The doctor picked up the scalpel, carefully scraping a sample from the subject's limb. Red lesions leaked a putrid yellow fluid, a telltale sign of infection.
Another failure. Disappointing, but not unexpected. He neatly packed the sample into a biohazard container and escaped to the lab, anxious to interpret the data.
"A shame," the man in the suit sighed as the doctor entered. "This was our last chance to get results."
The doctor set the sample on a glass slide, adjusting the microscope to get a closer look. He frowned, pulling his head back in surprise.
"What?" the man asked, pushing the doctor away to see for himself. "All I see is a whole lot of nonsense."
"No," the doctor corrected, moving back into his place at the microscope. He pulled out a second sample, this one labeled LIVER BIOPSY SUBJECT #674. "The pathogen has mutated. It's working. Let's check the hepatocytes to confirm."
"Hepatocytes?" The doctor waved off the man's question, too focused on the liver cells before him.
"This is it," the doctor breathed, his voice barely more than a whisper. "It's functioning almost exactly as we intended."
"Excellent." The man smiled, removing a file from his briefcase. "I'll need your signature, of course, to verify the integrity of the results. Contacting the head of the operation is first on my list, but I cannot go to him without complete certainty."
The doctor nodded, taking the man's outstretched pen and scribbling an unintelligible signature across the blank line. "The long term effects are unknown, but without more funding we cannot keep the subjects here."
The man shook his head. "Completely unnecessary. We got what we needed. This operation is complete." He sealed up the file into his briefcase, pausing at the laboratory exit. "And, successful. What more could you ask for?"
The doctor watched the man exit, preparing the slides for transport and verification by his colleagues.
The operation was complete, the doctor reminded himself. He did it, everything that his superiors requested. What more could he ask for?
YOU ARE READING
Infection Runs Deep
ActionDr. Elizabeth Hunter thought her life as second year resident could not get anymore frantic than her ER rotation. Crashing heart rates, bottoming out blood pressures, and hysterical patients were something that she could handle. She'd been trained f...
