EJAX-472: Ch. 05

"No problem doctor," he said sounding a bit calmer. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good. The last thing any of us needs is for you to have one of these episodes in public."

"I agree. Don't worry. I'll stay put."

As I hung up the phone I heard the sound of raised voices coming from the lounge. At first I thought it was some of my assistants cursing the microwave oven that seemed to go on the blink every so often. But then I realized that somebody had turned up the volume on the television, and what I was in fact hearing was a news report. Before I had a chance to investigate the matter, Rebecca came running into my office screaming.

"You've got to see this!" Hurry up!"

I quickly followed her to the lounge where Maria, Cheryl, and several more of my staff stood glued to the television set. I stopped dead in my tracks. There, escorted by two police officers and being led away in handcuffs was John Cardelli, the amazingly handsome subject of my EJAX-472 experiment. He looked confused and disheveled as the police led him into a squad car. Behind several other people stood his wife Ann, looking every bit as distressed as her husband as she followed him into the vehicle.

"What the hell is going on?" I said.

"Listen!" Cheryl replied.

"...a very disturbing report today," the announcer began, "of sexual misconduct in one of Stockholm's most prestigious educational institutions. Mr. John Cardelli, a 27-year-old French teacher at St. Bridget's Preparatory School, was arrested today at his home on morals charges brought against him by the dean of the school, Ms. Alison Stedman. Mr. Cardelli, who had been teaching at the school for the past four years, was found yesterday with several of his students engaged in what Ms. Stedman described as "lewd and indecent behavior in the manner of a Roman orgy." At the present time he has offered no explanation for his actions and, from what we understand, he will be held at the Hagen Correctional Institution for interrogation. At this time no bail has been set."

I watched in horror as I contemplated the ramifications of this unwelcome news. There was no doubt in my mind that the drug was now manifesting itself at last, despite the fact that I had forbade its further use to all my subjects.

"It's starting and there's not a damn thing I can do about it," I said as I stood there numbly, shaking my head.

"Oh, my God, Christiana," Rebecca said. "Do you think he'll talk?"

"I hope not. If Cardelli tells the police about the drug we're all fucked. All this research will have been for nothing."

I felt my legs give way just then and fell into the nearest chair. "Jesus Christ! What the fuck am I going to do?"

"Well, maybe he won't talk," Maria said. "Maybe he'll try to contact you now."

"That's the worst thing he can do," Rebecca replied. "All his calls from prison will be monitored by the police."

"We have to reach his wife," I said, noticing that my hands were now shaking. "Cheryl," I said, turning to her. "Give Ann Cardelli a call tonight. They won't allow her to stay at the prison for too long. In the meantime, contact all the other subjects and remind them that they are not to go out in public under any circumstances. Tell them to have someone drive them here on Friday. They are not to take public transportation."

"Yes, doctor."

"And another thing...that guy Craig you have a crush on? He'll be here on Friday too."

"Really?" she asked surprised. "Why is he coming here?"

"Because he's got the same fucking problem the rest of them do, that's why."

"How do you know that?" Rebecca inquired.

"I just got off the phone with him. Or let me put it a better way. I was on the phone with him while he got off."

"No way!" she laughed. "You mean he was jackin' while you were yackin'?"

Her unintended joke made us all burst out laughing despite our discomfort.

"Actually, I didn't have to encourage him much," I said through my laughter.

That brief moment of humor acted like a soothing balm upon my beleaguered senses and I was grateful for it. We all returned to our various duties and when I next looked up at the clock it was after 7:00 PM. At that point I told everyone to go home, but I stayed to continue my research. About 7:30 PM the phone rang. It was Ann Cardelli.

"I got your message," she said, her voice full of displeasure. "My husband's in jail because of you."

"I know all about it Ann. I saw it on the news. I'm sorry."

"It's that god-damned drug of yours that made him do it."

"I left several messages with you trying to warn you but your husband ignored them."

There was a slight pause. "I should hate you for what you've done to him, but you're the only one who can help him now, so I guess I should be civil towards you."

"I need you to tell me everything that happened. Can you do that?"

"I can tell you only what he told me."

"That's good enough."

