EXPERIMENT

by Cyma Rizwaan Khan

  “Hey,” Lane said. “You don’t have to explain that to me.”

  “Anyway, so I told him he should try talking to Arianna, I mean, I thought for sure she was going to do it, you know? And she does agree to do it, she got Connor excited and everything, but she didn’t go through with it. Backed off last minute. Connor came and asked me if I knew her whereabouts or if I could send a message, but I had no clue. It was months later that she even called me.”

  When Lane went quiet, Dominic looked up at him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t be telling you all this, you just came out of prison—”

  “It’s okay,” Lane said. “I need to know these things.”

  “For what its worth, I know she misses you.”

  “But not enough to help get me out,” Lane said and downed a shot.

  “Lane—”

  “It was because of her!” Lane said. “Everything I did, it was for her! I wanted to protect her, I…I wanted her to feel like she was safe. She must think I’m an idiot!”

  Dominic sat there quietly, allowing Lane to get it out of his system.

  “Did you know I proposed to her that night?” Lane said. “She asked me if I could spend my life with her and I said yes. We got engaged that night. Yeah, we didn’t exchange rings and we didn’t ask a bunch of people to watch the ceremony but we said the words, we made the promises. I can’t believe she would do this to me! Was I that easy for her to forget?”

  “Look I know you’re angry—”

  “Forget it,” Lane said, pouring himself another shot and wanting to change the subject. “Let’s just move on before this turns into some sad little pity party. Tell me how things are with you?”

  “Things are okay. I just got a bit of a promotion, I’m not a dealer anymore. I’m the guy who hires dealers now. The money’s good, and there’s not much risk of exposure.”

  “Moving up in the world,” Lane said. “Good for you. Though I wish for Lulu’s sake that you’d do something safer.”

  “Like what?” Dominic says. “This way if I get arrested, my bosses will pull me out of there in no time. You were being safe, weren’t you? Look what happened. I need something solid, a position that has the power to get me out of trouble. That’s safety as far as I’m concerned.”

  “You’re right. There’s no such thing as safe, is there, in this miserable fucking world?”

  “Anyway,” Dominic said. “What’re you going to do now? Are you going to stay in Region-One or are you going to leave town go someplace where you can be relatively safe?”

  “I’m going to stay here,” Lane said. “Running isn’t going to get me anything. My brother thinks I should leave, but I won’t do it.”

  “But staying here, it won’t be easy. The cops here they know your face.”

  “I don’t care.”

  So much stuff was going through Lane’s mind, but most of it had to do with Arianna. He couldn’t help missing her, and yet the knowledge that she had betrayed him, made him angry. He couldn’t understand it. Why couldn’t he just stick to one type of feeling for her?

  “Dominic?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I need your help.”

  “Sure. What do you need?”

  “Anything.”

  “Oh, you mean—”

  “Yeah.”

  “Look,” Dominic said. “I’m not holding. I told you I don’t deal anymore, and I’ve been off the drugs myself for about six months. I can’t have Lulu growing up in a place where her father is some stupid junkie.”

  “I’m glad you’re doing that.”

  “But you know what, I still have friends,” Dominic said, getting up. “I’ll get Mrs. Weathers to babysit Lulu for a while, and we can go out.”

  “Sure it’s not a problem?”

  “Not a problem,” Dominic said, writing a text. “Anything you want in particular?”

  *

  BAR,

  Zyron Region-One

  “Look,” Jace said, nursing his glass of whiskey. “What people don’t know is that the Khaltars, as a species, are the most conniving beings in the universe. My father’s no different. Do you know why they gave the Zyre all of this power? Because they wanted to create a divide, it served their purpose. My father speaks highly of his ancestors who came up with this strategy. The idea was to make these people resent each other so they would need some outsider to rely on. Once the need for that outsider was obvious, the Khaltars could easily rule. I mean, can you believe that? That someone would go to such lengths to gain assets?”

  “So what happened to you that made you break you away from your parents?” Connor asked. “It must have been something, right? Something that pissed you off?”

  “Will you believe me if I told you it was nothing like that?”

  “At this point, I’ll believe anything you say.”

  “I was always like this,” Jace said. “Always had this idea inside my head that this wasn’t right, what the Khaltars were doing to these people. I had Zyronian maids and servants. They loved me and took care of me and yet, my parents would treat them shabbily. And I felt sorry for them. It always made me wonder what these people had done to deserve it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love my parents and they loved me just as much. I just didn’t agree with their thinking. And that made me an alien, pun intended.”

  “What about your wife and two kids? Are they real?”

  “What do you mean they’re real? Do you not see them going about their daily lives?”

  “I know but are you really married?”

  “Here’s the thing,” Jace said. “I married Emily because I loved her. Those kids, they’re from her previous marriage. We had a fling back in college and I knew it was more than a fling, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Probably because she knew the real me, I’d told her way back that I was a Khaltar and not a Zyronian, I just didn’t like to announce it. So anyway, she doesn’t agree and she goes off gets married to some Zyre douche, spends four years with him.”

  “So she’s Zyre?”

