Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (36 page)

“Since
it’s a landscape project I’ll probably go into Seattle, take some pictures, and
try to find something there to draw.”

“That
sounds interesting.” He paused a moment before he asked if she would mind if he
went along on the trip. “I’ve only been to Seattle on a few occasions with my
host family and I think it would be lovely to see it with you.”

She
lit up and said she’d love for him to join her. “That would actually be a load
off my mind if you did.”

“Why?”

“Well,”
she looked away in search of a reasonable excuse before she lied and said, “I’d
just feel safer if you were there rather than if I went alone.”

Perplexed,
he asked her if Seattle was a dangerous place.

“Not
really,” she said truthfully, “I’d just feel better if you were there.”

“Ah.”
He glanced down at his syllabus and asked, “Will Jordan join us?”

She
rolled her eyes and muttered, “He doesn’t care about art or anything of the
sort. He’d find just about any excuse to get out of it anyway if I did ask him
to go.”

“Would
he if he knew I was going to be there?”

She
didn’t answer him.

Miss
Keller walked over to their table and asked to have a chat with Vladimir about
his work ethic. He agreed and followed her out into the vacant hallway. She
then made her best attempt to chastise the young man for his belittling
comments about her teaching methods. Vladimir listened to her words yet failed
to acknowledge the fear she tried to instill in him. She wrapped their
conversation up with a final warning and then allowed him to return to his project.
He did so without so much as another word. Rachel quietly asked what she talked
to him about, though Vladimir smirked and told her all of his claims were
right, “She did little more than confirmed them. Now,” he left the matter alone
and returned to their conversation, “When did you want to take this trip into
the city?”

---*---

12:58
PM

Kenmore,
Washington

Nick’s
first day wasn’t special in any way. He made a few acquaintances, suffered
through lunch without knowing anyone, and only had one final period left in the
day when he walked to his next class. Nick no longer attended Bothell High
School. He thought it would be easier for him if he simply changed school to
avoid all of the talk, memories, and apologies about his brother.

None
of his courses interested him; all he could think about was the drastic turn in
his life. Mizuno told him it would take time to adjust to everything, but it
didn’t feel right, even after a week and a half.  What bothered him more was
that he still didn’t know anything about Mizuno. The man came out of nowhere,
convinced him to join, and hardly said a word about who he was. Strom didn’t
tell him anything, Melanie hardly said a word, and Nick never had a moment to
ask Mithra. In fact, the only two people with any connection to Mizuno that
Nick had an opportunity to speak with since Mumbai were Strom and Mizuno, both
of whom were reserved.

Nick
walked into his final class and found Mizuno at the front of the room. He
almost didn’t recognize him though, as he wore jeans, an unbuttoned plaid shirt
with the sleeves rolled up and a gray shirt under it, glasses, and tennis
shoes.

Mizuno
glanced at Nick and let out a breath, “I’m glad you showed up early.”

“What
are y-you…What are you doing here?”

“I’m
teaching.”

“Seriously.”

“Seriously.”
Mizuno took one of the syllabuses off his desk and showed Nick, “I’m Go
Takahashi, graduate of the University of Washington with degrees in Unites
States history and teaching.”

Nick
set the document aside. “You’re joking, right?”

“Hardly.”

“Then
was this why you wanted me to transfer here instead of Lynnwood High School?”

Mizuno
shook his head. “This is a better location as it will be closer to the
project’s general meeting place in Bellevue. Also, Lynnwood High School is in
the Edmonds School District while the Bothell and Inglemoor High Schools are
part of the Northshore School District, so the transfer process was far simpler
than moving you back to Lynnwood.” Mizuno walked toward the door of his
classroom, retrieved a key from his pocket, and locked the door. “We need to
talk Nick.” He offered Nick a chair and took a seat himself. “I know this is
all relatively new to you, so I’m trying to keep that in mind while I develop
my plan.”

Nick
stopped him and asked, “What is this project anyway?”

“Simply
put, it’s an organization. I shy away from calling it a team or group as we are
hardly cooperative enough to label it as such at this point…” He paused and
added that he also hated the connotations that came with calling his project a
super hero team.

“Then
what are our goals?”

