Symptoms

In a subway room, several hundred feet below the surface, a young man was lying on a hospital gurney in a large open room. Around him were several machines monitoring his vital signs while some doctors and nurses performed various tasks exhaustively.

Above the room, there was a large transparent glass pane from which one could see what was going on inside the room, but the people inside the room could not see what was going on behind it. There, Leonard watched with an indifferent look at the doctors working, next to him, an old doctor with gray hair and a slightly curved back watched the young man lying down with great enthusiasm.

"Tell me Dr. Westorn, what are your findings?"

The professor didn't need to go through the data collected so far to explain every detail to Leonard. It was his life's work, and he had long been looking forward to this precise moment, so ignoring his back pain and the factor that his old age was evident, the doctor responded with a triumphant attitude.

"President, it is what we are always looking for. Based on previous records and the data collected this week we can say that our guesses are correct"

It had been a week since Leonard had adopted Arlan from the psychiatric clinic and he had yet to show signs of waking up. The somniferous Linda had given him was meant to knock him out instantly but had no long-term effect, so it was assumed he would wake up after a couple of hours.

Instead of worrying, however, the doctor became even more excited. After all, his deep sleep was also related to the case he was studying.

"According to the data recorded for 6 years since Arlan's arrival at the clinic in 2058 and the information provided by the clinic, we were able to fill in the existing gaps in the research"

Leonard did not interrupt the doctor and let him continue to explain enthusiastically.

"The first symptom recorded was anger. The patient showed signs of violence against his caregivers and other patients, but only when he was disturbed, or they did something that was not to his liking. The second symptom was greed, as Linda explained to me, his room was full of things, various objects we could say, which had no use for him but which he considered valuable, for that reason he stole them and kept them for himself."

The doctor paused for a few seconds to catch his breath after speaking so much and so fast before continuing.

"The third symptom was sleep. Right now, we can see it, even though he was supplied with a powerful sleeping pill he still does not wake up, however, this is due to the effect of the patient himself who has very long sleep cycles, at least much longer than a normal human"

Inside the room, the monitors showed movement in his brain activity. Seeing this, the doctor stopped his explanation and smiled.

"Apparently he's starting to wake up"

Leonard nodded and let the doctor continue explaining.

"The latest symptom recorded is lust, although it is the most recent. This is due to the patient's age as he only entered puberty a few years ago. According to the records he attempted to attack the nurses in order to...mate with them"

Leonard had already heard it from Dereck back at the clinic. Arlan wasn't acting like an ordinary teenager, as Dereck had said, he was acting on instinct. But there were things that didn't quite fit.

Why did Arlan have such long dream cycles, almost akin to hibernation? Or why did he have the need to steal so many useless things for himself?

Anger and lust could become understandable, but the other two aspects were out of the norm. However, that was different for the research that was taking place in this subway floor.

It was thanks to the supplement of those symptoms that Arlan was taken as the perfect test material.

"Summing it all up, how much would you say his compatibility is?" asked Leonard with some anticipation in his voice.

Dr. Westorn was thoughtful for a few seconds before answering.

"Don't you trust the data resulting from the blood test, results provided by a machine you designed and created yourself?"

Leonard scoffed at the doctor's words.

"Hmmm, of course I trust the things I create, but I trust the facts even more"

The doctor smiled wryly and answered the president's question.

"It's still early to answer, but if not 97% compatibility it's 96%, maybe it can even be higher. But it's still early to decide"

Leonard smiled showing his pearly white teeth as he looked at the young man who was about to wake up.

"That's over 20% more than the previous ones"

"Indeed" nodded the doctor, then turned to look at the young man and asked:

"How do we proceed? without anesthesia the results will be more accurate…"

Leonard shook his head at the doctor's suggestion.

"Even if I want answers more than anything, he's my son now. We want to study him, not torture him"

The doctor nodded without much trouble, he understood the president's point.

"Mr. President, may I ask you one last question?"

"Go ahead"

Dr. Westorn cleared his throat and asked somewhat nervously.

"Did you mention anything to your other children?"

Leonard was silent for a few seconds before answering.

"Only to the eldest, the others need not know. I hope you'll keep this a secret too Dr. Westorn."

The doctor really wasn't interested in Leonard's family problems, he just wanted to study the young man so keeping the secret wasn't much of a problem for him.

"Speaking about the devil..." whispered Leonard.

At the end of the hallway, an automatic sliding door opened and a beautiful woman with straight brown hair and a red dress clinging to her body appeared. The woman walked at a steady pace toward the two men and stopped in front of President Leonard.

"Would you like to explain to me what you are doing here, Father?"