Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

17

MARS CITY—DELTA LAB

DR. MALCOLM BETRUGER LOOKED AT THE TEAMof scientists standing in a circle around him. Not one of them did he trust.

No, as soon as this workchanged, as soon as things became truly exciting, revolutionary, and, yes, frightening, he could sense the shift. He knew they must talk among themselves. Whispers, grumbles perhaps. Did Kelliher have a spy among them? He wouldn’t be surprised.

So Betruger had started treating them differently.

First, he began compartmentalizing their responsibilities. Now each one of the esteemed team would function—in their area—alone, and report only to him. While he didn’t actually forbid any discussion between any members, he certainly made it clear that he didn’t like it.

And that was the other thing.Fear… Was there a better motivator? A year ago Betruger had looked up to these people as true collaborators, but now each could be a conspirator, someone who might betray the project.

At first they didn’t seem so terribly upset by the animal experiments when some went wrong. But they almost all protested the idea of using a human.

Betruger reminded then:We’re on Mars. There is a reason these experiments are being done here.

The first transfer of a human seemed, initially, to go well. That is, until the private stumbled out of the chamber. He tried to speak. His mouth opened.

“Just rattled by the process,” Betruger offered.

But when the volunteer opened his mouth, everyone saw that the man couldn’t speak because he had no tongue. No teeth either. In fact, his throat seemed to be bubbling up a fountain of blood, shooting it across the lab floor.

The man was dead within minutes.

That was when Betruger had to shock each and every one of them with his speech. “It meansnothing. And we will achieve nothing unless we experiment, unless we learn what works and what doesn’t.”

But even Betruger at first had to wonder.Losing a tongue? Could that really be part of the transfer process?

An autopsy report, done right in Delta, was sent only to him. While there were mumblings about shock, about the volunteer marine biting and swallowing his own tongue, the autopsy report showed something quite different.

The tongue, in fact the whole inner mouth, the palate, a chunk of the throat lining had been—it appeared—serrated away. Somehow…cut out. Now that was intriguing. And wasn’t that what true scientists live for?

As for the second subject, he appeared perfectly fine. A true success. Some of the scientists even applauded like it was a stage show!

The man emerged from the second tank with no signs of anything wrong. He stumbled a bit, his eyes looked around the room. The medical team caught him just as he was about to collapse, then they laid him down on the stretcher.

A success.

Human teleportation across a distance of 30 meters! And the man was fine. But then he woke up. And screamed…

They were too late getting the gurney straps onto the man. He attacked one of the nurses, his teeth closing on her shoulder, brutally ripping out a chunk of flesh, then he leaped—with what seemed an almost inhuman strength—onto one of the scientists, grabbed his skull, prepared to bite down.

Only the swift butt of a rifle from one of the guards got the man off. They knocked him out with Coticin, the high-speed supernarcotic, taking him down immediately.

And whenever he was allowed to emerge from his drug-induced sleep, the screaming would begin again, the straps would look as though they would break.

Betruger ordered him to remain sedated. At least until he knew what happened.

And something he didn’t tell anyone, not certainly the scientific team, so much more interesting than mere teleportation. Betruger had ideas—theories—but he kept them to himself. After all, there was no one to trust.

Now, he looked at the assembled scientists. “I want you to prepare for the next test.”

He watched their faces, the lack of enthusiasm. Such timid rabbits of science. “And yes,” Betruger continued, “it will be a new human experiment.”

Maria put her tray down at a table filled with grunts. Two of them, Andy Kim and Dick “Deuce” Howard, had made PFC—private first class—simply by marking time here. That was pretty much how it went. Put time in, get advanced, get a bit more money, and count the days until your Mars tour was over.

Then, if you were desperate, sign on again. After all, there wasn’t much waiting back on Earth.

Rodriguez, sitting to the right, hadn’t been promoted.But that’s because he’s an idiot, Maria guessed. Trying to run scams and deals in a small place like this where everything is watched and recorded.

As for Maria, she knew that somehow the black mark on her record was still there.I should have let the nutcase kill Kelliher.

“Maria, Maria…how go things in the halls of Alpha Labs?”

Her current assignment—security in the hallways around Alpha Labs—was about as dull as things could get. She hoped to get rotated to one of the exterior sites. Guard duty on Mars itself, not inside this nest of hallways and tunnels—that might have been something interesting.

“Exciting as ever, Rodriguez. And you, still hitting on the chippies at Reception?”

