First off, I'd like to apologize to anyone who read Chapter 3 at any point from about midnight to noon on February 11th; it completely slipped my mind that my homemade page breaks do not transfer over through the Document Manager. The problem has now been fixed, so the chapter reads much more coherently. If you haven't seen the version with page breaks, I recommend you go do that before reading this chapter.
Anyways, here's Chapter 4. Enjoy.
EDIT: As on 7/16/17, this chapter has been revised.
Mission Report for November 3rd, 2070: Commander Ignacio Paszek
The initial assault on the aquifer was very successful. Air forces for both the WA and Egyptian Army proved very effective in breaking through NRC defenses on the platform; this made operations on the top deck by myself and LNO Kane relatively simple.
Complications arrived when we pushed further down the aquifer, though. A server room that supposedly contained intel on the location of the fugitives was only accessible through a highly flooded area. Proceeding through the water led to some unforeseen setbacks1, and the server room itself turned out to be a bust, a trap set by the NRC to take out Kane and I. Luckily, we both managed to escape mostly unharmed.
Commander Hendricks made an attempt to stop the fugitives without backup, and as a result I made the decision to assert myself as the head of the mission. We confronted Maretti, and he revealed that Taylor was now likely in Cairo. Maretti resisted capture, and I was forced to retaliate, accidently killing him in the process. I take full and absolute responsibility for his unintended death.
1 CLASSIFIED FOOTNOTE: RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane:
These hallucinations were completely and utterly debilitating. I lost all sense of reality, and I was under the impression I was in terrible danger. Also of note is the appearance and mention of the so-called "Frozen Forest". Taylor and his team have referred to it numerous times, but we have no solid information on what exactly it is. My first hallucination took place in a large forest, seemingly during the winter. I think that these images are what caused the team to search for this "Frozen Forest". After reviewing the files we have on the Coalescence disaster, I've opted not to contact anyone affiliated with their organization. Paranoid as it is, I believe that Coalescence is hiding too many secrets to be trusted now. I'm positive that finding Taylor will solve any DNI related problems persisting in both myself and Hendricks.
It was astounding how slowly time had passed during the course of the last week. It had only been just that: a week. But it felt like so much longer. The level of weariness Paszek felt should have been the result of a tour lasting weeks, months, maybe a year.
Should they have chosen to run a different operation every day? Probably not. It left the three people directly involved: Paszek, Kane, and Hendricks, with almost no time to rest and recover. That exhaust existed on two plains: both mental and physical. Considering that most of their missions commenced around noon, lasted a few hours, and had significant transport time between the active sites and their base, they had very little down time remaining. Even most of their "down-time" consisted of going through and researching all the intelligence they had gained or refreshing on older files. Paszek estimated that the amount of sleep he received each night averaged around four, not nearly enough to refuel for another grueling excursion into combat.
Their time crunch also greatly limited their cognitive abilities; both a lack of rest and a lack of time to question were present. Paszek found it difficult for anything to "sink in". That is, nothing that happened during the day was ever given the necessary period to fully register in his mind; understanding the situation he found himself in became more of a luxury than anything.
Kane strolled into Paszek's room at around 8 PM. The two of them had shared no conversation since the end of their operation today, but she knew that Paszek wanted to talk to her. Although she also knew that it was likely to be more of an emotional brain dump than a discussion.
Paszek sat expressionless in his desk chair, Kane could not conclude whether he was deep contemplation or none at all. She took a seat on the edge of his bed, and pressed her hands against her face, in an almost defeated fashion.
If Paszek knew anything, it was that he knew nothing. There were so many unknowns: past, present, near future, distant future…he couldn't even begin to process it all, let alone prioritize it.
Where to start? He looked at Kane and let out a faint sigh, and she made a face that indicated the same feeling.
"I had to disable my direct communications in my DNI."
Kane gave him a puzzled look. "Why?"
"Hendricks found a way to eavesdrop on me using it. Not sure exactly what he was able to exploit, but I figure disconnecting any links to him would do the trick."
"How did you find out?" Kane asked. "More importantly, when exactly was he listening in?"
"You read the mission report, right?"
Kane nodded.
"When I confronted him in the hallway…I tried to stop him from going in alone…he accused you of hiding something from us. Said he was smarter than me because he could see that you were against us."
Another baffled look from Kane.
"He said that I was stupid to trust you. That my…er…feelings…for you prevented me from seeing the truth. Used a direct quote from me."
Kane didn't know how to respond. But Paszek continued, breaking the brief silence.
"He…he said that…that he should go kill you instead of hunting Taylor's team."
