Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (34 page)

Suddenly, everything was black and perfectly still. Ivy seemed to be in a room so large that there was no discernible boundary. It was like an endless black fog. Someone took her by the right hand and she immediately sensed comfort and home. When she turned and looked, she saw Dade Harkenrider.

Any hostility she felt had vanished and she asked him, “Where are we, my love?”

He smiled without saying a word and pointed to a spot far away in the distance. The thing started as a single tiny white pixel. As it flew toward the two of them, it became a massive moving image, like a ten square mile drive-in movie theatre screen. It was playing for the two of them.

Ivy was astonished when she saw what was on the screen. It was her as a teenager. Only, it wasn’t the scarred orphan. It was someone different, someone who hadn’t suffered that fateful day under the hands of Bernard Mengel. Teenage Ivy on the screen was perhaps seventeen and appeared to be getting ready for a date. The massive movie showed intermingled scenes and flashes of images, reflections of the life she could have had, simple and happy times that never happened, but could have.

On the screen, young Ivy eagerly opened the door to welcome her date. Teenage Dade Harkenrider was standing there. He was holding flowers and even looked nervous to see her. The young man’s face wasn’t battle-hardened like the real Dade. The way he looked at her, sweet and lovingly, seemed far beyond the capacity of the real version.

A saturating white flash on the screen jumped them forward in time. Dade and Ivy appeared naked, wrapped up in one another and fast asleep. They both seemed so comfortable and content that their sleep looked closer to death. Another flash took them to another time. They were kissing, with Dade wrapping her up in his arms.

There was another white flash and the screen changed again.

It was their wedding day. They were dancing and Dade lowered her into a dip. There was a succession of flashes of them kissing goodbye in a flurry of routine mornings. The complete picture of Dade and Ivy growing old together played as a rapid series of images and sounds.

She and Dade stood in front of the screen as she admired their alternate reality. Whatever hate and bloodlust she felt for him had evaporated without so much as a goodbye. While they stood watching the movie of what their life together could have been, she found herself gripping his hand tighter.

“What does this mean?” She asked him as they stared up at the screen. It was as big as the night sky.

“It’s what could have been,” he told her. “If not for Bernard. This is why he found you, because you’re my soulmate. Our lives, our loves, they matter. That’s the real stuff of the universe.”

“I don’t understand,” she pleaded. “Why would he do all this?”

“To stop something beautiful. That’s what it does. That’s what he does. He’s the opposite of the force of life.”

“How do we get back to this life? I want this life. I don’t want to go back.”

“I’m sorry,” Dade told her. “There’s nothing we can do now.”

“I want to be a human being again. I want this life. I want to be with you.”

“It’s too late.”

...

Ivy opened her eyes to find the purple haze beginning to recede from the restaurant. Dade Harkenrider was in front of her, bleeding from a fork stuck in his abdomen. She immediately tried to help him. “I’m sorry,” she said in horror at what she had done to him. “I’m so sorry!”

Before she could get to him, Dade’s DeathStalker got in her way. It flashed its eyes and made a godawful growling sound in its motors. It kept Ivy back like a loyal guard dog.

“It’s OK,” Dade told the robot, who immediately let up its guard. “Let her through.”

“I remember everything” Ivy said. “I remember our other life. I’m never going to forget.” She reached to help him with his wound. “Oh my God,” she said as his wound seemed to be spilling over. “What have I done.”

With the gas almost totally clear from the restaurant, Ann Marie ran inside. She saw Dade’s wound and became frantic. “Dade! Dade! I’ll bring in a helicopter!” she shouted, reaching for her phone. “Can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?”

“Thank you both for your concern,” he said, wincing from the pain, “but I have my own health insurance policy.” He glanced over to the DeathStalker, who somehow seemed to read his mind.

Little baby metal scorpions poured from the DeathStalker’s back and swarmed Dade’s wound. The little creatures used their claws and lasers to remove the fork and cauterize the wound. After a few minutes, the bleeding stopped and Dade tried to get to his feet.

“Bernard,” he said, sounding hoarse and nearly growling.

“He’s going to the border,” Ivy told him. “His next business is in Mexico.”

