Cain's Blood (30 page)

A

Sunday morning. early. They’d stopped at Dunkin’ Dounuts on the way to DSTI and the Massey Institute. The car
smelled like coffee and fresh aftershave. The whole complex
had been empty, and he’d wandered the rec room while his
dad took care of some work in his office. he’d played Xbox on the big

TV, tried playing himself in foosball. Otherwise, it was still and quiet
for miles in every direction, like the whole world was still asleep, or had
disappeared, except for the two of them.

What’s this?
he’d asked.
Security system, his father replied.
How’s it work?
his father had smiled, checked his watch. I’ll show you, he’d said.
This memory washad been one of the few real ones.

Jeff held his hand to the touch pad. A back gate opened.
held his hand to another touch pad. A door opened.
DSTI opened.
Castillo and Jeff stood in the doorway.

Ox and two of the men from the night before waited just behind
them. Their prearranged escape strategy, rappelling down the sheer
backside of the hill amidst the confusion of the demolition, had gone as
planned.

The horse, too. Castillo had gotten them both down the hill, Jeff
holding tight to his back as they’d snuck past the helicopter and escaped
along the river.

The rendezvous location had been at a farm near rosbys rock,
West Virginia. Jeff had never seen so many guns in his whole life.
“you’re with Ox now,” Castillo said. “first thing is find those drugs
you need. There’s bound to be a supply in there somewhere. Then keep
using those fingers, get into the places you think they might still be
keeping some of the kids.you’ve got ten minutes to find as many as you
can. Ten minutes.”
“All of them,” Jeff said.
Castillo nodded in agreement.
There was no “good” or “bad” anymore. They were just boys.
“Wait.” Jeff grabbed hold of Castillo’s arm. “Where are
you
going?”
“I’m using the front door. They’re already waiting for me anyway.”
“No! They’ll . . . I don’t want you—”
Castillo put his hand on Jeff’s shoulder. Stopped whatever words
Jeff would have gotten out next. “It’s gonna be Ok, pal. everything’s
good now.” he slid his hand to Jeff’s neck and pulled him closer for a
hug.
“Castillo?”
“focus on the job.” The embrace was quick. Castillo pulled back,
releasing him. “Take care of this. Then take care of the others.”
“What others?”
“from your father’s list. A friend of mine has all the files. everything. you’ll get it all again soon. There are still some other names,
other families. Other boys who are going to be hunted ongoing as liabilities. Already out there, maybe.”
“And we’ll find them together.”
Castillo smiled. “hope so. Look, Jeff, I’m not sure what happens
next and don’t really even understand everything that’s gone down. But
I know one thing, and I don’t need these scientist assholes or any of
their damned tests to prove it either. There
are
good guys and bad guys.
This I know. And I also know what you are.”
“Castillo. Don’t—”
“Go,” Castillo said and then left before Jeff could say anything else.

Castillo lowered his head.
he’d only expected Stanforth and erdman and some security. In
stead, he counted nine in the room. Stanforth, of course; Doctors erdman and Mohlenbrock and three other DSTI staff he didn’t know. One
of them was an older woman. Then there was kapellas and Neff, two
guys from Delta he’d met once before. Private security now.
And then one of the freaks: Dark Man. Shadow. Son of Cain. Man?
Thing? Nightmare?
Did it even matter anymore?
How many more of them?
Castillo wondered.
How difficult to make
thousands?
“Welcome home, soldier,” Colonel Stanforth said. “Mission accomplished.”

Jeff held his hand to another touch pad. Another door opened. five
boys were sleeping on cots inside this room. IVs dripping into their
arms. Ox and another moved to collect them.

Another hallway, another room.
Three boys propped up in chairs. Metal held their arms and heads
in place. Tubes fed them. Wires connected computers to their heads.
each skull opened at the top so that a dozen-plus wires connected directly to their exposed brains.
“It’s Ok,” Jeff told them. “you’re safe now.”

The whole room grew comically still when Castillo entered. he noticed
the look Stanforth gave the two mercenaries to lower their rifles, and
took in each face slowly.

“We really gonna do this here?” Castillo asked.

Stanforth smiled. “No secrets here, Captain. We’re all on the same
team, remember? Always were. Only want to fix things up again. Are we
good?”
“After you tried to kill me last night? yeah, we’re good.”
“When you didn’t wait for us at the house in utah, as you’d promised, we didn’t know what you were planning to do. One of my men had
been executed. And something dangerous we’d expected to find was
missing with you. My superiors got nervous. Should have contacted me
right away, kiddo.”

