers who have been traded away…” he trailed off, not able to completely pay attention.  This woman, this
scientist
, this eager
mind
was so distracting to him.  His work seemed to dissolve when she was so close.

“I was wondering, is it possible to use an old brain map with a new clone?  I feel like you could get some great results if you repeated the same personality and memories with different variables,” Charlotte said, her breath hot on Hawkins’ neck.  It was almost more than the man could bear.

“I’ve… I’ve thought about that.  All I have to do is place the data and then force an emergency adoption.  It’s not so hard, I’ve just never tried.  I just… well, I don’t know.  I never got around to it,” Hawkins said, forgetting the reason why it would be impossible.  It seemed like such a great opportunity.

The scientist felt the sharp pain in his neck for only a moment before realizing that he was being attacked.  He spun around recklessly and knocked his arm into the beautiful woman standing behind him.  The pudgy man was breathing heavily as he watched the temptress’ face turn into something entirely different.  There was fear and rage, disgust and relief.

“What…. What did you do?” Hawkins asked, his mind swimming through thoughts that came with difficulty.  It was only a moment before the pudgy little man lost the strength to stand and collapsed to the ground.

The good doctor sat up and looked at the little man beside her.  Charlotte felt only disgust for herself; she was tainted and bruised.  No one had told her to do this, but she had realized very quickly how to best manipulate the scientist.  Mindless praise and willing help would do nothing; he was foul and evil, but he was literally a genius.  The only way that Charlotte could work around him was to utilize the only area in which he had no defense.

It didn’t stop Charlotte from wanting to burn her clothes or rub her skin off.  As she brought her arms around her in an expression of shame, she glanced at the weasel.  The drugs Charlotte had worn over her skin had done their job; the scientist had been unable to concentrate as she manipulated him into showing her exactly what she needed.

The good doctor pushed away her discomfort and walked over to Hawkins’ terminal.  She felt around inside of her lab coat’s pocket and found the flash drive, turning it over in her hand.  Charlotte sighed and plugged it into his private terminal before searching for the file.

It was almost ten minutes before she found Jenkins’ directory.  Hawkins had done what he could to bury the thing or his memory had developed strange links, but in either case it was well hidden.  It was under a folder for premature adoptions, and when she scanned the files three names came into view.  Obviously Carver and Jenkins were there, but Dr. Kane saw the name Washington, as well.  She wondered when that soldier had been on the Crows, but disregarded that line of thinking.  It would serve nothing for her to copy Washington’s file.

Luckily Jenkins’ directory was one of the smallest in Hawkins’ terminal.  The soldier had only died five times before Hawkins had set to work creating a new version of the man, but Hawkins had made many drafts and changes.  It took Charlotte a moment to realize Hawkins’ system, but she quickly copied the file to the flash drive.

It was almost an eternity waiting for the progress bar to fill up on the terminal screen.  Charlotte felt like she was running out of time and every moment counted, but it wasn’t long before the transfer was complete and she held the true Jenkins on the flash drive in her hand.

“What….. the fuck …. did you do?” Charlotte Kane turned to see Hawkins groggily trying to pick himself up from the floor.  His right eye was still entirely closed and his left only half-open, but the scientist was clearly conscious.  Charlotte felt a complete revulsion to the man, but that didn’t stop her from smiling at her success.  She had finally found a way to destroy this man lying in front of her.

“What I needed to do, Peter.  Every step of the way.  And now things are going to change.”

-

Percival Roth couldn’t sleep.  He had tried for hours, now, but his conscious self would not fade away.  Something was bothering him about what he had seen after that last game.  Derringer had been dragged away screaming about all kinds of nonsense, but it was the kind of nonsense which Roth was unable to forget.  The would-be hero wondered what would drive a man to such extremes.

The Hammerhead grunted and sighed before sitting up in his bed.  He could see Earthrise in all its glory outside of his window, but he paid it no mind.  Far too often, he had stayed up and found himself unable to sleep.  Something was wrong with this world; with this life.  He had just thought he was adjusting to his new status as a warrior, but he couldn’t see why that would be such a bad thing.  He didn’t know why it would cause him to worry and dread his next moments.

Roth threw his off-duty clothes on and wandered out of his room.  He liked to walk the hallways when he couldn’t sleep; he felt like if he was moving around he was at least doing something.  The soldier could barely see as the lights were off and there were only a few windows to let in the Earthlight, but it was enough for him to make his way around.  It was almost nice to pretend that he was just wandering around in space when there was so little light.

For some reason, Harriet’s face popped into his head.  His sister had always been one of his guides to better living, but now he could only disregard her.  She had told him to stay away from Eris and the games, but he had run off anyway.  Roth had regretted it, at first, but now he was on the top of his game.  He was on the road to becoming a hero and Harriet couldn’t say anything about that.

But that didn’t stop her from talking.  He recalled her messages and mail and her glowing admiration for what he had become.  Percival knew that she was just trying to make up for her previous criticism; she was just trying to realign herself to the obviously right side of the argument.  Percival had realized then that she was no longer to be considered a tool for guidance.  Harriet clearly didn’t know what was going on.

As he thought about his sister it suddenly dawned on him that there was only one soul who would never back down from his opinions on the subject.  Tobias Roth would staunchly defend his stance and still insist that Percival had made the biggest mistake of his life.  To his father’s mind, Percival should have been an accountant and that was it.  There was no time to play at war.

The memory stung and caused a fire to burn within Roth.  His father had always known how to push his buttons, but now that Percival thought about it he wanted a detractor.  He didn’t need constant sources of approval; he needed an enemy.  Roth needed someone to fight.

The soldier threw the thought from his mind.  He had someone to fight; he had his spiritual rival.  It wouldn’t be long before the Hammerheads and the Crows finally faced off.  It wouldn’t be long before Percival saw Ryan Jenkins across the battlefield and they finally had their match.  Roth’s heart burned at the very idea.

Without noticing it, Roth had walked into the library.  It was in a different state than the Crows’ library; the Hammerheads had no Feldman to take books off of the shelves.  It looked like no one had touched any of the books for years, and even the terminals seemed to be gathering dust.  Percival shrugged as he looked at the blinking computer screens.  He suddenly had a curious itch and decided to sit down in the chair facing the middle screen.  He logged into his account and what he saw astonished him.

There was quite a bit of fan mail, but the last message received came from a very distinguished sender.  Tobias A. Roth’s name was blinking at him from the screen.  Percival could not help but feel some cosmic event had pushed him to this terminal this night, at this minute.  He clicked on the email and read the contents of the message.