Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  He continued. “He’ll never be sick a day in his life!”

  “Yeah, it’s going to be a great life with Dr. Frankenstein experimenting on him.”

  “Teeny, you of all people know that you have to crack some eggs to make an omelet!”

  She looked down and then back at the cage before saying, “I hate using chimps. They’re so humanlike.”

  Marty stared at the chimp with her as he crossed one arm across his chest and propped his other elbow on it with his hand on his chin. Leonidas looked back at them for a time, and then he turned his back and continued eating the mango. This brought a tear to both of their eyes.

  Marty shook his head and returned to his work as he kept talking. “They’re going to start the enhancement experiments tomorrow.”

  Teeny shook her head and moved over to open up Leonidas’s file on the computer. Marty listed the results of the blood work for her as she entered them.

  Leonidas looked at them and gave a low rumbling grunt as he threw the mango seed to the corner of the cage.

  _______

  The next day Teeny and Marty joined the rest of the team in the huge space that was the pathology lab. It was an uncomfortable place for everyone except Dr. Leonard. He was completely comfortable with pigs, rhesus monkeys, and other animals in various stages of dissection. He saw the disgusted looks on their faces as they approached, and it made him smile.

  Dr. Abraham spoke up. “Good morning, Dr. Lisandro, Dr. Whyte. I’m sorry you had to come to this ghastly place to meet with us.”

  When he stepped back and moved to the other side of one of the tables, they noticed Leonidas on the table unconscious with his arms and legs strapped down. There was an IV attached to his arm with saline solution dripping. Tanner was standing by a tray that had vials of liquid and syringes.

  He smiled and nodded at them. “Good morning, Dr. Lisandro. Good morning, Dr. Whyte.”

  His eyes lingered on Marty for an instant beyond what seemed normal to Teeny, and she shot a glance at Marty, who had the slightest smile as he nodded back to Tanner. She wondered if there was something between the two.

  She didn’t have time to think about it because Abraham spoke up. “Dr. Leonard, how are the subject’s vitals?”

  Leonard reattached a clip to one of the electrode pads on the chimp’s head, turned to check the monitors, and then gave a nod to Abraham. “OK, Michael. Go ahead and administer the steroids.”

  He smiled as he picked up the vial and read off the type of drug he was about to administer, speaking into the pathologist’s microphone above the table.

  “Administering androstenedione.”

  Michael drew the liquid into the syringe and then poked it into the intravenous access portal on the IV tube. Teeny could see Leonidas start taking deep breaths. Everyone looked at the monitor with the vitals displayed. Heartbeat and blood pressure increased slightly. They all looked back to Michael.

  He smiled. “This is my own special formula. Ten times more concentrated than anything ever used before.”

  He made that announcement as he grabbed the next vial.

  “Now administering erythropoietin a la Tanner.”

  His hand was shaking as he moved the needle from the vial over to the IV. He pushed the liquid into the tube, and Leonidas started shaking with mild tremors, and his breathing increased.

  Abraham looked at him. “Are you sure about the dosage, Michael?”

  He gave his mentor a perplexed look. “Isn’t that why we are doing this—to find the limitations?”

  He had an almost maniacal smile on his face as he grabbed the third and final vial. “Administering gonadotropin.”

  As Michael pushed the last of the liquid into the IV, Leonidas started convulsing. The veins on his arms, chest, and neck started to pop out as if the blood in them were trying to get out. The muscles throughout his whole body started to visibly grow, as if he had been pumping weights for years. Even though he was unconscious, his arms flexed and broke the restraints on one side and then the other.

  Marty screamed out, “Shit! You sure he’s going to stay unconscious?”

  With that comment, it did look as if Leonidas was gaining his senses. Michael and Leonard grabbed for the IV tower at the same time to increase the ketamine drip. Leonard tripped over the monitor wiring and fell into it. The tower toppled and yanked the IV out of the chimp’s arm. Marty and Teeny took a step backward from shock as Abraham shouted out, “Get him to the habitat!”

