The Evil of Hammond House Ch. 4

The scene shifted. Angela was back in her apartment at school, sitting in a rocking chair with the baby in her arms. She was wearing her bathrobe, the one Brenda had brought her from Hong Kong, and it was open for the baby to suckle on her milk-swollen breast. Everything seemed peaceful, but she felt like something was missing. Like someone was missing.

Dr. Hammond was carrying a piece of equipment over to the main exam table when Angela began to come to. He stopped what he was doing, went over to a side table and poured a glass of water. He brought it over to Angela and held it to her mouth while she drank thirstily from it. Surprisingly, she thanked him when she finished it.

"You were out for several hours. That particular tranquilizer dries out the mouth severely, so I was prepared for you to be very thirsty. Let me know if you want any more."

He returned to his work with the equipment and she started to take in her new situation. She was on the examination table that had been set up for a pelvic exam earlier. It was tilted up a little bit, so she could get a view of herself, naked except for the restraints. She was strapped to the table by a piece of flexible but strong fabric across her breasts and upper arms. Her forearms were loose, though her wrists bore handcuff-like restraints with long cables attached to the table. She could move them pretty freely, just not very far. There was another band of the fabric across her abdomen, just above her pubic hair, but there were no other restraints. Her legs were free, though currently resting in the leg braces used for pelvic exams and delivering babies. Despite her captive situation, it seemed as though the doctor had every interest in making her comfortable.

Angela also noticed there were several leads and sensors in place on her body. Some were attached to contacts that went through the cloth restraints, others were directly on her skin, including a few in the genital area. All the wires seemed to run into a patch bay beside the table and a large cable connected the patch bay to a plug on the wall underneath the control room window. It appeared as though Dr. Hammond was going to monitor whatever procedure he was planning from there. Angela felt as though she should be completely terrified about whatever he was going to do to her, but maybe the shock of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours was finally consuming her. Or maybe she was just too tired to fight it anymore.

Dr. Hammond seemed preoccupied with setting up the current piece of machinery. Standing vertical, it was triangular in shape (with a side at the top), but the lower three-quarters of it were bent out at a forty-five degree angle. The whole thing was about the size of a large briefcase. The doctor was currently mounting it to a sturdy metal pipe that ran from the floor to the ceiling. Several observation lights were C-clamped to the same pole. Once the device was secured, he moved behind Angela and began to adjust the exam table's position. When he was finished, the angled tip of the device was pointed right between her thighs.

"You promised to give me an explanation. I figure I ought to know before you dissect me or whatever it is you're going to do to me." She was amazingly calm.

The doctor finished hooking cables from the device to the patch bay and turned the unit on. It hummed softly and lights on it blinked on and off.

"I had hoped you would realize by now, Miss Smith, that I have no intention of hurting you."

She sighed. Yes, she had figured that out, but it didn't lessen her anger at the other things he had done.

"I just find it hard to believe that someone who professes to be a doctor and is compassionate to me could also be capable of murdering five innocent people."

He stopped for a moment, then went on into the control room. After about five minutes of checking instruments and readouts, Dr. Hammond returned with two small vials, one was about half-an-inch long, the other looked to be about four times that size. The larger one contained a clear, viscous substance and the smaller one held a pinkish-red fluid. The doctor set these on the side table and opened an access panel on the triangular device. He started making adjustments.

"When my daughter died," he began, "I managed to obtain a small sample of tissue from her stomach. I immediately preserved the tissue in order to keep too many of the cells from dying. I have since been researching and gathering data on cloning. I knew that, if I could replace the nucleus of an ovum with the nucleus from one of my daughter's cells, I could impregnate a woman with the modified egg and she would give birth to a baby identical to my Stacy. Sadly my wife was to old to bear another child and, since human cloning experiments are illegal, using a surrogate mother posed problems. So I had to try and arrange for a 'private' procedure. Unfortunately my wife unexpectedly developed breast cancer and died before I could make the arrangements. After that, well, it seemed pointless to continue. Part of my motivation was for my wife, because she missed Stacy so. I abandoned the plan several years ago and secluded myself here at Hammond House, never thinking of it again."

"Until last night," finished Angela.

"Until you arrived, yes. The first thing I did last night after seeing you to your rooms was to open up this room again -- we're in a secret room off the basement of the house -- and check on the viability of Stacy's cells. Enough of them were intact to make an attempt, but I needed ova to prepare them for use."

Now she had the answer to another mystery. "That's why you cut into Lisa and Brenda's ovaries. To harvest the eggs."

"Again you prove yourself to be a very talented person, Miss Smith. Well-spotted. They provided me with enough viable ova to make a number of attempts."

Then Angela let loose. "SO WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL THEM?! Why didn't you just use my eggs?"

He rounded on her. "Because I couldn't afford to have witnesses. Your friends would have stayed around until your disappearance was explained. I had to get rid of them. I couldn't risk being discovered until the baby was born."

"Did it even occur to you to just ask me?" she responded, forcing back the tears.

Dr. Hammond seemed thrown off by that question and it took him a moment to formulate a reply. "No, it never occurred to me. I wouldn't expect most women your age to drop everything to have a baby, especially one in this kind of circumstance. Stacy's cells wouldn't be viable for much longer and I had to act."

Angela kept her voice calm. "Believe it or not, Dr. Hammond, last night I was thinking a lot about having a baby. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had just asked instead of acting out of fear and impatience. Five people are dead because of your fear of being discovered. Now you'll be going to prison and you'll never see your Stacy."

The doctor made his last checks on the machine and closed the access panel. He picked up the vials from the side table.

