The Slime Drawing.

“Come on Vince, be good. I just need to take a sample of your fluids.”

“I want to suck your blood,” Vince is piercing Kuhn with his non-winking irksome eyes.

“Cut this out! Come on, be a good sport and when we are done, I’ll get you your treat. You’ll be a good boy. Aren’t you, Vince, buddy?”

“Your treat,” Vince says distorting his voice and mocking Kuhn. “Your artificial blood tastes like shit!”

“Vince you know we’re working on it. A part of our research is to improve the taste.”

“Promises, promises,” Vince says it with the tone of the insulted chastity. “… and stop your idiotic habit of using your dog clicker. You’ll turn yourself into a Pavlov’s dog.” Vince turns away from the window.

“Vince!” Kuhn looks at his watch losing his patience. “Do you think I actually enjoy talking to you? Just let me do my job! Give me your hand, buddy. The other boys were good sports.” He turns his head to two other vampires in the cage. “Look at Loran and Valdemar. They didn’t give me any problems at all.” Loran blows Kuhn a charming kiss and does the licking movement with her tongue while Valdemar crosses his hands on his chest like a Spanish grand. “Come on, Vince, don’t be such a prima donna! Ok, there we go. There we go.” Kuhn grabs the vampire’s hand that Vince stretches through the guard sleeve in the narrow opening in the protective plastic.

“You see, that didn’t hurt,” mumbles Kuhn, inserting a syringe deep into Vince’s hand and pulling the plunger.

“Oh, shut up, you friken nerd!” barks Vince grabbing the bottle with the artificial blood called among vampires “the blooder”, emptying its content in his mouth and then spitting on the floor.

In the lab, Kuhn wipes his bolding forehead: “Couple more years, and when I am out of this shithole, I am going fishing.” his face takes a dreamy expression.

Kuhn trots to the table with a microscope, sits down, takes a drop of greenish slimy liquid from a test tube, and placed it under an electronic microscope.

“Wow”, he matters to himself, “I’ll be damned. I’ve got to tell this to Sibelius.“

He trots back to his desk and starts typing an email. Then he looks at his calendar. “Damn,” he slams himself lightly on the forehead. “I’ve got to interview a new lab technician. Forgot all about it. You’re getting old, buddy, getting old.”

The interview

Kuhn sits at a table in an interview room and looks through the resume. His eyebrows rise and fall, his face approaches to and moves away from the resume, and his lips quiver following his internal monologue.

Adam Storsky - a young man in his mid-twenties, dressed for an interview and well-groomed, sits on the other side of the table and watches over Kuhn displaying on his face great attention and a readiness to answer any question.

“I see you have some blood drawing experience.”

“Yes, sir. In a blood reserve center.”

“Are you good at finding the vein?”

“I don’t want to brag, sir, but yes. I am pretty good at that. I take pride in my work and people praised me for that.”

Kuhn nods his head. “I see you also studied anatomy.”

“Yes, sir. In the City College and also as a part theoretical exam for a massage therapist license.”

Kuhn lifts his eyes and looks at him “So, you have a massage license?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Private clients.”

“Yes. I supported myself through college and have a few.”

Kuhn nods “That’s good…good…” reading further. “I see you studied some Martial arts?”

“Yes, sir. I have a brown belt in Karate.”

Kuhn nods again. “That’s good. That comes in handy in our environment.” Kuhn winked at him, puts down his resume, and asks Storsky “with so many talents and skills why do you want to work here?”

“I heard that you somehow associated with NASA and are doing some sophisticated research. It’s kind of exciting for me to be a part of all that.”

Kuhn takes off his glasses and looks at Storsky, “mmm … yes, yes. Research, of course.”

Then puts the glasses back he continues:
“Do you know who you are going to work with?”

“With people, I presume,” Storsky smiles.

A fatherly smile appears on Kuhn’s face “with people, huh?”

“Sir? What do you mean, sir? Are you working with animals?”

Kuhn “animals?” he chuckles. “I guess to some degree you can call them animals.”

Storsky looks perplexed.

Kuhn (continues) “First things first. As you know, we are working on a government project and some aspects of our work require you to sign a non-disclosure statement.”

Kuhn nonchalantly slides a stack of papers to Storsky.

Storsky starts reading, then stops and raises his eyes to Kuhn. “It says here that disclosure of this information is equivalent to government treason and is punishable by law. Do you mean that type of information will be disclosed during the interview?”

Kuhn chuckles. “This is a mere formality. We’ll make sure you won’t remember anything if you won’t take the job.” His smile became sardonic. “But don’t worry. We use very soft noninvasive methods for this lobotomy. Still,“ his face became serious even righteous, “if you don’t want to proceed we can just stop the interview and you can go home right now.”

“But I really need this job, Sir,” Storsky says with woefulness in his voice.

“Well, are you planning to disclose our secrets.” Kuhn chuckled again this time with a pinch of irony.

“No, of course not. But it seems a little…”

“Premature? Excessive?”
Storsky nods.

“Once you find out what we do, you will see why we are so careful.”

“What do you do?”

Kuhn continues chuckling, “Don’t worry, young man.
You’ll find out everything in due time. Mr. Berman will discuss with you the theoretical and legal aspects of our business.

He is our CEO. Then I will give you a walk through the barn. That is … what we call a “Barn” Kuhn showed the double quote sign in the air. Technical terms for it is a vivarium.

To be continued ...