Benjamin Benividez is the type of guy who would routinely go out of his way to help whoever asked for it, and even sometimes when it isn’t asked for. He makes it a point to put everyone around him before him, even if it is as small as getting in line for the buffet at lunch. The prototypical “nice-guy”. All of this works to my advantage, so when the request came in, I couldn’t hide my smile.
Our team sent the proper communications to him, and luckily his recent yearly physical was a perfect cover. The possibility of him saying no to a request that could potentially help thousands of his fellow citizens was virtually zero.
It’s later in the day so the sun is at the perfect angle to slice through the blinds and shine off the veneer of my new wooden desk. I catch myself staring across my office at the picture of my wife and daughter. They had taken it the summer before, and it captures everything I love about them. The buzz from my phone cuts through my headphones just enough to gain my attention. I whack the pause button on my Spotify playlist, pull the ear buds out, and grab my desk phone.
“Mr. Benividez is here to see you. Do you mind if I send him in?”
“Please do. Thank you, Diane.”
As he walks through my office door, I can hear him thanking Diane for her time and courtesy. The report on my desk mentioned there was the possibility of distraction due to his overall personality, but it wasn’t until I actually heard and saw him that I realized how likeable he is. He walks comfortably towards me as I extend my hand in greeting and he does the same. I introduce myself.
“Mr Benvidez. It’s an absolute pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Dr. Clayton Isaacs.”
“It’s a pleasure. But please, call me Benny.” His smile is so genuine. For a second I feel that pang of guilt in the back of my mind and I debate going forward with any of this at all. But the constant reminder of my purpose is staring me in the face, just over the right ear of Benny Benividez. I close my eyes and mentally shook my doubts away. I have to see them again.
“Benny it is. Please, come sit. We have a lot to discuss and I hope my office reaching out to you hasn’t been a cause for concern. Your GP, Dr. Parris, and I worked very closely during undergrad and we have stayed in touch over the years. When he mentioned to me your blood work had some interesting results, he thought it best to ask for my medical opinion. With the virus spreading throughout Mexico and entering our country, we’ve been looking everywhere for something to fight it. There may be an answer in your blood.”
We sit down across from each other and I can tell he takes this seriously. His comfortable demeanor has slowly changed as he continues to rub his palms slightly on his jeans. But when he speaks, he hides it all very well, and for a minute I think maybe I had misread him.
“Honestly doc, I wasn’t sure what to expect when Dr. Parris told me there might be some anomalies. Being a guy in my early thirties, I know heart conditions can start creeping up but I thought going to see a full blown hematologist was a bit of an overkill,” he chuckled at the end. “But with the Internet, you can find out a lot about people and I couldn’t find anything negative about you. It sounds like your work with this Regenokine stuff is really doing wonders for people.”
Surprised that he has done some research, I’m confident that he has not dug deep enough to actually find the real truth of his being here. The blood running through this man’s body will put our work with Regenokine to shame. I couldn’t thank Evan Parris enough. If the preliminary analysis of the tests run by his office are even slightly accurate in their presumptions, the next step in genetic evolution is coursing through the veins of Benny Benividez — I know it.
“Benny, I appreciate the fact that you did your homework. What we need to look at today however will not include any work from our Regenokine program. We simply need to run a few more tests in our own labs to get a better understanding of what may, or may not, have been seen in your blood tests from Dr. Parris’ office. Please, if you will, follow me.”
I nod towards the door over my right shoulder that leads deeper into our building. As we both rise, I can sense the slight nervousness return to Benny’s face and overall stature. I open the door and beckon him to enter the well lit hallway first as I follow. I place my hand on his shoulder to try and ease him as we walks the corridor to the far doorway that opens into a small operating room. The operating table in the middle takes up most of the room, however there are floor to ceiling cabinets on the right and back wall. Off to the left is the glass window used by the viewing room next door.
“Please, remove your jacket and lie down on the table. You can keep your shirt on, but roll up the sleeves to expose your inner elbow. I’ll need to take a few more blood samples,” I explain to him. I glance over to the viewing room just in time to see the door close and a figure standing in the corner. If I hadn’t seen him standing there a hundred times before, there’s no way I would have noticed him. As Benny removes his jacket, I hope that his sight is no better than mine was in those early days.
Benny sits on the operating table facing me and then slowly turns to lay back down. Having already pulled my gloves over my hands, I grab the needle and poke it through his skin into the blueish-purple vein. Rather quickly, the vial fills with his dark blood. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the figure in the room move closer to the window. With his reaction, I know there is truth to what Evan told me. Before pulling another vial, I place the vial on the counter next to me. I can’t wait any longer.
“How many more of those vials do you need, doc? I think my body’s still working overtime to pump out blood from my visit last week with Dr. Parris.” He chuckles again, but this time the sense of nervousness is overwhelming.
Reassuringly, I say, “Only one more after this, Benny. We just want to make sure we have a back-up if anything were to happen to this sample. I’m just going to scoot over here to take a look under the microscope. Stay on the table for now, and I’ll have you out of here in no time.”
At this point, my own palms are getting sweaty. I grab the vial of blood and slowly extract the substance. Depositing it on a slide, I place it under the microscope to hopefully find what I had been looking for for months. Adjusting the magnification, it slowly becomes clear that something within this sample has not been seen in any of the others to date.
And there it is. I can’t believe it. A microorganism half the size of a red blood cell, with tendrils frantically searching it’s surrounding area. Probing and clawing its way through his cells. I pushed back from the counter in disbelief. Slowly I turn back from my work area to address Benny. I don’t know what to say to him. His life is over, they’ll never let him leave.
But before I can get out a syllable, I finish turning and see the figure from the viewing room now in the operating room and he is looming over Benny. What shocked me even more is how frozen Benny’s body was. Not a single blink of his eyes, or a breath from his mouth. However, I can tell he is still alive. I’ve seen enough dead bodies to know the difference. He seems to be in some sort of catatonic state.
I stumble back as the figure speaks for the first time in eight months.
“This is the one we’ve been looking for. This is the carrier that will spread our cure throughout the masses. You’ve done well.”
Writing by Adam 