Beast Machine (42 page)

“
I can’t really tell you
why, I just have a feeling he’s there.”

“
A feeling? That’s all
you’re going on? Is a feeling?” Hitbear sighed and rubbed his
forehead. “A fucking feeling…”

“
Oh shut up, it’s a good
feeling. Just look up the main type of jobs that people have there,
please. Or just see if there’s anything on the, um, intern-net
about
Pinewood Hills
.”

“
It’s called the internet,
but fine – whatever. Guess it can’t hurt.” He shook his head and
began to type. He was going to humor Tubman, but he didn’t like
wasting time on a mere
feeling
.

“
Thank you, Hitbear.”
Tubman took back her position sitting on a chair, letting her feet
dangle. She kept her breathing slow.

“
Found information
already.”

“
That was awfully
quick.”

“
It’s not a town or
anything really – it’s just a trailer park with a few gas stations
near it. Pinewood Hills is known as a ‘druggie paradise.’ It’s a
‘rural slum of the greatest proportions’ and ‘Pulaski County’s
capital of welfare queens and teenage mothers.’ Seems like a swell
place.”

“
That’s just people
throwing around names, shame on them.” Tubman shook her head
dismissively. “What else?”

“
It’s a bunch more of the
same it appears. I’ll go to the most recent information about the
trailer park.” He scrolled down and down on the computer screen
until he found something intriguing. “Tubman, I think I found
something interesting.”

“
Tell me.”

“
Most of the people in the
trailer park work at a local mine. That mine closed about a year
and a half ago.”

“
Okay.”

“
About eight months ago,
some guy buys it up. Everyone in
Pinewood
Hills
get their jobs back.”

“
Well that’s good to hear
at least, who’s the guy?”

“
Silva’s boss that’s
running for governor, Chairman Obelis.”

Tubman stood up and grabbed
a pen. She circled the small black dot on the inset map of Little
Rock.

-----

“
This time,” said Owlbert,
“this time, I vill fly!” He hopped back up onto the table after
several attempts at flying. His new wings weren’t damage, but his
spirit and chest were feeling the brunt of each fall. “Eins, zwei,
drei!” He plunged once more off the table.

Gora, walking quickly away
from the questions Hitbear and Tubman presented, made it to the
other side of the laboratory just before Owlbert took another
plunge from the table.

He didn’t fly, but he
glided several yards and landed properly on his feet. “Gora! Du saw
that?” cheeped Owlbert loudly. “It vas awesome!”

Gora laughed, “It
was
awesome, Owlbert.
You’re going to need to treat those wings just like they were your
birth wings if you want to actually fly.” Owlbert nodded. “Also, if
you began from a higher perch you may get more lift under
you.”

“
Ja!” replied Owlbert. “Vhy
didn’t I realize this sooner?” He hit himself in the face gently
with his prosthetic wings. “Vhere ist ein higher perch, Frau Gora?”
He cranked his head around and instinctually let out several
whoo
’s.

“
Hmm,” said Gora. “Let’s
see. Can you make it up to the top of two stacked
tables?”

“
Ja, mein thinks so!”
replied Owlbert. His head was cocked in a way only an owl could
have it, completely one hundred and eighty degrees from its natural
position. He snapped it back to the front of his body. “But du must
help me! I can’t lift ein table! I am ein bird!”

Gora grabbed another nearby
table. She lifted it up and placed it on top of the other table.
“This good enough?” she said to Owlbert.

“
Ja, should do!” he cheeped
back at Gora.

“
Here I’ll lift you up,”
said Gora. She had Owlbert grab on to her arm as she lifted her arm
up high enough for Owlbert to pounce off and on to the
double-decker tables. “It’s not the sturdiest of things, but it
should suffice.” She placed her hand on the top table and moved it
a little to show Owlbert the instability of the tables. “I just
have one question before you jump off these tables.”

“
Ja, I’m all ears!” he
said. He was still trying to get used to his prosthetic wings and
the artificial feathers that accompanied the wings.

