The plane had gotten in late, so
Dante took the nearest cab and headed for the funeral home. When he arrived
the place seemed deserted. The only employee there directed him to a room
where a man and a woman were standing beside an open casket. He immediately
recognized his Aunt Rita and it took him a moment to recognize the man. He was
Dr. George Yardley, or Uncle George as Dante had called him most of his life,
though not an uncle by blood he was so close to his family that he may as well
have been. He had been an old friend of his father since their days at the
National Institute of Mental Health and his partner at New Horizon Bio-Research,
but he looked like he had aged fifty years since the last time he had seen him
just a few years earlier. At the door, on a stand was a register for the
mourners to sign. He looked down, there was not a single signature on it, his
Aunt Rita and Dr. Yardley had not even signed it. He walked over to his Aunt
and hugged her.

“I am so sorry, Aunt Rita. I
got here as soon as I could. Hi, Uncle George. Thanks for coming.”

“Don’t be sorry Dante, even if
you had been here, there would have been nothing you could have done to prevent
his death.” She replied weakly, even though her health had been declining in
the last few years she seemed different, she seemed so at peace as though his
father’s death had been some terrible load lifted from her shoulders and deep
down he had to reluctantly admit that his father’s death brought no tears, he
had tried but could shed no tears for the man who had spent his whole life
locked away in a lab, completely indifferent to the fact he was also a husband
and a father. A man who, while his wife lay dying in the hospital could not be
bothered to leave his lab to be by her side. Who when his wife died did not
come to the funeral so he could be at his lab. After his mother’s death Dante
had lived with his father and it seemed that his father was for once glad that
he had a son, but his memories of that time were vague to say the least. He
was only five when he had been taken away by the authorities and placed in the
care of his Aunt Rita, he saw very little of his father after that, his father
again oblivious to the fact that he had a son. He had to change his train of
thought as he felt long bottled up anger and resentment welling up inside him.
He finally built up the strength to face the body, He hadn’t seen his father in
years and he had been in ill health, mentally and physically, but the body in
the casket gave him a start. Dr. Erhard Schultz lay there in a blue suit, his
hands crossed over this chest and what should have been a look of peace on his
face was in fact a horrid grin and his eyebrows furrowed in what would have
been an intimidating manner. His battered horned rimmed glasses were the only
thing that gave his disturbing features any look of normalcy. Dante was a
little annoyed at the undertaker for not making a better effort to make him
look peaceful.

“Did I get here early? Where is
everybody?”

“No one came and we were just
waiting for you to show, we’re ready to go.” George replied then reached into
his pocket removed a flask and had a drink. His Uncle George had always been a
moderate drinker but from what he had been hearing from his Aunt the drinking
had gone from moderate to perhaps full blown alcoholism.

They waited a little while
longer just on the slim chance anyone else might show up but soon Dante
realized that his dad had been a stranger to him his whole life and it seemed
that he had made everyone around him a stranger also.

They left the funeral home a
short time later and drove to the cemetery, the funeral was as silent and poorly
attended as the viewing, even the minister found it difficult to say anything
encouraging to the family about Dr. Schultz. After the funeral they all went
back to his Aunt Rita’s house in silence. No fond memories or amusing
anecdotes about his dad to lift their spirits. There just was nothing to say
about the man other than he was truly a genius, but his genius came at a
terrible price to those around him. At the house they sat in the living room
discussing everything but Dr. Schultz. George poured Rita a drink and then
went to the kitchen and soon returned with a large plastic cup and poured half
the bottle of whisky into it and then he drained it in three gulps.

“So Dante, how is academic life
treating you? George asked.

“Fantastic, the best grades in
class.” He said proudly.

“How about athletics? That was
always your strongest gift.” George asked.

“I just don’t have the time.
Science takes up every single waking minute of my life.” He responded sadly.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Rita asked.

“No, With so much work I just
don’t have the time.” He replied sheepishly. His admission only elicited a
frown from her.

“Never let work be your only
love. Look where that path took your father, your mother, you and for that
matter all of us.” she said with remarkable coldness. George jumped in and
jump-started the conversation with some lighter topics as it grew later.
Growing tired Rita went to bed and George and Dante continued talking. After
midnight Dr. Yardley bid him goodnight and left. Dante decided to call it a
night also and went to bed.

