MAN FROM TOMORROW
CHAPTER 15: LOCK AND KEY

Martin was coolly listening to Norman. He was shocked so many times in the past so many days that he refused to believe that anything else could take him by surprise.

“Imagine Martin, what these Superhumans can do if they became trained soldiers to be deployed in war?”

It was Martin’s time to be bewildered, again. Even though Martin dealt with terrorists and criminals on a daily basis, it did not occur to him that Kevin and his kind could also be programmed for war. Maybe He and Anita have put off this line of thought because of the benign and benevolent nature of Kevin. But now when he thought, it appeared to be an obvious and logical conclusion.

Martin had watched Kevin fight at close quarters. “They would be perfect killing machines,” said Martin without mincing words.

“Yeah, right. That’s exactly what happened. There were, as usual, hawks within the military establishment. Moreover, Project 209 had heavy military funding. There were some who were vociferous about using Superhumans for war. The most aggressive among them was and still is General Stanley Richardson. He is primarily responsible for the continuing drone attacks in the Middle East. The military would be a lot different in a positive way had it not been for this man.”

“He is the ideal patriot, eh?”

“He is extremely violent and pompous. He is patriotic no doubt. But patriotic in the sense that anyone else not toeing his line is labeled a traitor. ”

“There was already a Power struggle going on between NASA and the Pentagon led by General Stanley Richardson. The General wanted NASA to engineer the Superhumans for war. But NASA did not relent.

Years into Project 209, our Superhumans were transferred from NASA to the Pentagon. They had completely different intentions. While NASA wanted to use the superhumans to learn more about our universe, the Pentagon wanted to use the Superhumans for war. And of course, all that was standing in their way was the fact that the superhumans would die before they could be used as weapons.

“It was demanded of us that we replace a way around cancer, or best-case scenario, remove the genetic alteration that caused it to happen in the first place. My team and I found a cure, but a sense of morality would not allow us to give it to the Pentagon. After all, the Superhumans we created were like children to us. They grew up in the lab alongside us and other workers. We could not bear the fact that they may be turned into killing machines with a small tweak to their Genetic system.

“Let me guess- central to this tussle was your DIOXIN LOCK” Martin chipped in.

“Yes. Just imagine, if Superhumans were let into the earth’s environment with the DIOXIN LOCK intact. Within a few months, they would start dying like flies. No one would like spending millions of dollars to develop a Superhuman- only to lose the soldier after three months. That is a bad investment. And a dead soldier is of no use in war. The General wanted me to remove the DIOXIN LOCK. And the procedure to remove the DIOXIN LOCK has been described in the ‘Key’ that you rummaged out of my drawer.”

“My team decided that because I was old enough to retire, I should leave the team and take all traces of the information leading up to the fix with me. And so, I did,”

Norman paused. “It’s been years since then. What happened to my team because of what we did, I have no idea. But no one suspected me of having the solution this entire time, at least not until recently.”

“Many months ago, General Stanley Richardson asked me personally to remove the DIOXIN LOCK.”

“And?”

“I denied any know-how of removing the DIOXIN LOCK.I feigned ignorance. I am not sure that the General was fully convinced about that. I suspect I may have been under surveillance the past few days. But I am not sure by whom.”

“Then who were the guys threatening you?”

“I seriously wish I knew better, Martin. But I don’t. Between themselves, they spoke Korean.”

“You know Korean?” Martin asked

“I don’t, but I can say this because I have worked with the South Koreans in the 70s on some space projects.

“How did you know to contact me?”

“Many years back, Professor Antonio and I worked together, briefly on Space Life-support systems. We became friends there. Occasionally we would meet during conferences and seminars. When Antonio’s company was folded up, their technologies were passed onto Project 209. I presume Antonio guessed that I was part of the project. It was probably because I was an expert in the field and I was at NASA. There was no way I would not be involved. Antonio, that clever fellow, put two and two together and deduced that I was part of Project 209 too. Though I don’t think he was sure about it. Yesterday, I received a call from Antonio. He mentioned you and cautioned that should my life be in danger; I should contact you. I immediately compiled the ‘key’ from my files and called you on the number given by Antonio.”

