I Am Phantom (Novella): Subject Number One Read online

  “I know your appetite was a little…put off earlier,” Lucius said before he could stop himself, “but I was wondering if maybe it came back.”

  “Did you hear that, Bobo?” Lin said, not hiding a grin. “Dr. Sykes wants to get some dinner. Would you like to join?”

  Lucius tapped the toe of his shoe on the floor. “Ah…I think Bobo would find dinner boring. They probably wouldn’t allow throwing food.”

  Lin took off her lab coat and put it in her shoulder bag. “Well, Bobo’s missing out. I’d love to do dinner. Any place in mind?”

  “Sushi?”

  “Sounds great.”

  He stepped back and allowed Lin to leave the room.

  “’Night, Bobo,” she said, flicking off the lights. The chimp hooted, taking another bite of his apple.

  “I worry about leaving him sometimes,” Lin said, pulling herself away from the room. “I’m afraid that when I’m gone that horrible Dr. Van will get permission to test on him.”

  “I won’t let that happen. I’ll contact the board tomorrow and ensure they don’t give the go ahead. I’m not sure how, but I will.”

  She gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks. Still worries me, though.”

  Lucius thumbed back to the hallway where Bobo’s room was. “We could always reserve a table for three.”

  Lin laughed. Lucius found himself grinning, the previous stressors of the day sliding off him. He’d definitely need to thank Ryans later.

  They left the hallway, passing only one scientist going the opposite direction. Two things struck Lucius as odd about the man: one, Lucius had never seen him before. And as one of the heads of their small project he knew everybody, if only by face. The second was that the hallway the man was heading to led to Bobo’s room. Maybe another caretaker to clean Bobo’s cage? Lucius thought Lin was the only one who did that.

  But before he turned back to check, the man had vanished.

  CHAPTER 3

  “I want you to come home, hon. You haven’t seen your mom in forever.”

  Lucius tried not to sigh too much into the phone. It wasn’t his mother’s fault she was lonely. But then, it wasn’t his job to remedy it 24/7. He loved her; but once he had left for school the relationship had morphed into a long-distance one. Lucius had been happy with that. She had not been.

  “I’ll visit as soon as my project is over,” Lucius promised.

  “You need to tell me more, Lucius. It sounds so exciting!”

  Lucius let out a breath. The traffic swooshed by him and he had to turn away to avoid breathing in the smog of a passing truck. “I just can’t. Not right now.” He glanced into the sushi place at Lin. She had chosen a secluded corner booth right next to the window. She looked nearly done with checking out the menu.

  “Listen, mom, I have to go. I’ll call you next week.”

  “Call more than that, hon!”

  “Next week it is. Bye!”

  “Love you!”

  “Love you too, mom.”

  Relieved, Sykes hung up and hurried inside before Lin could think he’d abandoned her completely.

  “Clingy girl?” Lin asked, a glint of mischief in her eye. “I’m sure they’re just clambering to get a hold of you.”

  “Yes,” Lucius answered. “Clingy for 23 years.”

  “Nice to have a mother who’s interested, though.”

  “If you say so.”

  The waiter came and took their order, then removed the menus and replaced them with tableware and chopsticks. Lin continued staring out the window.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Lucius said. “Or, where the project’s concerned, a lot more.”

  “I’m just glad you’re applying to shut it down,” she said.

  “What?” That had been the last thing he’d expected her to say. None of the other doctors had voiced such strong opinions about his decision, though he was sure there were those who felt that way. Nobody would dare say anything in front of Carlyle, though. “I’m not doing it because I want to, but with what we’ve seen I should have done it earlier. But you’ll be out of a job. We all will.”

  Lin unraveled her napkin and laid it delicately in her lap. “We’ll find another one easily enough. But this whole thing gave me a sour taste from the beginning. I mean, super humans? How can any good come of that?”

  “The patron of the project, other than the Defense Department, felt it was necessary for the advancement of the human race.”

  Lin merely cocked an eyebrow at him. “Advancement of the human race? And what happens to the ones left behind?”

