by Wyatt Kane
Knowing in his heart that Tempest and Dinah wouldn’t approve, Ty signed on the dotted line, then stood to return the tablet to the large-eyed receptionist.
34: AZT-407
Aleta took the electronic form from him with a pleasant “Thank you,” and told him that he would know the results in a moment.
Then she did something with the screen Ty couldn’t see, and her overly-large eyes grew even bigger.
She looked back up back at Ty with an expression close to surprise. “Congratulations,” she said. “You meet our criteria.”
Ty couldn’t believe it. He didn’t know what to think. He had been mostly convinced that he wouldn’t be who they were looking for, and couldn’t really tell by the questions what OmniTec Industries was after. He’d been prepared to ride back to the mansion having gained nothing but the knowledge that this drug wasn’t for him.
Instead, he faced a massive decision.
“The window for administering the trial drug is still open. Would you like to go ahead with that now, or would you prefer to make an appointment?” Aleta said.
Perhaps he should make an appointment, Ty thought. That would at least give him time to think. He opened in mouth to start to speak, but was stopped by an image that had come unbidden to his mind, dominating all other thoughts.
The image was of a gaping hole in the wall of his apartment that could only be fixed if he had the money to do so.
All of a sudden, his throat closed up. He couldn’t breathe, and his heart started to hammer in his chest like it did just before a fight. He closed his eyes and strove to steady himself.
“Sir? Are you okay?” the receptionist asked.
Ty opened his eyes again. He strove for a smile, but couldn’t get there. “Now is good,” Ty managed.
“Excellent,” the receptionist said. “Take a seat, and we’ll call you through in a minute.”
Ty turned away robotically. What had he done? he wondered.
Was it too late to back out?
He thought that at the least, he should let Tempest and Dinah know where he was. He didn’t want them to wonder where he had gone. But he didn’t even get the chance to sit down before a masculine voice caught his attention.
“Ty Wilcox,” the voice said.
Ty spun about. He felt like he was in shock. He was sure much of the blood had drained from his face. What the hell was he doing?
What he needed to do to survive, he told himself.
The speaker was a tall, dark-skinned man in a white lab coat that displayed OmniTec Industries’ logo emblazoned on the front. He was bald and had replaced his eyebrows with a series of metallic spikes. Other than that and a grafted communication device visible above his left ear, the man was devoid of body modifications.
He smiled pleasantly at Ty’s expression. “We are ready for you now, if you’d like to come through,” the man said.
Ty took a deep breath. He’d made his decision, and, for better or worse, now it was time to see it through. Ignoring his doubts and hesitations as best he could, he followed the tall man through to one of the rooms at the back.
“My name is Darien Cort. Please take a seat,” the tall man said, “and could you roll your sleeve up past your elbow?”
Ty did as he was asked, and Darien maneuvered the monitoring equipment closer. “Now, you’re here for the AZT-407 trial, correct?”
Ty didn’t trust himself to speak. His mouth was still dry and he was unaccountably anxious. He nodded.
“Good, good. You know, you’re very lucky. I do believe you’ve taken the last spot in the trial.”
Ty wondered if that meant there wasn’t any space for Brad. Or had his roommate gone through this process already?
“How many people are in the trial?” he managed.
Darien gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m sorry, but that information is classified. What I can tell you is that it isn’t a big number. Now, I’m just going to attach these sensors to different parts of your body. They’re just to monitor your heart rate, the oxygen levels in your blood, things like that. Is that okay?”
Ty didn’t see that he had much of a choice. He nodded, and the tall man got to work, placing sticky, plastic discs here and there. But he hesitated when he saw the projection discs Ty already wore.
“What are these?” he asked.
“New type of body modification,” Ty said, thinking quickly. “Are they in your way?”
The man shook his head. “I shouldn’t think so,” he said, and continued with what he was doing.
He was done in less than a minute. “Now, has the procedure been explained to you?”
Ty wondered if the brief explanation Aleta had given him counted. “No,” he said.
“Okay. Well, we’re going to put one of these needles in your arm,” he said, holding the device up for Ty to see, “and connect it to a saline drip. The saline will help keep you hydrated, and hopefully that will lessen any unpleasant side effects. When you are ready, we’ll add the AZT-407 to the saline solution. And that’s it. You’re done.”
Ty nodded. It sounded simple. “How long will it take?”
Darien made a dismissive gesture. “Ten minutes, maybe fifteen.”
“And then what?” Ty asked.
“You probably won’t notice much of a change right away,” he said. “But over the next few hours, pay attention to how you feel. See if you notice anything different.” Darien smiled again. “Anything unusual. We would like you to return to us here in the next couple of days, and at that point we will ask a series of questions to determine the effectiveness of the drug. And there might be a physical test or two as well. Nothing too strenuous, and maybe a cognitive test or two as well.”
Ty nodded. He wondered why they hadn’t put him through those physical tests already, to give them something with which to compare. But there was a more important question he had to ask.
“And the money?” he said. “When do I get paid?”
