Edax sapiens

Metamour: Part One

The frontdesk came in on line one.

"Sir, Dr. Roach is here to see you."

"Send her in," Dr. Crocker replied without looking away from Roach's resume.

Within a minute, a disheveled and callous twenty-five year old woman walked through his office door in a clean white lab coat.

He could see her dim grayish teeth as she chewed on her tongue with her molars, symptomatic of someone who thought about nothing but work even after six months in prison.

Her pretty face said nothing. Her eyes were void and her mind was elsewhere.

"Have a seat," Crocker offered.

The woman sat.

He didn't extend her any further pleasantries.

"Doctor Roach," he drawled as he picked up her resume to read, "Born 2148 on Mars, PhD in Molecular Biology and Genomics, graduated top of her class from Harvard, wrote the book on the completed human genome, took a comfy government job researching cures to every genetic disease known to man with a near unlimited budget, and then..."

The older doctor put the papers down and studied her curiously.

"...sent her team of one hundred researchers, along with a hundred more military personnel, straight to hell with a flesh-dissolving acidic gas that broke every chemical weapons treaty the USA has signed since World War One."

Absently, Roach responded, "A contagious metastatic cancer broke out of containment. They were dead anyway."

"A cancer which you designed," he accused her.

"It was an accidental byproduct of our Stage-Four prevention program," she put simply.

"Cut the bullshit," the old doctor leaned in seriously. "Who gave you the order to make guinea pigs out of your friends? Who made you the scapegoat in this mess?"

"There was no order," she reaffirmed. "I eliminated the contagion for God and country."

"Tell me," Crocker threatened firmly, "or else I put you back in your box."

The woman just stared blankly at him and chewed on herself like a dumb cow.

The man smiled proudly after a long silence and leaned back in his chair comfortably.

"I'm impressed," he told her, knowing she didn't care for the compliment. "And, FYI, it took a lot of string pulling to get you out of your life sentence, so rest assured, we both know what really happened at Project Dogwarts."

Her lips finally stopped contorting around as her jaw clenched at hearing the codename.

"Are you CIA?" she asked.

"We're private, baby!" Crocker winked at her with a toothy grin. "Welcome to the Edax Corporation. We launch to HQ tomorrow."

*****

"Anything to drink?" asked a stewardess wearing a skimpy flight outfit.

"Brandy," the old doctor ordered.

Roach thought for a moment and decided she'd like "A bottle of cane sugar Coke."

The flight attendant and her breasts bounced away.

"Odd choice," Crocker remarked.

"Prison is bland," the younger doctor replied.

"Is it true what they say about female prisons?" he asked.