Project Orpheus: A Tale of Blood and Feathers

Chapter 9: The Plane

Dr. Noh sat cross legged on the terminal bench, her plane loaded up to the dock ready to fly when it was loaded. Bittie had come with her, of course, but she was actually on the plan at the moment, in the cockpit with the pilot. If something stupid would happen, having someone who could quickly and non-violently subdue whoever was causing the trouble was a good idea.

Not that she expected anything in particular to go stupidly wrong in horrible ways, but it always paid to have contingencies. They're party of 8 was selected, and the day had finally come. A weekend stay on the island, meeting the animals. Chester was very eager for this showing to, to make sure it went the way he liked it.

Noh was more curious about the truths that would be revealed by all of this. She saw her first guest coming now - Chester and his family.

Chester was dressed in his usual stupid suit. His wife was in a bright red dress. She could tell by the constriction of her pupils that she was currently under the influence of something. His son was wearing a shirt that said "BOOM HEADSHOT" and jeans. If his wife looked like she was ambivalent and slightly annoyed, the boy looked utterly upset by being here.

"Doctor! You're here!" He said, cheerfully.

"Of course I am Chester. It's my jet we're taking, after all."

Chester let out a little laugh, but Noh could tell he was frustrated with her already. Noh squeezed her hands together, putting her tablet into sleep.

"I was trying to be polite, Doctor."

"Sure. That can be done without stating stupid things. Anyway, there was something I wanted to talk to you about quickly, before we began, so I'm glad you're the first one."

"And what would that be?"

"We have one more addition to the party." She said.

Chester's smile fell and his eyes narrowed.

"What."

"Someone found one of our wounded when we took them to Juno hospital - on your request, I might add - and eventually found their way to my lab. They more or less agreed to leave the rest of the lab alone if I showed them the reserve."

"So you threatened the secrecy of my project to cover your own ass?" He said with a little bit of a snarl.

"Only because you threatened the secrecy of my entire laboratory and staff to save yourself pocket change." Noh said back, matter-of-factly.

Chester was about to quip back, but his son spoke up. "Dad, what's wrong with her face?"

"Don't be rude," Alexandra scolded him, "I'm sure she doesn't want to talk about it."

Noh just gave a huge, nasty grin. "Oh, no, I'd love to. I'll tell you all about what happens chlorine trifluoride explodes in your face, melts through your skin, your muscle, and your bone, all the way down through the floor, and 4 meters into the permafrost below that. Would you like to hear about the searing pain of your skin liquifying, or about how the concrete was on fire first?"

Steven's eyes went wide, and for a moment he had a look of terror on his face before it was replaced with a cheeky smile. "I think I like your friend, dad."

"Good! Because the good doctor here was a very important part of our project! Without her, we couldn't have done it." He said.

Dr. Noh decided against sassing him by pointing out that it was literally all the work of her and her team, and all he had done was provide the money, but she could see their next guest coming.

"Ah, Michael! You made it!"

Chester and Steven turned to see the ginger lawyer as he came up. He was not wearing a suit this time - something that surprised her at first, but made sense fairly quickly. Cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Good for him, dressed appropriately.