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&039;Unliest I need between ten and fifty, depending on the nues required to perfect the serum That is, however, an estimate at this point More ht Daniel&039;s look and dropped her gaze, an apology on her lips She stepped back

Daniel took the file He leafed through it For show, of course In high school, he&039;d blackrades in science

&039;Leave your card with Ms Bergin I&039;ll get back to you&039;

Two days later, Daniel had Shana call and tell the et his test subjects, with a cap of fifty Not that Daniel really intended to cut him off at fifty, but one had to set limits And it placated Shana, which was, admittedly, important He couldn&039;t afford to lose her now

Within a week, Boros had the first subjects ready for Daniel&039;s inspection

&039;They aren&039;t nearly at the stage you need,&039; Boros said into the camera &039;But I want complete transparency, Mr Boyd You can see how far I&039;ve progressed and how far I need to go No charlatans&039; tricks I believe you&039;ve had enough of those?&039;

&039;I have&039;

Boros clearly wasn&039;t putting his money into his laboratory - a shabby set of basement rooms It was clean and the equip lab such experiain, not for want of funds, but in this case, apparently, because of understandable paranoia He trusted only one young man, a fellow scientist and fellow necromancer Daniel understood the sentiment: he felt the same about Shana But e, with only three o, Daniel desperately needed fast

Boros&039;s assistant brought in the first subjectstrapped down on a gurney Shana&039;s sigh whispered across the audio connection

&039;At least he&039;s conscious,&039; she murmured to Daniel

&039;This subject has been zoin would care to exans of decomposition However, we have another problem&039;

Shana waved at the restraints &039;He&039;s unstable?&039;

&039;In a &039;

The assistant undid the restraints The

&039;Rise,&039; Boros said

The man didn&039;t move He should have: zombies had to obey the necromancer who resurrected them

&039;Well, you&039;ve cured the control aspect,&039; Daniel said &039;Thankfully&039;

&039;Actually, I haven&039;t On exa his brain activity, it see to remove the necromancer&039;s control, it seems he has lost all control&039;

As if in response, a wet spot spread across the subject&039;s pants

&039;That&039;s a problem,&039; Daniel said

A small smile &039;I suspected you&039;d say that&039; Boros waved, and his assistant brought in the second subject To Daniel&039;s relief, this one alking He was also leaving a trail of deco like dandruff in his wake

&039;That too is a problereed&039;

Boros turned to the subject &039;Clap three times&039;

The man only looked at him

&039;Touch your toes&039;

&039;Why?&039; the man asked

Boros stepped between the two subjects &039;In one, I&039;ve stopped decomposition at the expense of bodily control In the other, I&039;ve freed hi decomp Which problem would you like me to solve first? I know you&039;d like me to work on both, butthere anymy specialists under your control&039;

&039;I&039;d really rather not-&039;

&039;You will Or you don&039;t have a client Now, if you&039;ll excuse me-&039;

&039;Sir?&039; Shana cut in &039;The&039; She paused and motioned for the assistant to reone, she turned to Boros &039;Can they be saved?&039;

Boros shook his head &039;One will remain in a permanent state of complete paralysis The other will continue to rapidly decompose&039;

&039;So they&039;ll be terminated? Humanely?&039;

&039;Not so fast,&039; Daniel said &039;If there&039;s still so to be learned froan

&039;Bring thee room we can use We&039;ll keep them there&039;

He flicked off the screen

Within twoso close to a cure that Daniel started postponing his visits to the doctor Cancer wasn&039;t going to be a death sentence, not for hih along that Daniel could take the temporary cure and then wait out the final one

He didn&039;t kno h Shana kept him updated every week, when Boros put in his requisition, but he paid no attention It was during one of those weekly updates that she said, &039;We can&039;t keep this up, sir He&039;s de ten more in the next week There&039;s a limit to how many transients can disappear fro-&039;

&039;Then send the tea that But it&039;s a slow process He needs healthy, clean subjects Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the that population? We test them, but he still rejects a third of the ones-&039;

&039;Then we need to coh of relief &039;Thank you, sir Now, I&039;ve done the calculations, and if you were to take his cure in its present for we could cut back the nunificantly and-&039;

&039;I&039; a substandard cure unless it&039;s an absolute last resort&039;

&039;I understand, sir, but we are reaching that stage-&039;

&039;No, we aren&039;t I want you to coh the employee files Find anyone with a terminal illness Offer two years&039; salary to their families in return for their participation Emphasize the benefits of the procedure and minimize the side effects&039;

When she didn&039;t answer, he looked up fro at him

&039;Employees, sir?&039;

&039;That&039;s what I said If we don&039;t have enough with a tereneral offer and increase it to triple salary&039;

She continued to stare

&039;How&039;s Lindsey, Shana?&039;

She blanched When Shana cahter had been suffering fro fast As her signing bonus, Shana got that liver for her daughter and all the care she&039;d needed to ot the perfect assistant - one indebted to him for life

&039;I-I think we can fill this latest requisition with transients, &039; she said &039;I&039;ll split the team and send them farther afield&039;

He smiled &039;Thank you, Shana&039;

She started to leave He called her back and handed her a check for ten thousand dollars

&039;A bonus Buy so special for yourself and Lindsey&039;

She stared at it, and, for just a second, he thought she was going to hand it back After only that brief hesitation, though, she murmured, &039;Thank you, sir,&039; pocketed it, and left

