BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 20: Ruse

"Count to ten, backward," the anesthesiologist murmurs above me as she places the mask over my mouth and nose.

My palms are clammy. My heart races faster than a stallion, and I'm not entirely sure volunteering to be sedated while under Dr Hill's watchful eye is the wisest move I've made to date. In fact, it's probably the worst, but it's not like I have an escape plan worked out yet, nor where to go after we escape this facility, Nate and I. I spare a thought to Camp Sweep, and what else may have transpired after our escape. Why do I suddenly have to escape from everywhere I end up in my life, anyway? What's with that? Do I have a 'chase me' sign tacked to my back?

"Please count back from ten, Mia." The woman holding the mask is impatient. I thought I had been, until now, but maybe I hadn't?

"Ten, nine, eight..." I count eagerly. I wouldn't mind looking like I have two small boobs rather than the awkward one. By the time I get to zero, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I glance at her, hovering over me like a ghoul in her protective gear. I pull my mask down and ask, "Am I supposed to still be awake?"

She looks at me, most annoyed. "No!" Then she cranks up her dial and puts the mask on me again. "Again, from ten."

"Ten, nine, eight ..." Again, I count all the way till zero and I only feel a little light-headed. Before she can say it again, I say it. "One more time I think," and she obliges me. I count from ten again, "...seven, s-i-x..." and then I don't remember after that. Guess they finally knocked me out.

When I feel my body again, I'm in a dark recovery room, hooked up to many things and somewhere just beyond my door, I hear people talking. I hear my name and I strain to hear them better. I'm still not fully out of anesthesia, but they are talking about my procedure and I want to hear how it went.

"Come on, come a little closer," I mutter. "Let me hear you!" And abruptly, it feels like my ears either grew bigger or wider or something akin to that. I can hear them much better suddenly, clear as a bell.

"The exploration yielded nothing? How can that be?" Dr Hill explodes if exploding while keeping your voice down is possible. "The whole augmentation procedure was a ruse, so we could use the opportunity to explore her body and you got me nothing?"

"I'm sorry," I can hear the hesitation in Dr Strasbourg's voice. What was she expecting him to find in my body, anyway? I almost want to scream, but I hold my tongue.

"She's got nothing there. She's a normal teen. What do you want me to say?"

"She is not a normal teen!" Dr Hill spits. I imagine her spitting. "That girl is a machine, a machine that somehow mimics human biology and I intend to find out how."

"There was nothing machine-like about her, Dr Hill," Strasbourg answers her and I perk up a little as his voice drops.

Dr Hill thinks I'm a machine? What the fudge?!

"I mean, yes she was a little tougher to operate on, and kept healing so fast that I had to use some cryogenic tech to slow her system down, but as far as I could see, nothing about her differs from what all of us have in our bodies. Organs."

I hear their footsteps move to the door, closer to my room, and I close my eyes and pretend to still be under.

"Her cellular biology is part fusion nanotech, Dr Strasbourg. Do you know what that means?"

The man is silent. Heck, neither of us knows what that means, Dr Hill, so why don't you enlighten us?

"That girl, whoever she is, was not made in a womb. They made her in a lab, whoever they are. She's a perfect harmony of cells and nanites. She has no code we can actively detect, yet she has all the functions of elite CodeTech, with none of its side effects. No MRI, CT scan, body scan... nothing's revealed what she is. Every non-invasive investigative test we've run yielded nothing. She eats, sleeps, grows, and shits, but she's not human. Not entirely."

Come again? What the fuck is she talking about? Of course, I'm human. How else do you explain I bleed? Or breathe? That a bullet can put me on my ass?

"You know who was researching the possibility of creating bionanites when his own tech gave him heavy metal poisoning and induced an auto-immune response, Dr Strasbourg?"

Dr Hill moves into the room and closer to my bed. I sense her body heat radiating onto my skin. I feel her gaze on me like she is studying me from head to toe. I even feel a gentle caress on my cheek with her icy fingers.

"She's Amour tech, I know it." Her fingers rest on my lips and I do everything I can to remain catatonic. "I don't know how he did it. I don't know how she is possible." She lifts my hand next and turns it. Studying it, I suppose. "The bastard managed it somehow before he fucking locked up his research in that tomb of a lab we cannot access, and then he disappeared."

"Dr Amour died fifteen years ago, Dr Hill. He didn't disappear. And this girl? — she could be any tech or no tech. What if she's just evolution? Simply evolution?" Strasbourg asks.

Dr Hill is quiet. She turns my head this way and that. "No, this girl is a miracle, yes, but she is not the result of evolution. Not the way nature goes about it. She is Science, his science, and I'm going to pull her apart if I have to, to figure out what makes her tick."

"What's that?" Dr Strasbourg chimes in. He obviously didn't hear that mumbled bit at the end. Something I'm privy to only because whatever is currently making me 'tick' has also heightened my hearing. In fact, I can hear her heartbeat this instance, and it's beating a mile a minute. Excited.

