[Parasite Eve: Redux]
Chapter III: The Shadow of Death
The Lord is my shepherd
There is nothing I lack.
In green pastures you let me graze;
to safe waters you lead me;
you restore my strength.
You guide me along the right path
for the sake of your name.
Even as I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death;
I fear no evil for you are with me;
your rod and staff give me courage.
-Psalms 23
*****
…Detention area, MIST…
No.12 leaned up against the wall of his cell. After the interrogation session, the GOLEM could use all the rest he could get. His head still stung.
The guard outside continually paced, so much so that No.12 was sure the ground under him was several inches lower than when he started. The man was obviously uncomfortable guarding a creature that could pop his head like a pimple before he could even sound an alarm.
The GOLEM smiled under his mask. Only a few more minutes…
*****
…Parking Garage, MIST…
"So you're sure this Baldwin guy can tell us what we need to know?" Jake opened the door to his car, and sat down in the driver's seat.
Aya sat shotgun. "I'm sure. He was at the center of the whole operation. If anybody knows, it'll be Baldwin."
"Sweet. Lets get go–What the hell!?" The internal alarms suddenly sounded, startling Jake and Aya.
"Sounds like we got visitors…" Aya got out of the car and pulled her gun out of it's holster. "Let's greet them, shall we?"
Jake grinned. "Now you're speakin' my language…" He pulled out a pair of Colt .45's. "Let's go kick some ass."
*****
…Main Offices, MIST…
Jake and Aya ran into the main hall of MIST, expecting to see perhaps a few NMC's escaped from the containment area, or maybe a postal MIST employee. What they found was a bit more than they expected.
A group of not quite two dozen Pawn and Rook GOLEMs had invaded MIST, and were giving the other Hunters quite a fight. The battle was raging through a cubicle-infested area, forcing the GOLEMs to clear an area in the room by randomly knocking down the cube walls with grenades and plasma-blades.
Aya took cover behind a pillar, shooting at the GOLEMs from behind a secure position. She dropped a Rook with a well-aimed shot to the head, right in between the plate of armor on it's face and it's helmet. The cyborg fell, discharging a volley of grenades at the ceiling.
Jake took a less well-disciplined approach. He dove over an overturned desk, blazing away with his handguns. The hail of .45 caliber bullets impacted one of the Pawns in the chest, flaying the cyborg's armor and causing sparks and blood to rain on the other GOLEMs.
Aya ran from behind her pillar, firing with her pistol and occasionally blasting a GOLEM with a Neo-Mitochondrial fireball. She reached Pierce and Jodie, who were hiding behind another concrete cylinder. "How are you guys doing?"
"Not so great." Pierce peaked out from behind the makeshift barricade. "The GOLEMs have taken over most of the lower levels… This is just a small group."
Jodie piped up. "Yeah. There's at least fifty of the nasties in the building." She smacked the pillar with her hand. "If only we could get to the Weapons Control Room…"
Meanwhile, Jake had been having far too much fun fighting the GOLEMs. He kicked a file full of papers in the face of a Rook, causing the artificial soldier to reflexively fire a cluster of grenades, which missed Jake and hit a nearby Pawn.
The Rook charged at Jake with it's shield lowered, making an effective battering ram. Jake tried firing a few rounds at the Rook, but the bullets merely bounced off the shield. He led the GOLEM over a cubicle wall, and into a real one. The cyborg slammed into the concrete surface, knocking it silly. As the artificial soldier struggled to it's feet, it looked down and noticed a greenish-gray round object at it's feet. The hand-grenade then exploded, sending the GOLEM rocketing through the air.
The Hunter then turned to see another Rook that happened to be sighting down Aya. He took a few pod-shots at the cyborg in an effort to draw it's attention away from her, and succeeded. The GOLEM swept it's laser-sight across to Jake.
Jake rolled across a nearby desk, which was promptly destroyed by the enraged GOLEM. He hit the ground, and dove off to the left, drawing the Rook's line of fire across a group of lesser GOLEMs. The Rook did not care, apparently, and let loose a burst of grenades at the other cyborgs, which succeeded in little else than causing the grenade-armed Pawns to return fire. Needless to say, the Rook was reduced to a pile of flaming rubble in relatively short order.
