Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (16 page)

The albino nurse shouted, “Let’s stick him and let him bleed into the fire!”

Bernard’s face became nothing but cold eyes, sharp angles and dark shadows undulating in the flames. He roared at the boy at a volume that shook everyone’s bodies. It sounded like the mixture of bomb blasts and air raid sirens. “That’s enough out of you!” he shouted at the hoods. It sent the entire group back a few feet in surprise.

At Bernard’s feet, the tattooed boy fell to his knees in apparent agony. He gasped and groaned in pain mixed with confusion. He looked like a deer suddenly struck down by bullet. Bernard grabbed the boy’s head and squeezed it while he uttered some incomprehensible string of syllables.

The tattooed boy’s body entire body erupted in white and blue flames. It was as though every skin cell had caught fire at the same moment. He screamed in suffering, nothing supernatural, just the sound of a child in terrible pain. The strange fire on the boy’s skin quickly died out. The smoke cleared to reveal a vague silhouette outline of Bernard Mengel, complete with fedora hat and violin. The impression was seared into the boy’s skin.

Chapter 9

Asexual

A few days later, as the sun was going down, Ann Marie found Dade in his laboratory working on something odd. She had expected to see him in front of the fume hood in the midst of preparing a new batch of psychedelic chemicals. Instead, she noticed right away that the tank hadn’t started its three-hour warming cycle to get to body temperature. At the lab bench across the room from the tank, white sparks wafted up from some kind of project. He was welding something strange together. It looked like a metal insect exoskeleton.

“I can’t go under tonight, kid,” he said, extinguishing his sparkling electrical welder. “I’m on a build.”

When she got closer, she asked him what he was working on. Whatever it was looked very complex, with a hoard of piezoelectric motors and the blinking insides of microprocessors.

“It’s a prototype,” he answered, pulling his googles over his dark bangs. “Newer, faster, more deadly DeathStalker.”

“Aren’t those things scary enough already?”

“Sometimes we need monsters to fight monsters.”

“I don’t like those things,” she said with a hint of judgement. “I never wanted to work on weapons. I never wanted to be that kind of scientist.”

Dade laughed at her. “Good for you,” he said. “I don’t like war either.”

“Then how do you work on all this stuff?”

“Whether I like war or not doesn’t change the fact that humans are at war.” He handed her an extra set of welding goggles and told her to put them on to protect her eyes.

“Are you OK?” she asked.

“Of course,” he said as he started up the electric arc on the welder. “I’m functioning normally.”

“With everything that’s been going on and you seeming so tense...”

“You were worried about me?”

“I guess.”

“You don’t need to be,” he said before going back to welding his new prototype. “You’re a sweet kid and I appreciate the sentiment.”

“Why are you building a special DeathStalker? There must be some reason.”

“A friend,” he answered plainly. “When you need someone you can really trust, it’s time to look to the machine world.”

“You can’t build a friend.”

“Ann Marie,” Dade said like he was lightly chastising her. “I expect a more open mind out of you.”

“You could just talk to someone,” she argued. “An actual person. Maybe
me
sometime. Maybe you could act like a half way normal person for just a small fraction of the time. With all the stuff we’ve seen together, the tank and everything that’s been going on, it seems only natural that you would need to talk to someone about it. You’re only human.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms. She was doing her best to look like she had won the strange argument that had just sprung up. “You want to treat me like an airhead teenager and shut me out, I’ll have to slow down my work in the lab.”

“Not the thing best point to argue to your boss.”

“I know you’ll never fire me.”

“How do you know that?”

“If there was anyone else on the planet that could deliver exactly what you needed, they’d be here instead of a seventeen-year-old girl from some shitty neighborhood in Philly.” Realizing that each word out of her mouth felt like a bite of nourishing food to someone starving, she went on. “You seem to love replacing people with machines. If you could weld yourself together a chemist, I’m sure you would have.” Her heart was pounding by the end of her statement.

The initial satisfaction turned to a strange sense of guilt, as though her anger at him was misdirected. He had taken off his welding goggles by that point and was looking at her attentively. She suddenly regretted her outburst.

