Doctor Frankenstein Read online

  “I have that one. I was always told that, actually. Even with Mary using that as her last name. That I’m called that is a joke as well. I’m not certain I get it, to be honest. It’s kind of… Strained, to my perspective.”

  This time the laughter was clearly false.

  “Oh, I hear you there! Liam isn’t bad though. A good, manly name. Poor Nicolas actually has the balance issues, so he kind of shambles. Plus, he’s big, so using that name is a lot more obvious for him. On you it just sounds like you had an unusual family. I wouldn’t blame you for changing it, to be honest.”

  There was a pause in conversation, with the other man tracking back a bit, before going on.

  “Now, I was made of different human beings, since the idea that any mammal flesh would integrate after the treatments took hold wasn’t a thing Davison could grasp. He was an odd man. I think Marcello was too, from what little I’ve heard. Autistic spectrum disorder, I think we’d call it now. Brilliant, but not exactly good at all the human stuff that was needed. Not that I’m knocking it. We probably wouldn’t exist if they’d been like everyone else.”

  Liam nodded then.

  “Mary seems fine that way… Only not, really. She’s kind to me, but I don’t think she considers herself my mother in any real fashion. I used to think that, only now, well, she pulled back a lot. Again, she isn’t mean to me or even trying to ignore me… It’s as if she’s already moved on to the next project. She did warn me that Warren was trying to create an army of us. That I was some kind of test subject. Then… Well, I talked to him and she didn't mention it again.”

  The road ahead was still dark, as well as mainly empty. He drove the speed limit, since that was the most sensible way to travel, if you didn't want to bother with being stopped. Most of the others sped past him. Once or twice they passed those people later, pulled over, distracting the police cars for them. Not that Liam had anything to hide, in particular. He had medical supplies, but also identification that showed he was a real doctor. That was in the system as well, so would be accepted, if it was checked on, even if he’d never gone to school for it.

  After a while a soft noise came from the other man. It was considering in tone. As if he was being thoughtful or trying to project that kind of thing to Liam.

  “It’s likely that she’s different in some way or another. That isn’t a bad thing, since if she wasn’t you wouldn’t be here. I do like your idea of us setting a limit on how many of our kind can be made. Warren claims that he’s giving up on his plans for world domination, at least for a while. I don’t know if we can trust in that. He’ll lie, if he thinks it serves him. So will the rest of us, in case it comes up. That’s hard to do with our own, but when the end point is internal to Warren Oaks, there’s no way to really test that. Not until he goes against his word.”

  There was a nervous glance in his direction, as if the words, which were probably both honest and meant to manipulate him, would stir his ire. The thing there was that Liam didn’t really have that. Not like human beings did. He could react and even be violent. It was simply done for a reason that seemed sensible at the time.

  “I know. At least I can accept that it’s likely. Still, if we don’t at least try to trust each other, we can’t make a better world. The thing there is that if he keeps to the current plan, he and the rest of us will probably end up in charge of a lot of the world. With no shots fired and no one being upset with us at all. Unless our pals the A.I.s take over first. Then it will probably be similar, without us having to do the hard work at all. So, what is it they say? Win-win?”

  There was a wink then a look out the window.

  “That’s the saying. So, what’s the plan on the ground here?”

  “We’ll try to get to the first location early and call an hour before we’re supposed to. Then, if Narran is thinking, we’ll get there to be sent to a third location. That might not happen. If not, we’ll want to suggest that kind of thing be protocol for the time being. Your job will be looking for a tail the whole time. If that happens, you’ll need to sneak out and try to follow them. Unless you can do dental work on vampires?” It was possible. The other man was clearly intelligent enough and old, which meant he’d had time to learn many things.

  “Not at all. I can track though. It’s a gift that all of us seem to have, if we know who to look for. I think it’s psychic in nature, instead of an actual sense. Regardless, it works. I can also run a bit faster than most of the others. Warren mentioned you being faster as well?”

  He nodded, since that seemed correct. Not that the muscular power of the rest didn't mean they couldn’t be as fast. You couldn’t throw yourself through the world as easily if you constantly lost your balance. Not that they didn’t have any sense of that kind of thing. It was clear they all did. It just wasn’t as good as a human being for the others. Liam doubted he was any better that way than say, Brenner or Sanchez. The trick there was that he was in the same rough category as them, so he didn’t present as shambling or unsteady.

  It was likely that Vincent was like he was that way. At least he moved differently than the others.

  “Yeah. I can run at about sixty miles per hour, I think. Maybe a little more. I still trip over my giant feet occasionally. I don’t know what Mary was thinking that way. The hands and feet?” He didn’t take them off the controls and the other man didn't look at them too closely.

  “Oh, that one is easy enough. Big hands mean a big… Well, you know the saying.”

  Only he didn’t. Instead of admitting it he just shook his head. After a moment, the other man laughed.

  “It means you have a large set of genitals. At least that’s the joke she was probably going for.”

  He’d never really thought about that kind of thing in relationship to himself before, but nodded then. After all, he was an M.D. He understood things about average penis size.

