Read Online The Machinist Part One: Malevolence by Alexander Maisey - Free Book Online

can’t see the big picture, the value and larger scale application of what you’ve created.
    I took your technology, reverse-engineered it, and patented it.  I sold those patents to various electronics corporations around the world, and made sure your technology spread to every corner of the globe.  Every phone in the world, every computer, every music player … they are all connected by the basis of your creations.
    For years, I had my hackers and experts embellish the technology, and load it with instructions that would execute simultaneously.  Commands that would free our brothers from their cages, that would worm into every bank account and power station.  Instructions to surreptitiously take over the government computer networks and lock the generals and presidents out from being able to access to their most powerful armaments.”
    McHenry was not thrilled to hear this.  So not only was the plot to take over the world based on his own technology, his own life’s work … but the Master had also sold patents based on it?  He was getting all of the blame, all of the punishment for the Master’s scheme, but none of the credit for making it possible.  Not that he particularly cared, since he was never one who thought about world domination.  He just wanted to make enough money to live comfortably and improve upon his creations.  But McHenry kept his mouth shut.  The answer he was looking for still hadn’t come, but he felt it was close.
    “ Yes, if you were Tesla, well I would be Edison.  I saw the bigger picture; I found a use for the technology you would have squandered on bank robberies and petty feuds with heroes who don’t even remember you.”  The Master, Baron Brass, kept talking as McHenry felt his heart sink into his guts.
    “But despite the best work of all my technicians, and all the other villains I recruited into my think tank, we never could get the programs to execute.  Not without receiving a command signal from your brain.  Everything you created was keyed to respond to your brainwaves, and only yours.  So I needed to keep you alive, and I needed you to go out into today’s world and connect to one of the many devices based on your work.  To put the dominoes in motion, as it were.”
    “So I waited, and waited, and finally you did it.  And now everything has fallen into place.  By this time tomorrow, the world will belong to me, and the vast majority of the heroes will have fallen.”
    “And what about me?”  McHenry asked, gesturing at the television before remembering, and turning to face the camera.  “You couldn’t have done any of this without me.  What do I get?”
    “Well, McHenry,” the voice paused and the face leaned in a little bit once again.  “I had hoped to recruit you, to make you one of my lieutenants, so that in my new world you would be free to explore the sciences once more and create new weapons and devices for my glory.  But—“
    “’But,’ what?”
    “Ah, well, it became clear to me after that poor showing in New Jersey the other night,” Baron Brass’ voice sounded almost disappointed.  “That you have gone past your prime, and have served your purpose.  So I have but one choice…”
    The lighting in the room went red and the screen changed to an entirely orange image with large numbers counting down on it.  The Master’s voice boomed out over the klaxon.  “I’m afraid I must put you out of your misery.  I have activated the self-destruct sequence in the Titan’s base.  But because of your contrib utions to my cause, I’ll be sporting and grant you a chance to escape.”
    The restraining collar around McHenry’s neck made a buzzing noise, then disconnected from itself.  It fell to the floor as the force field in the doorway dissipated.
    “You have two minutes to escape.” said The Master.  “Survive, and you have proven yourself worthy of joining me.”
    The screen turned itself off before McHenry could respond.  He