He looked at his artificial arm.
“All they gave me here was knowledge and tools. And soon it will have to return the favor.”
“What if you die? I don’t want to worry about you.” Tears appeared in her eyes.
“I can’t die till I have something worth fighting for… you are that something and lives of those men. I can save a lot of them.” He gently stroked her cheek with artificial hand.
“You are right. But promise me if something goes wrong you’ll stop.”
“I promise.”
She cleared the way for him. John paced through half-empty camp with backpack on his back and crate in his hands. Gillian was right behind him with her possessions.
Everyone already waited near several cars. Caroline stood next to dark green Land Rover.
“Leave this here I’ll load it. Your squad waits for you and you should say goodbye to Gillian.” She said when he came closer.
She was right they waited for him, stepped in line all of them dressed in civilian clothes.
He walked in front of each of them.
“Orders, Commander?” Someone asked.
John stopped.
“I am no longer your commander. You fought by my side for your freedom. Now you should live long and happy life free, free of all evil you came through in this facility. My friends. A moment of silence to honor our fallen brothers and sisters. Their sacrifice shall not be forgotten. We’ve already avenged their deaths but that doesn’t mean we should forget.”
Only wind interrupted their silence.
Subjects went to their cars. Only John and Gillian stood there.
After ten minutes of saying “Goodbye” and several hugs and kisses they both sat in their cars, with tears in their eyes. Gillian watched John disappear in the distance…
ACT III – JOHN BLACKBURN
Chapter 8 – John Blackburn
As they drove away from facility gate John focused all his attention on small connection signal indicator on his HUD. When “Connection lost” icon appeared he bashed his head against airbag cover.
“You’ll see her again, I promise.” Caroline said to prevent him from ruining her new car.
John noticed something in his pocket. He pulled it out. It was Gillian’s dog tags and half of her necklace. She cut it at half and hung it on ball chain of her dog tags. She must have put it into his pocket when they hugged for last time. Her necklace was opal stone she found once on a mission. John hung it around his neck next to his dog tags.
“Where’s Claire?” He asked after a while.
“She is plugged in my computer doing some stuff. Meanwhile, load this in your core.”
Caroline gave him blue disc that was used to install applications. John loaded it immediately. For a second everything went dark then he saw hundreds of new things. He saw world map entire and real one, he connected to some sort of worldwide network, he could see his actual location and movement speed.
“What the hell is this?”
“The Unlocker. Now you know how Earth really looks like, you can connect to the Internet and much more. There are still combat applications in you I think you can delete them.”
Caroline was… excited, all her work over years. They put it in one subject and it worked.
“No, Caroline. I can’t delete them. I made a deal with Hudson. When I come through university I’m going back in active duty.” John said holding the dog tags in his hand.
“What? Why?” They almost crashed because she wasn’t looking forward.
“I’m a soldier. It’s in my bones, my blood, my mind, my implants. You built me to fight! I can’t just live whole life knowing that normal people are dying in a war I was supposed to fight.”
“I understand.” She said “There are more things you should know about you. Hybrids live about 10 times longer than normal human, that makes almost 1000 years. You can’t be poisoned, irradiated. You can starve for months, live without water for weeks. Even if that doesn’t help you can enter stasis mode until environment improves. And more, everything is in the user manual.”
“Hybrids have user manual?” John asked because he thought it was some kind of joke.
“The one about you is more than 1500 pages long, it also contains maintenance and washing instructions.” She responded with a smile.
“Are you kidding? Because it’s not funny.” John was really annoyed by this.
“No I’m serious. You should read it. It should be on that disc.”
John browsed contents of disc again and found it. It took him few milliseconds to read it.
“Done. Caroline? How it began? Where you took subjects from? Why you used children?” Those questions burned John for years.
Caroline sighed.
“I knew this was coming. I was recruited in early stage of your development. I was supposed to take over core programming. Main purpose of project was to give our troops an edge. Most of you were orphans but… some of you were kidnapped for their talents. Don’t ask who I don’t know. Children learn faster, their minds can absorb more information. Children’s bodies are more adaptable to implants. We’ve done extensive genetic changes in you. It’s been sort of extreme but we thought we’re doing the right thing. Some subjects were more successful than others. The result was the ultimate soldier… You.”
John remained silent after that, he needed some time to process it. They drove for three hours without stop. There was mostly desert around them but John could see forests in the distance.
“We have to make a stop on next gas station. I need to go to the toilet.” Caroline said and she looked at GPS display for nearest gas station.
“You are still a classified government project so we have to be careful. Don’t take off your shirt and wear these gloves. Try not to get into a fight. Remember you are faster, stronger and smarter. And here is you cell phone, custom built for you. Claire printed your ID papers and other stuff you need. It’s all in a envelope on back seat next to my computer.”
She gave him cell phone and his old gloves he used for shooting training.
“Got it. What if my cover is blown?”
Caroline pulled a paper out of her pocket.
“Try to explain. Tell the person that this can’t get out on public. If not possible C.I.A. directive charges the person of treason.”
“What if I’m in danger of being killed?” John wanted to make everything clear.
She gave him the paper.
“Then you are allowed to use your abilities, lethal force authorized if necessary. It’s all written in here.”
The paper she gave him, rules of his release. Among all only two stood out: You have to preserve confidential nature of your existence. You may not in any way be in contact with other Hybrids.
Until they stopped on a gas station no one spoke.
“Have a walk if you need.”
Caroline said that, grabbed her things and stepped out from the car.
John checked the envelope. He looted it’s contents and put them into his pocket. He decided to go and have a walk. According to his HUD the time was 16:27 and they were somewhere near border with Utah. ‘Hell, this country is big.’ John thought for himself.
“Claire, where are we headed?” He asked looking on a back seat.
“Breckenridge in Colorado.”
“Why don’t you form a hologram? A.I.’s must be common out here so what’s the matter?”
John pulled her chip out of Caroline’s computer.
Claire showed herself only as a four inch tall figure.
“No. You created first self aware synthetic intelligence, me. This was possible only thanks to you. You are the Creator of my kind. Also, without enhanced eyesight or screen you can’t see me.”