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Chapter 13 by Cantalope Cantalope

What do you find?

A lot.

There's something like 70 Gigs of data on this flash-drive, most of it word documents. More than you could sift through in a year. You click on a random word file and find detailed notes about the effects of modified hormones on mice test groups. You open another and are faced with images depicting stimulated nerve growth. This was some heavy stuff ... well beyond you and your intro chemistry courses to be certain. You run a search for P-32 and come across one word file that mentions it in passing:

"[...] Higgens is confident that his work with P-32 will impress the bosses, give them the "super-soldier for the new age". I'm not so confident they'll share his enthusiasm and I tried to explain why:

1. Viral vectors are sketchy to begin with, especially when they haven't been neutered.
2. Blocking up pain receptors, impeding empathy centers, and turbocharging adrenal glands doesn't make a super soldier.**Just a sociopath with a nerve disorder.
3. He hasn't figured out a control-switch yet. If his "super soldier" is really all that and gets out of hand, there's nothing we can do without terminating the subject old school.**

I voiced my concerns and Higgens actually seems to have listened. Says he'll apply for some of the bonding research their working on at site S and hopefully integrate it in P-33. With any luck we'll be able to [...]"

The researcher goes on to describe some proposed modifications to the next batch but you read his three points over and over again. "Viral vector." Meaning you were basically sick with a modified virus that would "Block your pain receptors, impede your empathy centers, and turbocharge your adrenal glands". An extremely experimental virus by the sound of it.

You glanced down at your bandaged arm. If it was already numbing you to pain there's no doubt in your mind it's the cause of all your uncharacteristic behavior (you had a woman in her underwear tied up under your bed for christsakes!). Fortunately the file seemed to indicate loss of empathy and pain were the two major changes and you were already experiencing them. Meaning it probably wouldn't get worse. At the same time: you couldn't feel the gash in your shoulder and you were essentially an artificially made sociopath. You suppose the real question, the one that mattered, was: do you care?

Do you care about the changes?

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