I Am Aqueous

I Am Aqueous - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

We had arrived at some sort of checkpoint somewhere in Brazil and Dr. Ried shut down the helicopter, after landing it in the back of some sort of restaurant’s parking lot. I stepped out of the helicopter first and Dr. Ried followed. He told me to walk in the restaurant. I was a little startled, but he said that it was ok. So I followed inside.
The restaurant was small and dirty, but seemed to be a quite friendly one, where go times and bad were shared amongst sandwiches and coffee. We grabbed a seat and we both sat down, facing each other over a bolted table. There was a spring in the seat coiled inside me, but I obviously couldn’t be bothered by it. I scratched at a patch in the seat with a formed tentacle while Dr. Ried finally talked to me.
He was very concerned and asked, “You dropped the micro radio emitter, didn’t you? You did that on purpose, didn’t you!”
I sucked my appendage back in and shook my hands in front of my face and explained, “No, no, no! The door didn’t open, so I had to squeeze through it. It must have been left behind, because I had to become paper thin!”
Dr. Ried stroked the jagged, little, grey hairs under his chin and raised an eyebrow. He ordered, “Give me the emitter.”
I gave it to him through a tentacle I formed from my chest. He took it and examined every millimeter of it, every atom it seemed. I would have gulped if I could and I sure would have been sweating too. This man could kill me at a moment’s notice. I watched him as he put it down and I sank in my chair a little. I asked him very nervously, “So do you believe me?”
He looked cross, but explained to me, “Yes. Still you have no excuse for letting this go. I need to know what’s going on in the places I send you to.”
I nodded and stuttered out in fear, “Yes I understand. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
He warned, “You better, because I like bonding two solutes.” He handed the chip back to me and I put it inside of me. Dr. Ried gave me an untrusting look. He rubbed his hairy chin for a few seconds. Then he put his hands on the table and asked me, “So what did you find?” He pulled out a clipboard and pen from his inner coat pocket. He clicked his pen and got ready. “I assume you have a lot to tell me.”
I prepared my lie. If I were ever to succeed at a lie, it would have to be now. Lying was something I wasn’t good at, because why would I need to practice lying in my old life anyway? I explained to him what Rachael wanted me to tell him. I said, “There wasn’t anything. Most of the place was ruined and none of the computers worked. I found some filing cabinets and they had papers in them. All they had was employee stuff and bribes for the government. They had stuff like that written down. It was empty. I looked and looked, but I couldn’t find anything. So I called you.”
Dr. Ried put down his empty clipboard and gazed into my blue eyes. He stared at my limited facial expressions, trying to strip clean any sort of disguise or lie. I stared at him as blankly as I could, but his eyes looked right through mine and at the seat behind me. Everyone could see through me, but he saw through the only thing I thought was solid, my mind and soul. The reflections of the windows in his glasses were laser beams connected to the darkest shade of blue on my eyes. He analyzed and analyzed, as if he were a computer, but eventually he looked away. He bought my lie.
Just as he finished, we both noticed that everybody was staring directly at me. I hid myself into a puddle and I asked him, in a very timid tone, “What do I do?”
He silenced me, “Don’t do anything.” I reformed myself and look shyly at everyone. Dr. Ried explained to everyone, “I’ve told you about him for years and you never believed me! Well look what I finally got a hold of again. My science experiment, now called Aqueous.” He put his hand in front of me, as if to display me and asked, “What do you think?”
After a long pause, the dozen people in the restaurant reacted. Above four ran screaming out the door, but the rest stayed inside. Some came up to me and felt my liquid. A man poked me and a chef pet my head. A customer put her hand in my neck and kept shifting her hand back and forth, as if she wanted to slice my head off, but couldn’t.
After many minutes of touching and questions, a waitress decided to take out order. Dr. Ried said, “I’ll have my usual, ham, tomato and lettuce with mustard.” I obviously couldn’t order anything, because I couldn’t eat. The waitress left and returned a few minutes later with his sandwich. Dr. Ried began eating it. I watched everyone else watch me. They had left and had stopped touching me, but now looked at me as if I were a human with a tail, tentacles on his head and some very strange fingers and toes. Their heads followed the gentle swaying of my tail. I sat hunched over, pretty miserable looking, with my fingers melted into a puddle on the tabletop.
Dr. Ried finished his sandwich and clasped his hands together. He asked me, rather calmly an odd question, “Did you ever wonder if I think you’re loyal to me? I’m sure you did.” I wasn’t very comfortable with his tone. He continued, “Because I sure wonder where your loyalty is.” He took off his glasses and hunched over closer to my face. He spoke with a tone that could have froze my body, “Your lies and cheap excuses. I can see more than light through you; I can see what you’re trying to hide. So, I’ll give you once last chance to take away the urge to kill you. I’ll give you another chance to prove yourself to me.
