Dancer in the waves, p.5
Dancer In The Waves, page 5
It had been sixty-four hours since Alice had entered the Tube. When the conversion went over twenty-four hours, Daniel was surprised, but Bruno was already expecting it. The next day, he was convinced she was going to be an alpha. He was already dreading all the quarrels they were going to get themselves into, their stubbornness amplified by the change.
When forty-eight hours had passed, both he and Daniel were extremely surprised. They were exhausted, each only having taken small naps during the night, and both jumped when the console gave a few dings and showed something on a screen that surprised Daniel.
“Deeper alterations on the brain,” he had said, sounding dumbfounded. “It’s requesting for absolute stillness while the process is ongoing. No moving the machine, no interruption of the process, no vibrations near the machine… Geez, this list is huge.”
“Has this happened before?” Bruno asked, worried. Lisbon was an earthquake city. How were they going to keep the machine still if the ground began shaking?
“There is a warning when an alpha transformation starts, but not as strict.” Daniel looked at Bruno, the same concern showing in his eyes. “It’s the first time I’m seeing this.”
When they reached the fifty-two-hour mark, the phone calls started.
The first ones were for Daniel. Other doctors, asking if the timing of the transformation was correct. If he had done something to cause the extended time. If he could share the patient’s medical file (they got a hard no on that one), and most of all, if they could confirm the gender of the patient. Was she really female?
The Tube was updating information to Alice’s medical file while it processed her transformation, but apparently it was also uploading information to a private medical network, something Daniel conveniently forgot to warn Bruno about.
Bruno knew that beta doctors weren’t one-hundred-percent obedient to alphas, but he thought it was only when it came to saving people’s lives, not for keeping secret doctor networks under wraps.
Then he started getting phone calls too. Phone calls from other alphas, asking for more information about Alice. Not about the unusually long conversion happening in his territory, but about Alice.
How the fuck did they know her name?
Daniel had been particularly taken aback by those calls. He swore the network was secure, that only generic information was uploaded to keep the patients’ privacy—certainly not names and phone numbers. It was important for doctors to help each other, he tried to reason, to help increase successful transitions.
Bruno demanded the machine be put offline, to stop sharing information with others. Daniel winced at his alpha command and apologized. It was impossible without turning the whole machine off, and that would hurt Alice.
Another call came, this time asking for photos of her. An alpha with a nasal voice gave Bruno a clear command to send both photos and information about Alice. A command to him, from another alpha! That was when Bruno realized he had been extremely naive. He had expected everyone to follow the rules. He had expected privacy and security from the system that had been put in place. He told the guy to fuck off, and turned off his phone after that.
Then, when the conversion hit the fifty-seven-hour mark, the phone calls died down.
They were both just as surprised at that as they were when the calls started in the first place, considering the number had been increasing by the hour, sometimes the same callers trying over and over. Then Daniel got a phone call from another doctor, someone called Sarah Hall calling from the United States, but she said she had important information to share and requested to be put on speakerphone so Bruno could listen as well.
“I understand that she is now on the fifty-seven-hour mark?” An elegant voice rose from the phone.
“Yes,” Daniel replied. “Still no signs of wrapping up.”
“I see. The longest omega conversion thus far has taken sixty-four hours, so we could either be a couple of hours away from completion, or setting a new record.” The woman’s voice was friendly but professional.
“Sixty-four hours?” Daniel was stunned at that revelation. “Why isn’t this information on the network? How can doctors be prepared for this if we are kept in the dark?”,
“I understand your concern,” Sarah said kindly, “but this is for the omegas’ protection. As you probably noticed, there is too much information available about them already. Too many alphas who are aware of the dynamic’s particulars.”
“And what are those particulars?” Bruno asked.
“Omegas are…” The woman took a deep breath, as if unsure how to answer that question. “Unique? I’m not quite sure how to describe them. They have a great sense of empathy, an unusual instinct about other people. The omega I helped convert can easily tell if someone is lying to her,” Sarah kept her tone light, even laughing a bit when mentioning her omega.
“Alice already has a lot of empathy,” Bruno replied. “I don’t see how she can get even more empathetic.”
The woman laughed. “You’ll see. You can also expect people’s reactions to her to change.”
“Change how?” Both men asked.
“Omegas usually bring out the best in people. The empathy they feel spreads around them, and has a soothing effect. Both betas and unchanged humans feel very comfortable in their presence.”
“And alphas?” he asked, dreading the reply.
The woman paused for a few seconds before responding. “Alphas tend to be very sexually attracted to them—”
“Excuse me?” Bruno interrupted her.
“Well, so do betas,” she continued, ignoring him. “But alphas are more aggressive about it. There is still much to learn about this, and we have little information so far. But you will be invited to a more secure network of information, Dr. Infante, exclusive for the omegas’ doctors.”
As if on cue, Daniel’s laptop lit up with a private-message warning. Daniel appeared as if he didn’t know if he should be happy or angry.
