Hero complex, p.4
Hero Complex, page 4
She turned to locate the source of the noise. Dr. Ford was standing by the built-in cabinet behind the bed gaping at her, a pair of pants and T-shirt in hand.
“You can turn it on and off? Amazing.”
“On and off? What are you talking about?” Bronte looked back at Athena, searching her face for a clue.
She turned her hands over and back examining every surface. She threw off the blanket and looked at her legs and feet. Everywhere there had been soft, pliable skin moments ago, was now hardened and impenetrable. It looked like a solid form of liquid mercury. She touched her face, and the muted clang of metal contacting metal gave her all the data she needed about the state of her face.
“You said this has happened to me before?” Bronte examined her hands once again. Astonishment quickly turned to confusion and anxiety. That panic was forming a tidal wave. She forced herself to focus on the science.
The zeptobots were supposed to work inside the body to seek out and kill cancer cells. Why was she covered in metal? Nothing in her research indicated this was a possible side effect. Was it because she injected so many? Because she didn’t have any cancer to seek and destroy? Were they finding their own work? She shuddered at the thought of self-employed zeptobots roaming her body. What else would they do to her?
“The entire time you’ve been here, in a medically induced coma, you’ve been metallic,” Dr. Ford said.
“Why would they do this to you?” Athena sat on the edge of the bed and put her hand on Bronte’s knee.
Why did she want Athena to keep her hand in hers? She’d not had anyone care enough to try to comfort her for longer than she could remember.
“They didn’t do this to me.” Bronte sighed. “This is why I’m here. They’re trying to get this out of me, to steal it. I did this to myself.”
Bronte sank back into her pillow and stared again at the drop ceiling, seeking answers in the pits and swirls of the tiles above her. Had Bard managed to get any of the zeptobots from her in the year Bronte had been held captive? If so, what would Bard do with them? Verstrand Industries made electronics, specialty machine components, and other consumer goods. At least those were the legitimate, advertised products. Rumors had dogged the company for years pertaining to illegal sales of guns, body armor, and other weapons. What would Bard be able to do with a metal suit? Bronte nearly vomited.
She looked once again at her hands. She’d wanted to give a gift to humanity and had created something that even to her felt like the best kind of science fiction. But now she was a metal skinned part-human and her technology might be in the hands of the unscrupulous head of a powerful worldwide corporation. What had she done? What had she unleashed on the world?
Chapter Four
Athena must have heard wrong. Bronte couldn’t have said the metal skin was self-inflicted, right?
“Tell me what you mean. Why do you think you did this to yourself?” She gently patted Bronte’s knee. It was like tapping a bronze sculpture, cool, hard, and smooth.
“I don’t think that’s the question you really want to ask. I’m made out of metal.” Bronte knocked her knuckles against her knee next to Athena’s hand. “Nothing can hurt me.” She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Metal maybe, but I suspect there’s a very human heart still beating in there. Besides, I asked the question I want the answer to. I have others lined up, but we’ll start there.”
“Don’t you have other patients you have to see?” Bronte looked from Athena to Galen.
Athena looked over her shoulder at the swarm of basilisks pacing the hall outside the room and glanced at Galen. She was pacing too and looked like Athena had felt in fifth grade trying to solve the word problems in math class. It wasn’t a pretty, or comforting, sight.
“I have plenty of time.” Athena turned her full attention back to Bronte. “Lay it on me.”
“Well, you see, it all started when I was a young girl.” Bronte leaned back against her pillows and laced her fingers behind her head. She looked a smidge more relaxed and the hint of a smile played at the corner of her mouth.
“Oh, this is how it’s going to be. So I should make myself comfortable then?” At Bronte’s wry smile Athena dragged a chair to the bedside. She propped her feet on the foot of the bed and indicated Bronte should continue.
“When I was a girl, I fell in love with science. Not a flirtation but a deep, passionate love affair. We bonded for life. Soul mates. I never lost that love, but it’s brought me to a strange place today.” Bronte frowned as she glanced at her hands.
“So you went from a kid obsessed with her first chemistry set and looking at plants and dirt under a microscope to a woman with metal skin? I like science too, but…” Athena held up her arms and turned them over and back. “Nothing as cool as yours.”
“Says the Greek warrior goddess. You wear the name well. What am I now? More tin can than human.” Bronte looked at the ceiling, her eyes moving back and forth as though she was reading.
Athena had seen her do that more than once. Was she searching for a higher power or buying herself time?
“And you just called me a goddess, which is hardly human. Thank you, by the way. What if I say your new ability makes you a God?” Athena put her feet back on the floor and leaned forward in her chair, toward Bronte.
“You’d be wrong.” Bronte didn’t look at Athena.
“Says who?”
Bronte did look at Athena now. “Says me.”
“You’re just one opinion. I have a different one.” Athena propped her feet again. Should she be pushing Bronte’s buttons like this? More to the point, should she be enjoying it?
“My opinion is the only one that matters. It’s me we’re talking about.”
“Why? You have one view, I have another. You don’t get to be right by default. Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘she knew me better than I knew myself’?” Athena looked pointedly at Bronte.
