“Tell me what to do.” Dan said, after a long pause, his shoulders slumped and his face betraying his defeat. He would help to bring oblivion to a man whose life was more precious to him than his own, and in the process deprive the world of a brilliant scientific mind, all for a dream, all in the name of a friendship too strong for personal or legal ethics to resist or the voice of reason to deny.”
Having played his trump card, Ken relaxed visibly, and his eyes brightened immediately. He had rigged the game and had won, as he knew he would. The heaviness which he’d borne for so many years was lifted, replaced by a rising sense of hope which warmed him to his core.
“Thank you, my dear, dear friend. I know that what I ask is unfair. I wish there were another way. But my need is great, and you’re the only person I trust implicitly to do what must be done.” As Ken spoke, tears began to well in Dan’s eyes. He was about to lose the one person who had been his touching-stone for the better part of his life. “Come,” he continued, rising from his chair, and downing the remnants of his last measured dose of brandy in a generous gulp. “The procedure will be simple. Follow me to the input terminal; I’ll need your assistance for the linkup. It will only take a few minutes. But first, I have a final request to make of Sergeant Ellis.” He stopped by an intercom and flicked on the switch.
“Yes, Dr. Leyans?” came the immediate reply.
“Sergeant, I am about to engage in an experiment which will render me incapacitated for some hours. I need you to follow the following instructions to the letter. Please write them down.”
“Yes, sir.” The man replied in a sharp tone. Ken smiled; the man’s bruised ego was apparently slow to mend from their last encounter. He wished that too could have been avoided.
“In exactly twenty minutes, I’ll need you to come into the lab with two of your men. Mr. Lantz is assisting me in the crucial experiment and will need to be escorted to an address he will provide immediately once the experiment begins. You may return to the base after Mr. Lantz is dropped off at his destination, but your men must stay with him for an indeterminate period of time. Mr. Lantz has information which is critical to this project and to national security; he is to be protected at all costs until such time as he informs you that his mission has successfully been completed. His instructions are to be followed directly and without question; He will be acting on my behalf until such time as I instruct you otherwise. Mr. Lantz will provide you with the requisite written authorization when you come to escort him to his destination. Are my instructions clear?”
“Chrystal, sir.” came the immediate curt response.
“And, Sergeant,” Ken began in a softer tone.
“Sir?”
“I want to thank you for your impeccably able assistance. I am entrusting you with my personal safety, that of Mr. Lantz, and of the project. I know that we could not be in better hands.”
“Thank you, sir,” The man’s voice was somewhat gentler now. The compliment had been well received, and any remaining resentment expiated. “We won’t let you down, sir.”
“I know. Thank you, my friend. Sincerely.”
Ken switched off the intercom and walked slowly towards the input station. It looked much like a dentist’s chair, well padded, pale blue leather with wrist, leg and head restraints and a thick cable leading into a transparent helmet. Several thin plastic tubes emanated from each armrest next to the wrist restraints, with more ominous lines to be found at the foot of the chair.
“This is it, Dan.” Ken said, while stripping his clothing and preparing himself for the interface process. “All you have to do is fasten the head harness to my forehead and place the helmet over my skull in a few minutes. Don’t worry,” he quickly added, noting his friend’s growing nervousness and look of revulsion. “This is as easy as your iPhone to your MacBook. I will take care of the necessary chemical, nutrient, and waste lines myself while you go pour yourself a final drink. Relax, it’s a piece of cake, and completely painless.”
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For a moment, both men stood staring at the other, a lifetime of shared experiences flashing before them with a numbing effect, leaving behind a growing feeling of emptiness. They embraced tightly and held each other for a long moment. Presently, they separated, each shaking away their flood of emotions and wiping at their eyes with the backs of their hands.
“Here, Dan,” Ken began, resuming his matter-of-fact tone, handing Dan several envelopes from his lab coat’s pocket. “That’s all you’ll need. Each letter is clearly marked, including the one you must give Sergeant Ellis in ten minutes, when he comes to get you. The judge’s address is on the second envelope; call him when you’re under way then go there directly; his phone number is on the envelope under his name. We haven’t much time. The others are self-explanatory. Now, let’s go. Leave me for a few minutes while I undress and hook up the I.V. line and the catheter; I’d rather do that without an audience, if you don’t mind.” Ken said, flashing his friend a crooked smile. With that, as Dan turned away, reviewing the documents, Ken sat on the couch and began to stoically hook up the intravenous line that would provide essential nutrients and the catheter to collect his urine. He’d wear an adult diaper to handle his solid wastes, just in case, until the medical staff could make more permanent arrangements in due course. The important thing now was to achieve the linkup before his time ran out. When he was done, he covered his body with a white sheet more to save his friend the pain of seeing his body in its present condition than to stave off the climate controlled 65-degree optimal temperature for the sensitive equipment. Finally, he attached a Valium drip to ameliorate the discomfort of the various needles, hoses and sensors attached to his body, in particular the catheter he’d had to insert into his own urethra. Smiling through the discomfort and feeling more alive than he had in two decades, he called to his friend once again. “It’s show time, Dan.”
Dan immediately returned, putting down the papers he had known would be in perfect order, and placed the helmet on his friend’s head, exactly as instructed, then secured the head to the chair through a Velcro restraint. Dan tried not to concentrate on what he was doing, trying with much difficulty to ignore the body of his friend, lying on his side, with only his head emerging from beneath the white sheets, his dark brown skin glistening slightly with perspiration despite the chill (whether a result of the pain from the intrusive hoses or a reaction to the biochemical and nanotechnology agents coursing through his body, Dan could not tell).
In less than five minutes, Ken was set. He looked like a vision from a 50’s B movie thriller, but he was incongruously smiling.
“OK., Dan, now bind my hands with the restraints; they will keep me from removing the hoses should I involuntarily twitch, and they, along with the entire chair, have probes which will monitor my vital signs and compensate the chemical infusion accordingly.” Dan obeyed mechanically, then looked into his friend’s eyes.
“Don’t look so sad, damn it! Just shake my hand, wish me luck and press the oversized green button on the upper left hand corned of the console.” Dan took a step forward and held both of Ken’s restrained hands in his. The latter smiled through tears and tightly grasped his hands. “I can never thank you for this, or for what your life-long friendship has meant to me, especially for the last twenty years. But this isn’t necessarily good‑bye; with your help, the project will continue. But in any case, this is the greatest gift you could bestow on me, and no matter what the outcome, you will always have my gratitude, and friendship.” Ken smiled his usual disarming smile, the same Dan had seen at some of the happiest moments in his life, for there were few such moments when Ken was not present.
“Good bye, dearest friend,” Dan uttered in a trembling voice, taking the few steps towards the master console and looking back once more to Ken’s smiling face, noting his eyes drooping slightly, the Valium drip clearly kicking in.”
“‘It’s a far, far better place I go to, Dan,” he said with a wink. “Remember me.”
Dan uttered a silent prayer and pushed the button. There was no immediate sound, but a barely perceptible humming could presently be heard, doubtless the gargantuan drives of the system accessing the needed files, and the tiny pumps slowly injecting the additional precisely measured chemicals into Ken’s bloodstream. Ken lay completely still, a blank stare in his open eyes, and no expression on his usually quite expressive face. “God forgive us both.” Dan muttered in a quivering voice, and thought “May you find peace, Ken; with all my heart, I wish you peace.”