“I don’t think he’s gonna make it.”

Suddenly Ivy was overcome by a memory. It seemed like a mental lightning strike. She nearly fell to her knees as a series of thoughts and memories came hurtling to the surface. She could feel Bernard’s hands invading her body. She remembered her foster homes, every abusive one of them.

“He’s taken everything from me. Everything from us,” she said to him.

“I know,” said Dade, lowering his head. “That’s why his time has come.”

“I’m the chief executive officer of the Asylum Corporation,” Ivy remarked. She suddenly sounded cold and businesslike. “I have evidence that Bernard Mengel aided terrorists and allowed Chinese hackers into the Asylum computer system. I’ll make sure you have all the corporation’s resources. He’s not going to get away with what he’s done.”

“It’s not just what he’s done,” Dade said. “It’s what he’s going to do.” He pressed his palm to the wound on his belly to test its tenderness. It made him wince but his expression still seemed carved out of granite.

“I’m going with you,” announced Ann Marie.

“Me too,” said Ivy.

“No way,” Dade told them both. “There is no way that bastard is using one more person I care about against me.” He told Ivy, “You’re recovering.” To Ann Marie, he said, “I’m going to need your help with one of my machines. We’re going to need the Devil’s Breath prototype.”

...

Bernard sat in the back of his black limousine as it sketched a worn and lonely path down a desert road to the border. The driver, a former special forces operative with bulging muscles and neck to match, hadn’t said a word during the journey. Their road couldn’t be found on any publicly available map because the military used it for “international exercises” with Mexico. The route was only known by a few high-level military contractors and government people.

While the man drove, Bernard stared with longing at a photograph of young Ivy Cavatica, age eight. The old man looked as though he could cry at any moment.

“Fifty miles to Mexico,” the driver said as he lowered the glass that separated the back compartment. “Then you’re on your own.”

“You don’t need to remind me of the deal that I came up with,” Bernard told the man. “Just drive the car to the border. I think you seem up to the intellectual challenge.” He started to raise the glass pane that separated them, saying, “Morons.”

When the tinted glass was all the way up and Bernard was alone, he took out the picture of Ivy and ran his fingers over the surface. From behind the photograph, he folded out a similar one of young Dade Harkenrider. He looked around the same age as Ivy.

The driver sent the divider down again. He told Bernard, “Sorry to interrupt again, sir.”

“Not as sorry as you’re going to be.”

“Sir, there’s something up ahead, something in the road.”

Up ahead, something was indeed flickering on the horizon. It didn’t have features of a vehicle or a person. It was just a dark mirage, a rippling amorphous blob coming toward them down the road.

“Sir, we’re getting a message,” the driver told Bernard. “It’s coming through on every station, analog and digital.”

A cold-sounding female computer voice began to play into the limousine. “This vehicle has been targeted for drone strike. The Asylum Corporation and its affiliates have been granted permission by the United States government to destroy this vehicle and terminate all life forms inside. The Asylum Corporation accepts no responsibility for human or computer error, misidentification of target, or any collateral damage as a result of this drone mission. The Asylum Corporation appreciates your cooperation and your country appreciates your commitment to freedom.”

“I’m gonna pull over,” the driver said.

“Moron!” shouted Bernard. He reached into the drivers compartment and grabbed the driver by the shoulder. Bernard’s touch seemed to somehow paralyze the man. Unable to control his movements, the driver stomped on the accelerator and the limo sped toward the border. Bernard remarked, “This limo is armored better than the president’s.”

Suddenly, Bernard noticed something just outside the car. It was running alongside of them. The DeathStalker, his former guard, was keeping pace with limousine. It had a shiny, freshly-polished metal exoskeleton and it looked at Bernard as if to say,
remember me
.

The DeathStalker flashed her red eyes and signaled to the babies on her back to get to work. They poured off her back and tore up the desert on their way to the limo. The mini DeathStalkers swarmed the vehicle and began to tear at the outside with their claws and lasers.

“Little bastards won’t be able to get in here,” Bernard said. “Not with this armor.”