Mizuno
hesitated to say it, but did anyway, “We’re going to save the world.” He
continued before Nick had an opportunity to roll his eyes, sigh, swear, or make
any remark at all, “I’m aware of how cliché it sounds, but it’s true in one
sense of the word, and all I ask is that you at the very least consider it as
you’re already this far along into the insanity.”

Nick
agreed, but asked, “Who are all of the other members?”

Mizuno
told him there were a total of thirteen members including the two of them.
“You’ll meet everyone on Thursday, which is also when I’m going to tell you and
the rest of our party about the overall goals of our group.”

“Is
there a reason you can’t tell me right now?”

Mizuno
nodded, “Class is about to begin.”

The
first bell rang and Mizuno left to unlock the door.

“Nick?”

He
turned and saw that Amy was one of the first people through the door. She wore
a white skirt, a terracotta blouse, sandals, and seemed shocked to see him
there.

“What
are you doing here?” she asked. “I thought you went to Bothell.”

He
cleared his throat and nodded, “I did, I-I…” Nick stopped. He remembered what
Mizuno instructed him to do to help stop his issue with stuttering, so he took
a breath and restarted his sentence. “I did, but I transferred here because I
thought it would be easier for me to attend this school to avoid all of the
aftermath of my brother’s death.” He looked away from her and apologized, “I
shouldn’t have left you at the party like that.”

Amy
told him it was fine. “Did you want to get coffee or something after class and
talk?”

Nick
looked at her and saw how hopeful she was and though he wanted to he wasn’t
sure whether Mizuno had any plans for him in respects to his project or not. He
glanced at Mizuno, but the Asian man had his back to them so Nick guessed it
would be fine and accepted.

He
wanted to talk to her about the project and everything he had done over the
past week, but he doubted she would believe him or that Mizuno would allow it.
After another thought Nick doubted it was even a good idea as the two of them
still hardly knew one another…that and Nick still had no real grasp over what
Mizuno’s plans were.

Amy
took a seat next to Nick and asked, “So what classes are you taking?”

---*---

10:15
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

Mia
shut her car door with her foot while she carried a basket of clean laundry,
her notebook, a duffel bag with her uniform and a change of clothes from work,
and a tied plastic bag of Chinese take-out. She always parked on the street as
there wasn’t a garage in her building, so her evening walks home tended to keep
her on her toes, especially while she passed anyone. Most of the other officers
lived outside the city or at the very least didn’t walk the streets alone, but
she didn’t care. Mia was born and raised there. She knew everything there was
to know about the city and its people; where the best pizza was, where the
speed traps were, the location of the worst potholes, the history, and the
streets you just didn’t want to walk down at all. She became an officer because
she loved the city so dearly and hated to watch it waste away.

“Do
you have any change?”

Mia’s
heart raced as she realized someone called out to her. She found a man on the
sidewalk in a worn hoodie, dirty cargo pants, combat boots, and a tattered
blanket draped around his shoulders. He held a frail paper cup in his left hand
with some change in it and held a cardboard sign made from a pizza box lid in
his right hand.

She
took a breath and apologized to him while she walked away.

Mia
finally made it to her apartment, shut and locked the door behind her, and set
her things down on her couch. She opened her notebook straightaway and tore out
a few pages in the middle of the book and walked over to the wall adjacent to
her door.

She’d
recreated the wall in Sage’s office from only a few photos she took without
anyone’s permission and expanded it by digging into all of the victim’s lives.
There were thirteen photographs on the wall, (as she wasn’t convinced whether
Detective Sage or Jenna Bell was the true victim in the case), and next to each
photo was a brief biography of each person, how they died, medical conditions
they had listed in previous medical examinations, family, relatives, friends,
and anything else she felt was relevant to the investigation. There was also a
hand drawn calendar at the beginning of the wall with certain numbers on
specific dates circled in red. Six dates, the sixth, eighth, ninth, the
eighteenth, the twenty-second, and the twenty-eighth of September was as far
out as she’d gone. Mia held every hope they would apprehend Cladis long before
those dates passed, but she felt she should be alert to the possibility of an
ongoing investigation as well.

