Hulk Peter David (best motivational novels txt) 📖

“You’re the head of this base!”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. Just as they are aware,” he said sharply, “that I am the father of the chief scientist attached to the situation, who, in turn, is romantically involved with an atomic bomb on two legs. Talbot apparently sold them on the notion that my close relationship to the principal players in this little drama presents a conflict of interest, since obviously I won’t have my priorities in place.”

“But . . . that’s ridiculous! ‘Close relationship’? You and I haven’t spoken for close to a decade, and Bruce told me you threatened his life if he ever came near me again!”

“Well, it’s one of those odd circumstances where my failures as a father aren’t working in my favor. Ironic, I know. Usually my parental shortcomings reflect so well on me.”

“All right, I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I didn’t mean to—”

He waved it off. “Betty, this old skin has developed so much armor plating over the years, you couldn’t get under it with anything short of dynamite. The bottom line is I don’t set policy.” He shook his head, looking as if he’d been personally betrayed, which was probably exactly how he felt. “I had no idea Glen would go around me like this. I—I miscalculated what he was capable of, and I failed you.”

She fixed a look on him as she shook her head, sagging into the chair opposite him. “You didn’t fail me.” She sighed. “I wasn’t counting on you in the first place.” Then she frowned. “You know, believe it or not, that was meant to be consoling, but it didn’t come out that way at all, did it?”

“Not in the least,” he agreed, his mouth twitching into a smile beneath his mustache. “Don’t worry about it, though. You’re likely just out of practice when it comes to me.”

“Very likely, yes. So, what am I supposed to do now?” she asked.

He shrugged one shoulder. “I would tell you to go and say good-bye to Banner, but I’ve already been informed that’s out of the question.”

She couldn’t believe it. The only reason she had contacted her father—aside from the fact that she’d been scared out of her mind—was that she felt by going through him, she would be able to maintain some control of, and involvement with, the situation. Instead, through Talbot’s duplicity, the one person who might be able to prevent the entire predicament from spiraling out of control was being banished like a dissident Russian to a Gulag.

“All I can tell you, Betty,” Thunderbolt Ross informed her with what he likely thought was reassurance, “is that I’ll be watching every move that Talbot makes. At the slightest hint of a breach, I’ll make the case to pull him out of there.”

“It will be too late,” she said flatly. “Whatever Glen does is going to make matters so much worse, so quickly, this place will be coming down around your ears. You’re going to be busy filling out paperwork requisitioning a new barn door while a herd of horses will already be ten miles away.” She stood. “I’m going to see Bruce. Right now.”

Ross shook his head with a resigned sigh, but she didn’t quite understand the message until she opened the door and saw two burly guards blocking her way.

“Betty, I’m sorry,” said Ross, and he really did sound apologetic. “It’s time for you to go home.”

Barely five minutes later, Betty was looking down from her seat in a chopper at the desolate desert floor as she flew home.

She thought bleakly, This is the last time I’m looking at this while it’s in one piece. They’ll never be able to handle Bruce. Never. Putting Glen Talbot in charge of Bruce Banner is like using a sledgehammer to open a bottle of nitroglycerin.

playing with fire

Bruce was beginning to remember.

As he lay on his bed in the containment cell, pieces, fragments of what he’d seen, were starting to fall into place like the parts of a jigsaw puzzle. He was starting to realize that it was simply a matter of being willing to accept what was being presented to him, that it wasn’t just that he didn’t remember; his mind was doing everything it could to block it all out. He couldn’t help but wonder how much of that was as a result of the . . . other . . . within him, the other that would do whatever was required to keep those recollections at arm’s length.

How ironic, mused Bruce. How remarkably ironic that a being who was the living incarnation of strength, who feared nothing physically, was repulsed by something as ephemeral as memory. It made Bruce feel strong in a way, as if he—

A number of small openings mechanically appeared in the walls around Bruce. He sat up and saw gun barrels pointing at him from everywhere, enough guns to Swiss cheese him before he took another breath. And they were accompanied by laser sightings. There were so many red laser targeting dots on him that he looked like he’d come down with a sudden case of measles so massive that the spots had actually broken out on his clothing.

The door burst open, startling him. What the hell is going on? Bruce wondered, and even as he did so, he felt something else, deeper within him, stirring and readying itself, like a child in utero responding to a loud noise. Bruce didn’t know what to do first. He couldn’t decide whether to work on quelling the small but dangerous uprising he felt rooting around in his brain, or to focus on what was apparently a change in the status quo.

Then Glen Talbot walked in.

At that moment, with a burst of clarity, Bruce Banner knew precisely what was going to happen. The exact details were open to debate, but the outcome wasn’t in doubt. The only thing left to ponder was just how long it would take, and Bruce Banner—ever the scientist—couldn’t help