Girl, Modified

Chapter 3: Rafael

Rafael lead the way down a maze of corridors, to a set of nondescript elevator doors. He pulled out a key card and held it in front of the chip reader. There was a small beep and the green flashing light, before the doors slowly opened.

Rafael and Eli stepped in, and the doctor immediately noted that this was no ordinary elevator. There were no buttons, only a small alpha-numeric keypad, into which his partner imputed a long code. Eli's hopes deflated as he realized that there was no way he could memorize the long string of digits as the other man's fingers ran deftly over the buttons.

He tried not to think of how many times he must have put in that code, to know it that well.

Rafael turned and smiled at him, knowingly. "I have to keep your pretty little wife safe, you know," Rafael said, with a smirk.

Eli scowled.

The elevator went down, down, down.

Privately, Eli wondered how big this building was, and how many floors it really had. He had only concerned himself with the clinics and operating rooms from where had done his work, but now he realized that there was so much more to this whole operation.

And to Rafael, himself.

How stupid had he been, to take this deal?

But then again, what choice had he had? Rafael knew too much.

When the doors finally opened again, the two men stepped out and approached another set of doors with a key card access, to which Rafael provided. The doors opened with whooshing whisper, which led into a dimly lit hallway.

As they walked past each featureless door, anxiety bubbled up through Eli's body.

He hoped that Rafael had not hurt his wife, but the longer they walked and the deeper they went into the compound, the less he believed in that possibility.

Anything kept this far down, wouldn't be kept for any innocuous purpose.

As Rafael lead the pair of them, the hallways became a twisted maze, smelling like antiseptic and something sweeter, almost cloying. They went down another set of stairs, and then through another set of swinging doors. The lights got dimmer and dimmer, as they walked on.

Eli tried desperately to remember this convoluted path, but it was hopeless.

"Almost there, old friend," Rafael said.

The patronizing words graded on Eli's mind. Rafael was no friend of his.

That, he knew, now. He just hoped that he hadn't come to that conclusion too late.

Another set of stairs down, and Eli found himself counting in his head, involuntarily. Ten, nine, eight, seven.

It was an odd compulsion, but when he went to think about it, it was like the thought itself evaporated in his brain.

Six, five.

The lights in the stairwell cast more murky shadows than light.

Four, three, two.

A set of heavy black doors, reinforced with metal rivets, came in to view a few steps in front of them.

One, zero.

"And we're here," Raphael said, his voice unnaturally cheery.

Eli struggled to remember why he was here.

It seemed so right to follow Rafael, but why, again, was he standing here? He tried to think, try to remember, but it was like there was a blank hole in his mind, where these important memories used to be. He turned Rafael, his friend. "Where are we?"