Russell Brooks - Pandora's Succession

Fox sighed. “And Ares fell for it.”

Marx smiled. “Of course they did. Valerik and I kept in touch so that I could monitor its progress from a safe distance. Ares never really knew the origin of Pandora. All along they thought that they were dealing with a weapon that was created in the CDC labs several years ago. The Americans had a chance at controlling Pandora because of my genius. I remember when the Defense Department needed me back then. When my project was terminated, so was my necessity. Do you know how it feels to be someone’s puppet?”

“No, I can’t say that I do.”

“Really? You, an instrument of your government’s political ideals? Please, you’re a puppet and don’t even know it.” Fox sensed the iciness in her voice, as she uncrossed her arms. “You’re just like my parents, the way they lived their secret lives. My father worked for the CIA, whereas my mother for the KGB. Guess what?”

Fox remained silent.

“My father gets killed in a Soviet air raid over an Afghan rebel training camp, thanks to my own mother. I never knew this at the time, obviously. It’s ironic that I later accepted an offer from the Defense Department to work on a bio-weapon that was to be used against enemies of the state, giving me the chance to avenge my father’s death. Now I was the one keeping secrets from my mother. All of a sudden, the US signs the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act. I show up at work one morning to discover that all of my research was destroyed, then get handed a letter stating that my services were no longer needed.”

Fox lowered his head. “Who are you to compare me to your parents? You don’t know anything about my life.”

“On the contrary. I know that at one point in your life you wanted to stop serving your home country to settle down. The things that love can do to a man.”

Fox’s stare would’ve frightened the average person. But not Marx, she was way too psychotic. In fact, Marx’s smile grew the longer Fox stared at her. “Do you still dream about her, or am I correct to assume that they’re actually nightmares? I know you must have them from time to time.”

She’d caught Fox off guard.

Don’t let her gain control over me, whatever I do.

Marx took a sip of her drink. “Come on, it’s no secret that you were once a Warrant Officer in the Canadian Joint Task Force Two, and you quit to settle down and take a teaching position. You were even about to get married. All of that was cut short when a so-called traffic accident took your bride-to-be away from you.”

She’s trying to rattle me. This could be a precursor before she administers the Clarity drug. Just as Parris described.

“You must have spent several sleepless nights blaming yourself for not seeing it coming. Knowing that it was something you could’ve prevented. Am I right?”

Fox looked away from her so that her eyes would have less effect on him.

“Your pain drove you over the edge. You couldn’t bear to have her killers get away with it. You travel around the world with a gun hoping to bring down an organization that has links in many governments worldwide.”

Fox still didn’t say a word. The nerve to bring up Jessica’s death-fuck, there I go, letting her get to me. Fox looked past Marx at Tanaka. “I suppose it helps having friends in the intelligence community.”

“And why not? I make it my business to know as much about the enemy as possible. I’ve learned from my mistakes.”

“Is that right?” asked Fox.

Marx downed her drink. “Absolutely. For instance, I wish that I had known that my mother was the enemy before she confessed everything to me. It was painful to hear that her actions got my father killed. But it was even more painful to learn that she knew of my involvement with the Defense Department and that she was under orders to kill me.”

Fox still didn’t look directly at her, but the sound of her voice spoke volumes. In it there was a mixture of both rage and sadness. In fact, there was more rage. But he couldn’t allow himself to have sympathy for her. She was playing with his mind, that’s all.

“Coincidently, she had developed severe heart complications, and was never able to carry out her orders. Whether the CIA murdered her in revenge, the KGB did so because she never carried out her orders, or it could have even been natural causes, I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care. Not anymore. You intelligence operatives, you’re all the same-just mindless puppets.”

Fox chuckled as he shook his head. “And you’re supposed to be the puppet master?”

“You can call me what you want. Have you ever heard of Neil Kirkpatrick, the industrialist? Actually, come to think of it you would’ve been finishing high school at that time he was well-known.”

“Actually I knew of a Neil Kirkpatrick. I’ve done my background checks on you too, Dr. Marx. It’s strange how he died while horseback riding in rural Pennsylvania. Doctors said he had a heart attack, right after being given a clean bill of health. He must’ve been thirty years older than you at the time.”

“Yes, he was. He also was a huge donor to the politicians that voted in favor of ending my research on the bio-weapon we now know today as Pandora. ”

Fox closed his eyes briefly. “So you had him killed, didn’t you? On the side, you took advantage of the fortune that he had left you with.”

“We all have our skeletons, Fox. It’s funny how our lives are intertwined.”

“Really? How so?”

“Don’t you see it? The Cold War ends, hence terminating my chances of getting even with the Soviets. The Soviet Union collapses, and the KGB dissolves. Some of their agents go on to form the Arms of Ares, who later kill your fiancee. You’re recruited by the CIA, who help you to avenge her death. But along the way your friend, Pat Hiller, gets killed in Uganda. Now you’ve come after me.”

“You’re right. It’s a shame neither the Defense Department nor the CDC figured out that you were a psychopath in the making. Otherwise you’d be sitting either in a jail cell or an asylum right now.”

Marx’s eyes dilated to the point that she appeared to be insulted. “Me? A psychopath? Don’t you realize that we’re both the victims of other people’s agendas? When you lost Jessica, you chose to be a government agent. I, on the other hand, chose to be a free agent. I wasn’t going be a part of any regime-whether political or religious-that causes the same problems that we both want to end, through different means.”

“So what is your way of ending the world’s problems?”

“It’s simple. Use Pandora to end all wars.”

“Now you’ve lost me.”

“Think about it. We’ve experienced two World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War. Where has it gotten us, Fox? And now the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the so-called war on terrorism we heard so much about at one time, God knows how long it will last.”

Fox looked down at the table in front of him, in deep thought. He then looked back up at Marx. “You’re going to target certain countries using Pandora? You want to be in control of the arms race.”

“No, Fox.” Marx laughed. “You know you really are naive, despite what I’ve been told about you.”

Fox thought about it for a second, but the only thing that came to mind was far too unbelievable to accept. “I don’t think so. You want to be the puppet master, therefore, having Pandora gives you a sense of control.”

“Wrong again!” Her explosiveness even startled Tanaka and the guards. “The world needs Pandora and a whole lot more than you’re willing to admit.”

“Oh yeah, tell me how?”

“Do you remember how the Second World War ended?” Dr. Marx giggled before Fox could answer. “Of course you do. Two nuclear bombs, code named Little Boy and Fat Man, were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over two hundred thousand people. Of course, the devastation was horrendous and is still one of the most talked about topics in history. What’s ironic is that the civilian casualties that resulted from the bombings were far less than the number of casualties that would’ve resulted had the madness of the war in the Pacific continued. Who knows how much longer the war would’ve gone on.”