“Glad to be working with you,” said the doctor warmly. He was a skinny, weasel-featured man, but wore a friendly smile. “I understand that you were involved in the Samhain project. I’d be very interested in sharing notes.”
Kane waved a hand, “We can get to that later, Lesly,” and then moved on. “Our head of medicine is Dr Thandi Gorman. She has overall control of the labs and will dispense any drugs that you may need for personal use or for the care of the various guests we have on this floor. She is also quite the expert with our IT systems here, but try not to bother her unless absolutely necessary. She runs a tight ship so I suggest you get on her good side.”
The woman appraised them from behind horn-rim spectacles and seemed to frown at what she saw. “Do any of you have any medical conditions I need to know about? Diabetes for instance. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Sun and Andy shook their heads.
“Then I don’t expect to see very much of you.”
Kane clasped his hands in front of him. “Thank you, Thandi. Finally, let me introduce Gwen Nester. She works in the library which is located to the east side of this room.”
A young redhead directly opposite Andy gave a warm smile. “Call me Nessie. I’m the facility’s expert on ancient theology and belief structures. The boring stuff.”
“You’re very young,” Andy noted.
Nessie shrugged her shoulders but didn’t seem to take offence at the comment. “I’m afraid there’s very little interest in cultures from three thousand years ago. There’s a limited talent pool to pick from. My predecessor sadly passed away this year. I’m almost as new to all this as you are, but I have devoted my entire adult life to studying the ancient world, so I promise you I know more than enough to be of use. Plus I used to watch
The History Channel
obsessively, back when it used to, you know, actually air history programmes.” Nessie cleared her throat. “That was a joke, by the way.”
Andy laughed, but he wondered if Nessie might be a liability. She was late-twenties and brimming with positivity, but neither of those things were a positive in an environment like this.
On the other hand, it may be useful to have a pair of unjaded eyes looking at the bigger picture.
“I’m very pleased to meet you all,” said Andy.
“As am I,” Sun agreed, before asking a question. “Has work already begun on analysing the batling?”
There was a collection of confused frowns around the table. Kane addressed the confusion. “Mr and Mrs Dennison refer to our new arrival as a ‘batling’.”
Nessie nodded and looked amused. “As good a name as any. I was calling it flying goat thingy. The official channels have been referring to it as a ‘faustling”’
“Have you discovered anything about it yet?” Sun asked.
“Not much,” said Nessie. “It was captured in the woods above the entry hatch a few days ago.”
The head of security, Rimmer, pulled at his scraggly beard and sniffed. “The weekly perimeter sweep discovered a pile of bodies in the clearing above. Dead deer, foxes, stray cats, squirrels. It was as if some super-predator has started wiping out all of the local fauna. When one of our security teams went out to investigate they found the ‘batling’ feasting on the carcass of a racoon. They opened fire and tore the thing to pieces before bringing the remains underground. Within the hour the thing had completely healed and come back to life. Our subsequent attempts to harm it have resulted in temporary injuries at best.”
“Bub could regenerate,” Andy said. “He exploded into a dozen of those batlings. Stands to reason they have the same ability to heal as he did.”
Dr Gorman nodded. There was hint of distain on her face, a slight narrowing of her eyes and downturn of her pointed nose. “That much is quite obvious. We need to discover the source of the ability, though. If we can harness the ability to heal instantly we can transform mankind. Just think of a world without injury, without disability. We would be the saviours of the world.”
Sun rolled her eyes. “You don’t think people tried figuring that out at Samhain? They (had?) Bub locked up for nigh on a century and gained nothing from him. It’s folly to even try. Stopping him should be our only priority.”
“The Samhain facility was a relic run by degenerates,” Gorman hissed. “What we have here is the very best technology and the very best minds.”
“Okay,” said Sun. “Then, again I ask what have you learned so far?”
Gorman almost sneered at the question. “Nothing conclusive yet, but tests are ongoing. It’s just a matter of time until-”
“So you have nothing.”
Gorman folded her arms.