He laughed. “I got a lot of fuckin’ patience, Moraetes. You may not see any of the Rodriguez charm, but they will. And just imagine…” He leaned close to her. “All those months with no man-action. Can do wonders to a girl’s insides.”

Deuce leaned across the table. “Yeah, like make someone desperate enough for a taste of Rodriguez?”

The whole table—minus Rodriguez—laughed.

“Funny, Deuce. Like you’d have better luck.”

The giant African-American marine took a massive bite of a sandwich he had made. It looked as though he had stuffed everything on offer at the lunch counter between two slices of the soybread. “I don’t…kiss and tell. And I certainly don’t f—”

“Oh spare me, okay?” Maria said.

She felt Andy Kim looking at her. Maria felt that despite their good friendship, Kim was interested in her. Which was too bad. Sweet kid, but Maria sure as hell wasn’t going to let herself get involved with anybody here.

“What about you, Moraetes? You think about hooking up with anyone up here?”

Deuce slapped his friend’s shoulder. “She hangs with us. And that’s plenty, right, Maria?”

She smiled. “Right. You three clowns are more than enough for one woman.” She scooped up a forkful of some beef-flavored glop. Who knew what it really was. Who cared.

And she was glad to see that none of her friends—because that was what they were—pushed that question further. They were all space marines, stuck on Mars. That was all that mattered.

A few moments, then Rodriguez cleared his throat. “I hear…that they’re looking for another volunteer.”

And for a moment nobody said anything.

“Whoa, whoa,whoa! Hold it up there!”

Graulich had walked to the cave opening to check on the delivery of equipment she had called for hours ago. Now she saw a half-dozen space marines outside their ROV vehicles, hanging around as if this was a day at the beach.If they weren’t wearing helmets, it looks as if they’d be standing around and smoking cigarettes. This is security? “Who the hell is in charge here?”

The marines all looked around as if no one wanted to step up and claim that role. Finally one of them stepped close to Graulich.

“I am, ma’am.”

Ma’am?“It’s ‘Doctor.’ If you’re going to address me as anything, it’sDoctor.” She felt the other marines looking at each other. She couldn’t see them rolling their eyes, but she sure could feel it. “And your name?”

“Sergeant Mathews…Doctor.”

Graulich stepped closer. Some of the team were checking the crates that had been deposited at the cave entrance. But she imagined they were watching this little scene go down.

“Sergeant Mathews, let me ask you a question.”

“Shoot, ma—um, Doctor.”

“Do you think…do youimagine I asked for additional security for this site so that you marines could stand around the entrance as if someone was about to start a barbecue?”

Mathews looked away. She could see how young he was. They tookanyone for duty up here. Good thing they didn’t have to worry about other countries nosing around Mars City and the excavation sites. Or at least, they didn’t have to worry about that yet.

“No. I was really waiting to see what you wanted all these marines here for.”

“Good. Okay, for starters, Sergeant—get them a good fifty meters away from the entrance. I have more gear coming and I don’t need the loaders navigating around them.”

Mathews turned. “Okay.Listen up, men. Take a position out there”—a confirming look at Graulich—“fifty meters or so.”

For a second no one moved.Guess the marines aren’t too impressed by Mathews being in charge. But slowly they started trudging away.

He turned back to Graulich.

“Good. Okay, let me explain very clearly what’s going to happen, and what you’re going to do. You see, in here, we’re going to start some days of heavy drilling and explosions. It’s what we’re supposed to do. And the thing is, no one is supposed to see any of it. Not you, not them. Understand?”

“Yes, I—”

“And I’ve asked for more security for two reasons, Sergeant. Got your ears on?” He nodded. And she had the thought that maybe she should ease up on him. But no—this was too much fun.We all need something to ease the tension. “I don’t want, and your general doesn’t want, anyone to come near here that isn’t supposed to be here. And further, we’re not sure what other pockets and holes may open up…up here, all around the site as we excavate. So your little band of marines…I want them posted all around.”

Mathews looked to the cave roof and nodded. “You mean on top, and—what? Surrounding the place?”

“Such a smart marine. If they see anything, any opening that—again—we don’t want anyone entering, they let you know and then you let me know, and life is good.”

“Got it.”

“I’m afraid they will be on their own—lot of ground to cover. So they won’t be able to BS with each other. Like I just saw them doing.”

“Right.”

“One more thing, Mathews.”

“Yes, Dr. Graulich?”

“If you feel, as the leader of this squad, that you need more marines out here on patrol while we set off explosives, while we dig—you just let me know?”

“I will.”

Graulich smiled. She almost added,Good boy. “Glad we had this chat. Get to it.”