Kane's face contorted into a disgusted reaction. "Hendricks said that?" She was absolutely horrified. Not for Hendricks, though. If she was to be honest, she never really liked Hendricks, his "brute soldier" attitude rubbed her the wrong way, not to mention his slowness and thick-minded demeanor that made dealing with him even more difficult. But he was not a murderer. He wasn't someone who would commit treason. And Kane could only assume that the virus was what morphed him into…whoever he was now. The kind of person that threatened to kill her.
And Paszek had already begun the same transformation. How long would it be until he started having the same thoughts? Days? Hours? She wanted to believe with all her heart that his strong attachment to her would stop that from happening, but there was no way to know.
Kane could not let this happen. Paszek was a good man. A good friend. She wanted…no…she needed him to get better.
"What did you do about it?"
"I put myself in command over him, and over the mission."
"And he agreed?"
"I'm not proud of what I did."
"You…"
"I beat him up. Real bad. I was just so angry…so mad that he would say something like that…so furious that he even had the thought of…hurting you." Again he trailed off near the end of his statement, but he soon started again.
"We've come to something of an understanding. He knows I'm in charge…but I don't know how long it will last."
"At this rate, not very long, Paszek!" Kane raised her voice. Paszek kept the same distressed look on his face. "And how long will you last? 'Til things get worse?" she hated to be this abrasive, but at the same time, she had to get her point across.
"I don't know, Kane! I don't fucking know! There's a virus eating its way through my mind and I don't know how long until it takes over!" screamed Paszek, his voice growling and teeth clenched.
"I'm…sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. I…" he instantly regretted his outburst.
Kane didn't seem too fazed. "It's okay…I…"
Another silence found its way into the room.
"Do you want to talk about your…hallucinations?" asked Kane, hoping to be more productive with their conversation.
"This 'Frozen Forest' that Taylor keeps mentioning…I'm pretty sure that's where I was."
"But didn't Dr. Salim say that the Frozen Forest wasn't real? It was just a concept he created to calm the patients?"
"Yes…but I think Taylor is trying to go there, regardless of whether or not it actually exists. Hallucinating might be the way to get there." Paszek did not seem entirely confident in his conclusion, but it was the best one he had for now. He decided to focus more on the other aspects of the hallucination.
"The weirdest part of it…was that Hall was there. Right in front of me. She was trying to say something to me…but I couldn't hear her." Paszek wondered in his head what she could have been doing. Scolding him? Warning him? Threatening him?
He paused.
"I think it was my punishment for killing her. She had to suffer through all the pain, and now I do too." Paszek's face drooped into an unusually glum and somber expression.
"You can't honestly believe that."
A piercing look from Paszek.
"This is not Sarah haunting you from the grave. If you want my take on it, this is just you feeling guilty, and your thoughts are being exemplified by the DNI. The virus might have something to do with it, but I think this is mostly you."
Paszek's sharp squint soon faded as he looked down.
"So what you're saying is…this is my fault?" his tone was more dejected than accusatory.
"I mean…not exactly, but…" she struggled to find a better way to phrase her conclusion
"No, no…you...you're right…" he stumbled over his words even more than before.
Both of them realized that this was going nowhere. Paszek would continue blaming himself, Kane would try and draw another prognosis, and nothing would really change. But that didn't mean they would stop. Perhaps in some strange, twisted way, it was therapeutic. For both of them.
"They both told me the same thing, you know?"
"What?"
"Hall and Maretti. They both told me they wanted to die."
"But Maretti…he attacked you, right?"
"Right before he did…he had this brief little moment of clarity. The virus was controlling him completely, but he must have broken out for a few seconds. And he uses his instant of freedom to tell me to kill him. I think he was so ashamed of what he had done…just wanted to end it."
"Please, don't tell me you're saying..."
"What?"
"You still have a chance. You don't have to let it come to that."
"Oh, no…I wasn't saying that I'd…"
He stopped in his tracks.
"I won't. I won't do that."
Another silence.
"Thanks, Rachel."
"Anytime." she was somewhat confused by his sudden change in tone, but she didn't mind it.
"And for what it's worth, I think that they…Peter and Sarah…they were just making a sacrifice…knowing that the virus couldn't survive without its hosts. I think they did the noblest thing they could have." Kane said.
"They were good soldiers. I know they'd make that choice if given the opportunity." responded Paszek.
And for the fourth time in their short conversation, a distinct quietness settled.
"We're going to fix this. Fix you."
"We can try."