"I said, if we can figure out her biology and find a way to mimic it, our soldiers will be unstoppable. We will be unstoppable, and we can finally claim the world, and put a stop to this stupid Hive-mentality. We can claim the surface again. Become a real society, and I will be God among them if I can give it to them."

"Got to hand it to the old man, though. She is perfect. Self-healing, biotic, functional." Dr Hill pulls the edge of my gown down and clicks her tongue. "I want her observed around the clock until she is back in shape for my studies." Hill exits the room and Strasbourg sighs.

"Oh, and ping me as soon as she comes to," she adds, and a moment later, her heels clicking on the concrete floor fade but not his. Dr Strasburg lingers in my room, most probably watching me. I hear him approach my bedside. Then I feel his hot breath against my skin and his voice whispering in my ear.

"I know you're awake. I saw you open your eyes earlier," he says.

Oh, what's the use? I'm likely going to be cut open any of these days and pulled apart now that Hill's run out of non-surgical methods to figure out why I am the way I am. I am curious to know too, but not crazy enough to sign my life away.

I open my eyes a smidge and see the plastic surgeon that restored my chest. I was expecting a man in his forties, maybe, not someone in his late sixties.

"Are you really Amour tech?" he asks, his eyes searching, almost pleading.

"I don't even know what that means, doctor," I whisper. "I'm just a girl."

"Right. Right. As I thought. Here, take this." He slips his ID into my palm and clasps my hands hard. "I don't care what you are, but I know Hill. She will stop at nothing until she finds her answers. It was the reason Amour tried to get rid of her before he died. Take my pass. Wait till one tonight. That's when the guards switch out. You'll have a minute or two to slip out. Head for the stairwell. They rarely check there."

"Why are you helping me?"

"I knew Amour and his daughter when this lab was still under him. Those were good days. Let's just say, if you are his tech or their tech, then they made you for a reason, and you can't be stuck here, as Hill's lab rat."

"What if she finds out you helped me?"

"I'm old. I could have easily misplaced my ID." He smiles, gives my hand a squeeze, and places a handful of ampules into my palm. "Painkillers," — he looks at my chest — "in case you need them."

Strasbourg turns to leave, but I call out. "Do you know where I can find my friend? Nate Basnett. They brought him in with me."

Strasbourg brings out his tablet and checks the records. "He's right above you, two rooms down, between here and there, a dozen or more staff and security. Wait until after one. Most of them fall asleep by then."

I nod obediently. "What time is it now?"

"Five to ten. You have three hours. Good luck."

I don't know how I pass the three hours, but somehow I do. I spend the time trying to recall every detail of the facility I can. My primary aim is to find Nate and go to the abandoned, sealed alcove. Perhaps that is the quickest way out. It's a fairly quiet hallway. I just have to hope Nate still has his super hacking skills.

At exactly one, I slip out of bed and pad light-footed towards the door. I peer into the corridor. It's quiet. I don't see anyone, but it's brightly lit. There is no way I can do this without being seen, but I have nothing to lose. I chant 'don't see me, please, don't see me,' in my head as I step out into the bright corridor and walk, hunched, towards the nearest exit sign, hoping that it isn't alarmed and has a stairwell.

When I almost get there, a nurse walks out of a patient room, and I duck behind the potted plastic plant too small to hide me. Yet, the woman walks straight past me as if I'm nothing but air, and I don't have time to think why. Maybe she's tired. I scurry to the exit. I try the push bar. It doesn't budge. Behind me, I hear hushed voices of guards returning and I panic. That's when I see the ID scanner. Of course! Why else would the doctor give me his pass if not for these?

I swipe the card, half expecting alarms to beep, but the light glows green and I hear an audible click as the lock slips open. I push my way into the stairwell just as guards enter the corridor. Down or up? I think up. The surface has got to be up, and Nate is a floor up. I run as fast as I can, up those steps, and to my surprise, I reel from whiplash as I come to a stop. I run too fast. Damn! Why didn't I have this mad skill in the woods?

I push open the door and peer out into the corridor. It's quiet. Quieter than the one below. Many rooms are dark. I'm guessing empty, too. I spy the word Intensive Care on the wall. What the fudge? Why is Nate on this floor? He had a shoulder injury, but it couldn't have been worse than mine. I sneak from room to room, and I finally find him in the last room. Alone.

"Nate. Nate!" I whisper, approaching his bed, but the kid is out cold. I take his hand and give it a squeeze and he stirs, groggy as anything. "Nate, wake up."

He stares around himself. Sleep lingering in his eyes, drugged. He looks right through me. "Mia?"

"Yeah, of course, it's me. Who else will come to your rescue? Get up."

He struggles up on his elbow. "Am I dead?"

"No, why would you be dead?"

"Blind then?" he asks, shaking his head at the ridiculousness. "I mean, I can't be, because I see the room. So why can't I see you? This is a dream, right?"

"What do you mean you can't see me?" I ask, a little angry.

