Читать книгу Swimming Electric Blue Water - Samantha Holmes - Страница 6

Situated in the heart of Gemini Corporation headquarters was System Room Twelve, an innocuous title, given the room’s impressive contents and size. It was over twenty-five meters high and fifty meters in length with polished, metal walls and flooring that infinitely reflected warped images. Sitting like rows of stainless steel giants, the furnaces, blowers, and other equipment whirled and hummed with their hidden activities. But the enormous machines were not the only ones with hidden agendas. Grace knew there were four souls circling the room, invisible to sight. With their footsteps masked by the omnipresent droning of the machines, it would be impossible to know where they patrolled.

“Are you sure she’s here?” asked a voice that seemed to come from empty air.

“She’s here,” answered another empty space.

A shot of plasma burst out, from what seemed like nowhere, singed a black mark on the gleaming wall, and left a trail of swirling, grey smoke.

“What the hell you doing?!”

“Damn, I thought I saw her.”

Grace could see the smoke where the voices emanated but nothing else. Nifty little gadget they had on, she thought, and slipped down from her hiding place. She had been listening and watching from her lofty perch, but now, it was time to act.

“Okay, boys, I give up,” she called out from her hiding place.

“She’s surrendering, request instructions,” said another empty spot, a spot she was now fixed on.

They were all in front of her, at least two, but could there be more? Before stepping out from her cover, she gently rolled a small, thin metal canister out to the center of the corridor. The machine noise hid the canister’s bell-like sound, and the shadows obscured its movement.

“Keep your hands out where I can see them,” the voice ordered. It was about ten feet away.

With her hands out, she walked slowly to where the canister rested. She smiled at the wall because that was all she could see. They were in “whisper” suits. The suit was made of fiber optics that transmitted the image from back to front and from front to back, making the wearer invisible. It was a very handy new invention of her father’s, but it had one little flaw.

She raised her heel over the metal canister and shifted her weight heavily onto it, eyes tightly closed. There was a loud bang like a firecracker and then cursing and screams as the flash caused all three whisper suits to short out in a colorful display of blue electricity. The men yelped and danced as the electricity went from the suits to their bodies, singeing hair and flesh.

She ran past the burning men and through the doorway behind them. She tried not to get too jazzed by her small victory. She wasn’t free of this building yet. It was a fortress surrounded by a mile of the Mediterranean Sea. Once out the door, she saw two men pointing their impressive weaponry in her direction. She leapt into the air with a savage scream as their weapons went off below her. Airborne, she tucked and rolled between them before landing on her knees. She twisted her shoulder as she flew and spun around to face them. Two sharp knives in each hand, she sent one at each of them. Both hit; one man was struck between the shoulder blades, the other had turned with her and got it in the Adam’s apple. His gun went off, hitting the plastic window with twenty rounds of armor-piercing fire.

Grace scrambled away from the blast. Her black leather pants and jacket protected her from the shards flying all around. There was a moment of silence as she skidded down the hall, until she heard a rocket launcher whistle towards her.

“Oh man!” she yelled. “Fuck you, Luther!”

Her yell followed her out of the window as she plummeted with her arms covering her face. The wall behind her exploded, sending metal and concrete after her. Grace fell ten stories, then started bouncing on the sloped side of the building. The bottom twenty floors flared out like a skirt with the last three straightening into the massive foundation that supported and protected the building from the water. She stopped tumbling head over heels but couldn’t quite stop her downward slide. When she reached the foundation, she was airborne again, falling the last thirty feet into the water. Her body disappeared into the choppy Mediterranean Sea. The eyes watching from the window never saw her resurface.

“Get the boats,” Luther said to the man next to him. “She isn’t getting away that easily.”

• • •

When the dreams came, Yuri had no sense of time. He didn’t know when the warehouse incident ended and the dreams began creeping into his consciousness. They were awful dreams: he was drowning, his lungs filling with fluid as he was sucked into dark water. He gagged, but that only allowed more water down his throat. That dream merged into others, flowing within the loose, logical progression that the dream realm allows.

He could hear voices that came and went as if from a poorly connected television.

“What a mess! Is there anything that isn’t broken?”

“Is it worth all the effort? He’s just a country bumpkin.”

“From Velsk? Never heard of the place.”

“Shit, another peasant. I hope we didn’t have to pay too much for him.”

“Orders are orders.”

“He’s strong, nice muscle tone — a perfect breeding ground for our little process. Besides, if he dies, it isn’t as if we killed him. With our current success rate, it’s worth going through the motions. Maybe, the next one will live longer than five minutes.”

“Give him a series of injections starting with the spine and then his feet while I start the fourth infusion.”

“40 ccs in the spinal fluid and feet. Do we still have shading on the kidneys?”

“It’s all a go … go … go … go …”

Voices came and went. Were they real or just another dream? At one point, Yuri thought he was dancing. He could feel his arms and legs moving to the beat. He imagined Ingra dancing with him. She was so beautiful. The music’s lyrics were repetitious and went something like:

A little more, a little more, one more time,

Make him dance, a little more, so he can move

His bones might break, his ears might burst,

Stop his teeth, he can’t cheat, just make him move

Hit it!

• • •

“Yuri?”

Was it another dream? It was a distant voice, weak, frail, but familiar.

“Yuri?”

There it was again, coming from beyond the void, so far away. Yuri tried to see where the voice was coming from.

“Oh Yuri, Yuri, please.”

He felt something wet on his cheek. A cool streak ran down his face, but it was somehow not his face, as if the water drop fell an inch away from it. He felt so swollen. Another drop. Yuri remembered how to open his eyes. A wave of joy came with that knowledge. His eyes opened slowly, like they were stuck shut with cotton candy. There was a face looking at him, Ingra’s face. Despite the flushed, puffy eyes from crying and hair completely out of place, it was her. She had dark bags under her eyes that made her look like she hadn’t slept in a long time. It was still the prettiest face he’d ever seen.