She described to me the event in as much detail as she could before finally breaking down. She was crying so hard that I had to wait several minutes before I could speak.

"Ann...Ann, please listen to me. I am going to help your husband, I promise. But you have to help me. Now, do you know if he said anything to anyone about the drug?"

"As far as I know he's said nothing about it except to me."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you know if his bail has been set?"

"Yes," she replied feebly. "It's about $5,000."

"Do you have it?"

"We're not all rich like you, Dr. Swensen," she said condescendingly.

"I am going to send a messenger over to your house right now. He will have $5,000 in cash for you to bail your husband out of prison. No one must know about the drug or his relation to the Clinic or myself. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Go back to the prison tonight, pay the bailiff the money and get him out of there as quickly as possible. Do not explain anything to him until you can both speak in private. Have him call me as soon as you arrive home."

"I will."

I heard her sob a few times before hanging up the phone and I cursed myself aloud for being the cause, directly or indirectly, of so many people's misery.

I finally left the office after 10:00 PM, exhausted both mentally and physically. I did not sleep well that night. All I could think of was the hurt and disillusionment in Ann Cardelli's voice as she tried to come to terms with her husband's misfortune, and that it was my drug that was to blame for it. The only consolation I had was that John had kept quiet about the experiment. If he had talked, I would have had to deal with the press, and that would have been a nightmare. Although I had done nothing illegal during the course of the experiment, the fact that the drug was now somehow inhibiting the natural voluntary response of its host was enough to bring the curious to my door. It was the last thing I wanted.

At length I finally managed to doze off, but my sleep was plagued with horrific visions. The most disturbing of all was one in which I found myself sidestepping an oncoming swarm of terrified rats that had escaped from the lab seeking vengeance against me for daring to treat their bodies with impunity. I quickly climbed up onto my desk to avoid them but the multitude of vermin seemed to increase exponentially every second until the desk itself was carried upon their backs, and I, along with the desk, was hurled into a vast, inky, black hole. I seemed to fall a very long time until at last I woke up in a cold sweat. It was almost dawn.

Unable to sleep any longer, I got up and made myself breakfast and then showered and dressed. I arrived at the Clinic just after 7:00 AM feeling tired and achy from a poor night's sleep. It would be two hours before anyone would arrive, so I took advantage of my little slice of solitude to pour over my original notes written just prior to my first studies conducted with rats several years earlier.

The animals that I had used in those early experiments were themselves in perfect health and were acting normally, with no sign of adverse levels of toxicity remaining after ingestion of the drug had ceased. Those experiments had predated the human experiments by one year, and no subsequent abnormalities or sexual anomalies had occurred in the male rat population during that 12-month period. The sexual capacity of all the rats had been restored, and this equilibrium had been maintained up to the present time. In the human subjects however, the drug was behaving erratically, almost as if it were reprogramming my original genetic sequence with a new code of its own. But how was that possible? This was the thing I could not understand: how could my own code be overwritten?

"You're working yourself too hard Christiana."

Startled, I turned to see Rebecca standing against my desk.

"Jesus, you scared me," I said catching my breath. "What are you doing here so early?"

"What do you mean?" she replied. "It's 9:00 AM."

I looked up at the clock and was amazed when I realized that two hours had passed.

"Have all the preparations been made for tomorrow?"

"Yes. Shall I run through the details with you now?"

"No. Wait until Maria and Cheryl arrive and then all four of us can sit down together and finalize everything."

"How about we meet in the lab, say around 9:30?"

"Fine."

Rebecca stood there for a moment scrutinizing me.

"What is it?" I said.

"You look tired boss," she observed.

"I have work to do Rebecca," I stated firmly, without looking at her.

She lingered a few seconds unsure of what to do, and sensing I was not in the mood to converse, she walked out of my office with her head down muttering something unintelligible.

I met my three assistants in the lab a half hour later, and as we went over the final preparations for tomorrow's follow-up tests, I could tell that they were concerned for my apparent preoccupation with the mystery concerning the drug. Cheryl especially seemed agitated to the point where she would look at me furtively every few seconds to gauge my responses to her questions about the test. Rebecca and Maria both seemed to regard me with mild apprehension, as if I were going to reprimand them should they displease me in any way. Their combined attempts to humor and patronize me finally took its toll.