I nodded slowly, “What do I have to do?”
He smiled, “Do you see my friends here?”
I nodded again, slower this time. I stuttered, “Yes.”
He whispered, “If you kill them all, I won’t kill you.”
I shouted, “What? You can’t mean that!”
“Oh yes,” He patted an inside pocket and reminded me, “That little button can do a lot of molecular damage to you.”
My eyebrows curved towards the center of my forehead. I started to melt a little. He couldn’t be serious. Weren’t these people his friends? I spoke up, quietly, “You actually want me to kill these people?”
His eyebrows lowered and he demanded me, whispering, “Yes. In fact if you don’t act soon, I’ll take this as a ‘no.’” He patted his pocket, smirking.
Rachael’s face haunted my thoughts and her words about keeping his trust. If only she knew the circumstances I was in. What would she do? I wished she were here. I looked at the people. They were adoring me and admiring the life I must have, body and soul. I shifted my liquid around, so I was now standing on the floor, facing a group of five spectators. I raised my head and tried to stare at the ceiling, but I could still see their heat.
I had to make that heat become cold. I wondered why it was so important to keep his trust. He only wanted to restart his life’s work. He only wanted to continue his experiments. He only wanted the world. He only wanted to release all the poisons I had upon the Earth. He only wanted to destroy every light and replace it with blight. I was the only one who could stop him. The world I knew was about sacrifice. We all have to make a sacrifice, some more than others. I have never killed someone before. I wasn’t Gun, violence didn’t make me brave and non-violence didn’t make me a coward. Courage and bravery was being able to make and perform and take the consequences of whatever decision.
I dropped my head and stared at a cook. He looked dirty and maybe an alcoholic; one that never did anything about it. He was obese and everyone else was skinny. He must have been selfish to hog the food. He looked like he might have hit someone; he deserved discipline. He might have deserved death, but he was like everyone else. He had his pros and cons, rewards and sacrifices, and good and evil, but he didn’t deserve to die. No one here did. The awful man behind me did, but his death wouldn’t help. We’ve all made our sacrifices and I made one too.
I shot a finger at the chef’s head and I pierced through the painfully warm flesh. I turned my head away and shot the remaining three fingers on my right hand and killed three more innocent people. The four bodies hit the ground and my tail targeted another and launched itself through the innocent’s neck. A few people remained and were frozen in fear, unable to comprehend the bizarre lengths and entanglements of my motivation and reason.
But I couldn’t even bear to look into their eyes. I knew they were there, and they were wide open, wide open to the very entrance of their souls. If I stared at their eyes, their fear, their lives, their insanity, their hopes and dreams, their families, their good times and bad, their mistakes and triumphs, their sacrifices, would diffuse into my own eyes, and I would have no choice, other than to live or die with them imprinted onto my own soul.
I completely collapsed and I gave up all hold of myself; I was so thin, I almost flowed outside. I completely left control of my body and I cried. My tears flowed through out me as viciously as the blood of my mistakes. I saw Gun down at the depths of our mind. Even though he was a prisoner down there, I had sunken down to his level. I even cried on his shoulder and surprisingly he said nothing and did nothing, but look up at the control of the body.
One hour had passed and Dr. Ried finally started splashing around in me. I still sobbed a little, but I eventually took control again. I pulled myself together only a little; I still didn’t form myself, but at least I was only covering a two square meters, instead of the whole restaurant. Dr. Ried walked to the helicopter and I flowed gently behind him. I wanted no one to see me; I didn’t want to see any more violence by my own control. I thought of Gun briefly. How could he kill that much? What was his motivation? I would have to ask him, how he does it, so that I could never mimic him.
After a few minutes of preparation, we were in the air and on our way to Cuba, where I was supposed to go to the main Soul headquarters. Amongst the tears, I listened to his orders. He explained, “The last facility you went to was supposed to contain information on the natural resources used in your liquid. I will need to know what chemicals and how much is needed to create you. However, I sense that I can trust you now, with that display. You seemed to really go against all you believed in, just for forgiveness. I like that Aqueous; I like that kind of sacrifice one will make for me.”
I muttered a barely audible, “You’re welcome.” In order to convince him further.
He continued, “We are on a course to the main Soul Headquarters and it will be very difficult for you.”
I mumbled, “Why?”
“I know for a fact that that place has at least 30 hired mercenaries posted inside. I learned this when I was searching the networks, while you were in Chile. It was recently discovered or captured by a former scientist. The whole facility is being restored and they might have all the components to start the project before me. I can’t let this happen. I want you, this time, to read me any special bits of information over the radio. Once I feel I’ve learned enough from Soul, you with activate the self-destruct sequence. I want no traces of anything. Normally I wouldn’t want you to kill anyone, for the sake of being able to hire the mercenaries for myself, but in this case, make sure no one survives.”
