“Should I even ask why you fucking stabbed me?” Troy said, trying to wipe out the tiredness through his eyes. It was an impossible task, yet his brain was not in the space to realise that yet. Or, maybe it was and just did not care about such silly things as what humans thought of it. He would be like the bee, and just flap his wings, lifting his little fat body off the ground without any problems.

“Stabbing is a strong word,” Dr Hale defended, Troy not seeing her point in any imaginable way. “I would prefer it if you phrased it as me injecting you with illegal substances.”

“How does that make it any better?” the young man almost shouted at the woman but was able to keep it down to a tense, regular volume. However, there was a small number of teeth being taken down a few centimetres, the force on his jaw being unimaginably tight.

“It does not change the situation in any way. It is simply a more accurate description,” Dr Hale said with a sense of finality. She always wanted the last word on the subject, didn't she? Well, Troy would be playing that game sometime soon. Now now, though. Later. “Now, I do feel as if we are wasting our time immensely. If you would-”

“No, I think that I will be stopping you right there, actually,” Troy said, not wanting to take any shit today. He had been stabbed and he wanted to know why. “Please, do explain your mental process on why you thought it necessary to give me potential brain-damage. I am lying in a bed, not being able to think cohesively for ten seconds straight, and I want to know why you thought that I needed to be in this state.”

Dr Hale stared him down. The two locked eye to eye. Normally, Troy would have withdrawn. That was his normal response to a situation like it, just letting the other person get their way, not wanting to deal with the hassle. That was not how it was now, the young man being way too screwed mentally to really figure anything out. It would not change how he would act in any way, but there was a definite need to get some reason for her actions.

“... Fine. We are wasting enough already, with this pointless resistance of yours,” Dr Hale said. Troy could see her fingers tighten around the device that she continued holding, the woman not daring to let go of it. She was clearly stressed out of her mind, annoyed at him for not going along with her straight away, and likely ready to bash his head open with that piece of metal she was holding. “I needed Adam’s location to be open for us to enter, without the doctor knowing about it. For that, a distraction was required. I had planned to discuss this with you earlier today before the time came where I would need to do it, but it seemed that you had more important matters to attend to.”

“Forgive me for asking this, but why did you directly assume that me being injured would be the only viable distraction?” Troy questioned, not buying it fully yet. She was holding out on him, and that was not a viable way to have it. “I am pretty sure there are other ways to distract the man.”

“There are plenty, yes, but only your inability to work would allow the kind of distraction needed,” Dr Hale said, not yet admitting that she only did for the sick pleasure gotten out of it. Troy’s screwed mind just knew that it was the actual reason behind it. “Adam is located inside the testing room. To have any chance of getting the AI out of there, we would need the room to be fully empty, so that we could work. This means that Dr Fidelis needed to be out of it, preferably having a large distance between us and him. Me being injured to the point of potential death does not allow for this, as you might have realized. I am not important for testing. You, however, are essential for it.

You being injured would mean that Dr Fidelis would have to deal with you in some form. As you can't be killed yet, you would be sent to the medical wing for treatment. As you are still meant to be prevented from speaking with anybody too smart for their own good, either Dr Fideslis or I would be the one to look over you. You can guess that the doctor refused to do so and therefore went to accomplish the immediate paperwork needed to allow you to be sent away from work for a longer period. Finally, that needs to be in one of the administrative departments that are located on one of the western sectors of the facility. This would allow us an hour to work inside of, instead of the normal lack of working time. Dr Fidelis will be leaving the testing room in five minutes, where any potential observation over us will be removed. Now… do you understand why I had to cause you an injury that would make you fully unable to work?”

It was all overly complicated, thought out, and made more as a brain-vomit than anything else. Troy found it close to a carefully laid out plan, all the details cut out, and then translated roughly through a minimum of seventeen languages, where two of the languages were Swahili and Russian. Not the greatest description in any way.

“... Okay. I understand. You had to make a distraction able to cause the doctor much work where he would not reside inside the testing room,” Troy said. When he finished with the first part, Dr Hale looked ready to take over again, yet the young man cut her off before she had the chance. “However, I still need to know why you did not explain this to me beforehand.”

