Sparks of Chaos (12 page)

With a plan firmly in place he removed the stasis box from his backpack and activated it. He had taken a chance by removing it from the ring and had it ready to accept the body and keep it alive for shipment. Placing it on the table he was struck by how much it looked like a small coffin. It was slate gray in color but now that the lid was open it glowed with a rather eerie inner light that made it appear even more sinister. He had memorized the sequence needed to both shrink the Professor’s body to about twelve inches so it would fit into the stasis box as well as sedate him for placement and the journey.

Just as he was to begin the sequence on his wristband the Professor awoke from his crying fit, suddenly pointing his finger directly at Chase he yelled “
Peter, wo ist mutti
?” More in anger this time than repentant, he began flailing his arms around wildly. Not only was he getting louder, with his manic arm flailing he had hit the large desk lamp and sent it crashing to the floor. Like a thunderbolt, the lamp made a horrendous noise when it landed, sending glass scattering around the floor.

The situation was beginning to get out of control, he needed to move quickly. The Professor startled by the noise stopped moving and was for now silently looking at Chase. Before he could react, the door swung open and Birgit entered and walked towards him saying, “What’s going on in here Michael? If the Professor is having a bad day it’s time to leave.” It was then that she noticed the strange glowing box on the desk and the odd look of his wristband.

She instantly knew something was wrong. Birgit saw the look upon his face of a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar and she knew she had been betrayed. “What is this, what have you done?” she screamed pointing to the small box.

As he edged toward her, she instinctively pulled back away from him. “Wait it isn’t what you think, I can explain,” Chase pleaded with her.

“I don’t know what I think about this; all I know is that you used me. How could you do that, I thought you liked me and all along it was just some kind of trick to get me to bring you here. Are you here to hurt him too?’ she screamed with her fury escalating with each word she spoke.

Reaching for her hand, he grabbed her wrist in an effort to comfort her and keep her voice from drawing any unwanted attention. “Please, just give me a chance, I can explain everything. Just sit down I’ll tell you everything, I am not here to hurt either of you,” he said as he tightened his grip on her and tried to steer her towards a chair. This was an unmitigated disaster, he had to calm her down and buy himself some time to think.

“Let go of me. I don’t want to hear anything from you anymore. I don’t know what you are doing and I don’t care, I am going to get security and you can explain it to them,” Birgit screamed as she tried to pull her wrist free from his grip.

“No, no, no, don’t do that, you have to listen to me. This is a good thing I am doing, not bad,” he said as he tried to draw her closer to him so he could calm her down and get her trust back. When he saw the fear in her eyes he knew he was not going to convince her. It killed him to think that she was afraid of him, so he let go of her hand.

It was at that moment that Birgit’s apprehension and fear reached its peak and she used all her strength to try and pull herself free from him. When he let go her feet started to slip on the Professor’s well-worn old rug and her feet flew out from under her. Chase watched helplessly as she quickly and forcefully fell backwards. With a sickening, bone crushing crunch, the back of her head violently hit the corner of the big oaken desk and she slid to the floor.

Oh my god, everything was falling apart, he had killed her. There was no way she was going to survive that hit to her head and as much as he was afraid to look, he knew he had to. He bent down and saw the rapidly spreading pool of blood around her head like a sickening red halo. There was so much blood, he had read that head wounds bled a lot but this was certainly too much.

Her face was already becoming pale, he felt the back of her head and it felt mushy and broken. His mind was reeling, what had he done and what was he going to do now? His options were very limited, the smart thing to do was to get out of there as fast as possible and get back to the island. He could still take the Professor with him and hope that the authorities would blame the missing man for her death. Looking at her, he knew he couldn’t do that; he had to do something to save her, he couldn’t just let her die because of his mistakes.

He felt her wrist for a pulse, the same wrist he had just been holding only a moment ago. There was a pulse but it was very faint. If only they had given him some of those biobots to give to the Professor, but they were afraid of them being discovered. If he had them maybe there was a chance they could heal her the same way they had healed him.

