Ratcatcher blinked, slightly turning to the left to block the incoming flurry of blows with her brachium. Edward immediately dropped low, allowing his sister to flutter over him like a butterfly. Only this butterfly aimed a drop kick straight for her cranium! The trainee smiled, caught the girl’s legs with the raised left palm, curbed the kick, grabbed the girl’s knees with her right arm, and threw Esmeralda over herself, spinning to the right. She barely had time to raise her right leg to avoid Edward’s grab and kicked the boy in the left shoulder blade, sending him crashing into his twin.
The move that was supposed to give her some breathing room did not work. Esmeralda dodged the boy, and Edward rolled across the mat. All too late, Ratcatcher noticed that her opponents had closed their eyes. A momentary distraction nearly cost her a match when Edward threw a black object at her face, and she automatically kicked it aside, giving in to the instinct. The object, a small flash bang, exploded, filling Ratcatcher’s eyes with a white void, and she recoiled, receiving a cruel elbow hit straight into her midsection. Esmi didn’t hold back one bit! The impact had knocked her back a step, and the pain assailed the girl, spreading like a wildfire. She reached out, trying to grasp the girl, and only found empty air. Hearing the footsteps to her left, Ratcatcher struck with her tail, whipping nothing, and quickly retreated when she heard a fist fly through the air.
These cheaters are using their power! She thought, her heart laboring hard with excitement. The twins couldn’t read minds; she had proven that by thinking very embarrassing thoughts around them. But by reading her mood, Edward and Esmeralda could guess her intentions and know exactly how she would react in a fight. Two can play this game!
She closed her eyes and summoned the map. A plethora of symbols appeared on her retina, but the trainee only cared about the two annoying, pesky tricksters in her immediate vicinity. It did not matter that she had still suffered the effects of the flash bang. Blinded or not, her map was something the girl could always see. The doctors even theorized that she could use it entirely without eyes, but naturally, no one wanted to test this little theory.
There they were. Esmeralda had faked a dash at Ratcatcher, stopping in place and stomping on the ground, hoping to misdirect the blinded opponent. Nice try, but no dice, lassie! Eh, heh, heh, shit! Ratcatcher ducked, evading a vertical downward kick from Edward after noticing how the boy’s image leap into the air. Truth be told, she had no idea if he was going to be using this exact move. She trusted her ears and tried to visualize his move based on the rustle of his clothes. And it worked! She felt his heel pass over her, tickling her occipital bone.
Ratcatcher tackled Edward as he landed, using the centrifugal force of his own kick to help her push him face down on the mat. Esmeralda had tried to turn this into a friendly pie by jumping on her or trying to kick the girl off her brother. Ratcatcher wasn’t sure which possibility was correct. What she was sure of was a sweeping kick that she had given across the girl’s legs, toppling Esmeralda to the ground. With her hands, she grabbed Edward’s left arm and pinned it behind his back. At the same time, she used her tail to immobilize Esmeralda’s arm and wrap the tail around her neck, dragging the girl across the floor to prevent any attempt to get up.
The twins laughed and slapped the mat with their palms, announcing their surrender. Ratcatcher joined in the fun, letting them go and accepting a bottle of water to clear her eyes. Edward had used a training flash bang, the kind that did no damage to the eyes. A little water was all she needed to see again.
“Better?” Esmeralda asked.
“By a lot,” Ratcatcher admitted, massaging her stomach. Esmi’s blow had somehow managed to break through her muscles and push the peritoneum against her stomach. And Edward’s punches certainly rattled the muscles in her arm; if she hadn’t dodged either his punch or his kick, she would have kissed the ground in addition to seeing stars for a while.
Edward offered her a medical gel, and the girl accepted, lifting the edge of her tracksuit so the boy could rub the pleasantly ice-cold substance into the bruises. Her skin shivered and began to relax at the help.
The twins had basically kidnapped Ratcatcher after today’s lessons. She had plans to go straight back home. Edward and Esmeralda barred her way, demanding to know why she left the Environmental Club. The question somewhat startled Ratcatcher. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy helping to plant willows, firs, birches, oaks and other kinds of trees. Hell, they even got some seeds to try to plant a genuine palm tree, something the community and the students had long asked the researchers to recreate. But at the same time, she never made any friends in the club. She didn’t even know that the twins were members of the same club, which was honestly her own fault; she should have introduced herself to everyone. But after Elina’s words, something nagged at her day and night, so Ratcatcher decided to take it easy.
