by P. S. Power
"Why would some kid have a duty station? Even if you’re rich. Running errands or something?"
There was a nod from Doc Short then.
"That, or interrogation. He's one of the best that way. Maybe the best, in the whole world. Plus, he's top end, intelligence wise. We can find a place for him here."
There was a shrug then, from the other woman as she turned to walk away.
"Really? I wasn't told about that. Either of those factors. Well, anyway, Connor, we can get together later and fuck? Even if I won't remember it. We can tape it?"
He nodded, since it was a kind offer, if not one that he could trust. Even if she were clean for the time being, he hadn't had that shot yet. The drawbacks were there, of course, if it only lasted for twenty years. From the way it sounded, his own immune system would be gone about that time, so if it couldn’t be updated, he really might end up screwed.
Seriously though, while he wasn’t able to try and kill himself, he had to figure that he was going to not live all that long, if he could help it. He was too isolated from others and while honesty wasn’t always bad, a life without being close to anyone wasn’t one that he wanted, long term. The idea that you had to survive, no matter what, had been hinted at in school. Without being something that had been tortured into him, specifically.
For a moment, the idea of putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger was comforting. If things got too bad, he had a way out.
Everyone else left the room, while he counted. Not having a watch, it was the best he could do. The orders had been to wait five minutes before making his way to the lab, so he counted to sixty, five times, then got up and worked through the hallways, keeping his distance from everyone as he moved. No one rushed him personally or anything, though he did have to run a few times to get out of the way of security as they charged down the hallway.
Before he got to the lab, Walker saw him in the distance and waved.
"Right, you just got in, so no duty station."
"I'll be in Doctor Short's lab. Running errands… or doing interrogations. Whatever comes up, I guess." That had worked well enough earlier in the day at least.
The large security chief smiled, a bit dismally.
"Good call. I'll log where you are, in case it comes up."
Then, carefully, they passed in the hallway and he jogged the rest of the way into the laboratory. A space which had changed, since he'd last been there. The desk was along the far wall and a set of different equipment moved on its own, rolling into place, as the more medical seeming machines hid themselves away in the back. They all had wheels. Now at least.
Seeming to have pride of place was a large glass fronted box that seemed to be a refrigerator of some sort. Inside were what looked like thousands of vials, bottles and syringes. At least from what he could see from twenty feet away. The room wasn’t tiny at all.
For his part he stood in the doorway, until everything else stopped moving. Just in case it couldn’t tell he was there. That or was programmed to run over annoying people that might be in the way. That one made all too much sense to him, so Connor wasn’t going to test the idea. Doctor Short saw his sensible action and winked at him again.
"Close the door and stay about twenty feet from me. I might need to get creative, which your field effect precludes. That’s the down side to the truth. It’s boring."
That made sense, even if he'd never thought about it before. People telling the truth couldn't make things up very well. So, if the woman was going to be creative about her work, it might need to be without his being too close to her. Plus, she might want to lie to him about something. At twenty feet that wouldn’t be possible though, since the cut off seemed closer to thirty feet as far as his ability went.
Seeing a wire framed bench along the far side of the room, he moved to it, not sitting at first, since it was easier to see what was going on over the equipment that way. Not really knowing what was going on, watching and figuring it out sounded like a great idea.
There was no speaking for a while, then, almost suddenly, after tapping on her pad for a long while, Bertie started calling things out. Not ignoring him at all.
" Ah… Got it. We're under threat of a biological attack. That means we need to coordinate from here, in part. Security and standard medical, meaning not me, will have the needed supplies for it. We're going into lockdown, so..." She tapped a button on her pad, then looked at the door as a solid metal sheet slid into place from the side. There was a heavy sounding clanking to the whole thing. As if they weren’t easily going to be walking out of there if things didn’t go exactly right. "Our job will mainly be in breaking down and fighting the virus, bacteria or fungus that the sensors get a reading on. Not that I don't have the cure for it." She grinned then. "In my superior and wonderful refrigeration unit, over by you? On the top shelf, on the right, there's a tray with twenty syringes on it. A pale blue liquid. Get one of those. Hurry. I made them for you, specifically."
He walked quickly, hoping he had the right unit from the description. There were needles in it, as suggested, so he took one out, as the woman glanced over at him.
"That's the one. I had one of those earlier. Drop trou and stab that into your butt cheek. Go about an eighth of an inch in. Don't hesitate. Being afraid of needles is for little girls." She grinned for some reason, as he took his pants down enough to get the job done. It hurt, which didn't stop him at all.
Pain wasn’t an excuse not to do something, if you were ordered to.
The ancient lady doctor smiled at him once the plunger was home.
"Nice. Most people would fail to get the job done, if suddenly hit with doing that. Diabetics generally have to take hours to run up on doing that the first few times they try it. Good to know I can count on you to do things like that, in a pinch. That's the compound I mentioned to you and Parker, earlier. The one that I printed out for you earlier. It’s a viral nano hive. Something new that no one else has. Complex. It will protect you from pretty much anything you might encounter. It can also do a few other things, which will help us, I think. Both of us. At least once it takes hold. That will take about a day and a half. Before then you can catch monkey pox just like anyone else. So, you know, make sure you don’t kiss any infected monkeys, before that."
