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Chapter VIII

FAILSAFE

Kindle

I sat there frozen for the next few hours.

What had I just done? Either I was purely desperate or maybe I was just outright insane. There was a good chance I was a bit of both after pressing that button, yet I knew the consequences very well once I had finished the call with Rose. She and ten others were responsible for keeping the failsafe from being destroyed. If they even spoke about this project, I would have them immediately killed and whoever they told along with them. I couldn't let any chances with this slide. This one thing was just as important as Ex, if not more. If word got out about this one, I would be ratted out to the government and be killed.

They had already tried to seize control of my base and by no means were they going to take this one with it. I would die first than let anyone I didn't trust get their hands on this one. This was a secret I would keep to my death, but I suppose I had no other choice than to let it go now.

I finally stood up from my seat and let out a weak sigh. I was sweating profusely. My nerves were on their bitter edge, so I bit my tongue and clenched my fists as tight as I possibly could. Though my body was weak, my mind and drive would not keep my back from doing this. Everything was set in motion now.

Had I made the right choice? Even as I left my room, I felt like I had made a grave mistake. My legs seemed to tremble with each step, and I was sure my co-workers were aware of my unusual posture and attitude. I wasn't making it very difficult for them to read me, though. They could already tell I was nervous, but they wouldn't know why until it was too late.

Before I went down to the lower levels, I sighed. There were still two men I needed to take care of before I went down there. They were the first ones to feel the sting of Ex's hasty escape, and they were also part of the team who oversaw my failsafe program. They had worked with Ex since his creation, and they oversaw my program once the Project was taken care of. I couldn't just leave them in the dark right now even if they were injured. I trusted these men, and I would be a fool if I didn't give them a rundown of the situation. No doubt the rest of the team on this program were already making their way down there, but they would wait for me to give the final verdict. I was the lead director of it anyways.

Turning back around, I made my way back to the infirmary where I would find Alexander and Blake. If they were asleep, I would have to wake them up and inform them. If I was going to activate what they helped make a reality, they needed to know the truth.

While I walked down the long corridors trying to find the room where my wounded scientists were resting, I couldn't help but think of the consequences of activating this failsafe. True, I was proud that we had finished its creation and was being kept alive to this day, but, just like Ex, it was dangerous. There was a good chance it would rebel at us once we released it from stasis. Though I didn't want to die just yet, not without creating a legacy, I wanted to bring Ex home. I just wanted to show him that the bad people were gone and we wouldn't have to worry about him being pinned as a target...until the president found out about his existence again.

I would have to worry about that another time. It wasn't like I could just kill the president. Even though I had created something that was supposed to be impossible and only possible in science fiction movies, I didn't want to go against the most powerful man in the entire country. My work might've justified me to be insane, but I didn't have a death wish.

Another solution would present itself in due time. Right now, I needed to be patient. Hopefully my solution would be that serum I had heard about earlier. If it turned out to be true, at least one of my problems would no longer be a bother. My issue with the government would still plague me, but I wouldn't have to worry about them getting suspicious about their agents. The cards would fall in place--I was sure of it. It would take some time before things were ready to fall in line, in which I didn't have a lot of time, but I could only work with so much.

My body stopped on me. Could I be wrong about Ex? What if what Dartha said was true and that he was a danger? What if he was attacking innocent people right now while we waited idly by and did nothing?

No, I refused to believe he was a menace to society. The boy was too kind, to spirited, and too...honest to hurt someone just for the fun of it--we would've known about that sort of behavior ever since our mistake with one of his earlier predecessors. A mistake like that would never be taken lightly ever again, and we made sure of it. I believed Ex was a good person, but I needed to bring him home before anything bad happened to him.

And if he was already dead...I still wanted to bring him home. I wanted to send him off from home more properly. I wanted to see him if that was the case and apologize even if he was dead. Even if he was gone, I wanted to make sure he knew I was sorry for the way I treated him for his entire life.

I was sure he was alive. With a firm grunt, I pulled myself together and continued down the hall. Though I knew where I needed to go, I really didn't want to get there too soon. The sun was just beginning to set. Why was I in such a major rush?

That's right. I wanted to find and bring Ex back.

My legs finally found the elevator, and I stepped inside. My fingers didn't even touch the keypad, yet I wanted them to, very badly. It took every ounce of willpower within me to enter the code needed to take me to the lower levels of the base.

