Ah Ra was alone in the HQ amphitheater, a large sterile facility, always kept freezing thanks to nitrogen vapor emitted from grates in the ceiling connected to a closed network of ducts, fed in turn by the nebulizing device from a central coolant tank. The shapes of that mist gave an almost ghostly sensation to the entire room as they danced in the air and swirled on the white tile floor, a dance that would mean the eventual death of anyone who was not wearing the filled cream-green thermal suit, just as the doctor did. She was in one of the autopsy rooms, separated from the rest of the gallery by heavy plastic blinds; at that moment she had just gotten off a small stool with a rectangular rest, and after taking a couple of steps, she turned to look at the 4 metal stretchers she had before her, raised and turned towards her in a vertical position.
- Very good, I think we're done with you for now... - she said tiredly, reviewing them.
She took the two-button controller, which hung from a cable coming from the ceiling, and pressing one of them, the contraptions turned and slowly lowered back to their horizontal position; on them were pronated bodies, kept in position thanks to a series of rings on their extremities. They had been left without their shells, their skin was pale, bearing marks of fatal wounds, bruises and three had slight signs of abdominal swelling when they arrived there, something reverted first of all by infiltrating them with a thoracic catheter. Hours ago the ventilation system had been in charge of recycling the purulent gases; now, rather, the bodies were dry, cyanotic, emaciated and quite rigid, marked by sutures that had just been sealed with the laser cauterizer, resting warm on the tip of a robotic arm near her.
On a wall to the left rested a long table occupying from front to back, and above it, the four organic systems of the deceased, each organ extracted with precision and then stored inside cylindrical containers with sealed handle covers, ready to be preserved in a yellow amniotic fluid. Ah Ra looked at the cylinders, and walked over to take them to the storage rack at the other end of the room; while doing this, she thought about how easy he made it seem with just this pending, but remembering how problematic it was to open the bodies, finding resistance from the subdermal layers to scalpels and tweezers. As dawn advanced upon her, she would reflect, while suturing the already emptied skulls of the subjects, on all the discoveries made; although at first it seemed that way, reviewing and sectioning the subjects, she would soon discover in three of them the first anomalous structures, byproducts of artificial augmentation.
The findings were varied; firstly, laryngeal and alveolar implants that would allow them to retain more air, recycle CO2 into oxygen, filter toxins and alter their voices, while in their digestive systems they found corrosive synthetic enzymes, neural intestinal valves, as well as an osmotic stomach film. Under the subdermal plates of ribs and pectorals, adrenal glands, gallbladder and heart had been replaced with artificial organs; the liver, pancreas, and spleen were modified to different degrees with more implants, generating greater metabolic and musculoskeletal power.
She remembered, while taking a long metallic wheeled table to move the subjects, the genetic analyzes of tissue received an hour ago, showing a disturbing characteristic in their cells; they did not carry a
Such a regenerative factor, as had been confirmed by agent Min, was not nearly as fast in renewing the tissues to a healthy state, and for this reason it had been compensated with the characteristics that she had already been able to study together with the IT chief and secgen genius Hae Goo Joon, her closest person. She even remembered how, in the first three hours of the procedure, his eyes had lit up as he watched those cybernetic wonders being removed one by one; he was interested in the multilayer polymer alloy under the attackers' skins, the ceramic bone reinforcements, but above all, in what was inside their nervous systems.
- These three were no game – Ah Ra pondered – as he said; what they lacked was time.
The first thing they could observe were the microscopic nodes in the abdominal nerves, and after reaching the spinal column, it was revealed that these were also found in the spinal cord, being larger on average; the metallic material they appeared to be composed of, they speculated, could be a superconductor. While his companion looked at her carefully with a slight smile, she proceeded to check one more place before finishing, and that was the inside of the skulls; x-rays did not reflect ordinary metals, therefore suspecting that, as in the rest of the body, the alloy of such implants had adamantine polymers. Because of this she had to do an in-depth review with her own eyes; The first time she tried to cut the skulls of one of the cyborgs, the circular saw broke, forcing her to use the laser scalpel that the doctor had now placed back in her compartment, along with the rest of the surgical assistance robot.
