by Justin Bell
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The laboratory was a bustle of activity. Dr. Worthy jumped up from his laptop, ran to the larger mainframe about fifteen feet away, and pulled some printouts chattering from a nearby printer. The analysis was fascinating. While the event in Norwood last night had been a near tragedy from an NSA planning standpoint, it was providing a rich amount of great research for the lab rats. According to a few eyewitnesses, Strickland had practically jumped over an oncoming car, but the Doc was still a bit dubious as to how well that information could be trusted. As a scientist, he would much rather depend on actual scientific evidence (such as the broken bones and impact patterns of the hospitalized victims) rather than the opinions of men who might have been caught up in the heat of battle.
As Dr. Worthy reviewed some of the statistics, another doctor emerged from behind him. "How long has it been since his first cycle?"
Worthy looked up a bit. "Two weeks."
"Wow. This is good stuff. Where are we going from here?"
"We're going wherever this adventure takes us, of course."
The younger doctor resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She looked up to Dr. Worthy greatly, and had a lot of appreciation for what he had accomplished, but this wasn't junior high school chemistry class - this was the National Security Agency.
Worthy turned with the papers stuffed in his hand and passed them along to the pretty, young doc standing behind them.
"Doctor, check out these readings. Fascinating, especially for the timeline through the first cycle."
The younger doctor leafed through the patient records and x-rays, her eyes scanning expertly. "Very interesting, Doctor. Looks like about thirty-five percent more pressure on this broken cheekbone than you would expect for someone of Strickland's height and weight."
"Indeed. The broken ribs, too?they weren't just broken, they were nearly decimated."
"That goes against everything our early research showed us."
"I was hoping you'd realize that."
"Do we have any other reliable statistics? I've read all of the witness accounts, but I'm not sure we can trust them all."
"Agreed," said Dr. Worthy as he took the papers back from the younger doc. "We do have one other source. The punching bag in his basement has sensors embedded inside it. So every day that he hit and kicked that bag, we have reams of statistics."
"That's all well and good, Doctor, but what about others? Running speed, agility?" The female doctor was a curious one.
"We're working on that. We're very close to something."
The female doctor nodded and ran her hand through her closely cropped blond hair. "Hopefully they'll find him. This is brand new territory for us."
"We're all on the same page. Let the field agents focus on that part; we're just here to do our jobs. So let's keep doing them."
