Picture
of the Day:
What's New...
Okay... time out. Need to catch up
on my reading backlog.
I subscribe to BookBub and during the last several
months, while concentrating on writing and editing the Revenge
Series for publication, I managed to purchase a lot of books‒twenty-three
to be exact. Included in this collection are a lot of new authors, but
some old titles from
my favorite authors whose works, in paperback, I've had in my
library for too many
years, and I'm slowly replacing with digital for
posterity. The old paperbacks have become a bit worn.
Works-in-Progress:
Working
titles and Cover (Author's depiction)
Subject
to change
Excerpt from Ruthless
Redemption:
Hours of ear-piercing screams stopped.
The abrupt silence—eerie and more unsettling—held
everyone spellbound, even though the medical team had performed
dozens of these grueling labor and delivery procedures. Linda
thought she’d get used to the process, yet the conclusion of each
birth continued to disturb her.
In the beginning, the mothers received something for
the pain, but those anesthetic endeavors had had detrimental effects
on the altered gene structure of the embryo. Management quickly
issued bureaucratic directives that mandated the staff withhold any
type of sedative for the hosts. After all, sustaining the life of an
engineered specimen was top priority.
Linda soon realized the matter of sedation for the
women was a moot point because of the multiple intravenous therapies
required throughout the gestation period. The complexity of the
drugs used in that intervention diminished the life expectancy of
the mother. Hell, in an age of medical and scientific evolution, why
hadn’t the scientists developed a drug that eased the woman’s
suffering, increased her mortality rate, and didn’t harm the fetus?
She continued to stare down at the serene childish
face and smooth pale skin that glistened with the perspiration of
the woman’s final efforts. The inertness of the body was proof the
beautiful young woman had taken her last breath and Linda couldn’t
prevent it. The women were of legal age when they signed up for the
experiments.
The silence lingered.
She knew the intent wasn’t to kill the women. The
goal was the success of their project, which would have been much
more successful if the mothers survived the process. Nonetheless,
the scientists regarded the hosts as throwaways. Recruiters acquired
women with at-risk lifestyles, which eliminated problems with
concerned relatives or friends. From foster homes, they solicited
naïve eighteen-year-old females, whereas runaways, who wanted jobs,
signed up as soon as they arrived in town. Others, ages eighteen to
twenty-one, were prostitutes who had wearied of the life.
The PsyD—Parapsychology Development—Institute
promised the women a standard of living that none had ever
visualized and they willingly left all behind. The organization kept
its word and housed the young women within the research compound.
They received the promised education, job skills, experience with
pay, and lived the anticipated lifestyle. They believed they had a
future. After the births, when none of the women returned to their
living quarters, if there were questions about their absences,
management responded with the pre-arranged directive.
After recuperation in the recovery dorm, the
institute arranged employment and accommodations for each woman with
an outside corporation.
The women deserved better.
Linda Forsythe, lead surgical nurse, had been present
at too many of these debacles of modern medicine. The PsyD group had
hired her to replace the previous supervisor, Sadie Marlowe when she
retired. Linda had accepted the position because she expected
research in genetic mutation and cloning. After she attended her
first birth and realized they weren’t experimenting, but
implementing, she immediately suspected covert government agencies
or military interests were orchestrating the entire program. She
never wanted any involvement with government mechanizations so she
questioned the nursing administrator Lincoln James about her
suspicions.
The powers-that-be swiftly issued the standard denial
of governmocracy intervention and remained adamant that private
scientific sectors were their only source of research funding. What
management had left unsaid reminded Linda of decades-old gossip
about viewing trials done at the Stanford Research Institute
purportedly funded by a certain covert agency. Back then, rumors
rampant throughout research communities had suggested some Intel
agencies considered adding remote viewing to a roster of
psychological phenomenon as a potential resource. And now, the PsyD
institute had a similar agenda.
Hell. She worked for a research foundation that used
a camouflaged compound on the fringes of a Marine Corps base located
in the Arizona desert. It was a facility that came equipped with a
military attaché and a security detail of USMC MP’s—Military
Police—who stood guard at all entrances. In addition, a Technical
Services Division of one intelligence agency had shown an inordinate
amount of scientific curiosity in PsyD’s work.
During the early seventies, rumors that said tech
group had done secret studies similar to PsyD research had been
persistent…was that coincidence? Those studies were purported to
explore what role genetic makeup doctored with genetically
engineered biological specimens played in the use of telepathy,
hypnosis, and remote viewing. The difference between that agency’s
experiments and PsyD research was the covert agency had used mature
test subjects, but methodology was on the same page. Obviously, PsyD
management assumed she was gullible if they thought she believed
federal funding wasn’t involved with the institute’s project—yeah,
right.
Despite what her employer’s goals were, she’d had
enough and wanted out. She’d watched each attempt to create, birth,
and nurture a new-order of intelligence and realized she wasn't
hardcore enough. Empathy for the women took precedence over her need
for medical and scientific knowledge.
Damn that non-disclosure statement.
Included in all contracts, as a condition of
employment, was a declaration employees signed that restricted
outgoing staff from sharing, with their replacement, the specifics
of what their job entailed. In view of the experience required for
the position, management maintained the expectation that
replacements would learn as they attended each trial. That had
seemed odd and should have prompted her to question the surgical
lead she’d replaced, anyway. Hell. Neither of them had anything to
lose. She would have declined employment, then any revelations from
Mrs. Marlowe remained between them.
Linda detached herself from the group surrounding the
dead woman and took the newborn from the doctor’s outstretched
hands. She moved to the back of the room where the neonatal team
waited for the child. The team cleaned, weighed, and examined the
baby for any defects, then they coded and documented vital
statistics. While the baby was processed, the morgue team prepped
the young woman’s body for disposal and the surgical team readied
the operating room for the next birth.
Four more deliveries were on the schedule for that
night. Linda and her staff had speculated about the reason for
transporting this child before neonatal personnel inspected the
other newborns.
That wasn’t standard protocol.
Humor of the day:
Humor of the day:
later