She
took her Chinese takeout into her kitchen and left it on her counter while she
retrieved her cell phone and checked her messages. She set it to speaker,
“First message: ‘Hendricks? It’s Maguire. I know we’re supposed to keep things
pretty quiet on all sides of this investigation, but I had a thought and I
wanted to know what you think about it. We’re still in the dark about who stole
Detective Sage’s body, and Jenna Bell’s for that matter, but I had a thought
that Cladis stole them. But that leads me to think he might have also stolen
the remains of all of the other victims as well. I think we should look into
it, though it might be difficult to do so. Just let me know what your thoughts
are.’ End message…Next message: ‘Miss Hendricks? This is Mary
Ferrell-Johansson, I just called to let you know that there have been some
minor charges on a credit card addressed to you, but these charges were made in
Seattle Washington, we’ll clear them up, so you don’t have to worry about that.
We feel that we’re closing in on this, so hopefully it’ll be resolved soon.’
End message…End messages,” she ended the call and left her phone on the
counter.

Mia
planned on putting her laundry away but only took two steps before her phone
vibrated on her countertop. Mia picked it up, read the number and knew it was a
Baltimore city payphone. She answered it anyway, “Hello?”

At
first all Mia heard was the familiar sound of cars passing and the wind, but
when someone finally spoke, she couldn’t recognize who the speaker might be.
The caller’s voice was deep and gravelly, “September twelfth, go alone to the
Federal Hill Park. I believe I can help you.”

Mia
scowled and asked what he could help her with.

There
was another pause before the man answered, “I can help with what’s strung
across your apartment wall.”

Her
heart raced again while she quickly demanded to know who it was.

“Twelve,
the night of the twelfth at Federal Hill Park at midnight. Come alone and I
will help you.”

“Who
are you?”

There
wasn’t an answer. She thought she heard the phone’s cord snap tight as if it’d
been dropped. In the background she heard a siren wail and seconds later she
heard it through the call. She knew the caller was nearby and raced outside to
see who it was, but the individual was gone before she could locate the
payphone with the dangling phone. She froze when she saw the booth though.
Painted over the walls of the booth, the phone, and the base of the phone was a
clear message: ‘MIA STOP CLADIS.’

---*---

Chapter
14

September
6
^th
, 2029

8:20
AM

Athens,
Greece

Their
journey proved Audrey right. Neither said a word of contempt or spite since
their decision to leave and the peace they felt soothed them both. Jason
remained upset but Audrey saw him return, ever slowly. The days were blurred
but marked by happiness between the two of them. Best of all was how natural
and nearly unstructured their vacation was, contrast to how rigid her past
holidays were with family. Audrey and Jason spent their evening watching a
purchased movie and ordered dinner in one night and simply talked, something
they both neglected too often. But she felt that they were growing together
once more, and it relieved her.

Slits
of sunlight crept through the curtains in their room and softly woke her.
Audrey blinked several times before her vision focused in on the clean white
curtains on her left. Her back was toward Jason and she feared he was gone once
more. She turned to face him and discovered she was alone once again. Audrey
sighed and pulled the covers up close to her chin and tried to imagine where he
would go so early and without her.

Her
vain attempt to fall back to sleep fell short due to frustration. Audrey
finally got out of bed and wandered to their bathroom. She bathed silently and
listened for Jason to return, though she finished her lengthy shower without
his return. Audrey donned a robe and returned to bed with her wet hair stuck to
her face and neck.

She
turned the television on and flipped through a few channels until she arrived
at the news. The unfamiliar reporter spoke in Greek for only a moment before an
English audio track caught up and replaced the announcer's voice.

“–moment
it’s unsure whether the billionaire’s son could have killed his father, but
authorities in Tokyo have apprehended the young man and are holding him at this
time. In other news a very strange rumor is out in the streets of Athens this
morning. A handful of witnesses claim to have seen a man engulfed in flames,
though only moments later the flames died down and revealed the man completely
unharmed. As a result of recent articles from REFOIA some citizens who
witnessed this phenomenon allege this man possessed super human powers that
could range from combustion to invulnerability. He’s also been suitably
nicknamed the Burning Man.”

The
camera changed from the reporter to a young man on the streets of Athens who
gave his account of the incident, “I just saw him running down the street and
his foot caught on fire. I yelled at him, ‘You’re on fire! You’re on fire!’ but
he must not have heard me.”

It
panned to a second witness, an older woman, who told them, “I thought for sure
he was dead, but the fires disappeared and he stood there, unharmed. It was a
miracle, no matter how you view it.”

