‘Did I make the right call?.’ Eloise shortly contemplated her rather rash decision.

Bruno had explained it in a way that resonated with her, and there didn’t seem to be a catch.

So, why not take the bait? A bait without a hook is only food, after all.

And what if the upper class found out more about ‘Adrian’? They already had informants in every corner of the government, meaning it would only be a matter of time before everything about him got leaked.

This way, she would give them a hand, and hopefully they wouldn’t ask for the entire arm. Also, why not save some face while at it? Reputation still mattered when dealing with the powerful players, and cooperating with them would do her better than not.

If the city fell into chaos because of a misplay on her part… well, she simply couldn’t let that happen if she still valued her life.

Nodding, Bruno and his team led the newly disembarked group through the station.

Passing lavish wall after lavish wall, the white marble eventually stopped, connecting to the familiar black steel the giant pillar seemed to be made of.

Walking past, a wide corridor opened before the group.

‘The pillar’s walls are hollow?’ Adrian speculated based on the direction they went. The corridor also had a slight curve, adding to his suspicion.

Advancing only a dozen meters inside the curved hall, the guards made a sudden turn into an entrance way, leading to a large elevator.

Descending for a couple of minutes, the doors opened once more, revealing a different, lower part of the Pillar’s inner walls.

There wasn’t much difference between the areas, if one were to ignore the slight, newly found uncleanliness found throughout. There were also dozens of people traveling the wide boulevard found within.

It nowhere neared being crowded, but nonetheless contrasted with its upper section.

Following them further, they finally stopped in front of a closed, metal door, above which stood an unlit sign.

CMC #5.

‘Crisis Medical Center number five.’ Suddenly flashed through Adrian’s mind upon reading the sign.

Fiddling with the console next to it for a short while, they all entered unobstructed.

The inside could be considered clean, but also incredibly bland. As if chiseled from the pillar’s dark steel walls, The insides were devoid of any paint or decoration, while the only escape from its monotony were even more doors.

Traveling and opening a specific door, a room filled with medical equipment came to view. Large scanners occupied most of the space, their alloyed shells lustering no more. There were other pieces of large equipment, but the entire room seemed to have been designed and fitted around these worn scanners.

Adrian’s mind froze for a split second. How was he so sure those things were ‘Scanners’? They looked nothing like a typical scanner. If anything, to a normal onlooker, these would be akin to alien contraptions of fabricated steel.

Of course, deep down, he knew how. He had a good understanding of most things once viewing them for the first time. His mind radiated familiarity, while his feelings opposed.

‘Since my keycard said I had an engineering role, I guess it makes sense.’

Frustration kept building up every time something like this happened. Why couldn’t he remember his family? His friends? His past goals and aspirations? Anything pertaining to his past life seemed locked away forever, never to be uncovered for his reminiscence.

Clearing his thoughts, Adrian reminded himself of the situation.

He and the others were all waiting inside the room with all the medical equipment.

The guards were quietly and casually talking to each other, while Eloise’s soldiers, together with the captain herself, remained silent as always.

CLANK!

Hearing the slam of a heavy door, all the men and women inside turned to take a look.

The culprit for the disturbance? An out of breath, middle aged man sporting casual clothing.

Speedwalking to the captain of the guards, he cleared this throat before speaking, nearly choking on his own saliva in the process.

“I came… as fast as… I could!” he managed to stammer between heavy breaths before divulging into a nasty cough.

Bruce and the others only stared while waiting for the man to recover his breath.

After the copious cough, he continued. This time with a calmer voice.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, mister Bruce.”

“It’s no problem whatsoever. If anything, I was at fault for calling you on such short notice.” Bruce excused the man, side-eyeing Eloise while doing so.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Clearing his rugged throat, Bruce continued.

“As for the reason for calling you out of the blue, doctor, we have to conduct some urgent tests on a VIP.”

Raising an eyebrow, the medical specialist looked at the guard captain with intrigue.

“To be clear, what kind of tests are you referring to?”

Drifting his eyes around the room for a moment, Bruce turned to the doctor once again.

“Medicine isn’t exactly my field of specialty, but in essence, anything pertaining to a Husk examination. The equipment here should be specialized for the task at hand, from what I heard at least. If needed, we may change locations.”

“Although, if at all possible, it would be preferred if the operation took place here, and immediately.” he added after glancing at Eloise and her squad.

Nodding, the doctor headed to a nearby locker and extracted a white, airtight hazmat suit, which he promptly adorned.

“You’ve indeed heard right, mister Bruce.” he said in a muffled voice. “This facility was in fact specifically built some time before the city’s fall to test for Skin Crawler and other nasty Husks from that time. Since then, it’s been obviously refurbished, but…”

An awkward silence spread throughout the facility.

“But what? can it do the job?” Bruce said in a serious and unenthusiastic tone.

Looking from left to right, The doctor didn’t exactly seem pleased with what was at hand.

“Eh. Well… sure, I can work something out.” He said while nervously fiddling with his hands. “It’s not quite an abandoned facility per say, but being barely funded and in postponement of any major operations for the last decade didn’t exactly do it any favors.”