Martin was mulling over everything he learned from Norman and also what he already knew. A lot made sense already, but Norman filled in quite a few blanks. How Kevin was something other than human, where he came from, why his identity seemed completely fabricated.

In his mind, Martin made up the schema of the events so far- A secret program of creating superhumans was underway by the NASA. They had created a few prototype Superhumans. Simultaneously the Pentagon was trying hard to gain control of project 209 for war purposes. One fine day, around 3 months or so ago, Kevin, known by the NASA labs as Joseph, escaped for some reason. Joseph took up a false identity as Kevin and started living as a common American. Meanwhile, the Pentagon launched a massive undercover manhunt, where Martin was recruited to search for Kevin-dead or alive. For this reason, a fake profile of Kevin as a terrorist was cooked up. The higherups had planned that after Martin had hunted down Kevin, Martin and Kevin-if caught alive- would be eliminated. That was why mercenaries were hired. That was why his superior at the HQ was referring to a ‘WE’. Unfortunately, Anita was drawn into this whirlpool of space-military-police goof-up. Why Kevin escaped NASA labs was not clear.

By what Norman and Martin had discussed on the run, It was easy to conclude that Kevin pined, like others of his kind, maybe, for freedom. But do all intelligent creatures crave for freedom? Why did the others not escape? Or was it that only Kevin was successful? Or were there others like Kevin who had escaped?

Was it possible that another agent like Martin somewhere would be trying to track down others of Kevin ’s kind? Who were these Korean thugs anyway? Were they state-sponsored goons? It was clear that there were at least two sets of people chasing them down. One was the guy who shot the Bazooka-Martin had killed him at Antonio’s house. The other was the Korean group who had first attacked Anita’s house.

Both groups seemed to have the same objective, but something else told him that they did not have the same purpose in mind. For one, there was absolutely no sense of coordination between the two groups. That was because the two groups if working together, had enough man-power to capture Kevin, Martin and Anita when they could.

He was concentrating on the road for some time now Norman had fallen asleep. Everything Martin learned was a lot to take in. Genetically engineered Superhumans, a space project gone wrong, the pending creation of war machines, an assassin and some Korean thugs; It all gave him the chills.

The plot had many loose ends, but things were getting clearer. It was like pieces of a Jigsaw puzzle were falling in place. Still, the several questions were thrown up by these incidents only deepened the confusion. Martin was already exhausted by all the running, the blood, the bullets and the chasing. He wanted to close his eyes and sleep. But no. He couldn’t. This General Stanley Richardson had Anita. And Anita was to be saved and along with her, the world.

It was deep in the dead of night. A few miles before he came to the place, he decided to take stock of the situation. He shook Norman, who appeared fast asleep. He did not wake up. Norman seemed to be in deep slumber. Something told Martin it was otherwise. Norman was not breathing. Martin checked his pulse. It was not there. Martin lifted the shirt to see Norman’s wound. His whole abdomen had turned dark blue. Norman had bled internally, and profusely. He had lied to Martin that it was a superficial wound.

“Bloody old man!” Martin cursed under his breath while fighting the overwhelming urge to weep. Martin felt personally responsible for Norman’s death.

‘Was it necessary?’ Martin asked himself. And then there was Anita!

Anita’s life had been in danger from the second she met Kevin on the street several weeks ago, but her life had not been directly in danger until she began working with Martin to replace him. In a way, since Anita started to help him, Martin felt responsible for her safety. And now that she’d been taken by someone and was being held hostage, he felt he’d failed her, and himself.

Martin fought mighty hard and sniffed back a tear. There was this knot in his throat and that heaviness in his chest that can only come from grief admixed with copious anger. No! I will make those bastards pay! Martin vowed silently under his breath. Martin lifted Norman’s body and placed it in a nearby alley just beside the footpath. Nobody would notice until morning. A morning that Martin was not sure he would see himself.

Martin reached the place. He was out of the Jeep and walking toward the building where he would meet with Anita and the lunatic General himself. The front of the building was made entirely of glass, which reminded him of the glass window in his Director’s office.

