Chapter 20 as it appeared
Part 3: Evolution Bites
Authors: Gabby, PCat
Acknowledgment: Based on an idea by Ian, Extra input from BD, Kulko and Tarrok
Chapter 20: Death and Taxes
Malton +86
Ian looked grim as he stared at the people in front of him. It wasn't exactly a task force, but as a group they were the best placed to deal with the situation before it got out of hand.
Sy was shuffling some papers. "It's not just Joe. Snow got attacked by a mugger. He grew teeth and ripped the man's throat out."
"He still got them?" asked Bryn.
"No, they vanished like Joe's claws once he calmed down. That explains why Fox looked normal on all the chat shows."
"I think we should get back to chasing up the Biofusion work," said Bryn. "Might tell us something."
"Keep it discreet though," said Joe. "Outside this room only Danny knows what happened to me. I'd like to keep it that way. That includes Cat and Gabby. I like them both but they are loose cannons."
"I concur," said Ian. "The fewer people know where the mutations are heading the better. So far Fox has kept quiet about it. I guess even he doesn't want to cope with the hysteria. I'd like to keep it under wraps as long as possible."
"Cat said Biofusion got wound up a few years back, last time I asked," said BD. "We got any idea where Simon might have moved his research base?"
"Or if Fox Moldering is involved," muttered Joe.
"I doubt Moldering and Brankin are working together. To much bad blood," said Sy.
Bryn piped up. "What about Simon's charity? Malton Relief, has anyone checked up on that? What's its connection?"
Malton +87
"Ian, good to see you. Aren't you in Parliament?" Gabby settled down in front of the mediascreen and called Cat.
"On my first break since last night." Ian yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"But it's seven o'clock now!"
"Tell me about it. Last-minute debating on anti-immortal legislation stretched out a bit further than it was supposed to.
"How did it go?" Cat inquired, sitting down across Gabby's lap.
"Well, the good news is that we're still not illegal - I convinced the Global Libertarians that we weren't infringing on their right to life, and the Labourer's International that we weren't bourgeouis puppets - Gabby's Marxists see us as the next oppressor class - the class struggle will soon be against us, according to them. Long story short, that hardline bill Simon's Anti-Immortal League proposed didn't pass. Bad news is, another one did, heavily amended, but the spiritual successor to theirs. Aside from the PR boost this will give them, there's also a lot of the legislation we were afraid of."
"Like what?"
"Mandatory registration, special digital ID to set us apart, heavier taxation, stricter term limits on political office and even certain jobs."
"Do we have to wear gold stars?" Gabby said darkly.
"Not yet, Gabe, not yet. I'll do everything I can to loosen all this."
"Bet Simon's loving all of it," Cat murmured.
"Stupid fucker that he is, Gabby added.
"We're the only two immortals in Parliament - I haven't got much natural support - it's all hard-won. Hang on! Simon's making some populist speech, I have to go. Gabe, I could use some of your PR magic."
"What do you have in mind?" Cat asked Gabby once Ian had hung up.
"I'm going to go and call Claudia and Jenny and brainstorm up a flurry of appearances and good deeds or something. Play the freedom card a bit. Get some new branding on T-shirts and stuff linking me with an anti-discimination message."
"OK, just don't let me catch you three doing anything other than video-conferencing in there - that Claudia makes Vicky look like a conservative dresser, especially when you're around."
"Really? I hadn't noticed. Looking after little Jim must be bad for my libido," Gabby lied. "Look, but don't touch, promise." Gabby kissed her on the forehead and headed for the office.
Malton +89
"Lose the shades, the hat, all your jewellery, for a start." Gabby circled Bryn as they stood in front of the hotel bathroom mirror. "Andy might throttle me, but I'd go with more skin - you're fairly dark, you'll blend in better with your legs on show."
"Get out so I can change then, darlin'." Ignoring his disappointed protest, Bryn pushed Gabby out of the door and shut it behind him, already rummaging in the pile of clothes she had laid on the counter.
"Why all the changes, Gabe?"
"This Malton Relief fella arranged a meeting in one of the most dangerous parts of Sao Paulo - that bakery is a stone's throw away from a gang-owned favela, God knows why. The leaders there are practically warlords. Petty crime is so common, people barely notice it. If the locals see a well-dressed gringa walking by..." Bryn emerged from the bathroom, dressed in a tank top and tight shorts that cut off somewhere above her knees. Gabby wolf-whistled.
