The Road To Hell
The Road To Hell
“Six minutes!” shouted Anton, not that anyone in the lab needed him too. Everyone was compulsively checking the time as though a bomb were about to detonate. Anton had to force himself to stop pacing and clench his fists to stop trembling. Five minutes and twenty-four seconds.
The laboratory was oddly still and quiet. Where as most days there would be a constant burble of conversation, punctuated by mocking laughter and expletives all competing with the very loud machinery and the hum of computer processors today it was just the hum. The stillness before a storm.
Ding.
The soft chime almost made Anton leap out of his skin. He’d forgotten that the DNA sequencer had been running. He walked over to the small device and retrieved the tiny vial of ice blue liquid. My little miracle.
Having it in his hands now, his life’s work made manifest, swept away all anxiety like dried leaves caught in the wind.
“Three minutes,” announced Teela, his chief assistant.
Anton pocketed the miracle vial, he would reveal it at the end of his presentation. He pulled out his phone, turned the camera on himself and used it as a mirror to fix his thinning hair and straighten his tie.
“One minute,” announced Teela and right on cue the hazard lights began to flash. Everyone rose from their seats and turned to face the entry way. As a bio-lab that focused on viral agents their were very strict protocols about entry and exit and their guest was as much a stickler for time as protocol. The doors slid open and in walked Mz. Williams and two of her assistants, all wrapped in hazard suites.
Anton stepped forward and gave Mz. Williams a curt nod. The woman was easy to pick out despite the hazard suite as she was head and shoulders taller than both the men following her and carried herself with the bearing of king surveying their kingdom. I suppose she is.
“Mz. Williams,” Anton began. “It is an honor to have you with us.”
Mz. Williams responded with a shallow nod of her own and a smile that seemed to shine. “Of course, you promised an amazing revelation Dr. Theeds and you and your team have always been some of my most innovative employees.”
Anton knew it was probably empty praise but it still felt good to have the most powerful woman on Earth compliment him.
“So what have you got for me Dr. Theeds.”
“Right. As you know we have collected samples of the revol-virus from all manner of creatures and used the commonalities between them to engineer backwards towards the source.”
There was the slightest pause before Mz. Wiliams answered. “Yes.”
“As such we have created anti-viral drugs, platforms to base gene therapy and greatly expanded our understanding of the … ah transformations present in our empowered populace.”
“Such information has been indispensable to Lightning and Steel and all humanity. Your little team has kept us generations ahead of our competitors.”
Anton smiled broadly. “Up to this point we had been missing key markers in the original virus but thanks to your,” he paused, eying the two assistants. He didn’t know these people so it was best to be vague about the resources used to forward their research. “Acquisitions we were able to make a fantastic break through.”
“Oh?” asked Mz. Williams. “Fantastic like the one that reduced the water consumption of alfalfa by eleven percent?”
“Better,” insisted Anton as he gestured to the lab around them. “I have unsequenced the revol-virus down to its root!”
“What?”
“All drift, all mutation, all metaphysical alignment gone. The pure undiluted revol is ours. And it’s,” he paused, turning about to look Mz. Willliams’ in the eye as he slid a hand into his pocket. The gaze that met his own was so full of hatred that Anton almost fell over.
The sound of Mz. Williams taking a single step forward echoed like thunder in the silenced room. “You did what?”
“I—we traced back the virus to its origin. We— the company has the ability to— to change everything.”
“Destroy it.”
Those words struck Anton’s soul like a hammer. He could feel the floor slipping beneath his feet and had to use his free hand to steady himself against a chair. He must have misheard, she couldn’t be serous. “De— you want, but—”
“Doctor,” began Mz. Williams in a tone that hovered between support and admonishment. “I am not accustom to being questioned in my own laboratories.”
No, he had to make her see reason. “But we have the ability to change anything, everything! Crops that grow on mars, fish immune to mercury poisoning, blood cells that destroy cancer …”
But with each argument Mz. Williams held her ground, seeming to grow in resolve and wrath like a train rumbling down the tracks without care for what was in its path.
“How old are you doctor?”
How old? “I’m … ah … I’m forty-two.”
