The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin Read Free Book Online

highly paid movers scratching their collective asses unless you had something to hide? You and I both know what’s at stake here, and by doing this behind my back, you make yourself look culpable. The least you should have done was call me.” Hektor now put his hands on his head and his elbows on his knees. “I figured you for smarter,” he said, resigned.
    Mosh looked at the man in front of him, considering his words carefully.
    “Look, I don’t know if this is going to help, but I’m going to hope you pay attention. I did what I did for two reasons, Mr. Sambianco. First, once payment had been secured this man had a right to be woken up as soon as was medically possible. And that meant immediately. I, for one, was not prepared to keep him suspended beyond that point just so you or anyone else could make some additional profit. He’s entitled to make his own profit, Mr. Sambianco, or our whole system is worthless. And second…” Mosh paused, waiting for Hektor to look up, making sure he had his full attention.
    “I don’t like you, Mr. Sambianco.”
    Hektor looked stunned. Such direct honesty was certainly not the norm, and certainly never directed at him personally.
    “Still,” continued Mosh, “I don’t want to be accused of letting my personal feelings interfere with legitimate company business, so I feel compelled to tell you that there is one way I’m aware of that will delay this revive.”
    Hektor’s ears perked up. Perhaps he’s not willing to commit suicide after all .
    “Now a party of standing, a relative or spouse, could contest this revive in court and, I’ll even give it to you, could probably stop me from proceeding. However, there doesn’t appear to be any party of standing. But,” continued Mosh with a sly smile, “I’m nothing if not thorough.” He spoke loud enough for all in the hallway to hear. “Anybody here a party of standing, a relative or spouse? Speak up. Anyone?”
    Silence.
    “Hmm. How fortunate for our mysterious friend.”
    Hektor slumped back down in his chair.
    “Fine,” Hektor replied. “Go ahead, Director. Do it. But if you really had your patient’s best interest in mind you wouldn’t be using a novice to do the revive. Let me at least call in some real pros.”
    “First of all, Hektor, Dr. Wang is not a novice.”
    “I’m not talking about Wang, I’m talking about Harper.”
    “Right, Neela. Funny thing about Neela. I’d sooner trust her than someone with ten times the experience who I’m confident would screw my patient on a credit at the behest of you and your organization. You see, Hektor, I think she does have the patient’s best interest in mind. I don’t believe your ‘experts’ would.”
    With that Mosh got up, gathered his belongings, and headed for the door. He looked back and saw Hektor still slumped in his seat with his head in his hands.
    “You coming?”
    “To what?” Hektor retorted.
    “The rebirth of our new friend—the Unincorporated Man.”

 
     
    2 Wake-up Call
     
     
    We had the perfect case. Isolated, with three hundred years of experience to draw on. A procedure that had been performed literally millions of times was going to be done once in close to ideal conditions. We were going to make history with the perfect revive, in both body and mind, of a three-hundred-year-old man. It would be a textbook case, and I was to be its author. So of course we screwed it up.
    — A LIFE RENEWED: THE BIOGRAPHY OF DR. NEELA HARPER
     
    I t started out as an awareness. Nothing was associated with the awareness. No shapes or colors or feelings were part of this awareness. None of the five senses were present. Just an awareness, and with it a feeling of the most complete satisfaction that could be imagined. Slowly a sense of self began to evolve.
    I am a “he,” thought the he.
    With this revelation came new sensations. Time had no anchor whatsoever, so what seemed to take a moment may have been considerably longer. But it didn’t