Chapter 8

  “Great, another deal with the devil, this'll make three now?” I say.

  “You wanted to do this originally to be the best you can be Goliath. With this training you will push beyond the limit of what the human body can do.” Underwood says.

  “How about we forget the deal and you just let us leave our island prison?” Maria asks.

  “That is not something that can be accommodated at this point Maria.” Paris says.

  “Ok, so lets hear it.” I say. I'm already planning our next move; Maria will not make any deals that don't include her going free, me, I'm likely of the same opinion. I'm worried about Jodi, they don't see her value as high as ours, they know her and I are together, they may try and take advantage of that to control me.

  “This device,” Underwood holds it up “, is a standard training unit. I'm sure you've heard of them; put the headset on, hit play, get 10000 hours experience of using a skill. From needle point to martial arts, the learning potential is vast. They were very common between the years 2030 and 2055, they are hard to come by but still work. The units have degraded over time; learning from it has some side effects that are most unpleasant, potentially fatal. It has been discovered some of the units have hidden training modals, scroll down the list past the last course and the course number shows. This unit has 150 courses, scrolling to the bottom then one more it reads '151/150 courses'.”

  “So what is the course?” I ask.

  “Think back to when you were last in a high stress situation, your adrenaline pumping. You're reactions seem faster, your brain thinks faster, it feels as though time stands still. With this training you can choose to be in that state, move faster, move so fast you're a blur to others. The only limit is what your body can take. Your bodies with the suit, can take a lot.” Underwood says.

  “No. Lets talk about me getting free from this island.” Maria says.

  “We've already discussed this Underwood; hook it up.” Stinger says.

  “Wait, what the frick? Stinger, who knows what that'll do.” I say.

  “I'll either get stronger or my head will explode, either way I'll escape this hell. Fucking hook it up Underwood.” Stinger says.

  “Wait, at least listen to the downsides Stinger. What are the downsides?” I say.

  “You will run covert Ops for the King himself, under my guidance. There will also be a digital leash which will prohibit certain behaviours; harming Royals and me of course.”

  “You... you want us to trade imprisonment for slavery?” Maria says.

  “Lets start.” I go to grab Stingers arm to stop him, he turns and sneers. “Well come on. Grab my arm, fucking stop me. Hell, I'll even not do this if you both grab me and pull me away.” Maria just looks down, I can't do it. Underwood puts a strap around Stingers neck, his suit pulls it down.

  “Frick me, it's actually a dog collar.”

  “Put the headset on, you'll want to be seated.” Stinger sits, Underwood pugs the headset in. “Ready?”

  “Ready.” Stinger says.

  “Please don't.” Maria says.

  Underwood starts it up. Stinger closes his eye's, he starts to convulse, blood starts running from his nose, his eyes open and roll back, it ramps up.

  “You're killing him!” I yell.

  Suddenly he stops moving, stands, then throws up.

  “That, that was awful.” He says.

  “Rest a minute.” Underwood says. Immediately, Stinger sits, Underwood grins.

  “Did you make him sit using that damn collar?” Maria says.

  “Of course not, I would never do that.”

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  “Is this reversible?” I ask.

  “The training? No.”

  “What about the dog collar?” Maria asks.

  “That shouldn't concern you. Ok, as fast as you can Stinger, fetch me Lenny's gun.” Underwood says.

  Stinger pauses, there is a split second blur and he's standing there with a piston. He staggers some, his nose is bloody.

  “Excellent, the nose bleed is a side effect but it's minor.”

  “I can do anything...” Stinger says, his eyes wide, the look of sheer joy on his face, it's disconcerting, I've never seen that in him.

  “The three of you with the training, you could topple this whole Hive, defeat all some odd half million Others in the city.” Underwood says.

  “But what would you really have us do?” I say. “You promised us power, then the three of us woke in a room having to rip out other peoples hearts to survive.” I say.

  “Brother, you don't understand, I can do anything.” Stinger says. He blurs, a couple seconds reappears with a handful of mealworms. “I got these by the zoo in central park, 7 blocks away.”

  “Why is the blood on your face?” I ask.

  “I, well, it doesn't matter.” Stinger says.

  “Where did it come from?” Maria demands.

  “There was an Other, a jogger, I kind of ran through him.” He confesses.

  “So you killed someone, for fricken mealworms???” I say.

  “We kill all the time!”

