Soulwalker (27 page)

“Sure. Don’t you think she has a plan?”

He looked silently at her, as if trying to find the lie inside. “Does she?”

“Sure she does. She wouldn’t abandon us.” Asher smiled.

As if her wish had been granted, the cell door opened. The two guards stepped inside, but their expressions said everything but control. They stumbled farther into the cell. Behind them were armed men, their weapons trained on the guards who had just entered. “This is your rescue, ladies and gentlemen.” The voice belonged to a young man, his age estimated by Asher to be in his early twenties.

“You don’t fool us.” Jerad scowled at the armed men.

Asher thought exactly the same thing until an older man stood in the doorway. “Darmen? What are you doing here?”

He smiled at her. “Asher, my dear. I could ask you the same question.”

“Have you found Tarris yet?”

“Tarris is here?” He looked around the cell anxiously.

“Corman has her.”

Darmen turned and ordered, “Find where Trooper Waite is, and be quick about it!”

“I don’t understand. Aren’t you a computer exec or something?”

“Of course. Just like Trooper Waite is a computer programmer.”

“Oh.” Now she was really confused.

Darmen stepped forward and placed his hand on Asher’s shoulder. He steered her to a quiet corner. “We don’t have a lot of time. I suppose you could say I’m the leader of the rebels, my dear.”

“You were spying on Tarris?” She thought the old man was sweet. Now she was having second thoughts.

“Not at first, no. We weren’t spying as such. We just wanted to make sure she was safe.”

“Was that why you gave her the bug detector?”

“It was for her protection, Asher, and to show her who her enemy was.”

“Once she finds out about you, she might change her mind.” No wonder Tarris only trusted herself. Everyone else had a secret agenda, even herself.

One of the rebels stepped up to Darmen and saluted. “Sir. Trooper Waite has been taken to the Prime’s residence.”

Darmen frowned.

“What?” Asher asked the question and wondered if she would get an answer.

“This is not good.” Darmen moved away and gave a command. “Everyone out of here! Now!” His voice was strong and deep, belying his age. He grabbed his second-in-command. “Find the records for this place and collect evidence. We need the proof in order to prosecute.” The man stepped away and headed for the door. “Tell the others to free all the prisoners and get them out of here.”

“What about us?” Asher asked and moved next to Jerad.

“You come with me,” Darmen said as he headed toward the exit.

Chapter 13

“You have turned out to be a big disappointment.” Prime Sholter sat down in his large, ornate chair and faced Tarris from across a massive table.

“That’s too damn bad.” Tarris glared at him to show her defiance. Her hands were firmly restrained, and the room brightly illuminated. He wasn’t taking any chances.

“You should have minded your own business, and you’d still be a trooper.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be a trooper. I’m sick of doing your dirty work.”

“And because of that, you’re going to die.”

“You can try, Roden.” His eyebrow rose as Tarris addressed him by his first name. “The people know what you’re up to.”

“The people? They’re sheep, Tarris, and ready to be led wherever I want to take them.”

“And what makes you think the Corps can control the people? You can’t even control Corman.”

“Do you think you’re my only asset?” the Prime said easily.

“The Battery,” Tarris said.

“We’re nearing success.”

“It’ll never work.” Tarris had no idea what the Prime was attempting to do, but whatever was happening at The Battery didn’t look like it was anywhere near completion.

“The problem with the early program was the delay. Waiting sixteen years for the trooper to mature was taking too long.”

“So you’re experimenting in turning normal humans into troopers.”

“And we have an almost limitless supply of volunteers.” He laughed.

“But they’re not albino.”

“We’ve solved that problem.” His lip curled.

“Being albino is a problem?” She had thought she was special. Now she was told that not only was her birth a mistake but that being albino was like having some virulent disease.

“It’s rather obvious, don’t you think? How can you have a coup with a group of colorless freaks running around? No, we’ll soon have an army of normal-looking humans, and you’ll no longer be needed.”

“I’d love to see Corman’s face if you call him a freak.”

“Corman is no longer your concern.”

