NaNoWriMo Day 14

Word Count: 25,034 (Halfway done!!!)

Molly



This isn’t right, this isn’t right at all. I don’t know where I am and I can’t move. All I can see is a bright light above me, like in a hospital. It smells like a hospital too, and I am getting even more concerned. I try to remember if something happened to me, but it is all a haze. I was at the club, enjoying myself, drinking with the handsome Turk, and everything is blank from there. Panic is starting to set in because I am still completely paralyzed when I hear what sounds like a door open and someone come in the room. I struggle to see who it is but not a single muscle will budge. All I can do is blink. The stranger is a man, I can tell by his humming. There is the sound of a drawer opening and suddenly his looming head fills my vision. I can’t make out his face because he is shining a pen light into my eyes and peering into my pupils. After a few seconds, he switches off the light, leans back, and almost immediately, I recognize that the man is none other than Freidrich Brandt. He must know I can see him because he smiles. He tells me that the paralysis is only temporary until the anesthesia wears off completely. Anesthesia?!?

Brandt reaches over and adjusts something behind my head so that it is propped up and I am able to see the entire room. It looks like a cross between a recovery room and a laboratory. My eyes scan the room and come back over my body and that is when I notice my left arm is missing. As in it is simply not there. The right arm looks just fine, it is resting comfortably at my side. But on the left side there is nothing but the dangling short sleeve of the gown I’m wearing. To say I am shocked would be an understatement, but if I don’t continue to look at this in a calm way I will completely lose it and probably have an aneurysm.

Again, Brandt seems to sense my mindset and he tells me not to worry about the arm, he will fix it very shortly. I’m not sure quite what he means by “fix it” but I do feel some sense of relief. Until, that is, until I remember that nowhere in Brandt’s file does it mention that he is a surgeon or that he has any medical training whatsoever. The man is an engineer, and he is apparently going to perform a major operation on me. He very well may have already performed an operation, since I still have yet to find out what happened to my arm in the first place. I feel the muscles in my face twitch slightly, which I hope means that I am on the way to full movement so I can get to the bottom of all this.

Brandt pushes a buzzer and a dark-skinned, bearded soldier who is dressed in a uniform I don’t recognize comes in. Brandt gives him instructions in Arabic but he says them softly and I can’t really make out anything. The soldier nods and leaves us alone once more. I realize that I am able to turn my head because I watch him go, then I turn back to Brandt, who smiles again. He tells me that there are matters that he needs to attend to, but he should be back in time to help me when I have regained full movement. He leaves the room and once again, it is just me and my thoughts. At least I have time to try to figure out a few things. I knew Brandt was here doing research but that was all that they told us. I figured that the shaky laws here were the reason that he decided to set up shop in this country, so I knew whatever work he was doing probably wasn’t on the up and up. You accept certain things when you pledge your loyalty oath to Nanodyne Defense Systems, one of which is the fact that you probably don’t want to know about every little thing that the company does. I made peace with this fact a long time ago, but now that I’m in the thick of one of those very situations I am beginning to regret my prior ambivalence.

I can tell that there is at least a stump under the sleeve of the gown, so my arm isn’t completely gone. I have to close my eyes and breathe slowly for a few seconds to compose myself after I picture what the stump must look like. Was there an accident? Was I attacked? As soon as I get my mouth muscles going, I plan on finding out first thing. I can wiggle my fingers and toes, but my arms and legs are strapped down tightly so I’m not sure about those just yet. Come to think of it, I find it rather odd that I am strapped down. If Brandt knew I would be paralyzed, why go to the bother of making sure I can’t get away? Another question for the good doctor who isn’t actually a doctor.

Twenty more minutes go by and I feel like I must be fully operational right now and Brandt comes back flanked by two armed soldiers. I launch right into telling him who I am and why I am here, but before I can ask what happened to my arm he shushes me and waves his hand. He tells me that he knows all about me. My company profile suggested that I am bright, capable, and able to handle pressure. My psychological evaluation showed an unusual degree of loyalty to the company, which is why he chose me to participate in this project. Brandt explains that he has been working on exciting top-secret designs, and I am going to be his all important test subject. My head is spinning with all of this and I am speechless as Brandt loosens the straps that are holding me down. I am able to stand shakily with his help and he leads me to a full-length mirror. He tells me that soon I won’t miss my old arm, he is going to replace it with something much, much better. After years of trial and error, he has finally perfected a prototype, and I am going to be his prize show model. When I find my voice it is small and weak, but I manage to ask just what I will be a model of. The perfect soldier, he smiles almost maniacally, the deadliest human being on the planet. It is finally all too much for me to take and I pass out mercifully, hoping desperately that I will wake up in the real world once more.

