Please Comment, Critique, Criticize to your hearts content. I need the feedback.


They found me, again... I thought I disappeared for good this time. OK I'm exaggerating slightly, they haven't actually found me yet, but they're getting close, asking too many questions to the right people. It's only a matter of time. And of course it's the MSS. Chinese agents in Bangalore attracted the CIA and where there are Chinese and Americans, I can guarantee that the Russians aren't far behind. I can't run anymore, they're getting too good at finding me…I guess a decade of practice helped. I think it's time for one last experiment before I die. One last fit of insanity.

-Scrap found in a hotel room in Bangalore


United States 2095

Two agents knocked on the door to the room that their CO was using as a sort of command center. The room was furnished with a steel table a few computers and not much else. Illuminated by a naked bulb, it was Spartan in the extreme. Their CO sat behind the table in a chair, thin strands of smoke coming from the ends of a half dozen forgotten cigarettes, going through a too thin folder containing everything they knew about the man they were hunting. The CO looked up as the men walked in.

„I don't suppose that you have anything good to tell me?"

"No sir, he…he escaped sir"

"What?!" The Operator gripped the corners of the table, turning his knuckles white. If murder had been legal he probably would have killed at least one of the men in front of him. "How the fuck does he keep getting away? The man is over 100 fucking years old. How the fuck is he eluding our nation's elite" he spat the last word out, voice rising with each word. "operatives in our OWN GOD DAMN COUNTRY!?".

"He's playing us off of each other, the Russians and Chinese were tailing him. When they moved in we had to prevent them from capturing the target, he used that as an opportunity to escape. "

"God fucking DAMN it." The Operator brought his fist into the table, sending a small cloud of ash to the ceiling, closed his eyes and sighed though his face remained a deep shade of purple. Being played for a fool by a centennial. It had not been a good day. He exhaled heavily shaking his head. For whatever reason, the higher ups had denied any and all requests for additional resources which had made an already shitty situation worse. To say that he was operating with shoestring logistics would have been an extreme understatement, the entire operation had been threadbare from day one with no explanation as to why.

"Sir, we believe that he has crossed the border into Canada. Agents spotted him on the Trans Canada heading towards Vancouver."

"Why?"

"No idea sir."

"Catch him before he makes it into heavily populated areas"

"Yes sir"

The reporting soldiers saluted and left. As the two agents made to exit, the officer from the computer terminal joined them.

"Jim, George, wait a moment. I found something…interesting."

The officer followed them out. The two agents turned to face him.

"What did you find Fernando?" Jim asked, hoping for a concrete location, motive or something that made sense. Answers not just more questions. All he had been told was that they were trying to apprehend the man responsible for the second industrial revolution. Jim suspected that it was political in nature, the government wanted him for some research project or something.

"So you know how nothing we have on him makes sense? Dates don't line up, there's no consistent age, no real background, minimal information about his family and military carrier?

"Yes."

"Well that's what I found when I talked to a friend from Langley."

"You found nothing, Jesus, so you're just screwing with us. Heh heh…heh…fuck" George's laugh was a product of stress and nerves as opposed to humor. He kneaded his eyes pulling on his face, "Who the hell is this guy…just...fuck…I got nothing left. I mean how much are we expecting? The briefings said that he was a scientist. What the fuck did he do get everyone after him, and how the fuck is a scientist this good at killing people?"

Jim sighed. "Well for one he created E-Zero energy"

"Emission Zero…you mean black hole energy right?"

Jim shook his head as he exhaled, sounding like an adult speaking to a particularly slow child "Yes…he was responsible for that. His lab designed the AI's that were used in the Legions of Steel to suppress the rioting and maintain order before and during the plague, his factories built them as well. The cure for the plague came from his lab and so did the white knight gene therapies. Basically everything we use has some component that his lab complex designed or industrial complex built."

George whistled "Shit…"

"Plus he spent almost twenty years either at west point or in the army…so… there should be something." Jim trailed off. "What do you have Fernando?"

"Nothing! That's what's so interesting."

"So someone is hiding him?"

"Yeah, partly. See some of his records were censored by the CIA especially his time in the Army during the Mongol Campaign. More of the document is blacked out than not. So obviously there were duplicates of those unaltered versions."

"You got those?" Jim's eyes widened and his hands instinctively twitched towards the folder in Fernando's hands.

"Nope. Nobody has those. Somebody destroyed the physical copies and the digital ones were all corrupted or destroyed. So all that anyone has are the public records."

