Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (56 page)

Ian
left his bedroom and stopped only briefly in the bathroom to use the mirror to
inspect his completed outfit. The costume was, for the most part, completely
black with a series of thin golden lines that raced and crisscrossed from his
feet to his neck. He smiled and couldn’t believe his mother constructed
something so marvelous for him in such a short period of time.

He
ran downstairs and showed his mother and friends the final form of his costume.
“What do you think?” he asked.

“Great,
but you forgot the cape,” Coop said as he pointed to the floor, where the cape
lay.

Ian
picked it up and noted that Coop took the liberty to not only finish his soup,
but his sandwich too. He threw the cape around him and fastened it to his
shoulders. The cape was all black with two small gold ‘V’s’ in the corners.

Wally
grinned and told Ian he looked better than any other super hero he’d ever seen.
“It sure beats the hell—er…it beats the heck out of the Human Titan and Captain
Density’s outfits.”

“It’s
awesome!” Coop remarked.

Ian’s
mother only smiled and told Ian how handsome he looked.

Ian
thanked his mom, gave her a great hug, and promised her he would treasure it.
He added, “I’m not going to let this rot in my closet. I promise.”

“Good,
‘cause I wanna see that on the news every night once you get your sorry a–” he
saw Miss Price’s glare and changed his word choice, “Butt, out of here.”

“You
will, I promise.”

---*---

11:34
AM

Bothell,
Washington

Rachel
still hadn’t seen or heard from Vladimir. None of her friends who shared
classes with him had seen him either. A part of her hoped he was only ill and
hadn’t been well enough to attend school, but the length of his absence
troubled her. She kept the passes to the upcoming Van Gogh exhibit in her bag
and eagerly wanted to beg his forgiveness and invite him to accompany her to
the event. Rachel desperately wanted their friendship, rather, their courtship
to resume and she felt dejected waiting for him to come back to her.

Miss
Keller stood at the front of the room and called out attendance. She reached
Vladimir’s name and hardly marked him late before the door swung open and he
walked in with a wrapped canvas in his hands.

“Mister
Dalca,” Keller said as she noted his tardiness, “Would you mind enlightening us
as to where you have been for the past week?”

Vladimir
walked past her without so much as a word, took his place at the table Rachel
occupied on her own in his usual seat, set his canvas down, and after lacing
his fingers together set a disillusioned glare upon Miss Keller. He refused to
submit himself to acknowledge her query and remained silent, without
embarrassment or shame, with his cool gray eyes locked with hers. Rachel
thought the moment lasted eternally, though Keller merely cleared her throat
and resumed roll call. Rachel glanced at Vladimir who remained stationary and
noticed a sort of loathing in his eyes she’d never seen before. It even seemed
to have been noted by their instructor, as Rachel believed she heard slight
trepidation in their teacher’s voice.

Vladimir
released his trance and closed his eyes for a moment before he asked Rachel how
her day had been. She took a breath as she told him it was fine in a quiet
voice. He untied the faded green wrapping and revealed what Rachel believed was
one of the most breathtaking landscape paintings she’d ever seen. It wasn’t
Seattle, as he said he originally planned to paint, but what Rachel guessed was
Romania, though she remained uncertain. Vladimir used a good deal of earth
tones, so much so that Rachel saw a complete lack of blues, greens, and
purples. The land seemed desolate, as if it were a late autumn, slightly before
a winter snow would blanket the land and transform it into something cold and
barren. There were still leaves in the trees, though few, and the land seemed
somewhat unnatural. Rachel assumed Vladimir’s influence removed whatever life
he could have presented in the work.

“Your
drawing is wonderful,” Vladimir whispered to her as he folded the paper
wrapping he had used to cover his painting and set it aside on the end of the
table.

Rachel’s
drawing was of a view they had of Lake Washington on their bus ride to Seattle
a week earlier. Most of what could have been detailed was blurred, which was
her intent from the start, as it gave the illusion of motion in her work.

Vladimir
took a breath, as to comment on her work further, but Rachel stopped him and
told him she won the passes to the select preview of the Van Gogh exhibit.

He
seemed surprised and asked when she found out.

“It
was a few days ago,” she told him. “And I wanted to ask you to join me.”
Vladimir tried to decline the offer, but she wouldn’t let him. “Please, just go
with me as a friend, alright?”

Vladimir
felt that he should still refuse, as the incident was fresh in his mind. He
didn’t want to over step his bounds, but he accepted nevertheless. 

---*---

4:50
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

Bryce
Maguire walked through the station with a few documents in hand. He studied
them once more as he approached Chief Johnson’s office. With a breath, he
knocked and waited for the call to enter. Johnson glanced up and asked what he
wanted. Bryce cleared his throat and started by telling him Sara Knowles was
dead.

“Who?”

“Our
sixteenth victim,” reported the officer. He placed a part of the papers he’d
brought with him before the Chief.

Johnson
examined them briefly and told him to take a seat. “So who was she exactly?”

“She
was somewhat of a local celebrity,” Bryce told him, “That is, at least in the
world of fashion. But this is interesting, since we now know that Cladis
doesn’t seem to care about social status.”

“Yes,
but we could have assumed that from when he killed the mayor’s daughter,
remember?”