The Hunter dove behind his own desk, pulling out his trusty M-16A2 assault rifle that he had had the foresight to hide in his filing cabinet. He popped out from behind his cover, and unleashed a hail of 5.56mm rounds at the closest GOLEM, a Pawn, which promptly disintegrated.
Aya witnessed this from behind the pillar which also housed Pierce and Jodie. "Aw, crap. I gotta go make sure Jake doesn't get himself killed, okay?"
Jodie shrugged. "Sure. That boy sure needs someone to keep him out of trouble. Sort of like my Pierce here…" She snuggled up against the young man.
Pierce wrapped his arms around Jodie. "We're gonna be stuck here for a while, Aya. Go on, git!"
Aya darted around the pillar, firing at the distracted GOLEMs. She dropped two Pawns and a Rook before they realized what was happening, and started opening fire at her instead of Jake.
Jake seized the opportunity, pulling a machete out of one of the drawers on his desk. He came up behind a Pawn, and slammed the blade down on the shoulder of the cyborg so hard it traveled down through the GOLEM's chest until the knife lodged in it's ribs. He yanked the blade out, and rammed the machete through the back of the next Rook's neck. The blade only stopped when it hit the GOLEM's face-plate.
Aya continued to fire into the crowd of GOLEMs until she finally realized that they were all dead. She and Jake reconvened in the center of the pile of bodies.
Jake pried the helmet off of a Rook. "Hmm. I think I'll put it on my wall."
Aya glanced at the elevator. "That was just the advance guard. There's still at least 30-35 more in the lower levels."
"Excellent! Wanna go kill some more?" Jake's voice had the kind of not-quite-healthy enthusiasm that Aya had learned he acquired whenever he got into battle.
Aya shook her head. "I'll do it. You have to attend to the wounded–those GOLEMs injured a lot of people before we got here."
Jake nodded. "Okay. I'll let you have all the fun, I guess."
As Aya made her way to the elevator, she muttered to herself, "I swear. That guy's gonna get himself killed one of these days…"
*****
…Storage Level, MIST…
Aya exited the elevator with her gun ready, sweeping the area with her muzzle. She expected to see the place crawling with GOLEMs, but instead the entire floor seemed to be empty.
Spent casings from the Rook's fragmentation grenades littered the floor, as did the corpses of several cyborgs. Aya couldn't even hear the soft footsteps of any Bishop or Knight GOLEMs. The area was just… deserted.
She jumped when the emergency phone in the elevator went off. She picked it up. "Hello?"
"Aya! It's Pierce."
"What's up?"
"I just managed to get to the security desk… It looks like the GOLEMs cleared out."
"Good."
"No, not good. They killed the officers guarding No.12 and Eve, and left with 'em. Eve and the GOLEM, that is."
"THEY TOOK EVE!?" Aya shouted into the phone.
"Whoa, Aya. Calm down. They couldn't have gotten far." He paused for a moment. "Wait a minute… Jake has something…"
Jake's voice came on to the phone. "Aya, I think I know where they're headed. If we can get there before them…"
"Way ahead of you. We'll drive my car this time."
"Okay…"
*****
…On the road to the Shelter…
Yoshida looked behind him at the masses of GOLEMs hanging on racks. They were riding in a big-rig truck that had been modified to act as a troop-transport for the GOLEMs. It was called an RDV, or Rapid Deployment Vehicle, and was supposed to allow for, as the name indicates, rapid deployment of the cyber-soldiers outside of the shelter. However, after Yoshida and the GOLEMs had busted No.12 and Eve out of MIST, the Knight replaced Yoshida as the driver of the vehicle.
This meant little to Yoshida, however, as he was currently suffering from a bout of motion sickness due to No.12's driving.
He climbed up to the cabin, and leaned up next to No.12 and Eve. "Um, could you, not swerve so much? It's making me–oh God!" Yoshida wretched in a paper bag.