Not the twins thought. They demanded her immediate presence at the gym to help her loosen up, as they said. Who knew they had the same idea about loosening up as she did? It took some convincing, but the instructor had finally allowed them to use full-contact fighting with tools to simulate problems in the field. Esmi didn’t even flinch when she got a black eye, and Edward just grinned when Ratcatcher’s punch drew blood from his upper lip.
With the preparations for the New Year underway, the Academy’s gym and many other areas had become barren. Exams were long over, most field trips had been made, and the teachers were almost carefree these last days, helping the students with their hobbies and giving them one last chance for better grades. Ratcatcher didn’t really care about her own grades; she usually got nine and a half out of ten in Math and History, but this year she just didn’t have the drive to push herself to the limit, settling for an eight in both disciplines. Augustus called from the hospital and even sent Elina to talk to Ratcatcher about her grades. She put on a pleasant face and promised to try harder, not caring at all. What’s the point? Eight was a good grade, higher than sixty percent of the group had gotten. More than enough to not be in danger of being expelled, and as for the rest... She did not care about the rest.
Ratcatcher made true to her promise by helping Elina clean the toilets. Neither girl said anything to the other, but a promise made is a promise kept, and she wasn’t about to weasel out of her duties, no matter how unpleasant or smelly they were. She did, however, ask the headmaster to send Rowen to the doctors. Something was just ain’t right about the boy’s stomach. It turned out that Rowen was a sacrificial lamb in the Academy’s Cooking Club, of which he was a proud member.
The trainees had been trying to recreate the long-lost recipes of some of the Old World’s “westward” countries, and Rowen’s poor stomach was getting a real workout trying to cope with spicy meatballs and exotic recipes for pizzas made with pineapple and watermelon mixed with milk. After several food poisonings, Headmaster Torosian asked the group to cut back on experimentation. The cooking club took up the challenge and delivered some of the best cheese chebureki Ratcatcher had ever tasted. After confirming that no student had ended up in the infirmary, Torosian reluctantly lifted his restrictions.
Carlos got the perfect score on the exam, earning himself an earlier start to the weekend, and disappeared like a ghost without saying a word to anyone. Not that Ratcatcher expected him to say anything to her, but the boy ditched everyone else, too. He and Elina were members of the student council, making them responsible for several groups of trainees. Needless to say, such behavior puzzled others.
Vasily evaded her after the class, often locking himself in the computer class, until the teacher finally kicked him out, telling the boy that classes were over for the year and that he should go touch some snow.
Elina had been busy preparing for the celebration. Ratcatcher hadn’t felt like helping the girl, but in light of Carlos’ absence, she offered an olive branch of peace to ease the burden on the group’s leader. Elina eagerly dumped a load on her; the Academy all but threw money at any problem, often overstocking their supplies to flaunt superiority over normal schools during journos or government officials’ visits. It was easy to make a list and order equipment for the clubs and get the headmaster’s approval. But some of the students in her group, and many others throughout the academy, were living without parents in the government apartments or at the Academy. It was the Academy’s duty to provide them with the gifts during festivities. Usually, Carlos handled this duty in a matter of minutes, the boy had an almost preternatural ability to get any student to spill the beans about their hobbies, secret desires, or favorite foods. Without him around, the student had to sweat, filling out the form and fishing the information out of some loners. Take Jumail, for example.
The boy was a member of the Car Club and participated in the assembly of either antique or modern field vehicles. One think he’d want a model car or something like that for the New Year. And one would be wrong. Jumail told Ratcatcher that he hates machines. When she asked him why he was in this club, the boy replied that he hated all the clubs at the Academy, but sitting in his room all day was boring, and he hated cars a little less than everything else. Ratcatcher understood why Jumail felt so sour. In the gym, of all the students, only Carlos and Olaf could stand full contact with him, so Jumail had to train with the instructors, which led to loss and loss again, as the explorators tried to make him excel by refusing to go easy on the Malformed. The position of his arms and the sharp hooks at the ends of his legs limited the boy’s ability to participate in sensitive hobby clubs, such as the Environmental Club. He even had to use a special terminal to access the Web. She got him to talk over a pizza, and Jumail admitted that making something calmed his mind and served as proof that he, too, could create. Unable to solve the mystery of what would be a proper New Year’s gift for someone like that, she went to the car club and laid it to them as it was, asking for their help. The trainees assured her that they would take care of the problem.