“You’re right,” he told her.

Ann Marie was stunned, asking, “I am?”

“You’re involved now. I shouldn’t sequester information and shut you out at what must seem like my whim. It’s not a nice way to treat humans.”

“You say that like you’re not one of us.”

“I’m not.”

“So you’re going to tell me what the new DeathStalker is for?”

“It’s like I told you before,” he said, “I need a monster to fight a monster.”

...

Bernard Mengel held the worn maple acoustic guitar under his arm and rolled his fingers over the strings. The children at the day care center formed a semicircle around him. He sang a nursery rhyme in perfect tune with what appeared to be very little effort. “The little boys and little girls go wandering...” He started the beginning of the verse. The five and six year olds seemed to be entranced. The old man was more than comfortable around the children. He was like a plant that had found the perfect soil and one could nearly see the new life growing in his face.

The woman who ran the Asylum Corporation Daycare Center, a petite forty-something former kindergarten teacher, stood up when Bernard finished his song. She had never heard that particular song before and found it somewhat odd. She still clapped and did her best to show respect. After all, Bernard was one of the very few musical guests that the daycare center had ever received. His request to play for the children had come a few days before and the principal had been struck by the abnormal offer. High level people from the corporation didn’t generally take such an interest in the children or the daycare center.

“Children,” the daycare director said, “will you all please give a big round of applause to Doctor Mengel and thank him for his visit. He’s a very important man who has taken this time out of his busy schedule to see you.” She asked the group,” Now, does anyone have any questions for Doctor Mengel? He isn’t just a rockstar you know. He is one of our top special advisors at the corporation.”

“I don’t need to leave any time soon,” said Bernard. “As a matter of fact, I have a new song to debut and I would love it if you children were the first to hear it.” His eyes scanned and scrutinized every young face. The old man kept up his practiced smile. He found something in the back of the room that, for an instant, made him look like he was about to pounce. Then he composed himself and settled back in his chair while he strummed.

The little girl he found in the back wasn’t paying much attention to his song. She seemed disconnected somehow from the rest of the group. As Bernard Mengel played, he found it difficult to take his eyes off the aloof little girl.

When he finished, the children started a hearty round of applause. Bernard didn’t take his eyes off the dark-haired little girl in back. The daycare director clapped along with the class and thanked Bernard again for his time.

“How many of you,” Bernard started to ask, “have ever been inside of a real laboratory?”

Not one of the children raised their hands. Bernard stopped strumming and gestured to the quiet little girl in back. “You there,” he said to her, “what’s your name?”

The little girl looked at him for a moment before going back to her crayons and coloring book.

“It’s OK,” Bernard said to her. “Tell me your name. I promise I won’t bite you on the neck.”

His strange assurance made her appear even more uncomfortable. “Rebecca,” she finally said in a soft, shy tone.

“Well, Rebecca,” said Bernard. “Would you like to take a tour of the factory where we build the satellites?”

Rebecca didn’t answer.

Bernard slapped on the back of the guitar like a bongo drum and moved his shoulders to his own rhythm. He asked one of the young boys in front, “Do you like fighter planes?”

The little boy cast a big wide smile and waved his face up and down. “Um hmm, Um hmm.”

“Wonderful,” Bernard said to him with the smile of an assassin. He turned his attention again to the black-haired little girl in back. “What does your daddy do here?” Bernard asked her as he glided through a chord on the guitar.

“He doesn’t work here. My mommy works in accounting.”

The pupils in Bernard’s eyes slid open a bit blacker. “Does your daddy work nearby?”

“No.”

The director of the daycare center looked as though she found Bernard peculiar and his latest question somewhat invasive. “I think that will be all for today, Doctor Mengel. I know you’re quite busy and the children need to have their lunch.”

“Perfect,” Bernard responded, pointing his finger into the air as if making a point. “I can stay for lunch and spend some more time with the children. I rarely get such an opportunity to see so many gorgeous, curious faces.”

