Revolution Read Free

inject
himself with a serum that altered his genes and started the
transformation. Started... but not finished.
    That was where the Genesis Chamber came in. A
cigar tube of life and transformation and possible death, it had
turned him from a skinny eighteen year-old with nondescript
features into something more than human, but less than cat. He’d
retained his looks, but his body had become more muscular, he
sported claws and now had gray fur with black spots and yellow
eyes, the same as Anastasia.
    And here they were, and here she was with her
arm around him. Blinking, he came back to the present. “Yeah, I’m
fine,” he repeated.
    Anastasia got out of bed and flicked on the
light. She wore a pair of pajamas and her body, lithe and
beautiful, moved gracefully as she came back to the bed and sat
down. “You had the dream again, didn’t you?”
    “Yeah, I did,” he admitted, feeling somewhat
ashamed. “It was pretty intense.”
    Her eyes, large and expressive, gazed at him
with concern. “You’ve been having those nightmares for what, a
month?”
    He nodded. “Yeah, that’s about right.”
    “You know, we could always talk to Farrell,”
she suggested. “He might have some more information on what you’re
thinking.”
    Harry shook his head. The mention of Agent
Miles Farrell, his handler at FBI headquarters in Manhattan, meant
control. He was a good agent, stolid and workman-like and
professional to the max, but he was also incapable of understanding
what was involved here. Farrell happened to be the typical
by-the-book guy and he needed to follow office protocol, even if it
involved handling two transgenic cat people.
    “Farrell’s been searching for the past three
months for others like us,” said Harry, shifting his body to lean
against hers. “He hasn’t found anything. But I know there’s
something out there. I can feel it. I don’t know how I know, but I
do.”
    Anastasia offered a wise smile. “All the
dreams you have, you become a cat. You don’t have the urge to go
out and catch mice, do you?” she teased.
    The remark stung, but only a little.
“No.”
    Laying a hand on his shoulder, she added in a
voice most confident, “You’re not going to devolve. You know
that.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    As the youngest expert in transgenic research
in the world and probably the best at what he did, Harry knew all
too well of the curse. Mixing animal genes with that of a human was
one thing, but the main drawback was that the animal genes would
soon overwhelm the human ones, force them to lie dormant and the
subject would revert to its animal form. He and Anastasia had been
spared that, largely due to his work in keeping the animal genes at
bay. However, there were others out there, and no telling what
state they were in or which side they were on in this fight.
    “You’re not going to devolve,” Anastasia
repeated in an attempt to reassure him. “You’re not like Doug and
Ivan.”
    “I know.”
    Harry had already met a few of the other
enhanced people. Like Anastasia, they were the products of
experimentation performed by Russian scientists over the past three
or four years. Anastasia had been the first success, then Doug and
then Ivan. Doug’s genes had been mixed with that of a dog. Ivan had
been more bear than man. In fact, he was a monster that enjoyed
killing more than anything, an almost unstoppable force of nature.
He’d eventually died at Anastasia’s hands. She’d torn his throat
out, thus ending the threat. Still, the memories lingered in
Harry’s mind. He couldn’t forget and didn’t want to.
    “I miss Doug,” said Harry as the image of the
little dog-man flashed through his mind. Doug had attacked Ivan,
knowing that he wouldn’t survive. He’d marched forward, stalwart,
unafraid, resigned to his fate, and he’d died a most brutal
death.
    “I miss him, too,” Anastasia said in a soft
voice. “We’ll never forget him.”
    They hadn’t, but life went on. Only three
months