Please, Planet, make Carlos return soon. Ratcatcher begged. I am not good at helping people. For all the flak she gave Barjoni for her nickname, the true extent of the teenager’s efforts to keep the group in good spirits and shape had always eluded her until she got his position. Administrative duties sucked; she always freaked out at the thought of letting anyone down.
“Then you’ll swing by tomorrow?” Edward asked.
“Yes,” Ratcatcher said. “I’ll find them, apologize, and ask to be allowed…”
“No need for that,” Esmeralda said. She approached her brother and began to work on his severed lip. “No one bothered to exclude you.”
“But you’d better come over and introduce yourself to everyone... Eh!” Edward frowned after his sister slapped him to make him sit still. “Esmi, I’m the one working on your eye next! Behave, or else!”
“Mom is planning a small party on Saturday. Care to pay a visit?” Ratcatcher inquired. “We’ll have pancakes, chocolate, corn, and beef steaks fresh out of the market.”
“Nah, sorry. We’d love to, truly, but we have something of our own to do. Something that might cause our parents to burst in anger,” Esmeralda said mysteriously. “And we have to concentrate on keeping our plan from being discovered until the deed is done.”
“Our gambit is as intricate as it is foolproof, sister,” Edward said. “No matter what they say, it will be too late.”
“You’re not planning on doing anything bad, are you?” Ratcatcher asked worriedly.
“Bad is a relative term, isn’t it?” The twins sang in unison. “Disobeying your parents is wrong, but sometimes necessary.”
Ratcatcher reached out and took them both by the shoulders. She learned a little about the twins’ family. Their parents had worked in Iterna’s secret service, though their exact positions were classified. Edward and Esmeralda were the youngest of the family. While their mother and father could both read and manipulate minds, their children received a lesser version of their power. The oldest brother could take over someone’s mind. The middle sister could read thoughts. And the twins could read and muddle emotions.
Mind manipulators were rare and often ended up on the extreme side of things, hurting and harming people. While this image was somewhat rehabilitated when the Wyrms of the Reclamation Army joined the everyday life of the planet and didn’t abuse their power to take over the rival nation, the girl still felt uneasy at the twins’ words.
“Listen, if you want to hurt someone...” Ratcatcher stopped, earning the twins’ raised eyebrows.
“Maybe feelings at most,” Esmeralda said.
“We want hair!” Edward pointed to his bald head. “What, do you think we like jaunting around like balls? I want to have a crest of hair, all sharp and red.”
“And I want streaming brown hair, soft as silk.” Esmeralda smiled shily. “But our parents are a bit conservative, always wagging their fingers and telling us that we are beautiful as it is.”
“Easy to say for someone who has natural hair!” Her brother pouted and smirked mischievously. “We’ve saved up enough credits for the procedure. And the best part is that you don’t need parental consent for something as minor as removing a scar, adding hair, or changing eye color. So we don’t even have to forge their signatures. Just pay upfront if you are doing it without insurance, and in an hour, the change is done! What are they going to do after that, pull our hair out?”
“They’ll ground us for a month,” Esmeralda said, rolling her eyes.
“Worth it,” Edward said, and his sister nodded, grinning broadly. “If you want, come with us. In case nobody told you, the doctors can...”
“I know, I know!” Ratcatcher laughed and wished them success in their small scheme. Even they think me a mess. She thought, hugging them and helping to treat the bruises. Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
If everywhere I go people offer me to go to a clinic, then maybe I really am a freak? But... is it so bad to have a little weird side to you? Ratcatcher called Nadya and was surprised to find her terminal turned off. She shrugged and decided that the other girl must have been busy preparing for the New Year..
****
“You are mad, Akebia,” Augustus said flatly.
He was confined to a comfortable hospital bed, resting after a recent operation that finally fixed the problem with his punctured heart. His biological armor had fused with his old heart, encasing it in a protective shell, but due to the unforeseen circumstances of the cyborg punching into his chest cavity, that protection had failed. The extensive damage to the heart was great enough to mandate its replacement.
With the situation resolved, he had planned to spend the rest of his day reading about his group’s progress when that stomped inside. The rooms and corridors of the Iternian hospitals were spacious places, being able to accommodate patients five meters tall with ease, yet Akebia Duclos nearly scraped the ceiling with her head.
