yes. English. Spanish. French. Japanese.
Any language you choose, when it’s lucid. But all he says is that
his real name is Cain. When he’s conscious, however, he’s
dangerous. Very dangerous. We’ve already lost six men. Only the
lights keep him in check. Sunlight burns him. These are
ultraviolet. Too little, and he’ll tear your head off. Too much and
it fries him to a crisp. But at just the right levels...”
“Why don’t you just destroy it?” I asked,
looking at the smoldering corpse in disgust. “If it’s so
dangerous?”
The General gave me a look that I couldn’t
quiet read, then stepped into the circle of light. From his
holster, he removed his .45 and proceeded to put three bullets into
the bound figure.
I recoiled in shock, horrified that the
General would act on my suggestion so literally. But as Groves
returned his weapon to its holster, I noticed the slumped figure
had hardly wavered from the impact of the shots. The bullet holes
in his flesh appeared to rapidly heal over, until twenty seconds
after being shot, there was no sign that the man had even been
injured.
“Dear God!” I exclaimed as the General
stepped out of the light.
“Except for direct sunlight, PFC Elton there
is almost totally invulnerable to physical attack. His strength is
easily that of twenty men. Whatever else that the PFC is, he is
most certainly a formidable weapon. The brass have taken note. The
White House has set up a new committee. Designation MJ-12. They’re
calling the shots on this one. They’re looking for anything that
might give us a leg up on the Pinkos. They sent him here for us to
study before he’s destroyed. They want to know if we might be able
to reproduce the technology that created him.”
“Technology?” I looked into the circle of
burning light. “But he’s not a machine. He’s a monster.”
“Mmm,” the General agreed. “But monsters have
their uses.”
Chapter 15
I’ll skip ahead here. There are pages and
pages of Dark recruiting a scientific team and setting up the
laboratory specifically to study the subject they’d codenamed
Cain.
It’s pretty dreary stuff. Lots of details.
Needless to say, the whole operation was strictly off-book with the
Army, but the mysterious executive committee, MJ-12 is able to
provide Groves and Dark with all the recourses they need.
Dark had no scientific experience himself,
but he’s acting as a sort of ideas man for the General. Groves, for
his part, cherry picks the best minds out of the post-war medical
and biological communities.
It all adds up to something about the size of
a Manhattan Project, Part Two. Both Groves and Dark are convinced
that Cain represents a new type of weapon, their atomic super
solider, one that can dominate whatever future fallout-soaked
battlefield America finds itself fighting on.
They’re desperate to weaponize their prisoner
in some fashion. They hope to somehow harness his strength and
agility without replicating the sun allergy or the loss of life
functions. With a whole platoon of soldiers like Cain, they know
that the U.S. Army would be unstoppable. It reads like something
lifted straight out of one of Dark’s pulp sci-fi novels. Novels he
hadn’t yet written.
Soon, they were making staggering advances,
inventing much of the science as they go along: DNA, genomeic
sequencing, endogenous retrovirus polymorphism. They’re breaking
ground on a lot of what we now know as molecular biology. Cain
represents, above all else, a genetic mystery. A mystery the
General and Dark are eager to solve.
Cain’s thirst for blood comes late to their
understanding. Keeping him in a constant torpor as they are, they
remain ignorant to the exact reasons behind his murderous
tendencies. But as time passes, and the PFC’s health seemed to
worsen, the scientist team are forced to examine how their patient
is able to stay alive at all. The longer they deny Cain blood, the
more human he seems to become.
Any language you choose, when it’s lucid. But all he says is that
his real name is Cain. When he’s conscious, however, he’s
dangerous. Very dangerous. We’ve already lost six men. Only the
lights keep him in check. Sunlight burns him. These are
ultraviolet. Too little, and he’ll tear your head off. Too much and
it fries him to a crisp. But at just the right levels...”
“Why don’t you just destroy it?” I asked,
looking at the smoldering corpse in disgust. “If it’s so
dangerous?”
The General gave me a look that I couldn’t
quiet read, then stepped into the circle of light. From his
holster, he removed his .45 and proceeded to put three bullets into
the bound figure.
I recoiled in shock, horrified that the
General would act on my suggestion so literally. But as Groves
returned his weapon to its holster, I noticed the slumped figure
had hardly wavered from the impact of the shots. The bullet holes
in his flesh appeared to rapidly heal over, until twenty seconds
after being shot, there was no sign that the man had even been
injured.
“Dear God!” I exclaimed as the General
stepped out of the light.
“Except for direct sunlight, PFC Elton there
is almost totally invulnerable to physical attack. His strength is
easily that of twenty men. Whatever else that the PFC is, he is
most certainly a formidable weapon. The brass have taken note. The
White House has set up a new committee. Designation MJ-12. They’re
calling the shots on this one. They’re looking for anything that
might give us a leg up on the Pinkos. They sent him here for us to
study before he’s destroyed. They want to know if we might be able
to reproduce the technology that created him.”
“Technology?” I looked into the circle of
burning light. “But he’s not a machine. He’s a monster.”
“Mmm,” the General agreed. “But monsters have
their uses.”
Chapter 15
I’ll skip ahead here. There are pages and
pages of Dark recruiting a scientific team and setting up the
laboratory specifically to study the subject they’d codenamed
Cain.
It’s pretty dreary stuff. Lots of details.
Needless to say, the whole operation was strictly off-book with the
Army, but the mysterious executive committee, MJ-12 is able to
provide Groves and Dark with all the recourses they need.
Dark had no scientific experience himself,
but he’s acting as a sort of ideas man for the General. Groves, for
his part, cherry picks the best minds out of the post-war medical
and biological communities.
It all adds up to something about the size of
a Manhattan Project, Part Two. Both Groves and Dark are convinced
that Cain represents a new type of weapon, their atomic super
solider, one that can dominate whatever future fallout-soaked
battlefield America finds itself fighting on.
They’re desperate to weaponize their prisoner
in some fashion. They hope to somehow harness his strength and
agility without replicating the sun allergy or the loss of life
functions. With a whole platoon of soldiers like Cain, they know
that the U.S. Army would be unstoppable. It reads like something
lifted straight out of one of Dark’s pulp sci-fi novels. Novels he
hadn’t yet written.
Soon, they were making staggering advances,
inventing much of the science as they go along: DNA, genomeic
sequencing, endogenous retrovirus polymorphism. They’re breaking
ground on a lot of what we now know as molecular biology. Cain
represents, above all else, a genetic mystery. A mystery the
General and Dark are eager to solve.
Cain’s thirst for blood comes late to their
understanding. Keeping him in a constant torpor as they are, they
remain ignorant to the exact reasons behind his murderous
tendencies. But as time passes, and the PFC’s health seemed to
worsen, the scientist team are forced to examine how their patient
is able to stay alive at all. The longer they deny Cain blood, the
more human he seems to become.
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