Chapter Twenty
On Heart Strings
Destroyed. The word rang like a bell in Dais's head. Normally such a word used about his well being would cause a disturbance in ones mind, yet today was not the case for poor Dais. Yes that word struck some self preservation nerve in his body, and yes his body flexed once or twice to see if the bonds that held him were breakable. It was not that word that caused Dais's head to ring. It was many words, the words used by the older woman to describe his very presence.
War machine.
Dais looked up slightly, his fuzzy mind still replaying those two words in his head. War machine, war machine, war machine, war machine, WAR MACHINE! It bounced from one end of his skull to the other, chasing a phantom rabbit around his brain. He was a war machine, designed for the singular purpose of killing. Dais now knew what he was, and he did not like it one bit. An instrument of destruction, and angel of death as it were.
"Briar." he called out to the young woman standing just below him. She was facing the other way, saying something that had the rapt attention of the older woman. "Help me." Dais whispered, knowing it would never pass the glass hiding him from sight. "Kill me now please." There was no reaction, just as the logical side of his brain had thought it would. Yet he closed his eyes, hoping that this would all fade. Fade to nothing, and let him rest peacefully for once.
Bluue stared at the young woman before her, rage showing in the deep red blush that now covered half her face. "Know him? How do you expect me to know something that has no sense of his own exsistence?" One arm swung outward to point to the still slumped Dais.
"The damned thing isn't even aware that he lives on this planet with other beings! No level of thinking is occurring beyond that of survival! He is a thing, a mechanical thing of flesh and blood. He is a table with the ability to kill you in a heartbeat! Yet you named him, and personified him, making something that DOES NOT EVEN EXSIST!" These last words were aimed at Briar, Bluue's face only inches from hers.
Glaring into the woman's eyes, Briar saw that she would never believe her. There was no amount of yelling or pleading that would make her see things for the way they truly were. That left one option, to give her undeniable proof.
"I'll show you." Steel set into her voice as she stared the older woman down.
"You'll what?" Bluue burst out laughing, tears forming in her eyes. Wiping them with one hand, she looked at Briar still snickering."How do you expect to show me?"
"You are going to let me into that case with him." Again she was met by laughter.
"And why would I do that? Hn?" Bluue grinned slightly.
To her surprise, a small grin passed Briar's lips. "What?" Bluue stopped laughing, intrigued by what this young woman had up her sleeve.
"It was a fluke." Briar stated simply. " If he can speak, if he can show any sign of above average intelligence, then your master set of DNA has a flaw in it. Don't you want to see if this plan is as perfect as you thought it was, or am I wrong?"
Staring at the ballsy young woman smirking triumphantly in front of her, Bluue knew she had been had. If he could talk, could think on his own, then they had damned a sentient soul to a cursed life. If not, then she could patent the specific DNA sequences that morphed him in the fetal stage, and get a larger bonus to retire on.
"Hmm...I am going to retire in a few months. Probably less than a year from now. With a grant the size of what they will pay for his genetic structure, well I could retire in France and never have a worry. But," she bit her lip slightly. "If he is sentient, then I can not sell them his information as it is flawed."
She thought on it another moment, chewing her lip slightly with her bottom teeth. "I have been looking for him for almost nineteen years now." Briar pretended to ignore her, staring at Dais through the glass. "After about ninteen months his egg donor, who worked here at the time, saw what her embryo had been exposed too. One night she snuck in and stole him from his holding room." Bluue looked off into space, almost as if she was nostolgic for such a time. "She was caught outside the building. There was a..." She paused, remembering that night. "confrontation, and the child was lost. The woman was prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and is serving the rest of her life in a small cell in some woman's prison not to far from here." She remained silent for a time, then answered so quickly Briar barely caught it as it whizzed past her head.
"Okay." she glanced at Briar, then drawing her full attention to the figure splayed against the wall. "You have five minutes. He says something intelligible, I shall let you leave." Bluue closed her eyes, sighing. "Hell, I will even take you out of here. But if he does not talk, then I shut the door to this lab, and let the clean up crew do their work. You go to the surface and will never speak a word of this to anyone, under the threat of death. Understood?"
Briar's arms fell to her sides, coming undone from the crossed position they were in. "Thank you. Five minutes." she repeated the time to herself. Stepping back, heels clicking against the floor, Bluue pushed a button on the panel near a large monitor running numbers in some sort of sequence. A crack appeared, and the mirror split into two , allowing Briar access.
Dais hung slumped from the wall, strong shoulders tense as his body weight pulled against him. Hoping she could wake him, Briar got on her toes, and placing two hands on Dais's head, lifted his face to hers. It startled her slightly to see those red orbs already open. How long had he been listening to their conversation? From the look of misery on his face, it had been a long time into the argument.
"Dais?" she cooed, whispering into his ear. "Please. I can get us out of here, I just need a word or two from you. Say something."
He did not utter a word, only glanced at her once, then looked off. It was as if he was not looking at anything on this plane of existence, but instead on some far off point in his mind. Dais had shut down.
Both hands running along his face, she tried to soothe him. Briar fiddled with his dreadlocks, smoothing them away from his face. "Please Dais." she cooed, trying to call him back to her. "One word. Just one. Something, anything to get her to let you go."
Still no response. Risking a glance over at Bluue, Briar saw the older woman pursing her lips. A finger hovered over the button to shut the mirror once again. Time was running out.
"Dais.." she called, one hand resting on his pale and shallow cheek. "Dais..please." Slowly, she moved her hand along his jawline, touch as light as a lover's, calling to him. "Dais." Briar's eyes watered. They were going to kill him if he did not respond, going to rip the life right out of him. Yet, it seemed as if someone had already done that, as he hung there, suspended from the wall, body limp and eyes unmoving. One more time, she called to him, voice barely able to raise above a whisper. "Dais, please. They are going to kill you if you don't say something. Anything. Two words Dais, just two. Please!" her voice rose slightly, begging him. Hand still resting on his face, she looked into his eyes, hoping. Hoping beyond anything that he would respond. Nothing.
"Dais, Dais!" she called, tears once again threatening to fall from her green eyes. "They are going to kill you if you don't say something. Please, for me. Help me save your life."
Behind her, Bluue sighed. Something deep inside of her wanted Briar's story to be true. How long she had remembered the child that had stared at her on that night so long ago. Yet time was up, and the girl had not proven her point. She went to push the button, when she heard Briar's last plea.
"Dais, please. I need you. I really do. Come back to me. Say something, anything. Just don't say nothing." A single tear fell from Briar's cheek, and splattered against Dais's face.
The whisper was barely audible, passing as if some gentle wind. Yet Bluue heard it as well as the woman to whom the sentence was uttered.
"I am a war machine?" Dais choked out, spitting the word out almost as if it burned him to even say it.
Bluue's gasp could be heard from across the room, echoing into the empty room. "Holy shit...." she trailed off.