The instructor’s new body was a pitch-black mechanical frame, its arms and legs thicker than his entire torso. Each hand ended in five clawed fingers; the tips of these claws were folded back to ensure that no curious child running down the corridor would be impaled by them. Her legs were shorter than her arms and had only two major joints, while her arms had three, allowing the instructor to scratch the furthest reaches of her back with ease. Akebia’s helmet, her head, Augustus corrected himself, was round, the faceplate elegantly shaped after the woman’s face, and a bright neon smile in the shape of the letter ‘U’ served as her lips. Eight deep purple lenses served as optical sensors.
And Akebia was deep inside this body. Her brain and spinal cord had been extracted from her body at her request and placed in a magnetic suspension chamber. Surrounded by a nutrient solution mixed with a medical gel, this marvel of biotechnology could sustain her brain indefinitely without allowing any aging or degradation of individual cells. And with it came dangers.
Full cyberization was frowned upon in Iterna. Only the Shadows, the elite government unit responsible for handling less savory situations, have dabbled in it, gaining strengths and reactions far beyond those of a normal abnormal in exchange for greater and greater detachment from humanity. Augustus had read the research. There was a not-insignificant chance that a person could go mad during the process of full cyberization; his or her mind would simply shatter at the inability to feel touch or sense scents. It might seem like a small thing, but when a person goes days and days without access to them, it slowly becomes a burden that gnaws at the subconscious until one day a snap occurs.
Akebia had lived without access to these senses for years, regularly visiting therapists to confirm her condition. She had felt it necessary to reveal so much to him; her transformation wasn’t a spontaneous decision, but rather a tried and tested method to confirm that the patient could live healthily in her new form.
“You’re just jealous because I’m leaving the hospital before you, loser.” The woman soundlessly lifted her arm, testing her fingers. “I put my fleshy parts in cryo-storage; if I ever get tired of this beauty, I can just change back.”
“No, seriously, what is this?” Augustus asked, trying to comprehend the situation. It’s not every day one of your coworkers shows up with such a rapid change.
“Perfection,” Akebia said, touching her chest. “Or as close to it as possible. This alloy is known as rockoid; its substance is sixty times stronger than steel. The hydraulics are provided by elastic servo bundles of nanofibers in the form of muscles. Every inch of my new body can be covered with vibrations produced by built-in sonic disrupters.” She turned to the side, and Augustus saw how parts of the armor slide aside to reveal the deadly weapons inside. “The vibrations produced by these weapons can be used both at range and in close combat, acting as both spear and shield. Thanks to the advanced photonic computing technologies that link the cortices of my brain directly to the sensors, my reaction time is now measured in milliseconds, ensuring that there would be no delay between commands. The jetpacks are installed on my back, shoulders and legs. A tiny, latest-generation plasma generator is installed near the brain; the magnetic field lines form a kind of invisible bottle that protects little old me from getting burned by it. All in all, I can operate at peak efficiency for about twenty-five hundred years before I need to recharge. Neat, ain’t it?” She put her arms on her hips and turned her upper body from side to side to show off.
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“Neat doesn’t even begin to cover this insanity,” Augustus said dryly. “What bank did you rob to get the credits to pay for such gear? How do you plan to work as an explorator in this?”
“That’s the best part; I don’t.” Akebia wiggled her finger. “This is the experimental frame made by the combined efforts of Gehenna Infinity and the military branch. I’m basically stress testing this thing; the big wigs will never let me go further than a field trip with students. No biggie; my plans were always to stay and work as an instructor. The pay is solid, and I see no reason to risk my ass out there again, unless it’s to save someone’s life, of course.”
“Uh-huh. And why is there a ‘Slaughter you’ on your chest plate?” Augustus asked.
“That’s from the manufacturer! I haven’t had time to paint the body yet.” Akebia quickly brushed a hand over the gold letters. “Speaking of time, see you later, sucker, I have a group to check upon and pups to scare. Happy New Year and get well soon.” The instructor gave a thumbs up.
“The same to you.” Augustus allowed himself a smile, regretting the lack of a thumb to return the gesture.
He exhaled, enjoying the surprise gasps of the patients on the other side of the door as Akebia thundered toward the elevator. No doubt some news channels will try to use this to smear the Academy, but ultimately the government will use every incident to prove that no matter how different a person may be, every position in Iterna is open to them.
Left alone, Augustus smiled at the sight of balloons tied to his best. Though he tried his best to feign indifference, his cousin knew him as well as his father.
