Painless
By Rich Larson, first published in Tor.com
A west African man has been bioengineered into a super soldier by the military, but he refuses to become a tool for war. While on the run, he attempts to rescue a boy who seems oddly similar to him.
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A young west African man named Mars has been bioengineered into a super-soldier by the military. The military built him to be a killing machine, but Mars refused that life and is on the run. However, Mars must rescue a boy being held hostage by criminals before the military learns about the boy's identity. Mars hires a woman for leads, and the woman reveals that criminals took his target. The criminals plan to sell the boy to a delinquent called Musa by the end of the day. The man immediately goes to the criminal's base to try to save the boy. The west African military discovered Mars as a young child since he was known to experience no pain. His ability made him a perfect subject to be a super-soldier. As a result, the military bioengineered him to be a killing machine. With the bioengineered technology, Mars can regrow his limbs and has increased strength. With this advanced technology, Mars became one of the best soldiers. However, Mars was unhappy as he didn't want to kill people. Mars originally wanted to commit suicide by getting hit by a truck. However, he jumped out of the way at the last minute, and the car crushed his lower half. Mars realized he wanted to leave the military, and with his regeneration ability, he regenerated new legs and escaped. The military is still after him, but Mars must rescue his target no matter what. Mars reaches the base and kills all the guards with his super strength. He finds the boy in a ceramic bathtub, undoes the restraints, and removes the hood. The target is a boy that looks like a younger version of Mars. Mars tells the boy that his old lower body turned into this boy after the car accident. He knows that if the military discovers that they can create a hundred super-soldiers, it could lead to unimaginable destruction for anybody that stood against the army. He escapes with the boy and hopes the government never finds out.
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