Free Legacy of a Mad Scientist by John Carrick Page A

table,” King
stated.
    “They have known each other since they were kids,”
Major Ross said. “Fox, Stanwood and Croswell all went to school
together. We’re not killing him. If he’s gotta die, that’s for Fox
to decide.”
    “What about exposing him?” King suggested.
    “We have to get him to break the law first,” Ross
said.
    “I mean to the operating system, dose him with
Mike.”
    “What?” Ross asked, dumbfounded.
    “We know Stanwood has never been exposed to the
Micronix. So… Let’s expose him.”
    “That’s no kind of solution,” Ross asked. “Give our
enemy our secret weapon? Why not just give him access to all our
gear too? Just open up our whole operation and invite him in? Make
him one of us ? I don’t like the sound of that. Not one
bit.
    “There’s no guarantee it won’t make him worse,” Ross
added. “He’s not stupid. If anything, it might make him a much
bigger threat than Fox. You would essentially be giving him
everything Fox knows, to use in any way he saw fit.
    “If there is a way to detonate terillium, Joseph
Stanwood is the last person we want to give that to. Like giving
Stalin or Hitler the nuke instead of Groves and Roosevelt.” Ross
stirred his noodles. “Let’s not forget exactly ‘who’ the bad-guy is
here.”
    “Okay,” King said. “Just playing along here… a bad
guy who might actually have a point, who we cannot kill and cannot
convert. Stanwood is going to have to come to Jesus on his own?
That’s our plan here? He needs to see the light, and we are just
waiting for him to open his eyes?”
    “How did you not see this coming?” Ross asked Snow
directly.
    “Don’t blame me. I can’t predict the future any
better than you can.” She dug at the noodles but didn’t eat any. “I
suppose we can take comfort in the fact that he can’t really kill
us, and that, as of yet, they still don’t know who we are. And Fox
also gave us ALL our gear.”
    “Yeah, yeah, but aside from the blue goo, and the
phase cam, and the gravity harness, the six months speed-bump,
sure,” King said. “But the idea of being hunted forever or
imprisoned isn’t very appealing either. We are not immortal. We
might be backed up, but this could all come crashing down.”
    “Mister Optimism over here,” Ross said.
    “Do you have any ideas, Sir?” King asked.
    Major Ross shook his head. “Give me a couple of
minutes.”
    "Why would he call Dr. Te and tell him that?” King
asked.
    “Maybe he can’t guess the future any better than any
of us,” Ross suggested, nodding to Snow with his eyes. “Regardless,
he’s really in their crosshairs this time. They’re not going to let
this go. I had to shake two guys to get here.”
    Snow sighed and pushed her noodle bowl away.
    Ross leaned forward. "As you so elegantly put it, we
are in the wind. Per protocol, run backups every 12 hours, full
satellite transmission."
    Snow and King groaned in annoyance but nodded.
    "It's just a few days," Ross said.
    "What are you going to do with Reid and the lab?"
King asked.
    "We're gonna double them. We'll put one in the
stratosphere and drop a mirror to Davey Jones."
    "You can never be too redundant, huh?" Snow
asked.
    "It's served us so far," Ross said. “Reid is getting
the local decanters loaded and prepped, we're seven deep each.”
    "But those still need six months to cook?" King
asked.
    “And it does us no good if Fox or Stanwood nuke Angel
City,” Snow said.
    “That is not going to happen,” Ross said. “What about
BDU’s. Do you have any that are mission ready?”
    “I’m on my last legs,” Snow answered.
    “I’ve got another,” King replied.
    "I’m down to one myself, and it looks like I might
have to use it tonight. If Stanwood has that," Ross gestured to the
player. “I know he’s going to pay me a visit soon. May as well give
him a show.”
    "I'll shadow you, if you want," Snow offered.
    “Naw, let them have their fun. If they don't show
their hand, we've got