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Chapter 25: Severed Heads Can Grow Back
"Since this is going up for children, pay particular attention to whether the construction is being cut short anywhere. Materials, structural work, anything that shouldn't be skimped on."
"I'll keep an eye on it." Ada nodded, and quietly apologized to herself for what she'd been guessing a few minutes ago.
The construction site was fully lit despite the hour. She followed him through the interior and found, as she looked around, that the facility taking shape here was considerably better than anything run by the city. The scale alone was notable, but beyond that it was being built to include educational resources, medical facilities, and amenities that most people would classify as optional. A swimming pool, for one.
"Sir, a footprint this size means the annual operating costs are going to add up fast. At some point the funding situation is going to get uncomfortable."
"If the budget runs short, we take it out of my pocket." He waved this off. "There's an old principle: don't cut corners on education, don't make children suffer for budget decisions. And if Umbrella is going to do this, we do it properly. Half-measures would just make us look like we couldn't afford to do it right."
Ada: Couldn't afford... are you including yourself in that?
His reasons for building the place were two things running parallel. One was Nikki, and the conditions he'd seen her living in. The other was longer-term thinking. Investing in children who had nothing was an investment in what they might become. Once the facility was running, a few monthly classes on the subject of gratitude and remembering where you came from would do the rest. System points would follow at scale.
This was what a genuine win-win looked like. Public good on one side. His own purposes on the other. Both served by the same action.
He was still quietly pleased with this logic when the sign above the entrance was finished being installed. They both looked up at it.
It didn't follow the convention of a long formal name. Instead, two words, simply written.
The Nursery.
"The Nursery?" Ada read it aloud.
"Nursery," he said. "Children are what the future is built from. A nursery is where seedlings are given what they need to grow strong."
Ada paused for a moment after hearing this.
Then, under her breath, at a volume intended only for herself: "...Laying it on a bit thick, aren't we."
She cleared her throat. "I'll stay on top of the construction progress."
"Good. I'd appreciate that."
With the welfare center handed off, they drove back.
Matthew had barely settled into his chair when someone knocked on the office door.
"Come in."
William Birkin entered in his lab coat with the particular energy of a man who had just confirmed something he'd suspected and needed to share it immediately.
"William." Matthew looked at him. "You're not in the lab. What happened?"
A workaholic at this hour away from his equipment meant one of two things. Matthew was hoping it was the good kind.
He didn't have to wait for an answer.
"Boss. One of our field teams picked up a new specimen during an external operation tonight."
"New specimen?"
"The specimen attacked the team while they were out on assignment. It misjudged the capability gap and got taken alive." Birkin's expression was the specific one he wore when something genuinely interested him. "Here's what matters. The team attempted lethal force multiple times on-site. Standard ammunition produced no meaningful damage. The subject's regenerative capacity and physical resilience were well outside normal parameters."
"That's why we brought it back intact."
Matthew stood up. "A standard field team can capture it but can't kill it?"
"Take me to see it."
The lab had come a long way since Matthew had specified the build requirements. The equipment throughout was current, purpose-built, recently installed. He had also been careful about the facility's design from the beginning. Given how many containment failures he'd seen play out in the source material, he'd used military-grade protective materials throughout the relevant levels.
A separate internal water circulation system had been built in to prevent any viral agent from reaching the city's water supply in the event of a breach. A dedicated special response unit with heavy weapons was on permanent station at this level, with instructions to seal exits the moment an incident was registered. If it came to it, Matthew could trigger a full demolition of the level remotely.
This was not excessive caution. It was the minimum reasonable response to having seen what happened when these things went wrong.
The pressure seal released with a heavy hiss as the doors opened. He followed Birkin into the core area, which was separated by substantial panels of bulletproof glass that allowed a clear view of everything inside.
On the table in the examination area: a middle-aged man, average in appearance, noticeably thin on top. He was restrained thoroughly, surrounded by monitoring equipment tracking his vitals.
Matthew ignored the surrounding staff's objections, suited up, and walked to the table directly. Birkin came with him.
"Why isn't he moving?"
"We administered a heavy sedative on intake. He's in a medically induced state, vitals stable." Birkin set the preamble aside. "But that's not the point."
He picked up a scalpel.
Without any preamble, he drew it along the side of the man's neck, across the carotid artery.
Under normal circumstances, an unattended wound to that location gave someone between five and ten minutes. The blood loss alone would be the end of it.
Under Matthew's eyes, the cut closed.
Not slowly. Not partially. The tissue sealed itself in under two seconds, complete and clean, as though the wound had never been made.
That was a recovery rate that stood comparison with what Matthew himself was currently capable of.
Birkin wasn't finished.
He reached for a saw and a steel spike.
Without hesitating, in front of Matthew, he removed the man's head.
The body on the table began convulsing immediately.
Birkin turned to the staff outside the glass. "Increase the blood pump rate."
"Yes, sir."
Blood was cycled into the headless body at volume.
Under the accelerated circulation, the neck began to grow.
Matthew watched this and his mind, without his permission, went somewhere specific.
Wolverine: heals from almost any wound.
Deadpool: regrows severed tissue and limbs.
This man: apparently regrowing his entire head.
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