"There," the doctor said, as if he was a painter who had just added the last stroke to a masterpiece. He took a step back and nodded, because this was the result of months of research and trial and error. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" It was a cruel thing to say, but he wouldn't have gotten involved in this sort of job if he didn't have a small interest in sadism.

"Now you'll get an idea of just want it's like to be extraordinary," he said as he retreated further from the exam table. "I wonder if it'll be all you've built it up to be?"

And then, any sign, any sound of the doctor was gone, as if he'd just vanished.