Chapter Two
The next morning as I prepared for work I found myself spending more time than usual on my appearance. For this first time in years I actually left my hair down, styled it, and sprayed perfume until the scent of something fancy and light filled my room. Even though I couldn't stand to see myself in the mirror, I wanted to feel beautiful, and it worked.
On my way into the building I waved at a few of the other women who worked here overnight. Nicole held the door for me and I scanned my badge to let Terry know I was here on time. "Did you hear about your sector?" Julie asked me, blue eyes wide.
"No?" I said, my heart beating faster immediately. Did someone find the audio recordings of my late night, prohibited chat with Michael? "Why, what happened?" I asked.
"I don't know, we were hoping you knew." Julie replied as we walked into the break room and took turns stashing our lunches into the cramped little fridge. "We assumed you saw something since it happened on your shift."
Dread and panic fought over space in my stomach and I felt like I might vomit. "W-what happened?" I asked again, needing answers. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like I would be getting them from my co-workers. We were all low level clearance, so I shouldn't assume they'd know these things. Honestly, the fact that they could offer me any type of forewarning was a blessing and a half.
"Don't worry, I'm sure it wasn't something too bad. Your subject definitely didn't escape it's sector, otherwise they would've called us all in early." Katie said in a tired voice. She sounded as if she'd been up all night. "Maybe there was just an equipment malfunction." She suggested.
"True, that does happen sometimes." Katie finally chimed in, her thumbs furiously typing away on her Chinese keyboard. Julie made a face and I wanted to ask her about it, but the day shift guards came in and the break room suddenly felt pretty crowded. Tugging down my coat from the hanger on the wall, I thanked my lucky stars that no one had taken it while I was away. It was always a frigid 56 degrees in here, and I had been told that it almost never changed. Our comfort wasn't exactly important because the ideal temperature for the symbiotes we contained here were close to freezing. The fact that they tolerated this 'high' temperature was a godsend. I'd asked Paul, the man who worked in my sector during the day, why they couldn't simply keep the containment cell cold and allow the rest of the building to be warm. He'd shrugged and grunted, offering no response. He wasn't exactly a very forthcoming man when it came to small talk.
The other women and I parted ways after a light discussion about break times and my promise to keep them updated, and I gave my sector a long look as I gathered the courage to walk down the hallway. Did they watch the cameras and see Michael and I having a conversation? Had they watched him pleasure himself as he reacted to my attention? Would they fire me? Worse?
Questions buzzed around in my head like a swarm of angry bees while my stomach twisted itself into knots like a dying snake. I was a mess of nerves, but my shift had started two minutes ago. There was no time to disappear into the bathroom and calm myself down. I scanned my badge and walked down the hallway when the heavy doors opened. They resembled something out of a sci fi game, or a spy movie about a vault. Every time they closed the resounding soft thud settled into my bones like cancer. Being here day after day had been torture...at least, until last night. Today was the first day I was genuinely looking forward to being at work.
When I reached my tiny office I expected to find big, serious men in black shades and trench coats waiting to escort me to an interrogation room. Instead, I saw only the backs of several lab coats. "Hello?" I said softly. Every head turned. The men were completely nondescript, just the most average looking people imaginable. They were all close in age, around forty to fifty years old, with graying hair and khakis. One of them, the oldest, had a mustache that resembled Yosemite Sam, and one of them looked kind of like McDreamy from that one medical drama my mom loved, except with a belly and thinning hair.
"You must be Miss. Anderson. I'm Dr. Roberts," Bargain Bin McDreamy introduced himself, offering a hand. I gently shook it. "This is Dr. Brennan and Dr. Heisenberg." He gestured at his colleagues and I shook their hands as well. The Yosemite Sam look-a-like turned out to be the man behind Michael's files. So he was the one who had been trying to figure out my new friend for years. Was he the reason Michael had such an adverse reaction to me when he'd suspected I was another scientist? The thought made me sick. If that was the case, I did not like this man one bit. "You were the security officer on shift when S.E-006 became active last night. We wanted to talk to you about the behaviors you witnessed." Dr. Roberts told me, leaning against my desk and crossing his arms.
"What would you like to know?" I asked him, eyes nervously slitting from face to face, trying to read them. Calm down. These were smart men, and they could probably tell I was nervous. I didn't need anyone suspecting me in this incident.
Dr. Heisenberg cleared his throat, mustache moving like a dancing caterpillar. "This subject in particular is of special interest to the facility. We need to know exactly what you witnessed during your last shift." He said, and all three of them pulled out pens, clicked them, and waited, poised to write on little pads from their coats. Dr. Brennan even pulled out a tape recorder.
"Uh," Wow, what a start. Way to sell my confidence. "D-don't you guys, um...have everything recorded?" I asked.
"No." Dr. Roberts shook his head.
"What? Why not?" I asked, surprised.
All three of them shared a look. "That's off-topic. Please, begin at the start of the behaviors and provide all the details you can remember." Dr. Heisenberg attempted to redirect me. Odd. Were the cameras all for show? Did they not keep records of the subjects? That made no sense. There had to be something else going on.
"What do you mean by behaviors?" I asked.
"Anything outside of S.E-006's normal routine." Dr. Roberts replied.
"Ah, well. The subject woke up at...some time after 3 AM." I said, making a wild guess.
"Can you be more specific?" Dr. Heisenberg asked.
"No." I said in a flat tone. He didn't seem to appreciate that. "I was doing paperwork, and when I looked up he was--"
"Who?" Dr. Heisenberg interrupted.
"The subject." I answered. They all scribbled on their notepads. "He--it woke up while I was doing paperwork, I believe that the audio test tone might've startled it awake." I told them.
"Are you sure?" Dr. Roberts asked me.
"Yes." I replied firmly.
"Because we need you to be sure." He continued.
"Yes, I am sure that the audio is what woke the subject." I enunciated every syllable to accurately display how fed up I had become with their interrogation tactics. "When I looked up, I saw the subject had approached the mic and cameras. It spoke and--"
"It spoke?" Dr. Heisenberg demanded, his bushy brows raising until I could actually see his eyes. "What did it say? Are you sure it spoke?" He asked.
"Y-yes, it spoke. It called out to see who was making the sound. When I didn't respond--"
"You didn't respond?" Dr. Brennan asked, as if for clarification.
"Stop interrupting me." I snapped. They all looked at me like toddlers who had just been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "When I didn't respond, the subject became...distraught." I said.
They seemed to wait to see if I had more to say. When I remained silent, they took the initiative to speak again.
