Chapter 9

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Jackson turned the key to off and locked the Mercedes with the fob. The sun began to purple the sky on the eastern horizon during the drive over and now Jackson could see easily as be badged into the lab.

He walked in, alone, shoes squeaking on the floor. He sat in the chair at his workstation and didn't bother to turn on the lights. Enough sunlight came through the square windows near the ceiling to cast the lab in a dim grey light.

At some point he drifted off into a dream-filled sleep. When he awoke, Fred was gone. Dr. M must have come and taken him quietly enough to not wake Jackson. Just as well. He didn't want to talk to Dr. M any more than he had to.

Jackson talked to himself and to the world, out loud and in his head. It was all the same in the still air of solitude.

He flipped through the research on his computer and talked to Adam, but he made no progress. Day and night became the same, the passing week becoming one long day. He ate from the fridge and drank from the

fountain, subsisting on his own until the day Tyler returned with a wrinkled nose and a scowl on his face.

Jackson awoke on the floor with a disturbing sense that someone was watching him and blinked awake to find Tyler towering over him. The lights were on now, and Jackson held his hand in front of his face like a golfer blocking out the sun and looking for his ball in the sunny blue sky.

"Jackson, how long have you been here?" Tyler asked. His voice was quiet but strong, the voice of a disappointed father sentencing his rebel son.

"A couple days," Jackson said. It was a lie, but Jackson didn't know it was a lie. Any amount of time he could have answered would have equally been a lie, for Jackson truly had no idea how long he had been living in the lab.

"Smells like more than a couple days, boss."

"Could be a little longer. Doesn't matter. I didn't figure it out." "You've been here the whole two weeks, haven't you?" Jackson's silence was answer enough.

"You need help," Tyler said, taking a seat in the Imprint chair. "This isn't healthy. This is killing you. You aren'y yourself anymore, boss. We can all see it. No discovery you can make in this lab is worth your life."

Jackson's eyes shot wide. He pushed himself to his feet and limped over to Tyler. Why am I limping? "That, Tyler, is why you're wrong. This lab, the discovery I can make here, is worth my life. In fact, it's the only thing that makes my life worth living."

Jackson stared into Tyler's squinted eyes as his mouth fell into a frown.

"Jackson... you have a wife. And a son. Deep down there, beneath your obsession, your addiction, your manic-insomniac madness, is the real you, the you I know, the you that loves your wife and your son. I want him back. And so does your family."

"You fool, don't you see? I'm playing the forever game. Sara and William and you and me, we're all going to die one day, all gonna lay in the dirt, surrounded by dirt until we become dirt. Unless... Unless. I'm so close. I don't want to be dirt, Tyler. I'm going to live forever and I'm going to bring you with me."

Jackson's head snapped to the right at the low grumble of a diesel engine rolling into the parking lot. He looked back at Tyler whose frown turned into a scowl, his pity into a rage. "I talked to the board before I came in. They called me. Ninety days. That's how long we have to turn up something marketable or we're getting shut down."

"But-"

"No. Quiet. Ninety days, that's it. Now get out of here and clean yourself up before anyone else sees you or I'll quit right now. Go take a shower, get some sleep, and don't even think about coming back until tomorrow. Maybe hug your wife and son while you're at it."

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