The Fall: Victim Zero Read Online Free

superiors when we approached them about this step in the project.”
    Kell took in the other man. About six feet tall and dark-skinned, shoulders squared back but with the relaxed posture of a man ready for stillness to flow into violence at a moment's notice. There was an air of professional calm about him. Kell was used to being the unnaturally calm one in the room.
    “ And who are you?” Kell asked.
    “ You can call me Jones. I'm the liaison between Sinclair and DARPA.”
    Kell nodded. “You're military?”
    Jones gave him a small, humorless smile. “Let's leave it at my name. Knowing more is beyond your pay grade.”
    Kell snorted and turned back to Cramer. “Tell me about this subject, and why you had to bring him here.”
    Cramer and Jones led Kell inside the container, and Cramer proceeded to tell him everything he wanted to know, in excruciating detail.
    The entire time, Kell's fingers dug into his own crossed arms. First in anger, then as the conversation went on, in fear.
     

An hour later, Kell stepped through the inner door and closed it behind him. There was no hiss of pressurization—this wasn't a sealed room. Before him sat a young man wearing khaki pants and a faded olive shirt. Between the two of them a plexiglass wall stood, pocked with fist-sized holes at regular intervals.
    The young man, whose name Kell now knew to be David Markwell, looked healthy. Far healthier than a man suffering from the aftereffects of a ground-zero IED explosion should. David glanced up at Kell as he pulled a chair next to the isolation booth, goggling at the size of his visitor.
    “ Hello, David,” Kell said. “I'm Kelvin McDonald. I'm going to be taking care of you for a while. I'd shake your hand, but--” he gestured to the plexiglass, “you can see that might have to wait a while.”
    The younger man gave a nervous smile. “Nice to meet you. Are you going to fix me?”
    Kell considered his words carefully. “That's the question, isn't it? I want to help if I can, but you need to understand that the...treatment you received in Boston isn't even experimental yet. You're the first human being to undergo it.”
    David's face darkened. “This is because of my fucking dad.”
    “What do you mean?” Kell asked.
    The young man frowned. “My father is a senator. He was against me going into the service, and when I got hurt he had me shuffled around to find the best specialists.” David looked up at Kell. “You read my file?”
    Kell nodded. “Quickly, and Doctor Cramer gave me a report.”
    David ran his hands over his face. “You know, then. Nerve damage, paralysis in my left arm. I was going to be crippled for the rest of my life. Then dad tells me he can get me into early trials of this experimental new treatment. Says it might completely restore function. How could I say no to that?”
    “I broke my arm when I was twelve,” Kell said. “I remember not being able to bend my elbow, barely able to grab things with the fingers on that hand because of the cast. It drove me crazy waiting for so long to be able to use it again. I can't even imagine looking at a lifetime of it.”
    Kell leaned forward and ran a hand over his smooth scalp. “I won't lie to you, David. There's a chance I can undo what's happening to you, but it could mean going back to that. It could mean spending your life with that damage.”
    David frowned. “What do you mean? How can you undo someone healing?”
    With a sigh, Kell flopped back in his chair. “I'll explain it to you if you're willing to listen.”
    “I'm all ears,” David replied.
    “ I'll keep it as simple as I can, but the first thing you need to understand is what you've gone through hasn't been a treatment with medicine. It's a life form, an organism called Chimera, that I've been working with for a long time now. I'm the world's only real expert with this organism, and seven years of study later I barely understand anything about it.”
    David paled and motioned for Kell