Disclaimer: Noblesse ain't mine.
Author's note: Here's your well-earned weekend chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 38: Variola
The smallpox, induced by an infection with the orthopoxvirus variola is a highly contagious illness. Due to a worldwide vaccination campaign, the pox are deemed extinct since 1977 and no vaccination is available anymore. It is said, however, that in laboratories in the United States and Russia, strains of poxvirus still exist.
Takeo followed M-21 out on the balcony where he found him crouching on the narrow banister like a large cat. He was staring out over the city, the evening wind ruffling his gray hair. He looked very lost and alone.
Takeo leaned his lower back against the balustrade and looked up into the face of the other man. He pondered how he could get him to talk.
"Should I just vanish from here and go back to the way I lived before the Organization?", M-21 asked suddenly.
His gaze as he focused on Takeo was unreadable.
The long-haired man sighed silently, then shook his head slowly.
"Whatever it was you did back then doesn't seem very pleasing to me", he said. "You said so yourself. Why would you want to leave us? Why would you give up, M-21?"
M-21 raised his head and closed his eyes, avoiding Takeo's look. He inhaled the scents of the night.
"I bring misfortune", he mumbled. "My comrades are dead. Those sent after us: dead. The owner of my heart is also dead. As is my main researcher. Jin-Sang did not survive the introduction of my genetic code into his organism. Had she not met me, Doctor Choi would still work happily at the school, knowing nothing, regretting nothing. Do I not seem to be a harbinger of death?"
Takeo huffed and shook his head again.
"Are you stupid, M-21?", he said. "You are not the reason for all these horrible things. The Organization is. Have you not promised M-24 to find all your names and pasts? Have you acquired them yet? Have you not decided for yourself that you would bring down Crombel? Is he eliminated yet? Were not you the one who told me not to throw my life away because I was toyed with?"
Takeo had been speaking himself into a rage and was nearly screaming the last words, his eyes ablaze. M-21 opened his eyes a slit and observed him calmly. Then he shifted his weight so that he moved nearer to the other man.
"Things aren't as easy, Takeo", he said. "I'm fed up with your and Tao's constant nagging. I'll just tell you how things are. Just listen."
"I'm all ears", replied Takeo eagerly.
"First, I won't tell you my name", began M-21. "I don't want anyone to ever call me that name again, for it reminds me of those who gave it to me."
"But they were your parents", protested Takeo, being a family person himself. "They must have loved you."
M-21 snorted. "Yes", he spat sarcastically, "my father 'loved' me in quite a special way."
Ignoring Takeo's shocked expression, he went on. "I rejoiced the day they finally died. But they left me with nothing. So I did what I was good at: looking pretty and be obedient. You have no idea how fast I came to money. And then I met Crombel."
His voice vibrated deep in his throat as he uttered the name and a spark of gold lit in his eyes. "He promised me power. He took more than his due."
His mouth twitched with disgust. "I wanted to run for it and take Alan de Coreanus with me. I was too late. Then there was no going back. I awoke in one of those tanks you surely know yourself. My past was erased. Together with the others I thought it a great loss. I had no idea how wrong I was. One point in time, Crombel forced me to remember in order to get his toy back. I can't quite recall why he erased my memory again. It makes my head ache."
M-21 paused and cringed, pressing one hand to his forehead. When Takeo started, worried, he waved him away with a dismissive gesture.
"It's nothing, really", he said. "Anyway, now you know my past. Despise me, if you wish. I despise myself."
"Shush", made Tao and leaned back to feel the wind in his long hair. "You are too hard on yourself, M-21. With such an upbringing, no surprise where you ended up. In fact, it is astounding how you could become a person with such high morale standards and self-sacrificing loyalty. You risked your life to fight against Shark, or so Tao always tells me. You are no selfish, mindless killer, no matter how much you fancy yourself to be. I like you. You are our precious comrade." With the last words, he smiled widely.
M-21 could not help but give a small relieved smile in return.
"Thank you", he said earnestly. "I should have told you all this long ago, I guess."
"And you will have to repeat it to Tao", remarked Takeo. "Don't depend on me to do your duty."
"I promise to", answered M-21, the smile still playing around his lips. It vanished seconds after.
"Still", he said. "It doesn't help the fact that Doctor Choi never wants to see me again."
"I thought you wanted to keep away from her for her own good?", smirked Takeo.
M-21 sighed and had the grace to look a bit embarrassed. "Easier said than done", he murmured.
Then he twitched and again his hand shot up to his head. Takeo saw his jaw muscles tense as he clenched his teeth against the pain. Without his usual dexterity, he jumped from the balustrade and tensed again.
Takeo hurried to help his comrade. The gray eyes seemed slightly glassy, as M-21 shot him an unwilling look.
"It's okay", he said and went inside. Takeo followed him slowly with an expression of worry in his features.
At the local police office, people were working overtime. Several policemen had fallen ill at once. Common opinion had it that it was just the annual springtime cold. But there was an insistent rumor that the many cases of illness had a connection to the bestial murder in the forest by the industrial quarter.
A special unit of the homicide division was working on the case. So far they had found a human and a dog trace at the site of crime apart from the victim's footprints. It seemed likely that the doctor had been attacked by someone with a large fighting dog. Unfortunately, the footprints could only be traced back to the industrial district where they simply vanished.
Except the name of the victim, no more information could be gained. There was no entry at the registration office. No medical facility had employed him. The woman who had identified him as "John Brown" had claimed to be only a fleeting acquaintance.
When the first policeman was admitted to a hospital with high fever and strange blisters, panic began to spread.
Meanwhile, M-21 sat in bed, propped up by several cushions and tried to focus on the steady stream of information Tao fed him with. He was a bit feverish and had a light rash, but the headache was already getting better, due to the cool cloth Seira had provided for him.
Takeo was in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes by himself, but Tao had said he had great news and insisted on telling M-21 immediately.
He was typing away on his computer until he finally turned the screen around so M-21 could see it.
"What is it?", asked the gray-haired man, momentarily overstrained by the mass of information on the monitor.
"It's the data from the hard disk you brought me", answered Tao. "It took quite some time to fix it since a part was damaged. But I managed to restore a big part of the data."
M-21's eyes widened when the letters finally formed words. He was looking at a collection of data on the M-series. His experimentation line. He gazed at Tao with a mixture of shock and deep admiration.
"Can I...browse through it?", he asked hesitantly.
"Sure!", nodded Tao and handed him the laptop. "Unfortunately it's not complete. But that's not all. Turgo also included information on a new experiment. It should interest the others, too..."
M-21 had stopped listening. His eyes were glued to the words that streamed over the monitor. He had it. Finally, he would know the names and the past of his comrades.
As he read, he recalled every detail about them, vividly. Their faces, their voices, all they had said in the short time he had known them. Now he could call them by their real names in his head. He could connect them to a past, a job, a family. Some had been criminals. It mattered nothing to him. He had seen in Jin-Sang that past deeds could not always reflect on the character.
Last, he read the entry on M-24. So he indeed had a younger brother, he thought. He must miss him.
Only when the letters blurred did he realize that he had been crying. He hurriedly wiped his eyes and raised his head. Tao had sneaked out of the room.
M-21 was thankful. Staring at the monitor, he felt he had never been so happy in his entire life.
Note: See, I'm not that cruel. Now and then, my characters get a piece of happiness^^. Reviews make me happy.