“Nervous about this?” Castillo withdrew the third and final vial of

IrAX11. The one he’d lifted off Ted’s corpse.
“Didn’t say
I
was nervous. Curious, maybe. But then I’m curious
about a lot of things, Castillo.”
“As am I.”
“No doubt. I told you the first day you would be. And that there was
no going back.”
“you did, you did. So you know they’re all dead, then? Ted. Al. Jeff.
All of them killed by your . . .” he looked at the dark man in the room.
“In that regard, we’re good.”
“All of them?” Stanforth got up from his chair.
“Those I was contracted to find.” Castillo watched one of Stanforth’s henchmen fan out steadily to his right. “And the other Dahmer
clone, Jacobson’s boy. killed last night.”
“Was he?” Stanforth nodded, but Castillo could tell the colonel
didn’t believe him. “Did our other man also do that job, too?”
“he did.” Castillo looked directly at erdman. “Of course, looked
like the kid was gonna die from some kind of cancer soon anyway. he’d
gone bad. Like henry had. All of them, really. rotting like old fruit.”
“It is not yet an exact science,” erdman interjected. “Certain test
groups have—”
“That’s fine, Castillo.” The colonel held up a hand for erdman to
be quiet. “The biggest concern was always the biotoxin.” he stepped
toward it, then froze when he saw Castillo’s warning stare. “We found
the second in the trunk of Jacobson’s car at Winter Quarters. Just as you
suspected.”
“The biotoxin used at SharDhara,” said Castillo.
every scientist in the room turned to Stanforth, who just smiled.
“The same,” he confirmed. “you saved our ass, Castillo. No doubt about
it. knew you would. So, now let’s all figure out how to get out of this.”
“Ok. how?”
“That’s almost entirely up to you. I can reassure you that there are
some men at the Pentagon who are quite taken with you currently. We
can probably still work this whole thing out.”
“If I can just ignore all the dead kids. The state-sanctioned abuse,
molestation. The murder of employees. The development and testing of
illicit chemical weapons.”
“yeah,” Stanforth said. “Something like that.”
“Was it really worth it?” Castillo asked.
“All
this,
” Stanforth agreed. “No fucking way. But Jacobson hit us all
with a worst case, didn’t he? Otherwise, the upshot always justified the
risk.”
“how’s that?”
“Imagine the power to turn rioting mobs into sheep. Or super soldiers.” he nodded to the dark-skinned killer. “Designed specifically to
sniff out murderous terrorists and kill them.”
“Imagine,” Castillo added, “a bioweapon designed to infect an entire city with murderous rage.”
“And all the cures the Cain project brought us? Is it fair to ignore
those? I would think you, of all people, would appreciate the work these
men have accomplished, specifically in the area of treating PTSD. This
company has five
different
medications in clinical testing as we stand
here. Several more tests are already scheduled to eliminate the affliction.”
“Drugs can’t solve that. And even if they could,” Castillo glared, “it
wouldn’t justify the things we’ve done. These were children.
You
 . . .” he
turned to erdman again. “you did this to children.
We
did.”
“Only twenty percent of American combat infantry were willing to
kill the enemy in World War Two,” Stanforth said. “By korea, it’d risen
to fifty percent. Vietnam, ninety. Iraq?”
“One hundred percent,” Castillo answered.
“hooah,” Stanforth nodded. One of his bodyguards nodded to
Castillo. It was a look that said,
Come on, brother. You’re still one of us.
It
was also a look that said,
I’ll kill you the second he gives the word.
“Because
we trained them, trained
you,
to kill. Added a month to basic training
specifically geared toward teaching our guys that gooks or haji or skin
nies are inhuman things to be stepped on.”
“yeah, you did. had us train on moving human-shaped targets, as
opposed to those little bull’s-eyes our grandfathers trained with.”
“And hard as hell to turn that off when you get home.”
“yes,” Castillo breathed deeply. “It is.”
Stanforth held out his hands as if a miracle had just happened.
“Well, we’ve got something in the works that’ll put that killer instinct in
our men just long enough to win a war, and then take it right back out
again. We won’t
nurture
them into becoming killers over a few months.
We’ll let
nature
do it for us in minutes. And when the fighting’s over, we
just take that part of their nature right out again as if it had never been
there at all.”
Castillo shook his head.
“It works,” erdman said from across the room.
“Think of the suffering we could eradicate,” Stanforth argued. “The
drinking and drugs, spousal abuse, suicides, shootings. how many good
men have come back unable to let go of that terrible rage?”
“Most,” Castillo agreed.
“Then let’s end this the right way. Let these guys do what they do
best, and you and I can do what we do best.”
Castillo closed his eyes, breathed in again.
A man may trust his brothers when a mighty contest should arise.
“right. ‘freedom ain’t free’ and all that. So, tell me: how many
kids and adoptive parents did you kill these last two weeks alone to
help clean up the mess your new toys have caused?” Castillo eyed the
crouched “Dark Man,” dressed in black fatigues and mask, shifted at
Castillo’s attention. he could feel the freak’s hate, tangible and hot,
from across the room.
“We’ve closed shop on the whole Cain project,” said Stanforth.
“Obviously, it was too risky, and we already had most of what was
needed. Taking out these guys, and Jacobson’s clone, was the last piece.
This ends today.” he added, “Once DNA testing confirms what you’ve
told us about last night,” he added.
“Well, fuck. Whole compound got torched, Boss.”
“yeah, we heard it was quite a show. Not a problem,” Stanforth
smiled again, stepping closer. “I’m sure we’ll be able to determine what
happened there. Whether or not young Jeffrey Jacobson’s DNA is
found out there. And if we don’t find him there, then—”
Castillo fired.
The first shot hit kapellas in his vested chest, the next struck the
ranger’s exposed shoulder as the man pitched backward off his feet in
a shower of bone and blood that sprinkled over the computer monitors
and microscopes behind.
Neff moved like a big guy; too slow.
Castillo shot him too.

