The Enclave (The Verge) Read online

  “You don’t have to attack me. I’m here to help you.” Katherine spoke to the man as they circled each other. His face was slack, his eyes looked dead, emotionless. It was the face of an automaton. Her words would mean nothing to the man but Katherine still had to try.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “The test must be completed.”

  Katherine slowed in her circling; his response took her by surprise.

  Suddenly, the man lunged and Katherine twisted and swatted his blade away with her own. But the man had a longer reach and as they separated he swiped at Katherine’s arm slicing along her bicep. She leapt away from him and the two began circling each other again.

  “What test?” she asked, this time keeping a closer eye on the man’s movements. The man’s eyes continued their blank stare.

  “Stage Four – Proof of Concept.”

  What the…?

  This time Katherine saw the tightening of his muscles and she ducked instinctively, hoping that she had not misread him.

  She heard the swish of the man’s blade as it sliced through the air above her head. As his body moved forward, Katherine somersaulted across the corridor, away from the man. She quickly came to her feet and held her knife ready. There was to be no more circling, not if she could help it.

  “What is the Proof of Concept?” she asked as the man turned back towards her.

  “You are.”

  He leapt forward and swung his knife. Katherine parried the blow with her own blade and then let loose with a powerful sidekick to the man’s exposed ribs. The kick connected and the man fell. But as he did so he jabbed out with his hand and managed to grab Katherine’s knife arm and pull her to the floor with him.

  They both hit the titling together.

  Katherine fell on top of her attacker, rolled clear and slammed her back against the wall. She reached out to steady herself and her hand touched something familiar on the floor next her.

  And then the man was on his feet again. He leapt at her and pushed his knife to her throat before Katherine had time to react. She threw up both her hands to defend herself, dropping her own knife to leave her own hand free to get the danger away from her throat.

  With all her strength Katherine held the knife at bay, the point of the blade cutting into her skin. And Katherine desperately realized that she could not hold it.

  The man’s face was right in front of Katherine’s. And he was close, so close that Katherine felt his warm breath puff against her face.

  Without thinking, Katherine suddenly let go of the knife hand with one of her hands, reached up and gouged her thumb into his unprotected eye.

  He yelled but still continued to push the knife down into Katherine’s throat. Katherine suddenly shifted her weight, pushing her throat against the knife but freeing up her right shoulder. She then plunged her thumb with as much force as she could muster into the eye socket. She felt the eyeball push back into the socket and then tear apart as her thumbnail cut through the iris and into the eyeball itself. She buried her thumb until it could go in no further and then jerked it out.

  The man let out a hideous in-human scream and Katherine felt a sudden splash of warm blood explode all over her face.

  She kicked the man away from her and saw a fountain of blood spraying out from his ruined eye socket. He screamed again as he fell backwards, clutching at the bloody socket.

  Katherine had poked his eye out, but he was not yet out of the fight. And he still had the knife in his hand. The man began to lash out wildly, trying to hit her despite the pain and the loss of part of his vision.

  Katherine grabbed at the object on the floor beside her and leveled the auto pistol at the man’s bleeding face. He was moving erratically but she had all the time she needed now.

  She aimed carefully at the head of this screaming zombie of a man.

  And then she fired.

  Three rounds struck the man square in the face and he dropped to the floor as his skull exploded behind him.

  Katherine felt sick. This man did not deserve to die like that. But thinking back on the blank face, the dead eyes, she thought that the mind that been born into that body had left it long ago. She had come to save these people. What if she could not? What if it was too late?

  She clenched her teeth on her uncertainty and let the rage slowly build again inside her and tightened the grip on her gun.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Five

  “You did well 72.”

  The auto pistol swung around to aim squarely at the woman who had spoken. The woman was unfazed; as if she was used to having someone capable of pulling the trigger pointing weapons at her. White, pristine and proper were the only words Katherine could think of when she saw her. All she needed was glasses and a test tube to be the perfect stereotypical image of a lab geek. But she was not a fool; the four heavily armed guards arrayed around her were proof of that.

  Katherine said nothing. She kept the arm holding her pistol rock steady. The guards kept their guns aimed at her and Katherine noted the stun packs that were loaded in place of the lethal rounds on their weapons.

  “93 had showed promise but no one has shown as much Talent as you 72.”

  What about Daniel?

  “What was done to him?” Katherine did not look at the man she had just killed.

  “You should know that better than anyone 72.”

  Katherine gritted her teeth. The bastards were still conducting their experiments. The only way to possibly stop them is to hunt down every last one of the cockroaches and terminate them.

  Behind her came the sounds of booted feet. They now had sealed up the corridor. She did not bother to look back at them.

  “You knew I would come back.”

  “The possibility was high.”

  “What do you want with me?”

  The woman smiled at Katherine as if she was patronizing a small child. “That is a question for Doctor Barkley to answer. Would you like to speak to him?”

