"AWAKENING"
(C) 2010 D.A. Hacking
Darkness. But as consciousness returned and his eyes opened; the light blinded him with sharp pain. Once the pain dissipated and his pupils dilated, he sat up and analyzed the room around him. The room, about fourteen feet square, was spartan, void of any furniture or adornment other than the olive green military cot that he was lying on,a generic folding metal chair sitting beside it, and two mirrors occupied the wall on either side of the bed. He saw himself, a self who appeared…both familiar and foreign. His brown hair was cropped short, almost to the point of being buzzed. He wore a tight gray short sleeved t-shirt and grey shorts that went to his knees. The muscles on his arms and legs were pronounced. Opposite the chair was a metal door with no window.
Focusing a little more on the mirrors, he could faintly see the outline of three people. Instinctively he knew they were two way mirrors and that he was being watched. Somehow he also knew that he shouldn’t be able to see them. Two way mirrors were only supposed to let the observers see in, not the observed see out.
His legs itched. Investigating, he found an eight inch scar along the back of his right calf, a surgical scar. A quick check revealed the same thing on his left calf. He didn’t remember how he got them, or how he knew they were surgical scars. This did not concern him though; he merely accepted the situation as it was.
He heard footsteps, and was not surprised to see the door across from him open. A man entered, wearing a white lab coat and using a cane. He was about five feet nine inches, roughly a hundred and seventy pounds; his hair was thinning, and he smelled faintly of lemon hand sanitizer. The man on the cot immediately, and almost subconsciously, calculated thirteen different ways to disable the scientist without killing him and escape the room.
“Good morning,” the man in the lab coat greeted him, a slight German accent in his voice, “how are you?”
“My state is acceptable; however this body will require sustenance within three hours to maintain optimum performance.” The man on the cot reported.
“Good, good. Do you know my name?” The man in the lab coat sat down in the chair as he asked.
“Doctor Hans Schovak.” The man just knew this, as a man knows how to breathe.
“Yes, yes. What can you remember?”
A quick response, “Nothing. This unit remembers nothing.”
“I see.” Dr. Schovak had a contemplative look on his face. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.” He waited, seemingly for a response from the man in the bed.
“Information, no matter the nature, allows further understanding of a situation.”
“I see.” Dr. Schovak breathed deeply before continuing. “You were part of a military experiment, conducted by the Imperial States of America. They,” he paused, choosing his words, “are an oppressive empire, intent on conquering the earth. They wanted to create brainwashed, genetically engineered soldiers in order to enslave their enemies. They were attempting genocide, and you were to be one of their greatest tools. They tried to destroy your individuality, your memories, your identity, and ‘build’ you into the perfect soldier. Those scars,” he said, pointing at the man’s legs, “are the results of operations on your legs to make them stronger and faster. We were able to capture one of their research stations. You and several others were there. Over the past few months, my team and I have tried to ‘reconstruct’ your mind. Sadly it doesn’t appear that we have made much progress. Tell me, do you remember your name?”
“No.”
“Does this concern you?”
“No.”
“What do you feel?”
“Nothing.”
Dr. Schovak shook his head in seeming defeat.
“I am sorry. I’m so sorry they did this to you. Because of the damage they did to your mind, you are unable to feel any powerful emotions, or even dream. You probably never will.” He paused, considering his next words carefully, “I have a proposition for you. We are still fighting this enemy. They are oppressing their people, experimenting on them, destroying them as they did with you. Sadly, most don’t even survive the process. These…deranged scientists have more research labs. If we could capture information from those labs, we could help you and the others like you, and stop this abomination from continuing. Will you help us?”
“That would seem to be an acceptable course of action, based upon the information you have presented.”
Dr. Schovak was visibly relieved as he stood.
“Good, good. You will need some more rest, I think. Sleep well and I will see you in the morning.”
Dr. Schovak left the room. The man lay back down on his cot. The temperature of the room was perfect, such that he didn’t need a blanket.
