Invasive Procedures

by Aaron Johnston

  “And why should he have? With the way you treated him.”

  “Nick’s right,” said Dolores. “We got no reason to blame Jonathan.”

  “No one asked you, stupid,” said Hal.

  “I’m not stupid,” she said. “No more stupid than you. And I don’t like you calling me names anyway.”

  “I don’t care what you do and don’t like,” Hal said.

  Frank tried getting their attention. “All right. Let’s just all take it easy—”

  “And where’s Jonathan now, huh?” said Hal. “Where’s Dudley Do-Right now? You see the police banging down the door here? No, you don’t. And you know why? Because Jonathan didn’t bother going to the police. That’s why. He ditched us, all right? He saw a chance to get out and saved his own neck, not ours.”

  “You don’t know that,” said Nick. “You don’t know nothing. I know Jonathan. He would have gone to the police. He would have found help.”

  “Jonathan couldn’t find his own whacker with a magnifying glass. Help ain’t coming.”

  “The police—” Nick began.

  “The police nothing,” said Hal. “If they were coming, they would have come by now.”

  “Maybe they did,” said Nick. “Maybe Jonathan took them to the old place after they moved us. Anything could have happened.”

  Hal opened his mouth to speak, but Frank beat him to it and ended the discussion. “Jonathan’s dead.”

  There was a long silence as they looked at him.

  “What do you mean?” said Nick.

  “I saw his body myself,” said Frank. “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s not true,” said Nick.

  “I wish it weren’t, Nick. I really do. But it is. He was in an accident.”

  Hal looked all the more angry. “You see?” he said, throwing his hands up. “You see what trying to escape will get us? We try to walk out of here, and they’ll kill us in an instant. Boom. They won’t even think twice about it. And I say, anyone who tries to leave deserves exactly what’s coming to them.”

  Nick leapt over the couch and tackled Hal. Frank and Byron wrestled him away but not before Nick got in a good punch.

  Hal got to his feet, nursing a bloody lip. “You’re crazy. You hear me? Every one of you is crazy.”

  Nick lunged again, but Byron held him fast.

  “That’s enough,” said Byron.

  Hal pointed at Frank. “Whatever you’re scheming, mister, you can count me out, you hear? You want to go kill yourselves, you go right ahead. I’ll be happy to be rid of you.” He stormed off to the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

  The moment he was gone, Nick stopped struggling. Frank and Byron released him, and Nick crumpled to his knees and sobbed into his hands. Dolores got up and comforted him, patting him on the back and speaking gently.

  “You just cry it out. You just let it come.”

  They stayed that way for several minutes.

  “You bring us bad news, Mr. Hartman,” Dolores said finally. “Bad news. Jonathan was a good boy. He might have had his issues with the drugs, but he had a good heart. And the Lord looks on the heart. Always has.”

  “You deserve to know the truth,” Frank said. “I know Jonathan must have meant a lot to you. But if he left here to find help for you, then it seems a shame to stay here and do nothing. It would mean he died in vain.”

  “He’s right,” said Byron. “They don’t watch us as closely here. They think we’re too weak to get around.”

  “I am too weak to get around,” said Dolores.

  Byron smiled at her. “You can’t fool me, Dolores. You got more fire in you than all of us combined. If anyone can do this, you can.”

  Dolores shook her head and blushed. “Byron, the Lord says liars will be thrust down to hell, but I do appreciate a good lie every now and again. You keep those words of yours coming.”

  Nick got up, and they all returned to the furniture around the fire.

  “It’s no use,” Nick said, his face still in his hands. “They’re too fast, too strong. We’d never get out. We’d only make them angrier.”

  Dolores sighed. “Nick’s right. These boys are more than any of us can handle. No way we can outrun them. Not like this. We’re still weak. Maybe it’s best for us to wait here. Maybe some of your friends from that agency you work for will come.”

  “The BHA won’t be coming,” said Frank.

  “How do you know?” said Dolores. “They’ll be looking for you, won’t they?”

  “The director of the agency may have ties to Galen. He was feeding Galen information. So even if the BHA is looking for us, it’s possible that the director would lead them off course.”

  There was silence as the last flicker of hope was extinguished.