I asked, “Why must I kill them all? I don’t want to kill people.”
Dr. Ried scorned, “The idiot scientist has been blabbing out everything he knows! Once the mercenaries’ contracts void, they can sell the information to the highest bidder or keep it to themselves and start another project. We only want one! And I’m its ruler!”
I stayed silent, because of the irony. Both of us want to destroy the facility and I might have to kill the mercenaries anyway, because I know they aren’t innocent. The only difference was our long-term agendas. He wanted to revive the project, which evidently meant world domination and I wanted to destroy the project completely. I enthusiastically replied, “That sounds fun.”
Dr. Ried turned his head towards me and smiled. He said, “See? Isn’t being happy about it better?”
As I reformed myself, I replied, “Yep!” Dr. Ried turned his head and continued flying. I sat down in the seat behind him and I decided to talk to Gun. I wanted to learn some things about him and I needed to be distracted from the thoughts of murder, which at the time, Gun didn’t remind me of.
I went into our consciousness space and I saw Gun standing there with his arms crossed, still looking upwards, towards the control. I asked him nicely, “How are you feeling Gun?”
He paused. He stared a little longer, and then he stared at me. He questioned, “Why are you talking to me? I thought we were enemies?”
I hung my head and asked, “Did you see what I did? Did you see what Dr. Ried made me do, Gun? I murdered innocent people! I only say it’s my first time because I’m partnered with you. I would normally say none is too many, but it’s too late for that.”
He started to clap and would have smiled if he had a mouth. He congratulated me, “Your first kills. I’m proud. It’ll take a lot more work, though, if you want to top me!”
I shook my head and shouted, “I don’t want to be like you! I only killed because I had to. I would have died!”
Gun seemed unsatisfied with my answer and asked for more.
I continued, “I need his trust so I can…”
He interrupted me, “…Back-stab him! You will betray and murder him when he needs your help the most. I heard everything. I know your plan and I agree with it.”
I was surprised, “You do? You like the idea of stopping the project?”
He nodded, “Why, of course. You don’t want an army of myself roaming the Earth now would you?”
I nodded in excited agreement. I commented, “Why can’t we see eye to eye like this more often?”
Gun stopped my excitement by telling me, “Because we’re not meant to. You were mean to stop me from killing, not to be friends, ever.”
I changed the subject, “Why do you kill Gun?”
He seemed surprised and confused.
I added, “When I killed those innocent people, I felt the most powerful pain. I couldn’t bear it. I wanted to kill myself a million times over just to correct my mistakes. How can you possibly take all that pain?”
He responded, “It was your first. They’ll be many others. You’ll get used to it.”
I shook my head. “No I won’t.”
He warned, “You’ll have to. You’ll need the skills.”
I shouted, “There’s no skill! There’s no point in the murder of innocents. I know I’ll have to kill the mercenaries, but they stand for evil and I stand for good.”
Gun shut me up. He explained, in a rather sadistic tone, “Do you know why I like killing? Do you remember who I said was the first human I killed?”
I nodded, “You’re creator. Why?”
He continued, “Because he was a human.”
I was shot back, “You killed him, because he was human?”
Gun nodded, “I hate all humans. I don’t want the project to revive, because I don’t want others to hog the fun. I want to kill every single one of them.”
I begged him, “Why? Why do you hate them? Don’t do it!”
Gun answered, “It’s in my programming.” He started drawing a circle in the air with his finger. He explained, “You’re programming is based off a human, a little, weak child I might add, whereas my programming is to hate and kill humans.” His circle contained another circle inside of it, taking almost up all the space of the original. “My vision is constantly covered by an urge to kill a human. So it’s not my fault, blame my creator.”
Dissatisfied with his explanation, I told him, “You’ll have to do better than that if you want to convince me. You’re too human to be all anti-human. I’ll talk to you later.” I left our mind and took control of the liquid, leaving Gun to hang his head in a wide range of thoughts and feelings.
I took control again and after a few minutes of waiting, Dr. Ried said we were almost there. The seas were very blue and there were many sailboats full of tourists. The sun was starting to set when we finally landed on the ground. Dr. Ried didn’t fly off this time, he told me that he would be meeting with an ally. He didn’t want to say anymore, because everything was confidential and only given to me on a need-to-know basis.
We had landed in a jungle type area. There were many vines and very large leaves blocking the little amount of sun that was still in the sky, but I could see fine. Dr. Ried explained to me that I was to head in the direction of the sun, which was west and that he was to go the opposite direction to meet his “ally.” He reminded me again, that I was supposed to recover any information about the Soul division and then destroy the facility and everyone in it. I tried to ask him about his ally, but he said nothing.
