lost in his thoughts as the monorail ran its route. When he heard it announce that it had arrived and came to a jerking halt in the district he would be departing, he all but rushed out of the cradle. He had taken the time in the monorail to calm down, and the shock of the drink had had time to diminish, so now he had energy but was in a much calmer mood.
3
When he exited the monorail, he noted that the cradle was not quite as packed as it normally was during this time.
Don’t you go getting distracted? a voice in his head warned. We need to get to our appointment before we are forgotten.
This thought spurred him back into a panic and he began to grace walk toward his destination. He darted around people when he could and pushed past them if he could not. His path of travel took him directly to Sister Carina’s Medical Ward. When he reached the gates to the ward, he paused a moment to catch his breath. When he had caught it, he asked the guard at the gate to open it.
“I must say,” the guard said, looking at his watch, “you really are as punctual as ever, Doctor.”
“No disease can keep me off my schedule.”
“Then I shan’t hold you,” the guard replied, opening the gate.
The doctor walked in and up to the receptionist who began the standard greeting.
“Welcome to Sister Carina’s. How may we? Oh, hello, Doctor. Is it time for your treatment again?”
“Yes,” he replied with a smile. “You know me so well. Now what room shall I wait in?”
The receptionist searched through a stack of papers to her right and found what she was looking for.
“Room 17. It will be on the right-hand side of the hallway to my right,” she replied as she pointed behind her right shoulder.
“How convenient,” he said in a joking fashion. “Thank you.”
He began his walk down the hallway, past the numbered rooms, which are even on the left and odd on the right, beginning at 120. When he reached room 17, he went inside and sat on the platform. To any normal person who had just drank a triple shot of an energy rejuvenation shot, they would not be unable to stay motionless for more than a second or two. He, though, had extreme patience and power of the mind over the body, so he remained motionless.
He waited silently in the room, listening to the clicking of the shoes on the tile outside as people passed by his room. He wondered where they were going to or coming from. He had little time to wonder this as he started to have more thoughts about what he could do to Anna. These thoughts were dangerous because they were not his own, and this meant that Izac would be coming through before his allotted time.
He suppressed the transfer, just as the door opened and a woman wearing a red sash stepped inside.
“Greetings from the highest power and authority,” the sister said.
“And the same to you, Sister,” Adrian replied.
“Dr. Haeveneck has fallen ill, so I will be taking care of you today,” she explained. She took hold of the chart at the foot of the examination platform Adrian was sitting at and examined it. “I see you have been taking to the treatment very well.”
“From what Dr. Haeveneck has told me, it is almost time for the tumor to be removed,” Adrian said with hope in his voice.
“Well, we need one final deep examination before we can do that, but I am very hopeful from these lab results. Now, please follow me to the chamber.”
The two left the room and went through the ward until they were on the third floor and in the chamber marked In-Depth Examination. The specialists took an examination of his entire chest cavity and then one of each section of his body. When they were finished, Adrian went back to room 17 and waited, as his attending sister waited to examine the results. The results should have been available within two minutes of their creation, but it took a total of thirteen minutes.
When the sister returned with the results, there was another woman with her. This woman was wearing a green sash.
“What is wrong with the images?” he asked curiously.
“We found another smaller tumor growing inside your skull,” the sister with the red sash said with sorrow.
“So on top of the one crushing my heart, I now have one crushing my brain as well?”
“It isn’t likely you will survive long enough for the one in your head to be a true problem.”
“What!” he exclaimed in mixed terror and shock. “I thought you would be able to remove the one that is crushing my heart!? Or if that didn’t work, you would extract the tumor and my heart and give me a replacement.”
“That was the plan, but”—she paused a moment—“it has increased in size at a greater rate than we had expected. At this point, you have, at best, one full moon cycle before suffering permanent failure.”
“Is there anything you can offer me then?” he questioned in a growing livid state. “How long will it take for you to find a donor?”
“As we have said before, you have a rare blood type. And finding a noncontaminated match is more difficult than you can imagine.”
Adrian knew this speech to the letter and knew it was hopeless to continue, but he had to play the part a bit more because he had one final hope.
“Then what am I to do?”
4
“I’m afraid there is nothing we can do at this point but wait and hope.”
He said nothing for a short while and considered all the facts of his situation. He didn’t hear the sister speak again until he felt a hand touch his leg.
“I’m sorry,” he said, returning to reality. “I was lost in my thoughts. What did you say?”
“I said I brought Christine from the church to help you through this time, should you need her.”
“My place is by your side,” Christine added with a smile.
“I’ll give you two a few minutes alone to talk. Just knock on the door, and a sister will come to escort you out.”
She bowed and left the room, closing the door behind her.
“So, what do you plan to do now?” Christine asked, breaking the silence once the door had closed.
“I’m going to die my way and not the way that bastard in The Lower World wants.”
Christine held back both a smile and something that was deeper. It seemed to be annoyance.
“Come now. There is no need for you to make such a drastic choice such as that,” Christine advised calmly.
“Don’t you know who I am?” Adrian asked. She seemed about to speak, and then stopped. “Exactly!” he said, rage building inside of him. “I have my work, and I cannot die before it is done, and now I have almost no time
