#dr.salazar

The surgeries required for the correct functioning of the claws are still not optimal, and there have been some minor loses: subjects N8, P17, and V13 have sustained major spinal injuries and will be considered for Procedure 18F. After a productive meeting with Dr.Ripley, the supervisor of the surgeon team, better results have been promised. If he fails to deliver better products, he will be taken into questioning, for he has been reported twice before.

When testing the successful assets, a noticeable improvement has been observed. The most successful batch, comprised of L29, L30, M3, and O54, has shown a remarkable performance in the controlled field test. Their task was to hunt down a traitor, previously released into the nocturnal training grounds with nothing but a rifle. 

The assets were released fifteen minutes after their prey, wearing their jumpsuits, night vision gear, and their new augmentations. The hunt lasted for less than half an hour, and O54 was the only subject with major injuries. When the retrieval team reached the assets, they were covered in viscera, and little could be gathered from their prey. That which remained was fed to assets currently undergoing Procedure 20.

As of now, this procedure has had a perfect record, turning twenty-four assets into more prepared combatants. The only adverse effect of undergoing it has been social. Between assets, no issues have arisen, but civilians find these modifications weird and off-putting. In order to deal with this issue, a new budget has been approved for a Terminus Healthcare campaign focusing on facial modification. According to consumer data, the campaign should improve the normalisation rate of Procedure 14 by 36%, which would eventually lead to complete assimilation in the next five months.

It is not the first time a project like this has been proposed, but it is the first time that technology is advanced enough for it to be viable. Developments in bioengeneering, pioneered by Dr.Bakken and Dr.Kumar have allowed for the created resistance against most prion diseases, which has become the focus of this procedure.

For the purposes of further experimentation, a group of fifty Z-grade subjects was selected, from which five groups were derived. Four of them were given different formulas with mixtures of engineered antibodies and immune system boosters, while the last one was the control group, and received plain saline solution. 

After 72h, all subjects were locked in test chambers that would simulate a normal day-to-day training schedule, with the only difference that all meals presented to them would come from repurposed biomass.

The tests lasted two months, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. While the ten assets from the control group had to be disposed of, the treated subjects only had a fatality rate of 15%. Out of the survivors, 76% had no averse responses to their food, while 24% showed minor physical complications.

//SIGNAL 22034034 -- SALAZAR - METEOR-A1: ESTABLISHED

SALAZAR: This is a request for confirmation on the retrieval of Asset H3. Breakthrough protocol only allows for one message to be sent in either direction, so do not waste your words unless you confirm the retrieval of Asset H3.

METEOR-A1: Mission success. Rendezvous as estimated.

//SIGNAL 22034034 -- SALAZAR - METEOR-A1: TERMINATED

As of now, this procedure has been used to substitute targetting systems in ship-to-ship turrets with great success, but its use for more complex machinery has not yet been fully tested. For this purpose, a group of assets ranging from X to Z grades have been selected for the first trials.

"Once upon a time Argosy magazine asked me to go to the Nuevo Leon State Prison at Monterrey, Mexico, to interview an American under death sentence for killing three young people: [...] The prisoner was Dykes Askew Simmons, a former mental patient. When I sized him up I saw a white male, mid-30s, about 1.8m, 79kg, eyes grey and hazel. Distinguishing marks: a bad Z-plasty repairing a cleft lip, and small scars on his head. He had the eyes of a fierce turtle. These he covered most of the time with a pair of black sunglasses.[...] Simmons had tried to escape a year or so earlier, bribing a guard to leave a door unlocked and provide him with a pistol. Simmons handed over the money and approached the forbidden door, to find himself betrayed and the door still locked. The guard stuffed the money in his pants and shot Simmons. He lay bleeding heavily into the cracked dirt. He did not bleed out because a very skilled prison doctor saved him.

When I asked about Simmons' medical treatment, the warden unlocked the prison medical office and introduced me to the doctor. Dr Salazar was a small, lithe man with dark red hair. He stood very still and there was a certain elegance about him. He invited me to sit.

The furniture was spare. We sat on stools. A cabinet against the wall held labelled jars. There were few instruments. Needle and thread, a steriliser, bandage scissors with blunt tips and, curiously, a speculum - an instrument for examining body cavities. The doctor answered my questions about the gunshot wounds and how he staunched the bleeding. Dr Salazar made a steeple of his fingers beneath his chin and looked at me. -"Mr Harris, how did you feel when you looked at Simmons?" "I was trying to see if he fitted any eyewitness description of the killer." -"Did you allow yourself an impression beyond that?" "Not really." -"Was he responsive to your questions?" "Well, yes, but I couldn't tell much. He's got a pretty thick skin. He's got his answers down pat." -"Pat answers to the questions he expects. Was he wearing his sunglasses in the cell?" "Yes." -"Dim in there, isn't it?" "Yes." -"Why do you think he wore them?" "Maybe to hide a little bit." -"Would you say the sunglasses add an element of symmetry to his face? Improve his appearance?" "I didn't really think about it, Doctor. He looks like he's been beat up a lot, around his head."

Dr Salazar closed his eyes, perhaps seeking patience, and opened them again. Dr Salazar's eyes were maroon with grainy sparks like sunstones. -"Did he turn his face askance when he talked to you, about 10 degrees to his left?" "Maybe he looked away, people do that." -"Do you think Simmons is ugly? That's not a very good job on his lip, is it?" "No." -"Will you be seeing Simmons again, Mr Harris?" "I think so. They're going to let us take some pictures out in the compound with his car." -"Do you have sunglasses with you?" "Yes." -"May I suggest that when you question him, you do not wear them?" "Why?" -"Because he can see his reflection in them. Do you think that Simmons was tormented on the school playground because he was disfigured?" "Probably. It's customary." The doctor seemed amused. -"Yes. Customary. Have you seen pictures of the victims, the two young women and their little brother?" "Yes." -"Would you say they were attractive?" "They were. Nice-looking young people from a good family. Good manners, I'm told. You're not saying they provoked him?" -"Certainly not. But early torment makes torment easily ... imagined."

He looked up at me and his countenance changed, seemed to pop wider, like a moth flashing the owl face printed on its wings. "You are a journalist, Mr Harris. How would you put that in your journal? How do you treat the fear of torment in journalese? Might you say something snappy about torment, like: It puts the hell in hello!'?"

At this point a guard rapped on the door and stuck his head in. "Doctor, the patients are here." Dr Salazar rose. "You'll have to excuse me," he said. I thanked the doctor and invited him to call me if he were ever travelling in Texas - we'd have a drink, lunch, something. Looking back, I cannot recall any trace of irony in his reply: "Thank you, Mr Harris. Certainly I will, when next I travel."

 In the prison corridor outside his office, two guards and a nursing sister from a nearby convent waited with a small group of townspeople. There were men and women in pressed work clothes and huaraches [Mexican sandals], well-scrubbed for their doctor visit. They were patients from outside, people from the neighbourhood whom the doctor treated free. A warden walked me out. I thanked him for his time, and said I appreciated the doctor's help. I asked how long Dr Salazar had worked there. -"Hombre! You don't know who that is?" "No. We talked about Simmons."