Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (21 page)

“Dr. Frank.” General Clark entered the lab in full dress uniform. His olive beret covered his balding head, which was buzz cut short enough that she couldn’t really tell what color his hair was. His dress uniform was thick with army decals that meant more to him than anything in the world, including his own life. Jill was a workaholic by any definition, but she found that level of devotion a little scary.

General Clark had a face that was more bone structure than feature. She was entirely certain with his hat and uniform off, she would never recognize him. “What brings you by?”

“I wanted to check on your progress.”

“Yes, of course, but I cc’ed you everything so far.”

“Right,” he said standing at ease with his hands crossed at the palm, “but you didn’t tell me your future plans.”

“I’m sorry.” She tipped her head and waited for the explanation she had a feeling she didn’t want.

“You keep sending me data that shows slight decreases in sensitivity, but I haven’t seen anything showing how you plan to increase the rate of those decreases.”

Jill looked over her subjects. “There are no plans to change the rate at which the subjects adapt to their new limbs. They are all healing well, I expect that over the next few months, the powers will naturally accumulate.”

General Clark stared blankly at her. He didn’t have many expressions so it was important to take his pauses seriously. “Doctor, there is nothing natural about transplanting body parts, why would you think I would care to wait for the powers to naturally take hold?”

“Because the process is unnatural. I want the subjects to have time to adapt to their new hands, and to the powers they possess. The mind connection is intrinsic to controlling the power. If the mind does not except the body part, they won’t be able to control the power in it. Not to mention we need to be able to stunt the connection if it gets out of control, or reattach the original limbs if necessary.”

“Doctor I’m not one for science. This project is frankly a little strange to me, but if there is indeed a possibility that these jokers are going to be next ice man and human torch, I want to see it happen fast so we can move on. I don’t plan on wasting an entire year just to see if they can pick up hot irons and stick forks in toasters. I want potential weapons, not human anomalies.”

“I can start them on steroids, but General please understand that when dealing with human beings, we can’t simply demand progress. We need to document this, so it can be repaired and replicated.”

“Please understand this Dr. Jill, these men are my soldiers. They would die for their country. You can’t possibly understand that commitment, but I think you do understand how important you are to our project and how much we want you to be a part of it. You want to stay with this project don’t you?”

Jill wasn’t sure what kind of a threat that was, but whether it was financial or mortal, she needed to take it seriously. If there was even the hint on her record that she had performed illegal transplant surgeries, she would not only lose her license, but she could go to jail. It wouldn’t matter that it was the government that requested the work. They would never be held accountable for their part in these experiments, and they wouldn’t hesitate to throw her under the bus if she didn’t provide the loyalty they needed.

“I’m sure I can provide you with the speed that you desire, while still giving my patients a safe recovery. You can recoil your fangs, I’ll get on it right away.”

He looked her over again, but decided to accept her sarcastic compliance. General Clark turned on his heel and left the room, giving the men and woman, a belated salute back. After he was gone everyone returned to normal. She wondered how much pride you had to take from someone to make them feel pride in being a robot.

34

Remi was right. Her power was stupid.

Jill looked over the data on the strip of paper behind Remi’s bed. There was virtually no way to show tolerance to water, since the human hand was not intolerant to water. At best, she could check to see how long it took her fingers to turn into raisins. Instead she monitored the moisture already in her hands.

She pulled the sensors off Remi’s palms and smiled at her. They had only showed a slight increase in moisture that could easily be sweat. “I think that’s good for today, Remi.”

“Anything?” she asked hopeful.

“I think I’ll start you on a dose of the steroids today. I’ll try and think of a better way to detect your power.” Remi’s face fell, but she nodded. Jill gave her the injection and she let her go.

Not to anyone’s surprise, Garr soon after, mentioned his hands were starting to hurt. Jill knew it was only so he could leave, but she wasn’t about to argue with him. She could smell the heat from the metal batons. Whether he was being accurate or not, he had certainly beat his record from last week.

She placed her hot gloves on, and took the batons. She gave him a dose of steroid and sent him on his way to catch up with Remi. When she turned back to the others she saw Hirem and Efrat mouthing something to each other. “No secrets, boys. Are you feeling anything yet?”

Efrat glanced at Hirem and sighed. “I think I am.”

“You think you are, or you are. I know it’s boring to sit here for hours, but I do need accurate results.”

“I feel a tiny tingle,” he offered like he hoped that was enough.

“Efrat,” she sighed, “Can’t you at least lie well? You’re not even up to what you were last time.”

“Come on doc, just crank it up. The General’s right, let’s just get this party started or bail out while the night’s still young.”

“Oh, fine,” Jill moved to his machine and manually raised the voltage with a press of a button. She pressed it up again and again, but Efrat saw no change.

“Come one, doc,” Efrat encouraged her. Jill looked to Hirem. She wasn’t sure why she did. She was the doctor here. She supposed she just wanted permission from his friend, so that later when his nerve endings were fried, she could say that there was a consensus. Hirem raised his eyebrows, as if he was just as curious to see how high Efrat could go as she was.

“If you can’t feel your hands tomorrow, I’m not going to feel sorry,” she said.

“Yes, you will,” Efrat corrected, “but do it anyway.”

Jill used the dial rather than the push buttons, which increased the voltage a good deal faster, and with less precision. She dialed it up slowly, until she could hear a hum. She looked over Efrat, but he didn’t seem affected. “Hirem, move you and your cart away from him. You don’t want to be the one to ground him,” she said moving herself behind the machine as well.