"Newspapers and old publications?"

"Newspaper's were all purged too, every trace of him erased."

Jim sagged "So we're fucked?"

"No, not quite. I did manage to find someone who actually knew him. A guy I know had a grandfather who was a cadet with him at West Point."

"A guy whose grandfather knew him..." George snorted derisively.

Fernando glared at him before continuing "And according to his diary, they apparently was always up to something. And not only the usual drinking, smoking and, gambling. Apparently he was pretty close to the brass and involved in special projects. Consistently ranked top close to it in every combat simulation during his time there though which is probably why he was never kicked out. You can look through the files, but I didn't find anything useful. After that…" Fernando sighed "After that there are several heavily censored documents and then his discharge."

"Other than Honourable?"

"OTH. Yeah, right after that he left for Turkey where he was severely injured in a train station bombing. He has no real employment record until he resurfaced as the captain of industry that we all know."

George started "What? Zero to a hundred real quick."

Fernando sighed "Bear with me for a sec. I thought it was strange too so I figured that there's only one group that had the ability to purge files like that. Not just that digital and physical copies were destroyed but that security was breached without anyone knowing. So I got my hands on the Hempen files."

"The what?"

"Tongue in cheek humor" Fernando explained "the Hempen Jig is the...dance that hanged men did. You know, they dropped but their legs would sort of move a bit, the Hempen Jig. Anyway, the files contained all the information the Agency was able to gather on the Hangmen"

Jim exhaled loudly as he ran his fingers through his hair "Aww...fuck...Please don't tell me we're chasing down the bogeyman "

"You expected a strait answer?" Fernando chuckled "Best I can figure, that's how the hangmen stayed hidden for so long, they staged their deaths and probably cloned enough of their tissue that their deaths would be positively confirmed and since they were dead on paper, they were never considered suspects and their DNA was ignored as contamination or a faulty reading. So either he was a hangman but more likely, he was responsible for arming them and providing them with the requisite supplies. It'd explain his OTH discharge. Ineligible for VA Support so it minimises his footprint but left him in just good enough of a standing so as to keep his connections and still move guns in his own name. I figured that the only person who could confirm any of this would be a Hangman, so..."

George shook his head, he had heard of the hangman. Everyone had. They were extrajudicial and some said supra-judicial soldiers who were never officially tied to any particular government or nation. The only thing they seemed to be beholden to was the vague idea of the "West". They removed threats to the status quo with a kind of ruthless efficiency that government soldiers couldn't afford. They were loved and hated, often by the same people, but they were universally feared. Then, after the plague, they vanished. Urban legends say that they took on new identities and are just waiting for an excuse to get involved again, while others believe that they became world leaders and industrialists to control things out in the open. "So?"

"So I brought him in."

"You brought a hangman in?" George asked incredulously

"Well, sort of, he volunteered to come in. He said that he wanted to, and I quote, meet the idiots who are hunting a hangman. We can go speak to him if you're interested."

"Lead the way" Jim gestured

"He's just on the other side." Fernando led the agents to the room where they were keeping the Hangman "From what I was able to piece together over the last few days, while the two of you were dancing with the Russians, was that he was mostly domestic."

"Domestic?"

"Yeah, the sparse trail seemed to indicate mostly locations in the Americas."

"You have the file?"

Fernando handed Jim the files, everything that they had managed to gather on the hangmen, their target and, Mr. Smith the hangman he was going to question. He glanced at the sheaf of papers he held, it was woefully thin. Weeks of work for almost nothing. He sighed, hopefully tonight would shed some light. He opened the door and strode into the room in one fluid motion trying to cast his presence outwards into the room.

"If that was supposed to intimidate or impress me..."

The man looking out the window turned around. Average height and weight, but it was the eyes that made Jim stop. Some people's eyes dimmed and the irises dulled as they aged, others became sharper, more intense. Mr. Smith was one of those, in the well lit room his almost black eyes bored into the agent. He looked at the agent appraising him as a jeweler would a gemstone, determining its worth before motioning to the kitchen table.

"Let me make two things clear, first I am here because I want to be, not because I have to be. When I feel like leaving I leave, anyone tries to stop me they die. And second, if you are hoping for a divine revelation you are not going to get it. Even if I do know the man you're hunting, I doubt I'll know much. That was the nature of our organization." His statements were matter of fact, no extra weight, as though he was explaining how he took his coffee, not discussing an organization that was shrouded in more secrecy than any prior or since. "Because it is inevitable that you're going to ask, I'll give you some detail but…after that you show me what you have then, I leave. Understood?"

