CHAPTER 2: Scalpel

　　My head had a slight throb as it was still recovering from the Rocky Balboa of all slaps. The pain from that was quickly interrupted and evaporated as Arabella`s hand gently landed on my shoulder. I glanced over at her and was lost in her eyes as she looked back at me with the most graceful and compassionate look.

　　"Are you okay?" She asked me.

　　Her reassuring voice kept my mind at ease as I gave her my full attention. "I`ll be all right& I`ve been hit worse; it just took me off guard, is all." A slight smile came over her face as she looked down at the floor but tightened her grip on my shoulder. In my moment of confusion, I felt there was no better time to get clarification than now, as my mind started to race with curiosity. "Arabella& we`re not& You know&"

　　A cheerful smirk arrived on her face as she looked up with a squint in her eye and a playful expression, her right eyebrow angled up and her teeth had bitten down onto the very tip of her tongue. "What?"

　　"You know& seeing each other or anything, are we?"

　　The cutest giggle came over her as soon as I asked the question. She let out a soft sigh which left me with the belief that she found my question to be adorable. "No& we`re not, but you did always tell me I was your favorite nurse. When they brought you back from your last mission, I wanted to be sure I was dedicated to watching over you."

　　God damn it. If my heart wasn`t already melted into a giant pile of goo, it was for sure doing so now. "Oh, okay, I was just wondering, you know& seeing how I can`t remember& well, anything."

　　As soon as I finished saying it, Arabella smiled and leaned in towards me. She planted the softest, sweetest kiss directly opposite of the spot where Samantha had landed her slap. She leaned back upright at the same time that the glass entry doors to my room slid open. The voice of a thunderous Irish god came over the room.

　　"You mother fucker!" The stalky man said.

　　Arabella squeezed my shoulder slightly, not letting the man interrupt the moment we were sharing. I naturally shifted my eyes to hers` as she did. Her gaze peered through my exterior shell and landed on my heart and soul. "I know you`ll always be here for me if I need it, Trevor."

　　"Oh, and don`t worry, darling, I`m here for you also." The newly arrived individual interjected as he looked right at me with a smile.

　　Arabella rolled her eyes as she tilted her head and directed it over to our new visitor. "Not you Brian&" She winked at who I now assumed was the Brian that Samantha had referred to before she departed the room. Arabella then nodded toward me as she finished, "I was referring to B2."

　　"So was I&" The man responded with a playful wink.

　　"I`ll leave you, boys, to it." Arabella said as she started to punch a few buttons on the medical monitoring equipment and began to drift away. "I`ll check in on you in a little bit. I`m happy you`re back with us& with& me." She shot me a quick wink before she turned and walked out. I couldn`t help but notice her gorgeous physique as it slowly walked away from me. Fucking hell did my mind start to wander towards all the wrong places as she did.

　　Brian walked over and slapped me on the shoulder, which interrupted the mental vacation I was instantly having between Arabella and myself.

　　"Why is it all you people insist on slapping me?" I lifted my arms up in confusion and shook my head as I looked at the stranger now standing before me.

　　He ran his hand up and through his long black hair. It was stylish with a slight wave to it and was complimented with a well-defined goatee upon his face. He wore a white computer lab coat over a white button up shirt with a black tie contrasting against it. There was a firm, confident presence to him as he slid both his hands in his front pockets while standing next to me. His head now tilted to the side and presented a sarcastic look as he answered.

　　"Oh, I dunno fucker, maybe because we all thought we had lost you. But now here you are! Finally back with us." Brian stated.

　　"Well& I don`t know about you Doctor& but the current situation at hand leads us to the point where I don`t know who any of you fucking people are. Or how I even got here."

　　"Shit! You really don`t remember us?" Brian crossed his arms but was now attuned to what I was going to say next. Though his eyes were looking at me, I felt like he was more analyzing me. Like I was some damn experiment of his and he wanted to begin poking and prodding.

　　I shook my head as if my word wasn`t good enough for people to believe& "I have no fucking clue what is going on!" I softly snapped back at him. I could feel my anger starting to build internally.

