Legacy of a Mad Scientist (55 page)

"I remember how long time lasted, when I first
touched this thing," she said. "I hope you're feeling every last
second of this."

Ashley pulled the blade all the way around to the
other side of his neck, dropping with the man as he fell to the
floor.

She stared into his eyes as his breath came out his
throat, making a sad flute-like sound. She watched the light fade
from his eyes as his oxygen-deprived system slowly ceased
understanding and experience.

Crouched low, Ashley had not been seen.

Cole and Urich were on the other side of the
credenza, in the other section of the office.

Using the natural cover, Ashley crept out of the
detectives' wing. She found a restroom and stopped to ditch the gun
and wash the blood from her hands. From there, according to the
evacuation placard glued to the wall, it was no more than thirty
steps to an unguarded stairwell.

Ashley moved quickly, but without hurrying. By the
time her brain realized it had been too easy, it was too late.

Ashley was halfway down the first flight of stairs
when she saw Deputy Director Von Kalt. He was just standing there,
waiting for her.

He was holding his gun at his side. He was also
holding the second prototype. She could see it.

She could feel it, The Metachron.

Ashley was still holding the Micronix herself. She
hadn’t retracted the blade. She had washed it, in the bathroom, but
the matte black edge was still exposed to the cool night air.

Ash felt an alien confidence well up from deep within
her.

She stood up straight and walked toward the man who’d
been pursuing her for weeks.

Coming down the stairs, they both knew her power.
Ashley reached Von Kalt. Saying nothing, she held out her empty
hand.

Von Kalt could have raised the gun.

Instead, he handed her the Metachron and stepped
aside.

Ashley didn’t look at him; she just took the device
and walked past.

As she reached the landing, she heard him exhale.

The sudden shot startled her.

His body fell onto the hard metal steps with a
resounding thud.

Three floors later, Ashley retraced the blade and
pocketed the Micronix. She was evacuated right out the front door
with dozens of other people. A crowd was beginning to form due to
the ongoing chaos, and naturally, no one was being allowed to
enter.

Not far from the shuttle gates, Ashley spotted a
familiar little head, struggling to see above the adults and catch
a glimpse of what was going on. Geoffrey and a young social worker
watched the building, along with dozens of onlookers.

Ashley made her way over to them, gesturing for him
to stay quiet. From just a few feet away, Ash nodded and Geoff
slipped away from the social worker. She looked like a nice enough
girl, but she could cause real trouble for them if she were to
insist on delivering Geoffrey to proper authorities.

Geoffrey inched further and further away from the
distracted girl. Before long he just turned and walked away from
her.

Moments later the reunited brother and sister were
sprinting away from the police station, dodging pedestrians,
giggling and laughing, the chaos behind them forgotten.

Captain Snow watched Ashley and Geoff escape the
police station, her long rifle held at her side. Reid hovered
beside her.

Croswell, Ross and King had arrived late, and tried
entering the department invisibly but had become enmeshed in the
chaos on the lower floors, and completely missed the action.

Snow and Reid lost no time teasing them and
complaining that they had allowed both Bergstrom and Dunkirk to
escape.

“It was insane in there,” King argued.

“It looked crowded,” Snow answered, smiling.

From this position, King, Croswell and Ross
discovered they could see right into the homicide wing of the
department.

“But you saw what she did?” King asked. “That was
great! Brilliant!”

Ana held up her rifle, with the huge scope. “I see
everything.”

“She was great!” King laughed. “I don’t know why you
were ever worried.”

“I’m not worried,” Ana rolled her eyes. “I mean, look
at this, there’s five of us and we couldn’t protect them at
all.”

“I don’t know if I agree with that?” Croswell
said.

“I just wanted her, both of them, to have a normal
childhood. Why can’t she just have a normal childhood? Why is that
too much to ask?”

Secretary Croswell put an arm around Ana’s
shoulder.