Just as consciousness was about to leave him, two things flashed in his mind: the first, the image of a woman’s face, petite, narrow and framed with shoulder-length brown hair, green eyes accentuating her smile. The second was a question.
“What is my name?”
Then he felt something, some emotion; he didn’t know what it was, but he didn’t like it. It made him feel weak.
= = =
The next morning, the man was assembled with four others like him. No names, no memory. They wore gray jumpsuit uniforms, provided by Dr. Schovak’s aids. On each uniform over their left breast was their designation: Echo 1, Echo 2, Echo 3, and the man had been given Echo 4.
Echo 4 bore no thoughts of the woman he’d seen in his mind the night before. His mind had dismissed it as an anomaly of his conditioning.
The warehouse sized building they were in was in the same connected complex of buildings as their sleeping quarters. They had yet to see the sun. A mock village made of a half dozen small wood and steel buildings filled one half of the warehouse. An open area at one end of the warehouse was separated from the village by a chain link fence. The four men stood at attention a dozen paces in front of a wall of lockers. They hadn’t said a word to one another. They had donned their uniforms and waited at their station, as they’d been ordered by Dr. Schovak’s aides. They had been there almost an hour, statue-like.
A door behind them opened, but none of the four turned to see who was entering. Echo 4 heard the approaching steps and assessed them. Two men, one slightly heavier than the other. One walked ahead of the other, the second man limped slightly, and he could hear the thud of a rubber stopper on the ground, a cane. He was not surprised to see Dr. Schovak step in front of him and the others, along with another man, a soldier. Somehow Echo 4 knew that the insignia on the man’s chest designated him as a Colonel.
Dr. Schovak spoke first “Hello men. I hope you slept well, and I apologize that we kept you waiting. This is Colonel Thomas. He’ll be assessing your…abilities today. The enemy trained and engineered you to be super-soldiers. We want to see the result of that training so that we know how you can best help us to stop them.”
Dr Schovak stepped back, and Colonel Thomas cleared his voice. “You are Echo team, the fifth team we have organized of men like you. There are stun rifles in the lockers behind you. There are fifteen of my best men in the village before you. Capture the village by raising a blue flag in the place of the red one at the town center, and neutralize all fifteen of my men. Proceed.”
As one, the four men stepped back, and turned to the lockers. As one, they opened the lockers and removed the rifles inside. They were identical to common assault rifles, but on the tip of each barrel was a glowing blue half-sphere which Echo 4 recognized as a training stun attachment. When fired, it would discharge a small sphere of energy that would temporarily immobilize any biological target it hit.
The four men moved swiftly through the village. Their abilities were apparent as they took fifteen feet jumps across alleyways, took accurate shots while running, heard their enemies around corners, and other abilities far beyond those of a normal human. They swiftly and efficiently cleared the village and soon closed in on the three-story town center.
They’d already eliminated twelve of the village defenders, leaving three to guard the town center. Two men popped above the parapet and filled the air with automatic stun-rifle fire. Even those two didn’t last very long. That left only one man inside the building. Something bothered Echo 4. At first his mind dismissed the emotion, but then it began looking for the source of the anxiety. It didn’t make sense tactically for the third man to be alone inside the building while the other two were on the roof.
Unless there were more than fifteen of the village defenders.
Echo 1 and Echo 2 were charging the front door of the town center. Echo 4 yelled a warning to them and jumped down from his building to the street, when a wall of blue spheres exploded from the front door. Echo 2 was hit, and fell. Echo 1 was able to dodge the incoming fire long enough to find cover in a doorway.
Echo 4 zeroed his rifle sights on the two men inside the door, and dropped both, then charged. As he neared the building, rather than going in the door, he used his engineered legs and jumped to a second-story window ledge, then to the third floor ledge, and then jumped again. Catching the edge of the roof with his hands, he pulled himself up. He caught movement from the stairway; it was Echo 1, having cleared the stairwell from the ground floor. Echo 3 soon joined them, having jumped from an adjacent three-story building.
