The God Codex

20. Ruse

BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 20: Ruse

"Count to ten, backward," the anesthesiologist murmurs above me as she places the mask over my mouth and nose.

My palms are clammy. My heart races faster than a stallion, and I'm not entirely sure volunteering to be sedated while under Dr Hill's watchful eye is the wisest move I've made to date. In fact, it's probably the worst, but it's not like I have an escape plan worked out yet, nor where to go after we escape this facility, Nate and I. I spare a thought to Camp Sweep, and what else may have transpired after our escape. Why do I suddenly have to escape from everywhere I end up in my life, anyway? What's with that? Do I have a 'chase me' sign tacked to my back?

"Please count back from ten, Mia." The woman holding the mask is impatient. I thought I had been, until now, but maybe I hadn't?

"Ten, nine, eight..." I count eagerly. I wouldn't mind looking like I have two small boobs rather than the awkward one. By the time I get to zero, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I glance at her, hovering over me like a ghoul in her protective gear. I pull my mask down and ask, "Am I supposed to still be awake?"

She looks at me, most annoyed. "No!" Then she cranks up her dial and puts the mask on me again. "Again, from ten."

"Ten, nine, eight ..." Again, I count all the way till zero and I only feel a little light-headed. Before she can say it again, I say it. "One more time I think," and she obliges me. I count from ten again, "...seven, s-i-x..." and then I don't remember after that. Guess they finally knocked me out.

When I feel my body again, I'm in a dark recovery room, hooked up to many things and somewhere just beyond my door, I hear people talking. I hear my name and I strain to hear them better. I'm still not fully out of anesthesia, but they are talking about my procedure and I want to hear how it went.

"Come on, come a little closer," I mutter. "Let me hear you!" And abruptly, it feels like my ears either grew bigger or wider or something akin to that. I can hear them much better suddenly, clear as a bell.

"The exploration yielded nothing? How can that be?" Dr Hill explodes if exploding while keeping your voice down is possible. "The whole augmentation procedure was a ruse, so we could use the opportunity to explore her body and you got me nothing?"

"I'm sorry," I can hear the hesitation in Dr Strasbourg's voice. What was she expecting him to find in my body, anyway? I almost want to scream, but I hold my tongue.

"She's got nothing there. She's a normal teen. What do you want me to say?"

"She is not a normal teen!" Dr Hill spits. I imagine her spitting. "That girl is a machine, a machine that somehow mimics human biology and I intend to find out how."

"There was nothing machine-like about her, Dr Hill," Strasbourg answers her and I perk up a little as his voice drops.

Dr Hill thinks I'm a machine? What the fudge?!

"I mean, yes she was a little tougher to operate on, and kept healing so fast that I had to use some cryogenic tech to slow her system down, but as far as I could see, nothing about her differs from what all of us have in our bodies. Organs."

I hear their footsteps move to the door, closer to my room, and I close my eyes and pretend to still be under.

"Her cellular biology is part fusion nanotech, Dr Strasbourg. Do you know what that means?"

The man is silent. Heck, neither of us knows what that means, Dr Hill, so why don't you enlighten us?

"That girl, whoever she is, was not made in a womb. They made her in a lab, whoever they are. She's a perfect harmony of cells and nanites. She has no code we can actively detect, yet she has all the functions of elite CodeTech, with none of its side effects. No MRI, CT scan, body scan... nothing's revealed what she is. Every non-invasive investigative test we've run yielded nothing. She eats, sleeps, grows, and shits, but she's not human. Not entirely."