The Aspen Experiments

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - Mr. Ringer

When I woke up I was strapped to the chair in the testing room. Mr. Ringer was injecting one of his syringes in my arm.

“What about... about Ava? Where is she?" I asked groggily. Her slumped, bloody body had just been in this chair.

"Ava's back in her room. She overdosed on heroin during spring break. No suicide note. Shammas is dealing with the police now," Ringer told me. "Unfortunately for him, the police are going to get a tip in about fifteen minutes to search his home. They'll find evidence of the narcotics Ava OD'd with. He'll be busy for a while."

"So it's you, not Shammas after all," I whispered. John's boss, Professor Hyto, had been right, but not entirely. Ringer was setting Shammas up. Shammas would get arrested and locked up this year, but that wouldn't stop the experiment. I wondered how Ringer managed to escape all the media attention that should have shown up in Professor Hyto's records.

"What do you mean me, not him?" Ringer asked. "Actually, never mind! I don't care. I'm finally done with this God-awful search and I'm ready to go home."

He turned away from me, tossing the empty syringe on a green tray on the counter.  Then he opened another cabinet against the wall and knelt down in front of it. I could only see him out of the corner of my eye now, he was nearly behind me. The straps holding me on the chair dug into my arms and legs. They were so tight across my chest I couldn't get a full breath of air.

"What about Mrs. Webster?" I asked.

"What about her?" he asked in return. His voice was muffled.

"Nothing." If he didn't know she'd called the police I wasn't going to tell him. Maybe they'd be here any minute! Some time had to have passed if Shammas had already moved Ava's body. My mind tripped over that. Ava's body... poor Ava.

"What did you do to her?"

"Mrs. Webster?"

"No. Ava. What did you do to Ava?"

"I didn't do anything to Ava. That was Shammas' call. Overzealous idiot. I can't tell you how glad I'll be never to see him again."

"There," he said after a moment. He shut that cabinet and moved to the next one, tossing a short electrical cable on the counter. "Blew some cables when she went. Shouldn't take me long to fix!" He sounded chipper, almost manic.

"Why did you let him kill Ava? You had me and John, how many people do you need?"

"I wasn't sure if I needed you or Ava. Had to rule her out, so I let Shammas have a go. He hoped Ava was getting stronger, but I figured it was you. I knew Hyto would try to interfere..." he trailed off, screwing a new cable into place.

I froze. How did Mr. Ringer know about Hyto?

"You know about Professor Hyto?" I asked, horrified and confused.

"Of course I know him. Hyto and I were partners. We knew Shammas would find his virtuoso sometime around now, his breakthrough student, and we wanted you. I guess Hyto got suspicious of me though, so he sent John back here to spy on me."

My mind reeled. Ringer and Hyto. From the future. From John's future. If they were together, why... ? It was too confusing.

"What about Dr. Shammas?" I asked. "Isn't he the one trying to destroy the world? Isn't Professor Hyto trying to stop him?"

"Shammas is a joke. He's got a crackpot plan to go with his crazy religion, but he's not about to destroy anything. The only reason I came back in time was to find his one success - you. Hyto isn't worried about Shammas either, he's worried about me. Hence John."