The Shrink Program

Chapter 111

"I still don't get it," I admitted flatly.

"... but this is the third time I've explained it." Peri said, his normally good-natured smile strained.

"I know." I blinked at him, expression completely blank. "That's what makes me wonder which one of us is really the idiot here."

Peri gave me a panicked look as the prospect of explaining the whole thing for a fourth time really dawned on him, desperately glancing over to Winkle where he stood next Jack.

Jack himself sat against the far wall, completely passive, with only a small smile on his face as he watched us.

I pushed back a chill as I met his gaze. The way he wouldn't stop staring at us was... Unnerving.

Bet the creepy jerk was doing it on purpose...

Before Peri could even open his mouth to ask, Winkle shook his head firmly.

"No." He refused bluntly.

"But!" Peri protested, taking a step forward.

"You lost the coin toss, Peri." Winkle snapped, his quelling look stopping Peri in his tracks.

"I get to the watch the dangerous, unpredictable psychopath... and you have to explain the situation to Maddison. That was the deal."

At this, Peri sagged with defeat, his face filling with dread.

Really, this is why I avoid going to class in the first place. I always worried that I would someday break one of my teachers with sheer obtuseness.

"Try using a Bee metaphor!" Nigel piped up from beside me. We, three shrunken patients, sat on the desk, just above where Garmen had been made to lay down to recover.

"...does that actually work?" Peri sent me a nervous look like I was a complicated piece of machinery he didn't want to touch for fear of pushing the wrong button and losing a hand.

I glared down at my lap petulantly.

"Only if Garmen does it," I muttered. Sure it was immature, like a child saying that they would only sleep if a particular person read to them... but it was still true.

Sitting beside Garmen, Havoc sent the taller supervisor a disgruntled look.

"I sacrifice myself to let you guys escape, and you use the opportunity to explain the "Birds and the Bees" to them? Shame on you."

Garmen just groaned, covering his face with a hand.

"Fine, I'll do it." He muttered after a long moment, shoving himself up into a sitting position. He still looked ill, but marginally better than he had before.

Waving off Havoc's protests, Garmen leant back up against the desk.

"Okay. Remember Maddison, our bodies are the Hives. The Nanotech inside us are the Bees, and the core is like the Queen Bee."

"Yea. And the system is the super queen." I nodded.

"Right." Garmen agreed, a little tersely. "That is how the Nanotech works for just about every supervisor in the facility. But Peri and Winkle are different. They have a new technology called Link."

"It's..." Garmen hesitated, obviously trying to think of a way to explain the complex technology. "Well, it's like they have their own in built-in super queen. They can connect to our system, but even without our super queen, they have their own system."

"That's what I don't get!" I exclaimed frustratedly. "How can they control their super queen when it's inside their bodies? Wasn't that the point of having an external system in the first place!?"