That was when it struck him; he did have biobots with him, billions of them. They were inside of him; he could give her some of those. He had no idea if that would work but it was his only chance and he had to try. Chase looked for something to cut himself with, a piece of glass from the broken lamp or something. On the desk was an instrument that looked like a knife but was an old letter opener. He grabbed it and noticed that the Professor was still standing and not reacting at all; he had grown quiet and appeared to be almost catatonic.

The letter opener was heavy but not very sharp, so he opened his left hand and pressed hard until the skin broke and he drew blood. He might be immortal but that hurt like crazy, he squeezed his hand until he had a handful of blood pooled into his palm. Turning her over, Chase took the blood in his hand and rubbed it into the wound on the back of her head. He cupped another palm full quickly as his wound was already beginning to heal. He forced it into her mouth and gently held her head up so that she wouldn’t choke. He had no idea if either of these ways would make a difference so he tried both.

Chase didn’t have the time to wait to see if it would work. Someone could walk in here at any time or the Professor could start screaming again. The only thing he could do was to shrink her and place her in the stasis box. The box was made to provide a complete life support almost indefinitely but if he did that he would need to leave the Professor here.

He lifted her head up and whispered into her ear, “
Es tut mir lied
, I am sorry.” Then he activated the wristband and held it on her and reduced her in size and placed her gently into the stasis box and then reduced it more to fit into his ring. He had to get out of here now.

He was torn, he needed to get out of there right now but he couldn’t leave the big puddle of blood on the floor either. He didn’t have anything to clean it up with, so he took off his hoodie jacket and wiped the floor with it the best he could so that it wasn’t readily apparent. He wiped his hands on the last clean part of his jacket and shoved it into his backpack. He looked back to make sure he hadn’t left anything, walked to the door and was surprised when the Professor said “
Auf wiedersehen Peter, Goodbye
.”

“Goodbye, Professor,” he said closing the door.

Chapter 23

Chase wanted to run as he left the office but he forced himself to walk normally so as not to draw any attention or cause anyone to remember him. Luckily it was lunchtime and there was no one near the office as he exited. He left the building as fast as possible and began to walk out of the university and back towards the wooded area where he had arrived.

All Chase could think about was the look of fear on Birgit’s face and how she looked covered with blood. That was when he thought no matter how many thousands of years he might live, he would never forget the sound of her head hitting the desk. There was definitely a downside to living forever. He wouldn’t know until he got back to the island if she would live or not.  He just couldn’t bear the thought that she might die. On the other hand, if she lived maybe she would be immortal too and he wouldn’t be alone.

He felt as if everyone was looking at him, that they knew what he had done. Of course, no one noticed him at all, he was just another college student walking down the street. He was worried about someone noticing him climb up to the woods during daylight but he wasn’t sure that in his present mental state that he could wait until nightfall to take off.

Lost in his own revelry of thought about the sad turn of events he had just endured, he was completely startled by a tap on his shoulder. A young man with a sparse brown beard and a concerned expression said, “Hey, buddy your backpack is all wet and dripping. I just thought you would want to know, it looks quite messy. What is that?”

“Oh it is nothing, I think the soup in my thermos is leaking, thank you for letting me know, I’ll fix it,” Chase answered thinking fast. He watched as the guy nodded uncertainly but walked on past him. Turning around, he saw a small trail of blood drops on the sidewalk behind him. Pulling the backpack off, he examined it and saw that the blood saturated hoodie he had jammed in had begun to soak through the fabric.

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic, this was just what he needed right now, another problem to deal with. He couldn’t walk around like this without someone else noticing. What if the police had seen it? He would have to hold it for now, no matter how stupid it looked, he couldn’t risk putting it on his back in this condition. Chase was careful not to get it too close and have any of the blood get on his clothes. Looking around, he came up with a quick plan.

