Denial was the greatest resource that the brain could ever muster. The emotion could be used to fill the emptiness up in so many facets. Many took it as something only felt in willful ignorance, yet it was so much more than that.
Keeping an important topic out of the thoughts was one such use. It helped keep secrets that needed to be kept, making the subject be used so little that the brain had to keep it in deep storage, only specific stimuli ever having the chance of ripping it free of its frozen form.
Keeping the thought away from the forefront was not easy. In any normal scenario, where something related to it had just happened, Troy would have been forced to keep thinking about it, making it possible to accidentally reveal details best-kept secret. That was not close to falling now, denial helping him along the path of not even visualising the damage that had been created by two wonderful people.
It might have been an over-exaggeration, but Troy was sure that something bad had occurred between Dr Hale and Charlie. The man had shouted at her, not for the sake of a joke but to show off how absolutely flared up he was about her not caring about the consequences of her actions. He had wanted something out of her, anything that would give him a clue on just what she thought she was doing. She had caused damage which could have apparently killed him and had not made the slightest mention of that fact.
Troy could have died. He could have gone to bed that afternoon and have found himself not waking up in the morning. His body would have shut down, nobody realising it until it was too late. Maybe the doctor would have shown off how well he monitored him and saved the dying man before the end. Probably not, as that would have caused the potential for a whole assault of questions. Keeping a national secret was more important than keeping a civilian alive.
That was all he was in the end. Some civilians, caught up in a cluster of issues that he shouldn't have had any part of. From the moment he had entered the facility, things had just started going wrong. Charlie and Dr Hale had been friends for over a decade. They had likely gotten drunk together while Troy was still trying to eat the snot coming out of his nose. Compared to them, he was just a child.
A child expected to keep himself together, as the world began to fall away from the rules it was supposed to stand by. The government was corrupt, sure, but it was supposed to stay in the shadows with its manipulation. He wasn't supposed to see it in real-time, observing as Dr Fidelis trained Adam to become something that he couldn't yet understand.
Dr Hale had yet to say anything at all, not for a lack of desire to. Troy still had to acquire the device from a now agitated Charlie. The muscular man was clearly not in the most positive of moods when the two had left the cafeteria. It had gotten to the point where people had gone back to looking at their own tables, not seeming as if they were picking a fight or anything.
Was the earlier planned meeting even on anymore? He and Troy were supposed to meet up for some fitness after work. Did Charlie even want to do that? Troy was supposed to back him up when he had asked her those questions, why she had thought it fair to do such things. Even now, it was clear that there had been other ways to deceive the doctor than to cause such damage.
'Charlie would surely fix it.` What kind of excuse was that? Hoping for a person to act according to how one predicted, with the risks being that a man would die for nothing. How could anybody ever have taken those odds, when there were so many other possibilities to have from?
Those kinds of questions had been in plenty. So many would have worked perfectly in the earlier situation. Troy had some on his tongue the moment Charlie had started shouting, ready to jab in if the opportunity allowed for it. Not that it would have, the circumstances being that the man had caused privacy had been created to start with.
Wait… Thinking back to a few days ago, the muscular man had certainly used such a device. It had been when Troy had caused a smaller… emotional outburst. The fault of who had caused such a thing did not matter much. What the man was so focused on was what had prevented this outburst from being witnessed by everybody in the room.
The machine that could deflect metal, plastic, or just about anything that it was thrown at it. 'Bender` was its name, taken from a place that few in the current age would understand. Troy didn't really get it himself but had been told as much by the creator.
It was more the secondary function that was important, though. Instead of creating a barrier around itself, one that was capable of deflecting objects, it could create a larger buried, expansive enough to cover a whole table. It stopped the sound from coming in or out and obscured the light as well in a way that everything became cloudy.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Would it be so hard to imagine that this was the device being looked for? Knowing Charlie, there were more than a few secret mechanisms present within the thing. That it could stop any listening in as well… that wasn't a hard thing to think about. Armed with this knowledge, Troy actually felt a little more upbeat, knowing that he had a decent grasp on just what he was looking for. If the man did show up to train, it would most definitely be asked about.
"Is there anything you would like to say about the earlier shouting match?" Dr Hale calmly inquired about, breaking a silence that had been desired to be kept. Troy would certainly have been perfectly fine with no words being spoken at all.
"Not anything in particular," Troy answered, not being honest as a change of pace. There were loads of things he wanted to know more about. "Thanks for just walking away from it."