He had hoped that now that he
was coming to terms with the loss of his father that the dreams and nightmares
of impending doom would cease. Each night the dream was more terrifying than
the last, this was one of the worst occurrences he ever had. For a couple of
days back in early childhood he had some terrible dreams and for some reason he
kept dreaming about a cinder block and just the year before he had strange
dreams, nightmares and hallucinations so terrible he had to be hospitalized and
heavily medicated to keep him from harming himself and others. He had began
having nightmares, hallucinations off and on since he was about five years old,
he had fallen out of a tree and hit his head on a rock, it took over two
hundred stitches to close the wound he was told, it was shortly after that he
was taken away from his father. Again in his dreams he saw the terrible
specter growing closer, he watched as everything it touched died a terrible
death, death swallowed up the world till he stood alone in front of the thing.
He stood helpless as darkness swallowed him up, then there appeared a tiny
pinpoint of blinding red radiance being held by a tiny form. Then he woke
suddenly and leaped out of bed, the phone was ringing.

“Dante! Get the phone, its
George.” Aunt Rita called from beyond the door of his room.

“Uncle George...What?” he asked
groggily into the receiver.

“Did I wake you, of course I
did, its only two in the afternoon. Can you come out here to the lab today?
Your dad’s car is still here. Rita gave me the keys,

“Sure Uncle George. I’ll be
there as soon as I can.” He said between yawns and hung up the phone. Even
though he had technically gotten more than eight hours of sleep, when he had
awakened after a nightmare of that magnitude it felt as though his body did not
get a moments rest the entire night. He got quickly got dressed, threw on his
trenchcoat and had his aunt call a cab and hastily ate breakfast. The cab
pulled up moments later they were on their way and armed with his laptop, he
checked his e-mail and was not surprised to see he had none, “Make friends and
influence people” was not exactly his motto. He relaxed and enjoyed the
scenery, scenery he had missed terribly since his leaving for college. As he
approached the lab the first thing that was evident was that a large warehouse
next to the main lab was just a charred ruin surrounded be orange cones with
police tape running around the entire building. He noticed, standing in the
parking lot was George taking papers out of filing cabinet on a hand truck and
burning them in a fifty-five gallon drum. Dante quickly paid the cabby and
rushed over to George, who looked even worse than he did the night before.

“Good, your here.” He said and
took a key ring from his pocket and tossed it to Dante and pointed to a rusty,
banged up, faded red ‘59 Cadillac convertible that sat in the middle of two
prime parking spaces.

“Uncle George, may I ask what
you are burning?”

“Lets just say that I’m taking
out the trash. Come inside won’t you, there someone who I think would be glad
to see you.” He said and led him inside the lab.

“What happened to the
warehouse?” he asked.

“The fire investigators said it
was lightning.” He replied with a note of skepticism. As the walked through
the place, it seemed deserted.

“Where is everybody?”

“I gave everybody two weeks off
after the fire. I also needed to take care of some business after your dad
died.” He said as he directed Dante to his office. Dante had noticed the
smell of cigarettes and the sound of a wet, hacking cough even before they
entered, the room inside was hazy with the smoke. A woman sat at a table,
apparently doodling on an official looking document while she puffed on a
cigarette, beside her on the table was an ash tray with a several large piles
of cigarette butts stacked pyramid style in it and a half empty bottle of vodka
and an empty bottle of scotch. He knew her, she was Dr. Julie Kemmerer. She
and George had been working with his dad all the way back to his days at NIMH.
Her appearance alarmed him, she, just like everyone else associated with his
dad looked weak and old before their time, her right and left hands were
heavily bandaged. Dante had always had a crush on her, she had been so
beautiful, so full of life, enthusiasm and intelligence and now she looked like
death warmed over. She looked up suddenly.

“Hi, Dante. Long time no see.”
She said with a big smile and resumed her doodling.

“Hello Dr. Kemmerer.” Dante
replied and went to get a cup of coffee, He couldn’t help notice that next to
the coffee machine were a dozen bottles of booze and in the garbage can were a
half dozen more empties. Dr. Yardley poured some gin into a coffee cup and
Dante turned and looked out the window at the remains of the warehouse.

“So Dante, what are you going to
do when you graduate college?” she asked.

“If possible I would like to
work here, with you and Uncle George.” He replied.

“You know you’re always welcome
to work here, Dante” George replied.

“Thank you Uncle George. And I
would also like to continue my father’s research on project Titan.”

The last statement did not have
the response he expected. The moment he said “Titan” he heard a pencil snap
and a coffee cup shatter on the floor. He turned to them slowly.

“What...do you...know...about
project Titan?” George asked, a terrifying look on his face. Julie had a look
of stunned horror but said nothing.

“Uh...many years ago he told me
it was the project that the three of you had worked together on at NIMH. It
involved modifying brain cells to compensate for serious mental and physical
illness. He said at NIMH it never got beyond the testing of lab animals before
the project was officially closed. I was thinking that with the advances in
science since then the project might really bear fruit. That way there may be
at least one lasting legacy of his work.” He replied, his own conviction of the
wisdom of his plans seemed to vanish at the sight of utter horror and anger on
their features. Julie just folded her arms on the desk and lay her head down
and George picked up a bottle of whisky off his desk and quickly drained a
quarter of it and then slammed the bottle on the desk.

