“Yes,” Hollister replied. “It does.”
“Wait,” I chimed in. “I don’t get it. If the serum just destroyed the subject’s immune system, wouldn’t the subject just die? What caused the pandemic? Not the serum, right?”
“It wasn’t just the serum. It was the results of the serum and nanobots melding with the human immune system. Once the test subjects got sick, which was the eventuality; they would cough or sneeze and spread their germs — their DNA — to others. The effect was a flu that could not be fought against by the immune system, since at the same time as the flu was running its course, the Telomere6 was destroying the immune system. Catch-22, so to speak.”
“Son of a bitch,” Kel commented.
“So, I take it that after thirteen more years of trial and error, Thyssen has supposedly perfected his serum?”
“You might say that,” Thyssen’s voice came from the open door of the lab. He was standing there, a peeved look on his face, staring at Hollister. He looked askance at her. “Well,” he said, “aren’t you going to finish the tale? You’re leaving us all in a dreadful suspense.”
“Yep,” Kel muttered. “He’s a prick.”
CHAPTER 8
“Go on,” Thyssen directed. Hollister shrugged and turned back to us.
“Initially,” she said, “the project was to be shut down, after the first weeks of outbreak. But, the President made the call to continue the efforts to save as many as we could. We made the necessary arrangements to bring him and the others here and place them into cryostasis until the cure could be devised. We would have brought a few more in but the previous Project Leader had made quite an effort to have us shut down. With the President’s order, Colonel Watson was locked out of the project and control turned over to Dr. Thyssen.”
I bit my tongue, sneaking a quick meaningful glance at Kel. He ignored me but also said nothing about my dad. I felt a swell of pride that my dad would have risked everything to shut this bastard down. Thyssen stood by the workbench as calm as could be. There was a growing itch in the pit of my stomach, a sense of duty that I could not push aside. It may not have been my place, but it was a task I had taken up years ago. I was not about to let justice slip through my fingers. I couldn’t let my dad down.
“Once we got everyone inside,” Hollister continued, “we locked everything down tight. No one had been allowed outside the lab since the first reports of outbreaks. Dr. Thyssen knew it would not stop in just those cities. His quick actions saved those of us who remained inside the lab.”
“Right,” Kel said, looking over at Thyssen. “Your very own hero.”
“I appreciate the thought, young man,” Thyssen said with ice in his eyes. “My only goal, all I ever wanted, was to help mankind.” He looked back at Hollister and nodded for her to continue our education.
“The problem that we had found with Telomere6 became our focus. We had to manipulate the serum so that the immune system would not fight it, but welcome it. We also have two of the brightest minds in nanotechnology working in the lab. As we made strides in that arena, Dr. Thyssen improved upon his serum, eventually instituting the new nanorobots. Now, we have Nanomere9.”
“It may take a few injections to truly see the effects,” Thyssen said. “But, those effects will be amazing. You will thank me in the end.”
“I think there may be a very different end to this than you suspect.” I said this through my clenched teeth. If I could have gotten to him, I would’ve done my best to rip his fucking throat out. I was tired of hearing him speak about people like they were nothing more than guinea pigs.
“How does that jaw feel, young lady?” Thyssen asked me. Thankfully he didn’t smile; otherwise, I would have looked like an idiot wriggling around and trying to break free of my bonds. Instead, I sat silent, mulling over various possibilities. Hollister invaded my daydreams when she touched my face.
“How does it feel?” she asked, looking into my eyes with a pointed glance. I thought about it and realized that it did not hurt any longer. It seemed the swelling was going down, too.
“Fine,” I replied.
Thyssen took a step toward me and then hesitated. He watched intently as Hollister inspected my cheek. I saw her turn back to him and nod curtly. He motioned her to back away and he moved in closer to examine the damage he’d done earlier. After a couple of seconds, he took step back. His glance bounced back and forth between Kel and me for several moments before he sidestepped over to Kel.
Without warning, Thyssen punched Kel in the nose. I heard the crunch and winced at the pain Kel must have felt. His head had rocked back and now he was glaring at Thyssen with enough animosity to back down a lion. Thyssen looked over at Hollister.
“Clean it up. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” He paused at the door. “And, do cease any further storytelling, Doctor.” With that he left, the door secured behind him.
“What the fuck was that for?” I demanded. She retrieved some sterile wipes, and a moist cloth.
“You healed far too quickly,” Hollister replied, as she began to gently clean up Kel’s bloody nose.
“So he punches me in the face? Seriously?” Kel was livid, but his voice sounded funny as he spoke without the help of his nose.
“He wants to compare your healing factors.”
“This is how he runs tests on his subjects?” My voice had risen an octave and I was about ready to explode. I felt the heat course through my blood and I clenched my fists in anger. “What is wrong with you, lady? What the hell kind of doctor does this? Why are you doing his bidding like a well-trained puppy?”
Hollister said nothing but as she finished cleaning up Kel, and making certain his nose wasn’t broken, I noticed the tears streaming down her face. I just did not understand what was going on here. It just seemed as if everyone we’d met hated Thyssen’s guts, but still took his orders with little or no questioning. It irked me more every second.
“Karen,” I said, “What does this guy have on people that no one just tells him to fuck off? Why are you still here?”
“The serum works.” She took the soiled cloth back to the workbench and tossed it into the waste can. “He’s been taking it for the last year.”
“Okay. Fine. So what. It works. Great. Even less reason for you to stay under his apparent rule, right?”
“Do you know how old Dr. Thyssen is?” she asked, not looking at us. I glanced at Kel who was staring at Hollister.
“Late forties, I’d say.” She was already shaking her head.
“He’s seventy-two.”
Kel’s head snapped toward me and I wasn’t sure what to say. If what Hollister said was true, that meant that the serum not only extended life, it brought back youth. It seemed impossible.
“That’s the serum that did that?” Kel asked. Hollister nodded.
“There is limited access to the serum. There has been limited access to any variety of test subjects. We are his work force. He won’t use us.”
“Are you saying that he’s been using himself as a guinea pig?”
“There’s more.” Hollister was about to tell us something important, but just then the door opened and Thyssen walked back in.
He took in the scene and then walked over to Kel. “Still hurt?” he asked, dispassionately. Kel’s glare was more than enough for Thyssen who then moved over to look at me.
“What?” I demanded.
“When you came to earlier, your face hurt. It was swollen and yellowed with bruising.”
“Yeah? Well that was your doing, you asshole.” I watched as he only shrugged, accepting the charge.
“Barely any bruising left,” he noted, cocking his head to one side to get a better view of my face. He looked back into my eyes and leaned in. “I’m going to ask the next question only once. I advise you to answer it honestly.” I nodded. “What is your name?”