Houston Run, page 14
part #12 of Endworld Series
“No!” Clarissa whirled, preparing to flee.
Blade saw Clarissa take a single step, and then a beam of yellow light flashed from Primator, striking Clarissa on the top of her oily head. Blade looked upward, failing to locate the source of the light, then returned his astounded gaze to Clarissa.
She was dying a horrible death. The beam of light had melted through the top of her cranium into her brain, and rancid smoke was spiraling toward the ceiling. Her torso twisted, her face swiveling around, her lavender eyes locking on Blade.
Blade watched, aghast, as the beam of yellow light broadened, encompassing all of Clarissa’s head. Her oily hair emitted puffs of smoke, crackling as the strands were fried to a crisp. With a pronounced sizzling, her head started to disappear, her skin softening and blackening and dissolving like the wax on a candle. A putrid stench assailed Blade’s nostrils.
Clarissa’s body slumped as her head was melted away. The yellow light widened, enshrouding her shoulders in its lethal radiance. She dropped to her knees, what was left of her, and swayed as the light slowly dissolved her torso, her arms, and her waist.
Blade resisted an impulse to gag. The stink was awful.
Clarissa’s legs melted, flowing to the floor. In a matter of seconds, Clarissa was reduced to a smoldering, mushy pulp, a sickening lump on the floor of the audience chamber.
The yellow light flicked off.
Primator’s voice broke the silence which followed. “SO TELL ME, LYNX. DO YOU STILL WANT TO RIP MY WIRES OUT?”
Lynx stared up at the wide screen, his feline features contorted in fury.
“Clarissa was scum, but she didn’t deserve that!”
“I FAIL TO COMPREHEND YOUR RESENTMENT. YOU DISLIKED HER, DIDN’T YOU? SHE LOVED THE DOKTOR, AND THE DOKTOR WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR TORMENTING YOU AND ORDERING YOUR EXECUTION.”
“But I’m still kickin’, chuckles,” Lynx responded belligerently. “And if it’s the last thing I ever do, I’m gonna bring you down!”
“IMPROBABLE,” Primator said. “YOU WILL BE TOO BUSY RECOVERING TO BOTHER ME.”
“Recovering? From what?” Lynx asked.
“FROM YOUR NEUTERING, OF COURSE,” Primator stated.
Lynx crouched, his green eyes flaring.
“You will not move, Lynx!” ordered a deep voice to their rear.
Blade glanced over his right shoulder.
Twelve Superiors were lined up ten feet from the chairs. Seven of them were armed with Gaskell Lasers.
Blade looked at Lynx. He sensed the mutant was on the verge of going berserk, and he quickly stood. “Lynx! Don’t do it! Now is not the time!”
Lynx scowled at the Superiors, clenching and unclenching his fingers.
“Don’t do it!” Blade reiterated. “You’d be throwing your life away.”
Lynx regained his self-control with a monumental effort. He slowly straightened, then grinned. “You’re right, Blade. I’ll let these suckers sweat a bit before I rack ’em.”
The Superior in the middle of the line walked up to the row of chairs.
He stared at the wide screen, then raised his right fist and touched it to his chest. “What is your will, Primator?”
“THE MUTANTS WILL BE TAKEN TO THE DEVIATE GENERATION SECTION,” Primator commanded. “I WANT LYNX NEUTERED AND ASSIGNED TO THE SANITATION DETAIL. THE OTHER TWO MUTANTS WILL BE TESTED AND DEALT WITH AS PER PRESCRIBED PROCEDURE.”
“As you will,” the Superior said. “And the two Warriors?”
“RETURN THEM TO CONTAINMENT. INSURE THEY DO NOT ESCAPE AGAIN. INSTRUCT INTELLIGENCE TO INTERROGATE THEM THOROUGHLY. I WANT THE DATA OBTAINED RELAYED TO ME IMMEDIATELY.”
“As you will,” the Superior stated. “And their final disposition?”
“WILL BE DETERMINED AFTER I HAVE REVIEWED THE RESULTS OF THEIR INTERROGATION,” Primator declared.
