The Long Fall Into Darkness by Charlie Cottrell

Author:Charlie Cottrell [Cottrell, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

XI.

The next few days were full of an anxious energy. We jumped at every sound, always expecting Clarissa and the Pinks to come busting through the wall at any second, guns blazing. When they didn’t appear, we didn’t suddenly relax. No, we stayed keyed up, our hands always hovering near our holsters, too jittery to sleep and too tired to do much of anything else.

Well, I say that. Maya was lost in her own little world of computer circuits and microchips. She was having trouble breaking the encryption Carmen had used on the data cache. “I could just smash through it, but I might do a lot of damage to the information it’s protecting,” Maya said.

“Well, definitely take your time, then,” I said.

Dr. Korpanty finally got back to us a couple of days later with some startling revelations.

“Mr. Cornwallis’s DNA was definitely gen-modded,” she said over the phone. Ellen, Vera, and I sat around a table, all listening as Dr. Korpanty filled us in. “But it’s the cleanest, finest gen-mod I’ve ever seen.”

“What was he modded with?” Vera asked.

“A tardigrade,” Dr. Korpanty said.

“A whosit now?” I asked.

“They’re commonly known as water bears. They’re microscopic organisms that can survive virtually anything. They’re functionally immortal.”

“Well, so is Cornwallis,” I replied. “And now, we know how. Still don’t know why, though.”

“I think I can provide a bit more insight, actually,” Dr. Korpanty continued. “See, when most labs do a gen-mod, they leave a signature. There’s a couple of reasons for it. First, they’re proud of their work, and second, if anything ever goes wrong with it, you know who to call to chew out about the ten-foot tall gorilla man rampaging through downtown.”

“So, who’s signature is on this gen-mod?” Ellen asked.

“There is none,” Dr. Korpanty said.

We all sat there for a second.

“That was extremely unhelpful,” I said.

“Actually, it tells us exactly who did the work,” Dr. Korpanty corrected. “The only group that never puts a signature on their work is the US military. Work this well-done, no signature? It could only be the military.”

“They were trying to create a super soldier,” Ellen said quietly.

“Yes,” Dr. Korpanty said, “and I think they may have succeeded.”

I sat back and whistled low. “They’ve made a soldier who can’t die.”

“Or one who can die again and again and again,” Vera said. “One who can get back up and keep right on fighting.”

“But, wait, hold on a second, what about the amnesia he experiences each time he dies?” Ellen asked.

“Oooh! Eureka!” came a voice from the other side of the room. We all turned to see Maya, standing triumphantly with her hands held in the air. “I broke the encryption! Take that, Carmen!”

“Hang on, doc, we’ll hafta call you back in a minute,” I said, hanging up on Dr. Korpanty. “Maya, what’ve you got for us?”

Maya grinned at me. “What do you want?”

“Let’s start with what she’s got on me,” I said. Maya nodded and started typing. A vid window popped up and started scrolling page after page of information about me.

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