“We know that the thing does not sleep,” said Dr Chandelling, scratching at his pockmarked chin. “We know that it feels pain but it does not die or even get sick. We bombarded it with a few simple strains of flu and chickenpox. It contracted neither.”
“You can try every virus you have,” said Andy. “Nothing will have any effect. The only thing we found to hurt Bub was radiation—and even that didn’t finish the job.”
Dr Chandelling nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes. I read the debriefing after Samhain. I heard that you hit the creature known as ‘Bub’ with a huge dose of rads. Again, I would be very excited to hear your experiences first-hand.”
“It’s not something I’m particularly comfortable talking about,” said Andy, “but if my wife has no objections, I suppose we’re pretty much obligated to share what we know. All I’ll say right now is that what started in Samhain was just the beginning. That batling you have locked up is part of something bigger. We need to figure out what Bub’s game plan is, before it’s too late.”
Gorman scoffed, rolled her eyes to the ceiling and then back down again. “You’re over-reacting. Deus Manus has kept watch over thousands of dangerous creatures for thousands of years. This ‘batling’, as you so crassly call it, is just another beast that needs caging. We are more than equipped to handle it.”
“If your superiors really believed that, then we wouldn’t be here,” said Sun. “It’s obvious we
wouldn’t
be if it were up to you.”
Gorman blinked slowly. “I don’t deny I think your presence here is unwarranted. It takes many years to be inducted into the Order. Many, such as Dr Nester here, are groomed since college to be inducted. Bringing in outsiders threatens the very integrity of what we’re doing here. We cannot afford to have nosy spectators with big mouths.”
Andy leaned forward on the table like an angry cop doing an interrogation, except he was the one being scrutinised. “Look, Samhain was years ago, and neither my wife nor I have said word-one about any of it. If we can stay quiet about the government keeping the closest thing to Satan under lock and key, then I think we can be trusted to keep quiet about this.”
“Perhaps,” Gorman conceded. “But what about that straggler you brought in with you? The English screw-up.”
“How do you even know about him?” Kane asked. “He was taken almost immediately to the dormitories. He passed through here for but a minute and you were in your lab.”
Gorman rolled her eyes. “It’s my job to know what’s going on around here, Franklin.”
“No, Thandi, it is not,” said Kane. “That is my job, and you may address me as ‘Sir’ or ‘General’. I think you should go and wait in my office so that we can have a frank discussion about it.”
Gorman went wide-eyed, as if she could not believe she was being scolded. She jumped up from her seat, spun around and marched away with her heels clicking on the tiled floor.
Andy sighed.
This is going to be a lot of fun.
“What’s with the guy with the Irish accent?” Sun asked, obviously paying no attention to Gorman’s childish hostility. “The one whom you said just appeared in one of the cells.”
Nessie sat up in her seat and grinned. “He’s very interesting; fascinating, in fact. He won’t give anything away, but he’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Every test we run on him comes up blank. No DNA, no proteins, not even any carbon traces. He doesn’t eat, sleep, or…you know, go to the toilet. He’s just
there,
chatting away happily to whoever will listen. He does keep asking for a
pint
, though. I’m assuming he means beer. We don’t have any.”
Andy rubbed a fingertip against the bridge of his nose and had a quick think. “Don’t you find it a bit weird? That pretty much the same week you catch the batling, you also have a mysterious, none-human stranger turn up?”
“It is indeed a coincidence,” said Chandelling. “But we can find no correlation between the two. The batling is most certainly organic. The Irishman is something else entirely. As my colleague so rightly said, he’s most fascinating.”
“Well,” said Andy. “When I get to work, I think I’d like to start with this ‘Lucas’ rather than the batling. Something doesn’t smell right to me. The man in that cell is here for a reason. And I want to know what it is.”
“Who do they think they are?” Dr Gorman said as she paced the floor of Kane’s office on level 2. The carpet beneath her feet was a deep pile and her heels caught every few steps, adding to her frustration. “I’ve dedicated the best part of ten years of my life to this facility. Is this any way to repay me? Letting outsiders come in an undermine me? Who does Kane think he is, chastising me in front of them? Without me his bloody labs would grind to a halt. It’s not like that incompetent fool, Chandelling, could take charge if I decided to leave.
