SOURCE P19 V3/5.
Machine Man (serial)
Page 19.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kathline and Jason, two of myMy lab assistants,assistants Kathline and Jason arrived in the Glass Room around eight. They were holding coffees and talking about something that was apparently very amusing. They saw me through the perspexgreen-tinged glass and froze.
Dr. Crux? said Kathline. I inferred this from her lip movements. I couldn’t hear her because she hadn’t toggled the intercom. I waited for her to figure this out. “Dr. Crux? What’s in the syringe?”
“Morphine.” This came out a little muffled because I was holding my shirt sleeve in my teeth. But I think she understood. I completed the injection and let my sleeve drop. “For the pain.”
Through the perspex, I saw Kathline and Jason share a glance. Jason leaned toward the microphone. “What pain is that, Dr. Crux?”
I felt disappointed. These two were supposed to be amongst the brightest of their generation. Yet here I was standing in the Clamp with a syringe of morphine and they couldn’t figure it out. “I think that will become obvious.”
On the wall of the Glass Room was the Big Red Button. If you flipped up its clear plastic panel and pressed it, everything lost power. Once, long ago, it had been labeled EMERGENCIES ONLY, but now a sticker said, DO! NOT!!! PUSH!, because lab assistants are curious. Jason’s eyes flicked toward the button.
“Please call Medical,” I said. “Right away.”
To his credit, Jason made it look like he was going for the phone. He leaned in that direction, even picked up the handset. Then he dropped it and lunged toward the Big Red Button.
But my button was closer. It was in my hand. The Clamp was powered-up, humming on standby. Its steel plates were positioned about—well, a foot apart. I was sitting on the edge of one. My right leg, the biological one, dangled between them.
It was just as well I’d taken care of all this in advance, because the morphine was seeping into my neurons, fogging my synapses. If I hadn’t prepared, Jason might have reached the Big Red Button before I could activate the Clamp and crush my stupid meat leg to paste. But I had, and he didn’t, and I did.
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