Free Predator One by Jonathan Maberry Page B

cluster around the nearly naked corpse of a man.
    One of the men barked out a command in American English.
    “Jam the signal!”
    The presidentsaid, “What the hell is this?”

 
    Chapter Thirteen
    Brentwood Bay Resort and Spa
    849 Verdier Avenue
    Victoria, British Columbia
    October 13, 8:16 A.M.
    The oncologist had the kind of face that always seemed to be in pain. His expressions shifted from one version of a wince to another. Even his smiles looked pained, though he rarely smiled. It seemed to be a trick of a perverse god or one of life’s little ironies that the doctor’sname was Merriman.
    Emerging from the big private suite’s master bedroom, he closed the door quietly and was ushered onto a balcony by the patient’s personal physician, Doctor Michael Pharos. It was an unseasonably warm morning, and the balcony faced the sun. A silent maid poured tea for Merriman and coffee for Pharos, then retreated inside and pulled the balcony doors shut. Birds sang in thetrees, and the sunlight glittered on the countless wavelets on the waters of the Saanich Inlet. Down at the dock, a cluster of expensive boats rocked gently against their fenders.
    “You can speak frankly, doctor,” said Pharos, getting right to it. He was a very direct man most of the time. Less so in the presence of his last remaining employer, the sick man in the master bedroom. “I suspect you’llhave few surprises for us.”
    Merriman sipped his tea and nodded as he set the cup down. “The results from the needle biopsy bear out what we expected to find, I’m afraid. We found a malignant neoplastic growth and—”
    “So, it’s bone cancer.”
    Merriman nodded. “Yes.”
    “Has it metastasized?”
    The oncologist sighed. “Yes.”
    “Ah,” said Pharos. He placed two cubes of raw sugar into his cup and stirredthoughtfully with a tiny silver spoon. “He has been in a great deal of pain. This explains it.”
    “Sadly, yes. The invasion of bone by cancer is the most common source of cancer pain. Tumors in the marrow instigate a kind of vigorous immune response that enhances pain sensitivity. As the cancer continues to spread, the tumors compress, consume, infiltrate, or cut off blood supply to body tissues,which is what causes the pain.”
    “Yes,” said Pharos. “I am aware of the process.”
    They sat for a moment, letting it all sink in. Merriman finally sighed and shook his head.
    “May I speak frankly, doctor to doctor?”
    “Please do.”
    “Patients and those who care about them so often rail against the unfairness of it all. They react as if humans were meant to last, forgetting that we are already outlivingwhat evolution intended. Medical science is extending life beyond what is natural. As a result, we have new kinds of protracted illnesses and new degrees of suffering. Even as little as a hundred years ago, most people over seventy-five would have passed. Most of us simply do not have the tenacity, the constitution, or the will to live in the face of catastrophic injury or debilitating illness.”

    Pharos nodded.
    “And then we have cases like this one,” said Merriman, nodding toward the house, where the dying man slept. “Here is a man who received injuries that should have killed him. An explosion like that, with the accompanying forced amputations and comprehensive burns. The pain. The constant infections. The damage to organs, the progressive deterioration. And now the cancer?” He shookhis head again. “Any of these things would have killed most people, and yet he not only holds on, he fights back with more…”
    He fished for a word.
    “Determination?” suggested Pharos.
    But Merriman shook his head. “Many people are determined to live. I’m not even sure he wants to. He knows that he has no real future, no chance of recovery. And no quality of life if he somehow were to go into remission.”

    “Then what, doctor?”
    Merriman turned and gazed toward the closed door. “I believe that the driving force,