“You can take your goddamn theory and shove it up your ass!”
“Ah! I see.” Huang shut the binder. “Captain Riggs will be very, ah… upset to hear about this.”
Riggs! Karnage’s mind reeled. His ears rang. That single word echoed in his head.
Riggs!
Karnage’s hands balled into tight fists. “What do you know about Riggs?”
Huang nodded eagerly. “He, ah… served you with you during the—ah, during the hostilities. And he was most disappointed to—”
Karnage laughed. Huang cringed at the sound. Karnage glowered at Huang. “Nice try, Huang, but you boys gotta do better research. Sergeant Riggs bought it back in Kandahar. I don’t know who this captain you’re talkin’ about is, but it ain’t him.”
Huang blinked. “But… but I assure you that—”
“You got wax in your ears? Riggs is dead! Don’t think I don’t see what’s goin’ on here. You’re just pushin’ my buttons, hopin’ I’ll crack!”
“But I assure you it’s the same Riggs!” Huang said. “The very same sergeant who served with you during The War—AH!” Huang slapped his hand over his mouth.
The War!
Karnage’s blood boiled. Bullets and flames and death rained down on his psyche.
The War!
Huang staggered up from his chair as the two Dabneycops pulled their stun sticks and charged forward.
The War!
Karnage pulled at his restraints. There was the heavy creak of metal fatigue. A wrist restraint snapped, and his right arm was free.
A stun stick came plunging down into Karnage’s vision. Karnage’s free hand whipped up and grabbed the wrist that was holding it. A quick twist snapped it. Somewhere outside of his vision a man screamed. A second stun stick came thrusting in after the first. Karnage adjusted his grip so he held both the broken wrist and the accompanying stun stick and swung it around to meet the second one barrelling towards him. The metal tines of both sticks struck naked flesh. Hot sizzling and the stench of ozone filled Karnage’s nostrils. Two sets of screams filled his ears. Somewhere deep in his vocal chords, a guttural primal laugh flowed up and out and reverberated throughout the room.
The two Dabneycops fell to the floor. Huang was pressed against the two-way mirror, clutching the binder to his chest. Karnage grabbed his remaining restraints and ripped them open with his free hand.
“Don’t talk to me about The War!”
Karnage tossed the table out of his way and charged Huang. Huang pressed himself against the two-way mirror, screaming. Karnage’s fingers wrapped around Huang’s throat. He slammed Huang’s head against the mirror. The mirror sprouted a spiral of jagged spiderweb cracks starting from the back of Huang’s head.
“You want to talk to me about The War?” Karnage hissed. “I’ll tell you about—”
The door behind Karnage burst open. Boots stomped into the room. A familiar voice shouted, “Karnage!”
Karnage turned around. There, standing in front of a line of Dabneycops, was Riggs. His tall, lanky frame had filled out. His hair was grey and pulled back in a ponytail. Crow’s feet had sprung up around the eyes. But there was no mistaking those eyes. It was him.
“Riggs?” Karnage stared at his former sergeant. His fist stayed closed around Huang’s throat.
“Mercy,” Huang weakly clawed at Karnage’s tightened fist. “Please…”
A Dabneycop beside Riggs cocked his rifle. “Let the doctor go or we will be forced to open fire!”
“Negative!” Riggs pushed the Dabneycop’s rifle down. “Nobody fires until I give the order! Do I make myself clear, Murtaugh?”
“That’s not how Sydney would have us play it, sir.”
“Sydney’s not in charge here!”
“We found your dog tags. Half-melted, lost in that sea of rubble. How could you…?” Karnage’s fists clenched tighter around Huang’s throat. Huang gasped in his grip. Karnage growled: “You ran. You got scared and you turned tail and ran! Riggs The Roach. Always comin’ out okay! Always! Right up until the end. Right up until the goddamn end!”
“John—”
“We were counting on you to hold your position. When we came back, there was nothing there but a pile of smoking rubble. Nobody to meet us but Uncle Stanley. They came outta the hills like hornets, Riggs. Like a goddamn swarm! We thought for sure you were dead. The Roach had finally been crushed. We shed tears for you, you asshole. We shed goddamn tears!”
“I can explain—”
“You left us behind!” Karnage’s fists tightened around Huang’s neck.
“John, you’re killing Huang!”
“You left us, Riggs. YOU LEFT US!” Karnage dropped Huang and lunged at Riggs.
Murtaugh levelled his weapon. “Open fire!”
“NO!”
Riggs’s cry was drowned out by the pop-pop-pop of automatic weapons fire. The rounds slammed Karnage in the chest, throwing him into the cracked mirror. It shattered. Karnage fell through. He landed in a tumble of desks and screams on the other side.
The wounds in his chest went from hot to cold. Karnage looked down. Brightly glowing ping pong balls covered his chest. Tranquilizers, Karnage thought. The icy coolness spread from his chest to his limbs. He lost consciousness.
CHAPTER TWO
Karnage woke in a holding cell. Its thick metal bars were covered in barbed wire. Blue sparks danced and crackled from the wire to the bars. He stood up.
“Where the hell am I?”
A monitor on the wall behind him came to life. A DC logo splashed across the screen. Dabby Tabby bounced onto the screen and leaned against the logo. He was decked out in an orange prison jumpsuit. His ankle sported a ball and chain. A gentle, female voice wafted from the screen.
“Welcome to the Dabney Correctional Executive Class Hospitality Centre. We hope your stay with us is a pleasant one. Please enjoy these pastoral images and soothing mood music while you await trial and sentencing. And remember—at Dabney Correctional, we believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty. And it shows.”
Treacly music blasted from the walls and ceiling. Karnage clamped his hands over his ears. The music vibrated through his body and threatened to shake the fillings from his teeth. It was unbearable. “Jesus Christ!”
The gentle female voice returned, now at a much higher decibel. “Rather than use offensive language to express yourself, try to articulate what you’re feeling.” Dabby Tabby unrolled a list of words on the screen. “Please feel free to use this vocabulary of handy alternatives to many common expletives.”
“You want vocabulary? How’s this? Shut up, you fucking fuckknuckle!”
“Rather than use offensive language to express yourself, try to—”
Karnage screamed in frustration and kicked the wall. His neck buzzed. “Warning. Sanity Level upgraded to Frothy Cream. Please refrain from violent—”
“Goddammit! What do I have to do to get you cheery bastards to shut the fuck up?!”
A voice shouted to him over the noise. “I can’t help you with that voice in your neck, but I can get that music to stop for you.”
“Who the hell said that?” Karnage whipped around. A grizzled old man in an orange jumpsuit sat in the cell across from his. A pair of reading glasses sat perched on his nose. He held a tattered paperback in his right hand. His left hand ended in a stump. He pointed to the monitor with his stump.
“Tell it you’re hungry,” he said. “It gives you a fork you can use to short the system.”