“Ha! Dante, There are many,
many legacies of your fathers work. So I will show you a legacy of your
fathers work in the hopes that you are so terrified that you will shudder in
fear every time you hear the word ‘Titan’ The story he told you about project
Titan has a microscopic grain of truth, there were experiments involving the
modification of the brains of lab animals, but that was the tip of the iceberg,
what he was doing just wasn’t right, in fact it was evil.” He said in a deadly
serious tone.

Dante was very unnerved by such
a dramatic and passionate condemnation of his father’s life’s work. George
pulled a piece of paper out of his desk and began writing, then while handing
it to Dante he quickly drew it back.

“I’ll be honest with you, you’ve
been like a son to me and you know that I would never steer you wrong. Now, I
will ask you just once. Will you now and forever abandon project Titan and
never ever speak the name again in our presence or to anyone else for that
matter or will you force me to reveal to you what your fathers life’s work
really was?” He asked with absolute seriousness. Dante was beginning to feel
a surge of anxiety, What could his father have been doing that brought about
such emotions in people? Dante gulped and spoke.

“Uncle George, I have to know
what meant more to him than mom and me. I want to see if somehow it was worth
it. From the way you and Julie sound, it must have been something truly
terrible, but I must know or I’ll never be able to put father to rest in my
mind.” Dante said with deep sadness in his voice, George smiled faintly and
handed the paper to Dante. He opened it and saw that it was a map leading to a
location outside of town.

“I understand why you need to do
this, I just wish it wasn’t necessary, but so be it. That map is to your
father’s private lab.” Then his face took on a intense scowl and his voice
took on a menacing tone. “But bear in mind that when you leave the lab that
you and everything that you believe will be forever altered and not for the
better.” He said and handed Dante a second keyring. This one had a dozen
large keys on it.

Dante accepted them hesitantly.
His mind trying to imagine the terrors that awaited him at the lab. George sat
down and poured himself another drink and pulled a quarter out of his pocket
and began to spin it on the desk top. Dante was startled when Julie threw a
lighter onto the desk.

“George is right. Dante, have
you ever wondered what it was that was so unspeakable that it destroyed your
father and everyone around him, take a good look at George and I, you can’t
imagine the things we’ve seen. The horrors that have made us like this. I beg
you, don’t open the door to that lab, take the lighter and burn the place and
all its contents to the ground. Let the secret of NIMH be forever put to
rest.” She said pleadingly. He picked up the lighter and slipped it in his
pocket. He looked at George, still spinning the quarter, stopping only long
enough to take a drink. Julie returned to resting her head on the table and no
one said anything more. As he was leaving he heard George speak.

“Afterward, stop back here and
join us for a drink.” He said without emotion.

Dante quickly left the room and
hurried to his father’s car. He was growing very uneasy. George and Julie had
been two of the most brilliant, rational and stable people he had known growing
up, but he had watched their deterioration along with his father’s and he began
to deeply fear whatever it was that had caused such trauma.

Soon he stood before the car.
As he thought back sadly, he could remember precious few times he and his
father had ever been in it together. As he studied the car’s battered
condition in his mind it became a metaphor for his own father’s decline. When
he was a child his father’s car had looked dignified, respectable but was
beginning to show signs of wear. As the years had passed the car and his
father had begun to grow shabbier and neglected until it seemed there was
nothing but sheer force of will holding either of them together. He slowly
turned the key, part of his mind going back to the metaphor, half expecting
that now that his father was dead the car would be dead also. To his surprise
it started and ran perfectly. He enjoyed the country side as he drove,
thinking about his father helped push away the growing uneasiness about the up
coming task at the lab. The car had once commanded respect on the road, now it
received only looks of horror or laughter as people wondered how such a
broken-down car could still be running. Driving it also took some practice as
it was almost twice as big a car as he was used to driving.

Periodically looking at his map
he managed to find the place or so he believed. The only thing that could be
seen from the road was a dirt road with many large “No Trespassing” signs all
around it. He turned onto the dirt road and followed it to what appeared to be
an old abandoned strip mine with one large building in the middle of it. He
pulled up and parked. He cautiously approached the door, remembering the many
warnings about what he would find. He reached into his pocket for the keys and
was reminded about the lighter he was also given. He looked at it and then to
the building.

“No. Father you owe me this.”
He said and unlocked the door, he paused and looked over the door as if
expecting the words “Abandon all hope all ye who enter here” to be posted on
the frame. He hesitantly grasped the door knob and threw open the door.

