Edict 42

Chapter 14- Ryan

Ryan got into his car and looked in his rear view mirror there was no one there. It had been a few months now of him complying with his work and since then he didn’t find himself being followed anymore by the secret police. He look forward once more and was greeted by a hand waving out at him, it was Troy. He mirrored the response with a smile and then another hand waved before he pulled out the driveway and followed the road to work.

Dan had told him to comply as he continued work on the bunker that he planned to use as the shelter if everything went to hell. The bunker was being designed to last out for a long time with resources and defenses. Ryan didn’t bother to ask where or how Dan would get these things. He knew Dan had many contacts and that he was a resourceful man. All he asked was to limit what he told people especially those that are marked. When they turn they remember everything about the host. Despite everything, Dan believed in him whole heartedly but not without a few logical doubts. Ryan believed that the level of commitment now was mostly due to the government’s involvement with wanting to kill off the rest of the world. Ryan had been paid a fortune on this job to spearhead it as well as hush money. He had given a large majority of it to Dan. In which they pretended to open an arms and defenses store. It was the best front Dan had told them what they had to do. The secret police would be tracking their spending.

Ryan had contemplated a few times to leak the news to the press but Dan assured him it would be covered fast and many people would doubt it. In the end he made a point Ryan couldn’t refute people depended on the CFGs there was nothing else there.

Ryan came to a halt by some traffic on the highway. He tapped his finger on to the wheel. It would only result in chaos. In the last few days his head had been hurting him far more than usual it always came at night a loud pinging noise that he couldn’t explain. Leaving him stuck on artificial coffee early in the morning to get through the day. It was nothing like the real thing but it did the trick none the less.

Troy and Diane had moved back in and the therapy sessions had continued, it was a waste of money but at least it kept her happy. He couldn’t understand how the woman think anymore regardless of his reassurance, regardless of the words that came from him. She still held doubts, and because he couldn’t trust her to keep stuff to herself he didn’t tell her about the big plans that Dan and him had made. CFG2 was not allowed in his house, he wouldn’t allow them to get sick at all or even when they left. He told them it was no good and shouldn’t be taken even if nothing else was there. He had transferred his credit details to Diane’s chip so she would be able to pay by having her arm processed.

Coming off the highway and back on to the road, Ryan realized that a single car had been following him from the time he had left home. He slowed down to see if the car would pass him, it did. He then continued back at a regular pace making a left to head to work.

At the security checkpoint, he saw the man getting out to check him even though he already knew it was him by the car. This man particularily didn’t like him for his security guard friend losing his job.

It wasn’t his fault Ryan thought to himself as the man approached.

“Good morning, Dr. Matters,” the man said stiffly as Ryan’s window came down. Ryan merely nodded towards him as the man lifted the barricade and he drove towards the car park. Ryan put the car in park and gave himself a slap in the face.

“Alright, game face, I have to get this right and slow down the process as much as I can for the Cain project.”

The government, no the world was insane, it wasn’t enough to stop at just straight up poisoning people’s food. They wanted it in their water source. A virus that would affect the process of how fast the Manere Parasitus would heal the body. Ryan was the only one man in this process besides him and those here working it in secret. There were many branches over the world from the relay and contacts he had been given to talk to. Any way he looked at it the earth was doomed and there was no sense in trying to save it but maybe coming up with a cure, a safety net for his family, and a way out was the only options he had on the table. He looked around at the other scientist entering Bostic Lab everyone else was irrelevant. If anyone was going to survive this it would be him.

Ryan walked forward into Bostic Lab, from the time he entered his name rang from everyone he passed. Dr. Matters, Dr. Matters everyone said with a smile but he knew this work environment was filled with snakes each wanting the other’s position. He got in the elevator and pressed the button that would take him down to the lower basement. He pressed his finger on the fingerprint scanner, swiped his card, and then finally had his eye scanned, before the elevator went down. If anything the president was cautious, that was only the first wave of security. The elevator door opened as he reached the bottom.

Ryan took the first few steps out and was greeted by a large corridor with a sealed door. A camera looked directly at him he could hear it zooming in on him.

“Identify yourself?” a robotic voice commanded.

“Dr. Matters,” Ryan said.

“Processing…At what date did you start working with Bostic Lab?”

“To damn long.”

“What is the name of the president?”

“Turd.”

