Read Online Frankenstorm: Chaos Theory by Ray Garton - Free Book Online

1
    “I’m alone now, so I can speak freely,” Corcoran said as he leaned back in the chair again and put his feet back up on the desk. “Things have gone straight to hell. A disaster, top to bottom.”
    “What kind of disaster?”
    “Well, I told Sylvia about some of it, and—”
    “You haven’t told me. What kind of disaster?”
    “The worst. These, these, I don’t know what to call them, these lunatics, these vigilante militia lunatics come bursting in here and hold everyone at fucking gunpoint while they release the test subjects.”
    “The monkeys?”
    “No. The, uh . . . the off-the-books test subjects.”
    There was a long silence on the line, then: “I see. And how did they know about them?”
    “I have no clue! None!”
    “None at all? You have no idea whatsoever how this could have happened?”
    “Look, there are a couple of guys who do nothing but make trouble for us. Or try to make trouble for us. One is that Internet radio host I told you about. He does a show about conspiracies and, I don’t know, the Illuminati’s plan to enslave us all, or whatever, and he got it into his head that something suspicious was going on here at Springmeier because Vendon Labs and DeCamp Pharmaceuticals were involved with and have a long and fruitful relationship with the government, and—”
    “Breathe, Jeremy. Are you high?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, I haven’t been doing anything.”
    “I know you too well. That you haven’t been doing any drugs would be ridiculous. Go on with your story.”
    “Well, the show is on the Internet, so it’s heard everywhere, but it stirred up all the paranoid nutballs here, and apparently this militia, this armed, paramilitary group of gun-loving thugs just broke in. As far as I know, they’ve killed our entire security team! Just killed them!”
    “You’re sure about that? The entire team?”
    “According to the leader of that mob. His name is Ollie. One of our janitors seems to know him.”
    “Is that so? One of your janitors?”
    “Yes. That’s not important, though.”
    “You don’t think so? You’ve had a catastrophic security breach and your janitor is friends with the man who leads the team that pulled it off and . . . you don’t think that’s important?”
    “Well, I certainly didn’t think—”
    “That’s becoming a problem, Jeremy, the fact that you don’t think. The fact that you do drugs and throw sex parties and you’re becoming more and more careless all the time. I’m afraid we’re going to have to reevaluate your relationship with Vendon Labs, Jeremy.”
    Corcoran laughed. “Be serious. Where are you going to find anyone who can do what I can do for you? Nobody else could have done for you all the things I’ve done over the years. That includes this . Yes, this project may be fucked, but I’ve been doing what you were paying me to do, and with more time, I would have finished. What do you care if I do drugs or have a party now and then as long as I get the job done?”
    “Getting the job done includes maintaining the security and safety of your facility, you know that. I strongly suggested that you let me send someone in to manage things, but you wouldn’t—”
    Corcoran lowered his feet to the floor and sat up straight in the squeaky chair. “I don’t work under anyone. After all the years I’ve—with the career I’ve had, you want me to—I shouldn’t have to work under anyone.”
    “Are you done sputtering?”
    “Well, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable to think that someone of my status—”
    “Your status, Jeremy, is as follows: You are a sixty-eight-year-old man who still tries to pass for sixty-five, who’s rapidly falling apart, but who insists on living like a twenty-year-old and who takes drugs like a rock star. All of those things have begun to outweigh any talents you have. Talents that are slipping, I might add, because the drugs are destroying your brain. And your mind. You used to have a few