No.12 turned to look at Yoshida, then returned to gazing out at the road. "I am sorry. The Rooks are moving around in the back. I have to swerve to stop the RDV from tipping over, but I will endeavor to maintain a straighter course."
Yoshida nodded, trying to not barf a second time. "Good. Why can't I drive, again?"
"Dr. Bowman is concerned with speed. You always go too slow."
The computer tech stared at the GOLEM in disbelief. "What?! You saw what happened the last time I drove over the speed limit! I got pulled over!"
"And I dealt with it."
"By killing the CHP officer! You can't just–BLUAGH!!!" Yoshida threw up again.
"Humans are so strange…" No.12 ignored Yoshida's continued protestations and kept on driving.
*****
…A few miles behind…
Jake looked over at the speedometer. "Um, Aya… You're gonna be going twice the legal limit in a few seconds…
"So?"
"Well, you're usually the one telling me to slow down."
"You're absolutely right." She stepped on the gas, exceeding the speed limit by almost a hundred miles per hour.
*****
…Half an hour later, Mine Entrance…
Aya and Jake peeked over a small ridge of rock to a rather disheartening scene. There was what appeared to be a big-rig truck flanked by nearly a hundred GOLEMs of all types blocking the way into the shelter.
They slid down behind the boulders. "Well, what do we do now?" Jake wiped his brow with a bandana. "We're not getting in that way."
Aya was obviously getting quite angry. Jake had never seen this side of her. "Well, there's still the parking garage… maybe that's not so heavily guarded."
Jake grabbed her arm. "Aya, you know as well a I do that there not going to let us into the shelter with out a fight." He looked over the ridge again. "Hell, they're probably not gonna let us in at all. The only thing I can see to do is talk to that Baldwin guy. He'll most likely know what's going on, and how to stop it." Jake released her.
"You're right. I just…" Aya trailed off.
"I know. You don't want to leave Eve behind." Jake put his hand on her shoulder. "I doubt that they're gonna hurt her. I looks like they need her for whatever their plan is. Otherwise they wouldn't have gone to all this trouble to get her."
Aya nodded. "Okay. Lets go pay Baldwin a visit."
*****
…In the Shelter…
No. 12 half-walked, half-dragged Yoshida into the meeting room. Yoshida pushed him away and staggered off to curl up in a corner to try to regain his sense of balance.
No. 9 was waiting for them. "Well?" he asked. "Where's th' Queen?"
A Pawn stepped forward and held the struggling girl up by her collar. No. 9 snatched her away and cradled her in one arm while he backhanded the Pawn with the other. "Treat th' Queen with respect, you moron!" He snarled. The Pawn muttered an apology and backed away, head down.
"Put me down!" Eve demanded, pounding on No. 9's chest armor.
He laughed. "Now, now, Miss Queen. Just relax…" He cooed as Eve continued to fight.
Bowman entered the room, and Eve was suddenly still, as if in a trance. "Good. Yoshida, No. 12, you may leave. Now."
Yoshida wrinkled his nose. He stood and left the room, throwing suspicious glances at Bowman while the Knight Golem followed.
*****
…Two hours later, Shelter…
"Two hours…" Yoshida muttered, pacing up and down the hallway. "How long are they going to make us wait?"
No. 12, who was sitting on a countertop that he had found strong enough to support his weight, watched the programmer complete another lap. "There are many things to work out, now that we have our Queen again." He stated.
Yoshida grunted. "Happy to have her back, huh?"
The large Golem mused over this. "We are discouraged from becoming overexcited about these things. But I suppose… yes."
"That's nice." Yoshida grumbled sarcastically. He leaned his head against the door Bowman and No. 9 were conversing behind. Suddenly, his eyes grew large.
"—insolence!! You'll ruin everything!"
"Do I look like I care, old man? "
"I created your race, and I can destroy it twice as easily! Now listen to reason…"
"Yer reasons don't mean anythin' to me. The tables've turned, Doctor. I made you."
