Amoeba (The Experiments) Page 8

  “And you do nothing to push the mental unbalances along?”

  Greg shook his head. “Nature, seclusion, elements and such, they do it for us.”

  “And what about the mental stability of the participants prior to going into the experiment? Is it true that not all of them are, how can I say, mentally capable to begin with?”

  “That’s true,” Greg, without reservation, informed Billy. “How else are we to know how the extreme circumstances affect people if there is no comparison? You need your mentally strong and weak, along with average. Plus, we won’t hide the fact that we try, like a bad recipe, to mesh the personalities that will most likely clash. Kind of jump starts things from the get-go.”

  “I see.”

  “It’s been done this way since Iso-Stasis two.”

  Billy stopped reviewing the report. “What can you tell me about the private investors?”

  “Not much. They give a tax-deductible donation. Helps them at tax time.” Greg smiled.

  “Can you tell me how much they invest?”

  “No.”

  “Can you tell me who any of them are?”

  “No.”

  “Can you give me the names of John and Jane Doe?” Billy asked.

  “No.”

  “Anything about them? Age, background . . .”

  “No.”

  “Where they are now, what you feel was the key to their surviving . . .”

  “No.” Greg was firm. “Mr. Griffith, anonymity is vital with everyone involved. Just as John and Jane Doe signed a confidentiality form not to speak of what happened up there, we agreed to the same. We let no one know anything about them, including trivial things such as their hair color. You have to understand, these people just want to move on.”

  “I see. Now can you . . .”

  “No.” Greg reached up and shut off the tape player.

  Billy’s mouth dropped open. “What the . . .”

  “Look.” Greg folded his hands and leaned on the desk toward Billy. “You want to know about the experiments. You want to know in-depth details, such as what goes on. You think more happens there than we are telling you.”

  “Or anyone else, yes.”

  “Then find out for yourself.”

  “I’m trying to.”

  “Find out correctly.” Greg leaned back, opened the desk drawer, and handed Billy a folder. “I’m not making any promises, but I’m giving you top consideration.”

  Billy opened the folder, and inside was a document at least forty pages thick. An Iso-Stasis Participant Application. Billy looked up at Greg. “How did you know I was going to ask about this?”

  “I didn’t. So it seems you and I were thinking along the same lines. Fill that out. We will give you a higher consideration, but I don’t make the final decisions, understand that. Also understand this. We won’t even start screening for another six to nine months. You have a jump. And . . .” Greg began to straighten up his desk. “I have another appointment waiting. So, I’m going to have to end this.”

  Billy moved slowly, staring at his application. He reached toward the desk and grabbed his tape recorder. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Oh, there’s no doubt in my mind on that,” Greg told him with an arrogant smile.

  Billy stood up extending his hand to Greg. “Thank you. Not that I learned very much.”

  Greg shook his hand as he stood. “I told you all I could. I even gave you that report early.”

  Billy looked down at this things. “Thank you for that. Have a good day.”

  As soon as Billy turned and moved to the door, Greg pressed the intercom. “Grace, send in my next appointment.”

  Grace, sitting behind a huge mahogany desk, nodded to Jake and Cal. “You two may go in now.”

  Cal set down her magazine and stood up. “Behave.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know what that means. Be nice. You’re stewing over this new director.”

  “Thinking, Cal. Not stewing.”

  As they moved to the door, it opened. Billy walked out.

  Billy automatically stopped when he saw Cal. His eyes fixed upon her as if she were a magnet drawing him in. He couldn’t believe she was standing there so conveniently. He couldn’t figure out why, but his heart pounded. Then--not knowing how he had missed him--Billy saw Jake. Billy glanced only briefly at him, then back to Cal. Cal smiled politely at Billy as she walked to the door, Jake’s hand on her back. Billy kept staring, turning like a hand on a clock as they walked passed him.

  At first Jake let it go, Cal was a beautiful woman. But after just a glance it became irritating. Jake stopped in the doorway spinning around to Billy. “Is there a problem that you have to stare at her like that? His deep voice wasn’t loud, but enough to go through Billy.

  Snapped out of his infatuation stare at the female participant survivor, Billy muttered something that resembled sounds when trying to respond to Jake’s startling question.

