“And remnants of the escape pods?”
“Ashish and I were at the docks the first night. Local authorities confiscated the wrecks and they all somehow conveniently disappeared.”
The vendor came by and took the plates away. Faust left a few bills on the counter and the two made their way back to the safe house. The two walked in silence through the now-sparsely peopled market down to the lower levels. There, Roen replaced Ashish, the soldier dozing off on watch. Faust gave Ashish the evil eye as Roen settled in.
“Listen,” he said, “I reviewed the parameters of the mission with Wuehler. My team is great at busting things but all this espionage stuff is French to us. My boys would rather level a building and just dig through the rubble for info. You’re the closest thing we’ve got to a subject matter expert, so I’d like them to follow your lead.”
Roen nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Do what? You do not know the first thing about espionage.
“Either me or that crash of rhinos. Who would you rather do the sensitive work?”
That is a toss-up.
“Anyway,” Faust continued, “You must be jetlagged. You going to be alright taking watch? If Wuehler catches you napping, he’s going to raise all sorts of holy hell.”
Roen grinned. “I’m an old pro. See you in the morning, brother.”
Faust gave him a casual salute with a flick of his finger. “Hutch’s got you at 0800. If he is a minute late, you tell me. I’ll bust his balls. That guy tries to get away with sleeping in way too much.”
Roen nodded. “Someone once told me that was a sign of a good soldier.”
He watched as Faust disappeared into the safe house. Then he entered the guard nest feet first and pushed himself through until he was hidden in the shadows of a cubbyhole near the ceiling across from the safe house entrance. It provided him a decent view down the entire corridor. He checked the safety and the clip in the rifle Hutch had left.
“Tao, does it bother you that we aren’t being utilized to the best of our abilities?”
Are you referring to the shock unit playing clandestine ops? I would not worry too much about it. Times are lean. Command must make do with what they have.
“Forget about that. I’m talking about being a super host and you an all-wise alien, and we’re on guard duty.”
I have heard that my presence qualifies you as a bona fide super hero.
“I heard that too, but my powers don’t seem to be working. I must have a broken Quasing.”
Broken? Please. More like my brilliant mind is bottlenecked by this weak and aging body. Oh, how I miss Edward.
This was always a source of contention. The Quasing often judged a host by comparing him to their prior host. Jill often complained about being compared to Sonya, and Tao did the same with Roen and Edward. Roen lived in the shadow of always trying to be Edward-good. The difference between Roen and Jill though, was that he embraced striving to be Edward.
“Come on, you told me I was as good as Edward ever was.”
You told me to lie to you. So I did.
“You suck.”
You are too old to be this insecure.
“Too old for a lot of things.”
Roen shifted in his prone position. It was going to be a long couple of hours. He wished he had something he could lean against. His neck was going to cramp up at this rate. Now he wished he had eaten that banana the vendor was selling earlier. It took him the better part of twenty minutes to finally get comfortable. For the next few hours, he performed his duty until Hutch, twenty minutes late, finally relieved him. He let it slide, earning a little good will from the guy. By then, jetlag had taken over and Roen nearly didn’t make it into the safe house room before he crashed onto a mattress in the back. He was asleep before his head touched the pillow.
FOURTEEN
GENJIX COUNCIL
Our mercy was scorned when we discovered the existence of the Chest of the Menagerie. To force Quasings into these small animals and trap them in these chests was inexcusable, a throwback to the dark times when we were nothing more than living mists surviving without thought. The betrayers again forced us to relive that nightmare.
I was the only Quasing on the Council to endure such torture. When Chiyva discovered the chest and freed me, we had no choice but to show the betrayers true Quasing justice.
Zoras
Enzo tapped his fingers in succession on the marble table in the solarium attached to his office as the weekly status meeting continued at a crawl. His eyes wandered outside and then back to the time: 11.04am. He should have finished his second jog by now. The meeting was running long and had cut into his daily workout. He bit his lip, reminding himself to tell Amanda to move this meeting to not affect important personal matters. Already, the responsibilities of this new position felt overbearing. The Hatchery had never trained him to handle such tedium.
Pay attention. These matters are important. You missed the last four results for P2.
“The fat scientist won’t say anything new. There is little value in his drawn out ramblings.”
Indeed, Chow’s latest tepid update was identical to his last. All he probably had to do was change the date on the top of the report. The most recent test subject lasted an additional fourteen minutes, breaking the hour barrier. They were getting closer to creating an environment that could sustain Quasing life. Chow was optimistic about finding the right formula sometime in the second quarter. If he was successful, Enzo would almost be willing to overlook the blustering fool’s many flaws. Then he could switch his focus toward the P3 catalyst.
And the sacrifice?
“What was the betrayer’s name?” Enzo asked, after Chow finished with his update.
“Duc,” was the reply.
Duc’s influence with Earth was very understated. His host once piloted a plane known as the Enola Gay. It was a momentous achievement for Prophus and Genjix alike, though they would argue otherwise. It was a large step forward for humanity’s evolution. Your species matured that day.
It was a routine now. Zoras made it a point to eulogize every Quasing that was sacrificed in those vats, making sure each Quasing’s history was recorded. To Enzo, the deaths of the enemy were hardly sacrifices. And more importantly, history was told by the victor, so the only reality that mattered was who did the telling.
Do not let your arrogance temper your potential. Learn from the past to not repeat the same mistakes.
“Apologies, Zoras.” The problem with a Holy One in your head was that they always knew when you were disingenuous. Change and humility did not come easily for Enzo. At the Hatchery, an Adonis wielded confidence as a weapon, used to beat down the lesser Adonis. It took an iron will and strong resolve to survive the Hatchery.
He had been raised his entire life to believe himself better than human. And he was. Faster, stronger, more intelligent, and more beautiful, Enzo was the highest rated Adonis the Hatchery had ever produced. And now with Zoras and unlimited resources at his command, nothing could stop him. He was not overconfident. He just knew his abilities.
Maintain pressure on Chow and make sure he is well supplied. Shift your focus to the final phase. You will need to escalate the process now that its end cycle is in sight.
“Your will, Zoras.”
Enzo interrupted Chow’s rambling. “These progress reports of their survival times are irrelevant. Report to me only once a subject has survived twenty-four hours. How is your supply of subjects?”
Chow nodded. “The new supply has been fortuitous, Father. These updates further exemplify our progress-”