So he was soon out of sight and the sun was setting quickly, so I had to get moving myself. I decided to run there, because I could run with out getting tired; I felt like running. Maybe I felt like running, because it gave me the imaginary adrenaline rush I needed. I avoided trees and branches and bushes, a lot, narrowly or I smashed right through them and reformed afterwards. I even stopped to look at the animals that still survived in the jungle. After a few minutes of running though, I reached a large trench. There was a wooden bridge to the other side, but seemed to have rotted away and fallen apart. I looked farther across of the trench and I saw a small building with another crudely disguised helipad. That was my destination, so I cometted across the trench. I didn’t jump long enough, so I splattered against the rocky walls. Fortunately I made many small branches in my liquid so I held on. Then I stretched myself out and slithered up the rocky surface, as if I was flowing up the face, instead of down it. I reached the top and I ran closer to the small building. The building was falling apart and was no larger than a small backyard shed. The doors were blown off and I saw a ladder stretching towards the bottom of the facility. I jumped down.
The fall was only a few seconds before I splattered against the tiled floor. I quickly reformed and hid behind a small extension of the wall. I snaked an antenna around the edge and peered at what was going on in infrared. The hall turned after a very short length; I would have to move to that corner in order to see something. So ran over to the corner and pressed my back against it. I looked again with my antenna and this time I saw two guards standing side by side, in front of a blast door.
I flipped my tentacle back and thought for a moment. Was I really going to kill them? A part of me didn’t want to hurt any living thing, but I knew I had to, because they were my enemies whether or not I work for Dr. Ried. I decided to take another peek, but this time I made one of my eyes become a tentacle to take a look. I looked carefully at how they were equipped. They each seemed to be very heavily armored. They each had very thick vests and many other pads blocking everywhere else on their body. Both had large helmets with visors, forbidding me to see their face or any skin at all. All the equipment looked like it weighed a ton, but since the mercenaries underneath didn’t size up to be body builders, the armor must have been very light and top of the line. Despite the seriousness and power of their attire, I was relieved to see that neither of them had EPPs. It would make sense for the first guards to have them if they were expecting me, but since they didn’t have one, chances were, they weren’t expecting me.
I put my eye back where it belonged and I stood against the wall. I really wanted to put an end to Project Sol, but in order to do that I had to kill, unfortunately, again. The thoughts and feelings came back; I ended five innocents’ lives. I had no excuse for my actions and my reasons weren’t good enough at all. I thought of Gun and then the plans that everyone had with Project Sol. I knew what Gun and the technology that created him and his motives were capable of. I’ve made sacrifices; people have paid the ultimate price by my tentacles and by Gun’s. Sure, Gun has killed more, but one is enough and I’ve passed the maximum. I wondered if I was ever meant to heal, not hurt.
Despite my twisted and mangled motives and all the grey actions and choices, one objective still stayed black and white, I had to stop Project Sol from starting again in the wrong hands. If I still had lungs, I would have taken a very deep breath. If I still had tear ducts, I would have dropped a tear. If I still had a heart, it would have stopped. If I could see the future, I would want to know how scarred it would be after I finally finished this whole mess. I braced myself for my first act of Earth-based vigilance.
I swung around the corner and I charged down the hall towards the guards. I shifted my eyes to the back of my head, as if they were a man panicking to get off a crashing vehicle. I raised my arms, pinched my fingers together and sharpened the tips. Even though I could still see the surprised and frantic, cold heat sources, I was blind. My mind did not want me to see the horrors of killing by my own will. I continued to run and then the men began to scream. I slammed my sharpened fingers into each of their chests. Their armor was very strong and my skill at sharpening my liquid wasn’t, so the men were only knocked onto the backs. In a vicious and panicked frenzy of squirming blue liquid, kevlar and titanium, the mercenaries shrieked and tried to leave, but I pounced on one like a merciless predator. I made knives from my fists, daggers from my antennae, a sword from my tail and raptor talons from my feet. In a tornado of stabbing, slashing and swiping and in a hurricane of splattering blood and organs, the man was eradicated from any hopes of peace on Earth or elsewhere.
I my ten second attack, I saw my other prey trying to escape. I launched my tail at his fleeing head. My skill increased, so the appendage pierced through his skull and then quickly hooked and shot back to slam the corpse to the floor with a vertebrae in more pieces than one. I retracted my appendages and shaped my edges to the innocent sharpness and I oozed over to the corner of the blast door. I looked at what I became of myself and the men I had killed. I forgot about feeling sorrow and I went straight to talk to Gun.
When I got down there, I saw Gun clapping and smiling. I yelled at him, “Gun! Help me!”
He shrugged, “What for? You seemed to have done rather nicely for your second little kill spree.”