With some difficulty, the instructor pulled out the terminal and began to read, enjoying the calm beating of his heart. Carlos asked for leave, and Torosian granted it. Family problems? Augustus made a note to look for answers later. The Barjoni family had a troubled history with their offspring, though it had improved in recent years. Best to err on the side of caution. Next came a message from Torosian, advising him to find out what happened to Eliza Vong’s credits. Augustus was about to dismiss the request, but then he glanced at the grades and frowned. Something was wrong. Eliza’s grades did not exactly plummet, but they were worse. I am failing in my duties. He decided, putting the terminal aside and taking himself by the jaw.
Teaching future explorers how to protect themselves and act in the field was easy; giving his life for their sake was almost instinctive. He would not fail here, although he was somewhat disappointed that none of the secondary teams had failed in their own field trainings. In his hubris, he had given them too much attention, believing the Four to be competent enough not to fall into childish traps like the situation with the elevator. He has to be better, and not assume that someone is superior just because of their physical abilities or higher grades.
But connecting with people, getting them to talk to you... Here, he lacked expertise. In the field, he would simply capture a prisoner and make him or her tell everything Augustus wanted to know. His duties as an A-Class explorator mostly involved industrial espionage for Iterna, or brutal battles in the long-lost vaults of the Old World; he rarely had to visit the fringe settlements to aid with their problems. With his two remaining fingers, Augustus reached for the collar of his hospital robe. He needed help. Disgusting.
“Have you seen the bastard?” His hand stopped over the terminal. Augustus decided against calling Katherine and listened to the conversation happening a few corridors away.
“Yes,” a female voice replied. “The sheer gall of that scumbag showing up in our hospital.”
“What’s the big deal?” a male voice asked. “He’s just another patient. Cute, too. If I hadn’t been with Betty, I might’ve asked him out.”
“Cute, bah,” the first voice said angrily, and Augustus heard the sound of pacing footsteps. “That freak has his own clinics where he can be cured. After what his father did, the least he could’ve done was get off the radar and not bother the honest people. I get shivers just walking into his room.”
“The fucker’s father killed children,” the second nurse said. “And they let the freak hang around young students? If it was up to me, I’d have his whole damn family behind bars for life. Have you seen what the Numbers do to people? Augustus should never have been allowed to be an instructor; he should have been shot for what his father did.”
“Oh, come on, you’re being overdramatic...” the third medical brother said, quickly lowering his voice.
The three fell silent, hearing the approaching steps. Augustus heard them too, at least two dozen of confident people, approaching his room. Then they took a detour and walked towards the nurses.
“Greetings, Mr. Argus,” said the male nurse. “Have you come to see your nephew? Let me show you the way...”
“No, no, no, please continue the discussion,” Argus said in a cheerful voice, and Augustus could almost taste the silence that fell on the corridor, and he imagined the suddenly white faces and nervous licking of lips as a group of bodyguards hovered over the nurses. “I am very curious to know what the ordinary people think of someone who has risked his own life to save lives again and again.”
“Mr. Argus, this is just a misunderstanding.” The male nurse tried to calm him down, and the instructor reached for the rail of his bed, ready to get up. His father had this strange effect on people, often lashing out at anyone who even hinted at insulting the family.
The mere act of trying to lift his body sent a spasm of pain down his somewhat healing spine. Augustus bit his lip and sank back onto the pillows, knowing full well what kind of hell Argus would unleash if he even suspected that his son had been injured because of the staff. Augustus closed his eyes, listened to the people, and began to breathe slowly, pushing back the pain.
“Really?” Dad asked. “Feeling confident enough to whisper behind our backs about your desire to see us dead, but are you too cowardly to say it to my face? By the way, your little gossip was recorded, on pure accident, of course. My lawyers will see you soon.”
“On what charges, freak?” the first nurse snapped. “We work our asses all day long trying to help people get better. Even if you thought you heard something, who gave you the right to waltz in here and start threatening us out of the blue? I will not stand for this! Iterna has a right to free speech; suck it up and piss off!”
“True, but not when you spill your poisonous bile within earshot of the recovering patient,” Argus said, and the instructor heard the nurse take a step back. “Probably should have read the patient’s history to learn about the enhanced hearing, right? And one more thing, miss. I’d rather be a freak all my life than a vile bigot like you. I suggest you take your own advice and get off the radar. Please sit down, relax. I am quite capable of finding my nephew on my own, and you are all so very tired.” Argus continued pleasantly. “My apologies for any unintentional fright. Ciao.”
