Wolverine: Weapon X Read online

  At some point during the massacre, a communications specialist named Rice tried to download the Experiment X files and had triggered the recordings made during the experimental procedures. Those recordings continued to play over the loudspeakers in a random, disorganized loop for the rest of the night.

  When the butchery ended, after the top secret experimental medical complex had been transformed into an abattoir, the recording of a long conversation continued to broadcast over the facility’s audio network.

  As Logan moved toward the exit of the underground facility climbed the endless flights of stairs that led out of that hell to the bright morning and the snowy surface, the recording played on.

  “…Good morning, Ms. Hines…” Dr. Cornelius. Voice tinny.

  “… I was wondering, sir,” Carol Hines. “May I speak with you?…”

  “…Sure …”

  “… I keep thinking about Mr. Logan…”

  “… Don’t we all? …”

  “… and what we’re doing … before I came here… was Mr. Logan here?…”

  “… I don’t know what you mean, Ms. Hines…”

  “…Did Mr. Logan volunteer for this?…”

  “… Was he abducted, then?…”

  “…I’m not too proud of this, but yes, I believe he was…”

  “…We’re doing something bad, aren’t we, Dr. Cornelius?… Mr. Logan was forced into this…”

  “… I don’t know about forced, Ms. Hines… see, if you listen to the Professor, then this whole situation is all preordained. It’s like Logan’s destiny…”

  “…But how could the Professor know Mr. Logan’s destiny, Doctor?…”

  “…To be honest, Ms. Hines, I don’t know…”

  “…All I see is him suffering… the Professor seems to enjoy inflicting pain on Logan… it’s like torture, sir, not science…”

  “…Well, you know, some men… they have the worst destinies.. I should know…”

  “…Oh God…”

  “Hey, don’t cry Ms. Hines… I’m sorry. That crack about destiny … it was a lousy thing to say…”

  I’m—I’m sorry about the tears … feel so silly…”

  “…Look … this poor slob doesn’t have much of a life, anyway… he’s a mutant… Logan isn’t even human…”

  “…But he is human, Dr. Cornelius… you can’t tell me that you don’t see it… in his eyes … you can see … he’s a man… a man who’s being turned into a monster…”

  “… I don’t know what to tell you, Ms. Hines… I’m going on what the Professor said… Maybe anything other than that is out of my league…”

  “… I think the Professor is a liar, sir…”

  “… I wish I had never become involved in this experiment, Dr. Cornelius…”

  “… Yeah… me, too… now come on, cheer up, Ms. Hines… It’ll be over soon…”

  * * * * *

  As Logan emerged into the daylight, he struck down his final victim, a communications specialist. Dying, the technician scattered computer discs into the snow. Logan left one bloody footprint, then trod on.

  For Logan, this final killing was nothing more than an afterthought. His bloodlust was spent. Weary, he shuffled forward into the dawn. Within minutes, snow began to fall, and a massive blizzard surrounded him. Then, for a moment, through the white, windblown haze, Logan spied a figure standing on a rocky peak, framed by the rising sun.

  Legs braced, strong and proud, the figure of a samurai, sword drawn, shimmered like a ghost—or a memory.

  That vision is me, he realized.

  Not the debased, fallen man he had been before he’d been abducted and dragged here. Not the mind-ravaged weapon he was intended to be. But the man he’d been long ago, during his never-ending lifetime, but in another century.

  I fought for honors found peace in the sound of wind chimes and the rustle of snow.

  That snow covered him now, clinging to his blood-spattered form, icing his hair, swathing crimson flesh in virgin white. Reborn…

  Logan searched his memory for more traces of his past, but, so much was lost. He clung to that single pristine vision of a time when he had honor. Bushido.

  A noise intruded. Beating blades. Rhythmic, mechanical. A helicopter approached the facility. Logan swiftly and instinctively moved away from it, into the woods, deeper into the winter storm.

  He had lost his way a long time ago. Fought for so long. In the end, he misplaced the reason and battled only himself—

  No. I will not be a tool… nobody’s puppet . . . and never again a mindless weapon. . . I’m a warrior. A warrior born.

  Throbbing overhead, the beating blades became louder, roaring unseen above, then fading until the sound lost its way in the wind.

  They carried me into this hellish torture chamber dead to the world . . . they carried me in, but I’m walking out . . . upright. . . on my own two feet.

  The storm intensified, the frigid wind whipped his flesh, but Logan was impervious to the elements. The undefiled brutality of the wild called to him. In his mind, he answered…

  I am Logan. . . I am a man . . . heading into the wilderness.

  About the Author

  MARC CERASINI lives in New York City and is the author of thirty books, including the New York Times nonfiction bestseller O.J. Simpson: American Hero, American Tragedy; Heroes: U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor Winners; The Future of War: The Face of 21st-Century Warfare; and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to U.S. Special Ops.

  He is the author of the USA Today bestseller AVP: Alien vs. Predator based on the motion picture; and two original 24: Declassified novels, based on the Emmy Award—winning television series 24—Operation Hell Gate and Trojan Horse.

  With Alice Alfonsi, Marc is the coauthor of the nationally bestselling mystery novels On What Grounds, Through the Grinder Latte Trouble, The Ghost and Mrs. McClure and The Ghost and the Dead Deb. With Alice, he is also the coauthor of 24: The House Special Subcommittee Investigation of CTU, a fictionalized guide to the show’s first season.

  He cocreated the Tom Clancy’s Power Plays series and wrote an essay analyzing Mr. Clancy’s fiction for The Tom Clancy Companion. Marc’s techno-thrillers include Tom Clancy’s Net Force: The Ultimate Escape, and five action/adventure novels based on Toho Studios’ classic Godzilla, among them Godzilla Returns, Godzilla 2000, and Godzilla at World’s End.

  Marc is also the coauthor of a nonfiction look at the Godzilla film series, The Official Godzilla Compendium, with J. D. Lees. With Charles Hoffman, Marc is the coauthor of forthcoming Robert E. Howard, A Critical Study.