PROXIMA CENTRAL HOSPITAL

10:12 A.M.

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“I was told you were found wandering the halls today in your hospital gown… and that your butt was showing,” was Trevor’s first sentence as he entered the room. “I also heard you complained about the food.”

“It wasn’t a complaint, it was just a recommendation,” Adam replied from the bed. He had already had the IV bag removed, he had no more electrodes on his chest, nor was he connected to any monitoring equipment. “What’s wrong with demanding a cheeseburger for lunch?”

Trevor took a seat next to his friend, and the two were silent for a long time. The morning looked radiant from the window; and the city, imposing as always, although somewhat cold. They could hear the news; someone in another room had the television on and had left the door open.

“How you feel?”

“Better,” Adam said, trying to smile.

“Rita says hello; says she’ll come to see you after the office.”

“Phew! Someone wants to get a big bonus to buy more clothes.”

And they both laughed, even though the joke hadn’t been that funny, and they knew it. Laughing was the easiest way of releasing the awkwardness of the situation.

“Adam, I…” Trevor was the first to speak.

Adam held his breath, begging Trevor not to ask him about what had happened. He didn’t know how to deal with the issue of the secret Binary Project, his brother, and the mutant proteins, without looking like a lunatic.

“About the talk the other day, at the nightclub…” Trevor said.

Relief returned to Adam. “You don’t have to say anything. Since I woke up again, I am another person.”

Trevor left the chair. “So? What happened?”

I knew it! It was useless to take a deep breath and pretend that his admission to the hospital hadn’t been under strange circumstances. Sooner or later, he would have to face that question.

Sure, he could play the card, ‘I’m sorry, I lost my memory, and I remember nothing,’ but there was a lot of fear in him and a bitter taste of guilt that would give him away in front of anyone.

Adam lowered his gaze.

“Not now,” he said. Sooner or later, he would have to, but not now. “I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”

“When you feel like it, I’ll be here.”

“Thanks, Trevor.” Adam looked up again, somewhat embarrassed. “I learned from Sarah that it was you who took care of the whole ‘police and questioning’ situation.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Now it was Trevor who looked down, his white face, flushed.

“Well, you know; I pulled some strings.” He took off his glasses and wiped them with his handkerchief. “Let’s just say the police investigation of the case will take a very, very slow course.”

“So… If it flows into the sea of oblivion, I’ll be more than happy, y’know?”

“I did it because it was you, and I imagine what he represents for you,” Trevor said. “I mean… You know. Sarah told me about him.”

Thorns. Adam felt many thorns in his chest; there, right between the memories and his wounded sense of responsibility.

“Oh… Juzo, yes.”

“I imagine it’s a delicate thing, and I imagine how you must feel. But I want you to tell me everything when you feel better. Deal?”

Trevor had hardened his countenance. ‘I hate using my social status to put pressure justice. Make my effort worthwhile,’ said that face, and Adam couldn’t afford to disappoint anyone else again.

“I’ll do it, Trevor. Thank you.”

But where to start with Juzo Romita? By explaining to Trevor about the Binary Atavistic Project, the little that he himself came to understand? Or by telling him that his brother had been a fugitive from a totalitarian regime that no one wanted anything to do with?

‘However, the military… They have no idea we’re here,’ Juzo had assured. If that was still the case, one less problem.

“Well, cheer up!” Trevor said. “I’m positive this Friday you will already be back in that devilish nightclub, diving into that artificial smoke. By the way, Lisandro Carinae called your office asking about you. Did he visit you?”

Adam snorted. “If a text that says, ‘I heard you’re in the hospital. Get well soon,’ is equivalent to a visit; then, yes; Lisandro visited me,” he said, between shame and disappointment. “Lisandro can mobilize his entire crew so I can appear on the cover of a damn magazine, but visit someone in a hospital? That would be asking too much of him, y’know? I think you were right; those people are not my friends.”

Trevor nodded. “But you already knew that.”

Adam shrugged and lost his gaze on the city outside the window.

“Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of certain things,” he said.

Trevor left the room a few minutes later when the cleaning service came.

The next day, at noon, Sarah Lanen released Adam.

“Let’s go. I’ll take you home,” she offered.

They walked through the wide corridors of the hospital toward the exit, among people, patients coming and going, and doctors going from here to there. In the distance, next to a door that announced, ‘Authorized personnel only. Do not enter,’ there were two Cyclops automatons carrying away an old, probably defective pharmacy refrigerator. Adam felt as if someone had blown out his insides with one blow, so much so that he almost tripped over his own feet. The mere sight of them terrified him.

Sarah held him by the shoulders.

“Something wrong?” she asked worriedly. “Hey, if you don’t feel good…”

Adam knew it was impossible; he knew neither of those two androids was Broga, but he still suffered a hot flash.

“No, no. It’s nothing,” he said, and changed routes, taking the first corridor nearby.

“The parking lot is around here,” she pointed out.

“We better go this way,” he said. At that moment, he didn’t care if he got lost in the cavernous hospital and ended up in a corner without an exit or in the gynecology area; anything was better than walking past those two robots.

A few minutes later, outside, under the sun and the cool wind rushing by, he realized that he was still shaking.

Calm down. Calm down, he repeated to himself, although he looked around in case he found any other Cyclops out there.

Sarah opened the car, but when Adam was about to get in, he detected something behind him, like a presence.

“Adam,” someone whispered in his ear. He turned back, his heart in his mouth again.

There was no one there.

“You okay, Adam?”

“Yes, yes. Everything’s fine.”