“Hexagon has patented more than twenty over-the-counter medications and is one of the leading researchers in drugs that could reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.”
She heard the door click shut as it closed automatically behind her. She smiled. Dewan and Eva were in two dentist-like chairs and beside them was a table with a metal box.
Hashimoto turned to the sound of the clicking door. “Dr. Parris.”
“Good morning, sir. I didn’t expect to see you here.” Parris walked over to the table, laid down her tote, and dropped her jacket on the back of the chair.
“I wanted to chat a bit with Dewan and Eva. Yesterday’s meeting was so brief that I wanted to get to know them better.” He looked at the two subjects, one a twenty-one year old African-American man and the other a nineteen year old Caucasian woman.
Parris walked up to the one-way mirror to fix the collar of her lab coat. On the other side of the mirror, there would’ve been at least two other scientists, both male, in front of computers recording everything from blood pressure to brainwave activity in the two subjects.
Levickis had already run their background checks the day before when Parris first met them, and both of them had criminal records. Dewan had a previous charge for marijuana possession in Brooklyn, New York-one that he denied by claiming the drugs belonged to his college roommate. Eva had been arrested in London, England, for hacking into an Italian bank’s computers and transferring over one hundred thousand Euros to different accounts she had set up worldwide.
“Did I mention before that Dr. Parris moved here from San Francisco where she conducted research for our sister company?” asked Hashimoto.
Eva rolled her eyes. “You have.”
Parris, now back at the table, glanced at Eva briefly and pulled the metal box closer to her. Although she tried to hide it, she actually stared at Eva’s circular nose ring. She had three other studs in both ears and even one through her tongue. Uggh. What was so exciting about puncturing holes all over your body? She flinched at the thought of having a piece of metal protruding through her tongue. Then there was Dewan-a handsome young man. He wore the typical baggy jeans and a Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey. No tattoos.
“Now that Dr. Parris is here, I’ll leave you three alone.” Hashimoto got up and smiled at Parris before he exited, leaving a trace of his aftershave behind.
She’d successfully brainwashed two others like Dewan and Eva, a little over a week ago. But this time she would use a more recent variant of the drug, and the guinea pigs in front of her would be her first experimentation with it. “So tell me, how do you like your new surroundings?”
Neither one answered her. All right, time for a different approach. “Do you miss home?”
Dewan and Eva looked at each other as though they were silently trying to determine who should answer.
Parris looked at Dewan. “How about you, Dewan?”
“Me?”
“Yes.” Parris immediately dropped the sarcasm in her voice. “Yes, you, dear.” Parris clenched her teeth behind closed lips as though to catch her last word from leaving her mouth.
Too late.
Dewan shrugged his shoulders. “It ain’t Brooklyn, but hey, it’s a free trip. Anything to get away from there. It’s starting to become too bougie for me.”
“Why do you say that?” Parris asked.
Dewan sighed. “I mean, New York’s becoming a place for rich people only. Living in Brooklyn today, you might as well live in Manhattan. Damn rent is so expensive that it’s harder for people like me to get ahead, ‘cause I’m always broke.”
Parris looked him in the eye. “No offence, Dewan, but is that why you were selling dope on the side?”
“Aw shit, man. I’m going to tell you like I’ve told everyone else,” said Dewan. “It wasn’t my weed, I don’t smoke it, and I told my roommate to stop keeping that shit in our apartment. The police messed up their investigation and I go down for it. So much for justice.”
Parris did not notice any change in his eyes that made her believe that he lied to her. “I’m sorry to hear that, Dewan. I wasn’t trying to offend you. You’re right, life’s unfair. And injustice always tends to happen to the better ones. Trust me, I’ve met others. As a result, you’ve found yourselves on the other side of the law.”
“So what does that have to do with us?” Dewan asked.
So now he wants to talk. “I was just coming to that, Dewan-and this concerns you too, Eva. After three days around your new brothers and sisters, what is your own personal take on the group?”
Dewan sighed. “First of all, they aren’t my brothers and sisters. Second of all, they’re weird.”
Parris raised an eyebrow. “Weird?”
“Yeah, weird,” answered Dewan. “You know. Strange, odd.”
Parris put her hands in her lab coat pockets. “How are they weird?”
Dewan looked over at the table before he looked back at Parris. “They all act so happy, like they’ve all been visited by Mary Poppins or something. And also this ‘end of the world’ thing they keep talking about. That it’s coming and that they’ll be all saved.”
“And you find that hard to believe.”
Parris then turned to Eva. “How about you, Eva?”
“Well, yeah. I just wonder how everyone, or why everyone, in that group seems to think that the world’s coming to an end,” she answered.
“I had enough listening to that 2012 crap already,” interjected Dewan. “And now this. Then there’s the leader they all follow who says, ‘The wicked, they’re all going to be punished.’ Whatever that means.”
Eva moaned. “And they never stop.”
“No offence, Doctor,” said Dewan. “I just want to get paid, see a bit of Tokyo, and then go home. I’ve seen enough. That’s what you all promised in your agreement, right? I can quit this so-called experiment whenever I choose and you’ll fly me back home for free. That’s the agreement.”