"I'm an immortal, sweetie, I can take care of myself."
"Just because we're immortal, doesn't mean we can't suffer. When we got on that plane, Bulldog asked me to look after you. I love this city, but it's a fucking mess; though it is getting better now Wankin's gone. Are you sure I can't come with you?"
"No, he said alone or he walks - he could lose his job, or something."
"OK, let's go. I'll drop you off a few streets down. Just don't cut through the favela. Go round. Cross the motorway if you need to, just don't go through."
"I promise. Let's go, even I know traffic here is a bitch."
Bryn cursed Gabby, not for the first time, for having robbed her of her data glasses and their street maps. She was lost, drenched in sweat, and growing more and more conspicious with every U-turn she took. She spotted a young man sitting on a low wall, leering at her tanned legs. As she approached him, his eyes slowly climbed up her body. Andy would have decked him by now, had he been with her, Bryn reflected. She wished he was here now.
"Moco. Where is the Padaria Santo Antonio?" The youth jumped down from the wall.
"Come, I show you shortcut." Before she could formulate a protest, he grabbed her hand and dragged her down an alleyway.
They were definitely in a favela. Bryn felt vaguely uneasy, Gabby's warnings still present in her mind, but so far, she hadn't seen anyone dodgy, just housewives sweeping their bare concrete floors and stringing up washing. Maybe Gabby had been out of the country for too long and was getting paranoid in his old age. The youth didn't seem worried either. He moved without hesitation, navigating the winding streets with ease.
"Aqui." Bryn looked around.
"I don't see it." The youth smirked. Suddenly, Bryn felt as if her mind had been thrown into a brick wall. She fell to her knees, clutching her head in a vain attempt to protect herself from the mental assault. When it subsided slightly, she opened her eyes. Her head was still throbbing, but she could just about think over the noise and the pain. A gun barrel was mere inches from her face, and several more surrounded her. She could see a suit handing banknotes to the youth. "Hello, Bryn. Long time no see." The last thing Bryn saw before the pistol cracked down on her forehead was Simon's smirk.
"Officer Scalia, good of you to drop by so quickly."
"You know me Sheriff, you say jump, I jump?." Bio thought the Sheriff was way too young for the job he was doing, but then he thought that about everyone these days.
"I've had a complaint about you sniffing around some company, Blanca Hill Estate or something."
"Blanca Mountain Park, it's owned by a subsidiary of Harper Industries."
The Sheriff looked blank. "What case is that?"
"The Fox Moldering one."
"Oh, that!" The Sheriff's tone said it all. "Well leave them be. It's getting some big-wig upset and we don't need the bad publicity. I'm due to run again in a few weeks."
"We're being warned off and we're going to take it?"
"It's an old case Officer. No one except you gives a damn. The man hasn't committed a murder in California for ten years and he's only a danger to immortals, no offense. He certainly isn't hanging around in any business park. You'd think they'd spot a nine foot mutant hiding under the photocopier."
"He can pass as normal sir, and there aren't many details on what Blanca Park do."
"I'm quite satisfied it's an R&D plant situated in another state, so well out of our jurisdiction. What is more it's owned by a company actively generating wealth in our city. Leave it alone Officer."
"If I don't what then?"
"You'll get fired."
Officer Joe Scalia thought about that a moment and then dropped his badge on the desk. "Suits me fine. Sir."
He turned and left the office. If someone didn't want him checking out Blanca Moutain Park then he was definitely very interested in it. Besides he was tired of Santa Teresa, of all the rules holding an immortal back and the snide remarks from this new young Sheriff. It was time for something new. If nothing else, there were people he cared about who needed his help.
"Hey!" BD pulled his car up outside Joe's Santa Teresa home. Joe was waiting for him in the yard, a large hold-all at his feet.
"You don't have to do this man," said BD. "You know that."
"Reckon I do. Quite apart from anything else, it's me next."
BD shrugged. "Didn't have to quit your job. Sell your home."
"Don't give me that shit. Moment someone finds out what I am, my chances of keeping the job are gone anyway. At least this way I've got out of it all with some money in the bank."
"You manage to find anything out before you quit?"
"Just a company and a name. It links to Fox. Don't know if it'll link us to Bryn or not."
