by J. K. Coi
“I realize you find it tedious to have to explain your work to lower-functioning individuals such as we are,” she snapped, heat rising in her cheeks. “But I’ll ask you to remember that this is about more than just a footnote for your research. People’s lives are on the line. How many others besides Captain Dunsmoor, Patrick and me have you ‘treated’? How many good people are out there slowly but surely losing control over their bodies and maybe their minds?” Her voice had risen with every word until she was all but shouting.
Jasper closed his fingers over her arm. “Callie.”
She struck out without thinking, slamming her iron fist in his chest. He stumbled back several steps with a sharp groan. Rubbing his chest, he looked up at her in surprise.
Callie gasped and rushed to his side but stopped short, drawing her hand back before touching him. “Jasper, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—please, it was automatic. It just happened—” She spun around to see Patrick’s mouth hanging open and the doctor watching her as if mentally taking notes. “I didn’t mean it,” she repeated, her voice a thin whisper.
She saw his hesitation, the flash of wariness in his eyes. Her mask had slipped a little more and he didn’t like what he was seeing beneath it. She moaned and clenched her eyes shut. It might have been inevitable, but didn’t stop her world from crashing to pieces all around her.
Jasper finally straightened and came forward, enfolding her in his arms. She resisted, but unless she wanted to hurt him again, she was eventually forced to give in and let herself be enveloped in his warmth.
“It’s okay, Callie. It was only an accident.”
“That was no accident,” Dr. Helmholtz said. “How long have you been exhibiting symptoms?”
Chapter Seven
In spite of her vehement objections to being left behind like a child with the nanny, Jasper and Patrick took a carriage into the city. They were armed with the file they’d been given listing Captain Dunsmoor’s history, former address, close friends and family members. Hopefully, they would find out where the captain was hiding, since there was very little doubt he was in Manchester at this very moment.
Jasper left without saying a word to her. She wouldn’t let him. Even before her violent outburst, he’d been hurt and angry with her for keeping secrets, and she couldn’t listen to him whisper words of love when everything between them was imploding. As much as she wanted to justify her actions—even to herself—it wasn’t working. Her stomach turned and turned…even as the twitching and vision disruptions bombarded her.
Perhaps she should have apologized again, tried to explain, but what could she have said? There’d been no privacy in any case…and what could Jasper have done? Forced her to retreat back to Yorkshire? Or would he have worried and paced the floor? Glared at the doctor’s back while the man hunched over his instruments? She was already doing the pacing and glaring perfectly well on her own.
She remembered the leather strap and buckle she thought she’d glimpsed hidden behind the curtain earlier, and was thankful for the momentary distraction, as morbid as it was. She took a deep breath before casually pulling the heavy fabric aside.
She didn’t find what she’d expected. The only things on the other side of the curtain were more of the doctor’s medical instruments, apparently being stored here out of the way. Big, bulky machines with knobs and buttons, wires coming from all sides, and casters on the bottom so they could easily be moved from one location to another.
Confusion got the better of her and she subsequently stalked over to all the other sectioned-off areas. But after snapping the curtains back and looking in each, only one contained a hospital bed. There was no body strapped down to it, no leather straps attached to the frame, and it was completely stripped of bedding.
In fact, even the doctor’s lab coat, retrieved from a rack at the entrance of the room when they arrived, was crisp, clean and perfectly white. She glanced at him again to make certain. There were no splatters of blood—or anything else—on it.
What was going on? She would have placed money on what she thought she’d seen, but…nobody had been in this room, had they? If there’d really been a body, where had it gone?
Could this be part of the degeneration problem as well? Was her mechanical eye seeing innocent pictures, but by the time the messages reached her brain for translation they’d somehow warped into something else entirely? Did everything she saw have to be considered with skepticism and doubt?
Did it mean Jasper was right, and she’d been completely wrong about what she witnessed on the train as well?
Finally straightening from the microscope, the doctor snapped his fingers. “Of course, that’s it! Why didn’t I see it before?”
Callie started pacing again, from one end of the room to the other while Dr. Helmholtz dosed blood samples with dye, peered at them through different lenses, then moved to another set of instruments—she had no idea what any of them were. After a while he stopped and flipped through his notebook, scribbled some notes…and turned to the microscope again, muttering unintelligibly.
She tried to peer over his shoulder. “What is it, doctor? Have you found something?”
He swung around to face her. His frown made her think he didn’t quite know where to start.
“Just give me the truth, please.”
“I designed the nanites for the sole purpose of carrying commands between the brain and the artificial implants. They’re the only reason the human body doesn’t reject the iron, and the only way for you to control them as easily as you control your own flesh-and-blood parts. It’s truly a feat of brilliance in both engineering and medicine, and should really be more seriously recognized in—”
“Doctor,” she warned. He gave her a reproachful look, but Callie didn’t have the patience to feign amazement and awe over his impressive accomplishments. “Please.”
