I tried to put the fight with my mother out of my head as I prepared for work the next morning.

I slapped off my alarm and rolled out of bed, kissing Jack on the cheek before I left. Half-awake, he mumbled something along the lines of, “Iloveyouhaveagoodday.”

I checked on Violet and found her still asleep in her room. Jack would make her breakfast in an hour or two. He’d used to rise with me and make pancakes in the morning, but as he’d started taking more night shifts at the bar, that had fallen out of our routine.

I missed it, but not enough to deprive him of his sleep.

Instead, I settled for oats and a banana. I skimmed an article while I ate, climbed into the car, and drove ten minutes over to the lab.

Pendervale University had a strong genetics program. It was one of the reasons I’d stayed to get my PhD there after college. And why I’d continued working in the department after graduation. The science was interesting, and Jack and I had started to build a life here in this city.

I walked across a bridge and used an ID badge to swipe into the laboratory building.

Jack and I had met when I was in college. He’d also been a student at Pendervale U. but had dropped out midway through to pursue a career in professional boxing of all things.

I had to remind myself sometimes that he was an idiot before we’d met.

He’d won a few amateur competitions and street fights. Gotten his face pummeled and his brain sloshed against the inside of his skull in plenty others. Fortunately for his IQ score, the fighting career hadn’t panned out, and he’d found work at Rover’s Red Bar, where we’d met. It had started as a drunken fling, but the chemistry remained when we sobered up. More than remained, it grew.

I set my bag down at my desk and booted up my computer. Results from algorithms I’d run over the weekend began spewing into the window before me. I parsed through them, looking for anything promising. Any useful pattern in the vast scramble of letters that made up the genetic code of the corn plant.

Initializing sequence construction … complete

Preparing control dataset … complete

Scanning for sequence matches…

Initializing sequence1 (GATTWKTTSCT)…complete (144 matches)

Initializing sequence2 (WCAATAMG)… complete (386 matches)

Jack and I were different on paper. A fighter and a thinker. A man who worked with his hands and chatted with alcoholics married to a woman who spent most of her day typing code into computers.

But it worked. We worked. Because we had everything that didn’t make it on paper. Loyalty, accountability, mutual respect, and a common dream to start a family and grow old together. Something my mother would apparently never understand.

Cross-matching sequence1 and sequence2 … error

Variable “basePosition” is not a compatible type

There was a bug in the code that had brought the calculations to a halt before the real analysis could even begin.

I sighed.

That would take some work.

I made some quick edits and set a test dataset running to begin the troubleshooting process. This was going to be a slog.

I rose from my desk and wandered to the break room. The university genetics department had denied our request for a hundred-thousand-dollar DNA-sequencing machine. As a consolation prize, they’d upgraded us with an extra-large coffee dispenser and a hefty supply of imported beans.

I was sure someone in the accounting department was patting themselves on the back for negotiating that one.

Even if it was a distraction from our denied budget request, the coffee was good. I filled a cup from the spout and took a gentle sip. It was caramelly and rich with an aroma that humidified the inside of my nose.

Kiara, the intern, entered the break room.

“Good morning, Dr. Parsons. How was your weekend?”

“Eh. They’ve been better.”

I sipped my coffee as a placeholder for elaboration.

“And yours?” I asked after an appropriate pause.

“Great! My parents came to town for the weekend. We went to a baseball game, and I showed them the riverfront.”

I smiled.

“Sounds like a good time.”

“How’s the project coming?” she asked.

“More behind schedule than I’d like. I’ll have to really grind if I want to make the June deadline we set.”

I stepped aside to let Kiara insert her thermos under the coffee spout and dispense java for herself.

“You’ve been grinding since I’ve started working here. Do you ever take a break?”

I laughed her off.

“I do. It’s just that I’ve a lot of big studies I’m trying to publish right now.”

She leaned against the counter and sipped her coffee.

