The Anomaly by Bob Blink

Author:Bob Blink [Blink, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-10T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

US Army Medical R&D Command

Fort Detrick, Maryland

Test Lab #6

The next week was spent in intensive examination and testing of the scales, their characteristics and her ability to control them. They seemed capable of dreaming up endless experiments that required her to bring back the scales in selected areas or over her entire body. They especially wanted to gather samples, although some efforts that took hours to complete yielded them nothing of much use. In one experiment they wanted her to open a patch of normal skin that was surrounded by the modified scales. Since they couldn't get a blood sample through the scales, they figured this was the best alternative. Natalie finally managed to accomplish the strange configuration and they got their sample, but were perplexed when it showed nothing different than the samples they took when there were no scales. While the doctors learned nothing from tests like these, they were giving her the ideal environment to learn how to control the strange changes to her body. The biggest cost to her was that so much exercising of the transitions kept her continually hungry, and she was eating two or three times her normal intake during the testing.

The doctors also desperately wanted at least one of the scales for examination, but getting one or part of one proved far more troublesome than they had anticipated. The scales on the dead miner had been relatively easy to extract, but those that Natalie wore were different, and weren't easily removed. They tried knives, and brute force, which was uncomfortable for her but not actually painful. Their efforts failed in any event. They finally were able to get a partial scale using a laser cutter after hours of experimentation with power levels and frequencies. The removal left a scar on her skin once she reverted back to normal, but like other skin damage, the scar was cleared away within hours. The section of scale they had managed to remove quickly reverted to normal skin once it had been separated from her body, so they didn't accomplish much. She was able to overhear one of their conversations, the main way she learned much, that the sample tested identical to her normal skin. Whatever was happening, they weren't learning what they wanted.

One development that was a direct byproduct of the testing was a change in the armament of her bodyguards. The tranquilizer dart gun had been modified with a much stronger narcotic, and a mixture of compounds the doctors had determined slowed the emergence of the scales. It took five minutes for the scales to emerge, and there were signs she had triggered them. If those signs were detected at a time she wasn't being tested, the guards had directions to put her under. Both men were also armed with different, more powerful weapons. Both carried large bore, .500 Magnum S&W handguns, and while one retained his controller for her collar, the other also had a special laser rifle, designed to be able to penetrate the scales should it become necessary.

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