Whisper….Where are you?...
Heart pounding in her chest, she felt her way along the corridor. Darkness surrounded her, and she fell to her knees, gasping as she felt something jagged cut into her leg. Somewhere ahead of her, she could hear something moving.
“Hello?...” she called softly. “Can you hear me?”
Silence met her query. As she drug herself forward, the building shook. Where was this place? Why did someone know her name? Whisper could taste blood now as it trickled from a gash in her forehead. Another scraping sound drifted to her in the dark, from somewhere up ahead. Looking up, she saw two points of light, blood red against the shadows all around her. She realized they were coming closer. Before she could react, hands reached for her throat, and she choked, trying to draw a breath as her attacker lifted her into the air. Those cold, red eyes seemed to mock her. She clawed at the hands, desperate for air now as her strength started to leave her. The unseen foe loosened his grip, just enough to allow her to fill her lungs once again. With that one last breath, Whisper screamed.
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Whisper fell to the floor by her bedside, still gasping for air as she came fully awake. Her long, silver-white hair was matted with sweat, and she shuddered violently. She hugged her knees to her chest, unable to stop the tears from coming to her eyes. There was a soft knock at the door, and she wiped her eyes on the rumpled sleeve of her lab coat. The door opened, and she looked up to see a familiar face, his deep blue eyes filled with concern.
“Whisper? What happened?” he asked, coming to kneel beside her.
“The voice again...the dream..” she told him, her voice little more than a choked whisper.
Raden wrapped his arms around her, drawing her trembling form close to him. Whisper was beyond grateful for his presence. With him, she felt safe. Though she had been here as long as she could remember, the others kept themselves distant from her. Raden was different, he was never far from her, even after working hours were over for the day. He was the one person she truly trusted, and she knew she could tell him anything. Still, she hated for him to see her this way.
“We need to tell someone.” He urged her gently. “We can’t let this keep happening to you. This is the third time this week alone, and it’s getting worse.”
Whisper pulled back from his embrace to look up at Raden, his powerful 6’3” frame towering over her even where they sat on the floor next to the bed.
“No, please, I’m fine. It’s just nightmares. You know what they’ll do, and I’m too close to a breakthrough to take any leave. I’ve been working late, it’s probably just the cost of being a genius.” She laughed half-heartedly, knowing even as she spoke that she couldn’t convince him. Taking a deep breath, she stifled the urge to tell him more about the dream. This was not the time, there was too much at stake. She had to stay focused.
“What about the headaches? The difficulty communicating? We can’t ignore this any longer.” He insisted. She had come to him far too many times, shared too many complaints about her health. “If you aren’t going to do this by the books, then you’re at least going to let me run some tests. Don’t argue, either. If you really want to keep working yourself to an early grave, you have to let someone watch out for you. You’re impossible, you know that?” He sighed softly, reaching over to move a strand of damp hair out of her eyes as they both got to their feet. She was always like this, always needed to be super-human.
“Fine. Run your tests, but it’s nothing. I’ll swing by medical for something to help me sleep, after I shower and finish these notes. Are you free this evening?” Whisper glanced at the clock, realizing she’d fallen asleep mid-afternoon again.
“Evening it is. I’ve already briefed the team, and project Omega is right on track. If we keep up at this pace, we should come in at least 2 weeks ahead of schedule. The board is thrilled with it, and more than ready to talk to the investors about our work.”
“Two weeks? Are you sure? That’s incredible! Here, come look at this.” She tugged at the sleeve of Raden’s lab coat. “This run was my best yet. There was an increase in effectiveness against all but the most resistant strains, and I’m close to cracking those too, I know I am.” Her fingers flew deftly over the keyboard as she brought up the results of her most recent tests. Data scrolled by as she picked out the imagery of her last several live tests. “You can see here, as soon as I focused on binding proteins, the survival rate of the pathogen samples dropped at least 12%.”
“This is impressive.” Raden admitted, glancing at her appreciatively. “Engram had better be thankful you love it here.” He chuckled softly, relaxing as he felt the tension leaving Whisper. “I’ll leave you to get cleaned up, and get something to eat too. I know you haven’t!”