There was a shop ahead, something like a small convenience store. It should do for a quick emergency like this. As he entered, he noticed it was quite small and empty of shoppers. Grabbing a bottle of water, a package of napkins and a few candy bars, he paid quickly without making eye contact with the elderly cashier and exited the shop.  The old woman in the store seemed to be looking at him in a funny way. It was probably the self-conscious way he was holding the backpack or just his overall nervousness. She didn’t say anything and he was glad to be out of there without an incident.

It was awkward and uncomfortable carrying the bag and backpack the way he was, he needed to find a quiet place to take care of this. Two or three blocks ahead, there appeared to be a small park or clearing where he could deal with this without any prying eyes paying attention. Pulling a blood soaked hoodie out of his bag would certainly bring unwanted attention but so would a furtive sneak in a corner somewhere.

He was in luck; it was a small city park ahead and it was quiet at this time of day. Chase headed for a bench under a large tree in the center of the park. Trying not to look suspicious he glanced around to ensure no one was looking and then pulled the bloody hooded sweatshirt from his backpack. Emptying the bag of his purchases from the store, he shoved the hoodie inside. He wiped the inside and out of the backpack with the napkins and then poured most of the water to at least hide the blood stains enough to wear it for the walk back to the woods unnoticed. Washing his hands off with the last of the water and napkins, he threw it all in the bag and tied it the best he could.

With that little task completed, he sat back to eat the candy bars he purchased. Why was it that the things that looked so cool in the movies, like being a spy or a criminal were so awful in real life? It was nothing but anxiety, apprehension and misery, he couldn’t wait to get out of here and get back home. He had only been there for a few days, how could he think of the island as home? He certainly wasn’t looking forward to telling them of his massive screw-up when he returned.

It was still hours until nightfall and he couldn’t sit in this park that long, he needed to walk to the woods and scope out the situation. First he dumped the bag with the bloody coat in the park’s waste bin and pushed it towards the bottom of the can. On his way back towards the woods he finally remembered to drop his envelope in a postal box, it would have been yet another disaster if he returned and they found it on him.  

Arriving at the woods, he weighed the odds of waiting or walking up now in the daytime and he decided to leave now. Waiting for a lull of traffic on the street, he ran up, hid in a concealed thicket of bushes and extracted the aircraft from the ring, shrunk down and prepared for launch. Strapping back into his chair he activated the return takeoff and finally had a chance to grieve for killing Birgit.

In practically no time the plane was ready to land. The wall notification and voice alerted him to remain seated for the landing. Now that the plane was approaching he was dreading the thought of returning. Not only would he have to explain his utter failure but he had to face the fact that Birgit might be dead. For some reason he was quite worried about disappointing them, he knew they would be angry and this was not the way he wanted to start things off.  

It wasn’t long till the plane came to a stop and it was time for him to face the music. Without enthusiasm he arose and began the process of exiting the aircraft and returning to the island. The first sight he saw was Armstrong and Tedford waiting patiently for him as he disembarked. Armstrong stood impassively, almost smug while Tedford smiled broadly and looked genuinely pleased to see him. 

“Welcome home, my boy” Tedford said.

“I am glad to be back,” Chase replied, surprisingly finding that he meant it.

Armstrong silently pointed the way out as a group of Taskers began servicing the returned aircraft. No one spoke as the three of them walked towards The Snake transport. Chase watched as they punched in the co-ordinates of their destination. He didn’t know precisely where they were headed and was too nervous to ask. He wondered why neither of the BLI had asked him yet about what happened on the mission or about the Professor. Again, it was something else he was just as happy to avoid discussing until he had to, let them assume it had gone well. He wasn’t sure he would ever get used to riding on this contraption but they were here, wherever here was.

They stepped from the capsule and entered a sterile looking, all white room dominated by an obsidian rectangular slab in the center. The only other items in the room were a few tables and chairs. Chase thought it looked like some form of a medical laboratory but he was confused by the lack of any of the standard paraphernalia seen in laboratories in the movies.