Killer Genius 2: Attack of the Gym Rats

He would never admit this to Max, or anyone else for that matter, but years of handling forensics had left Pedro with a mighty fear of germs. It was the type of thing he normally kept to himself and by no means would his anxiety be evident or debilitate him in any way that someone who works with him would have noticed. In fact, his constant use of hand sanitizer was seen by most as a good habit and nothing more.

Earlier, when Max suggested that maybe Pedro’s place was back at the station, he fought hard to not give away how happy that made him. And even though he considered Max a friend, there was no way he was going to tell the detective what he planned to do once he got back. In fact, if Pedro had said the wrong thing, Max might have deduced an even greater secret; that Pedro had somehow managed to acquire a private bathroom and shower around the corner from his office.

Months prior, while he and his subordinates relocated and set up their forensics lab in the new building, he discovered the bathroom by accident. The fact that there was only one toilet and a 3x4 shower indicated, at least to him, that it was supposed to be for one person and one person only. He remembered that the original blueprints allowed for a captain to be on the floor, same floor as forensics and when that didn’t happen, the bathroom went unmarked and unclaimed.

At first, he only used it sparingly, figuring it could be his ace in the hole if the toilets in the bathroom on the other side of the floor were all at once occupied. After a while, it was as if the room was seducing him the way he imagined a sexy woman would. Don’t use the bathroom that everyone else is using. Use me. I’m always clean.

After a few weeks, he submitted paperwork to have a key lock put on the door. He knew that there was a chance he’d receive a scathing email asking him exactly who the hell did he think he was, but he also knew that sometimes with risk there comes reward. The requisition went unanswered and after a week he entered his office to find a shiny key sitting on his desk.

Pedro would visit the main bathroom during the day, if only to keep everyone else on the 34^th floor from discovering the truth. But at night, after the rest of the staff had gone, he’d take great pleasure in the fact that he had his own private shit, shower and shave room, to the point where he’d often be sitting on the commode writing emails with a laptop until his thighs were numb. He’d brought in bottles of his favorite liquid soaps and would often shower until his skin was dry enough to squeak if rubbed. He’d come to love the fact that the water pressure was, in fact, better than it was in his apartment.

After the recent trip to the subway tunnels, Pedro couldn’t wait to get back to it. Sure, he’d promised to search Lopez’s office, but it didn’t make sense to do it while covered in subway bile, now did it?

With his soiled clothes strewn across the blue bathroom tiles, he stood in the shower, running the water a tad hotter than most people could tolerate it. As the steam rose and slowly created a thin, opaque veil over the room he closed his eyes and pressed his hands against the tiled wall in front of him. He didn’t notice the door that he had locked behind him, slowly open and close.

The thing that had come in the room hovered quietly, waiting for him to finish rinsing off and turning off the faucets. It didn’t descend on Pedro until he had finished drying off and noticed the shadow being cast over him.

He came to minutes later. He could feel that he was sitting down naked and handcuffed to the warm toilet seat. His eyes felt as if they were open, but he couldn’t see anything. Blinking sent quick stabs of pain through his skull. Something hard and rubbery was inserted in each of his ears. His breathing quickened like any terrified man would.

“Hello Pedro,” Kendra said.

He recognized her voice from earlier. “Come the fuck on! I didn’t do anything to you!”

“Oh, but you did Pedro. You were disrespectful.”

“But you’re supposed to be a big crusader, or something! Look at me! I’m a Latino from New York who loves black people! I’m college educated. I give lectures. I’m a fucking role model! I’m not your type.” Pedro noticed that while Kendra sounded as if she were standing in his head, his own voice sounded muffled.

“Our business tonight is personal, Pedro. It has nothing to do with anything you think you know about me.”

“Okay! Look, I’m sorry! I was just trying to be brave because Max and Smitty were being brave. You don’t have to kill me!”

“I’m not going to kill you. But I need to teach you a lesson in fear. I need to teach you not to fuck with me.”

“Okay, point taken.”

“Not that easy.”

His vision returned with a sudden snap of electrical current, but instead of the far wall of the bathroom, he could only see what appeared to be a massive metal beam. Even more puzzling was the fact that he seemed to be looking through a pair of infrared goggles.

“What have you done to me?”

“I remodified one of my drones, which incidentally is what’s wrapped around your head. The pains you are feeling are from the needles that are inserted into the base of your skull. Don’t worry, you should be fine after this is all over. You’ll need some patching up, but nothing they can’t do for you in Urgent Care. I tested this before I did it to you.”

Pedro groaned. “You tested it?”

“Yes. On a stray dog and then a serial rapist that I captured and experimented on before I killed him. Ironically, I fed him to rats when I was done. What you’re seeing is the point of view of a rat not far from one of my labs. You can’t hear anything other than me talking, because New York subway rats down here are deaf. You would be too if you were their size and born to a world surrounded by giant train cars rattling by every fifteen minutes. As a man of science, I’m sure you already knew that.”

Pedro knew she respected intelligence. Maybe if I engage her a little, I’ll earn some leniency. “I did. There was an article in Wired a while back. It was written to give New York millennials an explanation on why the subway rats aren’t afraid of them.”

“Sounds like a good one. Anyway, consider what’s about to happen to you for the next six hours a slap on the wrist.”

“Yes. See, for the next six hours you are going to live the life of a subway rat. You are going to forage for food, avoid being crushed by trains and commune with other rats. If you survive the next six hours I will let you go.”

“Jesus! No, no, no. Please…”

“You’re also going to feel what the rat feels. That might be fun if the rat has sex with another rat, but a fight will surely sting as I’m sure there will be clawing and scratching. And there might be some fighting, since the rat you’re joined to is running around with a smaller, but similar device on its head that links your nervous systems to one another.”

The rat’s head moved. Hunger suddenly filled Pedro’s belly. “… don’t do this to me.”

“Incidentally, I sat you over the toilet just in case the rat relieves itself. Wouldn’t want you making a mess on yourself, or being found cleaning up your own excrement by your coworkers tomorrow. You’re likely to have suffered some bullying when you were a kid, so it’s my intention that your humiliation be a private matter between the two of us and not a public one. That is, unless for some bizarre reason you decide to go public with this when it’s all over. Ultimately, that’s on you.”

“Why do I need to be humiliated at all? Please no…” His eyes wanted to release tears, but couldn’t.

“Because I know for a fact that if I don’t break your spirit now, you will continue to push Max towards me and force me to do something to him that I don’t want to do. I know you’re afraid, but I need you to be afraid of me to the point where the mere mention of my name sends you into another room. I need you to understand that you cannot beat me, not now, not ever.”

The rat began climbing what Pedro now realized to be a metal rail. The smell of sulfur and garbage was stifling. He dimly wondered if he could control the rat’s movements, or was he just in for a long, hellish ride. “Not six hours! Please! I’ll go insane!”

“Maybe. I’m willing to risk that. But you’re right about one thing. You’re an intelligent man, so no, I am not killing you. And from my surveillance of all of you, I know Max would be devastated if he lost you.”

Pedro tried to close his eyes and realized he could see what the rat saw, whether his eyes were closed or not. “Please. I’m begging. I won’t ever investigate you again. Don’t do this.”

There was no answer. As the rat made its way through a dank puddle Pedro fought to keep his wits as he was thrust into a bleak universe that would test the limits of sanity and his very soul.

She couldn’t help but give him one last jab, before turning off her microphone. “I know after this, you will never say my name again.”

Pedro screamed long and loud, as the hopelessness of the situation washed over him. In the end, it really was a bad thing to have a private bathroom.