Despite it all being glass, it was tinted enough so that one could only see the shadows of everything inside. It struck Martin that NASA had this program right in the place where anyone would least suspect it to have. When Martin had first heard of Project 209, he had conjured for himself an image of a large isolated building in the middle of nowhere with high-security barbed wire and all the works. But the reality was to the contrary.

Martin reached for the silver handle of the glass door and pulled it open, walking into a lobby of pure white. There was a desk, but no one waiting on it. He knew that there wouldn’t be anyone coming to greet him. Martin briefly scanned the room, looking for anything of interest- there wasn’t much. He spotted the only hallway leading further into the building and paced towards it, eyeing the doors that branched out from the sides. There were no security men of any sort. Maybe they were inside. Yes. Definitely, they were inside. They were watching him through unseen eyes, listening to his every move through unseen ears. Modern surveillance system negated the need for human presence to spy on their targets. Pity, that Martin was a target himself.

At the end of the hall, there were a set of double doors, Martin pushed them open once he reached them.

He squinted in the blinding light that came once the door was open. Not waiting for his eyes to adjust, he pushed it all the way open using his arm to shadow his eyes. Martin walked inside but stopped when he heard the doors shut behind him. There was no mistaking it- he was in a lab. Long, white tables were in the center of the room, some filled with trays and large pieces of equipment that he didn’t recognize, but others empty. Along the walls was what interested him the most, though.

He didn’t have a name for them, but what he saw as large, glass tubes lined the walls, running from floor to ceiling. Though he couldn’t say for sure, he assumed they were filled with some preservative liquid. They contained Superhumans in various stages of development.

Martin couldn’t tell whether they were dead, alive, or still being made, but there were literally specimens from all stages of development. Starting from a fetus, they progressed along the wall until at the very end. There was a completely developed man floating in the tube. So, this was where it all started, probably.

Beside the tubes laid a large tank. It was half protruding into the room. Martin guessed that the tank extended even behind the walls into whatever chamber was present over there. Written in large fonts were the letters- TEB. It had all the symbols of “Bio-hazard” stamped over it. Antonio had mentioned in his animated discussions that toxic chemicals were also used in the study and creation of Superhumans.

On the other side of the room was a large man wearing a military uniform. He stood with his arms crossed; trying to gauge what Martin was capable of. Martin spent a moment examining the man because of this; he didn’t want to seem unprepared. He didn’t even have the slightest clue as to who the man was. His eyes were dark and intelligent, but his hair gray with age. He stood tall and proud in his uniform. One entire upper side of the uniform was covered with rows of different medals. He only recognized a few of them: the medals of Bravery and Honor. Finally, he looked away from him and saw that next to him was Anita, being restrained by two other men. They had guns slung over their shoulders in a way only a professional soldier could. She wasn’t bound in any way, which was a relief. If it came to that, he wouldn’t have to worry about freeing her before making an escape. If that was even possible.

“Martin!” She called to him, and tried to wriggle free from the men’s grip, but was unable to even get them to budge.

Martin didn’t say anything.

“Come closer, Martin Phillips,” the man said. He moved his hands to his sides and waited, telling him that it wasn’t a request, but an order.

Martin hesitated. He wasn’t sure what to do and opted to take several steps forward and gauge the man’s response. His expression didn’t change, and he still waited. Between him and the large man, there were still several large tables, but after another moment of the man’s silence, Martin finally figured that he was supposed to go around them. For a moment longer he kept his gaze on the man and only moved it to scope out the route he would use to get to the other side. The second he decided which way to take; his eyes went back to the man. Martin moved around the tables to meet with him on the other side, moving forward until finally stopping several paces away.

The General quickly took the pistol from his belt and shot Martin.

Martin felt a dagger pierce through the flesh of his left thigh. He collapsed and let out an ear-shattering scream. He screamed like never screamed before. Anita, hearing the gunshot and seeing the blood spurt from Martin, let out a shudder. She half-fainted, only to be held up straight by the thugs on her side. There was a round hole, oozing blood from the left thigh. Martin could feel his thigh muscles spasm and harden. It took him a few minutes to recover from the shock. The General was as unruffled as ever. He waited. Martin took in short breaths. His forehead beaded with sweat.

