Transcript of conversation between XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. November, XX, XXXX.
> It sounds like his training is going well.
>
> It’s going very well, XXXX. He can boil water across a room or freeze it, if he wants. Yesterday he figured out how to start a fire. He actually stopped it as well, which surprised us.
>
> He’s figuring these things out on his own?
>
> Mostly, XXXX. During his psych evals, we plant a few vague suggestions, like ‘maybe you could start a fire with your disks’ and he does the rest.
>
> So what’s next?
>
> This morning, we introduced the concept of reading people.
>
> What’s that?
>
> There’s some literature that suggests our faces change temperature when we lie. We planted that idea and will let him toy around with it a little. We have some vague theories about how he might be able to use such a skill, but letting him explore the concept seems like the prudent path.
>
> Very good. Anything else?
>
> Yes, XXXX. We’re thinking of advancing the schedule. If he’s this good on his own, imagine what he’ll do once he gets some real, overt training.
>
> You think he’s ready?
>
> We think so, but there’s still one piece of the backstory we need to drop. If he accepts it like he has everything else, I’d like him to go home as soon as tomorrow. He might need a couple more days if he needs some adjusting, but tomorrow seems most likely.
>
> Alright. I’ll start greasing the receiving end. Let me know when you have an official request.
>
> Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
>
> Yes, XXXX.
- Aiden -
NOVEMBER
The last piece of the puzzle has finally fallen into place and it kind of makes sense in its own stupid way.
I got the news from a pair of reluctant FBI agents--the same ones who questioned me a few days ago. Apparently, Alex pulled some strings and forced them to come see me and explain what they had found.
Yes, there had been a bomb, but there had been also some software sabotage. The failure of the kill button to stop the vats, that was malicious. The water leak as well, although no one has figured out why they needed to flood the room.
As they talked, I had the idea of monitoring their body heat, which proved interesting. Every time I asked an uncomfortable question, their heat patterns changed noticeably. It’s hard to explain, but I could tell they were uncomfortable. Twice, I noticed a different pattern and suspect that they were lying to me, although I don’t know for sure. I’ll need to experiment some more, to calibrate my system, as it were.
But with all of the data they shared, the timeline is unmistakable. The first vat cracked the liquid nitrogen tank. The second one spilled molten silver. A few seconds later, a severed high-voltage line dropped into the water at the exact moment that I fell simultaneously into the extremes of the two liquids.
I should have burned to death from the silver and frozen to death from the nitrogen and I should have been electrocuted as well. But somehow, in the miraculous way that nature does things that don’t make sense, all three of these deaths balanced out and I didn’t die. Instead, I can now do cool things with heat.
Later in the day, Dr. Garcia happened to drop by and I mentioned what the FBI agents had told me. Of course, she asked me how that made me feel. I didn’t have a perfect answer for her then, but I thought about it all evening, and now that I’m about to write it down, I think I have one.
The whole thing is stupid. They should have found a dead body that had been frozen and burned and electrocuted in equal thirds, but they didn’t. And somehow it all kind of makes sense in its own stupid way and instead of fighting to understand it, I’ve decided to simply accept it at face value and figure out what to do with the rest of my life.
Which is good, because I get the feeling that the rest of my life will start soon. No one has come out and said anything, but I think they don’t know what else they can do for me.
Physically, I’m doing very well. I seem to have graduated from physical therapy and even my scarring has healed, although no one has an explanation for how that’s even possible. Except for the two pieces of metal in my hands and a proclivity to move heat from one object to anothert, I’m perfectly normal.
The only thing that seems to be wrong is a habit of seeing my former coworkers in the people I meet, like the nurse who reminds me of Rebecca, or one of the FBI agents who looked like a guy named David, who I didn’t know very well, but was there the day of the accident. Dr. Garcia assures me that this is a normal way for our brains to deal with trauma. To establish familiarity between the past and the present. She suggested that it would fade over time and I like to think that I believe her.