The Negative Man: Twilight Days (Pacific Station Vigilante Book 4)

by Jeremy Croston

  With a smile that stretched across his face, you could tell something exciting was coming. “If you give me a chance, Jericho, I can build you a fully-functioning hand.”

  Chapter 7 –

  Thursday Morning; gl-O-bal/Staley Industries

  When Wilson returned, he was holding a metal box secured with a handprint security lock on it. “I hope the two of you are prepared to be amazed,” he said gleefully.

  He set the box down on the workbench and placed his hand on the lock. Two clicks occurred and steam issued from the seams. My expression changed from curiosity to excitement. Something incredible was about to take place.

  Once Wilson had it open, he stepped to the side. “Gentlemen, I am proud to show you the latest prototype me and my team have been working on. Replacement extremities that look, feel, and behave just as nature intended.”

  “My God,” Kyle whispered.

  “Is that real?” was all I could ask.

  The hand inside looked just like a regular hand, like the one I was missing. The only difference was a metal band around the wrist that looked like a silver bracelet. “It took us years to get to this point. This line, the Fetts XY, hasn’t been approved by the FDA yet, but I don’t think we’re going to let something like that stop us, are we Jericho?”

  I couldn’t stop looking at it. “How did you know I needed a hand?”

  “I had no clue,” he said honestly. “Hands and feet are generally the easiest parts of the body to replace. We alternate between the two when coming up with prototypes. Fate just happened to be on your side.”

  His choice of words wasn’t lost on me; fate. Ellison’s face popped into my mind, as if he knew this was going to happen. I pushed him from my thoughts and concentrated back on the present. In front of me was an answer, one I’d been seeking ever since that day my previous one killed Heather and Victory.

  “How does this work?” Kyle asked.

  Underneath the prototype was another object. “This collar is surgically installed on the patient’s wrist. Electromagnets between the collar and the hand link up and give the patient full control of the hand, as if it was the original.”

  He held up the collar for both of us to see. There were pins that lined the interior plus a few copper wires. I had the impression that the copper wires were attached to the nerves while the pins were used to fasten the collar to the bone, permanently.

  “The best part, the hand is removable. If the patient ever wants to take it off and let their skin rest, you control everything from the app my team developed.”

  I couldn’t believe this was the same Wilson I’d met for the first time many years ago. “You’ve come a long way, haven’t you, kid?”

  He smiled. “Engineering has always been a love of mine. Creating these body parts is just organic engineering, making sure everyone gets a second chance.”

  “How soon can we put this on?” I asked.

  “Didn’t Kyle tell you?” The younger Wonderton didn’t say anything or even give a clue. “We’re performing the surgery today, here in one of the labs.”

  “We need you, Jericho,” Kyle told me. “This is the first step to getting you back, complete.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Wait, yes, I did. “Let’s begin.”

  ****

  We were in the Gene Lab, prepped and ready. “Honestly, this surgery should be done under general anesthesia, not local,” Doctor Robbins lectured us.

  Doctor Emily Robbins, according to Kyle, she was the best in her field. She was also in charge of the Gene Lab and everything that went on in it. In her early thirties, she’d come to Pacific Station after I’d snuck into exile. To her, I was nothing more than just a patient.

  Or so I thought.

  She was a taller woman, coming up to my eye level. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, really showing off her defined and attractive facial features. She pursed her red lips as Wilson and Kyle exited the room. They hadn’t gotten into observation yet.

  “I have serious reservations about this, Jericho.” She was talking to me like she knew me.

  “I appreciate the compassion, doctor, but I’ll be okay.”

  She pressed the intercom as Wilson and Kyle get into their positions to oversee. “I’m muting this room for a moment. I need to talk to the patient in confidence.”

  This reminded me of my confessionals with Father Reigart. I needed to go see the man when this was all said and done. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I began. “No one’s ever really cared for the wellbeing of The Negative Man, except a few people close to me.”

  Robbins picked up the prototype. “Doctor Fetts has a good heart, but this thing’s never been tested before. You realize you’re a guinea pig, right?”

  I couldn’t help but to chuckle. “What do I have to say to convince you to perform the surgery?”

  “I want to see you every day for the first week after this is over. I’ve taken an oath to protect those that I operate on. I don’t give a shit if you’re a saint or a sinner; you’re my patient until I say otherwise.”

  There was something about the woman that I just couldn’t say no to. “You got it, doc.”

  She set the hand down and picked up the very large needle sitting on the prep table beside me. “Don’t tense up, it’ll only hurt worse.”

  Thank God, she just plunged the needled into my forearm without any further warning. Holy hell did it sting. Emily pushed all the fluid into my arm as quickly as possible before pulling the needle out.

  The effects were almost instantaneous. “That’ll give us about four hours, Jericho. Let’s begin.”

  She started by grabbing a scalpel and making an incision along the stump line. Part of me wanted to watch every move while another part of me wanted to put headphones with loud music over my ears and ignore this until it was over. The curious side won out.