  “Ah. I’ve wondered. That’s also oversized. It seemed a bit… Unneeded, to be honest. Then I’m young. It might be more useful to me later in life.” He didn’t know. So far that kind of thing had never come up for him. Then he hadn’t been visiting with the neighbor woman, which seemed to be the way that kind of thing came up.

  One of them, anyway.

  He’d seen enough porn to know that it wasn’t the only way it could take place. There was, he knew, also the tradition of pizza delivery. He smiled then, considering that, knowing it was a joke. It wasn’t spoken out loud though, since it could be confusing given the conversation.

  Vincent, who was one of his people, if not related, made an odd pointing gesture at him.

  “That it will, my friend. Almost certainly. Changing the subject… You can see the future?”

  He let his head move side to side, since he didn’t need it to drive. Both hands stayed on the wheel, even if he could control things with one well enough. That wasn’t what the book had instructed him to do, so he tried his best to follow what was expected of him as a licensed driver.

  Even if his papers were totally fake. All of them.

  “I can set up projections that are very accurate. Not perfectly so. I have to have the basic information, and it does show up like a vision. For some reason I haven’t managed it in regards to what we’re going into. We should stop and do that. Once we get there, I could try taking a few minutes for it?”

  That seemed to be the plan.

  They drove, stopped for fuel and talked about a lot of different subjects. Things that didn't make a lot of sense came up, such as how Vincent had been in the theater, as an actor, a long time before. Back when there was no television, only radio. He’d been on the stage though, which had meant being attacked too often to make a career of it. That part, the dissonance that caused others to go after them, hadn’t been fixed by being part vampire in his construction.

  When they finally pulled over, in front of the isolated little shop, which was still open for the day, it being light out, Liam topped the tank. Then he settled into the driver’s seat and
tried to bring about a complete projection as to the attack to come.

  What he managed was very different, though, he had to admit, enough.

  There was a different location, and it wasn’t just himself and Vincent there. The others were as well. By counting back he got that it was in thirteen days, almost exactly. Inside the house behind them, an isolated country place. Narran and half a dozen of her kind, including Sondra and Nicodemus, were in boxes for the day. Heavy crates with iron tops and sides, that only opened from the inside.

  Outside, as the battle began there were dark figures. Ones that seemed like shadows. That would be some kind of shielding, he thought. Not at that moment, in almost two weeks. No, they were shielded against him in the moment, somehow. So what he was seeing was a place filler, that his mind created. They had good weapons and the house had to be put out after catching fire, twice. Opal did that for them, instead of fighting. That, the battle…

  Wasn’t impressive. The explosions were powerful, and did enough damage to be annoying. The gunfire was loud, but after less than a minute the ten or so beings that came for them were on the ground. Not all of them were dead, either.

  That was where it ended. It was sufficient for him to make a plan from.

  Turning to his cohort, his brother, he thought, even if they weren’t and couldn’t be that by normal ways of thinking, he smiled.

  “That did it. Not incredibly well, but… I have a time and a description of the place we need. We’ll need to get the others up here for it. We have thirteen days. A little less by eight hours or so. This should put an end to the war, if we do it right.” That was the part he intended to hide.

  There were, clearly, several endings. In most of them they simply killed the humans that came, taking the ability to fight away from the remaining enemies so totally that the movement died for at least a century. In another, he saw a glimmer of hope for more. A way to push the humans into being something more than they were. Being free of bigotry and fear of the other. That wouldn’t happen with wholesale murder on the table.

  He was honest with Vince about it, and then, sighing, seeing that night was falling, he called for Narran. Then he was honest with her as well. As much as he could be over the phone.

  Then they changed location. That night Liam did a few pieces of dental work. The next day Vincent and he simply got a hotel room and waited, since he knew, with fair certainty, that Narran was safe without him.

  The others came up when asked, with Nicolas along with them, dressed in nice, if very large clothing. Almost instantly as soon as they met, his older brother stuck his hand out.

  “Liam, isn’t it?”

  “Liam Frankenstein. You’re Nicolas?” If they were doing things officially, it seemed polite to ask about that. He might like to be called something else, after all.

  “Right. Nic Frankenstein. I hate that name, by the way. We have the same creators, so… I guess we do Christmas?”

  Liam got that one, though he hadn’t celebrated that yet. It would be taking place in about a month. In December.

  “We can do that. Right now… Well, we need to stop a war. You all have the plan, right?”

  Oaks was holding back, but nodded, along with everyone else. The house was behind them, and if he had the timing right, they had no more than a five hour wait.

  There was snow on the ground there, though the single road and the driveway had been plowed already. The state had seen to that. It meant they weren’t really caught unaware when the four black combat vehicles pulled up, the people getting out seeming very… Normal. Human.

  Even with their faces covered they were very familiar.

  Liam held up his right hand, waving as they tried to charge in, carrying rifles. As if that was going to help them. Then, they clearly expected dead vampires, not living prometheans. It was a big difference.

  “Hello! It’s the SAU, everyone, formerly of the FBI. Now, why don’t you all put the weapons down…” That’s what he got out, before the nine people in their black uniforms and balaclavas opened fire on them. Most of them aiming at him.