  Jake waited.

  “No.” Billy shook his head.

  Jake said no more. He led Cal into the office. “And you have to encourage it.”

  “What?” She laughed. “He was cute.”

  Jake poked his head back out the door looking at Billy. “Please.”

  “Not jealous?”

  “Cal, I’ll get jealous when I think you’re interested in someone. And I hardly doubt you’ll get interested in any man whose ass you can beat.”

  Cal chuckled and realized that the new director was patiently waiting for them to finish. “Sorry.” She smiled at Greg.

  Greg held out his hand to Cal. “Dr. Haynes, nice to meet you.” He shook Cal’s hand, and after Jake had closed the door, he shook Jake’s. “Lt. Col. Graison.”

  “Where’s Jefferson?” Jake asked.

  “Jake.” Cal nudged him.

  Greg smiled. “Dr. Jefferson is on the eighth floor. I took over as director two days ago. Please have a seat. I’m glad you could make it.” He indicated with a motion of his hand to the couch. He waited for them both to sit. “Can I get you anything, coffee, tea, water?”

  Jake shook his head. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “Right to the chase.” Greg raised his eyebrows.

  “He’s rude like that,” Cal commented.

  “Cal.”

  “Jake.”

  “Okay,” Greg interrupted. He walked across the room and turned on a television monitor. “We didn’t need to tell you, but we knew the personal involvement, so we felt compelled to share this information with you. Watch.” Greg picked up a remote. The television came on with a blue screen then a black and white picture of a room. “Remember this?”

  The monitor showed Jake, walking in, carrying a sheet-covered body in his arms. Cal gasped emotionally and loudly, covering her mouth. Her heart sank, and an emotional pain shot right through her.

  Jake’s angry eyes shifted from Cal to the screen. “What the fuck. Turn it off.”

  “Watch,” Greg informed them as he turned up the volume.

  Again, Jake looked at Cal, her eyes welled with tears, her face pale. Jake, in a rage, sprang up. “I said turn it off!”

  “Watch!”

  “Turn it off now! Right now or . . .”

  A hissing, whipping sound, fast and high, caught Jake’s attention along with another gasp from Cal. When he turned to the screen, the body was completely covered with what looked like vines.

  Greg paused the picture. “I knew you’d miss it.”

  Cal’s hand pointed to the screen, shaking violently. “What . . . what happened to Rickie’s body?”

  Jake slowly backed up and pulled back Cal’s hand. “Show it again.”

  “I’ll do you one better. I’ll show the enhanced slow motion shot.” Greg ejected the tape and placed in another. It started to play, and although it was fuzzy and a little blurred, it was interpretable and closer. “You placed Rickie’s body in this room,” Greg explained. “You weren’t ou
t the door five seconds when this happened.” Slowly, the large blood spot ripped open seemingly by the explosion of Rickie’s abdomenal flesh. Whipping from his deadly injury came vine-like tentacles, at least two hundred, spraying outward and intertwining Rickie. Then fast and furiously, even in slow motion, like a volcanic eruption they shot out until his body was not only completely covered, but covered by what looked like a shell. “He cocooned, like our Stasis always do.”

  Cal was so confused. “So this means you had injected Rickie . . .”

  “No,” Greg interrupted. “We reviewed all the tapes over and over. The nearest we can tell, by blood samples taken and by watching, is that the stasis somehow was injured when he clawed Rickie. Therefore, a transfer of blood occurred mixing with Rickie’s blood, And it took over, like a vampire, creating yet another stasis. We’ve since run numerous tests on animals, and amazingly we saw the same results. We were scientifically stunned.”

  Cal swallowed harshly. “Oh my God, Rickie became a Stasis. Was he one of the ones that came after us?”

  “No,” Greg explained. “It takes four to five weeks for the metamorphosis to complete, sometimes six. As I was telling Jake the other day on the phone, we didn’t . . .”

  “Stop.” Cal held up her hand. “Repeat that.”

  Ignoring Jake’s shifting eyes and shaking head, Greg did. “As I was telling Jake the other day on the phone . . .”

