Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (58 page)

“Really?
Who is it?”

Drake
shrugged and said he wasn’t sure. “Things are stacking up, that’s all.”

“What
do you mean?”

“There
have been three deaths all within my father’s company, all of which were
connected to something known as Regenesis.”

“Your
father…”

“My
father, Victor, and a man named Mark Ross.”

Ian
stopped him and asked, “Victor worked for your father?”

Drake
nodded. “Apparently he did.”

Drake
told Ian about the security tape of the night his father was killed, how he was
on the camera, how the assassin had a serpent tattoo similar to the one Ian
described on the doppelganger Nick on the day Victor was killed, and how the
connection made him assume an assassin was involved.

“It’s
outlandish, but it makes sense once you add it all up and realize how
outlandish the entire situation is.”

“What
isn’t nuts nowadays?” Ian muttered.

Drake
sighed and told Ian that nothing had changed. “The world’s always been strange;
we simply never knew it was. Now our day has arrived, things seem out of
proportion to the way things were, but this is where we stand on earth, like it
or not, and we have to play our parts.” He set the remote down on the coffee
table and asked him, “So where do you want to go for lunch?”

---*---

7:21
PM

London,
England

They’ve
got to expect it. They must. They’re just keeping it a big old bloody secret
and smiling through their teeth at me. The whole world must know. A guy
survives a bombing and is miraculously healed? I have to be Ilion. I have to
be. There’s no way they’re that stupid, that blind and oblivious.

“Jason?”

He
snapped back to reality.
Another dinner. That’s all. Calm down Jason. Calm
down. No one knows. No one makes assumptions like that. You need to calm down.
They were halfway to Audrey’s mother’s home when Audrey said his name and
pulled Jason back into focus. He drove, as usual, while she listened to the
radio which she kept low. Audrey would normally chat with him the whole way
there but Jason’s distance troubled her.
Keep your head about you man. Don’t
show this worry, this fear.

“Are
you okay?”

He
nodded. “Just a bit distracted is all. I’m sorry.”

She
gave him a weak smile and looked out the window. A familiar old tune by the
Smiths played through the radio like a whisper. Audrey recognized the song but
asked her husband if he knew the name of the song. Jason only shook his head,
without giving the tune a moment of consideration.

Audrey
apologized for the dinner engagement she agreed for the two to attend without
consulting him. “I always agree without asking you and I’m sorry. I forget how
exhausted you are at the end of the day, but at the same time I know you’re
going to be busy in the evenings soon with your new endeavor.”

That’s
true…but that’s not even what I’ve mulled over for the past fifteen minutes.
Jason gripped the
wheel tighter while his hands shook. “I’m just worried is all.”

“Worried
about what?”

About
becoming a massive target. I’m on everyone’s radar. Look at the amazing flying
man in the colorful costume. I’m a sideshow freak in a cape and mask. They’re
all looking for me around every corner. They’re lurking, waiting, watching…

He
failed to answer. Audrey’s heart sank and she returned to her own thoughts.

--          --          --

“Wasn’t
it the most exhilarating experience?” Abigail began. “I swear I felt as if I
was there in the helicopter with them while he retold the story. And Ilion? He
sounds perfectly gallant.”

“I
have a pal at my work who swears he saw him stop a mugging this past evening in
Greenwich,” Jack added. “He said Ilion grabbed the bloke by his jacket, flew
him up to the edge of a building, and dangled him there for a minute until the
sorry fellow apologized to the victim.”

Jason
muttered how impressed Ilion sounded.
I never did that. How many rumors are
there? I haven’t even worn my completed costume yet, how are there so many lies
about me already? It hasn’t been a week even. Are these people so fixated on
this, the gossip, that they can’t sort it out for themselves?

Jason
and Audrey sat in two chairs around a small tea table where most of the party
kept their respective drinks. Jack and his wife Samantha managed to get a
sitter for the evening and as such they helped themselves to a hearty amount of
wine that evening. Suzy sat in an armchair opposite her mother with a small cup
of tea and her cell phone to occupy her in lieu of the conversation. Alan even
joined the conversation for once, though he only allowed himself one small
glass of wine and only water from then on.

“I
think it would be absolutely lovely to see one of these heroes in action,” Alan
added. “How marvelous, can you imagine? These men and women can perform feats
beyond what we could imagine. Who knows the extent of human potential now?”

Quit
all of this, please. I don’t want to hear about it. I know this is something
unnatural to everyone, but I feel like I’m in the spotlight and they’re
dissecting me without permission, and I can’t utter a word contrary, or else
they’ll know, they’ll know, they would know, they must, oh they’ll know, they
already do, the bastards, each and every last one of them. The damned little
liars, smirking all around, talking, dancing around the subject, dancing,
taunting, teasing me. Me! They know and I know it. They all laugh because I can
only confirm it, there’s no denying any of this.

“Jason,
are you quite alright?”

He
stopped. He stopped and looked around the room.
All eyes on me, all eyes.
They’re waiting, they are always waiting. No no no, Jason no. Calm down. Just
take a deep breath and tell them the truth. Tell them exactly what this is.
Jason
took a breath and realized he’d spilt his tea over his hand and wrist. The cup
was half empty over the saucer and his lap and the floor.

Breathe
and answer them.
He looked at Samantha, who broke his concentration, his stream of
consciousness, and apologized. “It’s fine, I’m sorry. I’ve had poor nerves ever
since the hospital. I’m not sure why. It might be an effect of whatever,
whoever healed me, I don’t know.”

The
party reluctantly returned to their conversation while Alan hurried out of the
room for a rag to sop up the spilt liquid from his otherwise immaculate white
carpet.