That’s exactly what I should do. I should leave. With my experience I could work in any lab in the world. I only came here because I mistakenly thought I was doing some good in the world. But that was nothing but a fantasy. This isn’t God’s work. The Spiral is nothing but a prison—and like any prison it is ineffectual and does nothing to change the inmates. All we’re doing is warehousing a bunch of creatures that could be of real benefit if we actually did something with them other than keep them in cages.
This whole place is a relic of old fashioned thinking. A bunch of flashy new computers doesn’t change that.
I should have faced my demons long ago. Maybe if I had I would be at Johns Hopkins now, treating cancer and finding cures, instead of deep down in this cesspit where nothing of worth ever happens.
“Thandi?” Kane entered the office and moved over to his desk. “Please, take a seat.” He gestured to the chair opposite.”
Gorman dumped herself down, folded her arms.
Kane leaned forward on his desk and sighed. “Look, Thandi. You are a valued member of this team and probably the smartest person here.”
Gorman blinked. She wasn’t about to be swayed by flattery. She knew she was the smartest person at the facility—she didn’t need an antique General to tell her that.
“But if we have guests at this facility then it is our obligation to welcome them and to accommodate their needs.”
Gorman huffed.
A twinge of frustration—perhaps even anger—flashed across Kane’s face. “The Dennison’s are here at the request of the Director of Homeland Security, who may I remind you is the Grand Registrar of the Order, like his father, and grandfather before him. We are sworn to follow his instructions to the letter. That is a promise you made, Thandi. Am I lying?”
Gorman shook her head.
“So if you meant the oath when you swore it, you will work alongside the Dennisons and avoid acrimony. But most of all, you will never again question my authority or circumvent my command of this facility. Is that clear, Dr Gorman?”
Gorman breathed through her nose, gave no answer.
“Is. That. Clear?”
Gorman jumped up from her chair and raised her voice. “Yes! Yes, it’s clear, General. I understand. I understand that my time here has amounted to absolutely nothing and that all I really am here is a lowly employee…a
flunkie.
”
Kane remained sitting. He kept his tone calm. “No, Dr Gorman. You are an ordained knight of the most secretive organisation in existence with access to secrets beyond most people’s imagination. But, as always, you are free to give that up. You can retire your membership and leave any time you want.”
Gorman folded her arms. “Maybe I will.”
Maybe I will right now.
“I advise you not to do that, however,” said Kane, “because your commitment here has not gone un-noted. I’m an old man, Thandi, and there are not as many Generals to replace me as there once was. The time of personnel-laden wars is over. Drones and computers have replaced flesh and courage. The Order does not have access to the human resources it once did.”
“What are you getting at?”
“You heard about Oklahoma? Their new Head of Facility?”
Gorman sighed, took her seat again. She shrugged her shoulders. “Dr Gary? Yes, I’m aware of him. So what?”
Kane blinked slowly. “Yes,
Doctor
Gary. The order is changing its policies. It is no longer a given that a facility head position is only available to those who have served. Before Dr Gary was promoted, he was doing your job.”
“Are you saying that I could be in charge here?”
Kane nodded. “I am saying that you most likely
will
be in charge when I’m gone. But only if you show that you can follow orders and respect the chain of command. The Senior Wardens won’t accept someone questioning them.”
Gorman sighed. Then she nodded. “I understand. I wasn’t thinking about the bigger picture. I allowed my ego to take over. I felt like I wasn’t being given the credit I was due.”
“The thing about credit, Dr Gorman, is that it takes a long time to accrue but can be lost in a heartbeat.”
Gorman nodded. “I won’t question you again.”
“Good. Now get out of my office.”
Gorman stood up and hurried for the door.
“And Dr Gorman,” Kane said before she exited.
Gorman turned around. “Yes?”
“I wouldn’t worry about the Dennisons being a threat to the integrity of the Order. My orders are to accommodate them while they conduct their investigations. Once they are concluded, it’s up to me how to deal with them afterwards.”
Dr Gorman said nothing. She just smiled and left the room.