My father was waiting impatiently for me when I got home. He sat at the kitchen counter and skewered me with a stare as I entered the door. He wasn’t reading, or looking at his phone, or watching TV, or anything. He’d just been staring at the door.

  “You’re late,” he said somberly. “Did you forget?”

  I didn’t even know what I was late for. But my father was thinking about it loudly enough, so I didn’t have to guess.

  “Oh right. You wanted me to get my blood tested.”

  What if a trace of my new ability appeared in the test? I couldn’t lose my powers now. The Old Ones were keenly aware of me, and would continue to haunt me even if I couldn’t see them. Or worse, the Mind Flayer would possess me like it did with Ramsey and Doctor Warmal. I would have no way to defend without the power from my medication.

  “Can’t we wait until next week?” I added apprehensively.

  My father shook his head. “Before your next treatment on Friday. We have to make sure there aren’t any hidden side effects.”

  “How long will it take to get the results?”

  “I’ll run the tests tonight.”

  “I’ll go with you then. I haven’t been to your laboratory in years.”

  I was about to ask whether Doctor Warmal still visits the lab too, but caught myself just in time. The thought of Warmal in my father’s lab had been stolen from his mind without his knowledge. If I didn’t want to lose my new power, I had to be more careful.

  My father straightened his glasses with an index finger. He shrugged. “As you please. You’ll have to wait around for a bit while I run the tests though.”

  “That’s fine.”

  On the drive over, I had the opportunity to search my father’s mind again. Driving really was the best opportunity to look in someone’s head. It was a good excuse to sit very close to them without seeming strange, and it was quiet and isolated enough for the thoughts to ring clear.

  How much more can his body take? My father thought as he drove. I stared straight ahead and showed no sign. He still isn’t ready.

  Ready for what? My father reached for the radio and turned it on. “Oh hey, I love this song!” He spun the volume knob with abandon. I didn’t recognize the guitar riff opening, but it was so loud it shook the car. It wasn’t nearly so easy focusing on my father’s thoughts after that. I tried to turn it down, but he swatted my hand away.

  “Dun. Dun. Dun dun dun,” he tried to emulate the guitar.

  I sat back in my seat and silently fumed. He was doing it on purpose. I don’t know how he knew, but he knew. He underestimated me though. I closed my eyes and imaged myself back in Mori’s garden. I imagined the bubbling stream, and that my father’s thoughts were floating in the water on little boats towards me through the noise.

  I might be able to increase the dose and decrease the frequency, my father thought. Or I could change the delivery mechanism. Emulsify it in fat, maybe, for better absorption. I want him to be at his best before he’s TESTED.

  Tested. There was something strange about the way his thoughts were both drawn towards and repulsed from that word. It meant something more than just the laboratory blood tests. He knew that I was preparing for something. I swallowed, and made a point of staring straight ahead through the windshield.

  I wonder how much longer I can keep taking ingredients from Doctor Warmal before he notices. As long as he’s teaching, he might not even check his stores until the end of the semester. I need to find a new supply of that synthetic DNA though. Off the books. One, zero, two, three, all that separates me from prison.

  Aha! So Doctor Warmal was still part of his lab. It all made me feel like I was part of some grand experiment. His thoughts kept tracing back to the guitar’s melody though. It was fairly easy to take his thoughts which floated by on the stream. It was much more challenging to actively search his memory or his unconscious though. I couldn’t concentrate. I needed to train with Mr. Mori and learn his meditation and breathing techniques to sharpen my focus.

  The parking lot was mostly empty. Baleful orange overhead lamps lit the way to the large double glass doors. My father fished around in his wallet for a security keycard. I looked around the monstrous glass building, and saw the sign in stone carved out front.

  “GenIUS Thereputics,” I read aloud. “For some reason, I always thought you worked in a university.”

  The card reader flashed green and the glass doors opened. My father shook his head as we entered. “Private pharmaceutical company. Remember, you’ve got to be careful now. I would get in a lot of trouble if they found out I was using their resources for a private project. Once I’ve learned more about how this works though, in a few years it will be ready for wider testing. You could make a big difference to a lot of people.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “You made the difference,” I said. “I’m just the guinea pig.”

  “I should hope not. The guinea pigs we gave the medication to have tragically exploded.”

  I stopped short. My father turned quizzically. His face was completely straight, without the hint of a smile to betray a joke. I decided it was a joke though, and continued following him toward the elevator. We had to pass by the front desk first, where a security guard lounged back in his chair. He pulled his hat up so it no longer covered his beady suspicious eyes or buzzed hair.

  “Late night, eh Doctor Perdue?”

  “Beats an early morning, Manny. Everything good?”

  “Sure thing, although the WiFi has been a little hit or miss. Who’s your friend there?” The guard leaned forward with his elbows on the desk.

  I waved half-heartedly. “Oh it’s okay. I’m his —”

  “Intern,” my father interrupted me.

  The guard grunted and looked at his computer. “I didn’t even know we had interns. Does he have some kind of pass?”