“I was going to,” Dr Hale pointedly said. “I had made you agree to come early. I needed time to hide the device again so that the doctor would not have time to question it. You came late, and you suffered the consequences for it.”

Again, it was Troy’s fault. He could see that. Since the start of the day, he had known that he had mishandled it somehow. Mistakes had been made. Here he was, blaming her for it all. She had planned to explain it all to him in detail, to make him understand why it needed to be done. When he had not met up with her, she had been forced to improvise. That hate in her eyes back then… had it been fake?

“... Okay. My mistake. I get it now. Please, do continue,” Troy said, allowing them to move on to the actually important part of the conversation. Looking down at the device, the man could see that six of the lights had already disappeared.

They had started being quick to disappear. But, he had expected it to be like that. That was what Charlie had warned would happen if they used it repeatedly. And, that was exactly what they had done. Troy could still feel his arms tensing up a little. It had been hard work to do, but it was supposed to be for a good cause.

“If you insist,” Dr Hale said with that perfect amount of sarcasm. She did not look happy with him, but it seemed that using their time well was more important. Even that slight pause allowed another few lights to disappear. Only four remained. “When the time hits, I will be injecting you with another biological enhancer. It will stop the previous injection from having an effect but will cause side-effects in a few hours. Expect to have mild spasms in your fingers, and make sure to hold important items with both hands.”

Good. This time, she was warning him of the injection beforehand, while also giving a list of the prominent side-effects. Troy could only guess that it would be fun not being able to hold a cup of coffee without the chance of spilling the liquid on himself. It was not going to be enjoyable. He could already guess that.

“And the plan itself?” Troy asked, encouraging the woman to continue. There were still three lights left. Not enough to explain in full detail, but enough to give him a general introduction. Enough to have some semblance of understanding. Right now, he was in the dark about everything she had planned. The time had come for that to not be the case.

“I will tell what you need to know when we get to it,” Dr Hale answered. “We will sit in silence when the device stops working. Move when I begin to move. Before it is completely stopped, however, there is one thing which I need you to understand.”

“And? What is that?” Troy asked, being a small bit curious about it.

“I need for you to trust me through the entirety of this. Questionable tasks will be given. It will not make sense. However, I need you to trust me, or we will both meet our demise. We are working on borrowed time,” Dr Hale stated, being more serious than Troy had seen in a long time. “We are already in a questionable state with Dr Fidelis. If anything causes us to abandon our task, we will not live to see the weekend. Do you understand?”

“I have followed your word this far,” Troy said, not even hesitating. “I don't see any reason to stop now.”

With those words said, the final lights disappeared. The two fell silent, not meeting each other’s eyes. For once, Troy did not mind looking at the white wall. He had hated every second of it before, yet it now had a reason for it. He understood why he had to wait. There was a purpose.

Soon, he would be out of this place. Or, he would die trying.

The minutes passed fast. Faster than Troy had expected. Was this the feeling of certainty? He knew exactly what he needed to do, and his mind was able to focus on that emotion with crystal-like clarity. It was… a great emotion to have. Especially in a time like that. Even without having the injection yet, Troy could feel his heart beginning to beat.

Was it adrenaline beginning to flow through his vein? His legs were beginning to grow less tired, his body preparing for what would be the run of his life. He was aching to move out of the bed, to be ready for the fight that he needed to have. But, he did not.

He needed to wait, no matter what his body told him. To follow the way of Dr Hale was to follow the way of the right. She sat still as if she was waiting for something interesting to happen for once. She looked utterly bored. She did not look ready to fight for her life.

Troy needed to copy that. He needed to calm himself, to make his face like stone, and to seem indifferent to the white wall staring back at him. He needed to act like nothing was wrong, like he was as tired as he had been earlier.

Deep breath made the heartbeat a bit slower than before. It was not by much, but it made the redness of his face falter the slightest bit. He needed composure. He needed-

Like lightning, Dr Hale jumped from her seat. From seemingly nowhere, another needle was in her hand. Troy was ready for it this time, doing nothing to stop the stab into his shoulder.

Now, it might just have been him, but the young man briefly thought he could feel his pupils widening.