Jay’s eyes popped open. His vision spun before focusing on the strip lights lining the ceiling of his lab. He must have gone to sleep. After doing this enough times, he finally decided to reprogram the exosuit to monitor for a sleeping heart rate, and to take him into a lying down position if he ever fell asleep while working. That way he wouldn’t sleep in a weird position and end up with joint pains or dizziness upon waking.
Well… he didn’t have joint pains.
Jay pushed himself to his feet, aided by the exosuit. Without it, he’d probably have just tumbled over and fallen back to sleep, but if he just got moving, he could continue. He was so close to being done with his machine. The exosuit locked into place as Jay threatened to tip it all the way forward. Maybe he needed coffee. That would mean stopping his project for a few minutes, but if he sliced the wrong wires together, he could potentially blow up the entire building. So yeah. Coffee first.
Jay walked into the office part of the lab between his project and the elevator that he sometimes used to leave on the days that he decided to eat. The exosuit clanked around as he gathered the things he needed. Water, coffee, a trash can to throw out yesterday’s coffee. He scooped coffee grounds into a new coffee filter, filled the small machine with water, and started it up.
The intercom on the wall crackled. “Mr. Cooper, are you there?” Olivia, one of the receptionists, asked.
He exhaled and rubbed his forehead with the big metal fingers of his exosuit. “Yes, Ms. Warner,” he responded.
“There you are. I didn’t see you come in this morning. Having a slumber party again?”
“After today, I won’t need to anymore.” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but it turned into a yawn.
“Well, Khaleel from accounting is here for your paperwork. Can you come up real quick?”
“Can I give it to him later?”
“Mr. Cooper, it’s Friday, and he has to do the whole week of paperwork from your department before the end of today. Do you have anything prepared?”
Jay shook his head. Unless he did his paperwork in his sleep. He walked over to his desk, and… wait… no there it was. The encumbrance sheets. For the whole week.
He walked back to the rack of suits, rubbing his head again before backing up into the docking arm, reaching under his breastplate for the button, and opening the suit in the front to step out. He caught a whiff of himself as he got out and scrunched his nose. Now he knew what he smelled like after 3 days of not visiting his apartment to shower. He didn’t even stop by last night when he had to leave to go get his burn looked at by a doctor.
His arm throbbed as it left the cooling system from the suit that was keeping the pain manageable. That was stupid. Testing the ability that the altered-human virus had forced on his body. Some embraced it, but Jay had enough going on in his world without needing to worry about the AHRA bursting into his lab to cart him off to some room he’d never get to leave. Jay’s scientific curiosity did not stop it from being what it was: a virus.
Focus.
Jay grabbed the papers, removed the elevator key from his pocket, called the elevator, and turned the key in its slot to ascend to the first floor. The key was the only way up or down to make sure only authorized people were allowed access to his lab.
He stepped out into a semi-busy lobby. The smell of coffee, body fragrances, and a variety of breakfast items hit his senses like a well placed right hook. He shook it off. He ate last night. A coffee, a bagel, and some eggs would be a reward for finishing today.
Jay’s eyes drifted toward the security line. Guards were scanning each person’s eyes as they stepped through the checkpoint. Just to screen altered-humans from making their way into the compound. It was a method that was about 20% effective, but altered-humans were a new thing. Jay had no doubt they’d find a much more effective way to screen away those they didn’t want in the coming year. At least he didn’t have to go there. His eyes were the conduit of his ability. It hadn’t gotten him in trouble yet, but maybe it would one day.
He strolled to the reception desk. An Indian man stood in front of Olivia. Jay didn’t recognize him. He was fairly tall but seemed to have his back in a perpetual hunch to meet the eye level of everyone else. He sipped on a coffee from a to-go cup between sentences.
Olivia smiled and nodded her head, her blond bun bouncing up and down. Her eyes flicked over to him. “Oh hello, Mr. Cooper,” she said.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Khaleel, or the man Jay assumed to be Khaleel, turned to face him. “Thank you,” he said before taking another sip. He extended a hand, and Jay handed the papers over to him.
“Call me if you find any discrepancies,” Jay said, scratching the back of his head. “I can’t remember for the life of me when I did this paperwork.”
Khaleel nodded, taking another sip and walking away. “Ms. Warner,” Jay said, nodding toward her. He turned and almost crashed into one of the security guards.
