Chapter 8

Danger. Elizabeth Diamond.

Time/Area: NYC 2013, 1-2nd month. July 5th

I sat on my sofa as I listened to Jordan over the phone,

“Yea.. But it’s the only way to win this year.”

Words could not describe my fury towards this man. I mean, it’s true that we already had a test ready to go, but it’s not like he knew that. Sometimes I worried about that greed of his.

“Fine.” I said, shocking him, “I can get a test ready If I push it.”

I was lying of course, as it would require basically no work at all. With Damien’s help yesterday night we got almost all of the safety tests done. INCLUDING one of the long ones!

That boy really was quite talented.

Though, typically, animal testing needed actual approval first,

”Th-That’s Great!” Jordan said happily, “We can win this thing! Gotta go now, bye.”

He hung up. I sighed, getting up and heading to my bathroom to get ready. My house wasn't all too fancy, in fact it was basically plain. Just a sofa, a carpet, a small TV in front of those two things, and a bathroom behind that.

While I was brushing my teeth, a thought occurred to me.

I realized that if the monkey test proved completely successful, we could technically start asking for volunteers.

The Inverse gas won’t be completely efficient, but that wasn’t the goal right now. Right now, we just needed enough stuff to prove that we could do it, and win the stupid award. [according to Jordan.]

All our model needed to do was grow the amount of neurons in a brain by a bit, and then stop. It didn't need to grow continuously yet, but seeing as we have more time..I could technically get Sarah on that. Just as something to keep her busy until human testing.

“I’m getting ahead of myself,” I thought, exiting the bathroom and once again sitting on the sofa. First we actually had to do the monkey test. In reality, we probably wouldn't be doing human testing this year. It was much too dangerous anyways, and I couldn’t describe how long it would take to get approval.

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Sarah’s cell number.

…

…

“Hello!? Who is this?” A squeaky voice said.

I sighed, this was Sarah’s roommate, Lorica Embers. She was a very smart, pretty girl, but her voice...hurts sometimes.

“Hello Lorica, may I speak to Sarah...since this is her phone.”

She sighed, “I suppose so. But it can be confusing since she always carries around two. One satellite and one cell..”

A pause.

Some shuffling.

“Sorry about that Doc, what’s up?” Sarah answered.

“I just got a call from Idiot,” I said, fiddling with my nails.

“Oh?” She laughed, “What did he say?”

I smiled, “As it turns out, we are doing the monkey test today.”

I heard her choke.

“O-oh alright.? What would we do afterwards.”

I got up and headed towards my door, happy that Sarah didn’t question this,

"Well let's see," I muttered, squeezing the phone between the bottom of my right ear and my shoulder before opening the door and stepping outside.

I closed it behind me, phone still clutched by my neck as I bent over to lock the door.

As the not so fresh air of New York City filled my body, I felt any tiredness leave as I finished locking my house and began heading for the one nice thing I owned,

“I was thinking you could try to get it to be self-sustaining. I heard you had some ideas earlier?” I continued talking on the phone.

“Y-yea I could do that. Trying to keep me busy?”

“Mhm.” I admitted, getting in my Blue Lexus (My one nice thing).

“Okay, I’ll see you at the lab. Sorry about Lorica.”

I laughed, “Oh it’s fine! She has a sister right?”

Sarah sighed, “Yea. Melissa the perfectionist. And Damien’s best friend’s crush.”

My eyes widened as I pulled out of the driveway, “Well that’s too complicated for my liking. Bye.”

I hung up.

“My intern’s little brother’s best friend is crushing on her roommate’s little sister.”

I pressed harder on the gas, "Yeah...Way too complicated."

---

“Almost finished with that?” I asked Sarah as she pressed a few buttons in the Testing Room.

She gave me a Thumbs up and ran to the observation console across the room.

In the middle of the testing lab stood a C unit pod with the monkey inside. The Inverse glass tube was in my hand. It was only the size of an eraser but that was all that we would require. The Inverse gas starts in the form of a red liquid, but when enough heat is applied, It burns into vapor.

I tightened the goggles I was wearing and proceeded to walk over to the C unit.

The Conversion, or c, unit was built like those human sized pods from sci-fi shows and was suspended above our newest machine, the I-unit.

I had no need for creativity.

The I-unit was relatively small. It looked like a flattened metal cylinder with blinking red diodes littered across the top. A small slit for a canister was in the middle and extra slits were placed on the rims.

I bent under the C unit to reach the canister slit and placed the small tube inside.

Click.

