~~ I would like to thank Spirit02 for editing! Thanks!~~
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February 19 2016:
*The True Slave*
I rushed down the hall of the clinic and burst through the doorway into the waiting room. The Master glanced up at the sound of the doors, and seeing the distress on my face, he quickly stood and walked towards me. I felt tears pricking at my eyes and trepidation over what I had to tell him.
"The Doctor saw."
The Master's eyes hardened and he opened his arms. Running forward, I let myself fall into him. I was safe here; nothing could hurt me in his arms, except any pain the Master wished me to endure.
The doors opened behind me.
"Can I help you?" asked the Master, addressing the woman.
"My patient left before I could finish examining her," said the doctor.
"She's finished and we would like to leave. I'm sure you understand, doctor," the Master trailed off, prompting her.
"Dr. Song. If you leave now, I will be forced to file a police report," said Dr. Song.
The Master shifted, and opening one of my eyes I saw him glancing nervously around the room.
"Dr. Song, if we could take this to your office," he said.
She growled something, but with Marcus's arms wrapped tightly around me I couldn't turn around to look at her.
The Master, still holding me, followed the doctor back into the clinic to fix what I had messed up.
February 20 2016:
*The True Master*
"So you are going to cover this under doctor-patient confidentiality?" I asked, somewhat bemused that the small Korean woman was able to rationalize what she had found on Kate with such a simple concept.
Dr. Song nodded. "It is her business even if, like you claim, she is unable to remember anything. Implanting those things would be illegal, but as far as I know there is nothing illegal about having experimental implants" she said.
I nodded in agreement, although I had a feeling that wasn't exactly the spirit of the law. Still, I wasn't going to complain.
Kate nodded. "Nothing since before I met the Master," she said.
Dr. Song frowned like she always did at the address, but didn't say anything. When Kate had come running down the hallway on the verge of tears with the even shorter doctor in tow, I hadn't known what to do.
Dr. Song pointed at Kate's neck and then glared at me. For a moment I had considered taking Kate, who had a small brace on her wrist, and just running out of the small clinic, but the combination of her injury, the lack of information we had provided, and the doctor seeing the implant would at least warrant a police report and then The Company would have been crawling all over the small north-west town.
I had allowed the irate doctor to drag the four of us into the back office, wherein I explained everything. She had sat through the explanation somewhat impassively. When I had finished explaining, she turned to my three Slaves and asked if what I had said was true. The three had quickly affirmed it, and in a huff she reached out and quickly slapped me across the face.
"You are good man but you still deserve that, if what you said is true," she had said.
Rubbing my cheek, I had nodded in affirmation but said nothing else.
She had mulled everything over and told us to come back in the morning so she could go over Kate again without the rest of the medical staff in the clinic. They opened late on the weekends.
"So this Company, you are going to try to find the woman they kidnapped, Bethany?" asked Dr. Song.
"Yes, but it's going to take a long time; their servers are well-protected and their assets hidden. Even with the information I have already stolen I can't get much on them," I said.
Dr. Song frowned. She hadn't said anything yesterday about the money I had stolen. Shaking her head slightly, she didn't say anything else.
"Will an x-ray disturb the implants?" she asked, turning to the machine.
I thought about it for a moment, "They shouldn't. I wouldn't want to do it without reason though," I said.
"I want to see the implants and how far they go," she said.
"That would be helpful, but then I'm not a surgeon, and don't take this the wrong way, but you're working in a clinic inside a strip mall. I doubt that qualifies you for neurosurgery," I said.
Dr. Song smiled. "No, I'm not qualified right now. I was a few years ago," she said.
I looked over at the woman. She didn't look to be anything over thirty.
"Why not now?" I asked.
"Malpractice suit; I performed an experimental tumor removal procedure on a fourteen-year-old girl. Taking it out the traditional way would have left her with significant brain damage, to the point of putting her into a vegetative state. I removed the tumor and she lived for another year before the cancer returned with a vengeance and my surgical malpractice was discovered. The family sued and my medical staff turned on me saying that if I had performed it in the traditional manner she would have lived, which is true. She would have lived a life in a bed with no mind to speak of. I gave her an extra year," said Dr. Song.
"Now I fix bones and abrasions. Hardly challenging."
"When was this?" I asked.
"2008," she said.
