10 - The Laboratory...

It took me some time to realize where I was and who I was. When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my familiar, humble room. Instead, I was in a wide, damp space where moisture, moss, and mold crawled across the walls...I was chained to the wall with two rusty chains, crucified. Beside me was an empty bucket and a metal injection kettle placed on an old gas stove. The smell of chemicals filled the air... Strangest of all, I was wearing pajamas and was barefoot.Then I realized what was preventing me from speaking—a wide strip of plaster stuck over my mouth. My feet were free, but there was nothing within their reach...I lifted my head calmly to see what was around me. I had lost my glasses, but my vision wasn't so poor that I couldn't make out the half-naked human bodies chained to the walls around me...There were four bodies of men in their twenties or thirties, one of them closer to adolescence. All of them were chained to the wall in the same way I was. Two of them had plaster strips over their mouths, though there wasn't much need for that since they were all in a state of complete stupor...But... who was this large-bodied man with his eyes closed and his head hanging on his chest? It was him... Reda, my brother... It was him, unmistakably.Now I remembered Dr. Asim's story, the injection I had received, the confrontation... Awatef... It seemed he had carried out his threat to the letter, and he knew exactly what he was doing. Now I was his prisoner, and there seemed to be no escape from his grip. All I could do was wait and see...The rest of the room contained a table with several test tubes, a Bunsen burner, a dilapidated optical microscope, and a centrifuge...The sound of a door slowly opening...In the faint light coming from the window, I saw him—Dr. Asim, wearing a blood-stained coat, followed by his wife, Awatef. He was holding a tray with various types of drug bottles... With confidence, he ripped the plaster strip off my mouth.Good morning, colleague! He exclaimed, laughing mockingly, and placed what he was holding on the table.How are you?Better than you expect, you butcher!It seems last night's sleep didn't refine your manners... We loosened your restraints in a way no one noticed... And when night came, the Nadaha called you, so you rose from your bed, jumped out the window, and came to our little lab... Isn't that wonderful?Then he grabbed his wife's wrist and pointed at me:Imagine this, Awatef... The great hematology professor is now a lab animal in my laboratory... Let's introduce him to his fellow captives.He walked to the wall, to the men shackled with chains, and began pointing at them one by one:This handsome boy is Ibrahim El-Saqqa... A thirteen-year-old boy, his heart full of emotions and his mind full of ambitions... Until the Nadaha came... He moved to a large, bald man who looked at us with empty, mute eyes.And this one is El-Zoghby Farhat... My first victim... A family man, devout, and deeply composed... Then he moved to a young man with thick mustaches, his head hanging on his shoulder.This is Said Gaber... The young construction worker who beat his wife to follow the Nadaha... And this one... He stopped at my brother.This is Reda Ismail, Dr. Rifaat's brother... I added him to the group just yesterday, after taking you... Now imagine your mother's feelings, having lost both her adult sons in one night!Then he lit a cigarette, fully aware of how repulsive he was and enjoying it. He had found the ultimate pleasure in life by being a monster...Now, let's get to the topic you raised yesterday... What is my goal in all this? Let me tell you a small secret, Dr. Rifaat... I am a genius... You, of course, didn't notice this because geniuses don't walk around with inflated heads like in science fiction stories... But I assure you, I am a genius... And what have I gained from that? Nothing... A long series of frustrations... I failed to join the university faculty and was exiled to this filthy village that doesn't suit my dreams... Even in love... His lips trembled slightly as he added:Even here, I failed... My bald head and thick glasses hindered me from getting the girls I wanted to share my life with... Everything in life forced me to be what they wanted me to be—just a reclusive, isolated, and poor country mouse... And when I die, no one will remember me, and no one will mourn me...He exhaled cigarette smoke exhaustedly and added:And so... I decided to take revenge... I know the legend of the Nadaha is ancient in this country... That's why I married Awatef... And began transforming her into a real Nadaha... You can't imagine my genius in makeup... But... You saw her yourself and were terrified... Do you deny it?I don't deny it for a moment...I chose my victims from the clinic's visitors... I would isolate them and inject them with a very small dose of sodium pentothal... They call it the truth serum because it weakens the will... And so, I began a very special kind of hypnosis under the influence of this drug... Convincing them that they loved the Nadaha... That they had to answer her call when they heard it at night... And that they had to remain silent, neither eating nor drinking, waiting for the call...At night, Awatef would wear the Nadaha's phosphorescent clothes and stand near the victim's house, calling their name... Sometimes they would answer, and sometimes their families would surround them... But no matter how long it took, she was confident she was safe and that no one would ever dare to confront her... Add to that, I—or the clinic worker—were always nearby, ready to intervene if something happened...And I would visit the victim in the morning, giving them a small "stimulating" dose of barbiturates to keep their consciousness in a dormant state... I am the only one in the village authorized to give injections of unknown substances to patients...Then came the promised night...The night the patient would follow the Nadaha... At that point, I or the clinic worker would anesthetize them and bring them here... To the empty nurses' quarters at the clinic, where no one goes and no