Mission Briefing for November 4th, 2070: Commander Ignacio Paszek
All WA operatives take note: John Taylor is the primary objective. Egyptian Army forces will be more preoccupied with repelling NRC forces and taking back Cairo, but capturing the fugitive is absolutely necessary.
Commander Hendricks and I will lead the pursuit of Taylor. If any sort of chase erupts, all WA operatives should do whatever they can do clear a path for us; we cannot afford to lose Taylor for the third time.
If Taylor is captured or killed, then WA forces should assist Egyptian Army troops in dispelling NRC presence in the city, and, situation permitting, evacuate civilians.
Again, it is very important that no soldiers with a DNI attempt to interface with the fugitive. While the exact reason why is unknown, we know that something stored within his mind is corrupting in nature, and transferring this data to another DNI would only cause a similar deterioration.
Do whatever is necessary to apprehend John Taylor. Use of deadly force is authorized.
Kane was horribly mistaken in being excited for the last mission. Any eagerness she harbored to go out into the field was dashed by what Paszek had gone through on the aquifer. So she was somewhat relieved to be back behind the computer for this operation. That was uncharacteristic for her…she was just as trained to kick ass as she was to hack. And she knew that she'd be worried sick for Paszek the entire time, even if she could talk to him.
She considering having his brain activity opened up on a separate tab to real-time monitoring, but Kane knew that it would only cause her to overanalyze the data; she'd be looking for trends that don't exist and find reasons to think Paszek had already lost all control. Not to mention that inner-working of Paszek's mind were equally unknown and concerning to her…trying to understand it all was not an enigma she was entirely sure she wanted to solve.
Something Kane did try to understand, though, was the motivation of this virus. Taylor, under the influence, supported the 54i, the NRC, and the CDP. Does it have some sort of grudge against the WA? Who designed it? Why was it located in the Coalescence building? And why after the disaster? Her hunch was that a CDP mole in Coalescence planted the virus, but there was nothing to back up her theory (other than a handful of scientists having defected from CDP-occupied countries). It also didn't exactly answer why someone thought building a human-mind-infesting virus that can only be spread through interfacing would be a more effective means of warfare than just building bigger guns. She knew better than most not to underestimate the power of cyber-attacks, but the damage caused by the virus, on a global scale, was relatively minimal. Yes, Singapore became a bit more chaotic, but the 54i's leadership fell apart due to the virus' presence in the form of Taylor and company. In fact, the WA had gained more ground on just about all fronts during the time period.
In some self-absorbed way, Kane almost wanted to believe that the virus was specifically meant to punish her. Two of its six victims so far currently are or used to be the most important people in her life. As if watching Taylor go rouge wasn't enough for her, they had to go and infect Paszek, too, of all people.
It could have been anyone else. Anyone else on the face of the planet and she'd be okay with it. Obviously she'd still want to stop it…but it wouldn't have to be so…personal. She'd thought about some impossible opportunity to take half of Paszek's burden off him. Kane knew that she wouldn't do it, not because she didn't want to, but because Paszek would only be hurt more by watching her suffer. That was how much she knew he cared.
Kane was going try her damnest to care just as much.
Was it bad that Paszek did not care about what happened to Cairo?
Not as in he had no opinion on the occupation of the city…but the normally important issue of whether or not a militant group had a grip on (essentially) an entire country seemed trivial. The war they were fighting, however much people would say otherwise, was not a new one. The same economic and ideological reasons caused the same quarrels. Sure, they had faster soldiers, faster weapons, faster technology. But it really was the same.
It was probably very selfish to think in the manner he was, but Paszek wanted only to catch Taylor. To undo the damage. To be normal once again. Would Taylor have all the answers they needed? Probably not. But he hoped he did. Because they needed answers now.
Of course, the only way to get to Taylor was to create a distraction for the NRC forces he was more or less hiding behind. A whole city full of distractions would do.
It was surprisingly easy to infiltrate Lotus Towers, where Taylor had taken refuge. For being the tallest skyscraper in Cairo, there was little security, at least on its lower floors. The Egyptian Army only had to deal with a handful of guards in the lobby. The small group of soldiers, along with Paszek and Hendricks, made their way to the tenth floor via elevator, NRC uniforms on to avoid suspicion.
They passed through a few empty common rooms before reaching the entrance to the balcony overlooking the city. Just outside the balcony stood three NRC soldiers. The silenced pistols used by Paszek and two of their Egyptian Army comrades combined with the thick window glass to muffle the sounds of their deaths completely.
There were a total of five people currently on the balcony; four standard guards and one General Marawan Hakim.
