I made my way up to the second level of the house and to Alice’s office. I wondered why she needed to take more scans after only a few days. My headaches were becoming farther apart, and less intense.
I checked unmarked doors as I walked down the hallway on the right side of the second floor before coming to Alice’s office. Every door until her office was an identical bedroom each fully equipped with its own bathroom.
I walked into her office which was quite large. There were three hospital beds across the back wall and several different diagnosis tools littered the room including a large cat scanner. There was another room, in the back with a large window and an open door. Alice sat behind her desk in the room engrossed in her computer screen with her back to the window.
I walked over to the window and knocked, “Alice.” I said trying to pull her attention away from the computer.
“Ah, Grace!” She got up and closed the program window.
“Alrick told me that you wanted me to come up for a few more scans.” I said putting my hands in my pockets.
“If you are willing, I would like to do a few scans of your brain. I was keeping weekly scans of your parents before they were killed.” She said starting to collect a number of tools from her office.
“I had a few scans taken while I was with The Last Line. How are you going to take the scans? Doctor Z had a device that they had stolen from Aurora and modified on their own.” I asked.
“I have one that was built by AdvaGen. Designed by a woman named Dalia Alon who’s began to work for Aurora after they acquired your father’s company.” She explained.
“I see.” I said, “I guess that I am alright with you taking a few scans.”
“Excellent.” She said pulling a chair from her office, “Please, sit.”
I did as I was instructed. Alice rolled next to where I sat. She placed all of her tools down on a table and then she returned to her office. She returned with a metal case that she placed on the table. She opened the locks and removed the device.
She placed the device it on my head then removed a tablet computer from the case.
“Alright, I am going to ask a series of control questions.”
I nodded slightly, but the device was much heavier than the one that Doctor Z had used.
“First question; what is the nature of your ability?”
“I have the ability to manipulate fire and heat. The people at Aurora called my ability Pyrokinetics.”
“Second question; how long have you been able to use your ability or when did you obtain your ability.”
“I have been able to use my abilities for around three months, give or take.”
“Have you had any pain directly associated with the use of your abilities?”
“Sometimes when I use my abilities for extended periods of time, I tend to have head pain.”
“Alright, now that I have neutral scans, please use your abilities.”
I held out my hand, conjured a small ball of flame to hover a few inches from my palm. I slowly changed the magnitude of the flame by progressing from the cool yellow flames to the ridiculous heat of the white flames.
When she was satisfied with the results of the scans she turned the heavy device off and removed it from my head. I was exhausted and my neck was killing me.
“Alright I think that will be all that I need to begin constructing a file on your normal brainwave activity.” She smiled.
I turned to leave the office rubbing my sore neck but stopped and thought for a moment. I turned to ask Alice a question.
“My father left instructions with Alrick to access the computer system. He said that I would know the password, that I would be able to remember it, but honestly I don’t have a clue. I was wondering if there was any device lying around that would help me navigate my memories. Things are a little jumbled up in my head because they gave me a drug a short time ago to take down any mental blocks that I had developed over the years.” I explained.
“The only device that I know of that could allow you to navigate your memories requires access to your father’s mainframe, and if you had access to that you wouldn’t have the problem in the first place.”
“Oh well, I guess that it was worth a shot.” I shrugged and turned again to leave.
“There is a less scientific way but it could be very dangerous.” She said turning to her office and opened up a program on her computer.
“And what would that be?” I asked, going to the doorway and trying to watch what she was doing on the computer screens. The different windows were moving far too fast for my eyes to be able to follow.
“We can put you into a coma.”
“And what? Hope for the best?”
“No, no. I can tune the kinetic brain wave inducer to stimulate the parts of your brain that are responsible for memories.” She explained.
“How well will it work?” I asked worried about some of the memories that I had already relived on my own.
“About a fifty-fifty shot.” She began to blaze through equations at lightening speeds.
“Well, I guess that we can give it a shot.” I left her in her office.
I walked back down the hall the way I came. I went back to the room that I had awakened in that morning. I went into the bathroom and cleaned up before going to bed.
The bed was huge and extremely comfortable, but it still took me a few minutes to get to sleep. My mind didn’t want to slow down.
Chapter 28: Sister
I fought to stay asleep for at least eight hours. I hadn’t had steady sleep in as far back as I could remember. I was getting plenty of it, but most of the time it was an exhaustion fueled mini coma. I got up a few times in the night to wash my face with cold water and turn the air in the room down. Each room had self contained environmental controls.
I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. There was nothing on that I wanted to watch. I passed a documentary on the Aurora Corporation and the good that they were doing all over the world. The entire media universe spent millions or more on building Aurora up to some kind of Godsend.
When the sun was pushing its way into the room, I decided that I would shower and then visit Alice hoping that she was ready to get on with this experiment.
I met Alrick in the hallway when I left my room.
“How is it that you are always right there when I get out and about?” I walked past him down the hall.
“I monitor your sleep patterns and the whole house is set up with motion tracking.”
“Sorry I asked.” I laughed.
“Do you require anything?”
“No thank you. I’m going to see Alice.”
He nodded and walked the other way.
I knocked on Alice’s office door this time instead of just busting into the room.
“Come on in.” she said muffled.
I couldn’t see Alice when I entered the room but I immediately noticed a new machine in the center of the room. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling with a chair suspended in the center of a large metal ring. I looked in the office and checked the supply closets at the back, but Alice was nowhere to be found.
“Down here.” She called from under the new machine. I looked to see an access panel in the floor below where bundles of wires as thick as my arm were running up into the bottom of the chair. Alice’s face was covered in grease.
“What’s up?” I knelt next to the access panel in the floor.
“I’m almost ready.” She pulled herself back up into the room. “I had to get some equipment out of storage but this configuration should allow me to successfully stimulate the memory portion of your brain.” She explained. She walked over to her desk and picked up a tablet computer. She showed me a design of three different machines that were wired together. It was a massive extrapolation on the word Jerry-rig.