  “Yes,” Jace replied. “A few years back we met by coincidence in some mall, and I gave her my number and she called me back. She was still married to that jerk. Initially she didn’t tell me anything, she pretended everything was okay, but then I started seeing the signs. Eventually, I told her I wanted to see her in a hotel, and she agreed to it. We met and it was perfect—that same old magic that I couldn’t feel with anyone, I felt it with her. But she was having trouble leaving that guy, so I paid him off. Gave him some money threatened him, he left her and the kids alone after seeing my offer.”

  “Wow,” Connor said. “And you’ve been together ever since.”

  “First it was just to help her out. I gave her a place to stay, helped get her back on her feet and helped with the kids and eventually when I proposed, she said yes.”

  “That’s a great story.”

  “What about you?” Jace asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Don’t you have any stories? I know for a fact that you’re going out with Easton Fish’s daughter, so don’t even bother to lie to me about it.”

  “You’ve been doing your research.”

  “Hey I have to find out these things about people who get me abducted.”

  “Are we still holding on to that grudge?”

  “Nah,” Jace said, winking. “I’m just messing with you. So tell me. Why aren’t you with her?”

  “Her name is Mekha,” Connor said. “And yes she’s my boss’s daughter. We love each other like nobody’s business, there’s no doubt about that. I’m just not sure I can deal with a relationship right now.”

  “There’s no proper time for a relationship,” Jace said. “A relationship is for both the good and bad times, that’s kind of the whole point.”

  “Well, I’m sure she’d agree.”

  “She’d be stupid not to.”

  “So you’re saying I’m stupid?”

  “When it comes to relationships,”
Jace said. “You have the IQ of a ten year old.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is and I can prove it.”

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  “For instance, did you know that Aana is harboring a decent sized crush on you?”

  “What? That’s not true!”

  “See?” Jace said. “Ten year old! A woman is practically drooling all over you, and you can’t see that.”

  That one moment where Aana jumped down the hatch and Connor held her, came back to Connor and he realized Jace might be right. Aana had been a little weird around him lately. “I don’t trust her Jace,” he said.

  “Not that again!” Jace said. “We already talked about this. She’s integral to our research.”

  “She’s integral to your superhero fantasy.”

  “Are you saying my intentions were purely egotistical?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh please,” Jace said. “You couldn’t tell if a girl has a thing for you and you’re going to give me a lecture on ulterior motives?”

  Jace’s phone beeped and he picked it up, saw the text. “We should go,” he said, typing away. “My little one has a fever. Emily’s a bit concerned.”

  “Sure.”

  Connor paid the tab, and they left the bar. Jace started walking up to his car parked outside. “Hey, what’re you doing?”

  “What?” Jace stared at him.

  “Hand me the keys,” Connor said. “You’ve had too much to drink.”

  “Oh, right.” Jace threw the car keys at him and walked over to the other side. Connor was about to go sit in the car when he noticed something across the road from him. It was pretty late, and there weren’t a lot of people around, which was probably why Connor noticed it.

  Standing across from him on the other side of the street was Lane, who was with two people. One of them was Dominic and the other one was a new face, Connor didn’t know him. He saw the new guy slipping a bottle much like the bottle he had confiscated from Lane’s room a couple of nights back.

  “Hang on,” he said to Jace and crossed the street. Jace kept calling after him, but Connor was too preoccupied to listen.

  “Hey,” he said, trying to get their attention, and Lane was the first one who looked. “What’re you doing out here so late?”

  “I’m with my friends,” Lane said. “And I think I’m old enough to not have a curfew.”

  Dominic had an odd face on, and it looked a lot like when Kevin had held the gun to his head.

  “Who’s your friend?” Connor directed the question towards Lane.

  “That’s Dominic,” Lane said. “You know him.”

  “Not Dominic, the other one. Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

  Lane was at a loss for words. “This is uh…”

  “Porter,” Dominic said. “His name’s Porter.”

  “Can’t be much of a friend if you don’t even know his name,” Connor said to Lane. “But maybe he’s just there because you wanted something from him. Let me guess…like what this guy slipped into your pocket just now?”

  “What?” Lane said. “You’re insane!”

  Connor barely remembered doing it but when the anger died down just a little and he could see, he was holding Lane’s collar and had shoved him into a wall. Lane stared up at him, the coolness gone from his eyes and it was replaced with fear. Connor used his hand to recover the bottle from Lane’s pocket and checked the label, one hand still gripping Lane’s jacket. “This is how it’s going to be now?”

  “Con, they’re just sleeping pills, I’m having trouble sleeping, its something a doctor would have prescribed if I went to him.”

  “You did go to a doctor,” Connor said. “And I don’t remember him saying anything about sleeping pills.” Connor left Lane and turned to Dominic. “You,” he said. “The minute you enter his life he starts using, can’t you be a real friend for once? Actually do something that would do him good?”

  “Don’t talk to him that way,” Lane intervened. “It’s not his fault!”

  “No you’re right,” Connor said. “It’s yours.” He started walking over to the other side where Jace was silently watching the exchange. “Let’s go Lane,” he said. “We’ll drop Jace to his place and we’ll go back home.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Lane said.