“That doesn’t apply here. You don’t know me.” Bronte’s brow furrowed. “This”—Bronte indicated the metal on her body—“is not a triumph or a super suit. I’m not proud of it. This is a failure of my life’s work. And because of that failure, I have no idea what’s in store for me each minute that passes. I’ve woken after a year to find myself restrained and made of metal, with no idea how to get the hell out of here and get my life back. I find that terrifying.” Bronte looked startled at the admission.
“I’ll concede the point that I don’t know you. That’s something I’m trying very hard to change. So, how’d you end up with the exoskeleton? And why are you here, insisting on arguing with me?”
As Athena talked and teased, she watched Bronte not exactly relax, but release some of the pressure Athena had seen building since Bronte had awoken. As she did, the metal receded and her skin returned to its normal pigmentation and human softness. Athena reached out and poked Bronte in the leg.
“Ow. What the hell?”
“I was just checking.” Athena leaned closer to Bronte’s leg where she’d jabbed. “Whoa. Look at that.”
Spreading out from the area of insult was a ring of metal roughly six inches in diameter. As they watched it melted back into Bronte’s skin until there was no sign it had been there at all.
“Pretty good defense.” Athena’s fingers tingled with the urge to touch Bronte again. To conduct another experiment though, right? Not to comfort her and soothe away some of the uncertainty and terror in her eyes.
“It was a little late. Didn’t show up until after you poked me. Try again.” Bronte looked pensive.
Despite wanting to touch Bronte again, now she wasn’t interested in repeating her earlier impulsive act. She squinted and jabbed out her finger. “Ow.” She hit metal.
“Yes.” Bronte nodded slightly and her mouth crooked into a small smile. “My hypothesis was correct.” At Athena’s quizzical look, she said, “I invented zeptobots. It was what I was working on when I was, well, when all this happened.” Bronte waved her hand in front of her body. “They were supposed to be the answer to curing cancer.”
“I’m going to pretend I know what a zeptobot is for a moment. How did they end up in your body and how did you end up here?” Was this how a small child would feel taking college level organic chemistry?
“Bard Verstrand.” Bronte’s expression hardened and the steely expression was mirrored by actual metal rising through her skin and covering her face.
Before Athena could ask more about Bard Verstrand’s involvement Spero was at her side. He put his hand on her shoulder, spinning her to face him. She was caught off guard and didn’t avert her eyes in time. His screen was lit with an angry emoji.
A wave of fury threatened to drown her. She couldn’t remember being driven by so much rage. She couldn’t contain it; she needed to release some of it before the boiling inferno destroyed her from the inside. She needed a target. What had Bronte said? Bard Verstrand had held her captive? That wasn’t right. She’d make it right.
“Where is Bard Verstrand?” Athena barely recognized her own voice.
“Spero, you fool. What are you doing?”
Athena saw Galen spin Spero away from her, but it didn’t matter. She had a purpose. All that stood in the way were the basilisks. She turned to the door and ran into Galen.
“Get out of my way.” Athena tried to push through Galen.
“I can’t let you go out there. You’ll be back to yourself in a few minutes. They won’t be kind to you.” Galen braced herself.
Athena’s face was hot, and it felt like the blood running through her neck to her head was pulled directly from the surface of the sun. “Last chance, Galen. Get out of the way.” She pulled her arm back, her hand in a fist.
When she moved forward to swing, her momentum was halted. What the hell? She whipped around and was face to face with Bronte, out of bed and gloriously shiny.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but it seems like the guy with the computer face did something to you and I think you’ll regret it if you hit the doc. I don’t know what those jelly beans with curling stones stuck on top are, but they look a bit ominous, so it seems like the four of us should get along in here. Okay?”
Athena yanked her hand free. She dropped it to her side. She stalked back to her chair and sat heavily. She took a couple of deep breaths, shuddered, tipped her head back, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, her body was her own again.
“Spero, you asshole. Don’t do that to me again.”
“Your name is Spero?”
Athena opened her eyes and saw Bronte, now wearing pants under her gown, crossing the room to Spero’s bed. Spero was sitting with his knees pulled to his chest, rocking subtly.
Bronte sat on the bed in front of him. Galen moved toward her, but she held up her hand to stop her. “Can I look at your computer? I’m good with technology, I might be able to make it more comfortable. Before I take a look, you have to promise not to do to me what you just did to Athena. Deal?”
Spero nodded, then looked up, his screen blank.
“Good man.” Bronte inspected each side of the screen carefully. “I can make some changes to your hardware. Would that be okay?”
Spero nodded again but didn’t say a word.
“Are you able to speak or has this screen taken that ability?” Bronte leaned in closer to the connection around Spero’s mouth.
Spero made a motion like he was zipping his lips. Athena thought he looked sad.
Bronte nodded and patted him on the shoulder. “I’d also like to get a look at the software, see how you and it have become connected, but I can’t do it from in here. I’m the new guy, but it doesn’t look like those creatures out there would slide in a toolbox if I opened the door and asked.”