　　"Oh damn, that sucks. So& Arabella, Samantha, Me& nothing huh?" He asked.

　　"Not a thing." I confirmed.

　　"Well, Terra is still going to be so happy you`re back with us! Even if you don`t remember anything."

　　"Ohh, well, that is certainly nice to know, but you might as well fill me in on who exactly she is."

　　Brian`s gaze narrowed but then his eyes shifted to the side and began to dart around. I felt like his brain was in a database of information. The more I told him the greater his expression displayed that he was realizing and was questioning things even more. I thought he was now trying to work towards building pieces of information strewn out in breadcrumbs, attempting to build historical context, hoping that I would magically find the lost information that my head couldn`t retrieve.

　　 "Terra& she is your remote analyst. She normally helps you run background checks, create target profiles, processes and analyzes all your target and location data. All kinds of things really. She is going to be so stoked to see you again." Brian had a big smile on his face, but I still felt like I was one big science experiment.

　　"So, I am assuming she`s going to stop by at some point then, since she is remote?"

　　Brian quickly shook his head in confusion as if the information I just hit him with had completely derailed the train of thought he was having. "Wait& is your interface still not working?" The blank stare across my face had to have cued him into the fact that I still had no idea what he was talking about. He squinted as he leaned in, "Do you see anything in the corners of your vision, right at the boundary of your peripherals?"

　　My eyes dashed around, shifting from side to side to try and see if there was anything that was a constant fixed object while the background adjusted. I furled my lip and shook my head after a brief second, "Nope! Nothing."

　　He crossed arms and scrunched his laboratory coat, which now matched the scrunched pondering look on his face. His eyes quickly widened, and he started to extract his hand outward, "Have we tried Test 37?"

　　I instantly threw my arms up to thwart any attempted slap he might try to launch my way. "Yes! We already have tried that!"

　　"Damn it!" He looked completely discouraged as he slouched back down into his cross-armed stance. "Hold on&" He walked over to the far side of the room where a high gloss white countertop was. He quickly sat down on a white rolling chair which sat off to the side of the counter. His fingers immediately began to type away at a computer that sat upon the tiny counter area.

　　The computer keys created a rhythmic sound which were only interrupted by a few multiple mouse clicks. It sounded like Brian was trying to fly through a vast array of computer windows and folders, searching for the specific information he wanted to find. I watched him open a drawer and pull out a device with some thin wires.

　　It was a handheld device which he started to connect to the computer via some cord. It was only a few more mouse clicks until I saw multiple screens pop-up onto the monitor and displayed what look to be loading circles. "I have an idea& it`s a long shot, but& we`ll just have to see." Brian remarked.

　　"See&?" I didn`t like the sound of that and I sure as fuck didn`t like the look of what he was doing. I had still been shackled to my medical bed when I had awoken. That was more a prisoner status rather than a patient status. I had been pumped with who knows what drugs, people coming in and out of this room to which I had no memory. The pieces to this puzzle were forming a picture I was not too pleased about and I wasn`t about to trust anyone at the moment.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author`s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

　　"Fuck! Right& Sorry." Brian rolled his eyes as he stood up from the chair. He returned towards my medical bed and pulled the chair across the room with him. He returned to my left side and sat down. His arms crossed but he was still speaking with his hand. My attention was turned to what he retrieved from his lab coat pocket. A vape pen quickly raised up and he took a quick inhale and indulged in his addiction.

　　I interrupted whatever it was that he was saying. "Wait& are you allowed to vape in here?"

　　He arched his eyebrow and tilted his head down with a sarcastic look, "The hell do I care if I can or cannot?" He took a new drag off the vape pen and then launched the vapor cloud out to the side of his mouth, "Beside B2, you and I have smoked cigars together inside my office. Which is pretty much a laboratory of death, seeing how it has explosive materials in it& you think I give a shit on whether or not I vape at your bedside?"

　　"Well, I don`t remember that& but it certainly sounds like something I`d do." I replied.

　　He lifted his hand out as if the motion would calm me, "Trust me& with the amount of shit you`ve put your body through& this fucking vape cloud is the least of your worries!"