Augustus had just enough time to wipe the sweat from his brow and return to normal breathing before the door to his room was nearly ripped from the handle. Argus stormed inside, the towering figure dressed in white, with only his hair, tie, and buttons black. His bodyguards stayed outside, and one of them threw a spider-like contraption, a mixture of metal and flesh, at the Rho. The man caught it and threw it at the ceiling, where the Privacy Giver had activated, quickly enveloping the room in a field of silence. Not a single word, no matter how loud, would leave these walls.
“My baby boy!” Argus roared, not waiting for the device to complete the field. A bodyguard smiled and closed the door as Argus rushed to Augustus’ side. “Who made you boo-boo? Oh, that will take at least a thousand daddy kisses to heal! Don’t worry, I’ll get you transferred to Rho Medical right away, and we’ll have you back on your feet in a week...”
“Dad!” Augustus tried his best to fight off the hug, but failed. For all his pretense of being a simple brute, Argus was so much more. Not only had he managed to embrace his nephew, but his fingers ran gently along the spine, testing the wounds without causing any discomfort. The explorator endured this humiliating experience and met sharp eyes. “Leave the medical staff alone. It is only my fault for burdening them with my presence. I mean it, Dad. And I am staying at the hospital; the Academy did not need another series of accusations that the Rho family is slowly taking it over just because I work there.”
“It’s not your fault, but I’ll meet you in the middle.” Argus let go of him and stood up, surveying the room. “The one who did the right thing is off the hook; the other two need a refresher course. Either that, or I’ll sue this place into the ground. My, someone came by and brought you presents.” Argus leaned in closer, examining the treats and the cards with wishes for a speedy recovery on a table and the balloons. With a loud clap, he pressed both hands together. “My little Augusty is finally starting to make friends! It’s so cute! Who were they? Your students, by chance? Maybe a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?”
“A co-worker and Katherine came by,” Augustus said. Dad was deliberately embarrassing him. There was a method to this cringe. Back when he was a kid, it took all his strength just to say hello to other kids. But after Argus came into his life, his constant and sometimes overbearing care molded Augustus into a more outgoing person. Though he’d like him to stop already.
“Katy...” Argus stretched out the word, shaking his head in disappointment. Katherine Rho was the only survivor of the horrible massacre that left four of Argus’ children dead at the hands of Augustus’ biological father. It took years before Argus decided to move on with another woman, always overprotective of his daughter. “And why didn’t you two tell me about your injury right away?”
“We didn’t want to bother you in the middle of the final experimentation phase,” Augustus admitted.
“My dear boy, this is not a problem!” Argus threw up both hands and leaned against the wall. “One of the beauties of being in charge is that you can always dump the workload on the people below you, as I just did with Katy. If she can’t be bothered to make me grandchildren, then let her work to her heart’s content. All meetings are postponed; I will stay with you until the end of the week. Give us some time and Margaret will be visiting soon. She has a rather unique case in her clinic and can’t leave the poor soul alone.”
“Thank you,” Augustus said, meaning it. He felt embarrassed and angry that his injuries had uprooted the lives of people he cared about. At the same time, he felt... warm and grateful. “Does this mean that your research...”
“Not mine. The company’s. Learn to share the credit, or your behavior will erode loyalty. That, and pay really well.” Argus smiled like a child eager to share the good news. “It’s a complete success. Out of sixteen volunteers with late radiation poisoning, all but one have recovered! Cavities were gone, teeth were restored, organ function improved, skin cancer disappeared, cells started fighting necrosis and winning... Ah, that’s simply marvelous! If only you’d seen their families.” Argus’ eyes lit up, and Augustus saw Elite Metallic coming right here and now, breaking out of whatever grave Dad had buried him in. “We have to keep them speaking through a secured wall for now to avoid any potential complications, but these people talk, Augusty! They think, they breathe, they live! And the scientists have high hopes for the last subject as well. She even recovered his saliva, so we are on the right track! Obviously, we will keep them under observation for a few years, but this could be a breakthrough in the fight against radiation sickness! Imagine the money we will make!”
The illusion shattered, making him sigh in frustration. The Rho family was supposed to be angels, torchbearers who would light the way for humanity, banishing the darkness cast down by the Extinction. His grandparents understood this; they seldom cared about profit, only about improving the lives of the common man. Nobility, in soul and body, true born abnormals. Neither he nor Argus were blessed with such gifts, and where he aspired to such ideals, Dad lost himself in spite and the desire to make profits.
“And save a lot of people,” Augustus remarked.
“Yes, yes. But more importantly, we will be rich!” Argus said.
“You’re already rich, Dad. Why not donate the cure for free?” His son asked.