“Yes, yes. Well, when I was informed of Captain Dunsmoor’s uncharacteristically aggressive behavior, I asked to see him and performed a series of tests. He became agitated and paranoid, forcing me to restrain him. However, one night he broke free and attacked me. His unprovoked attempt on my life was thwarted by General Black, but the captain managed to escape.”
Helmholtz didn’t come right out and admit it, but if Dunsmoor had been forced to “break out” in the first place, it stood to reason he’d not been here voluntarily. Not only that, but she suspected the doctor’s tests had been more akin to torture.
“I was left with only a very small blood sample for further testing. With it, I detected changes in the active organisms and I began to think they were indeed deteriorating. It would have accounted for the symptoms that were described.” His words ran together as his excitement for the subject became more pronounced. “But I should have looked closer. I made a horrible mistake.”
“It’s worse than that?” She held her breath.
“No, not at all. In fact, the nanites aren’t deteriorating at all.”
She held up her hand, showing him that her middle finger was twitching spasmodically. “If this isn’t degeneration, then what in God’s name is happening to me?”
The avid light in his eyes was both frightening and compelling. “This has nothing to do with God. This is an evolution. I built the nanites almost too perfectly. Their purpose is to communicate continually between mind and body, to improve the connection between the natural and unnatural. And that’s exactly what they have been doing.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t.” He dismissed her ignorance with a wave of his hand and she gritted her teeth to keep from shouting. “Essentially, the organisms in your blood are designed to continually seek new and better ways of doing their job. Obviously, they have independently identified issues which stand in the way of that. Therefore, they’re attempting to remove them by altering your genetic structure to be more compatible with their composition and function.”
“Do you mean they�
��re slowly turning me into a monster? Because the more like them I am, the easier it is for them to communicate with me?”
His gaze narrowed in a frown. “You are far from a monster. As I said, the nanites are hard at work, continually enhancing everything about you. I suspect they have begun to reproduce as well. There are very likely double or triple the amount of nanites working in your systems than I originally injected. They’re making you stronger and more efficient. Given enough time, you may even be virtually indestructible. You, my lady, are a marvel of modern science!”
She swallowed the lump in her throat and took a step forward. “Doctor, this may come as a surprise to you, but I never wanted to be a marvel of modern anything. All I ever wanted to be was a dancer, and then to have a family. Simple things. And now, although none of those will be available to me again, I’ll be damned if I let the creatures you let loose inside my body take over completely.”
“I doubt they would take over completely.” His brow furrowed in thought. “However…”
“What?”
“I suppose the more the organisms continue to evolve, the more intelligent they will become, and—”
“You’re saying that pretty soon these things are going to decide they can run the whole show, aren’t you? They’ll decide they don’t need me at the helm of my own body. And what do you think will happen then?” Her voice rose until she was yelling, breathing heavily between each angry, biting word. “Whatever is left of me will disappear, even while my body continues to walk around as an indestructible marvel of modern science.”
“Really, Lady Carlisle. I don’t think that is—”
“Don’t bother.” Stalking away, she groaned and dropped her head into her hands. How could she tell Jasper? This would devastate their already strained and cracking relationship. “Just fix it. Do whatever it takes, but take these things out of me.”
He gaped at her. “I can’t do that.”
“You have to.”
“Madam, it is very much impossible.”
“Then reprogram them or something.”
“Also impossible. Even if I could isolate each one—” He shook his head. “No. They have evolved beyond that.”
“What if you destroyed them?”
“With enough time, it might be possible to develop a serum to target them in your bloodstream, but destroying them would most certainly kill you as well.”
“I can live without the iron and gears if it means staying in control of my own body.” She would never give that up again. She would never let anything take control from her. Never.
“You misunderstand. I meant what I said quite literally. Because the nanites occupy your blood, they have already been in each and every cell of your body, altering your genetic structure a little bit at a time to accommodate their presence and purpose.”
“So…”
“There’s no living without them at this point.”
She staggered back, looking blindly for something. Something to hold on to. Dizziness overwhelmed her, and the ground fell out from under her as she reached out for balance, finding…nothing.
* * *
Jasper stopped in the entrance to the laboratory just as Callie stumbled and cried out.
“Callie? Callie!” He rushed to her side and dragged her into his arms. Her body fell limp against him. He pushed the hair back from her forehead. Her eyes were closed and she didn’t respond.
“What the hell have you done to her?” He demanded, twisting around to glare at Helmholtz.
“I’ve only explained to her the circumstances of her condition.” He barely glanced at Callie, seeming more interested in returning to whatever he’d been examining beneath his microscope. “She didn’t take it well.”
“Good Lord. What condition? Why has she fainted?”
The doctor shrugged before he picked up his notebook and started flipping through it. “I assume because she believes it’s a bad thing. Although I assure you that the lady’s progress is quite what one should expect to see, given my new discovery.”
“Jesus Christ.” Hefting her into his arms, Jasper straightened. Staying here and trying to get complete answers out of Helmholtz would only move him to strangle the egocentric bastard. He needed to get Callie alone and talk to her. He would make her tell him everything.