“What’s normal?” he asked. “When I was her age, Fox
cut my arm off. That was definitely not normal.

“And if I recall correctly you were an Olympic
double-threat.”

“That was at sixteen.” Snow begrudgingly returned the
smile.

“Oh that’s right. At twelve you only won for track.
It was four years later you won for track and marksmanship. I
gotcha. Perfectly normal.” Croswell laughed.

The soldiers cruised along overhead, laughing and
joking as Ashley and Geoff made their way down the promenade,
putting distance between themselves and the Angel City Police
Department.

“It’s not like you can change who they are,” Ross
said. “And I don’t know why you’d want to. They’re perfect. You did
a great job.”

Snow laughed, “
She
did a great job.
I
was out here, with you clowns.”

Ashley’s Journal, Monday, August 3, 2308

We got to the second backup cruiser after midnight.
This one is bigger. There’s plenty of room to stretch out and the
three monitors to surf all the vid streams we want.

We’ve been trying not to watch the news, but Dunkirk
is everywhere. He escaped from the cops in an ambulance with
another hostage. They lost him in a parking garage when he
carjacked a rabbi.

Dr. Martin Evander Dunkirk III; once a frontline
battle surgeon turned landowner and patron of the arts, new to the
ranks of infamous sociopaths.

At least they didn’t mention me, or Stanwood, or Von
Kalt That’s one thing to be happy about.

Ashley’s Journal, Wednesday Afternoon, August 5,
2308

With over a hundred victims discovered in the first
days of the investigation, Dunkirk was the news of the summer.
They’re calling him the
Calistan Canyon Killer
. Over the
last few days, the whole world has watched the footage of bodies
being airlifted out of the ravine. It was ghastly. The commentary
repeatedly pointed out that most of the victims were children.
Time-lapsed footage of the forest showed body bag after body bag
just streaming out of the canyon.

The police got warrants for all the buildings owned
by Mr. Dunkirk, and the horror show expanded to a dozen new
locations. For years, he'd been abducting and murdering all
varieties of people, some were his tenants, others complete
strangers.

They’re saying he’s a
killer of opportunity
.
He wasn’t particular about age or appearance, his victims ranged
from children to the elderly. Where most other killers stick to a
specific type, Dunkirk enjoyed variety.

At its peak, the investigation included two hundred,
twenty-seven corpses, and sixty-four missing persons. They think
his first victim may have been his mother, at thirteen. Originally
her death had been ruled an accident, but now they’re saying it was
probably Martin.

He is a genuine psycho.

If he comes after me again, I’m going to kill
him.

I talked to Dr. Te for a bit this afternoon.

After Geoff and I picked up the second spare car Ross
left us, I put the autopilot on a freeway loop, and we took a nap.
I woke up, and he was sitting inside the transport with us.

I didn’t want to wake up Geoff, so we talked
silently, just in our minds. I said it was nice to see him.

He said he was glad to find us healthy and whole, and
that it seemed like we were finally okay, now that the heat was off
of us.

I pointed out that our parents were still gone.

Geoffrey was crying in his sleep earlier, but he
didn’t do it while Te was here, and I didn’t tell him about it.

He said we don’t need to worry now.

I told him we’d heard that before. Before Ross got
killed.

He said that the police were working hard to catch
Mr. Dunkirk.

I said, better him than us.

He asked what we were up to, and I told him that
Geoff and I were on our way to Magic Mountains theme park, and that
we planned to hit a new fair or amusement park everyday, whether
they catch us or not. So it was just as well they weren’t looking
anymore, or they were going to have a fight on their hands. I said
even if we did go to Canada or Mexico, at least we would never go
anywhere twice.

Dr. Te listened and then laughed really hard. He said
he was jealous and that his body couldn’t withstand the challenge
of one new thrill a week, let alone days filled with them, one
after another.

He made me laugh too. I didn’t realize how long it
had been since I laughed.

