I made a pact with the devil and lost. The thought seared through Alex's brain.
Like Faustus in Marlowe's play, Alex had given up on science and academic research in favour of indulging in necromancy.
Oh, he didn't call it that―he convinced himself that trying to decode memories embedded in the brain tissue of the deceased was a worthwhile scientific pursuit that could further knowledge of the past, particularly with regard to archeology and anthropology.
Just as Faustus over-reached and pursued forbidden knowledge, so too had he made his own pact with the dark side crossing a boundary that violated the dignity and privacy of the dead.
Surely no one had the right to peer into those sacred cubic centimeters inside the skull and eavesdrop on an individual's most intimate thoughts.
It was one thing to rob graves―it was quiite another to steal a person's soul.
Faustus was condemned to hell and dragged bodily into the fiery pit but not before being torn limb from limb by a swarm of devils.
I deserve nothing less, Alex moaned under his breath, ashamed of what he had done.
He was in despair because the full implications of his actions were plainly revealed to him in his foul experiment at night in his laboratory.
He now knew that the anonymous person who donated his brain for research was Mark―the former fiance of Elizabeth.
The conversation between Mark and Elizabeth that Alex covertly observed involved the two of them planning their wedding. And then, shortly after, Mark died in a skiing accident.
How gholish it would be to disclose to Elizabeth that the brain tissue samples they were attempting to analyze belonged to her dead lover.
And as repugnant as that was, imagine hwo she would react if Alex disclosed the fact that he deliberatley chose her as research assitant because her face appeared when Alex and Len re-activated the nerve synapses in Mark's tissue sample?
The whole business was abominable and Alex was sick at heart because of the deception he used to bring Elizabreth into the project.
Of course, Alex didn't know the identity of the anonymous donor but that didn't excuse his unscrupulous action in hiding his real purpose in hiring Elizabeth so he could covertly observe her.
He made her an unwitting partner in the autopsy of her own fiance and working on a project that would ultimately divulge their own innermost thoughts and feelings.
He was as culpable as Faustus, if not worse, because his deceit injured both the living and the dead.
His reckless actions resulted in grave consequences for which he alone was responsible...
The only question that remained was how he could remedy the damage he caused.