She turned the dial up farther, but she wasn’t sure it was working, because the hum stopped. “What the hell? Did it just short out?” A loud snap sounded and sparks spit out of the wall where the device was plugged in. “Holy crap!” Jill said pulling the plug on the machine and rushing over to check Efrat.

Another snap shocked her fingers as she tried to touch him. “Shit, throw those over there.” He did so. “Okay, now touch the bed frame.” She heard another snap and he brought his hands back up for her to examine.

She looked over his hands, but there was no sign of damage. She poked her pen into each of his fingers, and dragged it over his hand. “Can you feel that?”

“Yeah,” Efrat said sitting up and watching her intently like she would be able to explain what just happened to him.

“What was the monitor up to when it overloaded, do you remember?”

“The needle was pinned.”

“That’s 120 volts coming out of that socket. I don’t know electrical stuff, but I know that’s enough to electrocute someone,” Jill said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means no steroids for you.”

35

After a long and repetitious argument, Jill conceded to giving Efrat the steroids anyway. She didn’t like giving any of them the medication, but when he was already showing that much resistance it told her that he was already on his way to great things, and she was a firm believer that fast success meant even faster failure.

Efrat left as soon as he was dosed. She got the impression he had a hot date or something. That left her once again alone with Hirem. He had not been in quite the hurry to speed up his test, but by the time she was done with Efrat’s log, she could see frost was forming on his hands. “Can you feel your hands?”

“Not really,” he said releasing them to her. She wore her gloves with his batons just as she did with Garr’s. She was just a likely to lose a few layers of skin touching the cold batons as the hot ones.

“Do you remember the part where I told you to tell me, when you couldn’t feel your hands anymore?” She said scolding him without derision.

“I vaguely recall that, but it’s hard to tell. Sometimes I just forget that my hands are even there. I think my body hasn’t really accepted them yet.”

“You’re sensory testing is high, and your mobility is well above everyone else.”

“No, I mean,” he tapped his chest. “My mind may have accepted them, but my heart hasn’t. You can perform all the tests you want, but until my heart believes they are my hands, I don’t think they will behave the way you want them too.”

Jill poked his hand with her pen, but he shook his head. “I don’t want your hands to perform in anyway other than to pick up objects, and to flip off bad drivers. The General is the only one with high expectations.”

Jill sat down beside him and poked each finger. He shook he head again. “I think they are just cold. I know you are doing something, it just feels far away.” Jill knew she could just go grab a heating pad, but she decided to just hold one of his hands between hers. “You don’t like the general interfering with your work, do you?”

“Who would?” She rolled her eyes. “I understand his purpose I’m just not a fan of speed over caution.”

“You don’t strike me as slow and cautious,” he said tipping his head as if he were reading her thoughts. “Isn’t that why you’re here? Medical science in the public sector is too slow. Too many rules and regulations. I think you like to change the rules.”

She could feel the warmth in his hand. “Can you feel your hand now?”

“Yes.” He gave her his other hand, and she let go of him.

“I’ll grab a hot pack.” She moved to her shelves and found a hot pack that she could warm in the microwave. She had ones with snaps inside that would be instant, but she wanted a little more time away from Hirem. She was starting to feel naked in front of him.

It was one thing for him to disarm her with clever compliments, but to have him wave around her personality traits like he had known her for years was too much. She hadn’t had enough time to figure him out, how had he had enough time to figure her out.

While the microwave hummed, Jill rolled her shoulders. She hadn’t realized she was doing it until she felt Hirem’s hands on her shoulders. She jumped, but as soon as his thumbs drove into her tense muscles, she relaxed. She leaned her head against the shelf over her microwave.

The microwave beeped, but she knew it was pointless now. His hands were warm. He wasn’t interested in a heating pad anymore. He dug his thumbs into her shoulder muscles, and she let out a half groan and half exhale. She knew she shouldn’t. She knew it was only going to encourage him, but she couldn’t help it. He had tremendous talent.

She couldn’t help but wonder if his talent extended to other areas. With that thought in mind, she reached up to touch his hands. She intended to move them away, but all she did was touch them.

“Come lie on the bed, so I can get your lower back,” Hirem instructed as he steered her over by his grip on her collar bone.

She knew the bed was a bad idea. She knew lying down was a worse idea, but she didn’t exactly object. Even when he crawled over her to straddle her hips, she didn’t speak. She couldn’t. The only thing she should have been saying was stop, but she didn’t want him to, so she just shut-up.

His fingers worked there magic over her muscles, until she was so relaxed she was almost dazed. When he finally got off her, she was disappointed. Not so much because she wanted him to keep massaging her, but because she was pretty certain by that point, that she wanted him to roll her over.

She looked up and saw him sitting on Efrat’s bed. He was waiting for her to do something. Get up. Thank him. She sat up on the bed mirroring his body.

They were similar in height, but she was certain high heels would bring her just a hair taller than him. She had only seen him shirtless once, and that was during surgery, but it was a masterpiece worth revisiting if the opportunity arose.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. They were at the impasse. One of them had to make the move. They both knew what they wanted, but someone had to act to make it happen. Avoiding it wouldn’t save them from an uncomfortable meeting later, nor would it negate what just happened. Honesty came with another fork: acknowledge the attraction and act, or acknowledge it and deny themselves.

“I’m your doctor, Hirem.” Was all she said. It didn’t commit to anything one way or another. It was just a well-placed fact.