There had been no real time-constraint on Dr Hale, during the final words of the fight. She had faked there need to leave, as a way to discourage further discourse. A brilliant move, honestly. If not for it, Charlie would have likely continued his verbal interrogation, moving forward with gaining nothing from it at all. The lack of response would have done nothing good for anybody, making the lie to get out so much better.
"We have a schedule to keep up with. Stopping a conversation to stay clear of any delays is to be expected in this kind of facility. You should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking anything else," Dr Hale said, mildly berating him for his faults, as was needed to play her role.
While the tactical retreat had been well-hidden, Troy did not dare think that Charlie had not catched on. That man knew a lot when it came to those he travelled with. As he was with a so-called free work-time, he could choose to dine at whatever time he damn well pleased. Instead, he had memorized the times Troy and Dr Hale would be there, just so he could be together with them a few minutes every couple of hours. They had clearly left much earlier than needed, with a factor of them being nearly ten minutes earlier than intended.
"Of course. I will be sure to correct my thinking in the future," Troy promised, thinking that the conversation would end at that point. Dr Hale had other ideas, though.
"It would be best if you rectified this mistake in the present. You have the opportunity to not have to think too much forward in time, after all. This is one of the two pieces of advice which you should hear. The second would be to make the best of your time with who you know. Your remaining days here can be counted on two hands. It would be best for all if you got matters in order with Charlie. If drastic actions are required to do this, then so be it. The faster we see the end of it, the better it will be for everybody involved."
The conversation officially ended at that point. Troy was perfectly fine with that, dreading what else could have been said if it was left to its own ideas. That woman had given him advice he himself already knew. Yet, hearing it from her mouth set it all in stone so much more. He had to get the device from Charlie at his earliest convenience. The next time he met the man would be the time where he would get it. There was a chance that Dr Hale had expected Troy to have already acquired it. She had not been present for lunch, after all, allowing the two to indulge in whatever fancies they had. Was she perhaps disappointed, that Troy had not spent his time well enough? It had been a prime chance, back when he had been in Charlie’s personal laboratory. If he had taken it back then, he could have done so much better by the current time. Dr Hale would have excused them both too early, but for reasons that would be more than just beneficial.
Instead, they were taking a longer than a necessary path, for the sole reason being that they did not want to end up at the testing room before they were expected. Being early was just as bad as being late. Troy would have taken lateness as a larger evil, but the doctor apparently had a more… equal perspective of it. The timing was everything, and the divergent was never to be allowed into the system.
With quick steps, they reached the test room at the intended time, neither looking worse for wear. Troy was trying to make himself ready for another three hours of being anxious, while Dr Hale was looking to be practising making her face into stone. If the man touched her features, he would not have been surprised if the texture had adjusted to the look as well.
"Keep yourself composed, don't act rashly, and be respectful to the people in this facility. With that, you might just allow yourself to resign of your accord," Dr Hale said with a finality, as she began putting in the numbers. It took less than ten seconds before the door opened.
Dr Fidelis stood at the entrance, far enough away to let them in, but still stopping them from getting too far. As the door was on a timer, both entered as far as they could, before stopping up in sync.
"Is there any reason for your current behaviour, sir?" Dr Hale asked the doctor, who was not looking too happy himself. In fact, Dr Fidelis did not have his usual glow of happiness, nor was there any particular layer of excitement around him. It was more akin to being apologetic.
"Yes, I'm afraid there," Dr Fidelis answered, not sounding incredibly happy saying anything himself. "Troy, do you remember what we talked about during our last sit-down? It was when we discussed what Adam was currently working on."
Things weren't looking good, and there was serious doubt it would get any better.
"Yeah, I remember it well enough. Adam is working on making a more realistic body. You talked about allowing him another day to make this a reality," Troy answered, making sure he got his facts straight about it.
"Good to hear, then. I won't have to explain it too much after all," Dr Fidelis replied. "You, Troy, are free to go wherever you please for the rest of the day. I talked to Adam about it, and he proposed that he just works all night long on making the body. It would allow him to streamline the process through the elimination of breaks, and make it possible for me to keep to the schedule we have with the tests. As having the interface doesn't technically require you to be there, we can work without a human body to have as a source. We’ll just save the showing off to a later date. So… you are free to go do whatever you want now. Dr Hale, I hope you have ample caffeine in your bloodstream, for we will be making notes throughout the entire thing."
… Troy wasn't sure how to take it. Then again, there weren't a lot of things he was able to take nowadays.