A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 48 Shifting 2

Chapter 48 Shifting 2

"The surgery is complete. He is completely recovered. His powers are fully blended. What are we waiting for?" Tassen was impatient, the sound of his pacing steps quick, furious.

Dr. Hall did not answer Tassen. He had his head bent, scribbling notes with both hands, lost in thought. His ability to write detailed, separate notes at incredible speed, using both hands, was widely known. Partially because of the amazing nature of it, but more so in that Dr. Hall was the only one in the entire lab system who still used pencil and paper.

The computer systems available to the scientists and doctors were so advanced that there was no need to capture notes by hand, so no one besides Dr. Hall did it. He did not care that he was unlike the others. His precise memory was linked to his notes. Once he had written something down, it was embedded into his memory forever.

He agreed that the subject was physically ready. The boy's amazing healing ability ensured that he was ready, even after the fiasco during the final surgery where he had almost died.

Dr. Hall paused in his note writing, the rapid scratching of his pencil stopping as one of the other doctors in the room finally asked the question they had all been wondering.

"What about the unknown shadow elements within the boy we saw after the surgery? How will they affect him during the Shift?"

Tassen made a disgusted sound, as if someone had just asked a terribly inane question, like what to eat for lunch.

"Irrelevant. He is fully blended, completely ready to Shift."

Dr. Hall's commanding voice rang out moments later, demanding silence, as everyone began to speculate at once what those strange, black bands they had seen in the boys eyes were.

"We have received an order from the Director. We will send the boy to Shift tonight." He stated coldly.

He was not pleased at the order. Did the Director think he knew better than the scientists, doctors, and physicists here? But in the end, it didn't matter. They would follow orders, no matter the risk to their critical subject. No one dared disobey the Director. These thoughts flowed from his mind to his paper, his pencils thin scratching sound the only noise in the room.

Then Tassen chuckled evilly.

"I will bring him to the chamber tonight." Tassen said, striding out of the control room.

Callin stretched his arms above his head and arched his back up off the bitter cold floor, trying to get warmth back into his limbs. He had been lying right next to the air duct vent in his cell, which was down by the floor.

Once a month the underground lab opened all doors, all corridor entryways, and all air vents and cranked the ventilation system to full power, sending a much-welcomed blast of fresh air through the underground complex. During this four hour ventilation event, Callin could sometimes hear conversations in the council rooms above, carried through the open air ducts. The true depth of his incredible hearing was one aspect of his abilities he had managed to keep hidden over the years. He had learned far more than he was supposed to by listening in on staff meetings.

Now, it seemed something dangerous, critical even, would be happening to him. They were sending him to shift? He couldn't imagine what that might mean. And what was this about the shadow elements they had seen in him? It was something they saw during the surgery, he knew, and he wondered how it was all connected.

He had undergone many surgeries over the years at the lab. But he knew this last one had been the final one. There had been so much more preparation, so many more doctors and scientists in the surgery room, that he understood immediately that this was to be nothing like any of the other surgeries he had endured.