I really couldn’t explain why I needed help, because I needed help with so many little complicated things. I needed company for how awful I felt, I needed help with controlling my insane method, I needed help with killing people as quick and calmly as Gun did. I wanted to hide myself from myself. In the end, I answer with, “Killing.”
Gun crossed his arms and told me, “What? Your little explosion? Forget about it. Once they’re dead, they’re dead. Whatever you do after that doesn’t really matter.”
I put my hands in my face and said, “Why? How? I turned into a monster! I don’t want to be a monster!”
Gun gave me some correct advice, “You already are a monster. You always were. Your specifics weren’t designed for killing, but in general, you are a killing machine. That’s what the Project’s all about. Do what you have to.”
I asked Gun, “Did you have to kill all those people? You could have just dove through the floor and grabbed us quickly. How can you do it?”
He got mad, “I’ve answered that before! I’ve been programmed to destroy!”
I melted a little, “How can I do it?”
He yelled again, “Stop making such a damn big deal out of it! No squinting, no crying, no looking away! Just do your job. Kill the bastards for God’s sake! Where’s the internal struggle in that? Sharpen, extend, stab, hook, pull and retract! Kill ‘em! Just kill ‘em! It’s not that hard! Stop being such a little child! Grow up! Just…”
Before he could continue, I shot my fastest, best-aimed and sharpest tentacle attack at his forehead. I screamed while the tentacle flew and screamed while it passed through the ghostly mental image of Gun and continued until the tentacle broke. I didn’t kill Gun, but I found out how to kill others: anger and hatred.
I took control again, this time with new motivation for killing. If I didn’t kill, the world would be overrun by other Sols with Guns being the solute. Each mercenary was a probable Gun. I hated Gun, so I hated people who stood for the revival of Project Sol. Each obstacle had Gun’s face.
I stopped for a moment to calm myself down, after realizing that I would only become what I hate if I continued to think like this. I slapped myself in the face, although it didn’t hurt, I knew that I should wake up from my trance and get back to being focused. I needed to find some information and tell Dr. Ried it after I destroy the whole facility.
With some difficulty I managed to create a small hole to slip through in the blast door. I was in the main lobby now. The room was circular with a very tall cylinder in the center, which took up most of the room. The cylinder had elevators inside of it, but I decided to look around in the other rooms on this floor.
I walked to my left and opened the door. The room was a washroom. I laughed a little at fact that I haven’t had a washroom break in 20 or so years. I decided to fool around and get my mind off of killing for a while. I walked up to the toilet, which wasn’t futuristic like I’m sure the rest of the toilets were in the world. I lifted the lid and I started to follow the very annoying procedure, which now was pretty amusing. Before I “finish” though, I heard footsteps coming my way. Then I heard two men talk and a hand touch the door, which thankfully I closed. I had no place to hide quickly, but one. I dove in the empty, broken toilet bowl.
The two men narrowly missed my movement and entered, seeing nothing suspicious. There was a tall one and a short one. The mercenaries were equipped with the same gear as the two guards I killed. The tall one took off his helmet and set it down on the broken sink. He had curly brown hair and a big chin. He spoke in a deep voice, “So Jose, when do you think we’ll start fixing up this place?”
The short one, Jose, answered, “I don’t know. It seems so hopeless to repair. After the earthquake five years ago, it got pretty bashed up.”
The tall one added, “I hope I don’t have to be in here if one goes off. I’d leave and never come back like the people who worked here.” He asked again, “Well, the boss is going all out, he should just be able to hire some workers real easy.” He clutched his crotch and hopped a little, “Starting with the plumbing. I want those toilets working. That pipe on the bottom floor is such a long walk.”
Jose pointed out, “Well, I guess the boss got enough complaints look.” He laughed, “You were just going to go there for joke, but I guess it’s working like it should.”
The tall one started taking off some pieces of armor so he could get at his zipper. He smiled and said, “Well look at that, they even have the blue stuff in the water too.”
Right then I knew what was going to happen. I wanted to avoid the punishment I was going to receive by killing the men, but before I acted, I heard Jose say something that save his life for the moment. He asked the tall one, “So Al, where’s that next room where we have to do filing again?”
I couldn’t kill Al or I wouldn’t find out where some information was, so I stayed in the toilet bowl and thinned myself, so the urine that fell on me splashed like water. I sat there a little with urine spinning around in me and Al tried to flush the toilet, but nothing happened. He scratched his head, but then shrugged. He zipped his pants up, fitted his armor back on and put his helmet back on. They both began to walk out, when I rose out of the toilet, of course, leaving the urine behind. I tip toed behind the two for a while.
Then I grabbed both of them around the neck with my arms and I yelled, “Where is the room with all the files?”
They stalled for a moment, not knowing who was talking or what was going on. They both said nothing.
I yelled again, “Where is the room!”
Jose yelled, “I’ll never tell!”
