by Vera Quinn
Greyson stared at her for a moment, but when she smiled, he did the same.
“Let’s go watch a movie.” She held out her hand and he took it, his fingers sliding into place between hers like they’d been made that way.
She half-expected the others to be there, ready to tease them for coupling up, but the room was empty.
“I may have bribed the others to give us some space,” Greyson admitted. “It’s amazing how far fast food and candy can get you.”
After Greyson helped Caley settle on the couch, he brought over two bottles of soda and a bowl of popcorn. Last, but certainly not least, when he sat next to her, he had a rose in his hand.
“You said you’d never seen this movie, so when I saw it was playing, I thought it’d be perfect for our first date.” Greyson turned on the television.
“First date?” Caley asked.
“Caught that, did you?” He grinned, looking sheepish, but unrepentant.
“I did. And I hope it’s only the first, too.” Caley leaned against him and he put his arm around her shoulders.
As the sick boy on screen played a video game and complained to his mom, Caley found herself forgetting all the aches and pains. Maybe, she thought, this was what her future had in store for her. A relatively nice, boring life. If that was the case, she’d be more than happy with it. She didn’t need an exciting life, just a life.
Something was going on, and Caley was going to get to the bottom of it. This was supposed to be a rest day, but she knew she’d never be able to settle down enough to do that until she figured out what was going on.
Besides, she was down to her last treatment tomorrow and actually wasn’t feeling too bad.
The place was even quieter at night than it was during the day, which meant even the softest sound could bring someone out to investigate. Granted, her being out of her room at night wasn’t exactly against the rules, but it would start people asking questions and if the wrong person asked the wrong question…Caley knew it wouldn’t end well for her. This place might’ve been a sort of hospital, but she knew they were still doing work that blurred the line between legal and illegal.
Fortunately, she was skilled at sneaking.
She slipped from shadow to shadow as she made her way down the hall to Jerome M’s room. She hadn’t seen him in three days, and every time she asked about him, the techs and nurses simply said that they couldn’t discuss another person’s treatment. The others hadn’t seen him either. Which was weird, considering Jeffrey’s room was right across the hall from the younger boy’s.
Once she was at the door, she gave it a light push, but it didn’t move. Risking a possibly embarrassing encounter if Jerome was less than clothed, she tried the doorknob. It was locked. She wasn’t discouraged though. She’d come prepared.
When she’d moved in, she’d brought everything with her, including the lockpick set her friend Elena had gotten her two years ago for Christmas. Caley retrieved that from her pocket and got to work. Less than a minute later, she heard a click and opened the door. In the moments it took for her eyes to adjust, she waited to hear Jerome asking her what she was doing in his room. Except that never came. When she could see, she understood why.
The room was empty.
Not empty as in Jerome was somewhere else in the building and his things were here, patiently waiting for him to return. No, this was the sort of empty that meant the only things in the entire room were a stripped-to-the-mattress bed, a small dresser, and a small desk. She made her way over to the dresser even though she didn’t expect to find anything. A quick look inside each drawer confirmed her suspicions and she moved on to the second part of her self-assigned mission.
Something in her gut had told her that Jerome’s absence wasn’t the only thing here that smelled funny. Two days ago, she’d seen Dr. Enver talking to a man and a woman who wore some sort of uniform. She didn’t know the difference between the types of uniforms worn by the various members of the armed forces, but she didn’t think it really mattered. She doubted they were here for a medical referral. Whatever discussion they’d been having had stopped as soon as they’d realized she’d been able to hear them. Unfortunately, that had meant the only thing part of the exchange she’d been able to hear had been vague.
“…failures here aren’t our concern.”
“But if the key components are the same, it is your concern.”
“Just fix it. Don’t forget who pays you enough to conduct your personal crusade.”
There had to be good reasons for this sort of discussion, Caley’s mind reasoned. The problem was, she’d spent enough of her time being cynical that her common sense overruled all the things that she would’ve preferred to believe. As much as she wished she could pretend that Dr. Enver was as genuine as he appeared, years of experience told her otherwise.
That was why the second part of her plan for the night involved breaking into Dr. Enver’s office. She already had an excuse ready if she were caught, but she didn’t think anyone would buy that she just wanted to see her test results. Still, it was the only thing she could think of that would be remotely believable.
Sweat trickled down her spine as she rounded the corner and started down the corridor where the medical offices were located. When she’d been in Dr. Enver’s office yesterday afternoon for her question session, she’d noticed a book out of place and a glint of something metal behind it. She’d try his desk and filing cabinets first since they had the same sort of basic locks she could pick, but she had a feeling what she really wanted would be behind those books in what was most likely a safe she wouldn’t be able to unlock.
She was so caught up in trying to figure out what she’d do if confronted with a combination lock that she missed the quiet scuff of soft-soled shoes against linoleum.
“Caley, what are you doing?”
Heart in her throat, she spun around to find Greyson standing in front of her, looking confused. “Um, I thought I’d see if anyone else was up.”