  “Unless you’d rather be the one to volunteer to help me clean the animal cages. Did you hear one of the rats had a bad reaction? Took his meds, and then internally combusted. Heated up so much he started to melt from the inside while he was still alive. Now there’s just sticky puddles of red fur that need to be peeled off the floor.”

  Manny the guard look horrified.

  My father pushed the elevator button.

  I grinned and asked: “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have something like a spatula, would you?”

  Manny shook his head vehemently.

  “Never mind that. See you in an hour or two,” my father said. He strode confidently into the elevator and I hurried behind. Only the guard’s thoughts followed us: Damn psychos. Go to school, get a degree, mother said. Too much studying and people come out funny, I said. I’d rather have my job than his.

  “You didn’t have to lie him,” I said when the elevator closed. “I hope I don’t get you in trouble for being here.”

  “Manny doesn’t care. In fact, anyone important enough to care is always gone by 5 PM. One of the many perks of working here.”

  Room 314. My father turned the lights on to reveal a cramped office. One wall was crowded with a huddle of computer monitors and hardware caught in a great network of cables. There was a tower of metal cabinets, and on the far wall a metal fume hood. I recognized it from the school lab, with its big pipe for removing toxic gases produced from mixing chemicals. I recognized some of the other tools too, like the fermenter and the centrifuges. There were also some strange machines that I didn’t recognize.

  My father was skilled with a needle and drew two vials of blood without issue. I looked away until he was done. He held the blood up to the light and flicked the vials. “Viscosity seems okay.”

  “The ladies like that about me.”

  My father snorted. He took the vials to the back of the room with the chemical hood. “First I’m going to mix the blood with some reagents. Then I’ll let it incubate for an hour, to separate out the bio markers. I have a little other business to attend to while we wait.”

  I said I didn’t mind waiting in his office, and my father was soon gone. This was the perfect opportunity to snoop around. I ran first to his desk, and sifted through piles of dull bureaucratic looking paperwork. Of course nothing interesting would be here in the open; he would hide the good stuff. I tried to log onto his computer, but it was password protected. Damn, I should have thought of that and got it from his head before we got here. On impulse, I tried “One, Zero, Two, Three”, the numbers running through my father’s head earlier. Invalid password.

  I walked along the metal cabinets, also locked. To the chemical station in the back, I saw rows of neatly labeled glass bottles. They were split between refrigerated shelves, each one with their own thermostat. The had long, unpronounceable chemical names, nothing I could understand. I looked at my blood in the little vials. One of them already seemed to be reacting. There were white crystals like snowflakes forming in the bottom. I didn’t know what it meant, but it frightened me. I couldn’t hide these results.

  This must mean the test found something. Frustrated, I went back to his desk at sat down in his chair. I began to thoughtfully spin, as a super villain might while hatching their plans for conquest. My foot slapped into a metal box on the floor underneath the desk as I did. It was one of those fireproof cases that was supposed to survive even if the whole building came down on it. There was a combination lock in the front. Four numbers. My heart raced. I ran to the door, and looked both ways up and down the hall. No sign of my father. Back to the desk, I entered the numbers into the lock. One, Zero, Two, Three. It clicked open.

  Inside looked like an ice chest. White mist began to escape as soon as I opened it. At first I thought it was a spiritual cloud like the wolf was made of. This was real though, and came from the dry ice inside the chest. A single syringe filled with blue liquid nestled in the middle of it. I reached inside, burning myself a bit on the dry ice before I got the syringe out. There was a handwritten label in my father’s writing which said: “For Emergency.”

  What amazing luck. I was just planning on having some emergencies soon. But how could I take it without him noticing? My eyes darted around the room. Then to the chemical shelves. I couldn’t tell what the chemical names meant, but I only need to match the blue color of my medication. I found one that was a good fit. There were empty syringes in a case to the side. I filled one with the blue chemical to the same dosage as my medication.

  Then I put the fake in the icebox and locked it again. If the real medication had to stay cold, I could hide it in the freezer until I needed to use it. For now I just slipped the syringe into my pocket, making sure the protective cap was secure. If I met the hunger, if the mind flayers attacked, if Doctor Warmal cornered me, if Ramsey was still possessed, if I had to save Lei… there was no knowing what kind of emergency would come. But at least now I knew I would be at the height of my power when I needed it most.

  My father returned soon after. He went straight to my blood samples and held them up to the light again. I held my breath as he frowned.

  “What are the white crystals?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. They shouldn’t be there.”

  I gulped. “Does it mean I’m still sick?”

  He shook his head. “They weren’t there before. It means your body is producing a new substance in response to the medication. I will have to study it to understand if it’s safe.”

  “How long will that take? I’m due for another dose in a few days.”

  He shook his head again. “No. As long as you’re still breathing alright, we’re going to to pause the medication until I have an answer. You might feel some other symptoms during this time. Your muscles might become weak again. You might have trouble walking. But it’s only temporary. I will drop everything else to figure it out and improve your medication as soon as I can.”

  My hand patted my pocket and felt the syringe inside. This might be my last dose, and last chance to understand what the Old Ones want.