"Wow!" Nate jumps back, falling off the edge of the bed. He pulls a few stitches as he does. "How the fuck did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That!" He points to my hands, and I look down, only to freak out just as well. I can't see my hands below my elbows! "What the hell is happening, Nate?"

"She's gone!" I hear faint voices from the floor below us. It breaks me out of my panic and my senses return to the task at hand.

"You're invisible. You can become invisible!" Nate is just breathing hard in the corner, eyes on my hands.

Maybe that's why the nurse didn't see me? I was invisible. I push the thought out of my mind and proceed towards him. "Nate, we can figure out why later. Just come with me. We have to get out of here, now! Before Hill cuts into me again, and this time, she won't care to find an excuse." I pull him with me, still dazed, out into the corridor and we slip back into the stairwell.

"Down or up?" He glances at the never-ending stairs in either direction. "And she did what?"

"Up," I say, hoping the floor above us is the floor where the sealed lab is. We climb as fast as Nate can go. I ignore his other question.

In the next few minutes, several things happen. They deployed more guards into the corridors, and a siren blares. I can hear all the commotion. They are everywhere, as far as my super-hearing can tell.

"What is going on?" Nate calls out in pain and I remember the ampules Strasbourg gave me. I hand him one. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

"Dr Hill, the head of this facility, thinks I am unique and has vowed to pull me apart to figure me out. I don't really want to die here, Nate. We may as well have stayed in Camp Sweep for that."

"Yeah, she's been making me do things too." He nods shamefully. "And I was meant to protect you."

"We don't have time for that." I shoulder him and we move towards the closest door. As far as I can hear, it's the floor with minimal activity. I can hear guards entering the stairwell in both directions, and we have to move, whether it's the right floor.

The floor we exit onto is one I immediately recognize. It's the one where Hill takes me for her 'studies', the one with that abandoned alcove I need. To the door that leads to an old lab, Geeta says, has remained locked up for years. Maybe there's an escape route through there?

"You might have to hack into a locked facility," I inform Nate as I drag him towards the alcove. "I may have a plan."

"Depends on the lock's complexity. I'll see what I can do," he replies playfully. Guess the painkiller is working.

"We need to do something about your stitches," I say, just as footsteps echo behind us.

"There!" a guard screams down the other end of the really long corridor.

"Run." I pull Nate along with me. Our speed picks up, but I'm suddenly faster than he, and I think I lift him and carry him over in our dash.

I push us into the alcove, and we slam onto the door, hard. It's dark in here, and hopefully, the guards did not see which doorway we entered and it will force them to check every room nearby before they get to us.

I nudge Nate towards the door. "Hurry!"

He runs his hands over the entire door and its frame but finds no key locks, no electronic lock, or anything he can tap into. "There's nothing here, M. It probably only opens from the inside."

"What do you mean?" I almost scream. The guards are getting closer and closer to us. Their flashlights sweep left and right along the corridor as they cautiously make their approach. I turn in a panic and double-check Nate didn't miss a thing. I feel around for a card reader or something. That's when it happens. A laser scans the chip in my hand and we hear the door click open from the inside.

We don't have time to look surprised. We push through the door and peer into a dark space. The voices outside are getting closer and closer as we rush in. The doors shut and lock automatically behind us and we breathe a sigh of relief, our ears plastered to the door, listening intently.

The guards walk on. We even see the thin sliver of light under the door. We can barely see each other and our vitals glow along our wrists. I bring it up so its faint glow lights up my face and Nate can see me.

"The key is in me?"

Nate pulls his wrist up and I catch his panicked face in a soft glow. "Shush!"

I shush. We listen till the guards' feet fade away before we finally straighten up and take one more step into the room.

We step onto something that clicks under our feet, like booby traps, but it must be a sensor, because suddenly, bright lights flick on one by one, lighting up a perfectly preserved laboratory.

"What is this place?"

"I think it's the lab of this Amour guy I kept hearing about. The lab he sealed, and no one has accessed for over fifteen years."

"Amour?" Nate asks. "I've never heard of him, have you?"

How could I? I glare at Nate, who suddenly staggers a little towards the nearest stool. History never mentioned a crazy Doctor named Amour.

"So what now?" he asks.

I give him another ampule and stare about the place, noticing another exit at the other end. I'm going to go check it out while he catches his breath. The blood from his torn stitches is pooling brightly across his gown. Oh yeah, and we have gowns on. My butt better not be visible to him. I do not want Nate seeing my butt!

I slowly reach for my butt and feel the thin fabric of underwear beneath the gown. My butt is not visible to Nate—thank God.

"Now, we escape." I take another step into the lab and my world flips. "Welcome to my lab, Mia. I've been waiting for you for a long time. Shall we begin?"

I stare at the hologram in utter shock. Utter shock. It's an elderly man, in his late sixties, white coat on, salt and pepper beard, and a familiar smile upon a familiar face.

The hologram holds out a hand for me to take. "Let's give you a tour."

"Granddad?" but it can't be. Can it? What the fudge is going on? I can only stare.