Chapter 23

"Jesse, can you phase Marlowe out of his bonds?" Emma asked.

"I think I can do that," he said, "but why would I?"

"Trust me," Emma said.

"I do, but I don't trust him," Jesse quipped.

For a second, Emma considered compelling Jesse. She could also simply find something sharp and cut Marlowe out herself, but then she decided there was no real reason to move him except expediency. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she told her friends and deplaned the wrecked Helix.

Emma searched the minds of the Links lying about on the floor of the hangar. She would make sure their received medical attention once Mutant X had left. None seemed to be in immediate danger of dying, but they might take a turn for the worse once they woke up. There were still Strand members at other Fasergen locations that could return to Site G and come to their aid. She picked out Julia Lechner. Emma had partially shielded her and the Links not programmed by Gabriel Ashlocke from the full force of her attack. The woman was in bad shape nevertheless. Reaching into the Geologic's mind, she located the emotional scar she had created and began the process of smoothing it out somewhat. Julia had supported Marlowe, not only due to the hatred imprinted by Patient Zero, but of her own free will, so Emma would not erase or bypass her pain completely.

The woman woke screaming as if from a nightmare. She sat up and looked around, shocked to see Emma was the only one left standing. "Are they dead?" she asked.

"No," Emma answered simply.

"Where's Charles?" Julia asked.

"Come with me, I'll show him to you." Emma manipulated her mind, keeping her calm and compliant. "Follow me."

The two women joined the Mutant Xers and Charles Marlowe in the Helix.

"Emma, Julia," Adam said. "What are you planning?"

"This time, Julia Lechner is the key to the cure. The cure for Marlowe's life," Emma said.

The small hope Marlowe had disappeared. "She can probably destroy this body, but I'll just regenerate somewhere else." Emma sensed the walls around his pain beginning to reform. She had exposed his humanity, but if she was unable to deliver on her promise of death, it would be buried again in his hatred.

"I won't kill him," Julia said. "You can't make me."

A dark ball of Psionic energy formed in front of Emma's forehead. "I can make you do anything I want," she said, "but I won't." The dark sphere turned into an orb of white light. A beam of energy connected her to Julia and then to Marlowe, creating a triangle of brilliance running between their three minds. Emma showed her Marlowe's mind from the pain caused by the death of his wife and child to the despondency he felt upon his resurrection. Then Emma showed her the long fingers of communication reaching out to his every living cell. There were even more now than Emma had seen in Marlowe's memory—thousands of blood samples at multiple Fasergen sites, the blood on the hangar floor from Emma's attack on him with the ten bullets, even an entire hand he had cut off and given to a group of his scientists to study, and many others.

"Julia," Emma addressed the blond woman, "when your powers were spinning out of control, you were actually able to project your entropic touch."

"I don't even know how I did that. I just remember the death it caused. I won't use my powers on Mr. Marlowe."

"You don't have to, Julia," Adam said. "Emma, that's enough. We already discussed this. Killing him here would not do any good. Imprisonment is the only option."

"No. I can adjust Julia's powers," Emma explained. "I can recreate her ability to project entropy and distribute it through Marlowe's own intercellular communication system, killing every living cell simultaneously. He will be dead…all of him." She turned to Lechner. "I showed you his mind. What I ask is not for you to hurt him, but to help him. Save him. It's the only mercy this world has to give."

Julia Lechner was choked up. She knew the truth of Emma's words, having looked inside of Charles Marlowe. This was the man who meant to kill the billions of souls whose murders haunted her mind. Intellectually, she knew that the Mutant X Psionic had implanted the horror of that genocide of Normals into her brain, but that did not make it less real to her. There was also the realization that she would have gone along with Marlowe in his plans. "I can't." She didn't want the guilt of another death on her conscience.

"This is what I want," Marlowe said, echoing what he had thought were his last words when he died at Mason Eckhart's orders more than a year ago. A long silence followed and finally Julia nodded her head. She would do it.

