Sparks of Chaos (24 page)

Checking the data, from tracking Franz Keitler’s cellphone, he was now only a mile away from his apartment below. That should provide him enough time to put everything into place and he would wait patiently for his arrival. Cheswick worked with a steely resolve. He had no qualms about his coming actions. Armstrong after all was the Guardian of The Three Principles; he was convinced that they had no choice but to take this action. It was crucial to saving the island and Rex. That was good enough for him.

It was not long until Franz Keitler turned the key in his door and entered the apartment. Cheswick watched his movement being relayed by the flying microscopic drone. He was able to see in stunning clarity as Franz walked to the kitchen and took a cold beer bottle from the refrigerator. He opened the bottle, took a very long draw from it and sat down dejectedly onto a kitchen chair. Cheswick noted that he looked tired and run down. This would all play well on the narrative that they expected from their actions.

Finishing his beer, Franz opened another and microwaved a plate of sausages. Dipping them into mustard he ate mechanically, almost joylessly, a task to be done rather than with any real enjoyment in the act. While Franz was lost in the consumption of his dinner, Cheswick launched a second drone; it was as small and insignificant as a gnat. The drone flew and landed on the exposed skin on the back of Franz’s neck. It quickly inserted a tube and drew blood in much the way that a mosquito does and flew back to the plane above. Franz swatted his neck too late and cursed at the perceived bug bite.

Cheswick immediately started the process of DNA extraction from the blood. It took only moments for him to obtain Franz’s DNA profile. He applied the profile information on the already prepared drones and sat back to wait for the optimum time to launch. Cheswick watched stoically as Franz finished his dinner and moved to the family room to watch TV and continue to drink the remaining beers. He did not have long to wait until Franz’s eyes began to close and sleep started to overtake him.

He had the option of waiting until Franz went to his bed or act now. Deciding there was no difference, he chose to act now. He launched the drone which hovered over Franz and released its payload. Over a hundred microscopic flechette darts flew out and began to fly toward his body. Like a swarm of angry gnats they hovered before attacking. These swarms of small flying pests were guided by DNA to attack one target only. Their razor sharp tips painlessly entered Franz and released a deadly and untraceable neurotoxin into his bloodstream, killing him quietly within seconds. Before dissolving and leaving no evidence, they transmitted confirmation of his death to Cheswick.

Mission accomplished, quick and efficient. He took no joy in killing an innocent man, one who was just doing his job, doing it far too well in fact. Franz Keitler’s body would be found in the next day or so and an autopsy if performed would show death by natural causes. There was plenty of evidence of his drinking problem. His police colleagues would not be interested in pursuing things further. He had no immediate family to demand answers and this should put an end to that annoying investigation that was bedeviling them so.

Cheswick didn’t bother to take the time to consider the contradiction of murdering someone to provide protection for their superior society. When Armstrong told him it was his duty to follow the Three Principles, he believed him. He explained that this one death was potentially saving millions of others. For example, with this drone technology he just used, they had the ability to assassinate anyone. No one was safe from this, no one. That was why they would do whatever was necessary to make sure it never fell into the wrong hands. Without irony, he thought if bad elements got control of it they could kill people with it.

He recalled the drones to the ship and sealed the tiny hole in the roof. He prepared to take off and return to the island. He had argued with Armstrong that he could have performed all of these actions remotely from the island without bothering to come here in person. He was told that this was far too important a task to take a chance on something going wrong, as it had with Chase’s mission. He also felt that the time differential between the outside world and Surga would add a level of unnecessary complexity.

He hadn’t actually had much time to experience the outside world but his trip was successful and now it was time to return. He buckled in and initiated the takeoff and enjoyed the anticipation of Armstrong’s pleasure at his success.  

Chapter 40

Chase was as angry as he could ever remember being. Yet another humiliating dress down from Rex and he stood there and took it again. Whether he was correct or not, he was sick of listening to that advice from Tedford. Right now he was completely sick of Tedford too. He hated them all. The two faced conniving Armstrong and the unforgiving Birgit. She seemed to really enjoy making him jealous with Rex, like it was some sort of sick game. He paced furiously with fists clenched, he vowed revenge, revenge on everyone and he was just the man to do it.

There he was, right on time, Tedford. It was like he could read his mind or something. They were supposed to be bonded or something, so far all he had done is tell him to just turn the other cheek, take it and ask for another. Well he was sick to death of all it and all of them. Great, now he was here to calm him down yet again.

“Chase we need to talk.”

“Oh, I’m through talking or listening to you, I am ready for action now.”

“That is exactly why we are going to talk. I am here to save your life again or at least a fate much worse than death.”

“Alright you have my attention now, how exactly are you going to save my life if I am immortal?” Chase asked again temporarily distracted from his anger.

Shaking his head pityingly, Tedford said, “You don’t even know how much you don’t know.”

“What, what does that mean?”  

“I saw you about to snap with Rex and was glad that you kept your cool again with him. I cannot stress this enough with you, do not fight or directly challenge him, especially about Birgit.”

“He’s not the boss of me, he’s not the king or anything is he?”

“As long as you are here, he is the boss of you, and for all intents he is the king of this place. Rex is one of the smartest, richest men in the world; he built this world including me by himself. Did you really think that he got there by playing nice?”

“I can hold my own with him. I might be nineteen but you aren’t even a year old yourself.”

“You are a fool if you believe that. Do not let his appearance deceive you; remember he has been alive for more than a hundred years. He may look as though he is twenty five but he was already seventy when he created Surga. He has not left the island for more than two years now. That is the equivalent of almost sixty years passing here on Surga. He has had a long time to plan and plot this, you’re nineteen, do you think you can outsmart him?”

“I can beat him.”