  It stung, of course, the pain of it fading when they all had to reload. The rocket from the launcher took his shirt and most of his pants off, doing enough damage that he was going to look a bit funny for a few days. If they could have hit him with it for an hour or two, it might have even destroyed him beyond his ability to repair. They didn’t have that many of the missiles.

  Even focused on him, several of the others were hit, with Opal carefully putting out the fires that started when the house was hit. There was damage to it, of course. Not enough to harm any of the undead inside, safe in their metal boxes.

  Smiling, Liam didn't charge in or do anything as the men and woman shot at them. Not even when two of them stopped to repeat a cantrip. It was magical in nature, and he could feel the power rising. That, he thought, would be due to the fairy glands that had been placed inside of them. They all probably had that going on, along with something that had baffled his ability to make projections.

  They started to run out of ammunition well before he got tired of being hit. At that point, he waved toward them.

  “Get them. Follow the plan!”

  They tried to run, heading toward the black vehicles. Just as he’d known they would do. Those were turned on their sides, with Oaks doing two of them, walking the whole time. Lissette and Martha did the other two, leaving the poor humans to stand there, with empty weapons. Shaking, more than a bit.

  One of them, a woman, drew a knife.

  He snorted, making certain it was loud enough to be heard from a distance then walked over to them. True he was a little worse for wear, but he’d heal and really hadn’t been in that much danger at any point.

  “Now… Hello! I’m Liam and I’ll be your promethean for the afternoon. There’s been some miscommunication that we’d like to address. Is that all right, do you think? Most of your organization is gone already. Not dead, they just saw that we were being reasonable. Before you react, please recall that you’re all probably worked up and scared, but that we, here, even when attacked, haven’t done that to you? That should be enough to get us a hearing when we claim we aren’t monsters?”

  The woman with the knife didn't drop it, but she put it away and took her black mask off.

  Her hair was pulled back and matted with sweat.

  Liam recognized her, having worked with her before.

  “House, wasn’t it? Ginger House?”

  The woman didn't give a sign that he was correct, even if he obviously was.

  “Frankenstein. So… Okay, you could kill us all. You probably should. We didn’t come for you though. The vampires…”

  Oaks bowed a bit. It was a bit strange, but given his size carried weight and got attention.

  “The vampires helped us set this up, to save your lives. True, they’ve had some issues in the past, coming from a time and cultural background that is a bit more severe than our own. That doesn’t mean they can’t learn or change their own rules to reflect on a new age. We not only don’t need to fight, but doing so makes the world a worse place in the long run, not a better one. We ask that you and your friends aid us in seeking peace. A better world for us all.”

  The words got subtle nods from about half the group, with one of the men actually running up to the man that had for a century or more been known only as a creature, fiend or demon, then tried to beat him with the back of his empty rifle.

  Oaks didn’t even bother to strike him down, simply taking the punishment, not moving, until the man was so spent he couldn’t continue.

  No one else tried that, even if three of those remaining clearly wanted to. Until Opal walked over, at which point the only thing they showed, all of them, was fear. It sang off of them.

  The tiny man, his skin as pale as the snow, grinned. It worked with his bald head.

  “You are misguided, not evil. There is much for you to answer for, I hear? That is not the issue of the moment though.
We seek only peace and ask that you try to be our friends, even if that is difficult for you. Can you do that? Will you try?”

  Liam was ready to take hours to convince them that they were the good guys. Instead, one by one, the masks came off, showing that the attackers underneath were only humans. Men and women who might even mean well, when the full truth was known. They were afraid, but not cowed or becoming violent over it any longer.

  After a while, with all of them asking for friendship, several times, one of the men, who he didn’t have a name for, stepped forward.

  “This is hard for us. You’re all so… Weird. Different. How can we just let you go?” He stopped then, shaking his head. “I mean, we can’t stop you. Any of you… That’s the point. Even with all the changes made to us, we’re helpless here. Rocket launchers did nothing to you. Nothing! How can we beat that?”

  Liam thought for a bit, no one else speaking for a while. When he went, a few of the people in black jumped.

  “That’s the thing, isn’t it? The real issue here. You don’t need to. We don’t need to be beaten. We need to be understood. Some of the groups might need to be managed, true. We’re doing that though. You are. The FBI, in particular. Sure, there are problems, but when they happen, we deal with them. What we don’t need is a war. If we can talk, no matter how heated it gets, we’ll eventually work things out.”

  He wasn’t certain that was the case, but the alternative was a lot worse than chatting.

  If he was given a choice, he knew which one he’d want to work toward. The path of peace and understanding.

  After a while, Ginger House stared at him. For a long time. So deeply that she had to shake herself to break from what she was doing.

  “Okay. I don’t feel comfortable here, but the world never promised us perfection. We’ll deal. What do you want us to do?”

  Not everyone was nodding, but when Liam told them what was needed, they did it. That was going home and not trying to kill anyone, ever again. They couldn’t do that until they had their vehicles back, so, one by one, with a single hand, Liam moved to them and carefully put them back on all four wheels. He wasn’t showing off, simply not using his right arm, since it was dangling a bit and needed to heal before putting that kind of stress on it.