“You got that right. Now he’s your
problem.” Tarris leaned heavily on her forearms as she shifted in the chair.

“He serves his purpose.”

“And what is the purpose of all this? World domination?”

“One step at a time, Tarris.” He chuckled. “Oh, sorry. You can’t do that. It’s a shame really. You had so much promise, then you had to go and try to leave.”

“You bugged my home!”

“Oh no,” the Prime said calmly, “long before that. Sixteen years earlier in fact.”

“My fall? It was an accident.”

“Was it?” The Prime smiled evilly. “We had spent a lot of time and money on your upbringing. We couldn’t just let you walk away.”

“You crippled me on purpose?” Tarris had already suspected that when they found the tracker, but the Prime confirmed it so casually it made her shiver.

“It was a bit drastic, but it proved far more beneficial than we had ever hoped.”

“Beneficial? You ruined my life.”

“What life? We gave you life. It was ours.” The Prime leaned back in his chair. “You were supposed to be the next step in the evolution of the shadow warrior, Waite. Twins. Can you imagine the possibilities?” He smiled. “We could duplicate twice as many warriors in the same time. Unfortunately, you were the only survivor.”

“You were playing with the laws of nature.”

“Genetic material, Waite. Nothing more than human building blocks. Haven’t you ever played with blocks?”

Tarris could see he was quite mad. “You were tinkering with human beings… with me. What about my mother?”

“And look how well you turned out, eh? You need not worry about your mother. She was merely the vessel for your making. Her right to be your mother expired when you were born, and another took care of you until you entered the Institute. You are an extraordinary experiment, and we have to know how extraordinary. Can we duplicate you in the laboratory?”

The Prime’s words confirmed what she had suspected of late. Her relationship with who she thought of as her mother had been distant, even from the beginning. Those times when she needed a mother’s love or embrace, it had been casually imparted or not at all. She had always thought it was because of how she looked. Oh, how she wished it were all different. “Are you saying that I’m special?”

“I’m saying you are a rare commodity that we can’t let slip through our fingers. Somehow, against all odds, you survived. Why?”

“I don’t care why.” Her whole life was a lie. Tarris felt a wide range of emotions—anger, despair, confusion, and disbelief—but mostly she felt numb. Her mind couldn’t focus on one moment in her life that was real. Even her earliest childhood memories were now tainted with the knowledge that the woman who looked after her wasn’t the one who gave birth to her. Any doubts she had about stopping this man instantly evaporated. He had taken away her life, and now she would take away his.

“Don’t you want to know why you killed your twin?” The Prime asked the question like he was asking about the weather.

“I did not kill my twin!” Tarris cried defiantly. Had she, by being born, taken away the life of her sister? The thought that she could have been responsible horrified her. She would have gladly given up all she was to have Rya be flesh and blood.

“Maybe that’s why you have the power you have. You have hers as well.” His fingers met in front of his face, and his forefinger beat rapidly on the pad of his other forefinger. “Maybe the implantation set off a chemical reaction in the mother’s body that combined the two fetuses into one. Hmmm. Interesting. It needs further investigation.”

Tarris so wanted to show the Prime just how far she had come, but something stopped her. Now was not the time. She would have to save her surprise for when Corman made his move. “You just signed your death warrant,” Tarris said. “If it’s the last thing I do, I will kill you.”

He laughed lightly, as if she had made some sort of joke. “Tell that to someone who doesn’t know the truth. You’re helpless sitting there, so your threat is hollow. Unless your shadow can walk in the light, you’re as impotent as those rebel friends of yours.”

Tarris smiled.

“What’s so funny?”

“You are, Roden.” She said the name deliberately and was rewarded with a furrowed brow. “You have no idea what you’re playing with. What’s going to stop those people you change into troopers from turning on you?”

“That’s what the serum is for.”

“Serum? What serum?” Was that what was injected into the woman at The Battery?

“As long as they do as they’re told, they get the serum.”

“Someone might think it’s worth the sacrifice to get rid of you.”
Like me.
“It’s a very flimsy way of controlling them.”

“And, of course, there’s the implant.”