I must have accidentally choked him a little too hard, because he fell to the ground with a broken neck. I only wanted to hurt him a little to get him to talk, but anyway, I continued with Al, “So Al, where is this room?”
He paused and I waited. Then he broke out of my grip and drew his assault rifle in one motion. He fired all his bullets. The bullets pierced through me like they shot through air and I reformed the holes in me and I asked again, “Where’s the room?”
In complete shock, he collapsed on the floor and pointed at me. Amongst the whimpers and tiny cries, he explained, “They’re at the bottom floor.”
I asked, “Is there any other place I can get information on Project Sol?”
He shook his head, “It’s all been put on an optical disk.” He covered his face and screamed, “Don’t kill me!”
I shook my head, “I’m sorry. You accepted the wrong contract, you know too much. Think of it as payback for peeing on me.”
He begged, “I don’t know anything, honest!”
I sighed and waved to let him get away. He delightedly stood up and ran away. Though when he reached the blast door, he didn’t open it. He turned around and pulled out a strange handgun and fired. I saw the familiar heat come towards me. It was an EPP. I cometted over the plastic net and landed. Before the mercenary could react, I whipped a tentacle across his head, removing it. I felt the irony, I showed mercy, but he didn’t.
I knew now where to go. I ran to the elevator and opened it. I waited for the elevator to come to the top. The door opened and I walked in. I wanted to hurry, so instead of pressing the button, I opened the floor up with my feet and oozed through. I fell all the way to the bottom of the elevator shaft and exploded on impact. I collected my fragments and found that Dr. Ried’s radio transmitter was still all right. It was fine. I jumped up to the elevator door and peered really hard through the door. I managed to make out some heat. A lot of human heat, at least 30 people. I suspected they all had those mini EPPs for catching intruders alive, so I wouldn’t be able to barge in. I would have to slowly trickle through the cracks of the elevator door. I would have to drop the radio and Dr. Ried wouldn’t like that. So I decided to call and ask permission.
So I activated it and spoke to Dr. Ried, “Hello? Hello? Anyone there?”
After a brief pause, Dr. Ried’s voice filled my mind, “Yes Aqueous. What is it?”
I asked, “I need to drop the radio for a bit. Can I?”
He grumbled, “What for?”
I explained, “There’s many, many of those mercenaries with those EPP guns. I’m in an elevator hole thing and I need to slowly pass through the door so they don’t notice me.”
“So.” He said, as if wanting more.
“Last time you got mad a me for dropping the radio. I’m asking permission this time.”
He yelled, “No! As much as I trust you, I need that to find you on radar if you run away.”
I sighed, “Fine, I’ll find another way.”
“That’s a good boy.”
I turned off the radio. I sighed a little. Even though my fear of killing the guilty was gone, I didn’t have the skill that Gun had to take on all of them. I had watched his violent tactics and his form, but I didn’t think I could mimic it. So other than completely giving up, I did my other option, I took out the radio anyway. I set it on the ground nicely, so he wouldn’t be able to see any damage if he checked. I jumped down and landed at the bottom, I placed the radio on the ground carefully and then I hopped back up to the elevator door. I turned into a puddle, but carefully suspended myself on the very little space I had to rest on. I then very, very slowly oozed through the crack. I was right about the number of people and I was right to have flowed underneath a door crack in a very thin and tiny stream of liquid, because no one noticed me.
After about a minute, I finally collected my entire mass from that very narrow path I had created. I reformed and I found out that I was, in fact, in the room with all the files. The room was quite small, I figured that it was a less important that other rooms with files, because Al had said that most of the information was put on computers. This room must have been over looked. I then noticed a few human heat sources behind me in the room, so I dove behind a filing cabinet.
From what I could tell now, since there was people routing through the files, was that the room wasn’t forgotten it must have had less important that the others and that this stuff was probably useless. But none the less, I should skim through the information. I did my duty and quietly killed the tree workers sorting through the info. I started at the left filing cabinets and I worked to the right. I must have been there for hours and luckily I hadn’t been discovered. That wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t discovered; I found nothing useful. I only seemed to find reports on minor earthquakes, plumbing problems and the rest were brief outlines of what another file, which was now on some optical disk, contained. It was hopeless, if I wanted information; I would need that disk. But I didn’t want it; I wanted to destroy it. So I would have to find it.
As I was leaving I noticed one more file. It was red and out of place, so it stood out a little. I decided to check it out. I opened the folder and immediately my curiosity rose with the mention of a familiar name: the President of Project Sol, Mr. Rutherford. I had to find out his motivation. Right below the name of the subject, Mr. Rutherford, was a large stamp across the page that read, “Top Secret: Extremely Confidential.” I figured that since I was the project, I should have enough clearance to read it.
