Jonathan Bond - The Terminus experiment

Sinunij thought her heart was going to break at the thought. “What did you do.”

De Vries shrugged. “I staked them. Josephine didn’t even resist. She simply begged that I look out for her baby after she was gone.”

Sinunu found herself taking a step back from de Vries. The utter coldness in his voice chilled her to the bone.

“They were the first. After that, I managed to find the creature who had done this to my family, and I staked him as well. My life was changed from that moment on, and it has led me down paths so dark and frightening that very little of the man I once was remains.”

Sinunu felt anger rise in her like a volcano, heaving and out of control. “Why are you telling me this?”

De Vries’ eyes softened. “I said very little of that man remains, but enough for me to understand how you feel about tonight. Enough for me to realize the care you have for the elf and the concerns you have about bringing Rachel along.”

“So?”

De Vries stepped in close, and it took everything in Sinunu’s power not to fling herself backward. “Just this. There is more to Rachel than you can guess, and she stands to lose as much as you tonight, so in one sense, she had a right to insist on coming along. Also, if things go wrong, and our target is damaged in any way, we need her there. He’ll need to see a familiar face, or else he might screw the whole thing up.

“But I didn’t tell you that story to justify my backing Rachel’s desire to come along. I simply wanted you to know that I understand your concern and now it is mine as well. If everything goes right, then we’ll all get out safely, a little wiser about how dark the night can be, but otherwise no worse for the wear. But if things go wrong, I’ll make you this promise. I will do everything in my power to keep you from having to go through the same pain I went through all those years ago.”

Through tight lips, Sinunu asked, “That supposed to make me feel better?”

De Vries smiled. “It should. Over the years, I have become more powerful than you could possibly imagine. I will use every trick, every skill I possess to make sure your love comes through tonight intact.”

Sinunu smiled, a tight, ugly thing. “And if she doesn’t?”

De Vries stepped back. “Then I will help you put her out of her misery.”

Oslo Wake’s office was a small, private place buried deep beneath the main compound. Rough rock walls contrasted sharply with the soft lighting and the rich Persian rugs that covered the floor. The air in the office was warm and damp, heated naturally by a thermal spring in the bedrock, and it smelled slightly of sulfur.

Sitting at his antique oak desk, which had begun to warp from the sultry atmosphere, Wake slipped the small dermal patch into the crook of his right elbow, and hissed as the shaking tension immediately eased up. He rolled his sleeve down to cover the patch as well as his emaciated arms. In the last two years Wake hadn’t slept more than three hours a night. For a while, it had been the work that kept him awake, kept him at his deck trying to crack the secret of the virus metagene, But after a time, despair had invaded the work.

That was when the drugs had become a necessity. The goal was close now, so close he could almost smell success, but there was still so much ground to cover if his plan to save metahumanity was to work. He would not rest until all metahumans could be infected without any deleterious side effects, and that presented complications that still boggled Wake’s mind.

He was very close to a breakthrough on normal humans. They were the easiest to work with, and not just because there was so much more information available on them, but because the HMHVV strains acted fairly consistently on humans. With metas, Wake had discovered the hard way that each strain not only affected the individual species differently, but there had also been marked differences in how each strain affected each test subject. Most variants were due to magical ability, but with some strains of the virus, there were variables that Wake hadn’t even come close to pinning down.

He put his head in his hands, rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes. Then he took a deep breath, the light from his touch screen playing over his face. There were times he wished he could risk getting a datajack. It would make his work so much easier, but he also knew what it would do to his magical ability. Even a trode rig had the nasty habit of giving him a headache. Flatscreens had sufficed for years, and they would continue to do so.

He had been working on this one genetic sequence for almost a week now, and he was nowhere closer to figuring where the nips and tucks should go than when he’d started.

Wake took a deep, shuddering breath, rubbed his watering eyes, and tried to calm himself. “All right,” he said softly to himself. “The metagene seems variably activated, depending upon background mana levels. So what I need is a scale to accurately measure the mana at a particular time and place. It must be kept constant.”

He squinted and leaned in close so the screen, which was filled with a scrolling mass of nucleotide sequences and a modeling of which ones would be activated at a given mana level.

Suddenly, his private line beeped. “Go ahead,” he said, without taking his eyes from the information rolling in front of him.

Just to the left and at the bottom of his screen, a small square opened, showing the heavily made-up face of Marco D’imato. Wake suppressed a vicious grin. The pushy bastard just Wasn’t going to learn.

“What can I do for you, Mr. D’imato?” Wake kept his voice neutral, and went back to studying the DNA sequence.

“We might have a situation on our hands.”

Wake touched the screen, and the flow of information came to a halt. “Do tell.”

Marco paused, and for just a moment, Wake got the impression that the vampire was uncomfortable “First, let me ask you a question. How is the progress on Warren?”

Wake leaned back, actually intrigued now, This game of cat and mouse wasn’t usually Marco’s style. Wake steepled his fingers under his chin. “Excellent, actually. We are using the latest strain of the virus, which should allow for more improvements on the original model than even you had hoped for.”

Marco’s eyes shifted, but Wake knew that was simply an effect of the contacts sliding slightly. Still, it only made him look more nervous. “Good, good. Keep up the work. When can we expect Warren to be finished with the process and ready to make a public appearance?”

Wake smiled, though he hid it with his fingers. “I’d estimate about a week.”

Now Marco’s discomfort became apparent. “Not any sooner? There is no way you can push the process along?”

This time Wake laughed outright. “We are not making a cup of soykaf, here, Mister D’imato. We are performing an experimental procedure that is probably the most delicate blend of science and magic this side of Aztlan’s delta clinics. Or, to be more succinct, no. I cannot rush this.”

The vampire sighed, and then nodded. “Just had to ask. I think I might have been a bit too hasty.”

Wake steepled his fingers again. “Oh?”

Marco nodded. “I had intended to kill two birds with one stone. My brother is an extremely calm man, except when it comes to family, I had thought to convert Warren to the cause and use his father’s natural protective nature to eliminate a potential problem. Not to mention getting vengeance on the man who has interfered with my plans.”