Galen barked out a laugh.
“Would you believe this is my first day on the job?” Athena was back on her feet but across the room from Bronte and Spero.
Bronte turned toward Athena and nodded solemnly. “So you aren’t attached to the job yet? Excellent. We need to get out of here.”
Athena sat heavily on the bed and looked from Bronte to Spero to Galen. Then she took a peek out the window at the basilisks. What the hell did Bronte mean “get out of here?” Out in the hall? Off the floor? Out of the hospital? Was Bronte insane? Athena didn’t have to go anywhere. She worked here and could fill out a million pounds of paperwork about what happened today. All she had to do was get Bronte and Spero back in bed.
“I know what you’re thinking, Athena.” Galen sat on the bed next to her. “They won’t believe you. They’ve seen you cutting off her restraints and chatting like you were on a fucking date. You think they’ll really believe you had no part in our escape? We probably don’t even have the time to get out, actually.”
“How the hell do you do that?” Athena poked her finger into Galen’s chest. The fact that she’d said “our” escape was interesting and something to question later.
“Now’s not the time.” Galen turned away.
Athena stalked away and found a perch away from the rest. She needed this job. That’s why she took this weird ass assignment in the first place. The pay was higher than anything she could make elsewhere and she was told she’d still be helping people. But helping unconscious science projects hadn’t been in the job description. She looked at Bronte. That was obviously where the adventure would be found. She’d never hesitated to follow the adrenaline and excitement before, why was she hesitating now? Maybe it had something to do with a woman with metal skin and a dude with a computer fused to his face. Skydiving and mountain climbing couldn’t compete with that. She was in a different league now and it was giving her pause.
Damn it. Damn it all to hell. She was going to have to look for another job.
Chapter Five
Bronte paced her small hospital room. A sigh escaped before she could squelch it. She scrubbed her face with both hands. Before she pulled them away, she explored the contours of her face with her fingers. It was something a baby might do trying to understand each feature and texture. She had to learn herself anew. Right now her skin was soft and recognizably human. Exactly as she’d known it throughout her life thus far. A short time ago it had been hard as steel, smooth as ice, and if she had to guess, nearly indestructible.
The change from one to the other could happen in the next minute or not again for days. She sighed again. The zeptobots might be her own creations, but at the moment they were maddeningly unpredictable. Her artist parents would love the chaos. As a scientist, she did not. Especially since she’d inadvertently created this chaos despite her careful experiments and engineering. It still didn’t seem possible.
She scrubbed her face once again and pulled her hands away with a jerk. Now was not the time for self-reflection or self-pity.
“Doc, have you taken the time you need to consider my request?” Bronte crossed the room to Dr. Ford, who’d been sitting silently against the wall, her chin propped in her hands. Athena was new and it was clear the doctor knew what the hell waited beyond the doors, not to mention who’d be coming after them. It was her that Bronte had to convince.
“If you’re asking me to seriously consider this you might as well call me Galen.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s my name. Did all that metal sever a few nerve connections here?” Galen tapped Bronte’s head.
Bronte swatted her off. She had more she wanted to say but was cut off by a loud bang on the room door. Everyone jumped. Bronte moved to the window to see what made the racket, but Galen stopped her.
“Don’t get close to the windows. We need to leave. Immediately. Spero, if they didn’t confiscate everything when they transferred you in here, pack it up now.” Galen hastened to the windows and pulled the curtains closed roughly.
Bronte turned to Spero, who’d been sitting quietly on his bed watching Galen and Bronte argue. Now he was standing next to both of them, his screen blank, a backpack he’d clearly made himself slung across his shoulders.
“They kept you sedated. When did you have time to gather your stuff and pack, let alone make that?” Galen motioned at the backpack.
“Never mind. Athena, do you have anything you need to grab?” Bronte walked to Athena’s side and squatted next to her.
“I’m not going with you. Tie me up if you think that will help make it look like I didn’t have a choice about you leaving, but there are other patients on this floor. This is my job. We have a responsibility to them.” Athena glared at Galen. “We can’t just leave them here.”
Bronte thought there was regret in Athena’s eyes. She didn’t really want to stay.
“We can tweet about what’s happening here, or go after Bard Verstrand ourselves, or call the president. I don’t care, but I’m not sticking around once the basilisks attack. And there are things about the patients here you don’t understand. If they wake up, we’re in a world of shit. The two you saw are just the beginning and that’s not counting the basilisks.” Galen moved to the window again and peeked out.
Bronte joined her. The creatures the others had called “basilisks” were swarming. They looked like ants after an insult was introduced to the nest.
“They’re tired of waiting us out. Athena and I are allowed free movement as long as we stick to the same routine. Since that went out the window, they’ve likely got orders from on high to clean up this mess. The purple ones will lead from the back, but they’ll send every last one on the attack. They’re going to come in and get you. You and Spero.” Galen’s face was strained and pale.
“I imagine they won’t be kind to you or Athena either.” Bronte put her hand on Galen’s shoulder. The muscles beneath Bronte’s hand were knotted harder than her own exoskeleton had been.