Nothing, after the build up that
he had been given, it was very anticlimactic to actually see the lab. It in
fact seemed like a regular lab. He turned on the lights and began to slowly
explore his father’s refuge. He examined the lab equipment and numerous
documents that were laying around the several tables. Many were old NIMH
papers, showing lab results and his father’s own thoughts about the
experiments, Dante couldn’t help but notice that most of the NIMH documents
were boldly marked “Classified” As he searched he noticed that the large
building had been divided into three rooms, one small one for living quarters
and a second small one sealed with a metal door that was firmly locked with two
large padlocks the rest was one large open space filled with tables and
equipment. He felt uneasy just being near the padlocked door, he reached into
his pocket but couldn’t muster the courage to withdraw the keys. He resumed
his investigations. He went first to the living quarters, all it consisted of was
a small cot with a pillow and a military blanket and a padlocked foot locker at
the foot of the bed. There was nothing else in the room, no personal effects
or photographs, nothing. He unlocked the footlocker and slowly opened the
lid. It was filled to bursting the papers, but these seemed to be of a more
personal nature. What he hoped to find, he didn’t know but he needed to find
something here that would make him believe that his dad did care about
something else other than his work. In the box were old tax returns, medical
reports about his father, legal papers. He found honors and awards that his
father had won early in his career and his college diploma. But as he dug
deeper he began finding some very disturbing things, near the bottom of the locker
he found a small pile of old documents in German, Dante shuddered when he saw
that all of those documents had large swastika’s on them and were all dated in
the mid to late thirties. At the bottom of the box was a single photograph, a
black and white picture of a couple with a child. Dante recognized the child
as his father. He had always wondered what his grandparents looked like and he
had to admit that they made a disturbing picture because both of them were
wearing nazi uniforms. There was some writing on the back but he couldn’t read
German, but something about the papers and photo made him quickly drop them
back into the box and pile the other papers back in the box and re-lock it. He
slammed the door behind him as he left the room and began looking else where
for answers. He made a grisly discovery in one part of the lab, there were
about a four tiny rat brains, two mouse brains and a single human brain in
jars. On the table next to them there were photographs and documentation about
mutation and other changes that were apparent in their development and in a box
was a set of slides with rat, mouse and human brain cross-sections. He sat and
began examining them under a nearby microscope. He was astonished to see that
the sections of some of the rodent brains were approaching the advanced
development of human brains. He suddenly pulled back from the microscope. It
was to much to believe. He would have to see more proof before he was able to
believe what he was seeing. Dante noticed an antiquated computer sitting
partially buried under papers on a table and to his surprise, next to the table
was a garbage can filled with weapons. It contained fire axe, a crowbar, a
golf club (9 iron), tennis racket, samurai sword, baseball bat and slightly
alarmingly was a pump shotgun with a bandoleer of about twenty rounds draped
over the edge of the can. Ignoring the weapons he slowly examined the
out-dated computer, he turned it on and began to pour over his father’s files,
most were password protected and though he spent over an hour trying to get
into them, he had no luck. What he could read was mostly incoherent
pseudo-science and outright dementia. He gave up on that and returned to the
mountain of papers.

For hours he poured over them,
trying to discover what had been done and as he read he grew more horrified by
what he found, frankly it was impossible, beyond impossible. His thoughts
drifted back to the papers and photo in the foot locker. On one of the few
coherent discussions he had ever had with his father, his father had boasted
that this his father had been a brilliant scientist and surgeon, perhaps the
greatest in the world and that his work had been far ahead of its time and that
he was going to eclipse his father’s work. Dante felt a wave of horror roll
over him. Had his grandfather been one of those mad nazi scientists who
performed all those horrible experiments on prisoners during the war? And his
father had said he wanted to do even greater things than his own father! Dante
was staggered, this couldn’t be, it was to horrible to even imagine. He
couldn’t believe it, he wouldn’t believe it, but the evidence was mounting
before his eyes that it was so. He realized that he himself had been going to
an ivy league school, getting the best grades in the school’s history in his
field all with the intention of following in his father’s foot steps. He began
pacing the room. In a dark corner of the room he found a TV-VCR and a pile of
unmarked video tapes. He began to play them, they were all of his father
ranting and raving about his work and making many references to something he
called “The Power”.

