NOVEMBER 16, 05:27 PM:
Jack was laying in bed after the medical staff had operated on him. They took samples, blood and tissue. It was over for now, but Jack knew that one day they were going to dissect him. He was just a lab rat for them.
The voices had ceased. He called them, but they didn’t want to respond.
But they kept their word. His mental ability has been amplified and he could see and hear what those he had infected were doing.
He saw Jester along with Snails and other metalopods in a warehouse. Jester was feeding them and watching the news. He have heard his conversation with Malcolm.
And he could see and hear, general Patterson.
The man that tried to help him, but infected himself with the reptilian virus in the process.
“You have to see this sir.” His younger assistant told him. Ever since he arrived back in Washington this afternoon, the general has been sitting in his office looking stressed. Jack could feel his tension, the sweat over his infected arms. The general had asked about a high security project codenamed “Reborn” and was waiting for information. He mentioned a lot of names - Dr. Noah Weiss, Colonel Green, Lieutenant Pierce, and others. Asked for the staff to call them for a briefing in the evening.
‘Was it a government project after all?’ Jack wondered.
“What is it?” the general asked. “I am in the middle of something.”
“Someone released an enormous amount of information an hour ago, implicating hundreds of government personnel in various crimes.” The assistant said. “You sir are not among them, but some of your colleagues-“
The general gave her a questioning look.
“And there is a lot of information about the recent events… alien leaks and all.” The assistant added.
“What did it say? Have you seen it?” the general asked her.
“Well, the new thing is a video where Jack Trimmer explains the strategy of the enemy. Calls them ‘Reborn’-“
‘That blood spatter kid.’ Jack though. ‘He has released the video.’
The general looked shock at his assistant and then took a look at the ceiling.
Jack wasn’t sure if the general was paying any attention to what he had heard. He looked as shocked when he heard the name “Reborn”, as Jack looked, when the general mentioned it an hour ago.
“-and there is a recording implicating that the FBI, police, government, the mob and other institutions have been infiltrated.” The assistant ended.
“Please prepare an underground office in Ring G for me, will you?” the general asked. “And send security to my home. At least two teams. Tell my wife, that I would sleep in the Pentagon for a few days.”
The assistant nodded and exited the room.
The general didn’t waste a second and dialed a number.
“What the hell did you find about Project Reborn? I expected you to call me twenty minutes ago.” He shouted.
Jack couldn’t hear what the other man on the line said, but the general continued shouting.
“What do you mean, there is nothing in the archive? And don’t you dare mock me - those people are real. There has to be something about them.”
More unknown words poured out of the phone, when the general just hung up the phone in anger.
The general didn’t waste even a minute. Jack was surprised as the man looked at least eighty years old, but moved like a twenty years man. He dialed another number and called.
“Vise president Cameron. I am calling related to an issue of national security. I would like you to organize a meeting with the general staff and invite the president if you can. It’s about project Reborn.”
The general paused while Jack heard some mumbling on the other line and then continued.
“It’s one of our top secret projects that we started developing in 2004, but had to cancel in 2005. In fact the entire Area 51 was destroyed due to its failure. Nuked.”
More mumbling followed and the general continued.
“We were developing a specialized military branch that went rogue.” He paused. “But it didn’t end in 2005. The Reborn resurfaced in 2007 again and we sacrificed more than a hundred thousand people - military contractors that whose deaths we attributed to various conflicts all over the world. We prevented them from spreading all over Nevada, and bombed the place a second time, just in case. And now looks like they are back.”
More mumbling followed. Shouting. Jack could make out the words “all over the united states.”
“It might be worse, sir. If they reached New York, they might have reached Mexico and Canada as well. They might have gone global. That’s why the president must attend this meeting.”
Something else was said, and the general ended the call.
He sat on his laptop and started browsing all that he could find about that Jack Trimmer guy, when Jack saw the article “Senior FBI Director dies in a chain crash, a day after downtown fight”. Patterson saw it too and read through the article. It mentioned that the director had ordered a separate investigation into the agency, that has been postponed after his death.
‘Skinner.’ Jack thought. ‘He was always by-the-book agent. They couldn’t convert him, so they silenced him.’
Jack felt the general’s concern and nervousness, just as he noticed another news article.
“Close to a hundred deaths in a day, related to irresponsible behavior in Philadelphia”
The general read through the article.
“A large number of deaths have occurred in Philadelphia, caused by people acting irrationally, such as driving blindfolded and attempting to free zoo animals. Part of those deaths are related to irresponsible handling of fire arms, such as a family where a five-year-old boy shot his father and brother with his father’s service weapon, as well as several cases of irresponsible handling of firearms withing the Philadelphia police department.”
The general walked his hands though his face, as he redialed that number.
“It’s me again. Tell everyone to increase their security detail. If they are currently in a government building to hide in the basement or something. That goes for the president too.”
Jack heard some mumbling, when the general shouted.
“I am serious, and I am doing that too. The Pentagon has already been attacked, and I am telling you - Al-Qaeda are kindergärtners compared to these men.” He paused. “And they may have compromised more than one black government project. I believe that the “brain impairment virus” has been released in Philadelphia. They might have compromised our cloning operation in Oregon as well.”
The general didn’t wait for the next dose of mumbling and shouted at the phone.
“I know, that you don’t know what I am talking about, so just organize the meeting and I will brief all of you tomorrow.”
The general ended the call, just as his assistant entered the room.
“Your basement office is ready, sir.”
The general packed his laptop, took his jacket, his gun and a briefcase and followed his assistant down the basement.
‘A military branch?’ Jack thought. ‘A project that failed? Viruses and clones.’ Jack gasped. ‘What the hell has the government been doing?’
‘Are the Reborn actually American?’ he asked himself.
Jack had so many questions, but he could feel that the general was shaking. He was scared shitless.
Once he entered his basement office. He locked the room, blocked it with furniture, loaded his gun and opened the briefcase.
He pulled a bottle of an old whiskey, filled a large glass and drank it in two large sips. He repeated that two more times and got the bottle back in the briefcase.
Then the general spread his jacket on the couch and laid down with the gun next to his head.
Jack thought it might be a good idea to do the same, but he couldn’t fall asleep due to all the things he had heard.
Not like the general. That man really knocked himself out with that old whiskey.
And then Jack saw them.
Small ants.
They have melted through a small tiny hole in the wall large enough to push a piece of paper through, and that is just what they did. They pushed a couple of papers through and dragged them on top of the cabinet.
Jack tried to scream, tried to alert the general, but he could do nothing. Just watch.
The ants opened the briefcase, very quietly without making a noise.
‘How the hell?’ Jack asked, but then remembered that if he had seen the combination, so had the Reborn.
They put the papers in the briefcase and closed it.
Then they disappeared just as fast as they appeared.
‘They are framing him.’ Jack thought. ‘The only man who knows what the hell is going on here.’
He tried to force himself out of that bed, but the straps were too strong.
Jack could only sleep and dream nightmares.
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