"So do you guys actually do anything with this stuff, or is just a domination thing," Max said, a little humiliated to be handing her boss a cup of warm urine. Putting it in his coffee would be funny, but this was not. If Cindy ever found out she peed in a cup for Normal, she'd never let Max live it down.
"The domination thing is the paper gown," Normal replied. He handed one to Max. "The urine is to see what you've been smoking lately."
Max was torn between running out of there, and killing him. She wanted to do both. No, she wanted to kill Logan more. He knew Dr. Ronald was Normal. "I thought we were just consulting," Max said, edging a little towards the door.
"You consult, and while you're wasting time, I'll cure you," Normal said. He was doing something to her pee. She couldn't leave. At least not while he had some of her bodily fluids. Normal sighed. "Even slacks when it comes to her own health," he muttered.
"Hey, I got a right to know what you want to do to my body," she retorted. Normal checked the stick he had in her specimen cup, then threw it away and wrote something down. She grabbed the gown and went back into the bathroom to put it on. God, this was humiliating. At least she knew he couldn't talk about it.
She came back out and sat down on the table. It was ice cold. She was freezing. Did all doctors require the temperature to be set near zero degrees? There was a sheet at the end at least for her to put over her legs. She was glad she shaved before dinner with Logan the night before. Normal finally brought a tray over and started to do a workup. Blood pressure, reflexes, he even checked her ears and throat. Maybe he just enjoyed doing this.
She did have to draw a line. "You really expect me to answer that?" she asked in response to his questioning about her last gynecological visit, and the number of sexual partners she'd had in the last two years.
"Has it been that long, or are you having trouble counting that high?" he said absently, looking at something else in her folder. He looked back at her directly. "This is not to embarrass you, I'm trying to help. Stop thinking of me as your boss, and think of me as your doctor please."
"You do know what half of my body you supposed to be taking care of right?" Max said unconvinced. If he wanted to give her a pelvic, she was out of there.
He started listening to her heartbeat with a stethoscope. "Every part of the body affects the rest," he replied. "Breathe in deep, exhale, okay, again. Mmmhmm. We need to isolate what causes the seizures and find out how to control them."
"I start seizing when the serotonin levels drop," she said. "Mystery solved. How do you fix it?"
He gave her his best you-are-idiot look. She got it quite often at Jam Pony. "And why do they drop? Where's the trigger? The mutated genetics cause it, but there's something setting it off and then stopping it or you'd be dead already."
He went behind her and started listening to her breathing from her back. Well, this wasn't as bad as Manticore. Then she felt him move her hair. She jumped, but it was already too late. He was looking at her very strangely. "Is that the implant?" he asked.
She nodded. "And the barcode?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Too much beer, too much fun. You wake up with a hangover and a new ink job." She sounded casual enough.
He nodded like he believed her. "You're a chimera with a tracking system stamped onto your neck," he said. "Exactly what genetics testing facility did you come from?" She didn't answer. "Was it government or private?" he asked further. Why was she so scared of telling him what was going on? Max scared. That was a new concept.
"It was just one of those standard guys in white coats with needles kind of place," she finally said.
"Its name?"
"What does it matter?" she said, "can't you fix me on your own?"
It was hard to cut through Normal's outer shell. Nothing got to him. Even finding out his girlfriend had recently lost her special friend didn't bother him. And she was the one less than human?
"Max, I can't help you if you're holding back. You can either tell me the truth, or I'll just fire you now and we'll both be on our way."
"You can't fire me!" she shot back.
"You have a neurological condition that brings on seizures without notice. You could have one at work. Then there would go the insurance premiums." How did he manage to sound so triumphant, but not change expression at all?
"Like you so up on the truth Mr. I am the brilliant doctor running a two bit messenger service."
"Why don't we play a game?" Normal suggested.
"Like what, play doctor?" she said sarcastically.
"Truth. You ask a question, I'll answer it honestly. Then I ask." He was trying to be reasonable, but when did reason ever work with Max. He could be in Canada fishing right now. Los Ojos had offered him a little cabin in the mountains. He'd refused and now he was trying to reason with the most stubborn female he'd ever met.
"Why are you working for Jam Pony and not something better."
"I own Jam Pony. Was the research facility government or private?"
Oh, God. He wasn't her boss. He was THE boss. No wonder he acted like he could do anything there. He could. "Government. You own Jam Pony?"
"Again, yes. How old were you when you were put in there for testing?"
"Hey," she protested. "I didn't ask my question!"
"You asked 'you own Jam Pony?' I said yes. It's my turn." He quirked an eyebrow and waited for her response.
"I was a kid," she said vaguely. "Why aren't you out healing people, or saving the world or something instead of being stuck here? You got a new identity thing going on you could have started healing the sick and afflicted."
"There are people after me even now," he replied honestly. When you cause the government to shut down a company that made hundreds of millions of dollars, people tend to have long memories. There's a price on the head of Dr. Reagan Ronald. Not something you'd understand anyways. What was the name of the facility you were in?" Her expression clearly said 'you might be surprised'. Interesting.
Like he'd know the name of a top-secret project anyways she finally decided. "Manticore," she said. For the first time since they met, she actually saw real expression on his face. Shock. How the hell did he know what Manticore was?
"You know don't you?" she asked a little unsteadily. Good thing it was his turn for a question.
"There was recruitment among the best and brightest for a special genetics project," he said. "One of my friends signed up for it. I refused. I saw him a few years later, well on his way to becoming an alcoholic. He told me he'd sold his soul. He said genetic engineering like we'd never seen was going on there. Manticore he called it. Kids were being put into military training. They'd been bred there. He couldn't take it anymore. Killed himself a few days later."
Her eyes narrowed at the thought of a Manticore doctor. In her book, the only good one was a dead one. But she couldn't stay now. He knew way too much about it. Maybe he was lying and really had worked on it. Maybe he was going to try and trade her to Lydecker. That's what those doctors seemed to like to do.
"I'm out of here," she said, and grabbed her clothes. She turned to leave, but then grabbed the back of her neck and cried out. The seizure violently overwhelmed her entire body before she could do anything. She hit a metal cart, sending medical equipment crashing down as she spiraled into blackness.
