Professor José said to Alexandre as he entered the lift: 'Let's not talk here. You never know who might be listening!"
'OK,' says Alexandre. 'Whatever you say.'
***
Alexandre walks through the door of a suite at Local Hotel of academy, followed by José.
'Nice room, eh?' asks the doctor. "Make yourself at home.
It was an ultra-spacious unit, over 150 square metres and quite luxurious, with a magnificent view of the sea. All the surfaces were lit up by the midday sun.
Professor José walked over to the bar along one wall. He poured whisky into two glasses, then carried them to a leather armchair and sat down. 'Tell me,' he said, sipping from one of the glasses, 'what do you want? Is it money? Objects made by hunters? Prostitutes whenever you want at the academy? They may not pay me nearly what I deserve, but when it comes to paying off my debts, I'm good for it. I can get you anything you want on this bloody island.'
Alexander pulled up a mahogany chair opposite José and took the second drink from the doctor's hand. He too took a sip, savouring the spicy rye in the whisky. 'Patience!' said Alexander. 'First, you and I are going to have a little chat.'
José's expression turns sulky. 'Look, I owe you a favour, but there are limits. If you want top secret information about the academy, you're out of luck. I'm not telling you anything that could get me jailed... or worse. Come on, just tell me how much money you want and we'll leave it at that'.
Alexandre came over and put his hand on Professor José's shoulder, as if he was about to give him some friendly advice.
Then he began to squeeze. 'Perhaps you should give more thought to this decision, Professor. Hasty decisions can have terrible consequences.
Professor José growled, 'Fuck you! You think you're the first hunter to threaten me? Get out of my room!'
There was a thud and José screamed in pain, weakly grabbing Alexander's hand on his shoulder but unable to move it. Alexander had just ripped his arm off.
Bastard!' cried the doctor. 'Assaulting a member of academy staff is grounds for dismissal and arrest! I'll have you dragged off to prison, you bastard!'
Alexander replies coldly, 'Stop crying like a baby. You're a doctor, you know very well that there are no after-effects. Listen, it's obvious that you've been complicit in the negligent deaths of many other candidates, like with that girl in the infirmary. I have no pity for your kind. Tell me what I want to know or it's going to get a lot worse.
José didn't answer, just stared at the floor in frustration. His face had turned white with pain.
Alexandre continued: 'I think that, even for you, it's not easy to get the right dose of S.G.C.. Unlike most drugs, the right dose doesn't just depend on body weight. If the dose is too high, even a normally immune candidate will turn. If the dose is too low, the transformation will fail and the academy will have just wasted tens of thousands of dollars. Especially as you were complaining about staff shortages, these mistakes must be frequent. You often sacrifice innocent people just to save time, you piece of shit'.
The professor grumbles: 'What do you want me to say? For years we've been asking for more doctors to carry out the C.G.S. injections. We need more staff for treatment and monitoring. We need more staff for treatment and monitoring. But no, we don't even have ten doctors to treat over a thousand candidates in a week! The hierarchy is demanding that we give injections in batches when we should be scrupulously tailoring them to each patient!'
Alexandre puts extra pressure on Professor José's arm, intensifying the agonising dislocation. As the doctor screams, Alexandre says coldly: 'You're nothing but scum. If you think I'm going to feel sorry for you, you're wrong.'
Professor José laughed bitterly and said, 'Then kill me! If I tell you anything, Director Hart or General Pantherson will kill me themselves. At least, if you do, I'll have the pleasure of knowing that you'll always be in the dark!'
Alexander finally released the man's arm. He could see that the doctor really wasn't going to give in to this kind of threat. Besides, Alexander would have far too much to lose if he killed Professor José now.
Instead, Alexander said: 'Very well, then. I won't kill you. Stop whining, I've got something to show you.'
Alexander reached down into his bag, unzipped it and took out his laptop. He then took out the USB stick of information Guillaume had given him and inserted it. He opened a file on the stick and let the precious information fill the laptop screen. "Look at this carefully, Professor.