Page 99 of A Touch of Treachery
The sound of clicking keys caught my attention, and I stopped struggling and looked to my left.Henrika was standing at a worktable, typing away on a laptop.
“Don’t worry, darling,” she said, grinning at me.“We’re going to start with the easy stuff first.”
Footsteps scuffed on the tile, and Bryce came into view, now wearing blue medical gloves and a white lab coat that matched Henrika’s garment.
“Since when did you become a scientist?”I groused.
“I do whatever is necessary to get the job done, Dez,” Bryce replied.“Unlike you.”
He rolled a metal cart over to my left elbow.Instead of hammers, pliers, and other torture tools, some disinfectant wipes, a roll of gauze, and a long piece of rubber tubing covered the surface, along with several empty glass vials and a syringe with an alarmingly large needle.
“Bryce is going to collect some blood samples,” Henrika said.“Nothing too painful.According to your file, Section medics take your blood all the time, so you should be used to it.”
She was right.Section medics did take my blood all the time.Standard operating procedure for cleaners, especially if we were exposed to toxic gases, chemicals, or other hazardous materials on missions.Although given my galvanism, most of the time all I had to do to make myself better was grab the nearest source of electricity and channel it through my body, speeding up my own natural healing process.But I didn’t dare do that right now, which was why my jaw and ribs were still aching from Bryce’s punches.
Bryce grabbed a pair of scissors, cut through the left sleeve of my sweater, and shoved the fabric aside.Next, he swabbed my skin with a disinfectant wipe, tied the rubber tubing around my upper arm, and shoved the needle into the bulging vein in the crook of my elbow.He was none too gentle about it, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of wincing.
He filled the vials with my blood and handed them to Henrika.Bryce plucked out the needle, stuck a cotton ball against my skin, and wrapped some gauze around the wound.
“What?No superhero bandage?”I asked in a snarky voice.
“Not today, tough guy,” Bryce sniped back.
I growled and struggled against my bonds again, but they remained as tight as before.I couldn’t lay a single finger on the former cleaner.Bryce laughed and moved away.
Next, Bryce dragged over portable X-ray and ultrasound machines and scanned my body from head to toe.The resulting images appeared on monitors around the lab, and Henrika paced back and forth, tapping a pen against her lips and studying them all in turn.
“You’re in remarkably good shape for a cleaner,” she said.“No broken bones, no torn ligaments, no major internal damage.Of course, your face is a mess, and your ribs are cracked from where Bryce hit you earlier, but those wounds are already healing.”
“You know enduros heal faster than other paramortals,” I lied.“Plus, Section 47 has excellent doctors and access to advanced biomagical medicines just like you do.Say what you will about Section, but they take care of their agents.”
Bryce snorted.“Yeah, they patch us up so we can go right back out and get hurt all over again.”
Henrika kept studying the scans.“Maybe Desmond’s good health is due to Section’s benevolence and his own enduro power, or maybe it’s something else.”She jerked her head at Bryce.“Let’s move on to the next test.”
Bryce went over to the industrial refrigerators along the wall.He put on a fresh pair of gloves, opened a refrigerator door, and carefully drew out a syringe filled with a red liquid.Bryce brought the syringe over to Henrika, who took it from him with her bare hand.I frowned.Why wasn’t she wearing gloves?Was she immune to whatever hazardous thing was in the syringe?
Henrika held the syringe up to the light and shook it, as if checking the liquid’s viscosity.My nose twitched, and a faint, familiar scent wafted over to me—sweet, sticky honey mixed with the stench of rotten eggs.
My hands clenched into fists, and sweat beaded on my forehead, despite the cool, recycled air.That syringe was filled with Redburn.
Henrika noticed my unease and let out a delighted laugh.“Well, at least you fear my formula.”
This time, I couldn’t hold back a shudder.“You’re a brilliant scientist.You could have invented anything you wanted.Why not come up with a way to help people instead of hurting them?”
Henrika let out another laugh, but this sound was more bitter than mocking.“I had a similar conversation with Charlotte last night.But you already know that.”
Yes, I did, but I would have the exact same conversation with her a dozen times over if it would keep her from jabbing that syringe into me.
Henrika sighed, as though suddenly weary, and her green aura flickered with the same dull emotion.“I did try, you know.”
“Try what?”
“To be good.To make some great medical breakthrough that would help people.I tried—for years, Itried.”
“What changed?”I needed to keep her talking, but I was also genuinely curious.
Henrika shrugged.“Someone approached me with a special project, and I discovered I had a knack for dreaming up ways to destroy things.Poisons to wreck internal organs.Acids strong enough to dissolve bones.”She waggled the syringe of Redburn at me.“Explosives that will reduce even the strongest paramortal to a pile of messy parts.”
