April 21st. It was a near cloudless day above. The sun was beating down on the backs of the people in this vast city. Unfortunately, lethargy spread like a plague on days like this. And that most terrible of diseases had been growing ever more frequent over the course of this year.
The weather and its effects didn’t hinder the exuberance of Rob, though. Rob loved the sun, the heat warming his suit. It reminded him of his old home, long ago. The home he’d been forced to abandon. Just for doing something helpful. To be fair, Rob wasn’t the same person he had been back then. At his old home, he was a man of vast import, and anyone who knew him could tell. He held not just the weight of his rank, but of the world on narrow shoulders. He had been known as a fairly somber personage, pondering the world and tinkering with ideas with a harsh face and furrowed brow.
In some ways, being kicked out of his home was the best thing that could ever have happened to the young man. That weight of significance was gone, leaving only more curiosity in his wake. While people from home might still have recognized him, it wasn’t because of how he held himself. As Rob walked down the street to his appointment, there was now a bounce in his step, a little hop as though each step was taken out of pure joy for life. Across his face was not the stern serious scowl of his youth, but instead a cocksure half-smile, sitting somewhere between smug and humored. Since he’d left his home, he abandoned that serious demeanor. He found no need for it, now that he had no need to consider his place in the world. Rob knew now that he had no real place in the world. He’d come to grips with that after his stint as a pseudo-gangster. And without a permanent place in the world, without a stake in things, there was no need to take himself quite so seriously.
But in many of the same ways, being kicked out of his home was the worst thing that could ever have happened to the young man. That weight that he once held was gone, and while it did make Rob much happier, there was a reason that weight had been there in the first place. Rob was probably one of the smartest people in the world. He was certainly the smartest person he’d ever met. And, since he was a child playing with his surroundings, Rob had had a deep curiosity for how things ticked, how the world worked, and how to make it stop. It drove him into the loving embrace of science, where he toiled away whenever possible. Chemistry, biology, physics, sociology, he didn’t care what it was, he would devour the knowledge like an animal after a hunt. That weight on his shoulders was because, when he still had a stake in how the world ended up, or at least a portion of the world, he always asked himself whether what he was looking into was good for that part of the world or not. He didn’t have morals to his research, per se, but he cared about the big picture, and avoided doing more harm than good. And normally, that resulted in him acting as a healer, not a destroyer. Now, without that burden, it was more of a coin flip.
He walked into the hotel, and was escorted up to the penthouse. The guards opened the door to let the man in, then waited outside. Rob approached the dilettante, sitting on her couch. “Well, dear, what seems to be the issue today?” he asked as he walked up to her.
“Lovesickness, Master Peterson,” she said, “Have anything for that?”
Rob took a look at her. She had a rather nasty dog bite on her leg, probably why her father had called for him. She’d been to see Sal again. Rob shook his head in slight disappointment. “Afraid not, Miss Alberti,” he said, smiling, “But I can help you with that bite.” He gave her some painkillers to numb things, then set to work cleaning the wound. It wasn’t too bad, as dog bites went. Paula’s last week had been far worse. But that didn’t mean he didn’t need to clean and stitch it. “Why’d you go and try to see him, Paula?” he asked, anything to help get her mind off of the fact that he was sewing up her leg.
“I just had to, Robert. He said he loved me just one month ago, you know?”
Rob chuckled. “So you told me last week, when we were in this exact situation. And the week before that.”
“I mean, I just can’t see why he’d suddenly just end things after that, you know?”
Rob finished the stitch. “No idea,” he told the girl, “Then again, I don’t try to understand the whole ‘being human’ thing, really. You people are often fascinating.” He put away his tools in his pack. “Now then, Miss Alberti, you shouldn’t use your leg much for the next couple days. I’ll talk with your father about some pain options, but in all honesty, I’m going to recommend you go without, so your body can tell you when it's ready for you to move.” Then as he was walking towards the office of the penthouse, he stopped to add on, “And even though you probably won’t listen, I’d avoid trying to see Sal, if I was you.”
Rob took a breath, cracked his neck, and headed into Mister Alberti’s office. He was one of the four big players in town, and one of the two who didn’t already hate Rob. He liked this town, and couldn’t afford to piss off either of the fat cats that actually liked him. As Rob entered the office, Mr. Alberti greeted him, “Master Peterson. All is well, I trust?”
