Revenge's Weapon

Bishop leaned back in his chair and switched off the television report; his face flickered on the screen for a moment, illuminated by the lights of the cameras and surrounded by microphones before disappearing into a black emptiness. Growling darkly, he stood up and strode to his window overlooking the dazzling city several feet below him; his assistant followed him gently and stopped a few metres behind him.

'Mister Bishop? Are you alright, sir?'

'Fine, fine!' he barked angrily, making the poor girl cower and step back; his threatening gaze however died away as he removed his blackened glasses to wipe them on his coat. The agent sighed a little and continued to look at his reflection in the glazed glass. 'It's this damn project Martha! It's proving more of a problem than I first anticipated.'

'But everything is working smoothly sir!' Martha stammered, clutching her clipboard for support as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and pushed up her spectacles. 'Stockman is working on the subject day and night and is monitoring its steady and positive progress. The project has shown great advances in understanding, she –sorry sir – it shows awareness of commands and can follow complicated instructions in precise detail. Its intelligence level is quite outstanding sir; it can learn data and skills within seconds!'

'That is the problem, girl…' Bishop replied. 'Perhaps it has grown too intelligent, who knows what it is hiding within the deep, impenetrable barriers of its mind that we have helped to create? CAT 1 is only beneficial to me if - and only if – we are able to control it. If it develops emotion or feeling or a conscience… then it will learn that perhaps it does not want to follow the orders of destruction and devastation…'

Bishop could tell his secretary was having trouble thinking of a supportive reply, he saw her reflection in the window as she stood there, her face blank and empty and her mouth parted slightly; irritated, he sighed and turned around to face her. She flinched as she caught his hardened gaze and again backed further away with caution. This man was not a man to be tampered with, he'd seen his fair share of action and the outside world had toughened his spirit; his experiences had removed all human emotion from him, only hatred and anger remained… it was a hatred of all anti-human life forms. To Martha, it appeared that he feared them and their capabilities, it was only that this fear had taken on a more active approach and had reverted into anger; his fear had led him to attack anything he could not understand. Of course Martha respected him, after all he was a technological genius… it was just that he had twisted and warped science into becoming more of a weapon and a destructive cause rather than the creative and bountiful aspect it was supposed to offer. She just couldn't understand his true motives, she just couldn't understand him.

'Miss Hammond I know this is rather difficult for you to follow but as my personal secretary your job is to keep up with me! CAT 1 is the most powerful organic and mechanic organism on this planet; can you imagine if it grew an understanding of what it was doing? With no concept of good or evil it may confuse its own intelligence and life as a curse and turn against us… having something so powerful with a brain is dangerous for us… That is why it is not yet out of its habitation tube, it cannot be allowed out of our sight before we truly understand what we have created.'

Suddenly, a flaw appeared to Martha, something that didn't quite make sense. 'But Mr Bishop, the TV report. You promised it would be ready… the public are going to want to see what it can do, they're going to want to benefit from it…'

'And they will Martha,' Bishop chuckled deeply. 'In a few more days we will have nullified any signs of consciousness from CAT 1's mind and it will be ready for 'take off'… besides, it wasn't just a publicity stunt… it was a message.'

'It was a message? To who, sir?'

The cold stare came back to Bishop's eyes for a moment, but he was not looking at Martha anymore, his mind had shut him off as the anger and cold hatred grew within him at the memory of his enemies. However, it lasted only for a moment as Bishop realised Martha's worried gaze upon him; in a deep epitome of laughter he looked at her warmly. 'Some friends of mine Martha. Friends who live where the sun cannot touch them, friends that will soon understand the true power of CAT 1 when it takes its first test run…'

'And… how will you nullify CAT 1's consciousness?'

Bishop's face formed a twisted smile that displayed his teeth and strained his skin so his eyes were bottomless slits of darkness. 'Come and see…'

And with that he led her out of the room and down the metal corridors, passing saluting employees as they did so. Bishop took large strides and Martha ran to keep up with him, following his billowing coat as he paced away, his face now fixed in determination. This new weapon was indeed great; it offered Bishop a chance to redeem himself of his failures and to repay those who had caused him to suffer in his own embarrassing collapse… four characters in particular who had ruined his plans one time too many. But the creature he had created was spawned from his own fury and rage, it was to become his fury and rage… The agent rarely allowed himself to lose control of his own self-preservation and he had managed to contain the true contempt he felt for many, many years. However, CAT 1 could not be controlled so easily; it was a living organism of its own and Bishop feared it discovering its own strength, by unleashing it he risked losing control of it and so he had to act carefully and delicately.

But then again, he had been aware of this since the beginning; he had prepared for such difficulties and had acted out his decision to control the mutinous aspects of his creation using the only method he knew… cruelty. By torturing the beast he had formed from a test tube, the pawn he had planted on his playing board, the weapon ready to be unleashed in the world, it would succumb to its master and do what he asked of it… the plan was and would be… flawless. He could not afford it to be otherwise…

Author's Note: This chapter was to base Bishop in his 'lair' almost; I wanted to make it as clear as possible who he was and what he aimed to do. Hopefully I managed to succeed in demonstrating that he was a hateful character but also one who felt little emotions, this chapter is basically setting the scene and adding extra reasons for events later on. There will be action shortly… more than like the next chapter. Thanks for reading!