AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After rising slowly, he pinned Aaron with a quiet rage. “Big mistake, Pritchard.” He wiped at his face. “I’ll have your badge for that.”
Aaron stiffened. “It was worth it.” But he wasn’t so sure.
Chapter3
A stray hairthat had come loose from Sydney’s hastily made bun tickled her face. She scrunched up her nose but didn’t pause as she input the new data. She needed to get the information added so she could see the charts.
Her supervisor, Dr. Christopher Pallon, entered the room as she finished typing. Before turning to him, she lifted her hands from the keyboard with a flourish, then eased back from the computer, brushing the hair from her face.
“How’s it going?” the sixty-year-old asked, leaning toward the screen with a squint. “This isn’t the same graph from yesterday.”
“No. It isn’t.” She looked up at him with a grin.
He straightened. “What is it? Have you found something?”
“I’m close.”
He looked at the graph again and shook his head. “I can’t see it. I know I’m your mentor and all, but you’re the genius when it comes to this stuff.”
“Even after all these years? Why is it that you still outrank me?”
“Funny. Are you going to tell me what it is I’m looking at or not?”
She clasped her hands together. “I found out why we lost all those mice.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“That’s amazing. How are you sitting here calmly? You should be dancing around the room. This is huge.”
“I knowwhythey died, but I don’t know yet how to fix it. The harder I try, the worse it gets.”
“By the size of your smile, I expected you to say you’d solved the riddle.”
“I solved one. But it looks like that was the easy part. It’s a basic problem. But from the latest results” — she nodded toward the graph — “I don’t think the solution will be simple.”
“Okay.” Pallon grabbed a chair and dragged it closer. “Let’s take this one step at a time. Two heads are better than one. At least I hope they are. First you’ve got to tell me why the mice died.”
“Allergic reaction.”
“That’s it? There is a ton of science behind dealing with allergies. Have you figured out what part of the compound the mice are allergic to?”
“Not the compound.”
“I don’t understand. What else is there to be allergic to?”
“Themselves. The drug is causing their bodies to attack them.”
“But I thought they had improved tremendously. Brain function, muscle mass. Even their immunity was up. Why would they suddenly become allergic?”
“I don’t know. I think, in a way, the drug works too well. The mice responded positively. They grew stronger and more resistant, but then I believe what has happened is their bodies began to recognize that they were subpar. Everything else about them was not good enough anymore and therefore seen as a threat. When their immunity response tried to fix their weaknesses, it killed them.”
“So it really is as bad as we thought.”
“I’d say worse. I have no idea how to fix it. The drug is doing everything we wanted it to, only too well. I’m going to have to start from scratch on this one. Reassess everything from the ground up.”
“That could take years. We don’t have the funding for years.”
