Dinner was chicken cacciatore, delivered from the kitchen. The chef's work was flawless and the wine was tastefully elderly. Sarah Amos and Jill the Ferret dined amidst the sound of muffled footsteps moving through the hallway, occasionally glancing at each other's untucked shirts and mussed hair.
"I run a department at ADI and I'm here on vacation, but what's your story? How did you get involved with us?"
"Simple. Ahriman advertised a job opening for an athletic individual, aged twenty to thirty years, willing to take experimental drugs while working for a military contractor. It was all 'must endure high-stress environments' this and 'potential deployment' that, but the pay was great and I signed on. At that time, I was given an option: join the GELF converts who still looked human, or join Operation LUCKYFUR and undergo a long painful fever as my skin and bones reconfigured to a more zoomorphic state. Either way, my pain response would be decreased and I wouldn't be as afraid of anything anymore. They said I'd be a totally different person if I went through with either treatment, so, naturally, I figured I'd be a freaky werewolf. Why not?"
"But you became a mustelid instead. Somebody else got the canine DNA. I saw him walk out of the Schoolhouse behind you."
"Freaky enough. I mean, this is government work we're talking about, so I'm probably lucky not to have become a copyrighted cartoon character or a bucket full of viscous goo or something. They told me before I joined that part of the reason for LUCKYFUR was to gather data that might help them correct occasional deformities or death among the zoomorphic test subjects."
Sarah had, recently, been considering the actions and corporate culture of Ahriman Defense Incorporated. In the past, she'd always convinced herself that no one except the bad guys was really getting hurt; that ADI was merely a little more cutthroat about its mergers and a little more efficient at providing effective military subcontracting than its competitors. Certainly there was no cause for concern?
What she had learned of its unqualified success in making remorseless soldiers, and of Operation LUCKYFUR, however, had given her pause. Yes, the test subjects had gone into this with their eyes open, but what right did ADI have to surgically remove even a consenting adult's conscience? To render her permanently unable to rejoin normal human society? How would disaster be averted if an army of such soldiers was given a terrible order? Such questions loomed like grim angels in the dark corners of her mind.
She was a shrewd business professional working for a shrewd corporation, but ADI had begun to seem to her to be a margin too shrewd. Decisive action was needed. This entire facility must be put to an end.
"Jill, did you ever have second thoughts?"
"Did I ever! After I was altered, I felt different than before, like I was a different person. Then they started briefing us on all this serious stuff, like how to use biological weapons without accidentally killing yourself. I began to wonder if I had done the right thing. But there's nowhere I can go safely, and I'm worried they might assassinate deserters. Besides, part of me is convinced that my life here really isn't that bad and that I should stay and try to make the best of it."
"I'm on vacation for two weeks. I know I can trust the babysitter, so I can stay here. Let's talk about this."
****
Jill stood five feet one inch tall, nearly half a foot shorter than Sarah. She was diminutive, which made her breasts seem disproportionately large and put her at a disadvantage on the tennis court. The score was two-love. Jill was great at tennis.
