Chapter 55
We entered the practical therapy lab to find Luke waiting for us with another man I had never met before. He had a short military haircut with spots of salt and pepper coming in on the sides. His black suit was nondescript, and I hesitated as his eyes met mine.
Glancing up at Sebastian, I frowned at the way his lips pursed at this strange man’s presence.
“Mr. Murphy. So glad you could make it.” Luke gave me a warm smile, and I pushed my glasses farther up my nose, resisting the urge to comment on the fact that I hadn’t been given much of a choice.
“This is Dr. Grey,” Luke said, gesturing to the strange man who was still smiling at me in a way that was making me feel uneasy. “He’s the director of DARPA, and he’s been very anxious to meet you.”
Dr. Grey held out a hand for me to shake, and I took it instinctively.
“Mr. Murphy. Luke here shared your application essay with me, and I must say, I’m impressed. If you ever find yourself looking for a position in defense, we would be lucky to have a man with such innovative ideas on our team.”
“Th-thank you,” I stammered, feeling my face heat. “Now, now, Mr. Grey, no poaching my employees,” Luke chided lightly, though I could tell there was an underlying tone of seriousness in his voice. “Milo is very happy here, aren’t you, Milo?”
I nodded, doing my best to keep myself from quivering beneath the attention of these two powerful men. Knowing what I knew now about Luke Stevens, and the fact that this man very well might be capable of something as sinister as murder, it was taking everything in me not to bolt for the door.
“In fact, we value Milo’s work so much that we’re promoting him to Director of Memory Therapy. Jay has already had him working hard on the manipulator, so a promotion feels warranted.” Luke was watching me carefully, and I forced a grateful smile on my face.
“Thank you, sir. Yes, Sebastian mentioned something about a promotion on our walk over here. I am very honored to be considered, sir.”
Luke’s eyes darted to his son, and his lips pursed at my comment.
“Did he, now? What else did Sebastian tell you about your new role?” There was a dangerous undertone to the question, and the skin around Seb’s eyes tightened slightly, betraying his anxiety.
“Not much!” I squeaked, rushing to Seb’s defense. “He just said that I was being promoted and needed additional security clearance.”
Thankfully, my attempt at getting Luke’s attention off his son and back onto me worked. Luke glanced at me, that warm smile of his widening.
“Yes. Security clearance. As a director, you will be held to a higher standard than the rest of the staff. You will need to have a key chip inserted, and any visits off campus will be highly restricted. Did you have any vacations planned for the near future?”
I chewed on my lip and shook my head. I’d been wanting to visit my mom once my probationary period was up, but I supposed that could wait. I resolved to have a video call with her later to introduce her to Jay.
It wasn’t as good as an in-person introduction, but it would have to do. Besides, if Jay and I were successful and able to manipulate Luke’s memories in a demonstration, I could change his memory of off-site visitation restrictions easily enough.
I almost smiled at how amused Jay would be with my evil little plans.
“No, sir. No vacations planned.”
“Excellent. If you don’t mind getting in the chair, Milo, we can insert your new key card, and you can be on your way. I don’t want to keep you out of the lab longer than necessary.”
“Uhm… okay,” I hummed, climbing up into the chair and lying back.
Seb was staring at me with a blank expression on his face, but I couldn’t help but notice the way he was rubbing his thumb over his suit jacket, right where I knew his own chip was inserted.
Jay did that often as well.
Panic and dread shot through me, and suddenly I was nervous about having this piece of tech implanted.
“W-will it hurt, sir?” I asked as Luke pulled up a small stirrup from underneath the surgical chair and laid my arm across it. Using a thick leather strap, he belted my arm down and got to work rolling up the sleeve of my shirt to expose my forearm to him.
“Not if you follow the rules,” he hummed, and my frown deepened.
What did that mean?!
Dr. Grey came up to stand on the other side of the surgical chair. He produced a small gun-shaped device with a thick needle sticking out of the muzzle.
“This is an upgraded version of the chip that Jay has. Sebastian was kind enough to be our guinea pig for this prototype, and we’ve been very happy with its performance.
Dr. Grey here has helped me optimize it with even more advancements.
We’re very excited to see how these new tweaks work out.
We’ll need to upgrade Jay’s tech next, but we figured since it’s your big day, we could do yours first.”
“Uhm… okay…” I said, once again glancing over at Sebastian. He was pale, and a fine bead of sweat had appeared on his brow as he watched Luke sanitize the spot on my arm where I assumed they would be injecting the chip.
“Now, take a deep breath, Milo. Dr. Grey will insert the chip, and then you’ll be on your way.”
I did what I was told as the doctor held the gun against my arm before pulling the trigger.
There was a hiss and a click as the mechanism activated, and I jumped at the punch and sting as the tech was shot into the flesh of my forearm.
“Ouch,” I said instinctively, even though it didn’t really hurt that much at all. When the doctor pulled the gun away, a small bead of blood formed, but Luke pressed it with a cotton ball before taping it in place with some medical tape.
“There, all done.” Luke smiled at me, undoing the leather strap that held me in place. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked, and I gave him a weak smile, shaking my head.
“No, not at all.”
“Good. Glad to hear it.”
“Congratulations, Mr. Murphy,” Dr. Grey rumbled, giving me another one of those grins that made me feel off kilter. “We’re very excited to see what you come up with in the memory therapy space. We have high expectations, but I’m confident you’ll meet them swimmingly.”
“Thank you, sir,” I breathed as I crawled out of the chair.
Luke cleared his throat and stepped back. “Now, back to The Cave you go. You can leave your old key card here; we’ll make sure it’s disposed of properly. You won’t be needing it anymore.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
“Let’s go, Milo.” Sebastian sighed, jerking his head back toward the door. “Let’s get you back to work.”
I nodded, scurrying after him and muttering quick goodbyes over my shoulder as we left the lab.
Seb was just as quiet on the walk back to MTR as he had been on our trip here, and I found myself reaching out to tug on the sleeve of his jacket hesitantly.
As soon as my fingers brushed his arm, the chip seemed to burn lightly under my skin.
I flinched and jerked away from him. I glanced up to find Sebastian looking down at me like… he looked like he felt sorry for me.
“I just made a mistake, didn’t I?” I whispered. He pursed his lips and nodded.
“Yes, Milo. I told you to run, but you didn’t listen, and now there’s no escape for you.”
Ice shot through my veins, and I glanced down at the innocent little cotton ball taped to my arm.
“What do you mean?”
Sebastian shrugged.
“Why don’t you try leaving campus? You’ll find out pretty quick.”
That was all he said as he brushed his chip against the keypad that let us into MTR.
With those ominous words hanging between us, I followed him back to The Cave. I was dying to get Jay alone so I could ask him what the heck Sebastian was talking about.