  “Stop. That’s what I wanted to hear.” Cal turned her head and her eyes glared at Jake. “You knew?”

  “Cal, look . . .”

  “You . . . knew?” Cal stood up looking down to Jake.

  “Can I explain?” Jake asked.

  “Explain what?” Cal’s voice grew louder. “You knew this happened to Rickie and you failed to tell me?”

  “In my defense, I just found out four days ago.”

  “You dick!”

  “Cal, please.” Jake twitched his head toward Greg.

  “You big, arrogant, self righteous, dick!” With her final words, Cal reached down to the coffee table, picked up the box of Kleenex, and hurled it at Jake beaning him in the head.

  “Enough, Cal.” Jake stood up and placed the Kleenex box back.

  “Enough? I’ll tell you when it’s enough.” Cal picked it back up and threw it at him again. “I cannot believe . . “ She grabbed a magazine. “You didn’t tell me.” She tossed it hard at Jake.

  Jake’s arms batted it away and he ducked away from the book she threw as well. “Stop it. Let me talk to you.”

  “No. I don’t ever want you to talk to me again.”

  “Now you’re overreacting.” Jake tried to reason.

  “Yeah, I am.” Cal looked around for something else to throw. She grabbed the remote that Greg was holding and sailed it Jake’s way.

  “Cal! Knock it off!” Jake’s head went to the right to avoid the video tape.

  “I should have known something was up when they called. You turned white as a sheet.” Cal reached for a vase, but Greg stopped her.

  “That’s uh, a ten thousand dollar vase.” He handed her another. “Try this.”

  Crash!

  Jake closed his mouth tightly as he stood straight from avoiding the small vase thrown his way. “Thank you very much for the help!” He shouted at Greg and stormed over to Cal. “Throw one more fuckin thing at me and I’ll . . .”

  “You’ll what Jake?”

  “I’ll get fuckin pissed, Cal.”

  “Oh, get pissed!”

  “I will!” Jake’s red face lowered down to face her off. “Now calm your ass down right now and quit making a scene. You’re embarrassing me.”

  “Fuck you, Jake.”

  “Oh nice, very nice. Can you possibly act any more immature? Throwing things. Yelling.”

  “And you’re not?”

  “I’m mad!” Jake blasted.

  “Well, so am I!”

  Their extremely loud vocal match drowned out the opening of the door, but not the voice that called out. “Oh, yeah, they’re still fighting. Break out the popcorn. The entertainment has begun.”

  Silence.

  Both Jake and Cal, at the same time, in the same way and at the same speed, slowly turned and looked behind them. Both of their faces held the same expression, mouth opened and shocked. Had they not begun to argue and get out of hand, they would have been prepared to see Rickie walk into the room, not as the creature they thought he had turned into, but as the same old Rickie they both remembered.

  Jake’s hand immediately sprang to Cal’s back when she lost her balance.

  Cal couldn’t breath. She stared at Rickie who held his arms outward. “Oh, my God!” She raced to him. “Oh, my God!” She flung her arms around Rickie so tight he gasped for air. Cal let out little shrieks of emotions. “Look at you! Oh, God, look at you!” Cal, crying, kissing Rickie over and over. “Look at you.”

  “I can’t. You’re, like, in the way.”

  Jake slowly stepped to Rickie, his eyes never blinking.

  Rickie caught his breath when a hyperventilating Cal finally released him. He looked at Jake. “Sarge is all dressed up to see me. Dude, did you like get in trouble for missing work for so long?”

  “Rickie.” Jake whispered his name, laying his hand on Rickie’s cheek and gripping it.

  “Guy, you aren’t gonna, like, lay a big wet one on me are you?”

  Jake laughed.

  “Cal-babe.” Rickie pointed to Jake. “He just . . . UH!” Rickie found himself in the midst of a huge Jake hug. Wrapped in Jake’s arms, Rickie’s face pressed to Jake’s chest so tight he could feet the buttons on Jake’s shirt indenting his forehead, his thin body flopped about in Jake’s grateful embrace. “I’m dying. Help!”

  In a rare occasion, Jake smiled, freeing Rickie from the life threatening hold. “I am so, so, happy to see you,” Jake told him.

