The 8ight
by
Maxine Kia McClendon
Copyright 2011 Maxine Kia McClendon,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0193-5
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my Dad.
Thank you for your countless hours editing my work, helping my story grow and evolve into something beautiful.
Thank you for not letting me accept anything less than my best.
Thank you for believing in me.
You always said your biggest dream was to help me realize mine.
We’re living our dreams now!
Playing God
Facility 536A: Level 9
The alarms wouldn’t stop blaring. The halls were filled with red, blinking lights and everyone was scurrying to the nearest exits. All, that is, except for Claire. She walked briskly through the emptying halls, ignoring the cold, mechanical voice demanding everyone leave, ignoring the frightened scientists who only grew more frightened as they realized their boss, a chief officer of the Company, strode among them.
Her brown eyes were burning with anger, her black hair moved as if a wind was rustling it. She finally came upon a door at the end of the hallway and kicked it open, closing it behind her to seal out the sounds of the blaring alarms and the panicked personnel. The two lab assistants in the room turned around to face her. Panic, guilt, and fear ran across their faces when they saw who had come for them. One was holding a bag, and the other was stuffing several vials in to it.
“Be good boys and hand over that bag,” Claire said, taking a slow step towards them, her customary cold smile on her lips.
“You know this is wrong, Claire,” said the tech holding the bag. His name tag read Clark, and his hands trembled with fear. “We didn’t sign up for this. This madness has to stop!”
“It’s too late to stop it,” Claire spat back. “It’s inevitable. Don’t make me hurt you.”
The other assistant glared at her. Philip was his name, and his voice spoke with more resolve than Clark’s. “We won’t let you corrupt our work like this,” he declared as he vacuum sealed the bag, automatically triggering the immolation device that flash-burned all of the contents in the bag.
Claire’s eyes turned red. She glared back at the man intently, watching his face turn white as he fell to his knees, blood slowly dripping from his nose.
“What are you doing to him?” Clark demanded, “Stop it!”
Claire answered calmly, “I’m slowly boiling his blood. You may have destroyed the remaining batches of serum, but you will tell me where the rest of the research team is. Where is Dr. Rao? Where are the stolen specimens? You have destroyed and stolen Company property, and you know there is only one response to that. Tell me where they are and I will kill you quickly,” she said, talking to Clark but never taking her eyes off of Philip. “Or suffer the same fate as your misguided friend here.” Phillip’s face suddenly turned bright red as every inch of his skin swelled with the tremendously building pressure of his boiling blood. His mouth opened in a silent scream just as his entire body exploded. Blood covered everything, but Claire barely flinched as his bones fell to the ground. Her eyes moved to Clark who was looking at her with dawning horror in his eyes.
“You injected yourself with the serum?” he asked. “Now it all makes sense. All the heightened security the past year, all the seized research notes and test subjects disappearing. You tried it on yourself? Why?”
“You think the Company was going to continue to pour billions of dollars into research on animals?” she asked derisively. “Once Dr. Rao developed his procedure, it was only a matter of time before it would be tested on humans. What did you think was going to happen?” She slowly licked the blood off of her hands as she strode closer to him.
He darted to the left in an effort to run around her, but one look into her eyes and he froze in terror. She raised one eyebrow mockingly as she slowly began to raise the temperature of his blood. He fell to the floor suddenly, his body blanketed in frightened sweat and quivering in pain.
“Well?” she asked Clark menacingly. “Where is Dr. Rao?” She reached up and wiped at the blood and body tissue that ran slowly down her face. Lips quivering, hands held up in a vain attempt to ward off any blows, he told her everything she wanted to know.
“Please, that’s all I know!” he blubbered, clinging to her legs as tears and snot rolled down his face.
“There, there, see that wasn’t so bad,” Claire said as she stroked his head. She grabbed him by the hair and bent his head painfully back until his eyes met hers. “I always keep my promises,” she said just as she focused the full extent of her powers on him.
His blood instantly boiled, popping his eyeballs right out of his head a microsecond before his entire body ruptured and exploded. Claire grabbed onto the edge of the desk and rode out the waves of pain. Using her abilities in such a degree twice in rapid succession caused extreme dizziness and an intense headache. But she couldn’t afford to waste time. She keyed her communication mike attached to her earpiece.
“This is Control. We’re picking you up loud and clear. Go,” said a tiny voice in her ear.
“Control, this is Claire. I have the whereabouts of Dr. Rao and the specimens.”
“Copy that. All personnel are ordered to evacuate the premises immediately. What is your ETA on Dr. Rao?”
“I cannot get to him by conventional means in time. He is located two levels below me, and he has probably hacked into the computer override system. Elevators and Rapid Personnel Transportation Tubes are inaccessible. Send me two blink! dogs ASAP.”
“Roger that. Blinks! should be arriving right about…now.”
Claire straightened up fully and turned to face the newly arrived additions. “Take me to Dr. Rao,” she said as her eyes lit with anticipation.
Facility 536A: Level 11
“Warning! Warning! Self-destruct sequence initiated. Total facility annihilation in 10 minutes and counting. All personnel: please evacuate!” The mechanical voice calmly urged Dr. Rao to abandon his mission.
But he could not. The voice had come over the facility loudspeakers more than 10 minutes ago when he first entered the self-destruct sequence. He was hoping that in the ensuing chaos, his assistant, Dr. Yagamuchi and her research team would be able to get away with the specimens. Specimens? He still thought of them in that clinical, detached way, but be honest, he thought, the specim… the babies, he firmly told himself, were of the utmost importance. His job now was to make sure this distraction kept all eyes on him. If he failed and they were both captured, then it was all for nothing. His betrayal to the Company would not go unpunished. In fact, he was sure he would not be able to avoid the detonation that would destroy all 15 levels of the underground facility where he had spent the last 12 years of his life engaging in fantastic experiments in enhancing different life forms.
As a scientist in the employ of the Company, he enjoyed the latest state-of-the-art equipment, unlimited funding, a large staff who answered to his every whim, and every researcher’