  Michael grabbed and yanked out the rest of the remaining wires as Marty started pushing the rolling table toward the double swinging doors at the corner of the room. Leonidas was rubbing his face with his hands now, and as the table banged through the doors, he grunted loudly and grabbed the sides of the table to try to help himself sit up. Michael sprinted to catch up to the table, but when he tried to run past to open the habitat door, Leonidas punched out and caught him in the bicep of his left arm. Marty got a shocked look on his face at the violence and stopped pushing the table. It continued to roll down the hallway as the chimp stood up on the table, screamed out loudly, and beat his chest. The table hit a bench in the hall and toppled, with Leonidas losing his balance. The chimp easily backflipped and landed on his feet. He beat his chest once more and then turned and ran down the hall, disappearing around a corner before anyone could shake themselves out of their shocked stupor.

  Teeny looked from Michael to Marty and then to Abraham. “I’ll go get the soldiers on guard!”

  With that she turned and sprinted toward the door where they stood guard. Abraham, coming out of a shocked state himself, raised his hand to stop her, but it was too late. She was already out the lab door. He turned to Michael. “Grab the tranquilizer guns quickly! We don’t want them to kill him!”

  Michael turned on his heel and started running toward where they stored the guns, and Marty ran right behind him.

  Teeny came crashing out of the door and found Raines and Odie talking to Tin. They all reacted by grabbing for their weapons, but when they saw it was her, they relaxed a little.

  She saw who was there and blurted, straight at Tin, “We need help with one of the animals!”

  They all pulled their weapons and started to move toward the door.

  Teeny grabbed Tin by the arm. “Please don’t kill him. It’s not his fault.”

  The two privates turned and looked as Tin and Teeny locked stares for a few seconds.

  “OK, we’ll do our best. But I’m going to get some questions answered after this is done.”

  She hesitated and reluctantly nodded her head.

  “So what are we dealing with here?”

  She looked him in the eyes again. Wow, he had an intense stare. She managed to get her wits again. “He’s a chimpanzee. But he’s special. He’ll be quicker and more agile than you expect, so be careful!”

  Tin nodded. “You’re going to have to guide us. We’ve never been inside.”

  She pushed his arm to turn him around. “Straight down that hallway to the last door on the right. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Tin turned to Raines. “You’re on our six. Odie, radio O’Reilly and get the perimeter of the building secured.”

  Tin moved through the door with Teeny right on his heels. Raines followed them in, and Odie stayed by the door to radio O’Reilly.

  When they got through the second door, at the end of the hallway, they heard Abraham shouting instructions but couldn’t tell what he was saying. They moved in that direction quickly and burst into the hallway where Teeny had left them.

  Abraham turned to them and held his hands palms out toward them. “Hold on, guys. We have some tranquilizer guns you can use instead of the service weapons.” Michael offered one of the tranq guns to Tin as he put his Glock back into its holster. He and Raines both checked theirs to make sure they were loaded and then nodd
ed to each other.

  Tin looked at Teeny. “Which way did he go?”

  “That way.”

  She pointed in the direction in which he had disappeared around the corner. Tin moved off that way, and Michael and Marty started to move also.

  Tin held up his hand. He pointed at Michael. “Wait. Raines, you stay here with him.” He turned to Marty. “You’ll be covering our asses.”

  Marty looked at Teeny and then back at Tin, and then he nodded to affirm he understood.

  Tin moved down the hallway to the corner and peered around it. As he did so, they heard banging from a distance. They moved down the hallway toward the sound. He poked his head around the doorframe to see if he could tell where the chimp was in the large room.

  Leonidas was on top of a large refrigerator, banging on it and grunting. It looked as if he was trying to get inside.

  The chimp heard her and darted from the top of the refrigerator, across the top of a few cabinets, and out a window above a door on the opposite side of the room. Tin saw how fast he moved and stepped back several steps.