“One thing we have noticed quite clearly,” Sarah continued, “is that those who are in the omegas’ social circles, like friends and family, tend to feel extremely protective and possessive of them.”
“Tell me more about the alphas. Why is it that I had so many calls about Alice?” Bruno asked, still shaken by the attempted commands from the other alphas to get more info on his wife.
“As I said, alphas have a strong reaction to omegas. Those who have been around an omega before may be determined to get one of their own. You will receive a phone call with more information soon, so I suggest you turn your phone back on.”
That wasn’t an answer at all, he fumed.
“How many others are there?” Daniel asked while checking his laptop. “How many other omegas?”
“Alice would be the fifth omega so far.”
“Fifth in Portugal?” Bruno asked.
“Fifth in Europe?” Daniel asked at the same time.
The phone was silent for a moment.
“Fifth in the world, gentlemen.”
Bruno’s heart skipped a beat. Both men went silent at that revelation.
“I see that now you understand the importance of this conversion. I will stay in contact until it’s completed, and talk to you privately, Dr. Infante.”
She disconnected the call without a goodbye. Probably because she continued to call Daniel every hour after that.
Bruno turned his mobile phone back on, and found that all calls and messages had been deleted. Shit! He wanted to track some of them, and find out who the alphas were who had been trying to give him orders.
He was still cursing at his phone when he received a call from an unknown number. He took the call in the main office to avoid disturbing Daniel.
“If you ask for photos of my wife, I swear to God that I will find you and rip your eyes out!”
No one replied for at least two seconds.
“I see you had the pleasure of talking with the other alphas interested in your wife,” a rough male voice finally replied with a laugh. He was speaking English, but he had a heavy accent that Bruno couldn’t place.
“Who are you, and what do you want?”
“My name is Matts Hansen. I am currently the lead in charge of all the omegas’ security. I believe Dr. Sarah Hall mentioned I would be calling you, Bruno. May I call you Bruno? This will be much easier if we skip the formalities. Less head-butting, so to speak.” The man sounded very friendly, but Bruno recognized an alpha’s voice, a stronger alpha than him. If the doctor hadn’t given him a warning, he would have ended the call right there.
“Sure…” he replied slowly. He would go down the rabbit hole and see where it would lead.
“Good.” Matts’s friendly voice changed to a down-to-business tone. “First thing I would like to do is to remove all photos of your wife from all social media, and from all devices that may be connected online, along with personal info and medical records. If you give me your permission, I will take care of that right away.”
Bruno was taken aback. He could do that? “Sure.” he replied uncertainly.
“Good! Second, I would like for you to get your wife’s mobile phone and destroy its SIM card. If her number is leaked online, the SIM card can be used to track her.”
“What? She… she hasn’t even left the Tube yet. How could they—”
“I understand your concern, but she is the fifth omega to be discovered. Some alphas have had four omegas’ worth of stalking practice already.”
“Stalking? Shit!”
Bruno slumped into a chair and rubbed his face with his free hand. He thought he had been so careful with his manipulation of the list. He thought he had been so smart outmaneuvering one guy. He was not prepared for this.
“Don’t worry, it gets worse,” Matts joked. “You will have to move to a new house as soon as possible. Somewhere secure, where you can control who comes and goes.”
“Do you think I have spare houses lying around I can easily switch to?”
Matts laughed as if he had made a joke.
“If you’d like, I can find a suitable place and reserve it for you. You don’t have to worry about payment. Everything will be arranged.”
“So, you have spare houses lying around?”
Matts laughed again, as if they were two friends bantering. “I’m going to send you a list of instructions that should be followed, for her safety. There are instructions for her family and friends also.”
“Is she in the witness protection program now? Are we to change our identities and hide in the countryside?”
The man laughed again, and Bruno heard him inhale on a cigarette. “Quite the contrary. You are going to receive a promotion, and with it, the power needed to protect your wife.”
Bruno froze at that. He couldn’t go much higher now. He had already replaced part of the government, along with four other alphas.
“What do you mean, a promotion?”
He felt the smugness on the other side of the line, a strong satisfaction from the alpha in surprising Bruno.
“You’ll get more information about that soon enough.”
There was a pause while Bruno processed what the man said.
“If you are feeling uncomfortable with any of this, or if you don’t want the responsibility of protecting your omega, arrangements can be made to relieve you of her.”
“Fuck you!”
“That’s what I like to hear. I knew we would understand each other.”
“Any more instructions from your side, or can I return to my wife?” He put an emphasis on wife. She was not his omega; she was her own person.
“Don’t forget about her SIM card. I will take care of everything else from here. Best of luck with the conversion, Bruno.”
“Thank you, Matts. Not sure if I can say it’s been a pleasure to meet you.”
The man laughed again. “I’m sure you’ll be thanking me soon enough.” And he hung up.
That had been hours ago, and Alice was still in the damn machine.