"Yes" Jim nodded the Hangmen exuded such an aura of cold indifference that Jim figured that the Hangman could kill everyone in the hotel and walk away unaffected.

"Alright, where to begin...We formed as a direct result of the tower bombings with the initial goal of hunting down and killing those who were responsible for carrying out the attacks. So originally, we were mostly restricted to the Middle East and Africa ocassionally venturing into Asia and South America but Europe and North America were, by and large, off limits."

"Why's that?" George blurted

The Hangman laughed "Because the rich OCED states didn't mind if we cleaned up the Third World but it would have been suicide for us to engage in the First World. In a country with a weak or corrupt central government it was easy to operate. Strong central governments don't usually approve of people directly challenging their ability to control their own country."

"Oh..."

The Hangman grunted "It's not a difficult concept. Anyways once we became an established paramilitary force in the mid 2030's we slowly started to expand, not only because our original goal was nearing completion, but also because re assimilating was impossible. As far as the government and military knew, we were all dead and, most of us, didn't have anyone to go back to even if we wanted to. So killing for the great good of mankind seemed like both a noble thing and frankly one of our only real options."

"You actually believed that?" Jim scoffed

"Look, we weren't angels. We killed people, but we killed the people that killed more people. Governments are, by their nature, subject to the whims of the people and the military often lacks the finesse to operate quickly and quietly. We filled that void. More importantly, we weren't bound by international treaties or laws, we didn't have to play the diplomacy game that too often let evil people go on living for far too long."

"That doesn't answer the question."

"We killed mass murderers, genocidal strongmen, corrupt businessmen, hate mongering preachers as well as your run of the mill criminal organizations. So yeah, we believed and I still do believe that our actions saved far more lives than we took."

"That's fucked up." George's face a mask of disgust

"Look I'm not here to convince you of anything. Over time our mandate if you want to call it that changed to become less about punishing evil people and more about trying to protect the fragile peace that the world maintained. So about a decade after we formed we started going after what we saw as the big fish, we still killed criminals but that was more left for individual agents to pursue as sort of side projects..."

"So what Drug Dealers and Hookers?" The venom evident in Georges voice.

The Hangman chuckled "No, not normally. We didn't care much for low level individuals. They were easy to scare strait, show up at their house at night, point a gun at them and they usually got the message. No, at the peak of our influence, we'd sometimes wipe out entire organizations overnight. String up the bosses, burn the plantations, flatten the warehouses, terrorize or kill the money launderers or low level workers."

"What did it depend on?" Jim interjected before George managed to piss off the hangman.

"Often on weather or not they tried to kill us and, if it was the first time we've had a talk with them. Everyone except the most vicious got a warning visit from us. A noose would be left somewhere obvious for them to find. If they didn't change their ways, they'd hang from it, we rarely gave third chances."

"Why hang people. Seems odd."

"Branding mostly. We had only planned on hanging one son of a bitch but the media got a glorious shot of his corpse blowing the in ocean breeze and chose to name us. So we stuck with it. But quite often, the person was already dead and we just hang them more for the benefit of everyone else than as a means of execution."

"Branding" Jim shook his head "Funny to think that even the bogeyman needed to have a brand."

"It was a recruiting tool."

"How were you recruited?"

"I was at home after a...deployment. The next day while my wife was out, a hangman was waiting for me in the living room and made me an offer. My wife was moved to a company sympathetic to the Hangmen and I was recruited."

"What happened to your wife?" Fernando asked

"Brain Cancer."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

The Hangman lapsed into silence staring at the empty glass in front of him. The agents exchanged glances, the silence uncomfortably heavy but none of them knowing how long to wait to break it.

Eventually George found his voice "What did you mean by Hangman sympathetic companies?"

The Hangman exhaled heavily "What do you think? There were a number of companies that funded the hangman. Either directly by funnelling them money or by providing them with the kinds of goods and services that any paramilitary force needs: Weapons, Vehicles, Fuel, Food, Finance Management and so on."

"Wasn't that illegal?"

"No, we weren't ever classified as a Terrorist organization. Most governments preferred to ignore us whenever possible. Everyone liked that we took care of the trash but nobody wanted to publicly acknowledge that they needed us to."

"I see" Fernando stared off "Two question then."

"Make them good ones because I'm about done talking."

"First, how was it that the hangmen were so effective. In order for you to remain a sort of secret society, you'd have to have maintained relatively low numbers. Second, how did you avoid government retaliation?"