The machine whirred and hummed to life, the red diodes blinking faster with each second while the tube slowly emptied itself of the crimson liquid.

“Gas Contained in..I UNIT. Ready for distribution.” The unit’s AI chirped.

I got back out from under the C unit. Now that the machine was ready, I just had to connect the gas pipe from the I unit to the C unit’s pod chamber.

“Should I record yet?” Sarah asked from the viewing station.

“No,” I answered, “Start when I connect this pipe.”

I grabbed the loose, see through, pipe stuck to the I unit and paced around the Pod until I found the circular opening in the back.

‘Here we go,” I said, shoving the pipe through the opening.

Click.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“C Unit has detected I Unit. Begin Transfer?” The C unit's AI asked.

I walked to the front of the pod, looking at the monkey inside.

It was pacing the tube with idle curiosity, probably wondering what the heck was going on.

“Yes.” I replied.

I heard a beep as Sarah started the recording.

The I unit hummed even louder as misty red gas fled through the tube and into the Pod.

Three minutes passed.

“Sarah, scan.” I said, still watching the tube. The monkey seemed comfortable.

A blue light went over the pod.

“The gas has entered Subject’s body.” Sarah announced, not being able to contain her excitement.

I smiled, “Okay, now remove the sound proofing from the subject’s pod.”

The reason we sound proofed it in the first place was so that the monkey wouldn’t get scared of all the noise. We were removing it now in order to increase the monkey’s stress.

Another minute passed before the monkey started reacting.

“EEEEEEEEEK!” The monkey screamed while bouncing up and down.

“Sarah!” I yelled.

“On it!” She replied. Suddenly, under Sarah's command, the C unit started to glow a bright blue, signaling that it was now active.

“Begin extraction.” I said aloud.

I checked behind me to see that the light bulb we had placed had started to illuminate.

As the process went on the bulb grew brighter and brighter until..

POP!

The light bulb shattered.

“Turn it off!” I yelled over the noise. The monkey was getting more agitated by the second, increasing the amount of neurons being generated, which increased the amount of electricity being extracted, which increased the risk of fire.

The machine slowly came to a stop while Sarah turned off the camera.

Once It had completely powered down I looked at Sarah.

“Well,” Sarah said, “It WORKED!”

We both screeched in joy as we began doing our victory dance across the room, careful to avoid the broken glass. Technically, a monkey test this early without enough approval was..illegal.. but Sarah didn’t need to know that, and I didn’t think Jordan cared. Therefore, I had no say in the matter and, therefore, I could enjoy this win.

“I mean,” I started, “We obviously need a way to recognize when enough electricity has built up, but we’ll probably crack that by the end of the year!”

Sarah nodded with excitement as she grabbed a broom, “Yea we c-”

“WHAT?!”

We both spun around to see that Jordan J had walked in.

I glared at him, “What do you mean 'what' ?”

“Don’t get me wrong,” He said, finding a railing to lean on by the entrance of the testing area, “This is great! We can send the video to get into the competition. But do you know what I just found out in DC?”

We both shook our heads.

“Synth Morgan has already invented LIGHTSABERS!” He yelled in anger, smashing down on the metal pole with his hand, “And the ONLY way we are going to win this is if we have some human results!”

Sarah backed up. She wasn’t used to seeing angry Idiot, just typical normal Idiot.

I, however, had seen all sides of Idiot and was fully prepared,

“We just figured out how to produce brain electricity at a theoretically infinite rate, and you’re worried about lightsabers?”

Jordan J nodded, “You don’t get it,” He said, “Your project is better, but it’s not flashy enough, not cool enough. But if we can get a normal guy to power an Electric train with only his mind?”

He laughed, “We would get first place no problem!”

My glare intensified as he paced the room, “But it’s too dangerous to start human testing right now!” I yelled, “We don’t know how to control the amount of electricity produced!”

He shrugged, “We only need one test to work.. Just shut it off if it gets too crazy.”

Sarah stepped forward, causing Jordan to raise his eyebrow,

“You don’t get it sir,” She said, “The Inverse gas has a lot of dangerous radiation coming off of it. If we experimented on humans, who have billions more neurons than a monkey, if something went wrong we might not even be able to shut it off.”

He froze, “Why is that...random intern?”

I chimed in, “The radiation from the gas might just cause the human subject to grow his or her’s own electric mutation, without the need of a C unit. Which could cause a number of things to happen..none of them good.”

He pondered this for a moment,

“So because humans have more juice originally, there’s more of a chance they would go boom?”

I nodded, “Or mutate.. But you get the idea.”

He nodded, “I don’t care.”

