Authors: Ross H Henderson
“But you know I won’t do that either.”
Not right now, but there will be times when you think about it. That is when we want you to remember this conversation, and to reconsider your current course. We believe you and your new friend will crawl before us and beg for our help
.
“At a price.”
There is always a price. You will not care what it is. You will still beg
.
“That’s the price, isn’t it? It’s my complete submission to your will, right?”
You seem to know us well
.
“You are powerful, maybe the most powerful force I’ve had to deal with, but you’re evil. I’ve dealt with that before. In that way there’s nothing special about you. You’re just like Rik Kronos. He made slaves of his people after promising them the world, and kept you contained to do his work until you took over the island’s systems. You are no different. You want to use people as your vehicle out of the ship, and have made similar promises.”
Again, we give what we promise
.
“But you can take it away at any time, can’t you? So we’ve learned a little about each other. You know what motivates me, and now I know what you want. I don’t know if you meant to give me so much information when you came in here.”
At that moment, a single drone came suddenly out of the cloud right at Wolfe’s right eye. It was a drone modeled to fly like an insect, so its speed was limited. Nick swatted it away so hard it shattered against the wall.
“Predictable,” Nick teased, “Maybe you should go back to your rock before you tell me all your secrets, assuming you have any left.”
You won’t have the benefit of a face-to-face confrontation next time.
By now, Nick had found the remote for the drones, which included a self-destruct function, which sent a small charge to a tiny firecracker-sized bomb located inside each drone. It was meant to destroy the units in the event of detection or capture, so it could not be traced back to the user, or reverse-engineered by an enemy or a competitor.
“There you go, spilling your secrets again. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?”
The drone-cloud presence dispersed and started to swirl around Nick. He didn’t wait to see what would happen next. The detonation sequence was a series of short and long presses of the button: short-short-short, long-long-long, short-long-short-short…
After a loud series of bangs, the drones fell simultaneously.
Nick played it cool, as he usually did in the face of danger, but inside he was concerned that the nanos, the presence, whatever it was, whatever
they
were, could use his drones against him. They were able to extend themselves through it enough to partially read his mind, and speak to him telepathically. Not to mention their complete control of the drones. They could control each one independently, as each if one had its own pilot, who was linked in to its master, waiting for instructions.
There was no question: this thing had to be stopped immediately. It had to be destroyed. If Tristan Evans was going to reverse engineer any of this technology for his own profit, he would have to sift through the rubble to do it.
There was also no question that Nick Wolfe would not be able to sleep until he knew the job was done.
It felt like every one of Wolfe’s drones were in that hotel room, but since they were all destroyed, he had no way to account for all of them. He needed to go after the source of the power, but he also knew that if he were captured with no hope of escape, he did not want to be a puppet for the presence he just dealt with. He switched out a fake molar for another from the briefcase. The new implant was secured magnetically with the metal in that part of Wolfe’s mouth.
The new tooth had a neurotoxin sealed within it that would kill Wolfe almost instantly if he pulled it out with his hand and bit it between his upper and lower teeth three times, making it explode. This could not be done while the molar was in place, avoiding accidental leakage.
He got his leather jacket on his way out the door, went down the sidewalk, and through the center walkway leading to the opposite side of the hotel, got in his car, and left for Heath Chesterfield’s apartment.
On the way he was able to account for the rest of the drones when Heath called him. “Nick, you’d better come over.”
“I’m on my way. What happened?”
“I think I may have been followed.”
“What makes you think so?”
“I heard a few bang-type noises, like small firecrackers going off. I followed the smoke and found bits of what looked like drone parts.”
“You’re okay for now, but grab your things. I’ll be there in five minutes. I’ll explain when I get there. Be ready to leave.”
***
Newton and Maynard met with Beverly Beckett at a dive bar called Aces Over Eights, on the south side of town. It was mid-afternoon, but the place was already getting crowded. The three of them had changed, inside and out. They were more aggressive and moved with a swagger, even Beverly. In addition, they were all a little taller and more muscular, the glow of the nanobots visible as they worked under their skin, tearing and repairing muscle, adding bone mass, and sending little shock waves to work muscles that otherwise would be at rest. Other bots worked on the pituitary gland, releasing growth hormones to further accelerate the process.
Still more of the tiny machines were hard at work adding mechanical enhancements to bones, joints, eyes, and to the brain itself. Some of these additions had no apparent purpose for the time being. They were either still in development or their purpose was not yet apparent. The young mutants themselves had no idea of all the changes they were going through, but they knew they would never be the same. Once they had a taste of it, Newton and Beverly wanted power more than anything else, and if it meant their DNA had to be changed to gain this power, then so be it.
The biggest part of their humanity was lost willingly before any significant changes had been made in their bodies, but for now they looked like the epitome of human development, except their skin had turned a very unnatural bluish gray color.
“Looky here, the circus is in town,” exclaimed one patron, a tall man with leathery skin and slicked-back black hair. He wore blue jeans with biker boots, and a leather vest with no shirt. His arms were muscular and covered with tattoos.
“Look who’s talking,” replied Maynard, drawing a slight chuckle from Beverly.