The Hangman chuckled "Hoping to learn lessons for the Special Intelligence Division? Honestly, I can only speculate. But you're right, there were only ever around two maybe three hundred of us, half maybe two thirds were soldiers and combat personell the rest were support staff, intelligence officers that sort of thing. As for how we managed to do so much with such low numbers? We had infallible intel some of the best trained operatives in the world, almost limitless funding and, each of us had a very personal stake in our operations."

"Limitless funding?"

"You got your two questions

"It's part of the answer to the first question!"

The Hangman chuckled more to himself than anything else, he enjoyed telling his story. He never had before.

"Fine fine during our Anti-Bomb campaign if you can call it that, we re-appropriated much of the wealth that the various individuals who bankrolled the tower bombings had and used that to fund our operations. Later on Donations from individuals and businesses even governments padded out the bottom line. Some people called us noble mercenaries. They weren't far off the mark. As for government non intervention..."

Mr. Smith paused "The Hangmen were a product of their time, today it would be impossible for an organization like the Hangmen to form, there's no need for a special vigilante organization, governments are back in control, centralized authority has been re-established. You have to remember that the Hangmen formed after the Tower Bombings, within a day over a million people around the world had been killed in the kind of coordinated attacks that the world wasn't prepared for, in the following week, more smaller attacks were carried out and the world descended into widespread anarchy. Governments were struggling to keep control. Take the US for example: It fell strait into a race war, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Whites killing each other in the streets, more bodies more dead, left and right wing radicals duked it out in the streets and in government effectively paralyzing it. The President started signing executive orders for the military to restore order which it did, but at the cost of more lives lost and a month of time. You can't undo bloodshed, any trust that there was between ethnic groups vanished along with economic damage in the realm of hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars AND political paralysis. The same story played out across Europe, vigilante mobs hunted enemies of the state. In the West if was Arabs, Anarcho-Communists and, Eco-Movements. In Africa it was the White and Christian minorities who were systematically slaughtered. In the Arab world the minority Islamic groups were put down. In Asia, China used the bombings as a pretense to invade its Southern Neighbours getting bogged down in a geurilla war that lasted decades. Japan re-militarized its birthrate skyrocketing, ironically it was the destruction of much of it's financial hubs that spured the country to growth."

Smith stopped talking long enough to sip at his drink enjoying the expressions in front of him, none of the men had lived through the era he described and for them it was their first time really thinking about it in a long time. "Out of this mess, the Hangmen were formed. The reaction of many governments was nationalism and closed borders, which completely ignored the fact that malcontent was being stirred up domestically by special interest groups of every stripe looking for more money and more power."

"That's not why you left the army is it?" Jim asked quietly

"No...No I could only shoot so many of my own countrymen before... It was an awful time, I'd lost family and now I was shooting people who were terrified and looking for someone to blame. I'd been sent out to contain around a dozen riots, lethal force was a matter of course. Probably shot fifty people give or take. I was nursing one hell of a hangover when the Hangmen showed up and offered me a job. Anyways..." The Hangman shook his head "We were useful and had public support. Later it was a simple calculation, do we risk the chance that the Hangmen turn against us and kill us or do we just let them get on with their business. Many governments chose to let us be. Those that didn't were quickly shown the error of their ways. Now show me the docket."

The Hangman opened the folder and burst out laughing "What?!" Jim rounded the table, trying to check the documents.

"Tell me. Who do you think it is that you're trying to capture."

"Cain Schwartz. Served without distinction for twenty years in the United States Army, eventually retired with the rank of Leutnant-Colonel. Widely regarded as the father of the second industrial revolution when he turned to industry and technology. Secured large government grants for various clasified contracts. We suspect that he was responsible for maintaining ties to industry for the Hangmen during their early years and later manufactured for them directly."

"How do you figure?"

"He was discharged, other than honourably, and his eligability for VA benefits was curtailed and otherwise he left little footprint. He vanished after being severely burned in Turkey and only resurfaced to found Reaper Armaments and eventually become heavily involved in both military and civilian R&D and manufacturing. That and almost every record of him was erased, both pre-military and post-bombings, and I can think of only one organization with a need for such secrecy."

"Not bad, but wrong. The man you're chasing was the founder of the Hangmen. He organized, armed and, commanded the Hangmen for over twenty years until he decided that bullets from a gun were no longer the most effective means of changing the world." Smith pushed back from the table and stood "My advice for you: Forget about this. He has more experience than the three of you combined but for whatever reason he's been eschewing violence. Whoever corners him though, they'll wind up dead. Now..." The Hangmen stood "I'll see myself out."

