Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (76 page)

Jason
burst through and sped inside. Joshua Todd sat on the edge of a table with a
needle in his right arm connected to a bag of blood. The room was dark and
barren beyond the table and medical supplies Todd spread around him.

What
little color Joshua had in his face left him. He tried to move away from Jason
but Jason wasted no time in capturing the elderly man. Todd choked and couldn’t
breathe with Jason’s hand around his neck.

Todd
struggled and made a vain attempt at speech before Jason cut him off. “All I
want is the girl Todd. Don’t tell me you’ve killed her. Don’t tell me I’m too
late.”

Jason
released his grip only enough to illicit a response between Todd’s rushed and
uncontrollable breaths. “The girl…the girl is gone. Another…she was taken by
another like you.”

“Who
was it?”

“I-I
don’t know. I swear Jason–”

“Who
was it Todd?” His grip tightened. “What did they look like?”

Todd
failed to answer him. He asked, with terror in his eyes, “How, how did you
survive?”

Jason
didn’t reply. Instead he threw the old man across the room and into a support
beam. Todd cried out but Jason muffled his voice with his left hand. Jason
balled his free hand into a fist and drove it square into the Todd’s chest and
broke most of his ribs. Jason proceeded to take the man by his elbows and
crushed them into splinters. He tore the limbs from the man and quickly
finished him by driving the flat of his hand through Joshua Todd’s forehead and
clear through the other end.

Jason
remained still afterward. Todd’s blood dripped onto the floor from his hands
and from the bag Todd used earlier to give himself new life. After a moment
Jason started for the door. He rose into the sky and once he was above the
building and on his way home he ignited the building from its roots and allowed
it to completely engulf Todd’s remains. Jason headed home without a backwards
glance.

---*---

7:08
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

Mia
and Bryce sat in Detective Sage’s old office and waited for their turn to
report to Chief Johnson about the damages to the Washington Village area. The
city only worsened in the short period of time since all wireless transmissions
became lost. People realized the severity of the situation, from both the
abrupt reality of Cladis to the awareness that salvation would not come for
anyone who called for help, and as such anarchy erupted in the form of
heightened gang wars, looting, arson, murder, armed theft, and other crimes.

The
entire police force of Baltimore tried to manage the situations on the streets,
but the crisis wasn’t in an isolated area, and because of the panic and
violence throughout the city even the riot squads were met with extreme
resistance from gangs like the Delta, who carried armor piercing rounds to meet
the squads. There were deaths on both sides of the skirmishes, but the crisis
had yet to find a lull or moment of rest.

Gangs
saw it as an opportunity to take control of the city with little to no
resistance, thieves saw it as the perfect moment to take what they wanted,
rapists knew no one would heed anyone’s cries, and even though there were the
few who tried desperately to flee or to remain separated from the chaos,
blockades of burning cars, tires, and other rubble made escape nearly
impossible.

Bryce
sat slouched in a chair and stared dejectedly at the floor. “Do you think we’re
ever going to be able to fix this?”

Mia
said she wasn’t sure.

One
major part of their forces protected the hospitals from looters looking to
steal medical supplies as well as pharmaceutical drugs while another part of
their forces that were not on the streets guarded the police station from the
rioters.

“Do
you think this is going to get worse?” he asked her. “I mean, why haven’t
things calmed down yet?”

She
shrugged and said she didn’t know. “This is chaos Maguire, so I’m not sure
we’re going to see things calm down unless we manage to get outside help.
They’re scared because they communication is gone and now they know there’s a
serial killer on the loose, and I imagine part of them realize he has powers of
his own, and all of this frightens them. It’s panic, that’s what it is.”

Bryce
let out a sigh and muttered his disdain for their job. “I never thought
something like this would happen.”

“Neither
did I.”

“What
do you think we can do to fix it?”

Mia
said she heard a rumor that the National Guard would intervene in an hour or so
assuming the matter didn’t show progress. “I’m just glad they’ll be here soon,
considering how bad last night was.”

Bryce
agreed and massaged the back of his neck with his right hand. He listened to
the sirens and screams right outside their walls and regretted his inability to
amend it. “Do you think we’re useless?”

“What
do you mean?”

“I
mean do you feel worthless as a cop?” He looked into her eyes and reminded her
that they couldn’t stop or even hinder Cladis, they couldn’t curb gang violence
throughout Baltimore, and they couldn’t control their panicked city. “I feel
like we don’t have any power anymore.”

Mia
frowned and said she often felt that way. “Aside from my identity theft crisis
I’ve never worked a true case before, and even in that situation I’ve yielded
poor results, so yeah, I do feel sort of worthless.”

Bryce
asked if she knew of anyway they could change that. “I don’t want to look back
in ten years and wonder if I could have done more…or if I did anything at all
for that matter.”

She
told him she was in the dark as well. “If I knew how do that, I wouldn’t be
here now.”

He
nodded and muttered that she was right.

Mia
shifted in her seat and suddenly asked him what his blood type was.

“O
positive.” He noted her trepidation and asked her why she brought it up.

Mia
bit her bottom lip for a moment before she admitted she had O negative blood.
“If those other two people are a part of the pattern, wouldn’t O negative be
next in the cycle?”

Bryce
glanced at the floor, gave the matter a second of thought, and questioned if
forensics ever informed her of the Jane and John Does’ blood types. She slowly
nodded and told him they fit the pattern. “Why didn’t you say anything?” he
asked.

She
shrugged and said it wasn’t important at the time.

