The God Experiment

Chapter No.10. Accession

Chapter No.10. Accession

Janet stared at her image in a bathroom mirror and noted that she had lost all of the wrinkles that had spoiled her face. She had tried all sorts of facial remedies, including masks and lotions, but to no avail. Now she was staring at her newly redone face as if it were that of a stranger's.

She also marveled at how her breasts had lost the dismaying effects of gravity that plague women when they age. She looked young again, and it pleased her, but she was not sure what her friends and coworkers would think.

Robert smiled when she joined him for breakfast. "Like your new looks?"

She sighed. "Yes, but I'm not sure what my coworkers are going to say when they see me like this."

"Tell them that you went to a really good spa."

She huffed. "Yeah, like they're going to believe that."

He waved a dismissive hand at her. "They'll get over it."

"Not to change the subject, but did you see the news of late."

"News is a waste of time. It's literally entertainment nowadays."

"Well, you have become a celebrity. The thing you did at the accident is all over the news."

"Hopefully, that will reveal the evil fool that I'm supposed to thwart."

"How are you going to defeat him? He's obviously as powerful as you are."

"I'm not certain about that. I have one advantage over him."

She tilted her head and gave him a quizzical expression.

"He's anxious to destroy without considering the tactical situation."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like war. Tactics are inherently more important than strategy, which tends to be too generalized."

James rushed into the kitchen. "Hey! Two guys are at the door!"

Robert looked at him for a moment before getting up. He glanced at his wife. 'I'll take care of this."

He went to the front door and opened it. Two guys in standard suits were standing there and they smelled of FBI. "Come in gentlemen," he said, gesturing.

They entered the house but stood together.

"We're here because of your actions at a recent high school hostage situation," the taller guy said.

"Yes, my son was one of the students being held hostage."

"The police report said that there were no armed men inside the school building, but we've recovered surveillance video that shows them shooting at you. How did you avoid being shot?"

"Their aim must have been off," Robert said, knowing full well they wouldn't believe him. "Look, I was a marine in the Iraq War and . . . "

"We know about that, but it doesn't explain how you weren't killed."

"I was in a bad accident ten years ago and ended up in a coma from which I just recently woke up from. While in that coma I conversed with a man who I assume was from God who told me that I would be revived and given powers so that I could prevent an evil person from destroying mankind. I realize that this sounds like nonsense, but it did happen, and I have the powers to prevent this fool from doing any serious shit."

The two men stared at him for a moment before one of them reacted. "For some reason we couldn't make out the face of the man who shot at you. Do you think you could identify him from a group of facial profiles?"

"Actually, I can reproduce his face from my memory."

The man squinted. "You mean you could draw his face?"

"I can make it appear on a computer screen."

It required a few minutes for them to react.

"Come with us, Mr. Steris."

Robert looked back at his wife who was watching all of this from a doorway.

He sat in the back seat of their car on a trip to FBI headquarters, a building downtown near a cluster of other government buildings.

After pulling into a parking garage, the men escorted Robert to an office on the fifth floor of the building. They sat him down near a computer. Robert stared at the screen for a few minutes before he created the face of the man who had shot at him and then told him he would be back.

The FBI agent wasted no time in running the image through their collection of bad actors. After several minutes, they got a match.

"That's Otto Max, one of the most prolific international terrorists out there," the agent said.

"Sounds like a James Bond antagonist," Robert commented.

"This bastard has caused some of the most egregious attacks on record. I can't believe he came to a high school to cause trouble."

"He was after me," Robert said. "I have to assume that he's the evil one that I was told about.

"If you have powers, why didn't you destroy him?" the other agent asked.

"I'm not allowed to kill or do any harm to anyone or anything. The only way that I could hope to destroy him would be if he makes a mistake trying to kill me."

"What precisely can you do?"

"Just about anything as long as it doesn't cause harm. Do you know where this guy hangs out?"

"We wish," the agent said. "We tried to take him out with drones, but he's eluded them in every attempt."

"That's because he has the same powers I do." Robert stood up. "Speaking of that, I think I sense a problem." He vanished.

The one agent turned to the other. "They're not going to believe this."

He shook his head.

Robert appeared in an abandoned building in a dingy section of town. What he was looking at was scary.