“Yes. And I want to hear it from Mr. Petersen. Not you. I know he’s the higher ups’ lackey and I want to hear it from him.”

A slight smile quirked onto Beverly’s lips. “Very well.” Collecting her things, she strode out of the room.

Maria found the resulting silence in the room unnerving. She studied the room, wondering where the observation window was located, and settled on an area apart from some blinking equipment. She glared at the empty spot on the wall, hoping the weight of her gaze would have some impact on the men and women who controlled her fate. Maybe she had overplayed her hand. Maybe she had assumed too much when it came to her worth in the program. But she had to believe if she was their first test subject she had to possess some physical or mental attribute that had made her a perfect candidate. Flexing her fingers, she stared at the blank wall, hoping that the powers that be would heed her words and do the right thing.

In silence, she waited.

* * *

Consciousness snapped her back into reality with a disorienting overload of sensory information. Maria shook her head, trying to focus her thoughts. She didn’t remember falling asleep. Her last memory was of staring at the wall, hoping that the leaders of the SWD project would see reason in her words.

“I see you’re back with us,” Mr. Petersen’s voice said pleasantly.

Maria lifted her eyes and saw Mr. Petersen sitting across the table from her. Beverly stood behind him clutching her pad. Her expression was stoic and Maria couldn’t discern if her situation had worsened or not.

“Why does that keep happening?”

“Care to explain, Dr. Curran?”

Beverly sighed and set her pad down on the table. Using her stylus, she pulled up several blocks of information, including a vid of Maria staring at the wall. “Watch.”

Maria leaned forward and recognized that one bit of information was showing her brain activity while another was measuring the stimuli in the room around her. Light, sound, and movement were all being recorded. Maria watched as her image on the screen slumped in her chair just as her brain activity dropped to a startling low. The vid sped forward, then showed Dr. Curran and Mr. Petersen entering the room. Mr. Petersen took out a small electroshock device and pressed it against Maria’s chest. Maria’s brain activity spiked and she came back into consciousness.

“What does it mean?” Maria asked. The vid was disconcerting to say the least. She had looked like a corpse sitting in her chair.

“The Inferi Scourge have one basic need: to spread the Inferi Scourge Plague Virus,” Dr. Curran said. “It’s their sole purpose for existence. We removed that need when we modified the virus. Therefore, you’re not spurred on by the desire to spread the virus like they are. You don’t have their aggression, their need. In the historical vids there is footage of millions of Inferi Scourge standing perfectly in place once the entire city was infected by the virus. They only began to move once they sensed that there was an uninfected human nearby. In other words, the Inferi Scourge become dormant when there are no humans nearby to infect. At first our predecessors thought this would enable us to wipe them out. They left infected cities alone, quarantining them, hoping the Inferi Scourge would remain in their dormant stage. They even attempted to bomb the inert creatures a few times only to rouse the Inferi Scourge and send them on a march in the direction the bombers took on their return flights. That tendency to fall dormant is one of the drawbacks we have discovered in giving you the modified virus.”

“What good am I going to be if I keep blacking out?” Maria stared at them curiously. “How did you not see this happening?”

Mr. Petersen smiled, but it held no warmth. “Actually it will be easily remedied with a new program in your wristlet. Once your testing is done, we will install a program that will stimulate your nervous system and rouse you whenever you fall dormant for too long.”

“If I do the testing,” Maria said tersely.

Mr. Petersen regarded her like she was an insolent child, then let out a sigh that indicated how insufferable he thought she was. “Yes, that is why I am here. It has been decided by my superiors that your request makes sense in light of your...reaction to your condition.”

“How did you think we would react?” Maria stared at him incredulously. “How did you think we would feel when we woke up to find out that we’re not even alive anymore, but Scrags?”

“Inferi Boon,” Beverly corrected automatically.

