Chapter 14: Six Months
Six months from now, Nostramo's annual celebration will be held. Wayne had never enjoyed these gatherings.
He stood before his own statue. He disliked being worshipped, but people invariably gravitated toward strength.
The story of Wayne had spread throughout the city. A narrative that inspired people to improve themselves.
From compulsory education to free healthcare and affordable housing, and from the direct security Wayne provided, he had brought peace to forty percent of the city and six percent of the planet's surface.
"My lord."
Wayne turned to face the assembled Black Guard.
"Hmm?"
"Young Lord has been training for three hours without rest."
"Don't worry about him. He'll stop if he's exhausted."
Wayne glanced at the training facility under construction behind the statue.
The initial investment alone ran into hundreds of millions of throne gelt, but he didn't care. This was the second gift he had prepared.
A training facility built specifically for a Primarch. The existing Wayne Enterprises facilities were utterly inadequate.
He spent more on Konrad than mortals could comprehend, and Wayne never regretted it.
Konrad was now One year old. A Primarch's first year was a period of learning.
Guilliman had required four years to learn about Macragge and nearly ten before entering the war. Wayne understood this was merely the beginning for Konrad. The road ahead was long.
He turned to Adelaine. "What's the situation with the cleaners?"
"The lower hive levels are still being cleared, sir. What do you need?"
"Capture mindless mutants and deliver them to the facility. Konrad needs adversaries. Also, announce publicly that Wayne Enterprises is purchasing xenos specimens."
Wayne knew that mutants and aliens would be Konrad's enemies. He had to arrange everything for Konrad as thoroughly as possible.
The boy was his investment.
"As you say," Adelaine nodded, but concern crossed her features.
Not because Konrad was falling back, but instead, Wayne was succeeding too well.
Young Konrad studied desperately to surpass his father and prove himself worthy of Wayne's affection. That kind of pressure wasn't healthy.
"Master Wayne, I have concerns." Adelaine decided to explain Konrad's recent behavior.
"Konrad is studying too hard to exceed your achievements. He's becoming increasingly obsessive."
Paranoia. Brutality. Justice.
Three seemingly unrelated concepts formed Konrad's fundamental instincts.
Wayne understood the issue stemmed from those very instincts. The more paranoid and brutal he became, the weaker those tendencies would render him.
Konrad was a rare Primarch who would eventually choose to abandon his duties. He allowed everything to collapse at the end of the Great Crusade, perhaps the only one. He was uniquely vulnerable to psychic and mental deterioration combined.
"Have him come to me."
"Understood."
"No....I'll go to him."
...
Konrad examined the third robot he had successfully disabled. He didn't smile. Instead, he planned to activate more machines, continue training, then take a fifteen-minute break before resuming.
"Shut down the training system." Wayne, dressed in black, arrived and observed the deactivated robot.
"Well done."
"Father?"
"Tell me something." Wayne looked at the boy who now appeared fourteen years old. "Six months ago, you were still a child. Now you're a teenager. In a few more years, you'll likely be a grown man."
"Yes?"
"Konrad, I can see your inner weakness and paranoia. You want to compensate for your failures. You want to prove you can succeed. But you've lost your way."
Konrad opened his mouth to speak, but Wayne gestured for silence.
Father and son walked together to Wayne's Tower, which was nothing less than a palace.
The man looked at the boy and asked, "Have you been here before?"
"I..."
Konrad hadn't explored his own quarters thoroughly. He had been absorbed in study and training, desperate to assume responsibilities as quickly as possible and become a warrior Wayne could trust, not merely a boy.
His pale face and dark eyes fixed on his father as Wayne pushed open a door to a chamber containing hundreds of xenos specimens.
Wayne retrieved the Hrud skull.
This alien species possessed entropic fields capable of manipulating time itself, causing warriors to age decades in moments and reducing starships to corroded wrecks.
The xenos was extraordinarily difficult to capture, much less study. Only someone as wealthy and powerful as Wayne could obtain even a single sample.
He handed the skull to Konrad, who stared down at it without speaking. He didn't understand why Wayne had brought him here.
Wayne shook his head and selected another specimen.
"The Hrud. They are simple scavengers in small numbers. But once they gather in migrations, their entropic fields combine, aging warriors into elderly men within hours and reducing even voidships to rust."
"That powerful?"
"Yes. And these are ork specimens. Greenskins that are virtually impossible to eradicate. Look at these hundreds of species. They are all humanity's enemies."
"Enemies?"
"You are fixated on past failures. You want to achieve perfection with robots to prove you won't fail again. That's wrong."
"Wrong?"
"Robot training is meant to teach you self-control, not to be controlled by the training itself. You became addicted, son. You want to erase your failures and fill the void in your self-worth."
Konrad didn't respond. He sensed Wayne was correct. He did harbor such thoughts.
To him Failure felt like the most shameful thing imaginable. Looking at the strange creatures surrounding him, he realized he had been focusing on the present rather than the future, valuing the past excessively.
Wayne understood he couldn't simply dismiss Konrad's concerns. The boy had to experience failure to grow stronger. Some flaws required confrontation.
Failure was the mother of success. Without failure, how would one recognize their shortcomings?
Wayne led the boy to the chamber's highest point, where they examined the xenos specimens together.
Then Wayne retrieved an android from a cabinet, the type used for experimental dissection and anatomical study. He handed Konrad a scalpel, then selected another for himself.
"The robot training is finished. Next comes precision. Is dissection a form of punishment?"
"Is it?"
"It's education. Humans learn what humanity is by dissecting the dead and accumulating anatomical knowledge. We learn what aliens are by dissecting them."
Wayne sliced open the android's panel with the scalpel, acting with perfect mechanical precision. Konrad gripped his scalpel and studied Wayne's movements.
" Never forget what I am teaching you, Son."
"My father's surgical skills saved countless lives, unlike me, who used this skill to take lives. Now I'm passing this knowledge to you. You will learn it, and how you choose to employ it in the future is Your decision."
[End of Chapter]