"It's a place to start. Besides, I owe Fox a few. I don't mind collecting even if it doesn't lead us to her."
Malton +90
Gabby, Ant, BD and Joe were hiding out in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Blanca Mountain Park. Cat had dug down into the paperwork at Joe's request and said the Park didn't seem to do anything. Her guess was that it was a residence. So they were staked out watching the complete lack of anything or anyone going in and out, beyond a Brankin Deliveries van once a week. Gabby complained every time he saw it.
"We get the picture!" snapped Joe. "He shouldn't have been allowed to keep his business interests when he lost the Presidency. Let alone the mediasphere's equivalent of the world's largest department store."
"He makes millions out of that business. Anything you want, Buy it at Brankin without ever leaving your home. Save your time! Save the planet! Meanwhile it's almost impossible to buy anything except from a Brankin Delivery subsidiary."
"Quit it Gabby. We know," grumbled BD.
"Besides, we've seen enough," said Joe. "There's nothing in any of the paperwork that explains why the only thing that goes in and out of that place is the delivery van. There's obviously something odd going on there. The only real question is whether it's odd enough for us to risk breaking in to find out."
Ant chuckled. "You're really enjoying no longer being in the law-keeper business, aren't you?"
"Right. Is it even worth us making a plan?" Ant said wearily, exchanging a long-suffering look with Joe. Gabby scowled.
"Judging by those noises, Fox is asleep on the other side of this door, yeah?" Bulldog had his ear pressed to the door.
"We hope. Otherwise he's waiting for us. You sure you disabled the security system, Ant?"
"Yes!" Anton hissed.
"It's all very easy, guys. We bust down the door, put that mirror round the edge, then pour in and fill him full of lead. While he's down, we torch him, yeah?" Bulldog said uneasily.
"Will that be necessary?" Gabby sighed.
"Almost certainly. You know how many bullets this guy has taken?"
"Actually... it won't." Anton handed Joe Rough Justice and pulled out a large, chunky, modern rifle. "This'll tear him apart. Dog, you've got Betty, yeah?Joe, use Justice, that's a .357 - it'll keep him on his toes. You two soften him up, keep his attention on you. I'll finish him."
"And me?"
"Distract him."
Gabby pouted.
Anton let out a strangled cry, struggling to bring his gun-arm round and train the rifle on Fox, who had him by the throat and the arm, held up two meters in the air.
"Help me out here!"
Bulldog moaned and attempted to raise himself up on his elbow. He hadn't even levelled Betty when he collapsed on his face, still reeling from being slammed against the wall from halfway across the room - and leaving a dent.
"Some fucking plan, Anton!" Gabby dived to where Joe lay, seemingly unconscious, scooped up Rough Justice, and came up on one knee, the gun trained on Moldering's head. No-one saw him, unfortunately, but he mentally filed away the moment in his `things to brag about' folder.
"Sic Semper Tyra - "
Anton fell to the ground with a thud, and Fox was surging across the room towards Gabby. His shots went wide, and he could see the colossus' arms morphing into the claws that had torn open the doors as they prepared to burst in, the same claws that had probably killed Arthur, and all the others. The same claws that had once been inside his stomach, and had torn their way through his home. Three strikes, you're out.
Joe was on his feet.
Joe Scalia stood in the centre of the floor, panting slightly from the exertion. Blood and gore dripped from his elongated claws. A red mist swam about his vision.
"Well that was pretty conclusive," said Ant from somewhere behind him.
The remains of Fox Moldering lay at his feet. His own memories of the fight seemed disjointed and unreal. At one moment Fox had had Gabby in his grasp, feet dangling above the floor.
"Ah, at last. Not many people escape me, Mallows. Very few do so twice. No-one does it three times. I wonder how many vertebrae I have to crush, how much of your brain matter I have shred, before you actually die, and for good this time?" Fox had sounded amused.
The situation had been desperate, the man moved with unnatural speed. Joe clearly remembered thinking 'this will not happen'. Then everything slowed. Fox's head turned towards him at snail like speed. His gun was lost, it had been knocked from his grip almost upon entering the room, but he thrust his hand forward like a spear and watched as it pierced Fox's side.
"Interesting," Fox said, "and I'd expected Bryn to be the first to catch up with me," and then it had been blood and focus, attention on parrying and striking and now Fox Moldering was no more.