  The thrill that tightened Katherine’s innards at the mention of Barkley made her reply soft and girly. “Of course I bloody well do.”

  And when I see him I am going to rip him to shreds. He will not be walking out of this place.

  “Is Hyde here as well?”

  The woman blinked in surprise. But there was too long a pause before she said “Who?”

  Katherine stifled an urge to shoot the bitch. It seemed like she needed the woman to get her to Barkley. Barkley may lead her to Hyde.

  “Just take me to Doctor Barkley.”

  Katherine relaxed her arm and tossed the auto pistol over to the woman’s feet and felt a malicious twinge of satisfaction as the technician took an involuntary step back. The tech was not as confident as she portrayed. Katherine unslung the assault rifle and let it drop behind her. The guards waiting behind her can collect it.

  “Follow me please.”

  The woman turned and started walking down the corridor, her attack dogs trailing close behind. The guards behind curled around Katherine and she held out her arms waiting for someone to come forward to pat her down for weapons. But none of the men moved. After a few moments Katherine dropped her arms and began walking. If they did not want to search her, that’s their mistake.

  Katherine thought she was being lead to the main lab where she and Tom had been taken to earlier. But instead was lead into another section of the complex. A section that she could not remember from Yunga. Then again, she was not looking for secret passages when she left Yunga. All she had worried about was getting 56 and any other test subjects out of the place and leaving anyone else remaining in the complex dead.

  The entrance sat across from the large double doors of the main laboratory and now that she knew it was there kicked herself for not noticing it before. Then again, she and Tom had been busy with several guards when she first came this way and she had been unconscious when she left.

  The corridor beyond the door was the same bright white color
as everything else Katherine had seen on the fourth level. The constant white was placing a strain on her eyes; if she was not on painkillers she would already have the beginnings of a headache.

  The woman led her through several corridors not really hurrying and always keeping her bodyguards between her and Katherine.

  Katherine found that amusing. If she had wanted to do the woman harm, the guards would not be able to stop her.

  The woman stopped beside a door and pushed her finger onto the Gentec scanner. The door whooshed open and the Lab Tech stepped away from the door and gestured for Katherine to enter.

  Katherine hesitated.

  Why did the girl not go in? Was there someone waiting to jump her when she walked through the door?

  Katherine would not go down without a fight and this time she would be looking out for darts.

  The woman gestured and the guards around her adjusted themselves as if readying for action.

  “What is the hold up out there Doctor Ross?”

  The voice penetrated Katherine’s consciousness like a thousand tiny needles being jabbed into her mind like a pin cushion. The rage did not rise in her as it did before; instead unwanted memories rose to the surface and then pinned down for her mind’s eye to replay. How she hated that man.

  “There is no hold up Doctor Barkley,” the woman sweetly replied as if she were just showing a privileged guest into the office. The woman, Doctor Ross? Then gestured more forcefully at the door. “Doctor Barkley is waiting for you 72.”

  Katherine felt her hands forming fists against her thighs. So she slowly released the tension, stretching her fingers to relax the muscles. Stiff, taunt muscles could break her bones if she had to use them in a fight. And there will be a fight, whatever happens in that room. When the time felt right Katherine would do all in her power to kill this man, will try to kill anyone involved in this so called ‘science project’. Then Katherine would deem that justice had been served on behalf of her dead family and the hundreds of other families who had died for these twisted ideals.

  “Doctor Ross!” Barkley’s voice called again from the room and to Katherine’s ears he sounded pleased. And impatient.

  Better not keep the Doctor waiting

  Katherine pushed past Doctor Ross and stepped firmly into the room.

  Why is it that lab designers have to make everything white?

  Katherine’s eyes darted around the room searching for any other threats besides the man standing next to the office desk at the far end of the room. There were none that she could see. The room itself contained the same equipment as any other office would have except that it was all white. Her brown hair and dirty, bloody grey clothing were the only colors that existed in this room. Doctor Barkley with his blonde hair, pale skin and washed out blue eyes looked engineered to fit in with the color scheme of this room.

  Katherine heard the door whoosh shut behind her. They had left her alone with Barkley without giving him bodyguards. That meant that there had to be something else in this room that would protect Barkley if she decided to attack him. She did not bother to try and find what it is. If she did not see it on her first inspection she probably would not see it now. Katherine focused her attention on the doctor.

  “Welcome back 72.”

  The man had not taken his eyes off her since she entered the room. It was as if he was watching for her to do something. It reminded Katherine of a parent watching a child who had just learnt a new mannerism, waiting for them to perform it again unprompted.

  Katherine planted her feet, staying near the door.

  “I have unfinished business with you Barkley.”

  A smile tugged at the corner of Barkley’s mouth and he nodded his head at Katherine.

  “Yes. Yes you are quite right, though not for the reasons you are thinking of 72.” Then Barkley’s face settled into a smug satisfaction. And strangely pride.

  “Out of over one hundred and thirty test subjects, you and 56 are the most promising, show the most potential. You have both developed well beyond the scope of Project Nemesis, well beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.”