He raised an eyebrow. “It’s four o’clock in the morning.”
A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Why are you walking around at this time of night?”
His eyes cut away and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I was going to check on Jerome because I hadn’t seen him in a while, and then I saw you go into his room. I thought maybe the two of you wanted some time alone, but then I saw you come out after a couple minutes and go this way instead of going back to your room.”
“Jerome’s gone,” Caley said. “Like his stuff’s been emptied out of his room and it’s been cleaned as if he wasn’t ever there. Your dad didn’t say anything about Jerome leaving, did he?”
Greyson shook his head, a troubled expression on his face. “I was afraid of that.”
“Why?” Caley asked even though she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“Probably the same reason you’re standing outside the door to my dad’s office,” he answered. “I’ve been noticing things that don’t make sense. People who shouldn’t be here. Questions my dad won’t answer…and a couple trash bags I saw being carried to the dumpster yesterday, full of what looked like Jerome’s stuff.”
“What do we do?” Caley wasn’t sure if it was being presumptuous of her to assume that Greyson was going to help her figure out what was going on instead of reporting her to his father, but the same gut feeling that had said it’d be safe to trust him with her heart told her now that he wasn’t going to betray her.
“Let’s see what my dad is hiding,” he said simply. He held up a keyring. “I stole it from Dad’s pocket after dinner today.”
Caley stepped back to let Greyson unlock the door, relieved that she wasn’t going to have to worry about scratching up the lock while she tried to pick it. She doubted anyone would notice it on Jerome’s door. Dr. Enver’s, however, would be a little more suspicious.
Once inside the office, the pair got to work, carefully going through every piece of paper they could find. Nei
ther of them talked outside of asking each other for the keys when something needed to be unlocked. Only when they’d both exhausted all of the options without finding anything other than brief bios on the kids here and some other people who were either somewhere else or hadn’t yet been brought in, did Caley go over to the bookcase.
“I saw something behind these books yesterday,” she explained as she pulled out a few volumes and set them aside. Like she’d suspected, a safe was built into the wall. “I don’t suppose you know the combination, do you?”
Greyson frowned as he came over to stand at her side. “Maybe. I mean, he’s never flat-out said ‘Here’s how to get into my safe’ but I should be able to figure it out. Most people use numbers that mean something to them, right? So it could be something like my birthday.” He twirled the knob, but when it didn’t unlock, he didn’t look discouraged or surprised. “More likely, it’s Mom’s birthday or their anniversary. Something like that.”
“You don’t think he’d pick something more unique?” Caley asked.
Greyson shook his head as he spun the dial. “Dad’s never really been one for extra security. He generally thinks he’s the smartest person in the room and no one would even consider trying to steal from him.”
The click sounded louder than it really was as the last combination Greyson put in worked. He opened the safe and the pair peered into it together.
Four leather-bound journals took up all the space in the tiny safe. Caley pulled out two and opened one while Greyson did the same. The print was cramped, but reasonably legible. Still, they didn’t have the luxury of the time it would take to read all of them.
“We need copies,” Greyson said. “To figure out what’s going on, we have to know everything.”
“Do we have time for that?” Caley asked. She glanced at the door, her heart pounding against her ribcage.
Greyson looked at his watch. “Not tonight. Not all of it, anyway. But I have a suggestion.” When Caley nodded, he continued, “Four nights. I’ll copy one of them each night. Then we can leave the originals here so my dad won’t know what we’re doing.”
“Why you?”
He reached over and brushed his fingers across her cheek. “Because my dad worked too hard to save me to do anything drastic if he catches me.”
Caley’s eyes widened. “And you think he’d do something to me?”
Greyson’s eyes dimmed. “A couple weeks ago, I would’ve said no, but now, I’m not so sure. He’s not…he’s not the same as he used to be.”
She reached over and took his hand, squeezing it to convey everything she didn’t have the words to say. Whatever was happening affected all of them, possibly in ways that they couldn’t yet comprehend, but it was worse for Greyson. For them, the betrayal was doctor to patient, which was bad, but for Greyson, it was the betrayal of a father to a son. Caley couldn’t even imagine that sort of pain.
Every time one of the staff spoke to Caley, or even looked at her with more than a passing glance, she was afraid that she and Greyson had been caught. Or maybe it would be just her. She tried not to believe that he’d betray her, but it was difficult for her to believe that someone would choose her over their own family. And it wasn’t like Dr. Enver was doing anything to Greyson. Well, other than having cured him from ever developing ALS.
By the second day, the others started noticing that something was going on, but Caley kept insisting that she and Greyson were just going through a weird phase. Until they knew for certain that they were in danger, she wasn’t going to risk telling them her suspicions. Especially since the first notebook Greyson had copied hadn’t been about their group at all.
