Coats and Daggers

I finished lining up my tools and looked into my operating mirror.

Ugh, I'm such a mess.

My long, curly black hair shined with grease, I've been up too long worrying. I could lose my job over this. We spent months preparing - what doors to leave unlocked, what supplies to stash away - it was quite a devious undertaking, and we worked out every minute.

"Something wrong?" asked a raspy, old voice from behind.

I forked my fingers through my hair, down across my cheek, and cupped my chin.

"Samantha."

I sighed and looked up into the ceiling in resignation, my hair falling hanging down as I leaned into the back of the operating chair.

"I'm just looking at what a mess I am in the mirror," I joked, peeking over at Dr. Damien Smith, impatiently prepared on the table.

He laughed, and then rudely joked.

"If you weren't such a prudish woman, and showed off that body of yours - you could make looking like a mess a fashion statement."

"Damien," I peered back at the scraggly old man sitting in his patient gown. "I'm not... I don't like doing all that - dressing up stuff."

Dr. Damien rolled his eyes disappointingly, "Oh, I know~ I've known you since you started working here. I'm just saying, maybe with a nice blouse, bright red lipstick, and some heels..."

"I hate heels..."

"Lemme finish! I'm just helping out! Maybe you pick up some other rich doctor and bang... get it, bang?... you're set!"

I shook my head, "Any other good tips Love Dr. Damien Smith."

"Well, you should try-"

"Damien!" I shouted, startling Dr. Smith into a more serious mood.

"Thinking about actually - doing this, cutting into you like this and- this could ruin us. This goes against everything we've been told our entire careers. Not to mention... it's illegal. We might not just lose our jobs, but our whole careers!"

Damien leaned up and tented his head on his thumb,

"I don't have much of a career left Samantha. I'm about... max... a couple years from retirement? Jail? They can't put us in jail that long just for using company property like this... a couple years max? You know what I do know? My entire career in this industry! It's been boring. Boring trials, boring failures, and boring successes. BORING."

I turned into his monologue, I'd never seen Damien this serious - it was like a mask being removed from his usually cheery and slightly annoying self.

"My career is almost over and THIS lands on my desk!? You've been there the entire time, you've SEEN the progress, the potential! When Uzaki came to you, what did he say? What were we going to do? We are on the CUSP of pushing human evolution past its limits!"

Damien raised his hand into the air, as if he was grabbing for something - something that he didn't want to lose grasp of, the light above shining down brightly as if he was a savior come. Then his eyes fell down to me.

"But you! My career may be over but you are so early in your career! Think about all the exciting things our success here will bring! And you'll be at the forefront! The beautiful face leading it all!"

Damien paused, then laughed and smiled solemnly, "Of course, don't forget to credit me!"

I rolled my eyes and smiled, "Of course, Dr. Smith. Of course."

He smiled, sneered, the more I'm with Damien the more I know he's got his ulterior motives, his delusions de grandeur. Besides that, he's right.

"Now, we need to do this. We've seen complications in the rats, but they don't have enough neurons to give the eyes what they need. Without the neurons, they can't work around the immune response. With the monkeys they did much, much better - the complications were millld and didn't affect quality of life adversely. We just need to study what they do in a human and engineer some shortcuts into the eyes, so that they don't need as many neurons for the monkeys. THEN BAM! Human trials in no time."

Rubbing at my temple, I sighed, "This is insane Dr. Smith. You're going to live with any complications or lose your eyes? ...and if we have to remove your eyes - we're done for."

"Yep," Damien responded, without a thought.

I turned and started preparing anesthesia.

Damien, started laughing, "God, this really is insane though."

Turning and walking toward the doctor, I prepped a needle and then held it close to his arm.

"Last chance."

"I trust you," Damien said, grinning.

"I trust you, too."