“Sarah just wanted to congratulate me on breaking the conversion-time record.” Daniel entered the room and sat down heavily in his chair, looking annoyed. “As if watching over someone else’s conversion is a great achievement.”
Bruno put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’re doing your best to make sure this goes well. That is a great achievement to me.”
Daniel smiled at him, and went back to watching over Alice’s vitals.
“I didn’t expect this circus, you know?” Bruno said, defeated.
Daniel turned to him with curiosity.
“I knew she was special, but isn’t that what every man thinks of the woman he loves?”
“It is,” Daniel told him gently. “But not every man is right.”
6
Waking Up to a New World
Alice
They are gone…
Alice passed her hand over the smooth skin of her abdomen. No traces of a scar left. She twisted around to check the changes in her back. She was naked in the little room where she had first left her clothes, inspecting herself in the mirror. The spider veins in her legs were gone, and the mole she’d had on her calf was also gone, but she still had some familiar sunspots. Good. She didn’t know how she would feel if her skin turned into a blank page. She pinched the skin on her left arm but didn’t feel any pain. The numbing agent that the machine administered to help with the process hadn’t cleared yet. Daniel had warned her that when the anesthetic faded, she was going to feel extremely hungry and exhausted. Right now, both her mind and her body were muted.
Bruno entered the small room, holding a bag.
“Asked Marina to bring you some clothes. We didn’t expect the—wow, look at you!”
Her husband dropped the bag on the floor and rushed to her side, embracing her.
“Shoo! I need a bath. You’re gonna get all smelly.”
“I don’t care.” He kissed the top of her head, and rocked her in his arms. “I missed you so much, meu amor.”
Something in his voice told her he was still upset about what had happened while she was knocked out.
“I’m sorry it took so long.” She looked him in the eyes through the mirror.
“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault.” He caressed her cheek.
“I still don’t understand what all of this means.”
He didn’t reply, and just bent down and hugged her closer, rubbing his cheek on her neck and caressing her shoulder with his lips.
She had been in that awful machine for seventy-one hours, they said, and changed into something other than a beta or an alpha. She was still half asleep when they opened the Tube, but the look of concern on their faces when they helped her up had made her worry she had turned into something from a horror movie.
She was happy to see she hadn’t turned into a half-human, half-fly monstrosity, but the way they treated her told her something wasn’t right.
And when Bruno explained what happened, she felt shock pass through whatever medication had dulled her senses.
After taking her out of the Tube and giving her half an hour to recover, Daniel had asked Bruno to leave the office so he could run some tests on her—something that would be difficult to do with an overbearing alpha looking over his shoulder. Bruno had stood his ground, irritated with Daniel and refusing to leave, but when Alice politely asked him for the space, his shoulders had dropped and he’d left the room.
Both she and Daniel were surprised at that. Bruno hadn’t followed directions by anyone other than a stronger alpha since his own transformation.
Daniel instructed her to put her arm in the blood machine again, and took another sample. He tested her reflexes and her eyesight, checked her lungs and her blood pressure.
“Are you going to put me on a giant wheel and make me run, too?” she asked after he looked down her throat.
Daniel laughed, then surprised her by calling another doctor, Dr. Sarah Hall, and putting her on speaker phone.
“Congratulations on having the longest conversion time so far,” the woman said politely.
“Doesn’t feel like something worth celebrating.” Alice was still numb, but could smell everything more acutely. Her own smell, a mix of sweat, grime, and hospital disinfectant, was very unpleasant.
“I can assure you it is,” Dr. Hall said. “How do you feel?”
“The same, I think… just smellier.”
Both doctors laughed.
“All tests are normal except for her iron levels, which are unusually low.” Daniel had his laptop on his desk, next to his computer. Alice wondered why he was using the smaller laptop instead of the bigger computer.
“That has happened before. The values should correct themselves, but we should set up a test date in around two weeks.”
Alice let out an involuntary whine. More tests? She’d had enough of hospitals to last her a lifetime.
“Alice doesn’t like needles,” Daniel offered to the other doctor.
“Understandable,” Sarah replied in a gentle tone. “I have someone here who would really like to talk to you, Alice. Another omega.”
“Really?” She would love to talk with another omega. Maybe they could explain what on earth an omega was.
“Hey, there!” A cute, cheerful voice filled the room. “Welcome to the club, sister.”
Alice hesitated. She didn’t think she ever heard such cheerfulness coming from a speaker before.
“I’m Zoey, the second omega to pop up. I bet you have a ton of questions about this whole omega thing, right?”
“Yes! How many of us are there? Daniel said I was an exception, but I have no idea what that means. And what is an omega anyway? How are we different? What are we supposed to do? And my husband reacted in a really weird way when I asked him to leave. Is that normal? Did I do something wrong?”
“Whoa, girl, hold your horses! One question at a time. Let me see…” She paused. “You are the fifth omega to pop up. I was the second one, Kasumi was the third, and Saanvi was the fourth,” Zoey eventually replied with enthusiasm.