"What the fuck happened there?" asked Gabby, massaging his throat.
"Mutation," said BD. "We all know it's coming, Sy's work is pretty conclusive. We just all assumed Bryn would be the first to change."
"I'd just been bitten when they shelled Malton. Sy thinks some residual infection somehow speeded up the process," said Joe.
"Wait! This has happened before?" It was Gabby again. He limped over to Anton.
"Yes, it's happened before."
Joe stared at his bloody claws and willed them to vanish. Gradually his hand reverted to normal.
"Right," said BD. "Fox may have been no friend of Brankin's, but let's steal his computers and see if he had any leads on him that we don't."
Malton +91
"So the idea of this experiment is to see if we can activate the claw features in the hands." Bryn quite liked Ryoko Kazuhiro. He obviously found it difficult to think of her as a prisoner and was inclined to treat her as a volunteer. Of course she'd been encouraging that attitude.
"But I thought you'd already tried that one and it didn't work?" she drawled.
Ryoko nodded. "Well obviously your nanites have taken a different route from Fox's. His were already pretty messed up when they tried that experiment so we're starting from a different base."
"You don't have to talk to her you know!" Simon looked irritated, as well he might. It had been over two years and so far Bryn was showing no signs of change. Outward signs that was. Bryn couldn't help a sly smile. Sy had wondered how Fox had concealed the extent of his abilities from them.
Keeping calm was the key. Making friends with Ryoko helped that.
"Are you ready?" asked Ryoko.
Bryn nodded. "All set."
"Just get on with it," sniped Simon.
Pain shot through her. This wasn't like the other times. Bryn screamed. As the first shock receded though she automatically activated her claws and her teeth and... something else. Ryoko and Simon seemed smaller somehow. A thick fleshy thing flashed through the air, batting Ryoko out of the way. Simon ran for the door.
`Oh no you don't!' thought Bryn. The tentacle she had seen writhed and grabbed him. It lifted him up and then pounded him to the floor. Somewhere guns were firing, but she kept on squeezing and pounding until there was nothing left. Then she smashed through the wall of the facility and headed out for freedom.
"That's the lab from Fox's files," said Joe as they rounded a corner in the road.
Lights were flashing on the fence and a sirens were wailing.
"Did you call ahead to say we were coming?" asked BD.
"They do look a bit panicked."
The two men watched people running around in the compound. Somewhere a fire seemed to have started.
"You know," said BD conversationally. "Two things can happen in a security alert. Either everything clamps down and the place becomes quite as hard to get into..."
"... or everyone runs about like a headless chicken and you can pretty much do as you like as long as you look a bit official."
They watched the compound some more.
"I've still got my ID tags for Ian's security detail," BD mentioned.
Joe shrugged. "Let's give it a try."
They drove up to the wire and BD leaned out, flashing his out-of-date ID.
"Investigators from Ian Carlyle. I hear you have a problem."
The man waved them through. "I'll let them know you're here. It's something to do with the East labs. They're round the back on the right."
"Thanks. It's appreciated."
BD wound up the window and Joe drove through. "Fucking amateurs," muttered BD.
They drove round the back in silence. When they got there Joe whistled through his teeth. A whole section of wall was missing and scattered on the ground. They got out of the car.
"Looks like we needn't have bothered with the front gate." BD nodded to the hole in the chainlink fence.
Joe was already stepping through the wall. "Jesus!" he muttered. "It's carnage in here."
BD followed him through. There was a dead man in a white coat just by the door, a kind of pulped mess of flesh lay on the far side of the room. "I wonder who that poor bastard was," Joe said, looking at it.
"Video system," BD noted. It looked like someone had been all set up to record something. He sat himself at a terminal and clicked the rewind to start button. "Bryn was here!" he said excitedly, watching as the scientist in the white coat strapped her into a chair.
"Bingo!" said Joe. "Any idea where she is now?"
"No," said BD solemnly watching Bryn on the screen as tentacles spread out from her head and shoulders. "However you can spare your sympathy for buddy in the corner there. It was Simon."
"Bryn did that?"
"She did." BD was already fishing out his phone. "I need to call Cat."
"What's happened to Bryn?"
BD looked out through the smashed wall and across to the broken fence. "She went that way."