Hakim was the NRC's top military leader, and the CDP's best link to Africa. He was the embodiment of the NRC's pedigree: ruthlessness and violence. He had no qualms about torturing enemy officers and innocent civilians alike. Nor did he have any difficulty making the decision to drop a deadly chemical agent on Ramciel in order to "convince" South Sudan to join the coalition. General Hakim also saw no issue in letting his men rape and pillage wherever and whenever they pleased.
In other words, Hakim was a human piece of garbage. Paszek did not enjoy killing other people, but he knew that his doing so, in this case, would bring about positive change and happiness for many people. And he would always take the opportunity to do that.
With the hostiles' backs turned, Hendricks and the EA soldiers crept through the sliding door silently, and quickly took out the four NRC soldiers on the balcony, leaving just the general.
Hakim was startled by the gunshots and turned around to see Paszek standing not three feet behind him.
"What? How did-"
Before he could finish his surprised statement, Paszek lifted him up completely and tossed him over the railing, into the bloodthirsty mob of Cairo natives a hundred feet below. It was a brutal act, done to please the brutish crowd. Paszek dared not look down to see what animalistic things they were doing to him.
A voice boomed over the loudspeakers that lined the skyscrapers. It was Khalil's. Paszek smiled knowing that it was likely Kane's job to crack into the speakers.
"Citizens of Cairo! Now is the time to strike! Now is the time to fight for your city! For your freedom!"
This had been a long time coming for Cairo. Their fifth full year of NRC occupation had just passed. As the rioters below roared, Paszek could almost feel their aura of vengeance.
With the NRC having their hands more than full now, Paszek panned around looking for their most important fugitive. He figured that Taylor would likely be booking it, trying to get out of the madness.
Wait a second.
On another balcony, about a hundred feet to his right, a bald man stood completely still, facing him. Waving to him, as if it was a greeting.
Paszek turned and noticed him. After a few seconds of eye contact, the man, who he now recognized as Taylor, stopped his wave and simply pointed up.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Taylor's subsequent traversal up a large outdoor elevator shaft that scaled a few dozen feet above where they currently were seemed to answer that question. There was absolutely no way Paszek, or anyone else with a DNI would be able to maneuver that efficiently. Taylor simply had more experience with the implants than any other person alive today.
Paszek was going to have to get higher the hard way.
Khalil told them that the fastest way up would be the mobile shops, which was what the outdoor elevator shafts were built for. Apparently, they had become something of a cultural phenomenon in the Eastern Hemisphere, but Paszek had not heard of them.
Either way, the swarm of NRC troops made taking any sort of stairs (or the elevator in the Lotus Tower, for that matter) near impossible. Paszek and Hendricks sped towards the car holding the shop, vaulting over a few concrete barriers on the way there. The interior of the shop was about the size of a small bedroom, and computer monitors lined most of walls, with the exception of a plexiglas panel on the north side that overlooked the city streets. What was intended to be a scenic view was now a chaotic one.
Hendricks pressed a large blue button reading "15", which they assumed would take them up to the 15th floor (from their current position of 10). It took a few seconds, but eventually the elevator shook a bit and started its gradual ascent.
As Paszek watched the riots in the streets below drift further and further away as they rose, he also noticed a steady climb in the volume of gunfire, a rather baleful trend.
They weren't escaping from the battle. They were headed right into it. Taylor wanted them to go this way. No matter what they did, the corrupted commander was a step ahead.
A ringing bell signaled that they shop had reached its destination, so Paszek and Hendricks both took cover near the doorway to avoid any panic fire that might find its way into the shop. Giving hand gesture to indicate their next move, Hendricks stepped out of the elevator and quickly panned to his right, Paszek following close behind and turning to the opposite direction.
Paszek, seeing nothing but fleeing civilians in his sights, turned back around.
It was a brutal scene. NRC soldiers kicking citizens to the ground and executing them. With no thought. With no prejudice. He glimpsed a robotic grunt doing the same.
Something was off about these grunts. Paszek had only seen them flashing blue or red eyes, which he came to understand indicated their level of hostility. These robots however, had a very distinct yellow glow. Based on what he knew, this would mean the robots were…neutral? Sentient, perhaps? But they were anything but. If anything, they displayed a greater level of savagery. Was it more human? Less? Paszek didn't know. But it was weird.
His idle thoughts did little to distract him from the goal at hand though. Paszek and Hendricks made quick work of a large group of NRC soldiers, partly because they were more focused on curbing the riots than defending Taylor (most of them, in all likelihood, did not even have orders or knowledge to protect him). The grunts were taken down in the same swift fashion.
