The Institute Stories Set 04

"You can't tell who killed her!" the mother of the baby spat at me.

"Anyone who did not throw a stone is free to go," I replied.

No one moved.

"The girl suffered before she died," I told them. "You will too."

Everyone except the priest and I collapsed. Their mouths opened to let out screams of pain but made no sound.

"Why spare me?" the priest asked.

"You dug the girl's grave with your hands," I said. "Pain would be a sanctuary from your crisis of cloth."

"There are cameras watching," he told me.

"It wouldn't be much of a trap without them," I said and looked at the grave. The work would be hot; I decided musical accompaniment was called for and turned the screams on.

I took my time.

Opening the casket made the priest crawl away to retch.

"You didn't have to make me look," he said finally. "I put her in there."

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I'm not human, so there are moments of awkward social behavior. No one told me justice couldn't be fun. I'll remember that punishing the murderers of children is a somber event."

The screams died suddenly; the priest looked at the townsfolk.

"I have the body, and I have the confession of their minds," I said. "The sentence is death."

"Why don't you get it over with?" the priest asked when the strongest recovered enough to look around.

I did not reply.

He ministered to his congregation as more shook off the effects of my punishment. The ones who understood what was still to come knelt in prayer. I did not let anyone beg for his or her life.

"How did they know the child was Telepathic?" I asked the priest when he was done.

"You like to play games, don't you?" he asked angrily. I patted my earcell.

"The public Operative case files," he sighed and nodded. "Answer this first, how did the girl manage to Scream?"

"The child abuse laws are for your protection also. It's not a good idea to harm a child," I replied. "They might harm back. You were unlucky that she cried for her mother instead of lashing out."

"Is that what she did?" he asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "Maybe it was your God she cried out to."

He nodded.

"The Zealot Operative, Elijah, visited us with his Watcher," he said. "They entertained themselves in town for a couple of days. As instructed by the Church, I used the incident and the pregnancy to... I didn't know they would go this far."

"You pushed for ten months, priest," I said. "Where did you expect this to end?"

He fell to his knees.

"I would have liked to let you live; you would have suffered more," I said. "Unfortunately, the murder of his daughter could make it necessary for me to kill an Operative they already speak of in the same tone as Santos."

I shot him in the head and turned towards the townsfolk. I pulled the jacks out of them and jacked back into them painfully. They were adult babies when I finished my first wave of manipulations, innocent but with a full understanding of their pain.

Their mother threw the first stone.

Their mother threw the stone that killed them.

Unsurprisingly, it took time for the others to build up the bravado to come for me. The reporters were first, but they were more interested in close-ups of the bodies than asking me questions. When I did not kill the reporters, the federal agents felt it safe to approach me.

"You murdered a whole town," an agent said.

"I'm glad to see your talents were not wasted," I told him. He was the agent whose spying I reported to Jacob.

"I've waited a long time for this," he said almost crowing. "You've gone too far. The Director and the President cannot keep you from justice now."

"Is it the townspeople Abbas Matthew and his political allies expected me to kill or all of you?" I asked meeting his eyes.

Every agent took a step back and put a hand on their weapons. I shook my head.

"Lead," I said. "I am a willing lamb."

------

I stood chained by my wrists to a small platform. The politicians were speechifying for the holo-cameras. Abbas Matthew's view of justice did not seem to include anyone speaking for the condemned.

The roll call of politicians and supporters of the Institute who had seen the light and therefore needed to show avid and public support for the Church gave me time to try getting used to the orange prisoner's jumpsuit. I had seen the Institute tapes of the Director taking me out of my incubation chamber, and Sarah wrapping me in a blanket of Operative gray. The trial was the first time I remembered wearing anything else.

Finally, the politicians wound down and Abbas Matthew stood. He was not a man to gainsay advantage so he did it slowly as if age bore him down; the act faltered some when he walked towards me with strong steps.

"Are we certain he is contained?" the Abbas asked over his shoulder.

"Every Operative and Operative candidate from the Institute, the Asia-Institute, and the Euro-Institute is holding him in place, Abbas," Elijah said. "It is enough, even for Jason."

