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I nodded, even though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was agreeing to. Zane pressed a button, and we dashed down the hall, and descended a flight of stairs. I saw a blur of clear windows looking into dark, empty rooms, until we reached a larger door at the end of the hall. Zane typed in a four-digit code. I held my breath as we waited a long second, then I heard the bolts unlock. Zane pushed the door open and we slipped into the darkness.
13
Zane flipped a switch and the lab flickered to life. Bright fluorescent lights, a computer station with several monitors, and a lot of medical equipment I didn’t recognize. It was mostly clean and sterile, though a few personal touches were out of place. A small area in the corner had a rug, a couch and a table with a record player. A pair of potted ferns in bronze vases. A framed painting. A small bookshelf.
“King Richard’s man cave, I guess,” Zane said. “A place to get away from it all.”
“Looks like he didn’t use it much,” April said, swiping her finger through a layer of dust. There was a fridge with glass beakers and test tubes, with samples of elixir and blood from what I could see. Bunson burners and blue glass coils and pots. Two large sinks and a metal table in the center that almost seemed clinical.
“Not exactly cozy,” I said.
“I don’t know,” April said, opening a cupboard. “Check this out: instant noodles, espresso powder, a microwave. I could be happy here.”
“Well good,” Zane said. “Settle in then. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” April asked. “I mean, won’t you be missed?”
“I mostly worked as a kind of independent contractor. Not everybody gets the old tech, the guy before me was old. When he died, I took over.”
April unpacked her small basket and began laying everything out, including the research notes, which she let Zane peruse. Near the door were a selection of full-body plastic suits, and rubber gloves, but they ignored these for now.
“Alright,” Zane said turning on the computer and a few of the machines. “I’ve found everything you need, and made a base formula with the active ingredient, alliinase.”
“Is that why you smell like garlic?” April asked. “I didn’t want to say anything but…” she pinched her nose and turned back to the computer.
Zane led us to the back of the lab, for what I thought was storage. We found three large barrels, half-sheltered in a cold air vent that kept the temperature stable.
“Anyway, we have everything except the… the catalyst,” Zane said, looking at me.
“Oh right,” I said, rolling up my sleeve. “How much do you need?”
“Honestly I have no idea,” he frowned, looking at April. “You just said we’d be making a lot, so—”
Shit, I should have thought of this earlier.
“We didn’t take much last time,” April said. “For the vial we tested on Damien. And if you’re dosing many elite, we’ll want to make a very strong concentrate.”
I felt dizzy looking at the large barrels. It was much more than I’d anticipated, but April said it would reduce down significantly. A few hundred doses, one for every elite in the citadel. But did I have that much blood to give?
“If we get the formula right, or isolate the unique DNA markers in your blood,” Zane said, “we might be able to nearly replicate it.”
“You can do that here?” April asked, looking around.
“I’m not sure,” Zane said. “Truth be told, I’ve never even been in this room before today, and I’m better with computer code, not medical stuff.”
“That’s better anyway,” April said. “If these computers know how to do it, you can probably find it. Run a search, find the process.”
“What was King Richard doing with all this stuff?” I asked.
“Well, hewasa scientist. Maybe it’s just like his version of a panic room. Familiar tools of the trade.”
“I don’t find this room very peaceful,” I said, eyeing the long syringe April was preparing for me. I sat down on the metal table, and April took my blood. She even used disinfectant and gloves this time. One vial, then two. After the third I started to feel light-headed.
“That’s probably enough for now,” Zane said, holding up one vial to the light. Then he grabbed a visor and a gown from the door.
“You think that’s necessary?” April asked.
“Who knows,” Zane said. “But we’re fucking with shit I can’t even comprehend. I mean, it’s basically poison.”