The red light beam was effective and made the first woman's shell give way, revealing the intracranial layer of armor, and beneath it, a network of fine geometric lines running through the brain membranes like circuits in a microprocessor; part of the gray matter presented similar patterns, thinner and densely grouped. They found filaments of microscopic diameter permeating sections of the white matter, atrophied tonsils, and synthetic fibers attached to the cranial nerves; other small implants were also found in the eyes, nose and inner ears, such as tracking chips or transmission receptors in the ossicles. When separating the parietals, the doctor found a device that her colleague could not interpret with the naked eye, composed of two symmetrical lobes with a prismatic and oblong shape; this was more difficult to extract, as it adhered fiercely to the cold and rigid limbic system, flashing red lights for a few seconds before going out.
The case of the fourth subject was different, a young ectomorphic man, of Indian appearance and wavy reddish-brown hair, who didn't have augmentations like the others, possessing much more ordinary tissues and DNA except for some sequences, analogous to the
- It was good Goo Joon saw it - Ah Ra muttered - Now they just need to take it clean.
She remembered what the computer scientist had responded upon seeing some of the implants, while closing the cryogenic compartment of the last emptied body, a valuable repository of a unique cellular material, at least for its record and subsequent slip into oblivion; she left the long cart in its place and walked towards the sterilizer box. From the filaments and patterns, for example, she inferred their usefulness to increase synaptic speed between different areas of the central nervous system, in turn avoiding bioelectrical overload; such would have to be analyzed under a microscope and its conductivity-resistivity tested to confirm it, along with other things. Without wasting any more time, Ah Ra vacuum-sealed the sets of brain implants passed through disinfectant and photonic beam, and activated the communicator:
- Please, I need you in the amphitheater. Come immediately.
- Yes, Dr. Yoo, I'm on my way – a young woman responded
Within a few minutes, as Ah Ra finished vacuum sealing the dissected brain samples of the three attackers, a beep sounded and a standby light was activated at the entrance to the main chamber of that freezer; A small figure, with loose hair and a round face, entered the decontamination antechamber. After receiving the ultraviolet light bath and being sprayed with intelligent anti-pollution steam, she took the attire with her name and entered through the interior door, whose light went out after closing behind it; She approached and greeted respectfully:
- What do you need from me? – she asked.
- Take this immediately to chief Hae; tell him we can't take more than a week. You know what the director's like...
- But doctor, I don't have authorization, what do I tell the guards?
- Use this.
From a pocket she took out his identification card, hanging from a pink ribbon:
- I understand. I hope they don't think I stole it.
- Don't worry, I've done this before. So they'll know I sent you.
- If you say so…
- Trust me, I know how to choose my staff. I trust you.
- Okay, then I'll hurry up.
- Wait, one more thing...
- Yeah?
- When you talk to Goo Joon...I mean, with chief Hae, tell him that I'll be waiting...tomorrow, at 6...to train.
She had not spent more than six months at the headquarters, but thanks to asking others who had been there longer, she was able to perfectly understand the euphemism; she smiled a little embarrassed behind the viewer:
- I will tell him.
The assistant nodded, took the cart with the devices, and after disinfecting herself in the anteroom, taking off her suit and leaving the amphitheater, the girl disappeared down the hallway at a nervous pace, trying to complete her boss's order as quickly as possible. Ah Ra rested a hand on an instrument table, and snorted in stress; in a few minutes her assistant would arrive at the entrance to the informatics area, and one of those who was there, dressed in a black uniform, stopped talking to another guard and approached her:
- Good day ma'am. Show me your ID.
She was reluctant for a couple of seconds, but soon handed over the doctor's card. Behind the subject's shoulder, the guard also observed, and immediately understood:
- Ah, I see, chief Yoo sent her.
- And why doesn't she come herself? – asked the first one.