It became somewhat monotonous for the two; they would turn a corner, find a bunch of enemies, and fire until they weren't being fired at. Taylor's path had become quite simple to follow, as he tended to use sizable chunks of building debris as his path upwards.
If only the rest of that day would have been that easy.
The visions started out subtle enough. Some discoloration here, a handful of crows there. Creepy? Yes. Off-putting? Absolutley. Concerning? Very. But enough to stop Paszek? Not even close.
Tower Two changed that, though.
Tower Two was an abandoned robotics factory, which, in the wake of the NRC occupation, was left to rot (or was it rust?) in the dry desert air. Of course, no one realized that the bots were now without a master, and susceptible to someone else controlling them. Who that person, or group, or entity was, Paszek did not know at the time. But they were not friendly.
Everything from militarized grunts to utility and maintenance drones were hostile towards them. None of them proved to be anything more than a moderate nuisance, but Paszek found their presence unsettling nonetheless. He still possessed a strong distrust and an occasionally debilitating phobia of the steel beasts, and the virus/DNI combo wasn't doing him any favors.
But oddly enough, the robots weren't what caused the latest hallucination. In fact, it seemed to be triggered by nothing in particular. Hendricks had just opened up a ceiling grate for them to traverse to the exit of the tower.
His entire vision went grey, and the face of a giant crow sat dormant in front of him: a significant amplification of earlier hallucinations. But this time a voice spoke.
"Listen to the sound of my voice."
"All that remains is your sacrifice.
"One moment of agony to secure a better future."
"Take it. Take the chance."
"Imagine somewhere calm."
"Imagine somewhere safe."
"Imagine yourself in a frozen forest."
Suddenly the crow disappeared and an image of a man sprouting phoenix-like wings encompassed his line of sight. The view was from the back; he couldn't exactly make out who it was. Taylor? Hendricks? Himself?
"You only have to listen."
A harsh snapping sound.
"Hey! You listening to me?" barked Hendricks, his hand waving in front of Paszek's face.
"Taylor is held up in a detention center on the 90th floor. We need to move." he said.
Paszek simply nodded and boosted himself up into the grate opening.
The rest of their journey to the detention center was not notable in any way, only a small handful of grunts and turrets opposed them. After climbing up a few more flights of stairs, they found themselves in front of a wide door. A cell door. Carbon lined with a few extra layers of dense steel, if Paszek remembered correctly (which, with a DNI, he certainly did).
This was it. This was where they would catch Taylor. All the suffering, all the nightmares, they would end here.
Paszek hovered his hand over the door console, and a blue light flashed to confirm his interface, opening the door in the process.
Behind a glass screen sat John Taylor. He had his signature smug grin plastered on his face, like he knew he was smarter than everyone else in the room. Maybe he was.
Both Hendricks and Paszek pointed their weapons at him.
"Stand down, Taylor!" ordered Paszek. Another incident like the one at the aquifer couldn't happen now. They needed Taylor alive.
Taylor continued to hold his M6 pistol in the air.
"C'mon Taylor! You're better than this!" said Hendricks. He had watched the rest of his friends die. Even with the little humanity he had left in him, he still clung to those thoughts.
"You can fight this! I know you! You're strong!"
Paszek saw just the slightest glimmer of hope in Hendricks' eyes.
"Alright…alright…" murmured Taylor. He slowly placed his gun on the floor and raised his hands. Hendricks stepped forward to press the release button on the glass panel.
Taylor flicked his left wrist. A faint humming sound could be heard.
"Wait, Hendricks…" said Paszek, extending his arm to tell Hendricks not to open the cell.
Before either of them could properly react, a pack of grunts burst in from Taylor's left side, firing through and shattering the screen. Paszek and Hendricks took cover behind two adjacent computer consoles, but they quickly returned fire, managing to destroy all of the robots but one, which dashed forward in an attempt to grab Hendricks. Luckily, Hendricks moved his heads out of the way and clutched the robots head with his right hand, tearing it off with ease.
Taylor was able to control the robots. Perfect.
A sizable hole had been formed in the wall where the grunts came through, and Paszek heard the loud footsteps of Taylor escaping in that direction.
Paszek dropped his KN-44 that he been holding and ran full throttle after Taylor, his face stoic and contempt the whole time. The grunts charged in the opposite direction, but their collisions with Paszek proved wholly ineffective in stopping his assault, their tough metal frames bouncing off him as if they were lightly tossed pillows. Nearly blinded by his suicide run, Taylor was nowhere to be found by Paszek.
Now standing at one end of a long hallway, he encountered another lot of grunts, this time numbering about thirty.