Wait, I was supposed to meet with Alexander and Blake! Immediately cancelling the code, I stepped out of the elevator and walked all the way to the medical treatment room. How could I forget about them like that? Where was my mind today? I was so focused on trying to find Ex that my judgement was clouded for a brief few minutes. Dammit. I couldn't seem to focus on anything right now, and I had a feeling I wouldn't until I brought my legacy home.

I eventually reached the room where those two stayed. The guard let me in without question and finally let me see how bad things really were. They weren't in terrible condition. Apparently Ex had some sort of mercy when he was escaping. Alexander was shot in the knee while Blake had taken two in each of his shoulders, and I heard his were slightly more fatal than Alexander's. When the guards finally found them, they were immediately taken in for surgery--Alexander would have to go through several more treatments to have his knee full repaired and moveable while Blake remained in surgery for the past ten hours to get those two bullets removed from his shoulders then have the muscle injected with a type of fluid that sped up the regeneration process. They both had lost a lot of blood during the escape, but I was assured they would make full recoveries.

Why Ex would attack these two men just baffled me. Surprisingly, we had no footage of the attack, which did seem a little odd to me. They told me it was Ex before they went in for surgery, so I went off their word for it. We didn't have much evidence to go off of for the time being, so I was going to have to listen to them as much as possible until the footage was recovered--if the footage was recovered.

The closest one was Alexander. He was awake, but for how long, I couldn't know. I was told he would be on a sedative to ease the pain in his knee but would still retain full brain functions until they had to increase the dose, which would be in about an hour or so. That was enough time to talk to him and Blake before I had to attend to my meeting elsewhere.

He noticed me and put away the book he was reading. Huh. I didn't realize he liked the Game of Thrones books. Seems we shared a common interest after all, and I stifled a chuckle once he faced me.

"Director Kindle," he smiled.

I patted the fox's shoulder. "Relax, Alexander. There's no need to get all formal on me. You know me as Kindle."

He nodded and hissed. I noticed he tried to move his leg. "Yeah, sure thing, Kindle."

"You know," I warned. "It's not good to move something if a doctor advises against it. You do realize your knee is barely reconstructed, right? It'll be a few weeks before you can walk right."

He waved his hand aside and sat up. At least he could move his torso. "Mm, I realize this." He adjusted his glasses then looked me in the eyes. "How're you holding up?"

I sighed, dropping my head. "Dartha and her agents have caused me the greatest headache of my life. I thought college gave me a major headache, but I've realized this is the worst day of my life."

"How do you figure?" he asked.

I scoffed and tried hard not to bellow with laughter. "Well, let's see here. My base was nearly taken over by agents who tried to kill Ex, Ex has escaped and wounded you two in the process, he's killed two agents sent by the president, the whole facility is in disarray as if the entire chain of command has died away suddenly, we don't know where Ex is, and I have a major headache."

"So, in other words, you're in Hell?"

"This is Hell on Earth," I stated.

I heard a chuckle. "You know, for a long time, the Galapagos Islands were considered the first Hell on Earth. I don't think our situation can compare."

Alexander rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't you be sleeping, Blake?"

Even though I didn't have to see him, I was sure he was smirking at the comment. Stubborn even without movement of his arms. I didn't just pick him because of his brain. His stubborn attitude to never take 'no' for an answer always baffled me.

Not that that was a bad thing.

"I'll go to sleep when I'm dead," he retorted.

Alexander huffed. "Or when the sedative knocks you out."

He didn't even turn, but he did chuckle. "I suppose that's a possibility as well."

I never understood how these two managed to stay friends. One was a thick-skulled, stubborn scientist who wanted to achieve the impossible even if things looked that way. The other was brilliant and a sort of pacifist to violence and could probably strike a deal with Satan without bargaining with his soul in the process. Either way, they were both terrifying.

Underneath Alexander's smile and positive attitude, he was probably a killer. The man knew enough toxins and serums to kill a thousand people, yet he was gentle and honest. I always had to be wary around him. The man knew too many ways to kill a person the past twenty years he worked for the Division, and his innocence was the best disguise I've ever seen.