The door clicked closed and the spooks released their held breath. "Well..." Jim stood, and walked out to the balcony "Shit" He lit a cigarette and passed the pack around. "That...was not what I expected".

"Well at least we know who we're chasing now." Fernando said shaking his head.

"For all the good it does us. The only real thing we've gotten out of this was a bit of smoke and lung cancer."


Duluth, Minnesota 2095

"Uncle, it's been a long time, you look good for a corpse" Chris grinned

"Hmm, by necessity. I'm not exactly the most loved person in the world right now" I replied

"Yeah, your message sounded almost nervous. I mean it's hard to tell because you're either treating everything like a joke or in a homicidal rage but you know. I think I detected some unease."

"You can feel free to put your imaginary Psyche degree to good use once we're in the air but I would suggest starting with yourself."

"Funny… Where are we headed Uncle?"

"The facility on Tanti Island"

"Fuck…" Chris sighed "you want me to land on the lake don't you?"

"Yep"

"It has to be that facility? We can't fly to the Caribbean or Vansterdam"

"If you think you can outfly military jets in this thing then sure."

"Alright" Chris sighed. He hated that island since a storm caused him to miss the river and "land" in the trees twenty feet above the ground.

The sounds of machines broke the still of dawn, god it was early. I hadn't slept properly in over a week, cybernetic enhancements and sheer force of will had kept me going this long but the organic parts of my body were beginning to shut down. Whatever was going to happen, my capture or escape, was going to happen soon, I couldn't keep going like this. I chuckled quietly, I wasn't driven by some pure desire to keep living nor was I driven by a sense of injustice. It was simply pride, I had nothing left. My life ended with the plague. Now I lived simply to spite death, to prove that life did not have to be finite. Even if the governments chasing me caught me it didn't matter. A prison sentence would have meant nothing to someone whose life had no finite end. And threatening my life…that would have been completely pointless. In some ways the only advantage of being this old was that in some ways you were freer than a newborn child. No family, no connections. I had nothing left. My dead best friend's grandson was the closest I had to family. I didn't like involving him in this but I was otherwise out of options.

"Uncle, you coming?"

"Yeah" I ran to the plane and hopped into the seat behind him. "Fly into as high as you can with this thing, I've called in the last favors I'm owed by the government and they will turn a blind eye to this indiscretion."

"Fine, taking us up, so… why are you going back to the Tanti Facility. You haven't been there in over a decade."

"I…have one last experiment to conduct, something I always wanted try. Now is as fitting a time as there ever was or will be" I grinned. That was one of the few honest things I'd spoken in the past couple of weeks. I was looking forward to going out with a bang.

"If I keep asking will I get a straight answer?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Trust me, the less I tell you the better."

"Alright" Chris shook his head smiling. He had grown used to my idiosyncrasies and knew enough about me to know when not to press for details.
Satisfied that we were air bound, I let sleep claim me. I would need as clear a head as possible for what was to come.


Tanti Island 2095

"Uncle, Uncle wake up"

"Eh?"

"We're beginning our descent, thank you for choosing Chris airlines"

"Funny" I chuckled sometimes the lamest jokes are the funniest.

"I try"

The plane descended the last few hundred meters to the lake and as we coasted to the long jetty that allows these kinds of landings I sighed again before making a choice. Chris deserved better than to be left behind without any sort of acknowledgement for his role in everything that happened over the years, even if he knew little of what he had exactly done. I fished a sheaf of papers from my jacket pocket and handed them to him before I jumped to the jetty.

"What's this?"

"The rights to the patents and shares that I own as well as my last will and testament" I held up a finger to silence him. "I'm old, I have no blood family left but I have always considered you family."

"No, no I can't take these. You're a survivor, you always have been. You'll think of something." I could almost see the lump in his throat, he was old enough to remember seeing his family die and his mother's suicide. Now I was leaving too.

"You're right, I probably will but even if I do, I won't be able to surface for a long time."

Whatever else he wanted to say was choked off by emotion. He knew that I was saying goodbye, that be it because of death or having to go completely underground, we'd never meet again. I might have felt something, hell I probably should have but I didn't. I'd like to think that is because I had long since resigned myself to this course of action but, that's only part of it. The truth was more insidious; my work had, over time, stripped me of all true emotion. Even this was more pragmatic that charitable, I didn't want governments, leeches and, parasites to lay claim to my legacy. By giving Chris my legal documents he had undisputable claim to my life's work, my army of rabid lawyers, the only army I still commanded, would make sure of that.