The
camera returned to the newswoman who continued the report, “No one is quite
sure who this so-called ‘Burning Man’ is, and although there have been
sightings and rumors of super powered individuals across the world, many doubt
both the credit and plausibility of these claims as there hasn’t been a single
concrete verification of any such super human people. Some experts claim this
phenomena could be nothing more than an effect of an over indulgence of media
over the past–” Audrey shut the program off.

Her
room was quiet and she was still drowsy. It was still early back home and even
though they were vacationing and all of Athens stood outside her door, she
wanted to sleep. She knew she couldn’t though, with Jason’s absence. Audrey
dwelt on the report she watched earlier and recalled her mother’s fascination
with any such anomalies. Her guess was that her mother would hear about it
shortly and talk their ears off about it once they returned. Audrey never paid
any mind to her mother’s obsession, but since Jason’s recovery Audrey started
to reconsider the validity of the stories her mother adored. She researched the
up-and-coming events on her own and only briefly mentioned them to her husband.
Audrey wasn’t convinced herself.

Audrey's
attention wandered from there. She flipped the television back on in hopes of
more information about Athens’ Burning Man until she heard a quiet knock at
their door. Audrey left the bed and secured her robe before she reached their
door and peered through the peephole to discover the knocker. She nearly gasped
when she found her husband stark naked at their door. She quickly let him in
and immediately asked what happened.

“Jason
what on earth? Are you hurt?”

He
rushed inside and swiftly shut the door. “Audrey, I-I'm not sure what happened.
I was out for a walk this morning because I couldn't sleep. I bought you a
bouquet of flowers and a newspaper and was on my way home when I suddenly
caught fire.” He walked with her to their bed and covered himself with one of
their bed sheets and recounted the incident. He told her he caught fire and
within a moment it overcame him. “It burned through the flowers, the paper, and
my clothes but strangely it didn’t harm me. I was frightened but it wasn’t
until the fire began to recede that I realized I wasn’t hurt. And from there I
ran here.”

Audrey
told him about the newscast but mentioned there weren’t any photos or video.
“They called you the Burning Man if that makes you feel any better.” She saw
the worry in his eyes and decided to leave the matter about the news alone.
“The newswoman mentioned there are other stories about super powered people,
sort of like what mum’s been going on about. You don’t think you might be one
too?”

Jason
shook his head and asked what she meant. “There aren’t super heroes Audrey. At
least, there shouldn’t be.” He frowned and asked what it would mean if he did
somehow possess some supernatural power. “What would that make me? What would
that make anyone and why after all the time mankind’s been around for, why
would I be granted power like this before anyone else?”

Audrey
kept quiet for a moment before she mentioned Doctor Reynolds’ interest in him.
“Maybe she suspects the same thing but didn’t want to come out and say it. What
if–”

“Audrey.”

“What
if you did have some sort of power? Would it be so bad if all of this was
true?”

They
were both quiet for some time before Audrey asked, “Do you know where the fire
came from?”

He
told her he didn’t.

She
nodded and then posed a theory, “What if the fire came from you?”

He
only turned and looked at her as if she was nuts. “You think I created it?”

“Sure.”

“That’s
insane.”

“Jason,”
she glared at him, “I’ve told you about all of the sightings and my mum’s gone
on about this for months now. Maybe this isn’t something crazy anymore. What if
it’s all true?”

“That
there are super heroes in this world?”

“Why
not?”

Jason
rubbed his eyes and let out a breath. “This…this doesn’t make sense. It
doesn’t–it isn’t possible Audrey. I can’t cause spontaneous combustion and I
can’t be fireproof. There’s no such thing.”

She
frowned and asked how it happened then. “How else can you explain it?”

Jason
said he wasn’t sure. He hunched forward in thought and processed her theory
while she massaged his back with her hand. Audrey’s wet hair hung nearly
motionless in grouped tendrils until she rested her head on his shoulder. She
didn’t want to press the matter any further, out of fear that it might spark
another heated argument. Jason trembled slightly under her touch.

He
told her he couldn’t tell whether she was warm or cold anymore. He let out a
shaky sigh and asked her what was wrong with him. “What the hell’s happening to
me?”

