CHAPTER 466: PATIENT 108-A

"Thomas." Andrew called, standing over the desk they had found in the second office. Andrew had been just poking around, with the officer keeping a close eye on him from the doorway. He clearly didn’t want Andrew to pocket any evidence, and Andrew didn’t want to either.

However, things had just gotten far more complicated than Andrew ever thought possible.

Thomas, who may or may not have been in the first office like Andrew had suggested, came in, tucking his phone into his pocket as he did so. He at first seemed interested in why Andrew had called him, until he caught the colour of Andrew’s face. As soon as he did, a concerned look filled his features. Thomas glanced at the officer before making his way towards the trembling giant.

"What is it, Andy?" Thomas asked, glancing around the room before he came to Andrew’s side. Andrew was pointing to some open files on the desk. Whoever it was had left in a hurry, as the file was flipped open. It had been stapled at the top left corner and it was creased several times over. Whatever file this was, it had been read many times over. That wasn’t what interested Andrew at the moment.

What interested Andrew was the names of the researchers working on this.

Tucked at the top underneath the date were two names. One Andrew had suspected he would find, the second? He had never known her last name, but the H before the last name was incredibly suspicious, at least in Andrew’s mind. He wasn’t sure if he was just making connections because he wanted to, or because he was right.

He hoped he was wrong on all accounts for his sanity, but he was leaning more towards that he was right for justice purposes.

Andrew hadn’t even had a chance to really look over what was being researched. He’d been reading the title casually, checking the date before his eyes snagged on the two researchers listed on the paper. His mind swirling just at the implications of what he was seeing.

"What am I looking at here, Andy?" Thomas asked. The man had to have read several research papers before, but he was giving Andrew a chance to explain himself. Andrew took a stabilizing breath, his body in shock. Thomas was clearly trying to ground him, and Andrew appreciated it. He also appreciated the careful, but firm hand on his arm. It was good to feel someone alive next to him right now.

"The names. That’s...that’s Dr. Williams, and that...that is the second person, I think. The Dr. Jacobs on this paper. The H before it makes me think so." Andrew told him softly, aware that the officer was listening in. He tried to keep it quiet while Thomas went as stiff as a board.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Thomas asked in a hushed voice. Andrew nodded. Andrew then looked over what was actually being researched. He felt sick to his stomach just knowing that both of them had been working on this project potentially. That did not bode well for anyone involved as far as he was concerned. While Tracey was insane, Heather was the one who liked to cause pain. He hoped, prayed that these didn’t involve test subjects.

Andrew knew in his gut that he was wrong, but he could hope.

Scanning over the document, seeing the terms that he was used to seeing in his job as a researcher helping out the alpha research department helped. That was because lots of what Andrew did was more clerical work then the actual research part. He had entered lots of files, charts, those kinds of things. Seeing the terms he knew from there made his heartrate decrease, only to sky rocket at a certain point when things began to click into place.

It was a log. A documentation of what they were working on.

Pheromones. They were working on pheromones. That shouldn’t surprise Andrew. That was why he was able to recognise a lot of the terms they were using. The alpha research department had been doing a lot of work on pheromone research when he was there. He was still part of their research even now. So, that made sense to Andrew. That was what they had been working on before Andrew had gotten involved.

What chilled him to the core was the callous way they were referring to their ’patients’ and how many there were. Andrew had thought that maybe they had a dozen or so people that they had experimented on. That was still a lot of people but small for a sample size when it came to a study. Andrew was wrong.

So, so wrong.

They’d had over 100 ’patients’. Over 100. The most recent log of a ’patient’ who was an unsuccessful case was patient 132. No name, just a damn number. That terrified Andrew, and took away the humanity of these people that they were testing on.

Suddenly the rooms that they had passed took on a completely different feeling. They had looked normal, but Andrew knew that atrocities had probably taken place inside of them. Andrew shivered as he continued to read the log.