Jeff waited with Ox in a van outside the gate.

There were twelve kids in the van with them. Most sprawled out
like bodies in a crypt. Between them, a duffel bag stuffed with plastic
bottles found in one of the rooms. Bottles filled with blue pills. Pills that
looked exactly like Jeff’s “allergy medication.”

Ox and his man stood, automatic rifles aimed at DSTI as if they
would shoot down the whole building if necessary.
“five minutes,” he told Jeff.
Jeff got him to wait ten.

Colonel Stanforth had not yet gotten his sidearm free.
“Don’t,” Castillo told him.
“you damn fool,” Stanforth raged, pulling his hand away. “you goddamned fool.”

Castillo eyed the dark man, the only other real threat in the room.
Neff clutched his shattered leg, while kapellas squirmed on the floor,
blood seeping from his shoulder wound. The others, the scientists, were
already crouched behind tables and chairs. The dark man, however,
had not yet moved from its spot. And he seemed to be smiling with a
childish curiosity, Castillo decided. Waiting to see how things might
go. Castillo could literally feel this thought, its thoughts filled with unimaginable blood lust. Waiting to strike.
To kill,
though no decision as to
whom to kill had been made quite yet.

“Toss the guns,” Castillo told Stanforth and the two wounded
soldiers. “All of them.” he waved his gun at the pistol hidden and holstered on Neff’s leg for emphasis.

“you gonna kill me, kiddo?” Stanforth asked.

“Probably.” Castillo pointed his pistol at one of the scientists he
didn’t know by name. “you there. Collect all the guns.”
Castillo knew the black-skinned science project wouldn’t wait much
longer to strike. he’d watched the man’s eyes linger over this one doctor a second longer than the others.
“They were right about you.” Stanforth handed his holstered pistol
to the scientist. “kristin was right about you. you’ve lost your mind.”
“No,” Castillo said. he moved deeper into the room, directed the
scientist to collect the weapons of the two downed soldiers. “Bring it
all over here.” he’d never taken his eyes off Stanforth. “I’m quite sane,
actually. That’s the funny thing. So much money and so many deaths to
isolate what?
This
? This urge to kill?” he grabbed hold of the scientist,
pulled him close. “To kill. Is it deliberate or arbitrary? Anger or apathy?
It’s not under some damned microscope. What’s your name, Doc?”
“B-b-b-b . . . ,” the man stammered.
Castillo pulled him closer and read the name on his ID badge.
“feinberg. I’m gonna open this door, and you’re gonna put all these
nasty guns just outside. Got it? you do anything else, I shoot you in the
head. Sure you got it?”
“yeah.”
“Good.” Castillo pushed the door open with his right hand and
watched as the scientist did what he was told. The guns safely outside,
Castillo pulled the door shut again. “feinberg, how long you worked for
DSTI, Doc? hmm? Long enough for that thing to know you, looks to
me. See how he watches you?”
“I . . . I don’t. Please. I didn’t . . .”
Castillo wrenched the man around and brought the 9mm against
his head.
he fired.
feinberg’s ear vanished in a crimson mist of blood and hair. The
mutilated hole scorched black. Blood streamed down his neck as a
large flap of skin fluttered against the side of his cheek. The geneticist’s
screams filled the room.
Castillo shoved him forward toward the Dark Man.
It sprang onto feinberg and the two collapsed to the floor as one,
while long nails dug into the geneticist’s shoulders and neck and the
DSTI doctor thrashed and wailed in agony. The black stunted head
dipped into the spouting wound.
Started
feeding
. Tearing away the left side of feinberg’s face.
Alive still, the doctor roared, his words garbled and wet and lost
beneath his own blood.
Castillo stepped over them both and fired. emptied his gun into the
back of the thing’s head. The bullets pierced the dark head, vanished in
mushrooming splotches. The scientist just beneath quivered in shock.
“Is it self-destruction?” Castillo asked, stepping away, moving to the
door. “yes. And see, a lot of time saved. No need to isolate anything at
all. No need to breed and destroy children.”
he shot the controls that’d open the door.
fat Doctor Mohlenbrock was crying, clinging to the legs of the
closest table.
Castillo pointed the pistol at Stanforth. “And,” he asked, “is it maybe
just a little fun?”
“What now, Castillo?” Stanforth asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
Castillo released the clip from his gun and thumbed out the last
three bullets. Charged the chambered bullet free. Tossed the empty
pistol across the room.
Listening to the others cowering, whimpering, dragging themselves
across the floor behind him. he’d let Neff keep his knife.
The evil within. We can never cure or destroy it.
Because we are all Cain.
he moved for the canister on the table.
And we are all Abel.
“Don’t,” erdman shook his head. “Please . . .”
Stanforth took a step back. “Shawn . . .”
Castillo held up the canister for the whole room to see.
“Let’s find out what we’re all really made of,” he said.
And then he opened it.