Read Online The Chimera Vector by Nathan M Farrugia - Free Book Online

ran through his right eye, down his neck. He checked his watch.
    ‘Shall we continue in, say, fifteen minutes?’ He grinned.
    She watched his left eye slide down his cheek. Was she going crazy? This had to be a dream. Everything she saw looked weird. His eye slipped onto his neck, but he didn’t seem to notice. He turned and followed the other man out of the room. The door melted behind them.
    Sophia felt cold metal in her palm. She looked down. Her hand looked about ten years older. Her grip on the pistol was comforting.
    Other trainees stood either side of her, holding identical pistols. They each faced a quivering naked body with a black bag over its head. The bodies looked no more than fifteen or sixteen. Same age as her.
    ‘The cowards you see before you are failures,’ Denton said. He was standing behind her and the other trainees. ‘They are not entitled to sympathy. They are not entitled to forgiveness. They are not entitled to charity. They, like you, knew the consequences of failure.’ He paced behind them. She could feel his gaze weighing on her. ‘And yet they still chose to fail. They ask you to take mercy on them and bring an end to their dishonor. If you do as they ask, you will graduate as qualified operatives.’
    Some of the trainees were already taking aim at their targets. Sophia looked at her target. A young woman, not much different to herself. Her ribs pressed against her skin with every snatched breath.
    One of the trainees beside her opened fire. A double tap to the head. Sophia heard a body crumple onto tarpaulin.
    Fingers curling around the grip, Sophia raised her pistol until she had a bead on her target. The girl’s ribs were becoming more visible with each breath, as if she had somehow sensed Sophia’s intention.
    ‘Their failure is your success!’ Denton shouted.
    Her forefinger curled behind the trigger guard. The target’s ribs were almost ready to burst from her chest.
    Another trainee opened fire. And another.
    Sophia pressed lightly on the trigger with the pad of her forefinger. The girl’s legs trembled. On the tarpaulin, Sophia saw a small pool of straw-colored liquid. The girl’s fear tasted bitter in the back of her throat.
    She closed her eyes. The girl was not human.
    Sophia could do things to her she would never do to another human.
    Like splash her brains over the tarpaulin.
    ***
    When she opened her eyes, her target was gone. She was back in the library, under the watchful eye of Adamicz.
    ‘What were the men doing?’ she said. ‘The static, the needle, the light buzzing in my face.’
    ‘Fluorescent strobe light, yes?’ Adamicz said. ‘With monoatomic gold filament. It is hypnotic opener.’
    ‘Opener for what?’ Sophia yelled.
    ‘For hypnotic suggestion. First step is to implant your loyalty. Then I enter picture, to program you completely.’
    ‘I killed an operative,’ she said. ‘She died. And I was allowed to live.’
    Adamicz said nothing.
    Why was she even telling him this? His silence sparked a deep-seated rage.
    ‘Say something!’ she yelled.
    Her voice boomed through the library, bouncing back at her. Her lower lip trembled. She bit it, held it between her teeth until it tasted sour.
    ‘You hesitate that day,’ he said. ‘I had no choice but to scrub hesitation from records. Just to keep you in project.’
    ‘Stop it!’ she yelled again, turning away from him. ‘I don’t want to hear any more of your lies!’
    She heard him say, ‘The exquisite corpse will drink finest wine.’
    For a moment, she was certain nothing had happened. But when she looked down, she was shocked to find that same knife in her hand again. This time, it was inches from her neck. Blood ran from her hand, down her arm.
    Her last thread of certainty drained from her like a viscous liquid. The piece of glass fell from her hand. She felt nothing.
    No.
    She felt hollow.

Chapter 7
    An army of do-it-yourself satellite dishes were angled towards the Super Jesus statue