“Just a suggestion, but you could put a few things on the backburner. Or hand them off to someone else in the lab. Give yourself more time to focus on the most important projects. Maybe get more time at home.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I shook my head.

“Maybe I’ll slow down when I have my own lab, but right now, I need to establish myself in this field.”

Kiara laughed this time.

“You’re a geneticist at one of the best universities in the country. You’ve been published in like a dozen different journals. I’d say you’re pretty well established already.”

I smiled.

“I appreciate your confidence, but I won’t be satisfied for a little while longer.”

I turned on the conversation on Kiara.

“Have you figured out what your plans for next year are? You’re graduating, right?”

She beamed nervously.

“Yep. I’ll be starting at the UCLA program next year!”

I beamed.

“That’s great!”

“Thanks! I’m really excited to start, but I’m nervous about moving so far from home.”

“I wish I could give you more advice, but I drove an hour north to Pendervale for college and haven’t moved since.”

I patted her on the shoulder.

“I’m sure you’ll adjust fine.”

“I hope so.”

She took another sip.

“Do you think you’ll ever live somewhere else?”

I shrugged.

“Maybe one day. Pendervale’s fine, but I don’t have any particular attachment to the city.”

Truthfully, it was momentum that had kept me here. Pendervale University was where I’d earned a scholarship for college, so I’d had no choice but to attend. Then with Jack and the PhD program, anchors had uncoiled, digging deep into the sea floor and keeping me rooted in the area.

I liked it here, but I did regret leaving my youthful wanderlust unquenched.

My thoughts were interrupted by a chiming vibration in my pocket.

Unknown Caller

I received calls from university IT, contractors, and other scientists all the time, so the fact that the number was unrecognized didn’t phase me.

“Sorry. Have to take this,” I said to Kiara, accepting the call and pressing the phone to my ear.

“Hello, this is Laura.”

The voice at the other end of the line was male and baritone. Husky and somewhat out of breath.

“Dr. Parsons, I’m calling you because you’re in danger.”

I frowned, stepping away from Kiara so that she wouldn’t overhear.

“Who is this?”

“My name is Lannon. You don’t know me, but I’m calling because there are dangerous people looking for you.”

“Lannon?”

“Yes.”

That was an odd name. Maybe he was foreign.

“Is this a spam call?”

“No!”

The urgency of the tone surprised me.

“Listen, right now there’s a woman and two men in this building who are looking for you. They’re probably going to kill you.”

“Um, excuse me?”

“They’re wearing blue uniforms and are going to be waving a scanner around. They’re using it to track you down.”

I set my coffee on the table. If this was a prank call, it was taking its time reaching a punchline.

The voice continued, “I’ve downloaded the plans for the building. If you sneak out the stairwell in the northeastern corner right now, you might be able to make it to the parking lot outside where I’m parked. I can take you away somewhere safe.”

This had to be a prankster. Or a stalker of some kind.

I sighed. I’d have to call security about this person.

“I’m not going to get into your car.”

“Dr. Parsons, please.” There was real emotion behind the voice. “You’re going to die.”

I almost hung up the phone.

Almost.

There was a click in the main entrance to the lab, and a woman entered. She had silky-straight hair that fell onto a navy-blue industrial outfit paired with black boots. She was wielding what looked like a handheld metal detector. The device was beeping steadily and flashing a red light. She waved it around the room like a cell phone looking for a signal.

“Safety inspection,” she announced to Suh, one of my colleagues who rose to meet her. “Don’t mind us.”

I felt a ball of lead congeal within my stomach.

What the hell?

“Wait,” I spoke into the phone. “How did you know about the woman with the scanner?”

“You can see her?”

I had a line of sight on her through the doorway of the break room. She hadn’t noticed me yet.

“Yeah.”

“Fuck. You’ve got to run. Now!”

“Why would she want to kill me? Why would anyone want to kill me?”

Two men in similar attire entered behind her. The woman let the beeping device guide her like the nose of a dog toward my workstation. It beeped excitedly as she prodded it into my chair.