  “There are fewer guards here,” said Byron. “Maybe we can slip past them.”

  “It doesn’t matter how many there are,” said Nick. “Even one is too many. We’d never get out. And if we did, what makes you think we’d find help before the Healers find us? We don’t even know where we are.”

  “He’s got a point,” said Dolores.

  “Look,” said Nick, “I want to get out of here as much as anyone, but if Jonathan couldn’t do it, then we can’t either. He was healthy. We’ve been operated on.”

  “Jonathan wasn’t as healthy as you think,” Frank said. “When I found him, he had undergone surgery also.”

  Nick got to his feet. “You mean, like us? A transplant?”

  “Jonathan was a test, a dry run, to see if the transplant was possible.”

  “You mean a guinea pig?” said Nick, his face flushed with anger.

  “Nothing you can do will bring Jonathan back. I know he was a friend, and I know his loss must be painful for you, but he’s beyond your help now. As hard as it may be, you need to let it go and worry about yourself. We all do. There’ll be time for mourning later.”

  Nick went to the fire and stared into the flames.

  “There’s more,” said Frank. “Jonathan was carrying a virus when we found him. A virus given to him intentionally. One of the Healers here told me I’m carrying the same virus.”

  Dolores took a few cautionary steps away from him.

  “I think all of us may have it,” said Frank, “not just me.”

  “A virus?” said Nick. “You mean, like the flu or something?”

  “No. Nothing like the flu. Much worse. We need to get medical attention as soon as possible.”

  “I don’t feel like I got a virus,” said Dolores.

  “This isn’t the type of virus you’d be familiar with,” said Frank. “It’s programmed to alter human DNA.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Nick. “Why would Galen give us a virus? Why make us sick if he was giving us his organs? Wouldn’t he want us as healthy as possible?”

  “We are healthy,” said Frank. “That’s why I believe each of us has the virus. Look at your scars. All of us underwent invasive surgery recently, but our surgical wounds are mostly healed. Medically, that’s impossible. Under normal conditions, we would all still be bedridden.”

  “Wait a second,” said Hal.

  They all turned toward the bathroom, where Hal stood in the doorway, listening.

  “You’re saying that we all have a virus that makes us better? Makes us heal faster?”

  “I can’t be sure until I take us all back to the BHA for testing, but yes, it would appear that the virus is likely the reason why each of us is healing so rapidly.”

  Dolores laughed. “A virus that makes us healthy instead of sick?”

  “In the simplest terms, yes.”

  “Well, what’s wrong with that?” she said. “You had me worried there a minute. I thought we was all dying from typhoid or something. This virus sounds like exactly what we needed.”

  “Don’t think of the virus as medicine. Think of it as a means of altering our genetic makeup. That’s never a good idea. There could be repercussions we don’t know about. Side e
ffects. Plus, rapid healing may not be the only alteration Galen gave us.”

  “Alteration?” Nick said, sitting upright. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “You shouldn’t,” said Frank. “Galen created something that he may not have fully understood or known how to control. That’s why we need to get back to the BHA where we can each be properly tested and treated.” He turned to Hal. “All of us.”

  Hal said, “But you said the director of the BHA—”

  “Can’t be trusted, no. But there are people there who will help us.”

  “Let me get this right,” said Byron. “You said this virus could be programmed to alter DNA. So, is that why some of the Healers are so large, why they’re so fast? Because their DNA has been altered?”

  “Muscle growth isn’t too difficult to initiate genetically. Livestock farmers have been doing it for years to beef up their cattle. It’s a matter of turning on and off genes that produce proteins or initiate chemical reactions. Galen could have figured out how to manipulate genes to initiate any variety of genetic improvements.”

  “Then trying to escape is pointless,” said Hal. “We’re no match for these people.”

  “I don’t know about the rest of you,” Frank said calmly, “but I’m not putting my health into the hands of any doctor or Healer here. There are trained physicians at the BHA who know how to treat this virus. I’d much rather be under their care. And that means first getting out of here. And I can’t get out alone. None of us can. We need to help each other.”

  “Somebody’s coming,” said Dolores.

  Frank heard it too. Footsteps.

  Without a word, they all hurried to their beds and lay down.

