Sparks of Chaos (17 page)

Rex deliberately skipped over the massive amount of time he had spent designing this body he now inhabited. Having spent his whole life in a very unimpressive and rather unappealing body, he was determined to make the most of this opportunity. He had even had one of his subsidiary companies under the guise of advertising research, do extensive focus group testing on faces and bodies. He asked them to find which face inspired the most trust, exuded leadership and charisma and was the most physically attractive and appealing. He had left nothing to chance; after all he would be wearing this body for a very long time. So after all the testing and analysis, he was no longer the ugly Wayne ‘The Stain’ Stubbard but now looked like the perfect man.

“That isn’t what I’ve come to talk about with you now.” He was annoyed that he had allowed the boy to deflect his anger with his question and he was determined to get it back. “I am here to speak about your failure.”

“I’m sorry; it wasn’t my fault, I...”

 “I don’t want to hear that, did you or did you not complete the mission you were assigned, yes or no?”

“No, but I …,”

“Were you able to bring Professor Hauptmann here to the island?”

“Well, no”

“Did anyone ask you to bring a teenaged girl to the island, yes or no?”

“No, there wasn’t…”

Did you even understand how much potential problems there are going to be from your kidnapping her?” Rex was beginning to work himself back into a fury, he clenched his fists leaned over Chase and yelled “Do you understand just how horribly you have ruined all of my plans?”

 Chase was afraid; Rex was considerably larger, stronger and angrier. He was very close to physically hitting him and there would be little he could do to stop it. He didn’t care what shade of crazy blue Rex’s eyes were, right now they looked like they were on fire. Remembering Tedford’s advice, he cringed and said “I’m sorry, I’ll do better the next time.”

He pulled himself back from the brink at the last moment and said “You are to stay here, confined to your quarters until you are told otherwise.” With the anger beginning to drain from him like a slow leaking balloon, Rex turned and stomped out in a huff.

Meanwhile, in the same bed that Chase awoke in only days earlier, Birgit stretched out languorously and enjoyed the delicious comfort of the luxuriously soft sheets. She had been having the wildest dream, Michael was there and so was Professor Hauptmann. She couldn’t remember exactly what had happened in it, the start was great but somehow it ended with her in a glowing coffin. Dreams were totally crazy sometimes but this one had seemed so very real. As she stretched some more and her conscious mind reasserted itself, she started to wonder how she got into bed in the first place. There was absolutely no recollection of ever going to bed.

Wait a minute; this wasn’t her bed at all. She sat bolt upright, not just in fear but in total terror. Where was she? This room didn’t look familiar at all; she struggled to find her last memory and couldn’t grasp it. Like trying to grab a wisp of fog, you could reach for it but not hold onto it. There was only one possible explanation she could think of, someone had drugged and kidnapped her.

Chapter 30

Birgit sat on the couch in the secure apartment as Cheswick held her hand in comfort. He had just finished explaining to her that she had not been kidnapped and what really had happened to her. The story had been unbelievable and upsetting but also irrefutable. Cheswick had been wonderful, calmly and patiently walking her step by step through the events that led her to what was going to be her new home. Right now her head felt like a five pound bag of sugar that someone had tried to cram ten pounds into.

The worst part was learning that she was never going to be able to go home again or see her father. She knew how horrible this was going to be for him, there had to be some way that she could get in touch with him. She would have to find a way to let him know that she was still alive. Apparently there was a lot of time to worry about that and find a solution. While she had only known Cheswick for few short hours now, she felt amazingly comfortable and trusting with him.

She tried hard to remember what had happened to her. Her final memories were of taking her new boyfriend Michael to see the Professor and then getting into an argument with him but the rest was just a blur. Cheswick had revealed where she was and what the island was all about but not how she had gotten there. Even now she couldn’t focus on that because she was still digesting the news that she had died and been saved by going to the island. The problem was she couldn’t remember how she had died and why was she so angry at Michael? With tears in her eyes, she decided to ask him a question that she could never have imagined coming out of her mouth, “How was I killed?”

