The Ghost Pattern

…30

Wu Shen Teng followed Bogdanov quietly, not daring to look at more than the man’s feet, waiting for the opportunity to speak. His heart pounded in his chest, and he felt sweat drops forming at the roots of his hair. What am I going to say?

He heard the lab door latch close behind him, and then Bogdanov stopped abruptly.

“What do you want?” he asked harshly.

“Doctor, please,” Wu Shen Teng pleaded, clasping his palms together. “I–I have my family here. Please promise me they’ll be safe… Please.”

“Humph,” Bodganov scoffed. “Take him back,” he told Death.

“No!” Wu Shen Teng said in a high-pitched, piercing tone. “No, please! Promise me they’ll be safe and I’ll — I’ll tell you things.”

“What things?”

He’d caught Bogdanov’s attention.

“Things… things you need to know.”

“Like what?” Bogdanov was starting to lose his patience, and sounded threatening.

“They’re stalling. They’re keeping drug concentrations low on purpose. That kind of thing I can tell you, if you promise me they’ll be safe. Please!”

Bogdanov reached out and grabbed Wu Shen Teng by the lapels of his lab coat, easily lifting the thin man a few inches off the ground.

“You have your family here, you say?” he growled. “How interesting! Keep me informed, or your family dies. Is that understood, you little piece of shit?”

Wu Shen Teng nodded his compliance vigorously, and Bogdanov shoved him toward the lab door. As Death opened the massive door, Bogdanov shoved Wu Shen Teng violently into the lab, and cursed behind him.

“Tvoyu mat!”

Wu Shen Teng fell hard from the shove and rolled on the concrete floor, then curled up on his side, sobbing hard.

Dr. Davis rushed to his side, and kneeled right next to him.

“What happened? What did you tell him?”

“I begged him to let me see my family,” Wu Shen Teng managed to articulate between uncontrollable sobs. “He won’t let me see them.”

“This must be hard for you,” Davis tried to comfort him. “Hang in there, I’m sure they’ll be all right.”

“You don’t understand,” Wu Shen Teng said, trying to stifle his sobs. “Until now, he didn’t know they existed. He didn’t know I had a family in there. Now he does.”

Oh, God, what have I done?