Then there was Blake. I wanted to trust him indefinitely, but he was very radical with many of his ideas. How could I trust a man who could bend plans as easy a bendy straw, and then find a more harsh approach? This man would kill someone else if he had to, and I had seen him tempted to during his service. I'll just say that the man who annoyed him quit on the account of almost being turned into swizz cheese. He was just as dangerous as his counterpart, Alexander, yet I still entrusted the both of them with my failsafe program.

Maybe I was the crazy one instead. They never showed signs of disloyalty towards me, so I had no reason to be suspicious of them despite their dark undertones--well, Alexander's more so. Blake would show the man underneath the fur and skin if he wanted to.

I sighed. These were the reasons I kept them informed of the failsafe. The fact that they could hunt and kill whoever spoke of it without giving me notice was as good of a reason as any, to me at least. Their servitude working with Ex was also a good bonus.

Even though I trusted them, I couldn't help but feel that activating the failsafe was a bad idea. I could go on and on about the repercussions from dawn until dusk and get nowhere. The button had been pressed and Rose had been notified, and I would find the rest of my team, aside from these two, once I arrived at the lower room.

Better to fess up now than deal with the repercussions later. They deserved to know, and I wasn't going to do this without letting them know of it.

I placed my hand on Alexander's shoulder. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Is it about releasing the failsafe?" he countered.

My body became cold all too quick. "How did you know?"

He shrugged. "Rose informed me a few minutes before you got here. She told me that you had given her permission to ready the failsafe for activation."

I looked away. "I should've figured."

"Kindle, you do realize how dangerous that is, right?" he asked. "We may have created it but we never introduced it to the real world. There could be some very serious--"

"Repercussions," I cut him off with a sigh. "I know."

Blake entered. "And you're okay with that?"

"It's not like I have much more choice on the matter. The fact is, we created it to find Ex in case something like this ever happened, and it seems were right about it. This is the only thing that can track down Ex without us having to get our hands dirty to search for evidence of him. This could save a great deal of time and shorten the hunt for the better."

Alexander sighed. "But what're we going to do about it if and when it completes its job? You know just as well as I do that leaving it alive will be just as dangerous as letting Ex walk around without our supervision."

"I'm well aware of that, and I have a plan," I stated, garnering his attention. Blake made the effort to look at me, but he just groaned and laid there. "Don't worry. I'll keep the situation under control."

"And you're sure about this? If it fails?"

"I'll make sure it doesn't. I'll handle things."

Blake groaned. "What...about Ex? What're you...gonna do when you bring...him back?" His sedative was probably starting to kick in, so I figured that was the reason for his slow speech.

"One problem at a time, friends. Ex will be welcomed back with open arms and we will go about our business like usual. Until he's found, the failsafe will locate him."

Alexander rubbed his eyes. "You're taking a great deal of risk on this, Director. I trust your judgement, but I fear for your morality. Don't sacrifice a life in order to gain one. That defeats the purpose."

I stood up and cleared my throat. "Thank you too for your time." I completely ignored what Alexander had said in fear I would answer him with some sort of witty reply. It wouldn't be intentional, though. I was on edge.

I left the room in a haste by the time Blake had completely passed out. They wouldn't be in any sort of condition to come down there with me, so I left them to rest while I took a gamble trying to find Ex.

How could Alexander tell me to worry about my morality? I hadn't taken any lives in my life! I wasn't sacrificing any either! He was in no position to judge me on my decisions! I was trying to find our greatest creation in order to keep him from falling into the wrong hands or worse--dying. I couldn't--no--I wouldn't let it come to that. One way or another, I was bringing Ex home. He was safe here and away from al the dangers of the outside world.

He...he wasn't ready. There was still so much he needed to know before we sent him out there, but I wasn't the one who forced him to flee in the first place! I understood why he left, and I respected his courage to not lie down and die, but I was still dealing with the backlash of it all. I prayed that he was fine and not in some sort of dumpster searching for food, or dead in it. Though we trained him to be resourceful and sneaky, I didn't want him to resort to petty thievery just to scrape by for extra cash or food.

I wobbled all the way back to the elevator, finding my grip wavering with each passing moment. My face was on fire. Sweat dropped from my face onto the floor below me. Even my legs felt like noodles, barely taking me to the next step.