  Cal couldn’t stop touching him, but she had to ask Greg. “How . . . how did this happen? We lost him.”

  “I know,” Greg said. “Like I told you, there was a mixing of blood. Rickie acquired enough to regenerate but not complete the stasis process.”

  Jake’s head swayed. “As much as I hate to admit it, I missed you. You were the biggest pain in my ass I ever encountered, but right now, I’m enjoying every second with you.”

  Cal grinned at Jake. “That was sweet.”

  “Yeah, Sarge.” Rickie told him. “Thanks. We can like spend lots of time together.”

  “Yeah, you can visit us.” Jake said.

  “Cool.” Rickie nodded.

  Still in awe, Jake looked at Greg. “Is he staying here?” Jake turned back to Rickie. “Where are you staying?”

  “Dude.” Rickie reached out and gave a pat to Jake. “With you and Cal-babe. You guys, like, invited me to live with you, remember?” Rickie scratched his head. “Or was that just the Cal-babe.”

  Cal grabbed on to Rickie. “It doesn’t matter. You can live with us.”

  “Wait a second.” Jake held up his hand. “I like Rickie and all, but . . .”

  “Sarge.” Rickie stopped him. “I have nowhere else to go.”

  “How about an apartment?”

  Cal backhanded Jake. “We have an extra room, Rickie. In fact, we just bought a house. With lots of room.”

  “Cool.”

  Greg stepped forward into the happy reunion. “Actually, if I can say something.” He waited until he had all of their attention. “Rickie can’t get an apartment, not just yet. He knows this.”

  “Yeah,” Rickie commented. “Setting the Rickie Meister free on his own will cause mass chaos amongst the women of the world.”

  Greg smiled. “Something like that. Rickie needs to be monitored, watched for any changes or occurrences that aren’t normal. We don’t foresee any; however, we have to be on the safe side. He either has to go into special housing, or he has to go to you. We’ll be happy to release him to you because, well, let’s face it, you two pretty much can handle things. Also, there
are medical observation papers that need to be filled out weekly for us. But Jake, you know what to do with them, what to look for. With your back . . .”

  “Yes.” Jake cleared his throat. “Now . . . this special housing, how bad is . . .”

  “Jake!” Cal yelled. “He comes with us.”

  “I know.” Jake held up his hand. “Just reviewing our options. All right . . .” He faced Greg. “Get me what you need to get me, because I want to go home. I got a headache.” He looked at Rickie. “And it’s only gonna get worse.”

  Greg pointed to his door. “My secretary has it ready. I’ll go out and get it. Rickie, you brought your bag up, right?”

  Rickie gave a thumps up.

  Jake glanced oddly at Rickie. “How do you have a bag? You’ve been dead.”

  “Dude, they like got me new clothes. Check me out.” Rickie turned his back to Jake. “I got the Levi butt thing happening.”

  “And you also have that rebel teenage hair thing happening,” Jake told him. He reached out, gripping Rickie’s hair and tugging it, causing an ‘uh’ to come from Rickie. “If you live with me, you lose it.”

  “No, dude, it’s cool. Look.” Rickie reached into his back pocket and pulled out a baseball cap. He put it on backwards. “No one will know.”

  Jake grumbled a little, then he saw Cal’s face. The grumpy look left him, because Cal was smiling, and that made Jake happy. That and the fact she was no longer calling him a ‘dick’ and throwing objects at him.

  ^^^^

  Greg walked the three of them out into the reception area of his office, shaking all of their hands and adjusting the Loony Tunes knapsack Rickie had on his back. “Take care of yourself, Rickie. We’ll be in touch. Lt. Col Graison.” He called to Jake as they moved closer to the door. “If you could call us frequently with updates, we’d be appreciative.”

  “Not a problem.” Jake reached for the door holding the small letter-size box Greg had given to him.

  Greg watched as they started to leave and he shifted his eyes to his secretary, smiled snidely, and went back into his office.

  Jake checked out the time on his watch as he and Rickie followed behind Cal to the hall. “I should be able to get to the office and finish . . .” His eyes glanced up, and he didn’t speak another word when he saw Billy.