  “Developed into what exactly?” Katherine spat the words out, trying to suppress the urge to kill this man. At least suppress the urge until she could get all the answers she needed from him.

  “Now, there is the beauty of it. The pairing of you and 56 was so unexpected. When you both escaped from Yunga... the way you both escaped from Yunga, showed us that we had succeeded in our aims, that the gene therapy had gone beyond the parameters that it was designed for.” As Barkley spoke, his voice became more animated, more excited. This was not the calculated voice of the man who had held a gun to Tom’s head.

  “Get to the point. I don’t want a history lesson Barkley.” Katherine interrupted him. She did not want to see any form of pleasure on this man’s face. Not after having to kill one of the results of his experiments. Not after being one of those experiments. “What are we ‘designed’ for?”

  Barkley’s face dropped again into a smug satisfaction. “This project was developed to create the perfect solider for the Alliance. Bigger, faster, stronger and to serve with total obedience-”

  Katherine let loose a short bark of laughter. “Well, that’s one thing you got wrong.”

  Barkley ignored her interruption and continued speaking. “Not entirely.” The doctor held up a small datapad. “I have something here for you to see.”

  “If I must.” But the thought now running through Katherine’s head was; Why bother to tell me all of this? Test Subjects don’t need an explanation for the shit that is done to them. They only need to perform…

  Barkley did not answer her, instead he tapped at the datapad and a virtual optic screen appeared in the space between them. A few more quick taps and the camera footage from the Level Four corridor began to play.

  The fight in the corridor played out before her but in triple time instead of normal. Except for the circling, that was played at normal time.

  Katherine looked away as he saw her thumb press into the man’s eye. She did not look back until Doctor Barkley spoke.

  “Are you not impressed with what we have made of you?”

  “Impressed that you caused me to kill an innocent man for your own perverse ideals? Disgusted is the word I’d choose.” Katherine stepped forward, jabbing an index finger at the doctor.

  “If it was so impressive why play the thing in triple time. Why not watch it in its ‘full glory’?”

  Doctor Barkley gave her a patronizing smile. “It was played as it was recorded. What you saw is a direct replay back from the camera.” He paused to let Katherine think on his words.

  If what he was implying was true then Katherine and her opponent had been moving faster than the eye could keep up with. Barkley must have seen the realization plain on her face. The man suddenly continued speaking.

  “And you are able to do so much more 72. You and 56 compliment each other’s skills quite nicely. Especially the Ontolics. That was an unforeseen gift.”

  Katherine refused to believe what she was hearing.

  “If I was moving that fast in combat, why hasn’t it appeared before now?”

  “While you were unconscious we injected you with the catalyst that activated the final gene sequence you were imprinted with at Yunga. When we had activated 56, we noticed that his Ontolic capability increased threefold. With you there has been a marked increase in physical abilities such as your speed, stamina, metabolic rate, healing. The bio-monitor implanted in you has shown an increase beyond what is considered normal human parameters in the four hours since receiving the catalyst.”

  Katherine stilled.

  They were still experimenting on her? On Daniel?

  “Bastards!” Katherine whispered

  “We created you 72. We made you into the perfect tool, the perfect solider and now we are going to start testing what use we can put you to.”

  “You did not make me into the solider that destr
oyed Yunga and has been hunting Alliance scum down for the last three years. I was already that person,” Katherine growled her hate. “What you did give me was a need to kill every last person who was involved in the creation of this operation. This Project Nemesis! I am not your super solider to be bent to your will.”

  Katherine could hardly contain her rage, her body shook with the effort of controlling it.

  “I am afraid you are mistaken there 72,” Doctor Barkley said softly. “Now that we have 56 we can have you do whatever we wish.”

  Katherine became motionless.

  Did he not know that she had rescued Daniel? Surely they could not be unaware of his disappearance? But if they were unaware… the longer they remained so gave Alpha Team a better chance to get Daniel to safety.

  “Holding Daniel hostage will not make me do your will. It will only make me want to kill you more.”

  Barkley smiled. It was not smug but was more like a father whose child had nearly grasped a complex concept and just needs an extra push to realize it.

  “We don’t need 56 to be a hostage to use you 72. We just need 56 to be near you long enough to relay our orders.”

  “What?”

  “The link between you and 56 is a strong one. Due to the nature of each of your gene therapies, it seems that 56 has become your controller. When he issues an order, you are impelled to obey it. No questions asked. Just as when we issue an order to 56, he will be impelled to obey his controller.”

  Katherine glared at the doctor in horror as the ramifications of what he said dawned on her.

  “You are both the perfect saboteurs and with your help, the Alliance will bring down the Federation.”

  Chapter

  Twenty-six

  “Liar!”

  Barkley shook his head. “Believe what you want now 72. But when you go back to New Holland you will be our tool, our clay to mold to what we want. The presence of 56 will see to that.”