What the hell was wrong with me? Once I was inside the elevator and the doors closed, I had to type the code in three times before I got it right due to my wavering fingers pushing the wrong buttons. I cursed and made sure I typed in the correct code, and finally adding a drop of blood to the scanner for it to be sure I was one of the few people who knew about this floor. Once it had the blood, the elevator immediately started sliding down. If another scientist who wasn't a part of our sect tried to go to this floor and pricked their blood, they would be apprehended by our security and immediately be...decommissioned of that particular memory then be returned to their work. Or we would kill them. Either option was debatable, to be honest.

I laid against the wall and sighed, wiping the sweat from my forehead. It wasn't even hot. The temperature was normal room temperature, yet I felt like I had just run a marathon.

Something didn't feel right to me. It wasn't every day that I acted like this, and I was sure I hadn't felt like this in God knows how long, and whatever it was that I was feeling, I needed it to stop. My body was already sweating and shaking from this odd nervousness, and the sweat was only causing me to lose my mind at an astonishing rate.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked myself. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and cleared my throat, trying to regain my composure.

Like hell I was going to let this get to my head! I slammed my fist against the wall so hard I thought I had cracked a knuckle and forced me to wince and hold it in pain for the new few moments. That didn't stop my anger from boiling, unfortunately. It was like I was even more frustrated than before, and the pain in my hand wasn't helping me.

I grunted and clenched the pained fist, hearing a few pops come from the bones. As if I gave a damn about the pain. This wasn't anything. I clenched my fist so tightly before I reached the bottom that I felt blood drip from the tips as I dug my claws into the fur and skin. The doors slid open, so I fixed my tie, which happened to be red so it hid the blood to an extent. One of my hands was still crimson red and was still dripping a bit of blood even as I walked out into the long hallway leading to the main room. While I took my time, blue lights flickered over my body as per the way to identify that that hadn't been some sort of mix-up in the system. If I didn't match what was in the databases, turrent would extend and gun me down where I stood before I made it halfway.

Pfft, I was already past halfway. The lights soon shut off and indicated that I was who I said I was. Once I had managed to get to the door, I pressed my bloody thumb against one of the two scanners and entered the code for the door with my free hand. A few seconds later, they slid apart and allowed me entrance.

The room was filled with at least a dozen or so people, give or take a few since over the years we did have trouble keeping everyone from blurting out the secret. Alexander and Blake were out of commission for the time being, so that left us down two men. That wasn't a problem. They already knew and "warned" me of the consequences.

I was fully aware of the consequences. If there was a more beneficial route, I would've taken it on the first chance. No such chance existed for me, and I was out of time.

The room was relatively small aside from the work desks which extended from the walls in which many of my colleagues had taken a seat at. The lighting was bright white on my side, but I saw could see on the other side that it was blood red to the point where the tubes were masked in black shadows.

That was where the jewel was. It was a tube big enough for a full grown man and housed the only thing that could track down Ex after all else failed to do so. That was why we called it the failsafe. This was our last line of defense in case the worst came knocking on our door. This was my last resort and defined desperation. I was desperate, though. I had the balls to call Rose and tell her to assemble everyone else of the lower levels, so I knew for a fact that I had the balls to open that tank and reveal the past few years of work. I couldn't let personal feelings get in the way here. Too risky. It has to be me.

The small group parted ways and almost hushed completely while I walked over to the tube. Any nervousness I was feeling before I entered this room was quickly snuffed out, and I was now standing with confidence and eagerness. Why had I been so afraid before? It didn't make sense to me now. I had nothing to be fearful of.

Placing my hand on the warm tube, I could almost feel the presence of the figure inside. The dark blue liquid kept the person inside a mystery to any who never knew about it, but I had designed him myself without anyone else's input. It was the exact way I wanted it to be physically, but I couldn't speak for it personality-wise--No, that would prove to be more difficult. It could walk out of that tube a killer or a pacifist, yet I needed neither. I needed a tracking device ready to find my creation. Nothing more.

I know people would call me inhumane for doing this to something was living and breathing--using it only as a means to find someone then drop it off once its task was over, but they weren't in my shoes. They didn't understand the serious ramifications of having Ex out there without proper supervision and that was what I feared the most. If he was around the wrong people and began to believe what they believed, he could be changed and become a danger to anyone or everyone around him. I had faith that he knew better than to trust a stranger in a dark alley or something but, if he did, I would have more trouble to worry about, and I didn't want any more death.

My hand stayed right there in the same spot. I looked at the shadowed figure inside and sighed. It was almost like the figure inside the tube could sense me and while floating in the liquid pressed its head against the glass where my own hand was.