Darien smiled again. Ty wondered if he sounded as desperate as he felt, but when the man spoke, there was no judgment in his tone at all.
“The first installment will be transferred into your account when you leave us today, with the final installment due when you come back for the questions and tests.”
Ty nodded. He couldn’t really ask for anything better than that.
“Are you ready? Make a fist with your left hand and hold still. This will sting a bit.”
Ty didn’t feel ready. He felt like he was making a huge mistake. But he had a history of stubbornly adhering to his decisions even if he regretted them.
That was one of the reasons he’d spent so long working at the Concubine Club.
So he did as Darien asked, looking away as the needle slid into his arm. Quickly and efficiently, the man secured the needle in place and hooked it up to the bag. That done, he turned back to Ty.
“Last chance to change your mind,” he said. “Are you ready?”
Ty hesitated for several seconds. “Do it,” he finally said.
Darien man accepted Ty at his word. From a surgical table, he plucked a large syringe filled with an orange liquid that seemed to sparkle.
“The magic ingredient,” he said, and injected it into the IV bag via a valve at the top.
Ty watched as the orange liquid mixed with the saline solution. When the syringe was empty, the man took it away and popped it back on the surgical tray.
“Now, we’ll just give that a little while to make sure you don’t have any adverse reaction,” he said.
35: An Adverse Reaction
At first, Ty felt nothing more than a slight warmth in the crook of his arm where the needle had pierced his skin. He lay back in the chair and tried to relax.
Then, all at once, it felt like his blood was starting to burn.
Ty gripped the armrests. “I’m—is it supposed—” he began, but that was as far as he got. In the space of a single heartbeat, the burning in his veins increased to agony and beyond. He
felt as if he was on fire from the inside, and it was all he could do to clench his teeth shut and bite back a scream of pain.
At the same time, the monitoring devices started to squeal out a warning as Ty’s heartrate and respiration suddenly increased to dangerous levels. Ty began to panic, aware that this was just the beginning, and that more of the drug would drip into his veins with every moment. He feared that something serious had gone wrong, and that, judging by his responses so far, he might not live through it.
Sweat sprung out on his forehead and everywhere else. In moments, he was soaking wet with it, and still the pain in his veins increased.
To his credit, Darien Cort hesitated for only a moment. Then he reached for what could only have been an intercom and hit the button.
“Emergency in med bay two!” he said loudly and clearly. “All available assistants required to attend immediately!”
That done, the man turned his attention back to Ty.
Ty wanted to rip the IV line out of his arm, but his muscles had started to spasm. He felt himself kick and jerk back and forth, his hands still gripping the armrests without his conscious control. By then, the surging in his veins had spread through his entire body, and he felt hot enough to burst into flame. His brain felt as if it was fizzing, and everywhere he looked gained new dimensions of color.
It was like he was looking through an orange filter. Everything, Darien, the walls, and even the receptionist through the glass window had taken on the unnatural hue.
Ty didn’t know what was happening, but it didn’t feel good. He felt a pressure like a steel band around his chest and found he was struggling to breathe. For reasons Ty couldn’t understand, the tall man had decided to grab hold of his arm and was speaking to him very intensely.
“You’re going to be all right,” he said. “This is just a reaction to the drug. It’ll pass soon. You’ll be fine. Just relax and everything will be okay.” Like that, repeated again and again like a mantra used to hold back his own fear.
To Ty, that fear was obvious in the man’s eyes. Even though Ty could barely think, he could see it clearly.
He could also hear something else over Darien’s words: an animalistic growl that was almost a yell.
With a sense of astonishment, the part of Ty’s brain still capable of rational thought understood that the sound was coming from him. He was making it in response to his adverse reaction to AZT-407.
And beyond even that, the monitoring devices were all squealing in unison. Ty’s heart was pounding as hard and fast as it ever had, and he still couldn’t breathe. It must have been less than a minute since the drug had entered his system, and Ty knew he couldn’t last much longer. His vision was starting to go dim when the door burst open and three other people charged in, including Aleta, who had a strangely worried look on her face.
“Hold him down! Help me hold him down!” Darien said. “He’s stronger than he looks! We have to keep him from hurting himself!”
The animalistic part of Ty’s mind didn’t like the idea of being held down, and he struggled even harder.
“Stop the trial!” someone shouted. “Don’t let any more of the drug into him!”
It seemed a sensible suggestion to Ty, but he was in for another surprise. “No!” Darien said. “This is the one the Master wants! We have to see it through!”
Ty’s mind, fizzing and bubbling to the tune of the drug, didn’t know what to do with that information. Had he heard the man right? What did the Master have to do with any of this?
“Well at least tranquilize him then!” somebody shouted.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do!”
There was a flurry of activity, and someone stuck another syringe into the saline solution.
Then, between one heartbeat and the next, Ty’s reaction to the drug increased exponentially. This time, he did let out a scream, and the tranquilizer began to kick in.