“As you will.” The Superior motioned for Blade and the others to move around the chairs. “Form a single file,” he directed.
Blade was the first in line. He glanced at the Superior in charge. “Aren’t you the same one who brought us?”
“I am,” the Superior confirmed.
“How did you know Primator wanted you to enter?” Blade inquired.
“There is a panel above the outer audience door,” the Superior disclosed. “It contains a light which comes on when our presence is required.”
“Primator doesn’t miss a trick, does he?” Blade observed.
“Primator is infallible,” the Superior said.
“Only the Spirit is infallible,” Blade said, disagreeing.
The Superior studied the Warrior for a moment. “Have you ever undergone a lobotomy?”
“No,” Blade replied. “Why?”
“Just asking.”
Chapter Fourteen
The sun had been up for hours.
Lynx paused in the midst of his constant pacing and stared up at the barred window in the south wall of his cell. In addition to the thick, unbreakable steel bars, the window contained a pane of clear, shatterproof plastic. He measured the distance to the windowsill for the umpteenth time, calculating the sill was eight feet above the blue tiled floor. He knew he could reach the window with a running leap; he’d already done so twice. But the steel bars had resisted his powerful muscles, and his claws could not penetrate the plastic pane.
He was trapped, confined with no way out!
Those bastards were going to pay! he mentally vowed.
Lynx resumed his pacing, going from one side to the other of the 15-foot-square cell. He wanted to find a Superior and sink his claws into the android’s neck! He needed to do something to vent his pent-up wrath.
What was that?
Lynx halted in the center of the room, gazing at the door on the east side.
A key was turning in the lock!
They were coming for him! They were coming to lop off his nuts!
Lynx scanned the cell for a weapon. There was a green cot along the west wall, and a sink at the foot of the cot. A toilet in a small cubicle was in the middle of the north wall. And that was it. Nothing he could use to defend himself against the silver pricks!
The doorknob was turning!
Lynx darted behind the door, next to the east wall.
They weren’t taking his balls! He’d die before he’d let them castrate him!
The door opened, swinging inward, almost touching Lynx.
“Hmmmmm,” a low voice said.
Lynx tensed. He heard someone take a step forward, into the cell, and he pounced, bounding around the door and grabbing a brown, furry arm.
He yanked on the slim arm, pulling the newcomer into the room and extending his left leg simultaneously, tripping the astonished arrival and sending the newcomer sprawling onto the floor near the cot. Lynx spun toward the new arrival, intent on slashing his adversary to shreds. But he stopped in midstride, flabbergasted.
“Well, I never!” exclaimed the newcomer in a low, yet decidedly feminine tone. “Is this any way to treat a lady?” She slowly stood, her features reflecting her annoyance.
Lynx was shocked to his core. The figure before him was an exact copy of his own: the same pointed ears, the same slanted green eyes, the same curved forehead, the same color fur. Everything. But with a notable difference. “You’re a woman!” he blurted.
She brushed at an attractive white smock she wore, appraising him critically. “And is this how they treat women where you come from? By manhandling them?”
“I didn’t mean…” Lynx started to say, his mind whirling. He was stunned, intoxicated by her beauty. “That is, I don’t… but then, you…”
She shook her head. “Pathetic! A handsome hunk like you, and it’s all a waste. There must be a vacuum between your ears.”
“I…” Lynx mumbled. “You…”
She grinned. “I see that witty conversation is not one of your strong points.”
Lynx took a step toward her. “Who are you?”
“Melody,” she answered. “Melody 741950.”
Lynx suddenly realized she wore an Orwell Disk on her forehead.
“And your name, I believe, is Lynx?” Melody asked.
Lynx nodded.
Melody pointed at his loin cloth. “Why aren’t you wearing any clothes? That… diaper… barely covers you.”
Lynx glanced down. “This ain’t no diaper, sweets.”
“Sweets?”
“All us wear ’em,” Lynx said.
“All of whom?” Melody inquired.
“All the mutants the Doc created wore loincloths,” Lynx explained.
“Ferret, Gremlin, and I are the only three left, and we still wear ’em.”