“I’m going to take that as a yes.” Bruce exhaled a small sigh of relief.

“Also, doctor… Rajewsky. Depending on the results, your funding is always eligible to increase. Just keep that in mind.” He continued.

The doctor nodded once more before continuing with his preparations, which were haphazardly finished within five minutes.

In the meantime, he had glanced at the injured man standing next to Eloise. The Sargeant wasn’t a man of many words over digital communication, but he did care to mention the ‘VIP’.

Nothing too descriptive, of course. Just enough to know that he was more of a prisoner than a guest. It made sense, really. If it were someone truly important, they would go to the main testing facility inside sector C. And as for shady dealings, it wasn’t like the staff in other facilities were all saints. No one sane would go out of their way to come to this unfunded, glorified medical junkyard. Well, only if there was a big enough secret to hide…

Suddenly, something felt off with the whole situation.

He hadn’t had time to truly process why such important people were here before rushing to greet them, but now with a few minutes of clear thinking… It didn’t seem too great.

‘Damn it… the rumor from today!’

News spread fast, and what occurred in sector A had already been heard by most in the city. Not through official channels, of course, making it nothing more than a rumor.

Now, if this person were the speculated Husk from earlier that day, someone of his status wouldn’t know, but still guessed it would be extremely unlikely. You would need an impressive amount of power and a complete disregard for safety to bring an unknown Husk into the city center.

With a nail put through that idiotic train of thought, he could finally start…

‘Fuck…’ A cold shiver ran along the doctor’s back.

A worrisome realization had just flashed through his mind. Turning to look at their red uniforms once more, beads of sweat started to form under his suit. Who were the people in this room? They were the Director’s guard! If in his name, they had all the power!

There was also the question of why else would they be here if not for something as important as examining a real Husk?

‘Seems I’ve been thrown into the deep end… Fucking fuck!’

The doctor filled his hands and fingers some more. There wasn’t any use in contemplating now. He just had to do his job, and everything would work out.

Calming himself down with a deep breath, he walked towards Eloise. The preparation phase was fully done, all remaining to be done being the testing itself.

“The subject is him?” the doctor asked while looking at Adrian.

“Yes, you may test him.” Eloise said and nodded, in her usual warm tone.

“Alright, then. Please follow.” He addressed Adrian in a polite voice.

It wasn’t like Husks to care too much for pleasantries from what he knew, but it couldn’t hurt, could it?

Arriving at one of the room’s corners, the doctor gestured to Adrian to take a seat, which he promptly did.

Taking out a syringe with a thin needle from one of the drawers, he cleaned it with some sort of chemical solution before turning to his subject for the day.

“Please roll up your sleeve.”

Adhering to the request, Adrian did just so.

‘Huh, how odd.’ The doctor thought while staring at the slender forearm.

Covered in light bruises and popped veins, this ‘VIP’ didn’t look too good. Not to mention the missing fingers, which he noticed right after.

And these bruises in particular… if anything, they kind of resembled severe frostnip than any kind of physical trauma.

Finding a relatively undamaged vein, he inserted the syringe’s needle and slowly drew some blood.

Adrian, once again, wasn’t surprised not to feel a thing. At least in this case, even someone without nerve damage wouldn’t feel much. The needle going into his forearm was quite thin, after all.

Extracting his blood sample, he inserted the syringe into a long vial and moved to one of the many medical contraptions present.

Putting the vial inside a Hematocrit centrifuge and inputting some numbers, the doctor constantly darted between monitors before stopping and reading a message that had just popped up.

[Blood fractionation completed]

Not wasting a moment, he took the vial out of the machine and headed to another contraption.

The blood inside was now separated, with the pale, yellow hued plasma floating on top while the red and white blood cells sedimented at the bottom, crimson in color. This way, the contents of the blood would be easier to scan, which was exactly what the next machine did.

Putting the vial inside a metallic cylinder with transparent padding inside to keep it from tumbling and ruining the sample, loud mechanical chimes sounded from the machine.

And before long, the doctor was back to looking at his many monitors, where he was reading the latest list of messages.

From start to finish, it listed every component inside the blood, together with its percentage found.

But at the very end of the list…

[No anomalous objects detected.]

Nothing indicating the presence of a Husk infection was found.

‘Not through blood transmission.’ he thought before noting it down on a piece of paper.

He wouldn’t write down something this covert through digital means. Ever.

That’s just asking for trouble.

Looking up from his note to the seated Adrian, the doctor couldn’t help but feel slightly excited.

His heart beating slightly harder each time, he couldn’t believe himself.

‘Excited? From being in this shitty situation?’

Be it unknowingly mixed in with a little fear or whatnot, previously considered insane thoughts nonetheless ran wild.

What if this person was a real Husk?

What inhuman abilities did it present?

What were its methods of fooling both humans and machines alike?

All those years ago, wasn’t this exactly why he dedicated his life to his profession?

Curiosity.

Sighing and fogging his view from inside the suit, he thought back to the taught protocols from his younger days.

‘We’ll see if you pass the tissue scan.’