  “I said you’re coming with me,” Connor said. “Don’t make this worse, just come with me and we can forget this ever happened.”

  “I said I’m not going anywhere, Connor. Go away.”

  Connor wished in his heart that Lane would listen, that he was only trying to help but Lane was stubbornly standing there. It was frustrating, but Connor had no choice. He couldn’t just drag Lane away from his friends, no matter how much he wanted to. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll go. And you know what, here.” He tossed the pill bottle at Lane and Lane caught it in his hand, stopped it from dropping to the floor. “All yours.”

  Connor turned his back to them and made his way back to Jace’s car.

  *

  “I’m sorry about what happened,” Jace said, when Connor dropped him to his house. “Wish I could do something.”

  “Wish I could do something,” Connor said. “Wish I wasn’t that helpless sometimes, I’m starting to really get sick of feeling that way.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning?”

  “Sure, yeah. I’ll be here.”

  “Okay good,” Jace said. “I should probably go.”

  “Yeah,” Connor said. “I’m taking the car, I hope that’s okay. I left mine back at the office.”

  “No problem,” Jace said. “Just come and pick me up in the morning and we’re good.”

  “I’ll do that,” Connor said and got into Jace’s car.

  All the way home, he couldn’t stop thinking about Lane.

  *

  Connor sat on the bed, trying to get some sleep. He stared at his phone, at Mekha’s number to be exact that he had been meaning to dial for the past hour or so, but hadn’t had the courage to actually bring himself to do it. He told himself he just had to press CALL and leave everything to just happen instead of thinking too much. Even if she hated him, he could deal with that. He even placed his thumb on the name, when there was a knock at the door. “Can I come in?” he heard Lane’s voice.

  “Come in.”

  Lane came to stand in front of him. “Can we talk?”

  Connor placed his phone on the nightstand. “We’re talking aren’t we?”

  Lane took a seat right next to him on the bed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was angry. I wasn’t thinking. Dominic told me what Arianna did. How she just vanished overnight when you asked her to testify.”

  “I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Connor said. “But for what its worth, I don’t think she’s a bad person, Lane. I think her parents just forced her to do it.”

  “You were over there just now,” Lane said. “And you wanted to take me back. But there was nothing you could have done, unless I wanted to go back to you.”

  “Were you trying to prove a point?”

  “I don’t know,” Lane said. “All I know is she had to want to do it. In some part of her brain she analyzed her choices and she picked them over me. And she was the reason I got into this mess in the first place!”

  “Hey,” Connor said. “That cop was harassing her. You did what you could to stand up for her, don’t ever let yourself think that you made a mistake. That was the right call, Lane. And you should’ve done it even if it was a stranger. Besides, what happened to you, it’s a lot more complicated than that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your name was on an official list released by the Science Bureau,” Connor explained. “Commander Krole himself gave the orders. You and twenty-four others. You were supposed to be part of some experiment.”

  Connor noticed the changes on Lane’s face. “What…um…what kind of experiment?”

  “That’s what we haven’t fi
gured out yet,” Connor said. “Do you know anything?”

  Lane stood up, suddenly looking sick. “I think I should try to get some sleep.”

  Connor stood up to face him. “Lane? Are you alright? You don’t look so good. Do you want to me to call the Professor?”

  “No,” Lane said. “I’m fine. I mean, I will be once I get some rest.”

  Before leaving Lane turned to Connor. “Here,” he tossed the same bottle of prescription pills that he had seen that guy slipping into his pocket. Connor caught it and stared at the label for a long time before he realized Lane was gone.

  *

  The Experiment, Lane saw Commander Jones saying the words when he was making him sign those documents by force. He remembered talking to Martinez about it, and remembered how when they came back from the labs they were numb and in agony for days. It wasn’t the first time Connor had asked him about what had gone on over there. It was hard to explain that in some ways Lane was part of the process and in others he was just something they used and then tossed away. They never gave any explanation for what they were doing. It was obvious they didn’t want anyone finding out, they didn’t even want the inmates talking to each other about it.

  He missed Martinez, felt bad for him. Still expected to talk to him about these things, he was the only person who really understood, the only person to whom Lane didn’t have to explain what he was going through. Connor and Kevin were trying but he couldn’t possibly make them understand. The anger and the desperation that he felt back at the labs or in his cell, he felt it now too. The torture never really went away, he had to fight it every minute of every day even now. What he had done back at the Professor’s was a manifestation of that constant struggle. Everything that happened back there, it came back to him, one thing after another and sometimes it was impossible bringing himself back to where he was now.

  He wished he could explain all that to Connor.

  Wished he could tell him he was still in pain, even though most of it wasn’t physical. But Connor was already doing enough for him, he couldn’t be expected to do more. He reached inside his jacket and took out a pill bottle that looked exactly like the one he had tossed at Connor back in his room just now. He stared at it for a long time, and finally took a couple out and swallowed them. He stashed the bottle carefully under his pillow. He wasn’t going to do this all the time, he would find a way out of this mess, he wasn’t a junkie. He had control. The pills were just a big help and he needed them right now. Soon, he would find something to live for and things to distract himself with, it wouldn’t always be this way. But for now they were pretty bad and he needed help.