UNIQUE (A Powers Novel)

Eight

The first day is nothing like I expect. Someone from legal comes to my room after breakfast to guide me to the right office on Paragon's Legal Department floor. We go down to 92 and walk out of the elevator into a series of cubicles and offices. Phones are ringing, and people are talking. A group of well-dressed people stands near a copy machine in the far corner. As we walk past them, I hear them talking about some legal brief.

I'm taken into is a posh meeting room with a long table running down its center. Three lawyers sit in chairs along one side, each dressed in immaculate suits with their backs to the bay of windows occupying one wall. Each has a padded leather binder in front of them.

I'm sitting across from them, feeling overwhelmed by the formality of it all.

It isn't that I don't understand. Paragon has billions of dollars invested in the research and development sector of the company. It would be foolish to think I wouldn't find myself across from lawyers at a table like this at some point. Still, I'm barely old enough to sign documents on my own. The idea that I have to do so without a parent or a lawyer present is a bit terrifying. I try and stay calm, folding my sweaty hands in my lap, but it's hard to keep the jitters at bay.

"Mr. Powers," one of the counselors says with a too-polite smile. She's an attractive-ish woman in her early thirties, but despite the loose-flowing brown hair, there's something severe about her angular face that makes her smile insincere. "My name is Eunice. These are my co-counselors, Daniel and Richard."

I glance at the other two. Daniel is older than my father, with snow-white hair and a face that shows his age. Richard is only a little younger, showing silver along the temples of his black hair. All three of them are very clearly corporate lawyers.

"Don't worry, Ugene. This meeting is just a formality," says Eunice. "As you can imagine, Paragon Diagnostics must always ensure that its assets are protected. So we will be going over some legal agreements, non-disclosure and the like, and have you fill out the paperwork that allows your pay to be processed and your benefits to begin. Every new employee of Paragon goes through this same process."

Employee. I'm a lab rat, but for some reason hearing her call me an employee fills me with exhilaration. There's a lightness in my chest, and I lean back in the chair, feeling more at ease than I have since arriving.

The paperwork is relatively straightforward—or at least the concepts behind them are. It's like I'm autographing a book. My eyes widen at first when the non-disclosure agreement is placed in front of me. It has to be nearly a hundred pages long! I awkwardly flip through, trying to get a grip on what I'm signing, but there's so much legal-speak that it's impossible.

Eunice and her co-counselors offer me reassurance and try to walk me through the contract step-by-step. "It's standard," she tells me.

Basically, agreeing to keep what I learn about the research and product development at Paragon private, and won't leak any sensitive information to the press or competitors. I agree not to publish or copy anything that belongs to Paragon. The list goes on. The things I agree not to do are much longer than those I am allowed to do. It takes almost two hours to talk through the whole document, and I know there's something that they didn't mention.

Once that's out of the way, they hand over the voluntary clinical testing agreement for me to sign. This document isn't nearly as long as the last, but it's just as daunting to get through. But one part strikes me as interesting.

"This says that my blood, plasma, and marrow are property of Paragon Diagnostics," I say, leaning over one of the pages. A frown creases my face. "Isn't that saying that you own me?"

"No," says Richard, reaching his pen across the table to point out a particular phrase on the page. "As you see here, that clause is only about samples we take from you. We would have no legal right actually to own you or any part of your physical self. Paragon only has the right to what you give during your testing."