“Uncle George, why didn’t I
listen to you?” Dante shouted and shook his fists in rage. He began pacing
the room. George had warned him that what he would find would be evil, but he
could never have imagined what he would find. As he raged his eyes came to
rest on the locked door again. With determination he approached the door and
withdrew the keys. Ignoring the strange and very intense feeling of dread that
he felt just being at the door he continued and removed the padlocks but paused
before he opened the door. Every instinct in his mind and body told him not to
open the door. The warnings that he had been given about just walking away
from the place were running over and over through his mind. He knew he could
just walk away, even as horrible as the things he had already learned about his
family and his father’s work were, whatever was behind that door he knew would
somehow be more terrible than anything he could imagine. But now deeper down
he could feel something else, it was very faint but he felt something drawing
him to the room. Throwing caution to the wind he quickly opened the door. At
first he could have sworn that all the room contained were about a dozen empty
animal cages and a small padlocked metal box about the size of a 3X5 card
holder sitting in the middle of the room, but against his will his eyes came to
rest on what was standing guard at the box. His mind didn’t want to register
what he was seeing. Standing, on two legs, both wearing armor and one with a
spear and the other with a crossbow stood two large, rat-like creatures, they
stood no more than eight or nine inches tall but to Dante’s mind they might as
well have been ten feet tall. They both looked shocked for a moment then
looked at Dante and snarled menacingly. Dante quickly stepped back and slammed
the door and threw his back against the door, then his knees seemed to give out
and he now was sitting on the floor with his back still to the door.

“I did not see that. I did not
see that. I did not see that. I did not see that. I did not see that. I did
not see that. I did not see that.” Dante kept repeating to himself.

Deep down he had believed, after
seeing what his father had become and his own questionable mental health, that
there was probably serious mental illness in his family and for the last
several years he had begun to worry that he was finally starting to join his
father in madness and this last sight was certainly a good sign that he was
losing his mind. He tried to stand but found his knees were not cooperating.
With his foot Dante dragged a nearby chair over to the door and wedged it under
the door knob. He quickly crawled over to the can of weapons and began
dragging it over to the door. He took the shotgun in his trembling hands and
pulled the slide down. A shell was ejected and it clattered loudly when it hit
the floor. He grabbed the shell and reloaded it and put the bandoleer over his
shoulder. He tried and succeeded to stand, then kicked the chair away from the
door. But cautiously opened the door, but there was nothing in the room other
than the metal box, he slowly approached the box. He noticed that the only
other feature of the box was the fact that there were about a dozen small air
holes drilled into the lid. It could have been just his imagination but it
seemed that there was a faint glow inside the box. Just as he was had almost
convinced himself that he had just imagined the creatures when he felt a
stabbing pain in his left leg. Dante clutched his wounded leg and fell to his
knees. He looked behind him to see the two rats emerging from behind the
door. The one rat approached and fired its crossbow at Dante. Dante managed
to protect his face with his right arm, he felt the sting of the projectile hit
his arm. Both creatures drew knives and came charging at him. Dante quickly
swung the gun around and struck them both with the butt. He stood and turned
toward the door, only to see about a dozen more armed and armored rats converge
in the doorway, standing in front of the others was one rat wearing dark
colored robes and around its neck was a medallion that read “4” on it. In an
instant his fear transformed into determination and he lowered the gun and
began blasting away at the rats before they had a chance to make their move. In
seconds they were all dead. The doorway an image of micro-carnage. Dante
quickly reloaded his gun, grabbed the locked box and pocketed it in his
trenchcoat, he looked down, the rat with the robes was dead but the body wasn’t
to badly damaged, he picked it up and after stepping over the gore he began
limping toward the exit. He leaned against one of the tables and painfully removed
the spear and crossbow bolt. Then dumped the dead rat into the can of weapons
and picked up the can and with difficulty carried everything. Here and there
around the room he saw small dark figures scurry around the room. As he got
near the door he overturned a table, dumping chemicals and papers onto the
floor, he kicked a pile of papers against the wall, then using the lighter he
set the pile on fire. When he exited he locked the door behind him and limped
as quickly as he could to the car. He threw everything inside and took off at
top speed, his left hand on the wheel and his right hand tightly clutching the
shotgun. Just before he got to the main road he heard a tremendous explosion.
What had exploded Dante couldn’t imagine, but he was glad it had been there.
Only now was he even aware that night had fallen, he sped along the dimly lit
country roads toward his uncle’s lab. He was oblivious to everything in the
world except the memory of what he had seen since he had opened that last door.

“I did not see that. I did not
see that. I did not see that.” He kept repeating.

He didn’t know how long he had
been driving when his rationality began to return. He pulled off to the side
of the road and just began to shake violently for several minutes. His heart
rate slowly began returning to normal and his hands stopped shaking. He
cautiously reached into the garbage can and removed the dead rat. He opened
the car’s glove compartment and in its dim light he examined its body. He was
astonished to see that the creature had opposable thumbs, its legs were
designed for bipedal motion. For a moment he wasn’t sure which emotion felt
stronger horror or admiration for his father’s handiwork.

