The elevator smelled like musk; like the armpit of a curry-dipped dachshund that had spent the evening eating-out a skunk. The fluorescent panels overhead reflected starlit orbs in the brass bannisters bolted to the carriage's wood-panel walls. The oriental carpet had been worn thin by decades of casual wear beneath the wheels of rickety luggage carts and cheap dress shoes.

Viral listened patiently to the creak of the cables above and below as they lowered the car inch by inch between the floors. Normally Viral's libido would be clanging bells of happy day standing so close to a woman who looked like Gyn in a confined space, but tonight his thoughts were elsewhere. He and Gyn had just come from the Honeymoon suite cum laboratory on the hotel's fourth floor. There Plank had revealed to him, Gyn, and Aleph a discovery the import of which eluded Viral in its totality. Viral felt as if he was looking at a spot marked with an X without the context of its treasure map. He'd discovered a payload the currency of which he had no standard to trade. He was the one-eyed man in the land of the blind, the owner of an NFT in 2012.

"What are you thinking?" Gyn asked.

"Huh?" Viral said, coming to.

Gyn touched Viral's head with her finger.

Viral nodded. "I'm wondering where we go now," he said.

Gyn looked at the glowing numeral above the elevator's door. It hadn't changed in what felt like minutes. "We're supposed to be landing on the floor with your room," she said.

Viral shook his head. "No," he said. "Where are we going to go knowing what Plank just told us."

Gyn put her hands into the pockets of her containment suit; she leaned her back against the elevator's wooden wall. "Who knows?" she said, squinting upward into the light. "We'll tell the others and see what ideas they may have."

Viral patted at the tuft of hair where Gyn had touched him. He fought the urge to smell his finger. "Aren't you curious how he found what he found?" Viral asked.

Gyn shrugged. "Not really," she said looking at Viral. "He said he found a histogram online. Everyone's making their research public. It's the quickest way we'll find a cure."

"But there's so much money in being the first. Why would someone leak such valuable information?" Viral asked.

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Gyn crossed her arms, still bare as her containment suit hung loose from her hips. "Not every scientist in the world cares only about the bottom dollar like you Americans," she said.

"Even so," Viral said, "The person who leaked the histogram could care less about money. It's the stakeholders who do care that I'd imagine would have incentive to block someone like Plank from accessing it."

"Maybe you're jealous of what Plank uncovered," she said, turning away, looking toward the elevator's marquee.

"He does have great forearms," Viral conceded.

"I'm talking about his mind," Gyn said.

Viral shook his head. He recalled the lessons on self-actualization Lron had shared with him while relaxing his hair in their dorm room. Defensiveness was one of the first defects of character Lron had encouraged Viral to release. "That's not it," he said.

"There's no other reason why you'd intentionally want to impede and second-guess someone who is working toward accomplishing the same goal," Gyn said.

Viral felt his ears warm. "That's what I'm afraid of," he said, "What if Plank isn't pursuing the same goal as the rest of us?"

"Now you're just being paranoid," Gyn said. She tapped at the button on the elevator's panel. "Are we not even moving?" she asked.

"I need to tell you something about Plank," Viral said.

Gyn answered him with a look that told him she was doubtful of his evidence before he'd even presented it.

"Earlier tonight, when me, Alan, Farooq, and Smooshy were in our room, Plank had gone to the bathroom. He locked the door and was in there for what felt like forty-five minutes."

"He did have the barbacoa," Gyn began.

"No, that's the thing," Viral interrupted. "When Alan and Farooq broke down the door, Plank wasn't even in there. He'd left the water in the tub running, but he was gone."

"And the door was locked?" Gyn asked, turning a bit more toward him. Viral nodded. "It must have been some mistake," she said.

"Maybe," Viral said, "But when I asked you if Plank had been with you in the lab all evening after dinner, you said he'd left to get Emir's serum with Monica."

Gyn smirked. "I think you're making things up in your mind," she said.

Before he could stop himself, Viral blurted, "Why are you so keen on defending him?"

The curls caught in Gyn's ponytail bounced as she snapped her chin toward Viral. "Keen? What is this 'keen'?" she asked, her accent more noticeable to Viral than before.

"It's like you have this hard-on to make sure he's legit,"

"What is this 'hard-on'--"

"Are you attracted to him or not?" Viral said.

Gyn twisted her lip and stared back. "I don't understand what that has to do with anything," she said.

"It's a simple yes or no," Viral muttered beneath his breath, staring at his shoes.

"It's a simple none of your business," Gyn said. She banged the elevator's panel with a fist and a bell dinged. The door opened.

"This isn't our floor," Viral said.

"It's mine," Gyn said, and she left.

Viral waited for the doors to close behind her, and when they did, he re-pressed the button for his floor. The cables above and below began to creak again, though now sounding more strained as they carried the weight of a sinking heart.