Nakamura-Noah Industries (often referred to as NaNo Industries in internal documentation) was a lesser known corporation in the public eye - one of the types that did most of its business with government contractors behind several dozen NDAs, or traded in research secrets in the circles of the top 1% of the 1% - but, they still needed to interact with the ‘regular’ world now and again - and their targeted algorithms made it rather trivial to find people willing to volunteer for scientific progress who wouldn’t easily be missed, should something go awry.
So - when Riley received the email, it was not from NaNo Industries - but rather a shell corporation called Frontier Medical Services. It was tailored with a large confidence interval to appeal to the target demographic - and so it did - Riley, a young man in his early twenties with little going on and a desire to do something worthwhile, had signed up in minutes.
Riley arrived at the spartan white waiting room at the location he was told to go to - a nondescript, unmarked building in downtown Chicago that looked a bit like a doctor's office, only without windows, a single door, and no signage anywhere on the exterior walls. Unsure if he had come to the right place, he looked around - a tall, blonde woman with a lab coat and a name badge reading, "Dr. Natalie Hines" greets him shortly after arrival. She smiles warmly, waving him inside the building. The doors clicked shut behind him as he stopped into a rather sparse and vacant lobby - lined with nothing more than a few chairs and a small table.
“You must be Riley!” The woman smiled warmly, extending a hand. He took it, and shook it firmly, appraising the woman in front of him. Her long blonde hair was pulled back smartly in a tight bun, a pair of simple-framed glasses sitting atop an aquiline nose that seemed to belie an air of command and confidence. She gave him a wide smile that didn’t quite seem to reach her eyes. “Welcome!” She continued. “You’ll have to excuse us - we’re still getting set up - zoning laws and all that sort - I’m quite glad you were able to find us alright!” She says, walking back towards an unmarked doorway near the rear of the spartan lobby. “If you’d just follow me back here, I can get you up to speed on everything!” She said, already walking briskly towards it.
“Ah - Oh, well - of course.” Riley replies, still a little taken aback by the situation - but Dr. Hines seemed to know what she was doing, at the very least. She pressed a keycard to a panel beside the doorway, and an automatic lock disengaged with a surprisingly heavy click. The doctor steps through briskly, taking it for granted that Riley was following - luckily, he was - the door shuts abruptly with an automatic servo, the lock whirring back into place. Given scant time to process the surprising amount of security, Riley has little choice but to follow the sharp clack of the heels on the tile.
She turns and beams a rather genuine smile at him. “Now- we don’t normally do things quite like this, but - how would you like to meet the patient you’re here to help today?” She asks.
“Well, I - I suppose that would be nice!” Riley says, smiling back - after all, this is why he came all this way! Doctor hines nodes enthusiastically, and leads him down a brightly lit hallway to the right. He follows her clacking steps to a small room that bears a strong resemblance to a children’s hospital ward. Sitting in the bed is a young girl, looking at a wall-mounted television in the corner of the room. The girl appears to be around 13 or 14 years old, and at the behest of doctor Hines, introduces herself as Ava. Her hair is light brown and wavy, her skin pale, freckled, and smooth. She meets Riley’s gaze shyly with a pair of bright hazel eyes, looking between him and Natalie. She is wearing simple clothing, consisting of a plain t-shirt with jeans and a pair of green hospital non-slip socks. One of her legs is slightly elevated on a wedge-shaped cushion. She gives the pair a shy wave. “Hi…” She says, softly.
“Hello there, Ava. I’m Riley!” Riley says with a friendly smile, sitting down near the bed.
"So, why are you here today, Ava?" Riley asks the young girl.
Ava replies quietly, glancing downwards briefly then back up towards Riley. "Well, uh - I can't really run right now." She says almost apologetically; her voice is soft, like that of a whisper, but her words are clear and understandable. "The doctors say there’s some sort of development or muscle problem in my right foot, so I have trouble when I'm trying to run fast." She looks down at her leg again. “I used to be the soccer captain for my school team.” She adds forlornly, disappointment creeping into her voice.
Riley simply listens for the moment, nodding along.
"It's kind of SUPER frustrating because I only want to play soccer, and if I can't then I won't be able to play with all of my friends anymore." She adds, pouting visibly. “And my mom took me to like 5 doctors and they said it’s genetic and they can’t do anything.”
Riley looks to Doctor Hines, who nods approvingly.