Putting his clothing back into place required setting the syringe down. The cap was back on it, to prevent any more stabbing and there was a special bin that the used needle needed to go in. He managed to find it, since it was clearly labeled on the top, with a sign that said he should toss any used needles in there. The orange bin was nearly empty, but did have a few other things in it. Medical waste, mainly. That and a candy wrapper.
That was something he only vaguely recalled from childhood. Candy.
He used to like it. At least he thought that was the case.
Connor still liked sweets. Things like fruit and once a year, cake, on his birthday.
After that, he stood for a while longer, listening to Doc mutter, since she seemed to know what she was doing. After about an hour, she turned to him and made a soft, choking sound. It was laughter, instead of a lethal virus having gotten past the air scrubbers.
"Well, we were actually hit with something, which is a first around here, if you can believe it. It's Ebola-pox. A combination of hemorrhagic fever and small pox. Clearly a version built by a true genius, who is also at least decently good looking. You can tell from the work done on it. From the look of things they tried to spray it on us. Just flying over and hosing us down, as if no one would notice that happening. Which..." She tapped a few button on her clunky looking silver data pad and then chuckled. "Is easily fixed. Beginning auto sanitation now. You might want to close your eyes and mouth. Not that we were hit in here. Even if we were, the shots you and I have had would protect us before it killed us, since that would take about seven days. We’re golden. It’s just everyone else that we need to save here. The inside of the building gets done at the same time the outside does, so
we don’t have a choice. This is going to suck. On the good side, we actually know what’s going on! Here we go."
Connor didn't ask if she were being serious, just following her instructions, closing his eyes and mouth. A moment later a fine mist hit him. Where it came from he couldn't tell, but suspected it was the ceiling from the feeling of the cool pattern that ran over him. He wasn't trying to breathe it in, but enough got into his nose to let him know that it wasn't pleasant smelling. Bitter and slightly burning, where it touched his skin. Worse inside his nose and lungs. That subsided after about ten seconds, however.
Then his new doctor friend coughed a bit.
"Gah. I managed to suck some down into my lungs. It won't hurt me, but that's a bit less than pleasant. How about you?"
"I'm good. So, that's it? We can go out now?"
Looking over at the woman, he saw the expression on her face. Under her black, thick rimmed glasses. There was much wrinkling of her nose at the stupidity of his statement.
"Nope. We're still under attack. I mean, someone with a high-tech base just tried to hit us with mother fucking ebola-pox, kid. That means it wasn't the government or some foreign power. None of those lame asses have the technology for that or the need to hit at us that way. I'd guess it was one of the tech coalitions." She stopped then, and shook her head a bit. "Those are secret groups that are way ahead of what average people know about as far as technology goes. They aren't the only groups like that. There are some religious groups, secret societies and all that. Most of them are largely on our side. That doesn't stop the occasional attack like this though. Normally not one this silly though." She glanced at him, still standing nearly thirty feet away. So she could have been lying.
Which would have been foolish of her, since he'd eventually get closer to her.
"I mean, I put together this particular strain. About fifteen years ago. It's been changed a little, but it's my work. The bones are the same, which is about as good as a fingerprint. Which means that whoever did this is sending a warning my way directly or they don't know I'm here. That's possible, I suppose. I haven't left the building for, oh, nearly a year. Not that I'm a prisoner. Just boring that way. I haven't been laid in a lot longer than that, even if my hormones are young and full of life still. So, yeah, pretty boring."
The words were abstracted, being muttered as she worked on her data pad. Several things, large pieces of machinery, moved around the room, almost on their own. Trundling over toward her at times, and away at others as she collected things and moved them around, the complex devices whirring and causing things to happen in ways that Connor didn’t really understand.
More to the point, they did move on their own, without even making a sound. It meant he stayed out of the way as it happened. After a while, Bertie looked up again, and jumped a bit when she realized he was just standing there. As if he'd been forgotten.
"Oh! Nothing else is coming at us at the moment. We were painted with silent drones. Invisible ones, which is decently fun. Camo, rather than light-diffraction, so a little low rent. It works, if imperfectly… Here, I have the thermal scans on it." She held out her pad, for him to come and look at. Connor did it, stopping about three feet from her, which had her biting her lips, trying not to speak. That or she was giddy about something and trying not to laugh at him. From the hint of smile on her face, it really looked like that one, even if it couldn’t be.
The video really did show something in the sky, a thing that looked hot and indistinct, cooling the air as a spray was released from it, over them. He could see one of the towers off in the distance.
Moving back, the doctor took a deep breath.
"Thanks. I was just about to give my opinion on certain things here. The kind of thing you don't want the boss’s kid to hear you say. You know, how your dad bangs his secretary three times a week and all that?"
Except that wouldn't be the case. If it was, then Clarice would have mentioned it to him herself. Really, confronted by the man's son, it probably would have been the first thing she'd said. Instead she'd mentioned that Leland Laveen was a bit too familiar that way.
