Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

Interlude IX - Magnanimity of the Modern Man - IV

  They stood out at the edges of the room, to avoid any possible interference. Malton stood alone in the center, wearing a sterilized lab coat. Kleiner was hunched over his console, watching a dozen graphs and meters, while Viper and Napowsky watched and waited.

  Malton picked up the piece of parchment, took a deep breath, and lowered his eyes to the page.

  For a few moments, nothing happened. Kleiner glanced over, but all they saw was Malton saying something, his eyes slowly tracing over the Scrap. The monitors showed no unusual activity, except for one. They could hear him, in the otherwise-quiet room, but the computers could not.

  "There's no sound," Kleiner murmured to Viper.

  "Huh?"

  "Look," he added, pointing at the decibel readout. "It's increasing consistently with his breathing, nothing else. But I can hear him speaking from here. It should be registering something." He picked up the headphones and put them on. Viper pointed at his own ear, raising his eyebrows. Kleiner shook his head and set it aside. "Just white noise. Nothing."

  Malton's voice cut off. The lines on the graphs turned into mountains all at once.

  "Heart-rate just doubled. Shit." Kleiner was dancing across the keys. Malton had given them strict instructions not to cross the line, to get every measurement they could. Viper could reassure himself that this was normal, that everyone went through the same awakening process—but seeing his friend start to choke, watching him fall to the ground and twitch, he could barely restrain himself.

  "Show up, damn you..." he murmured. Where was she?

  Shit, what if she can't teleport this far? Every awakening has been in Washington state until now. She is human, ain't she?

  "Brain activity is through the roof. His prefrontal cortex looks like it's on fire." Kleiner's voice had a note of panic now.

  "Calm down, doc," said Viper, though he was having trouble keeping his own voice steady.

  A loud beeping sound. "I lost him!" Kleiner shouted, whipping around—but he needn't have worried.

  She'd appeared, as she always did. Viper let out a huge sigh of relief. He sat back against the console desk, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Grey-eyes was kneeling on the hard surface next to Malton, holding his head up off the ground while she read the rest of the Scrap to him.

  "Amazing..." gasped Napowsky.

  "...Who is she?" asked Kleiner.

  "If you figure that out Doc, you'll be the richest man in the world," said Viper.

  As Malton started to sit up, she vanished again, with only the faintest hint of a breeze. The air was so still, though, that they all felt it even across the length of the room. He rubbed at his eyes, blinking rapidly and shaking off the feeling of the void. Viper took a step forward, but Kleiner held him back by the shoulder.

  "I'm still collecting data. Wait."

  Malton stood back up and stretched out his limbs. He rolled his head around his neck, going through a quick muscle relaxing routine.

  A ball of purest fire burst into life right in front of him.

  Viper's mouth fell open. He'd been awakened for ten seconds, and he could already do that?

  Tess... I hope to god you ain't right about him.