Melody scrunched up her nose distastefully. “How barbaric,” she commented.
“Do all the mutants here wear clothes?” Lynx queried, eager to keep her talking, to do anything to keep her angelic presence in the room.
“What a silly question!” Melody stated. “Of course! All civilized mutants wear clothing. We don’t traipse around in our underwear.”
“This isn’t my underwear, gorgeous,” Lynx declared.
“Gorgeous?”
Lynx took another step toward her. “Look! I don’t get any of this! I thought those silver bastards were comin’ to whack off my…” He abruptly stopped, appalled by his blatant crudity.
“Whack off your what?” Melody asked, and then looked at his loincloth.
She hastily averted her eyes, pretending to be interested in the toilet. “Oh, my!”
“What are you doing here?” Lynx questioned.
Melody cleared her throat, then gazed into his eyes. “I came to find out if you’re hungry. Would you like something to eat?”
Lynx’s brows furrowed in consternation. “Eat? Are you for real? Who can eat at a time like this?”
“I don’t understand,” Melody said. “Why are you upset?”
“Don’t you know what they’re going to do to me?” Lynx responded.
“Primator said I was to be neutered.”
“You will be,” Melody confirmed. “Day after tomorrow. That’s the soonest you could be squeezed into the schedule. They can only do so many a day, you know.”
Lynx snorted. “Lucky me!”
Melody seemed confused. “Why are you taking this so hard? It’s a simple operation. You’ll be back on your feet in no time.”
Lynx walked right up to her, glaring. “I’ve heard of dingbats, sister, but you take the cake!”
Melody retreated a step. “Why are you acting this way? You won’t feel a thing, believe me! I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but in Androxia most of the male mutants are neutered. That’s just the way it is.”
“And the males don’t object? They don’t resist?” Lynx asked.
“No. Why should they?” Melody replied.
Lynx shook his head contemptuously. “And for a minute there, I actually thought you had the brains to go with your looks!”
Melody was upset by his insult. Her green eyes blinking rapidly, her fists clenched at her sides, she edged around him to the right, making for the door. “You are so… strange!” she cried, and moved toward the door.
Lynx turned and gripped her left wrist. “Wait!”
Melody recoiled, tugging on her wrist. “Let go of me, you… you savage!” She swung her right fist and struck him on the right shoulder.
Lynx reluctantly released his hold, his shoulders slumping. “All right!
Get out of here! I just wanted to talk to you, but you’re obviously too self-centered to waste time with a barbarian like me. So get lost!” He turned his back to her.
Silence descended.
“I am not egotistical,” she stated after half a minute.
“Want to bet?” Lynx responded without facing her.
Her voice lowered, softened. “I would like to talk to you.”
Lynx turned. “You would?”
“I have a break in fifteen minutes,” Melody said. “If you want, I’ll come back and we can talk then.”
“You’ve got a deal, princess,” Lynx said.
Melody opened her mouth to speak, then pursed her lips and walked to the doorway. “Are you certain you won’t have something to eat?”
“I’m too excited to eat,” Lynx declared.
“Excited?”
“Yeah. About seein’ you again,” Lynx told her.
Melody stared into his eyes. “Are you always so blunt?”
“You call this blunt?” Lynx rejoined. “You should see me when I’m not being formal.”
Melody smiled and exited, closing the door behind her.
Lynx expected to hear the key rattling in the lock, but nothing happened. He moved to the door and tried the knob.
It was unlocked!
Lynx crossed the cell to the cot and sat down. Had Melody deliberately left the door unlocked? Had she forgotten to lock it? Or were the lousy Superiors playing some sort of trick on him? He discarded the last notion as ridiculous.
Fifteen minutes, she’d said?
