Bacchus

"You don't-"

"Save your breath Angelina. He's blind to the obvious flaws in his logic. As I said before, he only sees what he wants to see. He'll just have to learn the hard way," Bron said with a frown and a shake of his head.

Gregory's face went blank once more as he stared into the sad eyes of the large Genie. For the briefest second there was a glimmer of doubt but he snuffed it out. His eyes went cold. "I will enjoy terminating you and every living being in this building once I have my data."

"Why are you extracting it here? Why didn't you just take the pendant and go?" Angelina barked at him.

"He has to leave the pendant with me so the people after it won't know someone else has it," Bron explained gently to Angelina. The man rolled his eyes and nodded.

Taggart went back to ignoring them as he carefully connected the virtual environment to the PC with the cables.

While he watched the man closely Bron moved his fingers of his right hand to the link welded to the shackle. It had no give. Neither did the one of the right shackle. He was down to the hinges on the bands encircling his wrists. He pushed his thumb against the pin as he pulled against the sides of the metal band. He applied more and more pressure and felt something tear in his thumb but he didn't stop increasing the pressure. The pain grew excruciating but still he pushed against the pin. Just as the tendons in his thumb began to tear the pin snapped loose.

Angelina heard the faint snap and moved her hand over his wrist and slid it down to the shackle. She immediately felt the wobble and caught the pin as it slid free of the hinge. They both held still as they heard Taggart shift in is chair.

"Ok. It's time," Gregory said as he connected a cable from the PC to a small square patch behind his right ear.

Angelina's eyes went wide and she was about to yell at him for being insane but Bron gripped her wrist and shook his head. He knew the man wouldn't listen and might come to check on them. Bron only had one hand free. He still had to carefully pull the chain and broken shackle around the back of the pipe as quietly as possible. He couldn't afford to draw Taggart's attention yet.

The screen lit up on the small PC and rows of characters began to stream by. Gregory grunted then connected the pendant storage drive.

Bron and Angelina froze as they watched the man. They couldn't tell what he was doing but his attention was completely absorbed by whatever it was. Bron slowly began to move the loose chain around the pipe.

"Nothing."

They froze again as Gregory whispered to himself.

"No AI. Just vast amounts of data. The motherlode!" the man said breathily with his excitement.

"The AI was a bluff! Well done! Bravo!" he continued to chuckle as he pulled up the beginning of a content list on the PC's little screen. "This data is wonderful! I'm going to have so much fun with-"

He went silent as he stared at the screen so Bron returned to sliding the chain clear. The broken shackle slipped from his damaged thumb and struck the pipe with a loud clank.

Bron's eyes shot to Taggart. He began to surge up to his knees but stopped when he noticed the long stream of drool hanging from the man's bottom lip. He looked closer and Gregory was trembling. There was an odd sound coming from his partially open lips. Tears began to drip down his cheeks as well. Bron moved to look into his eyes and saw terror and madness. Shit!

"What's wrong?" Angelina asked.

Bron turned to her and quickly broke her smaller shackles open. His thumb was in agony but if he was right he needed to get them out of the building as quickly as possible.

"Bron, talk to me!" she cried.

"The AI wasn't a bluff. It's a whole lot smarter than Taggart was. It's inside his head now. Probably looking for a way out. We need to get someone to cut this building from the network NOW then blow it to atoms.

Angelina reached behind her back and pulled her phone from its hiding place in her waistband. "Papa? Are you there? Did you hear that?" She flipped the speaker on as Bron looked at her incredulously.

"ANGELINA! ARE YOU OK?" her father yelled into the phone.

"Bron freed us from our bindings but you've got to get someone to cut all communication lines to the club. ALL OF THEM. NOW. The AI from the pendant is loose. We have to clear everyone from the building and all the surrounding buildings as well!"

"bbbbbrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnn" hissed from between Gregory's trembling lips.

Bron looked at Angelina.

"K-k-k-kk-ii-iii-i-lllll...mm-mmmeeeeeee-kkkksssttt" Spittle and bubbles formed on Gregory's lips. Bron moved to look into his eyes again and his terror was growing.

