Anthem's Fall

Chapter Sixty Three

Most of the eyes in the ballroom were watching them on the stage, but she felt in a secluded world, encompassed only by Vengelis and the threat of his power. He had thrown a grown man hundreds of feet. Bullets had deflected against his chest and face and fallen to the stage like nothing at all. Kristen was mentally sprinting through any and all logical explanations, but coming up with absolutely nothing to explain what she had just witnessed.

"You," Vengelis said to the hotel manager still curled on the stage at his feet. Vengelis nudged him pitilessly with his foot. "The broadcast that's playing on the billboards outside. Chicago. Can you get it to play on this screen in here?"

"I-I don't know," the man wheezed.

"Let me reword it. I want the footage of Chicago playing on that screen. Now."

The man scrambled to his feet and Kristen stepped out of the way, allowing him to the podium. She felt as though she and the manager were being held at gunpoint; though in truth they were being held by something worse—something evidently impervious to guns.

Vengelis turned to Kristen. "Can you tell me anything about what you just read."

"Well," Kristen spoke slowly, "assuming it is the same as the Vatruvian technology I know, that abstract glossed over a dozen dissertations and several thousand pages worth of content. That aside, I am familiar with the subject."

Whoever wrote the report she held in her hands clearly had a greater grasp of Vatruvian cell technology then she did. Even in the brief introduction to the article, it was obvious the researchers were beyond the stage of Professor Vatruvia's team. However, that did not mean Kristen failed to understand what she read. She had been able to surmise more than a little bit of information from the loaded sentences.

Three particular references, the only true variables that differed from basic Vatruvian cell technology, had caught Kristen's eye: Felix, Primus, and Sejero traits.

Felix was clearly interchangeable with Vatruvian. If these Vatruvian, or Felix, replicate entities were created using people like Vengelis as genetic templates, Vengelis and his people thus had to be biological entities: a species known as Primus. That fact was irrefutable. Just as the Vatruvian mice in their cages uptown had been created using biological genetics as a template, so too must any Vatruvian identity. Beyond the obviously shattered ethical boundaries brought up in the scientific summary written by a one Pral Nerol, there was one question that stood out above all others to Kristen. There was one thing alone she did not understand, and therefore the crux of her remaining confusion.

"What are Sejero traits?" Kristen asked.

Vengelis shifted and failed to hide the surprise at being asked the question so directly. "I need you to figure out what everything else means. The Felixes are what concern me. I have no questions about Sejero genetics, they are irrelevant."

"Sejero genetics?" Kristen's gaze narrowed. "What does that mean? The article already made reference to Primus genetics. I'm assuming that is what you call yourself, a Primus?"

"Yes."

"Well, if that's the case, then what are Sejero genetics?"

Vengelis visibly thought over the question, and Kristen recognized at once that she had pinpointed something he did not want her to know. He was staring at her uncertainly when the large vaulted windows overlooking Times Square suddenly crashed down on the ballroom floor. Kristen turned to the clatter and watched with blank dismay as two gigantic men flew into the room. They were wearing the similar strange attire as Vengelis, and greeted the young man who had at first introduced himself to her as emperor with dramatic salutes. Kristen was immediately unsure which attributes were more terrifying, the fact that these beastly things could fly, or their gargantuan size and unnatural muscle. They each seemed to be nine feet tall, and more muscle bound than the bulkiest body builder Kristen had ever seen. They would have looked like grizzly bears standing on hind legs were it not for their humanlike faces.