When he reached the lab he drove
across the grass into a parking space and clipped one of the two cars parked
out front. He kicked open the door, carrying the dead rat. He rushed down the
hall to Dr. Yardley’s office. The lights were still on and smoke still filled
the air. He stepped into the room and saw to his astonishment that George was
still spinning a quarter and Julie still sat at the table with her head resting
on her arms a lit cigarette in her hand. He looked at the table and saw that
almost all the booze that had been there nine hours ago was now gone.

“Care for a drink?” George
asked, holding up a bottle of scotch.

Dante silently walked up to his
desk and dropped the dead rat in front of him.

“Say, that’s a big one. Hey!
Julie take a look at this!” He said loudly. She roused herself, crushed out
her cigarette and dragged her chair over to the table.

“This isn’t one of the R alpha
group.” She said without the slightest bit of alarm or surprise. George poked
at the dead rat with a pencil.

“I didn’t think he could do it
without the resources of the main NIMH lab. I have to give him an ‘A’ for
effort.” Dr. Yardley responded while they examined the rat.

Dante was speechless as they
casually talked about the strange creature on the table. He also thought it
odd that they both sounded perfectly sober even though they both must have
toxic blood alcohol levels from all the booze they had consumed that day.

“You knew about this?” Dante
managed to ask.

“For years. Dante, we helped
your dad create these little monsters.” George explained and took a gulp from
a nearby bottle of booze.

“You destroyed the lab I hope.”
Julie asked earnestly, lighting another cigarette.

“Yes, its blown to
smithereens.” She looked very relieved at his response.

“His secret project was to
create a race of super-intelligent rats?” Dante asked.

“And super-intelligent mice.”
Julie added.

“No, his project was not to
create them. These vermin were a completely unexpected side effect of the
treatments. We planned to increase their intelligence a little, but we had no
idea just how much it had increased. I think that for me, the world as I knew
it ended the day I went into the lab and found the cages in the lab open and
saw the thread that they had tied to the vent to use as a guide to help them
find their way out of the ventilation system and to freedom. But, didn’t you
find anything really strange or unusual at the lab?” George asked with all
seriousness. Dante’s mouth fell open and he struggled for words to respond to
that question.

“Look, it would be easier to
show you what your father was really trying to accomplish.” He said and rolled
his chair over to a safe next to his file cabinet and quickly opened it, inside
were four items. A shoe box and resting on its lid was a large caliber hand
gun, an overstuffed file folder the thickness of a phone book and a spool of
thread. He left the gun in the safe and placed the box on the table.

“Oh, not the bottle.” Julie
said plaintively and fled the room. Dante looked at the box with growing
uneasiness. Whatever it contained must be something truly astonishing to
disturb two people accustomed to such unspeakable sights. George removed the
lid, it revealed an object wrapped in black cloth. He lifted it out and set it
on the desk.

“Now, if you think what you have
already seen is beyond belief then get a load of this, this is what your father
was really after.” George said and unwrapped the object in a way that allowed
only Dante to see it. Dante stared at the glass bottle for several seconds,
his eyes seemed to have trouble focusing on it, in fact he was quickly
developing a headache and nausea just looking at it. The only word that his
frantically searching mind could use to describe the bottle was “inverted” but
that was only a feeble attempt to describe the indescribable. He had to turn
away from the physical abomination that he saw. George covered the bottle with
the cloth and returned it to the safe.

“What...was that?” Dante asked
in horror.

“That was one of the few
successful manifestations of ‘the Power’, your dad did that many years ago.
Some where, some how your father discovered a way of manifesting a strange
supernatural power. His animal experiments were designed to discover what
parts of the brain controlled its use, so he altered the lab animals so their
brains could develop those powers, those experiments alone were far beyond
anything known to science, but his attempt of harness “the Power” went
dangerously beyond science. Well, the treatments went very well and the
animals began to grow in intelligence and some were even able to manifest ‘the
Power’ in tiny ways. What we didn’t expect was that the animals were playing
dumb. They knew that their days were numbered so they hid their high
intelligence and made a great escape. That day at the lab your father really
went off the deep end. He became obsessed with those escaped animals, he was
convinced that with them free that they actually posed a threat to the human
race. He became paranoid that they would come after him or they would vow
revenge on the entire human race. And to his horror, he knew that their
control over the Power might continue to grow. That drove him for the next
several years to pursue the escaped animals with a maniacal passion. He got
close a couple of times but he never caught them. He got canned by NIMH around
that time, they had just gotten sick of his unstable ways and his paranoid
theories. They didn’t know even half the truth of his project so they couldn’t
understand the seriousness of what was at stake. Even what they did discover
about the project disturbed them and they wanted the book closed on project
Titan once and for all. Julie and I, having worked so close with your father
were fired also. The three of us came here and started this company, Julie and
I did regular science and your dad kind of kept working on his pet project. If
the animals were going to have access to those powers then he had to be ready
for them when they made their move against humanity. When his lab exploded it
destroyed most of his work and that stuff you saw me burning in the parking lot
was what had survived of his personal work, no offense, but I personally don’t
want there to be a shred of documentation of project Titan. No one must ever
know how to do what your father did.” George said in icy tones.

