The Variant Effect: PAINKILLER

That's why you're a Captain and they're not.

The Variant Effect was on the rise again. Simple as that. He didn't believe Brass' projections that presentations were gradually tapering off, and he knew that maintaining a cordon around Parkerville was just a show for the media.

Variant was already in Metro.

Borland knew how it worked. The Variant Effect came out of the shadows, explosively. One minute, it was on the decline, the next you had presentations everywhere. And with a new hybrid on the loose, anything could happen.

Knowing that, it was understandable that he needed a drink before he'd let some stranger handle his testicles in a building full of scalpels. That was part of the reason Brass had arranged his surgery at the Shomberg Clinic. It had an almost perfect record going back long before the day, and was the favorite of armies, law enforcement and athletes. It wasn't state-of-the-art