  The sound stopped at the door, and the deadbolt unlocked. The heavy wooden door creaked open, and Monica entered the room, pushing a cart. On top of the cart sat several vials of medication and syringes.

  With his eyes half closed, Frank watched as Monica approached his bed.

  She stopped the cart beside him, lifted his arm and rotated it, looking for a vein.

  “You removed your IV?” she said.

  In a flash Frank was out of bed, covering Monica’s mouth and stifling her scream. Her eyes widened as he picked up one of the needles off the cart and put the tip of it to her neck.

  “Stick her,” Hal said, jumping out of bed and rushing over. “She’s the one who operated on us.”

  The others hurried over also. Monica’s eyes shifted back and forth to each of them as they surrounded her.

  “Did you hear me?” Hal said. “This is the one who cut us open. Stick her.”

  Frank ignored him and put his face only inches from Monica’s. “I’m going to remove my hand from your mouth. You will not scream. Do you understand?”

  Tears were welling up in her eyes. She nodded.

  “You’re not going to stick her?” Hal said incredulously.

  “Quiet,” said Dolores.

  Hal grunted a sound of exasperation as Frank removed his hand from Monica’s mouth.

  “Byron, close the door,” said Frank.

  Byron hurried over and closed it.

  “I’m going to ask you a few questions now, Doctor,” said Frank, “and if you answer truthfully, no one is going to get hurt. If you do not answer truthfully, I’ll let Hal ask the questions. Do we understand one other?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. Question one. What’s in the syringe?”

  Monica swallowed. “Antirejection drugs. You have to take them every three hours. Otherwise your body might reject the organs.”

  “She’s lying,” Hal said. “That could be arsenic for all we know.”

  “If she wanted to kill us, she would have done it on the operating table,” said Dolores. “Now shut up and let Mr. Hartman handle this.”

  Frank looked intensely at Monica. “Question two. Where are we?”

  Monica winced. “I don’t know.”

  “She’s lying again,” said Hal. “She’s one of them. I’m telling you.”

  “No, I swear to you. I’m a prisoner here as much as you are. Ask them.” She pointed to Byron and Dolores.

  Byron shrugged. “I used to think that, but now I’m not so sure. She didn’t seem to be with them, but Hal’s right. She’s the one who operated on us.”

  “I had no choice.”

  “You had no choice?” said Hal. “Well, isn’t that convenient? You had no choice. Pardon us for getting all in a tizzy, Doctor. Had we known you didn’t have a choice—”

  “Quiet,” said Frank.

  Hal turned to him. “Are we going to stand here and listen to this or are we going to do something about it?” He ran to fireplace and grabbed the poker.

  Monica gasped but didn’t flinch; the needle tip still pressed against the skin of her neck.

  “Put it down, Hal,” said Frank.

  “I do what I please. She’s going to pay for what she did to us. Now you either get out of the way or get a few whacks yourself.”

  “Frank is handling it,” Byron said.

  “Why?” Hal said. “What does he know about what we’ve been through, huh? Suddenly he shows up and thinks he owns the place. No, I don’t take orders from nobody.”

  Frank spoke as calmly as possible. “Think, Hal. If you beat her to death right here and now, we’ll be no better off than we were. In fact, we’ll be in a much worse position because we’ll have to answer for it. Now, I’m fairly certain the doctor here wants to help us. Am I right, Doctor?”

  “Yes. Absolutely.”

  “You see? Now let’s put the poker down and let her help.”

  “We need as much help we can get, Hal,” said Dolores.

  Hal’s eyes narrowed at Monica. “You try anything, lady, and so help me, I’ll smash your skull in.”

  Monica looked as if she believed him.

  Frank faced her. “Now, I’m only to going to ask this once more, Doctor. Where are we?”

  Monica couldn’t stop the tears. “I don’t know. Several hours outside LA somewhere. We drove north, I think. I couldn’t tell, I was blindfolded.”

  Frank studied her expression and knew she wasn’t lying. He put the needle down.

  “You’re letting her go?” said Hal.

  “They took my son,” said Monica. “They said they’d harm him if I didn’t do what I was told. I had no choice. I never wanted to hurt anyone.