“You say that my dad’s lab
exploded, but this morning you said it was struck by lightning.” Dante said.

“Your dad was in the middle of
some sort of experiment, it went very wrong. The lab exploded and killed your
father. Julie was able to drag your father out of the wreckage but it was to
late to save him.” George said and poured himself another drink. Julie
returned to the room with a first aid kit and began to bandage Dante’s wounds.
Fortunately they were all very minor.

“Dante, go home and get a good
nights sleep, say good bye to all of this, go back to school and never look
back.” Julie said seriously as she lit a cigarette. Dante walked over to the
coffee machine and poured himself a cup. He drank it in silence and the three
of them sat there, each lost in their own thoughts. Dante put his cup down.

“For once I am going to take
your good advice. Good evening to both of you and good night.” Dante said and
just walked out of the room. As he slowly walked across the brightly lit
parking lot to the car, he was still lost in his thoughts, until he noticed a
large robed figure standing at the base of a tree, the lights of the parking lot
illuminated it just enough to see that it wore a medallion around its neck the
read “3”. Dante froze in fear. Its hand rose to its hood and pulled it back
to reveal itself to be another rat-creature, but human sized. It raised a hand
to the tree behind it and a bright glow leaped from its hands and went up into
the tree, moments later there was loud rustling in the branches above and some
very threatening noises. Then suddenly four tiger sized creatures leaped out
of the tree, four snarling, hissing, large fanged...squirrels. Dante couldn’t
help what he did next, he could only point and laugh at the ridiculous sight.
The rat frowned when it saw him laughing, it gestured toward Dante and the
creatures began racing toward him. He stopped laughing and made a dash for the
weapons stowed in the car. He got to the car first and was going to attempt to
slide across the hood of the car the way he had seen in the movies, however
when he leaped, to his utter amazement he cleared the entire hood and then
moments later two of the squirrels clawed their way across the hood and trunk
of the car and one leaped over the roof. Dante quickly reached inside and
grabbed the first weapon he could find, it was the samurai sword. He quickly
unsheathed it and faced the squirrels, one was perched on the hood of the car
and the other three were slowly closing in on him. Suddenly Dante felt very
strange, his senses seemed to go into overdrive. The three squirrels that were
circling all moved forward at once. Before Dante could consciously act he
struck three times with a speed that could not be described as anything but
superhuman and in seconds the three squirrels lay dead at his feet. The one on
the hood pounced, he ducked and slashed with the sword as it leaped over him
and it to fell to the ground, dead. Then for a few moments Dante stood,
overwhelmed by what he had just been able to do. Then he snapped out of it and
turned to the rat by the tree. The creature looked very afraid, but walked
toward Dante and then Dante began running toward it with sword raised. Dante
ran and leaped into the air, foot out toward the rat, at the last instant the
rat grabbed Dante’s foot and Dante felt himself floating in midair with the
creature still holding his foot, Dante moved his sword, but the rat hurled
Dante across the parking lot, where he crashed into a tree, the tree cracked
with the force of the impact. Dante stood weakly, shaking himself, part of him
stunned that he could have possibly survived such an impact. The rat reached
out its hand and several balls of fire erupted from it. Dante dodged them
easily.

“Hey, cheese breath!” George
shouted. The rat turned, then a loud shot rang out, the rat staggered as it
was struck by a bullet, About ten feet behind the rat stood George, smoking gun
in his right hand and a bottle of booze in the other. He walked up to the rat
and fired at it several more times until it lay dead at his feet.

“You had better get out of
here. There are bound to be more of them.” George said, taking a gulp from
the bottle. Dante felt the haze lift from his mind. He felt desperately
weak.

“What about you and Julie?”
Dante asked.

“Don’t worry about us. It seems
they are making their move, you obviously can manifest some degree of the ‘Power’,
your going to need it. Now go before reinforcements show up. Dante grabbed
the sword sheath and rushed to the car, he threw it in reverse and again cut
across the grass and took off down the road. His mind in utter confusion and
terror, wondering what had happened to him. Just that morning the world had
been perfectly normal, now suddenly reality was in utter chaos.

“Dante.” He heard faintly. He
slammed on the breaks and skidded off the road into a corn field. He leaped
out of the car, sword in hand. He looked around nervously, expecting an attack
at any moment, however after a few moments he regained some control of his
frayed emotions and returned to the car.