They formed a triangle, each man eight feet apart from the other two, and advanced towards the flag, watching all directions. When they arrived at the flag, Echo 1 broke formation to exchange the flag, while Echo 3 and Echo 4 continued to watch. Echo 1 lowered the red flag and threw it to the ground. He removed the blue flag from a pocket in his jumpsuit, and began raising it on the pole.
As soon as the blue flag reached the top of the flag pole, an alarm sounded, a short sharp blast. Then the voice of Colonel Thomas sounded over a loudspeaker.
“Return to your staging area.”
The three men jumped their way down the face of the building, jumping from the roof to the third story, then down to the ground. Echo 3 lifted Echo 2’s immobilized body over his shoulder, and the team ran down the main boulevard towards their starting point. Moments later, they were standing at attention again, with Echo 2 lying behind them, as Colonel Thomas addressed them.
“Impressive. You took down eighteen men and captured the village in three minutes and forty-seven seconds. How does that make each of you feel?”
Echo 1 responded first, “Echo 1 has determined that this team’s performance was acceptable.”
“Only acceptable?”
“We failed to anticipate an underestimation in the report of the enemy’s strength.”
“Echo 4.” Colonel Thomas turned to face Echo 4, “What is your assessment?”
“Echo 4 has determined that this team’s performance was acceptable.”
“You knew there were more soldiers.”
“Affirmative. I determined that there was a 93% probability of additional enemy forces based upon their tactics in defending the town center.”
“Why were you able to do so when Echo 2 was not?”
“Echo 4 does not know sir.”
“Interesting. You are dismissed.”
By now Echo 2 was stirring, the effects of the stun wearing off, and he, along with the other three members of Echo team followed one of Dr. Schovak’s aides to a dormitory that had been provided for them.
As he lay in his bunk, Echo 4 crossed through the line between consciousness and sleep. At the last moment before he slipped away, the woman’s face flashed into his mind again. This time she was standing in a field wearing a blue dress.
= = =
The four men of Echo team scanned the ground, several hundred feet below them, as their helicopter flew forward. Foxtrot, another team of Reach, flew in another helicopter behind them. It was early fall in what used to be the Mid-western United States, the former state of Colorado, to be exact. The trees on the ground were ablaze with yellow and orange. Almost a year had passed since their “awakening,” which they’d passed carrying out covert missions against the ISA and raiding labs that contained information on the Reach. This was the third such station they would be raiding. It was guarded by remnants of the Army of the Imperial States of America.
Dr. Schovak said that it was the ISA who had taken Echo Team’s humanity from them. Now the four men of Echo Team, and others like them, were loyal agents of the Hassaran Empire, the nation for which Dr Schovak worked. They were call the Emperor’s Reach, and were the empire’s most powerful and versatile soldiers, an organization composed almost entirely of rescued victims of the ISA’s research, all of them unshakably loyal to Emperor Hassar, and to Dr. Schovak.
A battalion of standard Hassaran troops had already arrived and secured the perimeter of the research base. With the Hassaran Air Force providing cover, the surface portion of the base was theirs. What was left of the ISA defense force was holed up in a pair of deep underground structures, converted from old missile silos. Echo and Foxtrot Teams would enter those silos and capture the researchers along with any information they could. The Empire’s intelligence wing had indicated that the base had information on the Reach, possibly a way to heal the damaged minds of the Reach.
Echo 4 could see the base as their transport closed in. A small cluster of buildings on the eastern edge of the base were smoking, while newer temporary structures had been erected by the Hassaran troops to the west. Two bunkers, marking the entrances to the silos were on the north and south. A space had been cleared in the middle of the base, large enough for helicopters to land.
As the helicopter descended, Echo 4 rose and stood in the doorway, grasping a strap above his head for balance. The setting sun glinted off of the copper-chrome visor of his combat helmet, strong enough to stop even an armor piercing round. Each of the Reach Agents wore their black assault jumpsuit. The suits had Kevlar armor sewn into them, wicked away sweat to keep them dry, dissipated their heat signatures, and were designed to increase their blood flow. In addition, the red trim and lack of any markings, other than a small silver insignia of an open palmed hand over the left breast, the insignia of a Reach.