“I
read that crime has already dropped three whole percent since Ilion’s debut,”
Jack continued, “Can you imagine that? Three percent and he hasn’t even caught
his stride I’ll bet.”

“It
doesn’t sound like much Jack,” Suzy chimed in.

“It
is Suzy,” he told her flatly. “Three percent nation-wide and possibly even a
full percent worldwide, maybe more.”

“How
the hell could you track something like that? And, mind you Jack, a city’s
crime rate must fluctuate within a few percents on a daily basis.”

Alan
returned and edged his way between Jason and the stain. Jason promptly removed
himself and stood nearby his wife.

“Oh
come off it Suzy,” Jack told her while he rolled his eyes. “Just be happy we
have so many amazing heroes in London.”

She
shrugged and reminded him that there were plenty of criminals at large amid the
vigilantism across London. “Two girls have been abducted in the past week at my
university and there hasn’t been a word about any heroes patrolling for their
whereabouts.”

“Well
they can’t catch every single criminal dear,” Abigail tried to remind her.

“Yes,
but I only feel that kidnappers and possibly rapists should be higher up the
ladder in terms of these super heroes’ priorities.”

Jack
rolled his eyes, “Don’t act so melodramatic Suzan.”

“I’m
not, Jackson,” she snapped. “They aren’t the first girls who have gone missing
in the past few months either. Four other women all in my area have been gone
for weeks, a few bodies have turned up even, mutilated mind you, but yet no
bloody super heroes in sight. All I’m getting at is that I wish these heroes
would spend less time in the spotlight and more time trying to stop whoever’s
behind this.”

Jason
murmured his agreement.
Maybe that’s something I should look into. Audrey
mentioned a few murders in the past month and all of them began as
disappearances. Maybe there’s something there.
Jason cleared his throat and
asked, “I’ve forgotten, which school do you attend Suzy?”

“Roehampton
University.”

“She
studies theater,” Jack piped in.

Jason
ignored him and mused for a moment.
Where did Audrey say the last person was
found? Saint Margaret’s? Or was it Marble Hill? Was it even in Richmond or was
it Isleworth? Damn it, I should have paid more attention. Relax Jason, relax.
Just ask her later.

“I
heard about a couple of murders near there,” Samantha added. “Someone turned up
at Richmond Hill, something gruesome happened if I recall correctly. Do you
think they could be connected?”

Suzy
frowned and said she hoped not.

Audrey
tried to smile and assured her little sister it wasn’t the case. “I’m know
they’ll turn up soon. This can happen from time to time in college. I had a few
friends who wandered off without saying a word to anyone for weeks at a time,
only to turn up one day without so much as a word about it. One of my best
friends was gone a week and a half after she fell in love, more or less, with a
young artist she’d met at a pub.”

This
isn’t helping Audrey. She knows the situation isn’t good and whoever’s behind
all this is dangerous. I need to find them. This isn’t good at all. But…they
can’t be random. Why would they be? This person is after things, hideous
things, but something they need. What was it that’s been stolen from the bodies
so far? I remember skin from one, the lips and tongue from another, and blood.
There must be something else in common between them. But what would they need
this for? I know, or rather, I’ve heard of organ harvesting and other shady
business, but what good is a tongue, skin, and blood for? I don’t think you can
transplant that without immediate access to the recipient, right? And the
tongue? I don’t think that could be transplanted. More questions. And what if
this is the same person who attacked me? What if they’re behind all of this and
they were after me? But, why would they want me? I was dying and burned alive.
Maybe they discovered the regeneration too? Perhaps they thought my body might
hold some special key? But what about the fire then? I was only there by
coincidence. The fire. Was it coincidence or was it planned? But why burn down
an apartment complex? The people killed would be of no use. Unless…unless they
were targeting me from the beginning. But they wouldn’t know, would they?
Unless they’ve been watching me, watching me for a very long time. Waiting,
waiting for the moment, the right moment, the perfect time to attack, to weaken
me enough to attack and hurt and kill me.

“Jason.”

He
looked up and returned to the room. Jack, Abigail, and Suzy were deep in a
discussion about something Jason assumed revolved around the rise of the heroes
in London while Alan and Samantha readied dessert.

Audrey
put her hand on his arm to stop his shaking. “Jason, are you alright?”

Does
she know too? Do they all know? Damn it stop! Stop it stop it stop it stop it
stop it now! Breathe, breathe, breathe and relax. You are alone, you are safe
and alone. No one’s after you Jason.

He
took an unsteady breath and whispered to her that he worried about what Suzy
said. “I think I need to help them Audrey. I-I’m not sure what I need to do,
but I need to help them any way I can.”

“Jason,
are you–”

“I’ll
be fine Audrey,” he cracked a weak and trembling grin. “I’m going to be just
fine.”

---*---

12:45
PM

Kenmore,
Washington

Strom
stayed with Nick since they discussed Jeremy Dalton’s involvement in Victor’s
murder. It worried Nick, seeing as how the shape shifter didn’t trouble Mizuno
enough to post a guard with Nick, yet the revelation of the MP3 Assassin gave
cause for Nick’s defense. He wasn’t sure what it meant though, which left Nick
unsettled throughout the week.

Nick
sat in Mizuno’s classroom while Mizuno himself was out at the staff lounge
having his lunch with other members of the faculty. He hated waiting in the
class alone, not that Nick was required to stay in the classroom on his own. He
simply felt it was the most sensible course of action. But truthfully, Nick
didn’t know anyone at his school, aside from Amy and a few of her friends. He
couldn’t call any of Amy’s friends anything more than casual acquaintances and
a part of him had no desire to try to become anything more than that.

Mizuno
finally returned and without waiting a moment he told Nick he’d given him a
seventy-one on the last test. “I thought it would be prudent to have you
struggle through the First World War,” he told him.