Voice by Nikita Spoke

guard, the blurriness of her peripheral vision effectively keeping Josh’s face in a haze. “We tried to watch the security tapes, but somebody tampered with those.” Jemma made a mental note to thank Heidi profusely if she ever got a chance. “So of course, there’s no way to prove that it was you, but I’d stake my reputation on it.”
    She heard him stand, and she closed her eyes while he hooked her to the monitor.
    “I thought you were on my side, Jemma. You came back, after all. I thought you wanted to help me figure all this out, find the answers, whatever it took.” He spoke in almost a sing-song, soothing tone that did absolutely nothing to help Jemma relax. “Instead, you fought me. You cut our sessions short just because things hurt a bit or because you couldn’t see. Why would you need to see if you could speak to the entire world, Jemma? I was helping you, not hurting you. I was helping all of us.”
    Jemma remained silent, still, her eyes shut.
    “You can speak now, you know. Of course you know. It’s entirely your fault. You ended it too soon, and we might not be able to replicate any of the results with the telepathy since we didn’t have time to isolate which parts were done with your mind naturally and which parts were done with the nanocreatures’ adjustments. I’ve got some serums to try, of course, to see whether we can get any results. And before you ask, no, Dr. Harris isn’t here to stop me before we can even get started. He’s left, along with most of the guards and at least half of the experts. You’ve ruined everything, Jemma.”
    She opened her eyes, sending a pleading look toward the guard. He at least had the decency to send her an apologetic glance in return, but then he looked away.
    He wasn’t going to save her from whatever Josh had in mind for this session.
    She had to at least try to avoid what he might give her. She was already falling apart. “You’re trying it without any serums first, right? You’re intelligent enough to establish a baseline, and that’s something you weren’t able to do while the nanocreatures were active.”
    He beamed at her. “And she speaks!” He picked up a needle, holding it between himself and her, taking advantage of the fact that she was looking in his direction. “I should take some baseline measurements, yes, but I’m already pretty sure I know what they’ll say. If we had Jack here with us to study, too, it might be a little different, but I’m just not sure I can handle any more disappointment right now, and this particular cocktail is a little bit more promising than unaltered Jemma is.” He set it back down and crossed his arms. “You know, one good thing about being able to speak again is that I don’t need my hands for it.”
    “You couldn’t actually Talk to anyone, could you? You were in charge of studying it, but did you ever actually get to try it yourself, even once?” So much for diplomacy.
    “I didn’t have to. I created it, Jemma. Who could know it better than I did? And who better to study it than an impartial observer?”
    “You’re an impartial observer, then?”
    “Of course.” He leaned back in his chair. “I’m more impartial than Dr. Harris, for all his pretending. He kept stepping in, stopping things way too soon.” He watched her, measuring, and Jemma held her breath. “Fine. We’ll start with baseline measurement. We know Talking to me isn’t gonna work, though. Hey, you,” he addressed the guard. “Get Marcia in here.” He turned back to Jemma when the guard left. “She’s one of the only ones who doesn’t drive me crazy. That brother and sister pair, they’re real suck-ups. Not a lot of talent in them, either. Their Talk barely registered, even Talking to each other. And Marcia’s girlfriend, I can’t even remember her name, I swear she jumps at anything.”
    “Her name is Kendall.” Jemma’s face felt hot, and her hands were clenched. “And she jumps at everything because