After that kerfluffle, she was kept separate from the two BugMen she’d associated with. She was now all alone in an empty room to ruminate upon past events and collect her thoughts.
She berated herself for having put the Scientist through such an ordeal. And SHE was the one who allowed it to happen! She had no idea what would happen to her as a result of her actions. At worst, she would be fired from her job.
Then she reflected on what that might mean. Hadn’t she wanted to get away from this dreadful business in the first place? This was her out! Considering the amount of trouble she was in, she’d surely be removed for her incompetence in letting an outsider inside, and would surely be transfered to another facility where she’d be put to better use.
Surely they’d interrogate her for what she’d done, but she wasn’t willing to give everything up just too soon. These guys would have to work for it. And all it would cost would be to betray the only person she felt comfortable with... who was probably in a lot of trouble right now.
If she was to have any chance of getting out of this unscathed, she needed to be unemotional and disconnected. Pay no heed to his plight.
Several hours later, her confidence began to wane. She was wondering what they were waiting for? Shouldn’t they have started asking her questions by now?
Another hour of pointless waiting later, she decided to take a nap in the corner. It was notoriously difficult to relax, as there were no tables or chairs, and the protrusions made just standing on the floor uncomfortable. She figured she could tough it out, only to give up thirteen seconds later.
Soon after, as if sensing her discomfort, a woman entered the room, and opened up with the banal greeting of “Are you comfortable?”
“No, not really.”
“Good. This shouldn’t take too long to determine your level of involvement.”
“My...?”
“Whether you were working willingly or unwillingly.” The Inquisitive Mother held up a hand to ward off any upcoming objections. “Don’t worry, this is just a formality. What’s important is to verify the conclusions we’ve already come to. Let’s start with an easy question. What colour are your eyes?”
“Brown.”
“What number are your eyes?”
The Girl was annoyed. Didn’t she just answer this question? “Brown.”
“Now that we’ve started with the basics, let’s move on. Regarding the invasion of the sudden intruder, we traced his route back to an address in - ”
“Don’t open it!” she yelled, losing her composure. “There’s a self-destruct function if you force the door!” Even though she loathed working with these people, she didn’t want to see any of them hurt.
“How would we bypass the front entrance?”
“There’s a system that records someone by the user’s bodily functions.”
What colour are your eyes?”
“Brown,” she responded with confusion.
“What number are your eyes?”
“Brown.”
“How would we get past security?”
“You’d have to use my urine or stool samples for that,” she responded without thinking.
“Earlier, the intruder revealed his true form. Did you know he could do that?”
“If I’d known about him, I would’ve flown to work on his back!”
“What colour are your eyes?”
“Brown,” she repeated with some annoyance.
“What number are your eyes?”
This time, the Girl understood the question she misheard before. “Two.”
“I see. Thank you, you’ve been very helpful. You’re free to go.”
The Girl was confused by this turn of events. She was expecting a larger punishment for her ineptitude. “That’s it?? Aren’t you going to raid the Scientist’s lair?”
“We already have access to his place.”
“But - what about the code?”
“There was a panel near the door, but it was completely unfunctional. It wasn’t even hooked up.”
“But - my urine and stool samples?”
“At the back of the room were multiple containers of feces and pee. The BugMan had been collecting and preserving them from the toilet outside. Surely you must’ve noticed?”
She hadn’t. All those times she’d walked in, the Scientist popped out of the room with leftover food on his face. She shuddered in revulsion now knowing the implications of how close he was.
“But - his inventions! He made all that stuff up!”
“Did you ever once see him conduct an experiment? Use any of the abandoned running tests?”
“Of course! He - ” But she hadn’t. Everytime he did one of his ‘experiments’, it was always out of her range of sight, insisting on privacy to avoid bias. Most of his ideas were spurred on by her suggestions. He spouted plenty of platitudes, but only contributed things that were already available.
“So who... what IS he?”
“You know the purpose of our research. Any successful cell combinations are subjected to three experimental tests. One kept under observation, one released into the wild, and one used for secretive purposes. We’d lost the Subject released into the wild who’d gone off the radar, his tracking device being forcibly removed and plugged by the Weird Scientist’s backup personality in its place.”
“His backup what?”
“The Weird Scientist left multiple fragments of his mind in his wake, the majority of which still haven’t been found. They’re a menace, and far too easy to install. They were supposed to give access to his thought process, but gave animals the capacity of speech instead.”
Wait, so the Scientist guy she thought might be the Scientist guy who turned out not be the Scientist guy turned out to BE the Scientist guy? This was confusing on multiple levels! Take control of one role and stick to it!
“With this investigation concluded, you should be able to come back to work.”
“So... I’m not fired?”
“Over this? Pfft. You’d be surprised at how often this happens. There are still undocumented locations of the Weird Scientist’s hiding places that have yet to be found.”
This news wasn’t as welcoming to the Girl as the Inquisitive Mother would’ve thought.
“On the plus side, you’ve really bonded with the Patient. It shows that engaging with children isn’t fully beyond your reach. There’s hope for you yet! Particularly for dealing with unresponsive Subjects like that.”
Unresponsive? “But - I talked to him! Multiple times!”
“You’re clearly fatigued. You’ve had a long day, and have permission to go home early. Be sure to come again in the morning.”
“You’re wrong! He can talk! He has trouble sometimes, but he - ”
The Girl was led out in agitated protest, continuing saying delusional words about the Patient. The Inquisitive Mother silently filed this misconception away. The Girl was surely mistaken. All attempts to get the Patient to speak had been met with failure. She obviously must’ve mixed the Patient up with the Escaped Subject infected with the Weird Scientist.
The Inquisitive Mother looked at the photo of her child on her desk, a successful CrossBreed that just barely resembled a human being. The Building was the only place that had subsided child care that would take care of her baby.
The Girl’s indiscretion could be forgiven for her immaturity, postpartum depression, and her dialogues with the Patient could be written off as subjective bonding. The Patient had no ability to speak - it had no intellect to do so. For everyone knew that without the implant, BugMen were incapable of speech.
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