Sorry to say I am coming to the end of this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I wonder how it will end?
Chapter Ten
Brendan sat in his office surrounded by folders and scattered pieces of paper. It was a simple room, he believed in simple and effectiveness, nothing fancy or over the top. It was impracticable that way.
To the right side of the storm cloud gray colored room the wall was covered in small televisions, all hooked up to a different cameras patrolling the premises. The moment one of these cameras went off line or was hacked into an alarm would sound and the base patrols would surround all valuable areas.
Every few minutes Brendan would look up from the reports he was reading to glance at the screens, for his own minds security. He was currently looking at River's tests. Blood analysis, bone marrow samples, hair samples and everything the doctors could come up with. Unfortunately, they had found nothing out of the ordinary that would explain the fact that she was still alive when no one else had been able to survive the energy transfusion.
There was a sharp knock on his door and he watched as one of the doctors he knew quite well handed him another brown folder.
"You may want to take a look at this sir."
With interest Brendan reached over his desk and took the file with anticipating hands, instantly flicking it open. Inside where brain scans, River's, and they told a most startling tale.
"Her skull has been cut into before and more than just once. There are several scars here." He ran his finger along the white lines visible on the image as the doctor walked to his side to per.
"There is trace in her hair samples of several psycho-tropical drugs and a few we have yet to identify. From what I can see, this is nothing short of a lobotomy done many times over."
"Is she psychotic?" Brendan asked.
"Honestly we've found no indication of such, her brain isn't diseased but if you'll look at the next scan I'm sure you'll come to question how she's still alive."
Flipping over the image Brendan squinted closely at it, not sure if he had it round the right why. "What is this?"
The doctor took it from his hands and pointed to a spot at what Brendan assumed was the front base of the brain, only something wasn't right. "If you'll look here, sir, you'll notice her amygdala has been stripped."
"What does it do?"
"That part of the brain is where we think emotions are stored, or more or less, sorted. It's theorized to be a sort of buffer, like when you get sad, you can focus your brain on something else and push that feeling aside." The doctor explained.
"So we can live without it?"
"That's just the thing, sir, we can't. How she's still sane is another question altogether."
"Could this be how she can accept the magical energy?" Brendan's mind was racing. Had they found the answers he had so desperately been wanting?
"It's possible but we don't have the skill for this."
Brendan stood from his desk, his hands holding his weight as he leaned over the table to where the doctor had re-positioned himself. "You're one of the best doctors in the world, that's why you're here. Are you that incompetent?" His voice lowered dangerously.
"No sir" The doctor defended himself with a shaky voice. "It's just that this has never been done before, as far as anyone, including the rest of the staff, knows about. But it's not just the surgery, we think she has something else inside her brain as well, microscopically perfectly placed strips of metal but without cutting open her skull ourselves, we can't know for sure."
"Then what are you waiting for? Do what you need to do to get me the answers."
As Brendan stuffed the scans back into the folder the screeching sounds of the security alarms blared around the room and he snapped his head his television sets, three of which were filled with static.
"Security breach in section two, all personal report. I repeat, security breach in section two." The voice blared over the speaker phones as the two men rushed from the room, heading in opposite directions.
Brendan headed for one of the many weapons stashes located around the base. There was no doubt in his mind that the wizards had found them at last and he had to wonder of the girl hadn't been a Trojan horse.
At that moment Remus and Severus were cursing themselves for tripping the alarms. They had quietly blasted away the muggle monitoring devices only to have the entire base alerted to their presence.
"Remind me again why I bothered to bring you along?" Severus sneered as they moved quickly down the corridors.
"You'd really leave me behind and let me miss all the fun?" Remus joked and cast a knock out spell as several armed guards rounded the corner.
As they reached the end Severus looked both ways, trying to judge what route to take. "This would be easier if we knew where to go."
Remus knelt down and ruffled through the guard's pockets until he found what he was looking for. Scribbled down in the guards own handwriting was a rough map, most likely because they shifted around so often this particular guard got lost.
He scanned the piece of paper, memorizing the path to what was labeled as 'medical - occupants'.
"It's this way." Remus took point and headed to the left, Severus following without question behind him.
It didn't take long for them to get into the medical section. They had dispatched three more muggle guard obstacles on their way without too much worry but both knew more would come so they quickened the pace.
Barreling down a few doors, they came across an occupied room, with a few men dressed in white coats which Severus knew to be the traditional garb for muggle doctors. Stunning one of the two Severus pointed his wand at the other. "River Tam, you will take us to her, or you'll find your hands become hooves."
To make his point clear he muttered a hasty spell and pointed it to the other sleeping doctor. The man stared in horror as his comrades' nose arched forward, hairs erupting in pinpricks and half his face turning a pig pink color. Severus had just given him a temporary pig's nose, but he didn't need to tell the other doctor it was temporary.
The man raised his mans. "She's this way."
They followed behind as the doctor lead them down another series of corridors before coming to a halt before the next one. "I don't understand." He mumbled, more to himself then Remus or Severus.
Severus cut in front of him and was surprised to see the door had been knocked open from the inside, the bed was empty.
"There's no way she could have gotten out on her own. We gave her sedatives and muscle relaxants."
Remus shoved his wand roughly into the man's back. "Where's the machine?"
The doctor didn't need asking twice and lead them away again. Severus was becoming more and more anxious until his attention was suddenly diverted elsewhere. He could feel, reverberating just beyond the walls, an energy he had never felt before. It's cool, hard presence pushed into his mind and he knew instantly that this was what they had been searching for.
"Can you feel that?" Remus asked, just as awestruck.
Severus simply nodded and they pushed forward, flinging open the double doors at the end of the corridor.
The sight that unfolded before them made their breaths catch. The machine was enormous. It reached to the ceiling, as tall as two men standing on top the other. It snaked, with cords interloped into different sockets, around the room. It was round, white in some places, transparent in others, spinners and wheels visible, turning and grinding. And yet the power it radiated was strange, and foreign.
Their were four men maintaining the machine, by the looks of it, and they paced back and forth stealing glances at the pit-teat figure in the middle of the room. This was where River stood, he gaze also upon the device as she looked up onto its exterior. The magical energy that had once radiated from her did so no longer, it would seem she had managed to remove this without their help.
Severus took a step towards her, his arm outreached ready to grab her and run until the doors behind them flew open again and a blond, well built man armed to the teeth in muggle fire arms strode in followed by, most likely, half the encampment.
"You're not going anywhere." He smiled, a look or pure sadistic pleasure crossing his face as his men circled the room.