“Be nice and remember why we’re here,” scolded Newton. “We’re here to win converts and build an army, not to upset a club full of bikers.”
“Right. Sorry.”
“Did you say something, blue boy?”
“No, nothing. Just a mistake.”
“You’re right about that, Freakshow. I’m gonna mess you up.”
Halifax started to stand as Paxson interrupted, “No, you’re not.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re not here to hurt you or to let you hurt us.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes. If you’d like, we can settle this more peacefully. Would you like to arm wrestle?”
“Against you? Are you serious? What are the stakes?”
“If you win, we will leave. If we win, you will give us five minutes of your time right here. Once you hear what we have to offer, you will see this is a no-lose situation for you.”
“That sounds lovely, Mary Sue,” the biker snorted, “but how ‘bout we arm wrestle first?”
Paxson put his elbow on the table and waited for his opponent to join him. The two clasped hands with Beverly putting her hands on top while they established their grip. She counted to three and removed her hands, and the match started. Neither side budged for the first ten seconds as both men put forth all their effort.
After that a whitish glow came from under Newton’s shirt and he started winning. He let his hand move and be moved back and forth an inch or so as he toyed with his opponent for a few seconds. Then he brought his hand down slowly so as not to hurt his opponent, until the top of the biker’s hand touched the table in defeat.
“Okay, you win. Anyone can be enhanced, or you may even be naturally strong. I doubt that, but a bet is a bet. You have five minutes. Let’s talk.”
Paxson began, “What do you want more than anything?”
“Come on, man. What are you trying to sell?”
Beverly was starting to get impatient, “For this to work you need to relax and trust us. Newton could have broken your arm, but he chose to be gentle with you, even though it would have been easier and more impressive to the rest of the room to slam your wrist down. If we wanted to hurt you, you would know. Now please, give us the five minutes you promised and relax.”
She put her hand on his back, exhaled softly near his face, and he calmed down. Newton leaned in and started again. The man heard him speak but did not see his lips move. He gave the answers as he heard them stated as facts inside his own head.
You’ve been angry for a while. You want to be respected again. Respect you feel like you lost when you lost your job. You want control.
“Yeah, I never know what’s coming next.”
You have skills and many good qualities. You’re a warrior, but it’s been peacetime so long you have nothing to do. You don’t know what to do. You can be a part of something larger than yourself and do important things again. You can have the control and sense of stability you seek. We need you to help us create that world. It will be a world you will help to rule
.
Then came the question.
Would you like that?
“Yes.”
There was a glow that went largely unnoticed by the rest of the bar. Another patron came by and asked his friend, “Wayne, are you okay?”
Wayne nodded affirmatively and smiled.
“Milton, I think you should talk with my friends for a minute. You might appreciate what they have to say.”
Heath was outside when Nick pulled up. He guessed Nick was in a rush to catch up with Newton and Maynard, and he was a little spooked at knowing there were drones in his own home. The blue sedan slowed to a brief stop in front of the apartment building as Heath got in.
“So, where are we headed?”
“The last sat photo of the town showed Newton’s beat-up truck in front of some dump on the corner of Harris and 8
th
.”
“Aces Over Eights. Yeah, that’s a bad place. What are they doing there?”
“My guess is they’re recruiting.”
***
Nick and Heath pulled into a parking space across the street from the bar and walked across. It was loud, but not with the usual sounds of a rowdy bar. There was no music, no laughing, no fighting, nothing breaking. Only one voice spoke, and then many voices answered in unison. It was more like a pep rally, but with decidedly more malevolent overtones.
Neither of the latecomers could make out what was being said at first. The voices were audible, but could not be made out from across the street. As they got closer, the words became clearer but the meaning was still a mystery.
“They’re coming! Are you ready?”
“We’re ready!”
“They’re coming! Are you ready?”
“We’re ready!”
“They’re almost here! Are you ready?”
“We’re ready!”
As Nick reached for the metal door, they heard Paxson speak, and everything was made clear.
“They’re here.”
Nick drew his hand back from the door.
Heath whispered, “What are we going to do now?”
“We can’t go in there. The whole place is ready to tear us apart.”
Paxson spoke up, loud enough to be heard outside, and with a distorted voice, noticeably deeper, but with a tinny overtone speaking along with the main voice, “It’s impolite to whisper! What are you two talking about?”
The two said nothing.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’d just like to talk. I have a roomful of men, who are all much better off after having talked with my associates and me. Perhaps you will join us after you hear what I have to say.”
“Is that why you’ve been getting your new friends ready for a fight with us?” Nick answered with a question to the new converts, “What did this young man promise you?”
“In some cases I promised what was wanted. In others I promised what was needed. In most cases those things were one and the same. In fact, I’ve already started delivering on those promises, and these men have never been happier. One thing they all had in common was that they wanted to have a real purpose, something bigger than themselves that they could be a part of. Right now you and your new friend are standing between them and that purpose, but it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Nick knew they would not make it out if they went in, but he also knew this small group would grow exponentially larger if they were allowed to leave. Right now there were about 20 of them, but if each one could find a place like this one with 20 or so new recruits, it would not take long before they started taking over cities.