  As soon as the incision was made, Emily began cleaning up all the scar tissue underneath, down to the bone. At first, I felt nothing, but the deeper she got, the less the anesthesia seemed to be effective. By the time she reached bone, there was nothing to dull the pain receptors.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” I gritted out.

  We both knew that was a lie. My hairline was teaming with sweat and my muscles were clenched so tight that I’d dug myself into a state of paralysis.

  Emily wasn’t aware of my pain threshold, so she started to work even faster. There was a lot of scar tissue to remove, but the surgeon was precise and accurate. After only ten minutes, that part of the procedure was finished.

  “How’s he holding up, Doctor Robbins?” It was Kyle’s voice coming in over the loudspeaker.

  She patted away the beads of sweat from my face with a cool, damp cloth. “The first part was a success. I have a clean area to work with to attach the collar.”

  Emily put the cloth back into the bowl. “Jericho, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. There’s nothing we can do now, but I just wanted you to know.”

  “I appreciate that,” I said.

  Emily picked up the collar and studied it. With a black pen, she made point marks all around the stump, places where the pins needed to be inserted.

  “How do the pins fit in?”

  “With this.” She held up a small drill with a needle like drill bit attached. “Six holes will be drilled into the bone where the pins will go in and then spread out like anchors in drywall.”

  She lined up the first point with the drill. “What should I expect?”

  “A massive bee sting.” The drill fired up and Emily began pushing the bit in. A massive bee sting was right. More like fifty bees stinging me at one time. I couldn’t even imagine doing this without the local numbing agent beforehand.

  Emily focused hard and didn’t let up, going from one point to the next. As soon as the last hole was drilled, she put the tool down and quickly went and wrapped up the stump. I was bleeding quite heavily.

  The
next statement was more for the two in observation than me. “We need to stop for a bit, to let the bleeding subside. Once I can move forward, I will let you know.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Robbins.”

  She placed the room on mute again. “This is crazy. God, you might end up needing a blood transfusion if that bleeding doesn’t slow down soon.”

  I didn’t feel lightheaded, so I assumed that was still some time away. “If you had this many reservations against this surgery, why are you doing it?”

  Emily sat down on one of the chairs close to the operating table. That was the first time I really noticed her, the way her brown dress pants hugged her just right and the tan knit sweater she wore under her white physician’s coat.

  She crossed her legs and just inhaled. “Kyle called me last night, once he’d talked to Fetts. He explained what he wanted done and who it was going to be done to. As stupid as this sounds, I just wanted to see if the legends were true.”

  “Are they?”

  “Yes… and no.”

  She didn’t elaborate. Instead, she changed the topic back to my general wellbeing and began monitoring such things like my vitals and the bleeding. Each time I tried to bring the topic back up, she either ignored me or told me that now wasn’t the time for such a trivial conversation.

  “Good thing I have follow-ups I need to keep,” I quipped.

  Emily just rolled her eyes and kept going with her work. There was something about her that really spoke to me.

  After the fourth time she looked over the holes and assessed the bleeding, Emily decided it was safe to move forward with the final part of the procedure. “Mister Fetts, I’m about to put the collar on the wrist. Let’s see if it holds.”

  I looked up and saw both Kyle and Wilson sticking their thumbs up, signaling they were ready, as well. Must be nice, I was the one on the table.

  Emily picked up the collar and put it over my wrist, eyeballing the holes as best she could. “This is where the real fun begins.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She removed it from around the stump and began circling the copper wire around the pins. “We get one chance at this. If I miss one of the holes, it could throw off nerve functions. Basically, if I screw up, your hand may not work as well as it should.”

  “I trust you, Doc.”

  Emily gazed down at me, from behind her glasses. “I never would have made you as the trusting type.”

  “For the right people, I am.”

  When the wires were set, she lined the collar up again. “Here we go.”

  I braced myself as she clamped it down around my wrist. Immediately, shooting pains went all the way up my arm. This was much, much worse than the process it took to drill the holes. This felt like someone sticking hot pokers into your flesh, penetrating all the way to the bone. I wanted to scream.

  Then, it was over.

  “Success!” Emily shouted. “Each hole took the pin and wire. We should have a working hand.”

  I watched it trepidation as she removed the hand from the tray and placed it over the collar. The electromagnets grabbed each other the moment they were centered. The hand shot into place and a warm feeling came over me. I flexed the fingers inward towards my palm.

  And the responded. I had a working hand again.

  “I can’t thank you enough, Doctor Rollins, and you too, Wilson.”

  The young man’s voice entered the room. “What insurance do you have, Jericho? I need to bill them.”

  It was a joke, but a well-earned joke. Emily wasn’t quite as lighthearted. “Don’t put any energy into that thing until our first check up tomorrow morning, got it?”

  “Yes ma’am,” I agreed. While she was definitely intriguing, there was also something a bit scary about her.

  I liked it.

  Chapter 8 –

  Friday Morning; Dr. Emily Robbins’ Office

  I was the only person in the waiting room. In fact, I was the only person here it seemed. The door was open, but when I approached the reception area, the chair behind the desk was empty. Only a few lights were on in the entire place. Part of me was wondering if this was some elaborate prank put together on me.

