BLOGS

Getting out of the technician's office only required that I wait for a few minutes until he came back. While I waited, I did some research on the doctor who was working on Justin's case. He was a middle-aged gentleman, Dr. James Peterson, 46, a wife and three children living on the outskirts of the war torn borough of the Bronx. Used  as a point of invasion, in the last wars a decade ago, much of the Bronx was still being rebuilt. New tenements sprung up there and privileged members of society were allowed to enjoy those new areas with their better food, water and energy facilities. 

The doctor and his family were recently moved out there, almost simultaneously with his appointment here. When I tried to get further information regarding them, I was immediately flagged as requesting classified data. Since most data flags are annoying and can often be wrong, I transmitted information that would reroute that signal to another terminal in the building and continued my investigation. The most damning thing was that the doctor's children did not attend any local schools in the city, anywhere. And when I searched for an occupation for the wife, nothing was listed. So I accessed their shopping lists and noted that no one in their family went outside to shop. Now, unbeknownst most people, every time you leave your home in our illustrious society, something notes your movement, by either an implant or an appliance you wear. The doctor's family did not move. Ever. And had not since they were relocated. That was all I needed to know.

Skipping out between fat boy's legs was easy enough but there was something wrong with him. His heart rate was wrong, highly elevated and irregular. He was pasty and he appeared to be having trouble breathing. After he closed the door, I heard a crash and then no other movement. Normally, I would chalk it up to a bad lifestyle leading up to a bad ending, but there was something wrong with this. Once the door closed, I could not get health information, but I used a medical code override and triggered an alert with this technician's door  and zipped down the corridor back to the office I was supposed to be sitting in. Big man was no longer my problem.

I tapped on the door to get Gorgeous Boy to open the door and he looked up, put down his compact and let me back in.

"How did you get out?"

"I walked."

He stood there struck for a moment and then realized, "You are a robot, aren't you? You are realistic looking, I really thought you were a cat."

"Wow, no fooling you, huh? Do you think you could take a look back there and see if my boy is ready?"

Recovering his ennui and trying to look unaffected he said, "Sure thing. Flashing back."

I hate the abuse of the language. But my database included a variety of slangs programmed from modern vids, so that I would be a better communicator with my charge. But Justin did not use much of the modern slang and I was grateful. It was always about being fast or being in sync or being smart and most of the people using it were never any of these things. As he turned away, I immediately followed in his path and as he opened the door into the chamber, I slid in behind him and caused the phone to ring. He reflexively turned around and headed back toward the phone. Never saw me and evidently once he realized no one was on the phone, he forgot my request to see the doctor as well. Short attention span. A wild animal should eat that one to keep him from breeding; never a tiger around when you need one.

Once I entered the doctor's office, I noticed the immensity of the space and could hear Justin talking with the doctor deep in the office behind a series of curtains. I could hear a number of other voices, but most seemed to be coming from displays and were not people. I could only detect two scents in the room, so I knew I had the place to myself. Dropping down, I could see the doctor's feet beneath the curtains and made a path toward them. Justin was lying down on a table and answering questions as the doctor's diagnostic table took sophisticated biometric readings. I decided to take the direct approach. Finding a terminal with a cold beam access, I managed to find the office vox and transmitted my voice from every corner of the office.

"Justin, go outside. Wait for me there." I jumped up on the edge of the table and watched Justin turn and sit up. He remembered our conversation and went outside to wait.

"Doctor Peterson, I presume. I work for the Proctor, just like you do. Actually, not quite like you do. How is the boy's therapy going?"

"Uh, well. The course of therapy is going well and he should be fine in a number of weeks."

"Okay, that was for the listening public. Now cut the crap. What about the real therapy, how long is it going to be? The Proctor is an impatient man and wants to know how long he is going to have to wait."  Borrowing the House's fractal attack, I laced the vox output with a signal designed to intimidate and cause a visceral fear reaction. He would not notice it at the audible level, but his level of fear was already off the chart.

"Tell the Proctor everything is according to plan and the subject will be sanctioned within eight to ten weeks."

"So tidy. So clinical. Say the boy's name, Doctor."

"Justin."

"Say it again. This time with some feeling."

"Justin Pennyworth."

"And that is about what he is worth to you, isn't it?"

"What do you want from me? What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to say that you are sorry for doing this."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Your family lives in the Bronx. Imprisoned in a new tenement there, isn't that correct?"

"You people said if I did what you wanted you would not hurt them."

"What else did the Proctor promise you?"

"That when the boy was done, I would be able to get my family back."

"That deal is over. This is the new one. Reverse what you have done and I won't kill you and your family, today."

"Excuse me?" The doctor looked visibly shaken. He dropped his diagnostic wand and slumped back into a chair.

"Can you reverse what you have done to the boy? And if you lie to me, I will know."

"Yes, the process required significant setup and he is not past the point where it could not be undone. But if I do that I am dead, and so is my family."

"Doctor, I am not a cat or a toy. I am a sophisticated weapon with only one objective. To protect that boy in there. If you intend to leave this room alive, you will undo what you have done. Wave that scanner in the air and tell me what you detect."

The doctor waved the wand and his face turned completely bone-white.

"I have an antidote. I will administer it only when my boy is safe."

"Why should I? According to you, my family is dead either way."

Turning on a cold beam, I connect to the House and relay the address of the Doctor's family. A few seconds later, his response is what I hoped.

"Your family is secured by electronic systems only. I can arrange for them to be outside of that building in two hours and I have a window of fifteen minutes in which they will appear to all surveillance to be sitting in the house quietly. Be there with a car and disappear. I don't care where you go but know this: You better be right about this being reversible because if you don't I promise you, I will create the most corrosive acid possible and cook the flesh right off the bones of you and your children. And don't think I can't find you. Just like I found your family today, it took me five minutes."

I jump down to the floor and come over to the chair where the doctor is sitting and climb up so that he is looking me directly in my very cold eyes. "You think the Proctor is a monster? I am as close to dying as you have ever been in your life. Now get my boy in here and get it right. Once I am satisfied, you get your family, go into hiding and hope to never see me again. Because if you do, it means you are about to die."

The doctor presses a button on the phone. "Would you send Justin back, please?" He walks to a nearby terminal and begins making a new recombinant viral cocktail. It takes him ten minutes.  He walks up to Justin after leaving a synthesis system and loads an air-pistol injector. "He will be slightly feverish and sick while the new viral infection removes the previous transformations. It will pass. Can I go now?"

I run across the room and jump up to the table, and continue my leap onto the doctor and knock him to the floor. I bite him about the neck with my steel teeth and inject him. He screams and writhes in pain. But it is momentary and then he is still. He can hear every word I say.

"What I have injected you with will last about ten minutes and then you will be able to move again. It will also counteract the earlier poison. Can't have you calling anyone. I am a machine of my word. In one hundred and twenty minutes, your family will be able to walk out of that building and no technology will see them. If anything happens to my boy, no technology will be able to hide you. Blink if you understand me." He blinks, with tears in his eyes.

I looked up at Justin and he is already starting to sweat. "Let's go, kid, before you start to get really sick."

"Good luck, Doctor. Pray we never meet again." 

MODOC - Part 9 - Public Gatherings

'Metal Organism Designed only for Cuddling' © Thaddeus Howze 2010. All Rights Reserved