#31:Dirty Doctor

..............................................................................................................................................

******

Dr. Brad Shaker was a rookie M.D. He had a brand new certificate hanging on the wall in his office. He’d recently finished all the requirements, the tedious residency and all the other nonsense that was required to be a practicing MD. Now he was one and he intended to get a BIG return on his investment, even if he was, temporarily, working for the Military at Sam Snead . There was a little matter of paying the government back for his training. He was obligated to be a military doctor for a few years, or some such. He’d tried to dodge that requirement but oddly enough the military had been serious.

Screw the military. He’d find a way. Brad was sitting at a table in a fine restaurant. The salesman across from him had payed for a VERY expensive meal just for the opportunity to present his sales pitch.

“We’re very excited about this new drug.” the salesman said “We’ve spent over a Billion dollars (US$) developing it. It’s been successful beyond our wildest dreams. The FDA is just aching to approve it as soon as it has a few more human trials.... (yadda...yadda...yadda)”

Brad tuned him out. He’d heard it all before. This wasn’t his first rodeo. But hey... he got a free meal just for listening...or pretending to listen. Was that a win or what?

“The military has a history .......Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment ....Atomic Veterans.....Agent Orange....Gulf war Syndrome....a great deal of precedent....common practice.....”

The salesman droned on. He had a point. It wasn’t like the military didn’t have a history of using soldiers for guinea pigs..

It wasn’t like any of the old derelicts would ever get better either. Some of them had been warehoused in Bldg. 19 for years. Most had no next of kin listed. If by some great misfortune the drug didn’t work as advertised and a regrettable incident were to happen...who would care? There were no relatives who would sue. In fact if they didn’t survive then Brad would actually be saving the government some money. It had to be expensive to maintain all those doddering old cripples....

.....public service actually.... really his duty to do so...

....the salesman continued to blather...

Brad had a numbered account in the Cayman Islands. No need to bother the IRS with such things...kickback was SUCH a nasty word...but...

Neither Brad nor the salesman noticed the tiny spider that was under the collar of Brad’s shirt. It was such a tiny thing...barely visible even when it was in the open...with a zombie-mite sensory tap in what served it for a brain.

Shelby’s Daemon was listening.

---

The Next Episode is
#32:Took A Patient Away
The Previous Episode was
#30: Job Interview
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

---

I'm

@everittdmickey
.
I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
I have books on Amazon too.
Sometimes I also comment on the news

Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.