  Either way, I had a working hand.

  After the operation yesterday, I was ordered by the good doctor to go back to my apartment and keep to myself and leave the hand wrapped up in the copperish paper she wrapped it up in. Wilson had brought that in, said it would help accelerate the healing. I still couldn’t believe the high school kid who helped me figure out the Titan problem years ago was an organic engineer. Yet, the proof was on the stump that I had long written off as useless.

  Another light flicked on. “Traffic in this damn city sometimes is the worst.”

  Doctor Emily Robbins bustled through the back door and into the waiting room. Her raid hair was once again tied back in a ponytail, but today she was sporting electric blue frames to go with her attire. My word, she looked beautiful again; her business pants and blazer fit her to a tee.

  She paused when she looked up and saw me sitting there. “Well, don’t you clean up nicely.”

  Yep, the beard was gone and my hair had been cut. I’d felt so good about things after the success of the surgery that I went out and tried to make myself look normal again. My black hair was still tucked behind my ears, as it always had been, but it was no longer hovering around my shoulder. The grizzled beard had been shaved away, bringing back my more youthful appearance. There were lines on my face that hadn’t been there when I was in Pacific Station last, but at least I didn’t look like some homeless vagrant.

  I stood up. “Someone gave me a new lease on life, one I’m more than happy to have.”

  “Before you go thanking me, let’s make sure that thing works as it’s supposed to.”

  “I was talking about Wilson Fetts. Did you think I meant you?” I joked with her.

  She peered down over her frames. “Oh, you’re a comedian now? I thought you were a super villain or does telling bad jokes pay more?”

  Honestly, I didn’t know what I was anymore. She was right, I’d been a super villain as a career path. But that one was based on a lie—a lie I still couldn’t fathom. Whatever Ellison did to my memories, I still didn’t accept he was alive and not dead from a gunshot.

  I broke out of my deep thoughts. “Neither profession can charge the hourly rate that you do.”

  She beckoned me with her finger to follow. “Become as good as I am in one field, then you just might.”

  We walked into the first examine room and she closed the door. “I don’t get down to my practice much anymore. Kyle has a way to keep you busy with his latest idea, or I should say Becky does. She’s the real brains behind the rejuvenation of Wonder-Tech.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”

  “But his work as The Morning Lynx is vital, too.”

  Kyle’s circle seemed to have grown. Before, he was a bit standoffish and secluded. “How big is his inner circle?”

  “Let’s see… me, Father Reigart, Becky, that talking computer, and Chief Brad Woods. He began recruiting all of us after one of his former friends went rogue.”

  “Parker Lattimore?”

  She nodded. “That’d be the one. When Parker killed Kim Krummel, that was the last straw for Becky. She convinced Kyle he needed more reliable companions.”

  The news that Kim Krummel was dead caught me off-guard and actually stopped me in my tracks. “Kim’s dead?”

  “It was pretty bad from the rumors I’d heard. Parker didn’t show any remorse.”

  Much like everyone else in this city, I had a complicated relationship with Kim. I’d killed his wife, Diana, in a pretty brutal fight. She’d been the super known as Titan, but it was a weird power. She didn’t even know when she transformed into that monstrosity.

  After her death, Kim went into a deep depression and that’s when Victory sunk his teeth into him, turning him into a chemical-based super. To hear he was dead was a
punch to the gut. “He was a good man who deserved better than to get mixed up into the super world.”

  Emily had taken off her blazer and put on her white coat. “That’s what Father Reigart says. Speaking of which, he thinks highly of you. Have you gone to his church yet?”

  “I haven’t.”

  Emily began unwrapping the copper paper. “This isn’t a doctor’s order by any means, but I think you should.” She carefully took off all the paper. “Well slap me and call me Susan, the hand looks perfect.”

  I lifted my arm up to eye level. Besides the metal band that looked like a bracelet, you couldn’t even tell it was artificial. I flexed all my fingers. “I can’t believe this.”

  “Can you send a charge into it?”

  She just asked the most important question. I was nervous, but it was now or never. I called forth the Stormfall and guided it into my new hand. The hand accepted it without question and blue sparks of energy popped off of it. I started laughing like a child on Christmas.

  Emily’s eyes were very wide. “I’ll never underestimate Wilson Fetts again.”

  As soon as the charge went away, I jumped up. “After all this time, I never dreamed I’d have a working hand again. Thank you, Emily.” Something overcame me, maybe joy or attraction to the doctor, but I gave her a hug. “I won’t underestimate you again.”

  Her face went a deep shade of red. “Yes, that’s all fine and well, but we’ve got a lot to do to make sure that appendage works and works well. I’m not sure you’ll be thanking me in a little bit.”

  ****

  An hour and a half passed from the point physical therapy started to us standing outside her office. My arm was sore, very sore in fact. Emily had done her best to make the hand fail. It stood up to all of her tasks, but my arm wasn’t prepared for such a strenuous time. The burning from my shoulder to my forearm was an ache I was sure was going to stick with me throughout the day.

  “Come on, Jericho, there’s a place I want to show you.”