Accidental Creatures (25 page)

He nodded, and she smiled, a sweet smile so perfectly reassuring, so innocently happy at his well being, that he responded emotionally with trust before his brain ever had the chance to tell him that it couldn’t be real. “Tell me what happened,” she said.

“I was in Nathan Graham’s office. We were having an argument about the tetra project. He seems bound and determined to interfere with my work on it, and lately his distractions have ruined my concentration. I was trying to explain to him that I needed space for my work, mental space, when suddenly he started screaming at me and pushed me to the floor. I think it’s only fair to inform you that I thoroughly intend to press charges on the matter. The kind of support or resistance I receive from the company in the course of this legal proceeding will determine whether or not I remain an employee of GeneSys.”

Anna held up one hand. “Please understand that while I am forbidden by company charter to take a position in any litigation concerning a present employee, I will make it my personal responsibility to get to the bottom of this incident.”

That was what he was afraid of. Hector nodded mutely.

“I don’t have to tell you that you are a deeply valued member of my company. I very much appreciate your coming to me with this problem. Unfortunately my various responsibilities prevent me from keeping abreast with all the exciting developments in the research department. What is this tetra project that Graham’s been giving you so much trouble with?”

Hector licked his lips. “Its goal is to replace the paid labor force in vat maintenance and decanting with an engineered organism capable of performing those duties. It’s a difficult problem and Graham has been increasingly impatient with my progress. A month ago he called a meeting with me to ask when I would be ready with a prototype. In all honesty I couldn’t give him a definite answer, and that’s when he started questioning everything; demanding explanations for expenditures, dropping by the lab at all hours, and recruiting my assistants as spies.”

“I see. And what precipitated the confrontation between the two of you today?”

He didn’t dare mention anything of Helix’s plight, or the situation with the other tetras. It was probably only a matter of time before Anna learned what was really going on, but he had to use his momentary leverage to get Graham out of the picture. Even now he was probably laying a trap for Helix, down in Vattown. “I went to his office to tell him to back off. That I couldn’t get any work done under such constant scrutiny. That’s when he became abusive and struck me.”

Anna stood up suddenly, and paced the room in quick, black silk clad strides. “I can understand why you’re upset. Believe me when I tell you that I take this matter very seriously. Any employee striking another is intolerable, and in this case,” she looked at him, “In this case I stand to lose a very valuable mind because of it.” She fingered the keypad on her wrist. “I’m going to call security, and have them escort Mr. Graham here. You can be assured he won’t try any rough stuff. I’d like to talk to the two of you together.”

Hector stood up, toppling the empty water glass at his feet. “You have to stop him,” he blurted. Anna eyed him coolly. “Stop him from what?”

Hector’s jaw worked. “From interfering in my project,” he managed to say.

“Oh I will. I will.”

Moments later Graham arrived, escorted by two GeneSys security feet in yellow and green uniforms. He eyed Hector with cold hostility, his face pale.

“Have a seat, Mr. Graham,” said Anna, indicating a space on the couch next to Hector. The security feet stayed by the door, watching as Graham seated himself stiffly on the couch, as far from Hector as he could manage. Anna glanced at the guards. “Are you going to behave yourself?” she asked Graham.

He nodded, and she turned to the guards. “Wait outside.”

“Anna. Whatever this is about-” Graham stole a glance at Hector. “I’m sure we don’t need to get security involved.”

“Well, I’m afraid I do. Dr. Martin here says you struck him. Is that true?”

Graham spread his hands and looked at Hector again, taking in the rug burn on the side of his face. “We had an argument, and I’m afraid it became heated. I asked Dr. Martin to leave and he refused. I put a hand on his shoulder to escort him to the door and he fell.”

“That’s a lie, Graham. You pushed me. You pushed me and I’m going to file charges,” said Hector.

“What were you two arguing about?” asked Anna.

Hector and Graham stared at each other. “We were-”

“I was objecting to Graham’s interference,” Hector interrupted.

“Thank you, Dr. Martin. I’d like to hear what Mr. Graham has to say.” Anna stared at Graham expectantly, her hands folded in her lap.