“Not
important?” Bryce repeated. “You might be on death row, how the hell isn’t that
important?”

“There’s
no guarantee I’m going to die.”

“Yeah,
well there isn’t any surety of you making it either.”

“It
isn’t that serious.”

“Yes
it is,” he spat. “What if you’re next?”

“Then
we’ve only got a few days to figure out how to stop him.”

“You
know we’ve got no chance then.”

“Then
I’ll die,” she snidely told him.

Bryce
looked away from her and scowled at the wall. “This isn’t a joke you know.”

“Why
do you care?”

“I
care because you and I…We’re sort of a team.” He left a short pause for her to
say something, but Mia failed to utter a word. Bryce waited for something,
anything; even recognition of their partnership, but Mia remained silent.
Maguire rubbed his eyes and mumbled his additional concerns, his personal
wishes for her wellbeing, but dropped the subject as soon as Chief Johnson
joined them and asked for a brief update on the area they patrolled.

---*---

6:01
PM

Seattle,
Washington

Nick
sat at the edge of one of the cots and failed to tie his tie properly. He’d
only ever worn one on very few occasions, those being funerals and the rare occasions
when he’d accompany Ian to church, which he hadn’t done in over three years. He
found the tie at a second hand shop three blocks from where he, Strom, and
Lauren stayed, and though it was relatively inexpensive it proved to be a
quality find, despite Nick’s inability to wear it presentably.

“You
tied it wrong,” Strom noted as he flipped a page in his copy of
Franny and
Zooey
.

Nick
said he didn’t know how to and asked if Strom wouldn’t mind helping. Lauren
intervened and fixed it for him. “It’s not something that’s overly complicated
Nick.” She explained each of the steps to him as she adjusted it. Once the knot
was satisfactory, she tightened it, brushed his shirt off, and told him he
looked nice before she walked away and retook her seat against a wall a few
yards from Strom.

“Thanks.”

Strom’s
cell phone vibrated on the cot next to his left hip. He set his book down,
checked the number, and quickly answered it. “Yes?” Strom remained still and
listened intently to the caller. He didn’t say anything for nearly a minute
before he asked if anyone else was aware of the issue. “No? Why not?” His
question preceded another pause before Strom sighed and told whoever called
that he’d relay the message and thanked him. Strom hung up and told them that
Mithra and Melanie were dead.

Nick
and Lauren both stopped where they were and processed the information. “How did
it happen?” she asked him.

Strom
said he wasn’t sure on the details. “Bruce called and told me about the
situation in Baltimore, which was where their mission was, he told me something
went wrong and they were killed.”

“Is
Mizuno alive?” Nick questioned him.

Strom
said he was unsure.

“Why
should you care?” Lauren spat. “He’s a jerk, so what difference does it make if
he lives or dies?”

Nick
shrugged and simply said it was a question.

He
kicked off his tennis shoes to swap them for dress shoes, which he also
acquired at the thrift store with his tie. Lauren helped him get pants, a
shirt, the tie, and his shoes, and much to his chagrin she forced him to try on
nearly a dozen different combinations before they left the store with the
outfit for his and Amy’s homecoming date.

They
missed the school’s football game the night before because Nick didn’t feel
like traveling all the way back to the Kenmore area for a single football game,
but he told Amy he couldn’t get work off. She wasn’t happy about his continued
distance from her, but Nick convinced her that he had to work the night of the
game to ensure he had the night of the homecoming dance off. It was an obvious
lie, and it didn’t help that he told it while Lauren was within earshot. She
didn’t say anything, but he knew she wasn’t pleased with his natural ability to
lie.

Nick
finished tying his shoes and after an apprehensive breath told them he’d be off.
Strom stopped him and asked Nick if he felt well enough to go out for the
evening. Lauren tried to object to Strom’s query, but he defended his question
and reminded her that two of Nick’s associates just died. “He might need to
take it easy,” Strom said.

“And
what about his girlfriend?” Lauren asked. “He can’t simply ditch her, that is,
unless he wants her to flat out dump him by tomorrow morning.”

“The
question remains, do you feel up to riding around on that bike of yours and
spending the entire evening going from here to there with your girlfriend and
back?”

Nick
told them both that he was fine. “Either way, I can’t really disappoint her
anymore as is.”

He
told them he would be back around one or so and promised to enter quietly. He
took his helmet from off the stairs that led into their make-shift home,
climbed the steps, quietly unlocked, opened, and closed the door before Lauren
asked Strom if Nick was truly alright. Strom told her he’d be fine and resumed
reading
Franny and Zooey
.

---*---

6:20
PM

Seattle,
Washington

Jonathan
walked at a brisk pace toward his office while he read through a document that
cited the Kitayama Corporation’s prior work history in joint ventures with
external companies. An offer for a cooperative project surfaced and Jonathan
felt he needed to judge whether business with the generally distant company
would be a sound investment or not.

He
opened the door to his office and nearly shouted when he found Drake within and
sitting in his chair. The man took a moment to compose himself and asked why
Drake stopped by. “No one informed me of your visit, otherwise–”

“I
just sort of dropped by,” Drake told him. He looked at the papers in his hands
and asked what it was.

Jonathan
adjusted his glasses and told him it was just a compilation of documents that
mentioned general effectiveness of the Kitayama Corporation. “They’ve made some
offers to join us in a few joined projects in our gaming department, as well as
extending an offer to encode our software for nearly a decade as a sign of good
faith.”

Drake
frowned and asked why they had such a sudden change of heart. “They’re normally
cold toward us if I remember.”