Rob nodded. “It was a simple fix, really. As long as she doesn’t run into any dogs, she should be fine.”
“I assume you’re in here for payment?” he said, turning around to open his safe.
Rob held up a hand. “Mister Alberti, you know I could never accept your money for something as trivial as payment for helping out. I’m here to discuss pain treatments.”
Mister Alberti nodded. “I see. You will recommend she go without, I presume?”
“As always,” Rob replied with a nod, “And what will you have?”
Mister Alberti paused for a moment, thinking. “I think you may actually be right, in this instance. The pain might help her realize this foolishness needs to stop.”
Rob nodded. “Send for me if she isn’t up and moving by the end of the week, then.” He turned to go.
“I assume the warehouse is working out well for you?” Mister Alberti asked.
Rob couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s perfect,” he said, “Couldn’t have found a better site myself.”
Mister Alberti laughed as Rob walked out. Paula looked at him as he passed. “Do you have anything for me?” she asked.
Rob shook his head and shrugged. “For once your father's actually taken my advice, dear. Do tell me of the experience when next we speak.”
Paula flicked him off as he walked out of the penthouse and down to the street. That was his only appointment for the day, meaning it was time to visit the warehouse and visit his other patients.
It was not a short walk down to the docks, where his warehouse sat, but Rob didn’t mind. Walking kept him feeling young, and the heat felt good compared to the freezing cold of where he had been living for so long. He opened the door into his warehouse’s entrance, and shut it behind him. His first week with this place, he’d reinforced the walls, and sealed all entrances but this one. This one, he’d made like an airlock. After closing the outer door, Rob put on his mask and gloves, and opened up the inner door, to enter his makeshift laboratory.
What lay in that warehouse was truly horrific. A dozen people in bubbles, suffering. Rob fixed up the day's meals for them, and passed them through the seals into the bubbles. The meals were large, intended to be sufficient for the entire day. After his patients had finished their food, Rob began to walk through the space, taking notes on each bubble, independently. There were only three sounds which an onlooker could have heard, had the warehouse not been thoroughly soundproofed. First and loudest, the people inside screaming for help and in pain. Second, the air filtration systems, ensuring all the bubbles were kept at constant levels of fresh air, constant temperatures, and without any other variables. And third, the quiet sounds of the wandering scientist, murmuring, “Fascinating. Truly fascinating,” while he took notes on the conditions of each subject. With the notes for the day done, he went up to the office of the warehouse, which he’d outfitted with recording devices, cameras inside and out, alarms, and other tools which made this warehouse seem more a prison than a hospital.
Sitting in his comfortable chair and watching the patients, Rob flicked on the sound recorder and cleared his throat. “Research note, April Twenty-One. Doctor Peterson presiding. Test subjects appear to be degrading, though at a slower rate than usual with the disease. Next, I will need to test a more aggressive dosing earlier to produce the necessary antigens prior to infection if there is hope to succeed. I will wait one more day before terminating this dosage and timetable as a failed experiment. Subject D seems to be somewhat stable, which is the reason for the delay of schedule, though that may be simply due to him having a naturally superior constitution, for some reason. After termination of the test, samples will need to be taken to investigate this. It could lead to a safer way than an aggressive dosing to inoculate against the sickness. Signing off for the day.” And with that, he flicked the recorder off, and took out the tape from the deck, placing it in a cabinet with the others hundreds of tapes. At the end of every year, he sent all of them in a box back to his home up north, but with the warehouse, he’d accelerated his research greatly, making the tapes more frequent, and meaning he might need to add a midyear box as well.
That wasn’t his current urgent matter to attend to, however. No, the most urgent matter he had to attend to was preparing for his evening. Whether because or in spite of his attitude towards the universe, he had a date with a powerful person, and he was not about to mess that up. After all, not only was she powerful, attractive, young-but-not-too-young, and smart, but she knew who he was, really. She knew that he was capable of both great good and great evil. She even knew what sort of important research he did in his spare time. And she loved him all the same. Rob, while he didn’t understand people sometimes, especially around things like obsession, he knew that was the most important thing about love. Not being unable to live without someone. Such things were important in old movies, and helped out, certainly, but true love was about being able to live with someone, being able to know and understand everything about them, all their best and worst qualities, and not just accepting them, but loving them all the same. And despite all of Rob’s terrible qualities, and he was well aware that he had more than a few, Nina still loved him.
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