Time Traveling Vampire Assassin (TTVA)

Chapter 2: Mark Smith

Every time animals larger than an insect, such as mice, rats, and lizards were teleported, they reappeared dead, with their tissue stretched or distorted and their hearts combusted. One day I overheard my father talking with one of the other scientists, named Bill Kingsley, after another failed attempt.

"It's just not working," my father exclaimed, "My machine is fine, it's that the life forms are too weak!"

"Look, we've been doing some research on longevity and stumbled on this guy—he might hold the answers you need," replied Dr. Kingsley. "He is currently going by the name Mark Smith, but we've found evidence that he's existed for over 80 years, without visibly aging past his 20's."

"So what, it could be his father or grandfather you're finding evidence of, and if he really is immortal, why didn't you inform me on this sooner?"

"No but here's the thing," Dr. Kingsley said quickly, "We just got real hard proof that it's him. I wouldn't have kept this from you—hey, why is that girl still here?" I quickly turned away, pretending not to have been eavesdropping on them.

"Oh, Clariece, you can go home now. We're done here for today," my father said as he noticed me standing awkwardly behind a filing cabinet. That night I couldn't stop thinking about the immortal Mark Smith, could it really be possible? If so, he might be able to withstand the force of being teleported through time and space.

    After that my dad pretty much abandoned his time travel research, and focused on how this Mark Smith guy could be immortal, as well as preparing many experiments to do on someone like him if they ever found him. My father and Bill had come to the conclusion that one possibility was that his DNA must be altered or mutated in a way that stopped or slowed down the general decay and breakdown of the cells. Another theory was that this was all an elaborate prank put on by a rival scientific organization, such as SCREE, the Scientific Community of Research on Ecological Enhancements. But that theory proved wrong when the 'field research team' (who were actually little more than professional hitmen) finally found him. He had been difficult to track down, as he kept moving from city to city and using fake IDs and aliases. However, they finally got word from one of their many spies that he was holed up in a fancy hotel in Paris. He had figured out that he was being followed, and they had to stake out the place for about a week before he finally came out.

    They ambushed him, and had him surrounded before he could run. I heard later that they had tried to talk to him, but he put up resistance and had to be shot with several tranquilizer darts before he went down. They brought him back to the London headquarters, as it was the closest one nearby. Thankfully it only took a few hours and they had him in the building before sunrise, or they wouldn't have had anything to experiment on.

To be continued...