"How old are you?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
She grinned, looking sideways at me. "That's rude. I am old enough," she said.
I rolled my eyes but didn't push the issue.
"I won't get anything detailed with the equipment here, but it will give me a general idea."
"Why?" I asked.
"Why what?" she asked.
"Why are you helping? And don't say that it's your moral code as a doctor, what's that thing called?" I asked.
"Hippocratic Oath," she said. "Why is that not reason enough?" she asked.
I raised an eye at her. "No one is that altruistic. If you are, then you're also naïve as hell," I said.
Dr. Song chuckled. "Alright fine, I'm curious. Like I said, I've not had a challenge in years and you are already operating outside of the law. You can't sue me and take away what little this stupid job pays," she said.
I turned to look at Kate who was sitting up on the medical examination bed with Helen and Tracy. "Well, what do you think? It's your head," I said.
"I'll do what you think is best, Master," said Kate.
I sighed. "Kate, I want your honest answer, not the one you think I want," I said.
Kate quailed slightly and shook her head. "That's a confusing order Master. What I want is what you want!" she said and lowered her head into her hands.
"I'll do it," said Tracy.
"Kate, I rescind that previous order," I said as she continued to clutch at her own head. It was a little disturbing to see her like that. Perhaps more disturbing were the implications, if even under direct orders she couldn't take initiative. Well, she took initiative without orders, but only to perform actions she knew I would appreciate or approve of. I really needed to dig through the coding more.
Tracy hopped off of the bed as Dr. Song looked at Kate.
"Is she alright?" she asked.
"She will be, but it's another programming conflict to try and sort out," I said.
Dr. Song pursed her lips but turned to Tracy. "Could you lie down on the table? This machine wasn't actually built to take head x-rays, so it might be a bit awkward," she said.
Tracy nodded and leaned over the table, putting her head underneath the detector. Dr. Song nodded and hit the keyboard. After a moment the picture flashed up onto the screen. Taking a step forward I looked at the screen, and in the process of tilting the LCD to get a better look, I slipped small USB drive into the back of it.
I could now access the clinic computers from home, and if needed, delete everything. Safety measures in place, I looked at the image. I was no doctor, but it was easy to see where things were off; the implant started at the base of her skull and small wires trailed from it into the middle of her skull.
Dr. Song looked at it for several minutes.
"This cannot be removed," she said.
"No chance?" I asked.
"Not without risking serious brain damage. Whoever did this was able to stimulate neuron regrowth to attach the chips to the brain. Taking them out would cause severe internal hemorrhaging and destroy entire sections of the lower brain. Autonomic functions would be severely compromised. Even if the patient did not die after surgery, they would need to be hooked to life support to live," she said.
"Neuron regeneration? I thought that was impossible," I said, remembering my basic College biology course.
Dr. Song shook her head. "It is illegal, though not impossible with modern technology. It requires stem cells and for some reason our illustrious government has banned those from use. No public research is available due to the ban, however I don't doubt that companies are working on it. Once the laws are repealed, it will be a competitive area of medicine."
She leaned back and turned to me. "I could try cutting away at the connections that lead to the brain if you tell me which ones to cut. The implant would remain but it would hopefully be rendered inert," she said.
I shuddered slightly at the idea. "We're not there yet, and we might never be. If I can figure out how to turn the chips off safely, then leaving them in won't cause any more harm will it?" I asked.
Dr. Song pursed her lips but nodded. "It wouldn't be ideal, but it would be safer than trying to extract them," she said.
"Alright then, question time," I said.
Dr. Song raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Are you going to expose us?" I asked.
"If I was?" she asked.
I grimaced. "I would do something to prevent you from saying anything."
"Like?" asked Dr. Song, pressing the issue.
I glared at the small woman. "Do you want me to threaten you? I'd feel sick afterwards, but the three are mine to protect. I'll do anything to make sure I keep my promise to Kate and free her from the chip. I haven't yet had to kill anyone to keep that promise, and I hope I won't have to." I sighed and glanced over at Kate who was staring at me, an odd expression on her face. "But I will if needed. I'm already going to hell, so why not add another sin or two?" I asked.
Dr. Song rolled her eyes and stepped over to Kate. "Is he always this melodramatic?" she asked.
Kate giggled. "The Master is intense, but we kind of like it," she said.