“Beat it, old man,” rang out from the back of the daycare center. Dade Harkenrider was sitting on one of the tiny desks in the back of the classroom like he had been observing for hours. He said, “I got something much better than your lame little sing-along.” Dade displayed the palms of his hands like a magician before a trick. He then apologized to the daycare director, saying, “I don’t mean to cause a disruption but I have business with Dr. Mengel. But, before that, I have someone that I would like to introduce the children to. It will only take a minute.”

The director seemed strangely relieved at the interruption. There was gratitude that she hadn’t been forced to be the one to ask Bernard to leave. “Dr. Harkenrider,” she said, “I think we can make five minutes but I know you and Dr. Mengel need to leave for important business.”

Dade nodded, saying, “That we do. I promise we’ll be out of your way in no time. I just need to introduce someone special.”

Dade Harkenrider’s smile was so wide and his manner so odd that the children were captivated. A few children called out, “Who is it? Who is it?”

“He’s very quiet,” Dade said, “but very sweet.”

Just outside the door to the daycare center, there were shouts and the sound of one woman screaming like she had seen an alien. A loud click clack, like a dozen tap dancing shoes, sounded out on the floor tiles in the hallway just outside. A few of the children became nervous but none took their eyes off of the doorway.

Bright ruby laser eyes beamed through the doorway and scanned everyone inside. Then, titanium metal legs started to slip around the corner of the doorway. From the children’s perspective, it looked like a giant steel hermit crab, hiding most of its body in the hallway while its eyes peered all over the room. The sight of the thing frightened the daycare director but the children broke into an excited frenzy.

“Bernard,” Dade announced, “I want you to meet your new best friend.”

The robotic beast showed itself to be about the size of a Labrador retriever, with eight brushed-metal legs ending in feet like pointed daggers. In the manner of a centipede, its legs were coordinated in a highly evolved harmony of motion. The DeathStalker slowly slithered into the room and set its laser eyes on Bernard Mengel. It scanned the old man’s face and body repeatedly with the red beams. The advanced super-drone seemed to imprint Bernard the way a baby does with its mother.

“He’s bonded to you forever now,” Dade told him. “You’re going to be the best of friends.”

Bernard looked down at the red-eyed mechanical marvel. Just the sight of the thing made him uncomfortable. He told Dade, “It’s a very impressive contraption but I really don’t care for drones. I am still rather used to flesh and blood soldiers. I would appreciate it if you could somehow talk the thing into giving me some distance.”

The titanium insect crept closer to Bernard. White and purple sparks flared from the weapon mounted to its tail. The children all yelled in excitement and stood up from their seats.

“I’d be careful,” Dade told Bernard. “He bites.”

“Please get this thing away from me.”

“He’s going to be by your side every minute,” said Dade. “That is until you leave and go far, far away.”

“My dear boy,” said Bernard. “I appreciate the warm gesture on your part but this simply won’t work.”

“Oh, I think it will,” said Dade. “Get to know your new friend.” Then he started talking to the kids gathered around. “You see, boys and girls, since we all love Bernard so much and we want to make sure that he’s safe, our friend the DeathStalker here is going to be protecting Bernard for as long as he’s here. If there is anything violent or dangerous going on, our friend the DeathStalker here is going to step in and make it all better. I, for one, hope that Bernard’s visit is so boring and uneventful that Mr. DeathStalker doesn’t have to do anything except just tag along and keep him company. I know it makes me feel better that there is a friend keeping an eye out for such a defenseless old man.”

With his new titanium companion close by his side, Bernard walked over to Dade and whispered, “You should know that your little impediment is no concern to me.”

Dade scowled back, saying, “What I would love is if you try to teleport away. I got my DeathStalker programmed to detect it before you do. It knows your tells. This is just the beginning, old man.”

...

Ivy stared lifelessly at the computer screen in her cubicle. Her meager office space was only a tiny element of a vast array of cubicles in one of the Asylum Corporation’s dozens of lower buildings. All around her, ringing phones and chattering voices melded into a cacophony that made her dizzy. It was nearly four hours after lunch but the huge room still stunk like microwaved popcorn and cabbage.