by Wyatt Kane
Dinah panted for a moment, then favored Ty with a broad grin. But when she spoke, her words were more for Tempest than him.
“Your turn,” she said, and slipped off him into the water.
32: Desperate Times
They continued their lovemaking in the wet for some time, then moved to a broad, flat boulder near the edge of the water. After the switching of roles the previous night, Ty hadn’t been quite what to expect from Tempest. But she was back to her normally passionate self, and Dinah showed her natural tenderness.
Both were beyond sexy to Ty, and he was as close to delirious as he could be by the time they were done.
But nothing could last forever, and finally, they were all spent. Ty couldn’t remember ever being as content as he was at that moment, lying on the boulder, drying off in the forest within the Architect’s conservatory. Dinah lay with her head propped up on Ty’s belly, and Tempest has half-draped over his naked chest.
They spent a long time just lying there, with the blonde superhero idly played with Dinah’s hair. Then, out of the silence, Tempest started to speak.
“You like her, don’t you,” she said.
None of them needed to ask who she meant.
Dinah nodded. “Yes. I think I do,” she said.
Tempest drew a deep breath and shifted her weight just a little.
“And you, Ty?”
Ty didn’t trust himself to speak. He nodded instead.
“Yeah,” Tempest said with a sigh. “I think I’m beginning to like her as well.” She lapsed into silence for just a little too long.
“And?” Dinah prompted.
“And, I guess if you want to pursue her, there would be worse things in the world,” Tempest said.
Dinah laughed out loud. “That’s one way to put it,” she said, and that was enough. All of them chuckled as if she’d told a joke, and Ty knew that all was going to be right in the world.
◆◆◆
But that wasn’t what he thought the next morning.
He woke up in Tempest’s bed with her and Dinah on either side of him. The previous evening had been one of the best in his life, and he couldn’t help but smile at the memory. He was beyond happy that Tempest had decided to give Lilith a chance. What that might mean for the future, Ty couldn’t guess, but for now, it was enough that Tempest and Dinah were no longer at odds with each other.
On another day, he might have taken the time to luxuriate in the warmth of the two women, enjoying the yielding firmness of their skin so close to his own. But, as had happened before, many of his ongoing worries had resurrected themselves during the night.
Martin still hadn’t called him, and he was starting to think the DJ either hadn’t gotten the message or had changed his mind. Either way, it meant that for now, Ty was flat broke, and he still had bills to pay.
It was time, Ty thought. He had no other option. He would track down the drug trial his roommate had mentioned, at least to learn a bit more about it.
Ty listened to the quiet sound of the women breathing in their sleep for a moment longer. Then he sighed out loud and carefully climbed over Dinah, kissing her between the shoulder blades as he made his way out of the bed.
The deerkin shifted in her sleep and muttered something unintelligible, but Ty doubted she would even remember when he had left.
He climbed into his clothes, used the bathroom, and instead of heading to the Architect’s workshop, he made his way through the building and out onto the street.
Although it was still early, it seemed that New Lincoln was in for one of its rare rainless days. The cloud cover was still there, but instead of the oppressive feeling of darkness and drizzle, it seemed lighter and further away. There was even a breeze, unusual in the city, which carried an unexpected hint of freshness with the usual odors of decay and depression.
It made traveling to the Concubine Club a little more bearable. The public buses he forced himself to endure were still held together by rust and grime, and still packed with too many desperate people trying to get on with their day-to-day lives, but at least he wasn’t overpowered by the odor of wet hair and B.O.
It took him an hour and a half to reach his target. The Concubine Club looked the same as ever. Ty had barely thought of the place since Tempest had whisked him away a couple of days earlier, to meet Steam for the first time. In his heart and mind, he was completely done with it, and the only reason he had returned at all was to retrieve Dinah’s bike.
Even though the Ducati was equipped with the latest antitheft system, Ty was happy to see it still where he’d left it under the tree outside the club. He disabled the antitheft system and put on his helmet. He would have liked to take a moment to thank Badger for keeping an eye on it, or to follow up with Martin, but it was too early. Neither of them would be inside.
Instead, he climbed onto the bike, checked that everything was as it should be, then started her up. He was about to head away when he saw a familiar figure waddling along the pavement to the club.
It was Angie the Hutt. Ty watched the obese woman make her way up the stairs. Somehow, the way that she moved and the expression on her face conveyed an image of sadness, of someone who was profoundly disappointed with what life had given her.
A few days ago, Ty had hated this woman. She was the author of much of the misery in his life over the past couple of years. But she had ceased to be important.
He had much more powerful adversaries to face. He realized then that in his roommate’s vernacular, she wasn’t even a minor boss anymore. She had become an NPC, a face in the crowd, with little beyond a set sequence of actions she would repeat for the rest of her life.
Nor did he feel any sympathy for her. Perhaps she was sad and despondent. Perhaps she wished every day for her life to be better. If so, Ty knew it to be her own fault. She was the wellspring for her own misery.
