Absolute (Discipline Book 1) Read online

  The girl also didn't make eye contact with him.

  Ben thought about it, and figured that it would probably be the obvious. She'd probably been set on the man at one point to see what he knew, which meant she needed to be close to him, and spend some time. That meant either working in the same office, or dating. The woman hadn't volunteered her own college experience or divulged her medical degree, so it was probably that last one.

  Though, even if she didn't like men, Clyde was at least a good bit better looking than Ben was. She'd done stuff with him and hadn't had a big problem that way. Which, of course, could have just been her lying to him. Really, it might even be the truth, that day, and could have been different before, or later, in the future. A lot of people had just given up caring what others did in bed, a long time before. That was the claim anyway.

  Do what you want, as long as it doesn't affect me.

  From the rather cursory treatment the girl was getting, if Ben wasn't just making things up, then the breakup hadn't been that smooth. There was an air of professionalism however, if not the kindness that had been shown to the other ladies there.

  Ben felt slightly confused for a second on that point. He'd been almost gentle with Lissa, in his own way. With Mags he'd practically acted like he was going to ask her out on a date, he was so polite. That made sense, but it had kept going after he determined that she wasn't totally loopy anymore. Micha was treated coldly. In a way that spoke of there being history between them...

  Clyde had been at least as cold with him however. Efficient and not as mean really. He could see that, but still, stiff. Like there was a personal reason for it. Oh, sure, it could be that he wasn't a toned and attractive woman. Most men were kind of hard wired to like women better, after all.

  That didn't feel right though, and after Micha was declared to be nearly perfect, the man turned to Ben, and scowled a bit.

  "We need to go over what's happening with you. That will take longer. I should speak to you alone. The rest of you can wait in the outer room?"

  That got the others to go away with some reluctance, except Glenda, who looked at Clyde blankly.

  "Mentor."

  Instead of fighting about it the sour man gave a wave at some chairs that were stored along the wall.

  "Fine. I can see why you'd want to sit in on this."

  Ben got the chairs for both of them, and settled in one. It was composite plastic and ceramic, he thought. Heavy, but stronger than steel. The seat was soft however, and it felt nice to get off his aching feet.

  "So... You used to date Micha?" It was a pure guess, but a good enough place to start the interrogation he had planned.

  The med guy took a breath and gave half a nod.

  "About a year ago. We broke up, if you're interested? I can't recommend it." He meant Micha, and didn't mean it at the same time. It was, from his expression, that he still liked her.

  Which was fascinating to find out.

  Ben shook his head.

  "No, thanks. I'm not into men, and she thinks I'm ugly. I picked that up from her a few times now."

  That got the man in front of Glenda and himself to smile, weakly.

  "Well, that just leaves the rest of this, then. I can't claim that I'm happy about it. Not at all."

  Chapter thirteen

  Ben figured the man was going to hit him with a tirade about being out of shape and too fat, but that wasn't the issue. It was all about all the genetic experimentation that had been done.

  "Yes, experimentation." Clyde looked nearly incensed about it, as he looked up at Glenda, avoiding Ben's eyes totally. "Did you know what they had planned? I did the work up, and got the compound back, but no one told me about all this, I swear." He glanced over then, looking worried, but locked eyes with Ben for a second or two.

  Glenda shook her head, and looked at the far wall.

  "I still don't... What can you tell me?"

  Feeling more than a bit out of the loop, Ben raised his hand, like they used to have to do in school. Clyde blinked at him, since it was a pretty strange thing to see happening outside of that environment.

  "Yes?"

  "You didn't do the work yourself, here?" Looking around he could kind of understand that as making sense, now that he bothered to think about it. They had some nice things, and he didn't know what a gene sequencer looked like, or if it was even called that, but it didn't seem like they had a large machine anywhere nearby. It was mainly two black medical beds, and some gear around the walls, in mounting brackets. That, a desk, and their chairs.

  "No. That's ridiculous. I had to send out to the corporation for it. We have the labs here, but as you know we only do pharmaceutical research. That, and genetic testing, which is how they snuck this in on us. There's good news and bad. The good news is that everything that was altered has been found in living humans before." Clyde soured then, his face melting into it and going past what seemed to be his resting position. "The bad portion is... Well, pretty bad."

  Then, naturally, he stopped talking and brought up a display. The view was spun around, with a wave of his fingers in the air, the display responding to him perfectly.

  The picture, which was in full color, was of him. Ben thought so anyway. It didn't look as big as he still felt, but otherwise seemed to match. As they watched, the screen moved inward, to show his muscle structure.

  "Muscle, bone, and connective tissue have all been altered. This will make you stronger in the end, without adding much bulk at all. Faster as well. By about three or four times what's considered normal for a person your size. With exercise you'll improve past that. You also have improved endurance. Or will. All of these changes will happen slowly, so don't be shocked if you don't notice anything for a half year or more. The whole process will take nearly three years to really finish, but the last half of it is cellular, and at that point you probably won't feel anything changing. So call it a year that you'll care about? That's all normal. The last fifty or so subjects have been treated the same way. Almost identically." Then he tapped the back of the projection getting the thing to zoom in on the center of his chest.

