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.%20Rosemary%20-%20Beyond%20World's%20End.txt (62 of 124) [2/2/2004 1:21:13 AM]file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20Mercedes%20&%20Edghill,%20Rosemary%20-%20Beyond%20World's%20End.txt"Sure." Jeanette grinned without mirth."But don't you think it should wait until we have guineapigs to test it on? Anyway, I'm not sure what redosing the Survivors will do.Maybe it'll justkill them.In terms of practical applications you've got to remember that this stuff wears offfairly quickly.Twelve hours and it's out of the system--;and from what we've seen with the chimps and the firstround of people, the overt effects only last for an hour or two."Robert smirked at her, sure he knew things she didn't."Well, that's just the thing.We could get started on that second round right now.We've still gotthat live one from the last round, and we've got plenty of T-Stroke.Why don't you shoot her upagain and see what happens?"The sadistic glee in his voice made her wince inwardly.Jeanette knew that all their human victimswere going to be TTD--;Tested to Destruction--;and that none of them were going to be allowed tosurvive, but down deep inside somewhere she also thought that they should be treated with respect.Whether they'd chosen to be lab-rats or not, they were heroes.But Robert saw them as nothing morethan toys.And Robert liked breaking toys.She already knew that."She's the one who healed herself, right? Fat lot of good that is, for your purposes," Jeanettesaid grudgingly.She couldn't resist slipping the needle in, even if only a little.What if theonly thing this stuff was actually good for was healing impossible-to-cure diseases? Not muchpower for Robert in that.Too bad if that's true, party-boy."Yeah.Ram says she had stomach cancer.I was thinking a higher dose might, I don't know--;dosomething else," he said, too casually.If there was anything Life had taught her, it was that trying to save anyone else only got youhurt.She'd sold folks down the river before.One more couldn't matter.Jeanette shrugged."Wortha try, I suppose.And if her head explodes we can dump her somewhere like all the others.Okay.Tell Beirkoff to get her prepped and bring her down to my lab and we'll see what we can do.Oh,and Robert? Strap this one down real good, okay? I don't want to spend tomorrow cleaning the placeup."Robert grinned and saluted her from across the room, a faux-macho gesture he'd picked up from somemovie or other.Jeanette grimaced--;she'd alwaysparticularly detested it.But Robert didn't notice.He'd already gotten what he wanted.After he left, she rummaged through her paper files until she found the one she was looking for:the intake report on Ellie Borden, the sole survivor of the first run of trials.The blackhooker'd had the lowest body weight of any of the test subjects, and so the dose she'd gotten inthe cells had been proportionately higher.Was that the reason she'd survived? Would a small dose of T-Stroke kill, but a large one liberatethe mind from its fetters?We're going to get a chance to find out, aren't we? Jeanette thought with grim humor.Her headachewas worse than it had been all day.See? You're going to do someone else down.And it doesn't hurtat all, does it?* * *They had to let her go.God had given her a second chance, and Ellie Bordendidn't intend to waste it.She knew she was in some kind of trouble.Her head was clear for the first time in many, manymonths, the disease wasn't hanging over her head like a flaming sword, and she knew that whereverthis place was, she was not in the hands of the police.Everyone she'd met here had treated her with distant kindness.A little while after she'd woken upwhole and well, alone in that padded cell, a woman wearing a black uniform had come and escortedher to a bathroom with a shower, given her a rolled towel that contained a toothbrush and soap,and told her to wash.When she'd stripped, she found two disks glued to her skin--;one under herribs, another high on her back--;but try as she might, she could not pick them free, and the guardhad ordered her to get into the shower and stop wasting time.The water was hot, and beneath itsstream Ellie had luxuriated in being clean, really clean, for the first time since she'd beenturned out onto the streets.She might still have been in the shower if the woman hadn't told her to come out.When she had,she'd found her clothing was gone, and she'd been given a set of blue surgical scrubs to wear, anda pair of soft slippers for her feet.The connection between these clothes and those given toprison inmates did not escape her."Where am I? Can you tell me that? I know this isn't the Tombs4.I need to get out of here.Ipromise I won't cause any trouble."But the woman had only stared at her with hard-eyed pity, and refused to answer any of herfile:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20M.%20Rosemary%20-%20Beyond%20World's%20End
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