"It is truly amazing Herr Doktor," the assistant said as he looked at the dissected frog on the stainless steel tray," Yes truly amazing."
The doctor examining the frog looked up with piercingly blue eyes beneath his green cap. Those eyes blazed with anger and he threw the frog into the nearest bin.
"Amazing, no it would have been amazing had the creature lived for more than half an hour. Still it shows promise. Clean up this mess," the man said as he released his long blond hair from the cap.
He stalked from the theatre and threw a lab coat over his long form as he made his way to the laboratory he was using. As he walked along the passage he thought that though the frog had died after only a short time it had given him a success that he could dangle before the university board who had been threatening to cut his funding and his resources. Could they not see that what he was doing here was worth so much for human destiny.
After closing the door behind him and locking it he opened the hidden door to the inner laboratory and he smiled. Had the board known of this place and what he was doing he would have been closed down and hounded from the country. There were some long memories and if they thought he was practising the old experiments he would have been lucky to get away with his life.
He stepped over to the blue lit tank and watched the slow movement through the opaque glass. Touching the humming glass he smiled again and studied the digital readouts with contentment. Soon he thought, soon he turned at the sound behind him and saw the assistant he had only been talking to a bare ten minutes before.
"Add a 100ccs of the buffer mixture we will try tonight," the doctor said tonelessly.
"Of course Herr Doktor but what of the mind?" the man said.
"Something that I will deal with. The frog showed that the imprinting can work but it requires exact timing but this requires only activating the experiment," leaving before the other man could speak.
As he walked to his apartment he considered what needed to be done. He had no trouble that the activation would be successful but he needed suitable subject for the imprinting. Suddenly something collided into his chest, a something that apologised. The doctor now looked into the plain face of a girl who seemed to sad.
"Nonsense it was my fault I should have been focused on what was around me. I am Viktor," he said softly.
"Thank-you I am so clumsy. I am Mathilde," the girl said as she blushed.
The man before her had pale gold hair, so pale that it seemed to be white. He must have been in his twenties she thought and then seeing the fine lines about his mouth decided that he was more likely in his late thirties. He seemed almost skeletal but enormously strong. She naturally recognised him who had not heard of the brilliant and haughty Dr Franklin.
"What do you study? You are a student here?" he inquired though he had meant to be kind it sounded as though it had been bleated out as an order.
"Yes I am a student. I am studying medical science," she gushed.
There was something about her that interested him perhaps she was what he was looking for he thought. Usually he refused company or intimacy but this time he decided he might find something of interest behind those scared brown eyes and plain face.
"Ah well I am a medical researcher perhaps we can talk, can I interest you in a coffee?" he smiled engagingly which seemed to be sinister beneath the eagles beak that was his nose.
The young woman unused to the attention accepted and followed Viktor back to his spartan but well-appointed flat. Slowly and with a mixture of alcohol and listening discovered that she was without any family and painfully shy. So shy she had no friends on the university campus. She had come from one of the new Balkan States and was not expected to return once she had gained her qualification. Each statement stirred Viktor's interest and made her very desirable to him and his plans.
"Let me tell you my young lady I would love to have your help on my project," Viktor said with false bonhomie.
"Project? Herr Doktor," the woman murmured her befuddled with drink.
"Yes Mathilde the greatest project imaginable. The creation of life! Of human life itself," he spoke earnestly.
The woman watched him and remained silent as he continued.
"Tonight we are to instill life into an artificial human being, not a clone my dear but an artificial being created to be stronger than ordinary mortals, to shrug off illness and hardship with ease. It will be the vehicle where our conscious will reside leaving these fragile vehicles that we inhabit now," his voice had taken a fanatic edge.