Invisible Death

The Rat Pit

Cold. It was cold in there. And white. No color, no machinery, no nothing, only the padded walls and soft floor. Her torn nightgown had been changed for a regular hospital gown, loosely tied in the back and nothing else. Who had changed her, she didn't know. How long had she been lying on the padded floor, she didn't know either. Now that whatever drug they had fed her was wearing off, she realized the place had no external source of light. There was no way to know if it was day or night. Her grasp of time would be warped pretty soon.

Donna licked her parched lips and breathed deep, managing to sit up and leaning against the soft wall. Her head felt very heavy. She touched her forehead and ran her hands through her scalp. Her beautiful thick hair that reached below her waistline was all gone. She had been shaved bald while out cold. Why? Had someone committed her to a mental institution? Donna Gryphon was no coward, but she felt her heart shrink in her chest when her hand went from her bare skull to the nape of her neck and she touched the round cold metal of the compact subdermal-governor sticking out of her skin. No way could she use her considerable powers to try and escape her padded cell, but she could still fight. She was a trained martial arts fighter, only bested by a feral like Shalimar Fox. She could fight if she could stand up at all...

A door cracked open in the far wall, letting two strong men in orderly uniforms enter. They flanked the door as another; leaner, frailer looking man in a lab coat and a young nurse stepped inside the cell. He looked at her and motioned to the orderlies, who went to Donna and pulled her up by the arms. When he spoke, it was to the men, not to Donna. "Hold it firmly. The drug effect is almost at an end." He turned to the nurse. "First report?"

The nurse smacked her lips and locked her hands behind her back, trying to look professional, but managing only to look even younger. She started to speak as they led the captive out. "Subject # 9, civilian name, Donna Sacheen Gryphon, 32 years old, Native American, natural of Kentucky, USA. Graduate psychologist, former officer of Cascade Police Department. Her records show psionic powers on the higher levels of the PB scale in more than one class. She is both a telekinetic and telecyber, with mild precog abilities..."

The doctor lifted his hand, silencing the nurse. "Her? She? You should use proper language when referring to anomalies." He pointed to Donna, led by the orderlies, then turned to the nurse and smiled benignly. "That is not a person. That is a freak of Science, an aberration. It only looks human on the outside."

"I know, Dr. Harrison, but they look so scared when they arrive here." She looked directly into Donna's eyes, huge, black and pleading. "And they talk to us. They sound so fragile, so... human."

Ken Harrison sighed. "You are still very young, and looks can be deceiving, but that was lab engineered, a biological war weapon. Their kind can mean our end as a species." He patted the nurse's hand like a father. "Go with them. I'll be right there. I need measurements before the first session: weight, height, muscle tone, body fat, everything. Plus temperature, heartbeat rate and BP."

The young nurse smiled at the good doctor. He wouldn't report her, not this time, even if she had referred to anomalies as people more than once. As she turned around, she could feel his eyes on her back.

"Nice piece of rump, don't you think, naughty boy?" The whisper was little more than a lip movement, but Thomasina Hobson, Harrison's mistress and administration assistant, knew full well she had been heard loud and clear.

Harrison almost jumped out of his skin. "That's not what I was thinking about." His breath was quick, his heart a marching band inside his chest. "Tomorrow, you transfer that girl to the Medical Center. Give her a promotion, a small raise, anything to make her happy." He turned to Thomasina. "I want her dealing with human patients, not anomalies of any kind. That means, no special infectious diseases ward or..."