The ground closed in, the helicopter throwing a cloud of dust into the faces of the army regulars. Echo team stepped off the helicopter. As they walked, Echo 4 looked from behind his shaded visor at the soldiers around them. Only a few of their jaws were dropped, but awe was in every man’s eyes. Dr Schovak had explained to Echo 4 that he couldn’t feel powerful emotions, like pride; yet as he walked through the crowd of men, Echo 4 felt what could only be described as pride. These men saw his Reach Agent uniform, they knew who he was, and this pleased him.
A uniformed man, a Major, approached Echo Team, with Foxtrot Team behind them. The Major was a little over five foot six, and carried himself with confidence. His black hair was cut just a little shorter than regulation, and Echo 4’s sharper-than-human eyesight could identify minute flecks of gray within the black. According to the command cycle, Echo 4 was the ranking Reach Agent for this mission, so he stepped forward to the Major.
“Reach Teams Echo and Foxtrot checking in for Operation Anthill.”
“Welcome, Echo and Foxtrot.”
Echo 4 could smell the man’s increased perspiration, and could faintly hear the man’s heart speeding up. Even as a Major, he was nervous around the Reach. To his credit, he hid it well, no wavering in his voice or shaking of his frame.
“We have already secured the entrances to the two former missile silos that the ISA scientists are using for labs. We are ready to provide whatever support you require.”
“We have already determined their strengths and likely tactics. We will require no support. We are ready to proceed now. You are dismissed.”
Although they held no official rank, Reach Agents “outranked” all other soldiers in the Empire other than Generals. By Imperial decree, any order given by a Reach was to be treated as if from the Emperor himself.
The Major saluted, and stepped away. Echo 4 now turned his attention to his Reach Teams.
“Echo will secure the southern silo. Foxtrot, the northern.”
In unison, the eight Reach Agents nodded in acknowledgement and proceeded to their targets.
The southern silo had thirty floors. In fifteen minutes they had cleared the first ten, acting as a team of four, easily dispatching the dozen or so ISA soldiers they’d encountered. On the tenth floor, in order to proceed faster they had separated into two teams, leap-frogging floors. Echo 4 and Echo 1 were on floor fifteen, with Echo 2 and Echo 3 on the floor above them. They had encountered more resistance on this floor than any other, but were now moving towards the final room. From the schematics they had accessed in an office they had cleared moments before, this final room, a large lab, occupied a fourth of the floor.
The door was open. Echo 4 held up four fingers, and signed an “A,” informing Echo 1 of the entry tactic they would use. They took their positions on either side of the door. On the count, Echo 4 dove through the doorway, and Echo 1 followed directly behind. The room was dark, the glow of several computer monitors present, but before Echo 4 could further assess the room, he heard a grunt, followed by Echo 1’s body hitting the floor. He turned in time to see tendrils of electricity from a stun blast fading from Echo 1’s body, and then a flash as he himself was hit with a shot from a security camera in the hallway outside, a disguised stun gun. Even as his consciousness faded, Echo 4 assessed how he and Echo 1 had been defeated and developed strategies to avoid such a failure in the future. Then, at the final moment before he lost all consciousness, a sharp blast of fear hit Echo 4, and the face of the woman flashed in his vision.
Echo 4 stirred, and his mind immediately began registering all sensory data. The number of heartbeats in the quiet room, the smell of the concrete and steel, the humidity, the coldness of the metal restraints on his arms. Even as it did so, his mind also dismissed the woman’s face as an anomaly from his conditioning, just as he had every night for the past year. With that dismissal, his curiosity was suppressed.
His eyes opened and quickly adjusted to the dim lighting in the room. Judging from the abundant computer screens, and the size, it was most likely the same room he and Echo 1 had been entering when they were stunned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Echo 1 slumped over in a metal chair next to him, heavily restrained, just as Echo 4 was. His helmet was on the floor, at the feet of three men who stood in front of him. Two were armed and wore ISA digital camouflage uniforms. The third wore a scientist’s lab coat. He was about 6 feet tall, similar in height to Echo four. Light blond hair that looked like it hadn’t been combed in at least a week adorned his head. He appeared confident and relaxed as he leaned against a desk with his arms folded.
