Russell Brooks - Pandora's Succession

She was now at peace and it was the most comfortable feeling. Darkness came down on her as heavy as the weight of a stage curtain, making her unable to move and unwilling to try.

Hideaki Hashimoto’s office at Hexagon Pharmaceuticals

Parris opened her eyes in a series of blinks. She recognized Hashimoto’s voice speaking in Japanese. She turned her head and saw the scientists from the monitoring room in front of Hashimoto’s desk. A chill under her head jolted her up. That was when she saw the ice pack that had been propped between the back of her head and the cushion. She got halfway up, still feeling some throbbing at the back of her head. It all came back to her-Dewan had attacked her.

“Dr. Parris. Thank goodness,” Hashimoto cried out. He rose from behind his desk and walked over to her. The other two followed, but kept their distance a few feet behind him. Hashimoto knelt down on one knee and placed a hand on Parris’s shoulder. “Are you feeling better?”

“Better abou-wha? From being knock out, or that it took suh long for you to send someone to help me?” Parris sucked her teeth as her Barbadian accent came out strong. Hashimoto’s eyes dilated as he backed off.

Hashimoto shrugged his shoulders. “We were taken by surprise. We alerted security. Unfortunately, Dewan had assaulted you just as they arrived. I apologize for the delay. But you were rushed to Hexagon’s infirmary. Our doctor said that you only suffered minor bruises. There appeared to be no internal bleeding or head trauma.”

It came back to Parris, in bits and pieces. She remembered lying on the floor as the guards tried to subdue Dewan. It took a few jolts of their electroshock guns to bring him down. Talk about creating a monster from a simple experiment. The next thing she remembered was being rolled away on a stretcher and then waking up in the infirmary.

But they were slow to rescue her. She could’ve suffered more severe head injuries and could’ve been lying in a hospital, possibly in intensive care. She still blamed them. She might forgive Hashimoto tomorrow, maybe in two days, after she had calmed down. “Where’s Dewan?”

“He’s in the infirmary under supervision. The last time I checked on him he was still shaken up. I asked him why he attacked you. He said he didn’t know, that he couldn’t remember much, but that he felt exhausted and simply wanted to sleep. But why did you show Dewan the article?”

Yup, the sixty-four thousand dollar question. “To test the drug’s efficacy. I wanted to see how far I could go without using the visor.”

“But the chair’s visor is supposed to facilitate that. Once his mind was exposed to all the images, in conjunction with the drug, his mind would become more relaxed and hence be more susceptible to anything you say. The news article wasn’t really necessary.”

“The new variant of the drug we all worked on was just tested and I think you’d have to agree with my conclusion that it’s unsafe to use.”

“I can’t agree with you fully, because Eva was a success.”

“What?”

“The experiment had to continue, even without you.”

“You continued with her after what she saw?” Parris asked.

“We had to calm her with a sedative, but then she was fine.”

“That was a mistake, and a very dangerous risk. Those aren’t lab mice, they’re human beings. Why would you risk doing something that could potentially damage her brain after what you saw? The experiment should’ve been cancelled.”

“We’re on a tight schedule. But putting all that aside, what do you remember?”

Parris sighed while she shook her head. “I…I can’t tell you much…It all happened so fast. I don’t even know where to begin.” Parris then looked up at Hashimoto. His sympathy appeared genuine, but he had serious ethical issues.

“Don’t trouble yourself. There’s always another time. We have a video of the incident. The video will be reviewed and hopefully we can learn something from them.”

“I’d like to see them, too.”

“Another time. You’ll take the rest of the day off to recuperate. You’ve been through a lot. Come back tomorrow when you have a clear head.”

Parris stood up and walked to the door.

The brooch. Parris suddenly remembered. She hoped to God that it wasn’t damaged, or else she would never hear the end of it from Levickis.

“Get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow with your report of this morning’s events.”

Parris didn’t answer him but heard the door close as she walked down the dimly-lit, carpeted hallway, decorated with small wall lamps.

She got to the elevator and pressed the lower button. It arrived a few moments later, and when the doors opened, her path was blocked by a bulky man in a chocolate-colored suit.

Parris stepped back to allow the miniature camera to catch his face before he walked out. He didn’t even acknowledge her presence with a smile, but Parris didn’t care. As long as he was caught on camera, he could do anything he wanted. The man walked past her and strode briskly to Hashimoto’s office. She had hoped that he would’ve said something to her. Just a few words from him, and his accent, if he had one, would’ve given her a clue to his nationality. But she’d have to wait on Levickis.

She walked into the elevator and the doors closed. That’s when she unpinned her brooch and looked at it. It looked fine to her, and she pinned it back on. A few unexpected bruises, but the work day was done.

Half Kilometer from Hexagon Pharmaceuticals.

Tomas Levickis took another bite from his ham sandwich and rested it on the paper bag on the passenger seat next to him. He chewed while tapping his left foot to the beat of the latest Coldplay on his iPod. Not having many friends didn’t bother him-it helped him concentrate more on his tasks. Ironic as it was, his parents didn’t even have a home computer for him while he was in grade school. He had no choice but to use one at school or at his friend’s place. Maybe being a second-generation American of Lithuanian descent had something to do with it, having parents who were still stuck with their old habits.

He actually had bought them a desktop computer to get them to start modernizing. They picked at it at first. Then they couldn’t keep off of it and were always sending him emails. First, every day, and then every week. Recently it was reduced to once or twice a month, which was more to his liking.

He scratched below his left ear on his beard, as he took a sip of water from his plastic bottle. God, it’s about time I shaved this crap off. He picked up his mug and finished off the rest of his coffee. It was his third cup of the morning.

This was the first time he had been partnered with Parris in the eleven years he’d been a technical field agent and already it was the biggest task he’d ever taken. The change was good, being that it was also the first time he was partnered with a woman-one that was actually in the middle of the action and not sitting with him in a van or on a yacht doing surveillance.

He watched his computer screen as he saw Nita look at him through her brooch. “It’s all right, princess, it’s not broken.” It was a wonder that it had not broken after the way she was pinned against the wall and then thrown onto the table. Exposed wiring from it would’ve blown Parris’s cover and possibly jeopardized the mission, not to mention her life. Fuck. Thank God she’s all right.

He pressed replay and saw Nita’s face as she examined the brooch to make sure it still worked. He watched her walk backwards until the man in the chocolate suit appeared, at which point he tapped the left key and freeze-framed the image. Integrated in the software was a face-recognition program, and with a few keystrokes, the image of the man became more focused.