Iron Cast(74)

When she tried to imagine what it would feel like to have the iron inside her, she couldn’t help but think that she would rather die.

In the corner, Agent Wilkey was chuckling. “We had a slagger once try to claw open his own chest. What a mess.”

Dr. Knox cleared his throat. “Yes, well, he brought it on himself.” He eyed Corinne and Ada. “And if you have any ideas of escaping, you should know that Agent Pierce is on the other side of the door, wearing earplugs, and he does have a gun.”

Corinne wanted to look at Ada, but she was afraid of what she would see in her best friend’s eyes. If Ada had given up, then Corinne wasn’t sure that she could go on.

Dr. Knox nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied that they had grasped the gravity of the situation.

“Now that we have that nasty business out of the way, we can begin.” He waved Agent Wilkey over. “You can take your seat.”

Wilkey moved from the corner to sit next to the doctor. His expression was benign, almost bored.

“Some of the methods for conducting our research are unfortunately crude,” Dr. Knox said, taking up his pencil. “But I assure you it’s for the greater good.”

“That’s what they said when they mutilated slaves in the name of science,” Ada said. Her voice was low and trembling.

Dr. Knox ignored her and continued. “Tonight will be a very straightforward experiment. You’ll simply be using your hemopathy on Agent Wilkey here, who is one of our best natural-born resisters. We’ll determine exactly how long he is able to resist each of you. Once we have a workable measure of the hemopathic pathogens in your blood, we’ll be able to move into the next phase of experimentation.”

“Is that what you’re calling your torture chamber out there?” Corinne asked, concentrating on keeping the tremor out of her voice. She almost succeeded.

Dr. Knox waved his pencil dismissively. “We’re winding down that phase. None of the subjects have survived the process, and I don’t have high hopes for this latest round either. There’s a cerebral component we’re missing that interacts with the pathogen somehow. A full transfusion is not a viable cure. We need to isolate the lobe of the brain that is accelerated by the pathogen. I believe that is what gives you the power to manipulate others and to resist manipulation yourselves.”

“God, you’re boring,” Corinne said, but inside she was reeling.

What she’d seen outside was starting to make more sense. The lunatic had been trying to replace hemopaths’ blood completely, which meant there were regs being used too. Drifters, probably. People with no families to miss them. She turned her head slightly, trying to catch Ada’s eye, but Ada was staring straight ahead, her shoulders squared, her jaw locked.

Dr. Knox sighed like a professor disappointed in his students.

“I wouldn’t expect you to grasp the full importance of what we’re doing here,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “If we can isolate a cure for hemopathy or an antidote to make non-hemopaths immune, then the scientific benefits will be immeasurable.”

“Don’t you mean the paycheck will be immeasurable?” Ada asked. She was still staring straight past him, her chin raised slightly in residual defiance. In that moment she looked so much like her mother that Corinne’s heart ached.

Dr. Knox actually reddened at her words. He tugged his collar.

“Well, of course there are certain monetary considerations,” he mumbled. “This has become my life’s work. I’ve had my eye on you two since that incident on the Harvard Bridge, and I suspect that your skill may be more potent than our other subjects’. That, coupled with your youth, makes you prime candidates for my new study.”

“And what does this study entail exactly?” Ada asked.

Agent Wilkey bared his teeth in a gesture that only vaguely resembled a smile. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Ada flinched, and Corinne swallowed hard, her mind still echoing with the woman’s screams. They had quieted now. Maybe she had run out of strength. Maybe she was dead.

Dr. Knox cleared his throat again.

“There’s no need to concern ourselves with that at this juncture. First we need to ensure that you both are up to par, so to speak. Shall we begin?”

The longer Dr. Knox’s test dragged on, the more outside herself Ada felt. There was something surreal about sitting in this chair, staring at an HPA agent as he sweat in intense concentration. Beside her Corinne was quoting her way through Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” her pace lagging only slightly as she glared at Agent Wilkey in equal concentration. They had been at it for almost an hour now, by Ada’s estimation. Thankfully, their cuffs had been removed earlier, at Corinne’s insistence that she couldn’t concentrate with the steel against her skin.

At the beginning, Corinne had attacked the task with vicious precision, using Poe to conjure a creature so hideously fierce that even Ada was taken aback. Wilkey had resisted for almost two minutes before frowning and informing Dr. Knox that he could see the illusion. When Corinne knew that he was seeing it, she had it jump at him, claws outstretched and fanged mouth gaping. Despite his attempts to remain unruffled, Wilkey had jerked back in his chair.

Beneath the table, Ada had turned her hand palm up, so that Corinne could tap her fingertips twice. Dr. Knox had barely glanced up from his notes. He checked the time, then told Corinne to do it again.