The Potion: A genetic engineering thriller!

Chapter 8

The spontaneous night in the lab with James confirmed something Ronald had feared all along.

His serum would only work on someone once. That left a lot of room for error, even though his research would be classified as ground-breaking in the medical world. If someone received the vaccine when they were a teenager, but developed cancer ten or even twenty years down the road, there would be nothing he could do to save them. Regardless, this new revelation wasn’t entirely useless. It only meant that it should be distributed to those who are in desperate need of it, and not used as a preventative to cancers and diseases. That would be crucial if he had ever decided to go public with it.

Unfortunately, that meant that James Scott would not get to use it for its true benefits in the future if he ever needed it. Ronald’s heart ached a little at the thought of watching his new friend die because he’d volunteered to be his first patient. Hopefully, he’d live a long and happy life now, and he’d face no complications as he grew older.

Rubbing his eyes furiously hoping that would help him focus more, he took a mouthful of cold coffee and had to painfully force it down. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a decent night’s sleep. It had to have been long before James ever walked into his lab that first night. He’d been working tirelessly on this formula, and now with all of this evidence to go over, he barely had time to eat or drink, let alone lie down and sleep.

His work life was sadly paying the price for it. His team was working on a new medicine that would help patients recover while undergoing chemotherapy. It was designed to make it more manageable, and apparently, some big companies were willing to fund their developments if they came up with a legitimate product within the next few weeks.

But Ronald was hesitant. What was the point of developing a medicine when he had the solution to cure cancer in the basement of his own home? He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go without telling someone. It was a burden he thankfully didn’t have to face alone because of James, but it wasn’t the same as telling one of his colleagues. James didn’t quite understand the ramifications of his research, how the medical field would blow up if anyone ever caught wind of his creation. He was just a mechanic who fixed cars.

His phone buzzed in his lab coat pocket, and for a second, he thought it might be James with another ridiculous emergency. However, when he looked at the screen, he was a little shocked to see the name in neon lights.

“Dr. Marissa,” he cleared his throat, not having spoken out loud to someone in days. “What can I do for you?”

“Hi, Dr. Clark, I hope I’m not bothering you, calling you at home?” she said. “Oh, and call me Anna, please. This isn’t business...exactly.”

Dr. Anna Marissa was one of Ronald’s work colleagues, and although there was a significant age gap between the two of them, she was one of the few people he got along with in the office. She always said it was because she had an old soul, but he knew deep down she was just really good at connecting with people. It didn’t matter if someone new joined their team, or if 63 they had a meeting with some huge pharmaceutical company, Marissa was always in charge of taking the lead.

“Oh, you’re not bothering me,” he muttered. Subconsciously, he started to clean up his workspace as if he were back in his office where people could see him. “Is there something you need my help with?”

“Oh, no, no. Nothing official,” she replied, an odd lilt in her voice, “The team and I see how hard you’ve been working...we’ve all been working hard...but you seem overstressed. So we thought it would be nice to have the night off where we’re not elbow deep in numbers and data.”

What exactly are you asking, Doc...um, Anna?”

“Come out with us,” she laughed. “I know that’s probably not your thing, but you’re a special part of our team and we think you could use some time away from your desk at home. You haven’t been into the office in days because you’ve been glued there, so this is me doing something about it.”

“You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you?” he asked, half annoyed, half flattered.

“Absolutely not. Now, am I putting you down on the reservation for this evening? It’s at Rosie’s, your favorite.”

He sighed, knowing she was right about him needing to get away, even if it was only for a few hours. If he stayed in his basement any longer, he was certain they’d do a wellness check on him and that simply couldn’t happen.

“Alright, alright, I’ll be there. When?”

“In an hour, and we’ve declared it a lab-talk free zone!”

Despite the fact that they had agreed to leave the work talk at home, it did not stay that way for long.

To be fair, they were scientists who just couldn’t help themselves. At some point, one of them had been bound to break, Ronald was glad it wasn’t him. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Dr. Marissa, either.

“Is anyone else super nervous about our presentation in three weeks or is it just me?” Phillip asked.

Everyone at the table gasped, and Dr. Marissa tossed her napkin at him in protest. “Phillip! We’re not supposed to talk about work!”

“I know,” he huffed. “But this is a big deal for our department, and if we actually get the all-clear to go ahead and start manufacturing this medicine, imagine how many lives will benefit from it.”

“Dr. Cameron better give us all bonuses at the end of the year,” Tabitha joked. “Or a really long vacation.”

“Amen to that.” Dr. Marissa clinked her drink with Tabitha’s and took a generous sip. “Just think, we’re one step closer to finding a cure for cancer.”

“What do you mean?” Ronald asked. He didn’t see the correlation between the two, and he had been the one who created the formula in the first place.