"Once the baby is born, it won't matter. I don't care what happens to me, just so long as Stacy is born."

This surprised Angela, throwing her off guard for a change.

"I don't understand."

Hammond looked at her. "What happens to me is of no consequence. I only want Stacy to live and grow and be loved by a good family. I don't want her to know about me, about what I became to try and make her live again. I realized long ago that I had turned away from what I had been when she was born. I just want her to live and have the life that was taken from her."

Angela found herself considering his words. She was still angry and resented him, and yet part of her sympathized with his pain and wanted to help. They could both get what they wanted. But how could she live with the reminder of his deeds growing in her womb?

"You aren't worried that I'll have a problem dealing with the memories of this place and what you've done? Take it out on the baby?"

He shook his head. "You're a strong woman, Miss Smith. You're too sensible and logical. You'd know it wasn't her fault. You'd love her and treat her with respect. It simply isn't in your nature to hold a grudge."

He was right. Even now, the idea of having her dream of being a mother fulfilled was appealing to her. And, of course, she really had no choice in the matter. She was his captive and she wasn't in any position to fight him right now. She would have to worry about escape and, if necessary, abortion later on. Besides, she could always claim the baby was Mark's and, maybe, she could eventually convince herself that it was the truth.

Angela debated the issue a few more times, but always came to the same conclusion: there wasn't anything she could do right now and he *wasn't* threatening her life. There was no point in resisting.

"I realize that I don't have any say in the matter, but for what it's worth, I've decided not to resist."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Don't get me wrong, though, doctor," she growled assertively, "I hate you for everything you've done to me and I will kill you if I get the opportunity. I can never forgive you for what you've taken away from me."

He handed her the vials. "Fair enough," he said.

Angela turned the glass cylinders over in her hands. They had rubber caps on one end so the contents could be extracted with a needle, just like a standard medicine bottle.

"What are they?" she asked.

"The small one with the red fluid contains the modified ovum which will be injected directly into your uterus. The fluid itself is a nutrient solution that will be absorbed into the endometrial layer of your uterine wall. That should increase the egg's chances of survival dramatically."

Angela looked at the small vial with awe. Inside that suspension was a fertilized ovum, just waiting to be implanted in her body. How many woman could have experienced the feeling of holding their child before it had born? She felt something stir inside her. Was she really ready to do this? Again, she reminded herself, she didn't have much of a choice at the moment.

"The larger vial," continued Dr. Hammond, "contains an inert protein suspension, with some antiseptic qualities, that will be injected into your vagina. A small amount will be released before the procedure begins its third phase, the rest will be released during Phase Five. It will help keep your upper birth canal and cervix sterilized during and after the procedure, to prevent infection from setting in. It also provides effect."

"Effect?"

He took the vials from her hand and carried them to the triangular apparatus. "This device will inject the ovum into you." He flipped a switch and a cylinder protruded from the front of the angled part of the device. It looked very much like a slim-line vibrator, but had a small nozzle on the end. "I could simply have impregnated you with standard laboratory techniques, but I wanted the woman who was going to give re-birth to my Stacy to have a special experience, so I built this device to act as a surrogate father and deliver the egg to the uterus."

He took the small vial and plugged it into a socket on the panel of the machine. "During the machine's operation a thin tube will pass through your cervix and into your uterus." He saw her wince. "Don't worry, the device will coat the tube with a local anesthetic before the it passes through. I assure you, there will very little, if any, pain. In fact, I think it will be a very sensual experience for you."

Well, she thought, at least I'll be getting something more than nine months hard labor out of this.

"At a specific point the machine will inject the ovum and nutrient solution into your womb, where we hope the egg will embed itself in your uterine wall. At the same time," he plugged the larger vial into another socket, "the machine will inject the remaining sterilizing protein suspension, warmed up to body temperature, into your vagina. The effect is also to simulate ejaculation."

The idea seemed simple enough to Angela, though Hammond made it seem convoluted and unromantic. But she still had some questions. "What if the egg doesn't implant?"

"I have enough ova to try for several months. They'll stay frozen until we need them. I only wish the tissue sample from Stacy could have been preserved so well, but the nuclei were breaking down. Probably because I had neglected them for so long."

"Well, I hope it works right the first time, doctor." She took a deep breath. "I'm ready."

"All right, Miss Smith," he replied and went to the door. He turned out most of the lights and dimmed the rest, leaving the room in a dim glow, very much like the glow from the fireplace when she and Mark had made love that morning. Mark...

He returned and checked the sensors that were attached to Angela's groin. Then he took a tube of K-Y Jelly from the side-table and opened it, smearing some of it on the probe at the front of the impregnating apparatus and some he applied, giving her his apologies, to her labia and inside her vagina. It wasn't any thrill to her to be touched by him. In fact, it was probably worse than her last pelvic exam.

When he finished Dr. Hammond walked to Angela's right side, put his arm across her chest and leaned down to her ear. "I know how you feel about me, but please let me say, from the part of me that was Stacy's father, how grateful I am that you're doing this willingly now. Thank you, Angela." Then he tried to kiss her on the forehead, but she turned away from him. He stood up, shook his head in understanding and walked towards the control booth.

"Doctor," she called after him.

"Yes, Miss Smith?"

"I don't want you watching me."

"Only on the readouts and the video probe. The room cameras will be off and I will be too busy monitoring the machine to look out the window. I knew you would want to keep this a private thing, Miss Smith. I will do my best to respect that."

He left the operating room and entered the control booth, turning out the booth's lights and switching on all the controls. He was ready.

END OF PART FOUR

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Patrick Donovan *

Amateur Romantic E-rotica * Share your passion.