  “Well, I mean not all humans. Those who need the strength, speed, and mental enhancements to do their job. Firemen, police—”

  “Soldiers,” Lin said quietly.

  “Soldiers,” Lucius echoed eventually.

  There was a lull at their table, like some dead thing that had been their conversation had flopped between them, stinking up the whole place. Lucius waved his hand like he was clearing the air.

  “You’re right, Lin. The project was a grand idea, if flawed when you take a hard look at it, which I should have done before now. This gets into the wrong hands…even in the right ones. Humans aren’t exactly known for making the best decisions on a consistent basis.”

  “Carlyle will try to stop you,” Lin said. “He’ll counter your proposal. Come up with a new way of manufacturing it. Maybe put genomes in play like Dr. Van suggested.”

  Lucius snorted. “You know where Carlyle can shove his proposal. That man has been patronizing me from day one. Just because I’m—” He paused on the last word. He’d been about to say younger. But not with Lin there. Not when she seemed comfortable with the situation so far.

  “Younger?” Lin offered, smiling. Rats.

  “Yeah,” Lucius grumbled.

  She reached across the table and placed her hand on his. “There’s nothing wrong with your age. Sure, it’s a bit unusual, but not all wisdom comes with age.”

  The restaurant suddenly seemed much brighter. All the drama from the office was insignificant. Just as long as Lin continued holding his hand—

  Lin’s phone rang. She looked down at her pocket, then reluctantly removed her hand from his. She pulled her phone out. Looked at Lucius.

  “It’s the lab. Probably one of the other team members just heading out for the night. You mind if I…” She mimed picking it up.

  “Go for it,” Lucius said.

  Lin answered.

  It is amazing the range of emotions the human face is capable of conveying. The amount of muscles required to perform something as paltry as smile. More fascinating to Lucius was how those emotions could switch so fast, mirroring the internal thoughts of the brain almost as quickly as they happened.

  Lin’s face was like that. It stayed neutral enough. Then it wasn’t. Then it was falling, acting as a deep crescendo into horror. The blood slowly leaked from her face.

  Lucius knew they wouldn’t be eating sushi tonight. He reached for his coat just as Lin snapped the phone shut. She tried to speak. Failed. Tried again.

  “The lab,” she managed. “Something terrible. We need to go. Now.”

  CHAPTER 4

  An eerie quiet had settled over the lab when Lucius unlocked the employee entrance and rushed in, Lin right behind. The silence was alive with menace. The computers were all dark. The overhead lights off.

  They rushed straight towards the hallway where Bobo was kept. Lin had not said much, had not been able to say much, but she had managed to get out that something had happened with the chimp.

  Please, Lucius thought. Please let it not be true. If it is, and I could have stopped it…

  The man who’d called Lin was crumpled on the ground in the hallway, sobbing. Lin knelt and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He sobbed harder.

  “I called Ryans’ on the way over,” Lin said to Lucius. “He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

  “I need to see,” Lucius said. “I need to know.”

  �
��Lucius, I don’t think—Lucius!” He was already striding towards Bobo’s room. The light was on, but flickering. That was the first thing. The second was the curled, sharp tang of something in his nose, something his brain wouldn’t let him fathom.

  It couldn’t deny it for long, though. Not when Lucius stepped into the room. His legs nearly gave out. The doorframe acted as a support as he slumped against it.

  “Blue calms Bobo down.” How many times had he heard Lin say that? Home comforts, creature comforts. Something to make the chimp feel safe. She’d insisted his room be a baby blue.

  It was red now. Crimson, rust-colored, dried and cracking splash stains on the wall, deep angry pools on the floor.

  Lucius stepped inside. His boots sounded like tearing Velcro as they peeled away from the blood on the linoleum. Bobo’s cage door was open. He looked around for signs of who had done this. And why. They wouldn’t still be around, surely. But somebody capable of this…it made no sense. Why kill the chimp? Like tearing up his office, what did it accomplish?