Mz. Williams released the faintest sigh. “You are young doctor. Too young to have lived through the reconstruction, much too young to remember the war against the Zendrick and how that virus nearly murdered every living thing on this planet. I will not have such a dangerous bio-weapon in the possession of my company. It is far too dangerous and I refuse to be responsible for the catastrophe that will unfold if there is an out break.”
He fell backwards, collapsing into a chair as though his knees had turned to water. My life’s work.
The gentle tap of shoes on tiled floor grew as Mz. Williams approached. She leaned forward, her face looking almost sorrowful. She grasped the back of his chair and spun him about to face the computer terminal. Anton could feel Williams behind him, all tenderness, all understanding gone now. She felt less like a sorrowful mother disciplining a child and more a predator preparing to rip out his throat.
“Dr. Anton,” began Mz. Williams in a voice that felt like a blade pressed to his throat. “Delete all project files and destroy all samples.”
He tried to turn his head to look her in the face, to plead once more but her long delicate fingers were wrapped around the back of his skull with such strength he was sure his skull would crack before her fingers gave. Slowly, as though pushing his fingers through sand he entered the key strokes that would delete the project and destroy all the lab samples. The computer gave one final prompt.
[Destroy project ReGenesis: YES/NO]
His life’s work.
Twenty-five years of research, design and failure.
Countless plants, animals, and people dead from experimentation.
The ability to create drugs perfectly tailored to individual physiology.
All of it.
Anton pressed “YES”.
His soul crumbled and poured from his face. Anton tried to catch it in his hands, to hold up his head but his shoulders could not bear the weight and tears washed away his vision.
When he could think, when the pain had subsided to the point he could hear again he felt Mz. Williams hand resting on his shoulder squeezing gently.
“Anton?”
She asked his name as though she had asked before. Anton nodded his head, not trusting his voice to be strong enough to answer.
“You have been working very hard for a very long time Anton, you’re whole team has.”
He nodded again.
“You’re on leave.”
What?
“All of you,” announced Mz. Williams raising her voice to be heard. “Clear out your desks and go home. Be with your families, relax. Six months paid leave.”
“What?” asked Anton, at last able to speak.
“Your family Anton. Lois, Termin, Andree. Your wife and two children, yes?”
“Yes.”
“You work hard Anton, too hard. You missed the birth of your second son because you were here didn’t you?”
How did you know that? “Yes, I was. My wife delivered early.”
“Go home Anton, be with your wife. Be with your family.”
He returned his gaze to the computer screen, there might still be something salvageable of project ReGenesis but a notice on the screen told him it was worthless.
[ALL ACTIVITY FROM THIS TERMINAL HAS BEEN SUSPENDED. NO ACCESS AVAILABLE]
Looking about the room Anton could see that every terminal had the same notice.
“Go home Anton,” said Mz. Williams, more an order then a suggestion. Then she turned and strode for the exit. It opened just as she reached the door, and security stepped into the room.
***
Anton couldn’t remember cleaning out his desk, or the drive home. He barely remembered diner with his wife though he did remember she realized how hurt he was. The sex afterwards had been welcome but ultimately less meaningful than the fact she noticed his pain. Now, awake in the deep hours of the night all he could do was wander down to his personal office and sit in the dark with his face buried in his hands.
He wanted to cry, to open himself up to the pain and misery he’d been put through but even now he refused to lower himself to such things. He was better than that. Pulling his gaze from his palms he woke up his computer. Looking for something to distract him from despair and noticed an alert message.
[CONNECTION SEVERED. RECPNNECT AND UPDATE. YES/NO]
Anton’s mind raced. His offsite lab was connected to his onsite lab and had much of the information of the ReGenisis project was backed up here. It wasn’t supposed to be, of course, but his extra legal contacts had enabled him to create the illicit connection. He had done so, so he could keep working from home but now that mean ReGenisis was not lost to him.
He clicked [NO]
My miracle.
He didn’t have the resources of his primary lab, nor all the newest data, but he had enough. This setback would not stop him from completing his life’s work. “I’ll show you Williams, I’ll show the world. I’ll change everything. Even if I have to do it alone.”