“Oh, Augustus, my boy, you are such a bore sometimes!” Argus said. “Live up a little! Use your imagination! With the funds we get from this research, we can finally invest in real mining companies. For far too long, Barjonis has had a piece of that pie; now it is our turn! And you know what this means, my boy? Jobs! Miners, cleaners, assemblers, engineers, bodyguards, pilots… I am building an economy here! Everyone will profit from it. As for the ever-malcontent underclasses, don’t you worry; the government will pay for their treatment.”
“It irks me greatly that you will profit from people’s misery.”
“Augustus.” The eldest Rho looked to the side. “You are not a boy anymore. When our darkness came, Iterna didn’t give a damn about us. They hounded you. Kicked me out of the Elites. Every time I decide to try a small cafe, someone yells ‘murderer’ at me from behind or spits in my coffee. I can tolerate that. What I can’t tolerate, can barely live with, are assholes screaming that Rhos deserves to die. My little boys and girls who could barely reach the edges of their cribs.” Argus clenched his fists, and veins grew at his temples. “I have given my blood for them again and again. Sacrificed my arms, my legs. Mother and father did the same. And our entire nation kicked me out like a rabid dog, just because I have a blood relation... To them, we are monsters. And don’t you dare tell me otherwise! I heard the staff here. If we died tomorrow, there would be a party about it.”
“That’s a dark way to look at things, father,” Augustus argued. Yes, the prejudice against his family sometimes got out of hand. One freak even hit him in the back with a crowbar. He responded by breaking the fool’s arms. Another tried to shoot his cousin. Argus beat the poor fool to a pulp before Katherine managed to drag him away. The would-be murderer spent three months in extensive care just to be present at his trial. At the same time, no one can deny that Maximillian caused everyone a great deal of grief. “We too had failed in our duties. Surely you can understand why they feel that way.”
“Understand, yes. Accept, never. We failed at nothing, son. Abandon these delusions of nobility, please. We are not their suzerains, nor are they our slaves. I may seem harsh, Augustus. But it is only because I want to protect the family from harm. I will never, ever harm an Iternian citizen on purpose. Because I refuse to prove them right. I am an Elite. By right, I have earned that title, and may God be my witness, I will live up to it. But neither will I put Iterna’s needs first ever again. My country comes only after our friends.” Argus turned his glance to the ceiling. “Speaking of friends, I have another story with a good ending, thanks to one. You recall what I told you about the project focusing on genetic enhancements?”
“Yes.” Augustus nodded.
Iterna’s goal was to return the world to its original state through terraforming. But Argus had a different view; he no longer believed such a thing was feasible. Rho Biomedical worked long and hard to develop methods to improve the embryos of living beings. Livestock—immune to diseases spread by parasites and tough enough to survive in irradiated or low-oxygen areas. Trees that can withstand searing heat and thrive on the bare minimum. Along with this research, they were involved in less savory goals, meddling with human bodies.
“Here’s the story. We had a theory on how to correct a genetic anomaly pre-birth. Not something useful and cool, like a tentacle instead of an arm, but real ones—brittle bones, memory problems, diseases that run in families, the list goes on.” Argus folded his arms. “Now we can’t do that in Iterna, or we’ll be sued for experimenting on people who aren’t in mortal danger. After setting up some subsidiaries outside, we created a plausible deniability and set off finding volunteers. Mostly, we have been looking for slaves.”
“What?!” Augustus felt his eyes nearly fall out of their sockets. If he dared… If Argus dared to use slave labor, he would kill him, father or not.
“Relax, it ain’t so bad.” The Rho shrugged. “We buy those scheduled for culling for an offer of freedom, if they just let us treat their diseases. It’s a win-win for everyone. Anyway, one of my business partners had spotted a girl in Pearl City. A sex slave in one of the brothels owned by the Cartel’s freaks. The man overheard them talking about using her in some kind of arena because the girl made a mistake and forgot to take birth control pills. Of course, he contacted me and we bought her for peanuts, really...”
“You bought a child?!” Augustus tried to reach for a fork on the table. Here was his father bragging about buying a human being on the cheap! He had to stab the bastard in the heart for that. How dare he play with lives! How dare he bring such humiliation to the family!
“Cool down your pipes, sonny, I released the girl right away,” Argus said. “When the medics examined her, it turned out that the whole thing wasn’t just a waste of time caused by the bleeding heart. Her son was found to have a severe case of Down syndrome. After some persuasion, the girl agreed to be a test subject for the procedure...”
