The Enclave (The Verge) (23 page)

The corridor beyond the door was the same bright white color as everything else Katherine had seen on the fourth level.  The constant white was placing a strain on her eyes; if she was not on painkillers she would already have the beginnings of a headache.

The woman led her through several corridors not really hurrying and always keeping her bodyguards between her and Katherine.

Katherine found that amusing.  If she had wanted to do the woman harm, the guards would not be able to stop her.

The woman stopped beside a door and pushed her finger onto the Gentec scanner.  The door whooshed open and the Lab Tech stepped away from the door and gestured for Katherine to enter.

Katherine hesitated.

Why did the girl not go in?  Was there someone waiting to jump her when she walked through the door?

Katherine would not go down without a fight and this time she would be looking out for darts.

The woman gestured and the guards around her adjusted themselves as if readying for action.

“What is the hold up out there Doctor Ross?”

The voice penetrated Katherine’s consciousness li
ke a thousand tiny needles being jabbed into her mind like a pin cushion.  The rage did not rise in her as it did before; instead unwanted memories rose to the surface and then pinned down for her mind’s eye to replay.  How she hated that man.

“There is no hold up Doctor Barkley,” the woman sweetly replied as if she were just showing a privileged guest into the office.  The woman, Doctor Ross? Then gestured more forcefully at the door.  “Doctor Barkley is waiting for you 72.”

Katherine felt her hands forming fists against her thighs.  So she slowly released the tension, stretching her fingers to relax the muscles.  Stiff, taunt muscles could break her bones if she had to use them in a fight.  And there will be a fight, whatever happens in that room.  When the time felt right Katherine would do all in her power to kill this man, will try to kill anyone involved in this so called ‘science project’.  Then Katherine would deem that justice had been served on behalf of her dead family and the hundreds of other families who had died for these twisted ideals.

“Doctor Ross!”  Barkley’s voice called again from the room and to Katherine’s ears he sounded pleased.  And impatient.

Better not keep the Doctor waiting

Katherine pushed past Doctor Ross and stepped firmly into the room.

Why is it that lab designers have to make everything white?

Katherine’s eyes darted around the room searching for any other threats besides the man standing next to the office desk at the far end of the room.  There were none that she could see.  The room itself contained the same equipment as any other office would have except that it was all white.  Her brown hair and dirty, bloody grey clothing were the only colors that existed in this room.  Doctor Barkley with his blonde hair, pale skin and washed out blue eyes looked engineered to fit in with the color scheme of this room.

Katherine heard the door whoosh shut behind her.  They had left her alone with Barkley without giving him bodyguards.  That meant that  there had to be something else in this room that would protect Barkley if she decided to attack him.  She did not bother to try and find what it is.  If she did not see it on her first inspection she probably would not see it now.  Katherine focused her attention on the doctor.

“Welcome back 72.”

The man had not taken his eyes off her since she entered the room.  It was as if he was watching for her to do something.  It reminded Katherine of a parent watching a child who had just learnt a new mannerism, waiting for them to perform it again unprompted.

Katherine planted her feet, staying near the door.

“I have unfinished business with you Barkley.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Barkley’s mouth and he nodded his head at Katherine.

“Yes.  Yes you are quite right, though not for the reasons you are thinking of 72.”  Then Barkley’s face settled into a smug satisfaction.  And strangely pride.

“Out of over one hundred and thirty test subjects, you and 56 are the most promising, show the most potential.  You have both developed well beyond the scope of Project Nemesis, well beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.”

“Developed into what exactly?”  Katherine spat the words out, trying to suppress the urge to kill this man.  At least suppress the urge until she could get all the answers she needed from him.

“Now,
there
is the beauty of it.  The pairing of you and 56 was so unexpected.  When you both escaped from Yunga... the way you both escaped from Yunga, showed us that we had succeeded in our aims, that the gene therapy had gone beyond the parameters that it was designed for.”  As Barkley spoke, his voice became more animated, more excited.  This was not the calculated voice of the man who had held a gun to Tom’s head.

“Get to the point.  I don’t want a history lesson Barkley.”  Katherine interrupted him.  She did not want to see any form of pleasure on this man’s face.  Not after having to kill one of the results of his experiments.  Not after being one of those experiments.  “What are we ‘designed’ for?”

Barkley’s face dropped again into a smug satisfaction.  “This project was developed to create the perfect solider for the Alliance.  Bigger, faster, stronger and to serve with total obedience-”

Katherine let loose a short bark of laughter.  “Well, that’s one thing you got wrong.”

Barkley ignored her interruption and continued speaking.  “Not entirely.”  The doctor held up a small datapad.  “I have something here for you to see.”

“If I must.”  But the thought now running through Katherine’s head was; 
Why bother to tell me all of this?  Test Subjects don’t need an explanation for the shit that is done to them.  They only need to perform…

Barkley did not answer her, instead he tapped at the datapad and a virtual optic screen appeared in the space between them.  A few more quick taps and the camera footage from the Level Four corridor began to play.

The fight in the corridor played out before her but in triple time instead of normal.  Except for the circling,
that
was played at normal time. 

Katherine looked away as he saw her thumb press into the man’s eye.  She did not look back until Doctor Barkley spoke.

“Are you not impressed with what we have made of you?”

“Impressed that you caused me to kill an innocent man for your own perverse ideals?  Disgusted is the word I’d choose.”  Katherine stepped forward, jabbing an index finger at the doctor.