  “Because we have to! We free what we can at the expense of some. It's a terrible trade but it's what we do.” I say. How can he not see? He knows this, we have been doing this for three years. Or perhaps he's right, perhaps I assume too much, perhaps I'm distracted by the love drunkeness of taking in Jodi's dark eyes, wanting to be with her when I'm not, holding her in my arms. Perhaps I'm distracted, I didn't notice Stinger was straying, who knows what's going on in Maria's head. We haven't had any sort of talk other then bull shit since the party 3 years ago. I saw myself as the leader of our group, maybe I'm just the distracted arsehole.

  “So, who's next?” Underwood says.

  “Nope.” Maria says.

  “Never.” I say.

  “Very well. As per the agreement Stinger, you must leave with me right now.” Underwood says.

  For the first time today, Stinger looks at us with a sense of doubt, “Right now? I can't get my stuff?”

  “No. You have unlimited power, your belongings do not matter. Frankie, we're leaving now, can we can get a lift?”

  “Zero chance of me doing you any favours I am not required to do.” Frankie says.

  “If you two have a change of heart I may still have the device for the training. Farewell for now.” Underwood says. He gathers his men and heads out, Stinger turns, he looks like he's about to speak.

  “Just fucking go! Fuck you!” Maria yells. He turns and leaves with his new comrade, the man who duped all us into these cursed suits.

  “We can give you two a lift.” Frankie says.

  “Fuck you to Frankie! Fuck off.” Maria says, she walks out the door towards HQ, it's a good 10 blocks.

  “I'm walking with Maria, can you take these mealworms to Jodi and check on her please? If she's not Ok let me know.” I say.

  “Will do kid. If it means anything, I'm just a middle man in all this.” Frankie says with a look of sorrow. He's really been there when needed for us, I can see he's torn. He clearly put his neck on the line for Dean; it sounds like the Consortium just wanted to kill Dan.

  “I know Frankie, I know.” I say.

  I catch up to Maria, she running at a good pace.

  “You're hard to catch.” I say.

  “Yeah. When I don't want to think or need to clear my head I run. I'm not going home and don't want to talk, you're welcome to join me, if you can keep up.” She says, with a slight grin. It's been a while since I've seen her smile.

  “I'll go slow so you can keep pace.” I say as I bolt ahead 10 meters, waving back at her. She catches me in an instant, I almost forgot, she's the runner in the group, I don't want to get too cocky.

  “You really want to play this game Goliath?” She takes off, I have to struggle to keep up, I'm right on her heels though. We're both running very fast down the sidewalk, probably too fast for the amount of people. “Is that the best you can do lead foot?” She can barely keep her breath as she chirps back at me.

  “I'm keeping up with your slow arse.” I yell. Yeah, barely.

  We run for some time, we slow to a reasonable pace. No more words were said, we just run in the real world, passing a few exoskeletons, we run on trails mostly. We loose track of time, it's a nice cold Autumn evening, the tannin smell of the fallen damp leaves is heavy in the air.

  “Oh Frick. How did we forget? Stop.” I say.

  “What's wrong?”

  “Our helmets, how the frick did we forget?” I say.

  “Shit, lets double time it back to the Delta 12.”

  We run like the wind back to the location where we last saw Stinger. Checking right behind the door, the helmets are gone.

  “FRIIIICK!!!” I yell.

  “Maybe Frankie took it with him.” Marie says.

  “I'm an idiot, I guess that's why I haven't been hearing from Jodi. Dammit!” I start punching the wall.

  “Stanley.” She says, putting her hand on my shoulder. “It's ok.”

  “No, no it's not. I put my hand in their chest and ripped out their hearts, I did that, so we could live. That's not a normal fricken thing for a human to do! And he just fricken leaves without saying a fricken word. I said he wasn't really my brother, but that's not how I feel. What we went through, what I did, and he just frick leaves, he's gone...”

  Maria puts her arms around me and we hug.

  “It's Ok Stanley, things will be Ok, we'll figure it out.”

  There is a moment of comfort as she hugs me. But it changes in an instant.

  At the same time, we push away from each other, a look of disgust on her face is how I feel; repulsed by the suits, that they are between us. Mesmerized by her deep blue eyes my hands are drawn to her neck and head, my hands caress her soft, warm face. She's runs her fingers though my hair, caressing my face, staring deep into my eyes. Leaning down, my hand on the back of her head, we kiss. It feels like just her and I in that moment are all that is, the horrible things I've had done to me, or done to others fade from my mind in that moment, for that matter everything else fades as well.