"NNNO!" burst from Gregory's mouth angrily and Bron jumped back. Taggart's body began to twitch as the AI tried to learn how to use it.

Bron grabbed the chain from Angelina's shackles and wrapped it around the man's jerking leg. He grabbed the power tool and fastened the chain to the floor. He tossed the tool away. He spat the chewed tape out and slapped it against the thumbprint reader on the explosives case. The gooey mass stuck like tar. They couldn't let the AI disable the bomb. Angelina was taking a movie of the scene with her phone.

"NNNO! NNNO! NNNO!" the AI forced out of the body it was trapped in. The voice got louder and louder.

"How much time is left?" Angelina asked putting the phone away.

"Roughly eight minutes," Bron said as he grabbed her hand and ran for the door. It was locked but one kick from Bron's foot destroyed the mechanism and he was able to pull the door open. They ran down the hall to the stairs and noticed the place was silent. They took the stairs two at a time then Bron grabbed Angelina in his arms and accelerated their departure.

They ran across the main floor and burst out of the front doors. The emergency vehicles were three hundred metres away and rapidly moving further back. Bron ran after them as fast as he could. He spotted the gang standing by Pietr Rykov. Bron set Angelina down on her feet and did a quick head count. Someone was missing.

"LAURA! WHERE'S LAURA!" he yelled.

Vicki looked at him. "We haven't seen her since she was dancing with you."

He looked back at the club. She was still inside and it was his fault. The timer was almost done. Almost.

Bron looked at Angelina and she knew what he was going to do. She didn't even have time to say anything before he kissed her quickly and raced back to the building. She screamed after him and tried to follow but her father grabbed her around her waist.

Bron crashed through the doors and bounded up the stairs. He knew he was cutting it too close. He'd lost track of the timer when he kissed Angelina. He crashed through the locked door of the room he'd shared some precious moments in. Laura screamed as she bolted upright in the bed. He didn't have time to explain so he wrapped her in the sheets and held her against his chest as he ran from the room. He'd never make it downstairs and out the front door in the time he had left. There was a window at the end of the hall which overlooked the rooftop of the adjoining building. He raced full out down the hall giving it everything he had and threw himself through the glass curling his body protectively around Laura.

The blast wave caught them twenty feet from the window and slapped their bodies outwards. They overshot the rooftop and crashed through a dark storefront two blocks away in a vacant neighborhood.

The bomb was a two phase explosive. The initial blast was conventional and took out the dance club from the roof down to the basement. Then the secondary implosion triggered and sucked all of the debris back towards the source and compressed it into an ultra-dense block which fell through the ruins of the foundation of the club.

Angelina and Pietr picked themselves up from the ground and brushed off the bits of tree, building, and street from their hair and clothes. The club was gone. Bron hadn't come back.

Pietr immediately mobilized the emergency workers and any able bodied volunteers. "Call in extra medical staff and have them set up a triage center in the park. Keep the road clear for the ambulances to come and go. I want a sweep of the surrounding buildings! Look for casualties. Scan all buildings for life signs! Spiral out from the buildings closest to the blast site. Let's go people!"

"Papa?" Angelina looked into her father's eyes.

"Bron returned from Earth which should have been impossible. There's a chance he escaped from this too. I'm not ready to give up on that chance. Are you?" he said firmly.

She gave him a hopeful smile and shook her head.

"If you're not injured gather your group and start looking," he said and turned to speak with the police and fire chief who'd just arrived. Angelina rushed off to collect her friends.

Chapter 26

It was a news camera crew who'd been turned back from the overcrowded blast site who found Bron and Laura three hours later. He was still curled around her protectively though his arm was bent at a horrible angle.

After they'd gotten their shots they called in the paramedics and had their exclusive.

Both patients were alive but Bron was in critical condition. His body had shielded Laura by taking most of the damage himself. They airlifted him to the hospital and he was immediately taken into surgery.

Laura had a broken left wrist, a broken right leg, bruises over most of her body, and a mild concussion. Considering the alternative was being turned to paste inside a huge boulder of compressed debris she was in good spirits. Her father was immensely relieved she'd survived though his relief was strained when he heard it was solely due to the Genie's heroics.