"Can you trust him?" I asked, leaning towards the Abbas. "You did kill his daughter."

He slapped me.

"Silence, spawn of Satan!" he said with fire and brimstone.

"I should have killed you sooner," I told him.

"God protected me."

"I guess that's true. My Creator had more important things for me to do, and it kept you breathing," I replied and went back to studying the horrible color I was wearing.

The Abbas was an incredible orator with natural rhythm, a beautiful flow of words, and a voice that rose slowly towards a towering crescendo. It helped that he probably rewrote the speech several hundred times praying for this day to come.

"What has this abomination been doing for these last five years?" he shouted at his audience near the end. "Why are we kept in the dark about the Director's instruction to his--his--, this thing which calls itself the Director's creation?"

"Killing Positives," I replied. He froze, unsure of himself. The curiosity was naked in his eyes but to ask would distract from the climax of his speech.

"My trials are quicker," I explained. "I don't have to ask questions."

"What?" he asked. "He sent you to..."

"Kill Positives," I said. "I've spent the last five years killing Positives in countries outside the world-regional reach of the three Institutes."

"But why? They are..."

"In the eyes of my God, they were sinners," I interrupted. "Not all of them exhibited the hubris and cruelty of minor deities, but the ones who did are dead now."

"How many?"

"There were countries I walked from one end to the other killing every Positive," I said. "Some tried to flee into the ocean, but it did not put them out of my reach. Those I drowned though."

"But why would you do this? They were God's tools, tasked with the continuation of his greatest creation!"

"Because I knew I had to turn around and give their victims a merciful death," I replied. "It did not seem enough to just kill them; I wanted them to suffer some of the pain they brought into this world."

"That's not what I meant!" the Abbas yelled.

"Oh! I understand," I said smiling and looking into the holo-cameras for the first time. "I was sent from this Garden, the Director made for you, to bring justice to those Positives who forgot their humanity."

"You and your father go to far!" the Abbas whispered in horror. "You go too far!"

"I gave mercy to thousands for every Positive I hunted down in my Creator's name," I said.

"I have seen a man with her power, considered the weakest," I continued pointing to Lucinda, "erect an altar of Abraham and make women pour their children's blood on it to be his. Speak to me of too far, priest, when you have lived the least of what I witnessed these past five years."

"I SAID HE WAS TO BE STRIPPED OF HIS UNIFORM!" the Abbas screamed at Elijah. I had discarded the orange.

The Operative studied my uniform and shrugged. He preferred to see me in gray even if it meant the Abbas spent a few breaths ranting and raving at him.

"It does not matter what you wear, demon," the Abbas said turning back to me. "Your maker has abandoned you. The Institute has abandoned you. Your time on this world has come to end. I will set everything right in God's name."

"But even Satan can speak truth," he said turning to his audience. "Positives can turn against God's mission. The Institute and its sexual privilege guarantee it. It has made them sinners, taking advantage of the gifts God gave them to serve us."

"Only the Church can guide them in God's work!" he pronounced.

The chains holding me in place struck the ground, making an almost musical sound. The Abbas turned in time to see me step off the platform and point to the left edge of the audience. As my hand moved to the right edge, I made everyone I had jacked aware of my backing out of their mind. To all of them, the political hall changed to the Institute auditorium; the politicians became a gathering of all Institute Positives; the Operatives and Operative candidates from other Institutes disappeared to leave Elijah and the Operatives he mentored surrounding Lianne.

Elijah's face flowed from the serenity of accepted duty that the Abbas imagined to one of destructive hatred aimed at the Church. Eleanor's hand on his arm seemed to be the only thing that stopped him from storming the stage to kill the Abbas.

Most of the holo-reporters dropped their cameras; the Abbas took a few steps back while his entourage looked around madly. I waited for the holo-reporters to recover their instincts and point the cameras at me.

"Can you imagine what your sheep have thought during these weeks of my 'captivity', priest?" I asked without looking at the Abbas. "Listening to sermons shouted from Church pulpits, hearing the reporters talking about my prison uniform and my shackles, and yet their eyes saw..."