Lynx thought of her face, and her lovely eyes, and shook his head in wonder. Never had he imagined the possibility of meeting another genetically engineered mutant like himself. The Doktor had rarely created two of a kind; he had always been too busy experimenting, continually striving to improve on his creations, to bother with such a trifling detail as producing compatible pairs capable of mating. Which had always struck Lynx as odd, because, as he’d reasoned at the time, breeding pairs would have increased the numbers of the Doktor’s Genetic Research Division dramatically, if not geometrically. Although the Doktor had never admitted as much, Lynx had always suspected there were ulterior motives behind the Doktor’s action, or lack of it. The Doktor might not have wanted the mutants to breed on their own because, as he had demonstrated again and again, the Doktor had been fanatical in his compulsion to dominate every aspect of their lives. They were his creations, his creatures, his mutants, and he had exercised complete control over them from the test-tube to the grave. Another element in the Doktor’s decision not to produce mating couples may have been the loyalty factor, Lynx speculated. Mutants with a mate and offspring would be no different from married humans; they would be loyal, first and foremost, to their mates and their children. And the Doktor had demanded total loyalty from his mutants.
Lynx sighed.
In all his two dozen years as a mutant, he’d never seen another one exactly like himself in every respect. He’d seen genetically engineered mutants resembling frogs and lizards, alligators and snakes, bears and boars, lions and tigers, and many, many more. But no two were ever precisely identical. The Doktor had never produced a male and female of the same type. Lynx had encountered other cat-men and even cat-women, but none of them had resembled him beyond a few superficial feline features.
Lynx idly gazed at the window.
Some of the Doktor’s mutants had secretly mated. Lynx had known several of them very well, and he’d been privy to their darkest secret. Try as they might, and those mutants had enthusiastically tried, they could not perpetuate their lineage. The females simply could not become pregnant. Lynx had heard two rumors pertaining to the problem. Some of the mutants believed the Doktor had intentionally created them sterile, incapable of reproducing. Other mutants had been convinced the sterility stemmed from their genes. Only exact matches, so the reasoning had went, could successfully breed. Disparate pairs were doomed to disappointment.
Lynx had listened attentively to their plight, and sympathized with their dilemma. But he’d never met a female mutant he’d been attracted to.
Until now.
There had been a few, Lynx remembered, he’d cared for a lot. One, in particular, had been a female with the hybrid traits of a human and a bobcat. Despite his affection, he’d never seriously considered mating with her. And she had come the closest of all of them. Frog-females, lizard-ladies, and tigress-tomatoes had done nothing for him.
And now this!
Lynx chuckled. Who would have expected it? After all these years, to discover a potential mate in a city governed by a demented computer and his android flunkies!
What was his next step?
Lynx nervously wrung his hands. How should he go about this? he asked himself. He didn’t want to blow it. An idea occurred to him and he leaned back, musing. The Doktor had given Primator his secret technique for altering human embryos in a test-tube, for creating genetically engineered mutations. But even though Primator and the Superiors had learned the technique, they would have started from scratch as they developed their mutants, just as the Doktor had done. Was it possible then. Lynx speculated, that Primator was replicating the Doktor’s earlier efforts? Was Primator producing mutants similar to those previously created by the Doktor?
It would explain Melody.
There was a tap on the door, and Lynx started, jumping to his feet. He hurried to the door and opened it.
Melody was in the corridor, a tray of food in her hands. “I thought you might like some food anyway. I wouldn’t want you to starve.”
Lynx stepped aside and motioned for her to enter. “Has it been fifteen minutes already?”
Melody walked past him and deposited the tray on the cot. “Ten minutes,” she told him. “I received permission from the floor supervisor to take an extra five minutes on my break.”
“You’ll have to thank her for me,” Lynx said, closing the door.
“My floor supervisor is a male,” Melody divulged. “And he wouldn’t like it if he knew we were fraternizing.”
“Oh? You’re not allowed to fraternize with the inmates?”
Melody scrutinized him. “Inmates? Where do you think you are, anyway?”
“In prison,” Lynx replied. “I didn’t see much of the place when they brought me in, and the Superiors weren’t very talkative. But I know a prison when I’m in one.”
“Well, you’re not in prison,” Melody stated.
“I’m not?” Lynx said in surprise.
“No, silly. You’re in the Science Section of the Medical Building, not in Containment. They perform all of the neutering on our kind in the Science Station. The humans, though, are neutered in Medical,” she elaborated.