She was immensely grateful for Angelina's visit in the hospital and bringing the rest of the group in to see her. She knew the blonde was really at the hospital waiting on news from Bron's doctors but her smiles and hugs were genuine enough.

It was hours later that they learned Bron would have to be kept in a coma to let him heal from the numerous broken bones and torn ligaments. It was the concussion they were most worried about as he'd just recovered from one. The doctors were worried about brain damage as there was swelling.

When days stretched into weeks the pressure on Angelina grew to be unbearable. She made a critical decision which her father understood. Her friends supported her as well as they saw the pain she was enduring.

It was a little more than four months after the explosion when Bron finally opened his eyes. He was floating on a gel like substance that maintained even support across his body without applying stress to any particular spots. He felt weak as a kitten and may have made sounds mimicking one when he tried to move.

"Bron?"

He blinked in the direction of the sound.

"Hello."

A face came into view. He didn't recognize it. A beautiful human female with long black hair starting with straight bangs above her ice blue eyes, shaved on the sides and hanging straight down her back. She wore a tight body suit which hid nothing and her body was tight and muscular. Bron caught himself staring and looked away with a blush.

"Do- do you remember me?" she said faintly as she watched his face.

"No, I'm sorry. Should I?" he said cautiously.

The woman's eyes got a little glassy and she shook her head quickly. "No, it's fine. Let me get your doctor." She pushed out of the room with her hand over her mouth. Bron thought she might have been crying. He felt bad about that.

A few minutes later an older man in doctor's scrubs entered and walked over to Bron's bed. He took his pulse, listened to his heart, and checked his pupil dilation. Only then did he speak.

"Hello Bron. I'm Dr. Katzell. I've been taking care of you since you've been with us in the hospital."

"Why am I in a hospital?"

"We'll get to that. For now though let's start with the last thing you remember," the gentleman asked.

"Angelina and I went to see an eye specialist to see if my vision came back. As I can see you it obviously did."

"So you don't remember receiving the diagnosis from the eye doctor?" Dr. Katzell asked.

Bron went back to the memory. He recalled sitting in the dark booth and feeling profoundly relieved then waking up here. "Was there an accident at the doctor's office? IS ANGELINA OK?" Bron sat up suddenly and the room swam. He collapsed back to the bed.

"She's fine! Nothing bad happened at the doctor's office. Everyone is fine. You were recently badly injured in an explosion at a night club and one of your injuries was a severe concussion. This was made worse by the fact that you probably hadn't completely healed from the severe concussion you incurred from being caught in an explosion in the office block of City Hall on a previous date. You've been in a medically induced coma for the past four months to help you heal but it seems like you've lost memory from the past six months."

"What..." Bron gasped quietly in shock.

"The brain doesn't like being banged around and yours took two large impacts in a relatively short period. We had to keep you under this time due to the sheer number of injuries you sustained. I'm glad to say you have recovered nicely from all of the other damage. While there is a possibility that you'll get some of your memories back I believe the chance of that is very slim. I'm actually very pleased you aren't showing more indications of higher level damage. You're able to have a conversation. You can recall people in your life. You have normal, sympathetic emotional responses. I'm going to keep you in the hospital just one more night then I'll send you home in the morning. Do you feel up to having a visitor?"

"Ok."

The doctor nodded and left.

A few more minutes passed and Pietr Rykov walked in.

"Hi Bron. How are you feeling?"

"Good. Weak but good. How is Angelina? Is she here?"

Pietr's smile faltered but he forced it back in place. "Angelina is good. No, she's not here but she wants to be. She's finishing up her studies in the campus on Garroon. Then she's doing a year of apprenticing there. She'll return when that's over. Bailley went with her."

"Garroon? Isn't that on the other side of Walla?" Bron asked quietly.

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"Did I do something wrong?" he said even quieter.

"No Bron. You didn't. After your recent injury Angelina found she was no longer able to pretend she's just friends with you. She's keeping her promise to me by ensuring she isn't anywhere near you until I've secured my position in office. I've already announced my candidacy to run for Walla's Premier. The election is in ten months. Angelina won't be back for eighteen month's at the earliest. She's asked me to tell you not to contact her until she returns. This was the hardest thing I've ever seen her do. We have to respect her wishes." He looked closely at Bron and saw the big man's lips were trembling but he nodded.

