bad news
i only got about 5 new chapters to post here, compared with 15 in Fragments...
hope you like it; it's a bit of an info-giving chapter this.
CHAPTER 40
“Yes?”
Dr. Angrak’s wide head came round the edge of the door. The Director smiled. Angrak was almost permanently looking over his shoulder, terrified that the Director might find out about things like Angrak letting research creatures go. Angrak was totally unaware that the Director knew all about it. He thought of it as a regrettable quirk, but nothing dangerous. They had plenty of research animals to spare. Anyway, it’s always better to have someone living in fear of being discovered than to have him punished for it. It gave the director an extra hold over Angrak.
“I have the medical reports on the two new arrivals, sir.”
“Anything unusual to report?”
Angrak licked his lips. The Director could see that he was sweating. “Zak was right, they’re not normal.”
“Explain.”
“The large one is not a normal Bigbro. Our tests indicate that he has been genetically, rather than chemically, altered to the size he is now.” He paused, “He is quite like some of the early experimental super-sligs. As you no doubt recall, the experiments were unsuccessful, and we began to produce the steroids for the Bigbros instead. This particular individual seems almost pathologically shy, and resembles Specimen 46, which was reported destroyed 11 years ago. Somhow,” he said, sweating, “he seems to have escaped.”
The Director inwardly smiled. Angrak was still not confessing to releasing test subjects, even in the face of this evidence. The Director decided to play for a while. “Who was responsible for the destruction of the specimen?”
Angrak shuddered visibly. “At that time? I honestly can’t remember…”
“I seem to recall that it was you, actually…”
“Well,” he stuttered, “I wasn’t actually directly responsible. Obviously there was an oversight, and the security wasn’t strong enough.”
The Director decided to let Angrak off the hook. “Well, that was a long time ago. It’s a little late to discipline you now. What about the other one?”
Angrak was obviously relieved. “The other one is, if anything, more intriguing than Specimen 46. The unusual thing is, she’s a female.”
When Angrak paused, the Director realised that this must be an important fact. “Is that unusual?”
“As you know, Glukkons are almost pathologically paranoid of competition. When a batch of sligs or mudokons is born, the females are all killed, so that escapees are unable to breed. That way, the Magog Cartel controls all of the breeding, and no one else is able to breed a rival workforce. Only about 1 in 500 females survives this, and even then almost none escape the Sterilisation.”
The Director nodded. He knew about this, at least. The Cartel had all of its workers sterilised, to further reduce the risk of breeding. “You seem to imply that this specimen has.”
Angrak nodded. “She is a fully functional, fertile female.”
There was a pause. The Director hadn’t known of the rarity of females, but he knew how rare it was to find a fertile slig or mudokon. The new specimen was very valuable indeed. The Cartel would pay a lot of Moolah to have her killed, so it was in the Labs’ best interests to keep hold of her until they had negotiated a good price with the Cartel. He looked up. How much could he trust Angrak to not let them escape? He had never let anything important go, only test subjects they were finished with, but he always seemed to have a little too much empathy for the subjects. The Director wasn’t sure if Angrak would be able to watch a subject he has already released once be experimented upon. As for the other, Angrak wouldn’t want it to be destroyed, but it must be, to get the right price from the Cartel.
“Keep them in high security for now. I shall contact the Cartel.”
Angrak nodded, and paused. After a few moments, he seemed to realise that he’d been excused, and turned to amble away. The Director decided to keep a close eye on Angrak throughout these... difficult times.