Fairpoint Panders is not working alone, and he has control over everything.
Evidently, Palmeria is a coveted prize. There is an organization that has
dedicated itself to figuring out how to breach its short borders. They
believe that it must contain something so valuable that it would set them up
for life. The truth is that, other than universe-hopper, Keaton Palmer
himself, there is nothing particularly special about the islands. It has
dirt, trees, and other plants. There are a few small rodents, and birds.
Fish swim nearby. The resort is a wonderful and tranquil place that can
transform the most stressed out individual into the epitome of contentment
and chill. It’s a cool place, but its main draw is its exclusivity. That’s
what keeps the business going. A limited number of people will ever be
allowed to enjoy the amenities, which makes any potential vacationer that
much more intrigued by the possibility. It’s not like a real life Fantasy
Island, or whatever this organization is imagining. It’s just really nice
here.
As far as they can tell, Fairpoint is not a member of the so-called Palm
Readers, but he did make contact with them, and convince them to take their
methods to the next level by finally making good on their promise of
breaching those borders. As it turns out, they were closer than Keaton knew.
Here they are, having taken everyone hostage, and demanding answers. Of
course, Fairpoint doesn’t care about any of that. He just wants to know what
happened to his ex-husband, and Marie is not doing a very good job of
explaining it away. Brain damage? How? Under what circumstances? Can it be
undone?
“I’ve told you everything that I can!” Marie shouts back. “We didn’t mean
for this to happen, but it did, and now I’m doing everything I can to
reteach him.”
“But he won’t be the same.” Fairpoint questions. He’s heard all of this
already. He just keeps expecting a different answer. “There’s no recovering
those memories.”
Marie looks over at Dr. Merrick, who doesn’t think so, given the information
at his disposal. He’s right, this is a different Heath. “No. The memories
are gone.”
“So my Heath is dead,” Fairpoint reasons.
“No. My Heath is gone. Your Heath left you years ago, because you’re the
type of person who would take children hostage.”
“I didn’t know that children were here,” Fairpoint claims. “They’ll be free
to go once the Palm Readers find a way to safely transport them off of the
island without your shadowy government agents being able to sneak through.”
“You could just give up,” Marie argues. “You can’t undo what’s been done to
Heath, and your little friends aren’t going to find whatever they’re looking
for here.”
“She’s right,” the Palm Reader who was assigned to watch them says to
Fairpoint. “We were wrong. There’s nothing special here.”
“Then go,” Fairpoint says dismissively. “I don’t care what you do. I just
used you to get me across the border.”
“We didn’t sign up for hurting kids,” the guy explains. “We can’t leave
until we know that they’ll be safe.”
“Take them with you, and hand them off to the authorities,” Fairpoint
suggests.
“Then we’ll get in trouble for transporting children across national
borders.”
“You’re already in trouble for kidnapping them, what’s one more charge?”
“Mr. Panders, you need to stand down, and you need to convince our leader to
do the same. He’s going crazy in the other room. He insists that there’s a
secret basement entrance somewhere.”
“We couldn’t build a basement on this island,” Keaton tells him. “The ground
isn’t stable enough. We don’t need one. I assure you, there is nothing here
but good vibes and good food. And nice bedsheets.”
“I believe you,” the Palm Reader replies. “But try telling him that” He
jerks his head back towards the door, in the general direction of his boss.
“Fairpoint,” Marie says, trying to get them back on track, “this has gone
far enough. Let us go.”
“No.” He frowns over at Heath 2.0, who is smiling dumbly in the corner,
totally unable to grasp the gravity of the situation. “No, I came here with
two objectives. I wanted to know whether he could be fixed, and also to
punish the responsible party.”
“The responsible party is in the wind,” Marie says for the upteenth time.
“In fact, your little stunt has diverted resources that are meant to be used
to track him down.” Marie doesn’t technically know that Kivi and Arcadia’s
team are the ones on the other side of the border, trying to correct this
situation, but her position is sound.
“He may have done the deed, but I blame you too.” He turns away from Heath
2.0 to face Marie. “I blame you for everything.” He takes out a gun, but
doesn’t aim it.
“Whoa, dude,” there’s no need for that,” the Palm Reader contends. They’re
mostly nonviolent, but Fairpoint lit a fire under their ass, and corrupted
their mission.
Fairpoint walks over to Heath 2.0. He gently caresses his cheek with his
free hand. Heath smiles wider, and leans into the hand. “I love you. I
always will. I’m the only one who loves you enough to free you from this
prison.” He lifts the gun, and shoots Heath 2.0 right in the forehead.
Marie yelps.
The Palm Reader walks out of the room. “Nope. Nope, nope, nope.”
“You were destined to be arrested as soon as you stepped foot on this
island,” Marie says to Fairpoint in a quiet rage. “Now you’ll get the death
penalty.” Very few countries have banned capital punishment. “I will see to
it.”
“You won’t be seeing anything after the next few days,” Fairpoint tells her.
He takes what looks like a puzzle box out of his bag, and sets it on the
table. He slides his finger across the faces, edges, and corners in a
pattern to release the locking mechanism of the puzzle box. Inside is a
mostly spherical object that comes to a point at the top as a cone dropped
upon its ice cream. Upon that is a needle. He then takes out his knife and
knicks Marie on the arm. He lets several drops of blood run off the blade
and land on the needle. “This is a gene bomb. Do you know what that is?”
“Yes.” They used those in Carnage World in the afterlife simulation. They
would target specific code, so that the explosive could go off, and only
damage specific people. They were inspired by base reality weapons, which
used DNA instead of computer code.
“Mr. Palmer, thank you for your hospitality,” Fairpoint says in the tone one
might use at the end of a pleasant dinner party. “I’ll be taking my leave
now.” He walks out.
Keaton pulls the rope binding his wrists under his body, and stands up. He
runs over to grab the bomb. “I’ll take this as far as I can.” He crashes
through the window, and hops out. It proves to be pointless. The bomb’s
range is very wide. Marie feels the blast a few minutes later. She’s going
to die.
No comments :
Post a Comment