  Teeny saw his reaction. “That was what I was telling you about. He’s special.”

  Then an idea occurred to her. “Wait! I know what he was after!”

  She went to the fridge, opened it, grabbed several mangos, and put them in her lab coat pocket. She moved back toward Tin and poked her chin at the door. “Let’s go. But let me try to get him to go to his habitat without the tranq guns.”

  Tin nodded and moved through the door in the direction he had seen Leonidas go.

  They moved down the hallway with Tin in the lead, Teeny with her hand on his back and following close. Marty was close behind her and making sure he pointed his tranq gun at the ceiling. They saw a flash of fur move across the hallway ahead and quickened their pace.

  Leonidas was on a desk rocking back and forth when they turned into the office that he had slipped into. Tin started to move into the room, and the chimp jumped up to stand erect and beat his chest with a loud “ah, ah, ah!”

  Tin moved back into the hallway but kept his tranq gun aimed toward Leonidas. The chimp could see Teeny now standing behind Tin. He looked at her, gave a softer “Ooo, ooo, ooo,” and reached his hand out toward her as he sat back down on the desk.

  Tin looked back at her. “It looks like he’s a friend of yours.”

  She smiled. “We haven’t been on any dates, but we’ve held hands a couple times.”

  She pulled one of the mangos from her pocket and held it out toward Leonidas. “You want one of these, Leo?”

  The chimp gave a more excited “Ooo, ooo,” extending his arm toward her and opening and closing his hand to signal that he did indeed want it.

  She started to edge into the room, and Tin whispered, “You sure this is a good idea?”

  Teeny whispered back, “It’s OK. He’s my buddy.”

  She glanced and gave a quick smile at Tin before she started to move farther into the room. Tin switched out his tranq gun for the Glock that was in his holster. She looked at him again and gave a bit of a frown. Tin gave her a matter-of-fact look and shrugged. She shook her head slightly and then looked him up and down as though assessing whether he would get trigger happy. She looked him back in the eye and gave him another, different kind of smile. He knew that she trusted him now.

  As Teeny moved slowly but confidently across the room, Tin kept adjusting to keep a good angle in case something happened. She moved close enough for the chimp to snatch the mango from her with a lightning-quick grab. She jumped a little but held her ground.

  Leonidas sat back down on the desk and bit the end of the mango and sucked the juice from the opening in the skin. Then he pulled it away from his mouth and started peeling and eating it methodically. After he was done with it, she pulled another from her pocket and offered it. He took it and started working on it the same way. Once he was doing it one handed, she offered her hand. Leonidas looked at Tin and Marty, and then he reached out to take her hand as he jumped down from the desk.

  Teeny said soothingly, “Let’s get you home, buddy.”

  She waved Tin and Marty away from the direction she would have to go in the hallway. Marty started to move that way, but Tin grabbed him and whispered for him to go warn the others away from the chimp’s home.

  “Habitat,” Marty corrected.

  Tin gave him a “whatever” look and waved hard for him to get going. Marty took a couple of easy steps across the opening of the doorway and then tore off down the hallway to do what Tin had asked.

  Tin moved away from the doorway slowly as Teeny and Leonidas approached. The chimp was watching him as intensely as he was being watched. Teeny kept talking soothingly as they moved through the doorway and down the hall. Tin followed at about five paces, moving closer when they rounded corners.

  They made it back to the hallway where they had started, and Tin could see the others moving back away from a doorway that he assumed was the chimp’s habitat. Teeny led the chimp through that door, and both went into a big room where a huge tree grew up the middle, almost tall enough to brush the caged ceiling about forty feet up. Teeny held out another mango, only to have the chimp snatch it away and jump two-thirds of the way up the tree and then swing up the last third using one hand. He then sat on one of the highest branches and started to work on the mango, just as he had done to the others.