Parris raised her index finger as she looked at both of them. “It is. But you haven’t come to the fun part yet.”
“Oh, so now there’s a fun part?” Dewan said sarcastically.
“Yes,” she replied. “The part where you get to try our new drug. This is the main reason why you’re both here.”
Dewan looked away to the door. “Yeah, yeah. The sooner we get this over with the better.”
“Talking about your experiment, what’s supposed to happen in these chairs?” asked Eva.
Parris walked up beside Eva and touched the headrest of her chair. “The visor attached here will fit over your eyes where you’ll see a variety of images. The electrodes that I’m going to attach to your head and chest will record everything from heart rate to brain activity.”
Parris strapped them both into their seats and then attached the adhesive electrodes to them, one on their temples and one on the left side of their chest.
Parris walked to the table and opened the metal box. She took out a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a small bag of cotton balls, a pair of latex gloves, and two bandages, and she placed them each on the table one by one. There were also two twelve-milliliter graduated disposable syringes with hypodermic needles and caps attached to them that were alongside two small sealed glass vials filled with a clear solution.
She snapped on the latex gloves, removed the cap from the hypodermic needle, and picked up one of the vials with the other hand. She looked over at Dewan. He’d been staring at her for a few seconds and frequently rolled his eyes. She would treat him first. She stood to his side and rubbed the cotton ball in a circle on the back of his upper arm. She then took the syringe, filled it with the drug, and injected him. Not to her surprise, Dewan didn’t flinch. He was in no way like the stereotypical African-American males you’d see on some primetime television networks back home, where they’re portrayed as being obscenely foul-mouthed, low educated, trouble-making individuals. On the other hand, whether he was innocent or not, he was prone to violent outbur
sts. If only he knew who she really was and what she could do to him, he probably wouldn’t be in the same room with her.
“Ouch, be careful,” said Dewan as she pushed the plunger in a bit too hard.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Parris lied, as she held back a smile. I could do a lot worse. She pulled out the syringe, immediately placed the cotton ball on the injection spot and applied pressure for thirty seconds. She reached over to the bio-hazard pail that was beside the table and pushed the syringe through the flap. She then stuck a Band-Aid to Dewan’s arm.
“What’s that supposed to be for?” Eva asked.
“This is a drug we call Clarity. It’ll help you to listen and comprehend things much better,” Parris answered.
Eva smiled. “You mean, make us smarter?”
“Not quite.” Eva looked convinced. Dewan frowned. Parris took another cotton ball and alcohol and did the same thing to Eva.
While Dr. Parris continued with the experiment, Hashimoto and two scientists observed from the adjoining room through the one-way see-through window. The sound of a turning door handle caught his attention and Hashimoto turned to see Valerik holding open the door, munching on a sandwich. He left the room with Valerik and walked down the hall to a vacant laboratory where they had more privacy.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Not at all,” Valerik answered. “But I felt more comfortable seeing you in person instead of speaking over the phone.”
“I thought our phone lines were secure. No one’s supposed to be able to crack through.”
Valerik shoved the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. “Nothing’s ever completely secure nowadays.”
“Then why did you call me this morning if you knew of the risks?”
“The conversation was kept brief.” Some crumbs fell from his mouth before Valerik wiped it with the back of his hand. “There was no mention of Pandora, and you did not call me by name either, as I had told you. The Americans have their supercomputers set up to zero in on key words and trace the location of conversations. But they won’t find us as long as you continue to follow my instructions.”
Hashimoto sighed with relief. “You’re right. Now, what’s so important that you had to come here?”
Valerik licked his fingers. “As you know, the Americans are investigating.”
Hashimoto reached over to the counter and handed him the tissue box. “I would think so.”
Valerik snatched a tissue and wiped his hands. “I received word about one of them.”
“Who is he?”
“His name’s Ridley Fox. He’s the one responsible for disrupting our plans in the Chechnyan laboratory. He’s one of their top agents, if not the best.”
“And you’re supposed to be our best agent. I assume that you’d know how to handle him if ever he gets too close?”
“I can handle him.” Valerik balled up the tissue, tossed it to the waste paper basket and missed. “Besides, I doubt that neither he nor the Russians know where to start looking for me.”
“If Fox is as good as you say he is, then, I hope not. And with your countrymen on the case-”
“I am a man without a country. The Russians are not my countrymen. My loyalties are and will always be to The Promise.”
“I’m sure that’s what Dr. Marx would want to hear from you. So would I.” Just then, Hashimoto’s cell phone rang. He flipped it open. “Moshi moshi.”
“Sir, you need to come back to the lab,” said one of the scientists from the monitoring room.
“What’s wrong?”
“Maybe you should come and see for yourself. Dr. Parris has gone on with the experiment a bit differently and Dewan’s readings are somewhat awkward.”
“Awkward? In what way?”
“She’s gone off on a tangent. She’s doing things that were not planned and Dewan’s readings are unusual. That’s why I think you should come back and take a look for yourself.”