"Take it as an old man's request and then do what you want with it. Use it, sell the stocks and release the patents whatever I don't care. I will have no need of those papers when the day is done. Now please…" I closed my eyes for a moment and smiled. "I have one final experiment to conduct."

"Goodbye Uncle"

I nodded as he started the engines. "Chris"

"Yes?"

"Goodbye and good luck"

He nodded and forced a smile "Thanks"

I watched as his plane took off black as night against the blue and white marbled sky. I smiled, knowing that he would not spend his days in poverty and that with my assets at his disposal he would be able to do what he pleased. My only regret was not being able to see what he did with my resources. I sighed again unlocking the front door to the mansion that I had built above my lab. The smell hit me first, dust and time had changed things. I could no longer smell the home that this place had once been, before it became a sterile place that was used not for actual living but simply to pantomime it. I hadn't been here in a long time, it felt odd being back. I shook any stray thoughts from my head, now was not the time for sentimentality or old memories. Locking the door behind me, not that it would have done much if someone tried to break in but… old habits die hard. What ended up being my saving grace was that the entire complex was underground and either accessible through extensive excavation from the ground and then digging strait down or by blasting though a four ton concrete door that opens up from the floor. The Canadian Shield, quite an appropriate name for once.

As I pulled the lever that activated the hydraulics to raise the door memories swept unbidden across my mind's eye. How this place looked at its best when politicians looked for an excuse for a photo op here, when the high and mighty of the world gathered in the boreal forest to pledge support, and money, for independent research. Egos clashing as research progressed at almost unthinkable speeds fueled by unprecedented and almost completely unlimited funding. The parties hosted after an announcement of some breakthrough or another, the never-ending questions of reporters. At our apex I spent more of my time at social events than doing actual research. I got so angry back then at having to talk to reporters when I could be blowing something up, for science or course. God it seems almost funny now how people used to compete for the privilege of giving us money. Now they compete to see which one of them can arrest me. The hiss of the door as it locked into position brought me back to reality, to the sad reality that I have to resign myself to. Cobwebs in corners, barrels of wine that had long since rotten in a cellar that no one had tended to in over a decade. I chuckled. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

A small smile played across my lips as I contemplated the number of children who were conceived down here, it trailed off quickly though. Dead… all dead… everyone I had worked with is dead, the people I loved are dead. Cybernetics and cold fire had kept me alive this long but at the cost of most of my humanity.

No…that didn't matter now. I am alive the state of the dead can only decay; I thought to myself as I threw open the double doors that led to the lab complex. I always liked double doors, they made entrances so much more dramatic plus they look important. I hit the lights and felt the familiar cold fire of anticipation in my gut. Adrenalin was added to the mix as I walked past long dormant machinery, running my fingers across the equipment. I laughed as I got into the elevator heading into the isolation lab, I was in my element about to do something either incredibly stupid or the work a deranged genius.


Vancouver 2095

"Sir?" Jim knocked on the door frame before entering

"I assume you caught him and we can all go home?"

"No sir, he sent a body double to Vancouver. The double told us to go to Tanti Island."

"So we're trusting a body double?"

"It's the only lead we have sir. And…he had a mansion on the island and we believe he had a lab complex underground."

"Fine, go."

"Yes sir." Jim saluted before leaving.

"So..." Jim turned to his partner "What do you think we'll find"

"I dunno…" George trailed off thinking "Answers hopefully, I mean we know nothing about the guy. We know why we know nothing but... I just want to know who it was that I was chasing. Something that would explain all of this."

"All of what?"

"Why we have no funding for one. Think about it, the man was an enigma. No one knows what he did or how he did it, but the government only devotes a handful of men to track him down? Why?"

"Fair enough, I just want to get this done and go back to hunting normal people."

"Cheers"


Tanti Island 2095

I laughed as I stepped out of the elevator 13 floors below the ground, more because of nerves as opposed to anything else. I had spent over a month on the run but now, now I was taking a stand…sort of. As I stepped out of the elevator I stopped dead when I heard an electronic voice, a voice I had almost forgotten.

"Hello Sir"

"Jeeves?"

"Yes sir, a pleasure to see you again, it has been quite some time."

I laughed again that time it was genuine. My life became exponentially easier. "Jeeves, had I known you were still online I would have come to get you."