Meaning what she’d wanted to say was something very different than that.
It probably wasn't about him, either, or she would have mentioned it at lunch. That partial meal that hadn't really done the trick for him. Not that he was going to complain about being a little hungry. On occasion the school had withheld food for up to three days at a time, to teach them not to whine about small deprivations. That had happened during his survival training as well, several times per year, so he was used to the idea.
After a while, he sat on the wire bench, well away from Bertie. It wasn't that comfortable, since his behind hurt where the needle had been stuck in. Hopefully the shot the mad scientist had him inject into his tender flesh wasn't going to hurt him too much. It might, of course. Even if it was exactly what she claimed it to be, which was pretty certain, it could still kill him. Her, as well, from the sound of it. That Doc Short might be just a little bit loose when it came to safety procedures was simply clear. She'd taken that experimental serum a long time before, after all.
That she might do the same thing to him only made sense. Still, it had gotten past animal testing, and doing it to humans was the next obvious step. Plus, he seemed to live at a place that came under biological attacks now. That meant he'd probably be exposed to things later on, being caught out at some point. It was a good way to test things, really. Even if he was left without an immune system twenty years later. If it worked, it was probably worth risking that part of things.
On the good side, it could have some kind of strange side effect and take his powers away. Not that it would. Getting lucky like that would be too hard to even run the odds on.
It was tempting to ask if she wanted to try something that would require contact, except that he already knew the answer. The one that he'd have to enforce in the moment, regardless of what anyone else thought on the matter. They all needed to have clear heads in case an attack came again. Especially her. It made sense to him that a biological attack that required a lockdown might be a good way to delay the people there. That or to hold them in place, for a second attack.
"Something nuclear or... Well, a large explosion. That would be too obvious, if the attack needs to be hidden. I don’t know everything that could be used, clearly. Something that would get around the lockdown here? An EMP wouldn’t be enough. Not with almost everything here being hardened like you mentioned earlier."
The words just came out, seeming unrelated to anything else. They were almost muttered, which was rude of him.
His new friend made a low chuckling sound. From her expression she wasn’t thinking about how stupid he was being this time, at least.
"No doubt. Just what I was thinking myself, in fact. We're well and truly locked in here for the time being. It would be a great time to hit us with a second blow. We can't just leave, either, in case something was missed in the disinfection. If a hospital had been hit this way, they'd all be dead inside a week. Heck, the CDC would be struggling at this point. There are about six places on the planet that could have handled this well at all."
Connor nodded, getting it.
"So, either we're dead inside the next hour or so, or this really was a warning about something. Which I know nothing about. I think my Father mentioned something he wanted to tell me, earlier. About the Order, do you think? One of those secret society groups?" He didn't really know, but instead of mocking him as he deserved, speaking about things with too little data, Doc just smiled at him.
"Not a real point, if we die in an attack. If I wasn't needed I'd suggest we have sex, to pass the time. At worst we'd get to go out with a bang, right?" She was relaxed about the whole thing and it was kind of clear she wasn't all that interested in actually doing that at all. At least she barely looked up from her pad. She was inside twenty feet of him, so was probably being honest about what she might like that way, which was nice to hear, in
theory.
It wasn't what would be taking place so Connor simply squirmed in his seat a little bit.
"Well, later then? If you want, I mean. You really won't get much out of it, so I can see not bothering."
Still working, there was a nod.
"True. Still, one of the things you learn if you live long enough, don't leave people hanging. If they have needs and you can fulfill them at little to no cost to yourself, then freaking do it. It costs a lot less in the long run. Besides, it won't be the first time that I've done things that I didn't remember later. I mean, there is that slightly creepy thing where you're my great-great grandson, but if that doesn't bother you, it doesn't bug me."
She just left that sitting there. As if he wasn't going to ask about it, later. Or right then, because it was sort of a big deal. Gross, as well.
"Seriously? Is it wrong that I'm considering it anyway?" He wouldn't do it, if she were actually family. Not because he cared, either. Etain hadn't allowed a lot of things, but the idea that some families had sex with each other was kind of normal there. It would be strange for her though, at a guess. Though possibly not, since she was the one that had brought the topic up. While he wasn't totally certain, Connor was starting to suspect that a lot of what he'd been taught at school was more than a little different than most people learned.
There was a snort from the youthful seeming old woman. It hid a laugh.
"No, not really. I was just trying to be funny. Also, yeah, pretty messed up, if I was actually your granny. Sicko."
Connor was still going to ask again, later. When he was closer to her. Even if she was playing with him about it in the moment. One way or the other. Really, it seemed like she was already too close to really lie to him well. It could be that, being old, she was managing things that most people simply hadn’t yet. That or she’d worked out some way to block him and hadn’t bothered to tell him about it yet.
The door opened then, with a click and a hiss coming from the hallway. The air that rushed in wasn't any fresher than what was inside the room. It smelled the same, actually. Like medical disinfectant. Something else, as well. A darker thing, that had a metallic tang to it that hid inside the other, bolder scent.