Viral Love

The telephone awoke me. I jerked my head from the desk and looked blearily at the clock while groping for the infernal ringing. Three in the morning. I’d fallen asleep over my calculations. “Yes?” I answered.

“We got them.” The abduction team leader sounded winded. “Wouldn’t have been possible without the tranquilizer guns. I’m flying them in now. Which part of the labs?”

“I’ll meet you at the helipad,” I said, hanging up. Excitement coursed through me. Finally, I had a way to go forward in this quest.

I put my lab coat back on, checked my own tranq gun and made sure my 454 had a full chamber. I might have to shoot someone on the way. Scarlet and Heideggar were relentless. I’d heard Robert attacking someone close to midnight.

“With me, Robert,” I said, collecting him outside the door. “What did you do with the latest assassin?”

“He’s in a cell right beside the last five,” Robert answered, trotting to keep up with me.

“Good. Tell my pharmaceutical testing team to use him. Our SOLDIERs need better pain killers.” I punched the elevator button. “We’re going to the roof to meet an abduction team. Get on your PHS and alert the holding facility we have guests coming.”

Obediently, Robert did as I ordered. We got on the elevator and it began to climb. At the seventy-second floor, I heard an ominous creaking noise. Cursing myself for a fool, I grabbed the handrail and climbed atop it quickly. “Get up here,” I said. “We have to get the ceiling panel open, and fast.”

Robert helped me punch through. I climbed up, grabbing Robert’s shoulder and the top of the cable. I’d moved just in time. The car dropped like a stone, leaving me and my orderly hanging from the thick wire. Concentrating on Jenova, I extended a tentacle from my back and wrapped it firmly around him. “Don’t panic,” I snapped as he began to twist. “I won’t drop you.”

I began to climb. The floor above us seemed very far away, and though I easily managed Robert’s weight, he’d fainted. I’d have to throw him through the next set of elevator doors. I vowed to get Scarlet, or Heidegar, or both of them for this. I couldn’t get any work done with their constant attempts upon my life.

I threw Robert. He was heavy enough to break the doors, which allowed me to freely enter the seventy-fourth floor. A group of office people gaped at me and at Robert, who now sat up and groaned. I cuffed his collar and hauled him upright, dragging him through the knot of curious cubicle-dwellers.

The stairs slowed us down considerably, but I managed to get us to the roof just as the helicopter touched down. The team leader hopped out and jogged over to me. “They’re starting to come around, but John’s got guns trained on them and they’re secured,” he informed.

“Good. Break out the stretchers.” I lit a smoke and called for my own containment team. They’d back me up if these SOLDIER cast-offs caused trouble.

They got the clone out first. He groaned and flopped, his blue eyes uncomprehending. He turned his head, saw me and closed his eyes again. “Hojo,” he murmured. “What…?”

“Stay still and you won’t feel as dizzy,” I advised. They carried him to the side and put him down, one man holding a machine gun on him. “No,” I barked at the man. “He’s not to be harmed even if he’s escaping. I need him and everyone else alive.”

“But sir,” the soldier said, looking reluctant to accept a tranq gun from one of my people. “This is Cloud Strife, enemy of Shin-Ra!”

“And,” I countered, “possibly the cure for Geostigma. Point that gun at him one more time and I’ll shoot you myself.” Several members of my containment crew drew their own guns and leveled them at him, not waiting for compliance.

He took the tranq gun and did not look at any of us again.

Next came the clone’s girlfriend. As she was probably the most dangerous of them all, I stepped up to give her a sedative. Her dark brown eyes focused on me reluctantly. Fear, revulsion and dread found a home in her gaze. “You bastard, Hojo,” muttered.

I injected her. “I’m not going to hurt you or any of your friends,” I told her. She went to sleep almost instantly.

The next stretcher held my old rival in love. He wasn’t the slightest bit unaware. His crimson gaze fastened on me and his gauntlet covered hand curled. The abduction team had bloodied him in the effort of subduing him. Cuts and bruises decorated his poreless face. I saw a bullet hole in his shoulder and one in his chest. He leaked blood.

“Marcus,” I said, waving one of my men over. “Get my surgical nurse out of bed and in the medical lab.” I was furious. I couldn’t have been clearer when telling these abduction team idiots they weren’t to harm the AVALANCHE members. “Triage him,” I further instructed. “He’s taken lead.”

So saying I whirled on the captain of this little excursion. “Who shot him?” I asked.

The man nodded at the one I’d had a disagreement with already. “Foley. Vampire freak tried to rip his throat out.”

I looked at Foley. “He hasn’t a scratch on him. What do you think I gave you the modified tranquilizers and guns for, recreation?”

“Listen, doc,” the captain said, but I cut him off.

“Doctor or professor, not doc, you overgrown homunculus.” I drew my gun, turned and blew Foley’s head off. “Disregard my stipulations for an abduction in the future, captain, and you’ll join Foley in the Lifestream. I’m not someone you can bully or placate.”

“Yes, sir,” the captain said quickly. “But, Professor, the vampire-.”

“He isn’t a vampire. I don’t care what kinds of pulp horror movies entertain you. Now, where are the others?” I saw no more stretchers or people in the helicopter.

“Couldn’t get them, I’m sorry,” he said, turning pale. “The little ninja bitch, the big darkie and the airship captain got away.”

Lovely. Now I had to worry about people breaking into Shin-Ra as well as breaking out. “You’re a miserable failure,” I told him. “Fortunately, I don’t often shoot people for fucking up. Get out of my sight.” The man moved to get Foley’s corpse. “Leave him,” I snapped. “He’s spare parts.”

I whirled and started gathering my people. Marcus stood over Valentine, patiently asking questions that the ex-Turk wouldn’t answer. I jerked him away. “Marcus, did you get Leanne?”

“Yes, professor. She’s on her way.” Marcus reached out, pointing. “Sir, he’s been hit three times. The other bullet is in his thigh.”

“Wonderful.” I looked down at the glaring Vincent Valentine. “I’ll never understand how a Turk got a hero complex. Did he hit you anywhere else?”

Valentine remained mute. I’d expected as much. Still, he worried at his restraints, which weren’t zip ties at all but adamantine clamps. They groaned under his force, threatening to warp. Blood began flowing freely from his various holes.

I measured a dose of sedative for him and met his eyes over the needle. “Fighting me won’t solve anything. My advice is to relax.”

“I’ll relax when you’re dead and in pieces,” he uttered, his usually rough voice as cold and raw as I’d ever heard it.

“Then, you’re shit out of luck.” I gave him his injection, forcing myself not to just stab the needle into him. “I’m eternal, like you.”