There was a part that made Andrew’s blood chill as he kept looking over the file. While they were at patient 132, whoever was writing this log kept referencing a patient 108-A. This document was about a week old by the date at the top, but as far as Andrew could tell, there were no other ’patients’ listed with a dash. They spoke about this ’patient’ 108-A as their success, but how they were unable to do more tests on them due to ’unforeseen circumstances’ and then added a reference document to look back to.

Andrew was sure he was as pale as a ghost as he read that line. To someone else, that would mean nothing. Hell, A was the first letter of the alphabet. It could mean anything. Andrew could be wrong with his gut instinct. Andrew, however, didn’t think he was.

"Holy shit." Thomas whispered. His hand squeezed Andrew’s arm, letting the larger man that he was there with him, beside him. Andrew appreciated the reminder given how he had been about to spiral. That little squeeze was the difference between Andrew spreading out his pheromones in panic and not doing that.

Andrew hadn’t been aware that Thomas was reading over his shoulder, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. The man could understand these documents about as well as Andrew could, and he could clearly see that something fucked up and twisted was going on here.

Instead of giving an obvious response, Andrew just nodded. His hands were trembling as he continued to read the paper without flipping it over. He wasn’t even sure if he could flip it over without ripping the page.

They were going to need this, Andrew knew that. He also knew that there was no way he was going to be able to keep his origins to himself once this came out. They were going to try and track down 108-A. Andrew knew that. Especially when it became clear that everyone else was either dead, or unaware.

It was a distant memory, but he was pretty sure that he remembered Maxwell telling him that Tracey had done this to other people before. Andrew shuddered.

"What are we going to do?" Andrew asked Thomas softly and Thomas stared at the papers still. Neither one of them had picked it up. Thomas looked like he thought touching it would burn him. Andrew couldn’t exactly disagree. He certainly couldn’t bring himself to do so after he’d read the names attached to it.

"Whatever you want to do, Andy." Thomas told him, turning his face to him. When Andrew stared at him blankly, Thomas continued speaking. "You do realise that you wield enough power to suppress this right now, right? Without my help? No one would ever know that this room existed if you said you didn’t want it to happen." Thomas told him. Andrew wasn’t sure if he should be saying that with a police officer around. When Andrew glanced at the officer he found that the man was looking away for the first time since they’d gotten down here.

Maybe...he’d been briefed on this too by the head officer.

"That...that’s not right." Andrew told him and Thomas turned to him, his expression severe, but his eyes soft.

"That’s what I suspected you would say. Well, we have a couple of options then." Thomas said with a heavy sigh before he took his hand off of Andrew’s arm and put them on his hips. He looked around the room, his eyes critical now. "I won’t suggest the ones I think that you won’t go for, so that really only leaves us with one option done two ways. Co-operation with authorities either with anonymity, or without. Your choice, Andy, since you don’t want to sweep this under the rug." Thomas told him and Andrew didn’t know what to say.

He had gone down here to make sure that this wasn’t the lab where he’d been turned into a true alpha. That was what he originally had come down here for. He had not, even faintly, considered that he would find research papers on what had happened to him here. While he was certain that this wasn’t where he was taken when he’d been kidnapped, that didn’t mean that his place wasn’t linked to what had happened to him.

That first office grew even more suspicious now.

He honestly hadn’t expected to find documents potentially referring to him. The implications were...were insane, honestly. Andrew was having a hard time wrapping his head around this whole situation.

His mouth was dry, his hands shaky, and he was sure his voice shook slightly when he spoke next.

"I want to talk to Max first." Andrew said softly and watched as Thomas’ expression did soften. He reached out, squeezing Andrew’s shoulder this time. Andrew swallowed thickly at the other man’s touch.

"Of course. We don’t need to stay down here, do we? You want to take a photo so you don’t feel like you’re losing your mind?" Thomas asked and Andrew nodded to both. He glanced at the officer to see how he reacted to that comment but he did nothing.

Andrew let out a shaky breath. He felt like he wanted to cry. His head was pounding with all of the information he had there now, and with how much his thoughts were racing.

He wanted to get out of here. He hadn’t felt like the walls had been closing in before now. It had felt like a normal, if not strange, office space up until now. Now? It felt like a prison.