Read Online Phoenix Rising (Book Two of The Icarus Trilogy) by Kevin Kauffmann - Free Book Online Page A

with sadness but he still tried to make her feel better.  This was just a selfish man.  She stood back up and looked at the soldier before nodding to the training briefs on the stand nearby.
    “C’mon, let’s get to the training room.  No use putting it off.”
    Jenkins watched as the doctor left the room; he appreciated the view.  The sociopath smiled as he got to his feet and followed her into the next room.  She had made eye contact with him.  It was progress.
    He readied himself for another batch of pain.
    -
    Charlotte looked at the computer display as Jenkins ran on the treadmill.  He was wearing muscle stimulators over his entire body which would make him battle-ready before the day was out.  The running itself was just to keep blood flowing; the machines did all the work.  That meant nothing to the soldiers, who felt some of the worst pain imaginable as their muscles adapted to this cruel little world of theirs.
    Charlotte didn’t bother to watch.  She had seen it so many times before and unlike all of the rest of the soldiers, the man running on the treadmill wasn’t even a real person.  He was just a product of corporate corruption.  Even if he didn’t earn her contempt he would still be fine.  He was always fine.
    The woman shook her head as she thought about all the things Jenkins had experienced in his time on Eris.  She remembered all of the times she had brought him back to life with tears in his eyes.  Charlotte remembered the incident where he had gotten shot in the shoulder.  Dr. Kane had to kill him, then.  Thankfully, in the only act that could be considered mercy by the scientist, Hawkins had been around to deal the fatal poison. 
    As she thought about that weasel of a man Charlotte’s eyelid twitched.  The Jenkins running in place in the next room only made her angry by proxy; he was just a constant reminder of the injustice rampant in the games.  Hawkins, on the other hand, was the most cruel and truly evil person she had ever met.  He treated people like they were walking experiments and for some it was the actual truth.  Poor Roberts was the focus of a pain study.  Hawkins was literally trying to break the man’s mind.
    It had broken her world when she had learned the truth of that experiment.  That it was not only allowed, but funded by the Commission was the worst betrayal.  She had already had to come to grips with the horrors of these resurrections, but she was a doctor.  Charlotte was supposed to help people, but she was the assistant to a verifiable monster.  Hawkins gleefully tortured Roberts, killed soldiers with a smile and laughed at their misery.
    And to top it all off he was the one responsible for changing Jenkins’ brain.
    She had never wished harm on anyone before Hawkins.  Now all she wanted to do was cause him pain.  She had fantasized a few times about strapping the man down and cutting the man apart only to sew him back together.  She had woken from that nightmare disturbed by the images, but she never felt guilty about it.  The scientist deserved it.
    But her revenge wasn’t important.  Hawkins would get his; she knew it.  There would have to be no justice in the entire universe if he didn’t die screaming.  That wasn’t something that she had to do.  The only goal she had on this asteroid was to help out this Initiative with whatever they wanted.  The system was broken, the world was in pieces and while good people were punished bad people were rewarded.  Charlotte couldn’t let herself be the monster that let it happen.
    She was going to save Jenkins.  Somehow she was going to do it.  There had to be some way to change him back and she was going to find it.  Or someone else would.  She wouldn’t be able to sleep well until it happened.  He was important to her.  She didn’t think she loved him; that would be ridiculous.  But he meant something.  Ryan Jenkins was her redemption.
    The good doctor looked back over at the