"Hendricks! Deal with the bots! I'm going for Taylor!" Paszek didn't even give a passing thought to the idea that he had given Hendricks an impossible order; eliminating that many robots on his own was quite simply preposterous. But neither of them seemed to care at the time.
Hendricks nodded and aimed his gun down the corridor, firing at the ever-advancing group of robots. Paszek continued his chase by climbing an adjacent staircase. Upon reaching the top, he managed to catch a glimpse of Taylor entering a…Mothership? Paszek immediately concluded that the whole chase through the city was just manufactured by Taylor to lead them to the roof. Where he had all his firepower.
Paszek's next thought was that he deeply regretted dropping his assault rifle in his rage-induced stampede. Thankfully, it was short-lived as a small weapons bunker sat about twenty feet away. He quickly dived into the concrete shelter, narrowly dodging the first volley of bullets fired by Taylor.
A BlackCell launcher leaned against the north wall of the bunker. Paszek knew that it was lock-on-only, normally a disadvantage, but the situation made it irrelevant. He picked it up and examined the weapon; it still had a rocket chambered with three additional ones in reserve: standard metrics for a BlackCell. Not wanting to risk being hit by Taylor's turrets, he crawled over to the launcher and picked it up.
Unfortunately, Paszek had little time to think, as Taylor fired a barrage of missiles at his position, reducing the previously solid roof and ceiling of the bunker to minuscule rubble. He scrambled to his feet and sped out of the now exposed bunker, needing to find more cover.
Taylor continued to unload machine gun rounds at Paszek, but his status as a moving target made actually hitting him quite difficult. Paszek's downloaded knowledge of the Mothership and its strafing patterns were also quite helpful, as he could easily predict when, where, and how long his next series of shots would take place.
When Taylor stopped firing to reassess his situation, Paszek took the opportunity to aim his BlackCell and launch a rocket at the right-most thruster of the aircraft; if he managed to land a direct hit on all four of them, the ship would likely crash.
Although Taylor continued to launch missiles at Paszek, he was able to evade all of them; the bright red outlines that appeared on his HUD gave him more than ample time to judge his next move and escape the blast zone. Before long, Paszek hit Taylor's thruster on the other end, both his ammo count and Taylor's maneuvering capabilities now halved.
Then he heard a most familiar revving sound. RAPS units.
He recalled Kane's explanation that she could pinpoint the proximity of the spiked rolling pins by listening for the pitch of their heat-seeking motor. It was easier said than done, but Paszek figured it was worth a shot.
1040.5 hertz. Give or take. C6 in musical terms. He heard it to the west…he was moving at about 8 kilometers per hour…calculate Doppler Shift…carry the five…make metric conversions…
20 feet in that direction. He swiveled his entire body and launched an EMP grenade, the radius of the charge disabling the lone unit that Taylor had sent out (why the Mothership was so under- stocked in them was an anomaly that Paszek neither knew nor wished to investigate).
Taylor was visibly frustrated now, wildly altering his flight path in an attempt to curb Paszek's rocket launching. It was futile. Paszek fired his two remaining rounds at the two interior engine thrusters is quick succession, effectively disabling the Mothership.
The "crash" that ensued was something of a rare feat. The aircraft hit the roof right side up, essentially a hard-landing more than a crash. Paszek woefully underestimated the amount of ground the Mothership would cover before touching down, missing being crushed by it by only ten feet.
His miscalculation did not go unpunished, though. A stray piece of rebar that was flung by the wreck found its way into Paszek's left arm, pinning him to the floor. The impressive display of combat critical thinking and intuitiveness was rendered meaningless.
As the rotors sputtered, Taylor propped open the back hatch and stepped out, seemingly unharmed. He brandished a standard combat knife.
Paszek yanked at the sharpened debris that impaled his arm. It didn't budge an inch. Taylor slowly advanced on him.
"I have to admit…you've put up quite a fight thus far." He said blankly. "You have this…innate ability to resist conformity…it's almost admirable…"
"You don't have to do this…" Paszek sounded utterly defeated. He knew would die here.
"No, I think I do…" Taylor sounded like he just realized something gravely important.
He raised the knife, ready to strike. But instead of stabbing Paszek, he plunged the blade into the back of his own head, screaming in pain as he did. After making the incision, he dropped the knife and stuck his left hand into the wound, tearing out a long string of wires with small notches attached to it. Taylor discarded that too and fell to the floor next to Paszek, reeling from pain and blood loss.
"Your DNI…you removed it…it's over…" Paszek was stunned.
"No…" Taylor shook his head. "It's still in there…you…Hendricks…"
Apparently killing patient zero wasn't enough to kill the virus.