Sarah coughed.

I froze,

“You can’t be serious. People could die if we test this on them!” I shouted.

He laughed, “We are never going to win if we don’t take risks!”

Sarah walked closer, “You would risk killing people and possibly a radiation leak for a medal?!”

Jordan Shouted, “DO NOT question me! You work for ME, you do what I SAY!”

We both backed up. I had never seen him act this way before. I guess there was a new side to the Idiot that I hadn't seen.

Plus, Sarah didn’t even actually work here.

She interned here as an undergrad, but because we were so close, she still worked with me part time as a graduate student.

Jordan suddenly smiled, “Do I make myself clear?”

I gritted my teeth, “I will not continue to work on this project i-”

“YES..yes you will.” Jordan said, walking closer to me, “Because if you don’t, I will talk to some people that will ruin-your-life, and-” He pointed towards Sarah, “And everyone you care about as well.”

I gulped, “Are you threatening me?”

He laughed, “Not just you.” He said, “Sarah, that annoying brother of her’s, his best friend, ANYONE you consider family.. I will ruin. Trust me, it's not as hard as everybody thinks.”

He walked towards the exit,

“By the end of September I want successful human tests. I’ll get you volunteers.. You just get me results.”

He smiled at me, his eyes wide, “And remember Doc." His face devolved into a dark forboding stare, Everyone’s counting on you,”

His footsteps were the only sound as he exited the room.

-Hour Later

“Okay that did not just happen.” Sarah said, pacing my office.

I was staring at the floor while sitting on my desk, “I think it did.”

Sarah sighed, “He doesn’t understand! “ She yelled, “He doesn’t get that if we went through with this a whole lot of people could die!”

I shook my head, “I think he does.” I said, “He just doesn’t care.”

Sarah sat on the floor, rubbing her head, “I don’t want to help someone that greedy.”

I fiddled with my mug, “I don’t think we have a choice.”

“Do you think he’ll actually hurt Damien?” Sarah asked, worry in her voice.

I nodded, “He will if he thinks he has to… sorry for getting you involved in this.”

Sarah got up and walked to my desk, "It's not your fault, but we need to find a way out of this."

"I don't think there is one." I said, all hope fleeing from my voice, "the best thing I can do is try to make the test as safe as possible for humans."

Sarah's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean I."

I gave her a small smile, "Consider yourself fired." I said, watching anger form on her face.

"Yo-You can't do that!" She shouted, "You can't do this!"

I stood up, "I can if it means keeping you safe.. even if it's just by a little bit."

Sarah shook her head, "Please don't do this."

My smile faded, "Please Sarah, try to understand. I c-"

"Fine." Sarah said suddenly, "But be careful."

I nodded, shocked that she agreed so quickly, "You too?" I guessed we had moved on, "Jordan will most likely try to mess with your family the moment a set back occurs so stay alert."

Sarah shook her head in disbelief, "I still can't believe this is happening."

I breathed, “If we found a way to regulate the electricity..that could at least help.”

Sarah got hopeful, “Really? It would solve the issue?”

I shook my head, “It wouldn’t stop a mutation if it happened, but the death count would be lower.”

I tried a smile once more, "Don't worry. The test will probably go just fine, and then we can both look for new jobs."

Sarah laughed a little, "Yea," She agreed, walking towards the exit. Suddenly, she stopped.

I frowned, "Everything alright?" I asked.

Sarah turned back, "Si," She said, "I just remembered that I forgot my essay for school in the testing room."

I slowly nodded, "Okay. Just make sure to turn in your card on your way out."

Sarah smiled, "Okay I will. Good luck Doc."

I smiled as she ran up to my desk and gave me a quick hug before taking off to the lab.

A couple of minutes passed.

I tried not to think of this as a goodbye.

Just more of a..See you later until my boss dies kind of thing. I turned around to face my window, watching cars whiz by on the street while planes flew through the air.

After Jordan’s evil monologue rant, I had tried to send an Ethics report to the ISAC competition leader, AKA the president of the United States, but for some reason it didn’t go through. In fact, something went wrong with my computer system and the entire essay was deleted from my computer.

Just my luck, right?

My eyes felt wet.

I touched my face to find little drops of water had formed.

"Am I crying?" I thought, grabbing a nearby napkin and dabbing my face.

More started to come, falling on the floor as I wiped them.

"Crap, I am."

It got to the point where I didn't even try to wipe them anymore. I just let them fall.

I had lost my will.

I had lost my friend.

I had probably lost my job.

I just hope I didn't lose anything else.