Read Online Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) by Christopher Rankin - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Christopher Rankin
Ads: Link
trust me. I can be weak. Trust the computer.”
She could tell he was serious. The gravity of the statement told her that perhaps the rule was for her safety.
“Promise me,” he told her. “No matter what I say.”
“OK. Fine.”
Ann Marie heard a splash and suddenly Dade Harkenrider was floating in the middle of the acrylic tube. Electric motors worked to close and seal the lid. A red digital readout announced his pulse and blood pressure. A graph on one of the computer monitors showed the noisy electrical activity in his brain. When the lid was finally sealed, a long beep followed a dull mechanical thud. He was sealed inside.
Across the acrylic, she watched his wisps of black hair toss and float in the fluorocarbon liquid. His expression looked relaxed. Suspended in the liquid, he lifted up his hand in a wave to reassure her. She could tell that his chest was moving and he was breathing the liquid. He nodded to her before sticking the syringe into the muscle of his arm.
With his eyes locked on her, he let the empty syringe go and it floated to the top of the tank. A tiny trickle of blood climbed out of the wound and formed tiny strands in the breathing liquid. It looked as though Dade was starting to have trouble keeping his eyes open. As he started to drift into the trance, the electrochromic walls of the tank began to darken. Eventually, the tank became a monolithic black can in the middle of the lab.
With Dade hidden away in the now black chamber, Ann Marie rolled over a desk chair and sat right in front of the massive apparatus. The biofeedback computer monitored Dade’s vitals and brain activity. It generated a green light above the tank to signal that the experiment was progressing normally.
She rolled herself across the lab, to the fume hood where Dade was growing his hallucinogenic chemicals. Inside the flask of liquid, a transparent shard of crystal flickered like a disco ball. She had never seen any compound with such bizarre optical properties. The material itself seemed to be responding to her very presence at the fume hood. The flashes seemed to contain information somehow, as though the chemicals were flying semaphore flags.
After a couple of minutes of staring at the odd substance, her curiosity got the better of her. She lifted the front lid of the fume hood just enough to get her hands inside. With a kind of mastery from years spent in the chemistry lab, she slid on a pair of latex gloves the way a seasoned boxer climbs into the ring. Then she grabbed a glass pipette and started to draw some of the red liquid out of the beaker. The fluid seemed to respond to her and started to blink more vigorously.
“You’re a strange one,” she said. Then she smiled to herself because she was speaking out loud to a glass beaker. “I guess I’m the stranger one,” she went on, “because I’m the one talking to the lab equipment.”
After the timer clicked down to zero, the walls of Dade’s chamber started to go clear. His suspended body was becoming visible. His blood pressure and pulse rate seemed extremely low to Ann Marie, but the computer readout stated that everything was normal. He looked dead, floating behind the acrylic like a bodily organ on a medical school shelf.
His brain activity, displayed as lines on a graph, told a very different story however. Ann Marie didn’t understand the data on the machine, but it seemed to be going crazy like the stock ticker during a frenzy on Wall Street.
As Dade opened his eyes, his brain waves started to calm down and life crept back into his body. For the first time Ann Marie had ever seen, Dade smiled at her. It brought her more comfort than she imagined it should. The feeling had her beaming back at him, even waving like he had just arrived at the airport.
After a few moments, Dade reverted to his usual expression, which wasn’t exactly a scowl but more like the look a master gives a chess opponent. It was Dade Harkenrider’s default look.
His
She could tell he was serious. The gravity of the statement told her that perhaps the rule was for her safety.
“Promise me,” he told her. “No matter what I say.”
“OK. Fine.”
Ann Marie heard a splash and suddenly Dade Harkenrider was floating in the middle of the acrylic tube. Electric motors worked to close and seal the lid. A red digital readout announced his pulse and blood pressure. A graph on one of the computer monitors showed the noisy electrical activity in his brain. When the lid was finally sealed, a long beep followed a dull mechanical thud. He was sealed inside.
Across the acrylic, she watched his wisps of black hair toss and float in the fluorocarbon liquid. His expression looked relaxed. Suspended in the liquid, he lifted up his hand in a wave to reassure her. She could tell that his chest was moving and he was breathing the liquid. He nodded to her before sticking the syringe into the muscle of his arm.
With his eyes locked on her, he let the empty syringe go and it floated to the top of the tank. A tiny trickle of blood climbed out of the wound and formed tiny strands in the breathing liquid. It looked as though Dade was starting to have trouble keeping his eyes open. As he started to drift into the trance, the electrochromic walls of the tank began to darken. Eventually, the tank became a monolithic black can in the middle of the lab.
With Dade hidden away in the now black chamber, Ann Marie rolled over a desk chair and sat right in front of the massive apparatus. The biofeedback computer monitored Dade’s vitals and brain activity. It generated a green light above the tank to signal that the experiment was progressing normally.
She rolled herself across the lab, to the fume hood where Dade was growing his hallucinogenic chemicals. Inside the flask of liquid, a transparent shard of crystal flickered like a disco ball. She had never seen any compound with such bizarre optical properties. The material itself seemed to be responding to her very presence at the fume hood. The flashes seemed to contain information somehow, as though the chemicals were flying semaphore flags.
After a couple of minutes of staring at the odd substance, her curiosity got the better of her. She lifted the front lid of the fume hood just enough to get her hands inside. With a kind of mastery from years spent in the chemistry lab, she slid on a pair of latex gloves the way a seasoned boxer climbs into the ring. Then she grabbed a glass pipette and started to draw some of the red liquid out of the beaker. The fluid seemed to respond to her and started to blink more vigorously.
“You’re a strange one,” she said. Then she smiled to herself because she was speaking out loud to a glass beaker. “I guess I’m the stranger one,” she went on, “because I’m the one talking to the lab equipment.”
After the timer clicked down to zero, the walls of Dade’s chamber started to go clear. His suspended body was becoming visible. His blood pressure and pulse rate seemed extremely low to Ann Marie, but the computer readout stated that everything was normal. He looked dead, floating behind the acrylic like a bodily organ on a medical school shelf.
His brain activity, displayed as lines on a graph, told a very different story however. Ann Marie didn’t understand the data on the machine, but it seemed to be going crazy like the stock ticker during a frenzy on Wall Street.
As Dade opened his eyes, his brain waves started to calm down and life crept back into his body. For the first time Ann Marie had ever seen, Dade smiled at her. It brought her more comfort than she imagined it should. The feeling had her beaming back at him, even waving like he had just arrived at the airport.
After a few moments, Dade reverted to his usual expression, which wasn’t exactly a scowl but more like the look a master gives a chess opponent. It was Dade Harkenrider’s default look.
His
Similar Books