Something was familiar about the scientist to Echo 4. Something about his posture, something about his face. Something was slogging through the mists of his forgotten memories, trying to break above the surface, but not quite able to reach.
“Did they give you a name, Reach?” The scientist asked, his voice flat.
Echo 4 focused his eyes on the scientist, and blankly stared at him, remaining silent.
“Hmm… how long have they been using you?”
Again silence.
“So you’re just going to be silent, like a good stubborn soldier under interrogation?”
Finally Echo 4 spoke, “I am not stubborn. I merely can see no benefit of answering your questions.”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged his shoulders, “Establishing a relationship?”
“Irrelevant.”
“Gathering information?”
Echo 4 tilted his head to the side, and paused for a moment. “Relevant.”
“Good, then we’ll go with that. My name is Nathan Elliott by the way. We can question each other. We’ll trade off. You can go first.”
“What research is done in this laboratory?” Echo 4 inquired, his controlled voice void of any hint of fear, or concern, or nervousness, or any emotion at all, though he’d begun to feel several of them.
“To collect information on the Reach, and to try and find a way to recover their minds.”
“Intriguing considering the ISA created the mental state of the Reach.” Echo 4 countered.
Nathan chuckled, and stood up, dropping his hands to his side.
“That’s exactly what the Empire brainwashed you to believe. There is no “ISA,” the nation your Empire destroyed was the United States of America.”
“Standard ISA propaganda. I believe it is your turn to state an inquiry.”
Nathan shook his head, “Right. Would you like to know your name?”
Echo 4’s training told him that he could not feel curiosity, or strong desire, but he did.
“Additional information increases my ability to defeat you. Proceed.” He stated, keeping his voice flat, controlled.
Nathan chuckled again as he turned and typed into the computer behind him. A large projector on the wall in front of Echo 4 activated. After warming up, it displayed a picture that was slightly unnerving to Echo 4. It was his own face, only he was smiling, something foreign to him, and he was wearing glasses.
“Your name is David Elliott.”
“Intriguing, that is identical to your last name.”
Nathan offered a humorless chuckle, “Funny yeah. Here is another picture.”
The next picture was so shocking to Echo 4, or David, that his emotionless façade was shattered. According to Dr. Schovak, a Reach Agent’s mind was too damaged to dream, but every night Echo 4 dreamed. The dream had developed, and now every night it was the same. It was a woman in a simple blue dress, her short, wavy auburn hair perfectly framing her narrow face, the same woman whose face flashed in his mind every time he lost consciousness. She was standing in a field of green grass and red, blue, and yellow flowers. She was smiling, but her smile slowly changed to a frown; a single tear would roll down her cheek as the field turned to fire, and then she disappeared into the flame, never moving an inch, and Echo 4 would awake. That same woman’s face was now on the screen before him, she was smiling.
“Who is she?” demanded Echo 4, a hint of panic and confusion in his voice.
“I suppose it is your turn for a question. Her name is Sarah Elliott. She was your wife.”
Echo 4 just stared, his mind attempting to process the information before him, and yet failing, having lost so much.
“Verify your statements.”
“Hey, it is my turn for a question.” Nathan countered.
“That was a command, not a question.” Echo 4’s eyes were intense, fierce.
“A little cocky aren’t you? Aim!” The two soldiers aimed their rifles at Echo 4 as Nathan placed a laptop on Echo 4’s lap, and removed the restraint on his left arm.
Even with only one hand, Echo 4 was able to swiftly navigate the computer. He found mountains of information. Pictures, a marriage certificate, records of his position in the US Army, report of his M.I.A. status after Washington D.C. fell and the rest of the eastern sea board.
Echo 1 began to stir.