“Apparently Dr. Martin objects to me doing my job.”

“If you consider pushing people to the floor as part of your job, then I don’t blame him.”

Graham shook his head. “That was an accident.”

“Why have you chosen to concentrate on Dr. Martin’s project?”

“It’s overdue and over budget,” he said slowly.

“And have you taken into account the difficulty of what Dr. Martin is attempting to do?”

“Maybe not at first, but now I do.”

“I hope you realize the seriousness of the situation. You’re likely to face assault charges.”

“I think a full investigation would reveal facets of the incident that Dr. Martin would prefer remained unnoticed.”

Anna glanced between them. At last she turned her attention to Hector once more. “Are you absolutely sure he pushed you?” she asked gently.

Graham raised one eyebrow, waiting for his response. “No, not really. I — I might have tripped.”

“Then you aren’t pressing charges.”

“No, but I want him away from my project.”

“It’s his job to monitor research.”

“Not like this it isn’t. I can’t get anything done with him breathing down my neck all the time.”

Anna looked at Graham. “Hear that? Back off.”

Graham looked suitably chastened. “Yes. I will,” he barely suppressed a smirk. “I’ll give Dr. Martin all the space he needs.”

“All right, gentlemen,” Anna stood, clapping her hands together. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have real work to do. I hope you both can stay out of the principal’s office in the future. She’s not accustomed to dealing with brawling schoolboys.”

They were shown out of the office together. When the door shut behind them Graham glanced sidelong at Hector. “Well, that could have been worse,” he said.

Hector stared at him and began laughing hysterically.

oOo

Colin Slatermeyer licked sweat off of his upper lip and shifted his position in the hard metal chair. He was in a small office on the second floor of the vat room. Outside the door was a balcony that ringed the inside of the room, on a level with the rims of the two vats which took up most of the floor space. They’d kept this room closed, and cut off from the rest of the vat room's environmental systems. It was crammed with telecommunications equipment; transceivers and voice printers and faxes. Apparently they’d taken every moisture sensitive piece of equipment and stuck it in here, and the really amazing part of it was that most of it was hooked up.

Actually, he was glad to be put in here at first. The temperature was in the high nineties. With the divesuit on he’d collapse from heat prostration before long. It was hot as an oven in here, but at least he could breathe without a respirator on his face.

A transceiver module on a bench near the window suddenly bleated a repeating sequence of tones. Somebody was calling. He looked at the tetra, who was bored and irksome at having to be here, in this dry air. “Should I get that?” he asked.

She shook her head, and held two hands out in warning as she got up and opened the door a crack, and called something out onto the balcony. The bleating continued, evidently whoever was calling knew enough to let it ring a long time. Colin glanced from the tetra, still halfway out the door, to the transceiver, just behind him and to the right. What the hell, what would ever be worth the risk again, if not this? In a sudden, single movement he stood up and swung around to the transceiver. It wasn’t a very big room, he didn’t have far to go. The live receive button was helpfully colored red, and he pushed it while the tetra was turning around.

“Hello?” It was Dr. Martin, his face ghostly, floating in the air in front of the panelled wall, the wood grain visible behind him.

Colin stared at him a moment, expecting a reaction, but Dr. Martin’s eyes where unfocused, his gaze wandering. Glancing down he just had time to notice that the transceiver was set to blackout before hands came around him and clamped over his mouth and around his chest, pinning his arms. He was dragged back to the chair and held there. “Hello?” came Dr. Martin’s voice again, “is anybody there?”

Colin screamed against the muffling hands, but then there was another tetra there, and small, delicate fingers around his neck, smart little fingers that knew just where to press to cut off his air. He choked, and subsided, but the hands stayed there, along with the ones over his mouth, and he was tied up with ropes woven from agules. The draft of mist wafting in from the balcony abruptly stopped as Lilith came in and shut the door behind her. She gave him an annoyed glance and went over to Hector’s hologram.

“What do you want?” she said, “this is not convenient.”

“Listen, I know Graham’s been there. He told me you’d taken Slatermeyer hostage. Let him go. He’s of no use to you anyway, and things are starting to... happen. Graham’s already trying to kill Helix. He thinks I should have terminated the project a long time ago. Now he’s going to do it himself. If we don’t do something he’s going to kill you all off.”