“
How were you able to fly
right from the start?” Gora placed her hand on the left side of her
face. “You’d think you would’ve had a learning curve, or at least
slight trouble with flying right out of the Beast
Machine.”

Owlbert looked at Gora and
cocked his head to the left side. “Gora, I honestly do not know!”
He cocked his head to his right side. “I can only guess – ein
dangerous thing for scientists! – that being able to fly right away
in mein second life vas merely instinctual of mein owl side. That
owl side that du helped create!” He smiled the best an owl could at
Gora and clicked his beak happily.

Click, click,
click.

Gora removed her left hand
from her face. “I suppose that makes the most sense.” She blinked
her eyes slowly. “Now, let’s see you fly again, damn
it!”

“
Ja, here we
go!”

He took the plunge once
more.

Chapter 37

Pledging
Allegiance

A gentle rap on the door
could be heard.

Tnok-nok.

McCarthy awoke drenched in
fear, confusion, and sweat. His breathing was heavy and difficult;
his thoughts were shooting all over his mind like a hornet in a
jar.

“
Glad to see you’re awake,”
said Chairman Obelis. He walked into the bedroom that was reserved
for McCarthy. Many knick-knacks from McCarthy’s days were spread
across the room, just like in the interim room he was first placed
in. A large camera under a half sphere of glass, directly in the
middle of the ceiling, bore down on both men. “You’ve been out cold
for a few days now, I was beginning to worry.”

“
Really?” McCarthy still
breathing heavily. His head slowly looked about the room, searching
for any answers. “What happened?”

Chairman Obelis pulled a
wooden chair from a nearby desk next to McCarthy. “After that, um,
Bob fellow left, you were found passed out on the floor. It was as
if you were laid low by Bob, or maybe something less sinister had
happened. There were no marks on your body to indicate struggle, so
Silva deemed that stress may have been the reason for your
collapse.”

“
Silva was here? Why wasn’t
he continuing his work?”

“
I wanted to be sure you
were fine – he hooked you up to all these machines to keep you
alive.”

McCarthy laid his head back
down on his pillow then examined the machines on both sides of his
bed. The sounds the machines created finally echoed into his ears
and the constraint of the wires from the machines could finally be
felt.

“
You kept me alive? Thank
you,” said McCarthy weakly. He gulped then blinked slowly. “I know
you need me for information, but others I’ve dealt with would have
let me die regardless. I thank you for that.”

Chairman Obelis smiled,
“You are quite welcome, Joe. You’ve shown loyalty these past few
months, even if you didn’t necessarily mean it.”

McCarthy laughed timidly.
He averted his eyes from Chairman Obelis’. He couldn’t expose the
Bob character as Malthus, the leader of The Flagship. His death
would be more than assured if he revealed Malthus. But he wanted to
desperately let someone else know, so he didn’t have to struggle
alone. “Can I now trust Chairman Obelis? Even after divulging the
information that is likely keeping me alive?” he
thought.

“
Something on your mind,
Joe?” pried Chairman Obelis.

“
No,” sighed McCarthy.
“Well, yes, I, uh, no – nevermind.”

Chairman Obelis blinked his
eyes slowly. “You’re safe to tell me anything. As long as it’s the
truth.” His eyes focused in McCarthy’s.

“
You’ll have me killed once
I tell you,” said McCarthy. His breathing became more labored. “I
know I’ve done horrible things in my past, but I don’t want to die.
I don’t want to be tortured or poisoned or become a science
project. I just want to live. This information I hold up here,” he
pointed to his head, “is the only thing keeping me
alive.”

Chairman Obelis laughed
quietly, “Joe, I’m not going to kill you. Not yet,
anyway.”

McCarthy
grumbled.

Chairman Obelis continued,
“All the information you hold about The Flagship is important to my
grand plan, but your experience in politics, human affairs and
insider knowledge is what I desire most.”

