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time.”
    “You’re my most trusted colleague, Brian,” Greg stated. Standing just under five-and-a-half feet tall, Greg looked up at the much taller Brian with the look of a man who is about to succumb to defeat. Greg was thin with light brown hair, thin eyebrows, and a soft friendly voice. It was obvious he hadn’t shaved in several days. He was the type of person to be consumed by his work, spending days at a time in the lab with little sleep.  “I’ve done something terrible, and I need help fixing it.” The man looked on the verge of dropping to his knees and pleading.
    “You know I will gladly help you in any way possible. Just let me know what you need.”
    “Follow me. This is top secret Brian. Can you promise not to say a word to anyone?” Greg asked in an awkward grumble as they stepped out into the hall.
    “Of course, I am honored to have your trust, Greg. Either way I cannot speak of anything that goes on here with anyone else, being bound by contract and all,” Brian responded wittily. This must be serious , Brian thought. He believed the smile on the man’s face appeared to be a little too fake.
    Greg was usually very laid back, but Brian could sense the tension in his friend. They moved through the hallway of the fifth floor passing several other researchers who all gave a warm friendly smile as they walked by. The long white hallway ran down the center of the floor with doors and openings on either side. Fluorescent lights were the only light source on the floor. None of the individual research areas had windows to the outside. This was to protect the secrets that reside on this floor.
    Lab eight was a rather large laboratory located two doors from the end of the hall on the left side. Greg slid his badge over the ID reader, and the red light blinked out to be replaced by a green light. The labs were not normally locked, as the researchers on this floor usually worked closely together. Brian had been in this room many times since his promotion, so he wasn’t surprised to see the walls lined with stainless steel shelves holding vials and jars filled with liquids and solids of varying shapes and colors. Instruments and tools were hung neatly in their respective places. All the labs looked fairly similar for the most part.
    Walking into Lab eight Brian could see the stainless steel table that sat toward the back of the room on a raised section of the floor. The brightly lit room smelled strongly of embalming fluid, and the temperature felt very close to freezing. He knew each lab had its own climate control, but he had no idea that they could reach such a low temperature.
    “Grab a climate suit off the rack. I have the temperature set just below four degrees centigrade,” Greg politely ordered as he donned his own climate suit and led the way into the lab.
    Brian followed Greg as they walked up the ramp to the raised platform. The figure on the table took his breath away. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
    “What is going on here?” he asked in a demanding voice. “Is this either ethical or legal?”
    Brian looked down at the child lying on the table. The child’s fingers tightened and relaxed as if grabbing for something that wasn’t there. There was twitching in his legs and arms, and his head rocked back and forth. Part of the skull showed through on the right side of his forehead. The blood had been cleaned up, yet the wound had not healed at all. There were similar scrapes and gashes visible on other parts of his body.
    The boy’s skin was blue-gray in color, and aside from the wounds there was massive bruising in multiple spots. A small cloth covered the area from his lower abdomen to just above his knees. The wounds were still open but had stopped bleeding. Brian’s first instinct was to check for a pulse, but he was shocked by how cold the boy’s body was. Brian knew that at this temperature the heart could beat so slowly it wouldn’t be palpable anyways.
    “The subject