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.Mindful this time of the IV still attached to his left hand, Steve swung his legs around and stood.He stretched, arching his back, then bending at the waist until his face rested against his legs."Wow," the tech commented."You’re pretty limber."Steve grinned as he straightened, unaware of how intently he stared into the man’s face."I assume there’s a mirror in the bathroom?"The tech nodded.Pulling the IV stand with him, Steve moved around the corner, stepped close to his reflection, and inspected his new eyes.Funny, but he never asked what they would look like.He discovered they were a striking steel-blue, with pure whites without a hint of bloodshot.To his mild surprise, he liked the blue better than his former hazel."Steve," Alan called, "we need to run a few tests.""Be there in a second," Steve said, still marveling at the company’s work, not to mention the surgeons’, who left no scars he could see.By the time he returned, Alan had dismissed the technician.I guess his security rating only goes so far, he thought.Better get used to that kind of thing, Davison, if you’re going to follow up on this cloak-and-dagger stuff."What do I do?" he asked."Sit on the bed." Steve sat, and Alan again placed the eye-band device against the bridge of his nose.Steve felt that light, ticklish feeling return, and he assumed correctly that contact had been established.Alan adjusted a dial, then said, "Now, I want you to think ‘thermal.’ Don’t just think the word, really concentrate on the concept.Push the idea of ‘heat’ in your mind."Steve did as he was told, his brow furrowing as he struggled to master this first step.He pictured how he’d always seen thermal vision in the movies — "Predator" in particular leaped to his mind.Heat traces, glowing in the dark.After a few seconds, the eye-band beeped, and Alan pulled it away."Now keep your eyes on me," Alan said as he walked over to the door, then grinned and added, "no pun intended." Steve smirked at that and allowed a slight groan to escape his throat, which made Alan grin even bigger.He flipped the light switch, then stepped over and drew heavy drapes across the windows, plunging the room into darkness."You can still see me?""Somewhat.My eyes adjusted immediately, but I really can’t see you that much better than I would have before.""For the moment," Alan said."Think ‘thermal’ again.Don’t just say it in your head, push it, like before.Thermal."Steve focused.Thermal.thermal.At first, nothing happened.then, suddenly, his vision sort of pulsed, and he could clearly see the different heat sources in the room — Alan shone like a bonfire."Oh, wow," he chuckled."I can see you now.""Excellent."Steve was really grinning for the first time since his accident.For the moment, his woes were far from his mind.He gazed at the incredible light show, then laughed and mimicked a punctuated sound effect."What are you doing?" Alan asked, chuckling himself in confusion."Oh, come on, Alan." He repeated the sound effect."Didn’t you ever watch ‘The Six Million Dollar Man?’ "Alan gave one of his half-grunts."Believe you me, young sir, those eyes cost a lot more than six million dollars." He reached for the light switch."Think ‘standard’ to return to the normal spectrum.You’ll find that a bit easier than switching to thermal; it’ll also work if you think ‘default,’ ‘regular’.whatever you prefer.Whatever means ‘normal vision’ to you — your eyes will find a broad, basic concept like that fairly simple to read.It’s the specials that require more specific programming."Steve complied as Alan turned the lights back on and reopened the windows."How exactly are they programmed?""Your eyes are controlled cybernetically, but they cannot, of course, read your actual thoughts.What we did earlier was train them to recognize the impulses of your brain for your concept of ‘thermal.’ You could just as easily have chosen ‘ice’ as your trigger and pictured a snowy day, if that’s what you’d wanted — I had them set to your infrared bandwidth, so the implants would have thought that was how you saw the concept." He grinned."For simplicity, I’d recommend you keep the training as literal as possible.""So they now recognize what I think of as ‘thermal,’ and respond accordingly.""That’s correct.The process isn’t really all that different from how a polygraph test works.although much, much more sophisticated.Some of the implants’ abilities don’t need to be trained, such as the glare protection." Alan chuckled as he seated himself in the guest chair."You’re the only person alive who could look straight into a nuclear explosion without being blinded."Steve grunted at the irony.He was looking at his hands, clicking his thermal vision on and off.He could even see the cooler temperatures where the IV fluid first entered his hand."What other tests do we need to run?""That’s all for the time being — I merely wanted to confirm the implants were properly aligned before we proceed any further.You’re being released into our care tomorrow.Once we’re safely on Davison Electronics property, we’ll initiate and test some of those weapons we discussed." He hesitated a moment, then said, "It’s your company now, Steve."Steve turned his attention to the older man."What?""It’s in your parents’ will," Alan said gently
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