All she needed to do was be nicer to others, and he was sure her own life would improve.
Angie reached the top of the stairs. She unlocked the door and stepped through, and shut it behind her, closing off that piece of Ty’s recent past.
With no further thought of her at all, Ty urged the Ducati into motion.
◆◆◆
It wasn’t a long ride from the Concubine Club to where Ty needed to go. Brad had given him an address on the ground floor of one of the massive mega-corporate buildings. Covering more than a dozen city blocks all by itself, it was immense, well over three hundred stories tall, with the top third of it buried in the clouds above. To anyone on the ground, it was looming and oppressive, and played no small part in the sad, desperate feel of the city as a whole.
The traffic in this part of the city was dense and had slowed to a crawl. Ty rode with his feet off the pedals, touching the asphalt from time to time to keep his balance. He kept half an eye on the cars all around him, and half an eye on the never-ending sequence of shops that made up the first level of the building.
And the people. There were so many of them making their way along the pavement, hiding from the gloom and shadows as best as they could and making it hard for Ty to see past them to the stores in behind.
Electronic bookstores that offered the latest grafted communication tech sat next to strip clubs that boasted girls who had been modified to suit any fetish. Ty couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Lilith had once worked in this area even as he questioned who would patronize such a place so early in the day. Next to the strip joints and tech stores were coffee shops and food vendors jammed in among splicers whom Ty wouldn’t trust even if he had the funds to change his look. He wouldn’t have been surprised if their customers came away with blood poisoning to go with their prehensile tail, the stores looked so dirty.
And the noise! Blaring music from speakers pointed to the road. A never-ending orchestra of car horns hooting with no purpose. And paid ‘marketers’ standing in front of the stores, shouting at people in an effort to gain their attention in the hope of enticing people in through the
doors.
It was one of Ty’s least favorite part of the city, but this was where he needed to go. So he did his best to ignore the grimness and desperation that hung over everyone like a pall, and worried that he might have already gone past his target.
But just before he reached the end of the block, he saw a glass window that seemed out of place. There were no gaudy displays, no bright lights or loud invitations. Instead, the glass window boasted a simple, painted sign.
OmniTec Industries – Clinic 104.
It was what he was looking for. Without further thought, Ty bumped up onto the pavement and kicked the Ducati’s stand in place. For a moment, he contemplated what he was about to do. Tempest had said there were too many superpowered people about, and that it felt like there was a change starting to happen. It was her job, and Ty’s as well, to keep the lid on that change as best they could.
And yet, there he was, outside Clinic 104.
He hadn’t mentioned the drug trial to Dinah or Tempest. He knew he should have, but at the same time, he was desperate. He needed money, and couldn’t see any other options to get it.
And besides, he thought, justifying it to himself, he didn’t know for sure what these people were trying to do. He didn’t know how close they might be to success. So, perhaps this little excursion of his could be described as a fact-finding mission.
Ty didn’t consider that Dinah was far better placed to conduct this sort of research than him. She could have found out for sure if the drug trial was something they should be watching, or if it was harmless, all without leaving the mansion.
He told himself that maybe this drug would do as Brad said. Help people lose a little weight, or develop more muscles. Become the best they could be.
But finding superpowers buried deep within them? Maybe that was no more than wishful thinking.
The only way Ty would know for sure was to get off Dinah’s bike, activate the antitheft device, and go in and see for himself.
33: The Dotted Line
Inside, Clinic 104 looked much like a doctor’s office. Clean and sterile, there was a small waiting area just inside the door and an oversized reception desk in front of him. Yet, where most such offices Ty had seen separated the waiting area from everything else with solid walls, this one used glass. Ty could clearly see two rooms from where he stood next to the reception desk.
One of the rooms was empty. In the other, a random patient lay back in what looked like a dentist’s chair, hooked up to various monitoring devices, with a man in a white lab coat talking to him.
Ty wanted to watch what was happening, but the receptionist looked up at his arrival.
“Good morning, and welcome to OmniTec Industries,” she said. She was a young woman with modified eyes that were disproportionately huge compared to the rest of her face. “How can I help you?”
“I’m here to find out some more about the drug trial you have running,” Ty said. “AZT-407, I think it’s called.” Brad had given him the name of the drug at the same time as he’d supplied the address.
The receptionist nodded. She was pretty, Ty thought, but only if she wasn’t compared to Tempest, Dinah, or Lilith. Idly, he looked at the name badge she wore high up on her chest. Aleta, it said.
Aleta’s expression didn’t look favorable. “That one is fairly exclusive,” she said. “We’re only accepting candidates for it if they meet strict criteria. But if you qualify, it comes with significant compensation.”
Ty couldn’t help himself. “How much?” he asked.
The receptionist named a figure that would solve all of Ty’s immediate problems and then some.
He tried not to show any reaction. He swallowed. “And, uh, what are the criteria you’re looking for?” he asked.