At the same time, a couple of miles ahead of the limo, Dade Harkenrider stopped Asylum One in the middle of the desert road and stepped out. He could just begin to see Bernard Mengel’s limo on the wavy horizon. From the back of the truck, he pulled out two large, black plastic trunks.

Both boxes read:
PROJECT DEVIL’S BREATH, TOP SECRET, EYES ONLY.

From the first box, Dade pulled out something that looked like a satellite dish about as large as a punchbowl. He set it on a tripod in the middle of the road. The second box contained electronics and power supply. When he had them connected, the dish was pointed at the oncoming limousine.

Dade raised his arm into the air like a gladiator and shouted into the desert. “DeathStalkers!” He screamed. “Go to ground!”

Immediately, Bernard saw the metal insects drop from the limo and crawl into the desert. All the drones, including the mother DeathStalker, began to vibrate their legs and dig themselves into the ground. Within a few seconds, the DeathStalkers had all burrowed into the sand.

Dade lifted the protective plastic cover to the weapon’s trigger. He pushed the red button and started to walk toward Asylum One. As he walked, a high-pitched tone like the warm up on an old camera flash climbed in volume until it seemed to fill the entire desert. Five seconds started to click down on the weapon’s control panel. Dade got into Asylum One and shut the door.

Two...One

A bright white light started in the back of the satellite dish. There was a sound like high-pitched rolling thunder. The light suddenly collapsed on itself like a crashing tsunami. It created an explosion. A hellfire of desert air hurtled toward Bernard’s limo. It blew entire boulders away so fast that they looked like twigs in a hurricane.

When it got to Bernard’s limo, the wave immediately separated the hood and turned everything in the engine compartment to glitter. The driver’s body became what looked like a jello mold, then liquid, then a foul-smelling steam that slapped Bernard in the face. The entire vehicle disassembled down to small shards. Even the tires melted under the force of the pressure wave.

Bernard, along with a considerable amount of debris, slid to a stop right in front of Dade.

Bernard’s clothes were nearly ripped to shreds but his body didn’t have so much as a scratch. His hair was barely out of place. “New weapon?” He asked Dade as he got to his feet.

“Yup.”

Bernard smiled in his most charming way. “Well, that really was quite a surprise,” he said nearly laughing. “I bet the army is gonna pay big for that one.” He took a few steps forward and stopped. “You took Ivy from me,” he said. “I can already feel our bond fading away. You didn’t have to do that to me. Everything I’ve done to you served a purpose. That was just plain mean.”

“It’s the end, old man,” Dade said as he faced him down like a gunslinger. “You better be prepared for what you’re gonna find on the other side.”

“You’re injured,” Bernard said as he scanned Dade’s midsection. “I’m not sure coming after me now was the smartest thing.” The old man started to circle him. “But I bet you couldn’t help yourself.”

“Are you ready, Bernard?”

“Am I ready for death by Dr. Death?” He asked himself like he had just discovered an interesting philosophical inquiry. “Since I’m standing across from a more powerful sorcerer bent on my destruction, I guess I should prepare myself for a warrior’s end. Because I’m in the very last moments of my wicked life, may I have just a few more words with my former apprentice?”

“I suppose.”

“I’ve discovered something,” Bernard started to explain like he couldn’t contain the news any longer. “There are very few people on this Earth that can appreciate what it is and I want to share it with the great Dade Harkenrider. We are colleagues in the same field after all.”

“You want to talk shop with me?”

“Indeed, indeed,” Bernard bubbled. “You think your little float tank is getting you to the far edges. Boy, you ain’t seen nothing.” He could tell that Dade was interested and had momentarily set aside the plan to attack. Bernard went on, “You can’t even conceive of this frontier. I’ve been working with a shaman in Mexico. I have to say he is a bit of a nasty sort, but he is a master of a very interesting brand of black magic.” Bernard smiled at his next thought, saying, “Savages. They have no idea about our scientific approaches to things. I think I’m going to kill him after we’re finished. He really annoys me come to think of it. This leads me to a question. I’ve been wondering about something and I wanted to inquire from a master of your calibre.”

“Go ahead.”

Bernard asked, “Do you think it would benefit my powers at all to eat his testicles?”