Maria almost cursed at the scientist, but thought better of it and held her tongue. Pressing her lips together, she carefully considered each word before she said it. “I might be a thinking Scrag, but that doesn’t make what you did to me any easier to process emotionally. And let me be very clear on this matter. I am fully committed to fulfilling my duties and ridding the valley of the Scrags, but what you did to me was wrong.”

Mr. Petersen and Beverly regarded her in silence for a few seconds before exchanging looks. At last, Mr. Petersen returned his attention to Maria and said, “Our superiors will have you record a message for the volunteers to our program once you have finished your testing. It has been decided that will make the transition for the rest of the team a much smoother process.”

“You’re the first, Maria. What you say and do will greatly help the others when they transition. You will be their guide.” Beverly gave her a wan smile. “Is that agreeable?”

Maria nodded. “Yes. It is.”

“Now, let’s begin our tests, okay?” Beverly motioned to Mr. Petersen, who promptly vacated his chair. Beverly sat down and motioned to the bank of monitors. “Are you ready to begin?”

Nodding, Maria settled into her chair.

* * *

A steady rain was falling over the city again. Dwayne dreaded the trek home to his small flat in the city. He had even pondered staying in his office for the night. He was in a restless and sour mood and wasn’t sure if he wanted to deal with the soggy streets. Hunkered down behind his desk, he rubbed his bottom lip lightly with one finger, not even aware of the action. He was deep within his own thoughts, worried and frustrated at the long silence from Maria. It was now three days since he had last communicated with her and the silence was worrisome.

The door to his office slid opened. Petra lingered just outside the room waiting for his acknowledgement.

“Come in,” he said at last.

Petra strode in swiftly and stood at the end of his desk. Though her expression was carefully neutral there was a slight puckering between her eyebrows that concerned him.

“What did you discover?” he asked not sure if he wanted to hear her answer.

“Absolutely nothing,” Petra admitted, and he could see the defeat in her posture now that the words had been spoken. “The SWD is in lockdown. I couldn’t gather not one shred of information from my contacts. I can’t even make a casual phone call to a friend inside the facility. All communications coming in or going out of the SWD facility are only allowed with top security clearance. I’m not sure the Commandant could get through.”

“You tried her codes, I take it?” Dwayne lifted an eyebrow at his assistant.

Petra hesitated, then nodded.

Dwayne exhaled slowly and tried to calm his fraying nerves. His stomach felt like it had given birth to a black hole that was slowly consuming him. “Thank you for your efforts.”

“I could keep trying,” Petra offered, clearly not wanting to accept defeat.

“No, that’s not necessary. I will see if there is another channel I can utilize.” Dwayne’s voice sounded colder than he liked.

Petra gave him a slight nod before shifting on her feet slightly. He could see she was grappling with her own questions, doubts, and fears. He had only asked her to find out what she could about recent SWD activity, but it was clear that the security lockdown had her unnerved. “I did uncover one piece of information. You may already know what I’m about to tell you. I’m not even sure if it’s related to your request.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The commandant signed off on the transfer of twenty soldiers of the Constabulary to the SWD for an unspecified reason. The official reason for their reassignment is ‘training’ at the East Garrison. Since the East Garrison is basically a housing facility for the soldiers patrolling that side of the wall that didn’t make much sense. So I did a little more digging and found that all of twenty of the soldiers were transferred to the SWD. Not officially, of course. I reviewed the list of names. Some of them are war heroes from the last big push against the Scrags. Vanguard Martinez, the one who saved your life, is one of the mysteriously reassigned soldiers.”

Dwayne felt a slight chill slide down his spine. He trusted Petra, but she was sometimes a little too perceptive when it came to his motives. He and Maria had always been discreet, but now he wondered if Petra had discerned the truth somehow.

“Interesting,” he said at last.

“Isn’t it? But, like I said, I didn’t find the answer to your question. The SWD is obviously implementing a new program of some kind utilizing Constabulary soldiers instead of their own, but other than that...” Petra shrugged.