Frankenstorm: Deranged Read Online Free Page B

parties—”
    “Dr. McManus, I call myself a scientist precisely because I do the things I’ve done here. Your morals and your righteous indignation are admirable, but science does not share them, nor does it give a damn about them. You’re free to express them as long as you continue to allow me to do things that ultimately save lives. Possibly millions of lives.”
    “I’m sorry, but I don’t see any lifesaving being done with this virus.”
    “It will be used in the defense of this country. In the defense of freedom. It’s very possible, even likely, that it will do work that our young men and women will then not have to do, and they won’t need to risk and lose life and limb in combat.”
    “I bet you have a justification for everything you’ve done here, everything you’ve done before this. You’ve got it all worked out in your head, don’t you, in some way that makes you blameless?”
    He nodded his head slightly, still smiling. “Go ahead and tell yourself that if it makes you feel better.”
    “Do you know what I’m going to do, Dr. Corcoran?” Fara said. “I’m going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that your career and reputation are destroyed and that you go to prison for what you’ve done here.”
    He lifted his head slightly and smiled at her for a moment. “Do you know what I think you’re going to do, Dr. McManus? I think you’re going to commit suicide. Or I think you’re going to fall ill and be diagnosed with a very rare, fast-acting cancer, and in a few weeks, you’ll be dead. Or I think your brakes will fail one day soon and you’ll go off a cliff and into a ravine and your skull will be crushed. Or I think you’re going to quietly die in your sleep one night soon. Or . . . something like that. Do you get the picture, Dr. McManus? You want to tell the world what we’re doing here? Fine. But everything has consequences. As you can see, I’m not too concerned, am I? Do I appear worried to you? I’ve been down this road with underlings like you before, underlings who suddenly discover they have a conscience and simply cannot live with themselves anymore. I’ve been down this road before and I’m still here. The same thing cannot accurately be said of them. You’re not in any position to destroy anyone or anything, Dr. McManus, and based on my past experiences in this line of work, I’m of the opinion that you won’t even have time to try.”
    That seemed to deflate her, shrink her.
    Corcoran suddenly dropped his feet to the floor, leaned forward in the chair, and spoke quietly into the phone. “Yes, it’s Corcoran. We have a big problem that will have to be dealt with immediately.” He turned the chair all the way around so the back of it faced them.
    Fara went to the couch and slowly lowered herself onto it. Emilio noticed that her knees were bobbing up and down because she was shaking all over. He was afraid she was going into some kind of panic attack.
    He sat down beside her and put an arm around her. “Look, I know you’re feeling a lot of bad crap right now, but you’ve gotta do me a favor and hold yourself together a little longer, okay?” He took both of her small, pale hands between his big, dark ones and rubbed them vigorously. “Until we get outta here. Then you can knock yourself out. But right now, we all need clear heads, and we need you to be clearheaded. You know this place better than any of us. We need you right now, Fara. Do you think you can keep it together a little longer?”
    She nodded emphatically as she sat up straight and took a few deep breaths. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and swept them outward, wiping her tears.
    “Yeah,” she said, sniffling. “Yeah, I think I can do that.”
    “Thank you. After this is over, you can go out and get shitfaced. I’ll be your designated driver.”
    “That . . . actually . . . sounds like fun.”
    “Yeah, it’ll be fun. We can go dancing. You like to dance?”
    “Me?