"Will all three of you please stop!" I yelled. "I am not going insane if that's what you think!"

Maria looked at Rebecca, then at Cheryl. "We're worried about you doctor."

"I'm worried about me too...and for all of you and this whole god-damned Clinic if we don't get to the bottom of this problem. But treating me with kid gloves is not going to help matters. Do you understand?"

All three women stared at the floor and said nothing.

"Now let's go over tomorrow's schedule. Maria, let's start with you."

"Well," she began, "I couldn't reach that idiot Luis Hernandez for one thing."

"As much as I don't like him, I don't want him to come to any real harm. And I definitely don't like having a loose cannon out there. Bad enough that little shit Joey Balls is roaming free. God knows what's going on with him."

"We can only hope that neither of them has an episode or goes to the police," Cheryl said.

"Yeah," Maria remarked, "hopefully Joey Balls is out of the country andhopefully Luis is too afraid to go to the authorities. That's not much to go on."

"Sometimes hope is all we have Maria," I said. "Please continue."

"All of the test subjects, including your sister's husband, will be here tomorrow at 9:00 AM, except for Mr. Cardelli."

"He called me last night. He'll be here."

"How did he get out of jail?" Rebecca asked.

"I bailed him out."

"Oh, Christiana," she said disapprovingly.

"I had to. The longer he remained in there the greater the likelihood he might talk."
"How do you know he didn't say anything already?" Maria inquired.

"He didn't. He gave me his word."

"I hope he wasn't lying to you," Rebecca said.

"He's a good man, Rebecca. And besides, we're his only hope now. If he told them the truth he'd bring this whole experiment to an end and any chance of him having a normal life. Not to mention what would happen to each of us."

The women sat there quietly digesting my words. They, like I, were contemplating the ramifications of a life possibly spent behind bars, imprisoned on the charge of reckless endangerment of human life. The possibility of such a fate loomed before us like a black storm cloud gathering on the horizon.
"Go on, Maria."

"Oh, yes...let's see," she said, scanning her notes. "Craig Lundquist will also be here at 9:00 AM."

At the mention of the handsome boy's name, Cheryl looked at Maria and winked.

"One of Lynette's girls is going to pick him up at his house around 8:00 AM," Rebecca said. "I gave her all the information."

"Very well. As soon as they arrive I want them stripped down and into the showers straight away. I will have Lynette handle that. Maria, it is your responsibility to make certain that all the test subjects are made comfortable and that all their needs are attended to."

"Yes, doctor."

"We can let them have their old rooms. It will probably make them less apprehensive."

"All the rooms have been cleaned and sterilized. I made sure of that yesterday."

Maria looked like a little girl who was trying hard to make an impression on her teacher.

"Thank you," I said. "You will be in charge of all the lab paraphernalia used in the test as well as seeing to the needs of the patients during their stay here. Do you have the list of all the items needing attention?"

"Yes," she replied waving her steno pad in front of her, "right here."

"I want you to go over everything with Rebecca and Cheryl. All procedures are to be double checked, and if you have any problems you are to inform me immediately."

"Yes, doctor."

"Okay, Cheryl. Your turn."

"All the items you listed are in the lab and are ready for use. These include the following: the penis/testicular restraints; the vacuum tubes; the special hand lotion for extended masturbation; six mechanical hands; multi-angle leather recliners; Velcro hand cuffs; calipers; a yardstick..."

I laughed. "We're measuring men here not horses. Go on."

"One dozen new glass beakers—two quart capacity..."

"We know what that's for!" Rebecca smirked.

Maria looked sullen as she recalled the task I had assigned her in the previous test.

"Maybe you could have someone else catch the semen this time doctor."

"It will please you to know that I have employed the services of several of Lynette's girls to take care of that problem. They will try to keep the floor as sperm-free as possible."

"There's something here I don't understand," Cheryl said suddenly. "Mechanical hands?"

"Yes, they were designed to my specifications by a company in England. I haven't had a chance to inspect any of them yet. Would you mind getting one for me? They're over there on the top shelf of the cabinet."

