I nodded, doing my best to keep myself from quivering beneath the attention of these two powerful men. Knowing what I knew now about Luke Stevens, and the fact that this man very well might be capable of something as sinister as murder, it was taking everything in me not to bolt for the door.
“In fact, we value Milo’s work so much that we’re promoting him to Director of Memory Therapy. Jay has already had him working hard on the manipulator, so a promotion feels warranted.” Luke was watching me carefully, and I forced a grateful smile on my face.
“Thank you, sir. Yes, Sebastian mentioned something about a promotion on our walk over here. I am very honored to be considered, sir.”
Luke’s eyes darted to his son, and his lips pursed at my comment.
“Did he, now? What else did Sebastian tell you about your new role?” There was a dangerous undertone to the question, and the skin around Seb’s eyes tightened slightly, betraying his anxiety.
“Not much!” I squeaked, rushing to Seb’s defense. “He just said that I was being promoted and needed additional security clearance.”
Thankfully, my attempt at getting Luke’s attention off his son and back onto me worked. Luke glanced at me, that warm smile of his widening.
“Yes. Security clearance. As a director, you will be held to a higher standard than the rest of the staff. You will need to have a key chip inserted, and any visits off campus will be highly restricted. Did you have any vacations planned for the near future?”
I chewed on my lip and shook my head. I’d been wanting to visit my mom once my probationary period was up, but I supposed that could wait. I resolved to have a video call with her later to introduce her to Jay.
It wasn’t as good as an in-person introduction, but it would have to do. Besides, if Jay and I were successful and able to manipulate Luke’s memories in a demonstration, I could change his memory of off-site visitation restrictions easily enough.
I almost smiled at how amused Jay would be with my evil little plans.
“No, sir. No vacations planned.”
“Excellent. If you don’t mind getting in the chair, Milo, we can insert your new key card, and you can be on your way. I don’t want to keep you out of the lab longer than necessary.”
“Uhm… okay,” I hummed, climbing up into the chair and lying back.
Seb was staring at me with a blank expression on his face, but I couldn’t help but notice the way he was rubbing his thumb over his suit jacket, right where I knew his own chip was inserted.
Jay did that often as well.
Panic and dread shot through me, and suddenly I was nervous about having this piece of tech implanted.
“W-will it hurt, sir?” I asked as Luke pulled up a small stirrup from underneath the surgical chair and laid my arm across it. Using a thick leather strap, he belted my arm down and got to work rolling up the sleeve of my shirt to expose my forearm to him.
“Not if you follow the rules,” he hummed, and my frown deepened.
What didthatmean?!
Dr. Grey came up to stand on the other side of the surgical chair. He produced a small gun-shaped device with a thick needle sticking out of the muzzle.
“This is an upgraded version of the chip that Jay has. Sebastian was kind enough to be our guinea pig for this prototype, and we’ve been very happy with its performance. Dr. Grey here has helped me optimize it with even more advancements. We’re very excited to see how these new tweaks work out. We’ll need to upgrade Jay’s tech next, but we figured since it’s your big day, we could do yours first.”
“Uhm… okay…” I said, once again glancing over at Sebastian. He was pale, and a fine bead of sweat had appeared on his brow as he watched Luke sanitize the spot on my arm where I assumed they would be injecting the chip.
“Now, take a deep breath, Milo. Dr. Grey will insert the chip, and then you’ll be on your way.”
I did what I was told as the doctor held the gun against my arm before pulling the trigger.
There was a hiss and a click as the mechanism activated, and I jumped at thepunchandstingas the tech was shot into the flesh of my forearm.
“Ouch,” I said instinctively, even though it didn’t really hurt that much at all. When the doctor pulled the gun away, a small bead of blood formed, but Luke pressed it with a cotton ball before taping it in place with some medical tape.
“There, all done.” Luke smiled at me, undoing the leather strap that held me in place. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked, and I gave him a weak smile, shaking my head.
“No, not at all.”
“Good. Glad to hear it.”