No such luck, when I come to I am back in the hospitable bed and curiously strapped down once more. At least this time I can move, and I take advantage of this by screaming my lungs out. A soldier comes in with his rifle pointed, looking like I just scared the bejeezus out of him. When he finds that there is nothing to shoot in here, he seems lost until Brandt comes in behind him looking concerned. The soldier snaps to attention, which appears to make him much more comfortable. Brandt asks if I am in any pain and I let him have it, calling him every name in the book and demanding that he tell me what happened to my arm and just what exactly he plans on doing to me. He sighs and begins to loosen the straps one more. He says that he had hoped I would be more enthusiastic about the whole thing, but he understands that I am a little upset because he did not tell me about my role in this project before he removed my arm. He asks for just a little more patience, he will soon explain everything and I will be very pleased indeed. I stay silent until he finishes with the straps and then I punch him in the jaw as hard as I can. The soldier raises his weapon hesitantly but Brandt waves him off while rubbing his jaw. Unfortunately, I didn’t have very much leverage so I didn’t do much of anything except get my point across. Brandt glares at me angrily for a moment then softens. Fight it as I may, he tells me, my participation in this project is not voluntary. The loyalty oath that I swore when I joined Nanodyne expressly stated that I would carry out the will of my superiors. And the employee handbook, a copy of which is available at all times no matter the location, states under no uncertain terms that my body is the sole property of Nanodyne and any part of it will be available at a moment’s notice should a need for it arise. I swallow heavily, feeling nauseous. You never think all of that stuff in the oath and in the handbook would actually mean something someday, it just seemed like standard evil corporation stuff. Well, I guess I can’t imagine things being more evil than this. Brandt reminds me that he is in fact my superior and that I am expected to obey him from this point on. I lower my head and nod, eyes on the floor to keep from crying. Nanodyne owns me, body and soul.

Brandt gives me some clothes and leaves me to change in private. When I am done he guides me out of the room into a sterile white hallway, several more of which we walk down before entering a mess area. There are a few soldiers eating together at one of the tables but otherwise the large room is empty. Brandt tells me that the next surgery isn’t for a few days so can go ahead and eat as much as I want. I quickly realize that I am actually very hungry so I load up a tray with some decent looking beef stew and he sits with me and tells me about the facility. They built the research complex underground, expanding it as needed. The space is not considered the property of any country, it is understood that Nanodyne’s interest transcends any border. The local governments are sometimes directly involved with the facility’s day-to-day functions, other times it operates autonomously. Either way, any workers in the complex stay under the sole authority of Nanodyne.

Normally, they enjoy full cooperation from whoever happens to be in charge on the surface. The previous regime, however, was never told about this facility due to a foreseen abundance of hubris. When they began to get too close, the decision was made to end their rule and replace them with a group that was easier to work with. This, he explained, is why they had to play out the charade that he had gone missing and that Joseph and I were here to find him. They were unable to prepare the new government before our arrival, and the project could not go off schedule. Speaking of, I ask, why did they choose Joseph? Brandt chuckles, hearing my tone, and cryptically says that there are also things about Joseph that will prove useful in this project.

I finish my stew, it is really hard to get used to not having two arms when eating by the way, and he shows me to a modest media room. He says that he must leave again, just for a little bit, but I am free to occupy myself with the books, movies, or games available. He asks that I not stray from the room because there are areas of the complex that are restricted, and could be dangerous. I assure him that I will stay put and head to the bookcase to see what I can find. Not surprisingly, engineers and scientists and whoever else works here don’t have the most dynamic taste in literature. I pick a well-worn paperback of an old Stephen King novel and settle into one of the room’s many couches. Every instinct is screaming for me to run, to get the hell out of there as fast as I can, but I am bound by duty to stay and serve the needs of Nanodyne. Besides, if I try to run who knows what else they will do to me. I concentrate on the story as hard as I can to keep the panic from overwhelming me. Other workers come and go as I lounge, but no one really pays any attention to me. One man, a lanky guy with glasses, smiles at me nervously before he scuttles over and occupies himself with a movie station. It’s almost as if one-armed girls show up from out of nowhere all the time around here.

Brandt comes back before I finish the book but I wasn’t really into it anyway. He tells me that it is time to meet an associate of his, another head of the project. We enter another lab and there is a tall black man in a lab coat writing on a clipboard, leaning casually against a counter. He smiles broadly when he sees me and introduces himself as Dr. Giles. He slight English accent is a contrast to Brandt’s slight German accent. He seems kind, and I feel like I can trust him but I don’t know why. He says he understands that this is probably all very overwhelming and that I must be scared. Nevertheless, he assures me that they are going to help me, make me better in fact, than I ever was before. Staring into his dark eyes as he holds my hand, I can’t help but believe him. Brandt says it is almost time for lights out in the facility, and takes me to my private quarters. On the way, he explains that some areas do function twenty-four hours a day, but non-essential areas are powered down to keep energy usage minimal. The room he shows me to is small, but it has all of the standard requirements. After bidding me goodnight, Brandt leaves and I am not surprised to hear the door lock behind him. My head is still spinning a little from all of the day’s events so it takes me a while to get to sleep. Whatever they have planned for me it is out of my control, hopefully things will be as rosy as they claim when all is said and done.