---*---

3:15
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

The
four of them sat in Detective Sage’s old office and discussed the newest
fatality. Doctor Wayland Grayson, Sage’s doctor while he was hospitalized, was
crushed to death by the collapse of the room Ryan stayed in. It was under
reconstruction, as the outside wall of the room was destroyed on the night of
Ryan’s disappearance, and though none of the staff or patients at the hospital
were allowed to enter the room, Doctor Grayson did and the room collapsed on him.

They
weren’t permitted to take notes for the investigation as there wasn’t supposed
to be any investigation, yet the four agreed to at the very least record the
identity and brief information about each new victim as they turned up. Since
REFOIA seemed to find a way to get anything on a computer onto its database,
the group couldn’t type their note up without a manual typewriter, which they
were still in the process of acquiring. Mia had the best handwriting out of the
group and agreed to chronicle what little they could.

“So
how old was he?” Bryce asked.

“Forty.”

Mia
wrote it down. “Do we know what his ability might have been?”

Murdock
shook his head. “Felton and I talked to some of his coworkers, but none of them
mentioned anything unusual about him.”

“What
about his family?”

Felton
told them he was divorced and lived alone.

“Do
we know what his blood type was?” asked Bryce.

Felton
flipped open a small notebook he used as the case file for the death of the
doctor and told him it was O negative.

“Is
there anything else we can even add to this?” Mia asked.

“Not
really,” Sergeant Murdock sighed.

“Do
we have any guesses who the next target is?” Bryce asked.

“Not
at all,” Felton told him. “Unfortunately for us he was a doctor, which means he
could have met over a dozen new patients in the gap between Sage’s death and
his own, and that only covers the people he met through his work.”

“So
we don’t really have a chance of finding this person before they’re killed?”
Mia asked.

“Not
really.”

“Then
what exactly are we doing?” She looked at them and muttered, “What’s the use if
we can’t save them?”

Bryce
frowned and reminded her, “We can’t really do anything without the okay from
the chief.”

“And
what happens if we never get that green light? Won’t that make all of this
completely meaningless?”

“What
could we do to apprehend him anyway?” Murdock asked her. “He’s invisible,
strong enough to move cars with little effort, and who knows what other tricks
he has up his sleeve.”

Mia
didn’t answer.

Bryce
steered the conversation toward a more relevant subject and asked Detective
Felton, “What are you telling everyone about Doctor Grayson’s death?”

Felton
told him it was an unfortunate accident. “Sergeant Murdock and I will label the
deaths as we can as they arrive.”

“So
more excuses then,” Mia muttered.

“Unfortunately
yes,” Murdock said.

Mia
let out a breath and asked them all if they honestly believed it would ever
change. “Do you think we’re ever going to catch this guy?”

Murdock
and Felton didn’t answer her. Bryce, being the only optimistic member of the
group, told them they would. “The good guys always win, don’t they?”

---*---

4:15
PM

Bellevue,
Washington

Mizuno
never said anything about the meeting. He told Nick of a car parked outside of
a cul-de-sac three blocks from Inglemoor High School where he wanted Nick to
meet him a half an hour after school, but never said where they would go from
there. The car ride to Bellevue was quiet too, as Mizuno didn’t bother making
small talk, and Nick tried to curb any desire to break that silence. Nick was
actually fine with silence, but among others he only felt out of place. He
wondered whether Mizuno felt that same awkward feeling or not, and if he
didn’t, how he managed to ignore it so very well.

“How’re
your classes?”

“What?”

“Your
classes,” Mizuno repeated. “How are they?”

Nick
shrugged, “Fine. I’m already behind on the work though.”

“You
don’t care?”

“Not
really.”

He
expected a lecture of some sort from Mizuno, but it never came.

“How’s
Amy?”

“Good.”
Nick wasn’t sure what to say about her, or about the two of them together. Nick
never thought of himself as someone who was at all boyfriend material, as he
was shy, relatively poor, and his future seemed bleak. So the mere thought of
him being with Amy didn’t seem right to him. “I…We went out for coffee on
Tuesday, so…” he trailed off.

“Do
you like her?”

“Yes.”
Nick frowned at the question.

“I
only asked because I want to know how long this relationship is going to last.”

“What
do you mean?”

Mizuno
never took his eyes off the road while he told Nick, “People in this sort of
life can hardly ever juggle a family, or even a simple relationship, and still
be active in this endeavor.”