“Yuri!” She hugged him. Again, it felt strange, as if she were touching him from far away.

“I’m so happy you’re back,” she sobbed. “It’s been so horrible without you.”

“It’s…”

He was about to say “it’s all right,” but his voice scared him. It was so deep and unfamiliar. He reached for her hand but stopped when he saw the size of his own. His eyes fixed on it, all of it. His hand was twice its normal size. He whipped it back to his side quickly, making the bed lurch.

“Baby, it’s all right,” Ingra soothed.

He started to notice his surroundings. He was in a hospital. He remembered the beating, the sound of his bones breaking, the warm gush of blood in his mouth. He also remembered Anna!

“Anna’s all right,” she said, reading the sudden dismay on his face. “She was found outside of town and has been taken care of these last months…”

“But I…,” he tried again to use this foreign voice. It was a little easier, but he still stopped himself. He made an effort to inch himself up so he could see his whole body.

“What happened to me?!” His eyes traveled down his massive physique.

“You are a fortunate man, Mr. Konikov,” a man in a pristine, white lab coat said from the doorway, “Very fortunate indeed.”

He had blondish hair and spectacles. His nametag read Dr. Jeffrey.

“Where am I?”

“Alliance Hospital, Uptown Moscow,” Dr. Jeffrey said with obvious pride.

“What…?”

“It’s natural to want some answers, and I will try to speak in a manner you might be able to understand. The levels of complication to reach this effect are beyond… most people’s comprehension. Most simply, we added billions of nanolayers of chitin to your sub dermal layers. In addition, we introduced embryonic nerve cells biologically programmed to create a cluster of neurons in the lower spine. We then did rather elementary modification of your muscle tissue with hormones, in conjunction with non-participating muscle engagement, to create the added strength and muscle mass. The first two processes were far more difficult, but the latter was an important addition. What use is being tough and fast if you can’t then be an effective agent? Although, timing between the thickening chitin layers to allow for muscle growth proved to be challenging. That is why you might feel a little stiff and experience the sensation of tearing, like pulling a muscle, for a time. Just push through it.”

Yuri tried to follow what the doctor said, but it was so fast, and his own racing thoughts blocked out half the words.

“You look confused,” Dr. Jeffrey said with a prolonged sigh. “I don’t have all day to explain it again to you. So, let me show you something, and hopefully, you will get the point.” The man chuckled at his own joke.

Dr. Jeffrey pulled a scalpel from behind his clipboard. With unexpected speed, he moved to Yuri’s side and slammed the point of the blade into Yuri’s chest. Ingra screamed as Yuri struggled unsuccessfully to avoid the blow. After the impact, the doctor immediately backed away from the bed like he had just kicked a bear. Yuri ripped his hospital gown to see what damage the crazy doctor had just done. He could see the hole in his thin cotton cloth, but there was only the slightest red scratch on his chest. He looked down and saw that the blade had snapped upon impact and was now resting in the folds of the bed sheets.

“That was no trick knife. You have been a volunteer for a new procedure. Your skin can withstand a shotgun blast. That is, we think it can. You can test that on the job. We don’t have many shotguns available. Not your usual laboratory equipment.”

“I don’t understand.” Yuri glanced at Ingra’s face, which must have looked as shocked as his own.

“You don’t have to. We will do your thinking for you. Who could ask for an easier job? You are a very fortunate man. You have had some of the Corporation’s best scientists and doctors working on you. I hope you appreciate all the money and effort that went into you.”

Dr. Jeffrey looked at his watch and put the broken scalpel back under the clipboard.

“Excuse me, pressing matters to attend to, but I will stop by soon to check on your progress.” He walked out of the room with short fast steps.

This was too much to take in all at once. He felt okay, and Ingra was there. For now, that was what he focused on. Ingra could not stop crying, so Yuri put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She pulled away at first, scared of him, but then leaned in for a full embrace.

• • •

Two days after Yuri awoke, he began to walk again. The tearing sensation was almost unbearable. The people in the hospital pushed him through numerous exercises. A woman who wore a business suit under her lab coat brought him a cup full of pills three times a day. She also gave him sets of five injections in his arms. He tried to find out what the pills and shots were for but was pointedly ignored or, if he did get an answer, was told that he didn’t need to know.

The tests his body went through were humiliating. If it were not for Ingra’s visits, Yuri thought he would have lost some part of his sanity among the detached employees who worked in this facility. Yuri asked Ingra about her day and how she was feeling. His head still wasn’t clear, and sometimes, he couldn’t understand her answers. A white noise filled his mind, blocking out other sounds. He hoped that was just because of the drugs and not brain damage from the beating.

Two more weeks of tests and rehabilitation, and then he was able to leave the facility. Dr. Jeffrey’s assistant had given Ingra a key to a small apartment that the Corporation had set up for them. It was three blocks from the hospital in Uptown. Uptown. He had seen pictures, but stepping out of the hospital was like walking into heaven, with bright clear skies, clean streets, and beautiful people.

• • •

Yuri was excited about leaving the hospital, so Ingra arrived five minutes before it opened. She brought a small bag of clothes for Yuri. She quickly walked through the familiar, sterile environment, taking in the common sight of nurses and doctors walking purposefully through the halls. The staff had recognized her as a regular at the hospital over the last three months. No one stopped her as she made her way to the security wing. One guard there, no matter how many times she visited, always asked for her to show her ID and to get scanned. He stared hard at the monitor until a light beep followed by a green light cleared her. Then he attached a badge, with some lines and numbers, to the back of her hand. It would be removed when she left.