  His finger lingered and a small object, no larger than a pea, began to glow green.

  "This. I have no clue what it does. If anything. It clearly isn't a tumor, or cancerous, and it's secreting something, but again, it's outside what I've heard about. It's growing, too. During the scan you just had, it increased in size. Not a lot, but enough to show incredible growth going on. Given the location, right next to your heart, my guess is that it produces something that will enter the blood stream directly. It isn't constant, but what factors drive it I don't know."

  Ben nodded, not getting it either.

  "Maybe it's that pheromone thing I was promised? To make all the women like me?" He was joking, but Clyde sneered at him anyway.

  "No. That would take place in other locations. Probably the testes. So we have one unknown already." There was more tapping in the air, which made a small register sound each time it was done, as feedback. Most systems had something similar. Even the cheaper version Ben was used to did.

  "You're healing ability is increasing, which will end up being about twenty times over human baseline. Several modifications were made for that, but again, we've seen it before. It's possible that new organ you have is involved in that, but that would be a guess, at best. Then... If you notice, your cardio-vascular system is undergoing some changes, as well as how you process lipids. Fats. You may have felt that you haven't been as hungry lately? That's your body eating the fat reserves you have left. That will end in about three or four months, and then you'll have to begin eating a lot more, most likely." He didn't ask what Ben was eating, the menu being brought up in a side bar. It was everything he'd had in the last weeks.

  It was creeptastic, but also fascinating.

  "You even have that I didn't eat in the jail? How?"

  Glenda cleared her throat and shrugged.

  "We don't really. We don't have data
for that, so nothing is shown. You could have eaten a cow and we wouldn't know it from this. Probably from the scan though, since that kind of thing has got to leave a mark. I mean, who eats whole cows?"

  It made sense, so he smiled, getting that it was supposed to be funny.

  There was more tapping to bring things around on the display. This time it showed his back.

  Clyde indicated a spot that was over the kidneys on either side. Then a bit on top of the things growing there. That part glowed, this time in purple.

  "Here. On the adrenal glands? You have two new glands growing. I have no idea what they might do, or be for. At a guess, it's combat related. I saw some plans once... But they weren't used as far as I know. What I don't get there is that if you're being turned into a superman, why not go all out on the muscle structure as well? That's two simple changes. One of them is just turning a single gene off. Glenda has that one." He waved at the woman next to him, who nodded a bit. It explained a few things.

  Her voice came across smoothly, and sounded like a woman, not someone on massive drugs or anything. It pretty much always had, Ben realized.

  "That one has been back-burnered. It's a little too obvious. Though, did they add in any cosmetics for Ben?" She turned to him then her head tilting side to side. "They do things like that with most people. You noticed Mags eyes? Or Lissa's hair and eyes? Most of us get some kind of anti-aging things as well. No one ever mentioned why that is, actually."

  It was clear that she was lying about that last bit, but Clyde ignored her, and made a noise that seemed exasperated.

  "Easy. They're testing out the correct combinations for immortality. It's clear that they're close already. You do have most of that. What it will do in the end, I don't know. My best guess is that you probably just won't age, or get older. That will last for a few hundred years, then boom, hit by an asteroid. Or you'll fall off a cliff, or be killed doing something silly. That's how people die, other than of old age. For the most part. So that is in there. Not exactly novel however. At least ten people here are identical that way. Now for the reason I soiled myself a little when I looked at your scan. Your brain."

  It took a few seconds to be brought into focus, and the whole thing was made to glow in at least twenty different colors. It meant nothing to him, but Glenda gasped. Softly, but he noticed it.

  "Exactly. Major structural changes are taking place. There's nothing in the literature to tell us about what's going on either. This all seems to be about psychic perception, as far as I can guess. The neural density is incredible however, and the number of connections unheard of. Already. That's the problem, you understand?"

  Ben nodded, thinking he might actually get it.

  "If this is what's happening in a few weeks, or less than that..."

  Clyde nodded, then slapped his hand on the table.

  "Yeah. They're screwing with your mind, and we can't know what will be happening because of it. Powers of some kind, most likely? Other than that, I have no idea what's going on. I can't even promise that you can survive this. Others have had each part, but do they work together? I don't know and I strongly doubt anyone else does either."

  Then as if he hadn't just kind of hinted at a death sentence the man backed the display back out, and showed things on his screen.

  "As for looks, those will change a bit. Your cheekbones and chin will become heavier, and your eyes will shift from brown to a brilliant gem green. It should look decent. It will probably make you a six or so, if you care about things like that? You won't be hot, most likely."

  Glenda scowled at the man and shook her head then.

  "Prick. Just because a person isn't virt ready, that doesn't mean they're ugly. You kids, always going into the vanity pool at the deep end..."

  That reminded Ben how old she was, and how youthful she seemed otherwise. A few years older than he was, but certainly not out of the dating realm, by appearance. It also got him to nod, since even with changes like that Ben wasn't going to be great looking. His nose was way too big for that.