one dares to search...Why don't you just kidnap who you want directly and be done with it?Art! He said it as if stating an indisputable truth.Art, my friend... Art! All aspects of the legend must be complete and consistent with each other... Didn't I tell you I'm a genius?And what's the point of all this... What's the use of gathering peasants like butterflies? He laughed joyfully and exclaimed:That's the crux of the matter... It has two parts... The first is my personal enjoyment of reviving the Nadaha story and terrifying these people... The second is my need for human lab subjects to conduct a very special kind of research... Research born from my readings and genius... Research that will lead to the creation of the ultimate man—the Superman...I said to him sarcastically:So that's why I found books by Nietzsche, Mein Kampf by Hitler, and all these science fiction novels in your room... You embrace these insane Nazi ideas, then...! He clenched his cigarette between his teeth and muttered:They're not insane ideas... They're a visionary insight that the likes of you can't understand... You're truly a scholar, with scientific degrees I can't even read the names of, but you're just another cockroach wiggling its antennae in greedy search of material gain... He spat in disgust:A cockroach...!I ignored his utterly unjustified insult and asked:I have five questions I hope you'll answer... I know you're eager to start your experiments on me, but I don't want to die or go mad without understanding first...Ask what you want...The first question is: Why did you make me see the Nadaha that night? What would you have done if I had attacked her? He scratched his bald head and said:There were two possibilities... The first—and best—was that you'd be struck with terror, run away, and become more convinced of the Nadaha's existence, which is almost what happened... The second possibility was that you might attack her, in which case Salah, the clinic worker, and I would have jumped on you, injected you with sodium pentothal, and begun the story of the mysterious call with you... You fulfilled the first possibility... Except you came too close to the truth when you drew the Nadaha's face—or Awatef's—so accurately... That's why we decided to start your treatment immediately... Awatef slipped a sedative into your tea... And I hypnotized you with the help of sodium pentothal... And when you returned home two hours later, you were already another enchanted victim waiting for the call...I nodded in understanding, then said:The second question: Do you have any connection to the disappearance of Abdel Razek... The boy I said was rabid?Of course not... The boy ran away because he had rabies... They found his body in El-Riyah three days ago... A fit of rage made him run and throw himself there... Of course, they didn't find him until ten days later... I'm innocent of his blood...The third question: Did you really not see my brother Reda at his house after he fell ill with the Nadaha disease? Then how was barbiturate found in his blood a week after his illness?He smiled warmly, like a teacher congratulating a diligent student, and said:You're truly clever... You haven't forgotten pharmacology... And you haven't forgotten that sodium pentothal has a very short effect, and its traces disappear from the blood less than an hour after injection... You're suggesting that someone was visiting him and injecting him with barbiturates during the period after my first injection... And that's correct... Nagat, your brother's wife, secretly called me to see her husband and inject him because she didn't trust you at all and believed you—no offense—were a donkey...!The wretch...!Now, ask your fourth question quickly...The fourth question is: How does Awatef obey you so easily?He placed his hand on her shoulder tenderly and said:She believes in me deeply... And does anything I ask of her...Awatef smiled proudly... A happy couple who love each other... If I weren't shackled in their grip like a sacrificial lamb, I would have wished them well...!The fifth question is: What kind of experiments are you conducting on these poor souls?A good question... I'm trying to create the Superman... So, I expose them to various stressors like heat, toxins, and bacteria... Their endurance increases day by day... And soon, nothing will harm them...Bac... Bacteria?! But you're completely insane... You're slowly killing these poor people!He said proudly, tossing his cigarette:What doesn't kill me makes me stronger...And if it kills you?Then I'll be one of the waste products that passed through the sieve of natural selection... And without me, life will be better... Thus spoke Zarathustra, my dear!What a madman...! In that moment, I wished Nietzsche were in front of me so I could smash his head... How many lunatics this world is teeming with... And I don't object to their existence, provided it doesn't lead to the annihilation of my own... A frustrated, complex personality living alone in the countryside, reading insane books day and night... What else could the result be?!!The five questions were over, and it was time for work...In silence—like an executioner performing his routine task—he reattached the plaster strip over my mouth. Then he took a syringe from Awatef, emptied it into my arm's vein, and picked up a file neatly labeled:Dr. Rifaat Ismail—Hematology Professor (37 years old)—Abducted May 12, 1962.He began writing several phrases in English... His face took on a stern, official tone as he issued instructions to his wife as if in a large hospital:Temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and pupil changes every hour... Regular meals... Tomorrow we start thermal exhaustion...Thermal exhaustion?! Would this madness never end?! And how could I spend my life standing in this position—I, who can't stand sitting in one place for more than fifteen minutes?!It was a real predicament...After four hours, I was completely spent...Here I was, shackled at the mercy of a mad doctor, as happens in cheap science fiction novels... The problem was that I had never imagined myself in this situation... And