The elevator kept going down and down for an eternity, and a sudden stop ended in me falling down. I don’t know why, but they kept me blindfolded the whole time. Who knows, they might’ve thought that the unfortunate events of the past had made me unstable and a potential security risk. I know their methods, cause the guy who wrote the training manual is me. Do these guys know that at any given moment, I can kill any of them with only the piece of cloth over my eyes! Oh wow! Since when did I become so maniacal!
I thought the corridors would never end. Am I too impatient now? Yeah, I’m, can't wait to rip his guts out, Floyd, the traitor.
EXO DP7, that’s the name of the suit. Admiral gave me a file, looked more like a pamphlet filled with redacted lines except the name of the suit.
The big guy, built like a bouncer, tailing me from the elevator, tells me to stop and waves at the camera on the right side high up on the wall. In front is a big airport hanger door made out of steel. Along with a blaring sound, the door slowly starts to rise up, almost like a garage door made for a car that might tower the Buckingham palace. For some time, I was gazing stupidly at the door, at its massiveness.
The door abruptly stooped right in the middle like a giant female ex Machina of doom about to get deflowered, and that’s when my senses started tingling. Like something was wrong, and it's becoming increasingly harder to breathe. To see if the baldy behind me noticed it or was it just me, I turned back. For a moment there, I felt like everything was warped, and the baldy just vanished. And then I collapsed. Again, without even knowing why.
This time, I woke up to a different face. The almost blinding light hanging from above caused me an inability to recognize the man leaning down. Oh, it’s the Admiral.
“What happened, sir?” along with an immense pressure on my chest caused by reasons not known to me, I blabber out the words. But the Admiral does not reply, and he moves away. I tried again to speak, but at that exact moment, I realized the cause of the weight on my chest. I’m strapped down on some kind of a contraption with so many needles stuck to my solar plexus.
I am confused! Why am I here, and what is happening now?
Like a telepath, he spoke as if he just read my mind.
“Slowly, son, Slowly. All your questions will be answered within a few moments.”
My eyes are now almost adjusted to the intense brightness. And with that clarity, I could see where I was. This room is some kind of a laboratory, almost like those which can be seen in movies. There is another person in the room. He is sitting on a chair at the darkest corner like a specter of doom. I could hardly see him shaking his crossed legs, and the pants seem like khaki.
The Admiral is doing something auspicious on that small table, and I could hear slight tinkering of metals, almost like medical equipment. Since when did he become a surgeon, or is he going to torture me!
“Elise is alive, you know. She never died in that accident.”
At first, I couldn’t believe what he was saying, and then a sense of nausea hits me.
“In fact, she’s here in this room. With us.”
Even with utter disbelief, my eyes are now searching around the room. To see my daughter, also, if it’s a lie, I would die trying to see her once again.
“She was with you all along. Don’t you see my boy; she’s in your mind.”
Using all the strength that could be mustered, I screamed, “ WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?”
Admiral chuckled a little “Oh, you poor bastard. You still can't remember. What's your name, my son?”
Like a punch in my gut, it hit me, I can't remember my name! With my thoughts entangled, I stare at him blankly.
“There was never any Elise, 14. You don’t have a daughter. You were never married. All those memories of you being with your daughter is just a simulation! We; I put it in your head, my son.” “You were supposed to do only one thing, and you failed miserably 14.”
“Why do you keep calling me 14?”
“Because that’s your name 14. You are our 14th agent of chaos. Our pet.” The Admiral laughs hysterically.
“Oh boy, what a joke. I have to give credit to Janice. It only took her 9 months, but she did it.”
What did she do! Now I'm even afraid to ask.
“ You wanna know what is going on? Then, let me tell you a story, a story of a girl who never existed.”
“After the bombing that took place in Epiphany, our sacred church, the president retaliated with war. Even after 11 years of trying, we couldn’t find the mastermind behind the attack. And then, a few years back, Janice came to us with this revolutionary tech of hers, a nanodevice called Enigma. She was the head of biotech in DARPA, and she had an astounding breakthrough. “
“See, She has been trying for decades to create a perfect soldier that can be controlled, like a drone. She tried for years until one of her researchers had found this parasite. A Fungus that caused feral behavior in fruit bats. Through genetic modification, they created something that could control humans too. Part fungi, part machine.”
“But to experiment, they needed subjects, and that’s where I came in. You call me an admiral, but in actuality, I'm just a doctor. I created you 14, I cloned you. You had 13 bothers before you who all died when injected with the Enigma. But you, you were tough like a coconut crab, and you survived. For years you served as our mercenary, and after you succeeded in completing the mission, we’d always wipe your memories and send you back on the field. But yesterday, you failed. You failed to kill Floyd.”
“But! That was nine months ago! I was in a coma and Floyd was my friend!”
“No 14, that was yesterday. One of the perks of Enigma. You regenerate 40 time faster than any ordinary human. But He was the EpiBomber 14, for gods sake. you were tasked to kill Floyd and you failed. And so, now you'll be decommissioned, and 15 will take your place.”
"What is wrong with you Admiral ? Telling me all these nonsense, What? Are you high or something?"
The shadowy character with khaki pants then got up from his seat and walked towards me. In those sad eyes, I could see myself looking back at me, like staring at a mirror. And those sad eyes too were mine.