“There isn’t time to explain it all right now, but these people think you’re a danger to others and will exterminate you without a second thought.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

The woman waved the sensor around until it was pointed at the break room. At me. They slowly began approaching.

“It is ridiculous. That’s why I’m trying to save you!”

I didn’t answer. This was kind of a lot to think about at once.

“Will you trust me on this? Please? You can ask me as many questions as you want later.”

“I…”

I hesitated.

“Please, Dr. Parsons.”

“What do you want me to do again?”

“Move to the stairwell as quickly as you can without attracting their attention.”

I turned and began marching toward the break room’s other exit.

I’d almost made it through the door when I heard a voice behind me.

“Hey!”

I was grateful I’d stopped by the bathroom before work this morning. It would’ve been awfully embarrassing to wet my pants in fear.

“They see me!” I hissed into the phone.

I pretended I hadn’t heard the woman’s voice and slipped around the corner, striding quickly for the exit.

“Okay. Run,” the voice ordered.

The emotion was gone. He was all business now.

I obeyed, looping around a long row of freezers and opening up into a full sprint for the stairwell in the corner.

“I’m running! Who are these people?”

I kept the phone pressed to my ear.

“Listen. Keep moving. Don’t fight. Just escape. You won’t be able to hurt them.”

I was almost to the door when a female voice shouted from across the lab, “stop!”

I whipped my head to peek at the source of the voice and came face to face with one of the men flying through the air toward me. He stuck an arm out and cuffed me in the shoulder. White sparks erupted when his forearm touched my jacket. I felt no heat, but they stunned me with their brightness. The force sent me tumbling over.

The man landed gracefully on his feet behind me. I had no idea how he’d moved across the room so quickly or covered so much distance in a single leap.

The phone clattered out of my hand when I fell. I scrambled to grab it and climb to my feet.

I pressed the phone to my ear long enough to hear the voice yell what sounded like, “use your spit!” before the man reached forward and grabbed my arm, yanking the phone away from my ear and nearly pulling my shoulder out of its socket.

“Let me go!” I yelled.

“Where is he?” the man demanded.

“What? Who?”

I yanked hard to free my hand, but his grip was pythonic. My arm didn’t even budge.

I swung my other hand at his face, hoping to stun him long enough to break free, but my hand never touched his cheek. The same white sparks erupted, and my palm rebounded off an invisible barrier.

I’d been scared before, but now I really didn’t know what the hell was going on.

“Stop resisting,” the woman instructed, approaching us with her other partner beside her.

Oh yeah, like saying that was going to make me decide to chill out.

I tugged even harder against the man’s grip.

“Kiara!” I shouted. “Call security!”

All three of my pursuers turned to look at Kiara, who was watching from across the room, coffee flask still in hand. On her face she wore the expression of a deer right before it was smeared across the pavement by a pickup truck.

“Stop her,” the woman ordered.

Her tone was far too calm. Like she was calling a move in a game of chess or ordering a turkey sandwich at the deli.

Before Kiara could react, the man pulled out a small handgun and squeezed off a shot at my intern. A beam of light flashed across the room and connected with her frame. She dropped to the floor.

“What did you do to her?” I shouted.

My heart was slamming against my ribs, and my legs were gelatin. The man on the phone was right. These people were armed. They were ready to shoot. They were going to kill me.

“She’ll probably be fine,” the man said. “That was the lowest setting.”

“We’ve got to get out of here,” the woman said to her team. “We’ve already caused too much of a mess.”

The man tapped his watch, and the lights in the building snapped off all at once.

My code! I thought with remorse as I recalled the unsaved lines of algorithm I’d left running at my computer.

It’s odd what the subconscious mind chooses to worry about in times of stress.

“Wait!” I insisted. “What…”

I was cut short by the man beside me conjuring a needle from somewhere in his utility belt. I felt a metal proboscis stab into my arm. Instants later, the world went dark.