I smiled but was sad at the same time.

Eventually, it drifted away from my hand and returned to being comatose inside the tube. The only thing keeping it from drowning was a mask over its mouth with a tube extending over its head into a chamber were we housed the special gas to keep it asleep and unaware for all these years. We never let it walk. It was never allowed outside the tube. It grew but remained within the tube for safety reasons.

Giving the tube one last touch, I looked over my shoulder to find Rose right behind me. The tigress, dressed in her khaki pants and white coat, stood poise and stout even with the card in her hand.

I took it from her. "Thank you, Rose."

She didn't reply but nodded her head, returning to the group only seconds later. She was a woman of few words, but I was perfectly fine with that. That was one of the reasons I picked her to work on this experiment.

I looked at the card for a few moments, twisting it around my fingers. One swipe of this and the tube would be unlocked. No typing in a code. No thumb print. No blood check. This one card was the single key to unlocking the tube. There was no copy and no way to open to the tube without it. Most would think I could just shatter the tube and get the thing out, but we made sure that wasn't a possibility, for if someone were to try that, a security firewall would break down and release a poison inside the thing inside and kill it within only a few minutes. That way, if someone did make it this far, they would end up killing the prize they desperately wanted.

Rose was careful to keep this safe. I knew her, and I knew she would keep it safe no matter what in case we needed this thing. It seems I wasn't wrong with trusting her then. She hasn't let me down yet.

Still, I could break this card into two pieces right now and that would be the end of it. We could continue our search without this thing and see how long it would take to track down Ex. I didn't want a search like that. It would be weeks, months, or even years before we could even get close to finding him. We couldn't wait that long. Too risky.

The collective behind waited patiently for me to make my move. I looked from the card, to the tube, and then back to the card. This wasn't just a choice I could make too quickly, for I could end this right now and forget about this entire situation and do things the hard way. Was it bad to keep this thing locked down here for its entire life and possibly be used? The silence was killing me, and I had only the comfort of the thing inside the tube moving around to keep me from losing my mind. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of my head, and I gulped as I suddenly felt my throat become dry.

I looked back at the tube. In my mind, I cursed at myself like a sailor. Gritting my teeth, I let go of all the fear I was building up and stepped towards the tube.

I slid the card.

Once I had made my move, we watched as the red light overhead flashed on and off while the blue liquid inside was slowly drained, quickly being replaced with clean oxygen, fogging up the figure inside with decontamination smoke. He was then hosed down with water inside and I saw the mask slide up to the head of the tube.

With the inside of the tube filled with thick smoke, the lid slowly slid forward and let it all out, soon filling the floor and area in front of it with the stuff as if it was some sort of smoke machine. I took a step forward so I could see it with my own eyes.

I wasn't ready for it falling over right into my shoulder. The thing was naked but it was everything I ever wanted it to be, aside from its only reproductive organ. It had no clothes and laid limp against my body with its own toned one instead.

Its white fur matched my own, and I saw the black stripes along its body line up exactly like mine. The room was still quiet, and I could hear its heart beat against mine. It looked like it was still comatose or something, but I was glad it was alive for the most part. Ex was proof we could do things like this, but I had taken it to an entirely new level. We had based Ex's appearance off of a donor and many of his spliced genetics off of healthy other donors, ranging from different species.

This one was different. It had crisp white fur and the blackest of stripes that added a new beauty to its body. Before it even moved its tail, I saw its pitch black wings furrow and try to extend--the feathers vibrating as if purely on instinct rather than emotion. Its tail followed soon after and swayed from one side to the other every few moments or so, giving me more comfort.

I then heard it grunt. Its body shifted slightly and pressed against my chest as if for leverage, using me to prop itself up after being in a dream-like state for the past nine years. Its eyes then followed and it seemed to struggle to keep them open for just the first few moments, but it learned to blink shortly after. The feline looked up and stared into my amber eyes, and I stared into its amber irises.

Finally, after leaning against my body, it finally spoke its first word. The word sent chills up and down my spine but...it also brought a sense of comfort I hadn't felt in a long time.

This warm feeling was something I wanted to feel for a long time, but I couldn't help but feel terrible considering our circumstances. I wanted to hear the word so badly, but now...I didn't want to hear it.

It looked at me and said "Father?"