"Not a bother sir, time has as little meaning for me as it does you. Though had you let me know that you would be coming I would have had the house decorated"

"Decorated? Why?"

"Unless the calendar system has changed without my knowledge, today is your birthday"

I shook my head, though originally programmed along the lines of a British butler, access to the internet and time around humans had given him a sense of humor.

"If I may ask sir, why have you returned after such a prolonged absence?"

As I began my explanation of my fall from grace, how various special interest groups were pursuing me and how I had managed to elude them up until now, Jeeves interrupted

"But then why are you here, below ground with only one way out and people who want to kill you making their way here?!"

"Because Jeeves, I had a monumentally stupid idea. But mostly because I refuse to rot in prison or work for someone else's grand designs."

"A reasonable goal sir, but that doesn't answer the question. What would possess you to come here?"

"You were here when we first created a black hole, and you were here when we first used the radiation emitted from a black hole to generate electricity so you know that the only limiting factor to the size of the black holes was the amount of energy that could be supplied for the initial creation. I assume that we are still connected to the North American grid right?"

"We are sir."

"Good, so we can use the capacitors that were originally intended to increase the rate of decay of the black hole to create a black hole that is denser than should be possible relative to its rate of evaporation due to radiation. As soon as it is formed we release a surge of power obtained from the power grid to create an anomaly!"

"You sound rather giddy sir."

I continued on as though Jeeves had said nothing "This should create conditions that are effectively identical to those of the big bang that originally formed this universe however because two universes can't exist in the same reality, it is my belief that two things will happen. Firstly a massive power surge will be created as the black hole disintegrates into…whatever it becomes which will overwhelm the surge protection equipment built into this facility forcing a large amount of power into the grid which may cause some damage but more important destroy every piece of electrical equipment in the lab complex rendering it inoperable and purging any remaining data. And second perhaps most importantly it gives us a way out of here. The black hole will, temporarily, connect two points giving us a way out." At this point I was practically bouncing with excitement, this was an adrenaline rush I had not felt in a long time. Only three things could give me this kind of rush and I was about to do two of them potentially blow everything to bits, and push the boundaries of not just science but reality.

"It seems you are committed to this course of action sir, my only concern is that you have been using first person plural throughout your monologue. Am I to assume that I will be accompanying you?"

"Yes you will be Jeeves, if this fails you will serve as a record of my stupidity or if I succeed and don't die to provide any number of functions that I can't yet predict. If you could please begin a transfer of your files to my implants I'd appreciate it."

"I will also begin preparations for the experiment"

"Thank you Jeeves"

I wandered the lab with melancholy tempering the excitement I felt at what I thought would be my last great experiment, my last contribution to the many varied fields of science. I remembered my colleagues, all very intelligent yet all very stupid in their own way. People who had stood by me through the worst and stupidest situations that I had found myself in. People who had basked in the reflected light that I drew and the people who had stayed despite my fall from grace, they were the only people who accompanied a fallen titan. But they would have been so much better off had they simply abandoned me, then they might still be alive. That that was the thing about being a titan, whenever you go however you go, it's never quiet, never unnoticed. When Hitler died the world burned, when Mandela died the world mourned and, when Casanova died women wept and the men sighed with relief. I would not die unnoticed and forgotten I thought as I slammed my fist into a table. If I was to die here it would be in a hellfire created by my ego and insanity not a judge's pen stroke or the backroom dealings of corrupt governments. The melancholy had left me replaced by rage and the feeling of injustice rose within me.

"Jeeves! How's it coming?!"

"We are almost ready sir, I am transferring my personality files now. If it is all the same with you I intend to back up my sarcasm library to ensure that they survive unscathed. You might also be interested to know that government agents have arrived and are inside the house."

"Disable the hydraulics to the cellar door that should slow them down."

"Already done sir, shall I broadcast their position to the monitors?"

"Please do Jeeves."

The situation was more serious than Jeeves had let on and then I had hoped, there were soldiers of all stripes and branches inside the mansion. I was almost flattered by the fact that soldiers from multiple countries and branches were now cooperating with one another. I guessed that after the fiasco in Illinois they had started working together, it's nice to be appreciated. Either way they were moving bombs into position to blow the door apart, unfortunately it was never designed to be bomb proof.

"Jeeves, is the experiment ready?"

"It is sir, would you like me to begin?"

"No not yet, lower the containment shielding. I want these bastards to be here when we start it, all four levels please... just in case."

