Chapter #4Elevated Tensions by: imaj   It was foolish to come to Protean Industries. Staying a moment longer than necessary would be even more foolish. You take a moment to dry your eyes and fix your make up – you don’t want to draw any more attention if possible. Then you walk out the rest rooms, submerging yourself inside the Jillian personality you hold within yourself, matching your gait to hers.
The lab you share with Jillian, number seventeen, is directly opposite the toilets on this floor. You ignore it and instead move down the corridor to the elevators. They are some seventy metres distant, but researchers are always coming and going from their labs. All your co-workers will see is Doctor Jillian Harding on her way out from her lab. Jillian’s shoes clack loudly on the tiled floor of the corridor as you confidently make your way down it. You even give the geneticist Doctor Ingawa a friendly wave as he spots you through the plate glass windows of his lab.
The door of lab nineteen, which is supposed to be unoccupied, opens in front of you and a security guard ushers himself out. He locks the door behind himself. The guard is tall and broad shouldered, powerfully built although his stomach is starting to run towards fat and strains against his tight uniform shirt. Greying hair is cropped close in a buzz cut. He turns and looks at you with hard eyes.
“Doctor Harding,” he greets you guardedly with a rasp.
You can make out a livid red scar curving up his neck and instantly identify him from both your and Jillian’s memories as Chip Henklemann, the chief of Security at Protean. The stories that you’ve heard say that he is a former police officer. The scar is a result of an attack from a drug dealer’s dog. It ruined his vocal cords and got him pensioned off the force. A hard and uncompromising man by all accounts.
“Mr Henklemann,” you nod curtly as he falls into step beside you.
“Call me Chip,” he smiles. It is a brief thing, only a slight upturn at the edges of his mouth.
“Chip then,” you reply. “I thought lab number nineteen was empty. Is there a problem?”
“Routine check,” he growls. Everything he says comes out ragged it seems. “We’re expecting a new arrival any day, I wanted to make sure the lab was ready.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that fell under your remit,” you say as you reach the elevators. Henklemann presses the call button.
“There’s always a security aspect,” he replies. “You know that much of the work the researchers do here is secret. My job is to make sure nothing gets leaked.”
He pauses for a moment as the elevator arrives, stepping inside once the door slides open. Following him in, you press the button for level one.
“I take my job seriously Doctor,” he says, pressing the button for level two. “Very seriously.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” you say politely.
“Good,” he grunts. “Because I wanted to talk to you about the accident in your laboratory yesterday.”
“A minor spill,” you say quickly, letting go of Jillian’s persona instinctively. You realise your mistake immediately and try to slip back into her thoughts before Henklemann notices. “Nothing serious, what’s so important about it?”
“Yesterday was nothing serious. Next time? Director Rosenstein has advised me that some of the chemicals you are using do present a security risk,” he explains. He stops and stares at you for a good few seconds longer than is comfortable. Does he know something already? “I want to put contingencies into place to prevent a breach of security. Rosenstein tells me such a breach would be ‘significant’”
“You know about Johnson,” you ask nervously.
“This isn’t the place to talk about what I know and don’t know,” says Henklemann. He pauses for a second to adjust his belt, making you acutely aware of the ugly looking gun holstered there, before continuing in a more conversational tone. “Look Doctor, if I’m going to be honest, what I have read scares me. I don’t want to be left holding the can if there is a repeat incident.”
The elevator slows to a halt and chimes as it reaches level two.
“My stop,” he says brusquely. “Be seeing you Doctor.”
The doors slide open and Henklemann strides out, brushing past a tall man in a bad suit who was waiting on the other side. The man, evidently one of the pen pushers from downstairs, looks glumly at Henklemann for a moment before stepping inside the lift.
“Hello miss,” he says sheepishly before turning round to press a button on the control panel.
The doors close and the elevator resumes its journey. It doesn’t take long to reach the foyer. When the doors open again your confidently stride past security and head for the exit. There’s a crowd of military types clustered round the reception desk, working their way through the process of signing in for visitor passes. You recognise Captain Eric Sanchez amongst them from your time working at Fort Suffolk. He recognises you, well Jillian, and waves as you pass.
You pass through the doors without incident and take a deep breath: Free. Now what? It’s tempting to just get the hell out of Saratoga, find a bus or train or whatever and leave. An unexplained disappearance like that will set alarm bells ringing though. Since you still feel a bit guilty about absorbing her, you could find somewhere quiet and try to free Jillian. Maybe even try to explain to her, although you know from your access to her personality that you are unlikely to get anywhere with that.
Lastly, some small part of you thinks it might be an idea to stay as Jillian. It may now be the only to stop yourself from losing her. A quick rummage through her memories reveals that she was planning on meeting her old friend Claire Briggs at a nearby coffee house. That would be a good place to start your new life.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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