comfortable. Mr. Drake has
assured me the video is ready to roll, so why don't we
watch it and then discuss things after it's done. Fair
enough?"
We all agreed that was fine—what else were we go¬
ing to say? Drake waited for his employer's approval,
then went over to the switch on the wall, ready to dim
the lights.
"Oh, wait a minute, Mr. Drake," Dr. Marshall stalled.
"Perhaps I should say a few words about what we'll be
seeing on this video before we j u m p right in. It's j u s t
that the material you're about to see, well, it's a little
graphic in nature. Probably more so than you're used t o ,
I'm afraid. Medical science isn't pretty, to be bluntly
honest. Sometimes it can be downright nasty, but that
can't be helped. If the sight of blood makes you squea¬
mish or nauseous, feel free to close y o u r eyes or look
away. I thought it would be easier for you to see it here
first, on video, rather than simply marching you into
the labs unprepared.
"This will certainly prepare you for our tour later,
but the point of the video isn't to shock anyone; it's to
prove what we are about to attempt here can and is be¬
ing done. I truly believe we are going to succeed."
I wasn't sure about the rest of the guys, but I was sit¬
ting there wondering what he meant by that. W h a t was
it we were about to attempt? I considered asking the
doctor but he was busy shuffling his chair off to the side
so he wouldn't block anyone's view of the video.
"Anyway," the doctor continued, once he'd finished
repositioning himself, "enough said. Mr. Drake, let's
have a look, shall we?"
Drake immediately hit the lights, and a m o m e n t later
the large white video screen blazed into life.
C H A P T E R E I G H T
In total, the presentation probably only lasted fifteen
minutes, but it seemed three or four times that long.
It's hard to describe what I saw—body parts, blood, and
these strange machines that looked straight out of some
futuristic science-fiction movie. It was horrifying yet
strangely exhilarating at the same time.
Dr. Marshall had obviously developed ways to keep
organs and limbs alive, I guess was the best word. Some¬
how, he could take a severed leg, for instance, and hook
it up to this machine that continually pumped blood
through it, as if the leg were still attached to a body.
H u n d r e d s , maybe thousands, of these tiny wires were
attached to the stump and they must have been trans¬
mitting electrical stimuli to the exposed nerve endings,
causing the leg to move. The wires must have been
pumping j u i c e pretty good too, because in every exam¬
ple we were shown, the arm, leg, heart, or whatever,
would be twitching and dancing to beat the band.
It was an unusual sight indeed to sit and watch a dis¬
embodied hand open and close, flutter its fingers, then
flop around spastically on the top of a lab table. It scared
the hell out of me at first—creepiest damn thing I'd
ever seen—-but the more I watched the steady stream of
examples, it became more bizarre than creepy. Bizarre
is probably too strong of a word. Strange, maybe? Yeah,
I like that better. It was so damn strange to see a foot,
cut off j u s t above the ankle, rhythmically tapping its
toes to some unheard beat.
The most amazing thing by far—and if I'd seen it
anywhere else I'd have laughed and sworn it was faked—
was a human head severed below the chin, with its spi¬
nal column still attached but openly exposed in a glass
chamber filled with some milky amber-colored fluid. It
was the head of a male, a dark-haired man whose age
was virtually impossible for me to even guess at. His
eyes would open and close every four or five seconds,
his nose twitched steadily, and once during the thirty
seconds the head was on film, his mouth opened up wide
in what appeared to be a soundless scream.
Below the chin, where the neck should have been,
several red and blue color-coded tubes disappeared
assured me the video is ready to roll, so why don't we
watch it and then discuss things after it's done. Fair
enough?"
We all agreed that was fine—what else were we go¬
ing to say? Drake waited for his employer's approval,
then went over to the switch on the wall, ready to dim
the lights.
"Oh, wait a minute, Mr. Drake," Dr. Marshall stalled.
"Perhaps I should say a few words about what we'll be
seeing on this video before we j u m p right in. It's j u s t
that the material you're about to see, well, it's a little
graphic in nature. Probably more so than you're used t o ,
I'm afraid. Medical science isn't pretty, to be bluntly
honest. Sometimes it can be downright nasty, but that
can't be helped. If the sight of blood makes you squea¬
mish or nauseous, feel free to close y o u r eyes or look
away. I thought it would be easier for you to see it here
first, on video, rather than simply marching you into
the labs unprepared.
"This will certainly prepare you for our tour later,
but the point of the video isn't to shock anyone; it's to
prove what we are about to attempt here can and is be¬
ing done. I truly believe we are going to succeed."
I wasn't sure about the rest of the guys, but I was sit¬
ting there wondering what he meant by that. W h a t was
it we were about to attempt? I considered asking the
doctor but he was busy shuffling his chair off to the side
so he wouldn't block anyone's view of the video.
"Anyway," the doctor continued, once he'd finished
repositioning himself, "enough said. Mr. Drake, let's
have a look, shall we?"
Drake immediately hit the lights, and a m o m e n t later
the large white video screen blazed into life.
C H A P T E R E I G H T
In total, the presentation probably only lasted fifteen
minutes, but it seemed three or four times that long.
It's hard to describe what I saw—body parts, blood, and
these strange machines that looked straight out of some
futuristic science-fiction movie. It was horrifying yet
strangely exhilarating at the same time.
Dr. Marshall had obviously developed ways to keep
organs and limbs alive, I guess was the best word. Some¬
how, he could take a severed leg, for instance, and hook
it up to this machine that continually pumped blood
through it, as if the leg were still attached to a body.
H u n d r e d s , maybe thousands, of these tiny wires were
attached to the stump and they must have been trans¬
mitting electrical stimuli to the exposed nerve endings,
causing the leg to move. The wires must have been
pumping j u i c e pretty good too, because in every exam¬
ple we were shown, the arm, leg, heart, or whatever,
would be twitching and dancing to beat the band.
It was an unusual sight indeed to sit and watch a dis¬
embodied hand open and close, flutter its fingers, then
flop around spastically on the top of a lab table. It scared
the hell out of me at first—creepiest damn thing I'd
ever seen—-but the more I watched the steady stream of
examples, it became more bizarre than creepy. Bizarre
is probably too strong of a word. Strange, maybe? Yeah,
I like that better. It was so damn strange to see a foot,
cut off j u s t above the ankle, rhythmically tapping its
toes to some unheard beat.
The most amazing thing by far—and if I'd seen it
anywhere else I'd have laughed and sworn it was faked—
was a human head severed below the chin, with its spi¬
nal column still attached but openly exposed in a glass
chamber filled with some milky amber-colored fluid. It
was the head of a male, a dark-haired man whose age
was virtually impossible for me to even guess at. His
eyes would open and close every four or five seconds,
his nose twitched steadily, and once during the thirty
seconds the head was on film, his mouth opened up wide
in what appeared to be a soundless scream.
Below the chin, where the neck should have been,
several red and blue color-coded tubes disappeared
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