AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 19
Nayome waved goodbye to one of the lab tech’s as he headed home for the night. She had stopped by the second-floor lab before leaving to check on her fungus sample, the error having been nagging at her.
“This can’t be right,” Nayome muttered to herself. She had cut a small piece off and had it under the microscope. The data hadn’t been tagged wrong after all, the age seemed right. The lab tech’s were so used to just documenting and moving on, they wouldn’t have stopped to wonder at the age of a mushroom, and that it didn’t make any rational sense.
The cells were regenerating. As she watched them. In real time, almost as if she was watching a time lapse of the process compressing months into minutes.
Pulling up a database, she sifted through the different genomes trying to find a match, or some indication of what species she could be looking at. The tech’s had identified it primarily based on its appearance and external traits and hadn’t done much digging beyond that. But their classification couldn’t be right, given the speed the sample was evolving, repairing itself.
“I knew I’d find you down here!”
Nayome jumped at the sudden noise.
“Ah, Dani. Sorry, I just had to check something—I’ll be ready to go in a minute.”
“Oh, no worries. I have a huge crush on Clive, so it gave me an excuse to come down here and catch him on his way out.”
“The lab tech?”
“Mhmm.” Nayome glanced up and caught a dreamy look in Dani’s eyes.
“He is cute, I guess,” Nayome agreed, but personally she thought Dani could do better. She tried to stay out of the office drama, but Clive had been rumored to have cycled through a few of the women in their office, and none of them had many kind words to say about him afterwards.
“I know, I know, he has a reputation. What can I say? I have a weakness for the fixer uppers.”
Nayome let out a quick laugh. “As long as you know what you’re getting into.”
“So, what’s got your attention? You didn’t even hear me come in. I wasn’t keeping quiet either.”
“I just wanted to cross reference some data, a fungus sample I got was mislabeled by the lab.”
“Anything interesting?”
Nayome hesitated. This could be a new species, there was no reason to believe there was anything magical going on. And yet…“Just some odd cell structure on this mushroom.”
“Cool!” Dani said, and she sounded genuinely interested.
“That’s enough about work though, let’s get out of here. I’m going to set this up to run overnight, I’ll check back in on the results tomorrow.”
Nayome set up her test, leaving a note for the tech’s so they wouldn’t interfere if they got in before her in the morning.
“I know the perfect place for us to go, it’s new and just down the street!”
Nayome nodded absently and followed Dani out as she described, in impressive detail, an organic wine bar that had opened recently, and apparently hadkillerappetizers.
* * *
Nayome looked around appreciatively as they were seated at a comfortable booth, next to a gallery wall of windows, plants situated to take advantage of every ray of sunlight, giving the impression of a greenhouse. It was a hot day outside, the heat seeming to radiate off the city streets. This place was pleasantly air conditioned, but the early evening sun shining through the windows was warm and bright. So, they ordered a cold, grilled calamari appetizer to share and some crisp white wine for the table.
“Ah, I love this place,” Dani exclaimed. “It’s new enough that it’s still a bit of a hidden gem, not too crowded.”
“It seems great.”
“Alright, dish.” Dani put her hands under her chin and leaned in attentively.
“What?”
“You look different, more relaxed—yet jumpy. I don’t know how to describe it, but something happened on that trip. So, dish!” Dani wagged her eyebrows up and down. On anyone else, that expression would have come across as creepy, but she somehow managed to make it look endearing.