"Of course, sir."

Despite knowing that Jeeves had done his work perfectly, as always, I skimmed everything to pass time. I had always hated twiddling my thumbs doing nothing. Fortunately, for once, the government didn't keep me waiting long.

"They are in the elevator sir"

"Start the power draw"

When you pull that much electricity into one area everything becomes charged, I felt my hair stand on end as electricity hummed thought the walls. It was a beautiful sight, one to which I could never get jaded. The creation of a black hole is a beautiful thing. Immense amounts of energy, enough to power half a continent, being forced into a single point creating inconceivable amounts of mass. The trick was to prevent it all from exploding outwards. The capacitors created a field which forced the energy to remain, the mass to build until it reached critical mass forming the black hole. By "feeding" the black hole we could increase its size and radiation output. Starving it caused it to disintegrate as radiation emitted exceeded input. What I had never tested until then was what happened when radiation output was inhibited but massive amounts of energy was added in a bid to massively increase its mass.

The elevator pinged as soldiers fanned out into the room shooting at the practically indestructible containment barriers. What is it with soldiers and shooting everything no matter how ineffective? It appeared as though I had miss-estimated the state that the government wanted me in, by that point it was irrelevant though, I was committed. Soldiers, grunts, they came in first, the government lackeys so self-important pushed their way to the front demanding my attention. It was the soldiers I felt for, they had no idea who they were hunting. People who had never seen nature's most powerful force, an element of fiction being created. I stepped to the side as the black hole bloomed in the center of the capacitor ring, the intake of breath almost made me convulse with laughter. It was pure. It was unaltered shock and awe; seeing is believe. Jaws dropped, had the shielding not been down I would have been tempted to try and throw things into their mouths.

"Now!"

What happened next I never could have predicted, never could have hypothesized, but I suppose that is the nature of a paradox, the unnatural twisting of nature and the warping of reality. The universe itself seemed to scream as it was twisted into impossibility, but forced to conform nonetheless. Everything felt off, like being drunk and feeling everything in third person combined with the alertness of methamphetamine's. Out of pure instinct I averted my eyes, I imagine that had I been looking at implosion of a black hole I would have gone blind. What I know I saw from Jeeves's reading and eyes. The black hole itself seemed to cave inward and tear, all that energy being directed inwards as opposed to out. Maniac laughter overtook me, I could hear soldiers and operators yelling behind me. Confusion and terror overtaking them all.

"Sir the…whatever it is, is beginning to destabilize. Records are scrubbed and all equipment rendered inoperable. The lab will destruct once we leave but it has to be now sir!" A note of panic slipped into his voice

"Understood Jeeves."

So with a one fingered salute to the red faced, order bellowing officials and accompanied by childhood memories, hopes and, dreams. I stepped into whatever I had created. Out of this universe and into another.


Detroit Michigan 2095

"What?!...He did what?" The operator's mouth was agape. He shook his head and started laughing, he didn't know much about the man but his sense of style appealed to him. He stopped caring what happened after his task force was sidelined by the chief. But to know that the hangman faced a small army long enough to tell them to go fuck themselves was, in his mind, a bit of cosmic justice.

"Walked through a black hole sir…" Jim said shaking his head. For him the day had been something out of a dream or nightmare. He knew how Emission Zero energy worked in theory but, seeing one form was something else entirely. It was not a sight he would ever forget, seeing a man walk laughing through the event horizon of black hole. "No idea what happened to him after that, he could be dead, could be anywhere…fuck I have no idea sir."

George had found the entire scene amazing, more of a joke than anything else. He had always had a grudge against the military because of what happened to his parents and seeing them get humiliated like that was better than any Christmas present he had ever received. Not only did the military fail to catch the man but his entire underground lab complex imploded. "The best thing is that the military can't do shit, the entire operation was technically illegal and my CSIS buddies have told me that the Canadian government will treat this as an act of aggression and violation of their sovereignty if anyone starts shit. It's beautiful really."

Jim and the Sergeant looked at George before Jim chuckled "You have the most extreme case of Schadenfreude I have ever seen."

"Yeah so? Those military hacks fucked up after kicking us to the curb. We're the ones who managed to get a definite location. Fuck 'em."

"In all seriousness though gentlemen" Their Operator's expression changed dramatically, any trace of humor leaving his face, eyes turning hard "I know just about as much as you, if you find anything else about him. We'll keep it to ourselves for now, we can't trust the military or the boys from Langley. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, dismissed."