Chapter 1

Dr. Bianchi smiled at the young patient. "Okay, that's all my questions this time. You seem fine."

"Thank you, Doctor." She threw the starched, white sheets off her, stood from the hospital bed, then tore away the oversized gown. She gave a merry smile, followed by a twirl, causing the hem of her light tan corduroy jumper to flare out as if a bell.

As they hurriedly stowed their surprised expressions, she gave an exaggerated curtsey. "I figured we'd be done today. Was I wrong?"

The doctor gave an amused snort. "I guess we've done these enough times."

Corina turned to Arnester. "Can we go now? It's the first clear day all December." Though her voice was soft, her gentle smile gave the sentence an upward lilt at the end.

The blond man pushed his wire-framed glasses by the bridge, smiling. He turned to the white-jacketed man. "So, what do you say, Doc? We good to go?"

The doctor gave his usual wan smile. "You know better than that. Sorry, Corina, I can't let your handler go just yet. Maybe 10 minutes?"

She gave Arnester a quick peck on the cheek, then seemed to vanish out the door while the echo of her giggle still brightened the room.

Dr. Bianchi ran his hand through his close-cropped hair. "Well, she's doing better. However, we know Katrina, Olympia, and Sabine are still in there. Shelby might be gone, and I can't find any trace of Prissi, but she still has those blackouts, right?"

With a grim countenance, Arnester nodded. "They're not as frequent, but…"

"I could recommend to the Director to give her more Condixionie, you know."

"I'd rather you didn't. I mean, probably, you're right; it might help her integrate the other alters faster-"

As he laid down his clipboard, Bianchi added, "Or, in the case of Sabine, that may be the only way she'll go away."

Arnester slid the brim of his fedora between his fingers. "I haven't seen Sabine in over a month. Are you sure she's still in there? Maybe she's already integrated?"

Bianchi gave a sigh. "No, I was able to bring her out under hypnosis. Putting her back, that was a fight."

"But, back to what I was saying, I'd prefer we leave the conditioning level at where it is now. More might help get rid of her other personalities, but not if it'll change Corina's personality." He put the light-grey chapeau on, but without his characteristic flourish.

The doctor gave a slow nod. "You know I'm reluctant to interfere with how you train her. Or any of the handlers. But, if one of the other alters surfaces during an operation, I won't have a choice."

Arnester gave a very slow and thoughtful pause before his next words. "What about Olympia?"

"To be truthful, Olympia is probably the best alter for this place. She's quiet, she's loyal, and she isn't squeamish. But, is that what you want? Or who, in this case."

Arnester shook his head. "No. No, Corina's really why I'm in this to begin with."

"Well, there you have it. She's improved a lot since she first came here, but if Corina is still having problems in the field, we'll have to … to do something about it."

Ξ§§§Ξ

Arnester walked up behind his platinum blonde charge. As always, she had her art pad out. This time, it depicted the lone tree in the courtyard, bony and bare. Looking closer, he realized that was only the shadow of the tree, that she had left a faint outline of the actual tree absent against the lightly toned background.

"I'm not fine, am I?"

He lowered himself to one knee and ran a hand through her long, luxurious hair. "You're still cleared for operations."

"I'll try harder. I'm sorry, but there's just so many of them." She never looked up, never looked away from the paper. However, her voice lightened slightly. "You're going to stain your pants like that. Grass stains are hard to get out."

"I'll just buy a new one. I wanted to get a better look at what you're drawing."

"I'm going to compare this one with the one I drew last year."

"Was the sun at the same place?"

Corina shook her head, sending graceful waves cascading down the length of her tresses. "No, but drawing the shadow makes it easier to count the branches. That's how I'm going to measure time. For this one, I mean."

Arnester nodded. "I don't get it."

"You can see the tree, right? It's this part, where I didn't draw." Her words' cadence increased very minutely, but only Arnester could perceive the improvement in her tone, her pacing. Her mood.

"Hmm. It's very faint, but I can see it."

Her finger described a diagonal sweep on the paper. "And this is the sun, casting the shadow. Don't you see? It's like overlapping fields of fire for the kill zone. If one of us can't make the shot, then the other one can."

"And here I thought you were just drawing a tree." He gave a light chuckle.

"The shadow of a tree." She turned, the pencil finally laid down. Her face glowed with that smile, that wonderful oasis of joy that reminded Arnester of why he did this job.

Ξ§§§Ξ

Softly humming Ode to Joy, Corina skipped across the threshold to her dormitory room. She found the prior year's drawing and laid it side-by-side with today's work. The tree, far from a mere sapling, didn't evidence any change in height. She was startled from her counting by a soft sob from the upper bunk.

"I'm sorry, Corina." Eyes red and damp, her roommate crawled so her head peered over the edge.

The other girl gathered her drawings, then paused. "Do you want to see my latest?"

A soft "No" floated down.

"Should I leave?"

Elsa rolled to one side, her head no longer visible. "No. Maybe you can help. I want to give Lauro something. I just can't think of what. I've been trying. I've been trying all day."

Corina nodded as she slid her drawer beneath the beds closed. "I want to give Arnester something, too."

"That's easy. You can give him a drawing."

Corina took out her Desert Eagle and started field-stripping it. "No, I know what he wants, and I can't give it to him."

"What does he want, then?"

She inspected the lands and grooves of the barrel against the lowering sun. "He wants Olympia. He says he loves me, but he really loves Olympia."

"But, aren't they working to, you know, get rid of all of those other personalities?"

Corina started reassembling the massive pistol. "Yes. Well, they're trying to get rid of Sabine. Katarina's… she's not useful to the Agency, not like Olympia is, but at least she's not crazy."

"I like the funny one. What's her name?"

"Prissi. She's gone. That was hard. I cried for days."

"I don't remember that."

"That's because I was in Medical."

"Oh." Elsa took a deep breath. "Well, is it okay to talk about something else?"

"Sure. What do you think Lauro wants?"

A soft thump sounded as Elsa pounded the pillow. However, the sturdy bedframe creaked loudly as protest. "That's the problem! He never says anything! He's always either criticizing, or just not saying anything about stuff. He doesn't like anything, anything at all!"

"Do you mean stuff-stuff, or you-stuff?"

"Any of it. All of it. Nothing is ever good enough for him. Nothing!"

Corina nodded. "Is it okay if I ask Arnester to help?"

But Elsa was beyond words at this point. Sobs were the only answer to land on Corina's ears.