“That is your ego and youthful ignorance talking. You cannot challenge him here in his world, he sets the rules and he controls everything and everyone here.”

“I am not afraid of him.” Chase stated confidently. “He can’t take Birgit away from me, I won’t let him.”

“Well, I believe you should be very afraid.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think it’s necessary for me to show you so that you understand. Come with me.” Tedford abruptly walked out and they rode The Snake to an unfinished section of the city.

“What are we doing out here?” Chase asked as he looked up to see the Spiral Tower off in the distance. It was the very same tower where he had been humiliated by Birgit not so long ago. There was certainly nothing much to see here, just dirt and some vague outlines of what was to come. So far he had not seen much of the island at all and apparently some or much of it was still in its raw unfinished state. That made sense if there weren’t any people on the island except for the three of them. Rex had been too busy yelling at him to inform him of what was going to happen with his crazy science recruiting plans.

“Just follow me and you will see, soon enough,” Tedford answered as he consulted his wristband for some unknown information.

Chase sullenly followed him through the rough dirt; there wasn’t much to see here at all. He couldn’t imagine what was so important that he needed to be dragged all the way out here to see some dirt; sometimes his robot pal was too inscrutable. A short distance away he saw some machines moving dirt or some such thing. There were also some Taskers working there as well. He had already become inured to seeing the metallic blue beings and no longer stopped to marvel at the oddness of it.

They kept walking until they neared the group of working Taskers. Some were operating earth moving machines, while others were working by hand putting finishing touches on the landscaping process. It looked to be strenuous back breaking labor that would quickly tire a human but seemed to be of no consequence to the Taskers. The Taskers continued their assigned work and paid them no attention as they got closer. They stepped closer while Tedford read his wristband and pointed the way. A lone Tasker worked relentlessly moving and smoothing dirt. “This one,” Armstrong indicated, pointing at the lone Tasker.

“What does this have to do with Rex?”

“You are going to see now but before I show you, I am going to swear you to secrecy, you can never tell anyone about this. Do you swear it?”

“Yes, sure why not,” Chase agreed somewhat perplexed by where he was going with all of this.

“Very well, let’s proceed,” Tedford tapped instructions and called the Tasker to come to them and stand quietly and kneel before them. He touched his wristband on the back of the Tasker’s head and a seam appeared. Running his finger along the inside of the seam he enlarged along the length of his head and peeled it back.

“Oh my God, there’s a man inside of there, who is that?” Chase was stunned to find a middle aged man with a blank look on his face staring back. “Are there people in all of the Taskers?”

“No he is the only one and there aren’t supposed to be any. His name is Steven Zehn.”

“Who is Steven Zehn, am I supposed to know who that is?”

“No, he was Rex’s best friend and research partner.”

“I don’t understand, how did you know, did Rex tell you this?” Chase asked.

“It was by chance that I noticed that there was something odd and unusual about this Tasker. I thought that I would just find out what was wrong and repair it. What I found instead was this,” Tedford said pointing at the man inside of the Tasker. “I did some investigating, facial recognition and DNA matching, I found his identity. Rex does not know that I found out.”

“If he’s his best friend, why is he in there?”

“They had a falling out over a woman named Marla. What I found out was that they all worked together, she died and he disappeared several years ago and was presumed dead.”

“How did he get here and why?”

“Obviously Rex brought him here and he must hate him more than anyone has ever been hated before.”

“I don’t understand any of this.”

“This man has been treated with biobots to keep him alive; he can’t die, though he must dream of it every second. He can’t speak or react and has no free will but he is fully cognizant and feels everything. Imagine it, for at least sixty years so far he has worked every minute with no rest, no sleep doing horrible manual labor. It was the most extreme torture ever conceived. For him there is no escape, for eternity he is locked into this miserable existence. It is an excruciating and unending living hell. There is no escape for him.”

The enormity and sheer horror of what was being done to this man was sinking in to Chase’s mind. He could hardly fathom what he was going through. “We have to kill him; we have to set him free from this.”

“No, we can’t do that, I am sorry but Rex would know we did that and we would pay the price ourselves.”

“You mean we just leave him like this to suffer endlessly, how can you be sure he would know it was us?”

“Who else could it be and our every movement is tracked, he knows where everyone is at any time and where they have been. So, yes as unimaginable as it is, we leave him here. We need to get him back to work before someone notices.” He resealed the blue Tasker covering over his head and sent him back to his work. “We need to leave now.”

Chase thought he saw a small tear come out of Steven’s eye as he was returned to his hell but maybe he just imagined it. They started to walk back towards The Snake, “Rex is a monster and is that what you wanted me to see.”

“What I wanted was for you to be safe. I had to make you understand what you are up against and where the consequences of your actions could lead you.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be loyal to Rex, didn’t he create you?”

Tedford stopped and looked directly at Chase and said, “I am loyal to Rex, to Surga and to you. I don’t believe that Rex having absolute power is good for Rex or anyone. The island is better with you in it. By keeping you safe, I am protecting Rex and not betraying him. Remember, you and I have been bonded, I will protect you. You didn’t really think that you fooled me by sending that letter by mail to your family did you?”

“How did you know that?”

“I didn’t until you told me just now but I was the one that left that loophole open for you, knowing how worried you were about them. I was certain you would be clever enough to figure that out.”

“What do I do now?” Chase asked grateful to Tedford but worried that somehow he was always two steps behind everyone here.

“You need to be nice to Rex no matter how hard that will be. I believe the phrase is ‘you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

“You can also find more flies at a public restroom than you can at a bakery, so what’s your point?”

“My point is that if you are going to survive you must learn to co-exist with Rex, at least for now. If you ever want to get Birgit back, you must pick your fights and pick your time. It is essential that you understand that this is not the time for that fight and he must not view you as a rival. Do you understand?”