He shook his head and tried to banish the memories. He’d started flashing back to this place when they’d rescued Manny. But the memories had kept coming, even once the violence had subsided–

“Please Roland!” the old woman begged through blood-stained teeth. He looked down at the hole in her gut, the red blood on her white lab coat. She slid backward on the tile floor until her shoulders hit one of the racks of vat-grown organs.

“Please don’t do this!”

Roland shook his head. He didn’t know why this was happening exactly. It was likely just a glitch, some unforeseen interaction between the wetware of his hindbrain, the procedural memories stored in his DNA, and the battle drugs that flowed through his system. He questioned, again, whether he really wanted his memories back.

This wasn’t the time to ponder that question though. Roland headed back upstairs to grab Manny and Sasha. He led them down to the garage and handed Manny the un-bloodied uniform.

“Dude, that’s really obvious.” Manny pointed to the bloodstains on Roland’s own uniform. “They’re going to notice that.”

“You think so?” Roland was so used to normal humans not noticing much of anything, he sometimes underestimated their senses.

“I’ve got an idea!” Sasha said. “Pop the hood.”

Roland and Manny were both a little surprised. But he popped it for her. The girl stared at the engine, reached for the dip stick and pulled it free from its slot. She rubbed her hand down the shaft and it came away covered in sticky black grease. She rubbed the grease into Roland’s collar, coated the dip stick again and repeated the process two more times. When she was done, he looked like he’d been working on an engine rather than beating a man half to death.

“Fucking brilliant,” Roland said.

Manny nodded his agreement. Then he said, “Alright, let’s go abduct a doctor.”

The abduction itself was easy. Dr. Brandt lived in an undamaged mansion about two miles away from downtown. As one of the Kingdom’s few medical professionals, Dr. Brandt had apparently earned himself some luxury. Sasha hid in the trunk so the doctor wouldn’t notice anything was off until he entered the vehicle.

“Where’s Jerry, and Samuel?” Dr. Brandt asked as he opened the door and sat down inside the jeep.

Manny gunned the engine and peeled away. Roland put a hand on Dr. Brandt’s thigh and squeezed just hard enough for the man to feel like his thigh bone might shatter.

“I stuffed them into a closet somewhere,” he explained with a smile.

“My name is Manny,” the fixer said. “The guy who’s about to break your leg is named Roland. We’re kidnapping you.”

“Ah,” said Dr. Brandt. Roland had to give credit where credit was due. The doctor endured the pain with a stony face, and without any signs of panic.