  Teeny stood stunned by what had happened. Tin was just as stunned, but he recovered quickly to step in and pull Teeny out of the habitat. She looked at him with her mouth hanging open.

  Tin holstered his weapon and stared back at her. “So I take it you’ve never seen him do that before.”

  She looked back through the window of the habitat just as the mango peel hit it. She yelped and jumped back a little as Tin reached out and grabbed her shoulder. She looked at him and shook her head slightly. The others were moving back toward them and the window.

  Marty grabbed her and hugged her. “Jesus, Teeny! I need to go change my underwear.”

  She hugged him back. “Me too, Marty.”

  Dr. Abraham stopped at the window with Michael and Dr. Leonard to stare in at the chimpanzee for a couple of seconds, and then they looked at one another. Michael started to say something, but Abraham shushed him and gave a slight flick of his head toward Tin. Tin didn’t miss that gesture, and he stared at Abraham as he turned and approached him.

  Abraham took in Tin and Raines with a bland look as he told them, “I would like to speak to you about this, but I must clear it with my superiors before I do. Please accept my sincere gratitude for your quick and decisive response. I will be sure to commend your actions to your superiors.”

  With that, he flashed a plastic smile and extended his arm with his palm up toward the exit where they had come in.

  Just then O’Reilly came crashing through the door, brandishing his pistol with both hands, ready to start shooting at the slightest provocation.

  Tin threw up both hands, palms out, to stop him before he hurt someone. “It’s all right, O’Reilly. Everything is under control now.”

  Then he turned to Abraham and stated, “Thank you, sir. I’ll be talking to my superiors also.”

  He turned and smiled at Teeny, who smiled back.

  Marty saw the exchange and turned to Teeny. “Oooooo, I see sparks.”

  Teeny looked down, and Tin turned bright red as he turned to O’Reilly to shoo him out.

  Of course, O’Reilly resisted slightly with a wide smile on his face, turning to Teeny. “You got any friends, Doctor?”

  Teeny looked at him, but Marty was the one who answered. “She sure does, sexy!”

  Marty gave a wink and blew a kiss to a stunned look as Tin forced O’Reilly out the door.

  No one noticed Michael staring angrily at Marty’s back.

  MICHAEL

 
August 2008

  Michael Tanner was a promising student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Good-looking with a slender build and sandy-blond hair, he didn’t have a propensity for or love of sports—that is, in the way that most men loved sports. Ironically, most of his friends were athletes. Even though he was pretty obviously not interested in the fairer sex, his athletic friends were tolerant. This was not because of their tolerance of a gay lifestyle but because he provided something they craved and felt they couldn’t do without.

  He came from a poor family in Peoria and was the only child of a single parent. His mother was saintly. She worked as a pharmacist at the local drugstore. It took everything they had to get enough money together for college.

  His unremarkable life before coming to college made him crave the attention he started getting once the chemistry professor discovered his aptitude. He was a prodigy. In his sophomore year, he quickly became his professor’s pet student. His junior year he spent drinking in every chemistry textbook and paper he could find.

  In his senior year, he was a teacher’s assistant, and he gave lectures and assignments to the freshman and sophomore classes for his professor. What was really great about being a teacher’s assistant was the lab time he got. He spent dozens of hours a week experimenting in the school laboratory.

  That was when he discovered something that would make him even more popular with the students, specifically the athletic students and staff. He discovered and was able to produce some performance-enhancing drugs that were virtually undetectable by the current testing methods. He started just giving away the new drug to his secret athlete lover. He would have outed himself if his lover hadn’t been a starting safety on the Fighting Illini football team. As a favor, he was only his good friend in public.

  Michael was a clever person. Ecstasy and methamphetamine were easy to make, but he had firsthand information that the staff of the school were aware of the chemicals needed and kept a lookout for their purchase anywhere near the school. They kept an especially close eye on chemistry students and also made regular tours of campus with drug-sniffing dogs. It wasn’t worth taking a chance with anything that was recreational.