The Seed of Cain by Agnes Gomillion

Author:Agnes Gomillion
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags:  
Publisher: Titan

THE BINDER

I rapped on the renovated lab door. Lee Ford opened it. His face was blank and white as he looked me over, pausing for a moment on my rumpled hair, then stepped aside. Smoothing my braids, I looked past him into the room.

“Ms. Cobane, you’ve arrived!” the Director said. He looked giddy, as if tonight solidified our friendship, when I knew I was no more than a pawn he needed to retrieve the bracelets.

I forced myself to step inside. And, when he held out a hand to greet me, I took it and shook, letting his warm palm engulf mine. “Are you certain this will work?” I asked. I turned back to Lee, hoping he would answer.

He closed the door and moved to a station equipped like a private room in the infirmary. He removed a syringe from a cabinet in the station and positioned himself by a medical bed.

“Are you ready, girl?” Kumar demanded.

I tore my gaze from Lee. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Kumar’s smile froze. “Nothing is definite, Ms. Cobane. We’ll know more after a simulation. Lee designed a test especially for this occasion.” He moved to the bed, brushed Lee aside, and pressed a button to recline the mattress. “Now, come sit,” he said.

I tried to catch Lee’s eye as I moved to the medical bed and rested back. I cleared my throat, but Lee never looked up. Without warning, I felt a sharp pain in my arm. I gasped and looked down. Lee had jabbed me with the needle. Avoiding my gaze, he drew blood into a small tube. When it was full, he removed the tube and began filling another.

“Easy, General,” Kumar said, as Lee switched the tube again. He filled five in total. “That was the hard part. Once the hormone is isolated, we’ll have a mold to work from. Binding it will be like fitting a puzzle piece.” He smiled.

I nodded, watching Lee take the newly drawn blood to an ice unit. He put four tubes inside the unit: the fifth he took to a small machine.

The Director leaned in intimately. “What you see there is a specialized centrifuge,” he said, indicating the machine. “It’s already loaded with the blood of the Mute, taken after your last simulation.”

I watched Lee load the fifth tube as the Director went on. “In a minute we’ll know the difference between the two samples. And, with a few calculations, I’ll be able to approximate which hormone enjoys unusual concentration in your blood. We’ll use that calculation to produce the cure.”

* * *

The whole process took less than an hour. Once Lee had isolated the trigger hormone, he designed a simple compound to target and bind the trigger, limiting its effectiveness in my body.

Once it was ready, he filled a syringe with the binder and squeezed two drops onto a patch that would attach to my skin.

“Lee will put the patch on your neck for rapid transmission,” Kumar said.

Lee stopped at my bedside. He shifted my braided hair to reveal my nape.

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