“I’ll be right there.” He flipped his phone shut and looked back at Valerik. “Wait here. I’ll send for you when I’m done.”
Chapter 10
“I’m curious, Dewan. When you go back home, what are your plans?” Parris lowered the visors over their eyes and pressed the small button over the nose piece to activate them.
Dewan glanced up at the ceiling and then down at the floor as though in deep thought. “I haven’t figured that out yet. Get another job, whoever’ll hire me, and then try to get back into school, unless I find something better. With what I’m supposed to receive from doing this experiment, my rent should be covered for the first few months anyway.”
“I see.” Parris nodded. “And if that doesn’t work out, what then?”
Dewan sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
“I’m concerned about what you said before,” said Parris. “That New York is getting too bourgeoisie for you that you can’t handle it. And with a criminal record, it’s going to be hard for you to find a job and possibly pay for your schooling.”
Dewan rubbed his right eye. “So what are you saying-that I should just give up?”
Parris placed the alcohol and the plastic bag of cotton balls back into the metal box and closed the lid. “Not at all, I was just curious. You’re so anxious to leave this place and go home. I just wanted to know what you have left to go home to.”
Dewan didn’t say anything as she placed her hands in her lab coat pockets and paced in front of the table. She then turned to Dewan. “Tell me more about your parents, Dewan. Your mother’s a nurse and your father’s a truck driver. When’s the last time you spoke to them?”
“About a couple of weeks ago,” he answered. “They don’t even know I’m here.”
Parris tilted her head to the side. “Why’s that?”
He sighed. “’Cause they’d get mad at me.”
Parris nodded. “So you feel comfortable lying to them.”
“I don’t want to,” Dewan answered. “But I had no choice this time.”
“Did they believe you when you told them you were innocent of the drug charge?” she asked
“I don’t know. Things have been different between us since that time. But they’ll be fine. It’ll blow over. I know I’m innocent.”
Parris walked back to the table, opened her tote, took out a file folder and placed it on the table. From inside the folder she took out a copy of a newspaper clipping from the New York Times, held it up and looked at it. “Edwin Douglas. Does that name mean something to you?”
“Yeah, that’s my dad. What about him?”
Parris didn’t answer him right away as she watched Dewan’s frustrated expression fade to worry.
“What’s wrong? Why’s he in the paper?”
Parris took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was the only way she knew how to prepare herself to give him the bad news.
“I was doing some research on you. I took a look at some of the newspapers back home on the Internet and ran a search on your name. Your father’s name came up in the obituaries section from a newspaper that was published two days ago. This is just a printout of the newspaper’s online website. I believe you should look at it.” Parris walked over to him and lifted his visor and held the folded newspaper article out in front for him to read. Parris watched him carefully as she prepared herself for the inevitable.
“No!” He screamed as he tried to force himself up out of the chair. “How do I get out of this chair? Let me out!”
“I’m sorry, Dewan. You’re here among friends.”
“I told you to get me out of this stupid chair,” he yelled.
“Okay, give me a second.” She removed the electrodes from his chest and face, then the straps.
He got out of the chair, walked beside the table where he slammed his fists. “Not my dad. Hell no!”
“I’m sorry, Dewan.” She had to calm him down and restrain him. It was the only way to continue. At least let Hashimoto and the others think
that the experiment was still her primary objective. The pain that this young man felt, it was inhuman for her to still treat this as an experiment. She was not even supposed to have shown him that article and she knew she’d be in Hashimoto’s office afterwards trying to explain herself.
Parris glanced briefly at Eva-who could not hide her concern.
“Don’t worry,” she mouthed without speaking. It was only then that Eva appeared to relax.
Hashimoto walked back into the observation room just in time to see Dewan get out of the chair and slam his fists on the table. Dewan then walked over to the wall where he put his back to it and let himself slide down to the floor, landing on his rear end.
Parris walked over, knelt down beside him and put her arm around him, pulling him closer to her. As tall as he was, he still went to her willingly as he cried. She sat with him in her arms, cradling his head close to her as though he was her little brother. Instinctively, she stroked his shaved head as the tears poured onto her lab coat.
“The experiment’s ruined. We need to stop,” said one of the scientists.
Hashimoto turned to him. “What do you mean ruined? What’s going on?”
“Dewan’s out of the chair. Dr. Parris has gone on a tangent, and I doubt he wants to take part in the experiment any longer. We should terminate this and replace him with someone else.”
Hashimoto watched as Parris continued to talk to Dewan. Why didn’t she follow the procedure? She knew that keeping him in the chair was essential. She was up to something. He’d know soon enough exactly what it was. “No, not yet. I believe Dr. Parris knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s just using a different approach.”
“But, sir, didn’t you see his readings-”
“Wait. I want to see where she’s going with this.”
It was all a part of the act on her behalf, anything to get him to calm down. At first anyone would’ve thought that Dewan was hot-tempered, but the way Dewan gripped Nita’s upper forearm said otherwise. This didn’t feel right.
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