Cheswick moved closer and now held both of her hands and told her, “This is going to be hard to hear this as it may unlock some unpleasant memories for you.”

“I don’t care; I need to know the truth, even if it hurts.”

“Technically, you didn’t die at least not permanently but it was close enough to not make much difference. There was an accident while you were in Professor Hauptmann’s office with Chase?”

“Chase, who is Chase?” she asked quizzically.

“I am sorry, I meant Michael, which is the name you know him as.  There was an argument and you fell and hit your head, so you needed to be brought here to save your life. It was the only choice we had or you would have perished.”

Birgit was starting to remember the argument, there was a glowing box of some sort and Michael was trying to hurt the Professor and she didn’t fall, he pushed her. He killed her! That jerk, he had lied to her. Why did Cheswick know him and why did he have two different names? Without irony, she thought of the realization as a bolt of lightning hitting her head. He had never liked her; he had used her all along. She had been betrayed, in some ways that hurt almost more than the physical pain of her ‘accident’. The shame of it all made her face burn with embarrassment.

It was all becoming too much for her and she burst into tears. Yes, she had said she wanted to know the truth but this was hurting far too much. She needed some time to absorb everything she just learned, it was overwhelming. The overwhelming thought in her mind was how much she hated Michael, or Chase or whatever the liar’s name was. “I hate him, I hate Michael” she cried.

Stroking her hair, Cheswick told her “There, there it is going to be okay, you will see that there is a whole new wonderful life awaiting you here. Yes you’ve lost a lot but you will see that you have gained so much more.” He continued to comfort her as the sobbing eventually tapered off. Surreptitiously he checked the notification on his wristband and then he said. “I think it might be best if we stopped for a while now and let you get some rest. Mr. King will be coming to see you soon as well; he is also very concerned about you and wants to ensure you have everything you need.”

“I think that might be best but how do I get in touch with you if I need you?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about anything we are always nearby. We are busy working on things for you now, everything will be fine and we will be in contact with you soon. Just relax and try not to stress yourself out too much.” Cheswick stood and walked out leaving her locked in the apartment.

Rex sat in his office watching the orientation briefing that Cheswick was having with the new girl Birgit. She seemed to be handling the situation remarkably well, certainly better than Chase had. To be fair, it was a lot of crazy sounding concepts to grasp at once. She showed a lot of maturity in handling her situation at least until the subject of her death came up. It made perfect sense for her to be angry with Chase and the way he screwed everything up.

That was when inexplicably he decided to go see her personally. He didn’t like seeing women cry, it upset him. He had been alone here on Surga for over sixty years and it had truly surprised him how upsetting and disruptive all this emotional interaction had been recently. It would be best to let her marinate in her thoughts for a bit before visiting her. That gave him a little time to start to put a few things into place.

Birgit took a shower and cleaned herself up after her crying jag and cheered up by putting on some fresh clothes. Checking herself out in the mirror, she liked what she saw. Those biobots things they gave her made her look and feel utterly fantastic. Her skin was flawless and she didn’t even need make-up. That was a good thing because she certainly didn’t have any here. What a delicious irony she thought, of course the one time when she probably looked her best, there was no one here to appreciate it.

Like a furnace on a hot summer’s day her mind was busy producing heat that wasn’t particularly helpful and she needed to switch it off. She went over and sat on the beautiful sky blue sofa on the far side of the room. Sadly, there really wasn’t much of anything to divert her attention away from the recent discussion. It did not bother her in the least that she was effectively locked inside this room. She believed Cheswick’s story that they had no intentions of hurting her. So she just decided to try and relax. There was not much she could do about it anyways, so why bother wasting any more time worrying. It was best to adapt to the new reality and get on with it.

Birgit did  not have long to wait as the same flashing light in the room that announced Cheswick’s arrival had just started flashing again. The doorway instantly appeared and in walked a very tall, very attractive man.