“He won’t find that so easy to do.”

“Bullshit. He could send fifty guys in there with machine guns. Hell, if it came down to it he’d probably just flood the place with poisonous gas. Believe me, there’s nothing he isn’t capable of.”

She glanced over her shoulder at Colin, who stared at her with wide, wide eyes. “But there’s a human being in here now.”

“So? You think that’s going to stop him? I know this guy, he used to work in production. He wouldn’t bat an eye over a lab assistant.”

Fresh sweat sprang out all over Colin’s body, and he mumbled again against the hands pressed against his lips, and the thumbs came down again on his windpipe.

“What’s that?” said Dr. Martin, “Is that him? Is he there now?”

Colin would have answered him, but he was choking, and there were tears in his eyes. “Let me talk to him,” he heard Hector say over the roaring in his ears.

There was a pause, during which Colin’s vision began to fade, and then Lilith must have agreed, because the pressure on his throat was released, and he leaned forward, coughing and breathing. They held him, four hands to an arm, in front of the hologram. He was still breathing in convulsive gulps. He heard the door click shut. Lilith had left. “Dr. Martin,” he gasped.

“Slatermeyer, what’s happened to you?”

Colin shook his head, “I was right here. They were trying to keep me quiet, that’s all.” He took a long deep breath, “I’m alright.”

“Then you heard what I said about Graham,” Martin said quietly.

“Yeah.”

“Look, I was trying to put a scare into her, that’s all, I don’t really think he’d-”

“Yes you do.”

“Well, alright, I do, but-there must be some way we can get you out, there must be some way we can stop him. Colin, I’m sorry this happened to you, but maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. With you on the inside, it might help us prepare for whatever Graham is going to do.”

Colin grinned badly, “In the first place, I can’t do shit in here, Dr. Martin. They’ve got me locked up under guard in this room along with everything else that can be damaged by the vapor, all their electronics and communications equipment, and in the second place, I want to go home!” Hot tears sprang from his eyes, “They make me sit in that fucking chair, day and night. I can’t get any sleep.”

One of the tetras who was holding him leaned forward towards the pickup camera. “We keep him here because of the vapor,” she said, her voice was husky from disuse.

“But the man needs to sleep, Immelene, at least let him lay on the floor.”

“Hey, thanks,” said Colin sarcastically.

Immelene and her sister looked at each other. “We could do that,” they said.

“Why don’t you try asking them to let me go, Dr. Martin,” said Colin, “I think you gave up a little early on that one.”

“Alright. Will you let him go?”

“No.”

“We’ll keep him.”

“Why? What possible use could you have for him?”

“Hey,” said Colin, indignant.

“I’m sorry, but really, what do they, or I should say, does she, intend to do with you? They haven’t been taking any... samples of anything, have they?”

Colin stared at him wide eyed, “What do you mean?” he asked, horrified.

“Anything, skin, hair, whatever.”

“No.”

“Okay, so she’s just keeping you there. Oh, I could never get her to tell me why. She never tells me anything. Now you know, Colin. Now you know what I’ve had to put up with all this time. The stress is unbearable, isn’t it? She’s... impenetrable. Here she is, this thing I’ve created, but now that she’s here, I’m irrelevant to her.”

“Graham knows about the egg,” said Colin.

“I know.” Hector’s face, animated a moment ago with angst, became suddenly still.

“I didn’t know what to tell him,” Colin said carefully, “we never did find out what happened to it.”

Dr. Martin’s face seemed to shift to a different facet of his personality. He looked very hard at Colin, even as a hologram, it was a little tough to take. “I can tell you what happened to it. It hatched. Her name’s Helix, and Graham tried to get her killed this morning.”

“Look, I didn’t want to help him but he had goods on me. I’m sorry, Dr. Martin, but even this is better than going back to Alive!”

Martin’s jaw was stiff. He nodded ever so slightly. “Then you understand, now, that your survival lies with the tetras. Try to get through to Lilith, convince her that Graham is a real threat, if you can.”