Finally, the day caet into work every day, ignoring his wife&039;s nervous clucking, ignoring the little voice inside himself that said, &039;Take the cure as it is, before it&039;s too late&039; Boros was close, though, and Daniel willed hi on The pain and exhaustion were simply more obstacles to overcoh the final stage twice - two batches with four subjects each time When he was assured of the results, he ordered six of those subjects killed, the other two left alive and stored for long-ter and potential future tests He wasn&039;t sure what Shana objected tothe other two captive He had assured her, though, that once he&039;d been treated, all the failures could be terminated and sent on to their afterlives That satisfied her

Killing the successful subjects and keeping two for testing was but one of the precautions he took He kneas heading into theHe was about to die and put his rebirth in the hands of others It would be the final test of loyalty for his assistant, and while he trusted her more than anyone in his life, he took precautions with that too, guaranteeing she wouldn&039;t decide at the last moment that he could stay dead

Then he let Boros kill hi to his research, the quickest andhe saas Shana&039;s face, floating above his, her pretty features draith concern, worrying that the cure ht have failed While he&039;d like to think she orried for his sake, he knew better

&039;Sir?&039; she said, when he opened his eyes

He blinked hard &039;Yes?&039; He had to say it twice When he spoke, the relief on her facethere was a moment there when he wished it was for hilass of water She wiped his face, rateful

Daniel had undergone surgery a couple of ti out of the anesthetic, slow and groggy Boros bustled around, ad his reflexes and responses to visual and audio stimuli Shana kept him comfortable

At last, Boros declared the conversion a success He had Daniel get up and move around, do a few tasks on his laptop, make sure his physical and ht, then,&039; Boros said &039;Go back to bed&039;

Daniel didn&039;t want to go back to bed He felt fine and he needed to relocate to the safe room in the basement, where he&039;d remain for a few days, presumably &039;on vacation&039; until he was fully recovered

When he tried opening his h, he couldn&039;t Instead, he found hi back to the bed And, as he lay down, he realized with no small amount of horror that he&039;d been tricked

Boros walked over &039;Did you really think I&039;d give up the chance to have a man like yourself as my personal puppet?&039;

Daniel started to sit up

&039;Lie down&039;

He did

Boros s sure I gave you the right forin Unfortunately, it appears there is no way to remove the control a necromancer has over his zombies&039;

&039;But-&039;

&039;I know, I demonstrated it to you With subjects raised bythey would have no reason to obey me&039;

Daniel tried to look at Shana, but she&039;d disappeared behind Boros

&039;Don&039;t bother appealing to her She&039;s been paid well for her cooperation Yes, you&039;re holding a chit on her, but considering that you&039;re under my control, that&039;s a problem easily remedied So let&039;s start there Please release-&039;

The unshot cut hih the back of his head Shana was behind hi down his balding scalp, Daniel sat up, slowly, eyes on the barrel She lowered it to her side

&039;I trust you&039;llher daughter released, then giving the phone to Shana Out of Daniel&039;s earshot she spoke to her daughter

&039;You&039;ll be well coan when she returned, and for the first time since they&039;d met, she interrupted him

&039;I know I&039;ll be very well compensated And, as soon as I&039;ve set you up in the safe room, my employment is at an end&039;

He understood and said as uards to come for Boros&039;s body and to detain his assistant Then she called in two shamans who&039;d been part of the research tea to hi his recovery The four of them set off for the room that would be his te I&039;ll ask,&039; Shana said, as they took the elevator to the basement &039;You pro the two successes I may still need theh&039;

&039;can have their souls released immediately And there won&039;t be any more I presume that&039;s why you killed Boros?&039;

She nodded, and he felt a sht she&039;d done it to protect hi the subjects&039; release He arched his brows, surprised at the foraze with a level stare She didn&039;t trust hi to do now but make a clean break of it When they reached the basened forms to the records departh the reader, coupled with a retinal scan The electronic door whooshed open Daniel walked in and looked around He hadn&039;t seen the work they&039;d done to prepare it He hadn&039;t even told Shana what he&039;d wanted But it was exactly as he&039;d expected - a storage room converted into a luxury hotel suite

The shamans hurried in to help him sit, then retreated behind Shana She hadn&039;t said a word since the elevator He supposed he couldn&039;t expecta million dollars into her account, and she waited in silence until she received confir her, she closed the door

Daniel was just settling onto the bed when the speaker overhead clicked on It was Shana

&039;The records departoing to do that now, before I go&039;

Daniel smiled There was no need to tell hi herself to walk away As angry as she was, she had a good job, and she&039;d hoped - expected - he&039;d try to convince her to stay

&039;How much, Shana?&039; he asked

&039;Sir?&039;

&039;To stay What do you want? More er office?&039; He chuckled &039;An assistant of your own?&039;

&039;No, sir I was siht forto be difficult &039;Yes, yes Release thelanced at the door It was still shut

&039;You!&039; snarled a voice behind him

He wheeled to see that a section of the wall had opened One of the zo at hiood eye, the other shriveled

&039;You did this tolips

&039;No,&039; Daniel said slowly, carefully &039;A scientist-&039;

&039;You don&039;t even re there, barely paying attention, busy talking on your cell phone as you sentencedbody

Daniel looked up at the speaker &039;If this is your idea of a lesson, Shana-&039;

&039;No, sir,&039; her voice crackled &039;This is my idea of a lesson&039;

Another zo on stubs of arms A fourth slithered past hi, all glowering at Daniel Then the first stepped aside, and they rushed forward, zo themselves toward him

Daniel ran to the door Pounded on it Screamed

&039;Don&039;t worry, sir,&039; Shana said &039;Your procedure was a success No matter what they do, you can&039;t die&039;

A click, and the speaker went silent as the zombies swarmed over him