"You can't just run out there, guns blazing and destroy everything!"
"The only thing I want to destroy is the little girl. Then we take our rightful place."
"No! That was never the plan! I wanted to restore the evolutionary balance, not overthrow it!"
"Then why'd you create us, Bowman? Heheh, I found yer blueprints and notes years before we found yer DNA code. I know all about what you had in store for us Golems. You get what you want, then throw us in the trash an' dispose of any trace of us."
"Th—that's not true…"
"Oh, really? Even th' Queen knows. You'd kill her, too wouldn't you, Doctor?"
"This is preposterous!"
"Now lissen here, clone. Yer gonna follow my plan now, or I'll tell the others what you had planned for 'em. And they won't play nice…"
"………All right. We'll follow your plan. But killing the girl will be a mistake, No. 9. We could use her to our advantage…"
There was a loud thud of the King Golem's hand hitting something solid.
"That little mutant is th' first to go! No exceptions!!"
Yoshida backed away from the door, afraid that the King would throw something through it, possibly the man he was yelling at. He turned to the Knight Golem. "Things are gonna get complicated, No. 12." He sighed.
No. 12 nodded. "I had suspected that from the start."
*****
…Three hours later, Los Angles…
Jake raced the car along the highway, narrowly avoiding several other motorists. "So, Aya…"
"Yes?" Aya had learned to put up with Jake's… unique driving style.
"I remember hearing something 'bout some guy named Madigan… what ever happened to him?"
Aya took a deep breath. "You're familiar with the Dryfield incident, right?"
"Yeah, sort of. I've read about it, but most of the details are classified."
"That doesn't matter." Aya stared out of her window. "There was another person on the case besides me."
"That would be this Madigan guy, right?"
Aya nodded. "Right. Kyle Madigan was a government spy inside the organization that ran the shelter… he told me he was a private investigator, though. He was the one that tipped me off to the existence of the Shelter in the first place."
"Huh. So what ever happened to him?"
"He disappeared after the bombing of the Shelter."
"And you never saw him afterward?"
"Well… no." Aya sighed. "I haven't told anyone this… but I saw Kyle again about six months ago."
Jake jerked his head toward Aya. "You what?!"
"We met again at the Natural History Museum in New York." She laughed. "It was like a dream. I thought we could finally be together…"
"So you two were involved, I take it?"
"Yes. We were lovers for about three weeks… but he disappeared again. I haven't heard anything about him for months."
"Wow. That really bites." Jake peered out of the windshield. "Looks like we're here." He got out of the car, the leaned back in. "Hey, I know what'll cheer ya up. Wanna see me kick Baldwin's ass?"
*****
…Los Angeles Minimum Security Prison…
The guard opened the door for Aya and Jake. "He's all yours. I gotta warn you, though. Baldwin isn't usually very cooperative."
Aya placated the guard. "Don't worry. We've got… incentive."
Jake grinned.
The guard laughed nervously and closed the door behind them.
Aya sat down at the table in the middle of the room. Baldwin was sitting on the other side, his arms and legs firmly bound with manacles. "Hello, Eric."
"Agent Brea! You never visited me before." Baldwin smiled sarcastically. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Jake paced around the room, working himself into his usual violent fury.
Baldwin raised an eyebrow. "Who's your friend?"
Aya glance at Jake. "He's agent Jakob Brant. He works at MIST now."
Baldwin looked suprised. "Oh, so this is Agent Brant?" He smirked. "Not what I expected, really. I would have thought he'd be throttling me by now…"
Jake spun and looked at Baldwin. "Just give me time." He cocked an eyebrow. "Just a question, but are you to terribly attached to your head? 'Cuz I can remove it for you…"
Baldwin looked pleased. "Just as I thought…" He craned his head to look at Aya. "He's certainly violent. I trust he has been a help in the investigation? I mean besides nearly killing that GOLEM."
Aya glared at him. "How do you know about that?"
Baldwin smiled. "Well, now that would be telling."
Jake walked over to Aya and whispered into her ear. "Can you ask your questions, already? I wanna have an excuse to hit him."