"I understand you've lost all of your memories between the explosion at the dance club and six months prior to that. In that interval a lot of things happened. Important things, especially for you. I'll just give you the highlights and the rest of the gang can fill you in with more detail. Some of these are rather shocking so I will take it slow." He looked at Bron to see if he was ready and the man nodded.

"Number one, you were made a full citizen of Walla with all rights. Congratulations again." Bron smiled broadly. "Number two, Sasha's mother Magdalina Petrov from Earth discovered her daughter was alive and came to Walla to collect her. Laura Augustine, the woman who was with you when you woke up, took Sasha under her family's protection and named you as their arbitrator. You negotiated between the Petrovs and the Augustines. There was an assassination attempt on Magdalina and Sasha and one on you, both of which you stopped but you were injured badly. This was the event of your first concussion. Magdalina took you and Sasha to her ship but after tragedy struck her family back on Earth she left with both of you on board. You'll have to get the details from Sasha and Asami about what happened there." Bron looked dazed and Pietr patted his shoulder.

"Number three, you took into your possession on Earth a data pendant with extremely sensitive and dangerous information on it. You brought it back to Walla with you. Number four, you and Sasha adopted an orphan girl on Earth and brought her to Walla." Bron's jaw dropped in shock. Pietr smiled. "Kei is a smart young girl. Sasha has enrolled her in school and she is doing very well academically. She's struggling a little socially but Sasha is getting her help with that as well."

"Number five, Gregory Taggart, the chief scientists on the genetics team that made you, has been tracking you throughout your life and turned out to be a vicious sociopath. He was responsible for all of the troubles in your early life and gave you a drug just before you were taken to Earth that removed your conditioning. He was planning on you becoming a homicidal monster, turning on humans and boosting fear of Genies. Angelina recorded him confessing when he abducted the two of you and we've released that recording to the press as it damns him and paints you in a very good light. It's eased the fears of the people of Walla over the Genie in their midst, even one without conditioning. When he abducted you and Angelina, he planted a bomb in the club then tried to collect the data from the pendant you had. He overestimated his skills and the AI on the pendant compromised the implant he had in his brain taking over his body. You got Angelina out before the explosion but you went back into the building for Laura. You got her out of the building just far enough away to survive the initial explosion but this is how you were injured the second time. The blast wave threw you both two blocks to crash into an old shop."

Bron looked lost. Pietr smiled sympathetically at him. "I'm sorry to dump all of this on you but you've had a very busy six months. Your friends will be brought up to speed on your memory loss and will do their best not to overwhelm you like I just did. One of the discussions you and I had during that time was regarding your relationship with Angelina. I asked you to promise to help Angelina keep her promise to me. While you agreed at that time, as you don't remember, I'm going to ask you again. Will you promise to wait until Angelina's return to pick up your relationship with her?"

The large man looked at Pietr and felt his heart screaming at him to say no. He wanted to hold Angelina in his arms now! But he realized the future they could have now would be far less than the one they could have if they waited. With a tightness in his throat, Bron nodded.

"Thank you Bron. I promise to live up to her expectations. I will make Walla a better world for everyone." Pietr had tears in his own eyes as he shook Bron's hand.

"I'm a little tired. I think I should get some rest," Bron said with a wobbling voice.

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll be back tomorrow to bring you home. You may get some visitors once you are there."

"Like my adopted daughter?"

Pietr smiled gently. "Yes, like Kai."

With a final pat on Bron's shoulder Pietr left the room, leaving the big man alone with his racing thoughts. He was a citizen of Walla! He had a daughter! He'd been to Earth and SURVIVED! Most frightening of all was that his conditioning was gone and everyone knew! There was nothing stopping him from striking out against those who harmed him... except his natural distaste for violence and his desire to live in peace. Would that be enough to make the citizens of Walla accept him?

It was too much for his overtaxed brain and exhaustion took him down into a deep sleep.