The assistant thought of the most reasonable excuse and answered:
- Dr. Yoo had pending assignments elsewhere. And these samples are a confidential matter.
The guy in the uniform stared at her for a couple of seconds, walking around her:
- If I wait any longer...Director Kim will be displeased with everyone. And that's no good
- Yes, I know - the guy told him, with a twitch on his lip.
He instinctively touched the vertical scar between his face and neck, then said to the guard:
- Okay, let her pass - he nodded to the one in uniform, and then said to her - But if you do something stupid I'll make sure you never work again.
He nodded, and gestured for him to proceed through the checkpoint with the forklift; The man in the uniform immediately began to walk away from there, while someone else arrived from the inner hallway to receive the young woman, a boy more or less the same age, who had his hair a contrasting bluish black color:
- Are you chief Hae? – asked the assistant.
- Uh, yes, it's me - he greeted, with little interest - What you need?
- Here I bring the implants you requested from the amphitheater.
- It's true, I was just going out to ask; we need to see what they contain in their software, and soon…
- It didn't seem...so urgent.
- It is, girl. And this will help us understand the attackers better – he said, taking the car
- Before I go, there's something else.
- Tell me.
- The doctor will see you tomorrow at 6 to train.
- Oh, yes, yes, of course - he responded quietly, looking around - Tell him I'll be there.
- Very good. Goodbye, have a good day.
- Yes, you too – Goo Joon replied
In this way, and somewhat surprised by the inattentive dryness in the responses of this IT chief, the assistant returned the way she had come; once in the general hallways, she turned on her communicator:
-Doctor Yoo.
In a few seconds, she responded:
- Did you do it?
- Yes ma'am, it's done.
- Thank you - she responded - And don't worry about coming back; you have the day off today.
- Really? Oh, thanks ma'am.
She turned off the communication, and went another way to go to her assigned bedroom in the medical wing. The first thing the assistant would do was having some rest.
Ah Ra, meanwhile, had already decontaminated herself, and after taking off her scaffold, she left the amphitheater to go to her assigned barracks in the habitation area; as head of the neurology department, she was entitled to a room of her own at HQ, but time and habit had dissuaded her from requesting a transfer. She turned right to take the hallway that led to the closed gondola which would take her directly from the penal health area that he'd reach following that path, which was used for recently captured prisoners, for intensive care of recovered assets, or, on numerous occasions, both at the same time. She stopped halfway for a moment, however, a the place was not as deserted as it seemed; keeping a safe distance she lookedat a tall man, whom she soon recognized as bodyguard Seo Jin.
Ah Ra almost never interacted with him, and the few times she had, it were short exchanges in the last three years, and that not counting controlled interactions when they were children, behavioral studies mostly; she remembered that taciturn look in his eyes from the first time she saw him, and it gave her chills. Barely moments passed, and the door he was flanking opened suddenly; another man carried a patient from the arm, who was barely struggling. She noticed the shivering and thin silhouette of that hostage, dressed only in a clinical gown, looking at her from head to toe, noticing the shackles on her ankles and the handcuffs on her wrists, and her round face, anxious expression, and somewhat disoriented look, realizing immediately who was it about:
"The double…but where are they taking her? Maybe…maybe I should ask them…"
Just behind the patient, Raon herself appeared, closing the door to that room using her mind, and passing her counterpart. Her expression was so neutral that it became inscrutable to the doctor, who still preferred to keep her distance Once everyone disappeared from her field of vision, she finally dared to take the first steps, having also made a grim realization. That direction they had taken led directly to the confinement area, but also to the test labs.
"I wish you hadn't come to the wrong place. Hope you're not guilty of anything."
Giving a sigh with some regret, she hurriedly continued down the hallway until reaching the door of the gondola, and pressing a button on the side panel, she waited for it to reach her. She waited with her arms crossed, her sight beginning to become lazy, giving the occasional yawn, as she wanted to go to sleep after two pretty active weeks of non-stop work.