Cheryl waltzed over to the storage cabinet and picked up a rectangular cardboard box about 12 inches in length. She looked at the item curiously.

"Not very heavy," she said, placing the box in my hands.

I pulled the lid open and gently withdrew the device.

"Jesus," Rebecca said. "It looks real!"

All the girls remarked how lifelike the artificial hand looked. The fingers were extremely pliant and the skin felt uncannily like human skin. Cheryl noted wryly that the fingernails were painted red.

"Those guys are going to love these!" she said, running her fingers over the simulated flesh.

"It's made out of latex and is powered by a single battery," I said, admiring the workmanship. "You just attach it to the shaft, press the button, and voila...hands-free masturbation. Simple but efficient."

Maria was laughing. "Well at leastour hands will get a break!"

"That's exactly why I created these," I said. "I know those protracted milkings get all you girls tired out. This way we can let 'mechanical Mary' here do all the work."

"Mechanical Mary! Ha!" Rebecca squealed. "I love it!"

It was the way she said it, rather than the term itself, that made us all break out into fits of laughter.

"It's so nice to see you laugh Dr. Swensen," Cheryl commented.

"Oh, it feels good to laugh, Cheryl," I said, even as the tears began to well up in my eyes.

"No, Christiana, don't." Rebecca said, putting her hand on mine.

"I'm so afraid this whole thing is going to blow up in my face," I said, fighting back the tears. "I'm so scared."

"We're all in this thing together. Right Cheryl?"

"Right!" Cheryl replied.

"Right Maria?"

"Absolutely!" Maria affirmed.

"You see, Chris? We're all with you. And together we're going to find a way out of this mess."

I let the girls talk for a while, as much for their sake as for mine. Several jokes were made and for a time I actually forgot my own troubles. But the undercurrent of doubt remained just under the surface of our brief-lived joy, making the interval of lightheartedness bittersweet.

"You girls have been very good to me. I couldn't ask for better friends."

"Do you feel a little better now?" Cheryl asked.

"Yes, thank you."

Seeing that I was now relatively composed, Rebecca retrieved her palm pilot from the desk. I watched her eyes scroll down the screen.

"I'd like to confirm the list of physicians attending," she said.

"Sure," I said. "Read them off."

"In addition to you and I," she began, "Michelle Olson called to say that she will be assisting."

"Oh," I said surprised. "I thought she was out of the country."

"Her plans changed. She wants to be here to help out."

"Great. Who else?"

"Well, in keeping with the subjects' wishes to have only female doctors present, I contacted Sheila Ford and Jennifer Barlow. They both have volunteered their services."

"Jennifer is a gynecologist," I said. "Why would she want to participate?"

"She did attend the experiment if you recall and she's very interested in your studies with EJAX-472."

"Fine," I said. "If she wants to assist I have no problem with that. Anyone else?"

"Nope, that's it. Oh!" she said, suddenly. "I almost forgot. Sheila asked that her daughter Jill and Jill's friend Laura be allowed to attend. Both girls are going into premed and want to observe."

"Sure, why not? They did help out the last time. Call Sheila and let her know that both of them are welcome."

Rebecca did some quick calculations. "With the addition of the two girls that should bring the total number of audience members to about 50 or so."

"That's enough. This is going to be a more detailed and in-depth study. I really don't want several hundred people in here like the last time."

"Two guys in our x-ray lab asked if they could attend," Maria said.

"No. Out of deference to the subjects' wishes I have decided to forbid any males from participating. They can see it all on video later."

We continued to go over the logistics of the experiment for another half hour and then I sat with Lynette to discuss some last-minute issues regarding the assembly of the prefabricated cubicles in which each test subject would be examined. Lastly, I consulted with the video team who told me that the entire event would be videotaped from behind the smaller outer lab window that divided it from the main lab. It was now 12:00 PM and I was feeling famished. I got my lunch from the cafeteria and returned to my office. I had barely taken a bite from my sandwich when the phone rang.

"Guess who?" sang the sultry voice on the other end.

"Hi sis," I said, chewing on a mouthful of food.

"Okay," she said jokingly. "Whose cock are you chomping on now?"

"I'm having my lunch."

Bonnie laughed. "Well, I just called to let you know that Philip had another incident last night."