The Eden Projects (Book I)

Chapter 41. Baby Steps.

- Maliver -

"One two three... One two th- One- Are you listening?" Maliver tugged at the harness he had strapped to Zero. "Are you listening to me." 

"Yes- I apologize." Zero was focused on other things. Like the way the light swam across the metal table. How beautiful the sharpness of it was. He was awake, and he couldn't recall just how long he hadn't been. It was all new. New in ways that made his body shudder and his fingertips cold.

"I understand this is all very interesting-" He looked at the lights, "-but I do need you to focus." Maliver tightened the straps that zigged and zagged across his chest and back. "Is it nerves then?" 

To say Maliver cared for Zero would have been an understatement. His plan had always hinged on this moment, and like a vendetta, he would never let a moment pass without painting it red first. This was it. They were nearing the end. 

Zero was special. For all intents and purposes, he was the half that hadn't broken. At least, not completely. The boy was Kasper's direct antithesis. The answer to the question, the proof of the possibility and promise his work once held. 

"No sir." Zero looked past him, at the other officers assigned to follow under him. They all readied quietly, separate, yet together. He was held away from them by double thick glass and buffering precautions. "I'm thinking about the target." Zero never questioned his emptiness. He didn't mind it. So long as Maliver held his hand when he walked through it. 

"What of it? It's just like any other asset, even the Eden assets from the first study. Give or take a few brain cells." Maliver patted him. "The most important thing is to find its weakness quickly, locate the instability, and cripple it that way. If it gets a leg up and is able to make physical contact with you first then we are too late. In a battle of strengths, he would win you out." 

"I know." Zero took a sip from the slurry of blood that jostled in his metal cup. "It just looks so much more human than I expected. It surprised me." 

"It isn't." Maliver bristled, obviously offended by the notion. "Devils hide best in familiar furs." He looked him in the eyes. "There's very little in the way of humanity left out there. Even for the people remaining. There is no order, no law. We are order, Ark is law. Remember that you are different from them. They could never hope to understand you. Only I can. Only Ark can..." He sighed. "Maybe I should send Legion and return you to testing. Be done with this. Things like this shouldn't be rushed." 

"NO-" Zero belted out. His voice wavered. I can't go back there. I can't do it again. "No, I'll handle this." He wasn't sure why, but everything in him crippled at the suggestion.

"Can I trust that you won't let me down." Maliver scooted back on his stool. "Can I trust you to keep us safe." Wheeling over to a table, and grabbing a pile of papers that sat waiting for him. "To be the seed of order in that barren chaos." He penned down some abject something at the pages center.

"Yes sir." Zero straightened. 

Maliver smiled softly. "Good. Let's begin..." 

The envoy units rumbled down the road, their oversized tires stirring up the dirt and loose foliage that all but covered the roads heading away from their outpost. It was all so new to Zero. The light, the window. Something other than the back of his eyelids. The lugs made a curious glugging noise whenever they found clear pavement. For at least a part of the team, this was their first time in a very long while, leaving Ark perimeters. They were all as groggy as owls. It was late, and the sun had just nearly swung out of the sky, painting the horizon in pale shades of pink and orange.