Tracy Halton [Halton - Deadly Paths

CHAPTER 1

From the Journal of Patrick Scottman

Sometime after.

I have no idea what to start with. How doyou tell a story you don't really want anyone to hear? Do I steal from Dickensand say that it was a dark and stormy night? It wasn't at first, but it sureended up that way. The only thing still dark and stormy associated with thewhole affair is my own soul. I'm no saint. I think I had delusions once that I was.Saints don't kill people, even ones that want to kill them. I think that's arule.

So why am I putting pen to paper now?WhenifI ever have a son he has a right to know, and I'm not sure I'll be ableto tell him. Take what you want from that statement, it has two meanings.Despite the fact I don't want to tell this story, it has to be told, and I'mnot sure I'll be here long enough to use my own recollections.

Some men are pretty lucky to find onewoman to love in their lifetime. Just one out five billion that you can look atand she immediately knows what you're thinking. I've had two women do that tome, and I think it could have been three, but sometimes things happen. I dotruly love both of them too, as much as someone like me can love.

Maybe by now you're wondering if I'm somemisshapen monster, lightly tapping on a computer keyboard with cloven hoofhands, or slimy otherworldly tentacles with hooked suckers. Sometimes I wish Iwere the modern elephant man, cloaked in black cloth to hide me from the worldoutside. I'm neither of those things. I'm ordinary. You couldn't pick me out ofa police lineup twice in a row if you tried. I blend into the woodwork, I fadenicely against the backdrop of this planet. Brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin,average height, average build, and augmented abilities no one can see but hauntme every day.

That's the crux of all this. I can runfaster, lift more, jump higher, all of that stuff the word"augmented" means when you're talking about genetic engineering. Ican't cop out and say I didn't ask for these abilities, I did. I stood up,raised my hand and said count me in. I should have listened to PT Barnum; heknew a lot about suckers.

I know a lot more about it now than I didthen. Things that would have made me quickly put my hand back down and slinkaway like some wounded dog. I don't know all of the details, but I know itstarted in Germany, not apple strudel, Oktoberfest, leiderhosen GermanyNaziGermany.

Berlin, Germany 1945

The walls shook slightly as a far off artilleryshell hit something flammable. The shaking woke Klaus VonWold out of his fitfulsleep. He slipped out of the cold bed. There had been no heat in the barracksfor a week now. VonWold cursed slightly as he pulled on a bathrobe and walkedinto the single bathroom off his tiny barracks room.

Even as a doctor for the Third Reich,VonWold gained no extra perks. The Russians were closing in from the East andthe Americans from the West. Berlin had been in anarchy for three days now asthe war machine of the Nazis crumbled before the double frontal attacks.VonWold turned on the water, only to find that the tap no longer worked. Hespat angrily into the washbasin. He looked at the haggard face staring back athim in the slightly dirty mirror. A couple days growth of stubble sat on hisface and his eyes were sunken and tired looking. He finally smiled a bit. Itwas a weak pitiful smile, but if all went well today his grin would grow thatmuch wider.

As a genetic pioneer, VonWold had beensought out by Hitler himself to devise a way to make the soldiers stronger,faster, and more deadly. That had been early in 1939. Now, six years later, hefinally felt as if a breakthrough was at hand, but fortune was not on the Nazisside as the war was all but over for them. Now he just had to get everythingready for transport. He and a few other select scientists were going torendezvous later that day and be ferried to a secret transport.

He spat again trying to get the terribletaste from his mouth, and walked back into his room. A small suitcase laypacked at the foot of his bed, and the cleanest clothes he had left were laidon the single hard-backed chair in the corner of the room. He listlessly pulledon the clothes. He took one last look at the shoebox of a barracks room andspit again, this time on the floor. He then picked up the suitcase, and walkedout, closing the door behind him.

Berlin was a city in chaos. Troops raneverywhere, and civilian foot traffic was almost non-existent, except for thefew that seemed to be fleeing somewhere. Explosions sounded in the distance,and they seemed to inch closer with every step VonWold took. The German lineswouldn't last more than a day or twoif that.

VonWold walked past the massiveBrandenburg gate, looking up at the half dozen Nazi flags flapping in the wind.Some brave German separatist had shot a half dozen holes in the center flagovernight. VonWold sighed. The whole country was falling apart. He'd never beena very "devout" Nazi, but he'd seen a country rise up from utterdepression, and even with the atrocities committed by him and his peers, he'dfelt some measure of national pride when the Third Reich had reunited all ofEurope under one flag. Now that defeat was at hand the weak minded wererevolting, using the advancing armies as an excuse to loot and vandalizeBerlin. VonWold, tired of spitting in disgust, just sighed again, and enteredthe small two-story laboratory. He was surprised to see that the guard thatusually sat in the front foyer was no longer there. He walked past the emptydesk and down the stairs to the basement. He dug a large key from his pocketand opened the heavy steel door. He stepped inside his lab. Most of his medicalequipment was already gone. All that remained was one centrifuge, some testtubes, and a storage cabinet. He pulled off his coat and walked over to thecabinet.

He slung the coat on a single hook on thewall beside the cabinet. He dug yet another key out of his pants pocket andstruggled to open the large lock that held the cabinet closed. Finally he gotthe overly massive lock off, and laid it down on top of the cabinet. He ran hishand absently over the metal as he pulled out the vial and notes of theproject. Six years of research and now his tests neared fruition. His initialtests on mice and rats had gone very well, with each of the animals becomefaster, stronger, and more agile then the animals that had not received thedrug. Human tests had already been scheduled, but were scrapped now that theReich was dying. He looked across the room at the mice cages. Inside half adozen of the animals were busily feeding from the automatic dispenser, Von Woldmentally reminded himself to destroy the animals before he left as well.

Placing the vial and notes on the largetable that used to hold his lab equipment, he crossed over to the largefireplace that dominated the wall opposite the cabinet. A fire was alreadygoing, but it was just coals, left over from the previous day. VonWold pulledsome kindling from a bin beside the hearth and in no time had the fire roaringagain.

VonWold cursed loudly then looked at hiswatch. In twenty minutes he would board the air transport that would take himand the others to a secret U-boat facility near the Polish border. There asmall fleet of the submarines would shuttle many of the Reich's finestscientists to Argentina where they would be able to finish their work andprecipitate the rise of a Fourth Reich.