"The truth," I said turning towards him. "You are right; Positives are something to be feared. I have walked across miles populated by soulless flesh a Telepathic called his kingdom so I know better than any of you how much they are to be feared."

I turned and walked to stand in front of the Abbas.

"You are evil," he whispered.

"Kneel, priest," I ordered after jacking into him. He collapsed at my feet.

"It was never Erotic Mind Control Positive," I said. "The sex was a reward the Director convinced you to give, and them to accept for not--."

I sighed and stroked the man's cheek.

"It was always about power but you knew that, didn't you?" I asked. "It's why you want control of the Institute."

I turned at looked at the cameras.

"Now that they have watched the Church and holo-press dance at the end of my marionette strings, I hope they understand. I have shown them power, and what it would be like to live in the world of one man's creation."

"You are not a man," the Abbas said.

"No, I am not," I said kneeling with him.

"You are nothing," he whispered. "God hates you! You have don't even have a soul. You will not escape God's justice, demon. He will strike you down!"

I grabbed the Abbas's face in both hands and squeezed.

"I've always wondered who had it better or worse, priest," I said smiling. "You walk this earth asking 'Why am I here?' Your priests say what they do is a 'calling' yet in someone like you, at your center where God should be, I find doubt. I can walk into his office, kneel, cry out 'Lord, I beseech thee, what is my Purpose?', and he replies."

"He is no God," the Abbas said spitting in my face.

"But you have never looked upon the face of God and seen disappointment at your failures," I continued. "Disappointed, not in you, but himself for not making you better than those failures and forcing you to suffer for his inadequacies."

I sat back and made him feel like I was invading every part of his being with my jack.

"The day will come, priest, when I will know your doubt," I said. "I find it unfair I will experience that, but none of you will ever feel the smallest part of what I have."

I put my hand over his heart and shoved what it meant to be a flawed creation in the eyes of your God into him.

He screamed.

I stood up and watched him writhe around while continuing to scream in despair for a few minutes. I turned and climbed down from the stage to stand face to face with Elijah. He continued looking over my shoulder at the Abbas.

"I cannot have children, nor do I feel the things you do," I told him. "The only vengeance you will have is what I have already given you--except this."

I extended my gun to him. He took it and walked past me. I grabbed Eleanor's arm as she tried to follow him onto the stage. Our eyes met; she understood how it would end if Elijah did not let it die there.

"His salvation lies in the reflection he sees in your mind," I told her. She nodded and walked to stand beside Elijah.

I almost killed you after the twins, Lianne.

BASTARD!

You were usefully subtle at the beginning, but the more lead I gave, the sloppier you became. I had to improvise those 'weeks of captivity' to make up for your flawed work or I might not have gotten my point across. 'Spawn of Satan'! Did you have to let the idiot write his own lines? I'm disappointed in you, Lianne.

You knew! YOU USED ME!

The gunshot from the stage made me turn around. Eleanor had her hands wrapped around Elijah's; she helped him pull the trigger and empty the gun into the Abbas.

Another generation or two, and the Church could have grabbed what you made them reach for too soon, Lianne.

"You were a good Operative once," I said kissing her forehead. The holo-cameras moved to give the audience a view of the Operative-to-Operative confrontation.

"I did God's work," Lianne said, exactly like I instructed her to through my jack.

Had I allowed the Church the time, destroying it might have taken the Institute down. I don't need the Institute to fulfill my God's Will, but it would make a fitting monument to him.

I reached down and pulled Lianne's weapon from its holster.

Not an easy problem to solve. I was about to resort to snuffing the brighter lights in the priesthood when you triggered the shields I maintain on the Director.

What shields?!?

"You have enabled so many transgressions by the Church, Lianne," I said meeting her eyes. "An Operative so diligent in stamping that kind of thing out, and YOU helped a father rape his daughters, a brother rape his sisters."

I gestured towards Mary and Magdalene. Some of the holo-interviews had been real even if the content was not what Church bureaucracy and reporters heard.

"The Abbas was right!" she yelled at me. "You are evil! Whatever had to be done to destroy you, God would have forgiven!"