Ashley’s Journal, Wednesday, September 2, 2308

After a month on the road, Geoff and I agreed that,
with summer ending, we have to do something different. All the
other kids are going back to school. We can’t pretend we’re on
vacation much longer. I’ve been thinking about this, and I’ve got a
good idea about what to do.

I plotted a course for Angel City, and Geoff
immediately asked if I thought going back home was a bright idea.
He said I was breaking our number one rule. I told him we were
going somewhere neither of us had ever been before.

At a truck stop, I bought an electric razor and made
him help me shave my head. Later that day, we arrived at the Flying
Dragons Martial Arts Academy and presented ourselves for check in
at the front desk.

A bit of digital preparation on Geoff's part made the
paperwork a breeze. He used the Micronix to fill out the
applications and forward our transcripts from Rivendell before we
got here. Once the tuition charges cleared, there was nothing to
worry about.

I’ve been using my parent’s accounts ever since Ross
disappeared. We were safe for a whole week before they caught us at
the campground. I’ve been thinking about all that.

When I bought the hover board, it wasn’t the
transaction that brought the agents. If it had been the codec, it
would have been the mall cops that caught me.

So… The charges cleared. After that, who cares? I’ll
fight them when they get here.

Also, because of our short notice registration and
late arrival,
Ashton
and Geoffrey would be rooming together,
despite their age difference, which was what we wanted anyhow.

It will be a lot easier to maintain my disguise as a
boy this way. I’m going to learn everything they teach here, the
same way I did with ballet.

Someday, I’m going to see Martin Dunkirk again, and
when I do, I’m going to finish the job. He’s been running circles
around the cops. Sooner or later, he’s going to come after me. It’s
just a matter of time.

The next time, I will be ready, and he will be
dead.

A week after the horrors of Calistan Way, a pair of
uniformed patrolmen wandered through the ocean-side park where
Bobby slept. Their morning duties largely consisted of chasing away
the neighborhood indigents, but a homeless child called for more
immediate intervention.

A social services team was called out, and Bobby was
transported back to a local holding station. It didn't take long to
identify the silent child and deliver him to his new home.

District Thirteen, the Angel City Orphanage and
Juvenile Detention Facility, housed almost ten percent of the
metropolitan orphan population. The district maintained prenatal
care for infants, school for orphaned students and a massive wing
for the criminally inclined delinquents of Angel City.

Bobby hadn't uttered a word since his arrival. Silent
amidst a teeming sea of children, he wandered the district, seeking
hidden, quiet, out-of-the-way places where he might gaze upon his
gleaming treasure of brass, copper, and lead.

Within a few days, Bobby discovered an abandoned wing
of the orphanage. Wandering, he noted the strong scent of death and
rot. He followed his nose and soon encountered a cruelly deformed
guard. The man was a hulking brute and his eyes glittered with
malicious intent.

Bobby approached with an honest, open expression and
showed the man his bullets. The monster smiled and led Bobby
through several locked doors into a concealed section of the
district.

The reek of death was overpowering. They passed
through a bloodstained dorm, beds gone black with gore. That was
when Bobby first began to hear the cries.

They entered another dorm, filled with children, all
chained to their beds. Several had been beaten or were the victims
of hideous disfigurements.

Gruesome scars adorned their young bodies, holes in
the flesh, when internal organs had been removed, stitched closed
with stiff black thread. Those not chained to the beds were largely
amputees. Misery, pain and torment, enveloped them.

Bobby realized that he once again stood with Death.
He found that he didn't mind the stench of their suffering. In
fact, he rather relished it. The pain and suffering of others made
him acutely aware of his own excellent health, his own good
fortune. He felt Death was a wise and generous friend, the only
friend he needed. He felt honored to be so warmly wrapped in its
embrace.

It was after Thanksgiving and before Christmas that
Morgenstern got a line on their former associate, Mr. Dunkirk. He
was in Phoenix. The battle-scarred giant packed provisions for the
trip and double-checked his route into the desert.