Cascade

15 - Recall

15 - Recall

“Jordan! Fire up the bird and let’s go!” Claire called as they ran out of the building across the landing bay.

“What’s going on?” Jordan asked. “I thought you guys would be in there a lot longer. The cops said their response time will still be about another ten minutes.”

“Good. That gives us plenty of time to bug out of here.” Claire said.

“Where are we going?” Jordan asked, flipping switches to engage the dragonfly engines. Melissa hopped in the back and Claire seated herself in the pilot’s chair once more.

“We have to get to Reynos.” She said, putting the headset over her ears.

“And we have to do it in less than an hour.” Melissa said. As Jordan buckled up, the craft rose into the air and burned for upper atmosphere.

“What happens in an hour?”

“Terminus protocol.” Claire said.

“In the years of being starved, beaten, imprisoned, psychologically manipulated and neglected, you ever wondered why we didn’t just run away?” Melissa asked.

“I guess you guys had no other place to go.” Jordan said.

“That’s part of it. But mostly, we knew we would die if we ever tried.” Claire said. “The Terminus Protocol is a failsafe. Dr. Luray designed it himself. Each of us was designed in a unique way. While the augmentations amongst us mostly serve to provide us with some form of an advantage or another, they also present weaknesses.”

“Being able to synthesize any compound within the blood comes in handy when one is a chemical weapon.” Melissa said. “The nano-synthesizers within my system also provide filtration. Breakdowns of common poisons and toxins. Enhanced balance of salinity, pH, blood sugar, things of that nature.”

“Now imagine each of those synthesis machines were given different commands.” Claire said. “What if they were told to produce arsenic, or cyanide? What if the regulating system was told to keep the blood at a pH of 3, or imbalance calcium and potassium levels?”

“My own bionics would destroy me in seconds.” Melissa replied.

“But we can stop it right? After all, you can heal, Claire. You would survive a chemical attack.” Jordan said. Claire shook her head.

“I won’t experience a chemical attack. If the cybernetic enhancements in my brain exchange massive currents with each other, it will fry all the brain cells in between like a short circuit. Painless perhaps, but I’d be dead before you could blink.”

“Ok.” Jordan said. “So we wrap you guys in foil. You said you had an hour.”

“Thirty minutes for the report to get to Reynos, thirty minutes for the Terminus Protocol to be sent back.” Melissa said.

“Well we could wrap you in foil. Wait it out. If the signal never gets to you guys, there’s no problem.”

“Doesn’t work like that. It’s a neutrino signal. Doesn’t matter how clever you get, the signal will just pass right through.” Claire said.

“Well, what if we slip around it?” Jordan asked. “We could just time it right.”

“And if we don’t?” Melissa asked. “What if we slip to Reynos too soon? We’ll be so close, we’d get hit with the signal within a second. It’s too risky.”

“Well there has got to be some way around this.”

“There is.” Claire replied. She looked at Melissa. “We have to die.”