Sparks of Chaos (25 page)

“I understand, I don’t like it but I understand. I hated seeing that but thank you for showing me.” As they neared the entrance to The Snake, he looked up at the Tower and vowed that one day he would have his revenge.

Chapter 41

In the Spiral Tower, Rex sat in his office high, high above the city and looked down upon the world he had created. It was a time of reflection; he was rich and successful and could have had anything. He could have been world famous and respected or enjoyed the rest of his life living in luxury if he chose. This was what he selected.  He wouldn’t change it for the world; this was what he had always wanted.  

He got a notification and chuckled, he had been waiting for this. It was about time, he had done everything but put a neon sign pointing the way for them. Tedford had finally taken Chase to see the Tasker that he had hidden that rat Steven Zehn inside. How he hated even thinking of him.

He had arranged for the Tasker to be seen by Tedford and for it to act somewhat unusual so as to draw his attention. It even took more than once for him to actually notice the Tasker and that was disappointing. He made sure that there was enough information there for him to draw the conclusions that he did. It was quite true, everything he found had actually happened. It just wasn’t the whole story.

It really did cause him pain to even think about Steven Zehn and the whole awful story. Steven actually had been his best friend, even his only friend, or so he thought at the time. They had known each other for years and that had made the ending all that much worse. Steven was good looking while he had been anything but attractive, Steven was outgoing and popular, while again he was not. In retrospect that was probably why they had gotten to be friends. He had been surprised that someone like that wanted to be friends with someone like him. Of course he found out only later that was probably a calculated move on his part all along.

Steven was no dummy; he was a perfectly adequate scientist, maybe even more than that. Certainly not a genius, he had never been in the same league as Rex had been. Steven had used his friendship to ride upon his coattails for years. Rex, in reality it was when he been known as Wayne, had been a loyal friend to Steven. He had carried him along letting him be his research partner, even allowing him to share credit on some of his advances. The credit had never been something he had been that concerned with and had always been uncomfortable being in the spotlight; he was much more comfortable simply working in the laboratory. Steven even convinced him that he had been doing him a favor by taking the lead on any successes.

He was naïve; he was stupid not to have seen what Steven had been doing. It could have gone like that for some time and he would probably have never noticed or even cared. That is until fate intervened, changed everything and placed him on the journey that ultimately led him here. Fate’s name was Marla. She came into his lab and his life and he thought she had changed his life forever. She did, just not in the way he hoped or expected.

Marla was a few years younger than he was, pretty but certainly not beautiful. Then again the science research field was not necessarily known to attract women whose other career option was super model. Compared to her peers, she was a looker. He fell for her the first time he’d seen her when she came to him looking for a job. Of course, he hired her, it didn’t hurt that she had excellent credentials and a first class mind. He was pleased with her work and pleased with her.

They got along quite well and he was well and truly amazed that he got up the nerve to ask her out on a date. Technically that would not have been allowed since she worked for him but no one would have ever believed they were dating. He was even more amazed when she said yes. He often talked with Steven about her to get advice since he was not very experienced with women. They had dated a few times, when she shocked him and broke his heart.

She told him that she could no longer see him as she was now dating Steven and had been for a while. When he confronted Steven about this he was very nonchalant about it all. Steven didn’t feel at all guilty or even bad about the situation. Rex had always thought he did it just to prove that he could take her from him if he chose to. He didn’t believe that he ever really cared for her at all and did it just to defeat him; it was his way of winning since he would never be a better scientist.

It was about this time that he began the early research work that would eventually lead to his breakthrough on the atomic shift that ultimately created Surga. Once he had his eyes forcefully opened by Steven’s betrayal with Marla, Rex began to notice his behavior at the lab. Since Steven was confident that Rex had no idea as to his underhanded actions, he never bothered to hide it that well. Rex had always been an expert with computers and it took him no time at all to hack into Steven desktop. It was there that he uncovered yet another betrayal.

Steven had been sending out emails taking credit for their work and blaming him for the setbacks. So that was his plan, he had never been his friend, just a user all along. That was when he knew what he must do; the plan for revenge was born that day. Maybe there would even be a chance to win Marla back. He kept his research and work to himself now, no more sharing, he began pointing Steven in the wrong direction.

Ultimately his plan worked, while he completed his breakthrough privately, he also prepared for Steven’s complete humiliation. It was not all that difficult to fool Steven, once he had convinced him of the wrong discovery; he predictably did the rest of it to himself. Predictably Steven went off and told everyone he had achieved a great advance in science all on his own and had even fought with Rex over what direction their research should take and he even had the paper trail to prove it. When asked, Rex agreed that he had not participated and that Steven had done the work alone.

Once his so called discovery was inevitably proven to be a complete failure and an intentional hoax, Steven’s humiliation was cemented. Rex quietly watched from the sidelines as Steven crashed and burned and his life spiraled in a terminal downward trajectory. Rex still had hopes of Marla returning to him now that he had utterly destroyed his former friend. His plan had worked brilliantly except for one unforeseen circumstance.

He was working in the lab when a colleague came in to tell him the news that changed his life and placed him on the path that directed him to where he now stood. Marla was dead. Steven had started drinking heavily to cope with his sudden reversal of fortune and his boozy escape had ruined everything. Steven passed out while driving and smashed into a tree killing Marla instantly. He of course was unharmed without even a scratch and never awoke until the police found his wrecked car.