  His eyes fell on an oddly shaped object on the floor. Lucius stepped closer, trying to make it out, and the light from the hallway fell on it. He saw with horror it was a severed human forearm and realized it wasn’t Bobo he should have been worried about.

  The end of the arm was jagged, like it had been torn off by some inhuman strength. The strength, maybe, that they were trying to produce with the serum.

  The rest of the body—jigsaw pieces. That’s all Lucius could compare it to.

  He couldn’t vomit. He couldn’t even react. The whole scene was so far past his senses he didn’t even know how to react.

  But he wasn’t alone.

  He felt the prickling on his neck. The sense that something was watching. The sound of haggard, animal breathing.

  Eyes peered at him from the dark at the back of the cage. A bristled shadow, indistinguishable in form, hunched forward, breathing in, and out. The breaths increased as Lucius realized three things in rapid succession: the thing in the cage had once been Bobo; that the thing had torn this man apart; and that there was nobody nearby who could stop it from doing the same to him.

  Except…

  The screech of boots on the tile outside, pounding towards him. The thing that had once been Bobo moved its arm. Lucius blinked. The speed! There had been merely a flicker and now Bobo was right up against the cage, baring his bloodied teeth at him.

  Lucius took a step back and heard the crunch of glass. He dared to look down. A syringe. Dr. Lin never let anyone take a syringe in here. She hadn’t wanted to frighten Bobo.

  Bobo bared his teeth again. He hissed, like a cobra coiled to strike. Lucius tensed and closed his eyes. It would hopefully be over quick.

  And then a thump as someone came too fast into the doorway and skidded a little on the blood.

  Bobo screeched long and loud and Lucius’ eyes burst open. He stumbled back.

  Bobo was screaming and pounding the cage, Ryans stood in shock at the entire scene and without thinking Lucius hurried past him and out of the room, practically collapsing into Dr. Lin’s arms outside.

  “Lucius! Why is Bobo screaming?” She peered over his shoulder. “What—”

  A pistol shot. Lucius flinched as if he’d been the one hit. Lin went rigid. She tried to get up. To go see. Lucius held her tight. “No. Just…no.”

  The screaming started again. Another shot. And another. Each one like a nail driven into Lucius’ forehead, until Ryans must have exhausted his entire magazine because there was no screaming except inside Lucius’ mind, and no sound except for the click of an empty chamber and Ryans continuing to pull the trigger anyways.

  CHAPTER 5

  Ryans closed the conference room door delicately behind him.

  Lucius sat on one side of the long table they’d been at only this morning. Might as well have been a lifetime ago. Lin sat across from him. Lucius had found a blanket left in the break room and wrapped it around her shivering shoulders. He wasn’t sure if she was aware he’d done it.

  She had demanded to see Bobo’s room and broken out of Lucius’ grasp. He’d warned her, pleaded with her. She hadn’t listened.

  Ryans offered Lucius a cup in one of his hands.

  “Found some leftover coffee in the break room. It’s the powdered kind, unfortunately. Little lukewarm. Best I could do.”

  Lucius did not feel like taking it. He felt like doing many things, but sitting around a conference room sipping coffee while a man’s remains dried and crusted in another room was not one of them.

  “Thanks,” he muttered, eventually accepting it and immediately placing it on the table. He tapped his fingers. Lin rocked back and forth.

  Ryans offered her the other drink. When she didn’t take it he placed it beside her and sat. There was a hollowness in his eyes. He was trying not to show it, but he was shaken.

  The conference room door burst open again. Carlyle and Dr. Van walked in.

  “You!” Lucius snarled, leaping up and jabbing a finger at Dr. Van.

  Dr. Van turned to Carlyle with an ‘I told you so’ expression. “Knew he’d blame me.”

  “You request testing on the chimp and when I threaten to shut us down this happens? You bet I’m blaming you!”

  Carlyle held up one hand and waved it up and down as if trying to fan Lucius back into his seat. “Easy, Lucius. Dr. Van obviously didn’t do this.” He held up a CD. “I have the security footage right here. Why don’t we all calmly take our seats and have a look.”

