Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
“Of course I do.”
“Let me give you an orientation before we do any introductions. I want you to understand some of the details of this place. It will save you from having to ask some of the many questions you will no doubt have, detective.”
“Alright.”
He leads me to a wall in the lobby where there are black and white portraits of three old men hanging.
“These are Maclyn McCarty, Oswald Avery, and Colin MacLeod. These were the men who discovered the very nature of DNA. Our father was a research assistant in their laboratory, a man of little means, but great ambitions. He wanted not only to create new life, but to save it.”
I nod, as Justice seems to expect some kind of response to that.
“That discovery was officially made one year before the end of the Second World War, in 1944, but of course the research had taken place years prior to the public announcement. Our father brought peace to the world through a savant’s understanding of this work. He understood more than they ever shared, and the work he did here changed the course of history.”
“What was his name? Why are they here but not him?”
“Some people prefer their names be lost to history.”
“Why did he make you? And those like you? There’s no way you were ever going to fit in with everyday society. Especially not then.”
“We were not designed to be freaks. We were designed to be soldiers, with traits common to some insects and other creatures that allow them to withstand some of the cruel chemical conditions humans began to inflict upon one another. Many of our older brothers and sisters were sacrificed to end the conflict.”
“I thought atomic weapons were used against civilians to end the war.”
“Yes. There were many monstrous undertakings. The atomic bomb could not be hidden from the world. Other secrets were better kept. Like us. To this day, our mission is to protect people. We function as guardians of humanity, as and where we can. What Rage did was a complete perversion of his purpose, not to mention all we were raised to believe in. He was like a sheep dog who turned on his flock. His death was inevitable.”
“So your family won’t be angry at me for killing him?”
“My family sent me to bring him back in the state he is in. They do not need to know the specifics of what happened. You do not need to take the blame.”
“So they won’t know why I am here. I’m just your side piece.”
“Actually, your presence here has already raised some brows,” he says. “No humans besides our fathers have ever been permitted inside these walls.”
“So why did you bring me here?”
“Because we need you.”
“Uh. Flattering, I guess, but I don’t think that’s true.”
“So this is her?”
We are interrupted by a deep, rough voice. Justice’s family has decided to take the introductions into their own hands. I turn and am greeted with what I can only describe as a man-monarch. He is not a moth, but a butterfly. You’d think that might be cute. You’d be wrong.
He has great wings of black and orange, and dark skin marked with white dots across his face and torso. The white dots appear uncannily like eyes, so the overall impression is of being watched by a hundred dangerous things at once. No wonder birds avoid monarch butterflies. I want to scream and run, but I stand still and force a polite smile, as so many people meeting their significant others’ families have done before.
“Are you all based on insects?” I ask Justice the question, but I don't bother to reply to the other mutant’s question. He obviously didn’t like me on sight, and the feeling is fairly mutual.
“Not all of us,” Justice says. “Fury, this is Detective Holmes of the NYPD. She apprehended and subsequently dispatched Rage.”
So much for not telling them I killed Rage.
“May he rest in peace,” Fury says, giving me a look I do not appreciate. The hostility is palpable. I am not only unwelcome, I am grossly unpopular. I can feel the presence of others. They are not here in the room, but I sense them nearby. Listening. Learning.
I notice that Fury does not seem surprised to see me. Obviously, word was sent ahead of time, and not just about Rage. About me. This hive of mutant intelligence has been waiting for me. It has a plan for me. A plan I am not familiar with, and to which I have not been made privy.
Justice still has his grip on my hand. Using that hold, he leads me through the lobby. Fury takes up position on the other side of me. The energy shifts, and in an instant I am suddenly captive, a prisoner walking between two guards.
“Justice, you will regret this. If you are doing what I think you are doing, then you will find yourselves all in a…”