Part Four

...And Into the Fire

I sat by the fire, watching Spike sleep. I had patched him up- Vincent had done quite a lot of damage to my friend- and started up a fire by the shore.

By the time I had gotten to shore with Spike on my back, I noticed that the monorail had come to a halt, and the first cart- the one we were in- was badly damaged. I prayed that Electra was all right.

While waiting for Spike to wake up, I had called Jet and given him our position, but told him not to be in any rush. Spike needed to rest, and being next to a landing pad wouldn't help him.

I had also called Faye a few times. She didn't pick up. Jet still hadn't seen her. I was very worried.

Spike stirred. He opened his eyes, slowly.

"Do you have any idea how tired I am of having to save your ass?" I remarked.

Spike laughed.

Jet landed pretty soon after, and the three of us had sat by the shore, watching the sun go down.

I realized then that I hadn't smoked in a while.

"Jack," Jet said, "I was going to mention... I think that it would be okay to walk away from this one."

I looked at Jet for a good, long moment. I wanted to agree with him.

"Jet, I just can't." I replied. "This whole thing... it's all connected to me. Hell, it may even be because of me. And there's a large possibility that I may be the only person who can stop it."

Jet nodded.

"And anyways, if Vincent has anything to do with Faye's disappearance, I'm going to be forced to kill him." I said.

Jet laughed a little.

But just a little.

The next day, Spike felt that he was healed. And Ed apparently had some new information about the lymphocytes.

She showed us a blown-up image of the lymphocytes. Apparently, they weren't just prosthetics on a very small scale; they were nanomachines.

"They were making a weapon." Jet concluded. "The company was contracted to make this weapon for the Titan effort, but they wanted to make sure that their soldiers wouldn't be hurt by the weapons. So they took Vincent and tested the vaccine on him. Now, it must have worked, because he survived the testing; but his trauma from the experimentation must have driven the man to lash out, using the very same weapons to attack a world that he felt had betrayed him."

"That would explain how he can perform the attacks." I said. "The vaccine is still circulating through his system."

"And anyone who comes in contact with his blood, or any other bodily fluid that could contain the vaccine, will be vaccinated." Jet explained.

That meant that Electra was probably vaccinated. A happy yet horrifying thought.

"Well, do we have any leads on information? We should probably get into this company and see what we can do about a vaccine." Spike said.

"Check this out." Jet replied. "Ed, could you look up their shipment on October 15th?"

Ed squirmed about for a bit- I had no idea how she operated her hacking programs without touching the keyboard, but she was the best- and we saw Cherious' homepage appear on-screen. The page flipped away to reveal documentation of a shipment on Oct. 15. Ed's cursor flipped through some pages and came up to Macadamia nuts. About five hundred pounds of 'em.

"What's with the shipment, Jet?" I asked.

"It was hijacked. About five hundred pounds of cargo went missing." Jet replied. "Check this out. That's a lot of nuts for a pharmaceutical company."

"And it's a lot of work, too." I said. "Macadamia nuts... research and development? This is just too suspicious."

"Ed, bring up the R&D division." Spike instructed.

The name "Mendelo Al-Hedia" appeared on-screen. He was the head of Macadamia nuts research and development.

Ed brought up another page with his information.

Apparently, Dr. Mendelo was the foremost professional on nanomachines. He wasn't working at Cherious anymore.

"Nanomachines..." I read. "We just need to find this guy, and-"

"Ah." Spike said. "I think I know how to find him."

"I'm going with you." I said.

"I was hoping you would." Spike replied. "I wanted you to get a vase that's perfect for you."

We did a lot of searching around the Moroccan streets for Spike's informant, but we couldn't locate him. Eventually, we sat down on a flight of stairs. Spike looked in his carton of cigarettes. There were two left.

He handed me one, and took the other. The empty carton went back in his pocket; why, I didn't know.

"How about a light?" a merchant asked, holding out an oversized grenade. He pulled the pin, causing the grenade to emit a large flame- it wasn't a grenade, it was a lighter. I stuck my cigarette in the flame, as did Spike.

"Thanks, Doc." Spike said.

The merchant put away the lighter, and sighed.

"Who is your friend? Is he trustworthy?"

"Mostly." Spike replied. "Don't worry about him, he's connected to-"

"Wait! A.. are you Captain Jacobs?" the doctor asked.

"I... was." I replied. "It's just 'Jack', now. I don't even use the last name that much anymore."

"You were the first entry into the super-soldier program!" the doctor exclaimed. "I can't believe I'm talking to you! You're legendary in almost every field of science!"

"I sucked at science." I replied. "And 'every field'? Didn't they just mess with some of my muscle tissue?"

"No, no, far from that!" the doctor said. "Almost every field of science was put to the test in your experiments! You shouldn't have survived most of it, or at least not without significant disfiguration. But you turned out fine!"

"Yeah." I muttered. "Just fine."

"Do you know what they did to him?" Spike asked.

"I don't know what they didn't do to him." the doctor replied. "The first month was all shots. You were shot up with almost everything imaginable. Surviving that month alone was impressive. Then, they did nanomachines for two months."

"Two months? That seems like a lot."

"Running through your body are the most advanced machines in the world." the doctor said. "They are completely independent, and judge everything your body does, making sure that you are fully prepared for every situation you face."

"Is he sterile?" Spike asked, jokingly.

"No." the doctor replied. "That was an important part of the test. You tell me if you have any children, alright? Breeding will require a lot of testing."

Well, getting Faye pregnant was even less of an option now than it was before. No way was I going to let those scientists loose on a kid.

Spike shook his head. "Anyways, we need access to the vaccines." he said.

"With a man like your partner, I don't think it will be that hard." the doctor replied.

"Doc, don't you have any vaccines?" I asked. I was still taking in what he had told me about my experiments, but there was work to be done.

"Dr. Mendelo deleted all data of the counter-nanomachines." he said. "But he couldn't delete the data of the weapons. He only hoped the military would leave the weaponized nanomachines alone- for using them would be suicide."

So, this man didn't consider himself to be Mendelo anymore. He probably hated his creation too much.

"Rasheed, just one more thing." Spike said, standing up. "If you see the doctor again, give him this."

My friend jammed a hard punch into the merchant. He fell over, and slowly picked himself up.

"Well." Rasheed said. "Indeed." He slid down the railing on the stairwell, and disappeared.

Spike and I stood there for a bit, looking out over the city. Eventually, I stomped out my cigarette. And I felt something wrong.

"It's too quiet." I said.

Spike nodded.

We slowly made our way down the steps. Suddenly, a bunch of troops showed up, and held us both at gunpoint.

"Drop your weapons!" they yelled.

"Don't have any on me." I replied.

A guard looked me up and down with expensive-looking goggles. "He's telling the truth."

I saw Spike put his Jericho on the ground. When I turned back to face the troops around me, one of them knocked me out with the butt of his rifle.