  He was pale. He must have seen the footage already. Good, Lucius thought. Let him understand. He needed to understand the full weight of what they were now dealing with.

  Carlyle stepped to the head of the table. After a minute, the soundless security footage came to life on screen. Bobo’s room snapped into focus. Lucius and Lin were there. It was just before they’d left.

  Dr. Van scowled with disapproval when Lin fed Bobo the apple. After a moment, Lucius and Lin left. Lin flicked off the lights. Bobo remained in his cage in the dark, munching on the apple.

  They didn’t have to wait long before the lights snapped on again. The man who had passed Lucius in the hallway stepped into the room.

  Lucius let his face fall into his hands. He had known it would be him, just as he had known he should have stopped the man when he’d first seen him. And yet he’d done nothing, and look what had become of it.

  The man opened the cage and beckoned Bobo over with an apple.

  “That’s not one of ours,” Dr. Van said.

  Carlyle nodded. “That’s what I was going to say.” He turned to Ryans. “Any idea who that is?”

  “No, sir. Not a clue.”

  Bobo approached the man holding the apple. The man let him take it. Bobo finished it off and the man produced another. He looked around, seemed satisfied he was alone. Bobo approached the outstretched hand with the apple, closer this time.

  The barest hint of a needle tip glinted from his right pocket. The man plunged the syringe into Bobo’s neck and pressed the plunger down.

  Bobo screamed silently at the camera and fled to the back of the cage. The man quickly stepped out, but didn’t close the door. He merely stood there. Watching.

  Nothing happened at first. Then Bobo slumped back, as though exhausted. Then he began to rock. His hands began to shake. Finally he keeled over, dead. Lin let out a garbled sob.

  The man simply watched.

  Lucius didn’t tear his eyes from the screen. He knew the truly awful part was coming.

  The man re-entered the cage. He bent down and looked at the chimp, tilted his head back, pulled back his eyelids. Once he was satisfied Bobo was truly dead, he scooted closer and reached under to roll him over.

  That was the last thing he ever did.

  It was as if a jolt of electricity surged through the chimp. One lanky arm rose, gripped the wrist of the arm that had touched him, and wrenched it off.

  If the video had audio, Lucius was sure th
e man would have been screaming.

  Lucius looked away as the slaughter continued. He fixed his gaze on Carlyle. The man was impassive. His eyes drank in the scene before him, but not with disgust or revulsion, but with amazement.

  Carlyle shut the video off. He swiveled around in his chair. He cleared his throat, but seemed to have trouble forming the words.

  “Barring getting blamed for something I did not do,” Dr. Van said, glaring at Lucius, “I think it’s clear we had a lone wolf acting out corporate sabotage. An outlier. Someone with a clear agenda to put our project under.”

  “You have got to be joking,” Sykes said.

  “Excuse me?”

  Lucius practically shook with anger. The emotion had come up a lot lately, and it terrified him. He’d practiced keeping it in check, ever since he’d been a boy and lost his temper around Tamison Smith. The other boy’s arm had never healed right, though Lucius had gotten off with a warning.

  The anger was back now. And it terrified him.

  “This was not some random person walking in from the street. This doesn’t just happen. Somebody planned this. Somebody went ahead with it regardless of the consequences, and look what happened.”

  A silence ensued. Ryans stepped forward from where he’d been standing. “Sir, I’d like to know what did happen. I don’t deal with…whatever that was, everyday.”

  Lin let out another quiet sob. Lucius wished to reach across the table and comfort her. The others did nothing.

  “What you saw was a culmination of our tests,” Carlyle said. “That chimp was stronger and faster than any being has ever been.”

  “It wouldn’t die,” Ryans said. “My first bullet…it just healed over it. He didn’t even flinch. Like it just tickled him.”

  “That would be the healing factor we put in,” Dr. Van said. His eyes glittered with triumph when he looked to Carlyle. “That part did work, after all.”