  “Never wanted to hurt anybody?” said Hal. “Here’s a news flash, lady. Lots of people are hurt ‘cause of you. Hurting people is all you been doing.”

  Monica buried her face in her hands.

  “Shut up,” said Nick.

  Dolores took Monica’s arm. “Here, sit down.” She led Monica to the side of Frank’s bed and sat her down. “You just cry as long as you need to.” She took a napkin off the tray and gave it to Monica.

  “Thank you,” Monica said, wiping her eyes.

  Frank said, “A Healer named Lichen said I was given a virus. He said it was injected into Galen’s heart before you . . . before it was put inside me.

  She nodded. “Yes. All of you. Each of the organs was injected with a high concentration of the virus before we . . . I mean, before I . . . put them in you.”

  “Why?” said Frank.

  Monica wiped a sniffle. “Galen had altered his DNA. I know it sounds ludicrous. I didn’t believe it myself until he showed me, but it’s true. He changed himself. Made genetic enhancements. For himself as well as those who serve him. One of those enhancements was rapid healing. If he cut or bruised himself, the wound would heal remarkably fast.”

  “What does that have to do with us?” said Nick.

  “You needed that healing ability. Galen had to give it to you in the same instant he gave you the virus, to counteract the virus.”

  “Counteract? I don’t understand,” said Frank.

  “You all have the same strain of the virus. That’s why you can interact with each other without making each other sick. Normally, when someone
is given the virus, it must be engineered to closely match that person’s DNA. That’s why the person doesn’t die. The virus is only changing a single gene usually. Everything else syncs up harmlessly. So Byron’s virus would have to be different from Nick’s virus, et cetera. But in this case, they’re not. It’s all the same strain of virus.”

  “But how can that be?” said Frank. “How can our bodies accept a strain of virus that doesn’t closely match our DNA?”

  “Because of the organs,” said Monica. “The organs have Galen’s healing ability. That’s why you’ve survived the virus. He was giving you a piece of himself to protect you. The organ is rebuilding the cells in your body as quickly as the virus destroys them.”

  “Destroys them?” said Nick.

  “Yes, but the organ rebuilds them instantaneously, so you don’t feel it. Only, when the organ rebuilds the cells, it uses the DNA deposited by the virus.”

  “So our DNA is systematically being switched out,” said Frank. “We’re being given new DNA?”

  “A completely different genome, yes,” said Monica. “Theoretically.”

  “But how is that possible? The virus and the organ can’t coexist. The virus should annihilate the organ. It’s not Galen’s DNA.”

  Monica looked defeated. “That’s just it. They are the same DNA. That’s why the virus and organ can coexist. The strain of virus you’re carrying is George Galen’s DNA. He engineered it to match his genome.”

  Byron stepped forward. “You’re saying this virus is changing our DNA into George Galen’s?”

  “That’s what I’m saying. It was Galen’s goal from the beginning, to restructure an adult’s entire genetic makeup to match his own, to make living copies of himself.”

  Suddenly it all made sense to Frank. Suddenly everything clicked into place. The prophecy in The Book of Becoming regarding the prophet’s death and rebirth. The final illustration in the book. The Council of the Prophets. The five identical George Galens. They’re us, thought Frank. We are the prophet reborn.

  23

  SUPPLIES

  Everyone started speaking at once. A frenzy of conversation. Now that it was clear what Galen intended, how he planned to genetically change them into copies of himself, immediate escape was the only option. Nick and Hal argued over when would be the best time to try to leave. Byron assaulted Monica with a dozen questions. Dolores offered a vocal prayer. And Frank . . . Frank simply felt numb. Everything he had learned about Galen and the Healers now made iron-clad sense. Galen wasn’t in the altruistic business of curing disease. He never had been—or at least, that wasn’t his primary concern. Healing disease was only a step in his own selfish effort to cheat death. Healing had won him recruits, had earned him respect. But it wasn’t what he was after. No, what Galen wanted was immortality, and in order to accomplish that impossibility, in order to alter an entire genome, he knew that he would have to do it first on a tiny scale: change the code in one place, then two, then a few genes at once, until at last he was certain that a comprehensive DNA switch was possible.