“Just my imagination.” He
reassured himself.

“Dante.” The faint voice
repeated. Dante froze, he now realized where the voice was coming from. It
was coming from the small locked box in his pocket. With trembling hands he
drew it out of his pocket and placed it on the seat next to him, he dug out the
keys and slowly unlocked the box. The glow that he saw there earlier seemed to
be gone now. He opened it, inside was a small gray mouse lying on the bottom
of the box, obviously modified like the rats at the lab, five finger hands,
including thumbs and modified legs. The mouse slowly turned up to face him.

“Dante, Thorn Valley is in
terrible danger...we must help them before its to late.” it said weakly.
Dante looked at it silently for a few moments. His mouth agape.

“You can talk. Who...What are
you?” He asked in shock.

“I was one of your father’s
experimental animals, my name is...Jonathan Brisby.”

He replied and then seemed to
collapse into unconsciousness or at least that is what Dante thought as he
himself lapsed into unconsciousness.

******

“I have urgent news for the
master.” Mercy said as she and Five approached the rats guarding the large
door. He was deliberately walking fast so that she had to run to keep up with
him. Both guards looked down at the small gray mouse with indifference and
then looked to the rat that stood next to her. She gave Five a look of
contempt. She despised rats, him in particular. He gestured to the guards to
open the door.

“Open it you fools, or Master
will crush the life from your bodies.” He warned. The guard turned and opened
the door. Mercy hurried inside, the only illumination was a single candle on a
stand in the center of the room. She stood by the candle trying to take
comfort in its small light, she waited for the Master to make himself known.
Five chose to stay in the background, by the door.

“Master?” She called out into
the darkness. She shuddered when she felt his presence approach her, but still
out of sight.

“Ah, Mercy. Why do you disturb
my meditation?” Asked a condescending voice.

“Terrible news, Jonathan Brisby
has escaped, Three and Four are dead and the lab has been destroyed.” She
replied. There was a long pause, she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She
dreaded having to be the bearer of bad news. On occasions like this in the
past, Five had said that the Master had a tendency to ‘shoot the messenger.’
His silence was becoming deafening.

“Jonathan will no doubt send
them a warning. It is truly unfortunate. I would have preferred that no pure
blood be shed in the taking of Thorn Valley, but now that cannot be so. My
army is not fully prepared for this conflict, we must now do this the hard
way.” the Master said with little concern in his voice.

“Master?” Mercy asked
hesitantly.

“What?

“May I speak freely?” she asked
meekly.

“Speak.”

“What if we were to offer them
terms of surrender, might we then avoid bloodshed?” she asked hopefully.
Again there was silence.

“The chance that they will
surrender is so remote as to be nonexistent. However remote though, there is
the slightest possibility that they might, provided we use the right
incentives.” he said thoughtfully. Mercy suddenly felt her mind fill with
information about the people of Thorn Valley and her master’s terms of surrender
and his dire warnings about the fate of those who resisted.

“Go to them and give them my
offer.” The voice said.

“Five, step into the light.”
the Master commanded. With great reluctance he approached the candle.

“Yes, Master?” He said weakly.

“With the deaths of Three and
Four there are two vacancies in the ranks. Mercy, the position of Three is
vacant, it is yours if you wish.” He said.

“Master! Not to a mou...” Was
all Five was able to say before he cried out in agony and collapsed to the
floor, writhing in pain.

“Do you dare to tell me my
business you half-blood fool? Speak to me in that manner again and I will
create a third vacancy. Leave us.” He said with anger in his voice. Five
slowly and painfully got to his feet and clutching his chest and limping he
vanished into the darkness, followed moments later by the sound of the door
opening and closing. Mercy didn’t like being in the Master’s presence alone.
Even with that idiot Five with her she still felt better.

“Mercy. What is your answer?”
He asked.

“Master. I am very honored that
you offered, but please forgive me, I do not wish to become Three.” She
tensed, waiting for an outburst or swift punishment. There was only silence.

“Mercy, if you were to accept my
offer, you would have the power to make the likes of him fear you. No one
would dare to show you the least disrespect.” he said.

“Master, I do not wish to be
feared.” She replied.

“A pity, you have such
potential. Why must you hold yourself back? So be it. That idiot Five will
be promoted to Three. You may leave, only return to me with their response to
my offer. If not accepted, we continue as planned. Go. I must prepare for
the arrival of my enemy.” He said.

“Yes, Master.” She said and
quickly left the room.

Jenner stepped into the candle
light and smiled an evil grin. Soon, so soon all would be his. Thorn Valley,
the stone, the deaths of his enemies, then he could set his sights on the
destruction of the human world. He laughed and returned to his meditations.