The Fog of Dreams

by Justin Bell

  ********

  In the middle of the afternoon, with the tired sun hanging loosely in the sky, the sedan pulled a corner and slowed to a stop in one of the parking spaces outside the medical school library. Agent Grace slid out then walked briskly through the glass front doors.

  Moments later, he walked into the basement laboratory, his eyes searching for Dr. Worthy. Soon enough, he located the elderly doctor, who sat at a desk in the far corner, with his fingers dancing over some keys on a laptop keyboard, as numbers, graphs, and statistics slowly scrolled by on his screen.

  "Dr. Worthy," Grace said softly, trying not to startle the man who was obviously captivated by his work.

  "Agent Grace," Worthy replied, not even looking up from the screen.

  "What do we have?" Grace leaned forward, propping himself up on one arm at the corner of Worthy's table.

  Worthy pointed a wrinkled finger at the laptop screen. "Oh, my dear Agent Grace, we have all sorts of things. The wireless sensors in the punching bag are providing a wealth of statistical information."

  "Good." Grace replied, standing back up and crossing his arms.

  "He's a good eight percent stronger than he was. This formula is synthesizing with his physique even more seamlessly than the last. It's incredible."

  "Just strength?"

  "Ohhh no? not at all. His focus is amazing. He's managed to hit the same exact place with three consecutive punches. Not just the same vicinity." Worthy turned slightly for emphasis. "The same, exact place. His heightened senses are allowing for a deeper, more intense focus on his target on a subconscious level." Dr. Worthy spun in his chair. "He probably doesn't even realize he's doing it, but he's established a specific target that he wants to hit in his mind, and his fists are hitting that precise spot, three times straight. That's unfathomable."

  "Great news," Agent Grace smiled. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his well-ironed suit coat as he stared at the screen. He had to admit the numbers themselves didn't mean much to him, but what they signified was amazing. "So no indication of self-metastasizing cells?"

  Worthy turned back to the screen. "Well, it's not like we can check him on a cellular level, but all of the lab work we did while we had him sedated has been fully analyzed and there is no indication of those same problem areas. If you're concerned about? well, about the beast appearing, Agent Grace, there doesn't appear to be much to worry about, at least not at this point."

  Agent Grace wasn't particularly worried about that. The previous trial had shown no indication of a transformation until they forced the fact at Pollard Construction? and suddenly his and Dr. Worthy's little white lie about that event to the NSA Agents on the scene entered into his mind.

  Worthy seemed to share his thought. "I never did ask you why we didn't reveal the full truth to those other agents? do they not have the need to know? Didn't we grant them Top Secret specifications for this project?"

  Grace's smile thinned to a narrow line on his face. "We need to keep certain elements of these experiments more tightly compartmentalized, Doctor. I don't want them to know that we've seen that creature before, and that we were expecting that very event that night." Happy surprise, my ass, he thought, but did not say.

  "Do you not think they would be better equipped to assist if they knew the truth?" Dr. Worthy prodded, his scientific mind trying desperately to decipher strange paranoia.

  "It is more important that they do their job without unreasonable fear. If these guys all think that Strickland can go 'beast mode' at any moment in time, do you think they'd be willing to do what they're going to do? Halifax is still having nightmares over what happened two weeks ago, Doc."

  "You're risking their lives, Richard," Dr. Worthy replied, being sure to use Agent Grace's first name as a method to gain a leg up in the discussion. It didn't work particularly well.

  "We all are, Doctor. You don't become an NSA field agent without considering a risk to your own life. Comes with the territory. I don't want them going all halfcocked and putting a bullet in Strickland the minute he sweats extra hard."

  Dr. Worthy leaned back down to his computer. "Understood."

  "Speaking of bullets," Grace continued, "how is he healing up?"

  "Quite well. He still had the torn remnants of his flak jacket draped over his back, so the two shots he took there didn't even break skin. The worst hit he took was from Irizarry's magnum, which did break a rib and put a good-sized hole through him, but he appears to be healing quickly, and by all accounts, he's moving without pain."

  Grace put a hand to his chin. "Does the genetic alteration play any role in that? Pain sensors or muscle density?"

  "Some, yes. When he is in 'beast mode,' for lack of a better term, his mind is so focused on his targets that he does not feel the same amount of pain, but that could be true of anyone in that state, genetically altered or not. The stem cell experiments have resulted in some added muscle density, but not enough to drastically help or prevent egregious injury."

  "In other words, 'prick him, and he shall bleed.'" Grace said, looking down at the Doctor.

  "Yes, quite. His increased adrenaline post-transformation will allow him to absorb a lot more pain, but that could actually be to his detriment, if he doesn't realize how injured he is. Rather than withdraw, he could risk further injury or death by not understanding and appreciating his wounds."

  "So the best of all worlds, Doc, is still to somehow mitigate the transformation process, while taking advantage of his added abilities due to stem cell infusion?" Grace's mind worked hard and fast.

  "Indeed. The perfect scenario would be that Mr. Strickland retains all of his added functionally? strength, senses, agility, without risk of transformation. But so far, we have not had luck doing that. The accelerant used at the construction site was a very low yield. I'd actually hoped that he would withstand it, and maintain his human form, but we all saw how that turned out."

  Dr. Worthy moved his mouse and tapped a few more keys. The screen of numbers faded away, and an outline of a human body appeared, with more diagrams and lines pointing to specific points on the body.

  "The truth is he is in a constant state of walking a line between transformation and enhanced natural abilities. It is my hypothesis that the more he uses his enhanced abilities, the closer he gets to that breaking point, and it is possible that any time he ends up in pitched battle and has to use those skills, he risks transformation."

  Grace leaned forward and studied the diagram. "What does transformation do to his body? Seems to me there would be significant changes at a skeletal level."

  "You would be correct. The stem cells are infused within every component of his genetic makeup. This formula is slowly injected into his blood stream, into his bone marrow, muscle tissue? everything. His entire genetic map is altered. When the beast takes over, his skeletal structure is literally broken and reshaped, and when we pull him back, it ends up breaking and shaping itself back. It's quite an incredible sight to see, to be honest."

  "And so far, we've always had to 'bring him back,' correct?"

  "Correct. To date, he has never been able to transform back into human form. We've had to tranquilize him and tweak the formula to reshape his genetic markers."

  "Do you foresee a time that the transformation could be a willing event?"

  Dr. Worthy turned to face Agent Grace, a questioning look in his eyes. "Are you asking if we could alter the formula to allow a conscious, willing transformation into? into that thing?"

  "Just a simple question, Doctor."

  Worthy turned back again to his computer and looked at the formula. "Agent, we have made amazing strides in only the past month. This field test has been immeasurably helpful. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the flood gates open in the world of genetics as a direct result of these trials."

  Agent Grace smiled. This little experiment was paying off in many different ways. He couldn't help but quietly dream of how he was going to decorate his corner office in
Fort Meade, Maryland. Not only was this experiment going to potentially change the way the United States performed field reconnaissance, it could very well change the world.

  "Dr. Worthy, keep up the excellent work. You and your team have been invaluable in this. I foresee fantastic results here."

  "I agree, Agent," Worthy replied, turning to face him once again. "This could be a world-altering few months. We should feel privileged to witness it."

  Agent Grace nodded, but in all honesty, his concern was much less about how he was changing the world, and much more about how this was changing his own future. He nodded once again and turned away from Dr. Worthy and his computer terminal. He had to make one more stop while he was here, and he wanted to get back to the office before the evening watch started at Strickland's house.