That day changed him and changed the world. He confronted Steven after he had been arrested while he was home on bond and he had no remorse for what he had done to Marla or to him. He felt no responsibility for anything that had happened and blamed Rex for all of it. That was when he lost it and impulsively used his discovery for the first time on a human. It was a complete success and he took Steven home with him. The police never looked too hard for Steven just assuming that he had done himself in over his disgrace, drinking and Marla’s death. Of course his body was never found.

He never felt any regret for what he had done to Steven; his situation was something that he earned through his own behavior. He felt that he got even more revenge by never even thinking of him. Alerting Tedford and Chase to Steven’s fate had been a calculated and deliberate move meant to achieve several ends. He wanted to cement the bonding process between Tedford and Chase and nothing would facilitate that more than a shared and deadly secret. Rex also wanted to instill a natural fear of him and his unpredictability. He had definite plans for Chase and needed a way to focus and motivate him to achieve the important task he was eventually destined to perform. If it required him to hate and compete with him, so be it. Regardless of how he had acted, he quite liked Chase and was glad he came to the island.

The BLI had played their role perfectly so far, though he was getting concerned that they were becoming a bit too independent. That was something he would need to keep a closer eye on going forward. There were many things that they weren’t privy too and he had a number of ways to keep them aligned to his real master plan. Let them think they had more control than they really did, it served his purposes to keep them closely tied to him. He really did love them like his own children but like children everywhere they sometimes needed to be led in the right direction for their own good.

The new Grand Design that they had decided upon was in many ways a more workable if less elegant solution than the one he had arrived at on his own. It was yet more proof that he needed other opinions occasionally to help correct unseen flaws from always relying exclusively upon his ideas. The plan was crucial to the overall long term success of his new society. He was aware there were potential pitfalls in the plan and he was committed to executing it to perfection.

Birgit was not and never would replace his Marla. That was the one area that had been unexpected in his plans and he was completely unsure how this would turn out or affect his overall goals. In many ways he found that he liked that. Knowing what was going to happen was like playing a board game by yourself, not very fun or challenging. A little uncertainty was often a good thing otherwise he was simply reading out a script he had written. Maybe she would be his spark of chaos that would keep things interesting.

He peered down over his private domain and felt a sincere sense of contentment and accomplishment. Everything was perfect. Little did he know that he had already unwittingly planted the seed for a threat that could destroy everything he had worked for. The threat would come from an unexpected source, be insidiously difficult to stop and he was unprepared for it.

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Please enjoy a preview of Book 2 in the Sparks Series, Sparks of Genius.

Chapter 1

Right now she was simply an average teenage girl wearing a small silly top with a cartoon dog on it. What the future would hold for her was decidedly anything but ordinary. She held the potential to become a very dangerous person indeed. The possibility certainly existed for her to develop as either a revered savior or reviled as a threat to the existence of a significant portion of the world’s population. It wasn’t yet written in stone, for now it remained just one possible stream through which the river of time could flow. For the time being she was completely oblivious to any pivotal role she might play in the future, intently focusing upon chatting online with her friends.

It was a typical teenage girl’s bedroom. The walls were covered with posters and pictures of popular boy bands, mostly local J-Pop groups like Hey! Say! JUMP, B’z and Kanjani Eight along with the English group One Direction. She also had a collection of stuffed animals and trinkets most of which were based on cute cartoon animal characters. Her favorite was a dog with floppy ears, oversized eyes and a big smile named Barku. For as long as she could remember she had been obsessed with Barku, the comics, games, dolls, well everything she could convince her parents to buy her. As an only child, that was a lot. The music posters were a more recent addition and she thought that her animal friends secretly resented their intrusion into her world.

She knew that she was getting too old for some of this now. Having just turned eighteen it was time to place some of her childhood behind her. While her head knew that, her heart wasn’t quite ready to accept that fact. Overall it was a fairly harmless little fetish; she would just outgrow it at her own pace. Small and petite, no more than five foot two and weighing not much more than a hundred and nothing pounds, she looked much younger than her actual age.

There was something in her personality that made people naturally gravitate to her. She made friends easily and was viewed as the leader of whatever clique she was in. Her friends would unanimously describe her as a ‘girly girl’. When she wasn’t wearing her school uniform, she favored clothes in pink or pastel peach colors. Being soft spoken made her appear to be shy, which she was definitely not. Delicate facial features and her long hair the color of the nighttime sky helped draw others to her.

Her small size, non-aggressive nature and girlish clothing led many to judge her initially as being insubstantial. That impression never lasted long once they got to know her. She was easily the smartest person in her school. She had even received an award as one of the top ten science students in all of Japan. They had not told her but she was actually the very best.

It had never occurred to her that her non-threatening nature actually was quite an asset when it came to her success. Many of those she competed with underestimated her brilliance and competitive streak. She accomplished things in such a pleasant manner that others naturally wanted to help her.

Ever since she heard the news of the new super school being started by an American billionaire she had focused her laser like attention on finding a way to get accepted there. Like much of the rest of the world she had been amazed at what was being offered at the proposed Stubbard Academy of Global Excellence. The reclusive billionaire was fully funding a brand new university with the latest technology, world famous instructors and the ability to study in virtually any discipline.

She had watched the reports on TV of the tour of the remote Pacific Island where the school was to be located. News reporters and officials from many countries were shown touring the sumptuous buildings and facilities that were already constructed. The press had in her opinion, overemphasized the importance of the five year free tuition. Not only were all expenses paid but a substantial yearly student salary and guaranteed million dollar employment contract for those who graduated. She was far more excited about the ability to study in such a wonderful and unique environment.