"Kane…is…is she alright?" asked Taylor. He knew he would dead in minutes, if not sooner.
"She's good. Safe." said Paszek. He didn't want to elaborate any further on their relationship; it would only cheapen the closure for Taylor.
"Tell her that I…"
He was cut off by a bullet through his brain. Paszek panned his head over to see Hendricks holding his MR6 pistol, still smoking at the end.
"What the fuck was that!?" screamed Paszek.
Hendricks didn't say a word, or even change his expression at all. He simply turned around to enter an awaiting NRC VTOL.
This was too much to process for Paszek. Taylor was dead, Hendricks was completely brainwashed, and he was…still alive? Why? Why would Hendricks spare him? How long had Hendricks really been out of control? He still had no answers. And he was still stuck here.
Paszek tapped his earpiece to try and get Kane on the line, but it was useless. The debris in his arm was somehow halting any communication. Or maybe it was something else. The EMP he threw earlier? It didn't matter. His vision was getting darker and his body was getting number.
It took only another forty-five or so seconds before he blacked out entirely.
Just waiting there for him to gain consciousness…it was extremely nerve-wracking for Kane. It had been the third time in two days she'd done it. Every time he went dark, she had the same nightmare scenario play out in her head; Paszek would never wake up. It was silly, she knew that much; at any point she could just check his vitals and know that he was good and alive. But that didn't stop her fears from seeping in. What if Paszek never woke up? She knew that there would be so much he would want to tell her. And vice versa, of course.
But what scared her most was Paszek would end up stuck in some kind of hallucinatory state. He said that innermost parts of Hall's brain were filled with hellish landscapes, death, suffering…if that was in the mind of girl-scout recruit Hall…she couldn't even the imagine the horrors to be found in the war-torn and scarred mind of Paszek. Kane knew he was trapped enough by his emotions…but physically trapped by them is something else entirely. A part of her wanted to believe that the entire fiasco was her fault; after all, it was her orders that led him to interface with Hall and contract the virus. Kane wouldn't let herself fall into that trap, though. She knew the situation was much more complicated than that. This was the result of many, many people making mistakes for a very, very long time.
He didn't deserve this, she thought. No one deserved to be tortured and tormented and beaten down and broken. Much less did the genuinely caring Paszek deserve it. The Paszek who had been a loyal friend. Who had stood by her side. Who had talked to her whenever she needed to. Who had trusted her with his life.
And nothing hurt more than the knowledge that no matter what either of them did, she would lose that Paszek forever.
White was most prevalent color Paszek woke up to. White walls and ceiling, white sheets, white gown, and the painfully bright fluorescent light panel sitting above him.
It was refreshing, then, to see something not so pale and colorless sitting down to his left. Kane was looking down, her legs crossed and arms folded, nervously tapping her thumb against the opposite wrist.
He lifted his arm in a feeble attempt to sit up.
"Rachel, I…" he weakly mumbled.
Kane turned her head up, noticing his motion. She then slowly rose up and walked a few steps towards Paszek's bed, so that she now stood just over him.
"Hey, don't move too much, we're not in a hurry."
Paszek let himself slump back down in a fully reclined position.
"Where am I?"
"Zurich has gone dark, so we took you to the hospital that was the best equipped for DNIs: Atlanta, Georgia."
"You read my report…we shouldn't be trusting Coalescence…"
"And you know better than anyone else that if we didn't bring you somewhere ready handle your DNI problems, then this would only get worse."
Paszek sighed. Yes, she was right, but that didn't shake the uneasy feeling he had about letting Coalescence scientists poke around in his brain.
He noticed that she was wearing her military gear, and not civilian clothes, as one would normally do when not on official duty.
"How long has it been? Since Cairo?"
"Just about twelve hours. It was a pretty long flight."
"They flew me straight here? Talk about priorities…"
In any other situation, Kane would have shared a hearty laugh after that comment. But all she was able to do was force a slender smile. The doctors told her that she could break the news to him. But she didn't want to. Not at all.
"Ignacio…"
Paszek knew that this had to be bad. She never used his first name. Never. He just looked up, not wanting to give a verbal response.
"The doctors took a look at you and…well…" she couldn't bring herself to finish. Paszek was eagerly frightened, both anticipating and dreading what she had to say next.
"They can't isolate the virus…the only way to cure you is to remove your DNI." A lump formed in the back of her throat.
Paszek felt like he has just been hit by a truck. The memories. The experiences. The emotions. They were all going to be gone. His entire identity…gone.
"Does that mean I'll…lose them?" He already knew the answer. He just didn't want to believe it was true.