The first page was introductions and fax and e-mail confirmations, but I was very intrigued by the last, which was the second page. It read:

To Project Vice-President, Dr. Ronald Ried

Due to recent and unfortunate events, the ownership and leadership of Project Sol have fallen in to your hands. This is because of the discovery of the missing President’s body. The body was confirmed after a landfill manager found the body and was fingerprinted to be Mr. Rutherford. I know you two worked close, but there wasn’t much of a body to ID. The corpse was mutilated and organs were scattered around the landfill. There won’t be a pretty sight at the wake.
He left no will and he had no projects to be completed, except for, of course, this one. He had no personal belongings except a diary, which will be entrusted to you, along with the responsibility of the project. His final entry was for the project to succeed and that he’s almost realized his dream. Please don’t let him down or us down. I trust you’ll be comfortable in his chair.
I classified this as confidential, because no one should learn of his death. You should know of all the “attention” that would bring to our project and that might shut us down.

Linda Frial, Head of Legal Department

Now I was very suspicious of both Mr. Rutherford and Dr. Ried, not to mention the entire legal issues of the whole project. I would have to find Mr. Rutherford’s diary if I wanted to find out more. I also would like to talk to Dr. Ried more. I needed to find out what the project was originally intended for and every other little detail, like if they were legal and funded by the government or not. I should also talk to Rachael when I get to go to London. For now, I would have find this optical disk and destroy the facility.
I stepped over to the door and looked out. The many men had left and only two men guarded what seemed to be a computer of my time with an old man behind it. The old man seemed to be making copies of the disk and moving the information into what seemed to be some watches. The computer was on top of a small flight of stairs. If I wanted to stop the plague from spreading, I had to stop it at the source, right here and now. I needed to kill in order to save lives. I rushed out of the room and took out the two guards quickly and I killed another three that came in after hearing the screams and thuds. One more came, but he died too, so eventually no one could see us; we were alone.
The man stood up and looked at me; I did the same. He wore a small lab coat and a hard hat. He was very overweight and wore a blue denim shirt under his coat. His pants were brown and respectable looking. But behind his small glasses, his thick, bushy, grey beard and a wrinkled forehead, he had crowfoot encased eyes that met with mine. A great intensity filled my entire body; I might have boiled. The man who lead this team to recover and rebuild the lost fragments of Project Sol was none other than my old enemy and Rachael’s counterpart, the leader of the Soul division, Roger Charles, spy and mad scientist extrordinaire!
I yelled at him, “Charles! I hate you!”
He took off his glasses and put them in his pocket. He paced towards me and down the stairs slowly. He greeted, “So we meet again Aqueous, or should I say Ozzy.”
I threatened him again, “You have a lot to answer for!”
He seemed confused, “I do?”
I jumped up and down and shouted, “Yes you do! I heard from Rachael that you purposely made me intelligent so you could see me suffer!”
He was confused again, “Rachael?” He paused and looked at me a little. Then he remembered, “Oh yes, Michelle Bandar. Rachael was her old code name. So you’ve met with her?”
I nodded, “In Chile.”
“What was she doing?”
“She was destroying information so that Project Sol could never be started again!”
He was a little shocked, but then laughed. He got angry and explained to me, “She’s still fooling you, isn’t she?” He stared at me, “She’s working for Dr. Ried for sure.”
I gasped, “What!”
He continued, “Whoever told you what was in there was definitely lying.”
My eyebrows twitched at the sense of betrayal I was feeling. I peeped out, “What do you mean?”
He revealed further, “The base in Chile was a research facility for how to destroy you. She was destroying information on how to effectively destroy the liquid you occupy.”
I was shocked again. Rachael was destroying the weapon? Was she trying to destroy any hopes of a resistance against an army of Guns? Or was she only protecting me? I didn’t know what to think. I was in question if Rachael was my enemy, but I knew Charles was. I stopped myself from melting a little and I pointed at him, “But you, you are the evil one! Look at what you did to me!”
He yelled and argued back, “What? What have I done to you? I gave you life!”
My pointing finger dropped. I realized that he did give me life. I wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for me. If Rachael was my mother that he would surely be my father. My finger stuck out again and I asked, “But why did you purposely create my life so I could suffer? Why did you make me sick so much? That hurt! Why did you scare me so much? Why did you make me roam in the city by myself?”
He yelled back, “Why? I’ll tell you why, without the lies Rachael feeds you! You were like most kids, you wanted to go on an adventure, and you wanted to be a superhero. Am I right?”
I stopped. I thought of the promise I had made to my little brother Sam, that we would go on an adventure like the kids got to in all the cartoons if we had the chance. I have felt, on many occasions that I was so lucky to be in this really cool body. So I guess he was right. He fulfilled my fantasies. Rachael made my body, but he let me live in it.