Ty’s consciousness fled from the agony within him. He sank into blissful unconsciousness and knew nothing more.
◆◆◆
Ty didn’t know how long he stayed unconscious. A small part of him thought that it couldn’t be long, and that even through the worst of it, he’d always been partially aware of the burning in his veins.
He could remember snippets from when he’d almost woken as well. Or maybe he’d just been dreaming. At one point found himself surrounded by a number of men, all in white lab coats with the OmniTec Industries’ logo emblazoned on the front.
“I think he’s waking up,” one of them said. “Hit him again,” said someone else.
Before his consciousness faded again, Ty realized that the men were binding him to the chair.
Later, when Ty next worked his way back to consciousness, he was all alone in the room. He noted groggily that the needle was no longer in his arm, and that the bag of saline solution, which still hung next to him, was empty.
Then he looked through the glass to the reception area, but his mind must have been playing tricks. He thought he saw Bain standing there, looking at him, with someone else at his side. Sarah, maybe? Brad’s girlfriend?
It couldn’t be. He must be dreaming, he thought, and allowed himself to sink back into oblivion.
When he made his way back to consciousness for a third time, he was alone, still bound in the chair, but no longer in danger of sinking back into darkness.
Ty’s eyes were itchy. His head felt as if someone had been pounding on it with a brick. His tongue felt thick in his mouth. Everything ached.
All of his muscles and even his bones felt as if they had been wildly abused. His brain felt like a spongy, groggy mess. It was like the worst hangover he’d ever experienced, and he couldn’t help but think back to the brochure. None of the described side effects came anywhere close to this.
But he was still alive. More than that, the fire in his veins had faded to no more than a gentle burn that was almost pleasant, in comparison at least.
And the monitoring equipment seemed to be much calmer now. No more high-pitched warning noises, and from what Ty could see through his itchy, hard-to-focus eyes, both his heartbeat and respiration rates were back to normal.
“Hello?” he said. Or at least, he tried to say it. The only sound escaping his throat was a dry-sounding croak.
He frowned to himself. Everything that had happened was a blur of confusion. He couldn’t remember it clearly. Couldn’t remember anything, really, that happened after Darien had hooked him up to the drug.
All he knew was that for some reason, he no longer felt comfortable there in the clinic. He wanted to get out, but didn’t really know why.
36: Payment
Ty would have given a lot for a simple drink of water. Only … perhaps not. If he drank anything just at that moment, there was a good chance it would bounce straight back up. Maybe it was a good thing there wasn’t any to be had.
He focused through to the reception area and saw Aleta there at her desk.
“Hello!” he said again, this time his voice sounding stronger. “Can you hear me?”
The receptionist heard him. She looked at him through the glass, smiled, and made her way into the room.
“You’re awake,” she said.
Ty nodded. “Looks like it,” he managed. His head still felt like it was packed full of marshmallows, but it was becoming clearer.
“You gave us quite a scare,” Aleta said.
“What happened?” Ty asked.
“You had an adverse reaction to the drug. But it’s okay, you got through it all. You should be fine now.”
That was good news, Ty thought. He tried to move, but found the restraints still held him in place. “Why—” he started.
“Oh, they were to prevent you from hurting yourself. We can take them off now, if you like,” she said.
“Yes. Please,” Ty said.
As his brain started to function more clearly, he found himself becoming increasingly angry with everything that had happened. Angry
not just with OmniTec Industries, but also with himself for having taken such a risk. He should have at least returned to the mansion to discuss it with the girls. Maybe he still would have gone through with it, but with Tempest or Dinah at his side, he would have felt more comfortable.
The receptionist busied herself removing Ty’s restraints, and then he was free.
“What about these?” Ty said, gesturing to the various sensors Darien had applied to him.
The receptionist looked uncertain. “I’m not supposed to touch those,” she said. “Hold on, I’ll call Darien.” Aleta went over to the intercom and pressed the button. “Patient in med bay two is awake, request assistance to detach his sensors,” she said.
Then she smiled at him. “Shouldn’t be long,” she said. “Sorry, I’m not really supposed to leave the front desk. I have to get back here.”
Ty nodded. “Thank you,” he said. He was still feeling lightheaded, but with each passing minute, he was feeling better and better. But he didn’t feel much like waiting, so he was already peeling off the first of the sensors when the tall man to return.
Darien favored Ty with the same relaxed smile he’d used at the start, and an approving nod at what he was doing. “Good to see you looking so well,” the man said.
“Does this happen often?” Ty said, his tone surly. For some reason, he no longer trusted the man.
“No, not often at all,” he said. “But every once in a while, yes.”
“Then why isn’t that sort of reaction listed in the advertising material as a side effect?”
“It’s very rare,” the man began, but changed his mind when he saw Ty’s angry expression. “But maybe you’re right. Maybe we should add it.” He shrugged slightly. “Either way, the agreement you signed covers us legally. You agreed to be part of the trial under your own free will, and OmniTec Industries cannot be held responsible for any adverse reactions. You understand that, right?”