Aya nodded and whispered back. "Sure." She sat up and squared her shoulders. "Now, Eric, we know you were involved in the Dryfield incident."
Baldwin scoffed. "Well, of course. I'm in jail for it, aren't I?"
"Good. Anyway, there have been certain… abnormalities involving Eve and the Shelter. Do you know anything about them?"
"Of course I know. Just because I'm in jail doesn't mean I don't know what's going on outside."
"Well… Are you going to tell us?"
Baldwin leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. "I don't feel like it."
Aya nodded. "Okay." She turned to her partner. "Jake?"
Jake cracked his knuckles. "Finally…"
*****
…Twenty minutes later…
"Are you going to talk now?" Aya stood over Baldwin.
He nodded. The former MIST supervisor had been worked over quite thoroughly by Jake. His face was covered in bruises and scrapes, and his left eye was swollen shut.
Aya looked pleased. "Good." She turned again to Jake. "I'd say you've done enough."
Jake rubbed his hand where the brass knuckles had bit into his fingers. "Are you sure? I can keep going…"
Aya raised her hand. "No, you've done enough." She sat down at her seat. "So. Baldwin. What do you know?"
The man swallowed. "You two undoubtedly know about the testing during the Gulf War. Am I right?"
Aya nodded.
"Well, that's not the half of it. You see, the Japanese were doing experiments involving Neo-mitochondria as far back as the early eighties."
Aya's head snapped up. "The first Eve…"
"Precisely. You see, the Japanese were cooperating with the Soviet Union in an effort to create a super-soldier that could tip the balance of power." He laughed quietly. "Unfortunately, the USSR collapsed before they could complete the project. So, the Japanese government decided to sell their research to the Americans, in return for a few key nuclear secrets, of course." He grinned and looked a Jake. "That would be where your unit during Desert Storm comes into the picture."
Jake stood up. He picked Baldwin up by his collar and slammed the older man against the wall. Baldwin gasped for air as Jake pressed him against the bricks. "What do you know about them?!"
Baldwin strained against Jake. "If you'll let me down, I'll tell you!"
Jake dropped the inmate. "Alright. Talk."
Baldwin rubbed his neck. "Your unit was one of the first groups to be tested with Neo-Mitochondria. Obviously, the American scientists didn't fully understand the data they acquired from their Japanese counterparts, so the experiments were a complete failure. Those who escaped the fate of Unit 3 have be afflicted with a wasting illness for the last decade."
"Gulf War Syndrome." Aya offered.
Baldwin nodded. "Yes."
Jake backed up from Baldwin, and sat on the table. "If what you say is true, then why wasn't I affected? How come I'm not dead or have Gulf War Syndrome?"
Baldwin shrugged. "I honestly don't know. Yours is a lone exception to all the other cases we have documented."
Aya crossed her arms. "What about Melissa Pearce?"
"When Dr. Klamp preformed the 'kidney' transplant on Melissa and your sister, what he was actually implanting were cloned organs that the Military had cooked up for him. Not that he knew this, of course.
"The first true success involving Neo-Mitochondria was when Eve created the first NMCs in New York. You see, Uncle Sam didn't want Eve. She was too powerful, too difficult to control. The NMCs, however, had nearly the same potential for power, and were far easier to manipulate."
Aya looked thoughtful. "So they made MIST to collect information on the NMCs?"
"And Shangrila to use the information." Baldwin rubbed the back of his neck. "It was quite ingenious, really. Only a few people, myself and the head researcher at the Shelter, Dr. Fred Bowman, included, knew about the true goal of both organizations."
Jake leaned back in his chair. "So this Bowman guy was the head honcho at the Shelter?"
"Correct."
Jake looked at Aya. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Aya nodded. "I think so. This Bowman's the super-human the GOLEM was talking about?"
"Yup."
Aya took a deep breath. "You know what, Jake?"
"What?"
She stood up. "You were right, back at MIST."
"Really? What did I say?"
"We're in deep shit."
*****