Free Predominance by H. I. Defaz

please,” I corrected her with a smile. I honestly wasn't trying to flirt, but I guess she took it that way, because she responded to me with a very coquettish lopsided smile, which Dr. Walker caught sight of.
    “Thank you, Amy,” he acknowledged with a suppressed smile of his own, and turned back to me. “Victor? If you please…” He signaled me to follow him again.
    “Of course!” I turned back again to say goodbye. “See you, Amy.”
    She smiled.
     
    I followed Dr. Walker to the elevators, where he entered a code into the touchscreen panel to activate the lift. I tried to peek, but he made sure I couldn't see it. Once aboard, he pressed the number 2 among an array of buttons that didn't match the structure of the building, which seemed weird. Ten buttons didn't make sense for a three-story building, unless they had an underground parking garage I didn't know about. Anyway, once on the second floor, we emerged into a long, red-carpeted corridor with four doors along either side. Dr. Walker walked me to the one farthest from the elevator and opened the door. “I hope you find it comfortable,” he said, smiling.
    My jaw dropped when I walked into the room. Not only it was as elegant as the rest of the mansion, but it had all the amenities you'd find in a five-star hotel. Furthermore, my window faced the football field-sized meadow that I'd seen when we first pulled in. I was awestruck, but I tried to play it cool by joking around. “Are you sure I'm in the right place? Because I didn't sign up for a vacation.”
    Dr. Walker smile was unreadable. “Just try to get some rest, Victor. We have a long journey ahead of us.” He turned around, closing the door.
    “Wait!” I snapped. “I was hoping we could talk about the procedure and how…”
    “I'll be giving a presentation this evening in the main hall,” he interrupted. “You're more than welcome to join the others, and present all the questions that you may have.”
    “Others?”
    The same unreadable smile lit the doctor's face as he spoke. “You're not as alone as you think you are, Victor.” He paused. “Get some rest. I'll see you at six.” He smiled again and closed the door behind him.
     
    ***
     
    Unpacking, a quick shower, and a change of clothes were enough to make the afternoon fly by. I looked outside my window, and I saw that the bright green meadow was now covered by the shroud of the night—which startled me for a moment, because I thought that I'd missed the presentation. But after a quick glance at the digital clock on my nightstand, I realized that it was only five-thirty-five in the afternoon. Becoming conscious of this reality made me laugh at myself, because the sunset wasn't off—I was! My internal clock was all out of whack now, and it was going to take some time to adjust to this new environment. 
    After a few more minutes, I decided to head down to the lobby. I climbed on the elevator and found that only two buttons would function: 1 and 2. A clearance code was required to access any other level. So I pressed 1—no other choice, really.
    I walked to the reception desk, where an older lady had relieved Amy, and asked her about the presentation. She pointed me in the direction of a small chamber adjacent to the main hall—apparently it had been specially prepared for tonight's presentation. When I entered this room I encountered five other people, three men and two young women, seated around an oval conference table. They obviously had no idea why we were there; their expressions showed nothing but curiosity—a familiar feeling, I must admit. I took the last empty chair and sat down. A nervous nod and a tight smile seemed to be the common greeting around the table...or at least, that's all I got. I returned their greetings the same way.
    After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Dr. Walker made his entrance through a door no one knew was there; one of the girls started when he entered the room next to her. “Well…”