“Just some insurance Martin” The General spoke. “You run away a lot, I have noticed.”

“You killed Norman!” Martin said.

“No. Not me. Deep and vast run the rabbit holes my boy! Would you like to know who killed Norman?”

Without waiting for Martin’s reply, the man snapped his fingers, and the doors behind him opened. From there came four men dressed in the uniforms of security guards. Each of them held and restrained a Korean man. All them were handcuffed and shoved down onto their knees when they came up beside the man in the uniform. The guards stood several feet behind the Korean men, their hands clasped in front of them, staring straight ahead.

The General let out a wry smile and continued-“The ones who killed him were a squad of North Koreans in search of Joseph. They wanted him or his body, to study Superhuman biology. They planned to reverse engineer the Superhumans. However, I know they were unsuccessful because we already coaxed their failed mission from them. But am yet to replace what I need”.

“Really? How did the Koreans get to know about your project?” The pain had slowly eased now for Martin.

The General let out a chuckle. He suddenly looked sternly at the Koreans and then to Martin-

“Apparently NASA’s network was not strong enough to withstand hacking attempts; that too by a very powerful Supercomputer. You see, if this project was completely with us from the beginning, it would not have come to this.

But I believe that you’re smarter than them and that perhaps you have found what I need”

The General raised his eyebrows, remembering something- “Let me introduce myself, Martin... I’m General Stanley Richardson from the Pentagon. I guess Norman told you about me, on the way here. Pity that Norman had to be dumped in an alley... eh, Martin?

So... The General knows. Martin thought. He wondered at what point of time Martin and Norman fell under the surveillance net of the General tonight.

The General continued unabated “You likely already know that the project for the creation of the Superhumans was transferred to my control, from its creators in NASA. But because of the genetic alteration of these Superhumans, they are unable to be used for some purposes here on Earth. One of our researchers, Norman Spencer, discovered a way around this but never revealed it to us.

Martin was feeling totally exhausted. He was afraid that he would pass out before this General finished with his rant. But he had to keep the General engaged. His only bargaining chip now was time.

“Why did your Superhuman escape, General?”

The General looked at Martin without expression- “That is one thing our psychologists were unable to explain.

The General started cleaning his nails giving a disinterested look.

“They said that Joseph was inclined to reading a lot of books. Perhaps, he started believing in freedom and wanted to experience it firsthand. He was clever enough to escape the lab and take up a false identity and name. Kevin, his false name. The name by which you know him. Guess he didn’t like the name Joseph which we christened him with.

Anyway, When Joseph escaped this lab, we saw it as an opportunity to get information from Norman. I knew it would be inevitable that he tried to save the specimen, and you, the one sent to replace him, would be contacted and I would get what I needed.

“That’s why you sent assassins after me?” Martin retorted.

“Yes, I did. And he was my best. A mercenary from Central Europe. A man who was a terror in his own land. But an efficient one. I believe you killed him in Professor Antonio’s house, Martin?

“Things didn’t quite go as planned Martin- I hoped to capture you, the girl, and Joseph long ago- but my men greatly underestimated your combined strength. Doesn’t matter now, does it?”

General Richardson smiled, opening his arm to regard the Korean men on the floor next to him. “You see these men here? They are the enemies that I have been warning the Country about. These are the scum of the earth.” He kicked one guy hard in the stomach.

“Shouldn’t you be handing them over to the authorities for a fair trial, General?” Martin asked, knowing awfully well what the response would be.

“Fair trial my ass! These people should not get anything fair. It would be a pathetic waste of national resources to conduct a trial on these people”

“These are the men I captured, and as a show of loyalty to my country, I will execute them” he turned his head to eye the Korean.

“That isn’t necessary, sir,” Martin said, crawling a step back, but the General only grinned and moved in front of the first man, who looked up at him with pleading eyes. He raised his gun to the man’s head and without hesitation, fired. The Korean man was thrown back against the wall; brain, blood and bone flying everywhere.