McCarthy’s eyes shifted
again; he had to avoid Chairman Obelis’ prying eyes.

“
How do you think I knew
that you were in a comatose state under your burial
spot?”

McCarthy blinked heavily
and looked at Chairman Obelis; he couldn’t resist looking into the
delving eyes of Chairman Obelis. “How did you know where to find
me?”

“
I have my ways,” smiled
Chairman Obelis, “as you have your ways. I will say that you aren’t
the only person they did that to, but they weren’t as important to
me as you.” Chairman Obelis flared his nose widely. “Now, tell me
what is it that is bothering you so?” His eyes latched onto
McCarthy’s eyelids and held them open.

“
I can’t!” squealed
McCarthy. His eyes bulged. “They’ll kill me. They will!”

“
You are protected here,
Joe. I promise you that. I am here to help – to help you reach your
full potential.”

McCarthy’s breathing began
to spiral out of control. Chairman Obelis calmly increased the pace
of McCarthy’s drip.

“
Calm, stay calm,” said
Chairman Obelis softly, “you must not leave us again, Joe. You are
important to me – to the world. Tell me how you became
incapacitated; tell me what’s troubling you.”

McCarthy’s breathing slowed
and his eyes widened. He crinkled his nose then felt his heart beat
with his left hand. It was slow, much slower than it had ever been
in his lifetime. His mind was focused, so clear.

“
Joe?”

“
Yes, I’m here,” McCarthy
replied. “What do you need, again?”

Chairman Obelis smiled,
“Tell me what has been on your mind.”

“
I feel as if I can finally
tell you,” replied McCarthy. “That man, that Bob guy. He is…”
McCarthy, albeit clearer of mind, tried to resist saying it. He
could no longer resist. “He’s Malthus. He’s the leader of The
Flagship.”

“
How do you know?” asked
Chairman Obelis, inching closer to McCarthy.

McCarthy touched his neck
slowly, “Tattoo of a syringe. It’s on his neck. He has it on him no
matter the person he is.”

“
Person that he is? What do
you mean?”

“
I may as well let you in
on it since I’m this far in,” said McCarthy steadily. He blinked
down like there was molasses in his eyes. “These Flagship people,
they can stay living for years and years and years.” McCarthy
coughed a mucus laden cough. “I was promised this when they were
done helping the Earth… recover. I knew something fishy was up when
a non-Flagship woke me. Something must have spiraled out of
control… they’ve never lost control.”

“
How do they stay living
for so long?”

McCarthy motioned for
Chairman Obelis to hand him the glass of water on the nightstand.
Chairman Obelis handed McCarthy the glass. After a large, dawdling
gulp, McCarthy replied, “I’m not completely sure, honestly. They’re
not shapeshifters like in the folksy myths – they can’t just become
whatever they want. It takes several years for them to become
someone
new
. I was
never let in on how they do it, but I often met their new bodies
after they switched over.” McCarthy felt his heartbeat again. Still
slow and steady. “Malthus was one of the few that rarely changed
his look; he was rarely in the public eye… It’s shocking, to me,
that he changed now. Why now?”

“
That’s something my father
never mentioned,” said Chairman Obelis. He bit his lip. “What did
you mean by
recover
? What are they trying to do to help the earth
recover?”

“
They’re all about saving
the planet – not in a ‘free love’ hippie sense, but in a save the
planet from impending doom sense. They’ve always understood how
burdensome humans have become on the Earth and they will do, and
have done, anything necessary to keep the Earth safe by culling
large populations of humans: starting wars, inducing famine,
planting disease, bribing politicians to force policy, a slew of
natural disasters and so on.” McCarthy took another drink of his
water. “Except those things rarely took out enough of the
population to keep things in order for the long run of humanity.
They constantly prodded nations to fight one another; it was their
go-to and simplest method.” McCarthy gulped down more water.
“Keeping the human population low has always been of the utmost
importance to The Flagship. Yet, something must have happened
within the group because the Earth is swarming with us,
humans.”