“Hello Birgit, I am Rex King. I am very, very sorry that you have been subjected to all of this. It was never our intention to harm you or involve you in any of this. I hope that someday, you will be able to forgive us.”

On instinct, she got up from the couch and ran over and hugged him hard. She looked him in the eyes and said “Thank you for saving my life, you didn’t have to do that.” She kissed him on the cheek, took his hand and led him back to the couch to sit with her. He followed her, too stunned by her reaction to do anything else.

“So you are the wonderful Mr. King that Cheswick just told me all about. It was a truly amazing story, just incredible, only a genius could have accomplished all this. I have not seen any of your island yet but I am really looking forward to visiting all of it. You should be so proud of yourself.”

“Thank you for being so understanding.” Everything that he had been planning to do and say with her just flew out of his mind. She was intriguing. He never considered that anyone, let alone a teenaged girl could grasp everything she had just been exposed to. Not only grasp it but embrace it. He had originally planned to isolate her and keep her away from the society he wanted to establish. It was time to re-evaluate those plans. He could tell already she would be useful.

“Someday I want to hear everything about how you built all this. It is so fascinating and you are too.” She said looking him in the eyes. Those eyes, she had never seen anything like them. Such a unique and startling shade of blue, they seemed to pierce right through her. The face and the body they were attached to were downright amazing too. No doubt about it, he was the best looking man she had ever seen. Better than any movie star or boy band heartthrob idol she’d had a schoolgirl crush on.

“Sure, someday I’ll tell you. We have all the time in the world now, though I doubt you would find it all that interesting, I’m sure I would bore you silly, with my story. It is rather dry and technical I’m afraid.”

“Don’t be so modest. This is mind blowing incredible stuff you’ve done here, no one has changed the world the way you have.” Squeezing his hand, she gazed into his eyes with adoration and told him, “What I admire most, is how you didn’t take the easy way and just release your discovery on the world. You did not just save my life but hundreds of millions of others. You are a real hero.”

Wow, this girl was amazing and pretty. It had been a long, long time since he had sat this close to such a lovely young woman. Alright, he had to admit he had almost no experience with this but he liked it, he liked it a lot. She was so vibrant and so darn pretty, though the most attractive thing was how she looked at him. That look in her eyes that said he was the most wonderful man in the world, even if she was hideously ugly it would make her beautiful. That one single look, it made all his work, his sacrifices worth it. “I don’t think of myself as a hero, just a simple scientist.”

“Well to me you’re a hero, my hero,” she said giving him that look again.

“I have an idea, would you like to go see the island?”

“With you, I would love that.”

 “Great, excuse me for a few moments and we will go.” He stood and walked to the door and left the room. Birgit walked into the bathroom and splashed a little water on her face. Fanning herself with her hand, she was suddenly feeling quite warm and her face was flushed. Now that little encounter was a surprise, a very pleasant surprise but a surprise none the less. She ran the brush through her hair, more from habit than need; it already looked perfect although she still wished she had some lipstick.

She wasn’t sure what she was more excited about, seeing the island or being with Rex. Luckily she was going to get both. The light flashed, and she eyed him closely as he came back into the room. He was a few years older than she was and she had yet to make the logical leap in reasoning that would tell her this wasn’t possible. Rex had a muscular v-shaped torso and moved with a natural grace.

“Let’s go, I think you’re going to enjoy this.” When he stepped outside he called Armstrong, Cheswick and the Taskers to arrange everything. After all what good was having an army of workers at your disposal if you couldn’t use them.

She couldn’t tell how the door opened; it just seemed to appear as they walked toward it.  They walked until they came to the entrance of the individual subway car. “This is The Snake that Cheswick told you about.” He punched in the number of a building located in the island’s southwestern ‘Winter’ sector.

“Amazing, it is so smooth, like it’s not even moving. It is one thing to have it described to you but quite another to actually experience it in person. What a fantastic design,” she said. Based upon the location he had entered, the car traveled to a large mountain and then up towards the top of the inside of it. The mountain was in the portion of the island that was continuously in winter.