Tarris was tired of the game. It seemed The Prime had thought of everything. She hoped someone was strong enough to break the conditioning and do what she couldn’t. Kill him.

He grinned at her. “In fact, you really are too good to waste. Take her back to The Battery. Tell the mediprac to prep her for surgery in the morning.”

“So the implant does work?” Tarris asked.

“We’ll find out tomorrow.”

She was to be the first. The first in his ultimate army. This changed everything.

Two soldiers trained their weapons on her as the restraints were released. She stood awkwardly and waited for gyros in her suit to compensate for the change of position. She touched her belt, there was a faint hum, and the suit prepared to move her in a casual walk. Her finger hovered over the final button as she stood and stared at the Prime sitting relaxed in his seat. He grinned at her like a man who held all the cards.

She thought about what she would do if Rya were with her. Would she attack him and the world be damned? Would killing the Prime here and now stop the insidious plan going ahead, or would someone else step into his shoes? What about Corman? But Rya was on a more important mission, saving Asher and, hopefully, Jerad, from certain death. Was it at the expense of the greater good? Probably, but she didn’t give a damn.

“I’ll be seeing you,” she said.

“Most likely.” The Prime reached for something under the desk, and suddenly, the shutters on all the windows went up, bathing the whole house in a light so bright that she could barely see, let alone a shadow survive in it. Oh yes, he had all the tricks, at least for now.

Her restraints for transport back to The Battery were secured firmly around her upper arms and joined at the back. The guard reached for the switch at her belt, and the suit began to take a step. The guards lifted her up, turned her around, and let go once the legs started moving. All sorts of nasty epithets crossed Tarris’s mind that she wanted to say over her shoulder at the Prime, but she would save them for his next visit. Just before she lost her mind, she wanted to curse the man to hell and back.

She took her first step across the Prime’s courtyard when Corman came into view. “She’s my prisoner,” he said in a commanding voice. The guards looked at one another then at the trooper who stood in their way.

“We have orders from the Prime.”

“And I’m telling you, she’s now my prisoner.” He let his shadow ripple under the surface of his skin. “You’re not going to argue about it, are you?” His white eyes glared menacingly at his foes. “You can tell Prime Sholter that she’s with me at Black Corps Headquarters. We know how to make her comfortable.”

Tarris could feel the fear in the air. It wasn’t going to be pretty in any sense of the word. Corman had decided it was time for her to pay up, probably with one broken bone at a time.

Corman’s two lieutenants, Jackton and Luton, took their places behind him to reinforce his order. Corman smiled and waved off the guards. “Shoo!” His smile dissolved into a laugh as the men scurried off in the opposite direction. “Sheep.”

The Prime had said the same thing, but their meanings were far apart. To the Prime, sheep were the masses that could be swayed by his rhetoric. To Corman, his kind were the lions, and the masses were the sheep, ripe for devouring.

At some point, Tarris would have to face Corman, but with events happening so fast, the time and place wouldn’t be of her choosing. She hoped she and Rya were up to the fight.

*   *   *

“It seems the bitch here was nothing more than a fake,” Corman announced to the troopers in the room, his cold eyes gleaming in the bright light. “And now,” he continued as he stepped toward the chair holding Tarris, “she’ll finally get what’s coming to her.”

Tarris was propped up in a chair, her body suit removed and her arms tied securely to the armrests. She looked defiantly at her approaching adversary. “And who’s going to stop me? You?” She laughed out loud. “You’re nothing but a little pissant wannabe, Corman.” It was probably foolish to taunt the beast, but Tarris wanted to vent her anger at the arrogant son of a bitch.

“You’re not so special anymore, Waite. You’re just like the rest of us now.” Corman started to move around Tarris, and his cohorts followed, circling her like a pack of wolves preparing to take down a buck. “Those little experiments back at The Battery were about making us like you.”

“You were never like me, Corman.” Whatever Corman thought went on at The Battery was not what the Prime had told her. For now she let Corman think he was right.

“And who would want to be, woman? But you no longer scare us.” He stopped in front of her and lifted his fist. He let fly with a punch to her mouth.