“How dare you?” the instructor struggled to speak, feeling his head spin. Argus. Father. His idol. Tricked and experimented on a minor! On two minors! “You made... a child... how old was she?”
“Is,” Argus corrected him. “Fifteen years old. She was in her ninth month; it was too late to stop the pregnancy unless we were willing to cut off the kid manually. The treatment was a success, at least initially. The child shows no signs of weakness in either the body or the brain. And don’t look at me like that, Augustus! Should I condemn him to a life of misery? Don’t answer that question; you moralists are all the same.” He pointed at himself with his forefingers. “If it weren’t for me, they’d both be dead. Face it, my way saves lives.”
“You risked the child’s life, father. She is not your toy,” Augustus said stubbornly, relaxing slightly at the news of the kid’s survival. He fully intended to find Katherine later and check on the child himself, just to be sure. Argus never lied to him, not even once, but in a situation like this? He would take no chances.
Katherine... Could she or Margaret be part of this madness? No, impossible. Both women had stood up to Argus on more than one occasion and curbed his desire to take shortcuts. No way. They couldn’t be involved in such evil.
“I didn’t risk anyone’s life, son, and the girl is nobody’s plaything, just a person who’s had a hard life.” Argus met his gaze. “She was at Rho Biomedical; short of having her brain stomped, nothing could have killed her there. It is the brain that we can’t fix. Yet. The operation was tailored for this one child, and its cost was astronomical. And we still have to observe him for a couple of decades to make sure he is developing normally. No matter, time is one resource we have in abundance. We made one step closer to solving one of the ultimate tragedies. The girl is cleared off drugs, therapists are working with her day and night. She’ll be fixed, the horrors of the past will recede, she’ll be happy, and that is final.”
“To use the unborn child for experimentation. It sickens me, father,” Augustus said. True, outside of Iterna, human life is valued very cheaply. And perhaps Rho Biomedical’s research could save lives. But he just could not accept such methods.
“Shall I hold a bucket over you so you can vomit, son? Augustus, let me tell you a story.” Argus sat on the floor. “Back when I was young and trained to become an Elite, I often rode the subway to learn more about the lives of the common plebs. There I had seen that woman, a perfectly normal human being, safe for the fact that her son had Down syndrome. Each day she was there, always at the same time, carrying her son to therapy or his class, while the boy simply drooled and blew bubbles. I helped her carry the boy up the stairs. He didn’t deserve such misery. She didn’t deserve to have to feign happiness for his sake while struggling each and every damn day. What they deserved was happiness. Back then, I couldn’t give them that. But perhaps, if I can give it to future generations, the stigma on our family will disappear and you and the others can live normally. Imagine a life free from the annoyance of insults or the fear of other people. A life where you are equal to them, free to pursue whatever career you want! A life where I can take back my rightful place as an Elite,” he finished longingly.
“We are responsible for our own happiness, father,” Augustus said sternly, annoyed at Argus’ assumptions. In his travels, he had met several families with special children. Even beyond Iterna. Even beyond Iterna. And most of them were genuinely happy. “And you don’t know if they were sad. That woman could well be happy with the child she had.”
“I know that she was. What true parent does not love their child? But this sickness is robbing people of the future… It insults me. Imagine all potential geniuses, doctors, crippled at birth; their potential is gone. As long as I live, I will try to solve it. But enough of this.” Argus stood up and came to a device on the wall. He pulled out a shelf, pressed a button, and a plate landed inside the wall’s opening. With the press of another button, a mixture of mashed potatoes and tasty smelling pieces of meat fell onto the plate without spilling anything. “Phew. Such peasant food! Do they take patients for dogs or something? Come to think about it, I wouldn’t feed this to dogs either... Where are all those human rights activists when you need them? How is a patient supposed to.... Screw it. Say ‘A’, I’ll help you eat. Just like in good old times.”
“There is no need.” Augustus tried to refuse, but his stomach betrayed him with a loud rumbling. It had been quite some time since the nurses came to check on him and help him eat. And his body positively demanded calories to rebuild itself.
He gave up and accepted help and care. Yes, the Rho family could be somewhat dysfunctional, with one of their members trying to kill everyone from beyond the grave and people rightly hating them for it. He will report to the police what Argus told him and will check on the girl. Although, knowing his father, the police won’t be able to prove anything. But for all his flaws, Argus was his family. And Augustus admitted to himself that he liked his life.