TWENTY-EIGHT
Subject’s senses are augmented as well, due to
several changes in brain structure and chemistry, as well as
physiological changes apparently sustained since the incident.
Subject’s hearing is acute enough to detect the heartbeat of
another person (3 dB) within 100 yards, while baseline human
hearing can only detect around 10-12 dB. Subject has developed a
third structure, in addition to the rods and cones normally found
in the human eye; this cube-shaped light receptor is able to detect
and distinguish near-infrared parts of the spectrum. Subject’s eyes
also possess the reflective layer (tapetum lucidum) found in
many animals, which assists night-vision. Starlight would appear
almost as clear as broad daylight to the subject. Subject’s sense
of smell is on par with a canine, and he was able, in repeated
tests, to detect particulate emissions as low as a few parts per
billion.
—BRIEFING BOOK: CODENAME: NIGHTMARE PET
It was almost dawn by the time Helen got to
the house. She opened the door with her key, then she rubbed her
eyes and yawned as she entered the foyer.
Konrad waited on the couch. One side effect of his
long life—he rarely needed to sleep. Somehow, he even looked
younger than when she last saw him. Bastard.
“Tired?” he asked.
“Long day,” she said.
“It’s not over yet.”
She was exhausted, but that didn’t mean anything.
She still had work to do.
She dropped her bag and began to strip. First the
suit jacket, then the blouse, then the skirt and the panty hose.
She did it without any flourish. He liked it as mechanical as
possible.
Then, naked, she went to him and bent over the arm
of the couch.
Konrad stood. He dropped his pants. Kept his shirt
on.
He hummed Wagner. It was the only sound he ever
made.
AFTERWARD, IN KONRAD’S BATHROOM, she surveyed
herself, checking her face carefully in the mirror. Another line,
faint but undeniably there, at the corner of her right eye. The
price she had to pay for staying up this late.
She rummaged in her makeup bag and came out with a
vial of her collagen-enhanced anti-wrinkle cream. She ground it
into her skin viciously, knowing it wouldn’t really help.
She was aging. There was nothing she could do about
it. Thirty-six years old, and there was no way she could turn back
the clock.
But Konrad could.
He entered the room behind her, stood looking at
the both of them in the mirror. He moved her blond hair off her
neck, a gesture that could be mistaken for tenderness.
She knew better. He was inspecting her, like a
specimen under a microscope.
“Another little crow’s-foot,” he said.
Bastard. “I know.”
“You should take better care of yourself,
Helen.”
Helen tried not to smirk at that.
“You could do something about it,” she said.
“I never pay in advance. We’ve had this
discussion.”
She turned to face him. “You know how much I’ve
risked for you?”
“You know what they say about great risk. It’s the
only way to great rewards.”
“Haven’t I done enough?”
“No,” he said. “Not yet.”
“You keep saying that.” She tried to keep the
anger, the pain, out of her voice. “How do I know you’ll ever give
me what I want?”
“I give you my word,” he said calmly. “You’ll never
age another day. Once Cade is truly dead.”
He removed her hands from the front of his robe and
left her in the bathroom.
She checked herself in the mirror again. No gray
hairs. Nothing showing at her roots. No visible sagging, no other
lines.
He had to come through for her. Because every day
that he put her off, dangled the promise of eternal youth in front
of her, that was another day on the wrong side of the
calendar.
Time was ticking away. She had to get Konrad’s
secret soon.
Living forever wouldn’t mean a damn thing if she
had to become an old woman first.