“If it was so impressive why play the thing in triple time.  Why not watch it in its ‘full glory’?”

Doctor Barkley gave her a patronizing smile.  “It was played as it was recorded.  What you saw is a direct replay back from the camera.”  He paused to let Katherine think on his words.

If what he was implying was true then Katherine and her opponent had been moving faster than the eye could keep up with.  Barkley must have seen the realization plain on her face.  The man suddenly continued speaking.

“And you are able to do so much more 72.  You and 56 compliment each other’s skills quite nicely.  Especially the Ontolics.  That was an unforeseen gift.”

Katherine refused to believe what she was hearing. 

“If I was moving that fast in combat, why hasn’t it appeared before now?”

“While you were unconscious we injected you with the catalyst that activated the final gene sequence you were imprinted with at Yunga.  When we had activated 56, we noticed that his Ontolic capability increased threefold.  With you there has been a marked increase in physical abilities such as your speed, stamina, metabolic rate, healing.  The bio-monitor implanted in you has shown an increase beyond what is considered normal human parameters in the four hours since receiving the catalyst.”

Katherine stilled.

They were still experimenting on her? On Daniel?

“Bastards!” Katherine whispered

“We created you 72.  We made you into the perfect tool, the perfect solider and now we are going to start testing what use we can put you to.”

“
You
did not make me into the solider that destroyed Yunga
and has been hunting Alliance scum down for the last three years.  I was already that person,” Katherine growled her hate.  “What you
did
give me was a need to kill every last person who was involved in the creation of this operation.  This Project Nemesis!  I am not your super solider to be bent to your will.”

Katherine could hardly contain her rage, her body shook with the effort of controlling it.

“I am afraid you are mistaken there 72,” Doctor Barkley said softly.  “Now that we have 56 we can have you do whatever we wish.”

Katherine became motionless. 

Did he not know that she had rescued Daniel?  Surely they could not be unaware of his disappearance?  But if they were unaware… the longer they remained so gave Alpha Team a better chance to get Daniel to safety.

“Holding Daniel hostage will not make me do your will.  It will only make me want to kill you more.”

Barkley smiled.  It was not smug but was more like a father whose child had nearly grasped a complex concept and just needs an extra push to realize it.

“We don’t need 56 to be a hostage to use you 72.  We just need 56 to be near you long enough to relay our orders.”

“What?”

“The link between you and 56 is a strong one.  Due to the nature of each of your gene therapies, it seems that 56 has become your controller.  When he issues an order, you are impelled to obey it.  No questions asked.  Just as when we issue an order to 56, he will be impelled to obey
his
controller.”

Katherine glared at the doctor in horror as the ramifications of what he said dawned on her.

“You are both the perfect saboteurs and with your help, the Alliance will bring down the Federation.”

Chapter

Twenty-six

“Liar!”

Barkley shook his head.  “Believe what you want now 72.  But when you go back to New Holland you will be our tool, our clay to mold to what we want.  The presence of 56 will see to that.”

Dirty Mongrel curs!

“Daniel can’t control me, how can he?”  Katherine hissed.

“You have a link, an Ontolic link.  One that, if it can be reproduced in another test subject, would make Project Nemesis a revolution in military technology.”

“How do you convince Daniel to issue an order to me against his will?”

“Before you destroyed Yunga, 56 was given a bio-monitor implant and a dose of the catalyst, and from the information we have managed to piece together from it, it has taken 56’s body three years to adjust to the changes the catalyst demanded-”

“You’ve made the man into a transmitter-”

“You put it so crudely 72.”

“-and that he can compel me to do anything over his Ontolic link.”

Barkley nodded.  “His Talent is such that if it has the force of an order behind it, it is impossible for the linked mind to disobey it.”

“My family was killed just to prove a point for a science experiment?  Daniel’s home was destroyed just for a science experiment?”  Katherine was yelling her words as she finished and she felt her rage shake through her.  She was barely aware of the cacophony of beeping that suddenly exploded from the bank of white equipment next to Barkley.  The doctor turned to look at the monitors and that was when Katherine chose to act.

She rushed at Barkley’s exposed back, her hands itching to wrap themselves around his scrawny little lying throat.  Blind rage impelled her.

Barkley began to turn and Katherine abruptly found herself thrown back across the room.  She hit the wall but managed to land in a fighting crouch on the floor.  Looking back down the room she saw the last dissipating flickers of the energy barrier that bisected the office.

Doctor Barkley no longer looked weak and white washed.  Instead, to Katherine’s eyes, he now looked feral and dangerous.  He now matched the man who threatened Tom.

“That’s what I wanted to see 72.”  Barkley straightened and now looked more substantial, like he had a backbone.  “Though I thought you would have attacked me long before this.  You can control your anger, not let it lash out until you can learn everything you can-”

Katherine’s mind phased out Barkley’s voice.  She was no longer interested in his gloating.  She just wanted him to feel her fingers around his neck.  As the man talked, Katherine studied the section of office where the barrier appeared.  There had to be a way to deactivate it.  Or some
way to get him to come out from it.

“-test data.  72, release you anger, show us what you are capable of when pushed.  If it will help, I can tell you about your son’s last moments alive.  Nigel Hyde was quite descriptive when he told me the story.”

Katherine screwed her eyes shut, trying to block out the sight of Barkley. 
He is trying to bait me.  And it is working.  I just need to get to him, or get him to come to me-