“Well, it might not happen in our generation, or our children’s, but we’re definitely on the right track,” Dr. Marissa explained.

“You’ve been in this field the longest out of all of us, can you see it happening any time soon?”

The table suddenly went quiet, and all eyes were on Ronald. He swallowed the lump in his throat and refused to make eye contact with any of them. How was he supposed to go along and say it wasn’t possible when he had living proof his serum worked? The more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that he was a human first and a scientist second. His parents raised him to have morals, values that shaped him to be the person he was today. If they were still alive there was a very good chance that they’d be ashamed of his decisions up until this point.

He couldn’t take it anymore. They had to know what he had done.

“Of course I do, but that’s only because I’ve done it myself,” he blurted out, instantly feeling both regret and relief. He had finally opened his own Pandora’s Box. Shall I reap the whirlwind, he questioned.

Phillip and Tabitha laughed, expecting it to be a joke, but Dr. Marissa stared at him from across the table, her head tilting slightly to the side. She was analyzing him intensely, waiting for any sign to reveal it was a lie. When he nodded his head slowly, her eyes nearly fell right out of her head.

“You’re joking,” she muttered incredulously.

“No, I’m not.”

“Dr. Clark, be serious,” Tabitha snickered. “If you had come up with a cure in the lab, we would know about it, Dr. Cameron would know about it. They track all our movements on our devices.”

“That’s why I did it at home,” he spilled out.

Dr. Marissa’s eye twitched, and that’s when Ronald realized he was getting through to her. He just needed a little proof. Being the 24-hour scientist, his precious work was never far from him. He fetched his keychain from his blazer pocket and reached into his ever-present computer bag for his laptop. Plugging in a thumb drive on the keychain, hundreds of folders opened instantly, and his work colleagues all slid in closer to get a look at the screen. He flicked through pages and pages of his initial research, hesitating for a few seconds so they could scan it quickly before moving onto the next. The last part was his research that he had collected from administering the serum to James Scott, and the second one after that. After he reached the end, the three of them all sat back in their seats, taking in this new revelation. Not wanting to speak first, he removed his flash drive, and the screen went blank.

“I can’t believe it,” Phillip whispered. He stared down at his half-eaten plate, pushing the food around with his fork. “You actually did it.”

“What does this mean?” Tabitha asked. “Are you looking to sell it?”

“No, absolutely not. Money doesn’t interest me. I have plenty of money.” They all knew that. “I just don’t think it’s very wise—”

“You can’t tell anyone!” Dr.Marissa interrupted urgently.

Everyone looked up at her, only to find that her face had gone dangerously pale. He knew that look; it was the same one that he had for weeks. She’d thought of all the risks that came with this kind of knowledge. The types of people that craved the power he held in his hands.

“Dr. Marissa, this is life-altering information,” Phillip started. “We can’t just pretend like we don’t know.”

“The medical industry is filled with blood-thirsty sharks. We all know what big corporations will do to get their hands on this research. Dr. Clark could very well be in danger. They would go after his career, his family, his life, us, it’s not safe.” She reached over and grabbed Ronald’s hand and squeezed it tight. “Who else besides your test subject knows about this?”

“No one,” Ronald wheezed.

“Good. Keep it that way,” Dr. Marissa warned. “And if I were you, I’d destroy anything that someone in the company might find that could trace this back to you, just to be safe.”

“You sound crazy,” Tabitha chimed, still not grasping the gravity of the revelation. “Do you really think that someone would come for him over this?”

“You’re telling me you don’t?” she fired back.

“I think this is enough excitement for one night.” Ronald staggered to his feet and nearly knocked into the table next to them in the process. “Thank you all for a lovely evening. I trust you will keep this confidential for the time being until I decide what to do with it.”

They nodded, and so Ronald bid them all a quick farewell before retreating to his vehicle. He looked down at the USB hanging from his keychain and knew what he had to do. Tearing out of the parking lot like a lunatic, he headed straight for the lab and made it there in record time.

Fortunately, he had all his credentials on hand and was able to get inside the building with no issue. There were a few 68 stranglers here and there working late, and the cleaning crew was busy vacuuming the carpets and cleaning bathrooms. He waited anxiously for the elevator to reach his floor before nearly running to his office in the far corner. Once inside, he rifled through the papers scattered on his desk, looking for anything he may have inadvertently jotted down. Any stray formulas, findings, or numbers regarding The Potion. Anything that looked suspicious, he shredded immediately. If any happened to be important, someone else would have a copy anyway. By the time he made it through all three of his filing cabinets, his paper shredder was full to the brim.

Not wanting to risk even the remnants of his research, he grabbed a plastic bag from underneath his garbage pail and took his shreds before leaving the office. He just hoped that this was enough to make sure no one would ever find out what he had done.