Everything. No more damned secrets.
“Where are you going with my patient?” Now the doctor was certainly interested.
Jasper held her closer. “We’re leaving. I won’t stay here and let you upset my wife again.”
Dr. Helmholtz walked to a tall cabinet and pulled open one of the drawers. Jasper started for the door, relieved but not one bit surprised that the damned quack had already dismissed them.
“I’m sorry, Lord Carlisle,” the doctor suddenly called after him. “But I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”
Jasper spun back around. At the sight of a Tesla gun leveled at them, he swore and twisted Callie out of the line of fire. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing, man?”
“What has to be done, in the name of science.”
“You’re insane.”
The doctor smiled. “On the contrary, I may be more sane than anyone else on this irrational planet. Only I can see the far-reaching effects of my research. Only I know how important it is, and what it will ultimately do for humanity.”
“You won’t use my wife to continue your research,” Jasper insisted, shifting her in his arms. Footsteps sounded behind him. He threw a look over his shoulder, only to find Mrs. Campbell standing between him and the exit. She drew a pistol from the deep pocket of her skirt and pointed it at him as well.
“I’m sorry, my lord.” There was regret in her voice. “But if the doctor needs you to stay…”
“If I’m going to expand my research, I must conduct more in-depth experiments,” Dr. Helmholtz continued. Jasper’s horror mounted as he realized just what the man was saying. “Captain Dunsmoor’s escape severely halted my work, but I can continue it with Lady Carlisle. You understand why I can’t afford to let you take her from me.”
Chapter Eight
Breathing hard, Jasper glared into the darkness. The bloody door wasn’t going to budge. His shoulder ached well enough that he was pretty certain of it.
“Jasper?” He didn’t like the reedy sound of Callie’s voice.
“I’m here,” he quickly reassured her. Swinging around, he stretched his arm out to touch the wall and made his way to the back of the room where he’d carefully laid her down.
“How long was I unconscious?” she asked, her voice hoarse and cracking.
“Not very long.” He knelt on the hard stone floor beside her and fumbled for her hand. “A half hour at most.”
She was sitting up and clasped his hand with precision, reminding him that while the darkness was oppressive to him, it proved no impediment to her ability to see. “What happened?”
“Helmholtz and Mrs. Campbell each pulled a gun on me when I tried to take you out of here.”
She gasped. “Oh no. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. But I got us in a bit of a predicament.” He grimaced and swung his arm in a half circle. “We’ve been provided with such elegant surroundings for the balance of our stay.”
She squeezed his fingers, but he didn’t feel reassured. “Where is Patrick?”
He sighed. “While we were out, I discovered where Dunsmoor has been hiding out, although he wasn’t there. I sent Patrick to report our findings to General Black and return separately.” He couldn’t think about Patrick now.
“Why is it so cold and dark?”
“I’m sorry. I think this must have been some manner of storage locker at one time. The walls and door are made of steel. Mrs. Campbell and the doctor didn’t think to leave a lantern.”
She shuddered. “He wants to cut me open, Jasper. He wants to run his horrible experiments on me and—”
“Shh. Nobody’s going to touch you.” He pull
ed her into his arms and rocked her.
She allowed it for a few moments but soon stiffened. “We have to find a way out of here. Helmholtz hasn’t seemed as interested in Patrick, but he also doesn’t care about anyone or anything except his research, and Patrick’s blood contains the same nanites as mine. We can’t let the doctor get his hands on him.”
“I know, but I’ve tested the door and it’s pretty solid.” He sighed. “And we need a plan. I’d prefer we not saunter unprepared into yet more danger.”
“I agree. But we have to put a stop to him, or who knows what he’ll do next. He’s insane, Jasper. Dangerously so.”
A rumble rolled through the floor beneath them, shaking the steel door in its frame and sending a shower of dust down on their heads. They both scrambled to their feet. Callie clung to his hand. “What’s happening?”
A cannonball-sized weight settled on his chest. “Bloody hell.” His breath hissed out between his teeth. “That was an explosion.”
Which could only mean one thing.
Dunsmoor.
With long strides, Callie walked to the door. He couldn’t see her but he heard the rattle of the door in its frame. He was about to remind her that he’d already tried everything he could think of to get the thing open, when the sound of groaning metal echoed in the dark, tiny room and he remembered just how powerful she was.
He also remembered how much he’d hurt her by rejecting her strength as not good enough. He held his breath, closed his eyes and listened. In his mind’s eye he could see the thick bolt bending under the pressure she was putting on it and was amazed. He shouldn’t be—she’d proven herself capable before. In fact, if he hadn’t been so dismissive of her abilities and allowed a true partnership—the way it should have been from the beginning—they probably wouldn’t be in this mess now.
When the abrupt snap came and the door opened, letting a thin stream of light into the room, they peered out to make certain nobody lingered on the other side before he swept her up in an embrace and twirled her around in a wide circle.