Kane simply nodded, fighting back tears while doing so.
"I…I don't know…if I can do that…" He knew he had to. He just wanted to find something, an excuse, a loophole, a technicality…something to stop him from having to do this.
"There's no other way…I'm sorry, Ignacio…"
"Rachel…I...I can't…" His stammering got worse as his voice started to crack.
"There's so much I have left to say…to do…" He continued.
He lifted his arm and opened up his palm, gesturing for Kane to grab his hand. She obliged.
"If I'm going to lose everything I know about you, then I need to set the record straight."
Kane gave another small nod, and her eyes were now starting to well up.
"Rachel…you are what has kept me alive. I've been surrounded by nothing by death and pain and suffering…but seeing you at the end makes it all worth it. When I'm losing my mind, or kicking myself, or just feeling like the giant fool that I am, you're there. There for me. I couldn't ask for anything more."
He paused.
"Look at me. I'm nothing. A foot soldier. A pawn. But you stuck around. You chose me, out of all people, to make happy. When I said that you were the last part of my humanity I could hold onto, I meant it. The feelings…the emotions I've held for you have been what's kept me alive."
He took a deep breath.
"I love you, Rachel."
She drew her other had away from her side and placed it on his cheek.
"I love you too."
It pained her so much to say that. Kane knew that she didn't mean it the same way he did. Yes, she loved him. But the immortal, passionate, love-to-end-all-other love? She wasn't sure if she was capable of that, or even if she wanted to be. And it killed her to know that she couldn't say those three words in the same way Paszek could.
That didn't mean, though, that Kane was going to clarify herself completely. These moments may have just been Paszek's last in his current state, or at all, God forbid. She only wanted him to spend his final precious minutes happy and content, even if it involved telling a lie of omission.
Paszek had the most bittersweet smile on his face. It had just happened. He had revealed everything to the woman he loved, and she accepted it. Reciprocated it. But he knew that his glee would be short-lived; in a few hours he wouldn't feel the same way…even though he wanted to so badly.
If he could just feel like this forever, he'd be okay.
Kane pulled back her hands from Paszek's cheeks and reached around to the end-table next to his bed. She snatched a red bandana that was sitting on the table and placed it in Paszek's hands with her own.
"No matter what happens…try to remember me…" she said somberly.
"Please."
Paszek quickly nodded.
"I will. I promise." He wished…hoped…begged that it would be possible to do that. If there was anything, even just the tiniest smidge of the last five years that he was going to hold on to…it had to be this. This feeling.
Kane knew she was on the clock…she had to get going. She didn't want to leave him. Not at all. But there was something important to take care of.
"Anything else you need to do?"
"Pen and paper."
Paszek spent the next ten or so minutes writing. He folded it in half and handed it to Kane.
"Could you give this back to me after the surgery?" he requested.
She took the note from his hand and placed it in her shirt pocket.
"I'll keep it with me…but I might not be here immediately after you get out."
Paszek gave her a confused look.
"Why?"
"As soon as you're ready to go under, I'm heading back."
Paszek knew she was intentionally being vague. And that couldn't be good.
"Heading back where?"
"Zurich."
"You said they went dark."
"That's why I'm going."
"Is Hendricks there?"
Kane didn't want to answer. Yes, Hendricks was there. In fact, from their knowledge, he had somehow taken over the entire sector of the city surrounding the facility by himself. But she also knew that Paszek wouldn't like to hear that they were planning on killing Hendricks. She suspected that he still held sympathies for Hendricks, despite his…current mental capacity.
"I'm coming with you."
"The doctors were able to repair your arm, so you should be in stable physical condition, but…"
Paszek already knew what this "but" was to be followed by.
"Are you sure you'll be able to last another day? Everyone else who was exposed to the virus had completely succumbed to it by this point. I'm not saying I doubt you, it's just…"
"I have to do this. Okay, Rachel? I have to."
Kane wasn't going try and protest anymore; any time she got to spend with him before he was gone was valuable. And if there was any way they could bring in Hendricks alive…Paszek was their best bet. A small part of Kane wanted Hendricks to be punished for what he did…for killing John…but she knew there was no moral high ground to take…not with the lack of answers they had. Sure, it was Hendricks that held the gun, but who pulled the trigger?
Either way, they knew that this would be the end. For real, this time.
Chapter 4 is in the books. Again, I really do apologize for the large gap (about a month) in between chapters.
Please, I ask that if you enjoyed the chapter or if you have any comments, go ahead and review; just knowing that people care enough about this to write anything about it is amazing.
Until next time,
HopelesslyLonelyWriter