Prologue

Silence. That's all he heard. Ethan's world closed in on him. The noise in the room was muted as he heard the beating of his racing heart. His fingers had grown numb, and his mouth was dry as a dessert. His legs began to shake. His entire body had frozen as reality set in.

Her skin turned charcoal-grey and flaked off her body. Her eyes were still bloodshot, and her pupils had rolled to the top of her eye as if she was staring at the ceiling. All her hair had fallen off her head and scattered all over her body. He grabbed her hand and shook it violently, praying she would wake up.

"No, no, no... Please, please, please, please..." he pleaded. "Please wake up, mom."

Ethan held to his mother so tightly that his nails dug into her skin thinking that if his voice could not wake her, perhaps pain might. He buried his head in her arm. Now he couldn't hold the tears back.

"Please, God. Please, ple-e-e-ase..." His words were lost in his sobs. A steady stream of tears ran down his face and dripped onto the sheets of the white hospital bed. Wails of grief painfully echoed through the hallways in the hospital.

He tightened his grip further. I'm not letting you go until you wake up, mom! Ethan thought. Eventually, his wails ceased, and his body shook intermittently as he sobbed. His sniffles were the only sound left.

A bald man knelt down next to Ethan. "It's time to go, Ethan. She's not coming back."

He lifted his forehead from his mother's arms and met the man's gaze. His eyes were bloodshot from the tears, and his face was puffed up and red like a tomato. His hands quaked as he finally let his mother go. The nurses said something to him, but he couldn't process any of it. He buckled to his knees, his shoulders slumped, and his head dropped like the life had been sucked out of him.

"No," he replied in a hushed voice.

"Ethan," protested the man.

"I said No!"

He wished the earth would swallow him up and grant him the same fate as his mother, only it didn't. He still had a purpose to fulfill before his time was up. The bioweapon. She was one of the thousands of casualties when a bio-bomb was dropped on the city she was in. It felt as if his very soul left with his mother and all that was left was a void. A void that could only be filled by vengeance.

The sixteen-year-old boy stared one more time at his mother. This time, he forced himself to absorb every detail. Every burn, every scar, every flaking skin, and every piece of rotting flesh he could see. He took it all in because he knew that if he ever wanted vengeance for his mother, he needed to remember this scene clear as day for the rest of his life.

When I die, Ethan swore, there will be no trace of any bioweapon in the world and the man who took her from me will suffer.

###

Ten years of peace and the world was still a mess. With crime skyrocketing across the globe, governments had lost control of their people. The law meant nothing when those who were meant to enforce it were themselves guilty of breaking it.

A towering, brown-haired man with jade-green eyes gazed at the rising sun through his bedroom window as it greeted the world. Ethan, a nanobiologist, had returned to South Africa.

He drifted to his bedside, rummaging through his drawers before grabbing a breathing pump. He carefully placed it over his mouth and switched the pump on. It shot a burst of air into his lungs that would cleanse him of any inhaled impurities from the suffocating atmosphere outside. Ethan's lungs cleared and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Just then, his communications device rang. Ethan rolled his eyes. My link is ringing. At this hour?

Then it clicked for him. His eyes widened and he jumped to his feet. He grabbed his link and hurriedly answered the call, afraid it may cut off.

"Did you get it? When is it coming?" he asked, a hint of desperation in his voice. The response was immediate, but it felt like an eternity for Ethan. Everything had slowed down.

"We've been running short on Secronium ore in this mine," he began.

Ethan's shoulders slumped, and he dropped his head in defeat. He was so close this time. It was basically in his hands. The key to his happiness. The key to everything.

"But we've found some supplies we can smuggle to you on the outer edges of the belt. They should be coming within the next forty-eight hours,"

Ethan's heart relaxed as he calmed his nerves. Deep breaths, Ethan. It's all fine, he thought. "Thank you, I'll pay you double as agreed."

There was a lengthy silence on the other end. "This better not get me busted. I'm risking my ass to get you this shit illegally. You better come through."

Ethan let out a light chuckle. "Oh, don't worry about getting caught. Leave that to me."

He cut the call and calmly placed his link in his top pocket. He shut his eyes tight and clenched his fist. In a burst of youthful energy, he never knew he had, he punched the air in triumph.

"Yes!" he shouted. "Yes! Yes! Yes! One more trip to the belt and I'm all set!"

His heart raced with relief. Ten years and finally, he'd get what he wanted. What he deserved. He could feel the satisfaction of his invention changing the world. The feeling was almost too real. He wanted to jump up and down as if the ten-year-old him had been resurrected. Suddenly, breakfast tasted better, his head felt lighter, and victory was knocking on his door and all he had to do was answer it. But first, he needed to go to work. Celebration was for the evening.

Ethan threw his backpack over his shoulders and headed out. He walked down the deserted street passing by the junkyard before stopping off at a miniature, face-brick house with a thatched roof. He walked up the steps to the house and knocked gently on the oak door.

"Hurry up, Sarah. You're making me late! Don't make me come in there and drag you out again!"

A thud came from the other end of the door followed by a screeching noise of shoes on the wooden floor that. She probably tripped over her shoelaces again, mulled Ethan as he rolled his eyes. Sarah graduated with him, and they had both been employees at The Alliance in Durban. She, however, was in the medical building while Ethan was in the nano-tech building. The door creaked open as Sarah adjusted her hair and dusted her jeans.

"Okay, let's go."

She was just a few inches shorter than Ethan. Her brunette hair was tied up in a ponytail and draped over her shoulder. She carried a briefcase with her laboratory coat wrapped around her waist, ready for work.

"Glasses? Link? Lunch? Papers? Card?" asked Ethan, counting off the items on his fingers.

"Yes, yes, yes, and... yes," she said locking the door behind her.

The automated streetlights turned on as Ethan passed by them. The exalted station was a lofty, elegant skyscraper.

The magnificent building was shaped like a tree. The main column was like the bark. On the third floor, it split into two smaller columns that wrapped around each other in a spiral. Running through these columns were elevators that followed the path of the column. Ethan looked at the back of his access card. It read, 'Teleporter 9088-4'.

"Well, I've got to be at branch four today. It's a hell of a walk to the south wing. I'd better get going if I'm going to make it in time."

"I'll see you in the evening then?" she asked.

"Yeah, have a good day at work!" he shouted as he ran to catch the lift that was about to close.

Ethan squeezed into the crowded elevator. The green-eyed scientist waited silently as it made its way up the building. The station was the highest in the suburb which meant that on the 4th branch, anyone could see the entire city. Perhaps a few decades in the past, it would be something worth seeing but now, you'd rather look at the blank floor than the view outside.

The elevator struck the 9th floor and Ethan's card pulsed red telling him it was his time to get off. He forced his way through the people in the elevator and barely slipped out before the doors closed.

"88th terminal...88th terminal... Please don't be busy..." he muttered to himself.

He walked around the corner of the building and spotted the terminal he needed to enter. "Thank God there's no line," he whispered under his breath. Ethan scurried over and swiped his card to auto-select his destination. Teleporting in 3...2...1... Please remain calm and keep your arms inside the terminal!

'Porting was a strange sensation. You were being assembled and re-assembled, yet it didn't feel painful at all. Perhaps a slight tingle down the spine on the other side of the device as all your nerves re-aligned.

Ethan was rebuilt, atom by atom from the feet up at his destination. He couldn't help but crack a smile. Today wasn't just a day. It was the day. Today, he'd finally get to complete his invention. If all went well, this could eliminate every bioweapon on the face of this earth. Or at the very least, render the pathogen useless.

Across that street is greatness, Ethan told himself.