　　"So& Brian?" I slowly motioned with my head towards him to confirm his name, to which his eyebrow remained raised in serious judgment as if I was a drunken California valley girl that needed directions.

　　"Yes, Trevor?" He replied.

　　"What the actual fuck is going on?" My hands jolted out to the side as I tried to emphasize the fact that nobody had still not told me a damn thing about what was going on.

　　My instant aggression startled him slightly as he readjusted himself. "Oh hell, fine! You don`t have to yell at me, though, you know." He shook his head as he leaned back and adjusted his weight on the chair as he took a really, really, really long drag on his vape pen and let out the largest vapor cloud I had seen in a long while. "We& are a part of Scalpel& an agency which handles& special tasks for high paying& individuals& the kind of tasks they don`t want official channels to handle, or be on the books. They contract us to fulfill these tasks, missions, and objectives on their behalf. You came on board roughly two and a half years ago but have been in a coma for roughly a year& maybe fifteen months at this point, now that I think about it. To be honest, many of us had placed bets that you wouldn`t come out of it, but& here you are." He took another hit off his pen, "I lost my bet also, asshole!"

　　"Sorry to disappoint!" I rolled my eyes as Brian continued.

　　"You should be! Anyways& You were on a mission that turned bad, and turned bad quickly. You activated your emergency extraction beacon, but we were seriously afraid that you were going to be overrun by the time we got to you. The other agents in the field nearby we utilized as your quick reaction team, arrived and pulled you out. The team was able to bring you back, but you had technically died for over 5 minutes. Your pulse came back after they shocked you multiple times from two different defibrillator`s inside the chopper. You`ve been in a coma ever since. The biggest thing was that we didn`t know how your neurochip was doing. It hasn`t responded to anything we`ve tried. But, then again, we haven`t been able to try much with you given the situation. But! I have this crazy idea where I think I might be able to reset it."

　　I couldn`t believe what I was hearing& I`m apart of an agency& entity, where I do special tasks and I have a chip inside my brain. How the fuck did I ever agree to this? None of what this Brian guy said made any sense to me. What I did know at this point, is I was fucking sick of being poked and prodded. The only memory I really had up to this point was when I awoke to the worst pain I had ever felt in my life.

　　We both heard an audible beep from the computer where Brian had previously been at. "Perfect. The NCPM is ready." He looked down at his watch and checked how much time had elapsed since he started the computer update.

　　"What is an NCPM?" I asked.

　　"Neurochip Programing Module." Brian clarified.

　　"Of course, what else would it be?" I replied in a sarcastic tone. In reality though, I wasn`t liking any of this.

　　"Yeah& When we first installed the chip, we normally connect you to the mainframe and do the entire installation through that interface, but I designed the NCPM to work remotely in the field for emergencies. The extraction team tried to utilize it on you while they flew you back& no luck. I discovered there was a format error between your chip and the chip inside the NCPM unit. I had to recode and rewrite the entire driver. It`s worth a shot now and we can see if it will work, now that you`re awake."

　　"Wait! I`ve been laying on this table for over a year, and you`re just now trying this?"

　　"No& I have tried it seven& no wait&" He began to count on his hand while his eyes looked upward, replaying memories within his mind. "Eight and a half times."

　　"What do you mean, A half?"

　　"I`d rather not talk about it." He said with an embarrassed look on his face.

　　I arched my eyebrow and just so happened to crack my knuckles as I shifted my jaw. Brian rolled his eyes at me as he finally conceded. "Alright look, it involves really bad decisions, a Waffle House, a woman named Geneva Agnos, and then a toilet, and that`s all I`m fucking saying about it!"

　　"Fair enough&" I replied.

　　Brian went over to the computer and disconnected the NCPM from the docking station it was placed inside. Walking back over to me he held the device in his hands while a multitude of wires dangled down from the module. "My thought is& we now have everything inside your head operating normally& Right, all your senses, everything is working just as it should. I want to try and shock the chip back to life. Think of it the same way you use a defibrillator on a heart."