There hadn’t been names, of course, but the ‘treatments’ listed alongside the letter-number combinations hadn’t resembled anything being done to their group. For all they knew, the things done had been to animals. If the things being described sounded more like experiments than treatments, it’d only be bad if they were being done to people. All right, it wouldn’t be great if animals were being tested on, but it wasn’t the same as if it were people.
At least that was what Caley and Greyson had said to each other.
That didn’t stop the sick feeling in Caley’s stomach as she waited for Greyson to join her for the second time. By the time they finished all four notebooks, she would be a nervous wreck. As it was, she’d already wiped her palms on her jeans twice because they were sweating so badly. By the time Greyson lightly knocked on the door, her fingers were shaking.
“Easy as before,” he said as he slipped into her room.
After he stuffed her robe against the crack at the bottom of the door so the light wouldn’t shine out, she turned on her lamp and Greyson came over to sit next to her on the floor. From under his baggy shirt, he produced a couple dozen pieces of paper, divided them in half and held one set out to her.
She leaned against him as she began to read.
Subject J-4L test results show no abnormalities. Assigned as control to IS76-39BW with rotating delivery system. Therapy to begin…
As she read the date, she straightened, her heart thudding against her ribcage. “Greyson,” she whispered.
“Yeah, I know.” His voice was flat. “This is us.”
Tension hummed through the room as they carefully read every single word, despite the fact that most of the important stuff was written in code. The dates were the clincher…and the key to decoding which of the subject codes belonged to who. Once that was done, they began to sort information according to name rather than date.
“Jerome started having seizures two weeks ago,” Caley said quietly. “That’s around the time he started spending more time in his room.”
“He looked awful,” Greyson said. “I thought it was because the treatments weren’t working.”
“Then why would they keep giving them to him?”
Greyson didn’t answer as they kept reading. The knot in Caley’s stomach grew heavier and tighter with every page. Was this what was going to happen to her? Jerome had had cancer too. Maybe the gene therapy didn’t work on it.
“This is from the day Jerome disappeared.” Greyson pointed at a line and waited until Caley was reading along with him. “Subject J-4L suffered cerebral hemorrhage at thirteen twenty. Pronounced at thirteen forty. Autopsy scheduled within two hours. Results needed prior to visit.”
Jerome was dead.
The knowledge hung over them, a near-suffocating weight, but they didn’t stop. If anything, the news of their friend’s death made them push themselves harder. Why hadn’t they been told? Was the visit mentioned regarding the notification of someone from Jerome’s life? He hadn’t had a family, but he’d been in the system and if the government excelled at anything, it was paperwork.
“Caley.” Greyson pointed but didn’t say anything else, clearly wanting her to read it for herself.
She did. After a massive amount of medical jargon that she couldn’t understand was something that made her instantly nauseous.
Death due to overwhelming stress on the body from unforeseen therapy complication. Batch 752, when introduced into a system without disease, attacks the healthy DNA until the body is unable to function.
“What does that mean?” Greyson asked. “A system without disease?”
Caley reached for her papers and flipped back to the first page. “Look.” She pointed, not wanting to read it again, but still forcing herself to say it out loud, “Subject J-4L test results show no abnormalities. Assigned as control…No abnormalities.”
“Please tell me that I’m not understanding what this means.”
She shook her head. She’d been through enough medical trials and had enough friends who went through them to understand at least the basics. “Jerome was the control in our group, but instead of him being sick and them giving him a placebo, he wasn’t sick at all, but they gave him the same therapy we all had anyway, just to see what it would do to him.”
“Not they,” Greyson said. “He. My f
ather. My father killed Jerome.”
Caley wished she could disagree, but it was the truth. This wasn’t like a normal medical trial where participants knew there was a possibility that their disease was going to kill them because they wouldn’t be given any treatment or because the treatment didn’t work. Jerome had been told he was sick by the very people who he’d trusted to help him. If Dr. Enver hadn’t interfered, Jerome most likely would have lived a regular, normal life.
Then another thought, just as horrifying, occurred to her. If a doctor could do something like that to an innocent kid, what would he be willing to do to keep that secret?
It seemed Greyson had thought of it too. “We have to leave,” he said. “Soon. And we have to get the others out of here as well. We don’t know what my father is capable of.”
Caley reached over and took his hand. “Whatever happens, we’re in it together, okay? You’re not alone.”
She knew all too well what it felt like to go through something like this by herself and she’d never let Greyson feel that. They had plans to make and they were in a lot of danger, but at least they would be together.
It shouldn’t have been so easy for Caley and Greyson to steal things. Over the next few days, every time she slipped something in her pocket, she thought something along those lines. She wondered how much of that was because security didn’t think things were worth stealing and how much it was their low opinion of the patients’ capabilities. Either way, the people in charge were wrong. Within three days, Caley and Greyson had gathered almost enough supplies to get them out of the city and on their way to wherever they were going.
That, she thought, had been the easy part. Now, they had to talk to the others and hope that they were making the right decision in trusting them. They’d debated whether it was better or worse to talk to them as a group or individually, but it was necessity that made the decision for them.