The man laughed about it, holding up one of the eye scanners. “Sorry, Mr. Cooper, I have to give you a quick eye scan.”
Jay wiped at his eyes, his heartbeat picking up. “I got scanned last night when I came back. I slept over here.”
“Sorry, gotta check everyone in the morning, no exceptions. Only way to catch a shapeshifter.” He held up the scanner to Jay’s eye. The light stung as it passed over. The security guard checked it and smiled, “All good.”
Jay’s heart slowed to a steady pounding beat, and he made his way back to the elevator. The fabric of his pockets stuck to his hands as he tried to withdraw the key to the elevator. He finally got it out and pressed the elevator call button.
The crowd pressed into his personal space, and his head spun to study them all. All of the sudden about 20 people were just waiting, and he could not have people coming to the lower floor. Was he going to tell them he needed to be on the elevator alone? They’re just trying to get to their offices to do their jobs.
Fine, I’ll take the stairs.
Jay pushed his way through the crowd, people eventually getting out of his way voluntarily. He liked to think one or two people recognized who he was and what he was trying to do. Who he was working for. But no, it was probably that he hadn’t showered in a few days.
He popped open the door to the stairs and turned right. Another door that led downstairs. The elevator key fit the lock the same. He locked the door behind himself and ran down the stairs, bursting through the door to his lab. Finally, some peace and quiet. He was back in his realm. Back to working on the project he’d spend the better part of a decade working on.
The shrill ringing of his phone stopped Jay’s relentless arrow toward his work. He sat in his swivel chair and picked the phone off the hook, trying to keep the cord from getting tangled up in itself. "Hello, this is Jay," he said, only just now checking the caller ID. It was the CEO, Ryan Orson. The person who took his spot when Jay had decided to start focusing on new ventures and stop developing the fusion batteries. Ryan was smart, but he was better at developing someone else's idea than developing his own. So it was a fitting position really.
"Jay, I gotta talk to you real quick, buddy," Ryan said.
Jay sighed and slumped in his chair. "Real quick?"
"Hey, this time I mean it," Ryan laughed. "Sorry, just needed to let you know, we're going to have to do a drug test on you."
"Wait, why?" Jay sat up, his heart rate speeding up again. A drug test was the last thing he needed, but not because of drugs. He specifically made sure marijuana use was okay at this company, and that was the only substance he used. It was the other thing drug tests sometimes picked up. Specifically the hair or the blood test. The altered-human virus. If they found that out about him, it would not be good.
"That injury you got yesterday. You know policy. We drug test for injuries that require a doctor's attention."
Stupidest thing he ever did. Testing out his... well... he wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but laser vision seemed to be the acceptable description. He accidentally nicked himself on the arm.
"Well, when do you need me to do that? You know the general is expecting me to get this machine done.”
"Oh yeah, for sure, buddy. I'm way ahead of you. Someone will be coming down soon to take a quick sample. I'm sorry to do that to you. Just make sure you're available until they get here. No sweat though. It's just company procedure. They'll just pull a hair or get some blood or whatever then you can get back to it and forget about it."
Jay stayed on the phone for a second. No words exchanged. Was this happening? Did he need to escape?
"Alright, talk to you later," Ryan said, hanging up.
The empty tone of the phone filled the space where silence would have been. Now he had to... what... wait? He couldn't put on an exosuit to start working. Taking that off would be a pain. But why a blood or hair test? Why would Ryan go with that kind of a test? Unless he was really testing him for the altered-human virus.
Jay threw the phone, the cord pulling it back and slamming it against the ground. The plastic pieces shattered, and the pieces popped out. The heat in Jay’s neck sunk to the pit of his stomach. Cold sweat beaded his neck as he swept up the pieces. He looked at the rest of the phone, scooted halfway across his desk from Jay’s outburst. He unplugged it from the wall and threw the whole thing in the trash, doing his best to pick up little pieces of plastic.
Just as he settled his quaking breath, the intercom cracked to life. Jay jumped, almost tripping over a thick cord. "Mr. Cooper," Olivia said.
Jay took a step over to the intercom and pressed the button. "Yes, Ms. Warner," he responded.
"Your appointment is here. I just gave him the key to get to your lab."
The line clicked off, and Jay allowed himself just a tiny scream before hearing the footsteps coming down the stairs.