Ava continues speaking; "And then, they said-I mean, FMS said - that they could help make it go away completely - like magic!" She laughs nervously after saying this last bit, clearly excited by the prospect of being totally healed of her condition.
"What exactly did they tell you?" Riley inquires curiously. "Did they say how the treatment would work?” Riley probes, that feeling of mild unease at the back of his mind rising up again.
Ava sighs lightly before replying; "They didn't tell me anything," she says quietly. "All they ever told me was that they'd help and make it so I could run normally again. And my parents were really happy, too."
"Thank you, Riley." Dr. Hines steps in. "Do you want to help Ava?" She asks him pointedly.
Ava glances up at him, her eyes looking almost painfully heavy with worry that he might decline - and then she’d be stuck like this forever!
Riley glances between the two and answers hesitantly, "Of course - but- how exactly?"
"I love that inquisitive spirit! There are some formalities before I’m allowed to tell you more, though - if you’d follow me, I’m sure I can help answer any questions you have." Dr. Hines says, gesturing for him to follow her out of the waiting room and into a hallway that leads deeper into the building.
Barely keeping pace with the pointed stride of the woman, Riley rounded a corner to a small office. The buzz of fluorescent lights formed a backdrop to the sound of the chair rasping against the cheap carpet as Dr. Hines sat down behind a small desk facing an empty chair on the other side. She gestured for him to fill it, which he did - seemingly along for the ride, at least for the time being.
“We really are so glad to have you here, Riley. It’s people like you that allow us to help those who need it most, you know.” She says with the exact same smile she had given him at the entrance. “We just need to get some formalities out of the way, first.” She says, reaching behind herself towards a filing cabinet and yanking it open with a small grunt of exertion.
Riley blanches white as an almost comically thick packet is hoisted from the depths of the filing cabinet with a visible amount of effort on Doctor Hine’s face. She lets it fall onto the wooden surface of the desk with a soft slam, taking a moment to fix a stray curl of hair that had fallen across her forehead.
Riley looks on, incredulous. “That’s all just for me to sign?”
Doctor Hines waves a hand dismissively. “Hah, well - I know it certainly looks like quite a lot, doesn’t it?” She says, with a rather wooden laugh. “All this - NDAs, noncompetes, research disclosures, boiler-plate legal agreements, all that sort - you know how it is!” She slides it across the table along with a pen, looking at him expectantly.
Riley must have appeared nervous at the prospect - she cocks her head to one side. “Unless, of course - you’ve changed your mind about vastly improving Ava’s quality of life…?”
Riley stammers. “Well, no- that’s not it, of course - I just -”
“Wonderful! I’m very glad to hear that.” Doctor Hines says, flipping several dozen pages of the packet to one side, revealing two highlighted boxes. “Then, you’ll just initial right there, and there -” she trails off, expectantly.
A little shakily, Riley finds the pen in his hand marking along the indicated lines - the sight of Ava’s heartbroken gaze still fresh in his mind’s eye.
“Is it like - a muscle cell donor program, then -?” He inquires, but is cut off by the sharp turning of more pages.
“Ah, and - a signature here -”
“And one more, here, if you please -”
“And then just initial here -”
The pages flipped by so quickly, and the print was so fine - Riley scarcely had time to even make out what the text said. What he could read was so obtuse and filtered through legal language, it was almost Greek to him.
“And then here -”
“A thumbprint here, please- “
“One last set of 3 initials -”
“And a signature! There you are, wasn’t that easy?” Doctor Hines scoops up the packet and pulls out the drawer again, letting it thud into the bottom.
“Honestly, It’s all simply a formality - standard stuff in this line of work, you’ve absolutely nothing to worry about.” The blonde woman adjusts her glasses, smiling in a way that was clearly meant to be reassuring - and yet, Riley felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.
“So…” He said, nervously eyeing the room. “What exactly is the nature of this … experimental treatment?” He asks, as the woman stands up and grabs a clipboard, walking around to the doorway.
“Oh, it’s quite fascinating! Now, since this is a study, there are portions of it that are still quite confidential - even to subjects, you understand - so I can’t tell you everything you might want to know, but - rest assured, you’ll get quite the intimate understanding in no time. If you’ll follow me, I can explain further?” She says, already walking down the hall as if this were not a question at all.
Having no other real option aside from causing quite a scene - perhaps in earshot of Ava, Riley followed. He couldn’t help but shake a feeling of deep unease about this - but he told himself that helping someone else could never be a bad thing. The road to hell is often paved with good intentions.