Nathan interrupted Echo 4’s searching, “I know my men and I will not leave this place as free men, perhaps not even alive, that is up to you. Consider this information I’ve given you. Use it.” Then Nathan seemed to be speaking to someone deeper inside of Echo 4 as he leaned in, putting his hand on Echo 4’s shoulder, “Break free David. Come back.”
Nathan stared into Echo 4’s eyes for a moment, then reached his arm into his coat pocket.
“Take these. They were hers.” Nathan slipped a small envelope into a pocket in Echo 4’s sleeve. “It’s a photograph and a diamond ring.”
“You can tell your partner that you escaped and incapacitated us.” Nathan nodded to his two soldiers, who removed stun gun attachments from their ammo belt, set them on low stun and shot each other.
Nathan removed the remainder of Echo 4’s restraints, then aimed a stun pistol at his own chest, and spoke three words before stunning himself.
“Come home brother.”
Then it registered to Echo 4 why the man looked so familiar.
The Something beneath the surface of his hidden memories had risen.
= = =
The last rays of light from the setting sun had disappeared almost an hour ago through the glass wall of Dr. Schovak’s tenth story office. From his window overlooking the Empire’s Capitol city, Hassara, he could see for miles. The night lights of the city of two million people were surprisingly dim. Though the remnants of the American Air Force hadn’t made a successful airstrike against the city in over a year, restrictions still kept the city darker than a city of its size should be. Farther out, beyond the city limits, scattered lights of various farms or small towns were visible for miles.
But Dr. Schovak wasn’t looking out the window tonight. He was hunched over his computer, staying late in his office in the Reach Headquarters building. It was almost ten o’clock and he still hadn’t finished his report to the Empire’s High Command. Things were going relatively well in the Reach Agent program, but not as well as the High Command wanted; not enough of the test subjects were able to be successfully conditioned.
David slid down against the wall of the elevator to the floor, clutching his head with his right hand, trying to keep control. His head pounded like the drums of an ancient army. Confusion and pain tore away his strict mental control as powerful emotions thudded into his mind.
FLASH
David’s hands were wrinkled from his own sweat. It had taken him a good fifteen minutes to finally pick up the phone, and then he’d misdialed. Sure he had no problem talking with her in history class, but throw a phone in and his courage was out the window.
*ring*…*ring*…
~Hello?~
“Hey! Sarah…”
FLASH
The pain lessened. Echo 4 pulled the small envelope from his shoulder pocket, the source of this loss of control, and opened it. He pulled out the ring. A standard ring used in various marriage customs. A rather small, but impressively well cut diamond was fitted tightly in a silver fitting. Such a simple thing…
FLASH
As nervous as he’d been asking her on that first date, it was nothing compared to how David felt right now. He walked beside Sarah, through a well-kept park. His left hand interlaced with her right, and his right clutching a small box in his pocket. He knew there was no way she didn’t feel the sweat seeping from his hands, but it gave him courage that she didn’t seem to mind. They were talking, sharing the difficulties of their hectic weeks of school and work.
He stopped, rather abruptly, and told her he had something to ask. Dropping her hand, he took to a knee and pulled his right hand out of his pocket.
“Sarah…”
FLASH
David gasped for breath. The pain momentarily subsided, as confusion rose. A small, black hemisphere on the roof of the elevator caught his attention, a security camera. He couldn’t be seen! He aimed his pistol and fired; the explosion echoing through his head brought a resurgence of the pain.
FLASH
David and Sarah sat on a red plaid blanket, fitting perfectly amongst the purples and blues and yellows and greens of the mountain meadow where they were picnicking. It had been a hectic week, and both agreed that they’d needed some time to simply enjoy one another’s company. She was elegant in her blue dress.
FLASH
Echo 4 didn’t understand the tears running down his face. He looked at the picture of two people. A man in a black suit, admittedly similar in appearance to Echo 4, and a woman in an ornate and elegant white dress. They were smiling.
FLASH
Fighter jets screamed across the sky, spouting flame from under their wings. The smoke of far more than one mid-air explosion filled the sky. The eastern sky glowed with a sickening red color of smoke and fire and a setting sun. It looked like the sky was bleeding.