  "Neat. So, if I can survive these changes, I get to be average looking as a reward?" He grinned then. There was nothing he could do about the changes going on inside of him, and it had already been mentioned that they weren't allowed to simply undo it for some reason. That part hadn't been explained, but he had a lot of questions suddenly. Clyde had let a lot of things drop.

  For instance, he'd seen plans for super soldiers at some point. Regular NSA or FBI agents didn't have that kind of access Ben was willing to guess. Plus, he had high level genetic skills, which spoke of some other organization being involved with him. Unlike Kent.

  Who if he could find... Ben needed to work out a way to kick in the nuts. It probably wasn't going to happen however, since the other guy was a genetically modified person with government trained fighting skills. Not the same program that the others had, Ben recalled, but still more than what he did. True, he was modified too, but that might not help him in a fight.

  It really seemed like it might just kill him.

  Then, surprisingly, he was put on the end of a black medical table, and given fourteen shots in different parts of his body.

  Clyde explained as he finished the last one.

  "It's part of the drill. This might kill you, but stopping now might do exactly the same. The odds are nearly even that way, so we go forward. It isn't perfect, but we have to have rules." That part was stated blankly. The rules bit. Like it had been drilled into him over and again.

  We have to have rules.

  No reason for that came, so he nodded, in case saying anything else would make the man upset.

  "Um, any clue as to how long I might have?"

  "Not even a little. You aren't screaming right now, so I'd hazard at least a week." Clyde actually managed to be a little less sour then and smiled like he meant it. "So far nothing seems to be harming you. That might change, but currently I think we should assume that you'll survive? You might be insane while you do it, or so strange that no one can communicate with you, but other than that, I'd call it fifty-fifty?"

  So a coin tosses chance of living.

  Ben only knew that one from virt, since it was still used in some games to decided things, at least as an icon set. Everyone would know what he meant.

  "Fun then. Well, I'll go with the idea that I'm going to live and develop a shield of denial about the rest? I can't see how worrying will help me." It made sense to him, and got both of the others to stare at him like he was insane already.

  Glenda stood up, since it was clear they were done for the time being, and patted him on the back.

  "Do you need anything? Sedatives or..."

  He looked at her and shook his head. A blowjob would have been nice, but claiming he needed it because he might die was a bit manipulative. Plus, she wasn't really his type. Not that he'd say no, if she offered.

  "I'm fine. We should get on that meditation thing for the others that you were talking about? In case things don't work out my way?"

  There was a nod, and they started to leave, only to have Clyde clear his throat.

  "We aren't finished. There are several hundred more things we need to look at?"

  Laughing, Ben sat back down and tried to focus on everything that the man was saying. Some of it was interesting, though not all that dangerous to him. They still didn't know which gene combination allowed for the ability to shut off telepathy and psychic empathy, though Clyde could work it down to a few possibilities, which meant that it could be replicated later, most likely. If it wasn't fatal, of course.

  Plus, as it turned out, Ben's body fat was being altered so that most of it would produce heat if it got cold out.

  "Brown fat. You had some already. Most people do, normally on the upper back. Now about eighty-ninety percent of yours will be that way, making you ready for the Antarctic, if you ever have to go. That really eats up the calories, so keep that in mind, since that part is already kicking in. You're burning off about thr
ee thousand calories a day, just sitting in place. You might want to add something with more energy to it than fruit. Soon anyway. In the next month or so. A bit more protein, as well. Even if you aren't going to be huge, you're still going to put on some muscle."

  That was enough to get him and Glenda out of the room it seemed, and the man waved him away. He started working on something new before they were even to the door, which was probably due to drugs.

  The kind that Mags wanted access too.

  That wasn't his problem though, or at least it wasn't yet. If they made her act too weird, that could be an issue for him however.

  "Oh, hey, do you have some of that... I can't remember the name. It keeps you awake and helps you get stuff done?"

  The man didn't stand up, just working steadily. He pulled open a drawer in his desk and pulled a small pill bottle out. It was brown, and seemed full, from a distance.

  "No more than one a day. Take it in the morning." Then a pill bottle flew at him. It was tossed and not hurled, but he wasn't exactly a sportsman, so it was going to hit him in the face even as he flailed at the thing. He knew it.

  In fact, he saw it happening, a line of red blurring ahead of it in the air, showing where he was going to be struck. That let him get his hand up in time and by some luck he even closed his fist around the thing instead of dropping it. True it had bounced off his face first, but Ben decided to take the win on that one. It wasn't on the floor, so it counted.

  "All right, that was different. Not psychic really, either." He spoke out loud, as he walked, but no one seemed to hear him. Glenda had gone ahead.

  Apparently whatever was going on in his brain meant he got to see things now too. It had helped, a bit, but he didn't really know what it was all about. Seeing red lines when things were thrown at him might help a little he guessed. No one loved being hit with things. No one sane.

  The others were sitting and talking. That carried on when Glenda came in, but stopped when he did. They didn't look miserable, so it wasn't that one of them had overheard all the info about him. Learning they were going to go back to normal again soon would get a different reaction. One that wasn't nearly as happy.