Whisper heaved an exaggerated sigh at him. “Will do, Dad.” She teased, tossing a crumpled page from her notes at him. “Hit the auto-lock on the way out, will ya?”
“You got it, and remember, we have a date tonight.” He winked at her roguishly, ruffling her hair on his way out of her room.
Alone once more, Whisper crossed the room to the kitchenette, and filled the kettle with water. She turned on the stove to heat it while she showered. In spite of how hard she pushed herself, she loved her little studio apartment, even if it did mean living at work. Engram had spared no expense for their staff, trading well appointed housing and plenty of perks for the demands of working in biotech for a living. It was home, the only place she knew. Besides, here she had access to state of the art facilities, equipment she’d never be able to touch in the private sector, or even at the academies. The higher ups said she had a gift, she was their rising star in the field.
The sensitive nature of the job meant that most of them gave up any real personal life. The solitude suited her just fine, since this life was all she had. Already distracted again from her shower, she sat back down in front of her terminal, and keyed in her personal password. In one corner of the desktop, a folder sat taunting her. Labeled with her name, it contained everything that Engram knew of her, little as that was. She’d read it a thousand times already, but still had more questions than answers. Opening the file, she scrolled through the meagre details again.
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Subject: Name unknown, assigning name “Whisper” to subject until identity can be discovered.
DOB: Unknown
Origin: Unknown
Appearance: Skin pigmentation unusually pale, appears to be consistent with albinism. Hair coloration, white. Eye coloration is unusual, appears violet, unsure of cause.
Subject found in secure space, no response to stimuli. Military liaison confirms that subject was alone, unconscious, and appeared deceased. Upon delivery to Engram location Delta, subject regained consciousness. Examining physician reported extreme disorientation, and marked abnormalities in the blood. Possible contaminant?
She looked up from the document, sitting back in her chair. Would she ever know who she really was? Frustrated for letting these feelings get the best of her again, Whisper closed the file and rose, walking over to the single window. Doctor Martask had always been more than willing to talk to her, to answer her questions, and to support Whisper’s search for her past. So why couldn’t they find anything? How many children with albinism had gone missing? How many families could she belong to?
Daylight was fading, and daytime staffers were beginning to clear out of the sprawling central parking lot below. Everyone seemed to belong, seemed to have a place at Engram. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard of a disagreement or spat between co-workers. It was comforting, in a way, but it unsettled her. The company employed thousands. Like clockwork, Engram Security was waiting to secure the front gates after everyone had departed.
A sharp whistle from the kettle brought Whisper out of her thoughts, and she turned away from the window. She glanced again at the clock, and hurriedly prepared a cup of hot tea. Raden would have plenty to say to her, both about her lack of cleanliness and her tardiness. Grabbing her id badge, her tea, and her bag, she raced out the door and down the corridor. She pushed the button repeatedly, hoping the elevator would hurry. The doors opened, and she darted inside, nearly flattening a startled intern making rounds with the mail.
“Excuse me!” she blurted out, grabbing the woman’s arm to prevent her from toppling over. “I’m so sorry! Are you alright?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The intern replied, straightening her armload of folders and paperwork. “Where are you headed?”
“Special projects, please. Sublevel 3. Raden is going to kill me!” Whisper answered, jostling her things to avoid dropping them.
The intern obliged, pressing the correct button, and returned to reading over documents as the elevator opened onto her floor. She waved a hand almost mechanically as she disembarked and headed off to the executive offices. As she departed, a sheet of paper slipped from her arms, but the elevator was already closing. Whisper picked it up, making note that it was for someone on the 4th floor. She was about to tuck it in among her things, when she realized that it was an image of the location where she’d been found.
Questions flooded her mind. Why now? What could be happening there after all this time? Quickly trying to suppress her reaction, she folded the sheet and placed it among her paperwork. The last thing she needed would be prying eyes or others getting involved. She silently prayed that the image wouldn’t be missed, and that she wouldn’t be accused of theft. Straightening her posture and putting on her most disarming smile, she left the elevator and entered the lab, raising a hand to wave to Raden where he stood waiting for her.
