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Soon enough, the testing facility came into view. It was a gargantuan structure--as Grandfather preferred them to be--being comparable to any of those professional sports stadiums that other countries liked to build.

There was more fighting going on around it, however. And this time, he couldn’t simply ignore it, because he could see some of the militants trying to break into the building.

Unacceptable.

The truck came to a screeching halt.

“Rego, merge.”

‘Isn’t that a bit excessive for this?’

“No.” His hand shot out and grabbed the reaper who’d been hovering around the driver’s seat, then he pressed Rego against his chest.

‘Fine,’ the reaper sighed.

And he felt the surge of power take over his body and mind as their two souls fused together.

He flung the door open and leapt from the seat, unholstering his favored new prototype from its hiding spot on his lower back. Much of his body turned to gas, leaving only enough solid mass to keep his clothes from flying off or the firearm from slipping out of his grasp.

And then he was a phantom of a man. A speeding gust of wind in human form, blitzing across the haphazard battlefield from one hapless foe to the next.

In all likelihood, none of these men here were servants. They were probably freshly recruited militiamen who didn’t know any better.

But there was no mercy in Vasiliy’s heart. Examples needed to be made. Precedence needed to be set. So that others would understand that this behavior would not be tolerated.

The first man’s head exploded into chunks. Indeed, the prototype packed quite the punch. Probably a bit too much, in fact, as he felt the weapon nearly fly out of his hand from the recoil.

But he was already onto the next. A blink and a whoosh, and his next victim was gone, too, decapitated with another thunderous boom.

Then the third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth. There were more at the far end of the street. Scrambling. Trying to riddle him full of bullets and missing wildly with their unsteady hands. Blink. Whoosh. Seventh. Eighth. Ninth. Tenth.

Only four remained now. Two from either side, apparently. The nearer two were on the ground, having stumbled in their terror. The closest one, he pinned down by the neck and pressed the gun against the temple. Then he captured the other three from long range with invisible cocoons of gaseous radon.

“Tell everyone you see,” said Vasiliy in two voices. “This building is off limits. And so is every place of science in the country. You understand me?”