Before I could say anything else, Charles added, “I made you sickly and I made you have a family, because I had a family once. I had a wife and a son. We lived in the city you lived and in that same city, you and I first met. I recreated the home, the city and the son I once had. My wife died of breast cancer when my son, Ben was three. Ben was sickly just like I programmed you. Ozzy, I remade you as my son that died when he was almost 13. I wanted you to escape, so I let some of Sol’s AI assist you. It was the only way I could have a son. Please forgive me."
I was speechless. I didn’t know what to think anymore. Who could I trust? Rachael was against me, Dr. Ried was using me and who I thought was my enemy, was actually a kind father. Was he really one of the good guys? He opened his arms and stepped only a meter from me. I looked up at his convincing smile and I felt my arms starting to open. I didn’t know what I was thinking by my dropped tail lifted and started swinging slowly and my drooped antennae perked up a little. I struggled to open my arms more, but eventually I stepped over to him and he knelt down and we hugged.
I hugged him and he hugged me. I didn’t cry as much as I did when I hugged Rachael, but I started to melt a little. With that, his hands swam around in my back like he were testing the temperature of the water in a bath tub. I seemed to have found peace.
Despite the hug’s innocence, I felt something strange about it. His hand shook the slightest bit. His hand was unnaturally warm and was secreting a little bit of sweat. I wondered why he was so edgy if he was so happy? Why did it seem so wrong?”
Then he said something, amongst his forced tears, “You’re like the son I was never able to have.” Then it hit me. I remembered one of the moments in the 80 years inside one of those canisters. I didn’t take too much notice to it then, but I remembered it now. I remembered overhearing a scientist mention what a penis was for, the male private part. He said that it also helps with making children. Although I didn’t want to look, but as I hugged Charles, I noticed something that didn’t compare to what I had as a human. I interpreted from the heat that I saw through chest that it was impossible for Charles to have kids! He even said that I was the child he could never have. His story was a big lie!
I let go of him and told him, “You’re lying. You never had children.”
He looked very panicked, “What makes you think that?”
I crossed my arms, never letting them hold him again. I explained, “You should know that I can also see heat through every part of my body.”
He looked down. He shook his fist and probably cursed inside his head. He desperately tried to cover it up, “You were adopted! That’s why you were sick.”
I then remembered other things about him, “You shot at me, you got the SWAT after me, you even got the military after me didn’t you.”
Knowing he was trapped, he admitted, “Yes.”
I added more, “When you asked me to join the police force, you were actually going to capture me and bring me back to Dr. Ried.”
He sighed again, “Yes.”
“You probably issued those EPPs to the men.”
“It was my invention. Quite simple to make.”
I added, “You probably set up that trap that the military used. Why didn’t you capture me for Dr. Ried?”
He answered, “The military was my only chance to catch you. I would have stolen you from the military and brought you back, but they gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
I waited, “Which was?”
“One billion dollars in total, in yearly payments, to not expose any information.”
I sighed, “You sold me.”
He pleaded, “I had no choice. Since I was fired from Soul, I used the money to try and start the project again on my own. It took me a while, but I found another base and…”
He realized that now his fib was entirely blown. I lashed my tail out and around his neck. I squeezed his neck to the point that he couldn’t breathe. I lifted him up into the air to the point that he couldn’t struggle. I stepped up the stairs with Charles still in my possession and I looked at the computer. A text program was opened and the title read: Operation Ocean Earth. Along the margin I saw many phase numbers to go along with his plan. That was all I needed to see. I immediately destroyed the computer, broke every disk and special watches and then I hurled whatever life was left in Charles across the room. He landed with a large crash and he skidded into the wall.
I leapt in his direction and landed in front of his face. He didn’t have enough energy to look up, so he looked at my feet clench, as I stabbed him numerous times. I left his body and I searched for a self-destruct button somewhere in the other rooms. I found a self-destruct button in the security room at the bottom floor. I pressed it and a voice filled the room. Red lights flashed and the voice explained, “Self-destruct sequence activated. Please leave the facility via the ladder on the top floor. 30 minutes until detonation.” The message repeated.
I ran to the elevator and smashed through the door. I grabbed the radio, which was intact and I cometted back and forth against the walls to get to the top floor. Someone was trying to climb up the ladder, but I killed him. Then another man showed up, so I killed him too. I figured if I wasn’t going to leave any witnesses, I would have to stay a while and guard this ladder. About ten minutes later, there wasn’t anyone left in the facility alive, except me. So I took one last glance at the pile of bodies and then I cometted to the top and out of the shack. I ran full speed and jumped the trench without crashing into the side and I ran and ran until I heard a huge, but faded explosion in the distance. I turned on the radio and called for Dr. Ried to come and get me. “Mission accomplished,” I said, “Mission accomplished.”