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The doctor’s gaze darkens. He shoots a sharp look at Tyko.
“Is that the one I’ve been saying needs fall protection installed?”
In this line of work, fall protection is the least of our worries. We’re mercenaries. Government-owned assassins. We do the work nobody else is allowed to do. The work nobody admits is done. We’re the last chance debris of the special forces. At least, that’s how I see us. People like Tyko take great pride in the work we do. Being disposable doesn’t matter to them. The more dangerous it is, the less we get paid, the more we are treated like rabid dogs, the more pleased they seem to be. I’m not pleased, or proud. I don’t want this life. But nobody ever asked me what I wanted.
“She shouldn’t be falling,” Tyko replies. “The aim of the course is to stay on it.”
Doctor Ares’ lips harden into a thin line.
“She’s been told many times not to try to cross it as fast as she does. She fell because she was being careless,” Tyko insists. “You go across slow, you do fine. You run across, you set up a vibration in the wires and they go out of sync. She knows this. She chose to fall.”
I let out a little growl. I didn’t choose to fall. Maybe I was going a little too fast, but that’s because we have records that matter. If I’m slow, I get punished.
“You can leave her with me,” Doctor Ares says. “I’ll call you when I’m done examining her.”
“I can’t, sir. She’s classified high risk.”
“I don’t think she’s going to hurt me in this state.”
“Sorry, sir. Can’t do it.”
Doctor Ares turns his attention back to me. I can see he is frustrated with Tyko, but he has the self control not to show it. I respect that.
“Lay back,” he says gently, not putting any of that anger on me. “Can you tell me where it hurts?”
I shake my head. I want to tell him. I want to tell him a lot of things but this is how the block works. I can’t talk when I most want to. The doctors who made me messed with all my natural impulses so I can almost never respond appropriately to anything. It’s why Tyko calls me a freak, and why I spend so much of my life locked away. Usually, I don’t mind when I find myself unable to speak. I know that every small mouth noise I make is another node of data collected and inevitably used against me.
Most people get frustrated when I refuse to speak to them. I’ve been beaten for it. But Doctor Ares doesn’t seem to mind at all. He works around it, as if it’s not even an issue.
“I’m going to do a physical examination,” he says. “I want you to breathe nice and slow for me, and let me know where it hurts. Just make a sound, any sound when you feel pain.”
He starts touching me, his big hands running down the sides of my body. I let my eyes close a little. He presses on my stomach lightly, checking for sensitive spots. When he finds none, he rolls me gently onto my side, his big hands running over my flank, lifting my knee toward my chin.
I let out a little gasp. Not a word, but something closer to speech.
“Alright,” he says. “It’s okay.” He releases that leg and gently straightens it, then rolls me to the other side and repeats the action.
I let him do what he wants. I let him examine me. I let his hands roam my body. I let him hurt me, because at least when he hurts me, he’s trying to make it better.
“Likely a broken tailbone,” he concludes after some time. “Possible slipped disk or nerve involvement. I’m signing her off training, and I’ll do some further tests to…”
“No need. I had to have a diagnosis for the report, that’s all,” Tyko says. He’s already bored.
“Well, I’d like to see her back tomorrow.”
“I don’t think so, Doc.”
The doctor gives Tyko a stern look. “I’m aware that you have authority in general, but when it comes to medical matters, the doctor on duty always has rank. I’m not satisfied that you’re going to give her the rest she needs. And, given your attitude, I’m not satisfied she’s been given proper medical care at any time previous to this one. I’m going to do a full exam.”
Usually, I’d fight like hell if a doctor tried to examine me fully, but I’m on Ares’ side. Tyko is an asshole, and Ares is right. I don’t get any medical care. They don’t think I need it. Usually, I don’t. This doctor is making a lot of my usuals very unusual.
The doctor picks up some kind of doctoring tool and starts waving it near my body. I don’t know what it is, or what he’s doing, but I trust him.