I killed my first Positive when I was three years old. He was subtle like you were at the beginning. He got by the Operative shields on the Director but had the bad luck to choose a time during my lessons.

"By your religion, I am evil," I replied. "In mine, I have served my God's Purpose."

There were no shields!

Until you, Lianne, no one survived coming into contact with them. It was a close thing; I would have killed you if the residue of your playtime with a pair of priests weren't fresh. I would have killed you anyway, but the little prize you left in their minds made me curious about your religious affiliation.

"The Institute thanks you for your service, Operative," I said solemnly to her.

You were exactly what I wanted. I only had to kill any other option you might take to grab power, and you ate your way up the Church hierarchy.

"I thank you for your service," I said taking a step back and pointing the gun at her head.

"You are an abomination to God," she said raising her chin proudly.

No matter what you call him, Jason, your father is not God. He made you to stay in power!

My faith does not require yours, but who did you serve in all of this?

You made me do it.

"Not to mine, Lianne," I said.

I allow you to die believing that.

Her blood and brain matter spattered Positives ten rows back from where she died.

Kneeling down, I put Lianne's gun back in the holster. I turned around, walked to the center front of the stage, and looked around at the audience of Positives.

"You have power. They..." I said gestured towards the holo-cameras and to the audience beyond. "Need that power. Need you."

I jacked into every Positive hard so my words would echo in their minds as I spoke them.

"I was sent into the wilderness to learn what you are capable of. I will kill any who sets foot beyond the privilege given to them. If necessary, I will kill all of you and allow your race a dignified extinction."

I released my jacks letting them breathe again. Turning to the holo-cameras, I addressed everyone watching.

"You do not have to understand me," I said. "But know this, someday all I will have of my... father...is you."

The Director was waiting when I exited the auditorium. He nodded towards the back of his grav-chair.

"Push me to the gardens," he said smiling as I got behind the chair.

When I was young, I measured my growth by how high I could put my hands on his grav-chair and how easy it was to guide it where he wanted to go.

"You've served me well, my son," he said. "Very well."

The End of the Final Motherless Child Institute Story

The Final Institute Story What To Tell Her: Jason's Story By ElSol

Author's Note: Case File #101 should be read prior to this story.

"Is it actually necessary to live in a see-through house, Jason?" Eve asked walking up behind me.

"Being able to watch me comforts them."

"The human race can deal with giving you a little privacy," she said.

"I'm the head of the Institute."

"And I thought I had it bad!" she sighed. "Being the first unmarried President makes the holo-reporters go insane if I have a late meeting. God forbid it be with a Positive!"

"We had to rush a Healer to the hospital for the holo-reporter who fell off the roof that one time," I said.

"It's your fault," she accused. "Your sex life is so accessible, people expect every media figure to fuck on camera. Of course, nobody can get your ratings. What was your last get-together? Four women! 'It's a powerless grav-plate, Mr. Director. Can we spend the weekend in your bed?' I wish I knew you were that easy to get into bed when I was your Watcher."

"It makes people feel better to see..."

"Please!"

"As I remember, your last visit to the Institute put two Positives in..."

"So why did you ask me over?" she said, cutting me off. I put my head against the wall and closed my eyes.

"A pair of twins tested Symbolic," I said. "Another pair, in the same town, tested as Healers."

She was quiet, absorbing the information.

"What's in the water of that town?" she asked.

"It gets better," I said.

"Let me sit down," she replied. I heard the clicking of her heels. "Hit me."

"The children were raised according to the Director's specifications for twins," I said.

"Nobody does that," she said. "Everyone says they do, but nobody does."

"The mothers had their instructions directly from the Director," I said.

"Why would he do that?"

"They're my children."

"That's impossible," she said. "I've read the reports; you're sterile."

"The bio-techs have altered their diagnosis to 'most likely biologically immature at the time of testing'," I said.

"What?!?" she exclaimed and took a harsh breath suddenly. "Amada's children! Two children, two Positives!"

I waited for her to put it together.

"There's only been three children with a Healer parent," she said. "The bio-techs thought I might be the anomaly and not Amada's daughters. I wondered why she chose to go to the Asia-Institute."