project madness

two: //p ackerman

two: //p ackerman

I sighed heavily, slumped down into the chair before my desk, and flipped on the video camera. I was the only one still making the mandatory video diaries, and that was only because I was stuck to routine rules like a fly to sticky paper.

I rested my chin in my hand and watched the lab behind me in the camera screen projected on the computer. Down the long tables, I could see Tatiana at her station, pulling on a pair of gloves and taking a crinkly doggie bag from under the table.

"It is four fifteen on Friday night," I told the video camera wearily. "The fifteenth of September. And for the record, Tatiana is feeding her lab rats, not her friends."

"They are my friends," Tatiana mumbled from behind me. In the camera I saw her carefully measure out the correct amount of food. Three rat containers were set up in an orderly row on her table.

"Shut up, you're making yourself weird on video."

"At least I'm not making something else on video."

"Tatiana!"

"Well . . . " She cracked open the top of the container of the first one and lowered her rat food inside. "There you go, Mr. Muffins."

I paused the video camera and spun around in my chair. "Scippio was right, get a fricking crucifix. You do realize people watch these videos, right?"

"I know, but they're your videos, so my many guest appearances probably make them all worth watching."

The lab door swung open, admitting a familiar tall frame through, the only adult normally allowed in this particular lab. Tatiana and I looked over as Grayson swished importantly into the lab. "Afternoon," he greeted gruffly, peering into Fox's test tubes. "How are things going with your friends, Tatiana?"

Tatiana glanced up just enough to give me a smirk. "Mr. Muffins has become hypoglycemic."

"How are they, neurologically?"

"Haven't gotten that far yet."

Grayson turned to me. His five o'clock shadow was worse today; he looked like he hadn't bothered with any normal hygienic routines in much too long. "How are your wires coming along?"

I pointed at my lab table, directly adjacent to my desk. "Tangled."

He sighed, but I just ignored him and turned the video camera back on, then spun the computer in his direction. "Any choice words for your guest appearance?"

Grayson did, in fact, give me a few choice words, though they made me cringe and Tatiana give him a thumbs up from the hand that wasn't holding Octavius. Grayson rolled his eyes and rolled me away from the computer. He typed something into the web, and I rolled myself over to Tatiana's lab table. I frowned at the third container.

"I thought there were two rats in here," I said.

"There are," Tatiana said apathetically, sliding something under a microscope. "Siblings."

"Well . . . now there's only one."

Tatiana's head snapped up. She shoved the microscope to the side and leaned over the container, her eyes bulbous in the warped plastic. "Holy shit." I peered closer at the container. The sole rat sat quietly in a corner, waiting by his empty food tray. He was round a plump, unlike the other rats. And -

"My god, is that dried blood?" Tatiana said incredulously. Suddenly, she stood straight up. I met her gaze over the container.

"Tatiana," I started slowly. "I think - "

"He ate his brother," Tatiana finished. "It worked."

"Worked? You've been working on cannibalistic rats this entire time?"

"Only with him," Tatiana scoffed. "And it's not for cannibalism. It's just unlocking and enhancing a - "

"Don't talk neuro to me."

Tatiana raised an eyebrow suggestively. And then a voice from directly over my shoulder said, "Talk dirty to me."

I jumped and spun my chair around wildly. "Jesus Christ, Beetle, stop doing that!" That kid had the most annoying habit of sneaking up on anyone and everyone - and making stupid puns.

"You have to admit, that was almost a missed opportunity. I saved that conversation." The scrawny, black-haired kid nudged me to the side of the chair and sat down next to me, squishing us against each other. "What are we looking at?"

Tatiana lifted the squirming rat out of his container and directed his face at Beetle, flashing her teeth. "Cannibalistic rats." Beetle jumped away like the rat was on fire, pushing our chair back against the opposite lab table. "Grayson, what are you looking at?"

"Porn?" Beetle asked interestedly. I smacked the back of his head.

"News."

"Well, that's not as fun. Ow, stop hitting me!"

I glanced at Grayson, pursing my lips in consideration. "Looking for recruits?"

Grayson's fingers slowed on the keys, but he didn't look my way. "Ackerman, don't be nosy."

"Find any?"

I saw Tatiana's head lift in my peripheral vision. "Do you look in obituaries?"

"Tatiana."

"If you do, how did you find me?"

"Tatiana." Grayson turned around, his jaw set. "Leave the lab."

Tatiana stuck out her chin. "You're kicking me out for asking questions?"

"T," I whispered. "You're squeezing your cannibalistic rat."

Tatiana glanced down at the fat rat gripped in her fingers, and then she carefully lowered him back into the container and lined it up nicely with the other two. She cast a hard, infamous Tatiana Wales glare at Grayson, and then she was gone from the lab in a swish of loose clothing and hair.

I spun my chair towards Grayson. "Her parents weren't dead?"

"Pilot," Grayson snapped. "Do you want to leave, too?"

I raised an eyebrow. "No. I have to finish a video recording."