Throughout the country in genetic laboratories owned by Fasergen, test tubes of blood and other biological samples turned to dust. Emma watched as each cord extending to a part of Marlowe disappeared. In a matter of seconds, the last cells of the Strand leader were the ones in the body standing right in front of them. The mental connection between the three was broken. Charles Marlowe bowed his head and Julia Lechner placed her hands upon it. Unto dust did he return.

"I suggest you contact some of your associates at other sites to come and help your friends in there," Emma told Julia. Without saying a word, she left the Helix.

"Now what?" Jesse asked.

"We get out of here," Brennan answered.

"Not quite yet," Emma said. "We can't leave Fasergen intact. Armored and armed stealth planes, Genomex's technology, the wealth they've stolen and earned with their unethical research." Her voice was getting worse as she kept talking with her damaged trachea and vocal cords.

"I agree," Adam said, "but first, are you holding up okay, Emma?"

"No, but I'll persevere," she answered.

"Unfortunately, we all have to rely on you a little longer. You know more about our current situation than the rest of us."

Emma nodded. She gave Brennan, Jesse and Shalimar the locations of the Strand aircraft. "I can't tell if they'll still fly. The pilots did not have much time for safe landings."

"If they will fly, I want you three to contact me and I'll give you the coordinates of a secret airfield where you are to take them. If not, we'll take things from there. Emma and I will look into the computer systems here and see what we can do about Fasergen's research and finances."

They all went about their assigned tasks. Brennan, Jesse and Shalimar called in to say that the planes looked like they would fly, but they didn't have the access codes to get them going. Adam and Emma were able to find the information and told the three to go ahead. They would follow on land and meet them at the airstrip. Adam got a hold of Fasergen's real accounting information, which differed greatly from their public books. The records would arrive anonymously at the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as several other government agencies.

"The only way to destroy their research is to wipe the minds of every Fasergen scientist," Emma croaked. "It could take months to track them all down."

"I don't think we need go that far, Emma," Adam said. "We just mean to cripple them. Do you think you would be able to access their computers telecyberly?"

"I can try." Using her enhanced powers on humans had come naturally, but connecting with something artificial was another matter. Her blue eyes became bluer, glowing like light emitting diodes, and she reached out with her mind to the simplistic electrical patterns of the Fasergen intranet. First, she copied every piece of information she could find and sent the data to Sanctuary. Now it was time to destroy. Worse than any virus, Emma ripped through computer after computer. She wiped and reformatted every disk and hard drive, then destroyed them. Not one chip was left intact. Emma then used the information she had learned in the system to connect to every wireless device, portable assistant, and employee home computer so that nothing was spared. "Done," she said. "Of course, there's nothing I can do about anything on paper."

"Don't worry. The Feds will take care of that part. The electronic information is what could be copied, transmitted and hidden most easily. Just re-data-entering everything would take years." Adam smiled at the young woman. "It's time to go home."

Together they returned to the aircraft hangar. Several Links who had arrived from other sights were seeing to their fallen comrades. They knew well enough to let Emma and Adam be. The hangar doors were now open and a pair of helicopters was landed outside. "Looks like our ticket out of here," Emma said.

"I hate to leave the Helix, though," Adam said regretfully.

"Even if it wasn't shot to hell and wingless, I assume you completely fried the computer system once it was obvious you might be captured."

"Call me sentimental."

A scintillating light appeared in front of Emma's forehead and extended to the Double Helix, engulfing it in sparkling light. The plane lifted from the ground and flew out the hangar doors. Emma and Adam followed. Several large flatbed trucks were parked outside and Emma placed the Helix down on one of them. She then used her powers to tie the plane down securely and found a tarp large enough to hide what was being transported. Adam got in behind the wheel and Emma sat in the passenger seat. The keys were already in the truck and together they drove off to join the rest of the team.