Cookie Cutter Man by Elias Anderson

love this, then.” Rob dropped the head and
tweezed something off his tray table. He flicked it to Daniel, who snapped it
out of the air.
    “What’s this?” Daniel asked before he got a proper chance to
inspect it. When he did, he dropped it to the floor in revulsion. It was an
eye.
    “Lighten up, Francis. It’s bionic.” Rob pushed his glasses
up.
    “What?” Daniel hesitated and picked the thing back up off
the ground. The eye was soft, white, glistening, and foul. It looked exactly
like Daniel thought an excised eye would ... except it had a synthetic feel to
it. The iris was hard, like the screen of a television ... and green. The
biggest anomaly was the thick grey wire with a male plug at the end sticking
out the back where the optic nerve should have been.
    “Fuck,” Daniel muttered.
    “That’s what I said.” Rob pointed at the empty, staring
socket. Deep within there was a stained metal plate with a female receptacle on
it for the eye to plug into. Light reflected off thin steel wires woven into
the socket.
    “What is he?”
    Rob pushed his glasses up his nose with his wrist.
“Biomechanical, like the pigeons. I just had no idea their technology had
advanced this far.” He was sweating, and the latex gloves he wore were coated
with a thin layer of blood and something that looked strangely like 30-weight
engine oil.
    “None of us did,” Jared said, as he and Ebin stepped up to
join them.
    “You’ve stumbled on a rather extraordinary bit of evidence,
Daniel.” Jared clapped him on the back.
    “Is it just his eyes?” Daniel asked.
    “Let’s find out,” Rob said, and snapped his glove like a
sadistic highway patrolman about to embark on a cavity search.
    Rob filled out his report later that day and sent it to the
other offices, along with a video and several photographs. Daniel and the other
agents were given a copy to read.
     
    SUBJECT: Male, African-American, 25-30 yrs. of age.
    Determined to have MULTIPLE BIONIC/CYBERNETIC ENHANCEMENTS,
including but not limited to:
    EYES: (both) ENHANCED VISION, SUSPECTED RECORDING/INFRARED
    CAPABILITIES
    EARS: (both) SYNTHETIC EARDRUM, POSSIBLE AUDITORY RECORDING
CAPABILITIES
    BRAIN: NOT INTACT OR OTHERWISE AVAILABLE FOR STUDY DUE TO
CAUSE OF DEATH (SEE PAGE 1 OF REPORT FOR DETAILS)
    MOUTH: COMMUNICATION DEVICE LOCATED IN BACK OF THROAT
    TEETH: RECEIVER AND TRANSMITTERS LOCATED IN NINETEENTH AND
TWENTIETH INCISORS, RESPECTIVELY
    NOSE: EQUIPPED WITH SILICON AIR FILTER (both nostrils)
    SPINAL COLUMN: REINFORCED W/ UNKNOWN POLYMER. ALSO ATTACHED
WAS A CONDUIT OF WIRES TRAVELING FROM BASE OF SPINE TO BRAIN STEM
    HEART: APPROX. DOUBLE NORMAL SIZE. TWO (2) ADDITIONAL
CHAMBERS (synthetic), ALSO ATTACHED WHAT APPEARS TO BE EXTRA ADRENAL GLAND
(also synthetic)
    STOMACH: NO DETECTED ENHANCEMENTS
    LIVER: NO DETECTED ENHANCEMENTS
    SPLEEN: NO DETECTED ENHANCEMENTS
    APPENDIX: N/A
    OTHER: HIDDEN COMPARTMENT LOCATED IN LEFT CALF
    FEMALE RECEPTACLE IN RIGHT ARMPIT
    ADDL. MALE PLUG LOCATED WITHIN FIFTH FINGER OF LEFT HAND.
    See included video/photos for further detail.
    Confirm reception and acceptance of material (all) contained
within this report.
    *****
    The five of them sat around the table that was home to the
dismantled corpse-machine, Ebin and Daniel smoking a joint. Rob had taken his
glasses off and was rubbing the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger as
if he had a headache.
    Daniel smashed out the roach. “So what do we do?”
    All eyes swiveled to Jared, who sat collecting his thoughts
before he spoke. “We have to find out if this bastard is the only one ... my
guess is that he’s not. If the next guy we bring down here is normal, we’ll get
another.”
    “Hold up, man,” Rob said. “You’re talking about dragging
people off the street and cutting them up like this was a high school biology
class.”
    “Yeah, I am,” Jared said. “You think they wouldn’t do the
same thing if the positions were reversed? Shit, Rob, they’d probably round up
a