　　I didn`t want to think about anything being similar to a defibrillator and being hooked up to me. I was tired of being a lab experiment and now was at the point where I wanted to be left alone. This was starting to be too much to process and handle, at least awakening up to it.

　　Perhaps I asked for it, I did want to know what was going on. They could have at least given me a little bit more time to decompress all the information. All I could see now was Brian starting to attach things to my head without even asking.

　　It was just then that my eyes widened in shock at the realization. I reached up and swatted his hands way from my head for a brief moment. I ran my fingers across my bald head. "What the fuck did y`all do with my hair!" My anger was now starting to rise inside me and I was close to a breaking point.

　　He leaned backwards as if the answer was obvious. "Shaved it you bloody fuck."

　　"Why the fuck did you do that?" I snapped back at him.

　　"You were in a bloody coma, the fuck did you think we would do?" Brian`s face looked as if it was completely perplexed by my reaction.

　　"Oh, I dunno, perhaps you could just leave it the hell alone!"

　　He rolled his eyes and dropped the NCPM off to his side. A few of it`s wires dangling downward as he did. "I swear, I should have just pulled your plug a long time ago and just thrown your fat ass into the ground."

　　"Fuck you too!" I grinded my teeth together.

　　He smiled after a second or two, "It`s good to have you back big guy!" He seemed to wave off the tension and the spark in his eyes. He gave me the impression that the shit talking which was being said between us was normal. But he failed to realize I was dead serious and my tension was real& really real.

　　Without any other warning, he started sticking connection probes all over my head. The sticky substance gave off a cold sensation on my skin and I had to fight the urge to not merely rip them off. On top of each probe was a small plunger at its` center and before I knew it, Brian started pressing down on each plunger one by one. "How do you feel?"

　　"I don`t like this. Those things gave me a slight tingle when you pressed down on them. Maybe we should take it easy, you think?"

　　"No pain though?"

　　"Nah& it just feels, kinda weird. Like I said Doc, can we just maybe not do this right now."

　　"Okay&" He seemed to pause for a second, and for some reason, the tone with how he said it stood out to me. The hair stood on the back of my neck, and I could feel my heart rate speed up within me. The NCPM in his hand started to give off some audible beeps as Brian punched his way through the different screen displays, he was navigating.

　　"Hey& dude, I told you I really think we should hold off on this." My right hand started to tighten into a ball and then expanded outward as I tried to keep myself calm. The anxiety, frustration and anger I already had in my system was growing with every second that Brian appeared to not listen to what I was actually saying.

　　"Still not feeling any pain?" Brian asked as he still ignored me.

　　I shook my head, no& Without any warning, and before I could ask Brian, again to stop what he was doing. He punched down on a button on the NCPM. I was sent into a torrential fury of pain and suffering all over again. My ears practically burst once more as the blaring klaxon screech returned mercilessly. The backs of my eyes burned and felt like hot irons were searing directly through their center. Everything went blindingly white. I lost all my vision all over again. I reached up as my head instantly went from 1 on a pain scale to 10,000.

　　My hands clawed at my bald head as if I was a wild animal. I tried to rip and tear the connections free as fast as possible. A few of the probes detached and dropped off to the sides of my head, but in a flash of the moment& it was gone! The pain ended just as abruptly as it had started, the ringing in my ears began to fade and my vision started to come back into focus.

　　I launched up from the table and grabbed hold of Brians lab coat, the fabric balled up in my fists as I pulled him in close and was about to unleash a plethora of punches. There was this intense feeling of rage and animalistic chaos surging within from deep inside. Brian`s face was now intimately close to mine, as we practically stood at the same height with one another.

　　"I`m not a fucking lab rat for you to experiment on! You hear me mother fucker! I have had enough of this and am done!"

　　My knuckles were white and my teeth were grinding down to the point of breaking. It was taking everything I had to not take any further action. It was the look in Brian`s eyes that made me pause though. He was a little shaken, but had the demeanor of being more concerned. Yet, it was of being concerned for me, rather than himself.

　　He lifted his hands up to the sides and did his best to respond in a calm and reassuring voice. "Trevor& if we don`t get this to work& they`ll kill you."