the second problem was that the hero in these novels always escapes at the last moment... So how would I escape?!!Of course, there was no use trying to call for help or bleeding my wrists by straining against the chains, as those before me had undoubtedly tried and failed... And there was no use in anyone in the village searching for me, as the wretch had woven his story well, and they were convinced the Nadaha had devoured both me and my brother...The door opened, and Awatef entered, heading toward me. With cold detachment, she checked my pupils, placed a thermometer under my arm, wrapped the blood pressure cuff around my arm, took my pulse, read the thermometer, and turned to leave. I called out to her as much as I could behind the plaster:Awatef... Don't you understand where this madman is leading you?What?Prison or worse... Think about it... You still have a chance... She thought for a moment with a closed expression, then shrugged and reattached the plaster, saying:That's none of your business...! And she left me...!Night fell...Awatef returned carrying a large bowl with our dinner... She began moving from captive to captive, stuffing two or three spoonfuls of this disgusting gelatinous substance into their mouths, leaving them to chew mechanically before moving to the next... And then it was my turn!She lifted the plaster from my mouth...No... I won't eat this, and my mouth won't be the fifth after those mouths...You won't eat? She asked me rudely, and I said tearfully, feeling unjustly wronged to an indescribable degree:No... I won't...As you wish... When you starve to death, you'll beg for this...!And then an idea struck me... The only chord I could play on was the emotions of a woman... I don't fully understand women—if I did, I would have been married ten years ago—but I know a vague image of them from my readings... So, I decided to exploit what I knew:Awatef... Are you sure Dr. Asim loves you?What do you mean?I mean... Does he... Does he deserve all your sacrifices for him? She thought for a moment with a closed expression, then shrugged and reattached the plaster, saying as she left:That's none of your business!Four hours later, she returned to take my vitals, and I said to her:Awatef... Listen to me for just a moment...Hmm?Dr. Asim doesn't love you... In fact, he sees his marriage to you as one of the reasons he hates this society... You're one of the signs of his defeat, and he'll never forgive you for that... She looked at me fiercely and hissed like a snake:Shut up!And why does a grown man forbid his wife from calling him by his first name? He's ashamed of you...That's none of your business...! She said it while shrugging... Reattached the plaster, and left me...At breakfast time, I resumed my dangerous game...Have you ever browsed through his diary? She said proudly as she shoved the ominous spoon into my mouth:A respectable wife doesn't spy on her husband... Never... I said, chewing that vile mixture of bitter, sweet, and salty substances:He's at the clinic now... Why don't you go up to his room and read his diary... I've seen it... And found poems, drawings, and talk about many girls he loved before you...I don't believe it...The diary is there... And he doesn't hide it, as far as I know...That's none of your business...! She said it while shrugging... But this time, she didn't reattach the plaster before leaving!Fifteen minutes later, she returned to me with tears in her eyes and something clutched in her hand... She shouted, sobbing, her nose running:That scoundrel... The cursed one! Ah... Had my arrow hit its mark so precisely? What a genius I am...He only married me because I resemble his first love...Didn't I tell you?And worse, he wrote in his diary that I only resemble her in looks because I'm stupid, ignorant, and dull... And that what I do for him only makes him cling more to the other... That lying deceiver...! I said to her, feeling my heart genuinely breaking for her:Try to foarget... Every man has a first love... And then she nervously extended her hand, revealing what she had been hiding... A small, rusted key. She inserted it into the lock of my restraints and began frantically unlocking them, shouting:Now, go to hell! Go and ruin our home, him and me... I no longer care about anything... Go, damn you, before I smash your head!For a moment, I couldn't believe I was free... My limbs were stiff... I almost fell to the ground, but one look at her fiery eyes made me dash away like the wind...Finally... The sun and the air, for the first time in two weeks...It took me two hours to bring some policemen from the station to raid the clinic. I had put on my clothes and shoes and tucked my pistol into my pocket. The police entered the nurses' quarters and found the four victims chained just as I had described...Then they knocked on the doctor's quarters repeatedly, but no one answered. Two burly officers worked together to break down the door, and we entered the room... It was exactly as I had left it, unchanged... Except for the one who entered the bedroom and returned to us, his face pale, saying:They're here...On the bed, they were... She was slumped on her knees, her face buried in the sheets as if she were crying, while he lay on his back, his eyes wide open, staring blankly at the ceiling... On the floor were scattered pills of Donoliz... They had taken a lethal dose of the diabetes medication, killing them instantly... Perhaps she wanted to die with him, or perhaps he forced her because he couldn't escape—where would he go?—and he couldn't face the wrath of the villagers, the rigor of the law, or the mockery of the masses...Beside him on the bed was Hitler's Mein Kampf, carelessly tossed aside...I said in a daze, my voice trembling with horror:He wanted them to commit suicide like Hitler and Eva Braun when the Allies invaded Berlin... The same tragic scene... The same circumstances... I turned to the policeman standing beside me and asked:They committed suicide like who, sir? It didn't seem like any of them would understand... They'd never understand, no matter what I said...A tragic ending, but the best possible one.