Hulk by Peter David (e reader manga TXT) 📕

scream of the gamma cannon merged with the scream ripped from his own throat, and there were other screams, people running, as a desert sky erupted in flames and a young girl was screaming and a man and the dolls were screaming and twisting and burning and he heard a satisfying click as the interlock chose that moment, after the cannon had fired, to unfreeze and seal Bruce in, and Betty was crying out his name from behind the Plexiglas and Bruce was still howling in pain except there was more than pain, there was also triumph and satisfaction and a sense of “At last!” that ricocheted through his mind for no reason and then came more screaming, and Banner thought his face was melting off and his flesh was just sliding right off his bones and puddling around his body except that maybe it was happening and maybe it wasn’t, but he screamed anyway because it just seemed the thing to do, and as Bruce flopped over onto the ground like a beached mackerel, he was briefly relieved to see that his skin was still very much intact, but he felt as if something else had broken or splintered or become separated, and as he slipped away into unconsciousness, he was dimly aware that there was an odd little satisfied smile on his face, and he wondered just who was smiling.

a daughter and son

lost and found

Thunderbolt Ross didn’t bother to get up from behind his desk when Glen Talbot sauntered in. Every time he encountered Talbot in recent days, it was harder for him to believe that he’d ever seen anything in the young man in the first place. Oh, Betty had seen through him. She’d been far more perceptive than her regular-army father, who thought Talbot had had the right stuff when he so obviously didn’t. After all, what man in an army uniform, with a future ahead of him, would ever willingly leave it behind to enter the private sector?

“General. Good to see you again,” Talbot said affably. “Very smooth ride, by the way. I appreciate your—”

“Sit,” Ross told him as if addressing a cocker spaniel. Talbot blinked briefly at the tone, but obediently sat in a chair in front of Ross’s desk. Ross held up the file his aide had given him earlier. “You want to tell me what this is about?” he said, and slid it across the desk to Talbot.

Talbot picked it up and flipped through it. Ross watched his face carefully, looking for some sign of weakness. But Talbot appeared quite relaxed, seeming for all the world like a man who had absolutely nothing to hide. This, of course, annoyed the crap out of Ross.

“It would appear, General,” Talbot said in a leisurely manner, “that this is a folder detailing our plans for the Lawrence Berkeley lab.”

“Why?”

“Why are you showing me this folder?” asked Talbot. “I’m afraid I haven’t the slightest—”

Ross slammed his open hand on the desk, causing the paperweight-and-pen set given to him by Colin Powell to jump. Talbot, for his part, didn’t allow the least reaction to show. “Don’t play games with me, Talbot. It’s bad enough that half the time you go through the National Security Agency instead of me—”

“I try not to, General, but sometimes you leave me no choice—”

Ross spoke right over him. “—when you’re trying to acquire things that I don’t feel are necessary. And this is another one of those. Why have you targeted Lawrence Berkeley?”

“Sir,” Talbot laughed, “I haven’t ‘targeted’ anyone or anything. I just work for Atheon.”

“The acquisition recommendations come from you, Talbot,” said Ross, tapping the sheet. “Very strong recommendations, in fact.”

“And I think you can see why, General.”

“Yes, yes, this whole ‘nanomed’ business.” Ross shook his head. “Science fiction tripe.”

“As was Captain Kirk’s communicator, once upon a time, General. How’s your cell phone?”

Ross scowled so fearsomely that his brows seemed to connect in one dark line. “We both know this has nothing to do with this ‘nanomeds’ nonsense and everything to do with Betty.”

Talbot looked as if he were doing everything he could not to laugh. “Betty? Betty Ross?”

“No, Betty Crocker. Yes, of course, Betty Ross. And I’ll tell you something right now, Talbot,” and he shook a finger at him, “I take a very dim view of your harassing my daughter by shoving yourself back into her life.”

Immediately Talbot was on his feet, and although he was far more contained than Thunderbolt Ross, his own ire was no less evident. “You know, General, a hard truth for you to face is that sometimes, just sometimes, not everything is about you or your precious daughter. Now you can dismiss the research at Lawrence Berkeley all you want, but the bottom line is that I would be making the same recommendations to Atheon I’m making now, regardless of whether LB labs was employing your daughter or Wanda the Dog-faced Girl. Furthermore, you may not want to believe this, General, but I’m glad that you wanted to see me, because I’m about to do you a huge favor.”

“Oh, are you?” said Ross sarcastically.

“Yes, General, and you’re going to be thanking me for it.”

He reached into a portfolio that he had tucked under his arm and pulled out a blue folder, from which he extracted what appeared to be several black-and-white photographs. “What I’m about to show you, General, is a matter of security, and I think it speaks to the relationship I believe we once had that I’m trusting you enough to bring you into this. I think, as Betty’s father, you ought to know, and therefore I’m sharing this with you.”

“Sharing what? What are you talking about? And what’s the catch?”

“No catch, General. All right, one catch,” he amended. “The catch is you can’t ask me where I got these. I’d think you should be more concerned about what’s in them than their source, anyway.”

He handed the photos over to Ross. The general studied them, frowning.