Page 26 (1/2)

He leaned forward "Good , Yuri"

Trent McBride slanced down to his chest, re shot by a tranquilizer dart He searched around, still confused, dazed

"You’ve been given a counterstimulant," McBride said "Must have you alert, since we have ue pasty and thick

McBride sighed, reached to a bedside table where a glass with a straw rested, and offered Yuri a sip

He did not refuse The lukewarm liquid burned like the finest vodka It pushed back the shadows at the edges of his thoughts and washed the paste froed at the straps that bound down his ar in the blanks" McBride pressed an intercom button at the head of the bed "As Iwith all the details of your research at Chelyabinsk 88 We ht"

"How do you mean?" Yuri tried to sound innocent, but he failed er man

"Hmm," Trent said He leaned forward and stripped the sheet covering Yuri "I suppose we ly part over with so we can speak like true colleagues"

Yuri stared down at his naked body His pale skin was dotted by tiny suction cups, each the size of a di a thread-thin antenna They lined his legs froertip to shoulder His chest was a chessboard grid of the sticky cups

Before he could question what they were, the door to the roole a h he had just met the man Dr James Chen They had used the researcher’s office for theat Walter Reed

The door clamped shut, soundproofed

Chen crossed to them He carried a laptop open in his arms "We’re all calibrated"

As the man settled into a seat and rested his laptop on the bedside table, Yuri caught a gli away It had a stylized figure of an outstretchedcircles

"Electroacupuncture," McBride said and waved a hand over the array of suction cups "Microelectrodes inserted into acupuncture points along the prime meridians I don’t purport to understand it fully This is Dr Chen’s line of expertise He’sthis technique to alleviate pain, allowing battlefield surgery without general anesthesia Brilliant work and why he becaation because of his innovative use of microelectrodes Microelectrodes like you used with your own test subjects"

McBride tweaked one of the antennas with a finger Yuri felt a stinging stab "We’ve learned that what can be used to deaden pain in the right circumstances, can also be used to anored him, turned to Chen, and pointed to one of the cups near his knee, then to a second one near his groin

The researcher lifted a stylus and drew a line on the co blistered with fiery pain A screa a scalpel fro down to the bone Then it ended just as quickly

Gasping, Yuri searched down He expected to see blood flowing, flesh sain across the field of tiny cups "We can do the same across any of these points In any pattern We can flay you alive without har a hair A virtual operation with all the pain"

"Wh-why?"

McBride stared down at hiain While his face was mild, his eyes were fierce "I will have answers, yes? Let’s start hat you’ve been keeping secret about the children"

"I don’t--"

McBride turned to Chen

"No!" Yuri shouted out

McBride leaned back to hiaments without any difficulty The scheh and precise But in the end, not all that innovative Merely a sophisticated TMS device We atte a pair of autistic savant children in Canada Our experi"

Yuri inwardly cringed So the Americans were closer than even Savina had suspected They’d already conize how unique the situation was at Chelyabinsk 88

"So," McBride asked again, "what have you been keeping secret fro A fiery slash cut across his chest His muscles spasmed, his back arched from the bed He screamed so loudly that no sound came out