“Thank you for gracing me with your presence after all.” He smirked at her, pointedly glancing at his watch. “I was beginning to think I’d been stood up!”
“And miss our ‘date’? Never!” She laughed lightly, her eyes sparkling with merriment in spite of her fatigue. “Besides, you’d never stop nagging if we didn’t get this over with. I’m still not sure what you hope to find, Raden. Nightmares aren’t pathogenic, we won’t see anything.”
“I’m aware, Whisper, but we have to try. I care too much to let this go on. When was the last time you slept through the night, hmm?” Raden sighed softly. It pained him to see her suffer, and he wanted so much to relieve her pain.
“I get it, you’re worried. It’s not a great time for me either, you know? But how many years has it been since they found me? I don’t even know my own birthday, much less why I’m hearing voices in my sleep.” Whisper closed her eyes for a moment, trying to settle herself. Blowing up at her best friend wouldn’t help, he only wanted to see her safe and well. “What are we starting with?” She asked, curious in spite of herself.
“Even though I know Engram has tried, I would like to take another stab at identifying those abnormalities in your bloodwork. It may not be pathogenic, but I don’t think that rules out anything genetic. We can’t look at a family history here, but we can look for things that point to imbalances, or other conditions that affect sleep in particular.” Raden explained, readying the vials and syringe for the blood draw.
“That does make sense.” Whisper agreed reluctantly. “It would have been nice of Engram to at least give me the original results. I understand that it was a classified location, and that they can’t give details on where, but keeping my medical records seems silly. It’s not as if a person never sees a doctor or gets sick. Now that I think about it... it has been years since I had those labs done. Anything could have changed by now.”
“I’m glad you understand, I wouldn’t put you through this if it wasn’t so important. You work so hard. Too hard. You never stop to think of your health or how serious this could be. People do need restful sleep, even you.” As they talked, Raden drew the samples and bandaged the draw site. He was certain of what he would find, and struggled to keep his expression neutral.
Whisper hopped down from the exam table where she’d been sitting, and picked up her files from the counter where she’d tossed them. She took them to one of the workstations and sat down, careful to keep the new image out of sight. Entering her password, she brought up her work on the virus strain they had been working with. It still had not been identified, but she was pleased with her progress in being able to neutralize it. As with so many of the projects she had been involved in, this virulent strain could wreak havoc were it ever to escape the lab. Engram existed to prevent that scenario, to protect the world from pathogens and other biological threats. As she became lost in her work, she absently waved to Raden on his way out of the lab.
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After leaving Whisper in the lab, Raden’s heart raced. He walked briskly through the now-deserted hallways to the elevator and once inside, turned a key in what the public viewed as a maintenance panel. He quickly pressed the button and locked the panel again. The elevator began to descend once more, to a lab that very few knew existed. Zeta Lab was strictly “need to know”, and the people aware of it included the President of the United States. Fortunately for Raden’s purposes, those people also believed that it had been shuttered years ago, a belief which Engram allowed to continue without correction. It served them well to operate off the grid at times. Years of loyal service and ground-breaking work had earned him the right to not only learn of Zeta Lab, but to be permitted to access it.
Flicking on the light as he entered his office, Raden immediately sent a communication:
It is done. Results to follow.
He shut down the terminal, and began preparing slides for examination and testing. It would all come down to this, and the thought of it was overwhelming. Trying to push aside his thoughts, and the implications, Raden slid the first of the slides into the state-of-the-art electron microscope. He removed a second vial from cold storage, and prepared a sample of it for examination. As he had expected, and hoped, the samples matched. After 12 long years, it was finally happening. Further tests would be needed, and Raden moved with a purpose and urgency as he began a more specific series of tests on the samples. He had decisions to make which he knew would be critical, and that once made, could not be undone. The time for concealment was nearly at an end.