“What is your wife’s name?”

“Diane.”

“Welcome Dr. Matters.”

The door opened and Ryan walked towards it. Inside Ryan saw the scientist going about their work and seated at the centre of this experiment was the father of immortality and what they called the parasite’s mother side by side. It was a sight that if he didn’t see for himself he wouldn’t be able to believe. It was only here that he understood how the immortality had came about.

Ryan approached the two side by side, everyone was told that the father of immortality had chosen to die naturally and his name was removed from being mentioned, all the while he was down here the whole time, he became the first host of the parasite.

                                                                                                     #

It was a long day at work and Ryan felt mentally drained as he made his way to his car. The Cain project was slow mostly due to whatever was tried on the pieces of parasite that were extracted, it seemed capable of surviving everything that happened to it. Not the start that the government would have wanted, all forms of known poisons had failed. Castor Bean, Belladonna, Arsenic even h****n they had tried with the willing test subjects that had been provided.

Ryan got into the car and drove his way back home. He pushed that thought in the back of his mind, with the only thought of gratefulness that no one had died in the many experiments carried out that had been done on them while ingesting water. A bio weapon that was what they were creating, the world race, first against the people and probably later against each other. It was the end, one way or another. He had held out hope that he might have been able to change things with what he had known, the future he had predicted to come through but those things weren’t coming exactly as it was supposed to. Rather everything was coming in a different way Blue Popper were CFG2 and instead a new line of servitors had been introduced later than when he had first thought and they replaced a different class of worker.

A siren ringed and his eyes turned back, he pulled slightly off the road. The police car pulled up behind him.

Ryan started to wonder what he could have possibly done, he was driving at the right speed. He didn’t think anything was wrong with his car everything was up to date. Maybe it was just a routine traffic stop? The doors slammed from the police car behind him as a woman and a man got out. Ryan saw the face and knew immediately who it was. The detectives from the station what are they doing here?

The one called Mark was by his window and signalled with his hand for him to roll it down.

“Is there a problem officer?” Ryan asked looking the man directly in his eye.

“Yeah, we want to have a word with you about Alina and some other stuff we have been noticing recently about you.”

“Alina? Didn’t you conduct interviews already concerning that case?”

“Yes, and you’re the only one that hasn’t been interviewed on the record besides the information that went a way.”

“Am I under arrest, again?”

“No nothing of the sort,” Mark looked around, “See that building over there.” He pointed at an old abandon building that use to be a fast food joint. We are going there to talk so it would be more discrete than the side of the road. After we go through the procedure you’re free to go home.”

Ryan thought about it why wouldn’t they just come to his workplace and meet him here instead? They had to have been following him or waiting for him to come out but why? He looked at Mark's arm. He was one of them so he would have to be careful of how much he said.

“Sure,” Ryan said, “anything I can do to help.”

In the beginning, because he was still panicking he had made an amateur mistake. He wouldn’t make it again, but maybe they might be able to slow down the process of what is going on. Nevertheless, someone would probably end up finding the problem that caused them to awaken, or maybe they were scheduled to awake, to begin with.

The detective signalled with his hand as Ryan pulled back onto the road and headed towards the building. He parked next to the food joint and waited for the police to pull up beside him.

He took a deep breath expecting the questions that were going to come as he heard their doors open and closed. The steps slowly approaching his car before another screeching sound came into the car park. Ryan looked in the mirror to see men in black suits getting out of two cars.

They were following them too? Ryan wondered.

“What are you doing here with Dr. Matters?” A voice that Ryan was familiar with spoke.

“What does it mean to you, who are you?” Mark asked.

The man walked up to him and revealed something that Ryan was unable to see.

“What is your relation to this man, Mr. Salim?” Sally asked, “that it would cause you to interfere in our investigation?”

“Dr. Matters is important to the state and anything that is deemed unnecessary is dealt with by us. If any information you need in tracking, Dr. Cox the secret police would be happy to get that information provided to you via a lawyer. If that’s all you need, a statement. Then goodbye to you, and we would cautiously advise you to stay away from Dr. Matters. The next time might not be so friendly.”

Ryan watched the detectives get into their car, defeat written on their face as they left.

Great, Ryan thought as Mr. Salim came to his car.

“Sorry about that Ryan everything should be business as usual now,” he said, with a devious smile.