Bryce’s
face reddened slightly before he moved their conversation forward. “Detective
Felton and I, well, I rather overheard Detective Felton speaking with the
victim’s close friends who confirmed that Miss Knowles did in fact gain her own
power shortly before her demise.”

“And
is there any reason why I’m talking to you right now instead of him?”

“He,
uh, well he asked me to relay it to you while he’s out with Sergeant Murdock on
another case,” Bryce informed him.

Johnson
returned his focus to the document and asked what the victim’s ability was.

“She
could change the color of anything she touched,” he reported.

Johnson
scratched at his moustache, “That’s kind of a useless power if you ask me…Why
would Cladis want to kill someone with that power?”

“I
don’t think the power matters all that much, just so long as there is one. And,
well that brings me to my next point.” Bryce set the remaining papers on the
chief’s desk. “I believe we found a pattern sir.”

Chief
Johnson set the other paper aside and inspected the new pages Bryce gave him.

“The
pattern begins with the first victim, Red Irons, who had O positive blood, and
from there the victims follow an A, B and AB positive pattern before the next
set of O, A, B, and AB negative blood types, at which point the pattern returns
to O positive and recycles.”

Johnson
scrutinized the list of victims alongside the pattern and checked the officer’s
work. “How on earth did all of you manage to see this?”

“I,
well, I was going through the files and happened to notice a few irregularities
in the document, namely not all of the victims had all of the same fields,
missing blood types, job histories, schools attended…and, well, I thought to
update it and that’s when I noticed the pattern.”

The
chief looked at him and asked, “You discovered this? By yourself?”

Maguire
reminded him that he wasn’t the only one who helped compile the list. “But yes,
I did, I guess.”

“Good
work,” he said with a nod. “What’s the next blood type?”

“O
positive.”

Johnson
reclined in his chair and rubbed his forehead. “Then we’ve got what? Four days
to find one specific person with O positive blood?”

“That
seems to be the case.”

He
took a deep breath and asked him to let the others know about his find if he
hadn’t already. “I guess the only thing there is to say is good luck.”

Bryce
told him they’d do their best and rushed out of his office to find the others.

---*---

4:57
PM

Bothell,
Washington

Drake
casually leaned against his kitchen counter while he worked on a massive card
castle. The project didn’t take much effort on his part, as he could slow time
down and adjust and readjust every card until the structure was flawless. He
had all of the time in the world but found himself bored and depressed instead
of excited, invigorated, and out in the world. There wasn’t much for him to do,
even when he was in another country. Time still moved on, he could see an
entire nation in a matter of a split second if he wanted to, but what that left
him was nothing more than massive amounts of time to waste on nothing more than
games, and even those bored him.

Drake
waited for Sho to finish up his day at work and call him with a brief update on
their pseudo-investigation. He continued to check his watch and wait for the
call while he finished his castle. It stood nearly three feet high and upon its
completion Drake simply let it fall to pieces by removing one of the lowest
cards.

Sho
finally called and Drake didn’t hesitate to answer in Japanese, “work?>”

“hectic actually,>” Sho told him. “involved in this company, especially within our gaming department.>”

“if you don’t want the job–>”

“never said that!>” Sho quickly cut him off. Drake only laughed though.
“”

“that?>”

“too important, just the names of the four people involved in it.>” Sho
reported.

“were only four people who worked on it? Who were they?>”

Sho
read them off from a list, “David Moore.>”

“all we know? There were four of them, but we don’t know anything about who did
what or why the program was even started for that matter.>” Drake gave the
situation a moment of thought before he asked how he managed to find out about
it.

“basically spent my lunch hour rifling through archives, though I only found the
mention of a Victor Jacobs in one area, so I assume this is what we’re looking
for.>”

“assume?>”

“file was labeled ‘Origins,’ which was claimed to have been a videogame that the
company kept in development hell.>”

Drake
told him that it was what they were looking for. “called
Origins
, which they obviously used as a cover.>”

“you sure?>”

“but I don’t know what else it might be.>”

Sho
told him he’d continue to investigate before he hung up.

Drake
put his phone away in his pocket while he walked over to his brown U-shaped
couch, took a seat, retrieved his laptop from underneath the sofa, and logged
on. After he checked his email he made his way onto the REFOIA database under
the username eternal_hourglass. His list of contacts was limited to only Sho
and Jessica, but he expected it to rapidly expand after he truly began to delve
into the database. As he’d only been a member of REFOIA for a few days his list
of followed topics, events, and people was limited. He noticed that Jessica was
online and set up a chat with her

[eternal_hourglass
has joined]

[jess_VII
has joined]

eternal_hourglass:
Hey Jess, how have you been?

jess_VII:
Drake, I saw you on the news a few days ago.

jess_VII:
Do you really have a power?

eternal_hourglass:
Hahaha…I do, but I’ll show you another time. I don’t want to talk over the
internet about something like that.

jess_VII:
Oh

eternal_hourglass:
So, you never sent me that video about Ghost.

jess_VII:
I told you, it was removed.

eternal_hourglass:
Really? That doesn’t sound like REFOIA…

jess_VII:
I know. Let me see if I can find it.

[balt_raven00
has joined]

[mhanzo40
has joined]

eternal_hourglass:
Wow, the group is really filling up.

balt_raven00:
who r u?

mhanzo40:
If you read back a bit, you’d know that he knows Jessica.