The receptionist nodded, reached for a tablet computer on her desk and handed it to Ty. “Swipe to start. It’s a questionnaire we use to determine if you’re eligible. Take a seat, fill it out, and then we’ll see.” The perfect receptionist, Ty thought. Efficient, informative, and polite.
He took the tablet. “And if I am? Then what happens?”
“If you’re able to fill out the form in the next ten minutes, we can slot you in right away. One of the technicians will administer the drug, and that’s it.” Aleta gave him a quick smile he was sure Dinah and Tempest wouldn’t like. “You’re in luck. Normally, there would be a wait of at least a week.”
A week? Despite himself, Ty found that he was anxious to get started. If he did qualify, he didn’t want to lose his window.
Then he silently questioned what he was doing. Did he really want to go through with this?
No, he didn’t. But the money made it very enticing.
He started to turn toward the waiting area, then paused. “One more question,” he said. “I haven’t done any drug trials before, but do they all pay like that?”
The receptionist shook her head. “No. This one is special.”
“What makes it special? Is it dangerous?”
“All drug trials have risks associated with them. But as far as I can see, and remember, I am not medically trained, this one has fewer than most.”
“Do you have a list of those risks?” Ty asked.
The receptionist nodded. This time, she handed over a printed brochure. “This has all the information you need,” she said.
“Thank you,” Ty said. He turned to one of the seats, sat down, and start started to read.
◆◆◆
The brochure mostly just reiterated what Brad had already told him of the benefits of AZT-407. Increased clarity of thought, increased immunity to a variety of diseases, as well as building various muscles and tissues. It claimed to “create the body your genetic base could have produced under ideal conditions” and that he could expect to become “taller, stronger, and healthier than ever before.”
It read like a brochure for the device Ty wore on his wrist, and he was at once both intrigued and concerned.
Nor was that the limit of the brochure’s boasts. “Not only will you become the best version of yourself, but you may also gain something extra,” it said.
It didn’t go so far as to claim that users of the drug would be able to fly or walk through walls like comic book characters. Instead, it hinted at “unnamed potential” to be found locked away in his genetic code.
Even more interesting than the rest, however, was the final claim in the benefits section. “Even those with no innate recessive potential for unusual abilities might find that, because of the way AZT-407 acts, they might still gain an ability beyond that which is considered normal.”
That was something the Architect’s device couldn’t do. The potential for technological manipulation that formed Ty’s skill had always been there, locked away within him. Same for Tempest, Dinah, and Lilith. Even Bain, the Master, Massive, and Steam. The monstrous strength, talent for heat, and solidity was already there, buried beneath the surface.
But this drug, this AZT-407, promised more. If it proved true, then it could make someone like Rubio even more dangerous. The man was ruthless in his search for followers with hidden talents. He’d cut the arms off his men if they failed to show the sort of strengths he was searching for. But this!
With AZT-407, a man or woman with no talent at all could become a powerhouse capable of leveling an entire city with nothing more than a word.
This drug could be a gamechanger beyond even what the Architect’s device had proved to be.
Ty couldn’t help but be concerned by the claims. Yet there was something that gave him hope. A single line in italics, in a font size that was almost too hard to read.
“Results not typical. Your results may vary,” it read.
A standard disclaimer that Ty interpreted as, ‘For most people, this doesn’t work.’
Even so, his caution and worry remained. What if the drug could do what it promised?
As well as the benefits, the brochure listed a number of potential side-effects, none of which sounded p
articularly serious. These included headaches, nausea, a sense of dizziness, and tremors in the extremities. Then there was another disclaimer:
“AZT-407 is an experimental drug. There may be additional side-effects not listed above. OmniTec Industries takes your health and well-being seriously. If you have any concerns, our friendly staff will be happy to help you.”
Standard stuff, Ty thought. He took a moment to consider and decided that AZT-407 sounded like an amazing substance. He probably would have been tempted to try it even without the financial bonus. But the money was the clincher. There were no two ways about it. Ty needed the cash.
He turned to the questionnaire on the tablet.
Name, age, address, next of kin. Again, standard stuff, but from there, the questionnaire went into details about his health. Ty answered as best as he could, even though he no longer really knew how tall or heavy he was. For those fields, he guessed based on how much he’d grown, and moved on to the next. After that came a series of questions that seemed to be aimed at assessing his personality profile. He wondered what that might have to do with AZT-407’s potential effects, but he shrugged and filled it in as best as he could. After all, the Architect himself had included psychological profiling as part of his criteria. Why should OmniTec Industries be any different from that?
The personality section was by far the most extensive, and it took Ty more time than he wanted to finish. Finally, he came to a legal declaration, which absolved OmniTec Industries of all legal responsibility, should he be selected, for anything that might go wrong, as well as stating that he, Ty Wilcox, understood it was OmniTec Industries’ sole discretion as to whether or not he would be selected.
Ty hesitated for only a moment, then gave another mental shrug. The odds were slim that they would choose him anyway. And if they did, what was the worst that could happen? The side-effects didn’t seem that bad, and really, the device coming into his life was the best thing to have happened to him. Why would this be any different?