David stood a dozen yards in front of his small apartment on a military base twenty minutes from Washington DC. A truck would be along any minute to pick David up, along with the dozen or so other men from his block. He couldn’t take his eyes from the doorway of his apartment. She stood there, worried, but beautiful as ever. He smiled, to reassure her. She laughed, at his unyielding and somewhat annoying optimism. She mouthed David’s three favorite words to hear from her lips, “I love you.”
A screaming louder than before filled the sky, and it was coming closer. David looked up in time to see the tiny black cylinder, such a small thing, as it flew directly into the block of apartments he’d been facing, into his own apartment.
Such a small thing, with such big flames.
FLASH
Echo 4 didn’t understand the tears running down his face.
But David did.
Dr. Schovak jumped at the knock on the door. He thought he was the last man on the floor. He reached for the hand gun under his desk, but stopped and chuckled at his own paranoia. Anyone with hostile intent wouldn’t knock on the door.
“Enter.”
The door opened, and Echo 4 stepped into the room. He still wore his combat uniform.
“Ah, Echo 4. I thought Echo team was still on the western front.” As Dr. Schovak spoke, Echo 4 walked over to his desk, and stood before it, in a firm military stance.
“Echo team returned one hour ago.”
“How was your mission?”
“A success, Doctor. We captured the laboratory. The ISA’s resistance was less than anticipated.”
“Good, good.” Dr. Schovak turned back to his computer and continued to type as he spoke. “Did you recover anything useful?”
“The captured intelligence will be given to one of your teams for analysis tomorrow morning, but I am hopeful.”
“Good.” Dr. Schovak said absent mindedly; then he started.
He said “I.” He said he was “hopeful.”
Dr. Schovak turned his full attention to Echo 4, placing his hands firmly on the edge of his desk, near the concealed security alert button on the underside.
“How can I help you tonight Echo 4?”
“Echo 4 has a question for you.”
Good, “Echo 4”, perhaps I misheard. I am tired. “What is that, Echo 4?”
“I want to know my name.”
Dr. Schovak’s hand tightened, almost imperceptibly, as he pressed the security alert button, even as he continued to speak with Echo 4, nervousness was evident in his voice.
“W-what do you mean? You are Echo 4.” Dr. Schovak rose from his chair.
“That is my designation, not my name. Who am I?”
“What is this Echo 4?”
Dr. Schovak began to ever so slowly edge towards the door, Echo 4’s eyes remained fixed on him like a hawk.
“You have given the other Reach Agents and me only designations. No names. Why?
“B-because we do not know your names. As I’ve said, we rescued you from an ISA lab.”
Echo 4 moved swiftly, faster than Dr. Schovak could have expected, repositioning himself between Dr. Schovak and the door.
“There are no ISA Reach labs. We have encountered no ISA soldiers like the Reach. In fact, there is no such thing as the ISA. I did learn something in Colorado.”
At that point the door opened and security officers poured into the room. Removing the handgun from his waist, David shot two of the officers with his handgun before ducking behind Dr. Schovak’s desk. Using the reflection in the glass behind him he dropped two more officers. There were a good dozen officers in the room, armed with stun guns by now. One of them had a pistol, and used it to shoot out the glass windows; David couldn’t use it anymore as a mirror.
An officer took a bold attack by diving over the desk and was rewarded. David was panicking slightly and did not anticipate the man as he flew over the desk and fired a stun blast square into David’s chest.
As he lay there, his vision slowly blackening, Dr Schovak came into his view.
“My name… is David Elliot.” David breathed.
The blackness engulfed his vision.
A flash, Sarah’s face, and then nothing.
= = =
Darkness, but as consciousness returned and his eyes opened, the brightness of the light blinded him with sharp pain. Once the pain subsided and his pupils dilated, he sat up and saw a man in a white lab coat sitting beside his bed in the gray, spartan room.
“Good morning. How are you?”
“My state is acceptable.”
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